The Kingdom of Spain () entered a new era with the death of Charles II, the last Spanish Habsburg monarch, who died childless in 1700. The War of the Spanish Succession was fought between proponents of a Bourbon prince, Philip of Anjou, and the Austrian Hapsburg claimant, Archduke Charles. After the wars were ended with the Peace of Utrecht, Philip V's rule began in 1715, although he had to renounce his place in the succession of the French throne.

Spain entered a period of reform and renewal, as well as continued decline. Ideas of the Age of Enlightenment entered Spain and Spanish America during the eighteenth century. The invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Peninsular War upended the stability of the Spanish state and empire and although France was defeated, the turmoil in Spain led to the Spanish American wars of independence.

The 18th century in Spanish historiography is often referred to as Bourbon Spain, but the Spanish Bourbons continued to reign from 1814 to 1868 (following the restoration of Ferdinand VII), from 1874 to 1931, and since 1975.

Philip V, first Spanish Bourbon monarch (1700–1724, 1724–1746) and Louis I (1724–1724)

War of the Spanish Succession

The last few years of the rule of the mentally challenged and childless Spanish Habsburg Charles II, were dominated by the politics of who would succeed the unfortunate monarch, the last Spanish king of the Hapsburg dynasty. Spain was at the center of this political crisis, but it was the "object not the arbiter." Economic troubles, the decay of the Spanish bureaucracy, a series of defeats in wars against France, and the erosion of imperial institutions in the seventeenth century had left Charles the king of a declining empire, and his physical and mental weakness provided him with little ability to reverse the course of his country. The vastness and wealth of the ultramarine Spanish Empire in the New World and the Philippines, along with her naval resources, had made Spain a vital part of European power politics. If the throne of Spain was to go to a relative of the king of France, or if the two countries were to be united, the balance of power in Europe would shift in France's favor. The wealth of the Spanish overseas empire would flow to France. If it remained in the hands of another member of the anti-French, Austrian Hapsburg dynasty, the status quo would remain. European politics at the end of the 16th century became dominated by establishing an orderly succession in Spain that would not alter the balance between Europe's great powers.

Bourbon France and Hapsburg Austria and its allies went to war to determine the successor to Charles. The prize was the wealth of the Spanish Empire. The War of the Spanish Succession (1702–14) was won by France, but by the Treaty of Utrecht ending the conflict, the French and Spanish Bourbon dynasties pledged not to unite formally. Louis XIV of France's exclamation that the "Now there are no more Pyrenees!" now that his grandson was Spain's monarch did not come to pass. Although Charles II's chosen heir inaugurated a new dynastic house in Spain, the Hapsburg Spanish empire in Europe was reduced to the Iberian peninsula itself, with the loss of Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands, and Britain captured Gibraltar and the island of Menorca as well. The Treaty of Utrecht ended the conflict and Philip V of Spain renounced any claims to the French throne. Before the conflict ended, Philip's young wife, Maria Louisa of Savoy (1688–1714) died, but the Bourbon royal succession was assured with the birth of two sons.

Changes in government under Philip

Philip V proved an effective administrator, centralizing the Spanish authority by eliminating regional cortes (parliaments) and beginning a process of making uniform the laws among the various regions of Spain's empire by eliminating special privileges (fueros). The Nueva Planta decrees (1716) dismantled the composite system of rule in Spain, and replaced it with rule from Madrid and unitary Castilian values. If the Austrian Hapsburgs had won the War of the Spanish Succession, Habsburg pluralism promised to be continued, leading Aragon to support the losing Habsburg cause. The Nueva Planta decrees eliminated that regional autonomy. "The most enduring achievement of the reign of Philip V was to establish, for the first time since the Romans, a single, united polity."

Also eliminated with the Bourbon dynasty was the Habsburg system of conciliar government, replacing councils with four secretariats, later evolving into ministries: State & Foreign Affairs, Charity & Justice; Army & Navy, and The Indies, i.e., the overseas portions of the Spanish Empire. The four ministers formed a "cabinet council" and ministers were directly responsible to the crown. In general, aristocratic men no longer dominated government positions, but rather men of talent who were then elevated to high position and rewarded with noble titles. Some 200 new titles were created by Philip alone. Administrative reforms included the division of Spain into eight reinos headed by a military official and an audiencia was established for the administration of justice. Local level administrators (corregidores), which had already existed in Castile, were appointed to the other reinos. An important reform was in taxation and royal debt. Some bonds issued by the crown were repudiated while others had their interest rate downgraded. New tax officials were efficient in collecting and administering taxes, to the benefit of the new monarchy. Regions that had not paid taxes at the same levels as Castile were not subject to taxation by the unitary state. Since Spain under the Bourbon monarchs pursued many wars, having a tax base to pay for them was crucial.

Philip's selection of capable French and Italian ministers to key positions in the government reined in independent, isolated, and corrupt ministries that had flourished in the later period of Habsburg rule. Philip aimed at expanding economic activity and moved toward economic freedom, especially regarding Spain's trade in its overseas empire, in theory a Spanish monopoly. Expanding Spanish manufactures and agricultural exports was envisioned, so that trade did not benefit foreign powers who had horned in on the Spanish American trade. The House of Trade long operating in Seville, was moved to Cádiz in 1717, while the monopoly on trade with the Spanish Empire was also opened to all the ports of peninsular Spain. Philip permitted the foundation of the Basque Caracas Company in 1728, on the model of Northern European trading companies, to trade with Venezuela, a major producer of chocolate. The free trade zone (comercio libre) within the Spanish sphere expanded further with later Spanish Bourbons.

Military conflicts
Philip was often dominated in his policies by his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese. He adopted an aggressive foreign policy that invested Spain in a series of costly wars throughout his reign. The loss of so much of the European territory promised to him by Charles II's will and Philip V's personal ambition put him at unease with the Treaty of Utrecht. Philip's wife Elizabeth, a member of the ducal house of Parma, and her favorite minister, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, desired to have their claims in Italy and those of Philip restored. But an alliance of France, Britain, and the Dutch Republic challenged Spain's ambitions which threatened the peace of Europe. In 1717, Philip invaded Sardinia, one of the territories lost to Austria after the War of the Spanish Succession. The invasion of Sicily thereafter prompted the formation of the Quadruple Alliance of Britain, France, Austria, and the Netherlands to oppose Philip's ambitions. In 1720, embarrassed by the failure of Spanish arms at sea and on land in the War of the Quadruple Alliance, Philip dismissed Alberoni and signed a peace treaty with Austria, with both sides recognizing the Treaty of Utrecht.

The Spanish again attempted to regain some of their lost territory in the Anglo-Spanish War (1727–1729). An alliance was concluded in 1725 with the Austrians, who agreed to help the Spanish in retaking key naval bases in the Mediterranean - Menorca and Gibraltar – from the British.

In response, an alliance was forged by the British Secretary of State, Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, with France and the Dutch Republic; when Philip did finally lay siege to Gibraltar, Austria declined to intervene against the powerful alliance, and Spain was left alone once again. French armies invaded the Basque country and Britain and Netherlands elected to capture Spain's New World empire and disrupt precious metal shipments hoping to prevent Philip from buying the Austrians into intervention; the allies suffered greater losses in men than the Spanish but the plan succeeded and Philip was forced to sue for peace in 1729. Elizabeth Farnese did get one of her wishes, though; securing the succession rights in the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza and Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

After 1729, Philip was more reserved in his use of Spanish power and sought the close support of allies, in particular France: a more cautious strategy that yielded positive results. Philip sought a friendly axis with his relatives in France in the War of the Polish Succession, where he succeeded in regaining the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily for his son, the future Charles III of Spain. The Pacte de Famille with Louis XV of France was signed in 1733, bringing the two states closer together after the embarrassments of the Quadruple Alliance. Friction with Britain prompted by the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–1741) pushed Philip into a closer alliance with France in the years leading to the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Philip obtained the Duchy of Parma and Duchy of Guastalla from Austria for his son Philip. This restored Spanish power in Italy to much of its pre-1700 extent and added new territories, albeit to a more indirect degree.

First Minister Ensenada

Late in his reign, Philip elected to place the reformation of his government in the hands of his ministers. The youthful and ambitious Zenón de Somodevilla had been created Marquess of Ensenada in 1736 for his successful diplomacy after the War of the Polish Succession, and seven years afterwards, in 1743, he was made Philip (and Elizabeth's) favorite at court, and for the remainder of Philip's reign, Ensenada effectively ruled Spain. Ensenada sought a cautious but independent foreign policy that distanced his country from both France or Britain, and desired a stable, peaceful environment in which Spain could reform her institutions. Ensenada commissioned a secret report on the state of Spanish America carried out by Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa. Their report asserted that the overseas empire was inefficiently and incompetently administered by American-born Spaniards (criollos) and detailed the enmity between peninsular-born Spaniards and American-born colonials. Administrative reforms of the overseas empire was informed by the report Ensenada commissioned.

Ferdinand VI (1746–1759)

The end of the War of the Austrian Succession had awarded Ensenada a victory that cemented his support in Spain. However, two years before the war ended, King Philip, his strongest supporter, died, and was succeeded by his son Ferdinand VI. Ferdinand was Philip's son by his first marriage to Maria Luisa of Savoy; he had suffered under the domineering influence of his stepmother as a child, and as king, he was constantly unsure of his own abilities. Elizabeth Farnese, the queen who had effectively controlled Philip V, left the court on her husband's death. Like his father, Ferdinand was extremely devoted to his wife, Barbara of Portugal and she dictated much of his policy and political decisions; at the time of Ferdinand's coronation in 1746, it was said that "Queen Barbara has succeeded Queen Elizabeth." For her part, Queen Barbara, a member of the Portuguese royal family, advocated a policy of neutrality that coincided with the opinions of her leading courtiers, far different from the irredentist policy of Elizabeth.

Ferdinand's rule reaped good fortune and the rewards of Philip V's reforms. He was a charitable ruler, relieving drought-stricken Andalusia from all taxes in 1755 and devoting large sums of money to the reconstruction of that part of the country. As king, he deferred many of his judgments to his leading ministers.

Ensenada continued to be the leading member of court in the early part of Ferdinand's reign. After the successful alliance with France in the War of the Austrian Succession, he advised strengthening that bond as a means of protecting Spain's vulnerable security and checking British interests in her empire. He was opposed by an anglophile faction at court led by Jose de Carvajal y Láncaster, a mixed British-Spanish gentleman descended from the House of Lancaster. Carvajal believed that the key to Spain's defense and modernization was a closer alliance with Britain, whose naval power could complement Spain's empire and whose commercial strength could encourage economic development in Spain. Carvajal's most enduring accomplishment was the 1750 agreement with Portugal, which ended a long, low-level conflict in Banda Oriental (southern Uruguay) between the two countries.

The agreement with Portugal, however, was to have important political consequences for Spain. The agreement traded seven Jesuit-established and -operated missions in southern Uruguay for Portuguese-founded and -controlled Uruguay. The plan (opposed by both the Jesuits and the British) led to resistance led by the Jesuits and their native Guaraní allies in the area. Both Spain and Portugal responded in force to the crisis, suppressing the Jesuits and Guaraní in the War of the Seven Reductions. The war broke a traditionally friendly relationship between the Spanish government and the Jesuits and launched a period of anti-Jesuit policies both in Spain and Portugal that would be continued by Charles III of Spain.

A scandal at court, resulting from a conspiracy between Carvajal and the British ambassador, led to the embarrassment of Ensenada and his disrepute at court. When Carvajal died in 1754, Ferdinand and his wife dismissed Ensenada, fearing that the Marquis's French sympathies would lead to an alliance with Louis XV of France and war, without Carvajal's British sympathies to counterbalance him. An Irishman, Ricardo Wall, was appointed to replace Ensenada as chief minister. Wall, a staunch defender of Spain's neutral policy, successfully kept the country out of war for the remainder of Ferdinand's reign, in spite of the outbreak of the Seven Years' War.

Although his wife, Barbara, had always feared that Ferdinand would die before her and leave her destitute – she had amassed huge personal wealth as a safeguard against this – she was the one who would precede him, dying in 1758. Deeply distraught by her death, Ferdinand became apathetic to his duties as king, and indeed, suicidal. He died a year later, in 1759.

Charles III, Enlightened despotism and reform (1759–1788)

Italian experience, ascension to the Spanish throne
Ferdinand's successor was Charles III, son of Philip V by his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese. Charles was the half-brother of Ferdinand VI, and not initially expected to ascend the throne of Spain. Since Ferdinand had no children, it was clear that Charles would ascend to the throne. In his half-brother's last years of ill physical and mental health and erratic behavior, Charles kept up to the minute on happenings in Spain. He learned of the "spreading administrative paralysis, breakdown of responsibility, and delays in making key decisions" and was worried that France and Spain in the event might attempt to carve up the Spanish Empire. At age 16, Charles had been named Duke of Parma at his mother's demand. His experience there gave him a place to experiment with the practice of enlightened despotism. He exhibited a martial spirit early on, acquiring Naples and Sicily by force of arms and becoming their king, though his tastes were generally more peaceful. Upon arriving in Spain, he did not share Carvajal's taste for an alliance with Britain.

He had been introduced to reform by his mentor in Sicily, Bernardo Tanucci. Although Tanucci remained behind in Napless to advise Charles's son, King Ferdinand IV, as the two thrones could not be united by consequence of the Treaty of Vienna, Charles carried with him a cadre of Italian reformers who saw potential in the Spanish bureaucracy for modernization. The architect of the first phase of Charles III's reforms was one such Italian, Leopoldo de Gregorio - a man of humble origins whose ability as a military supplier for the Neapolitan army impressed the king and raised him to royal prominence. Created "Marquis of Esquilache" in 1755, Gregorio was one of Spain's leading statesman from the arrival of Charles III to the Marquis's death in 1785.

Seven Years' War

Although the Seven Years' War had broken out in 1756, Spain had managed to remain strictly neutral under the ministry of Ricardo Wall, who continued to lead Spain's government in the early years of Charles III. Charles, however, bore a grudge against the English and as the war became increasingly desperate for France, he went against his chief minister's wishes and intervened on France's behalf in 1762. Spain fared poorly in the war, and the British captured Havana and Manila within a year. Spanish Florida was ceded to the British and Spain recognized British control over Menorca and Gibraltar in 1763, although the vast territory of Louisiana was given to Spain to compensate her for her losses. After the Treaty of Paris (1763), however, Spain could focus on internal development.

Reforms

By far the largest landholder in Spain, the Church had been treated with great charity by the Spanish kings of the seventeenth century - Philip IV in particular donated large tracts of territory in religious piety. Much of this land went unused, and a great deal of the remainder of the country was owned by gentlemanly hidalgos who lived primarily off of the state. The system had grown long obsolete, and a growing population (Spain's population would increase from eight to twelve million between 1700 and the French Revolution) had put great pressure on the government to reform. Like neighboring Portugal, Spain's antiquated bureaucracy had grown dependent on the income and production from its colonies to support an unmanageable, large class of landowning, non-productive gentlemen and clergy.

The Enlightenment had been a force of anticlericalism in Europe, and Charles, in applying its lessons to Spain, saw it less stridently, seeking to strengthen the power of the crown (regalism) against that of the Catholic Church and the papacy. Ferdinand VI had undertaken to reduce the power of the Jesuits in Spain and had arranged for Spain's kings to appoint her own bishops, a power that France's kings had held since the fifteenth century. Charles, who advocated a radical policy and rapid modernization of the country, expelled the Jesuit Order from Spain completely in 1767 (see Suppression of the Jesuits). The Inquisition was scaled down, but not completely eradicated; as late as 1787, a woman was burned as a witch .

Land reform and agricultural reform alienated both clergymen and landed elites in Spain. Charles chose to ally with the merchantmen of his country and a growing middle class that came with a new prosperity during his rule. An advocate of free trade, Charles reduced the tariff barriers that had been the core of Spanish trade policy for centuries. The Marquis of Esquilache successfully liberalized the grain trade in 1765, but riots broke out in 1766 in due to the rise in grain prices.

Although he believed in centralized government and continued the reforms of his predecessors to reduce the autonomy of the regional parliaments that could potentially challenge his power, Charles approved of establishing prototype chambers of commerce, the Economic Societies of the Friends of the Country) to encourage local economic development and initiative. The national infrastructure was improved to foster the development of Spanish manufacturing, and a unified monetary system was implemented.

The reforms were not without costs, however, and in 1766, in the context of a worldwide grain shortage and the difficulties of the recently liberalized grain trade, riots broke out in Madrid and other cities in Spain against rising grain prices. The "Motin de Esquilache" drove the king from his capital and embarrassed the king's chief minister the Count of Aranda. Aranda gained prominence during the crisis and led the government in the king's absence. He was the only titled aristocrat in Charles's administration; the king generally preferred men of lower social origin who were university graduates from outside Castile. Charles granted noble titles to able men in his administration, who became part of a loyal and progressive bureaucracy. Charles removed Esquilache from power in Madrid, naming him Ambassador to Venice.

Aranda, as the leader of the Aragonese faction at court, favored a more decentralized system of government. Aragon's special rights in Spain had been suppressed when the Bourbon monarch Philip V ascended the throne. Following the ouster of Esquilache, for a time Aranda was the leading figure in Spanish politics. A criminal prosecutor named José Moñino gained prominence as the investigator of the riots and as an outspoken supporter of the king's reformist policies. The riots were attributed to the Jesuits, who were advocates of papal power, when Bourbons were centralizing regal power. The role of the Jesuits in the riots was named as the reason to oust the Jesuits from Spain and its empire in 1767. In 1773 Moñino succeeded in having Pope Clement XIV revoke the papal charter of the Jesuit Order. For this success, Charles named Moñino the Count of Floridablanca.

The new count was named chief minister in 1777 and undertook the material reform of the Spanish bureaucracy. His chief bureaucratic successes were the creation of a true cabinet system of government in 1778 and the creation of Spain's first national bank, the National Bank of San Carlos, in 1782. Recognizing the damage done to Spain's education system after the expulsion of the Jesuits, Floridablanca undertook drastic reform to hire new teachers and modernize Spain's education system. Floridablanca's most enduring accomplishment was the opening of free trade with Spain's empire in the New World to foreigners.

Although Floridablanca – like Carvajal before him – admired British governance and believed that a cordial relationship with George III of Great Britain was the best policy for Spain, the American Revolutionary War was too great an opportunity for Charles III to pass up, and Spain went to war against Britain alongside France and the Dutch Republic in 1779, after providing monetary assistance to the rebels. Bernardo de Gálvez, the governor of Spanish Louisiana, led the campaign to retake the forts lost to the British since 1762; Pensacola, Florida was retaken in 1782, and The Bahamas were seized later that year. The Treaty of Paris (1783) restored much of what Spain had lost in the Seven Years' War, including Florida.

Assessments of Charles's rule

Charles is considered "the most successful monarch of Spain after Ferdinand and Isabel" in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. "He deserves high a rank among the enlightened despots of the eighteenth century, for in many ways he accomplished more than such famous rulers as Frederick the Great of Prussia, and Joseph II of Austria." Historian Stanley Payne writes that Charles III "was probably the most successful European ruler of his generation. He had provided firm, consistent, intelligent leadership. He had chosen capable ministers....[his] personal life had won the respect of the people." John Lynch's assessment is that in Bourbon Spain "Spaniards had to wait half a century before their government was rescued by Charles III, a giant among midgets."

Charles IV, decline and fall (1788–1808)

King Charles III died on 14 December 1788 and was succeeded by his son, Charles IV. Seven months later, French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, launching the French Revolution. In its aftermath with the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, Spain felt the impact of the changed circumstances of France.

Charles III's eldest son Infante Philip, Duke of Calabria was both epileptic and mentally disabled and was passed over for the throne in favor of his second son, Charles. Charles IV was seen by many of his time as being as uninterested in politics just as Ferdinand VI had been. After growing up in Naples, Charles arrived in Spain, with his chief interest being hunting. For all of his rule, his policies were dominated by the will of his wife, Maria Luisa of Parma. Charles retained many of the ministers who served his father, but Charles and Maria Luisa fueled the rise of Manuel Godoy, a humble military officer who became the monarch's favorite, becoming chief minister in 1792.

The chief minister at the time of Charles IV's accession, José Moñino, 1st Count of Floridablanca, was not easily ousted and had many supporters in the court, particularly in Castile. Floridablanca's chief opponent in Spanish politics was Pedro Pablo Aranda, the leader of the Aragonese faction. Godoy made an alliance with Aranda, with whom Godoy sympathized, against Floridablanca. With the outbreak of the French Revolution and the execution of Louis XVI in 1792, Floridablanca's liberalism faced greater skepticism. Aranda and Godoy had Floridablanca imprisoned in 1792 on charges of embezzlement, of which he was later acquitted.

The spirit of reform that had made the reign of Charles III an era of renewed prosperity for Spain was extinguished in the reign of Charles IV. His queen and her lover were uninterested in the improvement of the Spanish bureaucracy and regarded Floridablanca as an exponent of the very sort of liberalism that was tearing France apart. The Aragonese faction led by Aranda, allied to many of the causes that had opposed Charles III's reforms, managed to undo much of the changes brought about in Charles III's tenure.

After the Execution of Louis XVI in 1793, 20,000 men were mobilized and marched to the French border, beginning the War of the Pyrenees. The army, however, had been allowed to languish in Charles III's reign, and it was ill-equipped and ill-trained to invade France successfully. After a failed invasion of Rousillon, Navarre was quickly seized by the French, although the Spanish managed to hold their ground in Catalonia. Godoy, unimpressed with Spain's military effectiveness, decided to come to terms with the new French Republic, and in 1795 signed the Treaty of Basel, guaranteeing peace with France with the cession of Santo Domingo to the Republic.

Godoy, having abandoned his Austrian and British allies, faced a decision: whether to continue to fight the Revolutionary France that had already defeated Spain once before, or to join the French side and hope for better times. The Spanish, after initially opposing the French, signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1796, allying Spain to France, in exchange for the French permitting Charles IV's cousin Ferdinand to continue ruling Parma. In response, the British blockaded Spain in 1797 and cut off her colonial empire from the mother country. By the end of 1798, the Spanish fleet had been defeated by the British, and Menorca and Trinidad were occupied. In 1800, the Spanish returned Louisiana to France.

The Portuguese, who opposed the French, continued to trade with the British in spite of a series of French demands that they close their ports to British ships. In 1801, the Spanish delivered an ultimatum on behalf of France, and in the following War of the Oranges, occupied the town of Olivenza (Olivença) before the Portuguese agreed to the Spanish and French demands. The town – which is disputed to the present day – continues to be administered by Spain, though Portugal contends that the Congress of Vienna restored it to Portugal.

The Treaty of Amiens in 1802 provided for a temporary truce in hostilities, only to be broken in 1804 when the British captured a Spanish treasure fleet off Cádiz. The French planned an invasion of England in the coming year; the Spanish fleet was to be an integral part in assisting this invasion. At the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the Spanish navy and the French Mediterranean fleet, attempting to join forces with the French fleets in the north for the invasion, were attacked by Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson at the head of a British fleet in one of history's greatest naval engagements. The disastrous defeat that the Spanish and French suffered assured British dominance at sea and seriously shook the resolve of the Spanish, who began to doubt the usefulness of their always mutually suspicious alliance with Napoleon's regime.

After Trafalgar, Godoy withdrew from the Continental System that Napoleon had devised to combat Britain, only to join it again in 1807 after Napoleon had defeated Prussia and Russia in the War of the Fourth Coalition. Napoleon, however, had lost his faith in Godoy and King Charles; there was also growing support in Spain for the king's son, Ferdinand, who opposed the popularly despised Godoy. Ferdinand, however, favored an alliance with Britain, and Napoleon, always suspicious of the Bourbons, doubted the trustworthiness of any Spanish royalty.

Ferdinand VII and the Napoleonic upheaval (1808–1814)

In 1808, Spain and France agreed to the partition of Portugal, which had renewed its support of the British after Trafalgar. The French and Spanish quickly occupied the country. Prince Ferdinand traveled to France, and rumors spread that he was asking for Napoleon to oust Godoy from power; the Spanish King sided with his favorite. Riots broke out in various parts of Spain, and in the Tumult of Aranjuez, Godoy was arrested and Charles IV forced by his son and heir Ferdinand to abdicate in his favor. Napoleon, however, had lost confidence in the Spanish monarchy and when Ferdinand traveled to France to obtain the French emperor's support, Napoleon pressured Ferdinand to abdicate in favor of his father Charles IV, who had abdicated under pressure. Charles IV himself abdicated in favor of Napoleon, since he did not wish his detested son to return to the throne. Napoleon then placed his older brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne. As a way to legitimize the transfer of power, Napoleon summoned a group of Spanish aristocrats to Bayonne, where they signed and ratified the Bayonne Constitution on 6 July 1808, Spain's first written constitution. The Spanish chose to resist, sparking the Peninsular War.

See also
 Social class in 18th-century Spain
 Spain in the 17th century
 History of Spain (1808–1874)

Notes

References

Further reading

In English
 Elliott, John H. Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492–1830 (2007)
 Herr, Richard. The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1958.
 Kamen, Henry (2001). Philip V of Spain : the king who reigned twice.  New Haven : Yale University Press.
 Lynch, John. Bourbon Spain 1700–1808 (1989)
 Noel, C.C. "Opposition to Enlightened Reform in Spain: Campomanes and the Clergy, 1765–1775." Societas 3, 1 (1973) pp. 21–43.
 Paquette, Gabriel B. Enlightenment, Governance, and Reform in Spain and Its Empire, 1759–1808 (2007)
 Walker, Geoffrey J. Spanish Politics and Imperial Trade, 1700–1789. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c1979.

In Spanish

 Anes Alvares, Gonzalo. Economía e Ilustación en la España del siglo XVIII. Barcelona 1969.
 Egido Martínez, Teofanes (2001). Carlos IV.  Madrid : Arlanza Ediciones.
 Fernandez, Roberto (Fernandez Diaz) (2001). Carlos III. Madrid : Arlanza Ediciones.
 Guimera, Agustín (1996). El reformismo borbonico : una visión interdisciplinar. Madrid : Alianza : Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
 Rodríguez Díaz, Laura. Reforma e Ilustración en la España del siglo XVIII. Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes. Madrid, 1975.
 Santos, José (2002). Martín Sarmiento : Ilustración, educación y utopía en la España del siglo XVIII. La Coruña: Fundación Barrié de la Maza.
 Sellés, Manuel, José Luis Peset, and Antonio Lafuente, eds. Carlos III y la ciencia de la ilustración. Madrid: Alianza Editorial 1988.
 Ubieto Arteta, Antonio (1997).  Historia ilustrada de Espana, v. 5: El Barroco espanol y el reformismo borbonico. Madrid : Debate ; Valencia : Circulo de Lectores.
 Ubieto Arteta, Antonio (1997).  Historia ilustrada de Espana, v. 6: Guerra, revolucion y Restauracion. 1808–1833. Madrid : Debate ; Valencia : Circulo de Lectores.

In Catalan
 Navarro i Soriano, Ferran (2019). Harca, harca, harca! Músiques per a la recreació històrica de la Guerra de Successió (1794-1715). Editorial DENES. .

History of Spain
18th century in Spain
19th century in Spain
House of Bourbon

History of Spain (1700–1808)


Citropsis articulata, known commonly as the African cherry orange, West African cherry orange, Uganda cherry orange, and locally as omuboro, is a species of flowering plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is native to tropical West Africa.

The species is usually a shrub, sometimes a tree. The leaves are up to 33 centimeters long and are made up of pointed leaflets. The inflorescence is a cluster of flowers with four white petals each nearly 2 centimeters long. The style may be 1.5 centimeters long. The fruit is 2 or 3 centimeters long.

In Uganda, an infusion made of the ground root of omuboro, drunk once a day for three days is considered to be a powerful aphrodisiac for men only. Science has not investigated the veracity of this belief. The herbal preparation is sold locally. Conservationists in Uganda are concerned that demand for the plant is such that the species may require conservation efforts.

References

Fruits originating in Africa
Aurantioideae
Plants used in traditional African medicine

Citropsis articulata


The San Antonio Opera was an American opera company located in San Antonio, Texas that produced 16 seasons of opera before filing for bankruptcy and dissolving in 2012. The company was founded as the Pocket Opera of San Antonio in 1997 by Mark Richter, and opened its first season in the fall of 1997 with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor at the San Pedro Playhouse. Initially the company's productions utilized local artists, but by the 1999-2000 season the company had begun employing internationally recognized artists. It simultaneously rebranded itself as the Lyric Opera of San Antonio and began performing at the Lila Cockrell Theatre. The opera company changed its name to the San Antonio Opera a few years later. Notable artists to have performed with the company include Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, and Andrea Bocelli among others.

References

American opera companies
Music of San Antonio
Performing arts in Texas

San Antonio Opera


Ratibořské Hory is a village and municipality. It is in the Tábor District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic.

The municipality is . As of 2 October 2006, there were 747 people living there.

Description
Village Ratibořské Hory is 9 miles northeast of Tabor in the direction of Kutna Hora.

The village currently has about 740 inhabitants and consists of five parts - Ratibořské Hory, Vresce, Dub, Podoli and Ratiborice. There already begins Moravian Highlands with the occurrence of minerals and ores containing silver.

In 1526 King Louis Jagelonsky granted brothers Medencum of Ratiborice and Podoli right to extract minerals in a half miles in circumference around Ratiborice. The king reserved the preferential right to purchase precious metals, gold and lot for two stacks and talent of silver for three and a half stack.

This privilege started extensive mining activity area Ratiborice, which enriched the local landscape of picturesque islands heaps especially with forest vegetation. It is these heaps, vivid evidence of mining, are a wonderful adornment of the landscape, we can observe the dominant height, from Adam's Hill, whose summit is at an altitude of 611 meters, or from the top of the loaf, which is above the natural park Polanka and its altitude is 666 m.

Through this cycle, called the results "silver eight" that showcases the very beautiful natural scenery with twelve ponds that are surrounded by meadow vegetation in protected plants - such as "Menyanthes trifoliata" which is an herb that has known its share in it drink, which has a great success both at home and abroad and is known for Becherovka.
From cultural attractions dominate renovated churches St. Bartholomew in Ratiborice and St. Adalbert in Ratiborske Hory.

The development of the municipality contributes to school, post office, health center, public library, grocery store and last but not least, the local association Sokol, volunteer firefighters, SK Ratiborske Hory and hunting associations.

Tourists, who can also use the regular bus lines from the district town, offering a pleasant rest and two restaurants on the square of  Ratiborske Hory.

History
The town Ratibořské Hory (Bergstadtl), founded four hundred eighty years ago in the northeast of Tabor, was for several centuries dependent on mining.
The boom in mining caused a much greater concentration of population in Ratibořské Hory than the corresponding options of agricultural production in the town and its surroundings.

Fundamental change in character fit in well with the renewal of mining in the district of  Ratiborice sometime early 16 century. Already from 1515, was preserved record of the smelting of silver ore from Ratiborice and Vresce in Rosenberg's steelworks in the Czech Krumlov. The Rosenbergs invested in these mines large amounts of money, called the new professionals who are in Ratibořice Mountains focused primarily on large construction pit the Three Kings. At that time Ratibořské Hory with the surroundings at the peak of its prosperity, which was mined today in nearly all known mines.

Villages in the Czech Republic
South Bohemian Region

Ratibořské Hory


William Louis Henry Skeen  (1847–1903) was an English photographer in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) who photographed tea and coffee cultivation, railway construction, landscapes and various inhabitants in the second half of the 19th century.

William Louis Henry Skeen was born 1 July 1847 in London, his father, William Skeen Sr. (1822–1872), was the first officially appointed Government Printer for Ceylon (1849–1872) and his mother was Louisa Matilda née Kemp (1822–1864). In 1860 Skeen Sr purchased the photographic studio of James Parting in Colombo. The studio operated firstly as S. Slinn & Co and was managed by Samuel Slinn Skeen (the younger brother of Skeen Sr) and John Edward Wilshaw. Skeen Jr who was trained at the London School of Photography returned to Colombo in 1862, taking over control of the photographic studio, renaming it W.L.H. Skeen & Co. in 1868.

Skeen's younger brothers, George Justin Athelstan (1852–1906) was the Ceylon Government Printer (1881–1906) and Frederick Albert Edward (1861–1929) assisted his brother at W.L.H. Skeen & Co until 1887, when he went to Burma (now Myanmar) establishing the photographic firm of Watts and Skeen in Rangoon. Frederick returned to Ceylon after the death of William in 1903 and changed the company name to F. Skeen and Co..  Frederick left Ceylon in 1914 and the studio closed in the early 1920s.

The photo company was appointed to work for the Duke of Edinburgh during his 1870 tour. Among the photographic subject the captured were elephant kraals.

Skeen Jr.'s illustrations were used for two books that his father wrote: The Knuckles and Other Poems (1868) and Adam's Peak (1870). The studio also published J.W.W. Birch's photographs of Polonnaruwa as well as views of Indian cities. A branch studio was also opened in Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1891.

Personal life
Skeen was married to Elizabeth, who ran a millinery in Kandy. They had had three children: Ellen Margaret, Sydney Louis Ernest, and Harold Lewis Spencer. His wife died on 20 January 1933 at Clacton-on-Sea.

References

Sri Lankan photographers
1847 births
1903 deaths
Sri Lankan people of English descent

W. L. H. Skeen


Otello Bignami (August 6, 1914 – December 1, 1989) was an Italian violin maker from Bologna.

Life

The life of Otello Bignami closely resembles the lives of various 19th-century violin makers in that he drew much vitality from the farming and craft traditions of his origins. He was a student of Gaetano Pollastri, and the possibility to be able to indicate on his instrument labels that he was a student of Pollastri contributed towards launching his career.

Bignami also practiced the profession of restorer of fine art work and fine furniture, experiences which were undoubtedly valuable in preparing and composing his varnish.

He was awarded prizes at the International Exhibition of Cremona (1949), the Third National Competition of Santa Cecilia Academy of Rome (first prize, 1956), and the Wieniawski Competition in Poland ("best maker in Italy," 1957). He won first prize and Gold medal in 1967 at Bagnacavallo. In 1976 he was awarded a "gold violin" from the city of Bagnacavallo; subsequently he won a prize for his special dedication to teaching.

In the course of over forty years of incessant activity, he built a vast number of instruments in the violin family, including several quartets. His instruments are known for their beauty and acoustic qualities. Amongst his list of illustrious clients was David Oistrakh.

Bignami's role as a teacher, and subsequently director, in the violin making school instituted in Bologna during the early 1980s was decisive in ensuring the continuity of the violin making tradition in this region.

Quotes

"In his rare moments dedicated to relaxation, Otello ventured into another creative art with passion and real dedication: painting. He painted landscapes, still life, and flowers with sweet and melancholic shades, usually giving them away to relations and friends. This was another vehicle for Otello's idealistic and dreamy personality which he  expressed without compromise. A silent and discreet way of offering an unforgettable memory of his soul." - Liutaio in Bologna / Violinmaker in Bologna  by William Bignami

List of Pupils

Pietro Trimboli (1939-)
Curzio Rossi (1936-1977)
Paolo Ansaloni (1948-)
Franco Samoggia (1938-)
Luigi Laterrenia (1952-)
Roberto Regazzi (1956-)
Paola Malaguti (1957-2020)
Felicia Pansini (1952-)
Gianni Orsini (1938-)
Antonello Adamo (1964-1995)
Barbara Meyer (1959-)
Luca Mazzetti (1960-)
Antonello Gamberini (1961-1991)
Vincenzo Barile (1964-)
Alvise Cristinelli (1958-)
Daniele Canu (1955-)
Alessandro Urso (1963-)
Bruno Stefanini (1960-)
Raffaello Stefanini (1954-)
Sergio Gregorat (1962-)
Giuseppe Gugole (1954-)
Giovanna Benzi (1960-)
Federico Lippi Bruni (1957-)
Ezia di Labio (1960-)
Daniele Canu (1979-1983)
Maurizio Spignoli (1958-2007)

Instruments

In the course of over forty years of incessant activity, he built a vast number of instruments in the violin family, including several quartets (most prominent are from 1975,1976 & 1977). 1975 & 1976 were made as dedications to Gaetano Pollastri. 1977 was made as homage and dedication to Augusto Pollastri (marking the centenary celebration of Augusto's birth). Bignamis instruments are known for their beauty and acoustic qualities.

O. Bignami Viola which was part of a quartet from 1976:

Living Museum

The Bolognese school that Bignami directed is now a living museum. His workshop was carefully reconstructed and is still in use.

Bibliography

William Bignami, Otello Bignami Liutaio in Bologna - Violinmaker in Bologna,
Vita d'Autore - Note su Otello Bignami Liutaio in Bologna 1914-1989 - A Life of Artistry - Sketches of Otello Bignami violin maker in Bologna, contributions by Roberto Verti, Adriano Cavicchi, Roberto Regazzi, Giovanna Benzi and Tito Gotti, Bologna 1991 and 1993,
Il Suono di Bologna, Da Raffaele Fiorini ai grandi maestri del Novecento". Catalogo della Mostra nella chiesa di San Giorgio in Poggiale, Bologna 2002,
A Misura d'Uomo, Venezia 1985,
Paradigmi. Forme nell'Artigianato, Bologna 1988 and 1989
Daniele Benati - Pierluigi Giordani, Stanze bolognesi - La Collezione Lauro, Bologna 1994
Alessandro Bugatti - Adriano Ragazzi, Tecniche basate sulla conoscenza per la classificazione di oggetti complessi: un'applicazione all'analisi di violini di interesse storico, Brescia 1998
Eric Blot, Un secolo di Liuteria Italiana 1860-1960 - A century of Italian Violin Making - Emilia e Romagna I, Cremona 1994 and 2003, ,
Marlin Brinser, Dictionary of 20th Century Italian Violin Makers, 1978
The Strad, January 1984, Bologna - A living tradition of Violin Making

Chiara Tenan, Otello Bignami und die Bologneser Geigenbauschule des 20.Jahrhunderts - Diplomarbei zur Erlangung des Akademischen Grades Magistra der Künste in der Studienrichtung 'Violoncello' an der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Mozarteum in Salzburg, Betreuer: Dietmar Machold, Salzburg 2001
Walter Hamma, Meister Italienischer Geigenbaukunst, Wilhelmshaven 1993,

Notes

References
 http://www.florenusedizioni.com/ilsuono.htm
 http://www.artigianatoartistico.it/fiera_maestriliutai.htm#obignami

Italian musical instrument makers
Italian luthiers
Bowed string instrument makers
1914 births
1989 deaths
20th-century Italian musicians

Otello Bignami


All Souls Chapel is a historic chapel at the Poland Spring Resort in Poland, Maine. It was built in 1912.  In 1977, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The chapel was built in 1912 for use by the staff and guests of the Poland Spring Resort. It is now owned by the Poland Spring Preservation Society which also owns the Maine State Building (from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago).

The chapel houses a series of hand-painted windows and an Ernest M. Skinner Opus 564 pipe organ. The chapel is currently used as a venue for weddings, baptisms and other services as well as plays and concerts.

Chapel history
In 1885, Julius Gassauer first started religious services for the employees of the dining room of the Poland Spring House. They were first held out of doors in the open air, but as it became necessary to find some shelter for these meetings in case of rain, the idea of a chapel was proposed. A fund was started by the contributions of the employees.

When meetings were transferred to the dining hall, some of the guests of the Houses began to attend. They were glad to add to the Chapel Fund, which grew to about twenty-five hundred dollars, before the effort was stopped for a season.  About this time some of the ladies of Poland Spring organized the first "Children's Fair," for the purpose of encouraging the children of the guests help make this possible.  The proceeds were at first given to a "Fresh Air Fund" for the benefit of the poor children of the cities. Later $5,000 was donated for what was known as the "Poland Spring Free Bed" at the Central Maine General Hospital in Lewiston.

Meanwhile, Miss Sadie Ricker had organized a Sunday School for the children of the surrounding country, and it was thought; "Why not aid this Sunday School?" Accordingly, this was done from the proceeds of the Children's Fairs, and after the school had been well established and well equipped, a small fund remained, the interest from which, with outside contributions, was used for several years for Christmas parties and summer outings.

Having worked on this worthy project in a substantial way, the ladies next agreed to work for a fund large enough to secure a chapel. They said; "Let us realize the dream of the earnest man who began the movement for a chapel here at Poland Spring, and the desire of the owners of this estate, who have expressed their readiness to contribute one-half the final cost of the edifice." Inspired by this purpose, the ladies and families and guests at Poland Spring succeeded in raising approximately $15,000.

In September 1909, little Garrett A. Hobart III (the grandson of the first vice-president under McKinley), then only two years old, performed the important ceremony of breaking ground for the new chapel. For the next three years a large number of interested friends never ceased their efforts in behalf of the little church building.

This chapel was erected on the very top of the hill at the Poland Spring estate, overlooking the panorama of magnificent natural scenery. No expense was spared to make it of a quality commensurate with its environments and function.

Maine granite from the best quarries was procured for the walls and arches; quarter-sawn oak of the finest quality was used for the ceilings, doors, and other interior woodwork; brass for sills, reading desk, railings; and a floor of inlaid mosaic of beautiful and expensive design was made. The work of construction was performed by Italians brought here from Boston, and was done slowly and with great care, that no detail should lack in permanence or artistic value.
The large memorial window in the alcove at the front of the church is of stained glass illustrating the inscription which runs through it, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." Through the bottom of the window are the words, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." The center section of the window contains the figure of Jesus and is resplendently beautiful in its coloring. This window was the gift of two lady visitors at Poland Spring, and was a very expensive contribution to the edifice.  The church was dedicated on September 1, 1912.

The following year the bells were installed in the tower. Known as the "Westminster Peals" or "Cambridge Quarters" they were a unit of four, keyed in G, C, D, and E, according to their weight of 1,500, 500, 400, and 300 pounds. They were composed of Lake Superior copper and imported tin, in the correct proportion to form the best ringing alloy.  On the largest of the bells is the following inscription: "Presented to All Souls Chapel, Poland Spring, Maine, by Mrs. Calvin Allen Richards and Miss Annie Louise Richards of Boston, Mass. June 1, 1913."

Church services were held during the summer months (May through October) until 40 years ago. There were two Catholic services and one Protestant service each Sunday. The Catholic service was a mission of the Catholic Church at Yarmouth. The ministers serving here came from various towns, or may have been guests or visiting travelers. Services have been held in the winter months upon special occasion, as the building was kept heated all year, for protection to the interior furnishings and equipment.

This chapel has been the scene of countless weddings, as there is a great sentimental attachment here for thousands of persons who may have worked or vacationed at this resort.

The prayer at the official opening ceremony of this chapel in 1912 ended as follows: "We pray that this beautiful chapel may be a perpetual reminder of the reality of the spiritual life to many who are struggling upward toward the height where Thou dost dwell."

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Androscoggin County, Maine

References

External links
 Poland Spring Preservation Society

Churches completed in 1912
20th-century churches in the United States
Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Churches in Androscoggin County, Maine
1912 establishments in Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Androscoggin County, Maine
Historic district contributing properties in Maine

All Souls Chapel (Poland Spring, Maine)


Countess Palatine Ernestine of Sulzbach (15 May 169714 April 1775) was the wife of Landgrave William "the Younger" of Hesse-Wanfried and after his death prioress of the Carmelite monastery in Neuburg an der Donau as Sister Teodora.

Early life
She was the third daughter of the Duke Theodore Eustace of Sulzbach and his wife Landgravine Maria Eleonore of Hesse-Rotenburg.  The Dukes and Counts Palatine of Sulzbach were a collateral line of the House of Wittelsbach.

Life
Ernestine and her older sister Countess Palatine Francisca Christina of Sulzbach were brought up in Essen Abbey.  Emperor Charles VI arranged her marriage with the 48-year-old William the Younger of Hesse-Wanfried-Rheinfels.  The marriage took place on 19 September 1719 and remained childless.  After her husband died in 1731, she initially lived at Rheinfels Castle, later she moved into the Carmelites monastery in Neuburg an der Donau, where she was known under the religious name Sister Teodora and eventually became prioress.  According to Torsy and Kracht, she was a model for her sisters of obedience, humility and love of poverty.  She had a reputation of sanctity when she died in 1775.  She was buried in the Court Church in Neuburg.

References
 Chronicle of Wanfried (Unpublished)
 J. Torsy and H.J. Kracht: Der Große Namenstagskalender, Freiburg, Basel and Vienna, 2002

External links
Article about Ernestine of Sulzbach

 Entry for Ernestine of Bavaria at the Ecumenical Saints Lexicon

1697 births
1775 deaths
18th-century German women
18th-century German people
Countesses in Germany
Carmelite nuns
House of Wittelsbach
Burials in Bavaria
Daughters of monarchs

Countess Palatine Ernestine of Sulzbach


Colonel Georg Alexander Hansen (5 July 1904, Sonnefeld, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – 8 September 1944, Plötzensee, Germany) was an Oberst (Colonel) in the Generalstab (General Staff of the German Army) and one of the participants in the German Resistance against the Nazi Regime of Adolf Hitler.

Early life

Georg Hansen was born in Sonnefeld, the son of Theodor Hansen, a Oberforstmeister (Senior Ranger) for the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In Coburg, he attended since 1914 the Gymnasium (high school) Casimirianum, where he graduated in 1923. He then studied law for two semesters at the University of Erlangen. In 1924 he joined the Panzergruppe of the Reichswehr (later the Wehrmacht). He was promoted to Leutnant in 1927, and then Oberleutnant in 1931 at the Bavarian Motor Vehicles Department in Fürth. In the same year he married Irene Stölzel from Michelau; with her he had five children.

In 1935 Hansen became the commander of the general staff training at the Military Academy (Kriegsakademie) in Berlin-Moabit, where he met the Chief of General Staff Ludwig Beck and Graf Claus von Stauffenberg. In 1937, he was transferred from the training academy to the Department of Foreign Intelligence and Counterintelligence (Department of Foreign Armies of the East) in the War Ministry of the Reich under the command of Konteradmiral Wilhelm Canaris. Beginning in 1939, this department was renamed as Amt Ausland / Abwehr (Office of the Foreign Military Intelligence). There Hansen, as a group leader in Division I, was promoted to major in May 1941 and Oberstleutnant in July 1942. In 1943 he succeeded Hans Piekenbrock as the Chief of the Division I, Secret Intelligence Service. His tasks included military reconnaissance in the foreign countries. Finally, Canaris, before his resignation in February 1944, appointed Georg Hansen to succeed him as Head of Military Intelligence. In March 1944 Hansen attended a meeting with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) to set up a unified intelligence service. Two months later, in May 1944, he and most of his staff were transferred to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), where he served as the deputy under his immediate superior, Walther Schellenberg.

Assassination attempt on Hitler

Probably under the influence of Beck, Hansen's conversion took himself to the opposition by 1938; the official review of the crimes of the Nazi Regime might have led him to finally join the Resistance. He was one of the key informants of the resistance group led by two men, Generalmajor Henning von Tresckow and Oberst Claus Count von Stauffenberg. Hansen worked since 1943 in all plans for the Hitler assassination attempt. In 1944, he took part in the most important meetings about the preparations. Hansen organised the use of cars and airplanes as well as the protection of the co-conspirators. His house in Rangsdorf often served as the meeting place for the conspirators. If the attack succeeded, he would occupy the RSHA and have the SS commanders arrested. In addition, it was planned to have him, on the behalf of Beck, who was assigned as interim Head of State, to negotiate with General Dwight D. Eisenhower for a separate accord of peace with the Western Powers. Because of strong disagreements with Stauffenberg about the political plans after the attack, Hansen decided on short notice against personal participation and drove on 18 July to Michelau for the baptism of his youngest daughter. Although he knew that Hitler had survived the attack and that the coup attempt had failed, and despite the possibility of escape, he returned on 21 July. On 22 July the Gestapo chief, Heinrich Müller, summoned him to the RSHA, where Hansen was arrested in the waiting room. He was put through a prolonged interrogation, during which he broke down and confessed to everything.

On 4 August he was given by the Ehrenhof (Court of Honour), formed two days earlier, a dishonourable discharge from the Wehrmacht, so that the court-martial (Reichskriegsgericht) was no longer responsible for the sentencing.

Death
On the day of the arraignment, 10 August 1944, Georg Hansen, as well as Erich Fellgiebel, Alfred Kranzfelder, Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg and Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg were, in a show trial  at the Volksgerichtshof under President Roland Freisler, sentenced to death. On 8 September 1944, the judgment was execution by hanging at Plötzensee Prison.

Aftermath
The Hansen family was deemed to be guilty by association. Its properties were confiscated, the wife was arrested and the five children were placed in a children's home in Bad Sachsa, where they were not permitted to carry the family name. In the same home were also the children of other conspirators, such as the Stauffenbergs and von Witzlebens. In late September 1944, the children were allowed to return to their mother, who was also released, in Michelau.

The hostility towards the family continued even after the end of the war. Hansen's widow waged a year-long fight against the Federal Republic of Germany in the courts to obtain a pension as a war widow. But the courts denied her because her husband had been dishonourably discharged from the Wehrmacht.

See also

 List of members of the 20 July plot

References

Bibliography
  Joachim Fest, Plotting Hitler's Death: The German Resistance to Hitler, 1933-1945 ( London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994 ),
  Rupert Appeltshauser, "Im Konflikt zwischen Pflichterfüllung und Widerstand: Anmerkungen zu Oberst Georg Alexander Hansen und dessen Rolle in der Opposition gegen Hitler [ In the Conflict Between Duty and Resistance: Notes on Colonel Georg Alexander Hansen and His Role in the Opposition Against Hitler ]". In: Jahrbuch der Coburger Landesstiftung [ Yearbook of the Coburger Land Foundation ], Volume 50 ( 2005 ), ISSN 0084-8808, pp. 221–228.
  Jürgen Erdmann, "Mein Platz ist in Berlin – Georg Hansen [My Place is in Berlin - George Hansen]". In: Stefan Nöth (ed.), Coburg 1056–2006. Ein Streifzug durch 950 Jahre Geschichte von Stadt und Land [ Coburg 1056–2006. A Journey Through 950 Years of History of the City and Land ] ( Stegaurach: Wikomm-Verlag, 2006 ), .

External links
  dmh de Biography of Georg Hansen
  Digitales Stadtgedächtnis Coburg

1904 births
1944 deaths
Abwehr personnel killed in World War II
Executed members of the 20 July plot
People executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison
German Army officers of World War II
People from Bavaria executed at Plötzensee Prison
People from Coburg (district)
People from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Executed military personnel

Georg Hansen


The Battle of Lewes was an important battle in the history of England.  It was fought near the town of Lewes, in Sussex,    England. The battle took place on 14 May 1264. It was one of two main battles of the conflict known as the Second Barons' War.

Background

The two armies that met in the battle were led by King Henry III of England and a rebel leader, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. Henry III's son, Prince Edward, fought on his side. The battle came about because many of the leading noblemen of England were unhappy with the way King Henry was ruling the country.  They wanted more involvement in the government. The Barons voted to hold a Parliament regularly so that they could discuss subjects such as taxation.  King Henry would not agree to this, and so both sides started to raise armies. When the two sides met at Lewes two days before, Simon de Montfort tried to arrange a truce with the king. King Henry refused and so both sides got ready to fight a battle.

The battle

The king's army was nearly twice as big as the rebel army. The battle began when the Baronial forces attacked the king's foragers. When the fighting started, it looked as though the king's army would win easily. Prince Edward, who was only 25, was headstrong and made one big mistake.  Edward was in charge of the cavalry, who did well in the battle but then chased some of the rebels who were running away. By the time they came back to the battlefield, the rebels had managed to win the battle. With Edward off chasing foot soldiers, Henry was forced to attack using his two remaining divisions. Henry led one, the other was led by his brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Henry's division fought until driven back by the Baronial reserve forces. Cornwall's division did not do well from the start. Cornwall fled the field and hid in a windmill but was quickly captured by the barons. As a result of the battle, King Henry III was forced to sign a document called the Mise of Lewes. This gave the rebel barons what they wanted. A year later the barons were defeated at the Battle of Evesham.

References

Additional reading

Other websites
 Battle of Lewes, The Battlefields Trust

1264
English Barons
Lewes
Lewes
13th century in England
May events

Battle of Lewes


Streetwear is a style of casual clothing which became global in the 1990s. It grew from New York hip hop fashion and Californian surf culture to encompass elements of sportswear, punk, skateboarding, 1980s nostalgia, and Japanese street fashion. Later, haute couture became an influence, and was in turn influenced by streetwear. Streetwear centers on comfortable clothing and accessories such as jeans, T-shirts, baseball caps, and sneakers. Brands may create exclusivity through intentional product scarcity; enthusiasts follow particular brands and try to obtain limited edition releases, including via proxy purchases.

History
Streetwear style is generally accepted to have been born out of the New York City hip-hop culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s, with elements of Los Angeles surf culture. Early streetwear in the 1970s and 1980s also took inspiration from the do-it-yourself aesthetic of punk, Japanese street fashion, new wave, heavy metal, and established legacy sportswear and workwear fashion brands such as Schott NYC, Dr. Martens, Kangol, Fila and Adidas.

In the late 1980s, surfboard designer Shawn Stussy began selling printed T-shirts featuring the same trademark signature he placed on his custom surfboards. Initially selling the items from his own car, Stussy expanded sales to boutiques once popularity increased. Then as sales peaked, Stüssy moved into exclusive sales to create product scarcity, which established streetwear's focus on T-shirts and exclusivity.

In the early 1990s, burgeoning record labels associated with popular hip-hop acts like Tommy Boy Records, Def Jam Recordings, and Delicious Vinyl began selling branded merchandise embroidered onto letterman and workwear jackets made by companies like Carhartt. By mid-decade, influences included skateboarding and gangsta rap. Professional American sports franchises have had a significant impact on the scene, especially the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Raiders and Chicago Bulls caps and jackets, with their production of oversized team jerseys, as well as boots from The Timberland Company and the latest shoe design releases from Nike, Inc. Brand launches by the chief executives of record companies followed, with Russell Simmons of Def Jam launching his Phat Farm label, Sean Combs of Bad Boy with Sean John, and Jay-Z and Damon Dash of Roc-a-Fella Records launching Rocawear.

Luxury sportswear
Jil Sander was the earliest luxury fashion brand to collaborate with a sportswear firm, Adidas, on a co-creation project in 1998. Since then, the advent of "bling" culture saw established luxury brands make inroads into the market, with Burberry, Gucci and Fendi making appearances in films and hip hop videos. Singer Pharrell Williams partnered with fashion designer and A Bathing Ape creator, Nigo, to create Billionaire Boys Club, credited with mixing Japanese street fashion and streetwear and increasing their visibility in high fashion. Fashion clothing manufacturers began to follow the streetwear companies, co-opting the idea of very limited edition capsule collections, known as "drops", using social media and product scarcity as marketing tools.

In the 2010s, some streetwear brands were coveted as much as the most historically elite fashion brands. Complex Magazine named Stüssy, Supreme, and A Bathing Ape as the top streetwear brands, and many went on to collaborate on prized high fashion capsule collections such as Supreme x Louis Vuitton, Fila x Fendi, A Bathing Ape x Commes des Garcons, and Stüssy x Dior.

Contemporary streetwear has an increasing influence on haute couture, and has itself been influenced by runway shows. Designers such as Virgil Abloh and Raf Simons have had a large impact on the evolution of streetwear through their influence on hip hop and popular culture. Other designers such as Demna Gvasalia, creative director of Vetements and Balenciaga, championed trends such as the chunky sneaker and oversized hoodie.

Streetwear is an inclusive style in fashion as it is gender neutral and often designed by people of many different ethnicities and backgrounds.

Hypebeast culture
"Hypebeast" (occasionally "hype beast") culture is a colloquial term that at first was considered a derogatory term until the Hong Kong journalist and businessman Kevin Ma reappropriated it as the name of his fashion blog, Hypebeast. Even after Ma's fashion blog expanded to a world-famous website, hypebeast still had some negative connotation in the US: namely a lack of authenticity and an interest only in following existing trends. In the UK, hypebeast is a pejorative for a hipster who appropriates designer streetwear and buys only the latest releases, in an ironic imitation of mainstream celebrities like Kanye West. Even though many people will refer to themselves as hypebeasts, taking it as a term of endearment (much like the evolution of the term otaku in Japanese popular culture) others still respond to the negative connotation.

With a growing trend of prominent brand names and logos on clothing, there has been a development of "hypebeast culture" connected to streetwear as of the mid-2000s. Hypebeasts are defined as buying clothes and accessories to impress others. This trend is inspired by a 1990s fashion for clothing covered in brand names and logos. Hypebeasts usually wear a variety of name brands at once to boast their affluence and display popular trends. Another component of "hypebeast culture" is the link to resellers. Resellers will purchase an upcoming trending sneaker to resell it at a higher asking price later. The resale market and hypebeasts can profit from brands by purchasing them for the trend rather than their cultural significance.

Sneaker culture

Sneakers have been a part of streetwear since the late 1970s. By the late 1980s, sneaker collecting had become a major part of the streetwear subculture, due in large part to Air Jordans, the signature shoes of basketballer Michael Jordan. Another sneaker of streetwear has been the Nike Air Force 1, popularized in the hip hop, trap, and grime scenes. Although styles of shoes have changed, the link between sneaker culture and streetwear remains strong. The sneaker market is approximately valued at $85 billion USD in 2022 and is predicted to reach $120 billion by 2026.

See also

 Athleisure
 Ready-to-wear
 Street style

References

1990s fashion
2000s fashion
2010s fashion
2020s fashion
Culture of Los Angeles
Hip hop fashion
Sneaker culture
Street fashion

Streetwear


British India refers to the rule of the British Empire in South Asia in areas that were for hundreds of years under the influence of the English and later the British. From the 1600s to 1858, those areas were run by the East India Company. From 1858 to 1947, they were the ruled directly by the British Empire under the British Raj. Some areas were under the direct rule of the Governor-General of India, who was appointed by the Government of the United Kingdom in London, and he was also called a viceroy since he represented the British monarch. The British monarch was also considered as the emperor or empress of India.

After 1876, when Queen Victoria became Empress of India, British India was part of the British Indian Empire, which also included hundreds of Indian princely states that had never been conquered by the British and still had control of their own affairs. They were ruled by local rulers who were under the protection of the British. They had almost half of the land and a quarter of the people of the British Indian Empire. That empire is sometimes called the British Raj.

British India included the entire regions of the present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma (185813th August 1947).

Provinces
Until independence in 1947, British India had seventeen provinces.
 Ajmer-Merwara-Kekri
 Andaman and Nicobar Islands
 Assam
 Baluchistan
 Bengal Province
 Bihar
 Bombay Province
 Central Provinces and Berar
 Coorg
 Delhi Province
 Madras Province
 North-West Frontier Province (1901–55)
 Panth-Piploda
 Orissa
 Punjab
 Sind Province
 United Provinces of Agra and Oudh

The partition of India split the former British India into the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. Twelve provinces (Ajmer-Merwara-Kekri, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Central Provinces and Berar, Coorg, Delhi, Madras, Panth-Piploda, Orissa, and the United Provinces) became provinces in India. Three (Baluchistan, North-West Frontier, and Sindh) were in Pakistan. Two (Bengal and Punjab) were split between India and Pakistan.

In 1950, after the new Indian Constitution, the provinces in India were replaced by states and union territories. Pakistan kept its five provinces. East Bengal, which was renamed East Pakistan in 1956, became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971.

Related pages
British North America

Further reading
Edney, Matthew H., and Matthew H. Edney. Mapping an Empire: The Geographical Construction of British India, 1765–1843. Vol. 10. University of Chicago Press, 1997.

British India


The Dodge WC series, sometimes nicknamed 'Beeps', were a prolific range of light 4WD and medium 6WD military utility trucks, produced by Dodge / Fargo during World War II. Together with the 1⁄4-ton jeeps produced by Willys and Ford, the Dodge 1⁄2‑tons and 3⁄4‑tons made up nearly all of the light 4WD trucks supplied to the U.S. military in WWII – with Dodge contributing some 337,500 4WD units (over half as many as the jeep).

Contrary to the versatility of the highly standardized jeep, which was mostly achieved through field modification, the Dodge WC‑series came in many different, purpose-built, but mechanically uniform variants from the factory, much akin to the later family of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles. The WC series evolved out of, and was part of a more extended family of trucks, with great mechanical parts commonality, that included open- and closed-cab cargo trucks and weapons carriers, (radio) command cars, reconnaissance vehicles, ambulances, carryalls, panel vans, and telephone installation and mobile emergency / field workshop trucks.

The Dodge WC series were essentially built in two generations. From 1940 to early 1942, almost 82,400 of the 1⁄2‑ton 4×4 Dodge trucks were built — initially called the VC series, but the great majority (from 1941) in the WC series, and in more variants. Contrary to what the nomenclature would suggest, the 1941 WC models were a direct evolution of the 1940 VC models, retaining the U.S. Army's G-505 Ordnance Corps Supply Catalog number.

In 1942, the payload was upgrated, and the trucks grew into the G-502 3⁄4-ton 4×4 Truck (Dodge) and the G-507 11⁄2‑ton 6x6 personnel and cargo truck (Dodge) — confusingly retaining the Dodge WC model code. Although the 3⁄4‑tons featured significant design improvements, they did retain some 80% interchangeable components and service parts with the 1⁄2‑ton models — a vital Army requirement, for field maintenance and operability of the trucks.

Dodge was the U.S. Army's main supplier of 1⁄2‑ton trucks, and its sole supplier of both 3⁄4‑ton trucks and 11⁄2‑ton 6x6 trucks in World War II. With over a quarter million units built through August 1945, the G-502 3⁄4‑tons were the most common variants in the WC‑series.

After the war, Dodge developed the 3⁄4-ton WC‑series into the civilian 4×4 Dodge Power Wagon; and in 1951, the WCs were replaced by the very similar 3⁄4‑ton 4x4 Dodge M-series vehicles .

Though the majority of Dodges built were 'Weapons Carriers', "WC" was not abbreviated from this, but a general Dodge model code – initially "W" for 1941, and "C" for a (nominal) half-ton payload rating. However, the "WC" model code was simply retained after 1941 — for both the 3⁄4-ton, as well as the 11⁄2‑ton rated 6x6 Dodges.

All in all, not counting mechanically related variants, the WC series alone involved 52 model versions (thirty 1⁄2‑ton 4×4, eight 1⁄2‑ton 4×2, twelve 3⁄4‑ton 4×4, and two 11⁄2‑ton 6×6 models). Creating vehicles of a common platform in such a variety of designs, with payloads ranging from 1⁄2‑ton to 11⁄2‑tons, had no equal in its time, and is seen as an extraordinary feat of the WWII American auto industry.

Trucks

Dodge WC series


Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story is a children's fantasy novel by Anne Carroll Moore, first published in 1924. The story follows eight-inch-tall Nicholas from Holland on a tour of the sights of New York and recounts his encounters with many famous people, fictional characters, and magical beings. It includes many references to the children's literature of the time. The novel, illustrated by Jay Van Everen, was a Newbery Honor recipient in 1925.

References

1924 American novels
Children's fantasy novels
Christmas children's books
American children's novels
Newbery Honor-winning works
Novels set in New York City
1924 children's books
Children's books set in New York City

Nicholas (novel)


Ahmed Hossain (7 March 1896 – 19 May 1961), minister for agriculture, forest and fisheries department in Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy's cabinet 1946/47, chairman of Rangpur District Board (Undivided Bengal), minister for agriculture in East Pakistan in Abu Hossain Sarkar's cabinet 1955–56. Represented his Shagata and Fulchari constituency, of Gaibandha District as MLA and MP from 1937 to 1958.

Early life
Ahmed Hossain was born in Jalaltair village, Mahimaganj, Rangpur district on 7 March 1896. Hossain passed his matriculation examination from Sonatola High School and obtained a law degree from the Aligarh Muslim University.

Independence movement
Hossain joined the All India Congress Party and was fully committed to Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement (1920), canvassing support for the Congress Agenda all over north Bengal, particularly in the Rangpur district. When the Muslim League was formed, he joined it and contested the 1937 general election as a Muslim League candidate and became an elected member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
 He ran in the Indian general election of 1946 as a Muslim League candidate and was re-elected as a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly. He was given the ministerial post for the Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries department under the Chief Minister-ship of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. In 1947 Bengal was partitioned in the partition of Bengal along religious lines. The Muslim majority East Bengal joined with Pakistan. Khawaja Nazimuddin and Nurul Amin formed a Muslim government in Dhaka, East Pakistan. Hossain remained a Muslim League MLA.

During the 1952 language movement Hossain resigned from the Muslim League and joined the newly formed United Front Party led by Fazlul Huq, Maulana Bhashani and Hueyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. In 1954, Hossain was elected to the East Pakistan national assembly as a United Front Member.

Hossain was a philanthropist and interested in promoting Muslim education in Rangpur. He established an Alia Madrasa at Mahimaganj in 1939, which was particularly significant as at the time there were only three other Alia madras in the whole of undivided Bengal. A newly built student hall, the "Ahmed Hossain Student Hall" has been dedicated in his honour. Hossain was also responsible for building a high school and a mosque in Mahimaganj in 1939 and 1945 respectively. In 1950 Hossain introduced laws against catching fish eggs, small and spawning fish to provide for the conservation and development of propagation of fish stock. Hossain continued to represent his constituency as an MP until Ayub Khan declared Martial Law in Pakistan in 1958.

Death
Hossain died at the age of 65 on Friday 19 May 1961.

References

All India Muslim League members
Bengali politicians
Pakistani politicians
People from Gaibandha District
Politicians from Rangpur Division
Aligarh Muslim University alumni
1896 births
1961 deaths
20th-century Bengalis
Indian National Congress politicians
Bengal MLAs 1937–1945
Bengal MLAs 1946–1947
East Bengal MLAs 1947–1954

Ahmed Hossain


The Villa Pisani is a patrician villa outside the city walls of Montagnana, Veneto, northern Italy.

Architecture

It was designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio about 1552, for Cardinal Francesco Pisani. Pisani was also a patron of the painters Paolo Veronese and Giambattista Maganza and the sculptor Alessandro Vittoria, who provided sculptures of the Four Seasons for the villa, which is in fact provided with fireplaces to dispel winter chill. Unlike more typical Palladian villas – and their imitations in Britain, Germany and the United States – the Villa Pisani at Montagnana combines an urban front, facing a piazza of the comune, and, on the other side, a rural frontage extending into gardens, with an agricultural setting beyond.

Unlike many of Palladio's villas in purely rural settings, it has an upper storey, set apart from more public reception rooms on the main floor; twin suites of apartments are accessed by twin oval staircases that flank the central recess on the garden side. On the exterior, little differentiation between floors is made: there is no obviously visible piano nobile. On the garden front, access to the park is from the central recessed portico only; a balustrade above a deep ditch keeps out informal wanderers.

Construction of the villa was under way by September 1553, and it was complete in 1555. The central block is an uncompromising rectangle, with a pedimented tetrastyle portico, Ionic over Doric, that has been sunk into its wall-plane so that the columns are embedded half-columns. On the garden front, the similar structure instead forms a screen across the fronts of a recessed portico surmounted by a loggia, which become in single recessed central feature. The Doric frieze runs uninterrupted round the building, further binding all elements together. There are no surviving autograph drawings related to this project.  However, Palladio published a version of the building in his I quattro libri dell'architettura.  The woodcut shows an idealized, amplified form of the villa, in which the central block is flanked by arched gateway structures that end in tall, three-storey tower-like pavilions.

Conservation
In 1996, UNESCO included the Villa Pisani in the World Heritage Site "City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto".
The villa continues to be in private ownership.

Influence on other buildings
The Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland, Kinlet Hall in the United Kingdom and Wilanów Palace in Warsaw were all inspired by Palladio's designs for the Villa Pisani.

See also
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian architecture

References

External links
 Centro Internazionale di Studi Achitettura Andrea Palladio: Villa Pisani di Montagnana

Palladian villas of Veneto
Andrea Palladio buildings
Pisani Montagnana
Renaissance architecture in Veneto
Montagnana

Villa Pisani, Montagnana


Anders Bircow (born 15 December 1951 in Helsinge) is a Danish actor and comedian. He is best known as a member of the comedy act Linie 3.

Anders Bircow was born in the town of Helsinge, and attended schools in Nærum, Ramløse and Helsinge. He received an education as a bank worker in Helsinge, and later worked as a school teacher in Vorgod in Herning. He received an education as an actor at Aarhus Theatre, and have had roles at most of the teatres in Copenhagen.

Bircow played guitar and bass in a band called Cokes from the age of 13 until adulthood. He joined Skuespillerskolen (Drama school) at the Århus city's local theatre. In 1979 he formed the comedy group Linie 3 along with Preben Kristensen, with whom he had previously had the four-man group Barbershop Harmony, and Thomas Eje. Linie 3 premiered their first TV show in 1980.

In 2001 Linie 3 appeared in a millennium show called Rundrejsen 2001 that was seen by more than 300,000 people. Linie 3 had their 25th anniversary-show in 2004. They then broke up for some years and Eje spent time in the US; they reformed in 2011. Their comeback show in April 2012 at the Tivoli Theatre in Copenhagen was a success and was followed by a nationwide tour.

Bircow has also appeared in his own one-man-show, mostly at company and private events. He has directed plays and translated drama and animated cartoons. He has voiced many cartoon characters and is the official voice of Mickey Mouse in Denmark.

In addition to acting and entertainment, he was the chief representative of Amway in Denmark for many years. He lodged a successful complaint against a newspaper which characterised this as investment in a pyramid scheme.

Bircow is married to Marion Bircow and has three daughters, Caroline, Julia and Sophia.

References

External links
 Anders Bircow's personal home page

1951 births
Living people
Danish male actors
Danish guitarists
People from Gribskov Municipality

Anders Bircow


Cardiff is a town in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States west of Gardendale. At the 2010 census the population was 55, placing it as the least-populated incorporated area in Jefferson County. It is named after the capital of Wales.  It is one of four Jefferson County cities named after cities in Great Britain, the others being Birmingham, Leeds and Brighton.

Geography
Cardiff is located at  (33.645384, −86.932965). on Five Mile Creek, a tributary of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River. It is immediately downstream of Brookside. The region is part of the Cumberland Plateau, with shallow but deeply incised stream valleys dissecting sedimentary rock, including significant seams of bituminous coal.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 82 people, 33 households, and 26 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 38 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 93.90% White and 6.10% Black or African American.

There were 33 households, out of which 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.6% were married couples living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 21.2% were non-families. 18.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 2.85.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.0% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 32.9% from 25 to 44, 18.3% from 45 to 64, and 18.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.2 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $34,107, and the median income for a family was $45,000. Males had a median income of $28,906 versus $18,125 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,067. There were 5.6% of families and 8.1% of the population living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and none of those over 64.

History
Coal mining was the historical basis of the economy. The town, for years the smallest incorporated town in the State of Alabama, declined along with the decline of underground coal mining and the rise of strip mining. The epochal flood of May 2003 destroyed a number of buildings in that part of Cardiff close to Five Mile Creek. The town is now but a dent in the land; scarce of life with a scant 20–30 people and covered with kudzu. Cardiff is becoming a ghost town.

References

Towns in Jefferson County, Alabama
Towns in Alabama
Birmingham metropolitan area, Alabama

Cardiff, Alabama


Spital-in-the-Street is a small hamlet in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.  It is situated on the A15 road (Roman Ermine Street),  north from Lincoln,  east from Gainsborough, and  north from the A15 and A631 crossroad at Caenby Corner. Nearby villages include Hemswell to the west, Glentham to the east, and Glentworth to the south-west.

History
Spital-in-the-Street lies on Ermine Street, a Roman road that runs in a straight line for  between Lincoln and the Humber Estuary, passing through no villages north from Lincoln until Broughton  away. The first part of its name, "Spital", comes from the ancient hospital for the poor which was situated here, having its origins in a Hermitage. Hermits, or 'Eremites' dwellers in the eremos or wilderness, commonly placed their Hermitages in remote spots, often on highways, to extend hospitality to travellers.

The chapel attached to the hermitage was dedicated to St Edmund.  Edward II granted a licence for land and rent to be appropriated by the Vicar of Tealby for the payment of the Chaplain; and by a document signed at Tealby in 1323 and witnessed by nearly all the dignitaries of Lincoln Cathedral the foundation was placed under the jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter.  Ten years later the hermitage was called "Spital-on-the-Street" so its use had probably already been enlarged, although there is no documentary evidence of this.  All that is known is the building of a house for the Chaplain by John of Harrington in 1333.

A fair and a market were inaugurated in 1324.

In 1396 Richard II granted to Thomas de Aston, Canon of Lincoln, leave to build a house "adjoining the west side of the chapel for the residence of William Wyhom the Chaplain and of certain poor persons there resident and their successors", and before the end of the 14th century it had buildings sufficient for these poor persons.  It escaped Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries only to be later seized by Elizabeth I for the Crown and sold.

The Sessions for the Kirton division of Lindsey were for many years held in the chapel, but it fell into disrepair and was pulled down by Sir William Wray in 1594 with a new Session's House built nearby.  In 1660 Robert Mapletoft of Pembroke College, Cambridge was appointed Sub-Dean of Lincoln Cathedral and also Master of the Spital Hospital; he rebuilt the chapel in 1661 and set about improving the hospital's revenues.  By the mid-19th century, the Charity Commissioners estimated the hospital's revenues to be £959 per year, although they said that most of this was being misappropriated. This money, a considerable amount, was eventually recovered and used to endow De Aston School in Market Rasen, to restore Lincoln Grammar School and pay the alms of four neighbouring parishes.

The chapel was restored in 1864 but by the end of the 19th century the hospital had been abandoned and only the chapel remained, falling ever further into dereliction until being restored once again in the 1990s.

References

External links

Hamlets in Lincolnshire
West Lindsey District

Spital-in-the-Street


Liu Wenjin (, May 193727 June 2013) was a Chinese composer of classical Chinese music best known for his erhu piece Sanmenxia Changxiangqu ("Sanmen Gorge Rhapsody", 1981). He also composed, among other things, Ballad of Yubei.

Liu as born in Tangshan, Hebei Province and later went to the United States under the auspices of the Chinese Music Society of North America.

He was one of China's most distinguished and respected composer-conductors.

A prolific composer, Liu wrote pieces spanning instrumental, vocal, choral and song-and-dance music. He also scored for more than a dozen television drama series. His instrumental works include 'Impressions of Taixing Mountain', 'Ambush from All Sides' and 'Jasmine' for Chinese orchestra.

During his younger years, Liu excelled in his academic studies and received the most outstanding student award. During this period, he also composed his first two erhu works, 'Ballad of North Henan Province' and 'The Sanmen Gorge Capriccio', which were sister pieces combining both the erhu and piano.

Liu transcribed 'Tiger down the Mountain' from Chinese Rhapsody by Xian Xinghai on October 1975 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Xian Xinghai's death.

In 1993, the 'Ballad of North Henan Province' was chosen as "20th century's classic Chinese music". In 1999, 'The Sanmen Gorge Capriccio' was chosen into the album of "stage craft of new China and master works of movies and TV art". In May 1982 at the Shanghai Spring concert, the debut of his erhu concerto, 'The Great Wall Capriccio' achieved resounding success and was hailed as a milestone in contemporary erhu composition even till today.

For over 40 years, Liu visited many countries to attend interviews, give lectures and serve as guest conductor in many different orchestras. He was widely recognised for his outstanding contribution to the promotion of Chinese classical music and international cultural exchange.

Liu died in Beijing on 27 June 2013.

References

20th-century Chinese composers
Chinese male classical composers
Chinese classical composers
People from Tangshan
Musicians from Hebei
1937 births
2013 deaths

Liu Wenjin


Kahaluu Bay (; ) is a historic district and popular recreation area on the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

Early history
This area has been populated for about 500 years, and in the 18th and 19th centuries was an important royal residence.
One major feature is Pa o ka menehune (which means literally "wall of the ancients"), a breakwater constructed in Ancient Hawaii that might have once enclosed the entire bay. Since construction of a heiau using the dry-stack masonry technique (uhau humu pohaku) was a major undertaking, it is unusual to find the concentration of about ten that were built on this bay.

The Kuemanu Heiau is on the north end of the bay. This was used by royalty to view surfing and as a residence.
Nearby the Keawaiki canoe landing site is popular today with local surfers.

Two ancient fishponds called Waikuaala and Poo Hawaii are still visible.
Royal Governor John Adams Kuakini had a thatched roof house, and
King David Kalākaua built a beach house in this area which has been reconstructed.
South of the bay is Hāpaialii Heiau, associated with astrological observation, built between 1411 and 1465 and restored in 2007.
The Keeku Heiau was used for human sacrifice (luakini) and Kapuanoni Heiau were also built just south of the bay.
Petroglyphs thought to depict the defeat of Kamalalawalu of Maui by Lonoikamakahiki can be viewed at low tide near the temples.
Several kuula (sacred stones, said to have been brought from Maui) were monuments to the plentiful fish and Green turtles that are still found in the bay.

More recent history
Across Alii Drive from the bay are the stone ruins of the original Helani Church built in 1861 by Rev. John D. Paris. It was built on the ruins of the Ohiamukumuku Heiau. As the population moved inland, a new Helani Church was constructed at a higher elevation still used by the congregation today.

On the grounds of a former Kahuna's house, a Catholic church officially called "Saint Peter's by the Sea" was built in 1880 on Laaloa bay, and then  moved to its present location in 1912, run by the Saint Michael the Archangel Catholic Church Parish.
It is commonly known as "the little blue church", and is used as a landmark for canoe races.

In 1970, the Keauhou Beach Hotel was built on the point South of the bay.
The hotel was bought in 1987 for $13M by the Azabu Building Company, headed by Japanese businessman Kitaro Watanabe. Plans were to enlarge it and build a larger resort combined with the Kona Lagoon Hotel (built in 1975), and more facilities across the street, to be called the Azabu Kona Beach Resort.
There was also a botanical park called Kona Gardens on the uphill (mauka) side of the street.
However, the investors suffered financial problems in the 1990s.
The other properties were abandoned, reverting to the holder of the lease in 1995, the investment arm of Kamehameha Schools, which eventually also bought the remaining hotel.
In June 1996, three of the executives were arrested in Tokyo, suspected of concealing assets from creditors.
In 1997, the hotel was sold again to Trinity Investments from Chicago.

The 462-room Kona Lagoon Hotel, closed since 1988, had fallen into disrepair.
Local people said the project was "cursed" because of all the sacred sites in the area, and it was torn down in 2004, with long-term plans to restore the historic sites. In 2012, Kamehameha Schools announced plans to close and eventually demolish the Keauhou Beach Hotel, and to build a cultural and educational complex on the site. The hotel closed in October 2012. As of August 2014, demolition is planned for fall 2015. Both hotels have been torn down and the site returned to natural condition.

The Kalahuu Bay District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 27, 1974.

Recreation

The bay is still used today by surfers, with a surf school across the street from the ancient canoe landing.
The area around the bay was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as historic district number 74000713 in 1974. The state registry lists it as site 10-37-4150.
The south end of the bay became Kahaluu Beach County Park in 1953, a popular snorkeling spot, although the beach is rocky with some gray sand.
The parking lot is open 7am - 7pm, and lifeguards are on duty during limited hours.

The Kohala Center sponsors a program called ReefTeach to educate visitors about the preservation of the bay, and has produced some educational videos on the history of the area.
An educational festival called the Ocean Fair is held here as part of the Kona Earth Festival, associated with Earth Day.
The hotel is now called the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort.The hotels have both been torn down.
Two more Heiaus on this point are being reconstructed. Directly south of this point is another historic area, Keauhou Bay.

Gallery

References

Bays of Hawaii (island)
Archaeological sites in Hawaii
Parks in Hawaii
Protected areas of Hawaii (island)
Surfing locations in Hawaii
Beaches of Hawaii (island)
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii
National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii County, Hawaii

Kahaluʻu Bay