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Special Operations Executive

Special Operations Executive

The Special Operations Executive (SOE), often called "the Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes's fictional group of spies, was a World War II organisation initiated by Winston Churchill and Hugh Dalton in July 1940 as a mechanism for conducting warfare by means other than direct military engagement. Originally designated as 'Section D' of MI6, the mission of the SOE was to encourage and facilitate espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines and to serve as a focal point for the formation of a vestigial resistance movement in Britain itself (the Auxiliary Units) in the possible event of an Axis invasion. Known also as Churchill's Secret Army and charged by him to "set Europe ablaze." Head of the SOE from September 1943 was Colin Gubbins (1896-1976), a soldier who rose to the rank of Major General. The headquarters of SOE were at 64 Baker Street. Another important London base was Aston House, where weapons and tactics research was conducted. Under the cover name ISRB (Inter Services Research Bureau) SOE set up an Establishment where development of equipment for use in the Secret war could be undertaken. Called Station IX this was situated at the Frythe - a former hotel, outside Welwyn. Here ISRB developed Radios, Weapons, explosive devices, and "booby - traps" for use by Agents and clandestine raiding forces. Among products produced at Station IX were a miniature folding motorbike (the Welbike) - for use by parachutists, a silenced pistol (the Welrod) and several miniature submersible craft (the Welman and Sleeping Beauty). A sea -trials unit was set up in West Wales at Goodwick, by Fishguard (station IXa) where these craft were tested. In late 1944 craft were despatched to Australia to the Allied Intelligence Bureau (SRD), for tropical testing.[http://www.welfreighter.info/] SOE's operations in France were directed by two London-based country sections. The "F" Section, under British control, recruited agents who were not prepared to accept the leadership of General De Gaulle, while the "RF" Section was linked to de Gaulle's]] Free French operations. As well, there were two smaller sections: "EU/P" Section, which dealt with the Polish community in France and the "DF" Section which was responsible for escape routes and coordination. During the latter part of 1942 another section known as 'AMF' was established in Algiers. The initial training centre of the SOE was at Wanborough Manor, Guildford. The SOE included a number of women, its F Section (France) alone placed 39 female agents in to the field, of whom 13 did not return. The Valençay SOE Memorial was unveiled at Valençay in the Indre département of France on May 6, 1991, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the despatch of F Section's first agent to France. The memorial's "Roll of Honour" lists the names of the 91 men and 13 women members of the SOE who gave their lives for France's freedom. The SOE were highly dependent upon the security of radio transmissions. The development of high quality radios, secure transmission procedures and proper ciphers took a considerable time. Leo Marks, SOE's chief cryptographer, was responsible for the development of better codes to replace the insecure poem codes. SOE were particularly active in the following countries: France, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia. Through cooperation with the Special Operations Executive and the British intelligence service, a group of Jewish volunteers from Palestine were sent on missions to several countries in Nazi-occupied Europe from 1943 to 1945. From early 1942, S.O.E. also contributed to the allied war effort in South East Asia, and by the latter part of the war, covered resistance and covert operations throughout the region. This part of S.O.E. adopted the name Force 136. In March of 1941 a group performing commando raids in Norway, Norwegian Independent Company 1 (NOR.I.C.1) was organized under leadership of Captain Martin Linge. Their initial raids in 1941 was Operation Archery), their best known raids were probably the Norwegian heavy water sabotage. Communication lines with London were gradually improved, so that in 1945, 64 radio operators were spread throughout Norway. On May 5, 1941, Georges Bégué (1911-1993) became the first SOE agent dropped in France who then setup radio communications and met the next drop of agents. Between Bégué's first drop and August 1944, more than four hundred F Section agents were sent into occupied France to serve in a variety of functions such as arms and sabotage instructors, couriers, circuit organisers, liaison officers, and radio operators. SOE was dissolved officially in 1946, and much of its sphere of influence reverted to the Secret Intelligence Service, SIS, better known as MI6. See SOE F Section timeline for a list of significant events in the history of F Section. See also SOE F Section networks for details of the individual networks operated by F Section. SOE was known in public by its cover name, the Inter-Services Research Bureau (ISRB).

Agents

Amongst SOE's agents can be numbered:
- Lorraine Adie, who married American OSS agent Miles Copeland, Jr.
- Jack Agazarian (1916-1945)
- France Antelme (1900-1945)
- Guy D'Artois
- Lisé de Baissac
- Alcide Beauregard
- Yolande Beekman (1911-1944)
- Georges Bégué (1911-1993)
- Robert Benoist (1895-1944)
- Muriel Byck
- Gustave "Guy" Biéler (1904-1944)
- Emanuel Bierer (1884-ukn)
- Helen Anna Agate Thormann-Bierer (1885-ukn)
- Pierre Brossolette (1903-1944)
- Denise Bloch (1915-1945)
- Andrée Borrel (1919-1944)
- Tony Brooks
- Maurice Buckmaster (1902-1992)
- Sonya Butt
- Robert Bennett Byerly
- Francis Cammaerts (1916- )
- William John Chalk (1899-ukn)
- Robert Arthur Chapman (1901-ukn)
- Arthur Christie (1921-2003)
- Odette Churchill - see Odette Sansom
- Peter Churchill (1909-1972)
- Adolphus Richard Cooper (1899-ukn)
- Yvonne Cormeau (1909-1998)
- Madeleine Damerment (1917-1944)
- Major Jim Davies
- Francois Adolphe Deniset
- Henri Dericourt (1909-1962)
- Sir Derek Dodson
- Gustave Duclos
- Albrecht Gaiswinkler (1905-1979)
- Emile Garry (1909-1944)
- Haim Gerson
- Christine Granville, General Motors (1915-1952) (real name Krystyna Skarbek)
- Virginia Hall (1906-1982)
- Marcel Homet (1897-ukn)
- Desmond Hubble (1910-1944)
- Max Hymans (1900-1961)
- Peter Johnsen
- Noor Inyat Khan (1914-1944)
- Andrzej Kowerski
- James Larose
- Cecily Lefort (1900-1945)
- Vera Leigh (1903-1944)
- Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915- )
- John Kenneth Macalister (1914-1944)
- Eileen Nearne
- Alfred Newton
- Henry Newton
- Gilbert Norman (1914-1944)
- Sonia Olschanezky (1923-1944)
- Harry Peulevé (1916-1963)
- Frank Pickersgill (1915-1944)
- Eliane Plewman (1917-1944)
- Sir Anthony Quayle (1913-1989)
- Alex Rabinovich
- Harry Rée (1914-1991)
- Chaviva Reik (1914-1944)
- Lilian Rolfe (1914-1945)
- Diana Rowden (1915-1944)
- Yvonne Rudelatt (1895-1945)
- Roméo Sabourin (1923-1944)
- Odette Sansom-Hallowes, GC (1912-1995)
- Krystyna Skarbek (aka Christine Granville), General Motors (1915-1952)
- Einar Skinnarland (1918-2002)
- Maurice Southgate
- Arthur Staggs (1912- )
- George Reginald Starr (1904-1980)
- John Renshaw Starr
- Brian Stonehouse (1918-1998)
- Francis Suttil (1910-1945)
- Violette Szabo (1921-1945)
- Hannah Szenes (1921-1944)
- Jacques Taschereau
- Paul-Émile Thibeault
- F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas (1902-1964)
- Pierre de Vomécourt
- Nancy Wake (1912- )
- Peter Wand-Tetley
- William Grover-Williams (1903-1945)
- Jean-Pierre Wimille (1908-1949)
- Pearl Witherington (1914- )
- John Young

Numbered stations

SOE operated several "stations" located in country houses and elsewhere. These were given numbers, such as:
- Station VI - Bride Hall, the weapons acquisition section.
- Station IX - The Frythe estate near Welwyn Garden City, which began as a wireless research unit (Special Signals), then became a weapons development & production centre, then a research and development station. Now a factory belonging to Smithkline Beecham. [http://www.timelapse.dk/Welrod/uk/SoeStationIX.htm]
- Station X - Bletchley Park, a radio station, now more famous for its subsequent use as a code breaking centre. The radio station moved to Aston House when code breaking activities took over.
- Station XI - Aston House near Stevenage, a research and development station.
- Station XII - also at Aston House, the radio station that started at Bletchley Park.
- Station XIV - Briggens, near Roydon, Essex, contained the forgery section.
- Station XV - Thatched Barn - on the Barnet bypass at Borehamwood, Hertfordshire - camouflage section, for development of booby traps.
- Station XVA - Kensington, London - prototypes.
- Station XVB - A training centre for agents and Demonstration Room for briefing officials, at the Natural History Museum in London. [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/darwincentre/live/presentations/181103PaulClark.html]
- Station XVC - photographic and make-up section.
- Station 53a - Grendon Hall in Grendon Underwood, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire - cryptology centre. Now a prison.
- Station 53b - Poundon, Buckinghamshire, near Bicester. - radio listening and transmission station.
- Station 53c - Poundon, Buckinghamshire, near Bicester. - Training American forces in SOE communications techniques. 53b and 53c were physically separate establishments but close to each other. Some of the 53b staff were transferred when 53c opened. Others, whose code numbers are unknown, included:
- Gaynes Hall near St Neots in Cambridgeshire - Norwegian section.
- The Firs - Whitchurch, near Aylesbury - explosives testing.
- Arisaig, Inverness-shire - finishing school [http://www.btinternet.com/~m.a.christie/facts.htm]
- Henley-on-Themes - quartermaster
- Fawley Court, Henley on Thames - S.O.E. Signals section training facility
- Bellasis, at Box Hill, outside Dorking
- Brickendonbury Manor - sabotage

Bibliography and filmography

- The Secret History of SOE - Special Operations Executive 1940-1945, (BPR Publications, 2000), Professor William Mackenzie. ISBN 0953615189
- Secret Agent - The True Story of the Special Operations Executive, (BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2000), David Stafford, ISBN 0563537345
- R.J.Minney wrote the book "Carve Her Name with Pride" in 1956, telling the story of Violette Szabo. A film of the same title was made in 1958 starring Paul Schofield and Virginia McKenna.
- William Stanley Moss wrote the book "Ill Met by Moonlight" in 1950, giving his first-hand account of an SOE operation in 1944 to kidnap Major General Heinrich Kreipe, the German divisional commander on Crete. The film "Night Ambush", based on the book, was made in 1957, starring Dirk Bogarde and Marius Goring.
- Jerrard Tickell wrote the book "Odette: The story of a British agent" in 1949, telling the story of Odette Sansom-Hallowes. The film "Odette", based on the book, was made in 1950, starring Anna Neagle and Trevor Howard.
- Jean Overton Fuller wrote the book "The Starr Affair", telling the story of John Renshaw Starr.
- The Heroes of Telemark is a film, made in 1965, based on an SOE operation to sabotage the heavy water plant at Rjukan, Norway in 1943.
- A French/Norwegian black and white docu-film from 1948 titled "La Bataille de l'eau lourde"/"Kampen om tungtvannet" (trans. "The Fight Over the Heavy Water"), featured some of the ‘original cast’, so to speak. Joachim Rønneberg has stated; "'The Fight over Heavy Water' was an honest attempt to describe history. On the other hand 'Heroes of Telemark' had little to do with reality.”
- "Nancy Wake Codename: The White Mouse" is a 1987 docudrama about Nancy Wake's work for SOE, partly narrated by herself.
- "Between Silk and Cyanide" by Leo Marks, 1998; Marks was the Head of Codes at SOE and this book is an account of his struggle to introduce better encryption for use by the field agents
- "Mission Scapula SOE in the Far East" by Arthur Christie, ISBN 0954701003 A true story about an ordinary soldier seconded into MI5 and sent on a mission to Singapore just before it fell. With Freddy Spencer-Chapman.
- "Operation Daybreak" is a 1976 film, based upon a true, dangerous operation in May 1942 to drop a small group of Czech S.O.E. agents into their own occupied country with the singular deadly mission to assassinate Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's protege, Reinhard Heydrich, Reichsprotektor (representing the nazi protectorate over the Czech puppet-state) of Bohemia and Moravia, hated as The Butcher of Prague. The mission succeeded, but with tragic results.
- "Bridge on the River Kwai" is a well-known classic British-made war-drama 1957, set in Thailand during WW2, during the construction of the Siam - Burma railway through virgin jungle and endless hills and gorges, using malnourished, mistreated allied prisoners of war. A counter-story in the film, which collides with the main story at the climax, relates to a mission to destroy the newly-constructed railway bridge by a fictious cloak and dagger sabotage organisation called 'Force 316', whose training base is in Ceylon. In fact, this is a thinly-disguised reference to the real-life Force 136, part of SOE, who indeed had wartime jungle-training facilities in Ceylon at M.E. 25 - Horona.
- Fictional versions of SOE turn up as the organization in charge of occult activities in Tim Powers' Declare and Charles Stross's The Atrocity Archives.

Miscellany/trivia

- Author Ian Fleming, who knew both Maurice Buckmaster and Vera Atkins, is reputed to have used at least parts of them to create "M", and "Miss Moneypenny" in his James Bond books. In his first Bond novel, Fleming is said to have based the "Vesper Lynd" character on the beautiful SOE agent, Christine Granville. Another agent that Fleming used for his Bond character was Duane Hudson.

External links

- [http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/emerson00/soe_gubbins_marks.html Colin Gubbins, Leo Marks and the SOE]
- [http://www.pro.gov.uk/releases/feb2002-SOE/list.htm Special Operations Executive Records Release 8th Feb 2002] (dead link)
- [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/releases/2003/may12/default.htm Special Operations Executive Records Releases in May 2003]
- [http://www.64-baker-street.org/ 64 Baker Street: The Women of the SOE]
- [http://www.m.a.christie.btinternet.co.uk/ "Mission Scapula" Special Operations Executive in the Far East.] Category:World War II groups Category:Espionage
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Baker Street Irregulars

The Baker Street Irregulars are several different groups, all named after the original, from various Sherlock Holmes stories.

The original

The original Irregulars are a group of fictional characters featured in the Sherlock Holmes stories. They were a group of street urchins who helped Holmes out from time to time. The head of the group was called Wiggins. Holmes paid them a shilling a day (plus expenses), with a guinea prize (worth one pound and one shilling) for a vital clue.

Special Operations Executive

The Special Operations Executive (SOE), tasked by Winston Churchill to "set Europe ablaze" during World War II, had their headquarters at 64 Baker Street and were often called "the Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes's fictional group of spies.

The modern organization

The Baker Street Irregulars are also an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934 by Christopher Morley. Members have included Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Rex Stout and Isaac Asimov. They continue to convene every January in New York City for an annual dinner, which forms part of a weekend of celebration and study involving other Sherlockian groups and individuals as well. The present leader of is Michael Whelan of Indianapolis, Indiana. The BSI, as it calls itself, is considered the preeminent Sherlockian group in the United States. There are also "scion societies" approved by the BSI in dozens of local communities. Most scion societies welcome new members, but the BSI does not accept applications for membership -- instead, membership and the awarding of an "Irregular Shilling" comes as an honor to those who have made a name for themselves in local groups or in Sherlockian publications. The BSI has published [http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com The Baker Street Journal], an "irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana" since 1946.

The band

The Baker Street Irregulars is also the name of an English band from Preston who take their name from Holmes' street urchins.

Influence on other popular culture

Robert A. Heinlein picked up the idea in his novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Those Irregulars carried out similar surveillance in the run-up to a revolution, working for a computer named Mycroft, named after Sherlock Holmes' older smarter brother. The Irregulars also appear in the animated series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, though these are teenagers, and presumably older than the ones of the Doyle canon. Like in the stories, the unofficial leader is named Wiggins, an aspiring pugilist and soccer player. Holmes practically deduces his entire life story simply by noting his walk and the stains on his clothes during their first meeting. A self-styled cockney girl and a computer nerd paraplegic form the other members of the group.

External links

- [http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com The Baker Street Journal from BSI]
- [http://www.thebakerstreetirregulars.com/ Baker Street Irregulars band page] Baker Street Irregulars ja:ベイカー街遊撃隊

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (1854–1957, according to William S. Baring-Gould) is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes is famous for his prowess at using logic and astute observation to solve cases. Sherlock Holmes describes himself as a "consulting detective", an expert who is brought into cases that have proven too difficult for other investigators; we are told that he is often able to solve a problem without leaving his home. Naturally, this aspect is minimized in the stories themselves, which tend to focus on the more interesting cases which require him to do actual legwork. He specializes in solving unusual cases using his extraordinary powers of observation and logical reasoning, and frequently demonstrates these powers to new clients by making on-the-spot observations about their personalities and recent activities. This rarely fails to impress (see below). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle credits the inception of Holmes to his teacher at the medical school of Edinburgh University, the gifted surgeon and forensic detective Joseph Bell, forensic science being a new field at the time. However, some years later Bell wrote to Conan Doyle: "you are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it" (Baring-Gould, p. 8). "Holmes" was named after Oliver Wendell Holmes, whom Conan Doyle admired, and an English cricketer named Sherlock – however some early notes give his name as Sherrinford Holmes.

Detective story

A popular myth is that Sherlock Holmes gave rise to the entire genre of murder mystery fiction. This now famous character and the detective story itself, however, were inspired by Auguste Dupin and his technique for solving crime. Created by Edgar Allan Poe, Dupin was a fictional investigator to whom even Holmes himself alluded. Many fictional detectives have imitated Holmes' logical methods and followed in his footsteps, in many different ways. Some of the more popular fictional detectives to continue Holmes' legacy include Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, Perry Mason, Columbo, Dick Tracy, and even the comic book hero Batman. Modern variants might be the NBC TV series Law and Order: Criminal Intent and the USA Network's show Monk, which even replicates the Holmesian style of "quiet analysis", during which no one speaks to the character while he works. Monk also has an older brother, who, like Holmes' older brother Mycroft, is a bit more able but less interested in crime. Another analogue is the Fox series House in which Dr. House (like Joseph Bell, on whom Doyle based Holmes) is the Holmes figure (an infectious disease specialist) and Dr. James Wilson (an oncologist) is his Watson with the exception that where Holmes solved crimes, House solves medical mysteries. (See also detective fiction).

Profile

detective fiction Historically, Holmes lived from the year 1881 at 221B Baker Street, London, an upper-storey flat at 221 Baker Street (in early notes it was described as Upper Baker Street), where he spent many of his professional years with his good friend Dr. John H. Watson, and with whom he shared rooms for some time before Watson's marriage in 1890. The residence was maintained by his Scottish landlady, Mrs Hudson. In many of the stories Holmes is assisted by the practical Watson, who is not only Holmes's friend but his chronicler (his "Boswell"). Most of Holmes' stories are told as narratives, by Watson, of Holmes' solutions to actual crimes; in some later stories, Holmes criticizes Watson for his writings, usually because Watson relates them as exciting stories rather than as objective and detailed reports. Holmes also has an older brother, Mycroft Holmes, who appears in three stories—"The Greek Interpreter", "The Final Problem", and "The Bruce-Partington Plans"—and is mentioned in a number of others, including "The Empty House". In three stories, including The Sign of Four, he is assisted by a group of street children or urchins he calls the Baker Street Irregulars.

His background

the Baker Street Irregulars] In the very first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, something of Holmes's background is given. On March 4, 1881 he is presented as an independent student of chemistry with a variety of very curious side interests, almost all of which turn out to be single-mindedly bent towards making Holmes superior at solving crimes. In another early Holmes story, "The Gloria Scott", more background on what caused Holmes to become a detective is presented; a college friend's father complimented him very highly on his deductive skills. In A Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson makes an evaluation of Sherlock's skills: "Sherlock Holmes–his limits" # Knowledge of Literature.—Nil. # " " Philosophy.—Nil. # " " Astronomy.—Nil. # " " Politics.—Feeble. # " " Botany.—Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening. # Knowledge of Geology.—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them. # Knowledge of Chemistry.—Profound. # " " Anatomy.—Accurate, but unsystematic. # " " Sensational Literature.—Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century. # Plays the violin well. # Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman. # Has a good practical knowledge of British law. For all of his knowledge, he is imparted with an IQ of 190 (explicitly revealed). Later stories make clear, however, that the above list is misleading, and that Holmes—who has just met Watson—is pulling Watson's leg. Two examples: Despite Holmes' supposed ignorance of politics, in "A Scandal in Bohemia" he immediately recognizes the true identity of the supposed Count von Kramm. Regarding non-sensational literature, Holmes' speech is replete with references to the Bible, Shakespeare, and even Goethe. Holmes is also a competent cryptanalyst; he relates to Watson that he is "fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject in which I analyse one hundred and sixty separate ciphers." One such scheme is solved in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" which uses a series of stick figures, for example: cipher Elsewhere Holmes himself mentions that he has "some knowledge" of baritsu, "the Japanese system of wrestling", by means of which he escaped the death-grip of his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty (who, however, figures in only two of the stories, despite his later reputation). In this same first story, Doyle presents a comparison between his debuting character and two earlier established and better known at the time fictional detectives: Edgar Allan Poe's Auguste Dupin and Emile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq. Dupin had first appeared in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", first published in 1841, and Lecoq in "L'Affaire Lerouge" ("The Lerouge Affair") in 1866. The brief discussion between Watson and Holmes about the two characters begins with a comment by Watson:

"You remind me of Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories."

Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. "No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin," he observed. "Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends' thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour's silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine."

"Have you read Gaboriau's works?" I asked. "Does Lecoq come up to your idea of a detective?"

Sherlock Holmes sniffed sardonically. "Lecoq was a miserable bungler," he said, in an angry voice; "he had only one thing to recommend him, and that was his energy. That book made me positively ill. The question was how to identify an unknown prisoner. I could have done it in twenty-four hours. Lecoq took six months or so. It might be made a textbook for detectives to teach them what to avoid."

Sherlock seems convinced that he is superior to both of them, while Watson expresses his admiration of the two characters. It has been suggested that this was a way for Doyle to pay some respect to characters by writers who had influenced him, while insisting that his character is an improvement over them. Holmes' arch-enemy, and popularly-supposed nemesis was Professor James Moriarty ("the Napoleon of Crime") who fell, struggling with Holmes, over the Reichenbach Falls. Conan Doyle intended "The Final Problem", the story in which Holmes and Moriarty fell over the cliff, to be the last that he wrote about Holmes; however the mass of mailings he received demanding that he bring Holmes back convinced him to continue. "The Adventure of the Empty House" had Conan Doyle explaining that only Moriarty fell over the cliff, but Holmes had allowed the world to believe that he too had perished while he dodged the retribution of Moriarty's underlings. Notably, Moriarty never appears directly in the stories; Watson never encounters Moriarty, and so the encounters between Holmes and his nemesis are described by Holmes.

His women

Irene Adler was always referred to by Holmes and his fans as "The Woman". She appeared only in "A Scandal in Bohemia", but she is often thought to be the only woman who broke through Holmes' reserve. In one story, "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton", Holmes is engaged to be married, but only with the motivation of gaining information for his case. He clearly demonstrates particular interest in several of the more charming female clients that come his way (such as Violet Hunter of "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches", who Watson thought might become more than a client to Holmes). However, the context implies that Holmes found their youth, beauty, and energy (and the cases they bring to him) invigorating, as opposed to an actual romantic interest, as Holmes inevitably "manifested no further interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one of his problems." If he was able to turn on a certain amount of charm, as indicated by these episodes, there is no indication of a serious or long-term interest apart from the case of Adler. Watson states that Holmes has an "aversion to women" but "a peculiarly ingratiating way with [them]." Holmes stated "I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind." His dislike may have stemmed from the fact he found "the motives of women... so inscrutable... How can you build on such quicksand? Their most trivial actions may mean volumes... their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin"; this resistance to his deductive processes may have annoyed him. Watson, on the other hand, has a perhaps justifiable reputation as a ladies' man: he spoke favourably of some women and actually married one, Mary Morstan of The Sign of Four (and another following Mary's death (1892), according to Holmes, and possibly one more according to some interpretations of the text).

His habits

However, Holmes is not at all a stuffy strait-laced Victorian gentleman; in fact, he describes himself and his habits as "Bohemian." He may suffer from bipolar disorder, alternating between days or weeks of listless lassitude and similar periods of intense engagement with a challenging case or with his hobby, experimental chemistry, "extreme exactness and astuteness... [or a] poetic and contemplative mood", "outbursts of passionate energy... followed by reactions of lethargy." Some Holmes researchers, however, believe the symptoms to be closer to those of ADD, since his mood swings have causes and are not completely arbitrary. Modern readers of the Holmes stories are apt to be surprised that he is an occasional user of cocaine, though Watson describes this as Holmes's "only vice." Holmes had a notable obsession with order and neatness. Watson did not consider a vice Holmes's habit of smoking (usually a pipe) heavily, nor his willingness to bend the truth and break the law (e.g., lie to the police, conceal evidence, burgle and housebreak) when it suited his purposes; in Victorian England such actions were not necessarily considered vices as long as they were done by a gentleman for noble purposes, such as preserving a woman's honor or a family's reputation. Since many of the stories revolve around Holmes (and Watson) doing such things, a modern reader must accept actions which would be out of character for a 'law-abiding' detective living by the standards of a later time.

Holmesian (or Sherlockian) deduction

reputation "From a drop of water"—Holmes wrote in an essay described in A Study in Scarlet—"a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other." Holmes stories often begin with a bravura display of Holmes' talent for "deduction". It is of some interest to logicians and those interested in logic to try to analyse just what Holmes is doing when he performs his deduction. Holmesian (the British adjective; Americans may also say "Sherlockian") deduction appears to consist primarily of drawing inferences based on either straightforward practical principles—which are the result of careful inductive study, such as Holmes's study of different kinds of cigar ashes—or inference to the best explanation. In many cases, the inference can be modelled either way. In 2002, Holmes was inducted as an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry—the only fictional character so honored—in appreciation of the contributions to forensic investigation. Holmes's straightforward practical principles are generally of the form, "If p, then q," where "p" is observed evidence and "q" is what the evidence indicates. But there are also, as one may observe in the following example, often some intermediate principles. In "A Scandal in Bohemia", Holmes deduces that Watson had gotten very wet lately and that he had "a most clumsy and careless servant girl". When Watson, in amazement, asks how Holmes knows this, Holmes answers:

"It is simplicity itself . . . my eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey."

In this case, we might say Holmes employed several connected principles such as these:
- If leather on the side of a shoe is scored by several parallel cuts, it was caused by someone who scraped around the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud.
- If a nineteenth-century London doctor's shoes are scraped to remove crusted mud, the person who so scraped them is the doctor's servant girl.
- If someone cuts a shoe while scraping it to remove encrusted mud, that person is clumsy and careless.
- If someone's shoes had encrusted mud on them, that person has been very wet lately and has been out in vile weather. By applying such principles in an obvious way (using repeated applications of modus ponens), Holmes is able to infer from :p: The sides of Watson's shoes are scored by several parallel cuts. to :q1: Watson's servant girl is clumsy and careless. and :q2: Watson has been very wet lately and has been out in vile weather. But perhaps Holmes is not giving a proper explanation—after all Holmes may be well aware of Watson's servant girl. As Watson is a doctor and it has been raining, it is likely he has been out in the rain. In other instances of Holmesian deduction, it is more difficult to model his inference as deduction using general principles, and logicians and scientists will readily recognize the method used, instead, as an inductive one—in particular, argument to the best explanation, or, in Charles S. Peirce's terminology, abduction. That Holmes should have called this deduction is entirely plausible, however; in several stories, Holmes is said not to have known anything at all of philosophy, although he quotes Thomas Carlyle. The instances in which Holmes uses deduction tend to be those where he has amassed a large body of evidence, produced a number of possible explanations of that evidence, and then proceeds to find one explanation that is clearly the best at explaining the evidence. For example, in The Sign of Four, a man is found dead in his room, with a ghastly smile on his face, and with no immediately visible cause of death. From a whole body of background information as well as evidence gathered at and around the scene of the crime, Holmes is able to infer that the murderer is—not the various people that Scotland Yard has in custody (each of them being an alternative explanation)—but rather another person entirely. As Holmes says in the story, "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" This phrase has entered Western popular culture as a catchphrase. It also turned up in the Dirk Gently stories by Douglas Adams where the detective uses the opposite phrase "because we know very much about what is improbable, but very little about what is possible". In the latter example, in fact, Holmes's solution of the crime depends both on a series of applications of general principles and argument to the best explanation. Holmes's success at his brand of deduction, therefore, is due to his mastery of both a huge body of particular knowledge of things like footprints, cigar ashes, and poisons, which he uses to make relatively simple deductive inferences, and the fine art of ordering and weighing different competing explanations of a body of evidence. Holmes is also particularly good at gathering evidence by observation, as well locating and tracking the movements of criminals through the streets of London and environs (in order to produce more evidence)—skills that have little to do with deduction per se, but everything to do with providing the premises for particular Holmesian deductions. In the stories by Conan Doyle, Holmes often remarked that his logical conclusions were "elementary", in that he considered them to be simple and obvious. However, the complete phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" does not appear in any of the 60 Holmes stories written by Doyle. It does appear at the very end of the 1929 film, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, the first Sherlock Holmes sound film, and may owe its familiarity to its use in Edith Meiser's scripts for The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio series. It should be noted too, that our modern stereotype of police procedure—someone who looks for physical clues, rather than someone who examines opportunity and motive—comes from Holmes. Readers of the Sherlock Holmes stories have often been surprised to discover that their author, Conan Doyle, was a fervent believer in paranormal phenomena, and that the logical, sceptical character of Holmes was in opposition to his own in many ways. The word "Sherlock" has entered the language to mean a detective or nosy person; it is also commonly used in American slang to mean a knowledgeable person, as in the sarcastic phrase "No shit, Sherlock", uttered when someone says something obvious.

Man or machine

"So many regard him as a machine rather than a man." Watson describes Holmes a "desiccated calculating machine", "as deficient in human sympathy as he was pre-eminent in intelligence", and states that "all emotions... were abhorrent to his cold, precise, yet admirably balanced mind." In the era of Charles Babbage, Holmes may have been written as a human computer. He treats all he finds as data, information to be interpreted, and does not proceed without all the facts. Like a machine, he does not have a social life and he does not seem to eat or even sleep (even when he is ill). However, there are complications for this theory. Although a computer could possibly come up with the idea of getting engaged to a woman to gain information from her, it could not come up with a way of doing this (i.e. convince the woman). A computer would not stoop to disguise or acting as Holmes did. In fact if you consider Holmes's deduction principles above, it seems a very skewed logic. His bipolar nature, skill as a musician and composer, and occasional fondness for showmanship also count against this. While "his cold and proud nature was always adverse... [to] public applause" and "turned away with disdain from popular notoriety" but "for an instant he ceased to be a reasoning machine, and betrayed his human love for admiration and applause... from a friend." Consider also Prof. John Sutherland's insights into the moral judgements Holmes (possibly) makes in the conclusion to the story 'The Speckled Band'. Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories about Sherlock Holmes. Almost all were narrated by Dr. Watson, with the exception of two narrated by Holmes himself and two more written in the third person. The stories first appeared in magazine serialization, notably in The Strand, over a period of forty years. This was a common form of publication in those days; Charles Dickens wrote in a similar fashion. The stories cover a period from around 1878 up to 1903, with a final case in 1914. In addition to the canonical Sherlock Holmes stories, Conan Doyle's "The Lost Special" (1908) features an unnamed 'amateur reasoner' clearly intended to be identified as Holmes by his readers. His explanation for a baffling disappearance, argued in Holmes' characteristic style, turns out to be quite wrong – evidently Conan Doyle was not above poking fun at his own hero. Another short story by Conan Doyle using the same idea is "The Man with the Watches." Another example of Conan Doyle's humour is "How Watson Learned the Trick" (1924), a parody of the frequent Watson-Holmes breakfast table scenes. Another parody by Conan Doyle is "The Field Bazaar"; he also wrote other material, especially plays, featuring Holmes.

Novels

- A Study in Scarlet (serialized 1887)
- The Sign of Four (published 1890)
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (serialized 1901-1902; original illustrations by Sidney Paget)
- The Valley of Fear (serialized 1914-1915) (briefly involves Professor Moriarty)

Short stories

For more detail see List of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories. The short stories were originally published in periodicals, they were later gathered into five anthologies:
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Contains stories published 1891–1892.
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Contains stories published 1892–1893.
- The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Contains stories published 1903–1904.
- His Last Bow. Contains stories published 1908–1913, 1917.
- The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. Contains stories published 1921–1927.

Lists of favorite stories

"The Hiatus"

Holmes fans refer to the period from 1891 to 1894—the time between Holmes's disappearance and presumed death in The Final Problem and his reappearance in The Adventure of the Empty House—as "the Great Hiatus". It is notable, though, that one later story (The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge) is described as taking place in 1892. For Conan Doyle, writing the stories, the period was ten years long. Conan Doyle, wanting to devote more time to his historical novels, killed off Holmes in The Final Problem, which appeared in print in 1893. After resisting public pressure for eight years, Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles, which appeared in 1901, setting it before Holmes's "death". The public, while pleased with the story, were not satisfied with a posthumous Holmes, and so Conan Doyle resuscitated Holmes two years later. Many have speculated on Conan Doyle's motives for bringing Holmes back to life, notably writer-director Nicholas Meyer, who wrote an essay on the subject in the 1970s, but the actual motives are not known, other than the obvious: publishers offered to pay generously. For whatever reason, Conan Doyle continued to write Holmes stories for a quarter-century more. Some writers have come up with alternate explanations for the hiatus. In Meyer's novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, the hiatus was explained as a secret sabbatical that Holmes indulged in for those years, while he light-heartedly suggested that Watson write a fictitious account claiming he had died: "They'll never believe you in any case." John Kendrick Bangs, creator of Bangsian fantasy, wrote a book in 1897 called Pursuit of the House-Boat (a sequel to his A House-Boat on the Styx, in which the souls of famous dead people start up a club in Hades). In it, the house-boat (which was hijacked at the end of A House-Boat on the Styx by Captain Kidd) is tracked down by the members of the club with the aid of none other than Sherlock Holmes—who is indeed dead. In his memoirs Conan Doyle quotes a reader, who judged the later stories inferior to the earlier ones, to the effect that when Holmes went over the Reichenbach Falls, he may not have been killed, but he was never quite the same man after. The differences in the pre and post Hiatus Holmes has in fact created speculation among those who play 'The Game' (making believe Sherlock Holmes was a historical person). Among the more interesting and plausible theories: the later Holmes was in fact an imposter (perhaps even Professor Moriarty), the later stories were fictions created to fill other writers pockets (this is often used to deal with the stories which supposedly are written by Holmes himself), and Holmes and Professor Moriarty were in fact a variation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Among the more fanciful theories, the story "The Case of the Detective's Smile," by Mark Bourne and published in the anthology Sherlock Holmes in Orbit, posits that one of the places Holmes visited during his hiatus was Alice's Wonderland. While there, he solved the case of the stolen tarts, and his experiences there contributed to his kicking the cocaine addiction.

Adaptations

See Sherlock Holmes in other media

Holmesian speculation

A popular pastime among fans of Sherlock Holmes is to pretend that Holmes and Watson were real people, and Arthur Conan Doyle merely Watson's "literary agent," and to attempt to "discover" new facts about them, either from clues in the stories or by combining the stories with historical fact. Early scholars of the canon included Ronald Knox and Christopher Morley. An influential mid-20th century player of the historical-Holmes game was William S. Baring-Gould, whose works on the subject included The Chronological Holmes (1955), an attempt to lay out in chronological order all the events alluded to in the Sherlock Holmes stories; Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street (1962), an influential "biography" of Holmes; and Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-fifth Street (1969), a "biography" of Rex Stout's detective character Nero Wolfe which popularized the theory that Wolfe was "really" the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. Stout's own tongue-in-cheek contribution to the field was the theory that Watson was a woman. Baring-Gould also edited The Annotated Sherlock Holmes (1967), which combines in two volumes the complete canon and a hundred thousand words of additional explanation and illustration drawn from the Holmesian literature. Dorothy Sayers, creator of the detective Lord Peter Wimsey, also wrote several essays on Holmesian speculation, later published in Unpopular Opinions, including an interesting discussion of Watson's middle name. In 2004 and 2005 a three-volume The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, edited by Leslie S. Klinger, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Holmes (often given as January 6, 1854) and "reflect the spectrum of views on Sherlockian controversies" rather than "Baring-Gould's personal theories". There is also the idea that many characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories were based heavily on real people, particularly Friedrich Nietzsche (who may have been the model for Holmes himself and Professor Moriarty), and that Conan Doyle borrowed from other writers, as many other writers have done.

The Holmes family

A particularly-rich area of "research" is the "uncovering" of details about Holmes's family history and early life, of which almost nothing is said in Conan Doyle's stories. In "The Greek Interpreter" Watson states: "I had never heard him refer to his relations, and hardly ever to his early life." But in that story, as well as introducing his brother, Holmes mentions the only facts about his family that are in any of the stories – "My ancestors were country squires... my grandmother... was the sister of Vernet, the French artist." (Presumably Horace Vernet). Beyond this all familial statements are speculation. For example, there is a certain belief that his mother was named Violet, based on Conan Doyle's fondness for the name and the four strong Violets in the canon; however, as Baring-Gould noted, in Holmes' Britain Violet was a very common name. It is clear from references to "the university" in The Gloria Scott, The Musgrave Ritual, and to some degree The Adventure of the Three Students, that Holmes attended Oxford or Cambridge, although the question of which one remains a topic of eternal debate (Baring-Gould believed textual evidence indicated that Holmes attended both). The most influential "biography" of Holmes is Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street by Baring-Gould. Faced with Holmes's reticence about his family background and early life, Baring-Gould invented one for him. According to Baring-Gould, Sherlock Holmes was born in Yorkshire, the youngest of three sons of Siger Holmes and Violet Sherrinford. The middle brother, Mycroft, appears in the canon, but the eldest, Sherrinford Holmes, was invented by Baring-Gould to free Mycroft and Sherlock from the obligation of following Siger as a country squire. (In reality, "Sherrinford Holmes" was one of the names Arthur Conan Doyle considered for his hero before settling on Sherlock.) Siger Holmes's name is derived from The Adventure of the Empty House, in which Sherlock spends some time pretending to be a Norwegian mountaineer called Sigerson. (This hardly qualifies as a clue about the name of Sherlock's father, but in the absence of any genuine clues it was the best Baring-Gould had to work with.) Sherrinford had a significant role in the Doctor Who crossover novel All Consuming Fire by Andy Lane, which also featured a cameo by Siger. Some other versions of Sherlock's parentage:
- Ian Charnocks's Watson's Last Case names his father as Sherlock Holmes, Sr.
- Robert D'Artagnan's Sherlock Holmes's Last Case names his father as Mark Moriarty and gives Sherlock's true name as Joseph Moriarty, explaining that he was adopted at age four by Gregory C. Holmes and his wife Lydia Mycroft Holmes. This would make him a younger brother of Professor James Moriarty.
- Michael Harrison's I, Sherlock Holmes names his father as Captain Siger Holmes of the British East India Company.
- Cass Lewis's Dead Man's Confession names his father as Robert Holmes and his mother Carla "Violet" Holmes.
- Mona Morstein's The Childhood of Sherlock Holmes names his father as David William Holmes and his mother Catherine Simone Lecomte-Vernet.
- Fred Saberhagen's The Holmes-Dracula File gives his true father as the lover of Mrs. Holmes: The vampire Radu the Handsome, a younger brother of Vlad III Dracula, who had succeeded him as a ruler of Wallachia. This would make Sherlock a nephew of Dracula (against whom he was pitted in Loren D. Estleman's novel The Case of the Sanguinary Count).
- Christopher Leppek's The Surrogate Assassin named Sherlock's father as a younger brother of Mary Ann Holmes, a historical figure better known as the mother of John Wilkes Booth. This would make Sherlock a first cousin of Booth.

The Holmes family and the Wold Newton family

Based originally on the writings of Philip José Farmer, the concept of the Wold Newton family is the construction of a giant genealogical tree which connects many fictional characters to each other and to a number of historical figures. Additions to this tree are based on the writings of the original creators, pastiche writers, and "Wold Newton scholars." Sherlock Holmes has been one of the central characters of this tree. The [http://www.pjfarmer.com/secret/contributors/holmes-family-tree.htm Holmes family] and its various generations have been the subject of many Wold Newton articles. Sherlock himself has been described as born as William Sherlock Scott Holmes on January 6, 1854 to Siger Holmes and his wife Violet Rutherford. One of eight siblings, including Mycroft. The descendants of those siblings include many other characters. Sherlock himself has been given as the father of at least eight children, including Nero Wolfe. Sherlock is also an ancestor of Star Trek's Spock through Amanda Grayson.

The Sherlock Holmes copyright

The copyright of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works and of the Sherlock Holmes character were predominately held by his descendants starting first with his son Adrian Doyle. After Adrian's death in 1972 Dame Jean Conan Doyle (Conan Doyle's daughter) and the other descendants sold the rights to Baskerville Investments, a firm fronted by the surviving wife of Doyle's eldest son. The Bank of Scotland took over the European rights after a loan defaulted and auctioned them off to a consortium led by the producer of the 1954 Holmes series, Sheldon Reynolds. In 1981 the copyright expired everywhere except for the United States, where they were still held by the Conan Doyle family. Dame Jean, with the assistance of the Baker Street Irregulars, claimed the US rights to those works not yet in the public domain. Her Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Estate both licensed and defended the Sherlock Holmes character by requiring royalties and famously sued the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Meitantai Holmes and the movie The Young Sherlock Holmes for their unauthorized direct portrayals of Holmes. In 1999 Andrea Plunket, who had divorced Sheldon Reynolds in the 1980s to become the mistress of Claus von Bulow while he was on trial for attempting to murder his wife, was refused a US trademark for Sherlock Holmes, and lost a series of US Federal Court cases against the Estate of Dame Jean Conan Doyle's executors, agents, and licensees, in decisions declaring that Plunket neither owns nor represents the owners of the Conan Doyle rights in the US. In 2001 all but one of the remaining works were released into public domain. Originally Dame Jean left the US rights to the Royal National Institute for the Blind, but the executors of her Estate wished to keep them in the family's hands, and negotiated a buy-out; the Estate of Dame Jean Conan Doyle continues to own the rights in the US. The Case Book is the only work with an outstanding US copyright and will pass into the public domain between 2016 and 2023.

Related and Derivative Works (non canonical)

See Non-canonical works related and derived from Sherlock Holmes

Notes

# Holmesian scholars who cite this date do so as Holmes quotes from Twelfth Night [http://www3.sympatico.ca/mudthehut/docs/faq.htm more often than from any other Shakespeare play].

References

- Baring-Gould, William S. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., New York, NY. ISBN 0-517-502917
- Klinger, Leslie S. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY. ISBN 0-393-05916-2

External links

- [http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk The Sherlock Holmes Museum]
- [http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/004817.php The Quotable Sherlock Holmes: Complete copy in PDF]
- [http://wikibooks.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Study Guide at Wikibooks]
- [http://www.bakerstreet221b.de/canon/index.html Full text of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, including illustrations]
- [http://sherlock-holmes.classic-literature.co.uk/ Sherlock Holmes Books in HTML format]
- [http://webpages.charter.net/lklinger/Chrotabl.htm A timeline of Sherlock's life as given by various sources]1
- [http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk The Sherlock Holmes Society of London]2
- [http://www.sshf.com The Sherlock Holmes Society of France]3
- [http://www.schoolandholmes.com/ A listing of historical, fictional and canonical characters appearing in pastiche stories]4
- [http://221bakerstreet.org/ This leads to the public domain listing of the books in the "canon".]5
- [http://sherlock.mindcop.net Sherlock Holmes Public Library]
- [http://www.sherlockian.net/ Sherlockian.Net]
- [http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/SherlockHolmesSocietyofIndia/?yguid=72331759 The Sherlock Holmes Society of India]
- [http://www.bcpl.net/~lmoskowi/holmes.html The Sherlockian Connection]
- [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/4040/sherlock.html A Little of Sherlock Holmes]
- [http://www.bakerstreetholmes.info Sherlock Holmes information]7
- [http://www.bertcoules.co.uk/sh-home.htm Bert Coules' website (BBC Radio 4 canonical and original stories, 1989–2004)]
- [http://www.shpcboston.org The Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club of Boston]
- [http://www.sherlockiana.de Our Virtual Holmes - A New German Sherlock Holmes Page] ja:シャーロック・ホームズ

Winston Churchill

See that page also for other people named "Winston Churchill". The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an British statesman, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. At various times a soldier, journalist, author, and politician, Churchill is generally regarded as one of the most important leaders in British and world history. He won the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature. Churchill's legal surname was Spencer-Churchill, but starting with his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, his branch of the family always used just the name Churchill in public life.

Early life

Born at Blenheim Palace, near Woodstock in Oxfordshire, Winston Churchill was a descendant of the first famous member of the Churchill family, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Winston's politician father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough; Winston's mother was Lady Randolph Churchill (née Jennie Jerome), daughter of American millionaire Leonard Jerome. Churchill spent much of his childhood at boarding schools, including the Headmaster's House at Harrow School. He famously sat the entrance exam but on confronting the Latin paper he carefully wrote the title, his name and the number 1 followed by a dot and could not think of anything else to write. He was accepted despite this, but placed in the bottom division where they were primarily taught English, at which he excelled. Today at Harrow there is an annual Churchill essay prize on a subject chosen by the head of the English department. He was rarely visited by his mother, whom he virtually worshipped, despite his letters begging her to either come or let his father permit him to come home. He followed his father's career keenly but had a distant relationship with him. Once, in 1886, he is reported to have proclaimed "My daddy is Chancellor of the Exchequer and one day that's what I'm going to be." His desolate, lonely childhood stayed with him throughout his life. The young Winston was very close to his nurse, Elizabeth Ann Everest (nicknamed "Woom" by Churchill), and was deeply saddened when she died on July 3, 1895. He paid for her gravestone at the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium. Churchill did badly at Harrow, regularly being punished for poor work and lack of effort. His nature was independent and rebellious and he failed to achieve much academically, failing some of the same courses numerous times despite showing great ability in other areas such as maths and history, in both of which he was placed at times top in his class. But his refusal to study the classics undermined any chance of success at a school like Harrow. The view of Churchill as a failure at school is one which he himself propagated, probably due to his father's intense dislike of the young Winston and his obvious readiness to label his son a disappointment. He did, however, become the school's fencing champion. Churchill attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

The Army

Graduating from Sandhurst, Churchill joined the army at 21 as a Subaltern of the IV (Queen's Own) Hussars Cavalry regiment. This regiment was stationed in Bangalore, India. When arriving in India Churchill dislocated his shoulder while reaching from his boat for a chain from the dock and being thrown against the Quay. This shoulder gave him trouble in later years, occasionally dislocating from its socket. In India the main occupation of Churchill's regiment was polo, which they devoted a great deal of time and effort to — with notable success, winning the Golconda Cup within 50 days of disembarking in India, and being the first regiment from Southern India to win the Inter-Regimental Cup. Churchill also devoted his time to self-educating himself from books which he had sent out. While stationed in India Churchill's other main occupation was chasing wars. In 1895 he and Reggie Barnes obtained leave to travel to Cuba to observe the Spanish battles against Cuban guerrillas. Churchill also obtained a commission to write about the conflict from the Daily Graphic newspaper. To Churchill's delight they came under fire for the first time on his twenty-first birthday. On his way to Cuba he also made his first visit to the United States, being introduced to New York society by one of his mother's lovers, Bourke Cockran. In 1897 Churchill attempted to travel to the Greco-Turkish War but this conflict effectively ended before he could arrive. He therefore continued on to England on leave before hearing of the Pathan revolt on the North West Frontier and rushing back to India to participate in the campaign to put it down. Churchill had previously obtained a promise from Sir Bindon Blood, the commander of this expedition, that if he were to command again Churchill could accompany him. He wasted no time in reminding Blood of his promise and was able to participate in the 6 week campaign, also writing articles for the newspapers The Pioneer and The Daily Telegraph at £5 an article. By October 1897 Churchill was back in Britain and his first book The Story of the Malakand Field Force, on that campaign, was published in December. While still officially stationed in India, and having obtained a large amount of leave, Churchill attempted to get himself assigned to the army being put together and commanded by Lord Kitchener intended to achieve the reconquest of the Sudan. Kitchener was opposed to having Churchill on the staff, feeling he should be back with his regiment in India, and Churchill pulled a great many strings to get his presence approved - even arranging a telegram to Kitchener from the Prime Minister the Marquess of Salisbury. In the end Churchill was able to attend the war after obtaining a posting to the 21st Lancers, a force whose composition was chosen by the War Office not Kitchener. He also served as a war correspondent for the Morning Post, at a rate of £15 per column. While in the Sudan Churchill participated in the battle of Omdurman, the last British cavalry charge in battle. By October 1898 he had returned to Britain and begun work on the 2 volume The River War, published in 1899. In 1899 Churchill left the army and decided upon a parliamentary career. He stood as a Conservative candidate in Oldham constituency in a by-election of that year. He came third (Oldham was at that time a 2-seat borough), failing to be elected. On 12 October 1899 the second Anglo-Boer war between Britain and Afrikaners broke out in South Africa. Churchill set off as a War correspondent for the Morning Post, receiving £250 a month for 4 months. Once in South Africa he accepted a lift on a British Army Armoured Train under the command of Aylmer Haldane; this train was thrown off the tracks by a Boer ambush and explosion. Churchill, though not officially a combatant, took charge of operations to get the track cleared and managed to ensure that the engine and half the train, carrying the wounded, could escape. Churchill however was not so lucky and, together with other officers and soldiers was captured and held in a POW camp in Pretoria, despite doubt about his combatant status. Churchill managed to escape from his prison camp, resulting in a long running criticism and controversy as it was claimed that he did not wait for Haldane and another man who had planned the escape but who were unable, or unwilling, to risk slipping over the fence when Churchill did. Once outside the Pretoria prison camp Churchill travelled almost 300 miles to Portuguese Lourenco Marques in Delgagoa Bay. He achieved this due to the assistance of an English mine manager who hid him down his mine and smuggled him onto a train headed out of Boer territory. His escape made him a minor national hero for a time in Britain, though instead of returning home he took ship to Durban and rejoined General Redvers Buller's army on its march to relieve Ladysmith and take Pretoria. This time, although continuing as a war correspondent Churchill gained a commission in the South African Light Horse. He fought at Spion Kop and was one of the first British troops into Ladysmith and Pretoria; in fact, he and the Duke of Marlborough, his cousin, were able to get ahead of the rest of the troops in Pretoria where they demanded and received the surrender of 52 Boer guards of the prison camp there. Churchill's two books on the Boer war, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria and Ian Hamilton's March, were published in May and October 1900 respectively.

Parliament

After returning from South Africa Churchill again stood as a Conservative party candidate in Oldham, this time in the 1900 general election, or Khaki election. He was duly elected but, rather than attending the opening of Parliament, he embarked on a speaking tour throughout the UK and USA, by means of which he raised ten thousand pounds for himself (members of parliament were unpaid in those days and Churchill was not rich by the standards of the time). While in the USA one of his speeches was introduced by Mark Twain and he dined with New York Governor and Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt. In February 1901 Churchill arrived back in the U.K. to enter Parliament, and became associated with a group of Tory dissidents led by Lord Hugh Cecil and referred to as the Hughligans or "Hooligans". During his first parliamentary session Churchill provoked controversy by opposing the government's army estimates, arguing against extravagant military expenditure. By 1903 he was drawing away from Lord Hugh's views. He also opposed the Conservative leader Joseph Chamberlain, who proposed extensive tariff reforms intended to protect the economic pre-eminence of Britain behind tariff barriers. This earned him the detestation of his own party — indeed, Conservative backbenchers staged a walkout once while he was speaking. His own constituency effectively deselected him, although he continued to sit for Oldham until the next general election. In 1904 Churchill's dissatisfaction with the Conservatives and the appeal of the Liberals had grown so strong that on returning from the Whitsun recess he crossed the floor to sit as a member of the Liberal Party. As a liberal he continued to campaign for free trade. The winnable Liberal seat of Manchester North West was found for him for the 1906 general election which he won. From 1903 until 1905 Churchill was also engaged in writing Lord Randolph Churchill, a 2-volume biography of his father which came out in 1906 and was received as a masterpiece. However, filial devotion caused him to soften some of his father's less attractive aspects. 1905, then in opposition, to Churchill's proposals for funding the navy; and invoking the song You made me love you popularised in a 1913 Al Jolson recording.]]

Ministerial office

When the Liberals took office, with Henry Campbell-Bannerman as Prime Minister, in December 1905 Churchill became Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. Serving under the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin, Churchill dealt with the adoption of constitutions for the defeated Boer republics of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony and with the issue of 'Chinese slavery' in South African mines. He also became a prominent spokesman on free trade. Churchill soon became the most prominent member of the Government outside the Cabinet, and when Campbell-Bannerman was succeeded by Herbert Henry Asquith in 1908, it came as little surprise when Churchill was promoted to the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade. Under the law at the time, a newly appointed Cabinet Minister was obliged to seek re-election at a by-election. Churchill lost his Manchester seat to the Conservative William Joynson-Hicks but was soon elected in another by-election at Dundee constituency. As President of the Board of Trade he pursued radical social reforms in conjunction with David Lloyd George, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1910 Churchill was promoted to Home Secretary, where he was to prove somewhat controversial. A famous photograph from the time shows the impetuous Churchill taking personal charge of the January 1911 Sidney Street Siege, peering around a corner to view a gun battle between cornered anarchists and Scots Guards. His role attracted much criticism. The building under siege caught fire. Churchill denied the fire brigade access, forcing the criminals to choose surrender or death. Arthur Balfour asked, "He [Churchill] and a photographer were both risking valuable lives. I understand what the photographer was doing but what was the Right Honourable gentleman doing?" In 1911, Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty, a post he would hold into the First World War. He gave impetus to military reform efforts, including development of naval aviation, tanks, and the switch in fuel from coal to oil, a massive engineering task, also reliant on securing Mesopotamia's oil rights, bought circa 1907 through the secret service using the Royal Burmah Oil Company as a front company. The development of the battle tank was financed from naval research funds via the Landships Committee, and, although a decade later development of the battle tank would be seen as a stroke of genius, at the time it was seen as misappropriation of funds. The battle tank was deployed ineptly in 1915, much to Churchill's annoyance. He wanted a fleet of tanks used to surprised the Germans under cover of smoke, and to open a large section of the trenches by crushing barbed wire and creating a breakthrough sector. However, he was also one of the political and military engineers of the disastrous Gallipoli landings on the Dardanelles during World War I, which led to his description as "the butcher of Gallipoli". When Asquith formed an all-party coalition government, the Conservatives demanded Churchill's demotion as the price for entry. For several months Churchill served in the non-portfolio job of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, before resigning from the government feeling his energies were not being used. He rejoined the army, though remaining an MP, and served for several months on the Western Front. During this period his second in command was a young Archibald Sinclair who would later lead the Liberal Party.

Return to power

In December 1916, Asquith resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by Lloyd George. However, the time was thought not yet right to risk the Conservatives' wrath by bringing Churchill back into government. However, in July 1917 Churchill was appointed Minister of Munitions. After the end of the war Churchill served as both Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air (1919–1921). On the possible use of gas weapons (tear gas) in quelling uprisings in the British mandated territories of the former Ottoman Empire, Churchill wrote: :I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gases: gases can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected. During this time (1919–21), he undertook with surprising zeal the cutting of military expenditure. However, the major preoccupation of his tenure in the War Office was the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Churchill was a staunch advocate of foreign intervention, declaring that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle". He secured from a divided and loosely organised Cabinet an intensification and prolongation of the British involvement beyond the wishes of any major group in Parliament or the nation — and in the face of the bitter hostility of Labour. In 1920, after the last British forces had been withdrawn, Churchill was instrumental in having arms sent to the Poles when they invaded Ukraine. He became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1921 and was a signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which established the Irish Free State.

Career between the wars

In October 1922, Churchill underwent an operation to remove his appendix. Upon his return, he learned that the government had fallen and a General Election was looming. The Liberal Party was now beset by internal division and Churchill's campaign was weak. He lost his seat at Dundee to prohibitionist, Edwin Scrymgeour, quipping that he had lost his ministerial office, his seat and his appendix all at once. Churchill stood for the Liberals again in the 1923 general election, losing in Leicester, but over the next few months he moved towards the Conservative Party, though initially using the labels "Anti-Socialist" and "Constitutionalist". Less than one year later, in the General Election of 1924, he was elected to represent Epping as a "Constitutionalist" with Conservative backing (a statue in his honour in Woodford Green was erected when Woodford Green was part of the Epping constituency). The following year he formally rejoined the Conservative Party, commenting wryly that "Anyone can rat [change parties], but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat." He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1924 under Stanley Baldwin and oversaw the United Kingdom's disastrous return to the Gold Standard, which resulted in deflation, unemployment, and the miners' strike that led to the General Strike of 1926. This decision prompted the economist John Maynard Keynes to write The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill, correctly arguing that the return to the gold standard would lead to a world depression. Churchill later regarded this as one of the worst decisions of his life. To be fair to him, it must be noted that he was not an economist and that he acted on the advice of the Governor of the Bank of England, Montague Norman (of whom Keynes said, "Always so charming, always so wrong".) During the General Strike of 1926, Churchill was reported to have suggested that machineguns be used on the striking miners. Churchill edited the Government's newspaper, the British Gazette, and during the dispute he argued that "either the country will break the General Strike, or the General Strike will break the country." Furthermore, he was to controversially claim that the Fascism of Benito Mussolini had "rendered a service to the whole world," showing as it had "a way to combat subversive forces" — that is, he considered the regime to be a bulwark against the perceived threat of Communist revolution. The Conservative government was defeated in the 1929 General Election. In the next two years, Churchill became estranged from the Conservative leadership over the issues of protective tariffs and Indian Home Rule. When Ramsay MacDonald formed the National Government in 1931, Churchill was not invited to join the Cabinet. He was now at the lowest point in his career, in a period known as "the wilderness years". He spent much of the next few years concentrating on his writing, including Marlborough: His Life and Times — a biography of his ancestor John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough — and A History of the English Speaking Peoples (which was not published until well after WWII). He became most notable for his outspoken opposition towards the granting of independence to India (see Simon Commission and Government of India Act 1935). Soon, though, his attention was drawn to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the dangers of Germany's rearmament. For a time he was a lone voice calling on Britain to strengthen itself to counter the belligerence of Germany. Churchill was a fierce critic of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler. He was also an outspoken supporter of King Edward VIII during the Abdication Crisis, leading to some speculation that he might be appointed Prime Minister if the King refused to take Baldwin's advice and consequently the government resigned. However, this did not happen, and Churchill found himself politically isolated and bruised for some time after this.

Role as wartime Prime Minister

At the outbreak of the Second World War Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In this job he proved to be one of the highest-profile ministers during the so-called "Phoney War", when the only noticeable action was at sea. Churchill advocated the pre-emptive occupation of the neutral Norwegian iron-ore port of Narvik and the iron mines in Kiruna, Sweden, early in the War. However, Chamberlain and the rest of the War Cabinet disagreed, and the operation was delayed until the German invasion of Norway, which was successful despite British efforts. In May 1940, directly upon the German invasion of France by a surprising lightning advance through the Low Countries, it became clear that the country had no confidence in Chamberlain's prosecution of the war. Chamberlain resigned, and Churchill was appointed Prime Minister and formed an all-party government. In response to previous criticisms that there had been no clear single minister in charge of the prosecution of the war, he created and took the additional position of Minister of Defence. He immediately put his friend and confidant, the industrialist and newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook, in charge of aircraft production. It was Beaverbrook's astounding business acumen that allowed Britain to quickly gear up aircraft production and engineering that eventually made the difference in the war. Lord Beaverbrook Churchill's speeches were a great inspiration to the embattled United Kingdom. His first speech as Prime Minister was the famous "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech. He followed that closely with two other equally famous ones, given just before the Battle of Britain. One included the immortal line, "We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." The other included the equally famous "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'" At the height of the Battle of Britain, his bracing survey of the situation included the memorable line "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", which engendered the enduring nickname "The Few" for the Allied fighter pilots who won it. The Few, and Churchill at the Cairo Conference in 1943]] His good relationship with Franklin D. Roosevelt secured the United Kingdom vital supplies via the North Atlantic Ocean shipping routes. It was for this reason that Churchill was relieved when Roosevelt was re-elected. Upon re-election, Roosevelt immediately set about implementing a new method of not only providing military hardware to Britain without the need for monetary payment, but also of providing, free of fiscal charge, much of the shipping that transported the supplies. Put simply, Roosevelt persuaded Congress that repayment for this immensely costly service would take the form of defending the USA; and so Lend-lease was born. Churchill had 12 strategic conferences with Roosevelt which covered the Atlantic Charter, Europe first strategy, the Declaration by the United Nations and other war policies. Churchill initiated the Special Operations Executive (SOE) under Hugh Dalton's Ministry of Economic Warfare, which established, conducted and fostered covert, subversive and partisan operations in occupied territories with notable success; and also the Commandos which established the pattern for most of the world's current Special Forces. The Russians referred to him as the "British Bulldog". Special Forces]] However, some of the military actions during the war remain controversial. Churchill was at best indifferent and perhaps complicit in the Great Bengal famine of 1943 which took the lives of at least 2.5 million Bengalis. Japanese troops were threatening British India after having successfully taken neighbouring British Burma. Some consider the British government's policy of denying effective famine relief a deliberate and callous scorched earth policy adopted in the event of a successful Japanese invasion. Churchill supported the bombing of Dresden shortly before the end of the war; many have since maintained that the city was primarily a civilian target with little military value. However, the bombing was seen at the time as being helpful to the Soviet allies. bombing of Dresden]] Churchill was party to treaties that would redraw post-WWII European and Asian boundaries. These were discussed as early as 1943. Proposals for European boundaries and settlements were officially agreed to by Harry S. Truman, Churchill, and Stalin at Potsdam. The settlement concerning the borders of Poland, i.e. the boundary between Poland and the Soviet Union and between Germany and Poland, was viewed as a betrayal in Poland during the post-war years, as it was established against the views of the Polish government in exile. Churchill was convinced that the only way to alleviate tensions between the two populations was the transfer of people, to match the national borders. As he expounded in the House of Commons in 1944, "Expulsion is the method which, insofar as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble... A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by these transferences, which are more possible in modern conditions." The transfers were in the end carried out in a way which resulted in hardship and death for many of those transferred. Churchill opposed the effective annexation of Poland by the Soviet Union and wrote bitterly about it in his books, but he was unable to prevent it at the conferences.

After World War II

Although the importance of Churchill's role in World War II was undeniable, he had many enemies in his own country. His expressed contempt for a number of popular ideas, in particular public health care and better education for the majority of the population, produced much dissatisfaction amongst the population, particularly those who had fought in the war. Immediately following the close of the war in Europe, Churchill was heavily defeated in the 1945 election by Clement Attlee and the Labour Party. Some historians think that many British voters believed that the man who had led the nation so well in war was not the best man to lead it in peace. Others see the election result as a reaction against not Churchill personally, but against the Conservative Party's record in the 1930s under Baldwin and Chamberlain. Winston Churchill was an early supporter of the pan-Europeanism that eventually led to the formation of the European Common market and later the European Union (for which one of the three main buildings of the European Parliament is named in his honour). Churchill was also instrumental in giving France a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (which provided another European power to counterbalance the Soviet Union's permanent seat). Churchill also occasionally made comments supportive of world government. For instance, he once said[http://www.worldbeyondborders.org/quotes.htm]: :Unless some effective world supergovernment for the purpose of preventing war can be set up ... the prospects for peace and human progress are dark ...If ... it is found possible to build a world organization of irresistible force and inviolable authority for the purpose of securing peace, there are no limits to the blessings which all men enjoy and share. At the beginning of the Cold War, he famously mentioned the "Iron Curtain", a phrase originally created by Joseph Goebbels. The phrase entered the public consciousness after a 1946 speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, when Churchill, a guest of Harry S. Truman, famously declared: :From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere.

Second term

Churchill was restless and bored as leader of the Conservative opposition in the immediate post-war years. After Labour's defeat in the General Election of 1951, Churchill again became Prime Minister. His third government — after the wartime national government and the short caretaker government of 1945 — would last until his resignation in 1955. During this period he renewed what he called the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States, and engaged himself in the formation of the post-war order. His domestic priorities were, however, overshadowed by a series of foreign policy crises, which were partly the result of the continued decline of British military and imperial prestige and power. Being a strong proponent of Britain as an international power, Churchill would often meet such moments with direct action.

Anglo-Iranian Oil Dispute

The crisis began under the government of Clement Attlee. In March 1951, the Iranian parliament (the Majlis) voted to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) and its holdings by passing a bill strongly backed by the elderly statesman Mohammed Mossadegh, a man who was elected Prime Minister the following April by a large majority of the parliament. The International Court of Justice was called in to settle the dispute, but a 50/50 profit-sharing arrangement, with recognition of nationalisation, was rejected by Mossadegh. Direct negotiations between the British and the Iranian government ceased, and over the course of 1951, the British ratcheted up the pressure on the Iranian government and explored the possibility of a coup against it. U.S. President Harry S. Truman was reluctant to agree, placing a much higher priority on the Korean War. The effects of the blockade and embargo were staggering and led to a virtual shutdown of Iran's oil exports. Churchill's return to power brought with it a policy of undermining the Mossadegh government. Both sides floated proposals unacceptable to the other, each side believing that time was on its side. Negotiations broke down, and as the blockade's political and economic costs mounted inside Iran, coup plots arose from the army and pro-British factions in the Majlis. Churchill and his Foreign Secretary pursued two mutually exclusive goals. On one hand, they wanted "development and reform" in Iran; on the other hand, they did not want to give up the control or revenue from AIOC that would have permitted that development and reform to go forward. Initially they backed Sayyid Zia as an individual with whom they could do business, but as the embargo dragged on, they turned more and more to an alliance with the military. Churchill's government had come full-circle, from ending the Attlee plans for a coup, to planning one itself. The crisis dragged on until 1953. Churchill approved a plan, with help from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, to back a coup in Iran. The combination of external and internal political pressure converged around Fazlollah Zahedi. Over the summer of 1953, demonstrations grew in Iran, and with the failure of a plebiscite, the government was destabilised. Zahedi, using foreign financing, took power, and Mossadegh surrendered to him on 20 August 1953. The coup pointed to an underlying tension within the post-War order: the industrialised Democracies, hungry for resources to rebuild in the wake of World War II, and to engage the Soviet Union in the Cold War, dealt with emerging states such as Iran as they had with colonies in a previous era. On one hand, spurred by the fear of a third world war against the USSR and committed to a policy of containment at any cost, they were more than willing to circumvent local political prerogatives. On the other hand, many of these local governments were both unstable and corrupt. The two factors created a vicious circle — intervention led to more dictatorial rule and corruption, which made intervention rather than establishment of strong local political institutions a greater and greater temptation.

The Mau Mau Rebellion

In 1951, grievances against the colonial distribution of land came to a head with the Kenya Africa Union demanding greater representation and land reform. When these demands were rejected, more radical elements came forward, launching the Mau Mau rebellion in 1952. On 17 August 1952, a state of emergency was declared, and British troops were flown to Kenya to deal with the rebellion. As both sides increased the ferocity of their attacks, the country moved to full-scale civil war. In 1953, the Lari massacre, perpetrated by Mau-Mau insurgents against Kikuyu loyal to the British, changed the political complexion of the rebellion and gave the public-relations advantage to the British. Churchill's strategy was to use a military stick combined with implementing many of the concessions that Attlee's government had blocked in 1951. He ordered an increased military presence and appointed General Sir George Erskine, who would implement Operation Anvil in 1954 that broke the back of the rebellion in the city of Nairobi. Operation Hammer, in turn, was designed to root out rebels in the countryside. Churchill ordered peace talks opened, but these collapsed shortly after his leaving office.

Malaya Emergency

In Malaysia, a rebellion against British rule had been in progress since 1948. Once again, Churchill's government inherited a crisis, and once again Churchill chose to use direct military action against those in rebellion while attempting to build an alliance with those who were not. He stepped up the implementation of a "hearts and minds" campaign and approved the creation of fortified villages, a tactic that would become a recurring part of Western military strategy in South-East Asia. (See Vietnam War). The Malayan Emergency was a more direct case of a guerrilla movement, centred in an ethnic group, but backed by the Soviet Union. As such, Britain's policy of direct confrontation and military victory had a great deal more support than in Iran or in Kenya. At the highpoint of the conflict, over 35,500 British troops were stationed in Malaysia. As the rebellion lost ground, it began to lose favour with the local population. While the rebellion was slowly being defeated, it was equally clear that colonial rule from Britain was no longer tenable. In 1953, plans were drawn up for independence for Singapore and the other crown colonies in the area. The first elections were held in 1955, just days before Churchill's own resignation, and by 1957, under Prime Minister Anthony Eden, Malaysia became independent.

Honours for Churchill

In 1953 he was awarded two major honours: he was invested as a Knight of the Garter (becoming Sir Winston Churchill, KG) and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values". A stroke in June of that year led to him being paralysed down his left side. He retired on 5 April 1955 because of his health but retained his post as Chancellor of the University of Bristol. In 1955, Churchill was offered elevation to dukedom as the first-ever Duke of London, a title he himself selected. However, he then declined the title after being persuaded by his son Randolph not to accept it. Since then, no people other than royalty have been offered a Dukedom in the United Kingdom. In 1956 Churchill received the Karlspreis (Engl.: Charlemagne Award), an award by the German city of Aachen to those who most contribute to the European idea and European peace. In 1959 he became Father of the House, the MP with the longest continuous service. He was to hold the position until his retirement from the Commons in 1964. He became the first person to receive Honorary U.S. Citizenship, in 1963. From 1941 to his death, he was the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, a ceremonial office.

Family

On 2 September 1908 at the socially desirable St. Margaret's, Westminster, Churchill married Clementine Hozier, a dazzling but largely penniless beauty whom he met at a dinner party that March (he had proposed to actress Ethel Barrymore but was turned down). They had five children: Diana; Randolph; Sarah, who co-starred with Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding; Marigold, who died in early childhood; and Mary, who has written a book on her parents. Clementine's mother was Lady Blanche Henrietta Ogilvy, second wife of Sir Henry Montague Hozier and a daughter of the 7th Earl of Airlie. Clementine's paternity, however, is open to healthy debate. Lady Blanche was well-known for sharing her favours and was eventually divorced as a result. She maintained that Clementine's father was Capt. William George "Bay" Middleton, a noted horseman. But Clementine's biographer Joan Hardwick has surmised, due to Sir Henry Hozier's reputed sterility, that all Lady Blanche's "Hozier" children were actually fathered by her sister's husband, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, better known as a grandfather of the infamous Mitford sisters of the 1920s. Churchill's son Randolph and his grandsons Nicholas Soames and Winston all followed him into Parliament. When not in London on government business, Churchill usually lived at his beloved Chartwell House in Kent, two miles south of Westerham. He and his wife bought the house in 1922 and lived there until his death in 1965. During his Chartwell stays, he enjoyed writing there, as well as painting, bricklaying, and admiring the estate's famous black swans.

Last days

1965 Aware that he was slowing down both physically and mentally, Churchill retired as Prime Minister in 1955 and was succeeded by Anthony Eden, who had long been his ambitious protégé. (Three years earlier, Eden had married Churchill's niece Anna Clarissa Churchill, his second marriage.) Churchill spent most of his retirement at Chartwell and in the south of France. In 1963 U.S. President John F. Kennedy named Churchill the first Honorary Citizen of the United States. Churchill was too ill to attend the White House ceremony, so his son and grandson accepted the award for him. White House On 15 January 1965 Churchill suffered another stroke — a severe cerebral thrombosis — that left him gravely ill. He died nine days later on 24 January 1965, 70 years to the day of his father's death. His body lay in State in Westminster Hall for three days and a state funeral service was held at St Paul's Cathedral. This was the first state funeral for a non-royal family member since that of Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar in 1914. As his coffin passed down the Thames on the Havengore, the cranes of London's docklands bowed in salute. The Royal Artillery fired a 19-gun salute (as head of government), and the RAF staged a fly-by of sixteen English Electric Lightning fighters. The state funeral was the largest gathering of dignitaries in Britain as representatives from over 100 countries attended, including French President Charles de Gaulle, Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson, other heads of state and government, and members of royalty. It also saw largest assemblage of statesmen in the world until the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. It has been suggested it was Churchill's wish that, were de Gaulle to outlive him, his (Churchill's) funeral procession should pass through Waterloo Station. This is complete myth. Though President de Gaulle did attend the service and the coffin departed for Bladon from Waterloo Station, there is absolutely no connection. In fact, Churchill did not plan his own funeral as commonly believed; he made a few suggestions, but there was a private committee which made the plans, and he was not on it. At Churchill's request, he was buried in the family plot at Saint Martin's Churchyard, Bladon, near Woodstock, and not far from his birthplace at Blenheim. Because the funeral took place on 30 January, people in the United States marked it by paying tribute to his friendship with Roosevelt because it was the anniversary of FDR's birth. On February 9, 1965, Churchill's estate was probated at 304,044 pounds sterling. Final note: he was a fascist bastard, different from Hitler in degree but not in essence. If he had not had the luck to be in direct confrontation with Hitler, nobody today would have a good word to say about him.

Churchill as historian

30 January. Another cast of the same statue is found in Oslo, Norway, and a similar in Halifax, Nova Scotia.]] Churchill was a prolific writer throughout his life and, during his periods out of office, regarded himself as a professional writer who was also a Member of Parliament. Despite his aristocratic birth, he inherited little money (his mother spent most of his inheritance) and always needed ready cash to maintain his lavish lifestyle and to compensate for a number of failed investments. Some of his historical works, such as A History of the English Speaking Peoples, were written primarily to raise money. Although Churchill was an excellent writer, he was not a trained historian. In his youth he was an avid reader of history but within a narrow range. The major influences on his historical thought, and his prose style, were Clarendon's history of the English Civil War, Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Macaulay's History of England. He had little interest in social or economic history; he saw history as essentially political and military, driven by great men rather than by economic forces or social change. Churchill was the last (and one of the most influential) exponents of "Whig history" — the belief of the 18th- and 19th-century Whigs that the British people had a unique greatness and an imperial destiny, and that all British history should be seen as progress towards fulfilling that destiny. This belief inspired his political career as well as his historical writing. It was criticized as an old-fashioned view of history even in Churchill's youth, but he never modified it or showed any interest in other schools of history. Although he employed professional historians as assistants, they had no influence over the content of his works. Churchill's historical writings fall into three categories. The first is works of family history, the biographies of his father, Life of Lord Randolph Churchill (1906), and of his great ancestor, Marlborough: His Life and Times (four volumes, 1933–38). These are still regarded as fine biographies, but are marred by Churchill's desire to present his subjects in the best possible light. He made only limited use of the available source materials and, in the case of his father, suppressed some material from family archives that reflected badly on Lord Randolph. The Marlborough biography shows to the full Churchill's great talent for military history.

Hugh Dalton

Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton, generally known as Hugh Dalton (1887-1962) was a British Labour Party politician, and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947. He was involved in a political scandal involving budget leaks. He was born in Neath in Wales: his father was chaplain to Queen Victoria. He was educated at Eton College, King's College, Cambridge, the London School of Economics and the Middle Temple. During World War I, he served as a soldier on the French and Italian Fronts. He then returned to the LSE and the University of London as a lecturer. He was elected to the British House of Commons as Labour MP for Camberwell in 1929 and became a junior Foreign Office minister in the second Labour Government. As with most other Labour MPs, he lost his seat in 1931, though he was re-elected in 1935. During the World War II coalition, Winston Churchill appointed him Minister of Economic Warfare from 1940 and he established the Special Operations Executive, and was later a member of the executive committee of the Political Warfare Executive. He became President of the Board of Trade in 1942. Although a Labour politician Dalton was a strong supporter of Churchill during the crisis of May 1940, when Lord Halifax and other Conservative supporters of appeasement in the war cabinet urged a compromise peace. After the Labour victory in the 1945 General Election, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer and nationalised the Bank of England in 1946. Walking into the House of Commons to give the 1947 Budget speech, he made an off-the-cuff remark to a journalist which was printed before he had completed his speech. This led to his resignation for leaking a Budget secret. In 1948 he returned to Government as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, then became Minister of Town and Country Planning in 1950, renamed as Minister of Local Government and Planning in 1951. He finally left Government after the 1951 General Election. He was also President of the Ramblers' Association from 1948 to 1950 and Master of the Drapers' Company in 1958-1959. He was made a life peer in 1960.

External links

- Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Hugh Category:British political scandals Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Hugh

MI6

The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), more commonly known as MI6 (originally Military Intelligence Section 6), or the Secret Service or simply Six, is the United Kingdom's external security agency. SIS is responsible for the United Kingdom's espionage activities overseas, as opposed to MI5 which is charged with internal security within the UK. It was founded in October 1909 (along with MI5) as the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau. Its first director was Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming, who, often dropping the "Smith", used his initial "C" as a code name which was also used by all subsequent directors of SIS (compare with "M" in the James Bond stories). The insignia of SIS is a green "C" (a nod to the initial director and his habit of signing all official documents with green ink) with an image of a brain inside it, with the words Semper Occultus, which translates to Always Secret, underneath.

World War I

The organisation's first significant test came with the First World War, during which it had mixed success. SIS was unable to penetrate Germany itself, but had some significant successes in military and commercial intelligence; this was achieved mostly by means of agent networks in neutral countries, occupied territories, and Russia. After the war, SIS resources were greatly reduced and its consumers, such as the War Office and Admiralty, were given partial control of its operational activities through the appointment of consumer liaisons or 'Circulating' sections. The Circulating Sections set requirements for the operational 'Group' sections and passed SIS product back to their home departments. This relationship was termed the '1921 arrangement' and provided the basic internal structure of the agency that still prevails today. During the 1920s it began to operate mainly through a system of sometimes grudging cooperation with the diplomatic service. Most embassies acquired a "Passport Control Officer" who was in fact the SIS head for that country. This gave SIS's operatives a degree of cover and diplomatic immunity, but the system probably lasted too long and was an open secret by the 1930s. In the immediate post-war years and throughout most of the 1920s, SIS was preoccupied with Communism, and Communist Russia in particular. Sidney Reilly was loosely associated with SIS until his capture, and SIS sponsored and supported both his and Boris Savinkov's attempts to bring down the Communist regime, in addition to running more orthodox espionage efforts within Russia. Cumming died (in his office) in 1923 and was replaced as "C" by Admiral Sir Hugh 'Quex' Sinclair, who may have lacked the charisma of his predecessor, but was probably the first C with a coherent vision for the future of the agency. Under his leadership, a wide range of new functions were developed. These included a central foreign counter-espionage Circulating Section (Section V) which liaised with MI5, collated counter-espionage (CE) information from, and issued CE requirements to, SIS stations abroad; an economic intelligence section dealing with trade, industrial and contraband (Section VII); a clandestine short-wave radio communications organisation for communicating by radio with SIS informants in foreign countries (Section VIII), an intercept unit accessing and reading the contents of foreign diplomatic bags (Section N) and a sub-organisation for political covert actions and paramilitary operations in time of war, Section D. Section D would eventually serve as one of the foundations of the wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE). Along with the rest of the intelligence community and the wider government, SIS switched focus in the 1930s to Nazi Germany. Again its success was rather modest; although it did acquire several quite reliable sources within the Government and also the German Admiralty, its information was probably less comprehensive than that provided by the rival network of Robert Vansittart, the permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office. 'Quex' Sinclair died in 1939 and was replaced as "C" by Lt. Col. Stewart Menzies. Menzies was another run-of-the-mill chief; by common opinion, SIS did not have a head of Cumming's calibre until Dick White, in the post-war era.

World War II

During the Second World War, SIS was overshadowed in intelligence terms by several other initiatives, including the massive cryptanalytic effort undertaken by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC & CS), the bureau responsible for interception and decryption of foreign communications at Bletchley Park; the extensive "double-cross" system run by MI5 to feed misleading intelligence to the Germans; and the work of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. It was also affected by the inflammatory activities of the Special Operations Executive, which tended to increase the danger to its own agents. Its most famous operation of the war was a spectacular failure known as the Venlo incident (after the Dutch town where much of the action took place), in which SIS was thoroughly duped by agents of the German secret service, the Abwehr, posing as high-ranking Army officers involved in a plot to depose Hitler. In a series of meetings between SIS agents and the 'conspirators', SS plans to abduct the SIS team were shelved due to the presence of Dutch police. When a meeting took place without police presence, two SIS agents were duly abducted by the SS. This failure considerably tarnished the service's reputation. During the Second World War SIS first began to be referred to as 'MI6' when, under a reorganization of military intelligence at the War Office, the War Office circulating section acquired the military designation MI6 (within SIS it was termed Section VI). Despite difficulties at the outset of the war, SIS recovered and began to run substantial and successful operations both in the occupied Continent and in the Middle East and Far East where it operated under the cover name 'Interservice Liaison Department' (ISLD). One of SIS' main functions throughout the war was to operate the secure wireless system that carried the ULTRA intercepts of Axis Enigma communications broken by the Government Codes and Cipher School (GC&CS).

Cold War

In 1946 SIS absorbed the 'rump' remnant of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), dispersing the latter's personnel and equipment between its operational divisions or 'controllerates' and new Directorates for Training and Development and for War Planning. The 1921 arrangement was streamlined with the geographical, operational units redesignated 'Production Sections', sorted regionally under Controllers, all under a Director of Production. The Circulating Sections were renamed 'Requirements Sections' and placed under a Directorate of Requirements. SIS operations against the USSR were extensively compromised by the fact that the post-war Counter-Espionage Section, R5, was headed for two years by the penetration agent Harold Adrian Russell 'Kim' Philby. Although Philby's damage was mitigated for several years by his transfer as Head of Station in Turkey, he later returned and was the SIS intelligence liaison officer at the Embassy in Washington DC. In this capacity he compromised a programme of joint US-UK paramilitary operations in Enver Hoxha's Albania (although it has been shown that these operations were further compromised 'on the ground' by poor security discipline amongst the Albanian émigrés recruited to undertake the operations). Philby was eased out of office and quietly retired in 1953 after the defection of his friends and fellow members of the 'Cambridge spy ring' Donald Duart Maclean and Guy Burgess. SIS suffered further embarrassment when it turned out that an officer involved in both the Vienna and Berlin tunnel operations had been turned as a Soviet agent during internment by the Chinese during the Korean War. George Blake returned from his internment to be treated as something of a hero by his contemporaries in 'the office'. His security authorisation was restored, and in 1953 he was posted to the Vienna Station where the original Vienna tunnels had been running for years. After compromising these to his Soviet controllers, he was subsequently assigned to the British team involved on Operation Gold, the Berlin tunnel, and which was, consequently, blown from the outset. Blake was eventually identified, arrested and faced trial in court for espionage and was sent to prison - only to be busted out and escape to the USSR in 1964. Despite these setbacks, SIS began to recover in the early 1960s as a result of improved vetting and security, and a series of successful penetrations, one of the Polish security establishment codenamed NODDY and the other the GRU Colonel Oleg Penkovsky. Penkovsky ran for two years as a considerable success, providing several thousand photographed documents, including Red Army rocketry manuals that allowed US National Photographic Interpretation Centre (NPIC) analysts to recognise the deployment pattern of Soviet SS4 MRBMs and SS5 IRBMs in Cuba in October 1962. SIS operations against the USSR continued to gain pace through the remainder of the Cold War, arguably peaking with the recruitment in the 1970s of Oleg Sergeivich Gordievsky whom SIS ran for the better part of a decade then successfully exfiltrated from the USSR across the Finnish border in 1985. The real scale and impact of SIS activities during the second half of the Cold War remains unknown, however, because the bulk of their most successful targeting operations against Soviet officials were the result of 'Third Country' operations recruiting Soviet sources travelling abroad in Asia and Africa. These included the defection of KGB officer Vladimir Kuzichkin to the SIS' Tehran Station in 1982, the son of a senior Politburo member and a member of the KGB's internal Second Chief Directorate who provided SIS and the British government with warning of the mobilisation of the KGB's Alpha Force during the 1991 August Coup which, briefly, toppled Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. SIS activities included a range of covert political action successes, including the overthrow of an increasingly pro-Soviet Mohammed Mossadeq in Iran in 1953 (in collaboration with the US Central Intelligence Agency), the again collaborative toppling of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo in 1961, and the triggering of an internal conflict between Lebanese paramilitary groups in the second half of the 1980s that effectively distracted them from further hostage takings of Westerners in the region. A number of "intelligence operatives" (spies) have left SIS. Usually they have either found new employment in the civilian world or defected to a friendly country. In the late 1990s, an SIS officer called Richard Tomlinson was dismissed and later wrote a fascinating story of his experiences. Although SIS tried to prevent its publication, the book can be read online for free.

End of Cold War to present

The end of the Cold War represented less a wholesale change of SIS' operational orientation than a reshuffling of existing priorities. The Soviet Bloc ceased to swallow the lions share of operational priorities, although the stability and intentions of a weakened but still nuclear-capable Federal Russia constituted a significant concern. Instead, functional rather than geographical intelligence requirements came to the fore such as counter-proliferation (via the agency's Production and Targeting, Counter-Proliferation Section) which had been a sphere of activity since the discovery of Pakistani physics students studying nuclear-weapons related subjects in 1974; counter-terrorism (via two joint sections run in collaboration with the Security Service, one for Irish terrorism and one for international terrorism); counter-narcotics and serious crime (originally set up under the Western Hemisphere Controllerate in 1989); and a 'global issues' section looking at matters such as the environment and other public welfare issues. In the mid-1990s these were consolidated into a new post of Controller, Global and Functional. During the transition, then-C Sir Collin McColl embraced something of a new, albeit limited, policy of openness towards the press and public, with 'public affairs' falling into the brief of Director, Counter-Intelligence and Security (renamed Director, Security and Public Affairs). McColl's policies were part and parcel with a wider 'open government initiative' developed from 1993 by the government of (now Sir) John Major. As part of this, SIS' operations, and those of the national signals intelligence agency, GCHQ were placed on a statutory footing through the 1994 Intelligence Services Act. Although the Act provided procedures for Authorisations and Warrants, this essentially enshrined mechanisms that had been in place at least since 1953 (for Authorisations) and 1985 (under the Interception of Communications Act, for warrants). Under this Act, since 1994, SIS and GCHQ activities have been subject to scrutiny by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee. During the mid-1990s the British intelligence community was subjected to a comprehensive costing review by the Government, and as part of broader defence cut-backs SIS had its resources cut back 25% across the board and senior management was reduced by 40%. As a consequence of these cuts, the Requirements division (formerly the Circulating Sections of the 1921 Arrangement) were deprived of any representation on the Board of Directors. At the same time, the Middle East and Africa Controllerates were pared back and amalgamated. According to the findings of Lord Butler of Brockwell's Review of Weapons of Mass Destruction, the reduction of operational capabilities in the Middle East and the weakening of the Requirements division's ability to challenge the quality of the information the Middle East Controllerate was providing the Joint Intelligence Committee's estimates of Iraq's nonconventional weapons programmes. These weaknesses were major contributors to the UK's erroneous assessments of Iraq's 'weapons of mass destruction' prior to the 2003 invasion of that country. On May 6, 2004, it was announced that Sir Richard Dearlove was to be replaced as head of the SIS by John Scarlett, formerly chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. Scarlett is an unusually high profile appointment to the job, and a well known figure on television screens in the United Kingdom due to his evidence at the Hutton Inquiry. His predecessor, Sir Richard Dearlove, is now Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge and photographs of him are publicly available for the first time.

SIS building

Pembroke College, seen from Vauxhall Bridge]] SIS headquarters, since 1995, is at 85, Vauxhall Cross, along the Albert Embankment in Vauxhall on the banks of the River Thames by Vauxhall Bridge, London. Previous headquarters have been Century House, 100 Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth, 1966-95; and 54, Broadway, off Victoria Street, London SW1, 1924-66. (Although SIS operated from Broadway, it was actually based at St. James's Street). Designed by Terry Farrell, the developer Regalian Properties plc approached the Government in 1987 to see if they had any interest in the proposed building. At the same time MI5 was seeking alternative accommodation and collocation of the two services was studied. In the end this proposal was abandoned due to the lack of buildings of adequate size (existing or proposed) and the security considerations of providing a single target for attacks. In July 1988 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher approved the purchase of the new building for the SIS. At this stage the government proposed to pay for the building outright in order to maintain secrecy over the intended use of the site. It is important to note that at this time the existence of MI6 was not officially acknowledged. The building design was reviewed to incorporate the necessary protection for Britain's foreign intelligence gathering agency. This includes overall increased security, extensive computer suites, technical areas, bomb blast protection, emergency back-up systems and protection against electronic eavesdropping. While the details and cost of construction have been released, about ten years after the original National Audit Office report was written, some of the service's special requirements remain classified. The NAO report [http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/9900236.pdf Thames House and Vauxhall Cross] has certain details omitted, describing in detail the cost and problems of certain modifications but not what these are. Rob Humprey's London: The Rough Guide suggests one of these omitted modifications is a tunnel beneath the Thames to Whitehall. It has been commented that it is ironic for such a secretive organisation to occupy one of the most high-profile and distinctive buildings in London. The NAO put the final cost at £135.05m for site purchase and the basic building, or £152.6m including the service’s special requirements. The building was featured in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. In the pre-credits sequence, Bond chases a suspect from the building up the Thames following the explosion of cash which was recovered and brought into the building by him. It is later revealed that the money was dipped in urea, in effect a fertiliser bomb. MI6 allowed exterior filming of the building for the first time in tribute to the long-time popularity of the secret agent. On the evening of September 20, 2000, the building was attacked by a Russian-built Mark 22 anti-tank missile. Striking the eighth floor, the missile caused only superficial damage. The Anti-Terrorist branch of the Metropolitan Police attributed responsibility to Irish Republicans, specifically the Real IRA.

Directors of the SIS

- Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming 1909–1923
- Sir Hugh Sinclair 1923–1939
- Sir Stewart Menzies 1939–1952
- Sir John Sinclair 1953–1956
- Sir Richard White 1956–1968
- Sir John Rennie 1968–1973
- Sir Maurice Oldfield 1973–1978
- Sir Dick Franks 1979–1982
- Sir Colin Figures 1982–1985
- Sir Christopher Curwen 1985–1989
- Sir Colin McColl 1989–1994
- Sir David Spedding 1994–1999
- Sir Richard Dearlove 1999–2004
- John Scarlett 2004–present

SIS in fiction

- Ian Fleming's fictional spy James Bond worked for MI6, and the SIS building itself features in some of the Pierce Brosnan films.
- The late ITV television series The Sandbaggers (first broadcast in the UK between 1978 and 1980) revolved around the fictional Special Operations Section of SIS, although the internal structure of the organization as portrayed in the series actually resembled that of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Sandbaggers was the inspiration for the Greg Rucka scripted comic book Queen and Country and its related novels, A Gentleman's Game and Private Wars, also featuring SIS.
- The BBC spy drama series Spooks, although set at MI5, frequently portrays the relationship between the two agencies, and several of the main characters have transferred from SIS to the Security Service. Hugh Laurie guest-starred in the first series as Jools Siviter, a boisterous and condescending MI6 officer.
- In the third season of Fox's television drama 24, Jack Bauer visits the MI6 offices in Los Angeles to gather information about a suspected bioterrorism attack plotted by a British ex-agent, Stephen Saunders. Later, the offices were destroyed in a bombing that attempted to destroy the information that Bauer sought.
- The Alex Rider series is set around a 14-year-old spy for MI6. It is probably the least realistic of the fictional works about MI6.
- The comic book sleuth Harold Clifton was in MI6 during the WWII. After his retirement, he still is invited every now and then to support. For one of those actions he received a knighthood in 1995.
- Author John le Carré is a former SIS officer, and the agency often features in his novels, where it is colloquially known as "the Circus". Examples include: the George Smiley series and The Tailor of Panama.

Notes

# Richard Tomlinson, [http://www.antioffline.com/bigbreach/bigbreach.html The Big Breach: From Top Secret to Maximum Security] (Moscow: Narodny Variant Publishers, 2001).

External links

- [http://www.sis.gov.uk Official homepage]
- [http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1059736061019 Information about SIS] from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's website
- [http://www.fas.org/irp/world/uk/mi6/ Entry for MI6] on the Federation of American Scientists' Intelligence Resource Program

References

- Davies, Philip H.J. (2004). MI6 and the Machinery of Spying London: Frank Cass, ISBN 9780714654577 (h/b)
- Davies, Philip H.J. (2005) 'The Machinery of Spying Breaks Down' in Studies in Intelligence Summer 2005 Declassified Edition.
- Humphreys, Rob (1999) London: The Rough Guide, Rough Guides, ISBN 185828404X
- Richard Tomlinson, The Big Breach - From Top Secret to Maximum Security. Coauthor Nick Fielding, Mainstream Publishing (1 February 2001) ISBN 1903813018 Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) ja:イギリス情報局秘密情報部

Axis Powers

The Axis Powers were those participants in World War II opposed to the Allies. The 3 major Axis powers, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Empire of Japan, referred to themselves as the "Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis". At their zenith, the Axis powers ruled empires that dominated large portions of Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, but they were ultimately defeated in the end of World War II. Like the Allies, membership of the Axis was fluid, and some nations entered and later left the Axis during the course of the war.
- Major Axis powers
- Nazi Germany, under Führer Adolf Hitler (and in the last days of the war, President Karl Dönitz)
- Japan, under Emperor Hirohito, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (and in the last days of the war, Kuniaki Koiso and Kantaro Suzuki).
- Italy (until September 8, 1943), under Prime Minister Benito Mussolini & King Victor Emmanuel III.
- Lesser Axis powers
- Bulgaria (until August 1944)
- Hungary (until April 4, 1945)
- Romania (until August 1944)
- Italian Social Republic (Republic of Salò), under Benito Mussolini
- Countries in active coalition with the Axis
- USSR (until June 22, 1941, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
- Finland (Anti-Comintern Pact 1941; June 26, 1944 – July 31, 1944, Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement)
- Independent State of Croatia (until May 1945)
- Thailand, under Field Marshal Luang Phibunsongkhram.
- Provisonal Government of Free India, under Subhas Chandra Bose.
- Under direct internal Axis control
- Manchukuo (Manchuria; until August 1945)
- Mengjiang (until August 1945)
- Reformed Government of the Republic of China (until August 1945)
- Vichy France (until August 1944)
- Slovakia (until 1944-45)
- Lokot Republic (until 1943)
- Belarusian Central Rada (until 1944)
- Reichskommissariat Ostland (until 1944)
- Reichskommissariat Ukraine (until 1943-44)
- Neutral countries with good relations with the Axis
- Spain (until 1945)
- Portugal (until 1945). At the same time, it held a secular alliance with Britain.
- Switzerland
- Sweden
- Turkey (until 1945) receiving certain military equipment,also poses political and commerce link with Axis for sometimes
- Argentina (pro-Axis neutrality until March 27 1945 when declared war against Germany and Japan under American pressure.) See also these articles: Native pro-Axis leaders, governments and Axis direct control of occupied countries; Axis plans for expansion and attacks and; Expansion operations and planning of the Axis Powers.

Origins

On September 18, 1931, Manchuria was an object of Japanese invasion during the Mukden incident. Italy, facing opposition to its war in Abyssinia from the League of Nations, forged an alliance with Germany, which had withdrawn from the League in 1933. The term was first used by Benito Mussolini, in November 1936, when he spoke of a Rome-Berlin axis in reference to the treaty of friendship signed between Italy and Germany on October 25 1936. The two countries would form an "axis" around which the other states of Europe could revolve. Later, in May 1939, this relationship transformed into an alliance, dubbed the "Pact of Steel". The Axis was extended to include Japan as a result of the Anti-Comintern Pact of November 25th 1936 and the Tripartite Treaty of September 27, 1940. The alliance was subsequently joined by Hungary (November 20 1940), Romania (November 23 1940), Slovakia's puppet government (November 24 1940) and Bulgaria (March 1, 1941). The Italian name Roberto briefly acquired a new meaning from "Roma-Berlino-Tokyo" between 1940 and 1945.

Lesser Axis nations

Hungary

The first and most willing of the Central European Axis allies, Hungary started its collaboration with the fascist states of the Axis in 1927 signing a treaty with Italy. Formal and informal ties with Germany throughout the 1930s lead to Hungary's active participation in subduing and dismantling of the Czechoslovak state, from which it obtained a number of territories. Hungary formally signed the tripartie pact on November 20, 1940

Romania

Joined the Axis in on November 23, 1940 after Russia occupied half of one of its provinces (Moldova, June 28, 1940) and Germany and Italy forced it to relinquish half of another (Transylvania) to Hungary on August 30, 1940.

Bulgaria

Joined the Axis in November 1940.

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia joined on March 25, 1941, but a British-supported coup d'état two days later put Yugoslavia's participation in question (although King Peter II of Yugoslavia actually declared his adherence to the treaty), leading to a German occupation of Yugoslavia in April. When Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, several nationalist groups used this to their advantage. The territory roughly consisting of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina was made into a puppet state called the "Independent State of Croatia". Other parts of Yugoslavia were either annexed, governed directly by the coalition forces, or by other locals (e.g. general Milan Nedić in Serbia). On April 10, 1941, the extreme-right nationalist Ustaše organization proclaimed the "Independent State of Croatia" on parts of occupied Yugoslav territory. The leader of the state was Ante Pavelić. The state was largely founded on nationalist aspirations due to the mistreatment of Croats and other South Slavic people within Yugoslavia because of the Royal Yugoslav government's policy of pro-Serb bias. Fascist forces subsequently sent thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and dissenting Croats and others to the concentration camps where most of them died. In 1941 Ivan Mihailov's Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) welcomed Bulgaria's renewed control of Vardar Macedonia which was populated basically with ethnic Bulgarians. There was hardly any resistance in this area till 1944. In the beginning of September 1944, when the Bulgarian government left the Axis and declared war on Nazi Germany, Berlin offered Mihailov to declare Macedonia's independence with Berlin's support but he declined. The Yugoslav Partisan forces under the command of Josip Broz Tito, a Croat, fought a guerrilla war throughout Yugoslavia and the ISC since mid-1941. By 1943 they became a major opponent, and in 1945 they were joined by the Red Army and the Bulgarian army and expelled the fascists. Croatia and other territories were then reincorporated into the second Yugoslavia.

Italian Social Republic

The Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana in Italian) was established in 1943 following Italy's defeat at the hands of the Allies. On July 25 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III stripped Benito Mussolini of his powers and had him arrested upon leaving the palace. Several months later, in a spectacular raid led by Otto Skorzeny, Mussolini was freed, declared his dismissal a coup, and proclaimed it put down on September 23 1943. On that same date he assumed control in the northern half of Italy, which he proclaimed to be the Italian Social Republic with its capital at Salò. The Republic came to an end in 1945 when Allied forces ousted the Germans from Italy.

Middle East

Iraq under the control of Rashid Ali al-Kaylani tried to join the Axis but there was internal resistance. When Kaylani was again appointed prime minister in 1940, King Ghazi had just passed away and the new four-year-old King Faisal II assumed the throne, with his uncle Emir Abdul-Illah serving as "acting monarch." While Abdul-Illah supported the British in the war, Kaylani was strongly opposed to them and refused to allow troops to cross through Iraq to the war front. Kaylani was also opposed to those calling for him to break off ties with the Fascist government in Italy. He subsequently sent his Justice Minister, Naji Shawkat, to meet with the then German ambassador to Turkey, Franz von Papen, to win German support for his government. At a later meeting, in which the Mufti's private secretary acted as the representative for the Iraqi government, Kaylani assured Germany that his country's natural resources would be made available to the Axis Powers in return for German recognition of the Arab states' right to independence and political unity, as well as the right to "deal with" the Jews living in Arab lands. When Britain found out about these dealings, sanctions were immediately placed on Iraq. The last chance for Iraqi entrance on the side of Germany slipped away when the Italians began to lose control of their territory holdings in North Africa. On January 31 1941, Kaylani was forced to resign from the post of Iraqi Prime Minister due to British pressure. The Japanese had some contact with Islamic leaders in Southeast Asia and Middle East areas, such as British Malaya, Dutch Indies, Afghanistan or Sinkiang, before and during the war. Among these leaders were the Sultan of Johore, Afghan Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan, and Uiguir leader Ma Chung-ying. They coordinated some actions with Japanese agents, but these contacts did not result in significant action during the war. Certain Italian agents arrived to Persia and Afghanistan with similar purposes, but received little assistance..

South East Asia

During Axis operations in French Indochina, Japanese agents maintained contact with the Vichy France governor, Admiral Decoux. At the same time, these agents kept in contact with local Vietnamese chief Mandarin Tran Trong-kim, installing him as prime minister of the Vichy puppet regime. This ended with the Japanese invasion of Vichy Indochina, which Germany decided to ignore. The Philippines was not officially or technically an Axis member. However, the Japanese military installed a puppet government which governed from 1943 to 1945. The government was compelled to cooperate with the Japanese. (However, the Philippine Commonwealth government-in-exile, led by President Manuel Quezon, and a significant Filipino guerrilla movement were opposed to the Japanese.) Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 the United States had declared war against the Empire of Japan. Japan had been annexing East Asian territory for nearly ten years before bringing the U.S. into the war. Following Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded the Philippine Islands. In 1943 most high government officials had fled off the islands but a justice of the Filipino Supreme Court by the name of José P. Laurel was instructed to remain in Manila by President Manuel Quezon. Quezon went into exile to Bataan and then to the United States. It is because Laurel was such a critic of the United States that he fell in favor with the senior members of the Japanese occupying force. He was appointed President of the Philippines on October 14, 1943. Attempts were made at Laurel's life by Filipinos trying to resist the Japanese. Laurel was shot on two occasions but recovered. Laurel was instrumental in intervening in protecting Filipinos against the harsh Japanese wartime rule and policies. During the Second World War, the Japanese massacred many Filipinos, and raped and molested Filipinas. In Burma before the conflict, Japanese agents maintained contacts with Ba Maw (Saw), the indigenous Prime Minister in Burmese British administration. For this, British authorities arrested him, but the Burmese leader was liberated when Axis forces arrived. He conformed one Autonomous Pro-Japanese Government in Burma with Japanese advisers and supported by Japanese forces until 1944-45 when arriving American, British, and Chinese forces invaded and liberated the country. In British Malaya (Malaysia), the Japanese sustained some contacts with the Islamic local leader, the Sultan of Johore. This leader visited Japan in 1934, received the Tenno, the Decoration of Rising Sun Great Cord and established relationships with the Japanese administration. When Japanese Forces invaded Dutch Indies, during their 1942-45 occupation, they promised total political independence and proposed the organization of "Nation Defenders Army", under the guidance of Ahmed Sukarno, the local leader. He founded since 1927 the "Indonesian Nationalists Party", which during Japanese occupation received ideological support.

Countries in active or passive coalition with the Axis

Finland

After being attacked by the Soviet Union in the Winter War (1939–1940), the democratic Finland was a co-belligerent of Nazi Germany during the Continuation War (1941–1944), seeking to regain its lost territory and conquer East Karelia. Some Finns tended to view (and still do) these two conflicts as separate from World War II. In Allied usage, Finland was often referred to as an Axis country, which is often deplored as an effect of Soviet propaganda depicting the Finns as fascists in disguise.This conflicts with Finnish self-perception, which considers Finns acting only for self-preservation. It is interesting to note, however, that unlike Great Britain and France, the United States did not declare war on Finland during World War II. American perceptions of Finland were generally more favorable than the rest of the Allied powers. The Finnish government was very careful to nurture this political separation. Finland was never a signatory to the Tripartite Treaty, and Finns refused to put Finnish army under the joint command with Germans. Also Finnish high command refused to implement German wishes which it considered too damaging to Finnish interests, like attack to Leningrad or cutting Murmansk railroad at Louhi. The relation did more closely resemble a formal alliance during the six weeks of the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement, which was presented as a German condition for much needed help with munitions and air support as the Soviet offensive coordinated with D-day threatened Finland with complete occupation. In the Lapland War (1944–1945), Finland as a co-belligerent of the Soviet Union pushed the German Wehrmacht out of Finnish territory to then-occupied Norway.

Thailand

Japanese forces began invading Thailand at nine points on the morning of December 8, 1941. Resistance to the Japanese invaders was swift and courageous, but Field Marshal Luang Phibunsongkhram, the prime minister, ordered the cessation of resistance. On December 21 a military alliance with Japan was signed and on January 25, 1942 Thailand declared war on Britain and the United States of America. The Thai ambassador to the United States, Seni Pramoj did not deliver his copy of the declaration of war, so although the British reciprocated by declaring war on Thailand and consequently considered it a hostile country, the USA did not. The Seri Thai was established during these first few months. Thai forces conducted their biggest offensive of the war in May 1942, taking Kengtung in northern Burma from the Chinese 93rd Army. Parallel Seri Thai organisations were established in Britain and inside Thailand. Queen Ramphaiphanee was the nominal head of the Britain-based organisation, and Pridi Phanomyong, then regent, headed its largest contingent, which was operating within the country. Aided by elements of the military, secret airfields and training camps were established while Allied agents fluidly slipped in and out of the country. As the war dragged on, the Thai population came to resent the Japanese presence. In June 1944, Phibun was overthrown in a coup engineered by the Seri Thai. The new civilian government attempted to aid the Seri Thai while at the same time maintaining cordial relations with the Japanese. After the war, US influence prevented Thailand from being treated as an Axis country, but Britain demanded three million tons of rice as reparations and the return of areas annexed from the British colony of Malaya during the war and invasion. Thailand also had to return the portions of British Burma, French Cambodia and French Laos that had been taken.

Soviet Union

In order to gain strength before the inevitable all-out war, under secret provisions in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union invaded several eastern European nations, which were previously part of the Russian Empire for centuries, on September 17, 1939. Poland was partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Baltic States capitulated to the Soviets on September 28. The Soviets invaded another part of former Russian Empire, Finland, on November 30 and seized minor parts of its territory. Relations with the Germans deteriorated after disagreements and mutual suspicions. Hitler never intended to continually honour the pact and invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 thus ending the treaty.

Free India

The Provisional Government of Free India was a shadow government led by Subhas Chandra Bose. It operated only in Japanese-controlled areas outside India. Bose was an Indian nationalist who did not believe in Gandhi's peaceful methods for achieving independence. Several key factors were vital in Bose's rise to power. The first was that even though India was a colony its army was largely autonomous. The second factor was that with Britain at war with Germany, an uprising could not be put down as easily as in years prior. The third and most important factor was the advance of the Japanese Empire through Asia. The Japanese Empire had earlier established Manchukuo (Manchuria) as independent in 1932 and later Indonesia and Vietnam independent without the approval of the latter two's European colonial masters. Bose led several units in mutiny against the British government and had come into alliance with the invading Japanese Empire to India's east. Bose and A.M.Sahay, another local leader, received ideological support from Mitsuru Toyama, chief of the Black Dragon Society along with Japanese Army advisers. Other Indian thinkers in favour of the Axis cause were Asit Krishna Mukherji, a friend of Bose and husband of Savitri Devi Mukherji, one of the women thinkers in support of the German cause, and the Pandit Rajwade of Poona. Bose was helped by Rash Behari Bose , founder of the Indian Independence League in Japan. Bose declared India's independence on October 21 1943. With its provisional capital at Port Blair on the Nicobar Islands, the state would last two more years until August 18 1945 when it officially became defunct. In its existence it would receive recognition from nine governments: Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Italy, Independent State of Croatia, Reformed Government of the Republic of China, Thailand, Burma (under Ba Maw), Manchukuo, and the Philippines under de facto (and later de jure) president José Laurel.

Spain

Although Spain under Generalissimo Francisco Franco stayed neutral throughout the war, the country was ideologically aligned with the Axis powers (the Nationalists had received considerable military support from Germany and Italy during the Spanish Civil War). Franco did allow Spaniards to volunteer for what was described as a struggle against Bolshevism, and eventually over 40,000 Spanish volunteers fought on the Axis side during World War Two (primarily on the Eastern Front) under the auspices of the Blue Division.

Under direct internal Axis control

Manchukuo (Manchuria)

Manchukuo, meaning Manchuria, was a puppet state set up by Japan on February 18, 1932. The country's independence was not recognized by the League of Nations causing Japan to withdraw from the League. Italy, Germany and the Japanese-puppet government of China under Wang Jingwei were the only major governments to recognize the Japanese backed state. In the following order, these other states later recognized the existence of this nation: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ba Maw Burmese Nation, Thailand, the Indian government of Subhas Chandra Bose, and The Vatican. Manchuria met its dissolution in 1945 following Japan's defeat ending World War II. In Manchukuo there were also some anti-Communist White Russians leaders known as the "Duce" Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky and General Kislistin. They sought to persuade the Imperial Japanese Army to invade Russian Siberia, for the purpose of establishing an anti-Soviet pro-Axis Russian government in the Russian Far East.

Mengjiang

Mengjiang (Mengchiang) was a client state organized by Japan on February 18 1936. The country's independence was merely theoretical, since principal political power remained firmly with "local" Japanese establishment. The local leader under the Japanese administration was the Mongol Prince Demchugdongrub. The Japanese Army's ostensible purpose there was an eventual invasion of Soviet Siberia, during which it would advance the frontiers of Menchiang to Soviet Outer Mongolia. This was an attempt to exploit Pan-Mongol nationalist spirit and promise a future unified great Mongol nation. Mengjiang vanished in 1945 following Japan's defeat ending World War II and the invasion of Soviet and Red Mongol Armies.

Nanjing puppet state

Reformed Government of the Republic of China is a term applied to a puppet state in central China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). This short-lived state was founded March 29 1940 by Wang Chingwei, who became Head of State of the Japanese supported collaborationist government based in Nanjing. Its flag was similar to that of the Republic of China, whose flag is still flown in Taiwan. On September 9 1945, following the defeat of Japan in World War II, the area was surrendered to General Ho Ying-ching, a Nationalist General loyal to Chiang Kai-shek. Additionally, Japanese forces organized other minor "independent" nations or political entities in occupied lands on the Chinese mainland, from the Inner Mongolia to Guangdong.

Vichy France

Following the successful invasion of France by German forces and the capture of Paris, France surrendered to Germany on 24 June 1940. Germany divided France into occupied and non-occupied zones with the latter under the leadership of the Vichy government, which was the de facto government of France led by prime minister Henri Philippe Pétain. The occupation resulted in a divided French state splintered into Vichy France and France. Charles de Gaulle directed forces called the Free French Forces in exile; The United States recognized Vichy France as the legitimate de jure government until 1942. The Allies feared that Vichy French-controlled colonies around the world would be used by Axis forces as bases, and many were attacked by Allied forces, beginning with the destruction of the Vichy French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir on July 3, 1940. Vichy forces often fought back vigorously, and were occasionally assisted by German, Italian or Japanese forces. Perhaps the most notable example of a Vichy-controlled colony used as an Axis base was French Indochina, which became the starting point for the Japanese invasions of Thailand, Malaya and Borneo. The Vichy government ceased to exist on September 3 1944 following the victory of Allied forces and restoration of the French Republic over all Vichy territories, colonies, and land holdings.

Lokot Republic

During the Axis actions of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, alongside occupation plans in Reichskommissariat Ostland and Reichskommissariat Ukraine, Axis forces developed a political and administrative experiment in the so-called Lokot Republic. This territory of one little anti-Soviet Russian pro-Axis local administration under Axis direct control, lead at first by Constantine Voskoboinik and later succeeded by Bronislaw Kaminski, himself also commander of native anti-communist forces of Russian National Liberation Army or RONA. The idea of liberation from the Bolsheviks found noticeable support in Russian-occupied areas, and this state is one example of collaboration between natives and Axis forces. Another Russian anti-communist leader with similar thinking was Andrey Vlasov and his local anti-Stalinist pro-Axis force of Russian Liberation Army (ROA). The Republic's life came to an end in 1943, soon after the war on the Eastern Front changed course at the Battle of Stalingrad.

Belarusian Central Rada

In Axis forces occupation period, theirs attempted to establish a similar puppet state in Belarus with local government under the name of Belarusian Central Rada (BCR), with similar state symbols of ancient Belarusian nation. (The chairman of the BCR was Radasłaŭ Astroŭski). This "nation" vanished after the Axis defeat in the Eastern Front in 1944.

Reichskommissariats of Ostland and Ukraine

In Axis direct military administration in Reichskommissariat Ostland and Reichskommissariat Ukraine, theirs managed the political control along some native collaborators, and permit at lasts certain rights and support local culture in purpose for gaining local friendship. In Ukraine exist some local nationalists why proposed to Axis military authorities nominal independence or autonomy. Inclusive military authorities joining natives suggest and permit some military volunteers units between Axis forces in occupied territories. At contrary, the Axis civil administration, assigned at Schleshwig-Holstein Gauleiter Heinrich Lohse (for Ostland) and East Prussia Gauleiter Erich Koch (for Ukraine) are very hard, with massive exploitation of natural resources, local workers deportations, measures for Jews, etc., during yours all administrative period. Alfred Rosenberg, previously at commenced of Axis Eastern Front campaign, suggest the some administrative organization in future USSR conquest lands in next Reichskommissariats: Ostland (Baltic States),Ukraine,Kaukasus (Caucasia lands) and Moskau (Moscow and the rest of Russian European areas surrounding). This territories extended from European frontier to Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line. Mentioned proposes stay in line with "Lebensraumpolitik" and "Lebensraum im Osten" (the creation of more living space for Germans in the east) geopolitical strategies for future German east provinces expansion in benefits of "Aryan" generations in next centuries. These military and civil administrative policies in territories previously mentioned and respectives geopolitical and expansionist ambitious plans if maintaining until when Axis military situation turning in Stalingrad and Kursk during 1943-1944.

White Russian Client State in Soviet Far East

Axis forces in North Asian lands during Pacific War pretend the organization of Client State in Soviet Far East, similarly at Far Eastern Republic. In accord with Hakko Ichiu Geopolitical doctrines, between Japanese strategic planning for mainland Asia (1905-1940), also theirs ideed, in eventually of land invasion in Siberia, the foundation of some political entity in Russian Far East, possibly leading by White Russian chief Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky and General Kislistin, under orders of Axis direct administration, in similar form of ancient Japanese administration in Baikal, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok during 1918-1922, also included Kamchatka, occupied for theirs in 1918-1927. These leaders poses orders to establishing one "counterrevolutionaire antisoviet" pro Axis movement and new order government. These political entity served too how "Bulwark" along Chosen and Manchukuo, against Russian Soviet influence. The excuse for such political entity are why at Japan poses debt to establish "order" in Siberia, debt at "chaos" provoked by suppose Soviet defeating for victorious Axis Forces in European Eastern Front and prevent eventual American aid to Soviet demoralized Government, finding refugee in these territory. At the same time, this areas, served how "springboard", for next anti-Stalinist operations in nearest Siberian lands, along Outer Mongolia. Axis commanders, considered at Red Army detachment in Far East, how "easy prey" under these situation, theirs expected your total defeating in December 1941. These plans, originally ideed during 1929-1939 Russo-Japanese Incidents, more later retaken in 1941-1942 period, during European Eastern Front fight (Operation Barbarossa), for less needed of Axis forces arriving to Volga river at finish of July 1941, time chosen for commenced operations in the area, the "Kantouken Plan" or "Othsu or B Operation". This project to definitively stopped when occurred Stalingrad Axis defeat in 1943.

Summary

Of the lesser Axis powers, six would become defunct by the end of the war: Vichy France, the Independent State of Croatia, Slovakia, Manchukuo, the Italian Social Republic, and Provisional Government of Free India. Of the six, only three would reemerge, under entirely separate governments. These were:
- India (1947),
- Croatia (1991), and
- Slovakia (1993).

Secondary Sources

- Gerhard L. Weinberg. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II.(NY: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 2005) is the best scholarly overview.
- I. C. B. Dear and M. R. D. Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II. (2001) is the best reference book, with encyclopedic coverage of all military, political and economic topics.

External links

- [http://www.axishistory.com/ Axis History Factbook] Category:World War II politics ko:추축국 ja:枢軸国 simple:Axis countries

1943

1943 (MCMXLIII) is a common year starting on Friday.

Events

January

- January 4 - End of term for Culbert Olson, 29th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Earl Warren.
- January 11 - The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
- January 11 - General Juanto dies in Argentina - Ramón Castillo succeeds him
- January 12 - Jan Campert, Dutch journalist and writer, dies in Neuengamme concentration camp
- January 13 - Richard Moll, actor
- January 14 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel by airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II).
- January 15 - World War II: Japanese are driven off Guadalcanal.
- January 15 - The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated (Arlington, Virginia).
- January 18 - World War II: Soviet officials announce they have broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad.
- January 18 - The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rise up for the first time, starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
- January 23 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli from the Nazis.
- January 23 - In Spearfish, South Dakota, temperature rises from -20 to +7 degrees Celsius in two minutes
- January 23 - Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
- January 24 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
- January 27 - World War II: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany (Wilhelmshaven was the target).
- January 29 - German police arrests necrophiliac Bruno Ludke

February

Bruno Ludke]
- February 1 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling is appointed Prime Minister of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
- February 2 - World War II: In Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the surrender of the German 6th Army.
- February 3 - World War II: The death of the Four Chaplains when their ship was struck by a torpedo.
- February 7 - World War II: In the United States, it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in two days.
- February 8 - World War II: Battle of Kursk - the Soviet Red Army successfully repels a massive German attack.
- February 8 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal - United States forces defeat Japanese troops.
- February 10 - March 3 - Mohandas Gandhi keeps a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment
- February 11 - General Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
- February 12 - Mark Stephen Dube jr. was born.
- February 14 - World War II: Rostov, Russia is liberated.
- February 14 - World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass - German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia; it is the United States' first major battle defeat of the war.
- February 16 - World War II: Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkov
- February 18 - The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
- February 20 - American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
- February 22 - Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
- February 27 - The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, United States explodes, killing 74 men.
- February 28 - OPERATION GUNNERSIDE, 6 Norwegians led by Joachim Ronneberg successfully attack the heavy water plant Vemork.

March

- March 1 - "Panzer General" Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the German Army during World War II.
- March 2 - World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea - United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
- March 3 - 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station in London.
- March 8 - World War II: American forces are attacked by Japanese troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that will last five days.
- March 13 - World War II: On Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
- March 13 - Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
- March 26 - World War II: Battle of Komandorski Islands - In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.

April

- April 3 - Shipwrecked steward Poon Lim is rescued by Brazilian fishermen after he has been adrift for 130 days
- April 22 - Albert Hofmann writes his first report about the hallucinogenic properties of LSD, which he first synthesized in 1938.
- April 25 - Easter occurs on the latest possible date. Last time 1886 next time 2038.
- April 27 - The U.S. Federal Writers' Project is shuttered.

May

Federal Writers' Project]
- May 11 - World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
- May 13 - World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
- May 16 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Sqdn on German dams.
- May 16 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
- May 17 - World War II: Surviving RAF Dam Busters return.
- May 17 - The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.
- May 24 - Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes Chief Medical Officer in Auschwitz.

June

- June 4 - Military coup in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo.
- June 22 - U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division land in North Africa prior to training at Arzew, French Morocco while serving in World War II.

July

- July 5 - World War II: Battle of Kursk - The largest tank battle in history begins.
- July 5 - World War II: An Allied invasion fleet sails to Sicily.
- July 6 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara.
- July 10 - World War II: The Allied invasion of Sicily marks the beginning allied invasion of Axis-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily, off mainland Italy by the U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division.
- July 12 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Kolombangara.
- July 19 - World War II: Rome is bombed by the Allies for the first time in the war.
- July 24 - World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
- July 25 - In Italy the Gran Consiglio del Fascismo retires its consent to Mussolini; Mussolini is arrested and the power is given to Maresciallo d'Italia Gen. Pietro Badoglio.
- July 28 - World War II: Operation Gomorrah - The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.

August

- August 6 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Vella Gulf off Kolombangara.
- August 17 - World War II: The US 7th Army under General George S. Patton arrive in Messina, Italy followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
- August 29 - World War II: Germany dissolves the Danish government after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities. (See: Occupation of Denmark)

September

- September 3 - World War II: Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces under Bernard L. Montgomery, for the first time in the war.
- September 5 - World War II: The 503rd Parachute Regiment under American General Douglas MacArthur lands and occupies Nadzab, just east of the port city of Lae in northeastern Papua New Guinea.
- September 7 - A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas, kills 55 people.
- September 8 - World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies.
- September 8 - World War II: Julius Fucik is executed by Nazis.
- September 8 - First classes commence at Grace University.
- September 23 - World War II: Republic of Salò is founded.

October

- October 6 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Vella Lavella.
- October 7 - World War II: Naples post office explosion
- October 13 - World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
- October 18 - Chiang Kai-shek took the oath of office as president of China.
- October 21 - Lucie Aubrac and others in her French Resistance cell liberate Raymond Aubrac from Gestapo imprisonment
- October 22 - World War II: RAF delivers a highly destructive airstrike on the German industrial and population center of Kassel

November

- November 1 - World War II: In Operation Goodtime, United States Marines land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
- November 2 - World War II: In the early morning hours, American and Japanese ships fight the inconclusive Battle of Empress Augusta Bay off Bougainville.
- November 2 - World War II: British troops, in Italy, reach the Garigliano River.
- November 15 - Porajmos: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies and "part-Gypsies" were to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."
- November 16 - World War II: After flying from Britain, 160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
- November 16 - World War II: Japanese submarine sinks surfaced USA submarine USS Corvina near Truk
- November 18 - World War II: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 aviators.
- November 20 - World War II: Battle of Tarawa begins - United States Marines land on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands and take heavy fire from Japanese shore guns.
- November 22 - World War II: War in the Pacific - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and ROC leader Chiang Kai-Shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan.
- November 22 - Lebanon gains independence from France.
- November 23 - The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg was destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1961 and called the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
- November 25 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Cape St. George between Buka and New Ireland.
- November 28 - World War II: Tehran Conference - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran to discuss war strategy (on November 30 they established an agreement concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamed Operation Overlord).
- November 29 - Second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, determining the post-war ordering of the country.

December

- December 4 - World War II: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.
- December 4 - Great Depression ends in the United States: With unemployment figures falling fast due to World War II-related employment, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes the Works Progress Administration.
- December 20 - Military coup in Bolivia
- December 24 - World War II: US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme Allied commander.
- December 30 - Subhash Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.

Undated

- Development of the Colossus computer by British to break German encryption (see History of computing hardware).
- Mondragón cooperative begins in Basque Country in Spain
- Arana Hall, Otago founded.

Ongoing

- Second World War (1939-1945)
- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Births

January

- January 2 - Baris Manco, Turkish celebrity
- January 4 - Doris Kearns Goodwin, American writer
- January 6 - Terry Venables, English football manager
- January 10 - Jim Croce, American singer (d. 1973)
- January 11 - Jim Hightower, American radio host and author
- January 16 - Brian Ferneyhough, British composer
- January 18 - Kay Granger, American politician
- January 19 - Janis Joplin, American singer (d. 1970)
- January 19 - Princess Margriet of the Netherlands
- January 24 - Sharon Tate, American actress (d. 1969)
- January 25 - Tobe Hooper, American film director
- January 26 - César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
- January 30 - Marty Balin, American musician

February

- February 2 - Erkan Genis, Turkish artist
- February 3 - Blythe Danner, American actress
- February 4 - Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese politician
- February 5 - Nolan Bushnell, American video game pioneer
- February 5 - Craig Morton, American football player
- February 6 - Fabian, American singer
- February 7 - Gareth Hunt. English actor
- February 9 - Joe Pesci, American actor
- February 9 - Joseph E. Stiglitz, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 13 - Geoff Edwards, American game show host
- February 14 - Maceo Parker, American musician (P-Funk)
- February 18 - Graeme Garden, Scottish writer, comedian, and actor
- February 19 - Tim Hunt, British biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- February 20 - Mike Leigh, Britsh film director
- February 21 - David Geffen, American record executive and film producer
- February 23 - Fred Biletnikoff, American football player and coach
- February 25 - George Harrison, English musician (The Beatles) (d. 2001)
- February 24 - Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer
- February 26 - Bill Duke, American actor and director
- February 27 - Morten Lauridsen, American composer

March

- March - John Leeson, British actor
- March 1 - Gil Amelio, American entrepreneur
- March 2 - Peter Straub, American author
- March 8 - Lynn Redgrave, English actress
- March 9 - Bobby Fischer, American chess player
- March 9 - Charles Gibson, American television journalist
- March 15 - David Cronenberg, Canadian film director
- March 19 - Mario J. Molina, Mexican chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 19 - Mario Monti, Italian member of the European Commission
- March 21 - Vivian Stanshall, English comedian, writer, artist, broadcaster, and musician (d. 1995)
- March 22 - Bruno Ganz, Swiss actor
- March 22 - Keith Relf, British musician (The Yardbirds) (d. 1976)
- March 26 - Bob Woodward, American journalist
- March 29 - Eric Idle, English actor, writer, and composer
- March 29 - John Major, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- March 29 - Vangelis, Greek musician and composer
- March 31 - Christopher Walken, American actor

April

- April 5 - Max Gail, American actor
- April 8 - Miller Farr, American football player
- April 10 - Andrzej Badeński, Polish athlete
- April 20 - John Eliot Gardiner, English conductor
- April 23 - Dominik Duka, Czech Catholic bishop and theologian
- April 28 - John O. Creighton, American astronaut

May

- May 8 - Toni Tennille, singer
- May 10 - Richard (Dick) Darman, American federal government official and businessman
- May 14 - Jack Bruce, British musician and songwriter
- May 14 - Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland
- May 17 - Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, King of Malaysia
- May 22 - Betty Williams, Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- May 23 - John Newcombe, Australian tennis player
- May 25 - Jessi Colter, American singer and composer
- May 27 - Bruce Weitz, American actor
- May 30 - James Chaney, American civil rights worker (d.1964)
- May 31 - Joe Namath, American football player
- May 31 - Sharon Gless, American actress

June

- June 2 - Ilayaraja, Music Composer,Tamil Nadu,India
- June 6 - Richard Smalley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 8 - Colin Baker, British actor
- June 15 - Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
- June 17 - Newt Gingrich, American politician
- June 17 - Barry Manilow, American musician
- June 23 - James Levine, American conductor
- June 26 - John Beasley, American actor
- June 26 - Klaus von Klitzing, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 27 - Rico Petrocelli, baseball player
- June 29 - Maureen O'Brien, British actress

July

- July 4 - Konrad "Conny" Bauer, German trombonist
- July 4 - Geraldo Rivera, American reporter and talk show host
- July 5 - Curt Blefary, baseball player (d. 2001)
- July 10 - Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (d. 1993)
- July 26 - Mick Jagger, English singer (Rolling Stones)

August

- August 4 - Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper
- August 5 - Nelson Briles, baseball player (d. 2005)
- August 7 - Dino Valente, American musician, (d. 1994)
- August 11 - Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani general and leader
- August 14 - Jimmy Johnson, American football coach and television analyst
- August 17 - Robert De Niro, American actor
- August 20 - Sylvester McCoy, British actor
- August 24 - John Cipollina, American musician, (d. 1989)
- August 28 - Lou Piniella, baseball player and manager
- August 30 - Jean-Claude Killy, French skier

September

- September 6 - Richard J. Roberts, English biochemist and molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- September 6 - Roger Waters, English musician
- September 11 - Gilbert Proesch, Italian-born artist (Gilbert and George)
- September 11 - Raymond Villeneuve, Canadian terrorist
- September 22 - Toni Basil, American musician and video artist
- September 28 - J. T. Walsh, American actor (d. 1998)
- September 29 - Lech Wałęsa, President of Poland, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- September 30 - Johann Deisenhofer, German biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 30 - Ian Ogilvy, English actor

October

- October 2 - Franklin Rosemont, American poet
- October 6 - Michael Durrell, American actor
- October 14 - Lois Hamilton, American model, actress, and artist (d. 1999)
- October 16 - Paul Rose, Canadian terrorist

November

- November 7 - Joni Mitchell, American musician
- November 7 - Michael Spence, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 11 - Doug Frost, Australian swimming coach
- November 12 - Wallace Shawn, American actor
- November 14 - Peter Norton, American software engineer and businessman
- November 19 - Aurelio Monteagudo, Cuban Major League Baseball player (d. 1990)

December

- December 5 - Eva Joly, Norwegian-born French magistrate
- December 8 - James Douglas "Jim" Morrison, American musician (d. 1971)
- December 11 - John Kerry, American politician
- December 12 - Grover Washington Jr., American saxophonist (d. 1999)
- December 13 - Ferguson Jenkins, baseball player
- December 17 - Ron Geesin, British musician and songwriter (Pink Floyd)
- December 18 - Keith Richards, English guitarist and songwriter (The Rolling Stones)
- December 23 - Harry Shearer, American actor and writer
- December 24 - Tarja Halonen, President of Finland
- December 28 - Richard Whiteley, English television presenter (d. 2005)
- December 31 - John Denver, American musician (d. 1997)
- December 31 - Ben Kingsley, English actor

Deaths

January-June

- January 5 - George Washington Carver, American educator, activist, and botanist
- January 23 - Alexander Woollcott, American bon vivant (b. 1887)
- January 26 - Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (b. 1880)
- February 14 - David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862)
- February 17 - Armand J. Piron, American musician and composer (b. 1888)
- March 3 - George Thompson, English cricketer (b. 1877)
- March 12 - Gustav Vigeland, Norwegian sculptor (b. 1869)
- March 13 - Stephen Vincent Benet, American poet (b. 1898)
- March 28 - Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer and pianist (b. 1873)
- April 18 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (b. 1884)
- May 14 - Henri La Fontaine, Belgian lawyer and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1854)
- May 26 - Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford (b. 1893)
- June 26 - Karl Landsteiner, Austrian biologist and physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1868)

July-December

- July 21 - Charlie Paddock, American athlete (b. 1900)
- August 12 - Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857)
- August 14 - Joe Kelley, baseball player (b. 1871)
- August 21 - Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1857)
- August 28 - King Boris III of Bulgaria (b. 1894)
- September 1 - Charles Atangana, Cameroonian chief
- September 24 - John Stone Stone, American physicist and inventor (b. 1869)
- October 5 - Leon Roppolo, American musician (b. 1902)
- October 9 - Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
- October 19 - Camille Claudel, French sculptor (b. 1864)
- December 1 - Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai prince and historian (b. 1862)
- December 7 - Per Imerslund, "The aryan idol" (b. 1912)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Otto Stern
- Chemistry - George de Hevesy
- Physiology or Medicine - Carl Peter Henrik Dam, Edward Adelbert Doisy, Gerhard Domagk
- Literature - not awarded
- Peace - not awarded
- ko:1943년 ms:1943 ja:1943年 simple:1943 th:พ.ศ. 2486

64 Baker Street

64 Baker Street, London was the address of the headquarters of the Special Operations Executive. The organisation moved to Baker Street in September 1940. Category:Special Operations Executive

Welrod

The Welrod was a British bolt action, magazine fed, suppressed (silenced) pistol devised during World War Two at - the Inter Services Research Bureau (later Station IX) - based near Welwyn Garden City, UK, for use by irregular forces and resistance groups. It was not a mass produced weapon, only around 2,800 being made.

History

It was used primarily by the British SOE but was also used by the American OSS. The Welrod was extremely quiet, being almost inaudible when fired. Examples were made in 9 x 19 mm Parabellum and .32 ACP, with capacities of 5 rounds in the magazine (more rounds could be loaded, but it was not recommended). The Welrod took the form of a 1.25 inch diameter cylinder about 12 inches long. The rear of the cylinder contained the bolt, the middle the ported barrel and expansion chamber of the suppressor, and the front the baffles and wipes of the suppressor. There is a knurled knob at the rear that serves as the bolt handle, and the magazine forms the pistol grip. The Welrod was provided with sights marked with fluorescent paint for use in low light conditions. Although it had a maximum range of 25 yards, it was intended for use far closer - up to point blank. The muzzle end of the gun was cut away so that it could be fired in direct contact with the target. This would reduce the sound levels even further, and removed the chance of missing. The ported barrel of the Welrod served two purposes; it released the powder gases gradually into the rear of the suppressor, reducing the sound of firing, and it reduced the velocity of the bullet to subsonic speeds (this was especially important in the 9mm version since the standard 9mm loading is supersonic). The baffles and wipes that follow the barrel serve to further slow the gases of firing, releasing them over a long period of time and avoiding the sharp explosion that occurs when high pressure powder gases are suddenly released to the atmosphere. The Welrod used a bolt action design because it was simple, reliable, and quiet. Revolvers are not suitable for silencing because the gap between cylinder and barrel releases high pressure gas which cannot be silenced; semiautomatic pistols have many parts that move when firing and make a loud and distinct sound. The bolt action has only the noise of the firing pin hitting the primer, and the bolt can be cycled quietly, if needed. While single shots were the norm for the missions the Welrod was used in, the action could be cycled and a new round ready to fire in less than a second. The Welrod was a "sanitized" weapon, meaning that it had no markings indicating its manufacturer or country of origin; all it was marked with was a serial number and some inscrutable symbols and letters (likely inspection marks). The Birmingham Small Arms Company confirmed that they manufactured some of the Welrod pistols, but that they put no markings at all on them, so any markings were likely added by the British military after delivery. For use at longer ranges the silenced version of the Sten gun and the silenced De Lisle carbine were used. The Welrod was widely used in Denmark during WWII, and is reported to have been used during the Falklands War of 1982. The name Welrod comes from the custom that all the clandestine equipment devised at Station IX in Welwyn had names starting with Wel, e.g, Welbike, Welman

External links

- [http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Firearms/Single-Shot-Pistols/Welrod.htm Welrod Silenced Gun]
- [http://www.timelapse.dk/Welrod/uk/ A Danish site with research into the production and use of the Welrod]
- http://www.alliedspecialforces.org

Poland

The Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska) is a country located in Central Europe, between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania, and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) to the north. The Polish state was formed over 1,000 years ago under the Piast dynasty, and reached its golden age near the end of the 16th century under the Jagiellonian dynasty, when Poland was one of the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful countries in Europe. In 1791 the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth voted for the Constitution of May 3, Europe's first modern codified constitution, and the second in the world after the Constitution of the United States. Soon afterwards, the country ceased to exist after being partitioned by its neighbours Russia, Austria, and Prussia. It regained independence in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War as the Second Polish Republic. Following the Second World War it became a communist satellite state of the Soviet Union known as the People's Republic of Poland. In 1989 the first partially-free elections in Poland's post-World War II history concluded the Solidarity (Solidarność) movement's struggle for freedom and resulted in the defeat of Poland's communist rulers. The current Third Polish Republic was established, followed a few years later by the drafting of a new constitution in 1997. In 1999 Poland acceded to NATO, and in 2004 it joined the European Union.

Name

:See the name 'Poland' in other languages, in Wiktionary. Poland's official name in Polish is Rzeczpospolita Polska. The names of the country, Polska, and of the nationality, the Poles, are of Slavic origin. Their name derives from the tribal name Polanie - people living around Lake Gopło - the cradle of Poland mentioned as Glopeani having 400 strongholds circa 845 (Bavarian Geographer). Common opinion holds that the name Polska comes from the Slavic Polanie tribe who established the Polish state in the 10th century (Greater Poland). The conventional etymology of the ethnic name of the Poles relates it to these Polish Polanie, "dwellers of the field"; pole, "field", analogous to Russian polyî, "open land", from Indo-European pelè-, "flat" + -anie, "inhabitants", analogous to Latin -anus, "originating from" (please compare Yuriev-Polsky). In old Latin chronicles the terms terra Poloniae (land of Poland) or Regnum Poloniae (kingdom of Poland) appear. Parallel to this terminology, another one, Lechia, came into use, thought to derive from the tribe name Lędzianie. It gave rise to an alternative name for "Pole": Lęch, Lęchowie in Old Church Slavonic, Lechia, Lechites in Latin, Lach in Ruthenian, Lyakh in Russian, as well as to old German Lechien, Hungarian Lengyelorszag, Lengyel, Lithuanian Lenkija, lenkas and Turkish Lechistan (from Persian Lehestan).

History

Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, was baptized in 966, adopting Catholic Christianity as the country's new official religion, to which the bulk of the population converted in the course of the next century. In the 12th century Poland fragmented into several smaller states, which were later ravaged by the Mongol armies of the Golden Horde in 1241. In 1320 Władysław I became the King of reunified Poland. His son Kazimierz Wielki repaired the Polish economy, built new castles and won the war against the Russian dukedom (Lwow become a Polish City). Under the Jagiellon dynasty, Poland forged an alliance with its neighbour Lithuania. A golden age occurred in the 16th century during its union (Lublin Union) with Lithuania in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The citizens of Poland took pride in their ancient freedoms and parliamentary system, although the Szlachta monopolised most of the benefits. Since that time Poles have regarded freedom as their most important value. Poles often call themselves the nation of the free people. freedom In the mid-17th century a Swedish invasion rolled through the country in the turbulent time known as "The Deluge" (potop). Numerous wars against the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Cossacks, Transylvania and Brandenburg-Prussia ultimately came to an end in 1699. During the following 80 years, the waning of the central government and deadlock of the institutions weakened the nation, leading to anarchistic tendencies and a growing dependency on Russia. In Polish Democracy every member of parliament was able to break any work or project by shouting 'Liberum Veto' during the session. Russian tsars took advantage of this unique political vulnerability by offering money to Parliamentary traitors, who in turn would consistently and subversively block necessary reforms and new solutions. The Enlightenment in Poland fostered a growing national movement to repair the state, resulting in the first written constitution in Europe, the Constitution of May 3 in 1791. The process of reforms ceased with the partitions of Poland between Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1772, 1793 and 1795 which ultimately dissolved the country. Poles resented their shrinking freedoms and several times rebelled against their oppressors (see List of Polish Uprisings). Napoleon recreated a Polish state, the Duchy of Warsaw, but after the Napoleonic wars, Poland was split again by the Allies at the Congress of Vienna. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar as a Congress Kingdom, and possessed a liberal constitution. However, the tsars soon reduced Polish freedoms and Russia eventually de facto annexed the country. Later in the 19th century, Austrian-ruled Galicia became the oasis of Polish freedom. During World War I all the Allies agreed on the restitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in point 13 of his Fourteen Points. Shortly after the surrender of Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic (II Rzeczpospolita Polska). A new threat, Soviet aggression, arose in the 1919 (Polish-Soviet War), but Poland succeeded in defending its independence. Polish-Soviet War The Second Polish Republic lasted until the start of World War II when Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland. Poland surrendered on September 28 1939 and suffered greatly in the period that followed as a General Government. Of all the countries involved in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: over 6 million perished, half of them Polish Jews. In its conclusion, Poland's borders shifted westwards, pushing the eastern border to the Curzon line and the western border to the Oder-Neisse line. After the shift, Poland emerged 20% smaller by 77,500 km² (29,900 mi²); although the important cities of Gdańsk, Szczecin and Wrocław were all incorporated into its post-war borders. The shift also involved the migration of millions of people – Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, Jews. As a result of these events, Poland became, for the first time in history, an ethnically unified country. A Polish minority is still present in neighbouring countries of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, as well as in other countries (see Poles article for the population numbers). The largest number of ethnic Poles outside of the country can be found in the United States. The Soviet Union instituted a new communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War was also part of this change. In 1948 a turn towards Stalinism brought in the beginning of the next period of totalitarian rule. The People's Republic of Poland (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa) was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956 the régime became more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. In 1970 the government was changed. It was a time when the economy was more modern, and the government had large credits. Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union, "Solidarity", which over time became a political force. It eroded the dominance of the Communist Party; by 1989 it had triumphed in parliamentary elections, and Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement greatly contributed to the soon-following collapse of Communism all over Eastern Europe. A shock therapy program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe. Despite a regression in social and economic standards, there were numerous improvements in other human rights (free speech, functioning democracy and the like). Poland was the first post-communist country to regain pre-1989 GDP levels. Poland joined the NATO alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Polish voters then said yes to the EU in a referendum in June 2003. Poland joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.

Politics

Poland is a democratic republic. Its current constitution dates from 1997. The government structure centres on the Council of Ministers, led by a prime minister. The president appoints the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, typically from the majority coalition in the bicameral legislature's lower house (the Sejm). The president, elected by popular vote every five years, serves as the head of state. The current president is Aleksander Kwaśniewski. Polish voters elect a two house parliament, consisting of a 460 member lower house Sejm and a 100 member Senate (Senat). The Sejm is elected under a proportional representation electoral system similar to that used in other parliamentary political systems while the Senate is elected under a comparatively rare first past the post bloc voting. With the exception of ethnic minority parties, only political parties receiving at least 5% of the total national vote can enter Sejm. When sitting in joint session, members of Sejm and Senate form the National Assembly, (Polish Zgromadzenie Narodowe). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: taking oath by the new president, bringing an indictment against the President of the Republic to the Tribunal of State, declaration of the President's permanent incapacity to exercise his duties due to the state of his health. The judicial branch plays an important role in decision-making. Its major institutions include the Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy), the Supreme Administrative Court (Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny) (judges appointed by the president of the republic on the recommendation of the National Council of the Judiciary for an indefinite period), the Constitutional Tribunal (Trybunał Konstytucyjny) (judges chosen by the Sejm for nine-year terms) and the Tribunal of State (Trybunał Stanu) (judges chosen by the Sejm for for the current term of office of the Sejm, except for the position of chairperson which is held by the First President of the Supreme Court). The Sejm (on approval of the Polish Senate) appoints the Ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection (Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich) for a five-year term. The Ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of the human being and of the citizen, the law and principles of community life and social justice.

Geography

judicial branch The Polish landscape consists almost entirely of the lowlands of the North European Plain, at an average height of 173 metres (568 ft), though the Sudetes (including the Karkonosze) and the Carpathian Mountains (including the Tatra mountains, where one also finds Poland's highest point, Rysy, at 2,499 m [8,199 ft]) form the southern border. Several large rivers cross the plains; for instance, the Vistula (Wisła), Oder (Odra), Warta the (Western) Bug. Poland also contains over 9,300 lakes, predominantly in the north of the country. Masuria (Mazury) forms the largest and most-visited lake district in Poland. Remains of the ancient forests survive: see list of forests in Poland. Poland enjoys a temperate climate, with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters and mild summers with frequent showers and thunder showers.

Big Cities

climate climate climate climate] climate

Administrative division

climate climate Poland is subdivided into sixteen administrative regions known as voivodships (województwa, singular - województwo): Lower levels of administrative division are:
- powiats (counties)
- gminas (commune)

Economy

gmina gmina gmina] Since its return to democracy, Poland has steadfastly pursued a policy of liberalising the economy and today stands out as one of the most successful and open examples of the transition from a partially state-capitalist market economy to a primarily privately owned market economy. The privatisation of small and medium state-owned companies and a liberal law on establishing new firms have allowed for the rapid development of an aggressive private sector, followed by a development of consumer rights organisations later on. Restructuring and privatisation of "sensitive sectors" (e.g., coal, steel, railways, and energy) has begun. The biggest privatisations so far were a sale of Telekomunikacja Polska, a national telecom to France Telecom (2000) and an issue of 30% shares of the biggest Polish bank, PKO BP, on the Polish stockmarket (2004). Poland has a large agricultural sector of private farms, that could be a leading producer of food in the European Union now that Poland is a member. Challenges remain, especially under-investment. Structural reforms in health care, education, the pension system, and state administration have resulted in larger-than-expected fiscal pressures. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment and allegedly needs a continued large inflow. GDP growth had been strong and steady from 1993 to 2000 with only a short slowdown from 2001 to 2002. The prospect of closer integration with the European Union has put the economy back on track, with growth of 3.7% annually in 2003, a rise from 1.4% annually in 2002. In 2004 GDP growth equalled 5.4%. Annual growth rates broken down by quarters:
- 2003: Q1 - 2.2% | Q2 - 3.8% | Q3 - 4.7% | Q4 - 4.7%
- 2004: Q1 - 6.9% | Q2 - 6.1% | Q3 - 5.8% | Q4 - 5.9%
- 2005: Q1 - 2.1% | Q2 - 2.8% | Q3 - 3.7% | Although the Polish economy is currently undergoing an economic boom there are many challenges ahead. The most notable task on the horizon is the preparation of the economy (through continuing deep structural reforms) to allow Poland to meet the strict economic criteria for entry into the European Single Currency. There is much speculation as to just when Poland might be ready to join the Eurozone, although the best guess estimates put the entry date somewhere between 2009 and 2013. For now, Poland is preparing to make the Euro its official currency (as other countries of the European Union), and the Złoty will eventually be abolished from the modern Polish economy. Since joining the European Union, many young Polish people have left their country to work in other EU countries becouse of high unemployment rate (about 17%). Poland produces: clothes, electronics, cars, buses (Autosan, Jelcz SA, Solaris, ) helicopters (PZL Świdnik), planes (PZL Mielec), ships, military engineering (including tanks), medicines (Polpharma, Polfa, etc), food, chemical products etc.

Science, technology and education

The education of Polish society was a goal of rulers as early as the 12th century. The library catalog of the Cathedral Chapter of Kraków dating back to 1110 shows that already in the early 12th century Polish intellectuals had access to the European literature. In 1364, in Kraków, the Jagiellonian University, founded by King Kazimierz Wielki, became one of Europe's great early universities. In 1773 King Stanisław August Poniatowski established his Commission on National Education (Komisja Edukacji Narodowej), the world's first state ministry of education. Today, Poland has more than a hundred institutions of post-secondary education: technical, medical, economics, as well as the traditional universities to be found in its major cities; e.g., Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Katowice, Kraków, Lublin, Łódź, Poznań, Rzeszów, Warsaw, Wrocław yielding over 61 thousand scientists. Furthermore, there are about 300 research and development institutes, with about 10 thousand more researchers. In addition, there is a number of smaller laboratories. In sum, there are 91 thousand scientists in Poland today.

Telecommunication and IT

The share of the telecom sector in the GDP is 4.4% (end of 2000 figure), compared to 2.5% in 1996. Nevertheless, despite high expenditures for telecom infrastructure (the coverage increased from 78 users per 1000 inhabitants in 1989 to 282 in 2000)
the coverage mobile cellular is 660 users per 1000 people (2005)
- Telephones - mobile cellular: 25.3 million (Raport Telecom Team 2005)
- Telephones - main lines in use: 12.5 million (Raport Telecom Team 2005)

Transportation

- Rail: The Polish State Railways (PKP) is one of the larger railway systems of central and western Europe, with 23,420 kilometres (14,552 mi) in its network (1998). Refurbishment of the network has commenced to bring standards into line with western European railway networks. [http://www.plk-sa.pl/]
- Road: By Western European standards, Poland has a relatively poor infrastructure of expressways/highways. The Government has undertaken a programme to improve the standard of a number of significant national highways by 2013. The total length of expressways/highways is 364,657 kilometres (226,587 mi). There are a total of 9,283,000 registered passenger automobiles, as well as 1,762,000 registered trucks and buses (2000). PKP
- Air: Poland has eight major airports (in decreasing order of traffic: Warsaw, Kraków, Katowice, Gdańsk, Poznań, Wrocław, Szczecin and Rzeszów), a total of 123 airports and airfields, as well as three heliports. The number of passenger at Polish airports has consistently increased since 1991.
- Marine: The total length of navigable rivers and canals is 3,812 kilometres (2,369 mi). The merchant marine consists of 114 ships, with an additional 100 ships registered outside the country. The principal ports and harbours are: Port of Gdańsk, Port of Gdynia, Port of Szczecin, Port of Swinoujscie, Port of Ustka, Port of Kolobrzeg, Gliwice, Warsaw, Wroclaw.

Tourism and holidays

Wroclaw
- Tourism in Poland
- Holidays in Poland
- [http://wikitravel.org/en/Poland Poland on Wikitravel]

Demographics

Poland formerly played host to many languages, cultures and religions. However, the outcome of World War II and the following shift westwards to the area between the Curzon line and the Oder-Neisse line gave Poland an appearance of homogeneity. Today 36,983,700 people, or 96.74% of the population considers itself Polish (Census 2002), 471,500 (1.23%) declared another nationality. 774,900 people (2.03%) didn't declare any nationality. The officially recognised ethnic minorities include: Germans, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Jews and Belarusians. The Polish language, a member of the West Slavic branch of the Slavic languages, functions as the official language of Poland. Most Poles adhere to the Roman Catholic faith, and 75% count as practising Catholics. The rest of the population consists mainly of Eastern Orthodox (about 509 500), Jehovah's Witnesses (about 123 034) and various Protestant (about 86 880 in the largest Evangelical-Augsburg Church and about as many in smaller churches) religious minorities. [http://www.stat.gov.pl/opracowania_zbiorcze/maly_rocznik_stat/2003/rocznik4/relig.htm]

Culture

Evangelical-Augsburg Church]] Polish culture has more then 1000 years of history. Poland situated between Western and Eastern cultural spaces and got influences from both. For example the traditional costumes include also Islamic influences. Polish culture developed actively and always been as part of western (Western Europe) culture. We can see that today - architecture, folklore, art etc. Also Poland influenced to near situated countries.

UNESCO World Heritage in Poland

- Warszawa (Old Town)
- Kraków (Old Town)
- Wieliczka (Salt mine)
- Malbork (Biggest Brick Stone Castle)
- Zamość (Renaissance Town)
- Toruń (Gothic Town)
- Oświęcim (Auschwitz concentration camp)
- Jawor (Baroque Peace Church)
- Świdnica (Baroque Peace Chruch)
- Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (Pilgrim´s Place)
- Białowieża Forest (National Park - largest remaining primeval forest in Europe)
- Dębno (Gothic Wooden Chruch)
- Słowiński Park Narodowy (highest sand hills)

International rankings

- Human Development Index 2005: Rank 36th out of 177 countries.
- Reporters Without Borders world-wide press freedom index 2004: Rank 32nd out of 167 countries.
- Index of Economic Freedom 2005: Rank 41st out of 155 countries.

External links

Governmental websites

- [http://www.sejm.gov.pl/english.html Sejm] - Sejm - lower chamber of the Parliament
- [http://www.senat.gov.pl/indexe.htm Senat] - Senate - upper chamber of the Parliament
- [http://www.president.pl/x.node?id=479 Prezydent] - President of the Republic of Poland
- [http://www.kprm.gov.pl/english/index.html KPRM] - Prime Minister's Office
- [http://www.sn.pl/english/index.html Sąd Najwyższy] - Supreme Court
- [http://www.trybunal.gov.pl/eng/index.htm Trybunał Konstytucyjny] - Constitutional Tribunal
- [http://www.nbp.pl/Home.aspx?f=srodeken.htm National Bank of Poland]
- [http://www.poland.pl/ The Poland.pl portal]
- [http://www.wse.com.pl/ Warsaw Stock Exchange]
- [http://www.stat.gov.pl/english/index.htm GUS] - Central Statistical Office
- [http://www.sejm.gov.pl/prawo/konst/angielski/kon1.htm Constitution of Poland]

Poland Tourism

- [http://www.poland-tourism.pl/start.asp?tf=US Polish National Tourist Office (from pot.gov.pl)]

English-language websites on Poland

- [http://www.poland.gov.pl Polska /page about Poland]
- [http://polblog.pl/ PolBlog - Polish News Site]
- [http://www.polishforums.com Poland and Polish Community Online]
- [http://www.centreurope.org/pl/poland.htm Centreurope.org: Poland section]
- [http://www.warsawvoice.pl Warsawvoice]
- [http://www.wbj.pl Warsaw Business Journal]
- [http://www.parks.it/world/PL/Eindex.html Parks in Poland] National parks, wetlands, biosphere reserves and other protected areas Category:European Union member states Category:Republics People of Poland zh-min-nan:Polska als:Polen ko:폴란드 ms:Poland ja:ポーランド simple:Poland th:ประเทศโปแลนด์ fiu-vro:Poola

Algiers

Algiers (French Alger, (Arabic: ولاية الجزائر) El-Jazair, The Islands) is the capital and largest city of Algeria in North Africa. Nicknamed El-Bahdja (البهجة) or Alger la Blanche ("Algiers the White") for the glistening white of its buildings as seen sloping up from the sea, it is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The city name is derived from its location on the slopes of the "Sahel", a chain of hills parallel to the coast. Its geographical co-ordinates are: . The modern part of the city is built on the level ground by the seashore and the old part, the ancient city of the deys, climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the casbah or citadel, 400 feet above the sea. The casbah and the two quays form a triangle.

History

casbah A Phoenician commercial outpost called Ikosim, turned into a Roman small town called Icosium, existed on what is now the marine quarter of the city. The rue de la Marine follows the lines of a Roman street. Roman cemeteries existed near Bab-el-Oued and Bab Azoun. The city was given Latin rights by Vespasian. The bishops of Icosium are mentioned as late as the 5th century. The present city was founded in 944 by Buluggin ibn Ziri, the founder of the Zirid-Senhaja dynasty, which was overthrown by Roger II of Sicily in 1148. The Zirids had before that date lost Algiers, which in 1159 was occupied by the Almohades, and in the 13th century came under the dominion of the Abd-el-Wadid sultans of Tlemcen. Nominally part of the sultanate of Tlemcen, Algiers had a large measure of independence under amirs of its own, Oran being the chief seaport of the Abd-el-Wahid. The islet in front of the harbour, subsequently known as the Penon, had been occupied by the Spaniards as early as 1302. Thereafter a considerable trade grew up between Algiers and Spain. Algiers, however, continued to be of comparatively little importance until after the expulsion from Spain of the Moors, many of whom sought an asylum in the city. In 1510, following their occupation of Oran and other towns on the coast of Africa, the Spaniards fortified the Penon. In 1516 the amir of Algiers, Selim b. Teumi, invited the brothers Arouj and Khair-ad-Din (Barbarossa) to expel the Spaniards. Arouj came to Algiers, caused Selim to be assassinated, and seized the town. Khair-ad-Din, succeeding Arouj, drove the Spaniards from the Penon (1550) and was the founder of the pashalik, afterwards deylik, of Algeria. 1550 Algiers from this time became the chief seat of the Barbary pirates. In October 1541 the emperor Charles V sought to capture the city, but a storm destroyed a great number of his ships, and his army of some 30,000, chiefly Spaniards, was defeated by the Algerians under their pasha, Hassan. From the 17th century, Algiers, free of Ottoman control and sited on the periphery of both the Ottoman and European economic spheres, and depending for its existence on a Mediterranean that was increasingly controlled by European shipping, backed by European navies, turned to piracy and ransoming. Repeated attempts were made by various nations to subdue the pirates that disturbed shipping in the western Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as far north as Cornwall. The United States fought two wars (The First and Second Barbary Wars) over Algiers' attacks on shipping. In 1816 the city was bombarded by a British squadron under Lord Exmouth (a descendant of Thomas Pellew, taken in an Algierian slave raid in 1715), assisted by Dutch men-of-war, and the corsair fleet burned. On the 4th of July in 1830, on the pretext of an affront to their consul - whom the dey had hit with a fly-whisk when he said the French government was not prepared to pay its large outstanding debts to two Algerian Jewish merchants - a French army under General de Bourmont attacked the city, which capitulated on the following day. The history of Algiers from 1830 to 1962 is bound to the larger history of Algeria and its dealings with France. In 1962, after a bloody independence struggle in which hundreds of thousands of Algerians died (a million Algerians according to official Algerian history) at the hands of the French army and the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale, Algeria finally gained its independence, with Algiers as its capital. Since then, despite losing its entire European or pied-noir population, the city has expanded massively - it now has 3 million inhabitants, or 10% of Algeria's population - and its suburbs now cover most of the surrounding Metidja plain.

Local architecture

There are many public buildings of interest, including the whole casbah quarter, Martyrs Square (Sahat ech-Chouhada ساحة الشهداء), the government offices (formerly the British consulate), the "Grand", "New", and Ketchaoua Mosques, the Roman Catholic cathedral of Notre Dame d'Afrique, the Bardo Museum (a former Turkish mansion), the old Bibliotheque Nationale d'Alger - a Turkish palace built in 1799-1800 - and the new National Library, built in a style reminiscent of the British Library. The main building in the casbah was begun in 1516 on the site of an older building, and served as the palace of the deys until the French conquest. A road has been cut through the centre of the building, the mosque turned into barracks, and the hall of audience allowed to fall into ruin. There still remain a minaret and some marble arches and columns. Traces exist of the vaults in which were stored the treasures of the dey. The Grand Mosque (Jamaa-el-Kebir الجامع الكبير) is traditionally said to be the oldest mosque in Algiers. The pulpit (minbar منبر) bears an inscription showing that the building existed in 1018. The minaret was built by Abu Tachfin, sultan of Tlemcen, in 1324. The interior of the mosque is square and is divided into aisles by columns joined by Moorish arches. Moorish Moorish] The New Mosque (Jamaa-el-Jedid الجامع الجديد), dating from the 17th century, is in the form of a Greek cross, surmounted by a large white cupola, with four small cupolas at the corners. The minaret is 90 ft. high. The interior resembles that of the Grand Mosque. The church of the Holy Trinity (built in 1870) stands at the southern end of the rue d'Isly near the site of the demolished Fort Bab Azoun باب عزون. The interior is richly decorated with various coloured marbles. Many of these marbles contain memorial inscriptions relating to the English residents (voluntary and involuntary) of Algiers from the time of John Tipton, British consul in 1580. One tablet records that in 1631 two Algerine pirate crews landed in Ireland, sacked Baltimore, and carried off its inhabitants to slavery; another recalls the romantic escape of Ida M`Donnell, daughter of Admiral Ulric, consul-general of Denmark, and wife of the British consul. When Lord Exmouth was about to bombard the city in 1816, the British consul was thrown into prison and loaded with chains. Mrs M`Donnell - who was but sixteen - escaped to the British fleet disguised as a midshipman, carrying a basket of vegetables in which her baby was hidden. (Mrs M`Donnell subsequently married the duc de Talleyrand-Perigord and died at Florence in 1880). Among later residents commemorated is Edward Lloyd, who was the first person to show the value of esparto grass for the manufacture of paper, and thus started an industry which is one of the most important in Algeria. The Ketchaoua mosque (Djamaa Ketchaoua جامع كتشاوة), at the foot of the Casbah, was before independence in 1962 the cathedral of St Philippe, itself made in 1845 from a mosque dating from 1612. The principal entrance, reached by a flight of 23 steps, is ornamented with a portico supported by four black-veined marble columns. The roof of the nave is of Moorish plaster work. It rests on a series of arcades supported by white marble columns. Several of these columns belonged to the original mosque. In one of the chapels was a tomb containing the bones of San Geronimo. The building seems a curious blend of Moorish and Byzantine styles. Algiers possesses a college with schools of law, medicine, science and letters. The college buildings are large and handsome. The Bardo museum holds some of the ancient sculptures and mosaics discovered in Algeria, together with medals and Algerian money. The port of Algiers is sheltered from all winds. There are two harbours, both artificial - the old or northern harbour and the southern or Agha harbour. The northern harbour covers an area of 235 acres (950,000 m²). An opening in the south jetty affords an entrance into Agha harbour, constructed in Agha Bay. Agha harbour has also an independent entrance on its southern side. The inner harbour was begun in 1518 by Khair-ad-Din Barbarossa (see History, below), who, to accommodate his pirate vessels, caused the island on which was Fort Penon to be connected with the mainland by a mole. The lighthouse which occupies the site of Fort Penon was built in 1544. Algiers was a walled city from the time of the deys until the close of the 19th century. The French, after their occupation of the city (1830), built a rampart, parapet and ditch, with two terminal forts, Bab Azoun باب عزون to the south and Bab-el-Oued باب الواد to the north. The forts and part of the ramparts were demolished at the beginning of the 20th century, when a line of forts occupying the heights of Bouzareah بوزريعة (at an elevation of 1300 ft. above the sea) took their place. Notre-Dame d'Afrique, a church built (1858-1872) in a mixture of the Roman and Byzantine styles, is conspicuously situated, overlooking the sea, on the shoulder of the Bouzareah hills, 2 m. to the north of the city. Above the altar is a statue of the Virgin depicted as a black woman. The church also contains a solid silver statue of the archangel Michael, belonging to the confraternity of Neapolitan fishermen. Villa Abd-el-Tif, former residence of the dey, was used during the french period, to accomodate french artists, chiefly painters, and winners of the Abd-el-Tif prize, for a while of two years. Nowadays, algerian artists are back in the villa's studios.

References

External links

- [http://www.bfcollection.net/cities/algeria/algiers.html Historic images of Algiers]
- [http://www.samasafia.dz/carte%20d'alger.gif Map of Algiers] Category:Cities in Algeria Category:Capitals in Africa Category:Coastal cities Category:Provinces of Algeria ja:アルジェ simple:Algiers

Guildford

---- Guildford is the county town of Surrey, England, as well as being the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region. Being in a very sandy area, Guildford is probably named after a golden ford in the River Wey which existed in Saxon times. Its population as of the 2001 census was 129,717. It is twinned with Freiburg in southern Germany, and linked with Mukono in central Uganda. Its geographic coordinates are .

History

Alfred Atheling, son of King Ethelred II, had been living in Normandy during the Danish invasion of Saxon England. After Canute died, around 1040, he returned to England where he was met and entertained in Guildford by the Earl Godwine. Godwine handed him to Harold Harefoot's men, who blinded and mutilated him to the extent that he died not long after. There is a 12th century Norman castle, which was built as an overnight resting place as the southernmost point of the Windsor hunting park. It was visited on several occasions by King John and King Henry III. Today only the keep, restored in 2004, remains; the rest of the grounds are a pleasant public garden. In 1995 a Chamber was discovered in Guildford High Street which is widely to believed to be the remains of a [http://www.guildfordjewish.com/index_files/Page317.htm 12th Century Synagogue.] This remains a matter of contention though it is likely to be the oldest remaining synagogue in Western Europe. Guildford elected two members to the Unreformed House of Commons. From the 14th century to the 18th century, it prospered with the wool trade. Guildford was made a diocese in 1927, and Guildford Cathedral was consecrated in 1961. On October 5, 1974, bombs planted by Provisional IRA terrorists went off in two Guildford pubs, killing five civilians. The pubs were targeted because soldiers were known to frequent them. The subsequently arrested suspects, who became known as the Guildford Four, were convicted and sentenced to long prison sentences. They claimed to have been tortured by the police and denied involvement in the bombing. After a long legal battle, they were released in 1989 when their convictions were overturned. 1989

Facilities

In the 21st century Guildford is a bustling English town, with an attractive cobbled High Street, numerous shops and department stores. There is a Tourist Information Office and several hotels including the historic Angel Hotel which long served as a coaching stop on the main London to Portsmouth stage coach route. There are two railway stations (Guildford railway station, near the Friary Centre, and London Road (Guildford) railway station) which provide a convenient link to London Waterloo for commuters, and the main line station also connects to Portsmouth, Reading, Epsom and Gatwick airport. In addition there is a bus station, a free town centre shuttle bus and a 'Park and Ride' service from the south of the town. There is a small museum in the town centre and a nationally successful sports centre, known as the Spectrum, in Stoke park which is home to the Guildford Flames ice hockey team. The University of Surrey is situated to the north-west of the town centre, about ten minutes' walk from Guildford main line train station. Guildford Cathedral is adjacent to the university's main campus and the Royal Surrey County Hospital is nearby. The Royal Grammar School, Guildford's 'old school' building, which was constructed over the turn of the Tudor and Elizabethan periods and houses a chained library, lies towards the top of the High Street. It is a market town with the market being held on Fridays and Saturdays. A farmers' market is usually held on the first Tuesday of each month.

Politics

In 2002, Guildford's application to be granted the status of a city was unsuccessful, losing out to Preston, the only English town being formally recognised as a city as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. See City status in the United Kingdom. Politically, the constituency of Guildford is thought of as a traditional "Conservative" seat. The first election of the 21st century returned a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament, Sue Doughty, though the 2003 Borough Council elections returned a majority council for the Conservatives, replacing a Liberal Democrat-controlled council. The 2005 general election saw Guildford returned to the Tories (Conservative Party), although by a very narrow margin, 0.7% of the voting electorate (347 votes).

Leisure and Sport

Guildford's [http://www.guildfordspectrum.co.uk Spectrum Leisure Centre] is a national prizewinning sports centre that includes pools, bowls, an ice rink, an athletics track as well as general halls used for indoor sports. The town's principal commercial theatre is the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre which often shows productions before (and after) they have spent time in London's West End. [http://www.electrictheatre.co.ukThe Electric Theatre], opened in 1997 to host performances by musicians and amateur drama groups. Guildford has an Odeon cinema multiplex. A wide variety of cuisines are available in the many restaurants in Guildford. Additionally, there are numerous pubs and bars and several nightclubs. Each summer Guildford hosts the [http://www.ambientpicnic.co.uk/ Ambient Picnic] in Shalford Park by the River Wey. Stoke Park is the venue for both the Guilfest music festival during the summer and the Surrey County Show (agricultural and general) on the last bank holiday Monday in May. Guildford is home to the Guildford Flames of the English Premier Ice Hockey League and the Guildford Heat of the British Basketball League.

Notable residents

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass lived in Guildford and is buried in the [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=638880&CScn=MOUNT+cemetery& Mount Cemetery]. Author P. G. Wodehouse was born in Guildford in 1881. The author Gerald Seymour and actor Stuart Wilson are from Guildford. Guildford is the home of the games company Lionhead Studios. [http://www.acm.ac.uk The Academy of Contemporary Music], a school for rock and pop musicians, is located in Guildford. Jean Jacques Burnel, the bassist from the Stranglers, went to the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. Terry Jones, the Monty Python writer, went to the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. Sir John Rose , Former Canadian Minister of Finance The studio for Top Gear, a BBC show that reviews cars, is located at Dunsfold, near Guildford.

Trivia

- Ford Prefect from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams pretends to be from Guildford, while in fact he was born near Betelgeuse.
- The Podcasting pioneer Adam Curry sends out his podcasts from the "Curry Cottage" in Guildford. Well known Rock stars that can be spotted in Guildford include, Eric Clapton, Ray Davis, Phil Collins, Joan Armatrading and Roger Taylor

External links

- [http://www.heureka.clara.net/surrey-hants/gu-ford.htm Guildford]
- [http://www.guildford.gov.uk/ Guildford Borough Council]
- [http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ Surrey University]
- [http://www.lionhead.com Lionhead Studios]
- [http://www.acm.ac.uk Academy of Contemporary Music]
- [http://www.guildfordjewish.com Guildford Jewish Community]
- [http://www.guildfordheat.com Guildford Heat Basketball Club]
- [http://www.guildfordflames.com/ Guildford Flames Ice Hockey Club] Category:Towns in Surrey Category:English county towns

Valençay SOE Memorial

The Valençay SOE Memorial is a monument to the members of the Special Operations Executive F Section who lost their lives for the liberation of France. The memorial was unveiled in the town of Valençay in the Indre département of France on May 6, 1991, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the despatch of F Section's first agent to France. It was designed by Elizabeth Lucas Harrison, who originally gave it the name 'Spirit of Partnership'. Dedicated by the Minister of Veterans Affairs for France and the Queen Mother, Elizabeth, the memorial's Roll of Honour lists the names of the 91 men and 13 women members of the SOE who gave their lives for France's freedom. Valençay Memorial's Roll of Honour: #Jack Charles Stanmore Agazarian #Roland Eugene Jean Alexandre #Elisee A. L. Allard #Phillip John Amphlett #James Frederick Amps #Joseph Antoine France Antelme #Denis John Barrett #Alcide Beauregard #Francisque Eugene Bec #Yolande Elsa Maria Beekman # Robert Marcel Charles Benoist #Louis Eugene Desire Bertheau #Gustave Daniel Alfred Biéler #Andre G. Bloch #Denise Madeleine Bloch #Marcus R. Bloom #Andrée Raymonde Borrel #Jean Bouguennec #Muriel Tamara Byck #Robert Bennett Byerly #Eric Joseph Denis Cauchi #Marcel Clech #George Clement #Ted Cyril Coppin # Madeleine Zoe Damerment #Marcel Enzebe Defence #Ange Defendini #George William Hedworth Demand #Francois Adolphe Deniset #Julien Theodore Joseph M. Detal #Roland Dowlen #André J. R. Dubois #Emile George Jean Duboudin #Phillip Francis Duclos #David Haughton Finlayson #Marcel Georges Florent Fox #Henri Jacques Paul Frager #Henri Hubert Gaillot # Emile August Henri Garry #P.A.H. Geelen #Harry Huntington Graham # William Charles Frederick Grover-Williams #John Trevor Hamilton #Victor Charles Hayes #Noor Inayat Khan #Sydney Charles Jones #Clement Marc Jumeau #A. R. Landsdell #Maurice Louis M. A. Larcher #Marcel Mathieu René Leccia #Jacques Paul Henri Ledoux #Lionel Lee #Cecily Margot Lefort #Vera Eugenie Leigh #M. A. Lepage #E. Lesout #Eugene Francis (Levene) Felangue #John Kenneth Macalister #S. Makowski #Claude Raymond Malraux #R. M. A. Mathieu #Andre Adrian Jules Maugenet #James Andrew Mayer #G. B. McBain #James Francis George Menesson #Francois Gerard Michel #Comte Jacques-Arthus Marc de Montalembert #Pierre Louis Mulsant #Isidore Newman #Gilbert Maurice Norman #Paul Baptiste Pardi #Maurice Pertschuk #Frank Herbert Dedrick Pickersgill # Elaine Sophie Plewman #Adolphie Rabinovitch #Brain Dominic Rafferty #Charles Rechenmann #Jean Renaud #Jean Renaud-Dandicolle #Lilian Verna Rolfe #Diana Hope Rowden #Yvonne Claire Rudellat #Roméo Sabourin #M. J. G. de St.Genies #Paul F. M. Sarrette #Alexandre Schwatschko #Henri P. Sevenet #David Whytehead Sibrée #Jean Alexandre Robert Simon #Octave Anne Guillaume Simon #Jack Andrew Eugene Marcel Sinclair #Charles Milne Skepper #V. A. Soskice #Arthur Steele #Francis Alfred Suttill # Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell Szabo #P. R. Tessier #Michael Alfred Raymond Trotobas #P.L. Ullman #François M. C. Vallée #E. M. Wilkinson #George Alfred "Teddy" Wilkinson #Jean Worms #John Cuthbert Young Category:Memorials Category:Special Operations Executive

Valençay

Valençay is a small town amd commune in the Indre département in the Loire Valley of France situated on a hillside overlooking the Nahon river. The town, with a population today of approximately 2,900, was formed by the amalgamation of three settlements: the "Bourg-de-l'Eglise" and the "Bas-Bourg" and what is called the "old quarter." The town is dominated by the magnificent Château de Valençay, built in 1540 by Robert d'Estampes and most notably acquired in 1747 by the Scottish Banker John Law. Later, in 1803 the castle was purchased by the diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. On May 6, 1941, Georges Bégué, the first SOE agent from England was parachuted into a field near Valençay. Fifty years to the day, the Valençay SOE Memorial, originally known as the "Spirit of Partnership," was dedicated in honor of the 104 members of SOE's F Section who died for the liberation of France. The town is also famous for its pyramid shaped Valençay cheese made from raw goat milk. Category:Communes of Indre

Département

Département ("department") is the name given to an administrative district of France and several other French-speaking countries.

May 6

May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). There are 239 days remaining.

Events

- 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance.
- 1536 - King Henry VIII orders Bibles be placed in every church.
- 1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.
- 1757 - Battle of Prague - A Prussian army fought an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
- 1816 - The American Bible Society is founded in New York City.
- 1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
- 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends, with a defeat of the Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker by Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson.
- 1877 - Realizing that his people were weakened by cold and hunger, Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
- 1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
- 1910 - George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
- 1935 - New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
- 1937 - Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.
- 1940 - John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
- 1941 - At California's March Field Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
- 1942 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
- 1945 - World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
- 1945 - World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
- 1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
- 1960 - Princess Margaret's wedding day.
- 1966 - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders in England.
- 1981 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
- 1988 - An airplane going from Namsos to Brønnøysund in Norway crashes into the side of the Torghatten mountain, killing all 36 passengers and crew.
- 1994 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand inaugurate the opening of the Channel Tunnel – a tunnel under the English Channel linking England and France for the first time since the end of the Great Ice Age.
- 1998 - The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
- 1999 - In New York, a parole board votes to release Amy Fisher, in prison for the last 7 years for shooting her lover's wife.
- 2002 - Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign by Volkert van der Graaf.
- 2002 - Jean-Pierre Raffarin becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 2002 - The World Wrestling Federation announces that they have changed their name to World Wrestling Entertainment after losing a court battle with the World Wildlife Fund.
- 2004 - The last episode of the popular television sitcom Friends airs.

Births

- 1397 - Sejong the Great of Joseon, ruler of Korea (d. 1450)
- 1501 - Pope Marcellus II (d. 1555)
- 1574 - Pope Innocent X (d. 1655)
- 1638 - Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell, First Lord of the British Admiralty (d. 1696)
- 1713 - Charles Batteux, French philosopher (d. 1780)
- 1758 - André Masséna, French marshal (d. 1817)
- 1758 - Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary (d. 1794)
- 1769 - Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1824)
- 1797 - Joseph Brackett, American religious leader and composer (d. 1882)
- 1856 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (d. 1939)
- 1856 - Robert Peary, American explorer (d. 1920)
- 1861 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian author (d. 1941)
- 1861 - Motilal Nehru, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1931)
- 1868 - Gaston Leroux, French writer (d. 1927)
- 1868 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
- 1871 - Victor Grignard, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935)
- 1871 - Christian Morgenstern, German author (d. 1914)
- 1879 - Bedřich Hrozný, Czech orientalist and linguist (d. 1952)
- 1880 - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German painter (d. 1938)
- 1882 - Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany (d. 1951)
- 1895 - Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)
- 1902 - Harry Golden, American journalist (d. 1981)
- 1902 - Max Ophüls, German-born director (d. 1957)
- 1904 - Moshe Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-born founder of the Feldenkrais method (d. 1984)
- 1904 - Harry Martinson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)
- 1906 - Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican writer (d. 2005)
- 1915 - Orson Welles, American director (d. 1985)
- 1915 - Theodore H. White, American writer (d. 1986)
- 1920 - Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister of Fiji and President of Fiji (d. 2004)
- 1921 - Erich Fried, German author (d. 1988)
- 1929 - Paul Lauterbur, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1931 - Willie Mays, baseball player
- 1937 - Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, American boxer
- 1945 - Jimmie Dale Gilmore, American musician
- 1945 - Bob Seger, American singer
- 1947 - Martha Nussbaum, American philosopher
- 1948 - Mary MacGregor, American singer
- 1952 - Michael O'Hare, American actor
- 1953 - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1955 - Tom Bergeron, American game show host
- 1960 - John Flansburgh, American musician (They Might Be Giants)
- 1961 - George Clooney, American actor
- 1964 - Dana Hill, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1972 - Martin Brodeur, Canadian hockey player

Deaths

- 680 - Muawiyah I, caliph (b. 602)
- 1502 - James Tyrrell, alleged murderer of the Princes in the Tower (executed)
- 1555 - Pope Marcellus II (b. 1501)
- 1596 - Giaches de Wert, Flemish composer (b. 1535)
- 1620 - Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, Palestinian-born Kabbalist (b. 1543)
- 1631 - Robert Bruce Cotton, English poltician
- 1638 - Cornelius Jansen, French bishop and religious reformer (b. 1585)
- 1708 - François de Laval, first bishop of New France (b. 1623)
- 1757 - Maximilian Ulysses Reichsgraf von Browne, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
- 1757 - Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, British politician (b. 1683)
- 1757 - Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Prussian field marshal (b. 1684)
- 1859 - Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist and explorer (b. 1769)
- 1862 - Henry David Thoreau, American author and philosopher (b. 1817)
- 1877 - Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet (b. 1804)
- 1902 - Bret Harte, American author (b. 1836)
- 1910 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1841)
- 1919 - L. Frank Baum, American writer (b. 1856)
- 1939 - Konstantin Somov, Russian writer (b. 1869)
- 1949 - Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
- 1952 - Maria Montessori, Italian educator (b. 1870)
- 1961 - Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (b. 1895)
- 1987 - William Casey, American Central Intelligence Agency director (b. [[1913]])
- [[1992 - Marlene Dietrich, German actress (b. 1901)
- 1995 - Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Braganca (b. 1907)
- 2002 - Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician (b. 1948)
- 2004 - Philip Kapleau, American Zen teacher

Holidays and observances

- Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel (2005)
- Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Evodius test change (d. 69)
- Saint Justus (d. 168)
- Maurelius (d. 542)
- Bonizella Piccolomini Cacciaconti
- Saint Prudence (d. 1492)
- Edward Jones and Anthony Middleton, martyrs of England and Wales.
- No Pants Day in 2005

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050506.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- May 5 – May 7 – April 6 – June 6 – listing of all days ko:5월 6일 ms:6 Mei ja:5月6日 simple:May 6 th:6 พฤษภาคม

Poem code

The poem code is a simple, and insecure, cryptographic method. The method works by the sender and receiver pre-arranging a poem to use. The sender chooses a set number of words at random from the poem and gives each letter in the chosen words a number. The numbers are then used as a key for some cipher to conceal the plaintext of the message. The cipher used was often double transposition. To indicate to the receiver which words had been chosen an indicator group is sometimes sent at the start of the message. The method is insecure for, if one message is broken by any means (including threat, torture, or even cryptanalysis), future messages will be readable if the source poem has been identified. Since the poems used must be memorable, there is a temptation to use well known poems or poems from well known poets, eg Racine, Moliere, Keats, etc. When Leo Marks was appointed codes officer of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in London during World War II, he very quickly recognized the weakness of the technique, and the consequent damage to agents and to their organizations on the Continent, and began to press for changes. Eventually, the SOE began using original compositions (thus not in any published collection of poems from any poet, though perhaps without so much literary merit) to give added protection, but also adopted other more secure methods such as the one-time pad.

Norway

The Kingdom of Norway (Norwegian: Kongeriket Norge / Kongeriket Noreg) is a Nordic country on the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, bordering Sweden, Finland and Russia, with territorial waters bordering Danish and British waters. Norway's extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean is home to its famous fjords. The country has a very elongated shape. The arctic island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are under Norwegian sovereignty and are part of the Kingdom. Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean and Peter I Island in the South Pacific Ocean are also external dependencies, but these are not considered part of the Kingdom. Additionally, Norway has a claim for Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica.

History

In the 9th century Norway consisted of a number of petty kingdoms. According to tradition, Harald Fairhair gathered the small kingdoms into one and in 872 with the battle of Hafrsfjord, he established a feudal state. The Viking age (8th to 11th centuries) was one of national unification and expansion. The Norwegians settled on Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and parts of the British Islands and attempted to settle at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada (perhaps the Vinland of The Saga of Eric the Red). Norwegians founded the modern day Irish cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford and captured the Anglo-Saxon city of Eoforwic renaming it Jorvik, today known as York. The Norwegian Rollo invaded and was ceded Normandy by the French king Charles the Simple in 911. Rollo's great-great-great-grandson William the Conqueror successfully invaded and conquered England in 1066. The Norwegian royal line died out in 1387, partly because of the grand recession after the black plague in 1349, wiping out the majority of the population, and partly because Queen Margrethe's son, heir to the throne, died at barely 17 years of age. The country entered a long period as the weaker part of a union first with Denmark and Sweden – the Kalmar Union – then with Denmark. Margrethe was also queen of Denmark and Sweden. With the forced introduction of Protestantism in 1537, Norway lost the steady stream of pilgrims to the relics of Saint Olav at the Nidaros shrine. With them, ironically, went much of the contact with the cultural and economical life of the rest of Europe. Also, the 17th century saw Norway's total area decrease with the loss of the territories Bohuslän, Jämtland and Härjedalen to Sweden. In the light of national romanticism during the 19th century, this period was by some called the "400-year night". After Denmark-Norway sided with Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars, Norway was ceded to the king of Sweden in 1814. However, Norway declared her independence, adopted a constitution based on American and French models and elected the Danish prince Christian Fredrik as king on 17 May 1814. Norway was forced into a personal union with Sweden, but kept its liberal constitution and independent institutions, except for the foreign service. Growing Norwegian dissatisfaction with the union during the late 19th century, national romanticism, growing national culture, literature (Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson), painting (Hans Gude, Adolph Tiedemand), and music (Edvard Grieg) spawned the dissolution of the union on 7 June 1905. The Norwegian government offered the throne of Norway to Danish Prince Carl. After a referendum confirming the monarchy, the Parliament unanimously elected him king. He took the name of Haakon VII, after the medieval kings of independent Norway. In 1913, Norwegian women gained suffrage. Norway was a neutral country during World War I. Norway also attempted to claim neutrality during World War II, but was invaded by German forces on the 9th of April 1940 (Operation Weserübung). The Allies also had plans to invade Norway, in order to take advantage of her strategically important Atlantic coast, but were thwarted by the German operation. Norway put up a stiff fight against the German occupation and armed resistance in Norway went on for two months. King Haakon and the Norwegian government continued the fight from exile in Rotherhithe, London. On the day of the invasion, the collaborative leader of the small National-Socialist party Nasjonal Samling — Vidkun Quisling — tried to seize power, but was forced by the German occupiers to step aside. Real power was wielded by the leader of the German occupation authority, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven. Quisling, as minister president, later formed a government under German control. During the five years of Nazi occupation, Norwegians built a strong resistance movement which fought the German occupation forces with both armed resistance and civil disobedience. In 1944, the Germans evacuated the provinces of Finnmark and northern Troms, using a scorched earth tactic to create a vast area of No-man's land in response to the Red Army attacking their positions in eastern Finnmark. The Soviets attacked into eastern Finnmark to create a buffer zone after pushing the German forces out of the arctic Kola peninsula. The Russians peacefully returned the area to Norwegian control after the war. The German forces in Norway surrendered on 8 May 1945. The occupation during World War II disturbed the Norwegians' confidence in neutrality, and they turned instead to collective security. Norway was one of the signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949 and was a founding member of the United Nations, providing its first secretary general – Trygve Lie. Norway has twice voted against joining the European Union (in 1972 and 1994), but is associated with the EU via the European Economic Area. However, Norway is a member of the much smaller European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Politics

Norway is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. The Royal House is a branch of the princely family of Glücksburg, originally from Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. [http://www.kongehuset.no/dt_kongehuset_allAtOnce.asp?ogid=21&mgid=21&gid=54&aid=] The functions of the King, Harald V, are mainly ceremonial, but he has influence as the symbol of national unity. Although the constitution of 1814 grants important executive powers to the king, these are almost always exercised by the Council of State in the name of the King (King's Council, or cabinet). The reserve powers vested in the Monarch by the constitution are however significant and an important security part of the role of the Monarchy, and were last used during World War II. The Council of State consists of a Prime Minister and his council, formally appointed by the King. Since 1884, parliamentarism has ensured that the cabinet must have the support of the parliament, so the appointment by the King is a formality. parliamentarism The Norwegian parliament, Stortinget, currently has 169 members (increased from 165, effective from the elections of 12 September 2005). The members are elected from the 19 counties for 4-year terms according to a system of proportional representation. After elections the Storting divides into two chambers, the Odelsting and the Lagting, which meet separately or jointly depending on the agenda. Laws are proposed by the Odelsting and decided by the Lagting or, in case of disagreement, by the joint Storting. Impeachment cases are raised by the Odelsting and judged by the Lagting as part of the High Court of the Realm. Apart from this, the Storting functions as a unicameral parliament. The regular courts include the Supreme Court or Høyesterett (17 permanent judges and a chief justice), courts of appeal, city and district courts, and conciliation councils. Judges attached to regular courts are appointed by the King in council after nomination by the Ministry of Justice. The special High Court of the Realm, which consists of the Supreme Court plus the Lagting, hears impeachment cases. In order to form a government, more than half (currently at least 10 out of 19 members) of the Council of State are required to belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Counties

Evangelical Lutheran Church Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called fylker (singular fylke) and 433 kommuner (singular kommune). Fylke and kommune are officially translated to English as county and municipality. The fylke is the intermediate administration between state and municipality.
- Akershus
- Aust-Agder
- Buskerud
- Finnmark
- Hedmark
- Hordaland
- Møre og Romsdal
- Nordland
- Nord-Trøndelag
- Oppland
- Oslo
- Østfold
- Rogaland
- Sogn og Fjordane
- Sør-Trøndelag
- Telemark
- Troms
- Vest-Agder
- Vestfold See also Regions of Norway.

Geography

Regions of Norway The landscape is generally rugged and mountainous, topped by glaciers, and its coastline of over 83,000 km [http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/environment/032091-991558/dok-bn.html] is punctuated by steep-sloped inlets known as fjords, as well as a multitude of islands and islets. The Northern part of the country is also known as the Land of the Midnight Sun because of its northern location, north of the Arctic Circle, where for part of each summer the sun does not set, and in winter much of its land remains dark for long periods. The southern part is not known for this, however in summertime, the sun is only away for a few hours. Norway is bounded for its entire length by seas of the North Atlantic Ocean: the North Sea to the southwest and its large inlet the Skagerrak to the south, the Norwegian Sea to the west, and the Barents Sea to the northeast. To the east, in order from south to north, it shares a long border with Sweden, a shorter one with Finland, and a still shorter one with Russia. Norway's highest point is the Galdhøpiggen at 2,469 m. With a maximum depth of 514 m, Hornindalsvatnet is Norway's and Europe's deepest lake. The Norwegian climate is fairly temperate, especially along the coast under the influence of the Gulf Stream. The inland climate can be more severe and to the north more subarctic conditions are found, especially in Finnmark. Climate data for some cities in different regions of the country; base period 1961-1990 (temperatures are 24hr average): Data from Norges Meteorologiske Institutt (Norwegian Meteorological Institute). Note: Temperatures have tended to be higher in recent years (see main article).
[http://met.no/english/climate/ Norwegian Meteorological Institute: The climate of Norway]

Economy

main article The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of social capitalism, featuring a combination of free market activity and government intervention. The government controls key areas, such as the vital petroleum sector (through large-scale state enterprises). The country is richly endowed with natural resources - petroleum, hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals - and is highly dependent on its petroleum production and international oil prices; in 2004, oil and gas accounted for 50% of exports. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia export more oil than Norway, which is not a member of OPEC. The last 25 years, the Norwegian economy has shown various signs of the economic phenomenon called Dutch disease. Norway opted to stay out of the European Union during a referendum in 1972, and again in November 1994. However, Norway, together with Iceland and Liechtenstein, participate in the EU's single market via the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement. In 2000 the government sold one-third of the then 100% state-owned oil company Statoil. The economic growth was 0.8% in 1999, 2.7% in 2000, and 1.3% in 2001. After little growth in 2002 and 2003, the economy expanded more rapidly in 2004. With arguably the highest quality of life worldwide, Norwegians still worry about that time in the next two decades when the oil and gas begin to run out. Accordingly, Norway has been saving its oil-boosted budget surpluses in a Government Petroleum Fund, which is invested abroad and at the end of the second quarter of 2005 was valued at 181.5 billion US dollars . Economical overheating is avoided by the partial saving - rather than spending - of the oil revenues which are of very big importance for a relatively small country.

Demographics

The Norwegian population is 4.6 million and increases by 0.4% per year (estimate July 2004). Ethnically most Norwegians are Nordic / North Germanic, while small minorities in the north are Finnish (see also Cwen). The Sami are instead considered an indigenous people, and traditionally live in the Northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. The largest concentration of Sami people is, however, found in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. In recent years, immigration has accounted for more than half the population growth, and 7.9% of the population are immigrants as of 1 January 2005. Norway only takes in a very limited number of asylum seekers and aims to repatriate these people as quickly as possible. The largest immigrant groups are Pakistanis, Swedes, Danes, Iraqis, Vietnamese and Somalis. (Here, immigrants are defined as persons with two foreign-born parents [http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/00/minifakta_en/en/minifakta.pdf].) Approximately 86% of the inhabitants are members of the Evangelic Lutheran Church of Norway (state church). Other Christian societies total about 4.5% (the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, the Catholic Church, Pentecostal congregations, the Methodist Church, etc.). Among non-Christian religions, Islam is the largest in Norway with about 1.5%, and other religions are at less than 1% each. About 1.5% belong to the secular Human Ethical Union. As of 1 January 2003 approximately 5% of the population are unaffiliated ([http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/07/02/10/trosamf_en/]). The Norwegian language has two official written forms, Bokmål and Nynorsk. They have officially equal status, i.e. they are both used in public administration, in schools, churches, and on radio and television, but Bokmål is used by the majority. Around 95 percent of the population speak Norwegian as their native tongue, although many speak dialects that differ significantly from the written language. Nevertheless, all of the Norwegian dialects are interintelligible. Several Sami languages are spoken and written throughout the country, especially in the north, by the Sami people. The Germanic Norwegian language and the Finno-Ugric Sami languages are entirely unrelated. However, the Finnish language bears some similarities to the Sami language.

Culture

Famous Norwegians include the playwrights/novelists Baron Ludvig Holberg and Henrik Ibsen, explorers Roald Amundsen, Fridtjof Nansen, and Thor Heyerdahl, expressionist painter Edvard Munch and the romanticist composer Edvard Grieg. The playwright/novelists Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Knut Hamsun and Sigrid Undset have all won the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1903, 1920 and 1928 respectively. Norwegians celebrate their national day on May 17, Constitution Day. Many people wear bunad (traditional costumes) and most participate in or watch the 17 May parade through the towns. Henrik Wergeland was the founder of the 17 May parade. These parades differ markedly from those of many other countries in that, rather than the military parades of, for example, France, they consist of children.
- Music of Norway
- Norse mythology
- [http://www.nfi.no/english/norwegianfilms/ Norwegian films]
- Norwegian Theatres

Miscellaneous topics

- Holidays in Norway
- Infrastructure in Norway
- Car numberplates in Norway
- Communications
- Power supply
- Transportation
- Foreign relations of Norway
- Military of Norway
- List of cities in Norway
- List of national parks of Norway
- List of Norwegian companies
- List of Norwegian language radio stations
- List of Norwegian newspapers
- List of Norwegian television channels
- List of Norwegians
- List of schools in Norway
- Norwegian literature
- Norwegian national football team
- Norwegian Premier League
- Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund
- Regions of Norway
- Tourism in Norway
- Cuisine of Norway
- Philharmonic Orchestras in Norway
- Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
- Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

International rankings

- [http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html GDP per capita] - 4th of 231 countries
- Human Development Index - 1st of 177 countries 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001
- Index of Economic Freedom - 29th of 155 countries
- Reporters Without Borders Worldwide press freedom index - 1st of 166 countries 2003, 2002
- [http://www.savethechildren.org/mothers/report_2004/images/pdf/SOWM_2004_final.pdf Save the Children: State of the World's Mothers 2004] Children's Index: Rank 1, Women's Index: Rank 6, Mother's Index: Rank 6 (119 countries)
- [http://www.transparency.org/pressreleases_archive/2004/2004.10.20.cpi.en.html Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2004] - 8th of 145 countries
- [http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Global+Competitiveness+Programme%5CGlobal+Competitiveness+Report World Economic Forum: Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005] - 6th of 104 countries

External links

- [http://www.norway.info Norway.info] - Norway - the Official site
- [http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/00/minifakta_en/en/index.html Minifacts about Norway from Statistics Norway]
- [http://odin.dep.no/odin/english/bn.html ODIN] Information from the Government and Ministries
- [http://www.stortinget.no/english Official site of the Parliament (Stortinget)]
- [http://www.kongehuset.no/default.asp?lang=eng Official site of the Royal House]
- [http://www.norway.org Official website for the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, DC]
- [http://www.norway.no Norway.no] - Official portal
- [http://www.lovdata.no/info/lawdata.html Translated Norwegian legislation]
- [http://www.odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/system/032005-990424/ The Norwegian Constitution in English]
- [http://www.ub.uio.no/ujur/publikasjoner/skriftserie/18/ Sources to Legal Information in Norway]
- [http://www.norges-bank.no/english/notes_and_coins/ Norges Bank - current notes and coins]
- [http://www.norges-bank.no/english/ The Central Bank of Norway]
- [http://www.world-newspapers.com/norway.html Norwegian news in English]
- [http://odin.dep.no/ud/html/2000/minifakta/e/eng-02.html Public holidays in Norway]
- [http://ngis2.statkart.no/norgesglasset/default.html Searchable map of Norway]
- [http://www.domstol.no/Domstolene/index.asp?startID=&topExpand=1000010&menuitemid=1000033&strUrl=//internet/showObject.asp?i=1000107 The Norwegian court system]
- [http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tp237_e.htm WTO: Trade Policy Review: Norway]
- [http://www.stavanger-web.com/jul/christma.htm Christmas in Norway]
- [http://www.studyinnorway.no/ Study In Norway] als:Norwegen zh-min-nan:Norge [[got:

Netherlands

The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland; IPA pronunciation: /"ne:dərlant/) is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that is formed by the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. (Dutch: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden). The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch, located in northwestern Europe. It borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. In many countries, the Netherlands is often referred to by the name Holland, and even within the Netherlands itself this name is occasionally used as an acceptable translation of the country's name. However widespread, this usage is technically incorrect, as "Holland" is actually a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands, divided into two provinces. Also, the English plural form 'the Netherlands' is a remnant from times when the country was not yet independent and united. See below under 'naming conventions'. The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated and geographically low-lying countries in the world (its name literally means "low country") and is famous for its dikes, windmills, wooden shoes, tulips, bicycles and social tolerance. Its liberal policies (towards drugs and prostitution among other things) receive international attention. The country is host to the International Court of Justice. The English adjective and noun for "of or relating to the Netherlands" is "Dutch," which is also the name of the Dutch language. In the Netherlands, "Netherlands" is sometimes used as an adjective. The origin of this local usage may be that the Dutch word for "Dutch" is Nederlands and to avoid confusion with the words "Duits" (in Dutch) and "Deutsch" (in German) that refer to the country Germany and its language.

Capital

Amsterdam is the hoofdstad ("capital city"), where according to the constitution, the sovereign must be sworn in. The Hague is the Netherlands regeringszetel or residentie (seat of government, residence of the monarch). It is the seat of government, the home of the monarch, and the location of most foreign embassies.

History

:For more details on this topic, see History of the Netherlands and Dutch monarchy. Under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, the region was part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, which also includes most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some land of France and Germany. In 1568 the Eighty Years' War started after the entire population had been condemned to death by the Holy See and confirmed by the king, and in 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces declared itself independent and formed the Union of Utrecht, which is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands. Philip II, the son of Charles V, was not prepared to let them go that easily. It would not be until 1648 that Spain would recognize Dutch independence. After gaining formal independence from the Spanish Empire under King Philip IV, the Dutch grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers of the 17th century during the period of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. In the era, referred to as the Dutch Golden Age, colonies and trading posts were established all over the globe. (See Dutch colonial empire) Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe it featured the wealthiest trading city (Amsterdam) and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as such less benign phenomena as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636-1637, and according to Murray Sayle, the world's first bear raider - Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount ("Japan Goes Dutch", London Review of Books [April 5, 2001]: 3-7). After briefly being incorporated in the First French Empire under Napoleon, the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815, consisting of the present day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. In addition, the king of the Netherlands became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Belgium rebelled and gained independence in 1830, while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890 as a result of ascendancy laws which prevented Queen Wilhelmina from becoming Grand Duke. The Netherlands possessed several colonies, most notably the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and Suriname (the latter was traded with the British for New Amsterdam, now known as New York). These 'colonies' were first administered by the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, both collective private enterprises. Three centuries later these companies got into financial trouble and the territories in which they operated were taken over by the Dutch government (in 1815 and 1791 respectively). Only then did they become official colonies. During the 19th century, The Netherlands was slow to industrialize compared to neighboring countries, mainly due to its unique infrastructure of waterways and reliance on wind power. After remaining neutral in World War I, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were murdered in the Holocaust of World War II, along with significant numbers of Dutch Roma (gypsies). After the war, the Dutch economy prospered again, being a member of the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and European Economic Community unions. The Netherlands was among the twelve founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and among the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community, which would later evolve into the European Union.

Naming conventions

The name Holland is often used, incorrectly, for The Netherlands, especially in other languages. The origin of the misnomer lies in the fact that the region of Holland was the economic powerhouse during the time of the United Provinces (1581-1795). After the Napoleonic era, Holland became a mere province of the Kingdom and was split into North and South Holland in 1840. Many people, especially from the northern and southern provinces, object to the use of the name Holland for The Netherlands. But to avoid confusion when addressing other nationals, the Dutch themselves often use the name 'Holland'. The plural "Netherlands" is actually an archaic term, referring to the time when it was a collection of regions that were not yet fully united. In The Netherlands itself the country is called Nederland (literally meaning "low country"), the people are called Nederlanders ("Dutch" in English) and the language is called Nederlands (again, "Dutch" in English); the -s in Nederlands is not a plural ending, but rather is cognate to the English suffix -ish. The English word "Dutch" is akin to the German word Deutsch, which originally meant "(Language) of the (common) people" in contrast with the medieval elite who spoke Latin. An old term for the language of The Netherlands is Diets or Nederdietsch. All these terms derive from what in Latin was known as Theodisca, from Germanic
- Þeudiskaz.

Politics

The Netherlands has been a parliamentary democracy since 1848 and a constitutional monarchy since 1815; before that it had been a republic from 1581 to 1806 (it was occupied by France between 1806 and 1815). The pro forma head of state, since 1980, is Queen Beatrix of the House of Orange-Nassau. The Dutch monarch has little political power, but serves mostly as a ceremonial figurehead to represent the nation. Dutch governments always consist of a coalition, as there is not (and has never been) a single political party large enough to get the majority vote. Formally, the queen appoints the members of the government. In practice, once the results of parliamentary elections are known, a coalition government is formed (in a process of negotiations that can take several months), after which the government formed in this way is officially appointed by the queen. The head of the government is the Prime Minister, in Dutch Minister President or Premier, a primus inter pares who is usually also the leader of the largest party in the coalition. The degree of influence the queen has on actual government decision making is a topic of ongoing speculation. The parliament consists of two houses. The 150 members of the Lower House (Tweede Kamer, or Second Chamber) are elected every four years in direct elections. The provincial parliaments are directly elected every 4 years as well. The members of the provincial parliaments vote (indirectly) for the less important Senate (Eerste Kamer, or First Chamber). Together, the First and Second Chamber are known as the Staten Generaal, the States General. Political scientists consider The Netherlands a classic example of a consociational state, at least in part caused by the necessity in the Netherlands since the middle ages for different cities to cooperate in order to fight the water (different cities were at the time like different countries by today's standards, and often at war). This necessity to reach an agreement despite differences is called the polder model in Dutch. Also, the Netherlands has long been a nation of traders and for international trade one has to be tolerant of the other person's culture. The Netherlands is a neutral country in most international affairs and thus managed to keep out of World War I (although this did not work in World War II). As a result, the Dutch have a 'friendly' reputation in other countries, to the point that bearers of a Dutch passport often have relatively little difficulty getting into other countries, for visits or even for emigration purposes. However, the early years of the 21st century have seen a political change with the right wing in politics gaining on the left. This is illustrated by the quick rise (and fall) of the LPF. Pim Fortuyn, its founder, held former cabinets responsible for the failing integration of immigrants. The present government is led by the cabinet Balkenende II. This cabinet got some critique about economic reforms and the immigration policies. On June 1 2005 the Dutch electorate voted in a referendum against the proposed EU Constitution by a majority of 61.6%, three days after the French had also voted against. See also: Prime Minister of the Netherlands, List of Prime Ministers of the Netherlands

Provinces

List of Prime Ministers of the Netherlands The Netherlands is divided into twelve administrative regions, called provinces, each under a Governor, who is called Commissaris van de Koningin (Commissionair of the Queen).
- Friesland - north west; capital Leeuwarden
- Groningen - north east; capital Groningen
- Drenthe - south of Groningen; capital Assen
- Overijssel - east central, south of Drenthe; capital Zwolle
- Flevoland - central, north of Utrecht; capital Lelystad
- Gelderland - east central, south of Overijssel; capital Arnhem
- Utrecht - central; capital Utrecht
- North Holland - (Noord-Holland) north west (including Amsterdam); capital Haarlem
- South Holland - (Zuid-Holland) west central, south of North Holland (including Rotterdam); capital The Hague (s-Gravenhage or Den Haag)
- Zeeland - south west; capital Middelburg
- North Brabant - (Noord-Brabant) south central; capital 's-Hertogenbosch (or Den Bosch)
- Limburg - south east; capital Maastricht. All provinces are divided into municipalities (gemeenten), together 467; see Municipalities in the Netherlands, and also List of cities in the Netherlands by province. The country is also subdivided in water districts, governed by a water board (waterschap or hoogheemraadschap), each having authority in matters concerning water management. As of 1 January 2005 there are twenty seven. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. In fact, the Dutch water boards are one of the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. See also: Ranked list of Dutch provinces.
Geography
Ranked list of Dutch provinces Ranked list of Dutch provinces A remarkable aspect of the Netherlands is the flatness of the country. About half of its surface area is less than 1 m above sea level, and large parts of it are actually below sea level (see [http://www.minbuza.nl/default.asp?CMS_ITEM=MBZ302750 map showing these areas]). An extensive range of dikes and dunes protect these areas from flooding. Numerous massive pumping stations keep the ground water level in check. The highest point, the Vaalserberg, in the south-eastern most point of the country, is 321 m above sea level. A substantial part of the Netherlands, for example, all of Flevoland and large parts of Holland, has been reclaimed from the sea. These areas are known as polders. This has led to the saying "God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands." In years past, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably due to human intervention and natural disasters. Most notable in terms of land loss are the 1134 storm, which created the archipelago of Zeeland in the south west, and the 1287 storm, which killed 50,000 people and created the Zuyderzee (now dammed in and renamed the IJsselmeer - see below) in the northwest, giving Amsterdam direct access to the sea. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the 72 km² Biesbosch tidal floodplains in the southcentre. The most recent parts of Zeeland were flooded during the North Sea Flood of 1953 and 1,836 people were killed, after which the Delta Plan was executed. The disasters were partially man-made; the people drained relatively high lying swampland for use as farmland. This drainage caused the fertile peat to compress and the ground level to drop, locking the land users in a vicious circle whereby they would lower the water level to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to compress even more. The vicious circle is unsolvable and remains to this day. Up until the 19th century peat was dug up, dried, and used for fuel, further adding to the problem. To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called terps. Later these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called "waterschappen" (English "waterbodies") or "hoogheemraadschappen" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods. (The waterbodies are still around today performing the exact same function.) As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. In the 13th century, windmills came into use to pump water out of the areas by now below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk (English "Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former Zuyderzee (Southern Sea) off from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling 1,650 km² were reclaimed from the sea. After the 1953 disaster, the Delta project, a vast construction effort designed to end the threat from the sea once and for all, was launched in 1958 and largely completed in 2002. The official goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in Holland to once per 10,000 years. (For the rest of the country, the protection-level is once per 4,000 years). This was achieved by raising 3,000 km of outer sea-dikes and 10,000 km of inner, canal, and river dikes to "delta" height, and by closing off the sea estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally incur additional Delta project work in the form of dike re-enforcements. The Delta project is the single largest construction effort in human history and is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Because of the high cost of maintaining the polders some have argued that maybe some of the deepest polders should be given up. Additionally, the Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climatic change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but also erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow. These flooded polders might then be used as water catchments to take part of the blow. The country is divided into two main parts by three rivers Rhine (Rijn), Waal, and Meuse (Maas). The south western part of the Netherlands is actually one big river delta of these rivers. These rivers not only function as a natural barrier, but also as a cultural divide, as is evident in the different dialects spoken north and south of these great rivers and the (previous) religious dominance of Catholics in the south and Calvinists in the north. The predominant wind direction in the Netherlands is south west, which causes a moderate maritime climate, with cool summers and mild winters. See also: National parks (Netherlands).
Economy
The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy in which the government has reduced its role since the 1980s. Industrial activity is predominantly in food-processing (for example Unilever and Heineken), chemicals (for example DSM), petroleum refining (for example Royal Dutch Shell), and electrical machinery (for example Philips). A highly mechanised agricultural sector employs no more than 4% of the labour force but provides large surpluses for the food-processing industry and for exports. The Dutch rank third worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind the US and France. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with cooperative private enterprises such as the VOC), banking and transport (for example the Rotterdam harbour). The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. As a founding member of the Euro, the Netherlands replaced its former currency, the Gulden, on January 1 1999 along with the other adopters of the single European currency, with the actual Euro coins and banknotes following on January 1, 2002. However, in the first years of the third millennium, economic and employment growth came to a standstill, which the government tried to resolve by cutting into its expenses. In 2003 the economy shrunk 0.9%. In 2004, the recession was over and the economy began its slow recovery with a meager 1.3% growth. The CPB ("Centraal Plan Bureau", Central Planning Bureau), a think tank of leading Dutch economists linked with the government, expects a recovery of the economy in 2005, with a growth of 2.25%. In 2004, inflation was 1.2%, the lowest level since 1989.
- Economic data for the Netherlands: [http://statline.cbs.nl Dutch] [http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/start.asp?lp=Search/Search&LA=EN English]
- List of Dutch companies
Demographics
The Netherlands is the 15th most densely populated country in the world, with 393 inhabitants per square km (or 482/km² if only the land area is counted, 20% is water). Partly because of this it is also one of the most densely cabled countries in the world. Internet penetration [http://www.internetworldstats.com/top25.htm] is at 66.2% the 7th highest in the world. According CBS Statline, the official statistics bureau of the Netherlands, the ethnic origins of the citizens are very diverse. The vast majority of the population however still remains Dutch. They were: 80.8% Dutch, 8.7% other European, 2.2% Turkish, 1.9% Moroccan, 6.4% other There are no cities with a population over 1 million in the Netherlands, but the 'four big cities' as they are called (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) can in many ways be regarded as one 'big city' agglomeration, the Randstad ('fringe city'), with an agricultural 'green heart' (het Groene Hart). This is illustrated by the idea to create a circular train network with a frequency and carriages similar to a metropolitan railway.
Languages
The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by practically all inhabitants. Another official language is Frisian, which is spoken in the northern province of Friesland and has a strong resemblance to English. Frisian is co-official only in the province of Friesland, although with a few restrictions. Several dialects of Plattdüütsch are spoken in much of the north and are recognised as regional languages, as protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. To the south, the Dutch language shifts into other varieties of Low Franconian and German, which may or may not be best classified as Dutch, most notably West Flemish. One of these, Limburgish, which is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg has been recognised as a minority language since 1977.
Religion
According to the governmental statistics agency (CBS) 30% of the population consider themselves to be Roman Catholic, 20% Protestant (predominantly Dutch Reformed) and 8% 'other denominations'. 42% consider themselves not to belong to any religious denomination. Church attendance however is much lower than these figures may suggest: some 70% of the population 'rarely or never' visit a house of worship (be it a church, mosque, synagogue or temple). The most protestants live in the northern provinces while the southern provinces (Noord-Brabant and Limburg) are mainly Roman Catholic. The largest part of the 'other denominations', at 920,000, are Muslim immigrant workers mainly living in the bigger cities, mostly from Morocco and Turkey, and their offspring. The other denominations also include some 200,000 (1.3%) Hindu, mostly descendants of indentured servants who migrated from India to the former Dutch colony of Surinam around 1900. Prior to the Holocaust about 140,000 Jews lived in the Netherlands, however the vast majority of [http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/communities/weurope/comm_netherlands.html Dutch Jewry] was murdered in the Holocaust. About 30,000 Dutch Jews now live in The Netherlands.
Culture
The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. The 17th century, when the Dutch republic was prosperous, was the age of the "Dutch Masters" such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century are Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondriaan. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphics artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. A (in)famous Dutch master art forger is Han van Meegeren. The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus of Rotterdam and Spinoza, and all of Descartes' major work was done there. Christiaan Huygens(1629-1695) is a famous astronomer and mathematician. He discovered Saturn's moon Titan and invented an accurate clock. In the Dutch Golden Age, literature flowered as well, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the bad treatment of the natives in Dutch colonies. Important 20th century authors include Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard van het Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. The Diary of Anne Frank was also written in the Netherlands. See also: List of museums in The Netherlands, Sport in the Netherlands, Music of the Netherlands, List of Dutch people, Public holidays in the Netherlands Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Huis ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China. Windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, cheese and Delftware pottery are among the numerous items associated with the Netherlands. Dutch policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, same-sex marriage and euthanasia are among the most liberal in the world.
Miscellaneous topics

- City rights in the Netherlands
- Communications in the Netherlands
- Drug policy of the Netherlands
- Dutch colonial empire
- Dutch people
- Dutch-Belgian War
- Education in the Netherlands
- Euthanasia in the Netherlands
- Foreign relations of the Netherlands
- General Intelligence and Security Office (AIVD)
- Income tax in the Netherlands
- List of football clubs in the Netherlands
- Military of the Netherlands
- Netherlands and weapons of mass destruction
- New Netherland
- Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) of the Netherlands
- Prostitution in the Netherlands
- Public holidays in the Netherlands
- Reporters Without Borders worldwide press freedom index 2004 — first place
- Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands
- Statistics Netherlands
- Telephone numbers in the Netherlands
- Television networks in the Netherlands
- Tourism in the Netherlands
- Transportation in the Netherlands
External links

-
- [http://www.statoids.com/unl.html Provinces of Netherlands]
- [http://www.amsterdam-netherlands.info/ Amsterdam / Netherlands info] - Information about the Netherlands, its provinces and Amsterdam.
- [http://www.haganum.nl Best School of The Netherlands- The Gymnasiun Haganum in the Hague]
- [http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/cijfers/default.htm CBS] - Key figures from the Dutch bureau of statistics
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nl.html CIA - The World Factbook -- Netherlands]
- Dutch news: [http://www.rnw.nl/ Radio Netherlands], [http://www.expatica.com/source/site_content_subchannel.asp?subchannel_id=1 Expatica]
- [http://www.colonialvoyage.com Dutch Portuguese Colonial History] Dutch Colonial History in Sri Lanka, Ceylon, Brazil, India, Malacca (Malaysia), Bengal, Formosa(Taiwan), South Africa, New York, Caribbean, Indonesia. Language Heritage. Maps, chronologies, bibliographies.
- [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572410/Netherlands.html Encarta entry on the Netherlands]
- [http://flagspot.net/flags/nl-index.html Flagspot.net - The Netherlands]- site about flags, but also with province maps showing municipalities, and some other info
- Foreign government info about the Netherlands and their relations with it:
[http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/netherlands/index.html Australia] | [http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canadaeuropa/country_net-en.asp Canada] | [http://meaindia.nic.in/foreignrelation/netherland.htm India] | [http://www.esteri.it/eng/3_22_40_214.asp Italy] | [http://www.mfat.govt.nz/foreign/regions/europe/countrypapers/netherlands.html New Zealand] | [http://www.dfa.gov.za/foreign/bilateral/netherlands.html South Africa] | [http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029394365&a=KCountryProfile&aid=1019061813313 UK] | [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3204.htm US]
- [http://www.government.nl Government.nl] - official Dutch government web site
- [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Dutch] Dutch for English speakers (from Wikibooks)
- [http://www.skyscrapercity.info/200.php?id=4&country=NL&limit=0 List of ca. 1500 tall buildings in the Netherlands]
- [http://www.nlplanet.com/ NL Planet] - English language resources, background information and free forums
- [http://overheid.nl/guest/sites/ Overheid.nl] - official Dutch government portal (includes official publications from 1995; older ones are only available in some libraries, on paper or microfiche)
- [http://www.sdu.nl/staatscourant/gemeentes/gemprovin.htm Province maps showing subdivision in municipalities, and linking each municipality to its basic data page]
- [http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/english/index.jsp The Dutch Royal House]
- [http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1104447749&men=gmap&lng=en&gln=xx&dat=32&geo=-160&srt=npan&col=aohdq Maps and data]
- [http://www.track.nl/ Track.nl] - An Internet search-engine that specialises in the Netherlands.
- [http://www.world66.com/europe/netherlands World66 Guide to The Netherlands] A travel guide written by its users.
- [http://www.deltaworks.org Deltaworks Online - Flood protection and watermanagement in the Netherlands] Category:European Union member states Category:Monarchies als:Niederlande zh-min-nan:Kē-tē-kok [[got:

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a kingdom in the Balkans which existed from the end of World War I until World War II. It occupied an area made up of the present-day states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, and most of present-day Slovenia and Croatia. Croatia

Formation

The kingdom was formed in 1918 under the name Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca cyrillic: Краљевина Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца, Slovenian Kraljevina Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev, Macedonian Кралство на Србите, Хрватите и Словенците, short name Kraljevina SHS, Краљевина СХС). On December 1 1918 it was proclaimed by Alexander Karađorđević, Prince-Regent for his father King Petar (Peter), who was formally King of Serbia. The new Kingdom was made up of the formerly independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as a substantial amount of territory that was formerly part of Austria-Hungary, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The lands previously in Austria-Hungary that formed the new state included Croatia, Slavonia and Vojvodina from the Hungarian part of the Empire, Carniola, part of Styria and most of Dalmatia from the Austrian part, and the Crown province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Yugoslav kingdom bordered Italy and Austria to the northwest, Hungary and Romania to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece and Albania to the south, and the Adriatic Sea to the west. A plebiscite was also held in the Province of Carinthia, which opted to remain in Austria. The Dalmatian port city of Zadar and a few of the Dalmatian islands were given to Italy. The city of Rijeka was declared a free city-state, but it was soon occupied, and in 1924 annexed, by Italy. Tensions over the border with Italy continued, with Italy claiming more of the Dalmatian coast, and Yugoslavia claiming Istria, part of the former Austrian coastal province which had been annexed to Italy, but which contained a considerable population of Croats and Slovenes. The new government tried to integrate the new country politically as well as economically, a task made difficult because of the great diversity of languages, nationalities, and religions in the new state, the different history of the regions, and great differences in economic development among regions.

Politics

Immediately after the 1st of December proclamation, negotiations between the People's Council (of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs) and the Serbian government resulted in agreement over the new government which was to be headed by Nikola Pašić. However when this was submitted to the approval of the regent it was rejected so producing the new state's first government crisis. All the parties regarded this as a violation of parliamentary principles but the crisis was resolved when they agreed to replace Pašić by Stojan Protić who was a leading member of Pašić's Radical Party. The new government came into existence on the 20th December 1918. (source: Branislav Gligorijević Parlament i političke stranke u Jugoslaviji 1919 1929) In this period before the election of the Constituent Assembly a Provisional Representation served as a parliament which was formed by delegates from the various elected bodies that had existed before the creation of the state. A realignment of parties combining several members of the Serbian opposition with political parties from the former Austria-Hungary led to the creation of a new party, The Democratic Party, that dominated the Provisional Representation and the government. Because the Democratic Party led by Ljubomir Davidović pushed a highly centralized agenda a number of Croatian delegates moved into opposition. However the radicals themselves were not happy that they had only three ministers to the Democratic Parties eleven and on the 16th of August 1919 Stojan Protić handed in his resignation. Ljubomir Davidović then formed a coalition with the Social Democrats. This government did have a majority but the quorum of the Provisional Representation was half plus one vote. The opposition then began to boycott the parliament and as the government could never guarantee that all their supporters to turn up it became impossible to hold a quorate meeting of the parliament. Davidović quickly resigned but as no one else could form a government he again became prime minister. As the opposition continued their boycott the government decided it had no alternative but to rule by decree. This was denounced by the opposition who began to style themselves as the Paliamentary Community. Davidović himself realized that the situation was untenable and requested from the King the immediate holding of elections for the Constituent Assembly. When the King refused he felt he had no alternative but to resign. The Parliamentary Community now formed a government led by Stojan Protić committed to the restoration of parliamentary norms and migigating the centralization of the previous government. Their opposition to the former governments program of radical land reform also united them. As several small groups and individuals switched sides, Protić now even had a small majority. However the Democratic Party and the Social Democrats now boycotted parliament and Protić was unable to muster a quorum. Hence the Parliamentary Community, now in government, was forced to rule by decree. For the Parliamentary Community to thus violate the basic principle around which they had formed put them in an extremely difficult position. In April 1920 widespread worker unrest including a railway strike broke out and according to Gligorijević this put pressure on the two main parties to settle their differences. After successful negotiations Protić resigned to make way for a new government led by the neutral figure of Milenko Vesnić. The social democrats did not follow their former allies the Democratic Party into government because they were opposed to the anti communist measures that that new government was committed. The controversies that had divided the parties earlier were still very much live issues. The Democrat Party continued to push their agenda of centralization and still insisted on the need for radical land reform. A disagreement over electoral law finally led the Democrat Party to vote against the government in Parliament and the government was defeated. Tho this meeting had not been quorate, Vesnić used this as a pretext to resign. His action produced the result Vesnić had intended and the Radical Party agreed to accept the need for centralization while the Democratic Party agreed to drop their insistence on land reform and Vesnić again headed the new government. The Croatian Community and the Slovenian People's Party were however not at all happy with the Radicals acceptance of centralization. Nor for that matter was Stojan Protić and he withdraw from the government on this issue. In September 1920 a peasants' revolt broke out in Croatia, the immediate cause of which was the branding of the peasants cattle. The Croatian Community blamed the centralizing policies of the government and of minister Svetozar Pribićević in particular.

From Constituent Assembly to Dictatorship

One of the few laws successfully passed by the Provisional Representation was the electoral law for the constituent assembly. During the negotiations that preceded the foundation of the new state it had been agreed that voting would be secret and based on universal suffrage. It had not really occurred to them that universal might include women until the beginnings of a movement for women's suffrage appeared with the creation of the new state. The social democrats and the Slovenian Peoples Party supported women's suffrage but the Radicals opposed it. The Democrat Party was open to the idea but not committed enough to make an issue of it so the proposal fell. Proportional Representation was accepted in principle but the system chosen (D'Hondt with very small constituencies) favored large parties and parties with strong regional support. The election was held on the 28th November 1920. When the votes were counted the Democratic Party had won the most seats, more than the Radicals - but only just. For a party that had been so dominant in the Provisional Representation that amounted to a defeat. Further they had done significantly badly in all former Austria-Hungarian areas. That undercut their belief that their centralization policy represented the will of the Yugoslavian people as a whole. The Radicals had done no better in that region but this presented them far less of a problem because they had campaigned openly as a Serbian party. The most dramatic gains had been made by the two anti-system parties. The Croatian Common-People Peasant Parties leadership had been released from prison only as the election campaign began to get underway but according to Gligorijević this far from hindering them had helped them more than active campaigning. The Croatian Community that had in a timid way tried to express the discontent that Croatian Common-People Peasant Party had mobilized had been too tainted by their participation in government and was all but eliminated. The other gainers were the communists who had done especially well in Macedonia. The remainder of the seats were taken up by smaller parties that were at best skeptical of the centralizing platform of the Democratic Party. The results left Nikola Pasić in a very strong position as the Democrats had no choice but to ally with the Radicals if they wanted to get their concept of a centralized Yugoslavia through, where as Pasić was always careful to keep open the option of a deal with the Croatian opposition. The Democrats together with the Radicals were not quite strong enough to get the constitution through on their own and they made an alliance with the JMO, the Yugoslav Muslim Organization. The Muslim party sought and got concessions over the preservation of Bosnia in its borders and how the land reform would effect Muslim landowners in Bosnia. Because the Croatian Peasant Party refused to swear allegiance to the King on the grounds that this presumed that Yugoslavia would be a monarchy (something, they contended only the Constituent could decide) they were unable to take their seats. Most of the opposition though initially taking their seats declared boycotts as time went so that there were few votes against. However the constitution needed 50% plus one vote to pass irrespective of how many voted against and it was touch and go whether it get this. Only last minute concessions to Džemet a group of Muslims from Macedonia and Kosova saved it. In 1921, the Constitution was passed, which established a unitary monarchy. Serb politicians regarded Serbia as the standardbearer of Yugoslav unity, as the state of Piedmont had been for Italy, and the nation of Prussia for the German Empire. Over the following years, Croat resistance against a Serbocentric policy increased. Stjepan Radić, head of the Croatian Peasant Party, was imprisoned due to political reasons. After he was released in 1925, and returned to parliament. In the spring of 1928 Stjepan Radić and Svetozar Pribičević waged a bitter parliamentary battle against the ratification of the Neptune Convention with Italy. In this they mobilised nationalist opposition also in Serbia itself but provoked a violent reaction from the governing majority including death threats. On the 20th June 1928, a member of the government majority, the Montenegrin deputy Puniša Račić shot down five members of the Croatian Peasant Party including their leader Stjepan Radić. Two died on the floor of the Assembly while the life of Stjepan Radić hung in the balance. The opposition now completly withdrew from parliament declaring that they would not return to a parliament in which several of their representatives had been killed and insisting on new elections. On the 1st of August, at a meeting in Zagreb, they renounced the 1st of December declaration of 1920. In this they were demanding that the negotiations for unification should begin from scratch. On the 8th of October, Stjepan Radić died.

The 6th of January Dictatorship

Not long after that, on January 6, 1929, in response to the political crisis triggered by the shooting, King Alexander abolished the Constitution, prorogued the Parliament and introduced a personal dictatorship (the so-called January 6th Dictatorship, Šestojanuarska diktatura). He also changed the name of the country to Kingdom of Yugoslavia and changed the internal divisions to use banovinas on October 3. In 1931 Alexander decreed a new Constitution which made executive power the gift of the King. Elections were to be by universal suffrage (though universal still didn't include women). The provision for a secret ballot was dropped and pressure on public employees to vote for the governing party was to be a feature of all elections held under Alexander's constitution. Further, half the upper house was directly appointed by the King and legislation could become law with the approval of one of the houses alone if it was also approved by the King. On October 9 1934, the king was assassinated in Marseille, France by a Bulgarian VMRO activist Velichko Kerin, more popular with his revolutionary pseudonym Vlado Chernozemski, in a conspiracy with Yugoslav exiles, radical members of the political parties that he banned five years earlier in cooperation with the Croatian extreme right-wing Ustaše organisation. Because Peter II, the eldest son of Alexander was a minor, a regency council of three, specified in Alexander's will, took over the role of King. The council was dominated by the King's cousin Prince Pavle (Paul).

Downfall

On March 25, 1941, Prince Regent Pavle signed the Tripartite Pact in Vienna. Because of his decision, massive demonstrations took place in Belgrade and, after this, his nephew, together with a group of pro-English officers and middle class politicians, made a coup d'état on March 27 1941. General Dušan Simović became prime minister and Yugoslavia backed out of the Axis sphere in all but name. Although the new rulers opposed Germany, they also feared that if Hitler attacked Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom was not in any real position to help. For the safety of the country, they declared that Yugoslavia would adhere to the Tripartite Pact. Regardless of this, in April 1941, the Axis powers invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and quickly conquered it. The royal family escaped abroad, Prince Pavle included The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was soon divided by the Axis into several entities: Hungary and Bulgaria annexed some border areas, Croatia was made into the Independent State of Croatia, and a rump Serbian state was created under the administration of Milan Nedić, which still recognized Peter II as King. Peter II, who had escaped into exile, was still recognized as King of the whole state by the allies. However, over the course of the war, effective power changed to the hands of Tito's Communist Partisans. On June 16, 1944, the Tito-Šubašić Agreement was signed which merged the de facto and the de jure government of Yugoslavia. In early 1945, after the Germans had been driven out, the Kingdom was formally restored, but the new Communist authorities soon proclaimed the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia on December 2, 1945. The new Yugoslavia covered roughly the same territory as the Kingdom had, but it was no longer a kingdom.

List of Kings

# King Petar I (1 Dec 1918 - 16 Aug 1921) (Regent Prince Aleksandar ruled in the name of the King) # King Aleksandar (16 Aug 1921 - 9 Oct 1934) # King Petar II (9 Oct 1934 - 29 Nov 1945)
- exile from 13/14 Apr 1941 #
- Regency headed by Prince Pavle (9 Oct 1934 - 27 Mar 1941)

List of Prime ministers

- Stojan Protić (1918-1919)
- Ljubomir Davidović (1919-1920)
- Stojan Protić (1920)
- Milenko Vesnić (1920-1921)
- Nikola Pašić (1921-1924)
- Ljubomir Davidović (1924)
- Nikola Pašić (1924-1926)
- Nikola Uzunović (1926-1927)
- Velimir Vukićević (1927-1928)
- Anton Korošec (1928-1929)
- Petar Živković (1929-1932)
- Vojislav Marinković (1932)
- Milan Srškić (1932-1934)
- Nikola Uzunović (1934)
- Bogoljub Jevtić (1934-1935)
- Milan Stojadinović (1935-1939)
- Dragiša Cvetković (1939-1941)

Internal divisions

Dragiša Cvetković Internally, the Kingdom was divided into provinces from 1929 onwards, each of them called banovina. Their borders were intentionally drawn so that they wouldn't correspond either to boundaries between ethnic groups, or to the pre-WWI imperial borders. They were named after various geographic features (mostly rivers). The capital of the kingdom was Belgrade. # Dravska banovina (Banovina of Drava), with its capital in Ljubljana # Savska banovina (Banovina of Sava), with its capital in Zagreb # Vrbaska banovina (Banovina of Vrbas), with its capital in Banja Luka # Primorska banovina (Seaside Banovina), with its capital in Split # Drinska banovina (Banovina of Drina), with its capital in Sarajevo # Zetska banovina (Banovina of Zeta), with its capital in Cetinje # Dunavska banovina (Banovina of Danube), with its capital in Novi Sad # Moravska banovina (Banovina of Morava), with its capital in Niš # Vardarska banovina (Banovina of Vardar), with its capital in Skopje # The City of Belgrade, together with Zemun and Pančevo was also an administrative unit In 1939 the Banovina Hrvatska (Banovina of Croatia) was formed from the Primorska and Savska banovinas, with some border alterations. Like Savska, its capital was Zagreb.

External link

- [http://www.geocities.com/dagtho/yugconst19310903.html Full text of Constitution of 1931 (in English)] Yugoslavia Yugoslavia, Kingdom of Category:Yugoslavia ko:유고슬라비아 왕국

AlgeriA

Algeria

Greece

Greece, (Greek: Ελλάδα, older form: Ελλάς, Hellas), officially the Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellinikí Dimokratía; see also List of traditional Greek place names), is a country in southern Europe on the tip of the Balkan peninsula. It has land boundaries with Bulgaria, The Republic of Macedonia, and Albania to the north and with Turkey to the east. The waters of the Aegean Sea border Greece to the east, and those of the Ionian and Mediterranean Sea to the west and south. Regarded by many as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, Greece has a long and rich history during which its culture has proven especially influential in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Name

Main article: Names of the Greeks The historical name of Greece in Greek is Ellás . This name is also written Hellas in English, following the ancient Greek pronunciation . In modern Greek it is called more commonly Ελλάδα Elládha . The mythical ancestor of the Greeks is the eponymous Hellen. The name of Greece in European languages (English: Greece, French: Grèce, Portuguese: Grécia, Spanish and Italian: Grecia, Welsh: Groeg, German: Griechenland, Dutch: Griekenland, Russian: Греция, etc.) comes from a different root: Graikós (via Latin Graecus) which according to Aristotle was an ancient name for the Greeks. The Japanese name is ギリシャ (Girisha), lent from European languages. On the other hand, the name of Greece in some Middle Eastern and Eastern languages (Turkish: Yunanistan, Arabic: يونان, Hebrew: יוון, ancient Persian: Yaunâ, Indian Pali: Yona, Malay and Indonesian: Yunani) derives from the Greek toponym Iōnía. Norwegian, Chinese (希腊 Xila) and Vietnamese are three of the few languages apart from Greek in which the name Hellas predominates. An interesting and unique form is kept in Georgian. In ancient times, Georgians (Colchs and Iberians) called Greeks ბერძენი berdzeni. This form derives from the Georgian word ბრძენი brdzeni – wise. According to Georgian historians, the name is connected with the notion that philosophy was born in Greece. Modern Georgians still call Greeks ბერძენი berdzeni and Greece საბერძნეთი saberdznet'i, 'Greeks' land' or literally 'land of the wise'. Some Greeks prefer the name Hellas for the country and Hellenes for the people even in English. See Hellenes for discussion.

History

Hellenes Main Article: History of Greece.

Prehistory and antiquity

The shores of Greece's Aegean Sea saw the emergence of the first civilizations in Europe, namely the Minoan and the Mycenaean. After these, a Dark Age followed until around 800 BC, when a new era of Greek city-states emerged establishing colonies along the Mediterranean. Greek culture would later become the basis of the Hellenistic civilization that followed the empire of Alexander the Great. For a detailed history of Ancient Greece see the relevant articles in: History of Greece.

Roman rule and Middle Ages

Militarily, Greece itself declined to the point that the Romans conquered the land (168 BC onwards), though, in many ways, Greek culture would in turn conquer Roman life. Greece became a province of the Roman Empire, but Greek culture continued to dominate the eastern Mediterranean. When the Roman Empire finally split in two, the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, centered around Constantinople (known in ancient times as Byzantium), remained Greek in nature, encompassing Greece itself. From the 4th century to the 15th century, the Byzantine Empire survived eleven centuries of attacks from the north, west and east until Constantinople fell on May 29 1453 to the Ottoman Empire, when Constantine XI, the last emperor of the Palaeologus dynasty, fell. Greece was gradually conquered by the Ottomans during the 15th century.

Ottoman rule

While the Ottomans completed the conquest of the Greek Mainland, two Greek migrations occurred. The first migration saw the Greek intelligentsia migrate to Western Europe and contribute to the advent of the Renaissance. The second migration of Greeks left the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettled in the mountains. The Ottomans were unable to create a permanent military and administrative presence in these mountainous regions. As a result some Greek mountain clans across the peninsula, as well as some islands, were able to maintain a status of independence. The Sphakiots of Crete, the Souliots from Souli of Epirus, and the Maniots from Mani of Peloponnesus were the most resilient mountain clans throughout the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the 16th century and until the 17th century, Greeks began to migrate back to the plains and cities, adding to the increasing urban population. The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion. The Orthodox Church, a religious institution with a strong national character, helped the Greeks from all geographical areas of the peninsula (i.e. mountains, plains, and islands) to preserve their ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage during the years of the Ottoman rule (although at the time it was not stictly speaking a "Greek" church - the Greek Church was instituted after the liberation). The Greeks who remained on the plains during Ottoman occupation were either Christians, who dealt with the burdens of foreign rule, or to a considerable extent Crypto-Christians (Greeks Muslims who were secret practitioners of the Orthodox faith) in order to avoid heavy taxation. The Greeks who converted to Islam and were not Crypto-Christians became Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks. There were no "Greek Muslims", and no "Christian Turks". As a result, religion played an integral part in the formation of the Modern Greek and other post-Ottoman national identities. Turks

Creation of the modern Greek state

The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century. In 1821, the Greeks rebelled and declared their independence, but did not succeed in winning it until 1829. The elites of powerful European nations saw the war of Greek independence, with its accounts of Turkish atrocities, in a romantic light (see, for example, the 1824 painting the Massacre of Chios by Eugène Delacroix). Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the cause — including people like Lord Byron. At times the Ottomans seemed on the verge of entirely suppressing the Greek revolution but were eventually forced to give in by the direct military intervention of France, Great Britain and Russia. This was the prelude of the so called "Eastern Question", the gradual dismemberment of the decaying empire by the western powers. The Russian ex-minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself a Greek, actually a noble from the Ionian Islands, a British protectorate in the Ionian Sea, was chosen as President of the new Republic following Greek independence. That republic disappeared when a few years later Western powers helped turn Greece into a monarchy, the first king coming from Bavaria and the second from Denmark. During the 19th and especially the early 20th centuries, in a series of wars with the Ottomans, Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire (the Ionian State however was donated by Britain upon the arrival of the new king from Denmark in 1863, and Thessaly was ceded by the Ottomans without a fight). Greece would slowly grow in territory and population until reaching its present configuration in 1947. In World War I, Greece sided with the entente powers against Turkey and the other Central Powers. In the war's aftermath, the Great Powers awarded parts of Asia Minor to Greece, including the city of Smyrna (known as Izmir today) which had a large Greek population. At that time, however, the Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, denounced the Sultan's government in Istanbul and organised a new one in Ankara. During the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) the Turks eventually defeated the Greek armies and regained control of Asia Minor. Soon afterwards, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, fixing the borders to this date. A population exchange was included in the agreement and immediately afterwards, hundreds of thousands of Turks then living in mainland Greek territory left for Turkey in exchange for about a million Greeks living in Turkey. The refugees from Asia Minor revived the population, provided cheap labour and hellenized the now depopulated regions, especially in Macedonia. In 1936, General Ioannis Metaxas established an authoritarian conservative dictatorship in Greece, seen as similar to Antonio Salazar's "New State". Greece under Metaxas is also compared to Spain at the time, although it lacked the political violence associated with Francisco Franco's regime. Despite the country's numerically small and ill-equipped armed forces, Greece made an important contribution to the Allied efforts in World War II. At the start of the war Greece sided with the Allies and refused to give in to Italian demands (see Oxi Day). Italy invaded Greece on 28 October 1940, but Greek troops repelled the invaders after a bitter struggle (see Greco-Italian War). This marked the first Allied victory in the war. Hitler then reluctantly stepped in, primarily to secure his strategic southern flank. Troops from Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Italy successfully invaded Greece, overcoming Greek, British, Australian, and New Zealand units within weeks. To reduce the threat of a counter-offensive by Allied forces in Egypt, the Germans attempted to seize Crete in a massive attack by paratroops. Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, however, offered fierce resistance. Although Crete eventually fell, it is pointed out by historians that this, and the whole Greek campaign, delayed German plans significantly, with the result that the German invasion of the Soviet Union started fatally close to winter. During the years of Nazi occupation, hundreds of thousands of Greeks died in direct combat, in concentration camps, or of starvation. The occupiers murdered the greater part of the Jewish community despite efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church and many Christian Greeks to shelter Jews. The Greek economy languished. After liberation, Greece experienced an equally bitter Greek Civil War between the communist-led Democratic Army and the Hellenic Army that lasted until 1949, when the communists were defeated in the battle of Grammos-Vitsi. In the 1950s and 1960s, Greece continued to develop slowly with grants and loans through the Marshall Plan, and later through growth, notably in the tourism sector. In 1967, the Greek military seized power in a coup d'état and overthrew the conservative government of Panayiotis Kanellopoulos which had been preparing a general election set for May 28. The military established what became known as the Régime of the Colonels. In 1973, the régime abolished the Greek monarchy. In October 1973, George Papadopoulos appointed politician Spiros Markezinis as Prime Minister, with a mission undertake a transition to parliamentary democracy. Following the events of the Athens Polytechnic uprising, Papadopoulos and Markezinis were overthrown by a countercoup headed by junta hardliner Brigadier Ioannides on November 25, 1973. A new president, Phaedon Ghizikis, and a new Prime Minister, Adamantios Androutsopoulos, were appointed. Ioannides organised a military coup against President Makarios of Cyprus, which was considered a pretext for the first Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and the resulting crisis between Greece and Turkey. Escalation in Cyprus led to the implosion of the military régime. Ex-premier Konstantinos Karamanlis was invited from Paris as interim prime minister under President Ghizikis. He later gained re-election for two further terms at the head of the conservative Nea Dimokratia party, which he founded. In 1975, following a referendum to confirm the deposition of King Constantine II, a democratic republican constitution came into force. Another previously exiled politician, Andreas Papandreou also returned and founded the socialist PASOK party, which won the elections in 1981 and dominated the country's political course for almost two decades. Since the restoration of democracy, the stability and economic prosperity of Greece have grown. Greece joined the European Union in 1981 and adopted the Euro as its currency in 2001. New infrastructure, funds from the EU and growing revenues from tourism, shipping, services, light industry, and the telecommunications industry have greatly raised the standard of living in Greece. Tensions continue to exist between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus and the delimitation of borders in the Aegean Sea, but relations have thawed considerably following successive earthquakes - first in Turkey and then in Greece - and an outpouring of sympathy and generous assistance by ordinary Greeks and Turks. This is in stark contrast to decades of hostility between these two countries, which saw repeated threats of war. Even though both were members of NATO, at times more than half of the entire Greek military was positioned against Turkey. In recent years, Greece has become one of the chief advocates of Turkey's application to join the European Union. The 2004 Summer Olympic Games were held in Athens, returning to Greece for the first time since their modern inception in 1896. Despite widespread initial concerns over the city's ability to meet construction deadlines as well as over its ability to handle a potential terrorist threat, the Athens Games were widely praised as a success [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3610014.stm].

Politics

Main article: Politics of Greece The 1975 constitution includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties. The President of the Republic, elected by an increased majority of the Parliament for a term of five years, is nominally the Head of State. However, it is the prime minister and cabinet that play the central role in the political process, while the president performs very limited governmental functions, in addition to ceremonial duties. Greeks elect the 300 members of the country's unicameral parliament (the Vouli ton Ellinon) by secret ballot for a maximum of four years, but elections can occur at more frequent intervals. Greece uses a complex reinforced proportional representation electoral system which discourages splinter parties and ensures that the party which leads in the national vote will win a majority of seats. A party must receive 3% of the total national vote to gain representation. Greek parliamentary politics hinge upon the principle of the "dedilomeni", the "declared confidence" of Parliament to the Prime Minister and his/her administration. This means that the President of the Republic is bound to appoint as Prime Minister a person who will be approved by a majority of the Parilament's members (i.e. 151 votes). With the current electoral system, it is the leader of the party gaining a plurality of the votes in the Parliamentary elections who gets appointed Prime Minister. An administration may, at any time, seek a "vote of confidence"; conversely, a number of Members of Parilament may ask that a "vote of reproach" be taken. Both are rare occurrences with usually predictable outcomes as voting outside the party line happens very seldom. For a list of Greek political parties, see List of political parties in Greece.

Local government

Main article: Peripheries of Greece Peripheries of Greece Peripheries of Greece Peripheries of Greece Greece consists of 13 administrative regions known as peripheries, which subdivide further into the 51 prefectures (nomoi, singular - nomos):

- Attica:
- Attica
- Central Greece:
- Boeotia
- Euboea
- Evrytania
- Phocis
- Phthiotis
- Central Macedonia
- Chalcidice
- Imathia
- Kilkis
- Pella
- Pieria
- Serres
- Thessaloniki

- Crete
- Chania
- Heraklion
- Lasithi
- Rethymno
- East Macedonia and Thrace
- Drama
- Evros
- Kavala
- Rhodope
- Xanthi
- Epirus
- Arta
- Ioannina
- Preveza
- Thesprotia

- Ionian Islands
- Corfu
- Kefalonia
- Lefkada
- Zakynthos
- North Aegean
- Chios
- Lesbos
- Samos
- Peloponnese
- Arcadia
- Argolis
- Corinthia
- Laconia
- Messinia

- South Aegean
- Cyclades
- Dodecanese
- Thessaly
- Karditsa
- Larissa
- Magnesia
- Trikala
- West Greece
- Achaea
- Aetolia-Acarnania
- Elis
- West Macedonia
- Florina
- Grevena
- Kastoria
- Kozani

Beyond these one autonomous region exists: Mount Athos (Agio Oros - Holy Mountain), a monastic state under Greek sovereignty. The 51 nomoi subdivide into 147 eparchies (singular eparchia), which contain 1,033 municipalities and communities: 900 urban municipalities (demoi) and 133 rural communities (koinotetes). Before 1999, Greece's local government structure featured 5,775 local authorities: 457 demoi and 5,318 koinotetes, subdivided into 12,817 localities (oikosmoi).

Geography

Main article: Geography of Greece Geography of Greece Geography of Greece] Geography of Greece The country consists of a large mainland at the southern end of the Balkans; the Peloponnesus peninsula (separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth); and numerous islands (around 3,000), including Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Euboea and the Dodecanese and Cycladic groups of the Aegean Sea as well as the Ionian sea islands. Greece has more than 15,000 kilometres of coastline and a land boundary of 1,160 kilometres. About 80% of Greece consists of mountains or hills, thus making Greece one of the most montainous countries of Europe. Western Greece contains lakes and wetlands. Pindus, the central mountain range, has a maximum elevation of 2,636 m. The Pindus can be considered as a prolongation of the Dinaric Alps. The range continues by means of the Peloponnese, the islands of Kythera and Antikythera to find its final point in the island of Crete. (Actually the islands of the Aegean are peaks of underwater mountains that once consisted an extension of the mainland). The Central and Western Greece area contains high, steep peaks dissected by many canyons and other karstic landscapes, including the Meteora and the Vikos gorge the later being the second largest one on earth after the Grand Canyon in the US. Mount Olympus forms the highest point in Greece at 2,919 m above sea level. Also northern Greece presents another high range, the Rhodope, located in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace; this area is covered with vast and thick century old forests like the famous Dadia. Plains are mainly found in Eastern Thessaly, Central Macedonia and Thrace. Greece's climate is divided into three well defined classes the Mediterranean, Alpine and Temperate, the first one features mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Temperatures rarely reach extremes, although snowfalls do occur occasionally even in Athens, Cyclades or Crete during the winter. Alpine is found primarily in Western Greece (Epirus, Central Greece, Thessaly, Western Macedonia as well as central parts of Peloponessus like Achaea, Arkadia and parts of Lakonia where the Alpine range pass by). Finally the temperate climate is found in Central and Eastern Macedonia as well as in Thrace at places like Komotini, Xanthi and northern Evros; with cold, damp winters and hot, dry summers. It's worth to mention that Athens is located in a transition area between the Mediterranean and Alpine climate, thus finding that in its southern suburbs weather is of Mediterranean type while in the Northern suburbs of the Alpine type. About 50% of Greek land is covered by forests with a rich varied vegetation which spans from Alpine coniferous to mediterranean type vegetation. Seals, sea turtles and other rare marine life live in the seas around Greece, while Greece's forests provide a home to Western Europe's last brown bears and lynx as well as other species like Wolf, Roe Deer, Wild Goat, Fox and Wild Boar among others.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Greece Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the public sector accounting for about half of GDP. Tourism has great importance, providing a large portion of GDP and foreign exchange earnings. Greece also counts as a world leader in shipping (first in terms of ownership of vessels and third by flag registration) [http://www.marad.dot.gov/MARAD_statistics/Country-MFW-7-04.pdf]. Greece figures prominently as a major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to about 2.4% of its GNP. The export of manufactured goods, including telecommunications hardware and software, foodstuffs, and fuels accounts for a large part of the rest of Greek income. The country has a high standard of living, ranking 24th on the 2005 Human Development Index and 22nd on The Economist's 2005 world-wide quality-of-life index[http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf]. The economy has improved steadily over the last few years, as the government tightened fiscal policy in the run-up to Greece's entry into the Eurozone on January 1, 2001. Average per capita income in 2004 was estimated at $22,000 [http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GNIPC.pdf]. Greece has an expanding services sector and telecommunications industry and has become one of the largest investors in the immediate region. Moreover, Greece now operates as a net importer of labour and foreign workers (mainly from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, and Africa). People from these areas now account for 10% of the total population. 2001 Major challenges faced by the country include the reduction of unemployment, privatising of several state enterprises, social security reforms, overhauling the tax system, and minimising bureaucratic inefficiencies. Forecasts predicted economic growth of 4 - 4.5 % in 2004. Reducing the government deficit also remains a major issue, as it is currently running at nearly twice the Eurozone target of 3% of GDP. The new conservative government revealed to Eurostat that the previous figures supplied, which were the basis of Greek entry into the Eurozone, were incorrect. Under a negotiated agreement, the EU gave Greece two years (budgets of 2005 and 2006) to bring the economy in line with the criteria of the European stability pact. The Bank of Greece, now a subsidiary of the European Central Bank, functions as the nation's central bank. This bank is not the same as the "National Bank of Greece", a commercial bank.

Tourism

In the year of 2004, Greece ranked 12th interms of International tourist Arrivals world wide with a figure of 14.180 Million visitors, some of which came for the 2004 Olympic Games. Since the promotion of Greece from the Olympic Games, the Government expects significant growth in the years to come. In 2003, tourists spent an estimated 11 billion Euros contributing 8% to Greeces GDP. Tourism in Greece has multiplied 50 times in the past 40 years and is expected to only get bigger in the next 10 years. The main problem for Greece and its tourism industry is that many people are now going to places such as Turkey or Egypt were they can get a similar summer holiday for alot cheaper. Unfortunatly, the Government dosen't spend much on promoting tourism in Greece, although they have now hired Greek singer, Elena Paparizou, as there official Ambassador as well as having released a new campaign. One suggestion is to focus now on the Winter side of Greece as Greece's tourism industry is really only a 6 month tourism season. If promoted correctly, Greece could almost double its tourist statistics since most of the 14 million tourists are accounted for in only 6 months of a 12 month year.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Greece Greece has various linguistic and cultural minorities. A non-comprehensive list of these would include Pomaks and various Roma groups. A number of religious minorities exist, including the Muslim minority in western Thrace, which makes up about a third of that region's population. Around one million immigrants live full or part time in Greece today, of which 65% have come from Albania following the fall of communism in Albania. This was a very rapid phenomena and the Greek legal and social culture has had some difficulties adapting. Several prominent Greek sportsmen immigrated to Greece as ethnic Greeks from Albania and Georgia in the 1990s, including legendary weightlifters Pyrros Dimas and Kakhi Kakhiashvili. Smaller numbers of immigrants came from Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania. The exact number remains unknown, since the majority live illegally in Greece.

Religion

Prior to Ottoman rule, Greece was part of the Byzantine Empire. The civil and religious capital of the Empire was moved to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) by Constantine I. Since Constantine’s time the Orthodox Christian faith has flourished and spread throughout Eastern Europe. Even under Turkish rule and repeated attempts at being proselytised firstly by the Jesuits and then by the Protestants, Orthodox Christianity survived and flourished. The role of the Orthodox Church in maintaining Greek ethnic and cultural identity during the 400 years of Ottoman rule, has strengthened the bond between religion and government. Most Greeks, even many non-practicing Christians, revere and respect the Orthodox Christian faith, attend Church and Major Feast days, and are emotionally attached to Orthodox Christianity as their 'national' religion. The Greek Constitution reflects this relationship by guaranteeing absolute freedom of religion while still defining the "prevailing religion" of Greece as the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. In practice, the Orthodox Church and the secular state are intimately involved with one another. Joint approval is needed for the building of churches and the Church has even blocked the building of places of worship for other religions in Athens. Priests receive state salaries. The President of the Republic takes an oath on the Bible and Orthodox Christianity is given privileged place in religious studies in primary education. The Church has also been allowed to keep its large portfolio of financial assets exempt from taxation and fiscal auditing. Starting in January 2005, a series of highly publicised corruption scandals involving high rank church officials have led to many calls by secular Greeks for the complete separation of Church and State and greater control of Church assets. The majority of Greeks (95-98%) have at least nominal membership in the Eastern Orthodox Church, although religious observance has declined in recent years. Greek Muslims make up about 1.3% of the population, and live primarily in Thrace. Greece also has some Roman Catholics, mainly in the city of Patras and the Cyclades islands of Syros, Paros,Tinos and Naxos; some Protestants and some Jews, mainly in Thessaloniki (which was once a major Jewish city until the Holocaust). Some groups in Greece have started an attempt to reconstruct Hellenic polytheism, the ancient Greek pagan religion. See also: Greek Orthodox Church. One small part of Greece, Mount Athos, is recognised by the Greek constitution as an autonomous monastic republic, although foreign relations, however, remain the prerogative of the Greek state. Spiritually, Mount Athos is under the Patriarchate of Constantinople and is therefore in communion with all the monasteries on Mount Athos and with the Orthodox Church based in various countries. One monastery has recently broken away and has formed a completely independent schism on the Holy Mountain -- Esphygmenou Monastery. Esphygmenou is composed of 117 Zealot monks who stubbornly oppose the head of the Church and do not commemorate him any more. They believe that they are the last remaining true Christians in the world and that Orthodoxy has been corrupted by having dialogue with other faiths. They also object to the lifting of the anathemas against the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960's by Patriarch Athenagoras. Jews have been present in Greece for the last 2000 years. The earliest reference to a Greek Jew is in an inscription, dated c. 300-250 BCE found in Oropos, a small coastal town between Athens and Boeotia, and refers to him as "Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew" who was in all likelihood, a slave. The first Greek Jewish population became known as the Romaniotes and their language became known as Yevanic (from the Hebrew word for Greece: יון/Yavan). From the 16th century onwards, Salonica, a city in northern Greece, had one of the largest (mostly Sephardic by then) Jewish communities in the world and a solid rabbinical tradition. On the island of Crete, the Jews played an important part in the transport trade. During World War II, when Greece was occupied by Nazi Germany, 86% of the Greek Jews were murdered by the invading Axis and only a minority survived and most of them have emigrated to Israel. Greece's Jewish community today is estimated at 4,500.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Greece Greece has produced a vast number of contributors to philosophy, astronomy, science, and the arts. For a list of famous Greek men and women, see List of Greeks. See also:
- Classics
- Education in Greece
- List of Greek dances
- List of museums in Greece
- Greek National Holidays
- List of research institutes in Greece
- Tourism in Greece
- List of universities in Greece

Miscellaneous topics

- History of Greece
- Ancient Greece
- Greek mythology
- Hellenistic civilization
- Byzantine Empire
- Byzantium
- Greek Language
- Communications in Greece
- List of Greek language television channels
- List of radio stations in Greece
- Greek newspapers
- Transportation in Greece
- List of Greek roads
- Rio-Antirio bridge
- Foreign relations of Greece
- Military of Greece
- Postage stamps and postal history of Greece
- Conscription in Greece
- Popular Greek Entertainment
- Plateia Syntagmatos and Vouli ton Ellinon
- Turkish Greek Civic Dialogue Project
- Greeks
- List of Greeks
- Greek American
- Category:Greek-Americans
- Greek Canadians
- Greek Australian

Sport in Greece

- Summer Olympics of 1896, 1906 & 2004
- Greece national football team (Euro 2004 Cup Winners)
- Greece national basketball team (Eurobasket 1987 & 2005 Cup Winners) The Greek government built a world class sport infrastructure specifically for the 2004 Summer Olympics which is generally regarded as a [http://www.athens2004.com/en/Legacy legacy]to the country. Greece was one of the smallest countries to ever host a modern summer Olympic games. The organisation and conduct of the games were considered highly successful. Unlike other western European countries, basketball has become a popular sport in Greece. This is largely the result of the victory achieved by the Greek national basketball team against the Soviet Union in the European championship final of 1987 held in Athens. Eighteen years later, Greece won its second Europen basketball championship in the 2005 Eurobasket, held in Belgrade.

External links

- [http://www.balkanforums.com Greece and the Balkans] Discussion Forum
- [http://www.go4less.gr/main.php?lang=EN Internet Travel Service to Greece and Smartest Accommodation Search Engine]
- [http://www.hri.org HR-Net (Hellenic Resources Network)/ comprehensive Greek news site]
- [http://www.statistics.gr/ Official Greek Statistics Site]
- [http://www.ask4greece.org Ask for Greece/ A volunteer community for Q&As about Greece]
- [http://www.gnto.gr/?langID=2/ Official Tourist Site]
- [http://www.greece-museums.com Greece Museums/ Museum directory of Greece]
- [http://www.athensvirtualtour.com/ Take a short virtual tour of Athens]
- [http://webcam.deili.info/en,1,8 Greece Webcam]
- [http://www.ert.gr/radio/liveradioTritovraxea.asp Radio Greece live]
- [http://greece.ianandwendy.com Photos of Greece from a backpacker's trip]
- [http://www.superbgreece.com Greece travel information]
- [http://www.phigita.net/ Greek Blogs and News]
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/Greece/ Open Directory Project: Greece]
- [http://www.olympion.de/greek-embassies-worldwide.html A list of Greek Embassies Worldwide]
- [http://ozhanozturk.com/content/view/374/1/ History of Ottoman Greece]

Other official sites

- [http://www.presidency.gr/en/index.htm President of the Hellenic Republic]
- [http://www.greece.gr/index.htm Greece Now Government sponsored e-zine on Greek life]
- [http://www.primeminister.gr/gr/lang/en/primeminister.asp Prime Minister of Greece]
- [http://www.parliament.gr/english/default.asp Hellenic Parliament] Category:European Union member states roa-rup:Gârţii zh-min-nan:Hi-lia̍p ko:그리스 ms:Yunani ja:ギリシャ simple:Greece th:ประเทศกรีซ fiu-vro:Kriika

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia (Czech: Československo, Slovak: Česko-Slovensko/before 1990 Československo, German: Tschechoslowakei) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1992 (except for the World War II period). On January 1, 1993, it peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in what was known as the Velvet Divorce, by analogy with the Velvet Revolution.

Československo

100px	Coat of Arms (see the article)
(In Detail)

National motto: (1918–1989) Pravda vítězí (Czech: Truth prevails)
(1989–1992) Veritas Vincit
(Latin: Truth prevails)

Image:LocationCzechoslovakia.png

Official languages

Czech and Slovak

Capital

Prague

Area (1991)

127,900 km²

Population (1991)

15,600,000
Czechs 54.1%, Slovaks 31%, Moravians 8.7%, Hungarians 3.8%, Gypsies 0.7%

Currency

Czechoslovak crown (Kčs) = 100 halers

Time zone

UTC+1

National anthem

Kde domov můj + Nad Tatrou sa blýska

ISO 3166-1

CS (obsolete)

Internet TLD

.cs (obsolete, as .cz and .sk were assigned to the two countries resulting from the split)

Basic characteristics

Form of state:
- 1918–1968 (except for 1938–1945): a centralized country;
- 1969–1992: a federal republic consisting of the Czech Socialist Republic (1990–1992: Czech Republic) and the Slovak Socialist Republic (1990–1992: Slovak Republic);
- 1918–1939 and 1945–1948 and 1990–1992: a democratic republic
- 1939–1945: split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic (WWII)
- 1948–1989: a Communist country with a centrally planned economy Neighbors: Germany (1945–1990: West Germany and East Germany), Poland, Soviet Union (1992: Ukraine), Romania (until 1939), Hungary, Austria Topography: Generally irregular terrain. Western area is part of north-central European uplands. Eastern region is composed of northern reaches of Carpathian Mountains and Danube Basin lands. Climate: Predominantly continental but varied from moderate temperatures of Western Europe in the west to more severe weather systems affecting Eastern Europe and the western Soviet Union in the east.

Official names

- 1918–1920: Czecho-Slovak Republic or Czechoslovak Republic (abbreviated RČS); short form Czecho-Slovakia or rarely Czechoslovakia
- 1920–1938 and 1945–1960: Czechoslovak Republic (ČSR [initially abbreviated RČS]); short form Czechoslovakia
- 1938–1939: Czecho-Slovak Republic; Czecho-Slovakia
- 1960–1990: Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR); Czechoslovakia
- April 1990: Czechoslovak Federative Republic (Czech version) and Czecho-Slovak Federative Republic (Slovak version),
- afterwards: Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (ČSFR, with the short forms Czechoslovakia (Czech version) and Czecho-Slovakia (Slovak version))

Coat of arms

:1920–1945: [http://193.85.166.213/historie/znaky/cs18znm.gif] small version, [http://193.85.166.213/historie/znaky/cs18zns.gif] middle version, [http://193.85.166.213/historie/znaky/cs18znv.gif] big version :1945–1960: [http://193.85.166.213/historie/znaky/cs18znm.gif] :1960–1990: [http://193.85.166.213/historie/znaky/cs60znm.gif] :1990–1992: [http://193.85.166.213/historie/znaky/cs90zn.gif]

History

Main article: History of Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia arose in October 1918 as one of the succession states of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I. It consisted of the present-day territories of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and (until 1939/29 June 1945) the Carpathian Ruthenia (Carpatho-Ukraine). Its territory included some of the most industrialized regions of the former Austria-Hungary, it was a democratic republic throughout the pre-World War II period, but was characterized by ethnic problems. The ethnic problems were due to the fact that the second and third largest ethnic groups (Germans and Slovaks, respectively) were not satisfied with the political and economic dominance of the Czechs, and that most Germans and Hungarians of Czechoslovakia never really accepted the creation of the new state. Many Germans, Hungarians and Poles, but also some Slovaks, felt disadvantaged in Czechoslovakia, because the political elite of the country introduced a centralised state and most of the time did not allow political autonomy for the ethnic groups. This policy, combined with increasing Nazi propaganda especially in the industrialised German speaking Sudetenland, led to increasing unrest among the Non-Czech population. Before WWII, Czechoslovakia became Hitler's target. After the Munich Agreement of 1938, Hitler's troops occupied the ethnic-German border regions of Bohemia and Moravia (the Sudetenland), Hungary received territory in southern Slovakia, and the Slovak and Ruthene regions received an autonomous status for a while. Finally Czechoslovakia ceased to exist in March 1939, when Hitler occupied the remainder of the Bohemian lands and (the remaining) Slovakia was forced to declare independence. During the Second World War the Bohemian lands were designated the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and were ruled directly by the German state. The newly independent Slovak state became an ally of Nazi Germany. Slovakia's troops fought on the Russian front until the summer of 1944, when the Slovak armed forces staged an uprising against their government. German forces crushed this uprising after several months of fighting. After World War II, pre-war Czechoslovakia was reestablished, all Germans were expelled from the country and Ruthenia was occupied by (and ultimately ceded to) the Soviet Union. Three years later the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia seized power (1948–1989) following a parliamentary election in which the Communists emerged as the winner and the country came under the influence of the Soviet Union. Except for a short period in the late 1960s (the Prague Spring) the country was characterized by the absence of democracy and relative economic backwardness compared to Western Europe, although its economy remained more advanced than those of its neighbors in Eastern Europe. In the religious sphere, atheism was officially promoted and taught. In 1969, Czechoslovakia was turned into a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic. Under the federation, social and economic inequities between the Czech and Slovak halves of the state were largely eliminated. In 1989, the country became a democratic country again through the Velvet revolution. In 1992, the federal parliament decided to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as of January 1, 1993.

From creation to dissolution – Overview

Heads of State and Government

- List of Presidents of Czechoslovakia
- List of Prime Ministers of Czechoslovakia
- see also Communist Party of Czechoslovakia — Leaders

International agreements and membership

After WWII, active participant in Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), Warsaw Pact, United Nations and its specialized agencies, and Movement of Nonaligned Nations; signatory of conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia
- 1918–1923: different systems on former Austrian territory (Bohemia, Moravia, small part of Silesia) and on former Hungarian territory (Slovakia and Ruthenia): 3 lands [země] (also called district units [obvody]) Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia + 21 counties [župy] in today's Slovakia + 2? counties in today's Ruthenia; both lands and counties were divided in districts [okresy]
- 1923–1927: like above, except that the above counties were replaced by 6 (grand) counties [(veľ)župy] in today's Slovakia and 1 (grand) county in today's Ruthenia, and the number and frontiers of the okresy were changed on these 2 territories
- 1928–1938: 4 lands [in Czech: země / in Slovak: krajiny]: Bohemia, Moravia-Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia; divided in districts [okresy]
- late 1938–March 1939: like above, but Slovakia and Ruthenia were promoted to "autonomous lands"
- 1945–1948: like 1928–1938, except that Ruthenia became part of the Soviet Union
- 1949–1960: 19 regions [kraje] divided in 270 districts [okresy]
- 1960–1992: 10 regions [kraje], Prague, and (since 1970) Bratislava; divided in 109–114 districts [okresy]; the kraje were abolished temporarily in Slovakia in 1969–1970 and for many functions since 1991 in Czechoslovakia; in addition, the two republics Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic were established in 1969 (without the word Socialist since 1990)

Population and ethnic groups

Main article: Population and Ethnic Groups of Czechoslovakia

Religion

Main article: Religion in Communist Czechoslovakia In 1991: Roman Catholics 46.4%, Evangelic Lutheran 5.3%, Atheist 29.5%, n/a 16.7%, but there were huge differences between the 2 constituent republics – see Czech Republic and Slovakia

Health, social welfare and housing

Main article: Health and Social Welfare in Communist Czechoslovakia After WWII, free health care available to all citizens. National health planning emphasized preventive medicine; factory and local health-care centers supplement hospitals and other inpatient institutions. Substantial improvement in rural health care in 1960s and 1970s.

Politics

Main articles: Czechoslovakia: 1918 - 1938 and Politics of Communist Czechoslovakia After WWII, monopoly on politics held by Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Gustáv Husák elected first secretary of KSC in 1969 (changed to general secretary in 1971) and president of Czechoslovakia in 1975. Other parties and organizations existed but functioned in subordinate roles to KSC. All political parties, as well as numerous mass organizations, grouped under umbrella of National Front of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Human rights activists and religious activists severely repressed

Government

Main article: Government structure of Communist Czechoslovakia

Constitutional development

Czechoslovakia had the following constitutions throughout its history (1918 – 1992):
- Temporary Constitution of November 14 1918 [democratic], see: Czechoslovakia: 1918 - 1938
- The 1920 Constitution (The Constitutional Document of the Czechoslovak Republic) [democratic, in force till 1948, several amendments], see: Czechoslovakia: 1918 - 1938
- The 1948 Constitution (The Ninth-of-May Constitution) [a Communist one]
- The 1960 Constitution (The Constitution of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic) [a Communist one till 1989] with amendments in 1968 (Czechoslovakia turned into a federation), 1971, 1975, 1978, 1989 (leading role of the KSC abolished) and several times during 1990-1992 (e. g. 1990 change of the name of Czechoslovakia, 1991 incorporation of the human rights charter)

Society and social groups

Main article: Society of Communist Czechoslovakia

Education

Main article: Education in Czechoslovakia Education free at all levels and compulsory from age six to sixteen. Vast majority of population literate. Highly developed system of apprenticeship training and vocational schools supplemented general secondary schools and institutions of higher education

Resource base

Main article: Resource base of Communist Czechoslovakia After WWII, country energy short, relying on imported crude oil and natural gas from Soviet Union, domestic brown coal, and nuclear and hydroelectric energy. Energy constraints a major factor in 1980s.

Economy, foreign trade and financial system

Main articles: Economy of Communist Czechoslovakia and Economic History of Communist Czechoslovakia After WWII, economy centrally planned with command links controlled by communist party, similar to Soviet Union. Large metallurgical industry but dependent on imports for iron and nonferrous ores.
- Industry: Extractive and manufacturing industries dominated sector. Major branches included machinery, chemicals, food processing, metallurgy, and textiles. Industry wasteful of energy, materials, and labor and slow to upgrade technology, but country source of high-quality machinery and arms for other communist countries.
- Agriculture: Minor sector but supplied bulk of food needs. Dependent on large imports of grains (mainly for livestock feed) in years of adverse weather. Meat production constrained by shortage of feed, but high per capita consumption of meat.
- Foreign Trade: Exports estimated at US$17.8 billion in 1985, of which 55 percent machinery, 14 percent fuels and materials, 16 percent manufactured consumer goods. Imports at estimated US$17.9 billion in 1985, of which 41 percent fuels and materials, 33 percent machinery, 12 percent agricultural and forestry products other. In 1986, about 80 percent of foreign trade with communist countries.
- Exchange Rate: Official, or commercial, rate Kcs 5.4 per US$1 in 1987; tourist, or noncommercial, rate Kcs 10.5 per US$1. Neither rate reflected purchasing power. The exchange rate on the black market was around Kcs 30 per US$1, and this rate became the official one once the currency became convertible in the early 1990s.
- Fiscal Year: Calendar year.
- Fiscal Policy: State almost exclusive owner of means of production. Revenues from state enterprises primary source of revenues followed by turnover tax. Large budget expenditures on social programs, subsidies, and investments. Budget usually balanced or small surplus.

Transportation and communications

Main article: Transportation in Czechoslovakia

Mass media

Main article: Mass media in Communist Czechoslovakia

Sports

The Czechoslovakia national football team was a consistent performer in the international scene, with 8 appearances in the FIFA World Cup Finals, finishing in second-place in 1934 and 1962. The team also won the European Football Championship in 1976. The Czechoslovakian national ice hockey team has won many medals from the world championships and olympic games. The famous tennis players Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova were born in Czechoslovakia.

Culture

See:
- Czech Republic, Slovakia
- List of Czechs, List of Slovaks
- MDŽ

Postage Stamps

Czechoslovakia's first issue [http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/armada/367/czecfirs.htm]

Palestine (region)

Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين Filasṭīn or Falasṭīn, Greek: Παλαιστίνη Palaistinē, Latin: Syria Palæstina, Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina or ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael) is the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the banks of the Jordan River, plus various adjoining lands to the east. Many different definitions of the region have been used in the past three millennia (see also definitions of Palestine).

Boundaries and Name

definitions of Palestine Egyptian writings refer to the region as R-t-n-u (for convenience pronounced Rechenu). Several names for the region are found in the Bible: Eretz Yisrael "Land of Israel", Eretz Ha-Ivrim "land of the Hebrews", "land flowing with milk and honey", "land that [God] swore to your fathers to assign to you", "Holy Land", and "land of the Lord". The portion of the land lying west of the Jordan was also called "land of Canaan" during the period in which it fell under the control of Egyptian vassals traditionally descended from Canaan the son of Ham. After the division of the Jewish kingdom into two the southern part was called "land of Judah" and the northern part was called "land of Israel". The name "Palestine" comes from the Philistine people, who are first recorded by the ancient Egyptians as P-r/l-s-t (conventionally Peleset), one of the Sea Peoples who invaded Egypt in Ramesses III's reign. "Palestine" (Hebrew פלשת Pəléšeth, P(e)léshet) is used in the Bible to denote the coastal region inhabited by the Philistines, whose five principal cities were Gaza, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Ashkelon. Usage of the term, usually in the form "Syria Palestina", to denote the inland areas as well was common among Greek writers as early as Herodotus. Josephus, however, apparently intended by the name only the land of the Philistines. The Philistines (meaning "invaders" in Hebrew) were subjugated by David; however, by Amos' time they had regained their independence. They are no longer mentioned by Assyrian times.

5th century B.C.E.

The term "Syria Palaestina" is first recorded by the 5th century B.C.E. Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote of the "district of Syria, called Palaistinêi", and later Ptolemy and Pliny (who alludes to a region of Syria that was "formerly called Palaestina"), to refer to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean; it is generally accepted that the region they referred to extended further inland than the domain of the Philistines.

Roman times

In 135, the Roman emperor Hadrian changed the name of the Roman province of Syria Judea to Syria Palaestina, which is the Latin version of the Greek name, and it became an administrative political unit within the Roman Empire, following the fall of a Jewish revolt led by Bar Kokhba in 132-135. In approximately 390, Palaestina was further organised into three units: First, Second, and Third Palaestina. Palastina Prima consisted of Judea, Samaria, the coast, and Peraea which the governor residing in Caesarea. Palaestina Secunda consisted of the Galilee, the lower Jezreel Valley, the regions east of Galilee, and the western part of the former Decapolis with the seat of government at Scythopolis. Palaestina Tertia included the Negev, southern Jordan — once part of Arabia — and most of Sinai with Petra the usual residence of the governor. Palestina Tertia was also known as Palaestina Salutaris. This reorganization reduced Arabia to the northern Jordan east of Peraea. Roman administration of Palestine ended temporarily during the Persian occupation of 614-28, then permanently after the Arabs conquered the region beginning in 635.

Arab rule

Petra The new Arab rulers divided the province of ash-Sham (Syria) into five districts. Jund Filastin (Arabic جند فلسطين, literally "the army or military district of Palestine") was a region extending from the Sinai to south of the plain of Acre. At times it reached down into the Sinai. Major towns included Rafaḥ, Caesarea, Gaza, Jaffa, Nablus, Jericho, Ramla and Jerusalem. Initially Ludd (Lydda) was the capital, but in 717 it was moved to the new city of ar-Ramlah (Ramla). (The capital was not moved to Jerusalem until much later, when the organization into Junds was already breaking down.) Jund al-Urdunn (literally "Jordan") was a region to the north and east of Filastin. Major towns included Tiberias, Legio, Acre, Beisan and Tyre. The capital was at Tiberias. Various political upheavals led to readjustments of the boundaries several times. After the 10th century, the division into Junds began to break down and the Turkish invasions of the 1070s, soon followed by the Crusades and the establishment of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, completed that process. From the 11th to the 19th centuries we have instances that Filasṭin did not refer to the land of Palestine but to its by then defunct capital ar-Ramla.
- See also the [http://www.mideastweb.org/palcaliph1.htm Mideastweb map of "Palestine Under the Caliphs"], showing Jund boundaries (external link).

Muslim division into districts

After Muslim control over Palestine was reestablished in the 12th and 13th centuries, the division into districts was reinstated, with boundaries that were frequently rewritten. Around the end of the 13th century, Palestine comprised several of nine "kingdoms" of Syria, namely the Kingdoms of Gaza (including Ascalon and Hebron), Karak (including Jaffa and Legio), Safad (including Safad, Acre, Sidon and Tyre) and parts of the Kingdom of Damascus (sometimes extending as far south as Jerusalem). By the middle of the 14th century, Syria had again been divided into five districts, of which Filastin included Jerusalem (its capital), Ramla, Ascalon, Hebron and Nablus, while Hauran included Tiberias (its capital).

Ottoman rule

After the Ottoman conquest, the name disappeared as the official name of an administrative district but remained in popular and semi-official use. Many examples of its usage in the 16th and 17th centuries have survived [Gerber]. During the 19th century, the "Ottoman Government employed the term Arz-i Filistin (the 'Land of Palestine') in official correspondence, meaning for all intents and purposes the area to the west of the River Jordan which became 'Palestine' under the British in 1922" [Mandel, page xx]. Amongst the educated Arab public, Filastin was a common concept, referring either to the whole of Palestine or to the Jerusalem sanjaq alone [Porath].

20th Century

In European usage up to World War I, the name "Palestine" was used informally for a region that extended in the north-south direction typically from Raphia (south-east of Gaza) to the Litani River (now in Lebanon). The western boundary was the sea, and the eastern boundary was the poorly-defined place where the Syrian desert began. In various European sources, the eastern boundary was placed anywhere from the Jordan River to slightly east of Amman. The Negev Desert was not included. [Biger] Under the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, most of Palestine was envisioned as an international zone not under direct French or British colonial control. [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/sykes-picot-1916.gif]

British Mandate

1916 Main article: British Mandate of Palestine Formal use of the English word "Palestine" returned with the British Mandate. During this period , the name "Eretz Yisrael" (Hebrew: ארץ ישראל) was also part of the official name of the territory. Between 1920 and 1922, Palestine was defined by the San Remo Conference as the area bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and a short stretch of Red Sea coastline between the latter two. These borders include all of present-day Israel, the West Bank. the Gaza Strip, and Jordan. [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/pal-mandate-sremo-1922.gif][http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/palmanda.htm]. However, the final text left the borders unspecified (note in particular Article 25.) After Transjordan was split off from Palestine in 1922, the term Palestine referred to the segment west of the Jordan river [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/pal-transjrdn-1922.gif] (see History of Palestine, History of Jordan). Even before the Mandate came into legal effect in 1922 (text), British terminology applied the word Palestine to the part west of the Jordan River and Trans-Jordan (or Transjordania) to the part east of the Jordan River. This terminology was applied consistently during the Mandate period and it is difficult to find any official documents that use any name other than "Palestine and Trans-Jordan" when referring to the whole area of the Mandate. Nevertheless, the fact that "Palestine" was once considered to include lands on the east side of the Jordan River continues even today to have significance in political discourse. Between 1922 and 1947, the term "Palestine" referred to the geographical region bordered by (Trans-)Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and the Mediterranean Sea [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/pal-transjrdn-1922.gif] [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/images/israel03.jpg].

UN Partition

text Main article: 1947 UN Partition Plan Under the 1947 UN Partition Plan, Palestine was to be divided into two states of approximately equal size, one for Jews and one for Arabs, as well as the city of Jerusalem, which was to be administered by the UN [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/images/israel04.jpg]. The Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states rejected the partition plan, and attacked the newly declared state of Israel in 1948. An independent Arab Palestine was declared by a Palestinian National Congress meeting in Gaza in September 1948; it defined its borders as those of the British Mandate, and its capital as Jerusalem[http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/peace%20process/guide%20to%20the%20peace%20process/why%20was%20-independent%20palestine-%20never%20created%20in%201]. A week later, the Jordan-backed rival First Palestinian Congress convened in Amman and denounced the Gaza "government".

Current status

Amman Amman Amman Following the 1949 armistice agreement between Israel and neighboring Arab states, Palestine disappeared as a distinct territory. The territory previously known as Palestine was occupied by Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/images/israel05.jpg] [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/israel-post-armstice-1949.gif] In the course of 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Israel captured an additional 26% of the Mandate territory west of the Jordan river and annexed it to the new state. Known as al-Nakba (the catastrophe) to Palestinians, the 1948 war resulted in the destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages and the exodus of over 700,000 refugees. Jordan captured about 21% of the Mandate territory (which became known as the West Bank), including parts of Jerusalem that included the old city and eastern environments and separated the city into West and East Jerusalem. The Gaza Strip was captured by Egypt. After 1948, the term "Palestine" was regularly used in political contexts. Various declarations, such as the 1988 proclamation of a State of Palestine by the PLO referred to a country called Palestine, defining its borders with differing degrees of clarity. Most recently, the Palestine draft constitution refers to borders based on the West Bank and Gaza Strip prior to the 1967 Six-Day War. This so-called Green Line follows the 1949 armistice line; the permanent borders are yet to be negotiated. Furthermore, since 1994, there has been a Palestinian Authority controlling varying portions of historic Palestine.

Literature

- Mariam Shahin, Palestine - a Guide, Interlink Books 2005
- Gideon Biger, Where was Palestine? Pre-World War I perception, AREA (Journal of the Institute of British Geographers) Vol 13, No. 2 (1981) 153-160.
- Guy Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems (1890; reprinted by Khayats, 1965)
- N. J. Mandel, The Arabs and Zionism before World War I (University of Califormia Press, 1976)
- H. Gerber, "Palestine" and other territorial concepts in the 17th century, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol 30 (1998) pp 563-572
- Y. Porath, The emergence of the Palestinian-Arab national movement, 1918-1929 (Cass, 1974)
- B. Doumani, Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus 1700-1900 (UC Press, 1995)

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