History of the Balkans

The Balkans and parts of this area are alternatively situated in Southeast, Southern, Eastern Europe and Central Europe. The distinct identity and fragmentation of the Balkans owes much to its common and often turbulent history regarding centuries of Ottoman conquest and to its very mountainous geography.
Prehistory.
Neolithic.
Archaeologists have identified several early culture-complexes, including the Cucuteni culture (4500 to 3500 BC), Starcevo culture (6500 to 4000 BC), Vinča culture (5000 to 3000 BC), Linear pottery culture (5500 to 4500 BC), and Ezero culture (3300—2700 BC). The Eneolithic Varna culture in Bulgaria (4600–4200 BC radiocarbon dating) produced the world's earliest known gold treasure and had sophisticated beliefs about afterlife. A notable set of artifacts are the Tărtăria tablets found in Romania, which appear to be inscribed with proto-writing. The Butmir Culture (2600 to 2400 BC), found on the outskirts of present-day Sarajevo, developed unique ceramics, and was likely overrun by the proto-Illyrians in the Bronze Age.
The "Kurgan hypothesis" of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origins assumes gradual expansion of the "Kurgan culture", around 5000 BC, until it encompassed the entire pontic steppe. Kurgan IV was identified with the Yamna culture of around 3000 BC.
Copper Age.
At ca. 1000 BC, Illyrian tribes appear in Albania and all the way aside Adriatic Sea in what is modern day Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, parts of Serbia, etc. The Thracians lived in Thrace and adjacent lands (now mainly Bulgaria, but also Romania, northeastern Greece, European Turkey, eastern Serbia and North Macedonia), and the closely related Dacians lived in what is today Romania. These three major tribal groups spoke Paleo-Balkan languages, Indo-European languages. The Phrygians seem to have settled in the southern Balkans at first, centuries later continuing their migration to settle in Asia Minor, now extinct as a separate group and language.
Antiquity.
Iron Age.
After the period that followed the arrival of the Dorians, known as the Greek Dark Ages or the Geometric Period, the classical Greek culture developed in the southern Balkan peninsula, the Aegean islands and the western Asia Minor Greek colonies starting around the 9th or 8th century BC and peaking with the democracy that developed in 6th and 5th century BC Athens. Later, Hellenistic culture spread throughout the empire created by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE. The Greeks were the first to establish a system of trade routes in the Balkans, and in order to facilitate trade with the natives, between 700 BC and 300 BC they founded a number of colonies on the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus) coast, Asia Minor, Dalmatia, Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) etc.
By the end of the 4th century BC Greek language and culture were dominant not only in the Balkans but also around the whole Eastern Mediterranean. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians invaded the Balkans, and then proceed to the fertile areas of Europe. Parts of the Balkans and more northern areas were ruled by the Achaemenid Persians for some time, including Thrace, Paeonia, Macedon, and most Black Sea coastal regions of Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Russia. However, the outcome of the Greco-Persian Wars resulted in the Achaemenids being forced to withdraw from most of their European territories.
The Thracian Odrysian empire - the Odrysian kingdom, was the most important Daco-Thracian state union, and probably was founded in the 470s BC, after the Persian defeat in Greece, had its capital at Seuthopolis, near Kazanlak, Stara Zagora Province, in central Bulgaria. Other tribal unions existed in Dacia at least as early as the beginning of the 2nd century BC under King Oroles. The Illyrian tribes were situated in the area corresponding to today's Adriatic coast. The name "Illyrii" was originally used to refer to a people occupying an area centered on Lake Skadar, situated between Albania and Montenegro (Illyrians proper). However, the term was subsequently used by the Greeks and Romans as a generic name for the different peoples within a well defined but much greater area. In the same way, the territory to the north of the kingdom of Macedon was occupied by the Paeonians, who were also ruled by kings.
Achaemenid Persian Empire (6th to 5th century BC).
Around 513 BC, as part of the military incursions ordered by Darius I, a huge Achaemenid army invaded the Balkans and tried to defeat the Western Scythians roaming to the north of the Danube river. Several Thracian peoples, and nearly all of the other European regions bordering the Black Sea (including parts of the modern-day Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Russia), were conquered by the Achaemenid army before it returned to Asia Minor. Darius's highly regarded commander Megabazus was responsible to fulfill the conquers in the Balkans. The Achaemenid troops conquered Thrace, the coastal Greek cities, and the Paeonians. Eventually, in about 512–511 BC, the Macedonian king Amyntas I accepted the Achaemenid domination and surrendered his country as a vassal state to the Achaemenid Persia. The multi-ethnic Achaemenid army possessed many soldiers from the Balkans. Moreover, many of the Macedonian and Persian elite intermarried. For instance, Megabazus' own son, Bubares, married Amyntas' daughter, Gygaea; and that supposedly ensured good relations between the Macedonian and Achaemenid rulers.
Following the Ionian Revolt the Persian authority in the Balkans was restored by Mardonius in 492, which not only included the re-subjugation of Thrace, but also the full subordinate inclusion of Macedon into the Persian Empire. The Persian invasion led indirectly to Macedonia's rise in power and Persia had some common interests in the Balkans; with Persian aid, the Macedonians stood to gain much at the expense of some Balkan tribes such as the Paeonians and Greeks. All in all, the Macedonians were "willing and useful Persian allies." Macedonian soldiers fought against Athens and Sparta in Xerxes' army.
Although Persian rule in the Balkans was overthrown following the failure of Xerxes' invasion, the Macedonians and Thracians borrowed heavily from the Achaemenid Persians their tradition in culture and economy in the 5th- to mid-4th centuries. Some artificats, excavated at Sindos and Vergina maybe be considered as influenced by Asian practices, or even imported from Persia in the late sixth and early fifth centuries.
Pre-Roman states (4th to 1st centuries BC).
Bardylis, a Dardanian chieftain, created a kingdom which turned Illyria into a formidable local power in the 4th century BC. The main cities of this kingdom were Scodra (present-day Shkodra, Albania) and Rhizon (present-day Risan, Montenegro). In 359 BC, King Perdiccas III of Macedon was killed by attacking Illyrians.
But in 358 BC, Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, defeated the Illyrians and assumed control of their territory as far as Lake Ohrid (present-day North Macedonia). Alexander himself routed the forces of the Illyrian chieftain Cleitus in 335 BC, and Illyrian tribal leaders and soldiers accompanied Alexander on his conquest of Persia. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the Greek states started fighting among themselves again, while up north independent Illyrian polities arose again. In 312 BC, King Glaukias seized Epidamnus. By the end of the 3rd century BC, an Illyrian kingdom based in Scodra controlled parts of northern Albania, and littoral Montenegro. Under Queen Teuta, Illyrians attacked Roman merchant vessels plying the Adriatic Sea and gave Rome an excuse to invade the Balkans.
In the Illyrian Wars of 229 BC and 219 BC, Rome overran the Illyrian settlements in the Neretva river valley and suppressed the piracy that had made the Adriatic unsafe. In 180 BC, the Dalmatians declared themselves independent of the Illyrian king Gentius, who kept his capital at Scodra. The Romans defeated Gentius, the last king of Illyria, at Scodra in 168 BC and captured him, bringing him to Rome in 165 BC. Four client-republics were set up, which were in fact ruled by Rome. Later, the region was directly governed by Rome and organized as a province, with Scodra as its capital. Also, in 168 BC, by taking advantage of the constant Greek civil wars, the Romans defeated Perseus, the last King of Macedonia and with their allies in southern Greece, they became overlords of the region. The territories were split to Macedonia, Achaia and Epirus.
Roman period.
Starting in the 2nd century BC the rising Roman Republic began annexing the Balkan area, transforming it into one of the Empire's most prosperous and stable regions. To this day, the Roman legacy is clearly visible in the numerous monuments and artifacts scattered throughout the Balkans, and most importantly in the Latin-based languages used by almost 25 million people in the area (the Balkan Romance languages). However, the Roman influence failed to dissolve Greek culture, which maintained a predominant status in the Eastern half of the Empire, and continued to be strong in the southern half of the Balkans.
Beginning in the 3rd century AD, Rome's frontiers in the Balkans were weakened because of internal political and economic disorders. During this time, the Balkans, especially Illyricum, grew to greater importance. It became one of the Empire's four prefectures, and many warriors, administrators and emperors arose from the region. Many rulers built their residences in the region.
Though the situation had stabilized temporarily by the time of Constantine, waves of non-Roman peoples, most prominently the Thervings, Greuthungs and Huns, began to cross into the territory, first (in the case of the Thervingi) as refugees with imperial permission to take shelter from their foes the Huns, then later as invaders. Turning on their hosts after decades of servitude and simmering hostility, Thervingi under Fritigern and later Visigoths under Alaric I eventually conquered and laid waste the entire Balkan region before moving westward to invade Italy itself.
By the end of the Empire the region had become a conduit for invaders to move westward, as well as the scene of treaties and complex political maneuvers by Romans, Goths and Huns, all seeking the best advantage for their peoples amid the shifting and disorderly final decades of Roman imperial power.
Rise of Christianity.
Christianity first came to the area when Saint Paul and some of his followers traveled in the Balkans passing through Thracian, Illyrian and Greek populated areas. He spread Christianity to the Greeks at Beroia, Thessaloniki, Athens, Corinth and Dyrrachium. Saint Andrew also worked among the Thracians, Dacians and Scythians, and had preached in Dobruja and Pontus Euxinus. In 46 AD, this territory was conquered by the Romans and annexed to Moesia.
In 106 AD the emperor Trajan invaded Dacia. Subsequently, Christian colonists, soldiers and slaves came to Dacia and spread Christianity.
The Edict of Serdica, also called Edict of Toleration by Emperor Galerius, was issued in 311 in Serdica (today Sofia, Bulgaria) by the Roman emperor Galerius, officially ending the Diocletianic persecution of Christianity in the East. In the 3rd century the number of Christians grew. When Emperor Constantine of Rome issued the Edict of Milan in 313, thus ending all Roman-sponsored persecution of Christianity, the area became a haven for Christians. Just twelve years later in 325, Constantine assembled the First Council of Nicaea. In 391, Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of Rome.
The East-West Schism, known also as the Great Schism (though this latter term sometimes refers to the later Western Schism), was the event that divided Christianity into Western Catholicism and Greek Eastern Orthodoxy, following the dividing line of the Empire in Western Latin-speaking and Eastern Greek-speaking parts. Though normally dated to 1054, when Pope Leo IX and Patriarch of Constantinople Michael I Cerularius excommunicated each other, the East-West Schism was actually the result of an extended period of estrangement between the two Churches.
The primary claimed causes of the Schism were disputes over papal authority—the Pope claimed he held authority over the four Eastern patriarchs, while the patriarchs claimed that the Pope was merely a first among equals—and over the insertion of the filioque clause into the Nicene Creed. Most serious (and real) cause of course, was the competition for power between the old and the new capitals of the Roman Empire (Rome and Constantinople).
There were other, less significant catalysts for the Schism, including variance over liturgical practices and conflicting claims of jurisdiction.
Early Middle Ages.
Eastern Roman Empire.
The Byzantine Empire was the Greek-speaking, Eastern Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. During most of its history it controlled provinces in the Balkans and Asia Minor. The Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian for a time retook and restored much of the territory once held by the unified Roman Empire, from Spain and Italy, to Anatolia. Unlike the Western Roman Empire, which met a famous if rather ill-defined death in the year 476 AD, the Eastern Roman Empire came to a much less famous but far more definitive conclusion at the hands of Mehmet II and the Ottoman Empire in the year 1453. Its expert military and diplomatic power ensured inadvertently that Western Europe remained safe from many of the more devastating invasions from eastern peoples, at a time when the still new and fragile Western Christian kingdoms might have had difficulty containing it.
The magnitude of influence and contribution the Byzantine Empire made to Europe and Christendom has only begun to be recognised recently. The Emperor Justinian I's formation of a new code of law, the "Corpus Juris Civilis", served as a basis of subsequent development of legal codes. Byzantium played an important role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy. Its rich historiographical tradition preserved ancient knowledge upon which splendid art, architecture, literature and technological achievements were built. This is embodied in the Byzantine version of Christianity, which spread Orthodoxy and eventually led to the creation of the so-called "Byzantine commonwealth" (a term coined by 20th-century historians) throughout Eastern Europe. Early Byzantine missionary work spread Orthodox Christianity to various Slavic peoples, amongst whom it still is a predominant religion. Jewish communities were also spread through the Balkans at this time, while the Jews were primarily Romaniotes. In a sense of a Greek-influenced "Byzantine commonwealth", the Greek Christian culture and also the Romaniote culture have influenced the emerging cultures both the Christian and the Jewish cultures of the Balkans and of Eastern Europe.
Throughout its history, its borders were ever fluctuating, often involved in multi-sided conflicts with not only the Arabs, Persians and Turks of the east, but also with its Christian neighbours- the Bulgarians, Serbs, Normans and the Crusaders, which all at one time or another conquered large amounts of its territory. By the end, the empire consisted of nothing but Constantinople and small holdings in mainland Greece, with all other territories in both the Balkans and Asia Minor gone. The conclusion was reached in 1453, when the city was successfully besieged by Mehmet II, bringing the Second Rome to an end.
Barbarian incursions.
Coinciding with the decline of the Roman Empire, many "barbarian" tribes passed through the Balkans, most of whom did not leave any lasting state. During these "Dark Ages", Eastern Europe, like Western Europe, regressed culturally and economically, although enclaves of prosperity and culture persisted along the coastal towns of the Adriatic and the major Greek cities in the south. As the Byzantine Empire withdrew its borders more and more, in an attempt to consolidate its waning power, vast areas were de-urbanised, roads abandoned and native populations may have withdrawn to isolated areas such as mountains and forests.
The first such barbarian tribe to enter the Balkans were the Goths. From northern East Germany, via Scythia, they pushed southwards into the Roman Balkans following the threat of the Huns. These Goths were eventually granted lands inside the Byzantine realm (south of the Danube), as "foederati" (allies). However, after a period of famine, the proto-Visigoths rebelled and defeated the emperor in 378. The Visigoths subsequently sacked Rome in 410, and in an attempt to deal with them, they were granted lands in France. The Huns, a confederation of a Turkic-Uralic ruling core that subsequently incorporated various Germanic, Sarmatian and Slavic tribes, moved west into Europe entering Pannonia in 400–410 AD. The Huns are supposed to have triggered the great German migrations into western Europe. From their base, the Huns subdued many people and carved out a sphere of terror extending from Germany and the Baltic to the Black Sea. With the death of Attila the Hun in 454 AD, succession struggles led to the rapid collapse of Hun prestige and subsequent disappearance from Europe. In the meantime, the Ostrogoths freed themselves from Hunnish domination in 454 AD and became foedorati as well. The Ostrogoths too migrated westwards, commissioned by the Byzantines, and established a state in Italy. In the second half of the 5th- and first of the 6th century, new Germanic barbarian tribes entered the Balkans. The Gepids, having lived in Dacia in the 3rd century with the Goths, settled Pannonia and eventually conquered Singidunum (Belgrade) and Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica), establishing a short-lived kingdom in the 6th century. The Lombards entered Pannonia in 550s, defeated the Gepids and absorbed them. In 569 they moved into northern Italy, establishing their own kingdom at the expense of the Ostrogoths.
The Slavs, known as the "Sklavenoi", migrated in successive waves. Small numbers might have moved down as early as the 3rd century however the bulk of migration did not occur until the 6th century. The Slavs migrated from Central Europe and Eastern Europe and eventually became known as South Slavs. Most still remained subjects of the Roman Empire.
The Avars were a Turkic group (or possibly Mongol), possibly with a ruling core derived from the Rouran that escaped the Göktürks. They entered Central Europe in the 7th century AD, forcing the Lombards to flee to Italy. They continuously raided the Balkans, contributing to the general decline of the area that had begun centuries earlier. After their unsuccessful siege on Constantinople in 626, they limited themselves to Central Europe. They ruled over the Western Slavs that had already inhabited the region. By the 10th century, the Avar confederacy collapsed due to internal conflicts, Frankish and Slavic attacks. The remnant Avars were subsequently absorbed by the Slavs and Magyars.
The Bulgars, Turkic people of Central Asia, first appeared in a wave commenced with the arrival of Asparuh's Bulgars. Asparuh was one of Kubrat's, the Great Khan, successors. They had occupied the fertile plains of the Ukraine for several centuries until the Khazars swept their confederation in the 660s and triggered their further migration. One part of them — under the leadership of Asparuh — headed southwest and settled in the 670s in present-day Bessarabia. In 680 AD they invaded Moesia and Dobrudja and formed a confederation with the local Slavic tribes who had migrated there a century earlier. After suffering a defeat at the hands of Bulgars and Slavs, the Byzantine Empire recognised the sovereignty of Asparuh's Khanate in a subsequent treaty signed in 681 AD. The same year is usually regarded as the year of the establishment of Bulgaria (see History of Bulgaria). A smaller group of Bulgars under Khan Kouber settled almost simultaneously in the Pelagonian plain in western Macedonia after spending some time in Panonia. Some Bulgars actually entered Europe earlier with the Huns. After the disintegration of the Hunnic Empire the Bulgars dispersed mostly to eastern Europe.
The Magyars, led by Árpád, were the leading clan in a ten tribe confederacy. They entered Europe in the 10th century AD, settling in Pannonia. There they encountered a predominantly Slavic populace and Avar remnants. The Magyars were a Uralic people, originating from west of the Ural Mountains. They learned the art of horseback warfare from Turkic people. They then migrated further west around 400AD, settling in the Don-Dnieper area. Here they were subjects of the Khazar Khaganate. They were neighboured by the Bulgars and Alans. They sided with 3 rebel Khazar tribes against the ruling factions. Their loss in this civil war, and ongoing battles with the Pechenegs, was probably the catalyst for them to move further west into Europe.
The local Romans and Romanized remnants of the Iron Age populace of the Balkans began their assimilation into mainly the Slavs and Greeks, however, notable Latin-speaking communities are known to have survived. In literature, these Romance-speakers are known as "Vlachs". In Dacia, Roman colonists and Romanized Dacians retreated in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania after the Roman withdrawal. Archaeological evidence indicate a Romanized population in Transylvania by at least the 8th century. By the 7th and 8th centuries, the Roman Empire existed only south of the Danube River in the form of the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at Constantinople. In this ethnically diverse closing area of the Roman Empire, Vlachs were recognized as those who spoke Latin, the official language of the Byzantine Empire used only in official documents, until the 6th century when it was changed to the more popular Greek. These original Vlachs probably consisted of a variety of ethnic groups (most notably Thracians, Dacians, Illyrians) who shared the commonality of having been assimilated in language and culture of the Roman Empire with the Roman colonists settled in their areas. Anna Comnene relates in Alexiade about Dacians (instead of Vlachs) from Balkans and from the North side of Danube and they were identified as Romanians. Romance-speaking populations survived on the Adriatic, and the Albanians are believed by some to be descending from partially Romanized Illyrians.
First Bulgarian Empire.
In the 7th century the Bulgaria was established by Khan Asparuh. It greatly increased in strength in the coming centuries stretching from Dnieper to Budapest and the Mediterranean. Bulgaria dominated the Balkans for the next four centuries and was instrumental in the adoption of Christianity in the region and among other Slavs. Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I the Great, following the cultural and political course of his father Boris I, ordered the creation of the Bulgarian Alphabet, which was later spread by missionaries to the north reaching modern Russia.
High Middle Ages.
Republic of Venice.
The Uprising of Asen and Peter was a revolt of Bulgarians and Vlachs living in Moesia and the Balkan Mountains, then the theme of Paristrion of the Byzantine Empire, caused by a tax increase. It began on 26 October 1185, the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, and ended with the restoration of Bulgaria with the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire, ruled by the Asen dynasty.
In building its maritime commercial empire, the Republic of Venice dominated the trade in salt, acquired control of most of the islands in the Aegean, including Cyprus and Crete, and became a major "power" in the Near East and in all the Balkans. Venice seized a number of locations on the eastern shores of the Adriatic sea before 1200, partly for purely commercial reasons, but also because pirates based there were a menace to its trade. The Doge since that time bore the titles of "Duke of Dalmatia" and "Duke of Istria". Venice became a fully imperial power following the Venetian-financed Fourth Crusade, which in 1203 captured and in 1204 sacked and conquered Constantinople, dividing the Byzantine Empire into several smaller states and established the Latin Empire. Venice subsequently carved out a sphere of influence in the Aegean known as the Duchy of the Archipelago, and also gained control of the island of Crete. Weakened by constant warfare with Bulgaria and the unconquered sections of the empire, the Latin Empire eventually fell when Byzantines recaptured Constantinople under Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261. The last Latin emperor, Baldwin II, went into exile, but the imperial title survived, with several pretenders to it, until the 14th century.
Late Middle Ages.
From the 14th century, Venice controlled most of the maritime commerce of the Balkans with important colonial possessions on the Adriatic and Aegean coasts. Venice's long decline started in the 15th century, when it first made an unsuccessful attempt to hold Thessalonica against the Ottomans (1423–1430). She also sent ships to help defend Constantinople against the besieging Turks (1453). After the city fell to Sultan Mehmet II, he declared war on Venice. The war lasted thirty years and cost Venice many of the eastern Mediterranean possessions. Slowly the Republic of Venice lost nearly all possessions in the Balkans, maintaining in the 18th century only the Adriatic areas of Istria, Dalmatia and Albania Veneta. The Venetian island of Corfu was the only area of Greece never occupied by the Turks. In 1797 Napoleon conquered Venice and caused the end of the Republic of Venice in the Balkans.
Early modern period.
Ottoman Empire.

Much of the Balkans was under Ottoman rule throughout the Early modern period. Ottoman rule was long, lasting from the 14th century up until the early 20th in some territories. The Ottoman Empire was religiously, linguistically and ethnically diverse, and, at times, a much more tolerant place for religious practices when compared to other parts of the world. The different groups in the empire were organised along confessional lines, in the so-called the Millet system. Among the Orthodox Christians of the empire (the Rum Millet) a common identity was forged based on a shared sense of time defined by the ecclesiastical calendar, saint's days and feasts.
The social structure of the Balkans in the late 18th century was complex. The Ottoman rulers exercised control chiefly in indirect ways. In Albania and Montenegro, for example, local leaders paid nominal tribute to the Empire and otherwise had little contact. The Republic of Ragusa paid an annual tribute but otherwise was free to pursue its rivalry with the Republic of Venice. The two Romance-speaking principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia had their own nobility, but were ruled by Greek families chosen by the Sultan. In Greece, the elite comprised clergymen and scholars, but there was scarcely any Greek aristocracy. A million or more Turks had settled in the Balkans, typically in smaller urban centers where they were garrison troops, civil servants, and craftsmen and merchants. There were also important communities of Jewish and Greek merchants. The Turks and Jews were not to be found in the countryside, so there was a very sharp social differentiation between the cities and their surrounding region in terms of language, religion and ethnicity. The Ottoman Empire collected taxes at about the 10% rate but there was no forced labor and the workers and peasants were not especially oppressed by the Empire. The Sultan favoured and protected the Orthodox clergy, primarily as a protection against the missionary zeal of Roman Catholics.
Rise of nationalism in the Balkans.
The rise of Nationalism under the Ottoman Empire caused the breakdown of millet concept. With the rise of national states and their histories, it is very hard to find reliable sources on the Ottoman concept of a nation and the centuries of the relations between House of Osman and the provinces, which turned into states. Unquestionably, understanding the Ottoman conception of nationhood helps us to understand what happened in the Balkans in the late Ottoman period.
The bloody suppression of the April Uprising in Bulgaria, became occasion of the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878.
Congress of Berlin.
The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) was a meeting of the leading statesmen of Europe's Great Powers and the Ottoman Empire. In the wake of the Russia's decisive victory in a war with Turkey, 1877–78, the urgent need was to stabilize and reorganize the Balkans, and set up new nations. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who led the Congress, undertook to adjust boundaries to minimize the risks of major war, while recognizing the reduced power of the Ottoman Empire, and balance the distinct interests of the great powers.
As a result, Ottoman holdings in Europe declined sharply; Bulgaria was established as an independent principality inside the Ottoman Empire, but was not allowed to keep all its previous territory. Bulgaria, without being admitted to the Congress, lost more than 70% of its territory, and over 50% of its ethnic population remained outside its borders—which caused a number of uprisings and brought the country into subsequent Balkan wars. Bulgaria lost Eastern Rumelia, which was restored to the Turks under a special administration. Macedonia, and East and Western Thrace were returned outright to the Turks, who promised reform and Northern Dobrudja became part of Romania, which achieved full independence but had to turn over part of Bessarabia to Russia. Serbia and Montenegro finally gained complete independence, but with smaller territories. Austria took over Bosnia and Herzegovina, and effectively took control of the Sanjak of Novi Pazar. Britain took over Cyprus.
The results were at first hailed as a great achievement in peacemaking and stabilization. However, most of the participants were not fully satisfied, and grievances regarding the results festered until they exploded into World War in 1914. Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece made gains, but far less than they thought they deserved. The Ottoman Empire, called at the time the "sick man of Europe," was humiliated and significantly weakened, rendering it more liable to domestic unrest and more vulnerable to attack. Although Russia had been victorious in the war that caused the conference, it was humiliated at Berlin, and resented its treatment. Austria-Hungary gained a great deal of territory, which angered the South Slavs, and led to decades of tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bismarck became the target of hatred of Russian nationalists and Pan-Slavists, and found that he had tied Germany too closely to Austria in the Balkans.
In the long-run, tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary intensified, as did the nationality question in the Balkans. The congress was aimed at the revision of the Treaty of San Stefano and at keeping Constantinople in Ottoman hands. It effectively disavowed Russia's victory over the decaying Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. The Congress of Berlin returned to the Ottoman Empire territories that the previous treaty had given to the Principality of Bulgaria, most notably Macedonia, thus setting up a strong revanchist demand in Bulgaria that in 1912 was one of many causes of the First Balkan War.
20th century.
Balkan Wars.
The Balkan Wars were two wars that took place in the Balkans in 1912 and 1913. Four Balkan states defeated the Ottoman Empire in the first war; one of the four, Bulgaria, was defeated in the second war. The Ottoman Empire lost nearly all of its holdings in Europe. Austria-Hungary, although not a combatant, was weakened as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples. The war set the stage for the Balkan crisis of 1914 and thus was a "prelude to the First World War."
World War I.
Coming of war 1914.
The monumentally colossal World War I was ignited from a spark in the Balkans, when a Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand. Princip was a member of a Serbian militant group called the Crna Ruka (Serbian for "Black Hand"). Following the assassination, Austria-Hungary sent Serbia an ultimatum in July 1914 with several provisions largely designed to prevent Serbian compliance. When Serbia only partially fulfilled the terms of the ultimatum, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914.
Many members of the Austro-Hungarian government, such as Conrad von Hötzendorf had hoped to provoke a war with Serbia for several years. They had a couple of motives. In part they feared the power of Serbia and its ability to sow dissent and disruption in the empire's "south-Slav" provinces under the banner of a "greater Slav state". Another hope was that they could annex Serbian territories in order to change the ethnic composition of the empire. With more Slavs in the Empire, some in the German-dominated half of the government hoped to balance the power of the Magyar-dominated Hungarian government. Until 1914 more peaceful elements had been able to argue against these military strategies, either through strategic considerations or political ones. However, Franz Ferdinand, a leading advocate of a peaceful solution, had been removed from the scene, and more hawkish elements were able to prevail. Another factor in this was the development in Germany giving the Dual-Monarchy a "blank cheque" to pursue a military strategy that ensured Germany's backing.
Austro-Hungarian planning for operations against Serbia was not extensive and they ran into many logistical difficulties in mobilizing the army and beginning operations against the Serbs. They encountered problems with train schedules and mobilization schedules, which conflicted with agricultural cycles in some areas. When operations began in early August Austria-Hungary was unable to crush the Serbian armies as many within the monarchy had predicted. One difficulty for the Austro-Hungarians was that they had to divert many divisions north to counter advancing Russian armies. Planning for operations against Serbia had not accounted for possible Russian intervention, which the Austro-Hungarian army had assumed would be countered by Germany. However, the German army had long planned on attacking France before turning to Russia given a war with the Entente powers. (See: "Schlieffen Plan") Poor communication between the two governments led to this catastrophic oversight.
Fighting in 1914.
As a result, Austria-Hungary's war effort was damaged almost beyond redemption within a couple of months of the war beginning. The Serb army, which was coming up from the south of the country, met the Austrian army at the Battle of Cer beginning on August 12, 1914.
The Serbians were set up in defensive positions against the Austro-Hungarians. The first attack came on August 16, between parts of the 21st Austro-Hungarian division and parts of the Serbian Combined division. In harsh night-time fighting, the battle ebbed and flowed, until the Serbian line was rallied under the leadership of Stepa Stepanovic. Three days later the Austrians retreated across the Danube, having suffered 21,000 casualties against 16,000 Serbian casualties. This marked the first Allied victory of the war. The Austrians had not achieved their main goal of eliminating Serbia. In the next couple of months the two armies fought large battles at Drina (September 6 to November 11) and at Kolubara from November 16 to December 15.
In the autumn, with many Austro-Hungarians tied up in heavy fighting with Serbia, Russia was able to make huge inroads into Austria-Hungary capturing Galicia and destroying much of the Empire's fighting ability. It wasn't until October 1915 with a lot of German, Bulgarian, and Turkish assistance that Serbia was finally occupied, although the weakened Serbian army retreated to Corfu with Italian assistance and continued to fight against the central powers.
Yugoslav Committee, a political interest group formed by South Slavs from Austria-Hungary during World War I, aimed at joining the existing south Slavic nations in an independent state. From this plan, a new kingdom eventually was born: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians.
Montenegro declared war on 6 August 1914. Bulgaria, however, stood aside before eventually joining the Central Powers in 1915, and Romania joined the Allies in 1916.
In 1916 the Allies sent their ill-fated expedition to Gallipoli in the Dardanelles, and in the autumn of 1916 they established themselves in Salonika, establishing front. However, their armies did not move from front until near end of the war, when they marched up north to free territories under rule of Central Powers.
Bulgaria.
Bulgaria, the most populous of the Balkan states with 7 million people sought to acquire Macedonia but when it tried it was defeated in 1913 in the Second Balkan War. In 1914 Bulgaria stayed neutral. However its leaders still hoped to acquire Macedonia, which was controlled by an ally, Serbia. In 1915 joining the Central Powers seemed the best route. Bulgaria mobilized a very large army of 800,000 men, using equipment supplied by Germany. The Bulgarian-German-Austrian invasion of Serbia in 1915 was a quick victory, but by the end of 1915 Bulgaria was also fighting the British and French—as well as the Romanians in 1916 and the Greeks in 1917. Bulgaria was ill-prepared for a long war; absence of so many soldiers sharply reduced agricultural output. Much of its best food was smuggled out to feed lucrative black markets elsewhere. By 1918 the soldiers were not only short of basic equipment like boots but they were being fed mostly corn bread with a little meat. Germany increasingly was in control, and Bulgarian relations with its ally the Ottoman Empire soured. The Allied offensive in September 1918, which failed in 1916 & 1917 was successful at Dobro Pole. Troops mutinied and peasants revolted, demanding peace. By month's end Bulgaria signed an armistice, giving up its conquests and its military hardware. The Czar abdicated and Bulgaria's war was over. The peace treaty in 1919 stripped Bulgaria of its conquests, reduced its army to 20,000 men, and demanded reparations of £100 million.
Consequences of World War I.
The war had enormous repercussions for the Balkan peninsula. People across the area suffered serious economic dislocation, and the mass mobilization resulted in severe casualties, particularly in Serbia where over 1.5 million Serbs died, which was approx. ¼ of the total population and over half of the male population. In less-developed areas World War I was felt in different ways: requisitioning of draft animals, for example, caused severe problems in villages that were already suffering from the enlistment of young men, and many recently created trade connections were ruined.
The borders of many states were completely redrawn, and the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia, was created. Both Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were formally dissolved. As a result, the balance of power, economic relations, and ethnic divisions were completely altered.
Some important territorial changes include:
Between World War I and World War II, in order to create nation-states the following population movements were seen:
See also:
World War II.
World War II in the Balkans started from the Italian attempts to create an Italian empire. They invaded Albania in 1939 and annexed after just a week to the Kingdom of Italy. Then demanded Greece to surrender in October 1940. However, the defiance of the Greek prime minister Metaxas on 28 October 1940, started the Greco-Italian war. After seven months of hard fighting, with some of the first Allied victories and the Italians losing nearly one third of Albania, Germany intervened to save its ally. In 1941, it invaded Yugoslavia with the forces they later used against the Soviet Union.
After the fall of Sarajevo on 16 April 1941 to Nazi Germany, the Yugoslav provinces of Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina were recreated as fascist satellite states, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (NDH, the Independent State of Croatia). Croat-nationalist, Ante Pavelić was appointed leader. The Nazis effectively created the Handschar division and collaborated with Ustaše in order to combat the Yugoslav Partisans.
With help from Italy, they succeeded in conquering Yugoslavia within two weeks. They then joined forces with Bulgaria and invaded Greece from the Yugoslavian side. Despite Greek resistance, the Germans took advantage of the Greek army's presence in Albania against the Italians to advance in Northern Greece and consequently conquer the entire country within 3 weeks, with the exception of Crete. However, even with the fierce Cretan resistance, which cost the Nazis the bulk of their elite paratrooper forces, the island capitulated after 11 days of fighting.
On May 1 the Balkan frontiers were once again reshuffled, with the creation of several puppet states, such as Croatia and Montenegro, the Albanian expansion into Greece and Yugoslavia, Bulgarian annexation of territories in the Greek North, creation of a Vlach state in the Greek mountains of Pindus and the annexation of all the Ionian and part of the Aegean islands into Italy.
With the end of the war, the changes of the ethnic composition reverted to their original conditions and the settlers returned to their homelands, mainly the ones settled in Greece. An Albanian population of the Greek North, the Cams, were forced to flee their lands because they collaborated with the Italians. Their numbers were about 18 000 in 1944.
Aftermath of World War II.
On January 7–9, 1945, Yugoslav authorities killed several hundred of declared Bulgarians in Macedonia as collaborators, in an event known as the "Bloody Christmas".
The Greek Civil War was fought between 1944 and 1949 in Greece between the armed forces of the Greek government, supported at first by Britain and later by the United States, against the forces of the wartime resistance against the German occupation, whose leadership was controlled by the Communist Party of Greece. Its goal was the creation of a Communist Northern Greece. It was the first time in the Cold War that hostilities led to a proxy war. In 1949, the partisans were defeated by the government forces.
Cold War.
During the Cold War, most of the countries in the Balkans were ruled by Soviet-supported communist governments.
The nationalism was not dead after World War II. Yugoslavia was not an isolated case of ethnic tension. For example: in Bulgaria, beginning in 1984, the Communist government led by Todor Zhivkov began implementing a policy of forced assimilation of the ethnic Turkish minority. Ethnic Turks were required to change their names to Bulgarian equivalents, or to leave the country. In 1989, a Turkish dissident movement was formed to resist these assimilationist measures. The Bulgarian government responded with violence and mass expulsions of the activists. In this repressive environment, over 300,000 ethnic Turks fled to neighboring Turkey.
However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania (1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. After World War 2, communist plans of merging Albania and Bulgaria into Yugoslavia were created, but later nullified when Albania broke all relations with Yugoslavia, due to Tito breaking from the USSR. Marshal Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), later rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria, and instead sought closer relations with the West, later even creating the Non-Aligned Movement, which brought them closer ties with third world countries. Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China, later adopting an isolationist position.
The only non-communist countries were Greece and Turkey, which were (and still are) part of NATO.
Religious persecutions took place in Bulgaria, directed against the Christian Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches as well as the Muslim, Jewish and others in the country. Antagonism between the communist state and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church eased somewhat after Todor Zhivkov became Bulgarian Communist Party leader in 1956 for "its historic role in helping preserve Bulgarian nationalism and culture".
Post-Communism.
The late 1980s and the early 1990s brought the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. As westernization spread through the Balkans, many reforms were carried out that led to implementation of market economy and to privatization, among other capitalist reforms.
In Albania, Bulgaria and Romania the changes in political and economic system were accompanied by a period of political and economic instability and tragic events. The same was the case in most of former Yugoslav republics.
Yugoslav wars.
The collapse of the Yugoslav federation was due to various factors in various republics that composed it. In Serbia and Montenegro, there were efforts of different factions of the old party elite to retain power under new conditions along, and an attempt to create Greater Serbia by keeping all Serbs in one state. In Croatia and Slovenia, multi-party elections produced nationally inclined leadership that followed in the footsteps of their previous Communist predecessors and oriented itself towards capitalism and secession. Bosnia and Herzegovina was split between the conflicting interests of its Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, while Macedonia mostly tried to steer away from conflicting situations.
An outbreak of violence and aggression came as a consequence of unresolved national, political and economic questions. The conflicts caused the death of many civilians. The real start of the war was a military attack on Slovenia and Croatia taken by Serb-controlled JNA. Before the war, JNA had started accepting volunteers driven by ideology of Serbian nationalists keen to realise their nationalist goals.
The Ten-Day War in Slovenia in June 1991 was short and with few casualties. However, the Croatian War of Independence in the latter half of 1991 brought many casualties and much damage on Croatian towns. As the war eventually subsided in Croatia, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina started in early 1992. Peace only came in 1995 after such events as the Srebrenica massacre, Operation Storm, Operation Mistral 2 and the Dayton Agreement, which provided for a temporary solution, but nothing was permanently resolved.
The economy suffered an enormous damage in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the affected parts of Croatia. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia also suffered an economic hardship under internationally imposed economic sanctions. Also many large historical cities were devastated by the wars, for example Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Zadar, Mostar, Šibenik and others.
The wars caused large population migrations, mostly involuntary. With the exception of its former republics of Slovenia and Macedonia, the settlement and the national composition of population in all parts of Yugoslavia changed drastically, due to war, but also political pressure and threats. Because it was a conflict fueled by ethnic nationalism, people of minority ethnicities generally fled towards regions where their ethnicity was in a majority. Since the Bosniaks had no immediate refuge, they were arguably hardest hit by the ethnic violence. The United Nations tried to create "safe areas" for the Bosniak populations of eastern Bosnia but in cases such as the Srebrenica massacre, the peacekeeping troops (Dutch forces) failed to protect the "safe areas" resulting in the massacre of thousands. The Dayton Accords ended the war in Bosnia, fixating the borders between the warring parties roughly to the ones established by the autumn of 1995. One immediate result of population transfers following the peace deal was a sharp decline in ethnic violence in the region. A number of commanders and politicians, notably Serbia's former president Slobodan Milošević, were put on trial by the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for a variety of war crimes—including deportations and genocide that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Croatia's former president Franjo Tuđman and Bosnia's Alija Izetbegović died before any alleged accusations were leveled at them at the ICTY. Slobodan Milošević died before his trial could be concluded.
Initial upsets on Kosovo did not escalate into a war until 1999 when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) was bombarded by NATO for 78 days with Kosovo being made a protectorate of international peacekeeping troops. A massive and systematic deportation of ethnic Albanians took place during the Kosovo War of 1999, with over one million Albanians (out of a population of about 1.8 million) forced to flee Kosovo. This was quickly reversed from the aftermath.
2000 to present.
Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981. Greece is also an official member of the Eurozone, and the Western European Union. Slovenia and Cyprus have been EU members since 2004, and Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007. Croatia joined the EU in 2013. North Macedonia also received candidate status in 2005 under its then provisional name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", while the other Balkan countries have expressed a desire to join the EU but at some date in the future.
Greece has been a member of NATO since 1952. In 2004 Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia became members of NATO. Croatia and Albania joined NATO in 2009.
In 2006, Montenegro separated from the state of Serbia and Montenegro, also making Serbia a separate state.
On October 17, 2007 Croatia became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2008–2009 term, while Bosnia and Herzegovina became a non-permanent member for the 2010–2011 period.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008.
Since the 2008 economic crisis, the former Yugoslav countries began to cooperate on levels that were similar to those in Yugoslavia. The term "Yugosphere" was coined by "The Economist" after a regional train service "Cargo 10" was created.


Margaret of Savoy, Vicereine of Portugal

Margaret of Savoy (28 April 1589 – 26 June 1655) was the last Habsburg Vicereine of Portugal from 1634 to 1640. In Portuguese she is known as "Duquesa de Mântua", being by marriage the Duchess of Mantua and Montferrat. She was also regent of Montferrat during the minority of her daughter from 1612.
Biography.
Duchess of Montferrat.
She was born in Turin, as the fifth child of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (1562–1630) and Infanta Catalina Micaela of Spain, the daughter of Philip II of Spain. She was married to the future Francis IV, Duke of Mantua (1586–1612) and Montferrat on 19 February 1608. The wedding was celebrated in Turin. In 1612 Margaret's husband succeeded his father, Vincent I, as Duke of Mantua. Their marriage produced three children, but only one daughter, Maria, survived childhood. Francis died in 1612.
Regent of Montferrat.
As the couple had no surviving male issue, Duke Francis' next brother succeeded him in the Duchy of Mantua, whereas in the Duchy of Montferrat he was succeeded by his three-year-old daughter Maria, because it had been historically inherited by females, as it was a margraviate. Indeed, it had been brought to the Mantuan princely dynasty (the House of Gonzaga) by the marriage of Margherita Paleologa, Margravine of Montferrat, in 1531. Accordingly, Maria's claims were asserted and Dowager Duchess Margaret required to be made her regent in Montferrat.
This was a contested inheritance - Maria was a minor for the next decade - and ultimately, Duke Francis' brothers failed to produce any legitimate issue, and the entire inheritance became subject to Mantuan War of Succession (1627–32).
Duchess Margaret's daughter Maria was in 1627 married to Charles, the eldest son of the distant Gonzaga heir-male (at that point Charles I, Duke of Mantua), in order to join two of the Mantuan claims. They had to wage war, but in the end their line prevailed and they commanded universal recognition as Dukes of Mantua and Montferrat.
Vicereine of Portugal.
Upon the death in 1633 of her maternal aunt, Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, ruler of the Low Countries, her brother Victor Amadeus became heir to the rights of their maternal grandmother Elisabeth of Valois, eldest daughter and heiress of Henry II of France and Catherine of Medici.
She had ancestral links to Portugal: two of her great-grandmothers (i.e. Empress Isabella and Beatrice, Duchess of Savoy) had been daughters of king Manuel I of Portugal.
In 1635, after the demise of the Count of Basto, she was named by her cousin Philip IV of Spain Vicereine of Portugal, at the time in a dynastic union with Spain, where she moved to in 1636. This nomination was the result of the efforts of Diogo Soares, member of the Council of Portugal at Madrid, a friend of the Count-Duke of Olivares and a relative of Miguel de Vasconcelos who, in 1635, would be named secretary of state of Portugal.
As a result of the Portuguese revolution (called the Restoration of Independence) of 1640, Vasconcelos was assassinated and the Duchess of Mantua tried to calm the Portuguese people during demonstrations in the Portuguese "Terreiro do Paço" (at the time Lisbon's main square). The Portuguese proclaimed the Duke of Braganza as their new king. Margaret was surrounded in her headquarters in Lisbon, and her support collapsing, the new potentate allowed her to depart to Spain.
She died in Miranda de Ebro in 1655, her daughter Duchess Maria of Rethel and Montferrat surviving her, with two grandchildren, of whom the daughter Eleanor had in 1651 become the Holy Roman Empress and the son Charles in 1637 the reigning duke of Mantua. At her death, both her grandchildren had already produced great-grandchildren for her.
Issue.
Margaret had three children
External links.
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Battle of Kaymakchalan

The Battle of Kaymakchalan was a battle that was fought between Serbian and Bulgarian troops on the Macedonian front during World War I.
The battle was fought between 12 and 30 September 1916, when the Serbian army managed to capture the peak of Prophet Elijah while pushing the Bulgarians towards the town of Mariovo, where the latter formed new defensive lines. Between 26 and 30 September, the peak changed hands several times until it was decisively captured by the Serbian army on the latter date.
The battle proved to be very costly for both sides. Serbian losses had reached around 10,000 killed and wounded by 23 September. The Bulgarian companies had been reduced to 90 men each and one regiment, the 11th Sliven Regiment, had 73 officers and 3,000 men hors de combat.
By strategic aspect, the battle was not a huge success for the Allies due to the upcoming winter that rendered further military engagements almost impossible.
Today, there is a small church on the peak of Prophet Elijah where the skulls of dead Serbian soldiers are stored, and it is regarded as a cultural site and is a tourist attraction. There is confusion about the name of the church, but it is called Saint Peter's (Sveti Petar in Serbian) which stands on the peak called Prophet Elijah.


Agesipolis III

Agesipolis III () was the 32nd and last of the kings of the Agiad dynasty in ancient Sparta.
Agesipolis was the son of another Agesipolis and grandson of Cleombrotus II and Chilonis, daughter of Leonidas II and Cratesiclea. After the death of Cleomenes III he was elected king while still a minor, and placed under the dubious guardianship of an uncle named Cleomenes. Agesipolis was, however, soon deposed by his colleague Lycurgus. In 195 BC, he was at the head of the Lacedaemonian exiles, who joined Titus Quinctius Flamininus in his attack upon Nabis, the tyrant of Lacedaemon (see War against Nabis). Agesipolis was a member of an embassy sent about 183 to Rome by the Lacedaemonian exiles, and, with his companions, was intercepted by pirates and killed.


2006 Manx general election

A general election was held on Thursday, 23 November 2006 on the Isle of Man. The voting age was lowered to 16 at this election. As usual, the election was dominated by independents, who took 21 of the 24 seats.
Background.
The previous Manx general election was held in 2001: independents won 22 out of the 24 seats and the Manx Labour Party polled 17.3% and won 2 seats.
Results.
By constituency.
The winners in bold. Several constituencies have more than one member elected.


Assyrians in France

French Assyrians (), () alternatively () are French citizens of Assyrian ancestry. There are around 16,000 most of whom are concentrated in the Paris metropolitan area.
History.
The community has a history in France dating back to the First World War, with most arriving during the 1920s in Marseille as a result of the Assyrian genocide.
The bulk of the Assyrian presence dates back to the early 20th century, when some Assyrians, fleeing the Assyrian genocide, found refuge in France. Others arrived from rural south-eastern Turkey as a result of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict in the 1960s and 70s. Their numbers swelled after the Iraq War in 2003 by those arriving from Iraqi cities.
Population.
Around 10,000 of the 16,000 Assyrians live in Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris. They are generally compared to French Jews who are seen as inward-looking, conservative and well-integrated in the French society. The 10,000 of thé 16,000 chaldian live in sarcelles Theresa is hast 25 personnes assyrian live in sarcelles


Princess Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan

Katharina Friederike "Wilhelmine" Benigna, Princess of Courland, Duchess of Sagan (born 8 February 1781 in Mitau, Duchy of Courland and Semigallia; died 29 November 1839 in Vienna, Austrian Empire) was a German noble from the ruling family of Courland and Semigallia (today part of Latvia) and a sovereign Duchess of Sagan. Wilhelmine is mainly known for her relationship with Klemens Metternich, a statesman of the Austrian Empire.
French transcription of her name is "Wilhelmine Catherine Frédérique Biron", Czech "Kateřina Frederika Vilhelmína princezna Kuronská". Among the Czechs she is known as "kněžna Kateřina Zaháňská" (Zaháň is Czech name for Żagań).
Early life.
Wilhelmine was born to Peter von Biron, the last Duke of Courland, and his third wife Anna Charlotte Dorothea von Medem (1761–1821). She had three conjugal sisters: Maria Luise Pauline (1782–1845), Johanna Katharina (1783–1876), wife of Fürst Don Francesco, Duke of Acerenza (brother of the 8th Prince of Belmonte), and Dorothea (1793–1862), later wife of Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord (1787–1872), nephew of the French statesman Talleyrand.
Wilhelmine spent her earliest childhood in Mitau. In 1795 the Duke was forced to cede his Duchy to the Russian Empire, and the family moved to the Duchy of Sagan (Żagań) in Silesia, which had been acquired in 1786. Among other properties bought by her father during the 1780s was County Náchod in Bohemia, which included Ratibořice Castle. Wilhelmine, who inherited both Sagan and Náchod, selected this castle as her summer residence.
The young duchess was very beautiful, intelligent, eloquent and educated in philosophy and history. She fell in love with Finnish general Gustav Armfelt, her mother's lover and her tutor. The secret relationship with a much older and married Armfelt resulted in the birth of an illegitimate daughter named Adelaide Gustava Aspasia (nicknamed "Vava"), who was born in secrecy in Hamburg on 13 January 1801. The delivery was traumatic, and, due to an incompetent midwife, she lost the ability to have further children. Wilhelmine gave up her child to one of Armfelt's relatives in Finland and never saw her again. Wilhelmine greatly regretted this decision as time went on. To protect her reputation, Armfelt organized a marriage for her with an émigré French nobleman, (1768–1836), the son of the Princesse de Guéméné, the original governess of the children of King Louis XVI of France. The marriage did not last and ended in divorce in 1805.
Wilhelmine spent the rest of her life moving between Vienna, Prague, Ratibořice and Sagan (Żagań). She also undertook journeys to Italy, England and France. Her second marriage with prince Vasily Troubetzkoy (1776–1841), which lasted from 1805 to 1806, also ended in divorce. In Vienna, she set up a salon attended by the highest nobility. An attractive woman, she attracted many aristocratic lovers. She had a short-lived and turbulent relationship during the spring of 1810 with Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, an Austrian army commander.
Metternich.
Although Wilhelmine first met Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (1773–1859) in 1801, their love affair did not start until the spring of 1813. The passion between the two is documented by over 600 letters written by Metternich that were discovered in 1949 by Marie Ulrichová in Plasy Cloister. These letters also describe the minute details of the political situation of the day and the corresponding decisions made by Metternich as a diplomat and government official.
Modern historians speculate that Wilhelmine, who hated Napoleon, was the one who pushed Metternich away from a cautious pro-French position. The negotiations in 1813 that resulted in an anti-Napoleonic coalition between Prussia, Austria and Russia were held in one of Wilhelmine's homes, Ratibořice Castle.
During the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), the relationship ended, as Wilhelmine didn't like playing the role of an unacknowledged mistress, a role forced onto her as Metternich was married, and also because Alfred Windischgraetz (alternative spelling) appeared in Vienna, and she could not resist resuming her affair with him, writing "with friends one counts the days, with you I count the nights, and I would not wish to miss a single one of them". This distracted Metternich at a critical stage in the negotiations.
Because of the impossibility of having any more children, she became a foster parent to many young girls. From 1819 until 1828, Wihelmine was married to Prince Karl Rudolf von der Schulenburg (1788–1856). This marriage also ended in divorce. What she feared the most - being alone - eventually became reality toward the end of her life.
Relation with Božena Němcová.
Famous Czech author Božena Němcová (1820?–1862) was one of the poor family girls supported by Wilhelmine. Němcová portrayed Wilhelmine in her 1855 novel "Babička (The Grandmother)" as an ideal woman. The portrait is so touching that Czech collocation "paní kněžna" (meaning "the princess") became a synonym for Wilhelmine.
All four Courland sisters are known to have had illegitimate children, Johanna at age sixteen. Because of her unknown origin (even the date of her birth is disputed) and the favour shown her by the duchess, several historians believe that Němcová could have been an illegitimate daughter of Wilhelmine and either Metternich, Count Karel Clam-Martinic or Windischgrätz.
Helena Sobková, a writer of popular-history books about Němcová, believes that Němcová may actually have been the niece of Wilhelmine. In 1816 an illegitimate daughter was born to Wilhelmine's younger sister, Dorothea, and Karel Clam-Martinic (1792–1840). The child's fate is unknown, and it is possible that Wilhelmine gave the child to Němcová's parents to raise as their own. This suggestion, however, has not been definitely proven.
External links.


Struve Putsch

The Struve Putsch (), also known as the Second Baden Uprising ("Zweiter badischer Aufstand") or Second Baden Rebellion ("Zweite badische Schilderhebung"), was a regional, South Baden element of the German Revolution of 1848/1849. It began with the proclamation of the German Republic on 21 September 1848 by Gustav Struve in Lörrach and ended with his arrest on 25 September 1848 in Wehr.


Ernest Augustus, Duke of York and Albany

Ernest Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (17 September 1674 – 14 August 1728), was the younger brother of George I of Great Britain. Ernest Augustus was a soldier and served with some distinction under Emperor Leopold I during the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1715, he became Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück.
Early life.
Ernest Augustus was born on 17 September 1674. He was the sixth son and seventh child of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Sophia of the Palatinate, and a younger brother of the future George I of Great Britain.
Ernest Augustus's father was Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück, and the first five years of his life were spent in Osnabrück, until his father became Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and the family moved to Hanover.
His education followed the customs of the time, by which German princes were expected to travel to foreign courts to make contacts and learn how to conduct diplomatic relations. In the summer of his 20th year, he visited the French court at Versailles via Amsterdam. While there, he turned 20 and the two brothers were popular with the French royal family.
Military career.
After his visit to France, he trod the well-worn path for young German princes of those times and served as a soldier. His family interests were aligned with those of Emperor Leopold I and so he fought again the French in the Nine Years' War and was present at the Battle of Neerwinden in 1693. He continued his military career during the War of Spanish Succession and was actively engaged in the Siege of Lille (1708).
After his father's death, George inherited all his lands and titles, including the electorate. His father, as part of the conditions he had to fulfil to acquire an electorship, had adopted primogeniture, thus disinheriting younger sons. Unlike his four elder brothers, Ernest Augustus did not oppose this change; consequently he got on well with his eldest brother George who trusted him. He was a prominent member of his brother's court at Herrenhausen, in Hanover, receiving diplomatic visitors and taking an active role in the cultural interests of the court. His influence may have helped secure the position of "Kapellmeister" for Handel at the court.
Dynastic role.
With his accession to the British throne, George moved to London and Ernest Augustus took on the mantle of the senior head of the family in Brunswick-Lüneburg. In this capacity, he became regent in all but name, and took on the duty of care for George's seven-year-old grandson, Frederick Lewis, the future Prince of Wales and father-to-be of George III. Frederick was left in Germany as a diplomatic move, to reassure the populace and any ambitious neighbouring states of the family's continuing commitment to its German lands.
Upon the death of Charles Joseph, Elector of Trier, in 1715, under the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia, it was the turn of a Protestant to become Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück. This position as a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and ruler of an independent principality had to alternate between Catholics and Lutherans according to the treaty. Usually a member of the House of Welf held the office whenever the turn came to Protestants. As Ernest Augustus's elder brother Maximilian William of Brunswick-Luneburg had become a Catholic, King George nominated Ernest Augustus to be elected by the Osnabrück cathedral chapter. The position was not just an honorific, and so Ernest Augustus had to divide his time between Schloss Osnabrück and the court at Herrenhausen.
In 1716, Ernst visited England where, on 29 June 1716, he was created Duke of York and Albany, and Earl of Ulster. On 30 April 1718 (OS), he was created a Knight of the Garter together with his grand-nephew Frederick, later Prince of Wales.
Death.
After his sojourn to Great Britain, Ernest Augustus returned to his previous life and continued to divide his time between Schloss Osnabrück and the court at Herrenhausen, while actively managing the affairs of both states. He died at Osnabrück on 14 August 1728 (NS) and was buried there. One year earlier his brother George I had also died there on a journey.
Believed to be homosexual, Ernest Augustus never married. Upon his death, his British and Irish peerages became extinct.


Margaret of Valois, Duchess of Berry

Margaret of Valois, Duchess of Berry (French: "Marguerite de Valois") (5 June 1523 – 15 September 1574) was the daughter of King Francis I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany.
Biography.
Early life.
Margaret was born at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 5 June 1523 the youngest daughter and child of King Francis I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany. Margaret was very close to her paternal aunt, Marguerite of Angoulême, who took care of her and her sister Madeleine during her childhood, and her sister-in-law Catherine de' Medici.
Near the end of 1538, her father and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, agreed that Margaret should marry Charles' son, the future Philip II of Spain. However, the agreement between Francis and Charles was short-lived and the marriage never took place.
In 1557 she was appointed a lady in waiting Jacqueline d'Entremont whom she would remain close with later in life.
On 29 April 1550, at the age of 26, she was created "suo jure" Duchess of Berry.
Marriage.
Shortly before her 36th birthday, a marriage was finally arranged for her by her brother King Henry II of France and her former suitor Philip II as part of the terms stipulated in the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis which was signed by the ambassadors representing the two monarchs on 3 April 1559. The husband selected for her was Philip's ally, Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont. At the time, Margaret was described as having been a "spinster lady of excellent breeding and lively intellect".
The wedding took place in tragic circumstances. On 30 June just three days after her marriage contract had been signed, King Henry was gravely injured during a tournament celebrating the wedding of his eldest daughter Elisabeth to the recently widowed King Philip. A lance wielded by his opponent the Count of Montgomery accidentally struck his helmet at a point beneath the visor and shattered. The wooden splinters deeply penetrated his right eye and entered his brain. Close to death, but still conscious, the king ordered that his sister's marriage should take place immediately, for fear that the Duke of Savoy might profit from his death and renege on the alliance.
The ceremony did not take place in Notre Dame Cathedral as had been planned. Instead it was a solemn, subdued event conducted at midnight on 9 July in Saint Paul's, a small church not far from the Tournelles Palace where Margaret's dying brother was ensconced. Among the few guests was the French queen consort Catherine de' Medici who sat by herself, weeping. King Henry died the following day.
Children.
Margaret and her husband had only one surviving child: Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy who was born in January 1562, when Margaret was 38 years of age. He later married Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain, the daughter of King Philip by his marriage to Margaret's niece, Elisabeth of Valois.
Death.
Margaret died on 14 September 1574 at the age of 51. She was buried in Turin at the Cathedral of Saint Giovanni Battista.


Hedwig of France, Countess of Mons

Hedwig of France (c. 970 – after 1013), also called Avoise, Hadevide or Haltude, was Countess of Mons. She was the daughter of Hugh Capet, the first King of France, and his wife, Queen Adelaide of Aquitaine.
Family.
In 996 Hedwig married Reginar IV of Hainaut (947–1013). Their children were:
Death.
Following the death of her first husband, Hedwig remarried to Hugh de Dagsbourg. She died after 1013.


Apollinarius (governor)

Apollinarius was a Byzantine governor of the Balearic Islands, appointed in 534. The main source about him is Procopius.
Biography.
Apollinarius was a native of the Italian Peninsula, but apparently settled in the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa while still underage. He grew up to serve King Hilderic (r. 523–530) and was reportedly rewarded "with great sums of money". When Hilderic was overthrown by Gelimer (r. 530–534), Apollinarius escaped to Constantinople. He and other political exiles asked Justinian I (r. 527–565) to intervene. Justinian soon started the Vandalic War.
Apollinarius served under Belisarius in the War and "proved himself a brave man". He took part in the Battle of Tricamarum (15 December, 533) and his contact earned him the favour of Belisarius. In 534, Apollinarius was rewarded with appointment as governor over the islands of Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca. His authority possibly extended over the rest of the Balearic Islands, but they are not named in primary sources. His subsequent activities are unknown.


Alexander Karl, Duke of Anhalt-Bernburg

Alexander Charles, Duke of Anhalt-Bernburg (2 March 1805 – 19 August 1863) was a German prince of the House of Ascania. From 1834 until 1863 he was the last duke of the Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg.
Life.
Early life.
Alexander Charles was born at Ballenstedt on 2 March 1805 as the second (but eldest and only surviving) son of Alexius Frederick Christian, Duke of Anhalt-Bernburg, by his first wife Maria Fredericka, daughter of William I, Elector of Hesse.
Succession.
After the death of his father in 1834, Alexander Karl succeeded him in Anhalt-Bernburg.
Marriage.
In Gottorp on 30 October 1834 Alexander Karl married Princess Friederike of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, daughter of Frederick William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel; she was also a sister of the later King Christian IX of Denmark. The union was childless.
Reign.
By November 1855 the Duke was confined to Schloss Hoym due to a progressive mental illness (some sources state that he suffered from schizophrenia). There, Alexander Karl spend the rest of his life under medical care in the company of his chamberlain, the painter Wilhelm von Kügelgen.
Due to his incapacity, his wife Friederike acted as regent.
Death.
Alexander Charles died at Hoym on 19 August 1863. As the marriage produced no issue, with him, the line of Anhalt-Bernburg became extinct. The Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg was inherited by his kinsman Leopold IV, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau-Köthen who merged the duchy with his own to form a united Duchy of Anhalt.


Hollabrunn

Hollabrunn is a district capital town in the Austrian state of Lower Austria, on the Göllersbach river.
History.
The surroundings of Hollabrunn were first settled in neolithic times. Around 300 B.C. one of the most significant La Tène culture cities in central Europe briefly flourished on the southern slopes of the Sandberg hill at Roseldorf close to the village of Platt, a few kilometers to the northwest of Hollabrunn.
On November 16, 1805, the nearby town of Schöngrabern was the site of a battle between the French Napoleonic troops under Joachim Murat (including general Nicolas Charles Oudinot, who was wounded) and the Russian general Pyotr Bagration (who was protecting Kutuzov's retreat north).


3rd Parliament of King James I

The 3rd Parliament of King James I was summoned by King James I of England on 13 November 1620 and first assembled on 30 January 1621. The elected speaker was Sir Thomas Richardson, the Member of Parliament for St Albans.
After the disappointment of the 1614 Addled Parliament King James had attempted to rule without a Parliament, but was obliged by events in continental Europe to summon a third Parliament. His son-in-law Frederick V, Elector Palatine had accepted the throne of Bohemia and triggered an invasion by Spanish forces and James needed additional funds if he were to intervene on his son-in-law's behalf. To his relief Parliament voted him the additional subsidies and then moved on to investigate the abuse of monopolies and reform the Court of Chancery.
During their investigations the Commons discovered that the Lord Chancellor, Sir Francis Bacon, the Viscount St Albans, had been taking bribes, resulting in him being dismissed from his office, fined and imprisoned. Other investigations into monopoly abuse revealed that a royal favourite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and his associates were deeply involved, including Sir Giles Mompesson, who was stripped of his parliamentary seat and knighthood, and Buckingham’s half-brother Sir Edward Villiers. King James reacted by threatening to dissolve the Parliament in June 1621 but relented and allowed it to continue after the summer recess.
When Parliament reassembled James demanded further subsidies and Parliament reluctantly acceded to his demand on condition that they should be allowed to finish their other business and also suggested that his son Prince Charles should seek a Protestant wife rather than the Spanish match James had in mind. James furiously asserted that Royal marriages were nothing to do with Parliament, who in return drew up a Protestation affirming their right to free speech, as a result of which James adjourned the sitting and ordered the arrest of the Protestation's principal author Sir Edward Coke. Further arrests followed and James downgraded the Parliament to a convention (i.e. a Parliament without royal approval) and finally dissolved it by Proclamation on 6 January 1622.


Altamura Man

The Altamura Man is a fossil of the genus "Homo" discovered in 1993 in a karst sinkhole in the Lamalunga Cave near the city of Altamura, Italy.
Remarkably well preserved but covered in a thick layer of calcite taking the shape of cave popcorn the find was left in situ in order to avoid damage. Research during the following twenty years was based mainly on the documented on-site observations. Consequently, experts remained reluctant to agree on a conclusive age nor was there consensus on the species it belonged to.
Only after a fragment of the right scapula (shoulder blade) was retrieved was it possible to produce an accurate dating of the individual, an analysis and diagnostic of its morphological features, and a preliminary paleogenetic characterization. In a 2015 paper published in the "Journal of Human Evolution," it was announced that the fossil was a Neanderthal, and dating of the calcite has revealed that the bones are between 128,000 and 187,000 years old.
Altamura Man is one of the most complete Paleolithic skeletons ever to be discovered in Europe as "even the bones inside the nose are still there" and as of 2016 it represents the oldest sample of Neanderthal DNA to have been sequenced successfully.
Characteristics.
Discovery.
The skull was discovered in October 1993 by speleologists of CARS (Centro Altamurano Ricerche Speleologiche) in the cave of Lamalunga in Altamura, Italy. While exploring the cave the researchers stumbled upon a deep karst sinkhole, formed by the action of running water on limestone. The sinkhole merges into a tunnel about long in which they found the Altamura Man incorporated into the calcium carbonate concretions that had formed by water dribbling down the cave walls. The finding was reported to researchers at the University of Bari.
The remaining skeleton is in an excellent state of preservation. Unaffected by weather and disarticulation (dispersion of skeletal structure by scavengers) the calcite preserved the bones but it also covers them to a great extent. It was thought that excavating the remains would cause irreparable damage and thus the bones have remained in situ for over twenty seven years since their modern discovery.
Morphology.
The fossilized skull of a 35-year-old adult male displays the anthropological features of the hypodigm of "Homo neanderthalensis" who lived during the Middle-Upper Pleistocene between 170,000 and 130,000 BP. Yet a number of phenetic peculiarities exist, such as the shape of the brow ridges, the relative dimension of the mastoids and the general architecture of the cranial vault, which according to the research team of the Sapienza University of Rome support accepted speciation chronology. "It shows archaic traits, making the Altamura Man a sort of morphological bridge between the previous human species such as "Homo heidelbergensis" and the Neanderthals".
Researchers associated with the University of Bari have carried out laser scans of the find, obtaining numerical maps, models and three-dimensional videos of the fossil. Results of a study of the DNA sample taken from the scapula determined that it belongs to the genetic variability of the "Neanderthal of Southern Europe".
Chronological studies on twenty faunal remains retrieved from the Cave Of Lamalunga based on Uranium-thorium dating by Maria Elisabetta Branca and Mario Voltaggio of "IGAG" (Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering) and "CNR" (Italian National Research Council) in Rome and published in 2010 show a deposition age varying between 45,000 and 17,000 BP. with the majority of remains varying between 45,000 and 30,000 years ago. Accumulation of cave deposits were found to begin around 170,000 years ago and ended 17,000 years ago.
More recent research analysis that began in 2009 and based on Uranium-thorium dating revealed that the calcite was formed 172,000 to 130,000 years ago during the penultimate quaternary glaciation period.
The Altamura man remains embedded in a matrix of limestone to this day. As such a running challenge exists among experts to devise a way to remove the fossil intact.
Between 1998 and 2000 the "Sarastro" project was carried out by Digamma Research Consortium, using integrated tele-operated systems it allowed remote access and observation of the site.


Elections in Gibraltar

Elections in Gibraltar gives information on election and election results in Gibraltar.
Gibraltar elects on national level a legislature. The Gibraltar Parliament has 17 members, all elected for a four-year term in one constituency with each voter getting to vote for their selection of ten candidates. Gibraltar forms a single constituency but voters have only ten votes. Hence the electoral bloc with the most votes will normally get ten seats and the runners up seven.
Eligibility to vote.
A person may only cast a vote in an election if he or she is on the Register of Electors - even if he or she would otherwise qualify to vote.
British nationals (this includes all forms of British nationality) who have lived in Gibraltar for a continuous period of six months and who intend to live in Gibraltar either permanently or indefinitely are entitled to register to vote in general elections to the Gibraltar Parliament if they will be aged 18 or over on polling day.
British, European Union and qualifying Commonwealth citizens (those who have a permit or certificate to enter/remain in Gibraltar, or not require such a permit/certificate on the date of their electoral registration application) living in Gibraltar are entitled to register to vote in elections to the European Parliament if they will be aged 18 or over on polling day.
British nationals and Commonwealth citizens living outside Gibraltar can register as an 'overseas voter' and vote in elections to the European Parliament provided that they were on the Register of Electors in Gibraltar within the past 15 years (the 15 years period begins when they no longer appeared in the Register of Electors, not the date they moved abroad). For British nationals and Commonwealth citizens who moved abroad before they were 18 years old, they can still qualify for registration as an 'overseas elector' in elections to the European Parliament, with the 15 years period calculated from the date their parent(s)/guardian ceased to appear in the Register of Electors in Gibraltar.
Latest elections.
This election took place on 26 November 2015.
General elections to the Gibraltar Parliament (House of Assembly).
Below is a series of results from elections to the Gibraltar Parliament and its predecessor, the House of Assembly (which was created upon the publication of the Gibraltar Constitution 1969). Elections take place roughly every four years, 17 members (15 before 2007) are elected at each election, using partial bloc voting. Each voter has ten votes (eight before 2007) meaning that parties usually stand ten candidates, and the winning party is that which manages to get all their candidates elected.
1969 election.
This election took place on 30 July 1969.
AACR - 7 members
IWBP - 5 members
Independents (Isola Group) - 3 members
1972 election.
AACR - 52%, 8 members
IWBP - 7 members
1976 election.
AACR - 75.3%, 8 members
GDM - 4 seats
Independents - 3 members (Robert Peliza, Maurice Xiberras and Peter Isola)
1980 election.
AACR - 8 members
DPBG - 6 members
GSLP - 1 members
1984 election.
AACR - 44.4%, 8 members
GSLP - 34.2%, 7 members
DPBG - 18.9%, 0 members
"Others" - 2.5%, 0 members
1988 election.
GSLP - 58.2%, 8 members
AACR - 29.4%, 7 members
Independent Democrats - 12.4%, 0 members
1992 election.
GSLP - 73.1%, 8 members
GSD - 20.2%, 7 members
GNP - 4.7%, 0 members
AACR - 2.1%, 0 members
1996 election.
GSD - 52.2%, 8 members
GSLP - 43.0%, 7 members
GNP - 4.7%, 0 members
"Others" - 0.2%
2000 election.
GSD - 58.4%, 8 members
GSLP/Liberal Alliance - 40.6%, 7 members
"Others" - 1.0%, 0 members
2003 election.
GSD - 51.5%, 8 members
GSLP/Liberal Alliance - 39.7%, 7 members
GLP - 8.3%
2007 election.
GSD - 49.3%, 10 members
GSLP/Liberal Alliance - 45.5%, 7 members
PDP - 3.8%
NGD - 0.78%
2011 election.
GSLP/Liberal Alliance - 48.88%, 10 members
GSD - 46.76% - 7 members
PDP - 4.36%
2015 election.
GSLP/Liberal Alliance - 68.4%, 10 members
GSD - 31.6% - 7 members
UK elections.
Unlike other overseas territories, Gibraltar has taken part as a UK counting area in three European elections and one UK-wide referendum as part of the South West England electoral region.
Some people have advocated, including individual MPs, UKIP, the Liberal Democrats and the Gibraltar in Westminster Movement that Gibraltar should be extended the franchise of voting in UK general elections as a Westminster constituency.
External links.


Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund

The Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund (, "International Socialist Militant League") or ISK was a socialist split-off from the SPD during the Weimar Republic and was active in the German Resistance against Nazism.
History.
The "Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund" (ISK) was a political organization founded by Göttingen philosopher Leonard Nelson and educator Minna Specht. Nelson and Specht had previously founded the International Socialist Youth League in 1917 and was supported by Albert Einstein. Nelson, a neo-Kantian hochschule teacher, had long wanted to teach at a university and also work politically. He advocated a brand of socialism that was ethically motivated, anti-clerical and anti-Marxist, but also undemocratic and included strict vegetarianism and a defense of animal rights. Nelson decided to establish the ISK after members of the ISYL were expelled from the Communist Party in 1922 and the Social Democratic Party in 1925.
The ISK took over the ISYL's publishing label, "Öffentliches Leben", which published the ISK newsletter beginning January 1, 1926. Beginning January 1929, an edition in Esperanto was added, and in April, a small circulation quarterly in English was added as well. It was usually eight pages and editions ran an average of 5,000 to 6,000 copies. Nelson moved his main published works there as well, his philosophical and political series "Öffentliches Leben" and his 1904 treatises, "Abhandlungen der Fries’schen Schule, Neue Folge", re-reasoned with mathematician Gerhard Hessenberg and physiologist Karl Kaiser, and which, after Nelson's death, was continued by Nobel Prize winner Otto Meyerhof, sociologist Franz Oppenheimer and Minna Specht until 1937.
With the growing electoral success of the Nazis at the end of the Weimar Republic, the ISK founded the newspaper, "Der Funke" to confront the situation. Of particular note was the "Urgent Call for Unity" ("Dringender Appell für die Einheit") regarding the July 1932 federal election. It appeared in the newspaper and on placards all over Berlin. Calling for unity and support of the SPD and the KPD in order to thwart further gains by the Nazis, it was signed by 33 leading German intellectuals, including scientists Albert Einstein, Franz Oppenheimer, Emil Gumbel, Arthur Kronfeld, the artist Käthe Kollwitz, writers Kurt Hiller, Erich Kästner, Heinrich Mann, Ernst Toller and Arnold Zweig and many others.
The ISK continued to work in the resistance after the 1933 Nazi ban. The ISK had destroyed all written party records and until 1938, remained undetected, while the larger parties, the KPD and SPD, were being battered by massive arrests. The ISK was therefore able to continue its resistance work, helping political refugees leave the country, conducting sabotage and distributing leaflets. In 1938, however, a wave of arrests hit the ISK. A main focus of the work was the attempt to build a clandestine trade union, the "Unabhängige Sozialistische Gewerkschaft" ("Independent Socialist Union"), which also supported the Internationale Transport Workers' Federation. The ISK's best known act of resistance was the sabotage of the opening of the Reichsautobahn on May 19, 1935. The night before Hitler's trip to inaugurate the new highway, ISK activists wrote anti-Hitler slogans, such as "Hitler = War" and "Down with Hitler", on all the bridges along the route between Frankfurt am Main and Darmstadt, where he was to travel. The Nazi propaganda film produced of the event had to be edited numerous times.
In exile, the ISK also published the "Reinhart Briefe" ("Reinhart Letters") and "Sozialistische Warte", which were then smuggled into Germany. Because of their factual and unpolemical reporting, were valued by various members of the German Resistance. The ISK was linked with the Socialist Vanguard Group in England and the "Internationale Militante Socialiste" in France.
ISK members after 1945.
After World War II, the ISK was merged into the SPD on December 10, 1945 after talks between Willi Eichler, chairman of the ISK and Kurt Schumacher, then chairman of the SPD. Most of the former ISK members then joined the SPD.
One prominent member of the ISK, Ludwig Gehm, was later the national vice chairman of the Committee of Formerly Persecuted Social Democrats ("Arbeitsgemeinschaft ehemals verfolgter Sozialdemokraten") and a Frankfurt am Main city council member from the SPD. Eichler, who was chairman of the ISK for many years, represented the SPD in the Bundestag from 1949 to 1953 and is considered one of the main authors of the Godesberg Program. Alfred Kubel was a member of the Lower Saxony state government for many years and was "Ministerpräsident" from 1970 to 1976. Hamburger ISK member Hellmut Kalbitzer was elected to the Bundestag several times, served in the Hamburg "Bürgerschaft" and from 1958 to 1962, was vice president of the European Parliament. Fritz Eberhard, who was in the ISK until 1939, was a member of the "Parlamentarischer Rat" ("Parliamentary Council") and was involved in writing the postwar constitution, including the right to conscientious objector status in the new laws of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Eichler also published a monthly magazine from 1946 until his death in 1971, "Geist und Tat", which was devoted to "rights, freedom and culture" and he had a publishing house, "Europäische Verlagsanstalt" until the 1960s.
Structure.
The ISK never set out to amass a large membership, but rather to become an active and hard-hitting organization. Membership requirements for prospective candidates included adherence to a certain ethical socialism that were more stringent than for the major parties.
The ISK never had more than 300 members, largely because of the strict requirements for membership. These members were organized into 32 local groups. However, its political work involved sympathizers, between 600 and 1,000 in 1933. A survey in 1929 revealed that 85% of ISK members were under 35 years of age.
Chairmen of the ISK (formerly, the ISYL)
From 1924 to 1933, the ISK (and its forerunner, the ISYL) maintained its rural school, the "Walkemühle" in the Adelshausen quarter of Melsungen, Hesse and from 1931 to 1933, its own newspaper, "Der Funke", both of which were banned by the Nazis.


Leben (Crete)

Leben () or Lebena (Λέβηνα) or Lebene (Λεβήνη) was a maritime town of ancient Crete, a harbour of Gortyna, about 70 stadia inland. It possessed a temple of Asclepius, of great celebrity. In the "Peutinger Table" its name appears as Ledena. According to the "Stadiasmus Maris Magni", it had a harbour and was located 270 stadia from Biannus and 50 stadia from Halas.
The site of Leben is located near modern Lentas.


Arduba

Arduba (Ancient Greek: Αρδουβαν, Latin: Arduba) was a settlement of the Illyrian tribe of the Daesitiates in Illyria. Following the Roman invasion, the settlement was included in the Roman province of Dalmatia. Arduba was located somewhere near the modern city of Zenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most probably the royal city of Vranduk existed in the time of the Illyrians, under the name Arduba.
History.
The Bellum Batonianum (Latin: War of the Batos) was a military conflict fought in the Roman province of Illyricum in the 1st century AD, in which an alliance of native peoples of the two regions of Illyricum, Dalmatia and Pannonia, revolted against the Romans. The last major location of the conflict between the Illyrian and the Romans was Arduba.
In the summer of the 9th year AC there was the numerous and powerful army of the Roman empire, led by the general Germanicus, standing in front of this city.
One of the reasons the encounter was remembered lies in the description of the heroism of Arduban women, as reported by Dio. Allegedly, they refused to surrender and preferred death over captivity. While there are similar stories throughout ancient history, this is one of the few instances where the heroism is reported by an historian of the opposing forces. The city’s men surrendered, but the women refused. An internal conflict erupted fostered by women who did not want to fall in captivity by the Romans. Carrying their children in their arms, they threw themselves into fire or jumped in the river to drown.
Germanicus turned his attention to the last holdouts in Arduba, which was a fortified town with a river around its base. Within the town there was tension between rebel deserters who wanted to carry on the fight and the inhabitants who wanted peace. The tension eventually developed into violence. The women reportedly helped the deserters because, contrary to their men, they did not want to suffer servitude. The deserters were defeated and surrendered. The women took their children and threw themselves into the flames or the river. Cassius Dio did not specify what caused the fire. The nearby towns surrendered voluntarily. Germanicus re-joined Tiberius, and sent Gaius Vibius Postumus to subdue the other districts. Bato promised to surrender if he and his followers would be pardoned. Tiberius agreed and then asked him why his people had rebelled. According to Cassius Dio, he replied: "You Romans are to blame for this; for you send as guardians of your flocks, not dogs or shepherds, but wolves."
In some ways Arduba then became a major designation for the Great Illyrian Rebellion, but also a symbol of the tragic history that its people have been experiencing from generation to generation for over two millennia.
Two centuries later, the historic role of Arduba was immortalised by the Roman historian and official Cassius Dio with his description of the battle of Arduba. To date, with the exception of the writings of Cassius Dio, no other original testimony (either literary, epigraphic or archaeological) exists about the town called Arduba.
Research.
Wilhelm Tomaschek (1880) located Arduba in Vranduk near Zenica. But archaeological excavations (1968) provided neither prehistoric nor ancient findings to confirm this.
The urban part of today's Zenica already formed in the Stone Age Neolithic, and especially later in the time of the Illyrians. Today, toponyms of their "gradinas" (fortified towns) are evidence for this: Gradišće, Gračanica, Gradac. This is how we assume that the Royal city of Vranduk probably existed in the time of the Illyrians, under the name Arduba.
The philologist locates Arduba east of the river Neretva, beyond the eastern limit on ethnic Dalmatia.
John Wilkes appears to associate Arduba fall with military operations of Germanicus and Gaius Vibius Postumus against the Desidiates and Perustae.
The primary sources of information about the city Arduba are the writings of Cassius Dio and Velleius Paterculus.
Arduba must have been a major insurgent stronghold and settlement in the area, as refugees from other parts of the region and strongholds merged with it. Although he had a much larger army than the people who defended Arduba, Germanicus faced strong defence fortifications in front of the settlement, which made it not easy to simply invade Arduba. In addition to being heavily fortified, Arduba was located near a fast-flowing river. This clearly indicates that Arduba must have been located somewhere in the mountainous area of a larger river, meaning its upper or middle stream. The exploration of Arduba’s location should take into account the following points which can be inferred from data from the relevant Cassius Dio text and its interpretation:


Rupert Alec-Smith

Rupert Alexander Alec-Smith, TD (5 September 1913, Beverley, Yorkshire – 23 December 1983, Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire) was an Englishman with an abiding interest in local history and founded the Georgian Society for East Yorkshire in 1937. In the Second World War, he served with the Green Howards in Cyprus.
In 1945 he stood for parliament at the general election for the Conservative Party in Kingston upon Hull East. He came second in a three-way contest.
In 1946, he bought the Old Rectory at Winestead and employed Francis Johnson to restore it. He filled the Rectory with fittings from demolished Georgian buildings and began collecting memorabilia of the Maister family. He was Lord Mayor of Kingston upon Hull in 1970–71,High Sheriff of Humberside in 1975 and made Lord Lieutenant of Humberside in 1980.
His wife was Suzette Genevieve Alec-Smith (1918–1999).
His papers at the University of Hull include items from the fourteenth century onward, including title deeds, settlements, rentals, enclosure acts, maps and plans and house sale catalogues for East Yorkshire including manorial records 1647–1927 for Elstronwick.
Personal papers include over 500 letters of his parents, Alexander Alec-Smith and Adelaide Alec-Smith (née Horsley), largely sent during the First World War, and about 300 letters Rupert Alec-Smith sent during the Second World War. His journals and diaries survive for 1937–1970 as does his correspondence with good friend John Betjeman from 1954 to 1973.


David Williams (historian)

David Williams (9 February 1900 – 1978) was a Welsh historian.
Williams was born at Llan-y-Cefn, Pembrokeshire.
From 1945 until his retirement in 1967, Williams was Professor of Welsh History in the University of Wales. He is best known for his classic "History of Modern Wales".