title: Fu Manchu

text: Dr. Fu Manchu's earliest radio appearances were on "The Collier Hour" 1927–1931 on the Blue Network. This was a radio program designed to promote "Collier's" magazine and presented weekly dramatizations of the current issue's stories and serials. Dr. Fu Manchu was voiced by Arthur Hughes. A self-titled show on CBS followed in 1932–33. John C. Daly, and later Harold Huber, played Dr. Fu Manchu.


title: Fu Manchu

text: In 2010, Fu Manchu's connections with the University of Edinburgh where he supposedly obtained a doctorate were investigated in a mockumentary by Miles Jupp for BBC Radio 4.


title: Fu Manchu

text: Additionally, there were "pirate" broadcasts from the continent into Britain, from Radio Luxembourg and Radio Lyons in 1936 through 1937. Frank Cochrane voiced Dr. Fu Manchu. The BBC produced a competing radio play, "The Peculiar Case at the Poppy Club" written by Rohmer and broadcast in December 1938. In 1939, "The Shadow of Fu Manchu" aired in the United States as a thrice-weekly serial dramatizing the first nine novels.


title: Fu Manchu

text: Dr. Fu Manchu was first brought to newspaper comic strips in a black and white daily comic strip drawn by Leo O'Mealia (1884–1960) that ran from 1931 to 1933. The strips were adaptations of the first two Dr. Fu Manchu novels and part of the third. Unlike most other illustrators, O'Mealia drew Dr. Fu Manchu as a clean-shaven man with an abnormally large cranium. The strips were copyrighted by "Sax Rohmer and The Bell Syndicate, Inc." Two of the Dr. Fu Manchu comic strip storylines were reprinted in the 1989 book "Fu Manchu: Two Complete Adventures". In 1940, the Chicago Tribune published an adaptation of "Drums of Fu Manchu", at first it was a photo comics, but later it was illustrated by a unicredit artist.


title: Fu Manchu

text: Between 1962 and 1973, the French newspaper "Le Parisien Libéré" published a comic strip by Juliette Benzoni (script) and Robert Bressy (art).


title: Fu Manchu

text: Fu Manchu appears in the adventures "Night Moves" and "Night Live" for the role-playing game "Marvel Super Heroes".


title: Fu Manchu

text: The stories of Dr Fu Manchu, both in print and on screen, have sparked accusations of racism and orientalism, from his fiendish design to his nonsensical Chinese name. After the release of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's film adaptation of "The Mask of Fu Manchu" (1932), which featured the Chinese villain telling his followers that they must "kill the white man and take his women", the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, issued a formal complaint against the film.


title: Fu Manchu

text: Following the release of Republic Pictures' serial adaptation of "Drums of Fu Manchu" (1940) the U.S. State Department requested that the studio make no further films about the character, as China was an ally against Japan during the Second World War. Likewise, Rohmer's publisher, Doubleday, refused to publish additions to the best-selling series for the duration of the Second World War once the United States entered the conflict. BBC Radio and Broadway investors subsequently rejected Rohmer's proposals for an original Fu Manchu radio serial and stage show during the 1940s.


title: Fu Manchu

text: The re-release of "The Mask of Fu Manchu" in 1972 was met with protests from the Japanese American Citizens League, which stated that "the movie was offensive and demeaning to Asian Americans". CBS Television decided to cancel a showing of "The Vengeance of Fu Manchu". Los Angeles TV station KTLA shared similar sentiments, but ultimately decided to run "The Brides of Fu Manchu" with the disclaimer: "This feature is presented as fictional entertainment and is not intended to reflect adversely on any race, creed or national origin."


title: Fu Manchu

text: Rohmer responded to charges that his work demonized Asians in "Master of Villainy", a biography co-written by his widow:


title: Fu Manchu

text: It was Rohmer's contention that he based Dr Fu Manchu and other "Yellow Peril" mysteries on real Chinese criminals he met as a newspaper reporter covering Limehouse.


title: Fu Manchu

text: In May 2013, General Motors cancelled an advertisement after complaints that a phrase it contained, "the land of Fu Manchu", which was intended to refer to China, was offensive.


title: Fu Manchu

text: Characterizing Dr Fu Manchu as an overtly racist creation has been criticized in the book "Lord of Strange Deaths: The Fiendish World of Sax Rohmer". In a review of the book in "The Independent", Dr Fu Manchu is contextualised: "These magnificently absurd books, glowing with a crazed exoticism, are really far less polar, less black and white, less white and yellow, than they first seem."


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The Crown of Aragon ( , ) was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona and ended as a consequence of the War of the Spanish Succession. At the height of its power in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Crown of Aragon was a thalassocracy controlling a large portion of present-day eastern Spain, parts of what is now southern France, and a Mediterranean empire which included the Balearic Islands, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, Southern Italy (from 1442) and parts of Greece (until 1388).


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The component realms of the Crown were not united politically except at the level of the king, who ruled over each autonomous polity according to its own laws, raising funds under each tax structure, dealing separately with each "Corts" or "Cortes", particularly the Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia, the Kingdom of Majorca, and the Kingdom of Valencia. The larger Crown of Aragon must not be confused with one of its constituent parts, the Kingdom of Aragon, from which it takes its name.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: In 1469, a new dynastic union of the Crown of Aragon with the Crown of Castile by the Catholic Monarchs, joining what contemporaries referred to as "the Spains", led to what would become the Spanish composite monarchy under Habsburg monarchs. The Aragonese Crown continued existing until it was abolished by the Nueva Planta decrees issued by King Philip V in 1716 as a consequence of the defeat of Archduke Charles (as Charles III of Aragon) in the War of the Spanish Succession.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Formally, the political center of the Crown of Aragon was Zaragoza, where kings were crowned at La Seo Cathedral. The 'de facto' capital and leading cultural, administrative and economic centre of the Crown of Aragon was Barcelona, followed by Valencia. Finally, Palma (Majorca) was an additional important city and seaport.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The Crown of Aragon eventually included the Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia (until the 12th century the County of Barcelona and others), the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Majorca, the Kingdom of Sicily, Malta, the Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sardinia. For brief periods the Crown of Aragon also controlled Montpellier, Provence, Corsica, and the twin Duchy of Athens and Neopatras in Latin Greece.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The countries that are today known as Spain and Portugal spent the Middle Ages after 722 in an intermittent struggle called the "Reconquista". This struggle pitted the northern Christian kingdoms against the Islamic taifa petty kingdoms of Al-Andalus in the south, and against each other.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: In the Late Middle Ages, the expansion of the Aragonese Crown southwards met with the Castilian army advancing eastward toward the region of Murcia. Subsequently, the Aragonese Crown focused on the Mediterranean, governing as far afield as Greece and the Barbary Coast, whereas Portugal, which completed its "Reconquista" in 1249, would focus on the Atlantic Ocean. Mercenaries from the territories in the Crown, known as "Almogavars" participated in the creation of this Mediterranean empire, and later found employment in countries all across southern Europe.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The Crown of Aragon has been considered an empire which ruled in the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, with thalassocratic power to setting rules over the entire sea, (as documented, for instance, in the "Llibre del Consolat del Mar" or "Book of the Consulate of the Sea", written in Catalan, is one of the oldest compilations of maritime laws in the world). The Crown of Aragon was indeed, at its height, one of the major powers in Europe.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: However, the different territories were only connected through the person of the monarch, an aspect of empire seen as early as Achaemenid Persia. A modern historian, Juan de Contreras y Lopez de Ayala, Marqués de Lozoya described the Crown of Aragon as being more like a confederacy than a centralised kingdom.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The Crown of Aragon originated in 1137, when the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona (along with the County of Provence, Girona, Cerdanya, Osona and other territories) merged by dynastic union upon the marriage of Petronilla of Aragon and Raymond Berenguer IV of Barcelona; their individual titles combined in the person of their son Alfonso II of Aragon, who ascended to the throne in 1162. This union respected the existing institutions and parliaments of both territories. The combined state was initially known as "Regno, Dominio et Corona Aragonum et Catalonie", and later as "Corona Regum Aragoniae", "Corona Aragonum" or simply "Aragon".


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Petronilla's father King Ramiro, "The Monk" (reigned 1134–1137) who was raised in the Monastery of Saint Pons de Thomières, Viscounty of Béziers as a Benedictine monk was the youngest of three brothers. His brothers Peter I (reigned 1094–1104) and Alfonso I "El Batallador" (The Battler, reigned 1104–1134) had bravely fought against Castile for hegemony in the Iberian peninsula. Upon the death of Alfonso I, the Aragonese nobility that campaigned close to him feared being overwhelmed by the influence of Castile. And so, Ramiro was forced to leave his monastic life and proclaim himself King of Aragon. He married Agnes, sister of the Duke of Aquitaine and betrothed his only daughter Petronilla of Aragon to Raymond Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona. The wedding agreement provided Berenguer with the title of "Princeps Aragonum" and "Dominator Aragonensis" (Ruler of the Kingdom and Commander of the Aragonese Military) but the title of King of Aragon was reserved for Ramiro II and Berenguer's future sons.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Raymond Berenguer IV, the first ruler of the united dynasty, called himself Count of Barcelona and "Prince of Aragon".


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Alfonso II inherited two realms and with them, two different expansion processes. The House of Jiménez looked south in a battle against Castile for the control of the middle valley of the Ebro in the Iberian peninsula. The House of Barcelona looked north to its origins, Occitania, where through family ties it had significant influence, especially in Toulouse, Provence and Foix, towards the south along the Mediterranean coast and towards the Mediterranean sea.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Soon, Alfonso II of Aragon and Barcelona committed to conquering Valencia as the Aragonese nobility demanded. Like his father, he gave priority to the expansion and consolidation of the House of Barcelona's influence in Occitania.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Alfonso II signed the treaties of Cazorla, a multilateral treaty between Navarre, Aragón, León, Portugal, and Castile to redefine the frontiers and zones of expansion of each kingdom. Alfonso II assured Valencia by renouncing the Aragonese rights of annexing Murcia in exchange for securing the Aragonese frontier with Castile. This action should be seen as result of the aforementioned priority given over the Occitan and Catalan dominions of the Crown of Aragon.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: From the ninth century, the dukes of Aquitaine, the kings of Navarre, the counts of Foix, the counts of Toulouse and the counts of Barcelona were rivals in their attempts at controlling the various counties of the Hispanic Marches and "pays" of Occitania. And the House of Barcelona succeeded in extending its influence to the area that is now south of France through strong family ties, in the areas of the County of Provence, County of Toulouse and County of Foix. The rebellion of the Cathars or Albigensians, who rejected the authority and teachings of the Catholic Church, led to the loss of these possessions in southern France. Pope Innocent III called upon Philip II of France to suppress the Albigensians—the Albigensian Crusade, which led to bringing Occitania firmly under the control of the King of France, and the Capetian dynasty from northern France.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Peter II of Aragon returned from the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in autumn 1212 to find that Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, had conquered Toulouse, exiling Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, who was Peter's brother-in-law and vassal. Peter's army crossed the Pyrenees and arrived at Muret where they were joined by Raymond of Foix and Raymond of Toulouse's forces, in September 1213 to confront Montfort's army. The Battle of Muret began on 12 September 1213. The Catalan, Aragonese and Occitan forces were disorganised and disintegrated under the assault of Montfort's squadrons. Peter himself was caught in the thick of fighting, and died as a result of a foolhardy act of bravado. Thus, the nobility of Toulouse, Foix and other vassals of the Crown of Aragon were defeated. The conflict concluded with the Treaty of Meaux-Paris in 1229, in which the Crown of Aragon agreed to renounce its rights over the south of Occitania with the integration of these territories into the dominions of the King of France.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: King James I (13th century) returned to an era of expansion to the South, by conquering and incorporating Majorca, Ibiza, and a good share of the Kingdom of Valencia into the Crown. With the Treaty of Corbeil (1258), which was based upon the principle of natural frontiers, the Capetians were recognized as heirs of the Carolingian dynasty, and the Capetian king Louis IX renounced any claim of feudal overlordship over Catalonia. The general principle was clear, Catalan influence north of the Pyrenees, beyond the Roussillon, Vallespir, Conflent and Capcir, was to cease. James I had realized that wasting his forces and distracting his energies in attempts to keep a footing in France would only end in disaster. In January 1266, James I besieged and captured Murcia, then settled his own men, mostly Catalans, there; and handed Murcia over to Castile with the treaty of Cazorla.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The Kingdom of Majorca, including the Balearic Islands, and the counties of Cerdanya and Roussillon-Vallespir and the city of Montpellier, was held independently from 1276 to 1279 by James II of Majorca and as a vassal of the Crown of Aragon after that date until 1349, becoming a full member of the Crown of Aragon from 1349.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Valencia was finally made a new kingdom with its own institutions and not an extension of Aragón as the Aragonese noblemen had intended since even before the creation of the Crown of Aragon. The Kingdom of Valencia became the third member of the crown together with Aragon and Catalonia. The Kingdom of Majorca had an independent status with its own kings until 1349.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: In 1282, the Sicilians rose up against the second dynasty of the Angevins on the Sicilian Vespers and massacred the garrison soldiers throughout the island. Peter III responded to their call, and landed in Trapani to an enthusiastic welcome five months later. This caused Pope Martin IV to excommunicate the king, place Sicily under interdiction, and offer the kingdom of Aragon to a son of Philip III of France.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: When Peter III refused to impose the "Charters of Aragon" in Valencia, the nobles and towns united in Zaragoza to demand a confirmation of their privileges, which the king had to accept in 1283. Thus began the Union of Aragon, which developed the power of the "Justícia" to mediate between the king and the Aragonese bourgeois.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: When James II of Aragon completed the conquest of the kingdom of Valencia, the Crown of Aragon established itself as one of the major powers in Europe.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: In 1297, to solve the dispute between the Anjevins and the Aragonese over Sicily, Pope Boniface VIII created "ex novo" a Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica and entrusted it as a fief to the Aragonese King James II, ignoring already existing, indigenous states. In 1324, James II finally started to seize the Pisan territories in the former states of Cagliari and Gallura. In 1347 Aragon made war on the Genoese Doria and Malaspina houses, which controlled most of the lands of the former Logudoro state in north-western Sardinia, and added them to its direct domains. The Giudicato of Arborea, the only remaining independent Sardinian state, proved far more difficult to subdue. The rulers of Arborea developed the ambition to unite all of Sardinia under their rule and create a single Sardinian state, and at a certain point (1368–1388, 1392–1409) almost managed to drive the Aragonese out. The war between Arborea and Aragon was fought on and off for more than 100 years; this situation lasted until 1409, when the army of Arborea suffered a heavy defeat by the Aragonese army in the Battle of Sanluri; the capital Oristano was lost in 1410. After some years during which Arborean rulers failed to organise a successful resurgence, they sold their remaining rights for 100,000 gold florins, and by 1420 the Aragonese Kingdom of Sardinia finally extended throughout the island. The subduing of Sardinia having taken a century, Corsica, which had never been wrested from the Genoese, was dropped from the formal title of the Kingdom.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Through the marriage of Peter IV to Maria of Sicily (1381), the Kingdom of Sicily, as well as the duchies of Athens and Neopatria, were finally implemented more firmly into the Crown. The Greek possessions were permanently lost to Nerio I Acciaioli in 1388 and Sicily was dissociated in the hands of Martin I from 1395 to 1409, but the Kingdom of Naples was added finally in 1442 by the conquest led by Alfonso V.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The King's possessions outside of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands were ruled by proxy through local elites as petty kingdoms, rather than subjected directly to a centralised government. They were more an economic part of the Crown of Aragon than a political one.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The fact that the King was keen on settling new kingdoms instead of merely expanding the existing kingdoms was a part of a power struggle that pitted the interests of the king against those of the existing nobility. This process was also under way in most of the European states that successfully effected the transition to the Early Modern state. Thus, the new territories gained from the Moors—namely Valencia and Majorca—were given "furs" as an instrument of self-government in order to limit the power of nobility in these new acquisitions and, at the same time, increase their allegiance to the monarchy itself. The trend in the neighbouring kingdom of Castile was quite similar, both kingdoms giving impetus to the Reconquista by granting different grades of self-government either to cities or territories, instead of placing the new territories under the direct rule of nobility.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: In 1410, King Martin I died without living descendants or heirs. As a result, by the Pact of Caspe, Ferdinand of Antequera from the Castilian dynasty of Trastámara, received the Crown of Aragon as Ferdinand I of Aragon.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Later, his grandson King Ferdinand II of Aragon recovered the northern Catalan counties—Roussillon and Cerdagne—which had been lost to France as well as the kingdom of Navarre, which had recently joined the Crown of Aragon but had been lost after internal dynastic disputes.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: In 1469, Ferdinand married Infanta Isabella of Castile, half-sister of King Henry IV of Castile, who became Queen of Castile and León after Henry's death in 1474. Their marriage was a dynastic union which became the constituent event for the dawn of the Kingdom of Spain. At that point both the Castile and the Crown of Aragon remained distinct territories, each keeping its own traditional institutions, parliaments and laws. The process of territorial consolidation was completed when King Charles I, known as Emperor Charles V, in 1516 united all the kingdoms on the Iberian peninsula, save the Kingdoms of Portugal and the Algarve, under one monarch—his co-monarch and mother Queen Joanna I in confinement—thereby furthering the creation of the Spanish state, albeit a decentralised one.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The literary evocation of past splendour recalls correctly the great age of the 13th and 14th centuries, when Majorca, Valencia and Sicily were conquered, the population growth could be handled without social conflict, and the urban prosperity, which peaked in 1345, created the institutional and cultural achievements of the Crown.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The Aragonese crown's wealth and power stagnated and its authority was steadily transferred to the new Spanish crown after that date—the demographic growth was partially offset by the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492), Muslims (1502) and the expulsion of the Moriscos (1609). It was unable to prevent the loss of Roussillon in 1659, the loss of Minorca and its Italian domains in 1707–1716, and the imposition of French language on Roussillon (1700) and Castilian as the language of government in all the old Aragonese Crown lands in Spain (1707–1716).


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The Crown of Aragon and its institutions were abolished in 1716 only after the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) by the Nueva Planta decrees, issued by Philip V of Spain. The old regime was swept away, the administration was subsumed into the Castilian administration, the lands of the Crown were united formally with those of Castile to legally form a single state, the kingdom of Spain, as it moved towards a centralized government under the new Bourbon dynasty.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Some of the nationalist movements in Spain consider the former kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon to be the foundation of their nations, the Catalan nationalist movement being the most prominent. Spanish nationalism, on the other hand, tends to place more importance on the later dynastic union with the Crown of Castile, considering it the origin of one Spanish nation.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The reprisals inflicted on the territories that had fought against Philip V in the War of Succession is given by some Valencian nationalists and Catalan nationalists as an argument against the centralism of Spanish nationalism and in favor of federalism, confederation, or even independence. Some Catalans associated their ancient privileges with their Generalitat and resistance to Castile. Because restoration of "fueros" was one of its tenets, Carlism won support in the lands of the Crown of Aragon during the 19th century.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The Romanticism of the 19th century Catalan Renaixença movement evoked a "Pyrenean realm" that corresponded more to the vision of 13th century troubadours than to the historical reality of the Crown. This vision survives today as "a nostalgic programme of politicised culture". Thus, the history of the Crown of Aragon remains a politically loaded topic in modern Spain, especially when it comes to asserting the level of independence enjoyed by constituents of the Crown, like the Principality of Catalonia, which is sometimes used to justify the level of autonomy (or independence) that should be enjoyed by contemporary Catalonia and other territories.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The origin of Coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon is the familiar coat of the Counts of Barcelona and Kings of Aragon. The Pennon was used exclusively by the monarchs of the Crown and was expressive of their sovereignty. James III of Majorca, vassal of the Kingdom of Aragon, used a coat of arms with four bars, as seen on the Leges palatinae miniatures.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia each had a legislative body, known as the "Cortes" in Aragon or "Corts" in Catalonia and Valencia. A "Diputación del General" or "Diputació del General" was established in each, becoming known as a "Generalidad" in Aragon and "Generalitat" in Catalonia and Valencia. From the 15th century onwards, every realm of the Crown was granted its own Royal Audience.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The house of the Crown was the Cathedral of the Savior of Zaragoza from Peter II (12th century). The parliament used to gather at Monzón (13th to 16th centuries), the remaining meetings took place at Fraga, Zaragoza, Calatayud and Tarazona. The councillor headquarters were located at Barcelona (13th to 16th centuries) and Naples during the kingdom of Alfonso V.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: On the other hand, the General Archive of the Crown of Aragon, which was the official repository of royal documentation of the Crown since the reign of Alfonso II (12th century), was located in the Monastery of Santa María de Sigena until the year 1301 and then moved to Barcelona.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: During the 15th and the 16th centuries, the Crown's "de facto" capital was Naples. After Alfonso V of Aragon, Ferdinand II of Aragon settled the capital in Naples. Alfonso, in particular, wanted to transform Naples into a real Mediterranean capital and lavished huge sums to embellish it further. Later the courts were itinerant until Philip II of Spain. The Spanish historian Domingo Buesa Conde has argued that Zaragoza ought to be considered the permanent political capital, but not the economic or administrative capital, owing to the obligation for kings to be crowned at the Cathedral of the Savior of Zaragoza.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: During the Crown of Aragon, the Catalan culture and language underwent a vigorous expansion. During the period of trade, Occitan-Catalan contributions to Maltese occurred.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: King Fernando II and Queen Isabella, as the Catholic Monarchs who began the Inquisition, were contrary to the more plural development that preceded in the Crown of Aragon. The previous religious background was described as "longstanding tradition of Mudejarism, the royal sanctioning and protection of subject Muslim populations within Christian realms." Aesthetic Mudéjar architecture of Aragon has been observed as demonstrating the influence of Andalusian and Arab culture in Aragon proper. Gothic architecture was also developed.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The Mediterranean Lingua Franca was a mixed language used widely for commerce and diplomacy and was also current among slaves of the bagnio, Barbary pirates and European renegades in precolonial Algiers. Among the speakers who created the language, also called Sabir, were Muslims from Aragon called "Tagarins" (a term mentioned by Miguel Cervantes). Historically, the first to use it were the Genoese and Venetian trading colonies in the eastern Mediterranean after the year 1000.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The similarities contribute to discussions of the classification of Lingua Franca as a language. Although its official classification is that of a pidgin, some scholars adamantly oppose that classification and believe it would be better viewed as an interlanguage of Italian.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Linguist Steven Dworkin hypothesized that Catalan was the point of entry for Mediterranean Lingua Franca terms into Spain, arguably the source of several Italian and Arabic loanwords in Spanish, citing the DCECH.


title: Crown of Aragon

text: The crown was made up of the following territories (which are nowadays parts of the modern countries of Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Malta, and Andorra).


title: Crown of Aragon

text: Sort by "Earliest annexion" to see the states in the chronological order they were joined to the crown.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Darryl Eugene Strawberry (born March 12, 1962) is an American former professional baseball right fielder and author who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Throughout his career, Strawberry was one of the most feared sluggers in the sport, known for his prodigious home runs and his intimidating presence in the batter's box with his frame and his long, looping swing that elicited comparisons to Ted Williams.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry, who was nicknamed The Straw Man or Straw, helped lead the New York Mets to a World Series championship in and the New York Yankees to two World Series championships in and . He was also suspended three times by MLB for substance abuse, leading to many narratives about his massive potential going unfulfilled. A popular player during his career, Strawberry was voted to the All-Star Game eight straight times from 1984 to 1991. Strawberry was formerly an analyst for SportsNet New York. His memoir, "Straw: Finding My Way", written with author John Strausbaugh, was published in April 2009.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry was born to Henry and Ruby Strawberry in Los Angeles, California. He played high school baseball for the Crenshaw High School Cougars along with Chris Brown. Darryl's older brother Michael Strawberry was also a star baseball athlete who would play professional baseball.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry was drafted first overall in the 1980 Major League Baseball draft by the New York Mets. Darryl's older brother, Michael Strawberry, was also selected in that draft, going to the Dodgers in the 31st round.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Employing a distinctive batting stance with a high leg kick, Strawberry rose through the Mets system and reached the major league level in 1983, posting 26 home runs, 7 triples, and 74 runs batted in, while hitting for a .257 average. He was named the National League's Rookie of The Year. In 1984, he made it to the All-Star game for the first of 8 consecutive appearances (the first 5 as a starter), and he once again hit 26 home runs, this time driving in 97 runs.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry's Mets from 1984–1990 formed one of the premier teams in the National League, finishing either first or second in the division every year.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: During the period from 1983 to 1990, Strawberry was very popular, with his image used on action figures (Kenner's "Starting Lineup"), posters and banners. He was also known for his disruptive behavior. He got into a physical altercation on team picture day with team captain Keith Hernandez and in the midst of a war of words with infielder Wally Backman, threatened to "bust that little redneck in the face". He often overslept and was late for, or missed, team workouts. He publicly complained about manager Davey Johnson after he was removed from the game in a double switch during the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, which the Mets would go on to win. During the regular season in 1986, Strawberry hit 27 home runs and had 93 RBIs.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In 1987, Strawberry hit 39 home runs and stole 36 bases, joining the exclusive 30–30 club at the time becoming one of only 10 players in baseball history to accomplish the feat. In addition to that, he hit 32 doubles and drove in 104 runs. Despite this, the 1987 team missed the playoffs.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In 1988, Strawberry once again hit 39 home runs to lead the National League. He also led the league in slugging percentage at .545 and OPS at .911 and finished second with 101 runs batted in. He finished a very close second in MVP voting to the Dodgers' Kirk Gibson. Strawberry led the Mets to the playoffs, losing to the Dodgers in seven games in the National League Championship Series.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In 1989, Strawberry's offensive numbers declined: he had 29 home runs and 77 runs batted in, but only had a .225 average. Nevertheless, the Mets came in a close second place to the Chicago Cubs in the National League East.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In 1990, Strawberry rebounded by hitting 37 home runs, driving in 108 runs and batting for a .277 average. His Mets, however, came once again in a close second place in the National League East, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates by three games. Strawberry himself finished third in MVP voting that season.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers on November 8, 1990, inking a lucrative five-year $22.25 million contract. In California, he was named "Big Brother of The Year" for 1991. After hitting 28 home runs and bringing in 99 runs batted in a successful first year for the Dodgers, injuries and personal problems kept him sidelined for much of the next two seasons, hitting five home runs in each season.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: By the end of the 1991 season, he had 280 lifetime homers at the age of only 29, drawing comparisons to home run king Hank Aaron.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry's numbers tailed off considerably after 1991; over the next two years he only played in 75 games. In 1994, he was released in May by the Dodgers after failing to show up to a game. Later that season he signed with the San Francisco Giants, where he saw limited playing time as he tried to make a comeback, hitting only four home runs and driving in 17 runs that year.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: After a suspension from the league at the beginning of 1995 after testing positive for cocaine, Strawberry signed with the New York Yankees for the stretch run. The next year, Darryl signed with the Saint Paul Saints of the Northern League on May 3, 1996, in an attempt to rehabilitate. On June 2, the Saints faced the Duluth–Superior Dukes at Wade Stadium, where Strawberry hit his first home run for the Saints, at a distance of 522' off of pitcher Pat Ahearne. Soon thereafter, he found himself back with the Yankees, who signed him on July 4, 1996.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: With the Yankees, he showed flashes of his former brilliance, belting 11 home runs in a part-time role and helping his team win the World Series in 1996 alongside former Mets teammates Dwight Gooden and David Cone. His second career three-homer game came against the Chicago White Sox on August 6 of that season.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: He had a big series against the Baltimore Orioles in the 1996 ALCS as he blasted three home runs with five RBIs and a .417 average in four games. In 1997, he did not have any home runs, with his playing time limited by injuries. He played in just 11 games that year, collecting just two runs batted in.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In 1998, he had 24 home runs, once again helping the Yankees win the World Series and playing 100 games for the first time since 1991. However, he suffered abdominal pain for around two months, which he did not disclose to his teammates or staff, and his playing time declined late in the season. Strawberry was diagnosed with colon cancer during the American League Division Series (ALDS), and he was replaced on the roster by rookie Ricky Ledée. In 1999, he made a comeback from his cancer treatment, but saw limited playing time, hitting 3 home runs. He did however hit a crucial 3-run home run against the Texas Rangers in the ALDS, helping the Yankees advance to the ALCS.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry was set to return to the Yankees in 2000, but after testing positive for cocaine in February while attending spring training, Strawberry was ordered to leave the team while waiting for commissioner Bud Selig to make a decision on a possible suspension. Six days after news of the positive test broke, Selig announced that Strawberry would be suspended for the entire 2000 season, effectively ending his career.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry was the starting right fielder five straight times and appeared at nine All-Star games. He batted .333 with two stolen bases and two runs in 12 career All-Star at-bats. He had two three-home run games in his career, both of which came against Chicago teams and were almost 11 years to the day between each other. The first came against the Cubs on August 5, 1985, and the second was on August 6, 1996, against the White Sox.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: He is one of only five Major League Baseball players to hit two pinch-hit grand slams in the same season. The others are his former coach Davey Johnson, who did it as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, as well as Mike Ivie of the San Francisco Giants, Ben Broussard of the Cleveland Indians, and Brooks Conrad of the Atlanta Braves.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: He is one of only three players in MLB history, along with former Yankees teammate Ricky Ledée and José Vizcaíno, to have played for all four of the former and current New York-based MLB teams- the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers and Giants.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry attended the Mets' 1986 World Champion team reunion on August 19, 2006, where the team received a standing ovation from fans at Shea Stadium in an on-field ceremony. He worked as an instructor for the New York Mets in 2005 and 2008, and was inducted to the Mets Hall of Fame in 2010.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: He threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Shea Stadium before Game 1 of the National League Championship Series between the Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals on October 12, 2006. He was given a rousing ovation by the Shea Stadium crowd. He served as an anchor on the Mets pre- and post- game shows on SNY in 2007 and 2008, eventually settling into a part-time analysis role for the 2009 season.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: He opened his own restaurant, Strawberry's Sports Grill, in Douglaston, Queens in August 2010. The restaurant closed in October 2012.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry is an evangelical born-again Christian and has appeared on The Trinity Broadcasting Network. In 1999, he and Tiny Lister appeared on evangelist Benny Hinn's T.V. program giving their testimonies. Strawberry has also appeared on "The 700 Club" to talk about his life and his newfound faith in Jesus.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry frequently donates to charity and was a headliner of the BGC Charity Day event at BGC Partners in 2010.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: He now resides in St. Charles County, Missouri with his third wife Tracy whom he met in a drug recovery convention. The couple were married in October 2006 and have since founded "The Darryl Strawberry Foundation", an organization dedicated to children with autism. Strawberry's son, Darryl "D.J." Strawberry, Jr., born in 1985, was a star shooting guard with the Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team and was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in the 2007 NBA Draft. Strawberry has another son, Jordan, who played college basketball for the Mercer Bears.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry has stated that his father was an alcoholic who was verbally and physically abusive to him and his brothers. He attributes his initial alcohol and drug use to the pain he endured as a child and his subsequent substance abuse to the pressures of performing in New York.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: On December 19, 1995, Strawberry was charged in California with failing to make child support payments. When he missed a June 5, 1996, deadline to pay the child support, a Los Angeles judge set a trial date of July 17, at which time Strawberry agreed to use his signing bonus to pay the debt.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In August 1998, Strawberry was sued by attorney Robert Shapiro for failing to pay $100,000 in legal fees, dating back to 1994, when Shapiro represented him in a contract with the Dodgers.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: On October 1, 1998, Strawberry was diagnosed with colon cancer. Two days later, he had surgery to remove a tumor and 24 inches of his colon. On October 14, doctors announced that cancer had been detected in a lymph node so he would also have to undergo chemotherapy.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: On April 3, 1999, Strawberry was arrested in Tampa, Florida for soliciting sex from a policewoman posing as a prostitute and for having a small amount of cocaine. On April 24, he was suspended for 140 days by Major League Baseball for the incident. On May 29, he pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to 21 months probation and community service.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: On July 28, 2000, a C.T. scan suggested that Strawberry's cancer had spread to his lymph nodes. The next month, he had surgery to remove a tumor near his left kidney on August 7.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: On September 11, 2000, in Tampa, Florida, Strawberry tried to drive to see his probation officer after taking painkillers. While driving, he blacked out, rear-ended another car, and then tried to drive away. An off-duty police officer witnessed the episode and arrested him at gunpoint. The next day, Strawberry admitted to the charges and his probation was changed to two years of house arrest. On November 21, he was sentenced to a year of probation and community service. On October 25, 2000, Strawberry left a Tampa drug treatment center to use drugs with a female friend, violating his house arrest and parole. On November 9, he was sentenced to 40 days in jail with credit for time served. On November 3, 2000, Strawberry told a judge in Tampa that he had lost his will to live and had stopped chemotherapy. On November 30, he was released from jail and sent back to rehab. On April 2, 2001, Strawberry was arrested for again disappearing from his house arrest drug treatment center in Tampa. On May 1, he was sentenced to more time at a drug treatment center.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: On March 12, 2002, Strawberry was back in jail for violating several non-drug rules at the drug treatment center where he was on probation in Ocala, Florida. On April 29, he was ordered to serve the 22-month suspended prison sentence from 1999. On April 8, 2003, he was released from prison after 11 months.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In September 2005, Strawberry was charged with filing a false police report after he claimed his SUV was stolen. He admitted that he had lied on the report but was not arrested because it was a misdemeanor.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry has described himself as having struggled with a sex addiction. After retirement he admitted to having routinely had sex between innings of MLB games in which he played.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry appeared on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" seven times: five times by himself, once with Don Mattingly, and once with Dwight Gooden.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In 1988 he was featured heavily in the William Goldman and Mike Lupica book "Wait Till Next Year" which looked at life inside the Mets over a whole season (among other New York sports teams). It gives a frank account of both his importance to the team and his problematic behaviour.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In 2004, the Rebecca Gilman play "The Sweetest Swing in Baseball" premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London. The lead character ‒ Dana, as portrayed by Gillian Anderson ‒ adopts the personality and speech of Darryl Strawberry in an attempt to pass herself off as schizophrenic. The title is a reference to Strawberry's playing skills.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: Strawberry appeared, as himself, in "The Simpsons" episode "Homer at the Bat". He was a featured pro on the second season of the physical reality game show "Pros vs. Joes". He currently does occasional commentary for baseball on SportsNet New York.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: In 2010, Strawberry appeared on NBC's "The Apprentice" with Sharon Osbourne, Cyndi Lauper, Bret Michaels, and others. At the end of the third episode, Strawberry was fired after he admitted he was the weakest contestant, was tired, and wanted to go home. Donald Trump agreed and let him go home. After Strawberry made a successful return in the season finale to assist Bret Michaels, Trump made a donation of $25,000 to The Darryl Strawberry Foundation. Strawberry placed 12th.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: On February 8, 2011, Strawberry appeared along with Clara Hughes and Stephane Richer on a Canadian documentary by Michael Landsberg to talk about his battle with depression.


title: Darryl Strawberry

text: On Wednesday, November 15, 2017, Strawberry appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" to talk about his new book "Don't Give Up on Me", which sheds light on addiction and recovery.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan () refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Syria (Western Kurdistan), and northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan). Much of the geographical and cultural region of Iraqi Kurdistan is part of the Kurdistan Region (KRI), an autonomous region recognized by the Constitution of Iraq. As with the rest of Kurdistan, and unlike most of the rest of Iraq, the region is inland and mountainous.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The exact origins of the name "Kurd" are unclear. The suffix "-stan" is an Iranian term for region. The literal translation for Kurdistan is "Region of Kurds".


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Iraqi Kurdistan is largely mountainous, with the highest point being a 3,611 m (11,847 ft) point known locally as Cheekha Dar ("black tent"). Mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan include the Zagros, Sinjar Mountains, Hamrin Mountains, Mount Nisir and Qandil mountains. There are many rivers running through the region, which is distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, and picturesque nature. The Great Zab and the Little Zab flow east–west in the region. The Tigris river enters Iraqi Kurdistan from Turkish Kurdistan.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The mountainous nature of Iraqi Kurdistan, the difference of temperatures in its various parts, and its numerous bodies of water make it a land of agriculture and tourism. The largest lake in the region is Lake Dukan. There are also several smaller lakes, such as Darbandikhan Lake and Duhok Lake. The western and southern parts of Iraqi Kurdistan are not as mountainous as the east. Instead, it is rolling hills and plains vegetated by sclerophyll scrubland.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Due to its latitude and altitude, Iraqi Kurdistan is cooler and much wetter than the rest of Iraq. Most areas in the region fall within the Mediterranean climate zone ("Csa"), with areas to the southwest being semi-arid ("BSh").


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Average summer temperatures range from in the cooler northernmost areas to blistering in the southwest, with lows around to . Winters, however, are dramatically cooler than the rest of Iraq, with highs averaging between and and with lows hovering around in some areas and freezing in others, dipping to and on average.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Among other cities in the climate table below, Soran, Shaqlawa and Halabja also experience lows which average below in winter. Duhok has the hottest summers in the region, with highs averaging around . Annual rainfall differs across Iraqi Kurdistan, with some places seeing rainfall as low as in Erbil to as high as in places like Amadiya. Most of the rain falls in winter and spring, and is usually heavy. Summer and early autumn are virtually dry, and spring is fairly tepid. Iraqi Kurdistan sees snowfall occasionally in the winter, and frost is common. There is a seasonal lag in some places in summer, with temperatures peaking around August and September.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The provinces of Duhok, Erbil and Sulaymanyah are rich in agricultural lands. Wheat and other cereals are grown there. Most of the areas are rainfed, but there are also some smaller irrigation systems in place. Tourism is another branch which draws the attention of the KRI, which achieved the declaration of Erbil as the Tourism Capital by the Arab Council of Tourism in 2014.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In prehistoric times, the region was home to a Neanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The region was host to the Jarmo culture 7000 BCE. The earliest neolithic site in Kurdistan is at Tell Hassuna, the centre of the "Hassuna culture", circa 6000 BCE.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In Early and Middle Bronze Age the region was geographically known as Subartu and was inhabited by the Hurrian speaking Subarians along with Gutians and Lullubi. In 2200 BCE Naram-Sin of Akkad conquered the region and it came under the rule of the Gutians in 2150 BCE. The main cities of the region attested in the inscriptions in this period are Mardaman, Azuhinum, Ninet (Nineveh), Arrapha, Urbilum, and Kurda.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In early 2nd millennium the region was ruled by the kingdom of Kurda except for two decades in 18th century BCE when it was conquered by the Amorite Shamshi Adad and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia. In 1760s BCE the kingdom of Kurda faced an invasion by Elam and Eshnunna during the Babylonian-Elam war and the kingdom eventually sided with Mari and Babylon.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In 16th century BCE the Mitannians incorporated the region into their Hurrian empire. Following the destruction of the Mitannian Empire by the Hittites, between 14th-13th century BCE the region gradually came under the rule of the Assyrians. Tukulti-Ninurta I in 13rd century BCE finally conquered the whole region and appointed one of his commanders as the governor of the villages and towns of Kurda. Kurda was reduced to a province centering around modern Sinjar. Erbil's name was Akkadianized to Arba-ilu and during the Neo-Assyrian Empire the city was noted for its distinctive cult of Ishtar. The region was partially under the rule of Urartu and the kingdom of Musasir in early 1st millennium BCE. Modern Rawandiz district was a religious center of the Urartians.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The Medes conquered the region in 7th century BCE. Later it came under the rule of the Achaemenids and remained as part of the satrapy of Media. When Xenophon passed through the region in 4th century BCE, it was inhabited by the Medes. In 332 BC the region fell to Alexander The Great and was thereafter ruled by the Greek Seleucid Empire until the middle of the second century BCE when it fell to Mithridates I of Parthia. During the four centuries of the Parthian era (247 BCE to 226 AD) the region was ruled by semi-independent principalities of Barzan and Sharazur, and in 1st century it was partially under the rule of the Jewish kingdom of Adiabene. Between 3rd and 4th centuries the region was ruled by the House of Kayus until it was incorporated into the Sassanian Empire in 380 AD and it was renamed to Nodshēragān. The region was gradually converted to Christianity between 1st and 5th centuries and Erbil became the seat of the metropolitan of Hadhyab of the Church of the East and it was divided into several bishoprics namely Marga, Beth Garmai, Beth Qardu, Beth MahQard, Beth BihQard, Beth Nuhadra and Shahr-Qard. In Syriac the region was commonly called Beth Qardwaye.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The region was conquered by Arab Muslims in the mid 7th century AD as the invading forces conquered the Sassanian Empire, the region fell to Muslims after they fought the Kurds in Mosul and Tikrit 'Utba ibn Farqad captured all the forts of the Kurds when he conquered Erbil in 641. The area became part of the Muslim Arab Rashidun, Umayyad, and later the Abbasid Caliphates, before becoming part of various Iranian, Turkic, and Mongol emirates. Following the disintegration of the Ak Koyunlu, all of its territories including what is modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan passed to the Iranian Safavids in the earliest 16th century.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Between the 16th and 17th century the area nowadays known as Iraqi Kurdistan, (formerly ruled by three principalities of Baban, Badinan, and Soran) was continuously passed back and forth between archrivals the Safavids and the Ottomans, until the Ottomans managed to decisively seize power in the region starting from the mid 17th century through the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) and the resulting Treaty of Zuhab. In the early 18th century, it briefly passed to the Iranian Afsharids led by Nader Shah. Following Nader's death in 1747, Ottoman suzerainty was reimposed, and in 1831, direct Ottoman rule was established which lasted until World War I, when the Ottomans were defeated by the British.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: During World War I, the British and French divided Western Asia in the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The Treaty of Sèvres (which did not enter into force), and the Treaty of Lausanne which superseded it, led to the advent of modern Western Asia and the modern Republic of Turkey. The League of Nations granted France mandates over Syria and Lebanon and granted the United Kingdom mandates over Palestine (which then consisted of two autonomous regions: Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan) and what was to become Iraq. Parts of the Ottoman Empire on the Arabian Peninsula were eventually taken over by Saudi Arabia and Yemen.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In 1922, Britain restored Shaikh Mahmud Barzanji to power, hoping that he would organize the Kurds to act as a buffer against the Turks, who had territorial claims over Mosul and Kirkuk. However, defiant to the British, in 1922 Shaikh Mahmud declared a Kurdish Kingdom with himself as king. It took two years for the British to bring Kurdish areas into submission, while Shaikh Mahmud found refuge in an unknown location.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In 1930, following the announcement of the admission of Iraq to the League of Nations, Shaikh Mahmud started a third uprising which was suppressed with British air and ground forces.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: By 1927, the Barzani clan had become vocal supporters of Kurdish rights in Iraq. In 1929, the Barzani demanded the formation of a Kurdish province in northern Iraq. Emboldened by these demands, in 1931 Kurdish notables petitioned the League of Nations to set up an independent Kurdish government. In late 1931, Ahmed Barzani initiated a Kurdish rebellion against Iraq, and though defeated within several months, the movement gained a major importance in the Kurdish struggle later on, creating the ground for such a notable Kurdish rebel as Mustafa Barzani.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: During World War II, the power vacuum in Iraq was exploited by the Kurdish tribes and under the leadership of Mustafa Barzani a rebellion broke out in the north, effectively gaining control of Kurdish areas until 1945, when Iraqis could once again subdue the Kurds with British support. Under pressure from the Iraqi government and the British, the most influential leader of the clan, Mustafa Barzani was forced into exile in Iran in 1945. Later he moved to the Soviet Union after the collapse of the Republic of Mahabad in 1946.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: After the military coup by Arab nationalists on the 14 July 1958, Mustafa Barzani was invited by Abdul Karim Qasim to return from exile, where he was greeted with a hero's welcome. As part of the deal arranged between Qasim and Barzani, Qasim had promised to give the Kurds regional autonomy in return for Barzani's support for his policies. The Provisional Constitution described Iraq being included in the Arab world but saw the Kurds as partners within an Iraqi statehood and the coat of arms included a Kurdish dagger besides the Arab sword. Meanwhile, during 1959–1960, Barzani became the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which was granted legal status in 1960. By early 1960, it became apparent that Qasim would not follow through with his promise of regional autonomy. As a result, the KDP began to agitate for regional autonomy. In the face of growing Kurdish dissent, as well as Barzani's personal power, Qasim began to incite the Barzanis historical enemies, the "Baradost" and "Zebari" tribes, which led to intertribal warfare throughout 1960 and early 1961.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: By February 1961, Barzani had successfully defeated the pro-government forces and consolidated his position as leader of the Kurds. At this point, Barzani ordered his forces to occupy and expel government officials from all Kurdish territory. This was not received well in Baghdad, and the Third Kurdish Teachers Congress was cancelled and Qasim even denied that "Kurds" constituted an own nation. Qasim began to prepare for a military offensive against the north to return government control of the region. Meanwhile, in June 1961, the KDP issued a detailed ultimatum to Qasim outlining Kurdish grievances, demanding that the Kurdish language would become an official language in Kurdish majority regions. Qasim ignored the Kurdish demands and continued his planning for war.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: It was not until September 10, when an Iraqi army column was ambushed by a group of Kurds, that the Kurdish revolt truly began. In response to the attack, Qasim lashed out and ordered the Iraqi Air Force to indiscriminately bomb Kurdish villages, which ultimately served to rally the entire Kurdish population to Barzani's standard. Due to Qasim's profound distrust of the Iraqi Army, which he purposely failed to adequately arm (in fact, Qasim implemented a policy of ammunition rationing), Qasim's government was not able to subdue the insurrection. This stalemate irritated powerful factions within the military and is said to be one of the main reasons behind the Ba'athist coup against Qasim in February 1963. In November 1963, after considerable infighting amongst the civilian and military wings of the Ba'athists, they were ousted by Abdul Salam Arif in a coup. Then, after another failed offensive, Arif declared a ceasefire in February 1964 which provoked a split among Kurdish urban radicals on one hand and Peshmerga (Freedom fighters) forces led by Barzani on the other.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Barzani agreed to the ceasefire and fired the radicals from the party. Following the unexpected death of Arif, whereupon he was replaced by his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, the Iraqi government launched a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kurds. This campaign failed in May 1966, when Barzani forces thoroughly defeated the Iraqi Army at the Battle of Mount Handrin, near Rawandiz. At this battle, it was said that the Kurds slaughtered an entire brigade. Recognizing the futility of continuing this campaign, Rahamn Arif announced a 12-point peace program in June 1966, which was not implemented due to the overthrow of Rahman Arif in a 1968 coup by the Ba'ath Party.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The Ba'ath government started a campaign to end the Kurdish insurrection, which stalled in 1969. This can be partly attributed to the internal power struggle in Baghdad and also tensions with Iran. Moreover, the Soviet Union pressured the Iraqis to come to terms with Barzani. A peace plan was announced in March 1970 and provided for broader Kurdish autonomy. The plan also gave Kurds representation in government bodies, to be implemented in four years. Despite this, the Iraqi government embarked on an Arabization program in the oil rich regions of Kirkuk and Khanaqin in the same period.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In the following years, Baghdad government overcame its internal divisions and concluded a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union in April 1972 and ended its isolation within the Arab world. On the other hand, Kurds remained dependent on the Iranian military support and could do little to strengthen their forces.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In 1973, the US made a secret agreement with the Shah of Iran to begin covertly funding Kurdish rebels against Baghdad through the Central Intelligence Agency and in collaboration with the Mossad, both of which would be active in the country through the launch of the Iraqi invasion and into the present. By 1974, the Iraqi government retaliated with a new offensive against the Kurds and pushed them close to the border with Iran. Iraq informed Tehran that it was willing to satisfy other Iranian demands in return for an end to its aid to the Kurds. With mediation by Algerian President Houari Boumediene, Iran and Iraq reached a comprehensive settlement in March 1975 known as the "Algiers Pact". The agreement left the Kurds helpless and Tehran cut supplies to the Kurdish movement. Barzani went to Iran with many of his supporters. Others surrendered "en masse" and the rebellion ended after a few days.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: As a result, the Iraqi government extended its control over the northern region after 15 years and in order to secure its influence, started an Arabization program by moving Arabs to the vicinity of oil fields in northern Iraq, particularly those around Kirkuk, and other regions, which were populated by Turkmen, Kurds and Christians. The repressive measures carried out by the government against the Kurds after the Algiers agreement led to renewed clashes between the Iraqi Army and Kurdish guerrillas in 1977. In 1978 and 1979, 600 Kurdish villages were burned down and around 200,000 Kurds were deported to the other parts of the country.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The Ba'athist government of Iraq forcibly displaced and culturally Arabized minorities (Kurds, Yezidis, Assyrians, Shabaks, Armenians, Turkmen, Mandeans), in line with settler colonialist policies, from the 1960s to the early 2000s, in order to shift the demographics of North Iraq towards Arab domination. The Baath party under Saddam Hussein engaged in active expulsion of minorities from the mid-1970s onwards. In 1978 and 1979, 600 Kurdish villages were burned down and around 200,000 Kurds were deported to the other parts of the country.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The campaigns took place during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, being largely motivated by the Kurdish–Arab ethnic and political conflict. Arab settlement programs reached their peak during the late 1970s, in line with depopulation efforts of the Ba'athist regime. The Baathist policies motivating those events are sometimes referred to as "internal colonialism", described by Dr. Francis Kofi Abiew as a "Colonial 'Arabization program, including large-scale Kurdish deportations and forced Arab settlement in the region.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: During the Iran–Iraq War, the Iraqi government again implemented anti-Kurdish policies and a "de facto" civil war broke out. Iraq was widely condemned by the international community, but was never seriously punished for oppressive measures, including the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds, which resulted in thousands of deaths.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The second and more extensive and widespread wave began from March 29, 1987, until April 23, 1989, when the Iraqi army under the command of Saddam Hussein & Ali Hassan al-Majid carried out a genocidal campaign against the Kurds, characterized by the following human rights violations: The widespread use of chemical weapons, the wholesale destruction of some 2,000 villages, and slaughter of around 50,000 rural Kurds, by the most conservative estimates. The large Kurdish town of Qala Dizeh (population 70,000) was completely destroyed by the Iraqi army. The campaign also included Arabization of Kirkuk, a program to drive Kurds and other ethnic groups out of the oil-rich city and replace them with Arab settlers from central and southern Iraq.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Even though autonomy had been agreed in 1970, the local population did not enjoy any democratic freedom, facing similar conditions to the rest of Iraq. Things began to change after the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein at the end of the Persian Gulf War. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 gave birth to a "safe haven" following international concern for the safety of Kurdish refugees. The U.S. and the Coalition established a No Fly Zone over a large part of northern Iraq (see Operation Provide Comfort), however, it left out Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk and other important Kurdish populated regions. Bloody clashes between Iraqi forces and Kurdish troops continued and, after an uneasy and shaky balance of power was reached, the Iraqi government fully withdrew its military and other personnel from the region in October 1991 allowing Iraqi Kurdistan to function de facto independently. The region was to be ruled by the two principal Kurdish parties; the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The region also has its own flag and national anthem.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: At the same time, Iraq imposed an economic blockade over the region, reducing its oil and food supplies. Elections held in June 1992 produced an inconclusive outcome, with the assembly divided almost equally between the two main parties and their allies. During this period, the Kurds were subjected to a double embargo: one imposed by the United Nations on Iraq and one imposed by Saddam Hussein on their region. The severe economic hardships caused by the embargoes fueled tensions between the two dominant political parties, the KDP and the PUK, over control of trade routes and resources. Relations between the PUK and the KDP started to become dangerously strained from September 1993 after rounds of amalgamations occurred between parties.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: After 1996, 13% of the Iraqi oil sales were allocated for Iraqi Kurdistan and this led to relative prosperity in the region. In return, the Kurds under KDP enabled Saddam to establish an oil smuggling route through territory controlled by the KDP, with the active involvement of senior Barzani family members. The taxation of this trade at the crossing point between Saddam's territory and Kurdish controlled territory and then into Turkey, along with associated service revenue, meant that whoever controlled Dohuk and Zakho had the potential to earn several million dollars a week. Direct United States mediation led the two parties to a formal ceasefire in what was termed the "Washington Agreement" in September 1998. It is also argued that the Oil-for-Food Programme from 1997 onward had an important effect on cessation of hostilities.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Iraqi Kurds played an important role in the Iraq War. Kurdish parties joined forces against the Iraqi government during the war in Spring 2003. Kurdish military forces, known as Peshmerga, played an important role in the overthrow of the Iraqi government; however, Kurds have been reluctant to send troops into Baghdad since then, preferring not to be dragged into the sectarian struggle that so dominates much of Iraq.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: A new constitution of Iraq was established in 2005, defining Iraq as a federalist state consisting of Regions and Governorate's. The Kurdistan region includes the Governorate Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Duhok. It recognized both the Kurdistan Region and all laws passed by the KRG since 1992. There is provision for Governorates to create, join or leave Regions. However, as of late 2015, no new Regions have been formed, and the KRG remains the only regional government within Iraq.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: PUK leader Jalal Talabani was elected President of the new Iraqi administration, while KDP leader Masoud Barzani became President of the Kurdistan Regional Government.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Tensions between Iraqi Kurdistan and the central Iraqi government mounted through 2011–2012 on the issues of power sharing, oil production and territorial control. In April 2012, the president of Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region demanded that officials agree to their demands or face the prospect of secession from Baghdad by September 2012.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In September 2012, the Iraqi government ordered the KRG to transfer its powers over the Peshmerga to the central government. Relations became further strained by the formation of a new command center (Tigris Operation Command) for Iraqi forces to operate in a disputed area over which both Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government claim jurisdiction. On 16 November 2012 a military clash between the Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga resulted in one person killed. CNN reported that two people were killed (one of them an Iraqi soldier) and ten wounded in clashes at the Tuz Khurmato town.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: As of 2014, Iraqi Kurdistan is in dispute with the Federal Iraqi government on the issues of territorial control, export of oil and budget distribution and is functioning largely outside Baghdad's control. With the escalation of the Iraqi crisis and fears of Iraq's collapse, Kurds have increasingly debated the issue of independence. During the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, Iraqi Kurdistan seized the city of Kirkuk and the surrounding area, as well as most of the disputed territories in Northern Iraq. On 1 July 2014, Masoud Barzani announced that "Iraq's Kurds will hold an independence referendum within months." After previously opposing the independence for Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey later gave signs that it could recognize an independent Kurdish state. On 11 July 2014, KRG forces seized control of the Bai Hassan and Kirkuk oilfields, prompting a condemnation from Baghdad and a threat of "dire consequences" if the oilfields were not relinquished back to Iraq's control.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In September, Kurdish leaders decided to postpone the referendum so as to focus on the fight against ISIL. In November, Ed Royce, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives, introduced legislation to arm the Kurds directly, rather than continue working through the local governments.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In August 2014, the US began a campaign of airstrikes in Iraq, in part to protect Kurdish areas such as Erbil from the militants.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: In February 2016, Kurdish president Barzani stated once again that "Now the time is ripe for the people of Kurdistan to decide their future through a referendum", supporting an independence referendum and citing similar referendums in Scotland, Catalonia and Quebec. On March 23, Barzani officially declared that Iraqi Kurdistan will hold the referendum some time "before October" of that year. On April 2, 2017, the two governing parties released a joint statement announcing they would form a joint committee to prepare for a referendum to be held on 25 September.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: The 2017 Kurdistan Region independence referendum took place on September 25, with 92.73% voting in favor of independence. This triggered a military operation in which the Iraqi government retook control of Kirkuk and surrounding areas, and forced the KRG to annul the referendum. Scholars have argued that the retaking of Kirkuk, a PUK stronghold, and the loss of other territory to Iraq, has actually consolidated the power of the Barzani family and the KDP, who remain in power.


title: Iraqi Kurdistan

text: Kurdish culture is a group of distinctive cultural traits practiced by Kurdish people. The Kurdish culture is a legacy from the various ancient peoples who shaped modern Kurds and their society, but primarily Iranian. Among their neighbours, the Kurdish culture is closest to Persian culture. For example, they celebrate Newroz as the new year day, which is celebrated on March 21. It is the first day of the month of "Xakelêwe" in Kurdish calendar and the first day of spring.


title: History of democracy

text: A democracy is a political system, or a system of decision-making within an institution or organization or a country, in which all members have an equal share of power. Modern democracies are characterized by two capabilities that differentiate them fundamentally from earlier forms of government: the capacity to intervene in their own societies and the recognition of their sovereignty by an international legalistic framework of similarly sovereign states. Democratic government is commonly juxtaposed with oligarchic and monarchic systems, which are ruled by a minority and a sole monarch respectively.


title: History of democracy

text: Democracy is generally associated with the efforts of the ancient Greeks, whom 18th-century intellectuals considered the founders of Western civilization. These individuals attempted to leverage these early democratic experiments into a new template for post-monarchical political organization. The extent to which these 18th-century democratic revivalists succeeded in turning the democratic ideals of the ancient Greeks into the dominant political institution of the next 300 years is hardly debatable, even if the moral justifications they often employed might be. Nevertheless, the critical historical juncture catalyzed by the resurrection of democratic ideals and institutions fundamentally transformed the ensuing centuries and has dominated the international landscape since the dismantling of the final vestige of the empire following the end of the Second World War.


title: History of democracy

text: Modern representative democracies attempt to bridge the gulf between the Hobbesian 'state of nature' and the grip of authoritarianism through 'social contracts' that enshrine the rights of the citizens, curtail the power of the state, and grant agency through the right to vote.


title: History of democracy

text: While they engage populations with some level of decision-making, they are defined by the premise of distrust in the ability of human populations to make a direct judgement about candidates or decisions on issues.


title: History of democracy

text: Anthropologists have identified forms of proto-democracy that date back to small bands of hunter-gatherers that predate the establishment of agrarian, sedentary societies and still exist virtually unchanged in isolated indigenous groups today. In these groups of generally 50-100 individuals, often tied closely by familial bonds, decisions are reached by consensus or majority and many times without the designation of any specific chief.


title: History of democracy

text: These types of democracy are commonly identified as tribalism, or "primitive democracy". In this sense, a "primitive democracy" usually takes shape in small communities or villages when there are face-to-face discussions in a village, council or with a leader who has the backing of village elders or other cooperative forms of government. This becomes more complex on a larger scale, such as when the village and city are examined more broadly as political communities. All other forms of rule – including monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, and oligarchy – have flourished in more urban centers, often those with concentrated populations.


title: History of democracy

text: The concepts (and name) of democracy and constitution as a form of government originated in ancient Athens circa 508 BCE. In ancient Greece, where there were many city-states with different forms of government, democracy was contrasted with governance by elites (aristocracy), by one person (monarchy), by tyrants (tyranny), etc.


title: History of democracy

text: Although fifth-century BC Athens is widely considered to have been the first state to develop a sophisticated system of rule that we today call democracy, in recent decades scholars have explored the possibility that advancements toward democratic government occurred independently in the Near East, the Indian subcontinent, and elsewhere before this.


title: History of democracy

text: The practice of "governing by assembly" was at least part of how ancient Phoenicians made important decisions. One source is the story of Wen-Amon, an Egyptian trader who travelled north to the Phoenician city of Byblos around 1100 BCE to trade for Phoenician lumber. After loading his lumber, a group of pirates surrounded Wen-Amon and his cargo ship. The Phoenician prince of Byblos was called in to fix the problem, whereupon he summoned his "mw-'dwt," an old Semitic word meaning assembly, to reach a decision. The details from there are irrelevant; what is germane to the history of democracy is that Byblos was ruled in part by a popular assembly (drawn from what subpopulation and equipped with exactly what power we cannot know exactly).


title: History of democracy

text: Studying pre-Babylonian Mesopotamia, Thorkild Jacobsen used Sumerian epic, myth, and historical records to identify what he has called "primitive democracy". By this, Jacobsen means a government in which ultimate power rests with the mass of free (non-slave) male citizens, although "the various functions of government are as yet little specialised [and] the power structure is loose". In early Sumer, kings like Gilgamesh did not hold the autocratic power that later Mesopotamian rulers wielded. Rather, major city-states functioned with councils of elders and "young men" (likely free men bearing arms) that possessed the final political authority, and had to be consulted on all major issues such as war.


title: History of democracy

text: The work has gained little outright acceptance. Scholars criticize the use of the word "democracy" in this context since the same evidence also can be interpreted to demonstrate a power struggle between primitive monarchy and noble classes, a struggle in which the common people function more like pawns rather than any kind of sovereign authority. Jacobsen conceded that the vagueness of the evidence prohibits the separation between the "Mesopotamian democracy" from a "primitive oligarchy".


title: History of democracy

text: Another claim for early democratic institutions comes from the independent "republics" of India, s and s, which existed as early as the 6th century BCE and persisted in some areas until the 4th century. The evidence for this is scattered, however, and no pure historical source exists for that period. In addition, Diodorus—a Greek historian who wrote two centuries after the time of Alexander the Great's invasion of India—mentions, without offering any detail, that independent and democratic states existed in India. Modern scholars note the word "democracy" at the time of the 3rd century BCE and later suffered from degradation and could mean any autonomous state, no matter how oligarchic in nature.


title: History of democracy

text: Key characteristics of the seem to include a monarch, usually known by the name raja, and a deliberative assembly. The assembly met regularly. It discussed all major state decisions. At least in some states, attendance was open to all free men. This body also had full financial, administrative, and judicial authority. Other officers, who rarely receive any mention, obeyed the decisions of the assembly. Elected by the , the monarch apparently always belonged to a family of the noble class of "Kshatriya Varna". The monarch coordinated his activities with the assembly; in some states, he did so with a council of other nobles. The Licchavis had a primary governing body of 7,077 rajas, the heads of the most important families. On the other hand, the Shakyas, Koliyas, Mallakas, and Licchavis, during the period around Gautama Buddha, had the assembly open to all men, rich and poor. Early "republics" or , such as Mallakas, centered in the city of Kusinagara, and the Vajji (or Vṛji) League, centered in the city of Vaishali, existed as early as the 6th century BCE and persisted in some areas until the 4th century CE. The most famous clan amongst the ruling confederate tribes of the Vajji Mahajanapada were the Licchavis. The Magadha kingdom included republican communities such as the community of Rajakumara. Villages had their own assemblies under their local chiefs called Gramakas. Their administrations were divided into executive, judicial, and military functions.


title: History of democracy

text: Scholars differ over how best to describe these governments, and the vague, sporadic quality of the evidence allows for wide disagreements. Some emphasize the central role of the assemblies and thus tout them as democracies; other scholars focus on the upper-class domination of the leadership and possible control of the assembly and see an oligarchy or an aristocracy. Despite the assembly's obvious power, it has not yet been established whether the composition and participation were truly popular. The first main obstacle is the lack of evidence describing the popular power of the assembly. This is reflected in the "Arthashastra", an ancient handbook for monarchs on how to rule efficiently. It contains a chapter on how to deal with the "sangas", which includes injunctions on manipulating the noble leaders, yet it does not mention how to influence the mass of the citizens—a surprising omission if democratic bodies, not the aristocratic families, actively controlled the republican governments. Another issue is the persistence of the four-tiered Varna class system. The duties and privileges on the members of each particular caste—rigid enough to prohibit someone sharing a meal with those of another order—might have affected the roles members were expected to play in the state, regardless of the formality of the institutions. A central tenet of democracy is the notion of shared decision-making power. The absence of any concrete notion of citizen equality across these caste system boundaries leads many scholars to claim that the true nature of s and 's is not comparable to truly democratic institutions.


title: History of democracy

text: Ancient Greece, in its early period, was a loose collection of independent city states called poleis. Many of these poleis were oligarchies. The most prominent Greek oligarchy, and the state with which democratic Athens is most often and most fruitfully compared, was Sparta. Yet Sparta, in its rejection of private wealth as a primary social differentiator, was a peculiar kind of oligarchy and some scholars note its resemblance to democracy. In Spartan government, the political power was divided between four bodies: two Spartan Kings (diarchy), gerousia ("Council of Gerontes" (Elders), including the two kings), the ephors (representatives of the citizens who oversaw the Kings) and the ecclesia (assembly of Spartans).


title: History of democracy

text: The two kings served as the head of the government. They ruled simultaneously, but they came from two separate lines. The dual kingship diluted the effective power of the executive office. The kings shared their judicial functions with other members of the gerousia. The members of the gerousia had to be over the age of 60 and were elected for life. In theory, any Spartan over that age could stand for election. However, in practice, they were selected from wealthy, aristocratic families. The gerousia possessed the crucial power of legislative initiative. Apella, the most democratic element, was the assembly where Spartans above the age of 30 elected the members of the gerousia and the ephors, and accepted or rejected gerousia's proposals. Finally, the five ephors were Spartans chosen in apella to oversee the actions of the kings and other public officials and, if necessary, depose them. They served for one year and could not be re-elected for a second term. Over the years, the ephors held great influence on the formation of foreign policy and acted as the main executive body of the state. Additionally, they had full responsibility for the Spartan educational system, which was essential for maintaining the high standards of the Spartan army. As Aristotle noted, ephors were the most important key institution of the state, but because often they were appointed from the whole social body it resulted in very poor men holding office, with the ensuing possibility that they could easily be bribed.


title: History of democracy

text: The creator of the Spartan system of rule was the legendary lawgiver Lycurgus. He is associated with the drastic reforms that were instituted in Sparta after the revolt of the helots in the second half of the 7th century BCE. In order to prevent another helot revolt, Lycurgus devised the highly militarized communal system that made Sparta unique among the city-states of Greece. All his reforms were directed towards the three Spartan virtues: equality (among citizens), military fitness, and austerity. It is also probable that Lycurgus delineated the powers of the two traditional organs of the Spartan government, the gerousia and the apella.


title: History of democracy

text: The reforms of Lycurgus were written as a list of rules/laws called Great Rhetra, making it the world's first written constitution. In the following centuries, Sparta became a military superpower, and its system of rule was admired throughout the Greek world for its political stability. In particular, the concept of equality played an important role in Spartan society. The Spartans referred to themselves as "όμοιοι" ("Homoioi", "men of equal status"). It was also reflected in the Spartan public educational system, agoge, where all citizens irrespective of wealth or status had the same education. This was admired almost universally by contemporaries, from historians such as Herodotus and Xenophon to philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. In addition, the Spartan women, unlike elsewhere, enjoyed "every kind of luxury and intemperance" including rights such as the right to inheritance, property ownership, and public education.


title: History of democracy

text: Overall, the Spartans were relatively free to criticize their kings and they were able to depose and exile them. However, despite these "democratic" elements in the Spartan constitution, there are two cardinal criticisms, classifying Sparta as an oligarchy. First, individual freedom was restricted, since as Plutarch writes ""no man was allowed to live as he wished"", but as in a ""military camp"" all were engaged in the public service of their polis. And second, the gerousia effectively maintained the biggest share of power of the various governmental bodies.


title: History of democracy

text: The political stability of Sparta also meant that no significant changes in the constitution were made. The oligarchic elements of Sparta became even stronger, especially after the influx of gold and silver from the victories in the Persian Wars. In addition, Athens, after the Persian Wars, was becoming the hegemonic power in the Greek world and disagreements between Sparta and Athens over supremacy emerged. These led to a series of armed conflicts known as the Peloponnesian War, with Sparta prevailing in the end. However, the war exhausted both poleis and Sparta was in turn humbled by Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE. It was all brought to an end a few years later, when Philip II of Macedon crushed what remained of the power of the factional city-states to his South.


title: History of democracy

text: Athens is often regarded by western scholars as the birthplace of democracy and remains an important reference point for democracy. Literature about the Athenian democracy spans over centuries with the earliest works being The Republic of Plato and Politics of Aristotle, continuing with Discourses of Niccolò Machiavelli.


title: History of democracy

text: Athens emerged in the 7th century BCE, like many other poleis, with a dominating powerful aristocracy. However, this domination led to exploitation, creating significant economic, political, and social problems. These problems were exacerbated early in the 6th century; and, as ""the many were enslaved to few, the people rose against the notables"". At the same time, a number of popular revolutions disrupted traditional aristocracies. This included Sparta in the second half of the 7th century BCE. The constitutional reforms implemented by Lycurgus in Sparta introduced a hoplite state that showed, in turn, how inherited governments can be changed and lead to military victory. After a period of unrest between the rich and poor, Athenians of all classes turned to Solon to act as a mediator between rival factions, and reached a generally satisfactory solution to their problems.


title: History of democracy

text: Solon ( 638 558 BCE), an Athenian (Greek) of noble descent but moderate means, was a lyric poet and later a lawmaker; Plutarch ranked him as one of the Seven Sages of the ancient world. Solon attempted to satisfy all sides by alleviating the suffering of the poor majority without removing all the privileges of the rich minority. Solon divided the Athenians into four property classes, with different rights and duties for each. As the Rhetra did in Lycurgian Sparta, Solon formalized the composition and functions of the governmental bodies. All citizens gained the right to attend the Ecclesia (Assembly) and to vote. The Ecclesia became, in principle, the sovereign body, entitled to pass laws and decrees, elect officials, and hear appeals from the most important decisions of the courts. All but those in the poorest group might serve, a year at a time, on a new Boule of 400, which was to prepare the agenda for the Ecclesia. The higher governmental posts, those of the archons (magistrates), were reserved for citizens of the top two income groups. The retired archons became members of the Areopagus (Council of the Hill of Ares), which like the Gerousia in Sparta, was able to check improper actions of the newly powerful Ecclesia. Solon created a mixed timocratic and democratic system of institutions.


title: History of democracy

text: Overall, Solon devised the reforms of 594 BCE to avert the political, economic, and moral decline in archaic Athens and gave Athens its first comprehensive code of law. The constitutional reforms eliminated enslavement of Athenians by Athenians, established rules for legal redress against over-reaching aristocratic archons, and assigned political privileges on the basis of productive wealth rather than of noble birth. Some of Solon's reforms failed in the short term, yet he is often credited with having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy.


title: History of democracy

text: Even though the Solonian reorganization of the constitution improved the economic position of the Athenian lower classes, it did not eliminate the bitter aristocratic contentions for control of the archonship, the chief executive post. Peisistratus became tyrant of Athens three times from 561 BCE and remained in power until his death in 527 BCE. His sons Hippias and Hipparchus succeeded him.


title: History of democracy

text: After the fall of tyranny (510 BCE) and before the year 508–507 was over, Cleisthenes proposed a complete reform of the system of government, which later was approved by the popular Ecclesia. Cleisthenes reorganized the population of citizens into ten tribes, with the aim to change the basis of political organization from the family loyalties to political ones, and improve the army's organization. He also introduced the principle of equality of rights for all male citizens, isonomia, by expanding access to power to more citizens. During this period, Athenians first used the word "democracy" (Greek: δημοκρατία – "rule by the people") to define their new system of government. In the next generation, Athens entered its Golden Age, becoming a great center of literature and art. Greek victories in Persian Wars (499–449 BCE) encouraged the poorest Athenians (who participated in the military campaigns) to demand a greater say in the running of their city. In the late 460s, Ephialtes and Pericles presided over a radicalization of power that shifted the balance decisively to the poorest sections of society, by passing laws which severely limited the powers of the Council of the Areopagus and allowed thetes (Athenians without wealth) to occupy public office. Pericles became distinguished as the Athenians' greatest democratic leader, even though he has been accused of running a political machine. In the following passage, Thucydides recorded Pericles, in the funeral oration, describing the Athenian system of rule:


title: History of democracy

text: The Athenian democracy of Cleisthenes and Pericles was based on freedom of citizens (through the reforms of Solon) and on equality of citizens (isonomia) - introduced by Cleisthenes and later expanded by Ephialtes and Pericles. To preserve these principles, the Athenians used lot for selecting officials. Casting lots aimed to ensure that all citizens were ""equally"" qualified for office, and to avoid any corruption allotment machines were used. Moreover, in most positions chosen by lot, Athenian citizens could not be selected more than once; this rotation in office meant that no-one could build up a power base through staying in a particular position.


title: History of democracy

text: The courts formed another important political institution in Athens; they were composed of a large number of juries with no judges, and they were selected by lot on a daily basis from an annual pool, also chosen by lot. The courts had unlimited power to control the other bodies of the government and its political leaders. Participation by the citizens selected was mandatory, and a modest financial compensation was given to citizens whose livelihood was affected by being "drafted" to office. The only officials chosen by elections, one from each tribe, were the "strategoi" (generals), where military knowledge was required, and the "treasurers", who had to be wealthy, since any funds revealed to have been embezzled were recovered from a treasurer's private fortune. Debate was open to all present and decisions in all matters of policy were taken by majority vote in the Ecclesia (compare direct democracy), in which all male citizens could participate (in some cases with a quorum of 6000). The decisions taken in the Ecclesia were executed by the Boule of 500, which had already approved the agenda for the Ecclesia. The Athenian Boule was elected by lot every year and no citizen could serve more than twice.


title: History of democracy

text: Overall, the Athenian democracy was not only "direct" in the sense that decisions were made by the assembled people, but also "directest" in the sense that the people through the assembly, boule, and courts of law controlled the entire political process and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in the public business. And even though the rights of the individual (probably) were not secured by the Athenian constitution in the modern sense, the Athenians enjoyed their liberties not in opposition to the government, but by living in a city that was not subject to another power and by not being subjects themselves to the rule of another person.


title: History of democracy

text: Within the Athenian democratic environment, many philosophers from all over the Greek world gathered to develop their theories. Socrates (470-399 BCE) was the first to raise the question, further expanded by his pupil Plato (died 348/347), about the relation/position of an individual within a community. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) continued the work of his teacher, Plato, and laid the foundations of political philosophy. The political philosophy developed in Athens was, in the words of Peter Hall, ""in a form so complete that hardly added anyone of moment to it for over a millennium"". Aristotle systematically analyzed the different systems of rule that the numerous Greek city-states had and divided them into three categories based on how many ruled: the many (democracy/polity), the few (oligarchy/aristocracy), a single person (tyranny, or today: autocracy/monarchy). For Aristotle, the underlying principles of democracy are reflected in his work "Politics":


title: History of democracy

text: The Athenian democracy, in its two centuries of life-time, twice voted against its democratic constitution (both times during the crisis at the end of the Pelopponesian War of 431 to 404 BCE), establishing first the Four Hundred (in 411 BCE) and second Sparta's puppet régime of the Thirty Tyrants (in 404 BCE). Both votes took place under manipulation and pressure, but democracy was recovered in less than a year in both cases. Reforms following the restoration of democracy after the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants removed most law-making authority from the Assembly and placed it in randomly selected law-making juries known as "nomothetai". Athens restored its democratic constitution again after King Philip II of Macedon (reigned 359-336 BCE) and later Alexander the Great (reigned 336–323 BCE) unified Greece, but it was politically over-shadowed by the Hellenistic empires. Finally, after the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BCE, Athens was restricted to matters of local administration.


title: History of democracy

text: However, democracy in Athens declined not only due to external powers, but due to its citizens, such as Plato and his student Aristotle. Because of their influential works, after the rediscovery of classics during the Renaissance, Sparta's political stability was praised,


title: History of democracy

text: while the Periclean democracy was described as a system of rule where either the less well-born, the mob (as a collective tyrant), or the poorer classes held power. Only centuries afterwards, after the publication of "A History of Greece" by George Grote from 1846 onwards, did modern political thinkers start to view the Athenian democracy of Pericles positively. In the late 20th century scholars re-examined the Athenian system of rule as a model of empowering citizens and as a "post-modern" example for communities and organizations alike.


title: History of democracy

text: Rome's history has helped preserve the concept of democracy over the centuries. The Romans invented the concept of classics and many works from Ancient Greece were preserved.


title: History of democracy

text: Additionally, the Roman model of governance inspired many political thinkers over the centuries, and today's modern (representative) democracies imitate more the Roman than the Greek models.