A note: don't mix the ethnicities, language groups, genetics of human populations, culture, and other concepts. These are different things and English/French/German/Russian/Chinese/Japanese/Turkish/etc. can mean: language, culture, ethnicity, genetics, etc. and these are (sometimes very) different topics. People learn languages, new cultures and have families with people from other languages, ethnicities, cultures, genetic backgrounds...
Historical revisionism: “History is a continuing dialogue between the present and the past. Interpretations of the past are subject to change in response to new evidence, new questions asked of the evidence, new perspectives gained by the passage of time. There is no single, eternal, and immutable "truth" about past events and their meaning. The unending quest of historians for understanding the past—that is, "revisionism"—is what makes history vital and meaningful.” historian James McPherson. E.g. change in notion of: The "Dark Ages", concept of "feudalism", alchemy as contributed to chemistry, ..., WWI, WWII (German guilt or no guilt)...
List of ongoing armed conflicts: current biggest: 1. Russo-Ukrainian War. Others: Syrian Civil War, Afghanistan conflict, Mexican drug war, Yemeni civil war (ex-Yemeni Crisis), Ethiopian civil conflict, Internal conflict in Myanmar, 2023 Sudan conflict, Tigray War.
List of wars by death toll: 1. WWII. Others: WWI, Transition from Ming to Qing, Mongol invasions and conquests, An Lushan Rebellion, Conquests of Timur, Three Kingdoms War. The biggest density (currently PRC, China) caused the most deaths in most of the wars - 4/8 big wars were exclusively Chinese-only wars / 'civil wars'.
Palace economy: system of economic organization in which a substantial share of the wealth flows into the control of a centralized administration, the palace, and out from there to the general population, which may be allowed its own sources of income but relies heavily on the wealth redistributed by the palace.
Demographics of the world: Nearly 60% of the world's population lives in Asia, with more than 2.7 billion in the countries of China and India combined. The percentage share of India, China and rest of South Asia in world population have remained on similar levels for the last few thousands years of recorded history. The world's literacy rate has increased dramatically in the last 40 years, from 66.7% in 1979 to 86.3% today. The world's population is predominantly urban and suburban, and there has been significant migration toward cities and urban centres. The urban population jumped from 29% in 1950 to 55.3% in 2018. Shares of world population, AD 1–1998 (% of world total).
Prehistory: period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 mya and the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared c. 5000 years ago and it took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted. In some human cultures, writing systems were not used until 19th c. and, in a few, are not even used until the present. The end of prehistory therefore came at very different dates in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. Sumer in Mesopotamia, the Indus valley civilization, and ancient Egypt were the first civilizations to develop their own scripts and to keep historical records; this took place already during the early Bronze Age. Neighboring civilizations were the first to follow. Most other civilizations reached the end of prehistory during the Iron Age. The three-age system of division of prehistory into the Stone Age, followed by the Bronze Age and Iron Age, remains in use for much of Eurasia and North Africa, but is not generally used in those parts of the world where the working of hard metals arrived abruptly from contact with Eurasian cultures, such as Oceania, Australasia, much of Sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of the Americas. With some exceptions in pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas, these areas did not develop complex writing systems before the arrival of Eurasians, so their prehistory reaches into relatively recent periods; for example, 1788 is usually taken as the end of the prehistory of Australia.
Archaic humans: a number of varieties of Homo are grouped into the broad category of archaic humans in the period that precedes and is contemporary to the emergence of the earliest early modern humans (Homo sapiens) around 300 ka. Omo-Kibish I (Omo I) from southern Ethiopia (196 ± 5 ka) and the remains from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco (about 315 ka) and Florisbad in South Africa (259 ka) are among the earliest remains of Homo sapiens. The term typically includes Homo neanderthalensis (430±25 ka), Denisovans, Homo rhodesiensis (300–125 ka), Homo heidelbergensis (600–200 ka), Homo naledi, Homo ergaster, and Homo antecessor. Archaic humans had a brain size averaging 1,200 to 1,400 cm³, which overlaps with the range of modern humans. Archaics are distinguished from anatomically modern humans by having a thick skull, prominent supraorbital ridges (brow ridges) and the lack of a prominent chin.
Behavioral modernity: suite of behavioral and cognitive traits that distinguishes current Homo sapiens from other anatomically modern humans, hominins, and primates. Most scholars agree that modern human behavior can be characterized by abstract thinking, planning depth, symbolic behavior (e.g., art, ornamentation), music and dance, exploitation of large game, and blade technology, among others. Underlying these behaviors and technological innovations are cognitive and cultural foundations that have been documented experimentally and ethnographically by evolutionary and cultural anthropologists. These human universal patterns include cumulative cultural adaptation, social norms, language, and extensive help and cooperation beyond close kin. Arising from differences in the archaeological record, debate continues as to whether anatomically modern humans were behaviorally modern as well. There are many theories on the evolution of behavioral modernity. These generally fall into two camps: gradualist and cognitive approaches. The Later Upper Paleolithic Model theorises that modern human behavior arose through cognitive, genetic changes in Africa abruptly around 40,000–50,000 years ago around the time of the Out-of-Africa migration, prompting the movement of modern humans out of Africa and across the world. Other models focus on how modern human behavior may have arisen through gradual steps, with the archaeological signatures of such behavior appearing only through demographic or subsistence-based changes. Many cite evidence of behavioral modernity earlier (by at least about 150,000–75,000 years ago and possibly earlier) namely in the African Middle Stone Age. Theories and models: Late Upper Paleolithic Model or "Upper Paleolithic Revolution"; Alternative models (researchers describe how anatomically modern humans could have been cognitively the same and what we define as behavioral modernity is just the result of thousands of years of cultural adaptation and learning).
Archaeological culture: recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on archaeologists' understanding and interpretation and does not necessarily relate to real groups of humans in the past.
Stone Age: broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 mln years, and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking. Starting from about 4 mya a single biome established itself from South Africa through the rift, North Africa, and across Asia to modern China, which has been called "transcontinental 'savannahstan'" recently. Starting in the grasslands of the rift, Homo erectus, the predecessor of modern humans, found an ecological niche as a tool-maker and developed a dependence on it, becoming a "tool equipped savanna dweller." The transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age was a period during which modern people could smelt copper, but did not yet manufacture bronze, a time known as the Copper Age, or more technically the Chalcolithic, "copper-stone" age. The end of Oldowan in Africa was brought on by the appearance of Acheulean, or Mode 2, stone tools. The earliest known instances are in the 1.7–1.6 mya layer at Kokiselei, West Turkana, Kenya. At Sterkfontein, South Africa, they are in Member 5 West, 1.7–1.4 mya. In contrast to the Oldowan "small flake" tradition, Acheulean is "large flake:" "The primary technological distinction remaining between Oldowan and the Acheulean is the preference for large flakes (>10 cm) as blanks for making large cutting tools (handaxes and cleavers) in the Acheulean."
Movius Line: Movius had noticed that assemblages of palaeolithic stone tools from sites east of northern India never contained handaxes and tended to be characterised by less formal implements known as chopping tools. These were sometimes as extensively worked as the Acheulean tools from further west but could not be described as true handaxes. Movius then drew a line on a map of India to show where the difference occurred, dividing the tools of Africa, Europe and Western and Southern Asia from those of Eastern and South-eastern Asia.
Lower Paleolithic (c. 3.3 Ma – 300 ka): earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. From the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in the current archaeological record, spanning the Oldowan ("mode 1") and Acheulean ("mode 2") lithics industries. In African archaeology, the time period roughly corresponds to the Early Stone Age, the earliest finds dating back to 3.3 Ma, with Lomekwian stone tool technology, spanning Mode 1 stone tool technology, which begins roughly 2.6 Ma and ends between 400 ka and 250 ka, with Mode 2 technology. Whether the earliest control of fire by hominins dates to the Lower or to the Middle Paleolithic remains an open question.
Upper Paleolithic (50,000 to 12,000 BP): third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity in early modern humans, until the advent of the Neolithic Revolution and agriculture.
Mesolithic (20,000 to 8,000 BP (Southwest Asia); 15,000–5,000 BP (Europe)): Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas, but it is associated with a decline in the group hunting of large animals in favour of a broader hunter-gatherer way of life, and the development of more sophisticated and typically smaller lithic tools and weapons than the heavy-chipped equivalents typical of the Paleolithic. Depending on the region, some use of pottery and textiles may be found in sites allocated to the Mesolithic, but generally indications of agriculture are taken as marking transition into the Neolithic.
Epipalaeolithic (20,000 to 10,000 BP): term for a period occurring between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic during the Stone Age. Mesolithic also falls between these two periods, and the two are sometimes confused or used as synonyms. More often, they are distinct, referring to approximately the same period of time in different geographic areas. Epipaleolithic always includes this period in the Levant and, often, the rest of the Near East. It sometimes includes parts of Southeast Europe, where Mesolithic is much more commonly used. Mesolithic very rarely includes the Levant or the Near East; in Europe, Epipalaeolithic is used, though not very often, to refer to the early Mesolithic.
Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer (SHG): is the name given to a distinct ancestral component that represents descent from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of Scandinavia. Genetic studies suggest that the SHGs were a mix of WHGs initially populating Scandinavia from the south during the Holocene, and EHGs, who later entered Scandinavia from the north along the Norwegian coast. During the Neolithic, they admixed further with EEFs and WSHs. Genetic continuity has been detected between the SHGs and members of PWC, and to a certain degree, between SHGs and modern northern Europeans.
Western Hunter-Gatherer (WHG): name given to a distinct ancestral component that represents descent from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of Western, Southern and Central Europe. During the Mesolithic, the WHGs inhabited an area stretching from the British Isles in the west to the Carpathians in the east. Physical appearance: Whole-genome analysis indicates that WHGs had blue eyes, dark brown or black hair, and skin color varying from intermediate to dark-to-black.
Ancient North Eurasian (ANE): The ANE lineage is defined by association with MA-1, or "Mal'ta boy", the remains of an individual who lived during the Last Glacial Maximum, 24,000 years ago in central Siberia, discovered in the 1920s. The ANE population has been described as having been "basal to modern day western Eurasians" but not especially related to east Asians, and is suggested to have perhaps originated in Europe or Western Asia. According to Lazaridis et al. 2014, the common ancestor of ANEs and WHGs separated from eastern Eurasians around 40,000 BC, and ANEs split from WHGs around 22,000 BC (ANE is also described as a lineage "which is deeply related to Paleolithic/Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe..."). According to a study by Kanazawa-Kiriyama et al. (2017), MA-1/Mal'ta also carried an East Eurasian-related component (contributing around 21% of his ancestry), with the rest being west Eurasian-related.
Eastern Hunter-Gatherer (EHG): name given to a distinct ancestral component that represents descent from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of Eastern Europe; EHGs inhabited an area stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Urals and downwards to the Pontic-Caspian steppe. The EHGs are believed to have been light-skinned and brown eyed.
Caucasus hunter-gatherer (CHG): anatomically modern human genetic lineage, first identified in a 2015 study, based on the population genetics of several modern Western Eurasian (European, Caucasian and Near Eastern) populations. CHG lineage descended from a population that split off the base Western Eurasian lineage around 45,000 years ago, that descended separately to Ust'-Ishim man, Oase1 and European hunter-gatherers; and separated from the "Early Anatolian Farmers" (EAF) lineage later, at 25,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum.
Western Steppe Herders (WSH; Western Steppe Pastoralists): name given to a distinct ancestral component that represents descent closely related to the Yamnaya culture of the Pontic-Caspian steppe. This ancestry is often referred to as Yamnaya Ancestry, Yamnaya-Related Ancestry, Steppe Ancestry or Steppe-Related Ancestry. WSHs are considered descended from EHGs who received some admixture from CHGs during the Neolithic. The Y-DNA of the WSHs was mostly types of R1a and R1b, which are EHG lineages, suggesting that CHG admixture among the WSHs came through EHG males mixing with CHG females. Around 3,000 BC, people of the Yamnaya culture, who belonged to the WSH cluster, embarked on a massive expansion throughout Eurasia, which might have resulted in the dispersal of Indo-European languages. WSH ancestry from this period is often referred to as Steppe Early and Middle Bronze Age (Steppe EMBA) ancestry.
Early European Farmers (EFF; First European Farmers (FEF), Neolithic European Farmers or Ancient Aegean Farmers (ANF)): names given to a distinct ancestral component that represents descent from early Neolithic farmers of Europe. Ancestors of EEFs are believed to have split off from WHGs around 43,000 BC, and to have split from CHGs around 23,000 BC. They appear to have migrated from Anatolia to the Balkans in large numbers during the 7th millennium BC, where they almost completely replaced the WHGs. The Y-DNA of EEFs was typically types of haplogroup G2a, and to a lesser extent H, T, J, C1a2 and E1b1, while their mtDNA was diverse. In the Balkans, the EEFs appear to have divided into two wings, who expanded further west into Europe along the Danube (Linear Pottery culture) or the western Mediterranean (Cardial Ware). Large parts of Northern Europe and Eastern Europe nevertheless remained unsettled by EEFs. During the Middle Neolithic there was a largely male-driven resurgence of WHG ancestry among many EEF-derived communities, leading to increasing frequencies of the hunter-gatherer paternal haplogroups among them.
Megalith: large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The word was first used in 1849 by the British antiquarian Algernon Herbert in reference to Stonehenge and derives from the Ancient Greek.
Archaeoastronomy (archeoastronomy): interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultures". Clive Ruggles argues it is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern astronomy is a scientific discipline, while archaeoastronomy considers symbolically rich cultural interpretations of phenomena in the sky by other cultures.
Göbekli Tepe (Turkish: "Potbelly Hill"; Girê Mirazan or Xirabreşkê in Kurdish): Neolithic archaeological site near the city of Şanlıurfa in Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey. Dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, between c. 9500 and 8000 BCE, the site comprises a number of large circular structures supported by massive stone pillars – the world's oldest known megaliths. Many of these pillars are richly decorated with abstract anthropomorphic details, clothing, and reliefs of wild animals, providing archaeologists rare insights into prehistoric religion and the particular iconography of the period. The 15 m-high, 8 ha tell also includes many smaller rectangular buildings, quarries, and stone-cut cisterns from the Neolithic, as well as some traces of activity from later periods.
Pitted Ware culture (PWC; c. 3500 BCE – c. 2300 BCE): hunter-gatherer culture in southern Scandinavia, mainly along the coasts of Svealand, Götaland, Åland, north-eastern Denmark and southern Norway. Despite its Mesolithic economy, it is by convention classed as Neolithic, since it falls within the period in which farming reached Scandinavia. The Pitted Ware people were largely maritime hunters, and were engaged in lively trade with both the agricultural communities of the Scandinavian interior and other hunter-gatherers of the Baltic Sea. Descended from earlier SHGs
Funnelbeaker culture (Funnel(-neck-)beaker culture; TRB or TBK; German: Trichter(-rand-)becherkultur, Dutch: Trechterbekercultuur; Danish: Tragtbægerkultur; c. 4300 BC–c. 2800 BC): archaeological culture in north-central Europe.
Old Europe (archaeology): term coined by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas to describe what she perceived as a relatively homogeneous pre-Indo-European Neolithic culture in southeastern Europe located in the Danube River valley, also known as Danubian culture. Archaeologists and ethnographers working within her framework believe that the evidence points to later migrations and invasions of the peoples who spoke Indo-European languages at the beginning of the Bronze age (the Kurgan hypothesis).
Bond event: North Atlantic ice rafting events that are tentatively linked to climate fluctuations in the Holocene. Eight such events have been identified. Bond events were previously believed to exhibit a quasi c. 1,500-year cycle, but the primary period of variability is now put at c. 1,000 years.
8.2 kiloyear event: sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present, or c. 6,200 BC, and which lasted for the next two to four centuries. During the event, atmospheric methane concentration decreased by 80 ppb, an emission reduction of 15%, by cooling and drying at a hemispheric scale.
5.9 kiloyear event: one of the most intense aridification events during the Holocene. It occurred around 3900 BC (5900 years Before Present), ending the Neolithic Subpluvial. associated with the last round of the Sahara pump theory, and probably initiated the most recent desiccation of the Sahara, as well as a five century period of colder climate in more northerly latitudes. It triggered human migration to the Nile, which eventually led to the emergence of the first complex, highly organized, state-level societies in the 4th millennium BC. It may have contributed to the decline of Old Europe and the first Indo-European migrations into the Balkans from the Pontic–Caspian steppe.
4.2 kiloyear event: one of the most severe climatic events of the Holocene period. Starting in about 2200 BC, it probably lasted the entire 22nd century BC. It has been hypothesised to have caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt as well as the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, and the Liangzhu culture in the lower Yangtze River area. The drought may also have initiated the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization, and southeastward habitat tracking of its population, as well as the migration of Indo-European speaking people into India.
Terramare culture (1700-1150 BC): technology complex mainly of the central Po valley, in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy.
Map of the world showing approximate centres of origin of agriculture and its spread in prehistory: eastern USA (4000-3000 BP), Central Mexico (5000-4000 BP), Northern South America (5000-4000 BP), sub-Saharan Africa (5000-4000 BP, exact location unknown), the Fertile Crescent (11000 BP), the Yangtze and Yellow River basins (9000 BP) and the New Guinea Highlands (9000-6000 BP). A proposed centre of origin in Amazonia (Lathrap 1977) is not shown.
Neolithic Revolution ((First) Agricultural Revolution): wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making an increasingly large population possible. These settled communities permitted humans to observe and experiment with plants to learn how they grew and developed. This new knowledge led to the domestication of plants. Archaeological data indicates that the domestication of various types of plants and animals happened in separate locations worldwide, starting in the geological epoch of the Holocene 11,700 years ago. It was the world's first historically verifiable revolution in agriculture. The Neolithic Revolution greatly narrowed the diversity of foods available, resulting in a downturn in the quality of human nutrition. Neolithic package. The Levant saw the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BCE, followed by sites in the wider Fertile Crescent.
Secondary products revolution (Andrew Sherratt's model): involved a widespread and broadly contemporaneous set of innovations in Old World farming. The use of domestic animals for primary carcass products (meat) was broadened from the 4th-3rd millennia BCE to include exploitation for renewable 'secondary' products: milk, wool, traction (the use of animals to drag ploughs in agriculture), riding and pack transport. The SPR model incorporates two key elements: 1) the discovery and diffusion of secondary products innovations, 2) their systematic application, leading to a transformation of Eurasian economy and society.
Neolithic demographic transition: period of rapid population growth following the adoption of agriculture by prehistoric societies (the Neolithic Revolution). It was a demographic transition caused by an abrupt increase in birth rates due to the increased food supply and decreased mobility of farmers compared to foragers. Eventually the mortality rate in farming societies also increased to the point where the population stabilised again, possibly because settling down in one place, in close proximity to animals, encouraged the spread of zoonotic and waterborne diseases.
Diffusion of metallurgy.
Guns, Germs, and Steel (Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years; 1997): transdisciplinary non-fiction book by Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at UCLA. The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. Due to the Anna Karenina principle, surprisingly few animals are suitable for domestication. Diamond identifies six criteria including the animal being sufficiently docile, gregarious, willing to breed in captivity and having a social dominance hierarchy. Therefore, none of the many African mammals such as the zebra, antelope, cape buffalo, and African elephant were ever domesticated (although some can be tamed, they are not easily bred in captivity). The Holocene extinction event eliminated many of the megafauna that, had they survived, might have become candidate species, and Diamond argues that the pattern of extinction is more severe on continents where animals that had no prior experience of humans were exposed to humans who already possessed advanced hunting techniques (e.g. the Americas and Australia). Smaller domesticable animals such as dogs, cats, chickens, and guinea pigs may be valuable in various ways to an agricultural society, but will not be adequate in themselves to sustain large-scale agrarian society. An important example is the use of larger animals such as cattle and horses in plowing land, allowing for much greater crop productivity and the ability to farm a much wider variety of land and soil types than would be possible solely by human muscle power. Large domestic animals also have an important role in the transportation of goods and people over long distances, giving the societies that possess them considerable military and economic advantages. In the later context of the European colonization of the Americas, 95% of the indigenous populations are believed to have been killed off by diseases brought by the Europeans. Many were killed by infectious diseases such as smallpox and measles. Similar circumstances were observed in the History of Australia (1788-1850) and in History of South Africa. Aboriginal Australians and the Khoikhoi population were decimated by smallpox, measles, influenza and other diseases.
Europe in ca. 3500 BC (Late Neolithic). and Europe in ca. 3500 BC
Corded Ware culture (also Battle-axe culture) 3200 - 2300 BC.
Celts: Indo-European ethnolinguistic group of Europe identified by their use of Celtic languages and cultural similarities. The history of pre-Celtic Europe and the exact relationship between ethnic, linguistic and cultural factors in the Celtic world remains uncertain and controversial. The exact geographic spread of the ancient Celts is disputed; in particular, the ways in which the Iron Age inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland should be regarded as Celts have become a subject of controversy. According to one theory, the common root of the Celtic languages, the Proto-Celtic language, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe, which flourished from around 1200 BC. According to a theory proposed in the 19th c., the first people to adopt cultural characteristics regarded as Celtic were the people of the Iron Age Hallstatt culture in central Europe (c. 800–450 BC), named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria. Thus this area is sometimes called the "Celtic homeland". By or during the later La Tène period (c. 450 BC to the Roman conquest), this Celtic culture was supposed to have expanded by trans-cultural diffusion or migration to the British Isles (Insular Celts), France and the Low Countries (Gauls), Bohemia, Poland and much of Central Europe, the Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberians, Celtici, Lusitanians and Gallaeci) and northern Italy (Golasecca culture and Cisalpine Gauls) and, following the Celtic settlement of Eastern Europe beginning in 279 BC, as far east as central Anatolia (Galatians) in modern-day Turkey. The earliest undisputed direct examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th c. BC. By the mid-1st millennium, with the expansion of the Roman Empire and migrating Germanic tribes, Celtic culture and Insular Celtic languages had become restricted to Ireland, the western and northern parts of Great Britain (Wales, Scotland, and Cornwall), the Isle of Man, and Brittany. Names and terminology: Celt, Gaul, Gaulish, Celtic, Welsh; Continental Celts, Insular Celts. Expansion east and south. Romanisation. Warfare and weapons: Head hunting.
Germania (book) (98 AD): ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus. Contents: they all have common physical characteristics, blue eyes (truces et caerulei oculi = "sky-coloured, azure, dark blue, dark green"), reddish hair (rutilae comae = "red, golden-red, reddish yellow") and large bodies, vigorous at the first onset but not tolerant of exhausting labour, tolerant of hunger and cold but not of heat; government and leadership as somewhat merit-based and egalitarian, with leadership by example rather than authority and that punishments are carried out by the priests; opinions of women are given respect; form of folk assembly rather similar to the public Things recorded in later Germanic sources: in these public deliberations, the final decision rests with the men of the tribe as a whole; the Germanics are mainly content with one wife, except for a few political marriages, and specifically and explicitly compares this practice favorably to other barbarian cultures, perhaps since monogamy was a shared value between Roman and Germanic cultures. Ever since its discovery, treatment of the text regarding the culture of the early Germanic peoples in ancient Germany remains strong especially in German history, philology, and ethnology studies, and to a lesser degree in Scandinavian countries as well. Arnaldo Momigliano: Germania as "among the most dangerous books ever written" (1956); Christopher Krebs: Germania played a major role in the formation of the core concepts of Nazi ideology (2012).
Ancient history (from first recorded/written events till 200-600)
List of largest cities throughout history: largest human settlements in the world (by population) over time, as estimated by historians, from 7000 BC when the largest populated place in the world was a proto-city in the Ancient Near East with a population of about 1,000–2,000 people, to the year 2000 when the largest urban area was Tokyo with 26 million. Alexandria, Rome, or Baghdad may have been the first city to have 1,000,000 people, as early as 100 BC or as late as 925 AD. They were later surpassed by Constantinople, Chang'an, Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Jinling, Beijing, Edo, London (the first city to reach 2 million), and New York (the first to top 10 million).
Synthetized chronology of Mesopotamia.
Chronology of the ancient Near East: provides a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties. Individual inscriptions and texts customarily record events in terms of a succession of officials or rulers, taking forms like "in the year X of king Y". Thus by piecing together many records a relative chronology is arrived at, relating dates in cities over a wide area. An inscription from the tenth year of Assyrian king Ashur-Dan III refers to an eclipse of the Sun, and astronomical calculations among the range of possible dates identify the eclipse as having occurred 763.06.15 BCE. The date can be corroborated with other mentions of astronomical events and a secure absolute chronology established, that ties the relative chronologies into our calendar. For the first millennium BC, the relative chronology can be tied to actual calendar years by identifying significant astronomical events. For the third and second millennia, the correlation is not so fixed. A key document is the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, preserving record of astronomical observations of Venus, as preserved in numerous cuneiform tablets during the reign of the Babylonian king Ammisaduqa, known to be the fourth ruler after Hammurabi in the relative calendar. In the series, the conjunction of the rise of Venus with the new moon provides a fixed point, or rather three fixed points, for the conjunction is a periodic occurrence. Astronomical calculation can therefore fix, for example, the first dates of the reign of Hammurabi in this manner either as 1848, 1792, or 1736 BC, depending on whether the "high" (or "long"), "middle" or "low (or short) chronology" is followed. 1. Early Bronze Age: no absolute dates within a certainty better than a century can be assigned to this period; 2. Middle to Late Bronze Age: conventional middle chronology fixes the sack of Babylon at 1595 BC while the short chronology fixes it at 1531 BC; 3. The Bronze Age collapse: "Dark Age" begins with the fall of Babylonian Dynasty III (Kassite) around 1200 BC, the invasions of the Sea Peoples and the collapse of the Hittite Empire; 4. Early Iron Age: around 900 BC, historical data, written records become more numerous once more, with the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, enabling the certain assignment of absolute dates; Classical sources such as the Canon of Ptolemy, the works of Berossus and the Hebrew Bible provide chronological support and synchronisms; eclipse in 763 BC anchors the Assyrian list of imperial officials. Early twenty-first century dendrochronology has essentially disproved the short chronology. The chronologies of Mesopotamia, the Levant and Anatolia depend significantly on the chronology of Ancient Egypt. To the extent that there are problems in the Egyptian chronology, these issues will be inherited in chronologies based on synchronisms with Ancient Egypt. {q.v. Amarna letters} Dendrochronology. As in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, radiocarbon dates run one or two centuries earlier than the dates proposed by archaeologists; it is not at all clear which group is right, if either; mechanisms have been proposed for explaining why radiocarbon dates in the region might be skewed; equally logical arguments have been made suggesting that the archaeological dates are too late.
Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (Enuma Anu Enlil Tablet 63): record of astronomical observations of Venus, as preserved in numerous cuneiform tablets dating from the first millennium BC. It is believed that this astronomical record was first compiled during the reign of King Ammisaduqa (or Ammizaduga), the fourth ruler after Hammurabi. Thus, the origins of this text should probably be dated to around the mid-seventeenth century BC. The earliest copy of this tablet to be published, a 7th-century BC cuneiform, part of the British Museum collections, was recovered from the library at Nineveh. Many uncertainties remain about the interpretation of the record of astronomical observations of Venus, as preserved in these surviving tablets. Some copying corruptions are probable.
Egyptian chronology: majority of Egyptologists agree on the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. This scholarly consensus is the so-called Conventional Egyptian chronology, which places the beginning of the Old Kingdom in the 27th c. BC, the beginning of the Middle Kingdom in the 21st c. BC and the beginning of the New Kingdom in the mid-16th c. BC. Despite this consensus, disagreements remain within the scholarly community, resulting in variant chronologies diverging by about 300 years for the Early Dynastic Period, up to 30 years in the New Kingdom, and a few years in the Late Period. "New Chronology", proposed in the 1990s, lowers New Kingdom dates by as much as 350 years, or "Glasgow Chronology" (proposed 1978–1982), which lowers New Kingdom dates by as much as 500 years.
Migrations, invasions and destructions during the end of the Bronze Age (c. 1200 BC).Map showing the Bronze Age collapse (conflicts and movements of people).
Late Bronze Age collapse: transition in the Aegean Region, Southwestern Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age that historians, such as Amos Nur and Leonard R. Palmer, believe was violent, sudden and culturally disruptive. Between 1206 and 1150 BC, the cultural collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia and Syria, and the New Kingdom of Egypt in Syria and Canaan interrupted trade routes and severely reduced literacy. In the first phase of this period, almost every city between Pylos and Gaza was violently destroyed, and many abandoned: examples include Hattusa, Mycenae, and Ugarit. Possible causes of collapse: Environmental (Climate change, Volcanoes (Hekla 3), Drought); Cultural (Ironworking, Changes in warfare); General systems collapse (population growth, soil degradation, drought, cast bronze weapon and iron production technologies, could have combined to push the relative price of weaponry to a level unsustainable for traditional warrior aristocracies).
Hekla 3 eruption (~1000 BC): considered the most severe eruption of Hekla during the Holocene.
Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East in 14th century (including Amarna period)
Map of the ancient Near East during the Amarna period, showing the great powers of the period: Egypt (green), Hatti (yellow), the Kassite kingdom of Babylon (purple), Assyria (grey), and Mittani (red). Lighter areas show direct control, darker areas represent spheres of influence. The extent of the Achaean/Mycenaean civilization is shown in orange.
Slavery in antiquity: from the earliest known recorded evidence in Sumer to the pre-medieval Antiquity Mediterranean cultures, comprised a mixture of debt-slavery, slavery as a punishment for crime, and the enslavement of prisoners of war.
Slavery in ancient Egypt.
The Bible and slavery.
Slavery in ancient Greece: study of slavery in Ancient Greece remains a complex subject, in part because of the many different levels of servility, from traditional chattel slave through various forms of serfdom, such as Helots, Penestai, and several other classes of non-citizen. In Ancient Athens, about 30% of the population were slaves. Spartan serfs, Helots, could win freedom through bravery in battle.
Slavery in ancient Rome: Rome differed from Greek city-states in allowing freed slaves to become Roman citizens. After manumission, a slave who had belonged to a citizen enjoyed not only passive freedom from ownership, but active political freedom (libertas), including the right to vote, though he could not run for public office. During the Republic, Roman military expansion was a major source of slaves. Besides manual labor, slaves performed many domestic services, and might be employed at highly skilled jobs and professions. Teachers, accountants, and physicians were often slaves. Greek slaves in particular might be highly educated. Unskilled slaves, or those condemned to slavery as punishment, worked on farms, in mines, and at mills.
Ancient Persia (Slavery in Iran): Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Persians, was built with paid labor.
World in 300 BCE.World in 200 BCE.World in 100 BCE.World in 1 CE.World in 100 CE.World in 200 CE.
Ancient Egyptian race controversy: raised historically as a product of the scientific racism of the 18th and 19th centuries, and was linked to models of racial hierarchy based on skin color, facial features, hair texture, and genetic affiliations. Modern genetics: mummies and current population.
Population history of Egypt: geographical location at the crossroads of several major cultural areas: the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the Sahara and Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition Egypt has experienced several invasions during its long history, including by the Canaanites, the Libyans, the Nubians, the Assyrians, the Kushites, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans and the Arabs.
Written languages:
Hieratic (Protodynastic Period (3.2k-3k BC) - 3rd c. AD): provenance of the pharaohs in Egypt and Nubia that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system, to which it is intimately related.
Demotic (Egyptian) (c. 650 BC - 5th c. AD): either the ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of hieratic used in the Delta, or the stage of the Egyptian language following Late Egyptian and preceding Coptic.
Edwin Smith Papyrus: ancient Egyptian medical text, named after the dealer who bought it in 1862, and the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma. This document, which may have been a manual of military surgery, describes 48 cases of injuries, fractures, wounds, dislocations and tumors. It dates to Dynasties 16–17 of the Second Intermediate Period in ancient Egypt, c. 1600 BCE; contains the first known descriptions of the cranial structures, the meninges, the external surface of the brain, the cerebrospinal fluid, and the intracranial pulsations. Here, the word ‘brain’ appears for the first time in any language. The procedures of this papyrus demonstrate an Egyptian level of knowledge of medicines that surpassed that of Hippocrates, who lived 1000 years later. The relationship between the location of a cranial injury and the side of the body affected is also recorded, while crushing injuries of vertebrae were noted to impair motor and sensory functions. Due to its practical nature and the types of trauma investigated, it is believed that the papyrus served as a textbook for the trauma that resulted from military battles.
Egyptian pyramid construction techniques: seem to have developed over time; later pyramids were not constructed in the same way as earlier ones. Most of the construction hypotheses are based on the belief that huge stones were carved from quarries with copper chisels, and these blocks were then dragged and lifted into position. Disagreements chiefly concern the methods used to move and place the stones. Leveling the foundation may have been accomplished by use of water-filled trenches as suggested by Mark Lehner and I.E.S. Edwards or through the use of a crude square level and experienced surveyors.
Diary of Merer (Papyrus Jarf A and B): logbooks written over 4,500 years ago that record the daily activities of workers who took part in the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The text was found in 2013 by a French mission under the direction of Pierre Tallet of Sorbonne University in a cave in Wadi al-Jarf. The text is written with hieroglyphs and hieratic on papyrus. These papyri are the oldest ones with text ever found. The diary of Merer is from the 26th year of the reign of Pharaoh Khufu. The text describes several months of work with the transportation of limestone from Tora to Giza. The diary of Merer is the first historical reference that describes the daily life of the people who worked with the building of the great pyramid.
Dynasties of ancient Egypt: in ancient Egyptian history, dynasties are series of rulers sharing a common origin. They are usually, but not always, traditionally divided into 33 pharaonic dynasties; these dynasties are commonly grouped by modern scholars into "kingdoms" and "intermediate periods".
Prehistoric Egypt (from earliest human settlement till Narmer and unification ~3100 BC)
Naqada III (3200 - 3000 BC; Dynasty 0, Protodynastic Period): last phase of the Naqada culture of ancient Egyptian prehistory
Deshret: from ancient Egyptian, was the formal name for the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and for the desert Red Land on either side of Kemet, the fertile Nile river basin.
Hedjet: formal name for the White Crown of pharaonic Upper Egypt. The symbol sometimes used for the Hedjet was the vulture goddess Nekhbet shown next to the head of the cobra goddess Wadjet, the Uraeus on the Pschent.
Pschent: was the name of the Double Crown of Ancient Egypt. It combined the Red Deshret Crown of Lower Egypt and the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt. The Pschent represented the pharaoh's power over all of unified Egypt. It bore two animal emblems: An Egyptian cobra, known as the uraeus, ready to strike, which symbolized the Lower Egyptian goddess Wadjet, and an Egyptian vulture representing the Upper Egyptian tutelary goddess Nekhbet.
Uraeus: the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra (asp, serpent, or snake), used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity, and divine authority in ancient Egypt.
Narmer (reign beginning at a date estimated to fall in the range 3273–2987 BC): an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Early Dynastic Period. He was the successor to the Protodynastic king Ka. Many scholars consider him the unifier of Egypt and founder of the First Dynasty, and in turn the first king of a unified Egypt. He also had a prominently noticeable presence in Canaan, compared to his predecessors and successors. A majority of Egyptologists believe that Narmer was the same person as Menes. Neithhotep is thought to be his queen consort or his daughter.
Cosmetic palettes of middle to late predynastic Egypt are archaeological artefacts, originally used to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative palettes of the late 4th millennium BCE appear to have lost this function and became commemorative, ornamental, and possibly ceremonial. They were made almost exclusively out of siltstone with a few exceptions. The siltstone originated from quarries in the Wadi Hammamat.
Narmer Palette (~31st c. BC): significant Egyptian archeological find; earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. The tablet is thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer. On one side, the king is depicted with the bulbed White Crown of Upper (southern) Egypt, and the other side depicts the king wearing the level Red Crown of Lower (northern) Egypt. Along with the Scorpion Macehead and the Narmer Maceheads, also found together in the Main Deposit at Nekhen, the Narmer Palette provides one of the earliest known depictions of an Egyptian king. Egyptologist Bob Brier has referred to the Narmer Palette as "the first historical document in the world".
Early Dynastic Period (from unification ~3150 - 2686 BC)
Palermo Stone (approx. 2392-2283 BC): one of seven surviving fragments of a stele known as the Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The stele contained a list of the kings of Egypt from the First Dynasty through to the early part of the Fifth Dynasty and noted significant events in each year of their reigns. The original location of the stele is unknown and none of the surviving fragments have a secure archeological provenance. One fragment now in Cairo is said to have been found at an archaeological site at Memphis, while three other fragments now in Cairo were said to have been found in Middle Egypt. No find site for the Palermo Stone itself has been suggested.
Karnak king list: list of early Egyptian kings engraved in stone, was located in the southwest corner of the Festival Hall of Thutmose III, in the middle of the Precinct of Amun-Re, in the Karnak Temple Complex, in modern Luxor, Egypt. Composed during the reign of Thutmose III, it listed sixty-one kings beginning with Sneferu from Egypt's Old Kingdom. Only the names of thirty-nine kings are still legible, and one is not written in a cartouche (a border used normally to surround the name of a king).
Abydos King List: list of the names of 76 kings of Ancient Egypt, found on a wall of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt. The upper two rows contain names of the kings, while the third row merely repeats Seti I's throne name and praenomen. Besides providing the order of the Old Kingdom kings, it is the sole source to date of the names of many of the kings of the Seventh and Eighth Dynasties.
Turin King List (Turin Royal Canon): Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II. The papyrus is the most extensive list available of kings compiled by the Egyptians, and is the basis for most chronology before the reign of Ramesses II. The papyrus was found by the Italian traveler Bernardino Drovetti in 1820 at Luxor (Thebes), Egypt and was acquired in 1824 by the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy and was designated Papyrus Number 1874. When the box in which it had been transported to Italy was unpacked, the list had disintegrated into small fragments. History puzzle solving. Despite attempts at reconstruction, approximately 50% of the papyrus remains missing. This papyrus as presently constituted is 1.7 m long and 0.41 m wide, broken into over 160 fragments. In 2009 previously unpublished fragments were discovered in the storage room of the Egyptian Museum of Turin, in good condition. A new edition of the papyrus is expected.
Saqqara Tablet: ancient stone engraving which features a list of Egyptian pharaohs surviving from the Ramesside Period. It was found during 1861 in Egypt in Saqqara, in the tomb of Tjenry (or Tjuneroy), an official ("chief lector priest" and "Overseer of Works on All Royal Monuments") of the pharaoh Ramesses II.
Amarna: extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and abandoned shortly after his death in 1332 BC. The name that the ancient Egyptians used for the city is transliterated in English as Akhetaten or Akhetaton, meaning "the horizon of the Aten". Activity in the region flourished from the Amarna Period until the later Roman era.
Amarna Period: era of Egyptian history during the latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten') in what is now Amarna. It was marked by the reign of Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten (1353–1336 BC) in order to reflect the dramatic change of Egypt's polytheistic religion into one where the Sun disc Aten was worshipped over all other gods. Aten was not solely worshipped (the religion was not monotheistic), but the other gods were worshipped to a significantly lesser degree. The Egyptian pantheon of the equality of all gods and goddesses was restored under Akhenaten's successor, Tutankhamun.
Amarna letters (Amarna correspondence, Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA): archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom. The letters were found in Upper Egypt at Amarna, the modern name for the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhetaten (el-Amarna), founded by pharaoh Akhenaten (1350s – 1330s BC) during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are mostly written in Akkadian cuneiform, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia, rather than that of ancient Egypt. The known tablets total 382: 24 tablets had been recovered since the Norwegian Assyriologist Jørgen Alexander Knudtzon's landmark edition of the Amarna letters, Die El-Amarna-Tafel, published in two volumes (1907 and 1915). The written correspondence spans a period of at most thirty years. Great significance for biblical studies as well as Semitic linguistics, since they shed light on the culture and language of the Canaanite peoples in pre-biblical times.
Aten (city) (The Dazzling Aten; Founded: 1386–1353 BCE): remains of an ancient Egyptian city on the west bank of the Nile in the Theban Necropolis near Luxor. Named after Egyptian Sun god Aten, the city appears to have remained relatively intact for over two millennia. Since excavation began in late 2020, it is emerging as the largest city of its kind in ancient Egypt, with a remarkable degree of preservation, leading to comparisons with Pompeii. Discovery: Excavations at the site, roughly in an area between the respective mortuary temple of Ramses III and that of Amenhotep III were carried out under the direction of Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, and began in September 2020, beginning with what turned out to be the southern quarters of the city. The city's remains were stumbled upon when Hawass and his team were searching for the remains of the funerary temple of Tutankhamun. The find turned out to reveal what appears to be the greatest administrative and industrial centre of that period.
Thutmose III#Attack on Mitanni (Tuthmosis; Thutmose the Great; 1481 BC - 1425 BC): the sixth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 1479.04.28 BC to 1425.03.11 BC, from the age of two and until his death at age fifty-six; however, during the first 22 years of his reign, he was coregent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh. While he was shown first on surviving monuments, both were assigned the usual royal names and insignia and neither is given any obvious seniority over the other. Thutmose served as the head of Hatshepsut's armies. During the final two years of his reign, he appointed his son and successor, Amenhotep II, as his junior co-regent. Thutmose III earned a preeminent legacy as a warrior-king. Becoming the sole ruling pharaoh of the kingdom after Hatshepsut's death, he conducted no fewer than 17 campaigns, all victorious, while expanding Egypt's empire to its largest extent. He is also considered the father of the ancient Egyptian navy, creating the first combat navy in the ancient world. He is consistently recognized as a military genius by historians, and is widely considered Egypt's greatest warrior pharaoh. Additionally, he is regarded as one of the most powerful and celebrated rulers of the New Kingdom Period of Ancient Egypt, itself considered the height of Egyptian power.
Akhenaten (Echnaton, Akhenaton; Ancient Egyptian: ꜣḫ-n-jtn ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy, pronounced [ˈʔuːχəʔ nə ˈjaːtəj], meaning "Effective for the Aten"; reign 1353–1336 BC OR 1351–1334 BC): tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Before the fifth year of his reign, he was known as Amenhotep IV (Ancient Egyptian: jmn-ḥtp, meaning "Amun is satisfied", Hellenized as Amenophis IV). As a pharaoh, Akhenaten is noted for abandoning Egypt's traditional polytheism and introducing Atenism, or worship centered around Aten. The views of Egyptologists differ as to whether Atenism should be considered as a form of absolute monotheism, or whether it was monolatry, syncretism, or henotheism. This culture shift away from traditional religion was not widely accepted. After his death, Akhenaten's monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues were destroyed, and his name excluded from lists of rulers compiled by later pharaohs. Traditional religious practice was gradually restored, notably under his close successor Tutankhamun, who changed his name from Tutankhaten early in his reign. When some dozen years later, rulers without clear rights of succession from the Eighteenth Dynasty founded a new dynasty, they discredited Akhenaten and his immediate successors and referred to Akhenaten as "the enemy" or "that criminal" in archival records.
Nefertiti (c. 1370 – c. 1330 BC): queen of 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they worshipped one god only, Aten, or the sun disc. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of Ancient Egyptian history. Some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as Neferneferuaten after her husband's death and before the ascension of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate. If Nefertiti did rule as Pharaoh, her reign was marked by the fall of Amarna and relocation of the capital back to the traditional city of Thebes.
Tutankhamun (/ˌtuːtənkɑːˈmuːn/, Ancient Egyptian: twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn Təwātə-ʿānəḫ-amānə, pronounced [təˈwaːtəʔ ˈʕaːnəχ ʔaˈmaːnəʔ]; Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen, /ˌtuːtənˈkɑːmɛn/; reign c. 1332 – 1323 BC; c. 1341 – c. 1323 BC): last of his royal family to rule during the end of the 18th Dynasty during the New Kingdom of Egyptian history. His father is believed to be the pharaoh Akhenaten, identified as the mummy found in the tomb KV55. His mother is his father's sister, identified through DNA testing as an unknown mummy referred to as "The Younger Lady" who was found in KV35. Tutankhamun took the throne at eight or nine years of age under the unprecedented viziership of his eventual successor, Ay, to whom he may have been related. He married his half sister Ankhesenamun. During their marriage they lost two daughters, one at 5–6 months of pregnancy and the other shortly after birth at full-term. His names—Tutankhaten and Tutankhamun—are thought to mean "Living image of Aten" and "Living image of Amun", with Aten replaced by Amun after Akhenaten's death. A small number of Egyptologists, including Battiscombe Gunn, believe the translation may be incorrect and closer to "The-life-of-Aten-is-pleasing" or, as Professor Gerhard Fecht believes, reads as "One-perfect-of-life-is-Aten". Tutankhamun restored the Ancient Egyptian religion after its dissolution by his father, enriched and endowed the priestly orders of two important cults and began restoring old monuments damaged during the previous Amarna period. He moved his father's remains to the Valley of the Kings as well as moving the capital from Akhetaten to Thebes. Tutankhamun was physically disabled with a deformity of his left foot along with bone necrosis that required the use of a cane, several of which were found in his tomb. He had other health issues including scoliosis and had contracted several strains of malaria.
Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62 in Egyptology) is located in the Valley of the Kings, near Thebes, Egypt (modern-day Luxor). It is renowned for the wealth of valuable antiquities that it contained. Howard Carter discovered it in 1922 underneath the remains of workmen's huts built during the Ramesside Period; this explains why it was largely spared the desecration and tomb clearances at the end of the 20th Dynasty, although it was robbed and resealed twice in the period after its completion.
Ay (reign 1323–1319 BC or 1327–1323 BC): penultimate pharaoh of ancient Egypt's 18th Dynasty. He held the throne of Egypt for a brief four-year period in the late 1300s BC. Prior to his rule, he was a close advisor to two, and perhaps three, other pharaohs of the dynasty. It is theorized that he was the power behind the throne during Tutankhamun's reign. His prenomen Kheperkheperure means "Everlasting are the Manifestations of Ra," while his nomen Ay it-netjer reads as "Ay, Father of the God." Records and monuments that can be clearly attributed to Ay are rare, both because his reign was short and because his successor, Horemheb, instigated a campaign of damnatio memoriae against him and the other pharaohs associated with the unpopular Amarna Period. Ay was buried in the tomb intended for Tutankhamun in the West Valley of the Kings (WV23), and Tutankhamun was interred in Ay's intended tomb in the East Valley of the Kings (KV62). Tutankhamun's death around the age of 18 or 19, together with the fact he had no living children, left a power vacuum that his Grand Vizier Ay was quick to fill: he is depicted conducting the funerary rites for the deceased monarch and assuming the role of heir. The grounds on which he based his successful claim to power are not entirely clear. The Commander of the Army, Horemheb, had actually been designated as the "idnw" or "Deputy of the Lord of the Two Lands" under Tutankhamun and was presumed to be the boy king's heir apparent and successor. It appears that Horemheb was outmaneuvered to the throne by Ay, who legitimized his claim to the throne by burying Tutankhamun, as well as possibly marrying Ankhesenamun, Tutankhamun's widow. Since Ay was already advanced in age upon his accession, he ruled Egypt in his own right for only four years. During this period, he consolidated the return to the old religious ways that he had initiated as senior advisor and constructed a mortuary temple at Medinet Habu for his own use.
Ramesses III (20th Dynasty; 1186-1155 BC): second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt.
Judicial Papyrus of Turin: ancient Egyptian record of the trials held against conspirators plotting to assassinate Ramesses III in what is referred to as the "harem conspiracy". The papyrus contains mostly summaries of the accusations, convictions and punishments meted out.
Sea Peoples: 7 Egyptian sources which refer to more than one of the nine peoples: ~1275 BC (Kadesh Inscription), ~1200 BC (Great Karnak Inscription), ~1200 BC (Athribis Stele), ~1150 BC (Medinet Habu), ~1150 BC (Papyrus Harris I), ~1150 BC (Rhetorical Stela to Ramesses III, Chapel C, Deir el-Medina), ~1000 BC (Onomasticon of Amenope). Attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty.
Battle of the Delta: sea battle between Egypt and the Sea Peoples, circa 1175 BCE when the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III repulsed a major sea invasion. The conflict occurred somewhere at the shores of the eastern Nile Delta and partly on the borders of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, although their precise locations are unknown.
Manetho: believed to have been an Egyptian priest from Sebennytos (Coptic: Ϫⲉⲙⲛⲟⲩϯ, romanized: Čemnouti[2]) who lived in the Ptolemaic Kingdom in the early third century BC, during the Hellenistic period. He authored the Aegyptiaca (Αἰγυπτιακά, Aigyptiaka; History of Egypt) in Greek, a major chronological source for the reigns of the kings of ancient Egypt. It is unclear whether he wrote his history and king list during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter or Ptolemy II Philadelphos, but it was completed no later than that of Ptolemy III Euergetes. Manetho's division of dynasties still used as a basis for all Egyptian discussions.
Anatolia (Asia Minor): Asian Turkey, the Anatolian peninsula, or the Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey.
Hittites (c. 1600 BC–c. 1178 BC): Ancient Anatolian people who established an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BC. Between the 15th and 13th c. BC the Hittite Empire came into conflict with the Egyptian Empire, Middle Assyrian Empire and the empire of the Mitanni for control of the Near East. The Assyrians eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite empire, while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. After c. 1180 BC, during the Bronze Age collapse, the Hittites splintered into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some of which survived until the 8th century BC before succumbing to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Hittite language was a distinct member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, and along with the related Luwian language, is the oldest historically attested Indo-European language. They referred to their native land as Hatti. The conventional name "Hittites" is due to their initial identification with the Biblical Hittites in 19th century archaeology.
Hattusa: capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of the Kızılırmak River.
Bogazköy Archive: collection of texts found on the site of the capital of the Hittite state, the city of Hattusas (now Bogazkoy in Turkey). During the excavations, archaeologists discovered over 14 thousand cuneiform texts on clay tablets of the 2nd millennium BC; one of the oldest state (royal) archives; gives the most complete ideas about the Hittite kingdom and its inhabitants.
Phrygia (Dominant kingdom in Asia Minor from c. 1200–700 BC): first a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River, later a region, often part of great empires.
Ancient Mesopotamia, Levant, ancient Semitic civilizations
Sumerians → Akkadian Empire → Third Dynasty of Ur → Assyrian Empire (Old, Middle, Neo-) & Babylonian Empire (Old, Middle, Neo) → Persian Empire (Achaemenid, Seleucid) → Greeks/Macedonian Empire → Roman Empire (Byzantine) & Parthian Empire (Sasanian)
Mesopotamia (from the Ancient Greek: Μεσοποταμία "[land] between rivers"; Arabic: بلاد الرافدين (bilād al-rāfidayn); Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪܝܢ (Beth Nahrain) "land of rivers"): name for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, corresponding to modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, the northeastern section of Syria and to a much lesser extent southeastern Turkey and smaller parts of southwestern Iran. Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization in the West, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires, all native to the territory of modern-day Iraq. In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. The indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, it became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire.
Levant: approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean. In its narrowest sense it is equivalent to the historical region of Syria. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the eastern Mediterranean with its islands, that is, it included all of the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece to Cyrenaica.
Halaf culture (6100 BCE and 5100 BCE): period is a continuous development out of the earlier Pottery Neolithic and is located primarily in south-eastern Turkey, Syria, and northern Iraq, although Halaf-influenced material is found throughout Greater Mesopotamia.
Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period (ca. 5500/5400 to 5200/5000 BC): prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. It lies chronologically between the Halaf period and the Ubaid period. It is still a complex and rather poorly understood period. At the same time, recent efforts were made to study the gradual change from Halaf style pottery to Ubaid style pottery in various parts of North Mesopotamia.
Ubaid period (c. 6500 to 3800 BC): prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-`Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially by Henry Hall and later by Leonard Woolley. In South Mesopotamia the period is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium. In the south it has a very long duration between about 6500 and 3800 BC when it is replaced by the Uruk period. In North Mesopotamia the period runs only between about 5300 and 4300 BC. It is preceded by the Halaf period and the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period and succeeded by the Late Chalcolithic period.
Map of the Uruk period archaeological sites in Upper Mesopotamia.
Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC): existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, following the Ubaid period and succeeded by the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was followed by the Sumerian civilization. The late Uruk period (34th to 32nd centuries) saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and corresponds to the Early Bronze Age; it may also be called the Protoliterate period. It was during this period that pottery painting declined as copper started to become popular, along with cylinder seals.
Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) (ED period; c. 2900-2350 BC acc. middle chronology): archaeological culture in Mesopotamia; preceded by the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods. It saw the invention of writing and the formation of the first cities and states. The ED itself was characterized by the existence of multiple city-states: small states with a relatively simple structure that developed and solidified over time. This development ultimately led to the unification of much of Mesopotamia under the rule of Sargon, the first monarch of the Akkadian Empire. Despite this political fragmentation, the ED city-states shared a relatively homogeneous material culture. Sumerian cities such as Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Umma, and Nippur located in Lower Mesopotamia were very powerful and influential. To the north and west stretched states centered on cities such as Kish, Mari, Nagar, and Ebla. The ED I–III scheme is an archaeological division that does not reflect political developments, as is the case for the periods that follow it. The end of the ED is not defined archaeologically but rather politically. The conquests of Sargon and his successors upset the political equilibrium throughout Iraq, Syria, and Iran. The conquests lasted many years into the reign of Naram-Sin of Akkad and built on ongoing conquests during the ED. The transition is much harder to pinpoint within an archaeological context. It is virtually impossible to date a particular site as being that of either ED III or Akkadian period using ceramic or architectural evidence alone. Agriculture in Lower Mesopotamia relied on intensive irrigation. Cultivars included barley and date palms in combination with gardens and orchards. Animal husbandry was also practiced, focusing on sheep and goats. This agricultural system was probably the most productive in the entire ancient Near East. It allowed the development of a highly urbanized society. It has been suggested that, in some areas of Sumer, the population of the urban centers during ED III represented three-quarters of the entire population. Starting in 2700 BC and accelerating after 2500, the main urban sites grew considerably in size and were surrounded by towns and villages that fell inside their political sphere of influence. City-states: Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar, Shuruppak; Kish, Uruk, Ur, Awan, Hamazi, Adab, Mari, Akshak; Lagash, Nippur, Umma; Ebla, Susa. The largest archives come from Lagash and Ebla. Smaller collections of clay tablets have been found at Ur, Tell Beydar, Tell Fara, Abu Salabikh, and Mari. They show that the Mesopotamian states were constantly involved in diplomatic contacts, leading to political and perhaps even religious alliances. Sometimes one state would gain hegemony over another, which foreshadows the rise of the Akkadian Empire. Culture: Sculpting; Sumerian metallurgy and goldsmithing were highly developed. This is all the more remarkable for a region where metals had to be imported. Known metals included gold, silver, copper, bronze, lead, electrum, and tin; Cylinder seals; Inlays; Music: Lyres of Ur.
First Eblaite Kingdom at its height c. 2340 BC.Mari at the time of Iblul-il c. 2290 BCE.Third Mari kingdom (Shakkanakku dynasty) 1764 BC. Qatna at its height, Yamhad (Halab (Aleppo)), Andariq (Andarig), Assyria (Nineveh), Eshnunna, Babylonia (many cities), Elam, Hurrians, HittitesYamhad at its greatest extent c. 1752 BC. Babylonian empire vassals not directly annexed: Subartu and Assyria.Near East c. 1400 BC.The Hittite Empire c. 1300 BC. Mycenae, Egypt, Assyria.
Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100–2050 BC): oldest known law code surviving today. It is from Mesopotamia and is written on tablets, in the Sumerian language. The laws are arranged in casuistic form of IF (crime) THEN (punishment) — a pattern followed in nearly all later codes. For the oldest extant law-code known to history, it is considered remarkably advanced because it institutes fines of monetary compensation for bodily damage as opposed to the later lex talionis (‘eye for an eye’) principle of Babylonian law; however, murder, robbery, adultery and rape were capital offenses.
Mari, Syria (2900 BC - 1759 BC (Middle chronology) trade center and hegemonic state): ancient Semitic city in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located 11 km north-west of Abu Kamal on the Euphrates river western bank, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor. As a purposely built city, the existence of Mari was related to its position in the middle of the Euphrates trade routes; this position made it an intermediary between Sumer in the south and the Levant in the west. Mari was first abandoned in the middle of the 26th century BC but was rebuilt and became the capital of a hegemonic East-Semitic state before 2500 BC. This second Mari engaged in a long war with its rival Ebla, and is known for its strong affinity with the Sumerian culture. It was destroyed in the 23rd century BC by the Akkadians who allowed the city to be rebuilt and appointed a military governor bearing the title of Shakkanakku ("military governor"). The governors later became independent with the rapid disintegration of the Akkadian empire and rebuilt the city as a regional center in the middle of Euphrates valley. The Shakkanakkus ruled Mari until the second half of the 19th century BC when the dynasty collapsed for unknown reasons. A short time after the Shakkanakku collapse, Mari became the capital of the Amorite Lim dynasty. The Amorite Mari was short lived as it was annexed by Babylonia in c. 1761 BC, but the city survived as a small settlement under the rule of the Babylonians and the Assyrians before being abandoned and forgotten during the Hellenistic period. Mariotes worshiped both Semitic and Sumerian deities and established their city as a center of old trade. Mari's discovery in 1933 provided an important insight into the geopolitical map of ancient Mesopotamia and Syria, due to the discovery of more than 25,000 tablets (Mari tablets written in Akkadian) that contained important information about the administration of state during the second millennium BC and the nature of diplomatic relations between the political entities in the region. History: The first kingdom; The second kingdom: Mari-Ebla war; The third kingdom: The Shakkanakku dynasty, The Lim dynasty, The Assyrian era and the Lim restoration. French ruled and started to excavate Mari site in Syria: 1933–1939, 1951–1956, and since 1960. Archaeologists have tried to determine how many layers the site descends, according to French archaeologist André Parrot, "each time a vertical probe was commenced in order to trace the site's history down to virgin soil, such important discoveries were made that horizontal digging had to be resumed." Current situation [18/01/01]: Syrian Civil War, next to Raqqa, ISIL.
Amorites (21st c. BC - 17th c. BC): ancient Semitic-speaking people from Syria who also occupied large parts of southern Mesopotamia from the 21st century BC to the end of the 17th century BC, where they established several prominent city states in existing locations, notably Babylon, which was raised from a small town to an independent state and a major city. The term Amurru in Akkadian and Sumerian texts refers to both them and to their principal deity.
Ebla (Tell Mardikh; 1st c. 3500 BC - 23rd c. BC; 2nd; 3rd): one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about 55 km southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center throughout the third millennium BC and in the first half of the second millennium BC. Its discovery proved the Levant was a center of ancient, centralized civilization equal to Egypt and Mesopotamia, and ruled out the view that the latter two were the only important centers in the Near East during the early Bronze Age. Karl Moore described the first Eblaite kingdom as the first recorded world power. Starting as a small settlement in the early Bronze Age (c. 3500 BC), Ebla developed into a trading empire and later into an expansionist power that imposed its hegemony over much of northern and eastern Syria. Ebla was destroyed during the 23rd century BC; it was then rebuilt and was mentioned in the records of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The second Ebla was a continuation of the first, ruled by a new royal dynasty. It was destroyed at the end of the third millennium BC, which paved the way for the Amorite tribes to settle in the city, forming the third Ebla. The third kingdom also flourished as a trade center; it became a subject and an ally of Yamhad (modern-day Aleppo) until its final destruction by the Hittite king Mursili I in c. 1600 BC.
Ebla tablets (2500 BC - 2250 BC): collection of as many as 1800 complete clay tablets, 4700 fragments and many thousand minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria. The tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team in 1974–75 during their excavations at the ancient city of Tell Mardikh. The tablets, which were found in situ on collapsed shelves, retained many of their contemporary clay tags to help reference them. They all date to the period between ca. 2500 BC and the destruction of the city ca. 2250 BC. Many tablets include both Sumerian and Eblaite inscriptions with versions of three basic bilingual word-lists contrasting words in the two languages. This structure has allowed modern scholars to clarify their understanding of the Sumerian language, at that time still a living language, because until the discovery of the tablet corpus there were no bilingual dictionaries with Sumerian and other languages, leaving pronunciation and other phonetic aspects of the language unclear. The only tablets at Ebla that were written exclusively in Sumerian are lexical lists, probably for use in training scribes. The archives contain thousands of copybooks, lists for learning relevant jargon, and scratch pads for students, demonstrating that Ebla was a major educational center specializing in the training of scribes. Shelved separately with the dictionaries, there were also syllabaries of Sumerian words with their pronunciation in Eblaite.
Canaan (Ebla tablets (c. 2500–2200 BC); Mari letters (c. 2000 BC)): Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name Canaan occurs commonly in the Bible, where it corresponds to the Levant, in particular to the areas of the Southern Levant that provide the main setting of the narrative of the Bible: i.e., the area of Phoenicia, Philistia, Israel and other nations.
Third Dynasty of Ur (Ur III; 22nd - 21st c. BC): both a Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state which some historians consider to have been a nascent empire. The Third Dynasty of Ur was the last Sumerian dynasty which came to preeminent power in Mesopotamia. It began after several centuries of control by Akkadian and Gutian kings.
Yamhad (c. 1810 BC–c. 1517 BC): ancient Semitic kingdom centered on Ḥalab (Aleppo), Syria. The kingdom emerged at the end of the 19th century BC, and was ruled by the Yamhadite dynasty kings, who counted on both military and diplomacy to expand their realm. From the beginning of its establishment, the kingdom withstood the aggressions of its neighbors Mari, Qatna and Assyria, and was turned into the most powerful Syrian kingdom of its era through the actions of its king Yarim-Lim I. By the middle of the 18th century BC, most of Syria minus the south came under the authority of Yamhad, either as a direct possession or through vassalage, and for nearly a century and a half, Yamhad dominated northern, northwestern and eastern Syria, and had influence over small kingdoms in Mesopotamia at the borders of Elam. The kingdom was eventually destroyed by the Hittites, then annexed by Mitanni in the 16th c. BC. Yamhad's population was predominately Amorite, and had a typical Bronze Age Syrian culture. Yamhad was also inhabited by a substantial Hurrian population that settled in the kingdom, adding the influence of their culture.
Yamhad dynasty: ancient Amorite royal family founded in c. 1810 BC by Sumu-Epuh of Yamhad who had his capital in the city of Aleppo. Started as a local dynasty, the family expanded its influence through the actions of its energetic ruler Yarim-Lim I who turned it into the most influential family in the Levant through both diplomatic and military tools.
Mitanni (c. 1500 BC–c. 1300 BC; in Assyrian: Hanigalbat, in Egyptian: Naharin): Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia. Mitanni came to be a regional power after the Hittite destruction of Amorite Babylon and a series of ineffectual Assyrian kings created a power vacuum in Mesopotamia. The Mitanni dynasty ruled over the northern Euphrates-Tigris region between c. 1475 and c. 1275 BC. Eventually, Mitanni succumbed to Hittite and later Assyrian attacks and was reduced to the status of a province of the Middle Assyrian Empire.
King of Sumer and Akkad (Sumerian: lugal-ki-en-gi-ki-uri, Akkadian: šar māt Šumeri u Akkadi): royal title in Ancient Mesopotamia combining the titles of "King of Akkad", the ruling title held by the monarchs of the Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 BC) with the title of "King of Sumer". The title simultaneously laid a claim on the legacy and glory of the ancient empire that had been founded by Sargon of Akkad (r. 2334–2279 BC) and expressed a claim to rule the entirety of lower Mesopotamia (composed of the regions of Sumer in the south and Akkad in the north). Despite both of the titles "King of Sumer" and "King of Akkad" having been used by the Akkadian kings, the title was not introduced in its combined form until the reign of the Neo-Sumerian king Ur-Nammu (c. 2112–2095 BC), who created it in an effort to unify the southern and northern parts of lower Mesopotamia under his rule. The older Akkadian kings themselves might have been against linking Sumer and Akkad in such a way.
King of the Four Corners (Sumerian: lugal-an-ub-da-limmu-ba, Akkadian: šarru kibrat 'arbaim, šar kibrāti arba'i, or šar kibrāt erbetti): title of great prestige claimed by powerful monarchs in ancient Mesopotamia. Though the term "four corners of the world" does refer to specific geographical places within and near Mesopotamia itself, these places were (at the time the title was first used) thought to represent locations near the actual edges of the world and as such, the title should be interpreted as something equivalent to "King of all the known world", a claim to universal rule over the entire world and everything within it. The title was first used by Naram-Sin of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC and was later used by the rulers of the Neo-Sumerian Empire, after which it fell into disuse. It was revived as a title by a number of Assyrian rulers, becoming especially prominent during the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The final ruler to claim the title was the first Persian Achaemenid king, Cyrus the Great, after his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC.
King of Kings: ruling title employed primarily by monarchs based in the Middle East. Though most commonly associated with Iran (historically known as Persia in the West), especially the Achaemenid and Sasanian Empires, the title was originally introduced during the Middle Assyrian Empire by king Tukulti-Ninurta I (reigned 1233–1197 BC) and was subsequently used in a number of different kingdoms and empires, including the aforementioned Persia, various Hellenic kingdoms, Armenia, Georgia, and Ethiopia. The title is commonly seen as equivalent to that of Emperor, both titles outranking that of king in prestige, stemming from the medieval Byzantine emperors who saw the Shahanshahs of the Sasanian Empire as their equals.
Late Bronze Age collapse erased ({q.v. Late Bronze Age collapse}):
Tell Brak (Nagar, Nawar): ancient city in Syria; its remains constitute a tell located in the Upper Khabur region, near the modern village of Tell Brak, 50 km north-east of Al-Hasaka city, Al-Hasakah Governorate. The city's original name is unknown. During the second half of the third millennium BC, the city was known as Nagar and later on, Nawar. small settlement in the seventh millennium BC, Tell Brak evolved during the fourth millennium BC into one of the biggest cities in Upper Mesopotamia, and interacted with the cultures of southern Mesopotamia. The city shrank in size at the beginning of the third millennium BC with the end of Uruk period, before expanding again around c. 2600 BC, when it became known as Nagar, and was the capital of a regional kingdom that controlled the Khabur river valley. Nagar was destroyed around c. 2300 BC, and came under the rule of the Akkadian Empire, followed by a period of independence as a Hurrian city-state, before contracting at the beginning of the second millennium BC. Nagar prospered again by the 19th century BC, and came under the rule of different regional powers. In c. 1500 BC, Tell Brak was a center of Mitanni before being destroyed by Assyria c. 1300 BC. Different peoples inhabited the city, including the Halafians, Semites and the Hurrians.
Qatna: ancient city located in Homs Governorate, Syria. Its remains constitute a tell situated about 18 km northeast of Homs near the village of al-Mishrifeh. The city was an important center throughout most of the second millennium BC and in the first half of the first millennium BC. It contained one of the largest royal palaces of Bronze Age Syria and an intact royal tomb that has provided a great amount of archaeological evidence on the funerary habits of that period. The kingdom enjoyed good relations with Mari, but was engaged in constant warfare against Yamhad. By the 15th century BC, Qatna lost its hegemony and came under the authority of Mitanni. It later changed hands between the former and Egypt, until it was conquered and sacked by the Hittites in the late 14th century BC. Following its destruction, the city was reduced in size before being abandoned by the 13th century BC. It was resettled in the 10th c. BC, becoming a center of the kingdoms of Palistin then Hamath until it was destroyed by the Assyrians in 720 BC, which reduced it to a small village that eventually disappeared in the 6th century BC.
Ugarit (1450 BC - 1200 BC): ancient port city in northern Syria. Its ruins are often called Ras Shamra after the headland where they lie. Ugarit had close connections to the Hittite Empire, sent tribute to Egypt at times, and maintained trade and diplomatic connections with Cyprus (then called Alashiya), documented in the archives recovered from the site and corroborated by Mycenaean and Cypriot pottery found there. The polity was at its height from c. 1450 BC until its destruction in c. 1200 BC; this destruction was possibly caused by the mysterious Sea Peoples. The kingdom would be one of the many destroyed during the Bronze Age Collapse.
Map showing states around Israel and Judah.
Moab (c. 13th c. BC–c. 400 BC): historical name for a mountainous tract of land in Jordan. The land lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.
Edom (c. 13th c. BC–c. 125 BC): ancient kingdom in Transjordan located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west and the Arabian Desert to the south and east. Most of its former territory is now divided between Israel and Jordan. Edom appears in written sources relating to the late Bronze Age and to the Iron Age in the Levant, such as the Hebrew Bible and Egyptian and Mesopotamian records. In classical antiquity, the cognate name Idumea was used for a smaller area in the same general region. Country flourished between the 13th and the 8th c. BC and was destroyed after a period of decline in the 6th century BC by the Babylonians. After the loss of the kingdom, the Edomites were pushed westward towards southern Judah by nomadic tribes coming from the east; among them were the Nabateans, who first appeared in the historical annals of the 4th century BC and already established their own kingdom in what used to be Edom, by the first half of the 2nd century BC.
Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone; dated around 840 BCE): containing a significant Canaanite inscription in the name of King Mesha of Moab (a kingdom located in modern Jordan). Mesha tells how Chemosh, the god of Moab, had been angry with his people and had allowed them to be subjugated to the Kingdom of Israel, but at length, Chemosh returned and assisted Mesha to throw off the yoke of Israel and restore the lands of Moab. Mesha also describes his many building projects. It is written in a variant of the Phoenician alphabet, closely related to the Paleo-Hebrew script. The Mesha Stele, the first major epigraphic Canaanite inscription found in the region of Palestine, the longest Iron Age inscription ever found in the region, constitutes the major evidence for the Moabite language, and is a "corner-stone of Semitic epigraphy", and history. The stele, whose story parallels, with some differences, an episode in the Bible's Books of Kings (2 Kings 3:4–28), provides invaluable information on the Moabite language and the political relationship between Moab and Israel at one moment in the 9th c. BCE. It is the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to the kingdom of Israel (the "House of Omri"); it bears the earliest certain extrabiblical reference to the Israelite god Yahweh.
Burney Relief (Queen of the Night): Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief of the Isin-Larsa- or Old-Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon two lions. The relief is displayed in the British Museum in London, which has dated it between 1800 and 1750 BCE. It originates from southern Iraq, but the exact find-site is unknown. Apart from its distinctive iconography, the piece is noted for its high relief and relatively large size, which suggests that it was used as a cult relief, which makes it a very rare survival from the period. However, whether it represents Lilitu, Inanna/Ishtar, or Ereshkigal, is under debate. The authenticity of the object has been questioned from its first appearance in the 1930s, but opinion has generally moved in its favour over the subsequent decades.
Medes (c.678 BCE–549 BCE): ancient Iranian people who lived in an area known as Media (Northwestern Iran) and who spoke the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of migrating Iranic Aryan tribes into Ancient Iran from circa 1000 BC (the Bronze Age collapse) through circa 900 BC. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, between 616 BCE and 605 BCE, a unified Median state was formed, which, together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt, became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great, who established the Iranian dynasty—the Persian Achaemenid Empire. However, nowadays there is considerable doubt whether a united Median empire ever existed. There is no archaeological evidence and the story of Herodotus is not supported by Assyrian and Babylonian sources.
Lexical lists: series of ancient Mesopotamian glossaries which preserve the semantics of Sumerograms, their phonetic value and their Akkadian or other language equivalents. They are the oldest literary texts from Mesopotamia and one of the most widespread genres in the ancient Near East. Wherever cuneiform tablets have been uncovered, inside Iraq or in the wider Middle East, these lists have been discovered.
Sumerogram: use of a Sumerian cuneiform character or group of characters as an ideogram or logogram rather than a syllabogram in the graphic representation of a language other than Sumerian, such as Akkadian or Hittite. Sumerograms are normally transliterated in majuscule letters, with dots separating the signs. In the same way, a written Akkadian word that is used ideographically to represent a language other than Akkadian (such as Hittite) is known as an Akkadogram. This type of logograms characterized, to a greater or lesser extent, every adaptation of the original Mesopotamian cuneiform system to a language other than Sumerian. The frequency and intensity of their use varied depending on period, style, and genre.
Akkadian Empire (c. 2334 – 2154 BC): first ancient Semitic-speaking empire of Mesopotamia, centered in the city of Akkad /ˈækæd/ and its surrounding region, also called Akkad in ancient Mesopotamia in the Bible. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule. The Akkadian Empire exercised influence across Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Anatolia, sending military expeditions as far south as Dilmun and Magan (modern Bahrain and Oman) in the Arabian Peninsula. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate). Under Sargon and his successors, the Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam and Gutium. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though the meaning of this term is not precise, and there are earlier Sumerian claimants. After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, the people of Mesopotamia eventually coalesced into two major Akkadian-speaking nations: Assyria in the north, and, a few centuries later, Babylonia in the south. Scholars have documented some 7,000 texts from the Akkadian period, written in both Sumerian and Akkadian. Many later texts from the successor states of Assyria and Babylonia also deal with the Akkadian Empire. Understanding of the Akkadian Empire continues to be hampered by the fact that its capital Akkad has not yet been located, despite numerous attempts. Collapse: Drought: One theory associates regional decline at the end of the Akkadian period (and of the First Intermediary Period following the Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt) was associated with rapidly increasing aridity, and failing rainfall in the region of the Ancient Near East, caused by a global centennial-scale drought. Government: Akkadian government formed a "classical standard" with which all future Mesopotamian states compared themselves; traditionally, the ensi was the highest functionary of the Sumerian city-states; in later traditions, one became an ensi by marrying the goddess Inanna, legitimising the rulership through divine consent; under Sargon, the ensis generally retained their positions, but were seen more as provincial governors. Economy: population of Akkad, like nearly all pre-modern states, was entirely dependent upon the agricultural systems of the region, which seem to have had two principal centres: the irrigated farmlands of southern Iraq that traditionally had a yield of 30 grains returned for each grain sown and the rain-fed agriculture of northern Iraq, known as the "Upper Country."
Sargon of Akkad (reign c. 2334–2284 BC (MC); Sargon the Great): first ruler of the Semitic-speaking Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd c. BC. He was the founder of the "Sargonic" or "Old Akkadian" dynasty, which ruled for about a century after his death, until the Gutian conquest of Sumer. His empire is thought to have included most of Mesopotamia, parts of the Levant, besides incursions into Hurrite and Elamite territory, ruling from his (archaeologically as yet unidentified) capital, Akkad (also Agade).
Gutian people (Guteans): nomadic people of the Zagros Mountains (on the border of modern Iran and Iraq) during ancient times. Their homeland was known as Gutium. Conflict between people from Gutium and the Akkadian Empire has been linked to the collapse of the empire, towards the end of the 3rd Millennium BCE.
Babylonia: ancient Akkadian-speaking Semitic state and cultural region based in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). Emerged as independent state c. 1894 BC, with the city of Babylon as its capital. Often involved in rivalry with its fellow Akkadian state of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia. Babylonia became the major power in the region after Hammurabi created an empire out of many of the territories of the former Akkadian Empire.
Babylon (Arabic: بابل, Bābil; Akkadian: Bābili(m); Sumerian logogram: KÁ.DINGIR.RAKI; Hebrew: בָּבֶל, Bāḇel; Ancient Greek: Βαβυλών Babylṓn; Old Persian: 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 Bābiru) was originally a Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BC. Originally a minor administrative center, it only became an independent city-state in 1894 BC in the hands of a migrant Amorite dynasty not native to ancient Mesopotamia. The Babylonians were more often ruled by other foreign migrant dynasties throughout their history, such as by the Kassites, Arameans, Elamites and Chaldeans, as well as by their fellow Mesopotamians, the Assyrians.
Akkadian (/əˈkeɪdiən/akkadû, 𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑ak-ka-du-u2; logogram: 𒌵𒆠URIKI ): extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia (Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa and Babylonia) from the 30th c. BC until its gradual replacement by Akkadian-influenced Eastern Aramaic among Mesopotamians between the 8th c. BC and its final extinction by the 1st to 3rd c. AD. It is the earliest attested Semitic language, and used the cuneiform writing system, which was originally used to write the unrelated, and also extinct, Sumerian. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund. Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium BC. From the second half of the third millennium BC (c. 2500 BC), texts fully written in Akkadian begin to appear. By 2nd millennium BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively. Because of the might of various Mesopotamian empires, such as the Akkadian Empire, Old Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Empire, and Middle Assyrian Empire, Akkadian became the lingua franca of much of the Ancient Near East. However, it began to decline during the Neo-Assyrian Empire around the 8th century BC, being marginalized by Aramaic during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III. By the Hellenistic period, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. Akkadian is divided into several varieties based on geography and historical period:
Old Akkadian, 2500–1950 BC
Old Babylonian/Old Assyrian, 1950–1530 BC
Middle Babylonian/Middle Assyrian, 1530–1000 BC
Neo-Babylonian/Neo-Assyrian, 1000–600 BC
Late Babylonian, 600 BC–100 AD
At its apogee, Middle Babylonian was the written language of diplomacy of the entire ancient Orient, including Egypt. During this period, a large number of loan words were included in the language from North West Semitic languages and Hurrian; however, the use of these words was confined to the fringes of the Akkadian speaking territory. Middle Assyrian served as a lingua franca in much of the Ancient Near East of the Late Bronze Age (Amarna Period). During the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Neo-Assyrian began to turn into a chancellery language, being marginalized by Old Aramaic. Under the Achaemenids, Aramaic continued to prosper, but Assyrian continued its decline. The language's final demise came about during the Hellenistic period when it was further marginalized by Koine Greek, even though Neo-Assyrian cuneiform remained in use in literary tradition well into Parthian times. The latest known text in cuneiform Babylonian is an astronomical text dated to 75 AD. The youngest texts written in Akkadian date from the 3rd century AD. Old Assyrian developed as well during the second millennium BC, but because it was a purely popular language — kings wrote in Babylonian — few long texts are preserved. Eblaite, formerly thought of as yet another Akkadian dialect, is now generally considered a separate East Semitic language.
Hammurabi's Babylonia, showing the Babylonian territory upon his ascension in 1792 BC and upon his death in 1750 BC. The river courses and coastline are those of that time period -- in general, they are not the modern rivers or coastlines. There is some question to what degree the cities of Nineveh, Tuttul, and Assur were under Babylonian authority.
First Babylonian Dynasty (c. 1830 BC — c. 1531 BC; Paleo-Babylonian Empire): chronology of the first dynasty of Babylonia is debated as there is a Babylonian King List A and a Babylonian King List B. In this chronology, the regnal years of List A are used due to their wide usage. The reigns in List B are longer, in general. The actual origins of the dynasty are rather hard to pinpoint with great certainty simply because Babylon itself, due to a high water table, yields very few archaeological materials intact. Thus any evidence must come from surrounding regions and written records. Not much is known about the kings from Sumuabum through Sin-muballit other than the fact they were Amorites rather than indigenous Akkadians. What is known, however, is that they accumulated little land. When Hammurabi (also an Amorite) ascended the throne of Babylon, the empire only consisted of a few towns in the surrounding area: Dilbat, Sippar, Kish, and Borsippa. Once Hammurabi was king, his military victories gained land for the empire. However, Babylon remained but one of several important areas in Mesopotamia, along with Assyria, then ruled by Shamshi-Adad I, and Larsa, then ruled by Rim-Sin I.
Hammurabi (c. 1810 - 1750 BC; reign 1792 - 1750 BC. (MC)): king of the First Babylonian Dynasty (the Amorite Dynasty). He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire following the abdication of his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. During his reign, he conquered the city-states of Elam, Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari. He ousted Ishme-Dagan I, the king of Assyria, and forced his son Mut-Ashkur to pay tribute, thereby bringing almost all of Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule. Hammurabi is best known for having issued the Code of Hammurabi, which he claimed to have received from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. The Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses in the Torah contain numerous similarities, but these are probably due to shared background and oral tradition, and it is unlikely that Hammurabi's laws exerted any direct impact on the later Mosaic ones. Hammurabi was seen by many as a god within his own lifetime. After his death, Hammurabi was revered as a great conqueror who spread civilization and forced all peoples to pay obeisance to Marduk, the national god of the Babylonians. Later, his military accomplishments became de-emphasized and his role as the ideal lawgiver became the primary aspect of his legacy. The coup de grace for the Hammurabi's Amorite Dynasty occurred in 1595 BC, when Babylon was sacked and conquered by the powerful Hittite Empire, thereby ending all Amorite political presence in Mesopotamia. However, the Indo-European-speaking Hittites did not remain, turning over Babylon to their Kassite allies, a people speaking a language isolate, from the Zagros mountains region. This Kassite Dynasty ruled Babylon for over 400 years and adopted many aspects of the Babylonian culture, including Hammurabi's code of laws. Even after the fall of the Amorite Dynasty, however, Hammurabi was still remembered and revered. When the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte I raided Babylon in 1158 BC and carried off many stone monuments, he had most of the inscriptions on these monuments erased and new inscriptions carved into them. On the stele containing Hammurabi's laws, however, only four or five columns were wiped out and no new inscription was ever added.
Code of Hammurabi (created: c. 1750 BC): well-preserved Babylonian law code of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back to about 1772 BC.
Samsu-iluna (c. 1750 - 1712 BC (MC)): 7th king of the founding Amorite dynasty of Babylon; son and successor of Hammurabi by an unknown mother. Though Samsu-iluna campaigned tirelessly and seems to have won frequently, the king proved unable to stop the empire's unwinding. Through it all, however, he did manage to keep the core of his kingdom intact, and this allowed the city of Babylon to cement its position in history. In the end, Samsu-iluna was left with a kingdom that was only fractionally larger than the one his father had started out with 50 years prior (but which did leave him mastery of the Euphrates up to and including the ruins of Mari and its dependencies). The status of Eshnunna is difficult to determine with any accuracy, and while it may have remained in Babylonian hands the city was exhausted and its political influence at an end. Depopulation of Sumer: Records in the cities of Ur and Uruk essentially stop after the 10th year of Samsu-iluna's reign, their priests apparently continued writing, but from more northerly cities; Larsa's records also end about this time.
Babylonian Chronicles: many series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history. The Babylonian Chronicles were written from the reign of Nabonassar up to the Parthian Period, by Babylonian astronomers ("Chaldaeans"), who probably used the Astronomical Diaries as their source. The Chronicles provide the "master narrative" for large tracts of modern Babylonian history. The chronicles are thought to have been written in Babylon during the Achaemenid period, c. 550–400 BCE.
Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle: one of the series of Babylonian Chronicles, contains a description of the first decade of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. The tablet details Nebuchadnezzar's military campaigns in the west and has been interpreted to refer to both the Battle of Carchemish and the Siege of Jerusalem (597 BC). It is the only identified Chronicle referring to Nebuchadnezzar, and does not cover the whole of his reign. As such, the subsequent destruction and exile recorded in the bible to have taken place 10 years later are not covered in the chronicles or elsewhere in the archeological record.
Library of Ashurbanipal (7th c. BC): last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC. Among its holdings was the famous Epic of Gilgamesh. Due to the sloppy handling of the original material much of the library is irreparably jumbled, making it impossible for scholars to discern and reconstruct many of the original texts, although some have survived intact.
Jewish–Babylonian war (601–586 BC): military conflict between the Kingdom of Judah and Babylonia; conflict marked the end of the Kingdom of Judah and Jewish independence until the Hasmonean revolt. After Babylonia invaded Jerusalem it destroyed the First Temple, and started the Babylonian exile.
Babylonian Map of the World (c. 500 BC): diagrammatic labeled depiction of the known world from the perspective of Babylonia. The map is incised on a clay tablet, showing Babylon somewhat to the north of its center; the clay tablet is damaged, and also contains a section of cuneiform text.
Berossus (fl. beginning of 3rd c. BC): Hellenistic-era Babylonian writer, a priest of Bel Marduk and astronomer who wrote in the Koine Greek language. Versions of two excerpts of his writings survive, at several removes from the original. What is left of Berossus' writings is useless for the reconstruction of Mesopotamian history. Of greater interest to scholars is his historiography, using as it did both Greek and Mesopotamian methods. The affinities between it and Hesiod, Herodotus, Manethon, and the Hebrew Bible (specifically, the Torah and Deuteronomistic History) as histories of the ancient world give us an idea about how ancient people viewed their world.
Neo-Babylonian Empire: During the preceding three centuries, Babylonia had been ruled by their fellow Akkadian speakers and northern neighbours, Assyria. A year after the death of the last strong Assyrian ruler, Assurbanipal, in 627 BC, the Assyrian empire spiralled into a series of brutal civil wars. Babylonia rebelled under Nabopolassar, a member of the Chaldean tribe which had migrated from the Levant to south eastern Babylonia in the early 9th century BC. In alliance with the Medes, Persians, Scythians and Cimmerians, they sacked the city of Nineveh in 612 BC, and the seat of empire was transferred to Babylonia for the first time since the death of Hammurabi in the mid 18th century BC. This period witnessed a general improvement in economic life and agricultural production, and a great flourishing of architectural projects, the arts and science.
Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 634 – 562 BC; reign: c. 605 – 562 BC): Chaldean king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Both the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the destruction of Jerusalem's temple are ascribed to him. He is featured in the Book of Daniel and is mentioned in several other books of the Bible.
Persepolis: Commonly accepted that Cyrus the Great was buried in Pasargadae, which is mentioned by Ctesias as his own city. If it is true that the body of Cambyses II was brought home "to the Persians," his burying place must be somewhere beside that of his father. Two completed graves behind the compound at Persepolis would then belong to Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III.
Persepolis Administrative Archives: Persepolis Fortification Archive and Persepolis Treasury Archive are two groups of clay administrative archives — sets of records physically stored together - found in Persepolis dating to the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Persepolis administrative archives are the single most important extant primary source for understanding the internal workings of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.
Achaemenid Empire (Old Persian: Pārsa; First Persian Empire; 550–330 BC): ancient Iranian empire based in Western Asia founded by Cyrus the Great. Ranging at its greatest extent from the Balkans and Eastern Europe proper in the west to the Indus Valley in the east, it was larger than any previous empire in history, spanning 5.5 (or 8) million square kilometers. Incorporating various peoples of different origins and faiths, it is notable for its successful model of a centralised, bureaucratic administration (through satraps under the King of Kings), for building infrastructure such as road systems and a postal system, the use of an official language across its territories, and the development of civil services and a large professional army. The empire's successes inspired similar systems in later empires. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, establishing the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander the Great, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered most of the empire by 330 BC (superimposition of the maps of Achaemenid and Alexander's empires shows a 90% match, except that Alexander's realm never reached the peak size of the Achaemenid realm). Noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Despite the lasting conflict between the two states, many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their daily lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange, some being employed by or allied to the Persian kings.
Cyropaedia: partly fictional biography of Cyrus the Great, written in the early 4th century BC by the Athenian gentleman-soldier, and student of Socrates, Xenophon of Athens.
Darius I (c. 550–486 BCE; reign: 522.09 BCE - 486.10 BCE): third king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.
Behistun Inscription (Old Persian: Bagastana, meaning "the place of god"): multi-lingual inscription and large rock relief on a cliff at Mount Behistun Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of Iran, near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran. It was crucial to the decipherment of cuneiform script. Authored by Darius the Great sometime between his coronation as king of the Persian Empire in the summer of 522 BC and his death in autumn of 486 BC, the inscription begins with a brief autobiography of Darius, including his ancestry and lineage. Later in the inscription, Darius provides a lengthy sequence of events following the deaths of Cyrus the Great and Cambyses II in which he fought nineteen battles in a period of one year (ending in December 521 BC) to put down multiple rebellions throughout the Persian Empire. This inscription is to cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphs: the document most crucial in the decipherment of a previously lost script.
Classical antiquity (classical era, classical period or classical age): period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 6th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which both Greek and Roman societies flourished and wielded huge influence throughout much of Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia. Conventionally, it is taken to begin with the earliest-recorded Epic Greek poetry of Homer (8th–7th-century BC), and continues through the emergence of Christianity (1st century AD) and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th-century AD). It ends with the decline of classical culture during late antiquity (250–750), a period overlapping with the Early Middle Ages (600–1000). Such a wide span of history and territory covers many disparate cultures and periods. Classical antiquity may also refer to an idealized vision among later people of what was, in Edgar Allan Poe's words, "the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome". The culture of the ancient Greeks, together with some influences from the ancient Near East, was the basis of European art, philosophy, society, and education, until the Roman imperial period. The Romans preserved, imitated, and spread this culture over Europe, until they themselves were able to compete with it, and the classical world began to speak Latin as well as Greek. This Greco-Roman cultural foundation has been immensely influential on the language, politics, law, educational systems, philosophy, science, warfare, poetry, historiography, ethics, rhetoric, art and architecture of the modern world. Surviving fragments of classical culture led to a revival beginning in the 14th century which later came to be known as the Renaissance, and various neo-classical revivals occurred in the 18th and 19th c. Archaic period (c. 8th to c. 6th centuries BC): Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Assyrians; Greece: Greek colonies; Iron Age Italy; Roman Kingdom. {q.v. #Classical Greece (5th to 4th centuries BC)}. {q.v. #Hellenism: Hellenistic period (323–146 BC)}. Roman Republic (5th to 1st centuries BC). {q.v. #Roman Empire (27 BC – 285/395 AD (Undivided)) (1st century BC to 5th century AD)}. Late antiquity (4th to 6th centuries AD). Political revivalism: Carolingian Renaissance, Ottonian Renaissance, Renaissance, Classicism, and Legacy of the Roman Empire.
Europe, North Africa and part of the Near East in the year 301 BC, shortly before the partition of the Antigonid Empire.Mediterranean at 218 BC.
Bibliotheca historica: work of universal history by Diodorus Siculus; forty books, three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, and describe the history and culture of Egypt (book I), of Mesopotamia, India, Scythia, and Arabia (II), of North Africa (III), and of Greece and Europe (IV - VI). In the next section (books VII - XVII), he recounts the history of the World starting with the Trojan War, down to the death of Alexander the Great. The last section (books XVII to the end) concerns the historical events from the successors of Alexander down to either 60 BC or the beginning of Caesar's Gallic War in 59 BC. His sources: Hecataeus of Abdera, Ctesias of Cnidus, Ephorus, Theopompus, Hieronymus of Cardia, Duris of Samos, Diyllus, Philistus, Timaeus, Polybius and Posidonius. Diodorus' immense work has not survived intact: we have the first five books and books 11 through 20. The rest exists only in fragments preserved in Photius and the excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.
Greco-Roman world (Greco-Roman culture, Greco-Roman): area of the "Mediterranean world" of Black Sea and the Mediterranean. "Cores" of this world: Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Iberian Peninsula, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya (Africa Proper).
Greek Heroic Age: period between the coming of the Greeks to Thessaly and the Greek return from Troy.
Trojan War (Traditional dating: c. 1194–1184 BC; Modern dating: c. 1260–1180 BC): waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's Iliad. The Iliad relates four days in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments.
Hisarlik: modern name for the generally agreed site of ancient Troy, also known as Ilion, and is located in what is now Turkey (historically Anatolia). The unoccupied archaeological site lies approximately 6.5 km from the Aegean Sea and about the same distance from the Dardanelles.
Prostitution in ancient Greece: in the more important cities, and particularly the many ports, Prostitution employed a significant number of people and represented a notable part of economic activity. It was far from being clandestine; cities did not condemn brothels, but rather only instituted regulations on them. In Athens, the legendary lawmaker Solon is credited with having created state brothels with regulated prices. Prostitution involved both sexes differently; women of all ages and young men were prostitutes, for a predominantly male clientele. In the case of adultery, the cuckold had the legal right to kill the offender if caught in the act; the same went for rape. Female adulterers, and by extension prostitutes, were forbidden to marry or take part in public ceremonies. The pornai (πόρναι) were found at the bottom end of the scale. They were the property of pimps or pornoboskós (πορνοβοσκός) who received a portion of their earnings (the word comes from pernemi πέρνημι "to sell"). In the classical era of ancient Greece, pornai were slaves of barbarian origin; starting in the Hellenistic era the case of young girls abandoned by their citizen fathers could be enslaved. They were considered to be slaves until proven otherwise. The Greeks also had an abundance of male prostitutes; πόρνοι pórnoi. Some of them aimed at a female clientele: the existence of gigolos is confirmed in the classical era. The vast majority of male prostitutes, however, were for a male clientele. The period during which adolescents were judged as desirable extended from puberty until the appearance of a beard, the hairlessness of youth being an object of marked taste among the Greeks. As such, there were cases of men keeping older boys for lovers, but depilated. Prostitution and citizenship: As a consequence, though prostitution was legal, it was still socially shameful. It was generally the domain of slaves or, more generally, non-citizens. In Athens, for a citizen, it had significant political consequences, such as the atimia (ἀτιμία); loss of public civil rights.
Byzantium (Byzantion (Βυζάντιον)): ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name Byzantion and its Latinization Byzantium continued to be used as a name of Constantinople sporadically and to varying degrees during the thousand year existence of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium was colonized by Greeks from Megara in the 7th century BC and remained primarily Greek-speaking until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453.
Star and crescent: iconographic symbol used in various historical contexts, including as a prominent symbol of the Ottoman Empire, and in contemporary times used as a national symbol for some countries as well as recognized as a symbol of Islam. It was developed in the Greek colony of Byzantium ca. 300 BC, though it became more widely used as the royal emblem of Pontic king Mithradates VI Eupator after he incorporated Byzantium into his kingdom for a short period. During the 5th century, it was present in coins minted by the Persian Sassanian Empire; the symbol was represented in the coins minted across the empire throughout the Middle East for more than 400 years from the 3rd century until the fall of the Sassanians after the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century. The conquering Muslim rulers kept the symbol in their coinage during the early years of the caliphate, as the coins were exact replicas of the Sassanian coins. The symbol is the conjoined representation of a crescent and a star. Both elements have a long prior history in the iconography of the Ancient Near East as representing either the Sun and Moon or the Moon and Venus (Morning Star) (or their divine personifications). It has been suggested that the crescent actually represents Venus or even the sun during an eclipse (This would explain cases where the inside curve of the crescent has a smaller radius of curvature than the outer, the opposite of what happens with the moon.). Coins with crescent and star symbols represented separately have a longer history, with possible ties to older Mesopotamian iconography.
Bosporan Kingdom (c. 438 BC–c. 370 AD): ancient state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, the present-day Strait of Kerch; longest surviving Roman client kingdom. The prosperity of the Bosporan Kingdom was based on the export of wheat, fish and slaves.
Platonic Academy (Ancient Greek: Ἀκαδημία): founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367–347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. Sulla had the sacred olive trees of Athena cut down in 86 BC to build siege engines. Among the religious observances that took place at the Akademeia was a torchlit night race from altars within the city to Prometheus' altar in the Akademeia. Therefore, there was probably not at that time a "school" in the sense of a clear distinction between teachers and students, or even a formal curriculum. There was, however, a distinction between senior and junior members. Two women are known to have studied with Plato at the Academy.
Neoplatonic Academy: The origins of Neoplatonist teaching in Athens are uncertain, but when Proclus arrived in Athens in the early 430s, he found Plutarch of Athens and his colleague Syrianus teaching in an Academy there. The Neoplatonists in Athens called themselves "successors" (diadochoi, but of Plato) and presented themselves as an uninterrupted tradition reaching back to Plato, but there cannot have actually been any geographical, institutional, economic or personal continuity with the original academy. The school seems to have been a private foundation, conducted in a large house which Proclus eventually inherited from Plutarch and Syrianus. The heads of the Neoplatonic Academy were Plutarch of Athens, Syrianus, Proclus, Marinus, Isidore, and finally Damascius. The Neoplatonic Academy reached its apex under Proclus (died 485).
First Macedonian War (214–205 BC): fought by Rome, allied (after 211 BC) with the Aetolian League and Attalus I of Pergamon, against Philip V of Macedon, contemporaneously with the Second Punic War (218–201 BC) against Carthage. There were no decisive engagements, and the war ended in a stalemate. During the war, Macedon attempted to gain control over parts of Illyria and Greece, but without success. It is commonly thought that these skirmishes in the east prevented Macedon from aiding the Carthaginian general Hannibal in the war with Rome. The Peace of Phoenice (205 BC) formally ended the war. Demetrius urges war against Rome. Philip makes peace with Aetolia. Philip builds a fleet. Philip allies with Carthage. War breaks out in Illyria. Rome seeks allies in Greece. Campaign in Greece. Attempt at peace fails. Hostilities resume. The war ends.
Dura-Europos (Δοῦρα Εὐρωπός): Hellenistic, Parthian and Roman border city built on an escarpment 90 metres above the right bank of the Euphrates river. In 113 BC, Parthians conquered the city, and held it, with one brief Roman intermission (114 AD), until 165 AD. Under Parthian rule, it became an important provincial administrative center. The Romans decisively captured Dura-Europos in 165 AD and greatly enlarged it as their easternmost stronghold in Mesopotamia, until it was captured by Sassanians after a siege in 256–57 AD. Its population was deported, and after it was abandoned, it was covered by sand and mud and disappeared from sight. It was looted and mostly destroyed between 2011 and 2014 first by the Syrian Regime and the Iranian backed militias, and then by ISIL during the Syrian Civil War. Archaeology: Dura-Europos synagogue; Dura-Europos church; The Mithraeum
Battle of Pydna (168.06.22 BC): between Rome and Macedon during the Third Macedonian War. The battle saw the further ascendancy of Rome in the Hellenistic world world and the end of the Antigonid line of kings.
Linear A (MM IB to LM IIIA; 2500-1450 BC): undeciphered writing system used in ancient Greece.
Cretan hieroglyphs (MM I to MM III; 2100 - 1700 B.C): undeciphered hieroglyphs found on artefacts of early Bronze Age Crete, during the Minoan era. It predates Linear A by about a century, but continued to be used in parallel for most of their history.
Linear B (c. 1450-1200 BC): syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The application of Linear B appears to have been confined to administrative contexts. In all the thousands of clay tablets, a relatively small number of different "hands" have been detected: 45 in Pylos and 66 in Knossos. Once the palaces were destroyed, the script disappeared.
Cypro-Minoan syllabary (archaic CM, CM1 (also known as Linear C), CM2, and CM3; some scholars disagree with this classification; ca. 1550-1050 BC)
Greek Dark Ages (ca. 1100-800 BC, {q.v. Late Bronze Age collapse}): period of Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean palatial civilization around 1100 BC to the first signs of the Greek poleis, city states, in the 9th century BC.
Delphi (Δελφοί): in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle had origins in prehistory and it became international in character and also fostered sentiments of Greek nationality, even though the nation of Greece was centuries away from realization. The ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the omphalos (navel). The sacred precinct occupies a delineated region on the south-western slope of Mount Parnassus. It is now an extensive archaeological site, and since 1938 a part of Parnassos National Park.
Omphalos of Delphi: ancient marble monument that was found at the archaeological site of Delphi, Greece. According to the Ancient Greek myths regarding the founding of the Delphic Oracle, the god Zeus, in his attempt to locate the center of the earth, launched two eagles from the two ends of the world, and the eagles, starting simultaneously and flying at equal speed, crossed their paths above the area of Delphi, and so was the place where Zeus placed the stone. Since then, Delphi has been considered by Greeks to be the center of the world, the omphalos – "navel of the Earth."
Archaic Greece (800–480 BC): followed the Greek Dark Ages. This period saw the rise of the poleis (singular polis, generally translated as "city-state"), the founding of colonies, the annexation of some of the eastern poleis by the Persian empire, as well as the first inklings of classical philosophy. Crisis and consolidation of the polis, Reorganization and consolidation of Athens; Colonization, Tyrants.
Picture of a classical Greek athlete wearing the Kynodesme to illustrate that article.
Kynodesme (Greek: κυνοδέσμη, English translation: "dog tie"): cord or string or sometimes a leather strip that was worn by some athletes in Ancient Greece and Etruria to prevent the exposure of the glans penis in public. It was tied tightly around the akroposthion, the part of the foreskin that extends beyond the glans. Purpose: The kynodesme was worn temporarily while in public and could be taken off and put back on at will. It could either be attached to a waist band to expose the scrotum, or tied to the base of the penis so that the penis appeared to curl upwards. The public exposure of the penis head was regarded by the Greeks as dishonourable and shameful, something only seen in slaves and barbarians. Modesty and decency demanded that men who showed themselves naked in a public setting, such as athletes or actors, must conceal their glans. In Greek and Roman medical practice, the uncontrolled dispersing of semen was thought to weaken men, and was particularly thought to affect the quality of the masculine voice. In ancient Rome, this form of non-surgical infibulation might thus be used by singers as a regimen for preserving the voice.
Olympia, Greece: small town in Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, famous for the nearby archaeological site of the same name, which was a major Panhellenic religious sanctuary of ancient Greece, where the ancient Olympic Games were held. The site was primarily dedicated to Zeus and drew visitors from all over the Greek world as one of a group of such "Panhellenic" centres which helped to build the identity of the ancient Greeks as a nation. Despite the name, it is nowhere near Mount Olympus in northern Greece, where the Twelve Olympians, the major deities of Ancient Greek religion, were believed to live. The Olympic Games were held every four years throughout Classical antiquity, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. The Altis, as the sanctuary was originally known, was an irregular quadrangular area more than 200 yards (183 meters) on each side and walled except to the North where it was bounded by the Kronion (Mount Kronos). The Altis consists of a somewhat disordered arrangement of buildings, the most important of which are the Temple of Hera (or Heraion/Heraeum), the Temple of Zeus, the Pelopion, and the area of the great altar of Zeus, where the largest sacrifices were made. There was still a good deal of open or wooded areas inside the sanctuary.
Philippeion: in the Altis of Olympia was an Ionic circular memorial in limestone and marble, a tholos, which contained chryselephantine (ivory and gold) statues of Philip's family; himself, Alexander the Great, Olympias, Amyntas III and Eurydice I. It was made by the Athenian sculptor Leochares in celebration of Philip's victory at the battle of Chaeronea (338 BC). It was the only structure inside the Altis dedicated to a human. The importance of the chryselephantine material used is that it was also the material used for the statue of Zeus also at Olympus (Comparing the Macedonian royal family to the gods). The fact Alexander is represented here is also important, as Philip had seven wives so after his death there very well could have been claims to the throne by people other than Alexander. By putting Alexander in the statue it makes it clear who his successor should be. It is however disputed whether or not Philip constructed this monument or whether Alexander had it constructed later in which case the motives would be different.
Ancient Olympic Games (Ὀλυμπιακοὶ ἀγῶνες): series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The first Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC. The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, 2nd century BC. Their last recorded celebration was in AD 393, under the emperor Theodosius I, but archeological evidence indicates that some games were still held after this date. The games likely came to an end under Theodosius II, possibly in connection with a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign. During the celebration of the games, the ekecheiria (an Olympic truce) was announced so that athletes and religious pilgrims could travel from their cities to the games in safety. The prizes for the victors were olive leaf wreaths or crowns. The games became a political tool used by city-states to assert dominance over their rivals. Politicians would announce political alliances at the games, and in times of war, priests would offer sacrifices to the gods for victory. The games were also used to help spread Hellenistic culture throughout the Mediterranean. The Olympics also featured religious celebrations. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was counted as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Sculptors and poets would congregate each Olympiad to display their works of art to would-be patrons. The ancient Olympics had fewer events than the modern games, and only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate, although there were victorious women chariot owners. As long as they met the entrance criteria, athletes from any Greek city-state and kingdom were allowed to participate. The games were always held at Olympia.
Map of the nations during the start of the Peloponnesian War around 431 BC.
Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC): ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved but Sparta refused. On the level of international relations, Athens, the strongest city-state in Greece prior to the war's beginning, was reduced to a state of near-complete subjection, while Sparta became established as the leading power of Greece. The economic costs of the war were felt all across Greece; poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens found itself completely devastated, and never regained its pre-war prosperity.
Battle of Arginusae (406 BC): inexperienced fleet was thus tactically inferior to the Spartans, but its commanders were able to circumvent this problem by employing new and unorthodox tactics, which allowed the Athenians to secure a dramatic and unexpected victory. The news of the victory itself was met with jubilation at Athens, and the grateful Athenian public voted to bestow citizenship on the slaves and metics who had fought in the battle. Their joy was tempered, however, by the aftermath of the battle, in which a storm prevented the ships assigned to rescue the survivors of the 25 disabled or sunken Athenian triremes from performing their duties, and a great number of sailors drowned.
Classical Greece (5th-4th c. BC; Classical period, Hellenic period): 200 year period in Greek culture; had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and greatly influenced the foundations of the Western Civilization. In the context of the art, architecture, and culture of Ancient Greece, the Classical period, sometimes called the Hellenic period, corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC (the most common dates being the fall of the last Athenian tyrant in 510 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC). Cleisthenes; The Persian Wars; The Peloponnesian War. The Fall of Sparta; The rise of Athens; Theban hegemony - tentative and with no future; Rise of Macedon.
Fifth-century Athens (480 BC-404 BC; Golden Age of Athens or The Age of Pericles): period of Athenian political hegemony, economic growth and cultural flourishing; began in 480 BC when an Athenian-led coalition of city-states, known as the Delian League, defeated the Persians at Salamis; Athenian empire; eventually, Athens abandoned the pretense of parity among its allies and relocated the Delian League treasury from Delos to Athens, where it funded the building of the Athenian Acropolis; playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides all lived and worked in 5th century BCE Athens, as did the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, the physician Hippocrates, and the philosopher Socrates.
Peace of Antalcidas (387 BC; King's Peace): peace treaty guaranteed by the Persian King Artaxerxes II that ended the Corinthian War in ancient Greece. The treaty's alternate name comes from Antalcidas, the Spartan diplomat who traveled to Susa to negotiate the terms of the treaty with the king of Achaemenid Persia.
The Theban Hegemony, 371 BC - 362 BC.
Battle of Leuctra (371.07.06 BC): battle between the Boeotians led by Thebans and the Spartans along with their allies amidst the post-Corinthian War conflict.
Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) (362.07.04 BC): fought between the Thebans, led by Epaminondas and supported by the Arcadians and the Boeotian league against the Spartans, led by King Agesilaus II and supported by the Eleans, Athenians, and Mantineans. The battle was to determine which of the two alliances would have hegemony over Greece. However, the death of Epaminondas and his intended successors coupled with the impact on the Spartans of yet another defeat weakened both alliances, and paved the way for Macedonian conquest led by Phillip II of Macedon.
The Anabasis of Alexander: history of the campaigns or expeditions ("anabasis") into the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great. It was composed centuries after the fact by the historian Arrian. This work consists of seven books and was Arrian's most important work. It is one of the few surviving complete accounts of the Macedonian conqueror's expedition; primarily a military history and has little to say about Alexander's personal life, his role in Greek politics or the reasons why the campaign against Persia was launched in the first place. Arrian was able to use sources which are now lost, such as the contemporary works by Callisthenes (the nephew of Alexander's tutor Aristotle), Onesicritus, Nearchus, and Aristobulus, and the slightly later work of Cleitarchus. Most important of all, Arrian had the biography of Alexander by Ptolemy, one of Alexander's leading generals and possibly his half-brother.
Hieronymus of Cardia (~360 - after 272 BC): Greek general and historian from Cardia in Thrace, was a contemporary of Alexander the Great; died at the age of 104. No significant amount of his work survived the end of the ancient world.
Map of the Kingdom of Macedon at the death of Philip II in 336 BC. Kingdoms of the Diadochi after the Battle of Ipsus, c. 301 BC.
Kingdom of Ptolemy I Soter
Kingdom of Cassander
Kingdom of Lysimachus
Kingdom of Seleucus I Nicator
Epirus
Other
Carthage
Roman Republic
Greek States
Argead dynasty: ancient Greek royal house. They were the ruling dynasty of Macedonia from about 700 to 310 BC. The family's most celebrated members were Philip II of Macedonia and Alexander the Great.
Macedonia (ancient kingdom) (808 BC–168 BC): ancient kingdom on the northern periphery of Classical Greece and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. It was ruled during most of its existence initially by the founding dynasty of the Argeads, the intermittent Antipatrids and finally the Antigonids. Prior to 4th c. BC, Macedonia was a small kingdom in northern Greece, outside the area dominated by the great city-states of Athens, Sparta and Thebes, and at one time was subordinate to Achaemenid Persia. The reign of Philip II (359–336 BC) saw the rise of Macedonia, when the kingdom rose to control the entire Greek world. Alexander the Great: Macedonian Empire; Greek arts and literature flourished in the new conquered lands and advancements in philosophy and science (Aristotle) were spread to the ancient world.
Rise of Macedon (359–336 BC): from a small kingdom at the periphery of classical Greek affairs to one which came to dominate the entire Hellenic world (and beyond), occurred in the span of just 25 years; largely attributable to the personality and policies of Philip II. The main source for the period is Diodorus Siculus's Bibliotheca historica, written in the 1st c. BC, which is therefore a secondary source. Diodorus devotes Book XVI to the period of Philip's reign, but the action is much compressed, and due to the scope of the work, this book also contains details of happenings during the same period elsewhere in the ancient world. Diodorus is often derided by modern historians for his style and inaccuracies, but he preserves many details of the ancient period found nowhere else. Diodorus worked primarily by epitomizing the works of other historians, omitting many details where they did not suit his purpose, which was to illustrate moral lessons from history; his account of the period therefore contains many gaps. Outside the brief notices of Philip's exploits which occur in Diodorus and Justin, further details of his campaigns (and indeed the period in general) can be found in the orations of Athenian statesmen, primarily Demosthenes and Aeschines, which have survived intact. It was probably in the aftermath of his victory at the Battle of Crocus Field (if not before) that the Thessalians appointed Philip Archon of Thessaly; appointment for life, and gave Philip control over all the revenues of the Thessalian Confederation, and furthermore made Philip leader of the united Thessalian army; Cawkwell describes 352 BC as Philip's annus mirabilis; his appointment to high command in Thessaly was a dramatic increase in his power, effectively giving him a whole new army; his actions as the "avenger" and "saviour" of Apollo were calculated to win him goodwill amongst the Greeks in general. In return for ending the war, Macedon was made a member of the Amphictyonic council, and given the two votes which had been stripped from Phocis; was an important moment for Philip, since membership of the Ampictyony meant that Macedon was now no longer a 'barbarian' state in Greek eyes.
Peace of Philocrates (346 BC): between Athens and Macedon under Philip II. Philocrates was the name of the main Athenian negotiator of the Treaty.
Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC): between the Macedonians led by Philip II of Macedon and an alliance of some of the Greek city-states including Athens and Thebes; culmination of Philip's campaign in Greece (339–338 BC) and resulted in a decisive victory for the Macedonians. The battle has been described as one of the most decisive of the ancient world. The forces of Athens and Thebes were destroyed, and continued resistance was impossible; the war therefore came to an abrupt end. Philip was able to impose a settlement upon Greece, which all states accepted, with the exception of Sparta.
League of Corinth (winter of 338 BC/337 BC): first time in history that most of the Greek states (with the notable exception of Sparta) managed to become part of a single political entity.
Battle of Thebes (December, 335 BC): between Alexander the Great and the Greek city state of Thebes immediately outside of and in the city proper. Although Alexander did not desire to destroy Thebes, after sending several embassies requesting their submission on what he considered merciful terms, he eventually decided to destroy the city as an example to others. Alexander punished the Thebans severely for their rebellion. Wishing to send a message to the other Greek states, he had the 30,000 Thebans not killed in the fighting sold into slavery. The city itself was burnt to the ground.
Pella: best known as the ancient and wealthy capital of the kingdom of Macedon in the time of Alexander the Great.
Wars of Alexander the Great (336–323 BC): first against the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Darius III, and then against local chieftains and warlords as far east as Punjab, India. Alexander the Great was one of the most successful military commanders of all time. He was undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks. Battle of the Granicus River; Siege of Halicarnassus; Battle of Issus; Siege of Tyre; Siege of Gaza; Battle of Gaugamela; End of the Achaemenid Persian Empire; India; return.
Map of the successor Kingdoms before the battle of Ipsus.
Wars of the Diadochi (Wars of Alexander's Successors; 322–275 BC): Seleucus I Nicator, Lysimachus, Cassander vs Antigonus I Monophthalmus and his son Demetrius I of Macedon. Ptolemy in Egypt, southern Syria (known as Coele-Syria), southern coast of Asia Minor. Antiochus in vast Asian territories of the empire. Antigonus in Macedon and Greece.
Diadochi (Greek: Διάδοχοι, Diadokhoi, meaning "Successors"): rival generals, families and friends of Alexander the Great who fought for control over his empire after his death in 323 BC. The Wars of the Diadochi mark the beginning of the Hellenistic period.
Cassander (ca. 350 BC – 297 BC): king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon from 305 BC until 297 BC, son of Antipater, and founder of the Antipatrid dynasty; educated alongside Alexander the Great in a group that included Hephaestion, Ptolemy and Lysimachus. Cassander stood out amongst the diadochi in his hostility to Alexander's memory. As Cassander and the other diadochi struggled for power, Alexander IV, Roxana, and Alexander’s supposed illegitimate son Heracles were all executed on Cassander's orders, and a guarantee to Olympias to spare her life was not respected. Cassander has been perceived to be ambitious and unscrupulous, and even members of his own family were estranged from him.
Hellenization: historical spread of ancient Greek culture, religion, and, to a lesser extent, language over foreign peoples conquered by Greeks or brought into their sphere of influence, particularly during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great in 4th c. BC. The result of Hellenization was that elements of Greek origin combined in various forms and degrees with local elements, and these Greek influences spread from the Mediterranean basin as far east as modern-day Pakistan. In modern times, Hellenization has been associated with the adoption of modern Greek culture and the ethnic and cultural homogenization of Greece. Regions: Crimea (Bosporan Kingdom), Israel (Hellenistic Judaism), Parthia, Pisidia and Pamphylia, Phrygia, Syria, Bactria. Early Christianity: Scholars have continued to nuance Hengel's views, but almost all believe that strong Hellenistic influences were throughout the Levant, even among the conservative Jewish communities, which were the most nationalistic. Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire).
Hellenistic period: from death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to the emergence of the Roman Empire as signified by the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the subsequent conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt the following year. Greek cultural influence and power was at its peak in Europe, Africa and Asia, experiencing prosperity and progress in the arts, exploration, literature, theatre, architecture, music, mathematics, philosophy, and science. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East, and Southwest Asia, and a departure from earlier Greek attitudes towards "barbarian" cultures. While a few fragments exist, there is no surviving historical work which dates to the hundred years following Alexander's death. During the Hellenistic period the importance of Greece proper within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply; great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria respectively. Southern Europe: Greece, Macedonia (Antigonid dynasty), Balkans, Western Mediterranean (Magna Graecia), Kingdom of Epirus; Hellenistic Middle east: The Ptolemaic Kingdom, The Seleucid Empire, Attalid Pergamum, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, The Kingdom of Pontus, Armenia, Parthia, Nabatean Kingdom, Judea (Hellenistic Judaism, Hasmonean dynasty); Greco-Bactrian kingdom; Indo-Greeks. In 27 BC, Augustus directly annexed Greece to the new Roman Empire as the province of Achaea; Augustus completed both the destruction of the Hellenistic kingdoms (Battle of Actium, the last Ptolemaic monarch - Cleopatra VII) and the Roman republic, and ended (in hindsight) the Hellenistic era. Religion: Hellenistic age also saw a rise in the disillusionment with traditional religion; rise of philosophy and the sciences had removed the gods from many of their traditional domains such as their role in the movement of the heavenly bodies and natural disasters; Sophists proclaimed the centrality of humanity and agnosticism; the belief in Euhemerism (the view that the gods were simply ancient kings and heroes), became popular; popular philosopher Epicurus promoted a view of disinterested gods living far away from the human realm in metakosmia; substantial decline in religiosity was mostly reserved for the educated classes. Sciences: Hellenistic science differed from Greek science in at least two ways: 1) it benefited from the cross-fertilization of Greek ideas with those that had developed in the larger Hellenistic world, 2) to some extent, it was supported by royal patrons in the kingdoms founded by Alexander's successors; Alexandria in Egypt became a major center of scientific research in the 3rd century BC; level of Hellenistic achievement in astronomy and engineering is impressively shown by the Antikythera mechanism (150–100 BC).
Antigonid dynasty (306 BC – 301 BC Antigonus I Monophthalmus; 179 BC – 168 BC Perseus of Macedon): Hellenistic dynasty of Dorian Greek provenance, descended from Alexander the Great's general Antigonus I Monophthalmus ("the One-Eyed") that ruled mainly in Macedonia. Succeeding the Antipatrid dynasty in much of Macedonia, Antigonus ruled mostly over Asia Minor and northern Syria. His attempts to take control of the whole of Alexander's empire led to his defeat and death at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. Antigonus's son Demetrius I Poliorcetes survived the battle, and managed to seize control of Macedon itself a few years later, but eventually lost his throne, dying as a prisoner of Seleucus I Nicator. After a period of confusion, Demetrius's son Antigonus II Gonatas was able to establish the family's control over the old Kingdom of Macedon, as well as over most of the Greek city-states, by 276 BC.
Seleucid Empire (312 BC–63 BC; Anatolia, Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia {q.v. #Ancient Persia and Iran (until Muslim conquest)}): Hellenistic state ruled by the Seleucid dynasty; it was founded by Seleucus I Nicator following the division of the Macedonian empire created by Alexander the Great. Seleucus received Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to include much of Alexander's near eastern territories. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what is now Kuwait, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and northwest parts of India.
Pergamon: ancient Greek city in Aeolis, currently located 26 kilometres (16 mi) from the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern-day Bakırçay). Today, the main sites of ancient Pergamon are to the north and west of the modern city of Bergama in Turkey.
Antigonus II Gonatas (319–239 BC): powerful ruler who solidified the position of the Antigonid dynasty in Macedon after a long period defined by anarchy and chaos and acquired fame for his victory over the Gauls who had invaded the Balkans.
Antioch: was an ancient Greek city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. Its ruins lie near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey. Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals. The city's geographical, military, and economic location benefited its occupants, particularly such features as the spice trade, the Silk Road, and the Royal Road. It eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the Near East. Capital of the Seleucid Empire until 63 BC when the Romans took control, making it the seat of the governor of the province of Syria. Main center of Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the Second Temple period. Antioch was called "the cradle of Christianity" as a result of its longevity and the pivotal role that it played in the emergence of both Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. The Christian New Testament asserts that the name "Christian" first emerged in Antioch. Antioch was a metropolis of 0.25 mln people during Augustan times, but it declined to relative insignificance during the Middle Ages because of warfare, repeated earthquakes, and a change in trade routes, which no longer passed through Antioch from the far east following the Mongol invasions and conquests. One of the most famous urban additions to Antioch, done by the Romans probably under Augustus when the city had >0.5 mln inhabitants, was the Circus of Antioch: it was a Roman hippodrome. In 256 AD, the town was suddenly raided by the Persians under Shapur I, and many of the people were slain in the theatre. It was recaptured by the Roman emperor Valerian the following year. Age of Julian and Valens: When the emperor Julian visited in 362 on a detour to Persia, he had high hopes for Antioch, regarding it as a rival to the imperial capital of Constantinople. Antioch had a mixed pagan and Christian population, which Ammianus Marcellinus implies lived quite harmoniously together. Julian found much else about which to criticize the Antiochene; Julian had wanted the empire's cities to be more self-managing, as they had been some 200 years before. The city's impiety to the old religion was clear to Julian when he attended the city's annual feast of Apollo. To his surprise and dismay the only Antiochene present was an old priest clutching a goose. Christianity: The Christian population was estimated by Chrysostom at about 100,000 people at the time of Theodosius I. Between 252 and 300 AD, ten assemblies of the church were held at Antioch and it became the seat of one of the five original patriarchates, along with Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome (see Pentarchy). Arab conquest (637) and Byzantine reconquest (969). Crusader era.
115 Antioch earthquake (115.12.13): estimated magnitude of 7.5 on the surface wave magnitude scale. Antioch and surrounding areas were devastated with a great loss of life and property. It triggered a local tsunami that badly damaged the harbour at Caesarea Maritima. The Roman Emperor Trajan was caught in the earthquake, as was his successor Hadrian. Almost all of the mosaics that have been found in Antioch date from after the earthquake.
526 Antioch earthquake (probably between 20–29 May, at mid-morning, killing approximately 250,000 people): was followed by a fire that destroyed most of the buildings left standing by the earthquake. The maximum intensity in Antioch is estimated to be between VIII (Severe) and IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale.
Domus Aurea (Antioch) (Golden House): cathedral where the Patriarch of Antioch preached. It was one of the churches whose construction was started during the reign of Constantine the Great. It is thought to have been sited on an island where the Imperial Palace of Antioch used to stand during the Seleucid period. The church became a major point of the controversy between Christians and Julian the Apostate when the latter closed the cathedral in response to the burning of an ancient temple to Apollo in the nearby suburb of Daphne. From 526 to 587 it suffered from a series of earthquakes, fires and Persian attacks, before being finally destroyed in another earthquake in 588, after which it was not rebuilt.
Ai-Khanoum (Alexandria on the Oxus): one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom.
Indo-Greek Kingdom (Yavana Kingdom (Yavanarajya); 100 BC–10 AD): Hellenistic kingdom covering various parts of Afghanistan and the northwest regions of the Indian subcontinent (parts of modern Pakistan and northwestern India), which existed during the last two centuries BC and was ruled by over 30 kings, Menander, being the most illustrious and successful.
Megasthenes (Μεγασθένης, c. 350BCE– c. 290 BCE): ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book Indika, which is now lost, but has been partially reconstructed from literary fragments found in later authors. Megasthenes was the first person from the western world to leave a written description of India.
Indica (Megasthenes) (Ἰνδικά): original work is now lost, but its fragments have survived in later Greek and Latin works. The earliest of these works are those by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo (Geographica), Pliny, and Arrian (Indica).
Arrian (Arrian of Nicomedia; Ἀρριανός Arrianos; Latin: Lucius Flavius Arrianus; c. 86/89 – c. after 146/160 AD): Greek historian, public servant, military commander and philosopher of the Roman period. The Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian is considered the best source on the campaigns of Alexander the Great.
Indica (Arrian) (Ινδική Indiki): name of a short military history about interior Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent, written by Arrian in 2nd-century CE. The subject of the book covers the expedition of Alexander the Great that occurred between 336 and 323 BCE, about 450 years before Arrian. The book mainly tells the story of Alexander's officer Nearchus’ voyage from India to the Persian Gulf after Alexander the Great's conquest of the Indus Valley. However, much of the importance of the work comes from Arrian’s in depth asides describing the history, geography, and culture of the Ancient India. Arrian was born in 86 CE, did not visit the Indian subcontinent, and the book is based on a variety of legends and texts known to Arrian, such as the Indica by Megasthenes. Arrian also wrote a companion text Anabasis. Of all ancient Greek records available about Alexander and interior Asia, Arrian's texts are considered most authoritative. Indica as a window onto Greek and Roman knowledge:
"The southern Indians resemble the Ethiopians a good deal, and, are black of countenance, and their hair black also, only they are not as snub-nosed or so woolly-haired as the Ethiopians; but the northern Indians are most like the Egyptians in appearance."
"No Indian ever went outside his own country on a warlike expedition, so righteous were they."
"Indians do not put up memorials to the dead; but they regard their virtues as sufficient memorials for the departed, and the songs which they sing at their funerals."
"This also is remarkable in India, that all Indians are free, and no Indian at all is a slave. In this the Indians agree with the Lacedaemonians. Yet the Lacedaemonians have Helots for slaves, who perform the duties of slaves; but the Indians have no slaves at all, much less is any Indian a slave."
"The Indians generally are divided into seven castes, the wise men, farmers, herdsmen, artisans and shopkeepers, soldiers, overlookers, and government officials including army and navy officers."
"The Indians in shape are thin and tall and much lighter in movement than the rest of mankind."
Blue-eyed Central Asian Buddhist monk, with an East-Asian colleague, Tarim Basin, 9th-10th century. (From the Greco-Indian kingdoms, to the Silk Road)
Roman metallurgy: metals and metal working had been known to the people of modern Italy since the Bronze Age. Central Italy itself was not rich in metal ores, leading to necessary trade networks in order to meet the demand for metal. Early Italians had some access to metals in the northern regions of the peninsula in Tuscany and Cisalpine Gaul, as well as the islands Elba and Sardinia. With the conquest of Etruria in 275 BC and the subsequent acquisitions due to the Punic Wars, Rome had the ability to stretch further into Transalpine Gaul and Iberia, both areas rich in minerals. At the height of the Empire, Rome exploited mineral resources from Tingitana in north western Africa to Egypt, Arabia to North Armenia, Galatia to Germania, and Britannia to Iberia, encompassing all of the Mediterranean coast. Britannia, Iberia, Dacia, and Noricum were of special significance, as they were very rich in deposits and became major sites of resource exploitation (Shepard, 1993).
Las Médulas: historic gold-mining site near the town of Ponferrada in the comarca of El Bierzo (province of León, Castile and León, Spain). It was the most important gold mine, as well as the largest open-pit gold mine in the entire Roman Empire. Advanced aerial surveys conducted in 2014 using LIDAR have confirmed the wide extent of the Roman-era works. The spectacular landscape of Las Médulas resulted from the ruina montium (wrecking of the mountains), a Roman mining technique described by Pliny the Elder in 77 AD. The technique employed was a type of hydraulic mining which involved undermining a mountain with large quantities of water. The water was supplied by interbasin transfer. At least seven long aqueducts tapped the streams of the La Cabrera district (where the rainfall in the mountains is relatively high) at a range of altitudes. The same aqueducts were used to wash the extensive alluvial gold deposits. What became the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis was conquered in 25 BC by the emperor Augustus. Before the Roman conquest, the indigenous inhabitants obtained gold from alluvial deposits. Large-scale production did not begin until the second half of the 1st century AD.
Roman historiography: stretches back to at least the 3rd century BC and was indebted to earlier Greek historiography. The Romans relied on previous models in the Greek tradition such as the works of Herodotus (c. 484 – 425 BC) and Thucydides (c. 460 – c. 395 BC). Roman historiographical forms are usually different from their Greek counterparts, however, and often emphasize Roman concerns. During the Second Punic War with Carthage, Rome's earliest known annalists Quintus Fabius Pictor and Lucius Cincius Alimentus recorded history in Greek, and relied on Greek historians such as Timaeus. Roman histories were not written in Classical Latin until the 2nd century BC with the Origines by Cato the Elder. Contemporary Greek historians such as Polybius wrote about the rise of Rome during its conquest of Greece and ascension as the primary power of the Mediterranean in the 2nd century BC. Moving away from the annalist tradition, Roman historians of the 1st century BC such as Sallust, Livy, and even Julius Caesar wrote their works in a much fuller narrative form. Major extant historians: Caesar; Livy; Sallust; Tacitus; Suetonius. Other notable historians: Polybius; Diodorus Siculus; Dionysius of Halicarnassus (fl. c. 8 BC.); Pliny the Elder, uncle of Pliny the Younger; Titus Flavius Josephus (born 39 AD); Appianus of Alexandria (c. 95–165); Dio Cassius; Ammianus Marcellinus; Zosimus was a pagan historian who wrote at c. 500 AD a history of Rome to 410 in six books; important histories of Priscus and Olympiodorus of Thebes are lost except for some fragments; Velleius Paterculus - almost all of his work is now missing, it is still a valuable source on the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius.
Ab urbe condita ('from the founding of the City'; Anno urbis conditae - 'in the year since the City's founding'; AUC): expression used in antiquity and by classical historians to refer to a given year in Ancient Rome. In reference to the traditional year of the foundation of Rome, the year 1 BC would be written AUC 753, whereas 1 AD would be AUC 754. The foundation of the Roman Empire in 27 BC would be AUC 727. Usage of the term was more common during the Renaissance, when editors sometimes added AUC to Roman manuscripts they published, giving the false impression that the convention was commonly used in antiquity. In reality, the dominant method of identifying years in Roman times was to name the two consuls who held office that year. In late antiquity, regnal years were also in use, as in Roman Egypt during the Diocletian era after 293 AD, and in the Byzantine Empire from AD 537, following a decree by Justinian. The traditional date for the founding of Rome, 753.04.21 BC, is due to Marcus Terentius Varro (1st century BC). Varro may have used the consular list (with its mistakes) and called the year of the first consuls "ab urbe condita 245," accepting the 244-year interval from Dionysius of Halicarnassus for the kings after the foundation of Rome. The correctness of this calculation has not been confirmed, but it is still used worldwide. Claudius was the first to hold magnificent celebrations in honor of the anniversary of the city, in AD 48, the eight hundredth year from the founding of the city. Hadrian, in AD 121, and Antoninus Pius, in AD 147 and AD 148, held similar celebrations respectively. In AD 248, Philip the Arab celebrated Rome's first millennium, together with Ludi saeculares for Rome's alleged tenth saeculum.
Sexuality in ancient Rome: sexual attitudes and behaviors in ancient Rome are indicated by art, literature, and inscriptions, and to a lesser extent by archaeological remains such as erotic artifacts and architecture. It has sometimes been assumed that "unlimited sexual license" was characteristic of ancient Rome. Verstraete and Provençal opine that this perspective was simply a Christian interpretation: "The sexuality of the Romans has never had good press in the West ever since the rise of Christianity. In the popular imagination and culture, it is synonymous with sexual license and abuse." But sexuality was not excluded as a concern of the mos maiorum, the traditional social norms that affected public, private, and military life. Pudor, "shame, modesty", was a regulating factor in behavior, as were legal strictures on certain sexual transgressions in both the Republican and Imperial periods. The censors—public officials who determined the social rank of individuals—had the power to remove citizens from the senatorial or equestrian order for sexual misconduct, and on occasion did so. The mid-20th-century sexuality theorist Michel Foucault regarded sex throughout the Greco-Roman world as governed by restraint and the art of managing sexual pleasure. Roman society was patriarchal (paterfamilias), and masculinity was premised on a capacity for governing oneself and others of lower status, not only in war and politics, but also in sexual relations. Virtus, "virtue", was an active masculine ideal of self-discipline, related to the Latin word for "man", vir. The corresponding ideal for a woman was pudicitia, often translated as chastity or modesty, but a more positive and even competitive personal quality that displayed both her attractiveness and self-control. Roman women of the upper classes were expected to be well educated, strong of character, and active in maintaining their family's standing in society. But with extremely few exceptions, surviving Latin literature preserves the voices only of educated male Romans on the subject of sexuality. Prostitution was legal, public, and widespread. "Pornographic" paintings were featured among the art collections in respectable upperclass households. It was considered natural and unremarkable for men to be sexually attracted to teen-aged youths of both sexes, and pederasty was condoned as long as the younger male partner was not a freeborn Roman. "Homosexual" and "heterosexual" did not form the primary dichotomy of Roman thinking about sexuality, and no Latin words for these concepts exist. No moral censure was directed at the man who enjoyed sex acts with either women or males of inferior status, as long as his behaviors revealed no weaknesses or excesses, nor infringed on the rights and prerogatives of his masculine peers. While perceived effeminacy was denounced, especially in political rhetoric, sex in moderation with male prostitutes or slaves was not regarded as improper or vitiating to masculinity, if the male citizen took the active and not the receptive role. Hypersexuality, however, was condemned morally and medically in both men and women. Women were held to a stricter moral code, and same-sex relations between women are poorly documented, but the sexuality of women is variously celebrated or reviled throughout Latin literature. In general the Romans had more flexible gender categories than the ancient Greeks.
Social class in ancient Rome: hierarchical, with multiple and overlapping social hierarchies. An individual's relative position in one might be higher or lower than in another, which complicated the social composition of Rome. The status of freeborn Romans during the Republic was established by:
Ancestry (patrician or plebeian)
Census rank (ordo) based on wealth and political privilege, with the senatorial and equestrian ranks elevated above the ordinary citizen; Property-based classes: The Equestrians and Class I held 98 votes between them, thus they could outvote the combined lower classes who only had 95 votes. This was a means for the wealthier classes to maintain control over the army and social life. Rather than risk the lower classes revolt because of their lack of influence in the Assembly, the votes were allocated to ensure that the higher classes could always outvote the lower ones.
Gender: Pater Familias; Women: Free-born women in ancient Rome were citizens (cives), but could not vote or hold political office. Women were under exclusive control of their pater familias, which was either their father, husband, or sometimes their eldest brother. Women, and their children, took on the social status of their pater familias. There were three early forms of marriage that transferred Roman women from one pater familias to another:
Coemptio, represented the purchase of the bride. The oldest form of marriage required five witnesses and an official, and was treated as a business transaction.
Usus, occurred after one year of intimacy between a man and a woman. If the woman did not leave the man for three nights following the year, she became the man's possession and he became her pater familias. If the woman left before the three nights were over, she would return to her family. The relationship would still be valid, but the man would not become her pater familias.
Confarreatio, was the closest to modern marriage. Confarreatio was a religious ceremony that consisted of the bride and groom sharing bread in front of religious officials and other witnesses.
Citizenship, of which there were grades with varying rights and privileges. Slavery and freed men. Non-Roman citizens.
Manus marriage: Ancient Roman type of marriage, of which there were two forms: cum manu and sine manu. In a cum manu marriage, the wife was placed under the legal control of the husband. In a sine manu marriage, the wife remained under the legal control of her father. In both cum manu and sine manu marriages, if both the husband and wife were alieni iuris (persons under patria potestas; that is, under the power of their respective patres familias), the marriage could only take place with the approval of both patres familias. Procedures for initiating and terminating marriage varied with the type of union. Initially, cum manu was the sole form of marriage, but eventually only sine manu marriage was widely practiced. Cum manu: Confarreatio: The ritual of confarreatio, a kind of sacrifice made to Jupiter, was available only to patricians. During this ritual, the bride and groom shared a bread made of emmer (farreus) (hence, the term confarreatio translates to "sharing of emmer bread"), a process that required the presence of ten witnesses and the recital of ceremonial sacred verses. High priests of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus were required to be born from confarreatio unions. As confarreatio fell from favor, it became increasingly difficult to find candidates for priesthood. In order to revive the practice of confarreatio, it was amended such that the wife of a Flamen Dialis fell under the control of her husband only during rituals and was otherwise as autonomous as other women. Cum manu was no longer acquired through confarreatio and became restricted to patricians pursuing priestly positions.
Status in Roman legal system (status): describes a person's legal status. The individual could be a Roman citizen (status civitatis), unlike foreigners; or he could be free (status libertatis), unlike slaves; or he could have a certain position in a Roman family (status familiae) either as head of the family (pater familias), or as a lower member (filii familias).
Status civitatis: Roman citizenship.
Status familiae: Paterfamilias.
Status libertatis: Legal status: The legal state of slaves was based on the fact that the slave was not a subject but an object of law. A master had the right of ownership over the slave. He could sell him, give him in pawn but certainly could not harm or kill him. If someone injured his slave, a master could initiate legal proceedings and demand protection. The ownership over the slave was called dominica potestas, and not dominium like the ownership of objects and animals. In the Roman legal system, a slave did not have a family. His sexual relationships with other slaves was not marriage (matrimonium), but a cohabitation without legal consequences (contubernium). Masters could also give over a certain amount of property (such as land, buildings), known as peculium, to a slave for his management and use. This peculium was protected under Roman law and inaccessible by the owner. This was another tool slaves could use to purchase their freedom. Means of becoming a slave. Termination of slave status.
Roman constitution.
Constitution of the Roman Republic: set of uncodified norms and customs which, together with various written laws, guided the procedural governance of the Roman Republic. The constitution emerged from that of the Roman kingdom, evolved substantively and significantly—almost to the point of unrecognisability—over the almost five hundred years of the republic. The collapse of republican government and norms from 133 BC would lead to the rise of Augustus and his principate.
Roman assemblies: institutions in ancient Rome. They functioned as the machinery of the Roman legislative branch, and thus (theoretically at least) passed all legislation. Since the assemblies operated on the basis of a direct democracy, ordinary citizens, and not elected representatives, would cast all ballots. The assemblies were subject to strong checks on their power by the executive branch and by the Roman Senate. Laws were passed (and magistrates elected) by Curia (in the Curiate Assembly), Tribes (in the Tribal Assembly), and century (in the Centuriate Assembly). When the city of Rome was founded (traditionally dated at 753 BC), a senate and an assembly, the Curiate Assembly, were both created. The Curiate Assembly was the principal legislative assembly during the era of the Roman Kingdom. While its primary purpose was to elect new kings, it also possessed rudimentary legislative powers. Shortly after the founding of the Roman Republic (traditionally dated to 509 BC), the principal legislative authority shifted to two new assemblies, the Tribal Assembly ("Citizen's Assembly") and the Centuriate Assembly. Under the empire, the powers that had been held by the assemblies were transferred to the senate. While the assemblies eventually lost their last semblance of political power, citizens continued to gather into them for organizational purposes. Eventually, however, the assemblies were abandoned.
Latifundium: very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia (Latin: latus, "spacious" and fundus, "farm, estate") of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, olive oil, or wine. They were characteristic of Magna Graecia and Sicily, Egypt, Northwest Africa and Hispania Baetica. The latifundia were the closest approximation to industrialized agriculture in Antiquity, and their economics depended upon slavery. Rome had to import grain (in the Republican period, from Sicily and North Africa, in the Imperial era, from Egypt). Ownership of land, organized in the latifundia, defined the Roman Senatorial class. It was the only acceptable source of wealth for senators, though Romans of the elite class would set up their freedmen as merchant traders, and participate as silent partners in businesses from which senatores were disqualified. The latifundia quickly started economic consolidation as larger estates achieved greater economies of scale and senators did not pay land taxes. Free peasants did not completely disappear: many became tenants on estates that were worked in two ways: partly directly controlled by the owner and worked by slaves and partly leased to tenants. It was one of the greatest levels of worker productivity before the 19th century.
Cura Annonae ("care for the grain supply"; import and distribution of grain to the residents of the city of Rome; Welfare state of the city of Rome?): honour of their goddess Annona. Rome imported most of the grain consumed by its population, estimated ~1,000,000 by 2nd c. AD. Most of the grain was distributed through commercial or non-subsidized channels, but a dole of subsidized or free grain, and later bread, was provided by the government to about 200,000 of the poorer residents of the city of Rome. A regular and predictable supply of grain and the grain dole were part of the Roman leadership's strategy of maintaining tranquility among a restive urban population by providing them with what the poet Juvenal sarcastically called "bread and circuses." In 22 AD, the emperor Tiberius said that the Cura Annonae if neglected would be 'the utter ruin of the state." The most important sources of the grain, mostly durum wheat, were Egypt, North Africa (21st century Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco), and Sicily. The population of the city of Rome declined precipitously during the 5th, the last century of the Western Roman Empire, and 6th centuries AD. It is unknown when the Cura Annonae ended. It may have persisted into the 6th century. By the late 200s BCE, grain was being shipped to the city of Rome from Sicily and Sardinia. In the first century BCE, the three major sources of wheat were Sardinia, Sicily, and North Africa, i.e. the region centered on the ancient city of Carthage, present day Tunisia. With the incorporation of Egypt into the Roman empire and the rule of the emperor Augustus (27 BCE-14 CE), Egypt became the main source of supply of grain for Rome. Grain made into bread was, by far, the most important element in the Roman diet. Shipping: shipping lanes that connected Rome with its centers of grain supply had strategic importance. Whoever controlled the grain supply had an important measure of control over the city of Rome. Rome was dependent upon the prompt arrival of imported grain. Ships: Hundreds or even thousands of ships were required to transport grain to Rome. The government of Rome encouraged building large ships for grain transport. Some had a capacity of carrying 50,000 modii (350 tonnes) or even more. Ships of much larger capacity are suggested in Lucian and the Acts of the Apostles. Grain transport presented special problems. Grain must be kept cool and dry to prevent sprouting and infestations of pests and mold and prevented from shifting from side to side in the hold of the ship which could impact the seaworthiness of the transport ship. Grain that was wet could sink the ship by expanding and splitting the sideboards of the hull. Milling and baking: The conversion of a grain supply for the citizens of the city of Rome to a flour supply carried with it a host of problems. Flour is much more perishable than grain, and its distribution would have to carried out more often. Little is known about the initial distribution system for the flour produced by the watermills. The Emperor Aurelian (270-275 CE) is usually credited with changing or completing the change of the food distribution system from grain or flour to bread, and adding olive oil, salt, and pork to the products distributed to the populace. These products had been distributed sporadically before Aurelian. Aurelian is also credited with increasing the size of the loaves of bread without increasing the price of a loaf, a measure that was undoubtedly popular with the Romans who were not receiving free bread and other products through the dole. In the 4th century CE, Rome had 290 granaries and warehouses and 254 bakeries which were regulated and monitored by the state and given privileges to ensure their cooperation. Politics and the grain supply
College of Pontiffs: body of the ancient Roman state whose members were the highest-ranking priests of the state religion. During the Empire, the office was publicly elected from the candidates of existing pontiffs, until the Emperors began to automatically assume the title, following Julius Caesar’s example. The pontifex maximus was a powerful political position to hold and the candidates for office were often very active political members of the college. Many, such as Julius Caesar, went on to hold consulships during their time as pontifex maximus. However, after 44 BC the Pontiffs, as with the other official priests of Rome, lost their political influence. Martha Hoffman Lewis could only find four instances where the pontiff's advice was asked: before Augustus' marriage to Livia; in 37 BC when they ordered the removal of the body of one of the proscribed from the Campus; they made expiatory sacrifices on the day the emperor Claudius married Agrippina; and their advice was sought concerning reforms of the discipline of the haruspices. The Lex Acilia bestowed power on the college to manage the calendar. Thus, they determined the days which religious and political meetings could be held, when sacrifices could be offered, votes cast, and senatorial decisions brought forth.
List of Roman consuls: in imperial times the consulship became the senior administrative office under the emperors, who frequently assumed the title of consul themselves, and appointed other consuls at will. The consulship was often bestowed as a political favour, or a reward for faithful service. Because there could only be two consuls at once, the emperors frequently appointed several sets of suffecti sequentially in the course of a year; holding the consulship for an entire year became a special honour. As the office lost much of its executive authority, and the number of consuls appointed for short and often irregular periods increased, surviving lists from Imperial times are often incomplete, and have been reconstructed from many sources, not always with much certainty. In many cases it is stated that a particular person had been consul, but the exact time cannot be firmly established. The order of the consuls of the Republic was however edited in the Fasti Capitolini. Augustus and several prominent patricians falsified the Fasti by listing some of their ancestors as consuls prior. Livy apparently gives the initial order throughout most of his work, but seems to have followed the new "official" order in his later books; perhaps he was influenced by the imperial propaganda. During the reign of Justinian I (527–565), the position of consul altered in two significant ways. From 535, there was no longer a Roman consul chosen in the West. In 541, the separate office of Roman consul was abolished. When used thereafter, the office was with few exceptions used as part of the imperial title. The office was finally abolished as part of the Basilika reforms of Leo VI the Wise in 887.
Ancient Roman units of measurement: length (pes = foot); area (pes quadratus = square foot); volume: dry vs liquid measures (amphora quadrantal = cubic foot; urna = 1/2 amphora quadrantal); weight (as or libra = pound, uncia = ounce)
Aureus: gold coin of ancient Rome valued at 25 silver denarii. The aureus was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the solidus. The aureus was about the same size as the denarius, but heavier due to the higher density of gold (as opposed to that of silver.)
Curiales (from co + viria, 'gathering of men'): were initially the leading members of a gentes (clan) of the city of Rome. Their roles were both civil and sacred. Decurion was a member of a city senate in the Roman Empire. Decurions were drawn from the curiales class, which was made up of the wealthy middle class citizens of a town society. Decurions were the most powerful political figures at the local level. They were responsible for public contracts, religious rituals, entertainment, and ensuring order. Perhaps most importantly to the imperial government, they also supervised local tax collection. Under the Dominate (284 and later), when the empire's finances demanded more draconian tax collection measures, the position of decurion ceased being a status symbol and became an unwanted civil service position. Decurions were expected to make up any shortfall in the local tax collection out of their own pockets. Many decurions illegally left their positions in an attempt to seek relief from this burden; if caught, they would be subject to forfeiture of their property or even execution.
Roman governor: official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire. A Roman governor is also known as a propraetor or proconsul. By the time of the early empire, there were two types of provinces—senatorial and imperial—and several types of governor would emerge. Duties of the governor. Republican governors. Imperial governors. Late imperial governors.
Roman concrete (opus caementicium): used in construction in ancient Rome. Like its modern equivalent, Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement added to an aggregate. Many buildings and structures still standing today, such as bridges, reservoirs and aqueducts, were built with this material, which attests to both its versatility and its durability. Its strength was sometimes enhanced by the incorporation of pozzolanic ash where available (particularly in the Bay of Naples). The addition of ash prevented cracks from spreading. Recent research has shown that the incorporation of mixtures of different types of lime, forming conglomerate "clasts" allowed the concrete to self-repair cracks. Roman concrete was in widespread use from about 150 BC; some scholars believe it was developed a century before that.
Hierapolis sawmill: Roman water-powered stone sawmill at Hierapolis, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Dating to the second half of the 3rd century AD, the sawmill is considered the earliest known machine to combine a crank with a connecting rod to form a crank slider mechanism.
Barbegal aqueduct and mills: Roman watermill complex located on the territory of the commune of Fontvieille, Bouches-du-Rhône, near the town of Arles, in southern France. The complex has been referred to as "the greatest known concentration of mechanical power in the ancient world" and the 16 overshot wheels are considered to be the largest ancient mill complex.
Legionary (legionarius, plural legionarii): professional heavy infantryman of the Roman army. These soldiers would conquer and defend the territories of ancient Rome during the late Republic and Principate eras, alongside auxiliary and cavalry detachments. At its height, Roman legionaries were viewed as the foremost fighting force in the Roman world. Roman legionaries were recruited from Roman citizens under age 45. They were first predominantly made up of recruits from Roman Italy, but more were recruited from the provinces as time went on. As legionaries moved into newly conquered provinces, they helped Romanize the native population and helped integrate the disparate regions of the Roman Empire into one polity. They enlisted in a legion for 25 years of service, a change from the early practice of enlisting only for a campaign. Legionaries were expected to fight, but they also built much of the infrastructure of the Roman Empire and served as a policing force in the provinces. They built large public works projects, such as walls, bridges, and roads. The legionary's last five years of service were on lighter duties. Once retired, a Roman legionary received a parcel of land or its equivalent in money and often became a prominent member of society.
Vigiles (Vigiles Urbani ("watchmen of the City") or Cohortes Vigilum ("cohorts of the watchmen")): firefighters and police of ancient Rome. Duties: Fighting fires; Police force: Starting about 27 BC, Augustus added a police function to the Vigiles to counterbalance the urban mobs that had run rampant during the latter days of the Republic; Quarters: first Vigiles sequestered private homes and buildings to use as their command posts. It was not until the mid-2nd century that official stations were built explicitly for the Vigiles' use. By the early 3rd century sub-stations (excubitoria), which held forty to fifty men, were constructed to accommodate the expanding city and the surrounding suburbs.
Languages of Central Italy at the beginning of Roman Expansion.
Latins (Italic tribe): Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small region known to the Romans as Old Latium (Latium Vetus), that is, the area between the river Tiber and the promontory of Mount Circeo 100 kilometres SE of Rome. The Latins maintained close culturo-religious relations until they were definitively united politically under Rome in 338 BC, and for centuries beyond. These included common festivals and religious sanctuaries. The rise of Rome as by far the most populous and powerful Latin state from c. 600 BC led to volatile relations with the other Latin states, which numbered about 14 in 500 BC.
Latin War (340–338 BC): conflict between the Roman Republic and its neighbors the Latin peoples of ancient Italy. It ended in the dissolution of the Latin League, and incorporation of its territory into the Roman sphere of influence, with the Latins gaining partial rights and varying levels of citizenship. Modern historians consider the ancient accounts of the Latin War to be a mixture of fact and fiction. All the surviving authors lived long after the Latin War and relied on the works of earlier writers.
Roman Republic (Res publica Romana): period of ancient Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom, traditionally dated to 509 BC, and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire. It was during this period that Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, from central Italy to the entire Italian peninsula. By the following century it included North Africa, Spain, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of civil wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar, which led to the transition from republic to empire.
Pomerium: religious boundary around the city of Rome and cities controlled by Rome. In legal terms, Rome existed only within its pomerium; everything beyond it was simply territory (ager) belonging to Rome. Weapons were prohibited inside the pomerium. Praetorian guards were allowed in only in civilian dress (toga), and were then called collectively cohors togata. But it was possible to sneak in daggers (the proverbial weapon for political violence; sicarius). Provincial promagistrates and generals were forbidden from entering the pomerium, and resigned their imperium immediately upon crossing it (as it was the superlative form of the ban on armies entering Italy). It was forbidden to bury the dead inside the pomerium.
Hannibal's Crossing of the Alps (218 BC): Hannibal's father (Hamilcar Barca) was killed in 228 BC; Hannibal's brother-in-law (Hasdrubal "The Handsome") was assassinated; Hannibal becomes the chief command of the army of Carthage; lots of wars between the Romans/Italians and the Po river's dwellers and Galls in the North of Italy; Hannibal's expedition into Italia.
Illyrian Wars: set of wars fought in the period 229–168 BC between the Roman Republic and the Ardiaei kingdom.
First Illyrian War (229 BC to 228 BC): Rome's concern was that the trade across the Adriatic Sea increased after the First Punic War at a time when Ardiaei power increased under queen Teuta. Attacks on trading vessels of Rome's Italic allies by Illyrian pirates and the death of a Roman envoy named Coruncanius on Teuta's orders, prompted the Roman senate to dispatch a Roman army under the command of the consuls Lucius Postumius Albinus and Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus. Rome expelled Illyrian garrisons from a number of Greek cities including Epidamnus, Apollonia, Corcyra, Pharos and established a protectorate over these Greek towns. The Romans also set up Demetrius of Pharos as a power in Illyria to counterbalance the power of Teuta.
Second Illyrian War (220 BC to 219 BC): Roman Republic was at war with the Celts of Cisalpine Gaul, and the Second Punic War with Carthage was beginning. These distractions gave Demetrius the time he needed to build a new Illyrian war fleet. Leading this fleet of 90 ships, Demetrius sailed south of Lissus, violating his earlier treaty and starting the war. Demetrius' fleet first attacked Pylos, where he captured 50 ships after several attempts. From Pylos, the fleet sailed to the Cyclades, quelling any resistance that they found on the way. Demetrius foolishly sent a fleet across the Adriatic, and, with the Illyrian forces divided, the fortified city of Dimale was captured by the Roman fleet under Lucius Aemilius Paulus. From Dimale the navy went towards Pharos. The forces of Rome routed the Illyrians and Demetrius fled to Macedon, where he became a trusted councillor at the court of Philip V of Macedon, and remained there until his death at Messene in 214 BC.
Third Illyrian War (168 BC): Illyrian king Gentius changed sides from Romans and allied himself with Perseus of Macedon. Gentius arrested two Roman legati and destroyed the cities of Apollonia and Dyrrhachium, which were allied to Rome. He was defeated at Scodra by a Roman force under L. Anicius Gallus.
Greece, Macedonia and their environs, ~200 BC.
Macedonian Wars (214-148 BC): series of conflicts fought by the Roman Republic and its Greek allies in the eastern Mediterranean against several different major Greek kingdoms. They resulted in Roman control or influence over the eastern Mediterranean basin, in addition to their hegemony in the western Mediterranean after the Punic wars. Traditionally, the "Macedonian Wars" include the four wars with Macedonia, in addition to one war with the Seleucid Empire, and a final minor war with the Achaean League (which is often considered to be the final stage of the final Macedonian war). The most significant war was that fought with the Seleucid Empire, while the war with Macedonia was the second, and both of these wars effectively marked the end of these empires as major world powers, even though neither of them led immediately to overt Roman domination. From the close of the Macedonian Wars until the early Roman Empire, the eastern Mediterranean remained an ever shifting network of polities with varying levels of independence from, dependence on, or outright military control by, Rome. According to Polybius, who sought to trace how Rome came to dominate the Greek east in less than a century, Rome's wars with Greece were set in motion after several Greek city-states sought Roman protection against the Macedonian Kingdom and Seleucid Empire in the face of a destabilizing situation created by the weakening of Ptolemaic Egypt. In contrast to the west, the Greek east had been dominated by major empires for centuries, and Roman influence and alliance-seeking led to wars with these empires that further weakened them and therefore created an unstable power vacuum that only Rome was capable of pacifying. It wasn't until the time of the Roman Empire that the eastern Mediterranean, along with the entire Roman world, was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control.
Roman–Seleucid War (192–188 BC): military conflict between two coalitions led by the Roman Republic and the Seleucid Empire.
Gracchi brothers: Tiberius and Gaius, were Romans who both served as tribunes of the plebs between 133 and 121 BC. They attempted to redistribute the occupation of the ager publicus—the public land hitherto controlled principally by aristocrats—to the urban poor and veterans, in addition to other social and constitutional reforms. After achieving some early success, both were assassinated by the Optimates, the conservative faction in the senate that opposed these reforms. Reforms of Tiberius Gracchus: Tiberius was elected to the office of Tribune of the Plebs in 133 BC. He immediately began pushing for a programme of land reform, partly by invoking the 240-year-old Sextian-Licinian law that limited the amount of land that could be owned by a single individual. Using the powers of Lex Hortensia, Tiberius established a commission to oversee the redistribution of land holdings from the rich to the unlanded urban poor. The commission consisted of himself, his father-in-law and his brother Gaius. Reforms of Gaius Gracchus: Ten years later, in 123 BC, Gaius took the same office as his brother, as a tribune for the plebeians. Gaius was more practically minded than Tiberius and consequently was considered more dangerous by the senatorial class. He gained support from the agrarian poor by reviving the land reform programme and from the urban poor with various popular measures.
Tiberius Gracchus (c. 169–164 – 133 BC): politician of the Roman Republic, and the first prominent member of the Populares, a reformist faction. He belonged to the highest aristocracy, as his father was consul and his mother, Cornelia Africana, was the daughter of Scipio Africanus.
Gaius Gracchus (154–121 BC): Roman Popularis politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus.
Gaius Marius (157 BC – January 13, 86 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. Victor of the Cimbric and Jugurthine wars, he held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his important reforms of Roman armies. He was at the centre of a paradigmatic shift from the militia levies of the middle Republic to the professional soldiery of the late Republic; he also developed the pilum, a javelin designed to bend on impact, and large-scale changes to the logistical structure of the Roman army. For his victory over invading Germanic tribes in the Cimbrian War, he was dubbed "the third founder of Rome". His life and career, by breaking with many of the precedents that bound the ambitious upper class of the Roman Republic together and instituting a soldiery loyal not to the Republic but to their commanders, was highly significant in Rome's transformation from Republic to Empire. Cimbri and Teutones: Reforms to the military, Battle with the Germanic tribes. Sulla and the First Civil War. Legacy: Reforms to the legion, The Assemblies and foreign affairs, Political violence.
Marian reforms (107 BC): group of military reforms initiated by Gaius Marius. Marius and his contemporaries' need for soldiers cemented a paradigmatic shift away from the levy-based armies of the middle Republic towards open recruitment. From now on Rome's legions would largely consist of poor citizens (the "capite censi" or "head count") whose future after service could only be assured if their general could bring about land distribution and pay on their behalf. In the broad sweep of history, this reliance on poor men would make soldiers strongly loyal not to the Senate and people of Rome, but to their generals: friend, comrade, benefactor, and patron. Marius, however, in his successive consulships, also overhauled the training and logistical organisation of his men. Instead of baggage trains, Marius had his troops carry all their weapons, blankets, clothes, and rations.
Cimbrian War (113–101 BC): fought between the Roman Republic and the Celtic or Germanic tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutones, who migrated from the Jutland peninsula into Roman controlled territory, and clashed with Rome and her allies. The Cimbrian War was the first time since the Second Punic War that Italia and Rome itself had been seriously threatened. The timing of the war had a great effect on the internal politics of Rome, and the organization of its military. The war contributed greatly to the political career of Gaius Marius, whose consulships and political conflicts challenged many of the Roman republic's political institutions and customs of the time. The Cimbrian threat, along with the Jugurthine War, inspired the landmark Marian reforms of the Roman legions.
Battle of Arausio (105.10.06 BC): Cimbrian and Teutonic victory. Roman losses are described as being up to 80,000 troops, as well as another 40,000 auxiliary troops (allies) and servants and camp followers—virtually all of their participants in the battle. In terms of losses, this battle is regarded as the worst defeat in the history of ancient Rome.
Battle of Aquae Sextiae (102 BC): the Romans under Gaius Marius finally defeated the Teutones and Ambrones. The Teutones and the Ambrones were virtually wiped out, with the Romans claiming to have killed 200,000 and captured 90,000, including large numbers of women and children who were later sold into slavery. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling gladiators in the Third Servile War.
Battle of Vercellae (Battle of the Raudine Plain; 101.07.30 BC): Roman victory of Consul Gaius Marius over the invading Celto-Germanic tribe of the Cimbri near the settlement of Vercellae in Cisalpine Gaul. Much credit for this victory has been given to the actions of Proconsul Catulus' legate, Lucius Cornelius Sulla who led the Roman and allied Italian cavalry.
Sulla (Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix; c. 138 BC – 78 BC): Roman general and statesman. He had the distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as reviving the dictatorship. Sulla was a skillful general, achieving numerous successes in wars against different opponents, both foreign and Roman. He was awarded a Grass Crown, the most prestigious Roman military honor, during the Social War. Sulla then took six of his most loyal legions and marched on Rome. This was an unprecedented event. No general before him had ever crossed the city limits, the pomoerium, with his army. Second march on Rome: The old enemy of Marius, and assuredly of Cinna as well, led an open revolt against the Marian forces in Africa. Additional help came from Picenum and Spain. Two of the three future triumvirs joined Sulla's cause in his bid to take control. Marcus Licinius Crassus marched with an army from Spain, and would later play a pivotal role at the Colline Gates. The young son of Pompeius Strabo (the butcher of Asculum during the Social War), Pompey, raised an army of his own from among his father's veterans and threw his lot in with Sulla. At the age of 23, and never having held a senatorial office, Pompey forced himself into the political scene with an army at his back. Dictatorship and constitutional reforms: Proscribing or outlawing every one of those whom he perceived to have acted against the best interests of the Republic while he was in the East, Sulla ordered some 1,500 nobles (i.e., senators and equites) executed, although it is estimated that as many as 9,000 people were killed. The purge went on for several months. Possibly to protect himself from future political retribution, Sulla had the sons and grandsons of the proscribed banned from running for political office, a restriction not removed for over 30 years. The young Gaius Julius Caesar, as Cinna's son-in-law, became one of Sulla's targets and fled the city. He was saved through the efforts of his relatives, many of whom were Sulla's supporters, but Sulla noted in his memoirs that he regretted sparing Caesar's life, because of the young man's notorious ambition. His public funeral in Rome (in the Forum, in the presence of the whole city) was on a scale unmatched until that of Augustus in AD 14. Sulla's body was brought into the city on a golden bier, escorted by his veteran soldiers, and orations were delivered by several eminent senators: the main funeral oration was delivered by Lucius Marcius Philippus. Sulla's body was cremated and his ashes placed in his tomb in the Campus Martius. An epitaph, which Sulla composed himself, was inscribed onto the tomb, reading: "No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full".
Sulla's first civil war (88–87 BC): one of a series of civil wars in ancient Rome, between Gaius Marius and Sulla; first in a succession of several internal conflicts, which eventually led to the dissolution of the Roman Republic and establishment of Julius Caesar as dictator. Prelude - Social War. Sulla then took six of his most loyal legions and marched on Rome. This action was an unprecedented event. No general before him had ever crossed the city limits, the pomerium, with his army. It was so unethical that most of his senatorial officers (with the exception of one, probably Lucullus) refused to accompany him. Sulla justified his actions on the grounds that the Senate had been neutered and the mos maiorum ("The way things were done", or "the custom of the ancestors", which as a reference amounted to a Roman constitution although none of it was codified as such) had been offended by the negation of the rights of the consuls of the year to fight the wars of that year. A force of armed gladiators raised by the Marians (Marius offered freedom to any slave that would fight with him against Sulla) failed to resist Sulla's organized military force and Marius and his followers fled the city. Sulla and his supporters in the Senate passed a death sentence on Marius, Sulpicius and a few other allies of Marius. A few men were executed, but (according to Plutarch) Marius narrowly escaped capture and death on several occasions and eventually found safety in Africa. Aftermath: With Sulla out of Rome, Marius plotted his return. Fighting broke out between the conservative supporters of Sulla, led by Gnaeus Octavius (consul of 87), and the popularis supporters of Cinna. Marius along with his son then returned from exile in Africa with an army he had raised there and by the end of 87 BC combined with Cinna and the Roman war hero Quintus Sertorius to enter Rome, oust Octavius and take control of the city. Based on the orders of Marius, some of his soldiers (who were former slaves) went through Rome killing the leading supporters of Sulla, including Octavius. Their heads were exhibited in the Forum. After five days, Quintus Sertorius and Cinna ordered their more disciplined troops to kill Marius's rampaging slave army. All told some 100 Roman nobles had been murdered.
Constitutional reforms of Sulla (between 82 and 80 BC): Roman Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla enacted series of laws, which reformed the Constitution of the Roman Republic. In the decades before Sulla had become dictator, a series of political developments occurred which severely weakened aristocratic control over the Roman Constitution. Sulla's dictatorship constituted one of the most significant developments in the History of the Constitution of the Roman Republic, and it served as a warning for the coming civil war, which ultimately would destroy the Roman Republic and create the Roman Empire. Sulla, who had witnessed chaos at the hands of his political enemies in the years before his dictatorship, was naturally conservative. He believed that the underlying flaw in the Roman constitution was the increasingly aggressive democracy, which expressed itself through the Roman assemblies, and as such, he sought to strengthen the Roman Senate and reduce the power of the plebeian tribunes. But what he did not realize was that it was he himself who actually had illustrated the underlying flaw in the Roman constitution: that it was the army, and not the Roman senate, which dictated the fortunes of the state. The precedent he produced would be emulated less than forty years later by an individual whom he almost had executed, Julius Caesar, and as such, he played a critical early role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.
Before the Gracchi (287–133 BC): By the middle of the 2nd century BC, the Plebeians (commoners) saw a worsening economic situation. When the soldiers returned from the battlefield, they often had to sell their farms to pay their debts, and the landed aristocracy quickly bought these farms at discounted prices. The wars had also brought to Rome a great surplus of inexpensive slave labor, which the landed aristocrats used to staff their new farms. Soon the masses of unemployed Plebeians began to flood into Rome, and into the ranks of the legislative assemblies. At the same time, the aristocracy was becoming extremely rich, and with the destruction of Rome's great commercial rival of Carthage, even more opportunities for profit became available. The sums that were spent on the new luxuries had no precedent in prior Roman history; the Romans began to pass sumptuary laws to limit some excesses, although these were harmless at best, political footballs at worst. Thus, most of these newly landless Plebeians belonged to one of the thirty-one rural Tribes, rather than one of the four urban Tribes; this meant that their vote counted more than those of the lower classes in the four Urban Tribes—and these landless Plebeians soon acquired so much political power that the Plebeian Council became highly populist. The new power of the Plebeians was watched with fear and dismay by the aristocratic classes who had formerly had control of all law-making at Rome.
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus (133–121 BC)
Sulla's constitution (82–80 BC): Over the past three-hundred years, the Tribunes had been the officers most responsible for the loss of power by the aristocracy. Since the Tribunate was the principal means through which the democracy of Rome had always asserted itself against the aristocracy, it was of paramount importance to Sulla that he cripple the office. Through his reforms to the Plebeian Council, Tribunes lost the power to initiate legislation. Sulla then prohibited ex-Tribunes from ever holding any other office, so ambitious individuals would no longer seek election to the Tribunate, since such an election would end their political career. Finally, Sulla revoked the power of the Tribunes to veto acts of the senate. This reform was of dubious constitutionality at best, and was outright sacrilegious at worst. Ultimately, the Tribunes, and thus the People of Rome, became powerless. To further solidify the prestige and authority of the senate, Sulla transferred the control of the courts from the knights, who had held control since the Gracchi reforms, to the senators. This, along with the increase in the number of courts, further added to the power that was already held by the senators. He also codified, and thus established definitively, the cursus honorum, which required an individual to reach a certain age and level of experience before running for any particular office.
The fate of Sulla's constitution (70–27 BC): Upon their return, Pompey and Crassus found the populare party fiercely attacking Sulla's constitution, and so they attempted to forge an agreement with the populare party. If both Pompey and Crassus were elected Consul in 70 BC, they would dismantle the more obnoxious components of Sulla's constitution. The promise of both Pompey and Crassus, aided by the presence of both of their armies outside of the gates of Rome, helped to 'persuade' the populares to elect the two to the Consulship. As soon as they were elected, they dismantled most of Sulla's constitution. In 63 BC, a conspiracy led by Lucius Sergius Catiline attempted to overthrow the Republic, and install Catiline as master of the state. Catiline and his supporters simply followed in Sulla's footsteps. Ultimately, however, the conspiracy was discovered and the conspirators were killed. In January 49 BC, after the senate had refused to renew his appointment as governor, Julius Caesar followed in Sulla's footsteps, marched on Rome, and made himself dictator. This time, however, the Roman Republic was not as lucky, and the civil war that Caesar began would not end until 27 BC, with the creation of the Roman Empire.
Sulla's second civil war (83–82 BC): fought between Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius the younger. Marius declared Sulla's reforms and laws invalid, officially exiled Sulla and had himself elected to Sulla's eastern command and himself and Cinna elected consuls for the year 86 BC. Marius died a fortnight after and Cinna was left in sole control of Rome. Having managed this achievement, the Marians sent out Lucius Valerius Flaccus with an army to relieve Sulla of his command in the east. In the meantime, the two Roman armies camped next to each other and Sulla, not for the first time, encouraged his soldiers to spread dissension among Flaccus’ army. Many deserted to Sulla before Flaccus packed up and moved on north to threaten Mithridates’ northern dominions. In the meantime Sulla moved to intercept the new Pontic army and end the war at Orchomenus. With Mithridates defeated and Cinna now dead in a mutiny, Sulla was determined to regain control of Rome. In 83 BC he landed his army in two divisions; one at Brundisium another at Tarentum. As soon as he had set foot in Italy, the outlawed nobles and old Sullan supporters who had survived the Marian regime flocked to his banner. The most prominent was Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, who had gathered legions in Africa and, with Marcus Licinius Crassus, who had raised troops in Spain, joined Sulla soon after his landing in Italy. The former consul Lucius Marcius Philippus also joined Sulla and led a force which secured Sardinia for the Sullan cause. Here is also where the young Gnaeus Pompey first comes into the limelight—the son of Pompeius Strabo, he raised three legions in Picenum and, defeating and outmanoeuvering the Marian forces, made his way to Sulla. With these reinforcements Sulla's army swelled to around 50,000 men, and with his loyal legions he began his second march on Rome. Upon his defeat Marius sent word to the praetor Brutus Damasippus in Rome, to kill any remaining Sullan sympathisers left before Sulla could take the city. Damasippus called a meeting of the Senate and there, in the Curia itself, the marked men were cut down by assassins. Sulla subsequently entered the city as a victorious general. A meeting of the Senate was convened in the Temple of Bellona; as Sulla was addressing the senators, the sound of terrified screams drifted in from the Campus Martius. Sulla calmed the senators by attributing the screams to 'some criminals that are receiving correction.' In reality, what the Senate had heard was the sound of 8,000 prisoners who had surrendered the previous day being executed on Sulla's orders; none of the captured were spared from execution. Soon afterwards, Sulla had himself declared Dictator, and now held supreme power over Rome. When the starving people of Praeneste despaired and surrendered to Ofella (Sulla's lieutenant), Marius hid in the tunnels under the town and tried to escape through them but failed and committed suicide. The people of Praeneste were then mostly massacred by Ofella. Carbo was soon discovered and arrested by Pompey, whom Sulla had sent to track the man down. Pompey had the weeping man brought before him in chains and publicly executed him in Lilybaeum, his head then sent to Sulla and displayed along with Marius' and many others in the Forum.
Battle of the Colline Gate (82 BC) (Kalends of November, 82 BC): final and decisive battle of the second civil war between Lucius Cornelius Sulla and the Marians. Sulla won and secured control of Rome and Italy. Appian is the only source who provides details about the battle. Much of the war was fought in northern Italy. The Lucanians, the Samnites and the Gauls fought alongside the Marians. Following defection of the Gauls to the forces of Sulla and the defeat of some of his forces by Metellus (one of Sulla's lieutenants) near Placentia (Piacenza), Carbo, the leader of the Marians, fled to Africa. Sulla's commanders were concerned by the state of his soldiers after their forced-march. They pointed out that they were not up against the disorganized Marians, whom they had easily beat time and again, but against the Samnites and Lucanians − highly motivated, experienced and warlike opponents. They urged Sulla to wait and let his soldiers recuperate over night. But Sulla only allowed his men a meal and a few hours rest. Then he organized his battle lines, and at four o'clock, with the Sun already sinking, the battle began. Velleius Paterculus wrote that Sulla ordered the head of Telesinus to be carried around the walls of Praeneste fixed on top of a spear.
Second Catilinarian conspiracy (Catiline conspiracy): a plot, devised by the Roman senator Lucius Sergius Catilina (or Catiline), with the help of a group of fellow aristocrats and disaffected veterans of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, to overthrow the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida. In 63 BC, Cicero exposed the plot, forcing Catiline to flee from Rome. The conspiracy was chronicled by Sallust in his work The Conspiracy of Catiline, and this work remains an authority on the matter.
Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 44.03.15 BC): Roman politician, military general, and historian who played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. He also wrote Latin prose. Much of Caesar's life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns and from other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources. Following Sulla's final victory, though, Caesar's connections to the old regime made him a target for the new one. He was stripped of his inheritance, his wife's dowry, and his priesthood, but he refused to divorce Cornelia and was forced to go into hiding. The threat against him was lifted by the intervention of his mother's family, which included supporters of Sulla, and the Vestal Virgins. Sulla gave in reluctantly and is said to have declared that he saw many a Marius in Caesar. On the way across the Aegean Sea, Caesar was kidnapped by pirates and held prisoner. He maintained an attitude of superiority throughout his captivity. The pirates demanded a ransom of 20 talents of silver, but he insisted that they ask for 50. After the ransom was paid, Caesar raised a fleet, pursued and captured the pirates, and imprisoned them. He had them crucified on his own authority, as he had promised while in captivity—a promise that the pirates had taken as a joke. He was still in considerable debt and needed to satisfy his creditors before he could leave. He turned to Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of Rome's richest men. Crassus paid some of Caesar's debts and acted as guarantor for others, in return for political support in his opposition to the interests of Pompey. Even so, to avoid becoming a private citizen and thus open to prosecution for his debts, Caesar left for his province before his praetorship had ended. In Spain, he conquered two local tribes and was hailed as imperator by his troops; he reformed the law regarding debts, and completed his governorship in high esteem. On Caesar's return to Italy in September 45 BC, he filed his will, naming his grandnephew Gaius Octavius (Octavian, later known as Augustus Caesar) as his principal heir, leaving his vast estate and property including his name. Caesar also wrote that if Octavian died before Caesar did, Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus would be the next heir in succession. In his will, he also left a substantial gift to the citizens of Rome. When Caesar returned to Rome, the Senate granted him triumphs for his victories, ostensibly those over Gaul, Egypt, Pharnaces, and Juba, rather than over his Roman opponents. He passed a debt-restructuring law, which ultimately eliminated about a fourth of all debts owed. To minimise the risk that another general might attempt to challenge him, Caesar passed a law that subjected governors to term limits. The most important change, however, was his reform of the calendar. The Roman calendar at the time was regulated by the movement of the moon.By replacing it with the Egyptian calendar, based on the Sun, Roman farmers were able to use it as the basis of consistent seasonal planting from year to year. He set the length of the year to 365.25 days by adding an intercalary/leap day at the end of February every fourth year. He established a police force, appointed officials to carry out his land reforms, and ordered the rebuilding of Carthage and Corinth. He also extended Latin rights throughout the Roman world, and then abolished the tax system and reverted to the earlier version that allowed cities to collect tribute however they wanted, rather than needing Roman intermediaries. He was granted a golden chair in the Senate, was allowed to wear triumphal dress whenever he chose, and was offered a form of semi-official or popular cult, with Mark Antony as his high priest. Julius Caesar was the first historical Roman to be officially deified. During his lifetime, Caesar was regarded as one of the best orators and prose authors in Latin—even Cicero spoke highly of Caesar's rhetoric and style. Only Caesar's war commentaries have survived.
Caesar's Comet (Sidus Iulium ("Julian Star"); Caesaris astrum ("Star of Caesar"); the Great Comet of 44 BC): seven-day cometary outburst seen in July 44 BC. It was interpreted by Romans as a sign of the deification of recently assassinated dictator, Julius Caesar (100–44 BC). It was perhaps the most famous comet of antiquity. As a result of the cometary outburst in late July, Caesar's Comet is one of only five comets known to have had a negative absolute magnitude (for a comet, this refers to the apparent magnitude if the comet had been observed at a distance of 1 AU from both the Earth and the Sun) and may have been the brightest daylight comet in recorded history. The Comet became a powerful symbol in the political propaganda that launched the career of Caesar's great-nephew (and adoptive son) Augustus. The Temple of Divus Iulius (Temple of the Deified Julius) was built (42 BC) and dedicated (29 BC) by Augustus for purposes of fostering a "cult of the comet". (It was also known as the "Temple of the Comet Star".) At the back of the temple a huge image of Caesar was erected and, according to Ovid, a flaming comet was affixed to its forehead
Publius Clodius Pulcher (c. December 93 BC – 52.01.18 BC of the pre-Julian calendar): a Roman patrician (later plebeian) and a politician. As tribune, he pushed through an ambitious legislative program, including a grain dole, but he is chiefly remembered for his feud with Cicero and Titus Annius Milo, whose bodyguards murdered him on the Appian Way.
Bona Dea scandal and trial for incestum: The rites were hosted by Caesar's wife Pompeia, and his mother, Aurelia, and they were supervised by the Vestal Virgins. It was a cult from which men were excluded and they were not permitted to speak or even know the goddess's name: the euphemism "Good Goddess" was used. Clodius intruded on the rites, disguised as a woman and apparently intent on finding and seducing Pompeia but was discovered. The ensuing scandal dragged on for months during which Pompey returned from the east, Caesar divorced his wife, and most public business was suspended. Caesar's mother Aurelia and sister testified to Clodius' offense. Caesar did his best to help Clodius by claiming that he knew nothing. When asked why, if he knew nothing, Caesar had divorced his wife, Caesar made the famous response that Caesar's wife had to be beyond suspicion. At home, Terentia demanded to give his testimony and ensure the destruction of her subversive rival's brother and lover. Cicero did so, but Marcus Licinius Crassus decided the outcome of the trial by bribery of the jurors en masse to secure Clodius' acquittal.
Adoption into Fonteii family: However, to be elected as a tribune, he had to renounce his patrician rank since that magistracy was not permitted to patricians. In 59 BC, during Caesar's first consulship, Clodius was able to enact a transfer to plebeian status by getting himself adopted by a certain P. Fonteius, who was much younger than him. The process violated almost every proper form of adoption in ancient Rome, which was a serious business involving clan and family rituals and inheritance rights, but since Clodius had the backing of one of the consuls, Caesar, he was able to secure his most unorthodox adoption. On 16 November, Clodius took office as tribune of the plebs and began preparations for his destruction of Cicero and an extensive populist legislative program to bind as much of the community as possible to his policies as beneficiaries.
Tribunate: As tribune, Clodius also introduced a law that threatened exile to anyone who executed a Roman citizen without a trial. Cicero, having executed members of the Catiline conspiracy four years before without a trial, had had a public dispute with Clodius and was clearly the intended target of the law. Cicero went into exile and arrived at Thessalonica, Greece, on May 29, 58 BC. The day that Cicero left Italy into exile, Clodius proposed another law which forbade Cicero to approach within 640 km of Italy and confiscated his property. The bill was passed, and Cicero's house on the Palatine was destroyed by Clodius' supporters, as were his villas in Tusculum and Formiae. Clodius had a temple of Libertas (Liberty) built on the site of Cicero's house so even if Cicero returned, he would not be able to take the site back. He had noticed that violence and physical force had become the main means of maintaining dominance in Roman politics. Therefore, he abolished the restrictions on establishing new collegia, the old social and political clubs or guilds of workmen, and had them set up by his agents. The guilds were essentially organized and trained as gangs of thugs, and Clodius used them to control the streets of Rome by driving off the supporters of his political opponents. Thus the opposition to Clodius was muted, and he became the "king of the Roman streets". However, Clodius' good relationship with the triumvirate deteriorated when Pompey criticised his policies and started contemplating recalling Cicero from exile. The infuriated Clodius turned against Pompey, starting to harass him, reputedly with the secret approval of Crassus. Pompey gave his approval for the tribunes Milo and Publius Sestius to raise their own gangs in order to oppose Clodius' thugs, with some gladiator trainers and ex-gladiators as leaders and trainers. Street fighting continued through the first half of 57, but Clodius lost the battle and the bill about Cicero was passed. Clodius subsequently attacked the workmen who were rebuilding Cicero's house at public cost, assaulted Cicero himself in the street and set fire to the house of Cicero's younger brother, Quintus Tullius Cicero.
Map of Roman Empire (1st century BC), at Caesar time with conquests.
Caesar's Civil War: one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the establishment of the Roman Empire. It began as a series of political and military confrontations, between Julius Caesar (100–44 BC), his political supporters (broadly known as Populares), and his legions, against the Optimates (or Boni), the politically conservative and socially traditionalist faction of the Roman Senate, who were supported by Pompey (106–48 BC) and his legions. Caesar soon emerged as a champion of the common people, and advocated a variety of reforms. The Senate, fearful of Caesar, demanded that he relinquish command of his army. Caesar refused, and instead marched his army on Rome, which no Roman general was permitted to do. Pompey fled Rome and organized an army in the south of Italy to meet Caesar. The war was a four-year-long politico-military struggle, fought in Italy, Illyria, Greece, Egypt, Africa, and Hispania. Pompey defeated Caesar in 48 BC at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, but was himself defeated much more decisively at the Battle of Pharsalus. The Optimates under Marcus Junius Brutus and Cicero surrendered after the battle, while others, including those under Cato the Younger and Metellus Scipio fought on. Pompey fled to Egypt and was killed upon arrival. Scipio was defeated in 46 BC at the Battle of Thapsus in North Africa. He and Cato committed suicide shortly after the battle. The following year, Caesar defeated the last of the Optimates in the Battle of Munda and became Dictator perpetuo (Dictator in perpetuity or Dictator for life) of Rome. March on Rome and the early Hispanian campaign: Caesar pursued Pompey to Brundisium, expecting restoration of their alliance of ten years prior; throughout the Great Roman Civil War's early stages, Caesar frequently proposed to Pompey that they, both generals, sheathe their swords. Pompey refused, legalistically arguing that Caesar was his subordinate and thus was obligated to cease campaigning and dismiss his armies before any negotiation. As the Senate's chosen commander, and with the backing of at least one of the current consuls, Pompey commanded legitimacy, whereas Caesar's military crossing of the Rubicon rendered him a de jure enemy of the Senate and People of Rome. Greek, Illyrian and African campaigns. Egyptian dynastic struggle: Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was murdered by an officer of King Ptolemy XIII. Caesar pursued the Pompeian army to Alexandria, where he camped and became involved with the Alexandrine Civil War between Ptolemy and his sister, wife, and co-regent, Cleopatra VII. Perhaps as a result of Ptolemy's role in Pompey's murder, Caesar sided with Cleopatra. Caesar was besieged at Alexandria and after Mithridates relieved the city, Caesar defeated Ptolemy's army and installed Cleopatra as ruler, with whom he fathered his only known biological son, Ptolemy XV Caesar, better known as "Caesarion". Caesar and Cleopatra never married, due to Roman law that prohibited a marriage with a non-Roman citizen. Later campaign in Africa and the war on Cato. Second Hispanian campaign and the end of the war.
Baiae: ancient Roman town situated on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples; fashionable resort for centuries in antiquity, particularly towards the end of the Roman Republic, when it was reckoned as superior to Capri, Pompeii, and Herculaneum by wealthy Romans, who built villas here from 100 BC. Ancient authors attest that many emperors built in Baia, almost in competition with their predecessors and they and their courts often stayed there. It was notorious for its hedonistic offerings and the attendant rumours of corruption and scandal. The lower part of the town later became submerged in the sea due to local volcanic, bradyseismic activity which raised or lowered the land. Recent underwater archaeology has revealed many of the fine buildings now protected in the submerged archaeological park.
Languages of the Roman Empire: Latin and Greek were the official, but other languages were important regionally. Latin was the original language of the Romans and remained the language of imperial administration, legislation, and the military throughout the classical period. In the West it became the lingua franca and came to be used for even local administration of the cities including the law courts. After all freeborn inhabitants of the Empire were universally enfranchised in 212 AD, a great number of Roman citizens would have lacked Latin, though they were expected to acquire at least a token knowledge, and Latin remained a marker of "Romanness". Koine Greek had become a shared language around the eastern Mediterranean and diplomatic communications in the East even beyond the borders of the Empire. The international use of Greek was one condition that enabled the spread of Christianity, as indicated for example by the choice of Greek as the language of the New Testament in the Bible and its use for the ecumenical councils of the Christian Roman Empire rather than Latin. With the dissolution of the Empire in the West, Greek became the dominant language of the Roman Empire in the East, modernly referred to as the Byzantine Empire. Regional languages: Aramaic and Syriac, Coptic, Punic (Semitic language of the Carthaginians), Celtic, Germanic. Multilingualism: Trilingualism was perhaps not uncommon among educated people who came from regions where a language other than Latin or Greek was spoken. Ritual language. Legal language: Roman law was written in Latin, and the "letter of the law" was tied strictly to the words in which it was expressed. Linguistic legacy: Romance languages.
Law school of Beirut (law school of Berytus): center for the study of Roman law in classical antiquity located in Beirut (Latin: Berytus). It flourished under the patronage of the Roman emperors and functioned as the Roman Empire's preeminent center of jurisprudence until its destruction in AD 551. The law schools of the Roman Empire established organized repositories of imperial constitutions and institutionalized the study and practice of jurisprudence to relieve the busy imperial courts. The archiving of imperial constitutions facilitated the task of jurists in referring to legal precedents. The origins of the law school of Beirut are obscure, but probably it was under Augustus in the first century. The school attracted young, affluent Roman citizens, and its professors made major contributions to the Codex of Justinian. The school achieved such wide recognition throughout the Empire that Beirut was known as the "Mother of Laws". Beirut was one of the few schools allowed to continue teaching jurisprudence when Byzantine emperor Justinian I shut down other provincial law schools. Reputation and legacy: Peter Stein asserts that the texts of ancient Roman law have constituted "a kind of legal supermarket, in which lawyers of different periods have found what they needed at the time."
Praetorian Guard: elite unit of the Imperial Roman army that served as personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors. During the Roman Republic, the Praetorian Guard were an escort for high-rank political officials (senators and procurators) and were bodyguards for the senior officers of the Roman legions. In 27 BC, after Rome's transition from republic to empire, the first emperor of Rome, Augustus, designated the Praetorians as his personal security escort. For three centuries, the guards of the Roman emperor were also known for their palace intrigues, by which influence upon imperial politics the Praetorians could overthrow an emperor and then proclaim his successor as the new caesar of Rome. In AD 312, Constantine the Great disbanded the cohortes praetoriae and destroyed their barracks at the Castra Praetoria.
Castra Praetoria: ancient barracks (castra) of the Praetorian Guard of Imperial Rome. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, the barracks were built in 23 AD by Lucius Aelius Sejanus, the praetorian prefect serving under the emperor Tiberius, in an effort to consolidate the several divisions of the guards. The Castra Praetoria was the location of several important events in the history of Rome. It was to this camp that Claudius was brought after the murder of his nephew Caligula to become the first emperor to be proclaimed by the Praetorians. Here too was where the Praetorian Guard auctioned off the imperial title after their murder of the emperor Pertinax. On March 28 193 AD Titus Flavius Claudius Sulpicianus was within the barracks trying to calm the troops when he began to offer a donative if they would support his candidacy for the throne. Meanwhile, Didius Julianus also arrived at the camp, and since his entrance was barred, shouted out offers to the guard. After hours of bidding, Sulpicianus promised 20,000 sesterces to every soldier; Julianus, fearing that Sulpicianus would gain the throne, then offered 25,000. The guards closed with the offer of Julianus, threw open the gates of the camp, and proclaimed him emperor. This was also the site of the slaying of the Emperor Elagabalus, and his mother Julia Soaemias by the Praetorians in 222 AD. Then in 238 AD, the barracks were attacked by the citizens of Rome who were in revolt against the emperor Maximinus Thrax.
Praetorian prefect (Latin: praefectus praetorio): high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief aides. Under Constantine I, the office was much reduced in power and transformed into a purely civilian administrative post, while under his successors, territorially-defined praetorian prefectures emerged as the highest-level administrative division of the Empire. The prefects again functioned as the chief ministers of the state, with many laws addressed to them by name. In this role, praetorian prefects continued to be appointed by the Eastern Roman Empire (and the Ostrogothic Kingdom) until the reign of Heraclius in the 7th century AD, when wide-ranging reforms reduced their power and converted them to mere overseers of provincial administration. The last traces of the prefecture disappeared in the Byzantine Empire by the 840s.
Praetorian prefecture (Latin: praefectura praetorio): largest administrative division of the late Roman Empire, above the mid-level dioceses and the low-level provinces. Praetorian prefectures originated in the reign of Constantine I (r. 306-337), reaching their more or less final form in the last third of the 4th century and surviving until the 7th century, when the reforms of Heraclius diminished the prefecture's power, and the Muslim conquests forced the East Roman Empire to adopt the new theme system.
Roman diocese: usually dated 284 AD to 602 AD, the regional governance district known as the Roman or civil diocese was made up of a grouping of provinces headed by vicars (substitutes or representatives) of praetorian prefects (who governed directly the dioceses they were resident in). There were initially twelve dioceses, rising to fourteen by 380.
Ab epistulis: chancellor's office in the Roman Empire with responsibility for the emperor's correspondence. The office sent mandata (instructions) to provincial governors and other officials. Ab epistulis wrote in Latin (ab epistulis latinis) and in Greek (ab epistulis graecis), and composed the short responses to petitions on behalf of the emperor. Holders of the position usually had a particular vocation for literary matters. Notable Ab epistulis: Alexander Peloplaton, Aspasius of Ravenna, Aelius Antipater, Marcius Agrippa, Tiberius Claudius Narcissus, Beryllus.
Principate (30 BC - 284 AD): name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in about 30 BC to the Crisis of the Third Century in 284 AD, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. The Principate is characterised by the reign of a single emperor (princeps) and an effort on the part of the early emperors, at least, to preserve the illusion of the formal continuance, in some aspects, of the Roman Republic. The title, in full, of princeps senatus / princeps civitatis ("first amongst the senators" / "first amongst the citizens") was first adopted by Octavian Caesar Augustus (27 BC–AD 14), the first Roman 'emperor' who chose, like the assassinated dictator Julius Caesar, not to reintroduce a legal monarchy. Augustus's purpose was probably to establish the political stability desperately needed after the exhausting civil wars by a de facto dictatorial regime within the constitutional framework of the Roman Republic as a more acceptable alternative to, for example, the early Roman Kingdom. Under the Antonine dynasty, it was the norm for the Emperor to appoint a successful and politically promising individual as his successor. In modern historical analysis, this is treated by many authors as an "ideal" situation: the individual who was most capable was promoted to the position of princeps.
Rise of Rome: to dominate the overt politics of Europe, North Africa and the Near East completely from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD, is the subject of a great deal of analysis by historians, military strategists, political scientists, and increasingly also some economists.
Limes Arabicus: desert frontier of the Roman Empire, mostly in the province of Arabia Petraea. It ran northeast from the Gulf of Aqaba for about 1,500 km at its greatest extent, reaching northern Syria and forming part of the wider Roman limes system. It had several forts and watchtowers. The reason of this defensive limes was to protect the Roman province of Arabia from attacks of the barbarian tribes of the Arabian desert. The main purpose of the Limes Arabicus is disputed; it may have been used both to defend from Arab raids and to protect the commercial lines from robbers. Next to the Limes Arabicus Emperor Trajan built a major road, the Via Nova Traiana, from Bosra to Aila on the Red Sea, a distance of 430 km. Built between 111 and 114 AD, its primary purpose may have been to provide efficient transportation for troop movements and government officials as well as facilitating and protecting trade caravans emerging from the Arabian Peninsula. It was completed under Emperor Hadrian. Troops were progressively withdrawn from the Limes Arabicus in the first half of the 6th century and replaced with native Arab foederati, chiefly the Ghassanids. After the Muslim Arab conquest, the Limes Arabicus was largely left to disappear, though some fortifications were used and reinforced in the following centuries.
Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (April 27, ca. 85–81 BC, died 43 BC): Roman politician and general of the 1st century BC and one of the leading instigators of Julius Caesar's assassination. Decimus Brutus is not to be confused with the more famous Brutus among the conspirators, Marcus Brutus. He served in Caesar's army during the Gallic-Pyrrhus wars and was given the command of the fleet in the war against the Veneti in 56 BC. In 44 BC, Decimus was made Praetor Peregrinus by personal appointment of Caesar and was destined to be the governor of Cisalpine Gaul in the following year. In 43 BC with the siege of Decimus Brutus at Mutina raised, Decimus Brutus cautiously thanked Octavian, now commander of the legions that had rescued him, from the other side of the river. Octavian coldly indicated he had come to oppose Antony, not aid Caesar's murderers. Decimus Brutus was given the command to wage war against Antony, but many of his soldiers deserted to Octavian.
Battle of Mutina (April 21, 43 BC): Marcus Antonius vs Octavianus to provide Decimus Brutus with aid.
Top: the division of Roman territory on the foundation of the Triumvirate (43 BC). Bottom: the division of territory after the Battle of Philippi.
Antony
Lepidus
Octavian
Triumvirs collectively
Sextus Pompey
Brutus & Cassius
Rome's client kingdoms
Ptolemaic Egypt
Nicolaus of Damascus: Jewish historian and philosopher who lived during the Augustan age of the Roman Empire. His name is derived from that of his birthplace, Damascus. He was born around 64 BC. Nicolaus is known to have had a brother named Ptolemy, who served in the court of Herod as a type of book-keeper or accountant. He was an intimate friend of Herod the Great, whom he survived by a number of years. Given that Book 4 of his History was on Abraham, Nicolaus was most likely a Jew, though one who had been thoroughly Hellenised. His output was vast, but is nearly all lost. His chief work was a universal history in 144 books. He also wrote an autobiography, a life of Augustus, a life of Herod, some philosophical works, and some tragedies and comedies. The Embassy of an Indian King to Augustus: The embassy was bearing a diplomatic letter in Greek, and one of its members was a sramana who burnt himself alive in Athens to demonstrate his faith. The event made a sensation and was quoted by Strabo and Dio Cassius.
Zarmanochegas: gymnosophist (naked philosopher), a monk of the Sramana tradition (possibly, but not necessarily a Buddhist) who, according to ancient historians such as Strabo and Dio Cassius, met Nicholas of Damascus in Antioch while Augustus (died 14 AD) was ruling the Roman Empire, and shortly thereafter proceeded to Athens where he burnt himself to death. He is estimated to have died c. 22/21 BC.
So-called Great Cameo of France. Five-layered sardonyx cameo, Roman artwork, second quarter of the 1st c. AD.
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (23 October or November 64/63 BC – 12 BC): Roman statesman, general and architect. He was a close friend, son-in-law, and lieutenant to Augustus and was responsible for the construction of some of the most beautiful buildings in the history of Rome and for important military victories, most notably at the Battle of Actium against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Agrippa assisted Augustus in making Rome a city of marble and renovating aqueducts to give all Romans, from every social class, access to the highest quality public services. He was responsible for the creation of many baths, porticoes and gardens. Agrippa was also father-in-law to the second Emperor Tiberius, maternal grandfather to Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather to the Emperor Nero.
The Tabula Peutingeriana, from the reconstructed British and Iberian panel in the west to India in the east.
Tabula Peutingeriana ("The Peutinger Map"; Peutinger's Tabula, Peutinger Table): illustrated itinerarium (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the cursus publicus, the road network of the Roman Empire. The map is a 13th-century parchment copy of a possible Roman original. It covers Europe (without the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles), North Africa, and parts of Asia, including the Middle East, Persia, and India. According to one hypothesis, the existing map is based on a document of the 4th or 5th century that contained a copy of the world map originally prepared by Agrippa during the reign of the emperor Augustus. The original Roman map, of which this may be the only surviving copy, was last revised in the 4th or early 5th century. It shows the city of Constantinople, founded in 328, and the prominence of Ravenna, seat of the Western Roman Empire from 402 to 476, which suggests a fifth-century revision according to Levi and Levi. In total no fewer than 555 cities and 3,500 other place names are shown on the map. The three most important cities of the Roman Empire at the time – Rome, Constantinople and Antioch – are represented with special iconic decoration. The map appears to be based on "itineraries", lists of destinations along Roman roads, as the distances between points along the routes are indicated. Travelers would not have possessed anything so sophisticated as a modern map, but they needed to know what lay ahead of them on the road and how far.
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (c. September, 9 CE): alliance of Germanic tribes ambushed and decisively destroyed three Roman legions and their auxiliaries, led by Publius Quinctilius Varus. The alliance was led by Arminius, a Germanic officer of Varus's auxilia. Arminius had acquired Roman citizenship and had received a Roman military education, which enabled him to deceive the Roman commander methodically and anticipate the Roman army's tactical responses. Despite several successful campaigns and raids by the Romans in the years after the battle, they never again attempted to conquer the Germanic territories east of the Rhine river.
This map shows Europe and the Roman Empire at its greatest extent under Trajan in 117 AD.
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79: one of the most catastrophic and infamous volcanic eruptions in European history. Historians have learned about the eruption from the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, a Roman administrator and poet. Several Roman settlements were obliterated and buried underneath massive pyroclastic surges and ashfall deposits, the most well known being Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Villa of the Papyri: private house in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum (current commune of Ercolano, southern Italy). Situated north-west of the township, the residence sits halfway up the slope of the volcano Vesuvius without other buildings to obstruct the view. The villa suburbana was perhaps owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus. In AD 79, the eruption of Vesuvius covered all of Herculaneum with some 30 m of volcanic ash. Its remains were first excavated in the years between 1750 and 1765 by Karl Weber by means of underground tunnels. Its name derives from the discovery of its library, the only surviving library from antiquity that exists in its entirety.
Herculaneum papyri: more than 1,800 papyri found in Herculaneum in the 18th century, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Most of the work discovered are associated with the Epicurean philosopher and poet Philodemus of Gadara.
Constitutio Antoniniana (Edict of Caracalla): issued in 212 CE, by the Roman Emperor Caracalla declaring that all free men in the Roman Empire were to be given full Roman citizenship and that all free women in the Empire were to be given the same rights as Roman women. Analysis: In the words of Cassius Dio: "This was the reason why he made all the people in his empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honoring them, but his real purpose was to increase his revenues by this means, inasmuch as aliens did not have to pay most of these taxes." The edict may have made enlistment in the army less attractive to most, and perhaps the recruiting difficulties of the Roman army by the end of the 3rd century were related to this.
Map of the Roman Empire around the year of the consulship of Aurelianus and Bassus (271 AD), with the break away Gallic Empire in the West and the Palmyrene Empire in the East.
Crisis of the Third Century (AD 235–284): period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression. The Crisis began with the assassination of Emperor Alexander Severus at the hands of his own troops in 235, initiating a fifty-year period in which there were at least 26 claimants to the title of Emperor, mostly prominent Roman army generals, assuming imperial power over all or part of the Empire. By 268, the Empire had split into three competing states. Later, Aurelian (270–275) reunited the empire; the Crisis ended with the ascension and reforms of Diocletian in 284. Crisis resulted in such profound changes in the Empire's institutions, society, economic life and, eventually, religion, that it is increasingly seen by most historians as defining the transition between the historical periods of classical antiquity and late antiquity. {q.v. User:Kazkaskazkasako/Work#Epidemiology} Maximinus was the first of the barracks emperors – rulers who were elevated by the troops without having any political experience, a supporting faction, distinguished ancestors, or a legitimate claim to the imperial throne. As their rule rested on military might and generalship, they operated as warlords reliant on the army to maintain power. The situation didn't stabilize until Diocletian, himself a barracks emperor, took power in 284. Radical reforms of Diocletian, who broke the cycle of usurpation. He began by sharing his rule with a colleague, then formally established the Tetrarchy of four co-emperors in 293. Historians regard this as the end of the crisis period, which had lasted 58 years. However the trend of civil war would continue after the abdication of Diocletian in the Civil wars of the Tetrarchy (306-324) until the rise of Constantine the Great as sole Emperor. Causes: The problem of succession and civil war: the Roman Empire had no clear process for becoming emperor. Because the empire maintained the facade of a republic for much of the Principate, the ability to become emperor was never limited to one family. A combination of appeasement of the army, Senatorial consent, and general approval by the populace allowed the emperors of the Antonine dynasty to hold on to power. When Septimius Severus seized the imperial throne after battling various rival claimants, the truth of succession became obvious. Natural disasters: Antonine Plague; increased variability of weather. Drier summers meant less agricultural productivity and more extreme weather events led to agricultural instability. Foreign invasions. Economic impact: Breakdown of internal trade network: The widespread civil unrest made it no longer safe for merchants to travel as they once had, and the financial crisis that struck made exchange very difficult with the debased currency. Large landowners, no longer able to successfully export their crops over long distances, began producing food for subsistence and local barter. Rather than import manufactured goods from the empire's great urban areas, they began to manufacture many goods locally, often on their own estates, thus beginning the self-sufficient "house economy" that would become commonplace in later centuries, reaching its final form in the manorialism of the Middle Ages. The common, free people of the Roman cities, meanwhile, began to move out into the countryside in search of food and better protection. Made desperate by economic necessity, many of these former city dwellers, as well as many small farmers, were forced to give up hard-earned basic civil rights in order to receive protection from large land-holders. In doing so, they became a half-free class of Roman citizen known as coloni. They were tied to the land, and in later Imperial law, their status was made hereditary. This provided an early model for serfdom, the origins of medieval feudal society and of the medieval peasantry. Increased localism: Major cities and towns, including Rome itself, had not needed fortifications for many centuries, but now surrounded themselves with thick walls. The large cities of classical antiquity slowly gave way to the smaller, walled cities that became common in the Middle Ages. While imperial revenues fell, imperial expenses rose sharply. More soldiers, greater proportions of cavalry, and the ruinous expense of walling in cities all added to the toll. Goods and services previously paid for by the government were now demanded in addition to monetary taxes. The decline in commerce between the imperial provinces put them on a path toward increased self-sufficiency. Large landowners, who had become more self-sufficient, became less mindful of Rome’s central authority, particularly in the Western Empire, and were downright hostile toward its tax collectors. The measure of wealth at this time began to have less to do with wielding urban civil authority and more to do with controlling large agricultural estates in rural regions since this guaranteed access to the only economic resource of real value — agricultural land and the crops it produced. The common people of the empire lost economic and political status to the land-holding nobility, and the commercial middle classes waned along with their trade-derived livelihoods.
Dominate (late Roman Empire): the "despotic" later phase of imperial government, following the earlier period known as the "Principate", in the ancient Roman Empire. Traditionally been considered to begin with the commencement of the reign of Diocletian in AD 284, following the Third Century Crisis of AD 235–284, and to end in the west with the collapse of the Western Empire in AD 476, while in the east its end is disputed, as either occurring at the close of the reign of Justinian I (AD 565) or of Heraclius (AD 641). In form, the Dominate is considered to have been more authoritarian, less collegiate and more bureaucratic than the Principate from which it emerged. Although Diocletian is commonly thought of as creator of the Dominate, its origins lie in the innovations of earlier emperors, principally those undertaken by Aurelian (AD 270–275) some stretching back to the reign of Gallienus (AD 253–268). Not all the changes that produced the 'Dominate' were completed by the time of Diocletian's abdication in AD 305; many changes were either introduced or modified by Constantine I. Consequently, just as the Principate emerged over the period 31 BC through to 14 AD, it is only by AD 337 that the reforms that resulted in the Dominate were largely complete.
Characteristics:
Multiple emperors: It was during the Crisis of the Third Century that the traditional imperial approach of a single imperial magistrate based at Rome became unable to cope with multiple and simultaneous invasions and usurpations that required the emperor to be everywhere at once. Further, it was their absence which caused usurpations to occur in response to a local or provincial crisis that traditionally would have been dealt with by the emperor. It was Diocletian who introduced this form of government, under a system called the Tetrarchy, which originally consisted of two co-emperors (augusti) and two respectively subordinate junior emperors (caesars), each of whom shared in the imperial power. While each augustus was autonomous within each portion of the empire they managed, all laws that were introduced by any emperor were valid across the entirety of the empire.
Devaluation of the Consulate:
Transformation of the traditional Senatorial order: As the administrative machinery surrounding the emperor increased, this resulted in an explosion of bureaucratic offices. These state officials were paid originally both in food and with money, but over the course of the Dominate, the annona (or food ration) was converted into money. Their salaries therefore consumed a considerable chunk of the imperial budget. Although precise numbers are not available, but it has been speculated that the state bureaucrats in the Praetorian prefecture of the East and the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum, including the diocesan and provincial governor's staffs, would have been somewhere around 10,000 individuals.
Military reforms: It was Diocletian who initially divided the military administrative apparatus and the civil administration in order to mitigate the risk that future imperial governors or Praetorian Prefects might attempt to seize the throne through force, and then he reorganized both of them. During the Tetrarchy, the Praetorian Prefects were the Emperor's top administrators, ranking just below the Emperor himself in dignity. While initially serving as the Emperor's second in command in all matters of imperial administration (military, civil, judicial, taxation, etc.), during the course of the Dominate the Prefects gradually had portions of their authority stripped from them and given to other offices: the Masters of the Soldiers for military affairs and the Imperial Chancellor for central civilian administration.
Within the East, by the late 4th century, there were Masters of the Soldiers, per Illyricum, per Thracias , and per Orientem. Each of these three Masters exercised independent command over one of the three Field Armies of the Eastern Empire. There were also two Masters of the Soldiers in the Presence (in praesenti) who accompanied the Eastern Emperor and who each commanded half of the Palace Troops. Each of the five Masters were of equal rank.
Within the West, there were originally four Masters of the Soldiers; foot and horse per Gallias and per Italiam. Over time, it became more common for the offices (foot and horse) to be combined under a single person, then styled magister equitum et peditum or magister utriusquae militiae ("master of both forces"). By the time of Stilicho, the Master of Both Services was the supreme military commander of the West, ranking only below the Emperor and above all other military commanders, and commander of half the Palace Troops. The Master of the Horse held command over half the Palace Troops and the Field Army of Gaul, but still under the command of the Master of Both Services
Military reforms: To support the Masters of the Soldiers, the Empire established several Military Counts ("Comes rei militaris"). There were six such Military Counts throughout the Empire.
Within the East, there was only one Military Count: the Military Count of Egypt ("Comes rei militaris Aegypti"). Unlike the Military Counts of the West, this Count commanded the Frontier Troops stationed in Egypt and reported directly to the Eastern Emperor.
Within the West, there were six such Military Counts, one for each of the five Field Armies in Illyria, Africa, Tingitania, Hispania, and Britannia. The sixth military count, the Count of the Saxon Shore ("comes littoris Saxonici per Britanniam"), commanded Frontier Troops along both sides of the English Channel and reported to the Count of Britannia. The five regular Military Counts reported to the Master of Both Services.
Religious reforms: At the Imperial court, Christians began indiscernibly to rise in favour, to the detriment of pagans. This did not begin to immediately hamper the advancement of pagan courtiers after the defeat of Maxentius in 312, as the full effects were not visible until paganism was prohibited at the end of the 4th century. Ultimately, however, as a result of the imperial patronage of Constantine and especially his sons, Christianity rapidly emerged as the official religion of the empire, although many vestiges of the imperial cult took some time to pass (such as the Emperors still assuming the role of Pontifex Maximus, chief priest of the pagan cults, until AD 381). The Bishop of Rome's authority extended over the whole western or Latin half of the Empire, and included the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum. The Patriarchate of Constantinople had oversight over the civil dioceses of Thrace, Pontus, and Asia. The Patriarchate of Alexandria corresponded to the Diocese of Egypt. The Patriarchate of Antioch had jurisdiction over the majority of the Praetorian prefecture of the East, while the smaller Patriarchate of Jerusalem dominated the three Palestinian provinces. The emperors had, over time, conceded many privileges to the clergy and the churches. Firstly, all clergy, like the holders of the pagan religious offices, were exempted from taxation. There were no restrictions placed on churches receiving bequests through wills, and they were given the same rights as the pagan temples had in granting asylum to any who requested it. Bishops were permitted to act as judges in civil cases when both parties had agreed, and no appeal was permitted once the Bishop had made their ruling. The state made increasing use of the ecclesiastical authorities in local administration due to the decline in the civic life of the urban communities, which coincided with the increasing local influence of the bishops. Finally, bishops were given the same role as the defensor civitatis, who was responsible for protecting the poor against exploitation by government officials and defending them from other powerful individuals, during the course of which the bishop could bring cases of illegality directly to the emperor.
Downgrading of Rome as capital of the empire: Rome was increasingly seen to be too distant a residence for the emperor when troubles could erupt along any of the borders of the empire. In the west, Mediolanum was seen to be a much better strategic city for the emperor to be based at, as it gave good access through the Alps northwards to both the Danubian provinces in the east as well as the Rhine provinces and Gaul to the west. Further, it was well positioned to guard against incursions through the alpine passes. This decision was confirmed when Diocletian established the Tetrarchy, and his colleague Maximian informally established Mediolanum as the senior western emperor's official residence. Diocletian, conscious that the Persian threat to the eastern provinces required a continuous imperial presence, placed his eastern capital in the city of Nicomedia. Meanwhile, the Caesars also had imperial residences – Constantius Chlorus was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier), while Galerius sited his residence at Sirmium. After the collapse of the Tetrachy, Constantine I at first placed his imperial capital at Ulpia Serdica before erecting a new imperial capital on the site of the old Greek city of Byzantium (Constantinopole). In the west, Mediolanum continued to be the imperial residence until the repeated invasions by Alaric I forced the western emperor Honorius to relocate to the strongly fortified city of Ravenna in 402. Ravenna remained the western imperial capital until the loss of Italy in 476.
Stylistic changes: Diocletian and his augusti colleagues and successors openly displayed the naked face of Imperial power; jeweled robes and shoes in contrast to the simple toga praetexta. Emperors inhabited luxurious palaces and were surrounded by a court of individuals who, only due to the favor and proximity of the Emperor, attained the highest honorific titles and bureaucratic functions. Emperors imported rituals such as kneeling before the Emperor, and kissing of the hem of the Imperial robe (proskynesis). Even some Christian emperors, such as Constantine, were venerated after death. In the Eastern Roman Empire after 476 AD, the symbiotic relation between the Imperial Crown in Constantinople and the Orthodox Church led to the distinctive character of the medieval Roman state. Anastasius I was the last emperor known to be consecrated as divus on his death (518 AD). The title appears to have been abandoned thereafter on grounds of its spiritual impropriety.
Civil wars of the Tetrarchy: series of conflicts between the co-emperors of the Roman Empire, starting in 306 AD with the usurpation of Maxentius and the defeat of Severus and ending with the defeat of Licinius at the hands of Constantine I in 324 AD.
Aurelian (Lucius Domitius Aurelianus Augustus; 214 OR 215 .09.09 – 275.09 OR 10): Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. Born in humble circumstances, he rose through the military ranks to become emperor. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following year he conquered the Gallic Empire in the west, reuniting the Empire in its entirety. He was also responsible for the construction of the Aurelian Walls in Rome, and the abandonment of the province of Dacia. His successes were instrumental in ending the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century, earning him the title Restitutor Orbis or 'Restorer of the World'. Although Domitian was the first emperor who had demanded to be officially hailed as dominus et deus (master and god), these titles never occurred in written form on official documents until the reign of Aurelian. Defending Italy Against the Iuthungi; Defeat of the Goths and abandonment of Dacia; Conquest of the Palmyrene Empire (Syrian queen Zenobia cut off Rome's shipments of grain, and in a matter of weeks, the Romans started running low on bread. <...> Eventually Zenobia and her son were captured and made to walk on the streets of Rome in his triumph, the woman in golden chains. With the grain stores once again shipped to Rome, Aurelian's soldiers handed out free bread to the citizens of the city, and the Emperor was hailed a hero by his subjects)
Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun"): the official Sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. In 274.12.25, the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. The god was favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until the last third-part of the reign of Constantine I. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to AD 387, and there were enough devotees in the fifth century that the Christian theologian Augustine found it necessary to preach against them. On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. Constantine's triumphal arch. Revisionists reject this almost entirely. They claim that the evidence clearly shows that there was only one cult of the Sun God in Rome, continuous from the monarchy to the end of antiquity. This was a Roman god who was simply called Sol. There were at least three temples of the Sun god in Rome, all active during the Empire and all dating from the earlier Republic. There was never a separate solar deity named Sol Invictus, far less a Syrian one.
Notitia Dignitatum (Latin for "The List of Offices"): document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Eastern and Western Empires. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of Roman government and describes several thousand offices from the imperial court to provincial governments, diplomatic missions, and army units. It is usually considered to be accurate for the Western Roman Empire in the AD 420s and for the Eastern or Byzantine Empire in the AD 390s. However, the text itself is not dated (nor is its author named), and omissions complicate ascertaining its date from its content.
Constitution of the Late Roman Empire: unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down, mainly through precedent, which defined the manner in which the late Roman Empire was governed.
Augusti and Caesares: Under Diocletian's new Dominate, the Augusti took the place of the Senate and the assemblies, and thus any decree of an Augustus remained in force even after that particular emperor left office. Such an act could only be invalidated by a future Emperor. The logical extension of this concept meant that neither a magistrate, the assemblies, nor the senate, could legally restrain the Emperor. The higher authority of the Augusti was illustrated by their robes (which were trimmed with precious stones) and the imperial diadem, as well as the elaborate ceremony required of anyone who approached them. Unlike the old Princeps, the Augusti were viewed as being more than mortal, which was illustrated by the honors that they received. These honors had, in the past, been reserved only for the Gods. While emperors had received such honors in the past, they only received these honors after their death, and yet, the Augusti could receive such honors while they were still alive. Diocletian had hoped that the Augusti would jointly resign at a given point in time, and allow their Caesares to replace them.
The Imperial Court: Chief among these court officials was the Imperial Chancellor ("magister officiorum"). He was a kind of Interior Minister for State Security. The Chancellor commanded the Imperial Intelligence Service corps of ("Agentes in rebus"), 'men of state affairs,' who handled communications between the Emperor and provincial governments as well as gathering intelligence as the Emperor's administrative policing force. They were courier/bureaucrats often deputed to other departments on special assignments. From the early 340s senior agentes in rebus were appointed as heads of the offices, principes, of prefects, vicars and two of three proconsulates (not of Asia). One of the highest ranking court official was the Imperial Chamberlain ("Praepositus sacri cubiculi"). The Chamberlain, usually a eunuch, managed the daily operations of the Imperial Palace. He oversaw the palace servants ("cubicularii"), also eunuchs, and was responsible for the imperial bedchamber, wardrobe and receptions. In the case of weak Emperors, the Chamberlain's influence made him the most powerful man in the Empire. However, should the Emperor be a powerful force, the Chamberlain's role in the administration of the Empire was minimal.
Roman Roads in Britain around 150 AD.
Roman conquest of Britain: gradual process, beginning effectively in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Roman Britain (Latin: Britannia). Campaigns of Agricola (78–84).
Roman Britain (43 AD–c. 410): area of the island of Great Britain that was governed by the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. The Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by other Celtic tribes during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. He received tribute, installed a friendly king over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel, only to have them gather seashells. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain. Under the 2nd century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. End of Roman rule: Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, although it never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, although minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were no new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Trade: Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products; Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Demographics: Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of 2nd c.; at the end of 4th c., it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents
End of Roman rule in Britain: transition from Roman Britain to post-Roman Britain. Roman rule ended in different parts of Britain at different times, and under different circumstances. In 383, the usurper Magnus Maximus withdrew troops from northern and western Britain, probably leaving local warlords in charge. Around 410, the Romano-British expelled the magistrates of the usurper Constantine III, ostensibly in response to his failures to use the Roman garrison he had stripped from Britain to protect the island. Roman Emperor Honorius replied to a request for assistance with the Rescript of Honorius, telling the Roman cities to see to their own defence, a tacit acceptance of temporary British self-government. Honorius was fighting a large-scale war in Italy against the Visigoths under their leader Alaric, with Rome itself under siege. No forces could be spared to protect distant Britain.
Sub-Roman Britain (in non-archaeological contexts: Post-Roman Britain): term derived from an archaeological label for the material culture of Great Britain in Late Antiquity, the transition period between the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century around AD 235 (and the subsequent collapse and end of Roman Britain), until the start of the Early Medieval period. This period has attracted a great deal of academic and popular debate, in part because of the scarcity of the written source material. Breakdown of Roman society: In 406 the army in Britain revolted, electing three successive "tyrants", the last of whom took further troops to Gaul. He established himself briefly as Constantine III but was defeated and subsequently executed in 411. Meanwhile, there were barbarian raids on Britain in 408, but these seem to have been defeated. After 410 Honorius apparently sent letters to the cities of Britain telling them to fend for themselves, though this is sometimes disputed.
Mauretania: Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It stretched from central present-day Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, seminomadic pastoralists of Berber ancestry, were known to the Romans as the Mauri and the Masaesyli. In 27 BC, the kings of Mauretania became Roman vassals until about 44 AD, when the area was annexed to Rome and divided into two provinces: Mauretania Tingitana and Mauretania Caesariensis. Christianity had spread there from the 3rd century onwards. Late Antiquity: Roman-Moorish kingdoms, Vandal kingdom, Praetorian prefecture of Africa, Exarchate of Africa.
Ptolemy of Mauretania (13 x 9 BC–AD 40, r. 20–40): the last Roman client king and ruler of Mauretania for Rome. He was a member of the Berber Massyles tribe of Numidia; via his mother Cleopatra Selene II, he was also a member of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty. Son of King Juba II. Through his parents, Ptolemy had Roman citizenship and they sent him to Rome to be educated. His mother likely died in 5 BC and was placed in the Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania, built by his parents. Ptolemy personified himself as an elephant on coins. Elephant personification is an ancient coinage tradition in which his late parents did when they ruled Mauretania. The elephant has symbolic functions: an icon representing Africa and an iconic monetary characteristic from the Hellenistic period which displays influence and power. The Kingdom of Mauretania was one of the wealthiest Roman client kingdoms, and after 24 Ptolemy continued to reign without interruption. In late 40, Caligula invited Ptolemy to Rome and welcomed him with appropriate honours. Ptolemy was confirmed as king and an ally and friend of the empire, but he was assassinated by order of Caligula. Caligula's motivation is unclear.
Julio-Claudian dynasty: first five Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. They ruled the Roman Empire from its formation under Augustus in 27 BC until AD 68, when the last of the line, Nero, committed suicide. The name "Julio-Claudian" is a historiographical term derived from the two families which composed the imperial dynasty: the Julii Caesares and Claudii Nerones. Primogeniture is notably absent in the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Neither Augustus, Caligula, nor Nero fathered a natural and legitimate son. Tiberius' own son, Drusus predeceased him. Only Claudius was outlived by his son, Britannicus, although he opted to promote his adopted son Nero as his successor to the throne. Adoption ultimately became a tool that most Julio-Claudian emperors utilized in order to promote their chosen heir to the front of the succession. Augustus—himself an adopted son of his great-uncle, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar—adopted his stepson Tiberius as his son and heir. Tiberius was, in turn, required to adopt his nephew Germanicus, the father of Caligula and brother of Claudius. Caligula adopted his cousin Tiberius Gemellus (grandson of the emperor Tiberius) shortly before executing him. Claudius adopted his great-nephew and stepson Nero, who, lacking a natural or adopted son of his own, ended the reign of the Julio-Claudian dynasty with his fall from power and subsequent suicide.
Julio-Claudian family tree: around the start of the Common Era, the family trees of the gens Julia and the gens Claudia became intertwined into the Julio-Claudian family tree as a result of marriages and adoptions.
Julius Caesar ↑
Augustus (la: Imperātor Caesar Dīvī Fīlius Augustus; born: Gaius Octavius; 63.09.23 BC – 14.08.19 AD): the founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor, ruling from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD. It took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis ("First Citizen of the State"). The resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire.
Son of God#Rulers and imperial titles: in 42 BC, Julius Caesar was formally deified as "the divine Julius" (divus Iulius) after his assassination. His adopted son, Octavian (better known as Augustus, a title given to him 15 years later, in 27 BC) thus became known as divi Iuli filius (son of the divine Julius) or simply divi filius (son of the god). As a daring and unprecedented move, Augustus used this title to advance his political position in the Second Triumvirate, finally overcoming all rivals for power within the Roman state. The word which was applied to Julius Caesar when he was deified was divus, not the distinct word deus. Thus, Augustus called himself Divi filius, not Dei filius. The line between been god and god-like was at times less than clear to the population at large, and Augustus seems to have been aware of the necessity of keeping the ambiguity. As a purely semantic mechanism, and to maintain ambiguity, the court of Augustus sustained the concept that any worship given to an emperor was paid to the "position of emperor" rather than the person of the emperor.
Second Triumvirate: Gaius Octavius (Octavian, Caesar Augustus), Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, formed on 43.11.26 BC with the enactment of the Lex Titia, the adoption of which is viewed as marking the end of the Roman Republic.
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir) (born c. 89 or 88 BC, died late 13 or early 12 BC): Roman patrician who was triumvir with Octavian (the future Augustus) and Mark Antony, and the last Pontifex Maximus of the Roman Republic. Lepidus had previously been a close ally of Julius Caesar.
Mark Antony (la: Marcus Antonius; January 14, 83 BC – August 1, 30 BC): Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from an oligarchy into the autocratic Roman Empire. Antony was a supporter of Julius Caesar, and served as one of his generals during the conquest of Gaul and the Civil War.
Res Gestae Divi Augusti (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus) is the funerary inscription of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments. By its very nature the Res Gestae is propaganda for the principate that Augustus instituted. It tends to gloss over the events between the assassination of Augustus' adoptive father Julius Caesar and the victory at Actium when his foothold on power was finally undisputed. Augustus' enemies are never mentioned by name. Caesar's murderers Brutus and Cassius are called simply "those who killed my father". Mark Antony and Sextus Pompey, Augustus' opponents in the East, remain equally anonymous; the former is "he with whom I fought the war," while the latter is merely a "pirate." Often quoted is Augustus' official position on his government: "From that time (27 BC, the end of the civil war) I surpassed all others in influence, yet my official powers were no greater than those of my colleague in office."
Sejanus (Lucius Aelius Sejanus; c. 20 BC – 31.10.18 AD): Roman soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Of the Equites class by birth, Sejanus rose to power as prefect of the Praetorian Guard (the Roman imperial bodyguard), of which he was commander from AD 14 until his execution for treason in AD 31. While the Praetorian Guard was formally established under Emperor Augustus, Sejanus introduced a number of reforms which saw the unit evolve beyond a mere bodyguard into a powerful and influential branch of the government involved in public security, civil administration and ultimately political intercession; these changes had a lasting impact on the course of the Principate. During the 20s, Sejanus gradually accumulated power by consolidating his influence over Tiberius and eliminating potential political opponents, including the emperor's son Drusus Julius Caesar. When Tiberius withdrew to Capri in AD 26, Sejanus was left in control of the administration of the empire. For a time the most influential and feared citizen of Rome, Sejanus suddenly fell from power in AD 31, the year his career culminated with the consulship. Amidst suspicions of conspiracy against Tiberius, Sejanus was arrested and executed, along with his followers.
Map of the Roman Empire during 69AD, the Year of the Four Emperors. Coloured areas indicate provinces loyal to one of four warring generals.
Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69): four emperors ruled in a remarkable succession; suicide of emperor Nero, in 68, was followed by a brief period of civil war, the first Roman civil war since Mark Antony's death in 30 BC. Successive rise and fall of Galba, Otho and Vitellius until the final accession of Vespasian, first ruler of the Flavian dynasty, in July 69.
Battle of Bedriacum: refers to two battles fought during the Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69) near the village of Bedriacum (now Calvatone), about 35 kilometers from the town of Cremona in northern Italy. First Battle of Bedriacum (Victor for Vitellius): Marcus Salvius Otho, with the support and aid of the Praetorian Guard, had his predecessor Galba murdered in January and claimed the throne. Legate Aulus Vitellius, governor of the province of Germania Inferior, had also claimed the throne earlier in the month and marched on Rome with his troops. Second Battle of Bedriacum: Meanwhile, the legions stationed in the Middle East provinces of Judaea and Syria had acclaimed Vespasian as emperor. Vespasian had been given a special command in Judaea by Nero in 67 with the task of putting down the First Jewish–Roman War. He gained the support of the governor of Syria, Gaius Licinius Mucianus and a strong force drawn from the Judaean and Syrian legions marched on Rome under the command of Mucianus. ... Eventually Antonius' forces began to gain the upper hand, and the turning point came when dawn broke. Antonius' III Gallica had served in Syria for many years and while there had adopted a local custom. As the sun rose, they saluted it with cheers; this was misinterpreted by the Vitellian forces, who thought that they were greeting reinforcements from the east and lost heart. The Vitellian forces were driven back into their camp, which was taken by Antonius' forces. Antonius then attacked Cremona itself, which surrendered. Cremona was sacked and then burned by the victorious troops. Antonius was embarrassed by the episode and forbade the keeping of Cremonans as slaves, resulting in many being murdered by their captors to evade punishment. Antonius continued to Rome, where Vitellius was taken prisoner and shortly afterwards killed. The way was thus cleared for Vespasian to ascend the throne near the end of this bloody year of crisis.
Flavian dynasty: Roman Imperial Dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between AD 69 and AD 96, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian (69–79), and his two sons Titus (79–81) and Domitian (81–96). The Flavians rose to power during the civil war of 69.
Vespasian (0.11.09 – 23/24 June 79): Roman emperor, who reigned from 69 to 79 AD. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolidation of the empire generated political stability and a vast Roman building program.
Nerva–Antonine dynasty: dynasty of seven Roman Emperors who ruled over the Roman Empire from 96 AD to 192 AD. These Emperors are Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Commodus.
Trajan's Column: Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. The war against Dacia was one of conquest and expansion. Therefore, with the aim of the Dacian Campaigns being the incorporation and integration of Dacia into the Roman Empire as a Roman province, depictions of violent action towards foreign women and children is nonexistent. Wartime violence in general seems to have been downplayed. Some scholars suggest the lack of battle scenes and large number of building scenes is a propaganda constructed specifically for the urban population of Rome (the primary audience), addressing their fear and distrust of the army by depicting its warfare as one with little collateral damage. The emperor Trajan is depicted realistically in the Veristic style, and makes 59 appearances among his troops. The focus on Trajan as the heroic protagonist is central. The portrayal of the Roman army as kinder and gentler may also be because it aids in Trajan's image as a man with the virtues of "justice, clemency, moderation, and restraint".
Ancient Rome and Greece (Hellenism) after acceptance of Christianity (313/321/324-, Constantine)
Religio licita ("permitted religion," also translated as "approved religion"): phrase used in the Apologeticum of Tertullian to describe the special status of the Jews in the Roman Empire. It was not an official term in Roman law. Although it occurs in only one patristic text and in no classical Roman sources or inscriptions, the phrase has spawned abundant scholarly conjecture on its possible significance. Some scholars have gone so far as to imagine that all religions under the Empire had a legal status as either licita or illicita, despite the absence of any ancient texts referring to these categories. The most extreme view has held that Tertullian's phrase means all foreign religions required a license from the Roman government. But it was Roman custom to permit or even encourage the subject peoples of the provinces and foreign communities in Rome to maintain their ancestral religion, unless specific practices were regarded as disruptive or subversive. Judaism as licita: It has been observed that "Roman magistrates treated the Jews the way they did not because they were consciously tolerant, but simply because they had no reason to hinder the free exercise of Jewish religious practices." Christianity as illicita: Some scholars have argued that Christianity was declared a religio illicita (an impermissible or illegitimate religion) by Domitian in the 80s AD.
Codex Theodosianus: compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312; also concerned with the imposition of orthodoxy - the Arian controversy was ongoing - within the Christian religion and contains 65 decrees directed at heretics.
Chronograph of 354 (Calendar of 354): compilation of chronological and calendrical texts produced in 354 AD for a wealthy Roman Christian named Valentinus by the calligrapher and illustrator Furius Dionysius Filocalus. Original illustrated manuscript is lost, but several copies have survived. It is the earliest dated codex to have full page illustrations. Work contains the earliest reference to the celebration of Christmas as an annual holiday or feast, on December 25, although unique historical dates had been mentioned much earlier, notably December 25, 3 or 4 BC by Hippolytus of Rome during 202–211.
Edict of Thessalonica (Cunctos populos, issued 380.02.27): by three reigning Roman Emperors (Theodosius I, Gratian, and Valentinian II), made Nicene Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. It condemned other Christian creeds such as Arianism as heresies of madmen, and authorized their persecution. The edict was issued under the influence of Ascholius, and thus of Pope Damasus I, who had appointed him. It re-affirmed a single expression of the Apostolic Faith as legitimate in the Roman Empire, "catholic" (that is, universal) and "orthodox" (that is, correct in teaching). After the edict, Theodosius spent a great deal of energy trying to suppress all non-Nicene forms of Christianity, especially Arianism, and in establishing Nicene orthodoxy throughout his realm.
State church of the Roman Empire: With the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 AD, Emperor Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the Empire's state religion. The Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, and the Catholic Church each claim to stand in continuity with the church to which Theodosius granted recognition, but do not look on it as specific to the Roman Empire. Early Christianity in relation to the state. Establishment and early controversies. Late antiquity: End of the Western Roman Empire. Patriarchates in the Eastern Roman Empire. Rise of Islam. Expansion of Christianity in Europe. East–West Schism (1054).
Great Church (Latin: ecclesia magna): term of the historiography of early Christianity describing its rapid growth and structural development 180–313 AD (around the time of the Ante-Nicene Period) and its claim to represent Christianity within the Roman Empire. The term is primarily associated with the Roman Catholic account of the history of Christian theology, but is also used by non-Catholic historians. The "epoch of the Great Church" is counted as beginning around the end of the second century when, despite the persecution of Christians, the religion became established numerically and organizationally, eventually becoming the state church of the Roman Empire in 380. However, the Church of East and Oriental Orthodoxy parted ways at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, both due to Christological differences. Modern theories on the formation of the Great Church: In contrast to "Jewish Christianity".
Map of the territory controlled by the Western Roman court in 395 AD with the names of major tribes of various cultural backgrounds marked out in blue.
Western Roman Empire (395–476/480; reorganization of the Italian peninsula and abolition of separate Western Roman administrative institutions under Emperor Justinian during the latter half of the 6th c.): western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used to describe the period from 395 to 476, where there were separate coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire in the Western and the Eastern provinces, with a distinct imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are modern descriptions that describe political entities that were de facto independent; contemporary Romans did not consider the Empire to have been split into two separate empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two separate imperial courts as an administrative expediency. In the 6th century, emperor Justinian I re-imposed direct Imperial rule on large parts of the former Western Roman Empire, including the prosperous regions of North Africa, the ancient Roman heartland of Italy and parts of Hispania. Political instability in the Eastern heartlands, combined with foreign invasions and religious differences, made efforts to retain control of these territories difficult and they were gradually lost for good. When Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as "Roman Emperor" in 800, he both severed ties with the outraged Eastern Empire and established the precedent that no man in Western Europe would be emperor without a papal coronation, this marked a new imperial line that would evolve into the Holy Roman Empire, which presented a revival of the Imperial title in Western Europe but was in no meaningful sense an extension of Roman traditions or institutions. History: Tetrarchy, Further divisions, Reign of Honorius, Escalating barbarian conflicts, Internal unrest and Majorian, Collapse, Fall of the Empire. Political aftermath: Germanic Italy (Odoacer → Ostrogoths), Imperial reconquest. Legacy: Many of the invading Germanic tribes were already Christianized, although most were followers of Arianism. They quickly changed their adherence to the state church of the Roman Empire. This helped cement the loyalty of the local Roman populations, as well as the support of the powerful Bishop of Rome. Roman law, particularly the Corpus Juris Civilis collected on the orders of Justinian I, is the basis of modern civil law. In contrast, common law is based on Germanic Anglo-Saxon law. Civil law is by far the most widespread system of law in the world, in force in some form in about 150 countries. Latin also influenced Germanic languages such as English and German. The Latin alphabet was expanded due to the split of I into I and J, and of V into U, V, and, in places (especially Germanic languages and Polish), W. A very visible legacy of the Western Roman Empire is the Catholic Church. Church institutions slowly began to replace Roman ones in the West, even helping to negotiate the safety of Rome during the late 5th century. The Pope has consistently held the title of "Pontifex Maximus" since before the fall of the Western Roman Empire and retains it to this day; this title formerly used by the high priest of the Roman polytheistic religion, one of whom was Julius Caesar. {q.v. #After Western Roman Empire(395/476-), before Holy Roman Empire (Treaty of Verdun in 843)}
Jerome (c. 347 – 30 September 420): a Latin Catholic priest, confessor, theologian, and historian, commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (the translation that became known as the Vulgate), and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive. Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention on the lives of women and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life. This focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent senatorial families. As a student, Jerome engaged in the superficial escapades and sexual experimentation of students in Rome; he indulged himself quite casually but he suffered terrible bouts of guilt afterwards. To appease his conscience, on Sundays he visited the sepulchres of the martyrs and the Apostles in the catacombs. This experience reminded him of the terrors of hell.
Conversion to Christianity: After several years in Rome, he travelled with Bonosus to Gaul and settled in Trier where he seems to have first taken up theological studies, and where, for his friend Tyrannius Rufinus, he copied Hilary of Poitiers' commentary on the Psalms and the treatise De synodis. Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia, where he made many Christian friends. During one of these illnesses (about the winter of 373–374), he had a vision that led him to lay aside his secular studies and devote himself to God. He seems to have abstained for a considerable time from the study of the classics and to have plunged deeply into that of the Bible. Seized with a desire for a life of ascetic penance, Jerome went for a time to the desert of Chalcis, to the southeast of Antioch, known as the "Syrian Thebaid", from the number of eremites inhabiting it. During this period, he seems to have found time for studying and writing. He made his first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a converted Jew; and he seems to have been in correspondence with Jewish Christians in Antioch. Around this time he had copied for him a Hebrew Gospel, of which fragments are preserved in his notes, and is known today as the Gospel of the Hebrews, and which the Nazarenes considered to be the true Gospel of Matthew. Returning to Antioch in 378 or 379, Jerome was ordained there by Bishop Paulinus, apparently unwillingly and on condition that he continue his ascetic life. Soon afterward, he went to Constantinople to pursue a study of Scripture under Gregory Nazianzen. He seems to have spent two years there, then left, and the next three (382–385) he was in Rome again, as secretary to Pope Damasus I and the leading Roman Christians. Invited originally for the synod of 382, held to end the schism of Antioch as there were rival claimants to be the proper patriarch in Antioch. Jerome had accompanied one of the claimants, Paulinus, back to Rome to get more support for him, and distinguishing himself to the pope, took a prominent place in his papal councils. Jerome was given duties in Rome, and he undertook a revision of the Latin Bible, to be based on the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. He also updated the Psalter containing the Book of Psalms then in use in Rome, based on the Septuagint. Though he did not realize it yet, translating much of what became the Latin Vulgate Bible would take many years and be his most important achievement. In Rome Jerome was surrounded by a circle of well-born and well-educated women, including some from the noblest patrician families, such as the widows Lea, Marcella and Paula, with Paula's daughters Blaesilla and Eustochium. The resulting inclination of these women towards the monastic life, away from the indulgent lasciviousness in Rome, and his unsparing criticism of the secular clergy of Rome, brought a growing hostility against him among the Roman clergy and their supporters.
Reception by later Christianity: Jerome is the second most voluminous writer (after Augustine of Hippo) in ancient Latin Christianity. Jerome acquired a knowledge of Hebrew by studying with a Jew who converted to Christianity, and took the unusual position (for that time) that the Hebrew, and not the Septuagint, was the inspired text of the Old Testament.
Augustine of Hippo (354.11.13 – 430.08.28): Roman African, early Christian theologian and Neoplatonic philosopher from Numidia whose writings influenced the development of the Western Church and Western philosophy, and indirectly all of Western Christianity. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius in North Africa and is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church for his writings in the Patristic Period. Among his most important works are The City of God, De doctrina Christiana, and Confessions.
Childhood and education: At the age of 17, through the generosity of his fellow citizen Romanianus, Augustine went to Carthage to continue his education in rhetoric, though it was above the financial means of his family. In spite of the good warnings of his mother, as a youth Augustine lived a hedonistic lifestyle for a time, associating with young men who boasted of their sexual exploits. At about the age of 17, Augustine began an affair with a young woman in Carthage. In 385, Augustine ended his relationship with his lover in order to prepare himself to marry a ten-year-old heiress. (He had to wait for two years because the legal age of marriage for women was twelve.) By the time he was able to marry her, however, he instead decided to become a celibate priest. By the time he realized that he needed to know Greek, it was too late; and although he acquired a smattering of the language, he was never eloquent with it. However, his mastery of Latin was another matter. He became an expert both in the eloquent use of the language and in the use of clever arguments to make his points.
Move to Carthage, Rome, Milan: Manichaean friends introduced him to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus, who while traveling through Carthage had been asked by the imperial court at Milan to provide a rhetoric professor. Augustine won the job and headed north to take his position in Milan in late 384. Thirty years old, he had won the most visible academic position in the Latin world at a time when such posts gave ready access to political careers. In Rome, he reportedly turned away from Manichaeanism, embracing the scepticism of the New Academy movement. Because of his education, Augustine had great rhetorical prowess and was very knowledgeable of the philosophies behind many faiths. At Milan, his mother's religiosity, Augustine's own studies in Neoplatonism, and his friend Simplicianus all urged him towards Christianity. Initially Augustine was not strongly influenced by Christianity and its ideologies, but after coming in contact with Ambrose of Milan, Augustine reevaluated himself and was forever changed. Augustine arrived in Milan and visited Ambrose in order to see if Ambrose was one of the greatest speakers and rhetoricians in the world. More interested in his speaking skills than the topic of speech, Augustine quickly discovered that Ambrose was a spectacular orator. Like Augustine, Ambrose was a master of rhetoric, but older and more experienced. Soon, their relationship grew, as Augustine wrote, "And I began to love him, of course, not at the first as a teacher of the truth, for I had entirely despaired of finding that in thy Church—but as a friendly man." Eventually, Augustine says that he was spiritually led into the faith of Christianity. Augustine was very much influenced by Ambrose, even more than by his own mother and others he admired. Within his Confessions, Augustine states, "That man of God received me as a father would, and welcomed my coming as a good bishop should." Ambrose adopted Augustine as a spiritual son after the death of Augustine's father. Augustine's mother had followed him to Milan and arranged an honest marriage for him. Although Augustine accepted this marriage, for which he had to abandon his concubine, he was deeply hurt by the loss of his lover. Augustine confessed that he was not a lover of wedlock so much as a slave of lust, so he procured another concubine since he had to wait two years until his fiancée came of age. However, his emotional wound was not healed, even began to fester. It was during this period that he uttered his famous prayer, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."
Christian conversion and priesthood: In late August of 386, at the age of 31, after having heard and been inspired and moved by the story of Ponticianus's and his friends' first reading of the life of Saint Anthony of the Desert, Augustine converted to Christianity. As Augustine later told it, his conversion was prompted by a childlike voice he heard telling him to "take up and read" (Latin: tolle, lege), which he took as a divine command to open the Bible and read the first thing he saw. Augustine read from Paul's Epistle to the Romans – the "Transformation of Believers" section, consisting of chapters 12 to 15 – wherein Paul outlines how the Gospel transforms believers, and describes the believers' resulting behaviour. Although it is written as an account of his life, the Confessions also talks about the nature of time, causality, free will, and other important philosophical topics. Augustine's mother Monica died at Ostia, Italy, as they prepared to embark for Africa. Upon their arrival, they began a life of aristocratic leisure at Augustine's family's property. Soon after, Adeodatus, too, died. Augustine then sold his patrimony and gave the money to the poor. The only thing he kept was the family house, which he converted into a monastic foundation for himself and a group of friends. His work The City of God was written to console his fellow Christians shortly after the Visigoths had sacked Rome in 410. Augustine worked tirelessly in trying to convince the people of Hippo to convert to Christianity. Though he had left his monastery, he continued to lead a monastic life in the episcopal residence. Possidius also described Augustine's personal traits in detail, drawing a portrait of a man who ate sparingly, worked tirelessly, despised gossip, shunned the temptations of the flesh, and exercised prudence in the financial stewardship of his see.
Death and veneration: According to Possidius, Augustine spent his final days in prayer and repentance, requesting that the penitential Psalms of David be hung on his walls so that he could read them. He directed that the library of the church in Hippo and all the books therein should be carefully preserved. He died on 430.08.28. Shortly after his death, the Vandals lifted the siege of Hippo, but they returned not long thereafter and burned the city. They destroyed all of it but Augustine's cathedral and library, which they left untouched.
Views and thought: It sufficed for him to admit that they are metaphysically distinct: to be a human is to be a composite of soul and body, and the soul is superior to the body. The latter statement is grounded in his hierarchical classification of things into those that merely exist, those that exist and live, and those that exist, live, and have intelligence or reason. Like other Church Fathers such as Athenagoras, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria and Basil of Caesarea, Augustine "vigorously condemned the practice of induced abortion", and although he disapproved of an abortion during any stage of pregnancy, he made a distinction between early abortions and later ones. Augustine held that "the timing of the infusion of the soul was a mystery known to God alone". However, he considered procreation as one of the goods of marriage; abortion figured as a means, along with drugs which cause sterility, of frustrating this good. It lay along a continuum which included infanticide as an instance of ‘lustful cruelty’ or ‘cruel lust.’ Augustine called the use of means to avoid the birth of a child an ‘evil work:’ a reference to either abortion or contraception or both." Augustine's ecclesiology was more fully developed in City of God. There he conceives of the church as a heavenly city or kingdom, ruled by love, which will ultimately triumph over all earthly empires which are self-indulgent and ruled by pride.
Mariology: Although Augustine did not develop an independent Mariology, his statements on Mary surpass in number and depth those of other early writers. Even before the Council of Ephesus, he defended the Ever-Virgin Mary as the Mother of God, believing her to be "full of grace" (following earlier Latin writers such as Jerome) on account of her sexual integrity and innocence. Likewise, he affirmed that the Virgin Mary "conceived as virgin, gave birth as virgin and stayed virgin forever".
Natural knowledge and biblical interpretation: Augustine took the view that, if a literal interpretation contradicts science and our God-given reason, the Biblical text should be interpreted metaphorically.
Just war: Augustine asserted that Christians should be pacifists as a personal, philosophical stance. However, peacefulness in the face of a grave wrong that could only be stopped by violence would be a sin. Defence of one's self or others could be a necessity, especially when authorized by a legitimate authority. In essence, the pursuit of peace must include the option of fighting for its long-term preservation. Such a war could not be pre-emptive, but defensive, to restore peace.
Free will: A will defiled by sin is not considered as "free" as it once was because it is bound by material things, which could be lost or be difficult to part with, resulting in unhappiness. Sin impairs free will, while grace restores it. Christians championed the concept of a relational God who interacts with humans rather than a Stoic or Gnostic God who unilaterally foreordained every event (yet Stoics still claimed to teach free will).
Sociology, morals and ethics: Slavery: Augustine led many clergy under his authority at Hippo to free their slaves "as an act of piety". He boldly wrote a letter urging the emperor to set up a new law against slave traders and was very much concerned about the sale of children.
Jews: Against certain Christian movements, some of which rejected the use of Hebrew Scripture, Augustine countered that God had chosen the Jews as a special people, and he considered the scattering of Jewish people by the Roman Empire to be a fulfillment of prophecy.
Sexuality: For Augustine, the evil of sexual immorality was not in the sexual act itself, but rather in the emotions that typically accompany it. In On Christian Doctrine Augustine contrasts love, which is enjoyment on account of God, and lust, which is not on account of God.
Pedagogy: Augustine was a strong advocate of critical thinking skills. Because written works were still rather limited during this time, spoken communication of knowledge was very important. His emphasis on the importance of community as a means of learning distinguishes his pedagogy from some others.
Simplician (Simplicianus): Bishop of Milan from 397 to 400 or 401 AD. Simplician was born about 320 probably in Rome and still young he became a churchman. He became expert in the Holy Scripture and very educated. In about 355 he took an active part in the conversion to Christianity of the philosopher Marius Victorinus. Simplician took also an active part in the conversions of both Alypius of Thagaste and Augustine of Hippo.
Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism: Religion in the Greco-Roman world at the time of the Constantinian shift mostly comprised three main currents: traditional religions of ancient Greece and Rome; official Roman imperial cult; various mystery religions, such as the Dionysian and Eleusinian Mysteries and the mystery cults of Cybele, Mithras, and the syncretized Isis. Early Christianity grew gradually in Rome and the Roman Empire from the 1st to 4th centuries. In 313 it was legally tolerated and in 380 it became the state church of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica. Nevertheless, Hellenistic polytheistic traditions survived in pockets of Greece throughout Late Antiquity until they gradually diminished after the triumph of Christianity.
Before the Edict of Milan:
The rise of esoteric philosophy
Eastern Sun-worship: Elagabalus used his authority to install El-Gabal as the chief deity of the Roman pantheon, merging the god with the Roman Sun gods to form Deus Sol Invictus, meaning God - the Undefeated Sun, and making him superior to Jupiter, and assigning either Astarte, Minerva, Urania, or some combination of the three, as El-Gabal's wife. Nearly half a century after Elagabalus, Aurelian came to power. He was a reformer, strengthening the position of the Sun-god as the main divinity of the Roman pantheon; he even built a brand new temple, in Rome, dedicated to the deity. It's also thought likely that he may have been responsible for establishing the festival of the day of the birth of the unconquered Sun (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti), which was celebrated on December 25
Judaism and Christianity (Split of early Christianity and Judaism): Imperial tolerance only extended to religions that did not resist Roman authority and would respect Roman gods. Religions that were hostile to the state or any that claimed exclusive rights to religious beliefs and practice were not included and some exclusive Eastern cults were persecuted. Jews were given special privileges owing to their dominance in economy, numbers and dispersal, but this tolerance was balanced unevenly on a thin veneer of Jewish submission. Tolerance of Judaism turned to persecution when collaboration was perceived as ending, see Anti-Judaism in the pre-Christian Roman Empire.
Toleration and Constantine. Beginning of persecution of paganism. Restoration and tolerance from Julian till Valens (361–375). Renewal of persecution under Gratian. Under Theodosius I. Polytheism revival. Final decline.
Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire: began late during the reign of Constantine the Great, when he ordered the pillaging and the tearing down of some temples. The first anti-pagan laws by the Christian state started with Constantine's son Constantius II, who was an opponent of paganism; he ordered the closing of all pagan temples, forbade pagan sacrifices under pain of death, and removed the traditional Altar of Victory from the Senate. Under his reign ordinary Christians began to vandalise pagan temples, tombs and monuments. This persecution had proceeded after a period of persecution of Christians in the Empire. From 361 until 375, paganism was relatively tolerated. Three Emperors—Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius I—came under the influence of the Bishop of Milan, Ambrose. At his suggestion, state anti-paganism policies were reinstituted. As a penitent under the care of Ambrose, Theodosius was influenced to issue the "Theodocian Decrees" of 391. During the course of his life, Constantine progressively became more Christian and turned away from any syncretic tendencies he appeared to favour at times, thereby demonstrating, according to his biographers, that "The God of the Christians was indeed a jealous God who tolerated no other gods beside him. The Church could never acknowledge that she stood on the same plane with other religious bodies, she conquered for herself one domain after another".
Religious policies of Constantine I:
Ban on new temples, toleration of sacrifices: As for worshipping the emperor, Constantine's mausoleum gave him a Christ-like status: his tomb was set amid 12 monuments, each containing relics of one of the Apostles. Constantine had continued to engage in pagan rituals. The emperor still claimed to be a supernatural being, although the outward form of this personality cult had become Christian. Church restrictions opposing the pillaging of pagan temples by Christians were in place even while the Christians were being persecuted by the pagans. Spanish bishops in AD 305 decreed that anyone who broke idols and was killed while doing so was not formally to be counted as a martyr, as the provocation was too blatant. Constantine became the first Emperor in the Christian era to persecute specific groups of Christians, the Donatists, in order to enforce religious unity.
Legislation against magic and private divination
Looting and destruction of temples: He destroyed the Temple of Aphrodite in the Lebanon. He ordered the execution of eunuch priests in Egypt because they transgressed his moral norms.
Anti-paganism policy of Constantius II:
Initial measures
Relative moderation: The relative moderation of Constantius' actions toward paganism is reflected by the fact that it was not until over 20 years after Constantius' death, during the reign of Gratian, that any pagan senators protested their religion's treatment.
Pagan resistance: No matter what the imperial edicts declared in their fearful threats, the vast numbers of pagans, and the passive resistance of pagan governors and magistrates rendered them largely impotent in their application.
Magnentius rebellion
Removal of the Altar of Victory
Restoration and tolerance from Julian until Valentinian I/Valens (361–378): Julian, who had been a co-emperor since 355, ruled solely for 18 months from 361 to 363. He was a nephew of Constantine and received a Christian training. After childhood, Julian was educated by Hellenists and became attracted to the teachings of neoplatonists and the old religions. However, he witnessed the assassination of his father, brother and other family members by the guards of the imperial palace; rightly or wrongly, he blamed this brutal act on the Christian Emperor Constantius. His antipathy to Christianity was deepened when Constantius executed Julian's only remaining brother in 354. Julian's religious beliefs were syncretic and he was initiated into at least three mystery religions. But his religious open-mindedness did not extend to Christianity since it was fundamentally incompatible with syncretic paganism. Upon becoming emperor, Julian attempted to restore the old Roman religion. Julian allowed religious freedom and avoided any form of actual compulsion. However, no Christian was allowed to teach or to study the ancient classical authors; "Let them keep to Matthew and Luke". This effectively debarred them from a professional career. The Jewish historian and theologian Jacob Neusner writes: "It was only after the near catastrophe of Julian's reversion to paganism that the Christian emperors systematically legislated against paganism so as to destroy it."
Religious toleration under Jovian, Valentinian and Valens: After the death of Julian, Jovian seems to have instituted a policy of religious toleration which avoided the extremes of Constantius and Julian. Under Valentinian and Valens, religious toleration continued. Pagan writers praise both of these emperors for their liberal religious policies. Valentinian also confirmed the rights and privileges of the pagan priests and confirmed the right of pagans to be the exclusive caretakers of their temples. Valens, who ruled the east, was an Arian and was too engaged with fighting against the Orthodox Christians to bother much with pagans.
Anti-paganism policy of the emperors Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius I: The anti-paganism policies pursued by the emperors Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius I may have been influenced by Saint Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan. Under pressure from Ambrose, Theodosius issued the Theodosian Decrees of 391. The Altar of Victory was removed by Gratian.
Theodosius (381–395): In 392 he became emperor of the whole empire. From this moment till the end of his reign in 395, while pagans remained outspoken in their demands for toleration, he authorized or participated in the killing of pagan priests, destruction of many temples, holy sites, images and objects of reverence throughout the empire and participated in actions by Christians against major Pagan sites. His later decrees were seen as effectively a declaration of war on traditional religious practices and for anyone caught, was a death sentence, as well as an automatic confiscation of property, even for private familial rites within the home.
After the fall of the Western Empire: The subjugation of the Roman Empire to Christianity became complete when the emperor Anastasius I, who came to the throne in 491, was required to sign a written declaration of orthodoxy before his coronation. Under Pope Gregory I, the caverns, grottoes, crags and glens that had once been used for the worship of the pagan gods were now appropriated by Christianity: "Let altars be built and relics be placed there" wrote Pope Gregory I, "so that [the pagans] have to change from the worship of the daemones to that of the true God."
Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I: Between 389 and 391 Theodosius I issued the "Theodosian decrees," which established a practical ban on paganism; visits to the temples were forbidden, remaining pagan holidays abolished, the sacred fire in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum extinguished, the Vestal Virgins disbanded, auspices and witchcraft punished. Theodosius refused to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House, as requested by pagan Senators. In 392 Theodosius I became emperor of the whole empire (the last one to be so). From this moment until the end of his reign in 395, while pagans remained outspoken in their demands for toleration, he authorized or participated in the destruction of many temples, holy sites, images and objects of piety throughout the empire in actions by Christians against major pagan sites. He issued a comprehensive law that prohibited any public pagan ritual, and was particularly oppressive of Manicheans. He is likely to have suppressed the Ancient Olympic Games, whose last record of celebration is from 393. Under Pope Gregory I, the caverns, grottoes, crags and glens that had once been used for the worship of the pagan gods were now appropriated by Christianity: "Let altars be built and relics be placed there" wrote Pope Gregory I, "so that [the pagans] have to change from the worship of the daemones to that of the true God."
Flavius Aetius (Aëtius; 391–454): Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire; able military commander and the most influential man in the Western Roman Empire for two decades (433–454). He managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian federates settled throughout the Western Roman Empire. Notably, he mustered a large Roman and allied (foederati) army to stop the Huns in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, ending the devastating Hunnic invasion of Attila in 451.
Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451.06.20): between a coalition - led by the Roman general Flavius Aetius and by the Visigothic king Theodoric I - against the Huns and their vassals - commanded by their king Attila. It proved one of the last major military operations of the Western Roman Empire, although Germanic foederati composed the majority of the coalition army. Whether the battle was strategically conclusive remains disputed: the Romans possibly stopped the Huns' attempt to establish vassals in Roman Gaul. However, the Huns successfully looted and pillaged much of Gaul and crippled the military capacity of the Romans and Visigoths. Attila died only two years later in 453, and after the Battle of Nedao (454) a coalition of the Huns' Germanic vassals dismantled his Hunnic Empire.
Obelisk of Theodosius (Turkish: Dikilitaş): Ancient Egyptian obelisk of Pharaoh Thutmose III re-erected in the Hippodrome of Constantinople (known today as At Meydanı or Sultanahmet Meydanı, in the modern city of Istanbul, Turkey) by the Roman emperor Theodosius I in the 4th c. AD. The obelisk was first erected during the 18th dynasty by Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC) to the south of the seventh pylon of the great temple of Karnak. The Roman emperor Constantius II (337–361 AD) had it and another obelisk transported along the river Nile to Alexandria to commemorate his ventennalia or 20 years on the throne in 357. The other obelisk was erected on the spina of the Circus Maximus in Rome in the autumn of that year, and is now known as the Lateran Obelisk. The obelisk that would become the obelisk of Theodosius remained in Alexandria until 390; when Theodosius I (379–395 AD) had it transported to Constantinople and put up on the spina of the Hippodrome there.
Hasmonean dynasty (140 BC–37 BC): ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during Classical antiquity. Between c. 140 BC and c. 116 BC, the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea. From 110 BC, with the Seleucid empire disintegrating, the dynasty became fully independent, expanded into the neighbouring regions of Samaria, Galilee, Iturea, Perea, and Idumea, and took the title "basileus". Some modern scholars refer to this period as an independent kingdom of Israel. In 63 BC, the kingdom was conquered by the Roman Republic, broken up and set up as a Roman client state. The Kingdom had survived for 103 years before yielding to the Herodian Dynasty in 37 BC.
Mariamne I (Mariamne the Hasmonean; died 29 BCE): second wife of Herod the Great. She was known for her great beauty, as was her brother Aristobulus. Ultimately this was the main reason for the downfall of the Hasmonean dynasty of Judea.
Herodian kingdom (37 BCE–4 BCE): client state of the Roman Republic from 37 BCE, when Herod the Great was appointed "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate. When Herod died in 4 BCE, the kingdom was divided among his sons into the Herodian Tetrarchy.
Herod the Great (73/74 BCE - 4 BCE; Herod the Great or Herod I): Roman client king of Judea; known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (Herod's Temple), the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima, the fortress at Masada and Herodium.
Herodian dynasty: Judean dynasty of Idumaean/Edomite descent. The Herodian dynasty began with Herod the Great, who assumed the throne of Judea, with Roman support, bringing down the century long Hasmonean Kingdom. His kingdom lasted until his death in 4 BCE, when it was divided between his sons as a Tetrarchy, which lasted for about 10 years. Most of those kingdoms, including Judea proper, were incorporated into Judaea Province in 6 CE, though limited Herodian kingship continued in Northern Levant until 92, when the last Herodian monarch, Agrippa II, died and Rome assumed full power over his domain.
Salome (c. AD 14 – between 62 and 71): was the daughter of Herod II and Herodias. According to Flavius Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, Salome was first married to Philip the Tetrarch of Ituraea and Trakonitis. After Philip's death in 34 AD she married Aristobulus of Chalcis and became queen of Chalcis and Armenia Minor. They had three children. Three coins with portraits of Aristobulus and Salome have been found. Her name in Hebrew is שלומית (Shlomiẗ, pronounced [ʃlomiθ]) and is derived from the root word שָׁלוֹם (shalom), meaning "peace". Salome is often identified with the dancing woman from the New Testament (Mark 6:17-29 and Matthew 14:3-11, where, however, her name is not given). Other elements of Christian tradition concentrate on her lighthearted and cold foolishness that, according to the gospels, led to John the Baptist's death. (Mark 6:25-27; Matthew 14:8-11)
Herodian Tetrarchy (4 BCE–6 CE): formed following the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE, when his kingdom was divided between his sons as an inheritance. Judea, the major section of the tetrarchy, was transformed by Rome in 6 CE, abolishing the rule of Herod Archelaus, and forming the Province of Judea by joining together Judea proper (biblical Judah), Samaria and Idumea (biblical Edom). However, other parts of the Herodian Tetrarchy continued to function under Herodians. Thus, Philip the Tetrarch ruled Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis until 34 CE (his domain later being incorporated into the Province of Syria), while Herod Antipas ruled Galilee and Perea until 34 CE.
Herod Antipas (born before 20 BC – died after 39 AD), known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch ("ruler of a quarter"). He is best known today for accounts in the New Testament of his role in events that led to the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.
Sicarii (la: Sicarius: "dagger-man"): term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, to an extremist splinter group of the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Romans and their partisans from the Roman province of Judea. The Sicarii carried sicae, or small daggers, concealed in their cloaks, hence their name. At public gatherings, they pulled out these daggers to attack Romans or Roman sympathizers, blending into the crowd after the deed to escape detection. They were one of the earliest forms of an organized assassination unit or cloak and daggers, predating the Middle Eastern assassins and Japanese ninjas by centuries.
Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BC): conflict between a Judean rebel group known as the Maccabees and the Seleucid Empire. In the narrative of I Maccabees, after Antiochus issued his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a rural Jewish priest from Modiin, Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods. Mattathias killed a Hellenistic Jew who stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias' place. He and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judah. After Mattathias' death about one year later in 166 BC, his son Judah Maccabee led an army of Jewish dissidents to victory over the Seleucid dynasty in guerrilla warfare, which at first was directed against Hellenized Jews, of whom there were many.
Hellenistic Judaism: form of Judaism in the ancient world that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Greek culture. Until the fall of the Roman Empire and the Muslim conquests of the Eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria (Egypt) and Antioch (Northern Syria—now Turkey), the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa area, both founded at the end of the 4th century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. The major literary product of the contact of Second Temple Judaism and Hellenistic culture is the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible from Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic to Koiné Greek, specifically, Jewish Koiné Greek. Decline of Hellenistic Judaism started in the 2nd century CE, and its causes are still not fully understood.
Phoenicia (1200 BC–539 BC): ancient Semitic civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent and centered on the coastline of modern Lebanon and Latakia Governorate and Tartus Governorate in Syria. All major Phoenician cities were on the coastline of the Mediterranean, some colonies reaching the Western Mediterranean. Famous as 'traders in purple' and for spread of their alphabets (or abjad), from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets are derived. It is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single ethnicity and nationality. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to ancient Greece. As Canaanites, they were unique in their remarkable seafaring achievements.
History of Carthage: Due to the subjugation of the civilization by the Romans at the end of the Third Punic War, very few Carthaginian historical primary sources survive. There are a few ancient translations of Punic texts into Greek and Latin, as well as inscriptions on monuments and buildings discovered in North Africa. However, the majority of available primary source material about Carthaginian civilization was written by Greek and Roman historians, such as Livy, Polybius, Appian, Cornelius Nepos, Silius Italicus, Plutarch, Dio Cassius, and Herodotus.
Greek–Punic Wars (600–265 BC): series of conflicts fought between the Carthaginians and the Greek city-states, led by Syracusans, over control of Sicily and the western Mediterranean; longest lasting wars of classical antiquity. No Carthaginian records of the war exist today, because when the city was destroyed in 146 BC by the Romans, the books from Carthage's library were distributed among the nearby African tribes, and none remain on the topic of Carthaginian history. As a result most of what we know about the Sicilian Wars comes from Greek historians.
Outline of ancient India: Depending on context, the term Ancient India might cover the modern-day countries of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, though these territories had large cultural differences.
Periodisation of the Indus Valley Civilisation: several periodisations are employed. While the Indus Valley Civilisation was divided into Early, Mature, and Late Harappan by archaeologists like Mortimer Wheeler, newer periodisations include the Neolithic early farming settlements, and use a stage–phase model, often combining terminology from various systems.
Periodisations: Early, Mature, and Late Harappan; Shaffer: Harappan Tradition: Eras: Punjab Phase (Cemetery H, Late Harappan), Jhukar Phase (Jhukar and Pirak), Rangpur Phase (Late Harappan and Lustrous Red Ware), Pirak Phase; Possehl: Indus Age; Rita Wright.
Datings and alternative proposals: Early Food Producing Era; Regionalisation Era; Integration Era.
Durée longue: Harappan Civilisation and Early Historic Period
Bronze Age India: begins around 3000 BCE, and in the end gives rise to the Indus Valley Civilisation, which had its (mature) period between 2600 BCE and 1900 BCE. It continues into the Rigvedic period, the early part of the Vedic period. It is succeeded by the Iron Age in India, beginning in around 1000 BCE. South India, by contrast, remains in the Mesolithic stage until about 2500 BCE. In the 2nd millennium BCE, there may have been cultural contact between North and South India, even though South India skips a Bronze Age proper and enters the Iron Age from the Chalcolithic stage directly.
Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC; Indus Civilisation): Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three early civilisations of the Near East and South Asia, and of the three, the most widespread. Its sites spanned an area from much of Pakistan, to northeast Afghanistan, and northwestern India. The civilisation flourished both in the alluvial plain of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial monsoon-fed rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the Ghaggar-Hakra, a seasonal river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. The term Harappan is sometimes applied to the Indus civilisation after its type site Harappa, the first to be excavated early in the 20th century in what was then the Punjab province of British India and is now Punjab, Pakistan.
Pre-Harappan, Harrapan, and present-day river courses in Indus Valley. Vedic Sarasvati = present-day dried up Gagghar-Hakra. The dried-up Harappan Hakra-course is actually a Sutlej-Yamuna paleochannel (Clift et al. 2012, Singh et al. 2017). 1=ancient river 2=today's river 3=today's Thar desert 4=ancient shore 5=today's shore 6=today's town 7=dried-up Hakkra course, and pre-Harappan Sutlej paleochannels (Clift et al. (2012)).
Ghaggar-Hakra River: intermittent river in India and Pakistan that flows only during the monsoon season. The river is known as Ghaggar before the Ottu barrage, and as Hakra downstream of the barrage in the Thar Desert. In pre-Harappan times the Ghaggar was a tributary of the Sutlej. It is still connected to this paleochannel of the Sutlej, and possibly the Yamuna, which ended in the Nara River, presently a delta channel of the Indus River joining the sea via Sir Creek. The Sutlej changed its course about 8,000-10,000 years ago, leaving the Ghaggar-Hakra as a system of monsoon-fed rivers terminating in the Thar Desert. The Indus Valley Civilisation prospered when the monsoons that fed the rivers diminished around 5,000 years ago, and a large number of sites from the Mature Indus Valley Civilisation (2600-1900 BCE) are found along the middle course of the (dried-up) Hakra in Pakistan.
Harappa: archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about 24 km west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a modern village near the former course of the Ravi River, which now runs 8 km to the north. The core of the Harappan civilization extended over a large area, from Gujarat in the south, across Sindh and Rajasthan and extending into Punjab and Haryana. Numerous sites have been found outside the core area, including some as far east as Uttar Pradesh and as far west as Sutkagen-dor on the Makran coast of Baluchistan, not far from Iran. The site of the ancient city contains the ruins of a Bronze Age fortified city, which was part of the Harappan civilisation centred in Sindh and the Punjab, and then the Cemetery H culture. The city is believed to have had as many as 23,500 residents and occupied about 150 ha with clay brick houses at its greatest extent during the Mature Harappan phase (2600 BC – 1900 BC), which is considered large for its time. The ancient city of Harappa was heavily damaged under British rule, when bricks from the ruins were used as track ballast in the construction of the Lahore–Multan Railway. The current village of Harappa is less than 1 km from the ancient site. Although modern Harappa has a legacy railway station from the British Raj period, it is a small crossroads town of 15,000 people today.
Mohenjo-daro (Sindhi: موئن جو دڙو, meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men' and sometimes lit. 'Mound of Mohan' in Sindhi): archaeological site in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Built around 2500 BCE, it was the largest settlement of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation. With an estimated population of at least 40,000 people, Mohenjo-daro prospered until around 1700 BCE. Mohenjo-daro was abandoned in the 19th century BCE as the Indus Valley Civilization declined, and the site was not rediscovered until the 1920s. Significant excavation has since been conducted at the site of the city, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, the first site in South Asia to be so designated. The site is currently threatened by erosion and improper restoration.
Muziris: (Muyirikode, or Mahodaya/Makotai Puram, present-day Kodungallur): ancient harbour - possible seaport and urban centre - on the Malabar Coast (modern-day Indian state of Kerala) that dates from at least the 1st century BC, if not earlier. Muziris, or Muchiri, found mention in the bardic Tamil poems and a number of classical sources. Muziris was a key to the interactions between South India and Persia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the (Greek and Roman) Mediterranean region. The important known commodities "exported" from Muziris were spices (such as black pepper and malabathron), semi-precious stones (such as beryl), pearls, diamonds, sapphires, ivory, Chinese silk, Gangetic spikenard and tortoise shells. The Roman navigators brought gold coins, peridots, thin clothing, figured linens, multicoloured textiles, sulfide of antimony, copper, tin, lead, coral, raw glass, wine, realgar and orpiment. The locations of unearthed coin-hoards suggest an inland trade link from Muziris via the Palghat Gap and along the Kaveri Valley to the east coast of India. Though the Roman trade declined from the 5th century AD, the former Muziris attracted the attention of other nationalities, particularly the Persians, the Chinese and the Arabs, presumably until the devastating floods of Periyar in 14th c. The exact location of Muziris is unknown to historians and archaeologists. It is generally speculated to be situated around present day Kodungallur, a town near Cochin. Peutinger's Map.
Indus script (Harappan script): corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilisation. Most inscriptions containing these symbols are extremely short, making it difficult to judge whether or not they constituted a writing system used to record the as-yet unidentified language(s) of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Despite many attempts, the 'script' has not yet been deciphered, but efforts are ongoing. There is no known bilingual inscription to help decipher the script, and the script shows no significant changes over time. However, some of the syntax (if that is what it may be termed) varies depending upon location.
Harappan language (Extinct: c. 1300 BC, or later): unknown language or languages of the Bronze Age (c. 2nd millennium BC) Harappan civilization (Indus Valley civilization, or IVC). The language being unattested in any readable contemporary source, hypotheses regarding its nature are reduced to purported loanwords and substratum influence, notably the substratum in Vedic Sanskrit and a few terms recorded in Sumerian cuneiform (such as Meluhha), in conjunction with analyses of the undeciphered Indus script.
Mahajanapadas (Sanskrit: great realm, from maha, "great", and janapada "foothold of a people"; c. 600 BCE–c. 345 BCE): sixteen kingdoms or oligarchic republics that existed in ancient India during the second urbanisation period. The 6th–5th c. BCE is often regarded as a major turning point in early Indian history; during this period India's first large cities arose after the demise of the Indus Valley civilization. It was also the time of the rise of sramana movements (including Buddhism and Jainism), which challenged the religious orthodoxy of the Vedic period.
Magadha (c. 1100 BCE – c. 345 BCE / 28 BCE): ancient Indian kingdom and empire, and one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas, 'Great Kingdoms' of the Second Urbanization (600–200 BCE) in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain. The empire of Magadha was ruled by the Brihadratha dynasty, the Pradyota dynasty (682–544 BCE), the Haryanka dynasty (544–413 BCE), the Shaishunaga dynasty (413–345 BCE), the Nanda dynasty (345-322 BCE), the Mauryan dynasty (322-184 BCE), the Shunga dynasty (184-73 BCE) and the Kanva dynasty (73-28 BCE) after which it was annexed by the Satavahana Empire of the Deccan. Magadha played an important role in the development of Jainism and Buddhism. It was succeeded by four of northern India's greatest empires, the Nanda Empire (c. 345 – c. 322 BCE), Maurya Empire (c. 322–185 BCE), Shunga Empire (c. 185–78 BCE) and Gupta Empire (c. 319–550 CE). The Pala Empire also ruled over Magadha and maintained a royal camp in Pataliputra.
Nanda Empire (c. 345 BCE–c. 322 BCE): fifth ruling dynasty of Magadha in the northern Indian subcontinent during the fourth century BCE, and possibly also during the fifth century BCE.
Maurya Empire (Mauryan Empire; 322 BCE – 184 BCE): geographically extensive Iron Age historical power on the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The Maurya Empire was centralized by the conquest of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and its capital city was located at Pataliputra, modern Patna. Outside this imperial center, the empire's geographical extent depended on the loyalty of military commanders who controlled the armed cities that sprinkled it. During Ashoka's rule (c. 268 – c. 232 BCE) the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the Indian subcontinent except those in the deep south. It declined for about 50 years after Ashoka's rule, and dissolved in 185 BCE with the assassination of Brihadratha by Pushyamitra Shunga and the foundation of the Shunga Empire in Magadh.
Chandragupta Maurya (350-295 BCE; Reign: c. 324 or 321 – c. 297 BCE): first emperor of the Mauryan Empire in Ancient India. He extensively expanded the Kingdom of Magadha and founded the Maurya dynasty.
Kushan Empire (30–375): syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of modern-day territory of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India, at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath near Varanasi (Benares), where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan Emperor Kanishka the Great. The Kushans were most probably one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation, an Indo-European nomadic people of possible Tocharian origin, who migrated from northwestern China (Xinjiang and Gansu) and settled in ancient Bactria. The founder of the dynasty, Kujula Kadphises, followed Greek religious ideas and iconography after the Greco-Bactrian tradition, and was also a follower of the Shaivite sect of Hinduism. The Kushans in general were also great patrons of Buddhism, and, starting with Emperor Kanishka, they also employed elements of Zoroastrianism in their pantheon. They played an important role in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and China, ushering in a period of relative peace for 200 years, sometimes described as "Pax Kushana". The Kushans possibly used the Greek language initially for administrative purposes, but soon began to use the Bactrian language. Kanishka sent his armies north of the Karakoram mountains. A direct road from Gandhara to China remained under Kushan control for more than a century, encouraging travel across the Karakoram and facilitating the spread of Mahayana Buddhism to China. The Kushan dynasty had diplomatic contacts with the Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Aksumite Empire and the Han dynasty of China. The Kushan Empire was at the center of trade relations between the Roman Empire and China: according to Alain Daniélou, "for a time, the Kushana Empire was the centerpoint of the major civilizations". While much philosophy, art, and science was created within its borders, the only textual record of the empire's history today comes from inscriptions and accounts in other languages, particularly Chinese. The Kushan Empire fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms in the 3rd century AD, which fell to the Sasanians invading from the west, establishing the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom in the areas of Sogdiana, Bactria and Gandhara. In the 4th century, the Guptas, an Indian dynasty also pressed from the east. The last of the Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian kingdoms were eventually overwhelmed by invaders from the north, known as the Kidarites, and then the Hephthalites.
Zhou dynasty (~1045 BC - 256 BC) → Western / Eastern Zhou [Spring and Autumn; Warring States]
Warring States period: period in ancient China following the Spring and Autumn period and concluding with the victory of the state of Qin in 221 BC, creating a unified China under the Qin dynasty. The time when Sun-Zu's "Art of War" comes about; huge strife; many wars.
Zhan Guo Ce (戰國策; "Strategies of the Warring States"; compiled 3rd - 1st c. BC): renowned ancient Chinese historical work and compilation of sporadic materials on the Warring States period. Accounts the strategies and political views of the School of Diplomacy and reveals the historical and social characteristics of the period.
Yinqueshan Han Slips (time of burial for both tombs had been dated to about 140 BC/134 BC and 118 BC, the texts having been written on the bamboo slips before then): ancient Chinese writing tablets from the Western Han Dynasty, made of bamboo strips and discovered in 1972. Tablets contain many writings that were not previously known or shed new light on the ancient versions of classic texts.
Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project: was a multi-disciplinary project commissioned by PRC in 1996 to determine with accuracy the location and time frame of the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty.
Parthian Empire (Arsacid Empire; 247 BC – 224 AD): major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to eastern Iran. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce.
Sasanian Empire (Sassanid; 224–651): The Sasanian Empire, which succeeded the Parthian Empire, was recognized as one of the leading world powers alongside its neighboring arch rival the Roman-Byzantine Empire, for a period of more than 400 years. 2 golden eras of Persian culture in pre-Islamic times: 309-379, 498-622. Between Roman (later East Roman (aka Byzantian)) {Greek, Latin}, Indian and later Arabic pressures, cultures, wars, politics.
Colchis (c. 13th c. BC–164 BC): Colchians were the population native to Colchis. They are assumed to have been early Kartvelian-speaking tribes, ancestral to the contemporary groups of Svans, Mingrelians and Lazs.
Kingdom of Iberia (ca. 302 BC–580 AD): Its population, known as the Caucasian Iberians, formed the nucleus of the Georgian people (Kartvelians), and the state, together with Colchis to its west, would form the nucleus of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia.
Caucasian Albania (2nd c. BC – AD 8th c.): name for the historical region of the eastern Caucasus, that existed on the territory of present-day republic of Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located) and partially southern Dagestan.
Club of great powers (1500-1100 BC): term used by historians to refer to a collection of empires in the ancient Near East and Egypt between 1500-1100 BC, or the Late Bronze Age. These powers were Assyria, Babylon, Egyptian Empire (New Kingdom of Egypt), Hittite Empire, and Mitanni, viz. the major powers in Mesopotamia, the Levant and Anatolia. States interacted through letters, written in Akkadian, the international language of diplomacy, and through oral messages. Marriages were a sure way to strengthen diplomatic ties and peace. One exception to this system was Egypt, which never gave royal women, but happily accepted the royal women of other states. Another commonly traded item was gifts. Each state had a specialty in what they could produce in their region. Egypt mined gold, Lebanon logged cedars, murex shells valued for their dye came from Northern Africa, Canaan specialized in jewelry, and Cyprus had its glass, beads of gold, faience, and agate.
Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty (c.1259 BC): only ancient Near Eastern treaty for which both sides' versions have survived. Both sides of the treaty have been the subject of intensive scholarly study. The treaty itself did not bring about a peace; in fact "an atmosphere of enmity between Hatti and Egypt lasted many years," until the eventual treaty of alliance was signed. Translation of the texts revealed that this engraving was originally translated from silver tablets given to each side, which have since been lost to contemporary historians. The Egyptian version of the peace treaty was engraved in hieroglyphics on the walls of two temples belonging to Pharaoh Ramses II in Thebes: the Ramesseum and the Precinct of Amun-Re at the Temple of Karnak. The scribes who engraved the Egyptian version of the treaty included descriptions of the figures and seals that were on the tablet that the Hittites delivered.
Sino-Roman relations: were essentially indirect throughout the existence of both empires. Powerful intermediate empires such as the Parthians and Kushans kept the two Eurasian flanking powers permanently apart and mutual awareness remained low and knowledge fuzzy.
Daqin (大秦/Dàqín): ancient Chinese name for the Roman Empire or, depending on context, the Near East, especially Syria.
Postclassical Era (Medieval) {between 200-600 and c. 1500}
From first empires to the nation-states: The forming up of Western Europe from the lands and neighborhoods of Roman Empire:
Francia → Carolingian Empire → {FR, Holy Roman Empire (DE, D-A-CH, de), (Rome)} → FR, , → {FR, DE, Italy} → {FR, East and West DE, Italy} → present: {Benelux, FR, DE (D-A-CH), Italy}
Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628: final and most devastating of the series of wars fought between the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and the Sasanian Empire of Iran. The previous war between the two powers had ended in 591 after Emperor Maurice helped the Sasanian king Khosrow II regain his throne. In 602 Maurice was murdered by his political rival Phocas. Khosrow proceeded to declare war, ostensibly to avenge the death of Maurice. This became a decades-long conflict, the longest war in the series, and was fought throughout the Middle East: in Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Armenia, the Aegean Sea and even before the walls of Constantinople itself. While the Persians proved largely successful during the first stage of the war from 602 to 622, conquering much of the Levant, Egypt, several islands in the Aegean Sea and parts of Anatolia, the ascendancy of emperor Heraclius in 610 led, despite initial setbacks, to a Status quo ante bellum. Heraclius' campaigns in Iranian lands from 622 to 626 forced the Persians onto the defensive, allowing his forces to regain momentum. Allied with the Avars and Slavs, the Persians made a final attempt to take Constantinople in 626, but were defeated there. In 627 Heraclius invaded the heartland of the Persians and forced them to sue for peace.
The Byzantine Empire in 650 - by this year it had lost all of its southern provinces except the Exarchate of Africa. An approximate ethno-linguistic map of Kievan Rus' in the 9th c.: Five Volga Finnic groups of the Merya, Mari, Muromians, Meshchera and Mordvins are shown as surrounded by the Slavs to the west; the three Finnic groups of the Veps, Ests and Chuds, and Indo-European Balts to the northwest; the Permians to the northeast the (Turkic) Bulghars and Khazars to the southeast and south.Plan of a fictional mediaeval manor.
Manorialism: essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market economy and new forms of agrarian contract. Vesting of legal and economic power in a Lord of the Manor, supported economically from his own direct landholding in a manor (sometimes called a fief), and from the obligatory contributions of a legally subject part of the peasant population under the jurisdiction of himself and his manorial court. In examining the origins of the monastic cloister, Walter Horn found that "as a manorial entity the Carolingian monastery ... differed little from the fabric of a feudal estate, save that the corporate community of men for whose sustenance this organization was maintained consisted of monks who served God in chant and spent much of their time in reading and writing." Manorialism died slowly and piecemeal, along with its most vivid feature in the landscape, the open field system. It outlasted serfdom as it outlasted feudalism: "primarily an economic organization, it could maintain a warrior, but it could equally well maintain a capitalist landlord. It could be self-sufficient, yield produce for the market, or it could yield a money rent." Antecedents of the system can be traced to the rural economy of the later Roman Empire (Dominate); labor was the key factor of production; sons were to succeed their fathers in their trade, councilors were forbidden to resign, and coloni, the cultivators of land, were not to move from the land they were attached to → serfs. The word derives from traditional inherited divisions of the countryside, reassigned as local jurisdictions known as manors or seigneuries; each manor being subject to a lord (French seigneur), usually holding his position in return for undertakings offered to a higher lord; the lord held a manorial court, governed by public law and local custom; not all territorial seigneurs were secular, bishops and abbots also held lands that entailed similar obligations. Manors each consisted of up to three classes of land: demesne (part directly controlled by the lord and used for the benefit of his household and dependents), dependent (serf or villein; holdings carrying the obligation that the peasant household supply the lord with specified labour services or a part of its output), free peasant land (without such obligation but otherwise subject to manorial jurisdiction and custom, and owing money rent fixed at the time of the lease).
The Pontic steppes, c. 1015 (areas in blue possibly still under Khazar control).
Byzantine–Venetian war of 1171 (1171-1172): as a result of the Byzantine imprisonment of Venetian merchants and citizens across the Empire. 10,000 Venetians were imprisoned in the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, alone. Despite Doge Michiel's apparent will to pursue a peaceful solution, outrage in Venice itself swung popular opinion in the favour of full scale war against Byzantium. Doge Michiel had no choice but to set out for war, which he did in mid-late 1171. After indecisive battles in Euboea, Michiel was forced to withdraw his fleet to Chios. After a number of months on Chios, whilst waiting for a Venetian embassy to be received in Constantinople, plague began to set in. However, the emperor of Byzantium, Manuel I Komnenos, was well aware of the plague, and continued to stall negotiations. The Venetians attempted to move from island to island to avoid the plague. Doge Michiel's efforts, however, were fruitless, and in May 1172, he returned to Venice with what was left of the fleet. The Venetians were decisively defeated.
Eastern Hemisphere in 1200 AD.
Eurasia on the eve of the Mongol invasions, c. 1200 CE. Source unknown. All of Central, North and East Asian states and tribes were located in wrong places.
Battle of Ain Jalut (1260.09.03): between Muslim Mamluks and the Mongols in the southeastern Galilee, in the Jezreel Valley, in the vicinity of Nazareth, not far from the site of Zir'in. The battle marked the south-westernmost extent of Mongol conquests, and was the first time a Mongol advance had been permanently halted. Put in proper perspective, Ain Jalut actually was the first time a Mongol detachment was defeated and did not immediately return with a stronger army to avenge their loss.
Battle of Marj al-Saffar (1303) (1303.04.20-22): between the Mamluks and the Mongols and their Armenian allies near Kiswe, Syria, just south of Damascus. The battle, a disastrous defeat for the Mongols, put an end to Ghazan Khan's invasions of Syria.
Franco-Mongol alliance: Several attempts at a Franco-Mongol alliance against the Islamic caliphates, their common enemy, were made by various leaders among the Frankish Crusaders and the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. Such an alliance might have seemed an obvious choice: the Mongols were already sympathetic to Christianity, given the presence of many influential Nestorian Christians in the Mongol court. The Franks (Western Europeans and those in the Crusader States of the Levant) were open to the idea of support from the East, in part owing to the long-running legend of the mythical Prester John, an Eastern king in a magical kingdom who many believed would one day come to the assistance of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. The Franks and Mongols also shared a common enemy in the Muslims. However, despite many messages, gifts, and emissaries over the course of several decades, the often-proposed alliance never came to fruition. Traditionally, the Mongols tended to see outside parties as either subjects or enemies, with little room in the middle for a concept such as an ally.
After Western Roman Empire(395/476-), before Holy Roman Empire (Treaty of Verdun in 843)
Political division in Europe, North Africa and Near East after the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.Europe in 526 AD. The Germanic kingdoms.
Migration Period (Völkerwanderung; from Roman and Greek perspective: Barbarian invasions): intensified human migration in Europe from about 400 to 800 AD. "Invasion" versus "migration": in general, French and Italian scholars have tended to view this as a catastrophic event: the destruction of a civilization and the beginning of a "Dark Age" which set Europe back a millennium; in contrast, German and English historians have tended to see it as the replacement of a "tired, effete and decadent Mediterranean civilization" with a "more virile, martial, Nordic one"; rather than "invasion", German and Slavic scholars use the term "migration". The migrants comprised war bands or tribes of 10,000 to 20,000 people, but in the course of 100 years they numbered not more than 750,000 in total, compared to an average 39.9 million population of the Roman Empire at that time. The first migrations of peoples were made by Germanic tribes such as the Goths (including the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths), the Vandals, the Anglo-Saxons, the Lombards, the Suebi, the Frisii, the Jutes, the Burgundians, the Alemanni, the Scirii and the Franks; they were later pushed westward by the Huns, the Avars, the Slavs and the Bulgars. Later invasions—such as the Viking, the Norman, the Varangian, the Hungarian, the Moorish, the Turkic and the Mongol—also had significant effects (especially in North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Anatolia and Central and Eastern Europe); however, they are usually considered outside the scope of the Migration Period. Extreme weather events of 535–536. The rural population in Roman provinces became distanced from the metropolis, and there was little to differentiate them from other peasants across the Roman frontier. In addition, Rome increasingly used foreign mercenaries to defend itself. That "barbarisation" parallelled changes within barbaricum. The nature of the barbarian takeover of former Roman provinces varied from region to region. For example, in Aquitaine, the provincial administration was largely self-reliant. Halsall has argued that local rulers simply "handed over" military rule to the Ostrogoths, acquiring the identity of the newcomers. In Gaul, the collapse of imperial rule resulted in anarchy: the Franks and Alemanni were pulled into the ensuing "power vacuum", resulting in conflict. In Spain, local aristocrats maintained independent rule for some time, raising their own armies against the Vandals. Meanwhile, the Roman withdrawal from Lowland England resulted in conflict between Saxons and the Brythonic chieftains (whose centres of power retreated westward as a result). The Eastern Roman Empire attempted to maintain control of the Balkan provinces despite a thinly-spread imperial army relying mainly on local militias and an extensive effort to refortify the Danubian limes. The ambitious fortification efforts collapsed, worsening the impoverished conditions of the local populace and resulting in colonization by Slavic warriors and their families.
Barbarian kingdoms: kingdoms dominated by Germanic tribes established all over Mediterranean after Barbarian Invasions (Migration Period). The term "barbarian" has been commonly used by historians even though the term was not used by the peoples in question and carries considerable value judgement. Historically, the period of the Barbarian kingdoms spans the years from 409 to 910. The most important and most successful of these kingdoms was that of the Franks. Established in the 4th to 5th century, the Frankish kingdom grew to include much of Western Europe, developing into the early medieval Carolingian Empire and ultimately the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire of the high medieval period and beyond. The Frankish Realm continued until 843, when it was partitioned. Realms resulting from this event included West Francia (predecessor of modern France), Middle Francia and East Francia (predecessor of modern Germany). Other major kingdoms included those of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths; Kingdom of the Lombards; Alamannia; Vandal Kingdom; kingdoms of the Burgundians and of the Suebi. In the Eastern part of Europe formatted dominant Barbarian states as the Hunnic Empire (370–469), the Avar Khaganate (567–after 822), Old Great Bulgaria (632–668), the Khazar Khaganate (c. 650–969) and Danube Bulgaria (founded by Asparuh in 680), all of them constantly rivaling the hegemony of the Byzantine Empire and the rest of Europe. These kingdoms were foederati of the Roman Empire, and even after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476 they continued to at least nominally consider themselves subject to the Eastern Emperor. The title of "emperor" was revived in the west by Charlemagne in AD 800.
Map of the Roman Empire with its dioceses, in 400 AD.
Roman diocese (Latin: dioecēsis, from Greek: διοίκησις, "administration"): one of the administrative divisions of the later Roman Empire, starting with the Tetrarchy. It formed the intermediate level of government, grouping several provinces and being in turn subordinated to a praetorian prefecture.
Crossing of the Rhine: by a mixed group of barbarians that included Vandals, Alans and Suebi is traditionally considered to have occurred on 406.12.31. The crossing transgressed one of the Late Roman Empire's most secure limites or boundaries and so it was a climactic moment in the decline of the Empire. It initiated a wave of destruction of Roman cities and the collapse of Roman civic order in northern Gaul. That, in turn, occasioned the rise of three usurpers in succession in the province of Britannia. Therefore, the crossing of the Rhine is a marker date in the Migration Period during which various Germanic tribes moved westward and southward from southern Scandinavia and northern Germania. A letter by Jerome, written from Bethlehem, gives a long list of the barbarian tribes involved (Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Alemanni and the armies of the Pannonians). A frozen Rhine, making the crossing easier, is not attested by any contemporary but was a plausible surmise made by Edward Gibbon. Uncertainty over date
Sack of Rome (410) (410.08.24): the city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. First time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy. St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken. // If Rome can perish, what can be safe?" The Roman Empire at this time was still in the midst of religious conflict between pagans and Christians. The sack was used by both sides to bolster their competing claims of divine legitimacy. The religious and political attacks on Christianity spurred Saint Augustine to write a defense, The City of God, which went on to become foundational to Christian thought.
Odoacer (c. 433–493; Flavius Odoacer, Flavius Odovacer or Odovacar): barbarian statesman who deposed Romulus Augustus and became King of Italy (476–493). His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire. Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of the emperor in Constantinople. Odoacer generally used the Roman honorific patrician, granted by the emperor Zeno, but is referred to as a king (Latin: rex) in many documents. He himself used it in the only surviving official document that emanated from his chancery, and it was also used by the consul Basilius. Odoacer introduced few important changes into the administrative system of Italy. He had the support of the Roman Senate and was able to distribute land to his followers without much opposition. Unrest among his warriors led to violence in 477–478, but no such disturbances occurred during the later period of his reign. Although Odoacer was an Arian Christian, he rarely intervened in the affairs of Trinitarian state church of the Roman Empire. When Illus, master of soldiers of the Eastern Empire, asked for Odoacer's help in 484 in his struggle to depose Zeno, Odoacer invaded Zeno's westernmost provinces. The emperor responded first by inciting the Rugii of present-day Austria to attack Italy. During the winter of 487–488 Odoacer crossed the Danube and defeated the Rugii in their own territory. Zeno also appointed the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great who was menacing the borders of the Eastern Empire, to be king of Italy, turning one troublesome, nominal vassal against another. Theoderic invaded Italy in 489 and by August 490 had captured almost the entire peninsula, forcing Odoacer to take refuge in Ravenna. The city surrendered on 5 March 493; Theoderic invited Odoacer to a banquet of reconciliation and there killed him.
Vandal Kingdom (435–534; Regnum Vandalorum et Alanorum): established by the Germanic Vandal people under Genseric, and ruled in North Africa and the Mediterranean. In 429, the Vandals, estimated to number 80,000 people, had crossed by boat from Spain to North Africa. They advanced eastward conquering the coastal regions of 21st century Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In 435, the Roman Empire, then ruling in North Africa, allowed the Vandals to settle in the provinces of Numidia and Mauretania when it became clear that the Vandal army could not be defeated by Roman military forces. In 439 the Vandals renewed their advance eastward and captured Carthage, the most important city of North Africa. The fledgling kingdom then conquered the Roman-ruled islands of Mallorca, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica in the western Mediterranean Sea. The conquest of North Africa by the Vandals was a blow to the beleaguered Western Roman Empire as North Africa was a major source of revenue and a supplier of grain (mostly wheat) to the city of Rome. Although primarily remembered for the sack of Rome in 455 and their persecution of Nicene Christians in favor of Arian Christianity, the Vandals were also patrons of learning. Conquest by the Eastern Roman Empire: In the words of historian Roger Collins: Belisarius; "The remaining Vandals were then shipped back to Constantinople to be absorbed into the imperial army. As a distinct ethnic unit they disappeared". Religion: from the beginning of their invasion of North Africa in 429, the Vandals – who were predominantly followers of Arianism – persecuted the Nicene church. Peter Heather has argues that Genseric's promotion of the Arian church - with the accompanying persecution of the Nicene church - had political motivations. He notes a 'key distinction' between 'the anti-Nicene character' of Genseric's actions in Proconsularis and the rest of his kingdom; persecution was most intense when it was in proximity to his Arian followers. Heather suggests that Arianism was a means for Genseric to keep his followers united and under control, where there was interaction between his people and the Nicene church this strategy was threatened. Huneric, Genseric's son and successor, continued and intensified the repression of the Nicene church and attempted to make Arianism the primary religion in North Africa; indeed, much of Victor of Vita's narrative focuses on the atrocities and persecutions committed during Huneric's reign. Churches were then confiscated for the Royal Fisc or for Arian use.
Battle of Cape Bon (468): engagement during a joint military expedition of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires led by Basiliscus against the Vandal capital of Carthage. The invasion of the kingdom of the Vandals was one of the largest amphibious operations in antiquity, with 1,113 ships and over 50,000 personnel. While attempting to land near Carthage at the Cape of Mercury (Latin: Promontorium Mercurii; now Cape Bon), the Roman fleet was thrown into disorder by a Vandal fireship attack. The Vandal fleet followed up on the action and sunk over 100 Roman ships. Some 10,000 Roman soldiers and sailors died in the battle. The battle is considered to have ended the Western Roman Empire's chances of survival. Without access to the resources of the former Roman province of Africa, the west could not sustain an army powerful enough to defeat its numerous enemies. The Romans abandoned the campaign and Gaiseric remained master of the western Mediterranean until his death, ruling from the Strait of Gibraltar all the way to Tripolitania.
Gaiseric (c. 389–477.01.25; Geiseric, Genseric): King of the Vandals and Alans (428–477) who established the Vandal Kingdom and was one of the key players in the troubles of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th c. During his nearly 50 years of rule, he raised a relatively insignificant Germanic tribe to the status of a major Mediterranean power. Gaiseric successfully defended himself against a Suebian attack and transported most of his people, around 80,000, to Northern Africa in 428. He might have been invited by the Roman governor Bonifacius, who wished to use the military strength of the Vandals in his struggle against the imperial government. Gaiseric caused great devastation as he moved eastward from the Strait of Gibraltar across Africa. He turned on Bonifacius, defeated his army in 430, and then crushed the joint forces of the Eastern and Western empires that had been sent against him. In 435 Gaiseric concluded a treaty with the Romans under which the Vandals retained Mauretania and part of Numidia as foederati (allies under special treaty) of Rome. In a surprise move on 19 October 439, Gaiseric captured Carthage, striking a devastating blow at imperial power. He occupied Sicily in 468 for 8 years until the island was ceded in 476 to Odavacer except for a toehold on the far west coast, Lilybaeum, also was ceded in 491 to Theodoric. His most famous exploit, however, was the capture and plundering of Rome in June 455. In 455, Roman emperor Valentinian III was murdered on orders of Petronius Maximus, who usurped the throne. Gaiseric was of the opinion that these acts voided his 442 peace treaty with Valentinian, and on 31 May, he and his men landed on Italian soil and marched on Rome, where Pope Leo I implored him not to destroy the ancient city or murder its inhabitants. Gaiseric agreed and the gates of Rome were thrown open to him and his men. Maximus, who fled rather than fight the Vandal warlord, was killed by a Roman mob outside the city. Although history remembers the Vandal sack of Rome as extremely brutal – making the word vandalism a term for any wantonly destructive act – in actuality the Vandals did not wreak great destruction in the city; they did, however, take gold, silver and many other things of value. He also took with him Empress Licinia Eudoxia, Valentinian's widow, and her daughters, Eudocia and Placidia. Many important people were taken hostage for even more riches. Eudocia married Gaiseric's son Huneric after arriving in Carthage. They had been betrothed earlier as an act of solidifying the treaty of 442. One legend has it that Gaiseric was unable to vault upon a horse because of a fall he had taken as a young man; so he assuaged his desire for military glory on the sea.
Hephthalite Empire (440s–670): people of Central Asia who were militarily important circa 450–560. They were based in Bactria and expanded east to the Tarim Basin, west to Sogdia and south through Afghanistan to northern India. They were a tribal confederation and included both nomadic and settled urban communities. They were part of the four major states known collectively as Xyon (Xionites) or Huna, being preceded by the Kidarites, and succeeded by the Alkhon and lastly the Nezak. All of these peoples have often been linked to the Huns who invaded Eastern Europe during the same period, and/or have been referred to as "Huns", but there is no consensus among scholars about such a connection, if they actually existed.
Huna people: name given by the ancient Indians to a group of Central Asian tribes who, via the Khyber Pass, entered India at the end of the 5th or early 6th century. They occupied areas as far as Eran and Kausambi, greatly weakening the Gupta Empire. Hunas are thought to have included the Xionite and/or Hephthalite, the Kidarites, the Alchon Huns (also known as the Alxon, Alakhana, Walxon etc) and the Nezak Huns. The relationship, if any, of the Hunas to the Huns, a Central Asian people who invaded Europe during the same period, is also unclear.
Ostrogoths: branch of the later Goths (the other major branch being the Visigoths). The Ostrogoths, under Theodoric the Great, established a kingdom in Italy in the late 5th and 6th centuries.
Ostrogothic Kingdom (Regnum Italiae; 493–553): established by the Ostrogoths in Italy and neighbouring areas. In Italy the Ostrogoths, led by Theodoric the Great, killed and replaced Odoacer, a Germanic soldier, erstwhile-leader of the foederati in Northern Italy, and the de facto ruler of Italy, who had deposed the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustulus, in 476. Most of the social institutions of the late Western Roman Empire were preserved during his rule. Starting in 535, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire invaded Italy under Justinian I. Ostrogoths; Odoacer's kingdom (476–493). Conquest of Italy by the Goths (488–493): Theodoric kills Odoacer (493). Reign of Theodoric the Great (493–526): The administrative machinery of Odoacer's kingdom, in essence that of the former Empire, was retained and continued to be staffed exclusively by Romans, such as the articulate and literate Cassiodorus. The Senate continued to function normally and was consulted on civil appointments, and the laws of the Empire were still recognized as ruling the Roman population, though Goths were ruled under their own traditional laws. The continuity in administration is illustrated by the fact that several senior ministers of Odoacer, like Liberius and Cassiodorus the Elder, were retained in the new kingdom's top positions. Relations with the Germanic states of the West. Relations with the Empire. Death of Theodoric and dynastic disputes (526–535). Gothic War and end of the Ostrogothic Kingdom (535–554).
Theoderic the Great (454 – 526.08.30; also Theodoric): king of the Germanic Ostrogoths (475–526), ruler of Italy (493–526), regent of the Visigoths (511–526), and a patricius of the Eastern Roman Empire. Theodoric was treated with favor by the Emperor Leo I. He learned to read, write, and perform arithmetic while in captivity in the Eastern Empire. When Leo heard that his imperial army was returning from having been turned back by the Goths near Pannonia, he sent Theodoric home with gifts and no promises of any commitments. On his return in 469/470, Theodoric assumed leadership over the Gothic regions previously ruled by his uncle, Valamir, while his father became king. Not long afterwards near Singidunum-Belgrade in upper Moesia, the Tisza Sarmatian king Babai had extended his authority at Constantinople's expense. Legitimizing his position as a warrior, Theodoric crossed the Danube with six-thousand warriors, defeated the Sarmatians and killed Babai; this moment likely crystallized his position and marked the beginning of his kingship, despite not actually having yet assumed the throne. The Ostrogoths needed a place to live, and Zeno was having serious problems with Odoacer, the Germanic foederatus and King of Italy, who although ostensibly viceroy for Zeno, was menacing Byzantine territory and not respecting the rights of Roman citizens in Italy. In 488, Emperor Zeno ordered Theodoric to overthrow Odoacer. Theodoric was of the Arian (nontrinitarian) faith and in his final years, he was no longer the disengaged Arian patron of religious toleration that he had seemed earlier in his reign. "Indeed, his death cut short what could well have developed into a major persecution of Catholic churches in retaliation for measures taken by Justinian in Constantinople against Arians there." Despite the Byzantine caesaropapism, which conflated emperor and church authority in the same person—whereby Theodoric's Arian beliefs were tolerated under two separate emperors—the fact remained that to most across the Eastern Empire, Theodoric was a heretic. Seeking to restore the glory of ancient Rome, Theodoric ruled Italy during one of its most peaceful and prosperous periods and was accordingly hailed as a new Trajan and Valentinian I for his building efforts and his religious toleration. His far-sighted goals included taking what was best from Roman culture and combining it with Gothic energy and physical power as a way into the future. Relatively amicable relations between Goths and Romans also make Theodoric's kingdom notable. Memories of his reign made him a hero of medieval German legends, as Dietrich von Bern, where the two figures have represented the same person.
Mausoleum of Theodoric (Mausoleo di Teodorico): ancient monument just outside Ravenna, Italy. It was built in 520 AD by Theodoric the Great as his future tomb.
Cassiodorus (Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator; c. 485 – c. 585): Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theoderic the Great. He founded a monastery, Vivarium, where he spent the last years of his life. Cassiodorus spent his career trying to bridge the 6th-century cultural divides: between East and West, Greek culture and Latin, Roman and Goth, and between an Orthodox people and their Arian rulers. He speaks fondly in his Institutiones of Dionysius Exiguus, the calculator of the Anno Domini era. Monastery at Vivarium composed of two main buildings: a coenobitic monastery and a retreat, for those who desired a more solitary life. Educational philosophy: Cassiodorus devoted much of his life to supporting education within the Christian community at large. When his proposed theological university in Rome was denied, he was forced to re-examine his entire approach to how material was learned and interpreted. His Variae show that, like Augustine of Hippo, Cassiodorus viewed reading as a transformative act for the reader. It is with this in mind that he designed and mandated the course of studies at the Vivarium, which demanded an intense regimen of reading and meditation. By assigning a specific order of texts to be read, Cassiodorus hoped to create the discipline necessary within the reader to become a successful monk. The first work in this succession of texts would be the Psalms, with which the untrained reader would need to begin because of its appeal to emotion and temporal goods. Beyond demanding the pursuit of discipline among his students, Cassiodorus encouraged the study of the liberal arts. He believed these arts were part of the content of the Bible, and some mastery of them—especially grammar and rhetoric—necessary for a complete understanding of it. These arts were divided into trivium and quadrivium. Cassiodorus found the writings of the Greeks and Romans valuable for their expression of higher truths where other arts failed. Though he saw these texts as vastly inferior to the perfect word of Scripture, the truths presented in them played to Cassiodorus' educational principles. Thus he is unafraid to cite Cicero alongside sacred text, and acknowledge the classical ideal of good being part of the practice of rhetoric. Cassiodorus' legacy is quietly profound. Through the influence of Cassiodorus, the monastic system adopted a more vigorous, widespread, and regular approach to reproducing documents within the monastery. This approach to the development of the monastic lifestyle was perpetuated especially through German religious institutions.
Gothic War (535–554) (Result: Short term Eastern Roman victory, long term devastation of Italy): between the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy in the Italian peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily and Corsica. The war had its roots in the ambition of the East Roman Emperor Justinian I to recover the provinces of the former Western Roman Empire, which the Romans had lost to invading barbarian tribes in the previous century (the Migration Period). First Byzantine campaign, 535–540: Conquest of Sicily and Dalmatia; First siege of Rome; Siege of Ariminum (Belisarius; Narses); Mediolanum; Frankish invasion; Capture of Ravenna. Gothic revival, 541–551: Reigns of Ildibad and Eraric; Early Gothic successes; Southern Italy (Totila: Siege of Rome (549–550)). Byzantine reconquest, 551–554 {q.v. #Byzantine Papacy, #Kingdom of the Lombards}.
Lombards (or Langobards): Germanic tribe who ruled Italy from 568 to 774.
Kingdom of the Lombards (Latin: Regnum Langobardorum, Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy (Latin: Regnum totius Italiae)): early medieval state established by the Lombards, a Germanic people, on the Italian Peninsula in the latter part of the 6th century. The king was traditionally elected by the highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes, which were in turn subdivided into gastaldates at the municipal level. The capital of the kingdom and the center of its political life was Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of Lombardy. The Lombard invasion of Italy was opposed by the Byzantine Empire, which retained control of much of the peninsula until the mid-8th century. For most of the kingdom's history, the Byzantine-ruled Exarchate of Ravenna and Duchy of Rome separated the northern Lombard duchies, collectively known as Langobardia Maior, from the two large southern duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, which constituted Langobardia Minor. Because of this division, the southern duchies were considerably more autonomous than the smaller northern duchies. Over time, the Lombards gradually adopted Roman titles, names, and traditions. By the time Paul the Deacon was writing in the late 8th century, the Lombardic language, dress and hairstyles had all disappeared. Initially the Lombards were Arian Christians or pagans, which put them at odds with the Roman population as well as the Byzantine Empire and the Pope. However, by the end of the 7th century, their conversion to Catholicism was all but complete. Nevertheless, their conflict with the Pope continued and was responsible for their gradual loss of power to the Franks, who conquered the kingdom in 774. Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, adopted the title "King of the Lombards", although he never managed to gain control of Benevento, the southernmost Lombard duchy. A reduced Regnum Italiae, a heritage of the Lombards, continued to exist for centuries as one of the constituent kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire, roughly corresponding to the territory of the former Langobardia Maior. Founding of the kingdom: Cleph and the Rule of the Dukes, Final settlement: Autari, Agilulf and Theudelinda. Revival of the Arians: Arioald, Rothari. Bavarian dynasty. Dynastic crisis. Liutprand: the apogee of the reign. Last kings: Aistulf. Fall of the kingdom. Historiographical views: The historical bipartition of Italy that has, for centuries, directed the North towards Central-Western Europe and the South, instead, to the Mediterranean area dates back to the separation between Langobardia Major and Langobardia Minor, while Lombard law influenced the Italian legal system for a long time, and was not completely abandoned even after the rediscovery of Roman law in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Rule of the Dukes: interregnum in the Lombard Kingdom of Italy (574/5–584/5) during which Italy was ruled by the Lombard dukes of the old Roman provinces and urban centres. The interregnum is said to have lasted a decade according to Paul the Deacon, but all other sources—the Fredegarii Chronicon, the Origo Gentis Langobardorum, the Chronicon Gothanum, and the Copenhagen continuator of Prosper Tiro—accord it twelve. Cleph's reign was short and his rule hard. Upon his death, the Lombards did not elect another leader-king, leaving the territorial dukes the highest authorities in Lombard territories. According to Fredegar, they were forced to pay tribute to the Franks, and this lasted until the accession of Adaloald. The dukes were unable to organise themselves under a single leader capable of continuing their successes against the Byzantines. When they invaded Frankish Provence (584/5), the Frankish kings Guntram and Childebert II counter-invaded northern Italy, took Trent, and opened negotiations with the emperor Tiberius II, sovereign of the hard-pressed exarchate of Ravenna. Finally, tired of disunion, fearing a pincer action from a Byzantine–Frankish alliance, and lacking the leadership necessary to withstand combined military forces, the dukes elected as king Authari (Autari?). They ceded to him the old capital of Pavia and half of their ducal demesnes, though the fidelity to their oath with which this last promise was carried out is suspect.
Gairethinx ("spear assembly"): Lombard ceremony in which edicts and laws were affirmed by the army. It may have involved the entire army banging their spears on their shields; or it may have been a much quieter event.
Chronicon Roskildense: small Danish historical work, written in Latin. It is one of the oldest known attempt to write a coherent account of Danish history by a Danish author, spanning from the introduction of Christianity in Denmark to the author's own time. Original chronicle covers the time frame of 826 to ca. 1143.
Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1160 – c. 1220, Saxo cognomine Longus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian")): Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the Gesta Danorum, the first full history of Denmark, from which the legend of Amleth would come to inspire the story of Hamlet by Shakespeare.
Gesta Danorum ("Deeds of the Danes"): patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th c. author Saxo Grammaticus. It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history. It is also one of the oldest known written documents about the history of Estonia and Latvia.
Sven Aggesen (born around 1140 to 1150, death unknown): author of Brevis historia regum Dacie, one of the first attempts to write a coherent history of Denmark covering the period 300AD-1185AD. Only the Chronicon Roskildense may precede Aggesen's efforts.
Viking Age (793 AD to 1066): Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids and conquest. In this period, the Norsemen settled in Norse Greenland, Newfoundland, and present-day Faroe Islands, Iceland, Normandy, Scotland, England, Ukraine, Ireland, Russia, Germany, and Anatolia. Though Viking travellers and colonists were seen at many points in history as brutal raiders, many historical documents suggest that their invasion of other countries was retaliation in response to the encroachment upon tribal lands by Christian missionaries, and perhaps by the Saxon Wars prosecuted by Charlemagne and his kin to the south, or motivated by overpopulation, trade inequities, and the lack of viable farmland in their homeland. Information about the Viking Age is drawn largely from what was written about the Vikings by their enemies, and primary sources of archaeology, supplemented with secondary sources such as the Icelandic Sagas.
Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks: medieval trade route that connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus' and the Eastern Roman Empire. The route allowed traders along its length to establish a direct prosperous trade with the Empire, and prompted some of them to settle in the territories of present-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The majority of the route comprised a long-distance waterway, including the Baltic Sea, several rivers flowing into the Baltic Sea, and rivers of the Dnieper river system, with portages on the drainage divides.
Volga trade route: connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea, via the Volga River. The Rus used this route to trade with Muslim countries on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, sometimes penetrating as far as Baghdad. The route functioned concurrently with the Dnieper trade route, better known as the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, and lost its importance in the 11th century. Volga trade route was established by the Varangians (Vikings) who settled in Northwestern Russia in the early 9th century.
Sarskoye Gorodishche (Sarsky fort): medieval fortified settlement in the Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia. It was situated on the bank of the Sara River, a short distance from Lake Nero, to the south of modern Rostov, of which it seems to have been the early medieval predecessor. Major Varangian finds at Sarskoye date from ca. 800 onward, indicating that it was a major (perhaps the most important) trade station on the Volga trade route between Scandinavia and Baghdad. Traces of a bath, an iron foundery, a potter's workshop and a jeweller's shop were encountered. There were two hoards of early 9th-century dirhams. Another deposit was detected in the vicinity: it contained dirhams inscribed with Runic signs, interpreted as a thanksgiving to Thor. Like the Slavs and Varangians at Gnezdovo, the Merya and the Norsemen seem to have peacefully co-existed in the 9th and 10th centuries. The settlement appears to have escaped the violent clashes of the Norsemen with the indigenous population, so characteristic of the Ladoga region.
Caspian expeditions of the Rus': military raids undertaken by the Rus' between 864 and 1041 on the Caspian Sea shores. Initially, the Rus' appeared in Serkland in 9th c. traveling as merchants along the Volga trade route, selling furs, honey, and slaves. The first small-scale raids took place in the late 9th and early 10th c.
Major Varangian trade routes, the Volga trade route (in red) and the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks (in purple).
Distribution of early Varangian settlement, mid-ninth century CE. Varangian settlements shown in red, other Scandivanian settlement in purple. Grey names indicate locations of Slavic tribes. Blue outline indicates extent of Khazar sphere of influence.
Ragnar Lodbrok (Lothbrok; Old Norse: Ragnarr Loðbrók, "Ragnar shaggy breeches", contemporary Norse: Ragnar Loðbrók): Norse Viking hero and legendary Scandinavian king known from Viking Age Old Norse poetry, sagas, as well as contemporary chronicles. To those in modern academia, his life and personage is somewhat historically dubious. According to traditional literature, Ragnar distinguished himself by many raids against Eastern Europe, Francia, Ireland, and Britain during the 9th century. Most significant medieval sources that mention Ragnar include: Book IX of the Gesta Danorum, Tale of Ragnar's sons (Ragnarssona þáttr), Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok, Ragnarsdrápa (skaldic poem), Krákumál (Ragnar's death-song).
Siege of Paris (845): culmination of a Viking invasion of France. The Viking forces were led by a Norse chieftain named "Reginherus", or Ragnar, who traditionally has been identified with the legendary saga character Ragnar Lodbrok. Ragnar's fleet of 120 Viking ships, carrying thousands of men, entered the Seine in March and proceeded to sail up the river. Frankish king Charles the Bald assembled a smaller army in response, but as the Vikings defeated one division, comprising half of the army, the remaining forces retreated. The Vikings reached Paris at the end of the month, during Easter. After plundering and occupying the city, the Vikings withdrew when they had been paid a ransom of 7,000 French livres [2,570 kilograms] of silver and gold from Charles the Bald.
Rollo (Norman: Rou; Old Norse: Hrólfr; French: Rollon; c. 860 – c. 930 AD): Viking who became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in northern France. He is sometimes called the first Duke of Normandy. Rollo emerged as the outstanding personality among the Norsemen who had secured a permanent foothold on Frankish soil in the valley of the lower Seine. After the Siege of Chartres in 911, Charles the Simple, the king of West Francia, ceded them lands between the mouth of the Seine and what is now Rouen in exchange for Rollo agreeing to end his brigandage, and provide the Franks with protection against future Viking raids. Rollo is first recorded as the leader of these Viking settlers in a charter of 918, and he continued to reign over the region of Normandy until at least 928. The offspring of Rollo and his followers became known as the Normans. After the Norman conquest of England and their conquest of southern Italy and Sicily over the following two centuries, their descendants came to rule Norman England (the House of Normandy), the Kingdom of Sicily (the Kings of Sicily) as well as the Principality of Antioch from the 10th to 12th c. The earliest well-attested historical event associated with Rollo is his part in leading the Vikings who besieged Paris in 885–886.
Siege of Paris (885–886): part of a Viking raid on the Seine, in the Kingdom of the West Franks. The siege was the most important event of the reign of Charles the Fat, and a turning point in the fortunes of the Carolingian dynasty and the history of France. It also proved to the Franks the strategic importance of Paris, at a time when it also was one of the largest cities in West Francia. The siege is the subject of an eyewitness account in the Latin poem Bella Parisiacae urbis of Abbo Cernuus.
Varangian Guard: elite unit of the Byzantine Army, from 10th to 14th c., whose members served as personal bodyguards to the Byzantine Emperors. They are known for being primarily composed of Germanic peoples, specifically Norsemen (the Guard was formed approximately 200 years into the Viking Age) and Anglo-Saxons (after the Norman Conquest of England created an Anglo-Saxon diaspora, part of which found employment in Constantinople).
Thingmen: standing army in the service of the Kings of England during the period 1013-51, financed by direct taxation which had its origins in the tribute known as Danegeld. It consisted mostly of men of Scandinavian descent and it had an initial strength of 3,000 housecarls and a fleet of 40 ships, which was subsequently reduced. Its last remnant was disbanded by Edward the Confessor in 1051.
Runestone: typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones date from the late Viking Age. Most runestones are located in Scandinavia, but there are also scattered runestones in locations that were visited by Norsemen during the Viking Age. Runestones are often memorials to dead men. Runestones were usually brightly coloured when erected, though this is no longer evident as the colour has worn off.
Greece runestones: about 30 runestones containing information related to voyages made by Norsemen to the Byzantine Empire. They were made during the Viking Age until about 1100 and were engraved in the Old Norse language with Scandinavian runes.
England runestones: group of about 30 runestones that refer to Viking Age voyages to England. They were engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark. The Anglo-Saxon rulers paid large sums, Danegelds, to Vikings, who mostly came from Denmark (but many also from Sweden) and who arrived to the English shores during the 990s and the first decades of the 11th century.
Ingvar runestones: name of c. 26 Varangian Runestones that were raised in commemoration of those who died in the Swedish Viking expedition to the Caspian Sea of Ingvar the Far-Travelled. Fateful expedition taking place between 1036 and 1041 with many ships. The Vikings came to the south-eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, and they appear to have taken part in the Battle of Sasireti, in Georgia. Few returned, as many died in battle, but most of them, including Ingvar, died of disease.
Runes: letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets, which were used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialised purposes thereafter. Runology is the study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, and their history. Runology forms a specialised branch of Germanic linguistics. The earliest runic inscriptions date from around 150 AD. The characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianisation, by approximately 700 AD in central Europe and 1100 AD in northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in northern Europe. Until the early 20th century, runes were used in rural Sweden for decorative purposes in Dalarna and on Runic calendars.
Early Slavs: diverse group of tribal societies during the Migration period and early medieval Europe (c. 5th to 10th centuries) whose tribal organizations indirectly created the foundations for today’s Slavic nations (via the Slavic states of the High Middle Ages). Beginning in the 9th century, the Slavs gradually converted to Christianity (both Byzantine Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism). By the 12th century, they were the core population of a number of medieval Christian states: East Slavs in the Kievan Rus', South Slavs in the Bulgarian Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia, Banate of Bosnia and the Grand Principality of Serbia, and West Slavs in the Great Moravia, the Kingdom of Poland, Duchy of Bohemia and Principality of Nitra. Search for a Slavic "homeland"; Linguistic evidence; Historical evidence; Archaeological evidence
Slavic migrations to the Balkans: began in the mid-6th c. and first decades of the 7th c. in the Early Middle Ages. The rapid demographic spread of the Slavs was followed by a population exchange, mixing and language shift to and from Slavic. The settlement was facilitated by the substantial decrease of the Balkan population during the Plague of Justinian. Another reason was the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 CE and the series of wars between the Sasanian Empire and the Avar Khaganate against the Eastern Roman Empire. The backbone of the Avar Khaganate consisted of Slavic tribes. After the failed siege of Constantinople in the summer of 626, they remained in the wider Balkan area after they had settled the Byzantine provinces south of the Sava and Danube rivers, from the Adriatic towards the Aegean up to the Black Sea. Exhausted by several factors and reduced to the coastal parts of the Balkans, Byzantium was not able to wage war on two fronts and regain its lost territories, so it reconciled with the establishment of Sklavinias influence and created an alliance with them against the Avar and Bulgar Khaganates.
Samo's Empire (Samo's Kingdom or Samo's State): historiographical name for the West Slavic tribal union established by King ("Rex") Samo, which existed between 623/631 and 658 in Central Europe. The extension of Samo's power, before and after 631 is disputable. The centre of the union was most likely in Moravia and Nitravia (Nitra), additionally the union included Czech tribes, Sorbian tribes (under Dervan) and other West Slavic tribes along the river Danube (present Lower Austria). The polity has been called the first Slavic state.
Old East Slavic (traditionally also Old Russian; Belarusian: старажытнаруская мова; Russian: древнерусский язык; Ukrainian: давньоруська мова): language used during the 10th–15th centuries by East Slavs in Kievan Rus' and its successor states, from which the Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian languages later evolved.
Sclaveni (in Latin) or Sklavenoi (in Greek): early Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages and eventually became known as the ethnogenesis of the South Slavs.
Antes (people): early East Slavic tribal polity which existed in the 6th century lower Danube, on the regions around the Don river (Middle- and Southern Russia) and northwestern Black Sea region (modern-day Moldova and central Ukraine).
Wends: historical name for Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used.
Galicia–Volhynia Wars (1340–1392): several wars fought over the succession in the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia (in modern Poland and Ukraine). After Boleslaw-Yuri II was poisoned by local nobles in 1340, both Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland advanced claims over the principality. After a prolonged conflict, Galicia–Volhynia was divided between Poland (Galicia) and Lithuania (Volhynia) and the principality ceased to exist as an independent state. Poland acquired a territory of approximately 52,000 km² with 200,000 inhabitants.
Crusader states: a number of mostly 12th- and 13th-c. feudal Christian states created by Western European crusaders in Asia Minor, Greece and the Holy Land, and during the Northern Crusades in the eastern Baltic area. The name also refers to other territorial gains (often small and short-lived) made by medieval Christendom against Muslim and pagan adversaries. The Crusader states in the Levant—the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the County of Edessa—were the first examples of "Europe overseas". Between them, they span the period from 1098 to 1291. They are generally known by historians as Outremer, from the French outre-mer ("overseas" in English). The basic division in Crusader society was between Frank and non-Frank, and not between Christian and Muslim. Full citizenship could not be achieved without conversion to Catholicism. The Franks imposed their own feudal culture on agricultural production. This made little difference to the conditions of the subject peoples. The Muslim poll tax on non-Muslims was reversed and no laws limited the Frankish aristocrats' power to raise taxation at punitive levels. Still, Ibn Jubayr, a Muslim traveler from Granada, noted that the Galilean Muslim peasants were prosperous in comparison with their peers under Muslim rule. The key differentiator in status and economic position was between urban and rural dwellers. Indigenous Christians could gain higher status and acquire wealth through commerce and industry in towns but few Muslims lived in urban areas except those in servitude. Both Christian and Muslim pilgrims visited the Cave of the Patriarchs at Hebron. The Saint John Hospital received patients of any faith in Jerusalem. The Templars allowed their Muslim visitors to pray in their headquarters. Several islands, most notably Crete (1204–1669), Euboea (Negroponte, until 1470), and the Ionian Islands (until 1797) came under the rule of Venice.
Kingdom of Jerusalem (Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem; 1099-1291, Jerusalem lost in 1187 (first kingdom: 1099-1187); Kingdom of Acre (1192-1291)): crusader state established in the Southern Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. Reached its height in mid-12th c. The kingdom was ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse, although the crusaders themselves and their descendants were an elite Catholic minority. The native Christians (Greek and Syrian Orthodox) and Muslims, who were a marginalized lower class, tended to speak Greek/Syriac and Arabic, while the crusaders spoke Latin, French, and other Western European languages.
King of Jerusalem: supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was conquered in 1099. Godfrey of Bouillon, the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, refused the title of king choosing instead the title Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, that is Advocate or Defender of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1100 Baldwin I, Godfrey's successor, was the first ruler crowned as king. The crusaders in Jerusalem were conquered in 1187, but their Kingdom of Jerusalem survived, moving the capital to Acre in 1191. Crusaders re-captured the city of Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade, during 1229–1239 and 1241–1244. Even after the Crusader States ceased to exist, the title of "King of Jerusalem" was claimed by a number of European noble houses descended from the kings of Cyprus or the kings of Naples, and is claimed by the current king of Spain.
Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem (1105 – 1161.09.11): Queen of Jerusalem from 1131 to 1153, and regent for her son between 1153 and 1161 while he was on campaign. Patroness of the church and arts. Second Crusade. Mother and son: Melisende's relationship with her son (Baldwin III) was complex. Retirement: by 1153, mother and son had been reconciled; Since the civil war, Baldwin had shown his mother great respect.
Baldwin III of Jerusalem (1130 – 1163.02.10): King of Jerusalem from 1143 to 1163. He was the eldest son of Melisende and Fulk of Jerusalem. He became king while still a child, and was at first overshadowed by his mother Melisende, whom he eventually defeated in a civil war. During his reign Jerusalem became more closely allied with the Byzantine Empire, and the Second Crusade tried and failed to conquer Damascus.
Amalric of Jerusalem (1136 – 1174.07.11): King of Jerusalem from 1163, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. He was the second son of Melisende and Fulk of Jerusalem, and succeeded his older brother Baldwin III. During his reign, Jerusalem became more closely allied with the Byzantine Empire, and the two states launched an unsuccessful invasion of Egypt. He was the father of three future rulers of Jerusalem, Sibylla, Baldwin IV, and Isabella I.
Crusader invasions of Egypt (1163–1169): a series of campaigns undertaken by the Kingdom of Jerusalem to strengthen its position in the Levant by taking advantage of the weakness of Fatimid Egypt.
Two camps at the end of the 1st period of the kingdom:
1st camp:
Raymond III, Count of Tripoli (1140 – September/October 1187): was regent of Jerusalem while Baldwin IV was a child; did not want to go to Hattin battle to defend his wife at Tiberias castle. Died of pleurisy.
Balian of Ibelin (early 1140s—1193): participated in Baldwin IV's succession debates.
2nd camp:
Guy of Lusignan (c. 1150 – 1194.07.18): king of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla of Jerusalem (sister of Baldwin IV).
Gerard de Rideford (died 1189.10.01): Grand Master of the Knights Templar (the end of 1184 - death in 1189).
Raynald of Châtillon (c. 1125 – 1187.07.04): Prince of Antioch from 1153 to 1160 or 1161, and Lord of Oultrejordain from 1175 until his death. He was born as his father's second son into a French noble family. After losing a part of his patrimony, he joined the Second Crusade in 1147. He settled in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and served in the royal army as a mercenary; controlled the caravan routes between Egypt and Syria. Baldwin, who suffered from leprosy, made him regent in 1177. Raynald led the crusader army that defeated Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard. He was the only Christian leader to pursue an offensive policy against Saladin, making plundering raids against the caravans travelling near his domains. He built a fleet of five ships which plundered the coast of the Red Sea, threatening the route of the Muslim pilgrims towards Mecca in early 1183. Saladin pledged that he would never forgive Raynald. Raynald was a firm supporter of Baldwin IV's sister, Sybilla, and her husband, Guy of Lusignan, during conflicts regarding the succession of the king. Battle of Hattin: Raynald was captured in the battlefield. Saladin personally beheaded him after he refused to convert to Islam. Most historians have regarded Raynald as an irresponsible adventurer whose lust for booty caused the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On the other hand, Bernard Hamilton says that he was the only crusader leader who tried to prevent Saladin from unifying the nearby Muslim states. Prince of Antioch: Legacy: Most information on Raynald's life was recorded by Muslim authors who were hostile to him.
Battles and historical sources around the time of the fall of Jerusalem (kingdom almost completely overrun by Saladin):
Battle of Hattin (July 4, 1187): Saladin's victory and from this the conquering and of Kingdom of Jerusalem starts. Strategy of Saladin worked against crusaders. POWs: Guy, Raynald, Gerard (killed); Raymond III and Balian escaped.
Siege of Jerusalem (1187) (September 20 to October 2, 1187): the last stand of the crusaders in the holy place. Balian discussed with Saladin before and after the battle, Balian surrenders Jerusalem.
Assizes of Jerusalem: collection of numerous medieval legal treatises containing the law of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and Kingdom of Cyprus. 5 documents written by Balian of Ibelin's son John, by Philip of Novara, 2 different anonymous people, and the 5th consisting of small treatises by John's son and other person.
Principality of Antioch (1098–1268): one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It had roughly 20,000 inhabitants in the 12th century, most of whom were Armenians and Greek Orthodox Christians, with a few Muslims outside the city itself. Most of the crusaders who settled there were of Norman origin, notably from the Norman Kingdom of southern Italy, as were the first rulers of the principality, who surrounded themselves with their own loyal subjects.
Livonian Chronicle of Henry (la: Heinrici Cronicon Lyvoniae; Henry's chronicle of Livonia): describing historic events in Livonia (roughly corresponding to today's inland Estonia and north of Latvia) and surrounding areas from 1180 to 1227. Written by a priest Henry of Latvia. The Livonian Chronicle of Henry has been highlighted for the purpose of understanding the complexities of crusading ideology because it describes the religious motives used to justify the crusade as well as alluding to the potential economic and political benefits that were existent in the Christianization of Livonia by mentioning the fact that there were merchants who were present in the crusading army. An example of a crusader document that implements opinionated and demeaning rhetoric towards the people they were conquering, especially when describing the nature of the pagans when Bishop Meinhard initially fails to convert them without the use of force by promising to build them forts if they would accept baptism. Many of the pagans accepted this offer but didn't have intentions to change their faith to Christianity. When it was discovered that these people were still practicing their pagan beliefs and rituals, many of those involved in implementing the crusade, including Henry himself, expressed their disapproval and judgments of these individuals. The specific ethnic groups that intermingled and traded with the Germans, Danish, Swedish, and Russians here included the Wends, who were merchants from Lübeck, the Estonians, the Karelians, the Kuronians, the Lettgallians, the Semgallians (sometimes known as the Letts), the Livonians and the Lithuanians. The Western merchants would trade silver, textiles, and other luxury goods for furs, beeswax, honey, leather, dried fish, and amber. Livonia had been an especially promising location in terms of resources, and Arnold of Lübeck, in his Chronicle of the Slavs wrote that the land was "abundant in many riches" and was "fertile in fields, plentiful in pastures, irrigated by rivers", and "also sufficiently rich in fish and forested with trees". Eventually, the Scandinavian rulers and German military knightly orders led by the German Prince-Bishops conquered and resettled the Baltic world and drew it into the Western orbit. The Livonian Chronicle of Henry utilizes two major points of justification for the conquest of Livonia: that it was the Land of the Virgin Mary, which began after Bishop Meinhard, the first Bishop who attempted to spread Christianity to Livonia, established a Cult of Mary convent in Livonia. Following this, Albert of Riga also helped perpetuate this association by naming the Episcopal Cathedral in Livonia as the church of the Virgin Mary in the early 1200s. The second main justification was that Livonia was comparable to Jerusalem. Pope Innocent III granted the absolution of sins for those taking Pilgrimage to Livonia after tensions arose between the German Christians and the pagans. Four books: "On Livonia" (1186-1196), "On bishop Berthold" (1196-1198), "On bishop Albert" (1198-1208), "On Estonia" (1208-1226).
Northern Crusades (Baltic Crusades): crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark, Poland and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. Swedish and German Catholic campaigns against Russian Eastern Orthodox Christians are also sometimes considered part of the Northern Crusades.
Lithuanian Crusade: series of campaigns by the Teutonic Order and the Livonian Order, two crusading military orders, to convert the pagan GDL into Roman Catholicism. The Livonian Order settled in Riga in 1202 and the Teutonic Order arrived to Culmerland in 1230s. They first conquered other neighboring Baltic tribes – Curonians, Semigallians, Latgalians, Selonians, Old Prussians. The first raid against the Lithuanians and Samogitians was in 1208 and the Orders played a key role in Lithuanian politics, but they were not a direct and immediate threat until 1280s. By that time the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was already an established state and could offer organized defense. Thus for the next hundred years the Knights organized annual destructive reise (raids) into the Samogitian and Lithuanian lands but without great success: border regions in Samogitia and Suvalkija became sparsely inhabited wilderness, but the Order gained very little territory. Christianization of Lithuania in 1387; Battle of Grunwald in 1410; final peace was reached by the Treaty of Melno (1422).
Caupo of Turaida (died 1217.09.21): leader of the Finnic-speaking Livonian people in the beginning of the 13th century, in what is now part of Latvia and Estonia. Chronicle of Henry of Livonia calls him quasi rex, 'like a king'. First prominent Livonian to be christened. He was probably baptized around 1191 by a priest called Theoderic. He became an ardent Christian and friend of Albert of Buxhoeveden, Bishop of Riga, who took him 1203-1204 all the way to Rome and introduced him to Pope Innocent III. Modern Estonians, Latvians, and the remaining few Livonians do not have consensus view about the historical role of Caupo. Latvian legends, however, are unequivocal: there he is named "Kaupo the accursed, the scourge of the Livs,... Kaupo who has sold his soul to the foreign bishops."
Henry of Latvia (Latin: Henricus de Lettis, German: Heinrich von Lettland; Henry of Livonia; before 1188 – after 1259): a priest, missionary and historian. He wrote the Livonian Chronicle of Henry which describes the evangelization of the regions which are now part of Estonia and Latvia during the Northern Crusades. Chronicles say that Henry was a Catholic priest who witnessed most of events described. He had a thoroughly German and Catholic education and as a youth was attached to the household of the Prince-Bishop Albert of Buxhoeveden, was ordained a priest in 1208, founded a parish and lived out his life in peace.
William of Modena (c. 1184 – 1251.03.31): Born in Piedmont and named bishop of Modena in May 1222, William was sent as Papal legate to resolve differences that resulted from the outcome of the Livonian Crusade in Livonia in 1225. The Prince Bishop Albert and the semi-monastic military Order, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, the Teutonic crusaders and the Russians, all had claims, which were made more difficult by language barriers. William soon earned the confidence of all sides, arranging diplomatic compromises on boundaries, overlapping ecclesiastical and territorial jurisdictions, taxes, coinage, and other subjects, but he could not resolve the basic quarrel: who was to be master in Livonia. William sought to remove Estonia from contention by placing it directly under papal control, appointing his own vice-legate as governor, and by bringing in German knights as vassals. But the vice-legate subsequently turned the land over to the Brothers of the Sword. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia was written probably as a report for him, giving him the history of the Church in Livonia up to his time. It relates how in 1226, in another stronghold, called Tarwanpe, William of Modena successfully mediated peace between Germans, Danes and Estonians.
Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) (1308.11.13): city of Danzig (Gdańsk) was captured by the State of the Teutonic Order, resulting in a massacre of its inhabitants and marking the beginning of tensions between Poland and the Teutonic Order. Originally the knights moved into the fortress as an ally of Poland against the Margraviate of Brandenburg. However, after disputes over the control of the city between the Order and the King of Poland arose, the knights murdered a number of citizens within the city and took it as their own. Thus the event is also known as Gdańsk massacre or Gdańsk slaughter (rzeź Gdańska). Though in the past a matter of debate among historians, a consensus has been established that many people were murdered and a considerable part of the town was destroyed in the context of the takeover. In the aftermath of the takeover, the order seized all of Pomerelia (Gdańsk Pomerania) and bought up the supposed Brandenburgian claims to the region in the Treaty of Soldin (1309). The conflict with Poland was temporarily settled in the Treaty of Kalisz (1343). The town was returned to Poland in the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466.
Map of The State of The Teutonic Order after the Treaty of Lake Melno, 1422.
Ordensburg (pl. Ordensburgen): German term meaning "castles/fortresses of (military) orders", and is used specifically for such fortified structures built by crusading German military orders during the Middle Ages.
Francia, Merovingians, Carolingians (Carolingian Empire)
Francia (Frankia, Kingdom of the Franks, Frankish Kingdom, Frankish Empire, Frankish Realm; 481–843): territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks, a confederation of Germanic tribes, during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.
Merovingian dynasty: Salian Frankish dynasty that ruled the Franks for nearly 300 years in a region known as Francia in Latin, beginning in the middle of the 5th century, their territory largely corresponding to ancient Gaul as well as the Roman provinces of Raetia, Germania Superior and the southern part of Germania. Merovingian dynasty was founded by Childeric I (c. 457 – 481), the son of Merovech, leader of the Salian Franks, but it was his famous son Clovis I (481–511) who united all of Gaul under Merovingian rule. After the death of Clovis there were frequent clashes between different branches of the family, but when threatened by its neighbours the Merovingians presented a strong united front. During the final century of Merovingian rule, the kings were increasingly pushed into a ceremonial role. The Merovingian rule ended in March 752 when Pope Zachary formally deposed Childeric III; Zachary's successor, Pope Stephen II, confirmed and anointed Pepin the Short in 754, beginning the Carolingian monarchy.
Clovis I (c. 466–511.11.27): the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of royal chieftains to rule by a single king and ensuring that the kingship was passed down to his heirs. He is considered to have been the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries. In 481, at the age of fifteen, Clovis succeeded his father; He conquered the remaining rump state of the Western Roman Empire at the Battle of Soissons (486), and by his death in 511 he had conquered much of the northern and western parts of what had formerly been Roman Gaul. His name is Germanic, composed of the elements hlod ("fame") and wig ("combat"), and is the origin of the later French given name Louis, borne by 18 kings of France. Clovis is also significant due to his conversion to Christianity in 496, largely at the behest of his wife, Clotilde, who would later be venerated as a saint for this act, celebrated today in both the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church; Clovis was baptized on Christmas Day in AD 508.
Charles Martel: (c. 688 or 686, 680 – 741.10.22) was a Frankish statesman and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death.
Battle of Tours (732.10): fought in an area between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, in north-central France, near the village of Moussais-la-Bataille, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Poitiers. Decisive Frankish victory, withdrawal of the Umayyad army.
Donation of Pepin (751): Pepin confirmed his Donations in Rome in 756, and in 774 his son Charlemagne again confirmed and reasserted the Donation.
Parting of Carolingian Empire by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. Pink area indicates West Francia; Charles the Bald, King of the West Franks (→France). Green area indicates Middle Francia; Lothair I (eldest son), his kingdom lasted only until 869. Yellow area indicates East Francia; Louis the German (second son), King of the East Franks (→Kingdom of Germany → kernel of Holy Roman Empire → D-A-CH).
Carolingian Empire (800–888): final stage in the history of the early medieval realm of the Franks, ruled by the Carolingian dynasty. The size of the empire at its zenith around 800 was 1,112,000 km², with a population of between 10 and 20 million people.
Carolingian dynasty (Carlovingians, Carolings, or Karlings): Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian" (Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling, meaning "descendant of Charles", cf. MHG kerlinc) derives from the Latinised name of Charles Martel: Carolus.
Mongolian empire(s), Mongol conquest of the known world, Turco-Mongol tradition
The Secret History of the Mongols: oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language. It was written for the Mongol royal family some time after the 1227 death of Genghis Khan (also known as Temujin). The author is anonymous and probably originally wrote in the Mongolian script, but the surviving texts all derive from transcriptions or translations into Chinese characters that date from the end of the 14th century and were compiled by the Ming dynasty under the title The Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty (Chinese: 《元朝秘史》; pinyin: Yuáncháo Mìshǐ). Also known as Tobchiyan (Chinese: 脫必赤顏; pinyin: Tuōbìchìyán or 脫卜赤顏; Tuōbǔchìyán) in the History of Yuan. The Secret History is regarded as the single most significant native Mongolian account of Genghis Khan. Linguistically, it provides the richest source of pre-classical Mongolian and Middle Mongolian. The Secret History is regarded as a piece of classic literature in both Mongolia and the rest of the world. The only copy of it was found in China and published by a Russian monk Palladius (Pyotr Ivanovich Kafarov) in 1872.
Mongol Empire (Yeke Mongγol Ulus; 1206–1368): the largest contiguous land empire in history and the second largest empire by landmass, second only to the British Empire. Originating in Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire eventually stretched from Eastern Europe and parts of Central Europe to the Sea of Japan, extending northward into parts of the Arctic; eastward and southward into the Indian subcontinent, Mainland Southeast Asia and the Iranian Plateau; and westward as far as the Levant, Carpathian Mountains and to the borders of Northern Europe. The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of several nomadic tribes in the Mongol homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227), whom a council proclaimed as the ruler of all Mongols in 1206. The empire grew rapidly under his rule and that of his descendants, who sent out invading armies in every direction. The vast transcontinental empire connected the East with the West, the Pacific to the Mediterranean, in an enforced Pax Mongolica, allowing the dissemination and exchange of trade, technologies, commodities and ideologies across Eurasia.
Pax Mongolica (Pax Tatarica): historiographical term modelled after the original phrase Pax Romana which describes the stabilizing effects of the conquests of the Mongol Empire on the social, cultural and economic life of the inhabitants of the vast Eurasian territory that the Mongols conquered in the 13th and 14th centuries. The term is used to describe the eased communication and commerce the unified administration helped to create and the period of relative peace that followed the Mongols' vast conquests. Despite the political fragmentation of the Mongol Empire into four khanates (Yuan dynasty, Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate and Ilkhanate), nearly a century of conquest and civil war was followed by relative stability in the early 14th century. Each new victory gave the Mongols the chance to incorporate new peoples, especially foreign engineers and labourers, into their society. Each new conquest also acquired new trade routes and the opportunity to control taxation and tribute. Thus, through territorial expansion, the Mongol Nation not only became an empire, but also became more technologically and economically advanced. World trade system: the Silk Road. Mongol administration: The military ensured that supply lines and trade routes flowed smoothly; permanent garrisons were established along trade routes to protect the travelers on these routes. Complex local systems of taxation and extortion that were prevalent before Mongol rule were abolished to ensure the smooth flow of merchants and trade through the empire. A system of weights-and-measures was also standardised. To make the voyage on the trade routes less harrowing, the Mongols went as far as to plant trees along the roads to shade the merchants and travelers in the summer months; stone pillars were used to mark the roads where trees could not grow. The Yassa also decreed complete religious freedom, ensuring that Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, etc., were all allowed to travel freely throughout the empire; religious leaders were also exempted from taxation, as were doctors, lawyers, undertakers, teachers, and scholars. Postal system (Yam).
Subutai (c. 1175-1248): Uriankhai general, and the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He directed more than 20 campaigns in which he conquered 32 nations and won 65 pitched battles, during which he conquered or overran more territory than any other commander in history. He gained victory by means of imaginative and sophisticated strategies and routinely coordinated movements of armies that were hundreds of kilometers away from each other. He is also remembered for devising the campaign that destroyed the armies of Hungary and Poland within two days of each other, by forces over 500 kilometers apart. Genghis Khan is reported to have called him one of his "dogs of war," who were 4 of his 8 top lieutenants, in The Secret History of the Mongols. Central Asian campaigns (1217–1220). Great Cavalry Raid (1220–1223). Invasions of the Xi Xia and Jin Chinese (1207, 1209, 1211–1215, 1226–27): Conquest of Jin China (1231–1235). Conquest of Russia (1236–1240). Invasion of Central Europe (1241–1242): Mongol subjugation of Hungary. Legacy: unique historical anomaly, the strategic and operational innovations of Genghis Khan and Subutai became lost in history, and others were forced to rediscover them 600 and 700 years later. Even though Subutai had devastated the armies of Russia, Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and Latin Constantinople in a series of one-sided campaigns, Western military leaders, historians, and theorists completely ignored him until the 20th century. As a result, after adding onto the innovations of Genghis Khan, Subutai's armies fought unlike any force in history until the Germans and Russians in WWII, seven hundred years later. They did not operate as one distinct mass, but instead moved along 3–5 axes of approach, often 500–1000 km apart, and threatened numerous objectives simultaneously. In particular, Erwin Rommel and George Patton were avid students of Mongol campaigns.
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (c. 1185 – 1 August 1252) was a medieval Italian diplomat, archbishop and explorer and one of the first Europeans to enter the court of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. He is the author of the earliest important Western account of northern and Central Asia, Rus', and other regions of the Mongol dominion. Giovanni and his companions rode an estimated 3000 miles in 106 days. The great Khan, Güyük, refused the invitation to become Christian and demanded rather that the Pope and rulers of Europe should come to him and swear allegiance to him, a demand recorded in a letter from Güyük Khan to Pope Innoent the IV. The Khan did not dismiss the expedition until November. He gave them a letter to the Pope written in Mongol, Arabic, and Latin that was a brief imperious assertion of the Khan's office as the scourge of God. They began a long winter journey home. Often, they had to lie on the bare snow or on ground scraped bare of snow with a foot. They reached Kiev in 1247.06.10. There and on their further journey the Slavonic Christians welcomed them as risen from the dead with festive hospitality. Crossing the Rhine at Cologne, they found the Pope still at Lyon and delivered their report and the Khan's letter.
Boroldai (died 1262): notable Mongol general of the mid 13th century. He participated in the Mongol invasion of Russia and Europe in 1236-1242. Serving under Jochi's successor and son, Batu Khan, Borolday's vanguard surprised and crushed the great army of Yuri II, the Grand Prince of Vladimir, at the battle of the Sit River in 1238. He also participated in the Siege of Kiev in 1240. After the conquest of Rus, the Mongols invaded Eastern Europe and parts of Central Europe. His name appears as Bujgai or Bujakh in The Secret History of the Mongols. According to The Secret History of the Mongols, Ögedei, Khagan of the Mongol Empire, praised Subutai and Bujgai's merit when he criticized his son Güyük's arrogant behaviour during the campaign. Borolday assisted Subutai to prepare the strategy of the final assault during the Battle of Mohi (1241). Borolday's division directly attacked the main camp of King Béla IV of Hungary. Batu's brother Shiban's vanguard supported this attack. After a very hard fight, Batu's army crushed the Hungarians and their allies, Croats and Templar Knights at Mohi in 1241.04.11. During the succession struggle over the throne of the Mongol Empire in early 1251, 100,000 Jochid troops under Borolday were stationed near Otrar to keep an eye on the Chagatayids who allied with the Ögedeids against Batu's cousin and ally, Möngke. In 1255, Daniel of Galicia revolted against the Mongol rule. He repelled the initial Mongol assault under Orda's son Quremsa. Berke replaced Quremsa, son of his eldest brother, Orda, with the much experienced Borolday. The latter led a force that overcame the resistance of Danylo of Halych in 1259. According to some sources, Daniel fled to Poland leaving his son and brother at the mercy of the Mongol army. He may have hidden in the castle of Galicia instead. The Mongols needed to halt Poland's aid to Daniel as well as war booty to feed the demand of their soldiers. Boroldai forced him to demolish all walls of cities in Galich and Volhynia. The Mongols knew that the Lithuanians had raided Mongol vassals, Smolensk and Torzhok, in the previous year. Alongside Nogai Khan, Boroldai led a punitive expedition against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Mongols attacked Lithuania, but the Lithuanians fled before the decisive battle. After pillaging several villages and towns in Lithuania, Borolday returned to Galich and demanded Daniel assist him in his battle against the Poles. The Rus soldiers under Daniel's son, Lev, and brother, Vasily, joined the Mongol expedition. Lublin, Sandomierz, Zawichost, Kraków, and Bytom were ravaged and plundered by the Mongol army. Berke had no intention of occupying or conquering Poland. After this raid Pope Alexander IV tried without success to organize a crusade against the Tatars.
Nogai Khan (Noğay, Nogay, Ngoche, Isa Nogai; died 1299/1300): general and kingmaker of the Golden Horde and a great-great-grandson of Genghis Khan. His grandfather was Bo'al/Baul/Teval, the seventh son of Jochi. Nogai was also a notable convert to Islam. Though he never formally ruled the Golden Horde himself, he was effectively the co-ruler of the state alongside whatever khan was in power at the time and had unrestricted control over the portions west of the Dnieper. At his height, Nogai was one of the most powerful men in Europe and widely thought of as the Horde's true head. The Russian chroniclers gave him the title of tsar, and the Franciscan missionaries in the Crimea spoke of him as a co-emperor. Early life under Batu and Berke: Second Mongol invasion of Poland. Rise to power in Golden Horde and Europe: 1262–1266: Berke–Hulagu War; War against the Byzantines. De facto rule: 1266–1294: Invasions of Bulgaria and of Eastern Roman Empire; Second Mongol invasion of Hungary; Ascension of Talabuga; Third Mongol invasion of Poland; Raid on Circassia; Conflict with Talabuga. Conflict with Tokhta and death: 1294–1300.
Mongol invasions and conquests: took place throughout 13th c., resulting in the vast Mongol Empire, which by 1300 covered much of Asia and Eastern Europe. Historians regard the destruction under the Mongol Empire as results of some of the deadliest conflicts in human history. In addition, Mongol expeditions brought the bubonic plague along with them, spreading it across much of Asia and Europe and helping cause massive loss of life in the Black Death of 14th c..
Destruction under the Mongol Empire: widely noted in both scholarly literature and popular memory. The Mongol army conquered hundreds of cities and villages, and it also killed millions of men, women and children. It has been estimated that approximately 5% of the world's population was killed either during or immediately after the Turco-Mongol invasions. If these calculations are accurate, this would make the events the deadliest acts of mass killings in human history. In addition, the Mongols practiced biological warfare by catapulting diseased cadavers into at least one of the cities which they besieged. Sources record massive destruction, terror and death if there was resistance. David Nicole notes in The Mongol Warlords: "terror and mass extermination of anyone opposing them was a well-tested Mongol tactic". The alternative to submission was total war: if refused, Mongol leaders ordered the collective slaughter of populations and destruction of property. The success of Mongol tactics hinged on fear: to induce capitulation amongst enemy populations. From the perspective of modern theories of international relations, Quester suggests that, "Perhaps terrorism produced a fear that immobilized and incapacitated the forces that would have resisted." Although perceived as being bloodthirsty, the Mongol strategy of "surrender or die" still recognized that conquest by capitulation was more desirable than being forced to continually expend soldiers, food, and money to fight every army and sack every town and city along the campaign's route. Demographic changes in war-torn areas. Destruction of culture and property. Foods and disease. Tribute in lieu of conquest. Environmental impact: destruction under Genghis Khan may have scrubbed as much as 700 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere by allowing forests to regrow on previously populated and cultivated land.
Third Mongol invasion of Poland (1287.12.06 – early February, 1288): carried out by Talabuga Khan and Nogai Khan. As in the second invasion, its purpose was to loot Lesser Poland, and to prevent Duke Leszek II the Black from interfering in Hungarian and Ruthenian affairs. The invasion was also part of the hostilities between Poland and Ruthenia; in 1281, the Poles had defeated a Mongol force near Goslicz which had entered Duke Leszek's territory in support of Lev I. The Polish defenders did not have any elaborate plan, as the raid was clearly a surprise. An ad hoc strategy was devised whereby most forces concentrated on castles and fortified cities rather than riding out to meet the Mongols in field battles. Duke Leszek, with his main force, stood in the path of the first column.
Battle of the Indus: fought at the Indus River, in 1221 between Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, the sultan of the Khwarezmian Empire and his remaining forces of 30,000 men against the 200,000 strong Mongolian army of Genghis Khan.
Turco-Mongol tradition (Turco-Mongol): ethnocultural synthesis that arose in Asia during the 14th c., among the ruling elites of the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Khanate. The ruling Mongol elites of these Khanates eventually assimilated into the Turkic populations that they conquered and ruled over, thus becoming known as Turco-Mongols. These elites gradually adopted Islam (from previous religions like Tengrism) as well as Turkic languages, while retaining Mongol political and legal institutions. The Turco-Mongols founded many Islamic successor states after the collapse of the Mongol Khanates, such as the Tatar Khanates which succeeded the Golden Horde (e.g. Khanate of Crimea, Astrakhan Khanate, Kazan Khanate, Kazakh Khanate) and the Timurid Empire which succeeded the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia. Babur (1483–1530), a Turco-Mongol prince and great-great-great-grandson of Timur, founded the Mughal Empire, which would go on to rule almost all of the Indian subcontinent. The Turks and Tatars also ruled part of Egypt exercising political and military authority during Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo).
Karakorum (Qaraqorum): capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260 and of the Northern Yuan dynasty in the 14–15th c. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of modern-day Mongolia, near the present town of Kharkhorin and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu Monastery, which is likely the oldest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. They are in the upper part of the World Heritage Site Orkhon Valley.
Ottoman Greece: "tribute of (Greek) children" → Janissaries; wars between tiny (but powerful) Venice and the huge (but ever-declining) Ottoman empire; brutal war of independence between Ottomans and Greeks, where Greeks were aided by philhellenes (e.g. Byron) and later by Britain, France and Russia who had their own interests in the region {q.v. #Republic of Venice}
Mappa mundi: any medieval European map of the world. Such maps range in size and complexity from simple schematic maps an inch or less across to elaborate wall maps, the largest of which was 11 ft. (3.5 m.) in diameter. The term derives from the Medieval Latin words mappa (cloth or chart) and mundi (of the world).
T and O map: type of medieval world map, sometimes also called a Beatine map or a Beatus map because one of the earliest known representations of this sort is attributed to Beatus of Liébana, an 8th-century Spanish monk. The map appeared in the prologue to his twelve books of commentaries on the Apocalypse.
Portolan chart: navigational maps based on compass directions and estimated distances observed by the pilots at sea. They were first made in the 13th century in Italy, and later in Spain and Portugal, with later 15th and 16th century charts noted for their cartographic accuracy. With the advent of widespread competition among seagoing nations during the Age of Discovery, Portugal and Spain considered such maps to be state secrets. The English and Dutch relative newcomers found the description of Atlantic and Indian coastlines extremely valuable for their raiding, and later trading, ships. The word portolan comes from the Italian adjective portolano, meaning "related to ports or harbors", or "a collection of sailing directions".
Carta Pisana: map made at about 1275-1300. It was found in Pisa, hence its name. It shows the whole Mediterranean, the Black Sea and a part of the atlantic coast, from the north of present-day Morocco (down to roughly the 33rd parallel north, with the town of Azemmour) to the present-day Netherlands, but the accuracy of the map is mostly limited to the Mediterranean. It is the oldest surviving nautical chart (that is, not simply a map but a document showing accurate navigational directions). It is a portolan chart, showing a detailed survey of the coasts, and many ports, but bears no indication on the topography or toponymy of the inland.
A picture of the Carta Pisana, a map made at the end of the 13th century, about 1275-1300.
Catalan Atlas (Catalan: Atles català): the most important Catalan map of the medieval period (drawn and written in 1375). It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham (also known as "Abraham Cresques"), a Jewish book illuminator who was self-described as being a master of the maps of the world as well as compasses. It has been in the royal library of France (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France) since the time of King Charles V.
Map of Europe and the Mediterranean from the copy to XIX century of Catalan Atlas of 1375, second chart, first cartography.
Carta marina: created by Olaus Magnus in the 16th century, is the earliest map of the Nordic countries that gives details and placenames. In production for 12 years, the first copies were printed in 1539 in Venice; 55x40 cm woodcut blocks to produce a document that is 1.70 m tall by 1.25 m wide. In 1886, Oscar Brenner found a copy at the Hof- und Staatsbibliothek in Munich, Germany, where it currently resides. In 1961, another copy was found in Switzerland, brought to Sweden the following year by the Uppsala University Library; as of 2007 is stored at Carolina Rediviva.
Carta Marina - wallmap of Scandinavia. The caption reads : Marine map and Description of the Northern Lands and of their Marvels, most carefully drawn up at Venice in the year 1539 through the generous assistance of the Most Honourable Lord Hieronymo Quirino.Map of Europe, drawing of c. 1570.
Iberian ship development, 1400–1600: Crowns of Aragon, Portugal, and later Castile, to put their efforts into the sea. Due to geography, Iberian countries had greater access to the sea than did much of Europe; this allowed the Iberian kingdoms to become a people of mariners and traders. These people had the motivation to move; they were close to the wealth of Africa and the Mediterranean. Expansion and development of ship technology were due to commercial, military and religious endeavors. As a seafaring people in the south-westernmost region of Europe, the Portuguese became natural leaders of exploration during the Middle Ages. Faced with the options of either accessing other European markets by sea, by exploiting its seafaring prowess, or by land, and facing the task of crossing Castile and Aragon territory, it is not surprising that goods were sent via the sea to England, Flanders, Italy and the Hanseatic league towns. One important reason was the need for alternatives to the expensive eastern trade routes that followed the Silk Road. Those routes were dominated first by the republics of Venice and Genoa, and then by the Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, which barred European access. For decades the ports in the Spanish Netherlands produced more revenue than the colonies, since all goods brought from Spain, Mediterranean possessions, and the colonies were sold directly there to neighbouring European countries: wheat, olive oil, wine, silver, spice, wool and silk were big businesses. In 1434 the first consignment of African slaves was brought to Lisbon; slave trading was the most profitable branch of Portuguese commerce until India was reached. Throughout the fifteenth century, Portuguese explorers sailed the coast of Africa, establishing trading posts for several tradable commodities, as firearms, spices, silver, gold, slaves. Caravels and their purposeful evolution; Naus; Galleons.
Crisis of the Late Middle Ages: refers to a series of events in 14th and 15th c. that brought centuries of European prosperity and growth to a halt. Three major crises led to radical changes in all areas of society: demographic collapse, political instabilities and religious upheavals. Series of famines and plagues, beginning with the Great Famine of 1315–17 and especially the Black Death of 1348, reduced the population perhaps by half or more as the Medieval Warm Period came to a close and the first century of the Little Ice Age began. Popular revolts in late-medieval Europe and civil wars between nobles within countries such as the Wars of the Roses were common—with France fighting internally nine times—and there were international conflicts between kings such as France and England in the Hundred Years' War. The unity of the Roman Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism. The Holy Roman Empire was also in decline; in the aftermath of the Great Interregnum (1247–1273), the Empire lost cohesion and politically the separate dynasties of the various German states became more important than their common empire. Often known as the Malthusian limit, scholars such as David Herlihy and Michael Postan use this term to express and explain some tragedies as resulting from overpopulation. In his 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Malthus asserted that eventually humans would reproduce so greatly that they would go beyond the limits of necessary resources; once they reach this point, catastrophe becomes inevitable. In his book, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West, professor David Herlihy explores this idea of plague as an inevitable crisis wrought on humanity in order to control the population and human resources.
Battle of Grunwald (1410.07.15; Battle of Žalgiris, First Battle of Tannenberg): fought during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) and Grand Duke Vytautas, decisively defeated the German–Prussian Teutonic Knights, led by Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen. Most of the Teutonic Knights' leadership were killed or taken prisoner. Although defeated, the Teutonic Knights withstood the siege of their fortress in Marienburg (Malbork; 1410.07.26-1401.09.19) and suffered minimal territorial losses at the Peace of Thorn (1411) (Toruń).
Siege of Marienburg (1410) (1410.07.26–09.19): unsuccessful two-month siege of the castle in Marienburg (Malbork), the capital of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. The joint Polish and Lithuanian forces, under command of King Władysław II Jagiełło and Grand Duke Vytautas, besieged the castle in a bid of complete conquest of Prussia after the great victory in the Battle of Grunwald. However, the castle withstood the siege and the Knights conceded only to minor territorial losses in the Peace of Thorn (1411). Marienburg defender Heinrich von Plauen is credited as the savior of the Knights from complete annihilation.
Malbork castle (Ordensburg Marienburg): 13th-c. Teutonic castle and fortress located in the town of Malbork, Poland. It is the largest castle in the world measured by land area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was originally constructed by the Teutonic Knights, a German Catholic religious order of crusaders, in a form of an Ordensburg fortress. The Order named it Marienburg in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus. In 1457, during the Thirteen Years’ War, it was sold by Bohemian mercenaries to King Casimir IV of Poland in lieu of indemnities and it then served as one of several Polish royal residences and the seat of Polish offices and institutions, interrupted by several years of Swedish occupation, fulfilling this function until the First Partition of Poland in 1772. From then on the castle was under German rule for over 170 years until 1945, albeit largely falling into disrepair as military technological advances rendered the castle a mere historical point of interest. The construction period is a point of debate, however, most historians generally accept the 132 years between 1274 and 1406 as the construction time.
Hundred Years' War (1337.05.24–1453.10.19): series of conflicts in Western Europe, waged between the House of Plantagenet and its cadet House of Lancaster, rulers of the Kingdom of England, and the House of Valois over the right to rule the Kingdom of France. It was one of the most notable conflicts of the Middle Ages, in which five generations of kings from two rival dynasties fought for the throne of the largest kingdom in Western Europe. The war marked both the height of chivalry and its subsequent decline, and the development of stronger national identities in both countries. It is common to divide the war into three phases, separated by truces: the Edwardian War (1337–1360), the Caroline War (1369–1389), and the Lancastrian War (1415–1453). Although each side drew many allies into the war, in the end, the House of Valois retained the French throne and the English and French monarchies remained separate.
Pale of Calais (1347–1558): territory ruled by the monarchs of England for more than two hundred years in Northern France. The area, which was taken following the Battle of Crécy in 1346 and the subsequent siege of Calais, was confirmed at the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360. It became an important economic centre for England in Europe’s textile trade centred in Flanders. The territory was bilingual with English and Flemish commonly spoken. It was democratically represented in the Parliament of England by the Calais constituency.
Anglo-French War (1557–1559): part of the Italian War of 1551–1559. Following the French defeat at the Battle of St. Quentin (1557) England entered the war. The French laid Siege to Calais in response. Following failure in mid-1557, a renewed attack captured the outlying forts of Nieullay and Rysbank and Calais was besieged. In England there was shock and disbelief at the loss of this final Continental territory. The story goes that a few months later Queen Mary, on her death bed, told her ladies: "When I am dead and cut open, they will find Philip and Calais inscribed on my heart."
Siege of Calais (1558) (1558.01.01–08): The Pale of Calais had been ruled by England since 1347, during the Hundred Years' War. By the 1550s, England was ruled by Mary I of England and her husband Philip II of Spain. When the Kingdom of England supported a Spanish invasion of France, Henry II of France sent Francis, Duke of Guise, against English-held Calais, defended by Thomas Wentworth, 2nd Baron Wentworth. Following failure in mid-1557, a renewed attack captured the outlying forts of Nieullay and Rysbank and Calais was besieged.
Mughal Empire (Mogul, Moghul Empire; 1526–1857): early modern empire in South Asia. For some two centuries, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan plateau in south India. The Mughal empire is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526 by Babur, a warrior chieftain from what is today Uzbekistan, who employed military aid in the form of matchlock guns and cast cannon from the Ottoman Empire, and his superior strategy and cavalry to defeat the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodhi, in the First Battle of Panipat, and to sweep down the plains of Upper India, subduing Rajputs and Afghans. The Mughal imperial structure, however, is sometimes dated to 1600, to the rule of Babur's grandson, Akbar, This imperial structure lasted until 1720, until shortly after the death of the last major emperor, Aurangzeb, during whose reign the empire also achieved its maximum geographical extent. Reduced subsequently, especially during the East India Company rule in India, to the region in and around Old Delhi, the empire was formally dissolved by the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Timur (Tamerlane; late 1320s–1330s-1405.02.18): conquered West, South and Central Asia; from his dynasty come Ulugh Beg (ruler of Central Asia 1411-1449) and Babur Beg (founder of Mughal Empire); devout muslim calling himself "Sword of Islam"; estimated that his campaigns caused deaths of 17 mln people. Tried to attack Ming Dynasty but Timur died. Timur is regarded as a military genius and a tactician, with an uncanny ability to work within a highly fluid political structure to win and maintain a loyal following of nomads during his rule in Central Asia. He was also considered extraordinarily intelligent – not only intuitively but also intellectually. In Samarkand and his many travels, Timur, under the guidance of distinguished scholars, was able to learn the Persian, Mongolian, and Turkic languages. More importantly, Timur was characterized as an opportunist. Taking advantage of his Turco-Mongolian heritage, Timur frequently used either the Islamic religion or the law and traditions of the Mongol Empire to achieve his military goals or domestic political aims. He was also considered extraordinarily intelligent – not only intuitively but also intellectually. Body was exhumed by Soviet anthropologist Mikhail M. Gerasimov in 1941 and re-buried in 1942.11.
Timurid relations with Europe (15th c.): hostility between Timurid Mongols and Ottoman Turks as well as Egyptian Mamluks; Europe was threatened by the Ottomans. Offensive, defensive alliances and exchange of ambassadors.
Timurid dynasty (1370–1507): Sunni Muslim Persianate dynasty of Turco-Mongol lineage that ruled over an empire comprising modern-day Iran, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, as well as parts of contemporary Pakistan, Syria, India, Anatolia.
Timurid Empire (1370–1507): Persianate Turco-Mongol empire comprising modern-day Uzbekistan, Iran, the southern Caucasus, Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, as well as parts of contemporary India, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey.
Timurid Renaissance: historical period in Asian and Islamic history spanning the late 14th, the 15th, and the early 16th centuries. Following the gradual downturn of the Islamic Golden Age, the Timurid Empire, based in Central Asia ruled by the Timurid dynasty, witnessed the revival of the arts and sciences. The movement spread across the Muslim world and left profound impacts on late medieval Asia.
Columbian Exchange: contributed to demographic explosion in the Old World (populations started to increase exponentially in Eurasia). From the New World came: turkey, guinea pig, bell (chili) pepper, cocoa, coca, cotton, maize, manioc, peanut, pumpkin, rubber, strawberry, sunflower, tobacco, (sweet) potato
Nubia: region along the Nile river located in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. It was the seat of one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa, with a history that can be traced from at least 2000 BC onward. There were a number of large Nubian kingdoms throughout the Postclassical Era, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between Egypt and the Sennar sultanate, resulting in the Arabization of much of the Nubian population. Nubia was again united within Ottoman Egypt in the 19th century, and within the Kingdom of Egypt from 1899 to 1956.
Nubians: ethnic group that originated in present-day Sudan and Egypt. Today, people of Nubian descent primarily live in Sudan, and inhabit the region between Wadi Halfa in the north and Al Dabbah in the south. A significant number of Nubians, estimated at 100,000, live in Kenya. The main Nubian groups from north to south are the Halfaweyen, Sikut, Mahas, and Dongola. 1.7 mln speakers of Nubian languages.
Makuria (Kingdom of Makuria; 340–1276, 1286–1317): kingdom located in what is today Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. Makuria originally covered the area along the Nile River from the Third Cataract to somewhere between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts. It also had control over the trade routes, mines, and oases to the east and west. By the end of 6th c. it had converted to Christianity, but in 7th c. Egypt was conquered by the Islamic armies, and Nubia was cut off from the rest of Christendom. Makuria expanded, annexing its northern neighbour Nobatia either at the time of the Arab conquest or during the reign of King Merkurios. The period from roughly 750 to 1150 saw the kingdom stable and prosperous, in what has been called the "Golden Age".
Old Dongola: deserted town in Sudan located on the east bank of the Nile opposite the Wadi Howar. An important city in medieval Nubia, and the departure point for caravans west to Darfur and Kordofan, from the fourth to the fourteenth century Old Dongola was the capital of the Makurian state.
Baqt: treaty between the Christian state of Makuria and the Muslim rulers of Egypt. Lasting almost 700 years it is by some measures the longest lasting treaty in history. The name comes either from the Egyptian's term for barter or the Greco-Roman term for pact.
Modern history (16th c. and later): timeframe after the post-classical era (known as the Middle Ages)
1815 eruption of Mount Tambora: most powerful in human recorded history, with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 7. Mount Tambora is on the island of Sumbawa in present-day Indonesia, then part of the Dutch East Indies. Although its eruption reached a violent climax in 1815.04.10, increased steaming and small phreatic eruptions occurred during the next six months to three years. The ash from the eruption column dispersed around the world and lowered global temperatures in an event sometimes known as the Year Without a Summer in 1816. This brief period of significant climate change triggered extreme weather and harvest failures in many areas around the world. Several climate forcings coincided and interacted in a systematic manner that has not been observed after any other large volcanic eruption since the early Stone Age.
Year Without a Summer (year 1816): severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C. This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.
Early modern period: follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era; variously demarcated by historians as beginning with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, with the Renaissance period, and with the Age of Discovery (especially with the discovery of America, but also with the discovery of the ocean route to the East), and ending around the French Revolution in 1789.
Franco-Ottoman alliance: alliance established in 1536 between the king of France Francis I and the Turkish sultan of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent. The alliance has been called "the first non-ideological diplomatic alliance of its kind between a Christian and non-Christian empire". The strategic and sometimes tactical alliance was one of the most important foreign alliances of France and lasted for more than two and a half centuries, until the Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt, an Ottoman territory, in 1798–1801.
Ottoman wintering in Toulon (winter of 1543–44): following the Franco-Ottoman Siege of Nice, as part of the combined operations under the Franco-Ottoman alliance.
Habsburg–Persian alliance: was attempted and to a certain extent achieved in the 16th century between the Habsburg Empire and the Persian Empire in their common conflict against the Ottoman Empire.
Map of Habsburg dominions in 1700.
Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659): fought between France and Spain with the participation of a changing list of allies throughout the war. The first phase, beginning in May 1635 and ending with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, is considered a related conflict of the Thirty Years' War. The second phase continued until 1659, when France and Spain agreed to peace terms in the Treaty of the Pyrenees. Major areas of conflict included northern Italy, the Spanish Netherlands and the German Rhineland. In addition, France supported revolts against Spanish rule in Portugal (1640–1668), Catalonia (1640–1653) and Naples (1647), and from 1647 to 1653, Spain backed French rebels in the civil war known as the Fronde. Both also backed opposing sides in the 1639 to 1642 Piedmontese Civil War. France avoided direct participation in the Thirty Years' War until May 1635, when it declared war on Spain and the Holy Roman Empire and entered the conflict as an ally of the Dutch Republic and of Sweden. After Westphalia in 1648, the war continued between Spain and France, with neither side able to achieve decisive victory. French territorial gains were minor but strengthened the kingdom's borders; additionally, Louis XIV married Maria Theresa of Spain, the eldest daughter of Philip IV. Spain retained a vast global empire and remained a leading power in Europe, but the treaty marked the beginning of a rapid loss of its European predominance in favour of a rising France under Louis XIV.
European enclaves in North Africa before 1830: towns, fortifications and trading posts on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of western North Africa (sometimes called also "Maghreb), obtained by various European powers in the period before they had the military capacity to occupy the interior (i.e. before the French conquest of Algeria in 1830). The earliest of these were established in the 11th century CE by the Italian Maritime republics; Spain and Portugal were the main European powers involved; both France and, briefly, England also had a presence. Most of these enclaves had been evacuated by the late 18th century, and today only the Spanish possessions of Ceuta, Melilla, and the Plazas de soberanía remain. Italian and Sicilian possessions. Portuguese possessions. Spanish possessions. French possessions (Bastion de France). English possessions (English Tangier (1661–1684))
Age of Discovery (Age of Exploration; approx. from 15th c. until 18th c.): informal and loosely defined term for the period in European history, in which sea-faring European nations explored regions across the globe. The extensive overseas exploration, led by the Portuguese and the Spanish, emerged as a powerful factor in European culture, most notably the European discovery of the Americas. It also marks an increased adoption of colonialism as a national policy in Europe. Several lands previously unknown to Europeans were discovered by them during this period, though most were already inhabited. Global impact: Columbian Exchange; History of colonialism; Globalization. From the perspective of many non-Europeans, the Age of Discovery marked the arrival of invaders from previously unknown continents.
Age of Sail (usually dated as 1571–1862): a period roughly corresponding to the early modern period in which international trade and naval warfare were dominated by sailing ships.
History of colonialism: historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the crusaders, among others. Colonialism in the modern sense began with the "Age of Discovery", led by Portuguese, and then by the Spanish exploration of the Americas, the coasts of Africa, the Middle East, India and East Asia. The Portuguese and Spanish empires were the first global empires because they were the first to stretch across different continents, covering vast territories around the globe. Between 1580 and 1640, the two empires were both ruled by the Spanish monarchs in personal union. During the late 16th and 17th centuries, England, France and the Dutch Republic also established their own overseas empires, in direct competition with each other.
Map indicating the territories colonized by the European powers, United States and Japan; territorial evolution of modern colonial empires. Years shown: 1492, 1550, 1600, 1660, 1754, 1822, 1885, 1914, 1938, 1959, 1974, 2007.
Colonial empire: collective of territories (often called colonies), either contiguous with the imperial center or located overseas, settled by the population of a certain state and governed by that state. Before the expansion of early modern European powers, other empires had conquered and colonized territories, such as the Romans in Iberia, or the Chinese in what is now southern China. Modern colonial empires first emerged with a race of exploration between the then most advanced European maritime powers, Portugal and Spain, during the 15th century. The initial impulse behind these dispersed maritime empires and those that followed was trade, driven by the new ideas and the capitalism that grew out of the European Renaissance. European imperialism was born out of competition between European Christians and Ottoman Muslims, the latter of which rose up quickly in the 14th century and forced the Spanish and Portuguese to seek new trade routes to India, and to a lesser extent, China.
Portuguese conquest of Ormuz (1507.10): Portuguese Afonso de Albuquerque attacked Hormuz Island to establish the Fortress of Ormuz. This conquest gave the Portuguese full control of the trade between India and Europe passing through the Persian Gulf.
Anglo-Persian capture of Ormuz (1622.02.09–1622.05.04): combined Anglo-Persian expedition that successfully captured the Portuguese garrison at Hormuz Island after a ten-week siege, thus opening up Persian trade with England in the Persian Gulf. Before the capture of Ormuz, the Portuguese had held the Castle of Ormuz for more than a century, since 1507.
Gunpowder Empires (Era of the Islamic Gunpowders): epoch of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires from the 16th century to the 18th century. The three empires were among the strongest and most stable economies of the early modern period, leading to commercial expansion and greater patronage of culture, while their political and legal institutions were consolidated with an increasing degree of centralisation. They underwent a significant increase in per capita income and population and a sustained pace of technological innovation. The empires were centralised from the Eastern Europe and North Africa in the west to between today's modern Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. They were Islamic and had considerable military and economic success. Vast amount of territories were conquered by the Islamic gunpowder empires with the use and development of the newly invented firearms, especially cannon and small arms, in the course of imperial construction. The Mughals, based in the Indian subcontinent, are recognised for their lavish architecture and for having heralded an era of proto-industrialization, while the Safavids created an efficient and modern state administration for Iran and sponsored major developments in the fine arts, and the sultan of the Constantinople-based Ottoman caliphate, also known as the Caesar of Rome, was the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and thus head of the Islamic world. Gunpowder Empires of East Asia: CJK. Gunpowder in Europe: Europeans were the last to learn about the secret of gunpowder, but that did not prevent them from making a name in the development of gunpowder just as the gunpowder empires. Europeans are said to have pushed gunpowder technology to its limits and improved the formulas that existed and devised new uses of the substance. The Hodgson-McNeill concept: Such states grew "out of Mongol notions of greatness," but "[s]uch notions could fully mature and create stable bureaucratic empires only after gunpowder weapons and their specialized technology attained a primary place in military life."
Ottoman–Mamluk War (1485–1491): Ottoman Empire invaded the Mamluk Sultanate territories of Anatolia and Syria. This war was an essential event in the Ottoman struggle for the domination of the Middle-East. After multiple encounters, the war ended in a stalemate and a peace treaty was signed in 1491, restoring the status quo ante bellum.
Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17): second major conflict between the Egypt-based Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire, which led to the fall of the Mamluk Sultanate and the incorporation of the Levant, Egypt, and the Hejaz as provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The war transformed the Ottoman Empire from a realm at the margins of the Islamic world, mainly located in Anatolia and the Balkans, to a huge empire encompassing much of the traditional lands of Islam, including the cities of Mecca, Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo. Despite this expansion, the seat of the empire's political power remained in Constantinople.
Battle of Marj Dabiq (1516.08.24): decisive military engagement in Middle Eastern history; Ottoman victory in this battle gave Selim's armies control of the entire region of Syria and opened the door to the conquest of Egypt.
Battle of Ridaniya (1517.01.22): Ottoman forces of Selim I defeated the Mamluk forces under Al-Ashraf Tuman bay II. The Turks marched into Cairo, and the severed head of Tuman bay II, Egypt’s last Mamluk Sultan, was hung over an entrance gate in the Al Ghourieh quarter of Cairo. Or, alternatively, he was hung from the gate and buried after three days. The Ottoman grand vizier, Hadım Sinan Pasha, was killed in action.
Francis Walsingham (c. 1532 – 1590.04.06): principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 1573.12.20 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster".
Francis Drake (c. 1540 – 28 January 1596): English explorer, sea captain, privateer, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580.
Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604): intermittent conflict between the Habsburg Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of England. It was never formally declared. The war included much English privateering against Spanish ships, and several widely separated battles. It began with England's military expedition in 1585 to what was then the Spanish Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester, in support of the Dutch rebellion against Spanish Habsburg rule. The English enjoyed a victory at Cádiz in 1587, and repelled the Spanish Armada in 1588, but then suffered heavy setbacks: the English Armada (1589), the Drake–Hawkins expedition (1595), and the Essex–Raleigh expedition (1597). Three further Spanish armadas were sent against England and Ireland in 1596, 1597, and 1601, but these likewise ended in failure for Spain, mainly because of adverse weather.
Francis Drake's circumnavigation (1577.12.13–1580.09.26; Drake's Raiding Expedition): important historical maritime event. Authorised by Queen Elizabeth I and led by Francis Drake; the latter sailed with five ships in what was termed a 'voyage of discovery', although in effect it was an ambitious covert raiding voyage and the start of England's challenge to the global domination of Spain and Portugal. Drake set off after a delay of nearly six months on 15 December 1577. After crossing the Atlantic he passed Cape Horn and became the first Englishman to navigate the Straits of Magellan and travelled up the west coast of South America reaching the Pacific Ocean in October 1578. Due to losses by storms and disease, only two ships remained, one of which was the Golden Hind. Drake then plundered Spanish ports and took a number of Spanish treasure ships including the rich galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. After continuing north, hoping to find a route back across to the Atlantic, Drake sailed further up the west coast of America than any European and landed in present-day California, claiming the land for England and naming it New Albion.
Newfoundland expedition (1585) (1585.07–1585.10.10; Bernard Drake's Newfoundland Expedition): English naval expedition that took place during the beginning of the declared Anglo-Spanish War in the North Atlantic. The area of conflict was situated mainly in an area known as the Grand Banks off present day Newfoundland. The aim of the expedition was to capture the Spanish and Portuguese fishing fleets. The expedition was a huge military and financial success and virtually removed the Spanish and Portuguese from these waters. In addition the raid had large consequences in terms of English colonial expansion and settlement.
Battle of Santo Domingo (1586) (1586.01.01): military and naval action fought on 1 January 1586, of the recently declared Anglo-Spanish War that resulted in the assault and capture by English soldiers and sailors of the Spanish city of Santo Domingo governed by Cristóbal de Ovalle on the Spanish island of Hispaniola. The English were led by Francis Drake and was part of his Great Expedition to raid the Spanish New World in a kind of preemptive strike. The English soldiers then occupied the city for over a month and captured much booty along with a 25,000 ducat ransom before departing on 1 February.
Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1586) (1586.02.09–11): military and naval action of the recently declared Anglo-Spanish War that resulted in the assault and capture by English soldiers and sailors of the Spanish colony city of Cartagena de Indias (now part of Colombia) governed by Pedro de Bustos on the Spanish Main. The English were led by Francis Drake. The raid was part of his Great Expedition to the Spanish New World.
Thomas Cavendish's circumnavigation (1586.07.21-1588.09.09): voyage of raid and exploration by English navigator and sailor Thomas Cavendish which took place during the Anglo–Spanish War. Having set out with his three ships, the English raided three Spanish settlements and captured or burned thirteen ships. Among these was a rich 600 ton sailing ship, a Manila Galleon called Santa Ana (also called Santa Anna); the biggest treasure haul that ever fell into English hands. With only one ship left, Cavendish returned to England on 9 September 1588 completing a full circumnavigation of the earth in record time. The voyage itself was hugely successful and made Cavendish rich from captured Spanish gold, silk and treasure from the Pacific and the Spanish Philippines. Cavendish was subsequently knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Spanish Armada (1588.07.21–1588.08; Grande y Felicísima Armada): Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588 under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. Medina Sidonia was an aristocrat without naval command experience but was made commander by King Philip II. The aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and her establishment of Protestantism in England, to stop English interference in the Spanish Netherlands, and to stop the harm caused by English and Dutch privateering ships that disrupted Spanish interests in the Americas.
English Armada (1589): led by Sir Francis Drake as admiral and Sir John Norreys as general, it failed to drive home the advantage that England had won upon the failure of the Spanish Armada in the previous year. The Spanish victory marked a revival of Philip II's naval power through the next decade.
Thirty Years' War (1618-1648): conflict primarily fought in Central Europe from 1618 to 1648; estimates of total military and civilian deaths range from 4.5 to 8 million, mostly from disease or starvation. In some areas of Germany, it has been suggested up to 60% of the population died. Until the mid-20th c., it was seen as predominantly a German civil war and considered one of the European wars of religion. In 1938, C. V. Wedgwood argued it formed part of a wider European conflict, whose underlying cause was the ongoing contest between Austro-Spanish Habsburgs and French Bourbons. This view is now generally accepted by historians. The conflict can be split into two main parts: 1618-1635 struggle within the Holy Roman Empire, fought between Emperor Ferdinand II and his internal opponents, with external powers playing a supportive role; Despite the parties agreeing the Peace of Prague in 1635, fighting continued with Sweden and France on one side, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs on the other until 1648 Peace of Westphalia. The war originated in differences between German Protestants and Catholics.
Peace of Westphalia: series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic. Involved: Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III, of the House of Habsburg; the Kingdom of Spain; the Kingdom of France; the Swedish Empire; the Dutch Republic; the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire; and sovereigns of the free imperial cities. Initiating a new system of political order in central Europe, later called Westphalian sovereignty, based upon the concept of a sovereign state governed by a sovereign and establishing a prejudice in international affairs against interference in another nation's domestic business. The treaty not only signaled the end of the perennial, destructive wars that had ravaged Europe, it also represented the triumph of sovereignty over empire, of national rule over the personal writ of the Habsburgs and the establishment of the first version of international order.
Dutch–Portuguese War (1602–1663; Nederlands-Portugese Oorlog, Guerra Luso-Holandesa): global armed conflict involving Dutch forces, in the form of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, as well as their allies against the Iberian Union, and after 1640, the Portuguese Empire. Beginning in 1602, the conflict primarily involved the Dutch companies invading Portuguese colonies in the Americas, Africa, and the East Indies. The war can be thought of as an extension of the Eighty Years' War being fought in Europe at the time between Spain and the Netherlands, as Portugal was in a dynastic union with the Spanish Crown after the War of the Portuguese Succession, for most of the conflict. However, the conflict had little to do with the war in Europe and served mainly as a way for the Dutch to gain an overseas empire and control trade at the cost of the Portuguese. English forces also assisted the Dutch at certain points in the war (though in later decades, English and Dutch would become fierce rivals). Because of the commodity at the center of the conflict, this war would be nicknamed the Spice War.
Portuguese Restoration War (1640.12.01–1668.02.13; Guerra da Restauração): war between Portugal and Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, bringing a formal end to the Iberian Union.
Battle of Vienna (1683.09.12): took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna after the imperial city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle was fought by the Holy Roman Empire led by the Habsburg Monarchy and PLC, both under the command of King John III Sobieski, against the Ottomans and their vassal and tributary states. The battle marked the first time the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Ottomans, and it is often seen as a turning point in history, after which "the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world". In the ensuing war that lasted until 1699, the Ottomans lost almost all of Hungary to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The battle was won by the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the latter represented only by the forces of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (the march of the Lithuanian army was delayed, and they reached Vienna after it had been relieved). The Viennese garrison was led by Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg, an Austrian subject of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
Truce of Andrusovo (Rozejm w Andruszowie, Андрусовское перемирие; 1667): established 13.5 year truce, signed in 1667 between the Tsardom of Russia and PLC, which had fought the Russo-Polish War since 1654 over the territories of modern-day Ukraine and Belarus. A truce was signed for 13.5 years during which both states were obligated to prepare the conditions for eternal peace. The city of Kiev, though situated on the right bank of the Dnieper River, was handed over to Russia for two years under a series of conditions. The transfer, though phrased as temporary, was, in fact, a permanent one cemented in 1686 in exchange for 146,000 rubles.
Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1686) ("Treaty of Eternal Peace"): between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was signed on 6 May 1686 in Moscow by Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth envoys: voivod of Poznań Krzysztof Grzymułtowski and chancellor (kanclerz) of Lithuania Marcjan Ogiński and Russian knyaz Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn. These parties were incited to cooperate after a major geopolitical intervention in Ukraine on the part of the Ottoman Empire.
Franco-Dutch War (1672.04.06–1678.09.17; Guerre de Hollande, Hollandse Oorlog): fought between France and the Dutch Republic, supported by its allies the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Brandenburg-Prussia and Denmark-Norway. In its early stages, France was allied with Münster and Cologne, as well as England. The 1672 to 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War and 1675 to 1679 Scanian War are considered related conflicts.
Nine Years' War (War of the Grand Alliance, War of the League of Augsburg; 1688-1697): conflict between France and the Grand Alliance. While concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to the Americas, India, and West Africa, and it has been called the first world war. Related conflicts included the Williamite war in Ireland, and King William's War in North America. Louis XIV of France emerged from the Franco-Dutch War in 1678 as the most powerful monarch in Europe. Using a combination of aggression, annexation, and quasi-legal means, he then set about extending his gains to strengthen France's frontiers, culminating in the 1683 to 1684 War of the Reunions (1683–1684). The Truce of Ratisbon guaranteed these new borders for twenty years, but concerns among European Protestants over French expansion and anti-Protestant policies (Edict of Fontainebleau (the revocation of the Edict of Nantes) in 1685) led to the creation of the Grand Alliance, headed by William of Orange. Louis XIV's decision to cross the Rhine in 1688.09 was designed to extend his influence and pressure the Holy Roman Empire into accepting his territorial and dynastic claims. However, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and German princes supported the Dutch in opposing French aims, while the November 1688 Glorious Revolution secured English resources and support for the Alliance. Over the next few years, fighting focused around the Spanish Netherlands, the Rhineland, the Duchy of Savoy, and Catalonia. Although the initial military balance favoured France, by 1696 neither side was able to gain a significant advantage, and the main belligerents were financially exhausted, making them keen to negotiate a settlement. {It is sometimes considered the first global war}
Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg): anti-French coalition formed in 1689.12.20 between the Dutch Republic, England and the Holy Roman Empire. It was signed by the two leading opponents of France: William III, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic and (since 1689.04) King of England, and Emperor Leopold I, on behalf of the Archduchy of Austria. With the later additions of Spain and Savoy, the coalition fought the Nine Years' War (1688–1697) against France that ended with the Peace of Ryswick (1697).
Second Hundred Years' War (c. 1689 - c. 1815): periodization or historical era term used by some historians to describe the series of military conflicts between Great Britain and France that occurred from about 1689 (or some say 1714) to 1815. Many in Europe referred to Great Britain as "Perfidious Albion," suggesting that it was a fundamentally untrustworthy nation. People compared Britain and France to ancient Carthage and Rome, respectively, with the former being cast as a greedy imperialist state that collapsed, while the latter was an intellectual and cultural capital that flourished.
Great Northern War (1700–21; +Plague, +Great Frost): conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe. Initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway and Augustus II the Strong of Saxony-Poland. Frederick IV and Augustus II were forced out of the alliance in 1700 and 1706 respectively, but rejoined it in 1709. George I of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover and in 1717 for Britain, and Frederick William I of Brandenburg-Prussia joined it in 1715. {q.v. User:Kazkaskazkasako/Work#Epidemiology Great Northern War plague outbreak; User:Kazkaskazkasako/Books/Physical sciences#Climate Great Frost of 1709}
Battle of Poltava (1709.07.08): decisive victory of Peter I of Russia, also known as Peter the Great, over the Swedish forces under Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld. The beginning of Sweden's decline as a Great Power, as the Tsardom of Russia took its place as the leading nation of north-eastern Europe.
War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714): major European conflict of the early 18th century, triggered by the death in 1700 of the last Habsburg King of Spain, the infirm and childless Charles II. Charles II had ruled over a vast global empire, and the question of who would succeed him had long troubled the governments of Europe. Attempts to solve the problem by peacefully partitioning the empire among the eligible candidates from the royal houses of France (Bourbon), Austria (Habsburg), and Bavaria (Wittelsbach) ultimately failed, and on his deathbed Charles II fixed the entire Spanish inheritance on his grandnephew Philip, Duke of Anjou, the second-eldest grandson of King Louis XIV of France.
War of the Austrian Succession (1740.12.16–1748.10.18; Österreichischer Erbfolgekrieg): European conflict. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's War in North America, the War of Jenkins' Ear, the First Carnatic War and the First and Second Silesian Wars. The pretext for the war was the right of Maria Theresa to succeed her father Emperor Charles VI as ruler of the Habsburg monarchy. France, Prussia and Bavaria saw it as an opportunity to challenge Habsburg power, while Maria Theresa was backed by Britain, the Dutch Republic and Hanover, collectively known as the Pragmatic Allies. As the conflict widened, it drew in other participants, among them Spain, Sardinia, Saxony, Sweden and Russia. The clearest winner was Prussia, which acquired Silesia from Austria, an outcome that undermined the long-standing Anglo-Austrian Alliance, since Maria Theresa deeply resented Britain's insistence she cede Silesia to make peace and whose main objective became regaining it. The war also demonstrated the vulnerability of Hanover, then held in personal union with the British Crown, while many British politicians felt they had received little benefit from the enormous subsidies paid to Austria. The result was the realignment known as the Diplomatic Revolution, in which Austria and France ended the French–Habsburg rivalry which had dominated European affairs for centuries, while Prussia allied with Great Britain. These changes set the scene for the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756.
First Silesian War (1740.12.16–1742.06.11, Erster Schlesischer Krieg): war between Prussia and Austria and resulted in Prussia's seizing most of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland) from Austria. The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Moravia and Bohemia (the lands of the Bohemian Crown) and formed one theatre of the wider War of the Austrian Succession. The First Silesian War marked the unexpected defeat of the Habsburg monarchy by a lesser German power and initiated the Austria–Prussia rivalry that would shape German politics for more than a century.
Second Silesian War (1744.08.07–1745.12.25, Zweiter Schlesischer Krieg): war between Prussia and Austria that confirmed Prussia's control of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland).
Third Silesian War (1756.08.29–1763.02.15, Dritter Schlesischer Krieg): war between Prussia and Austria (together with its allies) that confirmed Prussia's control of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland). The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Bohemia and Upper Saxony and formed one theatre of the Seven Years' War. This conflict can be viewed as a continuation of the First and Second Silesian Wars of the previous decade. After the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the War of the Austrian Succession, Austria enacted broad reforms and upended its traditional diplomatic policy to prepare for renewed war with Prussia. As with the previous Silesian Wars, no particular triggering event initiated the conflict; rather, Prussia struck opportunistically to disrupt its enemies' plans. The war's cost in blood and treasure was high on both sides, and it ended inconclusively when neither of the main belligerents could sustain the conflict any longer. The war greatly enhanced the prestige of Prussia, which won general recognition as a major European power, and of Frederick, who cemented his reputation as a preeminent military commander.
Seven Years' War (1754/56–1763): global conflict, "a struggle for global primacy between Britain and France", which also had a major impact on the Spanish Empire. In Europe, the conflict arose from issues left unresolved by the War of the Austrian Succession, with Prussia seeking greater dominance. Long standing colonial rivalries between Britain against France and Spain in North America and the Caribbean islands (valuable for sugar) were fought on a grand scale with consequential results. In Europe, the war broke out over territorial disputes between Prussia and Austria, which wanted to regain Silesia after it was captured by Prussia in the previous war. Britain, France, and Spain fought both in Europe and overseas with land-based armies and naval forces, while Prussia sought territorial expansion in Europe and consolidation of its power. Anglo-French conflict over their colonies in North America had begun in 1754 in what became known in North America as the French and Indian War, a nine-year war that ended France's presence as a land power. It was "the most important event to occur in eighteenth-century North America". Spain entered the war in 1761, joining France in the Third Family Compact between the two Bourbon monarchies. The alliance with France was a disaster for Spain, with the loss to Britain of two major ports, Havana in the Caribbean and Manila in the Philippines, returned in the 1763 Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain. The Seven Years' War was perhaps the first global war, taking place almost 160 years before WWI, and globally influenced many later major events. Winston Churchill described the conflict as the "first world war". The war restructured not only the European political order, but also affected events all around the world, paving the way for the beginning of later British world supremacy in the 19th century, the rise of Prussia in Germany (eventually replacing Austria as the leading German state), the beginning of tensions in British North America (American Revolution), as well as a clear sign of France's revolutionary turmoil (French Revolution). It was characterized in Europe by sieges and the arson of towns as well as open battles with heavy losses.
Diplomatic Revolution: reversal of longstanding alliances in Europe between the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. Austria went from an ally of Britain to an ally of France, while Prussia became an ally of Britain
Stately quadrille: popularly used to describe the constantly shifting alliances between the Great Powers of Europe during 18th c.
Anglo-Spanish War (1762–1763) (Guerra Anglo-Española, 1762–1763): military conflict fought between Britain and Spain as part of the Seven Years' War. Treaty of Paris brought it to an end. For most of the Seven Years' War, Spain remained neutral, turning down offers from the French to join the war on their side. During the war's latter stages, however, with mounting French losses to the British leaving the Spanish Empire vulnerable, King Charles III signaled his intention to enter the war on the side of France. This alliance became the third Family Compact between the two Bourbon kingdoms. After Charles had signed the agreement with France, seized British shipping, and expelled British merchants, Britain declared war on Spain. In August 1762, a British expedition captured Havana then, a month later, captured Manila. The loss of the colonial capitals in the Spanish West Indies and East Indies was a huge blow to Spanish prestige and its ability to defend its empire. Between May and November, three major Franco-Spanish invasions of Portugal, Britain's long time Iberian ally, were defeated. The invaders were forced to withdraw with significant losses inflicted by the Portuguese, with significant British assistance.
Spanish invasion of Portugal (1762) (1762.05.05–11.24): main military episode of the wider Seven Years' War, where Spain and France were heavily defeated by the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance (including broad popular resistance). It initially involved the forces of Spain and Portugal, before the French and British intervened in the conflict on the side of their respective allies. The war was also strongly marked by a national guerilla warfare in the mountainous country, cutting off supplies from Spain and a hostile peasantry that enforced a scorched earth policy as the invading armies approached, leaving the invaders starving and short of military supplies.
Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98): comprised two separate yet linked operations: an initial invasion in 1592, a brief truce in 1596, and a second invasion in 1597. The conflict ended in 1598 with the withdrawal of the Japanese forces from the Korean Peninsula after a military stalemate in Korea's southern coastal provinces. The invasions were launched by Toyotomi Hideyoshi with the intent of conquering the Korean Peninsula and China, which were ruled by the Joseon and by the Ming dynasty, respectively. Japan quickly succeeded in occupying large portions of the Korean Peninsula, but the contribution of reinforcements by the Ming, as well as the disruption of Japanese supply fleets along the western and southern coasts by the Joseon Navy forced a withdrawal of Japanese forces from Pyongyang and the northern provinces to the south, where the Japanese continued to occupy Hanseong (now Seoul) and the southeastern regions. Afterwards, with guerrilla warfare waged against the Japanese with righteous armies (Joseon civilian militias) and supply difficulties hampering both sides, neither the Japanese nor the combined Ming and Joseon forces were able to mount a successful offensive or gain any additional territory, resulting in a military stalemate in the areas between Hanseong and Kaesong.
Revolutionary wave: series of revolutions occurring in various locations within a similar time span. In many cases, past revolutions and revolutionary waves have inspired current ones, or an initial revolution has inspired other concurrent "affiliate revolutions" with similar aims.
The Internationale ("L'Internationale"): left-wing anthem. It has been a standard of the socialist movement since the late nineteenth century, when the Second International adopted it as its official anthem. The title arises from the "First International", an alliance of workers which held a congress in 1864. The author of the anthem's lyrics, Eugène Pottier, an anarchist, attended this congress. Pottier's text was later set to an original melody composed by Pierre De Geyter, a Marxist. Most universally translated anthems in history. Adopted as the anthem of the anarchist, communist, socialist, democratic socialist, and social democratic movements. Winston Churchill and National Anthems of the Allies: A similar situation had occurred earlier in the War with the BBC's popular weekly Sunday evening radio broadcast, preceding the Nine O'Clock News, titled National Anthems of the Allies, whose playlist was all of the national anthems of the countries allied with the United Kingdom, the list growing with each country that Germany invaded. After the Germans began their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.06.22 (Operation Barbarossa), it was fully expected that "The Internationale", as the anthem of the Soviet Union, would be included in the playlist that day; but to people's surprise it was not, neither that week nor the week after. Winston Churchill, a staunch opponent of communism, had immediately sent word to the BBC via Anthony Eden that "The PM has issued an instruction to the Ministry of Information that the Internationale is on no account to be played by the B.B.C." (emphasis in the original).
French period: French Republican, Napoleonic era in Europe
French period (French: Période française, German: Franzosenzeit, Dutch: Franse tijd; 1794 - 1815): most of Northern Europe was controlled by Republican or Napoleonic France. The exact duration of the period varies by the location concerned. In German historiography, the term emerged in the 19th century and developed nationalist connotations. It entered Low German usage with Fritz Reuter's popular work Ut de Franzosentid (1860). It was used alongside the concept of Erbfeind ("hereditary enmity") to express anti-French feeling as part of the formation of a German national identity and as such was used in a non-neutral way under the German Empire and Third Reich.
French Revolution (Révolution française; 1789.05.05–1799.11.09): period of fundamental political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended in November 1799 with the formation of the French Consulate. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while phrases like Liberté, égalité, fraternité reappeared in other revolts, such as the 1917 Russian Revolution. and inspired campaigns for the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage. Its values and institutions dominate French politics to this day, and many historians regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in Western history.
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In late 1791, factions within the Assembly came to see war as a way to unite the country and secure the Revolution by eliminating hostile forces on its borders and establishing its "natural frontiers". France declared war on Austria in April 1792 and issued the first conscription orders, with recruits serving for twelve months. By the time peace finally came in 1815, the conflict had involved every major European power as well as the United States, redrawn the map of Europe and expanded into the Americas, the Middle East and Indian Ocean.
From 1701 to 1801, the population of Europe grew from 118 to 187 million; combined with new mass production techniques, this allowed belligerents to support large armies, requiring the mobilisation of national resources. It was a different kind of war, fought by nations rather than kings, intended to destroy their opponents' ability to resist, but also to implement deep-ranging social change. While all wars are political to some degree, this period was remarkable for the emphasis placed on reshaping boundaries and the creation of entirely new European states.
Napoleonic era (1799–1815): generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative Assembly, and the third being the Directory. Napoleonic era begins roughly with Napoleon Bonaparte's coup d'état, overthrowing the Directory (9 November 1799), establishing the French Consulate, and ends during the Hundred Days and his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815). The Congress of Vienna soon set out to restore Europe to pre-French Revolution days. Napoleon brought political stability to a land torn by revolution and war. He made peace with the Roman Catholic Church and reversed the most radical religious policies of the Convention. In 1804 Napoleon promulgated the Civil Code, a revised body of civil law, which also helped stabilize French society.
War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802) was the second war on revolutionary France by most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples, various German monarchies and Sweden, though Prussia did not join this coalition and Spain supported France.
Bonaparte forcibly removed the other Knights from their possessions, angering Paul, Tsar of Russia, who was the honorary head of the Order. The French Directory, furthermore, was convinced that the Austrians were conniving to start another war. Indeed, the weaker the French Republic seemed, the more seriously the Austrians, the Neapolitans, the Russians and the British actually discussed this possibility.
1799 These reverses, as well as British insistence on searching shipping in the Baltic Sea led to Russia withdrawing from the Coalition.
1801 Britain continued the war at sea. A coalition of non-combatants including Prussia, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden joined to protect neutral shipping from Britain's blockade, resulting in Nelson's surprise attack on the Danish fleet in harbour at the Battle of Copenhagen.
Second League of Armed Neutrality: alliance of the north European naval powers Denmark–Norway, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia. It occurred between 1800 and 1801 during the War of the Second Coalition and was initiated by Paul I of Russia. The Second League was intended to protect neutral shipping against the Royal Navy's wartime policy of unlimited search of neutral shipping for French contraband, in an attempt to cut off military supplies and other trade to the First French Republic. The British government, not yet anxious to preserve Russian goodwill, openly considered it a form of alliance with France and attacked Denmark, destroying parts of its fleet in the first Battle of Copenhagen and forcing it to withdraw from the League. Britain also occupied the Danish West Indies between March 1801 and April 1802. In addition to this, Prussia invaded Hanover in April 1801 as a way to attack the British. Paul's assassination in March 1801 and the accession of Alexander I led to a change of policy in Russia, and the alliance collapsed. Russia later joined the British in a coalition against Napoleonic France.
Treaties of Tilsit: two agreements signed by Napoleon I of France in the town of Tilsit in 1807.07 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 1807.07.07, between Emperor Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon I of France, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman River. The second was signed with Prussia on 1807.07.09. The treaties were made at the expense of the Prussian king, who had already agreed to a truce 1807.06.25 after the Grande Armée had captured Berlin and pursued him to the easternmost frontier of his realm. In Tilsit, he ceded about half of his pre-war territories. From those territories, Napoleon had created French sister republics, which were formalized and recognized at Tilsit: the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Duchy of Warsaw and the Free City of Danzig; the other ceded territories were awarded to existing French client states and to Russia. Napoleon not only cemented his control of Central Europe but also had Russia and the truncated Prussia ally with him against his two remaining enemies, the United Kingdom and Sweden, triggering the Anglo-Russian and Finnish War.
Anglo-Russian War (1807–1812) (1807.09.02–1812.07.18): phase of hostilities between Great Britain and Russia after the latter signed the Treaty of Tilsit that ended its war with France. Anglo-Russian hostilities were limited primarily to minor naval actions in the Baltic Sea and Barents Sea.
Finnish War (1808.02.21–1809.09.17): fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire; eastern third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. Other notable effects were the Swedish parliament's adoption of a new constitution and the establishment of the House of Bernadotte, the new Swedish royal house, in 1818.
Józef Poniatowski (1763.05.07–1813.10.19): Polish general, minister of war and army chief, who became a Marshal of the French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. A nephew of king Stanislaus Augustus of Poland (r. 1764–1795), Poniatowski began his military career in 1780 in the Austrian army, where he attained the rank of colonel.
Battle of Leipzig (Battle of the Nations; Битва народов; Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig; fr:Bataille des Nations; se:Slaget vid Leipzig; 1813.10.16-19): coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden, led by Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, decisively defeated the French army of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops, as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine. The battle was the culmination of the German campaign of 1813 and involved 600,000 soldiers, 2,200 artillery pieces, the expenditure of 200,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and 127,000 casualties, making it the largest battle in Europe prior to WWI. Decisively defeated for the first time in battle, Napoleon was compelled to return to France while the Coalition kept up their momentum, dissolving the Confederation of the Rhine and invading France early the next year. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Elba in May 1814.
Russo-Persian Wars (Russo-Iranian Wars; 1651-1653, 1722-1723, 1796, 1804-1813, 1826-1828): Russia and Persia fought these wars over disputed governance of territories and countries in the Caucasus. The main territories disputed were Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, as well as much of Dagestan – generally referred to as Transcaucasia – and considered part of the Safavid Iran prior to the Russo-Persian Wars. Over the course of the five Russo-Persian Wars, the governance of these regions transferred between the two empires. Between the Second and Third Russo-Persian Wars, there was an interbellum period in which a number of treaties were drawn up between the Russian and the Persian Empires, as well as between both parties and the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman interest in these territories further complicated the wars, with both sides forming alliances with the Ottoman Empire at different points throughout the wars.
Russo-Persian War (1722–1723): Russia gains Derbent, Baku, and the provinces of Shirvan, Gilan, Mazandaran and Astarabad. All returned to Iran 9 and 12 years later.
Indian March of Paul: secret project of a planned allied Russo-French expedition against the British dominions in India. It was scuttled following the assassination of Emperor Paul I of Russia in March 1801. Russia and Britain were allied during the French Revolutionary Wars of the 1790s. The failure of their joint invasion of the Netherlands in 1799 precipitated a change in attitudes. Britain's occupation of Malta in October 1800 incensed Emperor Paul in his capacity of Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller. He hastily broke with Britain and allied himself with Napoleon who came up with an extravagant plan of a Russo-French expedition to attack the British possessions in India. When Orlov's modest Cossack contingent advanced as far south as the Aral Sea, they received intelligence of the Emperor's assassination. The Indian March was brought to a halt, and before long the Cossacks were commanded to retreat. It is tempting to speculate that the Pahlen plot was triggered by the Indian adventure, given that the high-placed Russian officials did not approve of it and their conspiracy was financed by British diplomacy. There is no evidence to confirm this conjecture.
Russo-Persian War (1804–1813): Persia is forced to cede what is now Georgia, Dagestan, most of Azerbaijan, and parts of northern Armenia to the Russian Empire.
French Revolution and English literature, feminism, philosophy
Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution: onventional description of the results of a number of separate policies conducted by various governments of France between the start of the French Revolution in 1789 and the Concordat of 1801, forming the basis of the later and less radical laïcité policies. The goal of the campaign between 1793 and 1794 ranged from the public reclamation of the massive amounts of land, power, and money held by the Catholic Church in France to the termination of Catholic religious practice and of the religion itself. The new revolutionary authorities suppressed the church; abolished the Catholic monarchy; nationalized church property; exiled 30,000 priests and killed hundreds more. In October 1793 the Christian calendar was replaced with one reckoning from the date of the Revolution, and Festivals of Liberty, Reason and the Supreme Being were scheduled. New forms of moral religion emerged, including the deistic Cult of the Supreme Being and the atheistic Cult of Reason, with the revolutionary government briefly mandating observance of the former in April 1794.
Age of Enlightenment (Age of Reason): intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the pursuit of happiness, sovereignty of reason and the evidence of the senses as the primary sources of knowledge and advanced ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government and separation of church and state. The Enlightenment emerged out of a European intellectual and scholarly movement known as Renaissance humanism and was also preceded by the Scientific Revolution and the work of Francis Bacon, among others. Some date the beginning of the Enlightenment to René Descartes' 1637 philosophy of Cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"), while others cite the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution and the beginning of the Enlightenment. French historians traditionally date its beginning with the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715 until the 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution. Most end it with the beginning of the 19th century. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. A variety of 19th-c. movements, including liberalism and neoclassicism, trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment.
Encyclopédie (Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers; published in France between 1751 and 1772 with later supplements, revised editions, and translations): many writers, known as the Encyclopédistes. It was edited by Denis Diderot and, until 1759, co-edited by Jean le Rond d'Alembert. The Encyclopédie is most famous for representing the thought of the Enlightenment. According to Denis Diderot in the article "Encyclopédie", the Encyclopédie's aim was "to change the way people think" and for people (bourgeoisie) to be able to inform themselves and to know things. He and the other contributors advocated for the secularization of learning away from the Jesuits. Diderot wanted to incorporate all of the world's knowledge into the Encyclopédie and hoped that the text could disseminate all this information to the public and future generations.
Modern world. The time of fast changing (and very important) alliances; the time of WWI and WWII.
USA, Japan, Germany, Italy, and China were (newly) (re)formed in the 18th-20th centuries, whereas Britain/England, France, and Russia were long standing states without long occupation by others in 18th c. - present.
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (Economic Change and Military Conflict From 1500 to 2000; 1987): by Paul Kennedy; forecasting the positions of PRC, Japan, EEC (EU), Soviet Union, USA.
Anglo-Portuguese Alliance: ratified at the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, between England (succeeded by the United Kingdom) and Portugal is the oldest alliance in the world that is still in force – with the earliest treaty dating back to the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373.
Sino-Russian border conflicts (1652–1689): series of intermittent skirmishes between the Qing dynasty of China, with assistance from the Joseon dynasty of Korea, and the Tsardom of Russia by the Cossacks in which the latter tried and failed to gain the land north of the Amur River with disputes over the Amur region. The hostilities culminated in the Qing siege of the Cossack fort of Albazin in 1686 and resulted in the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 which gave the land to China.
Concert of Europe: general consensus among the Great Powers of 19th-century Europe to maintain the European balance of power, political boundaries, and spheres of influence. Never a perfect unity and subject to disputes and jockeying for position and influence, the Concert was an extended period of relative peace and stability in Europe following the Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars which had consumed the continent since the 1790s. There is considerable scholarly dispute over the exact nature and duration of the Concert. Some scholars argue that it fell apart nearly as soon as it began in the 1820s when the Great Powers disagreed over the handling of liberal revolts in Italy, while others argue that it lasted until the outbreak of WWI and others for points in between. For those arguing for a longer duration, there is generally agreement that the period after the Revolutions of 1848 and the Crimean War (1853-1856) represented a different phase with different dynamics than the earlier period. The beginnings of the Concert of Europe, known as the Congress System or the Vienna System after the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), was dominated by the five Great Powers of Europe: Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Initially envisioning regular Congresses among the Great Powers to resolve potential disputes, in practice, Congresses were held on an ad hoc basis and were generally successful in preventing or localizing conflicts. The more conservative members of the Concert of Europe, members of the Holy Alliance (Russia, Austria, and Prussia), used the system to oppose revolutionary and liberal movements and weaken the forces of nationalism. Following German Unification, German chancellor Otto von Bismarck sought to revive the Concert of Europe to protect Germany's gains and secure its leading role in European affairs. The revitalized Concert included Austria (at the time a part of Austria-Hungary), France, Italy, Russia, and Britain, with Germany as the driving continental power. The second phase oversaw a further period of relative peace and stability from the 1870s to 1914, and facilitated the growth of European colonial and imperial control in Africa and Asia without wars between the Great Powers.
First phase: The Holy Alliance within the Concert; Congress System (1814 Congress of Vienna, 1818 Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (ending the occupation of France), 1820 Congress of Troppau, 1821 Congress of Laibach, 1822 Congress of Verona); Collapse of the Congress System (Protocol of St. Petersburg (1826), 1830 London Conference, Oriental Crisis (1840)); Decline of the First Phase (Revolutions of 1848, Crimean War and the 1856 Congress of Paris, Wars of National Unification (Italian, German)).
Second phase: 1871 is the year in which the German and Italian unifications were completed and also the year of the Treaty of London. Revival of Great Power Conferences; Decline of the Second Phase (Causes of WWI); Role of nationalism (Rise of nationalism in Europe).
Geostrategy in Central Asia: Central Asia has long been a geostrategic location because of its proximity to the interests of several great powers and regional powers.
The Great Game: political and diplomatic confrontation that existed for most of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century between the British Empire and the Russian Empire, over Afghanistan and neighbouring territories in Central and South Asia. It also had direct consequences in Persia and British India. Britain feared that Russia planned to invade India and that this was the goal of Russia's expansion in Central Asia, while Russia feared the expansion of British interests in Central Asia. As a result, there was a deep atmosphere of distrust and the talk of war between two of the major European empires. Britain made it a high priority to protect all the approaches to India, while Russia continued its conquest of Central Asia. Some historians of Russia have concluded that after 1801, Russia had minimal intentions or plans involving India and that it was mostly a matter of British suspicions although multiple 19th century invasion plans are attested including the Duhamel plan and Khrulev plan, among later plans that never materialized. The Great Game began 1830.01.12 when Lord Ellenborough, the president of the Board of Control for India, tasked Lord William Bentinck, the governor-general, with establishing a new trade route to the Emirate of Bukhara. Britain intended to gain control over the Emirate of Afghanistan and make it a protectorate, and to use the Ottoman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Khanate of Khiva, and the Emirate of Bukhara as buffer states blocking Russian expansion. This would protect India and also key British sea trade routes by stopping Russia from gaining a port on the Persian Gulf or the Indian Ocean. Russia proposed Afghanistan as the neutral zone. Some historians consider the end of the Great Game to be 1895.09.10 signing of the Pamir Boundary Commission protocols, when the border between Afghanistan and the Russian empire was defined. Others see it concluding with the signing of the Anglo-Russian Convention 1907.08.31.
from ~Treaty of Gulistan of 1813 (Azerbaijan and Daghestan were born out of Persia) to ~Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907; RU and UK/GB: from 'enemies' to 'friends'; the future of Indo-Iranian (and some non-Indo-Iranians in these areas), Ottoman Empire (mainly Turkey (modern successor), also Arabic, Balkans, Persian) and Turkic (Azerbaijani, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Uyghur, Uzbeks, other) peoples
European influence in Afghanistan: present in the country since the Victorian era, when the competing imperial powers of Britain and Russia contested for control over Afghanistan as part of the Great Game.
Holy Alliance 1815.09.26, stopping the (-alistic, -tarian, -atic) revolutions in Europe (and worldwide?), by Austrian and Russian Empires, and soon-to-be an empire (after German unification), Kingdom of Prussia
First Opium War UK vs Qing China, 1839 to 1842, HK to UK (only to go back to PR China on 1 July 1997)
Territorial changes since the Treaty of Adrianople.
Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829): sparked by the Greek War of Independence of 1821–1829. War broke out after the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II closed the Dardanelles to Russian ships and revoked the 1826 Akkerman Convention in retaliation for Russian participation in October 1827 in the Battle of Navarino.
Treaty of Adrianople (1829): concluded the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29, between Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The terms favored Russia, which gained access to the mouths of the Danube and new territory on the Black Sea. The Treaty opened the Dardanelles to all commercial vessels, granted autonomy to Serbia, and promised autonomy for Greece. It also allowed Russia to occupy Moldavia and Walachia until the Ottoman Empire had paid a large indemnity; those indemnities were later reduced.
Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833) (First Egyptian–Ottoman War, First Syrian War): military conflict between the Ottoman Empire and Egypt brought about by Muhammad Ali Pasha's demand to the Sublime Porte for control of Greater Syria, as reward for aiding the Sultan during the Greek War of Independence. As a result, Egyptian forces temporarily gained control of Syria, advancing as far north as Kütahya.
Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi (1833.07.08): treaty signed between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, following the military aid of Russia against Mehmed Ali that same year. The treaty brought about an alliance between the two powers, as well as a guarantee that the Ottomans would close the Dardanelles to any foreign warships if the Russians requested such action.
Siege of Al-Karak (1834): 17-day siege imposed by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt on the Transjordanian town of Al-Karak. The Pasha laid the siege on the town in pursuit of Qasim al-Ahmad, the leader of the Peasants' revolt in Palestine, who had fled from Nablus to take shelter in Al-Karak. Egyptian troops looted the town and the countryside for five days, while Karak's famous fortifications were shelled with gunpowder and the town was reduced to ruins. The Karakis took vengeance upon the Pasha and his Egyptian army when Ibrahim Pasha was driven out of Syria, six years after the siege.
Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841) ((Second) Syrian War): In 1839, the Ottoman Empire moved to reoccupy lands lost to Muhammad Ali in the First Turko-Egyptian War. The Ottoman Empire invaded Syria, but after suffering a defeat at the Battle of Nezib appeared on the verge of collapse. On 1 July, the Ottoman fleet sailed to Alexandria and surrendered to Muhammad Ali. Britain, Austria and other European nations, rushed to intervene and force Egypt into accepting a peace treaty. From September to November 1840, a combined naval fleet, made up of British and Austrian vessels, cut off Ibrahim's sea communications with Egypt, followed by the occupation of Beirut and Acre by the British. 1840.11.27, the Convention of Alexandria took place. British Admiral Charles Napier reached an agreement with the Egyptian government, where the latter abandoned its claims to Syria and returned the Ottoman fleet.
Mission of the Vixen (1836): conflict between the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom. Under the treaty of Adrianople, the Russian Empire had been granted the East coast of the Black Sea by the Ottoman Empire. However, Russia did not have complete control over these territories (the Circassian Coast) from Anapa in the north to Sochi in the south. The "mountaineers" (the Circassian [Adyghe] people) resisted the Russian authorities and did not admit Russian Control over their country Circassia, because Circassia was not part of the Ottoman Empire and the relations between Circassia and the Ottoman Empire were mainly on commercial and religious matters. The mountaineers (Adyghe) were supported by English, French and the Polish immigrants. They were supplied with weapons and ammunition from abroad. In 1834, David Urquhart went to Circassia and made contact with the rebels. In 1836, he was captured in the Vixen. From 1837 to 1840, James Stanislaus Bell, Edmond Spencer and J. A. Longworth (of the Times) were also in Circassia. All three published memoirs. Their relation to the British government is uncertain. All four have been accused of implying that they have more influence on the British government than they in fact had, and offering the Circassians false hope of British support that probably would not have materialised. In November 1836, the Russian military brig Ajax detained the British schooner Vixen in (Adyghe: Цӏэмэз, Ts'emez) in the sea port Sudzhuk-Kale (nowadays Novorossiysk). At the moment of detention, 8 guns, 28,800 pounds of gunpowder, and a significant amount of other weapons had already been unloaded. This was deemed a provocation by the Russians, instigated by the first secretary of the British embassy in Constantinople, David Urquhart. The Polish immigrants also participated in the organisation of the incident. The reaction in London to the seizure was one of outrage. The Conservatives brought up in Parliament a question on the legality of Circassia being under the jurisdiction of the Russian Empire. Russia was threatened with war. After angry statements from London, Nicholas I of Russia ordered the army and fleet into a condition of raised battle readiness. The schooner Vixen, according to the instruction, was confiscated, and its crew was sent to Constantinople. The conflict threatened to develop into war between Russia and Britain, but by April 1837 relations had settled down. Urquhart was withdrawn to London. Britain was reluctant to antagonise Russia further, as it could not find a continental ally willing to lend support in a war. The official answer of the government and the Liberal Party to an inquiry by the Conservatives stated that Russia owned Circassia lawfully under the Adrianople peace treaty. Russia, therefore, continued its blockade of the east coast of Black Sea. The conflict became one of a number of episodes of Russian-British rivalry of the 1830s and 1840s, which were eventually to escalate into the Crimean War.
David Urquhart (1805.07.01–1877.05.16): Scottish diplomat, writer and politician, serving as a Member of Parliament from 1847 to 1852. In 1827, Urquhart joined the nationalist cause in the Greek War of Independence. Seriously injured, he spent the next few years championing the Greek cause in letters to the British government, a self-promotion that entailed his appointment in 1831 to Sir Stratford Canning's mission to Istanbul to settle the border between Greece and Turkey. In 1835, he was appointed secretary of embassy at Constantinople, but an unfortunate attempt to counteract Russian aggressive designs in Circassia, which threatened to lead to an international crisis, again led to his recall in 1837. Urquhart's position was so aggressively anti-Russian and pro-Turkish that it created difficulties for British politics. In the 1830s, there was no anti-Russian coalition in Europe; it had yet to be created.
Crimean War (1853.10.16–1856.03.30): military conflict in which Russia lost to an alliance made up of France, the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom and Sardinia. The immediate cause of the war involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, then a part of the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at the Ottoman Empire's expense. It has widely been noted that the causes, in one case involving an argument over a key, have never revealed a "greater confusion of purpose", yet they led to a war that stood out for its "notoriously incompetent international butchery". The Crimean War was one of the first conflicts in which the military used modern technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways, and telegraphs. The war was one of the first to be documented extensively in written reports and in photographs. As the legend of the "Charge of the Light Brigade" demonstrates, the war quickly became a symbol of logistical, medical, and tactical failures and mismanagement. The reaction in Britain led to a demand for professionalisation, most famously achieved by Florence Nightingale, who gained worldwide attention for pioneering modern nursing while treating the wounded. The Crimean War marked a turning point for the Russian Empire. The war weakened the Imperial Russian Army, drained the treasury and undermined Russia's influence in Europe. Russia would take decades to recover. The humiliation forced Russia's educated elites to identify the Empire's problems and to recognize the need for fundamental reforms. They saw rapid modernization of the country as its sole way to recover the status of a European power. The war thus became a catalyst for reforms of Russia's social institutions, including the abolition of serfdom and overhauls in the justice system, in local self-government, in education, and in military service.
Åland War (Finnish: Oolannin sota, Swedish: Åländska kriget): Finnish term for the operations of a British-French naval force against military and civilian facilities on the coast of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1854–1856, during the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and the allied France and Britain. The war is named after the Battle of Bomarsund in Åland. Although the name of the war refers to Åland, skirmishes were also fought in other coastal towns of Finland in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland.
Battle of Bomarsund (1854.08): Anglo-French expeditionary force attacked a Russian fortress. It was the only major action of the war to take place at Bomarsund in the Baltic Sea.
Treaty of Paris (1856): brought an end to the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The treaty, signed in 1856.03.30 at the Congress of Paris, made the Black Sea neutral territory, closing it to all warships and prohibiting fortifications and the presence of armaments on its shores. The treaty diminished Russian influence in the region. Conditions for the return of Sevastopol and other towns and cities in the south of Crimea to Russia were severe since no naval or military arsenal could be established by Russia on the coast of the Black Sea.
Template:Great power diplomacy 1871-1913: Japan takes over Korea and Taiwan; British Empire is the biggest; Germany just after unification rises; France; Russia; USA rise; Italy; Austria-Hungary demise
Scramble for Africa between the 1880s and the First World War in 1914, more or less no corner in Africa is left uncolonised; UK/GB, FR, DE, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy (RU, USA, Japan, China etc. missing... for the time being...)
Reinsurance Treaty 18 June 1887, Germany (von Bismarck made it, but later was dismissed) and Russia trying, teaming up and then failing to team up because of RU-FR relations and over DE-UK/GB possible relations
Ten Years' War (1868.10.10–1878.05.28; Great War (Guerra Grande), the War of '68): part of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. The uprising was led by Cuban-born planters and other wealthy natives. On 10 October 1868, sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed independence, beginning the conflict. This was the first of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Little War (1879–1880) and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). The final three months of the last conflict escalated with United States involvement, leading to the Spanish–American War.
Cuban War of Independence (1895.02.24–1898.02.15; Guerra de Independencia cubana): last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain. Historians disagree as to the extent that United States officials were motivated to intervene for humanitarian reasons but agree that yellow journalism exaggerated atrocities attributed to Spanish forces against Cuban civilians.
Spanish–American War (1898.04.25-08.12): period of armed conflict between Spain and USA. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to USA intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. The war led to the United States emerging predominant in the Caribbean region, and resulted in USA acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions. It led to USA involvement in the Philippine Revolution and later to the Philippine–American War. The main issue was Cuban independence. Revolts had been occurring for some years in Cuba against Spanish colonial rule. The United States backed these revolts upon entering the Spanish–American War. There had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. But in the late 1890s, American public opinion swayed in support of the rebellion because of reports of concentration camps set up to control the populace. Yellow journalism exaggerated the atrocities to further increase public fervor and to sell more newspapers and magazines. In 1898.04.20, McKinley signed a joint Congressional resolution demanding Spanish withdrawal and authorizing the President to use military force to help Cuba gain independence. In response, Spain severed diplomatic relations with the United States on April 21. On the same day, the United States Navy began a blockade of Cuba. Both sides declared war; neither had allies. The 10-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. As USA agitators for war well knew, USA naval power would prove decisive, allowing expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison already facing nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further devastated by yellow fever. The invaders obtained the surrender of Santiago de Cuba and Manila despite the good performance of some Spanish infantry units, and fierce fighting for positions such as San Juan Hill. The defeat and loss of the Spanish Empire's last remnants was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic reevaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of '98. The United States meanwhile not only became a major power, but also gained several island possessions spanning the globe, which provoked rancorous debate over the wisdom of expansionism. Aftermath: The war marked American entry into world affairs. Since then, the U.S. has had a significant hand in various conflicts around the world, and entered many treaties and agreements. The Panic of 1893 was over by this point, and the U.S. entered a long and prosperous period of economic and population growth, and technological innovation that lasted through the 1920s. Aftermath in USA: USA annexed the former Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. The notion of USA as an imperial power, with colonies, was hotly debated domestically with President McKinley and the Pro-Imperialists winning their way over vocal opposition led by Democrat William Jennings Bryan, who had supported the war. USA public largely supported the possession of colonies, but there were many outspoken critics such as Mark Twain, who wrote The War Prayer in protest. Roosevelt returned to USA a war hero, and he was soon elected governor of New York and then became the vice president. At the age of 42, Roosevelt became the youngest person to become president after the assassination of President McKinley.
Battle of Manila Bay (1898.05.01): during the Spanish–American War. The American Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey engaged and destroyed the Spanish Pacific Squadron under Contraalmirante (Rear admiral) Patricio Montojo. The battle took place in Manila Bay in the Philippines, and was the first major engagement of the Spanish–American War. The battle was one of the most decisive naval battles in history and marked the end of the Spanish colonial period in Philippine history. Tensions between Spain and the United States worsened over the Spanish conduct during their efforts to quell the Cuban War of Independence, with many Americans being agitated by largely falsified reports of Spanish atrocities against the Cuban population.
American propaganda of the Spanish–American War: Spanish–American War (April–August 1898) is considered to be both a turning point in the history of propaganda and the beginning of the practice of yellow journalism. It was the first conflict in which military action was precipitated by media involvement. The war grew out of USA interest in a fight for revolution between the Spanish military and citizens of their Cuban colony. USA newspapers fanned the flames of interest in the war by fabricating atrocities which justified intervention in a number of Spanish colonies worldwide.
Philippine–American War (1899.02.04–1902.07.02; Moro Rebellion: 1899.02.04–1913.06.15): American victory and occupation of the Philippines; dissolution of the First Philippine Republic.
History of the Philippines (1898–1946): Spanish-American War period (1898). Philippine–American War (1899–1902). Insular Government (1901–35): U.S. civil administration. Commonwealth era (1935–1946). Japanese occupation and WWII (1941–45). Independence (1946).
Amur Annexation: annexation of the southeast corner of Siberia by the Russian Empire in 1858–1860 through a series of unequal treaties forced upon the Qing dynasty of China. The two areas involved are Priamurye between the Amur River and the Stanovoy Range to the north, and Primorye which runs down the coast from the Amur mouth to the Korean border, including the island of Sakhalin. The territory now known as Outer Manchuria, part of the wider region called Manchuria, was formerly under the sovereignty of Qing China. Muravyov and the Treaty of Aigun (1858). Putyatin, Ignatyev, and the Convention of Peking (1860).
Boxer Rebellion between 1898 and 1901, religious Chinese guys and a bit of Qing Empire vs the big 8; big 8 wins
Russian invasion of Manchuria (June - November 1900): occurred in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) when concerns regarding Qing China's defeat by the Empire of Japan, and Japan's brief occupation of Liaodong, caused the Russian Empire to speed up their long held designs for imperial expansion across Eurasia. In the five years preceding the invasion, the Russian Empire established a network of leased territories in Manchuria. This began with the Triple Intervention in 1895, in which Russia received Liaotung from Japan. From 1897 Russia obtained from the Qing government leased territory to build and operate the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). As with all other major powers in China, Russia demanded concessions along with the railroad, enforced through unequal treaties. The Russian Empire's full invasion of Manchuria occurred concurrent with its participation against the Boxer Rebellion. The pretext of the invasion was the defense of the railroad against Boxer rebels. The invasion concluded with the full occupation of Manchuria by Russia, causing tensions that led to the Russo-Japanese War.
Durrani Empire (Sadozai Kingdom; 1747–1823, 1839–1842): Afghan empire founded and built by Ahmad Shah Abdali in parts of Central Asia, the Middle East and South Asia. At its maximum extent, the empire ruled over the modern-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as parts of northeastern and southeastern Iran, eastern Turkmenistan, and northwestern India. Next to the Ottoman Empire, the Durrani Empire was the greatest Muslim empire of the second half of 19th c.
Ahmad Shah Durrani (c. 1722 – 1772.10.16): founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern state of Afghanistan. He began his career by enlisting as a young soldier in the military of the Afsharid kingdom and quickly rose to become a commander of the Abdali Regiment, a cavalry of four thousand Abdali Pashtun soldiers. After the assassination of Nader Shah Afshar in 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani was chosen as King of Afghanistan. Rallying his Afghan tribes and allies, he pushed east towards the Mughal and the Maratha empires of India, west towards the disintegrating Afsharid Empire of Persia, and north toward the Khanate of Bukhara. Within a few years, he extended his control from Khorasan in the west to Kashmir and North India in the east, and from the Amu Darya in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south.
Basmachi movement (Uzbek: "Basmachi" meaning "bandits"; 1916–1934): uprising against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the Muslim peoples of Central Asia. The movement's roots lay in the anti-conscription violence of 1916 that erupted when the Russian Empire began to draft Muslims for army service in World War I. In the months following the October 1917 Revolution the Bolsheviks seized power in many parts of the Russian Empire and the Russian Civil War began. Turkestani Muslim political movements attempted to form an autonomous government in the city of Kokand, in the Fergana Valley. The Bolsheviks launched an assault on Kokand in February 1918 and carried out a general massacre of up to 25,000 people. The massacre rallied support to the Basmachi who waged a guerrilla and conventional war that seized control of large parts of the Fergana Valley and much of Turkestan. The group's notable leaders were Enver Pasha and, later, Ibrahim Bek. The fortunes of the movement fluctuated throughout the early 1920s, but by 1923 the Red Army's extensive campaigns had dealt the Basmachis many defeats. After major Red Army campaigns and concessions regarding economic and Islamic practices in the mid-1920s, the military fortunes and popular support of the Basmachi declined. Resistance to Russian rule and Soviet leadership did flare up again, to a lesser extent, in response to collectivization campaigns in the pre-WWII era.
European diplomatic alignments shortly before the war. The Ottomans joined the Central Powers shortly after the war started. Italy remained neutral in 1914 and joined the Allies in 1915.
World War I (1914.07.28–1918.11.11; WWI; referred to by contemporaries as the "Great War"): belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, USA, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting also expanding into the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, an estimated 9 million people were killed in combat, while over 5 million civilians died from military occupation, bombardment, hunger, and disease. Millions of additional deaths resulted from genocides within the Ottoman Empire and the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war.
First Battle of the Marne (1914.09.05–12): fought in a collection of skirmishes around the Marne River Valley. It resulted in an Entente victory against the German armies in the west. The battle was the culmination of the Retreat from Mons and pursuit of the Franco–British armies which followed the Battle of the Frontiers in August and reached the eastern outskirts of Paris.
Battle of Verdun (1916.02.21–12.18): on the Western Front in France. The battle was the longest of the First World War and took place on the hills north of Verdun-sur-Meuse. The German 5th Army attacked the defences of the Fortified Region of Verdun (RFV, Région Fortifiée de Verdun) and those of the French Second Army on the right (east) bank of the Meuse. Using the experience of the Second Battle of Champagne in 1915, the Germans planned to capture the Meuse Heights, an excellent defensive position, with good observation for artillery-fire on Verdun. The battle lasted for 302 days, the longest and one of the most costly in human history. In 2000, Hannes Heer and Klaus Naumann calculated that the French suffered 377,231 casualties and the Germans 337,000, a total of 714,231 and an average of 70,000 a month. In 2014, William Philpott wrote of 976,000 casualties in 1916 and 1,250,000 in the vicinity during the war. In France, the battle came to symbolise the determination of the French Army and the destructiveness of the war.
Battle of the Somme (1916.06.21–09.28; Somme offensive): battle of WWI fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. More than 3 mln. men fought in the battle and 1 mln. men were wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in human history.
Zimmermann Telegram (1917.01): secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico if USA entered WWI against Germany. With Germany's aid, Mexico would recover Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The telegram was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence. Revelation of the contents enraged Americans, especially after German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann publicly admitted on March 3 that the telegram was genuine. It helped to generate support for the American declaration of war on Germany in April. The decryption was described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during WWI, and one of the earliest occasions on which a piece of signal intelligence influenced world events. The Japanese government, another nation mentioned in the Zimmerman Telegram, was already involved in WWI, on the side of the Allies against Germany. The government later released a statement that Japan was not interested in changing sides and in attacking America.
German Revolution of 1918–1919 (First stage: 1918.10.29–11.09; Second stage: 1918.11.03–1919.08.11; Novemberrevolution): civil conflict in the German Empire at the end of WWI that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a democratic parliamentary republic that later became known as the Weimar Republic. Among the factors leading to the revolution were the extreme burdens suffered by the German population during the four years of war, the economic and psychological impacts of the German Empire's defeat by the Allies, and growing social tensions between the general population and the aristocratic and bourgeois elite.
End of WWI and the shortly afterwards following wars (Revolutions of 1917–1923)
Bacon's standard map of Europe, 1923. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Shows steamship routes and time zones.
Revolutions of 1917–1923: revolutionary wave that included political unrest and revolts around the world inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution and the disorder created by the aftermath of WWI. The uprisings were mainly socialist or anti-colonial in nature. In Russia the Tsar was overthrown during the Russian Revolution of 1917. That was followed by the Russian Civil War. Many French soldiers mutinied in 1917 and refused to engage the enemy. In Bulgaria, many troops mutinied, and the Bulgarian Tsar stepped down. Mass strikes and mutinies occurred in Austria-Hungary, and the Habsburg monarchy collapsed. In Germany, the November Revolution of 1918 threatened to overtake Germany but eventually failed. Italy faced various mass strikes. Greece succumbed to a coup d'état in 1922. Turkey experienced a successful war of independence. Communist revolutions in Europe: Russia, Western Europe. Non-Communist revolutions: Ireland (nationalist, Irish War of Independence (1919–1921)), Greece, Spain, Mexico, Malta, Egypt.
Conference of Ambassadors (Conference of Ambassadors of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers): inter-allied organization of the Entente in the period following the end of WWI. Formed in Paris in January 1920 it became a successor of the Supreme War Council and was later on de facto incorporated into the League of Nations as one of its governing bodies. It became less active after the Locarno Treaties of 1925 and formally ceased to exist in 1931 or 1935. The Conference consisted of ambassadors of Great Britain, Italy, and Japan accredited in Paris and French minister of foreign affairs. The ambassador of USA attended as an observer because USA was not an official party to the Treaty of Versailles. French diplomat René Massigli was its secretary-general for its entire existence. It was chaired by foreign minister of France. Some of the disputed regions handled by the Conference included Cieszyn Silesia (between Poland and Czechoslovakia), the Vilnius Region (between Poland and Lithuania), the Klaipėda Region (between Germany and Lithuania) and the Corfu Incident (between Italy and Greece). One of its major territorial decisions was made 1923.03.15, in recognizing the eastern borders of Poland created following the Polish–Soviet War of 1920. The Conference of Ambassadors of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers was appointed by the League of Nations to take charge of the Greek/Albanian border dispute that turned into the Corfu Incident of 1923.
Five stages in the Polish–Soviet War.Polish Kiev Offensive at its height, 1920.06.Soviet offensive successes, early 1920.08.
Early progression of the conflict (Polish–Soviet War in 1919)
Abortive peace process: In late autumn 1919, to many Polish politicians it appeared that Poland had achieved strategically desirable borders in the east and therefore fighting the Bolsheviks should be terminated and peace negotiations should commence. The pursuit of peace also dominated popular sentiments and anti-war demonstrations had taken place. The leadership of Soviet Russia confronted at that time a number of pressing internal and external problems. In order to effectively address the difficulties, they wanted to stop the warfare and offer peace to their neighbors, hoping to be able to come out of the international isolation they had been subjected to. Courted by the Soviets, the potential allies of Poland (Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, or the South Caucasus states) were unwilling to join a Polish-led anti-Soviet alliance. Faced with the diminishing revolutionary fervor in Europe, the Soviets were inclined to delay their hallmark project, a Soviet republic of Europe (soviet/council democracy), to some indefinite future. The peace offers sent to Warsaw by Russia's Foreign Secretary Georgy Chicherin and other Russian governing institutions between late December 1919 and early February 1920 had not been responded to. The Soviets proposed a favorable for Poland troop demarcation line consistent with the current military frontiers, leaving permanent border determinations for later. Józef Piłsudski, who ruled over the military and to a considerable degree over the weak civilian government, prevented any movement toward peace. By late February, he directed the Polish representatives to engage in pretended negotiations with the Soviets. Piłsudski and his collaborators stressed what they saw as the increasing with time Polish military advantage over the Red Army and their belief that the state of war had created highly favorable conditions for Poland's economic development. 1920.04.07, Chicherin accused Poland of rejecting the Soviet peace offer and notified the Allies of the negative developments, urging them to prevent the forthcoming Polish aggression. The Polish diplomacy claimed the necessity to counteract the immediate threat of a Soviet assault in Belarus, but the Western opinion, to whom the Soviet arguments seemed reasonable, rejected the Polish narrative.
Piłsudski's alliance with Petliura: Having resolved Poland's armed conflicts with the emerging Ukrainian states to Poland's satisfaction, Piłsudski was able to work on a Polish–Ukrainian alliance against Russia. 1919.12.02, Andriy Livytskyi and other Ukrainian diplomats declared their readiness to give up the Ukrainian claims to eastern Galicia and western Volhynia, in return for Poland's recognition of the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR). The Treaty of Warsaw, Piłsudski's agreement with Hetman Symon Petliura, the exiled Ukrainian nationalist leader, and two other members of the Directorate of Ukraine, was signed in 1920.04.21.
From Kiev Offensive to armistice
Polish forces
Red Army
Logistics and plans: The Polish Army, for example, used guns made in five countries and rifles manufactured in six, each of which used different ammunition. The Soviets had at their disposal many military depots that were left by the German armies after their withdrawal in 1918–1919, and modern French armaments that were captured in great numbers from the White Russians and the Allied expeditionary forces during the Russian Civil War. Still, they suffered a shortage of arms, as both the Red Army and the Polish forces were grossly underequipped by Western standards.
Kiev Offensive (1920)
Soviet victories
Diplomatic front: According to General Tukhachevsky's exhortation, "Over the corpse of White Poland lies the path to world conflagration ... On to ... Warsaw! Forward!" As the victory seemed more certain to them, Stalin and Trotsky engaged in political intrigues and argued about the direction of main Soviet offensive.
Vilna offensive (1919.04): campaign of the Polish–Soviet War. The Polish army launched an offensive in 1919.04.16, to take Vilnius (Polish: Wilno) from the Red Army. After three days of street fighting from 1919.04.19–21, the city was captured by Polish forces, causing the Red Army to retreat. During the offensive, the Poles also succeeded in securing the nearby cities of Lida, Pinsk, Navahrudak, and Baranovichi.
Treaty of Warsaw (1920) (Polish-Ukrainian or Petliura-Piłsudski Alliance/Agreement; signed: 1920.04.21 (military addendum: 1920.04.24)): military-economical alliance between the Second Polish Republic, represented by Józef Piłsudski, and the Ukrainian People's Republic, represented by Symon Petliura, against Bolshevik Russia. The alliance was signed during the Polish-Soviet War, just before the Polish Kiev Offensive. Piłsudski was looking for allies against the Bolsheviks and hoped to create a Międzymorze alliance (Intermarium); Petliura saw the alliance as the last chance to create an independent Ukraine.
Battle of Warsaw (1920) (1920.08.12–25): series of battles that resulted in a decisive Polish victory in 1920 during the Polish–Soviet War. Poland, on the verge of total defeat, repulsed and defeated the Red Army. Estimated Russian losses were 10,000 killed, 500 missing, 30,000 wounded, and 66,000 taken prisoner, compared with Polish losses of some 4,500 killed, 10,000 missing, and 22,000 wounded. The defeat crippled the Red Army; Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, called it "an enormous defeat" for his forces. In the following months, several more Polish follow-up victories secured Poland's independence and led to a peace treaty with Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine later that year, securing the Polish state's eastern frontiers until 1939.
Battle of the Niemen River (1920.09.15 – 1920.09.25): second-greatest battle of the Polish–Soviet War. It took place near the middle Neman River between the cities of Suwałki, Grodno and Białystok. After suffering almost complete defeat in the Battle of Warsaw (August 1920), Mikhail Tukhachevsky's Red Army forces tried to establish a defensive line, against Józef Piłsudski's counter-attacking Polish Army, running northward from the Polish-Lithuanian border to Polesie, and centering on Grodno. 1920.09.15-25, the Poles outflanked the Soviets, once again defeating them.
Battle of Daugavpils (1920.01.03–05): final battle during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919. A joint Polish and Latvian force, operating under Polish Staff orders known as "Operation Winter", attacked the Red Army garrison in Dunaburg, or Daugavpils. From the Polish perspective, the battle was part of the Polish-Soviet War. In Latvia, it is considered to be part of Latvian War of Independence. The battle for the city and its surroundings took place under harsh weather conditions. The area was covered with more than 1 m of snow and the temperature dropped below −25 °C, which permitted the Poles to cross the frozen Dvina. The Polish 3rd Legionary Division stormed the Daugavpils fortress, and the 1st Infantry Division attacked from the north. The Red Army garrison retreated to the west, where it surrendered to the Latvians. 1920.01.05, Dunaburg was turned over to the Latvian Republic.
Kiev Offensive (1920) (1920.04.24-06.13): Result: Decisive Red army strategic victory; start of the major Red army counter-offensive
Bolshevik forces advance following retreating German troops (red arrows). The red line shows the Soviet front in 1919.01.The advance of Polish (blue arrows), Lithuanian/German (dark purple arrows) against the Soviet forces in early 1919. The blue line shows the Polish front in 1920.05.Advance of Soviet forces (red arrows) against Polish troops in 1920.06–08.
Lithuanian–Soviet War (1918.12 – 1919.08; karas su bolševikais; Result: Lithuanian victory.): fought between newly independent Lithuania and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in the aftermath of WWI. It was part of the larger Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919. The offensive followed the retreat of German troops and sought to establish Soviet republics in Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and link up with the German Revolution. By the end of December 1918 Soviet forces reached Lithuanian borders. Largely unopposed, they occupied one town after another and by the end of 1919.01 controlled about two thirds of the Lithuanian territory. In 1919.02, the Soviet advance was stopped by Lithuanian and German volunteers, who prevented the Soviets from capturing Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania. From April 1919, the Lithuanian war went parallel with the Polish–Soviet War. Poland had territorial claims over Lithuania, especially the Vilnius Region; these tensions spilt over into the Polish–Lithuanian War.
Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty (1920.07.12): signed between Lithuania and Soviet Russia. In exchange for Lithuania's neutrality and permission to move its troops in the territory that was recognised during its war against Poland, Soviet Russia recognized the sovereignty of Lithuania. The treaty was a major milestone in Lithuania's struggle for international recognition and recognised Lithuania's eastern borders. Interwar Lithuania officially maintained that its de jure borders were those delineated by the treaty although a large territory, the Vilnius Region, was actually controlled by Poland. Legacy: Some historians have asserted that if Poland had not prevailed in the Polish–Soviet War, Lithuania would have been invaded by the Soviets, and would never have experienced two decades of independence. Despite the Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty, Lithuania was very close to being invaded by the Soviets in summer 1920 and being forcibly incorporated into that state, and only the Polish victory derailed this plan. The bilingual treaty was signed in two copies of equal power and the Lithuanian copy, which prior to the 1940 occupation of Lithuania was first evacuated to Sweden and later to Canada by the Lithuanian diplomat Vytautas Jonas Gylys, was found in 2021 and was transferred to the Lithuanian Central State Archive.
Polish–Lithuanian War in June 1919 – beginning of 1920.
Polish–Lithuanian War (Lithuanian historiography: 1919.05–1920.11.29; Polish historiography: 1920.09.01-10.07; Territorial changes: Polish control of Suwałki and Vilnius regions (with some adjacent areas)): undeclared war between newly-independent Lithuania and Poland following WWI, which happened mainly, but not only, in the Vilnius and Suwałki regions. The war is viewed differently by the respective sides. From the spring of 1920, the conflict also became part of the wider Polish–Soviet War and was largely shaped by its progress. It was subject to international mediation at the Conference of Ambassadors and the League of Nations. In 1920.10.08, Polish general Lucjan Żeligowski staged a mutiny, secretly planned and authorized by the Polish chief of state Józef Piłsudski. Żeligowski's forces marched on Vilnius and captured it one day before the Suwałki Agreement was to formally come into effect, but their further offensive on Kaunas was halted by the Lithuanians. Żeligowski proclaimed the creation of the Republic of Central Lithuania with its capital in Vilnius. In 1920.11.29, a ceasefire was signed. The Republic of Central Lithuania was incorporated into Poland as the Wilno Voivodeship in 1922. The prolonged mediation by the League of Nations did not change the situation and the status quo was accepted in 1923. In March 1923, the Conference of Ambassadors recognized the armistice line as a de jure border between Poland and Lithuania, awarding Vilnius to Poland. Lithuania did not recognize these developments, continued to claim Vilnius as its constitutional capital, and broke all diplomatic relations with Poland which were not restored until the March 1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania.
Żeligowski's Mutiny (1920.10.08–12): Polish false flag operation led by General Lucjan Żeligowski, which resulted in the creation of the Republic of Central Lithuania. Polish Chief of State Józef Piłsudski surreptitiously ordered Żeligowski to carry out the operation, and revealed the truth only several years afterwards. The area was formally annexed by Poland in 1922 and recognized by the Conference of Ambassadors as Polish territory in 1923.
Central Lithuanian Offensive on Kaunas (1920.10.00–1920.11.30): military offensive of the Republic of Central Lithuania, led by general Lucjan Żeligowski, on the territories of Lithuania.
Treaty of Kaunas (drafted: 1920.11.27–29): Following the singing of treaty of Kaunas, both sides stopped fighting and exchanged the prisoners of war. League of Nations had established the demilitarised zone of Polish–Lithuanian Neutral Strip that was formed on the border of Lithuania and Central Lithuania, and existed from 1920.12.17 to 1923.05.22.
Map of Polish-Lithuanian neutral territories 1920-1923 and Latvian occupation.
Polish–Lithuanian Neutral Strip (1920.12.17–1923.05.22): demilitarised zone between Lithuania and Republic of Central Lithuania, and later Poland, established following the treaty of Kaunas.
Map of Poland, Lithuania, Courland, Livonia and Esthonia published in the 1920 edition of The Peoples Atlas by London Geographical Institute. The map shows the situation after the treaties of Versailles and Brest-Litovsk and before the Peace of Riga and the organization and recognition of the nation-states of Estonia and Latvia.
borders in Central Europe after the Polish-Bolshevik War (as of 1922). The areas marked with lines had been part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and then Poland prior to the partitions, and were not reclaimed by Poland or Lithuania after WWI.
Peace of Riga (1921.03.18; Treaty of Riga): signed among Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War. The Soviet-Polish borders established by the treaty remained in force until WWII. They were later redrawn during the Tehran Conference, Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference. Terms: 26 articles; article 3 stipulated that border issues between Poland and Lithuania would be settled by those states; in the treaty, it was agreed that Poland would refuse to form federations with Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.
Interwar period (1918.11.11-1939.09.01 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days)): end of WWI to beginning of WWII. The interwar period was relatively short, yet featured many significant social, political, and economic changes throughout the world. Petroleum-based energy production and associated mechanisation led to the prosperous Roaring Twenties, a time of both social mobility and economic mobility for the middle class. Automobiles, electric lighting, radio, and more became common among populations in the developed world. The indulgences of the era subsequently were followed by the Great Depression, an unprecedented worldwide economic downturn that severely damaged many of the world's largest economies. Politically, the era coincided with the rise of communism, starting in Russia with the October Revolution and Russian Civil War, at end of WWI, and ended with the rise of fascism, particularly in Germany and in Italy. China was in the midst of half-a-century of instability and the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. The empires of Britain, France and others faced challenges as imperialism was increasingly viewed negatively in Europe, and independence movements emerged in many colonies; for example the south of Ireland became independent after much fighting. The Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and German Empires were dismantled, with the Ottoman territories and German colonies redistributed among the Allies, chiefly Britain and France. The western parts of the Russian Empire, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland became independent nations in their own right, and Bessarabia (now Moldova and parts of Ukraine) chose to reunify with Romania. During the Great Depression, countries in Latin America nationalised many foreign companies, most of which were USA, in a bid to strengthen their own economies. The territorial ambitions of the Soviets, Japanese, Italians, and Germans led to the expansion of their domains.
Sino-Soviet conflict (1929) (July – December 1929; 中東路事件; Конфликт на Китайско-Восточной железной дороге): armed conflict between USSR and Chinese warlord Zhang Xueliang of ROC over the Chinese Eastern Railway (also known as CER). The conflict was the first major combat test of the reformed Soviet Red Army – one organized along the latest professional lines – and ended with the mobilization and deployment of 156,000 troops to the Manchurian border. Combining the active-duty strength of the Red Army and border guards with the call-up of the Far East reserves, approximately one-in-five Soviet soldiers was sent to the frontier, the largest Red Army combat force fielded between the Russian Civil War (1917–1922) and the Soviet Union's entry into WWII
Lots of maneuvering just before WWII in East Asia and Europe - China from DE ally to JP enemy, relations between DE and UK, DE and USSR, DE and PL, ...:
Polish–Romanian alliance: series of treaties signed in the interwar period by the Second Polish Republic and the Kingdom of Romania. The first of them was signed in 1921 and, together, the treaties formed a basis for good foreign relations between the two countries that lasted until WWII began in 1939.
Outbreak of WWII: After the German invasion of Poland on 1939.09.01, Poland declined Romanian military assistance but expected to receive assistance from its British and French allies through Romanian ports; thus the reason for the Romanian Bridgehead plan. After the Red Army joined the German attack 1939.09.17, with Western assistance not forthcoming, the Polish high command abandoned the plan and ordered its units to evacuate to France. Many units went through Romanian borders, where they were interned, but Romania remained friendly towards Poles, allowing many soldiers to escape from the camps and to move to France. Romania also treated interned Polish soldiers and immigrants with relative respect throughout the war even after it joined the Axis in 1941. However, as a result of German pressure, Romania could not openly aid the Poles. 1939.09.21 the pro-British prime minister of Romania, Armand Călinescu, was killed in Bucharest by a squad of local fascist activists of the Iron Guard, with German support. Immediately afterwards, German authorities issued propaganda blaming the action on Polish and British initiative. Notably, the Nazi journalist Hans Fritzsche attributed the assassination to Polish and British resentments over Romania's failure to intervene in the war.
Latin Axis (World War II): proposed alliance between European Latin countries during WWII. This project was proposed to Italy by Romanian politician Mihai Antonescu, who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during WWII, under Ion Antonescu. The alliance would have included Romania, Italy, Vichy France, Spain, and Portugal.
Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935.06.18): total tonnage of the Kriegsmarine was to be 35% of the total tonnage of the Royal Navy on a permanent basis; agreement was renounced by Adolf Hitler 1939.04.28. Ambitious attempt on the part of both London and Berlin to reach better relations, but it ultimately foundered because of conflicting expectations between the two states. Anglo-German Naval Agreement was highly controversial, both at the time and since, because the 35:100 tonnage ratio allowed Germany the right to build a Navy beyond the limits set by the Treaty of Versailles, and the British had made the agreement without consulting France or Italy first.
Anti-Comintern Pact (1936.11.25 : DE & JP): anti-communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan; in order to avoid damaging relations with the Soviet Union, the Pact was supposedly directed only against the Comintern, but in fact contained a secret agreement that in the event of either signatory power becoming involved with a war with the Soviet Union, the other signatory power would maintain a benevolent neutrality. Italy joined 1937.11.06.
Second Sino-Japanese War (7 July 1937 – 9 September 1945): military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China (ROC) and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Theater of WWII.
1938 Yellow River flood (400,000 - 900,000 deaths): flood created by the Nationalist Government in central China during the early stage of the Second Sino-Japanese War in an attempt to halt the rapid advance of Japanese forces. It has been called the "largest act of environmental warfare in history" and an example of scorched earth military strategy.
Soviet–German relations before 1941: USSR gave raw materials, buffer states between Nazis and Soviets were eliminated (Romania (nowadays Moldova) & Lithuania (Memel region) & Poland (Belorussian & Ukranian (by language) & other mixed lands) divided). Romani (and Sinti); homosexuals; Jews; political people (anti-Nazis, anti-Soviets/communists, others); Volksdeutsche; some nationals: too rich or too poor, random people were heavily affected, killed.
Anschluss (Anschluß, Anschluß Österreichs; 1938.03.13): annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich. The idea of an Anschluss (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "Greater Germany") began after the unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire in 1871. Following the end of WWI with the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1918, the newly formed Republic of German-Austria attempted to form a union with Germany, but the Treaty of Saint Germain (1919.09.10) and the Treaty of Versailles (1919.06.28) forbade both the union and the continued use of the name "German-Austria" (Deutschösterreich); and stripped Austria of some of its territories, such as the Sudetenland.
Sudetenland: historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia since the Middle Ages. Sudetenland had been since the 9th century an integral part of the Czech state (first within the Duchy of Bohemia and later the Kingdom of Bohemia) both geographically and politically. Sudeten Crisis: The increasing aggressiveness of Hitler prompted the Czechoslovak military to start to build extensive border fortifications in 1936 to defend the troubled border region. Immediately after the Anschluss of Austria into the German Reich in March 1938, Hitler made himself the advocate of ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia, which triggered the Sudeten Crisis. The following month, Sudeten Nazis, led by Konrad Henlein, agitated for autonomy. 1938.04.24, the SdP proclaimed the Karlsbader Programm, which demanded in eight points the complete equality between the Sudeten Germans and the Czech people. The government accepted those claims 1938.06.30.
Sudetendeutsches Freikorps (1938 - 1939): paramilitary Nazi organization founded in 1938.09.17 in Germany on direct order of Adolf Hitler. The organization was composed mainly of ethnic German citizens of Czechoslovakia with pro-Nazi sympathies who were sheltered, trained and equipped by the German army and who were conducting cross border terrorist operations into Czechoslovak territory from 1938 to 1939. They played an important role in Hitler's successful effort to occupy Czechoslovakia and annex the region known as Sudetenland into the Third Reich under Nazi Germany.
Munich Agreement (Münchner Abkommen; Czech: Mnichovská dohoda, Slovak: Mníchovská dohoda): agreement concluded at Munich in 1938.09.30, by Germany, UK, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany of the Sudeten German territory" of Czechoslovakia, despite the existence of a 1924 alliance agreement and 1925 military pact between France and the Czechoslovak Republic, for which it is also known as the Munich Betrayal (Mnichovská zrada; Mníchovská zrada). Most of Europe celebrated the Munich agreement, which was presented as a way to prevent a major war on the continent. The four powers agreed to the German annexation of the Czechoslovak borderland areas named the Sudetenland, where more than three million people, mainly ethnic Germans, lived. Adolf Hitler announced that it was his last territorial claim in Northern Europe. Germany had started a low-intensity undeclared war on Czechoslovakia on 17 September 1938. In reaction, the United Kingdom and France on 20 September formally asked Czechoslovakia to cede its Sudetenland territory to Germany, which was followed by Polish territorial demands brought in 1938.09.21 and Hungarian in 1938.09.22. Meanwhile, German forces conquered parts of Cheb District and Jeseník District and briefly overran, but were repelled from dozens of other border counties. Poland also grouped its army units near its common border with Czechoslovakia and also instigated generally unsuccessful sabotage in 1938.09.23. Hungary also moved its troops towards the border with Czechoslovakia, without attacking.
Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany: around 200,000 ethnic Polish children as well as an unspecified number of children of other ethnicities were abducted from their homes and forcibly transported to Nazi Germany for purposes of forced labour, medical experimentation, or Germanization.
Polish Defensive War 1939. The map shows the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939 in a wider European context. Second Polish Republic, one of the three original allies of WWII was invaded and divided between the Third Reich and USSR, acting together in line with the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, dividing Central and Eastern Europe between the two countries. The Polish allies of that time were France and Great Britain.Poland occupied by Nazi Germany (Third Reich) and the USSR (21/10/1939-22/06/1941).Darstellung zeigt Polen nach dem Versailler Vertrag, vierte polnischen Teilung 1939.
Peking Plan: operation in which three destroyers of the Polish Navy, the Burza ("Storm"), Błyskawica ("Lightning"), and Grom ("Thunder"), were evacuated to the United Kingdom in late August and early September 1939. They were ordered to travel to British ports and assist the British Royal Navy in the event of a war with Nazi Germany. The plan was successful and allowed the ships to avoid certain destruction or capture in the German invasion.
Invasion of Poland (September campaign (Polish: Kampania wrześniowa), 1939 defensive war (Polish: Wojna obronna 1939 roku) and Poland campaign (German: Überfall auf Polen, Polenfeldzug); 1939.09.01–10.06): attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and USSR which marked the beginning of WWII. The German invasion began 1939.09.01, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and USSR, and one day after the Supreme Soviet of USSR had approved the pact. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident. Slovak military forces advanced alongside the Germans in northern Slovakia. As the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Germany–Poland border to more established defense lines to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, the Germans gained an undisputed advantage. Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. Those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 1939.09.03; in the end their aid to Poland was very limited, however France invaded a small part of Germany in the Saar Offensive.
Romanian Bridgehead (Polish: Przedmoście rumuńskie; Romanian: Capul de pod român): area in southeastern Poland, now located in Ukraine. During the invasion of Poland of 1939 (at the start of WWII), on 1939.09.14 the Polish commander-in-chief Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły ordered all Polish troops fighting east of the Vistula (approximately 20 divisions still retaining the ability to cooperate) to withdraw towards Lwów, and then to the hills along the borders with Romania and the USSR.
General Government (Generalgouvernement, Generalne Gubernatorstwo; 1939–1945)
Poles in the Wehrmacht: some Polish citizens of diverse ethnicities served in the Wehrmacht, in particular citizens from parts of Poland annexed by Germany such as Upper Silesia and Pomerania. Service in the German military was universal in nature in these areas, however, assessing the number of ethnic Poles involved is difficult due to the fluidity of national identity. At the low end, Polish estimates often place the number of native Poles at 250,000. Ryszard Kaczmarek's conservative estimate, based on documentary evidence, is 295,000; however, Kaczmarek considers this very low and is inclined to accept numbers of up to 500,000. Having served in the German military or being a descendant of such individuals ("grandfather in the Wehrmacht") has led in Poland to repression, discrimination and ostracization. Even in the 21st century, such people are often seen as not being an integral part the Polish national community.
Polish Armed Forces in the West (Polskie Siły Zbrojne na Zachodzie): Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies during WWII.
Heim ins Reich ("back home to the Reich"): foreign policy pursued by Adolf Hitler during WWII, beginning in 1938. The aim of Hitler's initiative was to convince all Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) who were living outside Nazi Germany (e.g. in Austria, Czechoslovakia and the western districts of Poland) that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into Greater Germany, but also relocate from territories that were not under German control, following the conquest of Poland in accordance with the Nazi–Soviet pact. The Heim ins Reich manifesto targeted areas ceded in Versailles to the newly reborn nation of Poland, various lands of immigration as well as other areas that were inhabited by significant German populations such as the Sudetenland, Danzig (now Gdansk), and the southeastern and northeastern regions of Europe after 1939.10.06.
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Polish Armed Forces in the East (Polskie Siły Zbrojne na Wschodzie, Polish Army in the USSR): Polish military forces established in USSR during WWII. Two armies were formed separately and at different times. Anders' Army, created in the second half of 1941, was loyal to the Polish government-in-exile. After Operation Barbarossa and the consequent Polish-Soviet Sikorski–Mayski agreement, an amnesty for Polish citizens in the Soviet Union was declared, which made the formation of Polish military units possible. In 1942, Anders' Army was evacuated to Iran and transferred to the command of the Western Allies. It became known as the Polish II Corps and went on to fight Nazi German forces in the Italian Campaign, including the Battle of Monte Cassino. From Poles who remained in the Soviet Union, the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division was formed in 1943.05. It was enlarged and reorganised into the Polish First Army (Berling's Army) and the Polish Second Army. Together they constituted the Polish People's Army (Ludowe Wojsko Polskie, LWP); it fought on the Eastern Front under Soviet command all the way to the Battle of Berlin. Like other communist-led Polish institutions, the People's Army operated in opposition to the Polish government-in-exile. After the war, the Polish People's Army became the military of communist-ruled Poland.
Battle of the Atlantic (1939.09.03–1945.05.08): longest continuous military campaign in WWII. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the Kriegsmarine and aircraft of the Luftwaffe against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, US Navy and Allied merchant shipping. The convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to UK and USSR, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of USA beginning 1941.09.13. As an island nation, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to be able to survive and fight. In essence, the Battle of the Atlantic was a tonnage war: the Allied struggle to supply Britain and the Axis attempt to stem the flow of merchant shipping that enabled Britain to keep fighting. From 1942 onwards, the Axis also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies and equipment in the British Isles in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe. The defeat of the U-boat threat was a pre-requisite for pushing back the Axis. The outcome of the battle was a strategic victory for the Allies—the German blockade failed—but at great cost: 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk for the loss of 783 U-boats. After the improved radar came into action shipping losses plummeted, reaching a level significantly (p=0.99) below the early months of the war. The development of the improved radar by the Allies began in 1940, before USA entered the war, when Henry Tizard and A. V. Hill won permission to share British secret research with the Americans, including bringing them a cavity magnetron, which generates the needed high frequency radio waves . All sides will agree with Hastings that "... mobilization of the best civilian brains, and their integration into the war effort at the highest levels, was an outstanding British success story."
First Happy Time: early phase of the Battle of the Atlantic during which German Navy U-boats enjoyed significant success against the British Royal Navy and its allies was referred to by U-boat crews as "Die Glückliche Zeit".
Second Happy Time (also known among German submarine commanders as the American shooting season; 1942.01-1942.08): informal name for a phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping and Allied naval vessels along the east coast of North America.
Phoney War (French: Drôle de guerre; German: Sitzkrieg): 8-month period at the start of WWII, during which there was only one limited military land operation on the Western Front, when French troops invaded Germany's Saar district. The Phoney period began with the declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France against Nazi Germany on 1939.09.03, and ended with the German invasion of France and the Low Countries on 1940.05.10. Although there was no large-scale military action by Britain and France, they did begin some economic warfare, especially with the naval blockade, and shut down German surface raiders. They created elaborate plans for numerous large-scale operations designed to cripple the German war effort. These included opening an Anglo-French front in the Balkans, invading Norway to seize control of Germany's main source of iron ore and a strike against the Soviet Union, to cut off its supply of oil to Germany. Only the Norway plan came to fruition, and it was too little too late in 1940.04.
Greco-Italian War (1940.10.28–1941.04.23): began the Balkans Campaign of WWII between the Axis powers and the Allies. It turned into the Battle of Greece when British and German ground forces intervened early in 1941. In 1940, there was a hostile press campaign in Italy and other provocations, culminating in the sinking of the Greek light cruiser Elli by the Italians on 15 August (the Christian Dormition of the Mother of God festival). On 28 October, Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Greece demanding the cession of Greek territory, which the Prime Minister of Greece, Ioannis Metaxas, rejected. With the failure of the Italian attack evident, in 1940.12 Adolf Hitler decided to come to the aid of his Axis ally. German build-up in the Balkans accelerated after Bulgaria joined the Axis on 1941.03.01. British ground forces began arriving in Greece the next day.
Invasion of Yugoslavia (1941.04.06–18): German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers
Lend-Lease (1941.03.11-1945): supplying of UK, USSR, China, Free France, and other Allies with materiel; total $50.1 ($647 bil today [2012]): $31.4 bil to UK, $11.3 bil to USSR, $3.2 bil to France, $1.6 bil to China.
Pacific Route: affected by the start of hostilities between Japan and the US in December 1941 (Pearl Harbor), but was not interrupted as Japan and the USSR maintained a strict neutrality towards each other for the duration of the conflict, changing only in 1945.08. Due to this neutrality the goods could be moved only in Soviet-flagged ships, and, as they were inspected by the Japanese, could not include war materials; overall accounted for some 50% of all Lend-lease goods to USSR.
Northwest Staging Route: series of airstrips, airport and radio ranging stations built in Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska during WWII; into USSR as ALSIB (ALaska-SIBerian air road).
Persian Corridor: supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to USSR during WWII.
German–Turkish Non-Aggression Pact (1941.06.18): signed between Nazi Germany and Turkey in Ankara by German ambassador to Turkey Franz von Papen and Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Şükrü Saracoğlu. It became effective on the same day. The pact, which was intended to be in force for a period of ten years, lasted until 1945.10.24, when Turkey joined UN. In 1941.06.22, only four days after the signing of the German–Turkish Non-Aggression Pact, German troops invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
Blue Division (Spanish: División Azul, German: Blaue Division; 1941.06.24–1944.03.21): unit of volunteers from Francoist Spain within the German Army (Wehrmacht) on the Eastern Front during World War II. It was officially designated the Spanish Volunteer Division (División Española de Voluntarios) by the Spanish Army and 250th Infantry Division (250 Infanterie-Division) by the Germans.
Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon (1942.11.27): on the order of the Admiralty of Vichy France to avoid capture by Nazi German forces during Operation Lila of the Case Anton takeover of Vichy France.
Continuation War (1941.06.25–1944.09.19): conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany, against USSR, as a part of WWII. In Soviet historiography, the war was called the Finnish Front of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its overall war efforts on the Eastern Front and provided Finland with critical material support and military assistance, including economic aid. Despite the co-operation in this conflict, Finland never formally signed the Tripartite Pact, though they did sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. Finland's leadership justified their alliance with Germany as self-defence. Hostilities between Finland and the USSR ended with a ceasefire, which was called in 1944.09.05, formalised by the signing of the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944. One of the conditions of this agreement was the expulsion, or disarming, of any German troops in Finnish territory, which led to the Lapland War between Finland and Germany.
Finnish invasion of East Karelia (1941) (1941.07.10–1941.12.06): military campaign in 1941. It was part of the Continuation War. Finnish troops occupied East Karelia and held it until 1944. For over a month after the outbreak of the Continuation War, the Karelian Army reinforced and prepared to resume its earlier offensive while waiting for the recapture of the Karelian Isthmus. The Soviets had prepared fortifications and brought troops to the front.
Finnish invasion of the Karelian Isthmus (1941.07.31–09.05): military campaign carried out by Finland in 1941. It was part of what is commonly referred to as the Continuation War. Early in the war Finnish forces liberated the Karelian Isthmus. It had been ceded to USSR in 1940.03.13, in the Moscow Peace Treaty, which marked the end of the Winter War. Later, in the summer of 1944, USSR reconquered the southern part of the isthmus in the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive.
Camp X (1941.12.06-1969): unofficial name of the secret Special Training School No. 103, a WWII British paramilitary installation for training covert agents in the methods required for success in clandestine operations. It was located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario between Whitby and Oshawa in Ontario, Canada. The facility was jointly operated by the Canadian military, with help from Foreign Affairs and the RCMP but commanded by the BSC; it also had close ties with MI-6. In addition to the training program, the Camp had a communications tower that could send and transmit radio and telegraph communications, called Hydra. The training facility closed before the end of 1944. Historian Bruce Forsyth summarized the purpose of the facility: "Trainees at the camp learned sabotage techniques, subversion, intelligence gathering, lock picking, explosives training, radio communications, encode/decode, recruiting techniques for partisans, the art of silent killing and unarmed combat." Communication training, including Morse code, was also provided. The camp was so secret that even Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was unaware of its full purpose. After the US entered the war, the OSS operated an "assassination and elimination" training program that was dubbed "the school of mayhem and murder" by George Hunter White. William Donovan later started similar programs in Maryland and Virginia, as well as in Cairo, Egypt. The Virginia Quantico training center was initially based on Camp X programs.
Red Ball Express: famed truck convoy system that supplied Allied forces moving quickly through Europe after breaking out from the D-Day beaches in Normandy in 1944. To expedite cargo shipment to the front, trucks emblazoned with red balls followed a similarly marked route that was closed to civilian traffic. The trucks also had priority on regular roads. Conceived in an urgent 36-hour meeting, the convoy system began operating in 1944.08.25. Staffed primarily with African-American soldiers, the Express at its peak operated 5,958 vehicles that carried about 12,500 tons of supplies a day. It ran for 83 days until November 16, when the port facilities at Antwerp, Belgium, were opened, enough French rail lines were repaired, and portable gasoline pipelines were deployed.
Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive (1944.06.10–08.09): strategic operation by the Soviet Leningrad and Karelian Fronts against Finland on the Karelian Isthmus and East Karelia fronts of the Continuation War, on the Eastern Front of WWII. USSR forces captured East Karelia and Viborg/Viipuri. After that, however, the fighting reached a stalemate.
Lapland War (Finnish: Lapin sota; Swedish: Lapplandskriget; German: Lapplandkrieg; 1944.09.15–1945.04.27): fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. Although Finns and Germans had been fighting against USSR since 1941 during the Continuation War (1941–1944), the Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive in the summer of 1944 forced the Finnish leadership to negotiate a separate peace agreement. The Moscow Armistice, signed in 1944.09.19, demanded that Finland break diplomatic ties with Germany and expel or disarm any German soldiers remaining in Finland after 1944.09.15. The Finns considered the war a separate conflict because hostilities with other nations had ceased after the Continuation War. From the German perspective, it was a part of the two campaigns to evacuate from northern Finland and northern Norway. Soviet involvement in the war amounted to monitoring Finnish operations, minor air support and entering northeastern Lapland during the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive. The military impact was relatively limited with both sides sustaining around 4,000 in total casualties although the Germans' delaying scorched earth and land mine strategies devastated Finnish Lapland. The Wehrmacht successfully withdrew, and Finland upheld its obligations under the Moscow Armistice, but Finnland remained formally at war with USSR and UK until ratification of the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.
Battle of Manila (1945) (1945.02.03–03.03): fought by American and Filipino forces against Japanese troops in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. The month-long battle, which resulted in the death of over 100,000 civilians and the complete devastation of the city, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific theater. Japanese forces committed mass murder against Filipino civilians during the battle. Along with massive loss of life, the battle also destroyed architectural and cultural heritage dating back to the city's foundation.
Operation Keelhaul: carried out in Northern Italy by British and American forces to repatriate Soviet Armed Forces POWs of the Nazis to USSR between 1946.08.14-1947.05.09. OST-Arbeiters to USSR (not killed but denied basic rights and education); executed for treason: Cossacks and White émigré-Russians to USSR, Ustaše to Yugoslavia.
Repatriation of Cossacks after World War II (The Betrayal of Cossacks, Tragedy of Drau, Massacre of Cossacks at Lienz): forced repatriation to the USSR of the Cossacks and ethnic Russians who were allies of Nazi Germany during WWII.
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin: book written by Timothy D. Snyder (October 28, 2010). About the mass killing of an estimated 14 million non-combatants by the regimes of Stalin (Soviet Union) and Hitler (Nazi Germany) in what is now Baltics, RU, PL, Belarus, Ukraine.
Collaboration with the Axis Powers: some citizens and organizations, prompted by nationalism, ethnic hatred, anti-communism, antisemitism, opportunism, self-defense, or often a combination, knowingly collaborated with the Axis Powers. Collaboration is "a co-operation between elements of the population of a defeated state and the representatives of the victorious power". Stanley Hoffmann subdivided collaboration onto involuntary (reluctant recognition of necessity) and voluntary (an attempt of exploiting necessity); collaborationism can be subdivided onto servile and ideological, the former is a deliberate service to an enemy, whereas the latter is a deliberate advocacy of co-operation with the foreign force which is seen as a champion of some desirable domestic transformations. In contrast, Bertram Gordon used the terms "collaborator" and "collaborationist" for non-ideological and ideological collaborations, respectively.
Rape during the occupation of Germany: Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of WWII, mass rapes took place both in connection with combat operations and during the subsequent occupation. Most Western scholars agree that the majority of the rapes were committed by Soviet servicemen, while some Russian historians maintain that these crimes were not widespread. The wartime rapes had been surrounded by decades of silence.
Soviet troops: According to Antony Beevor, whose books were banned in 2015 from some Russian schools and colleges, NKVD (Soviet secret police) files have revealed that the leadership knew what was happening, including about the rape of Soviet women liberated from labour camps, but did nothing to stop it. Some Russian historians disagree, claiming that the Soviet leadership took swift action. The majority of the assaults were committed in the Soviet occupation zone; estimates of the numbers of German women raped by Soviet soldiers have ranged up to 2 million. According to historian William Hitchcock, in many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times. At least 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in Berlin, based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports, with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath. Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000. When Yugoslav politician Milovan Djilas complained about rapes in Yugoslavia, Stalin reportedly stated that he should "understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle." On another occasion, when told that Red Army soldiers sexually maltreated German refugees, he reportedly said: "We lecture our soldiers too much; let them have their initiative." However, the rapes continued until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops (Red Army) to strictly guarded posts and camps, separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany. Norman Naimark also notes the allegedly patriarchal nature of Russian culture, and of the Asian societies comprising the Soviet Union, where dishonor was in the past repaid by raping the women of the enemy. The fact that the Germans had a much higher standard of living visible even when in ruins "may well have contributed allegedly to a national inferiority complex among Russians". Combining "Russian feelings of inferiority", the resulting need to restore honor, and their desire for revenge may be the reason many women were raped in public as well as in front of husbands before both were killed. Historian Geoffrey Roberts writes that the Red Army raped women in every country they passed through, but mostly in Austria and Germany: 70,000–100,000 rapes in Vienna, and "hundreds of thousands" of rapes in Germany. He notes that the German Army probably committed tens of thousands of rapes on the Eastern Front, but that murder was the more typical crime for them. The number of babies, who came to be known as "Russian Children", born as a result is unknown. However, most rapes did not result in pregnancies, and many pregnancies did not result in the victims giving birth. Abortions were the preferred choice of rape victims, and many died as a consequence of internal injuries after being brutally violated, untreated sexually transmitted diseases due to a lack of medicine, badly performed abortions, and suicides, particularly for traumatized victims who had been raped many times. In addition, many children died in postwar Germany as a result of widespread starvation, scarce supplies, and diseases such as typhus and diphtheria. The infant mortality in Berlin reached up to 90 per cent.
USA troops: Although non-fraternization policies were instituted for the Americans in Germany, the phrase "copulation without conversation is not fraternization" was used as a motto by USA Army troops. Carol Huntington writes that the American soldiers who raped German women and then left gifts of food for them may have permitted themselves to view the act as a prostitution rather than rape. Citing the work of a Japanese historian alongside this suggestion, Huntington writes that Japanese women who begged for food "were raped and soldiers sometimes left food for those they raped".
British troops: A senior British Army chaplain following the troops reported that there was a 'good deal of rape going on'. He then added that "those who suffer [rape] have probably deserved it.'
French troops: According to Norman Naimark, French Moroccan troops matched the behavior of Soviet troops when it came to rape, in particular in the early occupation of Baden and Württemberg, providing the numbers are correct.
Battle of Berlin (1945.04.16–05.02): final major offensive of the European theatre of WWII. Following the Vistula–Oder Offensive of January–February 1945, the Red Army had temporarily halted on a line 60 km east of Berlin. On 9 March, Germany established its defence plan for the city with Operation Clausewitz. When the Soviet offensive resumed on 16 April, two Soviet fronts (army groups) attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. Before the main battle in Berlin commenced, the Red Army encircled the city after successful battles of the Seelow Heights and Halbe. On 20 April 1945, Hitler's birthday, the 1st Belorussian Front led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, advancing from the east and north, started shelling Berlin's city centre, while Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front broke through Army Group Centre and advanced towards the southern suburbs of Berlin. On 23 April General Helmuth Weidling assumed command of the forces within Berlin. The garrison consisted of several depleted and disorganised Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS divisions, along with poorly trained Volkssturm and Hitler Youth members. Over the course of the next week, the Red Army gradually took the entire city. Before the battle was over, Hitler and several of his followers killed themselves. The city's garrison surrendered on 2 May but fighting continued to the north-west, west, and south-west of the city until the end of the war in Europe on 8 May (9 May in the Soviet Union) as some German units fought westward so that they could surrender to the Western Allies rather than to the Soviets.
A Woman in Berlin (Eine Frau in Berlin; 1959/2003): anonymous memoir by a German woman, revealed in 2003 to be journalist Marta Hillers. It covers the weeks 1945.04.20-1945.06.22, during the capture of Berlin and its occupation by the Red Army. The writer describes the widespread rapes by Soviet soldiers, including her own, and the women's pragmatic approach to survival, often taking Soviet officers for protection. When published in German in 1953, the book was either "ignored or reviled" in Germany. The author refused to have another edition published in her lifetime. The first English edition appeared 1954 in USA. Hillers showed her manuscript to friends, and author Kurt Marek (C. W. Ceram) arranged for the book's translation into English and publication in USA in 1954. Hillers married and moved from Germany to Geneva, Switzerland in the 1950s. She first had her book published in German in 1959 by the Swiss firm, Helmut Kossodo. Both editions were published anonymously, at her request. Her memoir was the only book she published. The writer is too reflective, too candid, too worldly for that,' one reviewer said." Harding noted that the author wrote: "I laugh right in the middle of all this awfulness. What should I do? After all, I am alive, everything will pass!"
Victory Banner (ru: Знамя Победы): banner raised by the Red Army soldiers on the Reichstag building in Berlin in 1945.04.30, the day that Adolf Hitler committed suicide.
Western betrayal: view that UK and France failed to meet their legal, diplomatic, military and moral obligations with respect to the Czechoslovak and Polish nations during the prelude to and aftermath of WWII. It also sometimes refers to the treatment of other Central and Eastern European nations at the time. However it was no secret to the Allies that before his death in July 1943 General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of Poland's London-based government in exile had been the originator, and not Stalin, of the concept of a westward shift of Poland's boundaries along an Oder–Neisse line as compensation for relinquishing Poland's eastern territories as part of a Polish rapprochement with the USSR. Dr. Józef Retinger who was Sikorski's special political advisor at the time was also in agreement with Sikorski's concept of Poland's realigned post-war borders, later in his memoirs Retinger wrote: "At the Tehran Conference, in November 1943, the Big Three agreed that Poland should receive territorial compensation in the West, at Germany's expense, for the land it was to lose to Russia in Central and Eastern Europe. This seemed like a fair bargain." The Federal Republic of Germany, formed in 1949, was portrayed by Communist propaganda as the breeder of Hitler's posthumous offspring who desired retaliation and wanted to take back from Poland the "Recovered Territories". Giving this picture a grain of credibility was that the Federal Republic of Germany until 1970 refused to recognize the Oder-Neisse Line and that some West German officials had a tainted Nazi past. For a segment of Polish public opinion, Communist rule was seen as the lesser of the two evils. {sic: divide & conquer?} The chief American negotiator at Yalta was Alger Hiss, later accused of being a Soviet spy and convicted of perjuring himself in his testimony to the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. His espionage was later confirmed by the Venona tapes.
Western Front (World War II): military theatre of WWII encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. WWII military engagements in Southern Europe and elsewhere are generally considered as separate theatres. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. The first phase saw the capitulation of Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, and France during May and 1940.06 after their defeat in the Low Countries and the northern half of France, and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with the Battle of Britain. The second phase consisted of large-scale ground combat (supported by a massive strategic air war considered to be an additional front), which began in 1944.06 with the Allied landings in Normandy and continued until the defeat of Germany in 1945.05.
May 1940 War Cabinet crisis: confrontation between Winston Churchill, newly appointed as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Viscount Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, which took place between 25 and 28 May. Halifax believed that in view of the imminent Fall of France and the encirclement of British forces at Dunkirk, the United Kingdom should explore the possibility of a negotiated peace settlement with Adolf Hitler, with the still-neutral Italian leader Benito Mussolini brokering the agreement. After apparently considering ending the war on 26 May, Churchill outmanoeuvred Halifax by calling a meeting of his 25-member Outer Cabinet two days later, to whom he delivered a passionate speech, saying "If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each one of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground", convincing all present that Britain must fight on against Hitler whatever the cost.
The Darkest Hour: phrase coined by British prime minister Winston Churchill to describe the period of WWII between the Fall of France in 1940.06 and the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.06 (totaling 363 days, or 11 months and 28 days), when the British Empire stood alone (or almost alone after the Italian invasion of Greece) against the Axis Powers in Europe. It is particularly used for the time when the United Kingdom appeared to be under direct threat of invasion (Operation Sea Lion); following the evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk and prior to victory in the Battle of Britain. The darkest moment is usually considered to have been 1941.05.10, when over 1,500 civilians died in Luftwaffe bombing raids on London alone. British Empire was not the only major power fighting the Axis as a whole: China had been engaging the Japanese since 1937; Greece fought the Axis powers from 1940.10 when it defeated the Italian troops until 1941.06. USA did not formally become involved in the war on the Allied side until after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941.12.07. However, President Franklin D. Roosevelt clearly sympathized with Britain and other opponents of Germany, and did what he could to quietly assist them within the confines of existing U.S. law, which mandated strict official neutrality, and in the face of strong isolationist sentiment, both among the public and Congress, which wanted the U.S. to stay out of the European and Asian conflicts.
Battle of the Netherlands (1940.05.10–14; 1940.05.10–17 (Zealand)): saw one of the first major uses of paratroopers to occupy crucial targets prior to ground troops reaching the area. The German Luftwaffe utilised paratroopers in the capture of several major airfields in the Netherlands in and around key cities such as Rotterdam and The Hague in order to quickly overrun the nation and immobilise Dutch forces. Battle ended soon after the devastating bombing of Rotterdam by the German Luftwaffe and the subsequent threat by the Germans to bomb other large Dutch cities if Dutch forces refused to surrender.
Battle of France (1940.05.10–06.25): successful German invasion of France and the Low Countries. German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes and then along the Somme valley to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. When British and adjacent French forces were pushed back to the sea by the highly mobile and well-organized German operation, the British government decided to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as well as several French divisions at Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. German strategy: It was only after the defeat of France in 1940, that the German military pursued a "Blitzkrieg"-kind of warfare to achieve its ambitions in Europe.
RAF Fauld explosion: military accident which occurred at 11:11 AM on Monday, 1944.11.27 at the RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot in Staffordshire, England. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and the largest on UK soil.
Battle of Britain boundaries, bases and RADAR coverage.
Adlertag (1940.08.13): first day of Unternehmen Adlerangriff ("Operation Eagle Attack"), which was the codename of a military operation by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe (German air force) to destroy the British Royal Air Force (RAF). By 1940.06, the Allies had been defeated in Western Europe and Scandinavia. Rather than come to terms with Germany, Britain rejected all overtures for a negotiated peace. Göring had promised Hitler that Adlertag and Adlerangriff would achieve the results required within days, or at worst weeks. It was meant to be the beginning of the end of RAF Fighter Command, but Adlertag and the following operations failed to destroy the RAF, or gain the necessary local air superiority. As a result, Operation Sea Lion was postponed indefinitely.
The Blitz (1940.09.07–1941.05.11): German bombing campaign against UK in 1940 and 1941, during WWII. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term Blitzkrieg, the German word for 'lightning war'. The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940 (a battle for daylight air superiority between the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force over the United Kingdom). By 1940.09, the Luftwaffe had lost the Battle of Britain and the German air fleets (Luftflotten) were ordered to attack London, to draw RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation. Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. From 1940.09.07, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 of the following 57 days and nights. Most notable was a large daylight attack against London on 1940.09.15.
Battle of Britain Day (1940.09.15): day on which a large-scale aerial battle in the Battle of Britain took place. Around 1,500 aircraft took part in the air battles which lasted until dusk. The action was the climax of the Battle of Britain. RAF Fighter Command defeated the German raids; the Luftwaffe formations were dispersed by a large cloud base and failed to inflict severe damage on the city of London. In the aftermath of the raid, Hitler postponed Sea Lion. Having been defeated in daylight, the Luftwaffe turned its attention to The Blitz night campaign which lasted until 1941.05.
Battle of the Caucasus (1942.07.25–1944.05.12): in 1942.07.25, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, opening the Caucasus region of the southern USSR, and the oil fields beyond at Maikop, Grozny, and ultimately Baku, to the Germans. Two days prior, Adolf Hitler issued a directive to launch such an operation into the Caucasus region, to be named Operation Edelweiß.
Filipp Golikov (Фили́пп Ива́нович Го́ликов; 1900.07.30–1980.07.29): USSR military commander. As chief of the GRU, he is best known for failing to take seriously the abundant intelligence about Nazi Germany's plans for an invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, either because he did not believe them or because Joseph Stalin did not want to hear them.
Operation Barbarossa (Unternehmen Barbarossa; 1941.06.22–12.05): code name for the invasion of USSR by Nazi Germany and some of its Axis allies, which started on Sunday, 1941.06.22. The operation put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goal of conquering the western Soviet Union to repopulate it with Germans. The German Generalplan Ost aimed to use some of the conquered people as forced labour for the Axis war effort while acquiring the oil reserves of the Caucasus as well as the agricultural resources of various Soviet territories. Their ultimate goal included the eventual extermination, enslavement, Germanization and mass deportation to Siberia of the Slavic peoples, and to create more Lebensraum (living space) for Germany. In the two years leading up to the invasion, Germany and USSR signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes (Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact). Following the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, the German High Command began planning an invasion of USSR in July 1940 (under the codename Operation Otto), which Adolf Hitler authorized in 1940.12.18. Over the course of the operation, over 3.8 mln. personnel of the Axis powers—the largest invasion force in the history of warfare—invaded the western USSR along a 2,900-kilometer front, with 600,000 motor vehicles and over 600,000 horses for non-combat operations. The offensive marked a massive escalation of World War II, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition including the Soviet Union. The operation opened up the Eastern Front, in which more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in history. The area saw some of the world's largest battles, most horrific atrocities, and highest casualties (for Soviet and Axis forces alike), all of which influenced the course of WWII and the subsequent history of the 20th c.
Baltic operation (1941.06.22–07.09): encompassed the operations of the Red Army conducted over the territories of the occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in response to an offensive launched by the German army.
Battle of Stalingrad (1942.08.23-1943.02.02): higher estimates of combined casualties amounts to 2 mln. Turning point in the war; even though DE occupied about 90% of Stalingrad at times, the urban warfare continued. On 1942.11.19 the Red Army launched Operation Uranus: two-pronged attack from the flanks; these flanks were composed of the weaker Romanian and Hungarian troops. Paulus' VI army was cut off and surrounded inside Stalingrad.
Pavlov's House (дом Павлова): fortified apartment building which Red Army defenders held for 60 days against the Wehrmacht offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad. The siege lasted 1942.09.27-1942.11.25 and eventually the Red Army managed to relieve it from the siege. It gained its popular name from Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, who commanded the platoon that seized the building and defended it during the long battle.
Gerhardt's Mill (Мельница Гергардта): building of historical significance in the Battle of Stalingrad. Gerhard's Mill is situated directly across from Pavlov's House in central (modern-day) Volgograd. During the Battle of Stalingrad, Gerhardt's Mill became the final frontier, with the Soviet Red Army deterring the army of German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus on the approaches to the Volga. Fierce fighting for the mill lasted for several months: it was bombed, and blown up numerous times, but the German Army failed to take it, or pass around it.
Battle of Kursk (Nazi DE offensive: 1943.07.05-16; USSR offensive: 1943.07.12-08.23): Soviet intelligence on the Nazi plans and delay in DE offensive allowed the Red Army to construct a series of defense lines and gather large reserve forces for a strategic counterattack.
Battle of Prokhorovka (12 July 1943; German: tanks and assault guns; Soviet: about 610 tanks and self-propelled guns; Losses: German: 43–80 tanks and assault guns destroyed or damaged, Soviet: 300–400 tanks and self-propelled guns destroyed or damaged): near Prokhorovka, 87 kilometres southeast of Kursk in USSR. 5th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army attacked the II SS-Panzer Corps of the German Wehrmacht in one of the largest tank battles in military history. Misconceptions and disputations: Size of the tank battle and German losses.
Battle of the Dnieper (1943.08.24-1943.12.23): was one of the largest operations in WWII, involving almost 4,000,000 troops on both sides and stretching on a 1,400 km long front. Eastern bank of the Dnieper was recovered from German forces by five of the Red Army's Fronts, which conducted several assault river crossings to establish several bridgeheads on the western bank. Subsequently, Kiev was liberated in a separate offensive.
Schutzmannschaft (lit. "protective, or guard units"; plural: Schutzmannschaften, abbreviated as Schuma): collaborationist auxiliary police of native policemen serving in those areas of the Soviet Union and the Baltic states occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, established the Schutzmannschaft 1941.07.25, and subordinated it to the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei; Orpo). By the end of 1941, some 45,000 men served in Schutzmannschaft units, about half of them in the battalions. During 1942, Schutzmannschaften expanded to an estimated 300,000 men, with battalions accounting for about a third, or less than one half of the local force. Everywhere, local police far outnumbered the equivalent German personnel several times; in most places, the ratio of Germans to natives was about 1-to-10. The auxiliary police battalions (Schutzmannschaft-Bataillonen) were created to provide security in the occupied territories, in particular by combating the anti-Nazi resistance. Many of these battalions participated in the Holocaust and caused thousands of Jewish deaths. Usually the battalions were voluntary units and were not directly involved in combat. In total, about 200 battalions were formed. There were approximately 21 ethnic Estonian, 47 Latvian, 26 Lithuanian, 11 Belarusian, 8 Tatar, and 71 Ukrainian Schuma battalions. Each battalion had an authorized strength of about 500, but the actual size varied greatly.
Naliboki massacre (1943.05.08): mass killing of 129 Poles, including women and children, by Soviet partisans in the small town of Naliboki in German-occupied Poland (the town is now in Belarus).
Operation Hermann (1943.07.13-1943.08.11): German anti-partisan action in the Naliboki Forest area. The German battle groups destroyed settlements in the area. During the operation, German troops burned down over 60 Polish and Belarusian villages and murdered 4280 civilians. Between 21,000 and 25,000 people were sent to forced labour in the Third Reich.
Koniuchy massacre (1944.01.29): of Polish and Byelorussian civilians, mostly women and children, carried out in the village of Koniuchy (now Kaniūkai, Lithuania) by a Soviet partisan unit together with a contingent of Jewish partisans under Soviet command. At least 38 civilians who have been identified by name were killed, and more than a dozen were injured. Prior to the massacre and in response to raiding by Soviet partisans, the village had formed an armed self-defense force with the encouragement and backing of the Lithuanian Auxiliary Police, to defend from Partisan raids; according to partisan sources the force's operations hindered their activity in the vicinity of the village significantly, though some historians stress the token nature of the force.
Bielski partisans: unit of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought the German occupiers and their collaborators around Nowogródek (Navahrudak) and Lida (now in western Belarus) in German-occupied Poland. The partisan unit was named after the Bielskis, a family of Polish Jews who organized and led the organization.
Jäger Report (Complete tabulation of executions carried out in the Einsatzkommando 3 zone up to 1941.12.01): written 1941.12.01 by Karl Jäger, commander of Einsatzkommando 3 (EK 3), a killing unit of Einsatzgruppe A which was attached to Army Group North during the Operation Barbarossa. It is the most detailed and precise surviving chronicle of the activities of one individual Einsatzkommando, and a key record documenting the Holocaust in Lithuania as well as in Latvia and Belarus. The report documents date and place of the massacres, number of victims and their breakdown into categories (Jews, communists, criminals, etc.). In total, there were 112 executions in 71 different locations in Lithuania, Latvia, and Belarus. The nine-page report was prepared in five copies, but only one survives and is kept by the Special Archive, part of the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow.
A map of the Imperial Powers of the Pacific, 1939-09-01. Dates shown indicate the approximate year that the various powers gain control of their possessions. Japanese control of territory in China was tenuous.
Unit 731 (731部隊; 1936–1945): covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in lethal human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and WWII. The unit is estimated to have killed between 200,000 and 300,000 people. It was based in the Pingfang district of Harbin, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (now Northeast China) and had active branch offices throughout China and Southeast Asia. Unit 731 was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes committed by the Japanese armed forces. It routinely conducted tests on people who were dehumanized and internally referred to as "logs". Experiments included disease injections, controlled dehydration, biological weapons testing, hypobaric pressure chambers, vivisection, organ harvesting, amputation, and standard weapons testing. Victims included not only kidnapped men, women (including pregnant women) and children but also babies born from the systemic rape perpetrated by the staff inside the compound. The victims came from different nationalities, with the majority being Chinese and a significant minority being Russian. Additionally, Unit 731 produced biological weapons that were used in areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces, which included Chinese cities and towns, water sources, and fields. Estimates of those killed by Unit 731 and its related programs range up to half a million people, and none of the inmates survived.
Richard Sorge (1895.10.04–1944.11.07): German journalist and Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during World War II and worked undercover as a German journalist in both Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. His codename was "Ramsay" (Russian: Рамза́й). A number of famous personalities considered him one of the most accomplished spies. Sorge is most famous for his service in Japan in 1940 and 1941, when he provided information about Adolf Hitler's plan to attack the Soviet Union. Then, in mid-September 1941, he informed the Soviets that Japan would not attack the Soviet Union in the near future. A month later, Sorge was arrested in Japan for espionage. He was tortured, forced to confess, tried and hanged in November 1944. Stalin declined to intervene on his behalf with the Japanese.
Hotsumi Ozaki (1901.04.29–1944.11.07): Imperial Japanese journalist working for the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, communist, Soviet Union intelligence agent, and an advisor to Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. The only Japanese person to be hanged for treason (under the guise of the Peace Preservation Law) by the Japanese government during World War II, Ozaki is well known as an informant of the Soviet agent Richard Sorge.
Japanese holdout: soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during the Pacific Theatre of WWII who continued fighting after the surrender of Japan at the end of the war. Japanese holdouts either doubted the veracity of the formal surrender, were not aware that the war had ended because communications had been cut off by Allied advances, or were bound by honor to never surrender. After Japan officially surrendered at the end of World War II, Japanese holdouts in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands that had been part of the Japanese Empire continued to fight local police, government forces, and Allied troops stationed to assist the newly formed governments. Many holdouts were discovered in the jungles of Southeast Asia and the Pacific over the following decades. Some Japanese soldiers acknowledged Japan's surrender and the end of World War II but were reluctant to demobilize and wished to continue armed combat for ideological reasons. Many fought in the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War, and local independence movements in Southeast Asia such as the First Indochina War and the Indonesian National Revolution, and these Japanese soldiers are not usually considered holdouts.
Main provider of machinery and weapons to UK, USSR. One of the weapon suppliers for China. WWII showed USA to be the superpower of the whole world.
IBM and World War II: both the United States government and Nazi German government used IBM punched card technology for some parts of their camps' operation and record keeping. In Germany, during World War II, IBM engaged in business practices which have been the source of controversy. Much attention focuses on the role of IBM's German subsidiary, known as Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft, or Dehomag.
Dehomag (Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen GmbH): German subsidiary of IBM with a monopoly in the German market before and during WWII. Hollerith refers to the German-American inventor of the technology of punched cards, Herman Hollerith. In April 1949 the company name was changed to IBM Deutschland. Holocaust: As an IBM subsidiary, Dehomag became the main provider of computing expertise and equipment in Nazi Germany. Dehomag gave the German government the means for two official censuses of the population after 1933 and for searching its data. It gave the Nazis a way of tracing Jews and dissidents using the powerful automated search tools using the IBM machines. It enabled them to search databases rapidly and efficiently, and the methods were used throughout occupied Europe by the Gestapo and others to locate and arrest its victims, contributing to the Holocaust. Dehomag leased and maintained the German government's punched card machines. Dehomag's general manager for Germany, Hermann Rottke, reported directly to IBM President Thomas J. Watson in New York. It was legal for IBM to conduct business with Germany directly until the United States entered the war in December 1941. Income from the machines leased in General Government was sent through Geneva to IBM in New York.
IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation: book by investigative journalist and historian Edwin Black which documents the strategic technology services rendered by American-based multinational corporation IBM and its German and other European subsidiaries for the Nazi government of Adolf Hitler from the beginning of the Third Reich in January 1933 through the last day of the regime in May 1945 at the end of WWII. Published in 2001, with numerous subsequent expanded editions, Black outlined the key role of IBM's technology in the Nazi genocide, by facilitating the regime's generation and tabulation of punch cards for national census data, military logistics, ghetto statistics, train traffic management, and concentration camp capacity.
Operation Achse (Fall Achse, "Case Axis"): was the codename of the German plans to forcibly disarm the Italian armed forces after their expected armistice with the Allied forces in 1943
Italian military internees (Italienische Militärinternierte, IMI): the Nazis considered the Italians as traitors and not as prisoners of war.
United States Office of War Information (OWI): US government agency created during WWII. OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, the OWI was the connection between the battlefront and civilian communities. The office also established several overseas branches, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad. European Theater: One of the most astounding of all OWI operations occurred in Luxembourg. Known as Operation Annie, the United States 12th Army Group ran a secret radio station from 2:00-6:30am every morning from a house in Luxembourg pretending to be loyal Rhinelanders under Nazi occupation. They spoke of Nazi commanders hiding their desperate position from the German public, which caused dissent among Nazi supporters. On the Eastern front, the OWI struggled not to offend Polish and Soviet Allies. As the Soviets advanced from the East towards Germany, they swept through Poland without hesitation. However, Poles considered much of the land of the Eastern front as their own. The OWI struggled to present the news (including the pronunciation of town names or and discussion of county or national boundaries) without offending either party. Pacific Theater: OWI was one of the most prolific sources of propaganda in “Free China.” They operated a sophisticated propaganda machine that sought to demoralize the Japanese army and create a portrait of US war aims that would appeal to the Chinese audience. OWI employed many Chinese, second-generation Japanese (Nisei), Japanese POWs, Korean exiles, etc. However, the OWI encountered public relations difficulties in China and India. In China, the OWI unsuccessfully attempted to stay removed from the Nationalist versus Communist conflict.
Percentages agreement ("Naughty document"): agreement between Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and British prime minister Winston Churchill about how to divide various European countries into spheres of influence during the Fourth Moscow Conference, in 1944; agreement was made public by Churchill.
What do you need for total war? Lots of people (human capital), steal (iron), energy (coal, oil), gas and to the lesser extent diesel.
Swedish iron mining during World War II: Allies and the Third Reich were keen on the control of the mining district in northernmost Sweden, surrounding the mining towns of Gällivare and Kiruna. In 1944.11 Sweden reduced and ended its iron ore trade with Germany. Sweden's iron ore was of the high grade quality, while Lorraine's (FR) and Germany's iron ore used by Germany was of the low grade.
Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation: Army command structure and distributed port infrastructure in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia supporting movement of personnel and cargo overseas. It had been activated as the Newport News Port of Embarkation in WWI, deactivated, then reactivated 15 June 1942. An Army POE was a command structure and interconnected land transportation, supply and troop housing complex devoted to efficiently loading overseas transports.
WWII: weapons and new technologies, military technologies, war machines
Tanks in World War II: UK, USA, the USSR, FR and IT produced significant numbers of tanks before and during WWII. DE tanks were inferior to many of their opponent's tanks in the areas of armour and firepower; however, it was in their tactical employment that German tanks dominated all rivals early in the war; DE doctrine stressed the use of rapid movement, mission-type orders and combined-arms tactics involving mobile infantry and air support; this doctrine was popularly called Blitzkrieg. This doctrine required the Germans to equip their tanks with radios, which provided unmatched command and control for flexible employment. In contrast, e.g., almost 80% of FR tanks lacked radios, essentially because their battle doctrine was based on a more slow-paced, deliberate conformance to planned movements. By 1943, two-way radio was nearly universal. Turrets which had always been considered, but were not previously a universal feature on tanks, were recognised as essential; most tanks retained a hull machine gun, and usually one or more machineguns in the turret, to protect them from infantry at short range. Tank destroyers and assault guns - armoured vehicles carrying large calibre guns, but often no turrets.
V-1 flying bomb (Vergeltungswaffe 1): early cruise missile and the only production aircraft to use a pulsejet for power.
V-2 rocket (Vergeltungswaffe 2): world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a "vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line.
MW 18014: German A-4/V-2 rocket test launch that took place in 1944.06.20, at the Peenemünde Army Research Center in Peenemünde. It was the first man-made object to reach outer space, attaining an apogee of 176 km, which is well above the Kármán line. It was a vertical test launch. Although the rocket reached space, it did not reach orbital velocity, and therefore returned to Earth in an impact, becoming the first sub-orbital spaceflight.
Manhattan Project (1942–1946): research and development undertaking during WWII that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by USA with the support of UK and Canada. Project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of USA Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the actual bombs. The Army component of the project was designated the Manhattan District as its first headquarters were in Manhattan; the placename gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials, for the entire project. Along the way, the project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys. The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly US$2 billion (equivalent to about $23 billion in 2020). >90% of the cost was for building factories and to produce fissile material, with <10% for development and production of the weapons.
Einstein–Szilárd letter: written by Leo Szilard and signed by Albert Einstein that was sent to USA President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939.08.02. Written by Szilard in consultation with fellow Hungarian physicists Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner, the letter warned that Germany might develop atomic bombs and suggested that the United States should start its own nuclear program. It prompted action by Roosevelt, which eventually resulted in the Manhattan Project developing the first atomic bombs. Einstein did not work on the Manhattan Project. The Army and Vannevar Bush denied him the work clearance needed in July 1940, saying his pacifist leanings and celebrity status made him a security risk. At least one source states that Einstein did clandestinely contribute some equations to the Manhattan Project. Einstein was allowed to work as a consultant to the United States Navy's Bureau of Ordnance. He had no knowledge of the atomic bomb's development, and no influence on the decision of any being used.
Alsos Mission (late 1943 – 1945.10.15): organized effort by a team of British and United States military, scientific, and intelligence personnel to discover enemy scientific developments during WWII. Its chief focus was on the German nuclear energy project, but it also investigated chemical and biological weapons and the means to deliver them.
Operation Big: operation of the Alsos Mission, the Allied seizure of facilities, materiel, and personnel related to the German nuclear weapon project during WWII. It was tasked with sweeping several targeted towns in the area of southwest Germany designated to the French First Army, including Hechingen, Bisingen, Haigerloch, and Tailfingen. Operating behind German lines the USA task force successfully carried out its mission of seizing or destroying all project related assets and capturing its top scientists in the last week of April and first week of May, 1945.
Operation Epsilon: codename of a program in which Allied forces near the end of World War II detained ten German scientists who were thought to have worked on Nazi Germany's nuclear program. The scientists were captured 1945.05.01-06.30, as part of the Allied Alsos Mission, mainly as part of its Operation Big sweep through southwestern Germany. They were interned at Farm Hall, a bugged house in Godmanchester, near Cambridge, England, 1945.07.03-1946.01.03. The primary goal of the program was to determine how close Nazi Germany had been to constructing an atomic bomb by listening to their conversations. List of scientists: Erich Bagge, Kurt Diebner, Walther Gerlach, Otto Hahn, Paul Harteck, Werner Heisenberg, Horst Korsching, Max von Laue, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Karl Wirtz.
Morgenthau Plan: proposal to eliminate Germany's ability to wage war following WWII by eliminating its arms industry and removing or destroying other key industries basic to military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industrial plants and equipment in the Ruhr. It was first proposed by United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. in a 1944 memorandum entitled Suggested Post-Surrender Program for Germany. While the Morgenthau Plan had some influence until 1947.07.10 (adoption of JCS 1779) on Allied planning for the occupation of Germany, it was not adopted. US occupation policies aimed at "industrial disarmament", but contained a number of deliberate loopholes, limiting any action to short-term military measures and preventing large-scale destruction of mines and industrial plants, giving wide-ranging discretion to the military governor and Morgenthau's opponents at the War Department. An investigation by Herbert Hoover concluded the plan was unworkable, and would result in up to 25 mln Germans dying from starvation. From 1947, US policies aimed at restoring a "stable and productive Germany" and were soon followed by the Marshall Plan.
de:Special Film Project 186: filmten Kameraleute der United States Army Air Forces von März bis Mai den Vorstoß amerikanischer Truppen in Deutschland und danach die unmittelbare Nachkriegszeit in Europa.
Denazification (de: Entnazifizierung): was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist (Nazi) ideology.
Finnish war reparations to the Soviet Union: originally worth US$300,000,000 at 1938 prices (equivalent to US$5.45 billion in 2019). Finland agreed to pay the reparations in the Moscow Armistice signed in 1944.09.19. The protocol to determine more precisely the war reparations to the Soviet Union was signed in 1944.12, by the prime minister Juho Kusti Paasikivi and the chairman of the Allied Control Commission for controlling the Moscow Armistice in Helsinki, Andrei Zhdanov.
San Francisco System ("Hub and Spokes" architecture): a network of bilateral alliance pursued by USA in East Asia, after the end of WWII - USA as a 'hub', and Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Australia as 'spokes'. The system is made of political-military and economic commitments between USA and its Pacific allies. It allowed USA to develop exclusive postwar relationships with the Republic of Korea (ROK), the Republic of China (ROC or Taiwan), and Japan. These treaties are an example of bilateral collective defense. Since the system emerged under USA powerplay rationale, it is the most dominant security architecture in East Asia up to now. Right after WWII, USA was not interested in being involved in East Asia and was more concentrated in its role in Europe. However after the Korean War, the US became more engaged in East Asia. The Hub and Spokes System is a highly asymmetric alliance by nature in both security and economic dimensions, offering military protection and economic access through trade rather than aid. It is important to note that the nature of the relationship was a bit different with Japan from other East Asian countries. The US viewed Japan as a possible great power in East Asia. Thus, the US constructed the strongest defense treaty with Japan. The US wanted Japan to be more involved and share the burden in peace keeping in Asia. However, the Yoshida Doctrine shows that Japan did not share the same ideas.
Cold war (term): state of conflict between nations that does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates. This term is most commonly used to refer to the American-Soviet Cold War of 1947–1991. The surrogates are typically states that are satellites of the conflicting nations, i.e., nations allied to them or under their political influence. Opponents in a cold war will often provide economic or military aid, such as weapons, tactical support or military advisors, to lesser nations involved in conflicts with the opposing country.
Tensions labeled a cold war: 16th-century England and Spain; Great Game; Second Cold War (Cold War 2.0); Middle Eas; South Asia; East Asia (Korean conflict); China and the Soviet Union; China and India; 21st Century United States: A slim majority of Americans stated that they believe a cold war exists between members of the political left and political right in USA.
Julian March: first huger conflict between the West (capitalist; US & UK) and the East (commmunist, Yugoslavia) after WWII. Free Territory of Trieste → Treaty of Osimo: now Slovenia has very short coastline, while Croatia and Italy has huge coastlines. Trieste belongs to Italy.
Free Territory of Trieste (1947–1954): independent territory in Southern Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, facing the north part of the Adriatic Sea, under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of WWII. For a period of seven years, it acted essentially as a free city. The territory was dissolved de facto and given to its two neighbours (Italy and Yugoslavia) in 1954.
Map of the Free Territory of Trieste 1947–1954.
Berlin Blockade (1948.06.24–1949.05.12 (323 days)): one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche Mark from West Berlin. The Western Allies organised the Berlin Airlift (German: Berliner Luftbrücke, lit. '"Berlin Air Bridge"') 1948.06.26–1949.09.30 to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, a difficult feat given the size of the city and the population. American and British air forces flew over Berlin more than 250,000 times, dropping necessities such as fuel and food, with the original plan being to lift 3,475 tons of supplies daily. By the spring of 1949, that number was often met twofold, with the peak daily delivery totalling 12,941 tons. Having initially concluded there was no way the airlift could work, the Soviets found its continued success an increasing embarrassment. On 12 May 1949, the USSR lifted the blockade of West Berlin, due to economic issues in East Berlin, although for a time the Americans and British continued to supply the city by air as they were worried that the Soviets would resume the blockade and were only trying to disrupt western supply lines. The Berlin Airlift officially ended on 30 September 1949 after fifteen months. The US Air Force had delivered 1,783,573 tons (76.4% of total) and the RAF 541,937 tons (23.3% of total).
First Indochina War (1946.12.19–1954.08.01; Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam): Territorial changes: Division of Vietnam between North Vietnam and South Vietnam in 1954.07.21; Independence of Laos and Cambodia. An estimated 400,000 to 842,707 soldiers died during the war as well as between 125,000 and 400,000 civilians. Both sides committed war crimes during the conflict, including killings of civilians (such as the Mỹ Trạch massacre by French troops), rape and torture.
Vietnam War (1955.11.01–1975.04.30): Cold War-era proxy war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. This war followed the First Indochina War (1946–54) and was fought between North Vietnam—supported by USSR, China and other communist allies—and the government of South Vietnam—supported by USA and other anti-communist allies. Estimates of the number of Vietnamese service members and civilians killed vary from 800,000 to 3.1 mln.. Some 200,000–300,000 Cambodians, 20,000–200,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict.
Korean War (1950.06.25–1953.07.27 (de facto), – present (de jure)): fought between North Korea and South Korea. North Korea was supported by China (PRC) and USSR while South Korea was supported by UN, principally USA. War began North Korean military (Korean People's Army, KPA) forces crossed the border and drove into South Korea in 1950.06.25. Joseph Stalin had final decision power and several times demanded North Korea postpone the invasion, until he and Mao Zedong both gave their final approval in spring 1950. The United Nations Security Council denounced the North Korean move as an invasion and authorized the formation of the United Nations Command and the dispatch of forces to Korea to repel it. USSR was boycotting the UN for recognizing Taiwan (ROC) as China, and China (PRC) on the mainland was not recognized by the UN, so neither could support their ally North Korea at the Security Council meeting. After the first two months of war, South Korean Army (ROKA) and American forces hastily dispatched to Korea were on the point of defeat, retreating to a small area behind a defensive line known as the Pusan Perimeter. In 1950.09, a risky amphibious UN counteroffensive was launched at Incheon, cutting off KPA troops and supply lines in South Korea. Those who escaped envelopment and capture were forced back north. UN forces invaded North Korea in 1950.10 and moved rapidly towards the Yalu River—the border with China—but in 1950.10.19, Chinese forces of the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) crossed the Yalu and entered the war. The UN retreated from North Korea after the First Phase Offensive and the Second Phase Offensive. Chinese forces were in South Korea by late December. In these and subsequent battles, Seoul was captured four times, and communist forces were pushed back to positions around the 38th parallel, close to where the war had started. After this, the front stabilized, and the last two years were a war of attrition. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate. North Korea was subject to a massive US bombing campaign. Jet-powered fighters confronted each other in air-to-air combat for the first time in history, and Soviet pilots covertly flew in defense of their communist allies. The Korean War was among the most destructive conflicts of the modern era, with approximately 3 mln. war fatalities and a larger proportional civilian death toll than WWII or the Vietnam War (making it perhaps the deadliest conflict of the Cold War era). Samuel S. Kim lists the Korean War as the deadliest conflict in East Asia—itself the region most affected by armed conflict related to the Cold War—from 1945 to 1994, with 3 million dead, more than the Vietnam War and Chinese Civil War during the same period. It incurred the destruction of virtually all of Korea's major cities, thousands of massacres by both sides, including the mass killing of tens of thousands of suspected communists by the South Korean government, and the torture and starvation of prisoners of war by the North Koreans. North Korea became among the most heavily bombed countries in history. 1.5 mln. North Koreans are estimated to have fled North Korea over the course of the war.
Battle of Inchon (10–19 September 1950, (10–15 September – Bombardments of Wolmido and Incheon), (15–19 September – Incheon Landing)): amphibious invasion and a battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations Command (UN). The operation involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels and led to the recapture of the South Korean capital of Seoul two weeks later.
Relief of Douglas MacArthur (1951.04.11): USA President Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of his commands after MacArthur made public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. MacArthur was a popular hero of WWII who was then commander of United Nations Command forces fighting in the Korean War, and his relief remains a controversial topic in the field of civil–military relations. MacArthur led the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific during WWII, and after the war was in charge of the occupation of Japan. In the latter role, MacArthur was able to accumulate considerable power over the civil administration of Japan. Eventually, he gained a level of political experience that has arguably been neither precedented nor repeated by anyone actively serving as a flag officer in USA military.
Return of the Chinese Eastern Railway (1952.12.31): USSR returned full control of the Chinese Eastern Railway to PRC. The return of the railway marked the first time that the China Eastern Railway (known as the Chinese Changchun Railway at the time) had been under full Chinese control since the railway was constructed in 1898. The handover of the railway was the result of negotiations between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China culminating in the signing of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance.
Korean Armistice Agreement (1953.07.27; 한국정전협정 / 조선정전협정): brought about a complete cessation of hostilities of the Korean War, was designed to "ensure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved". During the 1954 Geneva Conference in Switzerland, Chinese Premier and foreign minister Chou En-lai suggested that a peace treaty should be implemented on the Korean peninsula. However, the US secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, did not accommodate this attempt to achieve such a treaty. A final peace settlement has never been achieved. The signed armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has separated North and South Korea since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953. South Korea never signed the Armistice Agreement, due to President Syngman Rhee’s refusal to accept having failed to unify Korea by force. China normalized relations and signed a peace treaty with South Korea in 1992. In 1994, China withdrew from the Military Armistice Commission, essentially leaving North Korea and the UN Command as the only participants in the armistice agreement.
Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War: allegations that the United States military used biological weapons in the Korean War were raised by the governments of PRC, USSR, and North Korea. The claims were first raised in 1951. The story was covered by the worldwide press and led to a highly publicized international investigation in 1952. Background: until the end of WWII, Japan operated a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit called Unit 731 in Harbin (now China). The unit's activities, including human experimentation, were documented by the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials conducted by the Soviet Union in December 1949. However, at that time, the US government described the Khabarovsk trials as "vicious and unfounded propaganda". It was later revealed that the accusations made against the Japanese military were correct. The US government had taken over the research at the end of the war and had then covered up the program. Leaders of Unit 731 were exempted from war crimes prosecution by the United States and then placed on the payroll of the US. 1950.06.30, soon after the outbreak of the Korean War, the US Defense Secretary George Marshall received the Report of the Committee on Chemical, Biological and Radiological Warfare and Recommendations, which advocated urgent development of a biological weapons program. The biological weapons research facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland was expanded, and a new one in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was developed.
Suez Crisis (Tripartite Aggression, Suez Canal Crisis, Suez War, Second Arab-Israeli War): diplomatic and military confrontation in late 1956 between Egypt on one side, and Britain, France and Israel on the other, with USA, USSR, and UN playing major roles in forcing Britain, France and Israel to withdraw.
NATO Double-Track Decision: decision by NATO from 1979.12.12 to offer the Warsaw Pact a mutual limitation of medium-range ballistic missiles and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. It was combined with a threat by NATO to deploy more medium-range nuclear weapons in Western Europe after the Euromissile Crisis. The détente between USA and USSR culminated in the signing of SALT I (1972) and the negotiations toward SALT II (1979). The agreements placed constraints on further developments in nuclear capacities. The SALT agreements were not intended to be considered a form of mutual arms control but merely referred to strategic carrier systems and their warheads, which did not include any tactical nuclear weapons such as nuclear bombs delivered by bombers or midrange missiles (MRBMs and IRBMs).
1980 Summer Olympics boycott: one part of a number of actions initiated by USA to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. USSR, which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and its allies later boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
1984 Summer Olympics boycott: in Los Angeles followed four years after the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The boycott involved 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies, led by USSR, which initiated the boycott in 1984.05.08.
Friendship Games (Дружба-84, Druzhba-84): international multi-sport event held 1984.07.02-1984.09.16 in USSR and eight other socialist states. Although Friendship Games officials denied that the Games were to be a counter-Olympic event to avoid conflicts with IOC, the competition was often dubbed the Eastern Bloc's "alternative Olympics". Some fifty states took part in the competition. While the boycotting countries were represented by their strongest athletes, other states sent their reserve teams, consisting of athletes who failed to qualify for Los Angeles.
Toshiba–Kongsberg scandal: late Cold War controversy that arose in 1987 when some member nations of the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom) violated foreign exchange and foreign trade laws when they exported machine tools to USSR that could be used in combination with the Kongsberg numerical control (NC) devices made in Norway, in violation of the CoCom agreement. The equipment allowed the submarine technology of USSR to progress significantly as it was being used to mill quieter propellers for Soviet submarines.
Stanislav Petrov (1939.09.09 - ): retired lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. In 1983.09.26, just three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile, followed by another one and then up to five more, were being launched from USA. Petrov judged the report to be a false alarm, and his decision is credited with having prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on USA and its NATO allies that could have resulted in large-scale nuclear war. Investigation later confirmed that the satellite warning system had indeed malfunctioned.
Vasili Arkhipov (1926.01.30–1998.08.19) was a Soviet Navy officer. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo and thereby prevented a nuclear war. Thomas Blanton (then director of the National Security Archive) said in 2002 that "a guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world".
Historical nuclear weapons stockpiles and nuclear tests by country: Nuclear weapons stockpiles: USA nuclear stockpile increased rapidly from 1945, peaked in 1966, and declined after that. By 2012, the United States had several times fewer nuclear weapons than it had in 1966. USSR developed its first nuclear weapon in 1949 and increased its nuclear stockpile rapidly until it peaked in 1986 under Mikhail Gorbachev. As Cold War tensions decreased, and after the collapse of USSR, the Soviet and Russian nuclear stockpile decreased by over 80% between 1986 and 2012. Nuclear weapon tests: From the first nuclear test in 1945, worldwide nuclear testing increased rapidly until the 1970s, when it peaked. However, there was still a large amount of worldwide nuclear testing until the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. Afterwards, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was signed and ratified by the major nuclear weapons powers, and the number of worldwide nuclear tests decreased rapidly. India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in 1998, but afterwards only North Korea conducted nuclear tests--in 2006, 2009, 2013, twice in 2016, and in 2017.
List of states with nuclear weapons: 8 sovereign states have publicly announced successful detonation of nuclear weapons. Five are considered to be nuclear-weapon states (NWS) under the terms of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). In order of acquisition of nuclear weapons, these are USA, Russia (the successor of the former USSR), UK, France, and China (PRC). Since the NPT entered into force in 1970, three states that were not parties to the Treaty have conducted overt nuclear tests, namely India, Pakistan, and North Korea. North Korea had been a party to the NPT but withdrew in 2003. Israel is also generally understood to have nuclear weapons, but does not acknowledge it, maintaining a policy of deliberate ambiguity. States that formerly possessed nuclear weapons are South Africa (developed nuclear weapons but then disassembled its arsenal before joining the NPT) and the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, whose weapons were repatriated to Russia. According to SIPRI, the worldwide total inventory of nuclear weapons as of 2021 stood at 13,080. Around 30% of these are deployed with operational forces, and more than 90% are owned by either Russia or USA.
Strategic stability: concept in the international relations indicating a lack of incentives for any party to initiate the nuclear first strike; the term is also used in a broader sense of the state of the international environment helping to avoid a war. Strategic stability characterizes the degree of the deterrence provided by the mutual assured destruction and depends on the survivability of the strategic forces after the first strike.
Stability–instability paradox: international relations theory regarding the effect of nuclear weapons and mutually assured destruction. It states that when two countries each have nuclear weapons, the probability of a direct war between them greatly decreases, but the probability of minor or indirect conflicts between them increases. This occurs because rational actors want to avoid nuclear wars, and thus they neither start major conflicts nor allow minor conflicts to escalate into major conflicts—thus making it safe to engage in minor conflicts. For instance, during the Cold War USA and USSR never engaged each other in warfare, but fought proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, Angola, the Middle East, Nicaragua and Afghanistan and spent substantial amounts of money and manpower on gaining relative influence over the third world. A study published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution in 2009 quantitatively evaluated the nuclear peace hypothesis, and found support for the existence of the stability–instability paradox. The study determined that while nuclear weapons promote strategic stability, and prevent large scale wars, they simultaneously allow for more lower intensity conflicts. When one state has nuclear weapons, but their opponent does not, there is a greater chance of war. In contrast, when there is mutual nuclear weapon ownership with both states possessing nuclear weapons, the odds of war drop precipitously.
Succession of states: theory and practice in international relations regarding the recognition and acceptance of a newly created sovereign state by other states, based on a perceived historical relationship the new state has with a prior state. The theory has its root in 19th century diplomacy. E.g.:
Russia and UN agreed that it would acquire the USSR's seat as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). All Soviet embassies became Russian embassies.
contrasted with: UN refused to allow the federation of Serbia and Montenegro to sit in the General Assembly of the United Nations under the name of 'Yugoslavia'.
Submarine incident off Kildin Island (1992.02.11): collision between the US Navy nuclear submarine USS Baton Rouge and the Russian Navy nuclear submarine B-276 Kostroma near the Russian naval base of Severomorsk. The incident occurred while the US unit was engaged in a covert mission, apparently aimed at intercepting Russian military communications.
Submarine incident off Kola Peninsula (1993.03.20): collision between the US Navy nuclear attack submarine USS Grayling and the Russian Navy nuclear ballistic missile submarine K-407 Novomoskovsk some 150 km north of the Russian naval base of Severomorsk.
United States – Russia mutual detargeting: 1994.01.12-15, USA President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin negotiated an agreement between their respective countries not to target strategic nuclear missiles at each other. Detargeted missiles are reprogrammed to either have no target or, in the case of missiles that require a constant target (such as the Minuteman III), are set to open-ocean targets.
Kuril Islands dispute: Northern Territories dispute, is a disagreement between Japan and Russia and also some individuals of the Ainu people over sovereignty of the South Kuril Islands. These islands, like other islands in the Kuril chain that are not in dispute, were annexed by the USSR in aftermath of the Kuril Islands landing operation at the end of WWII.
Aegean dispute: set of interrelated controversial issues for decades between Greece and Turkey over sovereignty and related rights in the area of the Aegean Sea. This set of conflicts has had a large effect on Greek-Turkish relations since the 1970s. It has twice led to crises coming close to the outbreak of military hostilities, in 1987 and in early 1996.
Cyprus–Turkey maritime zones dispute: over the extent of their exclusive economic zones (EEZ), ostensibly sparked by oil and gas exploration in the area. Turkey objects to Cypriot drilling in waters that Cyprus has asserted a claim to under international maritime law. The present maritime zones dispute touches on the perennial Cyprus and Aegean disputes; Turkey is the only member state of the United Nations that does not recognise Cyprus, and is one of the few not signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Cyprus has signed and ratified.
Colour revolution: term used since around 2004 by worldwide media to describe various anti-regime protest movements and accompanying (attempted or successful) changes of government that took place in post-Soviet Eurasia during the early 21st century—namely countries of the former USSR, and the former Yugoslavia. The term has also been more widely applied to several other revolutions elsewhere, including in the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region, and South America, dating from the late 1980s to the 2020s. Some observers (such as Justin Raimondo and Michael Lind) have called the events a revolutionary wave, the origins of which can be traced back to the 1986 People Power Revolution (also known as the "Yellow Revolution") in the Philippines. Some of these movements have had a measure of success, such as Ukraine's Euromaidan from November 2013 to 2014, which resulted in the removal of pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych, and in the early 2000s, for example, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Bulldozer Revolution (2000), Georgia's Rose Revolution (2003), Ukraine's Orange Revolution (2004) and Kyrgyzstan's Tulip Revolution (2005). In most but not all cases, massive street protests followed disputed elections or demands for fair elections. They led to the resignation or overthrow of leaders regarded by their opponents as authoritarian. Russia and China (PRC) share the view that colour revolutions are the "product of machinations by the United States and other Western powers" and pose a vital threat to their public and national security.
Frozen conflict: situation in which active armed conflict has been brought to an end, but no peace treaty or other political framework resolves the conflict to the satisfaction of the combatants. Therefore, legally the conflict can start again at any moment, creating an environment of insecurity and instability.
In post-Soviet territories: RU & friends vs others
In Asia: Kashmir; Mainland China (PRC) and Taiwan (ROC); Korea (DPRK & ROK)
In Europe: Cyprus (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Cyprus); Kosovo
Cold peace: state of relative peace between two countries that is marked by the enforcement of a peace treaty ending the state of war while the government or populace of at least one of the parties to the treaty continues to treat the treaty with vocal disgust domestically. E.g. Egypt and Israel; Jordan and Israel; Iran and Iraq (1989-2003); India and Pakistan.
Second Cold War (Cold War II): synonymous terms used by various commentators to describe the heightened 21st century political and military tensions between the United States and China. It is also used to describe such tensions between the US and Russia, a state of the former Soviet Union, which was one of the major parties of the original Cold War until its dissolution in 1991. Some commentators have used the term as a comparison to the original Cold War. Some other commentators have either doubted that either tension would lead to another "cold war" or have discouraged using the term to refer to either or both tensions. Past usages: In 1998, George Kennan described the US Senate vote to expand NATO to include Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic as "the beginning of a new cold war", and predicted that "the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies". The journalist Edward Lucas wrote his 2008 book The New Cold War: How the Kremlin Menaces both Russia and the West, claiming that a new cold war between Russia and the West had begun already. Michael Klare, a RealClearPolitics writer and an academic, in June 2013 compared tensions between Russia and the West to the ongoing proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Australia–China trade war (2017/18-present): In 2018, Australia banned Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE. In 2020, China gradually imposed several trade sanctions on Australia. A wide range of Australian products were sanctioned, including barley, beef, cotton, lamb, lobsters, timber and wine.
China–United States trade war: ongoing economic conflict between China and the United States. In 2018.01, USA President Donald Trump began setting tariffs and other trade barriers on China with the goal of forcing it to make changes to what the U.S. says are longstanding unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft. The Trump administration stated that these practices may contribute to the U.S.–China trade deficit, and that the Chinese government requires transfer of American technology to China. In response to US trade measures, the Chinese government accused the Trump administration of engaging in nationalist protectionism and took retaliatory action. After the trade war escalated through 2019, in 2020.01 the two sides reached a tense phase one agreement; it expired in 2021.12 with China failing by a wide margin to reach its targets for U.S. imports to China. By the end of the Trump presidency, the trade war was widely characterized as a failure. His successor, Joe Biden, has kept tariffs in place.
United States New Export Controls on Advanced Computing and Semiconductors to China: effective 2022.10.07, USA implemented new export controls targeting PRC's ability to access and develop advanced computing and semiconductor manufacturing items. The new export controls reflect the United States' ambition to counter the accelerating advancement of China's high-tech capabilities in these spaces to address foreign policy and national security concerns. Background of New Export Controls: Huawei and ZTE Equipment Ban; Covid-19 Induced Global Chip Shortage. United States Objective: This announcement, the most expansive export control action in decades, represents a fundamental shift in the traditional strategy underlying the U.S. and allied export control regime; PRC Semiconductor Applications in the Military; Maintaining a Global Lead in Artificial Intelligence; Restricting Human Capital to PRC.
2021 Belarus–European Union border crisis: migrant crisis consisting of an influx of several tens of thousands of migrants, mainly from Iraq and Africa, to Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland via those countries' borders with Belarus. The crisis was triggered by the severe deterioration in Belarus–European Union relations, following the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests, the Ryanair Flight 4978 incident, and the attempted forced repatriation of Krystsina Tsimanouskaya. Belarusian authorities and state-controlled tourist enterprises, together with some airlines operating in the Middle East, started promoting tours to Belarus by increasing the number of connections from the Middle East and giving those who bought them Belarusian visas, ostensibly for hunting purposes. Social media groups were additionally offering fraudulent advice on the rules of crossing the border to the prospective migrants, most of whom were trying to go to Germany. Those who arrived to Belarus were then given instructions about how and where to trespass the EU border and what to tell the border guards on the other side, and were often guided by the guards up until the border. Migrants stated that Belarus provided them with wire cutters and axes to cut through border fences and enter the EU. However, those who did not manage to cross the border were often forced to stay there by Belarusian authorities, who were accused of assaulting some migrants who failed to get across. Belarus refused to allow Polish humanitarian aid for the migrants, which would have included tents and sleeping bags. Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have described the crisis as hybrid warfare, calling the crisis an incident of human trafficking of migrants waged by Belarus against the EU, and asked on the EU to intervene. The three governments announced states of emergency; while Lithuania managed to stem the flow of migrants, Poland and Latvia were less successful. Due to the crisis, all three states announced their decisions to build border walls on their borders with Belarus, with Poland approving an estimated €353 million in spending to build a 60 kilometer barrier, the EU sending additional supporting officers and patrol cars to Lithuania, and the twelve EU governments stating their support for a physical barrier along the border after Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia requested funding for one.
Artificial intelligence arms race: competition or arms race between two or more states to have their military forces equipped with the best AI. Since the mid-2010s many analysts have noted the emergence of such a global arms race, the AI arms race, between great powers for better military AI, coinciding with and being driven by the increasing geopolitical and military tensions of what so believe is the Second Cold War. The context of the AI arms race is the AI Cold War narrative, in which tensions between the US and China lead to a cold war waged in the area of AI technology.
Artificial Intelligence Cold War: narrative in which tensions between the US and China lead to a second Cold War waged in the area of AI technology rather than in the areas of nuclear capabilities or ideology. The context of the AI Cold War narrative is the AI Arms Race, which involves a build-up of military capabilities using AI technology by the US, Russia and China.
Lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs): type of autonomous military system that can independently search for and engage targets based on programmed constraints and descriptions. LAWs are also known as lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS), autonomous weapon systems (AWS), robotic weapons, killer robots or slaughterbots. LAWs may operate in the air, on land, on water, under water, or in space. The autonomy of current systems as of 2018 was restricted in the sense that a human gives the final command to attack - though there are exceptions with certain "defensive" systems.
COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2:
Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic: many countries and regions have imposed quarantines, entry bans, or other restrictions for citizens of or recent travelers to the most affected areas. Other countries and regions have imposed global restrictions that apply to all foreign countries and territories, or prevent their own citizens from travelling overseas. Travel restrictions have reduced the spread of the virus, but because they were first implemented after community spread was established in multiple countries in different regions of the world, they produced only a modest reduction in the total number of people infected. Travel restrictions may be most important at the start and end of the pandemic.
Baltic Bubble: special travel-restricted area consisting of the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania created in 2020.05.15, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. It was the first travel bubble in Europe and in the European Union since COVID-19 restrictions were first implemented. The creation of the Baltic Bubble was announced by the prime ministers of the three states in 2020.04.29. It allowed citizens of the states to travel across the borders of the states without needing to self-isolate unless the citizens had travelled outside of the area within the previous 14 days. The Baltic Bubble was suspended in 2020.11.11, when Latvia restricted entry conditions for people coming from Estonia due to an increase in COVID-19 cases.
Russia–NATO relations (1991-): in 1994, Russia joined the Partnership for Peace program, and through the early-2010s NATO and Russia signed several additional agreements on cooperation. Russia has engaged in hostile threats or actions against several countries since the end of the Cold War, including Moldova (1992–2016); Georgia (2004–2012); Estonia (2006–2007), Ukraine (2014–present); Syria (2015–present), and Turkey (2015–2016), amongst others. The Russia–NATO relations started to deteriorate, following the Ukrainian Orange Revolution in 2004–05. In October 2021, following an incident in which NATO expelled eight Russian officials from its Brussels headquarters, Russia suspended its mission to NATO and ordered the closure of the NATO office in Moscow. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused a dramatic deterioration in Russia–NATO relationships to the lowest point since the end of the Cold War: the 2022 NATO Madrid summit declared Russia "a direct threat to Euro-Atlantic security", while Russian officials and propagandists have increasingly said they're "at war" with the whole of NATO.
2022 Madrid summit (2022.06.28–30): meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of NATO member and partner countries held in Madrid, Spain. EU–NATO interactions. Finnish and Swedish accession. Regional defense. Australia, Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Japan, Malta, New Zealand, South Korea, and Sweden are not member states of NATO but were invited to attend and participate in the summit. The presidents of the European Council and European Commission were also invited, as well as the ministers of Jordan, Mauritania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
List of high-altitude object events in 2023: Several high-altitude airspace security events were reported in February 2023, initially over North America, then over Latin America, China, and Eastern Europe.
2023 Chinese balloon incident (2023.01.28–02.04): Chinese-operated high-altitude balloon was spotted in North American airspace, including Alaska, western Canada, and the contiguous United States. 2023.02.04, the USAF shot down the balloon over USA territorial waters off the coast of South Carolina, on the order of U.S. President Joe Biden. Debris from the wreckage was recovered and sent to an FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis. USA and Canadian militaries announced that the balloon was for surveillance, while PRC government maintained it was a civilian (mainly meteorological) airship that had been blown off course. USA said that the balloon was capable of geolocating electronic communications and carried intelligence surveillance equipment inconsistent with that of a weather balloon. It added that similar Chinese spy balloons have flown over more than 40 nations. Analysts said that its flight path and structural characteristics were dissimilar from those of a typical weather balloon. USA officials later disclosed that they had been tracking the Chinese balloon since it was launched from Hainan. Its original destinations were likely Guam and Hawaii, but prevailing winds blew it off course and across North America. The incident increased USA–China tensions. USA has called the balloon's presence a violation of its sovereignty, and its Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a long-awaited diplomatic visit to Beijing. Legality of airspace and downing: USA asserts sovereignty of the airspace above its territories. Like that of other countries, this right, up to the ill-defined boundary of space, is recognized by the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. Foreign aircraft are generally permitted to transit through U.S. airspace but must follow specific procedures and regulations. Article 8 of the convention states that aircraft flown without pilots must obtain permission from the country below and must be controlled to reduce danger.
2023 Israel–Hamas war (2023.10.07 – present): Hamas-led Palestinian militants launched a multi-pronged invasion of southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The surprise attack comprised a barrage of rockets, while around 3,000 militants breached the Gaza–Israel barrier and attacked Israeli military bases and civilian population centres. More than 800 Israeli civilians and 200 soldiers were killed during the attacks and counterattacks and an estimated 240 Israeli and foreign nationals were taken as captives or hostages to the Gaza Strip. After clearing Hamas militants, the Israeli military responded by conducting an extensive aerial bombardment campaign in which 6,000 bombs were dropped on Gazan targets over six days and by imposing a total blockade of the Gaza Strip followed by a large-scale ground invasion of Gaza.
2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip (2023.10.27 – present): Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a large-scale invasion inside the Gaza Strip with the stated goal of destroying Hamas and overthrowing it.
The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (1997): one of the major works of Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski graduated with a PhD from Harvard University in 1953 and became Professor of American Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins University. He was later the United States National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981, under the administration of President Jimmy Carter. Regarding the landmass of Eurasia as the center of global power, Brzezinski sets out to formulate a Eurasian geostrategy for the United States. In particular, he writes that no Eurasian challenger should emerge that can dominate Eurasia and thus also challenge U.S. global pre-eminence.
The New Great Game: in the late 1990s, some journalists used the expression "The New Great Game" to describe what they proposed was a renewed geopolitical interest in Central Asia based on the mineral wealth of the region. In August 2021, Reuters reported that following the Taliban takeover, the "new Great Game has Pakistan in control" of Afghanistan and also involves India and China. In Nikkei, writer and retired Admiral James Stavridis stated that the "new Great Game" involves Russia's interest in the regulation of opium production, China's interest in rare earth minerals, a growing role for India, while the West will be reluctant to enter. Following the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, RFE/RL reported that "Russia, China, Pakistan, and Iran could come together in the next chapter of the Great Game," or "Moscow, Beijing, Islamabad, and Tehran are each merely looking to advance their own interests in the new geopolitical order." In a 2020 study, the New Great Game was described as a form of "Civilizational Colonialism" in border regions and areas of territorial disputes, united by their location in High Asia or "The Roof of the World". Kashmir, Hazara, Nuristan, Laghman, Azad Kashmir, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Gilgit Baltistan, Chitral, Western Tibet, Western Xinjiang, Badakhshan, Gorno Badakhshan, Fergana, Osh and Turkistan Region. These rich resource areas are surrounded by the five major mountainous systems of Tien Shan, Pamirs, Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Western Himalayas and the three main river systems of Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Indus. The "Great Game" as a term has been described as a cliché-metaphor, and there are authors who have now written on the topics of "The Great Game" in Antarctica, the world's far north, and in outer space.
Afghanistan conflict (1978–present): series of wars that has been fought in Afghanistan since 1978. Starting with the Saur Revolution military coup, an almost continuous series of armed conflicts has dominated and afflicted Afghanistan.
Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953.09.02–2001.09.09): Afghan politician and military commander. He was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989. In the 1990s, he led the government's military wing against rival militias; after the Taliban takeover, he was the leading opposition commander against their regime until his assassination in 2001.
Soviet–Afghan War (1979.12.24–1989.02.15): conflict wherein insurgent groups (known collectively as the Afghan mujahideen), as well as smaller Shi'ite and Maoist groups, fought a nine-year guerrilla war against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet Army, mostly in the Afghan countryside. The Mujahideen were variously backed primarily by USA, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and UK; the conflict was a Cold War-era proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 Afghans were killed and millions more fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran. Between 6.5%–11.5% of Afghanistan's population is estimated to have perished in the conflict. The war caused grave destruction in Afghanistan, and it has also been cited by scholars as a contributing factor to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, in hindsight leaving a mixed legacy to people in both territories. Background: Russian interest in Central Asia (Russian and British Indian Empires); Durand Line and partition of India; 1960s–1970s: Pakistan proxy war; The Saur Revolution of 1978: "Red Terror" of the revolutionary government, Affairs with the USSR after the revolution; Initiation of the insurgency: Pakistan–U.S. relations and rebel aid. Soviet deployment, 1979–1980: Red Army intervention and Palace coup: Operation Storm-333 (1979.12.27, in which Soviet special forces stormed the heavily fortified Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan and assassinated People's Democratic Party General Secretary Hafizullah Amin. It marked the beginning of what would become the 10-year Soviet-Afghan War.); December 1979 – February 1980: Occupation and national unrest. Operations against the guerillas, 1980–1985: Reforms of the Karmal administration; Mujahideen insurrection: Raids inside Soviet territory, Media reaction. Soviet exit and change of Afghan leadership, 1985–1989. Aerial engagements: Afghan and Soviet warplanes in Pakistani airspace; Stinger Missile and "Stinger effect". War crimes: Massacres, Rape, Wanton destruction, Torture, Looting. Foreign involvement: Pro-Mujahideen (Afghan Arabs): Pakistan, USA, UK, China; Pro-Soviet: India. Aftermath: Weakening of USSR; Civil war; Extremism and international terrorism: Spread of extremism in Pakistan, "Blowback" of the USA. Perception in Afghanistan: Role of the United States. Perception in the former Soviet Union: Russian Federation, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Moldova.
Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan (1988.05.15–1989.02.15): under the leadership of Colonel-General Boris Gromov. Planning for the withdrawal of USSR from the Afghan War began soon after Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of USSR. Under the leadership of Gorbachev, USSR attempted to consolidate the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan's hold over power in the country, first in a genuine effort to stabilize the country, and then as a measure to save face while withdrawing troops. During this period, the military and intelligence organizations of the USSR worked with the government of Mohammad Najibullah to improve relations between the government in Kabul and the leaders of rebel factions (mujahideen). Aftermath: Soviet support for the Najibullah government did not end with the withdrawal of the regular troops. Aid totalling several billion dollars was sent by the Soviet Union to Afghanistan, including military aircraft (MiG-27s) and Scud missiles. Due primarily to this aid, the Najibullah government held onto power for much longer than the CIA and State Department expected. The mujahedeen made considerable advances following the withdrawal of the Soviet contingent, and were even able to take and control several cities; nevertheless, they failed to unseat Najibullah until the spring of 1992. Following the coup of August 1991, the Soviet Union (and later the Russian Federation under Boris Yeltsin) cut aid to their Afghan allies. This had a severe impact on the Hizb-i Watan (formerly known as the PDPA), and on the armed forces, already weakened by their fight against the mujahedeen and internal struggles – following an abortive coup attempt in March 1990, the Army (already encountering a critical lack of resources and critical rates of desertion) was purged. Ultimately, the cessation of Soviet aid and the instability that it caused allowed to the mujahedeen to storm Kabul.
War in Afghanistan (2001–present) (2001.10.07 – present): ongoing war following the United States invasion of Afghanistan when the United States and its allies successfully drove the Taliban from power in order to deny al-Qaeda a safe base of operations in Afghanistan. After the initial objectives were completed, a coalition of over 40 countries (including all NATO members) formed a security mission in the country called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF, succeeded by the Resolute Support Mission (RS) in 2014) of which certain members were involved in military combat allied with Afghanistan's government. The war has mostly consisted of Taliban insurgents fighting against the Afghan Armed Forces and allied forces; the majority of ISAF/RS soldiers and personnel are American. At the Bonn Conference, new Afghan interim authorities (mostly from the Northern Alliance) elected Hamid Karzai to head the Afghan Interim Administration. The United Nations Security Council established the ISAF to assist the new authority with securing Kabul. A nationwide rebuilding effort was also made following the end of the Taliban regime. Following defeat in the initial invasion, the Taliban was reorganized by Mullah Omar and launched an insurgency against the Afghan government in 2003. Insurgents from the Taliban and other groups waged asymmetric warfare with guerrilla raids and ambushes in the countryside, suicide attacks against urban targets, and turncoat killings against coalition forces. The Taliban exploited weaknesses in the Afghan government to reassert influence across rural areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan. From 2006 the Taliban made further gains and showed an increased willingness to commit atrocities against civilians – ISAF responded by increasing troops for counter-insurgency operations to "clear and hold" villages. Violence escalated from 2007 to 2009. Troop numbers began to surge in 2009 and continued to increase through 2011 when roughly 140,000 foreign troops operated under ISAF and U.S. command in Afghanistan. NATO leaders in 2012 commenced an exit strategy for withdrawing their forces and later the United States announced that its major combat operations would end in December 2014, leaving a residual force in the country. On 28 December 2014, NATO formally ended ISAF combat operations in Afghanistan and officially transferred full security responsibility to the Afghan government. The NATO-led Operation Resolute Support was formed the same day as a successor to ISAF. On 29 February 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed a conditional peace deal in Doha which required that U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan within 14 months so long as the Taliban cooperated with the terms of the agreement.
United States invasion of Afghanistan (2001.10.07–12.17): occurred after the September 11 attacks in late 2001 and was supported by close US allies which had officially began the War on Terror. Its public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda and deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power. The United Kingdom was a key ally of the United States, offering support for military action from the start of preparations for the invasion. It followed the Afghan Civil War's 1996–2001 phase between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance groups, although the Taliban controlled 90% of the country by 2001. The US invasion of Afghanistan became the first phase of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present). US President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda; bin Laden had already been wanted by the FBI since 1998. The Taliban declined to extradite him unless given what they deemed convincing evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks, and ignored demands to shut down terrorist bases and hand over other terrorist suspects apart from bin Laden. The request was dismissed by the US as a meaningless delaying tactic, and it launched Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7, 2001, with the United Kingdom. The two were later joined by other forces, including the Northern Alliance troops on the ground. The US and its allies rapidly drove the Taliban from power by December 17, 2001, and built military bases near major cities across the country. Most al-Qaeda and Taliban members were not captured, escaping to neighboring Pakistan or retreating to rural or remote mountainous regions during the Battle of Tora Bora.
Maywand District murders: murder of at least three Afghan civilians perpetrated by a group of rogue U.S. Army soldiers in 2010. The soldiers, who referred to themselves as the "Kill Team", were members of the 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. They were based at FOB Ramrod at Maiwand, in the southern Kandahar Province of Afghanistan.
Doha Agreement (2020) (Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan; 2020.02.29): peace agreement signed between USA and the Taliban. The provisions of the deal include the withdrawal of all American and NATO troops from Afghanistan, a Taliban pledge to prevent al-Qaeda from operating in areas under Taliban control, and talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. USA agreed to an initial reduction of its force level from 13,000 to 8,600 by July 2020, followed by a full withdrawal within 14 months if the Taliban keeps its commitments. USA also committed to closing five military bases within 135 days, and expressed its intent to end economic sanctions on the Taliban by 2020.08.27. The deal was supported by China, Russia and Pakistan and unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council, although it did not involve the government of Afghanistan. India welcomed the pact's acceptance by the Afghan "government and people".
Withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan (2020–2021) (2020.02.29 – present): There are concerns about the rise of violence and unstable situations in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. forces. On 25 May 2021, Australia closed its Embassy in Kabul due to security concerns. Belgium and France withdrew their diplomats. The Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan issued a travel warning on 19 June, urging Chinese citizens to "leave Afghanistan as soon as possible" and demanding Chinese organizations to "take extra precautions and strengthen their emergency preparedness as security deteriorates in the country". The Chinese government dispatched a charter-flight operated by XiamenAir to evacuate 210 Chinese nationals from Kabul on 2 July. 2021 Taliban offensive: Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said that no foreign forces, including military contractors, should remain after the withdrawal was complete, adding: "If they leave behind their forces against the Doha agreement then in that case it will be the decision of our leadership how we proceed." Soon after the withdrawal started, the Taliban launched an offensive against the Afghan government, quickly advancing in front of a collapsing Afghan Armed Forces. By 2021.07.12, the Taliban had seized 139 districts from the Afghan National Army; according to a U.S. intelligence report, the Afghan government would likely collapse within six months after NATO completes its withdrawal from the country. According to The Washington Post, local militias in the north of the country have engaged in combat against the Taliban. Footage taken on 2021.06.16 and released on 2021.07.13 showed Taliban gunmen executing 22 Afghan servicemen who had been attempting to surrender. President Joe Biden defended the withdrawal of U.S. troops, saying "I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped and ... more competent in terms of conducting war." On 21 July, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, reported that half of all districts in Afghanistan were under Taliban control and that momentum was "sort of" on the side with the Taliban.
2021 Taliban offensive (Fall of Afghanistan; 2021.05.01 – present): ongoing military offensive by the Taliban and allied militant groups, including al-Qaeda, against the government of Afghanistan and its allies, together with the withdrawal of most U.S. and allied troops from Afghanistan. In the first three months of the offensive the Taliban made significant advances in the countryside, increasing the number of districts it controlled from 73 to 223, progressively isolating urban centers. Starting on 2021.08.06, the Taliban captured thirty-one of Afghanistan's thirty-four provincial capitals, and by 10 August, the Taliban controlled 65% of the country's area. The offensive is noted for the rapid territorial gains of the Taliban, as well as its domestic and international ramifications. On 10 August, U.S. officials estimated that the Afghan capital, Kabul, could fall to the Taliban within 30 to 90 days. 2021.08.15 the Associated Press reported that the Taliban had reached Kabul and that they were awaiting a "transfer" of power. Timeline: Initial Taliban advances; Fall of the provincial capitals; Battle of Kabul. Analysis: Afghan Government's collapse: Structural issues (Corrupt Afghan army officers leading ghost battalions, who pocket the salaries of absent soldiers, is a known issue in the Afghan military.), U.S. support; Potential Al Qaeda resurgence; U.S. assessments (2021.06.23 USA Intelligence Community estimated that the Afghan government could fall within the next six months following the U.S. withdrawal. 2021 10 August, U.S. officials revised the previous six month estimate, saying that it could happen much more quickly, and that some scenarios envisioned the fall of Kabul within 30 to 90 days.); Taliban's strategy (During the Afghan Civil War (1996–2001), resistance to the Taliban was strongest in northern Afghanistan, the base of the Northern Alliance. According to the Afghanistan Analysts Network, the Taliban's concentration of its forces in the north may be an attempt to forestall the creation of a second Northern Alliance after the withdrawal of U.S. forces.)
Battle of Kabul (2021) (2021.08.15 – present): Taliban advance commenced with a heavy assault from the outskirts by the Taliban concurrent with a citywide blackout but paused as a Taliban delegation and the Afghan government resumed negotiations. While the negotiations are tense, a peaceful transfer of power has been requested by the Taliban, and the government has declared its willingness to peacefully surrender Kabul to the rebels.
Evacuations, fighting, and negotiations: The Afghan interior ministry in a statement said the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani decided to relinquish power and an interim government led by Taliban will be formed. Afterward, fighting died down, although many civilians remained fearful and holed up in their homes. By 11:17 CET, Taliban negotiators were reported to have arrived at the presidential palace to begin a transfer of power. Although negotiations were tense, the government declared its willingness to peacefully surrender Kabul to the rebels, and urged civilians to remain calm. Later the same day, Afghan and Indian news reports claimed that Ashraf Ghani had stepped down as President and fled Afghanistan alongside Vice President Amrullah Saleh; both reportedly flew to Tajikistan. Kabul's presidential palace, the Arg was evacuated by helicopters. Meanwhile, Taliban deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived at the Kabul Airport to prepare the rebel takeover of the government.
Impact on civilians: Locals stated that most people in Kabul, especially women, were fearful and opposed to the restoration of Taliban rule. The Sunday Times reported that the streets of Kabul were gridlocked with residents rushing toward the airport, with some abandoning their cars to make their way on foot through the traffic. A minority of locals celebrated the rebel advance. The Guardian reported that sales of burqas jumped in the days leading to the battle, with the price of one increasing from AFS 200 to as much as AFS 3000, in fear that the Taliban would re-impose it as mandatory on women and would target women who refused. Residents also reported a large increase in food prices. Le Monde reported that a significant number of vendors in Kabul were attempting to liquidate their stocks in hopes of raising enough money to escape the country.
Panjshir resistance (National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, Second Resistance, Resistance 2.0): military alliance of former Northern Alliance members and anti-Taliban fighters, created after the 2021 Taliban offensive, under the leadership of the Afghan politician and military leader Ahmad Massoud and the former vice president of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh, born in Panjshir.
Amrullah Saleh (1972.10.15-): Afghan politician who has claimed the office of acting president of Afghanistan in accordance with the Afghan constitution since 17 August 2021. Prior to heading the Afghan intelligence, he was a member of Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance. In 1997, Saleh was appointed by Massoud to serve as Northern Alliance's liaison office inside the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, handling contacts to international non-governmental (humanitarian) organizations and intelligence agencies. After resigning from the NDS in 2010, Saleh created a pro-democracy and anti-Taliban movement called Basej-e Milli (National Mobilization) and Green Trend.
Bismillah Khan Mohammadi (1961 in Panjshir Province), or Bismillah Khan, is the de jure Defense Minister of Afghanistan. From 2002 to 2010 he served as Chief of Staff of the Afghan National Army and from 2010 to 2012 he held the post of Interior Minister of Afghanistan. He has an anti-Taliban background and once served as a senior commander under Ahmad Shah Massoud. Despite the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, Mohammadi still was able to claim the title of Minister of Defense.
List of wars involving Russia: list of wars and armed conflicts in and involving Russia in chronological order, from the 9th to the 21st c. Russian troops took part in a large number of wars and armed clashes in various parts of the world. Starting from the princely squads, opposing the raids of nomads, and fighting for the expansion of the territory of the Old Russian state, through the period of significant territorial growth of Russia in the 15th-20th c., marked by wars of conquest in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Volga region, Siberia, Central Asia and the Far East, to the world wars of the 20th c. and today.
Russian embargo of Ukrainian goods: trade sanctions Russia launched against Ukraine starting in July and August 2013. In the end of 2013.07 Russian customs officers began unreasonable total inspection of all vehicles that transported Ukrainian goods. That forced Ukrainian cargoes idle on the border. In 2013.07.29 Russian sanitary service has introduced a ban on the supply of products of Roshen company to Russia because of pretended violations found after examination. However, some countries which import the same sweets of Roshen, after their examinations, said they did not find any violations and they have no complaints about the company's products. According to the Basil Yurchishin, who is a Director of Economic Programs of Razumkov Centre, the ban on supply of Roshen production to Russia is a part of Russian policy against Ukraine. This confrontation got a name "Chocolate War". 2013.08.14 the Federal Customs Service of Russia put all Ukrainian importers to the "list of risk". These actions resulted in embargo of imports from Ukraine to Russia. Lines of hundreds of trucks and railcars with Ukrainian goods began to form at the border checkpoints from Ukraine to Russia. For example, on 15 August on one of the control points (Bryansk-Lgovskiy Station) about 1 000 cars with Ukrainian cargoes were suspended. A number of Ukrainian companies, including suppliers of fruits and vegetables, poultry, confectionery, wines and steel products, reported having problems with customs clearance of their goods at the border with Russia. The "Obolon" company suspended all export to Russia. 2013.08.18 Adviser to the President Sergey Glazyev said that if Ukraine signs Association Agreement with EU customs policy for Ukrainian companies would be made more strict. 2013.08.20 Ministry of income and charges Ukraine and the Federal Customs Service of Russia announced the end of a trade war.
2014 anti-war protests in Russia (2014.03.02&15, 2014.09.21): series of anti-war demonstrations opposing the Russian military intervention in Ukraine that took place in Russia in 2014. Protesters held two anti-war protest rallies on 2014.03.02 and 15. The latter, known as the March of Peace (Марш Мира), took place in Moscow a day before the Crimean referendum. The protests have been the largest in Russia since the 2011–13 Russian protests by the Russian opposition against the alleged electoral fraud committed by United Russia during the 2011 Russian legislative election. Reuters reported that around 20,000 people participated in the 15 March demonstrations.
Countries that have introduced sanctions in 2014 against Russian or Ukrainian citizens or corporations or Russia as whole as a result of its actions against Ukraine.
Countries and organisations which banned Russian aircraft from their airspace after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bucharest Nine (Establishment 2015.11.04): organization founded at the initiative of the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis and the President of Poland Andrzej Duda during a bilateral meeting between them. Its members are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Its appearance was mainly a result of a perceived aggressive attitude from Russia following the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its posterior intervention in eastern Ukraine both in 2014. All members of the B9 were either part of the former Soviet Union (USSR) or members of the defunct Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.
2016 Warsaw summit: Agenda: Poland: Polish president Andrzej Duda announced in August 2015 that NATO bases in Central Europe were a priority for the Warsaw Summit, and wanted for Poland to be included in the Normandy Format talks. Members of NATO on its eastern flank, who in November 2015 convened into a group called the Bucharest Nine, felt threatened by a revanchist Russia, and he said he will raise the issue with Angela Merkel, who had "previously blocked efforts to place NATO troops in central and eastern Europe, saying it might strain relations with Russia."
NATO Enhanced Forward Presence: NATO-allied forward-deployed defense and deterrence military force in Central and Northern Europe. This posture in Central Europe through Poland and Northern Europe through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, is in place in order to protect and reassure the security of NATO's Central and Northern European member states on NATO's eastern flank. Following Russia's invasion of Crimea, NATO's member states agreed at the 2016 Warsaw summit to forward deploy four multinational battalion battle groups to areas most likely to be attacked. NATO Enhanced Vigilance Activities: Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary.
World map with countries and territories red-highlighted, included in the list of states and territories unfriendly to Russia in accordance with the text of the Decree of the Government of Russia dated March 5, 2022. Russia is highlighted in blue.
Unfriendly Countries List (Список недружественных стран): list of countries published by the Russian government for engaging in activities that the government considers to be "unfriendly" to Russia. First established in 2021.05 with only two countries named on the list – USA and the Czech Republic – the list was expanded to 48 countries after those countries imposed sanctions against Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.02.24. All 27 European Union member states are on the list.
Russian oil exports destination, 2022.03.18.
2021 Russia–United States summit (2021.06.16): summit meeting between USA President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to the summit, Biden and Putin had met once, in Moscow in March 2011, when Biden was vice president and Putin was prime minister. After an official group meeting Biden characterized in his memoir as "argumentative," he and Putin met privately, with Biden saying "Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes," (a reference to a 2001 meeting between Putin and President Bush, who later said "I looked the man in the eye...I was able to get a sense of his soul"). Biden continued, "I don’t think you have a soul." Putin replied, "We understand each other." As vice president, Biden had urged then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to eliminate middlemen such as Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash from the country's natural gas industry, and to reduce the country's reliance on imports of Russian natural gas. Putin reportedly agreed to the appointment of Firtash, who has been fighting extradition to the US on bribery and organised crime charges.
Economic impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present): began in late 2022.02, in the days after Russia recognized two breakaway Ukrainian republics and launched an invasion of Ukraine. The subsequent economic sanctions have targeted large parts of the Russian economy, Russian oligarchs, and members of the Russian government. Russia has responded with sanctions of its own. Both the conflict and the sanctions have had a strongly negative impact on the world economic recovery during the COVID-19 recession. Impact on markets and economies: Cost of food and crops; Energy and oil; Electricity; International organizations and corporations: Corporate boycotts and removals of service; Stock markets, banking sector, and the impact on the rouble: The rouble fell to record lows as Russians rushed to exchange money. The Moscow and St Petersburg Stock Exchanges were suspended. The Central Bank of Russia announced its first market interventions since the 2014 annexation of Crimea to stabilize the market. It also raised interest rates to 20% and banned foreigners from selling local securities. The sanctions put Russia's sovereign wealth fund at risk of disappearing. Long lines and empty ATMs have been reported in Russian cities. In an attempt to balance the sinking rouble, it temporarily shut down the Moscow Stock Exchange, mandated that all Russian companies sell 80% of foreign exchange reserves, and prohibited foreigners from liquidating assets in Russia. "The FTSE Russell index business has removed Russian listings from its indices, the London Stock Exchange has suspended trading in 27 Russian listed securities" stated London Stock Exchange CEO David Schwimmer. Of the most severe losses, Sberbank was down 99.72% year-to-date to trade for around a single penny, Lukoil was down 99.2%, Polyus was down 95.58%, Gazprom was down 93.71%, and Rosneft was down 92.52%. During the month of March, the rouble gradually recovered back to its pre-war value of ~80 Rubles per dollar, partially due to increased gas and oil demand from Western companies, as they feared a potential ban on Russian resources, as well as various economic measures designed to prop up the currency. Foreign investment. Export restrictions. Impact on population. Opposition to sanctions: India is also buying discounted oil from Russia. Trade with India would enable Russia to bypass some of the sanctions, which has led the US to tell India there might be "consequences". Saudi Arabia also increased imports of discounted Russian oil. Not a single country in Africa or the Middle East has imposed major sanctions on Russia. Russian seizure of goods by nations imposing sanctions: hundreds of leased foreign passenger jets, valued at about $10 billion have remained grounded in the country with requests for the jets to be returned denied.
2022–2023 Russia–European Union gas dispute: flared up in 2022.03 following the invasion of Ukraine in late February. Russia and the major EU countries clashed over the issue of payment for pipeline natural gas exported to Europe by Russia's Gazprom. In 2022.06, Russia cut the flow of gas by more than half, in July it stopped and resumed it, and in September it stopped it altogether. In 2022.09.26, the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines both ruptured with evidence of sabotage. Europe consumed 512 bcm of natural gas in 2020, of which 185 bcm (36%) came from Russia. In early 2022, Russia supplied 45% of EU's natural gas imports, earning $900 million a day, and by 2022.10, it had decreased to 7.5%. Demand of payment in rubles, March 2022: Decree 172: purchasers of Russian pipeline gas from countries on Russia's Unfriendly Countries List to make their payments for Russian gas through a facility run by Russia's Gazprombank, a subsidiary of Gazprom. To pay for gas, purchaser companies from "unfriendly countries" would be required to open two accounts at Gazprombank and transfer foreign currency in which they previously made payments into one of them, which Gazprombank would then sell on the Moscow stock exchange for rubles that are deposited into the second (foreign-purchaser owned) ruble-denominated account (this currency conversion would be done in Russia). Gazprombank would then transfer this ruble payment to Gazprom PJSC (a company that operates gas pipeline systems, produces and explores gas, and transports high pressure gas in the Russian Federation and European countries), at which point the purchaser would be deemed to have legally fulfilled (under Russian law) its obligations to pay. Gas purchasers were thus still able to make payments by transferring foreign (non-ruble) currencies, including the currencies stipulated by their contract, which in most cases were US dollars and Euros.
2022 boycott of Russia and Belarus: ongoing boycott of Russia and Belarus by many companies and organisations in Europe, North America, Australasia, and elsewhere after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of 2 July 2022, the Yale School of Management records more than 1,000 companies withdrawing or divesting themselves from Russia, either as a result of sanctions or in protest of Russian actions.
McDonald's in Russia (Founded: 1990.01.31 in Moscow, Russia; Defunct: 2022.05.16; Number of locations: 800; Number of employees: 62,000 before dissolution)
2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage (2022.09.26): series of clandestine bombings and subsequent underwater gas leaks occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines. Both pipelines were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, and are majority owned by the Russian majority state-owned gas company, Gazprom. The perpetrators' identities and the motives behind the sabotage remain debated. Prior to the leaks, the pipelines had not been operating due to disputes between Russia and the European Union in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but were filled with natural gas. 2022.09.26 at 02:03 local time (CEST), an explosion was detected originating from Nord Stream 2; a pressure drop in the pipeline was reported and natural gas began escaping to the surface southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm. 17h later, the same occurred to Nord Stream 1, resulting in three separate leaks northeast of Bornholm. All three affected pipes were rendered inoperable; Russia has confirmed one of the two Nord Stream 2 pipes is operable and is thus ready to deliver gas through Nord Stream 2. The leaks occurred one day before Poland and Norway opened the Baltic Pipe running through Denmark, bringing in gas from the North Sea, rather than from Russia as the Nord Stream pipelines do. The leaks are located in international waters (not part of any nation's territorial sea), but within the economic zones of Denmark and Sweden.
World War III (WWIII, WW3): names given to a hypothetical third worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to WWI and WWII. The term has been in use since at least as early as 1941. Some apply it loosely to limited or more minor conflicts such as the Cold War or the war on terror. In contrast, others assume that such a conflict would surpass prior world wars in both scope and destructive impact. Potential risk of a nuclear apocalypse causing widespread destruction of Earth's civilization and life is a common theme in speculations about WWIII. Another primary concern is that biological warfare could cause many casualties. It could happen intentionally or inadvertently, by an accidental release of a biological agent, the unexpected mutation of an agent, or its adaptation to other species after use. Before the beginning of WWII in 1939, WWI (1914–1918) was believed to have been "the war to end [all] wars". It was popularly believed that never again could there possibly be a global conflict of such magnitude. During the interwar period, WWI was typically referred to simply as "The Great War". The outbreak of WWII disproved the hope that humanity might have "outgrown" the need for widespread global wars. With the advent of the Cold War in 1945 and with the spread of nuclear weapons technology to the Soviet Union, the possibility of a third global conflict became more plausible. During the Cold War years, the possibility of a third world war was anticipated and planned for by military and civil authorities in many countries. Scenarios ranged from conventional warfare to limited or total nuclear warfare. At the height of the Cold War, the doctrine of MAD, which determined that an all-out nuclear confrontation would destroy all of the states involved in the conflict, had been developed. The absolute potential destruction of the human species may have contributed to the ability of both American and Soviet leaders to avoid such a scenario. As of 2022.04, a number of commentators have expressed concerns that the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine may escalate into WWIII. In 2022.04, Russian state television stated that WWIII had now begun, telling Russians to "recognise" that the country was now "fighting against NATO infrastructure, if not NATO itself" in Ukraine.
Seven Days to the River Rhine: Seven Days to the River Rhine was a top-secret military simulation exercise developed in 1979 by the Warsaw Pact. It started with the assumption that NATO would launch a nuclear attack on the Vistula river valley in a first-strike scenario, which would result in as many as two million Polish civilian casualties. In response, a Soviet counter-strike would be carried out against West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, with Warsaw Pact forces invading West Germany and aiming to stop at the River Rhine by the seventh day. Other USSR plans stopped only upon reaching the French border on day nine.
Historical close calls:
Korean War: 1950.06.25–1953.07.27
Berlin Crisis: 1961.06.04–11.09
Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962.10.15–29
Sino-Soviet border conflicts: 1969.03.02–09.11
Yom Kippur War super-power tensions: 1973.10.06–25
NORAD computer error of 1979: 1979.11.09
"Petrov save" incident: 1983.09.26
Able Archer escalations: 1983.11.02–11
Norwegian rocket incident (1995.01.25): a team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII four-stage sounding rocket from the Andøya Rocket Range off the northwestern coast of Norway. The rocket, which carried scientific equipment to study the aurora borealis over Svalbard, flew on a high northbound trajectory, which included an air corridor that stretches from Minuteman-III nuclear missile silos in North Dakota, all the way to the Russian capital city of Moscow.
Incident at Pristina airport: 1999.06.12
Current conflicts: Russian invasion of Ukraine: 2022.02.24–present
Societal collapse (ivilizational collapse) is the fall of a complex human society characterized by the loss of cultural identity and of socioeconomic complexity, the downfall of government, and the rise of violence. Possible causes of a societal collapse include natural catastrophe, war, pestilence, famine, and depopulation. A collapsed society may revert to a more primitive state, be absorbed into a stronger society, or completely disappear.
World war: "a war engaged in by all or most of the principal nations of the world". While a variety of global conflicts have been subjectively deemed "world wars", such as the Cold War and the War on Terror, the term is widely and usually accepted only as it is retrospectively applied to two major international conflicts that occurred during the 20th c.: WWI (1914–18) and WWII (1939–45).
Other global conflicts:
Wars with higher death tolls than the First World War: Three Kingdoms (184-280); An Lushan Rebellion (755-763); Mongol conquests (1206-1324); Conquests of Timur (1369-1405); Qing dynasty conquest of the Ming dynasty (1616-1662); Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864); WWII; Cold War.
Wars spanning multiple continents (World War 0): Late Bronze Age collapse (1200s BCE - 1150s BCE, duration 40-50); Greco-Persian Wars (499 BCE - 449 BCE); Peloponnesian War (431 BCE - 404 BCE); Wars of Alexander the Great (335 BCE - 323 BCE); Wars of the Diadochi (322 BCE - 275 BCE); Great Roman Civil War (49 BCE - 45 BCE); Byzantine–Sassanid wars (502 CE - 628 CE); Muslim conquests (622 - 1258): Arab–Byzantine wars (629 - 1050); Crusades (1095 - 1291); Mongol conquests (1206-1324); European colonization of the Americas (492 - 1900); Thirty Years' War (1618 - 1648); War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714); War of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748); Seven Years' War (1754 - 1763); French Revolutionary Wars (1792 - 1802): Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815); WWI; WWII; Cold War; War on Terror.
The Great Big Book of Horrible Things (The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History’s 100 Worst Atrocities): popular history book by Matthew White, an independent scholar and self-described atrocitologist. The book provides a ranking of the hundred worst atrocities of mankind based on the number of deaths. Matthew White, a self-described atrocitologist and a librarian at the federal courthouse in Richmond, Virginia, wrote the book in 2011. He compiled his list of hundred worst atrocities without any degree or formal training in history or statistics. However, his statistics have been used as source by many authors, including in 377 books and 183 scholarly articles. White: "governments don't kill people, rather people kill people. Chaos [anarchy] is more deadly than tyranny."
Religious war (holy war; Latin: bellum sacrum): primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, debates are common over the extent to which religious, economic, or ethnic aspects of a conflict predominate in a given war. According to the Encyclopedia of Wars, out of all 1,763 known/recorded historical conflicts, 123, or 6.98%, had religion as their primary cause. Matthew White's The Great Big Book of Horrible Things gives religion as the cause of 11 of the world's 100 deadliest atrocities.
The concept of "Holy War" in individual religious traditions: Ancient warfare and polytheism; Christianity; Islam; Judaism; Shinto
Religious conflict in the modern period: Israeli–Palestinian conflict; Pakistan and India; Abyssinia – Somalia; Nigerian conflict (Religious violence in Nigeria); Buddhist uprising; Chinese conflict; Lebanese Civil War; Yugoslav Wars; Sudanese Civil War.
Middle East (Eurocentric point of view) and Western Asia (Southwest Asia): Arabic peninsula, Iran, Turkey, (+Egypt?).
Central Asia: core region of the Asian continent and stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. It is also sometimes referred to as Middle Asia, and, colloquially, "the 'stans".
Central Europe (sometimes Middle Europe): based on "similarities emanating from historical, social and cultural characteristics", and it is identified as having been "one of the world's richest sources of creative talent" between the 17th and 20th centuries. Cross Currents: A Yearbook of Central European Culture characterizes Central Europe "as an abandoned West or a place where East and West collide"; "a part of Western Christianity". Holy Roman Empire (later German Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy), Kingdom of Hungary, Bohemia, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Central Europe according to P. Jones (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography). Many Central European countries and regions were parts of the German and the Austro-Hungarian empires (for extended periods, not just WWI or WWII); thus they also have historical and cultural connections.
Map of languages and dialects of Central and Eastern Europe.
Southeast Europe (Southeastern Europe; aka "Balkans"): at the North: Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, (+Croatia, Romania?, ++Slovenia??).
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE, CEEC): generic term meaning former communist states in Europe. Near to the bottom of the rankings for most Information Society indicators, such as e-governance, e-business or e-commerce. Sector of small retailers was hit the hardest by the unfavourable economic climate and reduced consumer spending accompanying the higher unemployment. Hypermarkets: British Tesco.
East-Central Europe (Middle Europe, Median Europe, FR: Europe médiane): countries located between German-speaking countries and Russia; "between two worlds, between two stages, between two futures". Paul Robert Magocsi: Northern zone (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), Alpine-Carpathian zone (Habsburg Empire / Austro-Hungary), Balkan zone.
House of Habsburg: one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740. The house also produced emperors and kings of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Kingdom of England (Jure uxoris King), Kingdom of France (Queen consort), Kingdom of Germany, Kingdom of Hungary, Empire of Russia, Kingdom of Croatia, Second Mexican Empire, Kingdom of Ireland (Jure uxoris King), Kingdom of Portugal, and Habsburg Spain, as well as rulers of several Dutch and Italian principalities. From the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they nevertheless maintained close relations and frequently intermarried.
Oñate treaty (1617.07.29): secret treaty between the Austrian and Spanish branches of the House of Habsburg.
Template:European history categories by period: Prehistoric (Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age); Ancient (Classical antiquity, Late antiquity); Middle Ages (Renaissance); Late modern (Early Modern period, Industrial Revolution)
Burgundian State (1384–1512; Valois Burgundy): concept coined by historians to describe the vast complex of territories; developed in the Late Middle Ages under the rule of the dukes of Burgundy from the French House of Valois and was composed of both French and Holy Roman Empire fiefs (Duchy of Burgundy and County of Burgundy and the Burgundian Netherlands). That territorial construction outlasted the properly 'Burgundian' dynasty and the loss of the Duchy of Burgundy itself. Regarded as one of the major powers of the 15th century and the early 16th century. The dukes of Burgundy were among the wealthiest and the most powerful princes in Europe and were sometimes called "Grand Dukes of the West". Including the thriving regions of Flanders and Brabant, the Burgundian State was a major centre of trade and commerce and a focal point of courtly culture that set the fashion for European royal houses and their court. It nearly turned into a kingdom of its own right, but Charles the Bold's early death at the Battle of Nancy put an end to his Lotharingian dream and his legacy passed to the House of Habsburg through the marriage of his daughter Mary to Maximilian of Austria. Meanwhile Picardy and the Duchy of Burgundy were conquered by the King of France. The partition of the Burgundian heritage marked the beginning of the centuries-long French–Habsburg rivalry and played a pivotal role in European politics long after Burgundy had lost its role as an independent political identity.
Burgundian Netherlands: number of Holy Roman Empire and French fiefs ruled in personal union by the House of Valois-Burgundy in the period from 1384 to 1482 and later their Habsburg heirs. They constituted the Northern part of the Burgundian State. The area comprised the major parts of present-day Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Hauts-de-France.
East Asian cultural sphere (Sinosphere, Sinic world, the Confucian world, the Taoist world, the Chinese cultural sphere): grouping of countries and regions in East Asia that were historically influenced by the Chinese culture. The East Asian cultural sphere shares a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, Taoism and, historically, a common writing system. The core regions of the East Asian cultural sphere are Greater China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
Adoption of Chinese literary culture: Chinese writing, culture and institutions were imported as a whole by Vietnam, Korea, Japan and other neighbouring states over an extended period. Chinese Buddhism spread over East Asia between the 2nd and 5th centuries AD, followed by Confucianism as these countries developed strong central governments modelled on Chinese institutions. In Vietnam and Korea, and for a shorter time in Japan and the Ryukyus, scholar-officials were selected using examinations on the Confucian classics modelled on the Chinese civil service examinations. Shared familiarity with the Chinese classics and Confucian values provided a common framework for intellectuals and ruling elites across the region. All of this was based on the use of Literary Chinese, which became the medium of scholarship and government across the region. Although each of these countries developed vernacular writing systems and used them for popular literature, they continued to use Chinese for all formal writing until it was swept away by rising nationalism around the end of the 19th century.
Muslim nations (Arab world, Persian world, Turkic world, Indic world) and Israel
Arabized: North Africa, South Europe (Spain, Portugal & Reconquista), Western Asia (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq (Babylonia & co)), parts of Anatolia (Asia Minor) (later Turkics came). Indo-Iranians and Malay Archipelago (Maritime Southeast Asia) did not become hugely Arabicized.
Muslim Slavs/Slavic Muslims (Bosniaks, Muslims (ethnic group), Bulgarian/Macedonian/Serb/Croat/Montenegrin/Slovenian Muslims, Gorani)
Greek Muslims
Arabization: describes a growing cultural influence on a non-Arab area that gradually changes into one that speaks Arabic and/or incorporates Arab culture and Arab identity. After the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, Arab culture and language spread through trade with African states, conquest, and intermarriage of the non-Arab local population with the Arabs, in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Iraq and the Sudan. Firstly the Arabian Peninsula; Fertile Crescent; Egypt; North Africa and Iberia.
Arab world: consists of the Arabic-speaking countries and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.
Muslim conquests (Islamic conquests; Arab conquests): began with the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Consequences: Islamization of the Western Asia, North Africa, Central Asia, and parts of South Asia; Fall of the Sassanid Empire:
Muslim conquest of Persia (633-654; Arab conquest of Iran): led to the end of the Sasanian Empire of Persia in 651 and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Iran (Persia). Rise of Muslims coincided with an unprecedented political, social, economic and military weakness in Persia. Once a major world power, the Sasanian Empire had exhausted its human and material resources after decades of warfare against the Byzantine Empire. Arab Muslims first attacked the Sassanid territory in 633, when general Khalid ibn Walid invaded Mesopotamia (Sassanid province of Asōristān; what is now Iraq), which was the political and economic center of the Sassanid state. Following the transfer of Khalid to the Byzantine front in the Levant, the Muslims eventually lost their holdings to Sassanian counterattacks. The second invasion began in 636 under Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas, when a key victory at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah led to the permanent end of Sasanian control west of Iran. The Zagros mountains then became a natural barrier and border between the Rashidun Caliphate and the Sassanid Empire. Due to continuous raids by Persians into the area, Caliph Umar ordered a full invasion of the Sasanian empire in 642, which led to the complete conquest of the Sasanians around 651. Iranian historians have defended their forebears vis a vis Arab sources to illustrate that "contrary to the claims of some historians, Iranians, in fact, fought long and hard against the invading Arabs." By 651, most of the urban centers in Iranian lands, with the notable exception of the Caspian provinces (Tabaristan) and Transoxiana, had come under the domination of the Arab armies. Many localities fought against the invaders; ultimately, none were successful. In fact, although Arabs had established hegemony over most of the country, many cities rose in rebellion by killing the Arab governor or attacking their garrisons. Eventually, military reinforcements quashed the insurgency and imposed Islamic control. The violent subjugation of Bukhara is a case in point: Conversion to Islam was gradual, partially as the result of this violent resistance; however, Zoroastrian scriptures were burnt and many priests were executed.
Battle of Nahāvand (642): between Arab Muslims and Sassanid armies; battle is known to Muslims as the "Victory of Victories." On the long-term impact of this battle, Sir Muhammad Iqbal wrote: "If you ask me what is the most important event in the history of Islam, I shall say without any hesitation: “The Conquest of Persia.” The battle of Nehawand gave the Arabs not only a beautiful country, but also an ancient civilization; or, more properly, a people who could make a new civilisation with the Semitic and Aryan material. Our Muslim civilisation is a product of the cross-fertilisation of the Semitic and the Aryan ideas. It is a child who inherits the softness and refinement of his Aryan mother, and the sterling character of his Semitic father. But for the conquest of Persia, the civilisation of Islam would have been one-sided. The conquest of Persia gave us what the conquest of Greece gave to the Romans."
Mawali (ar: موالي): term in Classical Arabic used to address non-Arab Muslims.
Abbasid Revolution (Movement of the Men of the Black Raiment; 747.06.09–750.07): overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE), the second of the four major Caliphates in Islamic history, by the third, the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1517 CE). Coming to power three decades after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the Rashidun Caliphate, the Umayyads were an Arab Empire ruling over a population which was overwhelmingly non-Arab. Non-Arabs were treated as second-class citizens regardless of whether or not they converted to Islam, and this discontent cutting across faiths and ethnicities ultimately led to the Umayyads' overthrow. The Abbasid family claimed to have descended from al-Abbas, an uncle of Muhammad. The revolution essentially marked the end of the Arab Empire and the beginning of a more inclusive, multiethnic state in the Middle East. Remembered as one of the most well-organized revolutions during its period in history, it reoriented the focus of the Muslim world to the east.
Events: Buildup: Revolt of Ibn Surayj; Persian phase (With the pacification of any rebel elements in the east and the surrender of Nahavand in the west, the Abbasids were the undisputed rulers of Khorasan); Mesopotamia phase
Tactics: Ethnic equality
Propaganda: The Abbasid Revolution provides an early medieval example of the effectiveness of propaganda. The Black Standard unfurled at the start of the revolution's open phase carried messianic overtones due to past failed rebellions by members of Muhammad's family, with marked eschatological and millennial slants. The Abbasids – their leaders descended from Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib – held vivid historical reenactments of the murder of Muhammad's grandson Husayn ibn Ali by the army of the second Umayyad ruler Yazid I, followed by promises of retribution. Focus was carefully placed on the legacy of Muhammad's family while details of how the Abbasids actually intended to rule were not mentioned.
Secrecy: The Abbasid Revolution was distinguished by a number of tactics which were absent in the other, unsuccessful anti-Umayyad rebellions at the time. Chief among them was secrecy. While the Shi'ite and other rebellions at the time were all led by publicly known leaders making clear and well-defined demands, the Abbasids hid not only their identities but also their preparation and mere existence. As-Saffah would go on to become the first Abbasid caliph, but he did not come forward to receive the pledge of allegiance from the people until after the Umayyad caliph and a large number of his princes were already killed.
Legacy: The Abbasid Revolution has been of great interest to both Western and Muslim historians. According to State University of New York professor of sociology Saïd Amir Arjomand, analytical interpretations of the revolution are rare, with most discussions simply lining up behind either the Iranic or Arabic interpretation of events. Frequently, early European historians viewed the conflict solely as a non-Arab uprising against Arabs. Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, points out that while the revolution has often been characterized as a Persian victory and Arab defeat, the caliph was still Arab, the language of administration was still Arabic and Arab nobility was not forced to give up its land holdings; rather, the Arabs were merely forced to share the fruits of the empire equally with other races. Though a class of Muslim clergy was absent for the first century of Islam, it was with the Abbasid Revolution and after that the Ulama appeared as a force in society, positioning themselves as the arbiters of justice and orthodoxy. With the eastward movement of the capital from Damascus to Baghdad, the Abbasid Empire eventually took on a distinctly Persian character, as opposed to the Arab character of the Umayyads. Rulers became increasingly autocratic, at times claiming divine right in defense of their actions.
Abu Muslim (Abu Muslim Abd al-Rahman ibn Muslim al-Khurasani; 718/19 or 723/27 - 755): Persian general who led the Abbasid Revolution that toppled the Umayyad dynasty, leading to the establishment of the Abbasid Caliphate. Little is known about Abu Muslim's origins, but by early 740s he had been in contact with Abbasid agents and in around 745 he was sent to Khurasan. In 747, Abu Muslim initiated open revolt against Umayyad rule and quickly took Merv. He gradually strengthened the Abbasid control over Khurasan, and was appointed governor of the province following the establishment of the Abbasid regime in 750. Wary of Abu Muslim's rising influence and popularity, the second Abbasid caliph al-Mansur ordered his death. He was executed before the caliph in Al-Mada'in in 755 on charges of heresy.
North Africa: northernmost region of Africa. Distinction between North Africa and much of Sub-Saharan Africa is historically and ecologically significant because of the effective barrier created by the Sahara Desert for much of modern history. From 3500 BCE, following the abrupt desertification of the Sahara due to gradual changes in the Earth's orbit, this barrier has culturally separated the North from the rest of the continent. As the seafaring civilizations of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Muslims and others facilitated communication and migration across the Mediterranean Sea, the cultures of North Africa became much more closely tied to Southwestern Asia and Europe than Sub-Saharan Africa. The Islamic influence in the area is also significant, and North Africa is a major part of the Arab world.
Maghreb (Tamazɣa; Amaḍal Amaziɣ, meaning: Berber World; previously known to Europeans as Barbary or Barbary States): usually defined as much or most of the region of western North Africa or Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. During the Al-Andalus era in Spain, the Maghreb's inhabitants, Maghrebis, were known as "Moors". The region was somewhat unified as an independent political entity during the rule of the Berber kingdom of Numidia, which was followed by Roman Empire's rule or influence. That was followed by the brief invasion of the Germanic Vandals, the equally brief re-establishment of a weak Byzantine rule by the Byzantine Empire, the rule of the Islamic Caliphates under the Umayyads, the Abbasids, and the Fatimids. The most enduring rule was that of the local Berber empires of the Almoravids, Almohads, Hammadids, Zirids, Marinids, and Wattasids (to name some of those among the most prominent) from the 8th to 13th centuries. The Ottoman Turks ruled the region as well.
Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System: world’s largest known fossil water aquifer system. It is located underground in the Eastern end of the Sahara Desert and spans the political boundaries of four countries in north-eastern Africa: north-western Sudan, north-eastern Chad, south-eastern Libya, and most of Egypt. Containing an estimated 150,000 km3 of groundwater, the significance of the NSAS as a potential water resource for future development programs in these countries is extraordinary.
Great Man-Made River: network of pipes that supplies water to the Sahara in Libya, from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System fossil aquifer. It is the world's largest irrigation project.
MENA: Middle East and North Africa. As a regional identifier, MENA is often used in academia, military planning, disaster relief, media planning (as a broadcast region), and business writing. Moreover, the region shares a number of cultural, economic, and environmental similarities across its comprising countries; for example, some of the most extreme impacts of climate change will be felt in MENA. Some terms have a wider definition than MENA, such as MENASA, MENAP or Greater Middle East, which extends to Central and South Asia to include the countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The term MENAT explicitly includes Turkey, which is usually excluded from some MENA definitions, even though Turkey is almost always considered part of the Middle East.
Regional powers: Egypt, Iran, Israel (Jews & Arabs), Saudi Arabia, Turkey
Others: Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq (potential regional power: huge country; Iraqi Kurdistan (autonomy within Iraq)), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Northern Cyprus (Turkish Cyprus), Oman, State of Palestine, Qatar, Syria, UAE, Yemen
Arab Cold War (1952.07.23–1979.02.11): period of political rivalry in the Arab world that occurred as part of the broader Cold War between, approximately, the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 that brought President Gamal Abdel Nasser to power in that country, and the 1979 Iranian Revolution which led Arab-Iranian tensions to eclipse intra-Arab strife. On one side were newly-established nationalist, mostly secular republics, led by Nasser's Egypt, and on the other side were traditionalist monarchies led by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
Yom Kippur War (1973 Arab–Israeli War; 1973.10.06–25): by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel. The majority of combat between the two sides took place in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights—both of which were occupied by Israel in 1967 — with some fighting in African Egypt and northern Israel. Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed their corresponding ceasefire lines with Israel and invaded the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, respectively. Following the outbreak of hostilities, both USA and USSR initiated massive resupply efforts to their respective allies during the war, which led to a near-confrontation between the two nuclear-armed superpowers. Egypt's initial objective in the war was to seize a foothold on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal and subsequently leverage these gains to negotiate the return of the rest of the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula. The Yom Kippur War had far-reaching implications; the Arab world had experienced humiliation in the lopsided rout of the Egyptian–Syrian–Jordanian alliance in 1967, but felt psychologically vindicated by early successes in the 1973 conflict. The Israelis recognized that, despite impressive operational and tactical achievements on the battlefield, there was no guarantee that they would always dominate the Arab states militarily, as they had done consistently throughout the First Arab–Israeli War, the Second Arab–Israeli War and the Third Arab–Israeli War; these changes paved the way for the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. The 1978 Camp David Accords that followed led to the return of the Sinai to Egypt and normalized relations—the first peaceful recognition of Israel by an Arab country. Egypt continued its drift away from the Soviet Union and eventually left the Soviet sphere of influence entirely.
Arab Spring: term for the revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests (both non-violent and violent), riots, and civil wars in the Arab world that began on 2010.12.18.
Constitution of Tunisia: Constitution of 2014 (signed into law on 2014.01.26): new constitution makes Tunisia a decentralized and open government; recognizes Islam as the official state religion, but protects freedom of belief; provides for some restrictions on free speech, most notably in banning attacks on religion and accusations of being a non-believer; provides for gender equality, protects the nation's natural resources and demands the government take steps to fight corruption; executive power is divided between the president and prime minister
Arab Winter: term for the resurgence of authoritarianism and Islamic extremism evolving in the aftermath of the Arab Spring protests in Arab countries. The term "Arab Winter" refers to the events across Arab League countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including the Syrian Civil War, the Iraqi insurgency and the subsequent War in Iraq, the Egyptian Crisis, the First Libyan Civil War and the subsequent Second Libyan Civil War, and the Yemeni Civil War. Events referred to as the Arab Winter include those in Egypt that led to the removal of Mohamed Morsi and the seizure of power by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état. The term was first coined by Chinese political scientist Zhang Weiwei during a debate with American political scientist Francis Fukuyama in 2011.06.27. Fukuyama believed the Arab Spring movement would inevitably spread to China, while Zhang predicted the Arab Spring will soon turn into an Arab Winter.
Political organizations unique to the region:
Muslim Brotherhood (Muslim Brotherhood; founded in 1928 in Egypt): transnational Islamic political organization which is considered a terrorist organization by both the Egyptian and Russian governments; Pan-Islamic, religious, and social movement by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna; stated goal is to instill the Quran and Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ...ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state". Movement officially renounced political violence in 1949, after a period of considerable political tension which ended in the assassination of Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha by a young veterinary student who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Arab Spring at first brought considerable success for the Brotherhood, but as of 2013 it has suffered severe reversals.
Salafi movement (Salafist movement): movement or sect within Sunni Islam that takes its name from the term salaf ("predecessors", "ancestors") used to identify the earliest Muslims, who, its adherents believe, provide the epitome of Islamic practice; movement is often described as related to, including, or synonymous with Wahhabism, but Salafists consider the term "Wahhabi" derogatory.
Eastern Mediterranean: geographic and cultural region consisting of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt".
Syria (region) (Greater Syria; Syria-Palestine; Levant): usually defined as an area to the East of the Mediterranean Sea, West of the Euphrates River, North of the Arabian Desert and South of the Taurus Mountains.
Greater Syria: nationalist term that denotes a geographical definition of a hypothetical united Fertile Crescent state.
Strait of Hormuz: between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most strategically important choke points. On the north coast lies Iran, and on the south coast UAE and Musandam, an exclave of Oman. The strait is about 167 km long, with a width varying from about 96 km to 39 km. A third of the world’s liquefied natural gas and almost 25% of total global oil consumption passes through the strait, making it a highly important strategic location for international trade.
Seljuk Empire (Great Seljuq Empire; 1037–1194): medieval Turko-Persian empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks; controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. From their homelands near the Aral sea, the Seljuqs advanced first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia. The Seljuqs united the fractured political scene of the Eastern Islamic world and played a key role in the first and second crusades. Highly Persianized in culture and language, the Seljuqs also played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition, even exporting Persian culture to Anatolia. The settlement of Turkic tribes in the northwestern peripheral parts of the empire, for the strategic military purpose of fending off invasions from neighboring states, led to the progressive Turkicization of those areas.
Sultanate of Rum (Anatolian Seljuk State (Sultanate of Konya); 1077–1307): medieval Turko-Persian, Sunni Muslim state in Anatolia. The term "Rûm" comes from the Persian word for the Roman Empire. The Seljuqs called the lands of their sultanate Rum because it had been established on territory long considered "Roman", i.e. Byzantine, by Muslim armies. Seljuq sultans successfully bore the brunt of the Crusades but in 1243 succumbed to the advancing Mongols; vassals of the Mongols.
Anatolian beyliks (Turkmen beyliks): small Turkish principalities or (petty kingdoms) governed by Beys, which were founded across Anatolia at the end of the 11th c. in a first period, and more extensively during the decline of the Sultanate of Rum during the second half of the 13th c.
Karamanids (1250-1487): one of the Anatolian beyliks, centered in south-central Anatolia around the present-day Karaman Province. One of the oldest and most powerful Turkish beyliks in Anatolia.
Bahri dynasty: Mamluk dynasty of mostly Cuman-Kipchak Turkic origin that ruled the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate from 1250 to 1382.
Baibars (1223 – 1277.07.01): of Turkic Kipchak origin; fourth Sultan of Egypt in the Mamluk Bahri dynasty. He was one of the commanders of the Egyptian forces that inflicted a defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France. He also led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which marked the first substantial defeat of the Mongol army and is considered a turning point in history; reign of Baibars marked the start of an age of Mamluk dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean and solidified the durability of their military system.
Egypt Eyalet: result of the conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottoman Empire in 1517, following the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517) and the absorption of Syria into the Empire in 1516. Egypt was administered as an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 until 1867, with an interruption during the French occupation of 1798 to 1801. Egypt was always a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control, due in part to the continuing power and influence of the Mamluks, the Egyptian military caste who had ruled the country for centuries. As such, Egypt remained semi-autonomous under the Mamluks until it was invaded by the French forces of Napoleon I in 1798. After the French were expelled, power was seized in 1805 by Muhammad Ali Pasha, an Albanian military commander of the Ottoman army in Egypt. Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained nominally an Ottoman province. It was granted the status of an autonomous vassal state or Khedivate in 1867.
Oxyrhynchus Papyri: group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. The manuscripts date from the time of the Ptolemaic (3rd century BC) and Roman periods of Egyptian history (from 32 BC to the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 640 AD). Only an estimated 10% are literary in nature. Most of the papyri found seem to consist mainly of public and private documents: codes, edicts, registers, official correspondence, census-returns, tax-assessments, petitions, court-records, sales, leases, wills, bills, accounts, inventories, horoscopes, and private letters. Since 1898 academics have puzzled together and transcribed over 5000 documents from what were originally hundreds of boxes of papyrus fragments the size of large cornflakes. This is thought to represent only 1 to 2 percent of what is estimated to be at least half a million papyri still remaining to be conserved, transcribed, deciphered and catalogued.
June 2013 Egyptian protests (2013.06.30–2013.07.03): mass protests; marking the one-year anniversary of Mohamed Morsi's inauguration as president. The events ended with 2013 Egyptian coup d'état after millions of protesters across Egypt took to the streets and demanded the immediate resignation of the president. According to the Egyptian military calculated numbers counted through helicopters scanning the demonstrations' perimeters across the country, this was "the biggest protest in Egypt's history", with 14 million protesters. Reasons for demanding Morsi's resignation included accusations of increasing authoritarianism and his pushing through an Islamist agenda disregarding the predominantly secular opposition or the rule of law.
2013 Egyptian coup d'état: Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi led a coalition to remove the President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, from power and suspended the Egyptian constitution. The move came after the military's ultimatum for the government to "resolve its differences" with opponents during widespread national protests.
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (General Sisi; 1954.11.19-): Egyptian Field Marshal who has been Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, as well as Minister of Defence, since 2012.08.12. As head of the armed forces, he played the leading role in ousting Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, following mass protests against Morsi and his government.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): regional intergovernmental political and economic union consisting of all Arab states of the Persian Gulf except Iraq. Its member states are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Irrigation in Saudi Arabia: typical of many isolated irrigation projects scattered throughout the arid and hyper-arid regions of the Earth. Nonrenewable Fossil water is mined from depths as great as 1 km, pumped to the surface, and distributed via large centre pivot irrigation feeds. The circles of green irrigated vegetation may comprise a variety of agricultural commodities from alfalfa to wheat. Diameters of the normally circular fields range from a few hundred metres to as much as 3 km. The projects often trace out a narrow, sinuous, and seemingly random path. Actually, engineers generally seek ancient river channels now buried by the sand seas. The fossil waters mined in these projects accumulated during periods of wetter climate in the Pleistocene glacial epochs, between 10,000 and 2 million years ago, and are not being replenished under current climatic conditions.
Yemeni Civil War (2015–present) (2015.03.19–): between two factions: the internationally recognized Yemeni government, led by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and the Houthi armed movement, along with their supporters and allies. Both claim to constitute the official government of Yemen.
Blockade of Yemen: refers to a sea, land and air blockade on Yemen which started with the positioning of Saudi Arabian warships in Yemeni waters in 2015 with the Saudi invasion of Yemen. The United States had joined the blockade in 2016.10, and the blockade was further constricted following the November 2017 launch of a missile from Houthis in Yemen towards Riyadh. The blockade of Yemen has resulted in widespread starvation, to the extent that the United Nations has raised concerns about the possibility of it becoming the deadliest famine in decades.
Famine in Yemen (2016–present): started during the Yemeni Civil War. Over 17 million of Yemen's population are at risk; over 3.3 million children and pregnant or lactating women suffer from acute malnutrition.
Houthi movement (Ansar Allah): Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Saada Governorate, Yemen in the 1990s. It is predominantly made up of Zaidi Shias, with their namesake leadership being drawn largely from the Houthi tribe. The Houthi movement attracts followers in Yemen by portraying themselves as fighting for economic development, the end of political marginalization of Zaidi Shias, and promoting regional political-religious issues in its media, fostering the rhetoric of an overarching Israeli and American conspiracy theory and widespread Arab "collusion" with those states. The Houthis have a complex relationship with Yemen's Sunnis; the movement has discriminated against Sunnis, but also recruited and allied with them. Following the outbreak of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, the Houthis began to fire missiles at Israeli cities and ships in the Red Sea; the attacks marked the first instance of space warfare in human history, as Israel began to actively intercept the Houthis' ballistic missiles in outer space. The Houthis have stated that their intent is to continue attacking Israel until it is destroyed. Due to their tactics, the Houthi movement is considered to be the Yemeni mafia by opponents and researchers.
Houthi involvement in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war: Houthi movement in Yemen, aligned with Hamas, launched attacks targeting Israel. They employed missiles and UAVs, some of which were intercepted by IDF over the Red Sea using the Arrow missile defense system; others fell short of their targets or were intercepted by the United States Navy and the Israeli Air Force. Additionally, Houthi forces have launched rocket and missile attacks on commercial vessels of various nations in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, in the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, a chokepoint of the global economy.
Republic of Mahabad (1946-1947; Republic of Kurdistan): There are opinions that Mahabad Republic was the first independent Kurdish state.
Iraqi Kurdistan (Southern Kurdistan): by the Iraqi constitution, is a proto-state located in the north of Iraq and constitutes the country's only autonomous region. The region is officially governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), with the capital being Erbil. Kurdistan is a parliamentary democracy with its own regional Parliament that consists of 111 seats.
Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum, 2017 (2017.09.25; Turnout=72.16%, YES=92.73%, NO=7.27%, Invalid=6.65%): The referendum's legality was rejected by the federal government of Iraq.
Al-Anfal campaign (1986–1989; Kurdish genocide): genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people (and other non-Arab populations) in northern Iraq, led by Ali Hassan al-Majid in the final stages of Iran–Iraq War. The campaign also targeted other minority communities in Iraq including Assyrians, Shabaks, Iraqi Turkmens, Yazidis, Mandeans, and many villages belonging to these ethnic groups were also destroyed. The campaign has been characterized as genocidal in nature. It is also characterized as gendercidal, because "battle-age" men were the primary targets, according to Human Rights Watch/Middle East. According to the Iraqi prosecutors and Kurdish officials, as many as 180,000 people were killed.
Iraqi Turkmens (Turcomans): ethnic kin of the Turks and the third largest ethnic group in Iraq behind pan-ethnic Arabs and Kurds. They mainly reside in northern Iraq and share close cultural ties with Turkey and linguistic ties with South Azeri.
Islamist uprising in Syria (1976.05.31–1982.02.28): comprised a series of revolts and armed insurgencies by Sunni Islamists, mainly members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The uprising aimed to establish an Islamic Republic in Syria by overthrowing the Ba'athist government, in what has been called a "long campaign of terror". During the violent events, Islamists attacked both civilians and off-duty military personnel, and civilians were also killed in retaliatory strike by security forces.
1982 Hama massacre (1982.02.02-1982.02.28): Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies, under orders of the country's president Hafez al-Assad, besieged the town of Hama for 27 days in order to quell an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood against al-Assad's government. The massacre, carried out by the Syrian Army under commanding General Rifaat al-Assad, effectively ended the campaign begun in 1976 by Sunni Muslim groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, against the government.
Lebanese Civil War (1975.04.13 - 1990.10.13): multifaceted; 120,000-150,000 fatalities; ~76,000 displaced within Lebanon; ~1 mln exodus from Lebanon. Government of Lebanon had been run under a significant influence of the elites among the Maronite Christians. The link between politics and religion had been reinforced under the mandate of the French colonial powers from 1920 to 1943, and the parliamentary structure favored a leading position for the Christians. The establishment of the state of Israel and the displacement of a hundred thousand Palestinian refugees to Lebanon during the 1948 and 1967 exoduses contributed to shifting the demographic balance in favor of the Muslim population. Cold War had a powerful disintegrative effect on Lebanon: Maronites sided with the West while leftist and pan-Arab groups sided with Soviet aligned Arab countries. During the course of the fighting, alliances shifted rapidly and unpredictably. Furthermore, foreign powers, such as Israel and Syria, became involved in the war and fought alongside different factions. Peace keeping forces, such as the Multinational Force in Lebanon & UNIFIL, were also stationed in Lebanon.
Sabra and Shatila massacre (1982.09.16 - 18): 762 - 3,500 Palestinian, Lebanese, Iranian, Syrian, Pakistani and Algerian civilians; retaliation for assassination of newly elected Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel (leader of Kataeb Party), but now assassination is generally attributed to native pro-Syrian militants; Kataeb Party militia ("the Young Men") under Elie Hobeika perpetrated; UN & Israeli Kahan Commission: Israel bore responsibility for the violence, Israeli military personnel, aware that a massacre was in progress, had failed to take serious steps to stop it.
Syrian occupation of Lebanon (1976-2005): began in 1976 as a result of the Syrian Ba'th Regime's bid to control Lebanon, and ended in 2005.04.26 as a result of the Cedar Revolution, after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafic Hariri.
South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000): Israel Defense Forces and its Lebanese Christian proxy militias against Lebanese Muslim guerrillas led by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, within what was defined by Israelis as the "Security Zone" in South Lebanon.
Assyrian people (Ashuriyun, Atorayeh and Syriacs): Semitic people.
Assyrian continuity: theory—supported by a number of scholars and modern Assyrians—that today's modern Assyrians descend from the ancient Assyrians, a Semitic people native to ancient Assyria, that originally spoke the ancient Assyrian language, a dialect of the Akkadian language. They later spoke the Aramaic language. Notions of Assyrian continuity are based on both ethnic, genetic, linguistic and historical claims, and the asserted continuity of Assyria's historical and cultural heritage after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Claims of continuity have an important place in public life of modern Assyrian communities, both in their homeland and throughout the Assyrian diaspora. Modern Assyrians are accepted to be an indigenous ethnic minority of modern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, and border areas of northwestern Iran, a region that roughly corresponds to the areas of ancient Assyria.
Black September in Jordan (1970 - 1971): Jordanian Civil War; core: PLO (+Syria) vs Hashemite Monarchy (+Pakistan). Aftermath and consequences: Palestinians: group Black September: 4 of its members assassinated Wasfi al-Tal; Munich Massacre 1972; Lebanon: PLO moves to Southern Lebanon; Jordan: PLO was recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people; Syria: Hafez al-Assad comes to power by deposing Salah Jadid; Pakistan: Zia ul-Haq staged coup d'etat and executed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, supported mujahideen during the Soviet Afghan war.
Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance: planned pipeline that runs from the coastal city of Aqaba by the Red Sea to the Lisan area in the Dead Sea. It will provide potable water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, bring sea water to stabilise the Dead Sea water level and generate electricity to support the energy needs of the project. The project is going to be carried by Jordan and is entirely in Jordanian territory. The project will be financed by the government of Jordan and a number of international donors. The water level in the Dead Sea is shrinking at a rate of >1m/yr, and its surface area has shrunk by about 30% in the last 20 years. This is largely due to the diversion of over 90% of the water of the Jordan River. Dams, canals, and pumping stations built by Israel, Jordan and Syria now divert water for crops and drinking, and have reduced the flow to about 100 MCM/yr (mainly brackish water and sewage).
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina): geographic region in Western Asia between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River; name was used by Ancient Greek writers, and was later used for the Roman province Syria Palaestina, the Byzantine Palaestina Prima and the Umayyad and Abbasid province of Jund Filastin. Region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land, the Southern Levant, Cisjordan, and historically has been known by other names including Canaan, Southern Syria and Jerusalem (Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem). Situated at a strategic location between Egypt, Syria and Arabia, and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, the region has a long and tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. The region has been controlled by numerous different peoples, including Ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, the Sunni Arab Caliphates, the Shia Fatimid Caliphate, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mameluks, Ottomans, the British and modern Israelis and Palestinians.
Mandatory Palestine (1920-1948): geopolitical entity under British administration, carved out of Ottoman Southern Syria after WWI.
Balfour Declaration (dated 1917.11.02): letter from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Israeli West Bank barrier as of July 2011. The planned route, the part already completed, the part under construction as well as the Wall Gates where Palestinian access is controled by the Israeli army. (“United Nations OCHA oPt”)
Israeli West Bank barrier (West Bank Wall; West Bank fence): separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. It is a contentious element of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Israel describes the wall as a necessary security barrier against Palestinian terrorism, whereas Palestinians describe it as an element of racial segregation and a representation of Israeli apartheid. At a total length of 708 km upon completion, the route traced by the barrier is more than double the length of the Green Line, with 15% of its length running along the Green Line or inside Israel, and the remaining 85% running as much as 18 km inside the West Bank, effectively isolating about 9% of the land and approximately 25,000 Palestinians from the rest of the Palestinian territory.
War over Water (Jordan river) (1964.11 – 1967.05): series of confrontations between Israel and its Arab neighbors over control of water sources in the Jordan River drainage basin.
National Water Carrier of Israel: largest water project in Israel. Its main task is to transfer water from the Sea of Galilee in the north of the country to the highly populated center and arid south and to enable efficient use of water and regulation of the water supply in the country. Up to 72,000 m³ of water can flow through the carrier each hour, totalling 1.7 mln m³ / day. Early plans were made before the establishment of the state of Israel but detailed planning started only after nascent Israel's formation in 1948. The construction of the project, originally known as the Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan, started in 1953, during the planning phase, long before the detailed final plan was completed in 1956. The project was designed by Tahal and constructed by Mekorot. The National Water Carrier was inaugurated in 1964, with 80% of its water being allocated to agriculture and 20% for drinking water. As time passed however, increasing amounts were consumed as drinking water, and by the early 1990s, the National Carrier was supplying half of the drinking water in Israel. It was forecast that by the year 2010 80% of the National Carrier will be directed more at providing drinking water. The reasons for the increased demand for drinking water was twofold. Firstly, Israel saw rapid population growth, primarily in the center of the country which increased demands for water. Furthermore, as the standard of living in the country rose, there was increased domestic water use. As a result of the 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace, among other items, Israel agreed to transfer 50 MCM of water annually to Jordan. Nowadays water from the Sea of Galilee supplies approximately 10% of Israel's drinking water needs. In recent years the Israeli government has undertaken extensive investments in water reclamation and desalination infrastructure in the country, while promoting water conservation. This has lessened the country's reliance on the National Water Carrier and has allowed it to significantly reduce the amount of water pumped from the Sea of Galilee annually in an effort to restore and improve the lake's ecological environment, especially in face of persistent severe droughts affecting the lake's intake basin in recent years.
Samaritans: Y-DNA and mtDNA comparisons: The study goes on to say that "Such a scenario could explain why Samaritan Y chromosome lineages cluster tightly with Jewish Y lineages, while their mitochondrial lineages are closest to Iraqi Jewish and Palestinian mtDNA sequences."
Foreign relations of Israel: diplomatic relations with 162 of the 193 UN member states as of December 2019. Israel maintains full diplomatic relations and open borders with two of its Arab neighbours, Egypt and Jordan, after signing peace treaties in 1979 and 1994 respectively. Thirty-one UN member states do not recognize Israel. These include 19 of the 22 members of the Arab League: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. A further 9 are members of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mali, Niger and Pakistan. Other countries which do not recognise Israel include Bhutan, Cuba and North Korea. The close friendship with the United States has also been a linchpin of Israeli foreign policy for decades. From the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 until the Iranian Revolution and the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, Israel and Iran maintained close ties. Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation after Turkey. Israeli ties with Egypt have improved since the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power there, while ties to Turkey have been uneven since their 2010 nadir but less dismal than that point.
Operation Wooden Leg: attack by Israel on Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in Hammam al-Shatt, near Tunis, Tunisia, in 1985.10.01. Target 2,060 km from the operation's starting point; Tunisian sources believed that USA must have known about the attack, even if it took place without its collaboration.
This list includes World War I and later conflicts (after 1914) of at least 100 fatalities each Prolonged conflicts are listed in the decade when initiated; ongoing conflicts are marked italic, and conflicts with +100,000 killed with bold.
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (Mid-20th century – present; main phase: 1964–1993): world's "most intractable conflict". Since 2006, the Palestinian side has been fractured by conflict between the two major factions: Fatah, the traditionally dominant party, and its later electoral challenger, Hamas.
1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine: first phase of the 1948 Palestine war. It broke out after the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution on 1947.11.29 recommending the adoption of the Partition Plan for Palestine.
Arab Cold War (1952.07.23–1979.02.11): accepted beginning of the Arab Cold War was the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which ultimately led to Gamal Abdel Nasser becoming President of Egypt in 1956. Thereafter, newly-established Arab republics defined by revolutionary secular nationalism, and largely drawing inspiration from Nasser's Egypt, were engaged in political rivalries of varying degrees of ferocity with conservative traditionalist Arab monarchies, led chiefly by Saudi Arabia. The approximate end point of this period of internecine rivalry and conflict is generally viewed as being the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which culminated in the installation of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the leader of Iran's theocratic government. Thereafter, the bitterness of intra-Arab strife was eclipsed by a new era of Arab-Iranian tensions. Nasser espoused secular, pan-Arab nationalism, and socialism as a response to the Islamism, and rentierism of the Arab monarchies, as well as their perceived complicity in Western meddling in the Arab World. He also saw himself as the foremost champion of Palestinian liberation following the loss of 78% of the former Mandate of Palestine to the newly declared State of Israel in the Palestine War of 1948-1949. Following Egypt's political triumph in the Suez Crisis of 1956, known in the Arab World as the Tripartite Aggression, Nasser and the ideology associated with him rapidly gained support in other Arab countries from Iraq in the east to French-occupied Algeria in the west. Numerous Arab countries, notably Iraq, North Yemen, and Libya underwent the toppling of conservative regimes and their replacement with revolutionary republican governments, whilst Arab countries under Western occupation, chiefly Algeria, and South Yemen, saw the growth of nationalist insurrections aimed at national liberation. Contemporaneously, the already staunchly Arab nationalist Syria united with Egypt in the short-lived federal union of the United Arab Republic. In turn, the monarchies, namely Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Morocco (and, following their independence in the early 1970s, the Gulf states) drew closer together as they sought to counter Egyptian influence through a variety of direct and indirect means. In particular, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, hitherto rivals due to the competing claims of their respective dynasties, cooperated closely in support of the royalist faction in the North Yemen Civil War that had become a proxy war between Egypt and Saudi Arabia following the establishment of the Nasserist Yemen Arab Republic in 1962. Arab Cold War was not a clash between capitalist and communist economic systems. Indeed, with the exception of the Marxist government of South Yemen, all Arab governments expressly rejected communism, and criminalised the activities of communist activists within their territories. Moreover, the Arab states never sought membership of the competing military alliances of NATO, and the Warsaw Pact, with almost all Arab states being members of the Non-Aligned Movement. What tied the Arab Cold War to the wider global confrontation between USA and USSR was that USA backed the conservative Saudi Arabian-led monarchies, while USSR supported the Egyptian-led republics adhering to Arab socialism, notwithstanding their suppression of domestic Arab communist movements. In tandem with this was the Arab revolutionary nationalist republican support for anti-American, anti-Western, anti-imperialist, and anti-colonial revolutionary movements outside the Arab World, such as the Cuban Revolution, and the Arab monarchical support for conservative governments in predominantly Muslim countries, such as Pakistan. By the late 1970s, the Arab Cold War is considered to have ended due to a number of factors. The unmitigated success of the State of Israel in the Six Day War of 1967 severely undermined the strategic strength of both Egypt and Nasser.
Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present) (aka: Turkey–PKK conflict, Kurdish conflict/insurgency/rebellion/question, civil war (inside Turkey); 1978.11.27 (1984)–present): armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups, which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey. Although insurgents have carried out attacks in many regions of Turkey, the insurgency is mainly in southeastern Turkey. The PKK's presence in Iraq's Kurdistan Region, from which it has also launched attacks, has resulted in the Turkish military carrying out frequent ground incursions and air and artillery strikes in the region. The conflict has cost the economy of Turkey an estimated 300 to 450 billion dollars, mostly military costs. It has also affected tourism in Turkey. The group was founded in 1978 in the village of Fis (near Lice) by a group of Kurdish students led by Abdullah Öcalan. The initial reason given by the PKK for this was the oppression of Kurds in Turkey. By then, the use of Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names were banned in Kurdish-inhabited areas. In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as "Mountain Turks" until 1991. The words "Kurds", "Kurdistan", or "Kurdish" were officially banned by the Turkish government. The full-scale insurgency, however, did not begin until 1984.08.15, when the PKK announced a Kurdish uprising. The first insurgency lasted until 1999.09.01, when the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire. The armed conflict was later resumed on 2004.06.01, when the PKK declared an end to its ceasefire. Since summer 2011, the conflict has become increasingly violent with resumption of large-scale hostilities. In 2013 the Turkish Government and the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan started talks. 2013.03.21 Öcalan announced the "end of armed struggle" and a ceasefire with peace talks. 2015.07.25 the PKK finally cancelled their 2013 ceasefire after a year of tension due to various events, including the Turks bombing PKK positions in Iraq, in the midst of the Kurds' battle against ISIS. Turkish authorities have destroyed substantial parts of many Kurdish inhabited cities including Diyarbakır, Şırnak, Mardin, Cizre, Nusaybin, and Yüksekova.
Solution process (Kurdish–Turkish peace process): was a peace process which aimed to resolve the long-running Kurdish–Turkish conflict. The 2013 truce was working until 2014.09, when the relations became strained due to spillover of the Syrian Civil War; the truce fully collapsed in July 2015, with the renewed full-scale warfare in South-Eastern Turkey.
Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict (1979.02.11 – ): ongoing struggle for influence in the Middle East and surrounding regions. The two countries have provided varying degrees of support to opposing sides in nearby conflicts, including the civil wars in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. The rivalry also extends to disputes in Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Morocco, as well as broader competition in North and East Africa, parts of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. USA support for Saudi Arabia and its allies, Russian support for Iran and its allies, and increasing Chinese involvement on both sides have drawn comparisons to the dynamics of the Cold War era. Bahraini uprising (2011–14); Syrian Civil War (2011–); Yemeni Civil War (2015–).
Iran–Israel proxy conflict (2005.08.03 – present): ongoing proxy war; conflict is bound in the political struggle between Iranian leadership and Israel, with the counter aim of Israel to prevent alleged nuclear weapons from the Iranian government and downgrading its allies and proxies such as Hezbollah party in Lebanon. Iranian forces are operating in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad's government. According to Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, "As long as the current regime exists, with the nuclear agreement or without it, Iran will continue to serve as the main threat to Israel's security". Israel and Syria have observed a truce since Israel reaffirmed its control over most of the Golan Heights in the 1973 war, but the Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, has led to several incidents of fire exchange across the once-peaceful borders. Iran declares its foreign policy is based on aiding the oppressed vulnerables around the world- not for material gains, but as a humanitarian religious positive action. In Iran's foreign policy Israel is conceptualized as a Zionist regime that threatens vulnerable people and Islamic religion itself. It is known as ideological enemy for Iran. Iran, in contact with USA over the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has said that Israel would be at risk if the USA and its coalition sought to topple Assad.
Background: Arab–Iranian conflict: A noteworthy point in this conflict is that Iran has very positive relations with numerous Arab countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria and Tunisia. Qatar also has established close working relations with Tehran, despite their differences of opinion over the Syrian civil war, with Iran and Turkey two of the non-Arab countries to support Qatar against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries in the Qatar diplomatic crisis which lasted for over two years.
February 2018 Israel–Syria incident: Israeli F-16I was shot down by the Syrian air defenses after conducting an air raid on Iran-backed positions inside Syrian territory. The aircraft was part of a larger Israeli aerial dispatch which Israel said was sent in response to detection of an Iranian drone spying on Israel. Two hours after the downing of the jet, Israel began attacking additional targets inside Syria, including air defense sites and Iranian targets near Damascus. Israel stated it destroyed the Syrian military’s main command and control bunker. Iran dismissed the Israeli allegation of Iranian drone incursion into Israeli territory as "ridiculous" and a pro-Syrian military alliance said that Israel actually hit a drone base which was used in the fight against ISIS. It was the first time Israel and Iran confronted each other directly since the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict (2002–present): Qatar–Saudi Arabia relations have been especially strained since the beginning of the Arab Spring, that left a power vacuum both states sought to fill, with Qatar being supportive of the revolutionary wave and Saudi Arabia opposing it. Both states are allies of USA, and have avoided direct conflict with one another. Qatar has differences with the Saudi bloc on a number of issues: it broadcasts Al Jazeera, that supports the Arab Spring; it maintains relatively good relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia's key rival; and it has supported the Muslim Brotherhood in the past. Saudi Arabia frames the conflict with Qatar as a subset of the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict due to Saudi Arabia's longstanding concern about the country's relationship with Iran and Iranian-backed militant groups.
Qatar diplomatic crisis (2017.06.05–2021.01.05): began when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Qatar and banned Qatar-registered planes and ships from utilising their airspace and sea routes, along with Saudi Arabia blocking Qatar’s only land crossing. They were later joined by Jordan and were supported by the Maldives, Mauritania, Senegal, Djibouti, the Comoros, and the Tobruk-based government in Libya. The Saudi-led coalition cited Qatar's alleged support for terrorism as the main reason for their actions, alleging that Qatar had violated a 2014 agreement with the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Qatar is a member. Saudi Arabia and other countries have criticized Al Jazeera and Qatar's relations with Iran. Qatar acknowledged that it had provided assistance to some Islamist groups (such as the Muslim Brotherhood), but denied aiding militant groups linked to al-Qaeda or the ISIL. Qatar also claimed that it had assisted USA in the War on Terror and the ongoing military intervention against ISIL. Initial supply disruptions were minimised by additional imports from Iran and Turkey, and Qatar did not agree to any of the Saudi-led coalition's demands. The demands included reducing diplomatic relations with Iran, stopping military coordination with Turkey, and closing Al-Jazeera. 2021.01.04 Qatar and Saudi Arabia agreed to a resolution of the crisis brokered by Kuwait and USA. Saudi Arabia will reopen its border with Qatar and begin the process for reconciliation. An agreement and final communique signed 2021.01.05 following a GCC summit at Al-'Ula marks the resolution of the crisis, with precise details to be released later. 2021.01.07 Al Jazeera provided an "English translation of closing statement of the summit in full".
2019–2021 Persian Gulf crisis (2019.05.05 – present): ongoing state of heightened military tensions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and USA, along with their respective allies in the Persian Gulf region.
Assassination of Qasem Soleimani (2020.01.03; About 1:00 AM (local time, UTC+3)): Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general, was assassinated by USA via a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport that targeted and killed Soleimani while purportedly on his way to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi in Baghdad. Soleimani was commander of the Quds Force, one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and was considered the second most powerful person of Iran, subordinate to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Five Iraqi nationals and four other Iranian nationals were killed alongside Soleimani, including the deputy chairman of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and commander of the Iran-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah militia, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis – a person designated as a terrorist by USA and UAE.
Gaza flotilla raid (2010.05.31): military operation by Israel against six civilian ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea. Nine activists were killed during the raid and dozens wounded, including one who later died of his wounds, while ten Israeli soldiers were wounded, one seriously. Three of the six flotilla ships, organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH), were carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials, intending to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel had warned the flotilla to abort their mission, describing it as a provocation.
Iran–Iraq War (1980.09.22 – 1988.08.20): followed a long history of border disputes, and was motivated by fears that the Iranian Revolution in 1979 would inspire insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shi'ite majority, as well as Iraq's desire to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state. Conflict has been compared to WWI in terms of the tactics used, including large-scale trench warfare with barbed wire stretched across trenches, manned machine gun posts, bayonet charges, "human wave attacks", and extensive use of chemical weapons by Iraq, and later deliberate attacks on civilian targets. The world powers USA and USSR, together with many Western and Arab countries, provided support for Iraq, while Iran was largely isolated. A number of proxy forces participated in the war, most notably the Iranian People's Mujahedin of Iran siding with Ba'athist Iraq and Iraqi Kurdish militias of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan siding with Iran—all suffering a major blow by the end of the conflict. Iran–Iraq War was the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries.
Israel's role in the Iran–Iraq war: Israel was one of the main suppliers of military equipment to Iran. Israel also provided military instructors during the war and direct support to Iran's war effort, when it bombed and destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, during Operation Opera. The nuclear reactor was a central component of Iraq's nuclear weapons program. Israel supported Iran during the war so that Iran could provide a counterweight to Iraq; to re-establish influence in Iran which Israel lost with the overthrow of the shah in 1979, and to create business for the Israeli weapons industry. The Israeli arms sales to Iran also facilitated the unhindered immigration of the Persian Jewish community from Iran to Israel and the United States. Israel's support for Iran during the war was done clandestinely, and Iran publicly denied any cooperation between the two countries.
Operation Opera (1981.06.07): surprise airstrike conducted by the Israeli Air Force, which destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor located 17 kilometres (11 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. The Israeli operation came after Iran's partially-successful Operation Scorch Sword had caused minor damage to the same nuclear facility a year prior, with the damage having been subsequently repaired by French technicians. Operation Opera, and related Israeli government statements following it, established the Begin Doctrine, which explicitly stated the strike was not an anomaly, but instead "a precedent for every future government in Israel". Israel's counter-proliferation preventive strike added another dimension to its existing policy of deliberate ambiguity, as it related to the nuclear weapons capability of other states in the region.
French support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war: important element to strengthen Iraq for the Iran–Iraq war. Starting in roughly 1975, leading up to the Iran–Iraq War, as well as the war itself, the greatest amount of military equipment came to Iraq from the Soviet Union, but France was probably second, and generally provided higher-technology equipment than the Soviets.
Map of countries surrounding Syria (red) with military involvement.Local, regional and international actors involved in the Syrian civil war (2019.03.11).
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (1990.08.02): operation conducted by Iraq, whereby it invaded the neighboring State of Kuwait, consequently resulting in a seven-month-long Iraqi military occupation of the country. The invasion and Iraq's subsequent refusal to withdraw from Kuwait by a deadline mandated by UN led to a direct military intervention by a United Nations-authorized coalition of forces led by the United States. These events came to be known as the first Gulf War, eventually resulting in the forced expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait and the Iraqis setting 600 Kuwaiti oil wells on fire during their retreat (see scorched earth strategy). A variety of speculations have been made regarding the true intents behind the Iraqi move, including Iraq's inability to pay Kuwait more than US$14 billion that it had borrowed from Kuwait to finance the Iran–Iraq War, and Kuwait's surge in petroleum production levels which kept revenues down for Iraq. Throughout much of the 1980s, Kuwait's oil production was above its mandatory OPEC quota, which kept the oil prices down. Iraq interpreted Kuwait's refusal to decrease its oil production as an act of aggression. In early 1990, Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi petroleum through cross-border slant drilling, although some Iraqi sources indicated that Saddam Hussein's decision to attack Kuwait was already made a few months before the actual invasion.
Gulf War (1990.08.02–1991.01.17 (Operation Desert Shield): pre-combat buildup of troops and the defense of Saudi Arabia; 1991.01.17–1991.02.28 (Operation Desert Storm): combat phase): armed campaign waged by USA-led coalition of 35 nations against Iraq in response to the Iraqi invasion and annexation of Kuwait. The invasion of Kuwait was met with international condemnation, and economic sanctions against Iraq were immediately imposed by the United Nations Security Council in response. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and American president George H. W. Bush deployed troops and equipment into Saudi Arabia, and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. In response to the call, an array of nations joined the U.S.-led coalition, forming the largest military alliance since WWII. The bulk of the coalition's military forces were from USA, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Egypt as the largest lead-up contributors, in that order. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991, which continued for five weeks. During this period, Iraq began to launch missiles into Israel with the aim of provoking a response by the Israeli military, which the Iraqi leadership expected to prompt the coalition's Muslim states to withdraw and therefore jeopardize the alliance against Iraq. As the Iraqi missile campaign against Israel failed to generate the desired response, Iraq also launched Scud missiles at coalition targets stationed in Saudi Arabia. This was followed by a ground assault by the coalition into Iraqi-occupied Kuwait on 24 February. The offensive was a decisive victory for coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait and promptly began to advance past the Iraq–Kuwait border into Iraqi territory. 100 hours after the beginning of the ground campaign, the coalition ceased its advance and declared a ceasefire. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas straddling the Iraq–Saudi Arabia border.
Coalition of the Gulf War: under UN Security Council Resolution 678, a coalition of 35 countries, led by USA, fought Iraq in the Gulf War from 1990–1991.
Kuwaiti oil fires: caused by Iraqi military forces setting fire to a reported 605 to 732 oil wells along with an unspecified number of oil filled low-lying areas, such as oil lakes and fire trenches, as part of a scorched earth policy while retreating from Kuwait in 1991 due to the advances of US-led coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War. The fires were started in January and February 1991, and the first well fires were extinguished in early 1991.04, with the last well capped in 1991.11.06.
Iraqi rocket attacks on Israel (1991.01.17–1991.02.23): part of an Iraqi missile campaign against Israel during the First Gulf War.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 (1991.04.05): after receiving letters from the representatives of France, Iran, and Turkey and expressing its concern over political repression of the Iraqi people, including those in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Council condemned the repression and demanded that Iraq, as a contribution to removing the threat to international peace and security, end the repression and respect the human rights of its population. The resolution was adopted by ten votes in favor, three votes against (Cuba, Yemen, and Zimbabwe), and two abstentions (the People's Republic of China and India). France, UK, and USA used Resolution 688 to establish Iraqi no-fly zones.
Iraqi no-fly zones conflict (1991.03.01–2003.03.20): low-level conflict in the two no-fly zones (NFZs) in Iraq that were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom, and France after the Gulf War of 1991. The United States stated that the NFZs were intended to protect the ethnic Kurdish minority in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. The policy was enforced by the United States and the United Kingdom until 2003, when it was rendered obsolete by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. French aircraft patrols also participated until France withdrew in 1996. This military action was not authorised by the United Nations. The Secretary-General of the UN at the time the resolution was passed, Boutros Boutros-Ghali called the no-fly zones "illegal" in a later interview with John Pilger.
2003 invasion of Iraq (2003.03.20–2003.05.01): first stage of the Iraq War; combined force of troops from USA, UK, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq. The capital city of Baghdad was captured by Coalition forces on 9 April 2003 after the six day long Battle of Baghdad. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" in his Mission Accomplished speech, after which the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the first of several successive transitional governments leading up to the first Iraqi parliamentary election in January 2005. U.S. military forces later remained in Iraq until the withdrawal in 2011.
Iraq War (2003.03.20–2011.12.15): began with the invasion of Iraq by USA–led coalition which overthrew the authoritarian government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the coalition forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government. An estimated 151,000 to 1,033,000 Iraqis died in the first three to five years of conflict. US troops were officially withdrawn in 2011. The US became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition; the insurgency and many dimensions of the armed conflict continue. The invasion occurred as part of the George W. Bush administration's War on Terror following the September 11 attacks despite no connection of the latter to Iraq.
Withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq (2007–2011) (2007.12–2011.12.18): The number of USA military forces in Iraq peaked at 170,300 in November 2007. The withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq was a contentious issue in the United States for much of the 2000s. As the war progressed from its initial invasion phase in 2003 to a nearly decade-long occupation, American public opinion shifted towards favoring a troop withdrawal; in May 2007, 55% of Americans believed that the Iraq War was a mistake, and 51% of registered voters favored troop withdrawal. In late April 2007 Congress passed a supplementary spending bill for Iraq that set a deadline for troop withdrawal but President George W. Bush vetoed this bill, citing his concerns about setting a withdrawal deadline.
War in Iraq (2013–2017) (2013.12.30–2017.12.09): armed conflict between Iraq and its allies and the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL). Following December 2013, the insurgency escalated into a full-scale war following the conquest of Ramadi, Fallujah, Tikrit and other towns in the major areas of northern Iraq by the Islamic State. Between 4-9 June 2014, the city of Mosul was attacked and later captured, following that, former Prime Minster Nuri al-Maliki called for a national state of emergency on 10 June. However, despite the security crisis, Iraq's parliament did not allow Maliki to declare a state of emergency; many legislators boycotted the session because they opposed expanding the prime minister's powers. ISIL switched to guerrilla "hit and run" tactics in an effort to undermine the Iraqi government's effort to eradicate them. This conflict is interpreted by some in Iraq as a spillover of the Syrian Civil War. Other Iraqis and observers see it mainly as a culmination of long-running local sectarianism, exacerbated by the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011, the subsequent increase in anti-Sunni sectarianism under former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the ensuing bloody crack-down on the 2012–2013 Sunni protests.
American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–2021): USA President Barack Obama ordered USA forces to be dispatched in response to the Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014) of ISIL as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. At the invitation of the Iraqi government, American troops went to assess Iraqi forces and the threat posed by ISIL. The coalition officially concluded its combat mission in Iraq in December 2021, but U.S. troops remain in Iraq to advise, train, and assist Iraqi security forces against the ongoing ISIL insurgency, including providing air support and military aid.
Syrian Civil War (2011.03.15 – present [2022.04]): ongoing multi-sided civil war in Syria fought between the Syrian Arab Republic led by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad (supported by domestic and foreign allies) and various domestic and foreign forces that oppose both the Syrian government and each other, in varying combinations. Unrest in Syria began in 2011.03.15 as part of the wider 2011 Arab Spring protests out of discontent with the Syrian government, eventually escalating to an armed conflict after protests calling for Assad's removal were violently suppressed. The war is currently being fought by several factions, including the Syrian Armed Forces and its domestic and international allies, a loose alliance of mostly Sunni opposition rebel groups (such as the Free Syrian Army), Salafi jihadist groups (including al-Nusra Front and Tahrir al-Sham), the mixed Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and ISIL. The peak of the war was around 2015; violence in the country has since diminished, but the situation remains a crisis. A number of foreign countries, such as Iran, Russia, Turkey, and USA, have either directly involved themselves in the conflict or provided support to one or another faction. Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah support the Syrian Arab Republic and the Syrian Armed Forces militarily, with Russia conducting airstrikes and other military operations since 2015.09. The USA-led international coalition, established in 2014 with the declared purpose of countering ISIL, has conducted airstrikes primarily against ISIL as well as some against government and pro-government targets. They have also deployed special forces and artillery units to engage ISIL on the ground. Since 2015, USA has supported the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and its armed wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), materially, financially, and logistically. Turkish forces have fought the SDF, ISIL, and the Syrian government since 2016, but have also actively supported the Syrian opposition and currently occupy large swaths of northwestern Syria while engaging in significant ground combat. Between 2011 and 2017, fighting from the Syrian civil war spilled over into Lebanon as opponents and supporters of the Syrian government traveled to Lebanon to fight and attack each other on Lebanese soil, with ISIL and al-Nusra also engaging the Lebanese Army. Furthermore, while officially neutral, Israel has exchanged border fire and carried out repeated strikes against Hezbollah and Iranian forces, whose presence in southwestern Syria it views as a threat. Belligerents: Syrian factions: The Syrian government, the opposition and the SDF have all received support, militarily and diplomatically, from foreign countries, leading the conflict to often be described as a proxy war. Foreign involvement. Spillover: in 2014.06, members of ISIL crossed the border from Syria into northern Iraq, and took control of large swaths of Iraqi territory as the Iraqi Army abandoned its positions. Fighting between rebels and government forces also spilled over into Lebanon on several occasions.
Russian naval facility in Tartus: hosted a Soviet-era naval supply and maintenance facility, under a 1971 agreement with Ba'athist Syria, which was until the third year of the Syrian civil war staffed by Russian naval personnel; only Mediterranean repair and replenishment spot, sparing Russia’s warships the trip back to their Black Sea bases through the Turkish Straits
Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War (2014.01.02 – ongoing [2014.10]): fighting erupted between the Syrian opposition groups: Free Syrian Army (FSA), the Army of Mujahedeen, and the Islamic Front, and the ISIL/ISIS.
Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War: Support for the Syrian Ba'athist government: Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Iraq, Companies. Support for Syrian opposition: USA, UK, France, Turkey, Arab League (Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia). Support to North Syrian Federation. Support for ISIL. Individual foreign nationals′ support for rebels/jihadist groups. Role of regional states: Israel, Lebanon.
Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar: Islamist jihadist group made up of Chechen and other Russian-speaking foreign fighters, and native Syrians, that has been active in the Syrian civil war against the Syrian Government. The group was briefly affiliated with the ISIL/ISIS. Members killed fighting for the group have included ethnic Azeris, Tajiks, Kazakhs and Dagestanis.
Green Battalion: formed in 2013 by a group of Saudi veterans of the Iraq War and Afghanistan war, the group has fought alongside Jabhat al-Nusra and the ISIL/ISIS against Syrian government forces, while remaining independent and neutral in the dispute between ISIL and other groups.
Al-Nusra Front: branch of al-Qaeda operating in Syria and Lebanon. Split with Islamic State of Iraq
Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army: partially reorganized as the Syrian National Army by the Republic of Turkey since 2017.05.30, is an armed Syrian opposition structure mainly composed of Syrian Arab and Syrian Turkmen rebels operating in Turkish-occupied northern Syria, originally as a part of Operation Euphrates Shield.
Free Syrian Army: loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 2011.07.29 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces who said their goal was to bring down the government of Bashar al-Assad. A formal organization at its founding, its structure gradually dissipated by late 2012, and the FSA identity has since been used by various opposition groups.
Russia–Syria–Iran–Iraq coalition (also referred to as 4+1 (in which the "plus one" refers to Hezbollah of Lebanon)): joint intelligence-sharing cooperation between opponents of ISIL with operation rooms in Syria's Damascus and Iraq's Green Zone in Baghdad. Iran's role: Other than being a crucial thoroughfare to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria has been the only consistent ally for Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. Iran has provided significant support for the Syrian Government in the Syrian Civil War, including logistical, technical and financial support. In April 2014, Hossein Amir-Abdolahian, the Iranian deputy foreign minister, said: "We aren’t seeking to have Bashar Assad remain president for life. But we do not subscribe to the idea of using extremist forces and terrorism to topple Assad and the Syrian government."
Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war (Russian invasion of Syria by the Syrian opposition; 2015.09.30 – present): after an official request by the Syrian government for military aid against rebel groups. The intervention initially involved air strikes by Russian aircraft deployed to the Khmeimim base against targets primarily in north-western Syria, and against Syrian opposition militant groups opposed to the Syrian government, including the Syrian National Coalition, ISIL, al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda in Syria) and the Army of Conquest. In addition, Russian special operations forces and military advisors are deployed to Syria. Prior to the intervention, Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War had mainly consisted of supplying the Syrian Army with arms and equipment. At the end of 2017.12, the Russian government announced its troops would be deployed to Syria permanently. Shortly after the operation began, Russian officials were cited as saying that, apart from fighting terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State, Russia′s goals include helping the Syrian government retake territory from various anti-government groups that are labelled by the United States and the American-led intervention in Syria as ″moderate opposition″, with a broader geopolitical objective being to roll back USA influence. In a televised interview in October 2015, Russian president Vladimir Putin said the military operation had been thoroughly prepared in advance; he defined Russia′s goal in Syria as "stabilising the legitimate power in Syria and creating the conditions for political compromise". The intervention polarized governments on predictable lines. Countries with close diplomatic and economic ties to Russia, including China, Egypt, Iraq and Belarus, have generally supported the intervention; reactions of governments close to the US were usually contrary, with many governments denouncing Russia for its role in the war and highlighting its complicity in the Syrian regime's reported war crimes. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have stated that Russia is committing war crimes and deliberately targeting civilians, USA government has condemned the intervention and imposed economic sanctions against Russia for supporting the Syrian government, and officials at the United Nations have condemned the Russian intervention and said Russia was committing war crimes.
Turkish military intervention in Syria: ongoing cross-border operation by the Turkish military and allied groups in the Syrian Civil War. Operations are ongoing in the region between the Euphrates river to the east and the rebel-held area around Azaz to the west. The Turkish military and Turkey-backed Syrian rebel groups, some of which use the Free Syrian Army label, have been fighting against forces of ISIL as well as against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) since 2016.08.24.
2014 National Intelligence Organisation scandal in Turkey: military political scandal regarding the role of Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) in supplying weapons to neighboring Syria during the Syrian Civil War. A ban was placed on the footage of the lorries, which emerged to have transported 1,000 mortar shells, 1,000 rifled artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds and 30,000 rifle bullets to what was alleged to be Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria, but according to later academic study was the Free Syrian Army and rebel Syrian Turkmen.
Operation Euphrates Shield (2016.08.24–2017.03.29): cross-border operation by the Turkish military and Turkey-aligned Syrian opposition groups in the Syrian Civil War which led to the Turkish occupation of northern Syria. Operations were carried out in the region between the Euphrates river to the east and the rebel-held area around Azaz to the west. The Turkish military and Turkey-aligned Syrian rebel groups, some of which used the Free Syrian Army label, fought against forces of ISIL as well as against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Turkish occupation of northern Syria (aka Northern Syrian Security Belt): The Turkish Armed Forces and their proxy forces (Turkish-backed Turkmen and Arab (Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army)) have occupied areas of northern Syria since August 2016, during the Syrian Civil War. Though these areas nominally acknowledge a government affiliated with the Syrian opposition, they factually constitute a separate proto-state under the dual authority of decentralized native local councils and Turkish military administration. The majority of these settlements had been captured from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the Syrian Democratic Forces, organisations considered terrorist by the Turkish government, although some towns such as Azaz were under the control of the Syrian opposition before Turkish intervention. The Syrian Interim Government moved into the Turkish-controlled territories and began to extend partial authority there, including providing documents to Syrian citizens. Since May 2017, Turkey begun considering the area a Safe Zone.
Operation Olive Branch (formerly Turkish military operation in Afrin)(2018.01.20–03.24): in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin District and the Tell Rifaat Subdistrict in Northern Syria. The offensive is against the Kurdish-led Democratic Union Party in Syria (PYD), its armed wing People's Protection Units (YPG), and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions surrounding the Syrian city of Afrin. Turkey also claims it is fighting ISIL, though the group does not exist in Afrin. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated that the operation in Afrin would be followed by a push in the northern town of Manbij, which the US-backed Kurdish forces captured from ISIL in 2016. American generals said they will respond "aggressively" if such a provocation is made against them. The YPG announced that it would protect the people of Afrin and respond to the Turkish army. Erdoğan has threatened there will be a "heavy price" for those who have protested against the military offensive. Hundreds of individuals have been arrested for demonstrating against the operation. Over 800 social media users and nearly 100 politicians and journalists have been arrested for criticizing the operation. Turkish authorities have also arrested numerous leaders and high-ranking members of pro-Kurdish and left-wing political parties. Turkey objected to announced plans by the US to train and equip a 30,000 strong SDF border force, which Turkey claimed posed a direct threat to their security; "country we call an ally is insisting on forming a terror army on our borders," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a speech in Ankara; "what can that terror army target but Turkey? Our mission is to strangle it before it's even born."
2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria (2019.10.09–17): 2019.10.06, the Trump administration ordered American troops to withdraw from northeastern Syria, where the United States had been supporting its Kurdish allies. The military operation began on 9 October 2019 when the Turkish Air Force launched airstrikes on border towns.
Battle of Khasham (2018.02.07–08, Battle of Conoco Fields): USA-led coalition, established in 2014 to counter ISIL, delivered massive air and artillery strikes on the Syrian pro-government forces near the towns of Khasham and Al Tabiyeh in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. USA explained the attack by stating that the pro-government forces had "initiated an unprovoked attack against well-established Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters" in the area, while Coalition service members were "co-located with SDF partners during the attack 8 kilometers east of the agreed-upon Euphrates River de-confliction line". The Russian defense ministry's statement released in 2018.02.08 referred to the incident at the village of Salihiyah (located south of the SDF-held town of Abu Hamam in the Abu Kamal District) and said that it was caused by reconnaissance actions of Syrian militia that had not been cleared with the Russian operations command; the statement stressed that there were no Russian service members in the "designated district of the Deir ez-Zor province of Syria". The US military stated that one hundred Syrian pro-government fighters were killed in the US attack, prompting Syria to accuse the United States of carrying out a "brutal massacre" of its troops and Russia to accuse the US of being economically motivated in its actions, citing nearby oil fields. As information about casualties among Russian Wagner Group mercenaries in the strike emerged, the incident was billed by media as "the first deadly clash between citizens of Russia and the United States since the Cold War."
Syrian Kurdistan campaign (2012–present) [2012.07.23]→ 2012 Syrian Kurdish campaign [2012.07.23]→ 2012 Syrian Kurdistan campaign [2012.09.11] → 2012 Syrian Kurdistan rebellion [2012.11.08]→ Kurds during the Syrian civil war [2012.11.17]→ 2012 Syrian Kurdistan conflict [2013.01.02]→ 2012–2013 Syrian Kurdistan conflict [2013.02.13]→ Syrian Kurdistan conflict (2012–present) [2013.07.18]→ Syrian Kurdistan campaign (2012–present) [2015.01.27]→ Rojava campaign (2012–present) [2015.04.15]→ Rojava campaign [2015.07.31]→ Rojava Revolution [2015.09.29]→ Rojava conflict
Syrian Kurdistan campaign (2012–present): at the outset of the Syrian Civil War Kurds remained mainly inactive, with Kurdish militants sporadically clashing with both Assad government forces and the Free Syrian Army over control in north and north-eastern Syria.
Rojava conflict (Rojava Revolution): political upheaval, social revolution and military conflict taking place in Northern Syria, known as Rojava. During the Syrian Civil War, a coalition of Arab, Kurdish, Syriac and some Turkmen groups have sought to establish the Constitution of Rojava inside the de facto autonomous region, while military wings and allied militias have fought to maintain control of the region. The revolution has been characterized by the prominent role played by women both on the battlefield and within the newly formed political system, as well as the implementation of democratic confederalism, a form of grassroots democracy based on local assemblies. Rojava is under a severe embargo from all neighboring countries: Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and the various forces controlling nearby areas of Syria. YPG-Turkish Conflict
Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (commonly known as Rojava; Western Kurdistan (Kurdish: Rojavayê Kurdistanê) or Syrian Kurdistan): de facto autonomous region in northern Syria. It consists of three self-governing regions: Afrin Region, Jazira Region, and Euphrates Region. The region gained its de facto autonomy in 2012 as part of the ongoing Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian Civil War. While entertaining some foreign relations, the regions within the DFNS are not officially recognized as autonomous by the government of Syria or any international state or organization. For their part, supporters of its constitution consider their system a model for a federalized Syria as a whole, rather than independence.
Constitution of Rojava: provisional constitution of the self-proclaimed autonomous region of Syria known as Rojava. It was adopted on 2014.01.29, when the Democratic Union Party (PYD), claiming to represent the Rojavans, declared the three Rojavan cantons it controls autonomous from the Syrian government.
2017 Shayrat missile strike (morning 2017.04.07): involved the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles by USA from the Mediterranean Sea into Syria, aimed at the Shayrat Airbase controlled by the Syrian government. The strike was ordered by USA President Donald Trump, with no congressional approval, as a direct response to the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack that occurred on 4 April.
Iraqi insurgency (2011–present) (2011.12.18 – ongoing [2014.10]; Iraq Crisis): has escalated since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011, resulting in violent conflict with the central government, as well as sectarian violence among Iraq's religious groups.
Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014): ISIL and aligned forces captured several cities and other territory, beginning with an attack on Samarra on 5 June followed by the seizure of Mosul on the night of 9 June and Tikrit on 11 June.
Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014): ongoing offensive military movement by the Sunni, Islamic extremist group ISIL/ISIS against Kurdish-held territory in northern Iraq. ISIL has proclaimed a caliphate—a government based on Islamic religious law—and has gained notoriety for its abduction (primarily of children) and executions (adults) of non-Muslims, which has led to a large exodus of the region's Yazidi and Christian population.
Islamic State of Iraq (ISI; 2006.10.15 – 2013.04.08): Sunni jihadist group that aimed to establish an Islamic state in Sunni Arab-majority areas of Iraq.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (2013.04.08–present [2014.10]; ISIL; Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS); Islamic State): Ideology and beliefs: ISIL is a Sunni extremist group; "The group circulates images of Wahhabi religious textbooks from Saudi Arabia in the schools it controls. Videos from the group’s territory have shown Wahhabi texts plastered on the sides of an official missionary van." Governance: Ar-Raqqah in Syria is the de facto capital of the ISIL/ISIS and is said to be a test case of ISIL governance; Exporting oil from oilfields captured by ISIL brings in tens of millions of dollars; Much of the oil is sold illegally in Turkey. Equipment: most common weapons used against US and other Coalition forces during the Iraq insurgency were those taken from Saddam Hussein's weapon stockpiles around the country, these included AKM variant assault rifles, PK machine guns and RPG-7s; weaponry that ISIL has reportedly captured and employed include SA-7 and Stinger surface-to-air missiles, M79 Osa, HJ-8 and AT-4 Spigot anti-tank weapons, Type 59 field guns and M198 howitzers, Humvees, T-54/55, T-72, and M1 Abrams main battle tanks, M1117 armoured cars, truck-mounted DShK guns, ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers and at least one Scud missile; When ISIL captured Mosul Airport in 2014.06, it seized a number of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and cargo planes that were stationed there.
Dabiq (magazine): title of the monthly online magazine used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS/IS) for propaganda and recruitment. It was first published in July 2014 in a number of different languages including English.
Oil production and smuggling in ISIL: was the largest source of revenue for the finances of ISIL in Syria and Iraq until the complete loss of its territory in 2019. Most oil extracted was distributed for use within the Islamic State, but some was also smuggled to surrounding states at below market price. Oil products, e.g. petrol and mazout, were the backbone of the economy of ISIL-controlled areas, with mazout being the preferred power source for small-scale electricity generators. Not all energy production was provided by oil, and some electric power supply was continued to Syrian government-held areas. ISIL made its money at the pump where it sold its products to usually independent traders from Syria and Iraq. In addition, ISIL taxed oil in the distribution system. It had been estimated that there was a fleet of about 1,000 delivery trucks. Oil was brought to local refineries to produce petrol and mazout. Oil smuggling to areas outside of Syria was profitable bringing contraband to Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Iran. A network to smuggle oil had been in place since at least the 1990s when Saddam Hussein evaded sanctions and smuggled oil out of Iraq. In 2016 WikiLeaks published more than 57,000 emails from 2010 to 2016 reportedly obtained by the hacktivist group Redhack that linked ISIL with Turkey's Minister of Oil Berat Albayrak, Tayyip Erdogan's son-in-law, by allegedly "proving his connection to ISIS operation smuggling oil into Turkey," even years after Turkey banned most oil imports from ISIL. Oil could be trucked to Turkey, refined there and be used in Turkey or transported to tankers at the ports of Ceyhan or Dortyol. Oil could also be sold to middlemen in northern Iraq who then would mix it with legitimate oil that enter through one of many feeders the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. Sami Khalaf, an oil smuggler and former Iraqi intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein, said that: "We buy an oil tanker carrying around 26 to 28 tonnes [of oil] for $4,200. We sell it in Jordan for $15,000. Each smuggler takes around eight tankers a week." Also, he added: "smugglers typically paid corrupt border officials $650 to pass through each checkpoint." In 2017.01, US officials indicated that revenues from oil and gas sold to President Bashar al-Assad's government had become the main revenue for ISIL.
2014 military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (2014.06.16 – present [2014.10]): Other interventions across the conflict zone: Iraqi Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan have de facto governments autonomous from the national government with their own armies while in Iran and Turkey the Kurds maintain rebel armies. These various Kurdish forces have been crossing into Syria and Iraq to fight ISIL with local Kurds.
Siege of Kobanî (2014.09.13–2015.03.15): was launched by ISIL militants in order to capture the Kobanî Canton and its main city of Kobanî (also known as Kobanê or Ayn al-Arab) in northern Syria, in the de facto autonomous region of Rojava. 2015.01.26 the YPG and its allies, along with the continued US-led airstrikes, began to retake the city, driving ISIL into a steady retreat. The city of Kobanê was fully recaptured on 27 January; however, most of the remaining villages in the Kobanî Canton remained under ISIL control.
Yazidis: Kurdish ethno-religious community whose syncretic but ancient religion Yazidism (a kind of Yazdânism) is linked to Zoroastrianism and ancient Mesopotamian religions; live primarily in the Nineveh Province of Iraqi Kurdistan. Additional communities in Armenia, Georgia and Syria have been in decline since the 1990s as a result of significant migration to Europe, especially to Germany.
Persecution of Yazidis by ISIL: genocidal persecution of the Yazidi people of Iraq, leading to their exile, abduction of their women and massacres, during what has been called a "forced conversion campaign" being carried out in Northern Iraq by the militant organization ISIL/ISIS.
Central Asia: stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north, including the former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It is also colloquially referred to as "the stans" as the countries all have names ending with the Persian suffix "-stan", meaning "land of". {q.v. #Afghanistan}
Ethno-Linguistic groups of central Asia: Kazkakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.Definitions of "Central Asia".
Eurasian Steppe: vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome; stretches from Moldavia through Ukraine to Siberia, with one major exclave located mostly in Hungary, the Puszta. The steppe has connected Europe, Central Asia, China, South Asia, and the Middle East economically, politically, and culturally through overland trade routes, most notably the Silk Road during antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the Eurasian Land Bridge in the modern era; has been home to nomadic empires and many large tribal confederations and ancient states throughout history: Xiongnu, Scythia, Cimmeria, Sarmatia, Hunnic Empire, Chorasmia, Transoxiana, Sogdiana, Xianbei and Göktürk Khaganate.
Map outlining migratory paths of Austronesian speaking populations, including estimated dates. Adapted from Benton et al., (2012)
Polynesian navigation: used for thousands of years to make long voyages across thousands of kilometres of the open Pacific Ocean. Navigators travelled to small inhabited islands using wayfinding techniques and knowledge passed by oral tradition from master to apprentice, often in the form of song. Generally, each island maintained a guild of navigators who had very high status; in times of famine or difficulty, they could trade for aid or evacuate people to neighbouring islands. Polynesian navigation used some navigational instruments, which predate and are distinct from the machined metal tools used by European navigators (such as the sextant, first produced in 1730; the sea astrolabe, from around late 15th century; and the marine chronometer, invented in 1761). However, they also relied heavily on close observation of sea sign and a large body of knowledge from oral tradition. Both wayfinding techniques and outrigger canoe construction methods have been kept as guild secrets, but in the modern revival of these skills, they are being recorded and published. Between about 3000 and 1000 BC speakers of Austronesian languages spread through the islands of Southeast Asia – most likely starting out from Taiwan, as tribes whose natives were thought to have previously arrived from mainland South China about 8000 years ago – into the edges of western Micronesia and on into Melanesia. Canoes and navigation. Navigational devices. Navigational techniques: constant observation and memorization; Bird observation; Navigation by the stars; Swell. Routes: Subantarctic and Antarctica
History of Madagascar: distinguished clearly by the early isolation of the landmass from the ancient supercontinent containing Africa and India, and by the island's late colonization by human settlers arriving in outrigger canoes from the Sunda islands (Malay Archipelago) between 200 BC and 500 AD. These two factors facilitated the evolution and survival of thousands of endemic plant and animal species, some of which have gone extinct or are currently threatened with extinction due to the pressures of a growing human population. Centuries of intermarriages created the Malagasy people, who primarily speak Malagasy, an Austronesian language with Bantu, Malay, Arabic, French and English influences. Most of the genetic makeup of the average Malagasy, however, reflects an almost equal blend of Austronesian and Bantu, especially in coastal regions.
Hawaii: Hawaii has the highest percentage of Asian Americans and multiracial Americans and the lowest percentage of White Americans of any state. It is the only state where people who identify as Asian Americans are the largest ethnic group. In 2012, 14.5% of the resident population under age 1 was non-Hispanic white. Hawaii's Asian population consists mainly of 198,000 (14.6%) Filipino Americans, 185,000 (13.6%) Japanese Americans, roughly 55,000 (4.0%) Chinese Americans, and 24,000 (1.8%) Korean Americans. There are more than 80,000 Indigenous Hawaiians—5.9% of the population. Including those with partial ancestry, Samoan Americans constitute 2.8% of Hawaii's population, and Tongan Americans constitute 0.6%.
History of Hawaii: describes the era of human settlements in the Hawaiian Islands. The islands were first settled by Polynesians sometime between 124 and 1120 AD. Hawaiian civilization was isolated from the rest of the world for at least 500 years. The native population succumbed to disease brought by the Europeans (particularly smallpox), declining from 300,000 in the 1770s to over 60,000 in the 1850s to 24,000 in 1920.
Ancient Hawaii: period of Hawaiian human history preceding the unification in 1810 of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi by Kamehameha the Great. Traditionally researchers estimated the first settlement of the Hawaiian islands as having occurred sporadically between 300 and 800 CE by Polynesian long-distance navigators from the Samoan Islands and the Marquesas Islands, Tuamotus, and the Society Islands (including Tahiti) within what is now French Polynesia. In 2010, a study was published based on radiocarbon dating of more reliable samples which suggests that the islands were settled much later, within a short timeframe, in about 1219 to 1266.
Hawaiian Kingdom (1795–1893): sovereign state located on the Hawaii Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island of Hawaiʻi, conquered the independent islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi and unified them under one government. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined the Hawaiian Kingdom voluntarily. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.
Paulet affair: unofficial five-month occupation of the Hawaiian Islands in 1843 by British naval officer Captain Lord George Paulet, of HMS Carysfort. It was ended by the arrival of American warships sent to defend Hawaii's independence. The British government in London had not authorized the move and it had no official status.
1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom: legal document prepared by anti-monarchists to strip the Hawaiian monarchy of much of its authority, initiating a transfer of power to American, European and native Hawaiian elites. It became known as the Bayonet Constitution for the use of intimidation by the armed militia which forced King Kalākaua to sign it or be deposed.
Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom (1893.01.17): coup d'état against Queen Liliʻuokalani on the island of Oahu by foreign residents residing in Honolulu, and the unlawful invasion of the Kingdom of Hawaii by U.S. Marines. While some insurgents were subjects of the Hawaiian Kingdom, a majority were foreigners. They prevailed upon American minister John L. Stevens to call in the U.S. Marines to protect USA National Interest.
Provisional Government of Hawaii: proclaimed after the coup d'état in 1893.01.17, by the 13-member Committee of Safety under the leadership of its chairman Henry E. Cooper and former judge Sanford B. Dole as the designated President of Hawaii. It replaced the Kingdom of Hawaii after the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani as a provisional government until the Republic of Hawaii was established in 1894.07.04.
Ceded lands: USA Congress annexed Hawaiʻi based on a Joint Resolution of Annexation (Joint Resolution). Questions about the legitimacy of the U.S. acquiring Hawaii through a joint resolution, rather than a treaty, were actively debated in Congress in 1898, and is the subject of ongoing debate. Upon annexation, the Republic of Hawai‘i transferred approximately 1.8 million acres of Hawaiian Government and Crown Lands to the United States (U.S.), which are today held by the State of Hawaiʻi. In the 1993 Apology Resolution, the U.S. government officially apologized to the Native Hawaiian people, acknowledging that the Republic of Hawaiʻi transferred these lands "without the consent of or any compensation to the Native Hawaiian people of Hawaiʻi or their sovereign government" and that "the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims . . . over their national lands to the United States."
History: First European contact: In 1778, British explorer James Cook made Europe's initial, recorded first contact with Hawaiʻi, beginning a new phase in the development of Hawaiian. During the next forty years, the sounds of Spanish (1789), Russian (1804), French (1816), and German (1816) arrived in Hawaiʻi via other explorers and businessmen. Hawaiian began to be written for the first time, largely restricted to isolated names and words, and word lists collected by explorers and travelers. Written Hawaiian: In 1820, Protestant missionaries from New England arrived in Hawaiʻi, and in a few years converted the chiefs to Congregational Protestantism, who in turn converted their subjects. To the missionaries, the thorough Christianization of the kingdom necessitated a complete translation of the Bible to Hawaiian, a previously unwritten language, and therefore the creation of a standard spelling that should be as easy to master as possible. The orthography created by the missionaries was so straightforward that literacy spread very quickly among the adult population; at the same time, the Mission set more and more schools for children. In 1834, the first Hawaiian-language newspapers were published by missionaries working with locals. The missionaries also played a significant role in publishing a vocabulary (1836) grammar (1854) and dictionary (1865) of Hawaiian. The Hawaiian Bible was fully completed in 1839; by then, the Mission had such a wide-reaching school network that, when in 1840 it handed it over to the Hawaiian government, the Hawaiian Legislature mandated compulsory state-funded education for all children under 14 years of age, including girls, twelve years before any similar compulsory education law was enacted for the first time in any of the United States. Literacy in Hawaiian was so widespread that in 1842 a law mandated that people born after 1819 had to be literate to be allowed to marry. In his Report to the Legislature for the year 1853 Richard Armstrong, the minister of Public Instruction, bragged that 75% of the adult population could read. Use of the language among the general population might have peaked around 1881. Even so, some people worried, as early as 1854, that the language was "soon destined to extinction."
Liliʻuokalani (1838.09.02–1917.11.11): only queen regnant and the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, ruling from 1891.01.29, until the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893.01.17.
Classification of indigenous peoples of North America according to Alfred Kroeber.
Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast: composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and practices, such as the centrality of salmon as a resource and spiritual symbol, and many cultivation and subsistence practices. The term Northwest Coast or North West Coast is used in anthropology to refer to the groups of Indigenous people residing along the coast of what is now called British Columbia, Washington State, parts of Alaska, Oregon, and Northern California.
Potlatch: gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and USA, among whom it is traditionally the primary governmental institution, legislative body, and economic system. This includes the Heiltsuk, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures. Potlatches are also a common feature of the peoples of the Interior and of the Subarctic adjoining the Northwest Coast, although mostly without the elaborate ritual and gift-giving economy of the coastal peoples From 1885 to 1951, the Government of Canada criminalized potlatches. However, the practice persisted underground despite the risk of government reprisals including mandatory jail sentences of at least two months; the practice has also been studied by many anthropologists. Since the practice was decriminalized in 1951, the potlatch has re-emerged in some communities. In many it is still the bedrock of Indigenous governance, as in the Haida Nation, which has rooted its democracy in potlatch law.
Map of the Arctic region showing shipping routes Northeast Passage, Northern Sea Route, and Northwest Passage, and bathymetry.
Northwest Passage (NWP): sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Until 2009, the Arctic pack ice prevented regular marine shipping throughout most of the year. Arctic sea ice decline, linked primarily to climate change, has rendered the waterways more navigable for ice navigation. The contested sovereignty claims over the waters may complicate future shipping through the region: the Canadian government maintains that the Northwestern Passages are part of Canadian Internal Waters, but the United States and various European countries claim that they are an international strait and transit passage, allowing free and unencumbered passage. If, as has been claimed, parts of the eastern end of the Passage are barely 15 metres (49 ft) deep, the route's viability as a Euro-Asian shipping route is reduced.
Northeast Passage (NEP): shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Russia. The NEP traverses (from west to east) the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, and Chukchi Sea, and it includes the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The Northern Sea Route is a portion of the NEP.
Northern Sea Route (Се́верный морско́й путь, shortened to Севморпуть): shipping route officially defined by Russian legislation as lying east of Novaya Zemlya and specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from the Kara Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait. The entire route lies in Arctic waters and within Russia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Parts are free of ice for only two months per year. The overall route on Russia's side of the Arctic between North Cape and the Bering Strait has been called the Northeast Passage, analogous to the Northwest Passage on the Canada side.
Afghanistan: The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and often fought. It has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire.
Geneva Accords (1988) (1988.04.14): between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with USA and USSR serving as guarantors.
Abdullah Abdullah (1960.09.05-): Afghan politician who leads the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), which is expected to lead the intra-Afghan peace talks with the Taliban. He served as Chief Executive Officer of the Unity Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from September 2014 until March 2020. From 2001.10 to 2005.04, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Prior to that he was a senior member of the Northern Alliance working as an adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud. He also worked as a medical doctor (ophthalmologist) during the late 1990s.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Partially recognized state (1996–2001); Government in exile waging an insurgency (2001–2021); Unrecognized state (2021–present)): Islamic state that was first established in September 1996, when the Taliban began their governance of Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul.
Although no government has recognized the re-established Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as of 18 August 2021, the governments of China, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia have stated that they may recognise a Taliban government. The United Kingdom and Canada have stated that they will not recognize Taliban rule over Afghanistan.
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021): Islamic republic that existed in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2021 during the War in Afghanistan. It was established in 2004 after the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan mostly captured the country from the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. It lost control of the majority of the country to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan 2021.08.15. Despite the loss of most of its territory, it continues to be internationally recognized, and claims to be the sole legitimate state of Afghanistan.
Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (2002–2004): name of a temporary administration of Afghanistan put in place by the loya jirga of June 2002. It succeeded the original Islamic State of Afghanistan and preceded the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021).
Islamic State of Afghanistan (1992–2002; 1996–2001: Government-in-exile): established by the Peshawar Accords 1992.04.26 by many, but not all, Afghan mujahideen parties, after the fall of the communist government. Its power was limited due to civil war. From 1996, it became a government in exile when the Taliban took power of Kabul and established the mostly unrecognized Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Islamic State was in control of the country again after the Taliban government was overthrown by the United States in 2001 after an invasion. In 2002 it was succeeded by the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan.
Republic of Afghanistan (Daoud Republic; 1973–1978): first republic of Afghanistan; established after Mohammed Daoud Khan deposed his cousin, King Mohammad Zahir Shah, in a coup d'état. Daoud was known for his autocracy and attempts to modernize the country with help from both USSR and USA, among others. In 1978, a military coup known as the Saur Revolution took place, instigated by the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, in which Daoud and his family were killed.
Emirate of Afghanistan (1823–1839; 1842–1926): emirate between Central Asia and South Asia that is now today's Afghanistan and some parts of Pakistan (before 1893). The emirate emerged from the Durrani Empire, when Dost Mohammed Khan, the founder of the Barakzai dynasty in Kabul, prevailed. The history of the Emirate was dominated by 'the Great Game' between the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom for supremacy in Central Asia. This period was characterized by the European influence in Afghanistan. The Emirate of Afghanistan continued the Durrani Empire's war with the Sikh Empire, losing control of the former Afghan stronghold of the Valley of Peshawar at the Battle of Nowshera on 14 March 1823. This was followed in 1839 by the First Anglo-Afghan War with British forces. The war eventually resulted in victory for Afghans, with the British withdrawal and Dost Mohammad being reinstalled to the throne. However, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1880), the British defeated the Afghans, and this time the British conquered many Afghan territories within modern-day Pakistan and took control of Afghanistan's foreign affairs until Emir Amanullah Khan regained them after the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 was signed following the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
Djab wurrung: people are Aboriginal Australians whose country is the volcanic plains of central Victoria from the Mount William Range of Gariwerd in the west to the Pyrenees range in the east encompassing the Wimmera River flowing north and the headwaters of the Hopkins River flowing south. The towns of Ararat, Stawell and Hamilton are within their territory. The Djab Wurrung Heritage Protection Embassy is located on a proposed highway duplication on the Western Highway south of Ararat. There were 41 Djab wurrung clans who formed an alliance with the neighbouring Jardwadjali people through intermarriage, shared culture, trade and moiety system before colonisation. Their lands were conquered but never ceded.
Immigration detention in Australia: policy and practice of the Australian Government of detaining in Australian immigration detention facilities non-citizens not holding a valid visa, suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorised arrival, and those subject to deportation and removal in immigration detention until a decision is made by the immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to repatriate them to their country of departure. Persons in immigration detention may at any time opt to voluntarily leave Australia for their country of origin, or they may be deported or given a bridging or temporary visa. In 1992, Australia adopted a mandatory detention policy obliging the Australian Government to detain all persons entering or being in the country without a valid visa, while their claim to remain in Australia is processed and security and health checks undertaken.
Operation Sovereign Borders: border protection operation led by the Australian Defence Force and headed by Major General Andrew Bottrell, aimed at stopping maritime arrivals of asylum seekers to Australia. The operation is the outcome of an election policy of the Coalition, which commenced in 2013.09.18 after the election of the Abbott Government at the 2013 federal election. The operation is an attempt to address issues surrounding people smuggling into Australia, by implementing a tough 'zero tolerance' posture towards illegal boat arrivals in Australia.
July Revolt of 1927: major riot starting on 1927.07.15 in the Austrian capital Vienna. It culminated in the firing by police forces into the outraged crowd, killing 84 protesters, while five policemen died. More than 600 people were injured.
Austrian Civil War (1934.02.12–1934.02.16): skirmishes between socialist and conservative-fascist forces
Heimwehr (Heimatschutz): nationalist, initially paramilitary group operating within Austria during the 1920s and 1930s; they were similar in methods, organisation, and ideology to Germany's Freikorps. Although opposed to parliamentary democracy, the Heimwehr maintained a political wing known as the Heimatblock, which cooperated with Engelbert Dollfuss' conservative government.
Federal State of Austria (Bundesstaat Österreich, colloquially known as the Ständestaat, "Corporate State"; 1934–1938): continuation of the First Austrian Republic when it was a one-party state led by the clerical fascist Fatherland Front. The result was an authoritarian government based on a mix of Italian Fascist and conservative Catholic influences.
Fatherland Front (Austria) (Vaterländische Front, VF): right-wing to far-right nationalist and corporatist ruling political organisation of the Federal State of Austria. It claimed to be a nonpartisan movement, and aimed to unite all the people of Austria, overcoming political and social divisions. Established on 1933.05.20 by Christian Social Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss as the only legally permitted party in the country, it was organised along the lines of Italian Fascism, except that the Fatherland Front was fully aligned with the Catholic Church and did not advocate any racial ideology, as later Italian Fascism did. It advocated Austrian nationalism and independence from Germany on the basis of protecting Austria's Catholic religious identity from what they considered a Protestant-dominated German state. History: Creation, Corporate state, Anschluss.
Austria under National Socialism (1938.03.12 - end of WWII in 1945): Austrians were generally enthusiastic supporters of union with Nazi Germany. Throughout WWII, 950,000 Austrians fought for Nazi Germany's armed forces. Other Austrians participated in the Nazi administration, from death camp personnel to senior Nazi leadership; the majority of the bureaucrats who implemented the Final Solution were Austrian. After World War II, many Austrians sought comfort in the idea of Austria as being the first victim of the Nazis. Although the Nazi party was promptly banned, Austria did not have the same thorough process of denazification that was imposed on Germany. Lacking outside pressure for political reform, factions of Austrian society tried for a long time to advance the view that the Anschluss was only an imposition of rule by Nazi Germany.
Journal of Baltic Studies: official quarterly journal of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS), peer-reviewed multidisciplinary academic journal founded in 1970, dedicated to the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the Baltic region and its history.
Sudovian language (Yotvingian, Yatvingian, or Jatvingian): extinct western Baltic language of Northeastern Europe. Closely related to the Old Prussian language, it was formerly spoken southwest of the Nemunas river in what is now Lithuania, east of Galindia and north of Yotvingia, and by exiles in East Prussia. Sudovia and neighboring Galindia were two Baltic tribes or nations mentioned by the Greek geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD as Galindai and Soudinoi, (Γαλίνδαι, Σουδινοί). Although Sudovian and Yotvingian were separate dialects of the same language, Sudovian and Yotvingian merged as a common dialect in the 10th century when the two nations created a Federation together with the Dainavians (Dainowe, Deynowe, Denowe, i.e. of Dainava). Chronicon terrae Prussiae - Sudovites. In Belarus, a young man named Vyacheslav Zinov, an amateur collector, bought a book of Catholic prayers from an old man from Novy Dvor village in the depths of Białowieża Forest, which held a small manuscript titled Pogańskie gwary z Narewu ("Pagan Speeches of Narew"). It was written partly in Polish, and partly in an unknown, "pagan" language. Unfortunately, Zinov's parents threw away the book. However, before the manuscript was destroyed, Zinov had made notes of it which he sent to Vilnius University in 1983. Even though Zinov's notes were riddled with errors, it has been proven beyond doubt that the notes are indeed a copy of an authentic Yotvingian text.
Galindians: two distinct, and now extinct, tribes of the Balts. Most commonly, Galindians refers to the Western Galindians who lived in the southeast part of Prussia. Less commonly, it is used for a tribe that lived in the area of what is today Moscow.
Occupation of the Baltic states: Russia started to withdraw its troops from the Baltics (starting from Lithuania) in August 1993. The full withdrawal of troops deployed by Moscow was completed in August 1994. Russia officially ended its military presence in the Baltics in August 1998 by decommissioning the Skrunda-1 radar station in Latvia; last Russian soldier leaving Baltic soil in October 1999. Different historiographies:
The Baltic states, USA and its courts of law, the European Parliament, the European Court of Human Rights and UN Human Rights Council: the Baltic states were invaded, occupied and illegally incorporated into USSR under provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, first by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944, and again by the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1991
Russian historiography and school textbooks continue to maintain that the Baltic states voluntarily joined USSR after their peoples all carried out socialist revolutions independent of Soviet influence
Background of the occupation of the Baltic states: covers the period before the first Soviet occupation in 1940.06.14, stretching from independence in 1918 to the Soviet ultimatums in 1939–1940. The Baltic states gained their independence during and after the Russian revolutions of 1917; Lenin's government allowed them to secede. They managed to sign non-aggression treaties in the 1920s and 1930s.
Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940): covers the period from the Soviet–Baltic mutual assistance pacts in 1939, to their invasion and annexation in 1940, to the mass deportations of 1941
June deportation (1941.05.22-06.20): from Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova were deported. Men went to GULAGs, women and children to "inhospitable areas" of USSR. Smaller scale than "Priboi".
Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1944): USSR reoccupied most of the territory of the Baltic states in its 1944 Baltic Offensive during WWII (except for the Courland Pocket). Stalin talked about "liberation" of Ukraine, Belarus, Leningrad and Kalinin, Crimea, LT, LV, EE, Moldavia and Karelo-Finnish Republic. USA and Britain signed the Baltic states and Eastern Europe to Stalin in order to keep Soviet support to finish WWII in Europe and East Asia.
Forest Brothers (1940-1941: 1st Soviet occupation; 1944-1956: 2nd Soviet occupation): Finnland (Continuation War, supporting Karelians and Estonians) and Baltics. MI6's Operation Jungle got compromised (Cambridge Five working for USSR) and this compromised activities of huger partizan/guerilla organizations in the Baltics.
Lithuanian partisans (see also Lithuanian partisans (1941); Lietuvos partizanai; 1944–1953): partisans who waged a guerrilla warfare in Lithuania against the Soviet Union in 1944–1953. Similar anti-Soviet resistance groups, also known as Forest Brothers and cursed soldiers, fought against Soviet rule in Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Galicia. It is estimated that a total of 30,000 Lithuanian partisans and their supporters were killed. Lithuanian partisan war lasted almost for a decade, thus being one of the longest partisan war in Europe. At the end of World War II, the Red Army pushed the Eastern Front towards Lithuania. The Soviets invaded and occupied Lithuania by the end of 1944. As forced conscription into Red Army and Stalinist repressions intensified, thousands of Lithuanians used forests in the countryside as a natural refuge. These spontaneous groups became more organized and centralized culminating in the establishment of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters in February 1948. In their documents, the partisans emphasized that their ultimate goal is recreation of independent Lithuania. As the partisan war continued, it became clear that the West would not interfere in Eastern Europe (see Western betrayal) and that the partisans had no chance of success against the far stronger opponent. Eventually, the partisans made an explicit and conscious decision not to accept any new members. The leadership of the partisans was destroyed in 1953 thus effectively ending the partisan war, though individual fighters held out until the 1960s.
Swedish extradition of Baltic soldiers: controversial political event in Sweden that took place in 1945-1946, when Sweden extradited some 150 Latvian and Estonian former soldiers who had been drafted by Nazi Germany against the USSR in WWII.
Operation Priboi (March deportation, 1949.03.25-28): ~90,000 Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians deported to inhospitable areas of USSR. All numbers and stats are available unlike for 1941... Families were NOT separated.
Sovietization of the Baltic states: The last large-scale operation ("mass deportation") was planned for the night of 27–28 June 1941. It was postponed until after the war when the Germans invaded the USSR on June 22, 1941 - Operation Barbarossa. Between July and August 1940, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian envoys to the United States and the United Kingdom made official protests against Soviet occupation and annexation of their countries.
Territorial changes of the Baltic states: redrawing of borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after 1940. Estonia and Latvia have Russia as neighbor and border disputes; Lithuania ratified with all it's neighbors the borders (esp. Poland and Belarus).
Map of territorial changes of the Baltic states in 1939-1945.
Russians in the Baltic states: mainly in big cities: @LT (Vilnius - 12%, Klaipėda - 19%, Visaginas) - 4.9% ethnic RU; @LV (Riga - ~50%, Daugavpils - majority (>50%)) - 27.6% ethnic RU; @EE (Tallinn - 38.5% {46.7% spoke RU as mother tongue}, Tartu - 16%, Narva - 82%, Sillamäe - 82%, Kohtla-Järve - 70%) - 24% ethnic RU (proportion of Russophones is higher, because Russian is the mother tongue of many ethnic Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews who live in the country). In 2017, there were 0.9 million ethnic Russians in the Baltic States, having declined from 1.7 million in 1989, the year of the last census during the Soviet era.
Russians in Lithuania (2011: 177k): First early settlements of Ruthenians in what is now Lithuania date back to late medieval ages when the first proto-Russian merchants and craftsmen began to permanently reside in several Lithuanian towns. In the late 17th century they were joined by many Russian Old Believers who settled in eastern Lithuania, escaping religious persecution in Russia. The second, larger, influx of Russians followed the annexation of Lithuania by the Russian Empire during the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. Immediately after the war, Joseph Stalin carried out a major resettlement campaign in the three Baltic Soviet republics. After Stalin's death in 1953, the government of the Lithuanian SSR, led by the "communist nationalist" Antanas Sniečkus, objected to the resettlement policies and managed to slow down the influx of Russians by letting Lithuanians fill some of the higher party positions. The flow of immigrants did not stop entirely, and there were further waves of Russian workers who came to work on major construction projects, such as power plants.
Non-citizens (Latvia) (nepilsoņi): in Latvian law are individuals who are not citizens of Latvia or any other country but, who, in accordance with the Latvian law "Regarding the status of citizens of the former USSR who possess neither Latvian nor other citizenship", have the right to a non-citizen passport issued by the Latvian government as well as other specific rights. Approximately two thirds of them are ethnic Russians, followed by ethnic Belarusians, ethnic Ukrainians, ethnic Poles and ethnic Lithuanians. Non-citizens cannot vote, although they can participate to a lesser degree in public policy through NGOs. Pension rights are limited, and non-citizens cannot hold certain positions in local and national government, the civil service, and other governmental entities. Non-citizens are exempt from military service, which was compulsory for male Latvian citizens until 2006.
Andrejeva v. Latvia: proceedings and discrimination in calculating retirement pensions for non-citizens of Latvia.
Russian School Defense Staff (Headquarters for the Protection of Russian Schools, RU: Штаб защиты русских школ): As a result, the Education law was amended in February 2004, allowing to teach up to 40% in the forms 10-12 in minority languages. The proportion of teaching 60% of subjects in Latvian and 40% in Russian, according to BISS research, was supported by 20% of the teachers, 15% of pupils and 13% of parents in minority schools and most stated that they would rather support bilingual instruction in all subjects; only 15% of teachers thought that no reform was needed, while this opinion was expressed by 36% of parents and 44% of pupils.
Singing Revolution: commonly used name for events between 1987 and 1991 that led to the restoration of the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Baltic Way (1989.08.23): peaceful political demonstration. ~2 mln. people joined their hands to form a human chain spanning 675.5 km. Marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between USSR and Nazi Germany. In 1989.08.08, Estonians attempted to amend election laws to limit voting rights of new immigrants (mostly Russian workers). This provoked mass strikes and protests of Russian workers. Moscow gained an opportunity to present the events as an "inter-ethnic conflict" – it could then position itself as "peacemaker" restoring order in a troubled republic. At the same time fears grew of violent clampdown. Erich Honecker from East Germany and Nicolae Ceauşescu from Romania offered USSR military assistance in case it decided to use force and break up the demonstration.
January Events (Lithuania) (1991.01.11-13): the aftermath of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. As a result of Soviet military actions, 13 civilians were killed and around 700 injured. The events were centered in its capital, Vilnius, along with related actions in its suburbs and in the cities of Alytus, Šiauliai, Varėna, and Kaunas.
lt:Sausio įvykiai (1991 m.): kurių metu Lietuvoje buvo mėginta įvykdyti valstybės perversmą panaudojant SSRS ginkluotąsias pajėgas, Vidaus reikalų ministerijos vidaus kariuomenę ir SSRS Valstybės saugumo komitetą (KGB), siekiant atkurti SSKP politinę valdžią Lietuvos Respublikoje.
ru:Штейнфельд, Ханс-Вильхельм (Hans-Wilhelm Steinfeld; 1951.03.29-): Norwegian journalist, foreign correspondent and non-fiction writer. He has worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) from 1976, and been a foreign correspondent for NRK in Moscow for four periods. В 1988—1994 годах Штейнфельд опять работает в Москве, особенно известными становятся его интервью с Ельциным во время августовского путча и репортажи о событиях января 1991 года в Литве, непосредственным свидетелем которых он являлся.
The Barricades (1991.01.13-27): series of confrontations between Latvia and forces loyal to USSR which took place mainly in Riga. After attacks by the Soviet OMON on Riga in early January, the government called on people to build barricades for protection of possible targets.
Soviet OMON assaults on Lithuanian border posts (1990.12-1991.08): the newly declared Republic of Lithuania began establishing the State Border Guard Service, which also became a symbol of its striving for independence. The USSR government viewed the customs posts as illegal and sent the OMON (Special Purpose Police Unit) troops against the posts, especially those along the eastern border with Belarus. Following the attacks Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Vagnorius officially complained to Boris Pugo, Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs in charge of OMON troops. Moscow denied responsibility for the attacks and claimed that the OMON troops acted without their approval.
Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Baltic states-related articles: Should the period of Soviet rule over the Baltic states from 1940-90 be reflected in the use of Soviet Union to describe places in the Soviet Union/Baltic states during that time, or should Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania be used?176.1.212.131 (talk) 07:00, 19 February 2013 (UTC):
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Soviet Union/USSR
No Consensus
Pope Francis's visit to the Baltic states (2018.09.22-25): Pope called for unity between Catholics, Lutherans, and followers of Eastern Orthodox in the country; also visited the Divine Mercy Shrine. Pope honored the Jews who suffered oppression during the Nazi occupation between 1941 and 1944. Commemorating the Lithuanian Holocaust Memorial Day, the Pope condemned anti-Semitism which fueled Holocaust propaganda. He also paid tribute to Lithuanians who were deported to Siberian gulags or tortured and oppressed during five decades of Soviet occupation. He later returned to Vilnius to hold three-minutes of silent prayer at the Vilnius Ghetto's Holocaust memorial on the date which marked the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of Jews in the area and also laid flowers. He afterwards visited Vilnius' Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, a Museum containing items and papers detailing the long history of Soviet oppression in Lithuania and which once served as headquarters for the local branch of the now defunct Soviet KGB, where he also spoke in the outside square to praise Lithuanians who stood up for their faith and described the country as a potential "beacon of hope."
Rail Baltica: project to link Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland with a European standard gauge rail line, providing passenger and freight service between the countries and improving rail connections between Central and Northern Europe. The first phase, known as Rail Baltica I, extends from the Poland-Lithuania border to Kaunas; inaugurated on 2015.10.16. Construction of Rail Baltica II, the second phase connecting Kaunas, Riga, and Tallinn, is planned to start construction in 2019.
Livonia (Livonian: Līvõmō, Estonian: Liivimaa, Finnish: Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: Livland, archaic German: Liefland, Dutch: Lijfland, Latvian and Lithuanian: Livonija, Polish: Inflanty, archaic English: Livland, Liwlandia; Russian: Лифляндия): historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th c., the name was extended to most of present-day Estonia and Latvia that had been conquered during the Livonian Crusade (1193–1290) by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. Medieval Livonia, or Terra Mariana, reached its greatest extent after Saint George's Night Uprising that in 1346 forced Denmark to sell the Duchy of Estonia (northern Estonia conquered by Denmark in the 13th century) to the State of the Teutonic Order. Livonia, as understood after the retreat of Denmark in 1346, bordered on the Gulf of Finland in the north, Lake Peipus and Russia to the east, and Lithuania to the south.
Livonians (Livs; de:Liven: map): Balto-Finnic people indigenous to northern Latvia and southwestern Estonia. Livonians historically spoke Livonian, a Uralic language closely related to Estonian and Finnish. During the Livonian Crusade, once prosperous Livonia was devastated, and whole regions were almost completely depopulated. This vacuum was filled by Latvian tribes – Curonians, Semigallians, Latgallians and Selonians – who started to move into the area around 1220, and continued to do so for at least thirty years. They settled mostly in the Daugava Valley, so that the Livonians of Livonia in the east were cut off from those living on the peninsula of Curonia in the west.
Under foreign powers (1558–1795): Under the 17th Century Swedish Kings Gustav II Adolf and Charles XI, general elementary education was introduced, the Bible was translated in Estonian and Latvian, and a university was founded in Tartu in southern Estonia. Although Sweden kept the Poles and the Danes at a distance, this could not be said of the Russians. In the Great Northern War (1700–1721), Czar Peter the Great utterly destroyed Sweden's pretensions to being a regional superpower.
Assimilation and isolation (1795–1914): For one thing, the society of the Livonians living in this area was exclusively sea-oriented and based on fishing, while that of the Latvians in the interior was exclusively land-oriented and mostly agricultural. This meant there was not a lot of interaction between the two groups. Also, the Livonian Coast was separated from the interior of Curonia by dense forests and impassable marshlands, which made regular interaction even less likely. The people of the Livonian Coast had much closer ties to the inhabitants of the Estonian island of Saaremaa, across the Gulf of Riga to the north. In their isolated fishing villages, these Livonians kept to themselves for centuries. It was not until the 20th century that the outside world intruded on their quiet existence.
The Livonian revival of the interwar years: This cultural revival of the Interbellum years served to give the Livonian people for the first time a clear consciousness of their ethnic identity. Before, they had always referred to themselves as rāndalist ("coast dwellers") or kalāmīed ("fishermen"). From the 1920s and 1930s on, though, they began to call themselves līvõd, līvnikad, or līvlist ("Livonians").
WWII: The Curonian Peninsula was one of the areas where the Germans held out until the general capitulation of May 5, 1945, which meant there was not a house left standing when the Livonians returned home after the war.
USSR: Livonian culture was repressed during the Soviet period. For example, the Livonian Society was banned and the Livonian Community Centre expropriated and given to others. Within the Latvian SSR, the Livonians were not recognized as a separate ethnic group.
Livonian language: belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. It is a severely endangered language, with its last native speaker having died in 2013. Closely related to Estonian. The native land of the Livonian people is Livonia, located in Latvia, in the north of the Kurzeme peninsula.
Terra Mariana (Medieval Livonia or Old Livonia; Alt-Livland, Estonian: Vana-Liivimaa, Latvian: Livonija; 1207-1561): Livonian Crusade & establishment; Livonian civil wars & St. George's Night Uprising (Estonian uprising); part of State of the Teutonic Order, but after Battle of Grunwald: Livonian Confederation. → Courland and Semigallia + Livonia
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (Latin: Ducatus Curlandiæ et Semigalliæ; German: Herzogtum Kurland und Semgallen; Latvian: Kurzemes un Zemgales hercogiste; Lithuanian: Kuršo ir Žiemgalos kunigaikštystė; Polish: Księstwo Kurlandii i Semigalii; 1562-1795): duchy in the Baltic region, in what was then known as Livonia, a nominally vassal state of GDL and subsequently made part of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom from 1569 to 1726 and incorporated into PLC in 1726. 1795.03.28 it was annexed by the Russian Empire in the Third Partition of Poland.
Duchy of Livonia (Polish Livonia or Inflanty; 1561-1621): territory of GDL—and later PLC.
Swedish Livonia (1629–1721): Parts of Livonia and the city of Riga were under Swedish control as early as 1621 and the situation was formalized in Truce of Altmark 1629, but the whole territory was not ceded formally until the Treaty of Oliva in 1660. Riga was the second largest city in the Swedish Empire at the time. Together with other Baltic Sea dominions, Livonia served to secure the Swedish dominium maris baltici. The territory in turn was conquered by the Russian Empire during the Great Northern War and, following the Capitulation of Estonia and Livonia in 1710, formed the Governorate of Livonia. Formally, it was ceded to Russia in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, together with Swedish Estonia and Swedish Ingria.
Livonian War (1558–1583; Estonia to Sweden, Livonia, Courland and Semigallia to Union/PLC, Ösel (Saaremaa) to Denmark–Norway): fought for control of Old Livonia (in the territory of present-day Estonia and Latvia), when the Tsardom of Russia faced a varying coalition of Denmark–Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden, and the Union (later Commonwealth) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. During the period 1558–1578, Russia dominated the region with early military successes at Dorpat (Tartu) and Narva. Russian dissolution of the Livonian Confederation brought Poland–Lithuania into the conflict, while Sweden and Denmark both intervened between 1559 and 1561. Swedish Estonia was established despite constant invasion from Russia, and Frederick II of Denmark bought the old Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, which he placed under the control of his brother Magnus of Holstein. Magnus attempted to expand his Livonian holdings to establish the Russian vassal state Kingdom of Livonia, which nominally existed until his defection in 1576. In 1576, Stefan Batory became King of Poland as well as Grand Duke of Lithuania and turned the tide of the war with his successes between 1578 and 1581, including the joint Swedish–Polish–Lithuanian offensive at the Battle of Wenden. This was followed by an extended campaign through Russia culminating in the long and difficult siege of Pskov. Under the 1582 Truce of Jam Zapolski, which ended the war between Russia and Poland–Lithuania, Russia lost all its former holdings in Livonia and Polotsk to Poland–Lithuania. The following year, Sweden and Russia signed the Truce of Plussa with Sweden gaining most of Ingria and northern Livonia while retaining the Duchy of Estonia.
Map of Old Livonia: Part of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius, published in Antwerp between 1573 and 1598 (the information in the map is older). 22 x 24 cm, scale varies.
Inflanty Voivodeship (Województwo inflanckie, Polish Livonia; 1621–1772): administrative division and local government in PLC. The Inflanty Voivodeship was one of the few territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to be ruled jointly by Poland and Lithuania.
Baltic nobility: was the privileged social class in the territories of today's Estonia and Latvia. At first from Baltic Germans, but later Polish, Swedish, and Russian families also became part of the Baltic nobility.
Governorate of Estonia (1721-1917; Governorate of Est(h)onia): governorate of the Russian Empire in what is now northern Estonia. Russia gained from Sweden during the Great Northern War in 1721.
Prussian clans during the 13th century. Areas shaded in grey reached further south than shown on this map. Prussian clans of Galindians, Sudovians, Sasna and Lubavia as well as Kulmerland had become subjected to numerous incursions and conquests by recently arriving Slavs.Map of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights 1260.
Danish Estonia →& Terra Mariana → State of Teutonic Order → Duchy + Royal Prussia.
Chronicon terrae Prussiae ("The Chronicle of the Prussian Land"): chronicle of the Teutonic Knights, by Peter of Dusburg, finished in 1326. First major chronicle of the Teutonic Order in Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, completed some 100 years after the conquest of the crusaders into the Baltic region. It is a major source for information on the Order's battles with Old Prussians and Lithuanians. Peter takes no interest in domestic policy of the Order; he does not describe cities, trade, or colonization. Rather the chronicle describes minor raids and clashes with great detail. While narratives of events and battles are considered to be reliable, ethnographic data is ideologically charged. As a priest Peter tried to teach the reader. Pagan Prussians and Lithuanians are presented as a moral example. They are pious in their own way, and Christians should be ashamed of their disobedient and sinful ways.
Prussia (region): At first the Old Prussians, then Teutons/Germans, then "Lithuanians" and (Slavs?) came. After WWI, a small piece after uprising went to Lithuania. After WWII the large piece was divided between USSR and Poland, German-speaking (and minorities which were mainly bilingual in DE) were ousted.
Prussian Crusade: series of 13th-century campaigns of Roman Catholic crusaders, primarily led by the Teutonic Knights, to Christianize the pagan Old Prussians. Invited after earlier unsuccessful expeditions against the Prussians by Polish princes, the Teutonic Knights began campaigning against the Balts in 1230. By the end of the century, having quelled several Prussian Uprisings, the Knights had established control over Prussia and administered the Prussians through their monastic state.
Battle of Krücken (1249): fourth largest defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the 13th c.
Prussian uprisings: two major and three smaller uprisings by the Prussians against the Teutonic Knights that took place in the 13th c. during the Prussian Crusade. The Great Prussian Uprising (1260–1274);
Livonian Brothers of the Sword (1204-1237; +MAGISTRI ETFRM (et fratrum) MILICIE CRI (Christi) DE LIVONIA): Catholic military order established by Albert, the third bishop of Riga (or possibly by Theoderich von Treyden), in 1202. Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204 for the second time. The membership of the order comprised German "warrior monks" who fought Baltic and Finnic pagans in the area of modern-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In Terra Mariana: participated in Livonian Crusade. Following their defeat by the Samogitians and Semigallians in the Battle of Schaulen (Saule) in 1236, the surviving Brothers merged into the Teutonic Order as an autonomous branch and became known as the Livonian Order.
State of the Teutonic Order (Staat des Deutschen Ordens, Civitas Ordinis Theutonici; Ordensstaat; Deutschordensland or Ordensstaat; 1224-1525): medieval crusader state, located in Central Europe along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It was formed by the knights of the Teutonic Order during the 13th century Northern Crusades in the region of Prussia, and was disestablished in 1525. Livonian Brothers of the Sword controlling Terra Mariana were incorporated into the Teutonic Order as its autonomous branch Livonian Order in 1237. Following its defeat in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 the Teutonic Order fell into decline, the region of Samogitia was restored to Lithuania, and its Livonian branch joined the Livonian Confederation established in 1422–1435. The Teutonic held lands in Prussia and Pomerania were split in two after the Peace of Thorn in 1466. The western part, with the previously Polish regions of Chełmno Land and Gdańsk Pomerania, was integrated with the Kingdom of Poland as the province of Royal Prussia, the eastern part remained under Teutonic rule, as a fief, also considered an integral part of the Kingdom of Poland. The monastic state was secularized in 1525 during the Protestant Reformation as the Duchy of Prussia, a Polish fief governed by the House of Hohenzollern. The Livonian branch continued as part of the Livonian Confederation until its dissolution in 1561.
Thirteen Years' War (1454–66): fought between the Prussian Confederation, allied with the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and the State of the Teutonic Order.
Prussian Homage (Preußische Huldigung; hołd pruski): the formal investment of Albert of Prussia as duke of the Polish fief of Ducal Prussia. In the aftermath of the armistice ending the Polish-Teutonic War Albert, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and a member of the House of Hohenzollern, visited Martin Luther at Wittenberg and soon thereafter became sympathetic to Protestantism. 1525.04.10 two days after signing of the Treaty of Kraków which officially ended the Polish–Teutonic War (1519–21), in the main square of the Polish capital Kraków, Albert resigned his position as Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and received the title "Duke of Prussia" from King Zygmunt I the Old of Poland. In the deal, partially brokered by Luther, the Duchy of Prussia became the first Protestant state, anticipating the Peace of Augsburg of 1555. The investiture of a Protestant fief of Duchy of Prussia was better for Poland for strategic reasons than a Catholic fief of State of Teutonic Order in Prussia, formally subject to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Papacy.
Royal Prussia (Polish Prussia; Prusy Królewskie, Königlich-Preußen or Preußen Königlichen Anteils; 1466-1772)
Battle of Durbe (1260.07.13): medieval battle fought near Durbe, 23 km east of Liepāja, in present-day Latvia during the Livonian Crusade. Samogitians soundly defeated the joint forces of the Teutonic Knights from Prussia and Livonian Order from Livonia. Some 150 knights were killed, including Livonian Master Burchard von Hornhausen and Prussian Land Marshal Henrik Botel. The largest defeat of the knights in the 13th c. Battle inspired the Great Prussian Uprising (ended in 1274) and the rebellions of the Semigallians (surrendered in 1290), the Couronians (surrendered in 1267), and the Oeselians (surrendered in 1261).
Prussian estates (Preußischer Landtag, Stany pruskie): representative bodies of Prussia, first created by the Monastic state of Teutonic Prussia in the 14th c. (around the 1370s) but later becoming a devolved legislature for Royal Prussia within the Kingdom of Poland. They were at first composed of officials of six big cities of the region; Braunsberg (Braniewo), Culm (Chełmno), Elbing (Elbląg), Danzig (Gdańsk), Königsberg (Królewiec) and Thorn (Toruń). Later, representatives of other towns as well as nobility were also included. The estates met on average four times per year, and discussed issues such as commerce and foreign relations.
Era of Teutonic Prussia.
Era of Ducal and Royal Prussia within Poland and Poland–Lithuania: Under Polish sovereignty, Prussians, particularly those from Royal Prussia, saw their liberties confirmed and expanded; local cities prospered economically (Gdańsk become the largest and richest city in the Commonwealth), and local nobility participated in the benefits of Golden Liberty, such as the right to elect the king.
Era of the Kingdom of Prussia: With the power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth waning from the mid-17th century onwards, the Prussian Estates drifted under the influence of the Hohenzollern Electors of Brandenburg, who ruled Ducal Prussia in personal union with Brandenburg from 1618 (first the eastern Duchy of Prussia, sovereign after the Treaty of Wehlau in 1657 and upgraded to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701; then the western Royal Prussia, annexed to the former after the First Partition of Poland in 1772). Under the Hohenzollerns' absolutist rule the power of the Estates increasingly diminished.
Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) (Dreizehnjähriger Krieg; War of the Citie; 1454.02.04–1466.10.19): conflict fought between the Prussian Confederation, allied with the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and the State of the Teutonic Order. The war began as an uprising by Prussian cities and local nobility to win independence from the Teutonic Knights. In 1454 Casimir IV married Elisabeth of Habsburg and the Prussian Confederation asked Poland's King Casimir IV Jagiellon for help and offered to accept the king as protector instead of the Teutonic Order. When the King assented, war broke out between supporters of the Prussian Confederation, backed by Poland, and backers of government by the Teutonic Knights.
Prussian Lithuanians (Lietuvininkai): Lithuanians, originally Lithuanian language speakers, who formerly inhabited a territory in northeastern East Prussia called Prussian Lithuania, or Lithuania Minor (Lithuanian: Prūsų Lietuva, Mažoji Lietuva, German: Preußisch-Litauen, Kleinlitauen), instead of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, later, the Republic of Lithuania (Lithuania Major, or Lithuania proper). Prussian Lithuanians contributed greatly to the development of written Lithuanian, which for a long time was considerably more widespread and in more literary use in Lithuania Minor than in Lithuania proper. Unlike most Lithuanians, who remained Roman Catholic after the Protestant Reformation, most Lietuvininkai became Lutheran-Protestants (Evangelical-Lutheran). There were 121,345 speakers of Lithuanian in the Prussian census of 1890. Almost all Prussian Lithuanians fled or were expelled after WWII, when East Prussia was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union. The northern part became the Kaliningrad Oblast, while the southern part was attached to Poland. Only the small Klaipėda Region (German: Memelland) was attached to Lithuania. The term Preußische Litauer appeared in German texts of the 16th c. The term Kleinlitaw was first used by Simon Grunau between 1517 and 1527. Prussian Lithuanians used various names for themselves: Prussians (Lithuanian: Prūsai, German: Preusch), Prussian Lithuanians (Lithuanian: Pruſû Lietuwiai, Pruſû Lietuvininkai, Pruſißki Lietuvininkai, German: Preußische Litauer), or simply Lithuanians (Lithuanian: Lietuw(i)ni(n)kai, German: Litauer). Local self-designating terms found in literature, such as Sziszionißkiai ("people from here"), Burai (German: Bauern), were neither politonyms nor ethnonyms. Another similar term appeared in the Klaipėda Region (Memelland) during the interwar years – Memellanders (Lithuanian: Klaipėdiškiai, German: Memelländer). For Prussian Lithuanians loyalty to the German state, strong religious beliefs, and the mother tongue were the three main criteria of self-identification. Due to differences in religion and loyalties to a different state, the Prussian Lithuanians did not consider Lithuanians of the Grand Duchy to be part of their community. They used the exonym Samogitians (Lithuanian: Źemaicziai, German: Szameiten) to denote Lithuanians of Lithuania Major. Antagonism was frequent between the Lutheran Prussian Lithuanians and the Catholic Lithuanians of the Grand Duchy, despite the common language. For example, inhabitants of Lithuania did not trust Prussian Lithuanians in the Klaipėda Region and tended to eliminate them from posts in government institutions. When Prussian Lithuanian writer Ieva Simonaitytė (Ewa Simoneit) chose the side of the Lithuanian Republic, she was condemned by relatives, friends and neighbours. Only one Prussian Lithuanian, Dovas Zaunius, worked in the government of Lithuania[citation needed] between WWI and WWII. The antagonism persisted until the end of WWII. The area between the rivers Alle and Neman became almost uninhabited during the 13th-century Prussian Crusade and wars between the pagan GDL and the Teutonic Order. This uninhabited area was named the wilderness in chronicles. Local tribes were resettled, either voluntary or by force, in the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the 1422 Treaty of Melno, a stable border between the two states was established. Better living conditions in the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights attracted many Lithuanians and Samogitians to settle there. Masurians and Curonians began moving into Prussia around the same time. Although Lithuanians who settled in Prussia were mainly farmers, in the 16th century there was an influx of educated Protestant immigrants from Lithuania, such as Martynas Mažvydas, Abraomas Kulvietis and Stanislovas Rapolionis, who became among the first professors at Königsberg University, founded in 1544. Martynas Mažvydas was a zealous Protestant and urged citizens to stop all contact between Prussian Lithuanians and Lithuanians living in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in a bid to curtail Catholic influence in the country. From mid-18th c., a majority of Prussian Lithuanians were literate; in comparison, the process was much slower in GDL. The nationalistic Lithuanian national revival in the late 19th century was not popular with Prussian Lithuanians. To them integration with Lithuania was not understandable and not acceptable. The idea of Lithuanian–Latvian unity was more popular than idea of Lithuanian-Prussian Lithuanian unity during the Great Seimas of Vilnius, a conference held in 1905. There was no national Germanisation policy until 1870; Prussian Lithuanians voluntarily adopted German language and culture. After the Unification of Germany in 1871, when part of Lithuania became integrated with the new nation of Germany, learning the German language was made compulsory in state schools. Studying the German language provided the possibility for Prussian Lithuanians to become acquainted with Western European culture and values. However, Germanization also provoked a cultural movement among Prussian Lithuanians. In 1879 and 1896, petitions for the return of the Lithuanian language to schools was signed by 12,330 and 23,058 Prussian Lithuanians from the districts of Memel, Heydekrug, Tilsit and Ragnit. The Prussian Lithuanians could publish own newspapers and books, even helping Lithuanians in Russia to bypass their press ban by publishing their newspapers, such as Auszra and Varpas. Since the end of 18th and the beginning of 19th c., Prussian Lithuanians have typically been bilingual. The Prussian Lithuanian orthography was based on the German style, while in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania it was primarily based on the Polish style. Prussian Lithuanians used Gothic script. Lithuanians did not read Prussian Lithuanian publications and vice versa; the cultural communication was very limited. After 1905, modern Lithuanian orthography was standardized while Prussian Lithuanian orthography remained the same – German Gothic script, a noun was begun with a capital letter, the letters ſ, ß, ʒ were used, and the construction of sentences was different from Lithuanian.
Act of Tilsit: act, signed in Tilsit by 24 members of the National Council of Lithuania Minor (Lithuanian: Mažosios Lietuvos tautinė taryba) 1918.11.30. Signatories demanded unification of Lithuania Minor and Lithuania Proper into a single Lithuanian state. This would mean detaching the northern areas of East Prussia, inhabited by Prussian Lithuanians, from the German Empire. The part of East Prussia north of Neman River, the Memel Territory up to the city of Memel (Klaipėda), was detached by Polish efforts by the Treaty of Versailles and placed under the supervision of the League of Nations. The rest of East Prussia, located south of the Neman River, including the town of Tilsit, where the act was signed, remained within Germany. The Act was not signed by the main pro-Lithuanian oriented Prussian Lithuanian leaders Wilhelm Storost (Vydūnas) and Wilhelm Gaigalat. Eventually, the Act of Tilsit became an important propaganda tool during the staged Klaipėda Revolt of 1923, after which Memel Territory (Klaipėda Region) was annexed by Lithuania. In 1939.03, Lithuania was forced to cede Klaipėda Region to Nazi Germany. lt:Tilžės aktas: 1918.11 Vokietijos imperijai pralaimėjus WWI, žlugus Vokietijos monarchijai ir valdžią Berlyne perėmus kairiosioms jėgoms, visoje Vokietijoje, įskaitant ir Rytų Prūsiją, prasidėjo politinė suirutė. Tuo metu Lietuvos valstybėje jau veikė laikinoji vyriausybė, kuri siūlė mažlietuvių veikėjams jungtis prie gimstančios Lietuvos valstybės. Spaudimą didino ir Tilžės spaudoje paskelbta žinia, esą JAV prezidentas Woodrow Wilson Amerikos lietuvių delegacijai pažadėjęs pasirūpinti, jog Mažoji Lietuva iki pat Karaliaučiaus būtų įjungta į atkuriamą Lietuvos valstybę. Pasirašė: Jonas Vanagaitis, Viktoras Gailius, Martynas Jankus, Mikelis Deivikas, Mikas Banaitis, A. Smalakys, Kristupas Paura, Mikelis Lymantas, D. Kalniškys, Fridrikas Zubaitis, Kristupas Kiupelis, Enzys Jagomastas, Jurgis Arnašius, Jurgis Lėbartas, Liudvikas Deivikas, Jonas Užpurvis, Jurgis Gronavas, Mikelis Mačiulis, Emilis Bendikas, Mikelis Reidys, Valteris Didžys, Jokūbas Juška, Mikelis Klečkus, Jurgis Margys. Panašu, kad Lietuvos politikai, nesuprasdami per šimtmečius susiklosčiusių skirtumų tarp mažlietuvių ir didlietuvių, Prūsų lietuvių tautos tarybą išties traktavo kaip lietuvininkų interesų reiškėją, nors iš tikro dauguma lietuvininkų tiek 1918 m., tiek ir vėliau liko ištikimi savo ankstesnei politinei orientacijai į Vokietiją. Vokietija daugumai Klaipėdos krašto lietuvių buvo sava valstybė.
Lithuania proper (Latin: Lithuania propria; Lithuanian: Didžioji Lietuva, literally: "Genuine Lithuania"; Yiddish: ליטע, Lite): refers to a region which existed within GDL, and spoke Lithuanian language. The primary meaning is identical to GDL, a land around which GDL evolved. The territory can be traced by Catholic Christian parishes established in pagan Baltic lands of GDL subsequent to the Christianization of Lithuania in 1387; they were quite distinguishable, as the Ruthenian parts of the Duchy were already baptized in orthodox manner. Already during GDL times, Lithuania Proper was a term designated to land where Lithuanians live; administratively it consisted of Vilnius Voivodeship and Trakai Voivodeship. Present border between Lithuania and Latvia is the oldest national border in Europe and has not changed since the battle of Saule in 1236 and the subsequent merger of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and the Teutonic order. For centuries, eastern and southern lands of this territory, that had direct contacts with Ruthenia and Poland, initially inhabited by ethnic Lithuanians were slowly Ruthenised, Polonised and Russified, and the Lithuanian-speaking territory shrunk; Deluge, Great Northern War, plague epidemic in 1710-1711. De-Lithuanisation during Lithuanian press ban (1864) and Polish rule. Nowadays significant "islands" of Lithuanian-speaking people remain in what is now Western Belarus (see Gerviaty) and Northern Poland (see Punsk); people of these territories now speaking Belarusian still refer to themselves as Lithuanians.
Lithuanian language areas in the 16th century.
Ethnographic Lithuania (extreme nationalism & "geneticism"?): early 20th century concept that defined Lithuanian territories as significant part of the territories that belonged to GDL and Lithuanians as all people living on them, regardless of whether those people spoke Lithuanian language and considered themselves Lithuanian; concept was in contrast to those of "historic Lithuania" - the territories of the Duchy - and the "linguistic Lithuania", the area where Lithuanian language was overwhelmingly spoken. The concept of ethnographic Lithuania clashed with the right for self determination of people living in that large territory, particularly Poles and Belarusians, who according to the supporters of the ethnographic Lithuania, were "slavicized Lithuanians" who needed to be re-Lithuanized. They argued that an individual cannot decide on his ethnicity and nationality, that it is not related to the language but to their ancestry.
lt:Žemės reformos Lietuvoje: XIII-XIV a. žemdirbystė jau buvo pagrindinis žmonių verslas, XV a. atsirado baudžiava, tačiau žemdirbystė dar nebuvo pakankamai efektyvi. Pirmoji žemės (agrarinė) reforma Lietuvoje – feodalinė Valakų reforma, įvykdyta XVI a. antrojoje pusėje, ilgam įtvirtinusi feodalinius santykius, perėjimą prie taisyklingo trilaukio. Svarbi reforma – baudžiavos panaikinimas XIX amžiuje (1807-1850 m. Klaipėdos krašte; 1864 m. Užnemunėje; 1861-1863 m. kitose Lietuvos dalyse), taip pat Stolypino reforma (1906-1914), kuria naikinti Valakų reforma nustatyti rėžiai, tarpurėžiai bei laukų išmėtymas, dalis kaimų išskirstyta į vienkiemius. Radikalios reformos įstatymas parengtas 1920 m. liepą, o seime priimtas 1922 m. vasario 15 d; Nustatyta didžiausia nenusavinama žemės norma (80 h), viršijanti normą žemė imama į fondą (kompensuojant už ją savininkams), iš kurio žemė buvo dalinama – pirmiausiai savanoriams, po to valstiečiams, kurie turėjo žemę išpirkti per 36 metus. Vilniaus krašte nuo 1920 iki 1936 m. žemės reformą vykdė Lenkijos valdžia. Tarybinės reformos. 1991 m. liepos 25 d. Aukščiausioji Taryba – Atkuriamasis Seimas – priėmė „Žemės reformos įstatymą“, kuris kartu su LR įstatymu „Dėl piliečių nuosavybės teisių į išlikusį nekilnojamąjį turtą atstatymo tvarkos ir sąlygų“ nustatė pagrindus, pagal kuriuos Tarybų Sąjungos neatlygintinai nacionalizuota 1940 metais turėta nuosavybės teisė buvo iš dalies atkuriama.
lt:Valakų reforma: žemės reforma dalyje LDK (Lietuvoje, Žemaitijoje ir dalyje Baltarusijos), vykdyta XVI a. antrojoje pusėje. Svarbiausias šios reformos tikslas – padidinti iždo pajamas, tolygiai paskirstyti valstiečiams feodalines prievoles. Nuo XV a. grūdai tampa paklausia preke Vakarų Europoje, o nuo XVI a. į šią prekybą įsitraukė Lietuva. 1529 m. Lietuvos didysis kunigaikštis išleido instrukciją didžiojo kunigaikščio dvarų valdytojams, kurios tikslas buvo didinti grūdų auginimo plotus. Turėjo būti permatuoti ir perskirstyti kaimai, kiekvienam ūkiui skiriant po valaką žemės. Įtvirtinta ir trilaukė sistema. Šios instrukcijos tapo pagrindu didžiajai valakų reformai 1557 m. Reformos rezultatai – įsigalėjo baudžiava, sueuropinta žemėtvarka, žemėvalda bei žemdirbystė. Valstybiniuose dvaruose (jų pavyzdžiu pasekė bajorų ir bažnyčiai priklausantys dvarai) buvo steigiami palivarkai. Palivarkas - dvaro dirbamos žemės, kuriose valstiečiai atlikdavo lažą.
lt:Baudžiavos panaikinimo reforma {q.v. Emancipation reform of 1861}: reformą nusakančiais įstatymais numatyta asmens laisvė valstiečiams, teisė disponuoti savo turtu, įsigyti turtą, kreiptis į teismą, laisvai kurti šeimą. Taip pat nustatyta valstiečių savivaldos (valsčių, teismo, seniūnijos) tvarka. Žemė liko dvarininkams, bet šie privalėjo leisti valstiečiams naudotis skirtine žeme už lažą ar piniginę duoklę. Duoklė už 1,09 ha lietuviškose gubernijose neturėjo viršyti 3 rublių, lažas – 23 vyro ir moters darbo dienų per metus.
lt:1919–1939 m. žemės reforma: pagrindinis tikslas buvo išdalinti dvarams priklausiusią žemę bežemiams ir mažažemiams valstiečiams. 1922.04.03 paskelbtas Žemės reformos įstatymas, kuriame nurodyta nusavinti didesnių kaip 80 ha ūkių žemę, savininkams paliekant 80 ha minimumą, už nusavinimą skirti kompensacijas; taip pat numatyta nusavinti ir išdalinti kitų šalių kariuomenėse tarnavusių ar prieš Lietuvos nepriklausomybę veikusių savininkų valdas. Iš suvalstybintos žemės buvo formuojami 8-20 ha ūkiai, visų pirma išdalinti bežemiams ir mažažemiams, kurių valdos buvo konfiskuotos 1861 m., bei kariams savanoriams.
Poles in Lithuania (2011: 200k): largest ethnic minority in the country and the second largest Polish diaspora group among the post-Soviet states. Poles are concentrated in the Vilnius Region (Polish: Wileńszczyzna). Poland was highly supportive of Lithuanian independence, and became one of the first countries to recognise independent Lithuania, despite apprehensions over Lithuania's treatment of its Polish minority.
Ukrainians in Lithuania (2011: 16.4k): Many prominent figures of Ukraine such as Taras Shevchenko, Meletius Smotrytsky, Yakiv Holovatsky, St. Yosafat (in the world — Ivan Kuntsevich, a religious figure of Greco-Catholic church canonized in 1967) and others stayed and created in Lithuania.
lt:Vidaus vandens kelių direkcija (1990-): valstybės įmonė, Lietuvos valstybinės reikšmės vidaus vandenų kelių valdytoja, pavaldi LR susisiekimo ministerijai. Direkcijai pavaldūs uostai ir prieplaukos: Kauno uostai (Kauno žiemos vidaus vandenų uostas, Kauno keleivinė prieplauka, Marvelės krovininė prieplauka, Kauno krovininė krantinė (Fredos uostas), Kauno marių keleivinė prieplauka), Nidos keleivinė prieplauka, Uostadvario vidaus vandenų uostas.
lt:Nidos uostas (XIX a. pab.-): Lietuvos uostas Nidoje, Naglių g. 14. Pavaldus valstybinei Vidaus vandens kelių direkcijai. Uostas dažniausiai naudojamas keleiviniams keltams priimti bei žvejybos ir pramoginiams laivams. Nidos tarptautinis keleivinis uostas yra Nidos pietinėje dalyje, istorinio Atragio kaimo teritorijoje. Tai seniausia Nidos dalis, geriausiai išlaikė griežtą stačiakampę plano struktūrą, taisyklingą gatvių tinklą, vientisą apstatymą. XIX a. pabaigoje Nidos gyvenvietėje buvo įrengtas žvejų uostas, vėliau garlaivių prieplauka. Sovietmečiu plečiant žvejybos bazę ir tvarkant uosto prieigas, buvo nugriautas viešbutis, muitinės pastatai, dalis senųjų žvejų sodybų. Liko tik uostas su žvejų prieplauka ir gamybine žuvies apdorojimo baze. Nidos keleivinis uostas buvo pradėtas formuoti 1975–1976 m., kai Nidoje prie esamo žvejų uosto buvo pastatyta prieplauka, 1991 m. įrengtas antras molas, taip suformuojant akvatoriją keleivinių laivų švartavimui. Nuo 2005 m. vyksta Nidos uosto rekonstrukcijos projekto rengimas ir vykdymas. Projektą finansuoja ES. „Benai, plaukiam į Nidą“
lt:Kauno keleivinė prieplauka (Vilijampolės prieplauka): Vidaus vandens kelių direkcijos (VVKD) administruojama prieplauka, esanti Kaune, Vilijampolės rajone, dešiniajame Nemuno krante žemiau Nemuno ir Neries upių santakos, Raudondvario pl. 107C. Prieplauka įsikūrusi pusiaukelėje tarp Santakos ir Kauno žiemos uosto. Prieplauka yra keleivinė, jos pagrindinė paskirtis - keleivinių laivų aptarnavimas. Vilijampolės prieplauka buvo pastatyta 1980 m. Tarp Kauno ir Nidos kursavo greitaeigis laivas „Raketa“. Ši transporto priemonė buvo labai populiari - prasidėjus vasaros sezonui, kasdien iš Kauno išplaukdavo trys pilni laivai. Po Nepriklausomybės atkūrimo laivyba populiariu maršrutu „Kaunas–Nida“ nutrūko. Reguliari greitaeigių katerių navigacija baigėsi 1995 m. Kai kurie laivai buvo parduoti ir išplukdyti į kitas šalis, kiti nukeliavo į metalo laužą. Keleivinę laivybą Nemunu iš Kauno siekta vėl atgaivinti, 2019 m. gegužės 23 d. Kauno žiemos uoste, po daugiau nei 8-erių metų pertraukos, į Nemuną iškilmingai nuleidus atnaujintą „Raketos“ tipo keleivinį katerį.
Kaunas Fortress (Kauno tvirtovė, Кοвенская крепость): remains of a fortress complex in Kaunas, Lithuania. It was constructed and renovated between 1882 and 1915 to protect the Russian Empire's western borders, and was designated a "first-class" fortress in 1887. During WWI, the complex was the largest defensive structure in the entire state, occupying 65 km². The fortress was battle-tested in 1915 when Germany attacked the Russian Empire, and withstood eleven days of assault before capture. After WWI, the fortress' military importance declined as advances in weaponry rendered it increasingly obsolete. During WWII, parts of the fortress complex were used by the Nazi Germany for detention, interrogation, and execution. The complex is the most complete remaining example of a Russian Empire fortress. Commandant of a military board wrote that "There is no city of Kaunas, there is only the Fortress of Kaunas." The first forts were built using bricks reinforced with thick ramparts of earth, which were incorporated into the surrounding relief, making them harder to breach. They were symmetrical, usually having five faces, with positions for infantry and artillery. These forts were built according to the standard Russian brick fort design of the time. The fortress was designated first-class in that year, marking its importance and defensive capabilities, and Otto Klem was named its first commandant. At the same time, administrative rules were established to manage the fortress' impact on the city and its surrounding areas; the height of the fortress' civil buildings was restricted. During 1890 work began on the Eighth fort, known as Linkuva; new construction techniques were introduced, particularly reinforced concrete. The Ninth Fort, begun in 1903, was the first of its kind in the Empire. The structure was a trapezoid, encompassing one infantry rampart, and was equipped with two armored watchtowers, electricity, and ventilation. The walls of its cannon casemates were covered with cork to reduce firing noise. The cost of this single fort was 850,000 rubles.
Ninth Fort (Devintas Fortas): stronghold in the northern part of Šilainiai elderate, Kaunas, Lithuania; part of the Kaunas Fortress. During the years of Soviet occupation, 1940–1941, the Ninth Fort was used by the NKVD to house political prisoners pending transfer to Gulag forced labor camps. During the years of Nazi occupation, the Ninth Fort was put to use as a place of mass murder. Some 45000 to 50000 Jews, most from Kaunas and largely taken from the Kovno Ghetto, were transported to the Ninth Fort and killed by Nazis with the collaboration of Lithuanians in what became known as the Kaunas massacre. In 1943, the Germans operated special Jewish squads to dig mass graves and burn the remaining corpses. One squad of 62 people managed to escape the fortress on the eve of 1944. That year, as the Soviets moved in, the Germans liquidated the ghetto and what had by then come to be known as the "Fort of Death". The prisoners were dispersed to other camps. After WWII, the Soviets again used the Ninth Fort as a prison for several years. From 1948 to 1958, farm organizations were managed from the Ninth Fort. The memorial to the victims of Nazism at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania, was designed by sculptor A. Ambraziunas. Erected in 1984, the monument is 32 m high.
Lukiškės Prison (Lukiškių tardymo izoliatorius kalėjimas): was a prison in the center of Vilnius, Lithuania, near the Lukiškės Square. As of 2007, it housed approximately 1,000 prisoners and employed around 250 prison guards. Most prisoners there were under temporary arrest awaiting court decisions or transfers to other detention facilities, but there was also a permanent prison with about 180 inmates; about 80 of whom were serving life terms. According to a 2014 plan, the prison was relocated to Pravieniškės by 2018. The prison was officially closed on 2 July 2019. After its closure, it became open for the public for tours. History: However, the 1874 revision of the criminal code of Russia introduced two additional penalties: a short-term prison confinement (up to 1.5 years) and long-term prison confinement (up to 6 years). Meanwhile, the old prison became dilapidated and severely overcrowded. The prison complex was the most expensive building constructed in the region in the early 20th century. The cells were fully equipped, heated and ventilated, and constructed entirely of non-combustible materials (except for window frames and doors). The prison block containing the churches alone cost 504,000 roubles. The building of the detention centre cost 285 thousand roubles, while the administrative building with offices and apartments for the staff cost approximately 180 thousand roubles. Despite its complexity, the project was finished in 1905, a full year ahead of schedule.
Vilnius Conference (1917.09.18 - 1917.09.22): began the process of establishing a Lithuanian state based on ethnic identity and language that would be independent of the Russian Empire, Poland, and the German Empire. It elected a twenty-member Council of Lithuania that was entrusted with the mission of declaring and re-establishing an independent Lithuania.
Lithuanian–Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lit-Bel; Lietuvos–Baltarusijos Tarybinė Socialistinė Respublika; Літоўска–Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка; Литовско–Белорусская ССР; Litewsko–Białoruska Republika Radziecka; 1919.02.17-1919.07.17): Soviet socialist republic that existed within the territories of modern Belarus and eastern Lithuania for approximately five months during 1919. Republic was dissolved after the Polish Army took over its claimed territory of eastern Lithuania during the Polish–Soviet War. After the end of WWI in 1918.11, Soviet Russia began a westward offensive following the retreating German Army. It attempted to spread the global proletarian revolution and sought to establish Soviet republics in Eastern Europe. By the end of 1918.12, Bolshevik forces reached Lithuania. The Bolsheviks saw the Baltic states as a barrier or a bridge into Western Europe, where they could join the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the Hungarian Revolution. The Lithuanian SSR was proclaimed on 1918.12.16 and the SSR of Byelorussia was established on 1919.01.01. The two republics were weak, championed by the newly created Communist Party of Lithuania and Communist Party of Byelorussia but not enjoying public support. Faced with military setbacks in the Polish–Soviet and Lithuanian–Soviet Wars, the Soviets decided to consolidate their efforts and the two republics were merged into Litbel on 1919.02.17. Belarusians perceived the merger as annexation by Lithuania - new government was headed by Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas, Chairman of the Lit-Bel Council of People's Commissars (corresponding to prime minister) and included no Belarusians. The government was financed by loans from Russian SFSR. Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty - Soviets planned a coup to overthrow the Lithuanian government and re-establish the Soviet republic; Battle of Warsaw - left just about half of the Belarusian territory to Byelorussian SSR.
1919 Polish coup d'état attempt in Lithuania (1919.08-09; Result: Coup discovered, Polish plotters arrested by Lithuanian authorities): failed attempt by Polish Chief of State Józef Piłsudski to overthrow the existing Lithuanian government of Prime Minister Mykolas Sleževičius, and install a pro-Polish cabinet that would agree to a union with Poland. The coup was designed to seem to be an initiative by local Lithuanians aiming to free their government of German influence. The PMO hoped to rely on the assistance of sympathetic Lithuanian activists. They were thwarted by the lack of cooperation and the unwillingness of sufficient number of Lithuanians to support the Polish cause.
Vydūnas (Wilhelm Storost; artistic name Vilius Storostas-Vydūnas; Vydūnas; 1868.03.22 – 1953.02.20): Prussian-Lithuanian teacher, poet, humanist, philosopher and Lithuanian writer and philosopher, a leader of the Prussian Lithuanian national movement in Lithuania Minor, and one of leaders of the theosophical movement in East Prussia. "Vydūnas" was added to his surname as a pseudonym when he was about 40 years old. 1932 he wrote a book Sieben Hundert Jahren Deutsch-Litauischer Beziehung. His idea of understanding between folks groups did not please the Nazis and in 1933 the book was outlawed. 1938 he was shortly incarcerated, but because of protests released after two months. His grand nephews, Jürgen Storost, recently explained, that Wilhelm Storost's answered his friend Viktor Falkenhahn, that "his use of the pen name Vydunas was his chosen anthroposophic mission; that he did not want to be a "pavydunas", but a "vydunas" (one who wishes everyone everything good). Vydūnas was active in the old Lithuanian pagan religion (see Romuva). However, he never declared the revival of the pagan religion as either his personal goal or a goal of Lithuanians, remaining a national leader but not a religious one. His moral influence transcended the confines of being a typical political leader or a writer at his time. He was compared by later biographers with national leaders in India of his time, such as Rabindranath Tagore or Mahatma Gandhi. Pantheistic universalism, not predefined with participating in any obligatory religious practice, was one of the leading ideas of his philosophy, and gained him later fame as a pioneer of both pagan revival and theosophy in Lithuania. Vydūnas was an ethical vegetarian, and wrote several essays about his ethical choices.
lt:Keturi komunarai (1926.12.27): Antano Smetonos nurodymu, apkaltinus perversmo rengimu, Kauno VI forte sušaudyti keturi komunistai: Rapolas Čarnas, Kazys Giedrys, Juozas Greifenbergeris, Karolis Požėla. Mirties bausme taip pat buvo nuteistas ir Pijus Glovackas, tačiau Marijai Lastauskienei, kurios žentas buvo P. Glovackas, prašant, A. Smetona mirties bausmę pakeitė kalėjimu iki gyvos galvos. P. Glovackas nuo bausmės išsigelbėjo pasitraukdamas į Baltarusijos TSR.
Lithuanian Nationalists Union (Lietuvių tautininkų sąjunga or tautininkai): was a nationalist, right-wing political party in Lithuania, founded in 1924; ruling party of Lithuania from the 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état in December 1926 to the Soviet occupation in June 1940 (leadership: Antanas Smetona and Augustinas Voldemaras). 1926 Smetona became the new President and Voldemaras the new Prime Minister of LT (till 1940).
Augustinas Voldemaras (1883.04.16-1942.05.16): LT nationalist political figure. Served as the first Prime Minister in 1918, and again from 1926 to 1929. Survived an assassination attempt in Kaunas in 1929, and later while attending a meeting of the League of Nations, he was ousted in a coup by President Smetona, who now ruled as dictator alone until the Soviet invasion in 1940. After failed coup d'etat against Smetona Voldemaras was arrested in 1934, then in 1938 he was pardoned, released, and exiled.
Iron Wolf (Lithuania) (Geležinis Vilkas, also known as the Iron Wolf Association or the Iron Wolves; lt:Geležinis Vilkas (organizacija)): LT fascist movement formed by Augustinas Voldemaras in 1927. After 1929 Voldemaras' removal from office, the Association went underground and received aid and encouragement in its activities from Germany. In 1934 its members attempted a failed coup d'etat against the president Antanas Smetona (former honorary leader who broke with the organizations earlier) and tried to set Voldemaras as the new leader.
lt:Voldemarininkai: 1929 m. nušalinto Lietuvos ministro pirmininko Augustino Voldemaro šalininkai. Jų politinė srovė nepriklausomoje Lietuvoje veikė slaptai, o 1941 m. birželio sukilime ir nacių okupacijos pradžioje veikė legaliai. Voldemarininkai buvo itin nusistatę prieš lenkus ir žydus, taip pat prieš visas Lietuvos partijas. Voldemarininkai labai siekė Vokietijos ir Lietuvos bendradarbiavimo. 1939 m. birželio mėn. jie Vokietijos užsienio reikalų ministerijos prašė 100 000 litų (41 000 reichsmarkių) „visų pirma žydų pogromams rengti“. Iš Lietuvos pasitraukę voldemarininkai dalyvavo Lietuvių aktyvistų fronto (LAF) steigime ir veikloje, vadovavo organizacinei komisijai (Klemensas Brunius).
Lithuanian Riflemen's Union: nationalistic paramilitary organisation with historical significance. Members of the organization participated in the Klaipėda Revolt of 1923, when Klaipėda Region was annexed by Lithuania. Some of its members volunteered to serve the Germans, forming a core of the infamous Ypatingasis būrys of 40–50 men.
1940 Soviet ultimatum to Lithuania (before midnight of 1940.06.14): occupation of Lithuania. Rigged "election" on 1940.06.14-15 ⇒ People's Seimas.
Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty (October 10, 1939): Soviet troops positioned in Lithuania, part of Vilnius region is given from the occupied Poland to Lithuania).
Leninist Young Communist League of Lithuania (1919.01.29 - 1989.06.03; Lietuvos Lenino komunistinė jaunimo sąjunga; Komjaunimas): Lithuanian branch of the Soviet Komsomol that served as the youth organ of the Communist Party of Lithuania. The organization was for youth ages 14 to 28. Younger children were organized into Pioneers (ages 10 to 14) and Little Octobrists (Lithuanian: spaliukai; ages 7 to 9). Since Komsomol was the only legal youth organization in the Soviet Union, it had significant impact and influence on the youth. Established in 1919.01 during the Lithuanian–Soviet War. Soviet Russia began its westward offensive in late 1918 pushing into Lithuania and declaring the establishment of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. Vilnius was captured in 1919.01.05. 1919.01.29, a provisional Central Bureau of the Lithuanian Komsomol was elected in Vilnius. In 1919–1920, the Lithuanian Komsomol was briefly merged with the Belarusian Komsomol into the Young Communist League of Lithuania and Belorussia as the two Soviet republics were merged into the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia. During the interwar, the Lithuanian Komsomol was outlawed in Lithuania and its members were frequently arrested by the Lithuanian police. The organization grew rapidly after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and its members actively participated in Lithuania's sovietization. In the 1970s and 1980s, it became such a massive organization that non-members were viewed as anti-Soviet.
Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty
People's Government of Lithuania (Liaudies vyriausybė): was a puppet cabinet installed by USSR in Lithuania immediately after Lithuania's acceptance of the Soviet ultimatum of 1940.06.14.
People's Seimas (lt:Liaudies Seimas): puppet legislature organized in order to give legal sanction the occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union. After the Soviet ultimatum in June 1940, a new pro-Soviet government was formed, known as the People's Government. The new government dismissed the Fourth Seimas and announced elections to the People's Seimas. The elections were heavily rigged, and resulted in a chamber composed entirely of Communists and Communist sympathizers (the electorate had no choice as 79 candidates were offered to the 79 seats). The new parliament unanimously adopted a resolution proclaiming the Lithuanian SSR and petitioned for admission to the USSR as a constituent republic. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR accepted the Lithuanian petition 1940.08.03. The People's Seimas adopted a new constitution, a close copy of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, on August 25 and renamed itself to the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR. According to Lithuanian and Western sources, these events were merely a cover to create an illusion of constitutional legitimacy of the forcible Soviet occupation. When Lithuania declared its independence in 1990, it argued that it did not need to follow the process of secession from the Soviet Union outlined in the Soviet constitution. It took the line that the actions of the People's Seimas—and indeed, the entire process of annexation—violated both Lithuanian and international law, and it was merely reasserting an independence that legally still existed.
lt:Feliksas Baltušis-Žemaitis (1897.11.30–1957.06.01): TSRS karinis veikėjas, Lietuvos liaudies kariuomenės brigados generolas, Raudonosios armijos generolas majoras. Priklauso daliai caro armijoje išaugusių lietuvių karininkų (Vytautas Putna, Jeronimas Uborevičius, V. Penkaitis), nuėjusių tarnauti į Raudonosios gvardijos eiles. Tai vienas labiausiai patyrusių ir išsilavinusių karininkų – lietuvių, kovojęs abiejuose pasauliniuose karuose ir Pilietiniame kare. Jis yra vienintelis lietuvis, dėstęs prestižinėse Frunzės vardo Karo ir Generalinio štabo akademijose. WWI; Raudonojoje gvardijoje; Lietuvos nepriklausomybės kovos; Rusijos pilietinis karas ir Hamburgo sukilimas; Tarpukaris: Vėliau tarnavo įvairiose pareigose: 1-osios kavalerijos armijos, vadovaujamos Semiono Budiono, operatyvinio štabo viršininku, Kavalerijos inspekcijos viršininko padėjėju. 1935 m. tapo Frunzės vardo Karo akademijos dėstytoju. Suteiktas kombrigo laipsnis. 1940 m. apsigynė disertaciją. Tuo metu akylai stebimas čekistų, apkaltinamas „vadovavimu kontrrevoliucinės Lenkų karinės organizacijos POW padaliniui akademijoje“. Nuolat tardomas; WWII; Pokaryje.
lt:Lietuvos laisvės kovos sąjūdis (LLKS): visos Lietuvos partizanų organizacijos pavadinimas nuo 1949.02.02. Siekė atkurti Lietuvos valstybės nepriklausomybę. LLKS apėmė Dainavos, Tauro, Didžiosios kovos, Vyties, Prisikėlimo, Kęstučio partizanų apygardas ir kovodama egzistavo iki 1956 m., kol buvo sunaikinta SSRS reguliarios kariuomenės bei saugumo dalinių.
Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters (Movement for the Struggle for Lithuanian Freedom; LLKS): resistance organization of the Lithuanian partisans, waging a guerrilla war against USSR in the aftermath of WWII. The organization was established on 1949.02.10.
Destruction battalions (истребители; istrebki (Russian), strybki (Ukrainian), stribai (Lithuanian)): paramilitary units under the control of NKVD in the western USSR, which performed tasks of internal security on the Eastern Front and after it. After the Fall of the Soviet Union the battalions were deemed by the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) to be a criminal organisation.
lt:Naikintojų batalionai (истребительные батальоны): WWII pokario metais TSRS egzistavę sukarinti, paprastai vietinių komunistų ir komjaunuolių, būriai, sudaryti kovoti su antisovietiniais partizanais, savigynos būriais, vietinių gyventojų pasipriešinimo tarybinei valdžiai darinių dalyviais, bandžiusiais išlaisvinti šalis nuo sovietų kariuomenės prieš atvykstant vokiečių kariuomenei. Naikintojų batalionai pradėti sudarinėti 1941 m. vasarą priefrontės rajonuose. Įsakai pradėti formuoti naikintojų batalionus buvo išleisti 1941.06.24 TSRS mastu (Об охране предприятий и учреждений и создания истребительных батальонов; Apie įmonių ir įstaigų apsaugą ir naikintojų batalionų įkūrimą') ir 1941.07.06 – Baltarusijos TSR mastu. Naikintojų batalionų uždavinius apibrėžė TSRS Liaudies komisarų tarybos nutarimas „Apie priemones kovai su parašiutininkų desantais ir priešininko diversantais pafrontės juostoje“ (О мероприятиях по борьбе с парашютными десантами и диверсантами противника в прифронтовой полосе). Maskvoje buvo centrinis naikintojų batalionų štabas, kuriam vadovavo generolas Dmitrijus Kramarčiukas. Stribai Lietuvoje: Lietuvoje naikintojų batalionai buvo vadinami stribai, skrebai, šie pavadinimai kilę iš iškraipyto rusiško pavadinimo истребители (istrebiteli) 'naikintojai'. 1945 m. spalio 18 d. okupacinė Lietuvos valdžia nutarė stribus vadinti ne „naikintojais“, o „liaudies gynėjais“. 1951–1954 m. stribų būriai palaipsniui buvo mažinami ir galiausiai panaikinti.
Rainiai massacre (night of 1941.06.24–25): mass murder of between 70 and 80 Lithuanian political prisoners by the NKVD, with help from the Red Army, in a forest near Telšiai, Lithuania.
lt:Lietuvos elektrinė (1962): didžiausia Lietuvoje šiluminė elektrinė, Lietuvos energetikos sistemos pagrindinė elektrinė, pastatyta Elektrėnuose, mieste, kuris iškilo specialiai aptarnauti elektrinei. Šalia elektrinės užtvenktas Strėvos upelis, dėl to susidarė Elektrėnų marios.
lt:Vėlinių įvykiai (1956.11.02): Kaune ir Vilniuje įvykusios spontaniškos antitarybinės demonstracijos. Įvykius abiejuose miestuose paskatino Vengrijos revoliucija. Demonstracijas išsklaidė milicija. Aktyvesni dalyviai buvo įkalinti, įvykiuose dalyvavę studentai pašalinti iš universitetų. Įvykiai: Įvykiuose gausiai dalyvavo jaunimas. Pasak Ramojaus Kraujelio, to priežastimi buvo tarp jaunimo paplitęs pomėgis klausytis Vakarų radijo stočių, kurios 1956 m. informavo apie Vengrijos revoliuciją. Vėlesnių metų įvykiai: Panašios antitarybinės eisenos Vilniuje įvyko ir 1957 m. lapkritį.
1972 unrest in Lithuania (Kaunas' Spring; 1972.05.18-19): was sparked by the self-immolation of a 19-year-old student named Romas Kalanta in protest against the Soviet regime and the subsequent ban authorities imposed on members of the public attending Kalanta's funeral. As a result, thousands of young demonstrators gathered in the central street of Kaunas, Laisvės Alėja in anti-government protests. These mass demonstrations were on a scale that had not been seen since 1956 and were ultimately suppressed by squads of KGB, Militsiya and Internal Troops.
lt:Lituanika (festivalis): pirmasis tarptautinis roko ir džiazo festivalis Lietuvoje. Festivalius 1985-1988 m. organizavo klubas „Lituanika“.
Lithuania in WWII: Lithuanian SSR, Nazi occupation, extermination of Jews (1939-1944)
Lithuanian Activist Front (lt:Lietuvių aktyvistų frontas; LAF): dėl įsikūrimo Berlyne ir bendradarbiavimo su nacistinės Vokietijos valdžios organais, LAF veikla buvo traktuojama nevienareikšmiškai. Žydų vertinimu, tai buvo marionetinė organizacija, padėjusi įgyvendinti nacių užmačias. Buvusio prezidento A. Smetonos vertinimu, jos veikla buvo inspiruota Vokietijos.
June Uprising in Lithuania: brief period in the history of Lithuania between the first Soviet occupation and the Nazi occupation in late June 1941. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on 1941.06.22, a diverse segment of the Lithuanian population rose up against the Soviet regime, declared renewed independence, and formed the short-lived Provisional Government. Two large Lithuanian cities, Kaunas and Vilnius, fell into the hands of the rebels before the arrival of the Wehrmacht. Within a week, the German Army took control of the whole of Lithuania. The Lithuanians greeted the Germans as liberators from the repressive Soviet rule and hoped that the Germans would re-establish their independence or at least allow some degree of autonomy (similar to the Slovak Republic). 1940.06.14 just before midnight, the last meeting of the Lithuanian Government was held in the Presidential Palace, in Kaunas. During it, the Soviet's ultimatum was debated. In the morning, the Lithuanian Government resigned while the president left the country to avoid the fate of the Soviet's puppet and hoping to form the Government in exile. Soon the Red Army flooded Lithuania through the Belarus–Lithuania border with more than 200,000 soldiers and took control of the most important cities, including Kaunas where the heads of state resided. After the occupation, the Soviets had immediately taken brutal actions against the high-ranking officials of the state. Soldiers, officers, senior officers and generals of the Lithuanian Army and LRU members, who were seen as a threat to the occupants, were quickly arrested, interrogated and released to the reserve, deported to the concentration camps or executed, trying to avoid this many joined the Lithuanian partisans forces. The LAF established its military–political headquarters in Vilnius and organizational headquarters in Kaunas. The communication and coordination between these centers in Berlin, Kaunas, and Vilnius was rather poor. The headquarters in Vilnius suffered heavily from Soviet arrests, especially in early June 1941, and became largely defunct. Most of those arrested activists were executed in 1941.12, in Russia. German advances and Soviet retreat. Lithuanian revolt: In Kaunas, In Vilnius, Elsewhere and summary. Independence and Provisional Government
lt:1941 m. birželio sukilimas (1941.06.22–28): Lietuvių aktyvistų fronto vadovaujamas sukilimas atkurti Lietuvos nepriklausomybę, prasidėjęs 1941.06.22 nacių Vokietijai užpuolus Sovietų Sąjungą.
Lithuanian Security Police (Saugumas): was a Lithuanian Nazi collaborationist police force that operated from 1941 to 1944. Many of its members came from the fascist Iron Wolf organisation.
lt:Krakynės miško holokausto vieta: holokausto vieta Zarasų rajone, Degučių seniūnijoje, Savičiūnų kaime, Krakynės miške. 1941.08.26 įvyko masinės žydų žudynės Krakynės miške. Čia žuvo žmonės iš Zarasų, Antalieptės, Salako, Degučių ir kitų aplinkinių vietovių. Įvairūs šaltiniai pateikia nevienodą aukų skaičių – nuo 2500 iki 8000.
Kaunas pogrom (lt:Lietūkio garažo žudynės; 1941.06.25-29): massacre of Jewish people living in Kaunas, Lithuania during the first days of the Operation Barbarossa and of Nazi occupation of Lithuania. The most infamous incident occurred in the Lietūkis garage, where several Jews were publicly tortured and executed on June 27.
Kaunas massacre of October 29, 1941 (Great Action): largest mass murder of Lithuanian Jews; murdered 2,007 Jewish men, 2,920 women, and 4,273 children in a single day at the Ninth Fort, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Koniuchy massacre
Ponary massacre (Paneriai massacre; 1941.07-1944.08): was the mass murder of up to 100,000 people, mostly Jews, but also Russians, Poles, Lithuanians and others, by German SD, SS and Lithuanian Nazi collaborators, such as the Ypatingasis būrys units, during WWII and the Holocaust in Reichskommissariat Ostland.
Kazimierz Sakowicz (?-1944): Polish journalist. A witness to the prolonged Ponary massacre, he chronicled much of it in his diary, which became one of the best known testaments to that atrocity of WWII, in which about 100 000 Jews, Poles and Russians were murdered by Germans and Lithuanian collaborators.
Glinciszki massacre (1944.06.20): of 37 mostly Polish villagers including women and children were killed by Nazi subordinated Lithuanian Security Police retaliating for the death of four policemen (from the 258th Police battalion) that occurred during a fight with element of the 5th Brigade of the Polish resistance of Armia Krajowa earlier that day.
Dubingiai massacre (1944.06.23): mass murder of between 20 and 27 Lithuanian civilians in the town of Dubingiai by a unit of the Armia Krajowa, a Polish resistance group, in a reprisal action for the Glinciszki (Glitiškės) massacre of 20 June.
Lithuanian partisans (1941) (see also Lithuanian partisans): generic term used during WWII by Nazi officials and quoted in books by modern historians to describe Lithuanian collaborators with the Nazis during the first months of the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany.
group led by Nazi agent Algirdas Klimaitis and active in Kaunas at the end of June 1941
lt:1941 m. liepos 4 d. ir 6 d. žudynės VII Kauno forte: 1941 m. Lietuvoje buvo įkurta pirmoji koncentracijos stovykla nacių okupuotose teritorijose. Būtent Lietuvoje įvyko pirmosios nuo karo tarp nacistinės Vokietijos ir SSRS pradžios planinės masinės civilių žudynės.
Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalions: Schutzmannschaft battalions formed during the German occupation of Lithuania between 1941 and 1944, with the first battalions originating from the most reliable freedom fighters that were disbanded following the anti-Soviet Lithuanian June Uprising in 1941. Lithuanian activists hoped that these units would be the basis of the reestablished Lithuanian Army and commanded by the Lithuanian Provisional Government. Instead, these units were placed under the orders of the SS- und Polizeiführer in Lithuania. The battalions were charged with internal security duties and engaged in anti-partisan operations in the Wehrmacht's rear areas, e.g. Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Northwest Russia. Sources and historiography: The topic of Lithuanian Police Battalions is very controversial and poorly researched. The main obstacle is the lack of reliable and objective data. During the Soviet period, when Soviet propaganda exploited tales of war crimes and actively persecuted former members of the battalions, objective research was impossible. Several members of the battalions managed to escape to the West and publish memoirs, but they gloss over the controversial aspects of the battalions and often deny Lithuanian involvement in the Holocaust. Foreign researchers were hampered by lack of archival data. Formation: Lithuanian men massively deserted from the Soviet 29th Rifle Corps and gathered in Vilnius. They organized Lithuanian Self-defense Units (Lietuvių savisaugos dalys or LSD), stationed in Vilnius, Pabradė, Trakai, and Varėna. 1941.07.21 LSD was reorganized into Vilnius Reconstruction Service (Vilniaus atstatymo tarnyba or VAT) that had three units (Work, Order, and Security). 1941.08.01, VAT and its three units were reorganized into three battalions of Schutzmannschaft. Two more battalions were organized before 1941.10. Atrocities: Some Lithuanian auxiliary police battalions took an active part in extermination of Jewish people in territory of Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Poland and committed crimes against Polish and Belarusian populations. One such action of Lithuanian policemen was liquidation of Jews in Kaunas in October 1941 by 12th Police Battalion under command of Antanas Impulevičius. Later the same month 12th battalion murdered the entire Jewish population of Slutsk in Belarus. 2nd Police Battalion served as guards in Majdanek death camp in occupied Poland. 20 out of 22 Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalions was directly involved in destruction of Jewish people in Eastern Europe. According to German reports, Lithuanians committed 47,000 killings of Jews in Lithuania out of all 85,000 committed by Einsatzkommando there. They also killed 50,000 Belarusian Jews during the war. Largest crime against non-Jewish civilian population of Lithuanian policemen was killing of about 400 Polish people in the villages Švenčionėliai and Švenčionys and their surroundings.
Ypatingasis būrys (Special SD and German Security Police Squad; lt: Vokiečių Saugumo policijos ir SD ypatingasis būrys; 1941-1944): Lithuanian killing squad also called the "Lithuanian equivalent of Sonderkommando", operating in the Vilnius Region. The unit, primarily composed of Lithuanian volunteers, was formed by the German occupational government and was subordinate to Einsatzkommando 9 and later to Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo). Together with German police, the squad participated in the Ponary massacre, where some 70,000 Jews were murdered, along with estimated 20,000 Poles and 8,000 Russian POWs, many from nearby Vilnius.
Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (lt:Vietinė rinktinė): short-lived, Lithuanian, volunteer armed force created and disbanded in 1944 during the German occupation of Lithuania; goal was to fight the approaching Red Army, provide security and conduct anti-partisan operations within the territory, claimed by Lithuanians.
Battle of Murowana Oszmianka (1944.05.13-14): largest clash between the Polish resistance movement organization Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) and the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (LTDF); a Lithuanian volunteer security force subordinated to Nazi Germany occupational administration. The outcome of the battle was that the 301st LTDF battalion was routed and the entire force was disbanded by the Germans soon afterwards.
Baltic Appeal (45 pabaltijiečių memorandumas): (1979 Aug 23; 40th of Molotov-Ribbentrop) public letter to the general secretary of the United Nations, Soviet Union, East and West Germany, and signatories of the Atlantic Charter by 45 Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian citizens
Lithuanian Liberty League (LLL: Lietuvos laisvės lyga): (1978, limited popularity in 1987-1989). Leader: Antanas Terleckas. Pro-independence LLL published anti-Soviet literature and organized protest rallies. <LLL was more willing to confront and Sąjūdis preferred to compromise. The League was a "doer" while Sąjūdis was the "talker.">
lt:Antanas Terleckas: LT dissident. Exiled in 1958 for 4 y. to Tayshet (Siberia); 1979 exiled again for 3 y. to Ural for hard labor and just exile to Magadan (Far Eastern Siberia). One of the signatories of Baltic Appeal.
Roko Maršaslt:Roko Maršas: 1987: Antis; 1988: Antis; 1989: Antis, Foje. The green and political freedom movements were supported by rock, metal, punk groups.
lt:Ekonominė blokada (1990) (1990.04.18-1990.07.02): TSRS valdžia sustabdė žaliavų (pirmiausia naftos) tiekimą Lietuvai. Lietuvai nutrauktas visas naftos tiekimas, 80 % sumažintas dujų tiekimas, apribotas degalų pardavimas, sustabdyti ešelonai su jau siunčiamomis prekėmis ir žaliavomis. Iš viso buvo nustota tiekti 40-60 rūšių žaliavos ir produktų.
Yedinstvo (Lithuania): was a pro-Moscow and anti-Sąjūdis movement in the Lithuanian SSR during the Perestroika era; In addition to ethic Russians, the organization had some success among the Polish minority in Lithuania, many of whom preferred Lithuania as a member of USSR.
Polish National-Territorial Region: was an autonomous region in Lithuania, self-proclaimed by the local Poles on 6 September 1990. After the August Coup of the Soviet hardliners had failed, the Lithuanian parliament suspended on 3 September 1991 the democratically elected local councils that had sought autonomy or secession from Lithuania.
Soviet economic blockade of Lithuania (Lietuvos ekonominė blokada, 1990.04.18–07.02 (78 days)): imposed by USSR. Kremlin officials demanded that the Act of 1990.03.11 be annulled, interpreting it as a secessionist affair, but Lithuania ignored them, arguing that they were coerced to join USSR back in 1940. Gorbachev then ordered to reinforce troops in Lithuania. The Lithuanians did not back down, however, so Gorbachev sent an ultimatum on 13 April, requiring Lithuanians to renounce the act under the threat of economic sanctions. As the Soviet officials were not satisfied with the answer from Lithuania, the blockade started on 18 April at 21:25 (EEST). The economic blockade restricted or cancelled the centralised supply of energy resources, on which Lithuania was extremely dependent from USSR, as well as electricity, foodstuffs, and pharmaceuticals. To a much lesser extent, the embargo also impacted Kaliningrad Oblast. USSR also sealed the republic's borders and blocked Lithuania's bank accounts. As the rebel republic felt crippling shortages of essential items, Western countries pressured Lithuania and USSR to reach a compromise and due to the intensification of internal sovereigntist movements within the other fourteen republics of USSR, particularly within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the blockade was eased in mid-June. The sanctions were lifted in 1990.07.02, after the Lithuanian parliament agreed to suspend the effects of the Act and to begin talks with the Soviet side. The long-awaited negotiations, however, did not yield any results.
Blockade: in 1990.04.13, Mikhail Gorbachev, President of USSR, and Nikolai Ryzhkov, Chairman of the USSR's Council of Ministers, issued an ultimatum to Lithuania, which demanded to revoke the Act and to restore the supremacy of the Soviet laws within two days, lest an embargo on produce paid for by freely convertible currency is imposed. Hardliners within CPSU were nudging towards a coup d'état, and initially Gorbachev was open to consider such a scenario, but later he dismissed such calls. Gorbachev also reportedly thought about a full-scale military invasion or assumption of direct control of Lithuania from Moscow, but ultimately also resigned from these ideas. Therefore, Gorbachev decided to try an economic blockade instead, hoping to instigate a popular revolt against the Lithuanian leadership and to force it to rescind the independence declaration. Lithuania did not respond in the time allocated, but on 18 April, the Supreme Council of Lithuania tried to prevent the embargo from happening by making a declaration whereby it voluntarily refrained from adopting new laws pending what Lithuanian officials called "preliminary consultations" between Lithuania and the Soviet Union. The Soviets were unimpressed, and on 1990.04.18, at 21:25 (EEST), the Kremlin launched the blockade by stopping supplies to the Mažeikiai oil refinery. Initially, the supply of 40-60 types of raw materials and other products were cut off. Notably, the supply of oil was halted and gas deliveries decreased by 84%. USSR also suspended the movement of goods and restricted sales of fuel. The blockade worsened a few days later, when USSR stopped supplying coal, electricity, paper, foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals, including the most essential drugs and vaccines for hospitals. Additionally, the Soviet Union also limited access to the port in Klaipėda and blocked Lithuania's bank accounts. Lithuania, whose borders were closed due to the sanctions, was also declared to be off-bounds for foreigners.
Lifting the embargo: Problems were also appearing in the Soviet Union. On 30 May, the Leningrad city council urged the central government to begin negotiations with the republic under blockade, and Moldavian SSR voted to recognise the independence of Lithuania the following day. However, it was Boris Yeltsin who made the largest impact. Two days after his election as chairman of the Supreme Soviet of RSFSR, the main constituent republic of the Soviet Union and the one that included Kaliningrad Oblast, Yeltsin met with representatives of the Baltic republics, including Landsbergis, pledging support for their independence cause. Then, on 12 June, RSFSR declared itself a sovereign state within USSR, and, in its declared capacity as a sovereign republic, announced it would not enforce the blockade. Meanwhile, the United States Congress tied the trade normalisation to the resolution of the blockade in Lithuania, which created further pressure to resolve the issue. On 16 June, the Soviets increased the flow of gas from 15% to 30% of the level before the blockade and let some deliveries of raw materials in, which enabled partial reopening of some industrial plants, including Jonava's fertilizer facility. They also pledged to grant statehood to Lithuania 2–3 years after they freezed the declaration of independence. From the Lithuanian side, Landsbergis, who had insisted that the Act of Restoration of Independence was non-negotiable, now recommended a motion to the Seimas to suspend the effects of the Act. After two weeks of discussions, on 29 June, the Supreme Council of Lithuania declared a 100-day moratorium on the "legal actions arising from" (Lithuanian: iš jo kylančius teisinius veiksmus) the 11 March declaration of restoration of Lithuania, which was to take effect once the negotiations with the Soviet Union started. The declaration did not constitute the moratorium on independence itself, but this time, the Kremlin decided to enter into negotiations with Lithuania. Oil deliveries were resumed by the evening of 30 June, while on 2 July, the blockade was lifted, which Nikolai Ryzhkov, Chairman of USSR's Council of Ministers, confirmed the following day. Finally, on 6 July, Soviet diplomatic agencies could grant visas to foreigners travelling to Lithuania again, and on 7 July, the rail connections between USSR and Lithuania were fully restored.
Impacts: Economic: As the blockade meant a scarcity of important resources, Lithuania, which was transitioning to a market-oriented economy, was forced to centralise its management and to strongly regulate its economy in order to avoid exhausting supplies and to shield the consumers from price increases. This postponed some market-oriented reforms, particularly in comparison to Latvia and Estonia. On the long term, however, it helped the country prioritise trade deals with other countries and made the enterprises seek cooperation from other entities than the government, thereby realigning the economy towards the Western model. For example, the then-Health Minister of Lithuania Juozas Olekas noted that the country lacked medical supplies, but managed to establish a good relationship with Denmark, thanks to which the shortage of vaccines for hospitals was largely alleviated. The government of Lithuania and local industries started to actively search for direct relations with the enterprises (which were not subject to embargo), often engaging in barter trade with oil-rich republics (e.g. oil for butter or meat), such as RSFSR and Kazakh SSR. The blockade's effects were also somewhat mitigated by smugglers operating on Lithuania's borders, as well as by the regiments of the Soviet Army stationing in the country, which were clandestinely selling the reserves of oil products they had in the garrisons. The embargo had profound effects on the energy sector of Lithuania. In Soviet times, geologists drilled the ground for the search of oil in Latvia and Lithuania, but the economic blockade forced Lithuania to extract it for the first time on an industrial scale - in 1990, Lithuanians have pumped out 12,000 tons of the fossil fuel. Moreover, the Baltic country could not import oil by the sea not only because of the naval blockade, but also because Klaipėda's oil terminal was far too small for the needs of Lithuania. That prompted the government to build a new oil terminal in Būtingė, which was commissioned in 1998, along with continuation of the oil pipe to the new sea port.
Coup of the Volunteers (Pakaunės savanorių maištas; 1993.07.31–09.22): stand-off in Lithuania near Kaunas between a group of about 150 men from the Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces (then known as Savanoriškoji krašto apsaugos tarnyba or SKAT) and the Lithuanian government. There was mutual distrust between SKAT and the newly elected leftist LDDP. Several SKAT members (usually referred to as volunteers) abandoned their posts, took their arms, and retreated to a wooded area near Kaunas in July and August 1993. The crisis escalated when the government issued an order for the volunteers to secure their weapons at designated locations in September. Interpreting the order as confiscation of their weapons, a total of about 150 armed men gathered near Riogliškiai. They expressed their mistrust and dissatisfaction with the new LDDP government and raised social and political demands. After a week long negotiations, the men agreed to return to their posts if no one would be persecuted for their role in the coup. Although it concluded peacefully, the stand-off is one of the most controversial and little understood episodes in the early years of post-Soviet Lithuania. Sociologist Zenonas Norkus evaluated the events as a "stress test" of the Lithuanian democracy and the new relationship between the anti-communist and ex-communist elites. The anti-communists, which were now in opposition, did not use the opportunity to return to power. The stand-off was followed by two related and unsolved bombings of the Bražuolė railway bridge in November 1994 (no casualties) and of a passenger car in January 1997 (SKAT officer Juras Abromavičius was killed). The coup took place during the withdrawal of Russian troops from Lithuania and the visit of Pope John Paul II on 4–8 September (one of the volunteers fired in the air during the pope's public appearance in Kaunas). Comparisons were also drawn with the unsuccessful attempt to disarm mutinous paramilitary forces by President Abulfaz Elchibey of Azerbaijan in June 1993. The government decided to seek a peaceful resolution and negotiated with the volunteers. The agreement was reached on 22 September when a special parliamentary commission led by Nikolajus Medvedevas visited the camp and promised not to prosecute any of the volunteers for their role in the coup. The government reserved the right to prosecute volunteers who had otherwise committed criminal acts. When the volunteers returned to Kaunas, they captured the SKAT headquarters in Kaunas and disarmed commander Juras Abromavičius, who retreated to the Seventh Fort of Kaunas Fortress. Abromavičius then alerted his superiors, newly appointed SKAT commander Arvydas Pocius, via the M-1 radio station and Lithuanian National Radio and Television, but reportedly was ordered not to escalate the situation. The men were found in violation of the SKAT statute and faced disciplinary actions, including removal from offices and reshuffling of SKAT leadership. Juras Abromavičius, officer of SKAT and State Security Department of Lithuania (VSD), who was investigating the coup of 1993 and explosion of 1994 was assassinated on 31 January 1997 when a homemade RDX bomb detonated under his car. In 2006, the prosecutor's office announced that it closed Abromavičius's case. They managed to identify Vladas Grybauskas as the bomb maker but he committed suicide in 1997.12.10. The statute of limitations for the murder of Abromavičius expired in 2017. Responsibility: There are many theories and conspiracies surrounding the events. Already during the crisis, politicians expressed views that it was not an action of a few disgruntled officers, but a premeditated political provocation. In general, the two most popular versions blame either the Russian Federal Security Service or Lithuanian ultra-conservatives. For example, former Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas once said that the coup was useful to Russia as it could demonstrate that as soon as the Russian Army left Lithuania, the country experienced internal unrest. During an interview in 1993.09.20, Vytautas Landsbergis, leader of the conservative Homeland Union, expressed fears that the incident could be used as a pretext for the Russian Army to return but at the same time defended SKAT as a necessary institution for the national defense.
Elderships of Lithuania ([16/11/09] 546): smallest administrative division of Lithuania. An eldership could either be a very small region consisting of few villages, one single town, or part of a big city. Elderships vary in size and population depending on their place and nature.
lt:Pakaunės savanorių maištas (Coup of the Volunteers): nepaklusnumo akcija, įvykdyta 1993 m. rugpjūčio–rugsėjo mėn. grupės ginkluotų Savanoriškosios krašto apsaugos tarnybos (SKAT) savanorių, savavališkai pasitraukusių iš dislokacijos vietų į miškus Kauno rajone, vadovaujamų Jono Maskvyčio.
Lithuanian Special Archives: archive in Lithuania for the storage of documents from the period 1940-1991. Numerous KGB and Lithuanian SSR Ministry of Interior documents were left in Lithuania after it gained independence from USSR in 1991, and are now held here. Around 18,000 linear metres of records are stored.
lt:Dvigubo genocido požiūris: teiginys, jog žydų, lietuvių ir kitų Rytų Europos tautų nuo nacių ir sovietų patirtos skriaudos Antrojo pasaulinio karo metu yra savo esme bei mastu panašios bei palyginamos.
lt:Lietuvos administracinis suskirstymas: Lietuva yra suskirstyta į 60 savivaldybių, kurios savo ruožtu suskirstytos į 546 seniūnijas (2007 m.). Nuo 1995 m. savivaldybės buvo pavaldžios 10 apskričių.
List of cities in Lithuania: 103 cities; city - compact areas populated by more than 3,000 people of whom at least two thirds work in the industry or service sector; settlements which have a population of less than 3,000 but historically had city status are still considered to be cities; miestelis, kaimas; gyvenvietė. Most of the cities in Lithuania are old, established before the 18th century. Newer cities: Kaišiadorys, Vievis, Radviliškis, Ignalina or Mažeikiai; industry centers: Visaginas, Elektrėnai or Naujoji Akmenė. Resorts: Birštonas, Druskininkai, Neringa, Palanga and Anykščiai. [2014] Vilnius 540k, Kaunas 304k, Klaipėda 157k, Šiauliai 105k, Panevėžys 96.3k, Alytus 56.4k, Marijampolė 39.5k, Mažeikiai 36.3k, Jonava 34.1k, Utena 28.4k, Kėdainiai 26k, Telšiai 24.5k, Tauragė 24k, Ukmergė 23k, Visaginas 20k, Plungė 19k...
Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania: state-funded research institute in Lithuania dedicated to "the study of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Lithuania; the study of the persecution of local residents by occupying regimes; the study of armed and unarmed resistance to occupying regimes; the initiation of the legal evaluation of the activities of the organisers and implementers of genocide; and the commemoration of freedom fighters and genocide victims." The centre was founded in 1992.10.25 by the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian Republic as the "State Genocide Research Centre of Lithuania". The Center is a strong advocate of the "Lithuanian genocide thesis" and sees itself as a "guardian" of Lithuanian memory. The Center uses a broadened definition of "genocide" including the targeting of social, political, and economic groups by Stalin. The center declares an equivalence between Nazi and Soviet crimes, this "double genocide" formulation is common in Eastern Europe, particularly the Baltic States. However, in practice the Nazi genocide of the Jews and Lithuanian collaboration is minimized, while the "genocide" of Lithuanians by Soviet partisans is described extensively. In 1998, Lithuania passed a law restricting employment in the public sector for former employees of the KGB, the MGB, and other Soviet security institutions. The centre and the State Security Department had the authority to determine whether a person was an employee of the KGB.
lt:Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimo centras (LGGRTC): tarpžinybinė valstybės institucija, tirianti genocido bei nusikaltimų žmonijai ir žmoniškumui apraiškas, Lietuvos gyventojų persekiojimą okupacijų metais. Labai svarbi Memorialinio departamento veiklos sritis – muziejinė veikla, vykdoma žinybiniame Genocido aukų muziejuje ir jo padalinyje – Tuskulėnų rimties parko memorialiniame komplekse.
lt:Lietuvos žmogaus teisių centras: žmogaus teisių apsaugos ir švietimo nevyriausybinė organizacija. Nuo įsteigimo 1994 metais LŽTC telkė savo narių ir ekspertų pastangas, įgyvendinant teisėkūros ir švietimo projektus Lietuvos žmogaus teisių apsaugos srityje.
lt:Žinių radijas: nacionalinė radijo programa, pradėta transliuoti iš Vilniaus Spaudos rūmų 2000.03.07. Informacinio formato radijo stotis. >90% viso eterio sudaro informacija, likusį muzikiniai intarpai, reklama.
Nacionalinis maisto ir veterinarijos rizikos vertinimo institutas: sukurtas po 2008 m. Lietuvos valstybinė veterinarijos preparatų inspekcijos prijungimo prie Nacionalinės veterinarijos laboratorijos.
Šiauliai:
lt:Geležinė lapė (2009): lapės skulptūra, stovinti Šiauliuose, prie Talšos ežero, pietvakarinėje kranto dalyje. Autorius – Vilius Puronas.
Religija Lietuvoje:
lt:Tiberiados bendruomenė: vyrų ir moterų vienuolija, kurią 1979 metais Lavaux-Sainte-Anne kaimelyje, Belgijos pietuose įkūrė brolis Morkus. Tiberiados bendruomenės įsikūrusios ir Lietuvoje (Baltriškių kaime, Zarasų raj.) bei Konge.
lt:Vilniaus brigada: organizuota nusikalstama grupuotė, veikusi daugiausiai Vilniaus mieste. 1991–1993 m. ypač suaktyvėjo nusikaltėlių siautėjimas Lietuvoje. Gaujos vykdė verslininkų reketą, duokles turėjo mokėti dauguma verslininkų – pradedant stambiaisiais, baigiant kioskininkais. Nusikaltėlių grupuotės dalyvavo valstybės turto privatizavime, ieškojo ryšių politiniuose sluoksniuose. Pagrindinį kapitalą „Vilniaus brigados“ vadeivos susikrovė per nekilnojamojo turto privatizacijos laikotarpį (t. y., apie 1990–1993 m.). Apie „Vilniaus brigados“ ir kitų nusikalstamų grupuočių veiklą bei ryšius su politikais daug rašė „Respublikos“ dienraščio žurnalistas Vitas Lingys, kuris 1993 m. spalio 12 d. buvo nužudytas, kaip manoma, dėl savo straipsnių ciklo apie mafijos užuomazgas Lietuvoje. Straipsnių cikle buvo įvardyti ne tik nusikalstamų grupuočių, bet ir verslo bei politikos sluoksnių atstovai.
lt:Henrikas Daktaras (Henytė; 1957.12.12-): vienas žinomiausių visų laikų Lietuvos nusikaltėlių, Lietuvos žiniasklaidoje dažnai vadinamas nusikalstamo pasaulio autoritetu. Vadinamojoje Daktarų byloje yra sukaupta apie 200 nusikaltimų, tarp jų – daugiau kaip 30 žmogžudysčių. Daktarui inkriminuojama daugybė nusikaltimų už turto prievartavimą, kūno sužalojimus, žmogžudystes. Spėjama, kad jis gali būti nužudęs savo pusbrolį ir kitus jam pasipriešinusius jo suburtos gaujos narius.
lt:Tulpiniai: viena žiauriausių Lietuvoje nusikalstamų grupuočių. Veikė Panevėžyje. Nusikaltimai išaiškinti tik kai po Kiesų ir Galmino nužudymo tyrimui ėmė vadovauti pareigūnai iš Vilniaus. Gaujos vadeivos – Virginijus Baltušis, Algimantas Vertelka ir Audrius Andrušaitis – nuteisti laisvės atėmimo bausmėmis iki gyvos galvos . V. Baltušis dalyvavo nužudant 22 žmones, A. Vertelka – 11, A. Andrušaitis – 20 žmonių. Prie 12 nužudymų prisidėjo Dainius Skačkauskas (2 metų laisvės apribojimo bausmė).
China–Lithuania relations: PRC has a chargé d'affaires in Vilnius. In 2021.12, Lithuania closed its embassy in Beijing. In 2021.08, the ROC opened its representative office in Vilnius under the name of "Taiwanese" (the first under this name in Europe), with the Lithuanian office in Taipei to open by the end of 2021. In the opinion of the Chinese government, Lithuania has thus reneged on its 1991 agreement with PRC on the establishment of diplomatic relations where Lithuania recognized the One China principle; Lithuanian government does not consider being in breach of the agreement. In response, the PRC recalled its ambassador in Vilnius, Shen Zhifei, and demanded that Lithuania recall its ambassador in Beijing, Diana Mickevičienė. Trade between the two countries were also seriously disrupted. Relations between the PRC and Lithuania were downgraded to the level of chargé d'affaires in 2021.11.21. In 2021.12.03, Lithuania reported that in an escalation of the diplomatic spat over relations with Taiwan, China had stopped all imports from the Baltic state. It said Beijing has delisted Lithuania as a country of origin, preventing items from clearing customs, and was rejecting all import applications. As a result of the conflict, China pressured Continental AG and other international companies to stop doing business with Lithuania. The spat spilled over to the rest of the EU when China banned the import of goods which contained Lithuanian parts potentially disrupting integrated supply chains in the common market. EU Ambassador to China Nicolas Chapuis supported Lithuania and attempted to intervene on their behalf. The president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China described the Chinese government's move as "unprecedented." In early 2022, reports emerged that German Chamber of Commerce warned Lithuania that German-owned factories will be closed if relations with China are not improved. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said in a radio interview in 2022.01 that he thought it was a mistake to allow Taiwan to open a representative office using the name 'Taiwan' in Vilnius. These remarks were subsequently widely published across mainland Chinese media that reported Lithuania had admitted its mistake. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said "Recognizing the mistake is a correct step, but what is more important is to take action, correct the 'One China, One Taiwan' mistaken act, and return to the principle of One China."
Abraomas Kulvietis (c. 1509 – 1545.06.19): Lithuanian jurist and a professor at Königsberg Albertina University, as well as a reformer of the church. Between 1528 and 1537 he studied in Cracow Academy, later Catholic University of Leuven, where he studied the works of Desiderius Erasmus, in Wittenberg, where he studied Martin Luther's teachings. In 1536 he moved to Leipzig and finally Siena, where in 1537 he was granted the title Doctor of Law. In 1540 Kulvietis founded his own school where he taught about 60 pupils In Lithuanian. He was generally unpopular among the Roman Catholic hierarchy because of his Lutheran beliefs, and when the queen was away in 1542 Kulvietis was forced to leave the country; invited by Albert, Duke of Prussia together with other Lithuanian Lutherans, and together with them helped in the creation of the Königsberg Albertina University, and later he was the first professor of classic Hebrew and Greek. He was also the first translator of Lithuanian Evangelical songs.
lt:Kazys Grinius (1866.12.17-1950.06.04): Lietuvos politikas, visuomenės ir kultūros veikėjas, humanistas, vienas pirmųjų Lietuvos demokratų, varpininkas, gydytojas, švietėjas, visuomenės sveikatos aktyvistas, publicistas, knygnešys.
lt:Kazys Pakštas (1893.06.29 – 1960.09.11 Chicago) – Lietuvos geografas, keliautojas, visuomenės veikėjas, profesionaliosios geografijos Lietuvoje pradininkas. 1914 m. išvyko į JAV. 1915 m. įstojo į Valparaiso universitetą (Indianos valstija). Tų pačių metų rudenį įstojo į jėzuitų išlaikomą Lojolos universitetą, kuriame studijavo sociologiją ir politiką. Vėliau perėjo į Fordhamo universiteto (Niujorkas) Sociologijos fakultetą, kurį baigė 1918 m. 1919 m. grįžęs į Lietuvą dirbo ryšių karininku Prancūzijos, JAV ir Anglijos karinėse misijose. 1919–1923 m. Université de Fribourg/Universität Freiburg studijavo gamtos mokslus, apgynė daktaro disertaciją „Lietuvos klimatas“. Daug keliavo, aplankė Braziliją (1927 m.), Palestiną, SSRS (1933 m.), 1930–1931 m. laivu keliavo aplink Afriką, pabuvojo beveik visose Europos šalyse. Intensyviai dirbo mokslinį darbą: nustatė Lietuvos klimatines juostas, pradėjo sistemingus ežerų tyrimus. Jis rašė, kad didžiosios valstybės auga horizontaliai – plėsdamos savo teritoriją. Tuo tarpu mažosios valstybės, norėdamos atsilaikyti, yra priverstos „augti vertikaliai“, t. y. didinti gyventojų išsilavinimą, savo kultūrinį svorį. „Prieš horizontalių erdvių platybę reikia pastatyti aukštą vertikalinį Baltijos tautų ūgį. Tik šis beveik vienintelis būdas ir tėra reikiamai pusiausvyrai palaikyti Baltijos pajūryje“. Profesorius pažymi, kad ekonominės galybės savo pradžią ir įsibėgėjimą gavo „moralinėse versmėse“. Čia autorius kaip pavyzdį pateikia mažąsias Europos valstybes – Daniją, Belgiją, Nyderlandus, Šveicariją. Faktiškai tai pirmasis toks praktinis švietimo ir mokslo būtinumo aiškinimas Lietuvoje. Baltoskandia/Baltoscandia.
lt:Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis (Juozas Ambrazevičius or Juozas Brazaitis; 1903.12.09-1974.11.28): Lietuvos literatūrologas, pedagogas, antinacistinės ir antisovietinės rezistencijos dalyvis, visuomenės veikėjas. 1941 m. birželio sukilime ėjo Lietuvos laikinosios vyriausybės ministro pirmininko pareigas. 1944 m. gegužės-birželio mėnesiais Gestapas suėmė dalį VLIK-o žmonių. Vengdamas suėmimo, J. Ambrazevičius pakeitė dokumentus ir toliau jau gyveno ir veikė Juozo Brazaičio pavarde. Tais pačiais metais, gresiant antrajai sovietų okupacijai, pasitraukė į Vokietiją.
lt:Adolfas Damušis (iki 1939: Domaševičius; 1908.06.16-2003.02.27): Lietuvos chemikas, mokslininkas išradėjas, pasipriešinimo sovietiniam ir naciniam okupaciniams režimams veikėjas. Profesorius Pranas Jodelė paskatino susidomėti cemento gamybos galimybėmis Lietuvoje. 1936–1940 m. vasaromis prie Kauno ir Papilės-Akmenės bei Karpėnų-Vegėsių apylinkėse tyrė kreidos ir klinčių klodus, o žiemą medžiagas analizavo laboratorijoje. Buvo tikėtasi, kad 1941 m. vasarą fabrikas jau pradės veikti, deja, baigti darbus sutrukdė sovietų okupacija ir karas. Naujojoje Akmenėje cemento gamykla pradėjo veikti tik 1952 m.
lt:Silvestras Žukauskas (1860.12.31 - 1937.11.26): Lietuvos valstybės ir karinis veikėjas, generolas.
lt:Mykolas Biržiška (1882.08.24 – 1962.08.24): Lietuvos literatūros istorikas, nepriklausomybės akto signataras.
lt:Matas Šalčius (1890.09.20 – 1940.05.26): Lietuvos žurnalistas, rašytojas, keliautojas, visuomenės veikėjas.
Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas (1880.04.07 [O.S. March 23] – 1935.02.17): Lithuanian communist political activist and revolutionary. As an active member of the Lithuanian National Revival, he wrote for and edited many Lithuanian publications and joined the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. As his views turned from socialism to communism, he became one of the founders and leaders of the Lithuanian Communist Party and headed the short-lived Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and Lithuanian–Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Litbel) in 1918–19. Between 1937 and 1953, Mickevičius was on Stalin's "gray list," not officially an "enemy of state," but not to be mentioned in public. After Stalin's death in 1953, the communist government of Lithuania, especially the first secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party, Antanas Sniečkus, started reviving the memory of Mickevičius.
Zigmas Angarietis (1882.06.25–1940.05.22): Lithuanian communist, Russian revolutionary, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Lithuania. He was one of the main people behind the short-lived Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (1918–1919) and Lithuanian–Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Litbel). Angarietis was arrested in 1938 during the Great Purge and executed two years later.
Povilas Plechavičius (lt:Povilas Plechavičius; 1890-1973): Imperial Russian and then Lithuanian military officer and statesman; best known for his actions during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence, for organizing the 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état and for leading a Lithuanian self-defence force during the German occupation of Lithuania.
Antanas Sniečkus (1903.01.07 [O.S. 1902.12.25] – 1974.01.22): First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party from 1940.08 to 1974.01.22. In 1944, due to the advance of the Red Army, his mother fled Lithuania to the West, and disowned her son. Two brothers and three sisters of Antanas Sniečkus also fled to the West. Sniečkus returned from Russia in 1944 with the Communist officials who had retreated during the German invasion of 1941.06.22. Lithuania was the only republic of USSR where not only mass persecution of old communists did not happen and not even one communist of pre-Soviet times was accused and arrested. At around this time his policies started to gain a national character. This policy had the form of sabotaging some orders of Moscow, demanding some privileges for Lithuania, and others.
Antanas Poška (1903.03.24 - 1992.10.16): prominent Lithuanian traveler and anthropologist, as well as an active member of the Esperanto movement in Lithuania. He is best known for his journey to India in 1929–36. In India, he studied Sanskrit and received bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Bombay and wrote his PhD thesis at the University of Calcutta on the Shina-speaking people but was unable to defend it. He interacted with India's intellectual elite and participated in anthropological expeditions. He met with Rabindranath Tagore and translated some of his works into Lithuanian. Poška returned to Lithuania in 1936 and worked as a journalist. He was recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations for hiding three Lithuanian Jews during the Holocaust in Lithuania. After the Soviet takeover in 1945, he refused to destroy books deemed unacceptable to the Soviet regime and was imprisoned in a Gulag. He was allowed to return to Lithuania in 1959 and worked as a lecturer and journalist and continued his anthropological studies, but his past as a political prisoner prevented him from taking a more prominent position. By age 60, he had visited 75 countries and 120 nations.
lt:Antanas Maceina (1908.01.27, Marijampolės apskritis – 1987.01.27, Münster, DE): vienas žymiausių Lietuvos filosofų. „filosofavo lietuviškai“. Antano Maceinos kūryboje ryškus du tarpsniai: iki nepriklausomybės netekimo ir jos netekus. Prasidėjus sovietinei okupacijai 1940 m. šeima su dviem mažamečiais vaikais pasitraukė į Vokietiją. 1942 m., Lietuvą okupavus vokiečiams, grįžo į tėvynę. 1944 m. pasitraukė į Vakarų Europą.
lt:Vytautas Kavolis (1930.10.08 in Kaunas – 1996.06.25): sociologas, visuomenės veikėjas. Lietuvių liberaliosios minties išeivijoje ugdytojas, daugybės darbų anglų ir lietuvių kalbomis autorius.
Arvydas Anušauskas (1963.09.29-): Lithuanian politician and historian. He focuses on the history of the interwar Lithuanian secret services, KGB actions in Lithuania, and Soviet repressions in Lithuania. As a member of the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, he was elected to the Seimas (parliament) in 2008 and reelected in 2012 and 2016.
Artists:
lt:Domantas Razauskas (1983.03.24) – dainų autorius ir atlikėjas, poetas, gitaristas, kompozitorius. Dainuojamosios poezijos atlikėjas
Modern politicians and modern parties in Lithuania
lt:Lietuvos Respublikos vyriausioji rinkimų komisija (VRK): rinkimus organizuojanti institucija Lietuvoje. Vykdo ir organizuoja LR Seimo, LR Prezidento ir savivaldybių tarybų rinkimus, taip pat referendumus. Komisijos teisinę padėtį, uždavinius, įgaliojimus, veiklos principus, taip pat jos sudarymo, darbo organizavimo tvarką ir finansavimą nustato Lietuvos Respublikos vyriausiosios rinkimų komisijos įstatymas.
Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party (Lietuvos krikščionių demokratų partija, LKDP): was a Christian-democratic political party in Lithuania; established in Lithuania in 1890 by a group of Roman Catholic clergy and intellectuals. The party was re-established in 1989, and won two seats in the 1990 Supreme Soviet elections. For the 1992 elections the LKDP ran in an alliance with the Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees and the Lithuanian Democratic Party. The party ran alone in the 1996 elections, winning 16 seats and becoming the second-largest party; following the elections it formed a coalition with the Homeland Union; however, the coalition broke up in June 1999. After winning only two seats in the 2000 elections, the party merged with the Christian Democratic Union in 2001 to form the Lithuanian Christian Democrats.
Lithuanian Christian Democrats (Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai, LKD): established in 2001 by a merger of the Christian Democratic Union and the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party, who between them held three seats in the Seimas. In 2008.05.17 the LKD merged with the Lithuanian Nationalist Union, which was renamed Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats as a result.
Christian Democratic Union (Lithuania) (Krikščionių demokratų sajunga, KDS; formerly LKDS): it contested the 1992 elections in an alliance with Young Lithuania, with the alliance winning a single seat, taken by the LKDS. In 2001 it merged with the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party to form the Lithuanian Christian Democrats.
Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees (Lietuvos politinių kalinių ir tremtinių sąjunga, LPKTS): was a political party in Lithuania between 1990 and 2004. It represented interest of those repressed by the Soviet regime, particularly political prisoners and deportees to Siberia. The party ran in alliance with the Homeland Union in the 2000 elections, with 19 of its candidates on the Homeland list. In 2004 it merged into the Homeland Union.
Homeland Union (Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats; Tėvynės sąjunga – Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai, TS-LKD): centre-right political party in Lithuania. The main centre-right party, with a particularly liberal conservative and Christian democratic, but also nationalist oriented and economically liberal ideology. Its current leader is MEP Gabrielius Landsbergis who replaced Andrius Kubilius in 2014. Founded in 1993.05 by the right wing of the Reform Movement of Lithuania, led by Vytautas Landsbergis, who had led Lithuania to independence. Until the merger with Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees and Right Union of Lithuania), it was known just as Homeland Union (Lithuanian Conservatives). The last change of the name was a result of the merger with the Lithuanian Nationalist Union in 2008.03.11, and the Lithuanian Christian Democrats on 2008.05.17, after which the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats became Lithuania's largest party with more than 18,000 members.
Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania (Lietuvos demokratinė darbo partija, LDDP): was a social democratic political party in Lithuania, that emerged from the Lithuanian section of the CPSU in 1989.12 LDDP was led by Algirdas Brazauskas, the first president of independent Lithuania. Because Brazauskas was elected as the first president, he was required to stop his activities in any parties. Adolfas Šleževičius became the party leader and the Prime Minister. After Šleževičius was charged with corruption, he was replaced by Česlovas Juršėnas. In 2001, LDDP merged with LSDP.
Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija, LSDP): social-democratic political party in Lithuania; was founded as an underground Marxist organization in 1896. In 1999, the party's congress elected a new leader, Vytenis Andriukaitis and merger negotiations with the reform communist LDDP began. Members of the party opposing the merger left to establish "Social democracy 2000" (later renamed "Social Democratic Union of Lithuania"). The coalition led by Social Democrats and LDDP won 51 of the 141 seats in the elections in 2000 (with 19 going to the Social Democrats). In 2001, LSDP and LDDP merged. After the merger, Algirdas Brazauskas was elected leader of the Social Democratic Party. Brazauskas resigned as the chairman of the party in 2007.05.19 and was replaced by Gediminas Kirkilas. In 2009.03.07 the party's congress elected a new leader, Algirdas Butkevičius. He was the party's candidate at the Lithuanian presidential election, 2009, coming in second place with 11.83% of the vote.
Lithuanian Regions Party: social-democratic political party in Lithuania. It was founded in 2018 as the Social Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos socialdemokratų darbo partija, LSDDP) following a split of members from Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSDP; also joined by former members of the Labour Party) following the LSDP's decision to exit a coalition government with the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union in 2017.
lt:Lietuvos regionų partija (iki 2021 m. – Lietuvos socialdemokratų darbo partija): 2021.06.19 partijos pirmininku tapo Jonas Pinskus, o tais pačiais metais partija pakeitė pavadinimą į Lietuvos regionų partija.
lt:Linas Balsys (1961) (1961.05.01 Vilniuje-): Lietuvos radijo ir televizijos žurnalistas, redaktorius, LR Seimo narys. Nuo 2012 m. Lietuvos žaliųjų partijos pirmininkas, Seimo narys; 2014 m. Lietuvos Respublikos Prezidento rinkimų dalyvis (jam nepavyko surinkti būtino parašų kiekio).
lt:Lietuvos žaliųjų partija (įregistruota 2011.05.11 Vilniuje, Šermukšnių g. 6A): Partijos pirmininkas: Linas Balsys. Žaliųjų partija kelia ekologijos, žaliosios energetikos plėtros problemas.
Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Union: Agrarian political party in Lithuania led by industrial farmer Ramūnas Karbauskis. In 2006.02, the Peasants and New Democratic Party Union led by Lithuanian politician Kazimiera Prunskienė chose to rename itself after the pre-war Lithuanian Popular Peasants' Union.
lt:Lietuvos valstiečių ir žaliųjų sąjunga (LVŽS): Ramūno Karbauskio vadovaujama centro kairioji Lietuvos politinė partija. 2014 m. Europos Parlamento rinkimuose partija surinko 6,62 proc. rinkėjų balsų ir gavo mandatą. EP nariu tapo ilgametis Ignalinos meras Bronis Ropė. 2005 m. partijos pirmininke išrinkta buvusios Naujosios demokratijos (moterų) partijos vadovė, pirmoji atkurtos Lietuvos premjerė, prof. habil. dr. Kazimiera Prunskienė. 2004-2008 m. Seime Valstiečių liaudininkų sąjungos frakcijoje buvo 14 narių, partija buvo valdančiosios koalicijos dalis, XIV vyriausybėje buvo partijos deleguoti trys ministrai (užsienio reikalų, žemės ūkio, ūkio). Partija 2004-2009 m. turėjo ir savo atstovą Europos Parlamente - Gintarą Didžioką. 2008 m. Seimo rinkimai partijai buvo nesėkmingi: daugiamandatėje apygardoje neperkoptas 5 % barjeras, o vienmandatėse gautos 3 vietos Seime.
Lithuanian Peasants Party (Lietuvos valstiečių partija, LVP): party was established in 1990 as the Lithuanian Peasants Union, before becoming the Lithuanian Peasants Party in 1994. It won a single seat in the 1996 elections and four seats in the 2000 elections. In 2001 the party merged with the New Democracy Party to form the Union of Peasants and New Democracy Parties.
lt:Naujoji demokratija - Moterų partija (New Democracy Part): 1995–1998 m. Moterų partija. 2001 m. Naujosios demokratijos partija. 2001 m. susijungusi su Lietuvos valstiečių partija ir sudariusi Valstiečių ir Naujosios demokratijos partijų sąjunga (VNDS). Tarp lyderių buvo partijos pirmininkė ir LMA prezidentė profesorė Kazimiera Prunskienė, Tarybos pirmininkė poetė, verslininkė Dalia Teišerskytė, vicepirmininkės – verslininkų asociacijos viceprezidentė Valerija Brazienė Gitelman (Panevėžys) ir Kauno technologijos universiteto docentė, socialinių mokslų daktarė Ž. Simonavičienė. 2001.12.15 Valstiečių ir Naujosios demokratijos partijų suvažiavime buvo pasirašyta jungimosi sutartis tarp Valstiečių ir Naujosios demokratijos partijų; Valstiečių ir Naujosios demokratijos partijų sąjungos pirmininke išrinkta prof. Kazimiera Danutė Prunskienė.
lt:Lietuvos liberalų sąjunga (LLS; EN: Liberal Union of Lithuania) – Lietuvos dešinioji politinė partija, veikusi 1990–2002 m. 1990 m. Vilniaus Universitete veikė liberalų klubas, kuriame studentai ir dėstytojai diskutuodavo politikos klausimais. Kaune įsikūrė klubas „Liberalija“. 1990.06.21 Liberalų klube susibūrė Liberalų sąjungos iniciatyvinė grupė. Pagrindinė LLS steigėjus vienijusi mintis – kad Tėvynės laisvė yra tik prielaida asmens laisvei užtikrinti. Dauguma LLS steigėjų prieš tai aktyviai dalyvavo Sąjūdžio veikloje. 2001.12.21 Rolandas Paksas ir 10 Seimo narių pasitraukė iš Liberalų frakcijos Seime; 2002.01 dalis šių Seimo narių išstojo iš LLS, kiti buvo pašalinti už elgesį, nesuderinamą su Sąjungos tikslais ir įstatais. 2002.04.10 Seimo Liberalų frakcijos seniūnu išrinktas Eligijus Masiulis. 2002.04.20 Liberalų sąjungos pirmininkas Eugenijus Gentvilas partijos kongrese patvirtintas LLS kandidatu į Lietuvos Respublikos Prezidentus. Pirmuoju LLS pirmininko pavaduotoju patvirtintas Vilniaus meras Artūras Zuokas, o pirmininko pavaduotoju – Šiaulių liberalų lyderis Arvydas Salda. Prasidėjo suartėjimas su žymia dalimi Lietuvos centro sąjungos narių ir buvo nutarta abi partijas sujungti. Prie naujosios partijos prisijungė ir modernieji krikščionys demokratai.
lt:Lietuvos Respublikos liberalų sąjūdis: liberalios krypties LT politinė partija, susikūrusi 2006.02.25. 1990-2003 m. Liberalų Sąjūdžio pirmtake buvo Lietuvos liberalų sąjunga. 2005 m. gruodį naujos partijos steigimo iniciatoriai paskelbė Liberalų sąjūdžio Steigimo manifestą: tarp iniciatorių buvo Eugenijus Gentvilas, Petras Auštrevičius, Gintaras Steponavičius, Eligijus Masiulis, Dalia Teišerskytė, Algirdas Gricius, Dainius Pūras ir daugelis kitų; LLRS partijos programoje "PILIEČIŲ RESPUBLIKA" įsipareigojo siekti teisingos Lietuvos, išsilavinusios visuomenės ir pasiturinčio žmogaus. Pirmininkai: 2006–2008 m. Petras Auštrevičius; 2008–2016 m. Eligijus Masiulis; 2016.05.12-18 Antanas Guoga (laikinai einantis pareigas); nuo 2016.06 Remigijus Šimašius (nuo 2016.05.18 laikinai einantis pirmininko pareigas).
Liberal Movement (Lithuania) (Liberalų Sąjūdis; formally the Liberals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania Lithuanian: Lietuvos Respublikos Liberalų sąjūdis (LRLS)): conservative-liberal political party in Lithuania; previously participated in a governing coalition, along with the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats and Liberal and Centre Union. Party was founded in 2006 by dissident members of the Liberal and Centre Union that were unhappy with Artūras Zuokas's leadership. After party's leader Eligijus Masiulis allegedly took a bribe of 100,000 euro, Antanas Guoga took his position. But he was the chairman for 4 days only, and has resigned. The mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Šimašius, is the current chairman of the party.
lt:Lietuvos laisvės sąjunga (liberalai): Lietuvos politinė partija, įkurta 2014.07.12, jungiamajame suvažiavime susijungus Liberalų ir centro sąjungai bei politinei partijai „Sąjunga TAIP“. Partijos pirmininku išrinktas tuometinis Vilniaus miesto meras Artūras Zuokas.
Liberal and Centre Union (Liberalų ir centro sąjunga, LiCS): was a conservative-liberal political party in Lithuania active between 2003 and 2014. Formed in 2003 by a merger of the Liberal Union of Lithuania, Centre Union of Lithuania and Modern Christian Democratic Union.
lt:TAIP (Tėvynės atgimimas ir perspektyva; EN: YES – Homeland Revival and Perspective): Sąjungos-judėjimo „TAIP“ pirmininkas yra Vilniaus meras Artūras Zuokas. 2011.11.19 partijos steigiamajame suvažiavime pirmininko pavaduotojais išrinkti Žilvinas Šilgalis, Donatas Pilinkus, Miroslavas Monkevičius.
Labour Party (Lithuania) (Darbo Partija, DP): anti-immigrant, centre-left populist political party in Lithuania; party was founded in 2003 by the Russian-born millionaire businessman Viktor Uspaskich. In 2011, the New Union (Social Liberals) merged with the party.
New Union (Social Liberals) (Naujoji sąjunga (socialliberalai), NS): was a social-liberal political party in Lithuania. It was founded in 1998 and is led by Artūras Paulauskas. In 2000 it formed a coalition government with the Liberal Union, and in 2001 a new coalition with the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) and later on in 2004 a coalition with the LSDP and the Labour Party, which lasted until 2008.
Order and Justice (Partija tvarka ir teisingumas, PTT; formerly the Liberal Democratic Party Liberalų Demokratų Partija, LDP): right-wing national liberal political party in Lithuania. Achieved almost immediate success with the election of leader Rolandas Paksas as President of Lithuania within its first year. Paksas's impeachment led to the party reorganising itself as 'Order and Justice' to compete in the 2004 parliamentary election. Since then, it has been the fourth-largest party in the Seimas, and finished third in the elections to the European Parliament and to the presidency.
Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija or LLRA; Akcja Wyborcza Polaków na Litwie or AWPL): represents the Polish minority and positions itself as Christian democratic. Formed in 1994 from the political wing of the Association of Poles in Lithuania, LLRA experienced a surge in support in the 2000s, under the leadership of Waldemar Tomaszewski.
lt:Lietuvos regionų partija: 2017 m. rugsėjį, užbaigus Lietuvos socialdemokratų partijos apklausą dėl Lietuvos valstiečių ir žaliųjų sąjungos ir Lietuvos socialdemokratų partijos koalicijos, partijos taryba nusprendė pasitraukti iš koalicijos. Šiam žingsniui nepritarė dauguma (dvylika iš devyniolikos narių) partijos vadovautos Seimo frakcijos narių (be socialdemokratų šiai frakcijai priklausė ir Darbo partijos nariai Valentinas Bukauskas ir Petras Čimbaras). 2017 m. spalio 14 d. Lietuvos socialdemokratų partijos frakcijos nariai, nepritarę koalicijos nutraukimui, buvo pašalinti iš Lietuvos socialdemokratų partijos. 2021 m. partijos pirmininku tapo Jonas Pinskus, o tais pačiais metais partija pakeitė pavadinimą į Lietuvos regionų partija.
de:Lietuvos socialdemokratų darbo partija: LSDDP, Sozialdemokratische Arbeitspartei Litauens) ist eine politische Partei in Litauen. Die Partei entstand 2018 durch die Abspaltung von der Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija (LSDP). Bekannte Mitglieder: Stellv. Vorsitzende: Juozas Bernatonis, Ingrida Baltrušytė-Četrauskienė, Petras Čimbaras, Kęstutis Daukšys, Elvinas Jankevičius, Andrius Palionis, Živilė Pinskuvienė, Andrius Šedžius, Irena Šiaulienė
lt:Remigijus Šimašius (1974.01.12-; Tauragėje): teisininkas, Lietuvos politikas, Vilniaus meras, buvęs Lietuvos teisingumo ministras ir Seimo narys.
Ramūnas Karbauskis (1969.12.05-; Naisiai): Lithuanian businessman, politician and philanthropist. Participating in politics since mid-1990s, Karbauskis has been elected to the national parliament, the Seimas, on three occasions: elections of 1996, he ran as an independent and was elected to the Seventh Seimas in the single-seat constituency of Šiauliai (rural) (45); elections of 2000 Karbauskis was reelected in his single-seat constituency, representing Lithuanian Peasants Party; 2016.
de:Česlovas Vytautas Karbauskis (1945 bei Varniai-): litauischer Manager und Unternehmer, ehemaliger sowjetlitauischer Agronom, Kolchos-Leiter und Politiker. Seit 2005 ist er Ehrenbürger des Dorfs Naisiai. Vater von Ramūnas und Mindaugas.
lt:Mindaugas Karbauskis (1972.01.28-; Naisiai): lietuvių teatro režisierius, kuriantis Maskvoje.
lt:Naglis Puteikis (1964.09.02-): 1997.02.04–1997.04.24 Seimo narys. 2011.07.17 priešlaikiniuose rinkimuose Danės vienmandatėje apygardoje išrinktas Seimo nariu, prisiekė 2011.09.12. 2012.10.28 eilinių Seimo rinkimų pakartotinio balsavimo metu 2-e ture Danės vienmandatėje apygardoje įveikęs buvusį Klaipėdos m. merą R.Taraškevičių vėl išrinktas Seimo nariu.
lt:Aušra Maldeikienė (1958.06.04-): ekonomistė, politikė, publicistė, ekonomikos vadovėlių autorė. 2015 išrinkta į Vilniaus miesto savivaldybės tarybą nuo politinės partijos „Lietuvos sąrašas“.
lt:Kazimira Danutė Prunskienė (1943.02.26-): Lietuvos Nepriklausomos Valstybės Atstatymo Akto signatarė, 1990–1991 m. Lietuvos ministrė pirmininkė, 2004–2008 m. Lietuvos Žemės ūkio ministrė. 1980 m. – 1990 m. kovo 10 d. – SSKP narė. 1995 m. – viena iš Lietuvos moterų partijos steigėjų. Nuo 1995 m. vasario 25 d. iki 1998 m. – šios partijos pirmininkė. 1998 m. perrinkta atsinaujinusios ir pavadinimą pakoregavusios Naujosios demokratijos/Moterų partijos pirmininke. Nuo 2000 m., pakeitus partijos pavadinimą, – Naujosios demokratijos partijos pirmininkė. 2001 m. susijungus Naujosios demokratijos partijai ir Lietuvos valstiečių partijai išrinkta Valstiečių ir Naujosios demokratijos partijų sąjungos pirmininke. 2005 m. įvykusiame Valstiečių ir Naujosios demokratijos partijų sąjungos suvažiavime, nutarta pasivadinti Lietuvos valstiečių liaudininkų sąjunga (LVLS→LVŽS). Kazimira Prunskienė išrinkta partijos pirmininke. 2008 m. Seimo rinkimai partijai buvo nesėmingi – partija neįveikė 5 % barjero, o vienmandatėse apygardose gautos trys vietos Seime. 2009 m. gegužę K. Prunskienė nusprendė kaip nepriklausoma kandidatė balotiruotis LR Prezidento rinkimuose ir atsisakė antrąkart kandidatuoti į partijos vadovo postą. Labai nesėkmingi partijai buvo 2009 m. Europos Parlamento rinikimai – partija kandidatuodama be buvusios lyderės surinko tik 1,87 % balsų. 2009.07.08 buvusi partijos lyderė K. Prunskienė parašo pareiškimą dėl išstojimo iš LVLS. Savo pareiškime LVLS tarybai K. Prunskienė kritikuoja partijos pavadinimą ir stiprėjantį apsiribojimą vienos visuomenės grupės-žemdirbių atstovavimu ar net vienos šios grupės dalies ūkiniais–komerciniais interesais. 2009.12.05 Vilniuje K. Prunskienė įsteigė naują partiją – Lietuvos Liaudies Sąjūdį (LLS). Sąjūdžio pirmininkė vieną iš daugelio naujos partijos tikslų įvardija „palankiai atsisukti į Rusiją, Kazachstaną ar Baltarusiją“. 2010 m. balandžio 20 d. jos nauja partija buvo sėkmingai įregistruota dabartiniu pavadinimu Lietuvos Liaudies Partija (LLP).
Composition in LRS, EP, Municipal councils, Mayors
lt:Seimo valdyba: LRS vykdomoji institucija, sudaroma Seimo kadencijos laikotarpiui. Sudaro Seimo pirmininkas, kuris šaukia valdybos posėdžius ir vadovauja jos darbui, Seimo pirmininko pirmasis pavaduotojas ir 5 Seimo pirmininko pavaduotojai.
Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science (lt:Vilniaus universiteto Tarptautinių santykių ir politikos mokslų institutas (VU TSPMI)): branch of Vilnius University which prepares political science and international relations specialists and carries out policy research. This is one of the most prominent social science institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic sea region. While first focusing mostly on educating the future members of the Lithuanian diplomatic corps, the Institute has gradually enlarged its program to include subjects relevant to public administration, non-governmental and private institutions.
lt:Vilniaus universiteto Medicinos fakultetas: vienas iš Vilniaus universiteto fakultetų, kuriame ruošiami medicinos gydytojai, ergoterapeutai, kineziterapeutai, odontologai, visuomenės sveikatos, slaugos, medicinos biologijos, medicinos genetikos ir medicinos fizikos specialistai. Fakultetą sudaro 7 katedros, 2 institutai, 11 klinikų, jungiančių per 50 centrų ir laboratorijų.
lt:Lietuvos edukologijos universitetas (1992-2011: Vilniaus pedagoginis universitetas; 2011-): 1935–1939 m. Respublikos pedagoginis institutas; 1939–1992 m. Vilniaus (Tautų draugystės ordino valstybinis) pedagoginis institutas.
lt:Policijos departamentas (Policijos departamentas prie Lietuvos Respublikos vidaus reikalų ministerijos; PD prie LR VRM): vidaus reikalų sistemos centrinė įstaiga, kurios paskirtis – organizuoti ir kontroliuoti policijos sistemos veiklą, siekiant užtikrinti asmens, visuomenės saugumą ir viešąją tvarką.
lt:Lietuvos kriminalinės policijos biuras: specializuota policijos įstaiga, kriminalinės policijos organizacija Lietuvoje, kurios tikslas yra apsaugoti visuomenės interesus nuo nusikalstamo poveikio, užkardant, atskleidžiant ir tiriant baudžiamąsias veikas. Įstaiga įkurta 2001 m. kaip Nacionalinė kriminalinės žvalgybos valdyba, sujungus Organizuoto nusikalstamumo tyrimo, Kriminalinių nusikaltimų tyrimo, Ekonominių nusikaltimų tyrimo, Operatyvinės veiklos tarnybas ir Interpolo Lietuvos nacionalinis biurą; tais pačiais metais valdyba pervadinta į Lietuvos kriminalinės policijos biurą.
lt:Lietuvos Respublikos specialiųjų tyrimų tarnyba (STT): Respublikos Prezidentui ir Seimui atskaitinga, statutiniais pagrindais veikianti valstybės teisėsaugos įstaiga, kuri atskleidžia ir tiria korupcinio pobūdžio nusikalstamas veikas, rengia ir įgyvendina korupcijos prevencijos priemones. STT tikslas – mažinti korupciją, kaip grėsmę žmogaus teisėms ir laisvėms, teisinės valstybės principams, ekonominei plėtrai.
lt:Lietuvos Respublikos valstybės saugumo departamentas (LR VSD, VSD): institucija, atskaitinga Seimui ir prezidentui; paskirtis – stiprinti Lietuvos Respublikos nacionalinį saugumą, renkant informaciją apie rizikos veiksnius, pavojus ir grėsmes, pateikiant ją nacionalinį saugumą užtikrinančioms institucijoms ir šalinant šiuos rizikos veiksnius, pavojus ir grėsmes. VSD vadovą penkerių metų kadencijai Seimo pritarimu skiria Lietuvos Respublikos prezidentas. Žvalgyba; Kontržvalgyba; Įslaptintos informacijos apsauga
lt:Vyriausybinių ryšių centras: 1993–2013 m. buvo pavaldus Saugumo tarnybai (vėliau Valstybės saugumo departamentui), o nuo 2014 m. – Lietuvos Respublikos krašto apsaugos ministerijai.
lt:Antrasis operatyvinių tarnybų departamentas prie Krašto apsaugos ministerijos: Lietuvos specialioji tarnyba, operatyvinės veiklos subjektas. Tai krašto apsaugos ministrui pavaldi žvalgybos, kontržvalgybos ir kitas funkcijas atliekanti krašto apsaugos sistemos institucija, kurios paskirtis – stiprinti krašto apsaugos sistemos saugumą ir šalies gynybinę galią.
Skvernelis Cabinet: President Dalia Grybauskaitė appointed Saulius Skvernelis, an independent politician who had led the electoral list of LVŽS, as the Prime Minister in 2016.11.22. The cabinet received its mandate on 2016.12.13.
lt:Lietuvos Respublikos valstybinio socialinio draudimo fondas ("SoDra"): LR valstybinio socialinio draudimo įstatymo nustatyta tvarka valdomi centralizuoti tiksliniai finansiniai ir materialiniai ištekliai, kurie yra įtraukiami į apskaitą nuo valstybės ir savivaldybių biudžetų atskirtame Valstybinio socialinio draudimo fondo biudžete ir yra naudojami valstybiniam socialiniam pensijų, ligos ir motinystės, nedarbo, sveikatos bei nelaimingų atsitikimų darbe ir profesinių ligų draudimui finansuoti, valdyti ir administruoti.
lt:Lietuvos bankas: Lietuvos Respublikos centrinis bankas, Europos Centrinių Bankų Sistemos narys. 1990–1992 m. Lietuvai vis dar priklausant rublio zonai, Lietuvos bankas negalėjo imtis aktyvios pinigų politikos, todėl pagrindinės pastangos buvo skirtos pasirengti įvesti savus pinigus. 1992.10.01 įvesti laikinieji pinigai talonai ir Lietuvos bankas jau galėjo savarankiškai atlikti centrinio banko funkcijas. 1993.06.25 įvestas litas, nuslopinta triženklė infliacija, stabilizuotas lito kursas. Siekiant santykinio kainų stabilumo ilgesniu laikotarpiu, 1994.04.01 Lito patikimumo įstatymu litas susietas su JAV doleriu fiksuotu kursu, taip pat numatyta, kad Lietuvos banko išleisti litai privalo ne mažiau kaip 100% būti padengti aukso ir konvertuojamosios valiutos atsargomis. Po 1995-1996 m. bankų krizės Lietuvos bankas gavo bankų priežiūros funkciją. Lietuvai vis labiau integruojantis į Vakarus, plėtojantis ekonominiams ryšiams su ES šalimis ir vykstant atitinkamiems pokyčiams prekybos valiutinėje struktūroje, 1999 m. nutarta litą perorientuoti nuo JAV dolerio prie euro. 2001.03.13 priimta nauja Lietuvos banko įstatymo redakcija skelbia, kad Lietuvos Respublikoje centrinis bankas yra Lietuvos bankas, kurio nuosavybės teisė priklauso Lietuvos valstybei. Lietuvos banką steigia ir likviduoja Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas. Naujuoju įstatymu centriniui bankui taip pat suteikta didesnė nepriklausomybė ir galimybė aktyviau vykdyti pinigų politiką. Tais pačiai metais priimti sprendimai dėl lito susiejimo su euru 2002.02.02, išlaikant fiksuotą valiutos kursą (1 euras = 3,4528 lito).
lt:Lietuvos energija: Lietuvos valstybės valdoma energetikos įmonių grupė. Įmonių grupės veikla apima elektros ir šilumos energijos gamybą, tiekimą, elektros energijos importą, eksportą, prekybą ir skirstymą, gamtinių dujų tiekimą, skirstymą, taip pat elektros energetikos ūkio aptarnavimą ir plėtrą.
Litgrid: Lithuanian electricity transmission system operator that operates Lithuania's electricity transmission grid. Litgrid is responsible for the integration of the Lithuanian electricity system into the European electricity infrastructure and the common electricity market. Synchronisation: in 2019.06.20 in Brussels, a political agreement was signed on the implementation of the synchronisation of the Baltic electricity system with the European grid. The agreement established a specific action plan and key projects to be implemented until 2025, when the Baltic states are to join the secure and reliable European energy system.
lt:Litgrid: Lietuvos akcinė bendrovė, valdanti Lietuvos elektros perdavimo tinklą.
NordBalt: submarine power cable between Klaipėda in Lithuania and Nybro in Sweden. The aim of the project is to promote trading between Baltic and Nordic electricity markets, as also to increase the security of power supply in both markets. Operations started on 2016.02.01 with an initial power transmission at 30 MW.
LitPol Link: Lithuania–Poland interconnection, 1000 MW electricity link between the Baltic transmission system and the synchronous grid of Continental Europe.
Harmony Link: planned submarine power cable between Lithuania and Poland. The purpose of the cable is to finish the transition of the Baltic states from IPS/UPS to the synchronous grid of Continental Europe.
Lithuanian Land Force: Size [2017]: 8,120 active duty; 4,550 active reserve (volunteers).
Equipment of Lithuanian Land Force: Since 1992.11.19 the Lithuanian Land Force of the Lithuanian Armed Forces has been working towards modernisation and adopting NATO-compatible equipment and replacing the equipment that it inherited from USSR.
Lithuanian Special Operations Force#Structure and tasks (Lietuvos Specialiųjų Operacijų Pajėgos; "Žaliukai" ((in English) like “forest / green brothers”), "Aitvaras" ): special operation unit of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, formed exclusively of carefully selected, motivated and specially trained professionals. The main tasks of the Special Operations Force are counter terrorism, special reconnaissance, and hostage rescue.
Latvian National Awakening (latviešu [or latvju] tautas atmoda): three distinct but ideologically related National revival movements:
the First Awakening refers to the national revival led by the Young Latvians from the 1850s to the 1880s,
the Second Awakening or "New Current" was the movement that led to the proclamation of Latvian independence in 1918,
the Third Awakening was the movement that led to the restoration of Latvia's independence in the "Singing Revolution" of 1987–1991.
Young Latvians (jaunlatvieši): term most often applied to the intellectuals of the First Latvian National Awakening, active from the 1850s to the 1880s. The movement was modeled on the Young Germany (Junges Deutschland) movement led by Heinrich Heine. Originally a derogatory epithet applied to these nationalist intellectuals by their mostly Baltic German opponents, the term "Young Latvia" ("ein junges Lettland") was first used by Gustav Wilhelm Sigmund Brasche, the pastor of Nīca, in a review of Juris Alunāns' Dziesmiņas latviešu valodai pārtulkotas ("Little Songs Translated for the Latvian Language") in the newspaper Das Inland in 1856.
New Current (Jaunā strāva): in the history of Latvia was a broad leftist social and political movement that followed the First Latvian National Awakening (led by the Young Latvians from the 1850s to the 1880s) and culminated in the 1905 Revolution. Participants in the movement were called jaunstrāvnieki.
Rainis (Jānis Pliekšāns; 1865.09.11–1929.09.12): Latvian poet, playwright, translator, and politician. Rainis' works include the classic plays Uguns un nakts (Fire and Night, 1905) and Indulis un Ārija (Indulis and Ārija, 1911), and a highly regarded translation of Goethe's Faust. His works had a profound influence on the literary Latvian language, and the ethnic symbolism he employed in his major works has been central to Latvian nationalism.
Early career: Because of their social criticism and calls for various reforms, the New Current was viewed as a seditious movement and was the subject of a Tsarist crackdown. In 1897 Rainis was arrested and deported first to Pskov, and later to Vyatka guberniya (now Kirov Oblast). It was during this period of internal exile that Rainis translated Faust and other works from classical literature. In addition to Faust, Rainis also translated the works of William Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller, Heinrich Heine, and Aleksandr Pushkin into Latvian. These translations helped to expand his native language by adding new words to its vocabulary.
Legacy and commemoration: Rainis' statue at the Esplanāde in Riga - focal point for the national poetry festival, always held on his birthday, as well as a focus for the left wing, from the Social Democrats to the radical opposition to Latvia's education reform (in part because of Rainis' support for minority schools; he was instrumental to the founding of Belarusian schools in Latvia). Similarly, criticism of his work has often been strongly affected by politics; while the Soviets emphasized his socialism (his image even appeared on a commemorative Soviet ruble coin; being buried next to Rainis' grave in Rainis' Cemetery in Riga was an honor reserved for senior Soviet military), Daugava and other patriotic works were omitted from editions of Rainis' texts prior to the Third Latvian National Awakening.
Latvian Riflemen (Latviešu strēlnieki; Латышские стрелки): originally a military formation of the Imperial Russian Army assembled starting 1915 in Latvia in order to defend Baltic territories against the Germans in World War I. Initially, the battalions were formed by volunteers, and from 1916 by conscription among the Latvian population. A total of about 40,000 troops were drafted into the Latvian Riflemen Division. They were used as an elite force in the Imperial and Bolshevik armies. WWI. Red Latvian Riflemen: in 1917.05 large parts of the Latvian regiments transferred their loyalty to the Bolsheviks. actively participated in the Russian Civil War. The Riflemen took an active part in the suppression of anti-Bolshevik uprisings in Moscow and Yaroslavl in 1918. They fought against Denikin, Yudenich, and Wrangel. After victory in Oryol-Kromy operation against Denikin in October 1919 division of Latvian Riflemen received the highest military recognition of that time: the Honorable Red Flag of VTsIK. White Latvian Riflemen: In 1917, a smaller number of Latvian Riflemen, mostly officers, sided against the Bolsheviks.
Duchy of Estonia (1561–1721) (Swedish Estonia): dominion of the Swedish Empire from 1561 until 1721 during the time that most or all of Estonia was under Swedish rule.
Commune of the Working People of Estonia (1918–1919): unrecognised government claiming the Bolshevik-occupied parts of Republic of Estonia as its territories during the Estonian War of Independence and the Russian Civil War. The primary purpose of this entity, temporary by its very design, was to give the impression of an Estonian civil war in order to mask Soviet Russian aggression.
Estonian War of Independence (1918.11.28 – 1920.02.02; Vabadussõda, literally "Freedom War"): defensive campaign of the Estonian Army and its allies, most notably the White Russian Northwestern Army, Latvia, and the United Kingdom, against the Soviet Western Front offensive and the aggression of the Baltische Landeswehr. It was fought in connection with the Russian Civil War during 1918–1920. The campaign was the struggle of Estonia for its sovereignty in the aftermath of WWI. It resulted in a victory for the newly established state and was concluded in the Treaty of Tartu.
Saatse Boot: an area of Russian territory of 115 ha (280 acres) that extends through the road between the Estonian villages of Lutepää and Sesniki (themselves between the larger settlement Värska and village of Saatse) in Värska Parish. The piece of land resembles a boot, which is why it is given such name.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves (1953.12.26-): 4th President of Estonia, in office since 2006; worked as a diplomat and journalist, and he was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the 1990s. He served in the government as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2002. Later, he was a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2006.
Bronze Soldier of Tallinn (Pronkssõdur, Бронзовый солдат): informal name of a controversial Soviet WWII war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, built at the site of several war graves, which were relocated to the nearby Tallinn Military Cemetery in 2007. In 2007.04, the Estonian government relocated the Bronze Soldier and, after their exhumation and identification, the remains of the Soviet soldiers, to the Defence Forces Cemetery of Tallinn. Not all remains were reburied there, as relatives were given a chance to claim them, and several bodies were reburied in various locations in the former Soviet Union according to the wishes of the relatives.
Bronze Night (2007.04.26–04.29): riots in Estonia surrounding the controversial 2007 relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a Soviet WWII memorial in Tallinn. Many ethnic Estonians considered the Bronze Soldier in the city centre a symbol of Soviet occupation and repression. At the same time, the monument has significant symbolic value to Estonia's large ethnic Russian community, symbolising not only Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in WWII, but also their claim to equal rights in Estonia. Disagreement over the appropriateness of the action led to mass protests and riots (accompanied by looting), lasting for two nights, the worst in Estonia since the Soviet reoccupation in 1944. During the riots, one Russian rioter was killed.
Kursenieki (Curonians; Kuršininkai): nearly extinct Baltic ethnic group living along the Curonian Spit. "Kuršininkai" refers only to inhabitants of Lithuania and former East Prussia that speak a Latvian language dialect. Autochthonous inhabitants of Palanga in Lithuania call themselves "Curonians" as well, but in Lithuania they usually are counted as Latvians.
Tutejszy: was a self-identification of rural population in mixed-lingual areas of Eastern and Northern Europe, including Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Latvia, in particular, in Polesie and Podlasie. As a self-identification, it persisted in Lithuania's Vilnius Region into the late 20th century.
Riga (696,593 inhabitants (2015)): largest city of the Baltic states and home to one third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga, at the mouth of the Daugava, on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga is served by Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states. By 1900, Riga was the third largest city in Russia after Moscow and Saint Petersburg in terms of the number of industrial workers and number of theatres. By 1867, Riga's population was 42.9% German. Riga employed German as its official language of administration until the installation of Russian in 1891 as the official language in the Baltic provinces, as part of the policy of Russification of the non-Russian speaking territories of the Russian Empire, including Congress Poland, Finland and the Baltics, undertaken by Tsar Alexander III.
Riga Planning Region: a little under half of the Latvian population lives in Riga Region, which makes it the largest region in the Baltic states with 1,098,523 inhabitants in 2009 and a population density of 303 per km². The river Daugava has been a trade route since antiquity, part of the Vikings' Dvina-Dnieper navigation route to Byzantium. A sheltered natural harbour 15 km upriver from the mouth of the Daugava — the site of today's Riga — has been recorded, as Duna Urbs, as early as the 2nd century. It was settled by the Livs, an ancient Finnic tribe.
Demographic history of the Vilnius region: at various times come under Polish-Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, German, and Soviet rule. The population has been categorised by linguistic and sometimes also religious indicators. At the end of the 19th century the main languages spoken were Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Russian. Both Catholic and Orthodox Christianity were represented, while a large proportion of those within the city were Jews. The "Lithuanian" element was seen as declining, while the "Slavic" element was increasing. Russian census of 1897; 1916 German census; 1921 Polish census; Polish census of 1931; Lithuanian census of 1939; <...> Soviet census of January 1989.
Republic of Central Lithuania (1920–1922): short-lived political entity, which did not gain international recognition. The republic was created in 1920 following the staged rebellion of soldiers of the 1st Lithuanian–Belarusian Infantry Division of the Polish Army under Lucjan Żeligowski, supported by the Polish air force, cavalry and artillery.
Vilnius, Vilna, Wilno, ...: city of contrasts: many Jews lived in this city till WWII:
Ethnic history of the Vilnius region#Censuses: people did not know the genetics but knew a bit about language, culture, and politics-religion to make decisions as needed or as the takers of census wanted.
lt:Vilniaus taboras: čigonų (romų) taboras, įsikūręs Vilniaus pietiniame pakraštyje, Naujininkų seniūnijoje, Kirtimų mikrorajone. Tai didžiausias ir seniausias Lietuvos taboras, didžiausios čigonų koncentracijos vieta Baltijos šalyse. aboras pasižymi skurdžiomis gyvenimo sąlygomis, garsėja kaip prekybos narkotikais (heroinu) centras. Aukštutinis taboras tvarkingesnis, ten gyvenantys čigonai yra katalikai. Dalis namų turi elektrą, veikia palydovinė televizija. Žemutinis taboras, kuriame gyvena čigonai stačiatikiai, yra skurdesnis, sudarytas iš keliolikos trobesių.
Bridges:
lt:Nemenčinės tiltas (1932; rekonstruotas 1960 ir 2008): tiltas per Nerį Nemenčinėje, netoli Nemenčios žiočių, kelyje 108 (Vievis–Maišiagala–Nemenčinė). Tilto ilgis 122.5 m, plotis 6.5 m, aukštis 9.8 m. Geležinis, paremtas trimis pilioriais.
lt:Valakampių tiltas (1972): gelžbetoninis tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje. Ilgiausias (341.5 m) tiltas Vilniuje.
lt:Šilo tiltas (1999): tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje, jungiantis Antakalnį ir Žirmūnus. Ilgis apie 100 m.
lt:Žirmūnų tiltas (1966): gelžbetoninis automobilių ir pėsčiųjų tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje, jungiantis Žirmūnus ir Antakalnį; pirmasis TSRS rėminis-konsolinis tiltas. Ilgis 210.4 m., plotis 20.8 m., aukštis 18 m. Tiltas - trijų dalių, centrinės dalies ilgis - 100 metrų.
lt:Mindaugo tiltas (2003, karaliaus Mindaugo karūnavimo 750 metų jubiliejaus proga): nutiestas Vilniuje, per Neries upę, jungia Žirmūnų seniūniją su Vilniaus senamiesčiu. Ilgis – 101 m, plotis – 19.7 m. Trys eismo juostos.
lt:Žaliasis tiltas (Vilnius) (1952; rekonstruotas 1977 ir 2006): tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje. Ilgis 102.9 m., plotis 24 m., aukštis 15 m. 2010 po tiltu buvo pritvirtinta skulptūra „Grandinė“. 1952 tiltas buvo pavadintas Ivano Černiachovskio garbei ir papuoštas keturiomis skulptūrų grupėmis, 2015.07.20-21 visos skulptūrų grupės buvo nukeltos.
lt:Baltasis tiltas (1995): pėsčiųjų tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje. Ilgis 240 m., plotis 6 m., aukštis 11.4 m.
lt:Geležinio Vilko tiltas (1979): tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje. Ilgis 260 m, plotis 38.8 m, aukštis 12 m.
lt:Žvėryno tiltas (1906; rekonstruotas 2006): tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje. Ilgis 103.1 m., plotis 11.35 m., aukštis 11 m. Pastatytas per du metus 1905-1907 m. ir pavadinas Nikolajaus tiltu. 1944 m. vidurinioji tilto dalis buvo nugriauta, bet greitai atstatyta. 1987 m. pastebėjus, kad tiltas avarinės būklės, šalia pastatytas naujas Liubarto tiltas, kurio nukreiptas viešojo transporto eismas. 1991 m. ant tilto stovėjo Seimo gynėjų barikados.
lt:Liubarto tiltas (1987; Naujuojasis Žvėryno tiltas): tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje. Vienas iš nedaugelio Vilniaus metalinių tiltų (kiti daugiausia gelžbetoniniai).
lt:Vingio parko tiltas (1985): vantinis plieninis pėsčiųjų tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje. Ilgis 230.3 m, plotis 6.8 m, aukštis 15 m.
lt:Lazdynų tiltas (1969; rekonstruotas 2009-2010: vietoj buvusių šešių turi aštuonias eismo juostas): tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje; bendras tilto plotis siekia 39 m, tilto ilgis – 233 metrai.
lt:Bukčių tiltas: neveikiantis pėsčiųjų tiltas per Nerį Vilniuje; ilgis yra ~100 m, o plotis ~5 m.
Main actors: Hellenics (Greeks), South Slavics (Eastern: Old Church Slavonic → Bulgarian + Macedonian; Western: Slovene + Serbo-Croatian), Turkics (Ottomans, Turks, Tatars, Gagauz, Gajal), Arabics, Roman Empire (Romance languages: Romanians, South Balkan Romance), Albanians, Romani/Gypsy, Jews. Many extinct cultures and languages.
Empires: Austrian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia, Kingdom of Sicily, Papal States, French Empire (Napoleon).
Paleo-Balkan languages: various extinct Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in ancient times. Hellenization, Romanization and Slavicization in the region caused their only modern descendants to be Modern Greek and Albanian, which are descended from Ancient Greek and one of the Thraco-Illyrian languages, respectively.
Republic of Ragusa (1358-1808; Motto: Latin: Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro - "Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world"): maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik (Ragusa in Italian, German and Latin; Raguse in French) in Dalmatia (today in southernmost Croatia). Reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before being conquered by Napoleon's French Empire and formally annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1808. History: During its first centuries the city was under the rule of the Byzantine Empire. Venetian suzerainty (1205–1358); Independence from Venice (1358); Ottoman suzerainty It could enter into relations with foreign powers and make treaties with them (as long as not conflicting with Ottoman interests), and its ships sailed under its own flag. Ottoman vassalage also conferred special trade rights that extended within the Empire. Along with England, Spain and Genoa, Ragusa was one of Venice's most damaging competitors in the 15th century on all seas, even in the Adriatic; Decline of the Republic
Balkan Wars (1912.10.08-1913.07.18): two conflicts that took place in the Balkan Peninsula in south-eastern Europe. Four Balkan states defeated the Ottoman Empire in the first war; one of the four, Bulgaria, was defeated in the second war.
First Balkan War (1912.10.08-1913.05.30): comprised actions of the Balkan League (Serbia, Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria) against the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the war, the allies captured and partitioned almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albanian state.
Second Balkan War (1913.06.29-1913.08.10): broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. With Bulgaria also having previously engaged in territorial disputes with Romania, this war provoked Romanian intervention against Bulgaria. The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territories from the previous war.
Macedonian Struggle (Greek Struggle in Macedonia; 1904-1908): series of social, political, cultural and military conflicts between Greeks and Bulgarians in the region of Ottoman Macedonia.
Origin of the Albanians: has long been a matter of dispute among historians. The Albanians first appear in the historical record in Byzantine sources of the 11th century. At this point, they were already fully Christianized. Very little evidence of pre-Christian Albanian culture survives, although Albanian mythology and folklore are of Paleo-Balkanic origin and almost all of their elements are pagan, in particular showing Greek influence. The Albanian language forms a separate branch of Indo-European, first attested in the 15th century, and is considered to have evolved from one of the Paleo-Balkan languages of antiquity.
Greater Albania: areas with majority Albanians outside Albania: Kosovo, NW corner of Macedonia, S corner of Montecorvino, S-middle corner of Serbia proper. Is this due to Albanian language/culture spread or due to other reasons? How Serbs, Macedonians/Bulgarians, Greeks "lost" "their" (?) land?
Kingdom of Albania (medieval) (1272–1368): established by Charles of Anjou in the Albanian territories with the help of the local Albanian nobility he conquered from the Byzantine Empire in 1271. The Kingdom of Albania was declared in late 1272.02. The kingdom extended from the region of Durazzo (Dyrrhachium, modern Durrës) south along the coast to Butrint.
League of Lezhë (1444–1479): military and diplomatic alliance of the Albanian aristocracy, created in the city of Lezhë on 2 March 1444. The League of Lezhë is considered as the first unified independent Albanian country in the Medieval age, with Skanderbeg as leader of the regional Albanian chieftains and nobles united against the Ottoman Empire. Skanderbeg was proclaimed "Chief of the League of the Albanian people" while Skanderbeg always signed himself as "Dominus Albaniae".
Skanderbeg's rebellion (1443.11.28—1468.01.17): almost 25-year long anti-Ottoman rebellion led by the renegade Ottoman sanjakbey Skanderbeg in the territory which belonged to the Ottoman sanjaks of Albania, Dibra and Ohrid (modern-day Albania and North Macedonia). The rebellion was the result of initial Christian victories in the Crusade of Varna in 1443. After Ottoman defeat in the Battle of Niš, Skanderbeg, then sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Debar, mistakenly believed that Christians would succeed in pushing the Ottomans out of Europe. Like many other regional Ottoman officials, he deserted the Ottoman army to raise rebellion in his sanjak of Dibra and the surrounding region. Initially, his plan was successful and soon large parts of the Sanjak of Dibra and north-east parts of the Sanjak of Albania were captured by the rebels who also fought against regular Ottoman forces in the Sanjak of Ohrid.
Skanderbeg (Gjergj Kastrioti; 1443.11.28–1468.01.17): Albanian feudal lord and military commander who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.
Map of the Gheg- and Tosk-speaking areas in Southern Europe.
Arvanites: bilingual population group in Greece of Albanian origin. They traditionally speak Arvanitika, an Albanian language variety, along with Greek. Their ancestors were first recorded as settlers who came to what is today southern Greece in the late 13th and early 14th century. They were the dominant population element in parts of the Peloponnese, Attica and Boeotia until the 19th century. They call themselves Arvanites (in Greek) and Arbëror (in their language).
Arbëreshë people (Albanians of Italy, Italo-Albanians): Albanian ethnolinguistic group in Southern Italy, mostly concentrated in scattered villages in the regions of Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise and Sicily. They are the descendants of Tosk refugees who fled from Morea between the 14th and the 18th c. following the Ottoman invasion of Europe.
Cham Albanian collaboration with the Axis (1941-1944): arge parts of the Albanian minority in the Thesprotia prefecture in Epirus, northwestern Greece, known as Chams collaborated with Fascist Italian and Nazi German forces; Axis propaganda promised that the region would be awarded to Albania after the end of the war.
North Kosovo: territory in the northern part of Kosovo, with an ethnic Serb majority that before the Brussels Agreement functioned independently from the remainder of the region, which has an ethnic Albanian majority.
North Kosovo crisis (2011.07.25 – 2012): when the Kosovo Police crossed into the Serb-controlled municipalities of North Kosovo, in an attempt to control several border crossings without the consultation of either Serbia or KFOR/EULEX.
First Bulgarian Empire (681-1018): Bulgars came and got assimilated among the Southern Slavs and co. Main competitor to the Byzantine Empire in the Balkans. Byzantium had a strong cultural influence on Bulgaria, which also led to the eventual adoption of Christianity by Bulgaria in 864.
Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396 (211 Years)): successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th century. Until 1256, the Second Bulgarian Empire was the dominant power in the Balkans, defeating the Byzantine Empire in several major battles. In 1205 Emperor Kaloyan defeated the newly established Latin Empire in the Battle of Adrianople. His nephew Ivan Asen II defeated the Despotate of Epiros and made Bulgaria a regional power again. During his reign, Bulgaria spread from the Adriatic to the Black Sea and the economy flourished. In the late 13th century, however, the Empire declined under constant invasions by Mongols, Byzantines, Hungarians, and Serbs, as well as internal unrest and revolts.
Bulgarian Turks in Turkey: represent a community of Bulgarian Turks, who immigrated over the years from Bulgaria to Turkey; notable in Turkey that they managed over the years to continue to keep their linguistic and cultural connections with Bulgaria and moreover, part of them continue to be dual citizens of Bulgaria and Turkey, which makes them a natural bridge between both countries
Turks in Bulgaria: minority group, mainly concentrated in the southern province of Kardzhali and northeastern provinces of Shumen, Silistra, Razgrad and Targovishte.
Greek Civil War (1946.03.30-1949.10.16): between the Greek government army—backed by UK and USA—and the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), the military branch of the Greek Communist Party (KKE), backed by the Yugoslavia and Albania as well as USSR and Bulgaria. Greece in the end was funded by the U.S. through the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan and joined NATO, while the insurgents were demoralized by the bitter split between the USSR's Stalin (who wanted the war ended) and Yugoslavia's Tito (who wanted it to continue).
Can it be that the current situation in Greece is reminiscent of the great collapses (economic, political, social) in civilizations of ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Persians, Chinese, Indians..?
Elections in Greece: "reinforced proportionality"; form of semi-proportional representation, with two important modifications: (1) a party must secure at least 3% of the vote to be represented in parliament, and (2) the party that wins a plurality of votes cast is awarded an extra 50 seats. Law helps the party or coalition that wins a plurality to achieve an absolute majority (151 out of 300 parliamentary seats); this is intended to enhance governmental stability.
Greek legislative election, June 2012: New Democracy (Antonis Samaras) [29.66%], SYRIZA (Alexis Tsipras) [26.89%], PASOK (Evangelos Venizelos) [12.28%], ANEL [7.51%], Golden Dawn [6.92%], DIMAR [6.25%], KKE [4.5%]. ND, PASOK, DIMAR made unity gov. Cabinet was dominated by lawmakers from ND but also included a significant number of technocrats, among them two ministes (Justice, Administrative Reform) nominated by DIMAR; PASOK opted not to participate with leading party cadres in the government.
Why do Serbs, Croatians, Orthodox, Muslims (Bosniaks), Catholics hate each other so much though speak nearly the same language? How do Slovenians come into this hatred community?
Josip Broz Tito (1892.05.07–1980.05.04; Tito): Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1943 until his death in 1980. During WWII he was the leader of the Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement in occupied Europe. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, and concerns about the repression of political opponents have been raised, some historians consider him a benevolent dictator. He was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Viewed as a unifying symbol, his internal policies maintained the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation. Josip Broz was born to a Croat father and Slovene mother in the village of Kumrovec, Croatia. After being seriously wounded and captured by the Imperial Russians during WWI, Josip was sent to a work camp in the Ural Mountains. He participated in the October Revolution, and later joined a Red Guard unit in Omsk. Upon his return home, Broz found himself in the newly established Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ).
Bleiburg repatriations: term encompassing events that took place after the end of WWII in Europe, when thousands of soldiers and civilians fleeing Yugoslavia were repatriated to that country; some of the soldiers and civilians were then murdered, and most were subjected to abuse and long marches to forced labor camps; named after the Carinthian border town of Bleiburg from which the main repatriation was conducted. (1945 mid-May): Chetniks, remnants of the military of the Independent State of Croatia, and a few Cossacks were denied to enter British occupied zone from Yugoslavia and unknown number of them were executed by Yugoslavian partisans.
Ustaše (Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement): Croatian fascist and terrorist organization which was active before and during WWII; members (called Ustaše) responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of citizens of Yugoslavia, particularly Serbs; ideology of the movement was a blend of Fascism and ultraconservatism. Movement emphasized the need for a racially "pure" Croatia and promoted persecution and genocide against Serbs, Jews and Romani people. Fiercely nationalistic, fanatically Catholic. {Following Croatian nationalism, they declared that the Catholic and Muslim faiths were the religions of the Croatian people; the Islam of the Bosniaks as a religion which "keeps true the blood of Croats." (???)}
World War II persecution of Serbs (Serbian Genocide): widespread persecution of Serbs that included extermination, expulsions and forced religious conversions of large numbers of ethnic Serbs by the Ustaše regime in the Independent State of Croatia, and killings of Serbs by Albanian collaborationists and Axis occupying forces during WWII.
Anti-Serb sentiment: David Bruce MacDonald states that the concept of "Serbophobia" was popularised in the 1980s and 1990s during the re-analysis of Serbian history and became likened to anti-Semitism by Serb nationalists at the end of the 20th century, creating a myth of Serbs as perennial victims which served to justify territorial expansion into neighbouring regions with ethnic Serb population, which could then be presented as self-defensive and humanitarian.
Animated GIF that shows the stages of the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Breakup of Yugoslavia: occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart, but the unsolved issues caused bitter inter-ethnic Yugoslav wars. The wars primarily affected Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighboring parts of Croatia. In the 1980s, Kosovo Albanians started to demand that their autonomous province be granted the status of a constituent republic, starting with the 1981 protests. Ethnic tensions between Albanians and Kosovo Serbs remained high over the whole decade, which resulted in the growth across Yugoslavia of Serb opposition to the high autonomy of provinces and ineffective system of consensus at the federal level, which were seen as an obstacle for Serb interests. In 1987, Slobodan Milošević came to power in Serbia, and through a series of populist moves acquired de facto control over Kosovo, Vojvodina and Montenegro, garnering a high level of support among Serbs for his centralist policies. Milošević was met with opposition by party leaders of the western republics of Slovenia and Croatia, who also advocated greater democratization of the country in line with the Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia dissolved in January 1990 along federal lines. Republican communist organizations became the separate socialist parties.
Yugoslav wars (1991.03.31–2001.11.12): series of separate but related ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies fought in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001, leading up to and resulting from the breakup of the Yugoslav federation in 1992.
RAM Plan: military plan developed over the course of 1990 and finalized in Belgrade, Serbia during a military strategy meeting in August 1991 by a group of senior Serb officers of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and experts from the JNA's Psychological Operations Department. Its purpose was organizing Serbs outside Serbia, consolidating control of the Serbian Democratic Parties (SDS), and preparing arms and ammunition in an effort of establishing a country where "all Serbs with their territories would live together in the same state." A separate group of undercover operatives and military officers was charged with the implementation of the plan. The UNCoE concluded that "the practices of ethnic cleansing, sexual assault and rape have been carried out by some of the parties so systematically that they strongly appear to be the product of a policy." It stated in a follow-up report that it was "convinced that this heinous practice [rape and abuse of women] constitutes a deliberate weapon of war in fulfilling the policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by Serbian forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and [...] that the abhorrent policy of ethnic cleansing was a form of genocide."
Serb Autonomous Regions (SAO): from August 1990 to November 1991, during the breakup of Yugoslavia, SAOs were proclaimed in the Yugoslav republics of SR Croatia and SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in light of the possible secession of the republics from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. These were autonomous Serb-inhabited entities that subsequently united in their respective republic to form the Republic of Serbian Krajina in Croatia and the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ten-Day War (1991.06.27-07.07; Slovenian Independence War): civil war in Yugoslavia that followed the Slovenian declaration of independence in 1991.06.25.
Croatian War of Independence (1991.03.31 – 1995.11.12): between Croat forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)—and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat operations in Croatia by 1992. A majority of Croats wanted Croatia to leave Yugoslavia and become a sovereign country, while many ethnic Serbs living in Croatia, supported by Serbia, opposed the secession and wanted Serb-claimed lands to be in a common state with Serbia. Most Serbs effectively sought a new Serb state within a Yugoslav federation, including areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with ethnic Serb majorities or significant minorities, and attempted to conquer as much of Croatia as possible. The JNA initially tried to keep Croatia within Yugoslavia by occupying all of Croatia. After this failed, Serb forces established the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) within Croatia. The war ended with Croatian victory, as it achieved the goals it had declared at the beginning of the war: independence and preservation of its borders.
Siege of Dubrovnik (1991.10.01–1992.05.31): military engagement fought between the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Croatian forces defending the city of Dubrovnik and its surroundings. The JNA started its advance on 1991.10.01 and by late October had captured virtually all of the land between the Pelješac and Prevlaka peninsulas on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, with the exception of Dubrovnik itself. The siege was accompanied by a Yugoslav Navy blockade. The JNA's bombardment of Dubrovnik, including that of the Old Town—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—culminated in 1991.12.06. The bombardment provoked international condemnation, and became a public relations disaster for Serbia and Montenegro, contributing to their diplomatic and economic isolation, as well as the international recognition of Croatia's independence.
Bosnian War (1992.04.06 – 1995.12.14): international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Main belligerents were the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Herzeg-Bosnia, which were led and supplied by Serbia and Croatia, respectively. Following the Slovenian and Croatian secessions from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, the multi-ethnic Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina – which was inhabited by mainly Muslim Bosniaks (44%), as well as Orthodox Serbs (32.5%) and Catholic Croats (17%) – passed a referendum for independence on 1992.02.29. This was rejected by the political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of independence (which gained international recognition), the Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadžić and supported by the Serbian government of Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), mobilised their forces inside Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to secure ethnic Serb territory, then war soon spread across the country, accompanied by ethnic cleansing. The conflict was initially between the Yugoslav Army units in Bosnia which later transformed into the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) on the one side, and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) which was largely composed of Bosniaks, and the Croat forces in the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) on the other side. Tensions between Croats and Bosniaks increased throughout late 1992, resulting in the Croat–Bosniak War that escalated in early 1993. The Bosnian War was characterised by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing and systematic mass rape, mainly perpetrated by Serb, and to a lesser extent, Croat and Bosniak forces. Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict. The most recent estimates suggest that around 100,000 people were killed during the war. Over 2.2 million people were displaced, making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of WWII. In addition, an estimated 12,000–20,000 women were raped, most of them Bosniak.
Murder of Nikola Gardović (1992.03.01): a Serbian wedding in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was shot at amidst the Bosnian independence referendum. As the wedding procession wound its way through the old Muslim section of the city called Baščaršija, the wedding guests brandished Serbian flags. This was interpreted by the Muslims present as an act of deliberate provocation when an independence referendum had been held which was supported by most Bosnian Croats and Muslims but boycotted by most of the Bosnian Serbs.
1992 anti-war protests in Sarajevo: 1992.04.05 in response to events all over Bosnia and Herzegovina 100,000 people of all nationalities turned out for a peace rally in Sarajevo. Serb snipers in the iconic Holiday Inn hotel under the control of the Serbian Democratic Party in the heart of Sarajevo opened fire on the crowd killing six people and wounding several more. Suada Dilberović and an ethnic Croat woman Olga Sučić were in the first rows, protesting on the Vrbanja bridge at the time. The bridge on which Sučić and Dilberović were killed was renamed in their honor. Six Serb snipers were arrested, but were exchanged when the Serbs threatened to kill the commandant of the Bosnian police academy who was captured the previous day, after the Serbs took over the academy and arrested him.
Siege of Sarajevo (1992.04.05–1996.02.29): siege of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the longest of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. After being initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav People's Army, Sarajevo was besieged by the Army of Republika Srpska. during the Bosnian War. The siege lasted three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad and more than a year longer than the Siege of Leningrad. 1992.04.04 when Izetbegović ordered all reservists and police in Sarajevo to mobilize, and SDS called for evacuation of the city's Serbs, came the 'definite rupture between the Bosnian government and Serbs'. Bosnia and Herzegovina received international recognition 1992.04.06. The most common view is that the war started that day.
1992 Yugoslav People's Army column incident in Sarajevo (1992.05.03): in Dobrovoljačka Street, Sarajevo, when members of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) attacked a convoy of Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) troops that were exiting the city of Sarajevo according to the withdrawal agreement. The attack is thought to have happened in retaliation for the arrest of the President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Alija Izetbegović, who was detained at the Sarajevo Airport by the Yugoslav Army the previous day.
Sniper Alley: informal name primarily for streets Zmaja od Bosne Street (Улица Змаја од Босне; Dragon of Bosnia Street) and Meša Selimović Boulevard, the main boulevard in Sarajevo which during the Bosnian War was lined with snipers' posts, and became infamous as a dangerous place for civilians to traverse. The road connects the industrial part of the city (and further on, Sarajevo Airport) to the Old Town's cultural and historic sites. The boulevard itself has many high-rise buildings giving sniper shooters extensive fields of fire. Although the city was under constant Serb siege, its people still had to move about the city in order to survive, thus routinely risking their lives. Signs reading "Pazi – Snajper!" ("Watch out – Sniper!") became common. People would either run fast across the street or would wait for United Nations armored vehicles and walk behind them, using them as shields. According to data gathered in 1995, the snipers wounded 1,030 people and killed 225 - 60 of whom were children.
Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia (1991–1996): unrecognised geopolitical entity and proto-state in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In its proclaimed borders Herzeg-Bosnia encompassed about 30% of the country, but did not have effective control over the entire territory as parts of it were lost to the Army of Republika Srpska at the beginning of the Bosnian War. The armed forces of Herzeg-Bosnia, the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), initially fought in an alliance with the Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), but their relations deteriorated throughout late 1992. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared Herzeg-Bosnia unconstitutional on 14 September 1992. In early 1993 the Croat–Bosniak War escalated in central Bosnia and spread to Herzegovina.
Republika Srpska: one of two constitutional and legal entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The entities are largely autonomous; de facto capital and administrative centre is Banja Luka.
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: one of the two political entities that compose Bosnia and Herzegovina. Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of 10 autonomous cantons with their own governments. It is inhabited primarily by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, which is why it is sometimes informally referred to as the Bosniak-Croat Federation (with the Bosnian Serbs as the third constituency of the entity). It is sometimes known by the shorter name Federation of B&H (Federacija BiH).
Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK): controversial political art collective that formed in Slovenia in 1984, when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia. NSK's name, being German, is compatible with a theme in NSK works: the complicated relationship Slovenes have had with Germans. The name of NSK's music wing, Laibach, is also the German name of the Slovene capital Ljubljana. NSK State.
Laibach (band): Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with the industrial, martial, and neo-classical genres. The name "Laibach" is the German name for the Slovenian capital Ljubljana (which was unwelcome in Tito's Yugoslavia).
War of the Bands (1270; ~1362-1457): civil war (extended series of blood feuds) in the western Basque Country, Gascony, and Navarre in the Late Middle Ages.
Basque Country (greater region) (eu: Euskal Herria): home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast; area is neither linguistically nor culturally homogeneous, and certain areas have a majority of people who do not consider themselves Basque, such as the south of Navarre where in 1996 the census reported that 71% of inhabitants did not identify themselves as Basque - although a lot fewer people in the same area (53%) opposed measures to support the Basque language.
Basque nationalism: support for Basque nationalism is stronger in the Spanish Basque Autonomous Community and north-west Navarre, whereas in the French Basque Country support is low; "irredentist in nature" as it favors political unification of all the Basque-speaking provinces (now divided in those three regions).
ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna; "Basque Homeland and Freedom"; 1959-): armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization; evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country. ETA declared ceasefires in 1989, 1996, 1998 and 2006, but subsequently broke them; 2011.10.20 - newest ceasefire.
Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country (Statute of Gernika; es: Estatuto de Guernica): legal document organizing the political system of the Basque Country (autonomous community); forms the region into one of the autonomous communities envisioned in the Spanish Constitution of 1978
Navarrese People's Union (UPN): regional conservative political party in Navarre, Spain; strong opponent of Basque nationalism, and supports a Spanish regional identity for Navarre with a marginal Basque component and separate from the Basque Country.
Seventeen Provinces (1549-1581): term applied to the Imperial states of the Habsburg Netherlands in 15th and 16th c. They roughly covered the Low Countries, i.e. the current Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, plus most of the modern French department of Nord including Artois, French Flanders, and French Hainaut. Also enclosed in this area were semi-independent fiefdoms, mainly ecclesiastical ones, such as Liège, Cambrai and Stavelot-Malmedy.
Low Countries: coastal region in north western Europe, consisting especially of Belgium and the Netherlands, and the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Meuse, Scheldt, and Ems rivers where much of the land is at or below sea level. Germanic languages such as Dutch and Luxembourgish were the predominant languages, although Romance languages also played an important role.
Benelux: union of states comprising three neighbouring countries in midwestern Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Kettle War (1784.10.08): military confrontation between the troops of the Republic of the Seven Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire. It was named the Kettle War because the only shot fired hit a soup kettle.
Baarle-Nassau & Baarle-Hertog: border between these two municipalities and countries (BE, NL): complicated borders; in total it consists of 24 separate parcels of land. Some houses in the region of Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau are divided between the two countries. There was a time when according to Dutch laws restaurants had to close earlier. For some restaurants on the border it meant that the clients simply had to change their tables to the Belgian side. Border's complexity results from a number of equally complex medieval treaties, agreements, land-swaps and sales between the Lords of Breda and the Dukes of Brabant.
William the Silent (1533.04.24–1584.07.10; William of Orange Willem van Oranje; William the Taciturn Willem de Zwijger): main leader of the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs that set off the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1581. Born into the House of Nassau, he became Prince of Orange in 1544 and is thereby the founder of the Orange-Nassau branch and the ancestor of the monarchy of the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, he is also known as Father of the Fatherland (Pater Patriae) (Dutch: Vader des Vaderlands).
Dutch Empire: comprised the overseas territories and trading posts controlled and administered by Dutch chartered companies—mainly the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch East India Company—and subsequently by the Dutch Republic (1581–1795), and by the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands after 1815. It was initially a trade-based system which derived most of its influence from merchant enterprise and from Dutch control of international maritime shipping routes through strategically placed outposts, rather than from expansive territorial ventures.
Dutch Golden Age (Gouden Eeuw): historiographical name given to the period in the history of the Netherlands roughly spanning the era from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the Rampjaar occurred, in which Dutch trade, science, art and colonization were among the most prominent in Europe. The first half of the period spanned from the beginning of the Eighty Years' War until its conclusion in 1648, with the second half lasting until the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War. During the Golden Age, Dutch merchants and settlers, many of them affiliated with the East and West India companies, established trading posts and colonies in the Americas, Southern Africa and Asia, protected by a powerful navy.
Dutch Waterline (Hollandsche Waterlinie / Hollandse Waterlinie; 1629–1815 (Old Dutch Waterline) & 1815–1940 (New Dutch Waterline)): series of water-based defences conceived by Maurice of Nassau in the early 17th century, and realised by his half brother Frederick Henry. Combined with natural bodies of water, the Waterline could be used to transform Holland, the westernmost region of the Netherlands and adjacent to the North Sea, almost into an island. In the 19th century, the Line was extended to include Utrecht. Old Dutch Waterline: The Dutch Water Line proved its value less than forty years after its construction during the Franco-Dutch War (or Third Anglo-Dutch War) (1672), when it stopped the armies of Louis XIV from conquering Holland, although the freezing over of the line came close to rendering it useless. In 1794 and 1795, the revolutionary French armies overcame the obstacle posed by the Dutch Water Line only by the heavy frost that had frozen the flooded areas solid.
First Stadtholderless Period (1650–72; nl: Eerste Stadhouderloze Tijdperk): period in the history of the Dutch Republic in which the office of a Stadtholder was absent in five of the seven Dutch provinces (the provinces of Friesland and Groningen, however, retained their customary stadtholder from the cadet branch of the House of Orange). It happened to coincide with the period when it reached the zenith of its economic, military and political Golden Age.
Rampjaar (Disaster Year; 1672): following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and its peripheral conflict the Third Anglo-Dutch War, France, supported by Münster and Cologne, invaded and nearly overran the Dutch Republic. Situation in the Republic. Foreign affairs: When the Republic fought for its independence from Spain, it had allied with France and England. Renversement des Alliances. Lynching of de Witt brothers by an angry mob. Johan de Witt was the teacher for some time of the young William III. The Waterline.
Anglo-Dutch Wars: 2nd (1665–67) and 3rd (1672–74) wars confirmed the Dutch Republic's position as the leading maritime state of the seventeenth century. Later as the fleet was transferred to Britain and British fleet and commercial success overtook the Dutch ones, Dutch resented this and the 4th war came about (1781–84).
Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium: Belgium is a federal state comprising three communities, three regions, and four language areas. For each of these subdivision types, the subdivisions together make up the entire country; in other words, the types overlap.
List of governments in Belgium: Federal government; Flemish government; Government of the French Community; Government of the German-speaking Community; Walloon Government; Government of the Brussels-Capital Region.
Francization of Brussels: transformation of Brussels, Belgium, from a majority Dutch-speaking city to one that is bilingual or even multilingual, with French as both the majority language and lingua franca.
Social apartheid in Brazil: has been used to describe various aspects of economic inequality in Brazil, drawing a parallel with the legally enforced separation of whites and blacks in South African society for several decades during the 20th-century apartheid regime.
Favela: term for a slum in Brazil, most often within urban areas.
British Empire: origins (1497–1583), 1st (1707–1783), rise of 2nd (1783–1815), Britain's imperial century (1815–1914), decolonisation and decline (1945–1997)
British Empire: composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height in the 19th and early 20th century, it was the largest empire in history and, for a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913 the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% world population at the time, and by 1920 it covered 35.5 mln km², 24% Earth's total land area. As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was described as "the empire on which the sun never sets", as it was always daytime in at least one of its territories. During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in the Americas and Asia. A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left England (Britain, following the 1707 Act of Union with Scotland) the dominant colonial power in North America. Britain became the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent after the East India Company's conquest of Mughal Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The American War of Independence resulted in Britain losing some of its oldest and most populous colonies in North America by 1783. While retaining control of British North America (now Canada) and territories in and near the Caribbean in the British West Indies, British colonial expansion turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. After the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th c. and expanded its imperial holdings. It pursued trade concessions in China and Japan, and territory in Southeast Asia. The "Scramble for Africa" and "Great Game" also ensued. The period of relative peace (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global hegemon was later described as Pax Britannica (Latin for "British Peace"). Alongside the formal control that Britain exerted over its colonies, its dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many regions, such as Asia and Latin America. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britain's economic lead. Military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily on its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on its military, financial, and manpower resources. Although the empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after WWI, Britain was no longer the world's preeminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britain's colonies in East Asia and Southeast Asia were occupied by the Empire of Japan. Despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britain's most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence in 1947 as part of a larger decolonisation movement, in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The Suez Crisis of 1956 confirmed Britain's decline as a global power, and the transfer of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997 symbolised for many the end of the British Empire.
British Raj ("rule" in Sanskrit and Hindustani; 1858–1947): rule by the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent
Durand Line: 2,670 km international land border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in South Asia. It was originally established in 1893 as the international border between British India and the Emirate of Afghanistan by Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat of the Indian Civil Service, and Abdur Rahman Khan, the Afghan Emir, to fix the limit of their respective spheres of influence and improve diplomatic relations and trade.
Dominion: any of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. With the evolution of the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations, the dominions became independent states. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 Imperial Conference through the Balfour Declaration of 1926, recognising Great Britain and the Dominions as "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations". Their full legislative independence was subsequently confirmed in the 1931 Statute of Westminster. Later India, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) also became dominions, for short periods of time. With the transition of the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations after WWII, it was decided that the term Commonwealth country should formally replace dominion for official Commonwealth usage.
Statute of Westminster 1931 (1931.12.11): act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets the basis for the relationship between the Commonwealth realms and the Crown. Statute increased the sovereignty of the self-governing Dominions of the British Empire from the United Kingdom. It also bound them all to seek each other's approval for changes to monarchical titles and the common line of succession. The statute was effective either immediately or upon ratification.
Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire; (Ancient Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων, tr. Basileia Rhōmaiōn; Latin: Imperium Romanum)): predominantly Greek-speaking continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), originally founded as Byzantium. Maurice's (r. 582–602) assassination caused a two-decade-long war with Sassanid Persia which exhausted the Empire's resources and contributed to major territorial losses during the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. In a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs.
Language: Apart from the Imperial court, administration and military, the primary language used in the eastern Roman provinces even before the decline of the Western Empire was Greek, having been spoken in the region for centuries before Latin. Following Rome's conquest of the east its 'Pax Romana', inclusionist political practices and development of public infrastructure, facilitated the further spreading and entrenchment of Greek language in the east. Indeed early on in the life of the Roman Empire, Greek had become the common language in the Christian Church, the language of scholarship and the arts, and, to a large degree, the lingua franca for trade between provinces and with other nations. The language itself for a time gained a dual nature with the primary spoken language, the constantly developing vernacular Koine (eventually evolving into demotic Greek), existing alongside an older literary language with Koine eventually evolving into the standard dialect. Administrative usage of Latin persisted until 7th c., when it was ended by Heraclius. Scholarly Latin would rapidly fall into disuse among the educated classes although the language would continue to be at least a ceremonial part of the Empire's culture for some time. Vulgar Latin among THraco-Roman populations → Proto-Romanian language; another neo-Latin vernacular: Dalmatian language (extinct since 1898).
Population of the Byzantine Empire: The reign of the Emperor Justinian I in the mid-sixth century was the high point of the empire's expansion; however, the arrival of plague in 541 AD and its subsequent recurrences caused a severe depletion of the population. After the reign of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610 – 641 AD) and the loss of the empire's overseas territories, Byzantium was limited to the Balkans and Anatolia. When the empire began to recover after a series of conflicts in the 8th century and its territories stabilized, its population began to recover.
Exarch: governor with extended authority over a province at some distance from the capital Constantinople. The prevailing situation frequently involved him in military operations.
Exarchate of Ravenna (584-751): center of Byzantine (East Roman) power in Italy; last exarch was put to death by the Lombards. Ravenna became the capital of the Western Roman Empire in 402 under Honorius, due to its fine harbour with access to the Adriatic and its ideal defensive location amidst impassable marshes. The city remained the capital of the Empire until 476, when it became the capital of Odoacer, and then of the Ostrogoths under Theodoric the Great. It remained the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, but in 540 during the Gothic War (535–554), Ravenna was occupied by the Byzantine general Belisarius.
Exarchate of Africa (585/590–698): name of an administrative division of the Eastern Roman Empire encompassing its possessions on the Western Mediterranean, ruled by an exarch, or viceroy. Created by emperor Maurice and survived until its conquest by the Muslims.
Plague of Justinian (541–542 AD): pandemic that afflicted the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and especially its capital, Constantinople, as well as the Sasanian Empire, and port cities around the entire Mediterranean Sea, as merchant ships harbored rats that carried fleas infected with plague. Some historians believe the plague of Justinian was one of the deadliest pandemics in history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 25–50 million people during two centuries of recurrence, a death toll equivalent to 13–26% of the world's population at the time of the first outbreak. Recent research, however, has raised questions as to the plague's actual demographic effects. The plague's social and cultural impact has been compared to that of the similar Black Death that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages, 600 years after the last outbreak of Justinian's plague. In 2013, researchers confirmed earlier speculation that the cause of the Plague of Justinian was Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium responsible for Black Plague (1347–1351). The latter was much shorter, but still killed an estimated one-third to one-half of Europeans. Ancient and modern Yersinia pestis strains closely related to the ancestor of the Justinian plague strain have been found in Tian Shan, a system of mountain ranges on the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China, suggesting that the Justinian plague may have originated in or near that region. Procopius, a Greek who was the principal historian of the 6th century, described the pandemic as worldwide in scope, and this first plague returned periodically until the eighth century. The waves of disease had a major effect on the subsequent course of European history. Modern historians named this plague incident after Justinian I, who was emperor at the time of the initial outbreak. Justinian himself contracted the disease, but survived.
Heraclius (c. 575 – February 11, 641): Emperor of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire from 610 to 641; was responsible for introducing Greek as the Eastern Roman Empire's official language. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius immediately took charge of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the Byzantines; the Persian army fought their way to the Bosphorus but Constantinople was protected by impenetrable walls and a strong navy, and Heraclius was able to avoid total defeat. Soon after, he initiated reforms to rebuild and strengthen the military. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh. Heraclius soon experienced a new event, the Muslim conquests. Emerging from the Arabian Peninsula, the Muslims quickly conquered the Sasanian Empire. In 634 the Muslims marched into Roman Syria, defeating Heraclius's brother Theodore. Within a short period of time, the Arabs conquered Mesopotamia, Armenia and Egypt. Heraclius entered diplomatic relations with the Croats and Serbs in the Balkans; tried to repair the schism in the Christian church in regard to the Monophysites, by promoting a compromise doctrine - Monothelitism; this project of unity was rejected by all sides of the dispute.
Political mutilation in Byzantine culture: common method of punishment for criminals of the era but it also had a role in the empire's political life. By blinding a rival, one would not only restrict their mobility but make it almost impossible for them to lead an army into battle, then an important part of taking control of the empire. Castration was also used to eliminate potential opponents. In the Byzantine Empire, for a man to be castrated meant that he was no longer a man—half-dead, "life that was half death". The sack was nonetheless, by the standards of the age, restrained. There was no general slaughter of the inhabitants and the two main basilicas of Peter and Paul were nominated places of sanctuary. Most of the buildings and monuments in the city survived intact, though stripped of their valuables. Refugees from Rome flooded the province of Africa, as well as Egypt and the East. Some refugees were robbed as they sought asylum, and St. Jerome wrote that Heraclian, the Count of Africa, sold some of the young refugees into Eastern brothels.
Sack of Constantinople (1204) (1204.04.08–13): culmination of the Fourth Crusade. Mutinous Crusader armies captured, looted, and destroyed parts of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. After the capture of the city, the Latin Empire (known to the Byzantines as the Frankokratia or the Latin Occupation) was established and Baldwin of Flanders was crowned Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople in the Hagia Sophia. The sack of Constantinople is a major turning point in medieval history. The Crusaders' decision to attack the world's largest Christian city was unprecedented and immediately controversial, even among contemporaries. Reports of Crusader looting and brutality scandalised and horrified the Orthodox world; relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches were catastrophically wounded for many centuries afterwards, and would not be substantially repaired until modern times.
Principality of Theodoro (Αὐθεντία πόλεως Θεοδωροῦς καὶ παραθαλασσίας, aka Gothia (Γοτθία), or the Principality of Theodoro-Mangup; early 13th c.–1475): Greek principality in the southern part of Crimea, specifically on the foothills of the Crimean Mountains. It represented one of the final rump states of the Eastern Roman Empire and the last territorial vestige of the Crimean Goths until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire by the Ottoman Albanian Gedik Ahmed Pasha in 1475.
Multiculturalism in Canada: sense of an equal celebration of racial, religious and cultural backgrounds. Multiculturalism policy was officially adopted by the Canadian government during the 1970s and 1980s. The Canadian federal government has been described as the instigator of multiculturalism as an ideology because of its public emphasis on the social importance of immigration.
Canadian transfer payments: collection of payments made by the Government of Canada to Canadian provinces and territories under the Federal–Provincial Arrangements Act. Chief among these are the Canada Social Transfer, the Canada Health Transfer and equalization payments. The last of these can be spent however the receiving provinces see fit, while the first two are intended to support social and health services respectively. The health transfer is the largest of the three, with a combined cash and tax point value of $36.1 billion in the 2017-2018 budget.
Equalization payments in Canada: federal government makes equalization payments to provincial governments to help address fiscal disparities among Canadian provinces based on estimates of provinces' fiscal capacity—their ability to generate tax revenues. A province that does not receive equalization payments is often referred to as a "have province", while one that does is called a "have not province".
Caucasus: ethno-linguistic map. CIA, 1995. Put on top of that the religious overlay of Christian (Georgian Eastern Orthodox Church, Armenian Apostolic Church (from 310)) and Islamic (Shia, Sunni). Very mixed.
Tons of blood spilled on all sides, still continuing multiple conflicts in the area (including the Russian side of the Caucasus). Some spillovers (historically) into Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and other surrounding countries.
Prehistoric Caucasus: gateway between Southwest Asia, Europe and Central Asia, plays a pivotal role in the peopling of Eurasia, possibly as early as during the Homo erectus expansion to Eurasia, in the Upper Paleolithic peopling of Europe, and again in the re-peopling Mesolithic Europe following the Last Glacial Maximum, and in the expansion associated with the Neolithic Revolution. Genetic history: language groups in the Caucasus have been found to have a close correlation to genetic ancestry. A genetic study in 2015 by Fu et al. of many modern European populations, identified a previously unidentified lineage, which was dubbed "Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer" (CHG). The study detected a split between CHG and so-called "Western European Hunter-Gatherer" (WHG) lineages, about 45,000 years ago, the presumed time of the original peopling of Europe. Modern Armenians were found to derive from an admixture event in the Bronze Age (3rd to 2nd millennia BCE), which combined various Eurasian lineages. Since the time of the Bronze Age collapse, about 1200 BCE, Armenians have remained genetically isolated as a population, with a higher genetic affinity to Neolithic European farmers than to modern Near Eastern populations.
1940–1944 insurgency in Chechnya (1940.01.00–1944.12.15): autonomous revolt against the Soviet authorities in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Beginning in early 1940 under Khasan Israilov, it peaked in 1942 during the German invasion of North Caucasus and ended in the beginning of 1944 with the wholesale concentration and deportation of the Vainakh peoples (Chechens and Ingushes) from their native lands as well as from the locations across the USSR, resulting in the death of at least 144,000 civilians. However, scattered resistance in the mountains continued for years.
April 9 tragedy (1989.04.04–1989.04.09; Tbilisi massacre): refers to the events in Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1989.04.09, when an anti-Soviet, pro-independence demonstration was brutally crushed by the Soviet Army, resulting in 21 deaths and hundreds of injuries.
Black January (1990.01.19–20): violent crackdown on the civilian population of Baku, as part of a state of emergency during the dissolution of USSR. General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev and Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov asserted that military law was necessary to thwart efforts by the Azerbaijani independence movement to overthrow the Soviet Azerbaijani government.
Esenboğa International Airport attack (1982): in Ankara perpetrated by the "Pierre Gulumian commando" group from the Armenian militant organization ASALA.
Orly Airport attack (1983): bombing of a Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport in Paris by the Armenian terorist organization ASALA as part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide.
Ramil Safarov (murder: 2004): officer of the Azerbaijani Army who was convicted of the 2004 murder of Armenian Army Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan. During a NATO-sponsored training seminar in Budapest, Safarov broke into Margaryan's dormitory room at night and axed him to death while Margaryan was asleep.
2006 Russia–Georgia energy crisis: describes an international incident triggered by two explosions on the Mozdok–Tbilisi natural gas pipeline in North Ossetia in 2006.01.22. The explosions suspended gas supply to Georgia at a time when the weather was particularly cold, leading to allegations of deliberate energy blackmail carried out by the Russian government.
Map of the Russo-Georgian War.
2008 Russo-Georgian diplomatic crisis (2008): Russia announced that it would no longer participate in CIS economic sanctions imposed on Abkhazia in 1996 and established direct relations with the separatist authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The crisis was linked to the push for Georgia to receive a NATO Membership Action Plan and, indirectly, the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo. Increasing tensions led to the outbreak of the Russo-Georgian War in 2008. After the war, a number of incidents occurred in both conflict zones, and tensions between the belligerents remained high.
Russo-Georgian War (2008.08.01–12): war between Georgia on one side and Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, on the other. The war took place in 2008.08 following a period of worsening relations between Russia and Georgia, both formerly constituent republics of USSR. The fighting took place in the strategically important South Caucasus region. It is regarded as the first European war of 21st c. The Republic of Georgia declared its independence in early 1991 as the Soviet Union began to fall apart. Amid this backdrop, fighting between Georgia and separatists left parts of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast under the de facto control of Russian-backed but internationally unrecognised separatists. Following the war, a joint peacekeeping force of Georgian, Russian, and Ossetian troops was stationed in the territory. A similar stalemate developed in the region of Abkhazia, where Abkhaz separatists had waged a war in 1992–1993. Following the election of Vladimir Putin in Russia in 2000 and a pro-Western change of power in Georgia in 2003, relations between Russia and Georgia began to deteriorate, reaching a full diplomatic crisis by April 2008. 2008.08.01, the Russian-backed South Ossetian forces started shelling Georgian villages, with a sporadic response from Georgian peacekeepers in the area. Intensifying artillery attacks by the South Ossetians broke a 1992 ceasefire agreement. To put an end to these attacks, the Georgian army units were sent in to the South Ossetian conflict zone in 2008.08.07. Georgian troops took control of most of Tskhinvali, a separatist stronghold, in hours. Some Russian troops had illicitly crossed the Russo-Georgian state border through the Roki Tunnel and advanced into the South Ossetian conflict zone by 7 August before the large-scale Georgian military response.
2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war (2020.09.27–2020.11.10): armed conflict in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories. The main combatants were Azerbaijan, with support from Turkey and foreign mercenary groups, on one side and the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh and Armenia on the other side. It was the latest escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, which was annexed to Azerbaijan during the Soviet era and internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but partially governed by Artsakh, a breakaway state with an Armenian ethnic majority. The 2020 war was a major escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which takes its origins in the early 20th century. The fighting began on the morning of 2020.09.27 with an Azerbaijani offensive along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact established in the aftermath of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988–1994), with the primary goal of reclaiming the less mountainous districts of southern Nagorno-Karabakh, which were easier to take than the region's well-fortified interior. In response, Armenia and Artsakh introduced martial law and total mobilization, while Azerbaijan introduced martial law, a curfew and partial mobilization. Turkey provided military support to Azerbaijan, although the extent of this support has been disputed. Turkey's involvement is thought to have been an attempt to extend its sphere of influence, both by giving Azerbaijan the upper hand in the conflict and by marginalizing Russia's influence over the region. The war was marked by the deployment of drones, sensors, long-range heavy artillery and missile strikes, as well as by state propaganda and the use of official social media accounts in online information warfare. In particular, Azerbaijan's widespread use of drones was seen as crucial in determining the conflict's outcome. Following the capture of Shusha, the second-largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh, a ceasefire agreement was signed between the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, ending all hostilities in the area from 00:00, 2020.11.10 Moscow Time. The President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, also agreed to end the hostilities. Under the agreement, the warring sides kept control of the areas they held within Nagorno-Karabakh at the time of the ceasefire, while Armenia returned the surrounding territories it occupied since 1994 to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan will also gain transport communication to its Nakhchivan exclave bordering Turkey and Iran. Approximately 2,000 Russian soldiers have been deployed as peacekeeping forces along the Lachin corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, for a mandate of at least five years.
Modern population distribution of Armenians in the 19th and 20th centuries juxtaposed with the maximal extent of the Armenian Empire in the 1st century BC.
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic: flag is almost a copy of Armenian flag; uses Armenian language and currency.
Armenian Apostolic Church: national church of the Armenian people. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian institutions. The Kingdom of Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion under the rule of King Tiridates in the early 4th century. According to tradition, the church originated in the missions of Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus in the 1st century.
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Cilician Armenia; Lesser Armenia; 1198-1375): independent principality formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia.
Armeno-Mongol relations: Christian Armenians (Greater Armenia (at the time part of the kingdom of Georgia) and Lesser Armenia) became tributary and vassal to the Mongol Empire (the later Ilkhanate) in the 1230s. Armenia and Cilicia remained under Mongol influence until around 1320. During the later Crusades (1250s to 1260s), there was a short-lived Armenian-Mongol alliance, engaged in some combined military operations against their common enemy, the Mameluks. They succeeded in capturing Baghdad in 1258, but suffered defeat eight years later.
Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant (Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant): the only nuclear power plant in the South Caucasus located 36 kilometers west of Yerevan. The plant supplied approximately 40 percent of Armenia's electricity in 2015.
Armenian parliament shooting (1999.10.27): killed the two de facto decision-makers in the country's political leadership—Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliament Speaker Karen Demirchyan.
Khadija Ismayilova (1976.05.27-): Azerbaijani investigative journalist and radio host who is currently working for the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, until recently as the host of the daily debate show İşdən Sonra. Member of OCCRP. 2014.12 Ismayilova was arrested on charges of incitement to suicide, a charge widely criticized by human rights organizations as bogus. 2015.09.01 Ismayilova was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison under charges of embezzlement and tax evasion. 2016.05.25 the Azerbaijani supreme court ordered Ismayilova released on probation.
Tbilisi: In 1122, after heavy fighting with the Seljuks that involved at least 60,000 Georgians and up to 300,000 Turks, the troops of the King of Georgia David the Builder entered Tbilisi. After the battles for Tbilisi concluded, David moved his residence from Kutaisi (Western Georgia) to Tbilisi, making it the capital of a unified Georgian State and thus inaugurating the Georgian Golden Age. From 12–13th c., Tbilisi became a dominant regional power with a thriving economy (with well-developed trade and skilled labour) and a well-established social system/structure. By the end of the 12th c., the population of Tbilisi had reached 100,000. The city also became an important literary and a cultural center not only for Georgia but for the Eastern Orthodox world of the time. During Queen Tamar's reign, Shota Rustaveli worked in Tbilisi while writing his legendary epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin. This period is often referred to as "Georgia's Golden Age" or the Georgian Renaissance. Under the national government, Tbilisi turned into the first Caucasian University City after the Tbilisi State University was founded in 1918, a long-time dream of the Georgians banned by the Imperial Russian authorities for several decades. On 25 February 1921, the Bolshevist Russian 11th Red Army invaded Tbilisi after bitter fighting at the outskirts of the city and declared Soviet rule. Since the break-up of USSR, Tbilisi has experienced periods of significant instability and turmoil. After a brief civil war, which the city endured for two weeks from December 1991 to January 1992 (when pro-Gamsakhurdia and Opposition forces clashed with each other), Tbilisi became the scene of frequent armed confrontations between various mafia clans and illegal business entrepreneurs. Even during the Shevardnadze Era (1993–2003), crime and corruption became rampant at most levels of society.
Batumi: second largest city of Georgia, located on the coast of the Black Sea in the country's southwest. Situated in a subtropical zone near the foot of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, Batumi is a popular tourist destination known for its varying weather–it is a bustling seaside resort during warm seasons, but can get entirely covered in snow during winter. Much of Batumi's economy revolves around tourism and gambling, but the city is also an important sea port and includes industries like shipbuilding, food processing and light manufacturing. Ottoman Rule; Imperial Russian rule; War, communism, and late 20th-century independence: During 1901, sixteen years prior to the October Revolution, Joseph Stalin, the future leader of USSR, lived in the city organizing strikes. 1918.03.03, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave the city back to the Ottoman Empire; unrest during the closing weeks of WWI led to the re-entry of Turkish forces in 1918.04, followed in December by British forces, who stayed until 1920.07. Kemal Atatürk ceded the area to the Bolsheviks of USSR on the condition that it be granted autonomy, for the sake of the Muslims among Batumi's mixed population. Abashidze exploited the central government's weaknesses and ruled the area as a personal fiefdom. 2004.05, he fled to Russia because of mass protests in Tbilisi sparked by the Rose Revolution. Batumi was host to the Russian 12th Military Base. Following the Rose Revolution, the central government pushed for the removal of these forces and reached agreement in 2005 with Moscow. According to the agreement, the process of withdrawal was planned to be completed in 2008, but the Russians completed the transfer of the Batumi base to Georgia on 2007.11.13, ahead of schedule.
Georgian Military Road (Военно-Грузинская дорога): historic name for a major route through the Caucasus from Georgia to Russia.
Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (1762–1800): created in 1762 by the unification of two eastern Georgian kingdoms, which had existed independently since the disintegration of the united Georgian Kingdom in the 15th century.
Map of Georgia: Adjaria, Abkhazia (de facto independent), South Ossetia (de facto independent).
Tiny country with many many internal conflicts. 83.9% Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church; 84% ethnic Georgians, 71% Georgian language.
Georgian Civil War 1992-1993.
Abkhaz–Georgian conflict (1989.11.10–present): involves ethnic conflict between Georgians and the Abkhaz people in Abkhazia, a de facto independent, partially recognized republic. In a broader sense, one can view the Georgian–Abkhaz conflict as part of a geopolitical conflict in the Caucasus region, intensified at the end of the 20th century with the dissolution of USSR in 1991. The conflict, one of the bloodiest in the post-Soviet era, remains unresolved. The Georgian government has offered substantial autonomy to Abkhazia several times. However, both the Abkhaz government and the opposition in Abkhazia refuse any form of union with Georgia. Abkhaz regard their independence as the result of a war of liberation from Georgia, while Georgians believe that historically Abkhazia has always formed part of Georgia. Georgians formed the single largest ethnic group in pre-war Abkhazia, with a 45.7% plurality as of 1989 but as of 2014 most Georgians left in Abkhazia want to remain independent of Georgia.
War in Abkhazia (1992–1993) (1992.08.14–1993.09.27): fought between Georgian government forces for the most part and Abkhaz separatist forces, Russian government armed forces and North Caucasian militants. Ethnic Georgians who lived in Abkhazia fought largely on the side of Georgian government forces. Ethnic Armenians and Russians within Abkhazia's population largely supported the Abkhazians and many fought on their side. The separatists received support from thousands of North Caucasus and Cossack militants and from the Russian Federation forces stationed in and near Abkhazia.
Ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Sukhumi (1993.09.27): during and after the fall of Sukhumi into separatist hands in the course of the War in Abkhazia. It was perpetrated against Georgian civilians of Sukhumi, mainly by militia forces of Abkhaz separatists and North Caucasian allies. It became part of a violent ethnic cleansing campaign carried out by the separatists.
Georgian–Ossetian conflict (1989–present): ethno-political conflict over Georgia's former autonomous region of South Ossetia, which evolved in 1989 and developed into a 1991–1992 South Ossetia War. Despite a declared ceasefire and numerous peace efforts, the conflict remained unresolved. In 2008.08, military tensions and clashes between Georgia and South Ossetian separatists erupted into the Russo-Georgian War.
1991–1992 South Ossetia War (1991.01.05–1992.06.24): fought between Georgian government forces and ethnic Georgian militia on one side and the forces of South Ossetia and North Ossetian volunteers who wanted South Ossetia to secede from Georgia and become an independent state on the other. The war ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire, which established a joint peacekeeping force and left South Ossetia divided between the rival authorities.
1991–1992 Georgian coup d'état (1991.12.22–1992.01.06; Tbilisi War, the Putsch of 1991–1992): internal military conflict that took place in the newly independent Republic of Georgia following the fall of USSR. The coup, which triggered the Georgian Civil War, pitted factions of the National Guard loyal to President Zviad Gamsakhurdia against several paramilitary organizations unified at the end of 1991 under the leadership of warlords Tengiz Kitovani, Jaba Ioseliani and Tengiz Sigua. The Tbilisi War ended with the exile of the first democratically elected president of Georgia, after two weeks of violent clashes on Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Tbilisi, mainly consisting of a siege of the Georgian Parliament building, where Gamsakhurdia was isolated in a bunker.
Georgian Civil War (1991.12.22–1993.12.31): consisted of inter-ethnic and international conflicts in the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as the violent military coup d'état against the first democratically-elected President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, and his subsequent uprising in an attempt to regain power. While the Gamsakhurdia rebellion was eventually defeated, the South Ossetia and Abkhazia conflicts resulted in the de facto secession of both regions from Georgia. As a result, both conflicts have lingered on, with occasional flare-ups. "Zviadist" resistance: After the successful coup, an interim government, the Military Council, was formed in Georgia. Initially it was led by a triumvirate of Jaba Ioseliani, Tengiz Sigua and Tengiz Kitovani, but it was soon chaired by Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister who returned to Tbilisi in 1992.03. The 1992 elections established Shevardnadze as the Chairman of Parliament and the Head of State. Zviad Gamsakhurdia, despite his absence, continued to enjoy substantial support within Georgia, especially in rural areas and in his home region of Samegrelo in western Georgia. The supporters of the ousted president, the "Zviadists," responded to the coup with spontaneous street demonstrations, which were brutally suppressed by the government forces and paramilitary groups. Clashes between pro- and anti-Gamsakhurdia forces continued throughout 1992 and 1993 with Zviad Gamsakhurdia's supporters taking captive government officials and government forces retaliating with reprisal raids. One of the most serious incidents occurred in Tbilisi in 1992.06.24, when armed Gamsakhurdia supporters seized the state television center. However, they were driven out within a few hours by the National Guard. But in the end Eduard Shevardnadze (First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party (GPC, the de facto leader of Soviet Georgia), from 1972 to 1985; President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003) took over this triumvirate and ruled Georgia.
Adjara (Autonomous Republic of Adjara): during Georgian Civil War Aslan Abashidze, the leader of southwestern autonomous province of Adzharia, closed an administrative border and prevented "Zviadists" or Shevardnadze's forces from entering Adjarian territory.
2004 Adjara crisis (2003.11.23–2004.07.20): political crisis in Georgia's Adjaran Autonomous Republic, then led by Aslan Abashidze, who refused to obey the central authorities after President Eduard Shevardnadze's ouster during the Rose Revolution of November 2003. The crisis threatened to develop into military confrontation as both sides mobilized their forces at the internal border. However, Georgia's post-revolutionary government of President Mikheil Saakashvili managed to avoid bloodshed and with the help of Adjaran opposition reasserted its supremacy. Abashidze left the region in exile in May 2004 and was succeeded by Levan Varshalomidze.
Mkhedrioni: was a paramilitary group and political organisation in the Republic of Georgia, outlawed since 1995 but subsequently reconstituted as the Union of Patriots political party. Founded in 1989 by Jaba Ioseliani; kinda nationalist mafia. After Gamsakhurdia und Ioseliani fell out badly after Gamsakhurdia came to power in Nov. 1990, in Feb. 1991 Ioseliani was imprisoned, Mkhedrioni was banned. After the fall of Zviadists, Ioseliani became MP and Mkhedrioni became his bodyguards. Mkhedrioni and National Guard went against separatists, but were defeated n Abkhazia; at the same time Gamsakhurdia made a revolt in the Wester Georgia but Mkhedrioni with Russian intervention defeated Gamsakhurdia. After 1995 Mkhedrioni were outlawed by Shevardnadze and Ioseliani was imprisoned. After 1999, Mkhedrioni became a political party.
People:
Jaba Ioseliani (Jaba (or Dzhaba) Ioseliani; July 10, 1926 - March 4, 2003 (heart attack))
Zviad Gamsakhurdia (1939.03.31—1993.12.31; ზვიად გამსახურდია): a Georgian politician, dissident, scholar, and writer who became the first democratically elected President of Georgia in the post-Soviet era. Gamsakhurdia is the only Georgian President to have died while formally in office.
Tengiz Kitovani (born June 9, 1938)
Tengiz Sigua (born 1934)
Aslan Abashidze (born Batumi, July 20, 1938)
Eduard Shevardnadze (born 25 January 1927)
Gldani prison scandal: political scandal in the country of Georgia involving the recorded abuse of inmates in the Georgian prison system. 2012.09.18, several videos were released showing prison guards and their superiors torturing, taunting, and sexually assaulting detainees in Gldani No. 8 Prison. The video footage, which confirmed long-standing allegations of ill-treatment of prisoners, was released two weeks before the 2012.10.01 parliamentary elections.
2023 Georgian protests (2023.03.06 – present): ongoing series of street demonstrations taking place throughout Georgia, over parliamentary backing of a proposed "Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence", which requires the NGOs to register as "agents of foreign influence" if the funds they receive from abroad amount to more than 20% of their total revenue. Police have been reported as using water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protests, especially in the capital Tbilisi. As of 2021.01, Georgia and Ukraine were preparing to formally apply for EU membership in 2024 to join the European Union in the 2030s. However, amid the 2022 escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova jointly applied for EU membership in February and March 2022.
Mesoamerica: region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica, within which pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is one of six areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently, and the second in the Americas after Norte Chico (Caral-Supe) in present-day northern coastal Peru.
Mesoamerican languages: Language vs. dialect: The distinction between related languages and dialects is notoriously vague in Mesoamerica. The dominant Mesoamerican socio-cultural pattern through millennia has been centered around the town or city as the highest level community rather than the nation, realm or people. This has meant that within Mesoamerica each city-state or town community, called in Nahuatl an altepetl, has had its own language standard which, in the typical case, has evolved separately from closely related but geographically remote languages.
Nahuan languages (Aztecan languages): those languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family that have undergone a sound change, known as Whorf's Law, that changed an original *t to /tɬ/ before *a. Subsequently, some Nahuan languages have changed this /tɬ/ to /l/ or back to /t/, but it can still be seen that the language went through a /tɬ/ stage.
Nahuatl (known informally as Aztec): language or group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by an estimated 1.5 million Nahua people, most of whom live in Central Mexico. All Nahuan languages are indigenous to Mesoamerica.
Mixtec: indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as the state of Guerrero's Región Montañas, and Región Costa Chica, which covers parts of the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla. In pre-Columbian times, a number of Mixtecan city states competed with each other and with the Zapotec kingdoms. The major Mixtec polity was Tututepec which rose to prominence in 11th c. under the leadership of Eight Deer Jaguar Claw, the only Mixtec king who ever united the Highland and Lowland polities into a single state.
Mayan languages: Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras. In 1996, Guatemala formally recognized 21 Mayan languages by name, and Mexico recognizes eight more within their territory.
Yucatec Maya language: called Màaya t'àan (lit. "Maya speech") by its speakers, is a Mayan language spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. Maya is the only Mayan language of the approximately 32 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family that has the proper name Maya. To native speakers, proper name is Maya and it is known only as Maya. The qualifier "Yucatec" is a tag linguists use to distinguish it from other Mayan languages (such as K'iche' and Itza' Maya).
Map of the basin of Mexico circa 1519, at the arrival of the Spanish.
Valley of Mexico (Valle de México): highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations, including Teotihuacan, the Toltec, and the Aztec. The Valley of Mexico is located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen an explosion of population in the valley along with the growth of industry. Since 1900, the population has doubled every fifteen years. Today, around 21 million people live in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area which extends throughout almost all of the valley into the states of Mexico and Hidalgo. Hydrology: Old lake system; History of water control in the valley; Drinking water and sinking lands.
Great Pyramid of Cholula (Tlachihualtepetl): complex located in Cholula, Puebla. It is the largest archaeological site of a pyramid (temple) in the New World, as well as the largest pyramid by volume known to exist in the world today. The adobe brick pyramid stands 25 m above the surrounding plain, which is significantly shorter than the Great Pyramid of Giza's height of 146.6 m, but much wider, measuring 300 by 315 m in its final form, compared to the Great Pyramid's base dimensions of 230.3 by 230.3 m. The pyramid is a temple that traditionally has been viewed as having been dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl. The architectural style of the building was linked closely to that of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, although influence from the Gulf Coast is evident as well, especially from El Tajín.
Languages of Mexico: Several different languages are spoken in Mexico, with a large majority of the population fluent in Spanish while some indigenous Mexicans are monolingual in indigenous languages. Most Mexicans are monolingual Spanish-speakers. Spanish is the de facto national language spoken by the vast majority of Mexicans, though it is not defined as an official language in legislation. The second article of the 1917 Constitution defines the country as multicultural, recognizes the right of the indigenous peoples to "preserve and enrich their languages" and promotes "bilingual and intercultural education".
Mexican Revolution (1910.11.20 – 1920.12.01): called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction of the Federal Army and its replacement by a revolutionary army, and the transformation of Mexican culture and government. The northern Constitutionalist faction prevailed on the battlefield and drafted the present-day Constitution of Mexico, which aimed to create a strong central government. Revolutionary generals held power from 1920 to 1940. The revolutionary conflict was primarily a civil war, but foreign powers, having important economic and strategic interests in Mexico, figured in the outcome of Mexico's power struggles. The United States played an especially significant role.
Agrarian land reform in Mexico: before the 1910 Mexican Revolution that overthrew Porfirio Díaz, most of the land was owned by a single elite ruling class; a small percentage of rich landowners owned most of the country's farm land. Initially the agrarian reform led to the development of many ejidos for communal land use, while parceled ejidos emerged in the later years. Today, most Mexican peasants are landowners. However, their holdings are usually too small, and farmers must supplement their incomes by working for the remaining landlords, and/or traveling to the United States.
Mexican Drug War (2006.12.11 – present; Guerra contra el narcotráfico en México): ongoing asymmetric low-intensity conflict between the Mexican government and various drug trafficking syndicates. When the Mexican military began to intervene in 2006, the government's main objective was to reduce drug-related violence. The Mexican government has asserted that their primary focus is dismantling the cartels, and preventing drug trafficking demand along with American functionaries. Therefore, the conflict has been described as a Mexican theater of the global war on drugs, as led by USA federal government.
Sacred Cenote: noted cenote at the pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Chichen Itza, in the northern Yucatán Peninsula. It is located to the north of Chichen Itza's civic precinct, to which it is connected by a 300-metre sacbe, or raised and paved pathway.
Mesoamerican ballgame: sport with ritual associations played since 1,400 BCE by the pre-Columbian peoples of Ancient Mesoamerica. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a newer more modern version of the game, ulama, is still played in a few places by the indigenous population.
#Ukraine : also part of Central Europe, but also in RU's sphere of influence
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All the states coming from: Holy Roman Empire (later German Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy), Kingdom of Hungary, Bohemia, (partly: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, eps. the Western part, modern Poland).
Lutici: federation of West Slavic Polabian tribes, who between the 10th and 12th centuries lived in what is now northeastern Germany. Four tribes made up the core of the federation: the Redarians (Redari, Redarii), Circipanians (Circipani), Kessinians (Kessini, Kycini, Chizzini) and Tollensians (Tholenzi). At least in part, the Lutici were a continuation of the Veleti.
Moravia, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia: Czech Republic and Slovakia
Great Moravia (Great Moravian Empire, (historiographical terms – original formal name is unknown); 833–c. 906/907): first major state that was predominantly Slavonic to emerge in the area of Central Europe. Its core territories were located on the Morava river which gave its name to the kingdom. Separatism and internal conflicts emerging after Svätopluk's death contributed to the fall of Moravia, which was overrun by the Hungarians.
Jan Hus (c. 1369 – 1415.07.06), often referred to in English as John Hus or John Huss, was a Czech priest, philosopher, Master at Charles University in Prague, church reformer and a key predecessor to Protestantism. After John Wycliffe, the theorist of ecclesiastical Reformation, Hus is considered the first Church reformer, as he lived before Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. He was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church, including those on ecclesiology, the Eucharist, and other theological topics. After Hus was executed in 1415, the followers of his religious teachings (known as Hussites) rebelled against their Roman Catholic rulers and defeated five consecutive papal crusades between 1420 and 1431, in what became known as the Hussite Wars. A century later, as many as 90% of inhabitants of the Czech lands were Hussites.
Bohemian Reformation: Christian movement in the late medieval and early modern Kingdom and Crown of Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic) striving for a reform of the Roman Catholic Church. Lasting for more than 200 years, it had a significant impact on the historical development of Central Europe and is considered one of the most important religious, social, intellectual and political movements of the early modern period.
Hussites: a Christian movement in the Kingdom of Bohemia following the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Hus. This predominantly religious movement was propelled by social issues and strengthened Czech national awareness.
Hussite Wars (1419.07.30–1434.05.30; Hussite Revolution): fought between the heretical Catholic Hussites and the combined Catholic orthodox forces of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, the Papacy and various European monarchs loyal to the Catholic Church, as well as among various Hussite factions themselves. After initial clashes, the Utraquists changed sides in 1423 to fight alongside Roman Catholics and opposed the Taborites and other Hussite spinoffs. The Hussite community included most of the Czech population of the Kingdom of Bohemia and formed a major spontaneous military power. They defeated five consecutive crusades proclaimed against them by the Pope (1420, 1421, 1422, 1427, 1431), and intervened in the wars of neighboring countries. The Hussite Wars were notable for the extensive use of early hand-held firearms such as hand cannons. The Hussites agreed to submit to the authority of the King of Bohemia and the Roman Catholic Church, and were allowed to practice their somewhat variant rite.
Czechoslovakia (Czecho-Slovakia; 1918–1939, 1945–1992): sovereign state in Central Europe, created in October 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland became part of Germany, while the country lost further territories to Hungary and Poland. Between 1939 and 1945 the state ceased to exist, as Slovakia proclaimed its independence and subsequently the remaining territories in the east became part of Hungary, while in the remainder of the Czech Lands the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed. From 1948 to 1989, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc with a command economy. Its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949 and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of political liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was violently ended when USSR, assisted by some other Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia. In January 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.
Slovak Republic (1939–1945) (Slovak State (Slovenský štát); 1939.03.14 - 1945.05.07): partially-recognized client state of Nazi Germany. The Slovak part of Czechoslovakia declared independence with German support one day before the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. The Slovak Republic controlled the majority of the territory of present-day Slovakia but without its current southern parts, which were ceded by Czechoslovakia to Hungary in 1938. It was the first time in history that Slovakia had been a formally independent state.
Prague uprising (1945.05.05–09): partially-successful attempt by the Czech resistance to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation during WWII. The preceding six years of occupation had fuelled anti-German sentiment and the approach of the Soviet Red Army and the US Third Army offered a chance of success. The uprising was brutal, with both sides committing war crimes. Violence against Germans, sanctioned by the Czechoslovak government, continued after the liberation, and was justified as revenge for the occupation or as a means to encourage Germans to flee. USA Third Army had refused to come to the aid of the Czech insurgents, which undermined the credibility of the Western powers in postwar Czechoslovakia. Instead, the uprising was presented as a symbol of Czech resistance to Nazi rule, and the liberation by the Red Army was exploited by the Czechoslovak Communist Party to increase popular support for communism. The Russian Liberation Army (ROA), composed of Soviet POWs that had agreed to fight for Nazi Germany, was stationed outside of Prague. Hoping that the ROA could be persuaded to switch sides in order to avoid accusations of collaboration, the Czech military command sent an envoy to General Sergei Bunyachenko, commander of the 1st Infantry Division (600th German Infantry Division). Bunyachenko agreed to help the Czechs. 1945.05.04 USA 3rd Army under General George S. Patton entered Czechoslovakia. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the only political leader to advocate the liberation of Prague by the Western Allies. In a telegram to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Churchill said that "the liberation of Prague...by US troops might make the whole difference to the postwar situation of Czechoslovakia and might well influence that in nearby countries." Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, also wanted his forces to liberate the city, and asked that the Americans stop at Plzeň, 50 miles to the west. The Red Army was planning a major offensive into the Protectorate, due to start 7 May. Eisenhower, disinclined to accept American casualties or risk antagonising USSR, acquiesced to the Soviet demands that the Red Army enter Prague.
1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état (communist historiography: "Victorious February"): event late that February in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, ushering in over four decades of dictatorship under its rule; was a clear marker along the already well-advanced road to full-fledged Cold War; helped spur quick adoption of the Marshall Plan, the creation of a state in West Germany, vigorous measures to keep Communists out of power in France and especially Italy, and steps toward mutual security that would, in little over a year, result in the establishment of NATO and the definitive drawing of the Iron Curtain until the Fall of Communism in 1989. In the 1946 election, the KSČ (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia) won 38% of the vote; the best-ever performance by a European Communist party in a free election; government still had a non-Communist majority (nine Communists and seventeen non-Communists), the KSČ had initial control over the police and armed forces, and came to dominate other key ministries such as those dealing with propaganda, education, social welfare and agriculture; they also soon dominated the civil service.
Protection of Czechoslovak borders during the Cold War: between CSSR and so called Capitalist countries of Western Europe, namely with the West Germany and Austria, in the Cold War era and especialy after 1951, was provided by special troops of Border Guard (English: Pohraniční stráž) and system of engineer equipment which created the real "Iron Curtain".
Prague Spring (1968.01.05-08.21): period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by USSR after WWII. Prague Spring reforms were an attempt by Dubček to grant additional rights to the citizens of Czechoslovakia in an act of partial decentralization of the economy and democratization. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on the media, speech and travel. After national discussion of dividing the country into a federation of three republics, Bohemia, Moravia-Silesia and Slovakia, Dubček oversaw the decision to split into two, the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. This was the only change that survived the end of Prague Spring.
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968.08.20-21 night): USSR and its main allies in the Warsaw Pact – Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, and Poland – invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in order to halt Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring political liberalisation reforms.
Normalization (Czechoslovakia) (1969-87): characterized by initial restoration of the conditions prevailing before the Prague Spring; firm rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and subsequent preservation of this new status quo. "Normalization" is sometimes used in a narrower sense to refer only to the period 1969 to 1971.
Velvet Revolution (Czech: sametová revoluce; Slovak: nežná revolúcia (Gentle Revolution); 1989.11.16/17-12.29): non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia combined students and older dissidents. The final result was the end of 41 years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, and the subsequent conversion to a parliamentary republic. In 1990.06, Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections since 1946.
Hyphen War ("Dash War"): tongue-in-cheek name given to the conflict over what to call Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist government. Czechoslovak Socialist Republic → Republic of Czecho-Slovakia (Havel; hyphen (Slovaks) vs dash (Czechs)) OR Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (parliament).
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia (1993.01.01; Velvet Divorce): self-determined separation of the federal state of Czechoslovakia. Politicians did it, not the common people who were very few supporting the dissolution.
Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin (9 c. - 10 c.): Contemporary sources attest that the Hungarians crossed the Carpathian Mountains following a joint attack in 894 or 895 by the Pechenegs and Bulgarians against them; first took control over the lowlands east of the river Danube and attacked and occupied Pannonia (the region to the west of the river) in 900; exploited internal conflicts in Moravia and annihilated this state sometime between 902 and 906. Kingdom of Hungary in 1000.
Hungarian invasions of Europe (~800/862-973): took place, when three groups were attacking Europe: the Vikings, the Muslims and the Hungarians. Army had mostly light cavalry and were highly mobile. Attacking without warning, they quickly plundered the countryside and departed before any defensive force could be organized. If forced to fight, they would harass their enemies with arrows then sudden retreat, tempting their opponents to break ranks and pursue, after which the Hungarians would turn to fight them singly. Hungarians were the last invading people to establish a permanent presence in Central Europe.
Ethnic map of Kingdom of Hungary in the 11th century based on place-names.
Battle of Mohács (1526.08.29): decisive event for the history of Europe, in particular Central Europe, for the following centuries. In the battle, forces of the Kingdom of Hungary led by King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia were defeated by forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (1848.03.15–1849.10.04; Hungarian: 1848–49-es forradalom és szabadságharc, "1848–49 Revolution and War of independence"): one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Being one of the most determinative events in Hungary's modern history, it is also one of the cornerstones of the Hungarian national identity. The crucial turning point of the events were the April laws which were ratified by King Ferdinand I, however the new young Austrian monarch Franz Joseph I arbitrarily revoked the laws without any legal competence. This unconstitutional act irreversibly escalated the conflict between the Hungarian parliament and Franz Joseph. After a series of serious Austrian defeats in 1849, the Austrian Empire came close to the brink of collapse. The young emperor Franz Joseph I had to call for Russian help in the name of the Holy Alliance. Tsar Nicholas I answered, and sent a 200,000 strong army with 80,000 auxiliary forces. Finally, the joint army of Russian and Austrian forces defeated the Hungarian forces. After the restoration of Habsburg power, Hungary was placed under martial law.
Lajos Kossuth (1802.09.19–1894.03.20): Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman and governor-president of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848–49. With the help of his talent in oratory in political debates and public speeches, Kossuth emerged from a poor gentry family into regent-president of the Kingdom of Hungary. As the influential contemporary American journalist Horace Greeley said of Kossuth: "Among the orators, patriots, statesmen, exiles, he has, living or dead, no superior."
István Tisza (1861.04.22–1918.10.31): Hungarian politician, prime minister, political scientist, international lawyer, macroeconomist, member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences and champion duelist. The outbreak of World War One played the most important role in his second term as prime minister. However, his life was cut short when he was fatally shot on 31 October 1918 during the Aster Revolution - that day when Hungary declared its independence and, as a result, Austria-Hungary dissolved. Tisza held favorable views on the maintenance of Austria-Hungary. In fact, he was the most zealous adherent of the Dual Monarchy and the partnership with Austria among the Hungarian political leaders and was a supporter of consensus between liberals and conservatives.
Treaty of Trianon (signed: 1920.06.04): formally end WWI between most of the Allies of WWI and the Kingdom of Hungary, the latter one of the successor states to Austria-Hungary. The principal beneficiaries of the treaty's territorial division were the Kingdom of Romania, Czechoslovakia, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia). Hungary had to pay war reparations to its neighbours. The treaty was dictated by the Allies rather than negotiated and the Hungarians had no option but to accept its terms. The modern boundaries of Hungary are the same as those defined by the Treaty of Trianon except for three villages that were transferred to Czechoslovakia in 1947.
Bálint Magyar (1952.11.15-): Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Education between 1996–1998 and between 2002–2006. He was a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats. His book Magyar polip – A posztkommunista maffiaállam (2013) describes modern Hungary as a mafia state. An English translation of the book, Post-Communist Mafia State: The Case of Hungary, was published in 2016.
Imperial examination: was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. Directly responsible for the creation of a class of scholar-bureaucrats irrespective of their family pedigree.
Hua–Yi distinction: During the late Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 BC – 256 BC), the inhabitants of the Central Plains began to make a distinction between Hua and Yi (Chinese: 華夷之辨; pinyin: huáyí zhībiàn), referred to be some historians as the Sino–barbarian dichotomy. They defined themselves as part of cultural and political region known as Huaxia, which they contrasted with the surrounding regions home to outsiders, conventionally known as the Four Barbarians (literally, "four Yi"). Although Yi is usually translated as "barbarian", other translations of this term in English include "foreigners", "ordinary others", "wild tribes" and "uncivilized tribes". The Hua–Yi distinction asserted Chinese superiority, but implied that outsiders could become Hua by adopting their culture and customs. These concepts were not unique to Ancient China, but were also applied by the Vietnamese, Japanese and Koreans who all considered themselves at one point in history to be "Middle Kingdom" in imitation of China.
10th-15th c.: Many Chinese merchants chose to settle down in the Southeast Asian ports such as Champa, Cambodia, Sumatra, and Java, and married the native women. Their children carried on trade.
Century of humiliation: refers to the period of intervention and imperialism by Western powers and Japan in China between 1839 and 1949.
New Culture Movement (新文化运动; pinyin: Xīn Wénhuà Yùndòng): movement in China in the 1910s and 1920s that criticized classical Chinese ideas and promoted a new Chinese culture based upon western ideals like democracy and science. Arising out of disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Republic of China to address China's problems, ..., led a revolt against Confucianism. The movement promoted:
Vernacular literature
An end to the patriarchal family in favor of individual freedom and women's liberation
The view that China is a nation among nations, not a uniquely Confucian culture
The re-examination of Confucian texts and ancient classics using modern textual and critical methods, known as the Doubting Antiquity School
Democratic and egalitarian values
An orientation to the future rather than the past
The New Culture Movement was the progenitor of the May Fourth Movement. 1919.05.04, students in Beijing aligned with the movement protested the transfer of German rights over Jiaozhou Bay to Imperial Japan rather than China at the Paris Peace Conference (the meeting setting the terms of peace at the conclusion of WWI), transforming what had been a cultural movement into a political one.
Belt and Road Initiative (the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road): development strategy proposed by the Chinese government which focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries, primarily PRC, the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the ocean-going Maritime Silk Road (MSR). A report from Fitch Ratings suggests that China's plan to build ports, roads, railways, and other forms of infrastructure in under-developed Eurasia and Africa is out of political motivation rather than real demand for infrastructure. The Fitch report also doubts Chinese banks' ability to control risks, as they do not have a good record of allocating resources efficiently at home, which may lead to new asset-quality problems for Chinese banks that most of funding is likely to come from. The Belt and Road Initiative is believed by some analysts to be a way to extend Chinese influence at the expense of the US, in order to fight for regional leadership in Asia.
Kunming–Singapore railway (Pan-Asia railway Network): network of railways, being planned or under construction, that would connect China, Singapore and all the countries of mainland Southeast Asia. The concept originated with British and French imperialists, who sought to link the railways they had built in southwest China, Indochina and Malaya, but international conflicts in the 20th century kept regional railways fragmented. The idea was formally revived in 2006.10 when 18 Asian and Eurasian countries signed the Trans-Asian railway Network Agreement, which designates the Kunming–Singapore railway as one of several planned trans-Asian railways. The proposed network consists of three main routes from Kunming, China to Bangkok, Thailand: the Eastern route via Vietnam and Cambodia; the central route via Laos, and the western route via Myanmar. The southern half of the network from Bangkok to Singapore has long been operational, though a high-speed line has been proposed. 2014.01 construction of sections connecting China with Vietnam, China with Myanmar and Laos with Vietnam are under way. Work on sections in Myanmar and Laos were set to begin in early-2011 with Chinese assistance, but have been delayed. A high-speed rail project in Vietnam with Japanese support was canceled in 2010 due to high cost. However it will be re-considered during 2019 communist party session, as Vietnam’s economy is growing at much faster pace than anticipated. Those sections are expected to be completed in 2020. The railway network is expected to increase regional economic integration and increase China's economic ties with Southeast Asia.
China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC): collection of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan. Originally valued at $46 billion, the value of CPEC projects is now worth $62 billion. CPEC is intended to rapidly modernize Pakistani infrastructure and strengthen its economy by the construction of modern transportation networks, numerous energy projects, and SEZs. Modern transportation networks built under CPEC will link seaports in Gwadar and Karachi with northern Pakistan, as well as points further north in western China and Central Asia. A 1,100 km long motorway will be built between the cities of Karachi and Lahore as part of CPEC, while the Karakoram Highway between Rawalpindi and the Chinese border will be completely reconstructed and overhauled. Over 10.4 GW of energy generating capacity is to be brought online by the end of 2018, with the majority developed as part of CPEC's fast-tracked "Early Harvest" projects. A network of pipelines to transport liquefied natural gas and oil will also be laid as part of the project, including a $2.5 billion pipeline between Gwadar and Nawabshah to eventually transport gas from Iran. CPEC's potential impact on Pakistan has been likened to that of the Marshall Plan undertaken by the United States in post-war Europe. Route to circumvent Afghanistan: The "Quadrilateral Agreement on Traffic in Transit" (QATT) was first devised in 1995, and signed in 2004 by the governments of China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan to facilitate transit trade between the various countries, with no inclusion of Afghanistan. In early 2016.03, the Afghan government reportedly acquiesced to Pakistani requests to use Afghanistan as a corridor to Tajikistan, after having dropped demands from reciprocal access to India via Pakistan. India, Iran, and Afghanistan also signed an agreement with the intention of simplifying transit procedures between the three countries. Despite the expressed desire to circumvent Pakistan in order to augment Iranian and Indian economic ties, Indian goods destined for Iran currently do not require transit through Pakistan, as those goods can be exported to Iran via Bandar Abbas, where India also currently maintains a diplomatic mission.
Gwadar Port: deep-sea port situated on the Arabian Sea at Gwadar in Balochistan province of Pakistan. The port features prominently CPEC; considered to be a link between the ambitious One Belt, One Road and Maritime Silk Road projects.
Paper tiger: calque of the Chinese phrase zhǐlǎohǔ (simplified Chinese: 纸老虎; traditional Chinese: 紙老虎). The term refers to something or someone that claims or appears to be powerful or threatening but is actually ineffectual and unable to withstand challenge. Origin: Zhilaohu is an ancient phrase. Robert Morrison, the British missionary and lexicographer, translated the phrase as "a paper tiger" in Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect in 1828. John Francis Davis translated the Chinese phrase as "paper tiger" in a book on Chinese history published in 1836.
5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms (907 - 960) → Song dynasty (960 - 1279) → Northern / Southern Song | Liao dynasty (907 - 1125) → Jin & Western Xia
Yuan dynasty (1271 - 1368)
Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644)
Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911)
Duke Xiao of Qin (381–338 BC; 秦孝公): ruler of the Qin state from 361 to 338 BC during the Warring States period of Chinese history. Duke Xiao is best known for employing the Legalist statesman Shang Yang from the State of Wei (衛), and authorizing him to conduct a series of ground breaking political, military and economic reforms in Qin. Although the reforms were controversial and drew violent opposition from many Qin politicians, Duke Xiao supported Shang Yang fully and the reforms did help to transform Qin into a dominant superpower among the Seven Warring States.
Shang Yang (390–338 BC; 商鞅): policies laid the foundation that enabled Qin to conquer all of China, uniting the country for the first time and ushering in the Qin dynasty. He and his followers contributed to the Book of Lord Shang strain of what has modernly been termed Chinese Legalism.
Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589): age of civil war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spreading of Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism. The period saw large-scale migration of Han Chinese people to the lands south of the Yangtze River.
Buddhism in China:
Faxian (337-424): Chinese Buddhist monk; A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Xian of his Travels in India and Ceylon in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline.
Xuanzang (602-664): Chinese Buddhist monk, who brought lots of knowledge from India (Bangladesh, Nepal) to China during Tang dynasty after his journey in 639-645 (classic Chinese text Great Tang Records on the Western Regions {compiled in 646 by Bianji, disciple of Xuanzang}, later inspired Journey to the West).
Mogao Caves (Mogao Grottoes, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas; Dunhuang Caves): caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out 366 AD as places of Buddhist meditation and worship.
Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368): branch of Mongol Borjigin dynasty established by Kublai Khan. In 1271 Great Yuan Empire was isolated from the other khanates and consisted mostly of present-day China and its surrounding areas including modern Mongolia; first non-Han dynasty to rule all of China. Considered both a successor to the Mongol Empire and as an imperial Chinese dynasty. Empire of the Great Khan: Kublai Khan also claimed the title of Great Khan, supreme over the other successor khanates: the Chagatai, the Golden Horde, and the Ilkhanate, though these other khanates were independent of Yuan or each other. Languages: Chinese, Mongolian, Persian. Religions: Buddhism (Chinese & Tibetan), Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion, others: Shamanism/Tengriism, Christianity (Nestorian), Islam. First recorded travels by Europeans to China and back date from this time: Marco Polo (Il milione, ~1299) with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo.
Mongol invasions of Japan (1274, 1281): taken by Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty to conquer the Japanese archipelago after the submission of the Korean kingdom of Goryeo to vassaldom. Ultimately a failure, the invasion attempts are of macro-historical importance because they set a limit on Mongol expansion and rank as nation-defining events in the history of Japan. The invasions are referred to in many works of fiction and are the earliest events for which the word kamikaze ("divine wind") is widely used, originating in reference to the two typhoons faced by the Yuan fleets. The invasions were one of the earliest cases of gunpowder warfare outside of China. One of the most notable technological innovations during the war was the use of explosive, hand-thrown bombs.
Mongol invasions of Sakhalin (1264–1308): to aid their Nivkh allies against the Ainu, who had been expanding north from Hokkaido. The Ainu put up a tenacious resistance, even launching a counter-attack on Mongol positions on the continent across the Strait of Tartary in 1297, but finally capitulated to the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China in 1308.
Ming dynasty (Empire of the Great Ming; 1368–1644): ruling dynasty of China for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Han Chinese. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the Shun dynasty, soon replaced by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty), regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1662. The Hongwu Emperor (ruled 1368–98) attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world.
Yongle Emperor (1360.05.02–1424.08.12; personal name Zhu Di; reign 1402-1424): third Emperor of the Ming dynasty. Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty. He was originally enfeoffed as the Prince of Yan (燕王) in May 1370, with the capital of his princedom at Beiping (modern Beijing). Amid the continuing struggle against the Mongols of the Northern Yuan dynasty, Zhu Di consolidated his own power and eliminated rivals such as the general Lan Yu. He initially accepted his father's appointment of his eldest brother Zhu Biao and then Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunwen as crown prince, but when Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne as the Jianwen Emperor and began executing and demoting his powerful uncles, Zhu Di found pretext for rising in rebellion against his nephew. Assisted in large part by eunuchs mistreated by the Hongwu and Jianwen Emperors, who both favored the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats, Zhu Di survived the initial attacks on his princedom and drove south to launch the Jingnan Campaign against the Jianwen Emperor in Nanjing. Eager to establish his own legitimacy, Zhu Di voided the Jianwen Emperor's reign and established a wide-ranging effort to destroy or falsify records concerning his childhood and rebellion. This included a massive purge of the Confucian scholars in Nanjing and grants of extraordinary extralegal authority to the eunuch secret police. One favorite was Zheng He, who employed his authority to launch major voyages of exploration into the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. The difficulties in Nanjing also led the Yongle Emperor to re-establish Beiping (present-day Beijing) as the new imperial capital. He repaired and reopened the Grand Canal and, between 1406 and 1420, directed the construction of the Forbidden City. As part of his continuing attempt to control the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats, the Yongle Emperor also greatly expanded the imperial examination system in place of his father's use of personal recommendation and appointment. These scholars completed the monumental Yongle Encyclopedia during his reign.
Beiyang Government (1912-1928; warlord government): collectively refers to a series of military regimes that ruled from Beijing at Zhongnanhai (imperial garden; similar to how White House is for USA, or Kremlin for RU); internationally recognized as the legitimate Government of ROC.
Chinese cash (currency unit): was a currency denomination used in China in imperial times. It was the chief denomination until the introduction of the yuan in the late 19th century.
Republic of China (1912–49): an East Asian state that occupied the present-day territories of China, Mongolia and Taiwan at differing times.
Occupation of Mongolia: by the Beiyang government of the Republic of China since the Revocation of Outer Mongolian autonomy (Chinese: 外蒙古撤治) began in 1919.10 and lasted until 1921.03.18, when Chinese troops in Urga were routed by Baron Ungern's White Russian (Buryats, Russians etc.) and Mongolian forces. These, in turn, were defeated by the Red Army and its Mongolian allies by June 1921.
Map of the Northern Expedition.
Northern Expedition (1926.07.09–1928.12.29 (2 years and 173 days)): military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The purpose of the campaign was to reunify China, which had become fragmented in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1911. The expedition was led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and was divided into two phases. The first phase ended in a 1927 political split between two factions of the KMT: the right-leaning Nanjing faction, led by Chiang, and the left-leaning faction in Wuhan, led by Wang Jingwei. The split was partially motivated by Chiang's purging of communists within the KMT, which marked the end of the First United Front. In an effort to mend this schism, Chiang Kai-shek stepped down as the commander of the NRA in 1927.08, and went into exile in Japan. The second phase of the Expedition began in January 1928, when Chiang resumed command. By April 1928, the nationalist forces had advanced to the Yellow River. With the assistance of allied warlords including Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang, nationalist forces secured a series of decisive victories against the Beiyang Army. As they approached Beijing, Zhang Zuolin, leader of the Manchuria-based Fengtian clique, was forced to flee, and was assassinated shortly thereafter by the Japanese. His son, Zhang Xueliang, took over as the leader of the Fengtian clique, and in December 1928, announced that Manchuria would accept the authority of the nationalist government in Nanjing. With the final piece of China under KMT control, the Northern Expedition concluded successfully and China was reunified, heralding the start of the Nanjing decade.
Sino-German cooperation (1926–1941): instrumental in modernizing the industry and the armed forces of the Republic of China between 1926 and 1941. At the time, China was fraught with factional warlordism and foreign incursions. The Northern Expedition (1928) nominally unified China under Kuomintang (KMT) control, but Imperial Japan loomed as the greatest foreign threat. The Chinese urgency for modernising its military and national defence industry, coupled with Germany's need for a stable supply of raw materials, put China and the German Weimar Republic on the road of close relations from the late 1920s onwards. That continued for a time following the rise in Germany of the Nazis. However, intense co-operation lasted only until the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. The German co-operation nevertheless had a profound effect on the modernisation of China and its ability to resist the Japanese during the war.
Nanjing decade: informal name for the decade from 1927 (or 1928) to 1937 in the Republic of China. It began when Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek took Nanjing from Zhili clique warlord Sun Chuanfang halfway through the Northern Expedition in 1927. Chiang declared it to be the national capital despite the existence of a left-wing Nationalist government in Wuhan. The Wuhan faction gave in and the Northern Expedition continued until the Beiyang government in Beijing was overthrown in 1928. The decade ended with the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and the retreat of the Nationalist government to Wuhan. GDP growth averaged 3.9%/year from 1929 to 1941 and per capita GDP about 1.8%/year.
Two modern Chinas (PRC (aka "China"), ROC (aka "Taiwan")) (1912-now)
How two countries talk to each other: MAC (ROC) ⇒ SEF (ROC) ⇔ ARATS (PRC) ⇐ Taiwan Affairs Office (PRC):
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC): cabinet-level administrative agency under the Executive Yuan of ROC. Responsible for the planning, development, and implementation of policies between ROC and PRC. Plays an important role in setting policy and development of relations with PRC and advising ROC's central government.
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF): semi-official organization set up by ROC government to handle technical or business matters with PRC. Though technically a private organization, it is funded by the government and controlled by MAC of the Executive Yuan.
Taiwan Affairs Office: administrative agency under the State Council of PRC. Responsible for setting and implementing guidelines and policies related to Taiwan, as stipulated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of PRC and the State Council itself. Administers and coordinates direct links in mail, transport and trade across the Taiwan Strait, takes charge of the media and publicity work related to Taiwan, releases news and information concerning Taiwan affairs, and handles major incidents related to Taiwan.
Three Links (Three Linkages): The "Three Links" were officially restored on 15 December 2008, with the commencement of direct flights, shipping and post. History: "message to Compatriots in Taiwan" calling for the unification of mainland China and Taiwan was sent by the PRC National People's Congress in 1979.
Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA; 2010.06.29): preferential trade agreement between PRC and ROC that aims to reduce tariffs and commercial barriers between the two sides.
Three Noes (Three-Noes Policy: "no contact, no compromise, and no negotiation"): policy in the 1980s maintained by President Chiang Ching-kuo of ROC in response to 1979 "Three Links".
China Airlines Flight 334: hijacked by pilot Wang Xijue on 1986.05.03 while en route to Bangkok, Thailand. ROC publicly sent unofficial envoys to negotiate in HK with PRC officials over the return of the plane and the flight crew. At around this same time the ROC's civilians demanded (esp. those who had family members in Mainland China) to allow family reunions and they were soon granted. Wang Xijue, credited by the PRC for reestablishing contact between mainland China and Taiwan, received a hero’s welcome in mainland China and became a senior PRC aviation official as well as serving as a so-called "Taiwanese delegate" to PRC government institutions.
Chinese reunification: in Taiwan supported by Kuomintang (KMT) and other parties in Pan-blue coalition, opposed by Pan-green coalition: Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union.
Anti-Secession Law: PRC ratified it on March 14, 2005; formalized the long-standing policy of the People's Republic of China to use "non-peaceful means" against the "Taiwan independence movement" in the event of a declaration of Taiwan independence.
POVs:
history:
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 (1971.10.25): recognized the representatives of the People's Republic of China (PRC) as "the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations" and expelled "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations". Meaning of "China" transferred officially/worldwide from ROC to PRC.
Four Noes and One Without (Four Noes): was a pledge by former President of the Republic of China Chen Shui-bian (Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan) made in his inauguration speech on 20 May 2000. One Country on Each Side.
1992 Consensus: outcome of a meeting in 1992 between the semi-official representatives of the People's Republic of China ("PRC") in mainland China and the Republic of China ("ROC") in Taiwan. The Consensus, as described by observers, is that, on the subject of the "One China principle", both sides recognise there is only one China - both mainland China and Taiwan belong to the same China, but both sides agree to verbally express the meaning of that one China according to their own individual definition: i.e. ROC rules "whole China" per ROC's pre-1949 policy (nowadays there are independence movements in Taiwan!) or that PRC rules the "whole China" (PRC calls this "one China policy").
China (disambiguation): the English Wikipedia community moved the articles like this: PRC→China (2011.08-09), ROC→Taiwan (2012.03)
Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA): treaty between PRC and ROC, signed in 2013.06 but currently unratified by the Taiwanese legislature, aimed at liberalizing trade in services between the two economies. Under the terms of the treaty service industries such as banking, healthcare, tourism, film, telecommunications, and publishing would be opened to investment and businessmen would be able to obtain indefinitely renewable visas for the other territory.
Sunflower Student Movement (2014.03.18–2014.04.10): activists protested the passing of the CSSTA by the ruling party Kuomintang at the legislature without clause-by-clause review.
PRC, aka China (not to be confused with Taiwan and Singapore)
Mainland China (Chinese mainland, the mainland; in Chinese: Dalu, Neidi): geographic and political term to describe the geopolitical area under the jurisdiction of PRC; generally excludes the PRC SARs of HK and Macau; avoids calling the area simply "China" and thereby recognizing the founding of PRC as the "China" and was coined by the Kuomintang(KMT).
Inciting subversion of state power: crime under the law of PRC; frequently been the charge given against human rights campaigners within China when they are sentenced to imprisonment.
Special Economic Zones of the People's Republic of China (SEZs of PRC): started at the border with HK, Macau and Taiwan: Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Xiamen, Hainan (1980), then spread to Shanghai (1984), later to other coastal areas and inland, but the initial ones have the hugest freedoms; joint ventures between Chinese state and foreigners
Internet in the People's Republic of China: almost all major Western SaaS products have their equivalents in China and these equivalents try to adhere to the strict laws on freedom of speech (i.e. no talk about unrest, protests, bad Commie party...). The equivalents are: Tencent QQ (like MSN Messenger, Skype, GTalk, facebook talk), Tencent Holdings Ltd (runs smth similar to facebook), Baidu (Google search engine as provided by Google China in HK), Baidu Baike (Wikipedia), Sina Weibo (hybrid of Twitter and facebook). The fact is that most of the Western services are censored or banned in PRC, so these alternatives have no real competition.
Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China: methods: IP blocking, DNS filtering & redirection, URL filtering, packet filtering (deep packet inspection), man-in-the-middle attack, TCP reset attack, VPN blocking (starting late 2012).
ICP license (ICP=Internet Content Provider): permit issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to permit China-based websites to operate in China.
Microblogging in China (weibo (微博)): Sina Weibo (has weibo.com.cn domain) - most popular in PRC, 2nd - Tencent Weibo (due to Tencent QQ popularity). History: After the July 2009 Ürümqi riots, PRC shut down most of the domestic weibo services including Fanfou and Jiwai; many popular non China-based microblogging services like Twitter, Facebook and Plurk have been blocked since then: till 2009 Fanfou was the leader, after 2009 Sina Weibo. Weibos are freer than other internet communications in PRC, therefore incidents like Li Gang incident were first reported on a weibo.
Video gaming in the People's Republic of China: massive industry and pastime that includes the production, sale, import/export, and playing of video games. On the other hand, console games have been banned in the country since the early 2000s, the ban has since been lifted in 2013. Farming: game sweatshop: 2005.12 - estimated 100,000 Chinese employed as "farmers". Censorship examples: Hearts of Iron (portrays world in 1890-1950: Tibet is independent, Taiwan and Korea belong to Japan...); I.G.I.-2: Covert Strike; Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour; Battlefield 4; several games have had their content screened to remove certain imagery deemed offensive or unfavorable; common examples include skeletons or skulls being either fleshed out or removed entirely (World of WarCraft, LoL, Dota 2).
Hukou system: of household registration in mainland China and Taiwan, although the system itself is more properly called "huji", and has origins in ancient China. Due to its connection to social programs provided by the government, which assigns benefits based on agricultural and non-agricultural residency status (often referred to as rural and urban), the hukou system is sometimes likened to a form of caste system. It has been the source of much inequality over the decades since the establishment of PRC in 1949, as urban residents received benefits that ranged from retirement pension to education to health care, while rural citizens were often left to fend for themselves. In recent years, the central government has begun to reform the system in response to protests and a changing economic system, but experts speculate as to whether or not these changes have been of substance. ROC (Taiwan): while all PRC nationals not in possession of travel documents issued by PRC or British passports (including overseas Chinese with no connection to Taiwan) can apply for a passport issued by ROC, proper household registration in Taiwan or other islands administered by the ROC is required to obtain a ROC ID Card, which is often used as proof of citizenship in things like national elections, and an ID number is needed to open bank accounts. Unlike in mainland China, residency can be easily changed with the local authorities and household registration does not serve as a tool to limit a resident's movements within Taiwan.
Heihe–Tengchong Line (Aihui-Tengchong Line): imaginary line that divides the area of China into two roughly equal parts. 1935: East of line: 43% of area of PRC, 96% of population; West of line: 57% area, 4% population. 2002: East: 43% area, 94% population; West: 57% area, 6% population. West side of the Heihe-Tengchong Line still remains relatively rural and poor as compared to the east.
Anti-Western sentiment in China: has been increasing since the early 1990s, particularly amongst the Chinese youth. Notable incidents which have resulted in a significant anti-Western backlash have included the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, the 2008 demonstrations during the Olympic torch relay and alleged Western media bias, especially in relation to the March 2008 Tibet riots.
Renminbi ("people's currency"): currency of PRC. Until 2005, the value of the renminbi was pegged to the US dollar. As China pursued its historical transition from central planning to a market economy, and increased its participation in foreign trade, the renminbi was devalued to increase the competitiveness of Chinese industry.
2015 Chinese stock market crash: 2015.06.12: third of the value of A-shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange was lost within one month of the event. Major aftershocks: 2015.07.27, 2015.08.24 "Black Monday", 2016.01.4, 2016.01.07.
Sheng nu ("leftover women" or "leftover ladies"): derogatory term made popular by the All-China Women's Federation that classifies women who remain unmarried in their late twenties and beyond. The term has gone on to become widely used in the mainstream media and has been the subject of several televisions series, magazine and newspaper articles, and book publications focusing on both the good and bad aspects of the term and surrounding culture. PRC government mandated the All-China Women's Federation to publish series of articles stigmatizing unwed women who were in their late twenties. Yong Cai who studies China's gender imbalance at the University of North Carolina stated, "The 'sheng nu' phenomenon is similar to trends we've already seen around the world, in countries ranging from the United States to Japan as higher education and increased employment give women more autonomy".
Fishing industry in China: PRC has one-fifth of the world's population and accounts for one-third of the world's reported fish production as well as two-thirds of the world's reported aquaculture production. It is also a major importer of seafood and the country's seafood market is estimated to grow to a market size worth US$53.5 Billion by 2027. China's 2005 reported catch of wild fish, caught in rivers, lakes, and the sea, was 17.1 mln tonnes, far ahead of the second-ranked nation, USA, which reported 4.9 mln tonnes. The Chinese commercial fishing fleet is responsible for more illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing than that of any other nation. Aquaculture, the farming of fish in ponds, lakes and tanks, accounts for two-thirds of China's reported output. China's 2005 reported harvest was 32.4 mln tonnes, more than 10 times that of the second-ranked nation, India, which reported 2.8 mln tonnes. The country's aquaculture market is forecasted to reach a projected market size of US$177.3 Billion by 2027. The Chinese fishing industry is the most heavily subsidized on earth. It also has the highest share of harmful subsidies, subsidies which make it profitable to overfish depleted stocks, with $5.9 billion of such subsidies paid in 2018. This compares to harmful subsidies from Japan at $2.1 billion, EU at $2 billion, and USA at $1.1 billion. Most of these subsidies are fuel subsidies, which contribute to carbon emissions. In 2013 94% of Chinese fisheries subsidies were for fuel.
Generations of Chinese leadership: 1) Mao and friends who were purged by Mao {1949-1976 (Mao's death)} → Hua Guofeng {1976-1978} 2) Deng Xiaoping {1978-1989 (Tiananmen Square: some guys retired)}; 3) Jiang Zemin {1989-2002}; 4) Hu Jintao {2002-2012} (spent little time oversees in early years, new technocratic style governance and a less centralized political structure); 5) Xi Jinping {2012-} (fewer engineers, more management and finance majors, including successful entrepreneurs). Sixth generation: The sixth generation of leaders had been expected to come to power at the 20th Party Congress in 2022. However, following Xi Jinping's consolidation of power at the 19th Party Congress, the future of the "sixth generation" was cast into doubt as clear successor figures failed to be named to senior leadership posts, particularly the Politburo Standing Committee.
The hugest PRC scandal of 21st c. so far (are the times changing? Is it similar to "restructurings in RU"?):
Xinjiang papers: collection of more than 400 pages of internal Chinese government documents describing the government policy regarding Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. In November 2019, journalists Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley at The New York Times broke the story that characterized the documents as "one of the most significant leaks of government papers from inside China's ruling Communist Party in decades." According to the The New York Times, the documents were leaked by a source inside the Chinese Communist Party and include a breakdown of how China created and organized re-education camps in Xinjiang.
China-Africa Development Fund (中非发展基金): Chinese private equity fund solely funded by China Development Bank, a Chinese government policy bank. The aim of the fund is to stimulate investment in Africa by Chinese companies in power generation, transportation infrastructure, natural resources, manufacturing, and other sectors.
Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times (光復香港，時代革命): slogan used by social movements in Hong Kong. The slogan was first used in 2016 by Hong Kong Indigenous spokesman Edward Leung as his campaign theme and slogan for the 2016 New Territories East by-election. He emphasised that anyone could take part in innovation and change regardless of age, hence the use of the phrase "revolution of our times". In the legislative election held later that year, Youngspiration, which was cooperating with Hong Kong Indigenous as Leung was banned from running by the Electoral Affairs Commission, also used the slogan for their campaign. Usage: 2016 Legislative Council campaigns; 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests: Hearthstone controversy (Blitzchung affair); The Revolution of Our Times.
2019–20 Hong Kong protests (Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement): were triggered by the introduction of the Fugitive Offenders amendment bill by the Hong Kong government. The now-aborted bill would have allowed extradition to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong did not have extradition agreements, including mainland China and Taiwan. This led to concerns that Hong Kong residents and visitors would be exposed to the legal system of mainland China, thereby undermining Hong Kong's autonomy and infringing civil liberties. Rifts within society widened and activists from both sides assaulted each other. The storming of the Legislative Council in July 2019, the deaths of Chow Tsz-lok and Luo Changqing, the shooting of an unarmed protester, and the sieges of two universities in November 2019 were landmark events. After the conflict at Chinese University and siege of the Polytechnic University, the unprecedented landslide victory of the pro-democracy camp in the District Council election in November and the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 brought a little respite.
Blitzchung controversy: In October 2019, American video game developer Blizzard Entertainment punished Ng Wai Chung (吳偉聰) (known as Blitzchung), a Hong Kong esports player of the online video game Hearthstone, for voicing his support of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests during an official streaming event. The public's response, which included a boycott and a letter from United States Congress representatives, prompted Blizzard to reduce the punishment, but not to eliminate it.
Military-civil fusion (军民融合): strategy and policy of CCP with the stated goal of developing PLA into a world-class military. History: The term "military-civil fusion" first emerged in the late 1990s. Hu Jintao, then-vice chairman of the CCP's Central Military Commission, uses the term to describe the coordination between civic and military sectors. Emily Weinstein noted that the Chinese government has studied the U.S. military-civil framework, with research papers examining the successes and drawbacks of its implementation in USA, such as Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit, DARPA. China recognized the technological superiority USA has achieved through collaboration between USA government institutions and leading technologies companies in USA, such as the case of SpaceX, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. China attempted to replicate and modified the framework as per domestic needs. However, the Chinese government can demand information and assistance from companies with more hardline approach than that of USA.
Taiwan (Note on Wikipedia-politics: "RoC" and "Republic of China" redirect to Taiwan; this was NOT the case before 2012.03.22, when "Taiwan" meant the same as now "Taiwan (island)", and "Republic of China" contained current ROC stuff; there were moves & deletions & vandalisms before...):
President of the Republic of China: diplomatic protocol regarding the President of the ROC is rather complex because of the political status of Taiwan. In the 23 nations which recognize the ROC as the legitimate government of China, he is accorded the standard treatment that is given to a head of state. In other nations, he is formally a private citizen, although even in these cases, travel usually meets with strong objections from PRC. ROC: ROC government as the "Taiwan authority", ROC President as the "leader of the Taiwan Area". Candidates for President must be citizens of ROC who has reached 40 years of age, has set their domicile in the ROC for not less than 15 years and lived in the free regions of the ROC for not less than 6 consecutive months. Naturalised citizens, residents of HK, Macau or PRC, soldiers and election officials are not eligible.
History of TaiwanTimeline of Taiwanese history: firstly spotted by Portuguese, then invaded by Dutch and Spanish, Dutch got rid of Spanish, but Han Chinese got rid of Dutch and settled in huge numbers among Formosan (Australasian) people from the 17th century onwards. Nowadays the Formosans by blood/genes are tiny minority.
After WWII and Chinese civil war (1949+):
Legal status of Taiwan: Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895.05.08), Treaty of Taipei (1952.04.18, effective 08.05; between ROC and Japan). USA was always ambiguous and never gave the full answer being afraid of WWIII or making PRC/USSR angry.
February 28 Incident: Japanese occupation and development; USA: V-J day and Japanese capitulation and loss of Taiwan; Chinese civil war: KMT retreats to Taiwan, CPC wins; clash between Taiwanese (Formosan + Chinese immigrants before WWII) and "new" Chinese (KMT and other retreating people)
Black gold (politics) (黑金, hēi jīn): term used in ROC to refer to political corruption; term refers to the obtaining of money (the "gold") through a dark, secretive, and corrupt method (the "black"). Historically Kuomintang was collaborating with Triads, "crime bosses". Chen Shui-bian (president of ROC 2000-2008) with his wife Wu Shu-chen were convicted on two bribery charges and currently serving a 19-year sentence in Taipei Prison, reduced from a life sentence [starting 2009.09.11].
Taiwanization (臺灣本土化運動, Táiwān běntǔhuà yùndòng; Taiwanese localization movement): conceptual term used in Taiwan to emphasize the importance of a separate Taiwanese culture, society, economy, and nationality, rather than to regard Taiwan as solely an appendage of PRC; involves the teaching of the history of Taiwan, geography, and culture from a Taiwan-centric perspective, as well as promoting languages locally established in Taiwan, including Taiwanese Hokkien (Taiwanese), Hakka, and Formosan languages. Political compromise that has been reached is to teach both the history of Taiwan and the history of mainland China. Name Rectification Campaign: distance ROC from PRC by removing Chinese influence from items within Taiwan control; name change campaign. Constitutional and political campaign. Vocal opponents: 1949-generation Mainlanders, or older generations of Mainlanders living on Taiwan that had spent their formative years and adulthood on the pre-1949 mainland Republic of China, and native Taiwanese who identify with a pan-Han Chinese cultural identity.
Taiwanese nationalism (台湾民族主义/臺灣民族主義, Táiwān Mínzú Zhǔyì): nationalist political movement to unite residents of Taiwan (ROC) as a nation and eliminate the current political and social division of Taiwan's people on the issues of national identity, the "Chinese reunification" vs. "independence" debate, and resolving the political status of Taiwan and its political dispute with PRC; nationalism movement seeks to establish or reinforce an independent Taiwanese identity that distinguishes Taiwan's people apart from Chinese nationalism, without necessarily advocating changing the state's official name from "Republic of China" to "Republic of Taiwan"; range from "Light Green" inside the Pan-Green Coalition to "Deep Green".
Taiwan Miracle (Taiwan Economic Miracle): rapid industrialization and economic growth of Taiwan during the latter half of 20 c. Triggered political change (from dictatorial KMT-only (mainlader-dominated) to at least two-party politics (at first native Taiwanese, non-KMT, started)). Several explanations: increase in capital (increased savings rate), longer working hours, women entered the workforce; increase in productivity: land reform, urbanization and industrialization, policy of export promotion rather than import substitution.
National without household registration (NWOHR; 無戶籍國民): legal status held by nationals of ROC who lack household registration in the Taiwan Area. ROC nationality law considers many overseas Chinese as well as most residents of mainland China, HK, and Macau to be ROC nationals. Such persons may be entitled to ROC diplomatic protection and ROC passports. However, nationality is a necessary but not sufficient condition for most civic duties and privileges in Taiwan (e.g. immigration to the other countries on visa-free is allowed only for "true" citizens with the area registration). NWOHRs are subject to immigration control under the Immigration Act (though on different terms than foreigners), may not vote, and do not receive national health insurance; they are also exempt from military conscription.
Military dependents' village: community in Taiwan built in the late 1940s and the 1950s whose original purpose was to serve as provisional housing for soldiers of ROC armed forces and their dependents from mainland China after the Kuomintang (KMT) retreated to Taiwan. They ended up becoming permanent settlements, forming distinct cultures as enclaves of mainlanders in Taiwanese cities. Over the years, many military dependents' villages have suffered from urban problems such as housing dereliction, abandonment, urban decay, and urban slum. Initially, none of the military families would have expected a permanent stalemate across the Taiwan straits. They either hoped to regroup, rearm, and then retake the mainland with US assistance, or feard that Communist armies would press on and take Taiwan too. In either case, the immediate impulse was to consider Taiwan as a temporary refuge for the medium-term.
PTT Bulletin Board System (PTT; 批踢踢實業坊; pinyin: Pītītī Shíyè Fāng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Phi-thek-thek Si̍t-gia̍p-hong): largest terminal-based bulletin board system (BBS) based in Taiwan. It was founded by Yi-Chin Tu and other students from the National Taiwan University in 1995 as Professional Technology Temple, and it is currently administered by the Electronic BBS Research Society as a non-commercial and open-source BBS. Background: PTT is an open source project. The source code is released under GPL 2.0. Incidents and Controversy. The death of Taiwan’s representative in Osaka. Manipulation of public opinion by political parties. Han Kuo-Yu and FFASIC. Tsai Ing-wen’ dissertation.
Bamboo Union: largest of Taiwan's three main Triads.
Vietnamese people in Taiwan (120k - 200k): form one of the island's larger communities of foreign residents. As early as 2001, Vietnamese women composed 49% of all foreign brides in Taiwan. Their average age was between 25 and 26 years old, while that of their grooms was 36; 54% came from Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnamese migrant brides in Taiwan: As of 2006, out of Taiwan’s large immigrant population of approximately 428,240 people (up from 30,288 in 1991), 18% were females who had relocated to the country through marriage. Out of this population of foreign-born brides, about 85% originated from the Southeast Asian countries of Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, with the majority hailing from Vietnam.
Languages of Singapore: Singapore Government recognizes four official languages: English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil; non-Mandarin Chinese languages such as Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, Hainanese and Cantonese have been classified as dialects. Unlike the smaller Malay and Chinese dialects, Indian dialects are able to be used in schools. Bilingualism and multilingualism
CIA (USA: cold war), UK (former British empire), Greece (+military junta), Turkey were involved
Map of the districts of Cyprus, named in English, with English annotations, and showing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, United Kingdom Sovereign Base Areas, and United Nations buffer zone.
Cyprus dispute: ongoing issue of Turkish military invasion and occupation of the northern third of the island since 1974. Although the Republic of Cyprus is recognized as the sole legitimate state—sovereign over all the island—the north is under the de facto administration of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is guarded by Turkish Armed Forces. Currently, only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, while there is broad recognition that the ongoing military presence constitutes occupation of territories that belong to the Republic of Cyprus. According to the European Court of Human Rights, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus should be considered a puppet state under Turkish effective control.
United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus: demilitarized zone, patrolled by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), that was established in 1964 and extended in 1974 after the cease fire of 16 August 1974, following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and de facto partition of the island into the area controlled by the Republic of Cyprus (southern Cyprus save for the British Sovereign Base Areas) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the North.
Cypriot passport: Despite the continuing division in Cyprus, due to the Turkish invasion of 1974, all Cypriot passports contain text in Greek as well as Turkish and English, as Greek and Turkish are the official languages of the Republic of Cyprus (according to the article 3, paragraph 1 of the Constitution of Cyprus). And despite the ethnic and physical division of Turkish Cypriots from the rest of the country, they can obtain passports and ID cards if they prove to be Cypriots by descent. Turkish settlers in the northern part of Cyprus are not entitled to Cypriot citizenship.
Akrotiri and Dhekelia (Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia): British Overseas Territory on the island of Cyprus. The areas, which include British military bases and installations, as well as other land, were retained by the British under the 1960 treaty of independence, signed by the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey and representatives from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, which granted independence to the (then) Crown colony of Cyprus. The territory serves an important role as a station for signals intelligence and provides a vital strategic part of UK surveillance-gathering network in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
UK (England, +Wales, +Scotland, ~Ireland (isle -Republic of Ireland +Northern Ireland)), British Isles (Britain + Ireland), GB (Great Britain)
Great Britain: island in the North Atlantic off the north-west coast of continental Europe. It is the largest island of the British Isles, the largest island in Europe and the ninth-largest island in the world. With a population of about 61 million people in 2011, it is the third-most populous island in the world, after Java (Indonesia) and Honshū (Japan). It is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands.
Ireland: island in the North Atlantic to the west of Great Britain, from which it is separated by the North Channel, the Irish Sea and St Georges Channel, and after which it is the largest island of the British Isles archipelago. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of UK, which covers the remaining area and is located in the north-east of the island. The population of Ireland is about 6.4 million. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just over 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.
Common Travel Area (CTA; Irish: Comhlimistéar Taistil): open borders area comprising UK, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The British Overseas Territories are not included. Based on agreements that are not legally binding, the internal borders of the CTA are subject to minimal controls, if any, and can normally be crossed by British and Irish citizens with minimal identity documents with certain exceptions. The maintenance of the CTA involves co-operation on immigration matters between the British and Irish authorities. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
United Kingdom, aka United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or UK, or Britain: country consisting of 4 countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Constitutional conventions of the United Kingdom: while UK does not have a codified constitution that is a single document, the collection of legal instruments that have developed into a body of law known as constitutional law has existed for hundreds of years.
Reserved and excepted matters: in UK are the areas of public policy where the UK Parliament has retained the exclusive power (jurisdiction) to make laws (legislate) in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been granted power by the UK Parliament under their respective legislators in all areas except those which are reserved (or excepted in the case of Northern Ireland).
other: Bermuda, Turks and Caicos, Cayman, Falkland, Anguilla...
Crown dependencies: Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey in the English Channel, the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. They do not form part of either the United Kingdom or the British Overseas Territories. Internationally, the dependencies are considered "territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible", rather than sovereign states. As a result, they are not member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. However, they do have relationships with the Commonwealth and other international organisations, and are members of the British–Irish Council. They have their own teams in the Commonwealth Games.
Isle of Man
Isle of Man Purchase Act 1765 (Act of Revestment): purchased the feudal rights of the Dukes of Atholl as Lords of Man over the Isle of Man, and revested them into the British Crown.
Glorious Revolution (Irish: An Réabhlóid Ghlórmhar; Scottish Gaelic: Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; Welsh: Chwyldro Gogoneddus; Glorieuze Overtocht (Glorious Crossing); 1688–1689): deposition of James II and VII, king of England, Scotland and Ireland and replacement by his daughter Mary II and her husband, William III of Orange, stadtholder and de facto ruler of the Dutch Republic. A term first used by John Hampden in late 1689, historian Jeremy Black suggests it can be seen as both the last successful invasion of England and also an internal coup. Between 1688 and 1720 world trade dominance shifted from the Dutch Republic to Britain.
Test Act: series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and nonconformists. The principle was that none but people taking communion in the established Church of England were eligible for public employment, and the severe penalties pronounced against recusants, whether Catholic or nonconformist, were affirmations of this principle. In practice nonconformists were often exempted from some of these laws through the regular passage of Acts of Indemnity. After 1800 they were seldom enforced, except at Oxbridge, where nonconformists and Catholics could not matriculate (Oxford) or graduate (Cambridge). The Conservative government repealed them in 1828 with little controversy. Corporation Act 1661; Test Act of 1673; 1678 Act.
Rome Rule: term used by Irish unionists to describe their belief that with the passage of a Home Rule Bill, the Roman Catholic Church would gain political power over their interests in Ireland. The slogan was coined by the Radical MP and Quaker John Bright during the first Home Rule crisis in the late 19th century and continued to be used in the early 20th century.
Irish Home Rule movement: movement that campaigned for self-government for Ireland within UK. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the end of WWI. Following the Easter Rising of 1916, public support shifted from the Home Rule movement to the more radical Sinn Féin party. In the 1918 General Election the Irish Parliamentary Party suffered a crushing defeat, only a handful of MP's surviving. This was effectively the death of the Home Rule movement. The elected Sinn Féin MPs were not content merely with home rule within the framework of the United Kingdom. They instead set up their own legislature, Dáil Éireann, and declared Ireland an independent republic.
Great Depression of British Agriculture: late 19th c. and is usually dated from 1873 to 1896. The depression was caused by the dramatic fall in grain prices following the opening up of the USA prairies to cultivation in the 1870s and the advent of cheap transportation with the rise of steamships. British agriculture did not recover from this depression until after WWII. Between 1809 and 1879, 88% of British millionaires had been landowners; between 1880 and 1914 this figure dropped to 33% and fell further after WWI. During the first three-quarters of 19th c., the British landed aristocracy were the wealthiest class in the world's richest country.
Catholic Church in the United Kingdom: While there is no ecclesiastical jurisdiction corresponding to the political union, this article refers to the Catholic Church's geographical representation in the United Kingdom as well as Northern Ireland, ever since the establishment of the U.K.'s predecessor Kingdom of Great Britain by the Union of the Crowns in 1707. Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom; Catholic emancipation
Catholic emancipation (Catholic relief): process in UK in the late 18th c. and early 19th c. that involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws. Requirements to abjure (renounce) the temporal and spiritual authority of the Pope and transubstantiation placed major burdens on Roman Catholics. The penal laws started to be dismantled from 1766. The most significant measure was the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholicism in UK. Comparative reforms in Europe; Emancipation in Canada; Emancipation in Newfoundland
United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal: major political scandal triggered by the leak and subsequent publication by the Telegraph Group in 2009 of expense claims made by members of the UK Parliament over several years.
2011 England riots: resulting chaos generated looting, arson, and mass deployment of police; "BlackBerry riots". Suggested contributory factors: Poor relations with police, Social exclusion, Family breakdown ("Like the overwhelming majority of youth offenders behind bars, these gang members have one thing in common: no father at home"), Government cuts, Unemployment and poverty, Gang culture, Criminal opportunism, Moral decay at the top, Failure of the penal system, Mainstream media relationship with the communities.
Evacuation of the Gibraltarian civilian population during World War II: vent which dramatically changed the lives of Gibraltarians. The British Government's decision to enforce mass evacuation from the then Crown colony of Gibraltar, in order to increase the strength of The Rock with more British Armed Forces personnel, meant that most Gibraltarians (some for up to ten years) had nowhere to call home.
British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference: intergovernmental organization established by the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom under the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. It first met in London in 1999. When the Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended, devolved matters revert to the BIIGC's remit. The BIIGC guarantees the Government of Ireland a say in areas of bilateral co-operation and on those matters not yet devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly or the North/South Ministerial Council.
Glasgow Subway: underground light metro system in Glasgow, Scotland. Opened on 14 December 1896, it is the fourth-oldest underground rail transit system in Europe after the London Underground, Liverpool's Mersey Railway and the Budapest Metro. It is also one of the very few railways in the world with a track running gauge of 4 ft (1,219 mm) wide.
Urban rail in the United Kingdom: plays a key role in public transport in many of the United Kingdom's major cities. Urban rail refers to the train service between city centres and suburbs or nearby towns that acts as a main mode of transport for travellers on a daily basis.
Tyne and Wear Metro: overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The network opened in stages from August 1980 and now serves a total of 60 stations, with two lines covering 77.5 km of track.
Manchester Metrolink: tram/light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The network has 99 stops along 103 kilometres of standard-gauge route, making it the most extensive light rail system in UK.
Docklands Light Railway: automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England. First opened on 31 August 1987, the DLR has been extended multiple times, giving a total route length of 38 km. Lines now reach north to Stratford, south to Lewisham, west to Tower Gateway and Bank in the City of London financial district, and east to Beckton, London City Airport and Woolwich Arsenal.
List of English monarchs: usually considered to begin with Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, one of the petty kingdoms to rule the southeastern portion of Great Britain. While Alfred was not the first king to lay claim to rule all of the English, his rule represents the first unbroken line of Kings to rule the whole of England, the House of Wessex. The last monarch of England was Queen Anne, who became Queen of Great Britain when England merged with Scotland to form a union in 1707.
Heptarchy: collective name applied to the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England (sometimes referred to as petty kingdoms) from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until their unification into the Kingdom of England in the early 10th century. The term ‘Heptarchy’ (from the Greek ἑπταρχία heptarchia, from ἑπτά hepta ’seven’, ἀρχή arche ‘reign, rule’ and the suffix -ία -ia) alludes to the tradition that there were seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, usually enumerated as: East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex. By convention, the Heptarchy lasted from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century, until most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came under the overlordship of Egbert of Wessex in 829.
Great Heathen Army (Great Danish Army): coalition of Norse warriors, originating Denmark but also from Norway and Sweden, who came together under a unified command to invade the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Wessex) that constituted England in AD 865. Since the late 8th century, the Vikings had primarily engaged in "hit-and-run" raids on centres of wealth such as monasteries. The Great Heathen Army was distinct from these raids in that it was much larger and formed to occupy and conquer large territories. The campaign of invasion and conquest against the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms lasted 14 years. Surviving sources give no firm indication of its numbers, but it was amongst the largest forces of its kind. In 878.05 Alfred the Great defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Edington, and a treaty was agreed whereby the Vikings were able to remain in control of much of northern and eastern England. As for Anglo-Saxon England, it had been torn apart by the invading Great Heathen Army, and the Vikings were now in control of northern and eastern England, while Alfred and his successors had successfully defended their kingdom and remained in control of Wessex.
Domesday Book (Latin: Liber de Wintonia "Book of Winchester"; Open Domesday): manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. Written in Medieval Latin, was highly abbreviated, and included some vernacular native terms without Latin equivalents; survey's main purpose was to determine what taxes had been owed during the reign of King Edward the Confessor, which allowed William to reassert the rights of the Crown and assess where power lay after a wholesale redistribution of land following the Norman conquest. The manuscript is held at The National Archives at Kew, London. Invaluable primary source for modern historians and historical economists; no survey approaching the scope and extent of Domesday Book was attempted again in Britain until the 1873 Return of Owners of Land (sometimes termed the "Modern Domesday") which presented the first complete, post-Domesday picture of the distribution of landed property in the British Isles.
Return of Owners of Land, 1873: presents the first complete picture of the distribution of landed property in the British Isles since the original Domesday Book dating from 1086; arose from the desire of the Victorian governing landed classes, many of whom sat in the House of Lords, to counter the rising public clamour encouraged by some parts of the press about what was called the "monopoly of land." Karl Marx (d.1883) had been resident in London since 1849 and had published his Capital in 1867 thus influencing political thought on the Continent and consequently prompting a concerned British Establishment to rapidly extinguish any spark of revolutionary sentiment in the United Kingdom. One return was prepared for England and Wales, excluding the Metropolis, and separate ones were prepared for Scotland in 1874, and Ireland in 1876. The Return shows the holding, in acres, roods and poles, and estimated yearly rental, of all holdings over 1 acre.
England in the Late Middle Ages: concerns the history of England during the Late Middle Ages, from the thirteenth century, the end of the Angevins, and the accession of Henry III – considered by many to mark the start of the Plantagenet dynasty – until the accession to the throne of the Tudor dynasty in 1485, which is often taken as the most convenient marker for the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the English Renaissance and early modern Britain.
Statute in Restraint of Appeals (The Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532): Act of the Parliament of England; considered by many historians to be the key legal foundation of the English Reformation. The Act, drafted by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of King Henry VIII of England, forbade all appeals to the Pope in Rome on religious or other matters, making the King the final legal authority in all such matters in England, Wales, and other English possessions. This was achieved by claiming that England was an Empire and the English crown was an Imperial Crown — Henry's historians claimed that they could trace the lineage back to Brutus and the fall of Troy. Also King Henry wanted to intimidate the pope.
Elizabeth I of England (1533.09.07–1603.03.24): Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death; the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. In 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers, led by William Cecil, Baron Burghley. War with Spain and England's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Elizabeth's reign is known as the Elizabethan era. The period is famous for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Francis Drake. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler, who enjoyed more than her share of luck.
Secret correspondence of James VI: communication between the Scottish king and administrators of Elizabeth I of England between May 1601 and the Queen's death in March 1603. In this period it was settled that James would succeed Elizabeth, but the diplomatic result was kept secret. James's accession to the thrones of England and Ireland is known as the Union of the Crowns.
Grammar schools debate: debate about the merits and demerits of the existence of grammar schools in UK.
Comprehensive school: secondary school that is a state school and does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to England and Wales, where comprehensive schools were introduced on an experimental basis in the 1940s and became more widespread from 1965. About 90% of British secondary school pupils now attend comprehensive schools.
The Crown: state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different meanings depending on context. It is used to designate the monarch in either a personal capacity, as Head of the Commonwealth, or as the king or queen of his or her realms. It can also refer to the rule of law; however, in common parlance 'The Crown' refers to the functions of government and the civil service.
Crown Estate: collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's private estate. The sovereign is not involved with the management or administration of the estate, and exercises only very limited control of its affairs. Instead, the estate's extensive portfolio is overseen by a semi-independent, incorporated public body headed by the Crown Estate Commissioners, who exercise "the powers of ownership" of the estate, although they are not "owners in their own right". The revenues from these hereditary possessions have been placed by the monarch at the disposition of Her Majesty's Government in exchange for relief from the responsibility to fund the Civil Government. These revenues thus proceed directly to Her Majesty's Treasury, for the benefit of the British nation.
Duchy of Lancaster: private estate of the British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster. The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income to the sovereign. The estate consists of a portfolio of lands, properties and assets held in trust for the sovereign and is administered separately from the Crown Estate. The duchy consists of 18,433 ha of land holdings (including rural estates and farmland), urban developments, historic buildings and some commercial properties across England and Wales, particularly in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Savoy Estate in London. The Duchy of Lancaster is one of two royal duchies: the other is the Duchy of Cornwall, which provides income to the Duke of Cornwall, which is traditionally held by the Prince of Wales.
Duchy of Cornwall (Cornish: Duketh Kernow): one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch inherits possession of the duchy and title of Duke of Cornwall at birth or when his parent succeeds to the throne, but may not sell assets for personal benefit and has limited rights and income while a minor. The current duke is Charles, Prince of Wales.
Current Commonwealth realms
Territories and dependencies of current realms
Former realms and dominions that are now republics
Commonwealth realm: sovereign state that has Charles III as its monarch and head of state. Charles succeeded his mother, Elizabeth II, as monarch of the Commonwealth realms immediately upon her death on 8 September 2022. All the realms are equal with and independent of the others, though one person, resident in the United Kingdom, acts as monarch of each.
Government Digital Service: unit of the UK Government's Cabinet Office tasked with transforming the provision of government digital services. It was formed in 2011.04 to implement the 'Digital by Default' strategy proposed by a report produced for the Cabinet Office in 2010 called 'Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution'.
Nasty Party: term used to refer to the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom. It was popularised in October 2002 by Theresa May, the then Chairman of the Conservative Party and future Prime Minister, when she said in a conference speech that: "There's a lot we need to do in this party of ours. Our base is too narrow and so, occasionally, are our sympathies. You know what some people call us – the Nasty Party."
Theresa May (1956.10.01-; religion: Anglicanism): Prime Minister of UK and Leader of the Conservative Party. She has been MP for Maidenhead since 1997. May identifies as a One-Nation Conservative and is characterised as a liberal Conservative. May appointed former Mayor of London Boris Johnson to Foreign Secretary, former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd to Home Secretary and former Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond as her Chancellor of the Exchequer. Robert Peston made the following comment: "Her rhetoric is more left-wing than Cameron's was, her cabinet is more right wing than his was." In a speech after her appointment, May emphasised the term "Unionist" in the name of the Conservative Party, reminding all of "the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland." May (2016.07.14): "The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives. ... When we take the big calls, we’ll think not of the powerful, but you. When we pass new laws we’ll listen not to the mighty, but to you. When it comes to taxes we’ll prioritise not the wealthy but you."
2015–2016 United Kingdom renegotiation of European Union membership (signed 2016.02.19): unimplemented non-binding package of changes to UK's terms of its EU membership as an member state and changes to EU rules which was first proposed by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2013.01, with negotiations beginning in the summer of 2015 following the outcome of the UK General Election (2015). The package was agreed by the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, and approved by EU leaders of all 27 other countries at the European Council session in Brussels on 18–19 February 2016 between UK and the rest of EU. The changes were intended to take effect following a vote for "Remain" in the UK's in-out referendum in June 2016, at which point suitable legislative proposals would be presented by the European Commission. Due to the outcome of the referendum in which the electorate voted by 51.9% to 48.1% to leave the bloc, the changes were never implemented and subsequently the United Kingdom withdrew from EU in 2020.01.
Brexit (old: United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union): withdrawal of UK from EU and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) at 2020.01.31 23:00 GMT (00:00 CET). The UK is the first and so far only country to have left the EU, after 47 years of having been a member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Communities (EC), since 1973.01.01. It continued to participate in the European Union Customs Union and European Single Market during a transition period that ended on 2020.12.31 23:00 GMT (00:00 CET). Facing pressure from Eurosceptic groups, Prime Minister David Cameron's pro-Europe government held a second referendum on continued EU membership in 2016 in which voters chose to leave the EU with 51.9% of the vote share. This led to his resignation, replacement by Theresa May, and four years of negotiations with the EU on the terms of departure and future relations. This process was both politically challenging and deeply divisive within the UK, with one deal rejected by the British parliament, general elections held in 2017 and 2019, and two new Prime Ministers in that time, both Conservative. Under Boris Johnson's government, the UK left the EU on 2020.01.31; trade deal negotiations continued to within days of the scheduled end of the transition period on 2020.12.31.
Department for Exiting the European Union: UK government department responsible for overseeing negotiations relating to the UK leaving the European Union and establishing the future relationship between the UK and EU.
EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (Signed: 2020.12.30; Ratifie: 2021.04.30; Effective: 2021.05.01): free trade agreement between EU, the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and UK. It applied provisionally from 2021.01.01, when the Brexit transition period ended, before formally entering into force on 2021.05.01, after the ratification processes on both sides were completed: the UK Parliament ratified on 2020.12.30; the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union ratified in late 2021.04. It provides for free trade in goods and limited mutual market access in services, as well as for cooperation mechanisms in a range of policy areas, transitional provisions about EU access to UK fisheries, and UK participation in some EU programmes. Compared to the UK's previous status as an EU member state, on 2021.01.01 the following ended as they are not incorporated in the TCA or the Brexit withdrawal agreement: free movement of persons between the parties, UK membership in the European Single Market and Customs Union, UK participation in most EU programmes, part of EU-UK law enforcement and security cooperation such as the access to real time crime data, defense and foreign policy cooperation, and the authority of the European Court of Justice in dispute settlement (except with respect to the Northern Ireland Protocol). In addition, two other separate treaties were negotiated, signed, and ratified in parallel around the same time by the UK and the EU/Euratom: an agreement on exchange of classified information and another on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy.
Irish Rebellion of 1798 (1798.05.24–10.12): uprising against British rule in Ireland. The United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced by the ideas of the American and French revolutions, were the main organising force behind the rebellion.
Map of the 1918 United Kingdom general election results in Ireland, showing the vote share of the winning party by constituency. Sinn Féin won a number of constituencies without contest - these are marked by an asterisk.
Irish War of Independence (1919.01.21–1921.07.11; Anglo-Irish War; Total deaths: c. 2,300): guerrilla war fought in Ireland between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-military Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and its paramilitary forces the Auxiliaries and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC). It was part of the Irish revolutionary period. In 1916.04, Irish republicans launched the Easter Rising against British rule and proclaimed an Irish Republic. Although it was defeated after a week of fighting, the Rising and the British response led to greater popular support for Irish independence. In 1918.12 election, republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland. On 21 January 1919 they formed a breakaway government (Dáil Éireann) and declared Irish independence.
Irish Civil War (1922.06.28–1923.05.24): conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Empire. The civil war was waged between the Provisional Government of Ireland and the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) (IRA) over the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Many of the combatants had fought together against the British in the Irish Republican Army (1919-1922) during the War of Independence, and had divided after that conflict ended and the treaty negotiations began. The Civil War was won by the pro-treaty National Army, who first secured Dublin by early 1922.07, then went on the offensive against the anti-Treaty strongholds of the south and west, especially the 'Munster Republic', successfully capturing all urban centres by late August. The guerrilla phase of the Irish Civil War lasted another 10 months, before the IRA leadership issued a "dump arms" order to all units, effectively ending the conflict.
Irish Free State (1922.12.06–1937.12.29; British Dominion (1922–1931) & Sovereign state (1931–1937)): state established under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between the forces of the Irish Republic – the Irish Republican Army (IRA) – and British Crown forces.
Anglo-Irish trade war: retaliatory trade war between the Irish Free State and the United Kingdom from 1932 to 1938. The Irish government refused to continue reimbursing Britain with land annuities from financial loans granted to Irish tenant farmers to enable them to purchase lands under the Irish Land Acts in the late nineteenth century, a provision which had been part of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. This resulted in the imposition of unilateral trade restrictions by both countries, causing severe damage to the Irish economy.
Irish neutrality: been neutral in international relations since the 1930s. Historically, the state was a "non-belligerent" in WWII and has never joined NATO, although during the Cold War it was anti-communist and aloof from the Non-Aligned Movement. The compatibility of neutrality with Ireland's membership of the European Union has been a point of debate in EU treaty referendum campaigns since the 1990s.
Xiongnu (209 BC - 93 AD): ancient nomadic people who formed a state or confederation centered on current Mongolia. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources and what little is known of their titles and names comes from Chinese transliterations of their language. Proposals by scholars include Turkic, Mongolic, Yeniseian, Tocharian, Iranian, and Uralic. They also possibly practiced Tengriism.
Finlandization: the influence that one powerful country may have on the policies of a smaller neighboring country. E.g. Finland's policies vis-à-vis USSR during the Cold War; Denmark's attitude toward Germany between 1871 and 1940; Taiwan's relation with China since 2008.
Occitania: historical region, and is also a nation, in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses the southern half of France, as well as part of Catalonia (Aran Valley), Monaco, and smaller parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys, Guardia Piemontese). Occitania has been recognized as a linguistic and cultural concept since the Middle Ages, but has never been a legal nor a political entity under this name, although the territory was united in Roman times as the Seven Provinces (Latin: Septem Provinciæ) and in the Early Middle Ages (Aquitanica or the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse, or the share of Louis the Pious following Thionville divisio regnorumi in 806). Currently about 200,000–800,000 people out of 16 million living in the area are either native or proficient speakers of Occitan, although the languages more usually spoken in the area are French, Catalan, Spanish and Italian. Since 2006, the Occitan language has been an official language of Catalonia, which includes the Aran Valley where Occitan gained official status in 1990.
Vergonha (engl. "shame"): what Occitans call the effects of various policies of the government of France on its citizens whose mother tongue was a so-called patois, a language spoken in France other than French, such as Occitan or one of the dialects of the langue d'oïl. Vergonha is being made to reject and feel ashamed of one's (or one's parents') non-French language through official exclusion, humiliation at school and rejection from the media as organized and sanctioned by French political leaders, from Henri Grégoire onward. In 1860, before schooling was made compulsory, native Occitan speakers represented more than 39% of the whole French population, as opposed to 52% of francophones proper; their share of the population declined to 26–36% in the 1920s, and then dropped to less than 7% by 1993.
Mont-Saint-Michel (Norman: Mont Saint Miché): tidal island and mainland commune in Normandy. The commune's position—on an island just a few hundred metres from land—made it accessible at low tide to the many pilgrims to its abbey, but defensible as an incoming tide stranded, drove off, or drowned would-be assailants. The island remained unconquered during the Hundred Years' War; a small garrison fended off a full attack by the English in 1433.
Green: 1st colonial empire: 1546 to 1763. Blue: 2nd colonial empire: 1763 to 1962.
French colonial empire (Empire colonial français; 1534–1980): "First French Colonial Empire", that existed until 1814, by which time most of it had been lost or sold, and the "Second French Colonial Empire", which began with the conquest of Algiers in 1830. At its apex between the two world wars, the second French colonial empire was one of the largest empires in history.
Ancien Régime (15 c. until the later 18th c., "early modern France"): monarchic, aristocratic, social and political system established in the Kingdom of France under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. The administrative and social structures of the Ancien Régime were the result of years of state-building, legislative acts (like the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts), internal conflicts and civil wars, but they remained a confusing patchwork of local privilege and historic differencesuntil the French Revolution ended the system.
Parlement: provincial appellate court in Ancien Régime France. In 1789 there were 13 parlements, the most important of which was by far the Parlement of Paris. They were the court of final appeal of the judicial system, and typically wielded much power over a wide range of subject matter, especially taxation. Laws and edicts issued by the Crown were not official in their respective jurisdictions until the parlements gave their assent by publishing them. The members were aristocrats called nobles of the gown who had bought or inherited their office, and were independent of the King. In 1789.11, at an early stage of the French Revolution, all the parlements were suspended, and they were formally abolished in 1790.09.
French Wars of Religion (1562–98): name of a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise (Lorraine), and both sides received assistance from foreign sources. Edict of Nantes in 1598 concluded the wars, although a resurgence of rebellious activity following this leads some to believe the Peace of Alais in 1629 is the actual conclusion.
Fronde (1648–1653): series of civil wars in France, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The king confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law courts (parlements), and most of the French people, and yet won out in the end. The timing of the outbreak of the Fronde des parlements, directly after the Peace of Westphalia (1648) that ended the Thirty Years War, was significant. The nuclei of the armed bands that terrorized parts of France under aristocratic leaders during this period had been hardened in a generation of war in Germany, where troops still tended to operate autonomously. Cardinal Mazarin. The Fronde represented the final attempt of the French nobility to do battle with the king, and they were humiliated. The long-term result was to strengthen Royal authority, but to weaken the economy. The Fronde facilitated the emergence of absolute monarchy.
The expansion of France, 1552 to 1798.
Dauphin of France (French: Dauphin de France; strictly The Dauphin of Viennois (Dauphin de Viennois)): title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France from 1350 to 1791 and 1824 to 1830. The word is French for dolphin, as a reference to the depiction of the animal on their coat of arms. The title was roughly equivalent to the English (thence British) Prince of Wales, the Scottish Duke of Rothesay, the Portuguese Prince of Brazil, and the Spanish Prince of Asturias.
War of the Sixth Coalition (1813.03–1814.05): coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German states finally defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba.
Épuration légale ("legal purge"): wave of official trials that followed the Liberation of France and the fall of the Vichy Regime. The trials were largely conducted from 1944 to 1949, with subsequent legal action continuing for decades afterward; domestic French affair. 300,000 cases were investigated, reaching into the highest levels of the collaborationist Vichy government; more than half were closed without indictment. From 1944 to 1951, official courts in France sentenced 6,763 people to death (3,910 in absentia) for treason and other offenses; only 791 executions were actually carried out; far more common was “national degradation”—a loss of civil rights, which was meted out to 49,723 people.
Charles de Gaulle (1890.11.22–1970.11.09): French military general and statesman.
Appeal of 18 June: famous speech by Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French Forces, in 1940. The appeal is often considered to be the origin of the French Resistance to the German occupation during WWII.
Third Force (France): French coalition during the Fourth Republic (1947-1958) which gathered the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) party, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (UDSR) centre-right party, the Radicals, the Christian democrat Popular Republican Movement (MRP) and other centrist politicians, opposed both to the French Communist Party (PCF) and the Gaullist movement.
Trente Glorieuses ("The Glorious Thirty"): the thirty years from 1945-1975 following end of WWII.
2005 civil unrest in France: was a series of riots by mainly Arab, North African and Black French second-generation immigrants in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois. Events spread to poor housing projects (the cités HLM) in various parts of France. A state of emergency was declared on 8 November 2005. It was extended for three months on 16 November by the Parliament. [2013-08-17T15:44:57]
Germanic-speaking, former states, Germanic peoples
Languages: Plattdüütsch/Nedderdüütsch (language literally between Dutch and German; North DE), Hochdeutsche Dialekte (South DE, CH, AT), Standarddeutsch/Hochdeutsch (D-A-CH).
Current states:
D-A-CH & some neighboring lands
?EU after Brexit (2016.06.23 ⇒ 51.9% [turnout 72.21%])?
Kingdom of Germany: developed out of the eastern half of the former Carolingian Empire. Like Anglo-Saxon England and medieval France, it began as "a conglomerate, an assemblage of a number of once separate and independent... gentes [peoples] and regna [kingdoms]."
Holy Roman Empire, from 962 to 1806. Sacrum Imperium Romanum, Heiliges Römisches Reich.
Holy Roman Empire (800[crowning of Frankish king Charlemagne]/962[coronation of Otto I]–1806; Sacrum Imperium Romanum, Heiliges Römisches Reich): multi-ethnic complex of territories in Central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. The largest territory of the empire after 962 was the Kingdom of Germany, though it also came to include the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Burgundy, the Kingdom of Italy, and numerous other territories. In a famous assessment of the name, the French Enlightenment writer Voltaire remarked sardonically: "This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."
King of the Romans (Rex Romanorum, König der Römer): title used by the German king following his election by the princes from the reign of Emperor Henry II (1014–1024) onward. The title predominantly amounted to being the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and was dependent upon coronation by the pope. The actual title varied over time: during the Ottonian period - King of the Franks (König der Franken, Rex Francorum), from the late Salian period - Roman King (Römischer König) or King of the Romans (König der Römer, Rex Romanorum), in the Modern Period - King in Germania (König in Germanien, Germaniae Rex). Modern German historiography established the term Roman-German King (Römisch-deutscher König) to differentiate it both from the classical Roman emperor as well as from the modern (Second Reich) German emperor. The title "King of Germany" occasionally appears in English texts, but seldom in German sources as there was never a de facto Kingdom of Germany.
Holy Roman Emperor (Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum, Kaiser der Römer); since the early modern period - German-Roman Emperor (Imperator Germanorum, Römisch-deutscher Kaiser)): ruler and head of state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Empire was considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be the only legal successor of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The title was held in conjunction with the title of King of Italy (Rex Italiae) from the 8th to the 16th c., and, almost without interruption, with the title of King of Germany (Rex Teutonicorum) throughout the 12th to 18th c. In theory and diplomacy, the Emperors were considered primus inter pares, regarded as first among equals among other Roman Catholic monarchs across Europe. In practice, an emperor was only as strong as his army and alliances, including marriage alliances, made him. From an autocracy in Carolingian times (AD 800–924) the title by the 13th century evolved into an elective monarchy, with the Emperor chosen by the Prince-Electors. Various royal houses of Europe, at different times, became de facto hereditary holders of the title, notably the Ottonians (962–1024) and the Salians (1027–1125). Following the late medieval crisis of government, the Habsburgs kept possession of the title without interruption from 1440 to 1740. The final emperors were from the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, from 1765 to 1806. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by Francis II, after a devastating defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. The Emperor was widely perceived to rule by divine right, though he often contradicted or rivaled the Pope, most notably during the Investiture controversy. Even after the Reformation, the elected Emperor was always a Roman Catholic.
Interregnum (Holy Roman Empire):: many imperial interregna in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. Interregna in which there was no emperor-elect (king of the Romans) were rarer. Among the longest periods without an emperor were between 924 and 962 (38 years), between 1245 and 1312 (67 years), and between 1378 and 1433 (55 years). The crisis of government of the Holy Roman Empire and the German kingdom thus lasted throughout the late medieval period, and ended only with the rise of the House of Habsburg on the eve of the German Reformation and the Renaissance. Great Interregnum: deposition of Frederick II by Pope Innocent IV in 1245 [...] Henry VII, of the House of Luxembourg, was crowned king at Aachen on 6 January 1309, and emperor by Pope Clement V on 29 June 1312 in Rome, ending the interregnum. Later interregna: The crisis of the interregnum established the college of prince-electors as the only source of legitimacy of the German king. At the same time, the lack of central government strengthened the communal movements, such as the Swabian League of Cities, the Hanseatic League and the Swiss Confederacy. It also encouraged increased feuding among the lesser nobility, leading to conflicts such as the Thuringian Counts' War, leading to a general state of near-anarchy in Germany where robber barons acted unopposed by the nominal system of justice. Germany was fractured into countless minor states fending for themselves, a condition that would persist into the modern period and, termed Kleinstaaterei, present an obstacle to the modern project of national unification.
Imperial church system (German: Reichskirchensystem, Dutch: rijkskerkenstelsel): governance policy by the early Holy Roman emperors and other medieval European rulers to entrust the secular governance of the state to as many celibate members of the clergy (especially bishops and abbots) of the Catholic Church as possible instead of to the non-celibate laity. Rulers did this because celibate clergymen could not produce legitimate heirs who could claim their inheritance at death, and thus not establish regional dynasties that could threaten the power of the ruling family. Upon their deaths, the areas governed by celibate clerics automatically reverted to the ruler, who could then appoint their own new confidants to the position and thus retain control of all parts of the realm. A bishop thus bestowed with temporal (secular) power of a prince, on top of his spiritual (religious) power as a bishop, was known as a prince-bishop, and his domain as a prince-bishopric (German: Fürstbistum, Stift or Hochstift; Dutch: prinsbisdom or sticht).
Prince-bishop: bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty. Thus the principality or prince-bishopric ruled politically by a prince-bishop could wholly or largely overlap with his diocesan jurisdiction, but some parts of his diocese, even the city of his residence, could be exempt from his civil rule, obtaining the status of free imperial city. If the episcopal see is an archbishop, the correct term is prince-archbishop; the equivalent in the regular (monastic) clergy is prince-abbot. A prince-bishop is usually considered an elected monarch. In the West, with the decline of imperial power from the 4th century onwards in the face of the barbarian invasions, sometimes Christian bishops of cities took the place of the Roman commander, made secular decisions for the city and led their own troops when necessary. Later relations between a prince-bishop and the burghers were invariably not cordial. As cities demanded charters from emperors, kings, or their prince-bishops and declared themselves independent of the secular territorial magnates, friction intensified between burghers and bishops. Holy Roman Empire: Cologne, Mainz, Trier, Aquileia (IT), Augsburg, Bamberg, Basel (D-CH-FR), Belley (FR), Besançon (FR), Brandenburg, Bremen, Bescia (IT), Breslau (PL), ..., Constance (D-A-CH), ..., Fulda, Geneva (FR-CH), ..., Hildesheim, Lausanne (CH), ..., Liège (BE-NL), Lübeck, Lyon (FR), Magdeburg, ..., Minden, Münster, ..., Osnabrück, Paderborn, ..., Regensburg, Salzburg (AT), Schwerin, ..., Strasbourg (FR-DE), ..., Trent (IT), Utrecht (NL), Verden, Verdun (FR), Worms, Würzburg. State of the Teutonic Order: Courland, Dorpat, Ösel-Wiek, Riga, Warmia.
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; 1747.05.05–1792.03.01): Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria 1790.09.30–1792.03.01, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. Unusually for his time, he opposed capital punishment and abolished it in Tuscany in 1786 during his rule there, making it the first nation in modern history to do so. He was a son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Maria Carolina of Austria, Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma, and Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism. He granted the Academy of Georgofili his protection. Despite his brief reign, he is highly regarded. The historian Paul W. Schroeder called him "one of the most shrewd and sensible monarchs ever to wear a crown". Leopold lived for barely two years after his accession as Holy Roman Emperor, and during that period he was hard pressed by peril from west and east alike. The growing revolutionary disorders in France endangered the life of his sister Marie Antoinette, the queen of Louis XVI, and also threatened his own dominions with the spread of subversive agitation. His sister sent him passionate appeals for help, and he was pestered by the royalist émigrés, who were intriguing to bring about armed intervention in France. Leopold died suddenly in Vienna, in 1792.03.
Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire (de facto 1806.08.06): when the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, abdicated his title and released all imperial states and officials from their oaths and obligations to the empire. Since the Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire had been recognized by Western Europeans as the legitimate continuation of the ancient Roman Empire due to its emperors having been proclaimed as Roman emperors by the papacy. Through this Roman legacy, the Holy Roman Emperors claimed to be universal monarchs whose jurisdiction extended beyond their empire's formal borders to all of Christian Europe and beyond. The decline of the Holy Roman Empire was a long and drawn-out process lasting centuries. The formation of the first modern sovereign territorial states in the 16th and 17th centuries, which brought with it the idea that jurisdiction corresponded to actual territory governed, threatened the universal nature of the Holy Roman Empire. 18th c. empire lacked both a central standing army and a central treasury and its monarchs, formally elective rather than hereditary, could not exercise effective central control. Even then, most contemporaries believed that the empire could be revived and modernized. The Holy Roman Empire finally began its true terminal decline during and after its involvement in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Although the empire defended itself quite well initially, war with France and Napoleon proved catastrophic. Austria's defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805 and the secession of a large number of Francis II's German vassals in July 1806 to form the Confederation of the Rhine, a French satellite state, effectively meant the end of the Holy Roman Empire. The abdication in August 1806, combined with a dissolution of the entire imperial hierarchy and its institutions, was seen as necessary to prevent the possibility of Napoleon proclaiming himself as Holy Roman Emperor, something which would have reduced Francis II to Napoleon's vassal.
Brandenburg-Prussia (1618–1701): historiographic denomination for the Early Modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohenzollern intermarried with the branch ruling the Duchy of Prussia, and secured succession upon the latter's extinction in the male line in 1618. Another consequence of the intermarriage was the incorporation of the lower Rhenish principalities of Cleves, Mark and Ravensberg after the Treaty of Xanten in 1614. The Thirty Years' War (1618–48) was especially devastating. The Elector changed sides three times, and as a result Protestant and Catholic armies swept the land back and forth, killing, burning, seizing men and taking the food supplies. Upwards of half the population was killed or dislocated. Berlin and the other major cities were in ruins, and recovery took decades. The second half of the 17th century laid the basis for Prussia to become one of the great players in European politics. The emerging Brandenburg-Prussian military potential, based on the introduction of a standing army in 1653, was symbolized by the widely noted victories in Warsaw (1656) and Fehrbellin (1675) and by the Great Sleigh Drive (1678). Brandenburg-Prussia also established a navy and German colonies in the Brandenburger Gold Coast and Arguin. Frederick William, known as "The Great Elector", opened Brandenburg-Prussia to large-scale immigration ("Peuplierung") of mostly Protestant refugees from all across Europe ("Exulanten"), most notably Huguenot immigration following the Edict of Potsdam.
King in Prussia: title used by the Electors of Brandenburg from 1701 to 1772. Subsequently they used the title King of Prussia.
Prussian education system: system of mandatory education dating to the early 19th c. Parts of the Prussian education system have served as models for the education systems in a number of other countries, including Japan and USA.
Frederick I (the Mercenary King; Duchy of Prussia (1525–1701) → Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918))
Frederick William I (the Soldier King)
Frederick II (the Great)
Frederick William II
Frederick William III
Frederick William IV
William I
Frederick III
William II
Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg (1759.09.26–1830.10.04): Prussian Generalfeldmarschall instrumental in the switching of the Kingdom of Prussia from a French alliance to a Russian alliance during the War of the Sixth Coalition.
Johann Gustav Droysen (1808.07.06–1884.06.19): German historian. His history of Alexander the Great was the first work representing a new school of German historical thought that idealized power held by so-called "great" men.
Austrian Empire (1804–1867): multinational empire and one of the world's great powers. Geographically it was the second largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire (621,538 km2). It was also the third most populous after Russia and France, as well as the largest and strongest country in the German Confederation.
Austria–Prussia rivalry: Austria and Prussia were the most powerful principalities in the Holy Roman Empire by the 18th and 19th c. and had engaged in a struggle for supremacy in Central Europe. Locally known as Deutscher Dualismus, 'German dualism', the rivalry was characterized by major territorial conflicts, economic, cultural and political contention for sovereign leadership among the German-speaking peoples.
Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund; États confédérés du Rhin; 1806–1813): confederation of German client states at the behest of the First French Empire. It was formed from parts of the Holy Roman Empire by Napoleon after he defeated Austria and Russia at the Battle of Austerlitz. The members of the confederation were German princes (Fürsten) formerly within the Holy Roman Empire. They were later joined by 19 others after they were mediatised, altogether ruling a total of over 15 million subjects. This granted a significant strategic advantage to the French Empire on its eastern frontier by providing a separation between France and the two largest German states, Prussia and Austria (which also controlled substantial non-German lands).
German Confederation (Deutscher Bund; 1815–1848, 1850–1866): association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe, created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved in 1806. The Confederation was weakened by rivalry between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire and the inability of its multiple members to compromise. The German revolutions of 1848–49, motivated by liberal, democratic, socialist and nationalist sentiments, attempted to transform the Confederation into a unified German federal state with a liberal constitution (usually called the Frankfurt Constitution in English). The ruling body of the Confederation, the Confederate Diet, was dissolved on 1848.07.12, but was re-established in 1850 after the revolution was crushed by Austria, Prussia and other states. Most historians have judged the Confederation to have been weak and ineffective, as well as an obstacle to the creation of a German nation-state. This weakness was part of its design, as the European Great Powers, including Prussia and especially Austria, did not want it to become a nation-state. However, the Confederation was not a 'loose' tie between the German states, as it was impossible to leave the Confederation, and as Confederation law stood above the law of the aligned states. The constitutional weakness of the Confederation lay in the principle of unanimity in the Diet and the limits of the Confederation's scope: it was essentially a military alliance to defend Germany against external attacks and internal riots. Ironically, the war of 1866 proved its ineffectiveness, as it was unable to combine the federal troops in order to fight the Prussian secession.
1848 German federal election (1848.05.01): held in all the 38 states of the German Confederation to elect members of a new National Assembly known as the Frankfurt Parliament. The ballot was not secret, and elected 585 members, mostly from the middle class.
Frankfurt Parliament (Frankfurter Nationalversammlung): first freely elected parliament for all of Germany, including the German-populated areas of Austria-Hungary. The session was held from 18 May 1848 to 31 May 1849, in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt am Main. Its existence was both part of and the result of the "March Revolution" within the states of the German Confederation.
North German Confederation (Norddeutscher Bund; 1867–1871): German federal state; Confederation came into existence after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 over the lordship of two small danish duchies (Schleswig-Holstein) claimed by Prussia in 1866. Although de jure a confederacy of equal states, the Confederation was de facto controlled and led by the largest and most powerful member, Prussia, which exercised its influence to bring about the formation of the German Empire. The Confederation had nearly 30 mln. inhabitants, of whom 80% lived in Prussia.
Unification of Germany: into the German Empire, a Prussia-dominated nation state with federal features, officially occurred in 1871.01.18 at the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors in France. Princes of the German states gathered there to proclaim Wilhelm of Prussia as Emperor of the German Empire after the French capitulation in the Franco-Prussian War. Reaction to Danish and French nationalism provided foci for expressions of German unity. Military successes—especially those of Prussia—in three regional wars generated enthusiasm and pride that politicians could harness to promote unification. This experience echoed the memory of mutual accomplishment in the Napoleonic Wars, particularly in the War of Liberation of 1813–14. By establishing a Germany without Austria, the political and administrative unification in 1871 at least temporarily solved the problem of dualism
German diaspora (Deutschstämmige; istorically/national social terminology also Volksdeutsche)
Black Sea Germans (Ukrainian Germans): ethnic Germans who left their homelands in the 18th and 19th centuries, and settled in territories off the north coast of the Black Sea, mostly in southern Russia (including the Ukraine).
de:Staatsverschuldung Deutschlands: zusammengefassten Schulden von Bund, Ländern, Gemeinden, gesetzlicher Sozialversicherung und Sondervermögen des Bundes bei in- und ausländischen Kreditgebern. The last bankruptcy: 1948 (West Germany).
de:Ostflucht: zum ersten Mal bei der Gründung der Königlich-Preußischen Ansiedlungskommission 1886 amtlich benutzter Begriff, der sich auf die stetige Abwanderung größerer Bevölkerungsteile aus den wirtschaftsschwachen östlichen Landesteilen Preußens in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts bezog. Die Bevölkerungsverschiebung in polnischer Sicht & die Oder-Neiße-Grenze.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 1859.01.27–1941.06.04): the last German Emperor (German: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empire's position as a great power by building a powerful navy, his tactless public statements and erratic foreign policy greatly antagonized the international community and are considered by many to be one of the underlying causes for WWI. When the German war effort collapsed after a series of crushing defeats on the Western Front in 1918, he was forced to abdicate, thereby marking the end of the German Empire and the House of Hohenzollern's 300-year reign in Prussia and 500-year reign in Brandenburg. The revolution converted Germany from a monarchy into an unstable democratic state known as the Weimar Republic. Wilhelm fled to exile in the Netherlands where he remained during its occupation by Nazi Germany in 1940. He died there in 1941.
Karl Liebknecht (1871.08.13–1919.01.15): prominent German socialist and anti-militarist. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag from 1912 to 1916, where he represented the left-revolutionary wing of the party. In 1916 he was expelled from the SPD's parliamentary group for his opposition to the political truce between all parties in the Reichstag while the war lasted. He twice spent time in prison, first for writing an anti-militarism pamphlet in 1907 and then for his role in a 1916 antiwar demonstration. He was released from the second under a general amnesty three weeks before the end of WWI. During the November Revolution that broke out across Germany in the final days of the war, Liebknecht proclaimed Germany a "Free Socialist Republic" from the Berlin Palace in 1918.11.09. On November 11, together with Rosa Luxemburg and others he founded the Spartacist League. At the end of 1918, Liebknecht was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Germany. Shortly after the suppression of the Spartacist Uprising in which he played a leading role, he and Rosa Luxemburg were killed by members of the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division after they had consulted with Gustav Noske, who was a member of the Council of the People's Deputies, Germany's interim government, and had responsibility for military affairs. Although two of the men directly involved in the murders were prosecuted, no one responsible for ordering their deaths was ever brought to trial.
Spirit of 1914: refers to the alleged jubilation in Germany at the outbreak of WWI
Stab-in-the-back myth (Dolchstoßlegende): notion, widely believed in right-wing circles in Germany after 1918, that the German Army did not lose WWI but was instead betrayed by the civilians on the home front, especially the republicans who overthrew the monarchy. Advocates denounced the German government leaders who signed the Armistice in 1918.11.11, as the "November Criminals" (de: Novemberverbrecher).
Spartacist uprising (1919.01.05–12; Spartakusaufstand, Januaraufstand): general strike and the accompanying armed struggles that took place in Berlin. It occurred in connection with the November Revolution that broke out following Germany's defeat in World War I. The uprising was primarily a power struggle between the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) led by Friedrich Ebert, which favored a social democracy, and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, which wanted to set up a council republic similar to the one established by the Bolsheviks in Russia.
States of the Weimar Republic: first-level administrative divisions and constituent states of the German Reich during the Weimar Republic era. The states were established in 1918 following the German Revolution upon the conclusion of World War I, and based on the 22 constituent states of the German Empire that abolished their local monarchies. The new states continued as republics alongside the three pre-existing city-states within the new Weimar Republic, adopting the titles Freistaat ("Free State") or Volksstaat ("People's State").
Scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow (1919.06.21): shortly after the end of WWI, the German kaiserliche marine fleet was scuttled by its sailors while held off the harbor of the British Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The High Seas Fleet was interned there under the terms of the Armistice whilst negotiations took place over the fate of the ships. Fearing that either the British would seize the ships unilaterally or the German government at the time might reject the Treaty of Versailles and resume the war effort (in which case the ships could be used against Germany), Admiral Ludwig von Reuter decided to scuttle the fleet.
Horst Wessel (1907.10.09–1930.02.23): Berlin Sturmführer ("Assault Leader", the lowest commissioned officer rank) of SA, the Nazi Party's stormtroopers. After his killing in 1930, he was made into a martyr for the Nazi cause by Joseph Goebbels. Wessel first joined a number of youth groups and extreme right-wing paramilitary groups, but later resigned from them and joined the SA, the brownshirted street-fighting stormtroopers of the Nazi Party. He rose to command several SA squads and districts. On 14 January 1930, he was shot in the head by two members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Wessel's funeral was given wide attention in Berlin, with many of the Nazi elite in attendance. After his death, he became a major propaganda symbol in Nazi Germany. A march he had written the lyrics to was renamed the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" ("Horst Wessel Song"), and became the official anthem of the Nazi Party. After Adolf Hitler came to national power in 1933, the song became the co-national anthem of Germany, along with the first verse of the "Deutschlandlied", also known as "Deutschland über alles".
Reichsmarine (1921.01.01–1935.05.31): name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the Reichswehr. Many of the administrative and organizational tenets of the Reichsmarine were then carried over into the organization of the Kriegsmarine.
Early camps: extrajudicial sites of detention established in Nazi Germany in 1933. Although the system was mostly dismantled by the end of the year, these camps were the precursor of the Nazi concentration camps.
Drug policy of Nazi Germany: generally tolerant official drug policy in the Third Reich was inherited from the Weimar government which was installed in 1919 following the dissolution of the German monarchy at the end of WWI. Civilian-sector drug policy in Nazi Germany: Many of the drug addicts in 1920s and 1930s Germany were First World War veterans who required addictive drugs for pain relief and/or medical personnel who had access to such drugs. During the Weimar era, addiction was seen as a curable disease. Following the advent of Nazism, addiction continued to be viewed as curable for all. Drug policy and use within the Wehrmacht: Drug use in the German military during WWII was actively encouraged and widespread, especially during the war's later stages as the Wehrmacht became depleted and increasingly dependent on youth as opposed to experience. Stimulants: In 1939.09, Ranke tested the drug on 90 university students and concluded that Pervitin could help the Wehrmacht win the war. Methamphetamine use is believed to have played a role in the speed of Germany's initial blitzkrieg. Cocaine, whose effects substantially overlap with those of amphetamine but feature greater euphoria, was later added to the formulation to increase its potency through the multiplicative effects of drug interaction and to reinforce its use by individuals. Drug use inside the Nazi Party: According to Norman Ohler in his 2016 book Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany, when Hitler's drug supplies ran out by the end of the war, he suffered severe withdrawal from serotonin and dopamine, paranoia, psychosis, rotting teeth, extreme shaking, kidney failure and delusion.
Marburg speech (1934.06.17): address given by German vice chancellor Franz von Papen at the University of Marburg. Papen spoke out publicly about the excesses of the Nazi regime, whose ascent to power, 17 months earlier when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, had been assisted measurably by Papen. The speech made Hitler furious, and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels attempted to suppress it. However, some extracts were printed in the Frankfurter Zeitung, narrowly avoiding the increasing censorship of the Nazi state. Copies of the speech circulated within Germany and to the foreign press.
Night of the Long Knives (Nacht der langen Messer, Unternehmen Kolibri; 1934.06.30-07.02): purge that took place in Nazi Germany, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders. Leading figures of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were murdered, as were prominent conservative anti-Nazis (such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had suppressed Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch in 1923). Many of those killed were leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary brownshirts. Established Hitler as "the supreme judge of the German people", as he put it in his July 13, 1934 speech to the Reichstag.
Religion in Nazi Germany: In 1933, 5 years prior to the annexation of Austria into Germany, the population of Germany was approximately 67% Protestant and 33% Catholic, while the Jewish population was less than 1%. A census in May 1939, six years into the Nazi era and after the annexation of mostly Catholic Austria and mostly Catholic Czechoslovakia into Germany, indicates that 54% considered themselves Protestant, 40% Catholic, 3.5% self-identified as gottgläubig (lit. "believing in God", often described as predominately creationist and deistic), and 1.5% as "atheist". Nazism wanted to transform the subjective consciousness of the German people—their attitudes, values and mentalities—into a single-minded, obedient "national community". The Nazis believed they would therefore have to replace class, religious and regional allegiances. Under the Gleichschaltung process, Hitler attempted to create a unified Protestant Reich Church from Germany's 28 existing Protestant churches. The plan failed, and was resisted by the Confessing Church. Persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany followed the Nazi takeover. Hitler moved quickly to eliminate Political Catholicism. Smaller religious minorities such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Bahá'í Faith were banned in Germany, while the eradication of Judaism by the genocide of its adherents was attempted.
Positive Christianity (Positives Christentum): movement within Nazi Germany which mixed ideas of racial purity and Nazi ideology with elements of Christianity. Adolf Hitler used the term in article 24 of the 1920 Nazi Party Platform, stating: "the Party represents the standpoint of Positive Christianity". In 1937, Hans Kerrl, the Nazi Minister for Church Affairs, explained that "Positive Christianity" was not "dependent upon the Apostle's Creed", nor was it dependent on "faith in Christ as the son of God", upon which Christianity relied, rather, it was represented by the Nazi Party: "The Führer is the herald of a new revelation", he said. To accord with Nazi antisemitism, positive Christianity advocates also sought to deny the Semitic origins of Christ and the Bible. In such elements positive Christianity separated itself from Nicene Christianity and is considered apostate by all of the historical Trinitarian Christian churches, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. Hitler identified himself as a Christian in 1922.04.12 speech. Hitler also identified himself as a Christian in Mein Kampf. However, historians, including Ian Kershaw and Laurence Rees, characterize his acceptance of the term positive Christianity and his involvement in religious policy as being driven by opportunism, and by a pragmatic recognition of the political importance of the Christian Churches in Germany. Nevertheless, efforts by the regime to impose a Nazified "positive Christianity" on a state-controlled Protestant Reich Church essentially failed, and it resulted in the formation of the dissident Confessing Church which saw great danger to Germany from the "new religion". The Catholic Church also denounced the creed's pagan myth of "blood and soil" in the 1937 papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. During the war, Rosenberg drafted a plan for the future of religion in Germany which would see the "expulsion of the foreign Christian religions" and replacement of the Bible with Mein Kampf and the cross with the swastika in Nazified churches.
Reichskonkordat: treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. Due to it, the German Centre Party was disbanded - the main political opposition to NSDAP was shut off. Allies called this the pact of "Christ and Satan" and the acknowledgment of the Nazi Germany regime by the Vatican.
Centre Party (Germany) (Deutsche Zentrumspartei, Zentrum): 1870-1933.07.05; after 1945 reestablished, but almost all members joined the new CDU. Zentrum battled the Kulturkampf (Bismarck's and Prussian plan to reduce the power of the Catholic Church).
Mit brennender Sorge (1937.03.10, but read from pulpits in Germany on 03.14, the Palm Sunday; the text was written in German, not the usual Latin): condemned breaches of the Reichskonkordat, and furthermore contained criticism of Nazism and, in the opinion of some, a veiled attack on Hitler. Nazis responded by prosecuting priests, removing the prints of encyclical.
Michael von Faulhaber: Roman Catholic Cardinal who was Archbishop of Munich 1917-1952. WWII controversial person, not liked by Nazis, but neither fully defending Jews or openly fighting the government.
Gottgläubig: Nazi religious term for a form of Deism practiced by those Germans who had officially left Christian churches but kept their faith in a higher power or divine creator. Such people were called Gottgläubige, and the term for the overall movement was Gottgläubigkeit. The term denotes someone who still believes in a God, although without having any institutional religious affiliation. The Nazis were not favourable towards religious institutions, nor did they tolerate atheism on the part of their membership: Gottgläubigkeit was a kind of officially sanctioned unorganised religion.
Mischling: German term used during the Third Reich to denote persons deemed to have only partial Aryan ancestry.
Action T4 (Aktion T4): name used after WWII for Nazi Germany's "Euthanasia programme" during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination". ~275,000 people killed. de:Denkmal der grauen Busse.
de:Aktion Brandt: war ein nationalsozialistisches Programm im Deutschen Reich, das ab etwa 1943 dazu diente, Bettenplätze für Ausweichkrankenhäuser und Lazarette in Heil- und Pflegeanstalten in nicht vom Luftkrieg bedrohten Regionen zu schaffen. In einigen dieser Anstalten kamen viele auf Grund von Überbelegung und absichtlichem Vernachlässigen zu Tode, in anderen Anstalten wurden die verlegten Insassen gleich in großem Maßstab ermordet.
Action 14f13: was a campaign of the Third Reich to murder Nazi concentration camp prisoners; campaign culled the sick, elderly and those deemed no longer fit for work from the rest of the prisoners in a selection process, after which they were killed. The Nazi campaign was in operation from 1941–1944 and later covered other groups of concentration camp prisoners, as well.
Sonderaktion 1005 (Aktion 1005, or Enterdungsaktion): began in May 1942 to hide any evidence that people had been murdered by Nazi Germany in Aktion Reinhard in occupied Poland. The operation, which was conducted in strict secrecy from 1942–1944, used prisoners to exhume mass graves and burn the bodies. These work groups were officially called Leichenkommandos ("corpse units") and were all part of Sonderkommando 1005; inmates were often put in chains in order to prevent escape.
European Sexuality leading up to and during World War II (Germany): illegitimate children are emphasized and encouraged to have for the "aryan" mothers; soldiers had to have a baby before going to war. After WWII 23% of all young Germans were infected with a venereal disease, and prostitution had quadrupled.
Lebensborn: SS-initiated, state-supported, registered association in Nazi Germany with the stated goal of increasing the number of children born who met the Nazi standards of "racially pure" and "healthy" Aryans, based on Nazi eugenics (also called "racial hygiene" by some eugenicists). Lebensborn was established by Heinrich Himmler, and provided welfare to its mostly unmarried mothers, encouraged anonymous births by unmarried women at their maternity homes, and mediated adoption of children by likewise "racially pure" and "healthy" parents, particularly SS members and their families. At the Nuremberg Trials, much direct evidence was found of the kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany, across Greater Germany during the period 1939–1945.
Einsatzgruppen ('deployment groups'): SS paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during WWII in German-occupied Europe. The Einsatzgruppen had an integral role in the implementation of the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish question" (Die Endlösung der Judenfrage) in territories conquered by Nazi Germany, and were involved in the murder of much of the intelligentsia and cultural elite of Poland, including members of the Catholic priesthood. Almost all of the people they murdered were civilians, beginning with the intelligentsia and swiftly progressing to Soviet political commissars, Jews, and Romani people, as well as actual or alleged partisans throughout Eastern Europe.
Thanks to My Mother (Dank meiner Mutter; 1994): memoir of Schoschana Rabinovici, née Susanne Weksler, a young Jewish girl from Vilnius, Lithuania. German Occupation; Vilnius Ghetto; Rossa Cemetery; Kaiserwald; Stutthof; Tauentzien and Liberation.
Nuremberg Trials: Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal; Tribunal was given the task of trying 23 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich, though one of the defendants, Martin Bormann, was tried in absentia, while another, Robert Ley, committed suicide within a week of the trial's commencement.
Milch Trial (The United States of America vs. Erhard Milch):
Erhard Milch (1892-1972): one of the only highest ranking field marshals in the German Army with a partial Jewish background
Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962): DE Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. After WWII fled to Argentina; lived in Argentina under a false identity, working a succession of different jobs until 1960. Captured by Mossad operatives in Argentina and taken to Israel to face trial in an Israeli court on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962. Only person to have been executed in Israel on conviction by a civilian court.
Berlin Document Center (BDC): created in Berlin, Germany, after the end of WWII; task was to centralize the collection of documents from the time of Nazism, which were needed for the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials against war criminals.
Max Planck Society Archive: records that were archived under the former Kaiser Wilhelm Society and its institutes were placed in the Max Planck Society Archives; research materials related to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, including personnel, photographs, etc. are very difficult to come by.
Occupation zones of Germany, with the beige areas out of joint Allied control (the former eastern territories of Germany according to the joint British, Soviet and US Potsdam Agreement of 1945 and the formerly western German Saar, following a French and US decision of 1946) and the state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (established as a US exclave within the British zone as of early 1947). The territories east of the Oder-Neisse line, under Polish and Soviet administration/annexation, are shown as cream as is the likewise detached Saar protectorate. Berlin is the multinational area within the Soviet zone.Map of the occupation zones of Germany in 1946. Also: USA forward positions - the areas from which people could flee into the "West" from Red Army.
{q.v. Rape during the occupation of Germany}
Bizone: combination of USA and GB occupation zones 1947.01.01 during the occupation of Germany after WWII. With the addition of the French occupation zone 1948.08.01 the entity became the Trizone. Later, 1949.05.23, the Trizone became the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly known as West Germany.
Trümmerfrau (ruins/rubble woman): name for women who, in the aftermath of WWII, helped clear and reconstruct the bombed cities of Germany and Austria. With hundreds of cities having suffered significant bombing and firestorm damage through aerial attacks (and in some cases, ground fighting), and with many men dead or prisoners of war, this monumental task fell to a large degree on women.
German Mine Sweeping Administration (1945.06.21–1947.12.31): organisation formed by the Allies from former crews and vessels of the Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for the purpose of mine sweeping after WWII, predominantly in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
"Republikflucht" ("Republikflüchtling(e)"): terms used by authorities in GDR to describe the process of and the person(s) leaving the GDR for a life in West Germany or any other Western (non-Warsaw Pact) country.
Schießbefehl (Befehl 101): standing order that instructed border patrols of the former GDR to prevent border penetration by all means including killing the violators.
Volksmarine (1956.03.01–1990.10.02): naval force of GDR, primarily performed a coastal defence role along the GDR's Baltic Sea coastline and territorial waters.
de:Wiederbewaffnungsdiskussion (1949-1956): Kurz nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges wurde diese wegen der noch anhaltenden Kriegsmüdigkeit und der erstarkenden Friedensbewegung heftig diskutiert.
Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany: Role of the military: Under the Basic Law, during times of peace the Bundeswehr is under the command of the Minister of Defence, during time of war under the Federal Chancellor. The Chancellor is directly responsible to the parliament, the Minister is indirectly responsible to the parliament because it can remove the entire Cabinet by electing a new chancellor. Referendums and plebiscites: denial of referendums in other cases (than new delimitation of the federal territory) was designed to avoid the kind of populism that allowed the rise of Hitler.
London and Paris Conferences (September–October 1954): two related conferences to determine the status of West Germany. The talks concluded with signing Paris Agreements (Paris Pacts, or Paris Accords), which granted West Germany full sovereignty, ended the occupation, and allowed its admittance to NATO.
de:Vertrag von Luxemburg (Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Französischen Republik zur Regelung der Saarfrage): bezeichnet einen völkerrechtlichen Vertrag, mit dem die schrittweise politische und wirtschaftliche Rückkehr des Saarprotektorates zu Deutschland vereinbart wurde. Er wurde am 1956.10.27 von den Außenministern der beiden Staaten, Heinrich von Brentano und Christian Pineau, in Luxemburg unterzeichnet. Die wirtschaftliche Übergangszeit endete am 1959.07.05, von den Saarländern heute noch – gemäß der damaligen Terminologie – als „Tag X“ bezeichnet. Um Mitternacht gingen an den Grenzen des Saarlandes mit der Bundesrepublik Deutschland die Schlagbäume hoch und die zu Frankreich herunter; die Zoll- und Währungsunion mit Frankreich war beendet.
German reunification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung): Foreign support and opposition: Britain and France; The rest of Europe; The four powers (USA: fully for this, UK & FR sceptical, USSR - near to its own collapse). Reunified Berlin from an Urban Planning Perspective.
Ostalgie: nostalgia for aspects of life in East Germany
de:Kulturhoheit der Länder: bezeichnet man die primäre Zuständigkeit der deutschen Bundesländer bezüglich der Gesetzgebung und Verwaltung auf dem Gebiet der Kultur, also insbesondere die Zuständigkeit für Schul- und Hochschulwesen, Bildung, Rundfunk, Fernsehen und Kunst.
de:Bundesrat (Deutschland): Verfassungsorgan der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, durch das die Länder bei der Gesetzgebung und Verwaltung des Bundes sowie in Angelegenheiten der Europäischen Union mitwirken. Jedes Land ist durch Mitglieder seiner Landesregierung im Bundesrat vertreten. Auf diese Weise werden die Interessen der Länder bei der politischen Willensbildung des Gesamtstaates berücksichtigt.
de:Beamter (Deutschland): steht gegenüber seinem Dienstherrn in einem besonderen öffentlichen Dienst- und Treueverhältnis. Richter und Soldaten sind keine Beamte und deren Dienstrecht ist abweichend geregelt, sie sind aber in vielen Bereichen den Beamten gleichgestellt. Die Kommunen, insbesondere im Osten Deutschlands, beschäftigen relativ wenige Beamte.
de:Höherer Dienst (in einigen Bundesländern auch 2. Einstiegsamt der 2. Laufbahngruppe bzw. Qualifikationsebene 4): höchste Laufbahn für Beamte in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Besoldungsordnung A: A13÷A16; Besoldungsordnung B: B1÷B11 (feste Bezüge); Besoldungsordnungen C und W: C1÷C4, W1÷W3 (all Professoren: Lehrstühle, Juniorprofessoren, volle Professoren); Besoldungsordnung R: R1÷R10 (Richter und Staatsanwälte)
Pegida (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes): German anti-Islamic political movement founded in Dresden in October 2014. It organized weekly demonstrations from October 2014 to February 2015 against what it considers the Islamisation of the Western world, calling for more restrictive immigration rules, particularly for Muslims. It seeks to alter German immigration legislation so that it becomes similar to Australian immigration programs and Canadian immigration categories.
de:Landkreis (abgekürzt: Lk, Lkr, Lkrs oder Landkrs.): in Nordrhein-Westfalen (seit 1969) und Schleswig-Holstein Kreis (abgekürzt Kr) genannt, ist nach deutschem Kommunalrecht ein Gemeindeverband und eine Gebietskörperschaft. Er verwaltet sein Gebiet nach den Grundsätzen der kommunalen Selbstverwaltung.
de:Liste der kreisfreien Städte in Deutschland: Stand 2013 gibt es 107 kreisfreie Städte, in denen Ende 2011 insgesamt über 25 Millionen Menschen lebten, was knapp einem Drittel der Bevölkerung Deutschlands entsprach. Sonderfälle sind Aachen, Göttingen und Hannover, die nicht kreisfrei sind, denen aber gewisse Rechte einer kreisfreien Stadt zugebilligt werden, sowie Berlin und Hamburg, die gleichzeitig auch ein Bundesland sind. Das Bundesland Bremen hat eine im Bundesvergleich ungewöhnliche Verwaltungsstruktur, Bremen und Bremerhaven gelten aber als selbstständige Kommunen im Land Bremen.
Type 212 submarine: highly advanced design of non-nuclear submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) for the German and Italian Navies. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP) system using Siemens proton exchange membrane (PEM) compressed hydrogen fuel cells. The submarine can operate at high speed on diesel power or switch to the AIP system for silent slow cruising, staying submerged for up to three weeks without surfacing and with no exhaust heat. The system is also said to be vibration-free, extremely quiet and virtually undetectable.
AnimalBase (de:AnimalBase) {public domain}: brought to life in 2004 and is maintained by the University of Göttingen; special focus on literature and names published prior to 1800.
Collection of German Prints (de:Sammlung Deutscher Drucke (SDD)): ein Zusammenschluss sechs deutscher Bibliotheken in einer Arbeitsgemeinschaft mit dem Ziel, eine möglichst vollständige Sammlung der gedruckten Werke des deutschen Sprach- und Kulturraums vom Beginn des Buchdrucks bis heute aufzubauen, zu erschließen, sie der Öffentlichkeit zur Verfügung zu stellen und für künftige Generationen zu bewahren.
de:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg (Frankfurt am Main; Sammelauftrag: 1801-1870): Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität ist mit neun Millionen Medieneinheiten die größte Universitätsbibliothek in Deutschland.
de:Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Königlich Preußische Staatsbibliothek oder Königliche Bibliothek; Sammelauftrag: 1871-1912): eine Einrichtung der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, einer durch Bundesgesetz errichteten rechtsfähigen Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts mit Sitz in Berlin
German National Library (de:Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB); ehemals Die Deutsche Bibliothek (DDB); Sammelauftrag: 1913-): Standorten Leipzig (ehemals Deutsche Bücherei, seit 2010 auch Deutsches Musikarchiv) und Frankfurt am Main (ehemals Deutsche Bibliothek); die zentrale Archivbibliothek für alle Medienwerke in deutscher Sprache aus dem In- und Ausland und das nationalbibliografische Zentrum Deutschlands; die größte deutsche Universalbibliothek. „Jüdische Periodika in NS-Deutschland“ und „Exilpresse digital“ 1997-2006 digitalisierte; diese Sammlungen aus dem Zeitraum 1933 bis 1945 bestehen aus circa 30.000 bzw. 100.000 Seiten; im 2012.06 wurde die Webseite wegen urheberrechtlichen Bedenken vom Netz genommen.
de:Deutsches Musikarchiv (Leipzig): der zentrale Sammlungsort für veröffentlichte Notenausgaben und Musiktonträger in Deutschland. Seit 2000.07 ist das Deutsche Musikarchiv der Sammlungsort der GEMA-Noten. Musikverleger reichen seitdem ihr Druckexemplar im Zuge der Werkanmeldung ausschließlich beim Deutschen Musikarchiv, nicht mehr aber bei der GEMA ein. Die bis zum Jahr 2000 gesammelten GEMA-Noten (210.000 Stück) werden jetzt im Deutschen Musikarchiv aufbewahrt.
{q.v. #Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (PLC): PL+GDL}
GDL = Baltics (nowadays/1500s: Lithuanians, Samogitians, maybe Latvians) + remains of Rus' (nowadays: Belarusians + Ukrainians). Chronicle, document language? - Ruthenian (Old Ruthenian, Chancery Slavonic). Spoken language? - Old Lithuanian, Old Ruthenian, others. Religion? - Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Baltic Pagan. Ethnicities? - Heterogeneous: Slavics, Baltics, others. Few documents about the Western (Baltic) part, and many documents for a long time from Kiev, Vitebsk & other Rus' literate cities. A few Mongols here and there (Mongol Empire).
Lithuanian Chronicles (Belarusian-Lithuanian Chronicles): 3 redactions of chronicles compiled in GDL. All redactions were written in the Ruthenian language and served the needs of Lithuanian patriotism. The first edition, compiled in the 1420s, glorified Vytautas the Great and supported his side in power struggles. The second redaction, prepared in the first half of the 16th century, started the myth of Lithuanian Roman origin: it gave a fanciful genealogy of Palemon, a noble from the Roman Empire who founded the Grand Duchy. This noble origin of Lithuanians was important in cultural rivalry with the Kingdom of Poland. The third redaction, known as the Bychowiec Chronicle, elaborated even further on the legend, but also provided some useful information about the second half of the 15th century. The three redactions, the first known historical accounts produced within the Grand Duchy, gave rise to the historiography of Lithuania.
The Baltic language history (Samogitians, Lithuanians):
Duchy of Lithuania (12th c.-1413; Ducatus Lithuaniae): state-territorial formation of ethnic Lithuanians; most of the time it was a constituent part and a nucleus of GDL. Aukštaitija, Land of Lithuania (11th – 13th centuries), Duchy of Vilnius (14th – early 15th centuries), Lithuania Propria or simply Lithuania (in a narrow sense). Last Duke of Lithuania (Latin: Dux Lithuaniae) was Vytautas the Great, who received it in 1392 from Jogaila as a result of the Astrava Treaty, who in turn had inherited it from his father Algirdas.
History of Lithuania (1219–1295): beginning of the 13th c. marks the end of the prehistory of Lithuania. In 1219 21 Lithuanian dukes signed a peace treaty with Galicia–Volhynia. Years of instability after the murder of Mindaugas till the Gediminid dynasty.
Mindaugas (German: Myndowen, Latin: Mindowe, Old East Slavic: Мендог; c. 1203–1263): the first known Grand Duke of Lithuania and the only crowned King of Lithuania. Little is known of his origins, early life, or rise to power; he is mentioned in a 1219 treaty as an elder duke, and in 1236 as the leader of all the Lithuanians. The contemporary and modern sources discussing his ascent mention strategic marriages along with banishment or murder of his rivals. He extended his domain into regions southeast of Lithuania proper during the 1230s and 1240s. In 1250 or 1251, during the course of internal power struggles, he was baptised as a Roman Catholic; this action enabled him to establish an alliance with the Livonian Order, a long-standing antagonist of the Lithuanians. By 1245, Mindaugas was already being referred to as "the highest king" in certain documents. During the summer of 1253, he was crowned King of Lithuania, ruling between 300,000 and 400,000 subjects. While Mindaugas's ten-year reign as king was marked by many state-building accomplishments, his conflicts with relatives and other dukes continued. The western part of Lithuania — Samogitia — strongly resisted the alliance's rule. His gains in the southeast were challenged by the Tatars. He broke peace with the Livonian Order in 1261, possibly renouncing Christianity, and was assassinated in 1263 by his nephew Treniota and another rival, Duke Daumantas of Pskov. His three immediate successors were assassinated as well. The disorder was not resolved until Traidenis gained the title of Grand Duke c. 1270.
Vykintas (died c. 1253) was Duke of Samogitia and a rival to the future King of Lithuania, Mindaugas. In 1236 he probably led the Samogitian forces in the Battle of Saule against the Livonian Order. In 1248 Mindaugas sent Vykintas, Tautvilas, and Edivydas on a military campaign against Smolensk. They were unsuccessful and Mindaugas tried to deprive them of their estates. The three men then organized a vast coalition against Mindaugas which included Tautvilas' brother-in-law Daniel of Halych, the Livonian Order, and the Samogitians. The dukes of Halych-Volhynia managed to gain control over Black Ruthenia, an area ruled by Vaišvilkas.
Daumantas of Pskov (c1240? - 1299): Duke of Nalšia, antagonist of Mindaugas (due to personal reasons?), maybe even killed Mindaugas and Mindaugas' sons; acted with Treniota; Daumantas fled from Vaišelga (eldest son of Mindaugas) to Pskov. Military leader (kniaz) of the Pskov Republic between 1266 and 1299.
Vaišvilkas (Vaišelga; died 1267.04.18; Grand Duke of LT (1264-1267)): son of Mindaugas. Nothing is known about the youth of Vaišvilkas as he entered historical sources only in 1254 when he made a treaty, in the name of his father King Mindaugas, with Daniel of Halych-Volhynia. In the treaty, Halych-Volhynia transfers Black Ruthenia with center in Navahrudak to Lithuania. To solidify the treaty, Daniel's son Shvarn was married to Vaišvilkas' sister. Vaišvilkas was appointed as duke of some of these lands. After Vaišvilkas was baptized in a Greek Orthodox rite, he was drawn to religious life so much that he transferred his title and lands to Roman Danylovich, son of Daniel of Halych. He founded a monastery traditionally identified with Lavrashev Monastery on the bank on the Neman River and entered it as a monk. He set off on a pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece. However, he did not reach the destination due to wars in the Balkans and returned to Navahrudak. In 1264, he escaped an assassination plot by Treniota and Daumantas against his father and two of his brothers. Treniota was murdered by former servants of Mindaugas. Vaišvilkas allied himself with his brother-in-law Shvarn from Halych-Volhynia. They managed to take control over Black Ruthenia and the Duchy of Lithuania. Then they waged a war against Nalšia and Deltuva, two main centers of opposition to Mindaugas and Vaišvilkas. Daumantas, Duke of Nalšia, was forced to flee to Pskov. Suksė (Suxe), another influential duke from Nalšia, fled to Livonia. Vaišvilkas became next the Grand Duke of Lithuania. As a Christian, he tried to maintain friendly relationships with the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. He signed a peace treaty with Livonia regarding trade on the Daugava River. Lithuanian support of the Great Prussian Uprising ceased, and the orders made advances against Semigallians and Curonians uninterrupted. Together with Shvarn, Vaišvilkas attacked Poland in 1265 to avenge the Yotvingians' defeat a year prior. When in 1267 he decided to go back to monastic life, Vaišvilkas transferred the title of Grand Duke to Shvarn. A year later he was killed by Shvarn's brother, Leo I of Halych, who was angry that Vaišvilkas did not divide the powers between him and his brother. He was interred near the Assumption Church in Volodymyr.
Daumantas of Lithuania: Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1282–1285. Daumantas is mentioned in chronicles only once and, in absence of any other evidence, is presumed to be a short-ruled Grand Duke who inherited the title after Traidenis' death in 1281 or 1282. It is assumed that Daumantas was succeeded by Grand Duke Butegeidis. Relationships between Traidenis, Daumantas, and Butegeidis are unknown. The period between 1281/1282 (Traidenis' death) and 1289 (rule of Butegeidis) is one of the most poorly documented periods in the history of Lithuania.
Kingdom of Lithuania (1251-1263): king Mindaugas was the first and only crowned king of Lithuania.
The fast expansion and incorporation of Orthodox, Ruthenian lands (Belarus, Ukraine):
Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus and Samogitia; 12/13th c. - 1569; personal union with the Kingdom of Poland (1385-1569); part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (federation; 1569-1795)): multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state with great diversity in languages, religion, and cultural heritage. Demographics: 1260 - Lithuanians 67.5% of 0.4 mln pop; 1340 after new Ruthenian territories were acquired - Lithuanians 30%; at the largest expansion of end 13th and 14th c. - Lithuanians 10%-14%; 1493 Poland and GDL together - 7.5 mln total pop.: 3.75 mln Ruthenians (ethnic Ukrainians and Belarusians), 3.25 mln Poles, 0.5 mln Lithuanians (without Samogitians?). The Ruthenian language was used to write laws alongside Latin and German. From the time of Vytautas, there are fewer remaining documents written in Ruthenian than there are in Latin and German, but later Ruthenian became the main language of documentation and writings. In the Commonwealth in 1697 the chancellery language was changed from Ruthenian to Polish. GDL was a Slavic country in the sense that Ruthenians made larger half of GDL population and Ruthenian lands made more than half of the Commonwealth's land; the "Western" voivodeships with the predominant ethnic Lithuanian population were Vilnius, Trakai and Samogitian voivodeships. Other significant ethnicities of GDL: Jews (Yiddish language), Tatars (Tatar language), Karaims.
Mongol invasions of Lithuania: event where the Mongol armies invaded the territories of the Kingdom of Lithuania and later, GDL, on several occasions in late 13th and early 14th century. The event was not very well documented, but historians knew also that despite occasional setbacks, which likely forced the Lithuanian state and its neighbors the Yotvingians to become client states of Mongols for a short period, the Lithuanians were able to take control of a number of formerly Mongol territories in the long run. The Lithuanians first made contact with the Mongols around 1237–1240, though for the next decade or two the Mongols did not consider Lithuanian-held territories a priority. The Mongol invasion of Lithuania in the years 1258–1259 is generally seen as a Mongol victory, as Lithuanian territories have been described as "devastated" following the Mongol incursion, in what was "possibly the most horrible event of the thirteenth century" for Lithuania. In the immediate aftermath of this invasion, Lithuania might have become a tributary or protectorate and ally to the Horde for several years or decades. A similar fate was likely met by the Lithuanians' neighbours, the Yotvingians. Lithuanian defeat did however weaken the power of Lithuanian king Mindaugas who was eventually assassinated in 1263.
Battle of Blue Waters (1362 Autumn): GDL vs Golden Horde; taking advantage of internal disorders within the Golden Horde caused by deaths of Khans Jani Beg and Berdi Beg, Grand Duke Algirdas organized a campaign into Tatar lands. Kiev and a large part of present-day Ukraine, including scarcely populated Podolia and Dykra, under the control of the expanding GDL. Algirdas' son Vladimir in Kiev; this made GDL the rival of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
Christianization of Lithuania (1387): Christianization of GDL; initiated by the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila and his cousin Vytautas. Early contacts with Eastern Orthodox Christianity; influence of Orthodox Christianity on pagan Lithuanian culture is evidenced in about one third of present day Lithuanian surnames which are constructed from baptismal names are Old Church Slavonic in origin; Lithuanian words for "church", "baptism", "Christmas" and "fast" are classed as 'loanwords from Russian rather than Polish.' Baptism of Mindaugas: even after becoming a Catholic, King Mindaugas did not cease sacrificing to his own gods. Vacillation between East (Orthodox) and West (Latin). Jogaila's Russian mother urged him to marry Sofia, daughter of Prince Dmitri of Moscow, who required him first to convert to Orthodoxy and to make Lithuania a fief of the Grand Duchy of Moscow; but Jogaila was duly baptised at the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków on 1386.02.15 and became king of Poland; royal baptism was followed by the conversion of most of Jogaila's court and knights, as well as Jogaila's brothers Karigaila, Vygantas, Švitrigaila and cousin Vytautas. On 1389.04.19, Pope Urban VI recognized the status of Lithuania as a Roman Catholic state. Conversion and its political implications had lasting repercussions for the history of Lithuania: as the majority of the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania outside Lithuania proper was Orthodox and the elite gradually converted to Roman Catholicism, religious tensions increased; Orthodox population of present-day Ukraine and eastern Belarus often sympathized with the rulers of Muscovy, who portrayed themselves as the champions of Orthodoxy. On the other hand, Christianization of GDL paved the way to the Union of Lublin (1569).
Jaunutis (ca. 1300 – after 1366): Grand Duke of Lithuania from his father Gediminas' death in 1341 until he was deposed by his elder brothers Algirdas and Kęstutis in 1345. The Bychowiec Chronicle mentions that Jaunutis was supported by Jewna, presumed wife of Gediminas and mother of his children. She died ca. 1344 and soon after Jaunutis lost his throne. If he was indeed protected by his mother, then it would be an interesting example of influence held by queen mother in pagan Lithuania. However, a concrete stimulus might have been a major reise planned by the Teutonic Knights in 1345.
Lithuanian Civil War (1381–84): first struggle for power between the cousins Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania and later King of Poland, and Vytautas the Great. It began after Jogaila signed the Treaty of Dovydiškės with the Teutonic Knights which was aimed against his uncle Kęstutis, father of Vytautas. Kęstutis briefly seized power in the Grand Duchy, but was betrayed by adherents of Jogaila primarily from Vilnius. During negotiations for a truce Kęstutis and Vytautas were arrested and transported to the Kreva Castle. Kęstutis died there a week later but Vytautas managed to escape and then sought an alliance with the Teutonic Knights. Subsequently their joint forces raided Lithuanian lands. Eventually the cousins were reconciled as Jogaila needed internal stability in anticipation of negotiations with the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Kingdom of Poland regarding the possible Christianization of Lithuania.
Vaidila (- executed in 1381): favorite and brother-in-law of Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Chronicles present Vaidila as a kitchen assistant who rose to the top and entered the nobility only through his marriage to Jogaila's sister Maria in 1379. However, this portrayal is likely biased propaganda. It was a known practice to denounce political opponents as a common peasant.
Lithuanian Civil War (1389–92): second civil conflict between Jogaila, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his cousin Vytautas the Great. At issue was control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then the largest state in Europe. Jogaila had been crowned King of Poland in 1386; he installed his brother Skirgaila as ruler of Lithuania. Skirgaila proved unpopular and Vytautas attempted to depose him. When his first attempt to take the capital city of Vilnius failed, Vytautas forged an alliance with the Teutonic Knights, their common enemy – just as both cousins had done during the Lithuanian Civil War between 1381 and 1384. Vytautas and the Knights unsuccessfully besieged Vilnius in 1390. Jogaila proposed a compromise: Vytautas would become Grand Duke and Jogaila would remain Superior Duke. This proposal was formalized in the Ostrów Agreement of 1392, and Vytautas turned against the Knights
Tautvilas Kęstutaitis (c.1352–1355 – 1390.09): was one of the sons of Kęstutis, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and a strong supported of his brother Vytautas the Great in his struggles against their cousin Jogaila.
Ritterswerder: short-lived wooden castle built by the Teutonic Knights in fall 1391.
Andrei of Polotsk (Andrius Algirdaitis; born ca. 1325 – died on 12 August 1399 in the Battle of the Vorskla River): eldest son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his first wife Maria of Vitebsk. He was Duke of Pskov (through his deputy Yuri, 1342–1348) and Polotsk (1342–1387). As the eldest son of the Grand Duke, Andrei claimed his right to the throne after his father's death in 1377. Algirdas left Jogaila, his eldest son with his second wife Uliana of Tver, as the rightful heir. Andrei's rivalry with Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania and later King of Poland, eventually led to his demise.
Skirgaila (ca. 1353 or 1354 – 1397.01.11): regent of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for his brother Jogaila from 1386 to 1392.
Vytautas (Vytautas the Great; c. 1350 – 1430.10.27): styled "the Great" from the 15th century onwards; was one of the most famous rulers of GDL. Vytautas was the ruler (1392–1430) of GDL which chiefly encompassed the Lithuanians and Ruthenians. He was also the Prince of Hrodna (1370–1382) and the Prince of Lutsk (1387–1389), postulated king of Hussites.
Battle of the Vorskla River (1399.08.12): great battle in the medieval history of Eastern Europe; between the Tatars, under Edigu and Temur Qutlugh, and the armies of Tokhtamysh and Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania. The battle ended in a decisive Tatar victory.
Švitrigaila (before 1370 – 1452.02.10; Svidryhajła, Świdrygiełło, Svitrigaylo, Svidrigailo, Swidrigailo, Boleslau Switrigail): Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1430 to 1432, spent most of his life in largely unsuccessful dynastic struggles against his cousins Vytautas and Sigismund Kęstutaitis; brother of Jogaila.
Sigismund Kęstutaitis (1365 – 1440.03.20): Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1432 to 1440. Sigismund was his baptismal name; Sigismund's pagan Lithuanian birth name is unknown. He was the son of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Kęstutis and his wife Birutė. When Vytautas allied with the Teutonic Knights for the second time to fight Skirgaila, Sigismund was a hostage of the Teutonic Knights, together with his family, from 1389–1398. He participated in the Battles of Vorskla and the Grunwald. After the death of Vytautas, he supported his cousin Švitrigaila in his fight against Poland, but later was convinced by nobles to join a conspiracy against him. Killed by supporters of Švitrigaila (possibly led by Alexander Czartoryski) at Trakai Peninsula Castle.
Jagiellon dynasty: members of the Jagiellonian dynasty married late in life, and not procreated until older:
Algirdas (1291–1377)
Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila; c. 1352/1362 – 1 June 1434): Grand Duke of Lithuania (1377–1434) and then the King of Poland (1386–1434), first alongside his wife Jadwiga until 1399, and then sole King of Poland. Born a pagan, in 1386 he converted to Catholicism and was baptized as Władysław in Kraków, married the young Queen Jadwiga, and was crowned King of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło. In 1387 he converted Lithuania to Christianity. Jogaila was the last pagan ruler of medieval Lithuania. After he became King of Poland, as a result of the Union of Krewo, the newly formed Polish-Lithuanian union confronted the growing power of the Teutonic Knights. The allied victory at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, followed by the Peace of Thorn, secured the Polish and Lithuanian borders and marked the emergence of the Polish–Lithuanian alliance as a significant force in Europe. One effect of Jagiello's measures was to be the advancement of Catholics in Lithuania at the expense of Orthodox elements; in 1387 and 1413, for example, Lithuanian Catholic boyars were granted special judicial and political privileges denied to the Orthodox boyars. As this process gained momentum, it was accompanied by the rise of both Rus' and Lithuanian identity in 15th c.
Casimir IV Jagiellon (1427.11.30–1492.06.07): was one of the most active Polish rulers, under whom Poland, by defeating the Teutonic Knights in the Thirteen Years' War recovered Pomerania, and the Jagiellonian dynasty became one of the leading royal houses in Europe. He was a strong opponent of aristocracy, and helped to strengthen the importance of Parliament and the Senate. The great triumph of his reign was the effective and final destruction of the Teutonic Order, which brought Prussia under Polish rule.
Saint Casimir (1458.10.03–1484.03.04): 2nd son of Casimir IV; canonized by Pope Clement VIII in 1602 and is the patron saint of Poland and Lithuania; 1948.06.11 Pope Pius XII named Saint Casimir the special patron of all youth.
John I Albert (1459.12.27–1501.06.17): 3rd son of Casimir IV
Sigismund I the Old (1467–1548; Sigismund I of Poland): 5th son of Casimir IV
Sigismund II Augustus (1520.08.01–1572.07.07): King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, only son of Sigismund I the Old. Married three times, the last of the Jagiellons remained childless, and through the Union of Lublin introduced a free elective monarchy. The death of Queen Barbara, five months after her coronation (7 December 1550), under distressing circumstances, compelled Sigismund to contract a third, purely political union with his first cousin, the Austrian archduchess Catherine, also the sister of his first wife, Elisabeth, who had died within a year of her marriage to him, before his accession. Sigismund soon lost all hope of children by his third bride; he was the last male Jagiellon in the direct line so the dynasty was threatened with extinction. He sought to remedy this by adultery with two of the most beautiful of his countrywomen, Barbara Giżanka and Anna Zajączkowska but was unable to impregnate either of them. The sejm was willing to legitimatize, and acknowledge as Sigismund's successor, any male heir who might be born to him; however, the King was to die childless.
Matthias of Trakai (or of Vilnius; ca. 1370-1453.05.09): Lithuanian Roman Catholic clergyman; 1st Bishop of Samogitia (1417-1422) and the 5th Bishop of Vilnius (1422.05.04-1453.05.09) and an ex-officio member of the Council of Lords. Spoke Samogitian and Lithuanian languages. According to Jan Długosz, he was a Vilnian of Livonian German origin, while Vytautas himself has mentioned him being a Lithuanian; conducted the marriage of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila and his last wife Sophia of Halshany in the city of Navahrudak in 1422. Matthias took care that new Catholic priests would be fluent in the Lithuanian language. He performed Last Rites for dying Vytautas on 27 October 1430.
Fiodor of Kiev (14th c.): prince of Kiev; son of Butvydas, and a younger brother of Gediminas. Few short stories survive about him: Golden Horde vs GDL (Kiev's lands).
Territorial changes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1430 to 1583[9]
Transferred Ukrainian territories to Poland by the Union of Lublin
1582
Lost 40,000 km2 (15,000 sq mi)
Livonian War
1583
365,000 km2 (141,000 sq mi)
Territory after the Livonian War
Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars (Russo-Lithuanian Wars, Muscovite Wars, Lithuanian Wars): series of wars between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, allied with the Kingdom of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow. After several defeats at the hands of Ivan III and Vasily III, the Lithuanians were increasingly reliant on Polish aid, which eventually became an important factor in the creation (Union of Lublin) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Lithuanian Civil War (1432–1438): conflict over the succession to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, after Vytautas the Great died in 1430 without leaving an heir. The war was fought on the one side by Švitrigaila, allied with the Teutonic Knights, and on the other by Sigismund Kęstutaitis, backed by the Kingdom of Poland. Švitrigaila's alliance with the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Paul von Rusdorf, launched the Polish–Teutonic War (1431–1435) but failed to secure victory for Švitrigaila. Lutsk War; Coup in Lithuania; Hussite invasion of Prussia; Battle of Wilkomierz. Jogaila's son Casimir IV Jagiellon, born in 1426, received approval as a hereditary hospodar from Lithuania's ruling families in 1440. This event is seen by the historians Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki as marking the end of the succession dispute.
Battle of Wilkomierz (1435.09.01; Pabaiskas): with the help of military units from the Kingdom of Poland, the forces of Grand Duke Sigismund Kęstutaitis soundly defeated Švitrigaila and his Livonian allies. The battle ended the Lithuanian Civil War (1431–1435) and inflicted major damage to the Livonian Order.
Duchy of Samogitia (1219-1795; Eldership of Samogitia (1422-1441)): Grand Duke of Lithuania also held the title of Duke of Samogitia, although the actual ruler of the province, responsible to the Duke was known as the General Elder (Seniūnas) of Samogitia.
17th c. administrative divisions of GDL.
Lithuanian nobility: was historically a legally privileged class in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania consisting of Lithuanians, from the historical regions of Lithuania Proper and Samogitia, and, following Lithuania's eastern expansion, many Ruthenian noble families (boyars). Families were primarily granted privileges for their military service to the Grand Duchy.
Lithuanian Council of Lords: established in early 15th c. by Vytautas the Great; was the main permanent institution of central government in the GDL active in its capital city of Vilnius, continued to operate de facto until the mid-17th century.
Metropolitanate of Lithuania: metropolitanate of the Orthodox Church created between 1315 and 1317, it had only two metropolitans and was discontinued in 1371; part of the entry of GDL into the rivalry for the religious control of the Rus' principalities between Galicia–Volhynia, the Principality of Tver, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
Present situation:
Litvin: the word Litvin (Belarusian: літвін, ліцвін, litvin, litsvin; Polish: Litwin, plural: Litwini, Russian: литвин, litvin, Ukrainian: литвин, lytvyn) is a Slavic term meaning residents of GDL. Today the term “Litvin” is enjoying a revival, in some quarters, in Belarus, since many Belarusians prefer to be called “Litvins” and to affiliate themselves with the historical GDL, and believe that Belarusians contributed greatly to its culture. Today the term Litviny is often used by Belarusian historians and writers to distinguish between inhabitants of the modern Lithuania and the inhabitants of the historical Grand Duchy of Lithuania and to underline thereby Belarusian participation in the legacy of GDL.
Coat of arms of Lithuania: consisting of an armour-clad knight on horseback holding a sword and shield, is also known as Vytis. It is one of very few containing symbolism adopted from ducal portrait seals rather than from coats of arms of dynasties, which is the case for most European countries. Tobolsk Chronicle as a symbol of Narimantas; state emblem in 1366 on the seal of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Algirdas; earliest coins featuring the knight come also from the last quarter of the 14th century; the other side of these coins depicts Columns of Gediminas. The emblem was handed down through the generations, from Algirdas to his son, Grand Duke Jogaila, then to Jogaila's cousin Grand Duke Vytautas and others. In the 14th century, the knight was featured on a heraldic shield, first on Jogaila's seal in 1386 or 1387, and also on the seal of Vytautas in 1401. As early as the 15th century, the heraldic knight became the Coat of Arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and of its central part– the Duchy of Vilnius. The earliest name of the Lithuanian coat of arms is unknown; possibly, it had no specific name at all. Later it was known as Pogonia, as approved in the Statutes of Lithuania.
Northwestern Krai (RU: Северозападный край): subdivision (krai) of Imperial Russia in the territories of the present day Belarus and Lithuania.
In Poland and Lithuania he has been viewed as a personification of tsarist repression and Russification.
Vilna Governorate (1795-1915; Government of Vilnius; aka Lithuania-Vilnius Governorate 1801-1840): Ethnic composition - Russian authorities periodically performed censuses, however, they reported strikingly different numbers: 1862 (LT: 50%, BEL: 17%), 1865 (AFTER the Uprising; LT: 24%, BEL: 47%), 1883 (LT: 35%, BEL: 20%), 1897 (LT: 18%, BEL: 56%, RU: 5%), 1909 (LT: 15%, BEL: 37%, RU: 26%) {would be interesting to see what they meant by "Belarusians vs Lithuanians" in the census questionaires; also the literacy rates; also the bilingualism. GDL consciousness (how many people knew about this country in 1862-1865-1883-1897-1909?)?}.
Governors General of Northwestern Krai:
Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky (1796-1866): Russian imperial statesmen of the 19th century, most known for his putting down of Polish uprisings and subsequent cultural and social depolonization of Northwestern Krai (today's Belarus and Lithuania). To many nationally minded Russians, Muravyov was a hero and the de facto head of the "Russian Party". They flooded Muravyov with congratulatory telegrams on his nameday, November 8, 1863, a form of public expression previously unknown in Russia . In Poland and Lithuania he has been viewed as a personification of tsarist repression and Russification.
Somali Civil War (1991-now): USA, UN, TFG (Transitional Federal Government), Ethiopia, AMISOM vs Islamic Courts Union, al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, Somali National Front, Somali Democratic Republic. Deaths: 0.3-0.5 mln (mostly civilians?).
Somali invasion of Ogaden (1977.07.13–1977.10): Somali Army attacked in two formations. The main force had the aim of seizing Jijiga, Harar and Dire Dawa while a secondary force assaulted Dolo, Gode and Imi.
Ogaden War (Ethio-Somali War; 1977.07.13–1978.03.23): military conflict fought between Somalia and Ethiopia over the Ethiopian region of Ogaden. Somalia's invasion of the region, precursor to the wider war, met with USSR's disapproval, leading the superpower to end its support of Somalia and support Ethiopia instead. Ethiopia was saved from defeat and permanent loss of territory through a massive airlift of military supplies worth $1 bln, the arrival of more than 12,000 Cuban soldiers and airmen sent by Fidel Castro to win a second African victory (after his first success in Angola in 1975–76), and 1,500 Soviet advisors, led by General Vasily Petrov. In 1978.01.23, Cuban armored brigades inflicted the worst losses the Somali forces had ever taken in a single action since the start of the war. Refugee crisis: Somalia's defeat in the war caused an influx of Ethiopian refugees (mostly ethnic Somalis and some Oromo) across the border to Somalia. By 1979, official figures reported 1.3 million refugees in Somalia, more than half of them settled in the lands of the Isaaq clan-family in the north. As the state became increasingly reliant on international aid, aid resources allocated for the refugees caused further resentment from local Isaaq residents, especially as they felt no effort was made on the government's part to compensate them for bearing the burden of the war.
Almendres Cromlech: megalithic complex; 4.5 road km WSW of the village of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, in the civil parish of Nossa Senhora da Tourega e Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, municipality of Évora. The largest existing group of structured menhirs in the Iberian Peninsula (and one of the largest in Europe), this archaeological site consists of several megalithic structures: cromlechs and menhir stones, that belong to the so-called "megalithic universe of Évora", with clear parallels to other cromlechs in Évora District, such as Portela Mogos and the Vale Maria do Meio Cromlech.
Iberian Union (1580–1640): dynastic union of the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and the Kingdom of Portugal under the Castilian Crown brought the entire Iberian Peninsula, as well as Portuguese overseas possessions, under the Spanish Habsburg Kings Philip II, Philip III and Philip IV. The union began after the Portuguese crisis of succession and the ensuing War of the Portuguese Succession, and lasted until the Portuguese Restoration War during which the House of Braganza was established as Portugal's new ruling dynasty. The Habsburg king, the only element that connected the multiple kingdoms and territories, ruled by the six separate government councils of Castile, Aragon, Portugal, Italy, Flanders and the Indies. The governments, institutions and legal traditions of each kingdom remained independent of one another. Alien laws (Leyes de extranjería) determined that a national of one kingdom was a foreigner in all other kingdoms.
History of Portugal: can be traced from circa 400,000 years ago, when the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Homo heidelbergensis. The Roman invasion in the 3rd c. BC lasted several centuries, and developed the Roman provinces of Lusitania in the south and Gallaecia in the north. During the Dark Ages following the fall of Rome, Germanic tribes controlled the territory between the 5th and 8th centuries, including the Kingdom of the Suebi centred in Braga and the Visigothic Kingdom in the south. The 711–716 invasion by the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate conquered the Visigoth Kingdom and founded the Islamic State of Al-Andalus, gradually advancing through Iberia. In 1095, Portugal broke away from the Kingdom of Galicia. Henry's son Afonso Henriques proclaimed himself king of Portugal in 1139. The Algarve was conquered from the Moors in 1249, and in 1255 Lisbon became the capital. Portugal's land boundaries have remained almost unchanged since then.
History of Porto: historic references to the city go back to the 4th c. BC and to Roman times, although Celtic and Proto-Celtic remnants of ancient Citadels were found in the heart of where Porto now lies. In the Roman period the city developed its importance as a commercial port, primarily in the trade between Olissipona (Lisbon) and Bracara Augusta (nowadays Braga), but would fall under the Moorish Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 711.
History of Lisbon: revolves around its strategic geographical position at the mouth of the Tagus, the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. Its spacious and sheltered natural harbour made the city historically an important seaport for trade between the Mediterranean Sea and northern Europe. Lisbon has long enjoyed the commercial advantages of its proximity to southern and extreme western Europe, as well as to sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, and today its waterfront is lined with miles of docks, wharfs, and drydock facilities that accommodate the largest oil tankers.
Portuguese Empire (1415–1999; Portuguese Overseas, Portuguese Colonial Empire): composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the later overseas territories governed by Portugal. It was one of the longest-lived empires in European history, lasting almost six centuries from the conquest of Ceuta in North Africa, in 1415, to the transfer of sovereignty over Macau to China in 1999. The empire began in the 15th century, and from the early 16th century it stretched across the globe, with bases in North and South America, Africa, and various regions of Asia and Oceania.
Portuguese Colonial War (1961.02.04–1974.04.25; Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence): thirteen year long conflict fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies.
Carnation Revolution (1974.04.25): military coup in Lisbon that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, producing fundamental social, economic, territorial, demographic and political changes through the Processo Revolucionário Em Curso, resulting in the Portuguese transition to democracy and the end of the Portuguese Colonial War.
1531 Lisbon earthquake (1531.01.26): in Kingdom of Portugal on the morning, between 4 and 5 o'clock. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami resulted in approximately 30,000 deaths. Despite its severity, the disaster had been mostly forgotten until the rediscovery of contemporary records in the early 20th-century.
1755 Lisbon earthquake (1755.11.01; Great Lisbon earthquake): impacted Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In combination with subsequent fires and a tsunami, the earthquake almost completely destroyed Lisbon and adjoining areas. Seismologists estimate the Lisbon earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 or greater on the moment magnitude scale, with its epicenter in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 km west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent and about 290 km southwest of Lisbon.
Carnation Revolution (25 April 1974; Revolução dos Cravos, 25 de Abril): military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime in Lisbon, producing major social, economic, territorial, demographic, and political changes in Portugal and its overseas colonies through the Processo Revolucionário Em Curso. It resulted in the Portuguese transition to democracy and the end of the Portuguese Colonial War.
Chronological map showing linguistic evolution in southwest Europe 1000-2000.
Nationalisms and regionalisms of Spain: whole world except Spain proper speaks Spanish (Castilian) while in Spain they speak Castilian, Basque (non-Indo-European language; language isolate), and the rest of Spanish-compatible Indo-European (Romance) languages: Occitano-Romance (Catalan/Valencian, Aranese,), Ibero-Romance (Galician, Asturian and Leonese, Extremaduran, Fala), Italo-Dalmatian (Aragonese)
Nationalities and regions of Spain ("nationalities" or "historical nationalities"): Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia; Andalusia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community; more recently Aragon and the Canary Islands.
Plazas de soberanía ("strongholds of sovereignty"): term describing a series of unincorporated Spanish overseas minor territories scattered along the Mediterranean coast bordering Morocco. That term is used for those territories that have been a part of Spain since the formation of the modern country (1492–1556), as opposed to African territories acquired by Spain during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Historically, a distinction was made between the so-called "major places of sovereignty", comprising the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and the "minor places of sovereignty", referring to a number of islands along the coast. In the present, the term refers mainly to the latter.
Generation of '98 (Generación del 98, Generation of 1898): group of novelists, poets, essayists, and philosophers active in Spain at the time of the Spanish–American War (1898), committed to cultural and aesthetic renewal, and associated with modernism. Alluding to the moral, political and social crisis in Spain produced by the loss of the colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam after defeat in the Spanish–American War that same year. The intellectuals included in this group are known for their criticism of the Spanish literary and educational establishments, which they saw as having characteristics of conformism, ignorance, and a lack of any true spirit. Their criticism was coupled with and heavily connected to the group's dislike for the Restoration movement that was occurring in Spanish government.
Spanish Empire (1492–1976; Imperio Español, Monarquía Hispánica (Hispanic Monarchy), Monarquía Católica (the Catholic Monarchy)): colonial empire governed by Spain and its predecessor states. One of the largest empires in history, it was, in conjunction with the Portuguese, the first to usher the European Age of Discovery and achieve a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, the archipelago of the Philippines, various islands in the Pacific and territories in Western Europe and Africa. It was one of the world's most powerful empires of the early modern period, becoming known as "the empire on which the sun never sets", and reached its maximum extent in the 18th c.
Sino-Vietnamese War (1979.02.17–03.16): brief border war fought between the PRC and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. China launched the offensive in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978 (which ended the rule of the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge).
Thai Canal: proposals for a canal that would connect the Gulf of Thailand with the Andaman Sea across southern Thailand. The canal would provide an alternative to transit through the Straits of Malacca and shorten transit for shipments of oil to Japan and China by 1,200 km.
2014 Thai coup d'état (2014.05.22): Royal Thai Armed Forces, led by General Prayuth Chan-ocha, Commander of the Royal Thai Army (RTA), launched a coup d'état against the caretaker government of Thailand, following six months of political crisis. The military established a junta called National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to govern the nation.
Khmer Rouge (Khmer Rouge; 1968–1996): was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia.
Cambodian genocide (1975 - 1979): carried out by the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime led by Pol Pot in which an estimated one and a half to three million people died.
Killing Fields: number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than 1 mln. people were killed and buried by the Communist Khmer Rouge regime.
Cambodian–Vietnamese War (1977.04.30–1991.10.23; full scale: 1978.12.25 - 1979.01.07): armed conflict between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea. Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea and subsequently occupied the country and removed the Khmer Rouge government from power. During the Vietnam War, Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge communists had formed an alliance to fight U.S.-backed regimes in their respective countries. Despite their open display of cooperation with the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge leadership feared that the Vietnamese communists were scheming to form an Indochinese federation with Vietnam as the dominant force in the region. In order to preempt an attempt by the Vietnamese to dominate them, the Khmer Rouge leadership began purging Vietnamese-trained personnel within their own ranks as the Lon Nol regime capitulated in 1975. Small-scale fighting continued between the two countries throughout 1978, as China tried to mediate peace talks between the two sides.
Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Khmer Rouge Tribunal): court established to try the most senior responsible members of the Khmer Rouge for alleged violations of international law and serious crimes perpetrated during the Cambodian genocide. Although it is a national court, it was established as part of an agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia and UN, and its members include both local and foreign judges. It is considered a hybrid court; as the ECCC was created by the government in conjunction with the UN, but remains independent of them, with trials held in Cambodia using Cambodian and international staff. The Cambodian court invites international participation in order to apply international standards.
Former Persian empire is now split between (Iranian languages/ethnicities): Iran, Afghanistan, (Pakistan), Tajikistan. Largest languages: Persian (Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan), Pashto, Kurdish (Turkey, Iraq, Iran), Balochi (Pakistan, Iran, (Afghanistan)), Lurish (Iran), many small ones: Ossetian, ... Persian empire, language and culture had influence on Indics, Turkics, Arabs (languages/ethnicities).
Median and Achaemenid Empire (650–330 BC): Cyrus the Great overthrew, in turn, the Median, Lydian, and Neo-Babylonian Empires, creating an empire far larger than Assyria. He was better able, through more benign policies, to reconcile his subjects to Persian rule; and the longevity of his empire was one result. The Persian king, like the Assyrian, was also "King of Kings", Cyrus's son, Cambyses II, conquered the last major power of the region, ancient Egypt, causing the collapse of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt. Since he became ill and died before, or while, leaving Egypt, stories developed, as related by Herodotus, that he was struck down for impiety against the ancient Egyptian deities. The winner, Darius I, based his claim on membership in a collateral line of the Achaemenid Empire. Darius' first capital was at Susa, and he started the building programme at Persepolis. He rebuilt a canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, a forerunner of the modern Suez Canal. He improved the extensive road system, and it is during his reign that mention is first made of the Royal Road, a great highway stretching all the way from Susa to Sardis with posting stations at regular intervals. Major reforms took place under Darius. Coinage, in the form of the daric (gold coin) and the shekel (silver coin) was standardized (coinage had already been invented over a century before in Lydia c. 660 BC but not standardized), and administrative efficiency was increased. Under Cyrus the Great and Darius I, the Persian Empire eventually became the largest empire in human history up until that point, ruling and administrating over most of the then known world, as well as spanning three continents, namely Europe, Asia, and Africa. Their greatest achievement was the empire itself. The Persian Empire represented the world's first superpower that was based on a model of tolerance and respect for other cultures and religions.
Sasanian Empire (224–651 AD): Eastern Arabia was conquered early on. During Khosrow II's rule in 590–628, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon were also annexed to the Empire. The Sassanians called their empire Erânshahr ("Dominion of the Aryans", i.e. of Iranians). With the conclusion of the over 700 years lasting Roman–Persian Wars through the climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, which included the very siege of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, the war-exhausted Persians lost the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah (632) in Hilla (present day Iraq) to the invading Muslim forces. This influence carried forward to the Muslim world. The dynasty's unique and aristocratic culture transformed the Islamic conquest and destruction of Iran into a Persian Renaissance. Much of what later became known as Islamic culture, architecture, writing and other contributions to civilization, were taken from the Sassanian Persians into the broader Muslim world.
Islamic conquest of Persia (633–651): ended the Sasanian Empire and led to the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. Over time, the majority of Iranians converted to Islam. Most of the aspects of the previous Persian civilizations were not discarded, but were absorbed by the new Islamic polity.
The Umayyad Caliphate and its incursions into the Caspian coast: During the Umayyad Caliphate, the Arab conquerors imposed Arabic as the primary language of the subject peoples throughout their empire. Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, who was not happy with the prevalence of the Persian language in the divan, ordered the official language of the conquered lands to be replaced by Arabic, sometimes by force. In the 7th century, when many non-Arabs such as Persians entered Islam, they were recognized as mawali ("clients") and treated as second-class citizens by the ruling Arab elite until the end of the Umayyad Caliphate. During this era, Islam was initially associated with the ethnic identity of the Arab and required formal association with an Arab tribe and the adoption of the client status of mawali. The half-hearted policies of the late Umayyads to tolerate non-Arab Muslims and Shias had failed to quell unrest among these minorities.
The Abbasid Caliphate and Iranian semi-independent governments: The Abbasid army consisted primarily of Khorasanians and was led by an Iranian general, Abu Muslim Khorasani. It contained both Iranian and Arab elements, and the Abbasids enjoyed both Iranian and Arab support. The Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in 750. According to Amir Arjomand, the Abbasid Revolution essentially marked the end of the Arab empire and the beginning of a more inclusive, multiethnic state in the Middle East. One of the first changes the Abbasids made after taking power from the Umayyads was to move the empire's capital from Damascus, in the Levant, to Iraq. The latter region was influenced by Persian history and culture, and moving the capital was part of the Persian mawali demand for Arab influence in the empire. The city of Baghdad was constructed on the Tigris River, in 762, to serve as the new Abbasid capital. By the early 10th c., the Abbasids almost lost control to the growing Persian faction known as the Buyid dynasty (934–1062). Since much of the Abbasid administration had been Persian anyway, the Buyids were quietly able to assume real power in Baghdad. The Buyids were defeated in the mid-11th century by the Seljuq Turks, who continued to exert influence over the Abbasids, while publicly pledging allegiance to them. The balance of power in Baghdad remained as such – with the Abbasids in power in name only – until the Mongol invasion of 1258 sacked the city and definitively ended the Abbasid dynasty. During the Abbassid period an enfranchisement was experienced by the mawali and a shift was made in political conception from that of a primarily Arab empire to one of a Muslim empire and c. 930 a requirement was enacted that required all bureaucrats of the empire be Muslim.
Islamic golden age, Shu'ubiyya movement and Persianization process: Although Persians adopted the religion of their conquerors, over the centuries they worked to protect and revive their distinctive language and culture, a process known as Persianization. Arabs and Turks participated in this attempt. In the 9th and 10th c., non-Arab subjects of the Ummah created a movement called Shu'ubiyyah in response to the privileged status of Arabs. Most of those behind the movement were Persian, but references to Egyptians, Berbers and Aramaeans are attested. Citing as its basis Islamic notions of equality of races and nations, the movement was primarily concerned with preserving Persian culture and protecting Persian identity, though within a Muslim context. The most notable effect of the movement was the survival of the Persian language to the present day. The most important scholars of almost all of the Islamic sects and schools of thought were Persian or lived in Iran.
Persianate states and dynasties (977–1219): In 977 a Turkic governor of the Samanids, Sabuktigin, conquered Ghazna (in present-day Afghanistan) and established a dynasty, the Ghaznavids, that lasted to 1186. The Ghaznavid empire grew by taking all of the Samanid territories south of the Amu Darya in the last decade of the 10th century, and eventually occupied parts of Eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwest India. The Seljuqs, who like the Ghaznavids were Persianate in nature and of Turkic origin, slowly conquered Iran over the course of the 11th century. The dynasty had its origins in the Turcoman tribal confederations of Central Asia and marked the beginning of Turkic power in the Middle East. They established a Sunni Muslim rule over parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries. They set up an empire known as Great Seljuq Empire that stretched from Anatolia in the west to western Afghanistan in the east and the western borders of (modern-day) China in the northeast; and was the target of the First Crusade. Today they are regarded as the cultural ancestors of the Western Turks, the present-day inhabitants of Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan, and they are remembered as great patrons of Persian culture, art, literature, and language.
Mongol invasion (1219–1221): The Mongol invasion of Iran began in 1219, after two diplomatic missions to Khwarezm sent by Genghis Khan had been massacred. During 1220–21 Bukhara, Samarkand, Herat, Tus and Nishapur were razed, and the whole populations were slaughtered. The Khwarezm-Shah fled, to die on an island off the Caspian coast. During the invasion of Transoxania in 1219, along with the main Mongol force, Genghis Khan used a Chinese specialist catapult unit in battle, they were used again in 1220 in Transoxania. The Chinese may have used the catapults to hurl gunpowder bombs, since they already had them by this time. While Genghis Khan was conquering Transoxania and Persia, several Chinese who were familiar with gunpowder were serving in Genghis's army. "Whole regiments" entirely made out of Chinese were used by the Mongols to command bomb hurling trebuchets during the invasion of Iran. Historians have suggested that the Mongol invasion had brought Chinese gunpowder weapons to Central Asia. One of these was the huochong, a Chinese mortar. Books written around the area afterward depicted gunpowder weapons which resembled those of China. The Mongols killed many Iranian civilians. Destruction of qanat irrigation systems destroyed the pattern of relatively continuous settlement, producing numerous isolated oasis cities in a land where they had previously been rare. A large number of people, particularly males, were killed; between 1220 and 1258, the total population of Iran may have dropped from 2,500,000 to 250,000 as a result of mass extermination, emigration and famine.
Ilkhanate (1256–1335): Hulagu Khan seized Baghdad in 1258 and put the last Abbasid caliph to death. The westward advance of his forces was stopped by the Mamelukes, however, at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine in 1260. Hulagu's campaigns against the Muslims also enraged Berke, khan of the Golden Horde and a convert to Islam. Hulagu and Berke fought against each other, demonstrating the weakening unity of the Mongol empire. The rule of Hulagu's great-grandson, Ghazan Khan (1295–1304) saw the establishment of Islam as the state religion of the Ilkhanate. Ghazan and his famous Iranian vizier, Rashid al-Din, brought Iran a partial and brief economic revival. The Mongols lowered taxes for artisans, encouraged agriculture, rebuilt and extended irrigation works, and improved the safety of the trade routes. As a result, commerce increased dramatically. The mid-14th-century Black Death killed about 30% of the country's population.
Sunnism and Shiism in pre-Safavid Iran: The main change occurred in the beginning of the 16th century, when Ismail I founded the Safavid dynasty and initiated a religious policy to recognize Shi'a Islam as the official religion of the Safavid Empire, and the fact that modern Iran remains an officially Shi'ite state is a direct result of Ismail's actions.
Timurid Empire (1370–1507): After establishing a power base in Transoxiana, Timur invaded Iran in 1381 and eventually conquered most of it. Timur's campaigns were known for their brutality; many people were slaughtered and several cities were destroyed. His successors, the Timurids, maintained a hold on most of Iran until 1452, when they lost the bulk of it to Black Sheep Turkmen. The Black Sheep Turkmen were conquered by the White Sheep Turkmen under Uzun Hasan in 1468; Uzun Hasan and his successors were the masters of Iran until the rise of the Safavids.
Early modern era (1502–1925): Persia underwent a revival under the Safavid dynasty (1502–1736), the most prominent figure of which was Shah Abbas I. Some historians credit the Safavid dynasty for founding the modern nation-state of Iran.
Safavid Iran was one of the Islamic "gunpowder empires", along with its neighbours, its archrival and principal enemy the Ottoman Empire, as well as the Mughal Empire. As Encyclopedia Iranica states, for Tahmãsp, the problem circled around the military tribal elite of the empire, the Qezelbāš, who believed that physical proximity to and control of a member of the immediate Safavid family guaranteed spiritual advantages, political fortune, and material advancement. With this new Caucasian layer in Iranian society, the indisputed might of the Qizilbash (who functioned much like the ghazis of the neighboring Ottoman Empire) would be questioned and fully diminished as society would become fully meritocratic. Between 1616–1618, following the disobedience of his most loyal Georgian subjects Teimuraz I and Luarsab II, Abbas carried out a punitive campaign in his territories of Georgia, devastating Kakheti and Tbilisi and carrying away 130,000 – 200,000 Georgian captives towards mainland Iran. His new army, which had dramatically been improved with the advent of Robert Shirley and his brothers following the first diplomatic mission to Europe, pitted the first crushing victory over the Safavids' archrivals, the Ottomans in the abovementioned 1603–1618 war and would surpass the Ottomans in military strength. He also used his new force to dislodge the Portuguese from Bahrain (1602) and Hormuz (1622) with aid of the English navy, in the Persian Gulf. The Safavid dynasty had already established itself during Shah Ismail I, but under Abbas I it really became a major power in the world along its archrival the Ottoman Empire, against whom it became able to compete with on equal foot. It also started the promotion of tourism in Iran. Under their rule Persian Architecture flowered again and saw many new monuments in various Iranian cities, of which Isfahan is the most notable example. Except for Shah Abbas the Great, Shah Ismail I, Shah Tahmasp I, and Shah Abbas II, many of the Safavid rulers were ineffectual, often being more interested in their women, alcohol and other leisure activities. The end of Abbas II' reign in 1666, marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. Despite falling revenues and military threats, many of the later shahs had lavish lifestyles. Shah Soltan Hosain (1694–1722) in particular was known for his love of wine and disinterest in governance. In 1722, Peter the Great of neighbouring Imperial Russia launched the Russo-Persian War (1722-1723), capturing many of Iran's Caucasian territories, including Derbent, Shaki, Baku, but also Gilan, Mazandaran and Astrabad. At the mids of all chaos, in the same year 1722 an Afghan army led by Mir Wais' son Mahmud marched across eastern Iran, besieged and took Isfahan. Mahmud proclaimed himself 'Shah' of Persia. Meanwhile, Persia's imperial rivals, the Ottomans and the Russians, took advantage of the chaos in the country to seize more territory for themselves. By these events, the Safavid dynasty had effectively ended. In 1724, conform the Treaty of Constantinople, the Ottomans and the Russians agreed to divide the newly conquered territories of Iran amongst themselves.
Nader Shah and his successors
Migration of Caucasian Muslims
Constitutional Revolution and deposement
Pahlavi era (1925–1979)
Reza Shah (1925–1941)
WWII: Allies invaded in August 1941, and easily overwhelmed the weak Iranian army in Operation Countenance. Iran became the major conduit of Allied Land-Lease aid to USSR. The purpose was to secure Iranian oil fields and ensure Allied supply lines (see Persian Corridor) . Iran remained officially neutral. Its monarch Rezā Shāh was deposed during the subsequent occupation and replaced with his young son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. When the war actually ended, Soviet troops stationed in northwestern Iran not only refused to withdraw but backed revolts that established short-lived, pro-Soviet separatist national states in the northern regions of Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan, the Azerbaijan People's Government and the Republic of Kurdistan respectively, in late 1945. Soviet troops did not withdraw from Iran proper until May 1946 after receiving a promise of oil concessions. The Soviet republics in the north were soon overthrown and the oil concessions were revoked.
Mohammad-Reza Shah (1941–1979): In 1951 Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq received the vote required from the parliament to nationalize the British-owned oil industry, in a situation known as the Abadan Crisis. Despite British pressure, including an economic blockade, the nationalization continued.
1953: U.S. organized coup removes Mosaddeq: Iran was ruled as an autocracy under the shah with American support from that time until the revolution. The Iranian government entered into agreement with an international consortium of foreign companies which ran the Iranian oil facilities for the next 25 years splitting profits fifty-fifty with Iran but not allowing Iran to audit their accounts or have members on their board of directors. In early June 1963 several days of massive rioting occurred in support of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini following the cleric's arrest for a speech attacking the shah.
Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic (1979): The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, was the revolution that transformed Iran from an absolute monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, one of the leaders of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic. Its time span can be said to have begun in January 1978 with the first major demonstrations, and concluded with the approval of the new theocratic Constitution—whereby Ayatollah Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country—in 1979.12. The final collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty occurred shortly after on February 11 when Iran's military declared itself "neutral" after guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on 1979.04.01, when Iranians overwhelmingly approved a national referendum to make it so.
Ideology of the 1979 Iranian Revolution: Iran's rapidly modernising, capitalist economy was replaced by populist and Islamic economic and cultural policies. Much industry was nationalized, laws and schools Islamicized, and Western influences banned.
Khomeini Takes Power (1979–1989): The consolidation lasted until 1982–3, as Iran coped with the damage to its economy, military, and apparatus of government, and protests and uprisings by secularists, leftists, and more traditional Muslims—formerly ally revolutionaries but now rivals—were effectively suppressed. Many political opponents were executed by the new regimes. Following the events of the revolution, Marxist guerrillas and federalist parties revolted in some regions comprising Khuzistan, Kurdistan and Gonbad-e Qabus, which resulted in severe fighting between rebels and revolutionary forces.
Iran hostage crisis (1979–1981)
Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988): 1980.09.22 the Iraqi army invaded Iran at Khuzestan, precipitating the Iran–Iraq War. The attack took revolutionary Iran completely by surprise.
Rule Under Khamenei (1989–present): On his deathbed in 1989, Khomeini appointed a 25-man Constitutional Reform Council which named then president Ali Khamenei as the next Supreme Leader, and made a number of changes to Iran's constitution.
2013 presidential election and improving US–Iran relations (2013–present): On 15 June 2013, Hassan Rouhani won the presidential election in Iran in landslide 50.88%, turnout 72.77%. 2015.04.02 following eight days of tortuous discussions in Switzerland, which lasted through the night to Thursday, Iran and six world powers agreed on the outlines of an understanding to limit Iran's nuclear programs, negotiators indicated, as both sides prepared for announcements. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted: "Found solutions. Ready to start drafting immediately."
Name of Iran: in the Western world, Persia (or its cognates) was historically the common name for Iran. In 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates to use the term Iran (the historical name of the country, used by its native people, similar to natives of Greece referring to their country by the Greek name for it, Hellas) in formal correspondence. Since then, in the Western World, the use of the word "Iran" has become more common. Etymology: Greeks (who tended earlier to use names related to "Median") began in the fifth century BC to use adjectives such as Perses, Persica or Persis for Cyrus the Great's empire (a word meaning "country" being understood).
1979 Khuzestan insurgency: one of the nationwide uprisings in Iran, which erupted in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. The unrest was fed by Arab demands for autonomy. The uprising was effectively quelled by Iranian security forces, resulting in more than a hundred people on both sides killed.
Iranian Embassy siege (1980.04.30-05.05): after a group of six armed men stormed the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, London. The gunmen, members of Arabs of KSA group campaigning for Arab national sovereignty in the southern Iranian region of Khuzestan Province, took 26 people hostage, mostly embassy staff, but also several visitors, as well as a police officer who had been guarding the embassy. They demanded the release of Arab prisoners from prisons in Khuzestan and their own safe passage out of the United Kingdom. Shortly afterwards, SAS soldiers abseiled from the roof of the building and forced entry through the windows. During the 17-minute raid, they rescued all but one of the remaining hostages, and killed five of the six hostage-takers.
Persianization: sociological process of cultural change in which something non-Persian becomes Persianate society; specific form of cultural assimilation that often includes linguistic assimilation. Historically, the term was commonly applied to changes in the culture of non-Iranian peoples living within the Iranian cultural sphere, especially during the early- and middle-Islamic periods such as Arabs, and various Caucasian (such as Georgian, Armenian, and Dagestani), and Turkic peoples including the Seljuqs, Ottomans, and Ghaznavids.
Persianate society (Persified society): society that is either based on, or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art, and/or identity. Vessels of Persianate culture: Persian poetry (Sufi poetry), Shi'ism, Persian painting, Persian music, Iranian celebrations.
Shahnameh: long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between 977 and 1010; national epic of Greater Iran and Iran.
Turco-Persian tradition (Turco-Iranian tradition): distinctive culture that arose in the 9th and 10th centuries in Khorasan and Transoxiana (present-day Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, minor parts of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan). It was Persianate in that it was centered on a lettered tradition of Iranian origin and it was Turkic insofar as it was founded by and for many generations patronized by rulers of Turkic heredity. In subsequent centuries, the Turco-Persian culture would be carried on further by the conquering peoples to neighbouring regions, eventually becoming the predominant culture of the ruling and elite classes of South Asia (Indian Subcontinent), Central Asia and Tarim basin (Northwest China) and large parts of West Asia (Middle East). Turkic-Persian tradition was a variant of Islamic culture. It was Islamic in that Islamic notions of virtue, permanence, and excellence infused discourse about public issues as well as the religious affairs of the Muslims, who were the presiding elite.
Language: Middle Persian was a lingua franca of the region before the Arab invasion, but afterwards Arabic became a preferred medium of literary expression. Instrumental in the spread of the Persian language as a common language along the Silk Road between China and Parthia in the second century BCE. In the 9th c. a new Persian language emerged as the idiom of administration and literature. Tahirids and Saffarids continued using Persian as an informal language, although for them Arabic was the "only proper language for recording anything worthwhile, from poetry to science", but the Samanids made Persian a language of learning and formal discourse. The language that appeared in the 9th and 10th c. was a new form of Persian, based on the Middle Persian of pre-Islamic times, but enriched by ample Arabic vocabulary and written in Arabic script.
Historical outline: Early Turkic-Iranian interactions. Beginning of the Turco-Persian symbiosis. Spread of Turco-Persian tradition: Turco-Persian Islamic culture that emerged under the Persianate Samanids, Ghaznavids, and Kara-Khanids was carried by succeeding dynasties into Western and Southern Asia, in particular, by the Seljuks (1040-1118), and their successor states, who presided over Persia, Syria, and Anatolia until the thirteenth century, and by the Ghaznavids, who in the same period dominated Greater Khorasan and most of present-day Pakistan. These two dynasties together drew the center of the Islamic world eastward. The institutions stabilized Islamic society into a form that would persist, at least in Western Asia, until 20th c. Through the centuries: culture of the Turco-Persian world in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries was tested by invading armies of inland Asia. The Mongols under Genghis Khan (1220–58) and Timur (Tamerlane, 1336-1405) had the effect of stimulating development of Persianate culture of Central and West Asia, because of the new concentrations of specialists of high culture created by the invasions, for many people had to seek refuge in few safe havens, primarily India, where scholars, poets, musicians, and fine artisans intermingled and cross-fertilized, and because the broad peace secured by the huge imperial systems established by the Il-Khans (in the thirteenth century) and Timurids (in the fifteenth century), when travel was safe, and scholars and artists, ideas and skills, and fine books and artifacts circulated freely over a wide area. Il-Khans and Timurids deliberately patronized Persianate high culture. Under their rule developed new styles of architecture, Persian literature was encouraged, and flourished miniature painting and book production, and under Timurids prospered Turkic poetry, based on the vernacular known as Chaghatai (today called Uzbek; of Turkic Qarluq origin). In that period the Turco-Persian culture of India prospered. Mamluk guards, mostly Turks and Mongols, along with Persians (now known as Tajiks), Khaljis and Afghans, dominated India from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, ruling as Sultans in Delhi. Their society was enriched by influx of Islamic scholars, historians, architects, musicians, and other specialists of high Persianate culture that fled the Mongol devastations of Transoxiana and Khurasan. After the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, Delhi became the most important cultural center of the Muslim east. The Delhi Sultans modeled their life-styles after the Turkic and Persian upper classes, who now predominated in most of Western and Central Asia. In Mongol and Timurid times the predominant influences on Turco-Persian culture were imposed from Central Asia, and in this period Turco-Persian culture became sharply distinguishable from the Arabic Islamic world to the west, the dividing zone fell along Euphrates. Socially, the Turco-Persian world was marked by a system of ethnologically defined elite statuses: the rulers and their soldiery were Turkic or Turkic-speaking Mongols; the administrative cadres and literati were Persian. Cultural affairs were marked by characteristic pattern of language use: New Persian was the language of state affairs and literature; New Persian and Arabic the languages of scholarship; Arabic the language of adjudication; and Turkic the language of the military. In the 16th c. arose the Turko-Persian empires of the Ottomans in Asia Minor and South Eastern Europe, Safavids in Persia, and Mughals in India. Thus, from 16th to the 18th centuries the territories from South Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Asia Minor to East Bengal were dominated by Turco-Persian dynasties.
Indo-Persian culture: refers to those Persian aspects that have been integrated into or absorbed into the culture of the Indian subcontinent, and in particular, into North India and modern-day Pakistan. After the invasion of Persia, and sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, Delhi became the most important cultural centre of the Muslim east. The Delhi Sultans modelled their lifestyles after the Persian upper classes. The Taj Mahal and its Charbagh were commissioned by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his half-Iranian bride. {q.v. #South Asia, Indian subcontinent}
Fall of the Sasanian Empire: Sasanian era is one of the most influential periods in Iran's history. It also marks the third rise of a great Iranian empire, a dynasty that rivaled its predecessor, the Achaemenids, who too, like the Sassanids, were native to the province of Pars, and in some instances the Parthians, in glory and power. Although it fought many campaigns against the Romans/Byzantines in the west and the nomadic people in the east and north, the Sasanian Empire met its demise not by the Byzantine-Roman Empire, but by emerging Arab Muslims from across its southern borders. However, the conflict with the Byzantines greatly contributed to its weakness, by draining Sassanid resources, leaving it a prime target for the Muslims.
Sasanian civil war of 628-632 (Sasanian Interregnum): conflict that broke out after the death of Khosrau II between the Sasanian nobles of different factions. These factions included the Pahlav (Parthian) faction, the Parsig (Persian) faction, the Nimruzi faction, and the faction of Shahrbaraz. Rapid turnover of rulers and increasing provincial landholder power further diminished the Sasanians.
{q.v. Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, Muslim conquest of Persia}
Safavid dynasty (1501–1736): one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Persia (modern Iran) after the fall of the Sasanian Empire - following the Muslim conquest of Persia in 7th c. and "is often considered the beginning of modern Persian history".
1921 Persian coup d'état : In late 1920, the Persian Soviet Socialist Republic in Rasht was preparing to march on Tehran with "a guerrilla force of 1,500 Jangalis, Kurds, Armenians and Azerbaijanis", reinforced by the Bolsheviks' Red Army. By 1921, the ruling Qajar dynasty of Iran (at that time also known as Persia) had become corrupt and inefficient. The oil-rich nation was somewhat reliant on the nations of Britain and Russia for military and economic support. Civil wars earlier in the decade had threatened the government, and the only regular military force at the time was the Cossack Brigade. On 14 January 1921, the British General Ironside chose to promote Reza Khan, who had been leading the Tabriz battalion, to lead the entire brigade. About a month later, under British direction, Reza Khan's 3,000-4,000 strong detachment of the Cossack Brigade reached Tehran. Rezā Khan was placed on the throne by the British in 1926, and many of those involved in the coup were either killed or put in prison.
Iran crisis of 1946 (Azerbaijan Crisis; 1945.11-1946.12.15): one of the first crises of the Cold War, sparked by the refusal of Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union to relinquish occupied Iranian territory, despite repeated assurances. The end of World War II should have resulted in the end of the Allied joint occupation of Iran. Instead, pro-Soviet Iranians proclaimed the separatist Azerbaijan People's Government and the Kurdish separatist Republic of Mahabad. The United States pressure on USSR to withdraw is the earliest evidence of success with the new strategy of Truman Doctrine and containment. Azerbaijan People's Government. Kurdish Republic of Mahabad. Diplomatic pressure and support. Cold War: This conflict was one of the first episodes of the Cold War outside Europe, and was a factor in the evolving and increasingly contentious political relationship between the United States and USSR, which followed their joint victory in WWII. According to Lenczowski, USA President Truman's actions laid the foundations of USA relations with Iran, and were based on his understanding of the nature of the Soviet system and its expansionist proclivities, as well as on his conviction that Soviet threats and aggression should be contained, with force if necessary.
USSR's refusal to relinquish occupied Iranian territory, despite repeated assurances (Teheran Conference in 1943). Republic of Mahabad; Negotiation by Iranian premier Ahmad Qavam and diplomatic pressure on the Soviets by the United States eventually led to Soviet withdrawal.
1953 Iranian coup d'état: elected gov. was overthrown with the help and organization by MI6 (UK) and CIA (USA). Anti-Western sentiment in Iran.
Mohammad Mosaddegh (1882.06.16–1967.03.05): Iranian politician. He was the head of a democratically elected government, holding office as the Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 until 1953, when his government was overthrown in a coup d'état. An author, administrator, lawyer, and prominent parliamentarian, his administration introduced a range of progressive social and political reforms such as social security and land reforms, including taxation of the rent on land. His government's most notable policy, however, was the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, which had been under British control since 1913 through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP). Many Iranians regard Mosaddegh as the leading champion of secular democracy and resistance to foreign domination in Iran's modern history.
Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs (1971.11.30): by the Imperial Iranian Navy, shortly after the withdrawal of British forces from the islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, all located in the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The Imperial State of Iran had claimed sovereignty over both sets of islands, while the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah claimed the Greater and Lesser Tunbs and the Emirate of Sharjah claimed Abu Musa. Following the seizure of the islands by Iran, both the emirates of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah acceded to the newly formed United Arab Emirates, doing so in 1971.12.02 and 1972.02.10, respectively, causing the United Arab Emirates to inherit the territorial dispute with Iran over the islands.
Iranian Revolution (1978.01 – 1979.02; Islamic Revolution): series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the replacement of his government with an Islamic republic under the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a leader of one of the factions in the revolt. The revolution was supported by various leftist and Islamist organizations.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (sepah): branch of Iran's Armed Forces founded after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.05.05. Whereas the regular military (or Artesh) was constitutionally mandated to defend Iran's borders and maintain internal order, the IRGC was mandated to protect the country's Islamic nature. The Revolutionary Guards state that their role in protecting the Islamic system is preventing foreign interference as well as coups by the military or "deviant movements".
Bonyad: charitable trusts in Iran that play a major role in Iran's non-petroleum economy, controlling an estimated 20% of Iran's GDP, and channeling revenues to groups supporting the Islamic Republic. Exempt from taxes, they have been called "bloated", and "a major weakness of Iran’s economy", and criticized for reaping "huge subsidies from government", while siphoning off production to the lucrative black market and providing limited and inadequate charity to the poor.
Iranian Reformists: political faction in Iran that support former President Mohammad Khatami's plans to change the Iranian political system to include more freedom and democracy. Iran's "reform era" is sometimes said to have lasted from 1997 to 2005—the length of Khatami's two terms in office. The movement began with the 1997.05.23 surprise victory of Mohammad Khatami, "a little known cleric", to the presidency on with almost 70% of the vote. Khatami's win was credited largely to the votes of women and youth who voted for him because he promised to improve the status of women and respond to the demands of the younger generation in Iran.
Quds Force: unit in Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) directed to carry out unconventional warfare and intelligence activities and is responsible for extraterritorial operations. The Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Yemeni Houthis, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Analysts do not know the Quds' exact size, but estimate 10,000–20,000 members. The Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei. It was commanded by Major General Qasem Soleimani until he was killed by a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport 2020.01.03.
Evin Prison: in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Due to the number of intellectuals that the prison housed, it was nicknamed "Evin University".
History of Rome: has been among the most influential to the modern world, from supporting the tradition of the rule by law to influencing the Founding Fathers of USA to the creation of the Catholic church. Ancient Rome: Legend of Rome, City's formation, Italic context; Etruscan dominance; Roman Republic; Roman Empire: Early Empire, Crisis of the Third Century, Christianization, Germanic invasions and collapse of the Western Empire, Barbarian and Byzantine rule. Medieval Rome: Break with Byzantium and formation of the Papal States, Formation of the Holy Roman Empire, Roman Commune, Guelphs and Ghibellines, Boniface VIII and the Babylonian captivity, Cola di Rienzo and the Pope's return to Rome, Western schism and conflict with Milan. Renaissance Rome. Early modern history: Sack of Rome (1527), Counter-Reformation, Baroque period. Modern history: Italian unification, Kingdom of Italy, Capital of the Italian Republic.
Ostrogothic Papacy (493 to 537): papacy was strongly influenced by the Ostrogothic Kingdom, if the pope was not outright appointed by the Ostrogothic King. The selection and administration of popes during this period was strongly influenced by Theodoric the Great and his successors Athalaric and Theodahad. According to Howorth, "the Gothic kings meddled considerably in the selection of the new popes and largely dominated their election. Simony prevailed to a scandalous extent"
Byzantine Papacy: period of Byzantine domination of the Roman papacy from 537 to 752, when popes required the approval of the Byzantine Emperor for episcopal consecration, and many popes were chosen from the apocrisiarii (liaisons from the pope to the emperor) or the inhabitants of Byzantine-ruled Greece, Syria, or Sicily. With the exception of Pope Martin I, no pope during this period questioned the authority of the Byzantine monarch to confirm the election of the bishop of Rome before consecration could occur; however, theological conflicts were common between pope and emperor in the areas such as monothelitism and iconoclasm. Greek-speakers from Greece, Syria, and Sicily replaced members of the powerful Roman nobles in the papal chair during this period. Rome under the Greek popes constituted a "melting pot" of Western and Eastern Christian traditions, reflected in art as well as liturgy. Monothelitism conflict (638–654). Reconciliation (654–678). The Greek Popes (678–752): Iconoclasm dispute.
Frankish Papacy (756 to 857): papacy shifted from the orbit of the Byzantine Empire to that of the kings of the Franks. Pepin the Short (ruled 751–768), Charlemagne (r. 768–814) (co-ruler with his brother Carloman I until 771), and Louis the Pious (r. 814-840) had considerable influence in the selection and administration of popes. This shift was initiated by the Lombards conquering the Exarchate of Ravenna from the Byzantines, strengthened by the Frankish triumph over the Lombards, and ended by the fragmentation of the Frankish Kingdom into West Francia, Middle Francia, and East Francia. Pepin the Short, Charlemagne, Louis the Pious.
Ravenna: History: Ravenna consisted of houses built on piles on a series of small islands in a marshy lagoon – a situation similar to Venice several centuries later. The Romans ignored it during their conquest of the Po River Delta, but later accepted it into the Roman Republic as a federated town in 89 BC. In 49 BC, it was the location where Julius Caesar gathered his forces before crossing the Rubicon. Later, after his battle against Mark Antony in 31 BC, Emperor Augustus founded the military harbor of Classe. Nowadays the city is landlocked, but Ravenna remained an important seaport on the Adriatic until the early Middle Ages. Ravenna greatly prospered under Roman rule. In AD 402, Emperor Honorius transferred the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Milan to Ravenna. At that time it was home to 50,000 people. Theodoric took Ravenna in 493, supposedly slew Odoacer with his own hands, and Ravenna became the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy. Exarchate of Ravenna. Middle Ages and Renaissance: The Lombards, under King Liutprand, occupied Ravenna in 712, but were forced to return it to the Byzantines. However, in 751 the Lombard king, Aistulf, succeeded in conquering Ravenna, thus ending Byzantine rule in northern Italy. Ravenna then gradually came under the direct authority of the Popes, although this was contested by the archbishops at various times. Pope Adrian I authorized Charlemagne to take away anything from Ravenna that he liked, and an unknown quantity of Roman columns, mosaics, statues, and other portable items were taken north to enrich his capital of Aachen. One of the most illustrious residents of Ravenna at this time was the exiled poet Dante. The last of the Da Polenta, Ostasio III, was ousted by the Republic of Venice in 1440, and the city was annexed to the Venetian territories. Ravenna was ruled by Venice until 1509, when the area was invaded in the course of the Italian Wars. Apart from another short occupation by Venice (1527–1529), Ravenna was part of the Papal States until 1796, when it was annexed to the French puppet state of the Cisalpine Republic, (Italian Republic from 1802, and Kingdom of Italy from 1805). It was returned to the Papal States in 1814. Occupied by Piedmontese troops in 1859, Ravenna and the surrounding Romagna area became part of the new unified Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
Classe, ancient port of Ravenna: was located 4 km east south east from Ravenna. For almost five hundred years it was an important strategic military port. When it was not being used as a military port, it was an important commercial port for the imperial capital of Ravenna in the Roman Empire. Classe comes from the Latin word classis, meaning fleet. Augustus may have chosen this site because of its strategic position. The area in which Augustus wanted to construct Classe was in a lagoon. It was impregnable from land and surrounded by marshes. The base was artificially constructed in this lagoon. Unlike the ports of Portus or Ostia, Classe did not feature a hexagonal basin. Instead the base installations were built on stilts. Due to the crisis of the third century, Ravenna and the port began to decline. The city of Ravenna was sacked at least twice in the 250s and 260s, and the harbor was no longer maintained; it started drying out and began filling with silt. Despite this, as early as 306, Roman emperors started staying at Ravenna in order to watch the harbor to see if any enemies were close. When Ravenna was chosen as an official western imperial capital in 402, Classe became more prosperous than ever, and the residential area to the south of the harbor was surrounded by a wall in the late 4th century A vital part of the royal administration was its grain warehouse and distribution. Christian presence. By 69 the Classe fleet had five thousand ships. By 324 the western “Augustan navy” was gone. The eastern part of the Roman Empire understood how important Classe was as a military port. However, between 383 and 450 the standing fleet disappeared. The Classe that Theodoric inherited was no longer a first class military port. Part of the harbor was completely dried up; however, Theodoric worked to repair the harbor and port. Despite this renovation, the port was no longer an important military naval outpost. In fact Classe was taken off of the formal army register. Instead, the port became an important commercial port for all of northern Italy. Justinian, understanding the strategic importance of Classe, once again refurbished the harbor. Classe became the second most important port after Constantinople. Classe in the early 6th century became a prosperous cosmopolitan naval and trading center. During the late 6th century, the barbarian group known as the Lombards invaded Ravenna and plundered Classe in 579.
Ancient Greek colonies and their dialect groupings in Southern Italy
History of Taranto: Taranto was founded in 706 BC by Dorian immigrants as the only Spartan colony, and its origin is peculiar: the founders were Partheniae, sons of unmarried Spartan women and perioeci (free men, but not citizens of Sparta); these unions were decreed by the Spartans to increase the number of soldiers (only the citizens of Sparta could become soldiers) during the bloody First Messenian War, but later they were nullified, and the sons were forced to leave. Wars against Rome: First confrontations; Pyrrhic War: Rome sent diplomats to Taranto, but the talks were broken off by the Tarentines: the Roman ambassador, Postumius, was insulted and mocked by Philonides, a member of the popular party. The Senate declared war on Taranto, and the Tarentines decided to call for help from King Pyrrhus of Epirus. In 281 BC, Roman legions, under the command of Lucius Aemilius Barbula, entered Taranto and plundered it. Pyrrhus decided to help Taranto because he was in debt to them - they had earlier helped him conquer the island of Corcyra. He also knew that he could count on help from the Samnites, Lucanians, Bruttii, and some Illyrian tribes. His ultimate goal was to conquer Macedon, but he did not have enough money to recruit soldiers. Second Punic War: the Romans heavily garrisoned the city for fear that it might go over to Hannibal. Roman Republic and Empire. Roman and Lombard dominations. Arab domination: Taranto became an Arab stronghold and privileged harbour for forty years. It was from here that ships loaded with prisoners sailed to the Arab ports, where the prisoners were sold in the slave market. In the same 840, an Arab fleet left Taranto, defeated in the Gulf of Taranto a Venetian fleet of 60 ships, summoned by the emperor Theophilus, and entered the Adriatic sea, sacking the coastal cities. Third Roman rule: Taranto had no inhabitants, until the Roman re-conquest in 967. The Roman emperor Nicephorus II Phocas understood the importance of a strong military presence and harbour in southern Italy, and rebuilt the city. He added several military fortifications, and made Taranto a stronghold of Roman resistance against the uprising Norman power in south Italy. Norman conquest: The 11th century was characterized by a bloody struggle between Normans and Romans for the rule over the Tarentine and Bariot lands. Feudal Principality of Taranto (1088-1465). From Renaissance to Napoleon: In March 1502, the Spanish fleet of king Ferdinand II of Aragon, allied to Louis XII of France, seized the port and conquered Taranto. In 1504 King Ferdinand III valiantly defended this extremity of his kingdom, but had to cede it to the Spanish general Consalvo de Cordoba. After the defeat of Ferdinand IV of Naples at Monteregio and the subsequent Peace of Florence, in 1801 the French general Nicolas Soult occupied with 13,000 soldiers the provinces of Bari, Lecce and the harbour of Taranto. Napoleon wanted to build a stronghold to keep under pression the British base of Malta. On 23 April 1801, 6,000 French soldiers of the Armée d'observation du midi entered in Taranto (20.000 inhabitants at the time) and fortified it in order to obtain "a sort of Gibitrair" (Napoleon). 1860.09.09 Taranto became part of the temporary government founded by Giuseppe Garibaldi after his conquest of the Two Sicilies kingdom. In the following year, all Southern Italy was annexed to the Savoy dynasty's Kingdom of Piemonte-Sardinia, which became the Kingdom of Italy.
Italian states (Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, Late Middle Ages, After the Italian Wars, After the Wars of Succession of the 18th century, During Napoleonic times (1792–1815), From the Restoration to the Unification)
Italian city-states: numerous political and independent territorial entities that existed in the Italian Peninsula from the beginning of the Middle Ages until the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, which took place in 1861. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, urban settlements in Italy generally enjoyed a greater continuity than in the rest of western Europe. Many of these towns were survivors of earlier Etruscan, Umbrian and Roman towns which had existed within the Roman Empire. The republican institutions of Rome had also survived. Some feudal lords existed with a servile labour force and huge tracts of land, but by the 11th century, many cities, including Venice, Milan, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Cremona, Siena, Città di Castello, Perugia, and many others, had become large trading metropoles, able to obtain independence from their formal sovereigns.
List of historic states of Italy: Italy, up until the Italian unification in 1861, was a conglomeration of city-states, republics, and other independent entities.
Wars in Lombardy (1423–1454): series of conflicts between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan and their respective allies, fought in four campaigns in a struggle for hegemony in Northern Italy that ravaged the economy of Lombardy and weakened the power of Venice. During their course, the political structure of Italy was transformed: out of a competitive congeries of communes and city-states emerged the five major Italian territorial powers that would make up the map of Italy for the remainder of the 15th century and the beginning of the Italian Wars at the turn of the 16th century. They were Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States and Naples. Important cultural centers of Tuscany and Northern Italy—Siena, Pisa, Urbino, Mantua, Ferrara—became politically marginalized.
Pope Julius II (born: Giuliano della Rovere; 1443.12.05–1513.02.21; Papacy: 1503.11.01 - 1513.02.21): His papacy was marked by an active foreign policy, ambitious building projects, and patronage for the arts—he commissioned the destruction and rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, plus Michelangelo's decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Italian Wars (Great Italian Wars; Great Wars of Italy; Habsburg–Valois Wars; the Renaissance Wars. 1494–1559): series of conflicts that involved, at various times, most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, most of the major states of Western Europe (France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, and Scotland) as well as the Ottoman Empire. Originally arising from dynastic disputes over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples, the wars rapidly became a general struggle for power and territory among their various participants, and were marked with an increasing number of alliances, counter-alliances, and betrayals.
Map shows the location of the maritime republics and their ancient coats of arms.
Maritime republics (Italian: repubbliche marinare): of the Mediterranean Basin were thalassocratic city-states which flourished in Italy and Dalmatia during the Middle Ages. Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi; Ragusa (Dubrovnik), Gaeta, Ancona, Noli.
Map of the states in the Italian Peninsula in the year 1789, including microstates.
Republic of Venice (697-1797): sovereign state and maritime republic in northeastern Italy; based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice, and was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Venetian city state was founded as a safe haven for the people escaping persecution in mainland Europe after the decline of the Roman Empire. In its early years, it prospered on the salt trade. In subsequent centuries, the city state established a thalassocracy. The city was also the birthplace of great European explorers, especially Marco Polo, as well as Baroque composers such as Vivaldi and Benedetto Marcello. The republic was ruled by the Doge, who was elected by members of the Great Council of Venice, the city-state's parliament. The ruling class was an oligarchy of merchants and aristocrats. Venice and other Italian maritime republics played a key role in fostering capitalism. Venetian citizens generally supported the system of governance. The city-state enforced strict laws and employed ruthless tactics in its prisons. The city state suffered defeats from the navy of the Ottoman Empire. In 1797, the republic was plundered by retreating Austrian and then French forces, following an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte
Dogado (Duchy of Venice): homeland of the Republic of Venice, headed by the Doge. It comprised the city of Venice and the narrow coastal strip from Loreo to Grado, though these borders later extended from Goro to the south, Polesine and Padovano to the west, Trevisano and Friuli to the north and the mouth of the Isonzo to the east.
Stato da Màr (992–1797): name given to the Republic of Venice's maritime and overseas possessions, including Istria, Dalmatia, Albania, Negroponte, the Morea (the "Kingdom of the Morea"), the Aegean islands of the Duchy of the Archipelago, and the islands of Crete (the "Kingdom of Candia") and Cyprus. The creation of Venice's overseas empire began around 1000 AD with the conquest of Dalmatia and reached its greatest nominal extent at the conclusion of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, with declaration of the acquisition of three octaves of the Byzantine Empire. Later on, under increasing pressure from the Ottoman Empire, further residual territories were lost and re-organised until only Istria, Dalmatia, Corfu and the Ionian Islands (Venetian Ionian Islands) were left when the Republic fell to Napoleon in 1797.
Domini di Terraferma (1433–1797): name given to the hinterland territories of the Republic of Venice beyond the Adriatic coast in Northeast Italy.
Venetian Arsenal (Arsenale di Venezia; Opening date 1104): complex of former shipyards and armories clustered together in the city of Venice in northern Italy. Owned by the state, the Arsenal was responsible for the bulk of the Venetian republic's naval power from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period. It was "one of the earliest large-scale industrial enterprises in history".
Venetian arsenal, Gouvia: shipyard built by the Republic of Venice during their rule over the island of Corfu. It was located on the west side of what used to be called "Govino Bay", the current location of the modern village of Gouvia. The arsenal was built in 1716 as part of defenses against the Ottomans. It was abandoned by the Venetians in 1798, when the Venetian Republic ceased to exist.
Venetian navy (Armada): navy of the Venetian Republic which played an important role in the history of the republic and the Mediterranean world. It was the premier navy in the Mediterranean Sea for many centuries between the medieval and early modern periods, providing Venice with control and influence over trade and politics far in excess of the republic's size and population. It was one of the first navies to mount gunpowder weapons aboard ships, and through an organised system of naval dockyards, armouries and chandlers was able to continually keep ships at sea and rapidly replace losses. The Venetian Arsenal was one of the greatest concentrations of industrial capacity prior to the Industrial Revolution and responsible for the bulk of the republic's naval power. Driven at first by a rivalry with the Byzantine Empire, and later the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa for primacy over trade with the Levant, the Venetian navy was at times technically innovative and yet operationally conservative. With the final fall of Constantinople it played a key role in checking the maritime advance of the Ottoman Empire for over three centuries. The navy's long decline mirrored that of the republic, beginning in the 16th c. and ending with the capitulation of the city to Napoleon in 1797.
Niccolò and Maffeo Polo (Niccolò (fl. 1252 - 1294) and Maffeo Polo (fl. 1252 - 1309)): father and uncle respectively of Marco Polo; merchants; 1st journey: Constantinople (when it was part of Latin Empire after the 4th Crusade in 1204) → Soldaia (Crimea, Golden Horde) → Sarai ("Old Sarai", "Sarai Batu/Berke") → Bukhara → Dadu (Beijing) → Europe (Venice & co); 2nd journey (with 17 year-old Marco Polo): Mongolia (Kanbaliq) → 17 years in China (Yuan) → 1291 escort Mongol pricess Kököchin (阔阔真) to Ilkhanate (Middle Mongolian-Persian-Turkic) → Trebizond → Venice.
Vitale II Michiel: Doge of Venice 1156-1172. Vitale Michiel became Doge of Venice at a time when Venice's relations with the Byzantine Empire were becoming increasingly strained. At the same time, on account of the growing profitability of mainland Italian markets, Venice was trying to remain on good terms with the Western Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa. But eventually, Venice was to come into conflict with both East and West.
Enrico Dandolo (c. 1107 – May/June 1205): Doge of Venice from 1192 until his death. He is remembered for his avowed piety, longevity, and shrewdness, and is known for his role in the Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. Dandolo died in 1205 in Constantinople and was buried at the Hagia Sophia. 1192.06.01, after Orio Mastropiero abdicated the throne, Dandolo became the new doge. He was the second doge to be chosen by a council of forty electors. Already aged and blind, but deeply ambitious, he displayed tremendous energy and mental capacity. The Crusaders arrived in Zara in November, the sheer size of their fleet intimidating the Zarans into near surrender. Dandolo gave the Zarans an ultimatum: either they leave the city right away or they would be killed. Confusion ensued, as Pope Innocent forbade the Crusade from settling this dispute unrelated to their original religious agenda, especially since the land was controlled by King Emeric of Hungary, who had himself participated in a crusade. Finally, Innocent threatened excommunication to anyone who antagonized the Zarans. The Crusaders attacked the city anyway, and it at last fell on 1202.11.24. All of the Venetian members of the Crusade were thus excommunicated (the French Crusaders had sent an envoy to the pope to ask for forgiveness), but Dandolo kept this a secret from them since he knew they would abandon the Crusade if they found out. The Crusaders thus took another detour to Constantinople, where the conquest and sack of Constantinople took place in 1204.04.12. During the looting, Dandolo had many items of value sent back to Venice, including the four Horses of St. Mark that decorate the Venetian cathedral to this day. When Constantinople fell, Dandolo understood that he needed to quickly restore stability to the empire to avoid disorder that could threaten Venice. Enrico Dandolo, was buried in Hagia Sophia.
Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands (1363–1797): overseas possession of the Republic of Venice. The conquest of the islands took place gradually. The first to be acquired was Cythera and the neighboring islet of Anticythera, indirectly in 1238 and directly after 1363. In 1386, Corfu voluntarily became part of Venice's colonies. A century later, Venice captured Zante in 1485, Cephalonia in 1500 and Ithaca in 1503. The conquest was completed in 1718 with the capture of Lefkada. Each of the islands remained part of the Venetian Stato da Màr until Napoleon Bonaparte dissolved the Republic of Venice in 1797, annexing Corfu. It is believed that the Venetian period on the Ionian Islands was agreeable, especially compared with the coinciding Tourkokratia — Turkish rule over the remainder of present-day Greece. The economy of the islands was based on exporting local goods, primarily raisins, olive oil and wine, whereas Venetian lira, the currency of Venice, was also the currency of the islands. Some features of the culture of Venice were incorporated in the culture of the Ionian Islands, thus influencing to this day local music, cuisine and language. The Venetian language, for instance, which was introduced on the islands as the official language and was adopted by the upper class, is still popular today throughout the islands.
Fall of the Republic of Venice: series of events that culminated in 1797.05.12 in the dissolution and dismemberment of the Republic of Venice at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte and Habsburg Austria. In 1796, the young general Napoleon had been sent by the newly-formed French Republic to confront Austria, as part of the French Revolutionary Wars. He chose to go through Venice, which was officially neutral. Reluctantly, the Venetians allowed the formidable French army to enter their country so that it might confront Austria. However, the French covertly began supporting Jacobin revolutionaries within Venice, and the Venetian senate began quietly preparing for war. The Venetian armed forces were depleted and hardly a match for the battle-hardened French or even a local uprising. After the capture of Mantua in 1797.02.02, the French dropped any pretext and overtly called for revolution among the territories of Venice. By 1797.03.13, there was open revolt, with Brescia and Bergamo breaking away. However, pro-Venetian sentiment remained high, and France was forced to reveal its true goals after it had provided military support to the underperforming revolutionaries.
Republic of Genoa (11th c.–1797; 1814.04 – 1815.01): medieval and early modern maritime republic in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the Late Middle Ages, it was a major commercial power in both the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Between the 16th and 17th c. it was one of the major financial centers in Europe. Throughout its history, the Genoese Republic established numerous colonies throughout the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, including Corsica from 1347 to 1768, Monaco, Southern Crimea from 1266 to 1475 and the islands of Lesbos and Chios from the 14th century to 1462 and 1566 respectively. With the arrival of the early modern period, the Republic had lost many of its colonies, and had to shift its interests and focus on banking. This decision would prove successful for Genoa, which remained as one of the hubs of capitalism, with highly developed banks and trading companies.
Genoese Gazaria (1266–1475): name given to the colonial possessions of the Republic of Genoa in Crimea and around the Black Sea coasts. The Genoese rule was represented by the Consul, and the capital of the Gazaria was the city of Kaffa (present-day Feodosia) in the Crimean peninsula. The name Gazaria derives from Khazaria, though the Khazars had ceased to rule over the area well before the Genoese arrived. The political premise of the establishment of the Gazaria colonies had been the Treaty of Nymphaeum of 1261, with which the Emperor of Nicaea granted the Genoese the exclusive right to trade in the "Mare Maius" (Black Sea). In 1308, the Mongols of the Golden Horde, commanded by the khan Toqta, conquered Caffa after a lengthy siege. Five years later, the Genoese managed to regain their colony from Toqtai's successor, Öz Beg Khan. In 1347, the Golden Horde, this time led by Jani Beg, again besieged Caffa. An anonymous chronicle tells that the besiegers would launch corpses of the dead defenders inside the city walls with catapults. These defenders had died of a disease that was spreading from the East, the Black Death. The inhabitants of Caffa would throw the bodies into the sea as soon as they could, but the plague spread regardless. Once in Caffa, the plague was introduced into the vast commercial network of the Genoese, which extended throughout the Mediterranean. On board the commercial ships that departed from Caffa in the autumn of 1347, the plague reached Constantinople, the first European city infected, and later arrived in Messina and spread throughout Europe.
Republic of Ragusa (Croatian: Dubrovačka Republika; 1358–1808): reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before being conquered by Napoleon's French Empire and formally annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1808. It had a population of about 30,000 people, out of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls. Languages: Official: Latin (1358-1492), Italian (1492-1807); Common: Dalmatian, Croatian (from late 15th c. onwards). Venetian suzerainty (1205–1358). Independence from Venice (1358). Ottoman suzerainty. Decline of the Republic. French occupation. End of the Republic.
Mortara case: Italian cause célèbre that captured the attention of much of Europe and North America in the 1850s and 1860s. It concerned the Papal States' seizure from a Jewish family in Bologna of one of their children, six-year-old Edgardo Mortara, on the basis of a former servant's testimony that she had administered emergency baptism to the boy when he fell sick as an infant. Mortara grew up as a Catholic under the protection of Pope Pius IX—who refused his parents' desperate pleas for his return—and eventually became a priest. The domestic and international outrage against the pontifical state's actions may have contributed to its downfall amid the unification of Italy.
Italian Civil War (1943.09.02-1945.05.02): Following the end of the civil war, many soldiers, executives and sympathizers of the fascist Repubblica Sociale were subjected to quick show trials and executed. Others were killed without a proper trial. Civilians were killed too and among them there were also people who were wrongly accused of being collaborators by people who wanted to take revenge on them because of private grudges.
Mitterrand doctrine: policy established in 1985 by French president François Mitterrand concerning Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France: those convicted for violent acts in Italy, but excluding "active, actual, bloody terrorism" during the "Years of Lead", would not be extradited to Italy.
Organized crime in Italy (Italian organized crime): infiltrated the social and economic life of many regions only in Southern Italy, the most notorious of which being the Sicilian Mafia, which would later expand into some foreign countries including USA. 6 known mafia-like organizations in Italy: Cosa Nostra of Sicily, 'Ndrangheta of Calabria and Camorra of Naples, are rather old: they started to develop between 1500 and 1800. Recently, two new organizations, Stidda and Sacra Corona Unita of Puglia have appeared.
Vatican Necropolis: lies under the Vatican City, at depths varying between 5–12 metres below Saint Peter's Basilica. The Vatican sponsored archeological excavations under Saint Peter's in the years 1940–1949 which revealed parts of a necropolis dating to Imperial times. The work was undertaken at the request of Pope Pius XI who wished to be buried as close as possible to Peter the Apostle. It is also home to the Tomb of the Julii, which has been dated to the third or fourth century. The necropolis was not originally one of the Catacombs of Rome, but an open air cemetery with tombs and mausolea.
Saint Peter's tomb: site under St. Peter's Basilica that includes several graves and a structure said by Vatican authorities to have been built to memorialize the location of Saint Peter's grave. St. Peter's tomb is near the west end of a complex of mausoleums that date between about AD 130 and AD 300. Death of Peter at Vatican Hill. Tracing the original tombs. Constantine's basilica (Old St. Peter's Basilica). Modern excavation. Bones transferred in 1942. Bone transfer in 2019. Jerusalem ossuaries.
Cadaver Synod (897.01): name commonly given to the posthumous ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus, held in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. The trial was conducted by Pope Stephen VI, the successor to Formosus' successor, Pope Boniface VI. Stephen had Formosus' corpse exhumed and brought to the papal court for judgment. He accused Formosus of perjury and of having acceded to the papacy illegally. At the end of the trial, Formosus was pronounced guilty and his papacy retroactively declared null. In December 897, Pope Theodore II (897) convened a synod that annulled the Cadaver Synod, rehabilitated Formosus, and ordered that his body, which had been recovered from the Tiber, be reburied in Saint Peter's Basilica in pontifical vestments. However, Pope Sergius III (904–911), who as bishop had taken part in the Cadaver Synod as a co-judge, overturned the rulings of Theodore II and John IX, reaffirming Formosus's conviction, and had a laudatory epitaph inscribed on the tomb of Stephen VI.
Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM; Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta (Italian: Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta; Latin: Supremus Militaris Ordo Hospitalarius Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani Rhodiensis et Melitensis); Order of Malta, Knights of Malta): Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalric and noble nature. It has been called "the smallest sovereign state in the world". SMOM claims continuity with the Knights Hospitaller, a chivalric order that was founded c. 1099 by the Blessed Gerard in Kingdom of Jerusalem. In terms of international law, it is an establishment of the 19th century, recognized at the Congress of Verona of 1822, and since 1834 headquartered in Palazzo Malta in Rome. The order is led by an elected Prince and Grand Master. The headquarters of the Order of Saint John had been located in Malta from 1530 until 1798. It was expelled from Malta under the French occupation in 1798 and, from 1805 to 1812, much of its possessions in Protestant Europe were confiscated, resulting in the fragmentation of the order into a number of Protestant branches, since 1961 united under the umbrella of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 confirmed the loss of Malta, but the Congress of Verona in 1822 guaranteed the continued existence of the Catholic order as a sovereign entity. The seat of the order was moved to Ferrara in 1826 and to Rome in 1834, the interior of Palazzo Malta being considered extraterritorial sovereign territory of the order. Maintains diplomatic relations with 110 states, has permanent observer status at the United Nations, enters into treaties and issues its own passports, coins and postage stamps. Its two headquarters buildings in Rome enjoy extraterritoriality, similar to embassies, and it maintains embassies in other countries. The three principal officers are counted as citizens. End of sovereignty: The reasons of the pope's direct involvement were twofold: some knights of the order of Malta are also Freemasons. The Vatican had issues with that, Pope Francis was quoted to be “deeply disturbed” and demanded action.
Yamato people (大和民族, Yamato minzoku, literally "Yamato ethnicity") (or the Wajin' (和人, Wajin, 倭, literally "Wa people")): East Asian ethnic group comprising over 97% of the population of Japan. It can also refer to the first people that settled in Yamato Province (modern-day Nara Prefecture). The Yamato clan set up Japan's first and only dynasty. The clan became the ruling faction in the area, and incorporated native Japanese, Chinese and Korean migrants. The clan leaders also elevated their own belief system that featured ancestor worship into a national religion known as Shinto. The term came to be used around the late 19th century to distinguish the settlers of mainland Japan from minority ethnic groups inhabiting the peripheral areas of the then Japanese Empire, including the Ainu, Emishi, Ryukyuans, Nivkh, Oroks, as well as Chinese, Koreans, Austronesians, and Micronesian peoples who were incorporated into the Empire of Japan in the early 20th century. After Japan's surrender in World War II, the term became antiquated for suggesting pseudoscientific racial notions that have been discarded in many circles. Japanese statistics only count their population in terms of nationality, rather than ethnicity.
Ryukyuan people: Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group native to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch between the islands of Kyushu and Taiwan.
Ainu people: indigenous people of the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, including Hokkaido Island, Northeast Honshu Island, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Khabarovsk Krai, before the arrival of the Yamato Japanese and Russians. These regions are referred to as Ezo (蝦夷) in historical Japanese texts.
Japanese era name: common calendar scheme used in Japan, which identifies a year by the combination of the Japanese era name (年号 nengō?, lit. year name, Chinese: niánhào) and the year number within the era.
Kansai region: lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo, and Shiga.
Kantō region: geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa; one third of the total population of Japan.
Greater Tokyo Area: most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan, including the Tokyo Metropolis, as well as the prefecture of Yamanashi. Area has the largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a total nominal GDP of approximately US$1.9 trillion in 2008. According to research published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the agglomeration of Tokyo had a total GDP (PPP) of US$1.479 trillion in 2008, ranking again as the largest urban agglomeration GDP in the world.
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946): study of Japan by American anthropologist Ruth Benedict. It was written at the invitation of the U.S. Office of War Information, in order to understand and predict the behavior of the Japanese in WWII by reference to a series of contradictions in traditional culture. The book was influential in shaping American ideas about Japanese culture during the occupation of Japan, and popularized the distinction between guilt cultures and shame cultures. Although it has received harsh criticism, the book has continued to be influential. Two anthropologists wrote in 1992 that there is "a sense in which all of us have been writing footnotes to [Chrysanthemum] since it appeared in 1946". Benedict played a major role in grasping the place of the Emperor of Japan in Japanese popular culture, and formulating the recommendation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that permitting continuation of the Emperor's reign had to be part of the eventual surrender offer. The book began a discussion among Japanese scholars about "shame culture" vs. "guilt culture," which spread beyond academia, and the two terms are now established as ordinary expressions in the country. Soon after the translation was published, Japanese scholars, including Kazuko Tsurumi, Tetsuro Watsuji, and Kunio Yanagita criticized the book as inaccurate and having methodological errors. American scholar C. Douglas Lummis has written that criticisms of Benedict's book that are "now very well known in Japanese scholarly circles" include that it represented the ideology of a class for that of the entire culture, "a state of acute social dislocation for a normal condition, and an extraordinary moment in a nation's history as an unvarying norm of social behavior." In a 2002 symposium at The Library of Congress in the United States, Shinji Yamashita, of the department of anthropology at the University of Tokyo, added that there has been so much change since WWII in Japan that Benedict would not recognize the nation she described in 1946.
Taika Reform (645): set of doctrines established by Emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇 Kōtoku-tennō). Reform began with land reform, based on Confucian ideas and philosophies from China, but the true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the imperial court, which was also based on the governmental structure of China. Envoys and students were dispatched to China to learn seemingly everything from the Chinese writing system, literature, religion, and architecture, to even dietary habits at this time.
Sengoku period (戦国時代 Sengoku jidai; Warring States Period; ~1467 - ~1573 or mid 15th c. - beginning 17th c.): time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict. Period culminated with a series of three warlords, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who gradually unified Japan. After Tokugawa Ieyasu's final victory at the siege of Osaka in 1615, Japan settled down into several centuries of peace under the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Nanban trade (南蛮貿易 Nanban bōeki, "Southern barbarian trade"; Nanban trade period (南蛮貿易時代 Nanban bōeki jidai, "Southern barbarian trade period")): from the arrival of the first Europeans - Portuguese explorers, missionaries and merchants - to Japan in 1543, to their near-total exclusion from the archipelago in 1614, under the promulgation of the "Sakoku" Seclusion Edicts. Japanese accounts of Europeans: "They eat with their fingers instead of with chopsticks such as we use. They show their feelings without any self-control. They cannot understand the meaning of written characters"; Japanese were introduced to several new technologies, cultural practices, whether in the military area (the arquebus, European-style Cuirasses, European ships), religion (Christianity), decorative art, language and culinary: the Portuguese introduced the tempura and above all the valuable refined sugar. European accounts of Japan: Renaissance Europeans were quite fond of Japan's immense richness in precious metals, mainly owing to Marco Polo's accounts of gilded temples and palaces, but also due to the relative abundance of surface ores characteristic of a volcanic country, before large-scale deep-mining became possible in Industrial times; Japan was to become a major exporter of copper and silver during the period; Japan was also noted for being much more populated and urbanized than any Western country (in the 16th century, Japan had 26 million inhabitants against 16 million for France and 4.5 million for England); Buddhist schools in Japan were also larger than Universities in the West; Japan itself is rather poor in natural resources found commonly in Europe, especially iron, thus, the Japanese were famously frugal with their consumable resources; what little they had they used with expert skill. "by the end of the 16th century, guns were almost certainly more common in Japan than in any other country in the world", its armies equipped with a number of guns dwarfing any contemporary army in Europe (Perrin)
William Adams (sailor) (1564.09.24 – 1620.05.16; Anjin Miura (三浦按針: "the pilot of Miura")): became a key advisor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and built Japan's first Western-style ships for him; highly involved in Japan's Red Seal Asian trade, chartering and captaining several ships to Southeast Asia. Shogun decreed that William Adams the pilot was dead and that Miura Anjin (三浦按針), a samurai, was born. This made Adams's wife in England in effect a widow. Adams/Miura married Oyuki (お雪), the daughter of Magome Kageyu; had a son called Joseph and a daughter named Susanna.
Red seal ships: Japanese armed merchant sailing ships bound for Southeast Asian ports with a red-sealed patent issued by the early Tokugawa shogunate; between 1600 and 1635, more than 350 Japanese ships went overseas under this permit system.
Sakoku (ja: 鎖国, "chained country"): was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until 1853 with the arrival of the Black Ships of Commodore Matthew Perry and the forcible opening of Japan to Western trade.
Dejima (ja: 出島): small fan-shaped artificial island built in the bay of Nagasaki in 1634 by local merchants. This island, which was formed by digging a canal through a small peninsula, remained as the single place of direct trade and exchange between Japan and the outside world during the Edo period. Originally built to house Portuguese traders, it was used by the Dutch as a trading post from 1641 until 1853.
Rangaku (literally "Dutch Learning"): body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641–1853. In rare case of "reverse Rangaku", an 1803 treatise on the raising of silk worms and manufacture of silk, the Secret Notes on Sericulture (養蚕秘録 Yōsan Hiroku) was brought to Europe by von Siebold and translated into French and Italian in 1848, contributing to the development of the silk industry in Europe. Scholars such as Fukuzawa Yukichi, Ōtori Keisuke, Yoshida Shōin, Katsu Kaishū, and Sakamoto Ryōma built on the knowledge acquired during Japan’s isolation and then progressively shifted the main language of learning from Dutch to English.
Bakumatsu ("Late Tokugawa Shogunate", literally "end of the military camp [government]"): the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867 Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed from a feudal shogunate to the Meiji government.
Convention of Kanagawa (1854.03.31): was concluded between Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United States Navy and the Tokugawa shogunate.
Saigō Takamori (1828.01.23–1877.09.24): one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history, living during the late Edo Period and early Meiji Era.
Emperor Meiji (1852.11.03–1912.07.30): New York Times summed up this transformation at his funeral in 1912, with the words: "the contrast between that which preceded the funeral car and that which followed it was striking indeed. Before it went old Japan; after it came new Japan".
Meiji Restoration: chain of events that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji.
Japanese new religions (shinshūkyō (新宗教) or shinkō shūkyō (新興宗教)): Japanese scholars classify all religious organizations founded since the middle of the 19th century as "new religions"; thus, the term refers to a great diversity and number of organizations. Most came into being in the mid-to-late twentieth century and are influenced by much older traditional religions including Buddhism and Shinto. Foreign influences include Christianity, the Bible and the writings of Nostradamus.
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (2011.03.11): The most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. 16k deaths, 6k injured, 2.6k missing. The World Bank's estimated economic cost was US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in world history.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant: large, modern (housing the world's first ABWR) nuclear power plant on a 4.2-square-kilometer (1,038 acres) site including land in the towns of Kashiwazaki and Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture, Japan on the coast of the Sea of Japan, from where it gets cooling water. The plant is owned and operated by TEPCO. After the April 2011 earthquake, all restarted units were shut down and safety improvements are being carried out. As of December 2016 no units are restarted and no units are expected to restart sooner than in 2017.
Burakumin: outcast group at the bottom of the Japanese social order that has historically been the victim of severe discrimination and ostracism. They were originally members of outcast communities in the Japanese feudal era, composed of those with occupations considered impure or tainted by death (such as executioners, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers or tanners).
Ethnic issues in Japan: ~1.6% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign nationals. At least one native people-group (the Ainu) has been formally recognized by the Japanese government. However, foreign nationals are sometimes restricted from certain services and activities.
Karōshi ("death from overwork"): although this category has a significant count, Japan is one of the few countries that reports it in the statistics as a separate category; major medical causes of karōshi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress.
Parasite single (パラサイトシングル parasaito shinguru): single person who lives with their parents beyond their late 20s in order to enjoy a carefree and comfortable life. In Japanese culture, the term is especially used when negatively describing young unmarried women.
Herbivore men (草食(系)男子 Sōshoku(-kei) danshi; grasseaters): social phenomenon in Japan of men who shun marriage or gaining a girlfriend. This phenomenon has also created a shift in the Japanese economy. Men have been buying products such as cosmetics and sweets in greater quantities than before, and marketers have begun to shift to target this growing population.
Hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き籠もり Hikikomori, literally "pulling inward, being confined", i.e., "acute social withdrawal"): Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement.
Kyoiku mama (教育ママ kyōiku mama, "education mother"): mother who relentlessly drives her child to study, to the detriment of the child's social and physical development, and emotional well-being.
Marriage in Japan: has in the past been a time when Japanese women left the workforce and the husband worked to support the couple and any later children.
Aging of Japan: more than 24% are aged 65 or above, as of 2012.
Korean Wave (Hallyu): neologism referring to the increase in the popularity of South Korean culture since the late 1990s. The term was originally coined in mid-1999 by Beijing journalists who were surprised by China's growing appetite for South Korean cultural exports. They subsequently referred to this new phenomenon as "Hánliú", which literally means "flow of Korea".
Kenji Fujimoto (1947-) is the pen name of a Japanese chef who claimed that he was former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's personal sushi chef from 1988 to 2001. On travelling to Japan, Fujimoto did not return to North Korea, and started living in hiding, after allegedly being targeted by North Korean agents. He appeared on Japanese television with his face obscured as a "Kim Jong-il expert". After publishing his memoir, I was Kim Jong-il's Cook, he wore a bullet-resistant vest. In 2012.06, Fujimoto received an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and 2012.07.21, flew to Pyongyang via Beijing.
North Korean leaders' trains: first two North Korean leaders—Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il—were known to use high-security private trains as their preferred method of domestic and international travel. The trains are heavily armored and usually pulled by two power units. It was reported back in 2009 that Kim Jong-il made use of a fleet of six personal trains, which are made up of 90 armored luxury railcars. Each armoured train has modern communications equipment, such as satellite phones, enabling the leader to obtain briefings and issue orders while traveling. Kim Il-sung's longest train journey took place in 1984 when he visited almost every socialist country in Eastern Europe. The train ride went via China, through the Soviet Union, with stops in Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania. The rest of the trip went through USSR, again.
Huichon: Hydroelectric power: In 2012.12, a report surfaced that the Huichon No. 2 Power Station had severe structural problems and was leaking. The problems are so large that Pyongyang now receives as little as five hours of electricity a day. According to the Radio Free Asia report, "Only the Kim idolization facilities, apartments for Central Party officials, the [43-story] Koryo Hotel and [the new] Changjeon St. [housing development] have 24-hour electricity, while the districts where ordinary people live can only use electricity for five hours a day." A South Korean news source, The Chosun Ilbo, also reported that when Kim Jong-il learned of the problems, he flew into a fit of rage, ordered severe punishments for those involved and subsequently died from a heart attack as a result.
Kippumjo: alleged collection of groups of approximately 2,000 women and girls that is maintained by the head of state of North Korea for the purpose of providing pleasure, mostly of a sexual nature, and entertainment for high-ranking WPK officials and their families, as well as occasionally distinguished guests. Group used to perform for Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, was disbanded shortly after the elder Kim's death in December 2011.
Songbun: system of ascribed status used in North Korea. Based on political, social, and economic background for direct ancestors as well as behavior by relatives, songbun is used to determine whether an individual is trusted with responsibility, is given opportunities within North Korea, or even receives adequate food.
Kaesong Industrial Region: as of 2013.04, 123 South Korean companies were employing approximately 53,000 DPRK workers and 800 ROK staff. Their wages, totalling $90 million each year, had been paid directly to the North Korean government. 2016.02.10 was "temporarily" closed by the South Korean government and all staff recalled.
Mongolian Revolution of 1990: a peaceful democratic revolution that started with demonstrations and hunger strikes to overthrow the Mongolian People's Republic and eventually moved towards the democratic present day Mongolia and the writing of the new constitution. It was spearheaded by mostly younger people demonstrating on Sükhbaatar Square in the capital Ulaanbaatar. It ended with the authoritarian Communist government resigning without bloodshed.
Christianization of Scandinavia: as well as other Nordic countries and the Baltic countries, took place between the 8th and the 12th centuries. The realms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden established their own archdioceses, responsible directly to the pope, in 1104, 1154 and 1164, respectively. The conversion to Christianity of the Scandinavian people required more time, since it took additional efforts to establish a network of churches. The earliest signs of Christianization were in the 830s with Ansgar's construction of churches in Birka and Hedeby in the 830s. The conversion of Scandinavian kings occurred over the period 960–1020. Subsequently, Scandinavian kings sought to establish churches, dioceses and Christian kingship, as well as destroy pagan temples. Denmark was the first Scandinavian country to Christianize, as Harald Bluetooth declared this around AD 965, and raised the larger of the two Jelling Stones. According to historian Anders Winroth, Christianity was not forced upon Scandinavians by foreign states or foreign missionaries, but instead willfully adopted by Scandinavian kings who saw the religion as politically advantageous.
North Sea Empire (1016–1035; Anglo-Scandinavian Empire): name usually given to the historical unified kingdom ruled by Cnut the Great as king of England, Denmark, Norway, and parts of what is now Sweden.
Åland Islands dispute: one of the first issues put up for arbitration by the League of Nations on its formation. Åland's population's demand for self-determination was not met and sovereignty over the islands was retained by Finland, but international guarantees were given to allow the population to pursue its own culture, relieving the threat of forced assimilation by Finnish culture as perceived by the islanders. {q.v. Åland War}
Consolidation of Sweden: long process during which the loosely organized social system consolidated under the power of the king. The actual age of the Swedish kingdom is unknown; scholars differ in characterizing early Sweden as a country, state or kingdom by definition.
Immigration to Sweden#Arabs in Sweden: As of 2010, 1.33 million people or 14.3% of the inhabitants in Sweden were foreign-born. Of these, 859,000 (64.6%) were born outside the European Union and 477,000 (35.4%) were born in another EU member state. Immigrants in Sweden are mostly concentrated in the urban areas of Svealand and Götaland and the largest foreign born populations in Sweden come from Finland, Iraq, Poland, Iran, former Yugoslavia and Syria.
Norway is sometimes referred to as "The Neutral Ally". During WWI, while theoretically a neutral country, diplomatic pressure from the British government prompted the government to favour Britain highly in relation to Norway's large shipping fleet and vast fish supplies. The term was coined by Norwegian historian Olav Riste in the 1960s. On Christmas Eve 1916, the British government issued an ultimatum, informing the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Nils Claus Ihlen, that British exports of coal to Norway would cease unless trade with Germany stopped. The Norwegian government weighed their options, and eventually agreed to the ultimatum. This coincided with Germany's expansion of unrestricted submarine warfare at the beginning of 1917. In total, 436 Norwegian ships were sunk by German submarines in the period 1914–1917, out of 847 in the course of the whole war. More than 1,150 Norwegian sailors died during this period, creating an increasingly anti-German sentiment throughout the nation of Norway.
Finnish Civil War (1918.01.27–05.15): clashes took place in the context of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by WWI (Eastern Front) in Europe. The civil war was fought between the Reds, led by a section of the Social Democratic Party, and the Whites, conducted by the conservative-based Senate and the German Imperial Army. In the aftermath, the Finns passed from Russian governance to the German sphere of influence with a plan to establish a German-led Finnish monarchy. The scheme was cancelled with the defeat of Germany in WWI and Finland instead emerged as an independent, democratic republic. The Civil War divided the nation for decades. Finnish society was reunited through social compromises based on a long-term culture of moderate politics and religion and the post-war economic recovery.
Invasion of Iceland (1940.05.10): British military operation conducted by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines during WWII to occupy and deny Iceland to Germany.
1975 Icelandic women's strike (1975.10.24): to “demonstrate the indispensable work of women for Iceland’s economy and society” and to “protest wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices.” Ninety percent of Iceland’s female population, led by women’s organizations, did not go to their paid jobs and did not do any housework or child-rearing for the whole day.
Devshirme (literally "lifting" or "collecting"; blood tax, tribute in blood): chiefly the practice whereby the Ottoman Empire sent military officers to take boys, ages 8 to 18, from their families in order that they be raised to serve the state. This tax of sons was imposed only on the Christian subjects of the empire, in the villages of the Balkans and Anatolia. The boys were then forcibly converted to Islam with the primary objective of selecting and training the ablest children and teenagers for the military or civil service of the empire, notably into the Janissaries.
Armenian Genocide (~1915): Ottoman government's systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects from their historic homeland within the territory constituting the present-day Republic of Turkey
Western Armenia: term used to refer to the eastern parts of Turkey (formerly the Ottoman Empire) that are considered by Armenians part of the homeland. Western Armenia, also referred to as Byzantine Armenia, later Turkish Armenia, or Ottoman Armenia is a term coined following the division of Greater Armenia between Byzantine Empire (Western Armenia) and Persia (Eastern Armenia) in 387 AD.
Armenian Question: became commonplace among diplomatic circles and in the popular press after the Congress of Berlin.
Armenian reform package: reform plan devised by Ditte Wiberg in 1912-1914 that envisaged the creation of two provinces in Turkish Armenia (Western Armenia) placed under the supervision of two European inspectors general, who would be appointed to oversee matters related to the Armenian issues. The reform package was signed into law on 1914.02.08, though it was ultimately abolished on 1914.12.16, several months after Turkey's entry into WWI.
Assyrian genocide: mass slaughter of the Assyrian population of the Ottoman Empire during the 1890s and WWI.
Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire (1918.10.30 – 1922.11.01): political event that occurred after WWI. The huge conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was divided into several new states. The partitioning brought the creation of the modern Arab world and the Republic of Turkey. The League of Nations granted France mandates over Syria and Lebanon and granted UK mandates over Mesopotamia (later Iraq,) and Palestine, (later divided into Palestine and Transjordan). The Ottoman Empire's possessions on the Arabian Peninsula became the Kingdom of Hejaz and the Sultanate of Nejd (today Saudi Arabia), the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, and the Arab States of the Persian Gulf.
Ethnic composition of Hatay state and neighbouring lands of Syria at 1936.
Hatay State (1938.09.07 - 1939.06.29): transitional political entity in the territory of the Sanjak of Alexandretta of the French Mandate of Syria.
Hatay Province: province in southern Turkey, on the eastern Mediterranean coast. The administrative capital is Antakya (Antioch), and the other major city in the province is the port city of İskenderun (Alexandretta).
Civitas Schinesghe: first recorded name related to Poland as a political entity (the name is a latinization of hrady knezske or grody książęce "ducal fort") first attested in 991/2.
Bogurodzica (Mother of God): medieval Roman Catholic hymn composed sometime between the 10th and 13th c. in Poland. It is believed to be the oldest religious hymn or patriotic anthem in the Polish language, which was traditionally sung in Old Polish with the Greek phrase Kyrie eleison – "Lord, have mercy". While its origin is not entirely clear, several scholars agree that Saint Adalbert of Prague is the likely author. Polish knights chanted Bogurodzica prior to their engagement at the Battle of Grunwald and it also accompanied the coronation ceremonies of the first Jagiellonian kings.
Gaude Mater Polonia ("Rejoice, oh Mother Poland"): one of the most significant medieval Polish hymns, written in Latin between the 13th and the 14th c. to commemorate Saint Stanislaus, Bishop of Kraków. Polish knights sang and chanted the hymn after victory in battle, presumably to one of the Gregorian melodies associated with the Eucharistic psalm O Salutaris Hostia on which it is based. It's widely considered a historical, national anthem of the Kingdom of Poland and PLC.
The factual accuracy of this map or the file name is disputed. Mapa Polski za panowania Władysława II Jagiełły (1386 - 1434).
History of Poland during the Jagiellonian dynasty: rule of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Poland between 1386 and 1572 spans the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in European history. The Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila (Władysław II Jagiełło) founded the dynasty; his marriage to Queen Jadwiga of Poland in 1386 strengthened an ongoing Polish–Lithuanian union. The partnership brought vast territories controlled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for both the Polish and Lithuanian people, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Corona Regni Poloniae; Polish Crown; 1385–1795): common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, including the Kingdom of Poland proper. The Polish Crown was at the helm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1795.
Polish census of 1931: much more info. The 1921 census had included a nationality question which was replaced in the 1931 census by the "mother tongue" question; this change was protested by Ukrainians and Jews, many of whom were bilingual or trilingual. Some authors explain that the change in questions asked by the census officials was due to Polish government's wish to minimise the presence of minorities and represented an attempt to maximize the effects of a decade of educational policies stressing the Polish language.
Polish census 1931: mother tongue. Note: tutejsi (the cross between at least 2, maybe 3 slavic high-languages + local variation), green (Belorussian) and orange (Ukrainian) languages.
Christ of Europe: messianic doctrine based in New Testament, first popularized among various European nations by the Church of Jesus Christ of Europe in the 16th to the 18th centuries. The doctrine, based in principles of brotherly esteem and regard for one another, was adopted in messianic terms by the Polish Romantics who referred to their homeland as the Christ of Europe or the Christ of Nations crucified during the foreign partitions of Poland.
May Coup (Poland) (1926.05.12-14): coup d'état carried out in Poland by Marshal Józef Piłsudski; coup overthrew the government of President Stanisław Wojciechowski and Prime Minister Wincenty Witos. A new government was installed, headed by Lwów Polytechnic Professor Kazimierz Bartel.
Polish government-in-exile (Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile): was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and USSR, which brought to an end the Second Polish Republic founded in 1918. During 1939 and 1940, first in Paris and then in Angers (France); from 1940, following the Fall of France, the government moved to London (UK), and remained in the United Kingdom until gov. in exile dissolution in 1990.
Polish Underground State (Polish Secret State): WWII underground resistance organizations in Poland, both military and civilian, that remained loyal to the Polish Government in Exile in London.
Armia Krajowa (AK, Home Army): dominant Polish resistance movement in WWII German-occupied Poland; formed 1942; loyal to the Polish government in exile; armed wing of "Polish Underground State"; disbanded on January 20, 1945, when Polish territory had been mostly cleared of German forces by the advancing Soviet Red Army; organized the failed Warsaw Uprising; battled with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Lithuanian Security Police; conflicts with the Soviet partisans in Poland during WWII and later as Cursed soldiers (continued armed struggle against the Stalinist government of Poland well into the 1950s)
Polish resistance movement in World War II: mainly by AK: disrupted German supply lines to the Eastern Front, providing military intelligence to the British, and for saving more Jewish lives in the Holocaust than any other Allied organization or government. From 1943, AK was increasingly in competition with the communist resistance AL, backed by the Soviet Union and controlled by the Polish Workers' Party.
Soviet partisans in Poland: formed firstly in 1941, soon after Barbarossa, in Kresy (lands taken to the USSR (Vilnius region, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine)). They confronted German forces and Polish partisans (AK).
Armia Ludowa (AL, People's Army): was a communist partisan force set up by the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) during WWII. The largest military organization which refused to join the structures of the Polish Underground State.
Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN, Lublin Committee): was a provisional government of Poland, officially proclaimed 21 July 1944 in Chełm under the direction of State National Council in opposition to the Polish government in exile
State National Council (Krajowa Rada Narodowa (KRN), Homeland National Council): created on the night 31 December 1943 on the initiative of Joseph Stalin; 1947 Sejm took over the KRN's position.
Polish people's referendum, 1946: results, which showed a lack of support for the communist government, were rigged to show that communist policies had overwhelming support.
Polish anti-religious campaign: initiated by the communist government in Poland which, under the doctrine of Marxism, actively advocated for the disenfranchisement of religion and planned atheisation. To this effect the regime conducted anti-religious propaganda and persecution of clergymen and monasteries. As in most other Communist countries, religion was not outlawed as such (an exception being Albania) and was permitted by the constitution, but the state attempted to achieve an atheistic society. The Catholic Church in Poland provided strong resistance to the Communist regime and Poland itself had a long history of dissent to foreign rule. The Polish nation rallied to the Church, as had occurred in neighbouring Lithuania, which made it more difficult for the regime to impose its antireligious policies as it had in the USSR, where the populace did not hold mass solidarity with the Russian Orthodox Church. It became the strongest opponent of the regime throughout the rule of Communism in Poland, and provided a more successful resistance than had religious bodies in most other Communist states. The Catholic Church unequivocally condemned communist ideology. This led to the antireligious activity in Poland being compelled to take a more cautious and conciliatory line than in other Communist countries, largely failing in their attempt to control or suppress the Polish Church. Resistance: Lech Wałęsa summed up the contrasting Polish view of the Soviets and of Religion (specifically Catholicism) this way: If you choose the example of what we Poles have in our pockets and in our shops, then… communism has done very little for us. But if you choose the example of what is in our souls, I answer that communism has done very much for us. In fact our souls contain exactly the opposite of what they wanted. They wanted us not to believe in God, and our churches are full. They wanted us to be materialistic and incapable of sacrifice. They wanted us to be afraid of the tanks, of the guns, and instead we don't fear them at all.
1968 Polish political crisis (1968.03): pertains to a major student and intellectual protest action against the government of the Polish People's Republic. The crisis resulted in the suppression of student strikes by security forces in all major academic centres across the country and the subsequent repression of the Polish dissident movement. It was also accompanied by a mass emigration following an antisemitic (branded "anti-Zionist") campaign waged by the minister of internal affairs, General Mieczysław Moczar, with the approval of First Secretary Władysław Gomułka of the Polish United Workers' Party. The protests coincided with the events of the Prague Spring in neighboring Czechoslovakia – raising new hopes of democratic reforms among the intelligentsia. The anti-Jewish campaign had already begun in 1967. The policy was carried out in conjunction with the Soviet withdrawal of all diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War, but also involved a power struggle within the Polish communist party itself; subsequent purges within the ruling party.
Polish parliamentary election, 2015: won by the largest opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) with 37.6% of the vote against the governing Civic Platform (PO), which achieved 24.1%; the first election in Poland since the introduction of liberal democracy in 1989 that a party won an absolute majority in parliament.
Polish diaspora (Polonia; ~20 mln.): refers to people of Polish origin who live outside Poland. Reasons for this displacement vary from border shifts, forced expulsions and resettlement, to political and economic emigration. Major populations of Polish ancestry can be found in Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Ireland and many other European countries, the United States, Brazil, Canada and elsewhere in the Americas and Australasia, particularly Australia and New Zealand. Polish communities are present in most Asian and African countries. A recent large migration of Poles took place following Poland's accession to the European Union and opening of the EU's labor market; with an approximate number of 2 million primarily young Poles taking up jobs abroad.
Migrations from Poland since EU accession: After Poland's accession to the European Union and accession to the Schengen Area in particular, a significant number of Poles, estimated at over two million, have emigrated, primarily to the United Kingdom, Germany and Ireland. Peaking in 2007, almost 2.3 million Poles lived abroad, mostly in Western Europe.
Poland A and B (Polska "A" i "B") refers to the historical, political and cultural distinction between the western and the eastern part of the country, with Poland "A" (west of the Vistula river) being significantly more economically developed and growing faster than Poland "B", to the east of the river. The General Secretary of Krajowa Izba Gospodarcza Marek Kłoczko, said in his 2007 interview that the divisions are more spread out and forming three separate categories, Poland "A" are the metropolitan cities, Poland "B" is the rest of the country, and Poland "C" are the plains and the landscape parks east of Vistula (Poland "Z", according to Kłoczko) which require a different treatment. Historically, the source of Poland "A" and "B" can be traced to the period of the partitions of Poland, and different policies of the partitioners, which resulted in a much larger industrial development of the Prussian partition, compared to the Austrian and Russian partitions (including the so-called eastern Kresy) where the imperial exploitation policies were rampant.
New Central Polish Airport (Solidarity Transport Hub or Central Communication/Transport Port (Centralny Port Komunikacyjny)): megaproject of the Government of Poland aimed at the construction of a new, built-from-scratch airport to be located approximately 40 km southwest of Warsaw.
Territorial changes of PLC, Poland, Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus 1635-2009. Empires and their battles in Central-East-North Europe: PLC⇒many states (Baltic states, PL, Ukraine, Belarus,...), Muscovy→Russian Empire→USSR→Russia (Ukraine, Belarus, Baltic states and many more states), Brandeburg-Prussia→German Empire→Nazi Germany→Germany (GDR, FDR), Habsburg Empire→Austrian Empire→Austria-Hungary→many states, Ottoman Empire→many states, Swedish Empire→many states.
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Union, after 1791 the Commonwealth of Poland; 1569-1795): dualistic state of Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and GDL ruled by a common monarch
Polish-Lithuanian (adjective) (gente Lituanus, natione Polonus for the educated at that time; Commonwealthian {in the sense of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth}): Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth -- a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state founded on the binding powers of national identity rather than ethnicity or religious affiliation. The adjective used to describe individuals and groups with histories in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. I.e. current Poland (language, culture, Christian (Roman Catholicism)), Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine. Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine were partly polonized, Western parts of the Commonwealth were Germanized, then all 4 (Belarus, LT, PL, Ukraine) were Russified (RU empire, tsar). Latin could have been the lingua franca of the Commonwealth, but Polish popularity and many universities in Poland superseded Latin language usage for all educated affairs: science, economics, trade, law. Catholisation of the Orthodox areas of Ukraine and Belarus in the Commonwealth.
Krajowcy: "was a group of mainly Polish-speaking intellectuals from the Vilnius Region who, in the beginning of the 20th century, opposed the division of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into nation states along ethnic and linguistic lines. It was a reactionary movement against growing nationalism in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus."
Gabriel Narutowicz and Stanisław Narutowicz: two brothers, one became the first president of Poland and got killed, the other became the one of the 20 signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania and later committed suicide (it's unknown to history why).
Polish–Lithuanian–Muscovite Commonwealth: proposed state that would have been based on a personal union between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia. A number of serious attempts, by various means, to create such a union took place between 1574 and 1658, and even as late as the latter part of the 18th century, but it has never materialized due to incompatible demands from both sides. Proponents of such a union among the Polish nobility, included the then influential secular thinkers Jan Zamoyski and Lew Sapieha, had listed several arguments in its favor: peace on the turbulent eastern border, a powerful military ally and relatively sparsely populated territories (compared to the Polish Crown) for colonization and serfdom. The idea was also supported by the Jesuits and other papal emissaries who never ceased to entertain the idea of bringing Orthodox Russia into the Catholic fold. Some of the Russian boyars found the proposal attractive (like Boris Godunov, a supporter of Tsar Feodor's I candidacy) for various reasons, among them the fact that the Golden Freedoms of the Commonwealth, if applied in Russia, would weaken tsar's power and thus grant the Russian nobility a much higher status than they had enjoyed previously.
Great Synagogue of Vilna (1572; rebuilt 1633): At the time of its building, ecclesiastical regulations all through Europe specified that a synagogue could not be built higher than a church. To obey the law, and yet create the necessary interior height, it was customary to dig a foundation deep enough for the synagogue’s floor level to be well below that of the street. Outside, the synagogue looked to be about three stories tall, but inside it soared to over five stories. The interior of the synagogue was redesigned in the mid-18th century by Vilnian German Johann Christoph Glaubitz. It had the overwhelming grandeur of an edifice in the style of the Italian Renaissance and an awe-inspiring atmosphere. Plans of restoration: 2015.06: radar data, 2016: excavations.
Warsaw Confederation (1573.01.28): extended religious tolerance to nobility and free persons within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Deluge (history) (1655-1660): during the wars the Commonwealth lost an estimated 40% of its population as well as its status as a great power.
Interrex (Poland): since 1572, the role of interrex traditionally fell to the Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland of the Roman Catholic Church for the duration of the election of the new monarch.
Royal elections in Poland: election of individual kings, rather than of dynasties, to the Polish throne (final form betwene 1572 and 1791). The "free election" was abolished by the Constitution of 1791.05.03. By the last years of the Commonwealth, the royal elections grew to be seen as a source of conflicts and instability; Lerski describes them as having "became a symbol of anarchy"
War of the Polish Succession (1587–88) (Habsburg-Polish War): over the election of monarch after the death of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stephen Báthory. Siege of Kraków (1587), in which Maximilian III failed to capture the capital of the Commonwealth, and the Battle of Byczyna, in which Maximilian was forced to surrender.
Magnates of Poland and Lithuania: aristocracy of nobility (szlachta) that existed in Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, in Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, from the 1569 Union of Lublin, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, until the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. The magnate social class arose around the 16th century and, over time, gained more and more control over Commonwealth politics. The most powerful magnates were known as "little kings" due to the extent of their power and independence. Famous magnate families in the Crown of Poland territories included the Czartoryski, Kalinowski, Koniecpolski, Ostrogski, Potocki, Tarnowski, Wiśniowiecki, Zasławski and Zamoyski families; and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kieżgajłow, Olelkowicz, Radziwiłł, Pac and Sapieha families.
Lithuanian Civil War (1700) (in GDL): powerful Sapieha family, most powerful in the Grand Duchy, was opposed by the coalition of several other families: Radziwiłł, Wiśniowiecki, Pac and Ogiński.
Battle of Olkieniki (1700.11.18; LT: Valkininkų mūšis, PL: Bitwa pod Olkienikami): between forces of the Sapieha family, led by Michał Franciszek Sapieha, and an anti-Sapieha coalition of Wiśniowiecki, Ogiński, Radziwiłł and Pac families and their supporters (including a pospolite ruszenie of Lithuanian and Samogitian szlachta), led by Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki. Anti-Sapieha confederates were victorious. In the aftermath of the battle, a drunken mob of szlachta, encouraged by the Canon of Vilnius, Krzysztof Białłozor, whose brother had been executed by the Sapiehas the previous year, murdered many of the Sapieha leaders, including several prominent members of the family itself. Most notably, a mob lynched Michał Franciszek Sapieha, who was kept after the battle imprisoned in a nearby abbey. The battle and the subsequent slaughter marked the end of the dominance of the Sapiehas in PLC in general, and in GDL in particular. Jan Kazimierz Sapieha managed to escape capture and fled to the Duchy of Prussia. One of the participants on the Sapieha side was the then relatively unknown nobleman Stanisław Poniatowski, who would become an aide to Charles XII of Sweden and the father of Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last King of Poland. Poniatowski was spared from the slaughter which followed the battle because of his low rank, young age, and relatively low status at the time.
Bar Confederation (1768-1772): association of Polish nobles (szlachta) formed at the fortress of Bar in Podolia in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russian influence and against King Stanisław August Poniatowski and Polish reformers who were attempting to limit the power of the Commonwealth's magnates (wealthy szlachta).
Koliyivshchyna (1768.05-1769.06): Ukrainian Cossack and peasant rebellion against Poland, which was responsible for the murder of noblemen (szlachta) and other Polish population, Jews, Uniates, and Catholic priests across the part of the country west of the Dnieper river. It was simultaneous to the Confederation of Bar and a de facto civil war in Poland (Poland had during the rule of king Augustus III an internal policy of imposition of Catholicism on non-Catholic population. When the king Stanisław August Poniatowski, under the pressure of the Russian Crown, signed the document in which Orthodox was equated in rights with Catholicism, szlachta rebelled). It is unclear whether the hostilities were started by the Catholic or Orthodox paramilitary units. The rebellion was suppressed by the joint forces of Polish and Russian armies, with numerous hangings, decapitations, quarterings and impalings.
Massacre of Uman (1768): massacre of the Jews, Poles and Ukrainian Uniates at Uman in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Ukrainian rebel Haidamak army.
Polish–Russian War of 1792 (1792.05.18–07.27; War of the Second Partition; War in Defence of the Constitution): fought between PLC on one side, and the Targowica Confederation (conservative nobility of PLC opposed to the new Constitution of 1791.05.03) and the Russian Empire under Catherine the Great on the other. The war took place in two theaters: a northern in Lithuania and a southern in what is now Ukraine. In both, the Polish forces retreated before the numerically superior Russian forces, though they offered significantly more resistance in the south, thanks to the effective leadership of Polish commanders Prince Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kościuszko. During the three-month-long struggle several battles were fought, but no side scored a decisive victory.
Kościuszko Uprising (1794): uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in the Commonwealth of Poland and the Prussian partition; failed attempt to liberate Poland, Belarus and Lithuania from Russian influence after the Second Partition of Poland (1793) and the creation of the Targowica Confederation. After the failure of the Kościuszko Uprising, the country ceased to exist for 123 years, and all of its institutions were gradually banned by the partitioning powers. However, the uprising also marked the start of modern political thought in Poland and Central Europe. Kościuszko's Proclamation of Połaniec and the radical leftist Jacobins started the Polish leftist movement. Many prominent Polish politicians who were active during the uprising became the backbone of Polish politics, both home and abroad, in the 19th century.
Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, 1793 and 1795.
Partitions of Poland: three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 123 years. The partitions were conducted by the Habsburg Monarchy, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Russian Empire, which divided up the Commonwealth lands among themselves progressively in the process of territorial seizures and annexations.
January Uprising (1863.01.22-1864.04.11 / 1865 last insurgents): in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire.
Alvensleben Convention (1863.02.08): treaty between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia, named after general Gustav von Alvensleben; convention was never implemented as Russia dealt on its own with Polish uprising.
Warsaw in PLC: 1529: Warsaw for the first time became the seat of the General Sejm, permanent from 1569. 1596: King Sigismund III Vasa moved his court from Kraków to Warsaw.
Polish-Lithuanian identity: describes individuals and groups with histories in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or with close connections to its culture. This federation, formally established by the 1569 Union of Lublin between the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, created a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state founded on the binding powers of national identity and shared culture rather than ethnicity or religious affiliation. The term Polish-Lithuanian has been used to describe various groups residing in the Commonwealth, including those that did not share the Polish or Lithuanian ethnicity nor their predominant Roman Catholic faith.
16th – 18th centuries: Self-identifications during the existence of PLC often made use of the Latin 'gens-natione' construct (familial or ethnic origin combined with a national identity). The construct was used by the elite inhabitants of GDL, by the Ruthenian (Ukrainian and Belarusian) elites, and in Prussia. Religious affiliation was sometimes added, leading to self-identifications such as Natione Polonus, gente Ruthenus; Natione Polonus, gente Prussicus; or Natione Polonus, gente Ruthenus, origine Judaeus. The Latin phrasing reflects the use of that language as a neutral lingua franca, which continued into the 18th century. Maciej Stryjkowski and Augustinus Rotundus were strong proponents of using Latin as an official language of GDL, because they thought, that Lithuanian language is just a vernacular language which modified itself from original Latin. Their belief was based on grammatical similarities of Lithuanian and Latin. The Lublin Union of 1569 initiated voluntary Polonization of the Lithuanian upper classes, including increasing use of the Polish language, although they retained a strong sense of Lithuanian identity. Those who identified themselves as gente Lithuanus, natione Polonus ("a Lithuanian person of the Polish nation") were distinguished by their accent, customs, and cuisine, and did not perceive the categories as mutually exclusive. A diminishing portion of Lithuanian nobility and most of the rural population in the territories of GDL continued to use the Lithuanian language, especially in Samogitia, a practice that reached its nadir in the 18th c., and increased during the 19th-c. Lithuanian National Revival. According to Norman Davies, till the Revival, Lithuanian language had no agreed upon written form and Lithuanian literature was mostly religious, and the language was rarely heard in the Grand Duchy's capital of Vilnius. The adjectival terms Lithuanian and Polish-Lithuanian have been used to describe groups residing in the Commonwealth that did not share the Lithuanian ethnicity nor their pre-dominant Christian (Catholic) faith, for example in the description of the Lipka Tatars (Lithuanian Tatars), a Muslim community, and Litvaks (Lithuanian Jews), a significant Jewish community. Orthodox and Uniate communities also played a role in the Commonwealth's history. German minority, heavily represented in the towns (burghers), particularly in the Royal Prussia region, was another group with ties to that culture (Natione Polonus-gente Prussicus). Many Prussians from that region identified themselves not as Germans nor Poles, but as the citizens of the multicultural Commonwealth.
19th and 20th centuries: The dual identity maintained by many leading figures of Polish-Lithuanian history, the gente Lithuanus, natione Polonus attitude still popular in the early 19th century, was increasingly less feasible as the century pressed ahead. The leaders of the unsuccessful January Uprising of 1863–1865 invoked the former commonalities, appealing to "Brother Ruthenians and Lithuanians" and to "Brothers of the Poles of the Mosaic Persuasion". The peasants in the region were largely unmoved since they had never shared the constructed national identity of the elites. From this point of view, the conduct of Napoleon in Lithuania is noteworthy. 1812.07.01, Napoleon formed the Lithuanian Provisional Governing Commission. The provisional government of Lithuania had no connections to Poland. Napoleon also refused to attach the military units consisting of Lithuanians to the Polish ones. A group of individuals who tried to maintain the dual identity during that period was called the krajowcy. Their political program, as well as Piłsudski's idea of a Polish-led federation re-creating the Commonwealth (Międzymorze), became a failure. An analogy can be drawn here with regards to the split between Finnish and Swedish culture (see Finnish Declaration of Independence). Active figure in 1863 rebellion, writer and publicist Mikalojus Akelaitis wrote:
“
We should lift up the Lithuanian language, wrest away from scorn that language which has the Sanskrit greatness, the Latin force, the Greek refinement, and the Italian melodiousness.[10]
”
Simonas Daukantas (1793 – 1864), who wrote the voluminous history of Lithuania in Lithuanian Darbai senųjų lietuvių ir žemaičių and identified the language as the determining factor of nationality was rather critical regarding the Polish–Lithuanian union and considered it to be the cause of the Lithuanian state declining. It was a time of choosing citizenship, based on your values and language.
Modern usage: Lithuania and Poland continue to dispute the origins of some cultural icons with roots in both cultures who are described in their national discourses as Polish-Lithuanian, as simply Polish, or as simply Lithuanian. The poet Adam Mickiewicz is an examplar of the controversy. Today's Republic of Poland considers itself a successor to the Commonwealth, and stresses the common history of both nations, whereas the Republic of Lithuania, re-established at the end of WWI, saw the participation of the Lithuanian state in the old Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth mostly in a negative light and idealized the pre-Commonwealth GDL although this attitude has been changing recently.
Tadas Ivanauskas (1882.12.16–1970.06.01): prominent Lithuanian zoologist and biologist, and one of the founders of Vytautas Magnus University. Being born as Tadeusz Iwanowski in Lebiodka, Hrodna Voblast of today's Belarus, in a Catholic noble family loyal to the heritage of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, he did not know the Lithuanian language until 1905. Ivanauskas considered himself to be Lithuanian, and dedicated his life to the newly re-established country. He opened the first Lithuanian school with his wife in 1918. Other 3 brothers of Ivanauskas identified themselves with the other two nationalities of former PLC, two (Jerzy Iwanowski - politician and engineer and Stanisław Iwanowski - lawyer) chose to become Polish, and one Vacłaŭ Ivanoŭski (politician) - Belarusian (although he would live in interwar Poland). After finishing Warsaw Gymnasium in 1901, Ivanauskas moved to Saint Petersburg, where studied in the 1st gymnasium of the city. In 1903, he studied at the natural sciences department of the Saint Petersburg University. He met and befriended Lithuanian students here and learned the Lithuanian language. In 1905, he moved to Paris, and studied at Sorbonne University Nature-history faculty and graduated in 1909. Since 1904 was member of Lithuanian society Lituania. Together with another early twentieth century Lithuanian activist, Michał Römer, Ivanauskas gave lectures about Lithuania in Paris in 1905. Among his other achievements, he is known for opening one of the first bird banding stations in Europe, at Cape Ventė in 1929. He also founded the Zoological Museum in 1918, the Kaunas botanical garden in 1923, Žuvintas reserve in 1937, and the Kaunas Zoo in 1938.
Stasys Šilingas (1885.11.11–1962.11.13): a prominent lawyer and statesman in interwar Lithuania. Šilingas was born in Vilnius. He was a Baron through his maternal grandfather, Count Stanislav Šilingas of Paberžė, who was exiled to Siberia and whose property and estate were confiscated by the authorities of the Russian Empire for his monetary support of the failed Uprising of 1863. Šilingas spurned the title using it only when it served to advance his country’s causes in giving him access to the Russian elite. He participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905, manning the barricades and even firing a pistol at the Imperial Russian Army. Since childhood he spoke only Polish and Russian until he and Ramūnas Bytautas, his close friend, studied Lithuanian in Berlin in 1907. He would go on to translate Lithuanian works into Polish and Russian, and other works into Lithuanian, including works by both Friedrich Nietzsche and Rabindranath Tagore. He graduated from Moscow University in 1912 with a degree in law. When the independence of Lithuania was proclaimed on February 16, 1918, Šilingas served first as vice-president and then in 1919, as president of the Council of Lithuania. He was one of the main advisors and supporters of the authoritarian President Antanas Smetona. He was twice Minister of Justice, in 1926–1928 and in 1934–1938, and chairman of the State Council of Lithuania in 1928–1938. After the occupation of Lithuania by USSR, he was deported in 1941 to the Russian Arctic. Russian Empire official; Lithuanian Wars of Independence activities; Republic of Lithuania activist
God's Playground (: A History of Poland): history book in two volumes written by Norman Davies, covering a 1000-year history of Poland. Volume 1: The origins to 1795, and Volume 2: 1795 to the present first appeared as the Oxford Clarendon Press publication in 1981. The book, which most editions split into two volumes, has received favourable reviews in the international press, and is considered by many historians and other scholars to be one of the best English-language books on the subject of the history of Poland.
Romania, greater region speaking Romanian dialects/languages
Great Union (Great Union of 1918 (Romanian: Marea Unire din 1918)): name under which Romanian historians or Romanians in general commonly refer in Romanian historiography to the series of political unifications the Kingdom of Romania had with several of the so-called Romanian historical regions, starting with Bessarabia in 1918.03.27, continuing with Bukovina in 1918.11.28 and finalizing with Transylvania (on its broad meaning) in 1918.12.01 with the declaration of the union of this region with Romania in the city of Alba Iulia.
Soviet occupation of Romania (1944 to August 1958): period during which USSR maintained a significant military presence in Romania. The fate of the territories held by Romania after 1918 that were incorporated into USSR in 1940 is treated separately in the article on Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. The Soviets and the Romanian communists referred to the events of August 1944 as the "liberation of Romania by the glorious Soviet Army" in the 1952 Constitution of Romania, and August 23 (the day of 1944 coup) was celebrated as Liberation from Fascist Occupation Day. On the other hand, most Western and Romanian anti-communist sources use the term "Soviet occupation of Romania," some applying it to the whole period from 1944 to 1958.
Unification of Moldova and Romania: popular concept in the two countries that began in the late 1980s, during the Revolutions of 1989. The Romanian Revolution in 1989 and the independence of Moldova in 1991 further contributed to the development of a movement for the unification of the two Romanian-speaking countries. The question of reunification is recurrent in the public sphere of the two countries, often as a speculation, both as a goal and a danger. Though historically Romanian support for unification was high, a 2022 survey during the Russo-Ukrainian War indicated that only 11% of Romania's population supports an immediate union, while over 42% think it is not the moment.
Traian Băsescu (1951.11.04-): fourth President of Romania, serving since 2004.12, whose second and final term in office ends in 2014.12.21. Suspended from office in 2007 but reconfirmed a month later in a referendum. He was narrowly re-elected president for a second 5-year term in 2009, amidst allegations of electoral fraud that were ultimately dismissed by the Constitutional Court of Romania. in 2012.07.06 he was again suspended from office. He re-assumed office on 27 August 2012.
Moldova–European Union relations: Moldova and the EU began negotiating an Association Agreement (AA), including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, to replace the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement in 2010.01. The government of Moldova hoped to sign the AA in November 2013 at the Eastern Partnership summit, and in November 2012 EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule stated that negotiations could be completed by then. The AA was initialled at the summit, and signed on 2014.06.27. The parliament of Moldova ratified the agreement on 2014.07.02.
Unification of Romania and Moldova: Individuals who advocate the unification are usually called "unionists" (unioniști). Some support it as a peaceful process based on consent in the two countries, others in the name of a "Romanian historical right over Bessarabia". The supporters of the union refer to the opponents as "Moldovenists" (moldoveniști).
Controversy over linguistic and ethnic identity in Moldova: whether Moldovans constitute a subgroup of Romanians or a separate ethnic group. While there is wide agreement about the existence of a common language, the controversy persists about the use of the term "Moldovan language" in certain political contexts.
Gagauzia (formerly: Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (Gagauz Yeri)): autonomous region of Moldova. In 2014.02.02, Gagauzia held a referendum, when an overwhelming majority of voters opted for closer ties with Russia over EU integration, also opting for the independence of Gagauzia if Moldova chooses to enter EU. Despite declaring Gagauz as the national language of the Autonomy, the local authorities do not provide any full Gagauz-teaching school, most of those are Russian-language as opposed to inner Moldovan full Romanian language education; although pupils are introduced to all four of the usual school languages (Russian, Romanian/Moldovan, English or French, Gagauz), the local language continues to be in last place.
History of Transnistria: The 14th Soviet army had been based there since 1956 and was kept there after the fall of USSR to safeguard what is probably the biggest weapons stockpile and ammunition depot in Europe, which was set up in Soviet times for possible operations on the Southeastern Theater in the event of World War III. Russia was negotiating with the Republic of Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine for transit rights to be able to evacuate the military materiel back to Russia. In 1994, the 14th Army headquarters were moved from Moldovan capital Chişinău to Tiraspol.
Transnistria: Russian language - lingua franca, while there are Russians (about 1/3), Ukrainians and Moldovans
history involving the (nowadays) area of Transnistria (and parts of Moldova, or parts of Ukraine): Ottoman empire → Treaty of Bucharest (1812) {28 May 1812} (end of Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812) → Bessarabia Governorate {1812–1917} (part of RU empire) → Moldavian Democratic Republic {1917-1918} → part of Kingdom of Romania {which existed 1881-1947, Moldavia was part from 1918 till 1940} + Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Moldavian ASSR {1924-1940} (autonomous republic of the Ukrainian SSR; encompassing modern Transnistria and a number of territories that are now part of Ukraine) → Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina {1940 June 28 - July 4} (due to the secret protocol of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; later Ukrainian parts joined Ukrainian SSR) → Moldavian SSR {1940-1991}, which was occupied by Axis powers (including Romania) from 1941 till February–August 1944.
War of Transnistria: Transnistria, RU (RU 14th Army, volunteers, +Don Cossacks), Ukrainian volunteers vs Moldova, Romania (volunteers, advisors). Outcome: Transnistria de facto independent.
Joint Control Commission: RU, Moldova and PMR (Ukraine has some lesser status too). As of 2006, however, each of Moldova and the PMR participate with slightly more soldiers than Russia: Moldova currently supplies 403 men to the force, the PMR 411 men and Russia up to 385 men. As per the 1992 agreement with Moldova, Russia has a right to keep 2,400 troops in Transnistria. However, as of 2006 the number of Russian troops was just 1,500, with between 349 and 385 of those assigned to JCC at any given time.
Media of Transnistria: Publications are in Russian, with a single newspaper in each of the other two official languages, Moldovan (Romanian), and Ukrainian. Allegations of propaganda have emerged internationally. Transnistrian propaganda: In 2006, "The Economist" reported that an alleged propagandistic campaign, aimed at English-speaking audience had been underway: International Council for Democratic Institutions and State Sovereignty (non-existent anymore), Pridnestrovie.net (non-existent anymore), Visitpmr.com (non-existent anymore), Tiraspol Times (tiraspoltimes.com) (non-existent anymore; 2006-2008).
Proposed Russian annexation of Transnistria: government of Transnistria, a breakaway state internationally recognized as part of Moldova, has requested annexation by Russia numerous times. Transnistria is a territory that separated itself from Moldova due to fear of a possible unification of the latter with Romania. This sparked the Transnistria War, in which Russian-backed Transnistria managed to stay separate from Moldova. Despite this, today Transnistria is legally and internationally considered part of Moldova. Following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, hopes in Transnistria that Russia would annex its territory as well grew. Transnistria has a substantial ethnic Russian population and the vast majority of its people speak Russian. The territory is financially supported by Russia, and Transnistrian education and laws are also interrelated with Russia. Due to all this, exactly on the same day that Russia annexed Crimea, the leader of the Transnistrian parliament Mikhail Burla sent a letter to Russia requesting the facilitation of a Russian annexation of Transnistria in the country's laws, which had a negative response from the international community.
Rus (Rus'), Kievan Rus', (Rus' Khaganate), Krivichs; Muscovy
Rus' people (Old East Slavic: Рѹсь; Modern Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian: Русь, romanised: Rus'; Old Norse: Garðar; Greek: Ῥῶς, romanised: Rhos): early medieval group of people who gave their name to the lands of Russia, Ruthenia, and Belarus. According to both contemporary Byzantine and Islamic sources and the Primary Chronicle of Rus', compiled in about A.D 1113, the Rus were Norsemen who had relocated "from over sea", first to northeastern Europe, creating an early polity that finally came under the leadership of Rurik. Later, Rurik's relative Oleg captured Kiev, founding Rus', academically known as Kievan Rus'. Key sources: Slavic sources (Varangians were first expelled, then invited to rule the warring Slavic and Finnic tribes of Novgorod); Islamic sources (distinguish three groups of the Rus: Kuyavia, Slavia, and Arcania). Academic study: Normanism; Anti-Normanism; Beyond the Normanist/anti-Normanist debate.
ru:Святая Русь: в русских литературе, фольклоре, поэзии, просторечии и красноречии, русская земля, избранная Богом для спасения и просвещённая православной верой, и метафизическое пространство, союз православных христиан с центром в Небесном Иерусалиме. Среди иных пространств Святую Русь выделяет не география, не государственность и не этническая принадлежность, а православие. Парафразами того же дискурса являются представления о «Руси — Новом Израиле», «Руси — Третьем Риме», «Руси — православном царстве» и др. Выражение «Святая Русь» («святыя и великиа Росиа», «святорусская земля» и др.) известно с XVI века, но дискурс о святости Руси появился в русском обиходе раньше.
Siege of Constantinople (860): only major military expedition of the Rus' Khaganate recorded in Byzantine and Western European sources. The cause of the siege was the construction of the fortress Sarkel by Byzantine engineers, restricting the Rus' trade route along the Don River in favor of the Khazars.
Rus'–Byzantine War (907): associated in the Primary Chronicle with the name of Oleg of Novgorod. The chronicle implies that it was the most successful military operation of the Kievan Rus' against the Byzantine Empire. Paradoxically, Greek sources do not mention it at all. Interpretations: That Oleg's campaign is not fiction is clear from the authentic text of the peace treaty, which was incorporated into the chronicle. Current scholarship tends to explain the silence of Greek sources with regard to Oleg's campaign by the inaccurate chronology of the Primary Chronicle. Some assume that the raid actually took place in 904, when the Byzantines were at war with Leo of Tripoli. A more plausible conjecture has been advanced by Boris Rybakov and Lev Gumilev: the account of the campaign in fact refers to the Rus'-Byzantine War (860), erroneously described in Slavonic sources as a Kievan failure.
Rus' Khaganate (~ late 8th, early-to-mid 9th c.): name applied by some modern historians to a polity that was postulated to exist during a poorly documented period in the history of Eastern Europe. It was suggested that the Rus' Khaganate was a state, or a cluster of city-states, set up by a people called Rus', described in all contemporary sources as being Norsemen, somewhere in what is today European Russia, as a chronological predecessor to the Rurik Dynasty and the Kievan Rus'. The region's population at that time was composed of Baltic, Slavic, Finnic, Turkic, Hungarian, and Norse peoples. The region was also a place of operations for Varangians, eastern Scandinavian adventurers, merchants, and pirates. This period is thought to be the times of the genesis of a distinct Rus' ethnos, which gave rise to Kievan Rus' and later states from which modern Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine evolved.
Rus'–Byzantine Treaty (907): result of Oleg's raid against Constantinople (see Rus'–Byzantine War (907) for details). Scholars generally consider this document as preliminary to the Rus'–Byzantine Treaty of 911. The text of the treaty, as preserved in the Kievan chronicle, opens with a list of signatories on the part of the Rus'. They are all Norse: Karl, Farulf, Vermund, Hrollaf, and Steinvith. Kievan Rus' figures in the text as a conglomeration of major urban centres: Kiev, Chernigov, Pereyaslav, Polotsk, Rostov, and Lyubech. Aleksey Shakhmatov commented that the list of the towns is arbitrary and that some of them may have been inserted by later scribes.
Rus'–Byzantine Treaty (911): most comprehensive and detailed treaty concluded between the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus in the 10th century. It was preceded by the preliminary treaty of 907. It was the earliest written source of Old Russian Law. Composed in two languages and signed personally by Emperor Leo VI. The text also includes speeches of the parties on the occasion. No treaties of comparable complexity and antiquity are known among the other societies in Europe of that time. The treaty opens with a lengthy enumeration of the Rus' envoys, whose names are exclusively Norse: Karl, Ingjald, Farulf, Vermund, Hrollaf, Gunnar, Harold, Kami, Frithleif, Hroarr, Angantyr, Throand, Leithulf, Fast, and Steinvith. The articles 3 to 7 regulate criminal law and the life of their colony at Constantinople. There is also a proviso on inheritance of a merchant who died in the imperial capital. The article 8 is dedicated to maritime law. The following articles enlarge on ransom of captives, exchange of criminals, and the status of the Varangian mercenaries in Byzantine service.
Rus'–Byzantine Treaty (945): between the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII and Igor I of Kiev was concluded either in 944 or 945 as a result of a naval expedition undertaken by Kievan Rus against Constantinople in the early 940s.
Ruthenia (Latin: Ruthenia or Rutenia): exonym, originally used in Medieval Latin as one of several terms for Kievan Rus', Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia, and, after their collapse, for East Slavic and Eastern Orthodox regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, corresponding to what is now Ukraine and Belarus. During the early modern period, the term Ruthenia started to be mostly associated with the Ruthenian lands of the Polish Crown and the Cossack Hetmanate. Bohdan Khmelnytsky declared himself the ruler of the Ruthenian state to the Polish representative Adam Kysil in February 1649. Grand Principality of Ruthenia was the project name of the Cossack Hetmanate integrated into the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth.
Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Trojga Narodów, Republic of Three Nations): proposed (but never actually formed) European state in the 17th c. that would have replaced the existing PLC. The establishment of the Grand Duchy of Ruthenia was considered at various times, particularly during the 1648 Cossack insurrection against Polish rule in primarily ethnically Ukrainian territories (see Khmelnytsky Uprising). Such a Ruthenian duchy, as proposed in the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach, would have been a full-fledged member of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which would thereby have become a tripartite Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth. In May 1659, the Polish Diet (Sejm) ratified the treaty with an emended text. The idea of a Ruthenian Duchy within the Commonwealth was completely abandoned. Canadian historian Paul Robert Magosci believes that this happened due to divisions among the Cossacks and to the Russian invasion; however, both these events occurred much earlier than the signing of the Treaty of Hadiach. The Russian historian Tairova-Yakovleva regards the resistance of Polish society and papal pressure as the reasons for the incomplete ratification.
Treaty of Hadiach (Polish: ugoda hadziacka; Ukrainian: гадяцький договір) was a treaty signed on 16 September 1658 in Hadiach (Hadziacz, Hadiacz, Гадяч) between representatives of PLC (Stanisław Kazimierz Bieniewski representing Poland and Kazimieras Liudvikas Jevlaševskis representing Lithuania) and Zaporozhian Cossacks (represented by Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and starshina Yuri Nemyrych, architect of the treaty, and Pavlo Teteria). It was designed to elevate the Cossacks and Ruthenians to the position equal to that of Poland and Lithuania in the Polish–Lithuanian union and in fact transforming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth.
Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia: originally referred to the people, regions, and medieval states (9th to 12th c.) of the Kievan Rus'. In Western culture, it was better known as Ruthenia from the 11th c. onwards, Its territories are today distributed among Belarus, Northern Ukraine, Eastern Poland, and the European section of Russia. The term Россия (Rossija), comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Rus', Ρωσσία Rossía—related to both Modern Greek: Ρως, romanized: Ros, lit. Rus, and Ρωσία (Rosía, "Russia", pronounced [roˈsia]). One of the earliest written sources mentioning the people called Rus' (as Rhos) dates to 839 in the Annales Bertiniani. This chronicle identifies them as a Germanic tribe called the Swedes. According to the Kievan Rus' Primary Chronicle, compiled in about 1113, the Rus' were a group of Varangians, Norsemen who had relocated somewhere from the Baltic region (literally "from beyond the sea"), first to Northeastern Europe, then to the south where they created the medieval Kievan state. In the 11th c., the dominant term in the Latin tradition was Ruscia. It was used, among others, by Thietmar of Merseburg, Adam of Bremen, Cosmas of Prague and Pope Gregory VII in his letter to Izyaslav I. Rucia, Ruzzia, Ruzsia were alternative spellings. During the 12th c., Ruscia gradually made way for two other Latin terms, "Russia" and "Ruthenia". "Russia" (also spelled Rossia and Russie) was the dominant Romance-language form, first used by Liutprand of Cremona in the 960s and then by Peter Damian in the 1030s. It became ubiquitous in English and French documents in the 12th c. Ruthenia, first documented in the early 12th c. Augsburg annals, was a Latin form preferred by the Apostolic Chancery of the Latin Church. The modern name of Russia (Rossija), which came into use in the 15th c., is derived from the Greek Ρωσία, which in turn derives from Ῥῶς, the self-name of the people of Rus'. A hypothetical predecessor of Kievan Rus' is the 9th-c. Rus' Khaganate, whose name and existence are inferred from a handful of early medieval Byzantine and Persian and Arabic sources.
Black Ruthenia (Black Rus'; 13th-14th c.): region around Navahrudak (Novgorodok), in the western part of contemporary Belarus on the upper reaches of the Neman River.
Little Russia (Little Rus', Rus' Minor): historical political and geographical term in the Russian language referring to most of the territory of modern-day Ukraine before the twentieth century.
White Russia (White Ruthenia): historically been applied to a part of the wider region of Ruthenia or Rus', most often to what roughly corresponds to the eastern part of present-day Belarus including the cities of Polotsk, Vitebsk and Mogilev.
Great Russia: obsolete name formerly applied to the territories of "Russia proper", the land that formed the core of Muscovy and, later, Russia; land to which the ethnic Russians were native and where the ethnogenesis of (Great) Russians took place.
Krivichs (Krivichi; 6th-12th c.): one of the tribal unions of Early East Slavs.
ru:Русские княжества (XII—XVI c.): государственные образования исторической Руси в пределах современных государств: России, Украины, Белоруссии, частично Польши, Молдавии, Румынии, Латвии, Эстонии. Стали отдельными после распада Киевской Руси. Возглавлялись князьями из династий Рюриковичей и Гедиминовичей.
Kievan Rus (Kievan Russia; latin: Russia, Ruthenia, Ruscia, Ruzzia; 882–1283): loose federation of East Slavic tribes in Europe, under the Rurik dynasty.
Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia (Principality of Galicia–Volhynia, Kingdom of Rus'; LA: Regnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae, Regnum Russiae; 1199–1349): medieval state in the Eastern European regions of Galicia, Volhynia, Podlachia, Carpathian Ruthenia, Podolia, part of Moldavia, Kiev, and the territory of the Black Sea shore (Bessarabia). The main language was Old East Slavic, the predecessor of the modern East Slavic languages, and the official religion was Eastern Orthodoxy. The Grand Prince of Kiev, Roman the Great, united the principalities of Halych and Volhynia into a single state at the turn of the 13th century. Following the destruction wreaked by the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' (1239 to 1241), Prince Danylo Romanovych was forced to pledge allegiance to Batu Khan of the Golden Horde in 1246 as other princes of Rus did. He strove to rid his realm of the Mongol yoke, by formally drawing closer to Western Europe, however when Batu Khan ordered him to destroy city walls of his eastern cities he did so. He was crowned "Rex Russiae" by a papal legate in 1253, becoming officially an Orthodox subject of the Vatican. He also unsuccessfully attempted to establish military alliances with other European rulers. The Polish conquest of the kingdom in 1349 ended its vassalage to the Golden Horde but it also ended its autonomy; the principality of Galicia was fully absorbed by Catholic Poland. Upon annexing it, Polish King Casimir III the Great adopted the title of King of Poland and ruler of Ruthenia, and the territory was transformed into the Ruthenian Voivodeship (Latin: Palatinatus Russiae) in 1434.
Novgorod Republic (ru: Новгоро́дская респу́блика, cu: Новгородскаѧ земьлѧ; 1136-1478): medieval state stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east, including the city of Novgorod and the Lake Ladoga regions of modern Russia. The Republic prospered as the easternmost trading post of the Hanseatic League and its Slavic, Baltic and Finnic people were much influenced by the culture of the Viking-Varangians and Byzantine people. Citizens referred to their city-state as "His Majesty (or Sovereign) Lord Novgorod the Great" (Gosudar Gospodin Veliky Novgorod) or, more often, as "Lord Novgorod the Great" (Gospodin Veliky Novgorod). Government: Mixed republic.
Novgorod Land: one of the largest historical territorial–state formations in Russia, covering its northwest and north. Novgorod Land, centered in Veliky Novgorod, was the cradle of Old Russian statehood under the rule of the Rurikovich dynasty and one of the most important princely thrones of the era of Kievan Rus'. During the collapse of Kievan Rus' and in subsequent centuries, Novgorod Land developed as an autonomous Russian state with republican forms of government under the suzerainty of the great princes of Vladimir (later – Moscow).
Battle of Shelon (1471.07.14): decisive battle between the forces of the Grand Duchy of Moscow under Ivan III (r. 1462–1505) and the army of the Novgorod Republic. Novgorod suffered a major defeat and ended with the de facto unconditional surrender of the city. Novgorod was absorbed by Muscovy in 1478.
Massacre of Novgorod (1570): attack launched by Tsar Ivan IV (The Terrible)'s oprichniki on the city of Novgorod. Although initially an act of vengeance against the perceived treason of the local Orthodox church, the massacre quickly became possibly the most vicious in the brutal legacy of the oprichnina, with casualties in the tens of thousands and innumerable acts of extreme violent cruelty. In the aftermath of the attack, Novgorod lost its status as one of Russia's leading cities, crippled by the decimation of its citizenry combined with Ivan's assault on the surrounding farmlands.
Vladimir-Suzdal (Владимирско-Су́здальская; Vladimir-Suzdalian Rus', Grand Duchy of Vladimir; Duchy of Vladimir (1157–1169); Grand Duchy of Vladimir (1169–1331)): one of the major principalities that succeeded Kievan Rus', centered in Vladimir-on-Klyazma. With time the principality grew into a grand duchy divided into several smaller principalities. After being conquered by the Mongol Empire, the principality became a self-governed state headed by its own nobility. A governorship of principality, however, was prescribed by a jarlig (declaration by the Khan) issued from the Golden Horde to a Rurikid sovereign.
Historical map of Kievan Rus' and territory of Ukraine: last 20 years of the state (1220-1240), english version.
Pskov Republic (1348–1510; Latin: Plescoviae): medieval state on the south shore of Lake Pskov. Originally a principality and then a part of the Novgorod Republic, Pskov became an independent republic in 1348.
Splitting between three East Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian):
Polesia: extends eastward through modern-day south Belarus and north Ukraine, and ends within Russia; swampy areas of central Polesie are known as the Pinsk Marshes. Large parts of the region were contaminated after the Chernobyl disaster and the region now includes the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Western & Eastern Ukraine: two different countries due to history; different religions, the East contains some Russian speakers, the West contained (up to 1949) some Polish speakers. RU (17th-20th c.) and PL (15th-18th c. & end of 19th - 20th c.) were regional powers in culture, language, war, but between them was huge Ukraine, the relic of Kievan Rus' (indirect precursor to Moscow Rus', aka RU) {from Kievan Rus' to Ruthenians to Rusyns}. The close relation of Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian languages, while at the same time heavy Polish lang. influence on Ukrainian and a bit on Belorussian; also local people (in Ukraine) are Boykos, Hutsuls, Lemkos, Rusyns, Poleszuks, Kuban Cossacks, Pannonian Rusyns.
Eastern Ukraine are steppe and this land was settled only in the last 300-400 years, because before that the nomadic tribes were running their horses through this steppe. Industrialization in Russian Empire brought new settlers from whole Empire into Donbas region from second half of 19th c. Investment into Donbas came from BE, FR, GB, DE and CH. Donetsk, Luhansk, Mariupol and other cities were built up during the industrialization.
History of the territory of Ukraine during WWI, Interwar and WWII:
language: History of Russian language in Ukraine, Valuev Circular (18 July 1863; large portion of the publications (religious, and literature used for school training) in Ukrainian language was forbidden), Ems Ukaz (1876; banned the use of the Ukrainian language in print, with the exception of reprinting of old documents)
Bibliography of Ukrainian history: select bibliography of English-language books (including translations) and journal articles about the history of Ukraine.
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA; Національний університет «Києво-Могилянська академія» (НаУКМА)) {Academic staff: 180; Students: c. 4000}: national, research university located in Kyiv. The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the school's predecessor, was established in 1615. NaUKMA has the highest level of accreditation as outlined by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and is one of the thirteen educational institutions in Ukraine having a status of a research and autonomous university. NaUKMA takes part in numerous international university collaborations, such as the European University Association. The university is bilingual in Ukrainian and English. It is one of Ukraine's few universities with internationally recognized diplomas. NaUKMA is one of the smallest universities in Ukraine. Alumni of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy played a formative role in the intellectual and church life of Ukraine and Russia in 17th and 18th centuries. Theophan Prokopovich as a rector of the Kyiv-Mogila Academy elaborated upon and implemented Peter the Great's reform of the Russian Orthodox Church. The university is known as pro-Western and served as headquarters for Orange Revolution activists. Due to the exceptional quality of the language program many of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy's students continued their education abroad, which at the time meant many of them were required to convert from the Orthodox faith to Roman Catholicism. Despite this, many returning alumni readopted the Orthodox religion, as this was necessary in order to attain positions in the clergy or Academia. By sending so many of its graduates abroad the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy played a vital role in facilitating the transfer of knowledge eastwards cross Europe and popularising the Renaissance both in Ukraine and Russia.
Ukrainian territorial evolution, 1918-1991.
Decommunization in Ukraine: started during and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. With the success of the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, the Ukrainian government approved laws that outlawed communist symbols.
Budjak#Ethnic groups and demographics: historical region in the Odessa Oblast (province) of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers, this multi-ethnic region of 13,188 km² was the southern part of Bessarabia. The main ethnic groups in Budjak today are Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Russians, and Moldovans. The region was inhabited by Moldovans (Romanians / Vlachs) and Nogai Tatars through the Middle Ages, but became a home to several other ethnicities and religious groups in the 19th century when it was part of the Russian Empire. The examples are Bessarabian Bulgarians, Bessarabian Germans, Gagauzians and Lipovan Russians who settled in compact areas.
Romanians in Ukraine: Autonomous Moldavian Republic in Soviet Ukraine; Moldovans and Romanians.
Surzhyk: range of mixed (macaronic) sociolects of Ukrainian and Russian languages used in certain regions of Ukraine and adjacent lands.
Ukrainian oligarchs: emerged on the economic and political scene of Ukraine after the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum. This period saw Ukraine transitioning to a market economy with the rapid privatization of state-owned assets. Those developments mirrored those of the neighboring post-Soviet states after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The influence of Ukrainian oligarchs on domestic and regional politics, particularly their links to Russia, have been the source of criticism from pro-Western sources critical of Ukraine’s lack of political reform or action against corruption. The oligarchs' influence on the Ukrainian government is extreme. In 2011 some analysts and Ukrainian politicians believed that some Ukrainian businesses tycoons, with "lucrative relations" with Russia, were deliberately hindering Ukraine's European Union integration.
Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances (1994.12.05): political agreement, providing security assurances by its signatories relating to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The Memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear powers, the Russian Federation, USA and UK. China and France gave somewhat weaker individual assurances in separate documents.
Energy:
Coal in Ukraine#Coal production: Coal in Ukraine is one of the country's biggest industries, but it is dangerous for its miners. In 2016 Ukraine exported 520,585 tonnes of coal and anthracite worth of $44.762 million and it imported 15.648 million tonnes coal and anthracite worth of $1.467 billion. In the year before the current Ukrainian crisis, 2013, Ukraine exported 500 thousand tonnes and imported 25 million tonnes.
Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant: Enerhodar, Ukraine, is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and the 3rd largest in the world.
2010 Ukrainian–Russian Naval Base for Natural Gas treaty (Kharkiv Accords): Russian lease on naval facilities in Crimea would be extended beyond 2017 by 25 years (to 2042) with an additional 5 year renewal option (to 2047) in exchange for a multiyear discounted contract to provide Ukraine with Russian natural gas.
2010 Kharkiv Pact: treaty between Ukraine and Russia whereby the Russian lease on naval facilities in Crimea would be extended beyond 2017 by 25 years (to 2042) with an additional 5 year renewal option (to 2047) in exchange for a multiyear discounted contract to provide Ukraine with Russian natural gas.
Politics:
Right wing:
Social-National Assembly: assemblage of the ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi radical organizations and groups founded in 2008 that share the social-national ideology and agree upon building a social-national state in Ukraine.
Patriots of Ukraine: Ukrainian nationalist organization with racist and neo-Nazi political beliefs. Both the "Patriot of Ukraine" and the S.N.A. engage in political violence against minorities and their political opponents.
Viktor Yushchenko (1954.02.23-): Ukrainian politician who was the third President of Ukraine from 2005.01.23 to 2010.02.25. Yushchenko won the presidency through a repeat runoff election between him and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The Ukrainian Supreme Court called for the runoff election to be repeated because of widespread electoral fraud in favor of Viktor Yanukovych in the original vote. Yushchenko won in the revote (52% to 44%). Public protests prompted by the electoral fraud played a major role in that presidential election and led to Ukraine's Orange Revolution. Following an assassination attempt in late 2004 during his election campaign, Yushchenko was confirmed to have ingested hazardous amounts of TCDD, the most potent dioxin and a contaminant in Agent Orange; he suffered disfigurement as a result of the poisoning, but has since made a full physical recovery.
Cassette Scandal (Kuchmagate): erupting in 2000, so named due to tape recordings of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma apparently ordering the kidnap of a journalist, was one of the main political events in Ukraine's post-independence history. It has dramatically affected the country's domestic and foreign policy, changing Ukraine's orientation at the time from Russia to the West and damaging Kuchma's career. 2000.11.28, in Kiev, Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Moroz publicly accused President Kuchma of involvement in the abduction of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and numerous other crimes.
Decommunization in Ukraine: in 2015.04 a formal decommunization process started in Ukraine after laws were approved which, among other acts, outlawed communist symbols. At the time this meant that 22 cities and 44 villages were set to get a new name. In 2016 51,493 streets and 987 cities and villages were renamed and 1,320 Lenin monuments and 1,069 monuments to other communist figures removed. In 2015.04 the parliament also passed a law that replaced the term "Great Patriotic War" in the national lexicon with "World War II" from 1939 to 1945.
Temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine: defined as such in Ukrainian law following the Russian military intervention that resulted in Ukrainian control over the Crimean peninsula and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions being lost. The situation regarding the Crimean peninsula is more complex since Russia annexed the territory in March 2014 and now administers it as two federal subjects - the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol. Ukraine continues to claim Crimea as an integral part of its territory, supported by most foreign governments and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/262, although Russia and some other UN member states recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, or have expressed support for the 2014 Crimean referendum.
Possible routes of alleged Russian invasion of Ukraine (January 2022). Map depicts two slightly different plans published by German Bild and US-based CSIS.
2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis (2021.03.03–2021.04.22; 2021.10.11 – present): in March and April 2021, Russia massed about 100,000 soldiers and military equipment near its border with Ukraine, representing the highest force mobilization since the country's annexation of Crimea in 2014. This precipitated an international crisis and generated concerns over a potential invasion. Satellite imagery showed movements of armor, missiles, and other heavy weaponry. The troops were partially removed by June. The crisis was renewed in October and November 2021, when over 100,000 Russian troops were again massed near the border by December. The ongoing crisis stems from the protracted Russo-Ukrainian conflict that began in early 2014. In December 2021, Russia advanced two draft treaties that contained requests of what it referred to as "security guarantees" including a legally binding promise that Ukraine would not join NATO as well as a reduction in NATO troops and military hardware stationed in Eastern Europe and threatened unspecified military response if those demands were not met in full. Bilateral USA-Russia diplomatic talks were held in January 2022, but those failed to defuse the crisis.
Russia–Ukraine barrier: fortified border barrier currently under construction by Ukraine on the Russia–Ukraine border. The aim of the project, according to Ukraine, is preventing Russian military intervention in Ukraine and to assist with obtaining visa-free travel with the European Union. The former Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk presented this project in 2014.09.03, building started officially in 2015, and in June 2020, the State Border Guard of Ukraine expected that the project would be finished by 2025.
Deportation of the Crimean Tatars (1944): ordered by Joseph Stalin as a form of collective punishment for alleged collaboration with the Nazi occupation regime in Taurida Subdistrict during 1942-1943.
2006 anti-NATO protests in Feodosia (2006.05.29–06.04): partially disrupting a joint Ukrainian-U.S. military exercise, which was canceled in 2006.07.20. The military Ukraine-NATO Partnership for Peace military exercise Sea Breeze 2006 exercise (in Crimea) was scheduled to take place in Ukraine starting 2006.07.17. Its aim was to "simulate the defence of a peninsula caught between a totalitarian state and a democratic one." "Sea Breeze" manoeuvres had been held annually since 1997. Another British-Ukrainian war-game called "Tight Knot" was scheduled to start on 2006.06.14 (near Mykolaiv). 2006.06.06 2006 the Crimean legislature declared Crimea a "NATO-free territory".
Oleg Sentsov (1976.07.13-): Ukrainian filmmaker and writer, from Crimea, best known for his 2011 film Gamer. Following the Russian annexation of Crimea he was arrested in Crimea and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by a Russian court on charges of plotting terrorism acts. From 2018.05.14, he went on an open-ended hunger strike protesting the incarceration of 65 Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia and demanding their release, ended on 2018.10.05. Sentsov was awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize in 2018.10.25.
Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet ("Agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Parameters of the Division of the Black Sea Fleet", the "Agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Status and Conditions of the Presence of the Russian Federation Black Sea Fleet on the territory of Ukraine" and "Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Ukraine on Payments Associated with the Division of the Black Sea Fleet and Its Presence on the territory of Ukraine"): were the three treaties between Russia and Ukraine signed on 1997.05.28 whereby the two countries established two independent national fleets, divided armaments and bases between them, and set out conditions for basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. 2014.03.28 following the annexation of Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted proposals to the State Duma on terminating a number of Russia–Ukraine agreements, including the Black Sea Fleet partition treaty and the Kharkiv Pact. The State Duma approved the abrogation of these Russian-Ukrainian agreements unanimously by 433 members of parliament on 2014.03.31.
Russian–Ukrainian Friendship Treaty (Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation): since April 2019 expired agreement between Ukraine and Russia, signed in 1997, which fixed the principle of strategic partnership, the recognition of the inviolability of existing borders, and respect for territorial integrity and mutual commitment not to use its territory to harm the security of each other. The treaty prevents Ukraine and Russia from invading one anothers country respectively, and declaring war. Ukraine announced its intention not to renew the treaty in September 2018. By doing so the treaty did expire in 2019.03.31. Russia–Ukraine relations have deteriorated since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and Russian support for separatist forces in the war in Ukraine's Donbas region. In response, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree not to extend the treaty.
Capture of the Crimean Parliament (2014.02.27): episode of the Crimean crisis in which Russian armed forces without insignias took over the Crimean Parliament Building, leading to the Russo-Ukrainian War. The Crimean Prosecutor's Office considered the incident a terrorist attack; around 4:30, two groups of 10-15 armed men in military uniform without insignia entered the building of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea and took control of it. Immediately after the capture, the attackers were barricaded indoors, having previously removed a small number of staff. Crimean People's Deputy from the UDAR Serhiy Kunitsyn said that the building was captured by 120 highly trained personnel who had a large arsenal of weapons, including automatic weapons, machine guns and grenade launchers, which would allow them to defend themselves for a long time. Persons who seized the building described themselves as self-defense activists for Russian-speaking citizens of Crimea, although the Mejlis leader, Refat Chubarov, said that Russian people were in charge of these people; later it became clear that the operation was orchestrated by Russian special forces.
2014 Simferopol incident (2014.03.18): Ukrainian soldier and a Russian Cossack paramilitary were killed in the first case of bloodshed during the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. None of the accounts of this event could be verified independently. The Ukrainian and the Crimean authorities provided conflicting reports of the event. The two casualties had a joint funeral attended by both Crimean and Ukrainian authorities. The event continues to be under investigation by both the Crimean authorities and the Ukrainian military. Storming of Ukrainian military facility: 2014.03.18, at 3 p.m, 15 masked gunmen attired in Russian uniforms without insignia, stormed the 13th Photogrammetric Center of the Central Military-Topographic and Navigation Administration in Simferopol, Crimea. The base was administered by Ukrainian soldiers and had been completely surrounded by pro-Russian and Crimean Self-Defense troops since 13 March.
Euromaidan (Євромайда́н; Maidan Uprising; 2013.11.21–2014.02.23): wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. The protests were sparked by the Ukrainian government's sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. Ukraine's parliament had overwhelmingly approved of finalizing the Agreement with the EU, while Russia had put pressure on Ukraine to reject it. The scope of the protests widened, with calls for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and the Azarov Government. The protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption, the influence of oligarchs, abuse of power, and violation of human rights in Ukraine. Transparency International named Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world. The violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November caused further anger. The Euromaidan led to the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.
Revolution of Dignity (2014.02.18–23; Euro-Maidan Revolution): took place in Ukraine at the end of the Euromaidan protests, when deadly clashes between protesters and the security forces in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv culminated in the ousting of elected President Viktor Yanukovych and the overthrow of the Ukrainian government.
de:Euromaidan: Bezeichnung für die Proteste in der Ukraine seit 2013.11.21 bis heute [14/02/20]. Ausgelöst wurden die Proteste durch die überraschende Ankündigung der ukrainischen Regierung, das Assoziierungsabkommen mit der EU nicht unterzeichnen zu wollen. West Ukraine vs East Ukraine.
2014 Odessa clashes (2014.01.26–05.02): series of conflicts between pro-Maidan and anti-Maidan demonstrators that occurred in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, following the Revolution of Dignity. The violence intensified on May 2 when a pro-Maidan demonstration was attacked by anti-Maidan activists. In the ensuing clashes, the pro-Maidan demonstrators moved to dismantle an anti-Maidan tent camp in Kulykove Pole, causing groups of anti-Maidan activists to take refuge in the nearby Trade Unions House. Pro-Maidan demonstrators attempted to storm the Trade Union House, which caught fire as the two sides threw petrol bombs at each other. The events resulted in deaths of 48 people, 46 of whom were anti-Maidan activists.
2014 Hrushevskoho Street riots (2014.01.19–22 (riots); 2014.01.23–02.17 (standoff); 2014.02.18–23 (revolution)): in response to anti-protest laws in Ukraine (announced in 2014.01.16 and enacted in 2014.01.21), a standoff between protesters and police began on 19 January 2014 that was precipitated by a series of riots in central Kyiv on Hrushevsky Street, outside Dynamo Stadium and adjacent to the ongoing Euromaidan protests. During a Euromaidan rally which gathered up to 200,000 protesters, participants marched on the Verkhovna Rada and were met by police cordons. Following a tense stand-off, violence started as police confronted protesters. Protesters erected blockades to prevent the movement of government forces. Four protesters were confirmed dead in clashes with police, three of them shot.
Anti-Maidan (Антимайда́н; Russian: Антимайдан): a number of demonstrations in Ukraine first directed against the Euromaidan and later the new Ukrainian government. The initial participants were in favor of supporting the cabinet of the second Azarov government, President Viktor Yanukovych, and closer ties with Russia. After the overthrow of Yanukovych, anti-Maidan became divided into various other groups, which partially overlapped. These ranged from people protesting against social ills, to supporters of a federalization of Ukraine, to pro-Russian separatists and nationalists.
Agreement on settlement of political crisis in Ukraine: documents, signed in 2014.02.21 by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and the leaders of the parliamentary opposition under the mediation of EU and Russia. The signing of the Agreement was intended to stop the mass bloodshed in Kyiv and to end the sharp political crisis, which began in November 2013 in connection with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to suspend the process of signing the Association agreement with EU. An agreement to resolve the political crisis was signed by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders Vitali Klitschko (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform), Arseniy Yatsenyuk (All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland") and Oleh Tyahnybok (Svoboda). Witnessing the signing was made by the Foreign Ministers of Germany and Poland – Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Radosław Sikorski and the head of the Department for Continental Europe of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Eric Fournier. Special representative of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Lukin, who participated in the negotiations, refused to put his signature under the agreement.
Timeline of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation: On 22–23 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security services chiefs to discuss pullout of deposed President, Viktor Yanukovych, and at the end of that meeting Putin remarked that "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia.". Russia sent in soldiers in 2014.02.27.
February 25: Also Russian armored personnel carriers were deployed to protect "Russian Interests" in the city of Sevastopol. The APCs with Russian marines were in Nakhimov Square and the courtyard of the Moscow House.
February 26: media claimed that Russian troops or (as they themselves claimed) local volunteers took control of the main route of access to Sevastopol. A military checkpoint, with military vehicles under a Russian flag, was set up on the main highway between the city and Simferopol. CNN described them as a "pro-Russian militia checkpoint".
On February 27, at 4:20 local time, sixty pro-Russian gunmen seized Crimea's parliament building and Council of Ministers building. They were said to be professionals and heavily armed. Thirty broke into the building initially, with a bus carrying another thirty and additional weapons arriving later. The gunmen were unmarked but raised Russian flags. It voted to terminate the Crimean government, and replace Prime Minister Anatolii Mohyliov with Sergey Aksyonov. Aksyonov belonged to the Russian Unity party, which received 4% of the vote in the last election. It also voted to hold a referendum on greater autonomy on 25 May. The gunmen had cut all of the building's communications and took MPs' phones as they entered. No independent journalists were allowed inside the building while the votes were taking place. Some MPs claimed they were being threatened and that votes were cast for them and other MPs, even though they were not in the chamber. On the morning of February 27, Berkut units from Crimea and other regions of Ukraine (dissolved by the decree of 25 February) seized checkpoints on the Isthmus of Perekop and Chonhar peninsula. According to MP Hennadiy Moskal, former Chief of Crimean police, they had armoured personnel carriers, grenade launchers, assault rifles, machine guns and other weapons. Since then they control all traffic by land between Crimea and continental Ukraine.
February 28: In the early hours of February 28, a group of 50–119 armed men in military uniform without signs of identification (designated later as "Green men") seized control over Simferopol International Airport and local TV tower. Airport authorities later denied that it had been "captured" and said that it was still operating normally despite the continuing armed presence. Later in the day, Sevastopol International Airport was occupied in a similar manner as Simferopol's airport. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, soldiers without identification are Russian Black Sea Fleet troops. Later some television channels reported that airports are guarded by Russian forces. It was then claimed that militants in Simferopol airport are soldiers of the Russian MI whose plane was noticed at the Hvardiyske Airport at Hvardiiske near Simferopol.
Historical background of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine: a variety of social, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic factors contributed to the sparking of unrest in eastern and southern Ukraine in the aftermath of the early 2014 revolution in Ukraine. Crimea. Donbas. Kharkiv Oblast. Odessa Oblast.
Media portrayal of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine: both the Russian and western media were accused of propagandizing, and of waging an information war during their media coverage of the events. Portrayals by the Ukrainian, western and Russian media created narratives that often appeared to be entirely different.
Insurgents take control of parts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts
Counter-offensive by government forces
Federal State of Novorossiya: unrecognised confederation of Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, claiming the territory of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, which shares a border with Russia. Declared in 2014.05.22 and agreements were signed between leaders of two self-proclaimed republics on 24 May.
Donetsk People's Republic: is [14/06/12] an unrecognized state in eastern Ukraine and part of the self-proclaimed Federal State of New Russia. Militants: Donbass People's Militia; Vostok Battalion; Cossacks; North Caucasus paramilitary: Chechens, Ossetians & Abkhaz; Russian involvement; Training facility.
War in Donbas (2014–2022) (former article names on Wikipedia: ← War in Donbas [2022.07.02 moved] ← War in Donbass [2021.04.14 moved] ← "2014 insurgency in Donbass" [2014.07.22-07.29] (shortly was moved to "2014 Ukrainian civil war" [2014.07.22]) ← "2014 insurgency in Donetsk and Luhansk" [2014.07.02 moved] ← ("Draft:2014 insurgency in Donetsk and Luhansk" [2014.06.18 moved] ← "Draft:Donetsk crisis" [2014.04.23-2014.06.15, moved])): Between 22 and 25 August, Russian artillery, personnel, and a humanitarian convoy were reported to have crossed the border into Ukrainian territory without the permission of the Ukrainian government. Crossings were reported to have occurred both in areas under pro-Russian forces control and areas that were not under their control, such as the south-eastern part of Donetsk Oblast, near Novoazovsk. These events followed the reported shelling of Ukrainian positions from the Russian side of the border over the course of the preceding month.
History of the proxy war: March and April 2014; Expansion of separatist territorial control (Siege of Sloviansk, Battle of Kramatorsk, Battle of Horlivka, Battle of Mariupol (May–June 2014), Other cities); Government counter-offensive: "the Anti-Terrorist Operation"; May 2014: post-referendum fighting (Airport battle and fighting in Luhansk); Escalation in May and June 2014 (Siege of the Luhansk Border Base, 2 June Luhansk airstrike, Continued fighting, Russian tank incursion, Ukrainian Air Force Ilyushin Il-76 shoot-down, Battle of Yampil); July 2014: post-ceasefire government offensive; Fighting worsens in eastern Donetsk Oblast (Battle in Shakhtarsk Raion); Downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17; Government push into Donetsk and Luhansk cities
History as an open war between Russia and Ukraine: August 2014 invasion by Russian forces; September 2014 ceasefire; November 2014 separatist elections and aftermath; Escalation in January 2015; Minsk II ceasefire and denouement; January 2017 eruption of heavy fighting and failed ceasefires; October 2019 Steinmeier formula agreement and July 2020 ceasefire; 2021–2022 escalation; 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Battle of Donetsk Airport (2014.05.26-27): skirmish between separatist insurgents associated with the Donetsk People's Republic and Ukrainian government.
Siege of Sloviansk (2014.04.12-2014.07.05): Seizure of government buildings: on 12 April, a group of masked militants, which was formed in Crimea and led by former officer of Russian security services Igor Girkin, captured the executive committee building, the police department, and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) offices in Sloviansk, a city in the northern part of the Donetsk Oblast. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry the militant supporters of the Donetsk Republic fired indiscriminately on the building. Raiding the police armoury, the militants seized at least 400 handguns and 20 automatic weapons. "The aim of the takeover was the guns," a Ukrainian police statement said. "They are giving these guns to participants in the protest in Sloviansk.". Post-referendum: Following the referendum on the status of Donetsk Oblast, on 12 May, Donbass People's Militia leader Igor Girkin declared himself "Supreme Commander" of the Donetsk People's Republic. In his decree, he demanded all military stationed in the region swear an oath of allegiance to him within 48 hours, and said that war would be waged upon those who did not. This was followed on 15 May by a deputy of Strelkov issuing a second ultimatum at a press conference, giving Ukraine 24 hours to withdraw its troops from Donetsk. On the 23rd, he urged all residents of the city to evacuate, saying that artillery would be used.
Zelenopillia rocket attack (2014.07.11): rocket barrage, which was launched from inside Russian territory by Russian forces, killed 37 Ukrainian soldiers and border guards in a camp at Zelenopillia, Luhansk Oblast.
Great Raid of 2014 (2014.07.19–2014.08.10; Raid of the 95th Brigade): during the war in eastern Ukraine. During the raid, the 95th Brigade paratroopers entered into armed clashes with the Russian Army. Battle for Lysychansk
Battle of Novoazovsk (2014.08.25-28): DPR victory; Ukrainian forces retreat to Mariupol.
Battle of Mariupol (2014) (2014.05.06–06.14): during the rising unrest in Ukraine in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, the city of Mariupol, in Donetsk Oblast, saw skirmishes break out between Ukrainian government forces, local police, and separatist militants affiliated with the Donetsk People's Republic. Government forces withdrew from Mariupol 2014.05.09 after heavy fighting left the city's police headquarters gutted by fire. These forces maintained checkpoints outside the city. Intervention by Metinvest steelworkers in 2014.05.15 led to the removal of barricades from the city centre, and the resumption of patrols by local police. Separatists continued to operate a headquarters in another part of the city until their positions were overrun in a government offensive 2014.06.13.
Offensive on Mariupol (September 2014) (2014.09.04–08): Russian and Russian-backed separatist troops supporting DPR advanced on the government-controlled port city of Mariupol. This followed a wide offensive by Russian-allied forces, which led to their capture of Novoazovsk to the east. Fighting reached the outskirts of Mariupol on 6 September.
2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine: The Kremlin has tried to systematically intimidate and silence human rights workers who have raised question about Russian soldiers' deaths in Ukraine, in a war which officially Russia denies being involved in. In late August NATO released satellite images which it said showed evidence of Russian operations inside Ukraine with sophisticated weaponry. After the defeats suffered by Ukrainian forces by early September it was evident Russia had sent soldiers and armour across the border and locals acknowledged the role of Putin and Russian soldiers in effecting a reversal of fortunes. Status of Russian soldiers. Repatriation of Russian soldiers.
Minsk Protocol: agreement to halt the war in the Donbass region of Ukraine in 2014.09.05.
Humanitarian situation during the war in Donbass: many international organisations and states noted a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the conflict zone. The UN reported growing lawlessness in the region, documenting cases of targeted killings, torture, and abduction, primarily carried out by the forces of the Donetsk People's Republic. The number of refugees that fled from Donbass to Russia rose to 814,000. Having been inundated with refugees from the Donbass, the Russian government established a resettlement programme that was meant to encourage refugees to settle in "far-flung" parts of Russia. This programme included guarantees of employment, accommodation, pensions, and a path to Russian citizenship.
People and groupings:
Ukrainian side:
Azov Battalion: paramilitary, volunteer unit of the National Guard, operated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The battalion's commander is Andriy Biletsky (ukr: Андрій Білецький), the head of the neo-Nazi political groups Social-National Assembly and Patriots of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs special police company is led by Volodymyr Shpara (ukr: Володимир Шпара), the leader of both the Vasylkiv's "Patriot of Ukraine" and the Vasylkiv's "Right Sector" organizations in the Kiev region. Foreign membership. The battalion is also referred to as the "Men in Black", and is one of a series of paramilitary forces that operate in Ukraine.
Donbas Battalion: autonomous volunteer battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, based in Donetsk. The battalion was created by Semen Semenchenko, an ethnic Russian native of Donetsk.
Semen Semenchenko: nom de guerre of a Ukrainian citizen and an ethnic Russian native of Donetsk and the founder of the Donbas Battalion, a military organization engaged in fighting pro-Russian insurgents in the Donetsk region. "Semenchenko" established the Donbas Battalion because "Our state needs defending, and we decided that if the army could not do it, we should do it ourselves".
Igor Girkin (Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, ru: Игорь Всеволодович Гиркин; Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, ru: Игорь Иванович Стрелков (Igor Ivanovich Strelkov); 1970.12.17-): RU army veteran and former FSB officer who played a key role in the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and later the War in Donbas as an organizer of the Donetsk People's Republic's militant groups. Girkin led a group of militants into Ukraine where he participated in the Siege of Sloviansk. During the battle he increased his influence and ultimately became the de-facto military commander of all separatist forces in the Donbas region, which was confirmed by Donetsk People's Republic prime minister Alexander Borodai who appointed him as official Defense Minister. Girkin, a self-described Russian nationalist, was charged by Ukrainian authorities with terrorism. Battles/wars: War of Transnistria, Bosnian War, 1st & 2nd Chechen Wars, 2014 Crimean crisis, War in Donbass. Involvement in Transnistria, Bosnia, and Chechnya: The Russian media has identified Girkin as an officer of the Russian military reserves who has expressed hardline views on eliminating perceived enemies of the Russian state. He has fought on the federal side in Russian counter-separatist campaigns in Chechnya and on the pro-Moscow separatist side in the conflict in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria. According to various sources, Girkin took part in the Bosnian War as a volunteer on the Serb side, and in Chechnya under contract.
FSB service (1996-2003): Chechen Wars
Involvement in the war in Donbas and annexation of Crimea (2014): Crimea: Girkin was one of the major "Russian self-defence" commanders in the 2014 Crimean crisis. In an interview on 22 January 2015, he explained that the "overwhelming national support for the self-defence" as portrayed by the Russian media was fiction, and a majority of the law enforcement, administration and army were opposed to it. Girkin stated that under his command, the rebels "collected" deputies into the chambers, and had to "forcibly drive the deputies to vote [to join Russia]". He was also reported to be instrumental in negotiating the 2014 defection of the Ukrainian Navy commander Denis Berezovsky.
Sloviansk:
Pro-Russian capture of Sloviansk
Involvement in kidnapping and murder
Supreme Commander of the Donetsk People's Republic
Loss of Sloviansk and aftermath: Girkin and his militants fled from Sloviansk on the night of 4–5 July 2014, during a large-scale offensive by the Ukrainian military, following the end of a 10-day ceasefire on 30 June. Sloviansk was then captured by Ukrainian forces, thus ending the separatist occupation of the city which had started on 6 April. Shortly before this, a video was posted on YouTube in which Girkin desperately pleaded for military aid from Russia for "Novorossiya" ("New Russia", an historical name for South-East Ukraine with particular popularity amongst separatists) and said Sloviansk "will fall earlier than the rest".
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Dismissal as Donetsk People's Republic minister: 2014.08.14 the leadership of the DNR announced that Girkin was dismissed from his position of defense minister "on his own request" as he was assigned "some other tasks". On 16 August the Russian TV-Zvezda claimed that Girkin was "on vacation". It claimed that he was appointed as a military chief of the combined forces of Luhansk and Donetsk (he had been in command of Donetsk forces only) and after he returns he will be put to a task of creating an unified command over the forces of the Federal State of Novorossiya. According to Stanislav Belkovskiy, the main reason for the removal of Girkin from the "defense minister" position was the amount of attention caused by the downing of MH17 and the negative impact on Russia's actions in Ukraine that it caused.
Civilian life in Russia (2014–2022): According to the 2022 Bellingcat investigation, Girkin was[when?] using a Russian internal passport issued in the fictional name of Sergey Viktorovich Runov. Runov was the surname of his maternal grandfather, as well as the maiden name of his mother (as Runova). Passports from the same series have been used by several FSB operatives, including Zelimkhan Khangoshvili murderer Vadim Krasikov and members of the FSB squad involved in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Andrey Piontkovsky adduces Girkin's name among the those of like-minded persons and says, "The authentic high-principled Hitlerites, true Aryans Dugin, Prokhanov, Prosvirin, Kholmogorov, Girkin, Prilepin are a marginalized minority in Russia." Piontkovsky adds, "Putin has stolen the ideology of the Russian Reich from the domestic Hitlerites, he has preventively burned them down, using their help to do so, hundreds of their most active supporters in the furnace of the Ukrainian Vendée." In his interview with Oleksandr Chalenko on 2 December 2014, according to the journalist, Girkin confirmed that he is an FSB colonel, but this claim was then subjected to censorship and omitted from publishing. He also acknowledged that anarchy exists among the so-called Novorossiya militants. In 2015.01 interview for Anna News, Girkin said that in his opinion "Russia is currently at state of war", since the volunteers who arrive to Donbas "are being supplied with arms and shells". He also noted that "he never separated Ukraine from Soviet Union in his mind" so he considers the conflict as a "civil war in Russia". In 2016.05, Girkin announced the creation of the Russian National Movement, a neo-imperialist political party. The party is in favor of "uniting the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, and other Russian lands into a single all-Russian state and transforming the entire territory of the former USSR into an unconditional zone of Russian influence."
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: With the Russian invasion of Ukraine on late February, Girkin became again a public figure, covering the war though his warblog on Telegram. Girkin has a pro-war position, but has been noted for criticisms directed against the Russian military and the Ministry of Defence, including the defense minister Sergei Shoigu, in how the invasion has been unsuccessful, inefficient and insufficient. Unlike the liberal and pro-democracy opposition to Vladimir Putin and independent journalists who are persecuted for criticizing the war in Ukraine or Putin, ultra-nationalists and pro-war activists like Girkin are considered untouchable because they are protected by high-ranking members of the military and intelligence services. Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev believes Girkin is shielded from being censored by a "war party" inside the FSB. Due the initial failures of the Russian invasion, Girkin called on 29 March for a general mobilization. 2022.04.21 Girkin raised the opinion that "without at least a partial mobilization in the Russian Federation, it will be impossible and highly dangerous to launch a deep strategic offensive against the so-called Ukraine". After large Ukrainian conteroffensives in 2022.09, he predicted a complete defeat for Russian troops in Ukraine. He said that full mobilization in Russia was the "last chance" for victory. On 12 September, he called the Russian attacks on Ukrainian power plants "very useful". He also said that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu should be executed by firing squad and called for the use of tactical nuclear weapons in order "to drive 20 million refugees to Europe." In early October 2022 Girkin left for Ukraine in order to fight in one of the Russian volunteer units. That same month, it was reported that the Ukrainian government crowdfunded a US$150,000 reward for his capture. In December 2022, he wrote about his experience: "Simply put, the troops are fighting by inertia, not having the slightest idea of the ultimate strategic goals of the military campaign. In most parts of the RF [Russian Federation] Armed Forces, soldiers and officers do not understand: In the name of what, for what, and with what purposes they are fighting. It’s a mystery for them: What is the condition for victory or just a condition for ending the war."
Vladimir Kononov (military) (1974.10.14-; nom de guerre "Tsar"): Defence Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. His appointment was confirmed on 2014.08.15, after the resignation of Igor Girkin. Kononov is a Donetsk local.
Igor Bezler (ru: Игорь Николаевич Безлер; 1965-): one of the pro-Russian leaders whose group is controlling the local police department in Horlivka. Wars/Battles under his belt: 2014 Crimean crisis (?), Bonbass.
Alexander Khodakovsky (ru: Александр Сергеевич Ходаковский): commander of the pro-Russian Vostok Battalion formed in early May 2014 during the Donbass War.
Aleksandr Zakharchenko (ru: Александр Владимирович Захарченко; ukr: Олександр Володимирович Захарченко; 1976-): current Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. He succeeded Alexander Borodai in 2014.08.07. According to Borodai Zakharchenko is a "radical from Donetsk" and an "outspoken leader of a unit of independence supporters called Oplot".
Vladimir Antyufeyev (Владимир Антюфéев; 1951-): former Soviet OMON police officer who was one of organizers of the attempt to overthrow the Latvian government in 1991. As "Vadim Shevtsov", he was later the head of the Ministry of State Security of Moldova's pro-Moscow separatist state of Transnistria between 1992 and 2012. He is a Russian and Transnistrian citizen and is wanted by the law enforcement agencies of Latvia and Moldova. In 2014.07, Antyufeyev became one of leaders of Ukraine's pro-Russia secessionist rebels.
Arsen Pavlov (Арсе́н Серге́евич Па́влов; 1983.02.02–2016.10.16; nom de guerre Motorola (Моторо́ла)), Russian citizen and self described war criminal, who led the Sparta Battalion up until his death in a blast on his apartment in Donetsk.
Battles:
Battle of Ilovaisk (2014.08.07–09.02; DPR and Russian victory): Armed Forces of Ukraine and pro-Ukrainian paramilitaries began a series of attempts to capture the city of Ilovaisk from pro-Russian insurgents affiliated with the self-proclaimed DPR and detachments of the Russian Armed Forces. Although Ukrainian forces were able to enter the city on 08.18, they were encircled between 24 and 26 August by overwhelming Russian military forces that crossed the border, joining the battle. After days of encirclement, Ukrainian commander Yuriy Bereza came to an agreement with Russian commanders in Ilovaisk to allow Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the city. This agreement was not honoured, and many soldiers died whilst trying to escape.
Second Battle of Donetsk Airport (2014.09.28–2015.01.21): at the start of the battle, the airport lay between the separatist and Ukrainian lines of control, and was the last part of Donetsk city held by Ukrainian government forces. Heavy fighting over the airport continued into the new year, with some of the worst fighting taking place in January 2015. 2015.01.21, Donetsk forces overran the government's positions at the airport. The remaining Ukrainian forces were either killed, forced to retreat, or captured.
Battle of Debaltseve (2015.01.16–02.20; DPR and LPR victory): military confrontation in the city of Debaltseve, Donetsk Oblast, between the pro-Russian separatist forces of DPR and LPR, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The DPR forces recaptured Debaltseve, which had been under Ukrainian control since a counter-offensive by government forces in 2014.07. The city lay in a "wedge" of Ukrainian-held territory bordered by the DPR on one side, and the LPR on the other, and is a vital road and railway junction. Events: Separatist advance; Closing the "kettle"; After Minsk II; Ukrainian retreat: After loading, the column of about 2,000 men, including tanks and other armoured vehicles, began to proceed away from the city. Headlamps were kept off to avoid attracting the separatist attention. In spite of these preparations, the convoy was swiftly attacked by the separatist forces. Vehicles broke down and crashed, with fire raining down on the convoy from all sides. One soldier said that the separatists were "shooting with tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles", and that the column had been "disintegrated". Many soldiers were forced to abandon their vehicles and proceed on foot. Dead and wounded soldiers were left behind, as it was impossible to evacuate them. The withdrawal was complicated by the fact that government forces had not gained control of Lohvynove, as had been claimed a day earlier. Donbas Battalion commander Semen Semenchenko said "All the fairytales about Lohvynove turned out to be fairytales". Streams of ragged Ukrainian soldiers who had left Debaltseve arrived in Luhanske as the day went on. The New York Times said that Ukrainian forces had suffered "major losses, both in equipment and human life". Debaltseve fell silent by 15:00 EET. The flag of Novorossiya was raised over a former Ukrainian base of operations. Separatist authorities said that they had taken hundreds of Ukrainian troops captive.
Simon Ostrovsky (1981.02.02): Soviet-born American-Israeli Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker and journalist best known for his coverage of the 2014 Crimea crisis and the war in eastern Ukraine for VICE News. He was briefly held hostage by pro-Russia militants there in April, 2014.
Anti-terrorist Operation Zone (ATO zone, Зона АТО): term used by the media, publicity, the government of Ukraine, and the OSCE and other foreign institutions to identify Ukrainian territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (oblasts) under the control of Russian military forces and pro-Russian separatists. A significant part of ATO zone is considered temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. 2018.02.20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko changed the status of the ATO zone from an anti-terrorist operation to "taking measures to ensure national security and defense, and repulsing and deterring the armed aggression of the Russian Federation in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts".
Growth of Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1300-1462 in Russian.
Territorial evolution of Russia: borders of Russia changed through military conquests and by ideological and political unions in the course of over five centuries (1533–present). Historian Michael Khodarkovsky describes Tsarist Russia as a "hybrid empire" that combined elements of continental and colonial empires. According to Kazakh scholar Kereihan Amanzholov, Russian colonialism had "no essential difference with the colonialist policies of Britain, France, and other European powers". Qing China defeated Russia in the early Sino-Russian border conflicts, although the Russian Empire later acquired Outer Manchuria in the Amur Annexation. During the Boxer Rebellion, the Russian Empire invaded Manchuria in 1900, and the Blagoveshchensk massacre occurred against Chinese residents on the Russian side of the border. Russian Empire reached its maximum territory in Asia with the Russo-Japanese War, where after its defeat, Russia ceded Manchuria, southern Sakhalin, Russian Dalian, and Port Arthur to Japan with the Treaty of Portsmouth, though Russia kept the northern portion of the Chinese Eastern Railway.
Table of changes.
The Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union: After the October Revolution of November 1917, Poland and Finland became independent from Russia and remained so thereafter.
Russian Federation:
Republics of Russia: 22 territories in the Russian Federation that each constitute a federal subject, the highest-level administrative division of Russian territory. They are one of several types of federal subject in Russia. The republics were originally created as nation states for ethnic minorities. The indigenous ethnic group that gives its name to the republic is referred to as the titular nationality. However, due to centuries of Russian migration, each nationality is not necessarily a majority of a republic's population. Formed in the early 20th century by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks after the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, republics were meant to be nominally independent regions of Soviet Russia with the right to self-determination. Lenin's conciliatory stance towards Russia's minorities made them allies in the Russian Civil War and with the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922 the regions became Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSR), a third order of autonomy, subordinate to a union republic. While officially autonomous, ASSRs were in practice hypercentralized and largely under the control of the Soviet Union and its leadership. Throughout their history the ASSRs experienced varying periods of Russification and cultural revival depending on who led the country.
Geopolitcs of South Russia, according with the CIA facts books, (without arrows and red star). OBSOLETE.Territories occupied by the Russian Federation since the fall of the Soviet Union up to 2014: Transnistria (1990), Abkhazia (2008), Tskhinvali Region [South Ossetia] (2008), Crimea (2014), Luhansk (2014), Donetsk (2014). Obsolete.Map showing Russia in dark red with Russian-occupied territories in Europe in light red, as follows: In Ukraine: Crimea (4) and parts of Luhansk Oblast (5) and Donetsk Oblast (6) since the Russo-Ukrainian War began in 2014, and parts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast (7) and Kherson Oblast (8) since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.02.
Russian world (Русский мир, lit. 'Russian world', 'Russian order', 'Russian community'; Latin: Pax Rossica, Pax Russica): concept of social totality associated with Russian culture. Russkiy mir as a concept comprises the core culture of Russia and is in interaction with the diverse cultures of Russia through traditions, history and the Russian language. It comprises also the Russian diaspora with its influence in the world. The concept is based on the notion of "Russianness", and both have been considered ambiguous. {q.v. общерусский народ}
Before and during the Russian Empire: One of the earliest use of the term "Russian world" is attributed to the Great Prince Iziaslav I of Kiev in the 11th century in his praise of Pope Clement II: "with gratitude to that faithful slave who increased the talent of his master – not only in Rome, but everywhere: both in Kherson and in the Russian world" (Russian: с благодарностью тому верному рабу, который умножил талант своего господина - не только в Риме, но и повсюду: и в Херсоне, и еще в Русском мире). In the 16th c. Russia was formed as a self-contained world. Unconsciously, the "Russian world" also absorbed foreign influences from the Western world and the Eastern world/Orient, even if the influences were in the context of the evolution of the "Russian world" rather minor. It was not until the 17th and 18th c. that the Tsar's throne consciously attempted to Europeanize Russia. In the Russian Empire, the idea of the "Russian world" was of conservative nationalistic type. Vyacheslav Nikonov, chairman of the Russkiy Mir Foundation, remarked that the "Russian world" did not reach beyond Russia proper. In a 2008 interview, he claimed: "At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Russian world coincided with the Russian Empire, its population numbered 170 million people. The population of the planet then amounted to a billion, which means that every seventh lived in the Russian Empire. Today our population is 142 million, while the world's population has exceeded 6 billion. Today, only one in 50 people lives in Russia."
1990s
Putin era: Eventually, the idea of the "Russian world" was adopted by the Russian administration, and Vladimir Putin decreed the establishment of the government-sponsored Russkiy Mir Foundation in 2007. Other observers described the concept as an instrument for projecting Russian soft power. In Ukraine, the promotion of the "Russian world" has become strongly associated with the Russo-Ukrainian War. According to assistant editor Pavel Tikhomirov of Russkaya Liniya, the "Russian world" for politicized Ukrainians, whose number constantly increases, nowadays is "simply 'neo-Sovietism' masked by new names". He reconciled that with the conflation of the "Russian world" and USSR within Russian society itself.
Politicization: Russia's president Vladimir Putin visited the Arkaim site of the Sintashta culture in 2005, meeting in person with the chief archaeologist Gennady Zdanovich. The visit received much attention from Russian media. They presented Arkaim as the "homeland of the majority of contemporary people in Asia, and, partly, Europe". Nationalists called Arkaim the "city of Russian glory" and the "most ancient Slavic-Aryan town". Zdanovich reportedly presented Arkaim to the president as a possible "national idea of Russia", a new idea of civilisation which Victor Schnirelmann calls the "Russian idea".
Russian Orthodox Church: A mosaic in the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces blending Eastern Orthodox iconography with Soviet military symbolism
Reception: Around 500 Eastern Orthodox scholars signed Declaration on the 'Russian World' Teaching in 2022.03.13, calling it an "ideology", "a heresy" and "a form of religious fundamentalism" that is "totalitarian in character". They condemned six "pseudo theological facets". Those condemnations concern: replacing the Kingdom of God with an earthly kingdom; deification of the state through a theocracy and caesaropapism which deprives the Church of its freedom to stand against injustice; divinization of a culture; Manichaen demonization of the West and elevation of Eastern culture; refusal to speak the truth and non-acknowledgement of "murderous intent and culpability" of one party. The Economist states that the "Russian world" concept has become the basis of a crusade against the West's liberal culture and this has resulted into a "new Russian cult of war". It says that Putin's regime has particularly debased the "Russian world" concept with a mixture of obscurantism, Orthodox dogma, anti-West sentiment, nationalism, conspiracy theory and security-state Stalinism.
Russian-occupied territories: Russia has been involved in territorial disputes with a number of countries. These disputes are primarily an aspect of the post-Soviet conflicts, and have led to some countries losing parts of their sovereign territory to what a large portion of the international community designates as a Russian military occupation. The term is applied to Georgia (in Abkhazia and South Ossetia), Moldova (in Transnistria), and Ukraine (in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia). Additionally, Russia and Japan have been involved in the Kuril Islands dispute due to Russia's 1991 inheritance of control over the four southernmost Kuril Islands, which Japan has claimed ownership of since 1945.
Eurasianism (евразийство): political movement in Russia which states that Russia does not belong in the "European" or "Asian" categories but instead to the geopolitical concept of Eurasia governed by the "Russian world" (Русский мир), forming an ostensibly standalone Russian civilization. Historically, the Russian Empire was Euro-centric and generally considered a European/Western power. Drawing on historical, geographical, ethnographical, linguistic, musicological and religious studies, the Eurasianists suggested that the lands of the Russian Empire, and then of the Soviet Union, formed a natural unity. The first Eurasianists were mostly Émigrés, pacifists, and their vision of the future had features of romanticism and utopianism. The goal of the Eurasianists was the unification of the main Christian churches under the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Maps of Eurasia for eurasianist movment.Map of the Northern Territories of Japan. It includes Kunashiri, the Habomai islands, Etorofu and Shikotan. It is claimed as part of Nemuro Subprefecture.
Kuril Islands dispute (Northern Territories dispute in Japan): territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch between the Japanese island of Hokkaido at their southern end and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula at their northern end. The islands separate the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. The four disputed islands, like other islands in the Kuril chain that are not in dispute, were unilaterally annexed by the Soviet Union following the Kuril Islands landing operation at the end of World War II. The disputed islands are under Russian administration as the South Kuril District and part of Kuril District of the Sakhalin Oblast (Сахалинская область).
TASS (Russian News Agency TASS : Информацио́нное аге́нтство Росси́и ТАСС): major Russian state-owned news agency founded in 1904. TASS is registered as a Federal State Unitary Enterprise, owned by the Government of Russia. Headquartered in Moscow, TASS has 70 offices in Russia and in CIS, as well as 68 bureaus around the world. In Soviet times, it was named the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (Телегра́фное аге́нтство Сове́тского Сою́за) and was the central agency for news collection and distribution for all Soviet newspapers, radio and television stations. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the agency was renamed Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (ITAR-TASS) (Информацио́нное телегра́фное аге́нтство Росси́и (ИТА́Р-ТАСС)) in 1992, but regained the simpler TASS name in 2014.
Growth of Russia from the 15th to the 20th century.
Coronation of the Russian monarch: involved a highly developed religious ceremony in which the Emperor of Russia (generally referred to as the Tsar) was crowned and invested with regalia, then anointed with chrism and formally blessed by the church to commence his reign. Although rulers of Muscovy had been crowned prior to the reign of Ivan III, their coronation rituals assumed overt Byzantine overtones as the result of the influence of Ivan's wife Sophia Paleologue, and the imperial ambitions of his grandson, Ivan IV. The modern coronation, introducing "Western European-style" elements, replaced the previous "crowning" ceremony and was first used for Catherine I in 1724. Since tsarist Russia claimed to be the "Third Rome" and the replacement of Byzantium as the true Christian state, the Russian rite was designed to link its rulers and prerogatives to those of the so-called "Second Rome" (Constantinople).
Growth of Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1300-1462 in Russian.
Grand Duchy of Moscow (Grand Principality of Moscow, Muscovy; 1263–1547): late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia.
Daniil Aleksandrovich (Даниил Александрович)
Vasily I and Vasily II
Ivan III Vasilyevich (Ivan the Great): during his 43-year reign, further consolidated the state, campaigning against his major remaining rival power (GDL) and, by 1503, had tripled the territory of Muscovy, adopting the title of tsar and claiming the title of "Ruler of all Rus".
Vasili III
Ivan IV (the later Ivan the Terrible)
Oprichnina (опри́чнина): period of Russian history between 1565 and 1572 during which Tsar Ivan the Terrible instituted a domestic policy of secret police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats. 6,000 political police enforcing the policy were called oprichniki, and the term oprichnina also applies to the secret police organization and to the territory in which, during that period, the Tsar ruled directly and in which his oprichniki operated.
Battle of Kulikovo (Мамаево побоище, Донское побоище, Куликовская битва, битва на Куликовом поле; 1380.09.08): fought between the armies of the Golden Horde, under the command of Mamai, and various Russian principalities, under the united command of Prince Dmitry of Moscow. Won by Dmitry, who became known as Donskoy, 'of the Don' after the battle. Although the victory did not end Mongol domination over Rus, it is widely regarded by Russian historians as the turning point at which Mongol influence began to wane and Moscow's power began to rise. The process eventually led to Grand Duchy of Moscow independence and the formation of the modern Russian state.
Siege of Moscow (1382) (1382.08.23–27): battle between the Muscovite forces and Tokhtamysh, the khan of the Golden Horde supported by Timur. However, in 1378, Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Orda Khan and an ally of Tamerlane, assumed the power in the White Horde and annexed Blue Horde by fording across the Volga and quickly annihilated an army sent by Muscovy. He then united the hordes and formed the Golden Horde. Tatars sack Moscow.
Great Stand on the Ugra River (Великое cтояние на реке Угре; 1480.10.08–11.28): standoff between the forces of Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Prince Ivan III of Muscovy on the banks of the Ugra River, which ended when the Tatars departed without conflict. It is seen in Russian historiography as the end of Tatar/Mongol rule over Moscow.
Tsardom of Russia (Tsardom of Muscovy (Русское царство, Российское царство); 1547–1721): from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721.
Emperor of all the Russias: title originated in connection with Russia's victory in the Great Northern War of 1700–1721 and appeared as the adaptation of the tsar's title under the accepted system of titling in Europe. The suffix "of all the Russias" was transformed from the previous version "(Tsar) of All Rus'".
Peter I / Peter the Great [1682.05.07–1725.02.08; He ruled jointly with Ivan V]
Catherine I [1725.02.08–1727.05.17]
Peter II [1727.05.18–1730.01.30]
Anna [1730.02.15–1740.10.28]
Ivan VI [1740.10.28–1741.12.06; Deposed as a baby, imprisoned and later murdered]
Elizabeth [1741.12.06–1762.01.05; Daughter of Peter I and Catherine I, usurped the throne]
Peter III [1762.01.09–1762.07.09; Murdered]
Catherine II / Catherine the Great [1762.07.09–1796.11.17]
Paul I [1796.11.17–1801.03.23; Assassinated]
Alexander I [1801.03.23–1825.12.01]
Nicholas I [1825.12.01–1855.03.02]
Alexander II [1855.03.02–1881.03.13; Assassinated]
Alexander III [1881.03.13–1894.11.01]
Nicholas II [1894.11.01–1917.03.15; Murdered by the Bolsheviks]
Peter the Great (1672.06.09 – 1725.02.08; reign: 1682.05.07–1725.02.08 [office renamed from "Tsar" to "Emperor" 1721.11.02]): ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 1682.05.07 [O.S. 27 April] until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother. Through a number of successful wars he expanded the Tsardom into a much larger empire that became a major European power. He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, westernized, and based on The Enlightenment. Peter's reforms made a lasting impact on Russia and many institutions of Russian government traced their origins to his reign. Peter grew to be extremely tall as an adult, especially for the time period, reportedly standing (203 cm). Peter, however, lacked the overall proportional heft and bulk generally found in a man that size. Both his hands and feet were small, and his shoulders were narrow for his height; likewise, his head was small for his tall body. Added to this were Peter's noticeable facial tics, and he may have suffered from petit mal seizures, a form of epilepsy.
Catherine I of Russia (Екатери́на I Алексе́евна Миха́йлова, Marta Helena Skowrońska; 1684.04.15–1727.05.17; reign: 1725.02.08–1727.05.17): second wife of Peter I of Russia, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death. First woman to rule Imperial Russia, opening the legal path for a century almost entirely dominated by women, including her daughter Elizabeth and Catherine the Great, all of whom continued Peter the Great's policies in modernizing Russia. Story of her humble origins was considered by later generations of tsars to be a state secret.
Alexander Danilovich Menshikov (Алекса́ндр Дани́лович Ме́ншиков; 1673.11.16 – 1729.11.23): Russian statesman, whose official titles included Generalissimus, Prince of the Russian Empire and Duke of Izhora (Duke of Ingria), Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, Duke of Cosel. A highly appreciated associate and friend of Tsar Peter the Great, he was the de facto ruler of Russia for two years.
Elizabeth of Russia (Елизаве́та (Елисаве́та) Петро́вна, Yelisaveta/Elizaveta; 1709.12.29–1762.01.05; reign: 1741.12.06–1762.01.05): remains one of the most popular Russian monarchs due to her strong opposition to Prussian policies and her decision not to execute a single person during her reign. She hated bloodshed and conflict and went to great lengths to alter the Russian system of punishment, even outlawing capital punishment. The eldest daughter of Tsar Peter the Great and Catherine I, a Latvian peasant of Polish origin, Elizabeth lived under the confused successions of her father's descendants since her half-brother Alexei's death. Led the country into the two major European conflicts of her time: the War of Austrian Succession (1740–48) and the Seven Years' War (1756–63). She and diplomant Aleksey Bestuzhev-Ryumin solved the first event by forming an alliance with Austria and France, but indirectly caused the second. Russia enjoyed several victories against Prussia and briefly occupied Berlin, but when Frederick the Great was finally prepared to surrender in 1761.01, the message was sent only to find the Empress dead.
Catherine the Great (1729.05.02–1796.11.17; reign: 1762.07.09–1796.11.17): most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia. Her reign was called Russia's golden age. She was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, and came to power following a coup d'état and the assassination of her husband, Peter III, at the end of the Seven Years' War.
Anna of Russia (Анна Иоанновна; 1693.02.07–1740.10.28; reign: 1730.02.26–1740.10.28): Much of her administration was defined or heavily influenced by actions set in motion by her uncle, Peter the Great, such as the lavish building projects in St. Petersburg, funding the Russian Academy of Science, and measures which generally favored the nobility, such as the repeal of a primogeniture law in 1730. In the West, Anna's reign was traditionally viewed as a continuation of the transition from the old Muscovy ways to the European court envisioned by Peter the Great. Within Russia, Anna's reign is often referred to as a "dark era".
Map showing the percentage of Jews in the Pale of Settlement and Congress Poland, c. 1905.
All-Russian nation (общерусский народ; pan-Russian nation; triune Russian nation (триединый русский народ)): Imperial Russian and Russian irredentist ideology which sees the Russian nation as comprising the three sub-nations Great Russians, Little Russians and White Russians, which include modern East Slavs (namely, Russians, Rusyns, Ukrainians and Belarusians), rather than only modern Russia and ethnic Russians. An imperial nation-building dogma became popular in Tsardom of Russia and later became the official state ideology. The triune "All-Russian" nationality was embraced by many imperial subjects (including Jews and Germans) and served as the foundation of the Empire. Modern DNA statistics of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. {q.v. Русский мир}
Pale of Settlement (Черта́ осе́длости; 1791 - 1917): western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish residency, permanent or temporary, was mostly forbidden. Most Jews were still excluded from residency in a number of cities within the Pale as well. A few Jews were allowed to live outside the area, including those with university education, the ennobled, members of the most affluent of the merchant guilds and particular artisans, some military personnel and some services associated with them, including their families, and sometimes their servants. The archaic English term pale is derived from the Latin word palus, a stake, extended to mean the area enclosed by a fence or boundary. Life in the Pale for many was economically bleak. Most people relied on small service or artisan work that could not support the number of inhabitants, which resulted in emigration, especially in the late 19th century. Even so, Jewish culture, especially in Yiddish, developed in the shtetls (small towns), and intellectual culture developed in the yeshivot (religious schools) and was also carried abroad.
term given to a region of Imperial Russia in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited. Mainly the land of the former PL-Commonwealth.
Russian conquest of Central Asia (1718-1895): by the Russian Empire. The land that became Russian Turkestan and later Soviet Central Asia is now divided between Kazakhstan in the north, Uzbekistan across the center, Kyrgyzstan in the east, Tajikistan in the southeast and Turkmenistan in the southwest. The area was called Turkestan because most of its inhabitants spoke Turkic languages with the exception of Tajikistan, which speaks an Iranian language. Early contacts: Siberia; Up the Irtysh River; The Kazakh steppe; Around the southern Urals; The Siberian line. 1718-1847: Gaining control of the Kazakh Steppe: Fall of the Kazakh Khanate (1847). 1839: Failed attack on Khiva. 1847–1853: The Syr Darya line. 1847–1864: Down the eastern side. 1864–1868: Kokand and Bukhara subdued. 1875–1876: Liquidation of the Kokand Khanate. The Caspian side. 1873: The conquest of Khiva. 1879–1885: Turkmenistan: Geok Tepe, Merv and Panjdeh. 1872–1895: The Eastern Mountains: 1867–1877: Yakub Beg; 1871–1883: temporary occupation of Kulja; 1893: Pamirs occupied. The Great Game.
Russian Turkestan (Governorate-General of Russian Empire; 1867–1917)
Alexander Suvorov (1729 or 1730 11.24 [O.S. 13 November] – 1800.05.18 [O.S. 6 May]): Russian military leader and national hero. He was the Count of Rymnik, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Prince of Italy, and the last Generalissimo of the Russian Empire. Suvorov is one of the greatest generals in history and is one of the few who never lost a battle, being undefeated in over 60 large battles while frequently having the numerical disadvantage. Suvorov put down a Polish uprising in 1794, defeating them at the Battle of Maciejowice and storming Warsaw. Suvorov is widely regarded as the greatest Russian military leader and one of the greatest commanders in history.
Nicholas I of Russia ( Николай I Павлович, tr. Nikolay I Pavlovich; 1796.07.06–1855.03.02): Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. He is best known as a political conservative whose reign was marked by geographical expansion, repression of dissent, economic stagnation, poor administrative policies, a corrupt bureaucracy, and frequent wars that culminated in Russia's defeat in the Crimean War of 1853–56. His biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky says that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a soldier—a junior officer totally consumed by spit and polish. A handsome man, he was highly nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail. In his public persona, says Riasanovsky, "Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified: infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate." His reign had an ideology called "Official Nationality" that was proclaimed officially in 1833. It was a reactionary policy based on orthodoxy in religion, autocracy in government, and Russian nationalism. He was the younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brother's throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him and went on to become the most reactionary of all Russian leaders. His aggressive foreign policy involved many expensive wars, having a disastrous effect on the empire's finances. As a traveler in Spain, Italy and Russia, the Frenchman Marquis de Custine said in his widely read book Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia that, inside, Nicholas was a good person, and behaved as he did only because he believed he had to: "If the Emperor, has no more of mercy in his heart than he reveals in his policies, then I pity Russia; if, on the other hand, his true sentiments are really superior to his acts, then I pity the Emperor."
Caucasian War (Russian conquest of the Caucasus; 1817-1864): invasion of the Caucasus by the Russian Empire which ended with the annexation of the areas of the North Caucasus to Russia and the Ethnic cleansing of Circassians.
Circassian genocide (Tsitsekun): Russian Empire's systematic mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and expulsion of 80–97% of the Circassian population, around 800,000–1,500,000 people, during and after the Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864). The majority of Circassians were targeted, though a minority who accepted Russification remained. It has been reported that during the events, the Russian-Cossack forces used various methods, such as tearing the bellies of pregnant women. Russian generals such as Grigory Zass described the Circassians as "subhuman filth", and justified their killing and use in scientific experiments, also allowing their soldiers to rape women.
Westernizer: group of 19th-c. intellectuals who believed that Russia's development depended upon the adoption of Western European technology and liberal government. In their view, western ideas such as industrialisation needed to be implemented throughout Russia to make it a more successful country. Leaders: A forerunner of the movement was Pyotr Chaadayev (1794-1856). He exposed the cultural isolation of Russia, from the perspective of Western Europe, and his Philosophical Letters of 1831. He cast doubt on the greatness of the Russian past, and ridiculed Orthodoxy for failing to provide a sound spiritual basis for the Russian mind. He extolled the achievements of Europe, especially in rational and logical thought, its progressive spirit, its leadership in science, and indeed its leadership on the path to freedom. Alexander Herzen (1812-1870), was the son of a nobleman who promoted Belinsky's ideas after his death in 1848. He was influenced by Voltaire, Schiller, Saint-Simon, Proudhon, and especially Hegel and Feuerbach. He agitated for the emancipation of the Russian serfs, and after that took place in 1861 he enlarged his platform to include common ownership of land, government by the people and stronger individual rights.
ru:Западничество (1830—1850): обширный этнокультурный регион в Восточной Европе, историческое название восточнославянских земель. Возникшее на этих землях влиятельное государство Киевская Русь, политический расцвет которого пришёлся на X—XI века, стало основой для формирования единой древнерусской народности, языка и культуры. В 988 году произошло крещение Руси по восточной христианской традиции. Феодальное дробление Руси на удельные княжества, сопровождаемое междоусобными войнами, и произошедшее на этом фоне монгольское нашествие повлекли за собой попадание её частей под власть внешних центров силы, остановив консолидационные процессы и обусловив впоследствии различное развитие культурных, языковых, а также, отчасти, религиозных традиций. В конце XV века в Северо-Восточной Руси образовалось независимое единое Русское государство, борьба которого с Великим княжеством Литовским и затем с Речью Посполитой за собирание русских земель стала одной из главных определяющих линий политики и истории Восточной Европы на протяжении нескольких столетий. В наше время понятием «Русь» могут собирательно обозначаться современные Россия, Украина и Белоруссия.
Критерий
Славянофилы
Западники
Представители
А. С Хомяков, братья Киреевские, братья Аксаковы, Ю.Ф. Самарин
Отрицательное, выступали за отмену крепостного права сверху
Отрицательное, выступали за отмену крепостного права сверху
Отношение к Петру I
Отрицательно. Петр внедрил западные порядки и обычаи, которые сбили Россию с истинного пути
Возвеличивание Петра, который спас Россию, обновил страну и вывел её на международный уровень
По какому пути должна идти Россия
Россия имеет свой особый путь развития, отличный от Запада. Но можно заимствовать фабрики, железные дороги
Россия с опозданием, но идет и должна идти по западному пути развития
Как проводить преобразования
Мирный путь, реформы сверху
Недопустимость революционных потрясений
«ru:Гнилой Запад»: идеологическое клише, родившееся в XIX веке в России в ходе полемики между славянофилами и почвенниками с одной стороны и западниками с другой. Является метафорическим выражением настороженно-скептического отношения к идеям и ценностям, предлагаемым Западным миром. В связи с этим образ стал политическим клише, активно применялся в советской и российской пропаганде (часто как «загнивающий запад»).
Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia: first and most important of liberal reforms passed during the reign (1855-1881) of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire. Serfs gained the full rights of free citizens, including rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property and to own a business. The Manifesto prescribed that peasants would be able to buy the land from the landlords. Household serfs were the least affected: they gained only their freedom and no land. Furthermore, when the peasants had to work for the same landowners to pay their "labor payments", they often neglected their own fields.:p. 126 Over the next few years, the yields from the peasants' crops remained low, and soon famine struck a large portion of Russia.:p. 127 With little food, and finding themselves in a similar condition as when they were serfs, many peasants started to voice their disdain for the new social system.
ru:Отмена крепостного права в России (Крестья́нская рефо́рма): начатая в 1861 году реформа, упразднившая крепостное право в России. Явилась первой и наиболее значимой из «великих реформ» Александра II; провозглашена Манифестом об отмене крепостного права от 1861.02.19 (3 марта).
ru:Крепостное право в России: система правоотношений, вытекавших из зависимости земледельца-крестьянина от помещика, владельца земли, населяемой и обрабатываемой крестьянином.
Russian famine of 1891–92: began along the Volga River, then spread as far as the Urals and Black Sea. The reawakening of Russian Marxism and populism is often traced to the public's anger at the Tsarist government's handling of the disaster.
Russian Empire Census (1897 (1897.01.28)): langs: RU 55.7mln, UA 22.4mln, Turkic-Tatar 13.4mln, PL 7.9mln, Yiddish 5.1mln, Finnic 3.5mln, DE 1.8mln, LV 1.4mln, Kartvelian 1.4mln, LT 1.2mln, HY 1.2mln, RO=Moldavian=1.12mln, Dagestani langs 1.09mln, BG 173k, Samogitian 448k, EL 187k, Ossetian 172k, Tajik 350k; religion: Eastern Orthodox 69%, Muslims 11%, Catholics 9%, Jews 4%, Lutherans 2.8%, Old Believers 1.75%, Armenian Gregorians and Armenian Catholics 0.97%, Buddhists & Lamaists 0.34%, other Protestants 0.15%, Karaites 0.01%. Largest cities: Saint-Petersburg 1.26mln, Moscow 1.04mln, Warsaw 626k, Odessa 404k, Łódź 314k, Riga 282k, Kiev 248k, Kharkov 174k, Tiflis (Tbilisi) 160k, Wilno (Vilnius) 155k, Saratov 137k, Kazan 130k, Rostov-on-Don 120k, Tula 115k, Astrakhan 113k, Yekaterinoslav (Dnipropetrovsk) 113k, Baku 112k, Kishinev (Chişinău) 109k, rest <100k.
1905 Russian Revolution: wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire, some of which was directed at the government. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies.
Stolypin reform (Stolypin agrarian reforms): a series of changes to Imperial Russia's agricultural sector instituted during the tenure of Pyotr Stolypin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister); based on recommendations from a committee known as the "Needs of Agricultural Industry Special Conference," which was held in Russia between 1901–1903 during the tenure of Minister of Finance Sergei Witte. As a result of the expansion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad and other railroads east of the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea, migration to Siberia increased. Thompson estimated that between 1890 and 1914 that over 10 mln persons migrated freely from western Russia to areas east of the Urals. This was encouraged by the Trans-Siberian Railroad Committee, which was personally headed by Tsar Nicholas II. The Stolypin agrarian reforms included resettlement benefits for peasants who moved to Siberia. An emigration department was created in 1906 at the ministry of agriculture. It organized resettlement and assisted the settlers during their first years in the new settlements. The settlers received on average 16.5 hectares of land per man.
Russian Peasants' uprising of 1905–6: peasants uprising was connected to the 1905 Revolution and the October Manifesto, as the country was gripped by a revolutionary and rebellious atmosphere following Tsar Nicholas II reactionary policies.
Russian Civil War (1917.11.07-1923.06.16): multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the social-democratic Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR) and later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in most of its territory.
Red Terror: campaign of mass killings, torture, and systematic oppression conducted by the Bolshevik government shortly after its establishment. The mass repressions were conducted by the Cheka (the Bolshevik secret police), together with elements of the Bolshevik military intelligence agency (the GRU).
Pogroms during the Russian Civil War (1918.01-1920.11; Deaths: 50,000–250,000): wave of mass murders of Jewish civilians, primarily in Ukraine, during the Russian Civil War. In the years 1918–1920, there were 1,500 pogroms in over 1,300 localities. All armed forces operating in Ukraine were involved in the killings, in particular the anti-Communist Ukrainian People's Army and Armed Forces of South Russia.
Alexandra Kollontai (Алекса́ндра Миха́йловна Коллонта́й, née Domontovich, Домонто́вич; 1872.03.31[O.S. 03.19] –1952.03.09): Russian revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Marxist theoretician. Serving as the People's Commissar for Welfare in Vladimir Lenin's government in 1917–1918, she was a highly prominent woman within the Bolshevik party and the first woman in history to become an official member of a governing cabinet. The daughter of an Imperial Russian Army general, Kollontai embraced radical politics in the 1890s and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1899. During the RSDLP ideological split, she sided with Julius Martov's Mensheviks against Lenin's Bolsheviks. Exiled from Russia in 1908, Kollontai toured Western Europe and USA and advocated against participation in WWI. In 1915, she broke with the Mensheviks and became a member of the Bolsheviks. Following the 1917 February Revolution which ousted the Tsar, Kollontai returned to Russia. She supported Lenin's radical proposals and, as a member of the party's Central Committee, voted for the policy of armed uprising which led to the October Revolution and the fall of Alexander Kerensky's Provisional Government. She was appointed People's Commissar for Social Welfare in the first Soviet government, but soon resigned due to her opposition to the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk in the ranks of the Left Communists. She was the only woman other than Maria Spiridonova to play a prominent role during the Russian Revolution. Kollontai was outspoken against bureaucratic influences over the Communist Party and its undemocratic internal practices. To that end, she sided with the left-wing Workers' Opposition in 1920, but was eventually defeated and sidelined, narrowly avoiding her own expulsion from the party altogether. From 1922 on, she was appointed to various diplomatic posts abroad, serving in Norway, Mexico and Sweden. Kollontai is known for her advocacy of free love. Kollontai admonished men and women to discard their nostalgia for traditional family life. "The worker-mother must learn not to differentiate between yours and mine; she must remember that there are only our children, the children of Russia's communist workers." However, she also praised parental attachment: "Communist society will take upon itself all the duties involved in the education of the child, but the joys of parenthood will not be taken away from those who are capable of appreciating them."
Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877.09.11–1926.07.20): Polish and Soviet Bolshevik revolutionary, leader and statesman. From 1917 until his death in 1926, Dzerzhinsky led the first two Soviet state security organizations, the Cheka and the OGPU, establishing a secret police for the post-revolutionary Soviet government. As a child, before taking to Marxist ideology, Felix considered becoming a Jesuit priest. As a youngster Dzerzhinsky became fluent in four languages: Polish, Russian, Yiddish, and Latin. He attended the Wilno gymnasium from 1887 to 1895. One of the older students at this gymnasium was his future arch-enemy, Józef Piłsudski. Two months before graduating, Dzerzhinsky was expelled from the gymnasium for "revolutionary activity". In late 1896.04, he was one of 15 delegates at the first congress of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP). He traveled to Berlin where at the SDKPiL conference Dzerzhinsky was elected a secretary of its party committee abroad (KZ) and met with several prominent leaders of the Polish Social Democratic movement, including Rosa Luxemburg and Leo Jogiches. Dzerzhinsky became a Bolshevik as late as 1917. Therefore, it was wrong to claim, as the official Soviet historians later did, that Dzerzhinsky had been one of Lenin's oldest and most reliable comrades, or that Lenin had exercised some sort of spellbinding influence on Dzerzhinsky and the SDKPiL. Lenin and Dzerzhinsky frequently had opposing opinions about many important ideological and political issues of the pre-revolutionary period, and also after the October Revolution. From 1917 to his death in 1926, Dzerzhinsky was first and foremost a Russian Communist, and Dzerzhinsky's involvement in the affairs of the Polish Communist Party (which was founded in 1918) was minimal.
Multi-ethnic society, many different values, ...
Russian influence sphere:
former USSR, esp.: {q.v. #Ukraine, #Belarus}, Moldova and Transnistria, {q.v. #Caucasus (mountains and countries)}, Central Asia (-stans, with also an inclusion for Afghanistan and maybe even Pakistan). Lesser influence in other European countries (esp. Baltic states; some of the former Warsaw pact countries: Poland, Romania/Moldova, Bulgaria).
a small influence on the neighboring countries (at least the arms export and political/money support): Iran, China, India. Ex-communist countries and extreme socialist (a shade of communism) sympathizers: esp. North Korea; Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Vietnam (?), the -stans outside ex-USSR: Afghanistan, Pakistan. Former: Iraq (due to USA waged war).
particularly large number of cities and towns were renamed in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917
more renamings happened during the whole history of USSR due to political reasons
in 1945, German cities around Königsberg were made part of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave
soon after the reconquest of Southern Sakhalin in 1945, Japanese placenames were replaced with Russian ones
Circa 1972-73, many Chinese or Chinese-sounding place names in the Russian Far East were replaced with Russian-sounding ones
in 1991, after the dissolution of USSR, renamings (often for restoration of original names) happened
Because RU people always differed in their opinions, many oppressed RU people left the country (either being too rich, too educated, too non-conformist, too political, too religious, too anti-communist, too pro-West, too <smth>) or just evading famine, war, and plague:
Decommunization in Russia: compared with the efforts of the other former constituents of the Soviet bloc and USSR, it has been restricted to half-measures, if conducted at all. August coup investigation. A large part of the archives of the Communist Party, including almost all documents of its Central Committee, remains classified. In 1992.11.30, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation partially reviewed the decrees and lifted the ban against the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation was reestablished in 1993.02. The persons arrested in connection with of the August Coup were released from prison in 1992, and the charges were lifted under amnesty by the State Duma in 1994.02.23.
Manych Ship Canal: existing canal system between the basins of Azov/Black and Caspian Seas??
Eurasia Canal: proposed 700 km long canal connecting Caspian and Black Seas.
Huge change in RU in 1999, continuing into 21st c: from Yeltsin era of freedom or 'freedom' to Putin era of FSB (KGB) revival, military rule, fast growing economics (based on natural gas & oil). When one kills/imprisons the independent investigators, investigative journalists and other people who want change and have brains, what is left there? FUD: Fear? Military action in Chechnya, Dagestan, Georgia, Ukraine (2014-2022.02.24-).
Putin's Unity Party widely advocated to take back Chechnya after the First Chechen War (Yeltsin signed a piece treaty and Chechnya became de facto independent RU state) and succeeded: Putin's lead invasion (2nd Chechen War) was victorious for RU and Putin got elected twice to rule RU in 2000-2008, under Yeltsin Putin was Prime Minister in 1999.08.09-2000.05.07 and when Yeltsin resigned, Putin was acting president. 2008-2012: RU Prime Minister. Reelected in 2012 presidential election.
Russian apartment bombings: Kovalev commission members: dead: Duma members (Yuri Petrovich Shchekochikhin (1950.06.09-2003.07.03) & Sergei Yushenkov (1950.06.27-2003.04.17)), Otto Rudolfovich Latsis (journalist of Latvian descent; 1934.06.22-2005.11.03; assaulted in 2003, 2005: car accident); arrested & jailed: Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin (prison time: 2003.10-2007.11; Amnesty International: "there are serious grounds to believe that Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested and convicted under falsified criminal charges which may be politically motivated, in order to prevent him continuing his investigative and legal work related to the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and other cities"). Associated members: dead: Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (1962 - 2006.11.23). Dead people associated with the bombings: Vladimir Romanovich (1999? in Cyprus).
Anna Politkovskaya (Анна Степановна Политковская; Ukrainian: Ганна Степанівна Політковська; née Mazepa, Мазепа; 1958.08.30–2006.10.07): Russian journalist, and human rights activist who reported on political events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005). It was her reporting from Chechnya that made Politkovskaya's national and international reputation. For seven years, she refused to give up reporting on the war despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence. Politkovskaya was arrested by Russian military forces in Chechnya and subjected to a mock execution. She was poisoned while flying from Moscow via Rostov-on-Don to help resolve the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis, and had to turn back, requiring careful medical treatment in Moscow to restore her health. 2006.10.07, she was murdered in the elevator of her block of flats, an assassination that attracted international attention. Journalistic work: Reports from Chechnya; Criticism of Vladimir Putin and FSB; A Russian Diary.
Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya: her murder, believed to be a contract killing, sparked a strong international reaction. Three Chechens were arrested for the murder, but were acquitted. The verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court of Russia and new trials were held. In total, six people were convicted of charges related to her death.
Putin's years:
2000-2008: Russian submarine K-141 Kursk's disaster (2000.08). Continuity of 2nd Chechen War: Moscow theater hostage crisis (2002.10.23-26): "sleeping" gas (Moscow hostage crisis chemical agent: not revealed by RU agents what it is even to doctors treating patients!) put 100 hostages to the eternal sleep, all militants killed; 2004 Russian aircraft bombings (Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303, Siberia Airlines Flight 1047); Beslan school hostage crisis (2004.09.01).
Kursk submarine disaster (2000.08.12): took place during the first major Russian naval exercise in more than ten years. Nearby ships registered the initial explosion and a second, much larger, explosion which registered 4.2 on the Richter scale on seismographs as far away as Alaska, yet the Russian Navy did not realise that the sub had sunk and did not initiate a search for more than six hours. By the time it declared an emergency 11 hours later, the crew were — unknown to anyone — all dead. Because the sub's emergency rescue buoy had been intentionally disabled, it took more than 16 hours to locate the sunken boat. Following salvage operations, analysts concluded that 23 sailors in the sixth through ninth compartments took refuge in the small ninth compartment and survived for more than six hours. As oxygen ran low, crew members attempted to replace a potassium superoxide chemical oxygen cartridge, which accidentally fell into the oily sea water and exploded on contact. The resulting fire killed several crew members and triggered a flash fire that consumed the remaining oxygen, suffocating the remaining survivors.
Neo-Stalinism: Putinism supports Neo-Stalinism? When OSCE said that Stalinism=Nacism (due to Molotov-Ribentrov pact, i.e. allegation that USSR & Nazi DE started WWII), RU delegation was extremely upset! See also: "European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism" vs Historical Truth Commission (комиссия при президенте Российской Федерации по противодействию попыткам фальсификации истории в ущерб интересам России), World Without Nazism (Мир без нацизма, МБН; by Boris Spiegel in 2010.06.22; "Soviet Union rituals and symbols are widely used in the events organized by MBN")
Putinism (путинизм): political system of Russia formed during the leadership of Vladimir Putin. It is characterized by the concentration of political and financial powers in the hands of "siloviks"—current and former "people with shoulder marks", coming from a total of 22 governmental enforcement agencies, the majority of them being FSB, Police, Army and national guard of the Russian Federation. According to columnist Arnold Beichman, "Putinism in the 21st century has become as significant a watchword as Stalinism was in the 20th". The "Chekist takeover" of the Russian state and economic assets has been allegedly accomplished by a clique of Putin's close associates and friends who gradually became a leading group of Russian oligarchs and who "seized control over the financial, media and administrative resources of the Russian state" and restricted democratic freedoms and human rights. According to Julie Anderson, Russia has been transformed to an "FSB state". History: Intelligence state; Corporation-state; Single-party bureaucratic state; State gangsterism: former CIA director James Woolsey: "I have been particularly concerned for some years, beginning during my tenure, with the interpenetration of Russian organized crime, Russian intelligence and law enforcement, and Russian business. I have often illustrated this point with the following hypothetical: If you should chance to strike up a conversation with an articulate, English-speaking Russian in, say, the restaurant of one of the luxury hotels along Lake Geneva, and he is wearing a $3,000 suit and a pair of Gucci loafers, and he tells you that he is an executive of a Russian trading company and wants to talk to you about a joint venture, then there are four possibilities. He may be what he says he is. He may be a Russian intelligence officer working under commercial cover. He may be part of a Russian organized crime group. But the really interesting possibility is that he may be all three and that none of those three institutions have any problem with the arrangement." According to political analyst Dmitri Glinski, "The idea of Russia, Inc.--or better, Russia, Ltd.--derives from the Russian brand of libertarian anarchism viewing the state as just another private armed gang claiming special rights on the basis of its unusual power." "This is a state conceived as a "stationary bandit" imposing stability by eliminating the roving bandits of the previous era."
Nashism (нашизм): post-Soviet Russian political neologisms derived from the word "наши" ("[those who are] ours", i.e., those of the ingroup). The word is used to refer to various forms of worldview based on the primacy of "ours" over the "outsiders" (comparable to la cosa nostra, "our thing").
Nashi (1990s nationalist group) (Наши): political movement initiated by well-known Russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov. The movement has been described as "statist-chauvinist".
Nashi (youth movement) (Молодёжное демократическое aнтифашистское движение «Наши»; 2005.03.01-2019.12.09): political youth movement in Russia, which declared itself to be a democratic, anti-fascist, anti-"oligarchic-capitalist" movement. Senior figures in the Russian Presidential administration encouraged the formation of the group, which Moises Naim labelled a government organized non-governmental organization (GONGO). By late 2007, it had grown in size to some 120,000 members aged between 17 and 25. 2012.04.06, the Nashi leader announced that the current form of the movement would dissolve in the near future, possibly to be replaced by a different organisation. He stated that Nashi had been "compromised" during the 2012 Russian presidential election. In 2013, the organization ceased its activities. Western critics have detected a "deliberately cultivated resemblance to" the Soviet Komsomol or to the Hitler Youth and dubbed the group "Putinjugend".
Vladislav Surkov (1964.09.21-): seen as the main architect of the current Russian political system, often described as "sovereign" or "managed" democracy. Allegedly he contributed greatly to the electoral victory of President Vladimir Putin in 2004.
Alexei Navalny (1976.06.04-): Russian lawyer, political and financial activist, and politician. In 2012, The Wall Street Journal described him as "the man Vladimir Putin fears most".
Anton Krasovsky (1975.07.18-) is a Russian political journalist, television personality and gay rights activist. 2013.01.25 during a discussion of a proposed national ban on "homosexual propaganda", Krasovsky revealed his homosexuality, stating on-air, "I'm gay and I'm as much a human-being as Putin and Medvedev." (Russian: Я гей и такой же человек, как Путин и Медведев.) His statement was not made available online or was deleted soon afterwards, and in 2013.01.28 Krasovsky resigned from the channel and denounced the working environment there. Krasovsky stated that he came out because he had enough feeling like a hypocrite. "How did it come about that today in Russia a good gay person is a dead gay person? How did there come to be a law in the Duma that forbids justifying homosexuality? Until now, the only thing you were forbidden to justify in my country was terrorism.... So as far as the deputies are concerned I am not a human being in the same sense that they are; I am to be classed as scum, like a terrorist. As far as the deputies are concerned I am scum by the fact of my birth, and it was criminal negligence not to have made a note of that in my birth certificate. What seemed like a bad dream only a couple of years ago has now become reality. And it is terrifying to imagine what could happen tomorrow."
Andrey Illarionov (1961.09.16-): Russian economist; currently works as a senior fellow in the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato Institute. Assumed the office of Vladimir Putin's senior economic adviser within the Russian presidential administration in 2000.04.12; in 2000.05 became the personal representative of the Russian president (sherpa) in the G8. In 2005.01.03 resigned from his position as presidential representative to the G8; in 2005.09.21 declared "This year Russia has become a different country. It is no longer a democratic country. It is no longer a free country".
Pavel Durov (1984.10.10-): Russian entrepreneur, best known for being the founder of the social networking site VK, and later the Telegram Messenger. 2014.04.21 Durov was dismissed as VK CEO. Durov then claimed the company had been effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin allies, suggesting his ousting was the result both of his refusal to hand over personal details of users to the Russian Federal Security Service and his refusal to hand over the personal details of people who were members of a Vkontakte group dedicated to the Euromaidan protest movement. Durov then left Russia and stated he had "no plans to go back".
Roman Abramovich (1966.10.24): Russian-Israeli billionaire businessman, investor, and politician. Abramovich is the primary owner of the private investment company Millhouse LLC, and is best known outside Russia as the owner of Chelsea Football Club, a Premier League football club. He was formerly governor of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug from 2000 to 2008. Relationship with Boris Berezovsky and Badri Patarkatsishvili. Relationship with Kremlin: Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin: Abramovich was the first person to originally recommend to Yeltsin that Vladimir Putin be his successor as the Russian president.:135 When Putin formed his first cabinet as Prime Minister in 1999, Abramovich interviewed each of the candidates for cabinet positions before they were approved.:102 Subsequently, Abramovich would remain one of Putin's closest confidants. In 2007, Putin consulted in meetings with Abramovich on the question of who should be his successor as president; Medvedev was personally recommended by Abramovich. Abramovich himself says that when he addresses Putin he uses the Russian language's formal "Вы", as opposed to the informal "ты". Abramovich says that the reason is because 'he is more senior than me'. Within the Kremlin, Abramovich is referred to as "Mr A".
Gazprom (ОАО «Газпром»): largest extractor of natural gas in the world and one of the world's largest companies. Gazprom is part of the Russian government's diplomatic efforts; distortions of gas prices, and access to pipelines, are used to threaten rival countries and support allies.
RT (TV network) (originally Russia Today): Russian government-funded television network which runs cable and satellite television channels directed to audiences outside the Russian Federation, as well as Internet content in various languages including Russian. RT International, which is based in Moscow, presents around-the-clock news bulletins, documentaries, talk shows, and debates, as well as sports news and cultural programmes about Russia. RT operates as a multilingual service with conventional channels in three languages: the original English language channel was launched in 2005, followed by the Arabic language channel in 2007 and the Spanish language channel in 2009. RT America (since 2010), and RT UK (since 2014) offer some locally based content for those countries.
RT America (2010.02-): TV channel based in Washington, D.C.
Far North (Russia): large part of Russia located mainly north of the Arctic Circle and boasting enormous mineral and natural resources. Its total area is about 5,500,000 km2, comprising about one-third of Russia's total area. Due to the harsh conditions of the area, people who work there have traditionally been entitled by the Russian government to higher wages than workers of other regions. As a result of the climate and environment, the indigenous peoples of the area have developed certain genetic differences that allow them to better cope with the region's environment, as do their cultures. Murmansk (pop. 302,468), Yakutsk (286,456), Norilsk (175,365), Novy Urengoi (116,450), and Magadan (95,048) are the largest cities within the Russian Far North proper.
Murmansk: port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, close to Russia's borders with Norway and Finland. Despite its extremely northern latitude of 68°58'N (just 2° north of the Arctic Circle) Murmansk is in many ways similar to other Russian cities of its size at far lower latitudes, with highway and railway access to the rest of Europe, and the northernmost trolleybus system on Earth. While still having long, harsh winters, Murmansk enjoys somewhat warmer temperatures, relatively speaking, than other regions at similarly high latitudes due to the moderating effects of the Gulf Stream on the Barents Sea.
Port of Murmansk: ranks fourth in Russia in terms of processed goods and the second largest in the north-west of Russia (after the port of St. Petersburg). Murmansk seaport is one of the largest ice-free ports in Russia is the backbone of the economy of the city.
Anton Krasovsky (Антóн Вячеслáвович Красóвский; 1975.07.18-): Russian political journalist, television personality and gay rights activist. 2017.12 Krasovsky revealed that he has been HIV positive since 2011.
How did it come about that today in Russia a good gay person is a dead gay person? How did there come to be a law in the Duma that forbids justifying homosexuality? Until now, the only thing you were forbidden to justify in my country was terrorism.... So as far as the deputies are concerned I am not a human being in the same sense that they are; I am to be classed as scum, like a terrorist. As far as the deputies are concerned I am scum by the fact of my birth, and it was criminal negligence not to have made a note of that in my birth certificate. What seemed like a bad dream only a couple of years ago has now become reality. And it is terrifying to imagine what could happen tomorrow.
The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia (1997): geopolitical book by Aleksandr Dugin. Well received in Russia; it has had significant influence within the Russian military, police, and foreign policy elites, and has been used as a textbook in the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian military. Powerful Russian political figures subsequently took an interest in Dugin, a Russian political analyst who espouses an ultranationalist and neo-fascist ideology based on his idea of neo-Eurasianism, who has developed a close relationship with Russia's Academy of the General Staff. Content: Dugin calls for the United States and Atlanticism to lose their influence in Eurasia, and for Russia to rebuild its influence through annexations and alliances. The book declares that "the battle for the world rule of Russians" has not ended and Russia remains "the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution". The Eurasian Empire will be constructed "on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the U.S., and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us." Military operations play a relatively minor role. The textbook advocates a sophisticated program of subversion, destabilization, and disinformation spearheaded by the Russian special services. The operations should be assisted by a tough, hard-headed utilization of Russia's gas, oil, and natural resources to bully and pressure other countries. The book states that "the maximum task [of the future] is the 'Finlandization' of all of Europe".
Sovereign Internet Law (Закон о «суверенном интернете»): informal name for a set of 2019 amendments to existing Russian legislation that mandate Internet surveillance and grants the Russian government powers to partition Russia from the rest of the Internet, including the creation of a national fork of the Domain Name System. The system was tested in 2023.07.06.
2020 Khabarovsk Krai protests: began on 2020.07.11 in support of the then governor, Sergei Furgal, after his arrest.
ru:Пытки в России (Пытки, жестокое или унижающее человеческое достоинство обращение или наказание в России): запрещены статьёй 21 Конституции: «Никто не должен подвергаться пыткам, насилию, другому жестокому или унижающему человеческое достоинство обращению или наказанию». Статья 117 УК РФ запрещает «Причинение физических или психических страданий путём систематического нанесения побоев либо иными насильственными действиями».
ru:Дело о пытках осуждённых в тюремной больнице под Саратовом: серия уголовных дел, возбужденных Следственным комитетом России по фактам применения насилия к осуждённым в Областной туберкулёзной больнице № 1 Управления ФСИН России по Саратовской области. Ход событий: Предшествующие события, Публичная огласка, «Список Савельева».
ru:Gulagu.net: российский общественный проект, созданный правозащитником Владимиром Осечкиным в 2011 году, основной деятельностью которого являются противодействие пыткам и коррупции в российской исправительной системе и защита прав заключённых в российских пенитенциарных учреждениях.
ru:Осечкин, Владимир Валерьевич (1981.06.14-): российский правозащитник, предприниматель. Основатель общественного проекта Gulagu.net.
Vladimir Osechkin: Russian human rights activist who operates the anti-corruption website Gulagu.net. He had been placed on a wanted list by Russian state after leaking a large archive of documents, photos and videos with hundreds cases of rape and torture of inmates in Russian prisons directed by prison officials. The archive was collected by whistleblower Sergei Saveliev. Osechkin also used a number of other sources in Russian prisons and the FSB. Osechkin lives in Paris since 2015.
ru:Савельев, Сергей Владимирович (1989.11.08-): белорусский информатор. Стал известен в 2021.10 года после того, как передал основателю сайта Gulagu.net правозащитнику Владимиру Осечкину копию электронного архива видеозаписей, фотографий и документов из компьютерной сети ФСИН России, свидетельствующих об организации и осуществлении на протяжении десятков лет систематических пыток, издевательств, извращённых изнасилований и преднамеренных физических повреждений внутренних органов заключённых в местах заключения в России
Mat (Russian profanity): term for strong obscene profanity in Russian and some other Slavic language communities. Khuy (хуй), pizda (пизда), ebat (ебать), blyad (блядь).
Military budget of Russia: portion of the overall budget of Russia that is allocated for the funding of the Russian Armed Forces. In 2014, Russia's military budget of 2.49 trillion rubles (worth approximately US$69.3 billion at 2014 exchange rates) was higher than any other European nation, and approximately 1/7th (14%) of the US military budget. However, a collapse in the value of the Rouble greatly reduced the dollar-value of the planned 2015 Russian military budget to US$52 billion, despite a 33% increase in its Rouble-value to 3.3 trillion.
2008 Russian military reform: under Defence Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov, and major structural reorganisation began in early 2009. The stated aims of the reform are to reorganize the structure and the chain of command in the Russian army, and to reduce it in size.
Military districts: From 1992 to 2010, the Russian Ground Forces were divided into seven military districts → consolidate military districts and the navy's fleets into four Joint Strategic Commands (OSK). In 2014, the decision to give the Northern Fleet more autonomy was made and a fifth strategic command was established - Joint strategic Command North – Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command (HQ in Severomorsk), Northern Fleet is the main component of the command.
Ground Forces: Before the 2008 reform, the Russian Ground Forces (SV) had 24 divisions, namely 3 tank divisions, 16 motorized rifle divisions and 5 machine gun artillery divisions, as well as two division-strength military bases in Armenia and Tajikistan, and 12 independent brigades. Out of those 24 divisions, only 5 motorised rifle-divisions were at full strength in 2008. Only about 13% of the army units could be deemed permanently combat-ready.
Air Forces: The number of units in the Russian Air Force (VVS) will be reduced from 340 to 180, the number of air bases from 245 to 52. It was announced that the Air Force plans to eliminate the reduced, two-squadron aviation regiments (those with 24 combat aircraft per regiment). The new organization of the VVS establishes the Air Base as the basic structural element. Each air base will include an HQ, 1–7 air squadrons (or aviation groups), an airfield service battalion and communication units. The Belarusian Air Force currently uses the same structure.
Navy: The Russian Navy (VMF) will be cut almost by half, from 240 to 123 units. On the other hand, its fighting capability will be bolstered by bringing various units to 100% of their full wartime strength. Other planned changes are the offloading of non-military assets such as housing, the outsourcing of some jobs to civilian contractors and a reduction of the number of non-combat officers. The Northern and Baltic Fleets are part of the Western Military District, the Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla are part of the Southern Military District, and the Pacific Fleet is part of the Eastern Military District. Under the State Armament Program, 100 warships will be procured by 2020. The purchase of 20 submarines, 35 corvettes and 15 frigates is planned.
Airborne Troops: However general Shamanov, who was appointed as new CinC of the VDV in May 2009 and who generally supports the reform programme, cancelled all cuts and changes in the VDV and announced that the airborne troops would be reinforced. The divisions have been beefed up and there are now four independent airborne/air-assault brigades.
Strategic Missile Troops: will retain 8 in place of 12 missile divisions.
Space Troops: number of units/formations of the Russian Space Forces (KV) will be reduced from 7 to 6.
Reform of military education: Serdyukov announced that the 65 military institutions of higher learning (15 academies, four universities, 46 colleges – including Suvorov and Nakhimov schools – and institutes) will be reduced by 2012 to just ten "systemic institutions": three research and teaching centers, six academies and one university. The new institutions will not only serve to train officers, but also to conduct research. They will be established according to territory, not combat arm. For now, all existing facilities will become affiliates of these ten centers; decisions regarding potential closures will be taken later. Serdyukov affirmed that the entire faculty of existing military institutes will be preserved and absorbed into the new system, and that only the managerial layer will be reduced. He also said that many formerly military specializations, such as lawyers, will now be educated at civilian facilities.
Closure of military towns: When Serdyukov became the Minister of Defence, Russia had 27 000 fortified settlements/military bases, that were in practice closed towns. Reform of 2008 reduced this number to 500. The problems with this started when the search started for alternative owners. Mostly the local councils were obliged to take them over but this created issues that made local councils reluctant. There was no decent oversight over the residents, many towns contained large criminal or homeless element that the local law enforcement was unable to touch since the closed establishment was under military jurisdiction. Also the residential and infrastructure was in a poor shape and locals councils did not have resources to fix. As long as these towns were under control of military, residents from these establishments could make written complaints. Most of these complaints however disappeared, were ignored or simply were not replied. Mostly complaining was useless and responsible people with power to change anything were not reachable. Local council, who after Serdyukov's 2008 reforms had to take over, is however reachable. Considering the residents of these towns also gained right to participate local elections after military's withdrawal, most of the local councils management did not want to take them over at all.
Bringing finances under control and reducing power of General Staff: Despite significant raise in the defence spending before Serdyukov became MOD, the better funding was not visible because it had vaporised. Apparently the first task of Serdyukov was to established control over flow of finances, explaining why he created financial control department in MOD and staffing it with people from Federal Tax Service of Russia. This strained already explosive relations between Serdyukov and General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation further since traditionally everything defence related was under General Staff's control. Next step was to reduce massive maintenance costs since Russian military before Serdyukov's reforms was just a downsized version of Soviet Armed Forces. Reform of 2008 was the first clearly implemented reform where General Staff's resistance was broken. There are multiple samples of mismanagement of funds under General Staff. Most of the famous incident is with the Russian submarine Ekaterinburg (K-84). On 29 December 2011 around 1220 UTC, Ekaterinburg caught fire while in the floating drydock PD-50. As per some date, 3 fires happened on that day and last one did spin out of control, creating dangerous incident with the weaponry on board, including nuclear weapons. Officials initially confirmed that all weaponry was moved from the Ekaterinburg before but Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin lead the investigation personally and concluded Ekaterinburg “did not unload the ammunition set for repair: there were torpedoes on it, and regular ballistic missiles.” Partially reason for Moscow's dissatisfaction was that for that there had been funds released to remove the armaments from Ekaterinburg for the duration of repairs but these most likely disappeared. Another issue was ammunition storage and ammunition dump explosions, such as Severomorsk Disaster that did have a risk occurring once in a while.
Anatoly Serdyukov (Анатолий Эдуардович Сердюков; 1962.01.08-): RU politician and businessman who was the Minister of Defense of Russia 2007.02.15-2012.11.06. During his tenure as defense minister, he launched several major reforms of the Russian military. Since 2015.10, he works as an Industrial Director for Rostec State corporation. According to Moscow Defense Brief, Serdyukov’s first year in office was marked by convulsions, "the likes of which have not been seen on the Arbat in decades." The magazine pointed out, that "Serdyukov brought apparently unlimited energy to a thorough purge of the department." He fired almost a third of the top officers of the Central Military Administration and initiated a sea of change in the Ministry of Defense. During his time in office, Serdyukov has launched several wide-reaching reforms. The main idea behind his reforms was the transformation from a mass mobilization army to a small force of contract soldiers. In 2010, Serdyukov launched a $430 bln. military reform to be achieved over the next 15 years in order to fully re-equip Russian conventional forces. Serdyukov also launched plans to reduce the personnel in the central administration by 30%, which would lead to the liquidation of a significant number of positions filled by generals and colonels. He was demanding drastic cuts in Russia's officer corps. There was an officer to every two and a half men. After the reform there should be just one to every 15, more similar to western armies. The reform would mean losing 200,000 jobs, and has been met with fierce political opposition by the "old guard". Because of the pressure, the deadline for implementing the cuts was put back from 2012 to 2016. Army divisions were disbanded and replaced by brigades. The six military districts of Russia were replaced by 4 geographic commands. Addressing acute and long-standing issues such as the ineffectiveness of Russia’s defense industrial and procurement policies was also one of Serdyukov's chief aims. The questions addressed included: "why, with so much spending on defense, do the Armed Forces possess so little new equipment? Why does the design and testing of many new types of armament take decades to show results?" Serdyukov initiated modifications to the Russian military uniform and addressed the issue of the physical condition of Russia’s generals and senior officers: the entire service personnel of the General Staff, irrespective of rank, must now meet set physical standards upon threat of dismissal. He also called for mergers of Military academies, sharp cuts in the number of military bases, and reductions in rear support and noncombat units.
ru:Васильева, Евгения Николаевна (1979.02.20): RU управленец и предприниматель , бывший руководитель аппарата Минобороны , бывший начальник департамента имущественных отношений Министерства обороны России. Получила известность осенью 2012 года в связи с коррупционным скандалом в оборонном министерстве, ставшим причиной отставки министра Анатолия Сердюкова . За время следствия и судебного процесса по делу «Оборонсервиса» Васильева превратилась в одну из популярных российских медиа-фигур. 8 мая 2015 года Васильева была приговорена судом к 5 годам лишения свободы в колонии общего режима за мошенничество. Свою вину Васильева не признала . По официальным данным, отбывала наказание с 8 мая по 23 июля 2015 года в московском СИЗО, затем 34 дня в колонии во Владимирской области . В срок заключения засчитано также пребывание под домашним арестом с 23 ноября 2012 года по 8 мая 2015 года. В 2015 году освобождена и покинула колонию по решению суда немедленно, в тот же день. Владимир Путин, комментируя процесс, заявил: «Дело (Оборонсервиса) будет доведено до конца. Но это не значит, что мы должны из политических соображений, для того, чтобы красиво выглядеть перед возмущенными гражданами, любой ценой засадить их (подозреваемых) за решетку. Не надо нам возвращаться к этому мрачному периоду — к 37-му году».
ru:Коррупционный скандал в Министерстве обороны России: последовательность публикаций в СМИ и сообщений органов следствия об обнаружении в Министерстве обороны RF (Минобороны России) и тесно связанной с ним коммерческой структуре («Оборонсервис») многомиллиардных хищений. Скандал стал причиной отставки министра обороны Анатолия Сердюкова 2012.11.06. Вертолёты Eurocopter. Оборонсервис. Дело о некачественной военной форме. Допросы Сердюкова
Wagner Group (Группа Вагнера; PMC Wagner, ChVK Wagner, or CHVK Vagner): Russian paramilitary organisation. Some have described it as a private military company (or a private military contracting agency), whose contractors have reportedly taken part in various conflicts, including operations in the Syrian Civil War on the side of the Syrian government as well as, from 2014 until 2015, in the War in Donbass in Ukraine aiding the separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. Others are of the opinion that ChVK Wagner is really a unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence in disguise, which is used by the Russian government in conflicts where deniability is called for.
de:Redut-Antiterror (Centre R): russisches privates Militär- und Sicherheitsunternehmen (PMSC) und Teil der „Antiterror-Familie“ der russischen PMSC-Szene, ein Geflecht von Firmen mit ähnlichen Namen. Es trat 2008 als Zusammenschluss mehrerer kleinerer Gruppierungen in Erscheinung. Initiiert wurde die Gründung von Veteranen des Auslandsgeheimdienstes SWR, der russischen Luftlandetruppen und Einheiten des russischen Innenministeriums, die bereits Erfahrung in Militär- und Friedensmissionen sammeln konnten. Es bestehen Hinweise darauf, dass die Organisation im Kaukasuskrieg 2008 Militärberater und Ausbilder für abchasische Einheiten stellte. Später kam sie im Irak, in Syrien, Somalia, karibischen Ländern, im ehemaligen Jugoslawien sowie in Afghanistan und Indonesien zum Einsatz.
Special Operations Forces (Russia) (SOF; Силы специальных операций, ССО): strategic-level special forces under the Special Operations Forces Command (Russian: командование сил специальных операций, KCCO) of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is also a structural and an independent unit of the Armed Forces. The first units of what would become the Special Operations Forces were transferred from the GRU in 2009 as part of the continuing 2008 Russian military reform. SOF are distinct from the Spetsnaz GRU that until 2010 were under the Main Intelligence Directorate and whose subsequent subordination was left unclear until 2013 where the decision was reversed and GRU special forces units were reassigned to GRU divisions and placed under GRU authority again.
2023 Moscow Victory Day Parade: scaled down due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Only one tank was shown, namely an antique T-34-85 from WWII. No flyover column was present during the event for the second year in a row. Only 51 vehicles were present compared to 197 for the 2021 Victory Day parade, roughly only 25% of the vehicles that appeared in 2021. Given the lack of a flyover, the parade lasted only 45 minutes, compared to an hour and a half as per usual. Only eight thousand soldiers took place in the parade compared to eleven thousand soldiers who appeared in 2021. The vintage T-34-85 was the only tracked vehicle on parade, the rest of the vehicles were light fighting vehicles that were wheeled. As in earlier years, missile launchers were also included. ICBMs were shown and among these were three RS-24 Yars.
Foreign dignitaries in attendance: President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedow, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan
Chechen, Chechnya (medieval puppet kingdom of Moscow)
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (Chechen Republic (1991–1994); 1994–2000): partially recognized secessionist government controlling most of the former Checheno-Ingush ASSR. The First Chechen War of 1994–96 resulted in the victory of the separatist forces. After achieving de facto independence from Russia in 1996, the Chechen government failed to establish order. In 1997.11 Chechnya was proclaimed an Islamic republic. A Second Chechen War began in 1999.08 and ended in 2000.05, with Chechen rebels continuing attacks as an insurgency.
Sulim Yamadayev–Ramzan Kadyrov power struggle: feud between rival pro-Moscow Chechen warlords that exploded into armed confrontation between Yamadaev's Special Battalion "Vostok" (East) forces and Chechen President Kadyrov's militia known as the "Kadyrovtsy" following an incident in the town of Argun that led to a shootout in Gudermes in 2008.04.14. The struggle resulted in the eventual disbanding of the Vostok battalion and Yamadaev's assassination in Dubai in 2009.03.30.
Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad (Специальные батальоны "Восток" и "Запад", lit. "East" and "West"): two Spetsnaz units of the GRU, the military intelligence agency of Russia, based in Chechnya. The overwhelming majority of the personnel were ethnic Chechens, while the command personnel were mixed ethnic Russians and Chechens. The Special Battalions were formed during the Second Chechen War as a force of Chechen volunteers under the direct control of the Russian government to perform operations in the mountain-forests of Chechnya. The two units operated independently from each other, with Zapad covering the western half of Chechnya and Vostok covering the eastern half, and their own commanders subordinate to the GRU but under the command network of the 42nd Guards Motor Rifle Division. The Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad operated for most of the Second Chechen War, and were briefly deployed by Russia in conflicts outside of Chechnya, until they were disbanded in 2008.
Said-Magomed Kakiyev: leader of the GRU Spetsnaz Special Battalion West (Zapad), a pro-Moscow Chechen military force. Inside Chechnya his men are sometimes referred to as the Kakievtsy. He has been engaged in violent power struggles for overall military authority with the president of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and Sulim Yamadayev.
Sulim Yamadayev (1973.06.21–2009.03.30): Chechen rebel commander from the First Chechen War who had switched sides together with his brothers Dzhabrail, Badrudi, Isa and Ruslan in 1999 during the outbreak of the Second Chechen War. Sulim Yamadayev was shot in Dubai on 2009.03.28, and died in hospital on 2009.03.30. 2003.03.05 brother Dzhabrail Yamadayev was assassinated by a bomb. 2008.09.24 brother Ruslan Yamadayev was shot dead on Smolenskaya Embankment in Moscow.
Kadyrovtsy: paramilitary organization in Chechnya, Russia that serves as the protection of the Head of the Chechen Republic. The term Kadyrovtsy is commonly used in Chechnya to refer to any armed Chechen men under the control of Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov.
Akhmad Kadyrov (1951.08.23–2004.05.09): Chief Mufti of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the 1990s during and after the First Chechen War. At the outbreak of the Second Chechen War he switched sides, offering his service to the Russian government, and later became the President of the Chechen Republic from 2003.10.05, acting as head of administration since 2000.07. On 2004.05.09, he was assassinated by Chechen Islamists in Grozny, using a bomb blast during a WWII memorial victory parade. His son, Ramzan Kadyrov, who led his father's militia, became one of his successors in March 2007 as the President of the Chechen Republic.
Ramzan Kadyrov (1976.10.08-): Chechen politician currently serving as the Head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly a member of the Chechen independence movement. He is the son of former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in May 2004. In February 2007, Kadyrov replaced Alu Alkhanov as president, shortly after he had turned 30, which is the minimum age for the post. He was engaged in violent power struggles with Chechen commanders Sulim Yamadayev and Said-Kakiyev for overall military authority, and with Alkhanov for political authority. Biography: Deputy Prime Minister, Acting Prime Minister, Prime Minister, President of the Chechen Republic, Head of the Chechen Republic. Chechen economic recovery and reconstruction. 2009 assassination attempt. Accusations of human rights abuses: Rounding up, torture and execution of gay men, Threats to journalists.
Adam Delimkhanov (1969.09.25-): Russian politician of Chechen ethnicity, who has been member of the Russian State Duma since 2007. Member of the United Russia.
Thief in law (Georgian: კანონიერი ქურდი, kanonieri kurdi; Russian: вор в зако́не): in USSR, the post-Soviet states, and respective diasporas abroad is a specifically granted formal and special status of "criminal dignitary" (kriminalny avtoritet), a professional criminal who enjoys an elite position among other notified mobsters within the organized crime environment and employs informal authority over its lower-status members. Can have two meanings in Russian: "a legalized thief" and "a thief who is the law": Note that Vor came to mean "thief" no earlier than the 18th century, before that it meant "criminal" (and it still means that in the professional criminal argot). Each new Vor (thief) is vetted (literally "crowned", with respective rituals and tattoos) by consensus of several Vory. Vor culture is inseparable from prison organized crime: only repeatedly jailed convicts are eligible for Vor status. Thieves in law are drawn from many nationalities from a number of post-Soviet states, but an absolute majority are ethnic Georgians and also other ethnic minorities from Georgia.
Belaruskali (Беларуськалі; Беларуськалий): one of the largest state-owned companies of Belarus. It is one of the largest producers of potash fertilizers in the world, accounting for 20% global supply as of 2019. Belaruskali is the largest single taxpayer in Belarus and an important source of foreign currency of the Belarusian government. As of 2015, it accounted for 11% of tax revenues of Minsk Region. Most of Belaruskali's production is exported to PRC.
Lang. = Belarusian (before 1991 due to USSR: Belorussian)
Cyber Partisans (кіберпартызаны; Russian: киберпартизаны): Belarusian decentralized anonymous activist/hacktivist collective emerged in September 2020, known for its various cyber attacks against the authoritarian Belarusian government. The group is part of the broader Belarusian opposition movement. Membership and aims: Cyber Partisans consists of a group of Belarusian IT workers who live abroad. In an August 2021 interview to Bloomberg, hackers shared some details about themselves: they are 15 people, none of whom are professional hackers; of them, only 3 or 4 perform the hacks, others deal with the analysis of obtained data; and some group members were penetration testers before joining the group. Members are anonymous even to each other. The group describes its activities as ethical hacking, as it goes only against the state and do not harm to ordinary citizens. In late January 2022, the group reportedly consisted of some 30 people. An anonymous spokesperson for the group told in an interview to MIT Technology Review: "What we want is to stop the violence and repression from the terroristic regime in Belarus and to bring the country back to democratic principles and rule of law." In 2021 and 2022, the group affirmed that it was not collaborating with any foreign government, but "we are not against it, as long as it aligns with our depicted goals, to change the regime."
2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état: on the evening of 2017.11.14 elements of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces gathered around Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, seized control of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and other areas of the city. The next day, they issued a statement saying that it was not a coup d'état and that President Robert Mugabe was safe, although the situation would only return to normal after they had dealt with the "criminals" around Mugabe responsible for the socio-economic problems of Zimbabwe.
Inca Empire (Incan Empire, Inka Empire): the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, and possibly the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century. Its political and administrative structure "was the most sophisticated found among native peoples" in the Americas. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century. Its last stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572. From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. Official language was Quechua. Many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, most of them concerning local sacred Huacas, but the Inca leadership encouraged the Sun worship of Inti – their Sun god – and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama. The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the "son of the Sun." The Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked many features associated with civilization in the Old World. McEwan, Gordon F.: "The Incas lacked the use of wheeled vehicles. They lacked animals to ride and draft animals that could pull wagons and plows... [They] lacked the knowledge of iron and steel... Above all, they lacked a system of writing... Despite these supposed handicaps, the Incas were still able to construct one of the greatest imperial states in human history". Notable features of the Inca Empire include its monumental architecture, especially stonework, extensive road network reaching all corners of the empire, finely-woven textiles, use of knotted strings (quipu) for record keeping and communication, agricultural innovations in a difficult environment, and the organization and management fostered or imposed on its people and their labor. The Incan economy has been described in contradictory ways by scholars: as "feudal, slave, socialist (here one may choose between socialist paradise or socialist tyranny)". The Inca empire functioned largely without money and without markets. Instead, exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. "Taxes" consisted of a labour obligation of a person to the Empire. The Inca rulers (who theoretically owned all the means of production) reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food and drink in celebratory feasts for their subjects. The term Inka means "ruler" or "lord" in Quechua and was used to refer to the ruling class or the ruling family. The Incas were a very small percentage of the total population of the empire, probably numbering only 15,000 to 40,000, but ruling a population of around 10 million persons. The Spanish adopted the term (transliterated as Incain Spanish) as an ethnic term referring to all subjects of the empire rather than simply the ruling class. Carl Troll has argued that the development of the Inca state in the central Andes was aided by conditions that allows for the elaboration of the staple food chuño. Chuño, which can be stored for long periods, is made of potato dried at the freezing temperatures that are common at nighttime in the southern Peruvian highlands. Such link between the Inca state and chuño may be questioned as potatoes and other crops such as maize can also be dried with only sunlight. Troll did also argue that llamas, the Inca's pack animal, can be found in its largest numbers in this very same region. It is worth considering the maximum extent of the Inca Empire roughly coincided with the greatest distribution of llamas and alpacas in Pre-Hispanic America. Pachacuti sent spies to regions he wanted in his empire and they brought to him reports on political organization, military strength and wealth. He then sent messages to their leaders extolling the benefits of joining his empire, offering them presents of luxury goods such as high quality textiles and promising that they would be materially richer as his subjects. Most accepted the rule of the Inca as a fait accompli and acquiesced peacefully. Refusal to accept Inca rule resulted in military conquest. Following conquest the local rulers were executed. The ruler's children were brought to Cusco to learn about Inca administration systems, then return to rule their native lands. This allowed the Inca to indoctrinate them into the Inca nobility and, with luck, marry their daughters into families at various corners of the empire. Traditionally the son of the Inca ruler led the army. Pachacuti's son Túpac Inca Yupanqui began conquests to the north in 1463 and continued them as Inca ruler after Pachacuti's death in 1471. Túpac Inca's most important conquest was the Kingdom of Chimor, the Inca's only serious rival for the Peruvian coast. The advance south halted after the Battle of the Maule where they met determined resistance from the Mapuche. The empire's push into the Amazon Basin near the Chinchipe River was stopped by the Shuar in 1527. The Inca Empire was an amalgamation of languages, cultures and peoples. The components of the empire were not all uniformly loyal, nor were the local cultures all fully integrated. The Inca empire as a whole had an economy based on exchange and taxation of luxury goods and labour.
Inca Civil War and Spanish conquest: Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro and his brothers explored south from what is today Panama, reaching Inca territory by 1526. It was clear that they had reached a wealthy land with prospects of great treasure, and after another expedition in 1529 Pizarro traveled to Spain and received royal approval to conquer the region and be its viceroy. This approval was received as detailed in the following quote: "In July 1529 the queen of Spain signed a charter allowing Pizarro to conquer the Incas. Pizarro was named governor and captain of all conquests in Peru, or New Castile, as the Spanish now called the land." When they returned to Peru in 1532, a war of succession between the sons of Sapa Inca Huayna Capac, Huáscar and Atahualpa, and unrest among newly conquered territories weakened the empire. Perhaps more importantly, smallpox, influenza, typhus and measles had spread from Central America. The forces led by Pizarro consisted of 168 men, one cannon, and 27 horses. Conquistadors ported lances, arquebuses, steel armor and long swords. In contrast, the Inca used weapons made out of wood, stone, copper and bronze, putting them at significant technological disadvantage. In addition, due to the absence of horses in the Americas, the Inca did not develop tactics to fight cavalry. The first engagement between the Inca and the Spanish was the Battle of Puná, near present-day Guayaquil, Ecuador, on the Pacific Coast; Pizarro then founded the city of Piura in July 1532. Hernando de Soto was sent inland to explore the interior and returned with an invitation to meet the Inca, Atahualpa, who had defeated his brother in the civil war and was resting at Cajamarca with his army of 80,000 troops, that were at the moment armed only with hunting tools (knives and lassos for hunting llamas). Atahualpa offered the Spaniards enough gold to fill the room he was imprisoned in and twice that amount of silver. The Inca fulfilled this ransom, but Pizarro deceived them, refusing to release the Inca afterwards. During Atahualpa's imprisonment Huáscar was assassinated elsewhere. The Spaniards maintained that this was at Atahualpa's orders; this was used as one of the charges against Atahualpa when the Spaniards finally executed him, in August 1533. Although "defeat" often implies an unwanted loss in battle, much of the Inca elite "actually welcomed the Spanish invaders as liberators and willingly settled down with them to share rule of Andean farmers and miners." After the fall of the Inca Empire many aspects of Inca culture were systematically destroyed, including their sophisticated farming system, known as the vertical archipelago model of agriculture. Spanish colonial officials used the Inca mita corvée labor system for colonial aims, sometimes brutally. One member of each family was forced to work in the gold and silver mines, the foremost of which was the titanic silver mine at Potosí. When a family member died, which would usually happen within a year or two, the family was required to send a replacement. The effects of smallpox on the Inca empire were even more devastating. Beginning in Colombia, smallpox spread rapidly before the Spanish invaders first arrived in the empire. The spread was probably aided by the efficient Inca road system. Smallpox was only the first epidemic. Other diseases, including a probable Typhus outbreak in 1546, influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, and measles in 1618, all ravaged the Inca people. The Inca's impact outlasted their empire, as the Spanish continued the use of Quechua. The Incas were not known to develop a written form of communication; however, they visually recorded narratives through paintings on vases and cups (qirus). These paintings are usually accompanied by geometric patterns known as toqapu, which are also found in textiles. Researchers have speculated that toqapu patterns could have served as a form of written communication (e.g.: heraldry, or glyphs), however this remains unclear.
Marriage: In the Incan Empire, the age of marriage differed for men and women; men typically married at the age of 20, while women usually got married around 4 years earlier at the age of 16. Men who were highly ranked in society could have multiple wives, but those lower in the ranks could only take a single wife. Marriages were typically within classes and resembled a more business-like agreement. Once married, the women were expected to cook, collect food and watch over the children and livestock. Girls and mothers would also work around the house to keep it orderly to please the public inspectors. It was typical for marriages to begin on a trial basis with both men and women having a say in the longevity of the marriage. If the man felt that it wouldn’t work out or if the woman wanted to return to her parent’s home the marriage would end. Once the marriage was final, the only way the two could be divorced was if they did not have a child together .
Gender: The Inca called newborn infants wawa, a term that they also used for newborn animals. This term was used for all newborn beings without regard to their biological sex. Babies were not given human social status until they reached two or three years of age due to the high infant mortality rates. It was at this time that a ceremony was held called rutuchikuy in which the infant was given its first haircut, name and introduced to the extended family. Also in this ceremony, children advanced from the description of wawa to warma, a gender neutral term for a child who has not developed the language skill set. By the time children reached the age of seven, they had completed gender specific tasks and were referred to as gender specific terms, Thaski for girls and maqt’a for boys.
Religion: The Inca believed in reincarnation. After death, the passage to the next world was fraught with difficulties. The spirit of the dead, camaquen, would need to follow a long road and during the trip the assistance of a black dog that could see in the dark was required. Most Incas imagined the after world to be like an earthly paradise with flower-covered fields and snow-capped mountains. It was important to the Inca that they not die as a result of burning or that the body of the deceased not be incinerated. Burning would cause their vital force to disappear and threaten their passage to the after world. Those who obeyed the Inca moral code – ama suwa, ama llulla, ama quella (do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy) – "went to live in the Sun's warmth while others spent their eternal days in the cold earth". The Incas made human sacrifices. As many as 4,000 servants, court officials, favorites and concubines were killed upon the death of the Inca Huayna Capac in 1527. The Incas performed child sacrifices around important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca or during a famine.
Economy: The Inca Empire employed central planning. The Inca Empire traded with outside regions, although they did not operate a substantial internal market economy. While axe-monies were used along the northern coast, presumably by the provincial mindaláe trading class, most households in the empire lived in a traditional economy in which households were required to pay taxes, usually in the form of the mit'a corvée labor, and military obligations, though barter (or trueque) was present in some areas. In return, the state provided security, food in times of hardship through the supply of emergency resources, agricultural projects (e.g. aqueducts and terraces) to increase productivity and occasional feasts.
Beliefs: The Sapa Inca was conceptualized as divine and was effectively head of the state religion. The Willaq Umu (or Chief Priest) was second to the emperor. Local religious traditions continued and in some cases such as the Oracle at Pachacamac on the Peruvian coast, were officially venerated. Following Pachacuti, the Sapa Inca claimed descent from Inti, who placed a high value on imperial blood; by the end of the empire, it was common to incestuously wed brother and sister. He was "son of the Sun," and his people the intip churin, or "children of the Sun," and both his right to rule and mission to conquer derived from his holy ancestor.
Laws: The Inca state had no separate judiciary or codified laws. Customs, expectations and traditional local power holders governed behavior. The state had legal force, such as through tokoyrikoq (lit. "he who sees all"), or inspectors. The highest such inspector, typically a blood relative to the Sapa Inca, acted independently of the conventional hierarchy, providing a point of view for the Sapa Inca free of bureaucratic influence.
Administration: While provincial bureaucracy and government varied greatly, the basic organization was decimal.
Ceramics, precious metals and textiles: Almost all of the gold and silver work of the Incan empire was melted down by the conquistadors.
Medicine: The Inca made many discoveries in medicine. They performed successful skull surgery, by cutting holes in the skull to alleviate fluid buildup and inflammation caused by head wounds. Many skull surgeries performed by Inca surgeons were successful. Survival rates were 80–90%, compared to about 30% before Inca times.
Coca: The Incas revered the coca plant as sacred/magical. Its leaves were used in moderate amounts to lessen hunger and pain during work, but were mostly used for religious and health purposes. The Spaniards took advantage of the effects of chewing coca leaves. The Chasqui, messengers who ran throughout the empire to deliver messages, chewed coca leaves for extra energy. Coca leaves were also used as an anaesthetic during surgeries.
Oil reserves in Venezuela: recognized as the largest in the world, totaling 4.72×10¹⁰ m³ as of 2014.01.01; surpassed that of the previous long-term world leader, Saudi Arabia. Venezuela's crude oil is very heavy by international standards, and as a result much of it must be processed by specialized domestic and international refineries.
Bolivarian diaspora (1998–present): largest recorded refugee crisis in the Americas, refers to the emigration of millions of Venezuelans from their native country during the presidencies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro due to the Bolivarian Revolution. The revolution was an attempt by Chávez and later, Maduro to establish a cultural and political hegemony which culminated in the crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela when their populist policies failed. Brain drain.
Crisis in Venezuela (2010.06.02–): socioeconomic and political crisis began in Venezuela in the presidency of Hugo Chávez and has continued into the current presidency of Nicolás Maduro. The current situation is the worst economic crisis in Venezuela's history and among the worst crises experienced in the Americas, with hyperinflation, soaring hunger, disease, crime and death rates, and massive emigration from the country. Observers and economists have stated that the crisis is not the result of a conflict or natural disaster but the consequences of socialist policies that began under the Chávez administration's Bolivarian Revolution, with the Brookings Institution stating that "Venezuela has really become the poster child for how the combination of corruption, economic mismanagement, and undemocratic governance can lead to widespread suffering." The crisis intensified under the Maduro government, growing more severe as a result of low oil prices in early 2015, and a drop in oil production from lack of maintenance and investment. The government failed to cut spending in the face of falling oil revenues and has dealt with the crisis by denying its existence and violently repressing opposition. Political corruption, chronic shortages of food and medicine, closure of companies, unemployment, deterioration of productivity, authoritarianism, human rights violations, gross economic mismanagement and high dependence on oil have also contributed to the worsening crisis. The contraction of national and per capita GDPs in Venezuela between 2013 and 2017 was more severe than that of the United States during the Great Depression, or of Russia, Cuba, and Albania following the collapse of USSR. In recent years, the annual inflation rate for consumer prices rose hundreds and thousands of percentage points while the economy contracted by nearly 20% annually. From the beginning of the crisis to 2017, more than 2.3 million Venezuelans have left the country. Venezuela led the world in murder rates, with 56.3 per 100,000 people killed in 2016, third most violent in the world. In 2014.04, Maduro ruled by decree that Venezuelans who owned three or more rental properties would be forced by the government to sell their rental units at a set price or they would face fines or have their property possessed by the government. Inflation rate in 2014 reached 69% and was the highest in the world. The rate then increased to 181% in 2015, 800% in 2016, 4,000% in 2017 and 2,688,670% in January 2019. The discovery of oil in the early twentieth century has worsened political corruption. While corruption is difficult to measure reliably, Transparency International currently ranks Venezuela among the top 20 most corrupt countries, tied with four other countries as the 8th most corrupt nation in the world. Other signs of hunger in Venezuela include the killing of dogs, cats, donkeys, horses and pigeons—whose dismembered remains are found in city garbage dumps—and of protected wildlife such as flamingos and giant anteaters. President Maduro's allies—such as Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Russia and Syria—discouraged foreign intervention in Venezuelan politics and congratulated the president.
Shortages in Venezuela (2010-): of regulated food staples and basic necessities have been widespread following the enactment of price controls and other policies under the government of Hugo Chávez and exacerbated by the policy of withholding USA dollars from importers under the government of Nicolás Maduro. The severity of the shortages has led to the largest refugee crisis ever recorded in the Americas. The Venezuelan government's denial of the crisis and its refusal to accept offers of aid from Amnesty International, UN, and other groups has made conditions even worse. UN and the Organization of American States have stated that the shortages have resulted in unnecessary deaths in Venezuela and urged the government to accept humanitarian aid. Shortages of milk, meat, coffee, rice, oil, precooked flour, butter, toilet paper, personal hygiene products and medicines. During the presidency of Chávez, Venezuela faced occasional shortages owing to high inflation and government financial inefficiencies. In 2005, Chávez announced the initiation of Venezuela's own "great leap forward". Causes: Government policies: Overspending and import reliance; Currency and price controls; Corruption (An Associated Press investigation published in December 2016 found that "instead of fighting hunger, the military is making money from it". Military sellers would drastically increase the cost of goods and create shortages by hoarding products.). Response: Censorship and denial; Rationing: Food, Utilities; Local Supply and Production Committee (CLAP): "a form of food discrimination that is exacerbating social unrest". Effects: Arbitrage and hoarding; Crime; Hunger; "The Maduro Diet";
Venezuela–Colombia migrant crisis: diplomatic and humanitarian crisis that occurred in mid-2015 following the shooting of three Venezuelan soldiers on the Venezuela–Colombia border that left them injured and President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro's response of deporting thousands of Colombians. Maduro's response of declaring a state of emergency, closing the border to Colombia indefinitely and deporting thousands of Colombians that lived near the border, struck fear in tens of thousands of other Colombians living in Venezuela resulting in their emigration from the country and a crisis involving separated families and Colombians seeking food and shelter.
Mother of All Marches (2017.04.19): against the Chavista government of president Nicolás Maduro. The protests began after the Supreme Tribunal of Justice dissolved the National Assembly and took over its legislative powers 2017.03.29 in what was called a self-coup. The dissolution of the National Assembly was reversed shortly thereafter on 2017.04.01.
2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis (2019.01.10–): when the opposition-majority National Assembly declared that incumbent Nicolás Maduro's 2018 reelection was invalid and the body declared its president, Juan Guaidó, to be acting president of the nation. Maduro's government says the crisis is a coup d'état led by USA to topple him and control the country's oil reserves. Guaidó denies the coup allegations, saying peaceful volunteers back his movement.
Venezuela Aid Live (2019.02.22): concert to benefit Venezuela in Cúcuta, a city on the Venezuelan–Colombian border; organized by Richard Branson, and featured over thirty of the best known Latin American artists from nine countries. Venezuela Live Aid's charity page said, "Not that long ago, [Venezuela] was the wealthiest country in South America. Now it is facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere." The purpose of the concert was to raise money and to pressure Nicolás Maduro to "open Venezuela's border so humanitarian aid stockpiled on Venezuela's borders can finally reach those millions who need it the most".
Guri Dam: concrete gravity and embankment dam in Bolívar State, Venezuela on the Caroni River built from 1963 to 1969. It is 7,426 metres long and 162 m high. 2019.03.07 shortly before 17:00 local time, the Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant failed, leaving most of Venezuela's 32 million citizens in darkness. In the days following the onset of the blackout, at least four attempts were made to restart the key San Gerónimo B substation, which distributes 80% of the country's electricity, but all failed, and no date was set for the plant's reactivation.
India, Pakistan (also belongs to Persian group), Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, (Nepal), (Bhutan), #Afghanistan and #Iran, Persia.
Languages: Indo-Aryan languages subgroup; Dravidian language group; Turkic languages to the North, North-East and West; and Sinic languagues to the East; Indochinese Peninsula languages to the East - South-East {q.v. #Indochina}; Arabic languages to the West.
Religions: mainly Islam (Sunni and Shi'ite), Hinduism and Buddhism (various).
Language politics of Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, (Nepal)), how it affects Dravidian languages as well:
Hindi–Urdu controversy: Kharibloi dialect of the Hindi languages was Persianized into Urdu during Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526 AD) and Mughal Empire (1526–1858 AD). 1837: British East India company replaced Persian with Urdu written in Perso-Arabic script as the official standard of Hindi-speaking Northern provinces of modern day India in addition to English. 1900: Hindi and Urdu granted equal status; Hindi and Urdu started to diverge linguistically: Hindi draws on Sanskrit (often with conscious attempt to purge the language of Persian-derived equivalents), Urdu draws from Persian, Arabic, Turkish. 1948: Urdu declared sole national language in Pakistan. 1950: Hindi granted official precedence over Urdu in the Republic of India. "Deploring this Hindu-Muslim divide, Gandhi proposed re-merging the standards, using either Devanagari or Perso-Arabic script, under the traditional generic term Hindustani; Gandhi failed."
Sri Lankan civil war: how big a role the language politics played in the Civil War? Sinhalese vs Sri Lankan Tamil.
Indo-Bangladesh enclaves (chitmahals, pasha enclaves): enclaves along the Bangladesh–India border, in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. There are 106 Indian enclaves and 92 Bangladeshi enclaves. Inside the main part of Bangladesh, 102 of these are first-order Indian enclaves, while inside the main part of India, 71 of these are Bangladeshi first-order enclaves. Further inside these enclaves are an additional 24 second order- or counter-enclaves (21 Bangladeshi, 3 Indian) and one Indian counter-counter-enclave, called Dahala Khagrabari #51. They have an estimated combined population between 50,000 and 100,000.
Schematic map of the Cooch Behar enclaves on the border of India and Bangladesh. The top of the map points to the east.
The four major ethnic groups of Pakistan in 1980: Baluchi, Punjabi, Pushtun, Sindhi.
Stepwell (vavs, baori): wells or ponds with a long corridor of steps that descend to the water level. Stepwells played a significant role in defining subterranean architecture in western India from 7th to 19th century. Some stepwells are multi-storeyed and can be accessed by a Persian wheel which is pulled by a bull to bring water to the first or second floor. They are most common in western India and are also found in the other more arid regions of the Indian subcontinent, extending into Pakistan. The construction of stepwells is mainly utilitarian, though they may include embellishments of architectural significance, and be temple tanks. Function and use: The stepwell ensures the availability of water during periods of drought. The stepwells had social, cultural and religious significance. These stepwells were proven to be well-built sturdy structures, after withstanding earthquakes. Most places in India where there is abundant fresh water only during the monsoon season, stepwell and wells play a critical role in serving as a direct means to fresh water filtered through the earth. While the rivers, rivulets, creeks, and other natural water bodies dry up in this climate zone, stepwell and wells remain at a depth where there is less exposure to sun and heat.
Bengal famine of 1943: as in previous Bengal famines, the highest mortality was not in previously very poor groups, but among artisans and small traders whose income vanished when people spent all they had on food and did not employ cobblers, carpenters, etc.
Names for India: Republic of India has two principal short names, each of which is historically significant, India and Bhārat. A third name, "Hindūstān", is sometimes an alternative name for the region comprising most of the modern Indian states of the Indian Subcontinent when Indians speak among themselves. The usage of "Bhārat", "Hindūstān", or "India" depends on the context and language of conversation.
Cattle slaughter in India: especially cow slaughter is a controversial topic in India because of the cattle's traditional status as an endeared and respected living being to many in Hinduism and Jainism, in contrast to cattle being considered as an acceptable source of meat by many in Islam, Christianity as well as some adherents of Indian religions. Article 48 of the Constitution of India prescribes the state to prohibit the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle. In 2005.10.26, the Supreme Court of India, in a landmark judgement upheld the constitutional validity of anti-cow slaughter laws enacted by different state governments in India. 20 out of 29 states in India currently have various regulations prohibiting either the slaughter or sale of cows. Kerala, Goa, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura are the states where there are no restrictions on cow slaughter. According to UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and European Union, India beef consumption per capita per year is the world's lowest amongst the countries it surveyed. According to a 2012 report, India ranks 5th in the world in beef production and 7th in domestic consumption. According to a 2016 USDA review, India has rapidly grown to become the world's largest beef exporter, accounting for 20% of world's beef trade based on its large water buffalo meat processing industry.
Dairy in India: dairy plays a significant part in numerous aspects of Indian society, including cuisine, religion, culture, and the economy. India has the world's largest dairy herd with over 300 million bovines, producing over 187 million tonnes of milk. India is first among all countries in both production and consumption of milk. Most of the milk is domestically consumed, though a small fraction is also exported. Indian cuisine, in particular North Indian cuisine, features a number of dairy products like paneer, while South Indian cuisine uses more yogurts and milk. Milk and dairy products play a part in Hindu religious practice and legend. The economic impact of the dairy industry in India is substantial. Most of the milk produced comes from buffalo; cow milk is a close second, and goat milk a distant third.
Dalit ("broken/scattered" in Sanskrit and Hindi): term mostly used for the ethnic groups in India, but have been kept depressed by subjecting them to untouchability (often termed backward castes). Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama. Dalits now profess various religious beliefs, including Buddhism, Christianity and Sikhism. As per the latest census, they comprise 16% of India's population (200 million people), including Hindu Dalits and Christian Dalits.
Salute state: princely state in India during the time of British rule which had been granted a gun salute by the British Crown.
The Emergency (India) (1975.06.26 - 1977.03.21): 21-month period when President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon request by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on I. Gandhi the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties; one of the most controversial times in the history of independent India.
Economic liberalisation in India (1991.07.24-): attempts to liberalize economy in 1966-1967, 1985-1987. GDP growth 1950s-1980s: 3.5% (1.3% per capita), later ~7.5%.
Income in India: richest states - Haryana, Punjab; poorest states - Orissa, Bihar; low-income states - Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
Dravida Nadu (Dravidistan or Dravidadesa): was the name of a proposed sovereign state for the speakers of the Dravidian languages in South Asia.
Southeast Asia (Southeastern Asia): geographical southeastern subregion of Asia, consisting of the regions that are south of China, southeast of the Indian subcontinent and north-west of Australia. In contemporary definition, Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions: 1. Mainland Southeast Asia, aka Indochinese Peninsula and historically as Indochina, 2. Maritime Southeast Asia, aka Malay Archipelago and historically as Nusantara
Areas most often considered to be part of the Malay world (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore)
Areas that have historically been influenced by Malay culture (the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and East Timor (Timor-Leste))
Malay world (Malay realm (Indonesian/Malay: Dunia Melayu or Alam Melayu)): concept or an expression that has been used by different authors and groups over time to denote several different notions, derived from varied interpretations of 'Malay' either as an ethnic group, as a racial category, as a linguistic group or as a cultural group. The use of the term Malay in much of the conceptualisation is largely based on the prevalent Malay cultural influence, manifested in particular through the spread of the Malay language in Southeast Asia as observed by different colonial powers during the Age of Discovery and spread of Islam. The term remains highly controversial in Indonesia and outside the Malay-speaking areas, because it is considered politically charged and irredentist rather than purely cultural. The term in this sense encompasses Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Southern Thailand, and is sometimes used interchangeably with the concepts of 'Malay Archipelago' and 'Nusantara'. Malayophones (peoples and nations that speak Malay/Indonesian as their native language or recognize it as an official language) number an estimated 330 million people (projected 2025), comprising just under half of the population of Southeast Asia in eight sovereign states and territories: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, where Malay is an official language under the name 'Malay', 'Indonesian' or 'Malaysian'; East Timor and parts of Thailand and the Philippines, where Malay/Indonesian is recognized as a minority or trade language, and the Australian territories of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island, where Malay is the majority language and a significant minority, respectively.
Mainland Southeast Asia (Indochinese Peninsula, formerly Indochina): continental portion of Southeast Asia. Countries: Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia), Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Vietnam. Overall, Mainland Southeast Asia is predominantly Buddhist.
The Southeast Asian Massif (in red) and part of the Himalayan Massif (in yellow). Gray background indicates land above 500 m.
Southeast Asian Massif: proposed in 1997 by anthropologist Jean Michaud to discuss the human societies inhabiting the lands above an elevation of approximately 300 metres in the southeastern portion of the Asian landmass, thus not merely in the uplands of conventional Mainland Southeast Asia. It concerns highlands overlapping parts of 10 countries: southwest China, Northeast India, eastern Bangladesh, and all the highlands of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Peninsular Malaysia, and Taiwan. The indigenous population encompassed within these limits numbers approximately 100 million, not counting migrants from surrounding lowland majority groups who came to settle in the highlands over the last few centuries. The notion of the Southeast Asian Massif overlaps geographically with the eastern segment of Van Schendel's notion of Zomia proposed in 2002, while it overlaps geographically with what political scientist James C. Scott called Zomia in 2009. While the notion of Zomia underscores a historical and political understanding of that high region, the Southeast Asia Massif is more appropriately labelled a place or a social space.
Maritime Southeast Asia (Island Southeast Asia, Insular Southeast Asia, Oceanic Southeast Asia): comprises the countries of Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia (East Malaysia), the Philippines, and Singapore.
Majapahit (1293–1527): Javanese Hindu thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was based on the island of Java (in modern-day Indonesia); reached its peak of glory during the era of Hayam Wuruk, whose reign from 1350 to 1389 was marked by conquests that extended throughout Southeast Asia. His achievement is also credited to his prime minister, Gajah Mada. According to the Nagarakretagama (Desawarñana) written in 1365, Majapahit was an empire of 98 tributaries, stretching from Sumatra to New Guinea; consisting of present-day Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand, East Timor, southwestern Philippines (in particular the Sulu Archipelago) although the scope of Majapahit sphere of influence is still the subject of debate among historians. The nature of Majapahit relations and influences upon its overseas vassals, also its status as an empire are still provoking discussions. Majapahit was one of the last major Hindu empires of the region and is considered to be one of the greatest and most powerful empires in the history of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. It is sometimes seen as the precedent for Indonesia's modern boundaries.
Gajah Mada (c. 1290 – c. 1364): according to Old Javanese manuscripts, poems, and mythology, a powerful military leader and Mahapatih (the approximate equivalent of a modern Prime Minister) of the Javanese empire of Majapahit during the 14th century. He is credited with bringing the empire to its peak of glory.
Chinese in these lands are on average better off than the locals:
Chinese Indonesians: Loyalty in question (1950–1966); Managing the "Chinese Problem" (1967–1998); Social policy reforms (1999–present)
Indonesia: the land where South Asia (aka "India") meets East Asia (aka "China"), where Muslims (Iranians with a little spice of Arab?) came and brought Islam, where Europeans came and brought Christianity and their wars; from Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) {1602 - 1798} → Dutch East Indies {1800-1942, 1945-1949} with a short Japanese occupation of Indonesia {1942-1945} → independent Indonesia and New Guinea/Papua/Niugini/Niu Gini:
New York Agreement: agreement signed by the Netherlands and Indonesia regarding the administration of the territory of Western New Guinea. The first part of the agreement proposes that the United Nations assume administration of the territory, and a second part proposes a set of social conditions that will be provided if the United Nations exercises a discretion proposed in article 12 of the agreement to allow Indonesian occupation and administration of the territory. Negotiated during meetings hosted by USA, the agreement was signed 1962.08.15 at the UN Headquarters in New York City, USA.
Niugini/Papua:
West Papua (province) (Indonesian: Papua Barat; formerly Irian Jaya Barat or Irian Barat): province of Indonesia. It covers the two western peninsulas of the island of New Guinea, Bird's Head Peninsula and Bomberai Peninsula, along with nearby islands.
Papua (province) (formerly Irian Jaya): largest and easternmost province of Indonesia, comprising most of Western New Guinea.
Republic of West Papua (Indonesian: Republik Papua Barat): proposed state consisting of the Western New Guinea region.
Free Papua Movement (Indonesian: Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM): umbrella term for the independence movement established during 1965 in the West Papuan or West New Guinea territory which is currently being administrated by Indonesia as the provinces of Papua and West Papua
Strait of Malacca: From an economic and strategic perspective, the Strait of Malacca is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. The strait is the main shipping channel between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, linking major Asian economies such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Over 94,000 vessels pass through the strait each year (2008) making it the busiest strait in the world, carrying about 25% of the world's traded goods, including oil, Chinese manufactured products, coal, palm oil and Indonesian coffee. About a quarter of all oil carried by sea passes through the Strait, mainly from Persian Gulf suppliers to Asian markets.
Indo people: Eurasian people who were a migrant population that associated themselves with and experienced the colonial culture of the former Dutch East Indies, a Dutch colony in Southeast Asia that became Indonesia after WWII; used to describe people acknowledged to be of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent, or it was a term used in the Dutch East Indies to apply to Europeans who had partial Asian ancestry. The European ancestry of these people was predominantly Dutch, and also Portuguese, British, French, Belgian, German, and others.
Sukarno (1901.06.06–1970.06.21): first President of Indonesia, serving in office from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for Independence from the Netherlands. He was a prominent leader of Indonesia's nationalist movement during the Dutch colonial period, and spent over a decade under Dutch detention until released by the invading Japanese forces. Sukarno and his fellow nationalists collaborated to garner support for the Japanese war effort from the population, in exchange for Japanese aid in spreading nationalist ideas. Upon Japanese surrender, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declared Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945, and Sukarno was appointed as first president. He led Indonesians in resisting Dutch re-colonization efforts via diplomatic and military means until the Dutch acknowledgement of Indonesian independence in 1949. Author Pramoedya Ananta Toer once wrote "Sukarno was the only Asian leader of the modern era able to unify people of such differing ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds without shedding a drop of blood." Sukarno was fluent in the Javanese language of his childhood, master of Sundanese, Balinese and of Indonesian, and was especially strong in Dutch; was also quite comfortable in German, English, French, Arabic, and Japanese, all of which were taught at his HBS (Hogere Burgerschool).
Suharto (1921.06.00–2008.01.27): second President of Indonesia, holding the office for 31 years from the ousting of Sukarno in 1967 until his resignation in 1998. His Javanese Muslim parents divorced not long after his birth, and he was passed between foster parents for much of his childhood. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, Suharto served in Japanese-organised Indonesian security forces. Indonesia's independence struggle saw his joining the newly formed Indonesian army. Suharto rose to the rank of major general following Indonesian independence. An attempted coup on 30 September 1965 allegedly backed by the Indonesian Communist Party was countered by Suharto-led troops. The army subsequently led an anti-communist purge which the CIA described as "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century" and Suharto wrested power from Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno. He was appointed acting president in 1967, replacing Sukarno, and elected President the following year. He then mounted a social campaign known as De-Soekarnoization in an effort to reduce the former President's influence.
Nasakom: political concept during the Sukarno presidency in Indonesia. It is an acronym based on the Indonesian words NASionalisme ('nationalism'), Agama ('religion'), and KOMunisme ('communism').
Guided Democracy in Indonesia: During his 1964 Independence Day speech, Sukarno publicly denounced the United States. An anti-American campaign ensued in which American companies were threatened, American movies were banned, American libraries and other buildings were attacked, American journalists banned, and the American flag was often torn apart. Large anti-American propaganda posters were set up around Jakarta's streets. American aid was stopped.
Transition to the New Order: from Sukarno (ruler for 22 years) to Suharto (ruler for 32 years). Suharto was one of the generals under Sukarno. Described as the great dhalang ("puppet master"), Sukarno drew power from balancing the opposing and increasingly antagonistic forces of the army and Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). By 1965, the PKI extensively penetrated all levels of government and gained influence at the expense of the army.
30 September Movement (G30S, Gestok): self-proclaimed organization of Indonesian National Armed Forces members who, in the early hours of 1 October 1965, assassinated six Indonesian Army generals in an abortive coup d'état.
Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966: large-scale killings and civil unrest which occurred in Indonesia over many months, targeting communist sympathizers, ethnic Chinese and alleged leftists, often at the instigation of the armed forces and government. Initially it began as an anti-communist purge following a controversial coup attempt by the 30 September Movement (G30S) in Indonesia. Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was blamed for G30S and PKI was eradicated. The purge was a pivotal event in the transition to the "New Order" and the elimination of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) as a political force. The upheavals led to the fall of President Sukarno and the commencement of Suharto's three-decade authoritarian presidency.
Pancasila (politics): official, foundational philosophical theory of the Indonesian state. Pancasila comprises two Old Javanese words originally derived from Sanskrit: "pañca" ("five") and "sīla" ("principles"):
Belief in the One and Only God,
A just and civilized humanity,
A unified Indonesia,
Democracy, led by the wisdom of the representatives of the People,
Conference of Rulers (Council of Rulers; Majlis Raja-Raja) in Malaysia: council comprising the nine rulers of the Malay states, and the governors or Yang di-Pertua Negeri of the other four states. It was officially established by Article 38 of the Constitution of Malaysia. Its main responsibility is the election of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) and their deputy, the Timbalan Yang di-Pertuan Agong, which occurs every five years or when the positions fall vacant (either through death, resignation, or removal from office). Although its position in the process of elective monarchy is unique, the Conference of Rulers also plays a role in amending the Constitution of Malaysia and some other policies, in particular, those Articles which have been "entrenched", namely those pertaining to the status of the rulers, the special privileges of the indigenous Bumiputra (see Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia), the status of the Malay language as the national language, and the clause governing the entrenchment of such Articles.
Monarchies of Malaysia: constitutional monarchy system as practised in Malaysia. The political system of Malaysia is based on the Westminster parliamentary system in combination with features of a federation. Nine of the states of Malaysia are constitutionally headed by traditional Malay rulers, collectively referred to as the Malay states. State constitutions limit eligibility for the thrones to male Malay Muslims of royal descent. Seven are hereditary monarchies based on agnatic primogeniture: Kedah, Kelantan, Johor, Perlis, Pahang, Selangor and Terengganu. In Perak, the throne rotates among three branches of the royal family loosely based on agnatic seniority. One state, Negeri Sembilan, is an elective monarchy; the ruler is elected from male members of the royal family by hereditary chiefs. All rulers, except those of Perlis and of Negeri Sembilan, use the title of Sultan. The ruler of Perlis is styled the Raja, whereas the ruler of Negeri Sembilan is known as the Yang di-Pertuan Besar. Every five years or when a vacancy occurs, the rulers convene as the Conference of Rulers (Malay: Majlis Raja-Raja) to elect among themselves the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the federal constitutional monarch and head of state of Malaysia. As the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is elected among the rulers, Malaysia, as a whole, is also an elective monarchy.
Bumiputera (Malaysia) (bumiputra): term used in Malaysia to describe Malays, the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, and various indigenous peoples of East Malaysia. The term is sometimes controversial, and has similar usage in the Malay world, used similarly in Indonesia and Brunei. The term is derived from the Sanskrit which was later absorbed into the classical Malay word bhumiputra (Sanskrit: भूमिपुत्र, romanized: bhū́miputra), which can be translated literally as "son of the land" or "son of the soil". In Indonesia, this term is known as "Pribumi".
From Socialism and idealistic Communism, to dictatorship (starting under Lenin to getting the worst under Stalin and WWII with all GULAGs, deportations, massive imprisonment, ...), to secret police state (KGB); from Multikulti state, to Russian language, education only state based on "communist" believes. From idealism to repressive empire, which was very hard to leave. Russia is the "political successor" of USSR (Russian citizens comprised roughly 50% of USSR citizens) at least in UN seats and nuclear weapons.
Great Russian chauvinism (Великорусский шовинизм): term defined by the early Soviet government officials, most notably Vladimir Lenin to describe an ideology of the "dominant exploiting classes of the nation, holding a dominant (sovereign) position in the state, declaring their nation as the "superior" nation". Lenin promoted an idea for the Bolshevik party to defend the right of oppressed nations within the former Russian Empire to self-determination and equality as well as the language-rights movement of the newly-formed republics.
League of Militant Atheists (Союз воинствующих безбожников - League of the Militant Godless; Общество безбожников - Society of the Godless; Союз безбожников - Union of the Godless): atheistic and antireligious organization of workers and intelligentsia that developed in Soviet Russia under the influence of the ideological and cultural views and policies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1947. It propagated atheism and scientific achievements, conducted "individual work" (a method of sending atheist tutors to meet with individual believers to convince them that gods do not exist); most of the peasantry was unimpressed, and even the party apparatus regarded the League as meddling and inefficient. The League's slogan was "Struggle against religion is a struggle for socialism", which was meant to tie in their atheist views with economy, politics, and culture. One of the slogans adopted at the 2nd congress proclaimed: "Struggle against religion is a struggle for the five-year plan!" An answer to this report was found when Nazi Germany invaded in 1941. Churches were re-opened under the German occupation, while believers flocked to them in the millions. In order to gain support for the war effort (both domestic and foreign), Stalin ended the antireligious persecution and the LMG was disbanded. Internal pressure to end the persecution came from the need to win the loyalty of religious Soviet citizens for the war effort, while external pressure came from the Allies, who would not support Stalin if he continued the campaign.
Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations: because Soviet Union became very weak, the break-away nations have their own break-away nations up to this day due to settlement & re-settlement and mixing of peoples. USSR: Moldova: PMR (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic); USSR: Georgia: Abkhazia & South Ossetia; USSR: Azerbaijan: Nagorno-Karabakh. But there are many territories inside RU which do not have RU language or heritage, but are within RU: do these also want to have greater independence as these 4 regions? Tatars, Chechen, far-eastern peoples, Altai, Ural, Sami, Karel,... Multi-culti Russia, but is RU language and culture uniting without the strong fist of police and army?
List of leaders of the Soviet Union: Soviet Union usually had a de facto leader who would not necessarily be head of state but would lead while holding an office such as premier or general secretary. Under the 1977 Constitution, the chairman of the Council of Ministers, or premier, was the head of government and the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was the head of state. The office of the chairman of the Council of Ministers was comparable to a prime minister in the First World whereas the office of the chairman of the Presidium was comparable to a president. Following Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in the 1920s, the post of the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party became synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union, because the post controlled both the Communist Party and the Soviet government both indirectly via party membership and via the tradition of a single person holding two highest posts in the party and in the government. The post of the general secretary was abolished in 1952 under Stalin and later re-established by Nikita Khrushchev under the name of first secretary. In 1966, Leonid Brezhnev reverted the office title to its former name. Being the head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the office of the general secretary was the highest in the Soviet Union until 1990. The post of general secretary lacked clear guidelines of succession, so after the death or removal of a Soviet leader the successor usually needed the support of the Political Bureau (Politburo), the Central Committee, or another government or party apparatus to both take and stay in power. The president of the Soviet Union, an office created in March 1990, replaced the general secretary as the highest Soviet political office. List of leaders:
Lenin (1922.12.30-1924.01.21)
Stalin (1924.01.24-1953.03.05)
Malenkov (1953.03.05-1953.09.14)
Khrushchev (1953.09.14-1964.10.14)
Brezhnev (1964.10.14-1982.11.10)
Andropov (1982.11.10-1984.02.09†)
Chernenko (1984.02.09-1985.03.10†)
Gorbachev (1985.03.10-1991.12.25).
List of troikas: On four occasions—
the 2–3-year period between Vladimir Lenin's incapacitation and Joseph Stalin's leadership (Lev Kamenev, Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev)
the three months following Stalin's death (Lavrentiy Beria, Georgy Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov)
the interval between Nikita Khrushchev's fall and Leonid Brezhnev's consolidation of power (Brezhnev, Alexei Kosygin, Nikolai Podgorny)
the ailing Konstantin Chernenko's tenure as General Secretary(Chernenko, Andrei Gromyko, Dmitry Ustinov)
—USSR was governed by an oligarchy known as a troika (i.e."triumvirate"), whereby policymaking depended on the consensus of three chief figures within the Politburo.
Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union: select bibliography of English language books (including translations) and journal articles about the post-Stalinist era of Soviet history. A brief selection of English translations of primary sources is included. Inclusion criteria: topics include the Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev eras, including the transition periods of collective leadership, and significant related events and topics such as the Cold War, the Hungarian Revolution, Detente and Glasnost. This bibliography does not include newspaper articles (except in primary sources and references), fiction, photo collections or films created during or about this period.
Foreign interventions by the Soviet Union: Invasions of Afghanistan (1929-1930); Invasion of China (1934) (Soviet invasion of Xinjiang); Winter War (1939–40); World War II (1939–45) (Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, Second Jassy–Kishinev offensive, Budapest offensive, Belgrade offensive, Prague offensive, Vienna offensive, Liberation of Finnmark, and Soviet invasion of Manchuria); Cold War: Korean War (1950–53), Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968), Vietnam War (1964-1975), Invasion of Afghanistan (1979–89)
Sharashka (Experimental Design Bureau, Опытное конструкторское бюро; ОКБ, commonly known as a sharashka, шара́шка): informal name for secret research and development laboratories operating from 1930 to the 1950s within USSR Gulag labor-camp system. Word sharashka derives from a Russian slang expression sharashkina kontora ("Sharashka's office", which in its turn comes from the criminal argot term sharaga (шарага) for a band of thieves, hoodlums, etc.), an ironic, derogatory term to denote a poorly-organized, impromptu, or bluffing organization. Living conditions at sharashka were usually much better than in an average taiga camp, mostly because of the absence of hard labor. The results of the research in sharashkas were usually published under the names of prominent Soviet scientists without credit given to the real researchers, whose names frequently have been forgotten. Some of the scientists and engineers imprisoned in sharashkas were released during and after WWII to continue independent careers; some became world-renowned.
The God that Failed (1949): collection of six essays by Louis Fischer, André Gide, Arthur Koestler, Ignazio Silone, Stephen Spender, and Richard Wright. The common theme of the essays is the authors' disillusionment with and abandonment of communism. {cf. User:Kazkaskazkasako/Books/All Democracy: The God That Failed}
Kronstadt Rebellion (1921.03.01-18): insurrection of Soviet sailors and civilians against the Bolshevik government in the Russian port city of Kronstadt. Located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, Kronstadt defended the former capital city, Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg), as the base of the Baltic Fleet. Led by Stepan Petrichenko, it was the last major revolt against Bolshevik rule on Russian territory during the Russian Civil War. Disappointed in the direction of the Bolshevik government, the rebels—whom Leon Trotsky himself had praised earlier as "adornment and pride of the revolution"—demanded a series of reforms: reduction in Bolshevik power, newly elected soviets (councils) to include socialist and anarchist groups, economic freedom for peasants and workers, dissolution of the bureaucratic governmental organs created during the civil war, and the restoration of civil rights for the working class.
New Economic Policy (NEP): economic policy proposed by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who called it state capitalism. It was a new, more capitalism- oriented economic policy necessary after the Civil War to raise the economy of the country, which was almost ruined. Nationalization of industry, established during the period of War Communism, was revoked and replaced by a system of mixed economy which allowed private individuals to own small enterprises, while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade, and large industries.
Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks (1918-1924; anarchists: Third Russian Revolution): series of rebellions and uprisings against the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution that were led or supported by left-wing groups such as Socialist Revolutionaries, Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and anarchists.
Left SR uprising (1918.07.06–07): uprising against the Bolsheviks by the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party. The end result of the revolt was the suppression of the Left SRs, the last major independent party other than the Bolsheviks.
1922 Moscow Trial of Socialist Revolutionaries: one of the first show trials of the Soviet Union, beginning in 1922.06.08. The trial was part of a process that entailed eliminating all opposition in the nascent Bolshevik state. All of the defendants and participants in the trial would eventually become victims in Stalin's purges.
Tambov Rebellion (1920.08.19 – mid 1922): one of the largest and best-organized peasant rebellions challenging the Bolshevik government during the Russian Civil War. The uprising took place in the territories of the modern Tambov Oblast and part of the Voronezh Oblast, less than 500 km southeast of Moscow.
Konstantin Rokossovsky (Константин Константинович Рокоссовский, Konstanty Rokossowski; 1896.12.21–1968.08.03): USSR and Polish officer who became Marshal of USSR, Marshal of Poland, and served as Poland's Defence Minister from 1949 until his removal in 1956 during the Polish October. He was among the most prominent Red Army commanders of WWII. Born in Warsaw under Russian rule (today in Poland), Rokossovsky served in the Imperial Russian Army during WWI. After the war he joined the Red Army and fought with great distinction during the Russian Civil War. Rokossovsky held senior commands until 1937 when he fell victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, during which he was branded a traitor, imprisoned and probably tortured. After Soviet failures in the Winter War, Rokossovsky was reinstated due to an urgent need of experienced officers. Following Germany's invasion of USSR, Rokossovsky played key roles in the defense of Moscow and the counter-offensives at Stalingrad and Kursk. He was instrumental in planning and executing part of Operation Bagration—one of the most decisive Red Army successes of the war—for which he was made Marshal of the Soviet Union.
First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union (1927.12): ethnographic information: RU 77.8mln, UA 31.2mln, BEL 4.74mln, BG 111k, LV 151k, LT 41.5k, DE 1.24mln, RO=Moldovan=279k, EL 214k, Jews 2.60mln, Chuvash 1.12mln, Bashkir 714k, Yakut 241k, KA 1.82mln, Abkhaz 57.0k, HY 1.57mln, Ossetian 272k, Turkmen 764k, Karakalpak 146k, Kazakh 3.97mln, Uzbek 3.90mln, Tajik 979k. Total USSR: 147mln.
Korenizatsiya (коренизация; korenization: "nativization" or "indigenization", literally "putting down roots"; 1920s): implied the introduction of the local languages into all spheres of public life and usage of the local languages to the widest possible extent, particularly, in education, publishing, culture, and, most importantly, government and the Communist Party; ethnic Russians who served in the local governments were encouraged (or required) to learn the local culture. End of korenization: purges of national cadre, reversal to Russification (mid/end-1930s); country's leader seemed set on greatly reducing the number of officially recognized nationalities by contracting the official list of nationalities in the 1939 census, compared with the 1926 census; from 1937 the central press started to praise Russian language and Russian culture, in the following years the Russian language became a compulsory subject in all Soviet schools. Cyrillic script was instituted for a number of Soviet languages, including the languages of Central Asia that in the late 1920s had been given Latin alphabets to replace Arabic ones.
Soviet Census (1937): most controversial of the censuses taken within USSR; census results were destroyed and its organizers were sent to the Gulag as saboteurs because the census showed much lower population figures than anticipated.
Ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states: ~25 mln. Ukraine: 8 mln, Kazakhstan: 4.5 mln, Belarus: 1.2 mln, Uzbekistan: 0.65 mln, Latvia: 0.62 mln, Kyrgyzstan: 0.6 mln. (USA: ~3 mln)
NKVD prisoner massacres: series of mass executions carried out by the Soviet NKVD secret police during WWII against prisoners in Eastern Europe, primarily Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Bessarabia and other parts of the Soviet Union from which the Red Army was retreating following the German invasion of the USSR on 1941.06.22 (Operation Barbarossa).
Soviet famine of 1946–47: situation spanned most of the grain-producing regions of the country: Ukraine, Moldavia and parts of central Russia. Famine in Moldova.
China's final warning (последнее китайское предупреждение) is a Russian proverb that originated as a Soviet political joke in the Soviet Union during the 1950s, referring to a warning that carries no real consequences.
Georgy Arbatov (Гео́ргий Арка́дьевич Арба́тов, 1923.05.19–2010.10.01): Soviet and Russian political scientist who served as an adviser to five General Secretaries of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was best known in the West during the Cold War era as a representative for the policies of the Soviet Union in the United States, where his fluent English helped make him a frequent guest on American television. He was the founding Director and later Emeritus Director of the Institute of USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISKRAN), the Soviet and Russian think tank for the study of USA and Canada. Sergey Rogov, who succeeded him in 1995 as director of the Institute for U.S.A. and Canada Studies called Arbatov someone who "was probably willing more than anybody else to stick his neck out" to mitigate the influence of anti-American hard liners in the Soviet regime, though "he knew pretty well what were the red lines that he could not cross publicly, and he was very cautious about it". Arbatov recognized that the Soviet Union had lost the Cold War, but insisted that the United States had suffered too by losing "The Enemy", a main adversary consisting of one country on which to concentrate efforts.
Falsifiers of History (1948): book published by the Soviet Information Bureau, edited and partially re-written by Joseph Stalin, in response to documents made public in January 1948 regarding German–Soviet relations before and after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Kersten Committee (United States House Select Committee to Investigate Communist Aggression and the Forced Incorporation of the Baltic States into the U.S.S.R.; 1953-1954.03.04)
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences («О культе личности и его последствиях»; "Secret Speech"; 1956.02.25): Khrushchev's speech was sharply critical of the reign of the deceased General Secretary and Premier Joseph Stalin, particularly with respect to the purges which had especially marked the last years of the 1930s. Khrushchev charged Stalin with having fostered a leadership cult of personality despite ostensibly maintaining support for the ideals of communism.
Shvernik Commission (1961-1963): investigation of political repression in the Soviet Union during the period of Stalin.
Chronicle of Current Events (samizdat) (1968-1983; 64 issues): one of the longest-running and best-known samizdat periodicals in the USSR dedicated to the defense of human rights. The anonymous authors encouraged readers to utilize the same distribution channels in order to send feedback and local information to be published in subsequent issues. The Chronicle was known for its dry, concise style, its regular rubrics were titled "Arrests, Searches, Interrogations", "Out of Court Repressions", "In Prisons and Camps", "News of Samizdat", "Persecution of Religion", "Persecution of Crimean Tatars", "Repressions in Ukraine", "Lithuanian Events", etc. The authors maintained that according to the Soviet Constitution, the Chronicle was not an illegal publication.
1965 Soviet economic reform (Kosygin reform, Liberman reform): set of planned changes in the economy of USSR. A centerpiece of these changes was the introduction of profitability and sales as the two key indicators of enterprise success. Some of an enterprise's profits would go to three funds, used to reward workers and expand operations; most would go to the central budget.
Kazan phenomenon (Казанский феномен): term used by journalists to describe the rise in street-gang activity in the city of Kazan in the RSFSR and later, the Russian Federation. From the early 1970s, Kazan had a particularly bad reputation for juvenile delinquency, and a substantial portion of young males in the area of both Russian and Tatar background joined youth gangs, which fought amongst each other for territory, principally using improvised or melee weapons (at the time firearms were not widespread in Russia and were hard to come by). Between 1985 and 1999 the rate of crimes committed by sixteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds in Tatarstan (until 1992 the Tatar ASSR) increased 1.7 times. The crime wave caused a moral panic amongst the Soviet population, as not only was such criminality traditionally seen as a product of the capitalist West, but it also involved the children of local officials.
New Union Treaty (Новый союзный договор): was a draft treaty that would have replaced the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR to salvage and reform the Soviet Union. A ceremony of the Russian SFSR signing the treaty was scheduled for 1991.08.20, but was prevented by the August Coup a day earlier. A less centralized federal system was proposed by Gorbachev during the Communist Party Congress 1990.07. A draft of the New Union Treaty was submitted to the Supreme Soviet of USSR in 1990.11.23. A drafting committee started work on the text in 1991.01.01. Six of the fifteen Soviet republics, however, did not participate in the drafting of the treaty: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Georgia and Armenia. The proposal was approved by the Soviet of the Union on March 6 and sent to the Supreme Soviets of each republic for approval. Agreement could not be reached on the distribution of power between the Union and the Republics and the proposal was not approved. As an additional restrictive element, some autonomous republics expressed the desire to raise their status and to be a party to the new Soviet treaty.
1991 Soviet Union referendum (1991.03.17): "Считаете ли Вы необходимым сохранение Союза Советских Социалистических Республик как обновлённой федерации равноправных суверенных республик, в которой будут в полной мере гарантироваться права и свободы человека любой национальности?" (Do you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any ethnicity will be fully guaranteed?). While the vote was boycotted by the authorities in Armenia, Estonia, Georgia (though not the breakaway province of Abkhazia, where the result was over 98% in favour, and in South Ossetia), Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova (though not Transnistria or Gagauzia), turnout was 80% across the rest of USSR. The referendum's question was approved by nearly 80% of voters in all nine other republics that took part. It was the only referendum in the history of USSR, as the August Coup prevented the formation of the renewed federation, causing the Soviet Union to be dissolved in 1991.12.26.
1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt (August Coup): failed attempt made by communist hard-liners of USSR to take control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was Soviet President and General Secretary of the party. The coup leaders consisted of top military and civilian officials who formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP). They were hard-line opponents of Gorbachev's reform program, angry at the loss of control over Eastern European states, and fearful of the new union treaty that was about to be signed. The treaty decentralized much of the central government's power to the 15 republics. The hard-liners were very poorly organized. They met defeat by a short but effective campaign of civil resistance, mainly in Moscow, led by Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who had been both an ally and critic of Gorbachev. The coup collapsed in only two days and Gorbachev returned to office, while all the plotters lost office. Yeltsin became the dominant leader and Gorbachev lost much of his influence. The failed coup led to both the immediate collapse of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the USSR four months later.
War of Laws (ru: Война законов): series of conflicts between the Federal Government of USSR, and the governments of the Russian Federation and other constituent republics during the last years of the USSR, which eventually led to the dissolution of the union. When Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to formally release their control of the non-Russian Soviet Socialist Republics, the individual governments began to reassert their own sovereignty and dominance in their respective areas. This included making their own laws separate from the USSR and refusing to pay taxes to the Moscow government. Issues in a new Russia (1993 Russian constitutional crisis); The Georgia-Abkhazia War; Russia's modern War of Laws (Putin).
ru:Дело Сакалаускаса (1987.02): дело о расстреле рядовым внутренних войск Артурасом Сакалаускасом шестерых сослуживцев, а также прапорщика (исполнявшего обязанности начальника караула) и гражданского проводника. Причиной послужили издевательства над Артурасом со стороны этих сослуживцев, закончившиеся его изнасилованием при невмешательстве или молчаливом одобрении начкара и проводника.
Карикатура художника В.В. Пескова; ~1991.
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931.03.02-2022.08.30): Russian and formerly Soviet politician. The eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, he was General Secretary of its governing Communist Party from 1985 until 1991. He was the country's head of state from 1988 until 1991, serving as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990, and President of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Born in Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai to a poor peasant family. Growing up under the rule of Joseph Stalin, in his youth he operated combine harvesters on a collective farm before joining the Communist Party, which then governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state according to Marxist-Leninist doctrine. Gorbachev believed significant reform was necessary, particularly after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. He withdrew from the Soviet–Afghan War and embarked on summits with United States President Ronald Reagan to limit nuclear weapons and end the Cold War. Domestically, his policy of glasnost ("openness") allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and press, while his perestroika ("restructuring") sought to decentralise economic decision making to improve efficiency. His democratisation measures and formation of the elected Congress of People's Deputies undermined the one-party state. Out of office, he launched his Gorbachev Foundation, became a vocal critic of Russian Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and campaigned for Russia's social-democratic movement. Conversely, in Russia he is often derided for not stopping the Soviet collapse, an event which brought a decline in Russia's global influence and precipitated an economic crisis.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union: at 1987.01.28-30 Central Committee Plenum Mikhail Gorbachev suggested a new policy of 'democratization' throughout Soviet society. 1987.02.07 dozens of political prisoners were freed in the first group release since the Khrushchev years in the 1950s. 1987.09.10 after a lecture from hard-liner Yegor Ligachev at the Politburo for allowing two small unsanctioned demonstrations on Moscow streets, Boris Yeltsin wrote a letter of resignation to Gorbachev who was holidaying on the Black Sea; When Gorbachev received the letter he was stunned – nobody in Soviet history had voluntarily resigned from the ranks of the Politburo.
Parade of sovereignties (Парад суверенитетов): series of declarations of sovereignty of various degree by the Soviet republics in USSR from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The declarations stated the priority of the constituent republic power in its territory over the central power, which led to the War of Laws between the centre and the republics. The process followed the loosened power grip of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a result of demokratizatsiya and perestroika policies under Mikhail Gorbachev. Despite the efforts of Gorbachev to preserve the union under a new treaty in the form of the Union of Sovereign States, many constituents soon declared their full independence.
War of Laws (Война законов): series of conflicts between the central government of the Soviet Union and the governments of Soviet Russia and other Soviet republics during the so-called "parade of sovereignties" in the last years of the Soviet Union (1989–1991), which eventually contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. When Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to formally release their control of Soviet Socialist Republics, the individual governments began to reassert their own sovereignty and dominance in their respective areas. That included making their own laws separate from those of the Soviet central government and refusing to pay taxes. These events worsened the Soviet Union's economic disintegration and was a major factor in its 1991 collapse. Russia's modern War of Laws
Soviet Union referendum, 1991 (1991.03.17): referendum on the future of the Soviet Union. Although the vote was boycotted by the authorities in Armenia, Estonia, Georgia (though not the breakaway province of Abkhazia, where the result was over 98% in favour, and in South Ossetia), Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova (though not Transnistria or Gagauzia), turnout was 80% across the USSR. The referendums question was approved by nearly 70% of voters in all nine other republics that took part.
Memorial (society) (Мемориа́л): formally established in Moscow in January 1989 as an international historical and civil rights society. Between 1987 and 1990, while the USSR was still in existence, 23 branches of the society were set up and became active. When the Soviet Union collapsed, branches of Memorial in east and south Ukraine remained affiliated to the Russian network. A movement rather than a centralised organisation, by 2018 there were over 60 branches of Memorial and affiliated organisations scattered across Russia. A quarter of these branches were established in 2014 or later. They share similar concerns about human rights, documenting the past, educating the young and marking Days of Remembrance for the "victims of political repression", but the focus varies from region to region, depending on local needs, membership and circumstances, e.g. the Ryazan Memorial website is titled "HRO.org" (Human Rights Organisation) while that of Tomsk Memorial is accessed via the "nkvd.tomsk.ru" website. After the Russian foreign agent law was passed in 2012.07 Memorial came under increasing official pressure. In 2014.07.21 the Memorial Human Rights Centre was declared a "foreign agent" by the RF Ministry of Justice which extended the label in 2015.11 to the Research and Information Centre at St Petersburg Memorial, and in 2016.10.04 to Memorial International itself. In 2021.11 the Prosecutor General's Office submitted a lawsuit to the Supreme Court, requesting the organisation's closure. Rehabilitation and remembrance: A day and place of remembrance; The Solovetsky Stone; October 1991 Law on Rehabilitation; Attempts to backtrack by the city and federal authorities. Research, education and information: Archives and an online database; School programmes; The Virtual Gulag and the Map of Memory (Russia's Necropolis); A Chronicle of Current Events (1968–1982) (Хро́ника теку́щих собы́тий); Media. Persecution: Confiscation of digital archive, 2008; Activities in Chechnya and the North Caucasus, 1994-2018; "Foreign agent" status, 2014 onwards; Thugs and Threats of Closure, October-November 2021.
Post-Soviet conflicts: violent political and ethnic conflicts in the countries of the former USSR following its dissolution in 1991. Some of these conflicts such as the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis or the 2013 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine were due to political crises in the successor states. Others involved separatist movements attempting to break away from one of the successor states.
Strategic Rocket Forces (Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation; Ракетные войска стратегического назначения Российской Федерации (РВСН РФ)): separate-troops branch of the Russian Armed Forces that controls Russia's land-based ICBMs. The Strategic Rocket Forces was created on 17 December 1959 as part of the Soviet Armed Forces as the main force intended for attacking an enemy's offensive nuclear weapons, military facilities, and industrial infrastructure. They operated all Soviet nuclear ground-based intercontinental, intermediate-range ballistic missile, and medium-range ballistic missile with ranges over 1,000 kilometers. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, assets of the Strategic Rocket Forces were in the territories of several new states in addition to Russia, with armed nuclear missile silos in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The three of them transferred their missiles to Russia for destruction and they all joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Complementary strategic forces within Russia include the Russian Aerospace Forces' Long Range Aviation and the Russian Navy's ballistic missile submarines. Together the three bodies form Russia's nuclear triad. According to a 1980 TIME Magazine article citing analysts from RAND Corporation, Soviet non-Slavs were generally barred from joining the Strategic Missile Forces because of suspicions about the loyalty of ethnic minorities to the Kremlin.
Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (Магнитогорский металлургический комбинат; MMK): iron and steel company. In the early part of the 18th c., a shift towards developing the industrial capabilities of the Urals took place which more than doubled Russia's iron production. In 1828, a series of geological surveys began as part of an effort to determine the mineral make up of the Megnitnaya Mountain and create estimates of the possible amount of iron contained under it. By the latter part of the 19th century, a small town had grown up which reported more than 10,000 residents. During this time, between 30,000 and 50,000 tons of raw iron were extracted in the area annually. Establishment of MMK: In the 1870s, the vast majority of the iron ore, steel, and pig iron were being produced in Ukraine. Comparatively, Ukraine with its large deposits and developed industry was responsible for 75% of the iron ore in 1913 to the Ural's 21%. Ukraine remained the focal point of metal production while the competing regions found themselves relegated to significantly reduced importance. It was only following the October Revolution in 1917 that the drive to push for an expanded iron and steel industry began to come to the forefront. As a part of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's first Five Year Plan to implement a rapid development of the nation's industry, it was decided that the government would sponsor a project with the goal of establishing the world's largest steel production complex. Initially the plan for the project was designed by the Soviets, then they also collaborated with the American-based Arthur McKee & Company, to oversee the construction and planning. USA contractors were critical of the handling of the project and were frustrated by mismanagement and so the majority of the design ended up falling to the Soviets. Much of the failure to properly organize the construction efforts was due in part to the Soviet government's desired speed, which they deemed essential in order to meet their Five Year Plan. Additionally, there were changes in personnel who had faced removal over political concerns that emerged over loyalty to the Communist Party. In opposition to claims by the advisors from Arthur McKee & Company that the facilities were not yet ready for use, the furnaces at MMK were put into action in 1932 with the first flow of molten pig iron being produced. While this move to initiate activities at the complex was applauded by the Soviet leadership, the plant was forced to halt their production only a few days later due to the need for serious repairs in the furnaces. By 1933, the plant was producing steel.
First five-year plan (I пятилетний план, первая пятилетка): list of economic goals, created by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, based on his policy of socialism in one country. The plan was implemented in 1928 and took effect until 1932. The policies were centered around rapid industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture. Stalin desired to remove and replace any policies created under the New Economic Policy. Some scholars have argued that the programme of mass industrialization advocated by Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition was co-opted to serve as the basis of Stalin’s first five year plan. Collective farming and peasants' resistance.
Rapid growth of heavy industry: During this period 1928–1932, massive industrial centers emerged in areas that were highly isolated before. These factories were not only for war production, but to produce tractors to meet the needs of mechanized agriculture. The Stalingrad Tractor Plant was built with the help of western allies and was meant to play a major factor in the rapid industrialization of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. These isolated areas included Magnitogorsk, Dnieper, and Nizhny Novgorod. Magnitogorsk, the largest of the rapid industrialized areas of Russia, was founded in 1743, but became more prevalent in the early 1930s by Stalin. His plan was to make it a one-industry town. The city would become the largest steel producer in Russia and was meant to rival production that was being seen in the U.S. at the same time. To achieve this massive economic growth, the Soviet Union had to reroute essential resources to meet the needs of heavy industry. 80% of the total investment of the first five-year plan, was focused heavily on the industrial sector. Programs not necessary to heavy industry were cut from the Soviet budget; and because of the redistribution of industrial funding, basic goods, such as food, became scarce. The Soviet Union then decided that the workers necessary for further industrialization should be given most of the available food. From this rapid industrialization a new working class emerged in the Soviet Union. This new society was to be an industrial working class, which could be considered much of the population with the purpose of becoming a technologically advanced industry. During this time the industrial workforce rose from 3.12 million in 1928 to 6.01 million at the end of the plan in 1932.
Agricultural collectivization; Prisoner labor
Saul Bron (Саул Григорьевич Брон, 1887.01.25, Odessa – 1938.04.21, Kommunarka, Butovo): Soviet trade representative in United States and Great Britain. He is best known as Chairman of Amtorg Trading Corporation in New York City (1927–1930) and Chairman of the All-Russian Co-operative Society (ARCOS) in London (1930–1931). He became a victim of Stalin's Great Purge and was executed.
Valery Mezhlauk (Вале́рий Ива́нович Межла́ук; Latvian: Valērijs Mežlauks; 1893–1938): government and party official in USSR during the decades of the 1920s and 1930s. He is best remembered as the Chairman of the State Planning Committee (Gosplan) from 1934 to 1937. He became a victim of Stalin’s Great Purge and was executed. 1929.05.31, in Dearborn, Michigan, in his capacity as vice-chairman of VSNKh, Mezhlauk, together with President of Amtorg, Saul Bron, signed the agreement with the Ford Motor Company for assistance in building the first Soviet automobile plant (GAZ) near Nizhnii Novgorod (Gorky).
Gosproektstroi (Госпроектстрой; 1930–1932): State Design and Construction Bureau in Moscow. This organization was set up in 1930 following an agreement between Saul G. Bron, President of Amtorg Trading Corporation, on behalf of the Superior Soviet of the People's Economy (VSNKh) of the USSR, and Albert Kahn, the leading American industrial architect from Detroit, Michigan, for his firm to become consulting architects for all industrial construction in USSR. Albert Kahn Associates agreed to establish an office with its architects and engineers in Moscow, to train Soviet architects and engineers, as well as supervise design of industrial facilities under the nation's first five-year plan. Moritz Kahn, an engineer and one of the three Kahn brothers in Kahn Associates, was selected to set up this office. The Kahn company was ultimately responsible for supervising 3,000 designers across the Soviet Union in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkov, Kiev, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Odessa and Sverdlovsk, all controlled from Moscow. They trained some 4000 specialists and had a budget of 417 mln. rubles.
Volgograd Tractor Plant (Волгоградский тракторный завод, ВгТЗ; 1930-): heavy equipment factory. It was once one of the largest tractor manufacturing enterprises in the USSR. It was a site of fierce fighting during World War II's Battle of Stalingrad. Also used for the production of military vehicles, VgTZ is inextricably linked with the history of Soviet tank building. The plant continues to operate on a small scale, but much of it is now derelict or has been demolished. one of the first industrial facilities to be built as part of the planned rapid industrialization of the USSR, foundation stone was laid in a groundbreaking ceremony in 1926.07.12. Construction of the plant was carried out with the involvement of experts from Western countries, primarily the United States. It was designed by Albert Kahn Associates Inc., the company started by Albert Kahn, the architect for Henry Ford. In 1928, a group of Soviet engineers visited Kahn's office with an order for designing and building the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, and in April 1929, the Soviet trade representative Saul Bron signed the contract with Albert Kahn.
GAZ (Gorkovsky avtomobilny zavod; ГАЗ, Го́рьковский автомоби́льный заво́д): in 1929.05 USSR signed an agreement with the American Ford Motor Company. Under its terms, the Soviets agreed to purchase $13 million worth of automobiles and parts, while Ford agreed to give technical assistance until 1938 to construct an integrated automobile-manufacturing plant at Nizhny Novgorod. The plant constructed Ford Model A and Model AA trucks.
Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (Челябинский тракторный завод, ЧТЗ; ChTZ): tractor construction plant in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The Chelyabinsk Tractor plant was a project of the first five-year plan. The plant was founded in 1933; the first product was a 60 hp tracked tractor C-60 (Сталинец-60) fueled by petroleum ether (Benzine). During WWII seven other industrial entities (including most of Leningrad's Kirov Plant and 15,000 of its workers) were either wholly or partially relocated to Chelyabinsk, the resulting enterprise commonly known as "Танкоград" ('Tank City'). The work force increased to 60,000 workers by 1944, from 25,000 during non-military production; during the conflict the works produced 18,000 tanks, and 48,500 tank diesel engines as well as over 17 million units of ammunition. Production included the KV tank from 1941, T-34 tank from 1942, KV-85 tank and IS tanks from 1943, and T-34/85 tank and SU-85 self-propelled field gun from 1944.
Amtorg Trading Corporation (Амторг): first trade representation of USSR in USA, established in New York in 1924 by merging Armand Hammer's Allied American Corporation (Alamerico) with Products Exchange Corporation (Prodexco) and Arcos-America Inc. (USA branch of All Russian Co-operative Society, ARCOS, also known as "Russia House" or "Soviet House" in GB). Formally a semi-private joint-stock company and American corporation, Amtorg occupied a unique position in the market as the single purchaser for a communist state. Even though it did not officially represent the Soviet government, it was controlled by the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade and, prior to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and the USSR in 1933, served as a de facto trade delegation and a quasi-embassy. Amtorg handled almost all exports from the USSR, comprising mostly lumber, furs, flax, bristles, and caviar, and all imports of raw materials and machinery for Soviet industry and agriculture. It also provided American companies with information about trade opportunities in the USSR and supplied Soviet industries with technical news and information about American companies. After 1929, it was located at 261 Fifth Avenue, with several branch offices, including, at different times, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. From 1927 to 1930, under the direction of Saul Bron and Pyotr Bogdanov, Amtorg expanded into a major commercial enterprise, with more than 100 employees. During this formative period, Amtorg was very careful to clear any legal hurdles through the leading New York law firm of Thomas D. Thacher. The main financial consultant and banker for Amtorg at that time was Chase National Bank. Amtorg was especially useful for the USSR in negotiating contracts with major American companies such as Ford Motor Company, General Electric, International Harvester, Albert Kahn, Inc., Hugh L. Cooper, Arthur G. McKee, Freyn Engineering, DuPont de Nemours, Radio Corporation of America, and more than a hundred other companies during the first five-year plan, taking advantage of the desperate condition of USA economy during the Great Depression.
Pyotr Bogdanov (Пётр Алексеевич Богданов; 1882.06.01–1939.05.12): USSR statesman, engineer and economist who was chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the Russian SFSR. From 1930 to 1934 Bogdanov headed the Amtorg joint-stock company. He established contacts with the US business community and as engaged in lecture activities and American economic management. Bogdanov's activities contributed to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviet and the United States in 1933. 1937.11.22, Bogdanov was arrested and was interrogated. 1938.03.15, he was sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. The sentence was carried out 1939.05.12.
Industrialization in the Soviet Union: process of accelerated building-up of the industrial potential of USSR to reduce the economy's lag behind the developed capitalist states, which was carried out from 1929.05 to 1941.06. The rapid growth of production capacity and the volume of production of heavy industry (4 times) was of great importance for ensuring economic independence from capitalist countries and strengthening the country's defense capability. At this time, the Soviet Union made the transition from an agrarian country to an industrial one. First five-year plan. Use of foreign specialists: Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG and General Electric, Amtorg and Albert Kahn, Inc., Gosproektstroi, Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant, Stalingrad Tractor Plant, Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant.
Northern river reversal (Siberian river reversal): ambitious project to divert the flow of the Northern rivers in the Soviet Union, which "uselessly" drain into the Arctic Ocean, southwards towards the populated agricultural areas of Central Asia, which lack water. Research and planning work on the project started in the 1930s and was carried out on a large scale in the 1960s through the early 1980s. The controversial project was abandoned in 1986, primarily for environmental reasons, without much actual construction work ever done.
Great Purge (Great Terror, Большой террор; Year of '37, 37-й год; 1936.08-1938.03.): Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin's campaign to solidify his power over the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the state; the purges were also designed to remove the remaining influence of Leon Trotsky as well as other prominent political rivals within the party. In this atmosphere of doubt and suspicion, a popular high-ranking official, Sergei Kirov, was assassinated. His death led to an investigation that revealed a network of party members supposedly working against Stalin, including several of Stalin's rivals. There is consensus that Kirov's death was the flashpoint where Stalin took action and began the purges. By 1936, Stalin's paranoia reached its peak. The fear of losing his position and the potential return of Trotsky drove him into authorizing the Great Purge. The purges themselves were largely conducted by the NKVD, the secret police of the USSR. The NKVD began the removal of the central party leadership, Old Bolsheviks, government officials, and regional party bosses. Eventually, the purges were expanded to the Red Army and military high command, which had a disastrous effect on the military. Three successive trials were held in Moscow that removed most of the Old Bolsheviks and the challenges to Stalin's position.
Latvian Operation of the NKVD («Латышская операция», Latvian: „Latviešu operācija”): national operation of the NKVD against ethnic Latvians, Latvian nationals and persons otherwise affiliated with Latvia and/or Latvians in the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1938 during the period of the Great Purge. However, with the increasing Russification of Russia's state organs, members of non-Russian minorities were largely ousted from management positions. Under the leadership of Josef Stalin, Latvia was regarded as a so-called "enemy nation" and Latvians were generally regarded as "counter-revolutionary" and "suspicious elements". This perception is believed to have stemmed from the resistance of Latvian peasant colonists to forced collectivization at the end of the 1920s.
Location map of soviet Gulag system concentration camps.
Gulag (ru:ГУЛаг): government agency that administered the main USSR forced labor camp systems during the Stalin era, from the 1930s until the 1950s. Today's major industrial cities of the Russian Arctic, such as Norilsk, Vorkuta, and Magadan, were originally camps built by prisoners and run by ex-prisoners.
Lavrentiy Beria (1899.03.29-1953.12.23): Soviet politician, Marshal of the Soviet Union and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus (NKVD) under Joseph Stalin during WWII, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years (1946–53). After interrogation Beria was taken to the basement of the Lubyanka and shot by General Pavel Batitsky.
Psikhushka (психу́шка): Russian ironic diminutive for psychiatric hospital. In Russia, the word entered everyday vocabulary. This word has been occasionally used in English, since the Soviet dissident movement and diaspora community in the West used the term. In the Soviet Union, psychiatric hospitals were often used by the authorities as prisons, in order to isolate political prisoners from the rest of society, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally. As such, psikhushkas were considered a form of torture. The official explanation was that no sane person would be against socialism.
Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union: interpretation of political opposition or dissent as a psychiatric problem. It was called "psychopathological mechanisms" of dissent. During the leadership of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, psychiatry was used to disable and remove from society political opponents ("dissidents") who openly expressed beliefs that contradicted the official dogma. The term "philosophical intoxication", for instance, was widely applied to the mental disorders diagnosed when people disagreed with the country's Communist leaders and, by referring to the writings of the Founding Fathers of Marxism–Leninism—Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin—made them the target of criticism. Article 58-10 of the Stalin-era Criminal Code, "Anti-Soviet agitation", was to a considerable degree preserved in the new 1958 RSFSR Criminal Code as Article 70 "Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda". In 1967, a weaker law, Article 190-1 "Dissemination of fabrications known to be false, which defame the Soviet political and social system", was added to the RSFSR Criminal Code.
Vladimir Bukovsky (1942.12.30-2019.10.27): leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist known for his struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in USSR. Bukovsky was one of the first to expose the use of psychiatric imprisonment against political prisoners in USSR. Spent a total of twelve years in Soviet prisons, labor camps and in psikhushkas. In 1976, after negotiations between the governments of the USSR and the USA, Bukovsky was exchanged for Chilean communist political prisoner Luis Corvalán, imprisoned by dictator Augusto Pinochet. After that, Bukovsky moved to the UK.
“
Having failed to finish off conclusively the communist system, we are now in danger of integrating the resulting monster into our world. It may not be called communism anymore, but it retained many of its dangerous characteristics... Until the Nuremberg-style tribunal passes its judgement on all the crimes committed by communism, it is not dead and the war is not over.
”
Bukovsky recounted his experience under torture in Lefortovo prison in 1971. Bukovsky argued that once commenced, the inertia of torture is difficult to control, corrupting those carrying it out. He wrote that torture "has historically been an instrument of oppression — not an instrument of investigation or of intelligence gathering."
Eastern Bloc (Socialist Bloc, the Communist Bloc, the Soviet Bloc): group of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, and Southeast Asia under the hegemony of the Soviet Union (USSR) during the Cold War (1947–1991) in opposition to the capitalist Western Bloc. Generally, in Western Europe the term Eastern Bloc referred to the USSR and its East European satellite states in the Comecon (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania); in Asia, the Soviet Bloc comprised the Mongolian People's Republic, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the People's Republic of Kampuchea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and PRC (before the Sino-Soviet split in 1961). In the Americas, the Communist Bloc included the Caribbean Republic of Cuba, since 1961. Soviet control of the Eastern Bloc was tested by the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état and the Tito–Stalin Split over the direction of the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Chinese Communist Revolution (1949), and China's participation in the Korean War. Under the Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet Union reserved the right to intervene in other socialist states. In response, China moved towards the United States following the Sino-Soviet border conflict and later reformed and liberalized its economy while the Eastern Bloc saw the Era of Stagnation in comparison with the capitalist First World. Unlike previous Soviet leaders in 1953, 1956, and 1968, Gorbachev refused to use force to end the 1989 Revolutions against Marxist–Leninist rule in Eastern Europe. The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China were violently repressed by the communist government there, which maintained its grip on power. The term Eastern Bloc was often used interchangeably with the term Second World. The only surviving communist states are China, Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea, and Laos. Their state socialist experience was more in line with decolonization from the Global North and anti-imperialism towards the West instead of the Red Army occupation of the former Eastern Bloc. Cambodia and Kazakhstan are still led by the same Eastern Bloc leaders as during the Cold War, though they are not officially Marxist–Leninist states. This was previously the case in Kazakhstan's fellow post-Soviet states of Uzbekistan until 2016, Turkmenistan until 2006, Kyrgyzstan until 2005, and Azerbaijan and Georgia until 2003. All presidents of post-Soviet Russia were members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Boris Yeltsin before 1990, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev before 1991). Azerbaijan is an authoritarian dominant-party state and North Korea is a totalitarian one-party state led by the heirs of their Eastern Bloc leaders, yet both have officially eliminated mentions of communism from their constitutions.
Eastern Bloc economies: Eastern Bloc countries achieved high rates of economic and technical progress, promoted industrialization, and ensured steady growth rates of labor producitvity and rises in the standard of living. However, the West achieved greater economic success and higher standards of living throughout the Cold War.
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: After WWII, emigration restrictions were imposed by countries in the Eastern Bloc, which consisted of USSR and its satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe. Legal emigration was in most cases only possible in order to reunite families or to allow members of minority ethnic groups to return to their homelands. After East Germany tightened its zonal occupation border with West Germany, the city sector border between East Berlin and West Berlin became a loophole through which defection could occur. This was closed with the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. "Brain drain": East Germans fleeing to West Germany.
Post-Soviet states and post-Soviet alliances (ex-USSR, Russia in the center)
A clickable Euler diagram showing the relationships among various supranational organisations in the territory of the former Soviet Unionv • d • e
Post-Soviet states (former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (Russian: ближнее зарубежье)): 15 independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged out of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they existed as Union Republics — top-level constituents of the Soviet Union. Following the end of the Cold War, the international community de facto recognized Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union as a whole, rather than to just the Russian SFSR. In contrast, the other post-Soviet states were recognized as successors only to their corresponding Union Republics. However, Russia's status as the sole legitimate successor in this capacity has been disputed by Ukraine, which has proclaimed by law that it is the successor state to both the Ukrainian SSR and the Soviet Union as a whole. The question of whether Russia or Ukraine succeeded the Soviet Union in 1991 arose due to a comprehensive dispute between the two countries over what had been collective Soviet state-owned properties. Subregion: Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Baltics, South Caucasus.
Belovezha Accords (signed: 1991.12.08): forming the agreement declaring that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had effectively ceased to exist and established CIS in its place as a successor entity. The documentation was signed at the state dacha near Viskuli in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus), except by the defunct one, by leaders of three of the four republics which had signed the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR: Belarusian Parliament Chairman Stanislav Shushkevich and Prime Minister of Belarus Vyacheslav Kebich; Russian President Boris Yeltsin and First Deputy Prime Minister of the RSFSR/Russian Federation Gennady Burbulis; Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitold Fokin. Aftermath: Subsequent civil wars and paper wars in Russia; Subsequent conflicts ex-Russia; 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Belarus loses its copy of document.
Alma-Ata Protocol (signed & effective: 1991.12.21): founding declarations and principles of CIS. The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus had agreed to the Belovezh Accords on 8 December 1991, dissolving the Soviet Union and forming the CIS. On 21 December 1991, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan agreed to the Alma-Ata Protocols, joining the CIS. The latter agreement included the original three Belavezha signatories, as well as eight additional former Soviet republics. Georgia was the only former republic that did not participate while Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia refused to do so as according to their governments, the Baltic states were illegally incorporated into the USSR in 1940.
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): As USSR disintegrated, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine signed the Belovezh Accords in 1991.12.08, declaring that the Union had effectively ceased to exist and proclaimed the CIS in its place. 1991.12.21, the Alma-Ata Protocol was signed. The Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), which regard their membership in the Soviet Union as an illegal occupation, chose not to participate. Georgia left in 2008.08.18. Ukraine: was de facto participating, but officially not a member; 2014.05 Ukraine has confirmed its intentions to officially withdraw from CIS as "absolutely ineffective organization" and has registered the required law draft in its parliament. Between 2003 and 2005, three CIS member states experienced a change of government in a series of colour revolutions: Eduard Shevardnadze was overthrown in Georgia; Viktor Yushchenko was elected in Ukraine; and Askar Akayev was toppled in Kyrgyzstan. So far Russian is an official language in only four of these states: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Russian is also considered an official language in the region of Transnistria, and the autonomous region of Gagauzia in Moldova [2014].
Member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States: Following the overthrow of Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia, Georgia officially withdrew from the Council of Defense Ministers in February 2006 with a statement that "Georgia has taken a course to join NATO and it cannot be part of two military structures simultaneously".
Georgia: In the aftermath of the Russo-Georgian War in 2008, President Saakashvili announced during a public speech in the capital city Tbilisi that Georgia would leave the CIS and the Georgian Parliament voted unanimously in 2008.08.14 to withdraw from the regional organization.
Ukraine: Although Ukraine was one of the states which ratified the Creation Agreement in December 1991, making it a Founding State of the CIS, it chose not to ratify the CIS Charter as it disagrees with Russia being the only legal successor state to the Soviet Union. Thus it has never been a full a member of the CIS. However, Ukraine kept participating in the CIS, despite not being a member. In 1993, Ukraine became an associate member of CIS. Following the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, relations between Ukraine and Russia deteriorated, leading Ukraine to consider ending its participation in the CIS. As Ukraine never ratified the Charter, it could cease its informal participation in the CIS. However, to fully terminate its relationship with the CIS it would need to legally withdraw from the Creation Agreement, as Georgia did previously. In 2014.03.14, a bill was introduced to Ukraine's parliament to denounce their ratification of the CIS Creation Agreement, but it was never approved. Following the 2014 parliamentary election, a new bill to denounce the CIS agreement was introduced. In September 2015, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Ukraine will continue taking part in the CIS "on a selective basis". Since that month, Ukraine has had no representatives in the CIS Executive Committee building. In 2018.05.19, President Poroshenko signed a decree formally ending Ukraine's participation in CIS statutory bodies. Ukraine has further stated that it intends to review its participation in all CIS agreements, and only continue in those that are in its interests.
Commonwealth of Independent States Free Trade Area (CISFTA; FTA signed 2011.10.18): free-trade area between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Five CISFTA participants, all except Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Moldova and Tajikistan, are members of the Eurasian Economic Union, comprising a single economic market. Azerbaijan is the only full CIS member state not to participate in the free trade area. European Union–Ukraine trade agreement controversy. Ukraine - Suspended with regard to Russia from 2016.01.01. Russia - Suspended with regard to Ukraine from 2016.01.02.
Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC; EurAsEC): originated from CIS and Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia on 1996.03.29. Common Economic Space: maybe in 2015.01.01.
Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia (2010.01.01-): member states are planning to continue with economic integration and were set to remove all customs borders between each other after July 2011. Copying "EU model" or "good-ol'" USSR? [2014.03; Crimea...]
Eurasian Union (lang=ru): proposed political and economic union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia; Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan
Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU): economic union of states located in Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Central Asia. The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on 2014.05.29 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and came into force on 2015.01.01. Treaties aiming for Armenia's and Kyrgyzstan's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on 9 October and 2014.12.23, respectively. Armenia's accession treaty came into force on 2015.01.02. Kyrgyzstan's accession treaty came into effect on 2015.08.06. Kyrgyzstan participated in the EAEU from the day of its establishment as an acceding state.
GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development: regional organization of four post-Soviet states: Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. The official negotiating language of GUAM was Russian, but it was scrapped in favor of English in 2014. In 2017, agreements on a free-trade area were established for the first time.
2006 Russian ban of Moldovan and Georgian wines: began in late March 2006 and created a diplomatic conflict between the Republic of Moldova and Georgia on the one hand and Russia on the other. Wine trade with Russia is responsible for 80-90% of the total wine exports in both countries. The Chief Sanitary Inspector of Russia Gennadiy Onishchenko claimed that heavy metals and pesticides had been found in Georgian and Moldovan wines and that they were falsified alcoholic products labeled as wines. The Russian Consumer Agency claimed that it had examined 21 sorts of Georgian wine sold in Moscow and concluded that 85.7% did not comply with sanitary requirements. Pesticides were discovered in 60% samples of Moldovan and 44% samples of Georgian wine. However, the Moldovans claimed that no proof was provided by the Russians and that dozens of countries across the world imported Moldovan wines without any reported problems. Moldova argued that the ban amounted to economic blackmail.
2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy: Government of Georgia arrested four Russian officers on charges of espionage, 2006.09.27. The Western and Georgian media sources report that relations between the two post-Soviet nations have significantly deteriorated after Georgia and NATO agreed to hold talks on closer relations.
2006 deportation of Georgians from Russia: refers to the deaths, unlawful arrests, expulsions and overall mistreatment of several thousand ethnic Georgians by the Russian government during the 2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy. The official Russian position was that Georgians in question violated the Russian immigration law and that their expulsion and treatment in custody was just standard law enforcement. The Georgian government countered that Russia's concerted actions against ethnic Georgians, including properly documented individuals, was an act of political retribution for the arrest of Russian spies and was tantamount to "mild form of ethnic cleansing". Georgian claims were supported by the Human Rights Watch, which documented "the Russian government's arbitrary and illegal detention and expulsion of Georgians, including many who legally lived and worked in Russia..." Georgia subsequently sued the Russian Government in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Old Swiss Confederacy (c. 1300 – 1798): loose confederation of independent small states (cantons, German Orte or Stände) within the Holy Roman Empire.
Early Modern Switzerland: history of the Old Swiss Confederacy (Eidgenossenschaft, also known as the "Swiss Republic" or Republica Helvetiorum) and its constituent Thirteen Cantons encompasses the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) until the French invasion of 1798. The early modern period was characterized by an increasingly aristocratic and oligarchic ruling class as well as frequent economic or religious revolts. This period came to be referred to as the Ancien Régime retrospectively, in post-Napoleonic Switzerland. The early modern period also saw the growth of French-Swiss literature, and notable authors of the Age of Enlightenment such as the mathematicians of the Bernoulli family and Leonhard Euler of Basel.
Switzerland in the Napoleonic era: during the French Revolutionary Wars, the revolutionary armies marched eastward, enveloping Switzerland in their battles against Austria. In 1798, Switzerland was completely overrun by the French and was renamed the Helvetic Republic. The Helvetic Republic encountered severe economic and political problems. In 1798 the country became a battlefield of the Revolutionary Wars, culminating in the Battles of Zürich in 1799. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise Swiss neutrality. At this time, the territory of Switzerland was increased for the last time, by the new cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva.
Helvetic Republic (1798–1803): represented an early attempt to impose a central authority over Switzerland, which until then had consisted of self-governing cantons united by a loose military alliance (and ruling over subject territories such as Vaud). The French invaded Switzerland and turned it into an ally known as the "Helvetic Republic". The interference with localism and traditional liberties was deeply resented, although some modernizing reforms took place. Resistance was strongest in the more traditional Catholic bastions, with armed uprisings breaking out in spring 1798 in the central part of Switzerland. The French Army suppressed the uprisings, but support for revolutionary ideals steadily increased, as the Swiss resented their loss of local democracy, the new taxes, the centralization, and the hostility to religion. Nonetheless, there were long-term impacts.
Rhodanic Republic (1802 –1810): sister republic that existed in the French-speaking part of Switzerland during the Napoleonic wars, in the territory corresponding with the modern Canton of Valais.
Switzerland as a federal state (from 1848.09.12): creation of a federal constitution in response to a 27-day civil war in Switzerland, the Sonderbundskrieg. The constitution, which was heavily influenced by the United States Constitution and the ideas of the French Revolution, was modified several times during the following decades and wholly replaced in 1999. The 1848 constitution represented the first time, other than when the short-lived Helvetic Republic had been imposed, that the Swiss had a central government instead of being simply a collection of autonomous cantons bound by treaties.
Total Resistance (book) (Der totale Widerstand: Eine Kleinkriegsanleitung für Jedermann ("Total Resistance: A Guerrilla Warfare Manual for Everyone")): guerilla warfare manual. Written in 1957 by the Swiss army officer Hans von Dach to prepare the Swiss population for an occupation of Switzerland by Warsaw Pact forces, an eventuality then considered possible in the context of the Cold War. The book has been republished as pirated translations in dozens of languages in numerous countries abroad, and notably found use by left-wing terror groups in the 1960s and 70s. The book was a commercial success, being reprinted five times and selling in the tens of thousands, notably in West Germany and Austria. It became by far the most well-known of von Dach's more than a hundred works on military tactics.
Turkification: Genetic testing of language replacement hypothesis in Anatolia, Caucasus and Balkans: today the major DNA components in Anatolian population are shared with European and neighboring Near Eastern populations and contrast with only a minor share of haplogroups related to Central Asian, South Asian and African affinity, which supports the language replacement hypothesis in the region. Analogical results have been received in neighbouring Caucasus region by testing Armenian and Turkic speaking Azerbaijani populations, therefore representing language replacements, possibly via elite dominance involving primarily male migrants.
Turkic peoples: Origins and early expansion. Middle Ages: everywhere, Turkic groups mixed with the local populations to varying degrees. Islamic empires (Ghaznavid Empire, Timurids~, Delhi Sultanate~, Bahri dynasty, Deccan sultanates, Safavid Empire~, Ottoman Empire+, Mughal Empire~, Afsharid Empire).
Turkic migration: expansion of the Turkic peoples across most of Central Asia into Europe and the Middle East between the 6th and 11th centuries.
Turkic states:
Current independent states: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Partially recognised state: Northern Cyprus
Federal subjects (Republics) of Russia
Autonomous regions: Gagauzia in Moldova; China: Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County, Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Aksay Kazakh Autonomous County.
First Turkic Khaganate (552–603; First Turkic Empire, Göktürk Khaganate): Turkic khaganate established by the Ashina clan of the Göktürks in medieval Inner Asia under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan (d. 552) and his brother Istämi. The First Turkic Khaganate succeeded the Rouran Khaganate as the hegemonic power of the Mongolian Plateau and rapidly expanded their territories in Central Asia, and became the first Central Asian transcontinental empire from Manchuria to the Black Sea.
Eastern Turkic Khaganate (581–603 (subdivision of the First Turkic Khaganate); 603–630, (630–639, Tang Dynasty), 639–645 (independent empire)): Turkic khaganate formed as a result of the internecine wars in the beginning of the 7th c.
Western Turkic Khaganate (581–603 (subdivision of the First Turkic Khaganate); 603–657 (independent empire); 657–742 (vassal of the Tang dynasty); Onoq Khaganate): Turkic khaganate in Eurasia, formed as a result of the wars in the beginning of the 7th c. (AD 593–603) after the split of the Turkic Khaganate.
Second Turkic Khaganate (682–744): khaganate in Central and Eastern Asia founded by Ashina clan of the Göktürks. It was preceded by the Eastern Turkic Khaganate (552-630) and then a period of Tang Chinese rule (630-682). The Second Khaganate was centered on Ötüken in the upper reaches of the Orkhon River.
Uyghur Khaganate (744–840): Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. They were a tribal confederation under the Orkhon Uyghur (回鶻) nobility, referred to by the Chinese as the Jiu Xing ("Nine Clans"),
Oghuz Turks: historical Turkic tribal confederation conventionally named Oghuz Yabgu State in Central Asia during the early medieval period. The Oguz confederation migrated westward from the Jeti-su area after a conflict with Karluk branch of Uigurs. The founders of the Ottoman Empire were descendants of the Oguz Yabgu State.
Crimean Karaites: origin is a matter of great controversy; some regard them as descendants of Karaite Jews who settled in Crimea and adopted a form of the Kypchak tongue (see Karaim language). Others view them as descendants of Khazar or Kipchak converts to Karaite Judaism. Today many Crimean Karaites deny Israelite origins and consider themselves to be descendants of the Khazars. The consensus view among historians, however, considers that the Torah religion of the Khazars was Talmudic Judaism.
Khazars (Khazar Khaganate: 618-1048): semi-nomadic Turkic people; capital Atil. Khazaria commanded the western marches of the Silk Road and played a key commercial role as a crossroad between China, the Middle East, and Europe. Khazaria served as a buffer state between Europe and the rising tide of Islamic conquest and enjoyed a strategic entente with the Christian Byzantine empire throughout the period of the Arab–Khazar Wars. Beginning in the 8th century, the Khazar royalty and much of the aristocracy are reported to have converted to Judaism, though the populace remained multiconfessional and polyethnic. Between 965 and 969, the Khazar state was conquered by the Kievan Rus under Sviatoslav I of Kiev, who conquered Atil in 967.
Arab–Khazar wars (642-799): Khazar Khaganate vs Umayyad Caliphate (later Abbasid)
Turkish War of Independence (1919.05.19–1923.07.24): series of military campaigns waged by the Turkish National Movement after parts of the Ottoman Empire were occupied and partitioned following its defeat in WWI. The campaigns were directed against Greece in the west, Armenia in the east, France in the south, monarchists and separatists in various cities, and Britain and Italy in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Simultaneously, the Turkish nationalist movement carried out massacres and deportations in order to eliminate native Christian populations—a continuation of the Armenian genocide and other ethnic cleansing operations during WWI. These campaigns resulted in the creation of the Republic of Turkey. While WWI ended for the Ottoman Empire with the Armistice of Mudros, the Allied Powers continued occupying and seizing land. Ottoman military commanders therefore refused orders from both the Allies and the Ottoman government to surrender and disband their forces. This crisis reached a head when the Sultan Mehmed VI dispatched Mustafa Kemal Pasha (→Atatürk), a well respected and high ranking general, to Anatolia to restore order; however, Mustafa Kemal became an enabler and eventually leader of Turkish nationalist resistance against the Ottoman government, Allied powers, and Christian minorities.
Occupation of Constantinople (1918.11.13–1923.10.04): capital of the Ottoman Empire, by British, French, Italian, and Greek forces, took place in accordance with the Armistice of Mudros {q.v. #End of WWI and the shortly afterwards following wars (Revolutions of 1917–1923)}, which ended Ottoman participation in the WWI. The first French troops entered the city in 1918.11.12, followed by British troops the next day. The Italian troops landed in Galata in 1919.02.07. 1918 saw the first time the city had changed hands since the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Along with the Occupation of Smyrna, it spurred the establishment of the Turkish National Movement, leading to the Turkish War of Independence.
Franco-Turkish War (Cilicia Campaign, Southern Front; 1918.12.07–1921.10.20): series of conflicts fought between France (the French Colonial Forces and the French Armenian Legion) and the Turkish National Forces (led by the Turkish provisional government after 1920.09.04) in the aftermath of WWI. French interest in the region stemmed from the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and was further fueled by the refugee crisis following the Armenian genocide.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) (1919.05.15–1922.10.11): Greek campaign was launched primarily because the western Allies, particularly British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, had promised Greece territorial gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, recently defeated in WWI, as Anatolia had been part of Ancient Greece and the Byzantine Empire before the Ottomans captured the area. The armed conflict started when the Greek forces landed in Smyrna (now İzmir), in 1919.05.15. They advanced inland and took control of the western and northwestern part of Anatolia, including the cities of Manisa, Balıkesir, Aydın, Kütahya, Bursa and Eskişehir. Their advance was checked by Turkish forces at the Battle of Sakarya in 1921. The Greek front collapsed with the Turkish counter-attack in 1922.08, and the war effectively ended with the recapture of Smyrna by Turkish forces and the great fire of Smyrna.
Treaty of Alexandropol (1920.12.03): peace treaty between the First Republic of Armenia and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The treaty ended the Turkish-Armenian War that had begun in 1920.09.12, with the Turkish invasion of former-Ottoman lands ceded to Armenia in the Treaty of Sevres, a month prior. It was signed by the Armenian Foreign Minister Alexander Khatisyan in the early hours of 1920.12.03. However, the previous day, the Armenian government in Yerevan had resigned and transferred power to a Soviet government, backed by Soviet Russia and so Khatisyan was no longer acting on behalf of the government of Armenia, and the treaty was technically invalid. The terms of the treaty was prepared by the Turks, with the Armenians having no input. It required Armenia to cede to Turkey its entire province of Kars together with the Surmalu district of Yerevan province. A large part of the south of Yerevan province was also to be ceded to Azerbaijan. The second item on the treaty acknowledged the border between the two countries. The Treaty of Alexandropol changed the boundary of the First Republic of Armenia to the Ardahan-Kars borderline and ceded over half of First Republic of Armenia to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The tenth item in the agreement stated that Armenia renounced the Treaty of Sèvres.
Chanak Crisis (Çanakkale Krizi; September – October 1922): war scare between the United Kingdom and the Government of the Grand National Assembly in Turkey. Chanak refers to Çanakkale, a city on the Anatolian side of the Dardanelles Strait. The crisis was caused by Turkish efforts to push the Greek armies out of Turkey and restore Turkish rule in the Allied-occupied territories, primarily in Constantinople (now Istanbul) and Eastern Thrace. Turkish troops marched against British and French positions in the Dardanelles neutral zone. For a time, war between Britain and Turkey seemed possible, but Canada refused to agree as did France and Italy. British public opinion did not want a war. The British military did not either, and the top general on the scene, Sir Charles Harington, refused to relay an ultimatum to the Turks because he counted on a negotiated settlement. The Conservatives in Britain's coalition government refused to follow Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who with Winston Churchill was calling for war.
Turkish National Movement (1919.06.22–1923.10.29; Turkish National Movement (Turkish: Türk Ulusal Hareketi)): political and military activities of the Turkish revolutionaries that resulted in the creation and shaping of the modern Republic of Turkey, as a consequence of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI and the subsequent occupation of Constantinople and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies under the terms of the Armistice of Mudros. The Turkish revolutionaries rebelled against this partitioning and against the Treaty of Sèvres, signed in 1920 by the Ottoman government, which partitioned portions of Anatolia itself.
Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits: currently the major naval powers in the Black Sea are Russia (with huge naval base in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.03.19 (ex-Ukraine)) and Turkey. {[18/03/27] This becomes important due to the "civil war in Syria", as RU supports Syrian government, while Turkey is NATO member (USA!) and supports insurgents against Syrian government and against Kurds.}
Turkish Straits: Aegean arm of the Mediterranean ←Sea Dardanelles→ Sea of Marmara ←Bosphorus→ Black Sea; conventionally considered the boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia.
Bosphorus: 700 m wide; 36-124 m deep (avg=65 m); runs through Istanbul. Bosphorus Bridge and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge; rail tunnel (Marmaray) currently under construction.
Dardanelles (Hellespont): 1.2 to 6 km wide; max=103 m deep (avg=55 m);
Secularism in Turkey: first introduced with the 1928 amendment of the Constitution of 1924, which removed the provision declaring that the "Religion of the State is Islam".
Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı): article 136 of the constitution; “to execute the works concerning the beliefs, worship, and ethics of Islam, enlighten the public about their religion, and administer the sacred worshipping places”. Allows women to become vice-mufti, in vitro fertilization and birth control pills. Supervises all mosques, educates imams, approves all content for religious services and prayers.
Headscarf controversy in Turkey: back-and-forth between the secularists and the religiously or freedom motivated ones; women not allowed in public offices to wear scarves but many protesting women and people.
Leyla Şahin v. Turkey (2004): European Court of Human Rights case brought against Turkey by a medical student challenging a Turkish law which bans wearing the Islamic headscarf at universities and other educational and state institutions. The Court upheld the Turkish law by 16 votes to 1.
Conspiracy theories in Turkey: Conspiracism is an important phenomenon in understanding Turkish politics. This is explained by a desire to "make up for our lost Ottoman grandeur", the humiliation of perceiving Turkey as part of "the malfunctioning half" of the world, and a low level of media literacy among the Turkish population. Conspiracy theory that the Armenian genocide is invented; The general "Mastermind" conspiracy theory narrative; Israel-related animal conspiracy theories; The "War against Islam" conspiracy theory narrative.
Internet regulation in Turkey: Turkish government has constantly blocked websites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. According to Twitter's transparency report, Turkey leads in social media censorship.
2017 block of Wikipedia in Turkey: from 2017.04.29 to 2020.01.15 the online encyclopedia Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey. 2017.04.29 Turkish authorities blocked online access to all language editions of Wikipedia throughout Turkey. The restrictions were imposed by Turkish Law No. 5651, due to the English version's article on state-sponsored terrorism (in the version of 29 April 2017), where Turkey was described as a sponsor country for ISIL and Al-Qaeda, which Turkish courts viewed as a public manipulation of mass media. Requests by the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority to edit several articles to comply with Turkish law were not acted on. 2019.12.26 the Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that the block of Wikipedia violated human rights and ordered it to be lifted.
Turkey Blocks: independent digital research organization that monitors internet access restrictions and their relation to political incidents in Turkey. Using its network of monitoring probes, the project has uncovered and documented systematic mass-censorship of communications infrastructure, primarily social media services, during national emergencies and incidents of political significance relating to human rights, freedom of expression and public policy in the region. Deep packet inspection was one of the methods used to block access to Wikipedia. After court objection by Bilgi University professor Yaman Akdeniz, the Ankara 2nd Civil Court of Peace said that the causes of the block were the following articles on the English Wikipedia: State-sponsored terrorism § Turkey, Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War § Turkey. According to a report by the Anadolu Agency, the country "has a history of demanding that international websites take such steps as having a representative office in the country, complying with principles of international law, implementing court rulings, and not being part of any smear campaign or operation in Turkey".
Turkish general election, June 2015: The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which had governed Turkey since 2002, lost its parliamentary majority and won 258 seats with 40.9% of the vote. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) also fared worse than their 2011 result, winning 132 seats with 25.0% of the vote. Having been projected to win over many disaffected voters from the AKP, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) saw an increase in their vote share, winning 80 seats with 16.3% of the vote. The new Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) decided to contest the election as a party rather than fielding candidates as independents, despite concerns that it could have fallen below the 10% election threshold and lose all representation in Parliament. The party fared better than expections, won 13.1% of the vote and took 80 seats, the same as the MHP. The result was the first hung parliament since the 1999 general election, with unsuccessful attempts to form a coalition government resulting in a snap general election being called for November 2015.
Turkish general election, November 2015: The election resulted in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) regaining a Parliamentary majority following a 'shock' victory, having lost it five months earlier in the June 2015 general election; hailed as a massive personal victory for President Erdoğan.
Ergenekon (allegation): name given to an alleged clandestine, secular ultra-nationalist organization in Turkey with possible ties to members of the country's military and security forces. The would-be group, named after Ergenekon, a mythical place located in the inaccessible valleys of the Altay Mountains, was accused of terrorism in Turkey. Ergenekon was by some believed to be part of the "deep state". The existence of the "deep state" was affirmed in Turkish opinion after the Susurluk scandal in 1996. Alleged members had been indicted on charges of plotting to foment unrest, among other things by assassinating intellectuals, politicians, judges, military staff, and religious leaders, with the ultimate goal of toppling the incumbent government. As of 2015 most of the people accused of such crimes has been acquitted, forensic experts concluded the documents for supposed plots were fake and some of the executors of trials proved to be linked to the Gülen Movement and were charged with plotting against the Turkish Army.
Ergenekon trials: series of high-profile trials 2008–2016 which took place in Turkey in which 275 people, including military officers, journalists and opposition lawmakers, all alleged members of Ergenekon, a suspected secularist clandestine organization, were accused of plotting against the Turkish government. The trials resulted in lengthy prison sentences for the majority of the accused. In the event, those sentences were overturned shortly after.
2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt: On 2016.07.15, a coup d'état was attempted in Turkey against the government. The attempt was carried out by a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces that organized themselves under a council called the Peace at Home Council. As this council, the faction attempted to seize control of several key places in Ankara, Istanbul, and elsewhere, but failed to do so after forces loyal to the Turkish government defeated them. False flag conspiracy theories.
2016–present purges in Turkey: ongoing series of purges by the government of Turkey enabled by a state of emergency in reaction to the 15 July failed coup d'état. After the immediate arrest of military personnel accused of making the coup attempt, arrests were expanded to include further elements of the Turkish military service, as well as various civil servants and private businesses. These later actions, reflecting a power struggle between secularist and Islamist political elites in Turkey, which began to be known as a purge, affected people who were not active in nor aware of the coup as it happened, but who were alleged to be connected with the Gülen movement, a group which the government blames for the coup. Even the mere possession of books authored by Gülen may be considered evidence of such a connection and cause for arrest. Tens of thousands of public servants and soldiers were purged in the first week following the coup. In the business sector, the government forcefully seized assets of over 1000 companies worth between $11 and $50-60 billions, on the charge of being related to Gülen and the coup.
Fethullah Gülen (1941.04.27): Turkish author, educator, and Muslim scholar; currently lives in a self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, USA. The Gülen movement (often referred as Gulenists) has been characterized as a civil society group promoting education, religious tolerance, and building social networks. Having shared a major goal of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of empowering religious individuals in civil life officially disenfranchised under then existing law in secular Turkey, Gulen and his movement were aligned with Erdogan prior to 2013. The alliance was destroyed after the 2013 corruption investigations in Turkey. Erdoğan accused Gülen of being behind the corruption investigations. He is currently on Turkey's most-wanted-terrorist list and is accused of leading what the current Turkish officials call the Gülenist Terror Organisation(Fethullahçı Terör Örgütü, FETÖ). Gülen has been described as a Kurdophobic preacher. He was accused of being against the peace process which had aimed to resolve the long-running Kurdish-Turkish conflict. However, Gülen's supporters dismiss this claim, citing his work with many Kurds. According to New Europe and Algemeiner Journal, Gülen is to Erdoğan what Trotsky was to Stalin. Ben Cohen wrote: "Rather like Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Soviet Red Army who was hounded and chased out of the USSR by Joseph Stalin, Gulen has become an all-encompassing explanation for the existential threats, as Erdogan perceives them, that are currently plaguing Turkey. Stalin saw the influence of “Trotskyite counter-revolutionaries” everywhere, and brutally purged every element of the Soviet apparatus. Erdogan is now doing much the same with the “Gulenist terrorists”."
Gülen movement: Islamic transnational religious and social movement led by Turkish Islamic theologian and preacher Fethullah Gülen. Some have praised the movement as a pacifist, modern-oriented version of Islam, and as an alternative to more extreme schools of Islam such as Salafism. But it has also been accused of having "global, apocalyptic ambition" and a "cultish hierarchy". The Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, formerly an ally of Gülen, has designated the movement as a terrorist organisation under the name Gülenist Terror Organisation (Fetullahçı Terör Örgütü, FETÖ) or Parallel State Organisation (Paralel Devlet Yapılanması, PDY) since 2015.12.11 and has accused it of trying to infiltrate the Turkish state and overthrow the government during a failed coup attempt in 2016.
Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant: nuclear power plant under development at Akkuyu, in Büyükeceli, Mersin Province, Turkey. It will be the country's first nuclear power plant.
2017 Dutch–Turkish diplomatic incident: triggered by Turkish efforts to hold political rallies on Dutch territory and subsequent travel restrictions placed by Dutch authorities on Turkish officials seeking to promote the campaign for a 'yes' vote in the upcoming Turkish constitutional referendum to Turkish citizens living in the Netherlands. Such foreign campaigning is illegal under Turkish law. The Netherlands barred the aircraft of Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu from landing and expelled Turkish Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya from the country, when both tried to speak at rallies. In response, Turkey expelled the Dutch Ambassador from the country and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the Dutch "fascists" and "remnants of Nazism" and accused the Netherlands of "massacring" Muslims in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War in 1995. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called Erdoğan's remarks "unacceptable" and a "vile falsification of history" and demanded an apology. Rutte also called for talks to resolve the impasse, adding that Turkey had crossed a diplomatic line.
2017 Turkish constitutional referendum (Sunday, 2017.04.16): on whether to approve 18 proposed amendments to the Turkish constitution that were brought forward by the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). As a result of its approval, the office of the Prime Minister was abolished and the existing parliamentary system of government was replaced with an executive presidency and a presidential system. The number of seats in Parliament was raised from 550 to 600, while, among a series of other proposals, the president was given more control over appointments to the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK). The referendum was held under a state of emergency that was declared following a failed military coup attempt in July 2016. Early results indicated a 51–49% lead for the "Yes" vote. In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) allowed non-stamped ballots to be accepted as valid. Some critics of the reform decried this move to be illegal, claiming that as many as 1.5 million ballots were unstamped, and did not recognize the results. Large-scale protests erupted following the results in order to protest the YSK's decision. In subsequent reports, OSCE and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) both criticized unfairness during the campaign and declared the YSK's decision to be illegal.
Jamestown, Virginia: settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. William Kelso writes that Jamestown "is where the British Empire began". It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on 1607.05.04 (O.S.; 1607.05.14 N.S.), and was considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610. Jamestown served as the capital of the colony of Virginia for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699. The settlement was located within the country of Tsenacommacah, which was ruled by the Powhatan Confederacy, and specifically in that of the Paspahegh tribe. The natives initially welcomed and provided crucial provisions and support for the colonists, who were not agriculturally inclined. Relations soured fairly early on, however, leading to the total annihilation of the Paspahegh in warfare within three years.
Starving Time: at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of starvation during the winter of 1609–1610. There were about 500 Jamestown residents at the beginning of the winter. However, there were only 60 people still alive when the spring arrived. There is scientific evidence that the settlers at Jamestown had turned to cannibalism during the starving time.
Plymouth, Massachusetts: holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as "America's Hometown." Plymouth was the site of the colony founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, passengers of the famous ship the Mayflower. Plymouth is where New England was first established. It is the oldest municipality in New England and one of the oldest in the United States. The town has served as the location of several prominent events, one of the more notable being the First Thanksgiving feast.
Founding Fathers of the United States (Founding Fathers, Founders): group of USA revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, led the war for independence from Great Britain, and crafted a framework of government for the new United States of America during the later decades of the 18th c.
George Washington's Farewell Address: He argues that it makes no sense for the American people to become embroiled in European affairs when their isolated position and unity allow them to remain neutral and focus on their own affairs. He argues that the country should avoid permanent alliances with all foreign nations, although temporary alliances during times of extreme danger may be necessary. He states that current treaties should be honored but not extended.
Lost Cause of the Confederacy: set of beliefs common in the white American South in the late 19th and early 20th century. The beliefs portray the Confederate cause as a heroic one against great odds despite its defeat. The beliefs endorse the virtues of the antebellum South, viewing the American Civil War as an honorable struggle for the Southern way of life, while overlooking or downplaying the central role of slavery.
Carpetbagger: Northerner who moved to the South after the American Civil War, during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877). Sixty Carpetbaggers were elected to Congress, and they included a majority of Republican governors in the South during Reconstruction.
Juneteenth (Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day): holiday celebrating the liberation of those who had been held as slaves in the United States. Originally a Texas state holiday, it is now celebrated annually on the 19th of June throughout the United States, with varying official recognition. Specifically, it commemorates Union army general Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in Galveston, Texas, 1865.06.19, proclaiming that all people held as slaves in Texas were free: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."
Visa Waiver Program (VWP): being Schengen Zone citizen does not guarantee VWP (e.g. Poland).
First Red Scare: period during the early 20th-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism, due to real and imagined events, real events such as the Russian Revolution as well as the publicly stated goal of a worldwide communist revolution. At its height in 1919–1920, concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and the alleged spread of communism and anarchism in the American labor movement fueled a general sense of paranoia.
Bonus Army: was the popular name of an assemblage of some 43,000 marchers—17,000 WWI veterans, their families, and affiliated groups—who gathered in Washington, D.C., in the spring and summer of 1932 to demand cash-payment redemption of their service certificates. USA Army intervention
Straw Hat Riot of 1922: riot that occurred in New York City at the end of the summer as a result of unwritten rules in men's fashions at the time, and a tradition of taunting people who had failed to stop wearing straw hats after autumn began. Originating as a series of minor riots, it spread due to men wearing straw hats past the unofficial date that was deemed socially acceptable, September 15. It lasted eight days, leading to many arrests and some injuries.
Banana Wars (1898-1934): series of occupations, police actions, and interventions involving USA in Central America and the Caribbean between the Spanish–American War (1898) and the inception of the Good Neighbor Policy (1934). These military interventions were most often carried out by the United States Marine Corps. With the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to USA.
Small Wars Manual: USA Marine Corps manual on tactics and strategies for engaging in certain types of military operations.
Ogallala Aquifer: shallow water table aquifer located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. One of the world's largest aquifers, it underlies an area of approximately 450,000 km2 in portions of eight states (South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas).
Shrinking cities in the United States: Detroit (1.85 mln [1950] → 0.71 mln [2010]); St. Louis (0.86 mln [1950] → 0.32 mln [2010]); Pittsburgh (0.68 mln [1950] → 0.30 mln [2010]); Chicago (3.6 mln [1950] → 2.7 mln [2010]); Buffalo (0.58 mln [1950] → 0.27 mln [2010]); Cincinnati (0.50 mln [1950] → 0.30 mln [2010]); New Orleans (0.63 mln [1960] → 0.38 mln [2010]).
Percentage of the African American population living in the American South. Declining period between 1910-1970 is known as the Great Migration.
Great Migration (African American): movement of 6 million African-Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1910 and 1970. From early American History until 1910, more than 90 percent of the African-American population lived in the American South. In 1900, only one-fifth of African-Americans living in the South were living in urban areas. By 1970, more than 80 percent of African-Americans lived in cities, and by 1960, of those African-Americans still living in the South, half now lived in urban areas. In the first phase, eight major cities attracted two-thirds of the migrants: New York and Chicago, followed in order by Philadelphia, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis. The Second great black migration increased the populations of these cities while adding others as destinations, especially on the West Coast. Cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Phoenix, Seattle, and Portland attracted African Americans in large numbers. The Great Migration resulted in the Harlem Renaissance, which was also fired by immigrants from the Caribbean. "The disappearance of the 'black belt' was one of the striking effects" of the Great Migration, James Gregory wrote.
Second Great Migration (African American) (1941-1970): more than 5 million African Americans moved to cities in states in the North, Midwest and West, including California, where Los Angeles, Oakland, Richmond, and Long Beach offered skilled jobs in the defense industry. Most of these migrants were already urban laborers who came from the cities of the South.
New Great Migration: demographic change from 1965 to the present, which is a reversal of the previous 35-year trend of black migration within USA. Since 1965, deindustrialization of cities in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, growth of jobs in the "New South" with lower costs of living, family and kinship ties, and improving racial relations have all acted to attract African Americans to the Southern USA in substantial numbers. As early as 1975-1980, seven southern states were net black migration gainers.
Black-brown unity (Black-Brown-Yellow unity, Black-Brown-Yellow-Red unity): racial-political ideology which initially developed among Black scholars, writers, and activists who pushed for global activist associations between Black people and Brown people (including Chicanos and Latinos), as well as Asian people (referred to as "Yellow") and Indigenous peoples of the Americas (historically referred to as "Red") to unify against white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, and, in some cases, European conceptualizations of masculinity, which were recognized as interrelated in maintaining white racial privilege and power over people of color globally. The formation of unity struggles among people of color widely emerged in the 20th century and have been identified as an attempt to forge a united struggle by emphasizing the similar forms of oppression Black and Brown people confront under white supremacy, including shared experiences of subjugation under colonial capitalism, Jim Crow laws, de jure and de facto school and community segregation, voter disenfranchisement, economic oppression, exclusion from white-owned establishments (e.g. "No Dogs, Negroes, Mexicans," "No Colored Served Here," "We Cater to White Trade Only"), and the perception by white people that Black and Brown people are biologically and racially predisposed to be inferior, criminal, disorderly, and degenerate. Black-Brown unity became highly visible in 2020, fueled by activists, journalists, and people who increasingly recognized the shared struggles of Black and Brown people in the United States amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Adam Serwer for The Atlantic stated that "the lives of disproportionately black and brown workers are being sacrificed to fuel the engine of a faltering economy, by a president who disdains them." A study found that Black people and Latinos were three times as likely to know someone who had died of COVID-19.
Rajneeshpuram: religious intentional community in the northwest United States, located in Wasco County, Oregon. Incorporated as a city between 1981 and 1988, its population consisted entirely of Rajneeshees, followers of the spiritual teacher Rajneesh, later known as Osho.
Major non-NATO and NATO allies of USA, the former as designated by USA law.
Foreign policy of the United States: "to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community". The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs states as some of its jurisdictional goals: "export controls, including nonproliferation of nuclear technology and nuclear hardware; measures to foster commercial interaction with foreign nations and to safeguard American business abroad; international commodity agreements; international education; and protection of American citizens abroad and expulsion".
Public image:
Global opinion: Overall, the United States is viewed positively by the rest of the world. The Eurasia Group Foundation reported that as of 2021, 85% of respondents from 10 countries have a favorable opinion of the United States and 81% favor American hegemony over Chinese hegemony. Those with an unfavorable view of the United States most commonly cited interventionism, and in particular the War in Afghanistan, as their reason. It was also found that the exercise of soft power increased favorable opinions while the exercise of hard power decreased favorable opinions. Citizens of Brazil, Nigeria, and India were found to have more favorable opinions of the United States, while citizens of China and Germany were found to have less favorable opinions of the United States. International opinion about the US has often changed with different executive administrations. For example, in 2009, the French public favored the United States when President Barack Obama (75% favorable) replaced President George W. Bush (42%). After President Donald Trump took the helm in 2017, French public opinion about the US fell from 63% to 46%. These trends were also seen in other European countries.
Foreign intervention: Empirical studies have found that democracies, including the United States, have killed much fewer civilians than dictatorships. Media may be biased against the U.S. regarding reporting human rights violations. Studies have found that The New York Times coverage of worldwide human rights violations predominantly focuses on the human rights violations in nations where there is clear U.S. involvement, while having relatively little coverage of the human rights violations in other nations. For example, the bloodiest war in recent time, involving eight nations and killing millions of civilians, was the Second Congo War, which was almost completely ignored by the media.
Support for authoritarian governments: USA has faced criticism for backing right-wing dictators that systematically violated human rights, such as Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay, Efraín Ríos Montt of Guatemala, Jorge Rafael Videla of Argentina, Hissène Habré of Chad Yahya Khan of Pakistan and Suharto of Indonesia. Regarding support for certain anti-Communist dictatorships during the Cold War, a response is that they were seen as a necessary evil, with the alternatives even worse Communist or fundamentalist dictatorships. David Schmitz says this policy did not serve U.S. interests. Friendly tyrants resisted necessary reforms and destroyed the political center (though not in South Korea), while the 'realist' policy of coddling dictators brought a backlash among foreign populations with long memories. Niall Ferguson argues that the U.S. is incorrectly blamed for all of the human rights violations perpetrated by USA-supported governments. Ferguson writes that there is general agreement that Guatemala was the worst of the USA-backed regimes during the Cold War, but the USA cannot be credibly blamed for all of the estimated 200,000 deaths during the long Guatemalan Civil War. The USA Intelligence Oversight Board writes that military aid was cut for long periods because of such violations, that the USA helped stop a coup in 1993, and that efforts were made to improve the conduct of the security services.
2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address: given by the Illinois State Senator, United States senatorial candidate, and future President Barack Obama on the night of Tuesday, July 27, 2004, in Boston, Massachusetts. His unexpected landslide victory in the March 2004 Illinois U.S. Senate Democratic primary made him a rising star within the national Democratic Party overnight, and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father. His keynote address was well received, which further elevated his status within the Democratic Party and led to his reissued memoir becoming a bestseller. Obama first met Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in the spring of 2004, and was one of several names considered for the role of keynote speaker at the party's convention that summer. Obama was told in early July 2004 that he was chosen to deliver the address, and he largely wrote the speech himself, with later edits from the Kerry presidential campaign.
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare): landmark USA federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010.03.23. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
American decline: idea that USA is diminishing in power geopolitically, militarily, financially, economically, socially, culturally, in matters of healthcare, and/or on environmental issues. There has been debate over the extent of the decline, and whether it is relative or absolute. Those who believe America is in decline are declinists. China challenging USA for global dominance constitutes a core issue in the debate over American decline. USA is no longer the only uncontested superpower to dominate in every domain in every region of the world. According to the 2021 Asia Power Index, within Asia, USA still takes the lead on military capacity, cultural influence, resilience, future resources, diplomatic influence, and defense networks, but falls behind China in two parameters: economic capability and economic relationships. In a 2011 book, Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum argued that the United States was in the midst of "its fifth wave of Declinism." The first had come "with the 'Sputnik Shock' of 1957," the second with the Vietnam War, the third with President Jimmy Carter's "malaise" and the rise of Japan, the fourth with the increased power of China. According to Robert Lieber in 2021, “declinists’ proclamations about America have appeared ever since America’s founding" and “it can be instructive to compare current arguments and prescriptions of the new declinism with the ideas of earlier eras.”
Shippingport Atomic Power Station: world's first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses. The reactor reached criticality in 1957.12.02, and aside from stoppages for three core changes, it remained in operation until 1982.10. The first electrical power was produced in 1957.12.18 as engineers synchronized the plant with the distribution grid of Duquesne Light Company. The first core used at Shippingport originated from a cancelled nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and used highly enriched uranium (93% U-235) as "seed" fuel surrounded by a "blanket" of natural U-238, in a so-called seed-and-blanket design; in the first reactor about half the power came from the seed. The first Shippingport core reactor turned out to be capable of an output of 60 MWe one month after its launch. The second core was similarly designed but more powerful, having a larger seed. The highly energetic seed required more refueling cycles than the blanket in these first two cores.
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (2010.03.18-): USA federal law that requires United States persons, including individuals who live outside USA, to report their financial accounts held outside of USA, and requires foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about their USA clients.
Whistleblower Office: branch of USA IRS that will "process tips received from individuals, who spot tax problems in their workplace, while conducting day-to-day personal business or anywhere else they may be encountered."
Expatriation tax#United States: USA taxes its citizens on worldwide income, whether or not they are resident in USA. To deter tax avoidance by abandonment of citizenship, USA imposes an expatriation tax on those who give up USA citizenship. The tax also applies to green-card holders who abandon USA residency after having held a green card for at least 8 of the last 15 tax years.
Golden gimmick: foreign tax credit deal enacted in November 1950 by the US Government under president Harry Truman between King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian-American Oil Company (ARAMCO), a consortium comprising Standard Oil of California (Chevron), Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon), Standard Oil of New York (Mobil) and Texaco. King Ibn Saud was being influenced by Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso of Venezuela who cut a similar 50/50 deal with New Jersey Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell. This 50/50 deal accorded the American oil companies a tax break equivalent to 50% of their profits on oil sales, with the other 50% to be diverted to King Ibn Saud via the US Treasury. The King agreed to this 50/50 splitting of Aramco's oil profits instead of nationalizing Aramco's oil facilities on Saudi soil. Venezuela eventually led the effort in forming OPEC and Saudi Arabia gained full control of Aramco by 1980.
H-1B visa: non-immigrant visa in USA under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H). It allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. If a foreign worker in H-1B status quits or is dismissed from the sponsoring employer, the worker must either apply for and be granted a change of status to another non-immigrant status, find another employer (subject to application for adjustment of status and/or change of visa), or leave the U.S.
O visa: classification of non-immigrant temporary worker visa granted by USA to an alien "who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements," and to certain assistants and immediate family members of such aliens.
USA is has the largest and best equipped military in the world. USA spends ~40-50% of the world's military spending [2013].
442nd Infantry Regiment (United States): of the United States Army was a regimental size fighting unit composed almost entirely of American soldiers of Japanese ancestry who fought in WWII, despite the fact that many of their families were subject to internment. Beginning in 1944, the regiment fought primarily in Europe, in particular Italy, southern France, and Germany. The 442nd is "the most decorated unit in U.S. military history." After the war: Revolution of 1954 (in Hawaii).
Mapping America's War on Terrorism: an aggressive new strategy ("Pentagon's New Map").
These three countries have long been the top 3 spenders, but as of 2020 India has overtaken Russia slightly, so it's technically not a chart of the top 3 spenders today.
Military–industrial complex (military–industrial–congressional complex): president Dwight Eisenhower famously warned the US about the "military-industrial complex" in his farewell address (1961.01.17).
Military budget of the United States: largest portion of the discretionary United States federal budget allocated to the Department of Defense, or more broadly, the portion of the budget that goes to any military-related expenditures. The military budget pays the salaries, training, and health care of uniformed and civilian personnel, maintains arms, equipment and facilities, funds operations, and develops and buys new items. The budget funds five branches of the U.S. military: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force. After 2001.09.11, the spending doubled from $300 bln to $700 bln (2011).
United States Department of Defense (USDOD, DOD, DoD, the Pentagon): national security and the United States Armed Forces. Largest employer in the world (3.2 mln servicepeople + civilians).
Psychological operations (United States) (PSYOP): operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of United States psychological operations is to induce or reinforce behavior perceived to be favorable to U.S. objectives. They are an important part of the range of diplomatic, informational, military and economic activities available to the U.S. They can be utilized during both peacetime and conflict.
Major non-NATO ally (MNNA): 1989: Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, South Korea; 1996-1998: Jordan, New Zealand, Argentina; 2002-2004: Bahrain, Philippines, Thailand, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan (Pakistan is also supported by PRC?); special cases: Taiwan, Panama, India (was offered MNNA)
Coalition of the willing: non-NATO and non MNNA members: Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador.
ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS Treaty)): Australia-USA & Australia-New Zealand military alliances for attacks worldwide. New Zealand does not allow any USA warships in its territory or waters because they have a ban on any nuclear warships in its territory (and USA never specifies if the warship in the harbor has nuclear capabilities).
Forward Operating Site: U.S. military term for facilities, defined as "a scalable, 'warm' facility that can support sustained operations, but with only a small permanent presence of support or contractor personnel.
List of United States Air Force installations: EU, Pacific (S. Korea, Japan, Guam/Marianas), Central Asia (UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Oman, Kyrgystan (-2014.07) {former USSR!})
United States Air Force (USAF): initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 1947.09.18; most recent branch of the U.S. military to be formed, and is the largest and one of the world's most technologically advanced air forces.
Enduring Stockpile: USA' arsenal of nuclear weapons following the end of the Cold War. During the Cold War USA produced over 70,000 nuclear weapons. By its end, the U.S. stockpile was about 23,000 weapons of 26 different types. The production of nuclear weapons ended in 1989, and since then existing weapons have been retired, dismantled, or mothballed. As of 2001, the Enduring Stockpile consisted of about 9,600 weapons of 10 types. As of 2004, about 3,000 of those weapons had been moved to the lowest readiness level, in which they are not dismantled, but are no longer in active service. In 2021, DoE website stated the stockpile was the lowest it had been since 1960. Weapons in the Enduring Stockpile are categorized by level of readiness: Active Service: fully operational, connected to a delivery system, and available for immediate use (ICBM silos and ballistic missile submarines); Hedge Stockpile: fully operational, but kept in storage; available within minutes or hours; not connected to delivery systems, but delivery systems are available (e.g., missile and bomb stockpiles kept at various Air Force bases); Inactive Reserve: not in operational condition and/or do not have immediately available delivery systems, but can be made ready if needed.
US navy fleets areas of responsibility.
Structure of the United States Navy: consists of four main bodies: the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, the operating forces (Numbered fleets), and the Shore Establishment. Relationships with other service branches: United States Marine Corps, United States Coast Guard.
United States Space Force: space service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces and the world's only dedicated independent space force. Along with the U.S. Air Force, the Space Force is part of the Department of the Air Force, led by the secretary of the Air Force. The military heads of the Space Force are the chief of space operations, who is one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and vice chief of space operations. The Space Force is the smallest U.S. armed service, consisting of 8,600 military personnel. The Space Force operates 77 spacecraft in total across various programs such as GPS, Space Fence, military satellite communications constellations, X-37B spaceplanes, U.S. missile warning system, U.S. space surveillance network, and the Satellite Control Network.
National Security Space Launch (NSSL; formerly Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) 1994-2019): program of the United States Space Force (USSF) intended to assure access to space for United States Department of Defense and other United States government payloads. The program is managed by the Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC), specifically the Assured Access to Space Directorate (SSC/AA), in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office. Started in 1994 as the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle launch system program, the initial program goal was to make government space launches more affordable and reliable, leading to the development of the Boeing Delta IV and Lockheed Martin Atlas V EELV families. As of 2019, these launch vehicles were the primary methods for launching U.S. military satellites, along with the Falcon 9 developed by SpaceX.
Space Test Program: primary provider of spaceflight for US DoD space science and technology community. STP is managed by a group within the Advanced Systems and Development Directorate, a directorate of the Space and Missile Systems Center of the United States Space Force. STP provides spaceflight via ISS, piggybacks, secondary payloads and dedicated launch services.
Structure of the United States Navy: consists of four main bodies: the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, the operating forces (described below), and the Shore Establishment.
East India Squadron (1835–1868): squadron of USA ships it focused on protecting USA interests in the Far East while the Pacific Squadron concentrated on the western coasts of the Americas and in the South Pacific Ocean. Part of the duties of this squadron was serving with the Yangtze River Patrol in China.
Asiatic Squadron (1868–1902): squadron of USA Navy warships stationed in East Asia. It was created in 1868 when the East India Squadron was disbanded. Vessels of the squadron were primarily involved in matters relating to American commerce with China and Japan, though it participated in several conflicts.
United States Asiatic Fleet (1902–07; 1910–42): fleet of USA Navy. Before WWII, the fleet patrolled the Philippine Islands. Much of the fleet was destroyed by the Japanese by 1942.02, after which it was dissolved, and the remnants incorporated into the naval component of the South West Pacific Area command, which eventually became the Seventh Fleet. The fleet was created when its predecessor, the Asiatic Squadron, was upgraded to fleet status in 1902. In early 1907, the fleet was downgraded and became the First Squadron of USA Pacific Fleet. However, in 1910.01.28, it was again organized as the Asiatic Fleet. Thus constituted, the Asiatic Fleet, based in the Philippines, was organizationally independent of the Pacific Fleet, which was based on the United States West Coast until it moved to Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii in 1940. Although much smaller than any other USA Navy fleet and indeed far smaller than what any navy generally considers to be a fleet, the Asiatic Fleet from 1916 was commanded by one of only four four-star admirals authorized in the USA Navy at the time. This reflected the prestige of the position of Asiatic Fleet commander-in-chief, who generally was more powerful and influential with regard to the affairs of the United States in China than was the USA minister, or later USA Ambassador, to China. 1902–1907: After Rear Admiral Charles J. Train became commander-in-chief of the fleet in March 1905, it was involved in various ways with the closing weeks of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. After the Imperial Japanese Navy's decisive defeat of the Imperial Russian Navy in the Battle of Tsushima Strait in May 1905, units of the Asiatic Fleet escorted three fleeing Russian cruisers into Manila Bay in the Philippine Islands, where Train ensured that their crews were well taken care of during a lengthy stay until they were able to return to Russia.
South West Pacific Area (command) (1942–45; SWPA): name given to the Allied supreme military command in the South West Pacific Theatre of World War II. It was one of four major Allied commands in the Pacific War. SWPA included the Philippines, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies (excluding Sumatra), East Timor, Australia, the Territories of Papua and New Guinea, and the western part of the Solomon Islands. It primarily consisted of United States and Australian forces, although Dutch, Filipino, British and other Allied forces also served in the SWPA.
United States Seventh Fleet: numbered fleet of USA Navy. It is headquartered at USA Fleet Activities Yokosuka, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the forward-deployed USA fleets, with 50 to 70 ships, 150 aircraft and 27,000 Sailors and Marines. Its principal responsibilities are to provide joint command in natural disaster or military operations and operational command of all US naval forces in the region.
United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT): theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Hawaii, with large secondary facilities at Naval Air Station North Island, California. As of 2011, the Pacific Fleet has authority over: numbered Third and Seventh Fleets; Naval Air Force, Pacific; Commander, Naval Surface Forces Pacific; Naval Submarine Force, Pacific.
Hyman G. Rickover (1900.01.27–1986.07.08): admiral in US Navy. He directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of the U.S. Naval Reactors office. In addition, he oversaw the development of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor used for generating electricity. Rickover is also one of four people who have been awarded two Congressional Gold Medals. Rickover is known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy," and his influence on the Navy and its warships was of such scope that he "may well go down in history as one of the Navy's most important officers." He served in a flag rank for nearly 30 years (1953 to 1982), ending his career as a four-star admiral.
USS Scorpion (SSN-589)Skipjack-class nuclear-powered submarine that served in the United States Navy, and the sixth vessel, and second submarine, of the U.S. Navy to carry that name. Scorpion was lost with all hands in 1968.05.22. She is one of two nuclear submarines the U.S. Navy has lost, the other being USS Thresher. She was one of the four mysterious submarine disappearances in 1968, the others being the Israeli submarine INS Dakar, the French submarine Minerve, and the Soviet submarine K-129. Theories about the loss: Hydrogen explosion during battery charge, Accidental activation of torpedo, Explosion of torpedo inside sub, Intentional firing of defective torpedo, Structural damage, Malfunction of trash disposal unit, Soviet attack.
Covert United States foreign regime change actions: without the overt use of USA military force; direct involvement of U.S. operatives, the funding and training of insurgency groups within these countries, anti-regime propaganda campaigns, coups d'état, and other activities usually conducted as operations by the CIA. Main targets during Cold War: Latin America (Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Nicaragua), Asia (Iran, Tibet, Indonesia, Iraq (1960-1963), South Vietnam, Turkey, Cambodia), Angola, Communist states (Cuba, USSR, Poland). Post Cold War: Iraq (1992-96, 2002-03), Venezuela, Haiti, Gaza Strip, Iran, Libya, Syria.
Contras: label given to the various rebel groups that were active from 1979 through to the early 1990s in opposition to the Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government in Nicaragua. From an early stage, the rebels received financial and military support from the USA government, and their military significance decisively depended on it.
Iran–Contra affair: political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was subject to arms embargo. Some USA officials also hoped that the arms sales would secure the release of several hostages and allow USA intelligence agencies to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
Nicaragua v. United States: 1986 case of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which the ICJ ruled in favor of Nicaragua and against the United States and awarded reparations to Nicaragua.
Ballot Security Task Force: controversial group founded in 1981 in New Jersey by RNC as a means of intimidating voters and discouraging voter turnout among likely Democratic voters in the gubernatorial election. The group's activities prompted DNC to bring a federal lawsuit, alleging a violation of the Voting Rights Act, illegal harassment, and voter intimidation. The RNC and New Jersey Republican State Committee entered into a consent decree in 1982, barring them from engaging in further such conduct until 2017. The consent decree was set to expire 2017.12.01. Democrats sought an extension to it based on allegations of new conduct, but the request was denied in January 2018 and the decree expired.
Iran Air Flight 655: was an Iran Air civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai that was shot down by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes on 1988.07.03; in Iranian airspace, over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and on the flight's usual flight path.
Prostitutes in South Korea for the U.S. military (Western princess (양공주, 洋公主, Yanggongju), Western whore (Yanggalbo), Yankee whore, UN madams (유엔마담), Comfort Women (위안부, 慰安婦, Wianbu), Juicy girls for Filipanas prostitutes; Camp Town (기지촌, 基地村, Kijichon))
Opioid epidemic in the United States (opioid crisis): extensive overuse of opioid medications, both from medical prescriptions and from illegal sources. The epidemic began in the United States in the late 1990s, when opioids were increasingly prescribed for pain management and resulted in a rise in overall opioid use throughout subsequent years. From 1999 to 2017, more than 399,000 people died from drug overdoses that involved prescription and illicit opioids. The opioid epidemic has been described as a "uniquely American problem," as where prescription rates alone are 40 percent higher in the United States than in any other developed countries. This has made it one of the worst drug crises in American history, causing more deaths than car crashes or guns each year, and leaving many children orphaned.
2020 United States racial unrest (2020.05.08 –): ongoing wave of civil unrest, comprising protests and riots, against systemic racism towards Black people in the United States, notably in the form of police violence. It is a part of the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement, and was initially triggered by the killing of George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. By the end of June, at least 14,000 people had been arrested at protests. Polls have estimated that between 15 million and 26 million people had participated at some point in the demonstrations in the United States, making them the largest protests in United States history. It was also estimated that between May 26 and August 22, around 93% of protests were "peaceful and nondestructive". Portland, Oregon; Kenosha, Wisconsin. A wave of monument removals and name changes has taken place throughout the world, especially in USA. This itself has sparked conflict, between left-wing and right-wing groups, often violent. Groups such as antifa and the Three Percenters have fought each other in street clashes.
List of monuments and memorials removed during the George Floyd protests: USA: Confederate monuments; Virginia: has the most Confederate monuments of any USA state; Genocide of indigenous peoples; Christopher Columbus; Others. UK: Atlantic slave trade; Others. Belgium: Leopold II. New Zealand. South Africa. India. Slovenia: Statue of Melania Trump. Barbados. Canada. Ireland. Colombia. Other works of art: US, UK, France. Plaques and signs: USA, UK. Buildings: North Carolina - Market House (slave market), Virginia - Memorial to the Women of the Confederacy, Georgia - Old Market House (former slave market).
Boogaloo movement (boogaloo boys, boogaloo bois): loosely organized far-right, anti-government, and extremist political movement in the United States. The movement has also been described as a militia. Boogaloo adherents say they are preparing for, or seek to incite, a second American Civil War, which they call the boogaloo. Boogaloo has been used on the fringe imageboard website 4chan since 2012, but it did not come to widespread attention until late 2019. The movement consists of pro-gun, anti-government groups. The specific ideology of each group varies and views on topics such as race differ widely. Some are white supremacist or neo-Nazi groups who believe that the impending unrest will be a race war.
2021 storming of the United States Capitol: riot and violent attack against the 117th USA Congress 2021.01.06, carried out by supporters of USA President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. After attending a rally organized by Trump, thousands of his supporters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue before many stormed the USA Capitol in an effort to disrupt the Electoral College vote count during a joint session of Congress and prevent the formalization of President-elect Joe Biden's election victory.
1985 Beirut car bombing: car bomb exploded 9÷45 m from the house of Islamic cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut, Lebanon, in a failed assassination attempt allegedly organized by the American CIA and British intelligence.
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: case in which the Supreme Court of USA held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949.
Historical rankings of presidents of the United States: ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists or popular opinion. The scholarly rankings focus on presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults. Popular-opinion polls typically focus on recent or well-known presidents. General findings: Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George Washington are most often listed as the three highest-rated presidents among historians. More recent presidents such as Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are often rated among the greatest in public opinion polls, but generally do not rank as highly among presidential scholars and historians. Because William Henry Harrison (31 days) and James A. Garfield (200 days, incapacitated after 119 days) both died shortly after taking office, they are often omitted from presidential rankings. Zachary Taylor died after serving as president for only 16 months, but he is usually included. In the case of these three, it is not clear whether they received low rankings due to their actions as president or because each was in office for such a limited time that he did not accomplish much. Gerard Baker, US editor for The Times, writes, "the 42 American presidents fall into a well-established, Bell-curve or normal distribution on a chart – a handful of outstanding ones, a handful of duds, and a lot of so-sos. I couldn't, in all honesty therefore, really say that number 13 on the list is that much better than number 30."
18F: digital services agency built on the lean startup model based within the United States federal government.
United States Digital Service: part of the Executive Office of the President. It provides consultation services to federal agencies on information technology. It seeks to improve and simplify digital service, and to improve federal websites. It was launched on 2014.08.11.
Gang of Eight (intelligence): colloquial term for a set of eight leaders within the United States Congress who are briefed on classified intelligence matters by the executive branch. Specifically, the Gang of Eight includes the leaders of each of the two parties from both the Senate and House of Representatives, and the chairs and ranking minority members of both the Senate Committee and House Committee for intelligence as set forth by 50 U.S.C. § 3093(c)(2).
The Squad (United States Congress): informal name for a group of four women elected in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections, made up of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All are women of color under 50, have been supported by the Justice Democrats political action committee, and are on the left wing of the Democratic Party. The group has been said to represent the demographic diversity of a younger political generation and the advocacy of progressive policies such as the Green New Deal, which have sometimes clashed with their party's leadership.
2020 United States presidential election: THE 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, 2020.11.03. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and U.S. senator Kamala Harris defeated the Republican ticket of incumbent president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence. This election was the first since 1992 in which an incumbent president failed to win re-election to a second term. The election saw the highest voter turnout since 1900, with both Biden and Trump receiving more than 70 million votes, surpassing Barack Obama's record of 69.5 million votes from 2008. With more than 77 million votes and counting, Biden received the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a USA presidential election. This election was also the first since 1960 in which a candidate won the election without winning Ohio and the first since 1992 that the winning candidate won without Florida.
List of lawsuits relating to the 2020 United States presidential election: Trump campaign filed a number of lawsuits in multiple states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. Many cases were quickly dismissed, and lawyers and other observers have noted the suits are not likely to have an effect on the outcome.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference (2020.11.07): four days after USA presidential election, Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and an attorney for incumbent president Donald Trump, hosted a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a small business in the Holmesburg neighborhood of Near Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Communist Party USA (Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA); American Communist Party): Marxist–Leninist communist party in USA which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution. The CPUSA received significant funding from USSR and crafted its public positions to match those of Moscow. The CPUSA also used a covert apparatus to assist the Soviets with their intelligence activities in the United States and utilized a network of front organizations to shape public opinion. The CPUSA opposed glasnost and perestroika in USSR and as a result major funding from the Communist Party of USSR ended in 1991.
Donald Trump (1946.06.14-): 45th and current President of USA. Prior to entering politics he was a businessman and television personality; became the oldest and wealthiest person to assume the presidency, the first without prior military or government service, and the fifth elected with less than a plurality of the national popular vote. His political positions have been described by scholars and commentators as populist, protectionist, and nationalist.
Steve Bannon (1953.11.27-): USA political aide, and former media executive and film producer, who is currently the White House Chief Strategist in the Trump administration; attended the Principals Committee of the U.S. National Security Council from 2017.01.28-2017.04.05.
Andrew Breitbart (1969.02.01–2012.03.01): USA entrepreneur, conservative publisher, commentator for The Washington Times, media critic, journalist, author, and television and radio personality on various news programs, who served as an editor for the Drudge Report website. He was a researcher for and close friend of Arianna Huffington, and he helped create an early version of The Huffington Post. In 2011, Breitbart said that "of course" Donald Trump was not a conservative, adding: "But this is a message to those candidates who are languishing at 2 percent and 3 percent within the Republican Party who are brand names in Washington, but the rest of the country don't know ... celebrity is everything in this country. And if these guys don't learn how to play the media the way that Barack Obama played the media last election cycle and the way that Donald Trump is playing the election cycle, we're going to probably get a celebrity candidate." These comments resurfaced after the controversy of Donald Trump hiring Breitbart News' executive chairman Steve Bannon to be his White House Chief Strategist.
Patrick Caddell (1950.05.19-) is an American public opinion pollster and a political film consultant who served in the Carter White House, and in many other presidential campaigns. In the 2016 election cycle, Caddell exerted considerable influence in his capacity as advisor to reclusive contributor Robert Mercer, who has been an increasingly important source of funding for right wing campaigns, including the successful candidacy of Donald Trump.
United States federal executive departments: largest departments by employees: DoD (~3 mln), Veteran Affairs (235k), DHS (208k), Treasury (116k), Justice (113k), Agriculture (110k), Energy (109k), ... <100k. Militaristic state?
United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS; formed 2002.11.25 after 9/11 attacks): creation of DHS was the most significant government reorganization since the Cold War; contains: US Citizenship and Immigration Services, US Customs and Border Protection, Federal Emergency Management Agency, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Transportation Security Administration (TSA; the airport stuff), US Coast Guard, National Protection and Programs Directorate, US Secret Service.
Top 100 Contractors of the U.S. federal government: [2010] Lockheed Martin Corporation ($35bln), The Boeing Company ($19bln), Northrop Grumman Corporation ($17bln), General Dynamics Corporation ($15bln), Raytheon Company ($15bln), United Technologies Corporation ($7.7bln), L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. ($7.4bln), Oshkosh Truck Corporation ($7.2bln), SAIC Inc. ($6.8bln), BAE Systems plc ($6.6bln), ... <$5bln. Militaristic state?
Scopes Trial (1925.07.21): American legal case in which a substitute high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant.
United States national motto: established in a 1956 law signed by President Dwight D Eisenhower, is In God We Trust.
In God we trust: on USA coins since 1864, on paper currency since 1957.
E pluribus unum ("Out of many, one"; "One from many"): phrase on the Seal of US States, along with Annuit cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum, and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782; was considered a de facto motto of the United States until 1956 when "In God We Trust" was adopted as motto.
Climate change in California: Drought: However, Brown's water restrictions have been criticized because they have not been applied to California's agricultural sector, which uses around 80% of California's developed water supply.
Carlsbad desalination plant: desalination plant that opened on 2015.12.14 in Carlsbad, California, adjacent to the north end of the Encina Power Station. Up to 380,000 m3 per day of cooling water from the Encina Power Plant is taken into the desalination plant. The outflow of the plant is put into the discharge from the Encina Power Plant for dilution, for a final salt concentration about 20% higher than seawater.
California electricity crisis (Western U.S. Energy Crisis; of 2000 and 2001): situation in which CA had a shortage of electricity supply caused by market manipulations, illegal shutdowns of pipelines by the Texas energy consortium Enron, and capped retail electricity prices. The state suffered from multiple large-scale blackouts, one of the state's largest energy companies collapsed, and the economic fall-out greatly harmed Governor Gray Davis' standing.
Six Californias: was a proposed initiative to split the U.S. state of California into six states. It failed to qualify as a California ballot measure for the 2016 state elections due to receiving insufficient signatures. Venture capitalist Tim Draper launched the measure in 2013.12. He spent in excess of $5 million trying to qualify the proposition for the ballot, with nearly $450,000 for political consultants. Had the measure passed, it would not have legally split California immediately; consent would eventually need to be given by both the California State Legislature and the U.S. Congress to admit the new states to the union per Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Rather, the measure would have established several procedures within the state government and its 58 counties to prepare California for the proposed split, and instructed the Governor of California to submit the state-splitting proposal to Congress.
John Punch (slave) (fl. 1630s, living 1640): enslaved African who lived in the Colony of Virginia during 17th century. In 1640.07 the Virginia Governor's Council sentenced him to serve for the remainder of his life as punishment for running away to Maryland. In contrast, two European men who ran away with him were sentenced to longer indentures but not the permanent loss of their freedom. For this reason, historians consider John Punch the "first official slave in the English colonies," and his case as the "first legal sanctioning of lifelong slavery in the Chesapeake." Historians also consider this to be one of the first legal distinctions between Europeans and Africans made in the colony, and a key milestone in the development of the institution of slavery in USA.
Racial segregation in the United States: includes the segregation or "hypersegregation" of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines. The expression most often refers to the legally or socially enforced separation of African Americans from other races, but also applies to the general discrimination against people of color by white communities. In USA Armed Forces before the 1950s, black units were typically separated from white units but were led by white officers. The contemporary racial segregation seen in the United States in residential neighborhoods has been shaped by public policies, mortgage discrimination, and redlining, among other factors. Hypersegregation is a form of racial segregation that consists of the geographical grouping of racial groups. Most often, this occurs in cities where the residents of the inner city are African Americans and the suburbs surrounding this inner core are often white European American residents; This phenomenon is due to white flight where whites actively leave neighborhoods often because of a black presence; There are more than just geographical consequences to this, as the money leaves and poverty grows, crime rates jump and businesses leave and follow the money. . Clustering is the gathering of different minority groups into one certain space; clustering often leads to one big ghetto and the formation of hyperghettoization. In 2000: two areas—Los Angeles and New York City—displayed Hispanic-white hypersegregation; no metropolitan area displayed hypersegregation for Asians or for Native Americans.
Black Codes (United States): laws passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866, after the Civil War; restricting Black people's freedom, and of compelling them to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt.
Jim Crow laws: state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in USA. Enacted after the Reconstruction period, these laws continued in force until 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in states of the former Confederate States of America, starting in 1890 with a "separate but equal" status for African Americans. Conditions for African Americans were consistently inferior and underfunded compared to those available to white Americans. Northern segregation was generally de facto.
Redlining: practice of denying services, either directly or through selectively raising prices, to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic composition of those areas. While the best known examples of redlining have involved denial of financial services such as banking or insurance, other services such as health care or even supermarkets have been denied to residents (or in the case of retail businesses like supermarkets, simply located impractically far away from said residents) to result in a redlining effect; refers to the practice of marking a red line on a map to delineate an area where banks would not make loans; later the term was applied to discrimination against a particular group of people (usually on the basis of race or sex) irrespective of geography. E.g. in Atlanta in the 1980s, a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles by investigative-reporter Bill Dedman showed that banks would often lend to lower-income whites but not to middle- or upper-income blacks. Reverse redlining occurs when a lender or insurer targets nonwhite consumers, not to deny them loans or insurance, but rather to charge them more than could be charged to a comparable white consumer.
Romani people (Roma; Gipsies): Romani are dispersed, with their concentrated populations in Europe—especially Central and Eastern Europe and Anatolia, Iberia, and Southern France. They originated in India and arrived in Mid-West Asia, then Europe, around 1,000 years ago, either separating from the Dom people or, at least, having a similar history; the ancestors of both the Romani and the Dom left North India sometime between the sixth and eleventh century.
Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians: are recognised ethnic communities in Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. During the Kosovo War, they were displaced as refugees in Albania and the Republic of Macedonia and whole Western Europe such as Germany and France. The "Ashkali" identity was created in 1999, as they tried to show their pro-Albanian stance and distinguish themselves from the Roms (Gypsies).
Sinti: are a Romani people of central Europe. Traditionally itinerant, today only a small percentage of the group remains unsettled. In earlier times, they frequently lived on the outskirts of communities.
Natural philosophy (Latin philosophia naturalis): philosophical study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science. It is considered to be the precursor of natural science. From the ancient world, starting with Aristotle, to the 19th century, the term "natural philosophy" was the common term used to describe the practice of studying nature. It was in the 19th century that the concept of "science" received its modern shape with new titles emerging such as "biology" and "biologist", "physics" and "physicist" among other technical fields and titles; institutions and communities were founded, and unprecedented applications to and interactions with other aspects of society and culture occurred. From the mid-19th c., when it became increasingly unusual for scientists to contribute to both physics and chemistry, "natural philosophy" came to mean just physics, and the word is still used in that sense in degree titles at the University of Oxford.
History of technology: history of the invention of tools and techniques. Technology can refer to methods ranging from as simple as language and stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and information technology that has emerged since the 1980s. Since much of technology is applied science, technical history is connected to the history of science. Since technology uses resources, technical history is tightly connected to economic history. From those resources, technology produces other resources, including technological artifacts used in everyday life. Technological change affects, and is affected by, a society's cultural traditions; is a force for economic growth and a means to develop and project economic, political and military power. For Leslie White, "the primary function of culture" is to "harness and control energy." Gerhard Lenski: the more information and knowledge (especially allowing the shaping of natural environment) a given society has, the more advanced it is.
List of ancient watermills: water-powered grain-mills and industrial mills in classical antiquity from their Hellenistic beginnings through the Roman imperial period. The initial invention of the watermill appears to have occurred in the hellenized eastern Mediterranean in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great and the rise of Hellenistic science and technology. In the subsequent Roman era, the use of water-power was diversified and different types of watermills were introduced. These include all three variants of the vertical water wheel as well as the horizontal water wheel. Apart from its main use in grinding flour, water-power was also applied to pounding grain, crushing ore, sawing stones and possibly fulling and bellows for iron furnaces.
House of Wisdom: library and translation institute in Abbassid-era Baghdad. Translation from Pahlavi (Zoroastrian Middle Persian), Syriac (Middle Aramaic), Greek (ancient), and Sanskrit to Arabic. Translation Movement. Library was destroyed during the Siege of Baghdad (1258) by invading Mongols with support from many Eurasian nationals.
American system of manufacturing: set of manufacturing methods that evolved in the 19th century. The two notable features were the extensive use of interchangeable parts and mechanization for production, which resulted in more efficient use of labor compared to hand methods.
British Agricultural Revolution: unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain due to increases in labour and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the century to 1770, and thereafter productivity remained among the highest in the world. One important element in this change was the move in crop rotation to turnips and clover in place of fallow. The lack of internal tariffs, customs barriers and feudal tolls made Britain “the largest coherent market in Europe”. In the early 19th century it cost as much to transport a ton of freight 32 miles by wagon over an unimproved road as it did to ship it 3000 miles across the Atlantic. Even as late as 1900, British yields were rivalled only by Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Template:History of biology: Fields and disciplines; Institutions; Experiments; Publications; Theories and concepts; Influential figures; Related topics.
History of molecular biology: begins in 1930s; convergence of biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, virology and physics; molecular biology attempts to explain the phenomena of life starting from the macromolecular properties that generate them. 1) nucleic acids, 2) proteins; to characterize the structure, function and relationships between these two types of macromolecules. Since 1940 (George Beadle and Edward Tatum used Neurospora: existence of a precise relationship between genes and proteins) construction and exploitation of new model organisms would become a recurring theme in the development of molecular biology
Relative per capita levels of industrialization in developed countries. United Kingdom has the value of 100 at 1900. Data from Paul Bairoch, "International Industrialization Levels from 1750 to 1980," Journal of European Economic History (1982) v. 11.
Industrial Revolution: transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840; from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power and the development of machine tools; change from wood and other bio-fuels to coal. Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals and plants.
Second Industrial Revolution (Technological Revolution): phase of rapid standardization and industrialization from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. The First Industrial Revolution, which ended in the middle of the 19th century, was punctuated by a slowdown in important inventions before the Second Industrial Revolution in 1870. Though a number of its events can be traced to earlier innovations in manufacturing, such as the establishment of a machine tool industry, the development of methods for manufacturing interchangeable parts and the invention of the Bessemer process to produce steel, the Second Industrial Revolution is generally dated between 1870 and 1914 (start of WWI). Industry and technology: iron, steel, rail, electrification, machine tools, paper making, petroleum, chemical, maritime technology, rubber, bicycles, automobile, applied science, fertilizer, engines and turbines, telecommunications, modern business management. Socio-economic impacts. United Kingdom. United States: Employment distribution. Germany. Belgium.
Great Divergence (European miracle): Although core regions in Asia and Europe had achieved a relatively high standard of living by the 18th century, shortages of land, soil degradation, deforestation, lack of a dependable energy sources (wood and charcoal were rapidly depleted), and other ecological constraints limited growth in per capita incomes.
Historiography: study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic by using particular sources, techniques, and theoretical approaches. Scholars discuss historiography by topic—such as the historiography of UK, historiography of WWII, the pre-Columbian Americas, historiography of early Islam, and Chinese historiography—and different approaches and genres, such as political history and social history. Beginning in 19th c., with the development of academic history, there developed a body of historiographic literature. The extent to which historians are influenced by their own groups and loyalties—such as to their nation state—remains a debated question.
This machine kills fascists: message that Woody Guthrie placed on his guitar in the mid 1940s, starting in 1943. Circa 1943, in the midst of World War II, Guthrie wrote the war song "Talking Hitler's Head Off Blues". This was printed in the Daily Worker, a newspaper published by the Communist Party USA. Legacy: Author John Green of vlogbrothers added a sticker with the message onto his laptop for the series Crash Course, which drew criticism from New Hampshire State Representative Richard Littlefield.
^ abcdThe phrase "from total" means a percentage from the total number of registered voters. For a referendum to be successful it must be higher than 50%. The phrase "from voters" means a percentage from the voters who participated in the referendums.
^ abcdThe ballot included 8 distinct statements. Only numbers for the first statement are shown as the results for other statements differ only slightly.
^ abcdThe ballot included three distinct statements. Only numbers for the first statement are shown as the results for other statements differ only slightly.
^Because dual citizenship is prohibited by Article 12 of the Constitution, amending it requires at least half of all registered voters
