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7,837 | Caddie | In golf or disc golf, a caddie (or caddy) is the person who assists a golfer on the course. Typical duties for a caddie include carrying a player's bag and clubs or discs, performing any course maintenance that is the player's responsibility (e.g. repairing divots and raking bunkers) and offering the player advice and moral support.
The Scots word caddie or cawdy was derived in the 17th century from the French word cadet and originally meant a student military officer. It later came to refer to someone who did odd jobs. By the 19th century, it had come to mean someone who carried clubs for a golfer, or in its shortened form, cad, a man of disreputable behaviour.
The first recorded use of a caddie was in Edinburgh in 1681 by the future James II of England when taking part in the first international golf contest.
Caddies tend to be low paid, and usually get only a small share of prize money. At a professional level, they work as contractors to individual players but without guaranteed hours. In 2020, caddies on the PGA European Tour became eligible to earn bonuses through sponsors' logos on their gear.
Caddies have been depicted in television, films, and books, including: | [
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"text": "The Scots word caddie or cawdy was derived in the 17th century from the French word cadet and originally meant a student military officer. It later came to refer to someone who did odd jobs. By the 19th century, it had come to mean someone who carried clubs for a golfer, or in its shortened form, cad, a man of disreputable behaviour.",
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"text": "Caddies tend to be low paid, and usually get only a small share of prize money. At a professional level, they work as contractors to individual players but without guaranteed hours. In 2020, caddies on the PGA European Tour became eligible to earn bonuses through sponsors' logos on their gear.",
"title": "Earnings"
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"text": "Caddies have been depicted in television, films, and books, including:",
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] | In golf or disc golf, a caddie is the person who assists a golfer on the course. Typical duties for a caddie include carrying a player's bag and clubs or discs, performing any course maintenance that is the player's responsibility and offering the player advice and moral support. | 2002-01-24T00:17:34Z | 2023-12-07T23:12:56Z | [
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7,838 | Compound turbine | A compound turbine is a steam turbine in which there are two casings, a high-pressure casing and a low-pressure casing, operating in concert to extract work from a single source of steam. The steam is partially expanded in the high-pressure casing, then exhausted to the low-pressure casing.
The rotor arrangement can be either tandem-compound in which the two axles are joined end to end, or cross-compound in which the two turbines have separate axles. In the cross-compound case two separate generators are usually supplied, although a gearbox can reduce this to one.
The principal advantages of compound turbines are the reduction in size of any one casing, the confinement of the highest pressure to the smaller casing (which may be made of stronger and more expensive materials) and the possibility of divided flow in the low-pressure casing for the purpose of equalizing end thrusts. | [
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"text": "A compound turbine is a steam turbine in which there are two casings, a high-pressure casing and a low-pressure casing, operating in concert to extract work from a single source of steam. The steam is partially expanded in the high-pressure casing, then exhausted to the low-pressure casing.",
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"text": "The principal advantages of compound turbines are the reduction in size of any one casing, the confinement of the highest pressure to the smaller casing (which may be made of stronger and more expensive materials) and the possibility of divided flow in the low-pressure casing for the purpose of equalizing end thrusts.",
"title": "Advantages"
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] | A compound turbine is a steam turbine in which there are two casings, a high-pressure casing and a low-pressure casing, operating in concert to extract work from a single source of steam. The steam is partially expanded in the high-pressure casing, then exhausted to the low-pressure casing. | 2002-02-25T15:51:15Z | 2023-08-20T14:15:53Z | [
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7,839 | Stellar corona | A corona (pl.: coronas or coronae) is the outermost layer of a star's atmosphere. It consists of plasma.
The Sun's corona lies above the chromosphere and extends millions of kilometres into outer space. It is most easily seen during a total solar eclipse, but it is also observable with a coronagraph. Spectroscopic measurements indicate strong ionization in the corona and a plasma temperature in excess of 1000000 kelvins, much hotter than the surface of the Sun, known as the photosphere.
Corona (Latin for 'crown') is, in turn, derived from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē) 'garland, wreath'.
In 1724, French-Italian astronomer Giacomo F. Maraldi recognized that the aura visible during a solar eclipse belongs to the Sun, not to the Moon. In 1809, Spanish astronomer José Joaquín de Ferrer coined the term 'corona'. Based in his own observations of the 1806 solar eclipse at Kinderhook (New York), de Ferrer also proposed that the corona was part of the Sun and not of the Moon. English astronomer Norman Lockyer identified the first element unknown on Earth in the Sun's chromosphere, which was called helium (from Greek helios 'sun'). French astronomer Jules Jenssen noted, after comparing his readings between the 1871 and 1878 eclipses, that the size and shape of the corona changes with the sunspot cycle. In 1930, Bernard Lyot invented the coronograph, which allows viewing the corona without a total eclipse. In 1952, American astronomer Eugene Parker proposed that the solar corona might be heated by myriad tiny 'nanoflares', miniature brightenings resembling solar flares that would occur all over the surface of the Sun.
The high temperature of the Sun's corona gives it unusual spectral features, which led some in the 19th century to suggest that it contained a previously unknown element, "coronium". Instead, these spectral features have since been explained by highly ionized iron (Fe-XIV, or Fe). Bengt Edlén, following the work of Grotrian (1939), first identified the coronal spectral lines in 1940 (observed since 1869) as transitions from low-lying metastable levels of the ground configuration of highly ionised metals (the green Fe-XIV line from Fe at 5303Å, but also the red Fe-X line from Fe at 6374Å).
The Sun's corona is much hotter (by a factor from 150 to 450) than the visible surface of the Sun: the corona's temperature is 1 to 3 million kelvin compared to the photosphere's average temperature – around 5800kelvin. The corona is far less dense than the photosphere, and produces about one-millionth as much visible light. The corona is separated from the photosphere by the relatively shallow chromosphere. The exact mechanism by which the corona is heated is still the subject of some debate, but likely possibilities include episodic energy releases from the pervasive magnetic field and magnetohydrodynamic waves from below. The outer edges of the Sun's corona are constantly being transported away, creating the "open" magnetic flux entrained in the solar wind.
The corona is not always evenly distributed across the surface of the Sun. During periods of quiet, the corona is more or less confined to the equatorial regions, with coronal holes covering the polar regions. However, during the Sun's active periods, the corona is evenly distributed over the equatorial and polar regions, though it is most prominent in areas with sunspot activity. The solar cycle spans approximately 11 years, from solar minimum to the following minimum. Since the solar magnetic field is continually wound up due to the faster rotation of mass at the Sun's equator (differential rotation), sunspot activity will be more pronounced at solar maximum where the magnetic field is more twisted. Associated with sunspots are coronal loops, loops of magnetic flux, upwelling from the solar interior. The magnetic flux pushes the hotter photosphere aside, exposing the cooler plasma below, thus creating the relatively dark sun spots.
Since the corona has been photographed at high resolution in the X-ray range of the spectrum by the satellite Skylab in 1973, and then later by Yohkoh and the other following space instruments, it has been seen that the structure of the corona is quite varied and complex: different zones have been immediately classified on the coronal disc. The astronomers usually distinguish several regions, as described below.
Active regions are ensembles of loop structures connecting points of opposite magnetic polarity in the photosphere, the so-called coronal loops. They generally distribute in two zones of activity, which are parallel to the solar equator. The average temperature is between two and four million kelvin, while the density goes from 10 to 10 particles per cubic centimetre.
Active regions involve all the phenomena directly linked to the magnetic field, which occur at different heights above the Sun's surface: sunspots and faculae occur in the photosphere; spicules, Hα filaments and plages in the chromosphere; prominences in the chromosphere and transition region; and flares and coronal mass ejections (CME) happen in the corona and chromosphere. If flares are very violent, they can also perturb the photosphere and generate a Moreton wave. On the contrary, quiescent prominences are large, cool, dense structures which are observed as dark, "snake-like" Hα ribbons (appearing like filaments) on the solar disc. Their temperature is about 5000–8000K, and so they are usually considered as chromospheric features.
In 2013, images from the High Resolution Coronal Imager revealed never-before-seen "magnetic braids" of plasma within the outer layers of these active regions.
Coronal loops are the basic structures of the magnetic solar corona. These loops are the closed-magnetic flux cousins of the open-magnetic flux that can be found in coronal holes and the solar wind. Loops of magnetic flux well up from the solar body and fill with hot solar plasma. Due to the heightened magnetic activity in these coronal loop regions, coronal loops can often be the precursor to solar flares and CMEs.
The solar plasma that feeds these structures is heated from under 6000K to well over 10 K from the photosphere, through the transition region, and into the corona. Often, the solar plasma will fill these loops from one point and drain to another, called foot points (siphon flow due to a pressure difference, or asymmetric flow due to some other driver).
When the plasma rises from the foot points towards the loop top, as always occurs during the initial phase of a compact flare, it is defined as chromospheric evaporation. When the plasma rapidly cools and falls toward the photosphere, it is called chromospheric condensation. There may also be symmetric flow from both loop foot points, causing a build-up of mass in the loop structure. The plasma may cool rapidly in this region (for a thermal instability), its dark filaments obvious against the solar disk or prominences off the Sun's limb.
Coronal loops may have lifetimes in the order of seconds (in the case of flare events), minutes, hours or days. Where there is a balance in loop energy sources and sinks, coronal loops can last for long periods of time and are known as steady state or quiescent coronal loops (example).
Coronal loops are very important to our understanding of the current coronal heating problem. Coronal loops are highly radiating sources of plasma and are therefore easy to observe by instruments such as TRACE. An explanation of the coronal heating problem remains as these structures are being observed remotely, where many ambiguities are present (i.e., radiation contributions along the line-of-sight propagation). In-situ measurements are required before a definitive answer can be determined, but due to the high plasma temperatures in the corona, in-situ measurements are, at present, impossible. The next mission of the NASA Parker Solar Probe will approach the Sun very closely, allowing more direct observations.
Large-scale structures are very long arcs which can cover over a quarter of the solar disk but contain plasma less dense than in the coronal loops of the active regions.
They were first detected in the June 8, 1968, flare observation during a rocket flight.
The large-scale structure of the corona changes over the 11-year solar cycle and becomes particularly simple during the minimum period, when the magnetic field of the Sun is almost similar to a dipolar configuration (plus a quadrupolar component).
The interconnections of active regions are arcs connecting zones of opposite magnetic field, of different active regions. Significant variations of these structures are often seen after a flare.
Some other features of this kind are helmet streamers – large, cap-like coronal structures with long, pointed peaks that usually overlie sunspots and active regions. Coronal streamers are considered to be sources of the slow solar wind.
Filament cavities are zones which look dark in the X-rays and are above the regions where Hα filaments are observed in the chromosphere. They were first observed in the two 1970 rocket flights which also detected coronal holes.
Filament cavities are cooler clouds of plasma suspended above the Sun's surface by magnetic forces. The regions of intense magnetic field look dark in images because they are empty of hot plasma. In fact, the sum of the magnetic pressure and plasma pressure must be constant everywhere on the heliosphere in order to have an equilibrium configuration: where the magnetic field is higher, the plasma must be cooler or less dense. The plasma pressure p {\displaystyle p} can be calculated by the state equation of a perfect gas: p = n k B T {\displaystyle p=nk_{B}T} , where n {\displaystyle n} is the particle number density, k B {\displaystyle k_{B}} the Boltzmann constant and T {\displaystyle T} the plasma temperature. It is evident from the equation that the plasma pressure lowers when the plasma temperature decreases with respect to the surrounding regions or when the zone of intense magnetic field empties. The same physical effect renders sunspots apparently dark in the photosphere.
Bright points are small active regions found on the solar disk. X-ray bright points were first detected on April 8, 1969, during a rocket flight.
The fraction of the solar surface covered by bright points varies with the solar cycle. They are associated with small bipolar regions of the magnetic field. Their average temperature ranges from 1.1 MK to 3.4 MK. The variations in temperature are often correlated with changes in the X-ray emission.
Coronal holes are unipolar regions which look dark in the X-rays since they do not emit much radiation. These are wide zones of the Sun where the magnetic field is unipolar and opens towards the interplanetary space. The high speed solar wind arises mainly from these regions.
In the UV images of the coronal holes, some small structures, similar to elongated bubbles, are often seen as they were suspended in the solar wind. These are the coronal plumes. More precisely, they are long thin streamers that project outward from the Sun's north and south poles.
The solar regions which are not part of active regions and coronal holes are commonly identified as the quiet Sun.
The equatorial region has a faster rotation speed than the polar zones. The result of the Sun's differential rotation is that the active regions always arise in two bands parallel to the equator and their extension increases during the periods of maximum of the solar cycle, while they almost disappear during each minimum. Therefore, the quiet Sun always coincides with the equatorial zone and its surface is less active during the maximum of the solar cycle. Approaching the minimum of the solar cycle (also named butterfly cycle), the extension of the quiet Sun increases until it covers the whole disk surface excluding some bright points on the hemisphere and the poles, where there are coronal holes.
The Alfvén surface is the boundary separating the corona from the solar wind defined as where the coronal plasma's Alfvén speed and the large-scale solar wind speed are equal.
Researchers were unsure exactly where the Alfvén critical surface of the Sun lay. Based on remote images of the corona, estimates had put it somewhere between 10 and 20 solar radii from the surface of the Sun. On April 28, 2021, during its eighth flyby of the Sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe encountered the specific magnetic and particle conditions at 18.8 solar radii that indicated that it penetrated the Alfvén surface.
A portrait, as diversified as the one already pointed out for the coronal features, is emphasized by the analysis of the dynamics of the main structures of the corona, which evolve at differential times. Studying coronal variability in its complexity is not easy because the times of evolution of the different structures can vary considerably: from seconds to several months. The typical sizes of the regions where coronal events take place vary in the same way, as it is shown in the following table.
Flares take place in active regions and are characterized by a sudden increase of the radiative flux emitted from small regions of the corona. They are very complex phenomena, visible at different wavelengths; they involve several zones of the solar atmosphere and many physical effects, thermal and not thermal, and sometimes wide reconnections of the magnetic field lines with material expulsion.
Flares are impulsive phenomena, of average duration of 15 minutes, and the most energetic events can last several hours. Flares produce a high and rapid increase of the density and temperature.
An emission in white light is only seldom observed: usually, flares are only seen at extreme UV wavelengths and into the X-rays, typical of the chromospheric and coronal emission.
In the corona, the morphology of flares is described by observations in the UV, soft and hard X-rays, and in Hα wavelengths, and is very complex. However, two kinds of basic structures can be distinguished:
As for temporal dynamics, three different phases are generally distinguished, whose duration are not comparable. The durations of those periods depend on the range of wavelengths used to observe the event:
Sometimes also a phase preceding the flare can be observed, usually called as "pre-flare" phase.
Often accompanying large solar flares and prominences are coronal mass ejections (CME). These are enormous emissions of coronal material and magnetic field that travel outward from the Sun at over a million kilometers per hour, containing roughly 10 times the energy of the solar flare or prominence that accompanies them. Some larger CMEs can propel hundreds of millions of tons of material into interplanetary space at roughly 1.5 million kilometers an hour.
Coronal stars are ubiquitous among the stars in the cool half of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. These coronae can be detected using X-ray telescopes. Some stellar coronae, particularly in young stars, are much more luminous than the Sun's. For example, FK Comae Berenices is the prototype for the FK Com class of variable star. These are giants of spectral types G and K with an unusually rapid rotation and signs of extreme activity. Their X-ray coronae are among the most luminous (Lx ≥ 10 erg·s or 10W) and the hottest known with dominant temperatures up to 40 MK.
The astronomical observations planned with the Einstein Observatory by Giuseppe Vaiana and his group showed that F-, G-, K- and M-stars have chromospheres and often coronae much like the Sun. The O-B stars, which do not have surface convection zones, have a strong X-ray emission. However these stars do not have coronae, but the outer stellar envelopes emit this radiation during shocks due to thermal instabilities in rapidly moving gas blobs. Also A-stars do not have convection zones but they do not emit at the UV and X-ray wavelengths. Thus they appear to have neither chromospheres nor coronae.
The matter in the external part of the solar atmosphere is in the state of plasma, at very high temperature (a few million kelvin) and at very low density (of the order of 10 particles/m). According to the definition of plasma, it is a quasi-neutral ensemble of particles which exhibits a collective behaviour.
The composition is similar to that in the Sun's interior, mainly hydrogen, but with much greater ionization of its heavier elements than that found in the photosphere. Heavier metals, such as iron, are partially ionized and have lost most of the external electrons. The ionization state of a chemical element depends strictly on the temperature and is regulated by the Saha equation in the lowest atmosphere, but by collisional equilibrium in the optically thin corona. Historically, the presence of the spectral lines emitted from highly ionized states of iron allowed determination of the high temperature of the coronal plasma, revealing that the corona is much hotter than the internal layers of the chromosphere.
The corona behaves like a gas which is very hot but very light at the same time: the pressure in the corona is usually only 0.1 to 0.6 Pa in active regions, while on the Earth the atmospheric pressure is about 100 kPa, approximately a million times higher than on the solar surface. However it is not properly a gas, because it is made of charged particles, basically protons and electrons, moving at different velocities. Supposing that they have the same kinetic energy on average (for the equipartition theorem), electrons have a mass roughly 1800 times smaller than protons, therefore they acquire more velocity. Metal ions are always slower. This fact has relevant physical consequences either on radiative processes (that are very different from the photospheric radiative processes), or on thermal conduction. Furthermore, the presence of electric charges induces the generation of electric currents and high magnetic fields. Magnetohydrodynamic waves (MHD waves) can also propagate in this plasma, even though it is still not clear how they can be transmitted or generated in the corona.
Coronal plasma is optically thin and therefore transparent to the electromagnetic radiation that it emits and to that coming from lower layers. The plasma is very rarefied and the photon mean free path overcomes by far all the other length-scales, including the typical sizes of common coronal features.
Electromagnetic radiation from the corona has been identified coming from three main sources, located in the same volume of space:
In the corona thermal conduction occurs from the external hotter atmosphere towards the inner cooler layers. Responsible for the diffusion process of the heat are the electrons, which are much lighter than ions and move faster, as explained above.
When there is a magnetic field the thermal conductivity of the plasma becomes higher in the direction which is parallel to the field lines rather than in the perpendicular direction. A charged particle moving in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field line is subject to the Lorentz force which is normal to the plane individuated by the velocity and the magnetic field. This force bends the path of the particle. In general, since particles also have a velocity component along the magnetic field line, the Lorentz force constrains them to bend and move along spirals around the field lines at the cyclotron frequency.
If collisions between the particles are very frequent, they are scattered in every direction. This happens in the photosphere, where the plasma carries the magnetic field in its motion. In the corona, on the contrary, the mean free-path of the electrons is of the order of kilometres and even more, so each electron can do a helicoidal motion long before being scattered after a collision. Therefore, the heat transfer is enhanced along the magnetic field lines and inhibited in the perpendicular direction.
In the direction longitudinal to the magnetic field, the thermal conductivity of the corona is
where k B {\displaystyle k_{\text{B}}} is the Boltzmann constant, T {\displaystyle T} is the temperature in kelvin, m e {\displaystyle m_{e}} is the electron mass, e {\displaystyle e} is the electric charge of the electron,
is the Coulomb logarithm, and
is the Debye length of the plasma with particle density n {\displaystyle n} . The Coulomb logarithm ln Λ {\displaystyle \ln \Lambda } is roughly 20 in the corona, with a mean temperature of 1 MK and a density of 10 particles/m, and about 10 in the chromosphere, where the temperature is approximately 10kK and the particle density is of the order of 10 particles/m, and in practice it can be assumed constant.
Thence, if we indicate with q {\displaystyle q} the heat for a volume unit, expressed in J m, the Fourier equation of heat transfer, to be computed only along the direction x {\displaystyle x} of the field line, becomes
Numerical calculations have shown that the thermal conductivity of the corona is comparable to that of copper.
Coronal seismology is a method of studying the plasma of the solar corona with the use of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves. MHD studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids – in this case, the fluid is the coronal plasma. Philosophically, coronal seismology is similar to the Earth's seismology, the Sun's helioseismology, and MHD spectroscopy of laboratory plasma devices. In all these approaches, waves of various kinds are used to probe a medium. The potential of coronal seismology in the estimation of the coronal magnetic field, density scale height, fine structure and heating has been demonstrated by different research groups.
Why is the Sun's corona so much hotter than the Sun's surface?
The coronal heating problem in solar physics relates to the question of why the temperature of the Sun's corona is millions of kelvins versus the thousands of kelvins of the surface. Several theories have been proposed to explain this phenomenon but it is still challenging to determine which of these is correct. The problem first emerged when Bengt Edlen and Walter Grotrian identified Fe IX and Ca XIV lines in the solar spectrum. This led to the discovery that the emission lines seen during solar eclipses are not caused by an unknown element called "coronium" but known elements at very high stages of ionization. The comparison of the coronal and the photospheric temperatures of 6000K, leads to the question of how the 200 times hotter coronal temperature can be maintained. The problem is primarily concerned with how the energy is transported up into the corona and then converted into heat within a few solar radii.
The high temperatures require energy to be carried from the solar interior to the corona by non-thermal processes, because the second law of thermodynamics prevents heat from flowing directly from the solar photosphere (surface), which is at about 5800K, to the much hotter corona at about 1 to 3 MK (parts of the corona can even reach 10MK).
Between the photosphere and the corona, the thin region through which the temperature increases is known as the transition region. It ranges from only tens to hundreds of kilometers thick. Energy cannot be transferred from the cooler photosphere to the corona by conventional heat transfer as this would violate the second law of thermodynamics. An analogy of this would be a light bulb raising the temperature of the air surrounding it to something greater than its glass surface. Hence, some other manner of energy transfer must be involved in the heating of the corona.
The amount of power required to heat the solar corona can easily be calculated as the difference between coronal radiative losses and heating by thermal conduction toward the chromosphere through the transition region. It is about 1 kilowatt for every square meter of surface area on the Sun's chromosphere, or 1/40000 of the amount of light energy that escapes the Sun.
Many coronal heating theories have been proposed, but two theories have remained as the most likely candidates: wave heating and magnetic reconnection (or nanoflares). Through most of the past 50 years, neither theory has been able to account for the extreme coronal temperatures.
In 2012, high resolution (<0.2″) soft X-ray imaging with the High Resolution Coronal Imager aboard a sounding rocket revealed tightly wound braids in the corona. It is hypothesized that the reconnection and unravelling of braids can act as primary sources of heating of the active solar corona to temperatures of up to 4 million kelvin. The main heat source in the quiescent corona (about 1.5 million kelvin) is assumed to originate from MHD waves.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is intended to approach the Sun to a distance of approximately 9.5 solar radii to investigate coronal heating and the origin of the solar wind. It was successfully launched on August 12, 2018 and as of fall 2022 has completed the first 13 of more than 20 planned close approaches to the Sun.
The wave heating theory, proposed in 1949 by Évry Schatzman, proposes that waves carry energy from the solar interior to the solar chromosphere and corona. The Sun is made of plasma rather than ordinary gas, so it supports several types of waves analogous to sound waves in air. The most important types of wave are magneto-acoustic waves and Alfvén waves. Magneto-acoustic waves are sound waves that have been modified by the presence of a magnetic field, and Alfvén waves are similar to ultra low frequency radio waves that have been modified by interaction with matter in the plasma. Both types of waves can be launched by the turbulence of granulation and super granulation at the solar photosphere, and both types of waves can carry energy for some distance through the solar atmosphere before turning into shock waves that dissipate their energy as heat.
One problem with wave heating is delivery of the heat to the appropriate place. Magneto-acoustic waves cannot carry sufficient energy upward through the chromosphere to the corona, both because of the low pressure present in the chromosphere and because they tend to be reflected back to the photosphere. Alfvén waves can carry enough energy, but do not dissipate that energy rapidly enough once they enter the corona. Waves in plasmas are notoriously difficult to understand and describe analytically, but computer simulations, carried out by Thomas Bogdan and colleagues in 2003, seem to show that Alfvén waves can transmute into other wave modes at the base of the corona, providing a pathway that can carry large amounts of energy from the photosphere through the chromosphere and transition region and finally into the corona where it dissipates it as heat.
Another problem with wave heating has been the complete absence, until the late 1990s, of any direct evidence of waves propagating through the solar corona. The first direct observation of waves propagating into and through the solar corona was made in 1997 with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory space-borne solar observatory, the first platform capable of observing the Sun in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) for long periods of time with stable photometry. Those were magneto-acoustic waves with a frequency of about 1 millihertz (mHz, corresponding to a 1000second wave period), that carry only about 10% of the energy required to heat the corona. Many observations exist of localized wave phenomena, such as Alfvén waves launched by solar flares, but those events are transient and cannot explain the uniform coronal heat.
It is not yet known exactly how much wave energy is available to heat the corona. Results published in 2004 using data from the TRACE spacecraft seem to indicate that there are waves in the solar atmosphere at frequencies as high as 100mHz (10 second period). Measurements of the temperature of different ions in the solar wind with the UVCS instrument aboard SOHO give strong indirect evidence that there are waves at frequencies as high as 200Hz, well into the range of human hearing. These waves are very difficult to detect under normal circumstances, but evidence collected during solar eclipses by teams from Williams College suggest the presences of such waves in the 1–10Hz range.
Recently, Alfvénic motions have been found in the lower solar atmosphere and also in the quiet Sun, in coronal holes and in active regions using observations with AIA on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. These Alfvénic oscillations have significant power, and seem to be connected to the chromospheric Alfvénic oscillations previously reported with the Hinode spacecraft.
Solar wind observations with the Wind spacecraft have recently shown evidence to support theories of Alfvén-cyclotron dissipation, leading to local ion heating.
The magnetic reconnection theory relies on the solar magnetic field to induce electric currents in the solar corona. The currents then collapse suddenly, releasing energy as heat and wave energy in the corona. This process is called "reconnection" because of the peculiar way that magnetic fields behave in plasma (or any electrically conductive fluid such as mercury or seawater). In a plasma, magnetic field lines are normally tied to individual pieces of matter, so that the topology of the magnetic field remains the same: if a particular north and south magnetic pole are connected by a single field line, then even if the plasma is stirred or if the magnets are moved around, that field line will continue to connect those particular poles. The connection is maintained by electric currents that are induced in the plasma. Under certain conditions, the electric currents can collapse, allowing the magnetic field to "reconnect" to other magnetic poles and release heat and wave energy in the process.
Magnetic reconnection is hypothesized to be the mechanism behind solar flares, the largest explosions in the Solar System. Furthermore, the surface of the Sun is covered with millions of small magnetized regions 50–1000km across. These small magnetic poles are buffeted and churned by the constant granulation. The magnetic field in the solar corona must undergo nearly constant reconnection to match the motion of this "magnetic carpet", so the energy released by the reconnection is a natural candidate for the coronal heat, perhaps as a series of "microflares" that individually provide very little energy but together account for the required energy.
The idea that nanoflares might heat the corona was proposed by Eugene Parker in the 1980s but is still controversial. In particular, ultraviolet telescopes such as TRACE and SOHO/EIT can observe individual micro-flares as small brightenings in extreme ultraviolet light, but there seem to be too few of these small events to account for the energy released into the corona. The additional energy not accounted for could be made up by wave energy, or by gradual magnetic reconnection that releases energy more smoothly than micro-flares and therefore does not appear well in the TRACE data. Variations on the micro-flare hypothesis use other mechanisms to stress the magnetic field or to release the energy, and are a subject of active research in 2005.
For decades, researchers believed spicules could send heat into the corona. However, following observational research in the 1980s, it was found that spicule plasma did not reach coronal temperatures, and so the theory was discounted.
As per studies performed in 2010 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, in collaboration with the Lockheed Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL) and the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics of the University of Oslo, a new class of spicules (TYPE II) discovered in 2007, which travel faster (up to 100 km/s) and have shorter lifespans, can account for the problem. These jets insert heated plasma into the Sun's outer atmosphere.
Thus, a much greater understanding of the corona and improvement in the knowledge of the Sun's subtle influence on the Earth's upper atmosphere can be expected henceforth. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA's recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory and NASA's Focal Plane Package for the Solar Optical Telescope on the Japanese Hinode satellite which was used to test this hypothesis. The high spatial and temporal resolutions of the newer instruments reveal this coronal mass supply.
These observations reveal a one-to-one connection between plasma that is heated to millions of degrees and the spicules that insert this plasma into the corona. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A corona (pl.: coronas or coronae) is the outermost layer of a star's atmosphere. It consists of plasma.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Sun's corona lies above the chromosphere and extends millions of kilometres into outer space. It is most easily seen during a total solar eclipse, but it is also observable with a coronagraph. Spectroscopic measurements indicate strong ionization in the corona and a plasma temperature in excess of 1000000 kelvins, much hotter than the surface of the Sun, known as the photosphere.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Corona (Latin for 'crown') is, in turn, derived from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē) 'garland, wreath'.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In 1724, French-Italian astronomer Giacomo F. Maraldi recognized that the aura visible during a solar eclipse belongs to the Sun, not to the Moon. In 1809, Spanish astronomer José Joaquín de Ferrer coined the term 'corona'. Based in his own observations of the 1806 solar eclipse at Kinderhook (New York), de Ferrer also proposed that the corona was part of the Sun and not of the Moon. English astronomer Norman Lockyer identified the first element unknown on Earth in the Sun's chromosphere, which was called helium (from Greek helios 'sun'). French astronomer Jules Jenssen noted, after comparing his readings between the 1871 and 1878 eclipses, that the size and shape of the corona changes with the sunspot cycle. In 1930, Bernard Lyot invented the coronograph, which allows viewing the corona without a total eclipse. In 1952, American astronomer Eugene Parker proposed that the solar corona might be heated by myriad tiny 'nanoflares', miniature brightenings resembling solar flares that would occur all over the surface of the Sun.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The high temperature of the Sun's corona gives it unusual spectral features, which led some in the 19th century to suggest that it contained a previously unknown element, \"coronium\". Instead, these spectral features have since been explained by highly ionized iron (Fe-XIV, or Fe). Bengt Edlén, following the work of Grotrian (1939), first identified the coronal spectral lines in 1940 (observed since 1869) as transitions from low-lying metastable levels of the ground configuration of highly ionised metals (the green Fe-XIV line from Fe at 5303Å, but also the red Fe-X line from Fe at 6374Å).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The Sun's corona is much hotter (by a factor from 150 to 450) than the visible surface of the Sun: the corona's temperature is 1 to 3 million kelvin compared to the photosphere's average temperature – around 5800kelvin. The corona is far less dense than the photosphere, and produces about one-millionth as much visible light. The corona is separated from the photosphere by the relatively shallow chromosphere. The exact mechanism by which the corona is heated is still the subject of some debate, but likely possibilities include episodic energy releases from the pervasive magnetic field and magnetohydrodynamic waves from below. The outer edges of the Sun's corona are constantly being transported away, creating the \"open\" magnetic flux entrained in the solar wind.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The corona is not always evenly distributed across the surface of the Sun. During periods of quiet, the corona is more or less confined to the equatorial regions, with coronal holes covering the polar regions. However, during the Sun's active periods, the corona is evenly distributed over the equatorial and polar regions, though it is most prominent in areas with sunspot activity. The solar cycle spans approximately 11 years, from solar minimum to the following minimum. Since the solar magnetic field is continually wound up due to the faster rotation of mass at the Sun's equator (differential rotation), sunspot activity will be more pronounced at solar maximum where the magnetic field is more twisted. Associated with sunspots are coronal loops, loops of magnetic flux, upwelling from the solar interior. The magnetic flux pushes the hotter photosphere aside, exposing the cooler plasma below, thus creating the relatively dark sun spots.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Since the corona has been photographed at high resolution in the X-ray range of the spectrum by the satellite Skylab in 1973, and then later by Yohkoh and the other following space instruments, it has been seen that the structure of the corona is quite varied and complex: different zones have been immediately classified on the coronal disc. The astronomers usually distinguish several regions, as described below.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Active regions are ensembles of loop structures connecting points of opposite magnetic polarity in the photosphere, the so-called coronal loops. They generally distribute in two zones of activity, which are parallel to the solar equator. The average temperature is between two and four million kelvin, while the density goes from 10 to 10 particles per cubic centimetre.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Active regions involve all the phenomena directly linked to the magnetic field, which occur at different heights above the Sun's surface: sunspots and faculae occur in the photosphere; spicules, Hα filaments and plages in the chromosphere; prominences in the chromosphere and transition region; and flares and coronal mass ejections (CME) happen in the corona and chromosphere. If flares are very violent, they can also perturb the photosphere and generate a Moreton wave. On the contrary, quiescent prominences are large, cool, dense structures which are observed as dark, \"snake-like\" Hα ribbons (appearing like filaments) on the solar disc. Their temperature is about 5000–8000K, and so they are usually considered as chromospheric features.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 2013, images from the High Resolution Coronal Imager revealed never-before-seen \"magnetic braids\" of plasma within the outer layers of these active regions.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Coronal loops are the basic structures of the magnetic solar corona. These loops are the closed-magnetic flux cousins of the open-magnetic flux that can be found in coronal holes and the solar wind. Loops of magnetic flux well up from the solar body and fill with hot solar plasma. Due to the heightened magnetic activity in these coronal loop regions, coronal loops can often be the precursor to solar flares and CMEs.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The solar plasma that feeds these structures is heated from under 6000K to well over 10 K from the photosphere, through the transition region, and into the corona. Often, the solar plasma will fill these loops from one point and drain to another, called foot points (siphon flow due to a pressure difference, or asymmetric flow due to some other driver).",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "When the plasma rises from the foot points towards the loop top, as always occurs during the initial phase of a compact flare, it is defined as chromospheric evaporation. When the plasma rapidly cools and falls toward the photosphere, it is called chromospheric condensation. There may also be symmetric flow from both loop foot points, causing a build-up of mass in the loop structure. The plasma may cool rapidly in this region (for a thermal instability), its dark filaments obvious against the solar disk or prominences off the Sun's limb.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Coronal loops may have lifetimes in the order of seconds (in the case of flare events), minutes, hours or days. Where there is a balance in loop energy sources and sinks, coronal loops can last for long periods of time and are known as steady state or quiescent coronal loops (example).",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Coronal loops are very important to our understanding of the current coronal heating problem. Coronal loops are highly radiating sources of plasma and are therefore easy to observe by instruments such as TRACE. An explanation of the coronal heating problem remains as these structures are being observed remotely, where many ambiguities are present (i.e., radiation contributions along the line-of-sight propagation). In-situ measurements are required before a definitive answer can be determined, but due to the high plasma temperatures in the corona, in-situ measurements are, at present, impossible. The next mission of the NASA Parker Solar Probe will approach the Sun very closely, allowing more direct observations.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Large-scale structures are very long arcs which can cover over a quarter of the solar disk but contain plasma less dense than in the coronal loops of the active regions.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "They were first detected in the June 8, 1968, flare observation during a rocket flight.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The large-scale structure of the corona changes over the 11-year solar cycle and becomes particularly simple during the minimum period, when the magnetic field of the Sun is almost similar to a dipolar configuration (plus a quadrupolar component).",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The interconnections of active regions are arcs connecting zones of opposite magnetic field, of different active regions. Significant variations of these structures are often seen after a flare.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Some other features of this kind are helmet streamers – large, cap-like coronal structures with long, pointed peaks that usually overlie sunspots and active regions. Coronal streamers are considered to be sources of the slow solar wind.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Filament cavities are zones which look dark in the X-rays and are above the regions where Hα filaments are observed in the chromosphere. They were first observed in the two 1970 rocket flights which also detected coronal holes.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Filament cavities are cooler clouds of plasma suspended above the Sun's surface by magnetic forces. The regions of intense magnetic field look dark in images because they are empty of hot plasma. In fact, the sum of the magnetic pressure and plasma pressure must be constant everywhere on the heliosphere in order to have an equilibrium configuration: where the magnetic field is higher, the plasma must be cooler or less dense. The plasma pressure p {\\displaystyle p} can be calculated by the state equation of a perfect gas: p = n k B T {\\displaystyle p=nk_{B}T} , where n {\\displaystyle n} is the particle number density, k B {\\displaystyle k_{B}} the Boltzmann constant and T {\\displaystyle T} the plasma temperature. It is evident from the equation that the plasma pressure lowers when the plasma temperature decreases with respect to the surrounding regions or when the zone of intense magnetic field empties. The same physical effect renders sunspots apparently dark in the photosphere.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Bright points are small active regions found on the solar disk. X-ray bright points were first detected on April 8, 1969, during a rocket flight.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The fraction of the solar surface covered by bright points varies with the solar cycle. They are associated with small bipolar regions of the magnetic field. Their average temperature ranges from 1.1 MK to 3.4 MK. The variations in temperature are often correlated with changes in the X-ray emission.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Coronal holes are unipolar regions which look dark in the X-rays since they do not emit much radiation. These are wide zones of the Sun where the magnetic field is unipolar and opens towards the interplanetary space. The high speed solar wind arises mainly from these regions.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In the UV images of the coronal holes, some small structures, similar to elongated bubbles, are often seen as they were suspended in the solar wind. These are the coronal plumes. More precisely, they are long thin streamers that project outward from the Sun's north and south poles.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The solar regions which are not part of active regions and coronal holes are commonly identified as the quiet Sun.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The equatorial region has a faster rotation speed than the polar zones. The result of the Sun's differential rotation is that the active regions always arise in two bands parallel to the equator and their extension increases during the periods of maximum of the solar cycle, while they almost disappear during each minimum. Therefore, the quiet Sun always coincides with the equatorial zone and its surface is less active during the maximum of the solar cycle. Approaching the minimum of the solar cycle (also named butterfly cycle), the extension of the quiet Sun increases until it covers the whole disk surface excluding some bright points on the hemisphere and the poles, where there are coronal holes.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The Alfvén surface is the boundary separating the corona from the solar wind defined as where the coronal plasma's Alfvén speed and the large-scale solar wind speed are equal.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Researchers were unsure exactly where the Alfvén critical surface of the Sun lay. Based on remote images of the corona, estimates had put it somewhere between 10 and 20 solar radii from the surface of the Sun. On April 28, 2021, during its eighth flyby of the Sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe encountered the specific magnetic and particle conditions at 18.8 solar radii that indicated that it penetrated the Alfvén surface.",
"title": "Physical features"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "A portrait, as diversified as the one already pointed out for the coronal features, is emphasized by the analysis of the dynamics of the main structures of the corona, which evolve at differential times. Studying coronal variability in its complexity is not easy because the times of evolution of the different structures can vary considerably: from seconds to several months. The typical sizes of the regions where coronal events take place vary in the same way, as it is shown in the following table.",
"title": "Variability of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Flares take place in active regions and are characterized by a sudden increase of the radiative flux emitted from small regions of the corona. They are very complex phenomena, visible at different wavelengths; they involve several zones of the solar atmosphere and many physical effects, thermal and not thermal, and sometimes wide reconnections of the magnetic field lines with material expulsion.",
"title": "Variability of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Flares are impulsive phenomena, of average duration of 15 minutes, and the most energetic events can last several hours. Flares produce a high and rapid increase of the density and temperature.",
"title": "Variability of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "An emission in white light is only seldom observed: usually, flares are only seen at extreme UV wavelengths and into the X-rays, typical of the chromospheric and coronal emission.",
"title": "Variability of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In the corona, the morphology of flares is described by observations in the UV, soft and hard X-rays, and in Hα wavelengths, and is very complex. However, two kinds of basic structures can be distinguished:",
"title": "Variability of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "As for temporal dynamics, three different phases are generally distinguished, whose duration are not comparable. The durations of those periods depend on the range of wavelengths used to observe the event:",
"title": "Variability of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Sometimes also a phase preceding the flare can be observed, usually called as \"pre-flare\" phase.",
"title": "Variability of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Often accompanying large solar flares and prominences are coronal mass ejections (CME). These are enormous emissions of coronal material and magnetic field that travel outward from the Sun at over a million kilometers per hour, containing roughly 10 times the energy of the solar flare or prominence that accompanies them. Some larger CMEs can propel hundreds of millions of tons of material into interplanetary space at roughly 1.5 million kilometers an hour.",
"title": "Variability of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Coronal stars are ubiquitous among the stars in the cool half of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. These coronae can be detected using X-ray telescopes. Some stellar coronae, particularly in young stars, are much more luminous than the Sun's. For example, FK Comae Berenices is the prototype for the FK Com class of variable star. These are giants of spectral types G and K with an unusually rapid rotation and signs of extreme activity. Their X-ray coronae are among the most luminous (Lx ≥ 10 erg·s or 10W) and the hottest known with dominant temperatures up to 40 MK.",
"title": "Stellar coronae"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The astronomical observations planned with the Einstein Observatory by Giuseppe Vaiana and his group showed that F-, G-, K- and M-stars have chromospheres and often coronae much like the Sun. The O-B stars, which do not have surface convection zones, have a strong X-ray emission. However these stars do not have coronae, but the outer stellar envelopes emit this radiation during shocks due to thermal instabilities in rapidly moving gas blobs. Also A-stars do not have convection zones but they do not emit at the UV and X-ray wavelengths. Thus they appear to have neither chromospheres nor coronae.",
"title": "Stellar coronae"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The matter in the external part of the solar atmosphere is in the state of plasma, at very high temperature (a few million kelvin) and at very low density (of the order of 10 particles/m). According to the definition of plasma, it is a quasi-neutral ensemble of particles which exhibits a collective behaviour.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The composition is similar to that in the Sun's interior, mainly hydrogen, but with much greater ionization of its heavier elements than that found in the photosphere. Heavier metals, such as iron, are partially ionized and have lost most of the external electrons. The ionization state of a chemical element depends strictly on the temperature and is regulated by the Saha equation in the lowest atmosphere, but by collisional equilibrium in the optically thin corona. Historically, the presence of the spectral lines emitted from highly ionized states of iron allowed determination of the high temperature of the coronal plasma, revealing that the corona is much hotter than the internal layers of the chromosphere.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The corona behaves like a gas which is very hot but very light at the same time: the pressure in the corona is usually only 0.1 to 0.6 Pa in active regions, while on the Earth the atmospheric pressure is about 100 kPa, approximately a million times higher than on the solar surface. However it is not properly a gas, because it is made of charged particles, basically protons and electrons, moving at different velocities. Supposing that they have the same kinetic energy on average (for the equipartition theorem), electrons have a mass roughly 1800 times smaller than protons, therefore they acquire more velocity. Metal ions are always slower. This fact has relevant physical consequences either on radiative processes (that are very different from the photospheric radiative processes), or on thermal conduction. Furthermore, the presence of electric charges induces the generation of electric currents and high magnetic fields. Magnetohydrodynamic waves (MHD waves) can also propagate in this plasma, even though it is still not clear how they can be transmitted or generated in the corona.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Coronal plasma is optically thin and therefore transparent to the electromagnetic radiation that it emits and to that coming from lower layers. The plasma is very rarefied and the photon mean free path overcomes by far all the other length-scales, including the typical sizes of common coronal features.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Electromagnetic radiation from the corona has been identified coming from three main sources, located in the same volume of space:",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "In the corona thermal conduction occurs from the external hotter atmosphere towards the inner cooler layers. Responsible for the diffusion process of the heat are the electrons, which are much lighter than ions and move faster, as explained above.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "When there is a magnetic field the thermal conductivity of the plasma becomes higher in the direction which is parallel to the field lines rather than in the perpendicular direction. A charged particle moving in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field line is subject to the Lorentz force which is normal to the plane individuated by the velocity and the magnetic field. This force bends the path of the particle. In general, since particles also have a velocity component along the magnetic field line, the Lorentz force constrains them to bend and move along spirals around the field lines at the cyclotron frequency.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "If collisions between the particles are very frequent, they are scattered in every direction. This happens in the photosphere, where the plasma carries the magnetic field in its motion. In the corona, on the contrary, the mean free-path of the electrons is of the order of kilometres and even more, so each electron can do a helicoidal motion long before being scattered after a collision. Therefore, the heat transfer is enhanced along the magnetic field lines and inhibited in the perpendicular direction.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "In the direction longitudinal to the magnetic field, the thermal conductivity of the corona is",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "where k B {\\displaystyle k_{\\text{B}}} is the Boltzmann constant, T {\\displaystyle T} is the temperature in kelvin, m e {\\displaystyle m_{e}} is the electron mass, e {\\displaystyle e} is the electric charge of the electron,",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "is the Coulomb logarithm, and",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "is the Debye length of the plasma with particle density n {\\displaystyle n} . The Coulomb logarithm ln Λ {\\displaystyle \\ln \\Lambda } is roughly 20 in the corona, with a mean temperature of 1 MK and a density of 10 particles/m, and about 10 in the chromosphere, where the temperature is approximately 10kK and the particle density is of the order of 10 particles/m, and in practice it can be assumed constant.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Thence, if we indicate with q {\\displaystyle q} the heat for a volume unit, expressed in J m, the Fourier equation of heat transfer, to be computed only along the direction x {\\displaystyle x} of the field line, becomes",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Numerical calculations have shown that the thermal conductivity of the corona is comparable to that of copper.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Coronal seismology is a method of studying the plasma of the solar corona with the use of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves. MHD studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids – in this case, the fluid is the coronal plasma. Philosophically, coronal seismology is similar to the Earth's seismology, the Sun's helioseismology, and MHD spectroscopy of laboratory plasma devices. In all these approaches, waves of various kinds are used to probe a medium. The potential of coronal seismology in the estimation of the coronal magnetic field, density scale height, fine structure and heating has been demonstrated by different research groups.",
"title": "Physics of the corona"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Why is the Sun's corona so much hotter than the Sun's surface?",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The coronal heating problem in solar physics relates to the question of why the temperature of the Sun's corona is millions of kelvins versus the thousands of kelvins of the surface. Several theories have been proposed to explain this phenomenon but it is still challenging to determine which of these is correct. The problem first emerged when Bengt Edlen and Walter Grotrian identified Fe IX and Ca XIV lines in the solar spectrum. This led to the discovery that the emission lines seen during solar eclipses are not caused by an unknown element called \"coronium\" but known elements at very high stages of ionization. The comparison of the coronal and the photospheric temperatures of 6000K, leads to the question of how the 200 times hotter coronal temperature can be maintained. The problem is primarily concerned with how the energy is transported up into the corona and then converted into heat within a few solar radii.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "The high temperatures require energy to be carried from the solar interior to the corona by non-thermal processes, because the second law of thermodynamics prevents heat from flowing directly from the solar photosphere (surface), which is at about 5800K, to the much hotter corona at about 1 to 3 MK (parts of the corona can even reach 10MK).",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Between the photosphere and the corona, the thin region through which the temperature increases is known as the transition region. It ranges from only tens to hundreds of kilometers thick. Energy cannot be transferred from the cooler photosphere to the corona by conventional heat transfer as this would violate the second law of thermodynamics. An analogy of this would be a light bulb raising the temperature of the air surrounding it to something greater than its glass surface. Hence, some other manner of energy transfer must be involved in the heating of the corona.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "The amount of power required to heat the solar corona can easily be calculated as the difference between coronal radiative losses and heating by thermal conduction toward the chromosphere through the transition region. It is about 1 kilowatt for every square meter of surface area on the Sun's chromosphere, or 1/40000 of the amount of light energy that escapes the Sun.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Many coronal heating theories have been proposed, but two theories have remained as the most likely candidates: wave heating and magnetic reconnection (or nanoflares). Through most of the past 50 years, neither theory has been able to account for the extreme coronal temperatures.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "In 2012, high resolution (<0.2″) soft X-ray imaging with the High Resolution Coronal Imager aboard a sounding rocket revealed tightly wound braids in the corona. It is hypothesized that the reconnection and unravelling of braids can act as primary sources of heating of the active solar corona to temperatures of up to 4 million kelvin. The main heat source in the quiescent corona (about 1.5 million kelvin) is assumed to originate from MHD waves.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "NASA's Parker Solar Probe is intended to approach the Sun to a distance of approximately 9.5 solar radii to investigate coronal heating and the origin of the solar wind. It was successfully launched on August 12, 2018 and as of fall 2022 has completed the first 13 of more than 20 planned close approaches to the Sun.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "The wave heating theory, proposed in 1949 by Évry Schatzman, proposes that waves carry energy from the solar interior to the solar chromosphere and corona. The Sun is made of plasma rather than ordinary gas, so it supports several types of waves analogous to sound waves in air. The most important types of wave are magneto-acoustic waves and Alfvén waves. Magneto-acoustic waves are sound waves that have been modified by the presence of a magnetic field, and Alfvén waves are similar to ultra low frequency radio waves that have been modified by interaction with matter in the plasma. Both types of waves can be launched by the turbulence of granulation and super granulation at the solar photosphere, and both types of waves can carry energy for some distance through the solar atmosphere before turning into shock waves that dissipate their energy as heat.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "One problem with wave heating is delivery of the heat to the appropriate place. Magneto-acoustic waves cannot carry sufficient energy upward through the chromosphere to the corona, both because of the low pressure present in the chromosphere and because they tend to be reflected back to the photosphere. Alfvén waves can carry enough energy, but do not dissipate that energy rapidly enough once they enter the corona. Waves in plasmas are notoriously difficult to understand and describe analytically, but computer simulations, carried out by Thomas Bogdan and colleagues in 2003, seem to show that Alfvén waves can transmute into other wave modes at the base of the corona, providing a pathway that can carry large amounts of energy from the photosphere through the chromosphere and transition region and finally into the corona where it dissipates it as heat.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Another problem with wave heating has been the complete absence, until the late 1990s, of any direct evidence of waves propagating through the solar corona. The first direct observation of waves propagating into and through the solar corona was made in 1997 with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory space-borne solar observatory, the first platform capable of observing the Sun in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) for long periods of time with stable photometry. Those were magneto-acoustic waves with a frequency of about 1 millihertz (mHz, corresponding to a 1000second wave period), that carry only about 10% of the energy required to heat the corona. Many observations exist of localized wave phenomena, such as Alfvén waves launched by solar flares, but those events are transient and cannot explain the uniform coronal heat.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "It is not yet known exactly how much wave energy is available to heat the corona. Results published in 2004 using data from the TRACE spacecraft seem to indicate that there are waves in the solar atmosphere at frequencies as high as 100mHz (10 second period). Measurements of the temperature of different ions in the solar wind with the UVCS instrument aboard SOHO give strong indirect evidence that there are waves at frequencies as high as 200Hz, well into the range of human hearing. These waves are very difficult to detect under normal circumstances, but evidence collected during solar eclipses by teams from Williams College suggest the presences of such waves in the 1–10Hz range.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Recently, Alfvénic motions have been found in the lower solar atmosphere and also in the quiet Sun, in coronal holes and in active regions using observations with AIA on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. These Alfvénic oscillations have significant power, and seem to be connected to the chromospheric Alfvénic oscillations previously reported with the Hinode spacecraft.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Solar wind observations with the Wind spacecraft have recently shown evidence to support theories of Alfvén-cyclotron dissipation, leading to local ion heating.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "The magnetic reconnection theory relies on the solar magnetic field to induce electric currents in the solar corona. The currents then collapse suddenly, releasing energy as heat and wave energy in the corona. This process is called \"reconnection\" because of the peculiar way that magnetic fields behave in plasma (or any electrically conductive fluid such as mercury or seawater). In a plasma, magnetic field lines are normally tied to individual pieces of matter, so that the topology of the magnetic field remains the same: if a particular north and south magnetic pole are connected by a single field line, then even if the plasma is stirred or if the magnets are moved around, that field line will continue to connect those particular poles. The connection is maintained by electric currents that are induced in the plasma. Under certain conditions, the electric currents can collapse, allowing the magnetic field to \"reconnect\" to other magnetic poles and release heat and wave energy in the process.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Magnetic reconnection is hypothesized to be the mechanism behind solar flares, the largest explosions in the Solar System. Furthermore, the surface of the Sun is covered with millions of small magnetized regions 50–1000km across. These small magnetic poles are buffeted and churned by the constant granulation. The magnetic field in the solar corona must undergo nearly constant reconnection to match the motion of this \"magnetic carpet\", so the energy released by the reconnection is a natural candidate for the coronal heat, perhaps as a series of \"microflares\" that individually provide very little energy but together account for the required energy.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "The idea that nanoflares might heat the corona was proposed by Eugene Parker in the 1980s but is still controversial. In particular, ultraviolet telescopes such as TRACE and SOHO/EIT can observe individual micro-flares as small brightenings in extreme ultraviolet light, but there seem to be too few of these small events to account for the energy released into the corona. The additional energy not accounted for could be made up by wave energy, or by gradual magnetic reconnection that releases energy more smoothly than micro-flares and therefore does not appear well in the TRACE data. Variations on the micro-flare hypothesis use other mechanisms to stress the magnetic field or to release the energy, and are a subject of active research in 2005.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "For decades, researchers believed spicules could send heat into the corona. However, following observational research in the 1980s, it was found that spicule plasma did not reach coronal temperatures, and so the theory was discounted.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "As per studies performed in 2010 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, in collaboration with the Lockheed Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL) and the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics of the University of Oslo, a new class of spicules (TYPE II) discovered in 2007, which travel faster (up to 100 km/s) and have shorter lifespans, can account for the problem. These jets insert heated plasma into the Sun's outer atmosphere.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Thus, a much greater understanding of the corona and improvement in the knowledge of the Sun's subtle influence on the Earth's upper atmosphere can be expected henceforth. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA's recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory and NASA's Focal Plane Package for the Solar Optical Telescope on the Japanese Hinode satellite which was used to test this hypothesis. The high spatial and temporal resolutions of the newer instruments reveal this coronal mass supply.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "These observations reveal a one-to-one connection between plasma that is heated to millions of degrees and the spicules that insert this plasma into the corona.",
"title": "Coronal heating problem"
}
] | A corona is the outermost layer of a star's atmosphere. It consists of plasma. The Sun's corona lies above the chromosphere and extends millions of kilometres into outer space. It is most easily seen during a total solar eclipse, but it is also observable with a coronagraph. Spectroscopic measurements indicate strong ionization in the corona and a plasma temperature in excess of 1000000 kelvins, much hotter than the surface of the Sun, known as the photosphere. Corona is, in turn, derived from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē) 'garland, wreath'. | 2002-01-24T01:41:25Z | 2023-12-14T09:15:21Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_corona |
7,840 | Chrono Cross | Chrono Cross is a 1999 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is set in the same world as Chrono Trigger, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Chrono Cross was designed primarily by scenarist and director Masato Kato, who had help from other designers who also worked on Chrono Trigger, including art director Yasuyuki Honne and composer Yasunori Mitsuda. Nobuteru Yūki designed the characters of the game.
The story of Chrono Cross focuses on a teenage boy named Serge and a theme of parallel worlds. Faced with an alternate reality in which he died as a child, Serge endeavors to discover the truth of the two worlds' divergence. The flashy thief Kid and many other characters assist him in his travels around the tropical archipelago El Nido. Struggling to uncover his past and find the mysterious Frozen Flame, Serge is chiefly challenged by Lynx, a shadowy antagonist working to apprehend him.
Upon its release in Japan in 1999 and North America in 2000, Chrono Cross received critical acclaim, earning a perfect 10.0 score from GameSpot. The game shipped 1.5 million copies worldwide by 2003, leading to a Greatest Hits re-release and continued life in Japan as part of the Ultimate Hits series. Chrono Cross was later re-released for the PlayStation Network in Japan in July 2011, and in North America four months later. A remaster of the game, titled Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition was released on April 7, 2022, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
Chrono Cross features standard role-playing video game gameplay with some differences. Players advance the game by controlling the protagonist Serge through the game's world, primarily by foot and boat. Navigation between areas is conducted via an overworld map, much like Chrono Trigger's, depicting the landscape from a scaled-down overhead view. Around the island world are villages, outdoor areas, and dungeons, through which the player moves in three dimensions. Locations such as cities and forests are represented by more realistically scaled field maps, in which players can converse with locals to procure items and services, solve puzzles and challenges, or encounter enemies. Like Chrono Trigger, the game features no random encounters; enemies are openly visible on field maps or lie in wait to ambush the party. Touching the monster switches perspectives to a battle screen, in which players can physically attack, use "Elements", defend, or run away from the enemy. Battles are turn-based, allowing the player unlimited time to select an action from the available menu. For both the playable characters and the computer-controlled enemies, each attack reduces their number of hit points (a numerically based life bar), which can be restored through some Elements. When a playable character loses all hit points, he or she faints. If all the player's characters fall in battle, the game ends and must be restored from a previously saved chapter—except for specific storyline-related battles that allow the player to lose. Chrono Cross's developers aimed to break new ground in the genre, and the game features several innovations. For example, players can run away from all conflicts, including boss fights and the final battle.
The Element system of Chrono Cross handles all magic, consumable items, and character-specific abilities. Elements unleash magic effects upon the enemy or party and must be equipped for use, much like the materia of 1997's Final Fantasy VII. Elements can be purchased from shops or found in treasure chests littered throughout areas. Once acquired, they are allocated to a grid whose size and shape are unique to each character. They are ranked according to eight tiers; certain high level Elements can only be assigned on equivalent tiers in a character's grid. As the game progresses, the grid expands, allowing more Elements to be equipped and higher tiers to be accessed. Elements are divided into six paired oppositional types, or "colors," each with a natural effect. Red (fire/magma) opposes Blue (water/ice), Green (wind/flora) opposes Yellow (earth/lightning), and White (light/cosmos) opposes Black (darkness/gravity). Each character and enemy has an innate color, enhancing the power of using same-color Elements while also making them weak against elements of the opposite color. Chrono Cross also features a "field effect", which keeps track of Element color used in the upper corner of the battle screen. If the field is purely one color, characters are able to unleash a powerful summon element at the cost of one of the player's stars. The field will also enhance the power of Elements of the colors present, while weakening Elements of the opposite colors. Characters also innately learn some special techniques ("Techs") that are unique to each character but otherwise act like Elements. Like Chrono Trigger, characters can combine certain Techs to make more powerful Double or Triple Techs. Consumable Elements may be used to restore hit points or heal status ailments during or after battle.
Another innovative aspect of Chrono Cross is its stamina bar. At the beginning of a battle, each character has seven points of stamina. When a character attacks or uses an Element, stamina is decreased proportionally to the potency of the attack. Stamina slowly recovers when the character defends or when other characters perform actions in battle. Characters with stamina below one point must wait to take action. Use of an Element reduces the user's stamina bar by seven stamina points; this often means that the user's stamina gauge falls into the negative and the character must wait longer than usual to recover. With each battle, players can enhance statistics such as strength and defense. However, no system of experience points exists; after four or five upgrades, statistics remain static until players defeat a boss. This adds a star to a running count shown on the status screen, which allows for another few rounds of statistical increases. Players can equip characters with weapons, armor, helmets, and accessories for use in battle; for example, the "Power Seal" upgrades attack power. Items and equipment may be purchased or found on field maps, often in treasure chests. Unlike Elements, weapons and armor cannot merely be purchased with money; instead, the player must obtain base materials—such as copper, bronze, or bone—for a blacksmith to forge for a fee. The items can later be disassembled into their original components at no cost.
The existence of two major parallel dimensions, like time periods in Chrono Trigger, plays a significant role in the game. Players must go back and forth between the worlds to recruit party members, obtain items, and advance the plot. Much of the population of either world have counterparts in the other; some party members can even visit their other versions. The player must often search for items or places found exclusively in one world. Events in one dimension sometimes have an impact in the other—for instance, cooling scorched ground on an island in one world allows vegetation to grow in the other world. This system assists the presentation of certain themes, including the questioning of the importance of one's past decisions and humanity's role in destroying the environment. Rounding out the notable facets of Chrono Cross's gameplay are the New Game+ option and multiple endings. As in Chrono Trigger, players who have completed the game may choose to start the game over using data from the previous session. Character levels, learned techniques, equipment, and items gathered copy over, while acquired money and some story-related items are discarded. On a New Game+, players can access twelve endings. Scenes viewed depend on players' progress in the game before the final battle, which can be fought at any time in a New Game+ file.
Chrono Cross features a diverse cast of 45 party members. Each character is outfitted with an innate Element affinity and three unique special abilities that are learned over time. If taken to the world opposite their own, characters react to their counterparts (if available). Many characters tie in to crucial plot events. Since it is impossible to obtain all 45 characters in one playthrough, players must replay the game to witness everything. Through use of the New Game+ feature, players can ultimately obtain all characters on one save file.
Serge, the game's protagonist, is a 17-year-old boy who lives in the fishing village of Arni. One day, he slips into an alternate world in which he drowned ten years before. Determined to find the truth behind the incident, he follows a predestined course that leads him to save the world. He is assisted by Kid, a feisty, skilled thief who seeks the mythical Frozen Flame. Portrayed as willful and tomboyish due to her rough, thieving past, she helps Serge sneak into Viper Manor in order to obtain the Frozen Flame. Kid vows to find and defeat Lynx, an anthropomorphic panther who burned down her adopted mother's orphanage.
Lynx, a cruel agent of the supercomputer FATE, is bent on finding Serge and using his body as part of a greater plan involving the Frozen Flame. Lynx travels with Harle, a mysterious, playful girl dressed like a harlequin. Harle was sent by the Dragon God to shadow Lynx and one day steal the Frozen Flame from Chronopolis, a task she painfully fulfills despite being smitten with Serge.
To accomplish this goal, Harle helps Lynx manipulate the Acacia Dragoons, the powerful militia governing the islands of El Nido. As the Dragoons maintain order, they contend with Fargo, a former Dragoon turned pirate captain who holds a grudge against their leader, General Viper. Though tussling with Serge initially, the Acacia Dragoons—whose ranks include the fierce warriors Karsh, Zoah, Marcy, and Glenn—later assist him when the militaristic nation of Porre invades the archipelago. The invasion brings Norris and Grobyc to the islands, a heartful commander of an elite force and a prototype cyborg soldier, respectively, as they too seek the Frozen Flame.
The game begins with Serge located in El Nido, a tropical archipelago inhabited by ancient natives, mainland colonists, and beings called Demi-humans. Serge slips into an alternate dimension in which he drowned on the beach ten years prior, and meets the thief, "Kid". As his adventure proceeds from here, Serge is able to recruit a multitude of allies to his cause. While assisting Kid in a heist at Viper Manor to steal the Frozen Flame, he learns that ten years before the present, the universe split into two dimensions—one in which Serge lived, and one in which he perished. Through Kid's Astral Amulet charm, Serge travels between the dimensions. At Fort Dragonia, with the use of a Dragonian artifact called the Dragon Tear, Lynx switches bodies with Serge. Unaware of the switch, Kid confides in Lynx, who stabs her as the real Serge helplessly watches. Lynx boasts of his victory and banishes Serge to a strange realm called the Temporal Vortex. He takes Kid under his wing, brainwashing her to believe the real Serge (in Lynx's body) is her enemy. Serge escapes with help from Harle, although his new body turns him into a stranger in his own world, with all the allies he had gained up to that point abandoning him due to his new appearance. Discovering that his new body prevents him from traveling across the dimensions, he sets out to regain his former body and learn more of the universal split that occurred ten years earlier, gaining a new band of allies along the way. He travels to a forbidden lagoon known as the Dead Sea—a wasteland frozen in time, dotted with futuristic ruins. At the center, he locates a man named Miguel and presumably Home world's Frozen Flame. Charged with guarding the Dead Sea by an entity named FATE, Miguel and three visions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca from Chrono Trigger explain that Serge's existence dooms Home world's future to destruction at the hands of Lavos. To prevent Serge from obtaining the Frozen Flame, FATE destroys the Dead Sea.
Able to return to Another world, Serge allies with the Acacia Dragoons against Porre and locates that dimension's Dragon Tear, allowing him to return to his human form. He then enters the Sea of Eden, Another world's physical equivalent of the Dead Sea, finding a temporal research facility from the distant future called Chronopolis. Lynx and Kid are inside; Serge defeats Lynx and the supercomputer FATE, allowing the six Dragons of El Nido to steal the Frozen Flame and retire to Terra Tower, a massive structure raised from the sea floor. Kid falls into a coma, and Harle bids the party goodbye to fly with the Dragons. Serge regroups his party and tends to Kid, who remains comatose. Continuing his adventure, he obtains and cleanses the corrupted Masamune sword from Chrono Trigger. He then uses the Dragon relics and shards of the Dragon Tears to create the mythic Element Chrono Cross. The spiritual power of the Masamune later allows him to lift Kid from her coma. At Terra Tower, the prophet of time, revealed to be Belthasar from Chrono Trigger, visits him with visions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca. Serge learns that the time research facility Chronopolis created El Nido thousands of years ago after a catastrophic experimental failure drew it to the past. The introduction of a temporally foreign object in history caused the planet to pull in a counterbalance from a different dimension. This was Dinopolis, a city of Dragonians—parallel universe descendants of Chrono Trigger's Reptites. The institutions warred and Chronopolis subjugated the Dragonians. Humans captured their chief creation—the Dragon God, an entity capable of controlling nature.
Chronopolis divided this entity into six pieces and created an Elements system. FATE then terraformed an archipelago, erased the memories of most of Chronopolis's staff, and sent them to inhabit and populate its new paradise. Thousands of years later, a panther demon attacked a three-year-old Serge. His father took him to find assistance at Marbule, but Serge's boat blew off course due to a raging magnetic storm caused by Schala. Schala, the princess of the Kingdom of Zeal, had long ago accidentally fallen to a place known as the Darkness Beyond Time and began merging with Lavos, the chief antagonist of Chrono Trigger. Schala's storm nullified Chronopolis's defenses and allowed Serge to contact the Frozen Flame; approaching it healed Serge but corrupted his father, turning him into Lynx. A circuit in Chronopolis then designated Serge "Arbiter", simultaneously preventing FATE from using the Frozen Flame by extension. The Dragons were aware of this situation, creating a seventh Dragon under the storm's cover named Harle, who manipulated Lynx to steal the Frozen Flame for the Dragons.
After Serge returned home, FATE sent Lynx to kill Serge, hoping that it would release the Arbiter lock. Ten years after Serge drowned, the thief Kid—presumably on Belthasar's orders—went back in time to save Serge and split the dimensions. FATE, locked out of the Frozen Flame again, knew that Serge would one day cross to Another world and prepared to apprehend him. Lynx switched bodies with Serge to dupe the biological check of Chronopolis on the Frozen Flame. Belthasar then reveals that these events were part of a plan he had orchestrated named Project Kid. Serge continues to the top of Terra Tower and defeats the Dragon God. Continuing to the beach where the split in dimensions had occurred, Serge finds apparitions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca once more. They reveal that Belthasar's plan was to empower Serge to free Schala from melding with Lavos, lest they evolve into the "Time Devourer", a creature capable of destroying spacetime. Lucca explains that Kid is Schala's clone, sent to the modern age to take part in Project Kid. Serge uses a Time Egg—given to him by Belthasar—to enter the Darkness Beyond Time and vanquish the Time Devourer, separating Schala from Lavos and restoring the dimensions to one. Thankful, Schala muses on evolution and the struggle of life and returns Serge to his home, noting that he will forget the entire adventure. She then seemingly records the experience in her diary, noting she will always be searching for Serge in this life and beyond, signing the entry as Schala "Kid" Zeal, implying that she and Kid have merged and became whole again. A wedding photo of Kid and an obscured male sits on the diary's desk. Scenes then depict a real-life Kid searching for someone in a modern city, intending to make players entertain the possibility that their own Kid is searching for them. The ambiguous ending leaves the events of the characters' lives following the game up to interpretation.
Chrono Cross employs story arcs, characters, and themes from Radical Dreamers, a Satellaview side story to Chrono Trigger released in Japan. Radical Dreamers is an illustrated text adventure which was created to wrap up an unresolved plot line of Chrono Trigger. Though it borrows from Radical Dreamers in its exposition, Chrono Cross is not a remake of Radical Dreamers, but a larger effort to fulfill that game's purpose; the plots of the games are irreconcilable. To resolve continuity issues and acknowledge Radical Dreamers, the developers of Chrono Cross suggested the game happened in a parallel dimension. A notable difference between the two games is that Magus—present in Radical Dreamers as Gil—is absent from Chrono Cross. Director Masato Kato originally planned for Magus to appear in disguise as Guile, but scrapped the idea due to plot difficulties. Kato specifically felt that the game's large number of characters, as well as the difficult production schedule, did not allow him to develop the relationship between Magus and Kid. In the DS version of Chrono Trigger, Kato teases the possibility of an amnesiac Magus.
Square began planning Chrono Cross immediately after the release of Xenogears in 1998 (which itself was originally conceived as a sequel to the SNES game). Chrono Trigger's scenario director Masato Kato had brainstormed ideas for a sequel as early as 1996, following the release of Radical Dreamers. Square's managers selected a team, appointed Hiromichi Tanaka producer, and asked Kato to direct and develop a new Chrono game in the spirit of Radical Dreamers. Kato thought Dreamers was released in a "half-finished state", and wanted to continue the story of the character Kid. Kato and Tanaka decided to produce an indirect sequel. They acknowledged that Square would soon re-release Chrono Trigger as part of Final Fantasy Chronicles, which would give players a chance to catch up on the story of Trigger before playing Cross. Kato thought that using a different setting and cast for Chrono Cross would allow players unfamiliar with Chrono Trigger to play Cross without becoming confused. The Chrono Cross team decided against integrating heavy use of time travel into the game, as they thought it would be "rehashing and cranking up the volume of the last game". Masato Kato cited the belief, "there's no use in making something similar to before [sic]", and noted, "we're not so weak nor cheap as to try to make something exactly the same as Trigger ... Accordingly, Chrono Cross is not Chrono Trigger 2. It doesn't simply follow on from Trigger, but is another, different Chrono that interlaces with Trigger." Kato and Tanaka further explained their intentions after the game's release:
We didn't want to directly extend Chrono Trigger into a sequel, but create a new Chrono with links to the original. Yes, the platform changed; and yes, there were many parts that changed dramatically from the previous work. But in my view, the whole point in making Chrono Cross was to make a new Chrono with the best available skills and technologies of today. I never had any intentions of just taking the system from Trigger and moving it onto the PlayStation console. That's why I believe that Cross is Cross, and NOT Trigger 2.
When creating a series, one method is to carry over a basic system, improving upon it as the series progresses, but our stance has been to create a completely new and different world from the ground up, and to restructure the former style. Therefore, Chrono Cross is not a sequel to Chrono Trigger. Had it been, it would have been called Chrono Trigger 2. Our main objective for Chrono Cross was to share a little bit of the Chrono Trigger worldview, while creating a completely different game as a means of providing new entertainment to the player. This is mainly due to the transition in platform generation from the SNES to the PS. The method I mentioned above, about improving upon a basic system, has inefficiencies, in that it's impossible to maximize the console's performance as the console continues to make improvements in leaps and bounds. Although essentially an RPG, at its core, it is a computer game, and I believe that games should be expressed with a close connection to the console's performance. Therefore, in regards to game development, our goal has always been to "express the game utilizing the maximum performance of the console at that time." I strongly believe that anything created in this way will continue to be innovative.
Full production began on Chrono Cross in mid-1998. The Chrono Cross team reached 80 members at its peak, with additional personnel of 10–20 cut-scene artists and 100 quality assurance testers. The team felt pressure to live up to the work of Chrono Trigger's "Dream Team" development group, which included famous Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama. Kato and Tanaka hired Nobuteru Yūki for character design and Yasuyuki Honne for art direction and concept art. The event team originally envisioned a short game, and planned a system by which players would befriend any person in a town for alliance in battle. Developers brainstormed traits and archetypes during the character-creation process, originally planning 64 characters with unique endings that could vary in three different ways per character. Kato described the character creation process: "Take Pierre, for example: we started off by saying we wanted a wacko fake hero like Tata from Trigger. We also said things like 'we need at least one powerful mom', 'no way we're gonna go without a twisted brat', and so on so forth."
As production continued, the length of Cross increased, leading the event team to reduce the number of characters to 45 and scrap most of the alternate endings. Developers humorously named the character Pip "Tsumaru" in Japanese (which means "packed") as a pun on their attempts to pack as much content into the game as possible. To avoid the burden of writing unique, accented dialogue for several characters, team member Kiyoshi Yoshii coded a system that produces accents by modifying basic text for certain characters. Art director Nobuteru Yuuki initially wanted the characters to appear in a more chibi format with diminutive proportions. The game world's fusion of high technology and ethnic, tribal atmospheres proved challenging at first. He later recalled striving to harmonize the time period's level of technology, especially as reflected in characters' garb. The demands of the art style led to Square merging the Final Fantasy VIII team into that of Chrono Cross two months before the Japanese release.
The Chrono Cross team devised an original battle system using a stamina bar and Elements. Kato planned the system around allowing players to avoid repetitive gameplay (also known as "grinding") to gain combat experience. Elements were developed while planning the final battle (during which a sequence of specific Elements must be triggered), and then applied in reverse to the rest of the game. Hiromichi Tanaka likened the Elements system to card games, hoping players would feel a sense of complete control in battle. The team programmed each battle motion manually instead of performing motion capture. Developers strove to include tongue-in-cheek humor in the battle system's techniques and animations to distance the game from the Final Fantasy franchise. Masato Kato planned for the game's setting to feature a small archipelago, for fear that players would become confused traveling in large areas with respect to parallel worlds. He hoped El Nido would still impart a sense of grand scale, and the development team pushed hardware limitations in creating the game's world. To create field maps, the team modeled locations in 3D, then chose the best angle for 2D rendering. The programmers of Chrono Cross did not use any existing Square programs or routines to code the game, instead writing new, proprietary systems. Other innovations included variable-frame rate code for fast-forward and slow-motion gameplay (awarded as a bonus for completing the game) and a "CD-read swap" system to allow quick data retrieval.
Masato Kato directed and wrote the main story, leaving sub-plots and minor character events to other staff. The event team sometimes struggled to mesh their work on the plot due to the complexity of the parallel worlds concept. Masato Kato confirmed that Cross featured a central theme of parallel worlds, as well as the fate of Schala, which he was previously unable to expound upon in Chrono Trigger. Concerning the ending sequences showing Kid searching for someone in a modern city, he hoped to make players realize that alternate futures and possibilities may exist in their own lives, and that this realization would "not ... stop with the game". He later added, "Paraphrasing one novelist's favorite words, what's important is not the message or theme, but how it is portrayed as a game. Even in Cross, it was intentionally made so that the most important question was left unanswered." Kato described the finished story as "ole' boy-meets-girl type of story" with sometimes-shocking twists. Kato rode his motorcycle to relieve the stress of the game's release schedule. He continued refining event data during the final stages of development while the rest of the team undertook debugging and quality control work. Square advertised the game by releasing a short demo of the first chapter with purchases of Legend of Mana. The North American version of Cross required three months of translation and two months of debugging before release. Richard Honeywood translated, working with Kato to rewrite certain dialogue for ease of comprehension in English. He also added instances of wordplay and alliteration to compensate for difficult Japanese jokes. To streamline translation for all 45 playable characters, Honeywood created his own version of the accent generator which needed to be more robust than the simple verbal tics of the Japanese cast. Although the trademark Chrono Cross was registered in the European Union, the game was not released in Europe.
After the game was done, the team was merged with those behind Parasite Eve II, Brave Fencer Musashi and Mana to make Final Fantasy XI. The programming for the game endured as the basis for the engine of Final Fantasy XI.
Chrono Cross was scored by freelance video game music composer Yasunori Mitsuda, who previously worked on Chrono Trigger. Director Masato Kato personally commissioned Mitsuda's involvement, citing a need for the "Chrono sound". Kato envisioned a "Southeast Asian feel, mixed with the foreign tastes and the tones of countries such as Greece"; Mitsuda centered his work around old world cultural influences, including Mediterranean, Fado, Celtic, and percussive African music. Mitsuda cited visual inspiration for songs: "All of my subjects are taken from scenery. I love artwork." To complement the theme of parallel worlds, he gave Another and Home respectively dark and bright moods, and hoped players would feel the emotions of "'burning soul,' 'lonely world,' and 'unforgettable memories'". Mitsuda and Kato planned music samples and sound effects with the philosophy of "a few sounds with a lot of content".
Xenogears contributor Tomohiko Kira played guitar on the beginning and ending themes. Noriko Mitose, as selected by Masato Kato, sang the ending song—"Radical Dreamers – The Unstolen Jewel". Ryo Yamazaki, a synthesizer programmer for Square Enix, helped Mitsuda transfer his ideas to the PlayStation's sound capabilities; Mitsuda was happy to accomplish even half of what he envisioned. Certain songs were ported from the score of Radical Dreamers, such as "Gale", "Frozen Flame", and "Viper Mansion". Other entries in the soundtrack contain leitmotifs from Chrono Trigger and Radical Dreamers. The melody of "Far Promise ~ Dream Shore" features prominently in "Dreams of the Ages" and "Sailing (Another World)". Masato Kato faced internal opposition in hiring Noriko Mitose:
Personally, for me, the biggest pressure was coming from the ending theme song. From the start of the project, I had already planned to make the ending into a Japanese song, but the problem was now "who was going to sing the song?" There was a lot of pressure from the people in the PR division to get someone big and famous to sing it, but I was totally against the idea. And as usual, I didn't heed to the surrounding complaints, but this time, there was a pretty tough struggle.
Production required six months of work. After wrapping, Mitsuda and Kato played Chrono Cross to record their impressions and observe how the tracks intermingled with scenes; the ending theme brought Kato to tears. Players who preordered the game received a sampler disc of five songs, and Square released a three-CD official soundtrack in Japan after the game's debut. The soundtrack won the Gold Prize for the PlayStation Awards of 2000. In 2005, Square Enix reissued the soundtrack due to popular demand. Earlier that year, Mitsuda announced a new arranged Chrono Cross album, scheduled for release in July 2005. Mitsuda's contract with Square gave him ownership and full rights to the soundtrack of Chrono Cross. It was delayed, and at a Play! A Video Game Symphony concert in May 2006, he revealed it would feature acoustic music and would be "out within the year", later backtracking and alleging a 2007 release date. Mitsuda posted a streaming sample of a finished track on his personal website in January 2009, and has stated the album will be released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Japanese debut of Cross. Music from Chrono Cross has been featured in the September 2009 Symphonic Fantasies concerts, part of the Symphonic Game Music Concert series conducted by Arnie Roth. That same year, the Chrono Cross theme "Scars of Time" was voted first place in Hardcore Gaming 101's "Best Video Game Music of All Time" poll. "Scars of Time" was also featured in 2012 by NPR in a program about classically arranged video game scores.
Chrono Cross shipped 850,000 units in Japan and 650,000 abroad by 2003. It was re-released once in the United States as a Sony Greatest Hits title and again as part of the Japanese Ultimate Hits series. Chrono Cross was also released on the PlayStation Network in Japan on July 6, 2011, and in North America on November 8, 2011, but a PAL region release has not been announced. Critics praised the game's complex plot, innovative battle system, varied characters, moving score, vibrant graphics, and success in breaking convention with its predecessor. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Chrono Cross a Gold Award, scoring it 10/10/9.5 in their three reviewer format with the first review declaring the game to be "a masterpiece, plain and simple". GameSpot awarded the game a perfect 10, one of only sixteen games in the 40,000 games listed on Gamespot to have been given the score, and its Console Game of the Year Award for 2000. It also received the annual Best Role-Playing Game, Best Game Music and Best PlayStation Game awards, and nominations for Best Game Story and Best Graphics, Artistic. IGN gave the game a score of 9.7, and Cross appeared 89th in its 2008 Top 100 games list. Famitsu rated the game 36 out of 40 from four reviewers.
Fan reaction was largely positive, though certain fans complained that the game was a far departure from its predecessor, Chrono Trigger; Chrono Cross broke convention by featuring more characters, fewer double and triple techs, fewer instances of time travel, and few appearances of Trigger characters and locations. Producer Hiromichi Tanaka and director Masato Kato were aware of the changes in development, specifically intending to provide an experience different from Chrono Trigger. Kato anticipated and rebuffed this discontent before the game's release, wondering what the Chrono title meant to these fans and whether his messages ever "really got through to them". He continued, "Cross is undoubtedly the highest quality Chrono that we can create right now. (I won't say the 'best' Chrono, but) If you can't accept that, then I'm sorry to say this but I guess your Chrono and my Chrono have taken totally different paths. But I would like to say, thank you for falling in love with Trigger so much." Tanaka added, "Of course, the fans of the original are very important, but what innovation can come about when you're bound to the past? I believe that gameplay should evolve with the hardware." Kato later acknowledged that he could have "shown more empathy to the player" by making the story less complex, and acknowledged fans who felt the game was a departure from Chrono Trigger, noting that one can still "equally enjoy the game." He later reflected in 2015 that "the bashing was terrible" in reference to fans' push-back on featuring so many playable characters, acknowledging the complaint that recruiting all characters required several playthroughs.
During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Chrono Cross for the "Game of the Year", "Console Game of the Year", and "Console Role-Playing" awards.
On December 9, 2021, a cross-over event between Chrono Cross and the free-to-play RPG Another Eden was released. A collaborative effort between Chrono writer Kato and composer Mitsuda, the game features elements similar to the Chrono series, such as talking frog protagonists and time-travel elements. Titled Complex Dream, the event introduces several Chrono Cross characters, including Serge, Kid, and Harle, as well as gameplay elements from the series such as element magic and combo techs.
Publications began discussion of a possible remastered version of Chrono Cross in September 2021, when a security flaw allowed for a web developer to see an internal listing of current and upcoming video games in Nvidia's GeForce Now database, which included a never-announced Chrono Cross Remastered. Nvidia later confirmed that the list was real, but that the games listed were speculative, and may or may not end up getting a final release. A second Nvidia leak occurred the following November, which again listed Chrono Cross Remastered, this time with a December 2021 release date. Further comments on the game's existence also arose in November; Video Games Chronicle reported Nick Baker of the XboxEra podcast could confirm prior reports of its existence, and game website Gematsu separately confirmed the game's existence. On December 4, 2021, Square Enix announced a cross over event between Chrono Cross and mobile game Another Eden; the announcement spurred more discussion on a remaster, considering Square was reviving the game for the first time in 20 years, and writer Masato Kato worked on both games.
A remaster of the game, titled Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, was announced on February 9, 2022, during a Nintendo Direct presentation, being slated for release on April 7, 2022, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. The remaster of the title includes quality-of-life updates such as the ability to disable encounters, in addition to an enhanced OST. The remaster is also bundled with the text adventure game Radical Dreamers, previously only available to Japanese players through the Satellaview peripheral for the Super Famicom. Masato Kato, Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuteru Yuuki, and Hiromichi Tanaka were brought in to lightly polish the game's dialogue, music, character art, and mechanics, respectively. Tanaka revealed that the game's assets, stored on magnetic tape after development ceased in 1999, were lost in the intervening years, causing him to rely on a personal backup he had maintained for certain aspects of his polishing work. Producer Koichiro Sakamoto further explained that creating the remaster required teams to painstakingly upscale the game's original location art and remap each 3D field map, sometimes relying on AI to improve the resolution. The work demanded close scrutiny to ensure no original details were missed.
While Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition was received well by critics, it received a negative reaction from players in part due to how it performed as compared to its PlayStation 1 counterpart. Analysis showed that the remastered version had its frame rate dropping quite frequently, and was also unable to cross the threshold of 30 FPS. This issue has been noticed across all the platforms it was released on.
On February 22, 2023, Square-Enix released an update patch for the remaster on all systems it released for which has fixed various gameplay issues with the remaster, as well as updating several performance aspects of the game including increasing the game's framerate to 60fps.
In 2001, Hironobu Sakaguchi revealed the company's staff wanted to develop a new game and were discussing script ideas. Although Kato was interested in a new title, the project had not been greenlighted. Square then registered a trademark for Chrono Break worldwide, causing speculation concerning a new sequel. Nothing materialized, and the trademark was dropped in the United States on November 13, 2003, though it still stands in Japan and the European Union. Kato later returned to Square Enix as a freelancer to work on Children of Mana and Dawn of Mana. Mitsuda also expressed interest in scoring a new Chrono series game. In 2005, Kato and Mitsuda teamed up to do a game called Deep Labyrinth, and again in 2008 for Sands of Destruction, both for the Nintendo DS. The February 2008 issue of Game Informer ranked the Chrono series eighth among the "Top Ten Sequels in Demand", naming the games "steadfast legacies in the Square Enix catalogue" and asking "what's the damn holdup?!" In Electronic Gaming Monthly's June 2008 "Retro Issue", writer Jeremy Parish cited Chrono as the franchise video game fans would be most thrilled to see a sequel to. In the May 1, 2009, issue of Famitsu, Chrono Trigger placed 14th out of 50 in a vote of most-wanted sequels by the magazine's readers. At E3 2009, SE Senior Vice President Shinji Hashimoto remarked, "If people want a sequel, they should buy more!" | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Chrono Cross is a 1999 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is set in the same world as Chrono Trigger, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Chrono Cross was designed primarily by scenarist and director Masato Kato, who had help from other designers who also worked on Chrono Trigger, including art director Yasuyuki Honne and composer Yasunori Mitsuda. Nobuteru Yūki designed the characters of the game.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The story of Chrono Cross focuses on a teenage boy named Serge and a theme of parallel worlds. Faced with an alternate reality in which he died as a child, Serge endeavors to discover the truth of the two worlds' divergence. The flashy thief Kid and many other characters assist him in his travels around the tropical archipelago El Nido. Struggling to uncover his past and find the mysterious Frozen Flame, Serge is chiefly challenged by Lynx, a shadowy antagonist working to apprehend him.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Upon its release in Japan in 1999 and North America in 2000, Chrono Cross received critical acclaim, earning a perfect 10.0 score from GameSpot. The game shipped 1.5 million copies worldwide by 2003, leading to a Greatest Hits re-release and continued life in Japan as part of the Ultimate Hits series. Chrono Cross was later re-released for the PlayStation Network in Japan in July 2011, and in North America four months later. A remaster of the game, titled Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition was released on April 7, 2022, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Chrono Cross features standard role-playing video game gameplay with some differences. Players advance the game by controlling the protagonist Serge through the game's world, primarily by foot and boat. Navigation between areas is conducted via an overworld map, much like Chrono Trigger's, depicting the landscape from a scaled-down overhead view. Around the island world are villages, outdoor areas, and dungeons, through which the player moves in three dimensions. Locations such as cities and forests are represented by more realistically scaled field maps, in which players can converse with locals to procure items and services, solve puzzles and challenges, or encounter enemies. Like Chrono Trigger, the game features no random encounters; enemies are openly visible on field maps or lie in wait to ambush the party. Touching the monster switches perspectives to a battle screen, in which players can physically attack, use \"Elements\", defend, or run away from the enemy. Battles are turn-based, allowing the player unlimited time to select an action from the available menu. For both the playable characters and the computer-controlled enemies, each attack reduces their number of hit points (a numerically based life bar), which can be restored through some Elements. When a playable character loses all hit points, he or she faints. If all the player's characters fall in battle, the game ends and must be restored from a previously saved chapter—except for specific storyline-related battles that allow the player to lose. Chrono Cross's developers aimed to break new ground in the genre, and the game features several innovations. For example, players can run away from all conflicts, including boss fights and the final battle.",
"title": "Gameplay"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The Element system of Chrono Cross handles all magic, consumable items, and character-specific abilities. Elements unleash magic effects upon the enemy or party and must be equipped for use, much like the materia of 1997's Final Fantasy VII. Elements can be purchased from shops or found in treasure chests littered throughout areas. Once acquired, they are allocated to a grid whose size and shape are unique to each character. They are ranked according to eight tiers; certain high level Elements can only be assigned on equivalent tiers in a character's grid. As the game progresses, the grid expands, allowing more Elements to be equipped and higher tiers to be accessed. Elements are divided into six paired oppositional types, or \"colors,\" each with a natural effect. Red (fire/magma) opposes Blue (water/ice), Green (wind/flora) opposes Yellow (earth/lightning), and White (light/cosmos) opposes Black (darkness/gravity). Each character and enemy has an innate color, enhancing the power of using same-color Elements while also making them weak against elements of the opposite color. Chrono Cross also features a \"field effect\", which keeps track of Element color used in the upper corner of the battle screen. If the field is purely one color, characters are able to unleash a powerful summon element at the cost of one of the player's stars. The field will also enhance the power of Elements of the colors present, while weakening Elements of the opposite colors. Characters also innately learn some special techniques (\"Techs\") that are unique to each character but otherwise act like Elements. Like Chrono Trigger, characters can combine certain Techs to make more powerful Double or Triple Techs. Consumable Elements may be used to restore hit points or heal status ailments during or after battle.",
"title": "Gameplay"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Another innovative aspect of Chrono Cross is its stamina bar. At the beginning of a battle, each character has seven points of stamina. When a character attacks or uses an Element, stamina is decreased proportionally to the potency of the attack. Stamina slowly recovers when the character defends or when other characters perform actions in battle. Characters with stamina below one point must wait to take action. Use of an Element reduces the user's stamina bar by seven stamina points; this often means that the user's stamina gauge falls into the negative and the character must wait longer than usual to recover. With each battle, players can enhance statistics such as strength and defense. However, no system of experience points exists; after four or five upgrades, statistics remain static until players defeat a boss. This adds a star to a running count shown on the status screen, which allows for another few rounds of statistical increases. Players can equip characters with weapons, armor, helmets, and accessories for use in battle; for example, the \"Power Seal\" upgrades attack power. Items and equipment may be purchased or found on field maps, often in treasure chests. Unlike Elements, weapons and armor cannot merely be purchased with money; instead, the player must obtain base materials—such as copper, bronze, or bone—for a blacksmith to forge for a fee. The items can later be disassembled into their original components at no cost.",
"title": "Gameplay"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The existence of two major parallel dimensions, like time periods in Chrono Trigger, plays a significant role in the game. Players must go back and forth between the worlds to recruit party members, obtain items, and advance the plot. Much of the population of either world have counterparts in the other; some party members can even visit their other versions. The player must often search for items or places found exclusively in one world. Events in one dimension sometimes have an impact in the other—for instance, cooling scorched ground on an island in one world allows vegetation to grow in the other world. This system assists the presentation of certain themes, including the questioning of the importance of one's past decisions and humanity's role in destroying the environment. Rounding out the notable facets of Chrono Cross's gameplay are the New Game+ option and multiple endings. As in Chrono Trigger, players who have completed the game may choose to start the game over using data from the previous session. Character levels, learned techniques, equipment, and items gathered copy over, while acquired money and some story-related items are discarded. On a New Game+, players can access twelve endings. Scenes viewed depend on players' progress in the game before the final battle, which can be fought at any time in a New Game+ file.",
"title": "Gameplay"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Chrono Cross features a diverse cast of 45 party members. Each character is outfitted with an innate Element affinity and three unique special abilities that are learned over time. If taken to the world opposite their own, characters react to their counterparts (if available). Many characters tie in to crucial plot events. Since it is impossible to obtain all 45 characters in one playthrough, players must replay the game to witness everything. Through use of the New Game+ feature, players can ultimately obtain all characters on one save file.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Serge, the game's protagonist, is a 17-year-old boy who lives in the fishing village of Arni. One day, he slips into an alternate world in which he drowned ten years before. Determined to find the truth behind the incident, he follows a predestined course that leads him to save the world. He is assisted by Kid, a feisty, skilled thief who seeks the mythical Frozen Flame. Portrayed as willful and tomboyish due to her rough, thieving past, she helps Serge sneak into Viper Manor in order to obtain the Frozen Flame. Kid vows to find and defeat Lynx, an anthropomorphic panther who burned down her adopted mother's orphanage.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Lynx, a cruel agent of the supercomputer FATE, is bent on finding Serge and using his body as part of a greater plan involving the Frozen Flame. Lynx travels with Harle, a mysterious, playful girl dressed like a harlequin. Harle was sent by the Dragon God to shadow Lynx and one day steal the Frozen Flame from Chronopolis, a task she painfully fulfills despite being smitten with Serge.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "To accomplish this goal, Harle helps Lynx manipulate the Acacia Dragoons, the powerful militia governing the islands of El Nido. As the Dragoons maintain order, they contend with Fargo, a former Dragoon turned pirate captain who holds a grudge against their leader, General Viper. Though tussling with Serge initially, the Acacia Dragoons—whose ranks include the fierce warriors Karsh, Zoah, Marcy, and Glenn—later assist him when the militaristic nation of Porre invades the archipelago. The invasion brings Norris and Grobyc to the islands, a heartful commander of an elite force and a prototype cyborg soldier, respectively, as they too seek the Frozen Flame.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The game begins with Serge located in El Nido, a tropical archipelago inhabited by ancient natives, mainland colonists, and beings called Demi-humans. Serge slips into an alternate dimension in which he drowned on the beach ten years prior, and meets the thief, \"Kid\". As his adventure proceeds from here, Serge is able to recruit a multitude of allies to his cause. While assisting Kid in a heist at Viper Manor to steal the Frozen Flame, he learns that ten years before the present, the universe split into two dimensions—one in which Serge lived, and one in which he perished. Through Kid's Astral Amulet charm, Serge travels between the dimensions. At Fort Dragonia, with the use of a Dragonian artifact called the Dragon Tear, Lynx switches bodies with Serge. Unaware of the switch, Kid confides in Lynx, who stabs her as the real Serge helplessly watches. Lynx boasts of his victory and banishes Serge to a strange realm called the Temporal Vortex. He takes Kid under his wing, brainwashing her to believe the real Serge (in Lynx's body) is her enemy. Serge escapes with help from Harle, although his new body turns him into a stranger in his own world, with all the allies he had gained up to that point abandoning him due to his new appearance. Discovering that his new body prevents him from traveling across the dimensions, he sets out to regain his former body and learn more of the universal split that occurred ten years earlier, gaining a new band of allies along the way. He travels to a forbidden lagoon known as the Dead Sea—a wasteland frozen in time, dotted with futuristic ruins. At the center, he locates a man named Miguel and presumably Home world's Frozen Flame. Charged with guarding the Dead Sea by an entity named FATE, Miguel and three visions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca from Chrono Trigger explain that Serge's existence dooms Home world's future to destruction at the hands of Lavos. To prevent Serge from obtaining the Frozen Flame, FATE destroys the Dead Sea.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Able to return to Another world, Serge allies with the Acacia Dragoons against Porre and locates that dimension's Dragon Tear, allowing him to return to his human form. He then enters the Sea of Eden, Another world's physical equivalent of the Dead Sea, finding a temporal research facility from the distant future called Chronopolis. Lynx and Kid are inside; Serge defeats Lynx and the supercomputer FATE, allowing the six Dragons of El Nido to steal the Frozen Flame and retire to Terra Tower, a massive structure raised from the sea floor. Kid falls into a coma, and Harle bids the party goodbye to fly with the Dragons. Serge regroups his party and tends to Kid, who remains comatose. Continuing his adventure, he obtains and cleanses the corrupted Masamune sword from Chrono Trigger. He then uses the Dragon relics and shards of the Dragon Tears to create the mythic Element Chrono Cross. The spiritual power of the Masamune later allows him to lift Kid from her coma. At Terra Tower, the prophet of time, revealed to be Belthasar from Chrono Trigger, visits him with visions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca. Serge learns that the time research facility Chronopolis created El Nido thousands of years ago after a catastrophic experimental failure drew it to the past. The introduction of a temporally foreign object in history caused the planet to pull in a counterbalance from a different dimension. This was Dinopolis, a city of Dragonians—parallel universe descendants of Chrono Trigger's Reptites. The institutions warred and Chronopolis subjugated the Dragonians. Humans captured their chief creation—the Dragon God, an entity capable of controlling nature.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Chronopolis divided this entity into six pieces and created an Elements system. FATE then terraformed an archipelago, erased the memories of most of Chronopolis's staff, and sent them to inhabit and populate its new paradise. Thousands of years later, a panther demon attacked a three-year-old Serge. His father took him to find assistance at Marbule, but Serge's boat blew off course due to a raging magnetic storm caused by Schala. Schala, the princess of the Kingdom of Zeal, had long ago accidentally fallen to a place known as the Darkness Beyond Time and began merging with Lavos, the chief antagonist of Chrono Trigger. Schala's storm nullified Chronopolis's defenses and allowed Serge to contact the Frozen Flame; approaching it healed Serge but corrupted his father, turning him into Lynx. A circuit in Chronopolis then designated Serge \"Arbiter\", simultaneously preventing FATE from using the Frozen Flame by extension. The Dragons were aware of this situation, creating a seventh Dragon under the storm's cover named Harle, who manipulated Lynx to steal the Frozen Flame for the Dragons.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "After Serge returned home, FATE sent Lynx to kill Serge, hoping that it would release the Arbiter lock. Ten years after Serge drowned, the thief Kid—presumably on Belthasar's orders—went back in time to save Serge and split the dimensions. FATE, locked out of the Frozen Flame again, knew that Serge would one day cross to Another world and prepared to apprehend him. Lynx switched bodies with Serge to dupe the biological check of Chronopolis on the Frozen Flame. Belthasar then reveals that these events were part of a plan he had orchestrated named Project Kid. Serge continues to the top of Terra Tower and defeats the Dragon God. Continuing to the beach where the split in dimensions had occurred, Serge finds apparitions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca once more. They reveal that Belthasar's plan was to empower Serge to free Schala from melding with Lavos, lest they evolve into the \"Time Devourer\", a creature capable of destroying spacetime. Lucca explains that Kid is Schala's clone, sent to the modern age to take part in Project Kid. Serge uses a Time Egg—given to him by Belthasar—to enter the Darkness Beyond Time and vanquish the Time Devourer, separating Schala from Lavos and restoring the dimensions to one. Thankful, Schala muses on evolution and the struggle of life and returns Serge to his home, noting that he will forget the entire adventure. She then seemingly records the experience in her diary, noting she will always be searching for Serge in this life and beyond, signing the entry as Schala \"Kid\" Zeal, implying that she and Kid have merged and became whole again. A wedding photo of Kid and an obscured male sits on the diary's desk. Scenes then depict a real-life Kid searching for someone in a modern city, intending to make players entertain the possibility that their own Kid is searching for them. The ambiguous ending leaves the events of the characters' lives following the game up to interpretation.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Chrono Cross employs story arcs, characters, and themes from Radical Dreamers, a Satellaview side story to Chrono Trigger released in Japan. Radical Dreamers is an illustrated text adventure which was created to wrap up an unresolved plot line of Chrono Trigger. Though it borrows from Radical Dreamers in its exposition, Chrono Cross is not a remake of Radical Dreamers, but a larger effort to fulfill that game's purpose; the plots of the games are irreconcilable. To resolve continuity issues and acknowledge Radical Dreamers, the developers of Chrono Cross suggested the game happened in a parallel dimension. A notable difference between the two games is that Magus—present in Radical Dreamers as Gil—is absent from Chrono Cross. Director Masato Kato originally planned for Magus to appear in disguise as Guile, but scrapped the idea due to plot difficulties. Kato specifically felt that the game's large number of characters, as well as the difficult production schedule, did not allow him to develop the relationship between Magus and Kid. In the DS version of Chrono Trigger, Kato teases the possibility of an amnesiac Magus.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Square began planning Chrono Cross immediately after the release of Xenogears in 1998 (which itself was originally conceived as a sequel to the SNES game). Chrono Trigger's scenario director Masato Kato had brainstormed ideas for a sequel as early as 1996, following the release of Radical Dreamers. Square's managers selected a team, appointed Hiromichi Tanaka producer, and asked Kato to direct and develop a new Chrono game in the spirit of Radical Dreamers. Kato thought Dreamers was released in a \"half-finished state\", and wanted to continue the story of the character Kid. Kato and Tanaka decided to produce an indirect sequel. They acknowledged that Square would soon re-release Chrono Trigger as part of Final Fantasy Chronicles, which would give players a chance to catch up on the story of Trigger before playing Cross. Kato thought that using a different setting and cast for Chrono Cross would allow players unfamiliar with Chrono Trigger to play Cross without becoming confused. The Chrono Cross team decided against integrating heavy use of time travel into the game, as they thought it would be \"rehashing and cranking up the volume of the last game\". Masato Kato cited the belief, \"there's no use in making something similar to before [sic]\", and noted, \"we're not so weak nor cheap as to try to make something exactly the same as Trigger ... Accordingly, Chrono Cross is not Chrono Trigger 2. It doesn't simply follow on from Trigger, but is another, different Chrono that interlaces with Trigger.\" Kato and Tanaka further explained their intentions after the game's release:",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "We didn't want to directly extend Chrono Trigger into a sequel, but create a new Chrono with links to the original. Yes, the platform changed; and yes, there were many parts that changed dramatically from the previous work. But in my view, the whole point in making Chrono Cross was to make a new Chrono with the best available skills and technologies of today. I never had any intentions of just taking the system from Trigger and moving it onto the PlayStation console. That's why I believe that Cross is Cross, and NOT Trigger 2.",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "When creating a series, one method is to carry over a basic system, improving upon it as the series progresses, but our stance has been to create a completely new and different world from the ground up, and to restructure the former style. Therefore, Chrono Cross is not a sequel to Chrono Trigger. Had it been, it would have been called Chrono Trigger 2. Our main objective for Chrono Cross was to share a little bit of the Chrono Trigger worldview, while creating a completely different game as a means of providing new entertainment to the player. This is mainly due to the transition in platform generation from the SNES to the PS. The method I mentioned above, about improving upon a basic system, has inefficiencies, in that it's impossible to maximize the console's performance as the console continues to make improvements in leaps and bounds. Although essentially an RPG, at its core, it is a computer game, and I believe that games should be expressed with a close connection to the console's performance. Therefore, in regards to game development, our goal has always been to \"express the game utilizing the maximum performance of the console at that time.\" I strongly believe that anything created in this way will continue to be innovative.",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Full production began on Chrono Cross in mid-1998. The Chrono Cross team reached 80 members at its peak, with additional personnel of 10–20 cut-scene artists and 100 quality assurance testers. The team felt pressure to live up to the work of Chrono Trigger's \"Dream Team\" development group, which included famous Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama. Kato and Tanaka hired Nobuteru Yūki for character design and Yasuyuki Honne for art direction and concept art. The event team originally envisioned a short game, and planned a system by which players would befriend any person in a town for alliance in battle. Developers brainstormed traits and archetypes during the character-creation process, originally planning 64 characters with unique endings that could vary in three different ways per character. Kato described the character creation process: \"Take Pierre, for example: we started off by saying we wanted a wacko fake hero like Tata from Trigger. We also said things like 'we need at least one powerful mom', 'no way we're gonna go without a twisted brat', and so on so forth.\"",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "As production continued, the length of Cross increased, leading the event team to reduce the number of characters to 45 and scrap most of the alternate endings. Developers humorously named the character Pip \"Tsumaru\" in Japanese (which means \"packed\") as a pun on their attempts to pack as much content into the game as possible. To avoid the burden of writing unique, accented dialogue for several characters, team member Kiyoshi Yoshii coded a system that produces accents by modifying basic text for certain characters. Art director Nobuteru Yuuki initially wanted the characters to appear in a more chibi format with diminutive proportions. The game world's fusion of high technology and ethnic, tribal atmospheres proved challenging at first. He later recalled striving to harmonize the time period's level of technology, especially as reflected in characters' garb. The demands of the art style led to Square merging the Final Fantasy VIII team into that of Chrono Cross two months before the Japanese release.",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Chrono Cross team devised an original battle system using a stamina bar and Elements. Kato planned the system around allowing players to avoid repetitive gameplay (also known as \"grinding\") to gain combat experience. Elements were developed while planning the final battle (during which a sequence of specific Elements must be triggered), and then applied in reverse to the rest of the game. Hiromichi Tanaka likened the Elements system to card games, hoping players would feel a sense of complete control in battle. The team programmed each battle motion manually instead of performing motion capture. Developers strove to include tongue-in-cheek humor in the battle system's techniques and animations to distance the game from the Final Fantasy franchise. Masato Kato planned for the game's setting to feature a small archipelago, for fear that players would become confused traveling in large areas with respect to parallel worlds. He hoped El Nido would still impart a sense of grand scale, and the development team pushed hardware limitations in creating the game's world. To create field maps, the team modeled locations in 3D, then chose the best angle for 2D rendering. The programmers of Chrono Cross did not use any existing Square programs or routines to code the game, instead writing new, proprietary systems. Other innovations included variable-frame rate code for fast-forward and slow-motion gameplay (awarded as a bonus for completing the game) and a \"CD-read swap\" system to allow quick data retrieval.",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Masato Kato directed and wrote the main story, leaving sub-plots and minor character events to other staff. The event team sometimes struggled to mesh their work on the plot due to the complexity of the parallel worlds concept. Masato Kato confirmed that Cross featured a central theme of parallel worlds, as well as the fate of Schala, which he was previously unable to expound upon in Chrono Trigger. Concerning the ending sequences showing Kid searching for someone in a modern city, he hoped to make players realize that alternate futures and possibilities may exist in their own lives, and that this realization would \"not ... stop with the game\". He later added, \"Paraphrasing one novelist's favorite words, what's important is not the message or theme, but how it is portrayed as a game. Even in Cross, it was intentionally made so that the most important question was left unanswered.\" Kato described the finished story as \"ole' boy-meets-girl type of story\" with sometimes-shocking twists. Kato rode his motorcycle to relieve the stress of the game's release schedule. He continued refining event data during the final stages of development while the rest of the team undertook debugging and quality control work. Square advertised the game by releasing a short demo of the first chapter with purchases of Legend of Mana. The North American version of Cross required three months of translation and two months of debugging before release. Richard Honeywood translated, working with Kato to rewrite certain dialogue for ease of comprehension in English. He also added instances of wordplay and alliteration to compensate for difficult Japanese jokes. To streamline translation for all 45 playable characters, Honeywood created his own version of the accent generator which needed to be more robust than the simple verbal tics of the Japanese cast. Although the trademark Chrono Cross was registered in the European Union, the game was not released in Europe.",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "After the game was done, the team was merged with those behind Parasite Eve II, Brave Fencer Musashi and Mana to make Final Fantasy XI. The programming for the game endured as the basis for the engine of Final Fantasy XI.",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Chrono Cross was scored by freelance video game music composer Yasunori Mitsuda, who previously worked on Chrono Trigger. Director Masato Kato personally commissioned Mitsuda's involvement, citing a need for the \"Chrono sound\". Kato envisioned a \"Southeast Asian feel, mixed with the foreign tastes and the tones of countries such as Greece\"; Mitsuda centered his work around old world cultural influences, including Mediterranean, Fado, Celtic, and percussive African music. Mitsuda cited visual inspiration for songs: \"All of my subjects are taken from scenery. I love artwork.\" To complement the theme of parallel worlds, he gave Another and Home respectively dark and bright moods, and hoped players would feel the emotions of \"'burning soul,' 'lonely world,' and 'unforgettable memories'\". Mitsuda and Kato planned music samples and sound effects with the philosophy of \"a few sounds with a lot of content\".",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Xenogears contributor Tomohiko Kira played guitar on the beginning and ending themes. Noriko Mitose, as selected by Masato Kato, sang the ending song—\"Radical Dreamers – The Unstolen Jewel\". Ryo Yamazaki, a synthesizer programmer for Square Enix, helped Mitsuda transfer his ideas to the PlayStation's sound capabilities; Mitsuda was happy to accomplish even half of what he envisioned. Certain songs were ported from the score of Radical Dreamers, such as \"Gale\", \"Frozen Flame\", and \"Viper Mansion\". Other entries in the soundtrack contain leitmotifs from Chrono Trigger and Radical Dreamers. The melody of \"Far Promise ~ Dream Shore\" features prominently in \"Dreams of the Ages\" and \"Sailing (Another World)\". Masato Kato faced internal opposition in hiring Noriko Mitose:",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Personally, for me, the biggest pressure was coming from the ending theme song. From the start of the project, I had already planned to make the ending into a Japanese song, but the problem was now \"who was going to sing the song?\" There was a lot of pressure from the people in the PR division to get someone big and famous to sing it, but I was totally against the idea. And as usual, I didn't heed to the surrounding complaints, but this time, there was a pretty tough struggle.",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Production required six months of work. After wrapping, Mitsuda and Kato played Chrono Cross to record their impressions and observe how the tracks intermingled with scenes; the ending theme brought Kato to tears. Players who preordered the game received a sampler disc of five songs, and Square released a three-CD official soundtrack in Japan after the game's debut. The soundtrack won the Gold Prize for the PlayStation Awards of 2000. In 2005, Square Enix reissued the soundtrack due to popular demand. Earlier that year, Mitsuda announced a new arranged Chrono Cross album, scheduled for release in July 2005. Mitsuda's contract with Square gave him ownership and full rights to the soundtrack of Chrono Cross. It was delayed, and at a Play! A Video Game Symphony concert in May 2006, he revealed it would feature acoustic music and would be \"out within the year\", later backtracking and alleging a 2007 release date. Mitsuda posted a streaming sample of a finished track on his personal website in January 2009, and has stated the album will be released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Japanese debut of Cross. Music from Chrono Cross has been featured in the September 2009 Symphonic Fantasies concerts, part of the Symphonic Game Music Concert series conducted by Arnie Roth. That same year, the Chrono Cross theme \"Scars of Time\" was voted first place in Hardcore Gaming 101's \"Best Video Game Music of All Time\" poll. \"Scars of Time\" was also featured in 2012 by NPR in a program about classically arranged video game scores.",
"title": "Development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Chrono Cross shipped 850,000 units in Japan and 650,000 abroad by 2003. It was re-released once in the United States as a Sony Greatest Hits title and again as part of the Japanese Ultimate Hits series. Chrono Cross was also released on the PlayStation Network in Japan on July 6, 2011, and in North America on November 8, 2011, but a PAL region release has not been announced. Critics praised the game's complex plot, innovative battle system, varied characters, moving score, vibrant graphics, and success in breaking convention with its predecessor. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Chrono Cross a Gold Award, scoring it 10/10/9.5 in their three reviewer format with the first review declaring the game to be \"a masterpiece, plain and simple\". GameSpot awarded the game a perfect 10, one of only sixteen games in the 40,000 games listed on Gamespot to have been given the score, and its Console Game of the Year Award for 2000. It also received the annual Best Role-Playing Game, Best Game Music and Best PlayStation Game awards, and nominations for Best Game Story and Best Graphics, Artistic. IGN gave the game a score of 9.7, and Cross appeared 89th in its 2008 Top 100 games list. Famitsu rated the game 36 out of 40 from four reviewers.",
"title": "Release and reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Fan reaction was largely positive, though certain fans complained that the game was a far departure from its predecessor, Chrono Trigger; Chrono Cross broke convention by featuring more characters, fewer double and triple techs, fewer instances of time travel, and few appearances of Trigger characters and locations. Producer Hiromichi Tanaka and director Masato Kato were aware of the changes in development, specifically intending to provide an experience different from Chrono Trigger. Kato anticipated and rebuffed this discontent before the game's release, wondering what the Chrono title meant to these fans and whether his messages ever \"really got through to them\". He continued, \"Cross is undoubtedly the highest quality Chrono that we can create right now. (I won't say the 'best' Chrono, but) If you can't accept that, then I'm sorry to say this but I guess your Chrono and my Chrono have taken totally different paths. But I would like to say, thank you for falling in love with Trigger so much.\" Tanaka added, \"Of course, the fans of the original are very important, but what innovation can come about when you're bound to the past? I believe that gameplay should evolve with the hardware.\" Kato later acknowledged that he could have \"shown more empathy to the player\" by making the story less complex, and acknowledged fans who felt the game was a departure from Chrono Trigger, noting that one can still \"equally enjoy the game.\" He later reflected in 2015 that \"the bashing was terrible\" in reference to fans' push-back on featuring so many playable characters, acknowledging the complaint that recruiting all characters required several playthroughs.",
"title": "Release and reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Chrono Cross for the \"Game of the Year\", \"Console Game of the Year\", and \"Console Role-Playing\" awards.",
"title": "Release and reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "On December 9, 2021, a cross-over event between Chrono Cross and the free-to-play RPG Another Eden was released. A collaborative effort between Chrono writer Kato and composer Mitsuda, the game features elements similar to the Chrono series, such as talking frog protagonists and time-travel elements. Titled Complex Dream, the event introduces several Chrono Cross characters, including Serge, Kid, and Harle, as well as gameplay elements from the series such as element magic and combo techs.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Publications began discussion of a possible remastered version of Chrono Cross in September 2021, when a security flaw allowed for a web developer to see an internal listing of current and upcoming video games in Nvidia's GeForce Now database, which included a never-announced Chrono Cross Remastered. Nvidia later confirmed that the list was real, but that the games listed were speculative, and may or may not end up getting a final release. A second Nvidia leak occurred the following November, which again listed Chrono Cross Remastered, this time with a December 2021 release date. Further comments on the game's existence also arose in November; Video Games Chronicle reported Nick Baker of the XboxEra podcast could confirm prior reports of its existence, and game website Gematsu separately confirmed the game's existence. On December 4, 2021, Square Enix announced a cross over event between Chrono Cross and mobile game Another Eden; the announcement spurred more discussion on a remaster, considering Square was reviving the game for the first time in 20 years, and writer Masato Kato worked on both games.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "A remaster of the game, titled Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, was announced on February 9, 2022, during a Nintendo Direct presentation, being slated for release on April 7, 2022, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. The remaster of the title includes quality-of-life updates such as the ability to disable encounters, in addition to an enhanced OST. The remaster is also bundled with the text adventure game Radical Dreamers, previously only available to Japanese players through the Satellaview peripheral for the Super Famicom. Masato Kato, Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuteru Yuuki, and Hiromichi Tanaka were brought in to lightly polish the game's dialogue, music, character art, and mechanics, respectively. Tanaka revealed that the game's assets, stored on magnetic tape after development ceased in 1999, were lost in the intervening years, causing him to rely on a personal backup he had maintained for certain aspects of his polishing work. Producer Koichiro Sakamoto further explained that creating the remaster required teams to painstakingly upscale the game's original location art and remap each 3D field map, sometimes relying on AI to improve the resolution. The work demanded close scrutiny to ensure no original details were missed.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "While Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition was received well by critics, it received a negative reaction from players in part due to how it performed as compared to its PlayStation 1 counterpart. Analysis showed that the remastered version had its frame rate dropping quite frequently, and was also unable to cross the threshold of 30 FPS. This issue has been noticed across all the platforms it was released on.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "On February 22, 2023, Square-Enix released an update patch for the remaster on all systems it released for which has fixed various gameplay issues with the remaster, as well as updating several performance aspects of the game including increasing the game's framerate to 60fps.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In 2001, Hironobu Sakaguchi revealed the company's staff wanted to develop a new game and were discussing script ideas. Although Kato was interested in a new title, the project had not been greenlighted. Square then registered a trademark for Chrono Break worldwide, causing speculation concerning a new sequel. Nothing materialized, and the trademark was dropped in the United States on November 13, 2003, though it still stands in Japan and the European Union. Kato later returned to Square Enix as a freelancer to work on Children of Mana and Dawn of Mana. Mitsuda also expressed interest in scoring a new Chrono series game. In 2005, Kato and Mitsuda teamed up to do a game called Deep Labyrinth, and again in 2008 for Sands of Destruction, both for the Nintendo DS. The February 2008 issue of Game Informer ranked the Chrono series eighth among the \"Top Ten Sequels in Demand\", naming the games \"steadfast legacies in the Square Enix catalogue\" and asking \"what's the damn holdup?!\" In Electronic Gaming Monthly's June 2008 \"Retro Issue\", writer Jeremy Parish cited Chrono as the franchise video game fans would be most thrilled to see a sequel to. In the May 1, 2009, issue of Famitsu, Chrono Trigger placed 14th out of 50 in a vote of most-wanted sequels by the magazine's readers. At E3 2009, SE Senior Vice President Shinji Hashimoto remarked, \"If people want a sequel, they should buy more!\"",
"title": "Legacy"
}
] | Chrono Cross is a 1999 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is set in the same world as Chrono Trigger, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Chrono Cross was designed primarily by scenarist and director Masato Kato, who had help from other designers who also worked on Chrono Trigger, including art director Yasuyuki Honne and composer Yasunori Mitsuda. Nobuteru Yūki designed the characters of the game. The story of Chrono Cross focuses on a teenage boy named Serge and a theme of parallel worlds. Faced with an alternate reality in which he died as a child, Serge endeavors to discover the truth of the two worlds' divergence. The flashy thief Kid and many other characters assist him in his travels around the tropical archipelago El Nido. Struggling to uncover his past and find the mysterious Frozen Flame, Serge is chiefly challenged by Lynx, a shadowy antagonist working to apprehend him. Upon its release in Japan in 1999 and North America in 2000, Chrono Cross received critical acclaim, earning a perfect 10.0 score from GameSpot. The game shipped 1.5 million copies worldwide by 2003, leading to a Greatest Hits re-release and continued life in Japan as part of the Ultimate Hits series. Chrono Cross was later re-released for the PlayStation Network in Japan in July 2011, and in North America four months later. A remaster of the game, titled Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition was released on April 7, 2022, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. | 2002-02-25T15:51:15Z | 2023-11-11T12:15:18Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Cross |
7,843 | Planned economy | A planned economy is a type of economic system where the distribution of goods and services or the investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economic plans that are either economy-wide or limited to a category of goods and services. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, participatory or Soviet-type forms of economic planning. The level of centralization or decentralization in decision-making and participation depends on the specific type of planning mechanism employed.
Socialist states based on the Soviet model have used central planning, although a minority such as the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have adopted some degree of market socialism. Market abolitionist socialism replaces factor markets with direct calculation as the means to coordinate the activities of the various socially owned economic enterprises that make up the economy. More recent approaches to socialist planning and allocation have come from some economists and computer scientists proposing planning mechanisms based on advances in computer science and information technology.
Planned economies contrast with unplanned economies, specifically market economies, where autonomous firms operating in markets make decisions about production, distribution, pricing and investment. Market economies that use indicative planning are variously referred to as planned market economies, mixed economies and mixed market economies. A command economy follows an administrative-command system and uses Soviet-type economic planning which was characteristic of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc before most of these countries converted to market economies. This highlights the central role of hierarchical administration and public ownership of production in guiding the allocation of resources in these economic systems.
In the Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic world, "compulsory state planning was the most characteristic trade condition for the Egyptian countryside, for Hellenistic India, and to a lesser degree the more barbaric regions of the Seleucid, the Pergamenian, the southern Arabian, and the Parthian empires". Scholars have argued that the Incan economy was a flexible type of command economy, centered around the movement and utilization of labor instead of goods. One view of mercantilism sees it as involving planned economies.
The Soviet-style planned economy in Soviet Russia evolved in the wake of a continuing existing World War I war-economy as well as other policies, known as war communism (1918–1921), shaped to the requirements of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1923. These policies began their formal consolidation under an official organ of government in 1921, when the Soviet government founded Gosplan. However, the period of the New Economic Policy (c. 1921 to c. 1928 intervened before the planned system of regular five-year plans started in 1928. Leon Trotsky was one of the earliest proponents of economic planning during the NEP period. Trotsky argued that specialization, the concentration of production and the use of planning could “raise in the near future the coefficient of industrial growth not only two, but even three times higher than the pre-war rate of 6% and, perhaps, even higher”.
After World War II (1939–1945) France and Great Britain practiced dirigisme - government direction of the economy through non-coercive means. The Swedish government planned public-housing models in a similar fashion as urban planning in a project called Million Programme, implemented from 1965 to 1974. Some decentralized participation in economic planning occurred across Revolutionary Spain, most notably in Catalonia, during the Spanish Revolution of 1936.
In the May 1949 issue of the Monthly Review titled "Why Socialism?", Albert Einstein wrote:
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate (the) grave evils (of capitalism), namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.
While socialism is not equivalent to economic planning or to the concept of a planned economy, an influential conception of socialism involves the replacement of capital markets with some form of economic planning in order to achieve ex-ante coordination of the economy. The goal of such an economic system would be to achieve conscious control over the economy by the population, specifically so that the use of the surplus product is controlled by the producers. The specific forms of planning proposed for socialism and their feasibility are subjects of the socialist calculation debate.
In 1959 Anatoly Kitov proposed a distributed computing system (Project "Red Book", Russian: Красная книга) with a focus on the management of the Soviet economy. Opposition from the Defence Ministry killed Kitov's plan.
In 1971 the socialist Allende administration of Chile launched Project Cybersyn to install a telex machine in every corporation and organization in the economy for the communication of economic data between firms and the government. The data was also fed into a computer-simulated economy for forecasting. A control room was built for real-time observation and management of the overall economy. The prototype-stage of the project showed promise when it was used to redirect supplies around a trucker's strike, but after CIA-backed Augusto Pinochet led a coup in 1973 that established a military dictatorship under his rule the program was abolished and Pinochet moved Chile towards a more liberalized market economy.
In their book Towards a New Socialism (1993), the computer scientist Paul Cockshott from the University of Glasgow and the economist Allin Cottrell from Wake Forest University claim to demonstrate how a democratically planned economy built on modern computer technology is possible and drives the thesis that it would be both economically more stable than the free-market economies and also morally desirable.
The use of computers to coordinate production in an optimal fashion has been variously proposed for socialist economies. The Polish economist Oskar Lange (1904–1965) argued that the computer is more efficient than the market process at solving the multitude of simultaneous equations required for allocating economic inputs efficiently (either in terms of physical quantities or monetary prices).
Salvador Allende's socialist government pioneered the 1970 Chilean distributed decision support system Project Cybersyn in an attempt to move towards a decentralized planned economy with the experimental viable system model of computed organisational structure of autonomous operative units through an algedonic feedback setting and bottom-up participative decision-making in the form of participative democracy by the Cyberfolk component.
The 1888 novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy depicts a fictional planned economy in a United States around the year 2000 which has become a socialist utopia.
The World State in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) and Airstrip One in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) provide fictional depictions of command economies, albeit with diametrically opposed aims. The former is a consumer economy designed to engender productivity while the latter is a shortage economy designed as an agent of totalitarian social control. Airstrip One is organized by the euphemistically named Ministry of Plenty.
Other literary portrayals of planned economies include Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (1924), which influenced Orwell's work. Like Nineteen Eighty-Four, Ayn Rand's dystopian 1938 story Anthem offered an artistic portrayal of a command economy that was influenced by We. The difference is that it was a primitivist planned economy as opposed to the advanced technology of We or Brave New World.
The government can harness land, labor, and capital to serve the economic objectives of the state. Consumer demand can be restrained in favor of greater capital investment for economic development in a desired pattern. In international comparisons, state-socialist nations have compared favorably with capitalist nations in health indicators such as infant mortality and life expectancy. However, the reality of this, at least regarding infant mortality, varies depending on whether official Soviet or WHO definitions are used.
The state can begin building massive heavy industries at once in an underdeveloped economy without waiting years for capital to accumulate through the expansion of light industry and without reliance on external financing. This is what happened in the Soviet Union during the 1930s when the government forced the share of gross national income dedicated to private consumption down from 80% to 50%. As a result of this development, the Soviet Union experienced massive growth in heavy industry, with a concurrent massive contraction of its agricultural sector due to the labor shortage.
Studies of command economies of the Eastern Bloc in the 1950s and 1960s by both American and Eastern European economists found that contrary to the expectations of both groups they showed greater fluctuations in output than market economies during the same period.
Critics of planned economies argue that planners cannot detect consumer preferences, shortages and surpluses with sufficient accuracy and therefore cannot efficiently co-ordinate production (in a market economy, a free price system is intended to serve this purpose). This difficulty was notably written about by economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, who referred to subtly distinct aspects of the problem as the economic calculation problem and local knowledge problem, respectively. These distinct aspects were also present in the economic thought of Michael Polanyi.
Whereas the former stressed the theoretical underpinnings of a market economy to subjective value theory while attacking the labor theory of value, the latter argued that the only way to satisfy individuals who have a constantly changing hierarchy of needs and are the only ones to possess their particular individual's circumstances is by allowing those with the most knowledge of their needs to have it in their power to use their resources in a competing marketplace to meet the needs of the most consumers most efficiently. This phenomenon is recognized as spontaneous order. Additionally, misallocation of resources would naturally ensue by redirecting capital away from individuals with direct knowledge and circumventing it into markets where a coercive monopoly influences behavior, ignoring market signals. According to Tibor Machan, "[w]ithout a market in which allocations can be made in obedience to the law of supply and demand, it is difficult or impossible to funnel resources with respect to actual human preferences and goals".
Historian Robert Vincent Daniels regarded the Stalinist period to represent an abrupt break with Lenin's government in terms of economic planning in which an deliberated, scientific system of planning that featured former Menshevik economists at Gosplan had been replaced with a hasty version of planning with unrealistic targets, bureaucratic waste, bottlenecks and shortages. Stalin's formulations of national plans in terms of physical quantity of output was also attributed by Daniels as a source for the stagnant levels of efficiency and quality.
Economist Robin Hahnel, who supports participatory economics, a form of socialist decentralized planned economy, notes that even if central planning overcame its inherent inhibitions of incentives and innovation, it would nevertheless be unable to maximize economic democracy and self-management, which he believes are concepts that are more intellectually coherent, consistent and just than mainstream notions of economic freedom. Furthermore, Hahnel states:
Combined with a more democratic political system, and redone to closer approximate a best case version, centrally planned economies no doubt would have performed better. But they could never have delivered economic self-management, they would always have been slow to innovate as apathy and frustration took their inevitable toll, and they would always have been susceptible to growing inequities and inefficiencies as the effects of differential economic power grew. Under central planning neither planners, managers, nor workers had incentives to promote the social economic interest. Nor did impeding markets for final goods to the planning system enfranchise consumers in meaningful ways. But central planning would have been incompatible with economic democracy even if it had overcome its information and incentive liabilities. And the truth is that it survived as long as it did only because it was propped up by unprecedented totalitarian political power.
Planned economies contrast with command economies in that a planned economy is "an economic system in which the government controls and regulates production, distribution, prices, etc." whereas a command economy necessarily has substantial public ownership of industry while also having this type of regulation. In command economies, important allocation decisions are made by government authorities and are imposed by law.
This is contested by some Marxists. Decentralized planning has been proposed as a basis for socialism and has been variously advocated by anarchists, council communists, libertarian Marxists and other democratic and libertarian socialists who advocate a non-market form of socialism, in total rejection of the type of planning adopted in the economy of the Soviet Union.
Most of a command economy is organized in a top-down administrative model by a central authority, where decisions regarding investment and production output requirements are decided upon at the top in the chain of command, with little input from lower levels. Advocates of economic planning have sometimes been staunch critics of these command economies. Leon Trotsky believed that those at the top of the chain of command, regardless of their intellectual capacity, operated without the input and participation of the millions of people who participate in the economy and who understand/respond to local conditions and changes in the economy. Therefore, they would be unable to effectively coordinate all economic activity.
Historians have associated planned economies with Marxist–Leninist states and the Soviet economic model. Since the 1980s, it has been contested that the Soviet economic model did not actually constitute a planned economy in that a comprehensive and binding plan did not guide production and investment. The further distinction of an administrative-command system emerged as a new designation in some academic circles for the economic system that existed in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, highlighting the role of centralized hierarchical decision-making in the absence of popular control over the economy. The possibility of a digital planned economy was explored in Chile between 1971 and 1973 with the development of Project Cybersyn and by Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kharkevich, head of the Department of Technical Physics in Kiev in 1962.
While both economic planning and a planned economy can be either authoritarian or democratic and participatory, democratic socialist critics argue that command economies are necessarily authoritarian or undemocratic in practice. Indicative planning is a form of economic planning in market economies that directs the economy through incentive-based methods. Economic planning can be practiced in a decentralized manner through different government authorities. In some predominantly market-oriented and Western mixed economies, the state utilizes economic planning in strategic industries such as the aerospace industry. Mixed economies usually employ macroeconomic planning while micro-economic affairs are left to the market and price system.
A decentralized-planned economy, occasionally called horizontally planned economy due to its horizontalism, is a type of planned economy in which the investment and allocation of consumer and capital goods is explicated accordingly to an economy-wide plan built and operatively coordinated through a distributed network of disparate economic agents or even production units itself. Decentralized planning is usually held in contrast to centralized planning, in particular the Soviet-type economic planning of the Soviet Union's command economy, where economic information is aggregated and used to formulate a plan for production, investment and resource allocation by a single central authority. Decentralized planning can take shape both in the context of a mixed economy as well as in a post-capitalist economic system. This form of economic planning implies some process of democratic and participatory decision-making within the economy and within firms itself in the form of industrial democracy. Computer-based forms of democratic economic planning and coordination between economic enterprises have also been proposed by various computer scientists and radical economists. Proponents present decentralized and participatory economic planning as an alternative to market socialism for a post-capitalist society.
Decentralized planning has been a feature of anarchist and socialist economics. Variations of decentralized planning such as economic democracy, industrial democracy and participatory economics have been promoted by various political groups, most notably anarchists, democratic socialists, guild socialists, libertarian Marxists, libertarian socialists, revolutionary syndicalists and Trotskyists. During the Spanish Revolution, some areas where anarchist and libertarian socialist influence through the CNT and UGT was extensive, particularly rural regions, were run on the basis of decentralized planning resembling the principles laid out by anarcho-syndicalist Diego Abad de Santillan in the book After the Revolution.
Economist Pat Devine has created a model of decentralized economic planning called "negotiated coordination" which is based upon social ownership of the means of production by those affected by the use of the assets involved, with the allocation of consumer and capital goods made through a participatory form of decision-making by those at the most localized level of production. Moreover, organizations that utilize modularity in their production processes may distribute problem solving and decision making.
The planning structure of a decentralized planned economy is generally based on a consumers council and producer council (or jointly, a distributive cooperative) which is sometimes called a consumers' cooperative. Producers and consumers, or their representatives, negotiate the quality and quantity of what is to be produced. This structure is central to guild socialism, participatory economics and the economic theories related to anarchism.
Some decentralized participation in economic planning has been implemented in various regions and states in India, most notably in Kerala. Local level planning agencies assess the needs of people who are able to give their direct input through the Gram Sabhas (village-based institutions) and the planners subsequently seek to plan accordingly.
Some decentralized participation in economic planning has been implemented across Revolutionary Spain, most notably in Catalonia, during the Spanish Revolution of 1936.
The United Nations has developed local projects that promote participatory planning on a community level. Members of communities take decisions regarding community development directly. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A planned economy is a type of economic system where the distribution of goods and services or the investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economic plans that are either economy-wide or limited to a category of goods and services. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, participatory or Soviet-type forms of economic planning. The level of centralization or decentralization in decision-making and participation depends on the specific type of planning mechanism employed.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Socialist states based on the Soviet model have used central planning, although a minority such as the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have adopted some degree of market socialism. Market abolitionist socialism replaces factor markets with direct calculation as the means to coordinate the activities of the various socially owned economic enterprises that make up the economy. More recent approaches to socialist planning and allocation have come from some economists and computer scientists proposing planning mechanisms based on advances in computer science and information technology.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Planned economies contrast with unplanned economies, specifically market economies, where autonomous firms operating in markets make decisions about production, distribution, pricing and investment. Market economies that use indicative planning are variously referred to as planned market economies, mixed economies and mixed market economies. A command economy follows an administrative-command system and uses Soviet-type economic planning which was characteristic of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc before most of these countries converted to market economies. This highlights the central role of hierarchical administration and public ownership of production in guiding the allocation of resources in these economic systems.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In the Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic world, \"compulsory state planning was the most characteristic trade condition for the Egyptian countryside, for Hellenistic India, and to a lesser degree the more barbaric regions of the Seleucid, the Pergamenian, the southern Arabian, and the Parthian empires\". Scholars have argued that the Incan economy was a flexible type of command economy, centered around the movement and utilization of labor instead of goods. One view of mercantilism sees it as involving planned economies.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The Soviet-style planned economy in Soviet Russia evolved in the wake of a continuing existing World War I war-economy as well as other policies, known as war communism (1918–1921), shaped to the requirements of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1923. These policies began their formal consolidation under an official organ of government in 1921, when the Soviet government founded Gosplan. However, the period of the New Economic Policy (c. 1921 to c. 1928 intervened before the planned system of regular five-year plans started in 1928. Leon Trotsky was one of the earliest proponents of economic planning during the NEP period. Trotsky argued that specialization, the concentration of production and the use of planning could “raise in the near future the coefficient of industrial growth not only two, but even three times higher than the pre-war rate of 6% and, perhaps, even higher”.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "After World War II (1939–1945) France and Great Britain practiced dirigisme - government direction of the economy through non-coercive means. The Swedish government planned public-housing models in a similar fashion as urban planning in a project called Million Programme, implemented from 1965 to 1974. Some decentralized participation in economic planning occurred across Revolutionary Spain, most notably in Catalonia, during the Spanish Revolution of 1936.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In the May 1949 issue of the Monthly Review titled \"Why Socialism?\", Albert Einstein wrote:",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate (the) grave evils (of capitalism), namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "While socialism is not equivalent to economic planning or to the concept of a planned economy, an influential conception of socialism involves the replacement of capital markets with some form of economic planning in order to achieve ex-ante coordination of the economy. The goal of such an economic system would be to achieve conscious control over the economy by the population, specifically so that the use of the surplus product is controlled by the producers. The specific forms of planning proposed for socialism and their feasibility are subjects of the socialist calculation debate.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 1959 Anatoly Kitov proposed a distributed computing system (Project \"Red Book\", Russian: Красная книга) with a focus on the management of the Soviet economy. Opposition from the Defence Ministry killed Kitov's plan.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 1971 the socialist Allende administration of Chile launched Project Cybersyn to install a telex machine in every corporation and organization in the economy for the communication of economic data between firms and the government. The data was also fed into a computer-simulated economy for forecasting. A control room was built for real-time observation and management of the overall economy. The prototype-stage of the project showed promise when it was used to redirect supplies around a trucker's strike, but after CIA-backed Augusto Pinochet led a coup in 1973 that established a military dictatorship under his rule the program was abolished and Pinochet moved Chile towards a more liberalized market economy.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In their book Towards a New Socialism (1993), the computer scientist Paul Cockshott from the University of Glasgow and the economist Allin Cottrell from Wake Forest University claim to demonstrate how a democratically planned economy built on modern computer technology is possible and drives the thesis that it would be both economically more stable than the free-market economies and also morally desirable.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The use of computers to coordinate production in an optimal fashion has been variously proposed for socialist economies. The Polish economist Oskar Lange (1904–1965) argued that the computer is more efficient than the market process at solving the multitude of simultaneous equations required for allocating economic inputs efficiently (either in terms of physical quantities or monetary prices).",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Salvador Allende's socialist government pioneered the 1970 Chilean distributed decision support system Project Cybersyn in an attempt to move towards a decentralized planned economy with the experimental viable system model of computed organisational structure of autonomous operative units through an algedonic feedback setting and bottom-up participative decision-making in the form of participative democracy by the Cyberfolk component.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The 1888 novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy depicts a fictional planned economy in a United States around the year 2000 which has become a socialist utopia.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The World State in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) and Airstrip One in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) provide fictional depictions of command economies, albeit with diametrically opposed aims. The former is a consumer economy designed to engender productivity while the latter is a shortage economy designed as an agent of totalitarian social control. Airstrip One is organized by the euphemistically named Ministry of Plenty.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Other literary portrayals of planned economies include Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (1924), which influenced Orwell's work. Like Nineteen Eighty-Four, Ayn Rand's dystopian 1938 story Anthem offered an artistic portrayal of a command economy that was influenced by We. The difference is that it was a primitivist planned economy as opposed to the advanced technology of We or Brave New World.",
"title": "Overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The government can harness land, labor, and capital to serve the economic objectives of the state. Consumer demand can be restrained in favor of greater capital investment for economic development in a desired pattern. In international comparisons, state-socialist nations have compared favorably with capitalist nations in health indicators such as infant mortality and life expectancy. However, the reality of this, at least regarding infant mortality, varies depending on whether official Soviet or WHO definitions are used.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The state can begin building massive heavy industries at once in an underdeveloped economy without waiting years for capital to accumulate through the expansion of light industry and without reliance on external financing. This is what happened in the Soviet Union during the 1930s when the government forced the share of gross national income dedicated to private consumption down from 80% to 50%. As a result of this development, the Soviet Union experienced massive growth in heavy industry, with a concurrent massive contraction of its agricultural sector due to the labor shortage.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Studies of command economies of the Eastern Bloc in the 1950s and 1960s by both American and Eastern European economists found that contrary to the expectations of both groups they showed greater fluctuations in output than market economies during the same period.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Critics of planned economies argue that planners cannot detect consumer preferences, shortages and surpluses with sufficient accuracy and therefore cannot efficiently co-ordinate production (in a market economy, a free price system is intended to serve this purpose). This difficulty was notably written about by economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, who referred to subtly distinct aspects of the problem as the economic calculation problem and local knowledge problem, respectively. These distinct aspects were also present in the economic thought of Michael Polanyi.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Whereas the former stressed the theoretical underpinnings of a market economy to subjective value theory while attacking the labor theory of value, the latter argued that the only way to satisfy individuals who have a constantly changing hierarchy of needs and are the only ones to possess their particular individual's circumstances is by allowing those with the most knowledge of their needs to have it in their power to use their resources in a competing marketplace to meet the needs of the most consumers most efficiently. This phenomenon is recognized as spontaneous order. Additionally, misallocation of resources would naturally ensue by redirecting capital away from individuals with direct knowledge and circumventing it into markets where a coercive monopoly influences behavior, ignoring market signals. According to Tibor Machan, \"[w]ithout a market in which allocations can be made in obedience to the law of supply and demand, it is difficult or impossible to funnel resources with respect to actual human preferences and goals\".",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Historian Robert Vincent Daniels regarded the Stalinist period to represent an abrupt break with Lenin's government in terms of economic planning in which an deliberated, scientific system of planning that featured former Menshevik economists at Gosplan had been replaced with a hasty version of planning with unrealistic targets, bureaucratic waste, bottlenecks and shortages. Stalin's formulations of national plans in terms of physical quantity of output was also attributed by Daniels as a source for the stagnant levels of efficiency and quality.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Economist Robin Hahnel, who supports participatory economics, a form of socialist decentralized planned economy, notes that even if central planning overcame its inherent inhibitions of incentives and innovation, it would nevertheless be unable to maximize economic democracy and self-management, which he believes are concepts that are more intellectually coherent, consistent and just than mainstream notions of economic freedom. Furthermore, Hahnel states:",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Combined with a more democratic political system, and redone to closer approximate a best case version, centrally planned economies no doubt would have performed better. But they could never have delivered economic self-management, they would always have been slow to innovate as apathy and frustration took their inevitable toll, and they would always have been susceptible to growing inequities and inefficiencies as the effects of differential economic power grew. Under central planning neither planners, managers, nor workers had incentives to promote the social economic interest. Nor did impeding markets for final goods to the planning system enfranchise consumers in meaningful ways. But central planning would have been incompatible with economic democracy even if it had overcome its information and incentive liabilities. And the truth is that it survived as long as it did only because it was propped up by unprecedented totalitarian political power.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Planned economies contrast with command economies in that a planned economy is \"an economic system in which the government controls and regulates production, distribution, prices, etc.\" whereas a command economy necessarily has substantial public ownership of industry while also having this type of regulation. In command economies, important allocation decisions are made by government authorities and are imposed by law.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "This is contested by some Marxists. Decentralized planning has been proposed as a basis for socialism and has been variously advocated by anarchists, council communists, libertarian Marxists and other democratic and libertarian socialists who advocate a non-market form of socialism, in total rejection of the type of planning adopted in the economy of the Soviet Union.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Most of a command economy is organized in a top-down administrative model by a central authority, where decisions regarding investment and production output requirements are decided upon at the top in the chain of command, with little input from lower levels. Advocates of economic planning have sometimes been staunch critics of these command economies. Leon Trotsky believed that those at the top of the chain of command, regardless of their intellectual capacity, operated without the input and participation of the millions of people who participate in the economy and who understand/respond to local conditions and changes in the economy. Therefore, they would be unable to effectively coordinate all economic activity.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Historians have associated planned economies with Marxist–Leninist states and the Soviet economic model. Since the 1980s, it has been contested that the Soviet economic model did not actually constitute a planned economy in that a comprehensive and binding plan did not guide production and investment. The further distinction of an administrative-command system emerged as a new designation in some academic circles for the economic system that existed in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, highlighting the role of centralized hierarchical decision-making in the absence of popular control over the economy. The possibility of a digital planned economy was explored in Chile between 1971 and 1973 with the development of Project Cybersyn and by Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kharkevich, head of the Department of Technical Physics in Kiev in 1962.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "While both economic planning and a planned economy can be either authoritarian or democratic and participatory, democratic socialist critics argue that command economies are necessarily authoritarian or undemocratic in practice. Indicative planning is a form of economic planning in market economies that directs the economy through incentive-based methods. Economic planning can be practiced in a decentralized manner through different government authorities. In some predominantly market-oriented and Western mixed economies, the state utilizes economic planning in strategic industries such as the aerospace industry. Mixed economies usually employ macroeconomic planning while micro-economic affairs are left to the market and price system.",
"title": "Central planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "A decentralized-planned economy, occasionally called horizontally planned economy due to its horizontalism, is a type of planned economy in which the investment and allocation of consumer and capital goods is explicated accordingly to an economy-wide plan built and operatively coordinated through a distributed network of disparate economic agents or even production units itself. Decentralized planning is usually held in contrast to centralized planning, in particular the Soviet-type economic planning of the Soviet Union's command economy, where economic information is aggregated and used to formulate a plan for production, investment and resource allocation by a single central authority. Decentralized planning can take shape both in the context of a mixed economy as well as in a post-capitalist economic system. This form of economic planning implies some process of democratic and participatory decision-making within the economy and within firms itself in the form of industrial democracy. Computer-based forms of democratic economic planning and coordination between economic enterprises have also been proposed by various computer scientists and radical economists. Proponents present decentralized and participatory economic planning as an alternative to market socialism for a post-capitalist society.",
"title": "Decentralized planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Decentralized planning has been a feature of anarchist and socialist economics. Variations of decentralized planning such as economic democracy, industrial democracy and participatory economics have been promoted by various political groups, most notably anarchists, democratic socialists, guild socialists, libertarian Marxists, libertarian socialists, revolutionary syndicalists and Trotskyists. During the Spanish Revolution, some areas where anarchist and libertarian socialist influence through the CNT and UGT was extensive, particularly rural regions, were run on the basis of decentralized planning resembling the principles laid out by anarcho-syndicalist Diego Abad de Santillan in the book After the Revolution.",
"title": "Decentralized planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Economist Pat Devine has created a model of decentralized economic planning called \"negotiated coordination\" which is based upon social ownership of the means of production by those affected by the use of the assets involved, with the allocation of consumer and capital goods made through a participatory form of decision-making by those at the most localized level of production. Moreover, organizations that utilize modularity in their production processes may distribute problem solving and decision making.",
"title": "Decentralized planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The planning structure of a decentralized planned economy is generally based on a consumers council and producer council (or jointly, a distributive cooperative) which is sometimes called a consumers' cooperative. Producers and consumers, or their representatives, negotiate the quality and quantity of what is to be produced. This structure is central to guild socialism, participatory economics and the economic theories related to anarchism.",
"title": "Decentralized planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Some decentralized participation in economic planning has been implemented in various regions and states in India, most notably in Kerala. Local level planning agencies assess the needs of people who are able to give their direct input through the Gram Sabhas (village-based institutions) and the planners subsequently seek to plan accordingly.",
"title": "Decentralized planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Some decentralized participation in economic planning has been implemented across Revolutionary Spain, most notably in Catalonia, during the Spanish Revolution of 1936.",
"title": "Decentralized planning"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "The United Nations has developed local projects that promote participatory planning on a community level. Members of communities take decisions regarding community development directly.",
"title": "Decentralized planning"
}
] | A planned economy is a type of economic system where the distribution of goods and services or the investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economic plans that are either economy-wide or limited to a category of goods and services. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, participatory or Soviet-type forms of economic planning. The level of centralization or decentralization in decision-making and participation depends on the specific type of planning mechanism employed. Socialist states based on the Soviet model have used central planning, although a minority such as the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have adopted some degree of market socialism. Market abolitionist socialism replaces factor markets with direct calculation as the means to coordinate the activities of the various socially owned economic enterprises that make up the economy. More recent approaches to socialist planning and allocation have come from some economists and computer scientists proposing planning mechanisms based on advances in computer science and information technology. Planned economies contrast with unplanned economies, specifically market economies, where autonomous firms operating in markets make decisions about production, distribution, pricing and investment. Market economies that use indicative planning are variously referred to as planned market economies, mixed economies and mixed market economies. A command economy follows an administrative-command system and uses Soviet-type economic planning which was characteristic of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc before most of these countries converted to market economies. This highlights the central role of hierarchical administration and public ownership of production in guiding the allocation of resources in these economic systems. | 2002-01-24T21:33:06Z | 2023-12-30T05:40:13Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_economy |
7,844 | Chimpanzee | The chimpanzee (/tʃɪmpænˈzi/; Pan troglodytes), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus Pan. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that Pan is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is humans' closest living relative. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing 40–70 kg (88–154 lb) for males and 27–50 kg (60–110 lb) for females and standing 150 cm (4 ft 11 in).
The chimpanzee lives in groups that range in size from 15 to 150 members, although individuals travel and forage in much smaller groups during the day. The species lives in a strict male-dominated hierarchy, where disputes are generally settled without the need for violence. Nearly all chimpanzee populations have been recorded using tools, modifying sticks, rocks, grass and leaves and using them for hunting and acquiring honey, termites, ants, nuts and water. The species has also been found creating sharpened sticks to spear small mammals. Its gestation period is eight months. The infant is weaned at about three years old but usually maintains a close relationship with its mother for several years more.
The chimpanzee is listed on the IUCN Red List as an endangered species. Between 170,000 and 300,000 individuals are estimated across its range. The biggest threats to the chimpanzee are habitat loss, poaching, and disease. Chimpanzees appear in Western popular culture as stereotyped clown-figures and have featured in entertainments such as chimpanzees' tea parties, circus acts and stage shows. Although many chimpanzees have been kept as pets, their strength, aggressiveness, and unpredictability makes them dangerous in this role. Some hundreds have been kept in laboratories for research, especially in the United States. Many attempts have been made to teach languages such as American Sign Language to chimpanzees, with limited success.
The English word chimpanzee is first recorded in 1738. It is derived from Vili ci-mpenze or Tshiluba language chimpenze, with a meaning of "ape", or "mockman". The colloquialism "chimp" was most likely coined some time in the late 1870s. The genus name Pan derives from the Greek god, while the specific name troglodytes was taken from the Troglodytae, a mythical race of cave-dwellers.
The first great ape known to Western science in the 17th century was the "orang-outang" (genus Pongo), the local Malay name being recorded in Java by the Dutch physician Jacobus Bontius. In 1641, the Dutch anatomist Nicolaes Tulp applied the name to a chimpanzee or bonobo brought to the Netherlands from Angola. Another Dutch anatomist, Peter Camper, dissected specimens from Central Africa and Southeast Asia in the 1770s, noting the differences between the African and Asian apes. The German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach classified the chimpanzee as Simia troglodytes by 1775. Another German naturalist, Lorenz Oken, coined the genus Pan in 1816. The bonobo was recognised as distinct from the chimpanzee by 1933.
Despite a large number of Homo fossil finds, Pan fossils were not described until 2005. Existing chimpanzee populations in West and Central Africa do not overlap with the major human fossil sites in East Africa, but chimpanzee fossils have now been reported from Kenya. This indicates that both humans and members of the Pan clade were present in the East African Rift Valley during the Middle Pleistocene.
According to studies published in 2017 by researchers at George Washington University, bonobos, along with chimpanzees, split from the human line about 8 million years ago; then bonobos split from the common chimpanzee line about 2 million years ago. Another 2017 genetic study suggests ancient gene flow (introgression) between 200,000 and 550,000 years ago from the bonobo into the ancestors of central and eastern chimpanzees.
Four subspecies of the chimpanzee have been recognised, with the possibility of a fifth:
A draft version of the chimpanzee genome was published in 2005 and encodes 18,759 proteins, (compared to 20,383 in the human proteome). The DNA sequences of humans and chimpanzees are very similar and the difference in protein number mostly arises from incomplete sequences in the chimp genome. Both species differ by about 35 million single-nucleotide changes, five million insertion/deletion events and various chromosomal rearrangements. Typical human and chimpanzee protein homologs differ in an average of only two amino acids. About 30% of all human proteins are identical in sequence to the corresponding chimpanzee protein. Duplications of small parts of chromosomes have been the major source of differences between human and chimpanzee genetic material; about 2.7% of the corresponding modern genomes represent differences, produced by gene duplications or deletions, since humans and chimpanzees diverged from their common evolutionary ancestor.
Adult chimpanzees have an average standing height of 150 cm (4 ft 11 in). Wild adult males weigh between 40 and 70 kg (88 and 154 lb) with females weighing between 27 and 50 kg (60 and 110 lb). In exceptional cases, certain individuals may considerably exceed these measurements, standing over 168 cm (5 ft 6 in) on two legs and weighing up to 136 kg (300 lb) in captivity.
The chimpanzee is more robustly built than the bonobo but less than the gorilla. The arms of a chimpanzee are longer than its legs and can reach below the knees. The hands have long fingers with short thumbs and flat fingernails. The feet are adapted for grasping, and the big toe is opposable. The pelvis is long with an extended ilium. A chimpanzee's head is rounded with a prominent and prognathous face and a pronounced brow ridge. It has forward-facing eyes, a small nose, rounded non-lobed ears and a long mobile upper lip. Additionally, adult males have sharp canine teeth. Chimpanzees lack the prominent sagittal crest and associated head and neck musculature of gorillas.
Chimpanzee bodies are covered by coarse hair, except for the face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. Chimpanzees lose more hair as they age and develop bald spots. The hair of a chimpanzee is typically black but can be brown or ginger. As they get older, white or grey patches may appear, particularly on the chin and lower region. Chimpanzee skin that is covered with body hair is white, while exposed areas vary with it being white passing with age into a dark muddy colour in eastern chimpanzees, freckled on white which with age becomes muddy in colour and heavily mottled central chimpanzees; and black forming butterfly-shaped white mask that with age darkenings in western chimpanzees. Facial pigmentation increases with age and exposure to ultraviolet light. Females develop swelling pink skin when in oestrus.
Chimpanzees are adapted for both arboreal and terrestrial locomotion. Arboreal locomotion consists of vertical climbing and brachiation. On the ground, chimpanzees move both quadrupedally and bipedally. These movements appear to have similar energy costs. As with bonobos and gorillas, chimpanzees move quadrupedally by knuckle-walking, which probably evolved independently in Pan and Gorilla. Their physical strength is around 1.5 times greater than humans due to higher content of fast twitch muscle fibres, one of the chimpanzee's adaptations for climbing and swinging. According to Japan's Asahiyama Zoo, the grip strength of an adult chimpanzee is estimated to be 200 kg (440 lb), while other sources claim figures of up to 330 kg (730 lb).
The chimpanzee is a highly adaptable species. It lives in a variety of habitats, including dry savanna, evergreen rainforest, montane forest, swamp forest, and dry woodland-savanna mosaic. In Gombe, the chimpanzee mostly uses semideciduous and evergreen forest as well as open woodland. At Bossou, the chimpanzee inhabits multistage secondary deciduous forest, which has grown after shifting cultivation, as well as primary forest and grassland. At Taï, it is found in the last remaining tropical rain forest in Ivory Coast. The chimpanzee has an advanced cognitive map of its home range and can repeatedly find food. The chimpanzee builds a sleeping nest in a tree in a different location each night, never using the same nest more than once. Chimpanzees sleep alone in separate nests except for infants or juvenile chimpanzees, which sleep with their mothers.
The chimpanzee is an omnivorous frugivore. It prefers fruit above all other food items but also eats leaves, leaf buds, seeds, blossoms, stems, pith, bark, and resin. A study in Budongo Forest, Uganda found that 64.5% of their feeding time concentrated on fruits (84.6% of which being ripe), particularly those from two species of Ficus, Maesopsis eminii, and Celtis gomphophylla. In addition, 19% of feeding time was spent on arboreal leaves, mostly Broussonetia papyrifera and Celtis mildbraedii. While the chimpanzee is mostly herbivorous, it does eat honey, soil, insects, birds and their eggs, and small to medium-sized mammals, including other primates. Insect species consumed include the weaver ant Oecophylla longinoda, Macrotermes termites, and honey bees. The red colobus ranks at the top of preferred mammal prey. Other mammalian prey include red-tailed monkeys, infant and juvenile yellow baboons, bush babies, blue duikers, bushbucks, and common warthogs.
Despite the fact that chimpanzees are known to hunt and to collect both insects and other invertebrates, such food actually makes up a very small portion of their diet, from as little as 2% yearly to as much as 65 grams of animal flesh per day for each adult chimpanzee in peak hunting seasons. This also varies from troop to troop and year to year. However, in all cases, the majority of their diet consists of fruits, leaves, roots, and other plant matter. Female chimpanzees appear to consume much less animal flesh than males, according to several studies. Jane Goodall documented many occasions within Gombe Stream National Park of chimpanzees and western red colobus monkeys ignoring each other despite close proximity.
Chimpanzees do not appear to directly compete with gorillas in areas where they overlap. When fruit is abundant, gorilla and chimpanzee diets converge, but when fruit is scarce gorillas resort to vegetation. The two apes may also feed on different species, whether fruit or insects. Interactions between them can range from friendly and even stable social bonding, to avoidance, to aggression and predation on part of chimpanzees.
The average lifespan of a chimpanzee in the wild is relatively short, usually less than 15 years, although individuals that reach 12 years may live an additional 15 years. On rare occasions, wild chimpanzees may live nearly 60 years. Captive chimpanzees tend to live longer than most wild ones, with median lifespans of 31.7 years for males and 38.7 years for females. The oldest-known male captive chimpanzee to have been documented lived to 66 years, and the oldest female, Little Mama, was over 70 years old.
Leopards prey on chimpanzees in some areas. It is possible that much of the mortality caused by leopards can be attributed to individuals that have specialised in chimp-killing. Chimpanzees may react to a leopard's presence with loud vocalising, branch shaking, and throwing objects. There is at least one record of chimpanzees killing a leopard cub after mobbing it and its mother in their den. Four chimpanzees could have fallen prey to lions at Mahale Mountains National Park. Although no other instances of lion predation on chimpanzees have been recorded, lions likely do kill chimpanzees occasionally, and the larger group sizes of savanna chimpanzees may have developed as a response to threats from these big cats. Chimpanzees may react to lions by fleeing up trees, vocalising, or hiding in silence.
Chimpanzees and humans share only 50% of their parasite and microbe species. This is due to the differences in environmental and dietary adaptations; human internal parasite species overlap more with omnivorous, savanna-dwelling baboons. The chimpanzee is host to the louse species Pediculus schaeffi, a close relative of P. humanus, which infests human head and body hair. By contrast, the human pubic louse Pthirus pubis is closely related to Pthirus gorillae, which infests gorillas. A 2017 study of gastrointestinal parasites of wild chimpanzees in degraded forest in Uganda found nine species of protozoa, five nematodes, one cestode, and one trematode. The most prevalent species was the protozoan Troglodytella abrassarti.
Recent studies have suggested that human observers influence chimpanzee behaviour. One suggestion is that drones, camera traps, and remote microphones should be used to record and monitor chimpanzees rather than direct human observation.
Chimpanzees live in communities that typically range from around 20 to more than 150 members but spend most of their time traveling in small, temporary groups consisting of a few individuals. These groups may consist of any combination of age and sexes. Both males and females sometimes travel alone. This fission-fusion society may include groups of four types: all-male, adult females and offspring, adults of both sexes, or one female and her offspring. These smaller groups emerge in a variety of types, for a variety of purposes. For example, an all-male troop may be organised to hunt for meat, while a group consisting of lactating females serves to act as a "nursery group" for the young.
At the core of social structures are males, which patrol the territory, protect group members, and search for food. Males remain in their natal communities, while females generally emigrate at adolescence. Males in a community are more likely to be related to one another than females are to each other. Among males, there is generally a dominance hierarchy, and males are dominant over females. However, this unusual fission-fusion social structure, "in which portions of the parent group may on a regular basis separate from and then rejoin the rest," is highly variable in terms of which particular individual chimpanzees congregate at a given time. This is caused mainly by the large measure of individual autonomy that individuals have within their fission-fusion social groups. As a result, individual chimpanzees often forage for food alone, or in smaller groups, as opposed to the much larger "parent" group, which encompasses all the chimpanzees which regularly come into contact with each other and congregate into parties in a particular area.
Male chimpanzees exist in a linear dominance hierarchy. Top-ranking males tend to be aggressive even during dominance stability. This is probably due to the chimpanzee's fission-fusion society, with male chimpanzees leaving groups and returning after extended periods of time. With this, a dominant male is unsure if any "political maneuvering" has occurred in his absence and must re-establish his dominance. Thus, a large amount of aggression occurs within five to fifteen minutes after a reunion. During these encounters, displays of aggression are generally preferred over physical attacks.
Males maintain and improve their social ranks by forming coalitions, which have been characterised as "exploitative" and based on an individual's influence in agonistic interactions. Being in a coalition allows males to dominate a third individual when they could not by themselves, as politically apt chimpanzees can exert power over aggressive interactions regardless of their rank. Coalitions can also give an individual male the confidence to challenge a dominant or larger male. The more allies a male has, the better his chance of becoming dominant. However, most changes in hierarchical rank are caused by dyadic interactions. Chimpanzee alliances can be very fickle, and one member may suddenly turn on another if it is to his advantage.
Low-ranking males frequently switch sides in disputes between more dominant individuals. Low-ranking males benefit from an unstable hierarchy and often find increased sexual opportunities if a dispute or conflict occurs. In addition, conflicts between dominant males cause them to focus on each other rather than the lower-ranking males. Social hierarchies among adult females tend to be weaker. Nevertheless, the status of an adult female may be important for her offspring. Females in Taï have also been recorded to form alliances. While chimpanzee social structure is often referred to as patriarchal, it is not entirely unheard of for females to forge coalitions against males. There is also at least one recorded case of females securing a dominant position over males in their respective troop, albeit in a captive environment. Social grooming appears to be important in the formation and maintenance of coalitions. It is more common among adult males than either between adult females or between males and females.
Chimpanzees have been described as highly territorial and will frequently kill other chimpanzees, although Margaret Power wrote in her 1991 book The Egalitarians that the field studies from which the aggressive data came, Gombe and Mahale, used artificial feeding systems that increased aggression in the chimpanzee populations studied. Thus, the behaviour may not reflect innate characteristics of the species as a whole. In the years following her artificial feeding conditions at Gombe, Jane Goodall described groups of male chimpanzees patrolling the borders of their territory, brutally attacking chimpanzees that had split off from the Gombe group. A study published in 2010 found that the chimpanzees wage wars over territory, not mates. Patrols from smaller groups are more likely to avoid contact with their neighbours. Patrols from large groups even take over a smaller group's territory, gaining access to more resources, food, and females. While it was traditionally accepted that only female chimpanzees immigrate and males remain in their natal troop for life, there are confirmed cases of adult males safely integrating themselves into new communities among West African chimpanzees, suggesting they are less territorial than other subspecies.
Chimpanzees mate throughout the year, although the number of females in oestrus varies seasonally in a group. Female chimpanzees are more likely to come into oestrus when food is readily available. Oestrous females exhibit sexual swellings. Chimpanzees are promiscuous: during oestrus, females mate with several males in their community, while males have large testicles for sperm competition. Other forms of mating also exist. A community's dominant males sometimes restrict reproductive access to females. A male and female can form a consortship and mate outside their community. In addition, females sometimes leave their community and mate with males from neighboring communities.
These alternative mating strategies give females more mating opportunities without losing the support of the males in their community. Infanticide has been recorded in chimpanzee communities in some areas, and the victims are often consumed. Male chimpanzees practice infanticide on unrelated young to shorten the interbirth intervals in the females. Females sometimes practice infanticide. This may be related to the dominance hierarchy in females or may simply be pathological.
Copulation is brief, lasting approximately seven seconds. The gestation period is eight months. Care for the young is provided mostly by their mothers. The survival and emotional health of the young is dependent on maternal care. Mothers provide their young with food, warmth, and protection, and teach them certain skills. In addition, a chimpanzee's future rank may be dependent on its mother's status. Male chimpanzees continue to associate with the females they impregnated and interact with and support their offspring. Newborn chimpanzees are helpless. For example, their grasping reflex is not strong enough to support them for more than a few seconds. For their first 30 days, infants cling to their mother's bellies. Infants are unable to support their own weight for their first two months and need their mothers' support.
When they reach five to six months, infants ride on their mothers' backs. They remain in continual contact for the rest of their first year. When they reach two years of age, they are able to move and sit independently and start moving beyond the arms' reach of their mothers. By four to six years, chimpanzees are weaned and infancy ends. The juvenile period for chimpanzees lasts from their sixth to ninth years. Juveniles remain close to their mothers, but interact an increasing amount with other members of their community. Adolescent females move between groups and are supported by their mothers in agonistic encounters. Adolescent males spend time with adult males in social activities like hunting and boundary patrolling. A captive study suggests males can safely immigrate to a new group if accompanied by immigrant females who have an existing relationship with this male. This gives the resident males reproductive advantages with these females, as they are more inclined to remain in the group if their male friend is also accepted.
Chimpanzees use facial expressions, postures, and sounds to communicate with each other. Chimpanzees have expressive faces that are important in close-up communications. When frightened, a "full closed grin" causes nearby individuals to be fearful, as well. Playful chimpanzees display an open-mouthed grin. Chimpanzees may also express themselves with the "pout", which is made in distress, the "sneer", which is made when threatening or fearful, and "compressed-lips face", which is a type of display. When submitting to a dominant individual, a chimpanzee crunches, bobs, and extends a hand. When in an aggressive mode, a chimpanzee swaggers bipedally, hunched over and arms waving, in an attempt to exaggerate its size. While travelling, chimpanzees keep in contact by beating their hands and feet against the trunks of large trees, an act that is known as "drumming". They also do this when encountering individuals from other communities.
Vocalisations are also important in chimpanzee communication. The most common call in adults is the "pant-hoot", which may signal social rank and bond along with keeping groups together. Pant-hoots are made of four parts, starting with soft "hoos", the introduction; that gets louder and louder, the build-up; and climax into screams and sometimes barks; these die down back to soft "hoos" during the letdown phase as the call ends. Grunting is made in situations like feeding and greeting. Submissive individuals make "pant-grunts" towards their superiors. Whimpering is made by young chimpanzees as a form of begging or when lost from the group. Chimpanzees use distance calls to draw attention to danger, food sources, or other community members. "Barks" may be made as "short barks" when hunting and "tonal barks" when sighting large snakes.
When hunting small monkeys such as the red colobus, chimpanzees hunt where the forest canopy is interrupted or irregular. This allows them to easily corner the monkeys when chasing them in the appropriate direction. Chimpanzees may also hunt as a coordinated team, so that they can corner their prey even in a continuous canopy. During an arboreal hunt, each chimpanzee in the hunting groups has a role. "Drivers" serve to keep the prey running in a certain direction and follow them without attempting to make a catch. "Blockers" are stationed at the bottom of the trees and climb up to block prey that takes off in a different direction. "Chasers" move quickly and try to make a catch. Finally, "ambushers" hide and rush out when a monkey nears. While both adults and infants are taken, adult male colobus monkeys will attack the hunting chimps. Male chimpanzees hunt more than females. When caught and killed, the meal is distributed to all hunting party members and even bystanders.
Chimpanzees display numerous signs of intelligence, from the ability to remember symbols to cooperation, tool use, and perhaps language. They are among species that have passed the mirror test, suggesting self-awareness. In one study, two young chimpanzees showed retention of mirror self-recognition after one year without access to mirrors. Chimpanzees have been observed to use insects to treat their own wounds and those of others. They catch them and apply them directly to the injury. Chimpanzees also display signs of culture among groups, with the learning and transmission of variations in grooming, tool use and foraging techniques leading to localized traditions.
A 30-year study at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute has shown that chimpanzees are able to learn to recognise the numbers 1 to 9 and their values. The chimpanzees further show an aptitude for eidetic memory, demonstrated in experiments in which the jumbled digits are flashed onto a computer screen for less than a quarter of a second. One chimpanzee, Ayumu, was able to correctly and quickly point to the positions where they appeared in ascending order. Ayumu performed better than human adults who were given the same test.
In controlled experiments on cooperation, chimpanzees show a basic understanding of cooperation, and recruit the best collaborators. In a group setting with a device that delivered food rewards only to cooperating chimpanzees, cooperation first increased, then, due to competitive behaviour, decreased, before finally increasing to the highest level through punishment and other arbitrage behaviours.
Great apes show laughter-like vocalisations in response to physical contact, such as wrestling, play chasing, or tickling. This is documented in wild and captive chimpanzees. Chimpanzee laughter is not readily recognisable to humans as such, because it is generated by alternating inhalations and exhalations that sound more like breathing and panting. Instances in which nonhuman primates have expressed joy have been reported. Humans and chimpanzees share similar ticklish areas of the body, such as the armpits and belly. The enjoyment of tickling in chimpanzees does not diminish with age.
Chimpanzees have displayed different behaviours in response to a dying or dead group member. When witnessing a sudden death, the other group members act in frenzy, with vocalisations, aggressive displays, and touching of the corpse. In one case chimpanzees cared for a dying elder, then attended and cleaned the corpse. Afterward, they avoided the spot where the elder died and behaved in a more subdued manner. Mothers have been reported to carry around and groom their dead infants for several days.
Experimenters now and then witness behaviour that cannot be readily reconciled with chimpanzee intelligence or theory of mind. Wolfgang Köhler, for instance, reported insightful behaviour in chimpanzees, but he likewise often observed that they experienced "special difficulty" in solving simple problems. Researchers also reported that, when faced with a choice between two persons, chimpanzees were just as likely to beg food from a person who could see the begging gesture as from a person who could not, thereby raising the possibility that chimpanzees lack theory of mind.
Nearly all chimpanzee populations have been recorded using tools. They modify sticks, rocks, grass, and leaves and use them when foraging for termites and ants, nuts, honey, algae or water. Despite the lack of complexity, forethought and skill are apparent in making these tools. Chimpanzees have used stone tools since at least 4,300 years ago.
A chimpanzee from the Kasakela chimpanzee community was the first nonhuman animal reported making a tool, by modifying a twig to use as an instrument for extracting termites from their mound. At Taï, chimpanzees simply use their hands to extract termites. When foraging for honey, chimpanzees use modified short sticks to scoop the honey out of the hive if the bees are stingless. For hives of the dangerous African honeybees, chimpanzees use longer and thinner sticks to extract the honey.
Chimpanzees also fish for ants using the same tactic. Ant dipping is difficult and some chimpanzees never master it. West African chimpanzees crack open hard nuts with stones or branches. Some forethought in this activity is apparent, as these tools are not found together or where the nuts are collected. Nut cracking is also difficult and must be learned. Chimpanzees also use leaves as sponges or spoons to drink water.
West African chimpanzees in Senegal were found to sharpen sticks with their teeth, which were then used to spear Senegal bushbabies out of small holes in trees. An eastern chimpanzee has been observed using a modified branch as a tool to capture a squirrel.
Whilst experimental studies on captive chimpanzees have found that many of their species-typical tool-use behaviours can be individually learnt by each chimpanzees, a 2021 study on their abilities to make and use stone flakes, in a similar way as hypothesised for early hominins, did not find this behaviour across two populations of chimpanzees—suggesting that this behaviour is outside the chimpanzee species-typical range.
Scientists have attempted to teach human language to several species of great ape. One early attempt by Allen and Beatrix Gardner in the 1960s involved spending 51 months teaching American Sign Language to a chimpanzee named Washoe. The Gardners reported that Washoe learned 151 signs, and had spontaneously taught them to other chimpanzees, including her adopted son, Loulis. Over a longer period of time, Washoe was reported to have learned over 350 signs.
Debate is ongoing among scientists such as David Premack about chimpanzees' ability to learn language. Since the early reports on Washoe, numerous other studies have been conducted, with varying levels of success. One involved a chimpanzee jokingly named Nim Chimpsky (in allusion to the theorist of language Noam Chomsky), trained by Herbert Terrace of Columbia University. Although his initial reports were quite positive, in November 1979, Terrace and his team, including psycholinguist Thomas Bever, re-evaluated the videotapes of Nim with his trainers, analyzing them frame by frame for signs, as well as for exact context (what was happening both before and after Nim's signs). In the reanalysis, Terrace and Bever concluded that Nim's utterances could be explained merely as prompting on the part of the experimenters, as well as mistakes in reporting the data. "Much of the apes' behaviour is pure drill", he said. "Language still stands as an important definition of the human species." In this reversal, Terrace now argued Nim's use of ASL was not like human language acquisition. Nim never initiated conversations himself, rarely introduced new words, and mostly imitated what the humans did. More importantly, Nim's word strings varied in their ordering, suggesting that he was incapable of syntax. Nim's sentences also did not grow in length, unlike human children whose vocabulary and sentence length show a strong positive correlation.
Chimpanzees are rarely represented in African culture, as people find their resemblance to humans discomforting. The Gio people of Liberia and the Hemba people of the Congo have created masks of the animals. Gio masks are crude and blocky, and worn when teaching young people how not to behave. The Hemba masks have a smile that suggests drunken anger, insanity or horror and are worn during rituals at funerals, representing the "awful reality of death". The masks may also serve to guard households and protect both human and plant fertility. Stories have been told of chimpanzees kidnapping and raping women.
In Western popular culture, chimpanzees have occasionally been stereotyped as childlike companions, sidekicks or clowns. They are especially suited for the latter role on account of their prominent facial features, long limbs and fast movements, which humans often find amusing. Accordingly, entertainment acts featuring chimpanzees dressed up as humans with lip-synchronised human voices have been traditional staples of circuses, stage shows and TV shows like Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp (1970-1972) and The Chimp Channel (1999). From 1926 until 1972, London Zoo, followed by several other zoos around the world, held a chimpanzees' tea party daily, inspiring a long-running series of advertisements for PG Tips tea featuring such a party. Animal rights groups have urged a stop to such acts, considering them abusive.
Chimpanzees in media include Judy on the television series Daktari in the 1960s and Darwin on The Wild Thornberrys in the 1990s. In contrast to the fictional depictions of other animals, such as dogs (as in Lassie), dolphins (Flipper), horses (The Black Stallion) or even other great apes (King Kong), chimpanzee characters and actions are rarely relevant to the plot. Depictions of chimpanzees as individuals rather than stock characters, and as central rather than incidental to the plot can be found in science fiction. Robert A. Heinlein's 1947 short story "Jerry Was a Man" concerns a genetically enhanced chimpanzee suing for better treatment. The 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the third sequel of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes, portrays a futuristic revolt of enslaved apes led by the only talking chimpanzee, Caesar, against their human masters.
Chimpanzees have traditionally been kept as pets in a few African villages, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Virunga National Park in the east of the country, the park authorities regularly confiscate chimpanzees from people keeping them as pets. Outside their range, chimpanzees are popular as exotic pets despite their strength and aggression. Even in places where keeping non-human primates as pets is illegal, the exotic pet trade continues to prosper, leading to injuries from attacks.
Hundreds of chimpanzees have been kept in laboratories for research. Most such laboratories either conduct or make the animals available for invasive research, defined as "inoculation with an infectious agent, surgery or biopsy conducted for the sake of research and not for the sake of the chimpanzee, and/or drug testing". Research chimpanzees tend to be used repeatedly over decades for up to 40 years, unlike the pattern of use of most laboratory animals. Two federally funded American laboratories use chimpanzees: the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Southwest National Primate Center in San Antonio, Texas. Five hundred chimpanzees have been retired from laboratory use in the US and live in animal sanctuaries in the US or Canada.
A five-year moratorium was imposed by the US National Institutes of Health in 1996, because too many chimpanzees had been bred for HIV research, and it has been extended annually since 2001. With the publication of the chimpanzee genome, plans to increase the use of chimpanzees in America were reportedly increasing in 2006, some scientists arguing that the federal moratorium on breeding chimpanzees for research should be lifted. However, in 2007, the NIH made the moratorium permanent.
Other researchers argue that chimpanzees either should not be used in research, or should be treated differently, for instance with legal status as persons. Pascal Gagneux, an evolutionary biologist and primate expert at the University of California, San Diego, argues, given chimpanzees' sense of self, tool use, and genetic similarity to human beings, studies using chimpanzees should follow the ethical guidelines used for human subjects unable to give consent. A recent study suggests chimpanzees which are retired from labs exhibit a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Stuart Zola, director of the Yerkes laboratory, disagrees. He told National Geographic: "I don't think we should make a distinction between our obligation to treat humanely any species, whether it's a rat or a monkey or a chimpanzee. No matter how much we may wish it, chimps are not human."
Only one European laboratory, the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, used chimpanzees in research. It formerly held 108 chimpanzees among 1,300 non-human primates. The Dutch ministry of science decided to phase out research at the centre from 2001. Trials already under way were however allowed to run their course. Chimpanzees including the female Ai have been studied at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University, Japan, formerly directed by Tetsuro Matsuzawa, since 1978. Some 12 chimpanzees are currently held at the facility.
Two chimpanzees have been sent into outer space as NASA research subjects. Ham, the first great ape in space, was launched in the Mercury-Redstone 2 capsule on 31 January 1961, and survived the suborbital flight. Enos, the third primate to orbit Earth after Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, flew on Mercury-Atlas 5 on 29 November of the same year.
Jane Goodall undertook the first long-term field study of the chimpanzee, begun in Tanzania at Gombe Stream National Park in 1960. Other long-term studies begun in the 1960s include A. Kortlandt's in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Toshisada Nishida's in Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania. Current understanding of the species' typical behaviours and social organisation has been formed largely from Goodall's ongoing 60-year Gombe research study.
Chimpanzees have attacked humans. In Uganda, several attacks on children have happened, some of them fatal. Some of these attacks may have been due to the chimpanzees being intoxicated (from alcohol obtained from rural brewing operations) and becoming aggressive towards humans. Human interactions with chimpanzees may be especially dangerous if the chimpanzees perceive humans as potential rivals. At least six cases of chimpanzees snatching and eating human babies are documented.
A chimpanzee's strength and sharp teeth mean that attacks, even on adult humans, can cause severe injuries. This was evident after the attack and near death of former NASCAR driver St. James Davis, who was mauled by two escaped chimpanzees (in the St. James Davis chimpanzee attack) while he and his wife were celebrating the birthday of their former pet chimpanzee. Another example of chimpanzees being aggressive toward humans occurred in 2009 in Stamford, Connecticut, when a 90-kilogram (200 lb), 13-year-old pet chimpanzee named Travis attacked his owner's friend, who lost her hands, eyes, nose, and part of her maxilla from the attack.
Two primary classes of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the more virulent and easily transmitted, and is the source of the majority of HIV infections throughout the world; HIV-2 is largely confined to west Africa. Both types originated in west and central Africa, jumping from other primates to humans. HIV-1 has evolved from a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVcpz) found in the subspecies P. t. troglodytes of southern Cameroon. Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has the greatest genetic diversity of HIV-1 so far discovered, suggesting the virus has been there longer than anywhere else. HIV-2 crossed species from a different strain of HIV, found in the sooty mangabey monkeys in Guinea-Bissau.
The chimpanzee is on the IUCN Red List as an endangered species. Chimpanzees are legally protected in most of their range and are found both in and outside national parks. Between 172,700 and 299,700 individuals are thought to be living in the wild, a decrease from about a million chimpanzees in the early 1900s. Chimpanzees are listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meaning that commercial international trade in wild-sourced specimens is prohibited and all other international trade (including in parts and derivatives) is regulated by the CITES permitting system.
The biggest threats to the chimpanzee are habitat destruction, poaching, and disease. Chimpanzee habitats have been limited by deforestation in both West and Central Africa. Road building has caused habitat degradation and fragmentation of chimpanzee populations and may allow poachers more access to areas that had not been seriously affected by humans. Although deforestation rates are low in western Central Africa, selective logging may take place outside national parks.
Chimpanzees are a common target for poachers. In Ivory Coast, chimpanzees make up 1–3% of bushmeat sold in urban markets. They are also taken, often illegally, for the pet trade and are hunted for medicinal purposes in some areas. Farmers sometimes kill chimpanzees that threaten their crops; others are unintentionally maimed or killed by snares meant for other animals.
Infectious diseases are a main cause of death for chimpanzees. They succumb to many diseases that afflict humans because the two species are so similar. As human populations grow, so does the risk of disease transmission between humans and chimpanzees. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The chimpanzee (/tʃɪmpænˈzi/; Pan troglodytes), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus Pan. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that Pan is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is humans' closest living relative. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing 40–70 kg (88–154 lb) for males and 27–50 kg (60–110 lb) for females and standing 150 cm (4 ft 11 in).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The chimpanzee lives in groups that range in size from 15 to 150 members, although individuals travel and forage in much smaller groups during the day. The species lives in a strict male-dominated hierarchy, where disputes are generally settled without the need for violence. Nearly all chimpanzee populations have been recorded using tools, modifying sticks, rocks, grass and leaves and using them for hunting and acquiring honey, termites, ants, nuts and water. The species has also been found creating sharpened sticks to spear small mammals. Its gestation period is eight months. The infant is weaned at about three years old but usually maintains a close relationship with its mother for several years more.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The chimpanzee is listed on the IUCN Red List as an endangered species. Between 170,000 and 300,000 individuals are estimated across its range. The biggest threats to the chimpanzee are habitat loss, poaching, and disease. Chimpanzees appear in Western popular culture as stereotyped clown-figures and have featured in entertainments such as chimpanzees' tea parties, circus acts and stage shows. Although many chimpanzees have been kept as pets, their strength, aggressiveness, and unpredictability makes them dangerous in this role. Some hundreds have been kept in laboratories for research, especially in the United States. Many attempts have been made to teach languages such as American Sign Language to chimpanzees, with limited success.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The English word chimpanzee is first recorded in 1738. It is derived from Vili ci-mpenze or Tshiluba language chimpenze, with a meaning of \"ape\", or \"mockman\". The colloquialism \"chimp\" was most likely coined some time in the late 1870s. The genus name Pan derives from the Greek god, while the specific name troglodytes was taken from the Troglodytae, a mythical race of cave-dwellers.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The first great ape known to Western science in the 17th century was the \"orang-outang\" (genus Pongo), the local Malay name being recorded in Java by the Dutch physician Jacobus Bontius. In 1641, the Dutch anatomist Nicolaes Tulp applied the name to a chimpanzee or bonobo brought to the Netherlands from Angola. Another Dutch anatomist, Peter Camper, dissected specimens from Central Africa and Southeast Asia in the 1770s, noting the differences between the African and Asian apes. The German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach classified the chimpanzee as Simia troglodytes by 1775. Another German naturalist, Lorenz Oken, coined the genus Pan in 1816. The bonobo was recognised as distinct from the chimpanzee by 1933.",
"title": "Taxonomy and genetics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Despite a large number of Homo fossil finds, Pan fossils were not described until 2005. Existing chimpanzee populations in West and Central Africa do not overlap with the major human fossil sites in East Africa, but chimpanzee fossils have now been reported from Kenya. This indicates that both humans and members of the Pan clade were present in the East African Rift Valley during the Middle Pleistocene.",
"title": "Taxonomy and genetics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "According to studies published in 2017 by researchers at George Washington University, bonobos, along with chimpanzees, split from the human line about 8 million years ago; then bonobos split from the common chimpanzee line about 2 million years ago. Another 2017 genetic study suggests ancient gene flow (introgression) between 200,000 and 550,000 years ago from the bonobo into the ancestors of central and eastern chimpanzees.",
"title": "Taxonomy and genetics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Four subspecies of the chimpanzee have been recognised, with the possibility of a fifth:",
"title": "Taxonomy and genetics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "A draft version of the chimpanzee genome was published in 2005 and encodes 18,759 proteins, (compared to 20,383 in the human proteome). The DNA sequences of humans and chimpanzees are very similar and the difference in protein number mostly arises from incomplete sequences in the chimp genome. Both species differ by about 35 million single-nucleotide changes, five million insertion/deletion events and various chromosomal rearrangements. Typical human and chimpanzee protein homologs differ in an average of only two amino acids. About 30% of all human proteins are identical in sequence to the corresponding chimpanzee protein. Duplications of small parts of chromosomes have been the major source of differences between human and chimpanzee genetic material; about 2.7% of the corresponding modern genomes represent differences, produced by gene duplications or deletions, since humans and chimpanzees diverged from their common evolutionary ancestor.",
"title": "Taxonomy and genetics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Adult chimpanzees have an average standing height of 150 cm (4 ft 11 in). Wild adult males weigh between 40 and 70 kg (88 and 154 lb) with females weighing between 27 and 50 kg (60 and 110 lb). In exceptional cases, certain individuals may considerably exceed these measurements, standing over 168 cm (5 ft 6 in) on two legs and weighing up to 136 kg (300 lb) in captivity.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The chimpanzee is more robustly built than the bonobo but less than the gorilla. The arms of a chimpanzee are longer than its legs and can reach below the knees. The hands have long fingers with short thumbs and flat fingernails. The feet are adapted for grasping, and the big toe is opposable. The pelvis is long with an extended ilium. A chimpanzee's head is rounded with a prominent and prognathous face and a pronounced brow ridge. It has forward-facing eyes, a small nose, rounded non-lobed ears and a long mobile upper lip. Additionally, adult males have sharp canine teeth. Chimpanzees lack the prominent sagittal crest and associated head and neck musculature of gorillas.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Chimpanzee bodies are covered by coarse hair, except for the face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. Chimpanzees lose more hair as they age and develop bald spots. The hair of a chimpanzee is typically black but can be brown or ginger. As they get older, white or grey patches may appear, particularly on the chin and lower region. Chimpanzee skin that is covered with body hair is white, while exposed areas vary with it being white passing with age into a dark muddy colour in eastern chimpanzees, freckled on white which with age becomes muddy in colour and heavily mottled central chimpanzees; and black forming butterfly-shaped white mask that with age darkenings in western chimpanzees. Facial pigmentation increases with age and exposure to ultraviolet light. Females develop swelling pink skin when in oestrus.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Chimpanzees are adapted for both arboreal and terrestrial locomotion. Arboreal locomotion consists of vertical climbing and brachiation. On the ground, chimpanzees move both quadrupedally and bipedally. These movements appear to have similar energy costs. As with bonobos and gorillas, chimpanzees move quadrupedally by knuckle-walking, which probably evolved independently in Pan and Gorilla. Their physical strength is around 1.5 times greater than humans due to higher content of fast twitch muscle fibres, one of the chimpanzee's adaptations for climbing and swinging. According to Japan's Asahiyama Zoo, the grip strength of an adult chimpanzee is estimated to be 200 kg (440 lb), while other sources claim figures of up to 330 kg (730 lb).",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The chimpanzee is a highly adaptable species. It lives in a variety of habitats, including dry savanna, evergreen rainforest, montane forest, swamp forest, and dry woodland-savanna mosaic. In Gombe, the chimpanzee mostly uses semideciduous and evergreen forest as well as open woodland. At Bossou, the chimpanzee inhabits multistage secondary deciduous forest, which has grown after shifting cultivation, as well as primary forest and grassland. At Taï, it is found in the last remaining tropical rain forest in Ivory Coast. The chimpanzee has an advanced cognitive map of its home range and can repeatedly find food. The chimpanzee builds a sleeping nest in a tree in a different location each night, never using the same nest more than once. Chimpanzees sleep alone in separate nests except for infants or juvenile chimpanzees, which sleep with their mothers.",
"title": "Ecology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The chimpanzee is an omnivorous frugivore. It prefers fruit above all other food items but also eats leaves, leaf buds, seeds, blossoms, stems, pith, bark, and resin. A study in Budongo Forest, Uganda found that 64.5% of their feeding time concentrated on fruits (84.6% of which being ripe), particularly those from two species of Ficus, Maesopsis eminii, and Celtis gomphophylla. In addition, 19% of feeding time was spent on arboreal leaves, mostly Broussonetia papyrifera and Celtis mildbraedii. While the chimpanzee is mostly herbivorous, it does eat honey, soil, insects, birds and their eggs, and small to medium-sized mammals, including other primates. Insect species consumed include the weaver ant Oecophylla longinoda, Macrotermes termites, and honey bees. The red colobus ranks at the top of preferred mammal prey. Other mammalian prey include red-tailed monkeys, infant and juvenile yellow baboons, bush babies, blue duikers, bushbucks, and common warthogs.",
"title": "Ecology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Despite the fact that chimpanzees are known to hunt and to collect both insects and other invertebrates, such food actually makes up a very small portion of their diet, from as little as 2% yearly to as much as 65 grams of animal flesh per day for each adult chimpanzee in peak hunting seasons. This also varies from troop to troop and year to year. However, in all cases, the majority of their diet consists of fruits, leaves, roots, and other plant matter. Female chimpanzees appear to consume much less animal flesh than males, according to several studies. Jane Goodall documented many occasions within Gombe Stream National Park of chimpanzees and western red colobus monkeys ignoring each other despite close proximity.",
"title": "Ecology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Chimpanzees do not appear to directly compete with gorillas in areas where they overlap. When fruit is abundant, gorilla and chimpanzee diets converge, but when fruit is scarce gorillas resort to vegetation. The two apes may also feed on different species, whether fruit or insects. Interactions between them can range from friendly and even stable social bonding, to avoidance, to aggression and predation on part of chimpanzees.",
"title": "Ecology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The average lifespan of a chimpanzee in the wild is relatively short, usually less than 15 years, although individuals that reach 12 years may live an additional 15 years. On rare occasions, wild chimpanzees may live nearly 60 years. Captive chimpanzees tend to live longer than most wild ones, with median lifespans of 31.7 years for males and 38.7 years for females. The oldest-known male captive chimpanzee to have been documented lived to 66 years, and the oldest female, Little Mama, was over 70 years old.",
"title": "Ecology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Leopards prey on chimpanzees in some areas. It is possible that much of the mortality caused by leopards can be attributed to individuals that have specialised in chimp-killing. Chimpanzees may react to a leopard's presence with loud vocalising, branch shaking, and throwing objects. There is at least one record of chimpanzees killing a leopard cub after mobbing it and its mother in their den. Four chimpanzees could have fallen prey to lions at Mahale Mountains National Park. Although no other instances of lion predation on chimpanzees have been recorded, lions likely do kill chimpanzees occasionally, and the larger group sizes of savanna chimpanzees may have developed as a response to threats from these big cats. Chimpanzees may react to lions by fleeing up trees, vocalising, or hiding in silence.",
"title": "Ecology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Chimpanzees and humans share only 50% of their parasite and microbe species. This is due to the differences in environmental and dietary adaptations; human internal parasite species overlap more with omnivorous, savanna-dwelling baboons. The chimpanzee is host to the louse species Pediculus schaeffi, a close relative of P. humanus, which infests human head and body hair. By contrast, the human pubic louse Pthirus pubis is closely related to Pthirus gorillae, which infests gorillas. A 2017 study of gastrointestinal parasites of wild chimpanzees in degraded forest in Uganda found nine species of protozoa, five nematodes, one cestode, and one trematode. The most prevalent species was the protozoan Troglodytella abrassarti.",
"title": "Ecology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Recent studies have suggested that human observers influence chimpanzee behaviour. One suggestion is that drones, camera traps, and remote microphones should be used to record and monitor chimpanzees rather than direct human observation.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Chimpanzees live in communities that typically range from around 20 to more than 150 members but spend most of their time traveling in small, temporary groups consisting of a few individuals. These groups may consist of any combination of age and sexes. Both males and females sometimes travel alone. This fission-fusion society may include groups of four types: all-male, adult females and offspring, adults of both sexes, or one female and her offspring. These smaller groups emerge in a variety of types, for a variety of purposes. For example, an all-male troop may be organised to hunt for meat, while a group consisting of lactating females serves to act as a \"nursery group\" for the young.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "At the core of social structures are males, which patrol the territory, protect group members, and search for food. Males remain in their natal communities, while females generally emigrate at adolescence. Males in a community are more likely to be related to one another than females are to each other. Among males, there is generally a dominance hierarchy, and males are dominant over females. However, this unusual fission-fusion social structure, \"in which portions of the parent group may on a regular basis separate from and then rejoin the rest,\" is highly variable in terms of which particular individual chimpanzees congregate at a given time. This is caused mainly by the large measure of individual autonomy that individuals have within their fission-fusion social groups. As a result, individual chimpanzees often forage for food alone, or in smaller groups, as opposed to the much larger \"parent\" group, which encompasses all the chimpanzees which regularly come into contact with each other and congregate into parties in a particular area.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Male chimpanzees exist in a linear dominance hierarchy. Top-ranking males tend to be aggressive even during dominance stability. This is probably due to the chimpanzee's fission-fusion society, with male chimpanzees leaving groups and returning after extended periods of time. With this, a dominant male is unsure if any \"political maneuvering\" has occurred in his absence and must re-establish his dominance. Thus, a large amount of aggression occurs within five to fifteen minutes after a reunion. During these encounters, displays of aggression are generally preferred over physical attacks.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Males maintain and improve their social ranks by forming coalitions, which have been characterised as \"exploitative\" and based on an individual's influence in agonistic interactions. Being in a coalition allows males to dominate a third individual when they could not by themselves, as politically apt chimpanzees can exert power over aggressive interactions regardless of their rank. Coalitions can also give an individual male the confidence to challenge a dominant or larger male. The more allies a male has, the better his chance of becoming dominant. However, most changes in hierarchical rank are caused by dyadic interactions. Chimpanzee alliances can be very fickle, and one member may suddenly turn on another if it is to his advantage.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Low-ranking males frequently switch sides in disputes between more dominant individuals. Low-ranking males benefit from an unstable hierarchy and often find increased sexual opportunities if a dispute or conflict occurs. In addition, conflicts between dominant males cause them to focus on each other rather than the lower-ranking males. Social hierarchies among adult females tend to be weaker. Nevertheless, the status of an adult female may be important for her offspring. Females in Taï have also been recorded to form alliances. While chimpanzee social structure is often referred to as patriarchal, it is not entirely unheard of for females to forge coalitions against males. There is also at least one recorded case of females securing a dominant position over males in their respective troop, albeit in a captive environment. Social grooming appears to be important in the formation and maintenance of coalitions. It is more common among adult males than either between adult females or between males and females.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Chimpanzees have been described as highly territorial and will frequently kill other chimpanzees, although Margaret Power wrote in her 1991 book The Egalitarians that the field studies from which the aggressive data came, Gombe and Mahale, used artificial feeding systems that increased aggression in the chimpanzee populations studied. Thus, the behaviour may not reflect innate characteristics of the species as a whole. In the years following her artificial feeding conditions at Gombe, Jane Goodall described groups of male chimpanzees patrolling the borders of their territory, brutally attacking chimpanzees that had split off from the Gombe group. A study published in 2010 found that the chimpanzees wage wars over territory, not mates. Patrols from smaller groups are more likely to avoid contact with their neighbours. Patrols from large groups even take over a smaller group's territory, gaining access to more resources, food, and females. While it was traditionally accepted that only female chimpanzees immigrate and males remain in their natal troop for life, there are confirmed cases of adult males safely integrating themselves into new communities among West African chimpanzees, suggesting they are less territorial than other subspecies.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Chimpanzees mate throughout the year, although the number of females in oestrus varies seasonally in a group. Female chimpanzees are more likely to come into oestrus when food is readily available. Oestrous females exhibit sexual swellings. Chimpanzees are promiscuous: during oestrus, females mate with several males in their community, while males have large testicles for sperm competition. Other forms of mating also exist. A community's dominant males sometimes restrict reproductive access to females. A male and female can form a consortship and mate outside their community. In addition, females sometimes leave their community and mate with males from neighboring communities.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "These alternative mating strategies give females more mating opportunities without losing the support of the males in their community. Infanticide has been recorded in chimpanzee communities in some areas, and the victims are often consumed. Male chimpanzees practice infanticide on unrelated young to shorten the interbirth intervals in the females. Females sometimes practice infanticide. This may be related to the dominance hierarchy in females or may simply be pathological.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Copulation is brief, lasting approximately seven seconds. The gestation period is eight months. Care for the young is provided mostly by their mothers. The survival and emotional health of the young is dependent on maternal care. Mothers provide their young with food, warmth, and protection, and teach them certain skills. In addition, a chimpanzee's future rank may be dependent on its mother's status. Male chimpanzees continue to associate with the females they impregnated and interact with and support their offspring. Newborn chimpanzees are helpless. For example, their grasping reflex is not strong enough to support them for more than a few seconds. For their first 30 days, infants cling to their mother's bellies. Infants are unable to support their own weight for their first two months and need their mothers' support.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "When they reach five to six months, infants ride on their mothers' backs. They remain in continual contact for the rest of their first year. When they reach two years of age, they are able to move and sit independently and start moving beyond the arms' reach of their mothers. By four to six years, chimpanzees are weaned and infancy ends. The juvenile period for chimpanzees lasts from their sixth to ninth years. Juveniles remain close to their mothers, but interact an increasing amount with other members of their community. Adolescent females move between groups and are supported by their mothers in agonistic encounters. Adolescent males spend time with adult males in social activities like hunting and boundary patrolling. A captive study suggests males can safely immigrate to a new group if accompanied by immigrant females who have an existing relationship with this male. This gives the resident males reproductive advantages with these females, as they are more inclined to remain in the group if their male friend is also accepted.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Chimpanzees use facial expressions, postures, and sounds to communicate with each other. Chimpanzees have expressive faces that are important in close-up communications. When frightened, a \"full closed grin\" causes nearby individuals to be fearful, as well. Playful chimpanzees display an open-mouthed grin. Chimpanzees may also express themselves with the \"pout\", which is made in distress, the \"sneer\", which is made when threatening or fearful, and \"compressed-lips face\", which is a type of display. When submitting to a dominant individual, a chimpanzee crunches, bobs, and extends a hand. When in an aggressive mode, a chimpanzee swaggers bipedally, hunched over and arms waving, in an attempt to exaggerate its size. While travelling, chimpanzees keep in contact by beating their hands and feet against the trunks of large trees, an act that is known as \"drumming\". They also do this when encountering individuals from other communities.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Vocalisations are also important in chimpanzee communication. The most common call in adults is the \"pant-hoot\", which may signal social rank and bond along with keeping groups together. Pant-hoots are made of four parts, starting with soft \"hoos\", the introduction; that gets louder and louder, the build-up; and climax into screams and sometimes barks; these die down back to soft \"hoos\" during the letdown phase as the call ends. Grunting is made in situations like feeding and greeting. Submissive individuals make \"pant-grunts\" towards their superiors. Whimpering is made by young chimpanzees as a form of begging or when lost from the group. Chimpanzees use distance calls to draw attention to danger, food sources, or other community members. \"Barks\" may be made as \"short barks\" when hunting and \"tonal barks\" when sighting large snakes.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "When hunting small monkeys such as the red colobus, chimpanzees hunt where the forest canopy is interrupted or irregular. This allows them to easily corner the monkeys when chasing them in the appropriate direction. Chimpanzees may also hunt as a coordinated team, so that they can corner their prey even in a continuous canopy. During an arboreal hunt, each chimpanzee in the hunting groups has a role. \"Drivers\" serve to keep the prey running in a certain direction and follow them without attempting to make a catch. \"Blockers\" are stationed at the bottom of the trees and climb up to block prey that takes off in a different direction. \"Chasers\" move quickly and try to make a catch. Finally, \"ambushers\" hide and rush out when a monkey nears. While both adults and infants are taken, adult male colobus monkeys will attack the hunting chimps. Male chimpanzees hunt more than females. When caught and killed, the meal is distributed to all hunting party members and even bystanders.",
"title": "Behaviour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Chimpanzees display numerous signs of intelligence, from the ability to remember symbols to cooperation, tool use, and perhaps language. They are among species that have passed the mirror test, suggesting self-awareness. In one study, two young chimpanzees showed retention of mirror self-recognition after one year without access to mirrors. Chimpanzees have been observed to use insects to treat their own wounds and those of others. They catch them and apply them directly to the injury. Chimpanzees also display signs of culture among groups, with the learning and transmission of variations in grooming, tool use and foraging techniques leading to localized traditions.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "A 30-year study at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute has shown that chimpanzees are able to learn to recognise the numbers 1 to 9 and their values. The chimpanzees further show an aptitude for eidetic memory, demonstrated in experiments in which the jumbled digits are flashed onto a computer screen for less than a quarter of a second. One chimpanzee, Ayumu, was able to correctly and quickly point to the positions where they appeared in ascending order. Ayumu performed better than human adults who were given the same test.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In controlled experiments on cooperation, chimpanzees show a basic understanding of cooperation, and recruit the best collaborators. In a group setting with a device that delivered food rewards only to cooperating chimpanzees, cooperation first increased, then, due to competitive behaviour, decreased, before finally increasing to the highest level through punishment and other arbitrage behaviours.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Great apes show laughter-like vocalisations in response to physical contact, such as wrestling, play chasing, or tickling. This is documented in wild and captive chimpanzees. Chimpanzee laughter is not readily recognisable to humans as such, because it is generated by alternating inhalations and exhalations that sound more like breathing and panting. Instances in which nonhuman primates have expressed joy have been reported. Humans and chimpanzees share similar ticklish areas of the body, such as the armpits and belly. The enjoyment of tickling in chimpanzees does not diminish with age.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Chimpanzees have displayed different behaviours in response to a dying or dead group member. When witnessing a sudden death, the other group members act in frenzy, with vocalisations, aggressive displays, and touching of the corpse. In one case chimpanzees cared for a dying elder, then attended and cleaned the corpse. Afterward, they avoided the spot where the elder died and behaved in a more subdued manner. Mothers have been reported to carry around and groom their dead infants for several days.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Experimenters now and then witness behaviour that cannot be readily reconciled with chimpanzee intelligence or theory of mind. Wolfgang Köhler, for instance, reported insightful behaviour in chimpanzees, but he likewise often observed that they experienced \"special difficulty\" in solving simple problems. Researchers also reported that, when faced with a choice between two persons, chimpanzees were just as likely to beg food from a person who could see the begging gesture as from a person who could not, thereby raising the possibility that chimpanzees lack theory of mind.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Nearly all chimpanzee populations have been recorded using tools. They modify sticks, rocks, grass, and leaves and use them when foraging for termites and ants, nuts, honey, algae or water. Despite the lack of complexity, forethought and skill are apparent in making these tools. Chimpanzees have used stone tools since at least 4,300 years ago.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "A chimpanzee from the Kasakela chimpanzee community was the first nonhuman animal reported making a tool, by modifying a twig to use as an instrument for extracting termites from their mound. At Taï, chimpanzees simply use their hands to extract termites. When foraging for honey, chimpanzees use modified short sticks to scoop the honey out of the hive if the bees are stingless. For hives of the dangerous African honeybees, chimpanzees use longer and thinner sticks to extract the honey.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Chimpanzees also fish for ants using the same tactic. Ant dipping is difficult and some chimpanzees never master it. West African chimpanzees crack open hard nuts with stones or branches. Some forethought in this activity is apparent, as these tools are not found together or where the nuts are collected. Nut cracking is also difficult and must be learned. Chimpanzees also use leaves as sponges or spoons to drink water.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "West African chimpanzees in Senegal were found to sharpen sticks with their teeth, which were then used to spear Senegal bushbabies out of small holes in trees. An eastern chimpanzee has been observed using a modified branch as a tool to capture a squirrel.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Whilst experimental studies on captive chimpanzees have found that many of their species-typical tool-use behaviours can be individually learnt by each chimpanzees, a 2021 study on their abilities to make and use stone flakes, in a similar way as hypothesised for early hominins, did not find this behaviour across two populations of chimpanzees—suggesting that this behaviour is outside the chimpanzee species-typical range.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Scientists have attempted to teach human language to several species of great ape. One early attempt by Allen and Beatrix Gardner in the 1960s involved spending 51 months teaching American Sign Language to a chimpanzee named Washoe. The Gardners reported that Washoe learned 151 signs, and had spontaneously taught them to other chimpanzees, including her adopted son, Loulis. Over a longer period of time, Washoe was reported to have learned over 350 signs.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Debate is ongoing among scientists such as David Premack about chimpanzees' ability to learn language. Since the early reports on Washoe, numerous other studies have been conducted, with varying levels of success. One involved a chimpanzee jokingly named Nim Chimpsky (in allusion to the theorist of language Noam Chomsky), trained by Herbert Terrace of Columbia University. Although his initial reports were quite positive, in November 1979, Terrace and his team, including psycholinguist Thomas Bever, re-evaluated the videotapes of Nim with his trainers, analyzing them frame by frame for signs, as well as for exact context (what was happening both before and after Nim's signs). In the reanalysis, Terrace and Bever concluded that Nim's utterances could be explained merely as prompting on the part of the experimenters, as well as mistakes in reporting the data. \"Much of the apes' behaviour is pure drill\", he said. \"Language still stands as an important definition of the human species.\" In this reversal, Terrace now argued Nim's use of ASL was not like human language acquisition. Nim never initiated conversations himself, rarely introduced new words, and mostly imitated what the humans did. More importantly, Nim's word strings varied in their ordering, suggesting that he was incapable of syntax. Nim's sentences also did not grow in length, unlike human children whose vocabulary and sentence length show a strong positive correlation.",
"title": "Intelligence and cognition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Chimpanzees are rarely represented in African culture, as people find their resemblance to humans discomforting. The Gio people of Liberia and the Hemba people of the Congo have created masks of the animals. Gio masks are crude and blocky, and worn when teaching young people how not to behave. The Hemba masks have a smile that suggests drunken anger, insanity or horror and are worn during rituals at funerals, representing the \"awful reality of death\". The masks may also serve to guard households and protect both human and plant fertility. Stories have been told of chimpanzees kidnapping and raping women.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In Western popular culture, chimpanzees have occasionally been stereotyped as childlike companions, sidekicks or clowns. They are especially suited for the latter role on account of their prominent facial features, long limbs and fast movements, which humans often find amusing. Accordingly, entertainment acts featuring chimpanzees dressed up as humans with lip-synchronised human voices have been traditional staples of circuses, stage shows and TV shows like Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp (1970-1972) and The Chimp Channel (1999). From 1926 until 1972, London Zoo, followed by several other zoos around the world, held a chimpanzees' tea party daily, inspiring a long-running series of advertisements for PG Tips tea featuring such a party. Animal rights groups have urged a stop to such acts, considering them abusive.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Chimpanzees in media include Judy on the television series Daktari in the 1960s and Darwin on The Wild Thornberrys in the 1990s. In contrast to the fictional depictions of other animals, such as dogs (as in Lassie), dolphins (Flipper), horses (The Black Stallion) or even other great apes (King Kong), chimpanzee characters and actions are rarely relevant to the plot. Depictions of chimpanzees as individuals rather than stock characters, and as central rather than incidental to the plot can be found in science fiction. Robert A. Heinlein's 1947 short story \"Jerry Was a Man\" concerns a genetically enhanced chimpanzee suing for better treatment. The 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the third sequel of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes, portrays a futuristic revolt of enslaved apes led by the only talking chimpanzee, Caesar, against their human masters.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Chimpanzees have traditionally been kept as pets in a few African villages, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Virunga National Park in the east of the country, the park authorities regularly confiscate chimpanzees from people keeping them as pets. Outside their range, chimpanzees are popular as exotic pets despite their strength and aggression. Even in places where keeping non-human primates as pets is illegal, the exotic pet trade continues to prosper, leading to injuries from attacks.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Hundreds of chimpanzees have been kept in laboratories for research. Most such laboratories either conduct or make the animals available for invasive research, defined as \"inoculation with an infectious agent, surgery or biopsy conducted for the sake of research and not for the sake of the chimpanzee, and/or drug testing\". Research chimpanzees tend to be used repeatedly over decades for up to 40 years, unlike the pattern of use of most laboratory animals. Two federally funded American laboratories use chimpanzees: the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Southwest National Primate Center in San Antonio, Texas. Five hundred chimpanzees have been retired from laboratory use in the US and live in animal sanctuaries in the US or Canada.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "A five-year moratorium was imposed by the US National Institutes of Health in 1996, because too many chimpanzees had been bred for HIV research, and it has been extended annually since 2001. With the publication of the chimpanzee genome, plans to increase the use of chimpanzees in America were reportedly increasing in 2006, some scientists arguing that the federal moratorium on breeding chimpanzees for research should be lifted. However, in 2007, the NIH made the moratorium permanent.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Other researchers argue that chimpanzees either should not be used in research, or should be treated differently, for instance with legal status as persons. Pascal Gagneux, an evolutionary biologist and primate expert at the University of California, San Diego, argues, given chimpanzees' sense of self, tool use, and genetic similarity to human beings, studies using chimpanzees should follow the ethical guidelines used for human subjects unable to give consent. A recent study suggests chimpanzees which are retired from labs exhibit a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Stuart Zola, director of the Yerkes laboratory, disagrees. He told National Geographic: \"I don't think we should make a distinction between our obligation to treat humanely any species, whether it's a rat or a monkey or a chimpanzee. No matter how much we may wish it, chimps are not human.\"",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Only one European laboratory, the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, used chimpanzees in research. It formerly held 108 chimpanzees among 1,300 non-human primates. The Dutch ministry of science decided to phase out research at the centre from 2001. Trials already under way were however allowed to run their course. Chimpanzees including the female Ai have been studied at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University, Japan, formerly directed by Tetsuro Matsuzawa, since 1978. Some 12 chimpanzees are currently held at the facility.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Two chimpanzees have been sent into outer space as NASA research subjects. Ham, the first great ape in space, was launched in the Mercury-Redstone 2 capsule on 31 January 1961, and survived the suborbital flight. Enos, the third primate to orbit Earth after Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, flew on Mercury-Atlas 5 on 29 November of the same year.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Jane Goodall undertook the first long-term field study of the chimpanzee, begun in Tanzania at Gombe Stream National Park in 1960. Other long-term studies begun in the 1960s include A. Kortlandt's in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Toshisada Nishida's in Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania. Current understanding of the species' typical behaviours and social organisation has been formed largely from Goodall's ongoing 60-year Gombe research study.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Chimpanzees have attacked humans. In Uganda, several attacks on children have happened, some of them fatal. Some of these attacks may have been due to the chimpanzees being intoxicated (from alcohol obtained from rural brewing operations) and becoming aggressive towards humans. Human interactions with chimpanzees may be especially dangerous if the chimpanzees perceive humans as potential rivals. At least six cases of chimpanzees snatching and eating human babies are documented.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "A chimpanzee's strength and sharp teeth mean that attacks, even on adult humans, can cause severe injuries. This was evident after the attack and near death of former NASCAR driver St. James Davis, who was mauled by two escaped chimpanzees (in the St. James Davis chimpanzee attack) while he and his wife were celebrating the birthday of their former pet chimpanzee. Another example of chimpanzees being aggressive toward humans occurred in 2009 in Stamford, Connecticut, when a 90-kilogram (200 lb), 13-year-old pet chimpanzee named Travis attacked his owner's friend, who lost her hands, eyes, nose, and part of her maxilla from the attack.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Two primary classes of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the more virulent and easily transmitted, and is the source of the majority of HIV infections throughout the world; HIV-2 is largely confined to west Africa. Both types originated in west and central Africa, jumping from other primates to humans. HIV-1 has evolved from a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVcpz) found in the subspecies P. t. troglodytes of southern Cameroon. Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has the greatest genetic diversity of HIV-1 so far discovered, suggesting the virus has been there longer than anywhere else. HIV-2 crossed species from a different strain of HIV, found in the sooty mangabey monkeys in Guinea-Bissau.",
"title": "Relations with humans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "The chimpanzee is on the IUCN Red List as an endangered species. Chimpanzees are legally protected in most of their range and are found both in and outside national parks. Between 172,700 and 299,700 individuals are thought to be living in the wild, a decrease from about a million chimpanzees in the early 1900s. Chimpanzees are listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meaning that commercial international trade in wild-sourced specimens is prohibited and all other international trade (including in parts and derivatives) is regulated by the CITES permitting system.",
"title": "Status and conservation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The biggest threats to the chimpanzee are habitat destruction, poaching, and disease. Chimpanzee habitats have been limited by deforestation in both West and Central Africa. Road building has caused habitat degradation and fragmentation of chimpanzee populations and may allow poachers more access to areas that had not been seriously affected by humans. Although deforestation rates are low in western Central Africa, selective logging may take place outside national parks.",
"title": "Status and conservation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Chimpanzees are a common target for poachers. In Ivory Coast, chimpanzees make up 1–3% of bushmeat sold in urban markets. They are also taken, often illegally, for the pet trade and are hunted for medicinal purposes in some areas. Farmers sometimes kill chimpanzees that threaten their crops; others are unintentionally maimed or killed by snares meant for other animals.",
"title": "Status and conservation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Infectious diseases are a main cause of death for chimpanzees. They succumb to many diseases that afflict humans because the two species are so similar. As human populations grow, so does the risk of disease transmission between humans and chimpanzees.",
"title": "Status and conservation"
}
] | The chimpanzee, also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus Pan. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that Pan is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is humans' closest living relative. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing 40–70 kg (88–154 lb) for males and 27–50 kg (60–110 lb) for females and standing 150 cm. The chimpanzee lives in groups that range in size from 15 to 150 members, although individuals travel and forage in much smaller groups during the day. The species lives in a strict male-dominated hierarchy, where disputes are generally settled without the need for violence. Nearly all chimpanzee populations have been recorded using tools, modifying sticks, rocks, grass and leaves and using them for hunting and acquiring honey, termites, ants, nuts and water. The species has also been found creating sharpened sticks to spear small mammals. Its gestation period is eight months. The infant is weaned at about three years old but usually maintains a close relationship with its mother for several years more. The chimpanzee is listed on the IUCN Red List as an endangered species. Between 170,000 and 300,000 individuals are estimated across its range. The biggest threats to the chimpanzee are habitat loss, poaching, and disease. Chimpanzees appear in Western popular culture as stereotyped clown-figures and have featured in entertainments such as chimpanzees' tea parties, circus acts and stage shows. Although many chimpanzees have been kept as pets, their strength, aggressiveness, and unpredictability makes them dangerous in this role. Some hundreds have been kept in laboratories for research, especially in the United States. Many attempts have been made to teach languages such as American Sign Language to chimpanzees, with limited success. | 2002-01-24T23:36:58Z | 2023-12-27T22:41:18Z | [
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7,845 | Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease | Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease (CMT) is a hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy of the peripheral nervous system characterized by progressive loss of muscle tissue and touch sensation across various parts of the body. This disease is the most commonly inherited neurological disorder, affecting about one in 2,500 people. It is named after those who classically described it: the Frenchman Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), his pupil Pierre Marie (1853–1940), and the Briton Howard Henry Tooth (1856–1925).
There is no known cure. Care focuses on maintaining function. CMT was previously classified as a subtype of muscular dystrophy.
Symptoms of CMT usually begin in early childhood or early adulthood but can begin later. Some people do not experience symptoms until their early 30s or 40s. Usually, the initial symptom is foot drop or high arches early in the course of the disease. This can be accompanied by hammertoe, where the toes are always curled. Wasting of muscle tissue of the lower parts of the legs may give rise to a "stork leg" or "inverted champagne bottle" appearance. Weakness in the hands and forearms occurs in many people as the disease progresses.
Loss of touch sensation in the feet, ankles, and legs as well as in the hands, wrists, and arms occurs with various types of the disease. Early- and late-onset forms occur with 'on and off' painful spasmodic muscular contractions that can be disabling when the disease activates. High-arched feet (pes cavus) or flat-arched feet (pes planus) are classically associated with the disorder. Sensory and proprioceptive nerves in the hands and feet are often damaged, while unmyelinated pain nerves are left intact. Overuse of an affected hand or limb can activate symptoms including numbness, spasm, and painful cramping.
Symptoms and progression of the disease can vary. Involuntary grinding of teeth and squinting are prevalent and often go unnoticed by the person affected. Breathing can be affected in some, as can hearing, vision, and neck and shoulder muscles. Scoliosis is common, causing hunching and loss of height. Hip sockets can be malformed. Gastrointestinal problems can be part of CMT, as can difficulty chewing, swallowing, and speaking (due to atrophy of vocal cords). A tremor can develop as muscles waste. Pregnancy has been known to exacerbate CMT, as well as severe emotional stress. Patients with CMT must avoid periods of prolonged immobility such as when recovering from a secondary injury, as prolonged periods of limited mobility can drastically accelerate symptoms of CMT.
Pain due to postural changes, skeletal deformations, muscle fatigue, and cramping is fairly common in people with CMT. It can be mitigated or treated by physical therapies, surgeries, and corrective or assistive devices. Analgesic medications may also be needed if other therapies do not provide relief from pain. Neuropathic pain is often a symptom of CMT, though, like other symptoms of CMT, its presence and severity vary from case to case. For some people, pain can be significant to severe and interfere with daily life activities. However, pain is not experienced by all people with CMT. When neuropathic pain is present as a symptom of CMT, it is comparable to that seen in other peripheral neuropathies, as well as postherpetic neuralgia and complex regional pain syndrome, among other diseases.
Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease is caused by genetic mutations that cause defects in neuronal proteins. Nerve signals are conducted by an axon with a myelin sheath wrapped around it. Most mutations in CMT affect the myelin sheath, but some affect the axon.
CMT is a heterogeneous disease and the mutations linked to it may occur in a number of different genes. Based on the affected gene, CMT is categorized into several types and subtypes.
The most common cause of CMT (70–80% of the cases) is the duplication of a large region on the short arm of chromosome 17 that includes the gene PMP22.
Some mutations affect the gene MFN2, on chromosome 1, which codes for a mitochondrial protein. Mutated MFN2 causes the mitochondria to form large clusters, or clots, which are unable to travel down the axon towards the synapses. This prevents the synapses from functioning.
CMT can also be produced by X-linked mutations and is named X-linked CMT (CMTX). In CMTX, mutated connexons create nonfunctional gap junctions that interrupt molecular exchange and signal transport.
The mutation can appear in the GJB1 gene coding for the connexin 32 protein, a gap junction protein expressed in Schwann cells. Because this protein is also present in oligodendrocytes, demyelination can appear in the CNS.
Schwann cells create the myelin sheath, by wrapping its plasma membrane around the axon.
Neurons, Schwann cells, and fibroblasts work together to create a functional nerve. Schwann cells and neurons exchange molecular signals by gap junctions that regulate survival and differentiation.
Demyelinating Schwann cells causes abnormal axon structure and function. They may cause axon degeneration, or they may simply cause axons to malfunction.
The myelin sheath allows nerve cells to conduct signals faster. When the myelin sheath is damaged, nerve signals are slower, and this can be measured by a common neurological test, electromyography. When the axon is damaged, though, this results in a reduced compound muscle action potential.
GARS1-Related Axonal Neuropathy
CMT2 types are typically referred to as axonal neuropathies due to the axonal degeneration observed. CMT2 types are a result of damage to the nerve axons rather than damage to the myelin sheath (as is the case with CMT1). Damaged axons cause slowed transmission of signals to the muscles and brain, causing symptoms including muscle atrophy, weakness, decreased sensitivity, and foot deformity. Symptoms of CMT2 types typically appear between the ages of 5 and 25. CMT2D is one of 31 Charcot–Marie–Tooth type 2 forms 1 and is only diagnosed if sensory deficits (such as loss of sensation due to the degradation of sensory axons) are observed along with motor deficits; otherwise, distal hereditary motor neuropathy type V is diagnosed. It is unknown why sensory involvement is so varied between GARS1 neuropathy patients. Symptoms of CMT2D include foot deformity, muscle weakness and cramping, compromised reflexes, loss of sensation, and muscle atrophy and are similar to the symptoms of other both CMT1 and CMT2 types. Symptoms and severity vary from patient to patient.
Mice are often used to model CMT2D and typically demonstrate aberrant neuromuscular function at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). The neuromuscular junction is abnormal in CMT2D mice, with subjects showing neuromuscular junction degeneration in hind muscles. The dorsal root ganglia (DRG) is also affected via aberrant sensory neuron fate, meaning that sensory neuron cell fates are abnormally determined. CMT2D mice have fewer proprioceptive and mechanosensitive neurons, but have more nociceptive neurons, possibly due to mutant GlyRS aberrantly interacting with the extracellular region of tropomyosin receptor kinase, or Trk, receptors. Trk receptors are crucial to the survival and development of sensory neurons; when disrupted, nerve development and survival is disrupted as well, possibly leading to the abnormal sensory neuron counts observed in CMT2D mice.
CMT2D is a result of autosomal dominant mutations in the human GARS1 gene located at 7p14.3 and is thought to be caused by aberrant gain-of-function missense mutations. The GARS1 gene is a protein-coding gene responsible for the encoding of glycyl-tRNA synthetase (GlyRS). Glycyl-tRNA synthetase is a class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase and acts as the catalyst for the synthesis of glycyl-tRNA by covalently bonding amino acids with their corresponding cognate tRNAs for protein translation. Glycyl-tRNA synthetase is integral to protein translation and attaches glycine to its cognate tRNA.
Many different mutations have been found in CMT2D patients and it remains unclear how mutations in GARS1 cause CMT2D. However, it is thought that mutant glycyl-tRNA synthetase (GlyRS) interferes with transmembrane receptors, causing motor disease and that mutations in the gene could disrupt the ability of GlyRS to interact with its cognate RNA, disrupting protein production. The GARS1 mutations present in CMT2D cause a deficient amount of glycyl-tRNA in cells, preventing the elongation phase of protein synthesis. Because elongation is a key step in protein production, ribosomes are unable to continue protein synthesis at glycine sites. GARS1 mutations also stall initiation of translation. Glycine addition failure causes a stress response that further stalls protein production, preventing initiation of translation. By stalling elongation and initiation of translation, CMT2D mutations in the GARS1 gene cause translational repression, meaning that overall translation is inhibited.
GARS1-associated axonal neuropathy is progressive, meaning that it worsens over time. Unknown mechanisms are thought to cause the chronic neurodegeneration resulting from the aberrant GlyRS; however, one theory for disease is VEGF-deficiency. Mutant GlysRS interferes with neuronal transmembrane receptors, including neuropilin 1 (Nrp1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), causing neuropathy. GARS-CMT2D mutations alter GlyRS and allow it to bind to the Nrp1 receptor, interfering with the normal binding of Nrp1 to VEGF. While enhanced expression of VEGF improves motor function, reduced expression of Nrp1 worsens CMT2D; because Nrp1 binds to mutant GlyRS in mutant GARS1-CMT2D individuals, Nrp1 expression is reduced, in turn worsening motor function. Mice with deficient VEGF demonstrate motor-neuron disease over time. Thus, the VEGF/Nrp1 pathway is considered to be targetable for CMT2D treatment.
CMT can be diagnosed through three different forms of tests: measurement of the speed of nerve impulses (nerve conduction studies), a biopsy of the nerve, and DNA testing. DNA testing can give a definitive diagnosis, but not all the genetic markers for CMT are known. CMT is first most noticed when someone develops lower leg weakness, such as foot drop, or foot deformities, including hammertoes and high arches, but signs alone do not lead to diagnosis. Patients must be referred to a physician specialising in neurology or rehabilitation medicine. To see signs of muscle weakness, the neurologist may ask patients to walk on their heels or to move part of their leg against an opposing force. To identify sensory loss, the neurologist tests for deep-tendon reflexes, such as the knee jerk, which are reduced or absent in CMT. The doctor may also ask the patient's family history since CMT is hereditary. The lack of family history does not rule out CMT, but is helpful to rule out other causes of neuropathy, such as diabetes or exposure to certain chemicals or drugs.
In 2010, CMT was one of the first diseases where the genetic cause of a particular patient's disease was precisely determined by sequencing the whole genome of an affected individual. This was done by the scientists employed by the Charcot Marie Tooth Association (CMTA). Two mutations were identified in a gene, SH3TC2, known to cause CMT. Researchers then compared the affected patient's genome to the genomes of the patient's mother, father, and seven siblings with and without the disease. The mother and father each had one normal and one mutant copy of this gene, and had mild or no symptoms. The offspring who inherited two mutant genes presented fully with the disease.
The constant cycle of demyelination and remyelination, which occurs in CMT, can lead to the formation of layers of myelin around some nerves, termed an "onion bulb". These are also seen in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Muscles show fiber type grouping, a similarly nonspecific finding that indicates a cycle of denervation/reinnervation. Normally, type I and type II muscle fibers show a checkerboard-like random distribution. However, when reinnervation occurs, the group of fibers associated with one nerve are of the same type. The standard for indicating fiber type is histoenzymatic adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase at pH 9.4).
Often, the most important goal for patients with CMT is to maintain movement, muscle strength, and flexibility. Therefore, an interprofessional team approach with occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), orthotist, podiatrist, and or orthopedic surgeon is recommended. PT typically focuses on muscle-strength training, muscle stretching, and aerobic exercise, while OT can provide education on energy conservation strategies and activities of daily living. Physical therapy should be involved in designing an exercise program that fits a person's personal strengths and flexibility. Bracing can also be used to correct problems caused by CMT. An orthotist may address gait abnormalities by prescribing the use of orthotics.
Appropriate footwear is also very important for people with CMT, but they often have difficulty finding well-fitting shoes because of their high-arched feet and hammertoes. Due to the lack of good sensory reception in the feet, CMT patients may also need to see a podiatrist for assistance in trimming nails or removing calluses that develop on the pads of the feet. Lastly, patients can also decide to have surgery performed by a podiatrist or an orthopedic surgeon. Surgery may help to stabilize the patients' feet or correct progressive problems. These procedures include straightening and pinning the toes, lowering the arch, and sometimes, fusing the ankle joint to provide stability. CMT patients must take extra care to avoid falling as fractures take longer to heal in someone with an underlying disease process. Additionally, the resulting inactivity may cause the CMT to worsen. The Charcot–Marie–Tooth Association classifies the chemotherapy drug vincristine as a "definite high risk" and states, "vincristine has been proven hazardous and should be avoided by all CMT patients, including those with no symptoms." Several corrective surgical procedures can be done to improve the physical condition of the affected individuals.
If the muscles of the lower extremities are weak, it makes sense to prescribe custom-fabricated orthotics. Depending on which muscle groups are affected, the correct orthoses with appropriate functional elements should be prescribed. A weakness of the Musculus tibialis anterior, which lifts the feet, is usually accompanied by an atrophy of the Musculus gastrocnemius which, together with the Musculus soleus, forms the Musculus triceps surae (distal calf muscles), occurs causing the known "stork leg deformity". In most cases, ankle-foot orthoses that have functional elements for the foot lifting and adjustable control of the lowering of the forefoot make sense. Weak calf muscles lead to insufficient activation of the forefoot lever. This leads to an additional increasing uncertainty when standing and walking. If the calf muscles are weak, an orthosis should therefore be equipped with functional elements to activate the forefoot lever. An orthotic joint with an adjustable dynamic dorsiflexion stop with strong spring in combination with a lower leg shell in front of the shin is recommended for this. Such orthoses help to control foot drop, instability of the foot and ankle and offer the patient a better sense of balance when standing and walking without restricting mobility and the dynamics of the ankle joint. Studies confirm the positive effect of orthoses with adjustable functional elements in patients with paralysis of these muscle groups. It is of great advantage if the resistances of the two functional elements can be set separately from one another in the two directions of movement, dorsiflexion and plantar flexion.
The severity of symptoms varies widely even for the same type of CMT. Cases of monozygotic twins with varying levels of disease severity have been reported, showing that identical genotypes are associated with different levels of severity (see penetrance). Some patients are able to live a normal life and are almost or entirely asymptomatic. A 2007 review stated that, "life expectancy is not known to be altered in the majority of cases."
The disease is named after those who classically described it: the Frenchman Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), his pupil Pierre Marie (1853–1940), and the Briton Howard Henry Tooth (1856–1925). | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease (CMT) is a hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy of the peripheral nervous system characterized by progressive loss of muscle tissue and touch sensation across various parts of the body. This disease is the most commonly inherited neurological disorder, affecting about one in 2,500 people. It is named after those who classically described it: the Frenchman Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), his pupil Pierre Marie (1853–1940), and the Briton Howard Henry Tooth (1856–1925).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "There is no known cure. Care focuses on maintaining function. CMT was previously classified as a subtype of muscular dystrophy.",
"title": ""
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"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Symptoms of CMT usually begin in early childhood or early adulthood but can begin later. Some people do not experience symptoms until their early 30s or 40s. Usually, the initial symptom is foot drop or high arches early in the course of the disease. This can be accompanied by hammertoe, where the toes are always curled. Wasting of muscle tissue of the lower parts of the legs may give rise to a \"stork leg\" or \"inverted champagne bottle\" appearance. Weakness in the hands and forearms occurs in many people as the disease progresses.",
"title": "Signs and symptoms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Loss of touch sensation in the feet, ankles, and legs as well as in the hands, wrists, and arms occurs with various types of the disease. Early- and late-onset forms occur with 'on and off' painful spasmodic muscular contractions that can be disabling when the disease activates. High-arched feet (pes cavus) or flat-arched feet (pes planus) are classically associated with the disorder. Sensory and proprioceptive nerves in the hands and feet are often damaged, while unmyelinated pain nerves are left intact. Overuse of an affected hand or limb can activate symptoms including numbness, spasm, and painful cramping.",
"title": "Signs and symptoms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Symptoms and progression of the disease can vary. Involuntary grinding of teeth and squinting are prevalent and often go unnoticed by the person affected. Breathing can be affected in some, as can hearing, vision, and neck and shoulder muscles. Scoliosis is common, causing hunching and loss of height. Hip sockets can be malformed. Gastrointestinal problems can be part of CMT, as can difficulty chewing, swallowing, and speaking (due to atrophy of vocal cords). A tremor can develop as muscles waste. Pregnancy has been known to exacerbate CMT, as well as severe emotional stress. Patients with CMT must avoid periods of prolonged immobility such as when recovering from a secondary injury, as prolonged periods of limited mobility can drastically accelerate symptoms of CMT.",
"title": "Signs and symptoms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Pain due to postural changes, skeletal deformations, muscle fatigue, and cramping is fairly common in people with CMT. It can be mitigated or treated by physical therapies, surgeries, and corrective or assistive devices. Analgesic medications may also be needed if other therapies do not provide relief from pain. Neuropathic pain is often a symptom of CMT, though, like other symptoms of CMT, its presence and severity vary from case to case. For some people, pain can be significant to severe and interfere with daily life activities. However, pain is not experienced by all people with CMT. When neuropathic pain is present as a symptom of CMT, it is comparable to that seen in other peripheral neuropathies, as well as postherpetic neuralgia and complex regional pain syndrome, among other diseases.",
"title": "Signs and symptoms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease is caused by genetic mutations that cause defects in neuronal proteins. Nerve signals are conducted by an axon with a myelin sheath wrapped around it. Most mutations in CMT affect the myelin sheath, but some affect the axon.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "CMT is a heterogeneous disease and the mutations linked to it may occur in a number of different genes. Based on the affected gene, CMT is categorized into several types and subtypes.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The most common cause of CMT (70–80% of the cases) is the duplication of a large region on the short arm of chromosome 17 that includes the gene PMP22.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Some mutations affect the gene MFN2, on chromosome 1, which codes for a mitochondrial protein. Mutated MFN2 causes the mitochondria to form large clusters, or clots, which are unable to travel down the axon towards the synapses. This prevents the synapses from functioning.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "CMT can also be produced by X-linked mutations and is named X-linked CMT (CMTX). In CMTX, mutated connexons create nonfunctional gap junctions that interrupt molecular exchange and signal transport.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The mutation can appear in the GJB1 gene coding for the connexin 32 protein, a gap junction protein expressed in Schwann cells. Because this protein is also present in oligodendrocytes, demyelination can appear in the CNS.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Schwann cells create the myelin sheath, by wrapping its plasma membrane around the axon.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Neurons, Schwann cells, and fibroblasts work together to create a functional nerve. Schwann cells and neurons exchange molecular signals by gap junctions that regulate survival and differentiation.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Demyelinating Schwann cells causes abnormal axon structure and function. They may cause axon degeneration, or they may simply cause axons to malfunction.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The myelin sheath allows nerve cells to conduct signals faster. When the myelin sheath is damaged, nerve signals are slower, and this can be measured by a common neurological test, electromyography. When the axon is damaged, though, this results in a reduced compound muscle action potential.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "GARS1-Related Axonal Neuropathy",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "CMT2 types are typically referred to as axonal neuropathies due to the axonal degeneration observed. CMT2 types are a result of damage to the nerve axons rather than damage to the myelin sheath (as is the case with CMT1). Damaged axons cause slowed transmission of signals to the muscles and brain, causing symptoms including muscle atrophy, weakness, decreased sensitivity, and foot deformity. Symptoms of CMT2 types typically appear between the ages of 5 and 25. CMT2D is one of 31 Charcot–Marie–Tooth type 2 forms 1 and is only diagnosed if sensory deficits (such as loss of sensation due to the degradation of sensory axons) are observed along with motor deficits; otherwise, distal hereditary motor neuropathy type V is diagnosed. It is unknown why sensory involvement is so varied between GARS1 neuropathy patients. Symptoms of CMT2D include foot deformity, muscle weakness and cramping, compromised reflexes, loss of sensation, and muscle atrophy and are similar to the symptoms of other both CMT1 and CMT2 types. Symptoms and severity vary from patient to patient.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Mice are often used to model CMT2D and typically demonstrate aberrant neuromuscular function at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). The neuromuscular junction is abnormal in CMT2D mice, with subjects showing neuromuscular junction degeneration in hind muscles. The dorsal root ganglia (DRG) is also affected via aberrant sensory neuron fate, meaning that sensory neuron cell fates are abnormally determined. CMT2D mice have fewer proprioceptive and mechanosensitive neurons, but have more nociceptive neurons, possibly due to mutant GlyRS aberrantly interacting with the extracellular region of tropomyosin receptor kinase, or Trk, receptors. Trk receptors are crucial to the survival and development of sensory neurons; when disrupted, nerve development and survival is disrupted as well, possibly leading to the abnormal sensory neuron counts observed in CMT2D mice.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "CMT2D is a result of autosomal dominant mutations in the human GARS1 gene located at 7p14.3 and is thought to be caused by aberrant gain-of-function missense mutations. The GARS1 gene is a protein-coding gene responsible for the encoding of glycyl-tRNA synthetase (GlyRS). Glycyl-tRNA synthetase is a class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase and acts as the catalyst for the synthesis of glycyl-tRNA by covalently bonding amino acids with their corresponding cognate tRNAs for protein translation. Glycyl-tRNA synthetase is integral to protein translation and attaches glycine to its cognate tRNA.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Many different mutations have been found in CMT2D patients and it remains unclear how mutations in GARS1 cause CMT2D. However, it is thought that mutant glycyl-tRNA synthetase (GlyRS) interferes with transmembrane receptors, causing motor disease and that mutations in the gene could disrupt the ability of GlyRS to interact with its cognate RNA, disrupting protein production. The GARS1 mutations present in CMT2D cause a deficient amount of glycyl-tRNA in cells, preventing the elongation phase of protein synthesis. Because elongation is a key step in protein production, ribosomes are unable to continue protein synthesis at glycine sites. GARS1 mutations also stall initiation of translation. Glycine addition failure causes a stress response that further stalls protein production, preventing initiation of translation. By stalling elongation and initiation of translation, CMT2D mutations in the GARS1 gene cause translational repression, meaning that overall translation is inhibited.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "GARS1-associated axonal neuropathy is progressive, meaning that it worsens over time. Unknown mechanisms are thought to cause the chronic neurodegeneration resulting from the aberrant GlyRS; however, one theory for disease is VEGF-deficiency. Mutant GlysRS interferes with neuronal transmembrane receptors, including neuropilin 1 (Nrp1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), causing neuropathy. GARS-CMT2D mutations alter GlyRS and allow it to bind to the Nrp1 receptor, interfering with the normal binding of Nrp1 to VEGF. While enhanced expression of VEGF improves motor function, reduced expression of Nrp1 worsens CMT2D; because Nrp1 binds to mutant GlyRS in mutant GARS1-CMT2D individuals, Nrp1 expression is reduced, in turn worsening motor function. Mice with deficient VEGF demonstrate motor-neuron disease over time. Thus, the VEGF/Nrp1 pathway is considered to be targetable for CMT2D treatment.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "CMT can be diagnosed through three different forms of tests: measurement of the speed of nerve impulses (nerve conduction studies), a biopsy of the nerve, and DNA testing. DNA testing can give a definitive diagnosis, but not all the genetic markers for CMT are known. CMT is first most noticed when someone develops lower leg weakness, such as foot drop, or foot deformities, including hammertoes and high arches, but signs alone do not lead to diagnosis. Patients must be referred to a physician specialising in neurology or rehabilitation medicine. To see signs of muscle weakness, the neurologist may ask patients to walk on their heels or to move part of their leg against an opposing force. To identify sensory loss, the neurologist tests for deep-tendon reflexes, such as the knee jerk, which are reduced or absent in CMT. The doctor may also ask the patient's family history since CMT is hereditary. The lack of family history does not rule out CMT, but is helpful to rule out other causes of neuropathy, such as diabetes or exposure to certain chemicals or drugs.",
"title": "Diagnosis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In 2010, CMT was one of the first diseases where the genetic cause of a particular patient's disease was precisely determined by sequencing the whole genome of an affected individual. This was done by the scientists employed by the Charcot Marie Tooth Association (CMTA). Two mutations were identified in a gene, SH3TC2, known to cause CMT. Researchers then compared the affected patient's genome to the genomes of the patient's mother, father, and seven siblings with and without the disease. The mother and father each had one normal and one mutant copy of this gene, and had mild or no symptoms. The offspring who inherited two mutant genes presented fully with the disease.",
"title": "Diagnosis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The constant cycle of demyelination and remyelination, which occurs in CMT, can lead to the formation of layers of myelin around some nerves, termed an \"onion bulb\". These are also seen in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Muscles show fiber type grouping, a similarly nonspecific finding that indicates a cycle of denervation/reinnervation. Normally, type I and type II muscle fibers show a checkerboard-like random distribution. However, when reinnervation occurs, the group of fibers associated with one nerve are of the same type. The standard for indicating fiber type is histoenzymatic adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase at pH 9.4).",
"title": "Diagnosis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Often, the most important goal for patients with CMT is to maintain movement, muscle strength, and flexibility. Therefore, an interprofessional team approach with occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), orthotist, podiatrist, and or orthopedic surgeon is recommended. PT typically focuses on muscle-strength training, muscle stretching, and aerobic exercise, while OT can provide education on energy conservation strategies and activities of daily living. Physical therapy should be involved in designing an exercise program that fits a person's personal strengths and flexibility. Bracing can also be used to correct problems caused by CMT. An orthotist may address gait abnormalities by prescribing the use of orthotics.",
"title": "Management"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Appropriate footwear is also very important for people with CMT, but they often have difficulty finding well-fitting shoes because of their high-arched feet and hammertoes. Due to the lack of good sensory reception in the feet, CMT patients may also need to see a podiatrist for assistance in trimming nails or removing calluses that develop on the pads of the feet. Lastly, patients can also decide to have surgery performed by a podiatrist or an orthopedic surgeon. Surgery may help to stabilize the patients' feet or correct progressive problems. These procedures include straightening and pinning the toes, lowering the arch, and sometimes, fusing the ankle joint to provide stability. CMT patients must take extra care to avoid falling as fractures take longer to heal in someone with an underlying disease process. Additionally, the resulting inactivity may cause the CMT to worsen. The Charcot–Marie–Tooth Association classifies the chemotherapy drug vincristine as a \"definite high risk\" and states, \"vincristine has been proven hazardous and should be avoided by all CMT patients, including those with no symptoms.\" Several corrective surgical procedures can be done to improve the physical condition of the affected individuals.",
"title": "Management"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "If the muscles of the lower extremities are weak, it makes sense to prescribe custom-fabricated orthotics. Depending on which muscle groups are affected, the correct orthoses with appropriate functional elements should be prescribed. A weakness of the Musculus tibialis anterior, which lifts the feet, is usually accompanied by an atrophy of the Musculus gastrocnemius which, together with the Musculus soleus, forms the Musculus triceps surae (distal calf muscles), occurs causing the known \"stork leg deformity\". In most cases, ankle-foot orthoses that have functional elements for the foot lifting and adjustable control of the lowering of the forefoot make sense. Weak calf muscles lead to insufficient activation of the forefoot lever. This leads to an additional increasing uncertainty when standing and walking. If the calf muscles are weak, an orthosis should therefore be equipped with functional elements to activate the forefoot lever. An orthotic joint with an adjustable dynamic dorsiflexion stop with strong spring in combination with a lower leg shell in front of the shin is recommended for this. Such orthoses help to control foot drop, instability of the foot and ankle and offer the patient a better sense of balance when standing and walking without restricting mobility and the dynamics of the ankle joint. Studies confirm the positive effect of orthoses with adjustable functional elements in patients with paralysis of these muscle groups. It is of great advantage if the resistances of the two functional elements can be set separately from one another in the two directions of movement, dorsiflexion and plantar flexion.",
"title": "Management"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The severity of symptoms varies widely even for the same type of CMT. Cases of monozygotic twins with varying levels of disease severity have been reported, showing that identical genotypes are associated with different levels of severity (see penetrance). Some patients are able to live a normal life and are almost or entirely asymptomatic. A 2007 review stated that, \"life expectancy is not known to be altered in the majority of cases.\"",
"title": "Prognosis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The disease is named after those who classically described it: the Frenchman Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), his pupil Pierre Marie (1853–1940), and the Briton Howard Henry Tooth (1856–1925).",
"title": "History"
}
] | Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease (CMT) is a hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy of the peripheral nervous system characterized by progressive loss of muscle tissue and touch sensation across various parts of the body. This disease is the most commonly inherited neurological disorder, affecting about one in 2,500 people. It is named after those who classically described it: the Frenchman Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), his pupil Pierre Marie (1853–1940), and the Briton Howard Henry Tooth (1856–1925). There is no known cure. Care focuses on maintaining function. CMT was previously classified as a subtype of muscular dystrophy. | 2002-02-25T15:51:15Z | 2023-12-17T19:31:21Z | [
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7,846 | Central pontine myelinolysis | Central pontine myelinolysis is a neurological condition involving severe damage to the myelin sheath of nerve cells in the pons (an area of the brainstem). It is predominately iatrogenic (treatment-induced), and is characterized by acute paralysis, dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), dysarthria (difficulty speaking), and other neurological symptoms.
Central pontine myelinolysis was first described as a disorder in 1959. The original paper described four cases with fatal outcomes, and the findings on autopsy. The disease was described as a disease of alcoholics and malnutrition. 'Central pontine' indicated the site of the lesion and 'myelinolysis' was used to emphasise that myelin was affected. The authors intentionally avoided the term 'demyelination' to describe the condition, in order to differentiate this condition from multiple sclerosis and other neuroinflammatory disorders.
Since this original description, demyelination in other areas of the central nervous system associated with osmotic stress has been described outside the pons (extrapontine). Osmotic demyelination syndrome is the term used for both central pontine myelinolysis and extrapontine myelinolysis.
Central pontine myelinolysis, and osmotic demyelination syndrome, present most commonly as a complication of treatment of patients with profound hyponatremia (low sodium), which can result from a varied spectrum of conditions, based on different mechanisms. It occurs as a consequence of a rapid rise in serum tonicity following treatment in individuals with chronic, severe hyponatremia who have made intracellular adaptations to the prevailing hypotonicity.
Symptoms depend on the regions of the brain involved. Prior to its onset, patients may present with the neurological signs and symptoms of hyponatraemic encephalopathy such as nausea and vomiting, confusion, headache and seizures. These symptoms may resolve with normalisation of the serum sodium concentration. Three to five days later, a second phase of neurological manifestations occurs correlating with the onset of myelinolysis. Observable immediate precursors may include seizures, disturbed consciousness, gait changes, and decrease or cessation of respiratory function.
The classical clinical presentation is the progressive development of spastic quadriparesis, pseudobulbar palsy, and emotional lability (pseudobulbar affect), with other more variable neurological features associated with brainstem damage. These result from a rapid myelinolysis of the corticobulbar and corticospinal tracts in the brainstem.
In about ten per cent of people with central pontine myelinolysis, extrapontine myelinolysis is also found. In these cases symptoms of Parkinson's disease may be generated.
The most common cause is overly-rapid correction of low blood sodium levels (hyponatremia). Apart from rapid correction of hyponatraemia, there are case reports of central pontine myelinolysis in association with hypokalaemia, anorexia nervosa when feeding is started, patients undergoing dialysis and burn victims. There is a case report of central pontine myelinolysis occurring in the context of refeeding syndrome, in the absence of hyponatremia.
It has also been known to occur in patients suffering withdrawal symptoms of chronic alcoholism. In these instances, occurrence may be entirely unrelated to hyponatremia or rapid correction of hyponatremia. It could affect patients who take some prescription medicines that are able to cross the blood-brain barrier and cause abnormal thirst reception - in this scenario the central pontine myelinolysis is caused by polydipsia leading to low blood sodium levels (hyponatremia).
In schizophrenic patients with psychogenic polydipsia, inadequate thirst reception leads to excessive water intake, severely diluting serum sodium. With this excessive thirst combined with psychotic symptoms, brain damage such as central pontine myelinolysis may result from hyperosmolarity caused by excess intake of fluids, (primary polydipsia) although this is difficult to determine because such patients are often institutionalised and have a long history of mental health conditions.
It has been observed following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Central pontine myelinolysis may also occur in patients prone to hyponatremia affected by:
The currently accepted theory states that the brain cells adjust their osmolarities by changing levels of certain osmolytes like inositol, betaine, and glutamine in response to varying serum osmolality. In the context of chronic low plasma sodium (hyponatremia), the brain compensates by decreasing the levels of these osmolytes within the cells, so that they can remain relatively isotonic with their surroundings and not absorb too much fluid. The reverse is true in hypernatremia, in which the cells increase their intracellular osmolytes so as not to lose too much fluid to the extracellular space.
With correction of the hyponatremia with intravenous fluids, the extracellular tonicity increases, followed by an increase in intracellular tonicity. When the correction is too rapid, not enough time is allowed for the brain's cells to adjust to the new tonicity, namely by increasing the intracellular osmoles mentioned earlier. If the serum sodium levels rise too rapidly, the increased extracellular tonicity will continue to drive water out of the brain's cells. This can lead to cellular dysfunction and central pontine myelinolysis.
It can be diagnosed clinically in the appropriate context, but may be difficult to confirm radiologically using conventional imaging techniques. Changes are more prominent on MRI than on CT, but often take days or weeks after acute symptom onset to develop. Imaging by MRI typically demonstrates areas of hyperintensity on T2-weighted images.
To minimise the risk of this condition developing from its most common cause, overly rapid reversal of hyponatremia, the hyponatremia should be corrected at a rate not exceeding 10 mmol/L/24 h or 0.5 mEq/L/h; or 18 mEq/L/48hrs; thus avoiding demyelination. No large clinical trials have been performed to examine the efficacy of therapeutic re-lowering of serum sodium, or other interventions sometimes advocated such as steroids or plasma exchange. Alcoholic patients should receive vitamin supplementation and a formal evaluation of their nutritional status.
Once osmotic demyelination has begun, there is no cure or specific treatment. Care is mainly supportive. Alcoholics are usually given vitamins to correct for other deficiencies. The favourable factors contributing to the good outcome in central pontine myelinolysis without hyponatremia were: concurrent treatment of all electrolyte disturbances, early intensive care unit involvement at the advent of respiratory complications, early introduction of feeding including thiamine supplements with close monitoring of the electrolyte changes and input.
Research has led to improved outcomes. Animal studies suggest that inositol reduces the severity of osmotic demyelination syndrome if given before attempting to correct chronic hyponatraemia. Further study is required before using inositol in humans for this purpose.
Though traditionally the prognosis is considered poor, a good functional recovery is possible. All patients at risk of developing refeeding syndrome should have their electrolytes closely monitored, including sodium, potassium, magnesium, glucose and phosphate. Recent data indicate that the prognosis of critically ill patients may even be better than what is generally considered, despite severe initial clinical manifestations and a tendency by the intensivists to underestimate a possible favorable evolution. While some patients die, most survive and of the survivors, approximately one-third recover; one-third are disabled but are able to live independently; one-third are severely disabled. Permanent disabilities range from minor tremors and ataxia to signs of severe brain damage, such as spastic quadriparesis and locked-in syndrome. Some improvements may be seen over the course of the first several months after the condition stabilizes.
The degree of recovery depends on the extent of the original axonal damage. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Central pontine myelinolysis is a neurological condition involving severe damage to the myelin sheath of nerve cells in the pons (an area of the brainstem). It is predominately iatrogenic (treatment-induced), and is characterized by acute paralysis, dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), dysarthria (difficulty speaking), and other neurological symptoms.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Central pontine myelinolysis was first described as a disorder in 1959. The original paper described four cases with fatal outcomes, and the findings on autopsy. The disease was described as a disease of alcoholics and malnutrition. 'Central pontine' indicated the site of the lesion and 'myelinolysis' was used to emphasise that myelin was affected. The authors intentionally avoided the term 'demyelination' to describe the condition, in order to differentiate this condition from multiple sclerosis and other neuroinflammatory disorders.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Since this original description, demyelination in other areas of the central nervous system associated with osmotic stress has been described outside the pons (extrapontine). Osmotic demyelination syndrome is the term used for both central pontine myelinolysis and extrapontine myelinolysis.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Central pontine myelinolysis, and osmotic demyelination syndrome, present most commonly as a complication of treatment of patients with profound hyponatremia (low sodium), which can result from a varied spectrum of conditions, based on different mechanisms. It occurs as a consequence of a rapid rise in serum tonicity following treatment in individuals with chronic, severe hyponatremia who have made intracellular adaptations to the prevailing hypotonicity.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Symptoms depend on the regions of the brain involved. Prior to its onset, patients may present with the neurological signs and symptoms of hyponatraemic encephalopathy such as nausea and vomiting, confusion, headache and seizures. These symptoms may resolve with normalisation of the serum sodium concentration. Three to five days later, a second phase of neurological manifestations occurs correlating with the onset of myelinolysis. Observable immediate precursors may include seizures, disturbed consciousness, gait changes, and decrease or cessation of respiratory function.",
"title": "Signs and symptoms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The classical clinical presentation is the progressive development of spastic quadriparesis, pseudobulbar palsy, and emotional lability (pseudobulbar affect), with other more variable neurological features associated with brainstem damage. These result from a rapid myelinolysis of the corticobulbar and corticospinal tracts in the brainstem.",
"title": "Signs and symptoms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In about ten per cent of people with central pontine myelinolysis, extrapontine myelinolysis is also found. In these cases symptoms of Parkinson's disease may be generated.",
"title": "Signs and symptoms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The most common cause is overly-rapid correction of low blood sodium levels (hyponatremia). Apart from rapid correction of hyponatraemia, there are case reports of central pontine myelinolysis in association with hypokalaemia, anorexia nervosa when feeding is started, patients undergoing dialysis and burn victims. There is a case report of central pontine myelinolysis occurring in the context of refeeding syndrome, in the absence of hyponatremia.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "It has also been known to occur in patients suffering withdrawal symptoms of chronic alcoholism. In these instances, occurrence may be entirely unrelated to hyponatremia or rapid correction of hyponatremia. It could affect patients who take some prescription medicines that are able to cross the blood-brain barrier and cause abnormal thirst reception - in this scenario the central pontine myelinolysis is caused by polydipsia leading to low blood sodium levels (hyponatremia).",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In schizophrenic patients with psychogenic polydipsia, inadequate thirst reception leads to excessive water intake, severely diluting serum sodium. With this excessive thirst combined with psychotic symptoms, brain damage such as central pontine myelinolysis may result from hyperosmolarity caused by excess intake of fluids, (primary polydipsia) although this is difficult to determine because such patients are often institutionalised and have a long history of mental health conditions.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "It has been observed following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Central pontine myelinolysis may also occur in patients prone to hyponatremia affected by:",
"title": "Causes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The currently accepted theory states that the brain cells adjust their osmolarities by changing levels of certain osmolytes like inositol, betaine, and glutamine in response to varying serum osmolality. In the context of chronic low plasma sodium (hyponatremia), the brain compensates by decreasing the levels of these osmolytes within the cells, so that they can remain relatively isotonic with their surroundings and not absorb too much fluid. The reverse is true in hypernatremia, in which the cells increase their intracellular osmolytes so as not to lose too much fluid to the extracellular space.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "With correction of the hyponatremia with intravenous fluids, the extracellular tonicity increases, followed by an increase in intracellular tonicity. When the correction is too rapid, not enough time is allowed for the brain's cells to adjust to the new tonicity, namely by increasing the intracellular osmoles mentioned earlier. If the serum sodium levels rise too rapidly, the increased extracellular tonicity will continue to drive water out of the brain's cells. This can lead to cellular dysfunction and central pontine myelinolysis.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "It can be diagnosed clinically in the appropriate context, but may be difficult to confirm radiologically using conventional imaging techniques. Changes are more prominent on MRI than on CT, but often take days or weeks after acute symptom onset to develop. Imaging by MRI typically demonstrates areas of hyperintensity on T2-weighted images.",
"title": "Diagnosis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "To minimise the risk of this condition developing from its most common cause, overly rapid reversal of hyponatremia, the hyponatremia should be corrected at a rate not exceeding 10 mmol/L/24 h or 0.5 mEq/L/h; or 18 mEq/L/48hrs; thus avoiding demyelination. No large clinical trials have been performed to examine the efficacy of therapeutic re-lowering of serum sodium, or other interventions sometimes advocated such as steroids or plasma exchange. Alcoholic patients should receive vitamin supplementation and a formal evaluation of their nutritional status.",
"title": "Treatment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Once osmotic demyelination has begun, there is no cure or specific treatment. Care is mainly supportive. Alcoholics are usually given vitamins to correct for other deficiencies. The favourable factors contributing to the good outcome in central pontine myelinolysis without hyponatremia were: concurrent treatment of all electrolyte disturbances, early intensive care unit involvement at the advent of respiratory complications, early introduction of feeding including thiamine supplements with close monitoring of the electrolyte changes and input.",
"title": "Treatment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Research has led to improved outcomes. Animal studies suggest that inositol reduces the severity of osmotic demyelination syndrome if given before attempting to correct chronic hyponatraemia. Further study is required before using inositol in humans for this purpose.",
"title": "Treatment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Though traditionally the prognosis is considered poor, a good functional recovery is possible. All patients at risk of developing refeeding syndrome should have their electrolytes closely monitored, including sodium, potassium, magnesium, glucose and phosphate. Recent data indicate that the prognosis of critically ill patients may even be better than what is generally considered, despite severe initial clinical manifestations and a tendency by the intensivists to underestimate a possible favorable evolution. While some patients die, most survive and of the survivors, approximately one-third recover; one-third are disabled but are able to live independently; one-third are severely disabled. Permanent disabilities range from minor tremors and ataxia to signs of severe brain damage, such as spastic quadriparesis and locked-in syndrome. Some improvements may be seen over the course of the first several months after the condition stabilizes.",
"title": "Prognosis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The degree of recovery depends on the extent of the original axonal damage.",
"title": "Prognosis"
}
] | Central pontine myelinolysis is a neurological condition involving severe damage to the myelin sheath of nerve cells in the pons. It is predominately iatrogenic (treatment-induced), and is characterized by acute paralysis, dysphagia, dysarthria, and other neurological symptoms. Central pontine myelinolysis was first described as a disorder in 1959. The original paper described four cases with fatal outcomes, and the findings on autopsy. The disease was described as a disease of alcoholics and malnutrition. 'Central pontine' indicated the site of the lesion and 'myelinolysis' was used to emphasise that myelin was affected. The authors intentionally avoided the term 'demyelination' to describe the condition, in order to differentiate this condition from multiple sclerosis and other neuroinflammatory disorders. Since this original description, demyelination in other areas of the central nervous system associated with osmotic stress has been described outside the pons (extrapontine). Osmotic demyelination syndrome is the term used for both central pontine myelinolysis and extrapontine myelinolysis. Central pontine myelinolysis, and osmotic demyelination syndrome, present most commonly as a complication of treatment of patients with profound hyponatremia, which can result from a varied spectrum of conditions, based on different mechanisms. It occurs as a consequence of a rapid rise in serum tonicity following treatment in individuals with chronic, severe hyponatremia who have made intracellular adaptations to the prevailing hypotonicity. | 2002-02-25T15:51:15Z | 2023-11-26T04:19:37Z | [
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7,849 | Crystallographic defect | A crystallographic defect is an interruption of the regular patterns of arrangement of atoms or molecules in crystalline solids. The positions and orientations of particles, which are repeating at fixed distances determined by the unit cell parameters in crystals, exhibit a periodic crystal structure, but this is usually imperfect. Several types of defects are often characterized: point defects, line defects, planar defects, bulk defects. Topological homotopy establishes a mathematical method of characterization.
Point defects are defects that occur only at or around a single lattice point. They are not extended in space in any dimension. Strict limits for how small a point defect is are generally not defined explicitly. However, these defects typically involve at most a few extra or missing atoms. Larger defects in an ordered structure are usually considered dislocation loops. For historical reasons, many point defects, especially in ionic crystals, are called centers: for example a vacancy in many ionic solids is called a luminescence center, a color center, or F-center. These dislocations permit ionic transport through crystals leading to electrochemical reactions. These are frequently specified using Kröger–Vink notation.
Line defects can be described by gauge theories.
Dislocations are linear defects, around which the atoms of the crystal lattice are misaligned. There are two basic types of dislocations, the edge dislocation and the screw dislocation. "Mixed" dislocations, combining aspects of both types, are also common.
Edge dislocations are caused by the termination of a plane of atoms in the middle of a crystal. In such a case, the adjacent planes are not straight, but instead bend around the edge of the terminating plane so that the crystal structure is perfectly ordered on either side. The analogy with a stack of paper is apt: if a half a piece of paper is inserted in a stack of paper, the defect in the stack is only noticeable at the edge of the half sheet.
The screw dislocation is more difficult to visualise, but basically comprises a structure in which a helical path is traced around the linear defect (dislocation line) by the atomic planes of atoms in the crystal lattice.
The presence of dislocation results in lattice strain (distortion). The direction and magnitude of such distortion is expressed in terms of a Burgers vector (b). For an edge type, b is perpendicular to the dislocation line, whereas in the cases of the screw type it is parallel. In metallic materials, b is aligned with close-packed crystallographic directions and its magnitude is equivalent to one interatomic spacing.
Dislocations can move if the atoms from one of the surrounding planes break their bonds and rebond with the atoms at the terminating edge.
It is the presence of dislocations and their ability to readily move (and interact) under the influence of stresses induced by external loads that leads to the characteristic malleability of metallic materials.
Dislocations can be observed using transmission electron microscopy, field ion microscopy and atom probe techniques. Deep-level transient spectroscopy has been used for studying the electrical activity of dislocations in semiconductors, mainly silicon.
Disclinations are line defects corresponding to "adding" or "subtracting" an angle around a line. Basically, this means that if you track the crystal orientation around the line defect, you get a rotation. Usually, they were thought to play a role only in liquid crystals, but recent developments suggest that they might have a role also in solid materials, e.g. leading to the self-healing of cracks.
A successful mathematical classification method for physical lattice defects, which works not only with the theory of dislocations and other defects in crystals but also, e.g., for disclinations in liquid crystals and for excitations in superfluid He, is the topological homotopy theory.
Density functional theory, classical molecular dynamics and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations are widely used to study the properties of defects in solids with computer simulations. Simulating jamming of hard spheres of different sizes and/or in containers with non-commeasurable sizes using the Lubachevsky–Stillinger algorithm can be an effective technique for demonstrating some types of crystallographic defects. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A crystallographic defect is an interruption of the regular patterns of arrangement of atoms or molecules in crystalline solids. The positions and orientations of particles, which are repeating at fixed distances determined by the unit cell parameters in crystals, exhibit a periodic crystal structure, but this is usually imperfect. Several types of defects are often characterized: point defects, line defects, planar defects, bulk defects. Topological homotopy establishes a mathematical method of characterization.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Point defects are defects that occur only at or around a single lattice point. They are not extended in space in any dimension. Strict limits for how small a point defect is are generally not defined explicitly. However, these defects typically involve at most a few extra or missing atoms. Larger defects in an ordered structure are usually considered dislocation loops. For historical reasons, many point defects, especially in ionic crystals, are called centers: for example a vacancy in many ionic solids is called a luminescence center, a color center, or F-center. These dislocations permit ionic transport through crystals leading to electrochemical reactions. These are frequently specified using Kröger–Vink notation.",
"title": "Point defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "",
"title": "Point defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Line defects can be described by gauge theories.",
"title": "Line defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Dislocations are linear defects, around which the atoms of the crystal lattice are misaligned. There are two basic types of dislocations, the edge dislocation and the screw dislocation. \"Mixed\" dislocations, combining aspects of both types, are also common.",
"title": "Line defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Edge dislocations are caused by the termination of a plane of atoms in the middle of a crystal. In such a case, the adjacent planes are not straight, but instead bend around the edge of the terminating plane so that the crystal structure is perfectly ordered on either side. The analogy with a stack of paper is apt: if a half a piece of paper is inserted in a stack of paper, the defect in the stack is only noticeable at the edge of the half sheet.",
"title": "Line defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The screw dislocation is more difficult to visualise, but basically comprises a structure in which a helical path is traced around the linear defect (dislocation line) by the atomic planes of atoms in the crystal lattice.",
"title": "Line defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The presence of dislocation results in lattice strain (distortion). The direction and magnitude of such distortion is expressed in terms of a Burgers vector (b). For an edge type, b is perpendicular to the dislocation line, whereas in the cases of the screw type it is parallel. In metallic materials, b is aligned with close-packed crystallographic directions and its magnitude is equivalent to one interatomic spacing.",
"title": "Line defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Dislocations can move if the atoms from one of the surrounding planes break their bonds and rebond with the atoms at the terminating edge.",
"title": "Line defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "It is the presence of dislocations and their ability to readily move (and interact) under the influence of stresses induced by external loads that leads to the characteristic malleability of metallic materials.",
"title": "Line defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Dislocations can be observed using transmission electron microscopy, field ion microscopy and atom probe techniques. Deep-level transient spectroscopy has been used for studying the electrical activity of dislocations in semiconductors, mainly silicon.",
"title": "Line defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Disclinations are line defects corresponding to \"adding\" or \"subtracting\" an angle around a line. Basically, this means that if you track the crystal orientation around the line defect, you get a rotation. Usually, they were thought to play a role only in liquid crystals, but recent developments suggest that they might have a role also in solid materials, e.g. leading to the self-healing of cracks.",
"title": "Line defects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "A successful mathematical classification method for physical lattice defects, which works not only with the theory of dislocations and other defects in crystals but also, e.g., for disclinations in liquid crystals and for excitations in superfluid He, is the topological homotopy theory.",
"title": "Mathematical classification methods"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Density functional theory, classical molecular dynamics and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations are widely used to study the properties of defects in solids with computer simulations. Simulating jamming of hard spheres of different sizes and/or in containers with non-commeasurable sizes using the Lubachevsky–Stillinger algorithm can be an effective technique for demonstrating some types of crystallographic defects.",
"title": "Computer simulation methods"
}
] | A crystallographic defect is an interruption of the regular patterns of arrangement of atoms or molecules in crystalline solids. The positions and orientations of particles, which are repeating at fixed distances determined by the unit cell parameters in crystals, exhibit a periodic crystal structure, but this is usually imperfect. Several types of defects are often characterized: point defects, line defects, planar defects, bulk defects. Topological homotopy establishes a mathematical method of characterization. | 2002-01-25T08:18:14Z | 2023-10-15T14:12:47Z | [
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7,850 | Chomsky normal form | In formal language theory, a context-free grammar, G, is said to be in Chomsky normal form (first described by Noam Chomsky) if all of its production rules are of the form:
where A, B, and C are nonterminal symbols, the letter a is a terminal symbol (a symbol that represents a constant value), S is the start symbol, and ε denotes the empty string. Also, neither B nor C may be the start symbol, and the third production rule can only appear if ε is in L(G), the language produced by the context-free grammar G.
Every grammar in Chomsky normal form is context-free, and conversely, every context-free grammar can be transformed into an equivalent one which is in Chomsky normal form and has a size no larger than the square of the original grammar's size.
To convert a grammar to Chomsky normal form, a sequence of simple transformations is applied in a certain order; this is described in most textbooks on automata theory. The presentation here follows Hopcroft, Ullman (1979), but is adapted to use the transformation names from Lange, Leiß (2009). Each of the following transformations establishes one of the properties required for Chomsky normal form.
Introduce a new start symbol S0, and a new rule
where S is the previous start symbol. This does not change the grammar's produced language, and S0 will not occur on any rule's right-hand side.
To eliminate each rule
with a terminal symbol a being not the only symbol on the right-hand side, introduce, for every such terminal, a new nonterminal symbol Na, and a new rule
Change every rule
to
If several terminal symbols occur on the right-hand side, simultaneously replace each of them by its associated nonterminal symbol. This does not change the grammar's produced language.
Replace each rule
with more than 2 nonterminals X1,...,Xn by rules
where Ai are new nonterminal symbols. Again, this does not change the grammar's produced language.
An ε-rule is a rule of the form
where A is not S0, the grammar's start symbol.
To eliminate all rules of this form, first determine the set of all nonterminals that derive ε. Hopcroft and Ullman (1979) call such nonterminals nullable, and compute them as follows:
Obtain an intermediate grammar by replacing each rule
by all versions with some nullable Xi omitted. By deleting in this grammar each ε-rule, unless its left-hand side is the start symbol, the transformed grammar is obtained.
For example, in the following grammar, with start symbol S0,
the nonterminal A, and hence also B, is nullable, while neither C nor S0 is. Hence the following intermediate grammar is obtained:
In this grammar, all ε-rules have been "inlined at the call site". In the next step, they can hence be deleted, yielding the grammar:
This grammar produces the same language as the original example grammar, viz. {ab,aba,abaa,abab,abac,abb,abc,b,bab,bac,bb,bc,c}, but has no ε-rules.
A unit rule is a rule of the form
where A, B are nonterminal symbols. To remove it, for each rule
where X1 ... Xn is a string of nonterminals and terminals, add rule
unless this is a unit rule which has already been (or is being) removed. The skipping of nonterminal symbol B in the resulting grammar is possible due to B being a member of the unit closure of nonterminal symbol A.
When choosing the order in which the above transformations are to be applied, it has to be considered that some transformations may destroy the result achieved by other ones. For example, START will re-introduce a unit rule if it is applied after UNIT. The table shows which orderings are admitted.
Moreover, the worst-case bloat in grammar size depends on the transformation order. Using |G| to denote the size of the original grammar G, the size blow-up in the worst case may range from |G| to 2, depending on the transformation algorithm used. The blow-up in grammar size depends on the order between DEL and BIN. It may be exponential when DEL is done first, but is linear otherwise. UNIT can incur a quadratic blow-up in the size of the grammar. The orderings START,TERM,BIN,DEL,UNIT and START,BIN,DEL,UNIT,TERM lead to the least (i.e. quadratic) blow-up.
The following grammar, with start symbol Expr, describes a simplified version of the set of all syntactical valid arithmetic expressions in programming languages like C or Algol60. Both number and variable are considered terminal symbols here for simplicity, since in a compiler front end their internal structure is usually not considered by the parser. The terminal symbol "^" denoted exponentiation in Algol60.
In step "START" of the above conversion algorithm, just a rule S0→Expr is added to the grammar. After step "TERM", the grammar looks like this:
After step "BIN", the following grammar is obtained:
Since there are no ε-rules, step "DEL" does not change the grammar. After step "UNIT", the following grammar is obtained, which is in Chomsky normal form:
The Na introduced in step "TERM" are PowOp, Open, and Close. The Ai introduced in step "BIN" are AddOp_Term, MulOp_Factor, PowOp_Primary, and Expr_Close.
Another way to define the Chomsky normal form is:
A formal grammar is in Chomsky reduced form if all of its production rules are of the form:
where A {\displaystyle A} , B {\displaystyle B} and C {\displaystyle C} are nonterminal symbols, and a {\displaystyle a} is a terminal symbol. When using this definition, B {\displaystyle B} or C {\displaystyle C} may be the start symbol. Only those context-free grammars which do not generate the empty string can be transformed into Chomsky reduced form.
In a letter where he proposed a term Backus–Naur form (BNF), Donald E. Knuth implied a BNF "syntax in which all definitions have such a form may be said to be in 'Floyd Normal Form'",
where ⟨ A ⟩ {\displaystyle \langle A\rangle } , ⟨ B ⟩ {\displaystyle \langle B\rangle } and ⟨ C ⟩ {\displaystyle \langle C\rangle } are nonterminal symbols, and a {\displaystyle a} is a terminal symbol, because Robert W. Floyd found any BNF syntax can be converted to the above one in 1961. But he withdrew this term, "since doubtless many people have independently used this simple fact in their own work, and the point is only incidental to the main considerations of Floyd's note." While Floyd's note cites Chomsky's original 1959 article, Knuth's letter does not.
Besides its theoretical significance, CNF conversion is used in some algorithms as a preprocessing step, e.g., the CYK algorithm, a bottom-up parsing for context-free grammars, and its variant probabilistic CKY. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In formal language theory, a context-free grammar, G, is said to be in Chomsky normal form (first described by Noam Chomsky) if all of its production rules are of the form:",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "where A, B, and C are nonterminal symbols, the letter a is a terminal symbol (a symbol that represents a constant value), S is the start symbol, and ε denotes the empty string. Also, neither B nor C may be the start symbol, and the third production rule can only appear if ε is in L(G), the language produced by the context-free grammar G.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Every grammar in Chomsky normal form is context-free, and conversely, every context-free grammar can be transformed into an equivalent one which is in Chomsky normal form and has a size no larger than the square of the original grammar's size.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "To convert a grammar to Chomsky normal form, a sequence of simple transformations is applied in a certain order; this is described in most textbooks on automata theory. The presentation here follows Hopcroft, Ullman (1979), but is adapted to use the transformation names from Lange, Leiß (2009). Each of the following transformations establishes one of the properties required for Chomsky normal form.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Introduce a new start symbol S0, and a new rule",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "where S is the previous start symbol. This does not change the grammar's produced language, and S0 will not occur on any rule's right-hand side.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "To eliminate each rule",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "with a terminal symbol a being not the only symbol on the right-hand side, introduce, for every such terminal, a new nonterminal symbol Na, and a new rule",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Change every rule",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "to",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "If several terminal symbols occur on the right-hand side, simultaneously replace each of them by its associated nonterminal symbol. This does not change the grammar's produced language.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Replace each rule",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "with more than 2 nonterminals X1,...,Xn by rules",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "where Ai are new nonterminal symbols. Again, this does not change the grammar's produced language.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "An ε-rule is a rule of the form",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "where A is not S0, the grammar's start symbol.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "To eliminate all rules of this form, first determine the set of all nonterminals that derive ε. Hopcroft and Ullman (1979) call such nonterminals nullable, and compute them as follows:",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Obtain an intermediate grammar by replacing each rule",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "by all versions with some nullable Xi omitted. By deleting in this grammar each ε-rule, unless its left-hand side is the start symbol, the transformed grammar is obtained.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "For example, in the following grammar, with start symbol S0,",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "the nonterminal A, and hence also B, is nullable, while neither C nor S0 is. Hence the following intermediate grammar is obtained:",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In this grammar, all ε-rules have been \"inlined at the call site\". In the next step, they can hence be deleted, yielding the grammar:",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "This grammar produces the same language as the original example grammar, viz. {ab,aba,abaa,abab,abac,abb,abc,b,bab,bac,bb,bc,c}, but has no ε-rules.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "A unit rule is a rule of the form",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "where A, B are nonterminal symbols. To remove it, for each rule",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "where X1 ... Xn is a string of nonterminals and terminals, add rule",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "unless this is a unit rule which has already been (or is being) removed. The skipping of nonterminal symbol B in the resulting grammar is possible due to B being a member of the unit closure of nonterminal symbol A.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "When choosing the order in which the above transformations are to be applied, it has to be considered that some transformations may destroy the result achieved by other ones. For example, START will re-introduce a unit rule if it is applied after UNIT. The table shows which orderings are admitted.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Moreover, the worst-case bloat in grammar size depends on the transformation order. Using |G| to denote the size of the original grammar G, the size blow-up in the worst case may range from |G| to 2, depending on the transformation algorithm used. The blow-up in grammar size depends on the order between DEL and BIN. It may be exponential when DEL is done first, but is linear otherwise. UNIT can incur a quadratic blow-up in the size of the grammar. The orderings START,TERM,BIN,DEL,UNIT and START,BIN,DEL,UNIT,TERM lead to the least (i.e. quadratic) blow-up.",
"title": "Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The following grammar, with start symbol Expr, describes a simplified version of the set of all syntactical valid arithmetic expressions in programming languages like C or Algol60. Both number and variable are considered terminal symbols here for simplicity, since in a compiler front end their internal structure is usually not considered by the parser. The terminal symbol \"^\" denoted exponentiation in Algol60.",
"title": "Example"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In step \"START\" of the above conversion algorithm, just a rule S0→Expr is added to the grammar. After step \"TERM\", the grammar looks like this:",
"title": "Example"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "After step \"BIN\", the following grammar is obtained:",
"title": "Example"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Since there are no ε-rules, step \"DEL\" does not change the grammar. After step \"UNIT\", the following grammar is obtained, which is in Chomsky normal form:",
"title": "Example"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The Na introduced in step \"TERM\" are PowOp, Open, and Close. The Ai introduced in step \"BIN\" are AddOp_Term, MulOp_Factor, PowOp_Primary, and Expr_Close.",
"title": "Example"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Another way to define the Chomsky normal form is:",
"title": "Alternative definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "A formal grammar is in Chomsky reduced form if all of its production rules are of the form:",
"title": "Alternative definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "where A {\\displaystyle A} , B {\\displaystyle B} and C {\\displaystyle C} are nonterminal symbols, and a {\\displaystyle a} is a terminal symbol. When using this definition, B {\\displaystyle B} or C {\\displaystyle C} may be the start symbol. Only those context-free grammars which do not generate the empty string can be transformed into Chomsky reduced form.",
"title": "Alternative definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "In a letter where he proposed a term Backus–Naur form (BNF), Donald E. Knuth implied a BNF \"syntax in which all definitions have such a form may be said to be in 'Floyd Normal Form'\",",
"title": "Alternative definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "where ⟨ A ⟩ {\\displaystyle \\langle A\\rangle } , ⟨ B ⟩ {\\displaystyle \\langle B\\rangle } and ⟨ C ⟩ {\\displaystyle \\langle C\\rangle } are nonterminal symbols, and a {\\displaystyle a} is a terminal symbol, because Robert W. Floyd found any BNF syntax can be converted to the above one in 1961. But he withdrew this term, \"since doubtless many people have independently used this simple fact in their own work, and the point is only incidental to the main considerations of Floyd's note.\" While Floyd's note cites Chomsky's original 1959 article, Knuth's letter does not.",
"title": "Alternative definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Besides its theoretical significance, CNF conversion is used in some algorithms as a preprocessing step, e.g., the CYK algorithm, a bottom-up parsing for context-free grammars, and its variant probabilistic CKY.",
"title": "Application"
}
] | In formal language theory, a context-free grammar, G, is said to be in Chomsky normal form (first described by Noam Chomsky) if all of its production rules are of the form: where A, B, and C are nonterminal symbols, the letter a is a terminal symbol (a symbol that represents a constant value), S is the start symbol, and ε denotes the empty string. Also, neither B nor C may be the start symbol, and the third production rule can only appear if ε is in L(G), the language produced by the context-free grammar G. Every grammar in Chomsky normal form is context-free, and conversely, every context-free grammar can be transformed into an equivalent one which is in Chomsky normal form and has a size no larger than the square of the original grammar's size. | 2002-01-25T10:14:26Z | 2023-09-13T04:48:54Z | [
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7,851 | Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty | The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons test explosions and any other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996, but has not entered into force, as eight specific nations have not ratified the treaty.
The movement for international control of nuclear weapons began in 1945, with a call from Canada and the United Kingdom for a conference on the subject. In June 1946, Bernard Baruch, an emissary of President Harry S. Truman, proposed the Baruch Plan before the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, which called for an international system of controls on the production of atomic energy. The plan, which would serve as the basis for U.S. nuclear policy into the 1950s, was rejected by the Soviet Union as a US ploy to cement its nuclear dominance.
Between the Trinity nuclear test of 16 July 1945 and the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) on 5 August 1963, 499 nuclear tests were conducted. Much of the impetus for the PTBT, the precursor to the CTBT, was rising public concern surrounding the size and resulting nuclear fallout from underwater and atmospheric nuclear tests, particularly tests of powerful thermonuclear weapons (hydrogen bombs). The Castle Bravo test of 1 March 1954, in particular, attracted significant attention as the detonation resulted in fallout that spread over inhabited areas and sickened a group of Japanese fishermen. Between 1945 and 1963, the US conducted 215 atmospheric tests, the Soviet Union conducted 219, the UK conducted 21, and France conducted 3.
In 1954, following the Castle Bravo test, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India issued the first appeal for a "standstill agreement" on testing, which was soon echoed by the British Labour Party. Negotiations on a comprehensive test ban, primarily involving the US, UK, and the Soviet Union, began in 1955 following a proposal by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Of primary concern throughout the negotiations, which would stretch—with some interruptions—to July 1963, was the system of verifying compliance with the test ban and detecting illicit tests. On the Western side, there were concerns that the Soviet Union would be able to circumvent any test ban and secretly leap ahead in the nuclear arms race. These fears were amplified following the US Rainier shot of 19 September 1957, which was the first contained underground test of a nuclear weapon. Though the US held a significant advantage in underground testing capabilities, there was worry that the Soviet Union would be able to covertly conduct underground tests during a test ban, as underground detonations were more challenging to detect than above-ground tests. On the Soviet side, conversely, the on-site compliance inspections demanded by the US and UK were seen as amounting to espionage. Disagreement over verification would lead to the Anglo-American and Soviet negotiators abandoning a comprehensive test ban (i.e., a ban on all tests, including those underground) in favor of a partial ban, which would be finalized on 25 July 1963. The PTBT, joined by 123 states following the original three parties, banned detonations for military and civilian purposes underwater, in the atmosphere, and outer space.
The PTBT had mixed results. On the one hand, enactment of the treaty was followed by a substantial drop in the atmospheric concentration of radioactive particles. On the other hand, nuclear proliferation was not halted entirely (though it may have been slowed) and nuclear testing continued at a rapid clip. Compared to the 499 tests from 1945 to the signing of the PTBT, 436 tests were conducted over the ten years following the PTBT. Furthermore, US and Soviet underground testing continued "venting" radioactive gas into the atmosphere. Additionally, though underground testing was generally safer than above-ground testing, underground tests continued to risk the leaking of radionuclides, including plutonium, into the ground. From 1964 through 1996, the year of the CTBT's adoption, an estimated 1,377 underground nuclear tests were conducted. The final non-underground (atmospheric or underwater) test was conducted by China in 1980.
The PTBT has been seen as a step towards the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968, which directly referenced the PTBT. Under the NPT, non-nuclear weapon states were prohibited from possessing, manufacturing, and acquiring nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. All signatories, including nuclear weapon states, were committed to the goal of total nuclear disarmament. However, India, Pakistan, and Israel have declined to sign the NPT on the grounds that such a treaty is fundamentally discriminatory as it places limitations on states that do not have nuclear weapons while making no efforts to curb weapons development by declared nuclear weapons states.
In 1974, a step towards a comprehensive test ban was made with the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT), ratified by the US and Soviet Union, which banned underground tests with yields above 150 kilotons. In April 1976, the two states reached agreement on the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty (PNET), which concerns nuclear detonations outside the weapons sites discussed in the TTBT. As in the TTBT, the US and Soviet Union agreed to bar peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs) at these other locations with yields above 150 kilotons, as well as group explosions with total yields over 1,500 kilotons. To verify compliance, the PNET requires that states rely on national technical means of verification, share information on explosions, and grant on-site access to counterparties. The TTBT and PNET entered into force on 11 December 1990.
In October 1977, the US, UK, and Soviet Union returned to negotiations over a test ban. These three nuclear powers made notable progress in the late 1970s, agreeing to terms on a ban on all testing, including a temporary prohibition on PNEs, but continued disagreements over the compliance mechanisms led to an end to negotiations ahead of Ronald Reagan's inauguration as president in 1981. In 1985, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced a unilateral testing moratorium, and in December 1986, Reagan reaffirmed US commitment to pursue the long-term goal of a comprehensive test ban. In November 1987, negotiations on a test ban restarted, followed by a joint US-Soviet program to research underground-test detection in December 1987.
In October 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin stated that since the United States had not ratified the CTBT, consideration could be given to withdrawing Russia's ratification of the treaty. Later in the month, a law revoking ratification of the CTBT was passed by the Russian parliament. On 2 November, Putin officially signed into law the withdrawal of ratification of the treaty.
Given the political situation prevailing in the subsequent decades, little progress was made in nuclear disarmament until the end of the Cold War in 1991. Parties to the PTBT held an amendment conference that year to discuss a proposal to convert the Treaty into an instrument banning all nuclear-weapon tests. With strong support from the UN General Assembly, negotiations for a comprehensive test-ban treaty began in 1993.
Extensive efforts were made over the next three years to draft the Treaty text and its two annexes. However, the Conference on Disarmament, in which negotiations were being held, did not succeed in reaching consensus on the adoption of the text. Under the direction of Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Australia then sent the text to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where it was submitted as a draft resolution. On 10 September 1996, the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was adopted by a large majority, exceeding two-thirds of the General Assembly's Membership.
(Article I):
The Treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996. It opened for signature in New York on 24 September 1996, when it was signed by 71 states, including five of the eight then nuclear-capable states. As of November 2023, 177 states have ratified the CTBT and another nine states have signed but not ratified it.
The treaty will enter into force 180 days after the 44 states listed in Annex 2 of the treaty have ratified it. These "Annex 2 states" are states that participated in the CTBT's negotiations between 1994 and 1996 and possessed nuclear power reactors or research reactors at that time. As of 2023, nine Annex 2 states have not ratified the treaty: China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States have signed but not ratified the Treaty; India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed it; while Russia signed and ratified the treaty but subsequently withdrew their ratification prior to its entry into force.
Geophysical and other technologies are used to monitor for compliance with the Treaty: forensic seismology, hydroacoustics, infrasound, and radionuclide monitoring. The first three forms of monitoring are known as wave-form measurements. Seismic monitoring is performed with a system of 50 primary stations located throughout the world, with 120 auxiliary stations in signatory states. Hydroacoustic monitoring is performed with a system of 11 stations that consist of hydrophone triads to monitor for underwater explosions. Hydroacoustic stations can use seismometers to measure T-waves from possible underwater explosions instead of hydrophones. The best measurement of hydroacoustic waves has been found to be at a depth of 1000 m. Infrasound monitoring relies on changes in atmospheric pressure caused by a possible nuclear explosion, with 41 stations certified as of August 2019. One of the biggest concerns with infrasound measurements is noise due to exposure from wind, which can affect the sensor's ability to measure if an event occurred. Together, these technologies are used to monitor the ground, water, and atmosphere for any sign of a nuclear explosion.
Radionuclide monitoring takes the form of either monitoring for radioactive particulates or noble gases as a product of a nuclear explosion. Radioactive particles emit radiation that can be measured by any of the 80 stations located throughout the world. They are created from nuclear explosions that can collect onto the dust that is moved from the explosion. If a nuclear explosion took place underground, noble gas monitoring can be used to verify whether or not a possible nuclear explosion took place. Noble gas monitoring relies on measuring increases in radioactive xenon gas. Different isotopes of xenon include Xe, Xe, Xe, and Xe. All four monitoring methods make up the International Monitoring System (IMS). Statistical theories and methods are integral to CTBT monitoring providing confidence in verification analysis. Once the Treaty enters into force, on-site inspections will be conducted where concerns about compliance arise.
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), an international organization headquartered in Vienna, Austria, was created to build the verification framework, including establishment and provisional operation of the network of monitoring stations, the creation of an international data centre (IDC), and development of the on-site Inspection capability. The CTBTO is responsible for collecting information from the IMS and distribute the analyzed and raw data to member states to judge whether or not a nuclear explosion occurred through the IDC. Parameters such as determining the location where a nuclear explosion or test took place is one of the things that the IDC can accomplish. If a member state chooses to assert that another state had violated the CTBT, they can request an on-site inspection to take place to verify.
The monitoring network consists of 337 facilities located all over the globe. As of May 2012, more than 260 facilities have been certified. The monitoring stations register data that is transmitted to the international data centre in Vienna for processing and analysis. The data are sent to states that have signed the Treaty.
Three countries have tested nuclear weapons since the CTBT opened for signature in 1996. India and Pakistan both carried out two sets of tests in 1998. North Korea carried out six announced tests, one each in 2006, 2009, 2013, two in 2016 and one in 2017. All six North Korean tests were picked up by the International Monitoring System set up by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission. A North Korean test is believed to have taken place in January 2016, evidenced by an "artificial earthquake" measured as a magnitude 5.1 by the U.S. Geological Survey. The first successful North Korean hydrogen bomb test supposedly took place in September 2017. It was estimated to have an explosive yield of 120 kilotons. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons test explosions and any other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996, but has not entered into force, as eight specific nations have not ratified the treaty.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The movement for international control of nuclear weapons began in 1945, with a call from Canada and the United Kingdom for a conference on the subject. In June 1946, Bernard Baruch, an emissary of President Harry S. Truman, proposed the Baruch Plan before the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, which called for an international system of controls on the production of atomic energy. The plan, which would serve as the basis for U.S. nuclear policy into the 1950s, was rejected by the Soviet Union as a US ploy to cement its nuclear dominance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Between the Trinity nuclear test of 16 July 1945 and the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) on 5 August 1963, 499 nuclear tests were conducted. Much of the impetus for the PTBT, the precursor to the CTBT, was rising public concern surrounding the size and resulting nuclear fallout from underwater and atmospheric nuclear tests, particularly tests of powerful thermonuclear weapons (hydrogen bombs). The Castle Bravo test of 1 March 1954, in particular, attracted significant attention as the detonation resulted in fallout that spread over inhabited areas and sickened a group of Japanese fishermen. Between 1945 and 1963, the US conducted 215 atmospheric tests, the Soviet Union conducted 219, the UK conducted 21, and France conducted 3.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In 1954, following the Castle Bravo test, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India issued the first appeal for a \"standstill agreement\" on testing, which was soon echoed by the British Labour Party. Negotiations on a comprehensive test ban, primarily involving the US, UK, and the Soviet Union, began in 1955 following a proposal by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Of primary concern throughout the negotiations, which would stretch—with some interruptions—to July 1963, was the system of verifying compliance with the test ban and detecting illicit tests. On the Western side, there were concerns that the Soviet Union would be able to circumvent any test ban and secretly leap ahead in the nuclear arms race. These fears were amplified following the US Rainier shot of 19 September 1957, which was the first contained underground test of a nuclear weapon. Though the US held a significant advantage in underground testing capabilities, there was worry that the Soviet Union would be able to covertly conduct underground tests during a test ban, as underground detonations were more challenging to detect than above-ground tests. On the Soviet side, conversely, the on-site compliance inspections demanded by the US and UK were seen as amounting to espionage. Disagreement over verification would lead to the Anglo-American and Soviet negotiators abandoning a comprehensive test ban (i.e., a ban on all tests, including those underground) in favor of a partial ban, which would be finalized on 25 July 1963. The PTBT, joined by 123 states following the original three parties, banned detonations for military and civilian purposes underwater, in the atmosphere, and outer space.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The PTBT had mixed results. On the one hand, enactment of the treaty was followed by a substantial drop in the atmospheric concentration of radioactive particles. On the other hand, nuclear proliferation was not halted entirely (though it may have been slowed) and nuclear testing continued at a rapid clip. Compared to the 499 tests from 1945 to the signing of the PTBT, 436 tests were conducted over the ten years following the PTBT. Furthermore, US and Soviet underground testing continued \"venting\" radioactive gas into the atmosphere. Additionally, though underground testing was generally safer than above-ground testing, underground tests continued to risk the leaking of radionuclides, including plutonium, into the ground. From 1964 through 1996, the year of the CTBT's adoption, an estimated 1,377 underground nuclear tests were conducted. The final non-underground (atmospheric or underwater) test was conducted by China in 1980.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The PTBT has been seen as a step towards the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968, which directly referenced the PTBT. Under the NPT, non-nuclear weapon states were prohibited from possessing, manufacturing, and acquiring nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. All signatories, including nuclear weapon states, were committed to the goal of total nuclear disarmament. However, India, Pakistan, and Israel have declined to sign the NPT on the grounds that such a treaty is fundamentally discriminatory as it places limitations on states that do not have nuclear weapons while making no efforts to curb weapons development by declared nuclear weapons states.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 1974, a step towards a comprehensive test ban was made with the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT), ratified by the US and Soviet Union, which banned underground tests with yields above 150 kilotons. In April 1976, the two states reached agreement on the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty (PNET), which concerns nuclear detonations outside the weapons sites discussed in the TTBT. As in the TTBT, the US and Soviet Union agreed to bar peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs) at these other locations with yields above 150 kilotons, as well as group explosions with total yields over 1,500 kilotons. To verify compliance, the PNET requires that states rely on national technical means of verification, share information on explosions, and grant on-site access to counterparties. The TTBT and PNET entered into force on 11 December 1990.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In October 1977, the US, UK, and Soviet Union returned to negotiations over a test ban. These three nuclear powers made notable progress in the late 1970s, agreeing to terms on a ban on all testing, including a temporary prohibition on PNEs, but continued disagreements over the compliance mechanisms led to an end to negotiations ahead of Ronald Reagan's inauguration as president in 1981. In 1985, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced a unilateral testing moratorium, and in December 1986, Reagan reaffirmed US commitment to pursue the long-term goal of a comprehensive test ban. In November 1987, negotiations on a test ban restarted, followed by a joint US-Soviet program to research underground-test detection in December 1987.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In October 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin stated that since the United States had not ratified the CTBT, consideration could be given to withdrawing Russia's ratification of the treaty. Later in the month, a law revoking ratification of the CTBT was passed by the Russian parliament. On 2 November, Putin officially signed into law the withdrawal of ratification of the treaty.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Given the political situation prevailing in the subsequent decades, little progress was made in nuclear disarmament until the end of the Cold War in 1991. Parties to the PTBT held an amendment conference that year to discuss a proposal to convert the Treaty into an instrument banning all nuclear-weapon tests. With strong support from the UN General Assembly, negotiations for a comprehensive test-ban treaty began in 1993.",
"title": "Negotiations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Extensive efforts were made over the next three years to draft the Treaty text and its two annexes. However, the Conference on Disarmament, in which negotiations were being held, did not succeed in reaching consensus on the adoption of the text. Under the direction of Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Australia then sent the text to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where it was submitted as a draft resolution. On 10 September 1996, the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was adopted by a large majority, exceeding two-thirds of the General Assembly's Membership.",
"title": "Negotiations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "(Article I):",
"title": "Negotiations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The Treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996. It opened for signature in New York on 24 September 1996, when it was signed by 71 states, including five of the eight then nuclear-capable states. As of November 2023, 177 states have ratified the CTBT and another nine states have signed but not ratified it.",
"title": "Status"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The treaty will enter into force 180 days after the 44 states listed in Annex 2 of the treaty have ratified it. These \"Annex 2 states\" are states that participated in the CTBT's negotiations between 1994 and 1996 and possessed nuclear power reactors or research reactors at that time. As of 2023, nine Annex 2 states have not ratified the treaty: China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States have signed but not ratified the Treaty; India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed it; while Russia signed and ratified the treaty but subsequently withdrew their ratification prior to its entry into force.",
"title": "Status"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Geophysical and other technologies are used to monitor for compliance with the Treaty: forensic seismology, hydroacoustics, infrasound, and radionuclide monitoring. The first three forms of monitoring are known as wave-form measurements. Seismic monitoring is performed with a system of 50 primary stations located throughout the world, with 120 auxiliary stations in signatory states. Hydroacoustic monitoring is performed with a system of 11 stations that consist of hydrophone triads to monitor for underwater explosions. Hydroacoustic stations can use seismometers to measure T-waves from possible underwater explosions instead of hydrophones. The best measurement of hydroacoustic waves has been found to be at a depth of 1000 m. Infrasound monitoring relies on changes in atmospheric pressure caused by a possible nuclear explosion, with 41 stations certified as of August 2019. One of the biggest concerns with infrasound measurements is noise due to exposure from wind, which can affect the sensor's ability to measure if an event occurred. Together, these technologies are used to monitor the ground, water, and atmosphere for any sign of a nuclear explosion.",
"title": "Monitoring"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Radionuclide monitoring takes the form of either monitoring for radioactive particulates or noble gases as a product of a nuclear explosion. Radioactive particles emit radiation that can be measured by any of the 80 stations located throughout the world. They are created from nuclear explosions that can collect onto the dust that is moved from the explosion. If a nuclear explosion took place underground, noble gas monitoring can be used to verify whether or not a possible nuclear explosion took place. Noble gas monitoring relies on measuring increases in radioactive xenon gas. Different isotopes of xenon include Xe, Xe, Xe, and Xe. All four monitoring methods make up the International Monitoring System (IMS). Statistical theories and methods are integral to CTBT monitoring providing confidence in verification analysis. Once the Treaty enters into force, on-site inspections will be conducted where concerns about compliance arise.",
"title": "Monitoring"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), an international organization headquartered in Vienna, Austria, was created to build the verification framework, including establishment and provisional operation of the network of monitoring stations, the creation of an international data centre (IDC), and development of the on-site Inspection capability. The CTBTO is responsible for collecting information from the IMS and distribute the analyzed and raw data to member states to judge whether or not a nuclear explosion occurred through the IDC. Parameters such as determining the location where a nuclear explosion or test took place is one of the things that the IDC can accomplish. If a member state chooses to assert that another state had violated the CTBT, they can request an on-site inspection to take place to verify.",
"title": "Monitoring"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The monitoring network consists of 337 facilities located all over the globe. As of May 2012, more than 260 facilities have been certified. The monitoring stations register data that is transmitted to the international data centre in Vienna for processing and analysis. The data are sent to states that have signed the Treaty.",
"title": "Monitoring"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Three countries have tested nuclear weapons since the CTBT opened for signature in 1996. India and Pakistan both carried out two sets of tests in 1998. North Korea carried out six announced tests, one each in 2006, 2009, 2013, two in 2016 and one in 2017. All six North Korean tests were picked up by the International Monitoring System set up by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission. A North Korean test is believed to have taken place in January 2016, evidenced by an \"artificial earthquake\" measured as a magnitude 5.1 by the U.S. Geological Survey. The first successful North Korean hydrogen bomb test supposedly took place in September 2017. It was estimated to have an explosive yield of 120 kilotons.",
"title": "Monitoring"
}
] | The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons test explosions and any other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996, but has not entered into force, as eight specific nations have not ratified the treaty. | 2002-02-25T15:51:15Z | 2023-11-14T03:30:46Z | [
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7,859 | DeconstructionIsm | %5B%5BWikipedia%3ARedirects+for+discussion%5D%5D+debate+closed+as+delete
#REDIRECT Deconstruction | [
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7,885 | Dance | Dance is an art form, often classified as a sport, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements or by its historical period or place of origin. Dance is typically performed with musical accompaniment, and sometimes with the dancer simultaneously using a musical instrument themselves.
An important distinction is to be drawn between theatrical and participatory dance, although these two categories are not always completely separate; both may have special functions, whether social, ceremonial, competitive, erotic, martial, sacred or liturgical. Other forms of human movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, cheerleading, figure skating, synchronized swimming, marching bands, and many other forms of athletics. Dance is not solely restricted to performance, as dance is used as a form of exercise and occasionally training for other sports and activities. Dance has become a sport for some, with dancing competitions found across the world exhibiting various different styles and standards. Dance has an aesthetic appeal to many people.
Theatrical dance, also called performance or concert dance, is intended primarily as a spectacle, usually a performance upon a stage by virtuoso dancers. It often tells a story, perhaps using mime, costume and scenery, or it may interpret the musical accompaniment, which is often specially composed and performed in a theatre setting but it is not a requirement. Examples are Western ballet and modern dance, Classical Indian dance such as Bharatanatyam, and Chinese and Japanese song and dance dramas, such as the dragon dance. Most classical forms are centred upon dance alone, but performance dance may also appear in opera and other forms of musical theatre.
Participatory dance, whether it be a folk dance, a social dance, a group dance such as a line, circle, chain or square dance, or a partner dance, such as in Western ballroom dancing, is undertaken primarily for a common purpose, such as social interaction or exercise, or building flexibility of participants rather than to serve any benefit to onlookers. Such dance seldom has any narrative. A group dance and a corps de ballet, a social partner dance and a pas de deux, differ profoundly. Even a solo dance or interpretive dance may be undertaken solely for the satisfaction of the dancer. Participatory dancers often all employ the same movements and steps but, for example, in the rave culture of electronic dance music, vast crowds may engage in free dance, uncoordinated with those around them. On the other hand, some cultures lay down strict rules as to the particular dances people may or must participate.
Archaeological evidence for early dance includes 10,000-years-old paintings in Madhya Pradesh, India at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures, dated c. 3300 BC. It has been proposed that before the invention of written languages, dance was an important part of the oral and performance methods of passing stories down from one generation to the next. The use of dance in ecstatic trance states and healing rituals (as observed today in many contemporary indigenous cultures) is thought to have been another early factor in the social development of dance.
References to dance can be found in very early recorded history; Greek dance (choros) is referred to by Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Lucian. The Bible and Talmud refer to many events related to dance, and contain over 30 different dance terms. In Chinese pottery as early as the Neolithic period, groups of people are depicted dancing in a line holding hands, and the earliest Chinese word for "dance" is found written in the oracle bones. Dance is described in the Lüshi Chunqiu. Primitive dance in ancient China was associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals.
During the first millennium BCE in India, many texts were composed which attempted to codify aspects of daily life. Bharata Muni's Natya Shastra (literally "the text of dramaturgy") is one early text. It mainly deals with drama, in which dance plays an important part in Indian culture. A strong continuous tradition of dance has since continued in India, through to modern times, where it continues to play a role in culture, ritual, and the Bollywood entertainment industry. Many other contemporary dance forms can likewise be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, and ethnic dance.
Dance is generally, but not exclusively, performed with the accompaniment of music and may or may not be performed in time to such music. Some dance (such as tap dance) may provide its own audible accompaniment in place of (or in addition to) music. Many early forms of music and dance were created for each other and are frequently performed together. Notable examples of traditional dance-music couplings include the jig, waltz, tango, disco, and salsa. Some musical genres have a parallel dance form such as baroque music and baroque dance; other varieties of dance and music may share nomenclature but developed separately, such as classical music and classical ballet. The choreography and music are meant to complement each other, to express a story told by the choreographer and dancers.
Rhythm and dance are deeply linked in history and practice. The American dancer Ted Shawn wrote; "The conception of rhythm which underlies all studies of the dance is something about which we could talk forever, and still not finish." A musical rhythm requires two main elements; first, a regularly-repeating pulse (also called the "beat" or "tactus") that establishes the tempo and, second, a pattern of accents and rests that establishes the character of the metre or basic rhythmic pattern. The basic pulse is roughly equal in duration to a simple step or gesture.
Dances generally have a characteristic tempo and rhythmic pattern. The tango, for example, is usually danced in 4 time at approximately 66 beats per minute. The basic slow step, called a "slow", lasts for one beat, so that a full "right–left" step is equal to one 4 measure. The basic forward and backward walk of the dance is so counted – "slow-slow" – while many additional figures are counted "slow – quick-quick".
Repetitive body movements often depend on alternating "strong" and "weak" muscular movements. Given this alternation of left-right, of forward-backward and rise-fall, along with the bilateral symmetry of the human body, many dances and much music are in duple and quadruple meter. Since some such movements require more time in one phase than the other – such as the longer time required to lift a hammer than to strike – some dance rhythms fall into triple metre. Occasionally, as in the folk dances of the Balkans, dance traditions depend heavily on more complex rhythms. Further, complex dances composed of a fixed sequence of steps always require phrases and melodies of a certain fixed length to accompany that sequence.
Musical accompaniment arose in the earliest dance, so that ancient Egyptians attributed the origin of the dance to the divine Athotus, who was said to have observed that music accompanying religious rituals caused participants to move rhythmically and to have brought these movements into proportional measure. The same idea, that dance arises from musical rhythm, was found in renaissance Europe, in the works of the dancer Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro, who speaks of dance as a physical movement that arises from and expresses inward, spiritual motion agreeing with the "measures and perfect concords of harmony" that fall upon the human ear, while, earlier, Mechthild of Magdeburg, seizing upon dance as a symbol of the holy life foreshadowed in Jesus' saying "I have piped and ye have not danced", writes;
I can not dance unless thou leadest. If thou wouldst have me spring aloft, sing thou and I will spring, into love and from love to knowledge and from knowledge to ecstasy above all human sense
Thoinot Arbeau's celebrated 16th-century dance-treatise Orchésographie, indeed, begins with definitions of over eighty distinct drum-rhythms.
As has been shown above, dance has been represented through the ages as having emerged as a response to music yet, as Lincoln Kirstein implied, it is at least as likely that primitive music arose from dance. Shawn concurs, stating that dance "was the first art of the human race, and the matrix out of which all other arts grew" and that even the "metre in our poetry today is a result of the accents necessitated by body movement, as the dancing and reciting was performed simultaneously" – an assertion somewhat supported by the common use of the term "foot" to describe the fundamental rhythmic units of poetry.
Scholes, not a dancer but a musician, offers support for this view, stating that the steady measures of music, of two, three or four beats to the bar, its equal and balanced phrases, regular cadences, contrasts and repetitions, may all be attributed to the "incalculable" influence of dance upon music.
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, primarily a musician and teacher, relates how a study of the physical movements of pianists led him "to the discovery that musical sensations of a rhythmic nature call for the muscular and nervous response of the whole organism", to develop "a special training designed to regulate nervous reactions and effect a co-ordination of muscles and nerves" and ultimately to seek the connections between "the art of music and the art of dance", which he formulated into his system of eurhythmics. He concluded that "musical rhythm is only the transposition into sound of movements and dynamisms spontaneously and involuntarily expressing emotion".
Hence, though doubtless, as Shawn asserts, "it is quite possible to develop the dance without music and... music is perfectly capable of standing on its own feet without any assistance from the dance", nevertheless the "two arts will always be related and the relationship can be profitable both to the dance and to music", the precedence of one art over the other being a moot point. The common ballad measures of hymns and folk-songs takes their name from dance, as does the carol, originally a circle dance. Many purely musical pieces have been named "waltz" or "minuet", for example, while many concert dances have been produced that are based upon abstract musical pieces, such as 2 and 3 Part Inventions, Adams Violin Concerto and Andantino. Similarly, poems are often structured and named after dances or musical works, while dance and music have both drawn their conception of "measure" or "metre" from poetry.
Shawn quotes with approval the statement of Dalcroze that, while the art of musical rhythm consists in differentiating and combining time durations, pauses and accents "according to physiological law", that of "plastic rhythm" (i.e. dance) "is to designate movement in space, to interpret long time-values by slow movements and short ones by quick movements, regulate pauses by their divers successions and express sound accentuations in their multiple nuances by additions of bodily weight, by means of muscular innervations".
Shawn nevertheless points out that the system of musical time is a "man-made, artificial thing.... a manufactured tool, whereas rhythm is something that has always existed and depends on man not at all", being "the continuous flowing time which our human minds cut up into convenient units", suggesting that music might be revivified by a return to the values and the time-perception of dancing.
The early-20th-century American dancer Helen Moller stated that "it is rhythm and form more than harmony and color which, from the beginning, has bound music, poetry and dancing together in a union that is indissoluble."
Concert dance, like opera, generally depends for its large-scale form upon a narrative dramatic structure. The movements and gestures of the choreography are primarily intended to mime the personality and aims of the characters and their part in the plot. Such theatrical requirements tend towards longer, freer movements than those usual in non-narrative dance styles. On the other hand, the ballet blanc, developed in the 19th century, allows interludes of rhythmic dance that developed into entirely "plotless" ballets in the 20th century and that allowed fast, rhythmic dance-steps such as those of the petit allegro. A well-known example is The Cygnets' Dance in act two of Swan Lake.
The ballet developed out of courtly dramatic productions of 16th- and 17th-century France and Italy and for some time dancers performed dances developed from those familiar from the musical suite, all of which were defined by definite rhythms closely identified with each dance. These appeared as character dances in the era of romantic nationalism.
Ballet reached widespread vogue in the romantic era, accompanied by a larger orchestra and grander musical conceptions that did not lend themselves easily to rhythmic clarity and by dance that emphasised dramatic mime. A broader concept of rhythm was needed, that which Rudolf Laban terms the "rhythm and shape" of movement that communicates character, emotion and intention, while only certain scenes required the exact synchronisation of step and music essential to other dance styles, so that, to Laban, modern Europeans seemed totally unable to grasp the meaning of "primitive rhythmic movements", a situation that began to change in the 20th century with such productions as Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring with its new rhythmic language evoking primal feelings of a primitive past.
Indian classical dance styles, like ballet, are often in dramatic form, so that there is a similar complementarity between narrative expression and "pure" dance. In this case, the two are separately defined, though not always separately performed. The rhythmic elements, which are abstract and technical, are known as nritta. Both this and expressive dance (nritya), though, are closely tied to the rhythmic system (tala). Teachers have adapted the spoken rhythmic mnemonic system called bol to the needs of dancers.
Japanese classical dance-theatre styles such as Kabuki and Noh, like Indian dance-drama, distinguish between narrative and abstract dance productions. The three main categories of kabuki are jidaimono (historical), sewamono (domestic) and shosagoto (dance pieces). Somewhat similarly, Noh distinguishes between Geki Noh, based around the advancement of plot and the narration of action, and Furyū Noh, dance pieces involving acrobatics, stage properties, multiple characters and elaborate stage action.
Social dances, those intended for participation rather than for an audience, may include various forms of mime and narrative, but are typically set much more closely to the rhythmic pattern of music, so that terms like waltz and polka refer as much to musical pieces as to the dance itself. The rhythm of the dancers' feet may even form an essential part of the music, as in tap dance. African dance, for example, is rooted in fixed basic steps, but may also allow a high degree of rhythmic interpretation: the feet or the trunk mark the basic pulse while cross-rhythms are picked up by shoulders, knees, or head, with the best dancers simultaneously giving plastic expression to all the elements of the polyrhythmic pattern.
Dance in Africa is deeply integrated into society and major events in a community are frequently reflected in dances: dances are performed for births and funerals, weddings and wars. Traditional dances impart cultural morals, including religious traditions and sexual standards; give vent to repressed emotions, such as grief; motivate community members to cooperate, whether fighting wars or grinding grain; enact spiritual rituals; and contribute to social cohesiveness.
Thousands of dances are performed around the continent. These may be divided into traditional, neotraditional, and classical styles: folkloric dances of a particular society, dances created more recently in imitation of traditional styles, and dances transmitted more formally in schools or private lessons. African dance has been altered by many forces, such as European missionaries and colonialist governments, who often suppressed local dance traditions as licentious or distracting. Dance in contemporary African cultures still serves its traditional functions in new contexts; dance may celebrate the inauguration of a hospital, build community for rural migrants in unfamiliar cities, and be incorporated into Christian church ceremonies.
All Indian classical dances are to varying degrees rooted in the Natyashastra and therefore share common features: for example, the mudras (hand positions), some body positions, leg movement and the inclusion of dramatic or expressive acting or abhinaya. Indian classical music provides accompaniment and dancers of nearly all the styles wear bells around their ankles to counterpoint and complement the percussion.
There are now many regional varieties of Indian classical dance. Dances like "Odra Magadhi", which after decades-long debate, has been traced to present day Mithila, Odisha region's dance form of Odissi (Orissi), indicate influence of dances in cultural interactions between different regions.
The Punjab area overlapping India and Pakistan is the place of origin of Bhangra. It is widely known both as a style of music and a dance. It is mostly related to ancient harvest celebrations, love, patriotism or social issues. Its music is coordinated by a musical instrument called the 'Dhol'. Bhangra is not just music but a dance, a celebration of the harvest where people beat the dhol (drum), sing Boliyaan (lyrics) and dance. It developed further with the Vaisakhi festival of the Sikhs.
The dances of Sri Lanka include the devil dances (yakun natima), a carefully crafted ritual reaching far back into Sri Lanka's pre-Buddhist past that combines ancient "Ayurvedic" concepts of disease causation with psychological manipulation and combines many aspects including Sinhalese cosmology. Their influence can be seen on the classical dances of Sri Lanka.
Indonesian dances reflect the richness and diversity of Indonesian ethnic groups and cultures. There are more than 1,300 ethnic groups in Indonesia, it can be seen from the cultural roots of the Austronesian and Melanesian peoples, and various cultural influences from Asia and the west. Dances in Indonesia originate from ritual movements and religious ceremonies, this kind of dance usually begins with rituals, such as war dances, shaman dances to cure or ward off disease, dances to call rain and other types of dances. With the acceptance of dharma religion in the 1st century in Indonesia, Hinduism and Buddhist rituals were celebrated in various artistic performances. Hindu epics such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata and also the Panji became the inspiration to be shown in a dance-drama called "Sendratari" resembling "ballet" in the western tradition. An elaborate and highly stylized dance method was invented and has survived to this day, especially on the islands of Java and Bali. The Javanese Wayang wong dance takes footage from the Ramayana or Mahabharata episodes, but this dance is very different from the Indian version, indonesian dances do not pay as much attention to the "mudras" as Indian dances: even more to show local forms. The sacred Javanese ritual dance Bedhaya is believed to date back to the Majapahit period in the 14th century or even earlier, this dance originated from ritual dances performed by virgin girls to worship Hindu Gods such as Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu. In Bali, dance has become an integral part of the sacred Hindu Dharma rituals. Some experts believe that Balinese dance comes from an older dance tradition from Java. Reliefs from temples in East Java from the 14th century feature crowns and headdresses similar to the headdresses used in Balinese dance today. Islam began to spread to the Indonesian archipelago when indigenous dances and dharma dances were still popular. Artists and dancers still use styles from the previous era, replacing stories with more Islamic interpretations and clothing that is more closed according to Islamic teachings.
The dances of the Middle East are usually the traditional forms of circle dancing which are modernized to an extent. They would include dabke, tamzara, Assyrian folk dance, Kurdish dance, Armenian dance and Turkish dance, among others. All these forms of dances would usually involve participants engaging each other by holding hands or arms (depending on the style of the dance). They would make rhythmic moves with their legs and shoulders as they curve around the dance floor. The head of the dance would generally hold a cane or handkerchief.
Folk dances vary across Europe and may date back hundreds or thousands of years, but many have features in common such as group participation led by a caller, hand-holding or arm-linking between participants, and fixed musical forms known as caroles. Some, such as the maypole dance are common to many nations, while others such as the céilidh and the polka are deeply-rooted in a single culture. Some European folk dances such as the square dance were brought to the New World and subsequently became part of American culture.
Ballet developed first in Italy and then in France from lavish court spectacles that combined rhythm, drama, poetry, song, costumes and dance. Members of the court nobility took part as performers. During the reign of Louis XIV, himself a dancer, dance became more codified. Professional dancers began to take the place of court amateurs, and ballet masters were licensed by the French government. The first ballet dance academy was the Académie Royale de Danse (Royal Dance Academy), opened in Paris in 1661. Shortly thereafter, the first institutionalized ballet troupe, associated with the Academy, was formed; this troupe began as an all-male ensemble but by 1681 opened to include women as well.
20th century concert dance brought an explosion of innovation in dance style characterized by an exploration of freer technique. Early pioneers of what became known as modern dance include Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman and Ruth St. Denis. The relationship of music to dance serves as the basis for Eurhythmics, devised by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, which was influential to the development of Modern dance and modern ballet through artists such as Marie Rambert. Eurythmy, developed by Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner-von Sivers, combines formal elements reminiscent of traditional dance with the new freer style, and introduced a complex new vocabulary to dance. In the 1920s, important founders of the new style such as Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey began their work. Since this time, a wide variety of dance styles have been developed; see Modern dance.
African American dance developed in everyday spaces, rather than in dance studios, schools or companies. Tap dance, disco, jazz dance, swing dance, hip hop dance, the lindy hop with its relationship to rock and roll music and rock and roll dance have had a global influence. Dance styles fusing classical ballet technique with African-American dance have also appeared in the 21st century, including Hiplet.
Dance is central to Latin American social life and culture. Brazilian Samba, Argentinian tango, and Cuban salsa are internationally popular partner dances, and other national dances—merengue, cueca, plena, jarabe, joropo, marinera, cumbia, bachata and others—are important components of their respective countries' cultures. Traditional Carnival festivals incorporate these and other dances in enormous celebrations.
Dance has played an important role in forging a collective identity among the many cultural and ethnic groups of Latin America. Dance served to unite the many African, European, and indigenous peoples of the region. Certain dance genres, such as capoeira, and body movements, especially the characteristic quebradas or pelvis swings, have been variously banned and celebrated throughout Latin American history.
Dance studies are offered through the arts and humanities programs of many higher education institutions. Some universities offer Bachelor of Arts and higher academic degrees in Dance. A dance study curriculum may encompass a diverse range of courses and topics, including dance practice and performance, choreography, ethnochoreology, kinesiology, dance notation, and dance therapy. Most recently, dance and movement therapy has been integrated in some schools into math lessons for students with learning disabilities, emotional or behavioral disabilities, as well as for those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Professional dancers are usually employed on contract or for particular performances or productions. The professional life of a dancer is generally one of constantly changing work situations, strong competitive pressure and low pay. Consequently, professional dancers often must supplement their incomes to achieve financial stability. In the U.S. many professional dancers belong to unions (such as the American Guild of Musical Artists, Screen Actors Guild and Actors' Equity Association) that establish working conditions and minimum salaries for their members. Professional dancers must possess large amounts of athleticism. To lead a successful career, it is advantageous to be versatile in many styles of dance, have a strong technical background and to use other forms of physical training to remain fit and healthy.
Dance teachers typically focus on teaching dance performance, or coaching competitive dancers, or both. They typically have performance experience in the types of dance they teach or coach. For example, dancesport teachers and coaches are often tournament dancers or former dancesport performers. Dance teachers may be self-employed, or employed by dance schools or general education institutions with dance programs. Some work for university programs or other schools that are associated with professional classical dance (e.g., ballet) or modern dance companies. Others are employed by smaller, privately owned dance schools that offer dance training and performance coaching for various types of dance.
Choreographers are the ones that design the dancing movements within a dance, they are often university trained and are typically employed for particular projects or, more rarely may work on contract as the resident choreographer for a specific dance company.
A dance competition is an organized event in which contestants perform dances before a judge or judges for awards, and in some cases, monetary prizes. There are several major types of dance competitions, distinguished primarily by the style or styles of dances performed. Dance competitions are an excellent setting to build connections with industry leading faculty members, adjudicators, choreographers and other dancers from competing studios. A typical dance competition for younger pre-professional dancers can last anywhere between two and four days, depending whether it is a regional or national competition.
The purpose of dance competitions is to provide a fun and educative place for dancers and give them the opportunity to perform their choreographed routines from their current dance season onstage. Oftentimes, competitions will take place in a professional setting or may vary to non-performance spaces, such as a high school theatre. The results of the dancers are then dictated by a credible panel of judges and are evaluated on their performance than given a score. As far as competitive categories go, most competitions base their categories according to the dance style, age, experience level and the number of dancers competing in the routine. Major types of dance competitions include:
During the 1950s and 1960s, cultural exchange of dance was a common feature of international diplomacy, especially amongst East and South Asian nations. The People's Republic of China, for example, developed a formula for dance diplomacy that sought to learn from and express respect for the aesthetic traditions of recently independent states that were former European colonies, such as Indonesia, India, and Burma, as a show of anti-colonial solidarity.
In most forms of dance the foot is the source of movement, and in some cases require specific shoes to aid in the health, safety ability of the dancer, depending on the type of dance, the intensity of the movements, and the surface that will be danced on.
Dance footwear can be potentially both supportive and or restrictive to the movement of the dancer. The effectiveness of the shoe is related to its ability to help the foot do something it is not intended to do, or to make easier a difficult movement. Such effects relate to health and safety because of the function of the equipment as unnatural to the bodies usual mobility.
Ballet is notable for the risks of injury due to the biomechanics of the ankle and the toes as the main support for the rest of the movements. With the pointe shoe, the design specifically brings all of the toes together to allow the toes to be stood on for longer periods of time.
There are accessories associated with pointe shoes that help to mitigate injury and soothe pain while dancing, including things such as toe pads, toe tape, and cushions.
Dancers are publicly thought to be very preoccupied with their body image to fit a certain mold in the industry. Research indicates that dancers do have greater difficulty controlling their eating habits as a large quantity strive for the art-form's ideal body mass. Some dancers often resort to abusive tactics to maintain a certain image. Common scenarios include dancers abusing laxatives for weight control and end up falling into unhealthy eating disorders. Studies show that a large quantity of dancers use at least one method of weight control including over exercising and food restriction. The pressure for dancers to maintain a below average weight affects their eating and weight controlling behaviours and their life-style. Due to its artistic nature, dancers tend to have many hostile self-critical tendencies. Commonly seen in performers, it is likely that a variety of individuals may be resistant to concepts of self-compassion.
In North America, eating disorders present a significant public health challenge, with an estimated 10% of young girls affected. Those engaged in aesthetic-focused sports like dance face even greater risks due to intense pressures for a slender physique. Eating disorders in dancers are generally very common. Through data analysis and studies published, sufficient data regarding the percentage and accuracy dancers have of realistically falling into unhealthy disordered eating habits or the development of an eating disorder were extracted. Dancers, in general, have a higher risk of developing eating disorders than the general public, primarily falling into anorexia nervosa and EDNOS. Research has yet to distinguish a direct correlation regarding dancers having a higher risk of developing bulimia nervosa. Studies concluded that dancers overall have a three times higher risk of developing eating disorders, more specifically anorexia nervosa and EDNOS.
Dance has become a popular form of content across many social media platforms, including TikTok. During 2020, TikTok dances offered the opportunity for isolated individuals to interact and connect with one another through a virtual format. Since its debut in 2017, the app has also attracted a small but growing audience of professional dancers in their early 20s to 30s. While the majority of this demographic is more accustomed to performing onstage, this app introduced a new means to generate professional exposure.
Some parrots and elephants have been observed dancing in a way that follows the beat of the music. Other animals appear to lack the ability to do this spontaneously, though some can be trained or led by humans. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dance is an art form, often classified as a sport, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements or by its historical period or place of origin. Dance is typically performed with musical accompaniment, and sometimes with the dancer simultaneously using a musical instrument themselves.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "An important distinction is to be drawn between theatrical and participatory dance, although these two categories are not always completely separate; both may have special functions, whether social, ceremonial, competitive, erotic, martial, sacred or liturgical. Other forms of human movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, cheerleading, figure skating, synchronized swimming, marching bands, and many other forms of athletics. Dance is not solely restricted to performance, as dance is used as a form of exercise and occasionally training for other sports and activities. Dance has become a sport for some, with dancing competitions found across the world exhibiting various different styles and standards. Dance has an aesthetic appeal to many people.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Theatrical dance, also called performance or concert dance, is intended primarily as a spectacle, usually a performance upon a stage by virtuoso dancers. It often tells a story, perhaps using mime, costume and scenery, or it may interpret the musical accompaniment, which is often specially composed and performed in a theatre setting but it is not a requirement. Examples are Western ballet and modern dance, Classical Indian dance such as Bharatanatyam, and Chinese and Japanese song and dance dramas, such as the dragon dance. Most classical forms are centred upon dance alone, but performance dance may also appear in opera and other forms of musical theatre.",
"title": "Theatrical and participatory dance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Participatory dance, whether it be a folk dance, a social dance, a group dance such as a line, circle, chain or square dance, or a partner dance, such as in Western ballroom dancing, is undertaken primarily for a common purpose, such as social interaction or exercise, or building flexibility of participants rather than to serve any benefit to onlookers. Such dance seldom has any narrative. A group dance and a corps de ballet, a social partner dance and a pas de deux, differ profoundly. Even a solo dance or interpretive dance may be undertaken solely for the satisfaction of the dancer. Participatory dancers often all employ the same movements and steps but, for example, in the rave culture of electronic dance music, vast crowds may engage in free dance, uncoordinated with those around them. On the other hand, some cultures lay down strict rules as to the particular dances people may or must participate.",
"title": "Theatrical and participatory dance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Archaeological evidence for early dance includes 10,000-years-old paintings in Madhya Pradesh, India at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures, dated c. 3300 BC. It has been proposed that before the invention of written languages, dance was an important part of the oral and performance methods of passing stories down from one generation to the next. The use of dance in ecstatic trance states and healing rituals (as observed today in many contemporary indigenous cultures) is thought to have been another early factor in the social development of dance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "References to dance can be found in very early recorded history; Greek dance (choros) is referred to by Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Lucian. The Bible and Talmud refer to many events related to dance, and contain over 30 different dance terms. In Chinese pottery as early as the Neolithic period, groups of people are depicted dancing in a line holding hands, and the earliest Chinese word for \"dance\" is found written in the oracle bones. Dance is described in the Lüshi Chunqiu. Primitive dance in ancient China was associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "During the first millennium BCE in India, many texts were composed which attempted to codify aspects of daily life. Bharata Muni's Natya Shastra (literally \"the text of dramaturgy\") is one early text. It mainly deals with drama, in which dance plays an important part in Indian culture. A strong continuous tradition of dance has since continued in India, through to modern times, where it continues to play a role in culture, ritual, and the Bollywood entertainment industry. Many other contemporary dance forms can likewise be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, and ethnic dance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Dance is generally, but not exclusively, performed with the accompaniment of music and may or may not be performed in time to such music. Some dance (such as tap dance) may provide its own audible accompaniment in place of (or in addition to) music. Many early forms of music and dance were created for each other and are frequently performed together. Notable examples of traditional dance-music couplings include the jig, waltz, tango, disco, and salsa. Some musical genres have a parallel dance form such as baroque music and baroque dance; other varieties of dance and music may share nomenclature but developed separately, such as classical music and classical ballet. The choreography and music are meant to complement each other, to express a story told by the choreographer and dancers.",
"title": "Music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Rhythm and dance are deeply linked in history and practice. The American dancer Ted Shawn wrote; \"The conception of rhythm which underlies all studies of the dance is something about which we could talk forever, and still not finish.\" A musical rhythm requires two main elements; first, a regularly-repeating pulse (also called the \"beat\" or \"tactus\") that establishes the tempo and, second, a pattern of accents and rests that establishes the character of the metre or basic rhythmic pattern. The basic pulse is roughly equal in duration to a simple step or gesture.",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Dances generally have a characteristic tempo and rhythmic pattern. The tango, for example, is usually danced in 4 time at approximately 66 beats per minute. The basic slow step, called a \"slow\", lasts for one beat, so that a full \"right–left\" step is equal to one 4 measure. The basic forward and backward walk of the dance is so counted – \"slow-slow\" – while many additional figures are counted \"slow – quick-quick\".",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Repetitive body movements often depend on alternating \"strong\" and \"weak\" muscular movements. Given this alternation of left-right, of forward-backward and rise-fall, along with the bilateral symmetry of the human body, many dances and much music are in duple and quadruple meter. Since some such movements require more time in one phase than the other – such as the longer time required to lift a hammer than to strike – some dance rhythms fall into triple metre. Occasionally, as in the folk dances of the Balkans, dance traditions depend heavily on more complex rhythms. Further, complex dances composed of a fixed sequence of steps always require phrases and melodies of a certain fixed length to accompany that sequence.",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Musical accompaniment arose in the earliest dance, so that ancient Egyptians attributed the origin of the dance to the divine Athotus, who was said to have observed that music accompanying religious rituals caused participants to move rhythmically and to have brought these movements into proportional measure. The same idea, that dance arises from musical rhythm, was found in renaissance Europe, in the works of the dancer Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro, who speaks of dance as a physical movement that arises from and expresses inward, spiritual motion agreeing with the \"measures and perfect concords of harmony\" that fall upon the human ear, while, earlier, Mechthild of Magdeburg, seizing upon dance as a symbol of the holy life foreshadowed in Jesus' saying \"I have piped and ye have not danced\", writes;",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "I can not dance unless thou leadest. If thou wouldst have me spring aloft, sing thou and I will spring, into love and from love to knowledge and from knowledge to ecstasy above all human sense",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Thoinot Arbeau's celebrated 16th-century dance-treatise Orchésographie, indeed, begins with definitions of over eighty distinct drum-rhythms.",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "As has been shown above, dance has been represented through the ages as having emerged as a response to music yet, as Lincoln Kirstein implied, it is at least as likely that primitive music arose from dance. Shawn concurs, stating that dance \"was the first art of the human race, and the matrix out of which all other arts grew\" and that even the \"metre in our poetry today is a result of the accents necessitated by body movement, as the dancing and reciting was performed simultaneously\" – an assertion somewhat supported by the common use of the term \"foot\" to describe the fundamental rhythmic units of poetry.",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Scholes, not a dancer but a musician, offers support for this view, stating that the steady measures of music, of two, three or four beats to the bar, its equal and balanced phrases, regular cadences, contrasts and repetitions, may all be attributed to the \"incalculable\" influence of dance upon music.",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, primarily a musician and teacher, relates how a study of the physical movements of pianists led him \"to the discovery that musical sensations of a rhythmic nature call for the muscular and nervous response of the whole organism\", to develop \"a special training designed to regulate nervous reactions and effect a co-ordination of muscles and nerves\" and ultimately to seek the connections between \"the art of music and the art of dance\", which he formulated into his system of eurhythmics. He concluded that \"musical rhythm is only the transposition into sound of movements and dynamisms spontaneously and involuntarily expressing emotion\".",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Hence, though doubtless, as Shawn asserts, \"it is quite possible to develop the dance without music and... music is perfectly capable of standing on its own feet without any assistance from the dance\", nevertheless the \"two arts will always be related and the relationship can be profitable both to the dance and to music\", the precedence of one art over the other being a moot point. The common ballad measures of hymns and folk-songs takes their name from dance, as does the carol, originally a circle dance. Many purely musical pieces have been named \"waltz\" or \"minuet\", for example, while many concert dances have been produced that are based upon abstract musical pieces, such as 2 and 3 Part Inventions, Adams Violin Concerto and Andantino. Similarly, poems are often structured and named after dances or musical works, while dance and music have both drawn their conception of \"measure\" or \"metre\" from poetry.",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Shawn quotes with approval the statement of Dalcroze that, while the art of musical rhythm consists in differentiating and combining time durations, pauses and accents \"according to physiological law\", that of \"plastic rhythm\" (i.e. dance) \"is to designate movement in space, to interpret long time-values by slow movements and short ones by quick movements, regulate pauses by their divers successions and express sound accentuations in their multiple nuances by additions of bodily weight, by means of muscular innervations\".",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Shawn nevertheless points out that the system of musical time is a \"man-made, artificial thing.... a manufactured tool, whereas rhythm is something that has always existed and depends on man not at all\", being \"the continuous flowing time which our human minds cut up into convenient units\", suggesting that music might be revivified by a return to the values and the time-perception of dancing.",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The early-20th-century American dancer Helen Moller stated that \"it is rhythm and form more than harmony and color which, from the beginning, has bound music, poetry and dancing together in a union that is indissoluble.\"",
"title": "Rhythm"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Concert dance, like opera, generally depends for its large-scale form upon a narrative dramatic structure. The movements and gestures of the choreography are primarily intended to mime the personality and aims of the characters and their part in the plot. Such theatrical requirements tend towards longer, freer movements than those usual in non-narrative dance styles. On the other hand, the ballet blanc, developed in the 19th century, allows interludes of rhythmic dance that developed into entirely \"plotless\" ballets in the 20th century and that allowed fast, rhythmic dance-steps such as those of the petit allegro. A well-known example is The Cygnets' Dance in act two of Swan Lake.",
"title": "Approaches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The ballet developed out of courtly dramatic productions of 16th- and 17th-century France and Italy and for some time dancers performed dances developed from those familiar from the musical suite, all of which were defined by definite rhythms closely identified with each dance. These appeared as character dances in the era of romantic nationalism.",
"title": "Approaches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Ballet reached widespread vogue in the romantic era, accompanied by a larger orchestra and grander musical conceptions that did not lend themselves easily to rhythmic clarity and by dance that emphasised dramatic mime. A broader concept of rhythm was needed, that which Rudolf Laban terms the \"rhythm and shape\" of movement that communicates character, emotion and intention, while only certain scenes required the exact synchronisation of step and music essential to other dance styles, so that, to Laban, modern Europeans seemed totally unable to grasp the meaning of \"primitive rhythmic movements\", a situation that began to change in the 20th century with such productions as Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring with its new rhythmic language evoking primal feelings of a primitive past.",
"title": "Approaches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Indian classical dance styles, like ballet, are often in dramatic form, so that there is a similar complementarity between narrative expression and \"pure\" dance. In this case, the two are separately defined, though not always separately performed. The rhythmic elements, which are abstract and technical, are known as nritta. Both this and expressive dance (nritya), though, are closely tied to the rhythmic system (tala). Teachers have adapted the spoken rhythmic mnemonic system called bol to the needs of dancers.",
"title": "Approaches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Japanese classical dance-theatre styles such as Kabuki and Noh, like Indian dance-drama, distinguish between narrative and abstract dance productions. The three main categories of kabuki are jidaimono (historical), sewamono (domestic) and shosagoto (dance pieces). Somewhat similarly, Noh distinguishes between Geki Noh, based around the advancement of plot and the narration of action, and Furyū Noh, dance pieces involving acrobatics, stage properties, multiple characters and elaborate stage action.",
"title": "Approaches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Social dances, those intended for participation rather than for an audience, may include various forms of mime and narrative, but are typically set much more closely to the rhythmic pattern of music, so that terms like waltz and polka refer as much to musical pieces as to the dance itself. The rhythm of the dancers' feet may even form an essential part of the music, as in tap dance. African dance, for example, is rooted in fixed basic steps, but may also allow a high degree of rhythmic interpretation: the feet or the trunk mark the basic pulse while cross-rhythms are picked up by shoulders, knees, or head, with the best dancers simultaneously giving plastic expression to all the elements of the polyrhythmic pattern.",
"title": "Approaches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Dance in Africa is deeply integrated into society and major events in a community are frequently reflected in dances: dances are performed for births and funerals, weddings and wars. Traditional dances impart cultural morals, including religious traditions and sexual standards; give vent to repressed emotions, such as grief; motivate community members to cooperate, whether fighting wars or grinding grain; enact spiritual rituals; and contribute to social cohesiveness.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Thousands of dances are performed around the continent. These may be divided into traditional, neotraditional, and classical styles: folkloric dances of a particular society, dances created more recently in imitation of traditional styles, and dances transmitted more formally in schools or private lessons. African dance has been altered by many forces, such as European missionaries and colonialist governments, who often suppressed local dance traditions as licentious or distracting. Dance in contemporary African cultures still serves its traditional functions in new contexts; dance may celebrate the inauguration of a hospital, build community for rural migrants in unfamiliar cities, and be incorporated into Christian church ceremonies.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "All Indian classical dances are to varying degrees rooted in the Natyashastra and therefore share common features: for example, the mudras (hand positions), some body positions, leg movement and the inclusion of dramatic or expressive acting or abhinaya. Indian classical music provides accompaniment and dancers of nearly all the styles wear bells around their ankles to counterpoint and complement the percussion.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "There are now many regional varieties of Indian classical dance. Dances like \"Odra Magadhi\", which after decades-long debate, has been traced to present day Mithila, Odisha region's dance form of Odissi (Orissi), indicate influence of dances in cultural interactions between different regions.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The Punjab area overlapping India and Pakistan is the place of origin of Bhangra. It is widely known both as a style of music and a dance. It is mostly related to ancient harvest celebrations, love, patriotism or social issues. Its music is coordinated by a musical instrument called the 'Dhol'. Bhangra is not just music but a dance, a celebration of the harvest where people beat the dhol (drum), sing Boliyaan (lyrics) and dance. It developed further with the Vaisakhi festival of the Sikhs.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The dances of Sri Lanka include the devil dances (yakun natima), a carefully crafted ritual reaching far back into Sri Lanka's pre-Buddhist past that combines ancient \"Ayurvedic\" concepts of disease causation with psychological manipulation and combines many aspects including Sinhalese cosmology. Their influence can be seen on the classical dances of Sri Lanka.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Indonesian dances reflect the richness and diversity of Indonesian ethnic groups and cultures. There are more than 1,300 ethnic groups in Indonesia, it can be seen from the cultural roots of the Austronesian and Melanesian peoples, and various cultural influences from Asia and the west. Dances in Indonesia originate from ritual movements and religious ceremonies, this kind of dance usually begins with rituals, such as war dances, shaman dances to cure or ward off disease, dances to call rain and other types of dances. With the acceptance of dharma religion in the 1st century in Indonesia, Hinduism and Buddhist rituals were celebrated in various artistic performances. Hindu epics such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata and also the Panji became the inspiration to be shown in a dance-drama called \"Sendratari\" resembling \"ballet\" in the western tradition. An elaborate and highly stylized dance method was invented and has survived to this day, especially on the islands of Java and Bali. The Javanese Wayang wong dance takes footage from the Ramayana or Mahabharata episodes, but this dance is very different from the Indian version, indonesian dances do not pay as much attention to the \"mudras\" as Indian dances: even more to show local forms. The sacred Javanese ritual dance Bedhaya is believed to date back to the Majapahit period in the 14th century or even earlier, this dance originated from ritual dances performed by virgin girls to worship Hindu Gods such as Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu. In Bali, dance has become an integral part of the sacred Hindu Dharma rituals. Some experts believe that Balinese dance comes from an older dance tradition from Java. Reliefs from temples in East Java from the 14th century feature crowns and headdresses similar to the headdresses used in Balinese dance today. Islam began to spread to the Indonesian archipelago when indigenous dances and dharma dances were still popular. Artists and dancers still use styles from the previous era, replacing stories with more Islamic interpretations and clothing that is more closed according to Islamic teachings.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The dances of the Middle East are usually the traditional forms of circle dancing which are modernized to an extent. They would include dabke, tamzara, Assyrian folk dance, Kurdish dance, Armenian dance and Turkish dance, among others. All these forms of dances would usually involve participants engaging each other by holding hands or arms (depending on the style of the dance). They would make rhythmic moves with their legs and shoulders as they curve around the dance floor. The head of the dance would generally hold a cane or handkerchief.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Folk dances vary across Europe and may date back hundreds or thousands of years, but many have features in common such as group participation led by a caller, hand-holding or arm-linking between participants, and fixed musical forms known as caroles. Some, such as the maypole dance are common to many nations, while others such as the céilidh and the polka are deeply-rooted in a single culture. Some European folk dances such as the square dance were brought to the New World and subsequently became part of American culture.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Ballet developed first in Italy and then in France from lavish court spectacles that combined rhythm, drama, poetry, song, costumes and dance. Members of the court nobility took part as performers. During the reign of Louis XIV, himself a dancer, dance became more codified. Professional dancers began to take the place of court amateurs, and ballet masters were licensed by the French government. The first ballet dance academy was the Académie Royale de Danse (Royal Dance Academy), opened in Paris in 1661. Shortly thereafter, the first institutionalized ballet troupe, associated with the Academy, was formed; this troupe began as an all-male ensemble but by 1681 opened to include women as well.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "20th century concert dance brought an explosion of innovation in dance style characterized by an exploration of freer technique. Early pioneers of what became known as modern dance include Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman and Ruth St. Denis. The relationship of music to dance serves as the basis for Eurhythmics, devised by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, which was influential to the development of Modern dance and modern ballet through artists such as Marie Rambert. Eurythmy, developed by Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner-von Sivers, combines formal elements reminiscent of traditional dance with the new freer style, and introduced a complex new vocabulary to dance. In the 1920s, important founders of the new style such as Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey began their work. Since this time, a wide variety of dance styles have been developed; see Modern dance.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "African American dance developed in everyday spaces, rather than in dance studios, schools or companies. Tap dance, disco, jazz dance, swing dance, hip hop dance, the lindy hop with its relationship to rock and roll music and rock and roll dance have had a global influence. Dance styles fusing classical ballet technique with African-American dance have also appeared in the 21st century, including Hiplet.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Dance is central to Latin American social life and culture. Brazilian Samba, Argentinian tango, and Cuban salsa are internationally popular partner dances, and other national dances—merengue, cueca, plena, jarabe, joropo, marinera, cumbia, bachata and others—are important components of their respective countries' cultures. Traditional Carnival festivals incorporate these and other dances in enormous celebrations.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Dance has played an important role in forging a collective identity among the many cultural and ethnic groups of Latin America. Dance served to unite the many African, European, and indigenous peoples of the region. Certain dance genres, such as capoeira, and body movements, especially the characteristic quebradas or pelvis swings, have been variously banned and celebrated throughout Latin American history.",
"title": "Cultural traditions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Dance studies are offered through the arts and humanities programs of many higher education institutions. Some universities offer Bachelor of Arts and higher academic degrees in Dance. A dance study curriculum may encompass a diverse range of courses and topics, including dance practice and performance, choreography, ethnochoreology, kinesiology, dance notation, and dance therapy. Most recently, dance and movement therapy has been integrated in some schools into math lessons for students with learning disabilities, emotional or behavioral disabilities, as well as for those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).",
"title": "Education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Professional dancers are usually employed on contract or for particular performances or productions. The professional life of a dancer is generally one of constantly changing work situations, strong competitive pressure and low pay. Consequently, professional dancers often must supplement their incomes to achieve financial stability. In the U.S. many professional dancers belong to unions (such as the American Guild of Musical Artists, Screen Actors Guild and Actors' Equity Association) that establish working conditions and minimum salaries for their members. Professional dancers must possess large amounts of athleticism. To lead a successful career, it is advantageous to be versatile in many styles of dance, have a strong technical background and to use other forms of physical training to remain fit and healthy.",
"title": "Occupations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Dance teachers typically focus on teaching dance performance, or coaching competitive dancers, or both. They typically have performance experience in the types of dance they teach or coach. For example, dancesport teachers and coaches are often tournament dancers or former dancesport performers. Dance teachers may be self-employed, or employed by dance schools or general education institutions with dance programs. Some work for university programs or other schools that are associated with professional classical dance (e.g., ballet) or modern dance companies. Others are employed by smaller, privately owned dance schools that offer dance training and performance coaching for various types of dance.",
"title": "Occupations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Choreographers are the ones that design the dancing movements within a dance, they are often university trained and are typically employed for particular projects or, more rarely may work on contract as the resident choreographer for a specific dance company.",
"title": "Occupations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "A dance competition is an organized event in which contestants perform dances before a judge or judges for awards, and in some cases, monetary prizes. There are several major types of dance competitions, distinguished primarily by the style or styles of dances performed. Dance competitions are an excellent setting to build connections with industry leading faculty members, adjudicators, choreographers and other dancers from competing studios. A typical dance competition for younger pre-professional dancers can last anywhere between two and four days, depending whether it is a regional or national competition.",
"title": "Competitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The purpose of dance competitions is to provide a fun and educative place for dancers and give them the opportunity to perform their choreographed routines from their current dance season onstage. Oftentimes, competitions will take place in a professional setting or may vary to non-performance spaces, such as a high school theatre. The results of the dancers are then dictated by a credible panel of judges and are evaluated on their performance than given a score. As far as competitive categories go, most competitions base their categories according to the dance style, age, experience level and the number of dancers competing in the routine. Major types of dance competitions include:",
"title": "Competitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "During the 1950s and 1960s, cultural exchange of dance was a common feature of international diplomacy, especially amongst East and South Asian nations. The People's Republic of China, for example, developed a formula for dance diplomacy that sought to learn from and express respect for the aesthetic traditions of recently independent states that were former European colonies, such as Indonesia, India, and Burma, as a show of anti-colonial solidarity.",
"title": "Dance diplomacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In most forms of dance the foot is the source of movement, and in some cases require specific shoes to aid in the health, safety ability of the dancer, depending on the type of dance, the intensity of the movements, and the surface that will be danced on.",
"title": "Health"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Dance footwear can be potentially both supportive and or restrictive to the movement of the dancer. The effectiveness of the shoe is related to its ability to help the foot do something it is not intended to do, or to make easier a difficult movement. Such effects relate to health and safety because of the function of the equipment as unnatural to the bodies usual mobility.",
"title": "Health"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Ballet is notable for the risks of injury due to the biomechanics of the ankle and the toes as the main support for the rest of the movements. With the pointe shoe, the design specifically brings all of the toes together to allow the toes to be stood on for longer periods of time.",
"title": "Health"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "There are accessories associated with pointe shoes that help to mitigate injury and soothe pain while dancing, including things such as toe pads, toe tape, and cushions.",
"title": "Health"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Dancers are publicly thought to be very preoccupied with their body image to fit a certain mold in the industry. Research indicates that dancers do have greater difficulty controlling their eating habits as a large quantity strive for the art-form's ideal body mass. Some dancers often resort to abusive tactics to maintain a certain image. Common scenarios include dancers abusing laxatives for weight control and end up falling into unhealthy eating disorders. Studies show that a large quantity of dancers use at least one method of weight control including over exercising and food restriction. The pressure for dancers to maintain a below average weight affects their eating and weight controlling behaviours and their life-style. Due to its artistic nature, dancers tend to have many hostile self-critical tendencies. Commonly seen in performers, it is likely that a variety of individuals may be resistant to concepts of self-compassion.",
"title": "Health"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "In North America, eating disorders present a significant public health challenge, with an estimated 10% of young girls affected. Those engaged in aesthetic-focused sports like dance face even greater risks due to intense pressures for a slender physique. Eating disorders in dancers are generally very common. Through data analysis and studies published, sufficient data regarding the percentage and accuracy dancers have of realistically falling into unhealthy disordered eating habits or the development of an eating disorder were extracted. Dancers, in general, have a higher risk of developing eating disorders than the general public, primarily falling into anorexia nervosa and EDNOS. Research has yet to distinguish a direct correlation regarding dancers having a higher risk of developing bulimia nervosa. Studies concluded that dancers overall have a three times higher risk of developing eating disorders, more specifically anorexia nervosa and EDNOS.",
"title": "Health"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Dance has become a popular form of content across many social media platforms, including TikTok. During 2020, TikTok dances offered the opportunity for isolated individuals to interact and connect with one another through a virtual format. Since its debut in 2017, the app has also attracted a small but growing audience of professional dancers in their early 20s to 30s. While the majority of this demographic is more accustomed to performing onstage, this app introduced a new means to generate professional exposure.",
"title": "Dance on social media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Some parrots and elephants have been observed dancing in a way that follows the beat of the music. Other animals appear to lack the ability to do this spontaneously, though some can be trained or led by humans.",
"title": "In animals"
}
] | Dance is an art form, often classified as a sport, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements or by its historical period or place of origin. Dance is typically performed with musical accompaniment, and sometimes with the dancer simultaneously using a musical instrument themselves. An important distinction is to be drawn between theatrical and participatory dance, although these two categories are not always completely separate; both may have special functions, whether social, ceremonial, competitive, erotic, martial, sacred or liturgical. Other forms of human movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, cheerleading, figure skating, synchronized swimming, marching bands, and many other forms of athletics. Dance is not solely restricted to performance, as dance is used as a form of exercise and occasionally training for other sports and activities. Dance has become a sport for some, with dancing competitions found across the world exhibiting various different styles and standards. Dance has an aesthetic appeal to many people. | 2001-11-11T02:15:07Z | 2023-12-27T12:08:11Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance |
7,886 | Drew Barrymore | Drew Blythe Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress, producer, talk show host and author. A member of the Barrymore family of actors, she has received several awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for nine Emmy Awards and a British Academy Film Award. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.
Barrymore achieved fame as a child actress with her breakout role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Following a highly publicized childhood marked by drug and alcohol abuse, she released an autobiography Little Girl Lost, which became a New York Times bestseller. She starred in a string of successful films during the 1990s and 2000s, including Charlie's Angels, Poison Ivy, Boys on the Side, Mad Love, Batman Forever, Scream and Ever After. Barrymore starred with Adam Sandler in the films: The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates and Blended. Her other films include Firestarter, Donnie Darko, Riding in Cars with Boys, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Fever Pitch, Music and Lyrics, Going the Distance, Big Miracle, and Miss You Already. She also starred in her directorial debut film Whip It. She won a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award for her role in Grey Gardens. She starred in the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet and currently hosts her syndicated talk show The Drew Barrymore Show. In September 2023, she announced she would return to the show without writers during the ongoing WGA strike, but after backlash, she reversed the decision the same month.
Barrymore is the founder of the production company Flower Films. It produced several projects in which she has starred. She launched a range of cosmetics under the Flower banner in 2013, which has grown to include lines in perfume, hair products and eyewear. Her other business ventures include a range of wines, homeware and clothing. In 2014, Barrymore released the New York Times bestselling photobook Find It in Everything of photographs she had taken over the span of a decade of everyday situations in the shape of a heart, including a discarded straw wrapper, a hole in a T-shirt, and a scallion in a bowl of miso soup. E. P. Dutton published a collection of Barrymore's autobiographical essays in her New York Times bestselling book Wildflower in 2015, for which she also narrated the audiobook version.
Drew Blythe Barrymore was born on February 22, 1975, in Culver City, California, to actor John Drew Barrymore and aspiring actress Jaid Barrymore (born Ildikó Jaid Makó), who was born in a displaced persons camp in Brannenburg, West Germany, to Hungarian World War II refugees. Through her father, Barrymore has three older half-siblings, including actor John Blyth Barrymore. Her parents divorced in 1984.
In 2023, Barrymore displayed an AncestryDNA test onscreen on her talk show, which showed that her genetic ancestry is primarily European, with 6% Northern Indian.
Barrymore was born into an acting family. All of her paternal great-grandparents, Maurice and Georgie Drew Barrymore, Maurice and Mae Costello (née Altschuk), and her paternal grandparents, John Barrymore and Dolores Costello, were actors, with John being arguably the most acclaimed actor of his generation. Barrymore is a niece of Diana Barrymore, a grandniece of Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore and Helene Costello, and a great-great-granddaughter of Irish-born John and English-born Louisa Lane Drew, all of whom were also actors. She is a great grandniece of Broadway idol John Drew Jr. and silent film actor, writer and director Sidney Drew.
Barrymore's godmothers are actress Sophia Loren and Lee Strasberg's widow, Anna Strasberg; Barrymore described her relationship with the latter as one that "would become so important to me as a kid because she was so kind and nurturing." Her godfather is filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
Barrymore's first name, Drew, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother Georgie Drew, and her middle name, Blythe, was the surname of the family first used by her great-grandfather Maurice Barrymore. In her 1991 autobiography Little Girl Lost, Barrymore recounted early memories of her abusive father, who left the family when she was six months old. She and her father never had a significant relationship and seldom spoke.
Barrymore grew up on Poinsettia Place in West Hollywood, until she moved to Sherman Oaks at the age of seven. In her 2015 memoir Wildflower, she says she spoke "like a valley girl" because she grew up in Sherman Oaks. She moved back to West Hollywood on becoming emancipated at age 14. She attended elementary school at Fountain Day School in West Hollywood and Country School. In the wake of her sudden stardom, Barrymore endured a notoriously troubled childhood. She was a regular at Studio 54 as a young girl, and her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media. She was placed in rehab at 13, and spent 18 months in an institution for the mentally ill. A suicide attempt at 14 put her back in rehab, followed by a three-month stay with singer David Crosby and his wife. The stay was precipitated, Crosby said, because she "needed to be around some people that were committed to sobriety." Barrymore described this period of her life for Little Girl Lost. After a successful juvenile court petition for emancipation, she moved into her own apartment at the age of 15.
Barrymore's career began when she was eleven months old, when she appeared in a dog food commercial. After her film debut with a small role in Altered States, she played Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Director Steven Spielberg felt she had the right imagination for the role after she impressed him with a story that she led a punk rock band. E.T. was the highest-grossing film of the 1980s, and made Barrymore one of the most famous child actors of the time. She won the Young Artist Award for Best Young Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the British Academy Film Awards. In the eighth season of Saturday Night Live, she became the youngest person to guest-host the series.
In the 1984 film adaptation for Stephen King's 1980 novel Firestarter, Barrymore played a girl with pyrokinesis who became the target of a secret government agency known as The Shop. That year, she also played a young girl divorcing her famous parents in Irreconcilable Differences, and was nominated for her first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. In his review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote: "Barrymore is the right actress for this role precisely because she approaches it with such grave calm."
Barrymore endured a troubled youth and continued acting during the decade. She starred in the anthology horror film Cat's Eye, also written by King. It received positive reviews and Barrymore was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actress. She was offered the role of Cecile for Dangerous Liaisons, but it went to Uma Thurman. Barrymore starred in the romance film See You in the Morning. Vincent Canby of The New York Times criticized the "fashionable phoniness" of the film, but positively singled out Barrymore. In Far from Home, she played a teenager who gets stranded with her father in a small, remote desert town. The film went largely unnoticed by audiences and received negative reviews from critics, who dismissed the sexual portrayal of her role.
Barrymore's rebelliousness played itself out on screen and in print. She played a poor teenage girl in Poison Ivy, which was a box-office bomb, but was popular on video and cable. Her character "Ivy" was ranked at #6 on the list of the top 26 "bad girls" of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Barrymore was seventeen when she posed nude with her then-fiancé, actor Jamie Walters, for the cover of the July issue of Interview magazine; she also appeared nude in pictures inside the issue.
In Guncrazy, Barrymore played a teenager who kills her abusive stepfather. Variety remarked that she "pulls off impressively" her character, and Barrymore was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film. Barrymore played the younger sister of a murdered ballerina in No Place to Hide and a writer followed by what is apparently her evil twin in Doppelganger. Both films were panned by critics and failed to find an audience. She appeared in the western film Bad Girls, which follows four former prostitutes on the run following a justifiable homicide and prison escape. Roger Ebert, in his review for the film, wrote for Chicago Sun-Times: "What a good idea, to make a Western about four tough women. And what a sad movie."
Barrymore posed nude for the January 1995 issue of Playboy. Soon after, her godfather Steven Spielberg gave her a quilt for her 20th birthday with a note that read, "Cover yourself up." Enclosed in the quilt were copies of her Playboy pictures which had been altered by Spielberg's art department so that she appeared fully clothed. Barrymore later said that she would not let her own child make the same choice she did.
While appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman, Barrymore climbed onto the desk, flashed her breasts to David Letterman and gave him a kiss on the cheek as a birthday gift. She modeled in a series of Guess? jeans ads during this time.
In the late 1990s, Barrymore re-established her image and continued to be a highly bankable star.
In Boys on the Side, Barrymore played a pregnant girl attempting to escape from her abusive boyfriend. It was a box office success and was positively received by critics. In the superhero film Batman Forever, she played one of the two female assistants for Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones).
Barrymore made a brief but notable appearance in Wes Craven's 1996 slasher film Scream. She read the film's script and was interested in being involved, approaching the production team herself to request a role. The producers were quick to take advantage of her unexpected interest and signed her to play the lead role of Sidney Prescott. However, after unexpected commitments, Barrymore played Casey Becker in a minor role, and Neve Campbell took the leading one. Scream was released to critical acclaim and made $173 million worldwide.
In The Wedding Singer (1998), Barrymore played a waitress in love with the titular character, played by Adam Sandler. Variety found the film to be a "spirited, funny and warm saga" that serves them up "in a new way that enhances their most winning qualities". Budgeted at $18 million, the film grossed $123.3 million internationally. In Home Fries (1998), Barrymore played a pregnant woman unknowingly falling for the stepson of the late father of her baby. She starred in the historical drama film Ever After (1998), which made $98 million and was inspired by the fairy tale Cinderella. Roger Ebert said about Barrymore and the film: "she can hold the screen and involve us in her characters".
Barrymore voiced the titular anthropomorphic Jack Russell terrier in the Christmas television film Olive, the Other Reindeer and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. After establishing Flower Films, Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen produced the company's first film, Never Been Kissed, in which Barrymore played an insecure copy editor for the Chicago Sun-Times and a high school student. While reviews from critics were mixed, CNN noted: "There are two words which describe why this film works: Drew Barrymore. Her comedic timing and willingness to go all out in her quest for a laugh combine to make Never Been Kissed a gratifying movie-going experience". The film was a commercial success, grossing $84.5 million.
In Charlie's Angels, Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu played the trio of investigators in Los Angeles. The film was a major box office success and helped solidify Barrymore's standing in her production company as one of the film's producers. Barrymore starred in Riding in Cars with Boys, as a teenage mother in a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father (based on Beverly Donofrio's real-life story). When the production of Donnie Darko was threatened, Barrymore stepped forward with financing from the company, and played the title character's English teacher. Although the film was less than successful at the box office in the wake of 9/11, it reached cult status after the DVD release, inspiring numerous websites devoted to unraveling the plot twists and meanings.
Barrymore starred in George Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, based on the autobiography of television producer Chuck Barris. Barrymore reprised her role in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and starred with Ben Stiller in Duplex. Flower Films and Happy Madison Productions produced the film 50 First Dates, in which Barrymore played an amnesiac woman and Sandler played a marine veterinarian. Summing up Barrymore's appeal, Roger Ebert, in his review for the film, remarked that Barrymore displayed a "smiling, coy sincerity", in what he described as an "ingratiating and lovable" film. 50 First Dates was a commercial success; it made US$120.9 million in North America and US$196.4 million worldwide.
In the 2005 American remake adaptation of the 1997 British film Fever Pitch, Barrymore played the love interest of an immature schoolteacher (Jimmy Fallon). The film grossed a modest US$50 million worldwide and had generally favorable reviews by critics who felt it "has enough charm and on-screen chemistry between [Fallon and Barrymore] to make it a solid hit". She and Hugh Grant starred in Music and Lyrics, which focuses on the relationship that evolves between a former pop music idol and an aspiring writer as they struggle to compose a song for a reigning pop diva. The romantic comedy, released in February 2007, received largely positive reviews, with The Washington Post finding the two to be "great together" in it. The film was a commercial success, grossing US$145 million globally.
In Curtis Hanson's poker film Lucky You, Barrymore played an aspiring singer and the subject of the affections of a talented player. In Raja Gosnell's film Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Barrymore voiced the titular character, a richly pampered pet who gets dognapped in Mexico and has to escape from an evil Doberman.
Barrymore starred in the ensemble comedy He's Just Not That Into You, which received mixed reviews, partly due to her limited time on screen, while it grossed US$178 million worldwide. She played Edith Bouvier Beale, the daughter of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (Jessica Lange) in the HBO film Grey Gardens, which is based on the 1975 documentary film. The television film was a huge success, winning five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Rolling Stone writer Peter Travers found Barrymore to be a "revelation" in her role. Barrymore was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film and the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.
Barrymore starred in her directorial debut film Whip It. It follows a high-schooler (Elliot Page) ditching the teen beauty pageant scene and participating in an Austin roller derby league. Barrymore worked with screenwriter Shauna Cross for months on script revisions, with Barrymore pushing her to "avoid her story's tidier prospects, to make things 'more raw and open ended.'" While the film found limited box office receipts, it was favorably received; according to review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, critics agreed that her "directorial debut has enough charm, energy, and good-natured humor to transcend its many cliches". For her venture, Barrymore garnered nominations for a Bronze Horse at the Stockholm Film Festival and for the EDA Female Focus Award at the 2009 Alliance of Women Film Journalists. In Everybody's Fine, Barrymore played the daughter of a recently widowed retiree (Robert De Niro). The drama flopped at the box office, but Stephen Holden for The New York Times considered Barrymore "as ingenuous as ever" in what he described as a "small role."
Barrymore starred with Justin Long in Nanette Burstein's film Going the Distance. It follows a couple dealing the ups and downs of a long-distance relationship, while commuting between New York City and San Francisco. It garnered generally mixed reviews by critics, who summed it as "timelier and a little more honest than most romantic comedies", and budgeted at US$32 million, the film made US$40 million at the worldwide box office.
On August 2, 2011, Barrymore directed the music video for the song "Our Deal," for the band Best Coast, which features Chloë Grace Moretz, Miranda Cosgrove, Tyler Posey, Donald Glover, Shailene Woodley and Alia Shawkat. Barrymore starred in the biopic film Big Miracle, which covers Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 international effort to rescue gray whales from being trapped in ice near Point Barrow, Alaska. Her character, Rachel Kramer, is based on Greenpeace activist Cindy Lowry. Despite a positive critical reception, the film flopped at the box office.
In Blended, Barrymore played a recently divorced woman ending up on a family resort with a widower (Sandler). Film critic James Berardinelli dismissed the "hit-and-miss humor" of the story and wrote that "as [Sandler and Barrymore] are concerned, the third time is definitely not the charm", as part of an overall lukewarm critical response. The film ultimately grossed US$128 million worldwide. She and Toni Collette starred in Miss You Already (2015), as two long-time friends whose relationship is put to the test when one starts a family and the other becomes ill. Reviewers embraced the film, while it received a limited theatrical release.
In the Netflix original television series Santa Clarita Diet, Barrymore played a real estate agent who, after experiencing a physical transformation into a zombie, starts craving human flesh. Along with co-star Timothy Olyphant, Barrymore served as an executive producer on the single-camera series, which was favorably received upon its premiere; Rolling Stone felt that "much of [the series' laughs] comes down to the uncrushable Drew Barrymore charm" and furthermore remarked: "The show is a welcome comeback for Barrymore, the eternally beloved grunge-era wild thing—it's not just her big move into TV, but her first high-profile performance anywhere in years. In a way, it circles back to the roles she was doing in the early [90s], playing deadly vixens in flicks like Guncrazy or Doppelganger".
Barrymore starred in Jamie Babbit's film The Stand In. It was set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 14, 2020, Barrymore launched a syndicated daytime talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, which is also available on Spotify in a podcast format. On December 4, 2020, she appeared as a guest star on Martha Knows Best. On March 11, 2021, Barrymore said she was taking an indefinite hiatus from acting. She wrote a cookbook with chef Pilar Valdes entitled Rebel Homemaker, which was a New York Times bestseller. In June 2021, she launched Drew Magazine, a quarterly released lifestyle magazine by publisher Bauer Media USA. Barrymore was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
In September 2023, Barrymore crossed a WGA picket line to continue her syndicated TV talk show, writing “I own this choice” when explaining her reasoning via social media. While SAG had stated that as the host of the show she was not under any obligation to strike, her show continued without unionized writing staff. Audience members showing support for the Writer's Guild were kicked out of the studio, and had any WGA pins confiscated. Due to these events, the National Book Foundation removed Barrymore from being the host of the then upcoming 74th National Book Awards. Barrymore apologized for her actions later that week in a video on Instagram, claiming that, "I believe there’s nothing I can do or say in this moment to make it OK." Barrymore deleted the apology video from her account following criticism. On the 17th, Barrymore announced on her Instagram account that she would be postponing production of her talk show until the strike ends due to the backlash, writing "I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over”. She also adds “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt, and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today”. A spokesperson for CBS Media Ventures said, "We support Drew’s decision to pause the show’s return and understand how complex and difficult this process has been for her."
Barrymore became a CoverGirl Cosmetics' model and spokeswoman in 2007. In February 2015, she became one of the faces of CoverGirl, alongside Queen Latifah and Taylor Swift. The company partnered with her because "she emulates the iconic image of CoverGirl with her fresh, natural beauty and energetic yet authentic spirit," said Esi Eggleston Bracey, vice president and general manager of CoverGirl Cosmetics North America. She brought not only her personality into this endorsement but also her creative side, as she also helped create the ads. She was No. 1 on People's annual 100 Most Beautiful People list in 2007. She was named the new face for the Gucci jewelry line. Barrymore signed a contract with IMG Models New York City. She is a spokeswoman for Crocs.
In May 2007, Barrymore was named Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme and later donated $1 million to the cause. As a guest photographer for a magazine series called "They Shoot New York", she appeared on the cover holding a Pentax K1000 film camera. She expressed hopes of exposing her work in a gallery one day, as she had documented the most recent decade of her life with a Pentax camera.
Barrymore launched a women's fashion line in fall 2017 in conjunction with Amazon.com called Dear Drew, which featured a pop-up shop in New York City that opened in November.
In 1991, Barrymore was engaged to Leland Hayward's grandson, Leland III. The engagement was called off a few months later. She was engaged to Jamie Walters from 1992 to 1993.
Barrymore married Welsh-born Los Angeles bar owner Jeremy Thomas on March 20, 1994. She filed for divorce from him less than two months later.
In late 1994, Barrymore began dating Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson, followed by MTV host and comedian Tom Green in 1999; she and Green were engaged in July 2000 and married a year later. Together, they starred in Charlie's Angels and Green's directorial film debut, Freddy Got Fingered. Green filed for divorce in December 2001, which was finalized on October 15, 2002.
In 2002, Barrymore began dating The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti shortly after they met at a concert. Their relationship ended in January 2007. She began dating Justin Long, but they broke up in July 2008.
In early 2011, Barrymore began dating art consultant Will Kopelman, the son of former Chanel COO Arie L. Kopelman. The couple announced their engagement in January 2012, and married on June 2, 2012, in Montecito, California. Four days later, the couple's wedding image appeared on the cover of People magazine. They have two daughters born in 2012 and 2014. On April 2, 2016, Barrymore and Kopelman released a statement about their separation. On July 15, 2016, Barrymore officially filed for divorce, which was finalized on August 3, 2016.
In an interview with Contactmusic.com in 2003, Barrymore said: "Do I like women sexually? Yeah, I do. Totally. I have always considered myself bisexual. I love a woman's body. I think a woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful. Being with a woman is like exploring your own body, but through someone else".
Barrymore is the godmother of Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love.
Barrymore eats a plant-based diet, and reportedly convinced Cardi B to try veganism. Since 2023, Barrymore resides in Manhattan.
In 1999, Barrymore was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award commemorating her outstanding achievements within the film industry as a child actress. For her contributions to the film industry, Barrymore received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. It is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard.
Her films compiled a worldwide box office gross that stood at over US$2.3 billion. According to The Hollywood Reporter's annual Star Salary Top 10, she was tied for eighth place on the top ten list of actresses' salaries, commanding 10 to 12 million dollars per film for 2006. Barrymore became the youngest person to host Saturday Night Live, having hosted on November 20, 1982 at seven years of age, a record that remains unbroken as of 2023. On February 3, 2007, Barrymore hosted SNL for the fifth time, becoming the second female host (after Candice Bergen) in the show's history to do so. She hosted again on October 10, 2009, becoming the first female to host six times. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Drew Blythe Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress, producer, talk show host and author. A member of the Barrymore family of actors, she has received several awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for nine Emmy Awards and a British Academy Film Award. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Barrymore achieved fame as a child actress with her breakout role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Following a highly publicized childhood marked by drug and alcohol abuse, she released an autobiography Little Girl Lost, which became a New York Times bestseller. She starred in a string of successful films during the 1990s and 2000s, including Charlie's Angels, Poison Ivy, Boys on the Side, Mad Love, Batman Forever, Scream and Ever After. Barrymore starred with Adam Sandler in the films: The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates and Blended. Her other films include Firestarter, Donnie Darko, Riding in Cars with Boys, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Fever Pitch, Music and Lyrics, Going the Distance, Big Miracle, and Miss You Already. She also starred in her directorial debut film Whip It. She won a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award for her role in Grey Gardens. She starred in the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet and currently hosts her syndicated talk show The Drew Barrymore Show. In September 2023, she announced she would return to the show without writers during the ongoing WGA strike, but after backlash, she reversed the decision the same month.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Barrymore is the founder of the production company Flower Films. It produced several projects in which she has starred. She launched a range of cosmetics under the Flower banner in 2013, which has grown to include lines in perfume, hair products and eyewear. Her other business ventures include a range of wines, homeware and clothing. In 2014, Barrymore released the New York Times bestselling photobook Find It in Everything of photographs she had taken over the span of a decade of everyday situations in the shape of a heart, including a discarded straw wrapper, a hole in a T-shirt, and a scallion in a bowl of miso soup. E. P. Dutton published a collection of Barrymore's autobiographical essays in her New York Times bestselling book Wildflower in 2015, for which she also narrated the audiobook version.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Drew Blythe Barrymore was born on February 22, 1975, in Culver City, California, to actor John Drew Barrymore and aspiring actress Jaid Barrymore (born Ildikó Jaid Makó), who was born in a displaced persons camp in Brannenburg, West Germany, to Hungarian World War II refugees. Through her father, Barrymore has three older half-siblings, including actor John Blyth Barrymore. Her parents divorced in 1984.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In 2023, Barrymore displayed an AncestryDNA test onscreen on her talk show, which showed that her genetic ancestry is primarily European, with 6% Northern Indian.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Barrymore was born into an acting family. All of her paternal great-grandparents, Maurice and Georgie Drew Barrymore, Maurice and Mae Costello (née Altschuk), and her paternal grandparents, John Barrymore and Dolores Costello, were actors, with John being arguably the most acclaimed actor of his generation. Barrymore is a niece of Diana Barrymore, a grandniece of Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore and Helene Costello, and a great-great-granddaughter of Irish-born John and English-born Louisa Lane Drew, all of whom were also actors. She is a great grandniece of Broadway idol John Drew Jr. and silent film actor, writer and director Sidney Drew.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Barrymore's godmothers are actress Sophia Loren and Lee Strasberg's widow, Anna Strasberg; Barrymore described her relationship with the latter as one that \"would become so important to me as a kid because she was so kind and nurturing.\" Her godfather is filmmaker Steven Spielberg.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Barrymore's first name, Drew, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother Georgie Drew, and her middle name, Blythe, was the surname of the family first used by her great-grandfather Maurice Barrymore. In her 1991 autobiography Little Girl Lost, Barrymore recounted early memories of her abusive father, who left the family when she was six months old. She and her father never had a significant relationship and seldom spoke.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Barrymore grew up on Poinsettia Place in West Hollywood, until she moved to Sherman Oaks at the age of seven. In her 2015 memoir Wildflower, she says she spoke \"like a valley girl\" because she grew up in Sherman Oaks. She moved back to West Hollywood on becoming emancipated at age 14. She attended elementary school at Fountain Day School in West Hollywood and Country School. In the wake of her sudden stardom, Barrymore endured a notoriously troubled childhood. She was a regular at Studio 54 as a young girl, and her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media. She was placed in rehab at 13, and spent 18 months in an institution for the mentally ill. A suicide attempt at 14 put her back in rehab, followed by a three-month stay with singer David Crosby and his wife. The stay was precipitated, Crosby said, because she \"needed to be around some people that were committed to sobriety.\" Barrymore described this period of her life for Little Girl Lost. After a successful juvenile court petition for emancipation, she moved into her own apartment at the age of 15.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Barrymore's career began when she was eleven months old, when she appeared in a dog food commercial. After her film debut with a small role in Altered States, she played Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Director Steven Spielberg felt she had the right imagination for the role after she impressed him with a story that she led a punk rock band. E.T. was the highest-grossing film of the 1980s, and made Barrymore one of the most famous child actors of the time. She won the Young Artist Award for Best Young Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the British Academy Film Awards. In the eighth season of Saturday Night Live, she became the youngest person to guest-host the series.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In the 1984 film adaptation for Stephen King's 1980 novel Firestarter, Barrymore played a girl with pyrokinesis who became the target of a secret government agency known as The Shop. That year, she also played a young girl divorcing her famous parents in Irreconcilable Differences, and was nominated for her first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. In his review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote: \"Barrymore is the right actress for this role precisely because she approaches it with such grave calm.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Barrymore endured a troubled youth and continued acting during the decade. She starred in the anthology horror film Cat's Eye, also written by King. It received positive reviews and Barrymore was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actress. She was offered the role of Cecile for Dangerous Liaisons, but it went to Uma Thurman. Barrymore starred in the romance film See You in the Morning. Vincent Canby of The New York Times criticized the \"fashionable phoniness\" of the film, but positively singled out Barrymore. In Far from Home, she played a teenager who gets stranded with her father in a small, remote desert town. The film went largely unnoticed by audiences and received negative reviews from critics, who dismissed the sexual portrayal of her role.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Barrymore's rebelliousness played itself out on screen and in print. She played a poor teenage girl in Poison Ivy, which was a box-office bomb, but was popular on video and cable. Her character \"Ivy\" was ranked at #6 on the list of the top 26 \"bad girls\" of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Barrymore was seventeen when she posed nude with her then-fiancé, actor Jamie Walters, for the cover of the July issue of Interview magazine; she also appeared nude in pictures inside the issue.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In Guncrazy, Barrymore played a teenager who kills her abusive stepfather. Variety remarked that she \"pulls off impressively\" her character, and Barrymore was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film. Barrymore played the younger sister of a murdered ballerina in No Place to Hide and a writer followed by what is apparently her evil twin in Doppelganger. Both films were panned by critics and failed to find an audience. She appeared in the western film Bad Girls, which follows four former prostitutes on the run following a justifiable homicide and prison escape. Roger Ebert, in his review for the film, wrote for Chicago Sun-Times: \"What a good idea, to make a Western about four tough women. And what a sad movie.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Barrymore posed nude for the January 1995 issue of Playboy. Soon after, her godfather Steven Spielberg gave her a quilt for her 20th birthday with a note that read, \"Cover yourself up.\" Enclosed in the quilt were copies of her Playboy pictures which had been altered by Spielberg's art department so that she appeared fully clothed. Barrymore later said that she would not let her own child make the same choice she did.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "While appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman, Barrymore climbed onto the desk, flashed her breasts to David Letterman and gave him a kiss on the cheek as a birthday gift. She modeled in a series of Guess? jeans ads during this time.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In the late 1990s, Barrymore re-established her image and continued to be a highly bankable star.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In Boys on the Side, Barrymore played a pregnant girl attempting to escape from her abusive boyfriend. It was a box office success and was positively received by critics. In the superhero film Batman Forever, she played one of the two female assistants for Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones).",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Barrymore made a brief but notable appearance in Wes Craven's 1996 slasher film Scream. She read the film's script and was interested in being involved, approaching the production team herself to request a role. The producers were quick to take advantage of her unexpected interest and signed her to play the lead role of Sidney Prescott. However, after unexpected commitments, Barrymore played Casey Becker in a minor role, and Neve Campbell took the leading one. Scream was released to critical acclaim and made $173 million worldwide.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In The Wedding Singer (1998), Barrymore played a waitress in love with the titular character, played by Adam Sandler. Variety found the film to be a \"spirited, funny and warm saga\" that serves them up \"in a new way that enhances their most winning qualities\". Budgeted at $18 million, the film grossed $123.3 million internationally. In Home Fries (1998), Barrymore played a pregnant woman unknowingly falling for the stepson of the late father of her baby. She starred in the historical drama film Ever After (1998), which made $98 million and was inspired by the fairy tale Cinderella. Roger Ebert said about Barrymore and the film: \"she can hold the screen and involve us in her characters\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Barrymore voiced the titular anthropomorphic Jack Russell terrier in the Christmas television film Olive, the Other Reindeer and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. After establishing Flower Films, Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen produced the company's first film, Never Been Kissed, in which Barrymore played an insecure copy editor for the Chicago Sun-Times and a high school student. While reviews from critics were mixed, CNN noted: \"There are two words which describe why this film works: Drew Barrymore. Her comedic timing and willingness to go all out in her quest for a laugh combine to make Never Been Kissed a gratifying movie-going experience\". The film was a commercial success, grossing $84.5 million.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In Charlie's Angels, Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu played the trio of investigators in Los Angeles. The film was a major box office success and helped solidify Barrymore's standing in her production company as one of the film's producers. Barrymore starred in Riding in Cars with Boys, as a teenage mother in a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father (based on Beverly Donofrio's real-life story). When the production of Donnie Darko was threatened, Barrymore stepped forward with financing from the company, and played the title character's English teacher. Although the film was less than successful at the box office in the wake of 9/11, it reached cult status after the DVD release, inspiring numerous websites devoted to unraveling the plot twists and meanings.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Barrymore starred in George Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, based on the autobiography of television producer Chuck Barris. Barrymore reprised her role in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and starred with Ben Stiller in Duplex. Flower Films and Happy Madison Productions produced the film 50 First Dates, in which Barrymore played an amnesiac woman and Sandler played a marine veterinarian. Summing up Barrymore's appeal, Roger Ebert, in his review for the film, remarked that Barrymore displayed a \"smiling, coy sincerity\", in what he described as an \"ingratiating and lovable\" film. 50 First Dates was a commercial success; it made US$120.9 million in North America and US$196.4 million worldwide.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In the 2005 American remake adaptation of the 1997 British film Fever Pitch, Barrymore played the love interest of an immature schoolteacher (Jimmy Fallon). The film grossed a modest US$50 million worldwide and had generally favorable reviews by critics who felt it \"has enough charm and on-screen chemistry between [Fallon and Barrymore] to make it a solid hit\". She and Hugh Grant starred in Music and Lyrics, which focuses on the relationship that evolves between a former pop music idol and an aspiring writer as they struggle to compose a song for a reigning pop diva. The romantic comedy, released in February 2007, received largely positive reviews, with The Washington Post finding the two to be \"great together\" in it. The film was a commercial success, grossing US$145 million globally.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In Curtis Hanson's poker film Lucky You, Barrymore played an aspiring singer and the subject of the affections of a talented player. In Raja Gosnell's film Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Barrymore voiced the titular character, a richly pampered pet who gets dognapped in Mexico and has to escape from an evil Doberman.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Barrymore starred in the ensemble comedy He's Just Not That Into You, which received mixed reviews, partly due to her limited time on screen, while it grossed US$178 million worldwide. She played Edith Bouvier Beale, the daughter of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (Jessica Lange) in the HBO film Grey Gardens, which is based on the 1975 documentary film. The television film was a huge success, winning five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Rolling Stone writer Peter Travers found Barrymore to be a \"revelation\" in her role. Barrymore was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film and the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Barrymore starred in her directorial debut film Whip It. It follows a high-schooler (Elliot Page) ditching the teen beauty pageant scene and participating in an Austin roller derby league. Barrymore worked with screenwriter Shauna Cross for months on script revisions, with Barrymore pushing her to \"avoid her story's tidier prospects, to make things 'more raw and open ended.'\" While the film found limited box office receipts, it was favorably received; according to review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, critics agreed that her \"directorial debut has enough charm, energy, and good-natured humor to transcend its many cliches\". For her venture, Barrymore garnered nominations for a Bronze Horse at the Stockholm Film Festival and for the EDA Female Focus Award at the 2009 Alliance of Women Film Journalists. In Everybody's Fine, Barrymore played the daughter of a recently widowed retiree (Robert De Niro). The drama flopped at the box office, but Stephen Holden for The New York Times considered Barrymore \"as ingenuous as ever\" in what he described as a \"small role.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Barrymore starred with Justin Long in Nanette Burstein's film Going the Distance. It follows a couple dealing the ups and downs of a long-distance relationship, while commuting between New York City and San Francisco. It garnered generally mixed reviews by critics, who summed it as \"timelier and a little more honest than most romantic comedies\", and budgeted at US$32 million, the film made US$40 million at the worldwide box office.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "On August 2, 2011, Barrymore directed the music video for the song \"Our Deal,\" for the band Best Coast, which features Chloë Grace Moretz, Miranda Cosgrove, Tyler Posey, Donald Glover, Shailene Woodley and Alia Shawkat. Barrymore starred in the biopic film Big Miracle, which covers Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 international effort to rescue gray whales from being trapped in ice near Point Barrow, Alaska. Her character, Rachel Kramer, is based on Greenpeace activist Cindy Lowry. Despite a positive critical reception, the film flopped at the box office.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In Blended, Barrymore played a recently divorced woman ending up on a family resort with a widower (Sandler). Film critic James Berardinelli dismissed the \"hit-and-miss humor\" of the story and wrote that \"as [Sandler and Barrymore] are concerned, the third time is definitely not the charm\", as part of an overall lukewarm critical response. The film ultimately grossed US$128 million worldwide. She and Toni Collette starred in Miss You Already (2015), as two long-time friends whose relationship is put to the test when one starts a family and the other becomes ill. Reviewers embraced the film, while it received a limited theatrical release.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In the Netflix original television series Santa Clarita Diet, Barrymore played a real estate agent who, after experiencing a physical transformation into a zombie, starts craving human flesh. Along with co-star Timothy Olyphant, Barrymore served as an executive producer on the single-camera series, which was favorably received upon its premiere; Rolling Stone felt that \"much of [the series' laughs] comes down to the uncrushable Drew Barrymore charm\" and furthermore remarked: \"The show is a welcome comeback for Barrymore, the eternally beloved grunge-era wild thing—it's not just her big move into TV, but her first high-profile performance anywhere in years. In a way, it circles back to the roles she was doing in the early [90s], playing deadly vixens in flicks like Guncrazy or Doppelganger\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Barrymore starred in Jamie Babbit's film The Stand In. It was set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 14, 2020, Barrymore launched a syndicated daytime talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, which is also available on Spotify in a podcast format. On December 4, 2020, she appeared as a guest star on Martha Knows Best. On March 11, 2021, Barrymore said she was taking an indefinite hiatus from acting. She wrote a cookbook with chef Pilar Valdes entitled Rebel Homemaker, which was a New York Times bestseller. In June 2021, she launched Drew Magazine, a quarterly released lifestyle magazine by publisher Bauer Media USA. Barrymore was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In September 2023, Barrymore crossed a WGA picket line to continue her syndicated TV talk show, writing “I own this choice” when explaining her reasoning via social media. While SAG had stated that as the host of the show she was not under any obligation to strike, her show continued without unionized writing staff. Audience members showing support for the Writer's Guild were kicked out of the studio, and had any WGA pins confiscated. Due to these events, the National Book Foundation removed Barrymore from being the host of the then upcoming 74th National Book Awards. Barrymore apologized for her actions later that week in a video on Instagram, claiming that, \"I believe there’s nothing I can do or say in this moment to make it OK.\" Barrymore deleted the apology video from her account following criticism. On the 17th, Barrymore announced on her Instagram account that she would be postponing production of her talk show until the strike ends due to the backlash, writing \"I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over”. She also adds “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt, and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today”. A spokesperson for CBS Media Ventures said, \"We support Drew’s decision to pause the show’s return and understand how complex and difficult this process has been for her.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Barrymore became a CoverGirl Cosmetics' model and spokeswoman in 2007. In February 2015, she became one of the faces of CoverGirl, alongside Queen Latifah and Taylor Swift. The company partnered with her because \"she emulates the iconic image of CoverGirl with her fresh, natural beauty and energetic yet authentic spirit,\" said Esi Eggleston Bracey, vice president and general manager of CoverGirl Cosmetics North America. She brought not only her personality into this endorsement but also her creative side, as she also helped create the ads. She was No. 1 on People's annual 100 Most Beautiful People list in 2007. She was named the new face for the Gucci jewelry line. Barrymore signed a contract with IMG Models New York City. She is a spokeswoman for Crocs.",
"title": "Image and fashion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In May 2007, Barrymore was named Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme and later donated $1 million to the cause. As a guest photographer for a magazine series called \"They Shoot New York\", she appeared on the cover holding a Pentax K1000 film camera. She expressed hopes of exposing her work in a gallery one day, as she had documented the most recent decade of her life with a Pentax camera.",
"title": "Image and fashion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Barrymore launched a women's fashion line in fall 2017 in conjunction with Amazon.com called Dear Drew, which featured a pop-up shop in New York City that opened in November.",
"title": "Image and fashion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In 1991, Barrymore was engaged to Leland Hayward's grandson, Leland III. The engagement was called off a few months later. She was engaged to Jamie Walters from 1992 to 1993.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Barrymore married Welsh-born Los Angeles bar owner Jeremy Thomas on March 20, 1994. She filed for divorce from him less than two months later.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In late 1994, Barrymore began dating Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson, followed by MTV host and comedian Tom Green in 1999; she and Green were engaged in July 2000 and married a year later. Together, they starred in Charlie's Angels and Green's directorial film debut, Freddy Got Fingered. Green filed for divorce in December 2001, which was finalized on October 15, 2002.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In 2002, Barrymore began dating The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti shortly after they met at a concert. Their relationship ended in January 2007. She began dating Justin Long, but they broke up in July 2008.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "In early 2011, Barrymore began dating art consultant Will Kopelman, the son of former Chanel COO Arie L. Kopelman. The couple announced their engagement in January 2012, and married on June 2, 2012, in Montecito, California. Four days later, the couple's wedding image appeared on the cover of People magazine. They have two daughters born in 2012 and 2014. On April 2, 2016, Barrymore and Kopelman released a statement about their separation. On July 15, 2016, Barrymore officially filed for divorce, which was finalized on August 3, 2016.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In an interview with Contactmusic.com in 2003, Barrymore said: \"Do I like women sexually? Yeah, I do. Totally. I have always considered myself bisexual. I love a woman's body. I think a woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful. Being with a woman is like exploring your own body, but through someone else\".",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Barrymore is the godmother of Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Barrymore eats a plant-based diet, and reportedly convinced Cardi B to try veganism. Since 2023, Barrymore resides in Manhattan.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In 1999, Barrymore was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star \"Lifetime Achievement\" Award commemorating her outstanding achievements within the film industry as a child actress. For her contributions to the film industry, Barrymore received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. It is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard.",
"title": "Awards, honors, and nominations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Her films compiled a worldwide box office gross that stood at over US$2.3 billion. According to The Hollywood Reporter's annual Star Salary Top 10, she was tied for eighth place on the top ten list of actresses' salaries, commanding 10 to 12 million dollars per film for 2006. Barrymore became the youngest person to host Saturday Night Live, having hosted on November 20, 1982 at seven years of age, a record that remains unbroken as of 2023. On February 3, 2007, Barrymore hosted SNL for the fifth time, becoming the second female host (after Candice Bergen) in the show's history to do so. She hosted again on October 10, 2009, becoming the first female to host six times.",
"title": "Awards, honors, and nominations"
}
] | Drew Blythe Barrymore is an American actress, producer, talk show host and author. A member of the Barrymore family of actors, she has received several awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for nine Emmy Awards and a British Academy Film Award. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. Barrymore achieved fame as a child actress with her breakout role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Following a highly publicized childhood marked by drug and alcohol abuse, she released an autobiography Little Girl Lost, which became a New York Times bestseller. She starred in a string of successful films during the 1990s and 2000s, including Charlie's Angels, Poison Ivy, Boys on the Side, Mad Love, Batman Forever, Scream and Ever After. Barrymore starred with Adam Sandler in the films: The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates and Blended. Her other films include Firestarter, Donnie Darko, Riding in Cars with Boys, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Fever Pitch, Music and Lyrics, Going the Distance, Big Miracle, and Miss You Already. She also starred in her directorial debut film Whip It. She won a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award for her role in Grey Gardens. She starred in the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet and currently hosts her syndicated talk show The Drew Barrymore Show. In September 2023, she announced she would return to the show without writers during the ongoing WGA strike, but after backlash, she reversed the decision the same month. Barrymore is the founder of the production company Flower Films. It produced several projects in which she has starred. She launched a range of cosmetics under the Flower banner in 2013, which has grown to include lines in perfume, hair products and eyewear. Her other business ventures include a range of wines, homeware and clothing. In 2014, Barrymore released the New York Times bestselling photobook Find It in Everything of photographs she had taken over the span of a decade of everyday situations in the shape of a heart, including a discarded straw wrapper, a hole in a T-shirt, and a scallion in a bowl of miso soup. E. P. Dutton published a collection of Barrymore's autobiographical essays in her New York Times bestselling book Wildflower in 2015, for which she also narrated the audiobook version. | 2001-04-13T05:33:31Z | 2023-12-28T19:55:42Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Barrymore |
7,888 | D. W. Griffith | David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the narrative film.
To modern audiences, Griffith is known primarily for directing the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. One of the most financially successful films of all time, it made investors enormous profits, but it also attracted much controversy for its degrading portrayals of African Americans, its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and support for the Confederacy, and its overtly racist viewpoint. The film led to riots in several major cities all over the United States, and the NAACP attempted to have the film banned. Griffith made his next film Intolerance (1916) as an answer to critics, who he felt unfairly maligned his work.
Together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, Griffith founded the studio United Artists in 1919 with the goal of enabling actors and directors to make films on their own terms as opposed to the terms of commercial studios. Several of Griffith's later films were successful, including Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921), but the high costs he incurred for production and promotion often led to commercial failure. He had made roughly 500 films by the time of The Struggle (1931), his final feature, and all but three were completely silent.
Griffith has a controversial legacy. Despite criticism, he was a widely celebrated and respected public figure during his life, and modern film historians continue to recognize him for his contributions to the craft of filmmaking. Nevertheless, many critics during his lifetime, as well as in the decades since his death, have characterized him and his work (most notably The Birth of a Nation) as upholding white supremacist ideals. Historians frequently cite The Birth of a Nation as a major factor in the KKK's revival in the 20th century, and it remains controversial to this day.
Griffith was born on January 22, 1875, on a farm in Oldham County, Kentucky, the son of Jacob Wark "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a Confederate Army colonel in the American Civil War who was elected as a Kentucky state legislator, and Mary Perkins (née Oglesby). Griffith was raised as a Methodist, and he attended a one-room schoolhouse, where he was taught by his older sister Mattie. His father died when he was 10, and the family struggled with poverty.
When Griffith was 14, his mother abandoned the farm and moved the family to Louisville, Kentucky; there she opened a boarding house, which was unsuccessful. Griffith then left high school to help support the family, taking a job in a dry goods store and later in a bookstore. He began his creative career as an actor in touring companies. Meanwhile, he was learning how to become a playwright, but he had little success. Only one of his plays was accepted for a performance. He traveled to New York City in 1907 in an attempt to sell a script to Edison Studios producer Edwin Porter; although Porter rejected the script, he gave Griffith an acting part in Rescued from an Eagle's Nest instead. As a result of this experience, Griffith decided to try his luck as an actor, and he appeared in many films as an extra.
In 1908, Griffith accepted a role as a stage extra in Professional Jealousy for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, where he met cameraman Billy Bitzer. In 1908, Biograph's main director Wallace McCutcheon Sr. fell ill, and his son Wallace McCutcheon Jr. took his place. McCutcheon Jr. did not bring the studio success; Biograph co-founder Harry Marvin then gave Griffith the position, and he made the short The Adventures of Dollie. He directed a total of 48 shorts for the company that year.
Among the films he directed in 1909 was The Cricket on the Hearth, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel. Showing the influence of Dickens on his own film narrative, Griffith employed the technique of cross-cutting—where two stories run alongside each other, as seen in Dickens' novels such as Oliver Twist. When criticized by a cameraman for doing this technique in a later film, Griffith was said to have replied "Well, doesn't Dickens write that way?".
His short In Old California (1910) was the first film shot in Hollywood, California. Four years later, he produced and directed his first feature film Judith of Bethulia (1914), one of the early films to be produced in the U.S. Biograph believed that longer features were not viable at this point. According to Lillian Gish, the company thought that "a movie that long would hurt [the audience's] eyes".
Griffith left Biograph because of company resistance to his goals and his cost overruns on the film. He took his company of actors with him and joined the Mutual Film Corporation. There he co-produced The Life of General Villa, a silent biographical-action movie starring Pancho Villa as himself, shot on location in Mexico during a civil war. He formed a studio with Majestic Studios manager Harry Aitken, which became known as Reliance-Majestic Studios and later was renamed Fine Arts Studios. His new production company became an autonomous production unit partner in the Triangle Film Corporation along with Thomas H. Ince and Keystone Studios' Mack Sennett. The Triangle Film Corporation was headed by Aitken, who was released from the Mutual Film Corporation, and his brother Roy.
Griffith directed and produced The Clansman through Reliance-Majestic Studios in 1915. The film later became known as The Birth of a Nation. It is one of the early feature length American films. The film was a success, but it aroused much controversy due to its depiction of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, race relations in the American Civil War, and the Reconstruction era of the United States. It was based on Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan; it depicts Southern slavery as benign, the enfranchisement of freedmen as a corrupt plot by the Republican Party, and the Ku Klux Klan as a band of heroes restoring the rightful order. This view of the era was popular at the time and was endorsed for decades by historians of the Dunning School, but it met with strong criticism from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other groups.
The NAACP attempted to stop showings of the film. This ban was successful in some cities, but nonetheless it was shown widely and became the most successful box-office attraction of its time. It is considered among the first "blockbuster" motion pictures, and it broke all box-office records that had been established until then. "They lost track of the money it made", Lillian Gish remarked in a Kevin Brownlow interview.
Audiences in some major northern cities rioted over the film's racial content and the violence. Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him the following year to produce Intolerance, in which he portrayed the effects of intolerance in four different historical periods: the Fall of Babylon; the Crucifixion of Jesus; the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (during religious persecution of French Huguenots); and a modern story. Intolerance was not a financial success; it did not bring in enough profits to cover the lavish road show that accompanied it. Griffith put a huge budget into the film's production that could not be recovered in its box office. He mostly financed Intolerance himself, which contributed to his financial ruin for the rest of his life.
Griffith's production partnership was dissolved in 1917, and he went to Artcraft, part of Paramount Pictures, and then to First National Pictures (1919–1920). At the same time, he founded United Artists together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks; the studio was based on allowing actors to control their own interests rather than being dependent upon commercial studios.
He continued to make films, but he never again achieved box-office grosses as high as either The Birth of a Nation or Intolerance.
Although United Artists survived as a company, Griffith's association with it was short-lived. While some of his later films did well at the box office, commercial success often eluded him. Griffith features from this period include Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), Dream Street (1921), One Exciting Night (1922), and America (1924). Of these, the first three were successes at the box office. Griffith was forced to leave United Artists after Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) failed at the box office.
He made Lady of the Pavements (1929), a part sound film, and only two full-sound films: Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931). Neither was successful, and after The Struggle, he never made another film.
In 1936, director Woody Van Dyke, who had worked as Griffith's apprentice on Intolerance, asked Griffith to help him shoot the famous earthquake sequence for San Francisco, but Griffith was not given any film credit. Starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy, it was the top-grossing film of the year.
In 1939, the producer Hal Roach hired Griffith to produce Of Mice and Men (1939) and One Million B.C. (1940). He wrote to Griffith: "I need help from the production side to select the proper writers, cast, et cetera, and to help me generally in the supervision of these pictures."
Although Griffith eventually disagreed with Roach over the production and departed, Roach later insisted that some of the scenes in the completed film were directed by Griffith. This movie was the final production in which Griffith was involved. However, cast members' accounts recall Griffith directing only the screen tests and costume tests. When Roach advertised the film in late 1939 with Griffith listed as producer, Griffith asked that his name be removed.
Griffith was for decades held in awe by many members of the film industry. He was presented a special Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the mid-1930s. In 1946, he made an impromptu visit to the film location of David O. Selznick's epic western Duel in the Sun, where some of his veteran actors—Lillian Gish, Lionel Barrymore and Harry Carey—were cast members. Gish and Barrymore found their mentor's presence distracting, and they became self-conscious; in response, Griffith hid behind the scenery when the two were filming their scenes.
On the morning of July 23, 1948, Griffith was discovered unconscious in the lobby at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles, where he had been living alone. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 3:42 PM on the way to a Hollywood hospital. A public memorial service was held in his honor at the Hollywood Masonic Temple. He is buried at Mount Tabor Methodist Church Graveyard in Centerfield, Kentucky. In 1950, The Directors Guild of America provided a stone and bronze monument for his grave site.
Performer and director Charlie Chaplin called Griffith "The Teacher of Us All". Filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Lev Kuleshov, Jean Renoir, Cecil B. DeMille, King Vidor, Victor Fleming, Raoul Walsh, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Sergei Eisenstein, and Stanley Kubrick have praised Griffith.
Griffith seems to have been the first to understand how certain film techniques could be used to create an expressive language; it gained popular recognition with the release of his The Birth of a Nation (1915). His early shorts —such as Biograph's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), show that Griffith's attention to camera placement and lighting heightened mood and tension. In making Intolerance, Griffith opened new possibilities for the medium, creating a form that seems to owe more to music than to traditional narrative.
Griffith has six films preserved on the United States National Film Registry deemed as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". These are Lady Helen's Escapade, A Corner in Wheat (both 1909), The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916) and Broken Blossoms (1919). | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the narrative film.",
"title": ""
},
{
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"text": "To modern audiences, Griffith is known primarily for directing the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. One of the most financially successful films of all time, it made investors enormous profits, but it also attracted much controversy for its degrading portrayals of African Americans, its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and support for the Confederacy, and its overtly racist viewpoint. The film led to riots in several major cities all over the United States, and the NAACP attempted to have the film banned. Griffith made his next film Intolerance (1916) as an answer to critics, who he felt unfairly maligned his work.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, Griffith founded the studio United Artists in 1919 with the goal of enabling actors and directors to make films on their own terms as opposed to the terms of commercial studios. Several of Griffith's later films were successful, including Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921), but the high costs he incurred for production and promotion often led to commercial failure. He had made roughly 500 films by the time of The Struggle (1931), his final feature, and all but three were completely silent.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Griffith has a controversial legacy. Despite criticism, he was a widely celebrated and respected public figure during his life, and modern film historians continue to recognize him for his contributions to the craft of filmmaking. Nevertheless, many critics during his lifetime, as well as in the decades since his death, have characterized him and his work (most notably The Birth of a Nation) as upholding white supremacist ideals. Historians frequently cite The Birth of a Nation as a major factor in the KKK's revival in the 20th century, and it remains controversial to this day.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Griffith was born on January 22, 1875, on a farm in Oldham County, Kentucky, the son of Jacob Wark \"Roaring Jake\" Griffith, a Confederate Army colonel in the American Civil War who was elected as a Kentucky state legislator, and Mary Perkins (née Oglesby). Griffith was raised as a Methodist, and he attended a one-room schoolhouse, where he was taught by his older sister Mattie. His father died when he was 10, and the family struggled with poverty.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "When Griffith was 14, his mother abandoned the farm and moved the family to Louisville, Kentucky; there she opened a boarding house, which was unsuccessful. Griffith then left high school to help support the family, taking a job in a dry goods store and later in a bookstore. He began his creative career as an actor in touring companies. Meanwhile, he was learning how to become a playwright, but he had little success. Only one of his plays was accepted for a performance. He traveled to New York City in 1907 in an attempt to sell a script to Edison Studios producer Edwin Porter; although Porter rejected the script, he gave Griffith an acting part in Rescued from an Eagle's Nest instead. As a result of this experience, Griffith decided to try his luck as an actor, and he appeared in many films as an extra.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 1908, Griffith accepted a role as a stage extra in Professional Jealousy for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, where he met cameraman Billy Bitzer. In 1908, Biograph's main director Wallace McCutcheon Sr. fell ill, and his son Wallace McCutcheon Jr. took his place. McCutcheon Jr. did not bring the studio success; Biograph co-founder Harry Marvin then gave Griffith the position, and he made the short The Adventures of Dollie. He directed a total of 48 shorts for the company that year.",
"title": "Early film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Among the films he directed in 1909 was The Cricket on the Hearth, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel. Showing the influence of Dickens on his own film narrative, Griffith employed the technique of cross-cutting—where two stories run alongside each other, as seen in Dickens' novels such as Oliver Twist. When criticized by a cameraman for doing this technique in a later film, Griffith was said to have replied \"Well, doesn't Dickens write that way?\".",
"title": "Early film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "His short In Old California (1910) was the first film shot in Hollywood, California. Four years later, he produced and directed his first feature film Judith of Bethulia (1914), one of the early films to be produced in the U.S. Biograph believed that longer features were not viable at this point. According to Lillian Gish, the company thought that \"a movie that long would hurt [the audience's] eyes\".",
"title": "Early film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Griffith left Biograph because of company resistance to his goals and his cost overruns on the film. He took his company of actors with him and joined the Mutual Film Corporation. There he co-produced The Life of General Villa, a silent biographical-action movie starring Pancho Villa as himself, shot on location in Mexico during a civil war. He formed a studio with Majestic Studios manager Harry Aitken, which became known as Reliance-Majestic Studios and later was renamed Fine Arts Studios. His new production company became an autonomous production unit partner in the Triangle Film Corporation along with Thomas H. Ince and Keystone Studios' Mack Sennett. The Triangle Film Corporation was headed by Aitken, who was released from the Mutual Film Corporation, and his brother Roy.",
"title": "Early film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Griffith directed and produced The Clansman through Reliance-Majestic Studios in 1915. The film later became known as The Birth of a Nation. It is one of the early feature length American films. The film was a success, but it aroused much controversy due to its depiction of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, race relations in the American Civil War, and the Reconstruction era of the United States. It was based on Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan; it depicts Southern slavery as benign, the enfranchisement of freedmen as a corrupt plot by the Republican Party, and the Ku Klux Klan as a band of heroes restoring the rightful order. This view of the era was popular at the time and was endorsed for decades by historians of the Dunning School, but it met with strong criticism from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other groups.",
"title": "Early film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The NAACP attempted to stop showings of the film. This ban was successful in some cities, but nonetheless it was shown widely and became the most successful box-office attraction of its time. It is considered among the first \"blockbuster\" motion pictures, and it broke all box-office records that had been established until then. \"They lost track of the money it made\", Lillian Gish remarked in a Kevin Brownlow interview.",
"title": "Early film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Audiences in some major northern cities rioted over the film's racial content and the violence. Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him the following year to produce Intolerance, in which he portrayed the effects of intolerance in four different historical periods: the Fall of Babylon; the Crucifixion of Jesus; the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (during religious persecution of French Huguenots); and a modern story. Intolerance was not a financial success; it did not bring in enough profits to cover the lavish road show that accompanied it. Griffith put a huge budget into the film's production that could not be recovered in its box office. He mostly financed Intolerance himself, which contributed to his financial ruin for the rest of his life.",
"title": "Early film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Griffith's production partnership was dissolved in 1917, and he went to Artcraft, part of Paramount Pictures, and then to First National Pictures (1919–1920). At the same time, he founded United Artists together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks; the studio was based on allowing actors to control their own interests rather than being dependent upon commercial studios.",
"title": "Early film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "He continued to make films, but he never again achieved box-office grosses as high as either The Birth of a Nation or Intolerance.",
"title": "Early film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Although United Artists survived as a company, Griffith's association with it was short-lived. While some of his later films did well at the box office, commercial success often eluded him. Griffith features from this period include Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), Dream Street (1921), One Exciting Night (1922), and America (1924). Of these, the first three were successes at the box office. Griffith was forced to leave United Artists after Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) failed at the box office.",
"title": "Later film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "He made Lady of the Pavements (1929), a part sound film, and only two full-sound films: Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931). Neither was successful, and after The Struggle, he never made another film.",
"title": "Later film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In 1936, director Woody Van Dyke, who had worked as Griffith's apprentice on Intolerance, asked Griffith to help him shoot the famous earthquake sequence for San Francisco, but Griffith was not given any film credit. Starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy, it was the top-grossing film of the year.",
"title": "Later film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In 1939, the producer Hal Roach hired Griffith to produce Of Mice and Men (1939) and One Million B.C. (1940). He wrote to Griffith: \"I need help from the production side to select the proper writers, cast, et cetera, and to help me generally in the supervision of these pictures.\"",
"title": "Later film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Although Griffith eventually disagreed with Roach over the production and departed, Roach later insisted that some of the scenes in the completed film were directed by Griffith. This movie was the final production in which Griffith was involved. However, cast members' accounts recall Griffith directing only the screen tests and costume tests. When Roach advertised the film in late 1939 with Griffith listed as producer, Griffith asked that his name be removed.",
"title": "Later film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Griffith was for decades held in awe by many members of the film industry. He was presented a special Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the mid-1930s. In 1946, he made an impromptu visit to the film location of David O. Selznick's epic western Duel in the Sun, where some of his veteran actors—Lillian Gish, Lionel Barrymore and Harry Carey—were cast members. Gish and Barrymore found their mentor's presence distracting, and they became self-conscious; in response, Griffith hid behind the scenery when the two were filming their scenes.",
"title": "Later film career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "On the morning of July 23, 1948, Griffith was discovered unconscious in the lobby at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles, where he had been living alone. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 3:42 PM on the way to a Hollywood hospital. A public memorial service was held in his honor at the Hollywood Masonic Temple. He is buried at Mount Tabor Methodist Church Graveyard in Centerfield, Kentucky. In 1950, The Directors Guild of America provided a stone and bronze monument for his grave site.",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Performer and director Charlie Chaplin called Griffith \"The Teacher of Us All\". Filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Lev Kuleshov, Jean Renoir, Cecil B. DeMille, King Vidor, Victor Fleming, Raoul Walsh, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Sergei Eisenstein, and Stanley Kubrick have praised Griffith.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Griffith seems to have been the first to understand how certain film techniques could be used to create an expressive language; it gained popular recognition with the release of his The Birth of a Nation (1915). His early shorts —such as Biograph's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), show that Griffith's attention to camera placement and lighting heightened mood and tension. In making Intolerance, Griffith opened new possibilities for the medium, creating a form that seems to owe more to music than to traditional narrative.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Griffith has six films preserved on the United States National Film Registry deemed as being \"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant\". These are Lady Helen's Escapade, A Corner in Wheat (both 1909), The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916) and Broken Blossoms (1919).",
"title": "Film preservation"
}
] | David Wark Griffith was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the narrative film. To modern audiences, Griffith is known primarily for directing the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. One of the most financially successful films of all time, it made investors enormous profits, but it also attracted much controversy for its degrading portrayals of African Americans, its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and support for the Confederacy, and its overtly racist viewpoint. The film led to riots in several major cities all over the United States, and the NAACP attempted to have the film banned. Griffith made his next film Intolerance (1916) as an answer to critics, who he felt unfairly maligned his work. Together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, Griffith founded the studio United Artists in 1919 with the goal of enabling actors and directors to make films on their own terms as opposed to the terms of commercial studios. Several of Griffith's later films were successful, including Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921), but the high costs he incurred for production and promotion often led to commercial failure. He had made roughly 500 films by the time of The Struggle (1931), his final feature, and all but three were completely silent. Griffith has a controversial legacy. Despite criticism, he was a widely celebrated and respected public figure during his life, and modern film historians continue to recognize him for his contributions to the craft of filmmaking. Nevertheless, many critics during his lifetime, as well as in the decades since his death, have characterized him and his work as upholding white supremacist ideals. Historians frequently cite The Birth of a Nation as a major factor in the KKK's revival in the 20th century, and it remains controversial to this day. | 2001-02-07T21:00:36Z | 2023-11-20T03:29:48Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._W._Griffith |
7,890 | Dune | A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes with little or no vegetation are called ergs or sand seas. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter slip face in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a dune slack.
Dunes are most common in desert environments, where the lack of moisture hinders the growth of vegetation that would otherwise interfere with the development of dunes. However, sand deposits are not restricted to deserts, and dunes are also found along sea shores, along streams in semiarid climates, in areas of glacial outwash, and in other areas where poorly cemented sandstone bedrock disintegrates to produce an ample supply of loose sand. Subaqueous dunes can form from the action of water flow (fluvial processes) on sand or gravel beds of rivers, estuaries, and the sea-bed.
Some coastal areas have one or more sets of dunes running parallel to the shoreline directly inland from the beach. In most cases, the dunes are important in protecting the land against potential ravages by storm waves from the sea. Artificial dunes are sometimes constructed to protect coastal areas. The dynamic action of wind and water can sometimes cause dunes to drift, which can have serious consequences. For example, the town of Eucla, Western Australia, had to be relocated in the 1890s because of dune drift.
The modern word "dune" came into English from French around 1790, which in turn came from Middle Dutch dūne.
A universally precise distinction does not exist between ripples, dunes, and draas, which are all deposits of the same type of materials. Dunes are generally defined as greater than 7 cm tall and may have ripples, while ripples are deposits that are less than 3 cm tall. A draa is a very large aeolian landform, with a length of several kilometers and a height of tens to hundreds of meters, and which may have superimposed dunes.
Dunes are made of sand-sized particles, and may consist of quartz, calcium carbonate, snow, gypsum, or other materials. The upwind/upstream/upcurrent side of the dune is called the stoss side; the downflow side is called the lee side. Sand is pushed (creep) or bounces (saltation) up the stoss side, and slides down the lee side. A side of a dune that the sand has slid down is called a slip face (or slipface).
The Bagnold formula gives the speed at which particles can be transported.
Five basic dune types are recognized: crescentic, linear, star, dome, and parabolic. Dune areas may occur in three forms: simple (isolated dunes of basic type), compound (larger dunes on which smaller dunes of same type form), and complex (combinations of different types).
Barchan dunes are crescent-shaped mounds which are generally wider than they are long. The lee-side slipfaces are on the concave sides of the dunes. These dunes form under winds that blow consistently from one direction (unimodal winds). They form separate crescents when the sand supply is comparatively small. When the sand supply is greater, they may merge into barchanoid ridges, and then transverse dunes (see below).
Some types of crescentic dunes move more quickly over desert surfaces than any other type of dune. A group of dunes moved more than 100 metres per year between 1954 and 1959 in China's Ningxia Province, and similar speeds have been recorded in the Western Desert of Egypt. The largest crescentic dunes on Earth, with mean crest-to-crest widths of more than three kilometres, are in China's Taklamakan Desert.
Abundant barchan dunes may merge into barchanoid ridges, which then grade into linear (or slightly sinuous) transverse dunes, so called because they lie transverse, or across, the wind direction, with the wind blowing perpendicular to the ridge crest.
Seif dunes are linear (or slightly sinuous) dunes with two slip faces. The two slip faces make them sharp-crested. They are called seif dunes after the Arabic word for "sword". They may be more than 160 kilometres (100 miles) long, and thus easily visible in satellite images (see illustrations).
Seif dunes are associated with bidirectional winds. The long axes and ridges of these dunes extend along the resultant direction of sand movement (hence the name "longitudinal"). Some linear dunes merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes.
Formation is debated. Ralph Bagnold, in The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes, suggested that some seif dunes form when a barchan dune moves into a bidirectional wind regime, and one arm or wing of the crescent elongates. Others suggest that seif dunes are formed by vortices in a unidirectional wind. In the sheltered troughs between highly developed seif dunes, barchans may be formed, because the wind is constrained to be unidirectional by the dunes.
Seif dunes are common in the Sahara. They range up to 300 m (980 ft) in height and 300 km (190 mi) in length. In the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, a vast erg, called the Rub' al Khali or Empty Quarter, contains seif dunes that stretch for almost 200 km (120 mi) and reach heights of over 300 m (980 ft).
Linear loess hills known as pahas are superficially similar. These hills appear to have been formed during the last ice age under permafrost conditions dominated by sparse tundra vegetation.
Radially symmetrical, star dunes are pyramidal sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the high center of the mound. They tend to accumulate in areas with multidirectional wind regimes. Star dunes grow upward rather than laterally. They dominate the Grand Erg Oriental of the Sahara. In other deserts, they occur around the margins of the sand seas, particularly near topographic barriers. In the southeast Badain Jaran Desert of China, the star dunes are up to 500 metres tall and may be the tallest dunes on Earth.
Oval or circular mounds that generally lack a slipface. Dome dunes are rare and occur at the far upwind margins of sand seas.
Fixed crescentic dunes that form on the leeward margins of playas and river valleys in arid and semiarid regions in response to the direction (s) of prevailing winds, are known as lunettes, source-bordering dunes, bourrelets and clay dunes. They may be composed of clay, silt, sand, or gypsum, eroded from the basin floor or shore, transported up the concave side of the dune, and deposited on the convex side. Examples in Australia are up to 6.5 km long, 1 km wide, and up to 50 metres high. They also occur in southern and West Africa, and in parts of the western United States, especially Texas.
U-shaped mounds of sand with convex noses trailed by elongated arms are parabolic dunes. These dunes are formed from blowout dunes where the erosion of vegetated sand leads to a U-shaped depression. The elongated arms are held in place by vegetation; the largest arm known on Earth reaches 12 km. Sometimes these dunes are called U-shaped, blowout, or hairpin dunes, and they are well known in coastal deserts. Unlike crescent shaped dunes, their crests point upwind. The bulk of the sand in the dune migrates forward.
In plan view, these are U-shaped or V-shaped mounds of well-sorted, very fine to medium sand with elongated arms that extend upwind behind the central part of the dune. There are slipfaces that often occur on the outer side of the nose and on the outer slopes of the arms.
These dunes often occur in semiarid areas where the precipitation is retained in the lower parts of the dune and underlying soils. The stability of the dunes was once attributed to the vegetative cover but recent research has pointed to water as the main source of parabolic dune stability. The vegetation that covers them—grasses, shrubs, and trees—help anchor the trailing arms. In inland deserts, parabolic dunes commonly originate and extend downwind from blowouts in sand sheets only partly anchored by vegetation. They can also originate from beach sands and extend inland into vegetated areas in coastal zones and on shores of large lakes.
Most parabolic dunes do not reach heights higher than a few tens of metres except at their nose, where vegetation stops or slows the advance of accumulating sand.
Simple parabolic dunes have only one set of arms that trail upwind, behind the leading nose. Compound parabolic dunes are coalesced features with several sets of trailing arms. Complex parabolic dunes include subsidiary superposed or coalesced forms, usually of barchanoid or linear shapes.
Parabolic dunes, like crescent dunes, occur in areas where very strong winds are mostly unidirectional. Although these dunes are found in areas now characterized by variable wind speeds, the effective winds associated with the growth and migration of both the parabolic and crescent dunes probably are the most consistent in wind direction.
The grain size for these well-sorted, very fine to medium sands is about 0.06 to 0.5 mm. Parabolic dunes have loose sand and steep slopes only on their outer flanks. The inner slopes are mostly well packed and anchored by vegetation, as are the corridors between individual dunes. Because all dune arms are oriented in the same direction, and, the inter-dune corridors are generally swept clear of loose sand, the corridors can usually be traversed in between the trailing arms of the dune. However to cross straight over the dune by going over the trailing arms, can be very difficult. Also, traversing the nose is very difficult as well because the nose is usually made up of loose sand without much if any vegetation.
A type of extensive parabolic dune that lacks discernible slipfaces and has mostly coarse grained sand is known as a zibar. The term zibar comes from the Arabic word to describe "rolling transverse ridges ... with a hard surface". The dunes are small, have low relief, and can be found in many places across the planet from Wyoming (United States) to Saudi Arabia to Australia. Spacing between zibars ranges from 50 to 400 metres and they do not become more than 10 metres high. The dunes form at about ninety degrees to the prevailing wind which blows away the small, fine-grained sand leaving behind the coarser grained sand to form the crest.
Occurring wherever winds periodically reverse direction, reversing dunes are varieties of any of the above shapes. These dunes typically have major and minor slipfaces oriented in opposite directions. The minor slipfaces are usually temporary, as they appear after a reverse wind and are generally destroyed when the wind next blows in the dominant direction.
Draas are very large-scale dune bedforms; they may be tens or a few hundreds of metres in height, kilometres wide, and hundreds of kilometres in length. After a draa has reached a certain size, it generally develops superimposed dune forms. They are thought to be more ancient and slower-moving than smaller dunes, and to form by vertical growth of existing dunes. Draas are widespread in sand seas and are well-represented in the geological record.
All these dune shapes may occur in three forms: simple (isolated dunes of basic type), compound (larger dunes on which smaller dunes of same type form), and complex (combinations of different types). Simple dunes are basic forms with the minimum number of slipfaces that define the geometric type. Compound dunes are large dunes on which smaller dunes of similar type and slipface orientation are superimposed. Complex dunes are combinations of two or more dune types. A crescentic dune with a star dune superimposed on its crest is the most common complex dune. Simple dunes represent a wind regime that has not changed in intensity or direction since the formation of the dune, while compound and complex dunes suggest that the intensity and direction of the wind has changed.
The sand mass of dunes can move either windward or leeward, depending on if the wind is making contact with the dune from below or above its apogee. If wind hits from above, the sand particles move leeward; the leeward flux of sand is greater than the windward flux. Conversely, if sand hits from below, sand particles move windward. Further, if the wind is carrying sand particles when it hits the dune, the dune's sand particles will saltate more than if the wind had hit the dune without carrying sand particles.
Coastal dunes form when wet sand is deposited along the coast and dries out and is blown along the beach. Dunes form where the beach is wide enough to allow for the accumulation of wind-blown sand, and where prevailing onshore winds tend to blow sand inland. The three key ingredients for coastal dune formation are a large sand supply, winds to move said sand supply, and a place for the sand supply to accumulate. Obstacles—for example, vegetation, pebbles and so on—tend to slow down the wind and lead to the deposition of sand grains. These small "incipient dunes or "shadow dunes" tend to grow in the vertical direction if the obstacle slowing the wind can also grow vertically (i.e., vegetation). Coastal dunes expand laterally as a result of lateral growth of coastal plants via seed or rhizome. Models of coastal dunes suggest that their final equilibrium height is related to the distance between the water line and where vegetation can grow. Coastal dunes can be classified by where they develop, or begin to take shape. Dunes are commonly grouped into either the Primary Dune Group or the Secondary Dune Group. Primary dunes gain most of their sand from the beach itself, while secondary dunes gain their sand from the primary dune. Along the Florida Panhandle, most dunes are considered to be foredunes or hummocks. Different locations around the globe have dune formations unique to their given coastal profile.
Coastal sand dunes can provide privacy and/or habitats to support local flora and fauna. Animals such as sand snakes, lizards, and rodents can live in coastal sand dunes, along with insects of all types. Often the vegetation of sand dunes is discussed without acknowledging the importance that coastal dunes have for animals. Further, some animals, such as foxes and feral pigs can use coastal dunes as hunting grounds to find food. Birds are also known to utilize coastal dunes as nesting grounds. All these species find the coastal environment of the sand dune vital to their species' survival.
Over the course of time coastal dunes may be impacted by tropical cyclones or other intense storm activity, dependent on their location. Recent work has suggested that coastal dunes tend to evolve toward a high or low morphology depending on the growth rate of dunes relative to storm frequency. During a storm event, dunes play a significant role in minimizing wave energy as it moves onshore. As a result, coastal dunes, especially those in the foredune area affected by a storm surge, will retreat or erode. To counteract the damage from tropical activity on coastal dunes, short term post-storm efforts can be made by individual agencies through fencing to help with sand accumulation.
How much a dune erodes during any storm surge is related to its location on the coastal shoreline and the profile of the beach during a particular season. In those areas with harsher winter weather, during the summer a beach tends to take on more of a convex appearance due to gentler waves, while the same beach in the winter may take on more of a concave appearance. As a result, coastal dunes can get eroded much more quickly in the winter than in the summer. The converse is true in areas with harsher summer weather.
There are many threats to these coastal communities. Some coastal dunes, for example ones in San Francisco, have been completely altered by urbanization; reshaping the dune for human use. This puts native species at risk. Another danger, in California and places in the UK specifically, is the introduction of invasive species. Plant species, such as Carpobrotus edulis, were introduced from South Africa in an attempt to stabilize the dunes and provide horticultural benefits, but instead spread taking land away from native species. Ammophila arenaria, known as European beachgrass, has a similar story, though it has no horticulture benefits. It has great ground coverage and, as intended, stabilized the dunes but as an unintended side effect prevented native species from thriving in those dunes. One such example is the dune field at Point Reyes, California. There are now efforts to get rid of both of these invasive species.
As a dune forms, plant succession occurs. The conditions on an embryo dune are harsh, with salt spray from the sea carried on strong winds. The dune is well drained and often dry, and composed of calcium carbonate from seashells. Rotting seaweed, brought in by storm waves adds nutrients to allow pioneer species to colonize the dune. For example, in the United Kingdom these pioneer species are often marram grass, sea wort grass and other sea grasses. These plants are well adapted to the harsh conditions of the foredune, typically having deep roots which reach the water table, root nodules that produce nitrogen compounds, and protected stoma, reducing transpiration. Also, the deep roots bind the sand together, and the dune grows into a foredune as more sand is blown over the grasses. The grasses add nitrogen to the soil, meaning other, less hardy plants can then colonize the dunes. Typically these are heather, heaths and gorses. These too are adapted to the low soil water content and have small, prickly leaves which reduce transpiration. Heather adds humus to the soil and is usually replaced by coniferous trees, which can tolerate low soil pH, caused by the accumulation and decomposition of organic matter with nitrate leaching. Coniferous forests and heathland are common climax communities for sand dune systems.
Young dunes are called yellow dunes and dunes which have high humus content are called grey dunes. Leaching occurs on the dunes, washing humus into the slacks, and the slacks may be much more developed than the exposed tops of the dunes. It is usually in the slacks that more rare species are developed and there is a tendency for the dune slacks' soil to be waterlogged where only marsh plants can survive. In Europe these plants include: creeping willow, cotton grass, yellow iris, reeds, and rushes. As for vertebrates in European dunes, natterjack toads sometimes breed here.
Dune ecosystems are extremely difficult places for plants to survive. This is due to a number of pressures related to their proximity to the ocean and confinement to growth on sandy substrates. These include:
Plants have evolved many adaptations to cope with these pressures:
In deserts where large amounts of limestone mountains surround a closed basin, such as at White Sands National Park in south-central New Mexico, occasional storm runoff transports dissolved limestone and gypsum into a low-lying pan within the basin where the water evaporates, depositing the gypsum and forming crystals known as selenite. The crystals left behind by this process are eroded by the wind and deposited as vast white dune fields that resemble snow-covered landscapes. These types of dune are rare, and only form in closed arid basins that retain the highly soluble gypsum that would otherwise be washed into the sea.
A nabkha, or coppice dune, is a small dune anchored by vegetation. They usually indicate desertification or soil erosion, and serve as nesting and burrow sites for animals.
Sub-aqueous (underwater) dunes form on a bed of sand or gravel under the actions of water flow. They are ubiquitous in natural channels such as rivers and estuaries, and also form in engineered canals and pipelines. Dunes move downstream as the upstream slope is eroded and the sediment deposited on the downstream or lee slope in typical bedform construction. In the case of sub-aqueous barchan dunes, sediment is lost by their extremities, known as horns.
These dunes most often form as a continuous 'train' of dunes, showing remarkable similarity in wavelength and height. The shape of a dune gives information about its formation environment. For instance, rivers produce asymmetrical ripples, with the steeper slip face facing downstream. Ripple marks preserved in sedimentary strata in the geological record can be used to determine the direction of current flow, and thus an indication of the source of the sediments.
Dunes on the bed of a channel significantly increase flow resistance, their presence and growth playing a major part in river flooding.
A lithified (consolidated) sand dune is a type of sandstone that is formed when a marine or aeolian sand dune becomes compacted and hardened. Once in this form, water passing through the rock can carry and deposit minerals, which can alter the color of the rock. Cross-bedded layers of stacks of lithified dunes can produce the cross-hatching patterns, such as those seen in Zion National Park in the western United States.
A slang term, used in the southwest US, for consolidated and hardened sand dunes is "slickrock", a name that was introduced by pioneers of the Old West because their steel-rimmed wagon wheels could not gain traction on the rock.
Sand dunes can have a negative impact on humans when they encroach on human habitats. Sand dunes move via a few different means, all of them helped along by wind. One way that dunes can move is by saltation, where sand particles skip along the ground like a bouncing ball. When these skipping particles land, they may knock into other particles and cause them to move as well, in a process known as creep. With slightly stronger winds, particles collide in mid-air, causing sheet flows. In a major dust storm, dunes may move tens of metres through such sheet flows. Also as in the case of snow, sand avalanches, falling down the slipface of the dunes—that face away from the winds—also move the dunes forward.
Sand threatens buildings and crops in Africa, the Middle East, and China. Drenching sand dunes with oil stops their migration, but this approach uses a valuable resource and is quite destructive to the dunes' animal habitats. Sand fences might also slow their movement to a crawl, but geologists are still analyzing results for the optimum fence designs. Preventing sand dunes from overwhelming towns, villages, and agricultural areas has become a priority for the United Nations Environment Programme. Planting dunes with vegetation also helps to stabilise them.
Dune habitats provide niches for highly specialized plants and animals, including numerous rare species and some endangered species. Due to widespread human population expansion, dunes face destruction through land development and recreational usages, as well as alteration to prevent the encroachment of sand onto inhabited areas. Some countries, notably the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Sri Lanka have developed significant programs of dune protection through the use of sand dune stabilization. In the U.K., a Biodiversity Action Plan has been developed to assess dunes loss and to prevent future dunes destruction.
Dunes can likely be found in any environment where there is a substantial atmosphere, winds, and dust to be blown. Dunes are common on Mars and in the equatorial regions of Titan.
Titan's dunes include large expanses with modal lengths of about 20–30 km. The regions are not topographically confined, resembling sand seas. These dunes are interpreted to be longitudinal dunes whose crests are oriented parallel to the dominant wind direction, which generally indicates west-to-east wind flow. The sand is likely composed of hydrocarbon particles, possibly with some water ice mixed in.
Dunes are a popular theme in science fiction, featuring in depictions of dry Desert planets appearing as early as the 1956 film Forbidden Planet and Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune. The environment of the desert planet Arrakis (also known as Dune) in the Dune franchise Dune in turn inspired the Star Wars franchise, which includes prominent theme of dunes on fictional planets such as Tatooine, Geonosis, and Jakku. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes with little or no vegetation are called ergs or sand seas. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter slip face in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a dune slack.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Dunes are most common in desert environments, where the lack of moisture hinders the growth of vegetation that would otherwise interfere with the development of dunes. However, sand deposits are not restricted to deserts, and dunes are also found along sea shores, along streams in semiarid climates, in areas of glacial outwash, and in other areas where poorly cemented sandstone bedrock disintegrates to produce an ample supply of loose sand. Subaqueous dunes can form from the action of water flow (fluvial processes) on sand or gravel beds of rivers, estuaries, and the sea-bed.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Some coastal areas have one or more sets of dunes running parallel to the shoreline directly inland from the beach. In most cases, the dunes are important in protecting the land against potential ravages by storm waves from the sea. Artificial dunes are sometimes constructed to protect coastal areas. The dynamic action of wind and water can sometimes cause dunes to drift, which can have serious consequences. For example, the town of Eucla, Western Australia, had to be relocated in the 1890s because of dune drift.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The modern word \"dune\" came into English from French around 1790, which in turn came from Middle Dutch dūne.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "A universally precise distinction does not exist between ripples, dunes, and draas, which are all deposits of the same type of materials. Dunes are generally defined as greater than 7 cm tall and may have ripples, while ripples are deposits that are less than 3 cm tall. A draa is a very large aeolian landform, with a length of several kilometers and a height of tens to hundreds of meters, and which may have superimposed dunes.",
"title": "Formation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Dunes are made of sand-sized particles, and may consist of quartz, calcium carbonate, snow, gypsum, or other materials. The upwind/upstream/upcurrent side of the dune is called the stoss side; the downflow side is called the lee side. Sand is pushed (creep) or bounces (saltation) up the stoss side, and slides down the lee side. A side of a dune that the sand has slid down is called a slip face (or slipface).",
"title": "Formation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The Bagnold formula gives the speed at which particles can be transported.",
"title": "Formation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Five basic dune types are recognized: crescentic, linear, star, dome, and parabolic. Dune areas may occur in three forms: simple (isolated dunes of basic type), compound (larger dunes on which smaller dunes of same type form), and complex (combinations of different types).",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Barchan dunes are crescent-shaped mounds which are generally wider than they are long. The lee-side slipfaces are on the concave sides of the dunes. These dunes form under winds that blow consistently from one direction (unimodal winds). They form separate crescents when the sand supply is comparatively small. When the sand supply is greater, they may merge into barchanoid ridges, and then transverse dunes (see below).",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Some types of crescentic dunes move more quickly over desert surfaces than any other type of dune. A group of dunes moved more than 100 metres per year between 1954 and 1959 in China's Ningxia Province, and similar speeds have been recorded in the Western Desert of Egypt. The largest crescentic dunes on Earth, with mean crest-to-crest widths of more than three kilometres, are in China's Taklamakan Desert.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Abundant barchan dunes may merge into barchanoid ridges, which then grade into linear (or slightly sinuous) transverse dunes, so called because they lie transverse, or across, the wind direction, with the wind blowing perpendicular to the ridge crest.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Seif dunes are linear (or slightly sinuous) dunes with two slip faces. The two slip faces make them sharp-crested. They are called seif dunes after the Arabic word for \"sword\". They may be more than 160 kilometres (100 miles) long, and thus easily visible in satellite images (see illustrations).",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Seif dunes are associated with bidirectional winds. The long axes and ridges of these dunes extend along the resultant direction of sand movement (hence the name \"longitudinal\"). Some linear dunes merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Formation is debated. Ralph Bagnold, in The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes, suggested that some seif dunes form when a barchan dune moves into a bidirectional wind regime, and one arm or wing of the crescent elongates. Others suggest that seif dunes are formed by vortices in a unidirectional wind. In the sheltered troughs between highly developed seif dunes, barchans may be formed, because the wind is constrained to be unidirectional by the dunes.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Seif dunes are common in the Sahara. They range up to 300 m (980 ft) in height and 300 km (190 mi) in length. In the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, a vast erg, called the Rub' al Khali or Empty Quarter, contains seif dunes that stretch for almost 200 km (120 mi) and reach heights of over 300 m (980 ft).",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Linear loess hills known as pahas are superficially similar. These hills appear to have been formed during the last ice age under permafrost conditions dominated by sparse tundra vegetation.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Radially symmetrical, star dunes are pyramidal sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the high center of the mound. They tend to accumulate in areas with multidirectional wind regimes. Star dunes grow upward rather than laterally. They dominate the Grand Erg Oriental of the Sahara. In other deserts, they occur around the margins of the sand seas, particularly near topographic barriers. In the southeast Badain Jaran Desert of China, the star dunes are up to 500 metres tall and may be the tallest dunes on Earth.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Oval or circular mounds that generally lack a slipface. Dome dunes are rare and occur at the far upwind margins of sand seas.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Fixed crescentic dunes that form on the leeward margins of playas and river valleys in arid and semiarid regions in response to the direction (s) of prevailing winds, are known as lunettes, source-bordering dunes, bourrelets and clay dunes. They may be composed of clay, silt, sand, or gypsum, eroded from the basin floor or shore, transported up the concave side of the dune, and deposited on the convex side. Examples in Australia are up to 6.5 km long, 1 km wide, and up to 50 metres high. They also occur in southern and West Africa, and in parts of the western United States, especially Texas.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "U-shaped mounds of sand with convex noses trailed by elongated arms are parabolic dunes. These dunes are formed from blowout dunes where the erosion of vegetated sand leads to a U-shaped depression. The elongated arms are held in place by vegetation; the largest arm known on Earth reaches 12 km. Sometimes these dunes are called U-shaped, blowout, or hairpin dunes, and they are well known in coastal deserts. Unlike crescent shaped dunes, their crests point upwind. The bulk of the sand in the dune migrates forward.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In plan view, these are U-shaped or V-shaped mounds of well-sorted, very fine to medium sand with elongated arms that extend upwind behind the central part of the dune. There are slipfaces that often occur on the outer side of the nose and on the outer slopes of the arms.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "These dunes often occur in semiarid areas where the precipitation is retained in the lower parts of the dune and underlying soils. The stability of the dunes was once attributed to the vegetative cover but recent research has pointed to water as the main source of parabolic dune stability. The vegetation that covers them—grasses, shrubs, and trees—help anchor the trailing arms. In inland deserts, parabolic dunes commonly originate and extend downwind from blowouts in sand sheets only partly anchored by vegetation. They can also originate from beach sands and extend inland into vegetated areas in coastal zones and on shores of large lakes.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Most parabolic dunes do not reach heights higher than a few tens of metres except at their nose, where vegetation stops or slows the advance of accumulating sand.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Simple parabolic dunes have only one set of arms that trail upwind, behind the leading nose. Compound parabolic dunes are coalesced features with several sets of trailing arms. Complex parabolic dunes include subsidiary superposed or coalesced forms, usually of barchanoid or linear shapes.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Parabolic dunes, like crescent dunes, occur in areas where very strong winds are mostly unidirectional. Although these dunes are found in areas now characterized by variable wind speeds, the effective winds associated with the growth and migration of both the parabolic and crescent dunes probably are the most consistent in wind direction.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The grain size for these well-sorted, very fine to medium sands is about 0.06 to 0.5 mm. Parabolic dunes have loose sand and steep slopes only on their outer flanks. The inner slopes are mostly well packed and anchored by vegetation, as are the corridors between individual dunes. Because all dune arms are oriented in the same direction, and, the inter-dune corridors are generally swept clear of loose sand, the corridors can usually be traversed in between the trailing arms of the dune. However to cross straight over the dune by going over the trailing arms, can be very difficult. Also, traversing the nose is very difficult as well because the nose is usually made up of loose sand without much if any vegetation.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "A type of extensive parabolic dune that lacks discernible slipfaces and has mostly coarse grained sand is known as a zibar. The term zibar comes from the Arabic word to describe \"rolling transverse ridges ... with a hard surface\". The dunes are small, have low relief, and can be found in many places across the planet from Wyoming (United States) to Saudi Arabia to Australia. Spacing between zibars ranges from 50 to 400 metres and they do not become more than 10 metres high. The dunes form at about ninety degrees to the prevailing wind which blows away the small, fine-grained sand leaving behind the coarser grained sand to form the crest.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Occurring wherever winds periodically reverse direction, reversing dunes are varieties of any of the above shapes. These dunes typically have major and minor slipfaces oriented in opposite directions. The minor slipfaces are usually temporary, as they appear after a reverse wind and are generally destroyed when the wind next blows in the dominant direction.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Draas are very large-scale dune bedforms; they may be tens or a few hundreds of metres in height, kilometres wide, and hundreds of kilometres in length. After a draa has reached a certain size, it generally develops superimposed dune forms. They are thought to be more ancient and slower-moving than smaller dunes, and to form by vertical growth of existing dunes. Draas are widespread in sand seas and are well-represented in the geological record.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "All these dune shapes may occur in three forms: simple (isolated dunes of basic type), compound (larger dunes on which smaller dunes of same type form), and complex (combinations of different types). Simple dunes are basic forms with the minimum number of slipfaces that define the geometric type. Compound dunes are large dunes on which smaller dunes of similar type and slipface orientation are superimposed. Complex dunes are combinations of two or more dune types. A crescentic dune with a star dune superimposed on its crest is the most common complex dune. Simple dunes represent a wind regime that has not changed in intensity or direction since the formation of the dune, while compound and complex dunes suggest that the intensity and direction of the wind has changed.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The sand mass of dunes can move either windward or leeward, depending on if the wind is making contact with the dune from below or above its apogee. If wind hits from above, the sand particles move leeward; the leeward flux of sand is greater than the windward flux. Conversely, if sand hits from below, sand particles move windward. Further, if the wind is carrying sand particles when it hits the dune, the dune's sand particles will saltate more than if the wind had hit the dune without carrying sand particles.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Coastal dunes form when wet sand is deposited along the coast and dries out and is blown along the beach. Dunes form where the beach is wide enough to allow for the accumulation of wind-blown sand, and where prevailing onshore winds tend to blow sand inland. The three key ingredients for coastal dune formation are a large sand supply, winds to move said sand supply, and a place for the sand supply to accumulate. Obstacles—for example, vegetation, pebbles and so on—tend to slow down the wind and lead to the deposition of sand grains. These small \"incipient dunes or \"shadow dunes\" tend to grow in the vertical direction if the obstacle slowing the wind can also grow vertically (i.e., vegetation). Coastal dunes expand laterally as a result of lateral growth of coastal plants via seed or rhizome. Models of coastal dunes suggest that their final equilibrium height is related to the distance between the water line and where vegetation can grow. Coastal dunes can be classified by where they develop, or begin to take shape. Dunes are commonly grouped into either the Primary Dune Group or the Secondary Dune Group. Primary dunes gain most of their sand from the beach itself, while secondary dunes gain their sand from the primary dune. Along the Florida Panhandle, most dunes are considered to be foredunes or hummocks. Different locations around the globe have dune formations unique to their given coastal profile.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Coastal sand dunes can provide privacy and/or habitats to support local flora and fauna. Animals such as sand snakes, lizards, and rodents can live in coastal sand dunes, along with insects of all types. Often the vegetation of sand dunes is discussed without acknowledging the importance that coastal dunes have for animals. Further, some animals, such as foxes and feral pigs can use coastal dunes as hunting grounds to find food. Birds are also known to utilize coastal dunes as nesting grounds. All these species find the coastal environment of the sand dune vital to their species' survival.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Over the course of time coastal dunes may be impacted by tropical cyclones or other intense storm activity, dependent on their location. Recent work has suggested that coastal dunes tend to evolve toward a high or low morphology depending on the growth rate of dunes relative to storm frequency. During a storm event, dunes play a significant role in minimizing wave energy as it moves onshore. As a result, coastal dunes, especially those in the foredune area affected by a storm surge, will retreat or erode. To counteract the damage from tropical activity on coastal dunes, short term post-storm efforts can be made by individual agencies through fencing to help with sand accumulation.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "How much a dune erodes during any storm surge is related to its location on the coastal shoreline and the profile of the beach during a particular season. In those areas with harsher winter weather, during the summer a beach tends to take on more of a convex appearance due to gentler waves, while the same beach in the winter may take on more of a concave appearance. As a result, coastal dunes can get eroded much more quickly in the winter than in the summer. The converse is true in areas with harsher summer weather.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "There are many threats to these coastal communities. Some coastal dunes, for example ones in San Francisco, have been completely altered by urbanization; reshaping the dune for human use. This puts native species at risk. Another danger, in California and places in the UK specifically, is the introduction of invasive species. Plant species, such as Carpobrotus edulis, were introduced from South Africa in an attempt to stabilize the dunes and provide horticultural benefits, but instead spread taking land away from native species. Ammophila arenaria, known as European beachgrass, has a similar story, though it has no horticulture benefits. It has great ground coverage and, as intended, stabilized the dunes but as an unintended side effect prevented native species from thriving in those dunes. One such example is the dune field at Point Reyes, California. There are now efforts to get rid of both of these invasive species.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "As a dune forms, plant succession occurs. The conditions on an embryo dune are harsh, with salt spray from the sea carried on strong winds. The dune is well drained and often dry, and composed of calcium carbonate from seashells. Rotting seaweed, brought in by storm waves adds nutrients to allow pioneer species to colonize the dune. For example, in the United Kingdom these pioneer species are often marram grass, sea wort grass and other sea grasses. These plants are well adapted to the harsh conditions of the foredune, typically having deep roots which reach the water table, root nodules that produce nitrogen compounds, and protected stoma, reducing transpiration. Also, the deep roots bind the sand together, and the dune grows into a foredune as more sand is blown over the grasses. The grasses add nitrogen to the soil, meaning other, less hardy plants can then colonize the dunes. Typically these are heather, heaths and gorses. These too are adapted to the low soil water content and have small, prickly leaves which reduce transpiration. Heather adds humus to the soil and is usually replaced by coniferous trees, which can tolerate low soil pH, caused by the accumulation and decomposition of organic matter with nitrate leaching. Coniferous forests and heathland are common climax communities for sand dune systems.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Young dunes are called yellow dunes and dunes which have high humus content are called grey dunes. Leaching occurs on the dunes, washing humus into the slacks, and the slacks may be much more developed than the exposed tops of the dunes. It is usually in the slacks that more rare species are developed and there is a tendency for the dune slacks' soil to be waterlogged where only marsh plants can survive. In Europe these plants include: creeping willow, cotton grass, yellow iris, reeds, and rushes. As for vertebrates in European dunes, natterjack toads sometimes breed here.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Dune ecosystems are extremely difficult places for plants to survive. This is due to a number of pressures related to their proximity to the ocean and confinement to growth on sandy substrates. These include:",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Plants have evolved many adaptations to cope with these pressures:",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In deserts where large amounts of limestone mountains surround a closed basin, such as at White Sands National Park in south-central New Mexico, occasional storm runoff transports dissolved limestone and gypsum into a low-lying pan within the basin where the water evaporates, depositing the gypsum and forming crystals known as selenite. The crystals left behind by this process are eroded by the wind and deposited as vast white dune fields that resemble snow-covered landscapes. These types of dune are rare, and only form in closed arid basins that retain the highly soluble gypsum that would otherwise be washed into the sea.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "A nabkha, or coppice dune, is a small dune anchored by vegetation. They usually indicate desertification or soil erosion, and serve as nesting and burrow sites for animals.",
"title": "Aeolian dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Sub-aqueous (underwater) dunes form on a bed of sand or gravel under the actions of water flow. They are ubiquitous in natural channels such as rivers and estuaries, and also form in engineered canals and pipelines. Dunes move downstream as the upstream slope is eroded and the sediment deposited on the downstream or lee slope in typical bedform construction. In the case of sub-aqueous barchan dunes, sediment is lost by their extremities, known as horns.",
"title": "Sub-aqueous dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "These dunes most often form as a continuous 'train' of dunes, showing remarkable similarity in wavelength and height. The shape of a dune gives information about its formation environment. For instance, rivers produce asymmetrical ripples, with the steeper slip face facing downstream. Ripple marks preserved in sedimentary strata in the geological record can be used to determine the direction of current flow, and thus an indication of the source of the sediments.",
"title": "Sub-aqueous dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Dunes on the bed of a channel significantly increase flow resistance, their presence and growth playing a major part in river flooding.",
"title": "Sub-aqueous dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "A lithified (consolidated) sand dune is a type of sandstone that is formed when a marine or aeolian sand dune becomes compacted and hardened. Once in this form, water passing through the rock can carry and deposit minerals, which can alter the color of the rock. Cross-bedded layers of stacks of lithified dunes can produce the cross-hatching patterns, such as those seen in Zion National Park in the western United States.",
"title": "Lithified dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "A slang term, used in the southwest US, for consolidated and hardened sand dunes is \"slickrock\", a name that was introduced by pioneers of the Old West because their steel-rimmed wagon wheels could not gain traction on the rock.",
"title": "Lithified dunes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Sand dunes can have a negative impact on humans when they encroach on human habitats. Sand dunes move via a few different means, all of them helped along by wind. One way that dunes can move is by saltation, where sand particles skip along the ground like a bouncing ball. When these skipping particles land, they may knock into other particles and cause them to move as well, in a process known as creep. With slightly stronger winds, particles collide in mid-air, causing sheet flows. In a major dust storm, dunes may move tens of metres through such sheet flows. Also as in the case of snow, sand avalanches, falling down the slipface of the dunes—that face away from the winds—also move the dunes forward.",
"title": "Desertification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Sand threatens buildings and crops in Africa, the Middle East, and China. Drenching sand dunes with oil stops their migration, but this approach uses a valuable resource and is quite destructive to the dunes' animal habitats. Sand fences might also slow their movement to a crawl, but geologists are still analyzing results for the optimum fence designs. Preventing sand dunes from overwhelming towns, villages, and agricultural areas has become a priority for the United Nations Environment Programme. Planting dunes with vegetation also helps to stabilise them.",
"title": "Desertification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Dune habitats provide niches for highly specialized plants and animals, including numerous rare species and some endangered species. Due to widespread human population expansion, dunes face destruction through land development and recreational usages, as well as alteration to prevent the encroachment of sand onto inhabited areas. Some countries, notably the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Sri Lanka have developed significant programs of dune protection through the use of sand dune stabilization. In the U.K., a Biodiversity Action Plan has been developed to assess dunes loss and to prevent future dunes destruction.",
"title": "Conservation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Dunes can likely be found in any environment where there is a substantial atmosphere, winds, and dust to be blown. Dunes are common on Mars and in the equatorial regions of Titan.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Titan's dunes include large expanses with modal lengths of about 20–30 km. The regions are not topographically confined, resembling sand seas. These dunes are interpreted to be longitudinal dunes whose crests are oriented parallel to the dominant wind direction, which generally indicates west-to-east wind flow. The sand is likely composed of hydrocarbon particles, possibly with some water ice mixed in.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Dunes are a popular theme in science fiction, featuring in depictions of dry Desert planets appearing as early as the 1956 film Forbidden Planet and Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune. The environment of the desert planet Arrakis (also known as Dune) in the Dune franchise Dune in turn inspired the Star Wars franchise, which includes prominent theme of dunes on fictional planets such as Tatooine, Geonosis, and Jakku.",
"title": "Examples"
}
] | A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes with little or no vegetation are called ergs or sand seas. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter slip face in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a dune slack. Dunes are most common in desert environments, where the lack of moisture hinders the growth of vegetation that would otherwise interfere with the development of dunes. However, sand deposits are not restricted to deserts, and dunes are also found along sea shores, along streams in semiarid climates, in areas of glacial outwash, and in other areas where poorly cemented sandstone bedrock disintegrates to produce an ample supply of loose sand. Subaqueous dunes can form from the action of water flow on sand or gravel beds of rivers, estuaries, and the sea-bed. Some coastal areas have one or more sets of dunes running parallel to the shoreline directly inland from the beach. In most cases, the dunes are important in protecting the land against potential ravages by storm waves from the sea. Artificial dunes are sometimes constructed to protect coastal areas. The dynamic action of wind and water can sometimes cause dunes to drift, which can have serious consequences. For example, the town of Eucla, Western Australia, had to be relocated in the 1890s because of dune drift. The modern word "dune" came into English from French around 1790, which in turn came from Middle Dutch dūne. | 2001-11-02T23:23:15Z | 2023-12-28T09:19:28Z | [
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7,891 | David Lynch | David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, painter, visual artist, musician and actor. Lynch has received critical acclaim for his films, which are often distinguished by their surrealist qualities. He has received numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. In 2007, a panel of critics convened by The Guardian announced that "after all the discussion, no one could fault the conclusion that David Lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era."
Lynch studied painting before he began making short films in the late 1960s. His first feature-length film was Eraserhead (1977), which saw success as a midnight movie. He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001). His film Wild at Heart (1990) earned the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or. Other notable films include Dune (1984), Lost Highway (1997), and Inland Empire (2006). Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–1991), and Lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) and the limited series Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). He also portrayed Gordon Cole in the Twin Peaks projects.
Lynch's other artistic endeavors include his work as a musician, encompassing the studio albums BlueBOB (2001), Crazy Clown Time (2011), and The Big Dream (2013) as well as painting and photography. He has written the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006), and Room to Dream (2018). He has also directed several music videos for artists such as Chris Isaak, X Japan, Moby, Interpol, Nine Inch Nails, and Donovan, and commercials for Calvin Klein, Dior, L'Oreal, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, and the New York City Department of Sanitation.
A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (TM), in 2005 he founded the David Lynch Foundation, which seeks to fund the teaching of TM in schools and has since widened its scope to other at-risk populations, including the homeless, veterans, and refugees.
My childhood was elegant homes, tree-lined streets, the milkman, building backyard forts, droning airplanes, blue skies, picket fences, green grass, cherry trees. Middle America as it's supposed to be. But on the cherry tree there's this pitch oozing out – some black, some yellow, and millions of red ants crawling all over it. I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath. Because I grew up in a perfect world, other things were a contrast.
David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana, on January 20, 1946. His father, Donald Walton Lynch (1915–2007), was a research scientist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and his mother, Edwina "Sunny" Lynch (née Sundberg; 1919–2004), was an English language tutor. Two of Lynch's maternal great-grandparents were Finnish-Swedish immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the 19th century. He was raised as a Presbyterian. The Lynches often moved around according to where the USDA assigned Donald. Because of this, Lynch moved with his parents to Sandpoint, Idaho, when he was two months old; two years later, after his brother John was born, the family moved to Spokane, Washington. Lynch's sister Martha was born there. The family then moved to Durham, North Carolina, Boise, Idaho, and Alexandria, Virginia. Lynch adjusted to this transitory early life with relative ease, noting that he usually had no issue making new friends whenever he started attending a new school. Of his early life, he remarked:
I found the world completely and totally fantastic as a child. Of course, I had the usual fears, like going to school ... for me, back then, school was a crime against young people. It destroyed the seeds of liberty. The teachers didn't encourage knowledge or a positive attitude.
Alongside his schooling, Lynch joined the Boy Scouts, although he later said he only "became [a Scout] so I could quit and put it behind me". He rose to the highest rank of Eagle Scout. As an Eagle Scout, he was present with other Boy Scouts outside the White House at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, which took place on Lynch's 15th birthday. Lynch was also interested in painting and drawing from an early age, and became intrigued by the idea of pursuing it as a career path when living in Virginia, where his friend's father was a professional painter.
At Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, Lynch did not excel academically, having little interest in schoolwork, but he was popular with other students, and after leaving he decided that he wanted to study painting at college. He began his studies at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., before transferring in 1964 to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he was roommates with musician Peter Wolf. He left after only a year, saying, "I was not inspired AT ALL in that place." He instead decided that he wanted to travel around Europe for three years with his friend Jack Fisk, who was similarly unhappy with his studies at Cooper Union. They had some hopes that they could train in Europe with Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka at his school. Upon reaching Salzburg, however, they found that Kokoschka was not available; disillusioned, they returned to the United States after spending only two weeks in Europe.
Back in the United States, Lynch returned to Virginia, but since his parents had moved to Walnut Creek, California, he stayed with his friend Toby Keeler for a while. He decided to move to Philadelphia and enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, after advice from Fisk, who was already enrolled there. He preferred this college to his previous school in Boston, saying, "In Philadelphia there were great and serious painters, and everybody was inspiring one another and it was a beautiful time there." It was here that he began a relationship with a fellow student, Peggy Reavey, whom he married in 1967. The following year, Peggy gave birth to their daughter Jennifer. Peggy later said, "[Lynch] definitely was a reluctant father, but a very loving one. Hey, I was pregnant when we got married. We were both reluctant." As a family, they moved to Philadelphia's Fairmount neighborhood, where they bought a 12-room house for the relatively low price of $3,500 (equivalent to $30,700 in 2022) due to the area's high crime and poverty rates. Lynch later said:
We lived cheap, but the city was full of fear. A kid was shot to death down the street ... We were robbed twice, had windows shot out and a car stolen. The house was first broken into only three days after we moved in ... The feeling was so close to extreme danger, and the fear was so intense. There was violence and hate and filth. But the biggest influence in my whole life was that city.
Meanwhile, to help support his family, he took a job printing engravings. At the Pennsylvania Academy, Lynch made his first short film, Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1967). He had first come up with the idea when he developed a wish to see his paintings move, and he began discussing doing animation with an artist named Bruce Samuelson. When this project never came about, Lynch decided to work on a film alone, and purchased the cheapest 16mm camera that he could find. Taking one of the academy's abandoned upper rooms as a workspace, he spent $150, which at the time he felt to be a lot of money, to produce Six Men Getting Sick. Calling the film "57 seconds of growth and fire, and three seconds of vomit", Lynch played it on a loop at the academy's annual end-of-year exhibit, where it shared joint first prize with a painting by Noel Mahaffey. This led to a commission from one of his fellow students, the wealthy H. Barton Wasserman, who offered him $1,000 (equivalent to $8,400 in 2022) to create a film installation in his home. Spending $478 of that on the second-hand Bolex camera "of [his] dreams", Lynch produced a new animated short, but upon getting the film developed, realized that the result was a blurred, frameless print. He later said, "So I called up [Wasserman] and said, 'Bart, the film is a disaster. The camera was broken and what I've done hasn't turned out.' And he said, 'Don't worry, David, take the rest of the money and make something else for me. Just give me a print.' End of story."
With his leftover money, Lynch decided to experiment with a mix of animation and live action, producing the four-minute short The Alphabet (1968). The film starred Lynch's wife Peggy as a character known as The Girl, who chants the alphabet to a series of images of horses before dying at the end by hemorrhaging blood all over her bed sheets. Adding a sound effect, Lynch used a broken Uher tape recorder to record the sound of Jennifer crying, creating a distorted sound that Lynch found particularly effective. Later describing what had inspired him, Lynch said, "Peggy's niece was having a bad dream one night and was saying the alphabet in her sleep in a tormented way. So that's sort of what started The Alphabet going. The rest of it was just subconscious."
Learning about the newly founded American Film Institute, which gave grants to filmmakers who could support their application with a prior work and a script for a new project, Lynch decided to send them a copy of The Alphabet along with a script he had written for a new short film that would be almost entirely live action, The Grandmother. The institute agreed to help finance the work, initially offering him $5,000 out of his requested budget of $7,200, but later granting him the additional $2,200. Starring people he knew from both work and college and filmed in his own house, The Grandmother featured a neglected boy who "grows" a grandmother from a seed to care for him. The film critics Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell wrote, "this film is a true oddity but contains many of the themes and ideas that would filter into his later work, and shows a remarkable grasp of the medium".
In 1970, Lynch moved with his wife and daughter to Los Angeles, where he began studying filmmaking at the AFI Conservatory, a place he later called "completely chaotic and disorganized, which was great ... you quickly learned that if you were going to get something done, you would have to do it yourself. They wanted to let people do their thing." He began writing a script for a proposed work, Gardenback, that had "unfolded from this painting I'd done". In this venture he was supported by a number of figures at the Conservatory, who encouraged him to lengthen the script and add more dialogue, which he reluctantly agreed to do. All the interference on his Gardenback project made him fed up with the Conservatory and led him to quit after returning to start his second year and being put in first-year classes. AFI dean Frank Daniel asked Lynch to reconsider, believing that he was one of the school's best students. Lynch agreed on the condition that he could create a project that would not be interfered with. Feeling that Gardenback was "wrecked", he set out on a new film, Eraserhead.
Eraserhead was planned to be about 42 minutes long (it ended up being 89 minutes), its script was only 21 pages, and Lynch was able to create the film without interference. Filming began on May 29, 1972, at night in some abandoned stables, allowing the production team, which was largely Lynch and some of his friends, including Sissy Spacek, Jack Fisk, cinematographer Frederick Elmes and sound designer Alan Splet, to set up a camera room, green room, editing room, sets as well as a food room and a bathroom. The AFI gave Lynch a $10,000 grant, but it was not enough to complete the film, and under pressure from studios after the success of the relatively cheap feature film Easy Rider, it was unable to give him more. Lynch was then supported by a loan from his father and money that he earned from a paper route that he took up, delivering The Wall Street Journal. Not long into Eraserhead's production, Lynch and Peggy amicably separated and divorced, and he began living full-time on set. In 1977, Lynch married Mary Fisk, sister of Jack Fisk.
Lynch has said that not a single reviewer of the film understood it in the way he intended. Filmed in black and white, Eraserhead tells the story of Henry (Jack Nance), a quiet young man living in a dystopian industrial wasteland, whose girlfriend gives birth to a deformed baby whom she leaves in his care. It was heavily influenced by the fearful mood of Philadelphia, and Lynch has called it "my Philadelphia Story".
Due to financial problems the filming of Eraserhead was haphazard, regularly stopping and starting again. It was in one such break in 1974 that Lynch created the short film The Amputee, a one-shot film about two minutes long. Lynch proposed that he make The Amputee to present to AFI to test two different types of film stock.
Eraserhead was finally finished in 1976. Lynch tried to get it entered into the Cannes Film Festival, but while some reviewers liked it, others felt it was awful, and it was not selected for screening. Reviewers from the New York Film Festival also rejected it, but it was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival, where Ben Barenholtz, the distributor of the Elgin Theater, heard about it. He was very supportive of the movie, helping to distribute it around the United States in 1977, and Eraserhead subsequently became popular on the midnight movie underground circuit, and was later called one of the most important midnight movies of the 1970s, along with El Topo, Pink Flamingos, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Harder They Come and Night of the Living Dead. Stanley Kubrick said it was one of his all-time favorite films.
After Eraserhead's success on the underground circuit, Stuart Cornfeld, an executive producer for Mel Brooks, saw it and later said, "I was just 100 percent blown away ... I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. It was such a cleansing experience." He agreed to help Lynch with his next film, Ronnie Rocket, for which Lynch had already written a script. But Lynch soon realized that Ronnie Rocket, a film that he has said is about "electricity and a three-foot guy with red hair", was not going to be picked up by any financiers, and so he asked Cornfeld to find him a script by someone else that he could direct. Cornfeld found four. On hearing the title of the first, The Elephant Man, Lynch chose it.
The Elephant Man's script, written by Chris de Vore and Eric Bergren, was based on a true story, that of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man in Victorian London, who was held in a sideshow but later taken under the care of a London surgeon, Frederick Treves. Lynch wanted to make some alterations that would alter the story from true events but in his view make a better plot, but he needed Mel Brooks's permission, as Brooks's company, Brooksfilms, was responsible for production. Brooks viewed Eraserhead, and after coming out of the screening theatre, embraced Lynch, declaring, "You're a madman! I love you! You're in."
The Elephant Man starred John Hurt as John Merrick (the name changed from Joseph) and Anthony Hopkins as Treves. Filming took place in London. Though surrealistic and in black and white, it has been called "one of the most conventional" of Lynch's films. The Elephant Man was a huge critical and commercial success, earning eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
After The Elephant Man's success, George Lucas, a fan of Eraserhead, offered Lynch the opportunity to direct the third film in his original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi. Lynch declined, saying that he had "next door to zero interest" and arguing that Lucas should direct the film himself as the movie should reflect his own vision, not Lynch's. Soon, the opportunity to direct another big-budget science fiction epic arose when Dino de Laurentiis of the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group asked Lynch to create a film adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune (1965). Lynch agreed, and in doing so was also contractually obliged to produce two other works for the company. He set about writing a script based upon the novel, initially with both Chris de Vore and Eric Bergren, and then alone when De Laurentiis was unhappy with their ideas. Lynch also helped build some of the sets, attempting to create "a certain look", and particularly enjoyed building the set for the oil planet Giedi Prime, for which he used "steel, bolts, and porcelain".
Dune is set in the far future, when humans live in an interstellar empire under a feudal system. The main character, Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan), is the son of a noble who takes control of the desert planet Arrakis, which grows the rare spice melange, the empire's most highly prized commodity. Lynch was unhappy with the work, later saying, "Dune was a kind of studio film. I didn't have final cut. And, little by little, I was subconsciously making compromises" [to his own vision]. Much of his footage was eventually removed from the final theatrical cut, dramatically condensing the plot. Although De Laurentiis hoped it would be as successful as Star Wars, Dune (1984) was a critical and commercial dud; it had cost $45 million to make, and grossed $27.4 million domestically. Later, Universal Studios released an "extended cut" for syndicated television, containing almost an hour of cutting-room-floor footage and new narration. It did not represent Lynch's intentions, but the studio considered it more comprehensible than the original version. Lynch objected to the changes and had his name struck from the extended cut, which has Alan Smithee credited as the director and "Judas Booth" (a pseudonym Lynch invented, reflecting his feelings of betrayal) as the screenwriter.
In 1983, he began writing and drawing of a comic strip, The Angriest Dog in the World, that featured unchanging graphics of a tethered dog so angry it could not move, alongside cryptic philosophical references. It was published from 1983 to 1992 in The Village Voice, Creative Loafing, and other tabloid and alternative publications. Around this time Lynch also became interested in photography as an art form, and traveled to northern England to photograph the degrading industrial landscape.
Lynch was contractually still obliged to produce two other projects for De Laurentiis, the first a planned sequel to Dune, which due to the film's failure never went beyond the script stage. The other was a more personal work, based on a script Lynch had been working on for some time. Developing from ideas that Lynch had had since 1973, the film, Blue Velvet, was set in the real town of Lumberton, North Carolina, and revolves around a college student, Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan), who finds a severed ear in a field. Investigating further with the help of friend Sandy (Laura Dern), he discovers that it is related to a criminal gang led by psychopath Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), who has kidnapped the husband and child of singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and repeatedly rapes her. Lynch has called the story "a dream of strange desires wrapped inside a mystery story".
Lynch included pop songs from the 1960s in the film, including Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" and Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet", the latter of which largely inspired the film. Lynch has said, "It was the song that sparked the movie ... There was something mysterious about it. It made me think about things. And the first things I thought about were lawns—lawns and the neighborhood. Other music for the film was composed by Angelo Badalamenti, who wrote the music for most of Lynch's subsequent work. De Laurentiis loved the film, and it received support at some of the early specialist screenings, but the preview screenings to mainstream audiences were very negatively received, with most of the viewers hating the film. Lynch had found success with The Elephant Man, but Blue Velvet's controversy with audiences and critics introduced him into the mainstream, and it became a huge critical and moderate commercial success. The film earned Lynch his second Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Woody Allen, whose Hannah and Her Sisters was nominated for Best Picture, said Blue Velvet was his favorite film of the year. In the late 1980s, Lynch began to work in television, directing a short piece, The Cowboy and the Frenchman, for French television in 1989.
Around this time, he met the television producer Mark Frost, who had worked on such projects as Hill Street Blues, and they decided to start working together on a biopic of Marilyn Monroe based on Anthony Summers's book The Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, but it never got off the ground. They went on to work on a comedy script, One Saliva Bubble, but that did not see completion either. While talking in a coffee shop, Lynch and Frost had the idea of a corpse washing up on a lakeshore, and went to work on their third project, initially called Northwest Passage but eventually Twin Peaks (1990–91). A drama series set in a small Washington town where popular high school student Laura Palmer has been murdered, Twin Peaks featured FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (MacLachlan) as the investigator trying to identify the killer, and discovering not only the murder's supernatural aspects but also many of the townsfolk's secrets; Lynch said, "The project was to mix a police investigation with the ordinary lives of the characters." He later said, "[Mark Frost and I] worked together, especially in the initial stages. Later on we started working more apart." They pitched the series to ABC, which agreed to finance the pilot and eventually commissioned a season comprising seven episodes.
During season one Lynch directed two of the seven episodes, devoting more time to his film Wild at Heart, but carefully chose the other episodes' directors. He also appeared in several episodes as FBI agent Gordon Cole. The series was a success, with high ratings in the United States and many other countries, and soon spawned a cult following. Soon a second season of 22 episodes went into production, but ABC executives believed that public interest in the show was decreasing. The network insisted that Lynch and Frost reveal Laura Palmer's killer's identity prematurely, which Lynch grudgingly agreed to do, in what Lynch has called one of his biggest professional regrets. After identifying the murderer and moving from Thursday to Saturday night, Twin Peaks continued for several more episodes, but was canceled after a ratings drop. Lynch, who disliked the direction that writers and directors took in the later episodes, directed the final episode. He ended it with a cliffhanger (like season one had), later saying, "that's not the ending. That's the ending that people were stuck with."
While Twin Peaks was in production, the Brooklyn Academy of Music asked Lynch and Badalamenti, who wrote the music for Twin Peaks, to create a theatrical piece to be performed twice in 1989 as a part of the New Music America Festival. The result was Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted, which starred frequent Lynch collaborators such as Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage and Michael J. Anderson, and contained five songs sung by Julee Cruise. Lynch produced a 50-minute video of the performance in 1990. Meanwhile, he was also involved in creating various commercials for companies including Yves Saint Laurent, Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani and the Japanese coffee company Namoi, which featured a Japanese man searching Twin Peaks for his missing wife.
1990 was Lynch's annus mirabilis: Wild at Heart won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and the television series Twin Peaks was proving a smash hit with audiences across the world. The musical/performance piece Industrial Symphony No. 1, which Lynch had staged with Angelo Badalamenti at the Brooklyn Academy of music, had spawned the album Floating into the Night and launched singer Julee Cruise. Five one-man exhibitions between 1989 and 1991 emphasized Lynch's roots in fine art and painting, and a rash of ads (including a teaser trailer for Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous' tour) confirmed the demand for the Lynch touch ... In an unlikely scenario for the maker of Eraserhead, Lynch had become an influential and fashionable brand name.
—Christopher Rodley
While Lynch was working on the first few episodes of Twin Peaks, his friend Monty Montgomery "gave me a book that he wanted to direct as a movie. He asked if I would maybe be executive producer or something, and I said 'That's great, Monty, but what if I read it and fall in love with it and want to do it myself?' And he said, 'In that case, you can do it yourself'." The book was Barry Gifford's novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula, about two lovers on a road trip. Lynch felt that it was "just exactly the right thing at the right time. The book and the violence in America merged in my mind and many different things happened." With Gifford's support, Lynch adapted the novel into Wild at Heart, a crime and road movie starring Nicolas Cage as Sailor and Laura Dern as Lula. Describing its plot as a "strange blend" of "a road picture, a love story, a psychological drama and a violent comedy", Lynch altered much of the original novel, changing the ending and incorporating numerous references to The Wizard of Oz. Despite a muted response from American critics and viewers, Wild at Heart won the Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.
After Wild at Heart's success, Lynch returned to the world of the canceled Twin Peaks, this time without Frost, to create a film that was primarily a prequel but also in part a sequel. Lynch said, "I liked the idea of the story going back and forth in time." The result, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), primarily revolved around the last few days in the life of Laura Palmer, and was much "darker" in tone than the TV series, with much of the humor removed, and dealing with such topics as incest and murder. Lynch has said the film is about "the loneliness, shame, guilt, confusion and devastation of the victim of incest". The company CIBY-2000 financed Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and most of the TV series' cast reprised their roles, though some refused and many were unenthusiastic about the project. The film was a commercial failure in the United States at the time of its release, but it has since experienced a critical reappraisal. A number of critics, such as Mark Kermode, have called it Lynch's "masterpiece".
Meanwhile, Lynch worked on some new television shows. He and Frost created the comedy series On the Air (1992), which was canceled after three episodes aired, and he and Monty Montgomery created the three-episode HBO miniseries Hotel Room (1993) about events that happen in one hotel room on different dates.
In 1993, Lynch collaborated with Japanese musician Yoshiki on the video for X Japan's song "Longing ~Setsubou no Yoru~". The video was never officially released, but Lynch claimed in his 2018 memoir Room to Dream that "some of the frames are so fuckin' beautiful, you can't believe it."
After his unsuccessful TV ventures, Lynch returned to film. In 1997, he released the non-linear noiresque Lost Highway, which was co-written by Barry Gifford and starred Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette. The film failed commercially and received a mixed response from critics.
Lynch then began work on a film from a script by Mary Sweeney and John E. Roach, The Straight Story, based on a true story: that of Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth), an elderly man from Laurens, Iowa, who goes on a 300-mile journey to visit his sick brother (Harry Dean Stanton) in Mount Zion, Wisconsin, by riding lawnmower. Asked why he chose this script, Lynch said, "that's what I fell in love with next", and expressed his admiration of Straight, describing him as "like James Dean, except he's old". Badalamenti wrote the music for the film, saying it was "very different from the kind of score he's done for [Lynch] in the past".
Among the many differences from Lynch's other films, The Straight Story contains no profanity, sexuality or violence, and is rated G (general viewing) by the Motion Picture Association of America, which came as "shocking news" to many in the film industry, who were surprised that it "did not disturb, offend or mystify". Le Blanc and Odell write that the plot made it "seem as far removed from Lynch's earlier works as could be imagined, but in fact right from the very opening, this is entirely his film—a surreal road movie".
That year, Lynch approached ABC again with ideas for a television drama. The network gave Lynch the go-ahead to shoot a two-hour pilot for the series Mulholland Drive, but disputes over content and running time led to the project being shelved indefinitely. But with $7 million from the French production company StudioCanal, Lynch completed the pilot as a film, Mulholland Drive. The film, a non-linear narrative surrealist tale of Hollywood's dark side, stars Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux. It performed relatively well at the box office worldwide and was a critical success, earning Lynch Best Director at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival (shared with Joel Coen for The Man Who Wasn't There) and Best Director from the New York Film Critics Association. He also received his third Academy Award nomination for Best Director. In 2016, the film was named the best film of the 21st century in a BBC poll of 177 film critics from 36 countries.
With the rising popularity of the Internet, Lynch decided to use it as a distribution channel, releasing several new series he had created exclusively on his website, davidlynch.com, which went online on December 10, 2001. In 2002, he created a series of online shorts, DumbLand. Intentionally crude in content and execution, the eight-episode series was later released on DVD. The same year, Lynch released a surreal sitcom, Rabbits, about a family of humanoid rabbits. Later, he made his experiments with Digital Video available in the form of the Japanese-style horror short Darkened Room. In 2006, Lynch's feature film Inland Empire was released. At three hours, it is the longest of his films. Like Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway, it does not follow a traditional narrative structure. It stars Lynch regulars Laura Dern, Harry Dean Stanton and Justin Theroux, with cameos by Naomi Watts and Laura Harring as the voices of Suzie and Jane Rabbit, and a performance by Jeremy Irons. Lynch has called Inland Empire "a mystery about a woman in trouble". In an effort to promote it, he made appearances with a cow and a placard bearing the slogan "Without cheese there would be no Inland Empire".
In 2009, Lynch produced a documentary web series directed by his son Austin Lynch and friend Jason S., Interview Project. Interested in working with Werner Herzog, in 2009 Lynch collaborated on Herzog's film My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? With a nonstandard narrative, the film is based on a true story of an actor who committed matricide while acting in a production of the Oresteia, and starred Lynch regular Grace Zabriskie. In 2009, Lynch had plans to direct a documentary on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi consisting of interviews with people who knew him, but nothing has come of it.
In 2010, Lynch began making guest appearances on the Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show as Gus the Bartender. He had been convinced to appear in the show by its lead actor, Mike Henry, a fan of Lynch who felt that his whole life had changed after seeing Wild at Heart. Lady Blue Shanghai is a 16-minute promotional film that was written, directed and edited by Lynch for Dior. It was released on the Internet in May 2010.
Lynch directed a concert by English new wave band Duran Duran on March 23, 2011. The concert was streamed live on YouTube from the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles as the kickoff to the second season of Unstaged: An Original Series from American Express. "The idea is to try and create on the fly, layers of images permeating Duran Duran on the stage", Lynch said. "A world of experimentation and hopefully some happy accidents". The animated short I Touch a Red Button Man, a collaboration between Lynch and the band Interpol, played in the background during Interpol's concert at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2011. The short, which features Interpol's song "Lights", was later made available online.
It was believed that Lynch was going to retire from the film industry; according to Abel Ferrara, Lynch "doesn't even want to make films any more. I've talked to him about it, OK? I can tell when he talks about it." But in a June 2012 Los Angeles Times interview, Lynch said he lacked the inspiration to start a new movie project, but "If I got an idea that I fell in love with, I'd go to work tomorrow". In September 2012, he appeared in the three-part "Late Show" arc on FX's Louie as Jack Dahl. In November 2012, Lynch hinted at plans for a new film while attending Plus Camerimage in Bydgoszcz, Poland, saying, "something is coming up. It will happen but I don't know exactly when". At Plus Camerimage, Lynch received a lifetime achievement award and the Key to the City from Bydgoszcz's mayor, Rafał Bruski. In a January 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Laura Dern confirmed that she and Lynch were planning a new project, and The New York Times later revealed that Lynch was working on the script. Idem Paris, a short documentary film about the lithographic process, was released online in February 2013. On June 28, 2013, a video Lynch directed for the Nine Inch Nails song "Came Back Haunted" was released. He also did photography for the Dumb Numbers' self-titled album released in August 2013.
On October 6, 2014, Lynch confirmed via Twitter that he and Frost would start shooting a new, nine-episode season of Twin Peaks in 2015, with the episodes expected to air in 2016 on Showtime. Lynch and Frost wrote all the episodes. On April 5, 2015, Lynch announced via Twitter that the project was still alive, but he was no longer going to direct because the budget was too low for what he wanted to do. On May 15, 2015, he said via Twitter that he would return to the revival, having sorted out his issues with Showtime. Showtime CEO David Nevins confirmed this, announcing that Lynch would direct every episode of the revival and that the original nine episodes had been extended to 18. Filming was completed by April 2016. The two-episode premiere aired on May 21, 2017.
While doing press for Twin Peaks, Lynch was again asked if he had retired from film and seemed to confirm that he had made his last feature film, responding, "Things changed a lot... So many films were not doing well at the box office even though they might have been great films and the things that were doing well at the box office weren't the things that I would want to do". Lynch later said that this statement had been misconstrued: "I did not say I quit cinema, simply that nobody knows what the future holds."
Since the last episode of The Return aired, there has been speculation about a fourth season. Lynch did not deny the possibility of another season, but said that if it were to happen, it would not air before 2021.
Lynch did weather reports on his now-defunct website in the 2000s. He returned to doing weather reports from his apartment in Los Angeles, along with two new series, What is David Lynch Working on Today?, which details him making collages and Today's Number Is..., where each day he picks a random number from 1 to 10 using a jar containing ten numbered ping-pong balls. In one of his weather reports, he detailed a dream he had about being a German soldier shot by an American soldier on D-Day. In June 2020, Lynch rereleased his 2002 web series Rabbits on YouTube. On July 17, 2020, his store for merchandise released a set of face masks with Lynch's art on them for the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2022, it was announced that Lynch had been cast in the Steven Spielberg film The Fabelmans in a role Variety called at the time "a closely guarded secret", later revealed to be that of real-life film director John Ford, whose famous encounter with Spielberg is dramatized in the film's final moments. Lynch and the cast were nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Lynch stopped doing weather reports after 2022.
In 2021, it was announced that Lynch was working on a new project for Netflix with the working titles Wisteria and Unrecorded Night. He was set to write and direct 13 episodes with an $85 million budget. Production was set to begin in May 2021 in Los Angeles.
I look at the world and I see absurdity all around me. People do strange things constantly, to the point that, for the most part, we manage not to see it. That's why I love coffee shops and public places—I mean, they're all out there.
—David Lynch
Lynch has said his work is more similar to that of European filmmakers than American ones, and that most films that "get down and thrill your soul" are by European directors. He has expressed his admiration for Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Jacques Tati, Stanley Kubrick, and Billy Wilder. He has said that Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) is one of his favorite pictures, as are Kubrick's Lolita (1962), Fellini's 8½ (1963), Tati's Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953), Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), and Herzog's Stroszek (1977). He has also cited Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (1962) and Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End (1970) as influences on his work.
Several themes recur in Lynch's work. Le Blanc and Odell write, "his films are so packed with motifs, recurrent characters, images, compositions and techniques that you could view his entire output as one large jigsaw puzzle of ideas". One of the key themes they note is the usage of dreams and dreamlike imagery and structure, something they relate to the "surrealist ethos" of relying "on the subconscious to provide visual drive". This can be seen in Merrick's dream of his mother in The Elephant Man, Cooper's dreams of the red room in Twin Peaks and the "dreamlike logic" of the narratives of Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire. Of his attitude to dreams, Lynch has said, "Waking dreams are the ones that are important, the ones that come when I'm quietly sitting in a chair, letting my mind wander. When you sleep, you don't control your dream. I like to dive into a dream world that I've made or discovered; a world I choose ... [You can't really get others to experience it, but] right there is the power of cinema." His films are known for their use of magic realism. The motif of dreams is closely linked to his recurring use of drones, real-world sounds and musical styles.
Another of Lynch's prominent themes is industry, with repeated imagery of "the clunk of machinery, the power of pistons, shadows of oil drills pumping, screaming woodmills and smoke billowing factories", as seen in the industrial wasteland in Eraserhead, the factories in The Elephant Man, the sawmill in Twin Peaks and the lawnmower in The Straight Story. Of his interest in such things, Lynch has said, "It makes me feel good to see giant machinery, you know, working: dealing with molten metal. And I like fire and smoke. And the sounds are so powerful. It's just big stuff. It means that things are being made, and I really like that."
Another theme is the dark underbelly of violent criminal activity in a society, such as Frank Booth's gang in Blue Velvet and the cocaine smugglers in Twin Peaks. The idea of deformity is also found in several of Lynch's films, from The Elephant Man to the deformed baby in Eraserhead, as well as death from head wounds, found in most of Lynch's films. Other imagery common in Lynch's works includes flickering electricity or lights, fire, and stages upon which a singer performs, often surrounded by drapery.
Except The Elephant Man and Dune, which are set in Victorian London and a fictitious galaxy respectively, all of Lynch's films are set in the United States, and he has said, "I like certain things about America and it gives me ideas. When I go around and I see things, it sparks little stories, or little characters pop out, so it just feels right to me to, you know, make American films." A number of his works, including Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Lost Highway, are intentionally reminiscent of 1950s American culture despite being set in later decades of the 20th century. Lynch has said, "It was a fantastic decade in a lot of ways ... there was something in the air that is not there any more at all. It was such a great feeling, and not just because I was a kid. It was a really hopeful time, and things were going up instead of going down. You got the feeling you could do anything. The future was bright. Little did we know we were laying the groundwork for a disastrous future.
Lynch also tends to feature his leading female actors in "split" roles, so that many of his female characters have multiple, fractured identities. This practice began with his casting Sheryl Lee as both Laura Palmer and her cousin Maddy Ferguson in Twin Peaks and continued in his later works. In Lost Highway, Patricia Arquette plays the dual role of Renee Madison/Alice Wakefield; in Mulholland Drive Naomi Watts plays Diane Selwyn/Betty Elms and Laura Harring plays Camilla Rhodes/Rita; in Inland Empire Laura Dern plays Nikki Grace/Susan Blue. The numerous alternative versions of lead characters and fragmented timelines may echo and/or reference the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics and perhaps Lynch's broader interest in quantum mechanics. Some have suggested that Lynch's love for Hitchcock's Vertigo, which employs a split lead character (the Judy Barton and Madeleine Elster characters, both portrayed by Kim Novak) may have influenced this aspect of his work.
His films frequently feature characters with supernatural or omnipotent qualities. They can be seen as physical manifestations of various concepts, such as hatred or fear. Examples include The Man Inside the Planet in Eraserhead, BOB in Twin Peaks, The Mystery Man in Lost Highway, The Bum in Mulholland Drive, and The Phantom in Inland Empire. Lynch approaches his characters and plots in a way that steeps them in a dream state rather than reality.
Lynch is also widely noted for his collaborations with various production artists and composers on his films and other productions. He frequently worked with Angelo Badalamenti to compose music for his productions, former wife Mary Sweeney as a film editor, casting director Johanna Ray, and cast members Harry Dean Stanton, Jack Nance, Kyle MacLachlan, Naomi Watts, Isabella Rossellini, Grace Zabriskie, and Laura Dern.
Feature films
TV series
Lynch first trained as a painter, and although he is now better known as a filmmaker, he has continued to paint. Lynch has stated that "all my paintings are organic, violent comedies. They have to be violently done and primitive and crude, and to achieve that I try to let nature paint more than I paint." Many of his works are very dark in color, and Lynch has said this is because
I wouldn't know what to do with [color]. Color to me is too real. It's limiting. It doesn't allow too much of a dream. The more you throw black into a color, the more dreamy it gets ... Black has depth. It's like a little egress; you can go into it, and because it keeps on continuing to be dark, the mind kicks in, and a lot of things that are going on in there become manifest. And you start seeing what you're afraid of. You start seeing what you love, and it becomes like a dream.
Many of his works also contain letters and words added to the painting. He explains:
The words in the paintings are sometimes important to make you start thinking about what else is going on in there. And a lot of times, the words excite me as shapes, and something'll grow out of that. I used to cut these little letters out and glue them on. They just look good all lined up like teeth ... sometimes they become the title of the painting.
Lynch considers the 20th-century Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon to be his "number one kinda hero painter", stating that "Normally I only like a couple of years of a painter's work, but I like everything of Bacon's. The guy, you know, had the stuff."
Lynch was the subject of a major art retrospective at the Fondation Cartier, Paris from March 3 – May 27, 2007. The show was titled The Air is on Fire and included numerous paintings, photographs, drawings, alternative films and sound work. New site-specific art installations were created specially for the exhibition. A series of events accompanied the exhibition including live performances and concerts.
His alma mater, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, presented an exhibition of his work, entitled "The Unified Field", which opened on September 12, 2014, and ended in January 2015.
Lynch is represented by Kayne Griffin Corcoran in Los Angeles, and has been exhibiting his paintings, drawings, and photography with the gallery since 2011.
His favorite photographers include William Eggleston (The Red Ceiling), Joel-Peter Witkin, and Diane Arbus.
Lynch has been involved in several music projects, many of them related to his films, including sound design for some of his films (sometimes alongside collaborators Alan Splet, Dean Hurley, and/or Angelo Badalamenti). His album genres include experimental rock, ambient soundscapes and, most recently, avant-garde electropop music. He produced and wrote lyrics for Julee Cruise's first two albums, Floating into the Night (1989) and The Voice of Love (1993), in collaboration with Badalamenti, who composed the music and also produced. In 1991, Lynch directed a 30-second teaser trailer for the Michael Jackson album Dangerous, personally requested by Jackson. Lynch also worked on the 1998 Jocelyn Montgomery album Lux Vivens (Living Light), The Music of Hildegard von Bingen. He composed music for Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Mulholland Drive, and Rabbits. In 2001, he released BlueBob, a rock album performed by Lynch and John Neff. The album is notable for Lynch's unusual guitar playing style. He plays "upside down and backwards, like a lap guitar", and relies heavily on effects pedals. Most recently Lynch composed several pieces for Inland Empire, including two songs, "Ghost of Love" and "Walkin' on the Sky", in which he makes his public debut as a singer. In 2009, his new book-CD set Dark Night of the Soul was released. In 2008, he started his own record label, David Lynch MC, which first released Fox Bat Strategy: A Tribute to Dave Jaurequi in early 2009.
In November 2010, Lynch released two electropop music singles, "Good Day Today" and "I Know", through the independent British label Sunday Best Recordings. Describing why he created them, he stated that "I was just sitting and these notes came and then I went down and started working with Dean [Hurley, his engineer] and then these few notes, 'I want to have a good day, today' came and the song was built around that". The singles were followed by an album, Crazy Clown Time, which was released in November 2011 and described as an "electronic blues album". The songs were sung by Lynch, with guest vocals on one track by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and composed and performed by Lynch and Dean Hurley. All or most of the songs for Crazy Clown Time were put into art-music videos, Lynch directing the title song's video.
On September 29, 2011, Lynch released This Train with vocalist and longtime musical collaborator Chrysta Bell on the La Rose Noire label.
Lynch's third studio album, The Big Dream, was released in 2013 and included the single "I'm Waiting Here", with Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li. The Big Dream's release was preceded by TBD716, an enigmatic 43-second video featured on Lynch's YouTube and Vine accounts.
For Record Store Day 2014, David Lynch released The Big Dream Remix EP which featured four songs from his album remixed by various artists. This included the track "Are You Sure" remixed by Bastille. The band Bastille have been known to take inspiration from David Lynch's work for their songs and music videos, the main one being their song "Laura Palmer" which is influenced by Lynch's television show Twin Peaks.
On November 2, 2018, a collaborative album by Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, titled Thought Gang, was released on vinyl and on compact disc. The album was recorded around 1993 but was unreleased at the time. Two tracks from the album already appeared on the soundtrack from the 1992 movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and three other tracks were used for the Twin Peaks TV series in 2017.
In May 2019, Lynch provided guest vocals on the track Fire is Coming by Flying Lotus. He also co-wrote the track that appears on Flying Lotus' album Flamagra. A video accompanying the song was released on April 17, 2019.
In May 2021, Lynch produced a new track by Scottish artist Donovan titled "I Am the Shaman". The song was released on May 10, Donovan's 75th birthday. Lynch also directed the accompanying video.
Lynch designed and constructed furniture for his 1997 film Lost Highway, including the small table in the Madison house and the VCR case. In April 1997, he presented a furniture collection at the prestigious Milan Furniture Fair. "Design and music, art and architecture – they all belong together."
Working with designer Raphael Navot, architectural agency Enia and light designer Thierry Dreyfus, Lynch has conceived and designed a nightclub in Paris. "Silencio" opened in October 2011, and is a private members' club although is free to the public after midnight. Patrons have access to concerts, films and other performances by artists and guests. Inspired by the club of the same name in his 2001 film Mulholland Drive, the underground space consists of a series of rooms, each dedicated to a certain purpose or atmosphere. "Silencio is something dear to me. I wanted to create an intimate space where all the arts could come together. There won't be a Warhol-like guru, but it will be open to celebrated artists of all disciplines to come here to programme or create what they want."
In 2006, Lynch authored a short book describing his creative processes, stories from throughout his career, and the benefits he had realized through his practice of Transcendental Meditation called Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. He describes the metaphor behind the title in the introduction:
Ideas are like fish.
If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper.
Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful.
The book weaves a non-linear autobiography with descriptions of Lynch's cognitive experiences during Transcendental Meditation.
Working with Kristine McKenna, Lynch published a biography-memoir hybrid, Room to Dream, in June 2018.
In 2017, Lynch was awarded The Edward MacDowell Medal by The MacDowell Colony for outstanding contributions to American culture.
In 2007, a panel of critics convened by The Guardian announced that "after all the discussion, no one could fault the conclusion that David Lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era", and AllMovie called him "the Renaissance man of modern American filmmaking". His work led to him being labeled "the first populist surrealist" by film critic Pauline Kael.
The moving image collection of David Lynch is held at the Academy Film Archive, which has preserved two of his student films.
Lynch has had several long-term relationships. In January 1968, he married Peggy Reavey, with whom he had one child, Jennifer Lynch, born in 1968, who is a film director. They filed for divorce in 1974. In June 1977, Lynch married Mary Fisk, and the couple had one child, Austin Jack Lynch, born in 1982. They divorced in 1987. Lynch later developed a relationship with Mary Sweeney, with whom he had one son, Riley Sweeney Lynch, born in 1992. Sweeney also worked as Lynch's longtime film editor/producer and co-wrote and produced The Straight Story. The two married in May 2006, but filed for divorce that June. In 2009, Lynch married actress Emily Stofle, who appeared in his 2006 film Inland Empire as well as the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks. The couple have one child, Lula Boginia Lynch, born in 2012, and filed for divorce in 2023.
Lynch has said that he is "not a political person" and that he knows little about politics. Describing his political philosophy in 2006, he said, "at that time [the 1990s], I thought of myself as a libertarian. I believed in next to zero government. And I still would lean toward no government and not so many rules, except for traffic lights and things like this. I really believe in traffic regulations." He continued: "I'm a Democrat now. And I've always been a Democrat, really. But I don't like the Democrats a lot, either, because I'm a smoker, and I think a lot of the Democrats have come up with these rules for non-smoking." In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, he endorsed the Natural Law Party, which advocated Transcendental Meditation. He said that he would vote for Democratic incumbent Barack Obama in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.
In 2009, Lynch signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski after Polanski's arrest on his 1977 sexual abuse charges. Polanski had been detained while traveling to a film festival. The petition argued the arrest would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects."
In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, he endorsed Bernie Sanders, whom he described as "for the people", He voted for Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries, and for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in the general election. In a June 2018 interview with The Guardian, he said that Donald Trump could go down as "one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the [country] so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way." He added: "Our so-called leaders can't take the country forward, can't get anything done. Like children, they are. Trump has shown all this." The interviewer clarified that "while Trump may not be doing a good job himself, Lynch thinks, he is opening up a space where other outsiders might." At a rally later that month, Trump read out sections of the interview, claiming Lynch was a supporter. Lynch later clarified on Facebook that his words were taken out of context, saying that Trump would "not have a chance to go down in history as a great president" if he continued on the course of "causing suffering and division" and advising him to "treat all the people as you would like to be treated".
In one of his daily weather report videos, Lynch expressed support for Black Lives Matter protests. In another such video, Lynch condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and addressed Russian president Vladimir Putin directly, telling him there was "no room for this kind of absurdity anymore" and that Putin would reap what he had sown, lifetime after lifetime.
Lynch advocates Transcendental Meditation as a spiritual practice. He was initiated into Transcendental Meditation in July 1973, and has practiced the technique consistently since then. Lynch says he met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the TM movement, for the first time in 1975 at the Spiritual Regeneration Movement center in Los Angeles, California. He became close with the Maharishi during a month-long "Millionaire's Enlightenment Course" held in 2003, the fee for which was $1 million.
In July 2005, Lynch launched the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and Peace, established to help finance scholarships for students in middle and high schools who are interested in learning Transcendental Meditation and to fund research on the technique and its effects on learning. Together with John Hagelin and Fred Travis, a brain researcher from Maharishi University of Management (MUM), Lynch promoted his vision on college campuses with a tour that began in September 2005. Lynch is on MUM's board of trustees and has hosted an annual "David Lynch Weekend for World Peace and Meditation" there since 2005.
Lynch was working for the building and establishment of seven buildings in which 8,000 salaried people would practice advanced meditation techniques, "pumping peace for the world". He estimates the cost at US$7 billion. As of December 2005, he had spent $400,000 of his money and raised $1 million in donations. In December 2006, The New York Times reported that he continued to have that goal. Lynch's book Catching the Big Fish (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006) discusses Transcendental Meditation's effect on his creative process. Lynch attended the funeral of the Maharishi in India in 2008. He told a reporter, "In life, he revolutionized the lives of millions of people. ... In 20, 50, 500 years there will be millions of people who will know and understand what the Maharishi has done." In 2009, Lynch went to India to film interviews with people who knew the Maharishi as part of a biographical documentary.
In 2009, Lynch organized a benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall for the David Lynch Foundation. On April 4, 2009, the "Change Begins Within" concert featured Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Donovan, Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, Moby, Bettye LaVette, Ben Harper, and Mike Love of the Beach Boys. David Wants to Fly, released in May 2010, is a documentary by German filmmaker David Sieveking "that follows the path of his professional idol, David Lynch, into the world of Transcendental Meditation (TM)". At the end of the film, Sieveking becomes disillusioned with Lynch.
An independent project starring Lynch called Beyond The Noise: My Transcendental Meditation Journey, directed by film student Dana Farley, who has severe dyslexia and attention deficit disorder, was shown at film festivals in 2011, including the Marbella Film Festival. Filmmaker Kevin Sean Michaels is one of the producers. In 2013, Lynch wrote: "Transcendental Meditation leads to a beautiful, peaceful revolution. A change from suffering and negativity to happiness and a life more and more free of any problems."
In a 2019 interview of Lynch by British artist Alexander de Cadenet, Lynch said of TM: "Here's an experience that utilizes the full brain. That's what it's for. It's for enlightenment, for higher states of consciousness, culminating in the highest state of unity consciousness." In April 2022, Lynch announced a $500 million transcendental meditation world peace initiative to fund transcendental meditation for 30,000 college students.
Lynch designed his personal website, a site exclusive to paying members, where he posts short videos and his absurdist series Dumbland, plus interviews and other items. The site also featured a daily weather report, where Lynch gives a brief description of the weather in Los Angeles, where he resides. He continues to broadcast this weather report (usually no longer than 30 seconds) on his personal YouTube channel, DAVID LYNCH THEATER, along with "TODAY'S NUMBER", where he draws a random number, between one and ten, out of a bingo cage. Lynch also created a short film, "Rabbits", for his website. An absurd ringtone ("I like to kill deer") from the website was a common sound bite on The Howard Stern Show in early 2006.
Lynch is a coffee drinker and has his own line of special organic blends available for purchase on his website and at Whole Foods. Called "David Lynch Signature Cup", the coffee has been advertised via flyers included with several recent Lynch-related DVD releases, including Inland Empire and the Gold Box edition of Twin Peaks. The brand's tagline is "It's all in the beans ... and I'm just full of beans." This is also a line said by Justin Theroux's character in Inland Empire.
Studio albums
Collaborative albums | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, painter, visual artist, musician and actor. Lynch has received critical acclaim for his films, which are often distinguished by their surrealist qualities. He has received numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. In 2007, a panel of critics convened by The Guardian announced that \"after all the discussion, no one could fault the conclusion that David Lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era.\"",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Lynch studied painting before he began making short films in the late 1960s. His first feature-length film was Eraserhead (1977), which saw success as a midnight movie. He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001). His film Wild at Heart (1990) earned the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or. Other notable films include Dune (1984), Lost Highway (1997), and Inland Empire (2006). Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–1991), and Lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) and the limited series Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). He also portrayed Gordon Cole in the Twin Peaks projects.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Lynch's other artistic endeavors include his work as a musician, encompassing the studio albums BlueBOB (2001), Crazy Clown Time (2011), and The Big Dream (2013) as well as painting and photography. He has written the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006), and Room to Dream (2018). He has also directed several music videos for artists such as Chris Isaak, X Japan, Moby, Interpol, Nine Inch Nails, and Donovan, and commercials for Calvin Klein, Dior, L'Oreal, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, and the New York City Department of Sanitation.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (TM), in 2005 he founded the David Lynch Foundation, which seeks to fund the teaching of TM in schools and has since widened its scope to other at-risk populations, including the homeless, veterans, and refugees.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "My childhood was elegant homes, tree-lined streets, the milkman, building backyard forts, droning airplanes, blue skies, picket fences, green grass, cherry trees. Middle America as it's supposed to be. But on the cherry tree there's this pitch oozing out – some black, some yellow, and millions of red ants crawling all over it. I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath. Because I grew up in a perfect world, other things were a contrast.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana, on January 20, 1946. His father, Donald Walton Lynch (1915–2007), was a research scientist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and his mother, Edwina \"Sunny\" Lynch (née Sundberg; 1919–2004), was an English language tutor. Two of Lynch's maternal great-grandparents were Finnish-Swedish immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the 19th century. He was raised as a Presbyterian. The Lynches often moved around according to where the USDA assigned Donald. Because of this, Lynch moved with his parents to Sandpoint, Idaho, when he was two months old; two years later, after his brother John was born, the family moved to Spokane, Washington. Lynch's sister Martha was born there. The family then moved to Durham, North Carolina, Boise, Idaho, and Alexandria, Virginia. Lynch adjusted to this transitory early life with relative ease, noting that he usually had no issue making new friends whenever he started attending a new school. Of his early life, he remarked:",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "I found the world completely and totally fantastic as a child. Of course, I had the usual fears, like going to school ... for me, back then, school was a crime against young people. It destroyed the seeds of liberty. The teachers didn't encourage knowledge or a positive attitude.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Alongside his schooling, Lynch joined the Boy Scouts, although he later said he only \"became [a Scout] so I could quit and put it behind me\". He rose to the highest rank of Eagle Scout. As an Eagle Scout, he was present with other Boy Scouts outside the White House at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, which took place on Lynch's 15th birthday. Lynch was also interested in painting and drawing from an early age, and became intrigued by the idea of pursuing it as a career path when living in Virginia, where his friend's father was a professional painter.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "At Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, Lynch did not excel academically, having little interest in schoolwork, but he was popular with other students, and after leaving he decided that he wanted to study painting at college. He began his studies at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., before transferring in 1964 to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he was roommates with musician Peter Wolf. He left after only a year, saying, \"I was not inspired AT ALL in that place.\" He instead decided that he wanted to travel around Europe for three years with his friend Jack Fisk, who was similarly unhappy with his studies at Cooper Union. They had some hopes that they could train in Europe with Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka at his school. Upon reaching Salzburg, however, they found that Kokoschka was not available; disillusioned, they returned to the United States after spending only two weeks in Europe.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Back in the United States, Lynch returned to Virginia, but since his parents had moved to Walnut Creek, California, he stayed with his friend Toby Keeler for a while. He decided to move to Philadelphia and enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, after advice from Fisk, who was already enrolled there. He preferred this college to his previous school in Boston, saying, \"In Philadelphia there were great and serious painters, and everybody was inspiring one another and it was a beautiful time there.\" It was here that he began a relationship with a fellow student, Peggy Reavey, whom he married in 1967. The following year, Peggy gave birth to their daughter Jennifer. Peggy later said, \"[Lynch] definitely was a reluctant father, but a very loving one. Hey, I was pregnant when we got married. We were both reluctant.\" As a family, they moved to Philadelphia's Fairmount neighborhood, where they bought a 12-room house for the relatively low price of $3,500 (equivalent to $30,700 in 2022) due to the area's high crime and poverty rates. Lynch later said:",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "We lived cheap, but the city was full of fear. A kid was shot to death down the street ... We were robbed twice, had windows shot out and a car stolen. The house was first broken into only three days after we moved in ... The feeling was so close to extreme danger, and the fear was so intense. There was violence and hate and filth. But the biggest influence in my whole life was that city.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Meanwhile, to help support his family, he took a job printing engravings. At the Pennsylvania Academy, Lynch made his first short film, Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1967). He had first come up with the idea when he developed a wish to see his paintings move, and he began discussing doing animation with an artist named Bruce Samuelson. When this project never came about, Lynch decided to work on a film alone, and purchased the cheapest 16mm camera that he could find. Taking one of the academy's abandoned upper rooms as a workspace, he spent $150, which at the time he felt to be a lot of money, to produce Six Men Getting Sick. Calling the film \"57 seconds of growth and fire, and three seconds of vomit\", Lynch played it on a loop at the academy's annual end-of-year exhibit, where it shared joint first prize with a painting by Noel Mahaffey. This led to a commission from one of his fellow students, the wealthy H. Barton Wasserman, who offered him $1,000 (equivalent to $8,400 in 2022) to create a film installation in his home. Spending $478 of that on the second-hand Bolex camera \"of [his] dreams\", Lynch produced a new animated short, but upon getting the film developed, realized that the result was a blurred, frameless print. He later said, \"So I called up [Wasserman] and said, 'Bart, the film is a disaster. The camera was broken and what I've done hasn't turned out.' And he said, 'Don't worry, David, take the rest of the money and make something else for me. Just give me a print.' End of story.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "With his leftover money, Lynch decided to experiment with a mix of animation and live action, producing the four-minute short The Alphabet (1968). The film starred Lynch's wife Peggy as a character known as The Girl, who chants the alphabet to a series of images of horses before dying at the end by hemorrhaging blood all over her bed sheets. Adding a sound effect, Lynch used a broken Uher tape recorder to record the sound of Jennifer crying, creating a distorted sound that Lynch found particularly effective. Later describing what had inspired him, Lynch said, \"Peggy's niece was having a bad dream one night and was saying the alphabet in her sleep in a tormented way. So that's sort of what started The Alphabet going. The rest of it was just subconscious.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Learning about the newly founded American Film Institute, which gave grants to filmmakers who could support their application with a prior work and a script for a new project, Lynch decided to send them a copy of The Alphabet along with a script he had written for a new short film that would be almost entirely live action, The Grandmother. The institute agreed to help finance the work, initially offering him $5,000 out of his requested budget of $7,200, but later granting him the additional $2,200. Starring people he knew from both work and college and filmed in his own house, The Grandmother featured a neglected boy who \"grows\" a grandmother from a seed to care for him. The film critics Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell wrote, \"this film is a true oddity but contains many of the themes and ideas that would filter into his later work, and shows a remarkable grasp of the medium\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In 1970, Lynch moved with his wife and daughter to Los Angeles, where he began studying filmmaking at the AFI Conservatory, a place he later called \"completely chaotic and disorganized, which was great ... you quickly learned that if you were going to get something done, you would have to do it yourself. They wanted to let people do their thing.\" He began writing a script for a proposed work, Gardenback, that had \"unfolded from this painting I'd done\". In this venture he was supported by a number of figures at the Conservatory, who encouraged him to lengthen the script and add more dialogue, which he reluctantly agreed to do. All the interference on his Gardenback project made him fed up with the Conservatory and led him to quit after returning to start his second year and being put in first-year classes. AFI dean Frank Daniel asked Lynch to reconsider, believing that he was one of the school's best students. Lynch agreed on the condition that he could create a project that would not be interfered with. Feeling that Gardenback was \"wrecked\", he set out on a new film, Eraserhead.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Eraserhead was planned to be about 42 minutes long (it ended up being 89 minutes), its script was only 21 pages, and Lynch was able to create the film without interference. Filming began on May 29, 1972, at night in some abandoned stables, allowing the production team, which was largely Lynch and some of his friends, including Sissy Spacek, Jack Fisk, cinematographer Frederick Elmes and sound designer Alan Splet, to set up a camera room, green room, editing room, sets as well as a food room and a bathroom. The AFI gave Lynch a $10,000 grant, but it was not enough to complete the film, and under pressure from studios after the success of the relatively cheap feature film Easy Rider, it was unable to give him more. Lynch was then supported by a loan from his father and money that he earned from a paper route that he took up, delivering The Wall Street Journal. Not long into Eraserhead's production, Lynch and Peggy amicably separated and divorced, and he began living full-time on set. In 1977, Lynch married Mary Fisk, sister of Jack Fisk.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Lynch has said that not a single reviewer of the film understood it in the way he intended. Filmed in black and white, Eraserhead tells the story of Henry (Jack Nance), a quiet young man living in a dystopian industrial wasteland, whose girlfriend gives birth to a deformed baby whom she leaves in his care. It was heavily influenced by the fearful mood of Philadelphia, and Lynch has called it \"my Philadelphia Story\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Due to financial problems the filming of Eraserhead was haphazard, regularly stopping and starting again. It was in one such break in 1974 that Lynch created the short film The Amputee, a one-shot film about two minutes long. Lynch proposed that he make The Amputee to present to AFI to test two different types of film stock.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Eraserhead was finally finished in 1976. Lynch tried to get it entered into the Cannes Film Festival, but while some reviewers liked it, others felt it was awful, and it was not selected for screening. Reviewers from the New York Film Festival also rejected it, but it was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival, where Ben Barenholtz, the distributor of the Elgin Theater, heard about it. He was very supportive of the movie, helping to distribute it around the United States in 1977, and Eraserhead subsequently became popular on the midnight movie underground circuit, and was later called one of the most important midnight movies of the 1970s, along with El Topo, Pink Flamingos, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Harder They Come and Night of the Living Dead. Stanley Kubrick said it was one of his all-time favorite films.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "After Eraserhead's success on the underground circuit, Stuart Cornfeld, an executive producer for Mel Brooks, saw it and later said, \"I was just 100 percent blown away ... I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. It was such a cleansing experience.\" He agreed to help Lynch with his next film, Ronnie Rocket, for which Lynch had already written a script. But Lynch soon realized that Ronnie Rocket, a film that he has said is about \"electricity and a three-foot guy with red hair\", was not going to be picked up by any financiers, and so he asked Cornfeld to find him a script by someone else that he could direct. Cornfeld found four. On hearing the title of the first, The Elephant Man, Lynch chose it.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Elephant Man's script, written by Chris de Vore and Eric Bergren, was based on a true story, that of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man in Victorian London, who was held in a sideshow but later taken under the care of a London surgeon, Frederick Treves. Lynch wanted to make some alterations that would alter the story from true events but in his view make a better plot, but he needed Mel Brooks's permission, as Brooks's company, Brooksfilms, was responsible for production. Brooks viewed Eraserhead, and after coming out of the screening theatre, embraced Lynch, declaring, \"You're a madman! I love you! You're in.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The Elephant Man starred John Hurt as John Merrick (the name changed from Joseph) and Anthony Hopkins as Treves. Filming took place in London. Though surrealistic and in black and white, it has been called \"one of the most conventional\" of Lynch's films. The Elephant Man was a huge critical and commercial success, earning eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "After The Elephant Man's success, George Lucas, a fan of Eraserhead, offered Lynch the opportunity to direct the third film in his original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi. Lynch declined, saying that he had \"next door to zero interest\" and arguing that Lucas should direct the film himself as the movie should reflect his own vision, not Lynch's. Soon, the opportunity to direct another big-budget science fiction epic arose when Dino de Laurentiis of the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group asked Lynch to create a film adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune (1965). Lynch agreed, and in doing so was also contractually obliged to produce two other works for the company. He set about writing a script based upon the novel, initially with both Chris de Vore and Eric Bergren, and then alone when De Laurentiis was unhappy with their ideas. Lynch also helped build some of the sets, attempting to create \"a certain look\", and particularly enjoyed building the set for the oil planet Giedi Prime, for which he used \"steel, bolts, and porcelain\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Dune is set in the far future, when humans live in an interstellar empire under a feudal system. The main character, Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan), is the son of a noble who takes control of the desert planet Arrakis, which grows the rare spice melange, the empire's most highly prized commodity. Lynch was unhappy with the work, later saying, \"Dune was a kind of studio film. I didn't have final cut. And, little by little, I was subconsciously making compromises\" [to his own vision]. Much of his footage was eventually removed from the final theatrical cut, dramatically condensing the plot. Although De Laurentiis hoped it would be as successful as Star Wars, Dune (1984) was a critical and commercial dud; it had cost $45 million to make, and grossed $27.4 million domestically. Later, Universal Studios released an \"extended cut\" for syndicated television, containing almost an hour of cutting-room-floor footage and new narration. It did not represent Lynch's intentions, but the studio considered it more comprehensible than the original version. Lynch objected to the changes and had his name struck from the extended cut, which has Alan Smithee credited as the director and \"Judas Booth\" (a pseudonym Lynch invented, reflecting his feelings of betrayal) as the screenwriter.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In 1983, he began writing and drawing of a comic strip, The Angriest Dog in the World, that featured unchanging graphics of a tethered dog so angry it could not move, alongside cryptic philosophical references. It was published from 1983 to 1992 in The Village Voice, Creative Loafing, and other tabloid and alternative publications. Around this time Lynch also became interested in photography as an art form, and traveled to northern England to photograph the degrading industrial landscape.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Lynch was contractually still obliged to produce two other projects for De Laurentiis, the first a planned sequel to Dune, which due to the film's failure never went beyond the script stage. The other was a more personal work, based on a script Lynch had been working on for some time. Developing from ideas that Lynch had had since 1973, the film, Blue Velvet, was set in the real town of Lumberton, North Carolina, and revolves around a college student, Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan), who finds a severed ear in a field. Investigating further with the help of friend Sandy (Laura Dern), he discovers that it is related to a criminal gang led by psychopath Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), who has kidnapped the husband and child of singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and repeatedly rapes her. Lynch has called the story \"a dream of strange desires wrapped inside a mystery story\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Lynch included pop songs from the 1960s in the film, including Roy Orbison's \"In Dreams\" and Bobby Vinton's \"Blue Velvet\", the latter of which largely inspired the film. Lynch has said, \"It was the song that sparked the movie ... There was something mysterious about it. It made me think about things. And the first things I thought about were lawns—lawns and the neighborhood. Other music for the film was composed by Angelo Badalamenti, who wrote the music for most of Lynch's subsequent work. De Laurentiis loved the film, and it received support at some of the early specialist screenings, but the preview screenings to mainstream audiences were very negatively received, with most of the viewers hating the film. Lynch had found success with The Elephant Man, but Blue Velvet's controversy with audiences and critics introduced him into the mainstream, and it became a huge critical and moderate commercial success. The film earned Lynch his second Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Woody Allen, whose Hannah and Her Sisters was nominated for Best Picture, said Blue Velvet was his favorite film of the year. In the late 1980s, Lynch began to work in television, directing a short piece, The Cowboy and the Frenchman, for French television in 1989.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Around this time, he met the television producer Mark Frost, who had worked on such projects as Hill Street Blues, and they decided to start working together on a biopic of Marilyn Monroe based on Anthony Summers's book The Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, but it never got off the ground. They went on to work on a comedy script, One Saliva Bubble, but that did not see completion either. While talking in a coffee shop, Lynch and Frost had the idea of a corpse washing up on a lakeshore, and went to work on their third project, initially called Northwest Passage but eventually Twin Peaks (1990–91). A drama series set in a small Washington town where popular high school student Laura Palmer has been murdered, Twin Peaks featured FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (MacLachlan) as the investigator trying to identify the killer, and discovering not only the murder's supernatural aspects but also many of the townsfolk's secrets; Lynch said, \"The project was to mix a police investigation with the ordinary lives of the characters.\" He later said, \"[Mark Frost and I] worked together, especially in the initial stages. Later on we started working more apart.\" They pitched the series to ABC, which agreed to finance the pilot and eventually commissioned a season comprising seven episodes.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "During season one Lynch directed two of the seven episodes, devoting more time to his film Wild at Heart, but carefully chose the other episodes' directors. He also appeared in several episodes as FBI agent Gordon Cole. The series was a success, with high ratings in the United States and many other countries, and soon spawned a cult following. Soon a second season of 22 episodes went into production, but ABC executives believed that public interest in the show was decreasing. The network insisted that Lynch and Frost reveal Laura Palmer's killer's identity prematurely, which Lynch grudgingly agreed to do, in what Lynch has called one of his biggest professional regrets. After identifying the murderer and moving from Thursday to Saturday night, Twin Peaks continued for several more episodes, but was canceled after a ratings drop. Lynch, who disliked the direction that writers and directors took in the later episodes, directed the final episode. He ended it with a cliffhanger (like season one had), later saying, \"that's not the ending. That's the ending that people were stuck with.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "While Twin Peaks was in production, the Brooklyn Academy of Music asked Lynch and Badalamenti, who wrote the music for Twin Peaks, to create a theatrical piece to be performed twice in 1989 as a part of the New Music America Festival. The result was Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted, which starred frequent Lynch collaborators such as Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage and Michael J. Anderson, and contained five songs sung by Julee Cruise. Lynch produced a 50-minute video of the performance in 1990. Meanwhile, he was also involved in creating various commercials for companies including Yves Saint Laurent, Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani and the Japanese coffee company Namoi, which featured a Japanese man searching Twin Peaks for his missing wife.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "1990 was Lynch's annus mirabilis: Wild at Heart won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and the television series Twin Peaks was proving a smash hit with audiences across the world. The musical/performance piece Industrial Symphony No. 1, which Lynch had staged with Angelo Badalamenti at the Brooklyn Academy of music, had spawned the album Floating into the Night and launched singer Julee Cruise. Five one-man exhibitions between 1989 and 1991 emphasized Lynch's roots in fine art and painting, and a rash of ads (including a teaser trailer for Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous' tour) confirmed the demand for the Lynch touch ... In an unlikely scenario for the maker of Eraserhead, Lynch had become an influential and fashionable brand name.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "—Christopher Rodley",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "While Lynch was working on the first few episodes of Twin Peaks, his friend Monty Montgomery \"gave me a book that he wanted to direct as a movie. He asked if I would maybe be executive producer or something, and I said 'That's great, Monty, but what if I read it and fall in love with it and want to do it myself?' And he said, 'In that case, you can do it yourself'.\" The book was Barry Gifford's novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula, about two lovers on a road trip. Lynch felt that it was \"just exactly the right thing at the right time. The book and the violence in America merged in my mind and many different things happened.\" With Gifford's support, Lynch adapted the novel into Wild at Heart, a crime and road movie starring Nicolas Cage as Sailor and Laura Dern as Lula. Describing its plot as a \"strange blend\" of \"a road picture, a love story, a psychological drama and a violent comedy\", Lynch altered much of the original novel, changing the ending and incorporating numerous references to The Wizard of Oz. Despite a muted response from American critics and viewers, Wild at Heart won the Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "After Wild at Heart's success, Lynch returned to the world of the canceled Twin Peaks, this time without Frost, to create a film that was primarily a prequel but also in part a sequel. Lynch said, \"I liked the idea of the story going back and forth in time.\" The result, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), primarily revolved around the last few days in the life of Laura Palmer, and was much \"darker\" in tone than the TV series, with much of the humor removed, and dealing with such topics as incest and murder. Lynch has said the film is about \"the loneliness, shame, guilt, confusion and devastation of the victim of incest\". The company CIBY-2000 financed Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and most of the TV series' cast reprised their roles, though some refused and many were unenthusiastic about the project. The film was a commercial failure in the United States at the time of its release, but it has since experienced a critical reappraisal. A number of critics, such as Mark Kermode, have called it Lynch's \"masterpiece\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Meanwhile, Lynch worked on some new television shows. He and Frost created the comedy series On the Air (1992), which was canceled after three episodes aired, and he and Monty Montgomery created the three-episode HBO miniseries Hotel Room (1993) about events that happen in one hotel room on different dates.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In 1993, Lynch collaborated with Japanese musician Yoshiki on the video for X Japan's song \"Longing ~Setsubou no Yoru~\". The video was never officially released, but Lynch claimed in his 2018 memoir Room to Dream that \"some of the frames are so fuckin' beautiful, you can't believe it.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "After his unsuccessful TV ventures, Lynch returned to film. In 1997, he released the non-linear noiresque Lost Highway, which was co-written by Barry Gifford and starred Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette. The film failed commercially and received a mixed response from critics.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Lynch then began work on a film from a script by Mary Sweeney and John E. Roach, The Straight Story, based on a true story: that of Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth), an elderly man from Laurens, Iowa, who goes on a 300-mile journey to visit his sick brother (Harry Dean Stanton) in Mount Zion, Wisconsin, by riding lawnmower. Asked why he chose this script, Lynch said, \"that's what I fell in love with next\", and expressed his admiration of Straight, describing him as \"like James Dean, except he's old\". Badalamenti wrote the music for the film, saying it was \"very different from the kind of score he's done for [Lynch] in the past\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Among the many differences from Lynch's other films, The Straight Story contains no profanity, sexuality or violence, and is rated G (general viewing) by the Motion Picture Association of America, which came as \"shocking news\" to many in the film industry, who were surprised that it \"did not disturb, offend or mystify\". Le Blanc and Odell write that the plot made it \"seem as far removed from Lynch's earlier works as could be imagined, but in fact right from the very opening, this is entirely his film—a surreal road movie\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "That year, Lynch approached ABC again with ideas for a television drama. The network gave Lynch the go-ahead to shoot a two-hour pilot for the series Mulholland Drive, but disputes over content and running time led to the project being shelved indefinitely. But with $7 million from the French production company StudioCanal, Lynch completed the pilot as a film, Mulholland Drive. The film, a non-linear narrative surrealist tale of Hollywood's dark side, stars Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux. It performed relatively well at the box office worldwide and was a critical success, earning Lynch Best Director at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival (shared with Joel Coen for The Man Who Wasn't There) and Best Director from the New York Film Critics Association. He also received his third Academy Award nomination for Best Director. In 2016, the film was named the best film of the 21st century in a BBC poll of 177 film critics from 36 countries.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "With the rising popularity of the Internet, Lynch decided to use it as a distribution channel, releasing several new series he had created exclusively on his website, davidlynch.com, which went online on December 10, 2001. In 2002, he created a series of online shorts, DumbLand. Intentionally crude in content and execution, the eight-episode series was later released on DVD. The same year, Lynch released a surreal sitcom, Rabbits, about a family of humanoid rabbits. Later, he made his experiments with Digital Video available in the form of the Japanese-style horror short Darkened Room. In 2006, Lynch's feature film Inland Empire was released. At three hours, it is the longest of his films. Like Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway, it does not follow a traditional narrative structure. It stars Lynch regulars Laura Dern, Harry Dean Stanton and Justin Theroux, with cameos by Naomi Watts and Laura Harring as the voices of Suzie and Jane Rabbit, and a performance by Jeremy Irons. Lynch has called Inland Empire \"a mystery about a woman in trouble\". In an effort to promote it, he made appearances with a cow and a placard bearing the slogan \"Without cheese there would be no Inland Empire\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "In 2009, Lynch produced a documentary web series directed by his son Austin Lynch and friend Jason S., Interview Project. Interested in working with Werner Herzog, in 2009 Lynch collaborated on Herzog's film My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? With a nonstandard narrative, the film is based on a true story of an actor who committed matricide while acting in a production of the Oresteia, and starred Lynch regular Grace Zabriskie. In 2009, Lynch had plans to direct a documentary on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi consisting of interviews with people who knew him, but nothing has come of it.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "In 2010, Lynch began making guest appearances on the Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show as Gus the Bartender. He had been convinced to appear in the show by its lead actor, Mike Henry, a fan of Lynch who felt that his whole life had changed after seeing Wild at Heart. Lady Blue Shanghai is a 16-minute promotional film that was written, directed and edited by Lynch for Dior. It was released on the Internet in May 2010.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Lynch directed a concert by English new wave band Duran Duran on March 23, 2011. The concert was streamed live on YouTube from the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles as the kickoff to the second season of Unstaged: An Original Series from American Express. \"The idea is to try and create on the fly, layers of images permeating Duran Duran on the stage\", Lynch said. \"A world of experimentation and hopefully some happy accidents\". The animated short I Touch a Red Button Man, a collaboration between Lynch and the band Interpol, played in the background during Interpol's concert at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2011. The short, which features Interpol's song \"Lights\", was later made available online.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "It was believed that Lynch was going to retire from the film industry; according to Abel Ferrara, Lynch \"doesn't even want to make films any more. I've talked to him about it, OK? I can tell when he talks about it.\" But in a June 2012 Los Angeles Times interview, Lynch said he lacked the inspiration to start a new movie project, but \"If I got an idea that I fell in love with, I'd go to work tomorrow\". In September 2012, he appeared in the three-part \"Late Show\" arc on FX's Louie as Jack Dahl. In November 2012, Lynch hinted at plans for a new film while attending Plus Camerimage in Bydgoszcz, Poland, saying, \"something is coming up. It will happen but I don't know exactly when\". At Plus Camerimage, Lynch received a lifetime achievement award and the Key to the City from Bydgoszcz's mayor, Rafał Bruski. In a January 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Laura Dern confirmed that she and Lynch were planning a new project, and The New York Times later revealed that Lynch was working on the script. Idem Paris, a short documentary film about the lithographic process, was released online in February 2013. On June 28, 2013, a video Lynch directed for the Nine Inch Nails song \"Came Back Haunted\" was released. He also did photography for the Dumb Numbers' self-titled album released in August 2013.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "On October 6, 2014, Lynch confirmed via Twitter that he and Frost would start shooting a new, nine-episode season of Twin Peaks in 2015, with the episodes expected to air in 2016 on Showtime. Lynch and Frost wrote all the episodes. On April 5, 2015, Lynch announced via Twitter that the project was still alive, but he was no longer going to direct because the budget was too low for what he wanted to do. On May 15, 2015, he said via Twitter that he would return to the revival, having sorted out his issues with Showtime. Showtime CEO David Nevins confirmed this, announcing that Lynch would direct every episode of the revival and that the original nine episodes had been extended to 18. Filming was completed by April 2016. The two-episode premiere aired on May 21, 2017.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "While doing press for Twin Peaks, Lynch was again asked if he had retired from film and seemed to confirm that he had made his last feature film, responding, \"Things changed a lot... So many films were not doing well at the box office even though they might have been great films and the things that were doing well at the box office weren't the things that I would want to do\". Lynch later said that this statement had been misconstrued: \"I did not say I quit cinema, simply that nobody knows what the future holds.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Since the last episode of The Return aired, there has been speculation about a fourth season. Lynch did not deny the possibility of another season, but said that if it were to happen, it would not air before 2021.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Lynch did weather reports on his now-defunct website in the 2000s. He returned to doing weather reports from his apartment in Los Angeles, along with two new series, What is David Lynch Working on Today?, which details him making collages and Today's Number Is..., where each day he picks a random number from 1 to 10 using a jar containing ten numbered ping-pong balls. In one of his weather reports, he detailed a dream he had about being a German soldier shot by an American soldier on D-Day. In June 2020, Lynch rereleased his 2002 web series Rabbits on YouTube. On July 17, 2020, his store for merchandise released a set of face masks with Lynch's art on them for the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2022, it was announced that Lynch had been cast in the Steven Spielberg film The Fabelmans in a role Variety called at the time \"a closely guarded secret\", later revealed to be that of real-life film director John Ford, whose famous encounter with Spielberg is dramatized in the film's final moments. Lynch and the cast were nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Lynch stopped doing weather reports after 2022.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "In 2021, it was announced that Lynch was working on a new project for Netflix with the working titles Wisteria and Unrecorded Night. He was set to write and direct 13 episodes with an $85 million budget. Production was set to begin in May 2021 in Los Angeles.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "I look at the world and I see absurdity all around me. People do strange things constantly, to the point that, for the most part, we manage not to see it. That's why I love coffee shops and public places—I mean, they're all out there.",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "—David Lynch",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Lynch has said his work is more similar to that of European filmmakers than American ones, and that most films that \"get down and thrill your soul\" are by European directors. He has expressed his admiration for Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Jacques Tati, Stanley Kubrick, and Billy Wilder. He has said that Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) is one of his favorite pictures, as are Kubrick's Lolita (1962), Fellini's 8½ (1963), Tati's Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953), Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), and Herzog's Stroszek (1977). He has also cited Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (1962) and Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End (1970) as influences on his work.",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Several themes recur in Lynch's work. Le Blanc and Odell write, \"his films are so packed with motifs, recurrent characters, images, compositions and techniques that you could view his entire output as one large jigsaw puzzle of ideas\". One of the key themes they note is the usage of dreams and dreamlike imagery and structure, something they relate to the \"surrealist ethos\" of relying \"on the subconscious to provide visual drive\". This can be seen in Merrick's dream of his mother in The Elephant Man, Cooper's dreams of the red room in Twin Peaks and the \"dreamlike logic\" of the narratives of Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire. Of his attitude to dreams, Lynch has said, \"Waking dreams are the ones that are important, the ones that come when I'm quietly sitting in a chair, letting my mind wander. When you sleep, you don't control your dream. I like to dive into a dream world that I've made or discovered; a world I choose ... [You can't really get others to experience it, but] right there is the power of cinema.\" His films are known for their use of magic realism. The motif of dreams is closely linked to his recurring use of drones, real-world sounds and musical styles.",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Another of Lynch's prominent themes is industry, with repeated imagery of \"the clunk of machinery, the power of pistons, shadows of oil drills pumping, screaming woodmills and smoke billowing factories\", as seen in the industrial wasteland in Eraserhead, the factories in The Elephant Man, the sawmill in Twin Peaks and the lawnmower in The Straight Story. Of his interest in such things, Lynch has said, \"It makes me feel good to see giant machinery, you know, working: dealing with molten metal. And I like fire and smoke. And the sounds are so powerful. It's just big stuff. It means that things are being made, and I really like that.\"",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Another theme is the dark underbelly of violent criminal activity in a society, such as Frank Booth's gang in Blue Velvet and the cocaine smugglers in Twin Peaks. The idea of deformity is also found in several of Lynch's films, from The Elephant Man to the deformed baby in Eraserhead, as well as death from head wounds, found in most of Lynch's films. Other imagery common in Lynch's works includes flickering electricity or lights, fire, and stages upon which a singer performs, often surrounded by drapery.",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Except The Elephant Man and Dune, which are set in Victorian London and a fictitious galaxy respectively, all of Lynch's films are set in the United States, and he has said, \"I like certain things about America and it gives me ideas. When I go around and I see things, it sparks little stories, or little characters pop out, so it just feels right to me to, you know, make American films.\" A number of his works, including Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Lost Highway, are intentionally reminiscent of 1950s American culture despite being set in later decades of the 20th century. Lynch has said, \"It was a fantastic decade in a lot of ways ... there was something in the air that is not there any more at all. It was such a great feeling, and not just because I was a kid. It was a really hopeful time, and things were going up instead of going down. You got the feeling you could do anything. The future was bright. Little did we know we were laying the groundwork for a disastrous future.",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Lynch also tends to feature his leading female actors in \"split\" roles, so that many of his female characters have multiple, fractured identities. This practice began with his casting Sheryl Lee as both Laura Palmer and her cousin Maddy Ferguson in Twin Peaks and continued in his later works. In Lost Highway, Patricia Arquette plays the dual role of Renee Madison/Alice Wakefield; in Mulholland Drive Naomi Watts plays Diane Selwyn/Betty Elms and Laura Harring plays Camilla Rhodes/Rita; in Inland Empire Laura Dern plays Nikki Grace/Susan Blue. The numerous alternative versions of lead characters and fragmented timelines may echo and/or reference the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics and perhaps Lynch's broader interest in quantum mechanics. Some have suggested that Lynch's love for Hitchcock's Vertigo, which employs a split lead character (the Judy Barton and Madeleine Elster characters, both portrayed by Kim Novak) may have influenced this aspect of his work.",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "His films frequently feature characters with supernatural or omnipotent qualities. They can be seen as physical manifestations of various concepts, such as hatred or fear. Examples include The Man Inside the Planet in Eraserhead, BOB in Twin Peaks, The Mystery Man in Lost Highway, The Bum in Mulholland Drive, and The Phantom in Inland Empire. Lynch approaches his characters and plots in a way that steeps them in a dream state rather than reality.",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Lynch is also widely noted for his collaborations with various production artists and composers on his films and other productions. He frequently worked with Angelo Badalamenti to compose music for his productions, former wife Mary Sweeney as a film editor, casting director Johanna Ray, and cast members Harry Dean Stanton, Jack Nance, Kyle MacLachlan, Naomi Watts, Isabella Rossellini, Grace Zabriskie, and Laura Dern.",
"title": "Cinematic influences and themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Feature films",
"title": "Filmography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "TV series",
"title": "Filmography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Lynch first trained as a painter, and although he is now better known as a filmmaker, he has continued to paint. Lynch has stated that \"all my paintings are organic, violent comedies. They have to be violently done and primitive and crude, and to achieve that I try to let nature paint more than I paint.\" Many of his works are very dark in color, and Lynch has said this is because",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "I wouldn't know what to do with [color]. Color to me is too real. It's limiting. It doesn't allow too much of a dream. The more you throw black into a color, the more dreamy it gets ... Black has depth. It's like a little egress; you can go into it, and because it keeps on continuing to be dark, the mind kicks in, and a lot of things that are going on in there become manifest. And you start seeing what you're afraid of. You start seeing what you love, and it becomes like a dream.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Many of his works also contain letters and words added to the painting. He explains:",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "The words in the paintings are sometimes important to make you start thinking about what else is going on in there. And a lot of times, the words excite me as shapes, and something'll grow out of that. I used to cut these little letters out and glue them on. They just look good all lined up like teeth ... sometimes they become the title of the painting.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Lynch considers the 20th-century Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon to be his \"number one kinda hero painter\", stating that \"Normally I only like a couple of years of a painter's work, but I like everything of Bacon's. The guy, you know, had the stuff.\"",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Lynch was the subject of a major art retrospective at the Fondation Cartier, Paris from March 3 – May 27, 2007. The show was titled The Air is on Fire and included numerous paintings, photographs, drawings, alternative films and sound work. New site-specific art installations were created specially for the exhibition. A series of events accompanied the exhibition including live performances and concerts.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "His alma mater, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, presented an exhibition of his work, entitled \"The Unified Field\", which opened on September 12, 2014, and ended in January 2015.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Lynch is represented by Kayne Griffin Corcoran in Los Angeles, and has been exhibiting his paintings, drawings, and photography with the gallery since 2011.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "His favorite photographers include William Eggleston (The Red Ceiling), Joel-Peter Witkin, and Diane Arbus.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Lynch has been involved in several music projects, many of them related to his films, including sound design for some of his films (sometimes alongside collaborators Alan Splet, Dean Hurley, and/or Angelo Badalamenti). His album genres include experimental rock, ambient soundscapes and, most recently, avant-garde electropop music. He produced and wrote lyrics for Julee Cruise's first two albums, Floating into the Night (1989) and The Voice of Love (1993), in collaboration with Badalamenti, who composed the music and also produced. In 1991, Lynch directed a 30-second teaser trailer for the Michael Jackson album Dangerous, personally requested by Jackson. Lynch also worked on the 1998 Jocelyn Montgomery album Lux Vivens (Living Light), The Music of Hildegard von Bingen. He composed music for Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Mulholland Drive, and Rabbits. In 2001, he released BlueBob, a rock album performed by Lynch and John Neff. The album is notable for Lynch's unusual guitar playing style. He plays \"upside down and backwards, like a lap guitar\", and relies heavily on effects pedals. Most recently Lynch composed several pieces for Inland Empire, including two songs, \"Ghost of Love\" and \"Walkin' on the Sky\", in which he makes his public debut as a singer. In 2009, his new book-CD set Dark Night of the Soul was released. In 2008, he started his own record label, David Lynch MC, which first released Fox Bat Strategy: A Tribute to Dave Jaurequi in early 2009.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "In November 2010, Lynch released two electropop music singles, \"Good Day Today\" and \"I Know\", through the independent British label Sunday Best Recordings. Describing why he created them, he stated that \"I was just sitting and these notes came and then I went down and started working with Dean [Hurley, his engineer] and then these few notes, 'I want to have a good day, today' came and the song was built around that\". The singles were followed by an album, Crazy Clown Time, which was released in November 2011 and described as an \"electronic blues album\". The songs were sung by Lynch, with guest vocals on one track by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and composed and performed by Lynch and Dean Hurley. All or most of the songs for Crazy Clown Time were put into art-music videos, Lynch directing the title song's video.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "On September 29, 2011, Lynch released This Train with vocalist and longtime musical collaborator Chrysta Bell on the La Rose Noire label.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Lynch's third studio album, The Big Dream, was released in 2013 and included the single \"I'm Waiting Here\", with Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li. The Big Dream's release was preceded by TBD716, an enigmatic 43-second video featured on Lynch's YouTube and Vine accounts.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "For Record Store Day 2014, David Lynch released The Big Dream Remix EP which featured four songs from his album remixed by various artists. This included the track \"Are You Sure\" remixed by Bastille. The band Bastille have been known to take inspiration from David Lynch's work for their songs and music videos, the main one being their song \"Laura Palmer\" which is influenced by Lynch's television show Twin Peaks.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "On November 2, 2018, a collaborative album by Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, titled Thought Gang, was released on vinyl and on compact disc. The album was recorded around 1993 but was unreleased at the time. Two tracks from the album already appeared on the soundtrack from the 1992 movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and three other tracks were used for the Twin Peaks TV series in 2017.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "In May 2019, Lynch provided guest vocals on the track Fire is Coming by Flying Lotus. He also co-wrote the track that appears on Flying Lotus' album Flamagra. A video accompanying the song was released on April 17, 2019.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "In May 2021, Lynch produced a new track by Scottish artist Donovan titled \"I Am the Shaman\". The song was released on May 10, Donovan's 75th birthday. Lynch also directed the accompanying video.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Lynch designed and constructed furniture for his 1997 film Lost Highway, including the small table in the Madison house and the VCR case. In April 1997, he presented a furniture collection at the prestigious Milan Furniture Fair. \"Design and music, art and architecture – they all belong together.\"",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "Working with designer Raphael Navot, architectural agency Enia and light designer Thierry Dreyfus, Lynch has conceived and designed a nightclub in Paris. \"Silencio\" opened in October 2011, and is a private members' club although is free to the public after midnight. Patrons have access to concerts, films and other performances by artists and guests. Inspired by the club of the same name in his 2001 film Mulholland Drive, the underground space consists of a series of rooms, each dedicated to a certain purpose or atmosphere. \"Silencio is something dear to me. I wanted to create an intimate space where all the arts could come together. There won't be a Warhol-like guru, but it will be open to celebrated artists of all disciplines to come here to programme or create what they want.\"",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "In 2006, Lynch authored a short book describing his creative processes, stories from throughout his career, and the benefits he had realized through his practice of Transcendental Meditation called Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. He describes the metaphor behind the title in the introduction:",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Ideas are like fish.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "The book weaves a non-linear autobiography with descriptions of Lynch's cognitive experiences during Transcendental Meditation.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "Working with Kristine McKenna, Lynch published a biography-memoir hybrid, Room to Dream, in June 2018.",
"title": "Other work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "In 2017, Lynch was awarded The Edward MacDowell Medal by The MacDowell Colony for outstanding contributions to American culture.",
"title": "Awards and nominations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "In 2007, a panel of critics convened by The Guardian announced that \"after all the discussion, no one could fault the conclusion that David Lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era\", and AllMovie called him \"the Renaissance man of modern American filmmaking\". His work led to him being labeled \"the first populist surrealist\" by film critic Pauline Kael.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "The moving image collection of David Lynch is held at the Academy Film Archive, which has preserved two of his student films.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "Lynch has had several long-term relationships. In January 1968, he married Peggy Reavey, with whom he had one child, Jennifer Lynch, born in 1968, who is a film director. They filed for divorce in 1974. In June 1977, Lynch married Mary Fisk, and the couple had one child, Austin Jack Lynch, born in 1982. They divorced in 1987. Lynch later developed a relationship with Mary Sweeney, with whom he had one son, Riley Sweeney Lynch, born in 1992. Sweeney also worked as Lynch's longtime film editor/producer and co-wrote and produced The Straight Story. The two married in May 2006, but filed for divorce that June. In 2009, Lynch married actress Emily Stofle, who appeared in his 2006 film Inland Empire as well as the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks. The couple have one child, Lula Boginia Lynch, born in 2012, and filed for divorce in 2023.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "Lynch has said that he is \"not a political person\" and that he knows little about politics. Describing his political philosophy in 2006, he said, \"at that time [the 1990s], I thought of myself as a libertarian. I believed in next to zero government. And I still would lean toward no government and not so many rules, except for traffic lights and things like this. I really believe in traffic regulations.\" He continued: \"I'm a Democrat now. And I've always been a Democrat, really. But I don't like the Democrats a lot, either, because I'm a smoker, and I think a lot of the Democrats have come up with these rules for non-smoking.\" In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, he endorsed the Natural Law Party, which advocated Transcendental Meditation. He said that he would vote for Democratic incumbent Barack Obama in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "In 2009, Lynch signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski after Polanski's arrest on his 1977 sexual abuse charges. Polanski had been detained while traveling to a film festival. The petition argued the arrest would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown \"freely and safely\", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door \"for actions of which no-one can know the effects.\"",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, he endorsed Bernie Sanders, whom he described as \"for the people\", He voted for Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries, and for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in the general election. In a June 2018 interview with The Guardian, he said that Donald Trump could go down as \"one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the [country] so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way.\" He added: \"Our so-called leaders can't take the country forward, can't get anything done. Like children, they are. Trump has shown all this.\" The interviewer clarified that \"while Trump may not be doing a good job himself, Lynch thinks, he is opening up a space where other outsiders might.\" At a rally later that month, Trump read out sections of the interview, claiming Lynch was a supporter. Lynch later clarified on Facebook that his words were taken out of context, saying that Trump would \"not have a chance to go down in history as a great president\" if he continued on the course of \"causing suffering and division\" and advising him to \"treat all the people as you would like to be treated\".",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "In one of his daily weather report videos, Lynch expressed support for Black Lives Matter protests. In another such video, Lynch condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and addressed Russian president Vladimir Putin directly, telling him there was \"no room for this kind of absurdity anymore\" and that Putin would reap what he had sown, lifetime after lifetime.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Lynch advocates Transcendental Meditation as a spiritual practice. He was initiated into Transcendental Meditation in July 1973, and has practiced the technique consistently since then. Lynch says he met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the TM movement, for the first time in 1975 at the Spiritual Regeneration Movement center in Los Angeles, California. He became close with the Maharishi during a month-long \"Millionaire's Enlightenment Course\" held in 2003, the fee for which was $1 million.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "In July 2005, Lynch launched the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and Peace, established to help finance scholarships for students in middle and high schools who are interested in learning Transcendental Meditation and to fund research on the technique and its effects on learning. Together with John Hagelin and Fred Travis, a brain researcher from Maharishi University of Management (MUM), Lynch promoted his vision on college campuses with a tour that began in September 2005. Lynch is on MUM's board of trustees and has hosted an annual \"David Lynch Weekend for World Peace and Meditation\" there since 2005.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "Lynch was working for the building and establishment of seven buildings in which 8,000 salaried people would practice advanced meditation techniques, \"pumping peace for the world\". He estimates the cost at US$7 billion. As of December 2005, he had spent $400,000 of his money and raised $1 million in donations. In December 2006, The New York Times reported that he continued to have that goal. Lynch's book Catching the Big Fish (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006) discusses Transcendental Meditation's effect on his creative process. Lynch attended the funeral of the Maharishi in India in 2008. He told a reporter, \"In life, he revolutionized the lives of millions of people. ... In 20, 50, 500 years there will be millions of people who will know and understand what the Maharishi has done.\" In 2009, Lynch went to India to film interviews with people who knew the Maharishi as part of a biographical documentary.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "In 2009, Lynch organized a benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall for the David Lynch Foundation. On April 4, 2009, the \"Change Begins Within\" concert featured Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Donovan, Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, Moby, Bettye LaVette, Ben Harper, and Mike Love of the Beach Boys. David Wants to Fly, released in May 2010, is a documentary by German filmmaker David Sieveking \"that follows the path of his professional idol, David Lynch, into the world of Transcendental Meditation (TM)\". At the end of the film, Sieveking becomes disillusioned with Lynch.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "An independent project starring Lynch called Beyond The Noise: My Transcendental Meditation Journey, directed by film student Dana Farley, who has severe dyslexia and attention deficit disorder, was shown at film festivals in 2011, including the Marbella Film Festival. Filmmaker Kevin Sean Michaels is one of the producers. In 2013, Lynch wrote: \"Transcendental Meditation leads to a beautiful, peaceful revolution. A change from suffering and negativity to happiness and a life more and more free of any problems.\"",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "In a 2019 interview of Lynch by British artist Alexander de Cadenet, Lynch said of TM: \"Here's an experience that utilizes the full brain. That's what it's for. It's for enlightenment, for higher states of consciousness, culminating in the highest state of unity consciousness.\" In April 2022, Lynch announced a $500 million transcendental meditation world peace initiative to fund transcendental meditation for 30,000 college students.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "Lynch designed his personal website, a site exclusive to paying members, where he posts short videos and his absurdist series Dumbland, plus interviews and other items. The site also featured a daily weather report, where Lynch gives a brief description of the weather in Los Angeles, where he resides. He continues to broadcast this weather report (usually no longer than 30 seconds) on his personal YouTube channel, DAVID LYNCH THEATER, along with \"TODAY'S NUMBER\", where he draws a random number, between one and ten, out of a bingo cage. Lynch also created a short film, \"Rabbits\", for his website. An absurd ringtone (\"I like to kill deer\") from the website was a common sound bite on The Howard Stern Show in early 2006.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "Lynch is a coffee drinker and has his own line of special organic blends available for purchase on his website and at Whole Foods. Called \"David Lynch Signature Cup\", the coffee has been advertised via flyers included with several recent Lynch-related DVD releases, including Inland Empire and the Gold Box edition of Twin Peaks. The brand's tagline is \"It's all in the beans ... and I'm just full of beans.\" This is also a line said by Justin Theroux's character in Inland Empire.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "Studio albums",
"title": "Discography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "Collaborative albums",
"title": "Discography"
}
] | David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, painter, visual artist, musician and actor. Lynch has received critical acclaim for his films, which are often distinguished by their surrealist qualities. He has received numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. In 2007, a panel of critics convened by The Guardian announced that "after all the discussion, no one could fault the conclusion that David Lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era." Lynch studied painting before he began making short films in the late 1960s. His first feature-length film was Eraserhead (1977), which saw success as a midnight movie. He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001). His film Wild at Heart (1990) earned the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or. Other notable films include Dune (1984), Lost Highway (1997), and Inland Empire (2006). Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–1991), and Lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) and the limited series Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). He also portrayed Gordon Cole in the Twin Peaks projects. Lynch's other artistic endeavors include his work as a musician, encompassing the studio albums BlueBOB (2001), Crazy Clown Time (2011), and The Big Dream (2013) as well as painting and photography. He has written the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006), and Room to Dream (2018). He has also directed several music videos for artists such as Chris Isaak, X Japan, Moby, Interpol, Nine Inch Nails, and Donovan, and commercials for Calvin Klein, Dior, L'Oreal, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, and the New York City Department of Sanitation. A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (TM), in 2005 he founded the David Lynch Foundation, which seeks to fund the teaching of TM in schools and has since widened its scope to other at-risk populations, including the homeless, veterans, and refugees. | 2001-11-13T17:52:36Z | 2023-12-28T07:38:54Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch |
7,892 | David Cronenberg | David Paul Cronenberg CC OOnt (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films.
Cronenberg's films have polarized critics and audiences alike; he has earned critical acclaim and has sparked controversy for his depictions of gore and violence. The Village Voice called him "the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world". His films have won numerous awards, including the Special Jury Prize for Crash at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, a unique award that is distinct from the Jury Prize as it is not given annually, but only at the request of the official jury, who in this case gave the award "for originality, for daring, and for audacity".
From the 2000s to the 2020s, Cronenberg collaborated on several films with Viggo Mortensen, including A History of Violence (2005), Eastern Promises (2007), A Dangerous Method (2011) and Crimes of the Future (2022). Six of his films were selected to compete for the Palme d'Or, the most recent being Crimes of the Future, which was screened at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
David Cronenberg was born in Toronto, Ontario, on March 15, 1943. Cronenberg is the son of Esther (née Sumberg), a musician, and Milton Cronenberg, a writer and editor. He was raised in a "middle-class progressive Jewish family". His father was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and his mother was born in Toronto; all of his grandparents were Jews from Lithuania. Milton wrote some short stories for True Detective and had a column in the Toronto Telegram for around thirty years. The Cronenberg household was full of a wide variety of books, and Cronenberg's father tried to introduce his son to art films such as The Seventh Seal, although at the time Cronenberg was more interested in western and pirate films, showing a particular affinity for those featuring Burt Lancaster.
A voracious reader from an early age, Cronenberg started off enjoying science fiction magazines like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Galaxy, and Astounding, where he first encountered authors who would prove influential on his own work, including Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov, although he wouldn't encounter his primary influence, Philip K. Dick, until much later. Cronenberg also read comic books, noting his favorites were Tarzan, Little Lulu, Uncle Scrooge, Blackhawk, Plastic Man, Superman, and the original Fawcett Comics version of Captain Marvel, later known as Shazam. Although as an adult, Cronenberg feels superhero films are artistically limited, he maintains a fondness for Captain Marvel/Shazam, criticizing how he feels the character had been neglected. Cronenberg also read horror comics published by EC, which in contrast to the others, he described as "scary and bizarre and violent and nasty—the ones your mother didn't want you to have."
Early films that later proved influential on Cronenberg's career include avant-garde, horror, science fiction, and thriller films, such as Un Chien Andalou, Vampyr, War of the Worlds, Freaks, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Alphaville, Performance, and Duel. However, Cronenberg has also cited less obvious films as influences, including comedies like The Bed Sitting Room, as well as Disney cartoons such as Bambi and Dumbo. Cronenberg said he found these two Disney animated films, as well as Universal's live-action Blue Lagoon, "terrifying" which influenced his approach to horror. Cronenberg went on to say that Bambi was the "first important film" he ever saw, citing the moment when Bambi's mother died as particularly powerful. Cronenberg even wished to screen Bambi as part of a museum exhibition of his influences, but Disney refused him permission. In terms of conventional horror films that frightened him, Cronenberg cited Don't Look Now.
Cronenberg attended Dewson Street Public School, Kent Senior School, Harbord Collegiate Institute and North Toronto Collegiate Institute. He enrolled at the University of Toronto for Honours Science in 1963, but changed to Honours English Language and Literature the next year. He graduated from university in 1967, at the top of his class with a general bachelor of arts. Cronenberg decided to not study for a master of arts after making Stereo.
Cronenberg's fascination with the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1966), by classmate David Secter, sparked his interest in film. He began frequenting film camera rental houses and learned the art of filmmaking. Cronenberg made two short films, Transfer and From the Drain, with a few hundred dollars. Cronenberg, Ivan Reitman, Bob Fothergill, and Iain Ewing were inspired by Jonas Mekas and formed the Toronto Film Co-op.
After two short sketch films and two short art-house features (the black-and-white Stereo and the colour Crimes of the Future) Cronenberg went into partnership with Ivan Reitman. The Canadian government provided financing for his films throughout the 1970s. During this period, he focused on his signature "body horror" films such as Shivers and Rabid, the latter of which provided pornographic actress Marilyn Chambers with work in a different genre, although Cronenberg's first choice for the role had been a then little-known Sissy Spacek. Rabid was a breakthrough with international distributors, and his next two horror features, The Brood and Scanners, gained stronger support. Even at this stage however, Cronenberg showed variety, by making Fast Company between The Brood and Rabid, a project reflecting his interest in car racing and bike gangs.
In 1981 directed the science-fiction horror film Scanners (1981). In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers. The film has since become a cult classic. In 1983 he directed another science-fiction horror film Videodrome starring James Woods. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures. Janet Maslin of The New York Times remarked on the film's "innovativeness", and praised Woods' performance as having a "sharply authentic edge". That same year he directed The Dead Zone (1983) starring Christopher Walken.
Cronenberg directed The Fly (1986) starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. The film is loosely based on George Langelaan's 1957 short story of the same name and the 1958 film of the same name. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox and was a box office hit making $60 million. Cronenberg has not generally worked within the world of big-budget, mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, although he has had occasional near misses. At one stage he was considered by George Lucas as a possible director for Return of the Jedi (1983) but was passed over. Since Dead Ringers (1988), Cronenberg has worked with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky on each of his films (see List of film director and cinematographer collaborations). Suschitzky was the director of photography for The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Cronenberg remarked that Suschitzky's work in that film "was the only one of those movies that actually looked good", which was a motivating factor to work with him on Dead Ringers.
Cronenberg has collaborated with composer Howard Shore on all of his films since The Brood (1979), (see List of film director and composer collaborations) with the exception of The Dead Zone (1983), which was scored by Michael Kamen. Other regular collaborators include actor Robert Silverman, art director Carol Spier (also his sister) sound editor Bryan Day, film editor Ronald Sanders, his sister, costume designer Denise Cronenberg, and, from 1979 until 1988, cinematographer Mark Irwin. In 2008, Cronenberg directed Howard Shore's first opera, The Fly.
Cronenberg also worked for nearly a year on a version of Total Recall (1990), but experienced "creative differences" with producers Dino De Laurentiis and Ronald Shusett; a different version of the film was eventually made by Paul Verhoeven. Cronenberg related in his 1992 memoir, Cronenberg on Cronenberg that, as a fan of Philip K. Dick—author of "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale", the short story upon which the film was based— his dissatisfaction with what he envisioned the film to be and what it ended up being pained him so greatly that, for a time, he suffered a migraine just thinking about it, akin to a needle piercing his eye. In the late 1990s, Cronenberg was announced as director of a sequel to another Verhoeven film, Basic Instinct (1992), but this also fell through.
Cronenberg has cited William S. Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov as influences. Perhaps the best example of a film that straddles the line between his works of personal chaos and psychological confusion is Cronenberg's 1991 "adaptation" of Naked Lunch (1959), his literary hero William S. Burroughs' most controversial book. The novel was considered "unfilmable", and Cronenberg acknowledged that a straight translation into film would "cost 400 million dollars and be banned in every country in the world". Instead—much like in his earlier film, Videodrome—he consistently blurred the lines between what appeared to be reality and what appeared to be hallucinations brought on by the main character's drug addiction. Some of the book's "moments" (as well as incidents loosely based upon Burroughs' life) are presented in this manner within the film. Cronenberg stated that while writing the screenplay for Naked Lunch (1991), he felt a moment of synergy with Burroughs' writing style. He felt the connection between his screenwriting style and Burroughs' prose style was so strong, that he jokingly remarked that should Burroughs pass on, "I'll just write his next book."
Cronenberg has also appeared as an actor in other directors' films. Most of his roles are cameo appearances, as in the films Into the Night (1985), Blood and Donuts (1995), To Die For (1995), and Jason X (2002) and the television series Alias, but on occasion he has played major roles, as in Nightbreed (1990) and Last Night (1998). He has not had major roles in any of his own films, but he did put in a brief appearance as a gynecologist in The Fly; he can also be glimpsed among the sex-crazed hordes in Shivers; he can be heard as an unseen car-pound attendant in Crash; his hands can be glimpsed in eXistenZ (1999); and he appeared as a stand-in for James Woods in Videodrome.
Cronenberg has said that his films should be seen "from the point of view of the disease", and that in Shivers, for example, he identifies with the characters after they become infected with the anarchic parasites. Disease and disaster, in Cronenberg's work, are less problems to be overcome than agents of personal transformation. Of his characters' transformations, Cronenberg said, "But because of our necessity to impose our own structure of perception on things we look on ourselves as being relatively stable. But, in fact, when I look at a person I see this maelstrom of organic, chemical and electron chaos; volatility and instability, shimmering; and the ability to change and transform and transmute." Similarly, in Crash (1996), people who have been injured in car crashes attempt to view their ordeal as "a fertilizing rather than a destructive event". In 2005, Cronenberg publicly disagreed with Paul Haggis' choice of the same name for the latter's Oscar-winning film Crash (2004), arguing that it was "very disrespectful" to the "important and seminal" J. G. Ballard novel on which Cronenberg's film was based.
His thriller A History of Violence (2005) is one of his highest budgeted and most accessible to date. He has said that the decision to direct it was influenced by his having had to defer some of his salary on the low-budgeted Spider (2002), but it was one of his most critically acclaimed films to date, along with Eastern Promises (2007), a film about the struggle of one man to gain power in the Russian Mafia. Although Cronenberg has worked with a number of Hollywood stars, he remains a staunchly Canadian filmmaker, with nearly all of his films (including major studio vehicles The Dead Zone and The Fly) having been filmed in his home province Ontario. Notable exceptions include M. Butterfly (1993), most of which was shot in China, Spider, and Eastern Promises (2007), which were both filmed primarily in England, and A Dangerous Method (2011), which was filmed in Germany and Austria. Rabid and Shivers were shot in and around Montreal. Most of his films have been at least partially financed by Telefilm Canada, and Cronenberg, a vocal supporter of government-backed film projects, has said: "Every country needs [a system of government grants] to have a national cinema in the face of Hollywood".
In 2008, Cronenberg realized two extra-cinematographic projects: the exhibition Chromosomes at the Rome Film Fest, and the opera The Fly at the LaOpera in Los Angeles and Theatre Châtelet in Paris. In July 2010, Cronenberg completed production on A Dangerous Method (2011), an adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play The Talking Cure, starring Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Cassel, and frequent collaborator Viggo Mortensen. The film was produced by independent British producer Jeremy Thomas. On television, he has appeared in the recurring roles of Dr. Brezzel in Season 3 of Alias, and Kovich in Seasons 3 & 4 of Star Trek: Discovery. He has also had main roles as Reverend Verrenger in Alias Grace, and Spencer Galloway in Slasher: Flesh & Blood.
In the October 2011 edition of Rue Morgue, Cronenberg stated that he has written a companion piece to his 1986 remake of The Fly, which he would like to direct if given the chance. He has stated that it is not a traditional sequel, but rather a "parallel story". In 2012, his film Cosmopolis competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. For a time it appeared that, as Eastern Promises producer Paul Webster told Screen International, a sequel is in the works that would reunite the key team of Cronenberg, Steven Knight, and Viggo Mortensen. The film was to be made by Webster's new production company Shoebox Films in collaboration with Focus Features, and shot in early 2013. However, in 2012, Cronenberg commented that the Eastern Promises sequel had fallen through due to budget disagreement with Focus Features.
Filming for Cronenberg's next film, a satire drama entitled Maps to the Stars (2014)—with Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, and Robert Pattinson—began on July 8, 2013, in Toronto, Ontario and Los Angeles. This was the first time Cronenberg filmed in the United States. On June 26, 2014, Cronenberg's short film The Nest was published on YouTube. The film was commissioned for "David Cronenberg – The Exhibition" at EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam and was available on YouTube for the duration of the exhibition, until September 14, 2014. Also in 2014, Cronenberg published his first novel, Consumed. In a May 2016 interview, Viggo Mortensen revealed that Cronenberg is considering retiring due to difficulty financing his film projects.
Cronenberg appears as himself in the minute-long short film The Death of David Cronenberg, shot by his daughter Caitlin, which was released digitally on September 19, 2021. In February 2021 however, Mortensen said Cronenberg had refined an older script he had written and hopes to film it with Mortensen that summer. He further hinted that it is a "strange film noir" and resembles Cronenberg's earlier body horror films. In April 2021, the title was revealed to be Crimes of the Future. It was shot in Greece during the summer of 2021, and competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
Cronenberg lives in Toronto. He married his first wife, Margaret Hindson, in 1972: their seven-year marriage ended in 1979 amidst personal and professional differences. They had one daughter, Cassandra Cronenberg. His second wife was film editor Carolyn Zeifman, to whom he was married until her death in 2017. The couple met on the set of Rabid while she was working as a production assistant. They have two children, Caitlin and Brandon. In the book Cronenberg on Cronenberg (1992), he revealed that The Brood was inspired by events that occurred during the unraveling of his first marriage, which caused both Cronenberg and his daughter Cassandra a great deal of turmoil. The character Nola Carveth, mother of the brood, is based on Cassandra's mother. Cronenberg said that he found the shooting of the climactic scene, in which Nola was strangled by her husband, to be "very satisfying".
In a September 2013 interview, Cronenberg revealed that film director Martin Scorsese admitted to him that he was intrigued by Cronenberg's early work but was subsequently "terrified" to meet him in person. Cronenberg responded to Scorsese: "You're the guy who made Taxi Driver and you're afraid to meet me?" In the same interview, Cronenberg identified as an atheist. "Anytime I've tried to imagine squeezing myself into the box of any particular religion, I find it claustrophobic and oppressive," Cronenberg elaborated. "I think atheism is an acceptance of what is real." In the same interview, Cronenberg revealed that it depends on the "time of day" as to whether or not he is afraid of death. He further stated that he is not concerned about posthumous representations of his film work: "It wouldn't disturb me to think that my work would just sink beneath the waves without trace and that would be it. So what? It doesn't bother me."
In Cronenberg on Cronenberg, the director further elaborated that he was raised in a secular Jewish home, and while he and his family had no disdain towards any religion, such matters were not discussed. In the same book, Cronenberg said that in his teens he went through a phase where he wondered about the existence of God, but ultimately came to the conclusion that the God concept was developed to cope with the fear of death. In a 2007 interview, Cronenberg explained the role atheism plays in his work. He stated, "I'm interested in saying, 'Let us discuss the existential question. We are all going to die, that is the end of all consciousness. There is no afterlife. There is no God. Now what do we do.' That's the point where it starts getting interesting to me."
In Cronenberg's later films (e.g. A History of Violence, Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method) openly religious characters become more common. During an interview for A History of Violence, Cronenberg even chose to identify as a materialist rather than an atheist, stating, "I'm not an atheist, but for me to turn away from any aspect of the human body to me is a philosophical betrayal. And there's a lot of art and religion whose whole purpose is to turn away from the human body. I feel in my art that my mandate is to not do that."
In a separate 2013 interview, Cronenberg discussed the role religion plays in his films, using Eastern Promises as the main example:
I'm an atheist but not all my characters are atheists. So it's true that I don't think about God ever as part of my life or anything. But if you're a dramatist and you are working with characters who come from a particular culture, you have to accept their understanding of life, and with passion. So the Nikolai character, I'm pretty sure he believes in God and most of the other characters in the movie do too. Some of them are Muslim, some of them are Eastern Orthodox, and that's a part of their life, a part of their understanding of suffering. Because everybody in life suffers but not everybody thinks of that in religious terms. These people do. And they think of suffering as a way to salvation, also in religious terms. I am their God really, as I am creating them; that's religious in itself. I am a very hardcore atheist believe me but you become like an actor really, as a director or a writer. You must take on the character as that character is and believe in it as you're playing it. To allow that character to exist as he would exist. That's really what it's all about, so I have no problem with characters who are religious and believe in God. I would have a problem if that was the point of the whole story because that bores me and I just don't have any emotional or intellectual respect for it, frankly.
As a director
Cronenberg has appeared on various "Greatest Director" lists. In 2004, Science Fiction magazine Strange Horizons named him the second greatest director in the history of the genre, ahead of better known directors such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jean-Luc Godard, and Ridley Scott. In the same year, The Guardian listed him 9th on their list of "The world's 40 best directors". In 2007, Total Film named him as the 17th greatest director of all-time. Film professor Charles Derry, in his overview of the horror genre Dark Dreams, called the director one of the most important in his field, and that "no discussion of contemporary horror film can conclude without reference to the films of David Cronenberg."
Cronenberg received the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for Crash. In 1999, he was inducted onto Canada's Walk of Fame, awarded the Silver Bear Award at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival. and that November received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts.
In 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada (the order's highest rank) in 2014. In 2006 he was awarded the Cannes Film Festival's lifetime achievement award, the Carrosse d'Or. In 2009 Cronenberg received the Légion d'honneur from the government of France. The following year Cronenberg was named an honorary patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College Dublin. In 2012, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
The opening of the "David Cronenberg: Evolution" Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) exhibition occurred on October 30, 2013. Held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox venue, the exhibition paid tribute to the director's entire filmmaking career and the festival's promotional material referred to Cronenberg as "one of Canada's most prolific and iconic filmmakers". The exhibition was shown internationally following the conclusion of the TIFF showing on January 19, 2014.
In 2014, he was made a Member of the Order of Ontario in recognition for being "Canada's most celebrated internationally acclaimed filmmaker".
In April 2018, it was announced that Cronenberg would receive the honorary Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Screenplay | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "David Paul Cronenberg CC OOnt (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Cronenberg's films have polarized critics and audiences alike; he has earned critical acclaim and has sparked controversy for his depictions of gore and violence. The Village Voice called him \"the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world\". His films have won numerous awards, including the Special Jury Prize for Crash at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, a unique award that is distinct from the Jury Prize as it is not given annually, but only at the request of the official jury, who in this case gave the award \"for originality, for daring, and for audacity\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "From the 2000s to the 2020s, Cronenberg collaborated on several films with Viggo Mortensen, including A History of Violence (2005), Eastern Promises (2007), A Dangerous Method (2011) and Crimes of the Future (2022). Six of his films were selected to compete for the Palme d'Or, the most recent being Crimes of the Future, which was screened at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "David Cronenberg was born in Toronto, Ontario, on March 15, 1943. Cronenberg is the son of Esther (née Sumberg), a musician, and Milton Cronenberg, a writer and editor. He was raised in a \"middle-class progressive Jewish family\". His father was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and his mother was born in Toronto; all of his grandparents were Jews from Lithuania. Milton wrote some short stories for True Detective and had a column in the Toronto Telegram for around thirty years. The Cronenberg household was full of a wide variety of books, and Cronenberg's father tried to introduce his son to art films such as The Seventh Seal, although at the time Cronenberg was more interested in western and pirate films, showing a particular affinity for those featuring Burt Lancaster.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "A voracious reader from an early age, Cronenberg started off enjoying science fiction magazines like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Galaxy, and Astounding, where he first encountered authors who would prove influential on his own work, including Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov, although he wouldn't encounter his primary influence, Philip K. Dick, until much later. Cronenberg also read comic books, noting his favorites were Tarzan, Little Lulu, Uncle Scrooge, Blackhawk, Plastic Man, Superman, and the original Fawcett Comics version of Captain Marvel, later known as Shazam. Although as an adult, Cronenberg feels superhero films are artistically limited, he maintains a fondness for Captain Marvel/Shazam, criticizing how he feels the character had been neglected. Cronenberg also read horror comics published by EC, which in contrast to the others, he described as \"scary and bizarre and violent and nasty—the ones your mother didn't want you to have.\"",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Early films that later proved influential on Cronenberg's career include avant-garde, horror, science fiction, and thriller films, such as Un Chien Andalou, Vampyr, War of the Worlds, Freaks, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Alphaville, Performance, and Duel. However, Cronenberg has also cited less obvious films as influences, including comedies like The Bed Sitting Room, as well as Disney cartoons such as Bambi and Dumbo. Cronenberg said he found these two Disney animated films, as well as Universal's live-action Blue Lagoon, \"terrifying\" which influenced his approach to horror. Cronenberg went on to say that Bambi was the \"first important film\" he ever saw, citing the moment when Bambi's mother died as particularly powerful. Cronenberg even wished to screen Bambi as part of a museum exhibition of his influences, but Disney refused him permission. In terms of conventional horror films that frightened him, Cronenberg cited Don't Look Now.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Cronenberg attended Dewson Street Public School, Kent Senior School, Harbord Collegiate Institute and North Toronto Collegiate Institute. He enrolled at the University of Toronto for Honours Science in 1963, but changed to Honours English Language and Literature the next year. He graduated from university in 1967, at the top of his class with a general bachelor of arts. Cronenberg decided to not study for a master of arts after making Stereo.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Cronenberg's fascination with the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1966), by classmate David Secter, sparked his interest in film. He began frequenting film camera rental houses and learned the art of filmmaking. Cronenberg made two short films, Transfer and From the Drain, with a few hundred dollars. Cronenberg, Ivan Reitman, Bob Fothergill, and Iain Ewing were inspired by Jonas Mekas and formed the Toronto Film Co-op.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "After two short sketch films and two short art-house features (the black-and-white Stereo and the colour Crimes of the Future) Cronenberg went into partnership with Ivan Reitman. The Canadian government provided financing for his films throughout the 1970s. During this period, he focused on his signature \"body horror\" films such as Shivers and Rabid, the latter of which provided pornographic actress Marilyn Chambers with work in a different genre, although Cronenberg's first choice for the role had been a then little-known Sissy Spacek. Rabid was a breakthrough with international distributors, and his next two horror features, The Brood and Scanners, gained stronger support. Even at this stage however, Cronenberg showed variety, by making Fast Company between The Brood and Rabid, a project reflecting his interest in car racing and bike gangs.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 1981 directed the science-fiction horror film Scanners (1981). In the film, \"scanners\" are psychics with unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers. The film has since become a cult classic. In 1983 he directed another science-fiction horror film Videodrome starring James Woods. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures. Janet Maslin of The New York Times remarked on the film's \"innovativeness\", and praised Woods' performance as having a \"sharply authentic edge\". That same year he directed The Dead Zone (1983) starring Christopher Walken.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Cronenberg directed The Fly (1986) starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. The film is loosely based on George Langelaan's 1957 short story of the same name and the 1958 film of the same name. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox and was a box office hit making $60 million. Cronenberg has not generally worked within the world of big-budget, mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, although he has had occasional near misses. At one stage he was considered by George Lucas as a possible director for Return of the Jedi (1983) but was passed over. Since Dead Ringers (1988), Cronenberg has worked with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky on each of his films (see List of film director and cinematographer collaborations). Suschitzky was the director of photography for The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Cronenberg remarked that Suschitzky's work in that film \"was the only one of those movies that actually looked good\", which was a motivating factor to work with him on Dead Ringers.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Cronenberg has collaborated with composer Howard Shore on all of his films since The Brood (1979), (see List of film director and composer collaborations) with the exception of The Dead Zone (1983), which was scored by Michael Kamen. Other regular collaborators include actor Robert Silverman, art director Carol Spier (also his sister) sound editor Bryan Day, film editor Ronald Sanders, his sister, costume designer Denise Cronenberg, and, from 1979 until 1988, cinematographer Mark Irwin. In 2008, Cronenberg directed Howard Shore's first opera, The Fly.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Cronenberg also worked for nearly a year on a version of Total Recall (1990), but experienced \"creative differences\" with producers Dino De Laurentiis and Ronald Shusett; a different version of the film was eventually made by Paul Verhoeven. Cronenberg related in his 1992 memoir, Cronenberg on Cronenberg that, as a fan of Philip K. Dick—author of \"We Can Remember it For You Wholesale\", the short story upon which the film was based— his dissatisfaction with what he envisioned the film to be and what it ended up being pained him so greatly that, for a time, he suffered a migraine just thinking about it, akin to a needle piercing his eye. In the late 1990s, Cronenberg was announced as director of a sequel to another Verhoeven film, Basic Instinct (1992), but this also fell through.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Cronenberg has cited William S. Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov as influences. Perhaps the best example of a film that straddles the line between his works of personal chaos and psychological confusion is Cronenberg's 1991 \"adaptation\" of Naked Lunch (1959), his literary hero William S. Burroughs' most controversial book. The novel was considered \"unfilmable\", and Cronenberg acknowledged that a straight translation into film would \"cost 400 million dollars and be banned in every country in the world\". Instead—much like in his earlier film, Videodrome—he consistently blurred the lines between what appeared to be reality and what appeared to be hallucinations brought on by the main character's drug addiction. Some of the book's \"moments\" (as well as incidents loosely based upon Burroughs' life) are presented in this manner within the film. Cronenberg stated that while writing the screenplay for Naked Lunch (1991), he felt a moment of synergy with Burroughs' writing style. He felt the connection between his screenwriting style and Burroughs' prose style was so strong, that he jokingly remarked that should Burroughs pass on, \"I'll just write his next book.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Cronenberg has also appeared as an actor in other directors' films. Most of his roles are cameo appearances, as in the films Into the Night (1985), Blood and Donuts (1995), To Die For (1995), and Jason X (2002) and the television series Alias, but on occasion he has played major roles, as in Nightbreed (1990) and Last Night (1998). He has not had major roles in any of his own films, but he did put in a brief appearance as a gynecologist in The Fly; he can also be glimpsed among the sex-crazed hordes in Shivers; he can be heard as an unseen car-pound attendant in Crash; his hands can be glimpsed in eXistenZ (1999); and he appeared as a stand-in for James Woods in Videodrome.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Cronenberg has said that his films should be seen \"from the point of view of the disease\", and that in Shivers, for example, he identifies with the characters after they become infected with the anarchic parasites. Disease and disaster, in Cronenberg's work, are less problems to be overcome than agents of personal transformation. Of his characters' transformations, Cronenberg said, \"But because of our necessity to impose our own structure of perception on things we look on ourselves as being relatively stable. But, in fact, when I look at a person I see this maelstrom of organic, chemical and electron chaos; volatility and instability, shimmering; and the ability to change and transform and transmute.\" Similarly, in Crash (1996), people who have been injured in car crashes attempt to view their ordeal as \"a fertilizing rather than a destructive event\". In 2005, Cronenberg publicly disagreed with Paul Haggis' choice of the same name for the latter's Oscar-winning film Crash (2004), arguing that it was \"very disrespectful\" to the \"important and seminal\" J. G. Ballard novel on which Cronenberg's film was based.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "His thriller A History of Violence (2005) is one of his highest budgeted and most accessible to date. He has said that the decision to direct it was influenced by his having had to defer some of his salary on the low-budgeted Spider (2002), but it was one of his most critically acclaimed films to date, along with Eastern Promises (2007), a film about the struggle of one man to gain power in the Russian Mafia. Although Cronenberg has worked with a number of Hollywood stars, he remains a staunchly Canadian filmmaker, with nearly all of his films (including major studio vehicles The Dead Zone and The Fly) having been filmed in his home province Ontario. Notable exceptions include M. Butterfly (1993), most of which was shot in China, Spider, and Eastern Promises (2007), which were both filmed primarily in England, and A Dangerous Method (2011), which was filmed in Germany and Austria. Rabid and Shivers were shot in and around Montreal. Most of his films have been at least partially financed by Telefilm Canada, and Cronenberg, a vocal supporter of government-backed film projects, has said: \"Every country needs [a system of government grants] to have a national cinema in the face of Hollywood\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In 2008, Cronenberg realized two extra-cinematographic projects: the exhibition Chromosomes at the Rome Film Fest, and the opera The Fly at the LaOpera in Los Angeles and Theatre Châtelet in Paris. In July 2010, Cronenberg completed production on A Dangerous Method (2011), an adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play The Talking Cure, starring Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Cassel, and frequent collaborator Viggo Mortensen. The film was produced by independent British producer Jeremy Thomas. On television, he has appeared in the recurring roles of Dr. Brezzel in Season 3 of Alias, and Kovich in Seasons 3 & 4 of Star Trek: Discovery. He has also had main roles as Reverend Verrenger in Alias Grace, and Spencer Galloway in Slasher: Flesh & Blood.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In the October 2011 edition of Rue Morgue, Cronenberg stated that he has written a companion piece to his 1986 remake of The Fly, which he would like to direct if given the chance. He has stated that it is not a traditional sequel, but rather a \"parallel story\". In 2012, his film Cosmopolis competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. For a time it appeared that, as Eastern Promises producer Paul Webster told Screen International, a sequel is in the works that would reunite the key team of Cronenberg, Steven Knight, and Viggo Mortensen. The film was to be made by Webster's new production company Shoebox Films in collaboration with Focus Features, and shot in early 2013. However, in 2012, Cronenberg commented that the Eastern Promises sequel had fallen through due to budget disagreement with Focus Features.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Filming for Cronenberg's next film, a satire drama entitled Maps to the Stars (2014)—with Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, and Robert Pattinson—began on July 8, 2013, in Toronto, Ontario and Los Angeles. This was the first time Cronenberg filmed in the United States. On June 26, 2014, Cronenberg's short film The Nest was published on YouTube. The film was commissioned for \"David Cronenberg – The Exhibition\" at EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam and was available on YouTube for the duration of the exhibition, until September 14, 2014. Also in 2014, Cronenberg published his first novel, Consumed. In a May 2016 interview, Viggo Mortensen revealed that Cronenberg is considering retiring due to difficulty financing his film projects.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Cronenberg appears as himself in the minute-long short film The Death of David Cronenberg, shot by his daughter Caitlin, which was released digitally on September 19, 2021. In February 2021 however, Mortensen said Cronenberg had refined an older script he had written and hopes to film it with Mortensen that summer. He further hinted that it is a \"strange film noir\" and resembles Cronenberg's earlier body horror films. In April 2021, the title was revealed to be Crimes of the Future. It was shot in Greece during the summer of 2021, and competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Cronenberg lives in Toronto. He married his first wife, Margaret Hindson, in 1972: their seven-year marriage ended in 1979 amidst personal and professional differences. They had one daughter, Cassandra Cronenberg. His second wife was film editor Carolyn Zeifman, to whom he was married until her death in 2017. The couple met on the set of Rabid while she was working as a production assistant. They have two children, Caitlin and Brandon. In the book Cronenberg on Cronenberg (1992), he revealed that The Brood was inspired by events that occurred during the unraveling of his first marriage, which caused both Cronenberg and his daughter Cassandra a great deal of turmoil. The character Nola Carveth, mother of the brood, is based on Cassandra's mother. Cronenberg said that he found the shooting of the climactic scene, in which Nola was strangled by her husband, to be \"very satisfying\".",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In a September 2013 interview, Cronenberg revealed that film director Martin Scorsese admitted to him that he was intrigued by Cronenberg's early work but was subsequently \"terrified\" to meet him in person. Cronenberg responded to Scorsese: \"You're the guy who made Taxi Driver and you're afraid to meet me?\" In the same interview, Cronenberg identified as an atheist. \"Anytime I've tried to imagine squeezing myself into the box of any particular religion, I find it claustrophobic and oppressive,\" Cronenberg elaborated. \"I think atheism is an acceptance of what is real.\" In the same interview, Cronenberg revealed that it depends on the \"time of day\" as to whether or not he is afraid of death. He further stated that he is not concerned about posthumous representations of his film work: \"It wouldn't disturb me to think that my work would just sink beneath the waves without trace and that would be it. So what? It doesn't bother me.\"",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In Cronenberg on Cronenberg, the director further elaborated that he was raised in a secular Jewish home, and while he and his family had no disdain towards any religion, such matters were not discussed. In the same book, Cronenberg said that in his teens he went through a phase where he wondered about the existence of God, but ultimately came to the conclusion that the God concept was developed to cope with the fear of death. In a 2007 interview, Cronenberg explained the role atheism plays in his work. He stated, \"I'm interested in saying, 'Let us discuss the existential question. We are all going to die, that is the end of all consciousness. There is no afterlife. There is no God. Now what do we do.' That's the point where it starts getting interesting to me.\"",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In Cronenberg's later films (e.g. A History of Violence, Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method) openly religious characters become more common. During an interview for A History of Violence, Cronenberg even chose to identify as a materialist rather than an atheist, stating, \"I'm not an atheist, but for me to turn away from any aspect of the human body to me is a philosophical betrayal. And there's a lot of art and religion whose whole purpose is to turn away from the human body. I feel in my art that my mandate is to not do that.\"",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In a separate 2013 interview, Cronenberg discussed the role religion plays in his films, using Eastern Promises as the main example:",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "I'm an atheist but not all my characters are atheists. So it's true that I don't think about God ever as part of my life or anything. But if you're a dramatist and you are working with characters who come from a particular culture, you have to accept their understanding of life, and with passion. So the Nikolai character, I'm pretty sure he believes in God and most of the other characters in the movie do too. Some of them are Muslim, some of them are Eastern Orthodox, and that's a part of their life, a part of their understanding of suffering. Because everybody in life suffers but not everybody thinks of that in religious terms. These people do. And they think of suffering as a way to salvation, also in religious terms. I am their God really, as I am creating them; that's religious in itself. I am a very hardcore atheist believe me but you become like an actor really, as a director or a writer. You must take on the character as that character is and believe in it as you're playing it. To allow that character to exist as he would exist. That's really what it's all about, so I have no problem with characters who are religious and believe in God. I would have a problem if that was the point of the whole story because that bores me and I just don't have any emotional or intellectual respect for it, frankly.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "As a director",
"title": "Filmography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Cronenberg has appeared on various \"Greatest Director\" lists. In 2004, Science Fiction magazine Strange Horizons named him the second greatest director in the history of the genre, ahead of better known directors such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jean-Luc Godard, and Ridley Scott. In the same year, The Guardian listed him 9th on their list of \"The world's 40 best directors\". In 2007, Total Film named him as the 17th greatest director of all-time. Film professor Charles Derry, in his overview of the horror genre Dark Dreams, called the director one of the most important in his field, and that \"no discussion of contemporary horror film can conclude without reference to the films of David Cronenberg.\"",
"title": "Awards and recognition "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Cronenberg received the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for Crash. In 1999, he was inducted onto Canada's Walk of Fame, awarded the Silver Bear Award at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival. and that November received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts.",
"title": "Awards and recognition "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada (the order's highest rank) in 2014. In 2006 he was awarded the Cannes Film Festival's lifetime achievement award, the Carrosse d'Or. In 2009 Cronenberg received the Légion d'honneur from the government of France. The following year Cronenberg was named an honorary patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College Dublin. In 2012, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.",
"title": "Awards and recognition "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The opening of the \"David Cronenberg: Evolution\" Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) exhibition occurred on October 30, 2013. Held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox venue, the exhibition paid tribute to the director's entire filmmaking career and the festival's promotional material referred to Cronenberg as \"one of Canada's most prolific and iconic filmmakers\". The exhibition was shown internationally following the conclusion of the TIFF showing on January 19, 2014.",
"title": "Awards and recognition "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In 2014, he was made a Member of the Order of Ontario in recognition for being \"Canada's most celebrated internationally acclaimed filmmaker\".",
"title": "Awards and recognition "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In April 2018, it was announced that Cronenberg would receive the honorary Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.",
"title": "Awards and recognition "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Best Picture",
"title": "Awards and recognition "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Best Director",
"title": "Awards and recognition "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Best Screenplay",
"title": "Awards and recognition "
}
] | David Paul Cronenberg is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films. Cronenberg's films have polarized critics and audiences alike; he has earned critical acclaim and has sparked controversy for his depictions of gore and violence. The Village Voice called him "the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world". His films have won numerous awards, including the Special Jury Prize for Crash at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, a unique award that is distinct from the Jury Prize as it is not given annually, but only at the request of the official jury, who in this case gave the award "for originality, for daring, and for audacity". From the 2000s to the 2020s, Cronenberg collaborated on several films with Viggo Mortensen, including A History of Violence (2005), Eastern Promises (2007), A Dangerous Method (2011) and Crimes of the Future (2022). Six of his films were selected to compete for the Palme d'Or, the most recent being Crimes of the Future, which was screened at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. | 2001-03-22T17:06:27Z | 2023-12-26T20:10:44Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cronenberg |
7,893 | Dale Earnhardt | Ralph Dale Earnhardt (/ˈɜːrnhɑːrt/; April 29, 1951 – February 18, 2001) was an American professional stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. His aggressive driving style earned him the nicknames "the Intimidator", "the Man in Black" and "Ironhead"; after his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the Cup Series circuit in 1999, Earnhardt was generally known by the retronyms Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Sr. He is regarded as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history and named as one of the NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers class in 1998.
The third child of racing driver Ralph Earnhardt and Martha Earnhardt, he began his career in 1975 in the World 600. Earnhardt won a total of 76 Winston Cup races over the course of his 26-year career, including four Winston 500s (1990, 1994, 1999, and 2000) and the 1998 Daytona 500. Along with his 76 career points wins, he has also won 24 non-points exhibition events, bringing his overall Winston Cup win total to 100, one of only four drivers in NASCAR history to do so. He is the only driver in NASCAR history to score at least one win in four different and consecutive decades (scoring his first career win in 1979, 38 wins in the 1980s, 35 wins in the 1990s, & scoring his final two career wins in 2000). He also earned seven Winston Cup championships, a record held with Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson.
On February 18, 2001, Earnhardt died in a sudden last-lap crash during the Daytona 500 due to a basilar skull fracture. His death was regarded in the racing industry as being a crucial moment in improving safety in all aspects of car racing, especially NASCAR. He was 49 years old. Earnhardt has been inducted into numerous halls of fame, including the NASCAR Hall of Fame inaugural class in 2010.
Ralph Dale Earnhardt was born on April 29, 1951, in the suburb of Kannapolis, North Carolina, as the third child of Martha (née Coleman, 1930–2021) and Ralph Earnhardt (1928-1973). Earnhardt's father was one of the best short-track drivers in North Carolina at the time and won his first and only NASCAR Sportsman Championship in 1956 at Greenville Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina. In 1963 at the age of 12, Dale Earnhardt secretly drove his father’s car in one of his races and had a near victory against one of his father's closest competitors. In 1972, he raced his father at Metrolina Speedway in a race with cars from semi mod and sportsman divisions. Although Ralph did not want his son to pursue a career as a race car driver, Dale dropped out of school to pursue his dreams. Ralph was a hard teacher for Dale, and after Ralph suddenly died of a heart attack at his home in 1973 at age 45, it took many years before Dale felt as though he had finally "proven" himself to his father. Earnhardt had four siblings: two brothers, Danny (died 2021) and Randy (died 2013); and two sisters, Cathy and Kaye.
Earnhardt was married three times. In 1968, at the age of 17, Earnhardt married his first wife, Latane Brown. With her, Earnhardt fathered his first son, Kerry, a year later. Earnhardt and Brown divorced in 1970. In 1971, Earnhardt married his second wife, Brenda Gee, the daughter of NASCAR car builder Robert Gee. In his marriage with Gee, Earnhardt had two children: a daughter, Kelley King Earnhardt, in 1972, and a son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in 1974. Not long after Dale Jr. was born, Earnhardt and Gee divorced. Earnhardt then married his third wife, Teresa Houston, in 1982. She gave birth to their daughter, Taylor Nicole Earnhardt, in 1988.
Earnhardt began his professional career in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in 1975, making his points race debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina in the longest race on the Cup circuit—the 1975 World 600. He had made his Grand National debut in 1974 in an unofficial invitational exhibition race at Metrolina Speedway, where with eight laps to go he got under Richard Childress and spun out when battling for third. He drove the No. 8 Ed Negre Dodge Charger and finished 22nd in that race, just one spot ahead of his future car owner, Richard Childress. Earnhardt competed in eight more races until 1979.
When he joined car owner Rod Osterlund Racing in a season that included a rookie class of future stars including Earnhardt, Harry Gant, and Terry Labonte in his rookie season, Earnhardt won one race at Bristol, captured four poles, scored eleven Top 5s and seventeen Top 10s, and finished seventh in the points standings despite missing four races due to a broken collarbone, winning Rookie of the Year honors.
During his sophomore season, Earnhardt, now with 20-year-old Doug Richert as his crew chief, began the season winning the Busch Clash. With wins at Atlanta, Bristol, Nashville, Martinsville, and Charlotte, Earnhardt won his first Winston Cup points championship. He is the only driver in NASCAR Cup history to follow a Rookie of the Year title with a NASCAR Winston Cup Championship the next season. He was also the third driver in NASCAR history to win both the Rookie of the Year and Winston Cup Series championship, following David Pearson (1960, 1966) and Richard Petty (1959, 1964). Ten drivers have since joined this exclusive club: Rusty Wallace (1984, 1989), Alan Kulwicki (1986, 1992), Jeff Gordon (1993, 1995), Tony Stewart (1999, 2002), Matt Kenseth (2000, 2003), Kevin Harvick (2001, 2014), Kyle Busch (2005, 2015), Joey Logano (2009, 2018), Chase Elliott (2016, 2020), and Kyle Larson (2014, 2021).
1981 would prove to be tumultuous for the defending Winston Cup champion. Sixteen races into the season, Rod Osterlund suddenly sold his team to Jim Stacy, an entrepreneur from Kentucky who entered NASCAR in 1977. After just four races, Earnhardt fell out with Stacy and left the team. Earnhardt finished out the year driving Pontiacs for Richard Childress Racing and managed to place seventh in the final points standings. Earnhardt departed RCR at the end of the season, citing a lack of chemistry.
Earnhardt was also a color commentator for the Busch Clash, while he also drove on that same day.
The following year, at Childress's suggestion, Earnhardt joined car owner Bud Moore for the 1982 and 1983 seasons driving the No. 15 Wrangler Jeans-sponsored Ford Thunderbird (the only full-time Ford ride in his career). During the 1982 season, Earnhardt struggled. Although he won at Darlington, he failed to finish 18 of the 30 races and ended the season 12th in points, the worst of his career. He also suffered a broken kneecap at Pocono Raceway when he flipped after contact with Tim Richmond. In 1983, Earnhardt rebounded and won his first of 12 Twin 125 Daytona 500 qualifying races. He won at Nashville and at Talladega, finishing eighth in the points standings, despite failing to finish 13 of the 30 races.
After the 1983 season, Earnhardt returned to Richard Childress Racing, replacing Ricky Rudd in the No. 3. Rudd went to Bud Moore's No. 15, replacing Earnhardt. Wrangler sponsored both drivers at their respective teams. During the 1984 and 1985 seasons, Earnhardt went to victory lane six times, at Talladega, Atlanta, Richmond, Bristol (twice), and Martinsville, where he finished fourth and eighth in the season standings respectively.
The 1986 season saw Earnhardt win his second career Winston Cup Championship and the first owner's championship for Richard Childress Racing. He won five races and had 16 top-fives and 23 top-10s. Earnhardt successfully defended his championship the following year, going to victory lane 11 times and winning the championship by 489 points over Bill Elliott. In the process, Earnhardt set a NASCAR modern-era record of four consecutive wins and won five of the first seven races. In the 1987 season, he earned the nickname "The Intimidator", due in part to the 1987 Winston All-Star Race. During this race, Earnhardt was briefly forced into the infield grass but kept control of his car and returned to the track without giving up his lead. The maneuver is now referred to as the "Pass in the Grass", even though Earnhardt did not pass anyone while he was off the track. After The Winston, an angry fan sent Bill France Jr. a letter threatening to kill Earnhardt at Pocono, Watkins Glen, or Dover, prompting the FBI to provide security for Earnhardt on the three tracks. The investigation was closed after the races at the three tracks finished without incident. Many of Earnhardt's competitors on the racetrack disliked his personal driving style. Earnhardt's relentless pursuit of victory on the racetrack combined with his uniquely offensive driving ability led to many rivalries with fellow drivers and fines levied by NASCAR. In 1987, NASCAR began to implement a measure that was designed to incentivize less aggressive driving styles by forcing drivers who cause these undesired hazardous racing conditions to be subjected to time at the garage region during the race.
The 1988 season saw Earnhardt racing with a new sponsor, GM Goodwrench, after Wrangler Jeans dropped its sponsorship in 1987. During this season, he changed the color of his paint scheme from blue and yellow to the signature black in which the No. 3 car was painted for the rest of his life. He won three races in 1988, finishing third in the points standings behind Bill Elliott in first and Rusty Wallace in second. The following year, Earnhardt won five races, but a late spin out at North Wilkesboro arguably cost him the 1989 championship, as Rusty Wallace edged him out for it by 12 points (Earnhardt won the final race, but Wallace finished 15th when needing to finish at least 18th to win). It was his first season for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Lumina.
The 1990 season started for Earnhardt with victories in the Busch Clash and his heat of the Gatorade Twin 125's. Near the end of the Daytona 500, he had a dominant forty-second lead when the final caution flag came out with a handful of laps to go. When the green flag waved, Earnhardt was leading Derrike Cope. On the final lap, Earnhardt ran over a piece of metal, which was later revealed as a bell housing, in turn 3, cutting down a tire. Cope, in an upset, won the race while Earnhardt finished fifth after leading 155 of the 200 laps. The No. 3 Goodwrench-sponsored Chevy team took the flat tire that cost them the win and hung it on the shop wall as a reminder of how close they had come to winning the Daytona 500. Earnhardt won nine races that season and won his fourth Winston Cup title, beating Mark Martin by 26 points. He also became the first multiple winner of the annual all-star race, The Winston. The 1991 season saw Earnhardt win his fifth Winston Cup championship. This season, he scored four wins and won the championship by 195 points over Ricky Rudd. One of his wins came at North Wilkesboro, in a race where Harry Gant had a chance to set a single-season record by winning his fifth consecutive race, breaking a record held by Earnhardt. Late in the race, Gant lost his brakes, which gave Earnhardt the chance he needed to make the pass for the win and maintain his record.
Earnhardt's only win of the 1992 season came at Charlotte, in the Coca-Cola 600, ending a 13-race win streak by Ford teams. Earnhardt finished a career-low 12th in the points for the second time in his career, with three last place finishes (Daytona and Talladega in July and Martinsville in September), and the only time he had finished that low since joining Richard Childress Racing. He still made the trip to the annual Awards Banquet with Rusty Wallace but did not have the best seat in the house. Wallace stated he and Earnhardt had to sit on the backs of their chairs to see, and Earnhardt said, "This sucks, I should have gone hunting." At the end of the year, longtime crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine left to become a driver. Andy Petree took over as crew chief. Hiring Petree turned out to be beneficial, as Earnhardt returned to the front in 1993. He once again came close to a win at the Daytona 500 and dominated Speedweeks before finishing second to Dale Jarrett on a last-lap pass. Earnhardt scored six wins en route to his sixth Winston Cup title, including wins in the first prime-time Coca-Cola 600 and The Winston, both at Charlotte, and the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. He beat Rusty Wallace for the championship by 80 points. On November 14, 1993, after the season-ending Hooters 500 at Atlanta, the race winner Wallace and 1993 series champion Earnhardt ran a dual Polish Victory Lap together while carrying #28 and #7 flags commemorating 1992 Daytona 500 winner Davey Allison and 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Alan Kulwicki respectively, who both had died in separate plane accidents during the season.
In 1994, Earnhardt achieved a feat that he himself had believed to be impossible—he scored his seventh Winston Cup championship, tying Richard Petty. He was very consistent, scoring four wins, and after Ernie Irvan was sidelined due to a near-deadly crash at Michigan (the two were neck-and-neck at the top of the points up until the crash), won the title by over 400 points over Mark Martin. Earnhardt sealed the deal at Rockingham by winning the race over Rick Mast. It was his final NASCAR championship and his final season for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Lumina. Earnhardt started off the 1995 season by finishing second in the Daytona 500 to Sterling Marlin. He won five races in 1995, including his first road course victory at Sears Point. He also won the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a win he called the biggest of his career. But in the end, Earnhardt lost the championship to Jeff Gordon by 34 points. The GM Goodwrench racing team changed to Chevrolet Monte Carlos.
Earnhardt almost was ready to leave the #3 at the end of the 1995 season, according to his former crew chief Larry McReynolds. At the time, McReynolds was the crew chief for the #28 Havoline Ford Thunderbird at Robert Yates Racing. Earnhardt had actually been approached by Yates to drive the #28 for the 1995 season in place of Ernie Irvan, who was injured in a crash during the 1994 season. Instead, Robert Yates signed Dale Jarrett to a one-year deal to drive the #28. During the 1995 season, Yates was being pressed by his manufacturer to start a second team and sent a contract to Earnhardt to drive it. Earnhardt never returned the contract, and according to McReynolds the reason he did not sign was because he only wanted to drive the #28 for Yates; the team fully intended to put Irvan back behind the wheel of his old car once he was able to resume driving. Instead, Earnhardt stayed with RCR and the #3, while Jarrett was signed to drive Yates’ new car, numbered 88.
1996 for Earnhardt started just like it had done in 1993—he dominated Speedweeks, only to finish second in the Daytona 500 to Dale Jarrett for the second time. He won early in the year, scoring consecutive victories at Rockingham and Atlanta. On July 28 in the DieHard 500 at Talladega, he was second in points and looking for his eighth season title, despite the departure of crew chief Andy Petree. Late in the race, Ernie Irvan lost control of his No. 28 Havoline-sponsored Ford Thunderbird, made contact with the No. 4 Kodak-sponsored Chevy Monte Carlo of Sterling Marlin, and ignited a crash that saw Earnhardt's No. 3 Chevrolet hit the tri-oval wall nearly head-on at almost 200 mph. After hitting the wall, Earnhardt's car flipped and slid across the track, in front of race traffic. His car was hit in the roof and windshield. This accident, as well as a similar accident that led to the death of Russell Phillips at Charlotte, led NASCAR to mandate the "Earnhardt Bar", a metal brace located in the center of the windshield that reinforces the roof in case of a similar crash. This bar is also required in NASCAR-owned United SportsCar Racing and its predecessors for road racing.
Rain delays had canceled the live telecast of the race, and most fans first learned of the accident during the night's sports newscasts. Video of the crash showed what appeared to be a fatal incident, but once medical workers arrived at the car, Earnhardt climbed out and waved to the crowd, refusing to be loaded onto a stretcher despite a broken collarbone, sternum, and shoulder blade. Although the incident looked like it would end his season early, Earnhardt refused to stay out of the car. The next week at Indianapolis, he started the race but exited the car on the first pit stop, allowing Mike Skinner to take the wheel. When asked, Earnhardt said that vacating the No. 3 car was the hardest thing he had ever done. The following weekend at Watkins Glen, he drove the No. 3 Goodwrench Chevrolet to the fastest time in qualifying, earning the "True Grit" pole. T-shirts emblazoned with Earnhardt's face were quickly printed up, brandishing the caption, "It Hurt So Good". Earnhardt led for most of the race and looked to have victory in hand, but fatigue took its toll and he ended up sixth behind race winner Geoff Bodine. Earnhardt did not win again in 1996 but still finished fourth in the standings behind Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Jarrett, with 2 wins, 13 top fives, 17 top tens, and his last 2 career poles, with an average finish of 10.6. David Smith departed as crew chief of the No. 3 team and RCR at the end of the year for personal reasons, and he was replaced by Larry McReynolds.
In 1997, Earnhardt went winless for only the second time in his career. The only (non-points) win came during Speedweeks at Daytona in the Twin 125-mile qualifying race, his record eighth-straight win in the event. Once again in the hunt for the Daytona 500 with 10 laps to go, Earnhardt was taken out of contention by a late crash which sent his car upside down on the backstretch. He hit the low point of his year when he blacked out early in the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington in September, causing him to hit the wall. Afterward, he was disoriented, and it took several laps before he could find his pit stall. When asked, Earnhardt complained of double vision which made it difficult to pit. Mike Dillon (Richard Childress's son-in-law) was brought in to relieve Earnhardt for the remainder of the race. Earnhardt was evaluated at a local hospital and cleared to race the next week, but the cause of the blackout and double vision was never determined. Despite no wins, Earnhardt finished the season fifth in the final standings with 7 top fives and 16 top tens, with an average finish of 12.1.
On February 15, 1998, Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500 in his 20th attempt after failing to win in his previous 19 attempts. He began the season by winning his Twin 125-mile qualifier race for the ninth straight year, and the week before was the first to drive around the track under the newly installed lights, for coincidentally 20 laps. On race day, he showed himself to be a contender early. Halfway through the race, however, it seemed that Jeff Gordon had the upper hand. But by lap 138, Earnhardt had taken the lead and thanks to a push by teammate Mike Skinner, he maintained it. Earnhardt made it to the caution-checkered flag before Bobby Labonte. Afterwards, there was a large show of respect for Earnhardt, in which every crew member of every team lined pit road to shake his hand as he made his way to victory lane. Earnhardt then drove his No. 3 into the infield grass, starting a trend of post-race celebrations. He spun the car twice, throwing grass and leaving tire tracks in the shape of a No. 3 in the grass. He then spoke about the victory, saying, "I have had a lot of great fans and people behind me all through the years and I just can't thank them enough. The Daytona 500 is ours. We won it, we won it, we won it!" The rest of the season did not go as well, and the Daytona 500 was his only victory that year. Despite that, he did almost pull off a Daytona sweep, where he was one of the contenders for the win in the first nighttime Pepsi 400, but a pit stop late in the race in which a rogue tire cost him the race win. He slipped to 12th in the point standings halfway through the season, and Richard Childress decided to make a crew chief change, taking Mike Skinner's crew chief Kevin Hamlin and putting him with Earnhardt while giving Skinner Larry McReynolds (Earnhardt's crew chief). Earnhardt finished the 1998 season eighth in the final points standings, with 1 win, 5 top fives, and 13 top tens, with an average finish of 16.2.
Before the 1999 season, fans began discussing Earnhardt's age and speculating that with his son, Dale Jr., making his Winston Cup debut, Earnhardt might be contemplating retirement. Earnhardt swept both races for the year at Talladega, leading some to conclude that his talent had become limited to the restrictor plate tracks, which require a unique skill set and an exceptionally powerful racecar to win. But halfway through the year, Earnhardt began to show some of the old spark. In the August race at Michigan, he led laps late in the race and nearly pulled off his first win on a non-restrictor-plate track since 1996. One week later, he provided NASCAR with one of its most controversial moments. At the Bristol night race, Earnhardt found himself in contention to win his first short track race since Martinsville in 1995. When a caution came out with 15 laps to go, leader Terry Labonte got hit from behind by the lapped car of Darrell Waltrip. His spin put Earnhardt in the lead with five cars between him and Labonte with five laps to go. Labonte had four fresh tires, and Earnhardt was driving on old tires, which made Earnhardt's car considerably slower. Labonte caught Earnhardt and passed him coming to the white flag, but Earnhardt drove hard into turn two, bumping Labonte and spinning him around. Earnhardt collected the win while spectators booed and made obscene gestures. "I didn't mean to turn him around, I just wanted to rattle his cage," Earnhardt said of the incident. He finished seventh in the standings that year, with 3 wins, 7 top fives, and 21 top tens, with an average finish of 12.0.
In the 2000 season, Earnhardt had a resurgence, which was commonly attributed to neck surgery he underwent to correct a lingering injury from his 1996 Talladega crash. He scored what were considered the two most exciting wins of the year—winning by 0.010 seconds over Bobby Labonte at Atlanta, then gaining seventeen positions in the final four laps to win at Talladega, claiming his only No Bull million-dollar bonus along with his record 10th win at the track. Earnhardt also had second-place runs at Richmond and Martinsville, tracks where he had struggled through the late 1990s. On the strength of those performances, Earnhardt got to second in the standings. However, poor performances at the road course of Watkins Glen, where he wrecked coming out of the chicane, a wreck with Kenny Irwin Jr. while leading the spring race at Bristol, and mid-pack runs at intermediate tracks like Charlotte and Dover in a season dominated by the Ford Taurus in those tracks from Roush, Yates, and Penske, coupled with Bobby Labonte's extreme consistency, denied Earnhardt an eighth championship title. Earnhardt finished 2000 with two wins, 13 top fives, 24 top tens, an average finish of 9.4, and was the only driver besides Labonte to finish the season with zero DNF's.
During the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2001, Earnhardt was killed in a three-car crash on the final lap of the race. He collided with Ken Schrader after making small contact with Sterling Marlin and hit the outside wall head-on. He had been blocking Schrader on the outside and Marlin on the inside at the time of the crash. Earnhardt's and Schrader's cars both slid off the track's asphalt banking into the infield grass just inside of turn 4. Seconds later, his driver Michael Waltrip won the race, with Michael’s teammate and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishing second. Earnhardt was pronounced dead at the Halifax Medical Center at 5:16 pm Eastern Standard Time (22:16 UTC); he was 49 years old. NASCAR president Mike Helton confirmed Earnhardt's death in a statement to the press. An autopsy conducted on February 19, 2001, concluded that Earnhardt sustained a fatal basilar skull fracture. Four days later, on February 22, public funeral services for Earnhardt were held at the Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After Earnhardt's death, two investigations led by the Daytona Beach Police Department and NASCAR commenced; nearly every detail of the crash was made public. The allegations of seatbelt failure resulted in Bill Simpson's resignation from the company bearing his name, which manufactured the seatbelts used in Earnhardt's car and nearly every other NASCAR driver's car. NASCAR implemented rigorous safety improvements, such as mandating the HANS device, which Earnhardt refused to wear after finding it restrictive and uncomfortable. Several press conferences were held in the days following Earnhardt's death. After driver Sterling Marlin and his relatives received hate mail and death threats from angry fans, Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. absolved him of any responsibility. Richard Childress made a public pledge that the number 3 would never again adorn the side of a black race car with a GM Goodwrench sponsorship. The number returned for the 2014 season, this time not sponsored by GM Goodwrench (which was rebranded GM Certified Service in 2011), driven by Childress's grandson Austin Dillon.
At this time, his team was re-christened as the No. 29 team. Childress's second-year Busch Series driver Kevin Harvick was named as Earnhardt's replacement, beginning with the 2001 Dura Lube 400 at North Carolina Speedway. Special pennants bearing the No. 3 were distributed to everyone at the track to honor Earnhardt, and the Childress team wore blank uniforms out of respect, something which disappeared quickly and was soon replaced by the previous GM Goodwrench Service Plus uniforms. Harvick's car always displayed the Earnhardt stylized number 3 on the "B" posts (metal portion on each side of the car to the rear of the front windows) above the number 29 until the end of 2013, when he departed for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Fans began honoring Earnhardt by holding three fingers aloft on the third lap of every race, a black screen of No. 3 in the beginning of NASCAR Thunder 2002 before the EA Sports logo, and the television coverage of NASCAR on Fox and NASCAR on NBC went silent for each third lap from Rockingham to the following year's race there in honor of Earnhardt, unless on-track incidents brought out the caution flag on the third lap. Three weeks after Earnhardt's death, Harvick, driving a car that had been prepared for Earnhardt, scored his first career Cup win at Atlanta. On the final lap of the 2001 Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500, he beat Jeff Gordon by .006 seconds (the margin being 0.004 of a second closer than Earnhardt had won over Bobby Labonte at the same race a year ago) in an identical photo finish, and the images of Earnhardt's longtime gas man Danny "Chocolate" Myers crying after the victory, Harvick's tire-smoking burnout on the frontstretch with three fingers held aloft outside the driver's window. The win was also considered cathartic for a sport whose epicenter had been ripped away. Harvick would win another race at the inaugural event at Chicagoland en route to a ninth-place finish in the final points, and won Rookie of the Year honors along with the 2001 NASCAR Busch Series Championship.
Dale Earnhardt, Inc. won five races in the 2001 season, beginning with Steve Park's victory in the race at Rockingham just one week after Earnhardt's death. Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip finished first and second in the series' return to Daytona in July for the Pepsi 400, a reverse of the finish in the Daytona 500. Earnhardt Jr. also won the fall races at Dover (first post 9/11 race) and Talladega and came to an eighth-place points finish.
Earnhardt's remains were interred at his estate in Mooresville, North Carolina after a private funeral service on February 21, 2001.
Earnhardt drove the No. 3 car for the majority of his career, spanning the latter half of the 1981 season, and then again from 1984 until his death in 2001. Although he had other sponsors during his career, his No. 3 is associated in fans' minds with his last sponsor GM Goodwrench and his last color scheme — a predominantly black car with bold red and silver trim. The black and red No. 3 continues to be one of the most famous logos in North American motor racing.
A common misconception was that Richard Childress Racing "owned the rights" to the No. 3 in NASCAR competition (fueled by the fact that Kevin Harvick's car had a little No. 3 as an homage to Earnhardt from 2001 to 2013 and the usage of the No. 3 on the Camping World Truck Series truck of Ty Dillon when he ran in that series), but in fact NASCAR, and no specific team, owns the rights to this or any other number. According to established NASCAR procedures, Richard Childress Racing had priority over other teams if they chose to reuse the number, which they did when Austin Dillon was promoted to the Cup series in 2014. While Richard Childress Racing owns the stylized No. 3 logos used during Earnhardt's lifetime (and used presently with Dillon), those rights would hypothetically not prevent a future racing team from using a different No. 3 design (also, a new No. 3 team would most likely, in any case, need to create logos which fit with their sponsor's logos).
In 2004, ESPN released a made-for-TV movie entitled 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story, which used a new (but similarly colored) No. 3 logo. The movie was a sympathetic portrayal of Earnhardt's life, but the producers were sued for using the No. 3 logo. In December 2006, the ESPN lawsuit was settled, but details were not released to the public.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. made two special appearances in 2002 in a No. 3 Busch Series car: these appearances were at the track where his father died (Daytona) and the track where he made his first Winston Cup start (Charlotte). Earnhardt Jr. won the first of those two races, which was the season-opening event at Daytona. He also raced a No. 3 sponsored by Wrangler on July 2, 2010, for Richard Childress Racing at Daytona. In a green-white-checker finish he outran Joey Logano to win his second race in the No. 3.
Otherwise, the No. 3 was missing from the national touring series until September 5, 2009, when Austin Dillon, the 19-year-old grandson of Richard Childress, debuted an RCR-owned No. 3 truck in the Camping World Truck Series. Dillon and his younger brother Ty Dillon drove the No. 3 in various lower level competitions for several years, including the Camping World East Series. In 2012, Austin Dillon began driving in the Nationwide Series full-time, using the No. 3; he had previously used the No. 33 while driving in that series part-time.
Richard Childress Racing entered a No. 3 in the Daytona truck race on February 13, 2010, with a sponsorship from Bass Pro Shops driven by Austin Dillon. It was involved in a wreck almost identical to that which took the life of Earnhardt: being spun out, colliding with another vehicle, and being turned into the outside wall in turn number four. He walked away unscathed. Dillon again returned to a No. 3 marked racecar when he started fifth in the 2012 Daytona Nationwide Series opener in an Advocare sponsored black Chevrolet Impala. On December 11, 2013, RCR announced that Austin Dillon would drive the No. 3 car in the upcoming 2014 Sprint Cup season, bringing the number back to the series for the first time in 13 years.
Only the former International Race of Champions actually retired the No. 3, which they did in a rule change effective in 2004. Until the series folded in 2007, anyone wishing to use the No. 3 again had to use No. 03 instead.
Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo chose the number 3 as his permanent racing number when F1's rules changed to allow drivers to choose their own numbers for 2014 and stated on Twitter that part of the reason for his choice was that he was a fan of Earnhardt's, while his helmet design features the number stylized in the same way.
"Earnhardt Tower", a seating section at Daytona International Speedway was opened and named in his honor a month before his death at the track.
Earnhardt has several roads named after him, including a street in his hometown Kannapolis. Dale Earnhardt Boulevard (originally Earnhardt Road) is marked as exit 60 off Interstate 85, northeast of Charlotte. Dale Earnhardt Drive is also the start of The Dale Journey Trail, a self-guided driving tour of landmarks in the lives of Earnhardt and his family. The North Carolina Department of Transportation switched the designation of a road between Kannapolis and Mooresville near the headquarters of DEI (that used to be called NC 136) with NC 3, which was in Currituck County. In addition, exit 72 off Interstate 35W, one of the entrances to Texas Motor Speedway, is named "Dale Earnhardt Way".
Between the 2004 and 2005 JGTC (renamed Super GT from 2005) season, Hasemi Sport competed in the series with a sole black G'Zox-sponsored Nissan 350Z with the same number and letterset as Earnhardt on the roof.
During the NASCAR weekend races at Talladega Superspeedway on April 29, 2006 – May 1, 2006, the DEI cars competed in identical special black paint schemes on Dale Earnhardt Day, which is held annually on his birthday—April 29. Martin Truex Jr., won the Aaron's 312 in the black car, painted to reflect Earnhardt's Intimidating Black No. 3 NASCAR Busch Grand National series car. In the Nextel Cup race on May 1, No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.; No. 1 Martin Truex Jr.; and No. 15 Paul Menard competed in cars with the same type of paint scheme.
On June 18, 2006, at Michigan for the 3M Performance 400, Earnhardt Jr. ran a special vintage Budweiser car to honor his father and his grandfather Ralph Earnhardt. He finished third after rain caused the race to be cut short. The car was painted to resemble Ralph's 1956 dirt cars, and carried 1956-era Budweiser logos to complete the throwback look.
In the summer of 2007, Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI) with the Dale Earnhardt Foundation, announced it will fund an annual undergraduate scholarship at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, for students interested in motorsports and automotive engineering. Scholarship winners are also eligible to work at DEI in internships. The first winner was William Bostic, a senior at Clemson majoring in mechanical engineering.
In 2008, on the 50th anniversary of the first Daytona 500 race, DEI and RCR teamed up to make a special COT sporting Earnhardt's 1998 Daytona 500 paint scheme to honor the tenth anniversary of his Daytona 500 victory. In a tribute to all previous Daytona 500 winners, the winning drivers appeared in a lineup on stage, in chronological order. The throwback No. 3 car stood in the infield, in the approximate position Earnhardt would have taken in the processional. The throwback car featured the authentic 1998-era design on a current-era car, a concept similar to modern throwback jerseys in other sports. The car was later sold in 1:64 and 1:24 scale models.
The Intimidator 305 roller coaster has been open since April 2, 2010, at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. Named after Earnhardt, the ride's trains are modeled after his black-and-red Chevrolet. Another Intimidator was built at Carowinds, in Charlotte, North Carolina, which opened on March 27, 2010. The entrance to both roller coasters feature signage that shows Earnhardt's legacy along with one of his cars.
Atlanta Braves assistant coach Ned Yost was a friend of Earnhardt, and Richard Childress. When Yost was named Milwaukee Brewers manager, he changed jersey numbers, from No. 5 to No. 3 in Earnhardt's honor. (No. 3 is retired by the Braves in honor of outfielder Dale Murphy, so Yost could not make the change while in Atlanta.) When Yost was named Kansas City Royals assistant coach, he wore No. 2 for the 2010 season, even when he was named manager in May 2010, but for the 2011 season, he switched back to No. 3.
During the third lap of the 2011 Daytona 500 (a decade since Earnhardt's death), and 2021 Daytona 500 (two decades since Earnhardt's death) the commentators on FOX fell silent while fans raised three fingers in a similar fashion to the tributes throughout 2001.
The north entrance to New Avondale City Center in Arizona will bear the name Dale Earnhardt Drive. Avondale is where Earnhardt won a Cup race in 1990.
His helmet from the 1998 season is at the National Museum of American History in the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.
Weedeater, a sludge metal band from North Carolina, paid tribute to Earnhardt on their 2003 album Sixteen Tons, with the song "No. 3". The song is played with audio clips from television broadcasts about Earnhardt mixed in the background. He is also mentioned in a 2001 song composed by John Hiatt entitled The Tiki Bar Is Open, along with his legendary race number.
On February 28, 2016, after winning the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, during his victory lap, driver Jimmie Johnson held his hand out of his window, with three fingers extended in tribute to Earnhardt. This was following Johnson's 76th Cup Series win, which tied the career mark of Earnhardt's. This is also the track where Earnhardt claimed his sixth Winston Cup Series title.
In the week of the 2021 Formula One United States Grand Prix, McLaren driver, Daniel Ricciardo drove the iconic Wrangler car from the 1980s as a tribute to Earnhardt and his family, as Ricciardo has been a fan of Earnhardt since he was a child. The opportunity came after winning the Italian Grand Prix that year, and the McLaren Team Owner, Zak Brown promised him that he would give him a chance to drive the iconic car.
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
(key) | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Ralph Dale Earnhardt (/ˈɜːrnhɑːrt/; April 29, 1951 – February 18, 2001) was an American professional stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. His aggressive driving style earned him the nicknames \"the Intimidator\", \"the Man in Black\" and \"Ironhead\"; after his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the Cup Series circuit in 1999, Earnhardt was generally known by the retronyms Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Sr. He is regarded as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history and named as one of the NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers class in 1998.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The third child of racing driver Ralph Earnhardt and Martha Earnhardt, he began his career in 1975 in the World 600. Earnhardt won a total of 76 Winston Cup races over the course of his 26-year career, including four Winston 500s (1990, 1994, 1999, and 2000) and the 1998 Daytona 500. Along with his 76 career points wins, he has also won 24 non-points exhibition events, bringing his overall Winston Cup win total to 100, one of only four drivers in NASCAR history to do so. He is the only driver in NASCAR history to score at least one win in four different and consecutive decades (scoring his first career win in 1979, 38 wins in the 1980s, 35 wins in the 1990s, & scoring his final two career wins in 2000). He also earned seven Winston Cup championships, a record held with Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "On February 18, 2001, Earnhardt died in a sudden last-lap crash during the Daytona 500 due to a basilar skull fracture. His death was regarded in the racing industry as being a crucial moment in improving safety in all aspects of car racing, especially NASCAR. He was 49 years old. Earnhardt has been inducted into numerous halls of fame, including the NASCAR Hall of Fame inaugural class in 2010.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Ralph Dale Earnhardt was born on April 29, 1951, in the suburb of Kannapolis, North Carolina, as the third child of Martha (née Coleman, 1930–2021) and Ralph Earnhardt (1928-1973). Earnhardt's father was one of the best short-track drivers in North Carolina at the time and won his first and only NASCAR Sportsman Championship in 1956 at Greenville Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina. In 1963 at the age of 12, Dale Earnhardt secretly drove his father’s car in one of his races and had a near victory against one of his father's closest competitors. In 1972, he raced his father at Metrolina Speedway in a race with cars from semi mod and sportsman divisions. Although Ralph did not want his son to pursue a career as a race car driver, Dale dropped out of school to pursue his dreams. Ralph was a hard teacher for Dale, and after Ralph suddenly died of a heart attack at his home in 1973 at age 45, it took many years before Dale felt as though he had finally \"proven\" himself to his father. Earnhardt had four siblings: two brothers, Danny (died 2021) and Randy (died 2013); and two sisters, Cathy and Kaye.",
"title": "Biography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Earnhardt was married three times. In 1968, at the age of 17, Earnhardt married his first wife, Latane Brown. With her, Earnhardt fathered his first son, Kerry, a year later. Earnhardt and Brown divorced in 1970. In 1971, Earnhardt married his second wife, Brenda Gee, the daughter of NASCAR car builder Robert Gee. In his marriage with Gee, Earnhardt had two children: a daughter, Kelley King Earnhardt, in 1972, and a son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in 1974. Not long after Dale Jr. was born, Earnhardt and Gee divorced. Earnhardt then married his third wife, Teresa Houston, in 1982. She gave birth to their daughter, Taylor Nicole Earnhardt, in 1988.",
"title": "Biography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Earnhardt began his professional career in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in 1975, making his points race debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina in the longest race on the Cup circuit—the 1975 World 600. He had made his Grand National debut in 1974 in an unofficial invitational exhibition race at Metrolina Speedway, where with eight laps to go he got under Richard Childress and spun out when battling for third. He drove the No. 8 Ed Negre Dodge Charger and finished 22nd in that race, just one spot ahead of his future car owner, Richard Childress. Earnhardt competed in eight more races until 1979.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "When he joined car owner Rod Osterlund Racing in a season that included a rookie class of future stars including Earnhardt, Harry Gant, and Terry Labonte in his rookie season, Earnhardt won one race at Bristol, captured four poles, scored eleven Top 5s and seventeen Top 10s, and finished seventh in the points standings despite missing four races due to a broken collarbone, winning Rookie of the Year honors.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "During his sophomore season, Earnhardt, now with 20-year-old Doug Richert as his crew chief, began the season winning the Busch Clash. With wins at Atlanta, Bristol, Nashville, Martinsville, and Charlotte, Earnhardt won his first Winston Cup points championship. He is the only driver in NASCAR Cup history to follow a Rookie of the Year title with a NASCAR Winston Cup Championship the next season. He was also the third driver in NASCAR history to win both the Rookie of the Year and Winston Cup Series championship, following David Pearson (1960, 1966) and Richard Petty (1959, 1964). Ten drivers have since joined this exclusive club: Rusty Wallace (1984, 1989), Alan Kulwicki (1986, 1992), Jeff Gordon (1993, 1995), Tony Stewart (1999, 2002), Matt Kenseth (2000, 2003), Kevin Harvick (2001, 2014), Kyle Busch (2005, 2015), Joey Logano (2009, 2018), Chase Elliott (2016, 2020), and Kyle Larson (2014, 2021).",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "1981 would prove to be tumultuous for the defending Winston Cup champion. Sixteen races into the season, Rod Osterlund suddenly sold his team to Jim Stacy, an entrepreneur from Kentucky who entered NASCAR in 1977. After just four races, Earnhardt fell out with Stacy and left the team. Earnhardt finished out the year driving Pontiacs for Richard Childress Racing and managed to place seventh in the final points standings. Earnhardt departed RCR at the end of the season, citing a lack of chemistry.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Earnhardt was also a color commentator for the Busch Clash, while he also drove on that same day.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The following year, at Childress's suggestion, Earnhardt joined car owner Bud Moore for the 1982 and 1983 seasons driving the No. 15 Wrangler Jeans-sponsored Ford Thunderbird (the only full-time Ford ride in his career). During the 1982 season, Earnhardt struggled. Although he won at Darlington, he failed to finish 18 of the 30 races and ended the season 12th in points, the worst of his career. He also suffered a broken kneecap at Pocono Raceway when he flipped after contact with Tim Richmond. In 1983, Earnhardt rebounded and won his first of 12 Twin 125 Daytona 500 qualifying races. He won at Nashville and at Talladega, finishing eighth in the points standings, despite failing to finish 13 of the 30 races.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "After the 1983 season, Earnhardt returned to Richard Childress Racing, replacing Ricky Rudd in the No. 3. Rudd went to Bud Moore's No. 15, replacing Earnhardt. Wrangler sponsored both drivers at their respective teams. During the 1984 and 1985 seasons, Earnhardt went to victory lane six times, at Talladega, Atlanta, Richmond, Bristol (twice), and Martinsville, where he finished fourth and eighth in the season standings respectively.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The 1986 season saw Earnhardt win his second career Winston Cup Championship and the first owner's championship for Richard Childress Racing. He won five races and had 16 top-fives and 23 top-10s. Earnhardt successfully defended his championship the following year, going to victory lane 11 times and winning the championship by 489 points over Bill Elliott. In the process, Earnhardt set a NASCAR modern-era record of four consecutive wins and won five of the first seven races. In the 1987 season, he earned the nickname \"The Intimidator\", due in part to the 1987 Winston All-Star Race. During this race, Earnhardt was briefly forced into the infield grass but kept control of his car and returned to the track without giving up his lead. The maneuver is now referred to as the \"Pass in the Grass\", even though Earnhardt did not pass anyone while he was off the track. After The Winston, an angry fan sent Bill France Jr. a letter threatening to kill Earnhardt at Pocono, Watkins Glen, or Dover, prompting the FBI to provide security for Earnhardt on the three tracks. The investigation was closed after the races at the three tracks finished without incident. Many of Earnhardt's competitors on the racetrack disliked his personal driving style. Earnhardt's relentless pursuit of victory on the racetrack combined with his uniquely offensive driving ability led to many rivalries with fellow drivers and fines levied by NASCAR. In 1987, NASCAR began to implement a measure that was designed to incentivize less aggressive driving styles by forcing drivers who cause these undesired hazardous racing conditions to be subjected to time at the garage region during the race.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The 1988 season saw Earnhardt racing with a new sponsor, GM Goodwrench, after Wrangler Jeans dropped its sponsorship in 1987. During this season, he changed the color of his paint scheme from blue and yellow to the signature black in which the No. 3 car was painted for the rest of his life. He won three races in 1988, finishing third in the points standings behind Bill Elliott in first and Rusty Wallace in second. The following year, Earnhardt won five races, but a late spin out at North Wilkesboro arguably cost him the 1989 championship, as Rusty Wallace edged him out for it by 12 points (Earnhardt won the final race, but Wallace finished 15th when needing to finish at least 18th to win). It was his first season for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Lumina.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The 1990 season started for Earnhardt with victories in the Busch Clash and his heat of the Gatorade Twin 125's. Near the end of the Daytona 500, he had a dominant forty-second lead when the final caution flag came out with a handful of laps to go. When the green flag waved, Earnhardt was leading Derrike Cope. On the final lap, Earnhardt ran over a piece of metal, which was later revealed as a bell housing, in turn 3, cutting down a tire. Cope, in an upset, won the race while Earnhardt finished fifth after leading 155 of the 200 laps. The No. 3 Goodwrench-sponsored Chevy team took the flat tire that cost them the win and hung it on the shop wall as a reminder of how close they had come to winning the Daytona 500. Earnhardt won nine races that season and won his fourth Winston Cup title, beating Mark Martin by 26 points. He also became the first multiple winner of the annual all-star race, The Winston. The 1991 season saw Earnhardt win his fifth Winston Cup championship. This season, he scored four wins and won the championship by 195 points over Ricky Rudd. One of his wins came at North Wilkesboro, in a race where Harry Gant had a chance to set a single-season record by winning his fifth consecutive race, breaking a record held by Earnhardt. Late in the race, Gant lost his brakes, which gave Earnhardt the chance he needed to make the pass for the win and maintain his record.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Earnhardt's only win of the 1992 season came at Charlotte, in the Coca-Cola 600, ending a 13-race win streak by Ford teams. Earnhardt finished a career-low 12th in the points for the second time in his career, with three last place finishes (Daytona and Talladega in July and Martinsville in September), and the only time he had finished that low since joining Richard Childress Racing. He still made the trip to the annual Awards Banquet with Rusty Wallace but did not have the best seat in the house. Wallace stated he and Earnhardt had to sit on the backs of their chairs to see, and Earnhardt said, \"This sucks, I should have gone hunting.\" At the end of the year, longtime crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine left to become a driver. Andy Petree took over as crew chief. Hiring Petree turned out to be beneficial, as Earnhardt returned to the front in 1993. He once again came close to a win at the Daytona 500 and dominated Speedweeks before finishing second to Dale Jarrett on a last-lap pass. Earnhardt scored six wins en route to his sixth Winston Cup title, including wins in the first prime-time Coca-Cola 600 and The Winston, both at Charlotte, and the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. He beat Rusty Wallace for the championship by 80 points. On November 14, 1993, after the season-ending Hooters 500 at Atlanta, the race winner Wallace and 1993 series champion Earnhardt ran a dual Polish Victory Lap together while carrying #28 and #7 flags commemorating 1992 Daytona 500 winner Davey Allison and 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Alan Kulwicki respectively, who both had died in separate plane accidents during the season.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In 1994, Earnhardt achieved a feat that he himself had believed to be impossible—he scored his seventh Winston Cup championship, tying Richard Petty. He was very consistent, scoring four wins, and after Ernie Irvan was sidelined due to a near-deadly crash at Michigan (the two were neck-and-neck at the top of the points up until the crash), won the title by over 400 points over Mark Martin. Earnhardt sealed the deal at Rockingham by winning the race over Rick Mast. It was his final NASCAR championship and his final season for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Lumina. Earnhardt started off the 1995 season by finishing second in the Daytona 500 to Sterling Marlin. He won five races in 1995, including his first road course victory at Sears Point. He also won the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a win he called the biggest of his career. But in the end, Earnhardt lost the championship to Jeff Gordon by 34 points. The GM Goodwrench racing team changed to Chevrolet Monte Carlos.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Earnhardt almost was ready to leave the #3 at the end of the 1995 season, according to his former crew chief Larry McReynolds. At the time, McReynolds was the crew chief for the #28 Havoline Ford Thunderbird at Robert Yates Racing. Earnhardt had actually been approached by Yates to drive the #28 for the 1995 season in place of Ernie Irvan, who was injured in a crash during the 1994 season. Instead, Robert Yates signed Dale Jarrett to a one-year deal to drive the #28. During the 1995 season, Yates was being pressed by his manufacturer to start a second team and sent a contract to Earnhardt to drive it. Earnhardt never returned the contract, and according to McReynolds the reason he did not sign was because he only wanted to drive the #28 for Yates; the team fully intended to put Irvan back behind the wheel of his old car once he was able to resume driving. Instead, Earnhardt stayed with RCR and the #3, while Jarrett was signed to drive Yates’ new car, numbered 88.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "1996 for Earnhardt started just like it had done in 1993—he dominated Speedweeks, only to finish second in the Daytona 500 to Dale Jarrett for the second time. He won early in the year, scoring consecutive victories at Rockingham and Atlanta. On July 28 in the DieHard 500 at Talladega, he was second in points and looking for his eighth season title, despite the departure of crew chief Andy Petree. Late in the race, Ernie Irvan lost control of his No. 28 Havoline-sponsored Ford Thunderbird, made contact with the No. 4 Kodak-sponsored Chevy Monte Carlo of Sterling Marlin, and ignited a crash that saw Earnhardt's No. 3 Chevrolet hit the tri-oval wall nearly head-on at almost 200 mph. After hitting the wall, Earnhardt's car flipped and slid across the track, in front of race traffic. His car was hit in the roof and windshield. This accident, as well as a similar accident that led to the death of Russell Phillips at Charlotte, led NASCAR to mandate the \"Earnhardt Bar\", a metal brace located in the center of the windshield that reinforces the roof in case of a similar crash. This bar is also required in NASCAR-owned United SportsCar Racing and its predecessors for road racing.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Rain delays had canceled the live telecast of the race, and most fans first learned of the accident during the night's sports newscasts. Video of the crash showed what appeared to be a fatal incident, but once medical workers arrived at the car, Earnhardt climbed out and waved to the crowd, refusing to be loaded onto a stretcher despite a broken collarbone, sternum, and shoulder blade. Although the incident looked like it would end his season early, Earnhardt refused to stay out of the car. The next week at Indianapolis, he started the race but exited the car on the first pit stop, allowing Mike Skinner to take the wheel. When asked, Earnhardt said that vacating the No. 3 car was the hardest thing he had ever done. The following weekend at Watkins Glen, he drove the No. 3 Goodwrench Chevrolet to the fastest time in qualifying, earning the \"True Grit\" pole. T-shirts emblazoned with Earnhardt's face were quickly printed up, brandishing the caption, \"It Hurt So Good\". Earnhardt led for most of the race and looked to have victory in hand, but fatigue took its toll and he ended up sixth behind race winner Geoff Bodine. Earnhardt did not win again in 1996 but still finished fourth in the standings behind Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Jarrett, with 2 wins, 13 top fives, 17 top tens, and his last 2 career poles, with an average finish of 10.6. David Smith departed as crew chief of the No. 3 team and RCR at the end of the year for personal reasons, and he was replaced by Larry McReynolds.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In 1997, Earnhardt went winless for only the second time in his career. The only (non-points) win came during Speedweeks at Daytona in the Twin 125-mile qualifying race, his record eighth-straight win in the event. Once again in the hunt for the Daytona 500 with 10 laps to go, Earnhardt was taken out of contention by a late crash which sent his car upside down on the backstretch. He hit the low point of his year when he blacked out early in the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington in September, causing him to hit the wall. Afterward, he was disoriented, and it took several laps before he could find his pit stall. When asked, Earnhardt complained of double vision which made it difficult to pit. Mike Dillon (Richard Childress's son-in-law) was brought in to relieve Earnhardt for the remainder of the race. Earnhardt was evaluated at a local hospital and cleared to race the next week, but the cause of the blackout and double vision was never determined. Despite no wins, Earnhardt finished the season fifth in the final standings with 7 top fives and 16 top tens, with an average finish of 12.1.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "On February 15, 1998, Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500 in his 20th attempt after failing to win in his previous 19 attempts. He began the season by winning his Twin 125-mile qualifier race for the ninth straight year, and the week before was the first to drive around the track under the newly installed lights, for coincidentally 20 laps. On race day, he showed himself to be a contender early. Halfway through the race, however, it seemed that Jeff Gordon had the upper hand. But by lap 138, Earnhardt had taken the lead and thanks to a push by teammate Mike Skinner, he maintained it. Earnhardt made it to the caution-checkered flag before Bobby Labonte. Afterwards, there was a large show of respect for Earnhardt, in which every crew member of every team lined pit road to shake his hand as he made his way to victory lane. Earnhardt then drove his No. 3 into the infield grass, starting a trend of post-race celebrations. He spun the car twice, throwing grass and leaving tire tracks in the shape of a No. 3 in the grass. He then spoke about the victory, saying, \"I have had a lot of great fans and people behind me all through the years and I just can't thank them enough. The Daytona 500 is ours. We won it, we won it, we won it!\" The rest of the season did not go as well, and the Daytona 500 was his only victory that year. Despite that, he did almost pull off a Daytona sweep, where he was one of the contenders for the win in the first nighttime Pepsi 400, but a pit stop late in the race in which a rogue tire cost him the race win. He slipped to 12th in the point standings halfway through the season, and Richard Childress decided to make a crew chief change, taking Mike Skinner's crew chief Kevin Hamlin and putting him with Earnhardt while giving Skinner Larry McReynolds (Earnhardt's crew chief). Earnhardt finished the 1998 season eighth in the final points standings, with 1 win, 5 top fives, and 13 top tens, with an average finish of 16.2.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Before the 1999 season, fans began discussing Earnhardt's age and speculating that with his son, Dale Jr., making his Winston Cup debut, Earnhardt might be contemplating retirement. Earnhardt swept both races for the year at Talladega, leading some to conclude that his talent had become limited to the restrictor plate tracks, which require a unique skill set and an exceptionally powerful racecar to win. But halfway through the year, Earnhardt began to show some of the old spark. In the August race at Michigan, he led laps late in the race and nearly pulled off his first win on a non-restrictor-plate track since 1996. One week later, he provided NASCAR with one of its most controversial moments. At the Bristol night race, Earnhardt found himself in contention to win his first short track race since Martinsville in 1995. When a caution came out with 15 laps to go, leader Terry Labonte got hit from behind by the lapped car of Darrell Waltrip. His spin put Earnhardt in the lead with five cars between him and Labonte with five laps to go. Labonte had four fresh tires, and Earnhardt was driving on old tires, which made Earnhardt's car considerably slower. Labonte caught Earnhardt and passed him coming to the white flag, but Earnhardt drove hard into turn two, bumping Labonte and spinning him around. Earnhardt collected the win while spectators booed and made obscene gestures. \"I didn't mean to turn him around, I just wanted to rattle his cage,\" Earnhardt said of the incident. He finished seventh in the standings that year, with 3 wins, 7 top fives, and 21 top tens, with an average finish of 12.0.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In the 2000 season, Earnhardt had a resurgence, which was commonly attributed to neck surgery he underwent to correct a lingering injury from his 1996 Talladega crash. He scored what were considered the two most exciting wins of the year—winning by 0.010 seconds over Bobby Labonte at Atlanta, then gaining seventeen positions in the final four laps to win at Talladega, claiming his only No Bull million-dollar bonus along with his record 10th win at the track. Earnhardt also had second-place runs at Richmond and Martinsville, tracks where he had struggled through the late 1990s. On the strength of those performances, Earnhardt got to second in the standings. However, poor performances at the road course of Watkins Glen, where he wrecked coming out of the chicane, a wreck with Kenny Irwin Jr. while leading the spring race at Bristol, and mid-pack runs at intermediate tracks like Charlotte and Dover in a season dominated by the Ford Taurus in those tracks from Roush, Yates, and Penske, coupled with Bobby Labonte's extreme consistency, denied Earnhardt an eighth championship title. Earnhardt finished 2000 with two wins, 13 top fives, 24 top tens, an average finish of 9.4, and was the only driver besides Labonte to finish the season with zero DNF's.",
"title": "NASCAR career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "During the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2001, Earnhardt was killed in a three-car crash on the final lap of the race. He collided with Ken Schrader after making small contact with Sterling Marlin and hit the outside wall head-on. He had been blocking Schrader on the outside and Marlin on the inside at the time of the crash. Earnhardt's and Schrader's cars both slid off the track's asphalt banking into the infield grass just inside of turn 4. Seconds later, his driver Michael Waltrip won the race, with Michael’s teammate and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishing second. Earnhardt was pronounced dead at the Halifax Medical Center at 5:16 pm Eastern Standard Time (22:16 UTC); he was 49 years old. NASCAR president Mike Helton confirmed Earnhardt's death in a statement to the press. An autopsy conducted on February 19, 2001, concluded that Earnhardt sustained a fatal basilar skull fracture. Four days later, on February 22, public funeral services for Earnhardt were held at the Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "After Earnhardt's death, two investigations led by the Daytona Beach Police Department and NASCAR commenced; nearly every detail of the crash was made public. The allegations of seatbelt failure resulted in Bill Simpson's resignation from the company bearing his name, which manufactured the seatbelts used in Earnhardt's car and nearly every other NASCAR driver's car. NASCAR implemented rigorous safety improvements, such as mandating the HANS device, which Earnhardt refused to wear after finding it restrictive and uncomfortable. Several press conferences were held in the days following Earnhardt's death. After driver Sterling Marlin and his relatives received hate mail and death threats from angry fans, Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. absolved him of any responsibility. Richard Childress made a public pledge that the number 3 would never again adorn the side of a black race car with a GM Goodwrench sponsorship. The number returned for the 2014 season, this time not sponsored by GM Goodwrench (which was rebranded GM Certified Service in 2011), driven by Childress's grandson Austin Dillon.",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "At this time, his team was re-christened as the No. 29 team. Childress's second-year Busch Series driver Kevin Harvick was named as Earnhardt's replacement, beginning with the 2001 Dura Lube 400 at North Carolina Speedway. Special pennants bearing the No. 3 were distributed to everyone at the track to honor Earnhardt, and the Childress team wore blank uniforms out of respect, something which disappeared quickly and was soon replaced by the previous GM Goodwrench Service Plus uniforms. Harvick's car always displayed the Earnhardt stylized number 3 on the \"B\" posts (metal portion on each side of the car to the rear of the front windows) above the number 29 until the end of 2013, when he departed for Stewart-Haas Racing.",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Fans began honoring Earnhardt by holding three fingers aloft on the third lap of every race, a black screen of No. 3 in the beginning of NASCAR Thunder 2002 before the EA Sports logo, and the television coverage of NASCAR on Fox and NASCAR on NBC went silent for each third lap from Rockingham to the following year's race there in honor of Earnhardt, unless on-track incidents brought out the caution flag on the third lap. Three weeks after Earnhardt's death, Harvick, driving a car that had been prepared for Earnhardt, scored his first career Cup win at Atlanta. On the final lap of the 2001 Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500, he beat Jeff Gordon by .006 seconds (the margin being 0.004 of a second closer than Earnhardt had won over Bobby Labonte at the same race a year ago) in an identical photo finish, and the images of Earnhardt's longtime gas man Danny \"Chocolate\" Myers crying after the victory, Harvick's tire-smoking burnout on the frontstretch with three fingers held aloft outside the driver's window. The win was also considered cathartic for a sport whose epicenter had been ripped away. Harvick would win another race at the inaugural event at Chicagoland en route to a ninth-place finish in the final points, and won Rookie of the Year honors along with the 2001 NASCAR Busch Series Championship.",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Dale Earnhardt, Inc. won five races in the 2001 season, beginning with Steve Park's victory in the race at Rockingham just one week after Earnhardt's death. Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip finished first and second in the series' return to Daytona in July for the Pepsi 400, a reverse of the finish in the Daytona 500. Earnhardt Jr. also won the fall races at Dover (first post 9/11 race) and Talladega and came to an eighth-place points finish.",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Earnhardt's remains were interred at his estate in Mooresville, North Carolina after a private funeral service on February 21, 2001.",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Earnhardt drove the No. 3 car for the majority of his career, spanning the latter half of the 1981 season, and then again from 1984 until his death in 2001. Although he had other sponsors during his career, his No. 3 is associated in fans' minds with his last sponsor GM Goodwrench and his last color scheme — a predominantly black car with bold red and silver trim. The black and red No. 3 continues to be one of the most famous logos in North American motor racing.",
"title": "No. 3 car"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "A common misconception was that Richard Childress Racing \"owned the rights\" to the No. 3 in NASCAR competition (fueled by the fact that Kevin Harvick's car had a little No. 3 as an homage to Earnhardt from 2001 to 2013 and the usage of the No. 3 on the Camping World Truck Series truck of Ty Dillon when he ran in that series), but in fact NASCAR, and no specific team, owns the rights to this or any other number. According to established NASCAR procedures, Richard Childress Racing had priority over other teams if they chose to reuse the number, which they did when Austin Dillon was promoted to the Cup series in 2014. While Richard Childress Racing owns the stylized No. 3 logos used during Earnhardt's lifetime (and used presently with Dillon), those rights would hypothetically not prevent a future racing team from using a different No. 3 design (also, a new No. 3 team would most likely, in any case, need to create logos which fit with their sponsor's logos).",
"title": "No. 3 car"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In 2004, ESPN released a made-for-TV movie entitled 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story, which used a new (but similarly colored) No. 3 logo. The movie was a sympathetic portrayal of Earnhardt's life, but the producers were sued for using the No. 3 logo. In December 2006, the ESPN lawsuit was settled, but details were not released to the public.",
"title": "No. 3 car"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Dale Earnhardt Jr. made two special appearances in 2002 in a No. 3 Busch Series car: these appearances were at the track where his father died (Daytona) and the track where he made his first Winston Cup start (Charlotte). Earnhardt Jr. won the first of those two races, which was the season-opening event at Daytona. He also raced a No. 3 sponsored by Wrangler on July 2, 2010, for Richard Childress Racing at Daytona. In a green-white-checker finish he outran Joey Logano to win his second race in the No. 3.",
"title": "No. 3 car"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Otherwise, the No. 3 was missing from the national touring series until September 5, 2009, when Austin Dillon, the 19-year-old grandson of Richard Childress, debuted an RCR-owned No. 3 truck in the Camping World Truck Series. Dillon and his younger brother Ty Dillon drove the No. 3 in various lower level competitions for several years, including the Camping World East Series. In 2012, Austin Dillon began driving in the Nationwide Series full-time, using the No. 3; he had previously used the No. 33 while driving in that series part-time.",
"title": "No. 3 car"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Richard Childress Racing entered a No. 3 in the Daytona truck race on February 13, 2010, with a sponsorship from Bass Pro Shops driven by Austin Dillon. It was involved in a wreck almost identical to that which took the life of Earnhardt: being spun out, colliding with another vehicle, and being turned into the outside wall in turn number four. He walked away unscathed. Dillon again returned to a No. 3 marked racecar when he started fifth in the 2012 Daytona Nationwide Series opener in an Advocare sponsored black Chevrolet Impala. On December 11, 2013, RCR announced that Austin Dillon would drive the No. 3 car in the upcoming 2014 Sprint Cup season, bringing the number back to the series for the first time in 13 years.",
"title": "No. 3 car"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Only the former International Race of Champions actually retired the No. 3, which they did in a rule change effective in 2004. Until the series folded in 2007, anyone wishing to use the No. 3 again had to use No. 03 instead.",
"title": "No. 3 car"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo chose the number 3 as his permanent racing number when F1's rules changed to allow drivers to choose their own numbers for 2014 and stated on Twitter that part of the reason for his choice was that he was a fan of Earnhardt's, while his helmet design features the number stylized in the same way.",
"title": "No. 3 car"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "\"Earnhardt Tower\", a seating section at Daytona International Speedway was opened and named in his honor a month before his death at the track.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Earnhardt has several roads named after him, including a street in his hometown Kannapolis. Dale Earnhardt Boulevard (originally Earnhardt Road) is marked as exit 60 off Interstate 85, northeast of Charlotte. Dale Earnhardt Drive is also the start of The Dale Journey Trail, a self-guided driving tour of landmarks in the lives of Earnhardt and his family. The North Carolina Department of Transportation switched the designation of a road between Kannapolis and Mooresville near the headquarters of DEI (that used to be called NC 136) with NC 3, which was in Currituck County. In addition, exit 72 off Interstate 35W, one of the entrances to Texas Motor Speedway, is named \"Dale Earnhardt Way\".",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Between the 2004 and 2005 JGTC (renamed Super GT from 2005) season, Hasemi Sport competed in the series with a sole black G'Zox-sponsored Nissan 350Z with the same number and letterset as Earnhardt on the roof.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "During the NASCAR weekend races at Talladega Superspeedway on April 29, 2006 – May 1, 2006, the DEI cars competed in identical special black paint schemes on Dale Earnhardt Day, which is held annually on his birthday—April 29. Martin Truex Jr., won the Aaron's 312 in the black car, painted to reflect Earnhardt's Intimidating Black No. 3 NASCAR Busch Grand National series car. In the Nextel Cup race on May 1, No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.; No. 1 Martin Truex Jr.; and No. 15 Paul Menard competed in cars with the same type of paint scheme.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "On June 18, 2006, at Michigan for the 3M Performance 400, Earnhardt Jr. ran a special vintage Budweiser car to honor his father and his grandfather Ralph Earnhardt. He finished third after rain caused the race to be cut short. The car was painted to resemble Ralph's 1956 dirt cars, and carried 1956-era Budweiser logos to complete the throwback look.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "In the summer of 2007, Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI) with the Dale Earnhardt Foundation, announced it will fund an annual undergraduate scholarship at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, for students interested in motorsports and automotive engineering. Scholarship winners are also eligible to work at DEI in internships. The first winner was William Bostic, a senior at Clemson majoring in mechanical engineering.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In 2008, on the 50th anniversary of the first Daytona 500 race, DEI and RCR teamed up to make a special COT sporting Earnhardt's 1998 Daytona 500 paint scheme to honor the tenth anniversary of his Daytona 500 victory. In a tribute to all previous Daytona 500 winners, the winning drivers appeared in a lineup on stage, in chronological order. The throwback No. 3 car stood in the infield, in the approximate position Earnhardt would have taken in the processional. The throwback car featured the authentic 1998-era design on a current-era car, a concept similar to modern throwback jerseys in other sports. The car was later sold in 1:64 and 1:24 scale models.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The Intimidator 305 roller coaster has been open since April 2, 2010, at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. Named after Earnhardt, the ride's trains are modeled after his black-and-red Chevrolet. Another Intimidator was built at Carowinds, in Charlotte, North Carolina, which opened on March 27, 2010. The entrance to both roller coasters feature signage that shows Earnhardt's legacy along with one of his cars.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Atlanta Braves assistant coach Ned Yost was a friend of Earnhardt, and Richard Childress. When Yost was named Milwaukee Brewers manager, he changed jersey numbers, from No. 5 to No. 3 in Earnhardt's honor. (No. 3 is retired by the Braves in honor of outfielder Dale Murphy, so Yost could not make the change while in Atlanta.) When Yost was named Kansas City Royals assistant coach, he wore No. 2 for the 2010 season, even when he was named manager in May 2010, but for the 2011 season, he switched back to No. 3.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "During the third lap of the 2011 Daytona 500 (a decade since Earnhardt's death), and 2021 Daytona 500 (two decades since Earnhardt's death) the commentators on FOX fell silent while fans raised three fingers in a similar fashion to the tributes throughout 2001.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The north entrance to New Avondale City Center in Arizona will bear the name Dale Earnhardt Drive. Avondale is where Earnhardt won a Cup race in 1990.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "His helmet from the 1998 season is at the National Museum of American History in the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Weedeater, a sludge metal band from North Carolina, paid tribute to Earnhardt on their 2003 album Sixteen Tons, with the song \"No. 3\". The song is played with audio clips from television broadcasts about Earnhardt mixed in the background. He is also mentioned in a 2001 song composed by John Hiatt entitled The Tiki Bar Is Open, along with his legendary race number.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "On February 28, 2016, after winning the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, during his victory lap, driver Jimmie Johnson held his hand out of his window, with three fingers extended in tribute to Earnhardt. This was following Johnson's 76th Cup Series win, which tied the career mark of Earnhardt's. This is also the track where Earnhardt claimed his sixth Winston Cup Series title.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "In the week of the 2021 Formula One United States Grand Prix, McLaren driver, Daniel Ricciardo drove the iconic Wrangler car from the 1980s as a tribute to Earnhardt and his family, as Ricciardo has been a fan of Earnhardt since he was a child. The opportunity came after winning the Italian Grand Prix that year, and the McLaren Team Owner, Zak Brown promised him that he would give him a chance to drive the iconic car.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)",
"title": "Motorsports career results"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)",
"title": "Motorsports career results"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)",
"title": "Motorsports career results"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "(key)",
"title": "Motorsports career results"
}
] | Ralph Dale Earnhardt was an American professional stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series, most notably driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. His aggressive driving style earned him the nicknames "the Intimidator", "the Man in Black" and "Ironhead"; after his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the Cup Series circuit in 1999, Earnhardt was generally known by the retronyms Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Sr. He is regarded as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history and named as one of the NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers class in 1998. The third child of racing driver Ralph Earnhardt and Martha Earnhardt, he began his career in 1975 in the World 600. Earnhardt won a total of 76 Winston Cup races over the course of his 26-year career, including four Winston 500s and the 1998 Daytona 500. Along with his 76 career points wins, he has also won 24 non-points exhibition events, bringing his overall Winston Cup win total to 100, one of only four drivers in NASCAR history to do so. He is the only driver in NASCAR history to score at least one win in four different and consecutive decades. He also earned seven Winston Cup championships, a record held with Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson. On February 18, 2001, Earnhardt died in a sudden last-lap crash during the Daytona 500 due to a basilar skull fracture. His death was regarded in the racing industry as being a crucial moment in improving safety in all aspects of car racing, especially NASCAR. He was 49 years old. Earnhardt has been inducted into numerous halls of fame, including the NASCAR Hall of Fame inaugural class in 2010. | 2001-02-22T04:42:57Z | 2023-11-30T03:12:45Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Earnhardt |
7,896 | List of games based on Dune | A number of games have been published based on the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert.
To date, there have been five licensed Dune-related video games released. There have also been many Dune-based MUDs (Multi-User Dimension) and browser-based online games, all created and run by fans.
1992's Dune from Cryo Interactive/Virgin Interactive blends adventure with strategy. Loosely following the story of the 1965 novel Dune and using many visual elements from the 1984 film of the same name by David Lynch, the game casts the player as Paul Atreides, with the ultimate goal of driving the Harkonnens from the planet Dune and taking control of its valuable export, the spice. Key to success is the management of spice mining, military forces, and ecology as the player amasses allies and skills. One aspect of the game allows the player to terraform Arrakis from a desert into a fertile and green planet, at the cost of sandworm habitat and reduced melange spice production.
Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, later retitled Dune II: Battle for Arrakis for the European release and the Mega Drive/Genesis port, was released in December 1992 from Westwood Studios/Virgin Interactive. Often considered to be the first "mainstream modern real-time strategy game", Dune II established many conventions of the genre. Only loosely connected to the plot of the novels or films, the game pits three interplanetary houses — the Atreides, the Harkonnens, and the Ordos — against each other for control of the planet Arrakis and its valuable spice, all while fending off the destructive natural forces of the harsh desert planet itself.
Dune 2000, a 1998 remake of Dune II from Intelligent Games/Westwood Studios/Virgin Interactive, added improved graphics and live-action cutscenes. Though gameplay is similar to its predecessor, Dune 2000 features an enhanced storyline and functionality.
Emperor: Battle for Dune (Intelligent Games/Westwood Studios/Electronic Arts) was released on June 12, 2001. A sequel to Dune 2000, the real-time strategy game features 3D graphics and live-action cutscenes, and casts players as Atreides, Harkonnens, or Ordos.
Released in 2001 by Cryo Interactive/DreamCatcher Interactive, Frank Herbert's Dune is a 3D video game based on the 2000 Sci Fi Channel miniseries of the same name. As Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, the player must become leader of the Fremen, seize control of Dune, and defeat the evil Baron Harkonnen. The game was not a commercial or critical success, and Cryo subsequently filed for bankruptcy in July 2002.
In 2001, Cryonetworks disclosed information about Dune Generations, an online, 3D real-time strategy game set in the Dune universe. An official website for the upcoming game featured concept images, a brief background story and description of the persistent gameworld, and a list of frequently asked questions. The game would be constructed using Cryo's own online multimedia development framework SCOL.
Within "the infrastructure of a permanent and massive multiplayer world that exists online", Dune Generations would let players assume control of a dynasty in the Dune universe, with the goal of first mastering the natural resources of their own homeworlds and ultimately rising in power and influence through conflicts and alliances with other player dynasties. Each of the three available dynasty types - traders, soldiers, or mercenaries - would provide a different playing experience, all with the long-term goal of gaining control of Arrakis and its valuable spice.
A preview video trailer was released in November 2001. The game was still in the alpha testing stage in February 2002, and the project was ultimately halted after Cryo filed for bankruptcy in July.
Dune: Ornithopter Assault was developed by Hungarian studio Soft Brigade 2 for the Game Boy Advance, but was cancelled in 2002. The game was to be a 3D air-to-ground shooter featuring 20 missions, five modes, and multiplayer Link Cable connectivity. Without the license, the game was eventually released as Elland: The Crystal Wars on PC.
The Dune Wars mod is a total conversion of Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword to the Dune setting. The mod was featured by Tom Chick in the relaunched Tom vs Bruce series. In 2015 an updated version of the mod called Dune Wars: Revival was released.
Dune: Spice Wars is released on Steam in Early Access by French development studio Shiro Games on April 26, 2022. The game is inspired by Dune and Dune 2 with a strong influence by the books rather than the movies. The new game is a hybrid of RTS and 4X game mechanism, according to the studio: "Is it an RTS or a 4X? It is both. The game is real time, but the pace is slower than in a typical RTS (and you can pause and fast forward). The game also features exploration, territory control, economic growth, combat, politics and spying, features that make it a true 4X game but do not detract from the core RTS experience that players would expect."
Dune: Awakening is an upcoming open-world action survival MMO game set on the planet Arrakis, where players can enjoy exploration of Dune. It was first announced by its publisher and developer Funcom on Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022; the release date has not been revealed, and it will be released on PS5, PC and Xbox Series X/S. The first trailer was premiered on August 23, 2022.
Dune II was an unlicensed, online multiplayer MUSH active in the early 1990s.
Behind the Dune is an unlicensed online flash single player game first released in 2016. The game is based on Dune (1992) by Cryo Interactive. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A number of games have been published based on the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "To date, there have been five licensed Dune-related video games released. There have also been many Dune-based MUDs (Multi-User Dimension) and browser-based online games, all created and run by fans.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "1992's Dune from Cryo Interactive/Virgin Interactive blends adventure with strategy. Loosely following the story of the 1965 novel Dune and using many visual elements from the 1984 film of the same name by David Lynch, the game casts the player as Paul Atreides, with the ultimate goal of driving the Harkonnens from the planet Dune and taking control of its valuable export, the spice. Key to success is the management of spice mining, military forces, and ecology as the player amasses allies and skills. One aspect of the game allows the player to terraform Arrakis from a desert into a fertile and green planet, at the cost of sandworm habitat and reduced melange spice production.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, later retitled Dune II: Battle for Arrakis for the European release and the Mega Drive/Genesis port, was released in December 1992 from Westwood Studios/Virgin Interactive. Often considered to be the first \"mainstream modern real-time strategy game\", Dune II established many conventions of the genre. Only loosely connected to the plot of the novels or films, the game pits three interplanetary houses — the Atreides, the Harkonnens, and the Ordos — against each other for control of the planet Arrakis and its valuable spice, all while fending off the destructive natural forces of the harsh desert planet itself.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Dune 2000, a 1998 remake of Dune II from Intelligent Games/Westwood Studios/Virgin Interactive, added improved graphics and live-action cutscenes. Though gameplay is similar to its predecessor, Dune 2000 features an enhanced storyline and functionality.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Emperor: Battle for Dune (Intelligent Games/Westwood Studios/Electronic Arts) was released on June 12, 2001. A sequel to Dune 2000, the real-time strategy game features 3D graphics and live-action cutscenes, and casts players as Atreides, Harkonnens, or Ordos.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Released in 2001 by Cryo Interactive/DreamCatcher Interactive, Frank Herbert's Dune is a 3D video game based on the 2000 Sci Fi Channel miniseries of the same name. As Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, the player must become leader of the Fremen, seize control of Dune, and defeat the evil Baron Harkonnen. The game was not a commercial or critical success, and Cryo subsequently filed for bankruptcy in July 2002.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 2001, Cryonetworks disclosed information about Dune Generations, an online, 3D real-time strategy game set in the Dune universe. An official website for the upcoming game featured concept images, a brief background story and description of the persistent gameworld, and a list of frequently asked questions. The game would be constructed using Cryo's own online multimedia development framework SCOL.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Within \"the infrastructure of a permanent and massive multiplayer world that exists online\", Dune Generations would let players assume control of a dynasty in the Dune universe, with the goal of first mastering the natural resources of their own homeworlds and ultimately rising in power and influence through conflicts and alliances with other player dynasties. Each of the three available dynasty types - traders, soldiers, or mercenaries - would provide a different playing experience, all with the long-term goal of gaining control of Arrakis and its valuable spice.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "A preview video trailer was released in November 2001. The game was still in the alpha testing stage in February 2002, and the project was ultimately halted after Cryo filed for bankruptcy in July.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Dune: Ornithopter Assault was developed by Hungarian studio Soft Brigade 2 for the Game Boy Advance, but was cancelled in 2002. The game was to be a 3D air-to-ground shooter featuring 20 missions, five modes, and multiplayer Link Cable connectivity. Without the license, the game was eventually released as Elland: The Crystal Wars on PC.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Dune Wars mod is a total conversion of Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword to the Dune setting. The mod was featured by Tom Chick in the relaunched Tom vs Bruce series. In 2015 an updated version of the mod called Dune Wars: Revival was released.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Dune: Spice Wars is released on Steam in Early Access by French development studio Shiro Games on April 26, 2022. The game is inspired by Dune and Dune 2 with a strong influence by the books rather than the movies. The new game is a hybrid of RTS and 4X game mechanism, according to the studio: \"Is it an RTS or a 4X? It is both. The game is real time, but the pace is slower than in a typical RTS (and you can pause and fast forward). The game also features exploration, territory control, economic growth, combat, politics and spying, features that make it a true 4X game but do not detract from the core RTS experience that players would expect.\"",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Dune: Awakening is an upcoming open-world action survival MMO game set on the planet Arrakis, where players can enjoy exploration of Dune. It was first announced by its publisher and developer Funcom on Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022; the release date has not been revealed, and it will be released on PS5, PC and Xbox Series X/S. The first trailer was premiered on August 23, 2022.",
"title": "Video games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Dune II was an unlicensed, online multiplayer MUSH active in the early 1990s.",
"title": "Online games"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Behind the Dune is an unlicensed online flash single player game first released in 2016. The game is based on Dune (1992) by Cryo Interactive.",
"title": "Online games"
}
] | A number of games have been published based on the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. | 2001-03-01T11:16:28Z | 2023-11-20T23:37:09Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_based_on_Dune |
7,900 | List of Dune characters | Dune is a science fiction media franchise that originated with the 1965 novel of the same name by American author Frank Herbert. Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history, and won the 1966 Hugo Award as well as the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Herbert wrote five sequels before his death in 1986: Dune Messiah (1969), Children of Dune (1976), God Emperor of Dune (1981), Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985).
Dune follows Paul, the scion of House Atreides, as his family is thrown into the dangerous political intrigues centered on the desert planet Arrakis, only known source of the oracular spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The series spans 5,000 years, focusing on Paul and then his various descendants.
Dune was adapted as a 1984 film, and again in two parts, the films Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024). Additionally, the novel was adapted as a 2000 television miniseries, and the first two sequels were also adapted as a single miniseries in 2003.
Since 1999, Herbert's son Brian Herbert and science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson have published 15 prequel novels, collected in the series Prelude to Dune (1999–2001), Legends of Dune (2002–2004), Heroes of Dune (2008–2023), Great Schools of Dune (2012–2016), and The Caladan Trilogy (2020–2022). They have also released two sequel novels—Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007)—which complete the original series.
In Dune, Paul is the teenage son and heir of Duke Leto Atreides and Lady Jessica, whose family is thrown into the dangerous political intrigues centered on the inhospitable desert planet Arrakis, only known source of the oracular spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. Paul has been trained by his father and several Atreides attendants in fighting and the art of war, and by his mother in some of her Bene Gesserit disciplines. Paul also possesses burgeoning prescient abilities, which are further unlocked by the inescapable exposure to melange on Arrakis. House Atreides is soon betrayed and scattered, with Leto killed, his forces decimated, and Paul and Jessica forced to flee into the open desert. They are taken in by the native Fremen, a secretive population of fierce fighters who thrive despite the scarcity of water and presence of aggressive, giant sandworms. Paul rises to lead the planetwide Fremen forces against the Imperial stranglehold over Arrakis, ultimately seizing control of the planet and deposing Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. In Dune Messiah, Paul's empire is challenged by the conspiracies of various factions hoping to destroy him, while a jihad in his name rages across the universe. Children of Dune finds Paul's heirs trying to maintain the already declining empire he has abandoned.
Paul is portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan in the 1984 film adaptation Dune, and by Alec Newman in the 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its 2003 sequel, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. The character is played by Timothée Chalamet in the 2021 film Dune and its sequel, Dune: Part Two (2024).
In Dune, Lady Jessica is the concubine of Duke Leto and the mother of his son Paul and daughter Alia. Jessica is one of the Bene Gesserit, a secretive, matriarchal order who achieve superhuman abilities through physical and mental conditioning and the use of the drug melange. Instructed by the Bene Gesserit to first conceive a daughter with Leto to further the order's centuries-long breeding program, she disobeyed out of love for Leto, and gave him a son. This seemingly minor misstep puts the Atreides bloodline on a collision course with events that will ultimately change the fate of the universe. Pregnant with Alia, Jessica flees into the desert with Paul as House Atreides is all but destroyed by the forces of the wicked Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Finding refuge with the native Fremen, she and Paul take advantage of the legends planted there by Bene Gesserit religious engineering, casting themselves as the prophesied messiah and his mother. Jessica undergoes the Fremen version of the Bene Gesserit spice agony ritual, becoming a Reverend Mother and unlocking Other Memory, the personas and memories of all her female ancestors. But doing so while pregnant subjects the unborn Alia to an onslaught of heightened awareness for which her fragile consciousness is not prepared. Jessica returns to Arrakis in Children of Dune and recognizes that Alia, who serves as regent for Paul and Chani's twin children, Leto II and Ghanima, has succumbed to the dangers of her unique birth and become possessed. Jessica escapes an assassination attempt by Alia, and trains Farad'n, the grandson of Shaddam IV, in the Bene Gesserit way.
Lady Jessica is portrayed by Francesca Annis in the 1984 film. Saskia Reeves plays the role in the 2000 miniseries, and is succeeded by Alice Krige in its 2003 sequel. Rebecca Ferguson portrays Jessica in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.
Duke Leto Atreides is the planetary governor of the ocean planet Caladan who takes over the lucrative spice mining operations on the desert planet Arrakis at the behest of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. Knowing it is some kind of trap but unable to refuse the assignment, Leto proactively seeks an alliance with the native Fremen, people tempered by the planet's harsh conditions who Leto realizes are an underestimated and untapped resource. He is accompanied to Arrakis by his Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, with whom he is in love but has not married to allow for the possibility of a politically advantageous marriage, and his son and heir, Paul. Threatened by Leto's growing influence among the Landsraad assembly of noble families, Shaddam has aligned himself with Leto's enemy, the Baron Harkonnen. The Harkonnens, secretly bolstered by Shaddam's fierce Sardaukar warriors and aided by Leto's own personal physician, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, launch an attack that decimates the Atreides forces. Leto is taken prisoner by the Baron, and dies attempting to kill him.
The character has been described as "regal and doomed", and "warmly protective but all-too-vulnerable".
Leto is portrayed by Jürgen Prochnow in the 1984 film. Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant called Prochnow "mesmerizing" in the role, with "a commanding screen presence" that "brought slightly more grit" than subsequent portrayals. William Hurt plays Leto in the 2000 miniseries. Hurt was the first actor to be cast in the 2000 adaptation. A fan of the novel, he told The New York Times, "I was a science fiction junkie ... [Director John Harrison] captured Herbert's prophetic reflection of our own age, where nation-states are competing with the new global economy and its corporate elements." Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com wrote that Hurt "brings a certain reserved calm that works for the character." Leto is portrayed by Oscar Isaac in the 2021 film. Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge wrote, "Isaac exudes a sense of righteous honor, and it’s easy to see both why his men would follow him to a forsaken desert world and why he falls so thoroughly into the political traps."
In 2020, Funko produced a Duke Leto figure as part of their POP! Television line. It is a 4.5-inch (11 cm) vinyl figure in the Japanese chibi style, depicting Leto in armor and styled after the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film.
Leto is also a primary character in the prequel trilogies Prelude to Dune and The Caladan Trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Prelude to Dune, young Leto's mother, Helena, arranges for his father, expert bullfighter Duke Paulus Atreides, to be killed by a drugged Salusan bull so she can rule Caladan as Leto's regent. He exiles his mother to a distant convent to avoid the scandal of a public execution, and as duke takes Kailea Vernius of the industrial planet Ix as his concubine. They have a son, Victor, but grow apart, and Kailea's resentment and insecurities build. Threatened by Leto's attraction to the Bene Gesserit acolyte Jessica, Kailea attempts to kill him, but in the ensuing accident her brother Rhombur is critically injured and Victor is killed. Kailea commits suicide, and Leto takes Jessica as his concubine. Though instructed by the Bene Gesserit to bear the mourning Leto a daughter, Jessica intentionally conceives the son he desires, Paul. Leto surrounds himself with loyal and capable individuals, and comes to be known as an effective politician, a fair and just statesman, and a capable leader of his small military. The new Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV, both admires Leto and dislikes him as a political rival. Leto's military victory over the Tleilaxu forces occupying Ix, and his role in the subsequent political censure of Shaddam, ensure Leto a vengeful enemy in the emperor.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the ruthless and cunning head of House Harkonnen, centuries-old enemies of House Atreides. The Baron's intent to exterminate the Atreides line seems close to fruition as Duke Leto is lured to Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the lucrative spice mining operation there, previously controlled by the Harkonnens. The Baron has coerced Leto's own physician, the trusted Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, to be his agent in the Atreides household. Yueh disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace and the Harkonnen forces (secretly supplemented by the seemingly unstoppable Imperial Sardaukar warriors) attack. Yueh gives a captive Leto the means to assassinate the Baron, who survives the attempt as Leto dies. Escaping into the desert and later presumed dead, Leto's son Paul reveals to his mother, Lady Jessica, that the Baron is her father. The Baron's succession plan is to install his charismatic yet deadly younger nephew, Feyd-Rautha, as ruler of Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by his brutish elder nephew, Glossu Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the savior of the people. A crisis on Arrakis begins when the mysterious Muad'Dib emerges as a leader of the native Fremen tribes, uniting them against Harkonnen rule. Eventually, a series of Fremen victories against Rabban threaten to disrupt the trade of the spice, attracting the attention of Shaddam IV himself. The emperor arrives on Arrakis with several legions of his Sardaukar, and he and the Baron are shocked to discover that the Fremen warlord Muad'Dib is actually Paul Atreides. The Fremen, previously underestimated by the Harkonnens, overcome the Imperial and Harkonnen forces thanks to Paul's military strategy, their own ferocity and their ability to use sandstorms and the giant sandworms of Arrakis to their advantage. Paul's sister Alia, four years old but born a fully aware Fremen Reverend Mother, reveals to the Baron that he is her grandfather before she kills him with a poisoned needle called a gom jabbar.
In Children of Dune, Alia succumbs to the dangers of her unique birth and is possessed by the persona of the deceased Baron Harkonnen. As he promises his assistance in quelling the multitude of other ancestral voices assailing her, Alia gradually relinquishes control of herself to the Baron, and descends into depravity and a lust for power sure to destroy the Atreides empire from within. Eventually realizing that Harkonnen's consciousness has surpassed her abilities to contain him, Alia commits suicide.
Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Kenneth McMillan in the 1984 film, and by Ian McNeice in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. Stellan Skarsgård portrays the character in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.
Chani is the daughter of Liet-Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist on Arrakis, and his Fremen wife Faroula. In Dune, Paul Atreides sees Chani in his prescient dreams before his family moves from Caladan to Arrakis. Later, Paul and his mother Jessica flee the Harkonnen attack that kills his father and decimates the Atreides forces, and are reluctantly taken in by a tribe of the planet's native desert people, the Fremen. Chani, a fierce warrior, is assigned to protect and guide Paul in the Fremen ways. They soon become lovers, and Paul, now known as Muad'Dib, rises as a military and religious leader among the Fremen. Their rebellion against the Harkonnens intensifies, and Paul and Chani's infant son is murdered in a Sardaukar raid. The Fremen overcome the Imperial and Harkonnen forces thanks to Paul's military strategy, their own ferocity and their ability to use sandstorms and the giant sandworms of Arrakis to their advantage. With his absolute control over Arrakis and the spice, Paul deposes Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, marrying his daughter Princess Irulan to secure the throne. He vows that Chani will always be his only love, and mother of his children.
Twelve years later in Dune Messiah, Paul and Chani remain childless. Irulan, Bene Gesserit-trained and doing their bidding, has been secretly feeding Chani contraceptives to prevent her from conceiving an Imperial heir. The Sisterhood are desperate to regain control of Paul's bloodline for their breeding program, and are fearful of the effect Chani's "wild" genes may have on their offspring. But when Chani begins an ancient Fremen fertility diet high in melange, Irulan loses her ability to interfere, and Chani becomes pregnant. Chani ultimately discovers not only Irulan's role in her infertility but the fact that the contraceptives have caused permanent damage and will jeopardize her pregnancy. Chani seeks to kill Irulan, but Paul forbids it. He is secretly somewhat grateful to Irulan, as he has seen through his prescience that childbirth will bring Chani's death, and so Irulan has unwittingly extended Chani's life. Chani dies after giving birth to Paul's twin children, Leto II and Ghanima. Having proven their ability to do so, the Tleilaxu offer to resurrect Chani as a ghola in exchange for control of the empire, but Paul refuses. Through his oracular sight, Paul has seen that Chani's death during childbirth is far less painful and cruel than her possible future fates had she survived.
Chani is portrayed by actress Sean Young in the 1984 film, and by Barbora Kodetová in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. Zendaya portrays the character in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.
Stilgar is the Fremen leader, or naib, of Sietch Tabr. In Dune, Duke Leto Atreides sends his swordmaster, Duncan Idaho, to build a relationship with the mysterious native Fremen of Arrakis, people tempered by the planet's harsh conditions who Leto realizes are an underestimated and untapped resource. Leto allows Duncan, impressed with the Fremen and their ways, a dual loyalty to both the Atreides and Stilgar. When Leto's son Paul and his Bene Gesserit mother, Lady Jessica, flee a Harkonnen attack, they find refuge with Stilgar's tribe of Fremen. Paul, believed to be their prophesied messiah, comes to be known as Muad'Dib and rises as a military and religious leader among the Fremen. Previously underestimated by the Harkonnens, the Fremen overcome the Imperial and Harkonnen forces that control Arrakis thanks to Paul's military strategy, their own ferocity and their ability to use sandstorms and the giant sandworms to their advantage. In Dune Messiah, Stilgar is a staunch supporter and protector of Paul, and one of his inner circle of advisors. In Children of Dune, Stilgar is fiercely loyal to Paul's young heirs Leto II and Ghanima, and is conflicted as the regent, Paul's sister Alia, descends into madness. Duncan manipulates Stilgar into killing him, knowing it will force Stilgar to join the rebellion against Alia. Later, with Leto presumed dead, Stilgar helps Ghanima and Princess Irulan escape Alia's tyranny.
Novelist Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son and biographer, wrote, "One time I asked my father if he identified with any of the characters in his stories, and to my surprise he said it was Stilgar, the rugged leader of the Fremen ... Mulling this over, I realized Stilgar was the equivalent of a Native American chief in Dune—a person who represented and defended time-honored ways that did not harm the ecology of the planet."
Stilgar is portrayed by Everett McGill in the 1984 film. Uwe Ochsenknecht plays the role in the 2000 miniseries, and is succeeded by Steven Berkoff in its 2003 sequel. Asher-Perrin called Ochsenknecht "a wonderfully gruff Stilgar", but later wrote, "Steven Berkoff is an incredible character actor, but there is nothing about him that even remotely invokes the old Fremen leader. Instead, he reads at the beginning like the Atreides family butler before moving onto Old British Wardog Supreme." Javier Bardem portrays Stilgar in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.
In 1984, toy company LJN released a line of Dune action figures, styled after David Lynch's film, which included a figure of Stilgar. McFarlane Toys released a 7" articulating action figure of Stilgar in 2020, styled after the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film. In 2022, Super7 released a 3.75" articulating Stilgar action figure as part of its Dune ReAction line, also styled after the Lynch film.
Stilgar's early life is explored in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and he is resurrected as a ghola in the Brian Herbert/Anderson conclusion to the original series, Sandworms of Dune. The character also appears in the prequel novels Paul of Dune and The Winds of Dune.
Duncan Idaho is the Swordmaster of House Atreides, and one of Paul's teachers. In Dune, Leto sends Duncan to build a relationship with the mysterious native Fremen of Arrakis, people tempered by the planet's harsh conditions who Leto realizes are an underestimated and untapped resource. Leto allows Duncan, impressed with the Fremen and their ways, a dual loyalty to both the Atreides and Stilgar, but he is later killed helping Paul and Jessica escape the Harkonnens. Duncan is revived by the Bene Tleilax as the ghola Mentat Hayt in Dune Messiah, and works with Paul's sister Alia to unravel the conspiracy against the Atreides. The Tleilaxu have secretly programmed Hayt to seduce Alia, weaken Paul psychologically and then kill him. The trauma of the attempt restores his memories of being Duncan. He is married to Alia in Children of Dune, but she has succumbed to the dangers of her unique birth and become possessed by the persona of the deceased Baron Harkonnen. As Alia becomes more power-hungry and attempts to assassinate her mother Jessica, Duncan spirits Jessica and Paul's children Leto II and Ghanima away. He manipulates Fremen naib Stilgar, a loyal Atreides advisor, into killing him, knowing that the act will force Stilgar to join the rebellion against Alia or be executed by her out of political necessity.
Thirty-five hundred years later in God Emperor of Dune, a series of Duncan gholas provided by the Tleilaxu have served the seemingly immortal God Emperor Leto II Atreides one after the other. Most of these have been killed by Leto himself, as the serial Duncans, pledged to the Atreides in a time when justice reigned, tend to rebel against the hallmark tyranny and oppression of Leto's rule. The newest Duncan is as disillusioned as his predecessors, and after falling in love with the Ixian ambassador Hwi Noree (who is engaged to Leto), he joins Atreides descendant Siona in her plot to assassinate Leto. He allows them to succeed, and as he dies, Leto reveals that his millennia-long plan for humanity's ultimate survival—called the Golden Path—has come to fruition. Siona and her descendants will be invisible to prescient sight, and the end of his millennia of oppression will spark a mass diaspora of humankind which will come to be known as The Scattering.
Fifteen hundred years later, the Bene Gesserit become the consumers of Duncan gholas in Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune. The Sisterhood suspect that the Tleilaxu have implanted the gholas with some secret purpose, and when latest Duncan regains his memories, he agrees. The Honored Matres, a violent matriarchal order with the ability to enslave men using their unique sexual talents, have arrived from the farthest reaches of the universe, wreaking havoc and destruction, and obliterating Tleilaxu worlds. An attempt by the Honored Matre Murbella to sexually imprint Duncan triggers the hidden Tleilaxu purpose: to conquer the Honored Matres by using a better version of their own sexual techniques. All the memories of the previous Duncans are unlocked in the current one as he and Murbella imprint each other. Addicted to each other, they are confined to a no-ship on the Bene Gesserit homeworld, Chapterhouse. There, Duncan trains other men to enslave Honored Matres, until he and Sheeana escape in the untraceable ship.
Duncan is portrayed by Richard Jordan in the 1984 film. James Watson plays the role in the 2000 miniseries, and is succeeded by Edward Atterton in its 2003 sequel. Jason Momoa portrays Duncan in the 2021 film.
Dr. Wellington Yueh is a Suk doctor and the trusted personal physician of Duke Leto Atreides. In Dune, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is intent on the destruction of House Atreides, who have been lured to Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the valuable spice mining operation there. Though Suk Imperial Conditioning supposedly makes the subject incapable of inflicting harm, the Baron has taken Yueh's Bene Gesserit wife Wanna prisoner, threatening her with interminable torture unless Yueh complies with his demands. Aware of Yueh's conditioning and believing Wanna was killed by the Harkonnens, Leto's Mentat Thufir Hawat and concubine Lady Jessica are assured that the doctor is not a Harkonnen spy. Yueh disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace on Arrakis, and the Harkonnen forces (secretly supplemented by the seemingly unstoppable Imperial Sardaukar warriors) attack. Yueh takes Leto prisoner, but desiring to slay the Baron in defiance of his conditioning, Yueh provides the captive Leto with a fake tooth filled with poisonous gas as a means to kill the Baron, though Leto would die as well. Upon delivering Leto, Yueh confirms his belief that Wanna is already dead, moments before the Baron's twisted Mentat Piter De Vries kills him. The Baron escapes the poison, which only kills Leto and De Vries. Leto's son Paul flees into the desert with Jessica, aided by survival kits left for them by a compassionate Yueh.
Yueh is portrayed by Dean Stockwell in the 1984 film, and by Robert Russell in the 2000 miniseries. Chang Chen plays the character in the 2021 film.
The character also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and is resurrected as a ghola in Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, the Brian Herbert/Anderson sequels which conclude the original series. In Prelude to Dune, a younger Baron Harkonnen consults with Yueh seeking a cure for the debilitating disease which is slowly but surely rendering him obese. Yueh is aware of no cure, but correctly suggests that the disease's source may be the Bene Gesserit. The early years of Yueh as the physician to House Atreides are also explored in the novels. In Hunters of Dune, set 5,000 years after Dune, Yueh is resurrected as a ghola to aid in the coming final battle with mankind's "great enemy." In Sandworms of Dune, the finale of the original series, the young Yueh ghola is wracked by feelings of intense guilt over the actions of the "original" Yueh. Though he does not yet possess those memories, he fears that he will repeat those mistakes. A ghola's memories are restored by subjecting the ghola to an intense personal trauma, specific to each individual, so Yueh's great fear of having his memories restored becomes the trigger used by the Bene Gesserit to unlock them. Later, Yueh kills the gestating ghola of Leto, having been tricked into believing that it was De Vries, and ultimately also kills the ghola of the Baron Harkonnen. Eleven years later, Yueh lives on the original Atreides homeworld Caladan, helping the Jessica ghola restore it to its former glory.
Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV's Truthsayer, and Lady Jessica's former teacher. In Dune, Mohiam subjects 15-year-old Paul Atreides to a life or death test of his humanity: he is inflicted with excruciating pain, but must exert control over his survival instinct and withstand it, or be killed instantly with a poisoned needle. Paul passes the test, having sustained more pain than anyone before him. Mohiam, though still furious at Jessica for disobeying the Sisterhood's command that she bear a daughter for their breeding scheme, is intrigued by the potential she sees in Paul and his nascent prescient abilities. Years later on Arrakis, Mohiam is shaken by her encounter with Paul's four-year-old sister Alia, who by misadventure had been born a fully aware Reverend Mother. Mohiam is further alarmed by the ritual battle-to-the-death between Paul and the Harkonnen heir, Feyd-Rautha, which could prove catastrophic for the Bene Gesserit breeding program no matter the outcome. Paul is victorious in the duel, and in seizing control of Arrakis, the only source of the all-important spice melange, gains insurmountable power over all civilization. Seeing the inevitability of the situation Paul has orchestrated, Mohiam compels Shaddam to give in to Paul's demands and relinquish the Imperial throne to him.
Twelve years later in Dune Messiah, Mohiam joins a conspiracy to topple the rule of Paul Atreides that includes the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, the Spacing Guild Navigator Edric, and even Paul's embittered consort Princess Irulan, Shaddam's daughter. Paul has sworn that only his Fremen concubine, Chani, will bear his children. Knowing that the Bene Gesserit are desperate to regain control of his bloodline for their breeding program, and are fearful of the effect Chani's "wild" genes may have on their offspring, Paul makes Mohiam an offer. In exchange for Chani's guaranteed safety, and the Sisterhood's acceptance of his decision to father no heirs with Irulan, Paul offers something of the utmost value: his sperm. This is a complicated proposition for Mohiam, because artificial insemination is forbidden in the wake of the anti-technology Butlerian Jihad, and the idea of it is as horrific to the Sisterhood as the loss of the precious Atreides genes. The conspiracy ultimately fails, and Paul kills Scytale. Edric and Mohiam are executed on orders from Paul's sister Alia, despite Paul's previous instructions to spare Mohiam's life.
Mohiam is portrayed by Siân Phillips in the 1984 film, and by Zuzana Geislerová in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. The character is played by Charlotte Rampling in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.
Glossu "Beast" Rabban is the violent and brutish older nephew of Baron Harkonnen. In Dune, Glossu Rabban is the older nephew of the Baron Harkonnen. He is as cruel and sadistic as his uncle, but lacks the Baron's intelligence. The Baron tasks Rabban to rule the planet Arrakis for a time in the most brutal way possible, so that when his favored nephew Feyd-Rautha takes over, Feyd will be welcomed as a hero by the populace. After the Baron seizes the planet back from Atreides control, Rabban tells his uncle that the Harkonnens have woefully underestimated both the numbers and threat of the Fremen population there. Known as "the Beast Rabban" on Arrakis for his aggression and cruelty, his Fremen nickname is "Mudir Nahya", which translates as "Demon Ruler" or "King Cobra". Rabban is killed by the Fremen and the people of Arrakeen when Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides retakes Arrakis using Fremen forces.
Travis Johnson of Flicks.com.au describes Rabban as "the Baron's murderous and notably less Machiavellian nephew". Noting that the characters in Dune fit mythological archetypes, novelist Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son and biographer, writes that "Beast Rabban Harkonnen, though evil and aggressive, is essentially a fool."
Rabban is portrayed by Paul L. Smith in the 1984 film, and by László I. Kish [de] in the 2000 Dune miniseries, and by Dave Bautista plays the character in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.
Rabban also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In the series, he kills Duncan Idaho's parents and Gurney Halleck's sister, and earns his nickname "Beast" when he strangles his own father.
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is the charismatic yet deadly younger nephew and heir of Baron Harkonnen. In Dune, the Baron favors Feyd over his older brother Glossu Rabban because of Feyd's intelligence and his dedication to the Harkonnen culture of carefully planned and subtly executed sadism and cruelty, as opposed to Rabban's outright brutality. The Baron's succession plan is to install Feyd as ruler of Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the savior of the people. Like Paul Atreides, Feyd is also the product of a centuries-long breeding program organized by the Bene Gesserit, who planned to breed a Harkonnen son with an Atreides daughter with the expectation that their offspring would have a high probability of being their hoped-for super-being, the Kwisatz Haderach. For this reason, Lady Jessica's decision to defy the Sisterhood and to produce an Atreides son, Paul, threw the Bene Gesserit's plans into turmoil and established an irreconcilable tension between Feyd and Paul as the scions of their bitterly opposed noble houses. The risk of one or both of these young men being killed, destroying thousands of years of genetic engineering, is so great that the Bene Gesserit send an envoy, Margot Fenring, to seduce Feyd and conceive a child, salvaging his genetic material. Margot also uses an imprinting technique to condition Feyd to be vulnerable to Bene Gesserit control in the future. It is also later noted that Feyd's encounter with Lady Fenring produced a daughter. Feyd's ambition and impatience to inherit the Baron's title and power spur him to attempt his uncle's assassination. The attempt fails, prompting the Baron to reveal to his nephew the lofty plans he has for him, possibly to even have him ascend the throne as Emperor. The Baron explains that the elevation of House Harkonnen means more to him than power in his own lifetime, so if Feyd promises to forego any further assassination attempts, he will voluntarily step down and let his nephew succeed him—after his plot against the Emperor has succeeded. Feyd agrees, but as punishment for the failed assassination attempt, the Baron forces Feyd to single-handedly slaughter all the female slaves who serve as his lovers so that Feyd will learn the price of failure. As Paul seizes control of the all-important planet Arrakis and makes his final bid to usurp the Padishah Emperor's power, he is challenged by Feyd, the current Harkonnen leader after the deaths of the Baron and Rabban. Though famed for his prowess in single combat, Feyd intends to guarantee victory by breaking the formal rules of kanly (which govern this type of challenge) and using a hidden poison spur in his fighting outfit. He nearly succeeds in killing Paul in the ritualized fight, as Paul struggles with whether to try the paralysis word-sound given to him by his mother, and owe the Bene Gesserit his victory, or to risk his life against Feyd in a "fair" fight. Paul manages to defeat Feyd without the command, killing him, and goes on to accede to the Imperial throne.
Feyd is portrayed by Sting in the 1984 film, and by Matt Keeslar in the 2000 miniseries. The character does not appear in the 2021 film, but is played by Austin Butler in its 2024 sequel.
Princess Irulan is the eldest daughter of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and the Bene Gesserit Anirul. The character serves as a de facto narrator in Dune, with excerpts of Irulan's later writings used as epigraphs before each chapter of the novel. In forms such as diary entries, historical commentary, biography, quotations and philosophy, these writings set tone and provide exposition, context and other details intended to enhance understanding of Herbert's complex fictional universe and themes. In Dune, a widespread rebellion of the native Fremen on Arrakis creates a disruption in the production of the all-important spice melange, bringing Shaddam and his court, including Irulan, to the planet to impose order. Paul Atreides leads the Fremen in an overwhelming victory over the combined Harkonnen and Imperial Sardaukar forces and seizes control of Arrakis, the only known source of the spice. Paul demands that Shaddam relinquish the Imperial throne to him or he will destroy all spice production and plunge the universe into chaos. Shaddam bristles at Paul's suggestion that he marry Irulan, but she immediately recognizes the inevitability of the situation Paul has orchestrated, and tells Shaddam, "Here's a man fit to be your son." Once Paul defeats the treacherous Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in single combat, and Count Fenring refuses the Emperor's order to kill Paul, Shaddam capitulates.
Twelve years later in Dune Messiah, Irulan is Paul's consort and trusted advisor, but he has sworn that only his beloved concubine Chani will bear his children. Paul and Chani remain childless, however, because a resentful Irulan, Bene Gesserit-trained and doing their bidding, has been secretly feeding Chani contraceptives to prevent her from conceiving an Imperial heir. The Sisterhood are desperate to regain control of Paul's bloodline for their breeding program, and are fearful of the effect Chani's "wild" genes may have on their offspring. But when Chani begins an ancient Fremen fertility diet high in melange, Irulan loses her ability to interfere, and Chani becomes pregnant. Chani ultimately discovers not only Irulan's role in her infertility but the fact that the contraceptives have caused permanent damage and will jeopardize her pregnancy. Chani seeks to kill Irulan, but Paul forbids it. He is secretly somewhat grateful to Irulan, as he has seen through his prescience that childbirth will bring Chani's death, and so Irulan has unwittingly extended Chani's life. Chani dies giving birth to the twins Leto II and Ghanima, and a newly blinded Paul follows Fremen custom and wanders alone into the desert to die. Realizing her love for Paul, Irulan breaks ties with the Bene Gesserit and dedicates herself to his children.
Nine years later in Children of Dune, Irulan's sister Wensicia plots to assassinate Leto and Ghanima to reclaim power for House Corrino through her son, Farad'n. Irulan also serves as chief advisor to Paul's sister Alia, who reigns as Holy Regent for the twins. Irulan attempts to serve as a guide and confidante to Ghanima, but is often flustered by the adult consciousness the twins possess as a result of being pre-born and having access to Other Memory. Ghanima cares for Irulan, but Alia never trusts the princess, due to Irulan's Corrino heritage and Alia's own increasing paranoia. Irulan flees into the desert with Ghanima and Stilgar during the Fremen rebellion against Alia's tyranny. Though the other rebels are massacred, Irulan and Stilgar are imprisoned upon their capture, and presumably freed when Leto deposes Alia.
Irulan is portrayed by Virginia Madsen in the 1984 film, and by Julie Cox in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. The character does not appear in the 2021 film, but is played by Florence Pugh in its 2024 sequel.
Shaddam IV of House Corrino is the Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, whose power is secured by his armies of fierce Sardaukar warriors and control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the all-important spice melange. In Dune, Shaddam has granted Duke Leto Atreides control of the lucrative spice mining operations on Arrakis, previously managed by House Harkonnen, longtime enemies of the Atreides. Leto is aware that this assignment is some kind of trap, but is unable to refuse. Shaddam is threatened by Leto's growing influence among the Landsraad assembly of noble families, and uses the centuries-old feud between the Atreides and Harkonnens to disguise his moves against Leto. The forces of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, secretly bolstered by Shaddam's Sardaukar and aided by a traitor in Leto's household, launch an attack that decimates the Atreides forces. Leto is killed, and his Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, and heir Paul, flee into the desert and are presumed dead in a sandstorm. Years later, a rebellion of the native Fremen on Arrakis creates a disruption in the production of the all-important spice melange, bringing Shaddam and his court to the planet to impose order. Paul Atreides is alive, and has risen as a military and religious leader among the Fremen. He leads them in an overwhelming victory over the combined Harkonnen and Imperial forces and seizes control of Arrakis. Paul demands that Shaddam relinquish the Imperial throne to him or he will destroy all spice production and plunge the universe into chaos. Shaddam resists, but is forced to capitulate after Paul defeats Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in single combat, and Count Fenring refuses Shaddam's order to kill Paul. Paul intends to take Shaddam's daughter, Princess Irulan, as his consort, and exile Shaddam.
Shaddam is described as "red-haired" by Irulan via epigraph in Dune, and noted to be 72 years old yet looking no older than 35. He is the son of Elrood IX and the 81st member of House Corrino to occupy the Golden Lion Throne. Shaddam has five daughters—the Princesses Irulan, Chalice, Wensicia, Josifa, and Rugi—and no legal sons by his wife Anirul, a Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank. His closest friend is the assassin Count Fenring, a cousin and childhood companion.
Shaddam is portrayed by José Ferrer in the 1984 film, and by Giancarlo Giannini in the 2000 miniseries. Giannini also dubbed himself in the Italian version of the miniseries. The character does not appear in the 2021 film, but is played by Christopher Walken in its 2024 sequel.
Shaddam also appears in multiple prequel series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson: Prelude to Dune, Heroes of Dune and The Caladan Trilogy. In the Prelude to Dune trilogy, Shaddam is eager to succeed his father Elrood IX as Padishah Emperor, but despite his advanced age Elrood shows no signs of ill health. Shaddam finally tasks his longtime friend and minion Fenring to administer Elrood with an undetectable, slow-acting poison. Shaddam had previously been complicit in the murder of his elder brother, the Crown Prince Fafnir, and had secretly administered contraceptives to his own mother, Habla, so she could not conceive another son to rival him. Elrood finally dies, and Shaddam secures his throne by paying the Spacing Guild with a supply of the spice and by arranging his own marriage to a Bene Gesserit. This union with the Lady Anirul Sadow-Tonkin results in five daughters, but no sons.
Gurney Halleck is the Warmaster of Duke Leto Atreides, trained by "the best fighters in the universe", who has in turn trained Leto's son and heir Paul in hand-to-hand combat. Gurney, Duncan Idaho and the Mentat Thufir Hawat serve Leto as a war council unparalleled in the Imperium. Gurney is also a talented troubadour. In Dune, Gurney and 73 of his men survive the Harkonnen attack that decimates the Atreides forces, and they fall in with local spice smugglers to survive. Gurney and his team fall for a Fremen trap—a fake hoard of spice—and are almost killed before Paul, now the Fremen leader "Muad'Dib", recognizes him. Gurney nearly kills Jessica, mistakenly believing she betrayed Leto, but later becomes her loyal chief officer. In Children of Dune, Gurney returns to Arrakis with Jessica and coordinates a purging of dissidents with Fremen leader Stilgar. Gurney follows what he believes are Jessica's orders to test Paul's son Leto II to be sure he has not been overcome by his ancestral memories. Learning that the testing was actually ordered by Paul's sister Alia, Gurney escapes, sending a message to Duncan to initiate their plan to force Stilgar to join the rebellion against Alia. Gurney flees to a rebel sietch and joins Leto II and the mysterious Preacher, who is actually a blinded Paul. After Leto II returns to Arrakeen and reclaims the throne from Alia, Gurney is assigned to Sietch Tabr as part of Stilgar's council.
Gurney is portrayed by Patrick Stewart in the 1984 film, and by P. H. Moriarty in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. The character is played by Josh Brolin in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.
Count Hasimir Fenring is Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV's closest friend and advisor, and husband to the Bene Gesserit Lady Margot. Prior to the events of Dune, Fenring serves as the Imperial Spice Minister on Arrakis during the Harkonnen regime, and then as Governor of Arrakis during the handover period between House Harkonnen and House Atreides. In Dune, the Harkonnens, secretly aided by the Shaddam's fierce Sardaukar warriors, destroy the Atreides forces and reclaim control of Arrakis. Fenring and Margot visit the Harkonnen homeworld of Giedi Prime, where the Count informs Baron Harkonnen that Shaddam is displeased with the way the invasion of Arrakis was handled, and is frustrated by The Baron's failure to suppress the disruptive native Fremen population. Fenring is also there on the Emperor's behalf to assess the Harkonnen heir, Feyd, which irks the Baron. Margot is also observing Feyd for the Bene Gesserit, who count him as an important part of their breeding program. Fenring is impressed with Feyd, but laments his upbringing among the brutal Harkonnens. Later, Paul Atreides leads the Fremen in an overwhelming victory over the combined Harkonnen and Imperial forces and seizes control of Arrakis. Paul demands that Shaddam relinquish the Imperial throne to him or he will destroy all spice production and plunge the universe into chaos. Shaddam resists, and Fenring, a deadly fighter and rumored assassin, is summoned and ordered to kill Paul. He refuses, aware that Paul represents the success of the Bene Gesserit breeding program of which Fenring himself is a failure. Paul deposes Shaddam, and the Fenrings join the former emperor in exile.
Fenring does not appear in the 1984 film, but is portrayed by Miroslav Táborský in the 2000 miniseries.
Margot, Lady Fenring, is the Bene Gesserit wife of Count Hasimir Fenring. Though the Count is the close friend and advisor of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, Margot's primary loyalty is to the Sisterhood. In Dune, Duke Leto Atreides is lured to the desert planet Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the lucrative spice mining operation there, but the assignment is part of a plot by Shaddam and Baron Vladimir Harkonnen to destroy the Atreides. Margot leaves a coded message for Leto's Bene Gesserit concubine, Lady Jessica, warning her that the Atreides, especially Leto and Jessica's son Paul, are in imminent danger from the Harkonnens, and alerts her to the existence of a traitor in the Atreides household. Paul evades a trap set for him, but a devastating attack by the Harkonnens leaves Leto dead, and forces Paul and Jessica to flee into the desert. Due to the harsh conditions and an oncoming sandstorm, they are soon presumed dead. Margot is sent by the Bene Gesserit to seduce Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen and to "preserve the bloodline" by retrieving his genetic material, through conception, for their breeding program. She later bears Feyd's daughter. Margot also uses an imprinting technique to condition Feyd to be vulnerable to Bene Gesserit control in the future. Paul and Feyd later duel to the death, and Paul is victorious without using Margot's implanted command. Having seized control of the all-important Arrakis, Paul deposes Shaddam, and the Fenrings join the former emperor in exile.
Margot does not appear in the 1984 film, 2000 miniseries or 2021 film, but is portrayed by Léa Seydoux in the 2024 sequel film.
Thufir Hawat is a Mentat, an individual conditioned to mimic the cognitive and analytical ability of computers, who serves as Master of Assassins and primary military strategist for Duke Leto Atreides. In Dune, the Atreides are lured to Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the lucrative spice mining operation there, but soon fall prey to a catastrophic attack by their longtime enemies the Harkonnens, whose forces are secretly bolstered by the fierce Sardaukar warriors of the emperor, Shaddam IV. Hawat is captured, and the calculating Baron Vladimir Harkonnen takes him as a replacement for his own twisted Mentat Piter De Vries, who was killed in the aftermath of the attack. The Baron hopes to channel Hawat's desire for revenge away from House Harkonnen, and keeps his abilities in check by feeding him false data, specifically, permitting him to believe that Leto's concubine Lady Jessica had been the traitor responsible for the Atreides' destruction. Hawat is also secretly administered a residual poison which requires regular doses of an antidote to prevent death. In spite of these obstacles, Hawat attempts to bring down the Harkonnens from within. He gains the trust of the Baron's nephew and heir Feyd-Rautha by assisting him with a plot to discredit the Harkonnen slavemaster and replace him with someone loyal to Feyd. Hawat encourages the ambitions of Feyd against the Baron, which leads him to attempt to assassinate his uncle. The Baron, warned by Hawat, eludes the attempt and punishes Feyd for his failure. Later, Hawat is coerced to assassinate Leto's son, Paul Atreides. Paul suspects this, but out of gratitude for Hawat's exceptional loyalty, Paul gives him the opportunity to take anything Hawat wishes of him, even his life. Hawat chooses death rather than to betray Paul.
Hawat is portrayed by Freddie Jones in the 1984 film, and by Jan Vlasák [cs] in the 2000 miniseries. The character is played by Stephen McKinley Henderson in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.
The character also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and is resurrected as a ghola in Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, the Brian Herbert/Anderson sequels which conclude the original series.
Alia is the daughter of Duke Leto and Jessica, and Paul’s younger sister. Subjected to the Fremen spice agony in the womb, she is born a fully aware Reverend Mother. Among the Bene Gesserit, a child born in this manner, called an Abomination, is immediately killed because they are susceptible to being overtaken by their ancestral personas. Alia pretends to be a child as she grows up among the Fremen. At four years old, she kills her grandfather, the Baron Harkonnen, as Paul seizes control of Arrakis. As Paul's sister, Alia is worshipped in her own right in Dune Messiah. She and Hayt—who is the swordmaster Duncan Idaho brought back from the dead as a ghola by Tleilaxu means—work together to unravel the conspiracy against the Atreides. She marries Duncan, his memories restored, and is named regent for Paul and Chani's children, Leto II and Ghanima. In Children of Dune, the danger of Abomination has come to fruition, and Alia is possessed by the persona of the Baron. Her increasing depravity and lust for power under his control drive her to plot Jessica's assassination. Confronted by Leto and overcome by the Baron, Alia has a fleeting moment of self-control and leaps to her death.
Alia is portrayed by Alicia Witt in the 1984 film, and by Laura Burton in the 2000 miniseries. Daniela Amavia portrays an adult Alia in the 2003 sequel miniseries. The character does not appear in the 2021 film, which covers the first part of Dune, but is expected to appear in the 2024 sequel film.
The Shadout Mapes is the mysterious Fremen housekeeper at the palace of Arakeen on Arrakis. In Dune, Duke Leto Atreides, his Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, and their son Paul arrive as Leto takes over management of the planet's lucrative spice mining operations. The Fremen begin to believe that Paul is their prophesied messiah, who is foretold to be accompanied by his Bene Gesserit mother, and when talking to Mapes, Jessica uses phrases that are part of the legend. Mapes gives Jessica a crysknife, a weapon made from the tooth of a giant sandworm that is considered holy by the Fremen and rarely seen by outsiders. Paul later saves Mapes from a deadly hunter-seeker intended to kill him, and she warns of a traitor in the Atreides household. Mapes is killed by that same traitor, Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, as the Harkonnens attack.
Mapes is portrayed by Linda Hunt in the 1984 film, and by Jaroslava Šiktancová in the 2000 miniseries. Golda Rosheuvel plays the character in the 2021 film.
Mapes is the main character of the 2022 short story "Dune: The Edge of a Crysknife" by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, which takes place before the events of the Prelude to Dune trilogy.
Liet-Kynes is the Imperial Planetologist of the desert planet Arrakis, and the father of Chani by his Fremen wife, Faroula. In Dune, Duke Leto Atreides meets with Dr. Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist, soon after arriving on Arrakis to take over the melange harvesting operations there. Escorted by the planet's native Fremen, Kynes is the liaison between them and the Imperials. Kynes takes personal note of Leto's son Paul, who seems to know Fremen ways intuitively, and shows signs of being a prophesied Fremen messiah. The Atreides later hear of a person or deity named "Liet" to whom all the Fremen communities give allegiance. It is only after Leto is killed, and Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica, take refuge among the Fremen that Liet and Kynes are revealed to be the same person. He is the son of Pardot Kynes, the first Imperial Planetologist of Arrakis, and a Fremen woman, and is Chani's father. Captured by the Harkonnens and left to die in the desert without a stillsuit or water, Kynes is killed by a spice blow, an explosive eruption that is part of the melange cycle. In God Emperor of Dune, Liet-Kynes's wife and Chani's mother is identified as Faroula, "a noted herbalist among the Fremen".
Liet-Kynes is portrayed by Max von Sydow in the 1984 film, and by Karel Dobrý in the 2000 miniseries. Sharon Duncan-Brewster plays a gender-swapped version of the character in the 2021 film.
Liet-Kynes also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. That series establishes that his mother is Frieth, the sister of Stilgar. Growing up under Fremen tradition, Liet inherits his father's position as planetologist as well as his secret goal of terraforming Arrakis into a temperate planet.
Reverend Mother Ramallo is a spiritual leader, or Sayyadina, among the Fremen of Sietch Tabr on Arrakis, a "wild" version of a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother. In Dune, Paul Atreides and his Bene Gesserit mother, Lady Jessica, flee a Harkonnen attack and find refuge among the Fremen. When Ramallo knows she is nearing the end of her life, Jessica undergoes the ritual spice agony to make her Ramallo's replacement. The Fremen ordeal to become a Reverend Mother involves ingesting the poisonous Water of Life, the exhalation of a dying sandworm. Jessica survives and shares minds with Ramallo, acquiring the older woman's life experiences and collective ancestral Other Memory, and then Ramallo dies.
Ramallo is portrayed by Italian actress Silvana Mangano in the 1984 film. Drahomíra Fialková plays the character in the 2000 miniseries, with Petra Kulíková as a younger version of Ramallo.
Ramallo also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
Jamis is a formidable Fremen warrior from Sietch Tabr. In Dune, Paul Atriedes and his Bene Gesserit mother, Lady Jessica, flee a Harkonnen attack and find refuge with the Fremen of Sietch Tabr. Newcomer Paul is immediately challenged by the distrustful Fremen warrior Jamis, and per Fremen custom they engage in a ritual fight to the death. Paul kills Jamis, and is subsequently obligated to take responsibility for his wife Harah and children.
Jamis is portrayed by Judd Omen in the 1984 film, Christopher Lee Brown in the 2000 miniseries, and by Babs Olusanmokun in the 2021 film.
Harah is the Fremen wife of Jamis. Her first husband was Geoff, by whom she had a son, Kaleff. Jamis defeated Geoff in a ritual duel and took Harah as his own wife, and fathered her son Orlop. After Paul kills Jamis in a ritual fight to the death in Dune, Fremen custom demands that Paul inherit his possessions, including Harah and her children. Paul must take her into his household as his wife or his servant, and after a year if he has not married her, she may choose as she wishes. Paul accepts Harah as a servant. She is at first insulted by his reluctance to marry her, but dedicates herself to his service. Harah becomes very close to, and protective of, Paul's young sister Alia, who is born a fully aware Reverend Mother and pretends to be a child as she grows up among the Fremen. In Children of Dune, Harah is married to Stilgar, and is Chani's closest friend. She is witness to the birth of Paul and Chani's twins, Leto II and Ghanima, and to Chani's subsequent death. Harah dedicates herself to the care of the twins. When an adult Alia's tyranny becomes too great and endangers Leto and Ghanima, Harah goes into hiding with Stilgar, Princess Irulan and the children.
Harah is portrayed by Molly Wrynn in the 1984 film.
Piter De Vries is a Mentat, an individual conditioned to mimic the cognitive and analytical ability of computers, who serves the ruthless Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. De Vries has the added distinction of having been "twisted" into an amoral sadist by the Tleilaxu. In Dune, De Vries is the architect of the plan to destroy House Atreides, longtime enemy of the Harkonnens, while restoring the Baron's stewardship over the planet Arrakis. Though the personal physician of Duke Leto Atreides, Wellington Yueh, has undergone Suk conditioning which renders him incapable of inflicting harm on his patients, De Vries subverts it by kidnapping and torturing Yueh's wife. Hoping to free her, Yueh betrays the Atreides, enabling a catastrophic attack by the Harkonnens and delivering Leto to the Baron. Yueh learns that his wife is already dead and is killed by De Vries. Yueh, however, has given the captive Leto a false tooth filled with poison gas with which to assassinate the Baron. Harkonnen evades the attempt, but Leto and De Vries die. De Vries is the creator of residual poison, a toxin which requires regular doses of an antidote to prevent death. The Baron secretly administers it to the captured Atreides Mentat Thufir Hawat as coercion to make him the replacement for De Vries.
In the novel, De Vries is described as "tall, though slender, and something about him suggested effeminacy". He is addicted to the drug melange, and also has the ruby red lips characteristic of those who consume sapho juice, an addictive drug which enhances Mentat capabilities.
De Vries is portrayed by Brad Dourif in the 1984 film, and by Jan Unger in the 2000 miniseries. David Dastmalchian plays the character in the 2021 film.
Piter also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In the series, Piter discovers the Harkonnen heritage of Lady Jessica and her newborn son Paul, and attempts to kidnap and ransom the infant. The plot is thwarted and the secret preserved when Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam kills the Mentat and arranges for his corpse to be shipped home to the Harkonnen homeworld, Giedi Prime. An enraged Baron is left with no choice but to order a duplicate from the Bene Tleilax: the Mentat De Vries featured in Herbert's original novel Dune.
Scytale is a Tleilaxu Face Dancer who executes a plot to dethrone Paul Atriedes in Dune Messiah. Scytale's conspiracy includes Spacing Guild Navigator Edric, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam, and the Princess Irulan, Paul's consort. Unlike Face Dancers depicted later in the series, Scytale appears autonomous, and his high-level dealings with the other conspirators suggest a certain rank and level of trust among the Tleilaxu. Scytale notes of Face Dancers, "We are Jadacha hermaphrodites ... either sex at will." He subsequently kills and assumes the appearance of Lichna, the daughter of the trusted Fremen commando Otheym, in order to lure Paul from the Atreides Keep to Otheym's house, where Scytale has planted an atomic weapon. The attack fails to kill Paul, but the atomic blast blinds him. Scytale soon makes an attempt to force Paul's allegiance. With the Tleilaxu ghola of Duncan Idaho having regained the memories of the deceased original, Scytale has proven that the Tleilaxu can resurrect a human being. He offers Paul a ghola of his concubine Chani, who has just died giving birth to their twin children, in exchange for Paul surrendering his empire to Tleilaxu control. Though tempted, Paul refuses. Scytale holds a knife over the newborn twins, threatening to kill them instantly unless Paul accepts. Paul instead kills Scytale with a thrown crysknife, guided by a vision sent by his infant son.
In Heretics of Dune, 5000 years after the events of Dune Messiah, a ghola of Scytale is a Tleilaxu Master and one of Tleilaxu leader Tylwyth Waff's nine councillors. The novel establishes that after learning how to restore a ghola's memories in Dune Messiah, the Masters use this knowledge as a form of immortality, creating clones from their living cells which can be reawakened upon their deaths. Face Dancers are still Tleilaxu servants rather than emissaries, and Herbert does not explain how the Scytale of Dune Messiah—a Face Dancer, though autonomous—could ascend to become a Master, or how the Master/Face Dancer relationship may have evolved over the millennia.
In Chapterhouse Dune (1985), the fearsome Honored Matres have destroyed all of the Tleilaxu worlds in retaliation for the Tleilaxu role in programming the latest Duncan Idaho ghola with knowledge of how to sexually enslave Honored Matres. Scytale, likely the last surviving Tleilaxu Master, barely escapes the attack while leaving his homeworld and is given sanctuary by the Bene Gesserit. Essentially a prisoner, he is kept in a no-ship grounded on the secret Bene Gesserit planet Chapterhouse. In exchange for their protection, Scytale has given the Bene Gesserit the knowledge to create axlotl tanks to grow their own gholas. Desiring his own Face Dancer servants, axlotl tanks, and access to the ship's systems, Scytale has held back the secret to creating artificial melange for future negotiations. His secret bargaining chip is a nullentropy capsule containing cells carefully and covertly collected by the Tleilaxu for millennia, including those of Tleilaxu Masters and Face Dancers, Paul, Chani, the original Duncan Idaho, Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck and Stilgar.
Scytale is portrayed by Martin McDougall in the 2003 miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, which is an adaptation of both Dune Messiah and its sequel Children of Dune.
Scytale also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, Scytale is desperate, as his current body is slowly dying, and he does not have another to replace it. Needing to grow a new ghola clone of himself, his only bargaining tool is the secret nullentropy capsule. Other cells in Scytale's possession include those of Leto I, Lady Jessica, Leto II and other legendary figures dating back to Serena Butler and Xavier Harkonnen from the Butlerian Jihad. The Bene Gesserit debate whether to create gholas of any of these historical figures, and despite the controversy, gholas are created a few at a time. Scytale is allowed to have his own once the first few have been born. In Sandworms of Dune, Scytale finally reawakens his own ghola's past memories using the trauma of watching the elder Scytale die in front of his younger self. Along with gholas of the Tleilaxu Masters, Scytale grows Tleilaxu females from newly discovered cells, vowing to never again allow the Masters to corrupt the recovering Tleilaxu people.
Edric is a Spacing Guild Navigator and the Guild's ambassador on Arrakis. In Dune Messiah, Edric engages in a conspiracy to dethrone Emperor Paul Atreides, joined by the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam, and Paul's embittered consort, Princess Irulan. As its Navigators require immense quantities of melange to navigate foldspace, the Spacing Guild has a vested interest in breaking Paul's stranglehold over the spice supply. Edric's involvement also protects the conspirators from discovery, as his prescience hides the activities of himself and those around him from other prescients, like Paul. The plot ultimately fails, and Edric and Mohiam are executed by Fremen naib Stilgar on orders from Paul's sister, Alia Atreides.
In Chapterhouse Dune, a "very powerful" Navigator is described as "one of the Edrics", suggesting a possible breeding plan or use of gholas.
Bijaz is a Tleilaxu dwarf in the employ of Otheym, one of the former Fedaykin death commandos of Paul Atreides. In Dune Messiah, Otheym reveals to Paul evidence of a Fremen conspiracy against him. Otheym gives Paul his dwarf Tleilaxu servant Bijaz, who has the ability to remember faces, names and details like a recording machine. Paul accepts reluctantly, seeing the strands of a Tleilaxu plot. Bijaz, actually an agent of the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, uses a specific humming intonation to implant a command that will compel the Duncan Idaho ghola, Hayt, to kill Paul under certain circumstances. Paul's concubine Chani dies in childbirth, and Paul's reaction to her death triggers Hayt's assassination attempt. Hayt's ghola body reacts against its own programming and Duncan's full consciousness is recovered, simultaneously making him independent of Tleilaxu control. Having proven that a ghola's memories of its originator can be restored, Scytale offers Paul a ghola of Chani in exchange for Paul surrendering his empire to Tleilaxu control. Paul refuses, and Scytale is killed. Later, Bijaz approaches Paul and repeats Scytale's offer, but is killed by Duncan on Paul's order.
Bijaz is portrayed by Gee Williams in the 2003 miniseries.
Lichna is the daughter of Otheym, one of Paul's former Fedaykin death commandos. In Dune Messiah, she is killed and impersonated by the shapeshifting Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale as a means to infiltrate Paul's household. Paul can see through the deception, but wants to see where the plot leads. Aware it is part of the conspiracy against him, Paul allows himself to be lured to Otheym's home in the city.
Lichna is portrayed by Klára Issová in the 2003 miniseries.
Farok is another of Paul's former Fedaykin. In Dune Messiah, he is one of many Fremen disillusioned by the changes Paul's regime brings to their culture, and joins the conspiracy to unseat Paul.
Farok is portrayed by Ivo Novák in the 2003 miniseries.
Princess Wensicia is the third daughter of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and the Bene Gesserit Anirul, and the younger sister of Princess Irulan. In Children of Dune, Shaddam is dead and Wensicia plots from exile to restore House Corrino to its former glory by wresting control of the Imperial throne from the usurper, Paul Atreides, for her son, Farad'n. She attempts to assassinate Leto II and Ghanima Atreides, Paul's twin heirs, by sending mechanically controlled Laza tigers to hunt them in the desert. Leto's growing prescience allows him to thwart the attack on himself and his sister, and he pretends to be dead to escape the increasingly murderous ambitions of his father's sister Alia. Later Farad'n, newly trained in the Bene Gesserit ways by Paul and Alia's mother Lady Jessica, accepts an arrangement brokered by Jessica for him to marry Ghanima and share the throne. His part of the deal is to "denounce and banish" Wensicia for Leto's murder, which he does. Leto later returns and ascends the throne himself.
Wensicia is described as "fair-haired" with a "heart-shaped face," and is said to have learned "shifty trickiness" from her sister Irulan but not herself been trained by the Bene Gesserit. Shaddam IV's heir is Wensicia's son Farad'n, whose deceased father, Dalak, is related to Count Fenring.
Wensicia is portrayed by Susan Sarandon in the 2003 miniseries. Sarandon told The New York Times, "One of the reasons I always loved the books was because they were driven by strong women, living outside the rules." She added that the Dune series "is very apropos to some of what's going on in the world today. It's about the dangers of fundamentalism and the idea that absolute power corrupts." The actress said of Wensicia, "She's just evil, evil, evil. I'm practically unrecognizable. It was a blast." Laura Fries of Variety wrote, "it’s Susan Sarandon and Alice Krige [as Lady Jessica] who steal the thunder as opposing matriarchs of the great royal houses. Although the two never catfight, their ongoing struggle to rule the Dune dynasty gives this mini a real kick." Observing that Sarandon and Krige were "clearly relishing their roles", Fries added that "Sarandon makes a formidable enemy". Melanie McFarland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted, "[Sarandon's] exiled princess may be the villain, cooking up deadly schemes, but we're right along with her in having a good time." Sarandon herself said, "it's always fun to play a smart villain." Not impressed overall with the acting in the miniseries, Ron Wertheimer of The New York Times wrote:
The exception is the piece's token movie star ... Susan Sarandon, having a high old time as the villain. Looking swell in slinky gowns and a collection of outer-space-deco headgear fitted with sensual silver antennas, Ms. Sarandon nearly winks into the camera. Her body language, her purring tone, the gleam in her evil eye, the curve of her evil eyebrow all declare, "Isn't this a hoot?" In another film, such a jarring note from a principal would sink it. But she's right; this is a hoot. Her mugging is part of the fun.
In the miniseries, Wensicia orchestrates the Dune Messiah conspiracy to assassinate Paul using a pre-programmed Tleilaxu ghola of his deceased friend Duncan Idaho, a plotline in which she is not involved in the novel. Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com wrote:
There are a few clever changes made in order to connect the two stories better, the primary one being that rather than having Princess Irulan work as a conspirator against Paul alongside the Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, and the Tleilaxu, her sister Wensicia is brought to the fore sooner and given that role. This has two advantages; it means that Irulan's love for Paul doesn't come out of left field the way it does at the end of Dune Messiah, and it means that the story spends more time with Wensicia ... who is played with antagonistic relish by Susan Sarandon.
Wensicia also appears in the novel Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
Leto II Atreides is the son of Paul Atreides and his Fremen concubine Chani, and the twin brother of Ghanima. Born at the end of Dune Messiah, Leto is orphaned soon after, as his mother dies in childbirth and his blinded father, following Freemen custom, walks out into the open desert to die. Paul's sister Alia subsequently serves as regent for the twins in Children of Dune, and Princess Irulan steps into the role of surrogate mother. Like Alia, Leto and Ghanima are "pre-born", having been awakened to adult consciousness and their genetic memories in the womb. The danger to individuals born this way, called Abomination by the Bene Gesserit, is that they are susceptible to being overtaken by their ancestral personas. Leto solves this problem by constructing his own personality out of an executive committee of his ancestors. Influenced by all the important ones, he cannot be possessed by an individual. Alia, however, is increasingly falling under the control of her late grandfather, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, whose hatred of the Atreides puts the twins in danger and threatens to topple Paul's empire. Deposed Emperor Shaddam IV's daughter Wensicia, Irulan's younger sister, plots from exile to place her son Farad'n on the throne and executes an assassination attempt on nine-year-old Leto and Ghanima. The twins anticipate and survive the plot. Leto leaves to seek out the mysterious Preacher, who some believe is Paul himself, and Ghanima hypnotizes herself to believe that Leto is dead. Like his father Paul before him, Leto enters a spice trance induced by an overdose of melange. His visions show him myriad possible futures where humanity becomes extinct, and only one where it survives. He names this future "The Golden Path" and resolves to bring it to fruition—something that his father, who had already glimpsed this future, refused to do. Leto sacrifices his humanity to become a symbiont with the sandworm, beginning the transformation by allowing sandtrout, the larval stage of sandworms, to cover his body. The oversaturation of spice, and Leto's ability to adjust his body chemistry, fool the creatures into bonding with him, creating a membrane of "new skin" that bestows on him superhuman speed, strength and near-invulnerability. In addition, he will live for thousands of years, enough time to see his Golden Path to its completion. Leto returns to the capital where everyone has assembled for the wedding of Ghanima and Farad'n. Confronted by Leto and overcome by the Baron, Alia has a fleeting moment of self-control and leaps to her death. Leto declares himself Emperor, asserts control over the Fremen and restores Ghanima's genuine memories with a predetermined command. Farad'n pledges himself to Leto and delivers control of the remaining Sardaukar armies. Leto marries Ghanima to consolidate power, but Farad'n is her true consort so the Atreides line can continue.
Thirty-five hundred years later in God Emperor of Dune, the God Emperor Leto II is now almost fully transformed into a sandworm, retaining only his human face and arms. He is seemingly immortal and invulnerable to harm, but also prone to instinct-driven bouts of violence when provoked to anger. As a result, Leto's oppressive rule is one of religious awe and despotic fear. Widely known as the Tyrant, he has killed all other sandworms by terraforming Arrakis into a verdant planet, and his control of the remaining supply of melange guarantees his stranglehold on civilization. All of the former major powers, like the Bene Gesserit and Spacing Guild, have capitulated. Following his Golden Path, Leto has forced the human population into a state of trans-galactic stagnation: space travel is non-existent to most people in his Empire, which he has deliberately kept to a near-medieval level of technological sophistication. A string of Duncan Idaho gholas have served Leto over the millennia, though they are prone to eventually rebel against him. Ghanima's descendant Moneo Atreides is Leto's majordomo and closest confidante, while Moneo's daughter Siona has become the leader of a local rebellion against Leto. The Ixians send a new ambassador named Hwi Noree, and though Leto realizes that she has been specifically designed and trained to ensnare him, he cannot resist falling in love with her. Exposure to concentrated spice essence awakens Siona to Leto's Golden Path, and though she sees its importance, she remains dedicated to his destruction. Siona and the current Duncan Idaho overcome a searing mutual hatred of each other to plan Leto's assassination, of which the God Emperor is aware and has made possible. As Leto's wedding procession moves across a high bridge, the conspirators destroy the support beams, and Leto's entourage, including Hwi, plunge to their deaths into the river below. Leto's body rends apart in the water, the outer layer of sandtrout encysting the water and scurrying off, while the rest burns and disintegrates on the shore. A dying Leto reveals to Siona a secret aspect of his Golden Path: she is the end result of a breeding scheme to produce a human who is invisible to prescient vision. Siona and her descendants will possess this ability, and Leto explains that humanity is now free from the domination of oracles, free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete domination or complete destruction. After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire.
Leto is portrayed by James McAvoy in the 2003 miniseries.
Ghanima Atreides is the daughter of Paul Atreides and his Fremen concubine Chani, and the twin sister of Leto II. Born at the end of Dune Messiah, Ghanima is orphaned soon after, as her mother dies in childbirth and her blinded father, following Fremen custom, walks out into the open desert to die. Paul's sister Alia subsequently serves as regent for the twins in Children of Dune, and Princess Irulan steps into the role of surrogate mother. Like Alia, Leto and Ghanima are "pre-born", having been awakened to adult consciousness and their genetic memories in the womb. The danger to individuals born this way, called Abomination by the Bene Gesserit, is that they are susceptible to being overtaken by their ancestral personas. Leto solves this problem by constructing his own personality out of an executive committee of his ancestors. Influenced by all the important ones, he cannot be possessed by an individual. Alia, however, is increasingly falling under the control of her late grandfather, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, whose hatred of the Atreides puts the twins in danger and threatens to topple Paul's empire. Deposed Emperor Shaddam IV's daughter Wensicia, Irulan's younger sister, plots from exile to place her son Farad'n on the throne and executes an assassination attempt on nine-year-old Leto and Ghanima. The twins anticipate and survive the plot. Leto leaves to seek out the mysterious Preacher, who some believe is Paul himself, and Ghanima hypnotizes herself to believe that Leto is dead. The intense mental discipline needed for this self-deception builds a safe haven in Ghanima's mind for her own personality to safely develop, with the persona of Chani acting as a guardian. Recognizing Alia as worsening threat, Fremen naib Stilgar takes Ghanima into hiding. Farad'n denounces his mother, and Alia, having retaken Ghanima, arranges a marriage between them. Knowing that Ghanima has sworn to kill him on their wedding night in revenge for Leto's "death", Alia intends to exploit the resulting chaos to weaken her enemies. Leto, having seen a prescient vision of humanity's only path to survival, has vowed to bring it to fruition and begun the necessary transformation to a human-sandworm hybrid. He returns to the capital where everyone has assembled for the wedding of Ghanima and Farad'n. Confronted by Leto and overcome by the Baron, Alia has a fleeting moment of self-control and leaps to her death. Leto declares himself Emperor, asserts control over the Fremen and restores Ghanima's genuine memories with a predetermined command. Farad'n pledges himself to Leto and delivers control of the remaining Sardaukar armies. Leto marries Ghanima to consolidate power, but Farad'n is her true consort so the Atreides line can continue.
Ghanima is portrayed by Jessica Brooks in the 2003 miniseries. Laura Fries of Variety wrote, "the mini picks up a great deal of charisma when [James] McAvoy [as Leto] and Brooks come aboard as the next generation of the house of Atreides." The characters Leto and Ghanima were aged from ten-year-olds to teens for the miniseries, which Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called "a smart move here, as finding two ten year old kids who had the ability to behave as though they had millennia of ancestral memory bubbling up inside of them was always going to be an impossibility." Asher-Perrin also called the rapport between Brooks and McAvoy "dazzling".
Tyekanik is a Sardaukar officer who serves Princess Wensicia in Children of Dune. He is instrumental in her plot to assassinate the Atreides twins, Leto II and Ghanima, using mechanically-controlled Laza tigers.
Tyekanik is portrayed by Marek Vašut in the 2003 miniseries.
Namri is the Fremen naib of Sietch Fondak, formerly known as Sietch Jacurutu, in Children of Dune. The Fremen of Fondak are called Iduali, or "water stealers", and shunned for a past transgression. Believing he is acting on orders from Lady Jessica, Gurney Halleck abducts a nine-year-old Leto II and brings him to Fondak, where Namri assists him in administering an overdose of the spice to Leto as a test. However, the test has actually been ordered by Leto's aunt Alia, possessed by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and Namri has been told to kill Leto no matter the result. Leto escapes and Namri attempts to kill Gurney, who kills him instead.
Namri is portrayed by Predrag Bjelac in the 2003 miniseries.
Ziarenko Javid is the son of Namri and a High Priest of the Qizarate, the leaders of the religion which has risen around Paul Atreides. Possessed by the persona of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Paul's sister Alia takes Javid as her lover, infuriating her husband, Duncan Idaho. Duncan later kills Javid publicly in Sietch Tabr, partly out of revenge and partly to manipulate Stilgar into killing Duncan as a means to force Stilgar to join the rebellion against Alia.
Javid is portrayed by Rik Young in the 2003 miniseries.
Farad'n is the son of Princess Wensicia, and the grandson of Shaddam IV. In Children of Dune, Shaddam is dead and Wensicia plots from exile to restore House Corrino to its former glory by wresting control of the Imperial throne from the usurper, Paul Atreides, for Farad'n. She attempts to assassinate Leto II and Ghanima Atreides, Paul's twin heirs, and though she fails, Leto pretends to be dead to escape the increasingly murderous ambitions of his father's sister Alia. Paul and Alia's mother, Lady Jessica, trains Farad'n in the Bene Gesserit ways as a preamble to an offer to marry Ghanima and share the throne. His part of the deal is to "denounce and banish" Wensicia for Leto's murder, which he does, but Ghanima intends to murder Farad'n on their wedding night as revenge. Leto reappears, now beginning the transformation into a human-sandworm hybrid, and ascends the throne himself. Leto, who is now physically incapable of siring children, commands Farad'n to father the future Atreides line as Ghanima's mate. Farad'n is also appointed as the Royal Scribe and renamed "Harq al'Ada" (the "breaker of habit"), and relinquishes his control of the remaining Sardaukar to Leto, effectively surrendering House Corrino's claim to the Imperial throne. Many of the chapter epigraphs in the novel are from the later writings of Farad'n (as Harq al'Ada) in his role as chronicler of the reign of Leto II.
Farad'n is portrayed by Jonathan Brüün in the 2003 miniseries.
Siona Atreides is the daughter of God Emperor Leto II's attendant and confidante Moneo, and a direct descendant of Leto's twin sister Ghanima and Farad'n Corrino. In God Emperor of Dune, Siona objects to Leto's tyrannical stranglehold on civilization, and leads a group of like-minded dissidents determined to depose Leto by any means necessary. Leto allows her to steal secret records from his archives, and she loses ten of her cohorts to Leto's D-wolves, barely escaping with her own life. Forced to join the Fish Speakers, an all-female army who obey Leto without question, Siona is further bristled by Leto's obvious desire to breed her with the latest Duncan Idaho ghola. Leto, who over the millennia has become a human-sandworm hybrid thanks to his fusion with sandtrout, the larval stage of sandworms, tests Siona by taking her out to the middle of the desert. She is careless in the use of her stillsuit to preserve moisture, and dehydration forces her to accept Leto's offer of spice essence from his body to replenish her. Awakened to Leto's Golden Path, the prophetic vision he follows to avert humanity's complete destruction, Siona is convinced of its importance, and better understands why he has ruled so harshly. But she remains dedicated to Leto's destruction, and an errant rainstorm demonstrates for her his mortal vulnerability to water. Leto has planned a Royal Procession to travel to his wedding to the Ixian ambassador Hwi Noree, and Siona and Idaho overcome a searing mutual hatred of each other to plan his assassination. As the procession moves across a high bridge over the Idaho River, Siona's associate, the Fish Speaker Nayla, destroys the support beams with a lasgun. The bridge collapses and Leto's entourage, including Hwi, plunge to their deaths into the river below. Leto's body rends apart in the water, the outer layer of sandtrout encysting the water and scurrying off, while the rest burns and disintegrates on the shore. A dying Leto reveals a secret aspect of his Golden Path: Siona is the end result of a breeding scheme to produce a human who is invisible to prescient vision. Siona and her descendants will possess this ability, and Leto explains that humanity is now free from the domination of oracles, free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete domination or complete destruction. After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire.
Hwi Noree is the newest Ixian ambassador to Arrakis, and the niece of Malky, a previous Ixian ambassador who had been close to Leto II. In God Emperor of Dune, Leto is enchanted by the beautiful and charismatic Hwi, and though he realizes she has been specifically designed and trained to ensnare him, he cannot resist falling in love with her. Raised in secret in a no-chamber, she has been bred to appeal to what remains of Leto's humanity, a process guided by Malky himself. Though his transformation into a human-sandworm hybrid makes him incapable of physical intimacy, Leto proposes marriage and Hwi agrees. Duncan Idaho also falls in love with Hwi, and they fall into bed together. The resulting rivalry only worsens the rift between Leto and Duncan, who is driven to join Siona in her assassination plot against Leto. Hwi dies with Leto when their wedding procession crosses a sabotaged bridge, which collapses into the Idaho River below.
Bene Gesserit Truthsayer Tertius Eileen Anteac comes to Arrakis with Luyseyal in God Emperor of Dune for an audience with the God Emperor Leto II that coincides with the Royal Festival held every ten years. They receive a message from Othwi Yake, Assistant to the Ixian ambassador, that Face Dancers have infiltrated the Ixian embassy, and are planning to assassinate Leto II. They try to warn Leto, but the message does not reach his convoy in time, though the plot fails, as Anteac and Luyseyal knew it would. They achieve little in their meeting with Leto II, and he takes the priceless vial of spice-essence with which they hoped to test his mortality. Leto reminds Luyseyal of the lesson learned from past over-machined societies: "The devices themselves condition the users to employ each other the way they employ machines." Later, Leto enlists Anteac's aid in detecting the Face Dancers, who by that time have replaced everyone in the Ixian embassy except the new ambassador, Hwi Noree. In particular, Anteac identifies the duplicate of Yake, who has been killed and replicated since the original sent his warning to Anteac. Leto's chief minister Moneo Atreides suggests to the God Emperor that Anteac is a secret Mentat, a skill prohibited in the Empire by Leto himself. Leto agrees but says that it amuses him. Hwi shares her knowledge of the environment in which she was brought up with Anteac, who has been conscripted by Leto to lead a Fish Speaker assault on Ix to wrest the secret of Hwi's origins. Anteac is shocked at the knowledge that Hwi is to marry Leto, and at the same time annoyed that The Bene Gesserit had allowed so talented a woman as Hwi to pass through their training program without turning her into one of them. With Anteac's faithful assistance, Leto's forces successfully invade Ix and capture Malky, Hwi's uncle and Leto's former friend, but Anteac is killed.
Some 1,500 years later in Chapterhouse: Dune the Duncan Idaho ghola recalls his past incarnation from the time of Leto II, noting that he had met with Anteac on orders from the God Emperor to suppress the Mentat school the Bene Gesserit had hidden on Wallach IX. It is also revealed that Reverend Mother Bellonda is a descendant of Anteac's.
Moneo Atreides is Leto II's longtime majordomo and close confidante, the son of one of the Duncan Idaho gholas, the father of Siona with the Fish Speaker Seyefa, and a direct descendant of Leto's twin sister Ghanima and Farad'n Corrino. Like Siona, he was rebellious as a young man, leading a group of rebels dedicated to ending Leto's oppressive reign. He recognized that eliminating Leto would cast the universe into chaos, but that it would prompt a beneficial rebirth for humanity. In God Emperor of Dune, Moneo has long given up these efforts and now serves Leto with the utmost dedication, having seen the Golden Path for himself and recognized its importance in saving humanity from destruction. Moneo is killed during Leto's assassination, orchestrated by Siona and Duncan, when the bridge that Leto's procession is crossing is destroyed.
Nayla is a fanatical Fish Speaker in the service of the God Emperor. Knowing of Siona Atreides and Duncan Idaho's plot against him, Leto has instructed Nayla to follow any order Siona gives her. When Siona tasks Nayla to assist in Leto's assassination by sabotaging the bridge he is traveling on, Nayla complies with fervor, damaging the supports with a lasgun. Leto, Hwi Noree and Moneo Atreides are among those killed in the collapse, and Duncan kills Nayla for her role in Hwi's death.
Quintinius Violet Chenoeh, specially trained as an oral recorder, is sent by Syaksa to Arrakis with Tawsuoko on a fact-gathering mission in the same year as Anteac, prior to the events God Emperor of Dune. She is invited to converse with the God Emperor himself, and he is uncharacteristically indulgent of her questions and somewhat generous with his own information, however cryptic. Leto tells Chenoeh that he plans to restore "outward spiritual freedom" for mankind, and then refers to Siona Atreides as his "achievement", which the Sisterhood correctly interprets as being related to Leto's own breeding program. Leto then says, "You will return to your Superiors with my message, but these words keep secret for now. I will visit my rage upon your Sisterhood if you fail." Chenoeh complies, following Syaksa's own warning: "You must do nothing which will bring down his wrath upon us." Leto relates how he and his sister Ghanima were able to escape the disaster of Abomination, and also makes one of the earliest references to his secret journals, later found at Dar-es-Balat. He knows he will ultimately be perceived as a tyrant, and wishes to preserve his "feelings and motives ... lest history distort them too much." At the same time, he warns "Beware of the truth," and shares what he calls "the greatest mystery of all time" by which he composes his life: "The only past which endures lies wordlessly within you." Leto tells Chenoeh that by virtue of his taking her into his confidence, "You will become here an integral part of my myth. Our distant cousins will pray to you for intercession with me!" He also foretells her later death during her attempt at becoming a Reverend Mother through the spice agony. Chenoeh's account of their secret conversation is found after her death, and it is later noted that "the persistent Cult of Sister Chenoeh assumes new significance because of the journals' disclosures." Chenoeh and Tawsuoko also bring back to Chapterhouse proof (in the form of a written eyewitness account of Leto's statement) that, as rumored, Leto executed nine historians four centuries prior.
Lucilla is a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother and Imprinter. In Heretics of Dune, Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Taraza sends the young and attractive Lucilla to Gammu, formerly the Harkonnen homeworld Giedi Prime, to teach the teenage Duncan Idaho ghola whom the Sisterhood is raising there. Lucilla is also tasked with binding his loyalty to her, and thus the Bene Gesserit, through imprinting, while also protecting him from the negative influence—and possible peril—presented by dissenting Bene Gesserit who believe the ghola is a danger to the Sisterhood. Extremely precocious and already having divined the fact that he is a ghola, the young Duncan nurses hatred for the Bene Gesserit, hoping to escape their control of his life. He soon blossoms, however, under the training of Lucilla and Miles Teg, a male military commander of the Bene Gesserit brought out of retirement in part to protect the ghola. An attempt is made on Duncan's life, and Teg and Lucilla flee with Duncan into the countryside. They hide in a forgotten Harkonnen no-globe, during which time Teg is able to awaken Duncan to his original memories. This occurs before Lucilla has imprinted the ghola, and his new self-awareness now makes it impossible for her to attempt it. Teg arranges an extraction by his protégé Burzmali, but they are ambushed, and Teg sacrifices himself to capture while Lucilla and Duncan escape. Duncan attempts to get off Gammu undetected in the guise of a diminutive Tleilaxu Master, but is taken hostage. Lucilla and Burzmali arrive at a Bene Gesserit safehouse, but discover that it has been taken over by the fearsome Honored Matres, a violent matriarchal order from the farthest reaches of the universe who have been wreaking havoc and destruction on Tleilaxu worlds. Lucilla manages to impersonate an Honored Matre as one of their number, escaping with Duncan and an Honored Matre prisoner, Murbella. Teg commandeers an Honored Matre no-ship and flees with Lucilla, Duncan and a captive Murbella.
In Chapterhouse: Dune, Lucilla has been transferred to the planet Lampadas to oversee a Bene Gesserit education center located there. She manages to escape before the Honored Matres destroy the planet, carrying the shared memories of its millions of Reverend Mothers. Her ship is damaged by a mine and she is forced to land on Gammu, where she takes refuge with a hidden colony of Jews, knowing that they will be sympathetic to her. The Jews had fled Earth thousands of years earlier in order to escape relentless persecution, and they now practice their religion in secret to maintain their ties to ancient history. The Bene Gesserit, with their own method of connecting to their past, have cultivated a relationship with the Jews. The leader of this settlement gives Lucilla shelter, but ultimately has to turn her over to the Honored Matres in order to save his people from destruction at their hands. Before doing so, however, he introduces Lucilla to Rebecca, a "wild" Reverend Mother who has gained her Other Memories without Bene Gesserit training. Lucilla shares minds with Rebecca, who promises to take the memories of Lampadas safely back to the Sisterhood. The Honored Matres capture Lucilla and bring her before the Great Honored Matre Dama, who surprises everyone present by declining to kill her outright. Dama tries to persuade Lucilla to join the Honored Matres, preserving her life in exchange for Bene Gesserit secrets. Dama is especially interested in the Bene Gesserit ability to modify their biochemistry and render toxins harmless, prompting Lucilla to speculate that the Honored Matres were driven out of the Scattering by an enemy who used biological weapons. These conversations with Lucilla continue for weeks, and she reveals to Dama that, although the Bene Gesserit know how to manipulate and control the populace, they practice and believe in democracy. Dama's desire to destroy the Sisterhood is redoubled when she discovers that the Bene Gesserit teach this dangerous knowledge, and she kills Lucilla.
Lucilla is described as a near copy of the elite Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade, from her physical appearance to the sound of her voice. The two women are not directly related, but are instead the products of parallel breeding lines.
Miles Teg is a Mentat and the former Supreme Bashar of the Bene Gesserit, their leading military commander. In Heretics of Dune, Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Taraza summons Teg out of retirement to take over the weapons training of the newest Duncan Idaho ghola, still a teenager, on Gammu. Teg, Duncan and Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Lucilla flee an attempt on Duncan's life, and hide in a long-forgotten Harkonnen no-globe discovered by Teg's aide, Patrin. Teg uses his strong resemblance to his ancestor Duke Leto Atreides, to whom the original Idaho was fiercely loyal, and a variety of relentless physical and mental attacks to awaken Duncan to his original memories. Teg arranges an extraction by his protégé Burzmali, but they are ambushed, and Teg sacrifices himself to capture by the Honored Matres to allow Lucilla and Duncan to escape. Teg is tortured using a T-Probe, and under the severe stress and agony produced by the probe's attempts to gain control of his body and his knowledge, his Mentat abilities and Atreides genes elevate him to a higher level of being. He is able to move faster than the eye can see by accelerating his metabolism, and he gains mild prescience, which he describes as a doubled vision which gives him intimations of danger. His accelerated speed comes at the cost of incredible energy expenditure, requiring him to consume enormous amounts of food. After escaping his captors, he finds that his safehouse had been taken over by Honored Matres, who attempt to gain his allegiance. Seeing the terrible state their constant drive for power and contempt for the masses has lowered them to, he uses his incredible speed to slaughter them and escape once more. Teg gathers a force of veterans who had served under him on previous campaigns from the bars of Ysai and captures an Honored Matre no-ship using his tactical genius and new abilities. He flees the planet with Lucilla, Duncan and a captive Honored Matre, Murbella. Journeying to Rakis, Teg hands off Duncan and Lucilla to the Bene Gesserits Sheeana and Darwi Odrade, the latter of which is revealed to be his daughter. As the others escape, Teg goads the Honored Matres, who incinerate the entire planet with their Obliterator weapons to be sure Teg is killed.
A ghola of Teg is birthed in Chapterhouse: Dune on orders from Odrade, who is now Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit after Taraza's death in the battle at Rakis. Odrade needs Teg's military abilities to thwart the worsening threat of the Honored Matres. The Bene Gesserit later reawaken him to his full memories prematurely by using Sheeana to imprint him. As the original Teg has been trained by his mother to resist such manipulation, the attempt subjects the Teg ghola to a heightened amount of stress which also unlocks the superhuman abilities previously acquired by Teg under Honored Matre torture. A reawakened Teg leads the final assault upon the Honored Matres, but is captured when the Matres pretend to surrender. Murbella, a captive Honored Matre indoctrinated into the Bene Gesserit, kills the Honored Matre leader Logno at the same time Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Odrade is killed, and Murbella manages to secure the leadership of both groups. Teg is released, later joining Sheeana and Duncan Idaho when they escape Bene Gesserit control in a no-ship.
The adult Teg is described as 296 years old but still vital, and has a striking resemblance to his ancestor, Leto Atreides. The son of the Bene Gesserit Lady Janet Roxbrough (a Fish Speaker descendant) and Loschy Teg, a "CHOAM station factor" who was chosen for breeding by the Sisterhood for his "gene potential," Miles had been instructed in the Bene Gesserit ways by his mother before being sent to Lampadas to train as a Mentat. Teg is a military genius, having a very strong sense of honor, loyalty, and many of the characteristics of House Atreides, his ancestors. He is well known for doing the unexpected. Teg is also not a spice addict, as is common with most other people, not even resorting to the spice at old age when most others might wish to use it to extend their lives. By the time of Heretics of Dune, Teg's wife had been dead for 38 years, his grown children living elsewhere except for his eldest daughter Dimela. She and her husband Firus take control of Teg's farm when he leaves his homeworld Lernaeus, and the couple have three children. Teg had a younger brother, Sabine, who had been poisoned on Romo. In Heretics of Dune, it is revealed that Teg had fathered other children during his younger years, one of whom is Odrade.
Teg also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, Duncan and Teg run the affairs on the no-ship, being the only two passengers with experience in military leadership. Teg considers himself responsible for the security of the ship and its vital cargo of historical gholas, produced in transit from genetic material possessed by captive passenger Scytale, purportedly the last Tleilaxu Master. In Sandworms of Dune, mysterious saboteurs conduct crippling attacks on the no-ship's systems. Teg and Duncan discover that Face Dancers have infiltrated the ship, but not before they are led directly to the "Unknown Enemy" who have been stalking the ship for years: Daniel and Marty, incarnations of the ancient thinking machines Omnius and Erasmus. The critically damaged no-ship is caught in the thinking machine tachyon net, and Teg uses his accelerated metabolism to both repair the ship and launch countermeasures against the attacking machines. Though he has consumed vast quantities of melange and carbohydrates from the ship's stores to complete his task, Teg dies from massive cellular exhaustion. Duncan is unable to free the ship, and it is taken to the machine world Synchrony. En route, Duncan and Sheeana release the husk that is left of Teg's body into space, vowing that the Bashar will never be captured by the Enemy. Later, after the machines are defeated, Duncan asks Scytale for a new ghola of Teg, whom he will need at his side in his new position as the bridge between both mankind and machines.
Murbella is a young Honored Matre who defects to the Bene Gesserit. In Heretics of Dune, the violent Honored Matres capture the teenage Duncan Idaho ghola, who is loyal to their enemies, the Bene Gesserit. Young Honored Matre Murbella is tasked to use her sexual imprinting talents to enslave Duncan to force his allegiance to them. The Tleilaxu have secretly programmed the ghola with the male equivalent to the Honored Matres' imprinting power, which is unlocked by Murbella's attempt. Duncan and Murbella imprint each other, and in her weakened condition Murbella is easily captured by the Bene Gesserit. Her new addiction to Duncan keeps Murbella subdued, and Bene Gesserit soon begin to train her as one of them, though they do not completely trust her. In Chapterhouse: Dune, Duncan and Murbella's mutual imprinting has made them reluctant lovers. Murbella collapses under the pressure of training and her pregnancy, but realizes that she admires and wants to be Bene Gesserit. Murbella submits to the spice agony to become a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and survives. During a Bene Gesserit attack on the Honored Matres, Murbella kills the Great Honored Matre Logno with her Bene Gesserit-enhanced fighting skills, and the Honored Matres are awed by her physical prowess. The Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Darwi Odrade is also killed, and Murbella secures the leadership of both groups, per Odrade's plan. Murbella intends to merge the two orders into a New Sisterhood, which displeases some of the Bene Gesserit. The dissenters flee Chapterhouse with Duncan, Miles Teg, and Sheeana in a no-ship, and Murbella realizes their plan too late to stop them.
Murbella also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, Murbella takes the title Mother Commander. She has four daughters by Duncan: Rinya, Janess, Tanidia and Gianne. Murbella searches her Other Memory for the origin of the Honored Matres. She discovers that they are descendants of rogue Bene Gesserits and Tleilaxu females, originally used as axlotl tanks and freed by Fish Speakers, who allied in the Scattering. Murbella also discovers that the Honored Matres' "outside enemy" are thinking machines, provoked when the Honored Matres stole technologically advanced weapons, including Obliterators, from them. In Sandworms of Dune, Murbella now knows that the sentient computer network Omnius and his thinking machine forces are coming, and attempts to rally humankind for a last stand against the thinking machines. She commissions the scientists of Ix to copy the destructive Obliterators for use on the fleet of warships she has ordered from the Spacing Guild. However, Ix is now secretly controlled by Face Dancer leader Khrone. When Murbella is ready to launch her fleet, the Obliterators and Ixian navigation devices all suddenly fail, which Murbella realizes is sabotage. The Oracle of Time appears, destroying Omnius and the thinking machines with her own armada. Murbella is reunited with Duncan, who intends to end the divide between humans and thinking machines, allowing the two to co-exist.
Darwi Odrade is an elite Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother and Atreides descendant. In Heretics of Dune, the "wild talents" of the Atreides bloodline that Odrade displays intermittently are what the Bene Gesserit both fear and desperately need. The suspicious Reverend Mother Bellonda scrutinizes Odrade continually, looking for reasons to terminate her, while Mother Superior Taraza senses that the Sisterhood needs Odrade's limited Atreides prescience to avert imminent destruction at the hands of the Honored Matres. Taraza tasks Odrade to take over the Bene Gesserit Keep on the planet Arrakis, and take under her protection the foundling girl Sheeana, who has the natural ability to control the giant sandworms. Recognizing Sheeana's value to the Sisterhood, Odrade begins training her as a Bene Gesserit acolyte. Meanwhile, an anonymous document referred to as the Atreides Manifesto surfaces, attacking all religions in the known universe except for that of the Bene Tleilax. This creates a furor with the intensely religious Tleilaxu, who have long nursed dreams of hegemony, dominating the universe with their religion. The Tleilaxu council decides to treat the Manifesto as a gift from God, and they spread it far and wide. It is later revealed that the Manifesto was in fact written by Odrade. When Taraza is killed after a showdown with the Honored Matres on Arrakis, Odrade becomes Mother Superior.
In Chapterhouse Dune (1985), Odrade is accompanied by Tamalane, Dortujla and the acolyte Suipol to meet the Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction, as retired Bene Gesserit Supreme Bashar Miles Teg leads a force to attack Gammu. With the planet about to fall, the Honored Matres activate their "weapon of last resort", turning victory into defeat and holding Odrade captive. Tamalane, Dortujla, and Suipol are killed. As planned with Odrade previously, Honored Matre-turned-Bene Gesserit Murbella travels to Junction alone, pretending to have escaped the Bene Gesserit with their unique abilities and the location of their hidden homeworld, Chapterhouse. Murbella is brought before the new Great Honored Matre Logno, who has just killed her predecessor Dama and has Odrade standing nearby, unrestrained in a gesture of contempt. Murbella provokes and kills Logno, while simultaneously the Honored Matre Elpek kills Odrade. With both of these deaths, Murbella becomes the new Mother Superior as well as Great Honored Matre, fulfilling Odrade's intentions.
Odrade is secretly the daughter of military commander Teg, and her "care with details" makes her, like Teg, most suited for duties related to security. The younger Reverend Mother and Imprinter Lucilla is described a near copy of Odrade, from her physical appearance to the sound of her voice. The two women are not directly related, but are instead the products of parallel breeding lines. As the Bene Gesserit are wary of the historical unpredictability of Atreides genes, it is noted in Heretics of Dune that her offspring receive "careful examination", and that "two of those offspring had been quietly put to death."
Sheeana Brugh is a young girl native to Rakis (formerly Arrakis) who possesses the unique ability to control the giant sandworms that roam the desert planet. In Heretics of Dune, Sheeana's talent is revealed after her impoverished village is wiped out by a sandworm which refuses to harm her, and then whisks her to the capital city of Keen (formerly Arrakeen) when she climbs on to its back in the long-forbidden Fremen tradition. Sheeana is soon recognized as the "sandrider" predicted by the Leto II, and worshipped by the priesthood of Rakis. As she matures to adulthood, Sheeana effectively assumes control of the priesthood. Her popularity and religious aura have increased both on and off Rakis, and the priests, believing her a prophet, are compelled to follow even her most unorthodox commands. The Bene Gesserit, who have their own plans for Sheeana and have secretly guided her education, thwart an assassination attempt on her, and unofficially take control of Sheeana, the priesthood and Rakis. Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade begins Sheeana's formal Bene Gesserit training. Mother Superior Taraza is soon pleased with Sheeana's progress, and considers a secondary plan of seeding other planets with sandworms with Sheeana's help. Rakis itself is destroyed by the vengeful Honored Matres. In Chapterhouse: Dune, Sheeana is now in charge of the project to breed sandworms on the secret Bene Gesserit world, Chapterhouse. She becomes a full Reverend Mother but remains very independent, with mysterious depths. Disagreeing with the plans of new Bene Gesserit leader Murbella, Sheeana chooses to escape Chapterhouse on an untraceable no-ship with the like-minded Duncan Idaho ghola and a number of other passengers.
Sheeana also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, Sheeana and Duncan lead the no-ship in their journey to flee the Unknown Enemy that pursues them. Sheeana decides that they need to make new gholas of former heroes using the genetic material carried by the last Tleilaxu Master, Scytale.
Tylwyth Waff is a Tleilaxu Master and the leader of the Bene Tleilax, a secretive race of genetic manipulators who traffic in biological products such as artificial eyes, gholas, and "twisted" Mentats. Waff is described as "an elfin figure barely a meter and a half tall. Eyes, hair, and skin were shades of gray, all a stage for the oval face with its tiny mouth and line of sharp teeth". In Heretics of Dune, Waff successfully replaces High Priest Hedley Tuek with a Face Dancer duplicate loyal to the Tleilaxi, but loses control of the impostor due to its eventual complete assimilation into its new form. Traveling to Rakis, Waff decides to ally with the Bene Gesserit after he is tricked into believing that they share the secret religious beliefs of the Tleilaxu. He is killed along with the entire population of Rakis when the Honored Matres destroy the planet in revenge for Miles Teg's slaughter of their members. Meanwhile, he has a replacement ghola growing for himself in Bandalong, the capital city of the Tleilaxu homeworld, Tleilax.
Waff also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, the Honored Matres who conquered Tleilax have kept several of Waff's gholas alive, but in vegetative states. In order to recover the supposedly "lost" secret to producing melange in axlotl tanks, the Lost Tleilaxu scribe Uxtal is tasked to create new gholas from Waff's genetic material. Uxtal accelerates the process artificially, and of the first batch of eight Waff gholas, seven fail to regain their memories and are viciously killed. The massacre shocks the last ghola into regaining some of Waff's memories, but not enough to recreate the melange process. Later, the Waff ghola escapes the Bene Gesserit attack on Tleilax, finding refuge with the Spacing Guild by offering Guild Navigator Edrik the genetic knowledge for the Guild to create their own, optimized sandworms to produce melange. In Sandworms of Dune, Waff alters the DNA of the sandworm's larval sandtrout stage to create an aquatic form of the worms, which are then released into the oceans of Buzzell. Adapting to their new environment, these "seaworms" quickly flourish, eventually producing a highly concentrated form of melange, dubbed "ultraspice". Waff makes a pilgrimage to Rakis, original homeworld of the sandworms, and sacrifices himself to a worm, which to him is an embodiment of God.
Bellonda is a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother and the chief Mentat-Archivist counselor to Mother Superior Taraza in Heretics of Dune. After Taraza's death, Bellonda serves new Mother Superior Darwi Odrade in the same function in Chapterhouse: Dune. During a conversation with the Duncan Idaho ghola it is revealed that Bellonda is a descendant of Anteac, an important Reverend Mother from the time of the God Emperor Leto II.
Bellonda also appears in the sequel novel Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In the novel, Bellonda is one of the few Bene Gesserit with access to the Bene Gesserit's sensitive breeding records, and one of even fewer possessing the memories of all the Mothers Superior. Bellonda suspects that the Honored Matres had originally been Reverend Mothers sent out in the Scattering, and calculates that melange withdrawal and hypnosis had caused them to deny their origins. Bellonda is later killed in a duel by her Spice Operations Director partner and nemesis, the former Honored Matre Doria. An outraged Mother Commander Murbella, leader of the merged New Sisterhood of Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres, forces Doria to share minds with Bellonda before her memories are lost forever.
Alma Mavis Taraza is the Bene Gesserit Mother Superior in Heretics of Dune who brings former Supreme Bashar Miles Teg reluctantly out of retirement to guard the latest Duncan Idaho ghola. Taraza blackmails Tleilaxu Master Waff to find out all he knows about the invading Honored Matres, as well as the fact that the Bene Tleilax have programmed their own agenda within the ghola. She also manages to divine that Waff is a secret Zensufi, which finally gives the Sisterhood a way to manipulate the Tleilaxu. Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade subsequently uses this knowledge of Waff's religious beliefs to form an alliance with him. As Tleilaxu axlotl tanks are the only other source of melange besides Rakis, this alliance will be essential when Taraza executes her ultimate plan: to destroy Rakis and free humanity from Leto II's own plan. The discovery of a girl with the ability to control sandworms prompts Taraza to consider a secondary plan of seeding other planets with them. The Honored Matres are goaded into attacking Rakis and Taraza is killed, but not before she is able to share Other Memory with Odrade, who escapes.
Alef Burzmali is Miles Teg's protégé in the Bene Gesserit military who became Supreme Bashar after Teg's retirement. In Heretics of Dune, he aids Teg in extracting the Duncan Idaho ghola and Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Lucilla from their hiding place on Gammu. When Duncan is captured by the Honored Matres, Lucilla impersonates one of them, with Burzmali playing her sexual slave, to access the building where Duncan is being held. Burzmali dies attempting to protect the planet Lampadas from a catastrophic attack by Honored Matres in Chapterhouse Dune.
Hedley Tuek is the High Priest of the Rakian Priesthood, and a descendant of the melange smuggler Esmar Tuek. Tleilaxu Master Waff has Tuek killed and replaced by a Face Dancer, a genetically-engineered mimic, but loses control of the duplicate due to its eventual complete assimilation into its new form.
Rebecca is a "wild" Reverend Mother who lives among a secret community of Jews on Gammu. In Chapterhouse: Dune, Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Lucilla is fleeing the destruction of the planet Lampadas by the Honored Matres and is forced to land on Gammu. Once there, she seeks out a hidden settlement of Jews, whom she knows will give her sanctuary. They are obligated to turn her over to the Honored Matres to assure their own survival, but Lucilla, who is carrying the priceless shared-minds of all the Reverend Mothers of Lampadas, is able to share minds with Rebecca and pass on this knowledge before being captured by the Honored Matres. Rebecca and the Jews eventually escape Gammu with the Bene Gesserit forces, and Rebecca is able to pass on the 7,622,014 Lampadas shared-minds to the Sisterhood.
In the sequel novel Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca is aboard the untraceable no-ship which Sheeana and Duncan Idaho use to flee the Bene Gesserit planet Chapterhouse. Rebecca later offers herself as a volunteer to become one of the axlotl tanks used to produce the important gholas of Paul Atreides, Leto II and others.
Daniel and Marty are a pair of mysterious observers with advanced technological powers introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune. Duncan Idaho sees the duo in a vision and determines that they are likely Face Dancers, the shapeshifting minions of the Tleilaxu, though atypically autonomous ones. In the final chapter of the novel, Daniel and Marty observe the escape of the no-ship from Chapterhouse and confirm that they are independent Face Dancers. They acknowledge that Tleilaxu Masters created them and express some deference, but also assert their independence and indicate that their ability to absorb the memories and experiences of other people made their autonomy inevitable. Daniel and Marty hint that they observe and are familiar with various groups in the universe, and allude to their desire to capture and study the passengers of the no-ship.
Herbert's 1986 death "left fans with an über-cliffhanger" for twenty years, until his son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson published two sequels to the original series, Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune.
In Hunters of Dune, Daniel and Marty are in constant pursuit of the escaped no-ship, on which they believe is the Kwisatz Haderach they require to be victorious in the imminent and long-foretold "battle at the end of the universe" known as kralizec. Their Face Dancer minion Khrone is executing a parallel plan to create their own Kwisatz Haderach, using a Paul Atreides ghola that will be conditioned by a ghola of the Baron Harkonnen. Daniel and Marty themselves have the ability to create illusions, and to inflict pain on any human. It is eventually revealed that Daniel and Marty are not, in fact, Face Dancers: they are actually incarnations of the thinking machines Omnius (Daniel) and Erasmus (Marty), introduced in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Anderson. In the third Legends novel Dune: The Battle of Corrin, Omnius had sent out a last blast of information before being destroyed in the Battle of Corrin. This signal had eventually connected with one of the probes disseminated from Giedi Prime several years earlier, uploading versions of Erasmus and Omnius.
In Sandworms of Dune, Omnius and Erasmus finally capture the no-ship and pit the Paul ghola on board against their own twisted version, Paolo, in a duel to the death that will leave them with the strongest of the two. Paul survives, but realizes that Duncan is actually the "ultimate Kwisatz Haderach" that Omnius has been seeking. The Oracle of Time, the immortal founder of the Spacing Guild, transports every aspect of the Omnius network into another dimension forever. Erasmus offers Duncan the choice between continuing their war or ending it. Duncan chooses peace over victory, and he and Erasmus merge minds. Erasmus imparts Duncan with all the codes required to run the Synchronized Worlds, as well as all of Erasmus' knowledge, setting Duncan as the bridge between humans and machines to permanently end the divide and ensure that the two may co-exist. With little left for him, Erasmus again expresses his desire to learn everything possible about what it is to be human—and asks Duncan to deactivate him so that he may experience "death".
William F. Touponce states unequivocally that Daniel and Marty are Face Dancers in his 1988 book Frank Herbert, explaining "Herbert gives us a segment narrated from their point of view only at the very end of the novel. They are offshoots of the Tleilaxu Face Dancers sent out in The Scattering and have become almost godlike because of their capacity to assume the persona of whoever they kill—and they have been doing this for centuries, capturing Mentats and Tleilaxu Masters and whatever else they could assimilate, until now they play with whole planets and civilizations. They are weirdly benign when they first appear in the visions of Duncan Idaho as a calm elderly couple working in a flower garden, trying to capture him in their net". In an August 2007 review of Sandworms of Dune, John C. Snider of SciFiDimensions.com argues that it "doesn't fit" or "add up" that Frank Herbert's Daniel and Marty are the "malevolent" thinking machines Brian Herbert and Anderson created in their Legends of Dune prequel novels. He further wonders why "Omnius, long established as puzzled by and averse to human unpredictability, would want to breed that ultimate ungovernable—a Kwisatz Haderach".
Great Honored Matre Dama is the Honored Matre leader on Junction in Chapterhouse Dune, and is called the "Spider Queen" by the Bene Gesserit leader Darwi Odrade. Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Lucilla flees the destruction of Lampadas by the Honored Matres, but is forced to land on Gammu. She is captured and brought before Dama, but not killed outright. Dama tries to persuade Lucilla to join the Honored Matres, preserving her life in exchange for Bene Gesserit secrets. Dama does not try to hide the fact that the Matres dearly want to learn to modify their biochemistry as the Bene Gesserit do. These conversations with Lucilla continue for weeks. When she reveals to Dama that, although the Bene Gesserit know how to manipulate and control the populace, they practice and believe in democracy, Dama's desire to destroy the Sisterhood is redoubled when she discovers the Bene Gesserit teach this dangerous knowledge. Dama kills Lucilla, and then meets with Mother Superior Odrade. Dama at first seems surprisingly cooperative, but Odrade soon realizes that Dama intends no reasonable negotiation. Under cover of Odrade's diplomacy, the Bene Gesserit forces under Miles Teg attack Junction with tremendous force. Dama's chief advisor Logno assassinates Dama with poison, and assumes control of the Honored Matres.
Logno is the chief advisor to Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction. In Chapterhouse Dune, Logno assassinates Dama with poison while the Bene Gesserit forces are attacking Junction. Logno assumes control of the Honored Matres and immediately surrenders. Bene Gesserit leader Odrade is surprised, but she and Miles Teg soon realize they have fallen into a trap. The Honored Matres use a weapon of mass destruction and turn defeat into victory. Murbella saves as much of the Bene Gesserit force as she can, and they begin to withdraw to Chapterhouse. Odrade, however, had planned for the possible failure of the Bene Gesserit attack and left Murbella instructions for a last desperate gamble. Murbella pilots a small craft down to the surface, announcing herself as an Honored Matre who, in the confusion, has managed to escape the Bene Gesserit with all their secrets. She arrives on the planet and immediately announces her intentions by killing an overeager Honored Matre with blinding speed enhanced by Bene Gesserit training that makes her faster than any Honored Matre before her. Murbella is taken to Logno, and immediately declares herself hostile. Logno cannot help herself and attacks, and Murbella handily kills her and some of her allies. Murbella takes charge of the Honored Matres, who are awed by her physical prowess.
Dortujla is the head of the Bene Gesserit keep on the cold aquatic planet Buzzell, having been sent there as punishment for the so-called "Jessica crime"—a love affair, forbidden by the Bene Gesserit as a weakness that could compromise their performance. In Chapterhouse: Dune, Dortujla comes to Odrade on Chapterhouse to report that humanoid Handlers and their half-man/half-cat enslaved Futars have offered alliance against the Honored Matres, who have yet to make a move on Buzzell. Dortujla's Mentat analysis, however, suggests that the Handlers somehow intend dominance, and that the Matres intend to colonize Buzzell. Odrade sees an opportunity, and orders Dortujla to return to Buzzell and make contact with the Honored Matres, brokering a meeting between Odrade and their leader in which the Bene Gesserit will supposedly surrender. Dortujla is tortured by the Honored Matres and forced to watch her party be murdered and fed to captive Futars. However, she witnesses a Futar using its immobilizing scream, which has "qualities of Voice", against the Honored Matres. Later, Dortujla accompanies Odrade, Tamalane and the acolyte Suipol to meet the Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction, the old Spacing Guild complex above Gammu, as Miles Teg leads a force to attack Gammu. Dortujla and her party are eventually slain by the Honored Matres.
Since 1999, Herbert's son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have published 15 prequel novels, collected in the series Prelude to Dune (1999–2001), Legends of Dune (2002–2004), Heroes of Dune (2008–2023), Great Schools of Dune (2012–2016), and The Caladan Trilogy (2020–2022). They have also released two sequel novels—Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007)—which complete the original series.
Anirul is a Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank, wife of the 81st Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and the mother of his five daughters, the Princesses Irulan, Chalice, Wensicia, Josifa and Rugi. Anirul is referred to only three times in Herbert's 1965 novel Dune, and only once by name, but is a major character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy. In Dune: House Atreides (1999), Anirul is described as having "short bronze-brown hair," and that her "features were long and narrow, giving her a doelike face, but her large eyes had a depth of millennia in them." In the novel, she is the Bene Gesserit Kwisatz Mother, the Reverend Mother chosen every generation to guide the Bene Gesserit breeding program. She calculates that the culmination of the program, the creation of a male superbeing called the Kwisatz Haderach, is imminent. This eventuality is contingent on a daughter of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen being bred with an Atreides male. The resulting daughter would then be bred with another Harkonnen heir, to produce the male Kwisatz Haderach. The Bene Gesserit Margot Fenring arranges for Anirul to marry Shaddam as a means for the Sisterhood to gain influence over the Imperial throne by ensuring that Shaddam will never have a son. During the events of Dune: House Corrino (2001), Anirul is murdered by the Harkonnen Mentat Piter De Vries while trying to save the young Paul Atreides from being kidnapped.
Elrood IX of House Corrino is the Padishah Emperor, and father of Shaddam IV. He is mentioned twice in Appendix IV of Dune, where it is noted that he "succumbed to chaumurky" (poison), rumored to have been administered by Count Hasimir Fenring. In Dune: House Atreides, Elrood shows interest in Project Amal, an early attempt by the Bene Tleilax to create synthetic melange and eliminate dependence upon Arrakis. Success would guarantee Elrood total control over spice production. To further this goal, Elrood allows the Tleilaxu to invade and occupy the industrial planet Ix, with the help of Elrood's Sardaukar army, and remake it into a laboratory station for the project. Elrood's other motivation is revenge against Earl Dominic Vernius, the ruler of Ix, whose wife Shando had been one of Elrood's concublines. Shaddam is eager to become emperor, but despite Elrood's advanced age, he shows no signs of ill health. Shaddam finally tasks his longtime friend and minion Fenring to administer Elrood with an undetectable, slow-acting poison. Elrood finally dies, and Shaddam secures his throne by paying off the Spacing Guild with a supply of melange and by arranging his own marriage to a Bene Gesserit.
Serena Butler is a prominent politician and voice of the human rebellion who becomes the namesake of the Butlerian Jihad against the oppressive rule of the thinking machines in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy. The daughter of League of Nobles Viceroy Manion Butler and his wife Livia, Serena is romantically involved with Xavier Harkonnen, who leads the military force on the League capital world of Salusa Secundus. The universe is under threat of total domination by the thinking machine empire, which consists of the evermind Omnius, the independent robot Erasmus and their army cymeks, fearsome weaponized machines controlled by disembodied human brains. The thinking machines control many worlds, and continue to conquer more, enslaving or exterminating any humans they encounter. In Dune: The Butlerian Jihad (2002), Serena is captured by the thinking machines and studied by Erasmus, who seeks to understand humans completely so that the thinking machines can be truly superior. Though his methods of study often entail human vivisection and torture, Erasmus takes a liking to Serena, as does the young Vorian Atreides, a human trustee who serves the thinking machines. Serena realizes she is pregnant with Xavier's child, and later gives birth to a baby boy she names Manion. Eventually finding this distraction inconvenient, Erasmus not only removes Serena's uterus, but kills her young son in front of her and his slaves by dropping the child from a high balcony. This event, broadcast across the universe, incites a formal jihad against the thinking machines. Seeing Serena subsequently attack and destroy a sentinel robot with her bare hands encourages Erasmus' slaves, already groomed for rebellion by slave leader Iblis Ginjo, to rise up. Vorian, witnessing the murder and realizing the lie he lives as a machine trustee, flees with Serena and Ginjo. In Dune: The Machine Crusade (2003), Ginjo (now Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad) and Serena (Priestess of the Jihad) have become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, now known the Butlerian Jihad, which elevates young Manion to a martyr. Serena is named interim Viceroy upon her father's retirement, but is later relegated to a figurehead by Ginjo as he consolidates his power. The humans begin to tire of war, but Serena and Ginjo know that true peace is not possible, and that the thinking machines must be destroyed. Serena visits Omnius as an emissary of the Jihad under the pretense of negotiating peace, but secretly intends to provoke Omnius into killing her, thereby making her a martyr and reenergizing the Jihad. Although Erasmus stops Omnius from murdering Serena, one of her Seraphim bodyguards, on orders from Ginjo, kills her instead. Ginjo manufactures images of Serena being tortured at length and murdered by the thinking machines, silencing anti-war dissenters and galvanizing the Jihad back into action.
Xavier Harkonnen is the courageous and honorable leader of the military force on the League of Nobles capital world of Salusa Secundus in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy. In Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Xavier is romantically involved with Serena Butler until she is presumably killed in an attack by the thinking machines, who seek to conquer the universe and enslave or exterminate all humans. Xavier marries Serena's sister Octa and starts a family. Serena, actually a prisoner of the thinking machines, reappears after Manion, Serena and Xavier's infant son, is martyred by the independent robot Erasmus and sparks a jihad against the machines. In Dune: The Machine Crusade, Serena and the formerly enslaved Iblis Ginjo have become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, with Xavier and Vorian Atreides its two generals. A hero of the Jihad, Xavier achieves many military victories over the machines. When he realizes the extent of Ginjo's corruption, Xavier sacrifices his own life and reputation by steering the ship carrying himself and Ginjo into a sun. His secrets dying with him, Ginjo becomes a martyred saint, and Xavier a traitor to humanity.
Vorian Atreides is the human son of the Titan Agamemnon, and later the founder of House Atreides, in the Legends of Dune trilogy. In Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, he serves the thinking machines as a human trustee, his primary function being to deliver updates of the thinking machine ruler, the evermind Omnius, to machine-controlled worlds alongside his robot co-pilot, Seurat. Vorian falls in love with Serena Butler, a human captured by the independent robot Erasmus, and is horrified when Erasmus murders her child. Vorian betrays the thinking machines and flees with Serena and the human former slave leader Iblis Ginjo. In Dune: The Machine Crusade, Serena and Ginjo have become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, with Vorian and Xavier Harkonnen as its two generals. A hero of the Jihad, Vorian achieves many military victories over the machines. Having become a close friend to Xavier, Vorian tries to clear Harkonnen's name after Xavier is branded a traitor for assassinating the corrupt Ginjo in a suicide flight into a sun. In Dune: The Battle of Corrin (2004), Vorian commands the final assault on Omnius. Trapped on Corrin, the thinking machines have surrounded the planet with a human shield of slave ships, and Xavier's grandson Abulurd Harkonnen defies Vorian's orders to reactivate their weapons and attack. Abulurd is ultimately relieved of duty and charged with treason and cowardice, for which he is exiled, igniting the Atreides-Harkonnen feud which will last for millennia.
Having previously begun a family on Caladan which would become House Atreides, and fathering children on many worlds, Vorian is settled on the backwater world Kepler in Sisterhood of Dune (2012). His father Agamemnon's life-extension treatments have kept Vorian in his prime for generations, and he foils a group of slavers targeting his village. Vorian meets with Padishah Emperor Salvador Corrino, and is welcomed as a hero of the Jihad. The populace ask that he take the throne from the Corrinos, and though he declines to do so, Salvador and his brother Roderick worry that Vorian's presence may incite a revolution. In exchange for Vorian retreating into deeper exile, Salvador agrees to protect Kepler with Imperial forces. Vorian travels to Arrakis and is confronted by a vengeful Griffin Harkonnen, Abulurd's grandson, whose family ekes out a meager existence but hopes to improve its fortunes. Vorian and Griffin reconcile, but Griffin is later killed by the assassins Hyla and Andros, Vorian's twin half-siblings who are still loyal to the vanquished thinking machines. Vorian sends a message of condolence to Griffin's sister, Valya Harkonnen, who spurns the offer and plans her own revenge. In Mentats of Dune (2014), Vorian is wracked with guilt over Griffin's death, and tries to help his struggling family with a secret infusion of funds to their whaling business on Lankiveil. On Caladan, Vorian's descendant Orry Atreides is murdered on his wedding night by his new bride, who is secretly Tula Harkonnen, Griffin and Valya's younger sister. Vorian and Orry's brother, Willem, confront Valya and a remorseful Tula in Navigators of Dune (2016). Willem spares Tula's life when he learns that she is pregnant with Orry's child. Valya believes Vorian is dead when his ship explodes, but he survives.
Iblis Ginjo is a human trustee, the enslaved head of a legion of other slaves, for the thinking machines in Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Initially loyal to machine leader Omnius and hoping to eventually secure his immortality by becoming a cymek, Ginjo is manipulated into fostering ideas of rebellion as part of a psychological experiment by the independent robot Erasmus. Ginjo begins to see the extent to which the thinking machines do not value human life, and when Erasmus murders the child of human captive Serena Butler, Ginjo spurs the slaves to revolt. He flees with Serena and fellow disillusioned trustee Vorian Atreides. In Dune: The Machine Crusade, Ginjo (now Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad) and Serena (Priestess of the Jihad) have become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, now known the Butlerian Jihad, with Vorian and Xavier Harkonnen as its two generals. Ginjo marries noblewoman Camie Boro, and fathers a daughter, Ticia Cenva with Zufa Cenva, the powerful leader of the telekinetic Sorceresses of Rossak. Serena is named interim Viceroy upon her father's retirement, but is later relegated to a figurehead by Ginjo as he consolidates his power. The humans begin to tire of war, but Serena and Ginjo know that true peace is not possible, and that the thinking machines must be destroyed. Serena visits Omnius as an emissary of the Jihad under the pretense of negotiating peace, but secretly intends to provoke Omnius into killing her, thereby making her a martyr and reenergizing the Jihad. Although Erasmus stops Omnius from murdering Serena, one of her Seraphim bodyguards, on orders from Ginjo, kills her instead. Ginjo manufactures images of Serena being tortured at length and murdered by the thinking machines, silencing anti-war dissenters and galvanizing the Jihad back into action. As the war against the thinking machines continues, Ginjo becomes more and more corrupt, and focused more on his own power and legacy. He creates the Jipol (Jihad Police) to eliminate his political enemies, and orders organ raids on other League Worlds, casting blame on the thinking machines, to meet the demand for replacement human organs for injured Jihad troops. When Xavier realizes the extent of Ginjo's corruption, he sacrifices his own life and reputation by steering the ship carrying himself and Ginjo into a sun. His secrets dying with him, Ginjo becomes a martyred saint, and Xavier a traitor to humanity.
Norma Cenva is the inventor of foldspace technology, first mentioned in God Emperor of Dune. In the Legends of Dune trilogy, she is the daughter of Zufa Cenva, the powerful leader of the telekinetic Sorceresses of Rossak. Norma is short and unattractive as compared to her tall, beautiful mother, and though her lack of telekinetic abilities disappoints Zufa, Norma is a mathematical genius who is excited to assist the famed Tio Holtzman, discoverer of the Holtzman effect, which makes Holtzman shields possible. These force shields, capable of scrambling the gel-circuitry of thinking machines, are employed in Dune: The Butlerian Jihad to protect entire planets from invasion. However, the machines soon realize that their human-machine hybrid cymeks can slip through the field to destroy the transmitters because they possessed human brains which were unaffected by the scrambler fields. Norma then has the idea to use the field as an offensive weapon, projecting it with portable transmitters to knock out machines and their installations. During this time, she also uses the Holtzman effect to invent suspensors and glowglobes, for which Holtzman takes credit. In Dune: The Machine Crusade, Holtzman calculates that the field could be modified to prevent penetration from physical projectiles, and Norma agrees, correcting the flaws in his concept but noting that objects could still pass through the shield at a slow enough speed. She also predicts that when hit by a laser, the shield would react violently, resulting in an explosion with the same effects of a nuclear weapon. Norma next studies Holtzman's original field equations to find a way to fold space, soon inventing the theory of space-folding and building a prototype space-folding ship. She is sent away by Holtzman, who is threatened by her genius, shortly before he is killed by an explosive lasgun-shield interaction during a slave revolt. Norma's ship is then used to fold space successfully by Zensunni slaves fleeing the violent rebellion. Norma is captured and tortured by the Titan Xerxes in Dune: The Battle of Corrin, which unleashes her latent psychic abilities. She destroys Xerxes and six cymeks, and then uses these powers to rework her own body into a more beautiful, appealing one based on the many women of her ancestry. The next year she and her mother's former lover, industrialist Aurelius Venport, establish a shipyard on Kolhar to produce space-folding ships, which will come to be known as heighliners. Ever uncaring about her own fame, Norma credits the invention to Aurelius as a gift to him. Aurelius puts the space-folding technology and shipyards at the disposal of the Jihad forces. Initially, navigation for foldspace travel is fundamentally inexact, and only about nine out of every ten heighliners arrive at their intended destination safety. Realizing that the spice melange amplifies her psychic and calculative abilities, Norma pioneers the use of massive concentrated doses to employ prescience to safely navigate foldspace. Aurelius and Norma's son, Adrien Venport, establishes the Foldspace Shipping Company, and finds the first ten volunteers to undergo, like Norma before them, the process to become Navigators. The Foldspace Shipping Company later becomes the Spacing Guild, monopolizing space commerce, transport, and interplanetary banking.
In the Great Schools of Dune trilogy, the highly evolved Norma periodically advises her great-grandson, Josef Venport, a ruthless businessman and the head of Venport Holdings. Her prescience allows her to envision long-term plans for her Navigators, and she manipulates Josef into evolving the company toward her goals. She is also able to fold space without a Holtzman drive. When Josef assassinates Emperor Salvador Corrino to protect his business interests, Norma intervenes to protect Josef from the wrath of Salvador's brother and successor, Roderick. She eventually negotiates with Roderick: Norma will leave Josef and his research facility unprotected against Roderick's avenging forces in exchange for sparing all current and future Navigators, the creation of an independent Spacing Guild and a guarantee that the flow of spice will continue. He agrees, but Norma saves Josef's life by beginning the process of making him a Navigator, exploiting the loophole she created in her deal with Roderick.
Norma reappears as the Oracle of Time in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, which conclude the original series. She warns the Guild Navigators that the "final battle" is upon them, and they must locate the wandering no-ship Ithaca, which is fleeing both the Bene Gesserit and the mysterious observers Daniel and Marty. The ship contains the ultimate Kwisatz Haderach, whom both sides in the great war between humanity and thinking machines want for their victory. Daniel and Marty are in fact reincarnations of thinking machine leaders Omnius and Erasmus, poised to finally conquer humanity and seize control of the universe. In Sandworms of Dune, the Spacing Guild has begun replacing its Navigators with Ixian navigation devices at the prompting of Face Dancer infiltrators with their own plot to take over the universe. Their supply of melange cut off, the obsolete Navigators are dying one by one. As Navigator Edrik pursues alternate sources of the spice, he and the remaining Navigators seek the Oracle's assistance, but she is occupied with finding the Ithaca. As the forces of humanity make a last stand against the thinking machine forces and the ultimate Kwisatz Haderach, Duncan Idaho, faces Omnius, the Oracle gathers the last of the Navigators. The weaponry and navigation of the human ships fail due to Face Dancer manipulations, but the Navigators intervene and are able to hold back the first wave of the machine attack. The Oracle emerges on the capital of the new Synchronized Empire, and takes all traces of Omnius with her to an alternate dimension. This paves the way for Duncan to bridge the gap between the humans and machines and guide the two into a peaceful coexistence.
Raquella Berto-Anirul is the founder of the Bene Gesserit, and the granddaughter of Vorian Atreides. In Dune: The Battle of Corrin, Raquella and fellow doctor Mohandas Suk assist the Sorceresses of Rossak with a new outbreak of the plague deployed by the thinking machines to decimate humanity. After being infected herself, Raquella is miraculously cured by "healing water" found on the planet. Paranoid and fearing the doctor might somehow usurp her power as leader of the Sorceresses, Ticia Cenva poisons Raquella with the Rossak Drug. Raquella's recovery has unlocked the genetic ability to render the poison harmless using her body chemistry, and she experiences the first iteration of what will ultimately be known as the spice agony. Raquella is awakened to her genetic memories, becoming the first Reverend Mother. Soon she also discovers the new ability to command others with Voice. Raquella conceives a daughter with Suk, but remains on Rossak to continue her work as he pursues his goal to form the greatest medical school ever seen (later known as the Suk School). Ticia dies, and Raquella assumes authority over the Sorceresses and their breeding programs, forming the Sisterhood.
In Sisterhood of Dune, Raquella thwarts Butlerian sympathizers within her own ranks, including her own granddaughter, Dorotea. They correctly suspect that Raquella and her inner circle, including Valya Harkonnen, are using forbidden computers to manage their breeding index, which contains an immense amount of family data from across the Imperium. Dorotea takes the Rossak Drug, and survives to become the second Reverend Mother. She learns of the secret computers and alerts Emperor Salvador Corrino, who invades Rossak. Raquella and Valya destroy the computers in advance, and Salvador disbands the Sisterhood. Dorotea establishes an Orthodox Sisterhood sanctioned by Salvador, and Raquella and her followers find refuge on Wallach IX. Valya becomes the third Reverend Mother. In Mentats of Dune, Raquella believes that the only hope for the Sisterhood to survive is for the Wallach IX sisters to reconcile with Dorotea's Orthodox faction. Her health failing, Raquella summons Dorotea and forces her and Valya to put their differences aside and agree to work together for the good of the Sisterhood. Naming them co-leaders, Raquella dies. Valya however, still bitter about Dorotea's betrayal, uses her newly discovered power of Voice to force Dorotea to commit suicide. Valya declares herself to be the sole Mother Superior, and ingratiates herself to the new Emperor, Salvador's brother Roderick.
Doria is an ambitious Honored Matre who reluctantly joins the Bene Gesserit as Murbella hopes to unite the opposing factions in Hunters of Dune. Though Doria seeks to learn the impressive skills of the Bene Gesserit, her Honored Matre impulsiveness and resistance to authority are difficult to shake. A chief advisor to Murbella, Doria is one of the few assimilated Honored Matres with access to sensitive Bene Gesserit breeding records. Doria and Bellonda are on opposite sides from the beginning. Hoping to force them to at least respect each other's differences, Murbella makes them partners managing the spice operations on Chapterhouse. Years later, Doria kills Bellonda in a final confrontation. An outraged Murbella forces Doria to share minds with Bellonda, and makes her the sole Spice Operations Director. Six years later, driven to the brink of insanity by Bellonda's incessant chatter within her mind, Doria is devoured by a sandworm.
Hellica is the self-declared Matre Superior of the largest renegade Honored Matre force, based on the conquered planet Tleilax in the former capital Bandalong. In Hunters of Dune, Hellica forces captive Lost Tleilaxu Uxtal to employ the secret of the Tleilaxu axlotl tanks to produce increased quantities of the orange spice substitute used by the Honored Matres. When Guild Navigator Edrik seeks Uxtal's knowledge of producing melange in the tanks, Hellica's price for his expertise is Edrik's help transporting a certain cargo. He agrees, delivering by heighliner the Obliterators that destroy the planet Richese, where the Bene Gesserit are mass-producing weapons and armed battleships. Later, Hellica attempts an Obliterator attack on Chapterhouse itself, but the plan fails. Murbella's forces conquer Tleilax, and Hellica is killed, but Murbella realizes that the Matre Superior and some of her elite guard had actually been Face Dancer duplicates. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dune is a science fiction media franchise that originated with the 1965 novel of the same name by American author Frank Herbert. Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history, and won the 1966 Hugo Award as well as the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Herbert wrote five sequels before his death in 1986: Dune Messiah (1969), Children of Dune (1976), God Emperor of Dune (1981), Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Dune follows Paul, the scion of House Atreides, as his family is thrown into the dangerous political intrigues centered on the desert planet Arrakis, only known source of the oracular spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The series spans 5,000 years, focusing on Paul and then his various descendants.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Dune was adapted as a 1984 film, and again in two parts, the films Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024). Additionally, the novel was adapted as a 2000 television miniseries, and the first two sequels were also adapted as a single miniseries in 2003.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Since 1999, Herbert's son Brian Herbert and science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson have published 15 prequel novels, collected in the series Prelude to Dune (1999–2001), Legends of Dune (2002–2004), Heroes of Dune (2008–2023), Great Schools of Dune (2012–2016), and The Caladan Trilogy (2020–2022). They have also released two sequel novels—Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007)—which complete the original series.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In Dune, Paul is the teenage son and heir of Duke Leto Atreides and Lady Jessica, whose family is thrown into the dangerous political intrigues centered on the inhospitable desert planet Arrakis, only known source of the oracular spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. Paul has been trained by his father and several Atreides attendants in fighting and the art of war, and by his mother in some of her Bene Gesserit disciplines. Paul also possesses burgeoning prescient abilities, which are further unlocked by the inescapable exposure to melange on Arrakis. House Atreides is soon betrayed and scattered, with Leto killed, his forces decimated, and Paul and Jessica forced to flee into the open desert. They are taken in by the native Fremen, a secretive population of fierce fighters who thrive despite the scarcity of water and presence of aggressive, giant sandworms. Paul rises to lead the planetwide Fremen forces against the Imperial stranglehold over Arrakis, ultimately seizing control of the planet and deposing Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. In Dune Messiah, Paul's empire is challenged by the conspiracies of various factions hoping to destroy him, while a jihad in his name rages across the universe. Children of Dune finds Paul's heirs trying to maintain the already declining empire he has abandoned.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Paul is portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan in the 1984 film adaptation Dune, and by Alec Newman in the 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its 2003 sequel, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. The character is played by Timothée Chalamet in the 2021 film Dune and its sequel, Dune: Part Two (2024).",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In Dune, Lady Jessica is the concubine of Duke Leto and the mother of his son Paul and daughter Alia. Jessica is one of the Bene Gesserit, a secretive, matriarchal order who achieve superhuman abilities through physical and mental conditioning and the use of the drug melange. Instructed by the Bene Gesserit to first conceive a daughter with Leto to further the order's centuries-long breeding program, she disobeyed out of love for Leto, and gave him a son. This seemingly minor misstep puts the Atreides bloodline on a collision course with events that will ultimately change the fate of the universe. Pregnant with Alia, Jessica flees into the desert with Paul as House Atreides is all but destroyed by the forces of the wicked Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Finding refuge with the native Fremen, she and Paul take advantage of the legends planted there by Bene Gesserit religious engineering, casting themselves as the prophesied messiah and his mother. Jessica undergoes the Fremen version of the Bene Gesserit spice agony ritual, becoming a Reverend Mother and unlocking Other Memory, the personas and memories of all her female ancestors. But doing so while pregnant subjects the unborn Alia to an onslaught of heightened awareness for which her fragile consciousness is not prepared. Jessica returns to Arrakis in Children of Dune and recognizes that Alia, who serves as regent for Paul and Chani's twin children, Leto II and Ghanima, has succumbed to the dangers of her unique birth and become possessed. Jessica escapes an assassination attempt by Alia, and trains Farad'n, the grandson of Shaddam IV, in the Bene Gesserit way.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Lady Jessica is portrayed by Francesca Annis in the 1984 film. Saskia Reeves plays the role in the 2000 miniseries, and is succeeded by Alice Krige in its 2003 sequel. Rebecca Ferguson portrays Jessica in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Duke Leto Atreides is the planetary governor of the ocean planet Caladan who takes over the lucrative spice mining operations on the desert planet Arrakis at the behest of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. Knowing it is some kind of trap but unable to refuse the assignment, Leto proactively seeks an alliance with the native Fremen, people tempered by the planet's harsh conditions who Leto realizes are an underestimated and untapped resource. He is accompanied to Arrakis by his Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, with whom he is in love but has not married to allow for the possibility of a politically advantageous marriage, and his son and heir, Paul. Threatened by Leto's growing influence among the Landsraad assembly of noble families, Shaddam has aligned himself with Leto's enemy, the Baron Harkonnen. The Harkonnens, secretly bolstered by Shaddam's fierce Sardaukar warriors and aided by Leto's own personal physician, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, launch an attack that decimates the Atreides forces. Leto is taken prisoner by the Baron, and dies attempting to kill him.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The character has been described as \"regal and doomed\", and \"warmly protective but all-too-vulnerable\".",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Leto is portrayed by Jürgen Prochnow in the 1984 film. Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant called Prochnow \"mesmerizing\" in the role, with \"a commanding screen presence\" that \"brought slightly more grit\" than subsequent portrayals. William Hurt plays Leto in the 2000 miniseries. Hurt was the first actor to be cast in the 2000 adaptation. A fan of the novel, he told The New York Times, \"I was a science fiction junkie ... [Director John Harrison] captured Herbert's prophetic reflection of our own age, where nation-states are competing with the new global economy and its corporate elements.\" Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com wrote that Hurt \"brings a certain reserved calm that works for the character.\" Leto is portrayed by Oscar Isaac in the 2021 film. Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge wrote, \"Isaac exudes a sense of righteous honor, and it’s easy to see both why his men would follow him to a forsaken desert world and why he falls so thoroughly into the political traps.\"",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In 2020, Funko produced a Duke Leto figure as part of their POP! Television line. It is a 4.5-inch (11 cm) vinyl figure in the Japanese chibi style, depicting Leto in armor and styled after the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Leto is also a primary character in the prequel trilogies Prelude to Dune and The Caladan Trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Prelude to Dune, young Leto's mother, Helena, arranges for his father, expert bullfighter Duke Paulus Atreides, to be killed by a drugged Salusan bull so she can rule Caladan as Leto's regent. He exiles his mother to a distant convent to avoid the scandal of a public execution, and as duke takes Kailea Vernius of the industrial planet Ix as his concubine. They have a son, Victor, but grow apart, and Kailea's resentment and insecurities build. Threatened by Leto's attraction to the Bene Gesserit acolyte Jessica, Kailea attempts to kill him, but in the ensuing accident her brother Rhombur is critically injured and Victor is killed. Kailea commits suicide, and Leto takes Jessica as his concubine. Though instructed by the Bene Gesserit to bear the mourning Leto a daughter, Jessica intentionally conceives the son he desires, Paul. Leto surrounds himself with loyal and capable individuals, and comes to be known as an effective politician, a fair and just statesman, and a capable leader of his small military. The new Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV, both admires Leto and dislikes him as a political rival. Leto's military victory over the Tleilaxu forces occupying Ix, and his role in the subsequent political censure of Shaddam, ensure Leto a vengeful enemy in the emperor.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the ruthless and cunning head of House Harkonnen, centuries-old enemies of House Atreides. The Baron's intent to exterminate the Atreides line seems close to fruition as Duke Leto is lured to Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the lucrative spice mining operation there, previously controlled by the Harkonnens. The Baron has coerced Leto's own physician, the trusted Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, to be his agent in the Atreides household. Yueh disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace and the Harkonnen forces (secretly supplemented by the seemingly unstoppable Imperial Sardaukar warriors) attack. Yueh gives a captive Leto the means to assassinate the Baron, who survives the attempt as Leto dies. Escaping into the desert and later presumed dead, Leto's son Paul reveals to his mother, Lady Jessica, that the Baron is her father. The Baron's succession plan is to install his charismatic yet deadly younger nephew, Feyd-Rautha, as ruler of Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by his brutish elder nephew, Glossu Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the savior of the people. A crisis on Arrakis begins when the mysterious Muad'Dib emerges as a leader of the native Fremen tribes, uniting them against Harkonnen rule. Eventually, a series of Fremen victories against Rabban threaten to disrupt the trade of the spice, attracting the attention of Shaddam IV himself. The emperor arrives on Arrakis with several legions of his Sardaukar, and he and the Baron are shocked to discover that the Fremen warlord Muad'Dib is actually Paul Atreides. The Fremen, previously underestimated by the Harkonnens, overcome the Imperial and Harkonnen forces thanks to Paul's military strategy, their own ferocity and their ability to use sandstorms and the giant sandworms of Arrakis to their advantage. Paul's sister Alia, four years old but born a fully aware Fremen Reverend Mother, reveals to the Baron that he is her grandfather before she kills him with a poisoned needle called a gom jabbar.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In Children of Dune, Alia succumbs to the dangers of her unique birth and is possessed by the persona of the deceased Baron Harkonnen. As he promises his assistance in quelling the multitude of other ancestral voices assailing her, Alia gradually relinquishes control of herself to the Baron, and descends into depravity and a lust for power sure to destroy the Atreides empire from within. Eventually realizing that Harkonnen's consciousness has surpassed her abilities to contain him, Alia commits suicide.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Kenneth McMillan in the 1984 film, and by Ian McNeice in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. Stellan Skarsgård portrays the character in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Chani is the daughter of Liet-Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist on Arrakis, and his Fremen wife Faroula. In Dune, Paul Atreides sees Chani in his prescient dreams before his family moves from Caladan to Arrakis. Later, Paul and his mother Jessica flee the Harkonnen attack that kills his father and decimates the Atreides forces, and are reluctantly taken in by a tribe of the planet's native desert people, the Fremen. Chani, a fierce warrior, is assigned to protect and guide Paul in the Fremen ways. They soon become lovers, and Paul, now known as Muad'Dib, rises as a military and religious leader among the Fremen. Their rebellion against the Harkonnens intensifies, and Paul and Chani's infant son is murdered in a Sardaukar raid. The Fremen overcome the Imperial and Harkonnen forces thanks to Paul's military strategy, their own ferocity and their ability to use sandstorms and the giant sandworms of Arrakis to their advantage. With his absolute control over Arrakis and the spice, Paul deposes Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, marrying his daughter Princess Irulan to secure the throne. He vows that Chani will always be his only love, and mother of his children.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Twelve years later in Dune Messiah, Paul and Chani remain childless. Irulan, Bene Gesserit-trained and doing their bidding, has been secretly feeding Chani contraceptives to prevent her from conceiving an Imperial heir. The Sisterhood are desperate to regain control of Paul's bloodline for their breeding program, and are fearful of the effect Chani's \"wild\" genes may have on their offspring. But when Chani begins an ancient Fremen fertility diet high in melange, Irulan loses her ability to interfere, and Chani becomes pregnant. Chani ultimately discovers not only Irulan's role in her infertility but the fact that the contraceptives have caused permanent damage and will jeopardize her pregnancy. Chani seeks to kill Irulan, but Paul forbids it. He is secretly somewhat grateful to Irulan, as he has seen through his prescience that childbirth will bring Chani's death, and so Irulan has unwittingly extended Chani's life. Chani dies after giving birth to Paul's twin children, Leto II and Ghanima. Having proven their ability to do so, the Tleilaxu offer to resurrect Chani as a ghola in exchange for control of the empire, but Paul refuses. Through his oracular sight, Paul has seen that Chani's death during childbirth is far less painful and cruel than her possible future fates had she survived.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Chani is portrayed by actress Sean Young in the 1984 film, and by Barbora Kodetová in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. Zendaya portrays the character in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Stilgar is the Fremen leader, or naib, of Sietch Tabr. In Dune, Duke Leto Atreides sends his swordmaster, Duncan Idaho, to build a relationship with the mysterious native Fremen of Arrakis, people tempered by the planet's harsh conditions who Leto realizes are an underestimated and untapped resource. Leto allows Duncan, impressed with the Fremen and their ways, a dual loyalty to both the Atreides and Stilgar. When Leto's son Paul and his Bene Gesserit mother, Lady Jessica, flee a Harkonnen attack, they find refuge with Stilgar's tribe of Fremen. Paul, believed to be their prophesied messiah, comes to be known as Muad'Dib and rises as a military and religious leader among the Fremen. Previously underestimated by the Harkonnens, the Fremen overcome the Imperial and Harkonnen forces that control Arrakis thanks to Paul's military strategy, their own ferocity and their ability to use sandstorms and the giant sandworms to their advantage. In Dune Messiah, Stilgar is a staunch supporter and protector of Paul, and one of his inner circle of advisors. In Children of Dune, Stilgar is fiercely loyal to Paul's young heirs Leto II and Ghanima, and is conflicted as the regent, Paul's sister Alia, descends into madness. Duncan manipulates Stilgar into killing him, knowing it will force Stilgar to join the rebellion against Alia. Later, with Leto presumed dead, Stilgar helps Ghanima and Princess Irulan escape Alia's tyranny.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Novelist Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son and biographer, wrote, \"One time I asked my father if he identified with any of the characters in his stories, and to my surprise he said it was Stilgar, the rugged leader of the Fremen ... Mulling this over, I realized Stilgar was the equivalent of a Native American chief in Dune—a person who represented and defended time-honored ways that did not harm the ecology of the planet.\"",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Stilgar is portrayed by Everett McGill in the 1984 film. Uwe Ochsenknecht plays the role in the 2000 miniseries, and is succeeded by Steven Berkoff in its 2003 sequel. Asher-Perrin called Ochsenknecht \"a wonderfully gruff Stilgar\", but later wrote, \"Steven Berkoff is an incredible character actor, but there is nothing about him that even remotely invokes the old Fremen leader. Instead, he reads at the beginning like the Atreides family butler before moving onto Old British Wardog Supreme.\" Javier Bardem portrays Stilgar in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In 1984, toy company LJN released a line of Dune action figures, styled after David Lynch's film, which included a figure of Stilgar. McFarlane Toys released a 7\" articulating action figure of Stilgar in 2020, styled after the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film. In 2022, Super7 released a 3.75\" articulating Stilgar action figure as part of its Dune ReAction line, also styled after the Lynch film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Stilgar's early life is explored in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and he is resurrected as a ghola in the Brian Herbert/Anderson conclusion to the original series, Sandworms of Dune. The character also appears in the prequel novels Paul of Dune and The Winds of Dune.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Duncan Idaho is the Swordmaster of House Atreides, and one of Paul's teachers. In Dune, Leto sends Duncan to build a relationship with the mysterious native Fremen of Arrakis, people tempered by the planet's harsh conditions who Leto realizes are an underestimated and untapped resource. Leto allows Duncan, impressed with the Fremen and their ways, a dual loyalty to both the Atreides and Stilgar, but he is later killed helping Paul and Jessica escape the Harkonnens. Duncan is revived by the Bene Tleilax as the ghola Mentat Hayt in Dune Messiah, and works with Paul's sister Alia to unravel the conspiracy against the Atreides. The Tleilaxu have secretly programmed Hayt to seduce Alia, weaken Paul psychologically and then kill him. The trauma of the attempt restores his memories of being Duncan. He is married to Alia in Children of Dune, but she has succumbed to the dangers of her unique birth and become possessed by the persona of the deceased Baron Harkonnen. As Alia becomes more power-hungry and attempts to assassinate her mother Jessica, Duncan spirits Jessica and Paul's children Leto II and Ghanima away. He manipulates Fremen naib Stilgar, a loyal Atreides advisor, into killing him, knowing that the act will force Stilgar to join the rebellion against Alia or be executed by her out of political necessity.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Thirty-five hundred years later in God Emperor of Dune, a series of Duncan gholas provided by the Tleilaxu have served the seemingly immortal God Emperor Leto II Atreides one after the other. Most of these have been killed by Leto himself, as the serial Duncans, pledged to the Atreides in a time when justice reigned, tend to rebel against the hallmark tyranny and oppression of Leto's rule. The newest Duncan is as disillusioned as his predecessors, and after falling in love with the Ixian ambassador Hwi Noree (who is engaged to Leto), he joins Atreides descendant Siona in her plot to assassinate Leto. He allows them to succeed, and as he dies, Leto reveals that his millennia-long plan for humanity's ultimate survival—called the Golden Path—has come to fruition. Siona and her descendants will be invisible to prescient sight, and the end of his millennia of oppression will spark a mass diaspora of humankind which will come to be known as The Scattering.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Fifteen hundred years later, the Bene Gesserit become the consumers of Duncan gholas in Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune. The Sisterhood suspect that the Tleilaxu have implanted the gholas with some secret purpose, and when latest Duncan regains his memories, he agrees. The Honored Matres, a violent matriarchal order with the ability to enslave men using their unique sexual talents, have arrived from the farthest reaches of the universe, wreaking havoc and destruction, and obliterating Tleilaxu worlds. An attempt by the Honored Matre Murbella to sexually imprint Duncan triggers the hidden Tleilaxu purpose: to conquer the Honored Matres by using a better version of their own sexual techniques. All the memories of the previous Duncans are unlocked in the current one as he and Murbella imprint each other. Addicted to each other, they are confined to a no-ship on the Bene Gesserit homeworld, Chapterhouse. There, Duncan trains other men to enslave Honored Matres, until he and Sheeana escape in the untraceable ship.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Duncan is portrayed by Richard Jordan in the 1984 film. James Watson plays the role in the 2000 miniseries, and is succeeded by Edward Atterton in its 2003 sequel. Jason Momoa portrays Duncan in the 2021 film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Dr. Wellington Yueh is a Suk doctor and the trusted personal physician of Duke Leto Atreides. In Dune, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is intent on the destruction of House Atreides, who have been lured to Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the valuable spice mining operation there. Though Suk Imperial Conditioning supposedly makes the subject incapable of inflicting harm, the Baron has taken Yueh's Bene Gesserit wife Wanna prisoner, threatening her with interminable torture unless Yueh complies with his demands. Aware of Yueh's conditioning and believing Wanna was killed by the Harkonnens, Leto's Mentat Thufir Hawat and concubine Lady Jessica are assured that the doctor is not a Harkonnen spy. Yueh disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace on Arrakis, and the Harkonnen forces (secretly supplemented by the seemingly unstoppable Imperial Sardaukar warriors) attack. Yueh takes Leto prisoner, but desiring to slay the Baron in defiance of his conditioning, Yueh provides the captive Leto with a fake tooth filled with poisonous gas as a means to kill the Baron, though Leto would die as well. Upon delivering Leto, Yueh confirms his belief that Wanna is already dead, moments before the Baron's twisted Mentat Piter De Vries kills him. The Baron escapes the poison, which only kills Leto and De Vries. Leto's son Paul flees into the desert with Jessica, aided by survival kits left for them by a compassionate Yueh.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Yueh is portrayed by Dean Stockwell in the 1984 film, and by Robert Russell in the 2000 miniseries. Chang Chen plays the character in the 2021 film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The character also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and is resurrected as a ghola in Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, the Brian Herbert/Anderson sequels which conclude the original series. In Prelude to Dune, a younger Baron Harkonnen consults with Yueh seeking a cure for the debilitating disease which is slowly but surely rendering him obese. Yueh is aware of no cure, but correctly suggests that the disease's source may be the Bene Gesserit. The early years of Yueh as the physician to House Atreides are also explored in the novels. In Hunters of Dune, set 5,000 years after Dune, Yueh is resurrected as a ghola to aid in the coming final battle with mankind's \"great enemy.\" In Sandworms of Dune, the finale of the original series, the young Yueh ghola is wracked by feelings of intense guilt over the actions of the \"original\" Yueh. Though he does not yet possess those memories, he fears that he will repeat those mistakes. A ghola's memories are restored by subjecting the ghola to an intense personal trauma, specific to each individual, so Yueh's great fear of having his memories restored becomes the trigger used by the Bene Gesserit to unlock them. Later, Yueh kills the gestating ghola of Leto, having been tricked into believing that it was De Vries, and ultimately also kills the ghola of the Baron Harkonnen. Eleven years later, Yueh lives on the original Atreides homeworld Caladan, helping the Jessica ghola restore it to its former glory.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV's Truthsayer, and Lady Jessica's former teacher. In Dune, Mohiam subjects 15-year-old Paul Atreides to a life or death test of his humanity: he is inflicted with excruciating pain, but must exert control over his survival instinct and withstand it, or be killed instantly with a poisoned needle. Paul passes the test, having sustained more pain than anyone before him. Mohiam, though still furious at Jessica for disobeying the Sisterhood's command that she bear a daughter for their breeding scheme, is intrigued by the potential she sees in Paul and his nascent prescient abilities. Years later on Arrakis, Mohiam is shaken by her encounter with Paul's four-year-old sister Alia, who by misadventure had been born a fully aware Reverend Mother. Mohiam is further alarmed by the ritual battle-to-the-death between Paul and the Harkonnen heir, Feyd-Rautha, which could prove catastrophic for the Bene Gesserit breeding program no matter the outcome. Paul is victorious in the duel, and in seizing control of Arrakis, the only source of the all-important spice melange, gains insurmountable power over all civilization. Seeing the inevitability of the situation Paul has orchestrated, Mohiam compels Shaddam to give in to Paul's demands and relinquish the Imperial throne to him.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Twelve years later in Dune Messiah, Mohiam joins a conspiracy to topple the rule of Paul Atreides that includes the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, the Spacing Guild Navigator Edric, and even Paul's embittered consort Princess Irulan, Shaddam's daughter. Paul has sworn that only his Fremen concubine, Chani, will bear his children. Knowing that the Bene Gesserit are desperate to regain control of his bloodline for their breeding program, and are fearful of the effect Chani's \"wild\" genes may have on their offspring, Paul makes Mohiam an offer. In exchange for Chani's guaranteed safety, and the Sisterhood's acceptance of his decision to father no heirs with Irulan, Paul offers something of the utmost value: his sperm. This is a complicated proposition for Mohiam, because artificial insemination is forbidden in the wake of the anti-technology Butlerian Jihad, and the idea of it is as horrific to the Sisterhood as the loss of the precious Atreides genes. The conspiracy ultimately fails, and Paul kills Scytale. Edric and Mohiam are executed on orders from Paul's sister Alia, despite Paul's previous instructions to spare Mohiam's life.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Mohiam is portrayed by Siân Phillips in the 1984 film, and by Zuzana Geislerová in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. The character is played by Charlotte Rampling in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Glossu \"Beast\" Rabban is the violent and brutish older nephew of Baron Harkonnen. In Dune, Glossu Rabban is the older nephew of the Baron Harkonnen. He is as cruel and sadistic as his uncle, but lacks the Baron's intelligence. The Baron tasks Rabban to rule the planet Arrakis for a time in the most brutal way possible, so that when his favored nephew Feyd-Rautha takes over, Feyd will be welcomed as a hero by the populace. After the Baron seizes the planet back from Atreides control, Rabban tells his uncle that the Harkonnens have woefully underestimated both the numbers and threat of the Fremen population there. Known as \"the Beast Rabban\" on Arrakis for his aggression and cruelty, his Fremen nickname is \"Mudir Nahya\", which translates as \"Demon Ruler\" or \"King Cobra\". Rabban is killed by the Fremen and the people of Arrakeen when Paul \"Muad'Dib\" Atreides retakes Arrakis using Fremen forces.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Travis Johnson of Flicks.com.au describes Rabban as \"the Baron's murderous and notably less Machiavellian nephew\". Noting that the characters in Dune fit mythological archetypes, novelist Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son and biographer, writes that \"Beast Rabban Harkonnen, though evil and aggressive, is essentially a fool.\"",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Rabban is portrayed by Paul L. Smith in the 1984 film, and by László I. Kish [de] in the 2000 Dune miniseries, and by Dave Bautista plays the character in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Rabban also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In the series, he kills Duncan Idaho's parents and Gurney Halleck's sister, and earns his nickname \"Beast\" when he strangles his own father.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is the charismatic yet deadly younger nephew and heir of Baron Harkonnen. In Dune, the Baron favors Feyd over his older brother Glossu Rabban because of Feyd's intelligence and his dedication to the Harkonnen culture of carefully planned and subtly executed sadism and cruelty, as opposed to Rabban's outright brutality. The Baron's succession plan is to install Feyd as ruler of Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the savior of the people. Like Paul Atreides, Feyd is also the product of a centuries-long breeding program organized by the Bene Gesserit, who planned to breed a Harkonnen son with an Atreides daughter with the expectation that their offspring would have a high probability of being their hoped-for super-being, the Kwisatz Haderach. For this reason, Lady Jessica's decision to defy the Sisterhood and to produce an Atreides son, Paul, threw the Bene Gesserit's plans into turmoil and established an irreconcilable tension between Feyd and Paul as the scions of their bitterly opposed noble houses. The risk of one or both of these young men being killed, destroying thousands of years of genetic engineering, is so great that the Bene Gesserit send an envoy, Margot Fenring, to seduce Feyd and conceive a child, salvaging his genetic material. Margot also uses an imprinting technique to condition Feyd to be vulnerable to Bene Gesserit control in the future. It is also later noted that Feyd's encounter with Lady Fenring produced a daughter. Feyd's ambition and impatience to inherit the Baron's title and power spur him to attempt his uncle's assassination. The attempt fails, prompting the Baron to reveal to his nephew the lofty plans he has for him, possibly to even have him ascend the throne as Emperor. The Baron explains that the elevation of House Harkonnen means more to him than power in his own lifetime, so if Feyd promises to forego any further assassination attempts, he will voluntarily step down and let his nephew succeed him—after his plot against the Emperor has succeeded. Feyd agrees, but as punishment for the failed assassination attempt, the Baron forces Feyd to single-handedly slaughter all the female slaves who serve as his lovers so that Feyd will learn the price of failure. As Paul seizes control of the all-important planet Arrakis and makes his final bid to usurp the Padishah Emperor's power, he is challenged by Feyd, the current Harkonnen leader after the deaths of the Baron and Rabban. Though famed for his prowess in single combat, Feyd intends to guarantee victory by breaking the formal rules of kanly (which govern this type of challenge) and using a hidden poison spur in his fighting outfit. He nearly succeeds in killing Paul in the ritualized fight, as Paul struggles with whether to try the paralysis word-sound given to him by his mother, and owe the Bene Gesserit his victory, or to risk his life against Feyd in a \"fair\" fight. Paul manages to defeat Feyd without the command, killing him, and goes on to accede to the Imperial throne.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Feyd is portrayed by Sting in the 1984 film, and by Matt Keeslar in the 2000 miniseries. The character does not appear in the 2021 film, but is played by Austin Butler in its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Princess Irulan is the eldest daughter of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and the Bene Gesserit Anirul. The character serves as a de facto narrator in Dune, with excerpts of Irulan's later writings used as epigraphs before each chapter of the novel. In forms such as diary entries, historical commentary, biography, quotations and philosophy, these writings set tone and provide exposition, context and other details intended to enhance understanding of Herbert's complex fictional universe and themes. In Dune, a widespread rebellion of the native Fremen on Arrakis creates a disruption in the production of the all-important spice melange, bringing Shaddam and his court, including Irulan, to the planet to impose order. Paul Atreides leads the Fremen in an overwhelming victory over the combined Harkonnen and Imperial Sardaukar forces and seizes control of Arrakis, the only known source of the spice. Paul demands that Shaddam relinquish the Imperial throne to him or he will destroy all spice production and plunge the universe into chaos. Shaddam bristles at Paul's suggestion that he marry Irulan, but she immediately recognizes the inevitability of the situation Paul has orchestrated, and tells Shaddam, \"Here's a man fit to be your son.\" Once Paul defeats the treacherous Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in single combat, and Count Fenring refuses the Emperor's order to kill Paul, Shaddam capitulates.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Twelve years later in Dune Messiah, Irulan is Paul's consort and trusted advisor, but he has sworn that only his beloved concubine Chani will bear his children. Paul and Chani remain childless, however, because a resentful Irulan, Bene Gesserit-trained and doing their bidding, has been secretly feeding Chani contraceptives to prevent her from conceiving an Imperial heir. The Sisterhood are desperate to regain control of Paul's bloodline for their breeding program, and are fearful of the effect Chani's \"wild\" genes may have on their offspring. But when Chani begins an ancient Fremen fertility diet high in melange, Irulan loses her ability to interfere, and Chani becomes pregnant. Chani ultimately discovers not only Irulan's role in her infertility but the fact that the contraceptives have caused permanent damage and will jeopardize her pregnancy. Chani seeks to kill Irulan, but Paul forbids it. He is secretly somewhat grateful to Irulan, as he has seen through his prescience that childbirth will bring Chani's death, and so Irulan has unwittingly extended Chani's life. Chani dies giving birth to the twins Leto II and Ghanima, and a newly blinded Paul follows Fremen custom and wanders alone into the desert to die. Realizing her love for Paul, Irulan breaks ties with the Bene Gesserit and dedicates herself to his children.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Nine years later in Children of Dune, Irulan's sister Wensicia plots to assassinate Leto and Ghanima to reclaim power for House Corrino through her son, Farad'n. Irulan also serves as chief advisor to Paul's sister Alia, who reigns as Holy Regent for the twins. Irulan attempts to serve as a guide and confidante to Ghanima, but is often flustered by the adult consciousness the twins possess as a result of being pre-born and having access to Other Memory. Ghanima cares for Irulan, but Alia never trusts the princess, due to Irulan's Corrino heritage and Alia's own increasing paranoia. Irulan flees into the desert with Ghanima and Stilgar during the Fremen rebellion against Alia's tyranny. Though the other rebels are massacred, Irulan and Stilgar are imprisoned upon their capture, and presumably freed when Leto deposes Alia.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Irulan is portrayed by Virginia Madsen in the 1984 film, and by Julie Cox in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. The character does not appear in the 2021 film, but is played by Florence Pugh in its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Shaddam IV of House Corrino is the Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe, whose power is secured by his armies of fierce Sardaukar warriors and control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the all-important spice melange. In Dune, Shaddam has granted Duke Leto Atreides control of the lucrative spice mining operations on Arrakis, previously managed by House Harkonnen, longtime enemies of the Atreides. Leto is aware that this assignment is some kind of trap, but is unable to refuse. Shaddam is threatened by Leto's growing influence among the Landsraad assembly of noble families, and uses the centuries-old feud between the Atreides and Harkonnens to disguise his moves against Leto. The forces of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, secretly bolstered by Shaddam's Sardaukar and aided by a traitor in Leto's household, launch an attack that decimates the Atreides forces. Leto is killed, and his Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, and heir Paul, flee into the desert and are presumed dead in a sandstorm. Years later, a rebellion of the native Fremen on Arrakis creates a disruption in the production of the all-important spice melange, bringing Shaddam and his court to the planet to impose order. Paul Atreides is alive, and has risen as a military and religious leader among the Fremen. He leads them in an overwhelming victory over the combined Harkonnen and Imperial forces and seizes control of Arrakis. Paul demands that Shaddam relinquish the Imperial throne to him or he will destroy all spice production and plunge the universe into chaos. Shaddam resists, but is forced to capitulate after Paul defeats Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in single combat, and Count Fenring refuses Shaddam's order to kill Paul. Paul intends to take Shaddam's daughter, Princess Irulan, as his consort, and exile Shaddam.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Shaddam is described as \"red-haired\" by Irulan via epigraph in Dune, and noted to be 72 years old yet looking no older than 35. He is the son of Elrood IX and the 81st member of House Corrino to occupy the Golden Lion Throne. Shaddam has five daughters—the Princesses Irulan, Chalice, Wensicia, Josifa, and Rugi—and no legal sons by his wife Anirul, a Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank. His closest friend is the assassin Count Fenring, a cousin and childhood companion.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Shaddam is portrayed by José Ferrer in the 1984 film, and by Giancarlo Giannini in the 2000 miniseries. Giannini also dubbed himself in the Italian version of the miniseries. The character does not appear in the 2021 film, but is played by Christopher Walken in its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Shaddam also appears in multiple prequel series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson: Prelude to Dune, Heroes of Dune and The Caladan Trilogy. In the Prelude to Dune trilogy, Shaddam is eager to succeed his father Elrood IX as Padishah Emperor, but despite his advanced age Elrood shows no signs of ill health. Shaddam finally tasks his longtime friend and minion Fenring to administer Elrood with an undetectable, slow-acting poison. Shaddam had previously been complicit in the murder of his elder brother, the Crown Prince Fafnir, and had secretly administered contraceptives to his own mother, Habla, so she could not conceive another son to rival him. Elrood finally dies, and Shaddam secures his throne by paying the Spacing Guild with a supply of the spice and by arranging his own marriage to a Bene Gesserit. This union with the Lady Anirul Sadow-Tonkin results in five daughters, but no sons.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Gurney Halleck is the Warmaster of Duke Leto Atreides, trained by \"the best fighters in the universe\", who has in turn trained Leto's son and heir Paul in hand-to-hand combat. Gurney, Duncan Idaho and the Mentat Thufir Hawat serve Leto as a war council unparalleled in the Imperium. Gurney is also a talented troubadour. In Dune, Gurney and 73 of his men survive the Harkonnen attack that decimates the Atreides forces, and they fall in with local spice smugglers to survive. Gurney and his team fall for a Fremen trap—a fake hoard of spice—and are almost killed before Paul, now the Fremen leader \"Muad'Dib\", recognizes him. Gurney nearly kills Jessica, mistakenly believing she betrayed Leto, but later becomes her loyal chief officer. In Children of Dune, Gurney returns to Arrakis with Jessica and coordinates a purging of dissidents with Fremen leader Stilgar. Gurney follows what he believes are Jessica's orders to test Paul's son Leto II to be sure he has not been overcome by his ancestral memories. Learning that the testing was actually ordered by Paul's sister Alia, Gurney escapes, sending a message to Duncan to initiate their plan to force Stilgar to join the rebellion against Alia. Gurney flees to a rebel sietch and joins Leto II and the mysterious Preacher, who is actually a blinded Paul. After Leto II returns to Arrakeen and reclaims the throne from Alia, Gurney is assigned to Sietch Tabr as part of Stilgar's council.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Gurney is portrayed by Patrick Stewart in the 1984 film, and by P. H. Moriarty in the 2000 miniseries and its 2003 sequel. The character is played by Josh Brolin in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Count Hasimir Fenring is Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV's closest friend and advisor, and husband to the Bene Gesserit Lady Margot. Prior to the events of Dune, Fenring serves as the Imperial Spice Minister on Arrakis during the Harkonnen regime, and then as Governor of Arrakis during the handover period between House Harkonnen and House Atreides. In Dune, the Harkonnens, secretly aided by the Shaddam's fierce Sardaukar warriors, destroy the Atreides forces and reclaim control of Arrakis. Fenring and Margot visit the Harkonnen homeworld of Giedi Prime, where the Count informs Baron Harkonnen that Shaddam is displeased with the way the invasion of Arrakis was handled, and is frustrated by The Baron's failure to suppress the disruptive native Fremen population. Fenring is also there on the Emperor's behalf to assess the Harkonnen heir, Feyd, which irks the Baron. Margot is also observing Feyd for the Bene Gesserit, who count him as an important part of their breeding program. Fenring is impressed with Feyd, but laments his upbringing among the brutal Harkonnens. Later, Paul Atreides leads the Fremen in an overwhelming victory over the combined Harkonnen and Imperial forces and seizes control of Arrakis. Paul demands that Shaddam relinquish the Imperial throne to him or he will destroy all spice production and plunge the universe into chaos. Shaddam resists, and Fenring, a deadly fighter and rumored assassin, is summoned and ordered to kill Paul. He refuses, aware that Paul represents the success of the Bene Gesserit breeding program of which Fenring himself is a failure. Paul deposes Shaddam, and the Fenrings join the former emperor in exile.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Fenring does not appear in the 1984 film, but is portrayed by Miroslav Táborský in the 2000 miniseries.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Margot, Lady Fenring, is the Bene Gesserit wife of Count Hasimir Fenring. Though the Count is the close friend and advisor of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, Margot's primary loyalty is to the Sisterhood. In Dune, Duke Leto Atreides is lured to the desert planet Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the lucrative spice mining operation there, but the assignment is part of a plot by Shaddam and Baron Vladimir Harkonnen to destroy the Atreides. Margot leaves a coded message for Leto's Bene Gesserit concubine, Lady Jessica, warning her that the Atreides, especially Leto and Jessica's son Paul, are in imminent danger from the Harkonnens, and alerts her to the existence of a traitor in the Atreides household. Paul evades a trap set for him, but a devastating attack by the Harkonnens leaves Leto dead, and forces Paul and Jessica to flee into the desert. Due to the harsh conditions and an oncoming sandstorm, they are soon presumed dead. Margot is sent by the Bene Gesserit to seduce Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen and to \"preserve the bloodline\" by retrieving his genetic material, through conception, for their breeding program. She later bears Feyd's daughter. Margot also uses an imprinting technique to condition Feyd to be vulnerable to Bene Gesserit control in the future. Paul and Feyd later duel to the death, and Paul is victorious without using Margot's implanted command. Having seized control of the all-important Arrakis, Paul deposes Shaddam, and the Fenrings join the former emperor in exile.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Margot does not appear in the 1984 film, 2000 miniseries or 2021 film, but is portrayed by Léa Seydoux in the 2024 sequel film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Thufir Hawat is a Mentat, an individual conditioned to mimic the cognitive and analytical ability of computers, who serves as Master of Assassins and primary military strategist for Duke Leto Atreides. In Dune, the Atreides are lured to Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the lucrative spice mining operation there, but soon fall prey to a catastrophic attack by their longtime enemies the Harkonnens, whose forces are secretly bolstered by the fierce Sardaukar warriors of the emperor, Shaddam IV. Hawat is captured, and the calculating Baron Vladimir Harkonnen takes him as a replacement for his own twisted Mentat Piter De Vries, who was killed in the aftermath of the attack. The Baron hopes to channel Hawat's desire for revenge away from House Harkonnen, and keeps his abilities in check by feeding him false data, specifically, permitting him to believe that Leto's concubine Lady Jessica had been the traitor responsible for the Atreides' destruction. Hawat is also secretly administered a residual poison which requires regular doses of an antidote to prevent death. In spite of these obstacles, Hawat attempts to bring down the Harkonnens from within. He gains the trust of the Baron's nephew and heir Feyd-Rautha by assisting him with a plot to discredit the Harkonnen slavemaster and replace him with someone loyal to Feyd. Hawat encourages the ambitions of Feyd against the Baron, which leads him to attempt to assassinate his uncle. The Baron, warned by Hawat, eludes the attempt and punishes Feyd for his failure. Later, Hawat is coerced to assassinate Leto's son, Paul Atreides. Paul suspects this, but out of gratitude for Hawat's exceptional loyalty, Paul gives him the opportunity to take anything Hawat wishes of him, even his life. Hawat chooses death rather than to betray Paul.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Hawat is portrayed by Freddie Jones in the 1984 film, and by Jan Vlasák [cs] in the 2000 miniseries. The character is played by Stephen McKinley Henderson in the 2021 film and its 2024 sequel.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "The character also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and is resurrected as a ghola in Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, the Brian Herbert/Anderson sequels which conclude the original series.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Alia is the daughter of Duke Leto and Jessica, and Paul’s younger sister. Subjected to the Fremen spice agony in the womb, she is born a fully aware Reverend Mother. Among the Bene Gesserit, a child born in this manner, called an Abomination, is immediately killed because they are susceptible to being overtaken by their ancestral personas. Alia pretends to be a child as she grows up among the Fremen. At four years old, she kills her grandfather, the Baron Harkonnen, as Paul seizes control of Arrakis. As Paul's sister, Alia is worshipped in her own right in Dune Messiah. She and Hayt—who is the swordmaster Duncan Idaho brought back from the dead as a ghola by Tleilaxu means—work together to unravel the conspiracy against the Atreides. She marries Duncan, his memories restored, and is named regent for Paul and Chani's children, Leto II and Ghanima. In Children of Dune, the danger of Abomination has come to fruition, and Alia is possessed by the persona of the Baron. Her increasing depravity and lust for power under his control drive her to plot Jessica's assassination. Confronted by Leto and overcome by the Baron, Alia has a fleeting moment of self-control and leaps to her death.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Alia is portrayed by Alicia Witt in the 1984 film, and by Laura Burton in the 2000 miniseries. Daniela Amavia portrays an adult Alia in the 2003 sequel miniseries. The character does not appear in the 2021 film, which covers the first part of Dune, but is expected to appear in the 2024 sequel film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "The Shadout Mapes is the mysterious Fremen housekeeper at the palace of Arakeen on Arrakis. In Dune, Duke Leto Atreides, his Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, and their son Paul arrive as Leto takes over management of the planet's lucrative spice mining operations. The Fremen begin to believe that Paul is their prophesied messiah, who is foretold to be accompanied by his Bene Gesserit mother, and when talking to Mapes, Jessica uses phrases that are part of the legend. Mapes gives Jessica a crysknife, a weapon made from the tooth of a giant sandworm that is considered holy by the Fremen and rarely seen by outsiders. Paul later saves Mapes from a deadly hunter-seeker intended to kill him, and she warns of a traitor in the Atreides household. Mapes is killed by that same traitor, Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, as the Harkonnens attack.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Mapes is portrayed by Linda Hunt in the 1984 film, and by Jaroslava Šiktancová in the 2000 miniseries. Golda Rosheuvel plays the character in the 2021 film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Mapes is the main character of the 2022 short story \"Dune: The Edge of a Crysknife\" by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, which takes place before the events of the Prelude to Dune trilogy.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Liet-Kynes is the Imperial Planetologist of the desert planet Arrakis, and the father of Chani by his Fremen wife, Faroula. In Dune, Duke Leto Atreides meets with Dr. Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist, soon after arriving on Arrakis to take over the melange harvesting operations there. Escorted by the planet's native Fremen, Kynes is the liaison between them and the Imperials. Kynes takes personal note of Leto's son Paul, who seems to know Fremen ways intuitively, and shows signs of being a prophesied Fremen messiah. The Atreides later hear of a person or deity named \"Liet\" to whom all the Fremen communities give allegiance. It is only after Leto is killed, and Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica, take refuge among the Fremen that Liet and Kynes are revealed to be the same person. He is the son of Pardot Kynes, the first Imperial Planetologist of Arrakis, and a Fremen woman, and is Chani's father. Captured by the Harkonnens and left to die in the desert without a stillsuit or water, Kynes is killed by a spice blow, an explosive eruption that is part of the melange cycle. In God Emperor of Dune, Liet-Kynes's wife and Chani's mother is identified as Faroula, \"a noted herbalist among the Fremen\".",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Liet-Kynes is portrayed by Max von Sydow in the 1984 film, and by Karel Dobrý in the 2000 miniseries. Sharon Duncan-Brewster plays a gender-swapped version of the character in the 2021 film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Liet-Kynes also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. That series establishes that his mother is Frieth, the sister of Stilgar. Growing up under Fremen tradition, Liet inherits his father's position as planetologist as well as his secret goal of terraforming Arrakis into a temperate planet.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Reverend Mother Ramallo is a spiritual leader, or Sayyadina, among the Fremen of Sietch Tabr on Arrakis, a \"wild\" version of a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother. In Dune, Paul Atreides and his Bene Gesserit mother, Lady Jessica, flee a Harkonnen attack and find refuge among the Fremen. When Ramallo knows she is nearing the end of her life, Jessica undergoes the ritual spice agony to make her Ramallo's replacement. The Fremen ordeal to become a Reverend Mother involves ingesting the poisonous Water of Life, the exhalation of a dying sandworm. Jessica survives and shares minds with Ramallo, acquiring the older woman's life experiences and collective ancestral Other Memory, and then Ramallo dies.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Ramallo is portrayed by Italian actress Silvana Mangano in the 1984 film. Drahomíra Fialková plays the character in the 2000 miniseries, with Petra Kulíková as a younger version of Ramallo.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Ramallo also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Jamis is a formidable Fremen warrior from Sietch Tabr. In Dune, Paul Atriedes and his Bene Gesserit mother, Lady Jessica, flee a Harkonnen attack and find refuge with the Fremen of Sietch Tabr. Newcomer Paul is immediately challenged by the distrustful Fremen warrior Jamis, and per Fremen custom they engage in a ritual fight to the death. Paul kills Jamis, and is subsequently obligated to take responsibility for his wife Harah and children.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Jamis is portrayed by Judd Omen in the 1984 film, Christopher Lee Brown in the 2000 miniseries, and by Babs Olusanmokun in the 2021 film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Harah is the Fremen wife of Jamis. Her first husband was Geoff, by whom she had a son, Kaleff. Jamis defeated Geoff in a ritual duel and took Harah as his own wife, and fathered her son Orlop. After Paul kills Jamis in a ritual fight to the death in Dune, Fremen custom demands that Paul inherit his possessions, including Harah and her children. Paul must take her into his household as his wife or his servant, and after a year if he has not married her, she may choose as she wishes. Paul accepts Harah as a servant. She is at first insulted by his reluctance to marry her, but dedicates herself to his service. Harah becomes very close to, and protective of, Paul's young sister Alia, who is born a fully aware Reverend Mother and pretends to be a child as she grows up among the Fremen. In Children of Dune, Harah is married to Stilgar, and is Chani's closest friend. She is witness to the birth of Paul and Chani's twins, Leto II and Ghanima, and to Chani's subsequent death. Harah dedicates herself to the care of the twins. When an adult Alia's tyranny becomes too great and endangers Leto and Ghanima, Harah goes into hiding with Stilgar, Princess Irulan and the children.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Harah is portrayed by Molly Wrynn in the 1984 film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Piter De Vries is a Mentat, an individual conditioned to mimic the cognitive and analytical ability of computers, who serves the ruthless Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. De Vries has the added distinction of having been \"twisted\" into an amoral sadist by the Tleilaxu. In Dune, De Vries is the architect of the plan to destroy House Atreides, longtime enemy of the Harkonnens, while restoring the Baron's stewardship over the planet Arrakis. Though the personal physician of Duke Leto Atreides, Wellington Yueh, has undergone Suk conditioning which renders him incapable of inflicting harm on his patients, De Vries subverts it by kidnapping and torturing Yueh's wife. Hoping to free her, Yueh betrays the Atreides, enabling a catastrophic attack by the Harkonnens and delivering Leto to the Baron. Yueh learns that his wife is already dead and is killed by De Vries. Yueh, however, has given the captive Leto a false tooth filled with poison gas with which to assassinate the Baron. Harkonnen evades the attempt, but Leto and De Vries die. De Vries is the creator of residual poison, a toxin which requires regular doses of an antidote to prevent death. The Baron secretly administers it to the captured Atreides Mentat Thufir Hawat as coercion to make him the replacement for De Vries.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "In the novel, De Vries is described as \"tall, though slender, and something about him suggested effeminacy\". He is addicted to the drug melange, and also has the ruby red lips characteristic of those who consume sapho juice, an addictive drug which enhances Mentat capabilities.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "De Vries is portrayed by Brad Dourif in the 1984 film, and by Jan Unger in the 2000 miniseries. David Dastmalchian plays the character in the 2021 film.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Piter also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In the series, Piter discovers the Harkonnen heritage of Lady Jessica and her newborn son Paul, and attempts to kidnap and ransom the infant. The plot is thwarted and the secret preserved when Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam kills the Mentat and arranges for his corpse to be shipped home to the Harkonnen homeworld, Giedi Prime. An enraged Baron is left with no choice but to order a duplicate from the Bene Tleilax: the Mentat De Vries featured in Herbert's original novel Dune.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune (1965)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Scytale is a Tleilaxu Face Dancer who executes a plot to dethrone Paul Atriedes in Dune Messiah. Scytale's conspiracy includes Spacing Guild Navigator Edric, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam, and the Princess Irulan, Paul's consort. Unlike Face Dancers depicted later in the series, Scytale appears autonomous, and his high-level dealings with the other conspirators suggest a certain rank and level of trust among the Tleilaxu. Scytale notes of Face Dancers, \"We are Jadacha hermaphrodites ... either sex at will.\" He subsequently kills and assumes the appearance of Lichna, the daughter of the trusted Fremen commando Otheym, in order to lure Paul from the Atreides Keep to Otheym's house, where Scytale has planted an atomic weapon. The attack fails to kill Paul, but the atomic blast blinds him. Scytale soon makes an attempt to force Paul's allegiance. With the Tleilaxu ghola of Duncan Idaho having regained the memories of the deceased original, Scytale has proven that the Tleilaxu can resurrect a human being. He offers Paul a ghola of his concubine Chani, who has just died giving birth to their twin children, in exchange for Paul surrendering his empire to Tleilaxu control. Though tempted, Paul refuses. Scytale holds a knife over the newborn twins, threatening to kill them instantly unless Paul accepts. Paul instead kills Scytale with a thrown crysknife, guided by a vision sent by his infant son.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "In Heretics of Dune, 5000 years after the events of Dune Messiah, a ghola of Scytale is a Tleilaxu Master and one of Tleilaxu leader Tylwyth Waff's nine councillors. The novel establishes that after learning how to restore a ghola's memories in Dune Messiah, the Masters use this knowledge as a form of immortality, creating clones from their living cells which can be reawakened upon their deaths. Face Dancers are still Tleilaxu servants rather than emissaries, and Herbert does not explain how the Scytale of Dune Messiah—a Face Dancer, though autonomous—could ascend to become a Master, or how the Master/Face Dancer relationship may have evolved over the millennia.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "In Chapterhouse Dune (1985), the fearsome Honored Matres have destroyed all of the Tleilaxu worlds in retaliation for the Tleilaxu role in programming the latest Duncan Idaho ghola with knowledge of how to sexually enslave Honored Matres. Scytale, likely the last surviving Tleilaxu Master, barely escapes the attack while leaving his homeworld and is given sanctuary by the Bene Gesserit. Essentially a prisoner, he is kept in a no-ship grounded on the secret Bene Gesserit planet Chapterhouse. In exchange for their protection, Scytale has given the Bene Gesserit the knowledge to create axlotl tanks to grow their own gholas. Desiring his own Face Dancer servants, axlotl tanks, and access to the ship's systems, Scytale has held back the secret to creating artificial melange for future negotiations. His secret bargaining chip is a nullentropy capsule containing cells carefully and covertly collected by the Tleilaxu for millennia, including those of Tleilaxu Masters and Face Dancers, Paul, Chani, the original Duncan Idaho, Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck and Stilgar.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Scytale is portrayed by Martin McDougall in the 2003 miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, which is an adaptation of both Dune Messiah and its sequel Children of Dune.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Scytale also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, Scytale is desperate, as his current body is slowly dying, and he does not have another to replace it. Needing to grow a new ghola clone of himself, his only bargaining tool is the secret nullentropy capsule. Other cells in Scytale's possession include those of Leto I, Lady Jessica, Leto II and other legendary figures dating back to Serena Butler and Xavier Harkonnen from the Butlerian Jihad. The Bene Gesserit debate whether to create gholas of any of these historical figures, and despite the controversy, gholas are created a few at a time. Scytale is allowed to have his own once the first few have been born. In Sandworms of Dune, Scytale finally reawakens his own ghola's past memories using the trauma of watching the elder Scytale die in front of his younger self. Along with gholas of the Tleilaxu Masters, Scytale grows Tleilaxu females from newly discovered cells, vowing to never again allow the Masters to corrupt the recovering Tleilaxu people.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "Edric is a Spacing Guild Navigator and the Guild's ambassador on Arrakis. In Dune Messiah, Edric engages in a conspiracy to dethrone Emperor Paul Atreides, joined by the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam, and Paul's embittered consort, Princess Irulan. As its Navigators require immense quantities of melange to navigate foldspace, the Spacing Guild has a vested interest in breaking Paul's stranglehold over the spice supply. Edric's involvement also protects the conspirators from discovery, as his prescience hides the activities of himself and those around him from other prescients, like Paul. The plot ultimately fails, and Edric and Mohiam are executed by Fremen naib Stilgar on orders from Paul's sister, Alia Atreides.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "In Chapterhouse Dune, a \"very powerful\" Navigator is described as \"one of the Edrics\", suggesting a possible breeding plan or use of gholas.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Bijaz is a Tleilaxu dwarf in the employ of Otheym, one of the former Fedaykin death commandos of Paul Atreides. In Dune Messiah, Otheym reveals to Paul evidence of a Fremen conspiracy against him. Otheym gives Paul his dwarf Tleilaxu servant Bijaz, who has the ability to remember faces, names and details like a recording machine. Paul accepts reluctantly, seeing the strands of a Tleilaxu plot. Bijaz, actually an agent of the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, uses a specific humming intonation to implant a command that will compel the Duncan Idaho ghola, Hayt, to kill Paul under certain circumstances. Paul's concubine Chani dies in childbirth, and Paul's reaction to her death triggers Hayt's assassination attempt. Hayt's ghola body reacts against its own programming and Duncan's full consciousness is recovered, simultaneously making him independent of Tleilaxu control. Having proven that a ghola's memories of its originator can be restored, Scytale offers Paul a ghola of Chani in exchange for Paul surrendering his empire to Tleilaxu control. Paul refuses, and Scytale is killed. Later, Bijaz approaches Paul and repeats Scytale's offer, but is killed by Duncan on Paul's order.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "Bijaz is portrayed by Gee Williams in the 2003 miniseries.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Lichna is the daughter of Otheym, one of Paul's former Fedaykin death commandos. In Dune Messiah, she is killed and impersonated by the shapeshifting Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale as a means to infiltrate Paul's household. Paul can see through the deception, but wants to see where the plot leads. Aware it is part of the conspiracy against him, Paul allows himself to be lured to Otheym's home in the city.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "Lichna is portrayed by Klára Issová in the 2003 miniseries.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "Farok is another of Paul's former Fedaykin. In Dune Messiah, he is one of many Fremen disillusioned by the changes Paul's regime brings to their culture, and joins the conspiracy to unseat Paul.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "Farok is portrayed by Ivo Novák in the 2003 miniseries.",
"title": "Introduced in Dune Messiah (1969)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Princess Wensicia is the third daughter of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and the Bene Gesserit Anirul, and the younger sister of Princess Irulan. In Children of Dune, Shaddam is dead and Wensicia plots from exile to restore House Corrino to its former glory by wresting control of the Imperial throne from the usurper, Paul Atreides, for her son, Farad'n. She attempts to assassinate Leto II and Ghanima Atreides, Paul's twin heirs, by sending mechanically controlled Laza tigers to hunt them in the desert. Leto's growing prescience allows him to thwart the attack on himself and his sister, and he pretends to be dead to escape the increasingly murderous ambitions of his father's sister Alia. Later Farad'n, newly trained in the Bene Gesserit ways by Paul and Alia's mother Lady Jessica, accepts an arrangement brokered by Jessica for him to marry Ghanima and share the throne. His part of the deal is to \"denounce and banish\" Wensicia for Leto's murder, which he does. Leto later returns and ascends the throne himself.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "Wensicia is described as \"fair-haired\" with a \"heart-shaped face,\" and is said to have learned \"shifty trickiness\" from her sister Irulan but not herself been trained by the Bene Gesserit. Shaddam IV's heir is Wensicia's son Farad'n, whose deceased father, Dalak, is related to Count Fenring.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "Wensicia is portrayed by Susan Sarandon in the 2003 miniseries. Sarandon told The New York Times, \"One of the reasons I always loved the books was because they were driven by strong women, living outside the rules.\" She added that the Dune series \"is very apropos to some of what's going on in the world today. It's about the dangers of fundamentalism and the idea that absolute power corrupts.\" The actress said of Wensicia, \"She's just evil, evil, evil. I'm practically unrecognizable. It was a blast.\" Laura Fries of Variety wrote, \"it’s Susan Sarandon and Alice Krige [as Lady Jessica] who steal the thunder as opposing matriarchs of the great royal houses. Although the two never catfight, their ongoing struggle to rule the Dune dynasty gives this mini a real kick.\" Observing that Sarandon and Krige were \"clearly relishing their roles\", Fries added that \"Sarandon makes a formidable enemy\". Melanie McFarland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted, \"[Sarandon's] exiled princess may be the villain, cooking up deadly schemes, but we're right along with her in having a good time.\" Sarandon herself said, \"it's always fun to play a smart villain.\" Not impressed overall with the acting in the miniseries, Ron Wertheimer of The New York Times wrote:",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "The exception is the piece's token movie star ... Susan Sarandon, having a high old time as the villain. Looking swell in slinky gowns and a collection of outer-space-deco headgear fitted with sensual silver antennas, Ms. Sarandon nearly winks into the camera. Her body language, her purring tone, the gleam in her evil eye, the curve of her evil eyebrow all declare, \"Isn't this a hoot?\" In another film, such a jarring note from a principal would sink it. But she's right; this is a hoot. Her mugging is part of the fun.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "In the miniseries, Wensicia orchestrates the Dune Messiah conspiracy to assassinate Paul using a pre-programmed Tleilaxu ghola of his deceased friend Duncan Idaho, a plotline in which she is not involved in the novel. Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com wrote:",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "There are a few clever changes made in order to connect the two stories better, the primary one being that rather than having Princess Irulan work as a conspirator against Paul alongside the Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, and the Tleilaxu, her sister Wensicia is brought to the fore sooner and given that role. This has two advantages; it means that Irulan's love for Paul doesn't come out of left field the way it does at the end of Dune Messiah, and it means that the story spends more time with Wensicia ... who is played with antagonistic relish by Susan Sarandon.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "Wensicia also appears in the novel Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Leto II Atreides is the son of Paul Atreides and his Fremen concubine Chani, and the twin brother of Ghanima. Born at the end of Dune Messiah, Leto is orphaned soon after, as his mother dies in childbirth and his blinded father, following Freemen custom, walks out into the open desert to die. Paul's sister Alia subsequently serves as regent for the twins in Children of Dune, and Princess Irulan steps into the role of surrogate mother. Like Alia, Leto and Ghanima are \"pre-born\", having been awakened to adult consciousness and their genetic memories in the womb. The danger to individuals born this way, called Abomination by the Bene Gesserit, is that they are susceptible to being overtaken by their ancestral personas. Leto solves this problem by constructing his own personality out of an executive committee of his ancestors. Influenced by all the important ones, he cannot be possessed by an individual. Alia, however, is increasingly falling under the control of her late grandfather, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, whose hatred of the Atreides puts the twins in danger and threatens to topple Paul's empire. Deposed Emperor Shaddam IV's daughter Wensicia, Irulan's younger sister, plots from exile to place her son Farad'n on the throne and executes an assassination attempt on nine-year-old Leto and Ghanima. The twins anticipate and survive the plot. Leto leaves to seek out the mysterious Preacher, who some believe is Paul himself, and Ghanima hypnotizes herself to believe that Leto is dead. Like his father Paul before him, Leto enters a spice trance induced by an overdose of melange. His visions show him myriad possible futures where humanity becomes extinct, and only one where it survives. He names this future \"The Golden Path\" and resolves to bring it to fruition—something that his father, who had already glimpsed this future, refused to do. Leto sacrifices his humanity to become a symbiont with the sandworm, beginning the transformation by allowing sandtrout, the larval stage of sandworms, to cover his body. The oversaturation of spice, and Leto's ability to adjust his body chemistry, fool the creatures into bonding with him, creating a membrane of \"new skin\" that bestows on him superhuman speed, strength and near-invulnerability. In addition, he will live for thousands of years, enough time to see his Golden Path to its completion. Leto returns to the capital where everyone has assembled for the wedding of Ghanima and Farad'n. Confronted by Leto and overcome by the Baron, Alia has a fleeting moment of self-control and leaps to her death. Leto declares himself Emperor, asserts control over the Fremen and restores Ghanima's genuine memories with a predetermined command. Farad'n pledges himself to Leto and delivers control of the remaining Sardaukar armies. Leto marries Ghanima to consolidate power, but Farad'n is her true consort so the Atreides line can continue.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "Thirty-five hundred years later in God Emperor of Dune, the God Emperor Leto II is now almost fully transformed into a sandworm, retaining only his human face and arms. He is seemingly immortal and invulnerable to harm, but also prone to instinct-driven bouts of violence when provoked to anger. As a result, Leto's oppressive rule is one of religious awe and despotic fear. Widely known as the Tyrant, he has killed all other sandworms by terraforming Arrakis into a verdant planet, and his control of the remaining supply of melange guarantees his stranglehold on civilization. All of the former major powers, like the Bene Gesserit and Spacing Guild, have capitulated. Following his Golden Path, Leto has forced the human population into a state of trans-galactic stagnation: space travel is non-existent to most people in his Empire, which he has deliberately kept to a near-medieval level of technological sophistication. A string of Duncan Idaho gholas have served Leto over the millennia, though they are prone to eventually rebel against him. Ghanima's descendant Moneo Atreides is Leto's majordomo and closest confidante, while Moneo's daughter Siona has become the leader of a local rebellion against Leto. The Ixians send a new ambassador named Hwi Noree, and though Leto realizes that she has been specifically designed and trained to ensnare him, he cannot resist falling in love with her. Exposure to concentrated spice essence awakens Siona to Leto's Golden Path, and though she sees its importance, she remains dedicated to his destruction. Siona and the current Duncan Idaho overcome a searing mutual hatred of each other to plan Leto's assassination, of which the God Emperor is aware and has made possible. As Leto's wedding procession moves across a high bridge, the conspirators destroy the support beams, and Leto's entourage, including Hwi, plunge to their deaths into the river below. Leto's body rends apart in the water, the outer layer of sandtrout encysting the water and scurrying off, while the rest burns and disintegrates on the shore. A dying Leto reveals to Siona a secret aspect of his Golden Path: she is the end result of a breeding scheme to produce a human who is invisible to prescient vision. Siona and her descendants will possess this ability, and Leto explains that humanity is now free from the domination of oracles, free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete domination or complete destruction. After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "Leto is portrayed by James McAvoy in the 2003 miniseries.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Ghanima Atreides is the daughter of Paul Atreides and his Fremen concubine Chani, and the twin sister of Leto II. Born at the end of Dune Messiah, Ghanima is orphaned soon after, as her mother dies in childbirth and her blinded father, following Fremen custom, walks out into the open desert to die. Paul's sister Alia subsequently serves as regent for the twins in Children of Dune, and Princess Irulan steps into the role of surrogate mother. Like Alia, Leto and Ghanima are \"pre-born\", having been awakened to adult consciousness and their genetic memories in the womb. The danger to individuals born this way, called Abomination by the Bene Gesserit, is that they are susceptible to being overtaken by their ancestral personas. Leto solves this problem by constructing his own personality out of an executive committee of his ancestors. Influenced by all the important ones, he cannot be possessed by an individual. Alia, however, is increasingly falling under the control of her late grandfather, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, whose hatred of the Atreides puts the twins in danger and threatens to topple Paul's empire. Deposed Emperor Shaddam IV's daughter Wensicia, Irulan's younger sister, plots from exile to place her son Farad'n on the throne and executes an assassination attempt on nine-year-old Leto and Ghanima. The twins anticipate and survive the plot. Leto leaves to seek out the mysterious Preacher, who some believe is Paul himself, and Ghanima hypnotizes herself to believe that Leto is dead. The intense mental discipline needed for this self-deception builds a safe haven in Ghanima's mind for her own personality to safely develop, with the persona of Chani acting as a guardian. Recognizing Alia as worsening threat, Fremen naib Stilgar takes Ghanima into hiding. Farad'n denounces his mother, and Alia, having retaken Ghanima, arranges a marriage between them. Knowing that Ghanima has sworn to kill him on their wedding night in revenge for Leto's \"death\", Alia intends to exploit the resulting chaos to weaken her enemies. Leto, having seen a prescient vision of humanity's only path to survival, has vowed to bring it to fruition and begun the necessary transformation to a human-sandworm hybrid. He returns to the capital where everyone has assembled for the wedding of Ghanima and Farad'n. Confronted by Leto and overcome by the Baron, Alia has a fleeting moment of self-control and leaps to her death. Leto declares himself Emperor, asserts control over the Fremen and restores Ghanima's genuine memories with a predetermined command. Farad'n pledges himself to Leto and delivers control of the remaining Sardaukar armies. Leto marries Ghanima to consolidate power, but Farad'n is her true consort so the Atreides line can continue.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "Ghanima is portrayed by Jessica Brooks in the 2003 miniseries. Laura Fries of Variety wrote, \"the mini picks up a great deal of charisma when [James] McAvoy [as Leto] and Brooks come aboard as the next generation of the house of Atreides.\" The characters Leto and Ghanima were aged from ten-year-olds to teens for the miniseries, which Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called \"a smart move here, as finding two ten year old kids who had the ability to behave as though they had millennia of ancestral memory bubbling up inside of them was always going to be an impossibility.\" Asher-Perrin also called the rapport between Brooks and McAvoy \"dazzling\".",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "Tyekanik is a Sardaukar officer who serves Princess Wensicia in Children of Dune. He is instrumental in her plot to assassinate the Atreides twins, Leto II and Ghanima, using mechanically-controlled Laza tigers.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "Tyekanik is portrayed by Marek Vašut in the 2003 miniseries.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "Namri is the Fremen naib of Sietch Fondak, formerly known as Sietch Jacurutu, in Children of Dune. The Fremen of Fondak are called Iduali, or \"water stealers\", and shunned for a past transgression. Believing he is acting on orders from Lady Jessica, Gurney Halleck abducts a nine-year-old Leto II and brings him to Fondak, where Namri assists him in administering an overdose of the spice to Leto as a test. However, the test has actually been ordered by Leto's aunt Alia, possessed by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and Namri has been told to kill Leto no matter the result. Leto escapes and Namri attempts to kill Gurney, who kills him instead.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "Namri is portrayed by Predrag Bjelac in the 2003 miniseries.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "Ziarenko Javid is the son of Namri and a High Priest of the Qizarate, the leaders of the religion which has risen around Paul Atreides. Possessed by the persona of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Paul's sister Alia takes Javid as her lover, infuriating her husband, Duncan Idaho. Duncan later kills Javid publicly in Sietch Tabr, partly out of revenge and partly to manipulate Stilgar into killing Duncan as a means to force Stilgar to join the rebellion against Alia.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "Javid is portrayed by Rik Young in the 2003 miniseries.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "Farad'n is the son of Princess Wensicia, and the grandson of Shaddam IV. In Children of Dune, Shaddam is dead and Wensicia plots from exile to restore House Corrino to its former glory by wresting control of the Imperial throne from the usurper, Paul Atreides, for Farad'n. She attempts to assassinate Leto II and Ghanima Atreides, Paul's twin heirs, and though she fails, Leto pretends to be dead to escape the increasingly murderous ambitions of his father's sister Alia. Paul and Alia's mother, Lady Jessica, trains Farad'n in the Bene Gesserit ways as a preamble to an offer to marry Ghanima and share the throne. His part of the deal is to \"denounce and banish\" Wensicia for Leto's murder, which he does, but Ghanima intends to murder Farad'n on their wedding night as revenge. Leto reappears, now beginning the transformation into a human-sandworm hybrid, and ascends the throne himself. Leto, who is now physically incapable of siring children, commands Farad'n to father the future Atreides line as Ghanima's mate. Farad'n is also appointed as the Royal Scribe and renamed \"Harq al'Ada\" (the \"breaker of habit\"), and relinquishes his control of the remaining Sardaukar to Leto, effectively surrendering House Corrino's claim to the Imperial throne. Many of the chapter epigraphs in the novel are from the later writings of Farad'n (as Harq al'Ada) in his role as chronicler of the reign of Leto II.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "Farad'n is portrayed by Jonathan Brüün in the 2003 miniseries.",
"title": "Introduced in Children of Dune (1976)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "Siona Atreides is the daughter of God Emperor Leto II's attendant and confidante Moneo, and a direct descendant of Leto's twin sister Ghanima and Farad'n Corrino. In God Emperor of Dune, Siona objects to Leto's tyrannical stranglehold on civilization, and leads a group of like-minded dissidents determined to depose Leto by any means necessary. Leto allows her to steal secret records from his archives, and she loses ten of her cohorts to Leto's D-wolves, barely escaping with her own life. Forced to join the Fish Speakers, an all-female army who obey Leto without question, Siona is further bristled by Leto's obvious desire to breed her with the latest Duncan Idaho ghola. Leto, who over the millennia has become a human-sandworm hybrid thanks to his fusion with sandtrout, the larval stage of sandworms, tests Siona by taking her out to the middle of the desert. She is careless in the use of her stillsuit to preserve moisture, and dehydration forces her to accept Leto's offer of spice essence from his body to replenish her. Awakened to Leto's Golden Path, the prophetic vision he follows to avert humanity's complete destruction, Siona is convinced of its importance, and better understands why he has ruled so harshly. But she remains dedicated to Leto's destruction, and an errant rainstorm demonstrates for her his mortal vulnerability to water. Leto has planned a Royal Procession to travel to his wedding to the Ixian ambassador Hwi Noree, and Siona and Idaho overcome a searing mutual hatred of each other to plan his assassination. As the procession moves across a high bridge over the Idaho River, Siona's associate, the Fish Speaker Nayla, destroys the support beams with a lasgun. The bridge collapses and Leto's entourage, including Hwi, plunge to their deaths into the river below. Leto's body rends apart in the water, the outer layer of sandtrout encysting the water and scurrying off, while the rest burns and disintegrates on the shore. A dying Leto reveals a secret aspect of his Golden Path: Siona is the end result of a breeding scheme to produce a human who is invisible to prescient vision. Siona and her descendants will possess this ability, and Leto explains that humanity is now free from the domination of oracles, free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete domination or complete destruction. After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire.",
"title": "Introduced in God Emperor of Dune (1981)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "Hwi Noree is the newest Ixian ambassador to Arrakis, and the niece of Malky, a previous Ixian ambassador who had been close to Leto II. In God Emperor of Dune, Leto is enchanted by the beautiful and charismatic Hwi, and though he realizes she has been specifically designed and trained to ensnare him, he cannot resist falling in love with her. Raised in secret in a no-chamber, she has been bred to appeal to what remains of Leto's humanity, a process guided by Malky himself. Though his transformation into a human-sandworm hybrid makes him incapable of physical intimacy, Leto proposes marriage and Hwi agrees. Duncan Idaho also falls in love with Hwi, and they fall into bed together. The resulting rivalry only worsens the rift between Leto and Duncan, who is driven to join Siona in her assassination plot against Leto. Hwi dies with Leto when their wedding procession crosses a sabotaged bridge, which collapses into the Idaho River below.",
"title": "Introduced in God Emperor of Dune (1981)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "Bene Gesserit Truthsayer Tertius Eileen Anteac comes to Arrakis with Luyseyal in God Emperor of Dune for an audience with the God Emperor Leto II that coincides with the Royal Festival held every ten years. They receive a message from Othwi Yake, Assistant to the Ixian ambassador, that Face Dancers have infiltrated the Ixian embassy, and are planning to assassinate Leto II. They try to warn Leto, but the message does not reach his convoy in time, though the plot fails, as Anteac and Luyseyal knew it would. They achieve little in their meeting with Leto II, and he takes the priceless vial of spice-essence with which they hoped to test his mortality. Leto reminds Luyseyal of the lesson learned from past over-machined societies: \"The devices themselves condition the users to employ each other the way they employ machines.\" Later, Leto enlists Anteac's aid in detecting the Face Dancers, who by that time have replaced everyone in the Ixian embassy except the new ambassador, Hwi Noree. In particular, Anteac identifies the duplicate of Yake, who has been killed and replicated since the original sent his warning to Anteac. Leto's chief minister Moneo Atreides suggests to the God Emperor that Anteac is a secret Mentat, a skill prohibited in the Empire by Leto himself. Leto agrees but says that it amuses him. Hwi shares her knowledge of the environment in which she was brought up with Anteac, who has been conscripted by Leto to lead a Fish Speaker assault on Ix to wrest the secret of Hwi's origins. Anteac is shocked at the knowledge that Hwi is to marry Leto, and at the same time annoyed that The Bene Gesserit had allowed so talented a woman as Hwi to pass through their training program without turning her into one of them. With Anteac's faithful assistance, Leto's forces successfully invade Ix and capture Malky, Hwi's uncle and Leto's former friend, but Anteac is killed.",
"title": "Introduced in God Emperor of Dune (1981)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "Some 1,500 years later in Chapterhouse: Dune the Duncan Idaho ghola recalls his past incarnation from the time of Leto II, noting that he had met with Anteac on orders from the God Emperor to suppress the Mentat school the Bene Gesserit had hidden on Wallach IX. It is also revealed that Reverend Mother Bellonda is a descendant of Anteac's.",
"title": "Introduced in God Emperor of Dune (1981)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "Moneo Atreides is Leto II's longtime majordomo and close confidante, the son of one of the Duncan Idaho gholas, the father of Siona with the Fish Speaker Seyefa, and a direct descendant of Leto's twin sister Ghanima and Farad'n Corrino. Like Siona, he was rebellious as a young man, leading a group of rebels dedicated to ending Leto's oppressive reign. He recognized that eliminating Leto would cast the universe into chaos, but that it would prompt a beneficial rebirth for humanity. In God Emperor of Dune, Moneo has long given up these efforts and now serves Leto with the utmost dedication, having seen the Golden Path for himself and recognized its importance in saving humanity from destruction. Moneo is killed during Leto's assassination, orchestrated by Siona and Duncan, when the bridge that Leto's procession is crossing is destroyed.",
"title": "Introduced in God Emperor of Dune (1981)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "Nayla is a fanatical Fish Speaker in the service of the God Emperor. Knowing of Siona Atreides and Duncan Idaho's plot against him, Leto has instructed Nayla to follow any order Siona gives her. When Siona tasks Nayla to assist in Leto's assassination by sabotaging the bridge he is traveling on, Nayla complies with fervor, damaging the supports with a lasgun. Leto, Hwi Noree and Moneo Atreides are among those killed in the collapse, and Duncan kills Nayla for her role in Hwi's death.",
"title": "Introduced in God Emperor of Dune (1981)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "Quintinius Violet Chenoeh, specially trained as an oral recorder, is sent by Syaksa to Arrakis with Tawsuoko on a fact-gathering mission in the same year as Anteac, prior to the events God Emperor of Dune. She is invited to converse with the God Emperor himself, and he is uncharacteristically indulgent of her questions and somewhat generous with his own information, however cryptic. Leto tells Chenoeh that he plans to restore \"outward spiritual freedom\" for mankind, and then refers to Siona Atreides as his \"achievement\", which the Sisterhood correctly interprets as being related to Leto's own breeding program. Leto then says, \"You will return to your Superiors with my message, but these words keep secret for now. I will visit my rage upon your Sisterhood if you fail.\" Chenoeh complies, following Syaksa's own warning: \"You must do nothing which will bring down his wrath upon us.\" Leto relates how he and his sister Ghanima were able to escape the disaster of Abomination, and also makes one of the earliest references to his secret journals, later found at Dar-es-Balat. He knows he will ultimately be perceived as a tyrant, and wishes to preserve his \"feelings and motives ... lest history distort them too much.\" At the same time, he warns \"Beware of the truth,\" and shares what he calls \"the greatest mystery of all time\" by which he composes his life: \"The only past which endures lies wordlessly within you.\" Leto tells Chenoeh that by virtue of his taking her into his confidence, \"You will become here an integral part of my myth. Our distant cousins will pray to you for intercession with me!\" He also foretells her later death during her attempt at becoming a Reverend Mother through the spice agony. Chenoeh's account of their secret conversation is found after her death, and it is later noted that \"the persistent Cult of Sister Chenoeh assumes new significance because of the journals' disclosures.\" Chenoeh and Tawsuoko also bring back to Chapterhouse proof (in the form of a written eyewitness account of Leto's statement) that, as rumored, Leto executed nine historians four centuries prior.",
"title": "Introduced in God Emperor of Dune (1981)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "Lucilla is a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother and Imprinter. In Heretics of Dune, Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Taraza sends the young and attractive Lucilla to Gammu, formerly the Harkonnen homeworld Giedi Prime, to teach the teenage Duncan Idaho ghola whom the Sisterhood is raising there. Lucilla is also tasked with binding his loyalty to her, and thus the Bene Gesserit, through imprinting, while also protecting him from the negative influence—and possible peril—presented by dissenting Bene Gesserit who believe the ghola is a danger to the Sisterhood. Extremely precocious and already having divined the fact that he is a ghola, the young Duncan nurses hatred for the Bene Gesserit, hoping to escape their control of his life. He soon blossoms, however, under the training of Lucilla and Miles Teg, a male military commander of the Bene Gesserit brought out of retirement in part to protect the ghola. An attempt is made on Duncan's life, and Teg and Lucilla flee with Duncan into the countryside. They hide in a forgotten Harkonnen no-globe, during which time Teg is able to awaken Duncan to his original memories. This occurs before Lucilla has imprinted the ghola, and his new self-awareness now makes it impossible for her to attempt it. Teg arranges an extraction by his protégé Burzmali, but they are ambushed, and Teg sacrifices himself to capture while Lucilla and Duncan escape. Duncan attempts to get off Gammu undetected in the guise of a diminutive Tleilaxu Master, but is taken hostage. Lucilla and Burzmali arrive at a Bene Gesserit safehouse, but discover that it has been taken over by the fearsome Honored Matres, a violent matriarchal order from the farthest reaches of the universe who have been wreaking havoc and destruction on Tleilaxu worlds. Lucilla manages to impersonate an Honored Matre as one of their number, escaping with Duncan and an Honored Matre prisoner, Murbella. Teg commandeers an Honored Matre no-ship and flees with Lucilla, Duncan and a captive Murbella.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "In Chapterhouse: Dune, Lucilla has been transferred to the planet Lampadas to oversee a Bene Gesserit education center located there. She manages to escape before the Honored Matres destroy the planet, carrying the shared memories of its millions of Reverend Mothers. Her ship is damaged by a mine and she is forced to land on Gammu, where she takes refuge with a hidden colony of Jews, knowing that they will be sympathetic to her. The Jews had fled Earth thousands of years earlier in order to escape relentless persecution, and they now practice their religion in secret to maintain their ties to ancient history. The Bene Gesserit, with their own method of connecting to their past, have cultivated a relationship with the Jews. The leader of this settlement gives Lucilla shelter, but ultimately has to turn her over to the Honored Matres in order to save his people from destruction at their hands. Before doing so, however, he introduces Lucilla to Rebecca, a \"wild\" Reverend Mother who has gained her Other Memories without Bene Gesserit training. Lucilla shares minds with Rebecca, who promises to take the memories of Lampadas safely back to the Sisterhood. The Honored Matres capture Lucilla and bring her before the Great Honored Matre Dama, who surprises everyone present by declining to kill her outright. Dama tries to persuade Lucilla to join the Honored Matres, preserving her life in exchange for Bene Gesserit secrets. Dama is especially interested in the Bene Gesserit ability to modify their biochemistry and render toxins harmless, prompting Lucilla to speculate that the Honored Matres were driven out of the Scattering by an enemy who used biological weapons. These conversations with Lucilla continue for weeks, and she reveals to Dama that, although the Bene Gesserit know how to manipulate and control the populace, they practice and believe in democracy. Dama's desire to destroy the Sisterhood is redoubled when she discovers that the Bene Gesserit teach this dangerous knowledge, and she kills Lucilla.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "Lucilla is described as a near copy of the elite Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade, from her physical appearance to the sound of her voice. The two women are not directly related, but are instead the products of parallel breeding lines.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "Miles Teg is a Mentat and the former Supreme Bashar of the Bene Gesserit, their leading military commander. In Heretics of Dune, Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Taraza summons Teg out of retirement to take over the weapons training of the newest Duncan Idaho ghola, still a teenager, on Gammu. Teg, Duncan and Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Lucilla flee an attempt on Duncan's life, and hide in a long-forgotten Harkonnen no-globe discovered by Teg's aide, Patrin. Teg uses his strong resemblance to his ancestor Duke Leto Atreides, to whom the original Idaho was fiercely loyal, and a variety of relentless physical and mental attacks to awaken Duncan to his original memories. Teg arranges an extraction by his protégé Burzmali, but they are ambushed, and Teg sacrifices himself to capture by the Honored Matres to allow Lucilla and Duncan to escape. Teg is tortured using a T-Probe, and under the severe stress and agony produced by the probe's attempts to gain control of his body and his knowledge, his Mentat abilities and Atreides genes elevate him to a higher level of being. He is able to move faster than the eye can see by accelerating his metabolism, and he gains mild prescience, which he describes as a doubled vision which gives him intimations of danger. His accelerated speed comes at the cost of incredible energy expenditure, requiring him to consume enormous amounts of food. After escaping his captors, he finds that his safehouse had been taken over by Honored Matres, who attempt to gain his allegiance. Seeing the terrible state their constant drive for power and contempt for the masses has lowered them to, he uses his incredible speed to slaughter them and escape once more. Teg gathers a force of veterans who had served under him on previous campaigns from the bars of Ysai and captures an Honored Matre no-ship using his tactical genius and new abilities. He flees the planet with Lucilla, Duncan and a captive Honored Matre, Murbella. Journeying to Rakis, Teg hands off Duncan and Lucilla to the Bene Gesserits Sheeana and Darwi Odrade, the latter of which is revealed to be his daughter. As the others escape, Teg goads the Honored Matres, who incinerate the entire planet with their Obliterator weapons to be sure Teg is killed.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "A ghola of Teg is birthed in Chapterhouse: Dune on orders from Odrade, who is now Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit after Taraza's death in the battle at Rakis. Odrade needs Teg's military abilities to thwart the worsening threat of the Honored Matres. The Bene Gesserit later reawaken him to his full memories prematurely by using Sheeana to imprint him. As the original Teg has been trained by his mother to resist such manipulation, the attempt subjects the Teg ghola to a heightened amount of stress which also unlocks the superhuman abilities previously acquired by Teg under Honored Matre torture. A reawakened Teg leads the final assault upon the Honored Matres, but is captured when the Matres pretend to surrender. Murbella, a captive Honored Matre indoctrinated into the Bene Gesserit, kills the Honored Matre leader Logno at the same time Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Odrade is killed, and Murbella manages to secure the leadership of both groups. Teg is released, later joining Sheeana and Duncan Idaho when they escape Bene Gesserit control in a no-ship.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "The adult Teg is described as 296 years old but still vital, and has a striking resemblance to his ancestor, Leto Atreides. The son of the Bene Gesserit Lady Janet Roxbrough (a Fish Speaker descendant) and Loschy Teg, a \"CHOAM station factor\" who was chosen for breeding by the Sisterhood for his \"gene potential,\" Miles had been instructed in the Bene Gesserit ways by his mother before being sent to Lampadas to train as a Mentat. Teg is a military genius, having a very strong sense of honor, loyalty, and many of the characteristics of House Atreides, his ancestors. He is well known for doing the unexpected. Teg is also not a spice addict, as is common with most other people, not even resorting to the spice at old age when most others might wish to use it to extend their lives. By the time of Heretics of Dune, Teg's wife had been dead for 38 years, his grown children living elsewhere except for his eldest daughter Dimela. She and her husband Firus take control of Teg's farm when he leaves his homeworld Lernaeus, and the couple have three children. Teg had a younger brother, Sabine, who had been poisoned on Romo. In Heretics of Dune, it is revealed that Teg had fathered other children during his younger years, one of whom is Odrade.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "Teg also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, Duncan and Teg run the affairs on the no-ship, being the only two passengers with experience in military leadership. Teg considers himself responsible for the security of the ship and its vital cargo of historical gholas, produced in transit from genetic material possessed by captive passenger Scytale, purportedly the last Tleilaxu Master. In Sandworms of Dune, mysterious saboteurs conduct crippling attacks on the no-ship's systems. Teg and Duncan discover that Face Dancers have infiltrated the ship, but not before they are led directly to the \"Unknown Enemy\" who have been stalking the ship for years: Daniel and Marty, incarnations of the ancient thinking machines Omnius and Erasmus. The critically damaged no-ship is caught in the thinking machine tachyon net, and Teg uses his accelerated metabolism to both repair the ship and launch countermeasures against the attacking machines. Though he has consumed vast quantities of melange and carbohydrates from the ship's stores to complete his task, Teg dies from massive cellular exhaustion. Duncan is unable to free the ship, and it is taken to the machine world Synchrony. En route, Duncan and Sheeana release the husk that is left of Teg's body into space, vowing that the Bashar will never be captured by the Enemy. Later, after the machines are defeated, Duncan asks Scytale for a new ghola of Teg, whom he will need at his side in his new position as the bridge between both mankind and machines.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "Murbella is a young Honored Matre who defects to the Bene Gesserit. In Heretics of Dune, the violent Honored Matres capture the teenage Duncan Idaho ghola, who is loyal to their enemies, the Bene Gesserit. Young Honored Matre Murbella is tasked to use her sexual imprinting talents to enslave Duncan to force his allegiance to them. The Tleilaxu have secretly programmed the ghola with the male equivalent to the Honored Matres' imprinting power, which is unlocked by Murbella's attempt. Duncan and Murbella imprint each other, and in her weakened condition Murbella is easily captured by the Bene Gesserit. Her new addiction to Duncan keeps Murbella subdued, and Bene Gesserit soon begin to train her as one of them, though they do not completely trust her. In Chapterhouse: Dune, Duncan and Murbella's mutual imprinting has made them reluctant lovers. Murbella collapses under the pressure of training and her pregnancy, but realizes that she admires and wants to be Bene Gesserit. Murbella submits to the spice agony to become a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and survives. During a Bene Gesserit attack on the Honored Matres, Murbella kills the Great Honored Matre Logno with her Bene Gesserit-enhanced fighting skills, and the Honored Matres are awed by her physical prowess. The Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Darwi Odrade is also killed, and Murbella secures the leadership of both groups, per Odrade's plan. Murbella intends to merge the two orders into a New Sisterhood, which displeases some of the Bene Gesserit. The dissenters flee Chapterhouse with Duncan, Miles Teg, and Sheeana in a no-ship, and Murbella realizes their plan too late to stop them.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "Murbella also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, Murbella takes the title Mother Commander. She has four daughters by Duncan: Rinya, Janess, Tanidia and Gianne. Murbella searches her Other Memory for the origin of the Honored Matres. She discovers that they are descendants of rogue Bene Gesserits and Tleilaxu females, originally used as axlotl tanks and freed by Fish Speakers, who allied in the Scattering. Murbella also discovers that the Honored Matres' \"outside enemy\" are thinking machines, provoked when the Honored Matres stole technologically advanced weapons, including Obliterators, from them. In Sandworms of Dune, Murbella now knows that the sentient computer network Omnius and his thinking machine forces are coming, and attempts to rally humankind for a last stand against the thinking machines. She commissions the scientists of Ix to copy the destructive Obliterators for use on the fleet of warships she has ordered from the Spacing Guild. However, Ix is now secretly controlled by Face Dancer leader Khrone. When Murbella is ready to launch her fleet, the Obliterators and Ixian navigation devices all suddenly fail, which Murbella realizes is sabotage. The Oracle of Time appears, destroying Omnius and the thinking machines with her own armada. Murbella is reunited with Duncan, who intends to end the divide between humans and thinking machines, allowing the two to co-exist.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "Darwi Odrade is an elite Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother and Atreides descendant. In Heretics of Dune, the \"wild talents\" of the Atreides bloodline that Odrade displays intermittently are what the Bene Gesserit both fear and desperately need. The suspicious Reverend Mother Bellonda scrutinizes Odrade continually, looking for reasons to terminate her, while Mother Superior Taraza senses that the Sisterhood needs Odrade's limited Atreides prescience to avert imminent destruction at the hands of the Honored Matres. Taraza tasks Odrade to take over the Bene Gesserit Keep on the planet Arrakis, and take under her protection the foundling girl Sheeana, who has the natural ability to control the giant sandworms. Recognizing Sheeana's value to the Sisterhood, Odrade begins training her as a Bene Gesserit acolyte. Meanwhile, an anonymous document referred to as the Atreides Manifesto surfaces, attacking all religions in the known universe except for that of the Bene Tleilax. This creates a furor with the intensely religious Tleilaxu, who have long nursed dreams of hegemony, dominating the universe with their religion. The Tleilaxu council decides to treat the Manifesto as a gift from God, and they spread it far and wide. It is later revealed that the Manifesto was in fact written by Odrade. When Taraza is killed after a showdown with the Honored Matres on Arrakis, Odrade becomes Mother Superior.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "In Chapterhouse Dune (1985), Odrade is accompanied by Tamalane, Dortujla and the acolyte Suipol to meet the Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction, as retired Bene Gesserit Supreme Bashar Miles Teg leads a force to attack Gammu. With the planet about to fall, the Honored Matres activate their \"weapon of last resort\", turning victory into defeat and holding Odrade captive. Tamalane, Dortujla, and Suipol are killed. As planned with Odrade previously, Honored Matre-turned-Bene Gesserit Murbella travels to Junction alone, pretending to have escaped the Bene Gesserit with their unique abilities and the location of their hidden homeworld, Chapterhouse. Murbella is brought before the new Great Honored Matre Logno, who has just killed her predecessor Dama and has Odrade standing nearby, unrestrained in a gesture of contempt. Murbella provokes and kills Logno, while simultaneously the Honored Matre Elpek kills Odrade. With both of these deaths, Murbella becomes the new Mother Superior as well as Great Honored Matre, fulfilling Odrade's intentions.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "Odrade is secretly the daughter of military commander Teg, and her \"care with details\" makes her, like Teg, most suited for duties related to security. The younger Reverend Mother and Imprinter Lucilla is described a near copy of Odrade, from her physical appearance to the sound of her voice. The two women are not directly related, but are instead the products of parallel breeding lines. As the Bene Gesserit are wary of the historical unpredictability of Atreides genes, it is noted in Heretics of Dune that her offspring receive \"careful examination\", and that \"two of those offspring had been quietly put to death.\"",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 128,
"text": "Sheeana Brugh is a young girl native to Rakis (formerly Arrakis) who possesses the unique ability to control the giant sandworms that roam the desert planet. In Heretics of Dune, Sheeana's talent is revealed after her impoverished village is wiped out by a sandworm which refuses to harm her, and then whisks her to the capital city of Keen (formerly Arrakeen) when she climbs on to its back in the long-forbidden Fremen tradition. Sheeana is soon recognized as the \"sandrider\" predicted by the Leto II, and worshipped by the priesthood of Rakis. As she matures to adulthood, Sheeana effectively assumes control of the priesthood. Her popularity and religious aura have increased both on and off Rakis, and the priests, believing her a prophet, are compelled to follow even her most unorthodox commands. The Bene Gesserit, who have their own plans for Sheeana and have secretly guided her education, thwart an assassination attempt on her, and unofficially take control of Sheeana, the priesthood and Rakis. Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade begins Sheeana's formal Bene Gesserit training. Mother Superior Taraza is soon pleased with Sheeana's progress, and considers a secondary plan of seeding other planets with sandworms with Sheeana's help. Rakis itself is destroyed by the vengeful Honored Matres. In Chapterhouse: Dune, Sheeana is now in charge of the project to breed sandworms on the secret Bene Gesserit world, Chapterhouse. She becomes a full Reverend Mother but remains very independent, with mysterious depths. Disagreeing with the plans of new Bene Gesserit leader Murbella, Sheeana chooses to escape Chapterhouse on an untraceable no-ship with the like-minded Duncan Idaho ghola and a number of other passengers.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 129,
"text": "Sheeana also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, Sheeana and Duncan lead the no-ship in their journey to flee the Unknown Enemy that pursues them. Sheeana decides that they need to make new gholas of former heroes using the genetic material carried by the last Tleilaxu Master, Scytale.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 130,
"text": "Tylwyth Waff is a Tleilaxu Master and the leader of the Bene Tleilax, a secretive race of genetic manipulators who traffic in biological products such as artificial eyes, gholas, and \"twisted\" Mentats. Waff is described as \"an elfin figure barely a meter and a half tall. Eyes, hair, and skin were shades of gray, all a stage for the oval face with its tiny mouth and line of sharp teeth\". In Heretics of Dune, Waff successfully replaces High Priest Hedley Tuek with a Face Dancer duplicate loyal to the Tleilaxi, but loses control of the impostor due to its eventual complete assimilation into its new form. Traveling to Rakis, Waff decides to ally with the Bene Gesserit after he is tricked into believing that they share the secret religious beliefs of the Tleilaxu. He is killed along with the entire population of Rakis when the Honored Matres destroy the planet in revenge for Miles Teg's slaughter of their members. Meanwhile, he has a replacement ghola growing for himself in Bandalong, the capital city of the Tleilaxu homeworld, Tleilax.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 131,
"text": "Waff also appears in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In Hunters of Dune, the Honored Matres who conquered Tleilax have kept several of Waff's gholas alive, but in vegetative states. In order to recover the supposedly \"lost\" secret to producing melange in axlotl tanks, the Lost Tleilaxu scribe Uxtal is tasked to create new gholas from Waff's genetic material. Uxtal accelerates the process artificially, and of the first batch of eight Waff gholas, seven fail to regain their memories and are viciously killed. The massacre shocks the last ghola into regaining some of Waff's memories, but not enough to recreate the melange process. Later, the Waff ghola escapes the Bene Gesserit attack on Tleilax, finding refuge with the Spacing Guild by offering Guild Navigator Edrik the genetic knowledge for the Guild to create their own, optimized sandworms to produce melange. In Sandworms of Dune, Waff alters the DNA of the sandworm's larval sandtrout stage to create an aquatic form of the worms, which are then released into the oceans of Buzzell. Adapting to their new environment, these \"seaworms\" quickly flourish, eventually producing a highly concentrated form of melange, dubbed \"ultraspice\". Waff makes a pilgrimage to Rakis, original homeworld of the sandworms, and sacrifices himself to a worm, which to him is an embodiment of God.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 132,
"text": "Bellonda is a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother and the chief Mentat-Archivist counselor to Mother Superior Taraza in Heretics of Dune. After Taraza's death, Bellonda serves new Mother Superior Darwi Odrade in the same function in Chapterhouse: Dune. During a conversation with the Duncan Idaho ghola it is revealed that Bellonda is a descendant of Anteac, an important Reverend Mother from the time of the God Emperor Leto II.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 133,
"text": "Bellonda also appears in the sequel novel Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In the novel, Bellonda is one of the few Bene Gesserit with access to the Bene Gesserit's sensitive breeding records, and one of even fewer possessing the memories of all the Mothers Superior. Bellonda suspects that the Honored Matres had originally been Reverend Mothers sent out in the Scattering, and calculates that melange withdrawal and hypnosis had caused them to deny their origins. Bellonda is later killed in a duel by her Spice Operations Director partner and nemesis, the former Honored Matre Doria. An outraged Mother Commander Murbella, leader of the merged New Sisterhood of Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres, forces Doria to share minds with Bellonda before her memories are lost forever.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 134,
"text": "Alma Mavis Taraza is the Bene Gesserit Mother Superior in Heretics of Dune who brings former Supreme Bashar Miles Teg reluctantly out of retirement to guard the latest Duncan Idaho ghola. Taraza blackmails Tleilaxu Master Waff to find out all he knows about the invading Honored Matres, as well as the fact that the Bene Tleilax have programmed their own agenda within the ghola. She also manages to divine that Waff is a secret Zensufi, which finally gives the Sisterhood a way to manipulate the Tleilaxu. Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade subsequently uses this knowledge of Waff's religious beliefs to form an alliance with him. As Tleilaxu axlotl tanks are the only other source of melange besides Rakis, this alliance will be essential when Taraza executes her ultimate plan: to destroy Rakis and free humanity from Leto II's own plan. The discovery of a girl with the ability to control sandworms prompts Taraza to consider a secondary plan of seeding other planets with them. The Honored Matres are goaded into attacking Rakis and Taraza is killed, but not before she is able to share Other Memory with Odrade, who escapes.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 135,
"text": "Alef Burzmali is Miles Teg's protégé in the Bene Gesserit military who became Supreme Bashar after Teg's retirement. In Heretics of Dune, he aids Teg in extracting the Duncan Idaho ghola and Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Lucilla from their hiding place on Gammu. When Duncan is captured by the Honored Matres, Lucilla impersonates one of them, with Burzmali playing her sexual slave, to access the building where Duncan is being held. Burzmali dies attempting to protect the planet Lampadas from a catastrophic attack by Honored Matres in Chapterhouse Dune.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 136,
"text": "Hedley Tuek is the High Priest of the Rakian Priesthood, and a descendant of the melange smuggler Esmar Tuek. Tleilaxu Master Waff has Tuek killed and replaced by a Face Dancer, a genetically-engineered mimic, but loses control of the duplicate due to its eventual complete assimilation into its new form.",
"title": "Introduced in Heretics of Dune (1984)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 137,
"text": "Rebecca is a \"wild\" Reverend Mother who lives among a secret community of Jews on Gammu. In Chapterhouse: Dune, Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Lucilla is fleeing the destruction of the planet Lampadas by the Honored Matres and is forced to land on Gammu. Once there, she seeks out a hidden settlement of Jews, whom she knows will give her sanctuary. They are obligated to turn her over to the Honored Matres to assure their own survival, but Lucilla, who is carrying the priceless shared-minds of all the Reverend Mothers of Lampadas, is able to share minds with Rebecca and pass on this knowledge before being captured by the Honored Matres. Rebecca and the Jews eventually escape Gammu with the Bene Gesserit forces, and Rebecca is able to pass on the 7,622,014 Lampadas shared-minds to the Sisterhood.",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 138,
"text": "In the sequel novel Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca is aboard the untraceable no-ship which Sheeana and Duncan Idaho use to flee the Bene Gesserit planet Chapterhouse. Rebecca later offers herself as a volunteer to become one of the axlotl tanks used to produce the important gholas of Paul Atreides, Leto II and others.",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 139,
"text": "Daniel and Marty are a pair of mysterious observers with advanced technological powers introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune. Duncan Idaho sees the duo in a vision and determines that they are likely Face Dancers, the shapeshifting minions of the Tleilaxu, though atypically autonomous ones. In the final chapter of the novel, Daniel and Marty observe the escape of the no-ship from Chapterhouse and confirm that they are independent Face Dancers. They acknowledge that Tleilaxu Masters created them and express some deference, but also assert their independence and indicate that their ability to absorb the memories and experiences of other people made their autonomy inevitable. Daniel and Marty hint that they observe and are familiar with various groups in the universe, and allude to their desire to capture and study the passengers of the no-ship.",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 140,
"text": "Herbert's 1986 death \"left fans with an über-cliffhanger\" for twenty years, until his son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson published two sequels to the original series, Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune.",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 141,
"text": "In Hunters of Dune, Daniel and Marty are in constant pursuit of the escaped no-ship, on which they believe is the Kwisatz Haderach they require to be victorious in the imminent and long-foretold \"battle at the end of the universe\" known as kralizec. Their Face Dancer minion Khrone is executing a parallel plan to create their own Kwisatz Haderach, using a Paul Atreides ghola that will be conditioned by a ghola of the Baron Harkonnen. Daniel and Marty themselves have the ability to create illusions, and to inflict pain on any human. It is eventually revealed that Daniel and Marty are not, in fact, Face Dancers: they are actually incarnations of the thinking machines Omnius (Daniel) and Erasmus (Marty), introduced in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Anderson. In the third Legends novel Dune: The Battle of Corrin, Omnius had sent out a last blast of information before being destroyed in the Battle of Corrin. This signal had eventually connected with one of the probes disseminated from Giedi Prime several years earlier, uploading versions of Erasmus and Omnius.",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 142,
"text": "In Sandworms of Dune, Omnius and Erasmus finally capture the no-ship and pit the Paul ghola on board against their own twisted version, Paolo, in a duel to the death that will leave them with the strongest of the two. Paul survives, but realizes that Duncan is actually the \"ultimate Kwisatz Haderach\" that Omnius has been seeking. The Oracle of Time, the immortal founder of the Spacing Guild, transports every aspect of the Omnius network into another dimension forever. Erasmus offers Duncan the choice between continuing their war or ending it. Duncan chooses peace over victory, and he and Erasmus merge minds. Erasmus imparts Duncan with all the codes required to run the Synchronized Worlds, as well as all of Erasmus' knowledge, setting Duncan as the bridge between humans and machines to permanently end the divide and ensure that the two may co-exist. With little left for him, Erasmus again expresses his desire to learn everything possible about what it is to be human—and asks Duncan to deactivate him so that he may experience \"death\".",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 143,
"text": "William F. Touponce states unequivocally that Daniel and Marty are Face Dancers in his 1988 book Frank Herbert, explaining \"Herbert gives us a segment narrated from their point of view only at the very end of the novel. They are offshoots of the Tleilaxu Face Dancers sent out in The Scattering and have become almost godlike because of their capacity to assume the persona of whoever they kill—and they have been doing this for centuries, capturing Mentats and Tleilaxu Masters and whatever else they could assimilate, until now they play with whole planets and civilizations. They are weirdly benign when they first appear in the visions of Duncan Idaho as a calm elderly couple working in a flower garden, trying to capture him in their net\". In an August 2007 review of Sandworms of Dune, John C. Snider of SciFiDimensions.com argues that it \"doesn't fit\" or \"add up\" that Frank Herbert's Daniel and Marty are the \"malevolent\" thinking machines Brian Herbert and Anderson created in their Legends of Dune prequel novels. He further wonders why \"Omnius, long established as puzzled by and averse to human unpredictability, would want to breed that ultimate ungovernable—a Kwisatz Haderach\".",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 144,
"text": "Great Honored Matre Dama is the Honored Matre leader on Junction in Chapterhouse Dune, and is called the \"Spider Queen\" by the Bene Gesserit leader Darwi Odrade. Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Lucilla flees the destruction of Lampadas by the Honored Matres, but is forced to land on Gammu. She is captured and brought before Dama, but not killed outright. Dama tries to persuade Lucilla to join the Honored Matres, preserving her life in exchange for Bene Gesserit secrets. Dama does not try to hide the fact that the Matres dearly want to learn to modify their biochemistry as the Bene Gesserit do. These conversations with Lucilla continue for weeks. When she reveals to Dama that, although the Bene Gesserit know how to manipulate and control the populace, they practice and believe in democracy, Dama's desire to destroy the Sisterhood is redoubled when she discovers the Bene Gesserit teach this dangerous knowledge. Dama kills Lucilla, and then meets with Mother Superior Odrade. Dama at first seems surprisingly cooperative, but Odrade soon realizes that Dama intends no reasonable negotiation. Under cover of Odrade's diplomacy, the Bene Gesserit forces under Miles Teg attack Junction with tremendous force. Dama's chief advisor Logno assassinates Dama with poison, and assumes control of the Honored Matres.",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 145,
"text": "Logno is the chief advisor to Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction. In Chapterhouse Dune, Logno assassinates Dama with poison while the Bene Gesserit forces are attacking Junction. Logno assumes control of the Honored Matres and immediately surrenders. Bene Gesserit leader Odrade is surprised, but she and Miles Teg soon realize they have fallen into a trap. The Honored Matres use a weapon of mass destruction and turn defeat into victory. Murbella saves as much of the Bene Gesserit force as she can, and they begin to withdraw to Chapterhouse. Odrade, however, had planned for the possible failure of the Bene Gesserit attack and left Murbella instructions for a last desperate gamble. Murbella pilots a small craft down to the surface, announcing herself as an Honored Matre who, in the confusion, has managed to escape the Bene Gesserit with all their secrets. She arrives on the planet and immediately announces her intentions by killing an overeager Honored Matre with blinding speed enhanced by Bene Gesserit training that makes her faster than any Honored Matre before her. Murbella is taken to Logno, and immediately declares herself hostile. Logno cannot help herself and attacks, and Murbella handily kills her and some of her allies. Murbella takes charge of the Honored Matres, who are awed by her physical prowess.",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 146,
"text": "Dortujla is the head of the Bene Gesserit keep on the cold aquatic planet Buzzell, having been sent there as punishment for the so-called \"Jessica crime\"—a love affair, forbidden by the Bene Gesserit as a weakness that could compromise their performance. In Chapterhouse: Dune, Dortujla comes to Odrade on Chapterhouse to report that humanoid Handlers and their half-man/half-cat enslaved Futars have offered alliance against the Honored Matres, who have yet to make a move on Buzzell. Dortujla's Mentat analysis, however, suggests that the Handlers somehow intend dominance, and that the Matres intend to colonize Buzzell. Odrade sees an opportunity, and orders Dortujla to return to Buzzell and make contact with the Honored Matres, brokering a meeting between Odrade and their leader in which the Bene Gesserit will supposedly surrender. Dortujla is tortured by the Honored Matres and forced to watch her party be murdered and fed to captive Futars. However, she witnesses a Futar using its immobilizing scream, which has \"qualities of Voice\", against the Honored Matres. Later, Dortujla accompanies Odrade, Tamalane and the acolyte Suipol to meet the Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction, the old Spacing Guild complex above Gammu, as Miles Teg leads a force to attack Gammu. Dortujla and her party are eventually slain by the Honored Matres.",
"title": "Introduced in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 147,
"text": "Since 1999, Herbert's son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have published 15 prequel novels, collected in the series Prelude to Dune (1999–2001), Legends of Dune (2002–2004), Heroes of Dune (2008–2023), Great Schools of Dune (2012–2016), and The Caladan Trilogy (2020–2022). They have also released two sequel novels—Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007)—which complete the original series.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 148,
"text": "Anirul is a Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank, wife of the 81st Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and the mother of his five daughters, the Princesses Irulan, Chalice, Wensicia, Josifa and Rugi. Anirul is referred to only three times in Herbert's 1965 novel Dune, and only once by name, but is a major character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy. In Dune: House Atreides (1999), Anirul is described as having \"short bronze-brown hair,\" and that her \"features were long and narrow, giving her a doelike face, but her large eyes had a depth of millennia in them.\" In the novel, she is the Bene Gesserit Kwisatz Mother, the Reverend Mother chosen every generation to guide the Bene Gesserit breeding program. She calculates that the culmination of the program, the creation of a male superbeing called the Kwisatz Haderach, is imminent. This eventuality is contingent on a daughter of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen being bred with an Atreides male. The resulting daughter would then be bred with another Harkonnen heir, to produce the male Kwisatz Haderach. The Bene Gesserit Margot Fenring arranges for Anirul to marry Shaddam as a means for the Sisterhood to gain influence over the Imperial throne by ensuring that Shaddam will never have a son. During the events of Dune: House Corrino (2001), Anirul is murdered by the Harkonnen Mentat Piter De Vries while trying to save the young Paul Atreides from being kidnapped.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 149,
"text": "Elrood IX of House Corrino is the Padishah Emperor, and father of Shaddam IV. He is mentioned twice in Appendix IV of Dune, where it is noted that he \"succumbed to chaumurky\" (poison), rumored to have been administered by Count Hasimir Fenring. In Dune: House Atreides, Elrood shows interest in Project Amal, an early attempt by the Bene Tleilax to create synthetic melange and eliminate dependence upon Arrakis. Success would guarantee Elrood total control over spice production. To further this goal, Elrood allows the Tleilaxu to invade and occupy the industrial planet Ix, with the help of Elrood's Sardaukar army, and remake it into a laboratory station for the project. Elrood's other motivation is revenge against Earl Dominic Vernius, the ruler of Ix, whose wife Shando had been one of Elrood's concublines. Shaddam is eager to become emperor, but despite Elrood's advanced age, he shows no signs of ill health. Shaddam finally tasks his longtime friend and minion Fenring to administer Elrood with an undetectable, slow-acting poison. Elrood finally dies, and Shaddam secures his throne by paying off the Spacing Guild with a supply of melange and by arranging his own marriage to a Bene Gesserit.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 150,
"text": "Serena Butler is a prominent politician and voice of the human rebellion who becomes the namesake of the Butlerian Jihad against the oppressive rule of the thinking machines in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy. The daughter of League of Nobles Viceroy Manion Butler and his wife Livia, Serena is romantically involved with Xavier Harkonnen, who leads the military force on the League capital world of Salusa Secundus. The universe is under threat of total domination by the thinking machine empire, which consists of the evermind Omnius, the independent robot Erasmus and their army cymeks, fearsome weaponized machines controlled by disembodied human brains. The thinking machines control many worlds, and continue to conquer more, enslaving or exterminating any humans they encounter. In Dune: The Butlerian Jihad (2002), Serena is captured by the thinking machines and studied by Erasmus, who seeks to understand humans completely so that the thinking machines can be truly superior. Though his methods of study often entail human vivisection and torture, Erasmus takes a liking to Serena, as does the young Vorian Atreides, a human trustee who serves the thinking machines. Serena realizes she is pregnant with Xavier's child, and later gives birth to a baby boy she names Manion. Eventually finding this distraction inconvenient, Erasmus not only removes Serena's uterus, but kills her young son in front of her and his slaves by dropping the child from a high balcony. This event, broadcast across the universe, incites a formal jihad against the thinking machines. Seeing Serena subsequently attack and destroy a sentinel robot with her bare hands encourages Erasmus' slaves, already groomed for rebellion by slave leader Iblis Ginjo, to rise up. Vorian, witnessing the murder and realizing the lie he lives as a machine trustee, flees with Serena and Ginjo. In Dune: The Machine Crusade (2003), Ginjo (now Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad) and Serena (Priestess of the Jihad) have become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, now known the Butlerian Jihad, which elevates young Manion to a martyr. Serena is named interim Viceroy upon her father's retirement, but is later relegated to a figurehead by Ginjo as he consolidates his power. The humans begin to tire of war, but Serena and Ginjo know that true peace is not possible, and that the thinking machines must be destroyed. Serena visits Omnius as an emissary of the Jihad under the pretense of negotiating peace, but secretly intends to provoke Omnius into killing her, thereby making her a martyr and reenergizing the Jihad. Although Erasmus stops Omnius from murdering Serena, one of her Seraphim bodyguards, on orders from Ginjo, kills her instead. Ginjo manufactures images of Serena being tortured at length and murdered by the thinking machines, silencing anti-war dissenters and galvanizing the Jihad back into action.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 151,
"text": "Xavier Harkonnen is the courageous and honorable leader of the military force on the League of Nobles capital world of Salusa Secundus in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy. In Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Xavier is romantically involved with Serena Butler until she is presumably killed in an attack by the thinking machines, who seek to conquer the universe and enslave or exterminate all humans. Xavier marries Serena's sister Octa and starts a family. Serena, actually a prisoner of the thinking machines, reappears after Manion, Serena and Xavier's infant son, is martyred by the independent robot Erasmus and sparks a jihad against the machines. In Dune: The Machine Crusade, Serena and the formerly enslaved Iblis Ginjo have become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, with Xavier and Vorian Atreides its two generals. A hero of the Jihad, Xavier achieves many military victories over the machines. When he realizes the extent of Ginjo's corruption, Xavier sacrifices his own life and reputation by steering the ship carrying himself and Ginjo into a sun. His secrets dying with him, Ginjo becomes a martyred saint, and Xavier a traitor to humanity.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 152,
"text": "Vorian Atreides is the human son of the Titan Agamemnon, and later the founder of House Atreides, in the Legends of Dune trilogy. In Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, he serves the thinking machines as a human trustee, his primary function being to deliver updates of the thinking machine ruler, the evermind Omnius, to machine-controlled worlds alongside his robot co-pilot, Seurat. Vorian falls in love with Serena Butler, a human captured by the independent robot Erasmus, and is horrified when Erasmus murders her child. Vorian betrays the thinking machines and flees with Serena and the human former slave leader Iblis Ginjo. In Dune: The Machine Crusade, Serena and Ginjo have become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, with Vorian and Xavier Harkonnen as its two generals. A hero of the Jihad, Vorian achieves many military victories over the machines. Having become a close friend to Xavier, Vorian tries to clear Harkonnen's name after Xavier is branded a traitor for assassinating the corrupt Ginjo in a suicide flight into a sun. In Dune: The Battle of Corrin (2004), Vorian commands the final assault on Omnius. Trapped on Corrin, the thinking machines have surrounded the planet with a human shield of slave ships, and Xavier's grandson Abulurd Harkonnen defies Vorian's orders to reactivate their weapons and attack. Abulurd is ultimately relieved of duty and charged with treason and cowardice, for which he is exiled, igniting the Atreides-Harkonnen feud which will last for millennia.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 153,
"text": "Having previously begun a family on Caladan which would become House Atreides, and fathering children on many worlds, Vorian is settled on the backwater world Kepler in Sisterhood of Dune (2012). His father Agamemnon's life-extension treatments have kept Vorian in his prime for generations, and he foils a group of slavers targeting his village. Vorian meets with Padishah Emperor Salvador Corrino, and is welcomed as a hero of the Jihad. The populace ask that he take the throne from the Corrinos, and though he declines to do so, Salvador and his brother Roderick worry that Vorian's presence may incite a revolution. In exchange for Vorian retreating into deeper exile, Salvador agrees to protect Kepler with Imperial forces. Vorian travels to Arrakis and is confronted by a vengeful Griffin Harkonnen, Abulurd's grandson, whose family ekes out a meager existence but hopes to improve its fortunes. Vorian and Griffin reconcile, but Griffin is later killed by the assassins Hyla and Andros, Vorian's twin half-siblings who are still loyal to the vanquished thinking machines. Vorian sends a message of condolence to Griffin's sister, Valya Harkonnen, who spurns the offer and plans her own revenge. In Mentats of Dune (2014), Vorian is wracked with guilt over Griffin's death, and tries to help his struggling family with a secret infusion of funds to their whaling business on Lankiveil. On Caladan, Vorian's descendant Orry Atreides is murdered on his wedding night by his new bride, who is secretly Tula Harkonnen, Griffin and Valya's younger sister. Vorian and Orry's brother, Willem, confront Valya and a remorseful Tula in Navigators of Dune (2016). Willem spares Tula's life when he learns that she is pregnant with Orry's child. Valya believes Vorian is dead when his ship explodes, but he survives.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 154,
"text": "Iblis Ginjo is a human trustee, the enslaved head of a legion of other slaves, for the thinking machines in Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Initially loyal to machine leader Omnius and hoping to eventually secure his immortality by becoming a cymek, Ginjo is manipulated into fostering ideas of rebellion as part of a psychological experiment by the independent robot Erasmus. Ginjo begins to see the extent to which the thinking machines do not value human life, and when Erasmus murders the child of human captive Serena Butler, Ginjo spurs the slaves to revolt. He flees with Serena and fellow disillusioned trustee Vorian Atreides. In Dune: The Machine Crusade, Ginjo (now Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad) and Serena (Priestess of the Jihad) have become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, now known the Butlerian Jihad, with Vorian and Xavier Harkonnen as its two generals. Ginjo marries noblewoman Camie Boro, and fathers a daughter, Ticia Cenva with Zufa Cenva, the powerful leader of the telekinetic Sorceresses of Rossak. Serena is named interim Viceroy upon her father's retirement, but is later relegated to a figurehead by Ginjo as he consolidates his power. The humans begin to tire of war, but Serena and Ginjo know that true peace is not possible, and that the thinking machines must be destroyed. Serena visits Omnius as an emissary of the Jihad under the pretense of negotiating peace, but secretly intends to provoke Omnius into killing her, thereby making her a martyr and reenergizing the Jihad. Although Erasmus stops Omnius from murdering Serena, one of her Seraphim bodyguards, on orders from Ginjo, kills her instead. Ginjo manufactures images of Serena being tortured at length and murdered by the thinking machines, silencing anti-war dissenters and galvanizing the Jihad back into action. As the war against the thinking machines continues, Ginjo becomes more and more corrupt, and focused more on his own power and legacy. He creates the Jipol (Jihad Police) to eliminate his political enemies, and orders organ raids on other League Worlds, casting blame on the thinking machines, to meet the demand for replacement human organs for injured Jihad troops. When Xavier realizes the extent of Ginjo's corruption, he sacrifices his own life and reputation by steering the ship carrying himself and Ginjo into a sun. His secrets dying with him, Ginjo becomes a martyred saint, and Xavier a traitor to humanity.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 155,
"text": "Norma Cenva is the inventor of foldspace technology, first mentioned in God Emperor of Dune. In the Legends of Dune trilogy, she is the daughter of Zufa Cenva, the powerful leader of the telekinetic Sorceresses of Rossak. Norma is short and unattractive as compared to her tall, beautiful mother, and though her lack of telekinetic abilities disappoints Zufa, Norma is a mathematical genius who is excited to assist the famed Tio Holtzman, discoverer of the Holtzman effect, which makes Holtzman shields possible. These force shields, capable of scrambling the gel-circuitry of thinking machines, are employed in Dune: The Butlerian Jihad to protect entire planets from invasion. However, the machines soon realize that their human-machine hybrid cymeks can slip through the field to destroy the transmitters because they possessed human brains which were unaffected by the scrambler fields. Norma then has the idea to use the field as an offensive weapon, projecting it with portable transmitters to knock out machines and their installations. During this time, she also uses the Holtzman effect to invent suspensors and glowglobes, for which Holtzman takes credit. In Dune: The Machine Crusade, Holtzman calculates that the field could be modified to prevent penetration from physical projectiles, and Norma agrees, correcting the flaws in his concept but noting that objects could still pass through the shield at a slow enough speed. She also predicts that when hit by a laser, the shield would react violently, resulting in an explosion with the same effects of a nuclear weapon. Norma next studies Holtzman's original field equations to find a way to fold space, soon inventing the theory of space-folding and building a prototype space-folding ship. She is sent away by Holtzman, who is threatened by her genius, shortly before he is killed by an explosive lasgun-shield interaction during a slave revolt. Norma's ship is then used to fold space successfully by Zensunni slaves fleeing the violent rebellion. Norma is captured and tortured by the Titan Xerxes in Dune: The Battle of Corrin, which unleashes her latent psychic abilities. She destroys Xerxes and six cymeks, and then uses these powers to rework her own body into a more beautiful, appealing one based on the many women of her ancestry. The next year she and her mother's former lover, industrialist Aurelius Venport, establish a shipyard on Kolhar to produce space-folding ships, which will come to be known as heighliners. Ever uncaring about her own fame, Norma credits the invention to Aurelius as a gift to him. Aurelius puts the space-folding technology and shipyards at the disposal of the Jihad forces. Initially, navigation for foldspace travel is fundamentally inexact, and only about nine out of every ten heighliners arrive at their intended destination safety. Realizing that the spice melange amplifies her psychic and calculative abilities, Norma pioneers the use of massive concentrated doses to employ prescience to safely navigate foldspace. Aurelius and Norma's son, Adrien Venport, establishes the Foldspace Shipping Company, and finds the first ten volunteers to undergo, like Norma before them, the process to become Navigators. The Foldspace Shipping Company later becomes the Spacing Guild, monopolizing space commerce, transport, and interplanetary banking.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 156,
"text": "In the Great Schools of Dune trilogy, the highly evolved Norma periodically advises her great-grandson, Josef Venport, a ruthless businessman and the head of Venport Holdings. Her prescience allows her to envision long-term plans for her Navigators, and she manipulates Josef into evolving the company toward her goals. She is also able to fold space without a Holtzman drive. When Josef assassinates Emperor Salvador Corrino to protect his business interests, Norma intervenes to protect Josef from the wrath of Salvador's brother and successor, Roderick. She eventually negotiates with Roderick: Norma will leave Josef and his research facility unprotected against Roderick's avenging forces in exchange for sparing all current and future Navigators, the creation of an independent Spacing Guild and a guarantee that the flow of spice will continue. He agrees, but Norma saves Josef's life by beginning the process of making him a Navigator, exploiting the loophole she created in her deal with Roderick.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 157,
"text": "Norma reappears as the Oracle of Time in the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, which conclude the original series. She warns the Guild Navigators that the \"final battle\" is upon them, and they must locate the wandering no-ship Ithaca, which is fleeing both the Bene Gesserit and the mysterious observers Daniel and Marty. The ship contains the ultimate Kwisatz Haderach, whom both sides in the great war between humanity and thinking machines want for their victory. Daniel and Marty are in fact reincarnations of thinking machine leaders Omnius and Erasmus, poised to finally conquer humanity and seize control of the universe. In Sandworms of Dune, the Spacing Guild has begun replacing its Navigators with Ixian navigation devices at the prompting of Face Dancer infiltrators with their own plot to take over the universe. Their supply of melange cut off, the obsolete Navigators are dying one by one. As Navigator Edrik pursues alternate sources of the spice, he and the remaining Navigators seek the Oracle's assistance, but she is occupied with finding the Ithaca. As the forces of humanity make a last stand against the thinking machine forces and the ultimate Kwisatz Haderach, Duncan Idaho, faces Omnius, the Oracle gathers the last of the Navigators. The weaponry and navigation of the human ships fail due to Face Dancer manipulations, but the Navigators intervene and are able to hold back the first wave of the machine attack. The Oracle emerges on the capital of the new Synchronized Empire, and takes all traces of Omnius with her to an alternate dimension. This paves the way for Duncan to bridge the gap between the humans and machines and guide the two into a peaceful coexistence.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 158,
"text": "Raquella Berto-Anirul is the founder of the Bene Gesserit, and the granddaughter of Vorian Atreides. In Dune: The Battle of Corrin, Raquella and fellow doctor Mohandas Suk assist the Sorceresses of Rossak with a new outbreak of the plague deployed by the thinking machines to decimate humanity. After being infected herself, Raquella is miraculously cured by \"healing water\" found on the planet. Paranoid and fearing the doctor might somehow usurp her power as leader of the Sorceresses, Ticia Cenva poisons Raquella with the Rossak Drug. Raquella's recovery has unlocked the genetic ability to render the poison harmless using her body chemistry, and she experiences the first iteration of what will ultimately be known as the spice agony. Raquella is awakened to her genetic memories, becoming the first Reverend Mother. Soon she also discovers the new ability to command others with Voice. Raquella conceives a daughter with Suk, but remains on Rossak to continue her work as he pursues his goal to form the greatest medical school ever seen (later known as the Suk School). Ticia dies, and Raquella assumes authority over the Sorceresses and their breeding programs, forming the Sisterhood.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 159,
"text": "In Sisterhood of Dune, Raquella thwarts Butlerian sympathizers within her own ranks, including her own granddaughter, Dorotea. They correctly suspect that Raquella and her inner circle, including Valya Harkonnen, are using forbidden computers to manage their breeding index, which contains an immense amount of family data from across the Imperium. Dorotea takes the Rossak Drug, and survives to become the second Reverend Mother. She learns of the secret computers and alerts Emperor Salvador Corrino, who invades Rossak. Raquella and Valya destroy the computers in advance, and Salvador disbands the Sisterhood. Dorotea establishes an Orthodox Sisterhood sanctioned by Salvador, and Raquella and her followers find refuge on Wallach IX. Valya becomes the third Reverend Mother. In Mentats of Dune, Raquella believes that the only hope for the Sisterhood to survive is for the Wallach IX sisters to reconcile with Dorotea's Orthodox faction. Her health failing, Raquella summons Dorotea and forces her and Valya to put their differences aside and agree to work together for the good of the Sisterhood. Naming them co-leaders, Raquella dies. Valya however, still bitter about Dorotea's betrayal, uses her newly discovered power of Voice to force Dorotea to commit suicide. Valya declares herself to be the sole Mother Superior, and ingratiates herself to the new Emperor, Salvador's brother Roderick.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 160,
"text": "Doria is an ambitious Honored Matre who reluctantly joins the Bene Gesserit as Murbella hopes to unite the opposing factions in Hunters of Dune. Though Doria seeks to learn the impressive skills of the Bene Gesserit, her Honored Matre impulsiveness and resistance to authority are difficult to shake. A chief advisor to Murbella, Doria is one of the few assimilated Honored Matres with access to sensitive Bene Gesserit breeding records. Doria and Bellonda are on opposite sides from the beginning. Hoping to force them to at least respect each other's differences, Murbella makes them partners managing the spice operations on Chapterhouse. Years later, Doria kills Bellonda in a final confrontation. An outraged Murbella forces Doria to share minds with Bellonda, and makes her the sole Spice Operations Director. Six years later, driven to the brink of insanity by Bellonda's incessant chatter within her mind, Doria is devoured by a sandworm.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 161,
"text": "Hellica is the self-declared Matre Superior of the largest renegade Honored Matre force, based on the conquered planet Tleilax in the former capital Bandalong. In Hunters of Dune, Hellica forces captive Lost Tleilaxu Uxtal to employ the secret of the Tleilaxu axlotl tanks to produce increased quantities of the orange spice substitute used by the Honored Matres. When Guild Navigator Edrik seeks Uxtal's knowledge of producing melange in the tanks, Hellica's price for his expertise is Edrik's help transporting a certain cargo. He agrees, delivering by heighliner the Obliterators that destroy the planet Richese, where the Bene Gesserit are mass-producing weapons and armed battleships. Later, Hellica attempts an Obliterator attack on Chapterhouse itself, but the plan fails. Murbella's forces conquer Tleilax, and Hellica is killed, but Murbella realizes that the Matre Superior and some of her elite guard had actually been Face Dancer duplicates.",
"title": "Novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson"
}
] | Dune is a science fiction media franchise that originated with the 1965 novel of the same name by American author Frank Herbert. Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history, and won the 1966 Hugo Award as well as the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Herbert wrote five sequels before his death in 1986: Dune Messiah (1969), Children of Dune (1976), God Emperor of Dune (1981), Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985). Dune follows Paul, the scion of House Atreides, as his family is thrown into the dangerous political intrigues centered on the desert planet Arrakis, only known source of the oracular spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The series spans 5,000 years, focusing on Paul and then his various descendants. Dune was adapted as a 1984 film, and again in two parts, the films Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024). Additionally, the novel was adapted as a 2000 television miniseries, and the first two sequels were also adapted as a single miniseries in 2003. Since 1999, Herbert's son Brian Herbert and science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson have published 15 prequel novels, collected in the series Prelude to Dune (1999–2001), Legends of Dune (2002–2004), Heroes of Dune (2008–2023), Great Schools of Dune (2012–2016), and The Caladan Trilogy (2020–2022). They have also released two sequel novels—Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007)—which complete the original series. | 2001-11-03T00:02:20Z | 2023-12-27T22:38:09Z | [
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7,901 | Vladimir Harkonnen | Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (/ˈhɑːrkənən/) is a fictional character in the Dune franchise created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune and is also a prominent character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) by Herbert's son Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson. The character is brought back as a ghola in the Herbert/Anderson sequels which conclude the original series, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007).
Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Kenneth McMillan in David Lynch's 1984 film Dune. Ian McNeice plays the role in the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its sequel, 2003's Children of Dune. Harkonnen is portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård in the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film Dune and its upcoming 2024 sequel Dune: Part Two.
Frank Herbert wanted a harsh-sounding name for the antagonistic family opposing House Atreides in Dune. He came across the name "Härkönen" in a California telephone book and thought that it sounded "Soviet", though it is in fact Finnish. In earlier drafts of Dune, the character was called "Valdemar Hoskanner".
Herbert's "Appendix IV: The Almanak en-Ashraf (Selected Excerpts of the Noble Houses)" in Dune says of Harkonnen (in part):
VLADIMIR HARKONNEN (10,110–10,193) Commonly referred to as Baron Harkonnen, his title is officially Siridar (planetary governor) Baron. Vladimir Harkonnen is the direct-line male descendant of the Bashar Abulurd Harkonnen who was banished for cowardice after the Battle of Corrin. The return of House Harkonnen to power generally is ascribed to adroit manipulation of the whale fur market and later consolidation with melange wealth from Arrakis.
The character is usually described as the main antagonist of the novel. Herbert writes in Dune that the Baron possesses a "basso voice" and is so "grossly and immensely fat" that he requires anti-gravity devices known as suspensors to support his weight. He is one of the wealthiest members of the Landsraad and a bitter rival of Leto Atreides, and the Baron's "legendary evil and intellect" are unmatched by anyone else from House Harkonnen. In the novel, the Baron feigns outrage over losing control of Arrakis to Leto but is actually conspiring to use the situation as an opportunity to destroy House Atreides once and for all. William Hughes of The A.V. Club describes the Baron as "a decadent, monstrous gasbag of depravity and evil". As ruthless and cruel as he is intelligent and cunning, the Baron is "crafty and power-hungry" and has a talent for manipulating others and exploiting their weaknesses as well as a propensity for torture and blackmail. IGN describes the character as "cruel, sadistic, and hedonistic". Travis Johnson of Flicks.com.au says that Harkonnen is written as "a predatory homosexual given to pederasty and incest, an unrepentant rapist and murderer." The Baron's sexual preference for young men is implied in Dune and Children of Dune. It is noted, however, that he "once permitted himself to be seduced" by a Bene Gesserit in the liaison which produced his secret daughter.
As Dune begins, a longstanding feud exists between the Harkonnens of Giedi Prime and the Atreides of Caladan. The Baron's intent to exterminate the Atreides line seems close to fruition as Duke Leto Atreides is lured to the desert planet Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the valuable melange operation there. The Baron has an agent in the Atreides household: Leto's own physician, the trusted Suk doctor Wellington Yueh. Though Suk Imperial Conditioning supposedly makes the subject incapable of inflicting harm, the Baron's twisted Mentat Piter De Vries notes:
It's assumed that ultimate conditioning cannot be removed without killing the subject. However, as someone once observed, given the right lever, you can move a planet. We found the lever that moved the doctor.
The Baron has taken Yueh's wife Wanna prisoner, threatening her with interminable torture unless Yueh complies with his demands. Harkonnen also distracts Leto's Mentat Thufir Hawat from discovering Yueh by guiding Hawat toward another suspect: Leto's Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, of whom Hawat is already distrustful. The Atreides are soon attacked by Harkonnen forces (secretly supplemented by the seemingly unstoppable Imperial Sardaukar) as Yueh disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace on Arrakis. As instructed, Yueh takes Leto prisoner; however, desiring to slay the Baron, Yueh provides the captive Leto with a fake tooth filled with poisonous gas as a means of simultaneous assassination and suicide. De Vries kills Yueh but he also dies with Leto in the assassination attempt; however Harkonnen survives. The Baron then manipulates Hawat into his service, by convincing Hawat that Lady Jessica was the traitor and using Hawat's desire for revenge on Lady Jessica and the Emperor as motivation to assist House Harkonnen.
Jessica flees into the desert with her and Leto's son Paul Atreides, and both are presumed dead. Paul's prescience helps him determine the identity of Jessica's father, the "maternal grandfather who cannot be named" — the Baron himself. Over the next two years, Harkonnen learns that his nephews Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha are conspiring against him to usurp his throne; he lets them continue to do so, reasoning that they have to somehow learn to organize a conspiracy. As punishment for a failed assassination attempt against him, Harkonnen forces Feyd to single-handedly slaughter all the female slaves who serve as Feyd's lovers. He explains that Feyd has to learn the price of failure.
The Baron's plan to assure Feyd's power is to install him as ruler of Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the savior of the people. However, a crisis on Arrakis begins when the mysterious Muad'Dib emerges as a leader of the native Fremen tribes, uniting them against the rule of the Harkonnens. Eventually, a series of Fremen victories against Beast Rabban threaten to disrupt the trade of the spice, inciting the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to intervene personally, leading several legions of Sardaukar. After the emperor's arrival on Arrakis, both Corrino and Harkonnen are shocked to learn that rather than a native Fremen warlord, their opponent Muad'Dib is the still-living Paul Atreides, and the Emperor's intervention was part of his plan. The Imperial forces fall prey to a surprise attack by the Fremen, who let a sandstorm short out the force field shields of the transport ships, disable them with projectile weapons, and then mount a mass assault using sandworms as siege-breakers. Their enemies are left trapped on the planet, outnumbered by the many tribes and outgunned by the sandworms. The Harkonnens' past ruthlessness further causes the enraged Fremen to give them little to no quarter; over the course of the battle their entire army is exterminated.
The Harkonnen leadership are also all killed in the course of this battle. Rabban dies first, in the early stages of the battle. Baron Harkonnen himself is poisoned with a gom jabbar by Paul's sister Alia Atreides, a four-year-old born as a fully aware Fremen Reverend Mother, who reveals that she is his granddaughter to him just before his death. His remaining heir Feyd-Rautha is killed in ritual combat by Paul Atreides. House Harkonnen as a political entity is left virtually defunct, permanently excluded from galactic power, though Harkonnen blood is technically ascendant, as Imperial House Atreides is composed entirely of Vladimir Harkonnen's descendants.
Alia had been born with her ancestral memories in the womb, a circumstance the Bene Gesserit refer to as Abomination, because in their experience it is inevitable that the individual will become possessed by the personality of one of their ancestors. In Children of Dune, Alia falls victim to this prediction when she shares control of her body with the ego-memory of the Baron Harkonnen, and eventually falls under his power. Alia eventually commits suicide, realizing that Harkonnen's consciousness has surpassed her abilities to contain him.
In the Prelude to Dune prequel series by Brian Herbert and Anderson, it is established that Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the son and heir of Dmitri Harkonnen and his wife Victoria. Harkonnen's father had been the head of House Harkonnen and ruled the planet Giedi Prime. Trained since youth as a possible successor, Vladimir had been eventually chosen over his half-brother Abulurd (namesake of the original). Unhappy with his brother's doings, Abulurd eventually marries Emmi Rabban and renounces the family name and his rights to the title. Under the name Abulurd Rabban, he reigns as governor of the secondary Harkonnen planet Lankiveil. Abulurd and his wife have two sons: Glossu Rabban (later nicknamed "Beast Rabban" after he murders his own father) and Feyd-Rautha; Vladimir later adopts the boys back into House Harkonnen, and Feyd becomes his designated heir. The Baron's most prominent political rival is Duke Leto Atreides; the Harkonnens and the Atreides have been bitter enemies for millennia, since the Battle of Corrin that ended the Butlerian Jihad. When Emperor Shaddam IV orchestrates a plot to destroy the "Red Duke" Leto, the Baron eagerly lends his aid.
The young Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is described as an exceedingly handsome man, possessing red hair and a near-perfect physique. The Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is instructed by the Sisterhood to collect his genetic material (through conception) for their breeding program. As the Baron's homosexuality is something of an open secret, Mohiam blackmails him into having sexual relations with her and conceives his child. When that daughter proves genetically undesirable, Mohiam kills her and returns to Harkonnen for a second try; at this point, he drugs and viciously rapes her. She exacts her retribution by infecting him with a rare, incurable disease that later causes his obesity. Mohiam's second child with the Baron is Jessica. In Dune: House Harkonnen, the deteriorating Baron at first walks with the assistance of a cane, then relies on belt-mounted suspensors to retain mobility. He consults numerous doctors in the expanse of time between the Dune: House Atreides and Dune: House Harkonnen, up to and including his future instrument Dr. Yueh, all of whom are ultimately no help. To conceal this debilitation, he pretends that his obesity is due to intentional overindulgence, lest the Landsraad remove him from power. When he determines that Mohiam inflicted him with the disease, he attempts to coerce her into revealing the cure, but soon discovers that there is none. The Baron, Duke Leto, and Jessica herself are unaware that Jessica is secretly the Baron's daughter or that he has even fathered one. In the year 10,176, the Baron's grandson Paul is born to Leto and Jessica.
In Hunters of Dune (2006), the continuation of the original series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the Baron is resurrected as a ghola (5,029 years after the death of Alia) by the Lost Tleilaxu Uxtal, acting on orders from the Face Dancer Khrone. Khrone intends to use the Baron ghola to manipulate a ghola of Paul Atreides, named Paolo. Khrone tries various torture techniques for three years to awaken the 12-year-old Baron's genetic memories; these methods fail due to the Baron's sadomasochistic nature. Khrone is successful when he imprisons the Baron in a sensory deprivation tank for a prolonged period; the Baron's memories of his former life return. The reincarnated Baron is soon haunted by the voice of Alia in his mind; the source of this inner Alia is never explained.
Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Kenneth McMillan in David Lynch's 1984 film. The obese and disheveled Baron is overtly unstable, and covered in oozing pustules. William Hughes of The A.V. Club deemed McMillan's facial prosthetics "very memorable". Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com wrote that "Lynch's attempt is infamous for really leaning on [the] codified aspects of the Baron, to the point where his sore-ridden appearance has been called out as a likely connection to the AIDS epidemic, which was a prevalent health crisis while the film was in production." Travis Johnson of Flicks.com.au noted that the Lynch film embraced "the archetype of the depraved gay sadist", which would not be acceptable in 2019. Asher-Perrin added, "Lynch also makes a point of connecting the Baron's desire for men to deviancy and violence, deliberately juxtaposing his assault of a young man with a tender love-scene between Duke Leto and Lady Jessica Atreides."
Ian McNeice plays the Baron in the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune, and its sequel, 2003's Children of Dune. Asher-Perrin notes that the miniseries played down the negative aspects emphasized by the Lynch film, and writes, "[The Baron's] appearance was not altered to make him seem ill, he never physically attacks anyone, and the miniseries paid more attention to the fact that the Baron was a rapist, his preference for men being incidental." He also praises McNeice as a standout among the cast, writing that he "manages to make the Baron Harkonnen—easily one of the most despicable characters in science fiction literature—every bit as conniving and vicious as he needs to be...and every bit as fascinating. McNeice has a superb sense of how to make the baron mesmerizing to watch no matter how odiously he behaves". Austin Jones of Paste writes, "McNeice commands his role as Baron Harkonnen, capturing the vile indulgence and vanity of a feudal lord".
Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård in the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film Dune and its 2024 sequel Dune: Part Two. Skarsgård called the role "small but important", and noted, "I had seven hours in make-up every day because I had to be really fat." Villeneuve said:
As much as I deeply love the book, I felt that the baron was flirting very often with caricature. And I tried to bring him a bit more dimension. That's why I brought in Stellan. Stellan has something in the eyes. You feel that there's someone thinking, thinking, thinking—that has tension and is calculating inside, deep in the eyes. I can testify, it can be quite frightening.
A line of Dune action figures from toy company LJN was released to lackluster sales in 1984. Styled after David Lynch's film, the collection featured a figure of Baron Harkonnen, as well as other characters. In 2006, SOTA Toys produced a Baron Harkonnen action figure for their "Now Playing Presents" line.
H. R. Giger's Harkonnen Chair is a chair originally designed by the artist as set dressing for an unrealized 1970s adaptation of Dune by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Thomas West of Screen Rant writes that "there are few science fiction villains quite as compelling and darkly charismatic as the Baron". William Hughes of The A.V. Club calls the Baron "one of the most iconically awful villains in all of science fiction", and Stuart Conover of ScienceFiction.com describes him as "one of the most insidious villains". Maude Campbell of Popular Mechanics writes that the Baron is "one of the most evil characters ever put to paper (including Darth Vader)", and Jon Michaud of The New Yorker compares "Herbert's scheming, backstabbing villain, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen" to the villainous Lannister family of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Emmet Asher-Perrin suggests that "what makes the Baron truly monstrous [is] the fact that he spends all of his time plotting murder, sowing discord, and destroying populations of people to get his way". Hughes writes that the evil Harkonnen is "specifically designed to make the noble Atreides family seem that extra bit more dignified and pure", with Jesse Schedeen of IGN agreeing that the Baron is "as cruel and vindictive as Leto is noble and just." Hughes goes on to say that Herbert "successfully made [the Baron] so vampirically vile that he casts a (sometimes literal) shadow over the entire series." Sandy Schaefer of Screen Rant calls the Baron "a deliciously despicable antagonist".
While the novel suggests that the Baron's obesity might be the result of a genetic disease, the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson explains that Harkonnen was once a fit, attractive but vain man who is given the incurable disease intentionally by the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam after he drugs and rapes her. Asher-Perrin suggests that in this narrative, "the Baron's corpulence is meant to be comeuppance for doing something reprehensible, a physical punishment meant to hurt his vanity by taking away the attractiveness he so prized in himself." | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (/ˈhɑːrkənən/) is a fictional character in the Dune franchise created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune and is also a prominent character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) by Herbert's son Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson. The character is brought back as a ghola in the Herbert/Anderson sequels which conclude the original series, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Kenneth McMillan in David Lynch's 1984 film Dune. Ian McNeice plays the role in the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its sequel, 2003's Children of Dune. Harkonnen is portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård in the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film Dune and its upcoming 2024 sequel Dune: Part Two.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Frank Herbert wanted a harsh-sounding name for the antagonistic family opposing House Atreides in Dune. He came across the name \"Härkönen\" in a California telephone book and thought that it sounded \"Soviet\", though it is in fact Finnish. In earlier drafts of Dune, the character was called \"Valdemar Hoskanner\".",
"title": "Conception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Herbert's \"Appendix IV: The Almanak en-Ashraf (Selected Excerpts of the Noble Houses)\" in Dune says of Harkonnen (in part):",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "VLADIMIR HARKONNEN (10,110–10,193) Commonly referred to as Baron Harkonnen, his title is officially Siridar (planetary governor) Baron. Vladimir Harkonnen is the direct-line male descendant of the Bashar Abulurd Harkonnen who was banished for cowardice after the Battle of Corrin. The return of House Harkonnen to power generally is ascribed to adroit manipulation of the whale fur market and later consolidation with melange wealth from Arrakis.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The character is usually described as the main antagonist of the novel. Herbert writes in Dune that the Baron possesses a \"basso voice\" and is so \"grossly and immensely fat\" that he requires anti-gravity devices known as suspensors to support his weight. He is one of the wealthiest members of the Landsraad and a bitter rival of Leto Atreides, and the Baron's \"legendary evil and intellect\" are unmatched by anyone else from House Harkonnen. In the novel, the Baron feigns outrage over losing control of Arrakis to Leto but is actually conspiring to use the situation as an opportunity to destroy House Atreides once and for all. William Hughes of The A.V. Club describes the Baron as \"a decadent, monstrous gasbag of depravity and evil\". As ruthless and cruel as he is intelligent and cunning, the Baron is \"crafty and power-hungry\" and has a talent for manipulating others and exploiting their weaknesses as well as a propensity for torture and blackmail. IGN describes the character as \"cruel, sadistic, and hedonistic\". Travis Johnson of Flicks.com.au says that Harkonnen is written as \"a predatory homosexual given to pederasty and incest, an unrepentant rapist and murderer.\" The Baron's sexual preference for young men is implied in Dune and Children of Dune. It is noted, however, that he \"once permitted himself to be seduced\" by a Bene Gesserit in the liaison which produced his secret daughter.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "As Dune begins, a longstanding feud exists between the Harkonnens of Giedi Prime and the Atreides of Caladan. The Baron's intent to exterminate the Atreides line seems close to fruition as Duke Leto Atreides is lured to the desert planet Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the valuable melange operation there. The Baron has an agent in the Atreides household: Leto's own physician, the trusted Suk doctor Wellington Yueh. Though Suk Imperial Conditioning supposedly makes the subject incapable of inflicting harm, the Baron's twisted Mentat Piter De Vries notes:",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "It's assumed that ultimate conditioning cannot be removed without killing the subject. However, as someone once observed, given the right lever, you can move a planet. We found the lever that moved the doctor.",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The Baron has taken Yueh's wife Wanna prisoner, threatening her with interminable torture unless Yueh complies with his demands. Harkonnen also distracts Leto's Mentat Thufir Hawat from discovering Yueh by guiding Hawat toward another suspect: Leto's Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, of whom Hawat is already distrustful. The Atreides are soon attacked by Harkonnen forces (secretly supplemented by the seemingly unstoppable Imperial Sardaukar) as Yueh disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace on Arrakis. As instructed, Yueh takes Leto prisoner; however, desiring to slay the Baron, Yueh provides the captive Leto with a fake tooth filled with poisonous gas as a means of simultaneous assassination and suicide. De Vries kills Yueh but he also dies with Leto in the assassination attempt; however Harkonnen survives. The Baron then manipulates Hawat into his service, by convincing Hawat that Lady Jessica was the traitor and using Hawat's desire for revenge on Lady Jessica and the Emperor as motivation to assist House Harkonnen.",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Jessica flees into the desert with her and Leto's son Paul Atreides, and both are presumed dead. Paul's prescience helps him determine the identity of Jessica's father, the \"maternal grandfather who cannot be named\" — the Baron himself. Over the next two years, Harkonnen learns that his nephews Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha are conspiring against him to usurp his throne; he lets them continue to do so, reasoning that they have to somehow learn to organize a conspiracy. As punishment for a failed assassination attempt against him, Harkonnen forces Feyd to single-handedly slaughter all the female slaves who serve as Feyd's lovers. He explains that Feyd has to learn the price of failure.",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The Baron's plan to assure Feyd's power is to install him as ruler of Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the savior of the people. However, a crisis on Arrakis begins when the mysterious Muad'Dib emerges as a leader of the native Fremen tribes, uniting them against the rule of the Harkonnens. Eventually, a series of Fremen victories against Beast Rabban threaten to disrupt the trade of the spice, inciting the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to intervene personally, leading several legions of Sardaukar. After the emperor's arrival on Arrakis, both Corrino and Harkonnen are shocked to learn that rather than a native Fremen warlord, their opponent Muad'Dib is the still-living Paul Atreides, and the Emperor's intervention was part of his plan. The Imperial forces fall prey to a surprise attack by the Fremen, who let a sandstorm short out the force field shields of the transport ships, disable them with projectile weapons, and then mount a mass assault using sandworms as siege-breakers. Their enemies are left trapped on the planet, outnumbered by the many tribes and outgunned by the sandworms. The Harkonnens' past ruthlessness further causes the enraged Fremen to give them little to no quarter; over the course of the battle their entire army is exterminated.",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Harkonnen leadership are also all killed in the course of this battle. Rabban dies first, in the early stages of the battle. Baron Harkonnen himself is poisoned with a gom jabbar by Paul's sister Alia Atreides, a four-year-old born as a fully aware Fremen Reverend Mother, who reveals that she is his granddaughter to him just before his death. His remaining heir Feyd-Rautha is killed in ritual combat by Paul Atreides. House Harkonnen as a political entity is left virtually defunct, permanently excluded from galactic power, though Harkonnen blood is technically ascendant, as Imperial House Atreides is composed entirely of Vladimir Harkonnen's descendants.",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Alia had been born with her ancestral memories in the womb, a circumstance the Bene Gesserit refer to as Abomination, because in their experience it is inevitable that the individual will become possessed by the personality of one of their ancestors. In Children of Dune, Alia falls victim to this prediction when she shares control of her body with the ego-memory of the Baron Harkonnen, and eventually falls under his power. Alia eventually commits suicide, realizing that Harkonnen's consciousness has surpassed her abilities to contain him.",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In the Prelude to Dune prequel series by Brian Herbert and Anderson, it is established that Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the son and heir of Dmitri Harkonnen and his wife Victoria. Harkonnen's father had been the head of House Harkonnen and ruled the planet Giedi Prime. Trained since youth as a possible successor, Vladimir had been eventually chosen over his half-brother Abulurd (namesake of the original). Unhappy with his brother's doings, Abulurd eventually marries Emmi Rabban and renounces the family name and his rights to the title. Under the name Abulurd Rabban, he reigns as governor of the secondary Harkonnen planet Lankiveil. Abulurd and his wife have two sons: Glossu Rabban (later nicknamed \"Beast Rabban\" after he murders his own father) and Feyd-Rautha; Vladimir later adopts the boys back into House Harkonnen, and Feyd becomes his designated heir. The Baron's most prominent political rival is Duke Leto Atreides; the Harkonnens and the Atreides have been bitter enemies for millennia, since the Battle of Corrin that ended the Butlerian Jihad. When Emperor Shaddam IV orchestrates a plot to destroy the \"Red Duke\" Leto, the Baron eagerly lends his aid.",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The young Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is described as an exceedingly handsome man, possessing red hair and a near-perfect physique. The Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is instructed by the Sisterhood to collect his genetic material (through conception) for their breeding program. As the Baron's homosexuality is something of an open secret, Mohiam blackmails him into having sexual relations with her and conceives his child. When that daughter proves genetically undesirable, Mohiam kills her and returns to Harkonnen for a second try; at this point, he drugs and viciously rapes her. She exacts her retribution by infecting him with a rare, incurable disease that later causes his obesity. Mohiam's second child with the Baron is Jessica. In Dune: House Harkonnen, the deteriorating Baron at first walks with the assistance of a cane, then relies on belt-mounted suspensors to retain mobility. He consults numerous doctors in the expanse of time between the Dune: House Atreides and Dune: House Harkonnen, up to and including his future instrument Dr. Yueh, all of whom are ultimately no help. To conceal this debilitation, he pretends that his obesity is due to intentional overindulgence, lest the Landsraad remove him from power. When he determines that Mohiam inflicted him with the disease, he attempts to coerce her into revealing the cure, but soon discovers that there is none. The Baron, Duke Leto, and Jessica herself are unaware that Jessica is secretly the Baron's daughter or that he has even fathered one. In the year 10,176, the Baron's grandson Paul is born to Leto and Jessica.",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In Hunters of Dune (2006), the continuation of the original series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the Baron is resurrected as a ghola (5,029 years after the death of Alia) by the Lost Tleilaxu Uxtal, acting on orders from the Face Dancer Khrone. Khrone intends to use the Baron ghola to manipulate a ghola of Paul Atreides, named Paolo. Khrone tries various torture techniques for three years to awaken the 12-year-old Baron's genetic memories; these methods fail due to the Baron's sadomasochistic nature. Khrone is successful when he imprisons the Baron in a sensory deprivation tank for a prolonged period; the Baron's memories of his former life return. The reincarnated Baron is soon haunted by the voice of Alia in his mind; the source of this inner Alia is never explained.",
"title": "Plotlines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Kenneth McMillan in David Lynch's 1984 film. The obese and disheveled Baron is overtly unstable, and covered in oozing pustules. William Hughes of The A.V. Club deemed McMillan's facial prosthetics \"very memorable\". Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com wrote that \"Lynch's attempt is infamous for really leaning on [the] codified aspects of the Baron, to the point where his sore-ridden appearance has been called out as a likely connection to the AIDS epidemic, which was a prevalent health crisis while the film was in production.\" Travis Johnson of Flicks.com.au noted that the Lynch film embraced \"the archetype of the depraved gay sadist\", which would not be acceptable in 2019. Asher-Perrin added, \"Lynch also makes a point of connecting the Baron's desire for men to deviancy and violence, deliberately juxtaposing his assault of a young man with a tender love-scene between Duke Leto and Lady Jessica Atreides.\"",
"title": "In adaptations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Ian McNeice plays the Baron in the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune, and its sequel, 2003's Children of Dune. Asher-Perrin notes that the miniseries played down the negative aspects emphasized by the Lynch film, and writes, \"[The Baron's] appearance was not altered to make him seem ill, he never physically attacks anyone, and the miniseries paid more attention to the fact that the Baron was a rapist, his preference for men being incidental.\" He also praises McNeice as a standout among the cast, writing that he \"manages to make the Baron Harkonnen—easily one of the most despicable characters in science fiction literature—every bit as conniving and vicious as he needs to be...and every bit as fascinating. McNeice has a superb sense of how to make the baron mesmerizing to watch no matter how odiously he behaves\". Austin Jones of Paste writes, \"McNeice commands his role as Baron Harkonnen, capturing the vile indulgence and vanity of a feudal lord\".",
"title": "In adaptations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård in the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film Dune and its 2024 sequel Dune: Part Two. Skarsgård called the role \"small but important\", and noted, \"I had seven hours in make-up every day because I had to be really fat.\" Villeneuve said:",
"title": "In adaptations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "As much as I deeply love the book, I felt that the baron was flirting very often with caricature. And I tried to bring him a bit more dimension. That's why I brought in Stellan. Stellan has something in the eyes. You feel that there's someone thinking, thinking, thinking—that has tension and is calculating inside, deep in the eyes. I can testify, it can be quite frightening.",
"title": "In adaptations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "A line of Dune action figures from toy company LJN was released to lackluster sales in 1984. Styled after David Lynch's film, the collection featured a figure of Baron Harkonnen, as well as other characters. In 2006, SOTA Toys produced a Baron Harkonnen action figure for their \"Now Playing Presents\" line.",
"title": "Merchandising and influence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "H. R. Giger's Harkonnen Chair is a chair originally designed by the artist as set dressing for an unrealized 1970s adaptation of Dune by Alejandro Jodorowsky.",
"title": "Merchandising and influence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Thomas West of Screen Rant writes that \"there are few science fiction villains quite as compelling and darkly charismatic as the Baron\". William Hughes of The A.V. Club calls the Baron \"one of the most iconically awful villains in all of science fiction\", and Stuart Conover of ScienceFiction.com describes him as \"one of the most insidious villains\". Maude Campbell of Popular Mechanics writes that the Baron is \"one of the most evil characters ever put to paper (including Darth Vader)\", and Jon Michaud of The New Yorker compares \"Herbert's scheming, backstabbing villain, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen\" to the villainous Lannister family of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Emmet Asher-Perrin suggests that \"what makes the Baron truly monstrous [is] the fact that he spends all of his time plotting murder, sowing discord, and destroying populations of people to get his way\". Hughes writes that the evil Harkonnen is \"specifically designed to make the noble Atreides family seem that extra bit more dignified and pure\", with Jesse Schedeen of IGN agreeing that the Baron is \"as cruel and vindictive as Leto is noble and just.\" Hughes goes on to say that Herbert \"successfully made [the Baron] so vampirically vile that he casts a (sometimes literal) shadow over the entire series.\" Sandy Schaefer of Screen Rant calls the Baron \"a deliciously despicable antagonist\".",
"title": "Analysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "While the novel suggests that the Baron's obesity might be the result of a genetic disease, the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson explains that Harkonnen was once a fit, attractive but vain man who is given the incurable disease intentionally by the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam after he drugs and rapes her. Asher-Perrin suggests that in this narrative, \"the Baron's corpulence is meant to be comeuppance for doing something reprehensible, a physical punishment meant to hurt his vanity by taking away the attractiveness he so prized in himself.\"",
"title": "Analysis"
}
] | Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a fictional character in the Dune franchise created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune and is also a prominent character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) by Herbert's son Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson. The character is brought back as a ghola in the Herbert/Anderson sequels which conclude the original series, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007). Baron Harkonnen is portrayed by Kenneth McMillan in David Lynch's 1984 film Dune. Ian McNeice plays the role in the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its sequel, 2003's Children of Dune. Harkonnen is portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård in the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film Dune and its upcoming 2024 sequel Dune: Part Two. | 2001-11-02T23:47:28Z | 2023-12-29T01:18:10Z | [
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7,902 | Piter De Vries | Piter De Vries is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune, but also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
De Vries is portrayed by Brad Dourif in David Lynch's 1984 film Dune, by Jan Unger in the 2000 Dune miniseries, and by David Dastmalchian in the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film Dune.
In the service of the ruthless Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, De Vries is a Mentat—a human specially trained to perform mental functions rivaling computers, which are forbidden universe-wide, after the Butlerian Jihad. In addition, De Vries has been "twisted" into an amoral sadist by the Tleilaxu.
When De Vries is introduced in the novel, he is first described as "a slender, short man with effeminate face", and when Jessica meets him for the first time, he is described as "tall, though slender, and something about him suggested effeminacy". De Vries is described in the novel Dune (though not portrayed on screen) as being addicted to the drug melange, which colors both the sclera and irises of users a deep blue. He also has the ruby red lips characteristic of sapho-drinkers.
De Vries is so loyal to Harkonnen that he continues to serve the Baron with great enthusiasm even though his Mentat abilities and great intelligence confirm his suspicions that his master plans to eventually kill him. As he says in Dune:
But you see, Baron, I know as a Mentat when you will send the executioner. You will hold back just so long as I am useful. To move sooner would be wasteful and I'm yet of much use.
In Dune, it is established that De Vries had pioneered a type of toxin called "residual poison" which remains in the body for years and requires an antidote to be administered regularly. One such fatal poison is secretly administered by the Harkonnens to Thufir Hawat, the Mentat of House Atreides, in order to guarantee Hawat's allegiance to the Harkonnens, who alone possess the antidote. De Vries is the architect of the plan to destroy House Atreides, longtime enemy of the Harkonnens, while restoring the Baron's stewardship over the planet Arrakis. Dr. Wellington Yueh, personal physician to House Atreides, has undergone Suk conditioning, which renders him incapable of inflicting harm on his patients. De Vries breaks this conditioning through torture and psychological manipulation, and Yueh eventually betrays House Atreides. De Vries originally plans to claim Lady Jessica, the concubine of Duke Leto Atreides, as his slave, but accepts an offer to become governor of Arrakis instead. However, Yueh has given the captured Leto a false tooth filled with poison gas. When Leto crushes the tooth, the intended victim Baron Harkonnen escapes, but Leto and De Vries die.
In Dune: House Corrino (published in 2001 and the third novel in the Prelude to Dune prequel series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson), Piter De Vries discovers the Harkonnen heritage of Lady Jessica and her newborn son Paul, and attempts to kidnap and ransom the infant. The plot is thwarted and the secret preserved—the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam kills the Mentat and arranges for his corpse to be shipped home to Giedi Prime. An enraged Baron is left with no choice but to order a duplicate from the Bene Tleilax: the Mentat De Vries featured in Herbert's original novel Dune.
De Vries is portrayed by Brad Dourif in David Lynch's 1984 film Dune, Jan Unger in the 2000 Dune miniseries, and David Dastmalchian in Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film Dune. | [
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"text": "In Dune, it is established that De Vries had pioneered a type of toxin called \"residual poison\" which remains in the body for years and requires an antidote to be administered regularly. One such fatal poison is secretly administered by the Harkonnens to Thufir Hawat, the Mentat of House Atreides, in order to guarantee Hawat's allegiance to the Harkonnens, who alone possess the antidote. De Vries is the architect of the plan to destroy House Atreides, longtime enemy of the Harkonnens, while restoring the Baron's stewardship over the planet Arrakis. Dr. Wellington Yueh, personal physician to House Atreides, has undergone Suk conditioning, which renders him incapable of inflicting harm on his patients. De Vries breaks this conditioning through torture and psychological manipulation, and Yueh eventually betrays House Atreides. De Vries originally plans to claim Lady Jessica, the concubine of Duke Leto Atreides, as his slave, but accepts an offer to become governor of Arrakis instead. However, Yueh has given the captured Leto a false tooth filled with poison gas. When Leto crushes the tooth, the intended victim Baron Harkonnen escapes, but Leto and De Vries die.",
"title": "Appearances"
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"text": "In Dune: House Corrino (published in 2001 and the third novel in the Prelude to Dune prequel series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson), Piter De Vries discovers the Harkonnen heritage of Lady Jessica and her newborn son Paul, and attempts to kidnap and ransom the infant. The plot is thwarted and the secret preserved—the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam kills the Mentat and arranges for his corpse to be shipped home to Giedi Prime. An enraged Baron is left with no choice but to order a duplicate from the Bene Tleilax: the Mentat De Vries featured in Herbert's original novel Dune.",
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"text": "De Vries is portrayed by Brad Dourif in David Lynch's 1984 film Dune, Jan Unger in the 2000 Dune miniseries, and David Dastmalchian in Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film Dune.",
"title": "In adaptations"
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] | Piter De Vries is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune, but also appears in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. De Vries is portrayed by Brad Dourif in David Lynch's 1984 film Dune, by Jan Unger in the 2000 Dune miniseries, and by David Dastmalchian in the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film Dune. | 2023-07-15T00:39:08Z | [
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|
7,903 | Diffie–Hellman key exchange | Diffie–Hellman key exchange is a mathematical method of securely exchanging cryptographic keys over a public channel and was one of the first public-key protocols as conceived by Ralph Merkle and named after Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman. DH is one of the earliest practical examples of public key exchange implemented within the field of cryptography. Published in 1976 by Diffie and Hellman, this is the earliest publicly known work that proposed the idea of a private key and a corresponding public key.
Traditionally, secure encrypted communication between two parties required that they first exchange keys by some secure physical means, such as paper key lists transported by a trusted courier. The Diffie–Hellman key exchange method allows two parties that have no prior knowledge of each other to jointly establish a shared secret key over an insecure channel. This key can then be used to encrypt subsequent communications using a symmetric-key cipher.
Diffie–Hellman is used to secure a variety of Internet services. However, research published in October 2015 suggests that the parameters in use for many DH Internet applications at that time are not strong enough to prevent compromise by very well-funded attackers, such as the security services of some countries.
The scheme was published by Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman in 1976, but in 1997 it was revealed that James H. Ellis, Clifford Cocks, and Malcolm J. Williamson of GCHQ, the British signals intelligence agency, had previously shown in 1969 how public-key cryptography could be achieved.
Although Diffie–Hellman key agreement itself is a non-authenticated key-agreement protocol, it provides the basis for a variety of authenticated protocols, and is used to provide forward secrecy in Transport Layer Security's ephemeral modes (referred to as EDH or DHE depending on the cipher suite).
The method was followed shortly afterwards by RSA, an implementation of public-key cryptography using asymmetric algorithms.
Expired US patent 4,200,770 from 1977 describes the now public-domain algorithm. It credits Hellman, Diffie, and Merkle as inventors.
In 2006, Hellman suggested the algorithm be called Diffie–Hellman–Merkle key exchange in recognition of Ralph Merkle's contribution to the invention of public-key cryptography (Hellman, 2006), writing:
The system...has since become known as Diffie–Hellman key exchange. While that system was first described in a paper by Diffie and me, it is a public key distribution system, a concept developed by Merkle, and hence should be called 'Diffie–Hellman–Merkle key exchange' if names are to be associated with it. I hope this small pulpit might help in that endeavor to recognize Merkle's equal contribution to the invention of public key cryptography.
Diffie–Hellman key exchange establishes a shared secret between two parties that can be used for secret communication for exchanging data over a public network. An analogy illustrates the concept of public key exchange by using colors instead of very large numbers:
The process begins by having the two parties, Alice and Bob, publicly agree on an arbitrary starting color that does not need to be kept secret. In this example, the color is yellow. Each person also selects a secret color that they keep to themselves – in this case, red and cyan. The crucial part of the process is that Alice and Bob each mix their own secret color together with their mutually shared color, resulting in orange-tan and light-blue mixtures respectively, and then publicly exchange the two mixed colors. Finally, each of them mixes the color they received from the partner with their own private color. The result is a final color mixture (yellow-brown in this case) that is identical to their partner's final color mixture.
If a third party listened to the exchange, they would only know the common color (yellow) and the first mixed colors (orange-tan and light-blue), but it would be very hard for them to find out the final secret color (yellow-brown). Bringing the analogy back to a real-life exchange using large numbers rather than colors, this determination is computationally expensive. It is impossible to compute in a practical amount of time even for modern supercomputers.
The simplest and the original implementation, later formalized as Finite Field Diffie-Hellman in RFC 7919, of the protocol uses the multiplicative group of integers modulo p, where p is prime, and g is a primitive root modulo p. These two values are chosen in this way to ensure that the resulting shared secret can take on any value from 1 to p–1. Here is an example of the protocol, with non-secret values in blue, and secret values in red.
Both Alice and Bob have arrived at the same values because under mod p,
More specifically,
Only a and b are kept secret. All the other values – p, g, g mod p, and g mod p – are sent in the clear. The strength of the scheme comes from the fact that g mod p = g mod p take extremely long times to compute by any known algorithm just from the knowledge of p, g, g mod p, and g mod p. Such a function that is easy to compute but hard to invert is called a one-way function. Once Alice and Bob compute the shared secret they can use it as an encryption key, known only to them, for sending messages across the same open communications channel.
Of course, much larger values of a, b, and p would be needed to make this example secure, since there are only 23 possible results of n mod 23. However, if p is a prime of at least 600 digits, then even the fastest modern computers using the fastest known algorithm cannot find a given only g, p and g mod p. Such a problem is called the discrete logarithm problem. The computation of g mod p is known as modular exponentiation and can be done efficiently even for large numbers. Note that g need not be large at all, and in practice is usually a small integer (like 2, 3, ...).
The chart below depicts who knows what, again with non-secret values in blue, and secret values in red. Here Eve is an eavesdropper – she watches what is sent between Alice and Bob, but she does not alter the contents of their communications.
Now s is the shared secret key and it is known to both Alice and Bob, but not to Eve. Note that it is not helpful for Eve to compute AB, which equals g mod p.
Note: It should be difficult for Alice to solve for Bob's private key or for Bob to solve for Alice's private key. If it is not difficult for Alice to solve for Bob's private key (or vice versa), then an eavesdropper, Eve, may simply substitute her own private / public key pair, plug Bob's public key into her private key, produce a fake shared secret key, and solve for Bob's private key (and use that to solve for the shared secret key). Eve may attempt to choose a public / private key pair that will make it easy for her to solve for Bob's private key.
Here is a more general description of the protocol:
Both Alice and Bob are now in possession of the group element g = g, which can serve as the shared secret key. The group G satisfies the requisite condition for secure communication as long as there is no efficient algorithm for determining g given g, g, and g.
For example, the elliptic curve Diffie–Hellman protocol is a variant that represents an element of G as a point on an elliptic curve instead of as an integer modulo n. Variants using hyperelliptic curves have also been proposed. The supersingular isogeny key exchange is a Diffie–Hellman variant that was designed to be secure against quantum computers, but it was broken in July 2022.
The used keys can either be ephemeral or static (long term) key, but could even be mixed, so called semi-static DH. These variants have different properties and hence different use cases. An overview over many variants and some also discussions can for example be found in NIST SP 800-56A. A basic list:
It is possible to use ephemeral and static keys in one key agreement to provide more security as for example shown in NIST SP 800-56A, but it is also possible to combine those in a single DH key exchange, which is then called triple DH (3-DH).
In 1997 a kind of triple DH was proposed by Simon Blake-Wilson, Don Johnson, Alfred Menezes in "Key Agreement Protocols and their Security Analysis (1997)", which was improved by C. Kudla and K. G. Paterson in “Modular Security Proofs for Key Agreement Protocols (2005)” and shown to be secure. It's also used or mentioned in other variants. For example:
The long term secret keys of Alice and Bob are denoted by a and b respectively, with public keys A and B, as well as the ephemeral key pairs x, X and y, Y. Then protocol is:
The long term public keys need to be transferred somehow. That can be done beforehand in a separate, trusted channel, or the public keys can be encrypted using some partial key agreement to preserve anonymity. For more of such details as well as other improvements like side channel protection or explicit key confirmation, as well as early messages and additional password authentication, one could e.g. have a look at "Advanced modular handshake for key agreement and optional authentication"
Diffie–Hellman key agreement is not limited to negotiating a key shared by only two participants. Any number of users can take part in an agreement by performing iterations of the agreement protocol and exchanging intermediate data (which does not itself need to be kept secret). For example, Alice, Bob, and Carol could participate in a Diffie–Hellman agreement as follows, with all operations taken to be modulo p:
An eavesdropper has been able to see g mod p, g mod p, g mod p, g mod p, g mod p, and g mod p, but cannot use any combination of these to efficiently reproduce g mod p.
To extend this mechanism to larger groups, two basic principles must be followed:
These principles leave open various options for choosing in which order participants contribute to keys. The simplest and most obvious solution is to arrange the N participants in a circle and have N keys rotate around the circle, until eventually every key has been contributed to by all N participants (ending with its owner) and each participant has contributed to N keys (ending with their own). However, this requires that every participant perform N modular exponentiations.
By choosing a more desirable order, and relying on the fact that keys can be duplicated, it is possible to reduce the number of modular exponentiations performed by each participant to log2(N) + 1 using a divide-and-conquer-style approach, given here for eight participants:
Once this operation has been completed all participants will possess the secret g, but each participant will have performed only four modular exponentiations, rather than the eight implied by a simple circular arrangement.
The protocol is considered secure against eavesdroppers if G and g are chosen properly. In particular, the order of the group G must be large, particularly if the same group is used for large amounts of traffic. The eavesdropper has to solve the Diffie–Hellman problem to obtain g. This is currently considered difficult for groups whose order is large enough. An efficient algorithm to solve the discrete logarithm problem would make it easy to compute a or b and solve the Diffie–Hellman problem, making this and many other public key cryptosystems insecure. Fields of small characteristic may be less secure.
The order of G should have a large prime factor to prevent use of the Pohlig–Hellman algorithm to obtain a or b. For this reason, a Sophie Germain prime q is sometimes used to calculate p = 2q + 1, called a safe prime, since the order of G is then only divisible by 2 and q. g is then sometimes chosen to generate the order q subgroup of G, rather than G, so that the Legendre symbol of g never reveals the low order bit of a. A protocol using such a choice is for example IKEv2.
g is often a small integer such as 2. Because of the random self-reducibility of the discrete logarithm problem a small g is equally secure as any other generator of the same group.
If Alice and Bob use random number generators whose outputs are not completely random and can be predicted to some extent, then it is much easier to eavesdrop.
In the original description, the Diffie–Hellman exchange by itself does not provide authentication of the communicating parties and is thus vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. Mallory (an active attacker executing the man-in-the-middle attack) may establish two distinct key exchanges, one with Alice and the other with Bob, effectively masquerading as Alice to Bob, and vice versa, allowing her to decrypt, then re-encrypt, the messages passed between them. Note that Mallory must continue to be in the middle, actively decrypting and re-encrypting messages every time Alice and Bob communicate. If she is ever absent, her previous presence is then revealed to Alice and Bob. They will know that all of their private conversations had been intercepted and decoded by someone in the channel. In most cases it will not help them get Mallory's private key, even if she used the same key for both exchanges.
A method to authenticate the communicating parties to each other is generally needed to prevent this type of attack. Variants of Diffie–Hellman, such as STS protocol, may be used instead to avoid these types of attacks.
The number field sieve algorithm, which is generally the most effective in solving the discrete logarithm problem, consists of four computational steps. The first three steps only depend on the order of the group G, not on the specific number whose finite log is desired. It turns out that much Internet traffic uses one of a handful of groups that are of order 1024 bits or less. By precomputing the first three steps of the number field sieve for the most common groups, an attacker need only carry out the last step, which is much less computationally expensive than the first three steps, to obtain a specific logarithm. The Logjam attack used this vulnerability to compromise a variety of Internet services that allowed the use of groups whose order was a 512-bit prime number, so called export grade. The authors needed several thousand CPU cores for a week to precompute data for a single 512-bit prime. Once that was done, individual logarithms could be solved in about a minute using two 18-core Intel Xeon CPUs.
As estimated by the authors behind the Logjam attack, the much more difficult precomputation needed to solve the discrete log problem for a 1024-bit prime would cost on the order of $100 million, well within the budget of a large national intelligence agency such as the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The Logjam authors speculate that precomputation against widely reused 1024-bit DH primes is behind claims in leaked NSA documents that NSA is able to break much of current cryptography.
To avoid these vulnerabilities, the Logjam authors recommend use of elliptic curve cryptography, for which no similar attack is known. Failing that, they recommend that the order, p, of the Diffie–Hellman group should be at least 2048 bits. They estimate that the pre-computation required for a 2048-bit prime is 10 times more difficult than for 1024-bit primes.
Public key encryption schemes based on the Diffie–Hellman key exchange have been proposed. The first such scheme is the ElGamal encryption. A more modern variant is the Integrated Encryption Scheme.
Protocols that achieve forward secrecy generate new key pairs for each session and discard them at the end of the session. The Diffie–Hellman key exchange is a frequent choice for such protocols, because of its fast key generation.
When Alice and Bob share a password, they may use a password-authenticated key agreement (PK) form of Diffie–Hellman to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. One simple scheme is to compare the hash of s concatenated with the password calculated independently on both ends of channel. A feature of these schemes is that an attacker can only test one specific password on each iteration with the other party, and so the system provides good security with relatively weak passwords. This approach is described in ITU-T Recommendation X.1035, which is used by the G.hn home networking standard.
An example of such a protocol is the Secure Remote Password protocol.
It is also possible to use Diffie–Hellman as part of a public key infrastructure, allowing Bob to encrypt a message so that only Alice will be able to decrypt it, with no prior communication between them other than Bob having trusted knowledge of Alice's public key. Alice's public key is ( g a mod p , g , p ) {\displaystyle (g^{a}{\bmod {p}},g,p)} . To send her a message, Bob chooses a random b and then sends Alice g b mod p {\displaystyle g^{b}{\bmod {p}}} (unencrypted) together with the message encrypted with symmetric key ( g a ) b mod p {\displaystyle (g^{a})^{b}{\bmod {p}}} . Only Alice can determine the symmetric key and hence decrypt the message because only she has a (the private key). A pre-shared public key also prevents man-in-the-middle attacks.
In practice, Diffie–Hellman is not used in this way, with RSA being the dominant public key algorithm. This is largely for historical and commercial reasons, namely that RSA Security created a certificate authority for key signing that became Verisign. Diffie–Hellman, as elaborated above, cannot directly be used to sign certificates. However, the ElGamal and DSA signature algorithms are mathematically related to it, as well as MQV, STS and the IKE component of the IPsec protocol suite for securing Internet Protocol communications. | [
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"title": "Description"
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"text": "If a third party listened to the exchange, they would only know the common color (yellow) and the first mixed colors (orange-tan and light-blue), but it would be very hard for them to find out the final secret color (yellow-brown). Bringing the analogy back to a real-life exchange using large numbers rather than colors, this determination is computationally expensive. It is impossible to compute in a practical amount of time even for modern supercomputers.",
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"text": "The simplest and the original implementation, later formalized as Finite Field Diffie-Hellman in RFC 7919, of the protocol uses the multiplicative group of integers modulo p, where p is prime, and g is a primitive root modulo p. These two values are chosen in this way to ensure that the resulting shared secret can take on any value from 1 to p–1. Here is an example of the protocol, with non-secret values in blue, and secret values in red.",
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"text": "Only a and b are kept secret. All the other values – p, g, g mod p, and g mod p – are sent in the clear. The strength of the scheme comes from the fact that g mod p = g mod p take extremely long times to compute by any known algorithm just from the knowledge of p, g, g mod p, and g mod p. Such a function that is easy to compute but hard to invert is called a one-way function. Once Alice and Bob compute the shared secret they can use it as an encryption key, known only to them, for sending messages across the same open communications channel.",
"title": "Description"
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{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Of course, much larger values of a, b, and p would be needed to make this example secure, since there are only 23 possible results of n mod 23. However, if p is a prime of at least 600 digits, then even the fastest modern computers using the fastest known algorithm cannot find a given only g, p and g mod p. Such a problem is called the discrete logarithm problem. The computation of g mod p is known as modular exponentiation and can be done efficiently even for large numbers. Note that g need not be large at all, and in practice is usually a small integer (like 2, 3, ...).",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The chart below depicts who knows what, again with non-secret values in blue, and secret values in red. Here Eve is an eavesdropper – she watches what is sent between Alice and Bob, but she does not alter the contents of their communications.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Now s is the shared secret key and it is known to both Alice and Bob, but not to Eve. Note that it is not helpful for Eve to compute AB, which equals g mod p.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Note: It should be difficult for Alice to solve for Bob's private key or for Bob to solve for Alice's private key. If it is not difficult for Alice to solve for Bob's private key (or vice versa), then an eavesdropper, Eve, may simply substitute her own private / public key pair, plug Bob's public key into her private key, produce a fake shared secret key, and solve for Bob's private key (and use that to solve for the shared secret key). Eve may attempt to choose a public / private key pair that will make it easy for her to solve for Bob's private key.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Here is a more general description of the protocol:",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Both Alice and Bob are now in possession of the group element g = g, which can serve as the shared secret key. The group G satisfies the requisite condition for secure communication as long as there is no efficient algorithm for determining g given g, g, and g.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "For example, the elliptic curve Diffie–Hellman protocol is a variant that represents an element of G as a point on an elliptic curve instead of as an integer modulo n. Variants using hyperelliptic curves have also been proposed. The supersingular isogeny key exchange is a Diffie–Hellman variant that was designed to be secure against quantum computers, but it was broken in July 2022.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The used keys can either be ephemeral or static (long term) key, but could even be mixed, so called semi-static DH. These variants have different properties and hence different use cases. An overview over many variants and some also discussions can for example be found in NIST SP 800-56A. A basic list:",
"title": "Ephemeral and/or static keys"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "It is possible to use ephemeral and static keys in one key agreement to provide more security as for example shown in NIST SP 800-56A, but it is also possible to combine those in a single DH key exchange, which is then called triple DH (3-DH).",
"title": "Ephemeral and/or static keys"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In 1997 a kind of triple DH was proposed by Simon Blake-Wilson, Don Johnson, Alfred Menezes in \"Key Agreement Protocols and their Security Analysis (1997)\", which was improved by C. Kudla and K. G. Paterson in “Modular Security Proofs for Key Agreement Protocols (2005)” and shown to be secure. It's also used or mentioned in other variants. For example:",
"title": "Ephemeral and/or static keys"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The long term secret keys of Alice and Bob are denoted by a and b respectively, with public keys A and B, as well as the ephemeral key pairs x, X and y, Y. Then protocol is:",
"title": "Ephemeral and/or static keys"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The long term public keys need to be transferred somehow. That can be done beforehand in a separate, trusted channel, or the public keys can be encrypted using some partial key agreement to preserve anonymity. For more of such details as well as other improvements like side channel protection or explicit key confirmation, as well as early messages and additional password authentication, one could e.g. have a look at \"Advanced modular handshake for key agreement and optional authentication\"",
"title": "Ephemeral and/or static keys"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Diffie–Hellman key agreement is not limited to negotiating a key shared by only two participants. Any number of users can take part in an agreement by performing iterations of the agreement protocol and exchanging intermediate data (which does not itself need to be kept secret). For example, Alice, Bob, and Carol could participate in a Diffie–Hellman agreement as follows, with all operations taken to be modulo p:",
"title": "Operation with more than two parties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "An eavesdropper has been able to see g mod p, g mod p, g mod p, g mod p, g mod p, and g mod p, but cannot use any combination of these to efficiently reproduce g mod p.",
"title": "Operation with more than two parties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "To extend this mechanism to larger groups, two basic principles must be followed:",
"title": "Operation with more than two parties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "These principles leave open various options for choosing in which order participants contribute to keys. The simplest and most obvious solution is to arrange the N participants in a circle and have N keys rotate around the circle, until eventually every key has been contributed to by all N participants (ending with its owner) and each participant has contributed to N keys (ending with their own). However, this requires that every participant perform N modular exponentiations.",
"title": "Operation with more than two parties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "By choosing a more desirable order, and relying on the fact that keys can be duplicated, it is possible to reduce the number of modular exponentiations performed by each participant to log2(N) + 1 using a divide-and-conquer-style approach, given here for eight participants:",
"title": "Operation with more than two parties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Once this operation has been completed all participants will possess the secret g, but each participant will have performed only four modular exponentiations, rather than the eight implied by a simple circular arrangement.",
"title": "Operation with more than two parties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The protocol is considered secure against eavesdroppers if G and g are chosen properly. In particular, the order of the group G must be large, particularly if the same group is used for large amounts of traffic. The eavesdropper has to solve the Diffie–Hellman problem to obtain g. This is currently considered difficult for groups whose order is large enough. An efficient algorithm to solve the discrete logarithm problem would make it easy to compute a or b and solve the Diffie–Hellman problem, making this and many other public key cryptosystems insecure. Fields of small characteristic may be less secure.",
"title": "Security"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The order of G should have a large prime factor to prevent use of the Pohlig–Hellman algorithm to obtain a or b. For this reason, a Sophie Germain prime q is sometimes used to calculate p = 2q + 1, called a safe prime, since the order of G is then only divisible by 2 and q. g is then sometimes chosen to generate the order q subgroup of G, rather than G, so that the Legendre symbol of g never reveals the low order bit of a. A protocol using such a choice is for example IKEv2.",
"title": "Security"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "g is often a small integer such as 2. Because of the random self-reducibility of the discrete logarithm problem a small g is equally secure as any other generator of the same group.",
"title": "Security"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "If Alice and Bob use random number generators whose outputs are not completely random and can be predicted to some extent, then it is much easier to eavesdrop.",
"title": "Security"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In the original description, the Diffie–Hellman exchange by itself does not provide authentication of the communicating parties and is thus vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. Mallory (an active attacker executing the man-in-the-middle attack) may establish two distinct key exchanges, one with Alice and the other with Bob, effectively masquerading as Alice to Bob, and vice versa, allowing her to decrypt, then re-encrypt, the messages passed between them. Note that Mallory must continue to be in the middle, actively decrypting and re-encrypting messages every time Alice and Bob communicate. If she is ever absent, her previous presence is then revealed to Alice and Bob. They will know that all of their private conversations had been intercepted and decoded by someone in the channel. In most cases it will not help them get Mallory's private key, even if she used the same key for both exchanges.",
"title": "Security"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "A method to authenticate the communicating parties to each other is generally needed to prevent this type of attack. Variants of Diffie–Hellman, such as STS protocol, may be used instead to avoid these types of attacks.",
"title": "Security"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The number field sieve algorithm, which is generally the most effective in solving the discrete logarithm problem, consists of four computational steps. The first three steps only depend on the order of the group G, not on the specific number whose finite log is desired. It turns out that much Internet traffic uses one of a handful of groups that are of order 1024 bits or less. By precomputing the first three steps of the number field sieve for the most common groups, an attacker need only carry out the last step, which is much less computationally expensive than the first three steps, to obtain a specific logarithm. The Logjam attack used this vulnerability to compromise a variety of Internet services that allowed the use of groups whose order was a 512-bit prime number, so called export grade. The authors needed several thousand CPU cores for a week to precompute data for a single 512-bit prime. Once that was done, individual logarithms could be solved in about a minute using two 18-core Intel Xeon CPUs.",
"title": "Security"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "As estimated by the authors behind the Logjam attack, the much more difficult precomputation needed to solve the discrete log problem for a 1024-bit prime would cost on the order of $100 million, well within the budget of a large national intelligence agency such as the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The Logjam authors speculate that precomputation against widely reused 1024-bit DH primes is behind claims in leaked NSA documents that NSA is able to break much of current cryptography.",
"title": "Security"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "To avoid these vulnerabilities, the Logjam authors recommend use of elliptic curve cryptography, for which no similar attack is known. Failing that, they recommend that the order, p, of the Diffie–Hellman group should be at least 2048 bits. They estimate that the pre-computation required for a 2048-bit prime is 10 times more difficult than for 1024-bit primes.",
"title": "Security"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Public key encryption schemes based on the Diffie–Hellman key exchange have been proposed. The first such scheme is the ElGamal encryption. A more modern variant is the Integrated Encryption Scheme.",
"title": "Other uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Protocols that achieve forward secrecy generate new key pairs for each session and discard them at the end of the session. The Diffie–Hellman key exchange is a frequent choice for such protocols, because of its fast key generation.",
"title": "Other uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "When Alice and Bob share a password, they may use a password-authenticated key agreement (PK) form of Diffie–Hellman to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. One simple scheme is to compare the hash of s concatenated with the password calculated independently on both ends of channel. A feature of these schemes is that an attacker can only test one specific password on each iteration with the other party, and so the system provides good security with relatively weak passwords. This approach is described in ITU-T Recommendation X.1035, which is used by the G.hn home networking standard.",
"title": "Other uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "An example of such a protocol is the Secure Remote Password protocol.",
"title": "Other uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "It is also possible to use Diffie–Hellman as part of a public key infrastructure, allowing Bob to encrypt a message so that only Alice will be able to decrypt it, with no prior communication between them other than Bob having trusted knowledge of Alice's public key. Alice's public key is ( g a mod p , g , p ) {\\displaystyle (g^{a}{\\bmod {p}},g,p)} . To send her a message, Bob chooses a random b and then sends Alice g b mod p {\\displaystyle g^{b}{\\bmod {p}}} (unencrypted) together with the message encrypted with symmetric key ( g a ) b mod p {\\displaystyle (g^{a})^{b}{\\bmod {p}}} . Only Alice can determine the symmetric key and hence decrypt the message because only she has a (the private key). A pre-shared public key also prevents man-in-the-middle attacks.",
"title": "Other uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In practice, Diffie–Hellman is not used in this way, with RSA being the dominant public key algorithm. This is largely for historical and commercial reasons, namely that RSA Security created a certificate authority for key signing that became Verisign. Diffie–Hellman, as elaborated above, cannot directly be used to sign certificates. However, the ElGamal and DSA signature algorithms are mathematically related to it, as well as MQV, STS and the IKE component of the IPsec protocol suite for securing Internet Protocol communications.",
"title": "Other uses"
}
] | Diffie–Hellman key exchange is a mathematical method of securely exchanging cryptographic keys over a public channel and was one of the first public-key protocols as conceived by Ralph Merkle and named after Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman. DH is one of the earliest practical examples of public key exchange implemented within the field of cryptography. Published in 1976 by Diffie and Hellman, this is the earliest publicly known work that proposed the idea of a private key and a corresponding public key. Traditionally, secure encrypted communication between two parties required that they first exchange keys by some secure physical means, such as paper key lists transported by a trusted courier. The Diffie–Hellman key exchange method allows two parties that have no prior knowledge of each other to jointly establish a shared secret key over an insecure channel. This key can then be used to encrypt subsequent communications using a symmetric-key cipher. Diffie–Hellman is used to secure a variety of Internet services. However, research published in October 2015 suggests that the parameters in use for many DH Internet applications at that time are not strong enough to prevent compromise by very well-funded attackers, such as the security services of some countries. The scheme was published by Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman in 1976, but in 1997 it was revealed that James H. Ellis, Clifford Cocks, and Malcolm J. Williamson of GCHQ, the British signals intelligence agency, had previously shown in 1969 how public-key cryptography could be achieved. Although Diffie–Hellman key agreement itself is a non-authenticated key-agreement protocol, it provides the basis for a variety of authenticated protocols, and is used to provide forward secrecy in Transport Layer Security's ephemeral modes. The method was followed shortly afterwards by RSA, an implementation of public-key cryptography using asymmetric algorithms. Expired US patent 4,200,770 from 1977 describes the now public-domain algorithm. It credits Hellman, Diffie, and Merkle as inventors. | 2001-10-20T20:53:29Z | 2023-12-27T11:24:54Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange |
7,906 | Destry Rides Again | Destry Rides Again is a 1939 American Western comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody Jr., Lillian Yarbo, and Una Merkel.
The opening credits list the story as "Suggested by Max Brand's novel Destry Rides Again", but the movie is almost completely different. It also bears no resemblance to the 1932 adaptation of the novel starring Tom Mix, which is often retitled as Justice Rides Again.
In 1996, Destry Rides Again was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Saloon owner Kent, the unscrupulous boss of the fictional Western town of Bottleneck, has the town's sheriff, Mr. Keogh, killed when Keogh asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game. Kent and Frenchy, a cheap saloon tramp who is his girlfriend, now have a stranglehold over the local cattle ranchers. The town's crooked mayor, Hiram J. Slade, who is in collusion with Kent, appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, as the new sheriff, assuming that he will be easy to control and manipulate. However, Dimsdale, a deputy under the famous lawman Tom Destry, promptly swears off drinking, and is able to call upon the latter's equally formidable son, Tom Destry Jr., to help him make Bottleneck a lawful, respectable town.
Destry arrives in Bottleneck with Jack Tyndall, a cattleman, and his sister, Janice. Destry initially confounds the townsfolk by refusing to strap on a gun and maintaining civility in dealing with everyone, including Kent and Frenchy. This quickly makes him a disappointment to Dimsdale and a laughingstock to the townspeople; he is mockingly asked to "clean up" Bottleneck by being given a mop and bucket. However, after a number of rowdy horsemen ride into town shooting their pistols in the air, he demonstrates uncanny expertise in marksmanship and threatens to jail them if they do it again, earning the respect of Bottleneck's citizens.
Through the townsmen's evasive answers regarding the whereabouts of Keogh, Destry gradually begins to suspect that Keogh was murdered. He confirms this by provoking Frenchy into admitting it, but without a location for the body, he lacks any proof. Destry therefore deputizes Boris, a Russian immigrant whom Frenchy had earlier humiliated, and implies to Kent that he had found the body outside of town "in remarkably good condition". When Kent sends a member of his gang to check on Keogh's burial site, Boris and Dimsdale follow, capture, and jail him.
Although the gang member is charged with Keogh's murder (in the hope that he would implicate Kent in exchange for clemency), Mayor Slade appoints himself judge of the trial, making an innocent verdict a foregone conclusion. To prevent this, Destry calls in a judge from a larger city in secret, but the plan is ruined after Boris accidentally gives away the other judge's name in the saloon. Kent orders Frenchy to invite the deputy to her house while other gang members storm the sheriff's office and cause a breakout; now in love with Destry, she accepts. When shots are fired, he rushes back, to find the cell empty and Dimsdale mortally wounded. Destry returns to his room and puts on his gun belt, abandoning his previous commitment to nonviolence.
Under Destry's command, the honest townsmen form a posse and prepare to attack the saloon, where Kent's gang is fortified, while Destry enters through the roof and looks for Kent. At Frenchy's urging, the townswomen march in between the groups, preventing further violence, before breaking into the saloon and subduing the gang. Kent narrowly escapes, and attempts to shoot Destry from the second floor; Frenchy takes the bullet for him, killing her, and Destry kills Kent.
Some time later, Destry is shown to be the sheriff of a now lawful Bottleneck, repeating to children the stories that Dimsdale told him of the town's violent history. He jokingly tells a story about marriage to Janice, implying a marriage between them will soon follow.
As appearing in screen credits:
Dietrich sings "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have" and "You've Got That Look", written by Frank Loesser, set to music by Frederick Hollander, which have become classics, as well as a revised version of Little Joe the Wrangler.
Western writer Max Brand contributed the novel, Destry Rides Again, but the film also owes its origins to Brand's serial "Twelve Peers", published in a pulp magazine. In the original work, Harrison (or "Harry") Destry was not a pacifist. As filmed in 1932, with Tom Mix in the starring role, the central character differed in that Destry did wear six-guns.
The film was James Stewart's first Western (he would not return to the genre until 1950, with Winchester '73, followed by Broken Arrow). The story featured a ferocious cat-fight between Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel, which apparently caused a mild censorship problem at the time of release. The film also represented Dietrich's return to Hollywood after a string of flops at Paramount ("Angel", "The Scarlet Empress", "The Devil is a Woman") caused her, and a number of other stars, to be labelled "box office poison". While vacationing at Cap d'Antibes with her family, her mentor Josef von Sternberg and her lover Erich Maria Remarque, she received an offer from Joe Pasternak to come to Universal at half the salary she had been receiving for most of the 1930s. Pasternak had previously tried to sign Dietrich to Universal while she was still in Berlin. Unsure of what to do she was advised by von Sternberg "I made you into a Goddess. Now show them you have feet of clay".
According to writer/director Peter Bogdanovich, Marlene Dietrich told him during an aircraft flight that she and James Stewart had an affair during shooting and that she became pregnant but had a surreptitious abortion without telling Stewart.
Internationally, the film was released under the alternative titles Femme ou Démon in French and Arizona in Spanish.
Destry Rides Again was generally well accepted by the public, as well as critics. It was reviewed by Frank S. Nugent in The New York Times, who observed that the film did not follow the usual Hollywood type-casting. On Dietrich's role, he characterized: "It's difficult to reconcile Miss Dietrich's Frenchy, the cabaret girl of the Bloody Gulch Saloon, with the posed and posturing Dietrich we last saw in Mr. Lubitsch's 'Angel'." Stewart's contribution was similarly treated, "turning in an easy, likable, pleasantly humored performance."
Marlene Dietrich's character, Frenchy, was the inspiration for the character of Lili Von Shtupp in the Western parody Blazing Saddles.
Notes
Bibliography | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Destry Rides Again is a 1939 American Western comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody Jr., Lillian Yarbo, and Una Merkel.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The opening credits list the story as \"Suggested by Max Brand's novel Destry Rides Again\", but the movie is almost completely different. It also bears no resemblance to the 1932 adaptation of the novel starring Tom Mix, which is often retitled as Justice Rides Again.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In 1996, Destry Rides Again was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being \"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Saloon owner Kent, the unscrupulous boss of the fictional Western town of Bottleneck, has the town's sheriff, Mr. Keogh, killed when Keogh asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game. Kent and Frenchy, a cheap saloon tramp who is his girlfriend, now have a stranglehold over the local cattle ranchers. The town's crooked mayor, Hiram J. Slade, who is in collusion with Kent, appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, as the new sheriff, assuming that he will be easy to control and manipulate. However, Dimsdale, a deputy under the famous lawman Tom Destry, promptly swears off drinking, and is able to call upon the latter's equally formidable son, Tom Destry Jr., to help him make Bottleneck a lawful, respectable town.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Destry arrives in Bottleneck with Jack Tyndall, a cattleman, and his sister, Janice. Destry initially confounds the townsfolk by refusing to strap on a gun and maintaining civility in dealing with everyone, including Kent and Frenchy. This quickly makes him a disappointment to Dimsdale and a laughingstock to the townspeople; he is mockingly asked to \"clean up\" Bottleneck by being given a mop and bucket. However, after a number of rowdy horsemen ride into town shooting their pistols in the air, he demonstrates uncanny expertise in marksmanship and threatens to jail them if they do it again, earning the respect of Bottleneck's citizens.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Through the townsmen's evasive answers regarding the whereabouts of Keogh, Destry gradually begins to suspect that Keogh was murdered. He confirms this by provoking Frenchy into admitting it, but without a location for the body, he lacks any proof. Destry therefore deputizes Boris, a Russian immigrant whom Frenchy had earlier humiliated, and implies to Kent that he had found the body outside of town \"in remarkably good condition\". When Kent sends a member of his gang to check on Keogh's burial site, Boris and Dimsdale follow, capture, and jail him.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Although the gang member is charged with Keogh's murder (in the hope that he would implicate Kent in exchange for clemency), Mayor Slade appoints himself judge of the trial, making an innocent verdict a foregone conclusion. To prevent this, Destry calls in a judge from a larger city in secret, but the plan is ruined after Boris accidentally gives away the other judge's name in the saloon. Kent orders Frenchy to invite the deputy to her house while other gang members storm the sheriff's office and cause a breakout; now in love with Destry, she accepts. When shots are fired, he rushes back, to find the cell empty and Dimsdale mortally wounded. Destry returns to his room and puts on his gun belt, abandoning his previous commitment to nonviolence.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Under Destry's command, the honest townsmen form a posse and prepare to attack the saloon, where Kent's gang is fortified, while Destry enters through the roof and looks for Kent. At Frenchy's urging, the townswomen march in between the groups, preventing further violence, before breaking into the saloon and subduing the gang. Kent narrowly escapes, and attempts to shoot Destry from the second floor; Frenchy takes the bullet for him, killing her, and Destry kills Kent.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Some time later, Destry is shown to be the sheriff of a now lawful Bottleneck, repeating to children the stories that Dimsdale told him of the town's violent history. He jokingly tells a story about marriage to Janice, implying a marriage between them will soon follow.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "As appearing in screen credits:",
"title": "Cast"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Dietrich sings \"See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have\" and \"You've Got That Look\", written by Frank Loesser, set to music by Frederick Hollander, which have become classics, as well as a revised version of Little Joe the Wrangler.",
"title": "Songs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Western writer Max Brand contributed the novel, Destry Rides Again, but the film also owes its origins to Brand's serial \"Twelve Peers\", published in a pulp magazine. In the original work, Harrison (or \"Harry\") Destry was not a pacifist. As filmed in 1932, with Tom Mix in the starring role, the central character differed in that Destry did wear six-guns.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The film was James Stewart's first Western (he would not return to the genre until 1950, with Winchester '73, followed by Broken Arrow). The story featured a ferocious cat-fight between Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel, which apparently caused a mild censorship problem at the time of release. The film also represented Dietrich's return to Hollywood after a string of flops at Paramount (\"Angel\", \"The Scarlet Empress\", \"The Devil is a Woman\") caused her, and a number of other stars, to be labelled \"box office poison\". While vacationing at Cap d'Antibes with her family, her mentor Josef von Sternberg and her lover Erich Maria Remarque, she received an offer from Joe Pasternak to come to Universal at half the salary she had been receiving for most of the 1930s. Pasternak had previously tried to sign Dietrich to Universal while she was still in Berlin. Unsure of what to do she was advised by von Sternberg \"I made you into a Goddess. Now show them you have feet of clay\".",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "According to writer/director Peter Bogdanovich, Marlene Dietrich told him during an aircraft flight that she and James Stewart had an affair during shooting and that she became pregnant but had a surreptitious abortion without telling Stewart.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Internationally, the film was released under the alternative titles Femme ou Démon in French and Arizona in Spanish.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Destry Rides Again was generally well accepted by the public, as well as critics. It was reviewed by Frank S. Nugent in The New York Times, who observed that the film did not follow the usual Hollywood type-casting. On Dietrich's role, he characterized: \"It's difficult to reconcile Miss Dietrich's Frenchy, the cabaret girl of the Bloody Gulch Saloon, with the posed and posturing Dietrich we last saw in Mr. Lubitsch's 'Angel'.\" Stewart's contribution was similarly treated, \"turning in an easy, likable, pleasantly humored performance.\"",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Marlene Dietrich's character, Frenchy, was the inspiration for the character of Lili Von Shtupp in the Western parody Blazing Saddles.",
"title": "In popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Notes",
"title": "References"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Bibliography",
"title": "References"
}
] | Destry Rides Again is a 1939 American Western comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody Jr., Lillian Yarbo, and Una Merkel. The opening credits list the story as "Suggested by Max Brand's novel Destry Rides Again", but the movie is almost completely different. It also bears no resemblance to the 1932 adaptation of the novel starring Tom Mix, which is often retitled as Justice Rides Again. In 1996, Destry Rides Again was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". | 2001-02-25T03:20:19Z | 2023-12-13T23:28:32Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destry_Rides_Again |
7,921 | Derivative | In mathematics, the derivative quantifies the sensitivity of change of a function's output with respect to its input. Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. For example, the derivative of the position of a moving object with respect to time is the object's velocity: this measures how quickly the position of the object changes when time advances.
The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function at that point. The tangent line is the best linear approximation of the function near that input value. For this reason, the derivative is often described as the instantaneous rate of change, the ratio of the instantaneous change in the dependent variable to that of the independent variable.
Derivatives can be generalized to functions of several real variables. In this generalization, the derivative is reinterpreted as a linear transformation whose graph is (after an appropriate translation) the best linear approximation to the graph of the original function. The Jacobian matrix is the matrix that represents this linear transformation with respect to the basis given by the choice of independent and dependent variables. It can be calculated in terms of the partial derivatives with respect to the independent variables. For a real-valued function of several variables, the Jacobian matrix reduces to the gradient vector.
The process of finding a derivative is called differentiation. The reverse process is called antidifferentiation. The fundamental theorem of calculus relates antidifferentiation with integration. Differentiation and integration constitute the two fundamental operations in single-variable calculus.
A function of a real variable f(x) is differentiable at a point a of its domain, if its domain contains an open interval I containing a, and the limit
exists. This means that, for every positive real number ε {\displaystyle \varepsilon } (even very small), there exists a positive real number δ {\displaystyle \delta } such that, for every h such that | h | < δ {\displaystyle |h|<\delta } and h ≠ 0 {\displaystyle h\neq 0} then f ( a + h ) {\displaystyle f(a+h)} is defined, and
where the vertical bars denote the absolute value. This is an example of the (ε, δ)-definition of limit.
If the function f is differentiable at a, that is if the limit L exists, then this limit is called the derivative of f at a. Multiple notations for the derivative exist. The derivative of f at a can be denoted f ′ ( a ) {\displaystyle f'(a)} , read as "f prime of a". Or, it can be denoted d f d x ( a ) {\textstyle {\frac {df}{dx}}(a)} , read as "the derivative of f with respect to x at a" or "df by (or over) dx at a". See § Notation below. If f is a function that has a derivative at every point in its domain, then a function can be defined by mapping every point x to the value of the derivative of f at x. This function is written f′ and is called the derivative function or the derivative of f. Sometimes f has a derivative at most, but not all, points of its domain. The function whose value at a equals f′(a) whenever f′(a) is defined and elsewhere is undefined is also called the derivative of f. It is still a function, but its domain may be smaller than the domain of f.
For example, let f {\displaystyle f} be the squaring function: f ( x ) = x 2 {\displaystyle f(x)=x^{2}} . Then the quotient in the definition of the derivative is
The division in the last step is valid as long as h ≠ 0 {\displaystyle h\neq 0} . The closer h {\displaystyle h} is to 0 {\displaystyle 0} , the closer this expression becomes to the value 2 a {\displaystyle 2a} . The limit exists, and for every input a {\displaystyle a} the limit is 2 a {\displaystyle 2a} . So, the derivative of the squaring function is the doubling function: f ′ ( x ) = 2 x {\displaystyle f'(x)=2x} .
The ratio in the definition of the derivative is the slope of the line through two points on the graph of the function f {\displaystyle f} , specifically the points ( a , f ( a ) ) {\displaystyle (a,f(a))} and ( a + h , f ( a + h ) ) {\displaystyle (a+h,f(a+h))} . As h {\displaystyle h} is made smaller, these points grow closer together, and the slope of this line approaches the limiting value, the slope of the tangent to the graph of f {\displaystyle f} at a {\displaystyle a} . In other words, the derivative is the slope of the tangent.
One way to think of the derivative d f d x ( a ) {\textstyle {\frac {df}{dx}}(a)} is as the ratio of an infinitesimal change in the output of the function f {\displaystyle f} to an infinitesimal change in its input. In order to make this intuition rigorous, a system of rules for manipulating infinitesimal quantities is required. The system of hyperreal numbers is a way of treating infinite and infinitesimal quantities. The hyperreals are an extension of the real numbers that contains numbers greater than anything of the form 1 + 1 + ⋯ + 1 {\displaystyle 1+1+\cdots +1} for any finite number of terms. Such numbers are infinite, and their reciprocals are infinitesimals. The application of hyperreal numbers to the foundations of calculus is called nonstandard analysis. This provides a way to define the basic concepts of calculus such as the derivative and integral in terms of infinitesimals, thereby giving a precise meaning to the d {\displaystyle d} in the Leibniz notation. Thus, the derivative of f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(x)} becomes
for an arbitrary infinitesimal d x {\displaystyle dx} , where st {\displaystyle \operatorname {st} } denotes the standard part function, which "rounds off" each finite hyperreal to the nearest real.
Taking the squaring function f ( x ) = x 2 {\displaystyle f(x)=x^{2}} as an example again,
If f is differentiable at a, then f must also be continuous at a. As an example, choose a point a and let f be the step function that returns the value 1 for all x less than a, and returns a different value 10 for all x greater than or equal to a. f cannot have a derivative at a. If h is negative, then a + h {\displaystyle a+h} is on the low part of the step, so the secant line from a to a + h {\displaystyle a+h} is very steep; as h tends to zero, the slope tends to infinity. If h is positive, then a + h {\displaystyle a+h} is on the high part of the step, so the secant line from a to a + h {\displaystyle a+h} has slope zero. Consequently, the secant lines do not approach any single slope, so the limit of the difference quotient does not exist. However, even if a function is continuous at a point, it may not be differentiable there. For example, the absolute value function given by f ( x ) = | x | {\displaystyle f(x)=|x|} is continuous at x = 0 {\displaystyle x=0} , but it is not differentiable there. If h is positive, then the slope of the secant line from 0 to h is one; if h is negative, then the slope of the secant line from 0 to h is -1. This can be seen graphically as a "kink" or a "cusp" in the graph at x = 0 {\displaystyle x=0} . Even a function with a smooth graph is not differentiable at a point where its tangent is vertical: For instance, the function given by f ( x ) = x 1 / 3 {\displaystyle f(x)=x^{1/3}} is not differentiable at x = 0 {\displaystyle x=0} . In summary, a function that has a derivative is continuous, but there are continuous functions that do not have a derivative.
Most functions that occur in practice have derivatives at all points or at almost every point. Early in the history of calculus, many mathematicians assumed that a continuous function was differentiable at most points. Under mild conditions (for example, if the function is a monotone or a Lipschitz function), this is true. However, in 1872, Weierstrass found the first example of a function that is continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere. This example is now known as the Weierstrass function. In 1931, Stefan Banach proved that the set of functions that have a derivative at some point is a meager set in the space of all continuous functions. Informally, this means that hardly any random continuous functions have a derivative at even one point.
One common symbol for the derivative of a function is Leibniz notation. They are written as the quotient of two differentials d y {\displaystyle dy} and d x {\displaystyle dx} , which were introduced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1675. It is still commonly used when the equation y = f ( x ) {\displaystyle y=f(x)} is viewed as a functional relationship between dependent and independent variables. The first derivative is denoted by d y d x {\textstyle {\frac {dy}{dx}}} , read as "the derivative of y {\displaystyle y} with respect to x {\displaystyle x} ". This derivative can alternately be treated as the application of a differential operator to a function, d y d x = d d x f ( x ) . {\textstyle {\frac {dy}{dx}}={\frac {d}{dx}}f(x).} Higher derivatives are expressed using the notation d n y d x n {\textstyle {\frac {d^{n}y}{dx^{n}}}} for the n {\displaystyle n} -th derivative of y = f ( x ) {\displaystyle y=f(x)} . These are abbreviations for multiple applications of the derivative operator; for example, d 2 y d x 2 = d d x ( d d x f ( x ) ) . {\textstyle {\frac {d^{2}y}{dx^{2}}}={\frac {d}{dx}}{\Bigl (}{\frac {d}{dx}}f(x){\Bigr )}.} Unlike some alternatives, Leibniz notation involves explicit specification of the variable for differentiation, in the denominator, which removes ambiguity when working with multiple interrelated quantities. The derivative of a composed function can be expressed using the chain rule: if u = g ( x ) {\displaystyle u=g(x)} and y = f ( g ( x ) ) {\displaystyle y=f(g(x))} then d y d x = d y d u ⋅ d u d x . {\textstyle {\frac {dy}{dx}}={\frac {dy}{du}}\cdot {\frac {du}{dx}}.} The partial derivative of a multivariate function with respect to a single independent variable is written using the curly ∂ {\displaystyle \partial } symbol; ∂ u ∂ x {\textstyle {\frac {\partial u}{\partial x}}} could indicate the partial derivative of a function u = f ( x , y ) {\displaystyle u=f(x,y)} with respect to x {\displaystyle x} .
Another common notation for differentiation is by using the prime mark in the symbol of a function f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(x)} . This is known as prime notation, due to the Joseph-Louis Lagrange. The first derivative is written as f ′ ( x ) {\displaystyle f'(x)} , read as " f {\displaystyle f} prime of x {\displaystyle x} ", or y ′ {\displaystyle y'} , read as " y {\displaystyle y} prime". Similarly, the second and the third derivatives can be written as f ″ {\displaystyle f''} and f ‴ {\displaystyle f'''} , respectively. For denoting the number of higher derivatives beyond this point, some authors use Roman numerals in superscript, whereas others place the number in parentheses, such as f i v {\displaystyle f^{\mathrm {iv} }} or f ( 4 ) . {\displaystyle f^{(4)}.} The latter notation generalizes to yield the notation f ( n ) {\displaystyle f^{(n)}} for the n {\displaystyle n} -th derivative of f {\displaystyle f} .
In Newton's notation or the dot notation, a dot is placed over a symbol to represent a time derivative. If y {\displaystyle y} is a function of t {\displaystyle t} , then the first and second derivatives can be written as y ˙ {\displaystyle {\dot {y}}} and y ¨ {\displaystyle {\ddot {y}}} , respectively. This notation is used exclusively for derivatives with respect to time or arc length. It is typically used in differential equations in physics and differential geometry. However, the dot notation becomes unmanageable for high-order derivatives (of order 4 or more) and cannot deal with multiple independent variables.
Another notation is D-notation, which represents the differential operator by the symbol D . {\displaystyle D.} The first derivative is written D f ( x ) {\displaystyle Df(x)} and higher derivatives are written with a superscript, so the n {\displaystyle n} -th derivative is D n f ( x ) . {\displaystyle D^{n}f(x).} This notation is sometimes called Euler notation, although it seems that Leonhard Euler did not use it, and the notation was introduced by Louis François Antoine Arbogast. To indicate a partial derivative, the variable differentiated by is indicated with a subscript, for example given the function u = f ( x , y ) , {\displaystyle u=f(x,y),} its partial derivative with respect to x {\displaystyle x} can be written D x u {\displaystyle D_{x}u} or D x f ( x , y ) . {\displaystyle D_{x}f(x,y).} Higher partial derivatives can be indicated by superscripts or multiple subscripts, e.g. D x y f ( x , y ) = ∂ ∂ y ( ∂ ∂ x f ( x , y ) ) {\textstyle D_{xy}f(x,y)={\frac {\partial }{\partial y}}{\Bigl (}{\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}f(x,y){\Bigr )}} and D x 2 f ( x , y ) = ∂ ∂ x ( ∂ ∂ x f ( x , y ) ) {\textstyle D_{x}^{2}f(x,y)={\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}{\Bigl (}{\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}f(x,y){\Bigr )}}
In principle, the derivative of a function can be computed from the definition by considering the difference quotient and computing its limit. Once the derivatives of a few simple functions are known, the derivatives of other functions are more easily computed using rules for obtaining derivatives of more complicated functions from simpler ones. This process of finding a derivative is known as differentiation.
The following are the rules for the derivatives of the most common basic functions. Here, a {\displaystyle a} is a real number, and e {\displaystyle e} is the mathematical constant approximately 2.71828.
Given that the f {\displaystyle f} and g {\displaystyle g} are the functions. The following are some of the most basic rules for deducing the derivative of functions from derivatives of basic functions.
The derivative of the function given by
is
Here the second term was computed using the chain rule and third using the product rule. The known derivatives of the elementary functions x, x, sin(x), ln(x) and exp(x) = e, as well as the constant 7, were also used.
Higher order derivatives means that a function is differentiated repeatedly. Given that f {\displaystyle f} is a differentiable function, the derivative of f {\displaystyle f} is the first derivative, denoted as f ′ {\displaystyle f'} . The derivative of f ′ {\displaystyle f'} is the second derivative, denoted as f ″ {\displaystyle f''} , and the derivative of f ″ {\displaystyle f''} is the third derivative, denoted as f ‴ {\displaystyle f'''} . By continuing this process, if it exists, the n {\displaystyle n} -th derivative as the derivative of the ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} -th derivative or the derivative of order n {\displaystyle n} . As has been discussed above, the generalization of derivative of a function f {\displaystyle f} may be denoted as f ( n ) {\displaystyle f^{(n)}} . A function that has k {\displaystyle k} successive derivatives is called k {\displaystyle k} times differentiable. If the k {\displaystyle k} -th derivative is continuous, then the function is said to be of differentiability class C k {\displaystyle C^{k}} . A function that has infinitely many derivatives is called infinitely differentiable or smooth. One example of the infinitely differentiable function is polynomial; differentiate this function repeatedly results the constant function, and the infinitely subsequent derivative of that function are all zero. In particular, the polynomials are smooth functions.
In one of its applications, the higher-order derivatives may have specific interpretations in physics. Suppose that a function represents the position of an object at time, then the derivative of that function is the velocity of an object with respect to the time. This interpretation may be related to the definition above; letting x = a + h {\displaystyle x=a+h} and substitute them, gives:
Here, x − a {\displaystyle x-a} and f ( x ) − f ( a ) {\displaystyle f(x)-f(a)} are considered as the change in x {\displaystyle x} and y = f ( x ) {\displaystyle y=f(x)} , respectively. Because of this, the derivative may be interpreted as the instantaneous rate of change. The second derivative of the function is the acceleration of an object with respect to the time, and the third derivative is the jerk.
A vector-valued function y {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} } of a real variable sends real numbers to vectors in some vector space R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} . A vector-valued function can be split up into its coordinate functions y 1 ( t ) , y 2 ( t ) , … , y n ( t ) {\displaystyle y_{1}(t),y_{2}(t),\dots ,y_{n}(t)} , meaning that y = ( y 1 ( t ) , y 2 ( t ) , … , y n ( t ) ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} =(y_{1}(t),y_{2}(t),\dots ,y_{n}(t))} . This includes, for example, parametric curves in R 2 {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{2}} or R 3 {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{3}} . The coordinate functions are real-valued functions, so the above definition of derivative applies to them. The derivative of y ( t ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} (t)} is defined to be the vector, called the tangent vector, whose coordinates are the derivatives of the coordinate functions. That is,
if the limit exists. The subtraction in the numerator is the subtraction of vectors, not scalars. If the derivative of y {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} } exists for every value of t {\displaystyle t} , then y {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} } is another vector-valued function.
If e 1 , … , e n {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} _{1},\dots ,\mathbf {e} _{n}} is the standard basis for R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} , then y ( t ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} (t)} can also be written as y 1 ( t ) e 1 + … y 2 ( t ) e n {\displaystyle y_{1}(t)\mathbf {e} _{1}+\dots y_{2}(t)\mathbf {e} _{n}} . Assuming that if the derivative of a vector-valued function retains the linearity property, then the derivative of y ( t ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} (t)} must be
because each of the basis vectors is a constant.
This generalization is useful, for example, if y ( t ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} (t)} is the position vector of a particle at time t {\displaystyle t} , then the derivative y ′ ( t ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {y} '(t)} is the velocity vector of the particle at time t {\displaystyle t} .
Functions can depend upon more than one variable. A partial derivative of a function of several variables is its derivative with respect to one of those variables, with the others held constant. Partial derivatives are used in vector calculus and differential geometry. As with ordinary derivatives, multiple notations exist: the partial derivative of a function f ( x , y , … ) {\displaystyle f(x,y,\dots )} with respect to the variable x {\displaystyle x} is variously denoted by
among other possibilities. It can be thought of as the rate of change of the function in the x {\displaystyle x} -direction. Here ∂ is a rounded d called the partial derivative symbol. To distinguish it from the letter d, ∂ is sometimes pronounced "der", "del", or "partial" instead of "dee". For example, let f ( x , y ) = x 2 + x y + y 2 {\displaystyle f(x,y)=x^{2}+xy+y^{2}} , then the partial derivative of function f {\displaystyle f} with respect to both variables x {\displaystyle x} and y {\displaystyle y} are, respectively:
In general, the partial derivative of a function f(x1, …, xn) in the direction xi at the point (a1, ..., an) is defined to be:
In the above difference quotient, all the variables except xi are held fixed. That choice of fixed values determines a function of one variable
and, by definition,
Consequently, the computation of partial derivatives reduces to the computation of one-variable derivatives.
This is fundamental for the study of the functions of several real variables. Let f(x1, ..., xn) be such a real-valued function. If all partial derivatives ∂f / ∂xj of f are defined at the point a = (a1, ..., an), these partial derivatives define the vector
which is called the gradient of f at a. If f is differentiable at every point in some domain, then the gradient is a vector-valued function ∇f that maps the point (a1, ..., an) to the vector ∇f(a1, ..., an). Consequently, the gradient determines a vector field.
If f is a real-valued function on R, then the partial derivatives of f measure its variation in the direction of the coordinate axes. For example, if f is a function of x and y, then its partial derivatives measure the variation in f in the x direction and the y direction. They do not, however, directly measure the variation of f in any other direction, such as along the diagonal line y = x. These are measured using directional derivatives. Choose a vector
The directional derivative of f in the direction of v at the point x is the limit
In some cases it may be easier to compute or estimate the directional derivative after changing the length of the vector. Often this is done to turn the problem into the computation of a directional derivative in the direction of a unit vector. To see how this works, suppose that v = λu where u is a unit vector in the direction of v. Substitute h = k/λ into the difference quotient. The difference quotient becomes:
This is λ times the difference quotient for the directional derivative of f with respect to u. Furthermore, taking the limit as h tends to zero is the same as taking the limit as k tends to zero because h and k are multiples of each other. Therefore, Dv(f) = λDu(f). Because of this rescaling property, directional derivatives are frequently considered only for unit vectors.
If all the partial derivatives of f exist and are continuous at x, then they determine the directional derivative of f in the direction v by the formula:
This is a consequence of the definition of the total derivative. It follows that the directional derivative is linear in v, meaning that Dv + w(f) = Dv(f) + Dw(f).
The same definition also works when f is a function with values in R. The above definition is applied to each component of the vectors. In this case, the directional derivative is a vector in R.
When f {\displaystyle f} is a function from an open subset of R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} to R m {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{m}} , then the directional derivative of f {\displaystyle f} in a chosen direction is the best linear approximation to f {\displaystyle f} at that point and in that direction. However, when n > 1 {\displaystyle n>1} , no single directional derivative can give a complete picture of the behavior of f {\displaystyle f} . The total derivative gives a complete picture by considering all directions at once. That is, for any vector v {\displaystyle \mathbf {v} } starting at a {\displaystyle \mathbf {a} } , the linear approximation formula holds:
Similarly with the single-variable derivative, f ′ ( a ) {\displaystyle f'(\mathbf {a} )} is chosen so that the error in this approximation is as small as possible. The total derivative of f {\displaystyle f} at a {\displaystyle \mathbf {a} } is the unique linear transformation f ′ ( a ) : R n → R m {\displaystyle f'(\mathbf {a} )\colon \mathbb {R} ^{n}\to \mathbb {R} ^{m}} such that
Here h {\displaystyle \mathbf {h} } is a vector in R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} , so the norm in the denominator is the standard length on R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} . However, f ′ ( a ) h {\displaystyle f'(\mathbf {a} )\mathbf {h} } is a vector in R m {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{m}} , and the norm in the numerator is the standard length on R m {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{m}} . If v {\displaystyle v} is a vector starting at a {\displaystyle a} , then f ′ ( a ) v {\displaystyle f'(\mathbf {a} )\mathbf {v} } is called the pushforward of v {\displaystyle \mathbf {v} } by f {\displaystyle f} and is sometimes written f ∗ v {\displaystyle f_{*}\mathbf {v} } .
If the total derivative exists at a {\displaystyle \mathbf {a} } , then all the partial derivatives and directional derivatives of f {\displaystyle f} exist at a {\displaystyle \mathbf {a} } , and for all v {\displaystyle \mathbf {v} } , f ′ ( a ) v {\displaystyle f'(\mathbf {a} )\mathbf {v} } is the directional derivative of f {\displaystyle f} in the direction v {\displaystyle \mathbf {v} } . If f {\displaystyle f} is written using coordinate functions, so that f = ( f 1 , f 2 , … , f m ) {\displaystyle f=(f_{1},f_{2},\dots ,f_{m})} , then the total derivative can be expressed using the partial derivatives as a matrix. This matrix is called the Jacobian matrix of f {\displaystyle f} at a {\displaystyle \mathbf {a} } :
The existence of the total derivative f ( a ) {\displaystyle f(\mathbf {a} )} is strictly stronger than the existence of all the partial derivatives, but if the partial derivatives exist and are continuous, then the total derivative exists, is given by the Jacobian, and depends continuously on a {\displaystyle \mathbf {a} } .
The definition of the total derivative subsumes the definition of the derivative in one variable. That is, if f {\displaystyle f} is a real-valued function of a real variable, then the total derivative exists if and only if the usual derivative exists. The Jacobian matrix reduces to a 1×1 matrix whose only entry is the derivative f ′ ( x ) {\displaystyle f'(x)} . This 1×1 matrix satisfies the property that
Up to changing variables, this is the statement that the function x ↦ f ( a ) + f ′ ( a ) ( x − a ) {\displaystyle x\mapsto f(a)+f'(a)(x-a)} is the best linear approximation to f {\displaystyle f} at a {\displaystyle a} .
The total derivative of a function does not give another function in the same way as the one-variable case. This is because the total derivative of a multivariable function has to record much more information than the derivative of a single-variable function. Instead, the total derivative gives a function from the tangent bundle of the source to the tangent bundle of the target.
The natural analog of second, third, and higher-order total derivatives is not a linear transformation, is not a function on the tangent bundle, and is not built by repeatedly taking the total derivative. The analog of a higher-order derivative, called a jet, cannot be a linear transformation because higher-order derivatives reflect subtle geometric information, such as concavity, which cannot be described in terms of linear data such as vectors. It cannot be a function on the tangent bundle because the tangent bundle only has room for the base space and the directional derivatives. Because jets capture higher-order information, they take as arguments additional coordinates representing higher-order changes in direction. The space determined by these additional coordinates is called the jet bundle. The relation between the total derivative and the partial derivatives of a function is paralleled in the relation between the k {\displaystyle k} -th order jet of a function and its partial derivatives of order less than or equal to k {\displaystyle k} .
By repeatedly taking the total derivative, one obtains higher versions of the Fréchet derivative, specialized to R p {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{p}} . The k {\displaystyle k} -th order total derivative may be interpreted as a map
which takes a point x {\displaystyle \mathbf {x} } in R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} and assigns to it an element of the space of k {\displaystyle k} -linear maps from R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} to R m {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{m}} — the "best" (in a certain precise sense) k {\displaystyle k} -linear approximation to f {\displaystyle f} at that point. By precomposing it with the diagonal map Δ {\displaystyle \Delta } , x → ( x , x ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {x} \to (\mathbf {x} ,\mathbf {x} )} , a generalized Taylor series may be begun as
where f ( a ) {\displaystyle f(\mathbf {a} )} is identified with a constant function, x i − a i {\displaystyle x_{i}-a_{i}} are the components of the vector x − a {\displaystyle \mathbf {x} -\mathbf {a} } , and ( D f ) i {\displaystyle (Df)_{i}} and ( D 2 f ) j k {\displaystyle (D^{2}f)_{jk}} are the components of D f {\displaystyle Df} and D 2 f {\displaystyle D^{2}f} as linear transformations.
The concept of a derivative can be extended to many other settings. The common thread is that the derivative of a function at a point serves as a linear approximation of the function at that point. | [
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"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In mathematics, the derivative quantifies the sensitivity of change of a function's output with respect to its input. Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. For example, the derivative of the position of a moving object with respect to time is the object's velocity: this measures how quickly the position of the object changes when time advances.",
"title": ""
},
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"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function at that point. The tangent line is the best linear approximation of the function near that input value. For this reason, the derivative is often described as the instantaneous rate of change, the ratio of the instantaneous change in the dependent variable to that of the independent variable.",
"title": ""
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"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Derivatives can be generalized to functions of several real variables. In this generalization, the derivative is reinterpreted as a linear transformation whose graph is (after an appropriate translation) the best linear approximation to the graph of the original function. The Jacobian matrix is the matrix that represents this linear transformation with respect to the basis given by the choice of independent and dependent variables. It can be calculated in terms of the partial derivatives with respect to the independent variables. For a real-valued function of several variables, the Jacobian matrix reduces to the gradient vector.",
"title": ""
},
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"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The process of finding a derivative is called differentiation. The reverse process is called antidifferentiation. The fundamental theorem of calculus relates antidifferentiation with integration. Differentiation and integration constitute the two fundamental operations in single-variable calculus.",
"title": ""
},
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"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "A function of a real variable f(x) is differentiable at a point a of its domain, if its domain contains an open interval I containing a, and the limit",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "exists. This means that, for every positive real number ε {\\displaystyle \\varepsilon } (even very small), there exists a positive real number δ {\\displaystyle \\delta } such that, for every h such that | h | < δ {\\displaystyle |h|<\\delta } and h ≠ 0 {\\displaystyle h\\neq 0} then f ( a + h ) {\\displaystyle f(a+h)} is defined, and",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "where the vertical bars denote the absolute value. This is an example of the (ε, δ)-definition of limit.",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "If the function f is differentiable at a, that is if the limit L exists, then this limit is called the derivative of f at a. Multiple notations for the derivative exist. The derivative of f at a can be denoted f ′ ( a ) {\\displaystyle f'(a)} , read as \"f prime of a\". Or, it can be denoted d f d x ( a ) {\\textstyle {\\frac {df}{dx}}(a)} , read as \"the derivative of f with respect to x at a\" or \"df by (or over) dx at a\". See § Notation below. If f is a function that has a derivative at every point in its domain, then a function can be defined by mapping every point x to the value of the derivative of f at x. This function is written f′ and is called the derivative function or the derivative of f. Sometimes f has a derivative at most, but not all, points of its domain. The function whose value at a equals f′(a) whenever f′(a) is defined and elsewhere is undefined is also called the derivative of f. It is still a function, but its domain may be smaller than the domain of f.",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "For example, let f {\\displaystyle f} be the squaring function: f ( x ) = x 2 {\\displaystyle f(x)=x^{2}} . Then the quotient in the definition of the derivative is",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The division in the last step is valid as long as h ≠ 0 {\\displaystyle h\\neq 0} . The closer h {\\displaystyle h} is to 0 {\\displaystyle 0} , the closer this expression becomes to the value 2 a {\\displaystyle 2a} . The limit exists, and for every input a {\\displaystyle a} the limit is 2 a {\\displaystyle 2a} . So, the derivative of the squaring function is the doubling function: f ′ ( x ) = 2 x {\\displaystyle f'(x)=2x} .",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The ratio in the definition of the derivative is the slope of the line through two points on the graph of the function f {\\displaystyle f} , specifically the points ( a , f ( a ) ) {\\displaystyle (a,f(a))} and ( a + h , f ( a + h ) ) {\\displaystyle (a+h,f(a+h))} . As h {\\displaystyle h} is made smaller, these points grow closer together, and the slope of this line approaches the limiting value, the slope of the tangent to the graph of f {\\displaystyle f} at a {\\displaystyle a} . In other words, the derivative is the slope of the tangent.",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "One way to think of the derivative d f d x ( a ) {\\textstyle {\\frac {df}{dx}}(a)} is as the ratio of an infinitesimal change in the output of the function f {\\displaystyle f} to an infinitesimal change in its input. In order to make this intuition rigorous, a system of rules for manipulating infinitesimal quantities is required. The system of hyperreal numbers is a way of treating infinite and infinitesimal quantities. The hyperreals are an extension of the real numbers that contains numbers greater than anything of the form 1 + 1 + ⋯ + 1 {\\displaystyle 1+1+\\cdots +1} for any finite number of terms. Such numbers are infinite, and their reciprocals are infinitesimals. The application of hyperreal numbers to the foundations of calculus is called nonstandard analysis. This provides a way to define the basic concepts of calculus such as the derivative and integral in terms of infinitesimals, thereby giving a precise meaning to the d {\\displaystyle d} in the Leibniz notation. Thus, the derivative of f ( x ) {\\displaystyle f(x)} becomes",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "for an arbitrary infinitesimal d x {\\displaystyle dx} , where st {\\displaystyle \\operatorname {st} } denotes the standard part function, which \"rounds off\" each finite hyperreal to the nearest real.",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Taking the squaring function f ( x ) = x 2 {\\displaystyle f(x)=x^{2}} as an example again,",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "If f is differentiable at a, then f must also be continuous at a. As an example, choose a point a and let f be the step function that returns the value 1 for all x less than a, and returns a different value 10 for all x greater than or equal to a. f cannot have a derivative at a. If h is negative, then a + h {\\displaystyle a+h} is on the low part of the step, so the secant line from a to a + h {\\displaystyle a+h} is very steep; as h tends to zero, the slope tends to infinity. If h is positive, then a + h {\\displaystyle a+h} is on the high part of the step, so the secant line from a to a + h {\\displaystyle a+h} has slope zero. Consequently, the secant lines do not approach any single slope, so the limit of the difference quotient does not exist. However, even if a function is continuous at a point, it may not be differentiable there. For example, the absolute value function given by f ( x ) = | x | {\\displaystyle f(x)=|x|} is continuous at x = 0 {\\displaystyle x=0} , but it is not differentiable there. If h is positive, then the slope of the secant line from 0 to h is one; if h is negative, then the slope of the secant line from 0 to h is -1. This can be seen graphically as a \"kink\" or a \"cusp\" in the graph at x = 0 {\\displaystyle x=0} . Even a function with a smooth graph is not differentiable at a point where its tangent is vertical: For instance, the function given by f ( x ) = x 1 / 3 {\\displaystyle f(x)=x^{1/3}} is not differentiable at x = 0 {\\displaystyle x=0} . In summary, a function that has a derivative is continuous, but there are continuous functions that do not have a derivative.",
"title": "Continuity and differentiability"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Most functions that occur in practice have derivatives at all points or at almost every point. Early in the history of calculus, many mathematicians assumed that a continuous function was differentiable at most points. Under mild conditions (for example, if the function is a monotone or a Lipschitz function), this is true. However, in 1872, Weierstrass found the first example of a function that is continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere. This example is now known as the Weierstrass function. In 1931, Stefan Banach proved that the set of functions that have a derivative at some point is a meager set in the space of all continuous functions. Informally, this means that hardly any random continuous functions have a derivative at even one point.",
"title": "Continuity and differentiability"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "One common symbol for the derivative of a function is Leibniz notation. They are written as the quotient of two differentials d y {\\displaystyle dy} and d x {\\displaystyle dx} , which were introduced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1675. It is still commonly used when the equation y = f ( x ) {\\displaystyle y=f(x)} is viewed as a functional relationship between dependent and independent variables. The first derivative is denoted by d y d x {\\textstyle {\\frac {dy}{dx}}} , read as \"the derivative of y {\\displaystyle y} with respect to x {\\displaystyle x} \". This derivative can alternately be treated as the application of a differential operator to a function, d y d x = d d x f ( x ) . {\\textstyle {\\frac {dy}{dx}}={\\frac {d}{dx}}f(x).} Higher derivatives are expressed using the notation d n y d x n {\\textstyle {\\frac {d^{n}y}{dx^{n}}}} for the n {\\displaystyle n} -th derivative of y = f ( x ) {\\displaystyle y=f(x)} . These are abbreviations for multiple applications of the derivative operator; for example, d 2 y d x 2 = d d x ( d d x f ( x ) ) . {\\textstyle {\\frac {d^{2}y}{dx^{2}}}={\\frac {d}{dx}}{\\Bigl (}{\\frac {d}{dx}}f(x){\\Bigr )}.} Unlike some alternatives, Leibniz notation involves explicit specification of the variable for differentiation, in the denominator, which removes ambiguity when working with multiple interrelated quantities. The derivative of a composed function can be expressed using the chain rule: if u = g ( x ) {\\displaystyle u=g(x)} and y = f ( g ( x ) ) {\\displaystyle y=f(g(x))} then d y d x = d y d u ⋅ d u d x . {\\textstyle {\\frac {dy}{dx}}={\\frac {dy}{du}}\\cdot {\\frac {du}{dx}}.} The partial derivative of a multivariate function with respect to a single independent variable is written using the curly ∂ {\\displaystyle \\partial } symbol; ∂ u ∂ x {\\textstyle {\\frac {\\partial u}{\\partial x}}} could indicate the partial derivative of a function u = f ( x , y ) {\\displaystyle u=f(x,y)} with respect to x {\\displaystyle x} .",
"title": "Notation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Another common notation for differentiation is by using the prime mark in the symbol of a function f ( x ) {\\displaystyle f(x)} . This is known as prime notation, due to the Joseph-Louis Lagrange. The first derivative is written as f ′ ( x ) {\\displaystyle f'(x)} , read as \" f {\\displaystyle f} prime of x {\\displaystyle x} \", or y ′ {\\displaystyle y'} , read as \" y {\\displaystyle y} prime\". Similarly, the second and the third derivatives can be written as f ″ {\\displaystyle f''} and f ‴ {\\displaystyle f'''} , respectively. For denoting the number of higher derivatives beyond this point, some authors use Roman numerals in superscript, whereas others place the number in parentheses, such as f i v {\\displaystyle f^{\\mathrm {iv} }} or f ( 4 ) . {\\displaystyle f^{(4)}.} The latter notation generalizes to yield the notation f ( n ) {\\displaystyle f^{(n)}} for the n {\\displaystyle n} -th derivative of f {\\displaystyle f} .",
"title": "Notation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In Newton's notation or the dot notation, a dot is placed over a symbol to represent a time derivative. If y {\\displaystyle y} is a function of t {\\displaystyle t} , then the first and second derivatives can be written as y ˙ {\\displaystyle {\\dot {y}}} and y ¨ {\\displaystyle {\\ddot {y}}} , respectively. This notation is used exclusively for derivatives with respect to time or arc length. It is typically used in differential equations in physics and differential geometry. However, the dot notation becomes unmanageable for high-order derivatives (of order 4 or more) and cannot deal with multiple independent variables.",
"title": "Notation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Another notation is D-notation, which represents the differential operator by the symbol D . {\\displaystyle D.} The first derivative is written D f ( x ) {\\displaystyle Df(x)} and higher derivatives are written with a superscript, so the n {\\displaystyle n} -th derivative is D n f ( x ) . {\\displaystyle D^{n}f(x).} This notation is sometimes called Euler notation, although it seems that Leonhard Euler did not use it, and the notation was introduced by Louis François Antoine Arbogast. To indicate a partial derivative, the variable differentiated by is indicated with a subscript, for example given the function u = f ( x , y ) , {\\displaystyle u=f(x,y),} its partial derivative with respect to x {\\displaystyle x} can be written D x u {\\displaystyle D_{x}u} or D x f ( x , y ) . {\\displaystyle D_{x}f(x,y).} Higher partial derivatives can be indicated by superscripts or multiple subscripts, e.g. D x y f ( x , y ) = ∂ ∂ y ( ∂ ∂ x f ( x , y ) ) {\\textstyle D_{xy}f(x,y)={\\frac {\\partial }{\\partial y}}{\\Bigl (}{\\frac {\\partial }{\\partial x}}f(x,y){\\Bigr )}} and D x 2 f ( x , y ) = ∂ ∂ x ( ∂ ∂ x f ( x , y ) ) {\\textstyle D_{x}^{2}f(x,y)={\\frac {\\partial }{\\partial x}}{\\Bigl (}{\\frac {\\partial }{\\partial x}}f(x,y){\\Bigr )}}",
"title": "Notation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In principle, the derivative of a function can be computed from the definition by considering the difference quotient and computing its limit. Once the derivatives of a few simple functions are known, the derivatives of other functions are more easily computed using rules for obtaining derivatives of more complicated functions from simpler ones. This process of finding a derivative is known as differentiation.",
"title": "Rules of computation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The following are the rules for the derivatives of the most common basic functions. Here, a {\\displaystyle a} is a real number, and e {\\displaystyle e} is the mathematical constant approximately 2.71828.",
"title": "Rules of computation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Given that the f {\\displaystyle f} and g {\\displaystyle g} are the functions. The following are some of the most basic rules for deducing the derivative of functions from derivatives of basic functions.",
"title": "Rules of computation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The derivative of the function given by",
"title": "Rules of computation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "is",
"title": "Rules of computation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Here the second term was computed using the chain rule and third using the product rule. The known derivatives of the elementary functions x, x, sin(x), ln(x) and exp(x) = e, as well as the constant 7, were also used.",
"title": "Rules of computation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Higher order derivatives means that a function is differentiated repeatedly. Given that f {\\displaystyle f} is a differentiable function, the derivative of f {\\displaystyle f} is the first derivative, denoted as f ′ {\\displaystyle f'} . The derivative of f ′ {\\displaystyle f'} is the second derivative, denoted as f ″ {\\displaystyle f''} , and the derivative of f ″ {\\displaystyle f''} is the third derivative, denoted as f ‴ {\\displaystyle f'''} . By continuing this process, if it exists, the n {\\displaystyle n} -th derivative as the derivative of the ( n − 1 ) {\\displaystyle (n-1)} -th derivative or the derivative of order n {\\displaystyle n} . As has been discussed above, the generalization of derivative of a function f {\\displaystyle f} may be denoted as f ( n ) {\\displaystyle f^{(n)}} . A function that has k {\\displaystyle k} successive derivatives is called k {\\displaystyle k} times differentiable. If the k {\\displaystyle k} -th derivative is continuous, then the function is said to be of differentiability class C k {\\displaystyle C^{k}} . A function that has infinitely many derivatives is called infinitely differentiable or smooth. One example of the infinitely differentiable function is polynomial; differentiate this function repeatedly results the constant function, and the infinitely subsequent derivative of that function are all zero. In particular, the polynomials are smooth functions.",
"title": "Higher-order derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In one of its applications, the higher-order derivatives may have specific interpretations in physics. Suppose that a function represents the position of an object at time, then the derivative of that function is the velocity of an object with respect to the time. This interpretation may be related to the definition above; letting x = a + h {\\displaystyle x=a+h} and substitute them, gives:",
"title": "Higher-order derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Here, x − a {\\displaystyle x-a} and f ( x ) − f ( a ) {\\displaystyle f(x)-f(a)} are considered as the change in x {\\displaystyle x} and y = f ( x ) {\\displaystyle y=f(x)} , respectively. Because of this, the derivative may be interpreted as the instantaneous rate of change. The second derivative of the function is the acceleration of an object with respect to the time, and the third derivative is the jerk.",
"title": "Higher-order derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "A vector-valued function y {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {y} } of a real variable sends real numbers to vectors in some vector space R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} . A vector-valued function can be split up into its coordinate functions y 1 ( t ) , y 2 ( t ) , … , y n ( t ) {\\displaystyle y_{1}(t),y_{2}(t),\\dots ,y_{n}(t)} , meaning that y = ( y 1 ( t ) , y 2 ( t ) , … , y n ( t ) ) {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {y} =(y_{1}(t),y_{2}(t),\\dots ,y_{n}(t))} . This includes, for example, parametric curves in R 2 {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{2}} or R 3 {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{3}} . The coordinate functions are real-valued functions, so the above definition of derivative applies to them. The derivative of y ( t ) {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {y} (t)} is defined to be the vector, called the tangent vector, whose coordinates are the derivatives of the coordinate functions. That is,",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "if the limit exists. The subtraction in the numerator is the subtraction of vectors, not scalars. If the derivative of y {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {y} } exists for every value of t {\\displaystyle t} , then y {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {y} } is another vector-valued function.",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "If e 1 , … , e n {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} _{1},\\dots ,\\mathbf {e} _{n}} is the standard basis for R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} , then y ( t ) {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {y} (t)} can also be written as y 1 ( t ) e 1 + … y 2 ( t ) e n {\\displaystyle y_{1}(t)\\mathbf {e} _{1}+\\dots y_{2}(t)\\mathbf {e} _{n}} . Assuming that if the derivative of a vector-valued function retains the linearity property, then the derivative of y ( t ) {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {y} (t)} must be",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "because each of the basis vectors is a constant.",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "This generalization is useful, for example, if y ( t ) {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {y} (t)} is the position vector of a particle at time t {\\displaystyle t} , then the derivative y ′ ( t ) {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {y} '(t)} is the velocity vector of the particle at time t {\\displaystyle t} .",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Functions can depend upon more than one variable. A partial derivative of a function of several variables is its derivative with respect to one of those variables, with the others held constant. Partial derivatives are used in vector calculus and differential geometry. As with ordinary derivatives, multiple notations exist: the partial derivative of a function f ( x , y , … ) {\\displaystyle f(x,y,\\dots )} with respect to the variable x {\\displaystyle x} is variously denoted by",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "among other possibilities. It can be thought of as the rate of change of the function in the x {\\displaystyle x} -direction. Here ∂ is a rounded d called the partial derivative symbol. To distinguish it from the letter d, ∂ is sometimes pronounced \"der\", \"del\", or \"partial\" instead of \"dee\". For example, let f ( x , y ) = x 2 + x y + y 2 {\\displaystyle f(x,y)=x^{2}+xy+y^{2}} , then the partial derivative of function f {\\displaystyle f} with respect to both variables x {\\displaystyle x} and y {\\displaystyle y} are, respectively:",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In general, the partial derivative of a function f(x1, …, xn) in the direction xi at the point (a1, ..., an) is defined to be:",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "In the above difference quotient, all the variables except xi are held fixed. That choice of fixed values determines a function of one variable",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "and, by definition,",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Consequently, the computation of partial derivatives reduces to the computation of one-variable derivatives.",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "This is fundamental for the study of the functions of several real variables. Let f(x1, ..., xn) be such a real-valued function. If all partial derivatives ∂f / ∂xj of f are defined at the point a = (a1, ..., an), these partial derivatives define the vector",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "which is called the gradient of f at a. If f is differentiable at every point in some domain, then the gradient is a vector-valued function ∇f that maps the point (a1, ..., an) to the vector ∇f(a1, ..., an). Consequently, the gradient determines a vector field.",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "If f is a real-valued function on R, then the partial derivatives of f measure its variation in the direction of the coordinate axes. For example, if f is a function of x and y, then its partial derivatives measure the variation in f in the x direction and the y direction. They do not, however, directly measure the variation of f in any other direction, such as along the diagonal line y = x. These are measured using directional derivatives. Choose a vector",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The directional derivative of f in the direction of v at the point x is the limit",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In some cases it may be easier to compute or estimate the directional derivative after changing the length of the vector. Often this is done to turn the problem into the computation of a directional derivative in the direction of a unit vector. To see how this works, suppose that v = λu where u is a unit vector in the direction of v. Substitute h = k/λ into the difference quotient. The difference quotient becomes:",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "This is λ times the difference quotient for the directional derivative of f with respect to u. Furthermore, taking the limit as h tends to zero is the same as taking the limit as k tends to zero because h and k are multiples of each other. Therefore, Dv(f) = λDu(f). Because of this rescaling property, directional derivatives are frequently considered only for unit vectors.",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "If all the partial derivatives of f exist and are continuous at x, then they determine the directional derivative of f in the direction v by the formula:",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "This is a consequence of the definition of the total derivative. It follows that the directional derivative is linear in v, meaning that Dv + w(f) = Dv(f) + Dw(f).",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The same definition also works when f is a function with values in R. The above definition is applied to each component of the vectors. In this case, the directional derivative is a vector in R.",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "When f {\\displaystyle f} is a function from an open subset of R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} to R m {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{m}} , then the directional derivative of f {\\displaystyle f} in a chosen direction is the best linear approximation to f {\\displaystyle f} at that point and in that direction. However, when n > 1 {\\displaystyle n>1} , no single directional derivative can give a complete picture of the behavior of f {\\displaystyle f} . The total derivative gives a complete picture by considering all directions at once. That is, for any vector v {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {v} } starting at a {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {a} } , the linear approximation formula holds:",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Similarly with the single-variable derivative, f ′ ( a ) {\\displaystyle f'(\\mathbf {a} )} is chosen so that the error in this approximation is as small as possible. The total derivative of f {\\displaystyle f} at a {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {a} } is the unique linear transformation f ′ ( a ) : R n → R m {\\displaystyle f'(\\mathbf {a} )\\colon \\mathbb {R} ^{n}\\to \\mathbb {R} ^{m}} such that",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Here h {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {h} } is a vector in R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} , so the norm in the denominator is the standard length on R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} . However, f ′ ( a ) h {\\displaystyle f'(\\mathbf {a} )\\mathbf {h} } is a vector in R m {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{m}} , and the norm in the numerator is the standard length on R m {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{m}} . If v {\\displaystyle v} is a vector starting at a {\\displaystyle a} , then f ′ ( a ) v {\\displaystyle f'(\\mathbf {a} )\\mathbf {v} } is called the pushforward of v {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {v} } by f {\\displaystyle f} and is sometimes written f ∗ v {\\displaystyle f_{*}\\mathbf {v} } .",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "If the total derivative exists at a {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {a} } , then all the partial derivatives and directional derivatives of f {\\displaystyle f} exist at a {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {a} } , and for all v {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {v} } , f ′ ( a ) v {\\displaystyle f'(\\mathbf {a} )\\mathbf {v} } is the directional derivative of f {\\displaystyle f} in the direction v {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {v} } . If f {\\displaystyle f} is written using coordinate functions, so that f = ( f 1 , f 2 , … , f m ) {\\displaystyle f=(f_{1},f_{2},\\dots ,f_{m})} , then the total derivative can be expressed using the partial derivatives as a matrix. This matrix is called the Jacobian matrix of f {\\displaystyle f} at a {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {a} } :",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "The existence of the total derivative f ( a ) {\\displaystyle f(\\mathbf {a} )} is strictly stronger than the existence of all the partial derivatives, but if the partial derivatives exist and are continuous, then the total derivative exists, is given by the Jacobian, and depends continuously on a {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {a} } .",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "The definition of the total derivative subsumes the definition of the derivative in one variable. That is, if f {\\displaystyle f} is a real-valued function of a real variable, then the total derivative exists if and only if the usual derivative exists. The Jacobian matrix reduces to a 1×1 matrix whose only entry is the derivative f ′ ( x ) {\\displaystyle f'(x)} . This 1×1 matrix satisfies the property that",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Up to changing variables, this is the statement that the function x ↦ f ( a ) + f ′ ( a ) ( x − a ) {\\displaystyle x\\mapsto f(a)+f'(a)(x-a)} is the best linear approximation to f {\\displaystyle f} at a {\\displaystyle a} .",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "The total derivative of a function does not give another function in the same way as the one-variable case. This is because the total derivative of a multivariable function has to record much more information than the derivative of a single-variable function. Instead, the total derivative gives a function from the tangent bundle of the source to the tangent bundle of the target.",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The natural analog of second, third, and higher-order total derivatives is not a linear transformation, is not a function on the tangent bundle, and is not built by repeatedly taking the total derivative. The analog of a higher-order derivative, called a jet, cannot be a linear transformation because higher-order derivatives reflect subtle geometric information, such as concavity, which cannot be described in terms of linear data such as vectors. It cannot be a function on the tangent bundle because the tangent bundle only has room for the base space and the directional derivatives. Because jets capture higher-order information, they take as arguments additional coordinates representing higher-order changes in direction. The space determined by these additional coordinates is called the jet bundle. The relation between the total derivative and the partial derivatives of a function is paralleled in the relation between the k {\\displaystyle k} -th order jet of a function and its partial derivatives of order less than or equal to k {\\displaystyle k} .",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "By repeatedly taking the total derivative, one obtains higher versions of the Fréchet derivative, specialized to R p {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{p}} . The k {\\displaystyle k} -th order total derivative may be interpreted as a map",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "which takes a point x {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {x} } in R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} and assigns to it an element of the space of k {\\displaystyle k} -linear maps from R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} to R m {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{m}} — the \"best\" (in a certain precise sense) k {\\displaystyle k} -linear approximation to f {\\displaystyle f} at that point. By precomposing it with the diagonal map Δ {\\displaystyle \\Delta } , x → ( x , x ) {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {x} \\to (\\mathbf {x} ,\\mathbf {x} )} , a generalized Taylor series may be begun as",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "where f ( a ) {\\displaystyle f(\\mathbf {a} )} is identified with a constant function, x i − a i {\\displaystyle x_{i}-a_{i}} are the components of the vector x − a {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {x} -\\mathbf {a} } , and ( D f ) i {\\displaystyle (Df)_{i}} and ( D 2 f ) j k {\\displaystyle (D^{2}f)_{jk}} are the components of D f {\\displaystyle Df} and D 2 f {\\displaystyle D^{2}f} as linear transformations.",
"title": "In higher dimensions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The concept of a derivative can be extended to many other settings. The common thread is that the derivative of a function at a point serves as a linear approximation of the function at that point.",
"title": "Generalizations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "",
"title": "External links"
}
] | In mathematics, the derivative quantifies the sensitivity of change of a function's output with respect to its input. Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. For example, the derivative of the position of a moving object with respect to time is the object's velocity: this measures how quickly the position of the object changes when time advances. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function at that point. The tangent line is the best linear approximation of the function near that input value. For this reason, the derivative is often described as the instantaneous rate of change, the ratio of the instantaneous change in the dependent variable to that of the independent variable. Derivatives can be generalized to functions of several real variables. In this generalization, the derivative is reinterpreted as a linear transformation whose graph is the best linear approximation to the graph of the original function. The Jacobian matrix is the matrix that represents this linear transformation with respect to the basis given by the choice of independent and dependent variables. It can be calculated in terms of the partial derivatives with respect to the independent variables. For a real-valued function of several variables, the Jacobian matrix reduces to the gradient vector. The process of finding a derivative is called differentiation. The reverse process is called antidifferentiation. The fundamental theorem of calculus relates antidifferentiation with integration. Differentiation and integration constitute the two fundamental operations in single-variable calculus. | 2001-09-23T00:32:42Z | 2023-12-31T05:14:37Z | [
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7,922 | Dravidian languages | The Dravidian languages (sometimes called Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Dravidian is first attested in the 2nd century BCE, as inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi script on cave walls in the Madurai and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu.
The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are (in descending order of number of speakers) Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are Tulu and Kodava. Together with several smaller languages such as Gondi, these languages cover the southern part of India and the northeast of Sri Lanka, and account for the overwhelming majority of Dravidian speakers. Malto and Kurukh are spoken in isolated pockets in eastern India. Kurukh is also spoken in parts of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Brahui is mostly spoken in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Irani Balochistan, Afghanistan and around the Marw oasis in Turkmenistan. During the colonial period, Dravidian speakers emigrated to Southeast Asia, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji and the Caribbean. There are more-recent Dravidian-speaking diaspora communities in the Middle East, Europe, North America and Oceania.
Dravidian place names along the Arabian Sea coast and Dravidian grammatical influence such as clusivity in the Indo-Aryan languages, namely, Marathi, Gujarati, Marwari, and Sindhi, suggest that Dravidian languages were spoken more widely across the Indian subcontinent before the spread of the Indo-Aryan languages. Though some scholars have argued that the Dravidian languages may have been brought to India by migrations from the Iranian plateau in the fourth or third millennium BCE or even earlier, reconstructed proto-Dravidian vocabulary suggests that the family is indigenous to India. Despite many attempts, the family has not been shown to be related to any other.
The 14th-century Sanskrit text Lilatilakam, a grammar of Manipravalam, states that the spoken languages of present-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu were similar, terming them as "Dramiḍa". The author does not consider the "Karṇṇāṭa" (Kannada) and the "Āndhra" (Telugu) languages as "Dramiḍa", because they were very different from the language of the "Tamil Veda" (Tiruvaymoli), but states that some people would include them in the "Dramiḍa" category.
In 1816, Francis Whyte Ellis argued that Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu and Kodava descended from a common, non-Indo-European ancestor. He supported his argument with a detailed comparison of non-Sanskrit vocabulary in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil, and also demonstrated that they shared grammatical structures. In 1844, Christian Lassen discovered that Brahui was related to these languages. In 1856, Robert Caldwell published his Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, which considerably expanded the Dravidian umbrella and established Dravidian as one of the major language groups of the world.
In 1961, T. Burrow and M. B. Emeneau published the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, with a major revision in 1984.
Caldwell coined the term "Dravidian" for this family of languages, based on the usage of the Sanskrit word Draviḍa in the work Tantravārttika by Kumārila Bhaṭṭa:
The word I have chosen is 'Dravidian', from Drāviḍa, the adjectival form of Draviḍa. This term, it is true, has sometimes been used, and is still sometimes used, in almost as restricted a sense as that of Tamil itself, so that though on the whole it is the best term I can find, I admit it is not perfectly free from ambiguity. It is a term which has already been used more or less distinctively by Sanskrit philologists, as a generic appellation for the South Indian people and their languages, and it is the only single term they ever seem to have used in this manner. I have, therefore, no doubt of the propriety of adopting it.
The origin of the Sanskrit word drāviḍa is the Tamil word Tamiḻ. Kamil Zvelebil cites the forms such as dramila (in Daṇḍin's Sanskrit work Avantisundarīkathā) and damiḷa (found in the Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) chronicle Mahavamsa) and then goes on to say, "The forms damiḷa/damila almost certainly provide a connection of dr(a/ā)viḍa" with the indigenous name of the Tamil language, the likely derivation being "*tamiḻ > *damiḷ > damiḷa- / damila- and further, with the intrusive, 'hypercorrect' (or perhaps analogical) -r-, into dr(a/ā)viḍa. The -m-/-v- alternation is a common enough phenomenon in Dravidian phonology".
Bhadriraju Krishnamurti states in his reference book The Dravidian languages:
Joseph (1989: IJDL 18.2:134–42) gives extensive references to the use of the term draviḍa, dramila first as the name of a people, then of a country. Sinhala BCE inscriptions cite dameḍa-, damela- denoting Tamil merchants. Early Buddhist and Jaina sources used damiḷa- to refer to a people of south India (presumably Tamil); damilaraṭṭha- was a southern non-Aryan country; dramiḷa-, dramiḍa, and draviḍa- were used as variants to designate a country in the south (Bṛhatsamhita-, Kādambarī, Daśakumāracarita-, fourth to seventh centuries CE) (1989: 134–138). It appears that damiḷa- was older than draviḍa- which could be its Sanskritization.
Based on what Krishnamurti states (referring to a scholarly paper published in the International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics), the Sanskrit word draviḍa itself appeared later than damiḷa, since the dates for the forms with -r- are centuries later than the dates for the forms without -r- (damiḷa, dameḍa-, damela- etc.).
The Dravidian languages form a close-knit family. Most scholars agree on four groups:
There are different proposals regarding the relationship between these groups. Earlier classifications grouped Central and South-Central Dravidian in a single branch. On the other hand, Krishnamurti groups South-Central and South Dravidian together. There are other disagreements, including whether there is a Toda-Kota branch or whether Kota diverged first and later Toda (claimed by Krishnamurti).
Some authors deny that North Dravidian forms a valid subgroup, splitting it into Northeast (Kurukh–Malto) and Northwest (Brahui). Their affiliation has been proposed based primarily on a small number of common phonetic developments, including:
McAlpin (2003) notes that no exact conditioning can be established for the first two changes, and proposes that distinct Proto-Dravidian *q and *kʲ should be reconstructed behind these correspondences, and that Brahui, Kurukh-Malto, and the rest of Dravidian may be three coordinate branches, possibly with Brahui being the earliest language to split off. A few morphological parallels between Brahui and Kurukh-Malto are also known, but according to McAlpin they are analyzable as shared archaisms rather than shared innovations.
In addition, Glottolog lists several unclassified Dravidian languages: Kumbaran, Kakkala (both of Tamil-Malayalam) and Khirwar
A computational phylogenetic study of the Dravidian language family was undertaken by Kolipakam, et al. (2018). They support the internal coherence of the four Dravidian branches South (or South Dravidian I), South-Central (or South Dravidian II), Central, and North, but is uncertain about the precise relationships of these four branches to each other. The date of Dravidian is estimated to be 4,500 years old.
Speakers of Dravidian languages, by language
Dravidian languages are mostly located in the southern and central parts of south Asia with 2 main outliers, Brahui having speakers in Balochistan and as far north are Merv, Turkmenistan and Kurukh to the east in Jharkhand and as far northeast as Bhutan, Nepal and Assam. Historically Maharashtra, Gujarat and Sindh also had Dravidian speaking populations from the evidence of place names (like -v(a)li, -koṭ from Dravidian paṭṭi, kōṭṭai), grammatical features in Marathi, Gujarati, and Sindhi and Dravidian like kinship systems in southern Indo–Aryan languages. Proto-Dravidian could have been spoken in a wider area, perhaps into Central India or the western Deccan which may have had other forms of early Dravidian/pre-Proto-Dravidian or other branches of Dravidian which are currently unknown.
Since 1981, the Census of India has reported only languages with more than 10,000 speakers, including 17 Dravidian languages. In 1981, these accounted for approximately 24% of India's population. In the 2001 census, they included 214 million people, about 21% of India's total population of 1.02 billion. In addition, the largest Dravidian-speaking group outside India, Tamil speakers in Sri Lanka, number around 4.7 million. The total number of speakers of Dravidian languages is around 227 million people, around 13% of the population of the Indian subcontinent.
The largest group of the Dravidian languages is South Dravidian, with almost 150 million speakers. Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam make up around 98% of the speakers, with 75 million, 44 million and 37 million native speakers, respectively.
The next-largest is the South-Central branch, which has 78 million native speakers, the vast majority of whom speak Telugu. The total number of speakers of Telugu, including those whose first language is not Telugu, is around 85 million people. This branch also includes the tribal language Gondi spoken in central India.
The second-smallest branch is the Northern branch, with around 6.3 million speakers. This is the only sub-group to have a language spoken in Pakistan — Brahui.
The smallest branch is the Central branch, which has only around 200,000 speakers. These languages are mostly tribal, and spoken in central India.
Languages recognized as official languages of India appear here in boldface.
The Dravidian family has defied all of the attempts to show a connection with other languages, including Indo-European, Hurrian, Basque, Sumerian, Korean, and Japanese. Comparisons have been made not just with the other language families of the Indian subcontinent (Indo-European, Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, and Nihali), but with all typologically similar language families of the Old World. Nonetheless, although there are no readily detectable genealogical connections, Dravidian shares several areal features with the Indo-Aryan languages, which have been attributed to the influence of a Dravidian substratum on Indo-Aryan.
Dravidian languages display typological similarities with the Uralic language group, and there have been several attempts to establish a genetic relationship in the past. This idea has been popular amongst Dravidian linguists, including Robert Caldwell, Thomas Burrow, Kamil Zvelebil, and Mikhail Andronov. The hypothesis is, however, rejected by most specialists in Uralic languages, and also in recent times by Dravidian linguists such as Bhadriraju Krishnamurti.
In the early 1970s, the linguist David McAlpin produced a detailed proposal of a genetic relationship between Dravidian and the extinct Elamite language of ancient Elam (present-day southwestern Iran). The Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis was supported in the late 1980s by the archaeologist Colin Renfrew and the geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, who suggested that Proto-Dravidian was brought to India by farmers from the Iranian part of the Fertile Crescent. (In his 2000 book, Cavalli-Sforza suggested western India, northern India and northern Iran as alternative starting points.) However, linguists have found McAlpin's cognates unconvincing and criticized his proposed phonological rules as ad hoc. Elamite is generally believed by scholars to be a language isolate, and the theory has had no effect on studies of the language. In 2012, Southworth suggested a "Zagrosian family" of West Asian origin including Elamite, Brahui and Dravidian as its three branches.
Dravidian is one of the primary language families in the Nostratic proposal, which would link most languages in North Africa, Europe and Western Asia into a family with its origins in the Fertile Crescent sometime between the Last Glacial Period and the emergence of Proto-Indo-European 4,000–6,000 BCE. However, the general consensus is that such deep connections are not, or not yet, demonstrable.
The origins of the Dravidian languages, as well as their subsequent development and the period of their differentiation are unclear, partially due to the lack of comparative linguistic research into the Dravidian languages. It is thought that the Dravidian languages were the most widespread indigenous languages in the Indian subcontinent before the advance of the Indo-Aryan languages. Though some scholars have argued that the Dravidian languages may have been brought to India by migrations from the Iranian plateau in the fourth or third millennium BCE or even earlier, reconstructed proto-Dravidian vocabulary suggests that the family is indigenous to India.
As a proto-language, the Proto-Dravidian language is not itself attested in the historical record. Its modern conception is based solely on reconstruction. It was suggested in the 1980s that the language was spoken in the 4th millennium BCE, and started disintegrating into various branches around the 3rd millennium BCE. According to Krishnamurti, Proto-Dravidian may have been spoken in the Indus civilization, suggesting a "tentative date of Proto-Dravidian around the early part of the third millennium." Krishnamurti further states that South Dravidian I (including pre-Tamil) and South Dravidian II (including Pre-Telugu) split around the 11th century BCE, with the other major branches splitting off at around the same time. Kolipakam et al. (2018) give a similar estimate of 2,500 BCE for Proto-Dravidian.
Historically Maharashtra, Gujarat and Sindh also had Dravidian speaking populations from the evidence of place names (like -v(a)li, -koṭ from Dravidian paṭṭi, kōṭṭai), grammatical features in Marathi, Gujarati, and Sindhi and Dravidian like kinship systems in southern Indo–Aryan languages. Proto-Dravidian could have been spoken in a wider area, perhaps into Central India or the western Deccan which may have had other forms of early Dravidian/pre-Proto-Dravidian or other branches of Dravidian which are currently unknown.
Several geneticists have noted a strong correlation between Dravidian and the Ancestral South Indian (ASI) component of South Asian genetic makeup. Narasimhan et al. (2019) argue that the ASI component itself formed in the early 2nd millennium BCE from a mixture of a population associated with the Indus Valley civilization and a population resident in peninsular India. They conclude that one of these two groups may have been the source of proto-Dravidian. An Indus valley origin would be consistent with the location of Brahui and with attempts to interpret the Indus script as Dravidian. On the other hand, reconstructed Proto-Dravidian terms for flora and fauna provide support for a peninsular Indian origin.
The Indus Valley civilisation (3300–1900 BCE), located in the Indus Valley region, is sometimes suggested to have been Dravidian. Already in 1924, after discovering the Indus Valley Civilisation, John Marshall stated that (one of) the language(s) may have been Dravidic. Cultural and linguistic similarities have been cited by researchers Henry Heras, Kamil Zvelebil, Asko Parpola and Iravatham Mahadevan as being strong evidence for a proto-Dravidian origin of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation. The discovery in Tamil Nadu of a late Neolithic (early 2nd millennium BCE, i.e. post-dating Harappan decline) stone celt allegedly marked with Indus signs has been considered by some to be significant for the Dravidian identification.
Yuri Knorozov surmised that the symbols represent a logosyllabic script and suggested, based on computer analysis, an underlying agglutinative Dravidian language as the most likely candidate for the underlying language. Knorozov's suggestion was preceded by the work of Henry Heras, who suggested several readings of signs based on a proto-Dravidian assumption.
Linguist Asko Parpola writes that the Indus script and Harappan language are "most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family". Parpola led a Finnish team in investigating the inscriptions using computer analysis. Based on a proto-Dravidian assumption, they proposed readings of many signs, some agreeing with the suggested readings of Heras and Knorozov (such as equating the "fish" sign with the Dravidian word for fish, "min") but disagreeing on several other readings. A comprehensive description of Parpola's work until 1994 is given in his book Deciphering the Indus Script.
Although in modern times speakers of the various Dravidian languages have mainly occupied the southern portion of India, in earlier times they probably were spoken in a larger area. After the Indo-Aryan migrations into north-western India, starting c. 1500 BCE, and the establishment of the Kuru kingdom c. 1100 BCE, a process of Sanskritisation of the masses started, which resulted in a language shift in northern India. Southern India has remained majority Dravidian, but pockets of Dravidian can be found in central India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The Kurukh and Malto are pockets of Dravidian languages in central India, spoken by people who may have migrated from south India. They do have myths about external origins. The Kurukh have traditionally claimed to be from the Deccan Peninsula, more specifically Karnataka. The same tradition has existed of the Brahui, who call themselves immigrants. Holding this same view of the Brahui are many scholars such as L. H. Horace Perera and M. Ratnasabapathy.
The Brahui population of Pakistan's Balochistan province has been taken by some as the linguistic equivalent of a relict population, perhaps indicating that Dravidian languages were formerly much more widespread and were supplanted by the incoming Indo-Aryan languages. However, it has been argued that the absence of any Old Iranian (Avestan) loanwords in Brahui suggests that the Brahui migrated to Balochistan from central India less than 1,000 years ago. The main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary, Balochi, is a western Iranian language like Kurdish, and arrived in the area from the west only around 1000 CE. Sound changes shared with Kurukh and Malto also suggest that Brahui was originally spoken near them in central India.
Dravidian languages show extensive lexical (vocabulary) borrowing, but only a few traits of structural (either phonological or grammatical) borrowing from Indo-Aryan, whereas Indo-Aryan shows more structural than lexical borrowings from the Dravidian languages. Many of these features are already present in the oldest known Indo-Aryan language, the language of the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE), which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian.
Vedic Sanskrit has retroflex consonants (ṭ/ḍ, ṇ) with about 88 words in the Rigveda having unconditioned retroflexes. Some sample words are Iṭanta, Kaṇva, śakaṭī, kevaṭa, puṇya and maṇḍūka. Since other Indo-European languages, including other Indo-Iranian languages, lack retroflex consonants, their presence in Indo-Aryan is often cited as evidence of substrate influence from close contact of the Vedic speakers with speakers of a foreign language family rich in retroflex consonants. The Dravidian family is a serious candidate since it is rich in retroflex phonemes reconstructible back to the Proto-Dravidian stage.
In addition, a number of grammatical features of Vedic Sanskrit not found in its sister Avestan language appear to have been borrowed from Dravidian languages. These include the gerund, which has the same function as in Dravidian. Some linguists explain this asymmetrical borrowing by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan languages were built on a Dravidian substratum. These scholars argue that the most plausible explanation for the presence of Dravidian structural features in Indic is language shift, that is, native Dravidian speakers learning and adopting Indic languages due to elite dominance. Although each of the innovative traits in Indic could be accounted for by internal explanations, early Dravidian influence is the only explanation that can account for all of the innovations at once; moreover, it accounts for several of the innovative traits in Indic better than any internal explanation that has been proposed.
Dravidian languages are noted for the lack of distinction between aspirated and unaspirated stops. Some Dravidian languages do have native aspirates formed due to the plosive + laryngeal clusters, for e.g. Telugu nalabhai, Kannada emb(h)attu, Adilabad Gondi phōṛd, while many Dravidian languages have accepted large numbers of loanwords from Sanskrit and other Indo-Iranian languages in addition to their already vast vocabulary, in which the orthography shows distinctions in voice and aspiration, the words are pronounced in the Dravidian languages other than Brahui according to different rules of phonology and phonotactics: aspiration of plosives is generally absent, regardless of the spelling of the word. For instance, Tamil does not distinguish between voiced and voiceless stops. In fact, the Tamil alphabet lacks symbols for voiced and aspirated stops. Brahui is an exception among the Dravidian languages in this regard, and on the contrary it possesses the entire inventory of aspirates employed in neighboring Sindhi. While aspirates are particularly concentrated in the Indo-Aryan element of the lexicon, some Brahui words with Dravidian roots have developed aspiration as well.
Dravidian languages are also characterized by a three-way distinction between dental, alveolar, and retroflex places of articulation as well as large numbers of liquids. Currently the three-way coronal distinction is only found in Malayalam and the Nilagiri languages; others have merged the alveolar stops with dentals or retroflexes.
Proto-Dravidian had five short and long vowels: *a, *ā, *i, *ī, *u, *ū, *e, *ē, *o, *ō. There were no diphthongs; ai and au are treated as *ay and *av (or *aw). The five-vowel system with phonemic length is largely preserved in the descendant subgroups, but there are some notable exceptions. The Nilgiri languages (except Kota but including Kodagu) developing a series of central vowels which formed from vowels near retroflex and alveolar consonants. The short u phoneme (mostly word finally) became ŭ/ụ /ɯ~ɨ~ə/ and also became phonemic in Tulu and Malayalam, mostly caused by loaning words with rounded /u/. Brahui has slightly poorer vowel system, where short e and o merged with other vowels due to the influence of Indo-Aryan languages.
The following consonantal phonemes are reconstructed:
The most characteristic grammatical features of Dravidian languages are:
The Dravidian languages have two numbers, singular and plural. The singular is unmarked, the plural is expressed by a suffix. The plural suffixes are -(n)k(k)a (cf. Kui kōḍi-ŋga 'cows', Brahui bā-k 'mouths'), *-ḷ (cf. Telugu mrānu-lu 'trees', Ollari ki-l 'hands') and the combination of these two *-(n)k(k)aḷ common in SD (cf. Tamil maraṅ-kaḷ 'trees', Kannada mara-gaḷu 'trees').
The individual Dravidian languages have different gender systems. What they have in common is that the grammatical gender (genus) always corresponds to the natural gender of the word. In addition to individual special developments, there are three main types in which the categories "male" or "non-male" as well as "human" and "non-human" play a central role:
The three types are illustrated by the forms of the third-person demonstrative pronouns of the three languages:
There is no consensus as to which of these three types is the original.
The gender is not explicitly marked for all nouns. Thus in Telugu anna 'elder brother' is masculine and amma 'mother' non-masculine, without this being apparent from the pure form of the word. However, many nouns are formed with certain suffixes that express gender and number. For Proto-Dravidian, the suffixes *-an and *-anṯ could be used for the masculine singular (cf. Tamil mak-aṉ 'son', Telugu tammu-ṇḍu 'younger brother'), *-aḷ and *-i for the singular feminine (cf. Kannada mag-aḷ 'daughter', Malto maq-i 'girl') and *-ar for human plurals (cf. Malayalam iru-var 'two persons', Kurukh āl-ar 'men').
Case is expressed by suffixes and more loosely connected postpositions. The number of cases varies between four (Telugu) and eleven (Brahui).
The nominative is always the unmarked base form of the word. The other cases, collectively called oblique, are formed by adding suffixes to a stem that can either be identical to the nominative or formed by certain suffixes (e.g. Tamil maram 'tree', oblique mara-tt-). Several oblique suffixes can be reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian, which are composed of the minimal components *-i- , *-a- , *-n- and *-tt-. In many languages, the oblique is identical to the genitive.
Proto-Dravidian case suffixes can be reconstructed for the three cases accusative, dative and genitive. Other case suffixes only occur in individual branches of Dravidian.
Personal pronouns occur in the 1st and 2nd person. In the 1st person plural there is an inclusive and exclusive form, i.e. a distinction is made as to whether the person addressed is included. There is also a reflexive pronoun that refers to the subject of the sentence and is constructed in the same way as personal pronouns. The personal and reflexive pronouns reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian are listed in the table below. In addition, there are special developments in some languages: The south and south-central Dravidian languages have transferred the *ñ initial sound of the 1st person plural inclusive to the 1st person singular (cf. Malayalam ñān, but oblique en < *yan). The differences between the forms for the inclusive and exclusive we are partly blurred; Kannada has completely abandoned this distinction. The languages of the Tamil-Kodagu group have formed a new exclusive 'we' by adding the plural suffix (cf. Tamil nām 'we (incl.)', nāṅ-kaḷ 'we (excl.)').
The demonstrative pronouns also serve as personal pronouns of the 3rd person. They consist of an initial vowel expressing the distance and a suffix expressing number and gender. There are three levels of distance: the far distance is formed with the initial vowel *a-, the middle distance with *u- and the near distance with *i-. The same deictic elements also occur in local ('here', 'there') and temporal adverbs ('now', 'then'). The original threefold distinction of the distance (e.g. Kota avn 'he, that one', ūn 'he, this one', ivn 'he, this one') has only survived in a few languages spoken today, the yonder distance u- has mostly become obsolete instead a- and i- are used. Interrogative pronouns are formed analogously to the demonstrative pronouns and are characterized by the initial syllable *ya- (e.g. Kota evn 'which').
Tamil-Telugu made another word *ñān for the 1SG pronoun back formed from 1P inclusive *ñām, in parallel to *yān; some languages like Tamil retain both forms, yāṉ, nāṉ.
The Dravidian verb is formed by adding tense, mood and personal suffixes to the root of the word. Thus the Tamil word varukiṟēṉ 'I come' is composed of the verb stem varu-, the present suffix -kiṟ and the suffix of the 1st person singular -ēṉ.
In Proto-Dravidian there are only two tenses, past and not past, while many daughter languages have developed a more complex tense system.
The negation is expressed synthetically by a special negative verb form (cf. Konda kitan 'he made', kiʔetan 'he did not').
The verb stem can be modified by stem-forming suffixes in many Dravidian languages. Thus Malto derives from the stem nud- 'to hide' the reflexive verb stem nudɣr- 'to hide'.
Infinite verb forms depend on either a following verb or a following noun. They serve to form more complex syntactic constructions.
Verbal compounds can be formed in Dravidian, for example the Tamil konṭuvara 'to bring' is composed of an infinite form of the verb koḷḷa 'to hold' and the verb vara 'to come'.
Characteristic of the Dravidian languages is a fixed subject–object–verb word order (SOV). Accordingly, the subject comes first in the sentence (it can at most be preceded by circumstantial determinations of time and place) and the predicate always at the end of the sentence. As is characteristic of SOV languages, in the Dravidian languages, attributes always come before their noun, subordinate clauses before main clauses, main verbs before auxiliary verbs, and postpositions are used instead of prepositions. Only in the North Dravidian languages has the rigid SOV word order been relaxed.
A simple sentence consists of a subject and a predicate, which can be either a verb or a noun. There is no copula in Dravidian. The subject is usually in the nominative case, but in many Dravidian languages, in a sentence expressing a feeling, perception or possession, the subject is also in the dative case. In all Dravidian languages except Malayalam, a verbal predicate agrees with a nominative subject. Kui and Kuwi developed a system of congruence between object and verb. In some Dravidian languages (Old Tamil, Gondi) even a nominal predicate takes personal endings. Examples of simple sentences from Tamil:
Complex sentences consist of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses. In general, a sentence can contain only one finite verb. The Dravidian languages have no conjunctions; subordinate clauses are formed just like parataxes by infinite verb forms. These include the infinitive, the verbal participle, which expresses a sequence of actions, and the conditional, which expresses a conditionality. Relative clauses correspond to constructions with the so-called adnominal participles. Examples from Tamil:
These constructions are not possible for subordinate clauses with a nominal predicate, since no infinite forms can be formed for a noun. Here one gets by with the so-called quotative verb (usually an infinite form of 'to say'), through which the nominal subordinate clause is embedded in the sentence structure. Example from Tamil:
Word roots seem to have been monosyllabic in Proto-Dravidian as a rule. Proto-Dravidian words could be simple, derived, or compound. Iterative compounds could be formed by doubling a word, cf. Tamil avar "he" and avaravar "everyone" or vantu "coming" and vantu vantu "always coming". A special form of reduplicated compounds are the so-called echo words, in which the first syllable of the second word is replaced by ki, cf. Tamil pustakam "book" and pustakam-kistakam "books and the like".
Today's Dravidian languages have, in addition to the inherited Dravidian vocabulary, a large number of words from Sanskrit or later Indo-Aryan languages. In Tamil, they make up a relatively small proportion, not least because of targeted linguistic puristic tendencies in the early 20th century, while in Telugu and Malayalam the number of Indo-Aryan loanwords is large. In Brahui, which was strongly influenced by its neighboring languages due to its distance from the other Dravidian languages, only a tenth of the vocabulary is of Dravidian origin. [16] More recently, like all the languages of India, the Dravidian languages also have words borrowed from English on a large scale; less numerous are the loanwords from Portuguese .
Dravidian words that have found their way into English are "orange" (via Sanskrit nāraṅga, cf. Tamil nāraṅkа̄y < nāram-kа̄y), "catamaran" (Tamil kaṭṭumaram "[boat made of] bound logs"), "mango" (Tamil māṅkāy, Malayalam māṅṅa, via Portuguese manga), "mongoose" (Telugu muṅgisa, Kannada muṅgisi) and "curry" (Tamil kaṟi).
The numerals from 1 to 10 in various Dravidian and Indo-Iranian languages (here exemplified by Indo-Aryan language Sanskrit and Iranian language Persian).
Four Dravidian languages, viz. Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam, have lengthy literary traditions. Literature in Tulu and Kodava is more recent. Recently old literature in Gondi has been discovered as well.
The earliest known Dravidian inscriptions are 76 Old Tamil inscriptions on cave walls in Madurai and Tirunelveli districts in Tamil Nadu, dating from the 2nd century BCE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil Brahmi. In 2019, the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department released a report on excavations at Keeladi, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, including a description of potsherds dated to the 6th century BCE inscribed with personal names in the Tamil-Brahmi script. However, the report lacks the detail of a full archaeological study, and other archaeologists have disputed whether the oldest dates obtained for the site can be assigned to these potsherds. The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, a work on Tamil grammar and poetics preserved in a 5th-century CE redaction, whose oldest layers could date from the late 2nd century or 1st century BCE.
Kannada's earliest known inscription is the lion balustrade (Simhakatanjana) inscription excavated at the Pranaveshwara temple complex at Talagunda near Shiralakoppa of Shivamogga district, dated to 370 CE which replaced the Halmidi inscription in Hassan district (450 CE). A 9th-century treatise on poetics, the Kavirajamarga, is the first known literary work. The earliest Telugu inscription, from Erragudipadu in Kadapa district, is dated 575. The first literary work is an 11th-century translation of part of the Mahābhārata. The earliest Malayalam text is the Vazhappally copper plate (9th century). The first literary work is Rāmacaritam (12th century). | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Dravidian languages (sometimes called Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Dravidian is first attested in the 2nd century BCE, as inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi script on cave walls in the Madurai and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are (in descending order of number of speakers) Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages are Tulu and Kodava. Together with several smaller languages such as Gondi, these languages cover the southern part of India and the northeast of Sri Lanka, and account for the overwhelming majority of Dravidian speakers. Malto and Kurukh are spoken in isolated pockets in eastern India. Kurukh is also spoken in parts of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Brahui is mostly spoken in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Irani Balochistan, Afghanistan and around the Marw oasis in Turkmenistan. During the colonial period, Dravidian speakers emigrated to Southeast Asia, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji and the Caribbean. There are more-recent Dravidian-speaking diaspora communities in the Middle East, Europe, North America and Oceania.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Dravidian place names along the Arabian Sea coast and Dravidian grammatical influence such as clusivity in the Indo-Aryan languages, namely, Marathi, Gujarati, Marwari, and Sindhi, suggest that Dravidian languages were spoken more widely across the Indian subcontinent before the spread of the Indo-Aryan languages. Though some scholars have argued that the Dravidian languages may have been brought to India by migrations from the Iranian plateau in the fourth or third millennium BCE or even earlier, reconstructed proto-Dravidian vocabulary suggests that the family is indigenous to India. Despite many attempts, the family has not been shown to be related to any other.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The 14th-century Sanskrit text Lilatilakam, a grammar of Manipravalam, states that the spoken languages of present-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu were similar, terming them as \"Dramiḍa\". The author does not consider the \"Karṇṇāṭa\" (Kannada) and the \"Āndhra\" (Telugu) languages as \"Dramiḍa\", because they were very different from the language of the \"Tamil Veda\" (Tiruvaymoli), but states that some people would include them in the \"Dramiḍa\" category.",
"title": "Dravidian studies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In 1816, Francis Whyte Ellis argued that Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu and Kodava descended from a common, non-Indo-European ancestor. He supported his argument with a detailed comparison of non-Sanskrit vocabulary in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil, and also demonstrated that they shared grammatical structures. In 1844, Christian Lassen discovered that Brahui was related to these languages. In 1856, Robert Caldwell published his Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, which considerably expanded the Dravidian umbrella and established Dravidian as one of the major language groups of the world.",
"title": "Dravidian studies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In 1961, T. Burrow and M. B. Emeneau published the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, with a major revision in 1984.",
"title": "Dravidian studies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Caldwell coined the term \"Dravidian\" for this family of languages, based on the usage of the Sanskrit word Draviḍa in the work Tantravārttika by Kumārila Bhaṭṭa:",
"title": "Name"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The word I have chosen is 'Dravidian', from Drāviḍa, the adjectival form of Draviḍa. This term, it is true, has sometimes been used, and is still sometimes used, in almost as restricted a sense as that of Tamil itself, so that though on the whole it is the best term I can find, I admit it is not perfectly free from ambiguity. It is a term which has already been used more or less distinctively by Sanskrit philologists, as a generic appellation for the South Indian people and their languages, and it is the only single term they ever seem to have used in this manner. I have, therefore, no doubt of the propriety of adopting it.",
"title": "Name"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The origin of the Sanskrit word drāviḍa is the Tamil word Tamiḻ. Kamil Zvelebil cites the forms such as dramila (in Daṇḍin's Sanskrit work Avantisundarīkathā) and damiḷa (found in the Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) chronicle Mahavamsa) and then goes on to say, \"The forms damiḷa/damila almost certainly provide a connection of dr(a/ā)viḍa\" with the indigenous name of the Tamil language, the likely derivation being \"*tamiḻ > *damiḷ > damiḷa- / damila- and further, with the intrusive, 'hypercorrect' (or perhaps analogical) -r-, into dr(a/ā)viḍa. The -m-/-v- alternation is a common enough phenomenon in Dravidian phonology\".",
"title": "Name"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Bhadriraju Krishnamurti states in his reference book The Dravidian languages:",
"title": "Name"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Joseph (1989: IJDL 18.2:134–42) gives extensive references to the use of the term draviḍa, dramila first as the name of a people, then of a country. Sinhala BCE inscriptions cite dameḍa-, damela- denoting Tamil merchants. Early Buddhist and Jaina sources used damiḷa- to refer to a people of south India (presumably Tamil); damilaraṭṭha- was a southern non-Aryan country; dramiḷa-, dramiḍa, and draviḍa- were used as variants to designate a country in the south (Bṛhatsamhita-, Kādambarī, Daśakumāracarita-, fourth to seventh centuries CE) (1989: 134–138). It appears that damiḷa- was older than draviḍa- which could be its Sanskritization.",
"title": "Name"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Based on what Krishnamurti states (referring to a scholarly paper published in the International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics), the Sanskrit word draviḍa itself appeared later than damiḷa, since the dates for the forms with -r- are centuries later than the dates for the forms without -r- (damiḷa, dameḍa-, damela- etc.).",
"title": "Name"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The Dravidian languages form a close-knit family. Most scholars agree on four groups:",
"title": "Classification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "There are different proposals regarding the relationship between these groups. Earlier classifications grouped Central and South-Central Dravidian in a single branch. On the other hand, Krishnamurti groups South-Central and South Dravidian together. There are other disagreements, including whether there is a Toda-Kota branch or whether Kota diverged first and later Toda (claimed by Krishnamurti).",
"title": "Classification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Some authors deny that North Dravidian forms a valid subgroup, splitting it into Northeast (Kurukh–Malto) and Northwest (Brahui). Their affiliation has been proposed based primarily on a small number of common phonetic developments, including:",
"title": "Classification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "McAlpin (2003) notes that no exact conditioning can be established for the first two changes, and proposes that distinct Proto-Dravidian *q and *kʲ should be reconstructed behind these correspondences, and that Brahui, Kurukh-Malto, and the rest of Dravidian may be three coordinate branches, possibly with Brahui being the earliest language to split off. A few morphological parallels between Brahui and Kurukh-Malto are also known, but according to McAlpin they are analyzable as shared archaisms rather than shared innovations.",
"title": "Classification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In addition, Glottolog lists several unclassified Dravidian languages: Kumbaran, Kakkala (both of Tamil-Malayalam) and Khirwar",
"title": "Classification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "A computational phylogenetic study of the Dravidian language family was undertaken by Kolipakam, et al. (2018). They support the internal coherence of the four Dravidian branches South (or South Dravidian I), South-Central (or South Dravidian II), Central, and North, but is uncertain about the precise relationships of these four branches to each other. The date of Dravidian is estimated to be 4,500 years old.",
"title": "Classification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Speakers of Dravidian languages, by language",
"title": "Distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Dravidian languages are mostly located in the southern and central parts of south Asia with 2 main outliers, Brahui having speakers in Balochistan and as far north are Merv, Turkmenistan and Kurukh to the east in Jharkhand and as far northeast as Bhutan, Nepal and Assam. Historically Maharashtra, Gujarat and Sindh also had Dravidian speaking populations from the evidence of place names (like -v(a)li, -koṭ from Dravidian paṭṭi, kōṭṭai), grammatical features in Marathi, Gujarati, and Sindhi and Dravidian like kinship systems in southern Indo–Aryan languages. Proto-Dravidian could have been spoken in a wider area, perhaps into Central India or the western Deccan which may have had other forms of early Dravidian/pre-Proto-Dravidian or other branches of Dravidian which are currently unknown.",
"title": "Distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Since 1981, the Census of India has reported only languages with more than 10,000 speakers, including 17 Dravidian languages. In 1981, these accounted for approximately 24% of India's population. In the 2001 census, they included 214 million people, about 21% of India's total population of 1.02 billion. In addition, the largest Dravidian-speaking group outside India, Tamil speakers in Sri Lanka, number around 4.7 million. The total number of speakers of Dravidian languages is around 227 million people, around 13% of the population of the Indian subcontinent.",
"title": "Distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The largest group of the Dravidian languages is South Dravidian, with almost 150 million speakers. Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam make up around 98% of the speakers, with 75 million, 44 million and 37 million native speakers, respectively.",
"title": "Distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The next-largest is the South-Central branch, which has 78 million native speakers, the vast majority of whom speak Telugu. The total number of speakers of Telugu, including those whose first language is not Telugu, is around 85 million people. This branch also includes the tribal language Gondi spoken in central India.",
"title": "Distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The second-smallest branch is the Northern branch, with around 6.3 million speakers. This is the only sub-group to have a language spoken in Pakistan — Brahui.",
"title": "Distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The smallest branch is the Central branch, which has only around 200,000 speakers. These languages are mostly tribal, and spoken in central India.",
"title": "Distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Languages recognized as official languages of India appear here in boldface.",
"title": "Distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Dravidian family has defied all of the attempts to show a connection with other languages, including Indo-European, Hurrian, Basque, Sumerian, Korean, and Japanese. Comparisons have been made not just with the other language families of the Indian subcontinent (Indo-European, Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, and Nihali), but with all typologically similar language families of the Old World. Nonetheless, although there are no readily detectable genealogical connections, Dravidian shares several areal features with the Indo-Aryan languages, which have been attributed to the influence of a Dravidian substratum on Indo-Aryan.",
"title": "Proposed relations with other families"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Dravidian languages display typological similarities with the Uralic language group, and there have been several attempts to establish a genetic relationship in the past. This idea has been popular amongst Dravidian linguists, including Robert Caldwell, Thomas Burrow, Kamil Zvelebil, and Mikhail Andronov. The hypothesis is, however, rejected by most specialists in Uralic languages, and also in recent times by Dravidian linguists such as Bhadriraju Krishnamurti.",
"title": "Proposed relations with other families"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In the early 1970s, the linguist David McAlpin produced a detailed proposal of a genetic relationship between Dravidian and the extinct Elamite language of ancient Elam (present-day southwestern Iran). The Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis was supported in the late 1980s by the archaeologist Colin Renfrew and the geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, who suggested that Proto-Dravidian was brought to India by farmers from the Iranian part of the Fertile Crescent. (In his 2000 book, Cavalli-Sforza suggested western India, northern India and northern Iran as alternative starting points.) However, linguists have found McAlpin's cognates unconvincing and criticized his proposed phonological rules as ad hoc. Elamite is generally believed by scholars to be a language isolate, and the theory has had no effect on studies of the language. In 2012, Southworth suggested a \"Zagrosian family\" of West Asian origin including Elamite, Brahui and Dravidian as its three branches.",
"title": "Proposed relations with other families"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Dravidian is one of the primary language families in the Nostratic proposal, which would link most languages in North Africa, Europe and Western Asia into a family with its origins in the Fertile Crescent sometime between the Last Glacial Period and the emergence of Proto-Indo-European 4,000–6,000 BCE. However, the general consensus is that such deep connections are not, or not yet, demonstrable.",
"title": "Proposed relations with other families"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The origins of the Dravidian languages, as well as their subsequent development and the period of their differentiation are unclear, partially due to the lack of comparative linguistic research into the Dravidian languages. It is thought that the Dravidian languages were the most widespread indigenous languages in the Indian subcontinent before the advance of the Indo-Aryan languages. Though some scholars have argued that the Dravidian languages may have been brought to India by migrations from the Iranian plateau in the fourth or third millennium BCE or even earlier, reconstructed proto-Dravidian vocabulary suggests that the family is indigenous to India.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "As a proto-language, the Proto-Dravidian language is not itself attested in the historical record. Its modern conception is based solely on reconstruction. It was suggested in the 1980s that the language was spoken in the 4th millennium BCE, and started disintegrating into various branches around the 3rd millennium BCE. According to Krishnamurti, Proto-Dravidian may have been spoken in the Indus civilization, suggesting a \"tentative date of Proto-Dravidian around the early part of the third millennium.\" Krishnamurti further states that South Dravidian I (including pre-Tamil) and South Dravidian II (including Pre-Telugu) split around the 11th century BCE, with the other major branches splitting off at around the same time. Kolipakam et al. (2018) give a similar estimate of 2,500 BCE for Proto-Dravidian.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Historically Maharashtra, Gujarat and Sindh also had Dravidian speaking populations from the evidence of place names (like -v(a)li, -koṭ from Dravidian paṭṭi, kōṭṭai), grammatical features in Marathi, Gujarati, and Sindhi and Dravidian like kinship systems in southern Indo–Aryan languages. Proto-Dravidian could have been spoken in a wider area, perhaps into Central India or the western Deccan which may have had other forms of early Dravidian/pre-Proto-Dravidian or other branches of Dravidian which are currently unknown.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Several geneticists have noted a strong correlation between Dravidian and the Ancestral South Indian (ASI) component of South Asian genetic makeup. Narasimhan et al. (2019) argue that the ASI component itself formed in the early 2nd millennium BCE from a mixture of a population associated with the Indus Valley civilization and a population resident in peninsular India. They conclude that one of these two groups may have been the source of proto-Dravidian. An Indus valley origin would be consistent with the location of Brahui and with attempts to interpret the Indus script as Dravidian. On the other hand, reconstructed Proto-Dravidian terms for flora and fauna provide support for a peninsular Indian origin.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The Indus Valley civilisation (3300–1900 BCE), located in the Indus Valley region, is sometimes suggested to have been Dravidian. Already in 1924, after discovering the Indus Valley Civilisation, John Marshall stated that (one of) the language(s) may have been Dravidic. Cultural and linguistic similarities have been cited by researchers Henry Heras, Kamil Zvelebil, Asko Parpola and Iravatham Mahadevan as being strong evidence for a proto-Dravidian origin of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation. The discovery in Tamil Nadu of a late Neolithic (early 2nd millennium BCE, i.e. post-dating Harappan decline) stone celt allegedly marked with Indus signs has been considered by some to be significant for the Dravidian identification.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Yuri Knorozov surmised that the symbols represent a logosyllabic script and suggested, based on computer analysis, an underlying agglutinative Dravidian language as the most likely candidate for the underlying language. Knorozov's suggestion was preceded by the work of Henry Heras, who suggested several readings of signs based on a proto-Dravidian assumption.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Linguist Asko Parpola writes that the Indus script and Harappan language are \"most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family\". Parpola led a Finnish team in investigating the inscriptions using computer analysis. Based on a proto-Dravidian assumption, they proposed readings of many signs, some agreeing with the suggested readings of Heras and Knorozov (such as equating the \"fish\" sign with the Dravidian word for fish, \"min\") but disagreeing on several other readings. A comprehensive description of Parpola's work until 1994 is given in his book Deciphering the Indus Script.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Although in modern times speakers of the various Dravidian languages have mainly occupied the southern portion of India, in earlier times they probably were spoken in a larger area. After the Indo-Aryan migrations into north-western India, starting c. 1500 BCE, and the establishment of the Kuru kingdom c. 1100 BCE, a process of Sanskritisation of the masses started, which resulted in a language shift in northern India. Southern India has remained majority Dravidian, but pockets of Dravidian can be found in central India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The Kurukh and Malto are pockets of Dravidian languages in central India, spoken by people who may have migrated from south India. They do have myths about external origins. The Kurukh have traditionally claimed to be from the Deccan Peninsula, more specifically Karnataka. The same tradition has existed of the Brahui, who call themselves immigrants. Holding this same view of the Brahui are many scholars such as L. H. Horace Perera and M. Ratnasabapathy.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The Brahui population of Pakistan's Balochistan province has been taken by some as the linguistic equivalent of a relict population, perhaps indicating that Dravidian languages were formerly much more widespread and were supplanted by the incoming Indo-Aryan languages. However, it has been argued that the absence of any Old Iranian (Avestan) loanwords in Brahui suggests that the Brahui migrated to Balochistan from central India less than 1,000 years ago. The main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary, Balochi, is a western Iranian language like Kurdish, and arrived in the area from the west only around 1000 CE. Sound changes shared with Kurukh and Malto also suggest that Brahui was originally spoken near them in central India.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Dravidian languages show extensive lexical (vocabulary) borrowing, but only a few traits of structural (either phonological or grammatical) borrowing from Indo-Aryan, whereas Indo-Aryan shows more structural than lexical borrowings from the Dravidian languages. Many of these features are already present in the oldest known Indo-Aryan language, the language of the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE), which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Vedic Sanskrit has retroflex consonants (ṭ/ḍ, ṇ) with about 88 words in the Rigveda having unconditioned retroflexes. Some sample words are Iṭanta, Kaṇva, śakaṭī, kevaṭa, puṇya and maṇḍūka. Since other Indo-European languages, including other Indo-Iranian languages, lack retroflex consonants, their presence in Indo-Aryan is often cited as evidence of substrate influence from close contact of the Vedic speakers with speakers of a foreign language family rich in retroflex consonants. The Dravidian family is a serious candidate since it is rich in retroflex phonemes reconstructible back to the Proto-Dravidian stage.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "In addition, a number of grammatical features of Vedic Sanskrit not found in its sister Avestan language appear to have been borrowed from Dravidian languages. These include the gerund, which has the same function as in Dravidian. Some linguists explain this asymmetrical borrowing by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan languages were built on a Dravidian substratum. These scholars argue that the most plausible explanation for the presence of Dravidian structural features in Indic is language shift, that is, native Dravidian speakers learning and adopting Indic languages due to elite dominance. Although each of the innovative traits in Indic could be accounted for by internal explanations, early Dravidian influence is the only explanation that can account for all of the innovations at once; moreover, it accounts for several of the innovative traits in Indic better than any internal explanation that has been proposed.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Dravidian languages are noted for the lack of distinction between aspirated and unaspirated stops. Some Dravidian languages do have native aspirates formed due to the plosive + laryngeal clusters, for e.g. Telugu nalabhai, Kannada emb(h)attu, Adilabad Gondi phōṛd, while many Dravidian languages have accepted large numbers of loanwords from Sanskrit and other Indo-Iranian languages in addition to their already vast vocabulary, in which the orthography shows distinctions in voice and aspiration, the words are pronounced in the Dravidian languages other than Brahui according to different rules of phonology and phonotactics: aspiration of plosives is generally absent, regardless of the spelling of the word. For instance, Tamil does not distinguish between voiced and voiceless stops. In fact, the Tamil alphabet lacks symbols for voiced and aspirated stops. Brahui is an exception among the Dravidian languages in this regard, and on the contrary it possesses the entire inventory of aspirates employed in neighboring Sindhi. While aspirates are particularly concentrated in the Indo-Aryan element of the lexicon, some Brahui words with Dravidian roots have developed aspiration as well.",
"title": "Phonology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Dravidian languages are also characterized by a three-way distinction between dental, alveolar, and retroflex places of articulation as well as large numbers of liquids. Currently the three-way coronal distinction is only found in Malayalam and the Nilagiri languages; others have merged the alveolar stops with dentals or retroflexes.",
"title": "Phonology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Proto-Dravidian had five short and long vowels: *a, *ā, *i, *ī, *u, *ū, *e, *ē, *o, *ō. There were no diphthongs; ai and au are treated as *ay and *av (or *aw). The five-vowel system with phonemic length is largely preserved in the descendant subgroups, but there are some notable exceptions. The Nilgiri languages (except Kota but including Kodagu) developing a series of central vowels which formed from vowels near retroflex and alveolar consonants. The short u phoneme (mostly word finally) became ŭ/ụ /ɯ~ɨ~ə/ and also became phonemic in Tulu and Malayalam, mostly caused by loaning words with rounded /u/. Brahui has slightly poorer vowel system, where short e and o merged with other vowels due to the influence of Indo-Aryan languages.",
"title": "Phonology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The following consonantal phonemes are reconstructed:",
"title": "Phonology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "The most characteristic grammatical features of Dravidian languages are:",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The Dravidian languages have two numbers, singular and plural. The singular is unmarked, the plural is expressed by a suffix. The plural suffixes are -(n)k(k)a (cf. Kui kōḍi-ŋga 'cows', Brahui bā-k 'mouths'), *-ḷ (cf. Telugu mrānu-lu 'trees', Ollari ki-l 'hands') and the combination of these two *-(n)k(k)aḷ common in SD (cf. Tamil maraṅ-kaḷ 'trees', Kannada mara-gaḷu 'trees').",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The individual Dravidian languages have different gender systems. What they have in common is that the grammatical gender (genus) always corresponds to the natural gender of the word. In addition to individual special developments, there are three main types in which the categories \"male\" or \"non-male\" as well as \"human\" and \"non-human\" play a central role:",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The three types are illustrated by the forms of the third-person demonstrative pronouns of the three languages:",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "There is no consensus as to which of these three types is the original.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "The gender is not explicitly marked for all nouns. Thus in Telugu anna 'elder brother' is masculine and amma 'mother' non-masculine, without this being apparent from the pure form of the word. However, many nouns are formed with certain suffixes that express gender and number. For Proto-Dravidian, the suffixes *-an and *-anṯ could be used for the masculine singular (cf. Tamil mak-aṉ 'son', Telugu tammu-ṇḍu 'younger brother'), *-aḷ and *-i for the singular feminine (cf. Kannada mag-aḷ 'daughter', Malto maq-i 'girl') and *-ar for human plurals (cf. Malayalam iru-var 'two persons', Kurukh āl-ar 'men').",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Case is expressed by suffixes and more loosely connected postpositions. The number of cases varies between four (Telugu) and eleven (Brahui).",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "The nominative is always the unmarked base form of the word. The other cases, collectively called oblique, are formed by adding suffixes to a stem that can either be identical to the nominative or formed by certain suffixes (e.g. Tamil maram 'tree', oblique mara-tt-). Several oblique suffixes can be reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian, which are composed of the minimal components *-i- , *-a- , *-n- and *-tt-. In many languages, the oblique is identical to the genitive.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Proto-Dravidian case suffixes can be reconstructed for the three cases accusative, dative and genitive. Other case suffixes only occur in individual branches of Dravidian.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Personal pronouns occur in the 1st and 2nd person. In the 1st person plural there is an inclusive and exclusive form, i.e. a distinction is made as to whether the person addressed is included. There is also a reflexive pronoun that refers to the subject of the sentence and is constructed in the same way as personal pronouns. The personal and reflexive pronouns reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian are listed in the table below. In addition, there are special developments in some languages: The south and south-central Dravidian languages have transferred the *ñ initial sound of the 1st person plural inclusive to the 1st person singular (cf. Malayalam ñān, but oblique en < *yan). The differences between the forms for the inclusive and exclusive we are partly blurred; Kannada has completely abandoned this distinction. The languages of the Tamil-Kodagu group have formed a new exclusive 'we' by adding the plural suffix (cf. Tamil nām 'we (incl.)', nāṅ-kaḷ 'we (excl.)').",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The demonstrative pronouns also serve as personal pronouns of the 3rd person. They consist of an initial vowel expressing the distance and a suffix expressing number and gender. There are three levels of distance: the far distance is formed with the initial vowel *a-, the middle distance with *u- and the near distance with *i-. The same deictic elements also occur in local ('here', 'there') and temporal adverbs ('now', 'then'). The original threefold distinction of the distance (e.g. Kota avn 'he, that one', ūn 'he, this one', ivn 'he, this one') has only survived in a few languages spoken today, the yonder distance u- has mostly become obsolete instead a- and i- are used. Interrogative pronouns are formed analogously to the demonstrative pronouns and are characterized by the initial syllable *ya- (e.g. Kota evn 'which').",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Tamil-Telugu made another word *ñān for the 1SG pronoun back formed from 1P inclusive *ñām, in parallel to *yān; some languages like Tamil retain both forms, yāṉ, nāṉ.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "The Dravidian verb is formed by adding tense, mood and personal suffixes to the root of the word. Thus the Tamil word varukiṟēṉ 'I come' is composed of the verb stem varu-, the present suffix -kiṟ and the suffix of the 1st person singular -ēṉ.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "In Proto-Dravidian there are only two tenses, past and not past, while many daughter languages have developed a more complex tense system.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The negation is expressed synthetically by a special negative verb form (cf. Konda kitan 'he made', kiʔetan 'he did not').",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "The verb stem can be modified by stem-forming suffixes in many Dravidian languages. Thus Malto derives from the stem nud- 'to hide' the reflexive verb stem nudɣr- 'to hide'.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Infinite verb forms depend on either a following verb or a following noun. They serve to form more complex syntactic constructions.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Verbal compounds can be formed in Dravidian, for example the Tamil konṭuvara 'to bring' is composed of an infinite form of the verb koḷḷa 'to hold' and the verb vara 'to come'.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Characteristic of the Dravidian languages is a fixed subject–object–verb word order (SOV). Accordingly, the subject comes first in the sentence (it can at most be preceded by circumstantial determinations of time and place) and the predicate always at the end of the sentence. As is characteristic of SOV languages, in the Dravidian languages, attributes always come before their noun, subordinate clauses before main clauses, main verbs before auxiliary verbs, and postpositions are used instead of prepositions. Only in the North Dravidian languages has the rigid SOV word order been relaxed.",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "A simple sentence consists of a subject and a predicate, which can be either a verb or a noun. There is no copula in Dravidian. The subject is usually in the nominative case, but in many Dravidian languages, in a sentence expressing a feeling, perception or possession, the subject is also in the dative case. In all Dravidian languages except Malayalam, a verbal predicate agrees with a nominative subject. Kui and Kuwi developed a system of congruence between object and verb. In some Dravidian languages (Old Tamil, Gondi) even a nominal predicate takes personal endings. Examples of simple sentences from Tamil:",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Complex sentences consist of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses. In general, a sentence can contain only one finite verb. The Dravidian languages have no conjunctions; subordinate clauses are formed just like parataxes by infinite verb forms. These include the infinitive, the verbal participle, which expresses a sequence of actions, and the conditional, which expresses a conditionality. Relative clauses correspond to constructions with the so-called adnominal participles. Examples from Tamil:",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "These constructions are not possible for subordinate clauses with a nominal predicate, since no infinite forms can be formed for a noun. Here one gets by with the so-called quotative verb (usually an infinite form of 'to say'), through which the nominal subordinate clause is embedded in the sentence structure. Example from Tamil:",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "",
"title": "Grammar"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Word roots seem to have been monosyllabic in Proto-Dravidian as a rule. Proto-Dravidian words could be simple, derived, or compound. Iterative compounds could be formed by doubling a word, cf. Tamil avar \"he\" and avaravar \"everyone\" or vantu \"coming\" and vantu vantu \"always coming\". A special form of reduplicated compounds are the so-called echo words, in which the first syllable of the second word is replaced by ki, cf. Tamil pustakam \"book\" and pustakam-kistakam \"books and the like\".",
"title": "Vocabulary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Today's Dravidian languages have, in addition to the inherited Dravidian vocabulary, a large number of words from Sanskrit or later Indo-Aryan languages. In Tamil, they make up a relatively small proportion, not least because of targeted linguistic puristic tendencies in the early 20th century, while in Telugu and Malayalam the number of Indo-Aryan loanwords is large. In Brahui, which was strongly influenced by its neighboring languages due to its distance from the other Dravidian languages, only a tenth of the vocabulary is of Dravidian origin. [16] More recently, like all the languages of India, the Dravidian languages also have words borrowed from English on a large scale; less numerous are the loanwords from Portuguese .",
"title": "Vocabulary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Dravidian words that have found their way into English are \"orange\" (via Sanskrit nāraṅga, cf. Tamil nāraṅkа̄y < nāram-kа̄y), \"catamaran\" (Tamil kaṭṭumaram \"[boat made of] bound logs\"), \"mango\" (Tamil māṅkāy, Malayalam māṅṅa, via Portuguese manga), \"mongoose\" (Telugu muṅgisa, Kannada muṅgisi) and \"curry\" (Tamil kaṟi).",
"title": "Vocabulary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "The numerals from 1 to 10 in various Dravidian and Indo-Iranian languages (here exemplified by Indo-Aryan language Sanskrit and Iranian language Persian).",
"title": "Vocabulary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Four Dravidian languages, viz. Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam, have lengthy literary traditions. Literature in Tulu and Kodava is more recent. Recently old literature in Gondi has been discovered as well.",
"title": "Literature"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "The earliest known Dravidian inscriptions are 76 Old Tamil inscriptions on cave walls in Madurai and Tirunelveli districts in Tamil Nadu, dating from the 2nd century BCE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil Brahmi. In 2019, the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department released a report on excavations at Keeladi, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, including a description of potsherds dated to the 6th century BCE inscribed with personal names in the Tamil-Brahmi script. However, the report lacks the detail of a full archaeological study, and other archaeologists have disputed whether the oldest dates obtained for the site can be assigned to these potsherds. The earliest long text in Old Tamil is the Tolkāppiyam, a work on Tamil grammar and poetics preserved in a 5th-century CE redaction, whose oldest layers could date from the late 2nd century or 1st century BCE.",
"title": "Literature"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Kannada's earliest known inscription is the lion balustrade (Simhakatanjana) inscription excavated at the Pranaveshwara temple complex at Talagunda near Shiralakoppa of Shivamogga district, dated to 370 CE which replaced the Halmidi inscription in Hassan district (450 CE). A 9th-century treatise on poetics, the Kavirajamarga, is the first known literary work. The earliest Telugu inscription, from Erragudipadu in Kadapa district, is dated 575. The first literary work is an 11th-century translation of part of the Mahābhārata. The earliest Malayalam text is the Vazhappally copper plate (9th century). The first literary work is Rāmacaritam (12th century).",
"title": "Literature"
}
] | The Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan.
Dravidian is first attested in the 2nd century BCE, as inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi script on cave walls in the Madurai and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu. The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions.
Smaller literary languages are Tulu and Kodava.
Together with several smaller languages such as Gondi, these languages cover the southern part of India and the northeast of Sri Lanka, and account for the overwhelming majority of Dravidian speakers.
Malto and Kurukh are spoken in isolated pockets in eastern India.
Kurukh is also spoken in parts of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Brahui is mostly spoken in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Irani Balochistan, Afghanistan and around the Marw oasis in Turkmenistan. During the colonial period, Dravidian speakers emigrated to Southeast Asia, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji and the Caribbean. There are more-recent Dravidian-speaking diaspora communities in the Middle East, Europe, North America and Oceania. Dravidian place names along the Arabian Sea coast and Dravidian grammatical influence such as clusivity in the Indo-Aryan languages, namely, Marathi, Gujarati, Marwari, and Sindhi, suggest that Dravidian languages were spoken more widely across the Indian subcontinent before the spread of the Indo-Aryan languages. Though some scholars have argued that the Dravidian languages may have been brought to India by migrations from the Iranian plateau in the fourth or third millennium BCE or even earlier, reconstructed proto-Dravidian vocabulary suggests that the family is indigenous to India. Despite many attempts, the family has not been shown to be related to any other. | 2001-03-21T00:25:02Z | 2023-12-29T08:39:52Z | [
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7,923 | Dracula | Dracula is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. An epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, investigate, hunt and kill Dracula.
Dracula was mostly written in the 1890s. Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes for the novel, drawing extensively from Transylvanian folklore and history. Some scholars have suggested that the character of Dracula was inspired by historical figures like the Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler or the countess Elizabeth Báthory, but there is widespread disagreement. Stoker's notes mention neither figure. He found the name Dracula in Whitby's public library while on holiday, thinking it meant devil in Romanian.
Following its publication, Dracula was positively received by reviewers who pointed to its effective use of horror. In contrast, reviewers who wrote negatively of the novel regarded it as excessively frightening. Comparisons to other works of Gothic fiction were common, including its structural similarity to Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White (1859). In the past century, Dracula has been situated as a piece of Gothic fiction. Modern scholars explore the novel within its historical context—the Victorian era—and discuss its depiction of gender roles, sexuality, and race.
Dracula is one of the most famous pieces of English literature. Many of the book's characters have entered popular culture as archetypal versions of their characters; for example, Count Dracula as the quintessential vampire, and Abraham Van Helsing as an iconic vampire hunter. The novel, which is in the public domain, has been adapted for film over 30 times, and its characters have made numerous appearances in virtually all media.
Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, visits Count Dracula at his castle in the Carpathian Mountains to help the Count purchase a house near London. Ignoring the Count's warning, Harker wanders the castle at night and encounters three vampire women; Dracula rescues Harker, and gives the women a small child bound inside a bag. Harker awakens in bed; soon after, Dracula leaves the castle, abandoning him to the women. Harker escapes and ends up delirious in a Budapest hospital. Dracula takes a ship called the Demeter for England with boxes of earth from his castle. The captain's log narrates the crew's disappearance until he alone remains, bound to the helm to maintain course. An animal resembling a large dog is seen leaping ashore when the ship runs aground at Whitby.
Lucy Westenra's letter to her best friend, Harker's fiancée Mina Murray, describes her marriage proposals from Dr. John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood. Lucy accepts Holmwood's, but all remain friends. Mina joins Lucy on holiday in Whitby. Lucy begins sleepwalking. After his ship lands there, Dracula stalks Lucy. Mina receives a letter about her missing fiancé's illness, and goes to Budapest to nurse him. Lucy becomes very ill. Seward's old teacher, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, determines the nature of Lucy's condition, but refuses to disclose it. He diagnoses her with acute blood-loss. Van Helsing places garlic flowers around her room and makes her a necklace of them. Lucy's mother removes the garlic flowers, not knowing they repel vampires. While Seward and Van Helsing are absent, Lucy and her mother are terrified by a wolf and Mrs. Westenra dies of a heart attack; Lucy dies shortly thereafter. After her burial, newspapers report children being stalked in the night by a "bloofer lady" (beautiful lady), and Van Helsing deduces it is Lucy. The four go to her tomb and see that she is a vampire. They stake her heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic. Jonathan Harker and his now-wife Mina have returned, and they join the campaign against Dracula.
Everyone stays at Dr. Seward's asylum as the men begin to hunt Dracula. Van Helsing finally reveals that vampires can only rest on earth from their homeland. Dracula communicates with Seward's patient, Renfield, an insane man who eats vermin to absorb their life force. After Dracula learns of the group's plot against him, he uses Renfield to enter the asylum. He secretly attacks Mina three times, drinking her blood each time and forcing Mina to drink his blood on the final visit. She is cursed to become a vampire after her death unless Dracula is killed. As the men find Dracula's properties, they discover many earth boxes within. The vampire hunters open each of the boxes and seal wafers of sacramental bread inside them, rendering them useless to Dracula. They attempt to trap the Count in his Piccadilly house, but he escapes. They learn that Dracula is fleeing to his castle in Transylvania with his last box. Mina has a faint psychic connection to Dracula, which Van Helsing exploits via hypnosis to track Dracula's movements. Guided by Mina, they pursue him.
In Galatz, Romania, the hunters split up. Van Helsing and Mina go to Dracula's castle, where the professor destroys the vampire women. Jonathan Harker and Arthur Holmwood follow Dracula's boat on the river, while Quincey Morris and John Seward parallel them on land. After Dracula's box is finally loaded onto a wagon by Romani men, the hunters converge and attack it. After routing the Romani, Harker decapitates Dracula as Quincey stabs him in the heart. Dracula crumbles to dust, freeing Mina from her vampiric curse. Quincey is mortally wounded in the fight against the Romani. He dies from his wounds, at peace with the knowledge that Mina is saved. A note by Jonathan Harker seven years later states that the Harkers have a son, named Quincey.
As the acting manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, Bram Stoker was a recognisable figure: he would greet evening guests, and served as assistant to the stage actor Henry Irving. In a letter to Walt Whitman, Stoker described his own temperament as "secretive to the world", but he nonetheless led a relatively public life. Stoker supplemented his income from the theatre by writing romance and sensation novels, and had published 18 books by his death in 1912. Dracula was Stoker's seventh published book, following The Shoulder of Shasta (1895) and preceding Miss Betty (1898). Hall Caine, a close friend of Stoker's, wrote an obituary for him in The Daily Telegraph, saying that—besides his biography on Irving—Stoker wrote only "to sell" and "had no higher aims".
Many figures have been suggested as inspirations for Count Dracula, but there is no consensus. In his 1962 biography of Stoker, Harry Ludlam suggested that Ármin Vámbéry, a professor at the University of Budapest, supplied Stoker with information about Vlad Drăculea, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler. Professors Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu popularised the idea in their 1972 book, In Search of Dracula. Benjamin H. LeBlanc writes that there is a reference within the text to Vámbéry, an "Arminius, of Buda-Pesh University", who is familiar with the historical Vlad III and is a friend of Abraham Van Helsing, but an investigation by McNally and Florescu found nothing about "Vlad, Dracula, or vampires" within Vámbéry's published papers, nor in Stoker's notes about his meeting with Vámbéry. Academic and Dracula scholar Elizabeth Miller calls the link to Vlad III "tenuous", indicating that Stoker incorporated a large amount of "insignificant detail" from his research, and rhetorically asking why he would omit Vlad III's infamous cruelty.
Raymond McNally's Dracula Was A Woman (1983) suggests another historical figure as an inspiration: Elizabeth Báthory. McNally argues that the imagery of Dracula has analogues in Báthory's described crimes, such as the use of a cage resembling an iron maiden. Gothic critic and lecturer Marie Mulvey-Roberts writes that vampires were traditionally depicted as "mouldering revenants, who dragged themselves around graveyards", but—like Báthory—Dracula uses blood to restore his youth. Recent scholarship has questioned whether Báthory's crimes were exaggerated by her political opponents, with others noting that very little is concretely known about her life. A book that Stoker used for research, The Book of Were-Wolves, does have some information on Báthory, but Miller writes that he never took notes on anything from the short section devoted to her. In a facsimile edition of Bram Stoker's original notes for the book, Miller and her co-author Robert Eighteen-Bisang say in a footnote that there is no evidence she inspired Stoker. In 2000, Miller's book-length study, Dracula: Sense and Nonsense, was said by academic Noel Chevalier to correct "not only leading Dracula scholars, but non-specialists and popular film and television documentaries".
Aside from the historical, Count Dracula also has literary progenitors. Academic Elizabeth Signorotti argues that Dracula is a response to the lesbian vampire of Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872), "correcting" its emphasis on female desire. Bram Stoker's great-nephew, broadcaster Daniel Farson, wrote a biography of the author; in it, he doubts that Stoker was aware of the lesbian elements of Carmilla, but nonetheless notes that it influenced him profoundly. Farson writes that an inscription upon a tomb in Dracula is a direct allusion to Carmilla. Scholar Alison Milbank observes that as Dracula can transform into a dog, Carmilla can become a cat. According to author Patrick McGrath, "traces of Carmilla" can be found in the three female vampires residing in Dracula's castle. A short story written by Stoker and published after his death, "Dracula's Guest", has been seen as evidence of Carmilla's influence. According to Milbank, the story was a deleted first chapter from early in the original manuscript, and replicates Carmilla's setting of Styria instead of Transylvania.
Irish folklore has been suggested as a possible influence on Stoker. Bob Curran, a lecturer in Celtic History and Folklore at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, suggests that Stoker may have drawn some inspiration for Dracula from an Irish vampire, Abhartach.
Prior to writing the novel, Stoker researched extensively, assembling over 100 pages of notes, including chapter summaries and plot outlines. The notes were sold by Bram Stoker's widow, Florence, in 1913, to a New York book dealer for £2. 2s, (equivalent to UK£208 in 2019). Following that, the notes became the property of Charles Scribner's Sons, and then disappeared until they were bought by the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia in 1970. H. P. Lovecraft wrote that he knew "an old lady" who was approached to revise the original manuscript, but that Stoker found her too expensive. Stoker's first biographer, Harry Ludlam, wrote in 1962 that writing commenced on Dracula around 1895 or 1896. Following the rediscovery of Stoker's notes in 1972 by Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu, the two dated the writing of Dracula to between 1895 and 1897. Later scholarship has questioned these sets of dates. In the first extensive study of the notes, Joseph S. Bierman writes that the earliest date within them is 8 March 1890, for an outline of a chapter that "differs from the final version in only a few details". According to Bierman, Stoker always intended to write an epistolary novel, but with originally setting it in Styria instead of Transylvania; this iteration did not explicitly use the word vampire. For two summers, Stoker and his family stayed in the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel in Cruden Bay, Scotland, while he was actively writing Dracula.
Stoker's notes illuminate much about earlier iterations of the novel. For instance, they indicate that the novel's vampire was intended to be a count, even before he was given the name Dracula. Stoker likely found the name Dracula in Whitby's public library while holidaying there with his wife and son in 1880. On the name, Stoker wrote: "Dracula means devil. Wallachians were accustomed to give it as a surname to any person who rendered himself conspicuous by courage, cruel actions or cunning". Stoker's initial plans for Dracula markedly differ from the final novel. Had Stoker completed his original plans, a German professor called Max Windshoeffel "would have confronted Count Wampyr from Styria", and one of the Crew of Light would have been slain by a werewolf. Stoker's earliest notes indicate that Dracula might have originally been intended to be a detective story, with a detective called Cotford and a psychical investigator called Singleton.
Dracula was published in London in May 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company. It cost 6 shillings, and was bound in yellow cloth and titled in red letters. In 2002, Barbara Belford, a biographer, wrote that the novel looked "shabby", perhaps because the title had been changed at a late stage. Although contracts were typically signed at least 6 months ahead of publication, Dracula's was unusually signed only 6 days prior to publication. For the first thousand sales of the novel, Stoker earned no royalties. Following serialisation by American newspapers, Doubleday & McClure published an American edition in 1899. In the 1930s when Universal Studios purchased the rights to make a film version, it was discovered that Stoker had not fully complied with US copyright law, placing the novel into the public domain. The novelist was required to purchase the copyright and register two copies, but he registered only one. Stoker's mother, Charlotte Stoker, enthused about the novel to Stoker, predicting it would bring him immense financial success. She was wrong; the novel, although reviewed well, did not make Stoker much money and did not cement his critical legacy until after his death. Since its publication, Dracula has never been out of print.
In 1901, Dracula was translated into Icelandic by Valdimar Ásmundsson under the title Makt Myrkranna (Powers of Darkness) with a preface written by Stoker. In the preface, Stoker writes that the events contained within the novel are true, and that "for obvious reasons" he had changed the names of places and people. Although scholars had been aware of the translation's existence since the 1980s because of Stoker's preface, none had thought to translate it back into English. Makt Myrkranna differs significantly from Stoker's novel. Character names were changed, the length was abridged, and it was more overtly sexual than the original. Dutch scholar Hans Corneel de Roos compared the translation favourably to Stoker's, writing that where Dracula meandered, the translation was concise and punchy. It has since been discovered that the Icelandic version is based on an earlier Swedish version under the same title (Swedish: Mörkrets makter), originally published serialised in the newspaper Dagen from 1899 to 1900 and credited only to Bram Stoker and a still-unidentified "A—e." The original Swedish version is a much longer variant of the Icelandic version and almost twice as long as the standard text of Dracula published in 1897.
Academic analyses of Dracula as sexually charged have become so frequent that a cottage industry has developed around the topic. Sexuality and seduction are two of the novel's most frequently discussed themes, especially as it relates to the corruption of English womanhood. Modern critical writings about vampirism widely acknowledge its link to sex and sexuality. Bram Stoker himself was possibly homosexual; Talia Schaffer points to intensely homoerotic letters sent by him to the American poet Walt Whitman. Stoker began writing the novel one month following the imprisonment of his friend Oscar Wilde for homosexuality.
The novel's characters are often said to represent transgressive sexuality through the performance of their genders. The primary sexual threat posed by Count Dracula is, Christopher Craft writes, that he will "seduce, penetrate, [and] drain another male", with Jonathan Harker's excitement about being penetrated by three vampire women serving as a mask and proxy for his homosexual desire. His excitement also inverts standard Victorian gender roles; in succumbing to the vampire women, Harker assumes the traditionally feminine role of sexual passivity while the vampire women assume the masculinised role of acting. Sexual depravity and aggression were understood by the Victorians as the exclusive domain of Victorian men, while women were expected to submit to their husband's sexual wishes. Harker's desire to submit, and the scene's origin as a dream Stoker had, highlights the divide between societal expectations and lived realities of men who wanted more freedom in their sexual lives. In the British version of the text, Harker hears the three vampire women whispering at his door, and Dracula tells them they can feed on him tomorrow night. In the American version, Dracula insinuates that he will be feeding on Harker that night: "To-night is mine! To-morrow is yours!" Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal, in the Norton Critical Edition of the text, posit that Stoker thought the line would render the novel unpublishable in 1897 England, and that "the America that produced his hero Walt Whitman would have been more tolerant of men feeding on men".
The novel's depiction of women continues to divide critics. Elaine Showalter writes that Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker represent different aspects of the New Woman. According to Showalter, Lucy represents the "sexual daring" of the New Woman, evidenced by how she wonders why a woman cannot marry three men if they all desire her. Mina, meanwhile, represents the New Woman's "intellectual ambitions", citing her occupation as a schoolmaster, her keen mind, and her knowledge of shorthand. Carol A. Senf writes that Stoker was ambivalent about the New Woman phenomenon. Of the novel's five vampires, four are women, and all are aggressive, "wildly erotic", and driven only by their thirst for blood. Mina Harker, meanwhile, serves as the antithesis of the other female characters, and plays a singularly important role in Dracula's defeat. On the other hand, Judith Wasserman argues that the fight to defeat Dracula is really a battle for control over women's bodies. Senf points out that Lucy's sexual awakening, and her reversal of gender-based sexual roles, is what Abraham Van Helsing considers a threat.
Dracula, and specifically the Count's migration to Victorian England, is frequently read as emblematic of invasion literature, and a projection of fears about racial pollution. A number of scholars have indicated that Dracula's version of the vampire myth participates in antisemitic stereotyping. Jules Zanger links the novel's portrayal of the vampire to the immigration of Eastern European Jews to fin de siècle England. Between 1881 and 1900, the number of Jews living in England had increased sixfold because of pogroms and antisemitic laws elsewhere. Jack Halberstam provides a list of Dracula's associations with antisemitic conceptions of Jewish people: his appearance, wealth, parasitic bloodlust, and "lack of allegiance" to one country. In terms of his appearance, Halberstam notes Dracula's resemblance to other fictional Jews; for example, his long, sharp nails are compared to those of Fagin in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist (1838), and Svengali of George du Maurier's Trilby (1895), who is depicted as animalistic and thin.
The novel's depiction of Slovaks and Romani people has attracted some, albeit limited, scholarly attention. Peter Arnds wrote that the Count's control over the Romani and his abduction of young children evokes real folk superstitions about Romani people stealing children, and that his ability to transform into a wolf is likewise related to xenophobic beliefs about the Romani as animalistic. Although vagrants of all kinds were associated with animals, the Romani were victims of persecution in Europe due to a belief that they enjoyed "unclean meat" and lived among animals. Stoker's description of the Slovaks draws heavily from a travel memoir by a British major. Unlike the major's description, Harker's description is overtly imperialistic, labelling the people as "barbarians" and their boats as "primitive", emphasising their perceived cultural inferiority.
Stephen Arata describes the novel as a case of "reverse colonisation"; that is, a fear of the non-white invading England and weakening its racial purity. Arata describes the novel's cultural context of mounting anxiety in Britain over the decline of the British Empire, the rise of other world powers, and a "growing domestic unease" over the morality of imperial colonisation. Manifesting also in other works aside from Stoker's novel, narratives of reverse colonisation indicate a fear of the "civilised" world being invaded by the "primitive". What Dracula does to human bodies is not horrifying simply because he kills them, but because he transforms them into the racial Other. Monika Tomaszewska associates Dracula's status as the racial Other with his characterisation as a degenerate criminal. She explains that, at the time of the novel's composition and publication, the "threatening degenerate was commonly identified as the racial Other, the alien intruder who invades the country to disrupt the domestic order and enfeeble the host race".
The novel's representation of vampirism has been discussed as symbolising Victorian anxieties about disease. The theme is discussed with far less frequency than others because it is discussed alongside other topics rather than as the central object of discussion. For example, some connect its depiction of disease with race. Jack Halberstam points to one scene in which an English worker says that the repugnant odour of Count Dracula's London home smells like Jerusalem, making it a "Jewish smell". Jewish people were frequently described, in Victorian literature, as parasites; Halberstam highlights one particular fear that Jews would spread diseases of the blood, and one journalist's description of Jews as "Yiddish bloodsuckers". In contrast, Mathias Clasen writes parallels between vampirism and sexually-transmitted diseases, specifically syphilis. Martin Willis, a researcher focused on the intersection of literature and disease, argues that the novel's characterisation of vampirism makes it both the initial infection and resulting illness.
As an epistolary novel, Dracula is narrated through a series of documents. The novel's first four chapters are related as the journals of Jonathan Harker. Scholar David Seed notes that Harker's accounts function as an attempt to translocate the "strange" events of his visit to Dracula's castle into the nineteenth-century tradition of travelogue writing. John Seward, Mina Murray and Jonathan Harker all keep a crystalline account of the period as an act of self-preservation; David Seed notes that Harker's narrative is written in shorthand to remain inscrutable to the Count, protecting his own identity, which Dracula threatens to destroy. Harker's journal, for example, embodies the only advantage during his stay at Dracula's castle: that he knows more than the Count thinks he does. The novel's disparate accounts approach a kind of narrative unity as the narrative unfolds. In the novel's first half, each narrator has a strongly characterised narrative voice, with Lucy's showing her verbosity, Seward's businesslike formality, and Harker's excessive politeness. These narrative styles also highlight the power struggle between vampire and his hunters; the increasing prominence of Van Helsing's broken English as Dracula gathers power represents the entrance of the foreigner into Victorian society.
Dracula is a common reference text in discussions of Gothic fiction. Jerrold E. Hogle notes Gothic fiction's tendency to blur boundaries, pointing to sexual orientation, race, class, and even species. Relating this to Dracula, he highlights that the Count "can disgorge blood from his breasts" in addition to his teeth; that he is attracted to both Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray; appears both racially western and eastern; and how he is an aristocrat able to mingle with homeless vagrants. Stoker drew extensively from folklore in crafting Count Dracula, but many of the Count's physical attributes were typical of Gothic villains during Stoker's lifetime. In particular, his hooked nose, pale complexion, large moustache and thick eyebrows were likely inspired by the villains of Gothic fiction. Likewise, Stoker's selection of Transylvania has roots in the Gothic. Writers of the mode were drawn to Eastern Europe as a setting because travelogues presented it as a land of primitive superstitions. Dracula deviates from Gothic tales before it by firmly establishing its time—that being the modern era. The novel is an example of the Urban Gothic subgenre.
Dracula became the subject of critical interest into Irish fiction during the early 1990s. Dracula is set largely in England, but Stoker was born in Ireland, which was at that time part of the British Empire, and lived there for the first 30 years of his life. As a result, a significant body of writing exists on Dracula, Ireland, England, and colonialism. Calvin W. Keogh writes that Harker's voyage into Eastern Europe "bears comparison with the Celtic fringe to the west", highlighting them both as "othered" spaces. Keogh notes that the Eastern Question has been both symbolically and historically associated with the Irish question. In this reading, Transylvania functions as a stand-in for Ireland. Several critics have described Count Dracula as an Anglo-Irish landlord.
It is said of Mrs. Radcliffe that, when writing her now almost forgotten romances, she shut herself up in absolute seclusion, and fed upon raw beef, in order to give her work the desired atmosphere of gloom, tragedy and terror. If one had no assurance to the contrary, one might well suppose that a similar method and regimen had been adopted by Mr. Bram Stoker while writing his new novel Dracula.
The Daily Mail, 1 June 1897
Upon publication, Dracula was well received. Reviewers frequently compared the novel to other Gothic writers, and mentions of novelist Wilkie Collins and The Woman in White (1859) were especially common because of similarities in structure and style. A review appearing in The Bookseller notes that the novel could almost have been written by Collins, and an anonymous review in Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art wrote that Dracula improved upon the style of Gothic pioneer Ann Radcliffe. Another anonymous writer described Stoker as "the Edgar Allan Poe of the nineties". Other favourable comparisons to other Gothic novelists include the Brontë sisters and Mary Shelley.
Many of these early reviews were charmed by Stoker's unique treatment of the vampire myth. One called it the best vampire story ever written. The Daily Telegraph's reviewer noted that while earlier Gothic works, like The Castle of Otranto, had kept the supernatural far away from the novelists' home countries, Dracula's horrors occurred both in foreign lands—in the far-away Carpathian Mountains—and at home, in Whitby and Hampstead Heath. An Australian paper, The Advertiser, regarded the novel as simultaneously sensational and domestic. One reviewer praised the "considerable power" of Stoker's prose and describing it as impressionistic. They were less fond of the parts set in England, finding the vampire suited better to tales set far away from home. The British magazine Vanity Fair noted that the novel was, at times, unintentionally funny, pointing to Dracula's disdain for garlic.
Dracula was widely considered to be frightening. A review appearing in The Manchester Guardian in 1897 praised its capacity to entertain, but concluded that Stoker erred in including so much horror. Likewise, Vanity Fair opined that the novel was "praiseworthy" and absorbing, but could not recommend it to those who were not "strong". Stoker's prose was commended as effective in sustaining the novel's horror by many publications. A reviewer for the San Francisco Wave called the novel a "literary failure"; they elaborated that coupling vampires with frightening imagery, such as insane asylums and "unnatural appetites", made the horror too overt, and that other works in the genre, such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, had more restraint.
Modern critics frequently write that Dracula had a mixed critical reception upon publication. Carol Margaret Davison, for example, notes an "uneven" response from critics contemporary to Stoker. John Edgar Browning, a scholar whose research focuses on Dracula and literary vampires, conducted a review of the novel's early criticism in 2012 and determined that Dracula had been "a critically acclaimed novel". Browning writes that the misconception of Dracula's mixed reception stems from a low sample size. Of 91 contemporary reviews, Browning identified 10 as "generally positive"; 4 as "mixed" in their assessment; 3 as "wholly or mostly negative"; and the rest as positive and possessing no negative reservations. Among the positive reviews, Browning writes that 36 were unreserved in their praise, including publications like The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, and Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper. Other critical works have rejected the narrative of Dracula's mixed response. Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu's In Search of Dracula mentions the novel's "immediate success". Other works about Dracula, coincidentally also published in 1972, concur; Gabriel Ronay says the novel was "recognised by fans and critics alike as a horror writer's stroke of genius", and Anthony Masters mentions the novel's "enormous popular appeal". Since the 1970s, Dracula has been the subject of significant academic interest, evidenced by its own peer-reviewed journal and the numerous books and articles discussing the novel.
The story of Dracula has been the basis for numerous films and plays. Stoker himself wrote the first theatrical adaptation, which was presented at the Lyceum Theatre on 18 May 1897 under the title Dracula, or The Undead shortly before the novel's publication and performed only once, in order to establish his own copyright for such adaptations. Although the manuscript was believed lost, the British Library possesses a copy. It consists of extracts from the novel's galley proof with Stoker's own handwriting providing direction and dialogue attribution.
The first film to feature Count Dracula was Károly Lajthay's Drakula halála (transl. The Death of Dracula), a Hungarian silent film which allegedly premiered in 1921, though this release date has been questioned by some scholars. Very little of the film has survived, and David J. Skal notes that the cover artist for the 1926 Hungarian edition of the novel was more influenced by the second adaptation of Dracula, F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu. Critic Wayne E. Hensley writes that the narrative of Nosferatu differs significantly from the novel, but that characters have clear counterparts. Bram Stoker's widow, Florence, initiated legal action against the studio behind Nosferatu, Prana. The legal case lasted two or three years, and in May 1924, Prana agreed to destroy all copies of the film.
Visual representations of the Count have changed significantly over time. Early treatments of Dracula's appearance were established by theatrical productions in London and New York. Later prominent portrayals of the character by Béla Lugosi (in a 1931 adaptation) and Christopher Lee (firstly in the 1958 film and later its sequels) built upon earlier versions. Chiefly, Dracula's early visual style involved a black-red colour scheme and slicked back hair. Lee's portrayal was overtly sexual, and also popularised fangs on screen. Gary Oldman's portrayal in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola and costumed by Eiko Ishioka, established a new default look for the character—a Romanian accent and long hair. The assortment of adaptations feature many different dispositions and characteristics of the Count.
Dracula has been adapted a large number of times across virtually all forms of media. John Edgar Browning and Caroline Joan S. Picart write that the novel and its characters have been adapted for film, television, video games and animation over 700 times, with nearly 1000 additional appearances in comic books and on the stage. Roberto Fernández Retamar deemed Count Dracula—along with characters such as Frankenstein's monster, Mickey Mouse and Superman—to be a part of the "hegemonic Anglo-Saxon world['s] cinematic fodder". Across the world, completed new adaptations can be produced as often as every week.
Dracula was not the first piece of literature to depict vampires, but the novel has nonetheless come to dominate both popular and scholarly treatments of vampire fiction. Count Dracula is the first character to come to mind when people discuss vampires. Dracula succeeded by drawing together folklore, legend, vampire fiction and the conventions of the Gothic novel. Wendy Doniger described the novel as vampire literature's "centrepiece, rendering all other vampires BS or AS". It profoundly shaped the popular understanding of how vampires function, including their strengths, weaknesses, and other characteristics. Bats had been associated with vampires before Dracula as a result of the vampire bat's existence—for example, Varney the Vampire (1847) included an image of a bat on its cover illustration. But Stoker deepened the association by making Dracula able to transform into one. That was, in turn, quickly taken up by film studios looking for opportunities to use special effects. Patrick McGrath notes that many of the Count's characteristics have been adopted by artists succeeding Stoker in depicting vampires, turning those fixtures into clichés. Aside from the Count's ability to transform, McGrath specifically highlights his hatred of garlic, sunlight, and crucifixes. William Hughes writes critically of the Count's cultural omnipresence, noting that the character of Dracula has "seriously inhibited" discussions of the undead in Gothic fiction.
Adaptations of the novel and its characters have contributed to its enduring popularity. Even within academic discussions, the boundaries between Stoker's novel and the character's adaptation across a range of media have effectively been blurred. Dacre Stoker suggests that Stoker's failure to comply with United States copyright law contributed to its enduring status, writing that writers and producers did not need to pay a licence fee to use the character. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dracula is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. An epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, investigate, hunt and kill Dracula.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Dracula was mostly written in the 1890s. Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes for the novel, drawing extensively from Transylvanian folklore and history. Some scholars have suggested that the character of Dracula was inspired by historical figures like the Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler or the countess Elizabeth Báthory, but there is widespread disagreement. Stoker's notes mention neither figure. He found the name Dracula in Whitby's public library while on holiday, thinking it meant devil in Romanian.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Following its publication, Dracula was positively received by reviewers who pointed to its effective use of horror. In contrast, reviewers who wrote negatively of the novel regarded it as excessively frightening. Comparisons to other works of Gothic fiction were common, including its structural similarity to Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White (1859). In the past century, Dracula has been situated as a piece of Gothic fiction. Modern scholars explore the novel within its historical context—the Victorian era—and discuss its depiction of gender roles, sexuality, and race.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Dracula is one of the most famous pieces of English literature. Many of the book's characters have entered popular culture as archetypal versions of their characters; for example, Count Dracula as the quintessential vampire, and Abraham Van Helsing as an iconic vampire hunter. The novel, which is in the public domain, has been adapted for film over 30 times, and its characters have made numerous appearances in virtually all media.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, visits Count Dracula at his castle in the Carpathian Mountains to help the Count purchase a house near London. Ignoring the Count's warning, Harker wanders the castle at night and encounters three vampire women; Dracula rescues Harker, and gives the women a small child bound inside a bag. Harker awakens in bed; soon after, Dracula leaves the castle, abandoning him to the women. Harker escapes and ends up delirious in a Budapest hospital. Dracula takes a ship called the Demeter for England with boxes of earth from his castle. The captain's log narrates the crew's disappearance until he alone remains, bound to the helm to maintain course. An animal resembling a large dog is seen leaping ashore when the ship runs aground at Whitby.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Lucy Westenra's letter to her best friend, Harker's fiancée Mina Murray, describes her marriage proposals from Dr. John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood. Lucy accepts Holmwood's, but all remain friends. Mina joins Lucy on holiday in Whitby. Lucy begins sleepwalking. After his ship lands there, Dracula stalks Lucy. Mina receives a letter about her missing fiancé's illness, and goes to Budapest to nurse him. Lucy becomes very ill. Seward's old teacher, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, determines the nature of Lucy's condition, but refuses to disclose it. He diagnoses her with acute blood-loss. Van Helsing places garlic flowers around her room and makes her a necklace of them. Lucy's mother removes the garlic flowers, not knowing they repel vampires. While Seward and Van Helsing are absent, Lucy and her mother are terrified by a wolf and Mrs. Westenra dies of a heart attack; Lucy dies shortly thereafter. After her burial, newspapers report children being stalked in the night by a \"bloofer lady\" (beautiful lady), and Van Helsing deduces it is Lucy. The four go to her tomb and see that she is a vampire. They stake her heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic. Jonathan Harker and his now-wife Mina have returned, and they join the campaign against Dracula.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Everyone stays at Dr. Seward's asylum as the men begin to hunt Dracula. Van Helsing finally reveals that vampires can only rest on earth from their homeland. Dracula communicates with Seward's patient, Renfield, an insane man who eats vermin to absorb their life force. After Dracula learns of the group's plot against him, he uses Renfield to enter the asylum. He secretly attacks Mina three times, drinking her blood each time and forcing Mina to drink his blood on the final visit. She is cursed to become a vampire after her death unless Dracula is killed. As the men find Dracula's properties, they discover many earth boxes within. The vampire hunters open each of the boxes and seal wafers of sacramental bread inside them, rendering them useless to Dracula. They attempt to trap the Count in his Piccadilly house, but he escapes. They learn that Dracula is fleeing to his castle in Transylvania with his last box. Mina has a faint psychic connection to Dracula, which Van Helsing exploits via hypnosis to track Dracula's movements. Guided by Mina, they pursue him.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In Galatz, Romania, the hunters split up. Van Helsing and Mina go to Dracula's castle, where the professor destroys the vampire women. Jonathan Harker and Arthur Holmwood follow Dracula's boat on the river, while Quincey Morris and John Seward parallel them on land. After Dracula's box is finally loaded onto a wagon by Romani men, the hunters converge and attack it. After routing the Romani, Harker decapitates Dracula as Quincey stabs him in the heart. Dracula crumbles to dust, freeing Mina from her vampiric curse. Quincey is mortally wounded in the fight against the Romani. He dies from his wounds, at peace with the knowledge that Mina is saved. A note by Jonathan Harker seven years later states that the Harkers have a son, named Quincey.",
"title": "Plot"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "As the acting manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, Bram Stoker was a recognisable figure: he would greet evening guests, and served as assistant to the stage actor Henry Irving. In a letter to Walt Whitman, Stoker described his own temperament as \"secretive to the world\", but he nonetheless led a relatively public life. Stoker supplemented his income from the theatre by writing romance and sensation novels, and had published 18 books by his death in 1912. Dracula was Stoker's seventh published book, following The Shoulder of Shasta (1895) and preceding Miss Betty (1898). Hall Caine, a close friend of Stoker's, wrote an obituary for him in The Daily Telegraph, saying that—besides his biography on Irving—Stoker wrote only \"to sell\" and \"had no higher aims\".",
"title": "Background"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Many figures have been suggested as inspirations for Count Dracula, but there is no consensus. In his 1962 biography of Stoker, Harry Ludlam suggested that Ármin Vámbéry, a professor at the University of Budapest, supplied Stoker with information about Vlad Drăculea, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler. Professors Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu popularised the idea in their 1972 book, In Search of Dracula. Benjamin H. LeBlanc writes that there is a reference within the text to Vámbéry, an \"Arminius, of Buda-Pesh University\", who is familiar with the historical Vlad III and is a friend of Abraham Van Helsing, but an investigation by McNally and Florescu found nothing about \"Vlad, Dracula, or vampires\" within Vámbéry's published papers, nor in Stoker's notes about his meeting with Vámbéry. Academic and Dracula scholar Elizabeth Miller calls the link to Vlad III \"tenuous\", indicating that Stoker incorporated a large amount of \"insignificant detail\" from his research, and rhetorically asking why he would omit Vlad III's infamous cruelty.",
"title": "Background"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Raymond McNally's Dracula Was A Woman (1983) suggests another historical figure as an inspiration: Elizabeth Báthory. McNally argues that the imagery of Dracula has analogues in Báthory's described crimes, such as the use of a cage resembling an iron maiden. Gothic critic and lecturer Marie Mulvey-Roberts writes that vampires were traditionally depicted as \"mouldering revenants, who dragged themselves around graveyards\", but—like Báthory—Dracula uses blood to restore his youth. Recent scholarship has questioned whether Báthory's crimes were exaggerated by her political opponents, with others noting that very little is concretely known about her life. A book that Stoker used for research, The Book of Were-Wolves, does have some information on Báthory, but Miller writes that he never took notes on anything from the short section devoted to her. In a facsimile edition of Bram Stoker's original notes for the book, Miller and her co-author Robert Eighteen-Bisang say in a footnote that there is no evidence she inspired Stoker. In 2000, Miller's book-length study, Dracula: Sense and Nonsense, was said by academic Noel Chevalier to correct \"not only leading Dracula scholars, but non-specialists and popular film and television documentaries\".",
"title": "Background"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Aside from the historical, Count Dracula also has literary progenitors. Academic Elizabeth Signorotti argues that Dracula is a response to the lesbian vampire of Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872), \"correcting\" its emphasis on female desire. Bram Stoker's great-nephew, broadcaster Daniel Farson, wrote a biography of the author; in it, he doubts that Stoker was aware of the lesbian elements of Carmilla, but nonetheless notes that it influenced him profoundly. Farson writes that an inscription upon a tomb in Dracula is a direct allusion to Carmilla. Scholar Alison Milbank observes that as Dracula can transform into a dog, Carmilla can become a cat. According to author Patrick McGrath, \"traces of Carmilla\" can be found in the three female vampires residing in Dracula's castle. A short story written by Stoker and published after his death, \"Dracula's Guest\", has been seen as evidence of Carmilla's influence. According to Milbank, the story was a deleted first chapter from early in the original manuscript, and replicates Carmilla's setting of Styria instead of Transylvania.",
"title": "Background"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Irish folklore has been suggested as a possible influence on Stoker. Bob Curran, a lecturer in Celtic History and Folklore at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, suggests that Stoker may have drawn some inspiration for Dracula from an Irish vampire, Abhartach.",
"title": "Background"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Prior to writing the novel, Stoker researched extensively, assembling over 100 pages of notes, including chapter summaries and plot outlines. The notes were sold by Bram Stoker's widow, Florence, in 1913, to a New York book dealer for £2. 2s, (equivalent to UK£208 in 2019). Following that, the notes became the property of Charles Scribner's Sons, and then disappeared until they were bought by the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia in 1970. H. P. Lovecraft wrote that he knew \"an old lady\" who was approached to revise the original manuscript, but that Stoker found her too expensive. Stoker's first biographer, Harry Ludlam, wrote in 1962 that writing commenced on Dracula around 1895 or 1896. Following the rediscovery of Stoker's notes in 1972 by Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu, the two dated the writing of Dracula to between 1895 and 1897. Later scholarship has questioned these sets of dates. In the first extensive study of the notes, Joseph S. Bierman writes that the earliest date within them is 8 March 1890, for an outline of a chapter that \"differs from the final version in only a few details\". According to Bierman, Stoker always intended to write an epistolary novel, but with originally setting it in Styria instead of Transylvania; this iteration did not explicitly use the word vampire. For two summers, Stoker and his family stayed in the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel in Cruden Bay, Scotland, while he was actively writing Dracula.",
"title": "Textual history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Stoker's notes illuminate much about earlier iterations of the novel. For instance, they indicate that the novel's vampire was intended to be a count, even before he was given the name Dracula. Stoker likely found the name Dracula in Whitby's public library while holidaying there with his wife and son in 1880. On the name, Stoker wrote: \"Dracula means devil. Wallachians were accustomed to give it as a surname to any person who rendered himself conspicuous by courage, cruel actions or cunning\". Stoker's initial plans for Dracula markedly differ from the final novel. Had Stoker completed his original plans, a German professor called Max Windshoeffel \"would have confronted Count Wampyr from Styria\", and one of the Crew of Light would have been slain by a werewolf. Stoker's earliest notes indicate that Dracula might have originally been intended to be a detective story, with a detective called Cotford and a psychical investigator called Singleton.",
"title": "Textual history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Dracula was published in London in May 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company. It cost 6 shillings, and was bound in yellow cloth and titled in red letters. In 2002, Barbara Belford, a biographer, wrote that the novel looked \"shabby\", perhaps because the title had been changed at a late stage. Although contracts were typically signed at least 6 months ahead of publication, Dracula's was unusually signed only 6 days prior to publication. For the first thousand sales of the novel, Stoker earned no royalties. Following serialisation by American newspapers, Doubleday & McClure published an American edition in 1899. In the 1930s when Universal Studios purchased the rights to make a film version, it was discovered that Stoker had not fully complied with US copyright law, placing the novel into the public domain. The novelist was required to purchase the copyright and register two copies, but he registered only one. Stoker's mother, Charlotte Stoker, enthused about the novel to Stoker, predicting it would bring him immense financial success. She was wrong; the novel, although reviewed well, did not make Stoker much money and did not cement his critical legacy until after his death. Since its publication, Dracula has never been out of print.",
"title": "Textual history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In 1901, Dracula was translated into Icelandic by Valdimar Ásmundsson under the title Makt Myrkranna (Powers of Darkness) with a preface written by Stoker. In the preface, Stoker writes that the events contained within the novel are true, and that \"for obvious reasons\" he had changed the names of places and people. Although scholars had been aware of the translation's existence since the 1980s because of Stoker's preface, none had thought to translate it back into English. Makt Myrkranna differs significantly from Stoker's novel. Character names were changed, the length was abridged, and it was more overtly sexual than the original. Dutch scholar Hans Corneel de Roos compared the translation favourably to Stoker's, writing that where Dracula meandered, the translation was concise and punchy. It has since been discovered that the Icelandic version is based on an earlier Swedish version under the same title (Swedish: Mörkrets makter), originally published serialised in the newspaper Dagen from 1899 to 1900 and credited only to Bram Stoker and a still-unidentified \"A—e.\" The original Swedish version is a much longer variant of the Icelandic version and almost twice as long as the standard text of Dracula published in 1897.",
"title": "Textual history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Academic analyses of Dracula as sexually charged have become so frequent that a cottage industry has developed around the topic. Sexuality and seduction are two of the novel's most frequently discussed themes, especially as it relates to the corruption of English womanhood. Modern critical writings about vampirism widely acknowledge its link to sex and sexuality. Bram Stoker himself was possibly homosexual; Talia Schaffer points to intensely homoerotic letters sent by him to the American poet Walt Whitman. Stoker began writing the novel one month following the imprisonment of his friend Oscar Wilde for homosexuality.",
"title": "Major themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The novel's characters are often said to represent transgressive sexuality through the performance of their genders. The primary sexual threat posed by Count Dracula is, Christopher Craft writes, that he will \"seduce, penetrate, [and] drain another male\", with Jonathan Harker's excitement about being penetrated by three vampire women serving as a mask and proxy for his homosexual desire. His excitement also inverts standard Victorian gender roles; in succumbing to the vampire women, Harker assumes the traditionally feminine role of sexual passivity while the vampire women assume the masculinised role of acting. Sexual depravity and aggression were understood by the Victorians as the exclusive domain of Victorian men, while women were expected to submit to their husband's sexual wishes. Harker's desire to submit, and the scene's origin as a dream Stoker had, highlights the divide between societal expectations and lived realities of men who wanted more freedom in their sexual lives. In the British version of the text, Harker hears the three vampire women whispering at his door, and Dracula tells them they can feed on him tomorrow night. In the American version, Dracula insinuates that he will be feeding on Harker that night: \"To-night is mine! To-morrow is yours!\" Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal, in the Norton Critical Edition of the text, posit that Stoker thought the line would render the novel unpublishable in 1897 England, and that \"the America that produced his hero Walt Whitman would have been more tolerant of men feeding on men\".",
"title": "Major themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The novel's depiction of women continues to divide critics. Elaine Showalter writes that Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker represent different aspects of the New Woman. According to Showalter, Lucy represents the \"sexual daring\" of the New Woman, evidenced by how she wonders why a woman cannot marry three men if they all desire her. Mina, meanwhile, represents the New Woman's \"intellectual ambitions\", citing her occupation as a schoolmaster, her keen mind, and her knowledge of shorthand. Carol A. Senf writes that Stoker was ambivalent about the New Woman phenomenon. Of the novel's five vampires, four are women, and all are aggressive, \"wildly erotic\", and driven only by their thirst for blood. Mina Harker, meanwhile, serves as the antithesis of the other female characters, and plays a singularly important role in Dracula's defeat. On the other hand, Judith Wasserman argues that the fight to defeat Dracula is really a battle for control over women's bodies. Senf points out that Lucy's sexual awakening, and her reversal of gender-based sexual roles, is what Abraham Van Helsing considers a threat.",
"title": "Major themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Dracula, and specifically the Count's migration to Victorian England, is frequently read as emblematic of invasion literature, and a projection of fears about racial pollution. A number of scholars have indicated that Dracula's version of the vampire myth participates in antisemitic stereotyping. Jules Zanger links the novel's portrayal of the vampire to the immigration of Eastern European Jews to fin de siècle England. Between 1881 and 1900, the number of Jews living in England had increased sixfold because of pogroms and antisemitic laws elsewhere. Jack Halberstam provides a list of Dracula's associations with antisemitic conceptions of Jewish people: his appearance, wealth, parasitic bloodlust, and \"lack of allegiance\" to one country. In terms of his appearance, Halberstam notes Dracula's resemblance to other fictional Jews; for example, his long, sharp nails are compared to those of Fagin in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist (1838), and Svengali of George du Maurier's Trilby (1895), who is depicted as animalistic and thin.",
"title": "Major themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The novel's depiction of Slovaks and Romani people has attracted some, albeit limited, scholarly attention. Peter Arnds wrote that the Count's control over the Romani and his abduction of young children evokes real folk superstitions about Romani people stealing children, and that his ability to transform into a wolf is likewise related to xenophobic beliefs about the Romani as animalistic. Although vagrants of all kinds were associated with animals, the Romani were victims of persecution in Europe due to a belief that they enjoyed \"unclean meat\" and lived among animals. Stoker's description of the Slovaks draws heavily from a travel memoir by a British major. Unlike the major's description, Harker's description is overtly imperialistic, labelling the people as \"barbarians\" and their boats as \"primitive\", emphasising their perceived cultural inferiority.",
"title": "Major themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Stephen Arata describes the novel as a case of \"reverse colonisation\"; that is, a fear of the non-white invading England and weakening its racial purity. Arata describes the novel's cultural context of mounting anxiety in Britain over the decline of the British Empire, the rise of other world powers, and a \"growing domestic unease\" over the morality of imperial colonisation. Manifesting also in other works aside from Stoker's novel, narratives of reverse colonisation indicate a fear of the \"civilised\" world being invaded by the \"primitive\". What Dracula does to human bodies is not horrifying simply because he kills them, but because he transforms them into the racial Other. Monika Tomaszewska associates Dracula's status as the racial Other with his characterisation as a degenerate criminal. She explains that, at the time of the novel's composition and publication, the \"threatening degenerate was commonly identified as the racial Other, the alien intruder who invades the country to disrupt the domestic order and enfeeble the host race\".",
"title": "Major themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The novel's representation of vampirism has been discussed as symbolising Victorian anxieties about disease. The theme is discussed with far less frequency than others because it is discussed alongside other topics rather than as the central object of discussion. For example, some connect its depiction of disease with race. Jack Halberstam points to one scene in which an English worker says that the repugnant odour of Count Dracula's London home smells like Jerusalem, making it a \"Jewish smell\". Jewish people were frequently described, in Victorian literature, as parasites; Halberstam highlights one particular fear that Jews would spread diseases of the blood, and one journalist's description of Jews as \"Yiddish bloodsuckers\". In contrast, Mathias Clasen writes parallels between vampirism and sexually-transmitted diseases, specifically syphilis. Martin Willis, a researcher focused on the intersection of literature and disease, argues that the novel's characterisation of vampirism makes it both the initial infection and resulting illness.",
"title": "Major themes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "As an epistolary novel, Dracula is narrated through a series of documents. The novel's first four chapters are related as the journals of Jonathan Harker. Scholar David Seed notes that Harker's accounts function as an attempt to translocate the \"strange\" events of his visit to Dracula's castle into the nineteenth-century tradition of travelogue writing. John Seward, Mina Murray and Jonathan Harker all keep a crystalline account of the period as an act of self-preservation; David Seed notes that Harker's narrative is written in shorthand to remain inscrutable to the Count, protecting his own identity, which Dracula threatens to destroy. Harker's journal, for example, embodies the only advantage during his stay at Dracula's castle: that he knows more than the Count thinks he does. The novel's disparate accounts approach a kind of narrative unity as the narrative unfolds. In the novel's first half, each narrator has a strongly characterised narrative voice, with Lucy's showing her verbosity, Seward's businesslike formality, and Harker's excessive politeness. These narrative styles also highlight the power struggle between vampire and his hunters; the increasing prominence of Van Helsing's broken English as Dracula gathers power represents the entrance of the foreigner into Victorian society.",
"title": "Style"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Dracula is a common reference text in discussions of Gothic fiction. Jerrold E. Hogle notes Gothic fiction's tendency to blur boundaries, pointing to sexual orientation, race, class, and even species. Relating this to Dracula, he highlights that the Count \"can disgorge blood from his breasts\" in addition to his teeth; that he is attracted to both Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray; appears both racially western and eastern; and how he is an aristocrat able to mingle with homeless vagrants. Stoker drew extensively from folklore in crafting Count Dracula, but many of the Count's physical attributes were typical of Gothic villains during Stoker's lifetime. In particular, his hooked nose, pale complexion, large moustache and thick eyebrows were likely inspired by the villains of Gothic fiction. Likewise, Stoker's selection of Transylvania has roots in the Gothic. Writers of the mode were drawn to Eastern Europe as a setting because travelogues presented it as a land of primitive superstitions. Dracula deviates from Gothic tales before it by firmly establishing its time—that being the modern era. The novel is an example of the Urban Gothic subgenre.",
"title": "Style"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Dracula became the subject of critical interest into Irish fiction during the early 1990s. Dracula is set largely in England, but Stoker was born in Ireland, which was at that time part of the British Empire, and lived there for the first 30 years of his life. As a result, a significant body of writing exists on Dracula, Ireland, England, and colonialism. Calvin W. Keogh writes that Harker's voyage into Eastern Europe \"bears comparison with the Celtic fringe to the west\", highlighting them both as \"othered\" spaces. Keogh notes that the Eastern Question has been both symbolically and historically associated with the Irish question. In this reading, Transylvania functions as a stand-in for Ireland. Several critics have described Count Dracula as an Anglo-Irish landlord.",
"title": "Style"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "It is said of Mrs. Radcliffe that, when writing her now almost forgotten romances, she shut herself up in absolute seclusion, and fed upon raw beef, in order to give her work the desired atmosphere of gloom, tragedy and terror. If one had no assurance to the contrary, one might well suppose that a similar method and regimen had been adopted by Mr. Bram Stoker while writing his new novel Dracula.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The Daily Mail, 1 June 1897",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Upon publication, Dracula was well received. Reviewers frequently compared the novel to other Gothic writers, and mentions of novelist Wilkie Collins and The Woman in White (1859) were especially common because of similarities in structure and style. A review appearing in The Bookseller notes that the novel could almost have been written by Collins, and an anonymous review in Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art wrote that Dracula improved upon the style of Gothic pioneer Ann Radcliffe. Another anonymous writer described Stoker as \"the Edgar Allan Poe of the nineties\". Other favourable comparisons to other Gothic novelists include the Brontë sisters and Mary Shelley.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Many of these early reviews were charmed by Stoker's unique treatment of the vampire myth. One called it the best vampire story ever written. The Daily Telegraph's reviewer noted that while earlier Gothic works, like The Castle of Otranto, had kept the supernatural far away from the novelists' home countries, Dracula's horrors occurred both in foreign lands—in the far-away Carpathian Mountains—and at home, in Whitby and Hampstead Heath. An Australian paper, The Advertiser, regarded the novel as simultaneously sensational and domestic. One reviewer praised the \"considerable power\" of Stoker's prose and describing it as impressionistic. They were less fond of the parts set in England, finding the vampire suited better to tales set far away from home. The British magazine Vanity Fair noted that the novel was, at times, unintentionally funny, pointing to Dracula's disdain for garlic.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Dracula was widely considered to be frightening. A review appearing in The Manchester Guardian in 1897 praised its capacity to entertain, but concluded that Stoker erred in including so much horror. Likewise, Vanity Fair opined that the novel was \"praiseworthy\" and absorbing, but could not recommend it to those who were not \"strong\". Stoker's prose was commended as effective in sustaining the novel's horror by many publications. A reviewer for the San Francisco Wave called the novel a \"literary failure\"; they elaborated that coupling vampires with frightening imagery, such as insane asylums and \"unnatural appetites\", made the horror too overt, and that other works in the genre, such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, had more restraint.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Modern critics frequently write that Dracula had a mixed critical reception upon publication. Carol Margaret Davison, for example, notes an \"uneven\" response from critics contemporary to Stoker. John Edgar Browning, a scholar whose research focuses on Dracula and literary vampires, conducted a review of the novel's early criticism in 2012 and determined that Dracula had been \"a critically acclaimed novel\". Browning writes that the misconception of Dracula's mixed reception stems from a low sample size. Of 91 contemporary reviews, Browning identified 10 as \"generally positive\"; 4 as \"mixed\" in their assessment; 3 as \"wholly or mostly negative\"; and the rest as positive and possessing no negative reservations. Among the positive reviews, Browning writes that 36 were unreserved in their praise, including publications like The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, and Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper. Other critical works have rejected the narrative of Dracula's mixed response. Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu's In Search of Dracula mentions the novel's \"immediate success\". Other works about Dracula, coincidentally also published in 1972, concur; Gabriel Ronay says the novel was \"recognised by fans and critics alike as a horror writer's stroke of genius\", and Anthony Masters mentions the novel's \"enormous popular appeal\". Since the 1970s, Dracula has been the subject of significant academic interest, evidenced by its own peer-reviewed journal and the numerous books and articles discussing the novel.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The story of Dracula has been the basis for numerous films and plays. Stoker himself wrote the first theatrical adaptation, which was presented at the Lyceum Theatre on 18 May 1897 under the title Dracula, or The Undead shortly before the novel's publication and performed only once, in order to establish his own copyright for such adaptations. Although the manuscript was believed lost, the British Library possesses a copy. It consists of extracts from the novel's galley proof with Stoker's own handwriting providing direction and dialogue attribution.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The first film to feature Count Dracula was Károly Lajthay's Drakula halála (transl. The Death of Dracula), a Hungarian silent film which allegedly premiered in 1921, though this release date has been questioned by some scholars. Very little of the film has survived, and David J. Skal notes that the cover artist for the 1926 Hungarian edition of the novel was more influenced by the second adaptation of Dracula, F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu. Critic Wayne E. Hensley writes that the narrative of Nosferatu differs significantly from the novel, but that characters have clear counterparts. Bram Stoker's widow, Florence, initiated legal action against the studio behind Nosferatu, Prana. The legal case lasted two or three years, and in May 1924, Prana agreed to destroy all copies of the film.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Visual representations of the Count have changed significantly over time. Early treatments of Dracula's appearance were established by theatrical productions in London and New York. Later prominent portrayals of the character by Béla Lugosi (in a 1931 adaptation) and Christopher Lee (firstly in the 1958 film and later its sequels) built upon earlier versions. Chiefly, Dracula's early visual style involved a black-red colour scheme and slicked back hair. Lee's portrayal was overtly sexual, and also popularised fangs on screen. Gary Oldman's portrayal in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola and costumed by Eiko Ishioka, established a new default look for the character—a Romanian accent and long hair. The assortment of adaptations feature many different dispositions and characteristics of the Count.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Dracula has been adapted a large number of times across virtually all forms of media. John Edgar Browning and Caroline Joan S. Picart write that the novel and its characters have been adapted for film, television, video games and animation over 700 times, with nearly 1000 additional appearances in comic books and on the stage. Roberto Fernández Retamar deemed Count Dracula—along with characters such as Frankenstein's monster, Mickey Mouse and Superman—to be a part of the \"hegemonic Anglo-Saxon world['s] cinematic fodder\". Across the world, completed new adaptations can be produced as often as every week.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Dracula was not the first piece of literature to depict vampires, but the novel has nonetheless come to dominate both popular and scholarly treatments of vampire fiction. Count Dracula is the first character to come to mind when people discuss vampires. Dracula succeeded by drawing together folklore, legend, vampire fiction and the conventions of the Gothic novel. Wendy Doniger described the novel as vampire literature's \"centrepiece, rendering all other vampires BS or AS\". It profoundly shaped the popular understanding of how vampires function, including their strengths, weaknesses, and other characteristics. Bats had been associated with vampires before Dracula as a result of the vampire bat's existence—for example, Varney the Vampire (1847) included an image of a bat on its cover illustration. But Stoker deepened the association by making Dracula able to transform into one. That was, in turn, quickly taken up by film studios looking for opportunities to use special effects. Patrick McGrath notes that many of the Count's characteristics have been adopted by artists succeeding Stoker in depicting vampires, turning those fixtures into clichés. Aside from the Count's ability to transform, McGrath specifically highlights his hatred of garlic, sunlight, and crucifixes. William Hughes writes critically of the Count's cultural omnipresence, noting that the character of Dracula has \"seriously inhibited\" discussions of the undead in Gothic fiction.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Adaptations of the novel and its characters have contributed to its enduring popularity. Even within academic discussions, the boundaries between Stoker's novel and the character's adaptation across a range of media have effectively been blurred. Dacre Stoker suggests that Stoker's failure to comply with United States copyright law contributed to its enduring status, writing that writers and producers did not need to pay a licence fee to use the character.",
"title": "Legacy"
}
] | Dracula is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. An epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, investigate, hunt and kill Dracula. Dracula was mostly written in the 1890s. Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes for the novel, drawing extensively from Transylvanian folklore and history. Some scholars have suggested that the character of Dracula was inspired by historical figures like the Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler or the countess Elizabeth Báthory, but there is widespread disagreement. Stoker's notes mention neither figure. He found the name Dracula in Whitby's public library while on holiday, thinking it meant devil in Romanian. Following its publication, Dracula was positively received by reviewers who pointed to its effective use of horror. In contrast, reviewers who wrote negatively of the novel regarded it as excessively frightening. Comparisons to other works of Gothic fiction were common, including its structural similarity to Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White (1859). In the past century, Dracula has been situated as a piece of Gothic fiction. Modern scholars explore the novel within its historical context—the Victorian era—and discuss its depiction of gender roles, sexuality, and race. Dracula is one of the most famous pieces of English literature. Many of the book's characters have entered popular culture as archetypal versions of their characters; for example, Count Dracula as the quintessential vampire, and Abraham Van Helsing as an iconic vampire hunter. The novel, which is in the public domain, has been adapted for film over 30 times, and its characters have made numerous appearances in virtually all media. | 2001-10-18T21:51:25Z | 2023-12-30T22:25:25Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula |
7,925 | David Hume | David Hume (/hjuːm/; born David Home; 7 May NS [26 April OS] 1711 – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. Beginning with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Hume followed John Locke in rejecting the existence of innate ideas, concluding that all human knowledge derives solely from experience. This places him with Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley as an empiricist.
Hume argued that inductive reasoning and belief in causality cannot be justified rationally; instead, they result from custom and mental habit. We never actually perceive that one event causes another but only experience the "constant conjunction" of events. This problem of induction means that to draw any causal inferences from past experience, it is necessary to presuppose that the future will resemble the past, a metaphysical presupposition which cannot itself be grounded in prior experience.
An opponent of philosophical rationalists, Hume held that passions rather than reason govern human behaviour, famously proclaiming that "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions." Hume was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on emotion or sentiment rather than abstract moral principle. He maintained an early commitment to naturalistic explanations of moral phenomena and is usually accepted by historians of European philosophy to have first clearly expounded the is–ought problem, or the idea that a statement of fact alone can never give rise to a normative conclusion of what ought to be done.
Hume denied that humans have an actual conception of the self, positing that we experience only a bundle of sensations, and that the self is nothing more than this bundle of perceptions connected by an association of ideas. Hume's compatibilist theory of free will takes causal determinism as fully compatible with human freedom. His philosophy of religion, including his rejection of miracles, and of the argument from design for God's existence, were especially controversial for their time.
Hume left a legacy that affected utilitarianism, logical positivism, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive science, theology, and many other fields and thinkers. Immanuel Kant credited Hume as the inspiration that had awakened him from his "dogmatic slumbers."
Hume was born on 26 April 1711 (Old Style), as David Home, in a tenement on the north side of Edinburgh's Lawnmarket. He was the second of two sons born to Catherine Home (née Falconer), daughter of Sir David Falconer of Newton, Midlothian and his wife Mary Falconer (née Norvell), and Joseph Home of Chirnside in the County of Berwick, an advocate of Ninewells. Joseph died just after David's second birthday. Catherine, who never remarried, raised the two brothers and their sister on her own.
Hume changed his family name's spelling in 1734, as the surname 'Home' (pronounced as 'Hume') was not well-known in England. Hume never married and lived partly at his Chirnside family home in Berwickshire, which had belonged to the family since the 16th century. His finances as a young man were very "slender", as his family was not rich; as a younger son he had little patrimony to live on.
Hume attended the University of Edinburgh at an unusually early age—either 12 or possibly as young as 10—at a time when 14 was the typical age. Initially, Hume considered a career in law, because of his family. However, in his words, he came to have:
…an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of Philosophy and general Learning; and while [my family] fanceyed I was poring over Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the Authors which I was secretly devouring.
He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in 1735 that "there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books". He did not graduate.
At age 18 or so, Hume made a philosophical discovery that opened up to him "a new Scene of Thought", inspiring him "to throw up every other Pleasure or Business to apply entirely to it". As he did not recount what this scene exactly was, commentators have offered a variety of speculations. One prominent interpretation among contemporary Humean scholarship is that this new "scene of thought" was Hume's realisation that Francis Hutcheson's theory of moral sense could be applied to the understanding of morality as well.
From this inspiration, Hume set out to spend a minimum of 10 years reading and writing. He soon came to the verge of a mental breakdown, first starting with a coldness—which he attributed to a "Laziness of Temper"—that lasted about nine months. Later, some scurvy spots broke out on his fingers, persuading Hume's physician to diagnose Hume as suffering from the "Disease of the Learned".
Hume wrote that he "went under a Course of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills", taken along with a pint of claret every day. He also decided to have a more active life to better continue his learning. His health improved somewhat, but in 1731 he was afflicted with a ravenous appetite and palpitations. After eating well for a time, he went from being "tall, lean and raw-bon'd" to being "sturdy, robust [and] healthful-like." Indeed, Hume would become well known for being obese and having a fondness for good port and cheese, often using them as philosophical metaphors for his conjectures.
Although having noble ancestry, at age 25, Hume had no source of income and no learned profession. As was common at his time, he became a merchant's assistant, despite having to leave his native Scotland. He travelled via Bristol to La Flèche in Anjou, France. There he had frequent discourse with the Jesuits of the College of La Flèche.
Hume was derailed in his attempts to start a university career by protests over his alleged "atheism", also lamenting that his literary debut, A Treatise of Human Nature, "fell dead-born from the press." However, he found literary success in his lifetime as an essayist, and a career as a librarian at the University of Edinburgh. These successes provided him much needed income at the time. His tenure there, and the access to research materials it provided, resulted in Hume's writing the massive six-volume The History of England, which became a bestseller and the standard history of England in its day. For over 60 years, Hume was the dominant interpreter of English history. He described his "love for literary fame" as his "ruling passion" and judged his two late works, the so-called "first" and "second" enquiries, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, as his greatest literary and philosophical achievements. He would ask of his contemporaries to judge him on the merits of the later texts alone, rather than on the more radical formulations of his early, youthful work, dismissing his philosophical debut as juvenilia: "A work which the Author had projected before he left College." Despite Hume's protestations, a consensus exists today that his most important arguments and philosophically distinctive doctrines are found in the original form they take in the Treatise. Though he was only 23 years old when starting this work, it is now regarded as one of the most important in the history of Western philosophy.
Hume worked for four years on his first major work, A Treatise of Human Nature, subtitled "Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects", completing it in 1738 at age 28. Although many scholars today consider the Treatise to be Hume's most important work and one of the most important books in Western philosophy, critics in Great Britain at the time described it as "abstract and unintelligible". As Hume had spent most of his savings during those four years, he resolved "to make a very rigid frugality supply [his] deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired [his] independency, and to regard every object as contemptible except the improvements of [his] talents in literature".
Despite the disappointment, Hume later wrote: "Being naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I soon recovered from the blow and prosecuted with great ardour my studies in the country." There, in an attempt to make his larger work better known and more intelligible, he published the An Abstract of a Book lately Published as a summary of the main doctrines of the Treatise, without revealing its authorship. This work contained the same ideas, but with a shorter and clearer explanation. Although there has been some academic speculation as to who actually wrote this pamphlet, it is generally regarded as Hume's creation.
After the publication of Essays Moral and Political in 1741—included in the later edition as Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary—Hume applied for the Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. However, the position was given to William Cleghorn after Edinburgh ministers petitioned the town council not to appoint Hume because he was seen as an atheist.
In 1745, during the Jacobite risings, Hume tutored the Marquess of Annandale, an engagement that ended in disarray after about a year. The Marquess could not follow with Hume's lectures, his father saw little need for philosophy, and on a personal level, the Marquess found Hume's dietary tendencies to be bizarre. Hume then started his great historical work, The History of England, which took fifteen years and ran to over a million words. During this time, he was also involved with the Canongate Theatre through his friend John Home, a preacher.
In this context, he associated with Lord Monboddo and other thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment in Edinburgh. From 1746, Hume served for three years as secretary to General James St Clair, who was envoy to the courts of Turin and Vienna. At that time Hume wrote Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, later published as An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Often called the First Enquiry, it proved little more successful than the Treatise, perhaps because of the publication of his short autobiography My Own Life, which "made friends difficult for the first Enquiry". By the end of this period Hume had attained his well-known corpulent stature; "the good table of the General and the prolonged inactive life had done their work", leaving him "a man of tremendous bulk".
In 1749 he went to live with his brother in the countryside, although he continued to associate with the aforementioned Scottish Enlightenment figures.
Hume's religious views were often suspect and, in the 1750s, it was necessary for his friends to avert a trial against him on the charge of heresy, specifically in an ecclesiastical court. However, he "would not have come and could not be forced to attend if he said he was not a member of the Established Church". Hume failed to gain the chair of philosophy at the University of Glasgow due to his religious views. By this time, he had published the Philosophical Essays, which were decidedly anti-religious. This represented a turning point in his career and the various opportunities made available to him. Even Adam Smith, his personal friend who had vacated the Glasgow philosophy chair, was against his appointment out of concern that public opinion would be against it. In 1761 all his works were banned on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
Hume returned to Edinburgh in 1751. In the following year, the Faculty of Advocates hired him to be their Librarian, a job in which he would receive little to no pay, but which nonetheless gave him "the command of a large library". This resource enabled him to continue historical research for The History of England. Hume's volume of Political Discourses, written in 1749 and published by Kincaid & Donaldson in 1752, was the only work he considered successful on first publication.
In 1753 Hume moved from his house on Riddles Court on the Lawnmarket to a house on the Canongate at the other end of the Royal Mile. Here he lived in a tenement known as Jack's Land, immediately west of the still surviving Shoemakers Land.
Eventually, with the publication of his six-volume The History of England between 1754 and 1762, Hume achieved the fame that he coveted. The volumes traced events from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688 and was a bestseller in its day. Hume was also a longtime friend of bookseller Andrew Millar, who sold Hume's History (after acquiring the rights from Scottish bookseller Gavin Hamilton), although the relationship was sometimes complicated. Letters between them illuminate both men's interest in the success of the History. In 1762 Hume moved from Jack's Land on the Canongate to James Court on the Lawnmarket. He sold the house to James Boswell in 1766.
From 1763 to 1765, Hume was invited to attend Lord Hertford in Paris, where he became secretary to the British embassy. Hume was well received in Paris, and while there he met with Isaac de Pinto.
In 1765, Hume served as British Chargé d'affaires, writing "despatches to the British Secretary of State". He wrote of his Paris life, "I really wish often for the plain roughness of The Poker Club of Edinburgh…to correct and qualify so much lusciousness." In 1766, upon returning to Britain, Hume encouraged his patron Lord Hertford to invest in a number of slave plantations, acquired by George Colebrooke and others in the Windward Islands. In June 1766 Hume facilitated the purchase of the slave plantation by writing to Victor-Thérèse Charpentier, marquis d'Ennery, the French governor of Martinique, on behalf of his friend, John Stewart, a wine merchant whom he had lent £400 earlier in the same year. According to Dr. Felix Waldmann, a former Hume Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Hume's "puckish scepticism about the existence of religious miracles played a significant part in defining the critical outlook which underpins the practice of modern science. But his views served to reinforce the institution of racialised slavery in the later 18th century."
In 1766, Hume left Paris to accompany Jean-Jacques Rousseau to England. Once there, he and Rousseau fell out, leaving Hume sufficiently worried about the damage to his reputation from the quarrel with Rousseau. So much so, that Hume would author an account of the dispute, titling it "A concise and genuine account of the dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau".
In 1767, Hume was appointed Under Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Here, he wrote that he was given "all the secrets of the Kingdom". In 1769 he returned to James' Court in Edinburgh, where he would live from 1771 until his death in 1776.
Hume's nephew and namesake, David Hume of Ninewells (1757–1838), was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783. He was a Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University and rose to be Principal Clerk of Session in the Scottish High Court and Baron of the Exchequer. He is buried with his uncle in Old Calton Cemetery.
In the last year of his life, Hume wrote an extremely brief autobiographical essay titled "My Own Life", summing up his entire life in "fewer than 5 pages"; it contains many interesting judgments that have been of enduring interest to subsequent readers of Hume. Donald Seibert (1984), a scholar of 18th-century literature, judged it a "remarkable autobiography, even though it may lack the usual attractions of that genre. Anyone hankering for startling revelations or amusing anecdotes had better look elsewhere."
Despite condemning vanity as a dangerous passion, in his autobiography Hume confesses his belief that the "love of literary fame" had served as his "ruling passion" in life, and claims that this desire "never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments". One such disappointment Hume discusses in this account is in the initial literary reception of the Treatise, which he claims to have overcome by means of the success of the Essays: "the work was favourably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former disappointment". Hume, in his own retrospective judgment, argues that his philosophical debut's apparent failure "had proceeded more from the manner than the matter". He thus suggests that "I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in going to the press too early."
Hume also provides an unambiguous self-assessment of the relative value of his works: that "my Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals; which, in my own opinion (who ought not to judge on that subject) is of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best." He also wrote of his social relations: "My company was not unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and literary", noting of his complex relation to religion, as well as to the state, that "though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury". He goes on to profess of his character: "My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct." Hume concludes the essay with a frank admission:
I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained.
Diarist and biographer James Boswell saw Hume a few weeks before his death from a form of abdominal cancer. Hume told him that he sincerely believed it a "most unreasonable fancy" that there might be life after death. Hume asked that his body be interred in a "simple Roman tomb", requesting in his will that it be inscribed only with his name and the year of his birth and death, "leaving it to Posterity to add the Rest".
David Hume died at the southwest corner of St. Andrew's Square in Edinburgh's New Town, at what is now 21 Saint David Street. A popular story, consistent with some historical evidence and with the help of coincidence, suggests that the street was named after Hume.
His tomb stands, as he wished it, on the southwestern slope of Calton Hill, in the Old Calton Cemetery. Adam Smith later recounted Hume's amusing speculation that he might ask Charon, Hades' ferryman, to allow him a few more years of life in order to see "the downfall of some of the prevailing systems of superstition". The ferryman replied, "You loitering rogue, that will not happen these many hundred years.… Get into the boat this instant."
A Treatise of Human Nature begins with the introduction: "'Tis evident, that all the sciences have a relation, more or less, to human nature.… Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent on the science of Man." The science of man, as Hume explains, is the "only solid foundation for the other sciences" and that the method for this science requires both experience and observation as the foundations of a logical argument. In regards to this, philosophical historian Frederick Copleston (1999) suggests that it was Hume's aim to apply to the science of man the method of experimental philosophy (the term that was current at the time to imply natural philosophy), and that "Hume's plan is to extend to philosophy in general the methodological limitations of Newtonian physics."
Until recently, Hume was seen as a forerunner of logical positivism, a form of anti-metaphysical empiricism. According to the logical positivists (in summary of their verification principle), unless a statement could be verified by experience, or else was true or false by definition (i.e., either tautological or contradictory), then it was meaningless. Hume, on this view, was a protopositivist, who, in his philosophical writings, attempted to demonstrate the ways in which ordinary propositions about objects, causal relations, the self, and so on, are semantically equivalent to propositions about one's experiences.
Many commentators have since rejected this understanding of Humean empiricism, stressing an epistemological (rather than a semantic) reading of his project. According to this opposing view, Hume's empiricism consisted in the idea that it is our knowledge, and not our ability to conceive, that is restricted to what can be experienced. Hume thought that we can form beliefs about that which extends beyond any possible experience, through the operation of faculties such as custom and the imagination, but he was sceptical about claims to knowledge on this basis.
A central doctrine of Hume's philosophy, stated in the very first lines of the Treatise of Human Nature, is that the mind consists of perceptions, or the mental objects which are present to it, and which divide into two categories: "All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which I shall call impressions and ideas." Hume believed that it would "not be very necessary to employ many words in explaining this distinction", which commentators have generally taken to mean the distinction between feeling and thinking. Controversially, Hume, in some sense, may regard the distinction as a matter of degree, as he takes impressions to be distinguished from ideas on the basis of their force, liveliness, and vivacity—what Henry E. Allison (2008) calls the "FLV criterion." Ideas are therefore "faint" impressions. For example, experiencing the painful sensation of touching a hot pan's handle is more forceful than simply thinking about touching a hot pan. According to Hume, impressions are meant to be the original form of all our ideas. From this, Don Garrett (2002) has coined the term copy principle, referring to Hume's doctrine that all ideas are ultimately copied from some original impression, whether it be a passion or sensation, from which they derive.
After establishing the forcefulness of impressions and ideas, these two categories are further broken down into simple and complex: "simple perceptions or impressions and ideas are such as admit of no distinction nor separation", whereas "the complex are the contrary to these, and may be distinguished into parts". When looking at an apple, a person experiences a variety of colour-sensations—what Hume notes as a complex impression. Similarly, a person experiences a variety of taste-sensations, tactile-sensations, and smell-sensations when biting into an apple, with the overall sensation—again, a complex impression. Thinking about an apple allows a person to form complex ideas, which are made of similar parts as the complex impressions they were developed from, but which are also less forceful. Hume believes that complex perceptions can be broken down into smaller and smaller parts until perceptions are reached that have no parts of their own, and these perceptions are thus referred to as simple.
Regardless of how boundless it may seem; a person's imagination is confined to the mind's ability to recombine the information it has already acquired from the body's sensory experience (the ideas that have been derived from impressions). In addition, "as our imagination takes our most basic ideas and leads us to form new ones, it is directed by three principles of association, namely, resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect":
Hume elaborates more on the last principle, explaining that, when somebody observes that one object or event consistently produces the same object or event, that results in "an expectation that a particular event (a 'cause') will be followed by another event (an 'effect') previously and constantly associated with it". Hume calls this principle custom, or habit, saying that "custom...renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past". However, even though custom can serve as a guide in life, it still only represents an expectation. In other words:
Experience cannot establish a necessary connection between cause and effect, because we can imagine without contradiction a case where the cause does not produce its usual effect…the reason why we mistakenly infer that there is something in the cause that necessarily produces its effect is because our past experiences have habituated us to think in this way.
Continuing this idea, Hume argues that "only in the pure realm of ideas, logic, and mathematics, not contingent on the direct sense awareness of reality, [can] causation safely…be applied—all other sciences are reduced to probability". He uses this scepticism to reject metaphysics and many theological views on the basis that they are not grounded in fact and observations, and are therefore beyond the reach of human understanding.
The cornerstone of Hume's epistemology is the problem of induction. This may be the area of Hume's thought where his scepticism about human powers of reason is most pronounced. The problem revolves around the plausibility of inductive reasoning, that is, reasoning from the observed behaviour of objects to their behaviour when unobserved. As Hume wrote, induction concerns how things behave when they go "beyond the present testimony of the senses, or the records of our memory". Hume argues that we tend to believe that things behave in a regular manner, meaning that patterns in the behaviour of objects seem to persist into the future, and throughout the unobserved present. Hume's argument is that we cannot rationally justify the claim that nature will continue to be uniform, as justification comes in only two varieties—demonstrative reasoning and probable reasoning—and both of these are inadequate. With regard to demonstrative reasoning, Hume argues that the uniformity principle cannot be demonstrated, as it is "consistent and conceivable" that nature might stop being regular. Turning to probable reasoning, Hume argues that we cannot hold that nature will continue to be uniform because it has been in the past. As this is using the very sort of reasoning (induction) that is under question, it would be circular reasoning. Thus, no form of justification will rationally warrant our inductive inferences.
Hume's solution to this problem is to argue that, rather than reason, natural instinct explains the human practice of making inductive inferences. He asserts that "Nature, by an absolute and uncontroulable [sic] necessity has determin'd us to judge as well as to breathe and feel." In 1985, and in agreement with Hume, John D. Kenyon writes:
Reason might manage to raise a doubt about the truth of a conclusion of natural inductive inference just for a moment ... but the sheer agreeableness of animal faith will protect us from excessive caution and sterile suspension of belief.
Others, such as Charles Sanders Peirce, have demurred from Hume's solution, while some, such as Kant and Karl Popper, have thought that Hume's analysis has "posed a most fundamental challenge to all human knowledge claims".
The notion of causation is closely linked to the problem of induction. According to Hume, we reason inductively by associating constantly conjoined events. It is the mental act of association that is the basis of our concept of causation. At least three interpretations of Hume's theory of causation are represented in the literature:
Hume acknowledged that there are events constantly unfolding, and humanity cannot guarantee that these events are caused by prior events or are independent instances. He opposed the widely accepted theory of causation that 'all events have a specific course or reason'. Therefore, Hume crafted his own theory of causation, formed through his empiricist and sceptic beliefs. He split causation into two realms: "All the objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, Relations of Ideas, and Matters of Fact." Relations of Ideas are a priori and represent universal bonds between ideas that mark the cornerstones of human thought. Matters of Fact are dependent on the observer and experience. They are often not universally held to be true among multiple persons. Hume was an Empiricist, meaning he believed "causes and effects are discoverable not by reason, but by experience". He goes on to say that, even with the perspective of the past, humanity cannot dictate future events because thoughts of the past are limited, compared to the possibilities for the future. Hume's separation between Matters of Fact and Relations of Ideas is often referred to as "Hume's fork."
Hume explains his theory of causation and causal inference by division into three different parts. In these three branches he explains his ideas and compares and contrasts his views to his predecessors. These branches are the Critical Phase, the Constructive Phase, and Belief. In the Critical Phase, Hume denies his predecessors' theories of causation. Next, he uses the Constructive Phase to resolve any doubts the reader may have had while observing the Critical Phase. "Habit or Custom" mends the gaps in reasoning that occur without the human mind even realising it. Associating ideas has become second nature to the human mind. It "makes us expect for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past". However, Hume says that this association cannot be trusted because the span of the human mind to comprehend the past is not necessarily applicable to the wide and distant future. This leads him to the third branch of causal inference, Belief. Belief is what drives the human mind to hold that expectancy of the future is based on past experience. Throughout his explanation of causal inference, Hume is arguing that the future is not certain to be repetition of the past and that the only way to justify induction is through uniformity.
The logical positivist interpretation is that Hume analyses causal propositions, such as "A causes B", in terms of regularities in perception: "A causes B" is equivalent to "Whenever A-type events happen, B-type ones follow", where "whenever" refers to all possible perceptions. In his Treatise of Human Nature, Hume wrote:
Power and necessity…are…qualities of perceptions, not of objects…felt by the soul and not perceiv'd externally in bodies.
This view is rejected by sceptical realists, who argue that Hume thought that causation amounts to more than just the regular succession of events. Hume said that, when two events are causally conjoined, a necessary connection underpins the conjunction:
Shall we rest contented with these two relations of contiguity and succession, as affording a complete idea of causation? By no means…there is a necessary connexion to be taken into consideration.
Angela Coventry writes that, for Hume, "there is nothing in any particular instance of cause and effect involving external objects which suggests the idea of power or necessary connection" and "we are ignorant of the powers that operate between objects". However, while denying the possibility of knowing the powers between objects, Hume accepted the causal principle, writing: "I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that something could arise without a cause."
It has been argued that, while Hume did not think that causation is reducible to pure regularity, he was not a fully-fledged realist either. Simon Blackburn calls this a quasi-realist reading, saying that "Someone talking of cause is voicing a distinct mental set: he is by no means in the same state as someone merely describing regular sequences." In Hume's words, "nothing is more usual than to apply to external bodies every internal sensation, which they occasion".
Empiricist philosophers, such as Hume and Berkeley, favoured the bundle theory of personal identity. In this theory, "the mind itself, far from being an independent power, is simply 'a bundle of perceptions' without unity or cohesive quality". The self is nothing but a bundle of experiences linked by the relations of causation and resemblance; or, more accurately, the empirically warranted idea of the self is just the idea of such a bundle. According to Hume:
For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception. When my perceptions are removed for any time, as by sound sleep; so long I am insensible of myself, and may truly be said not to exist.
This view is supported by, for example, positivist interpreters, who have seen Hume as suggesting that terms such as "self", "person", or "mind" refer to collections of "sense-contents". A modern-day version of the bundle theory of the mind has been advanced by Derek Parfit in his Reasons and Persons.
However, some philosophers have criticised Hume's bundle-theory interpretation of personal identity. They argue that distinct selves can have perceptions that stand in relation to similarity and causality. Thus, perceptions must already come parcelled into distinct "bundles" before they can be associated according to the relations of similarity and causality. In other words, the mind must already possess a unity that cannot be generated, or constituted, by these relations alone. Since the bundle-theory interpretation portrays Hume as answering an ontological question, philosophers like Galen Strawson see Hume as not very concerned with such questions and have queried whether this view is really Hume's. Instead, Strawson suggests that Hume might have been answering an epistemological question about the causal origin of our concept of the self. In the Appendix to the Treatise, Hume declares himself dissatisfied with his earlier account of personal identity in Book 1. Corliss Swain notes that "Commentators agree that if Hume did find some new problem" when he reviewed the section on personal identity, "he wasn't forthcoming about its nature in the Appendix." One interpretation of Hume's view of the self, argued for by philosopher and psychologist James Giles, is that Hume is not arguing for a bundle theory, which is a form of reductionism, but rather for an eliminative view of the self. Rather than reducing the self to a bundle of perceptions, Hume rejects the idea of the self altogether. On this interpretation, Hume is proposing a "no-self theory" and thus has much in common with Buddhist thought (see anattā). Psychologist Alison Gopnik has argued that Hume was in a position to learn about Buddhist thought during his time in France in the 1730s.
Practical reason relates to whether standards or principles exist that are also authoritative for all rational beings, dictating people's intentions and actions. Hume is mainly considered an anti-rationalist, denying the possibility for practical reason, although other philosophers such as Christine Korsgaard, Jean Hampton, and Elijah Millgram claim that Hume is not so much of an anti-rationalist as he is just a sceptic of practical reason.
Hume denied the existence of practical reason as a principle because he claimed reason does not have any effect on morality, since morality is capable of producing effects in people that reason alone cannot create. As Hume explains in A Treatise of Human Nature (1740):
Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason."
Since practical reason is supposed to regulate our actions (in theory), Hume denied practical reason on the grounds that reason cannot directly oppose passions. As Hume puts it, "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them." Reason is less significant than any passion because reason has no original influence, while "A passion is an original existence, or, if you will, modification of existence."
Practical reason is also concerned with the value of actions rather than the truth of propositions, so Hume believed that reason's shortcoming of affecting morality proved that practical reason could not be authoritative for all rational beings, since morality was essential for dictating people's intentions and actions.
Hume's writings on ethics began in the 1740 Treatise and were refined in his An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). He understood feeling, rather than knowing, as that which governs ethical actions, stating that "moral decisions are grounded in moral sentiment." Arguing that reason cannot be behind morality, he wrote:
Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.
Hume's moral sentimentalism was shared by his close friend Adam Smith, and the two were mutually influenced by the moral reflections of their older contemporary, Francis Hutcheson. Peter Singer claims that Hume's argument that morals cannot have a rational basis alone "would have been enough to earn him a place in the history of ethics."
Hume also put forward the is–ought problem, later known as Hume's Law, denying the possibility of logically deriving what ought to be from what is. According to the Treatise (1740), in every system of morality that Hume has read, the author begins by stating facts about the world as it is but always ends up suddenly referring to what ought to be the case. Hume demands that a reason should be given for inferring what ought to be the case, from what is the case. This is because it "seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others."
Hume's theory of ethics has been influential in modern-day meta-ethical theory, helping to inspire emotivism, and ethical expressivism and non-cognitivism, as well as Allan Gibbard's general theory of moral judgment and judgments of rationality.
Hume's ideas about aesthetics and the theory of art are spread throughout his works, but are particularly connected with his ethical writings, and also the essays "Of the Standard of Taste" and "Of Tragedy" (1757). His views are rooted in the work of Joseph Addison and Francis Hutcheson. In the Treatise (1740), he touches on the connection between beauty & deformity and vice & virtue. His later writings on the subject continue to draw parallels of beauty and deformity in art with conduct and character.
In "Standard of Taste", Hume argues that no rules can be drawn up about what is a tasteful object. However, a reliable critic of taste can be recognised as objective, sensible and unprejudiced, and as having extensive experience. "Of Tragedy" addresses the question of why humans enjoy tragic drama. Hume was concerned with the way spectators find pleasure in the sorrow and anxiety depicted in a tragedy. He argued that this was because the spectator is aware that he is witnessing a dramatic performance. There is pleasure in realising that the terrible events that are being shown are actually fiction. Furthermore, Hume laid down rules for educating people in taste and correct conduct, and his writings in this area have been very influential on English and Anglo-Saxon aesthetics.
Hume, along with Thomas Hobbes, is cited as a classical compatibilist about the notions of freedom and determinism. Compatibilism seeks to reconcile human freedom with the mechanist view that human beings are part of a deterministic universe, which is completely governed by physical laws. Hume, on this point, was influenced greatly by the scientific revolution, particularly by Sir Isaac Newton. Hume argued that the dispute between freedom and determinism continued over 2000 years due to ambiguous terminology. He wrote: "From this circumstance alone, that a controversy has been long kept on foot…we may presume that there is some ambiguity in the expression," and that different disputants use different meanings for the same terms.
Hume defines the concept of necessity as "the uniformity, observable in the operations of nature; where similar objects are constantly conjoined together," and liberty as "a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will." He then argues that, according to these definitions, not only are the two compatible, but liberty requires necessity. For if our actions were not necessitated in the above sense, they would "have so little in connexion with motives, inclinations and circumstances, that one does not follow with a certain degree of uniformity from the other." But if our actions are not thus connected to the will, then our actions can never be free: they would be matters of "chance; which is universally allowed to have no existence." Australian philosopher John Passmore writes that confusion has arisen because "necessity" has been taken to mean "necessary connexion." Once this has been abandoned, Hume argues that "liberty and necessity will be found not to be in conflict one with another."
Moreover, Hume goes on to argue that in order to be held morally responsible, it is required that our behaviour be caused or necessitated, for, as he wrote:
Actions are, by their very nature, temporary and perishing; and where they proceed not from some cause in the character and disposition of the person who performed them, they can neither redound to his honour, if good; nor infamy, if evil.
Hume describes the link between causality and our capacity to rationally make a decision from this an inference of the mind. Human beings assess a situation based upon certain predetermined events and from that form a choice. Hume believes that this choice is made spontaneously. Hume calls this form of decision making the liberty of spontaneity.
Education writer Richard Wright considers that Hume's position rejects a famous moral puzzle attributed to French philosopher Jean Buridan. The Buridan's ass puzzle describes a donkey that is hungry. This donkey has separate bales of hay on both sides, which are of equal distances from him. The problem concerns which bale the donkey chooses. Buridan was said to believe that the donkey would die, because he has no autonomy. The donkey is incapable of forming a rational decision as there is no motive to choose one bale of hay over the other. However, human beings are different, because a human who is placed in a position where he is forced to choose one loaf of bread over another will make a decision to take one in lieu of the other. For Buridan, humans have the capacity of autonomy, and he recognises the choice that is ultimately made will be based on chance, as both loaves of bread are exactly the same. However, Wright says that Hume completely rejects this notion, arguing that a human will spontaneously act in such a situation because he is faced with impending death if he fails to do so. Such a decision is not made on the basis of chance, but rather on necessity and spontaneity, given the prior predetermined events leading up to the predicament.
Hume's argument is supported by modern-day compatibilists such as R. E. Hobart, a pseudonym of philosopher Dickinson S. Miller. However, P. F. Strawson argued that the issue of whether we hold one another morally responsible does not ultimately depend on the truth or falsity of a metaphysical thesis such as determinism. This is because our so holding one another is a non-rational human sentiment that is not predicated on such theses.
Philosopher Paul Russell (2005) contends that Hume wrote "on almost every central question in the philosophy of religion", and that these writings "are among the most important and influential contributions on this topic." Touching on the philosophy, psychology, history, and anthropology of religious thought, Hume's 1757 dissertation "The Natural History of Religion" argues that the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all derive from earlier polytheistic religions. He went on to suggest that all religious belief "traces, in the end, to dread of the unknown". Hume had also written on religious subjects in the first Enquiry, as well as later in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
Although he wrote a great deal about religion, Hume's personal views have been the subject of much debate. Some modern critics have described Hume's religious views as agnostic or have described him as a "Pyrrhonian skeptic". Contemporaries considered him to be an atheist, or at least un-Christian, enough so that the Church of Scotland seriously considered bringing charges of infidelity against him. Evidence of his un-Christian beliefs can especially be found in his writings on miracles, in which he attempts to separate historical method from the narrative accounts of miracles. Nevertheless, modern scholars have tended to dismiss the claims of Hume's contemporaries describing him as an atheist as coming from religiously intolerant people who did not understand Hume’s philosophy. The fact that contemporaries suspected him of atheism is exemplified by a story Hume liked to tell:
The best theologian he ever met, he used to say, was the old Edinburgh fishwife who, having recognized him as Hume the atheist, refused to pull him out of the bog into which he had fallen until he declared he was a Christian and repeated the Lord's prayer.
However, in works such as "Of Superstition and Enthusiasm", Hume specifically seems to support the standard religious views of his time and place. This still meant that he could be very critical of the Catholic Church, dismissing it with the standard Protestant accusations of superstition and idolatry, as well as dismissing as idolatry what his compatriots saw as uncivilised beliefs. He also considered extreme Protestant sects, the members of which he called "enthusiasts", to be corrupters of religion. By contrast, in "The Natural History of Religion", Hume presents arguments suggesting that polytheism had much to commend it over monotheism. Additionally, when mentioning religion as a factor in his History of England, Hume uses it to show the deleterious effect it has on human progress. In his Treatise of Human Nature, Hume wrote: "Generally speaking, the errors in religions are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous."
Lou Reich (1998) argues that Hume was a religious naturalist and rejects interpretations of Hume as an atheist. Paul Russell (2008) writes that Hume was plainly sceptical about religious belief, although perhaps not to the extent of complete atheism. He suggests that Hume's position is best characterised by the term "irreligion," while philosopher David O'Connor (2013) argues that Hume's final position was "weakly deistic". For O'Connor, Hume's "position is deeply ironic. This is because, while inclining towards a weak form of deism, he seriously doubts that we can ever find a sufficiently favourable balance of evidence to justify accepting any religious position." He adds that Hume "did not believe in the God of standard theism ... but he did not rule out all concepts of deity", and that "ambiguity suited his purposes, and this creates difficulty in definitively pinning down his final position on religion".
One of the traditional topics of natural theology is that of the existence of God, and one of the a posteriori arguments for this is the argument from design or the teleological argument. The argument is that the existence of God can be proved by the design that is obvious in the complexity of the world, which Encyclopædia Britannica states is "the most popular", because it is:
…the most accessible of the theistic arguments ... which identifies evidences of design in nature, inferring from them a divine designer ... The fact that the universe as a whole is a coherent and efficiently functioning system likewise, in this view, indicates a divine intelligence behind it.
In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Hume wrote that the design argument seems to depend upon our experience, and its proponents "always suppose the universe, an effect quite singular and unparalleled, to be the proof of a Deity, a cause no less singular and unparalleled". Philosopher Louise E. Loeb (2010) notes that Hume is saying that only experience and observation can be our guide to making inferences about the conjunction between events. However, according to Hume:
We observe neither God nor other universes, and hence no conjunction involving them. There is no observed conjunction to ground an inference either to extended objects or to God, as unobserved causes.
Hume also criticised the argument in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). In this, he suggested that, even if the world is a more or less smoothly functioning system, this may only be a result of the "chance permutations of particles falling into a temporary or permanent self-sustaining order, which thus has the appearance of design".
A century later, the idea of order without design was rendered more plausible by Charles Darwin's discovery that the adaptations of the forms of life result from the natural selection of inherited characteristics. For philosopher James D. Madden, it is "Hume, rivaled only by Darwin, [who] has done the most to undermine in principle our confidence in arguments from design among all figures in the Western intellectual tradition".
Finally, Hume discussed a version of the anthropic principle, which is the idea that theories of the universe are constrained by the need to allow for man's existence in it as an observer. Hume has his sceptical mouthpiece Philo suggest that there may have been many worlds, produced by an incompetent designer, whom he called a "stupid mechanic". In his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Hume wrote:
Many worlds might have been botched and bungled throughout an eternity, ere this system was struck out: much labour lost: many fruitless trials made: and a slow, but continued improvement carried on during infinite ages in the art of world-making.
In his discussion of miracles, Hume argues that we should not believe miracles have occurred and that they do not therefore provide us with any reason to think God exists. In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Section 10), Hume defines a miracle as "a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent". Hume says we believe an event that has frequently occurred is likely to occur again, but we also take into account those instances where the event did not occur:
A wise man ... considers which side is supported by the greater number of experiments. ... A hundred instances or experiments on one side, and fifty on another, afford a doubtful expectation of any event; though a hundred uniform experiments, with only one that is contradictory, reasonably beget a pretty strong degree of assurance. In all cases, we must balance the opposite experiments ... and deduct the smaller number from the greater, in order to know the exact force of the superior evidence.
Hume discusses the testimony of those who report miracles. He wrote that testimony might be doubted even from some great authority in case the facts themselves are not credible: "[T]he evidence, resulting from the testimony, admits of a diminution, greater or less, in proportion as the fact is more or less unusual."
Although Hume leaves open the possibility for miracles to occur and be reported, he offers various arguments against this ever having happened in history. He points out that people often lie, and they have good reasons to lie about miracles occurring either because they believe they are doing so for the benefit of their religion or because of the fame that results. Furthermore, people by nature enjoy relating miracles they have heard without caring for their veracity and thus miracles are easily transmitted even when false. Also, Hume notes that miracles seem to occur mostly in "ignorant and barbarous nations" and times, and the reason they do not occur in the civilised societies is such societies are not awed by what they know to be natural events. Hume recognizes that over a long period time, various coincidences can provide the appearance of intention. Finally, the miracles of each religion argue against all other religions and their miracles, and so even if a proportion of all reported miracles across the world fit Hume's requirement for belief, the miracles of each religion make the other less likely.
Hume was extremely pleased with his argument against miracles in his Enquiry. He states, "I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument of a like nature, which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures." Thus, Hume's argument against miracles had a more abstract basis founded upon the scrutiny, not just primarily of miracles, but of all forms of belief systems. It is a commonsense notion of veracity based upon epistemological evidence, and founded on a principle of rationality, proportionality and reasonability.
The criterion for assessing Hume's belief system is based on the balance of probability whether something is more likely than not to have occurred. Since the weight of empirical experience contradicts the notion for the existence of miracles, such accounts should be treated with scepticism. Further, the myriad of accounts of miracles contradict one another, as some people who receive miracles will aim to prove the authority of Jesus, whereas others will aim to prove the authority of Muhammad or some other religious prophet or deity. These various differing accounts weaken the overall evidential power of miracles.
Despite all this, Hume observes that belief in miracles is popular, and that "the gazing populace… receive greedily, without examination, whatever soothes superstition, and promotes wonder."
Critics have argued that Hume's position assumes the character of miracles and natural laws prior to any specific examination of miracle claims, thus it amounts to a subtle form of begging the question. To assume that testimony is a homogeneous reference group seems unwise- to compare private miracles with public miracles, unintellectual observers with intellectual observers and those who have little to gain and much to lose with those with much to gain and little to lose is not convincing to many. Indeed, many have argued that miracles not only do not contradict the laws of nature but require the laws of nature to be intelligible as miraculous, and thus subverting the law of nature. For example, William Adams remarks that "there must be an ordinary course of nature before anything can be extraordinary. There must be a stream before anything can be interrupted." They have also noted that it requires an appeal to inductive inference, as none have observed every part of nature nor examined every possible miracle claim, for instance those in the future. This, in Hume's philosophy, was especially problematic.
Little appreciated is the voluminous literature either foreshadowing Hume, in the likes of Thomas Sherlock or directly responding to and engaging with Hume—from William Paley, William Adams, John Douglas, John Leland, and George Campbell, among others. Regarding the latter, it is rumoured that, having read Campbell's Dissertation, Hume remarked that "the Scotch theologue had beaten him."
Hume's main argument concerning miracles is that miracles by definition are singular events that differ from the established laws of nature. Such natural laws are codified as a result of past experiences. Therefore, a miracle is a violation of all prior experience and thus incapable on this basis of reasonable belief. However, the probability that something has occurred in contradiction of all past experience should always be judged to be less than the probability that either one's senses have deceived one, or the person recounting the miraculous occurrence is lying or mistaken, Hume would say, all of which he had past experience of. For Hume, this refusal to grant credence does not guarantee correctness. He offers the example of an Indian Prince, who, having grown up in a hot country, refuses to believe that water has frozen. By Hume's lights, this refusal is not wrong and the prince "reasoned justly;" it is presumably only when he has had extensive experience of the freezing of water that he has warrant to believe that the event could occur.
So, for Hume, either the miraculous event will become a recurrent event or else it will never be rational to believe it occurred. The connection to religious belief is left unexplained throughout, except for the close of his discussion where Hume notes the reliance of Christianity upon testimony of miraculous occurrences. He makes an ironic remark that anyone who "is moved by faith to assent" to revealed testimony "is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience." Hume writes that "All the testimony whichever was really given for any miracle, or ever will be given, is a subject of derision."
From 1754 to 1762 Hume published The History of England, a six-volume work, that extends (according to its subtitle) "From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688." Inspired by Voltaire's sense of the breadth of history, Hume widened the focus of the field away from merely kings, parliaments, and armies, to literature and science as well. He argued that the quest for liberty was the highest standard for judging the past, and concluded that after considerable fluctuation, England at the time of his writing had achieved "the most entire system of liberty that was ever known amongst mankind". It "must be regarded as an event of cultural importance. In its own day, moreover, it was an innovation, soaring high above its very few predecessors." Hume's History of England made him famous as a historian before he was ever considered a serious philosopher. In this work, Hume uses history to tell the story of the rise of England and what led to its greatness and the disastrous effects that religion has had on its progress. For Hume, the history of England's rise may give a template for others who would also like to rise to its current greatness.
Hume's The History of England was profoundly impacted by his Scottish background. The science of sociology, which is rooted in Scottish thinking of the eighteenth century, had never before been applied to British philosophical history. Because of his Scottish background, Hume was able to bring an outsider's lens to English history that the insulated English whigs lacked.
Hume's coverage of the political upheavals of the 17th century relied in large part on the Earl of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (1646–69). Generally, Hume took a moderate royalist position and considered revolution unnecessary to achieve necessary reform. Hume was considered a Tory historian and emphasised religious differences more than constitutional issues. Laird Okie explains that "Hume preached the virtues of political moderation, but ... it was moderation with an anti-Whig, pro-royalist coloring." For "Hume shared the ... Tory belief that the Stuarts were no more high-handed than their Tudor predecessors". "Even though Hume wrote with an anti-Whig animus, it is, paradoxically, correct to regard the History as an establishment work, one which implicitly endorsed the ruling oligarchy". Historians have debated whether Hume posited a universal unchanging human nature, or allowed for evolution and development.
The debate between Tory and the Whig historians can be seen in the initial reception to Hume's History of England. The whig-dominated world of 1754 overwhelmingly disapproved of Hume's take on English history. In later editions of the book, Hume worked to "soften or expunge many villainous whig strokes which had crept into it."
Hume did not consider himself a pure Tory. Before 1745, he was more akin to an "independent whig." In 1748, he described himself as "a whig, though a very skeptical one." This description of himself as in between whiggism and toryism, helps one understand that his History of England should be read as his attempt to work out his own philosophy of history.
Robert Roth argues that Hume's histories display his biases against Presbyterians and Puritans. Roth says his anti-Whig pro-monarchy position diminished the influence of his work, and that his emphasis on politics and religion led to a neglect of social and economic history.
Hume was an early cultural historian of science. His short biographies of leading scientists explored the process of scientific change. He developed new ways of seeing scientists in the context of their times by looking at how they interacted with society and each other. He covers over forty scientists, with special attention paid to Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton. Hume particularly praised William Harvey, writing about his treatise of the circulation of the blood: "Harvey is entitled to the glory of having made, by reasoning alone, without any mixture of accident, a capital discovery in one of the most important branches of science."
The History became a best-seller and made Hume a wealthy man who no longer had to take up salaried work for others. It was influential for nearly a century, despite competition from imitations by Smollett (1757), Goldsmith (1771) and others. By 1894, there were at least 50 editions as well as abridgements for students, and illustrated pocket editions, probably produced specifically for women.
Many of Hume's political ideas, such as limited government, private property when there is scarcity, and constitutionalism, are first principles of liberalism. Thomas Jefferson banned the History from University of Virginia, feeling that it had "spread universal toryism over the land." By comparison, Samuel Johnson thought Hume to be "a Tory by chance [...] for he has no principle. If he is anything, he is a Hobbist." A major concern of Hume's political philosophy is the importance of the rule of law. He also stresses throughout his political essays the importance of moderation in politics, public spirit, and regard to the community.
Throughout the period of the American Revolution, Hume had varying views. For instance, in 1768 he encouraged total revolt on the part of the Americans. In 1775, he became certain that a revolution would take place and said that he believed in the American principle and wished the British government would let them be. Hume's influence on some of the Founders can be seen in Benjamin Franklin's suggestion at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 that no high office in any branch of government should receive a salary, which is a suggestion Hume had made in his emendation of James Harrington's Oceana.
The legacy of religious civil war in 18th-century Scotland, combined with the relatively recent memory of the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite risings, had fostered in Hume a distaste for enthusiasm and factionalism. These appeared to him to threaten the fragile and nascent political and social stability of a country that was deeply politically and religiously divided. Hume thought that society is best governed by a general and impartial system of laws; he is less concerned about the form of government that administers these laws, so long as it does so fairly. However, he also clarified that a republic must produce laws, while "monarchy, when absolute, contains even something repugnant to law."
Hume expressed suspicion of attempts to reform society in ways that departed from long-established custom, and he counselled peoples not to resist their governments except in cases of the most egregious tyranny. However, he resisted aligning himself with either of Britain's two political parties, the Whigs and the Tories:
My views of things are more conformable to Whig principles; my representations of persons to Tory prejudices.
The scholar Jerry Z. Muller argues that Hume's political thoughts have characteristics that later became typical for American and British conservatism, which contain more positive views of capitalism than conservatism does elsewhere. Canadian philosopher Neil McArthur writes that Hume believed that we should try to balance our demands for liberty with the need for strong authority, without sacrificing either. McArthur characterises Hume as a "precautionary conservative," whose actions would have been "determined by prudential concerns about the consequences of change, which often demand we ignore our own principles about what is ideal or even legitimate." Hume supported the liberty of the press, and was sympathetic to democracy, when suitably constrained. American historian Douglass Adair has argued that Hume was a major inspiration for James Madison's writings, and the essay "Federalist No. 10" in particular.
Hume offered his view on the best type of society in an essay titled "Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth", which lays out what he thought was the best form of government. He hoped that "in some future age, an opportunity might be afforded of reducing the theory to practice, either by a dissolution of some old government, or by the combination of men to form a new one, in some distant part of the world". He defended a strict separation of powers, decentralisation, extending the franchise to anyone who held property of value and limiting the power of the clergy. The system of the Swiss militia was proposed as the best form of protection. Elections were to take place on an annual basis and representatives were to be unpaid. Political philosophers Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, writing of Hume's thoughts about "the wise statesman", note that he "will bear a reverence to what carries the marks of age." Also, if he wishes to improve a constitution, his innovations will take account of the "ancient fabric", in order not to disturb society.
In the political analysis of philosopher George Holland Sabine, the scepticism of Hume extended to the doctrine of government by consent. He notes that "allegiance is a habit enforced by education and consequently as much a part of human nature as any other motive."
In the 1770s, Hume was critical of British policies toward the American colonies and advocated for American independence. He wrote in 1771 that "our union with America…in the nature of things, cannot long subsist."
Hume expressed his economic views in his Political Discourses, which were incorporated in Essays and Treatises as Part II of Essays, Moral and Political. To what extent he was influenced by Adam Smith is difficult to assess; however, both of them had similar principles supported from historical events. At the same time Hume did not demonstrate concrete system of economic theory which could be observed in Smith's Wealth of Nations. However, he introduced several new ideas around which the "classical economics" of the 18th century was built. Through his discussions on politics, Hume developed many ideas that are prevalent in the field of economics. This includes ideas on private property, inflation, and foreign trade. Referring to his essay "Of the Balance of Trade", economist Paul Krugman (2012) has remarked that "David Hume created what I consider the first true economic model."
In contrast to Locke, Hume believes that private property is not a natural right. Hume argues it is justified, because resources are limited. Private property would be an unjustified, "idle ceremonial," if all goods were unlimited and available freely. Hume also believed in an unequal distribution of property, because perfect equality would destroy the ideas of thrift and industry. Perfect equality would thus lead to impoverishment.
David Hume anticipated modern monetarism. First, Hume contributed to the theory of quantity and of interest rate. Hume has been credited with being the first to prove that, on an abstract level, there is no quantifiable amount of nominal money that a country needs to thrive. He understood that there was a difference between nominal and real money.
Second, Hume has a theory of causation which fits in with the Chicago-school "black box" approach. According to Hume, cause and effect are related only through correlation. Hume shared the belief with modern monetarists that changes in the supply of money can affect consumption and investment.
Lastly, Hume was a vocal advocate of a stable private sector, though also having some non-monetarist aspects to his economic philosophy. Having a stated preference for rising prices, for instance, Hume considered government debt to be a sort of substitute for actual money, referring to such debt as "a kind of paper credit." He also believed in heavy taxation, believing that it increases effort. Hume's economic approach evidently resembles his other philosophies, in that he does not choose one side indefinitely, but sees gray in the situation
Due to Hume's vast influence on contemporary philosophy, a large number of approaches in contemporary philosophy and cognitive science are today called "Humean."
The writings of Thomas Reid, a Scottish philosopher and contemporary of Hume, were often critical of Hume's scepticism. Reid formulated his common sense philosophy, in part, as a reaction against Hume's views.
Hume influenced, and was influenced by, the Christian philosopher Joseph Butler. Hume was impressed by Butler's way of thinking about religion, and Butler may well have been influenced by Hume's writings.
Attention to Hume's philosophical works grew after the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in his Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783), credited Hume with awakening him from his "dogmatic slumber."
According to Arthur Schopenhauer, "there is more to be learned from each page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel, Herbart and Schleiermacher taken together."
A. J. Ayer, while introducing his classic exposition of logical positivism in 1936, claimed:
The views which are put forward in this treatise derive from…doctrines…which are themselves the logical outcome of the empiricism of Berkeley and David Hume.
Albert Einstein, in 1915, wrote that he was inspired by Hume's positivism when formulating his theory of special relativity.
Hume's problem of induction was also of fundamental importance to the philosophy of Karl Popper. In his autobiography, Unended Quest, he wrote: "Knowledge ... is objective; and it is hypothetical or conjectural. This way of looking at the problem made it possible for me to reformulate Hume's problem of induction." This insight resulted in Popper's major work The Logic of Scientific Discovery. In his Conjectures and Refutations, he wrote:
I approached the problem of induction through Hume. Hume, I felt, was perfectly right in pointing out that induction cannot be logically justified.
Hume's rationalism in religious subjects influenced, via German-Scottish theologian Johann Joachim Spalding, the German neology school and rational theology, and contributed to the transformation of German theology in the Age of Enlightenment. Hume pioneered a comparative history of religion, tried to explain various rites and traditions as being based on deception and challenged various aspects of rational and natural theology, such as the argument from design.
Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard adopted "Hume's suggestion that the role of reason is not to make us wise but to reveal our ignorance," though taking it as a reason for the necessity of religious faith, or fideism. The "fact that Christianity is contrary to reason…is the necessary precondition for true faith." Political theorist Isaiah Berlin, who has also pointed out the similarities between the arguments of Hume and Kierkegaard against rational theology, has written about Hume's influence on what Berlin calls the counter-Enlightenment and on German anti-rationalism. Berlin has also once said of Hume that "no man has influenced the history of philosophy to a deeper or more disturbing degree."
In 2003 philosopher Jerry Fodor, described Hume's Treatise as "the founding document of cognitive science."
Hume engaged with contemporary intellectuals including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, James Boswell, and Adam Smith (who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy).
Morris and Brown (2019) write that Hume is "generally regarded as one of the most important philosophers to write in English."
In September 2020, the David Hume Tower, a University of Edinburgh building, was renamed to 40 George Square; this was following a campaign led by students of the university to rename it, in objection to Hume's writings related to race. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "David Hume (/hjuːm/; born David Home; 7 May NS [26 April OS] 1711 – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. Beginning with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Hume followed John Locke in rejecting the existence of innate ideas, concluding that all human knowledge derives solely from experience. This places him with Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley as an empiricist.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Hume argued that inductive reasoning and belief in causality cannot be justified rationally; instead, they result from custom and mental habit. We never actually perceive that one event causes another but only experience the \"constant conjunction\" of events. This problem of induction means that to draw any causal inferences from past experience, it is necessary to presuppose that the future will resemble the past, a metaphysical presupposition which cannot itself be grounded in prior experience.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "An opponent of philosophical rationalists, Hume held that passions rather than reason govern human behaviour, famously proclaiming that \"Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.\" Hume was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on emotion or sentiment rather than abstract moral principle. He maintained an early commitment to naturalistic explanations of moral phenomena and is usually accepted by historians of European philosophy to have first clearly expounded the is–ought problem, or the idea that a statement of fact alone can never give rise to a normative conclusion of what ought to be done.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Hume denied that humans have an actual conception of the self, positing that we experience only a bundle of sensations, and that the self is nothing more than this bundle of perceptions connected by an association of ideas. Hume's compatibilist theory of free will takes causal determinism as fully compatible with human freedom. His philosophy of religion, including his rejection of miracles, and of the argument from design for God's existence, were especially controversial for their time.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Hume left a legacy that affected utilitarianism, logical positivism, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive science, theology, and many other fields and thinkers. Immanuel Kant credited Hume as the inspiration that had awakened him from his \"dogmatic slumbers.\"",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Hume was born on 26 April 1711 (Old Style), as David Home, in a tenement on the north side of Edinburgh's Lawnmarket. He was the second of two sons born to Catherine Home (née Falconer), daughter of Sir David Falconer of Newton, Midlothian and his wife Mary Falconer (née Norvell), and Joseph Home of Chirnside in the County of Berwick, an advocate of Ninewells. Joseph died just after David's second birthday. Catherine, who never remarried, raised the two brothers and their sister on her own.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Hume changed his family name's spelling in 1734, as the surname 'Home' (pronounced as 'Hume') was not well-known in England. Hume never married and lived partly at his Chirnside family home in Berwickshire, which had belonged to the family since the 16th century. His finances as a young man were very \"slender\", as his family was not rich; as a younger son he had little patrimony to live on.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Hume attended the University of Edinburgh at an unusually early age—either 12 or possibly as young as 10—at a time when 14 was the typical age. Initially, Hume considered a career in law, because of his family. However, in his words, he came to have:",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "…an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of Philosophy and general Learning; and while [my family] fanceyed I was poring over Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the Authors which I was secretly devouring.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in 1735 that \"there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books\". He did not graduate.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "At age 18 or so, Hume made a philosophical discovery that opened up to him \"a new Scene of Thought\", inspiring him \"to throw up every other Pleasure or Business to apply entirely to it\". As he did not recount what this scene exactly was, commentators have offered a variety of speculations. One prominent interpretation among contemporary Humean scholarship is that this new \"scene of thought\" was Hume's realisation that Francis Hutcheson's theory of moral sense could be applied to the understanding of morality as well.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "From this inspiration, Hume set out to spend a minimum of 10 years reading and writing. He soon came to the verge of a mental breakdown, first starting with a coldness—which he attributed to a \"Laziness of Temper\"—that lasted about nine months. Later, some scurvy spots broke out on his fingers, persuading Hume's physician to diagnose Hume as suffering from the \"Disease of the Learned\".",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Hume wrote that he \"went under a Course of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills\", taken along with a pint of claret every day. He also decided to have a more active life to better continue his learning. His health improved somewhat, but in 1731 he was afflicted with a ravenous appetite and palpitations. After eating well for a time, he went from being \"tall, lean and raw-bon'd\" to being \"sturdy, robust [and] healthful-like.\" Indeed, Hume would become well known for being obese and having a fondness for good port and cheese, often using them as philosophical metaphors for his conjectures.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Although having noble ancestry, at age 25, Hume had no source of income and no learned profession. As was common at his time, he became a merchant's assistant, despite having to leave his native Scotland. He travelled via Bristol to La Flèche in Anjou, France. There he had frequent discourse with the Jesuits of the College of La Flèche.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Hume was derailed in his attempts to start a university career by protests over his alleged \"atheism\", also lamenting that his literary debut, A Treatise of Human Nature, \"fell dead-born from the press.\" However, he found literary success in his lifetime as an essayist, and a career as a librarian at the University of Edinburgh. These successes provided him much needed income at the time. His tenure there, and the access to research materials it provided, resulted in Hume's writing the massive six-volume The History of England, which became a bestseller and the standard history of England in its day. For over 60 years, Hume was the dominant interpreter of English history. He described his \"love for literary fame\" as his \"ruling passion\" and judged his two late works, the so-called \"first\" and \"second\" enquiries, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, as his greatest literary and philosophical achievements. He would ask of his contemporaries to judge him on the merits of the later texts alone, rather than on the more radical formulations of his early, youthful work, dismissing his philosophical debut as juvenilia: \"A work which the Author had projected before he left College.\" Despite Hume's protestations, a consensus exists today that his most important arguments and philosophically distinctive doctrines are found in the original form they take in the Treatise. Though he was only 23 years old when starting this work, it is now regarded as one of the most important in the history of Western philosophy.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Hume worked for four years on his first major work, A Treatise of Human Nature, subtitled \"Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects\", completing it in 1738 at age 28. Although many scholars today consider the Treatise to be Hume's most important work and one of the most important books in Western philosophy, critics in Great Britain at the time described it as \"abstract and unintelligible\". As Hume had spent most of his savings during those four years, he resolved \"to make a very rigid frugality supply [his] deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired [his] independency, and to regard every object as contemptible except the improvements of [his] talents in literature\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Despite the disappointment, Hume later wrote: \"Being naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I soon recovered from the blow and prosecuted with great ardour my studies in the country.\" There, in an attempt to make his larger work better known and more intelligible, he published the An Abstract of a Book lately Published as a summary of the main doctrines of the Treatise, without revealing its authorship. This work contained the same ideas, but with a shorter and clearer explanation. Although there has been some academic speculation as to who actually wrote this pamphlet, it is generally regarded as Hume's creation.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "After the publication of Essays Moral and Political in 1741—included in the later edition as Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary—Hume applied for the Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. However, the position was given to William Cleghorn after Edinburgh ministers petitioned the town council not to appoint Hume because he was seen as an atheist.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In 1745, during the Jacobite risings, Hume tutored the Marquess of Annandale, an engagement that ended in disarray after about a year. The Marquess could not follow with Hume's lectures, his father saw little need for philosophy, and on a personal level, the Marquess found Hume's dietary tendencies to be bizarre. Hume then started his great historical work, The History of England, which took fifteen years and ran to over a million words. During this time, he was also involved with the Canongate Theatre through his friend John Home, a preacher.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In this context, he associated with Lord Monboddo and other thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment in Edinburgh. From 1746, Hume served for three years as secretary to General James St Clair, who was envoy to the courts of Turin and Vienna. At that time Hume wrote Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, later published as An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Often called the First Enquiry, it proved little more successful than the Treatise, perhaps because of the publication of his short autobiography My Own Life, which \"made friends difficult for the first Enquiry\". By the end of this period Hume had attained his well-known corpulent stature; \"the good table of the General and the prolonged inactive life had done their work\", leaving him \"a man of tremendous bulk\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In 1749 he went to live with his brother in the countryside, although he continued to associate with the aforementioned Scottish Enlightenment figures.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Hume's religious views were often suspect and, in the 1750s, it was necessary for his friends to avert a trial against him on the charge of heresy, specifically in an ecclesiastical court. However, he \"would not have come and could not be forced to attend if he said he was not a member of the Established Church\". Hume failed to gain the chair of philosophy at the University of Glasgow due to his religious views. By this time, he had published the Philosophical Essays, which were decidedly anti-religious. This represented a turning point in his career and the various opportunities made available to him. Even Adam Smith, his personal friend who had vacated the Glasgow philosophy chair, was against his appointment out of concern that public opinion would be against it. In 1761 all his works were banned on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Hume returned to Edinburgh in 1751. In the following year, the Faculty of Advocates hired him to be their Librarian, a job in which he would receive little to no pay, but which nonetheless gave him \"the command of a large library\". This resource enabled him to continue historical research for The History of England. Hume's volume of Political Discourses, written in 1749 and published by Kincaid & Donaldson in 1752, was the only work he considered successful on first publication.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In 1753 Hume moved from his house on Riddles Court on the Lawnmarket to a house on the Canongate at the other end of the Royal Mile. Here he lived in a tenement known as Jack's Land, immediately west of the still surviving Shoemakers Land.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Eventually, with the publication of his six-volume The History of England between 1754 and 1762, Hume achieved the fame that he coveted. The volumes traced events from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688 and was a bestseller in its day. Hume was also a longtime friend of bookseller Andrew Millar, who sold Hume's History (after acquiring the rights from Scottish bookseller Gavin Hamilton), although the relationship was sometimes complicated. Letters between them illuminate both men's interest in the success of the History. In 1762 Hume moved from Jack's Land on the Canongate to James Court on the Lawnmarket. He sold the house to James Boswell in 1766.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "From 1763 to 1765, Hume was invited to attend Lord Hertford in Paris, where he became secretary to the British embassy. Hume was well received in Paris, and while there he met with Isaac de Pinto.",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In 1765, Hume served as British Chargé d'affaires, writing \"despatches to the British Secretary of State\". He wrote of his Paris life, \"I really wish often for the plain roughness of The Poker Club of Edinburgh…to correct and qualify so much lusciousness.\" In 1766, upon returning to Britain, Hume encouraged his patron Lord Hertford to invest in a number of slave plantations, acquired by George Colebrooke and others in the Windward Islands. In June 1766 Hume facilitated the purchase of the slave plantation by writing to Victor-Thérèse Charpentier, marquis d'Ennery, the French governor of Martinique, on behalf of his friend, John Stewart, a wine merchant whom he had lent £400 earlier in the same year. According to Dr. Felix Waldmann, a former Hume Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Hume's \"puckish scepticism about the existence of religious miracles played a significant part in defining the critical outlook which underpins the practice of modern science. But his views served to reinforce the institution of racialised slavery in the later 18th century.\"",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In 1766, Hume left Paris to accompany Jean-Jacques Rousseau to England. Once there, he and Rousseau fell out, leaving Hume sufficiently worried about the damage to his reputation from the quarrel with Rousseau. So much so, that Hume would author an account of the dispute, titling it \"A concise and genuine account of the dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau\".",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In 1767, Hume was appointed Under Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Here, he wrote that he was given \"all the secrets of the Kingdom\". In 1769 he returned to James' Court in Edinburgh, where he would live from 1771 until his death in 1776.",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Hume's nephew and namesake, David Hume of Ninewells (1757–1838), was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783. He was a Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University and rose to be Principal Clerk of Session in the Scottish High Court and Baron of the Exchequer. He is buried with his uncle in Old Calton Cemetery.",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In the last year of his life, Hume wrote an extremely brief autobiographical essay titled \"My Own Life\", summing up his entire life in \"fewer than 5 pages\"; it contains many interesting judgments that have been of enduring interest to subsequent readers of Hume. Donald Seibert (1984), a scholar of 18th-century literature, judged it a \"remarkable autobiography, even though it may lack the usual attractions of that genre. Anyone hankering for startling revelations or amusing anecdotes had better look elsewhere.\"",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Despite condemning vanity as a dangerous passion, in his autobiography Hume confesses his belief that the \"love of literary fame\" had served as his \"ruling passion\" in life, and claims that this desire \"never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments\". One such disappointment Hume discusses in this account is in the initial literary reception of the Treatise, which he claims to have overcome by means of the success of the Essays: \"the work was favourably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former disappointment\". Hume, in his own retrospective judgment, argues that his philosophical debut's apparent failure \"had proceeded more from the manner than the matter\". He thus suggests that \"I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in going to the press too early.\"",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Hume also provides an unambiguous self-assessment of the relative value of his works: that \"my Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals; which, in my own opinion (who ought not to judge on that subject) is of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best.\" He also wrote of his social relations: \"My company was not unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and literary\", noting of his complex relation to religion, as well as to the state, that \"though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury\". He goes on to profess of his character: \"My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct.\" Hume concludes the essay with a frank admission:",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained.",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Diarist and biographer James Boswell saw Hume a few weeks before his death from a form of abdominal cancer. Hume told him that he sincerely believed it a \"most unreasonable fancy\" that there might be life after death. Hume asked that his body be interred in a \"simple Roman tomb\", requesting in his will that it be inscribed only with his name and the year of his birth and death, \"leaving it to Posterity to add the Rest\".",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "David Hume died at the southwest corner of St. Andrew's Square in Edinburgh's New Town, at what is now 21 Saint David Street. A popular story, consistent with some historical evidence and with the help of coincidence, suggests that the street was named after Hume.",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "His tomb stands, as he wished it, on the southwestern slope of Calton Hill, in the Old Calton Cemetery. Adam Smith later recounted Hume's amusing speculation that he might ask Charon, Hades' ferryman, to allow him a few more years of life in order to see \"the downfall of some of the prevailing systems of superstition\". The ferryman replied, \"You loitering rogue, that will not happen these many hundred years.… Get into the boat this instant.\"",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "A Treatise of Human Nature begins with the introduction: \"'Tis evident, that all the sciences have a relation, more or less, to human nature.… Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent on the science of Man.\" The science of man, as Hume explains, is the \"only solid foundation for the other sciences\" and that the method for this science requires both experience and observation as the foundations of a logical argument. In regards to this, philosophical historian Frederick Copleston (1999) suggests that it was Hume's aim to apply to the science of man the method of experimental philosophy (the term that was current at the time to imply natural philosophy), and that \"Hume's plan is to extend to philosophy in general the methodological limitations of Newtonian physics.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Until recently, Hume was seen as a forerunner of logical positivism, a form of anti-metaphysical empiricism. According to the logical positivists (in summary of their verification principle), unless a statement could be verified by experience, or else was true or false by definition (i.e., either tautological or contradictory), then it was meaningless. Hume, on this view, was a protopositivist, who, in his philosophical writings, attempted to demonstrate the ways in which ordinary propositions about objects, causal relations, the self, and so on, are semantically equivalent to propositions about one's experiences.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Many commentators have since rejected this understanding of Humean empiricism, stressing an epistemological (rather than a semantic) reading of his project. According to this opposing view, Hume's empiricism consisted in the idea that it is our knowledge, and not our ability to conceive, that is restricted to what can be experienced. Hume thought that we can form beliefs about that which extends beyond any possible experience, through the operation of faculties such as custom and the imagination, but he was sceptical about claims to knowledge on this basis.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "A central doctrine of Hume's philosophy, stated in the very first lines of the Treatise of Human Nature, is that the mind consists of perceptions, or the mental objects which are present to it, and which divide into two categories: \"All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which I shall call impressions and ideas.\" Hume believed that it would \"not be very necessary to employ many words in explaining this distinction\", which commentators have generally taken to mean the distinction between feeling and thinking. Controversially, Hume, in some sense, may regard the distinction as a matter of degree, as he takes impressions to be distinguished from ideas on the basis of their force, liveliness, and vivacity—what Henry E. Allison (2008) calls the \"FLV criterion.\" Ideas are therefore \"faint\" impressions. For example, experiencing the painful sensation of touching a hot pan's handle is more forceful than simply thinking about touching a hot pan. According to Hume, impressions are meant to be the original form of all our ideas. From this, Don Garrett (2002) has coined the term copy principle, referring to Hume's doctrine that all ideas are ultimately copied from some original impression, whether it be a passion or sensation, from which they derive.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "After establishing the forcefulness of impressions and ideas, these two categories are further broken down into simple and complex: \"simple perceptions or impressions and ideas are such as admit of no distinction nor separation\", whereas \"the complex are the contrary to these, and may be distinguished into parts\". When looking at an apple, a person experiences a variety of colour-sensations—what Hume notes as a complex impression. Similarly, a person experiences a variety of taste-sensations, tactile-sensations, and smell-sensations when biting into an apple, with the overall sensation—again, a complex impression. Thinking about an apple allows a person to form complex ideas, which are made of similar parts as the complex impressions they were developed from, but which are also less forceful. Hume believes that complex perceptions can be broken down into smaller and smaller parts until perceptions are reached that have no parts of their own, and these perceptions are thus referred to as simple.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Regardless of how boundless it may seem; a person's imagination is confined to the mind's ability to recombine the information it has already acquired from the body's sensory experience (the ideas that have been derived from impressions). In addition, \"as our imagination takes our most basic ideas and leads us to form new ones, it is directed by three principles of association, namely, resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect\":",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Hume elaborates more on the last principle, explaining that, when somebody observes that one object or event consistently produces the same object or event, that results in \"an expectation that a particular event (a 'cause') will be followed by another event (an 'effect') previously and constantly associated with it\". Hume calls this principle custom, or habit, saying that \"custom...renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past\". However, even though custom can serve as a guide in life, it still only represents an expectation. In other words:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Experience cannot establish a necessary connection between cause and effect, because we can imagine without contradiction a case where the cause does not produce its usual effect…the reason why we mistakenly infer that there is something in the cause that necessarily produces its effect is because our past experiences have habituated us to think in this way.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Continuing this idea, Hume argues that \"only in the pure realm of ideas, logic, and mathematics, not contingent on the direct sense awareness of reality, [can] causation safely…be applied—all other sciences are reduced to probability\". He uses this scepticism to reject metaphysics and many theological views on the basis that they are not grounded in fact and observations, and are therefore beyond the reach of human understanding.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The cornerstone of Hume's epistemology is the problem of induction. This may be the area of Hume's thought where his scepticism about human powers of reason is most pronounced. The problem revolves around the plausibility of inductive reasoning, that is, reasoning from the observed behaviour of objects to their behaviour when unobserved. As Hume wrote, induction concerns how things behave when they go \"beyond the present testimony of the senses, or the records of our memory\". Hume argues that we tend to believe that things behave in a regular manner, meaning that patterns in the behaviour of objects seem to persist into the future, and throughout the unobserved present. Hume's argument is that we cannot rationally justify the claim that nature will continue to be uniform, as justification comes in only two varieties—demonstrative reasoning and probable reasoning—and both of these are inadequate. With regard to demonstrative reasoning, Hume argues that the uniformity principle cannot be demonstrated, as it is \"consistent and conceivable\" that nature might stop being regular. Turning to probable reasoning, Hume argues that we cannot hold that nature will continue to be uniform because it has been in the past. As this is using the very sort of reasoning (induction) that is under question, it would be circular reasoning. Thus, no form of justification will rationally warrant our inductive inferences.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Hume's solution to this problem is to argue that, rather than reason, natural instinct explains the human practice of making inductive inferences. He asserts that \"Nature, by an absolute and uncontroulable [sic] necessity has determin'd us to judge as well as to breathe and feel.\" In 1985, and in agreement with Hume, John D. Kenyon writes:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Reason might manage to raise a doubt about the truth of a conclusion of natural inductive inference just for a moment ... but the sheer agreeableness of animal faith will protect us from excessive caution and sterile suspension of belief.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Others, such as Charles Sanders Peirce, have demurred from Hume's solution, while some, such as Kant and Karl Popper, have thought that Hume's analysis has \"posed a most fundamental challenge to all human knowledge claims\".",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The notion of causation is closely linked to the problem of induction. According to Hume, we reason inductively by associating constantly conjoined events. It is the mental act of association that is the basis of our concept of causation. At least three interpretations of Hume's theory of causation are represented in the literature:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Hume acknowledged that there are events constantly unfolding, and humanity cannot guarantee that these events are caused by prior events or are independent instances. He opposed the widely accepted theory of causation that 'all events have a specific course or reason'. Therefore, Hume crafted his own theory of causation, formed through his empiricist and sceptic beliefs. He split causation into two realms: \"All the objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, Relations of Ideas, and Matters of Fact.\" Relations of Ideas are a priori and represent universal bonds between ideas that mark the cornerstones of human thought. Matters of Fact are dependent on the observer and experience. They are often not universally held to be true among multiple persons. Hume was an Empiricist, meaning he believed \"causes and effects are discoverable not by reason, but by experience\". He goes on to say that, even with the perspective of the past, humanity cannot dictate future events because thoughts of the past are limited, compared to the possibilities for the future. Hume's separation between Matters of Fact and Relations of Ideas is often referred to as \"Hume's fork.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Hume explains his theory of causation and causal inference by division into three different parts. In these three branches he explains his ideas and compares and contrasts his views to his predecessors. These branches are the Critical Phase, the Constructive Phase, and Belief. In the Critical Phase, Hume denies his predecessors' theories of causation. Next, he uses the Constructive Phase to resolve any doubts the reader may have had while observing the Critical Phase. \"Habit or Custom\" mends the gaps in reasoning that occur without the human mind even realising it. Associating ideas has become second nature to the human mind. It \"makes us expect for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past\". However, Hume says that this association cannot be trusted because the span of the human mind to comprehend the past is not necessarily applicable to the wide and distant future. This leads him to the third branch of causal inference, Belief. Belief is what drives the human mind to hold that expectancy of the future is based on past experience. Throughout his explanation of causal inference, Hume is arguing that the future is not certain to be repetition of the past and that the only way to justify induction is through uniformity.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "The logical positivist interpretation is that Hume analyses causal propositions, such as \"A causes B\", in terms of regularities in perception: \"A causes B\" is equivalent to \"Whenever A-type events happen, B-type ones follow\", where \"whenever\" refers to all possible perceptions. In his Treatise of Human Nature, Hume wrote:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Power and necessity…are…qualities of perceptions, not of objects…felt by the soul and not perceiv'd externally in bodies.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "This view is rejected by sceptical realists, who argue that Hume thought that causation amounts to more than just the regular succession of events. Hume said that, when two events are causally conjoined, a necessary connection underpins the conjunction:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Shall we rest contented with these two relations of contiguity and succession, as affording a complete idea of causation? By no means…there is a necessary connexion to be taken into consideration.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Angela Coventry writes that, for Hume, \"there is nothing in any particular instance of cause and effect involving external objects which suggests the idea of power or necessary connection\" and \"we are ignorant of the powers that operate between objects\". However, while denying the possibility of knowing the powers between objects, Hume accepted the causal principle, writing: \"I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that something could arise without a cause.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "It has been argued that, while Hume did not think that causation is reducible to pure regularity, he was not a fully-fledged realist either. Simon Blackburn calls this a quasi-realist reading, saying that \"Someone talking of cause is voicing a distinct mental set: he is by no means in the same state as someone merely describing regular sequences.\" In Hume's words, \"nothing is more usual than to apply to external bodies every internal sensation, which they occasion\".",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Empiricist philosophers, such as Hume and Berkeley, favoured the bundle theory of personal identity. In this theory, \"the mind itself, far from being an independent power, is simply 'a bundle of perceptions' without unity or cohesive quality\". The self is nothing but a bundle of experiences linked by the relations of causation and resemblance; or, more accurately, the empirically warranted idea of the self is just the idea of such a bundle. According to Hume:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception. When my perceptions are removed for any time, as by sound sleep; so long I am insensible of myself, and may truly be said not to exist.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "This view is supported by, for example, positivist interpreters, who have seen Hume as suggesting that terms such as \"self\", \"person\", or \"mind\" refer to collections of \"sense-contents\". A modern-day version of the bundle theory of the mind has been advanced by Derek Parfit in his Reasons and Persons.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "However, some philosophers have criticised Hume's bundle-theory interpretation of personal identity. They argue that distinct selves can have perceptions that stand in relation to similarity and causality. Thus, perceptions must already come parcelled into distinct \"bundles\" before they can be associated according to the relations of similarity and causality. In other words, the mind must already possess a unity that cannot be generated, or constituted, by these relations alone. Since the bundle-theory interpretation portrays Hume as answering an ontological question, philosophers like Galen Strawson see Hume as not very concerned with such questions and have queried whether this view is really Hume's. Instead, Strawson suggests that Hume might have been answering an epistemological question about the causal origin of our concept of the self. In the Appendix to the Treatise, Hume declares himself dissatisfied with his earlier account of personal identity in Book 1. Corliss Swain notes that \"Commentators agree that if Hume did find some new problem\" when he reviewed the section on personal identity, \"he wasn't forthcoming about its nature in the Appendix.\" One interpretation of Hume's view of the self, argued for by philosopher and psychologist James Giles, is that Hume is not arguing for a bundle theory, which is a form of reductionism, but rather for an eliminative view of the self. Rather than reducing the self to a bundle of perceptions, Hume rejects the idea of the self altogether. On this interpretation, Hume is proposing a \"no-self theory\" and thus has much in common with Buddhist thought (see anattā). Psychologist Alison Gopnik has argued that Hume was in a position to learn about Buddhist thought during his time in France in the 1730s.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Practical reason relates to whether standards or principles exist that are also authoritative for all rational beings, dictating people's intentions and actions. Hume is mainly considered an anti-rationalist, denying the possibility for practical reason, although other philosophers such as Christine Korsgaard, Jean Hampton, and Elijah Millgram claim that Hume is not so much of an anti-rationalist as he is just a sceptic of practical reason.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Hume denied the existence of practical reason as a principle because he claimed reason does not have any effect on morality, since morality is capable of producing effects in people that reason alone cannot create. As Hume explains in A Treatise of Human Nature (1740):",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Since practical reason is supposed to regulate our actions (in theory), Hume denied practical reason on the grounds that reason cannot directly oppose passions. As Hume puts it, \"Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.\" Reason is less significant than any passion because reason has no original influence, while \"A passion is an original existence, or, if you will, modification of existence.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Practical reason is also concerned with the value of actions rather than the truth of propositions, so Hume believed that reason's shortcoming of affecting morality proved that practical reason could not be authoritative for all rational beings, since morality was essential for dictating people's intentions and actions.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Hume's writings on ethics began in the 1740 Treatise and were refined in his An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). He understood feeling, rather than knowing, as that which governs ethical actions, stating that \"moral decisions are grounded in moral sentiment.\" Arguing that reason cannot be behind morality, he wrote:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Hume's moral sentimentalism was shared by his close friend Adam Smith, and the two were mutually influenced by the moral reflections of their older contemporary, Francis Hutcheson. Peter Singer claims that Hume's argument that morals cannot have a rational basis alone \"would have been enough to earn him a place in the history of ethics.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Hume also put forward the is–ought problem, later known as Hume's Law, denying the possibility of logically deriving what ought to be from what is. According to the Treatise (1740), in every system of morality that Hume has read, the author begins by stating facts about the world as it is but always ends up suddenly referring to what ought to be the case. Hume demands that a reason should be given for inferring what ought to be the case, from what is the case. This is because it \"seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Hume's theory of ethics has been influential in modern-day meta-ethical theory, helping to inspire emotivism, and ethical expressivism and non-cognitivism, as well as Allan Gibbard's general theory of moral judgment and judgments of rationality.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Hume's ideas about aesthetics and the theory of art are spread throughout his works, but are particularly connected with his ethical writings, and also the essays \"Of the Standard of Taste\" and \"Of Tragedy\" (1757). His views are rooted in the work of Joseph Addison and Francis Hutcheson. In the Treatise (1740), he touches on the connection between beauty & deformity and vice & virtue. His later writings on the subject continue to draw parallels of beauty and deformity in art with conduct and character.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "In \"Standard of Taste\", Hume argues that no rules can be drawn up about what is a tasteful object. However, a reliable critic of taste can be recognised as objective, sensible and unprejudiced, and as having extensive experience. \"Of Tragedy\" addresses the question of why humans enjoy tragic drama. Hume was concerned with the way spectators find pleasure in the sorrow and anxiety depicted in a tragedy. He argued that this was because the spectator is aware that he is witnessing a dramatic performance. There is pleasure in realising that the terrible events that are being shown are actually fiction. Furthermore, Hume laid down rules for educating people in taste and correct conduct, and his writings in this area have been very influential on English and Anglo-Saxon aesthetics.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Hume, along with Thomas Hobbes, is cited as a classical compatibilist about the notions of freedom and determinism. Compatibilism seeks to reconcile human freedom with the mechanist view that human beings are part of a deterministic universe, which is completely governed by physical laws. Hume, on this point, was influenced greatly by the scientific revolution, particularly by Sir Isaac Newton. Hume argued that the dispute between freedom and determinism continued over 2000 years due to ambiguous terminology. He wrote: \"From this circumstance alone, that a controversy has been long kept on foot…we may presume that there is some ambiguity in the expression,\" and that different disputants use different meanings for the same terms.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Hume defines the concept of necessity as \"the uniformity, observable in the operations of nature; where similar objects are constantly conjoined together,\" and liberty as \"a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will.\" He then argues that, according to these definitions, not only are the two compatible, but liberty requires necessity. For if our actions were not necessitated in the above sense, they would \"have so little in connexion with motives, inclinations and circumstances, that one does not follow with a certain degree of uniformity from the other.\" But if our actions are not thus connected to the will, then our actions can never be free: they would be matters of \"chance; which is universally allowed to have no existence.\" Australian philosopher John Passmore writes that confusion has arisen because \"necessity\" has been taken to mean \"necessary connexion.\" Once this has been abandoned, Hume argues that \"liberty and necessity will be found not to be in conflict one with another.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Moreover, Hume goes on to argue that in order to be held morally responsible, it is required that our behaviour be caused or necessitated, for, as he wrote:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Actions are, by their very nature, temporary and perishing; and where they proceed not from some cause in the character and disposition of the person who performed them, they can neither redound to his honour, if good; nor infamy, if evil.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Hume describes the link between causality and our capacity to rationally make a decision from this an inference of the mind. Human beings assess a situation based upon certain predetermined events and from that form a choice. Hume believes that this choice is made spontaneously. Hume calls this form of decision making the liberty of spontaneity.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Education writer Richard Wright considers that Hume's position rejects a famous moral puzzle attributed to French philosopher Jean Buridan. The Buridan's ass puzzle describes a donkey that is hungry. This donkey has separate bales of hay on both sides, which are of equal distances from him. The problem concerns which bale the donkey chooses. Buridan was said to believe that the donkey would die, because he has no autonomy. The donkey is incapable of forming a rational decision as there is no motive to choose one bale of hay over the other. However, human beings are different, because a human who is placed in a position where he is forced to choose one loaf of bread over another will make a decision to take one in lieu of the other. For Buridan, humans have the capacity of autonomy, and he recognises the choice that is ultimately made will be based on chance, as both loaves of bread are exactly the same. However, Wright says that Hume completely rejects this notion, arguing that a human will spontaneously act in such a situation because he is faced with impending death if he fails to do so. Such a decision is not made on the basis of chance, but rather on necessity and spontaneity, given the prior predetermined events leading up to the predicament.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "Hume's argument is supported by modern-day compatibilists such as R. E. Hobart, a pseudonym of philosopher Dickinson S. Miller. However, P. F. Strawson argued that the issue of whether we hold one another morally responsible does not ultimately depend on the truth or falsity of a metaphysical thesis such as determinism. This is because our so holding one another is a non-rational human sentiment that is not predicated on such theses.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "Philosopher Paul Russell (2005) contends that Hume wrote \"on almost every central question in the philosophy of religion\", and that these writings \"are among the most important and influential contributions on this topic.\" Touching on the philosophy, psychology, history, and anthropology of religious thought, Hume's 1757 dissertation \"The Natural History of Religion\" argues that the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all derive from earlier polytheistic religions. He went on to suggest that all religious belief \"traces, in the end, to dread of the unknown\". Hume had also written on religious subjects in the first Enquiry, as well as later in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Although he wrote a great deal about religion, Hume's personal views have been the subject of much debate. Some modern critics have described Hume's religious views as agnostic or have described him as a \"Pyrrhonian skeptic\". Contemporaries considered him to be an atheist, or at least un-Christian, enough so that the Church of Scotland seriously considered bringing charges of infidelity against him. Evidence of his un-Christian beliefs can especially be found in his writings on miracles, in which he attempts to separate historical method from the narrative accounts of miracles. Nevertheless, modern scholars have tended to dismiss the claims of Hume's contemporaries describing him as an atheist as coming from religiously intolerant people who did not understand Hume’s philosophy. The fact that contemporaries suspected him of atheism is exemplified by a story Hume liked to tell:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "The best theologian he ever met, he used to say, was the old Edinburgh fishwife who, having recognized him as Hume the atheist, refused to pull him out of the bog into which he had fallen until he declared he was a Christian and repeated the Lord's prayer.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "However, in works such as \"Of Superstition and Enthusiasm\", Hume specifically seems to support the standard religious views of his time and place. This still meant that he could be very critical of the Catholic Church, dismissing it with the standard Protestant accusations of superstition and idolatry, as well as dismissing as idolatry what his compatriots saw as uncivilised beliefs. He also considered extreme Protestant sects, the members of which he called \"enthusiasts\", to be corrupters of religion. By contrast, in \"The Natural History of Religion\", Hume presents arguments suggesting that polytheism had much to commend it over monotheism. Additionally, when mentioning religion as a factor in his History of England, Hume uses it to show the deleterious effect it has on human progress. In his Treatise of Human Nature, Hume wrote: \"Generally speaking, the errors in religions are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "Lou Reich (1998) argues that Hume was a religious naturalist and rejects interpretations of Hume as an atheist. Paul Russell (2008) writes that Hume was plainly sceptical about religious belief, although perhaps not to the extent of complete atheism. He suggests that Hume's position is best characterised by the term \"irreligion,\" while philosopher David O'Connor (2013) argues that Hume's final position was \"weakly deistic\". For O'Connor, Hume's \"position is deeply ironic. This is because, while inclining towards a weak form of deism, he seriously doubts that we can ever find a sufficiently favourable balance of evidence to justify accepting any religious position.\" He adds that Hume \"did not believe in the God of standard theism ... but he did not rule out all concepts of deity\", and that \"ambiguity suited his purposes, and this creates difficulty in definitively pinning down his final position on religion\".",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "One of the traditional topics of natural theology is that of the existence of God, and one of the a posteriori arguments for this is the argument from design or the teleological argument. The argument is that the existence of God can be proved by the design that is obvious in the complexity of the world, which Encyclopædia Britannica states is \"the most popular\", because it is:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "…the most accessible of the theistic arguments ... which identifies evidences of design in nature, inferring from them a divine designer ... The fact that the universe as a whole is a coherent and efficiently functioning system likewise, in this view, indicates a divine intelligence behind it.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Hume wrote that the design argument seems to depend upon our experience, and its proponents \"always suppose the universe, an effect quite singular and unparalleled, to be the proof of a Deity, a cause no less singular and unparalleled\". Philosopher Louise E. Loeb (2010) notes that Hume is saying that only experience and observation can be our guide to making inferences about the conjunction between events. However, according to Hume:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "We observe neither God nor other universes, and hence no conjunction involving them. There is no observed conjunction to ground an inference either to extended objects or to God, as unobserved causes.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "Hume also criticised the argument in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). In this, he suggested that, even if the world is a more or less smoothly functioning system, this may only be a result of the \"chance permutations of particles falling into a temporary or permanent self-sustaining order, which thus has the appearance of design\".",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "A century later, the idea of order without design was rendered more plausible by Charles Darwin's discovery that the adaptations of the forms of life result from the natural selection of inherited characteristics. For philosopher James D. Madden, it is \"Hume, rivaled only by Darwin, [who] has done the most to undermine in principle our confidence in arguments from design among all figures in the Western intellectual tradition\".",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "Finally, Hume discussed a version of the anthropic principle, which is the idea that theories of the universe are constrained by the need to allow for man's existence in it as an observer. Hume has his sceptical mouthpiece Philo suggest that there may have been many worlds, produced by an incompetent designer, whom he called a \"stupid mechanic\". In his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Hume wrote:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "Many worlds might have been botched and bungled throughout an eternity, ere this system was struck out: much labour lost: many fruitless trials made: and a slow, but continued improvement carried on during infinite ages in the art of world-making.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "In his discussion of miracles, Hume argues that we should not believe miracles have occurred and that they do not therefore provide us with any reason to think God exists. In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Section 10), Hume defines a miracle as \"a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent\". Hume says we believe an event that has frequently occurred is likely to occur again, but we also take into account those instances where the event did not occur:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "A wise man ... considers which side is supported by the greater number of experiments. ... A hundred instances or experiments on one side, and fifty on another, afford a doubtful expectation of any event; though a hundred uniform experiments, with only one that is contradictory, reasonably beget a pretty strong degree of assurance. In all cases, we must balance the opposite experiments ... and deduct the smaller number from the greater, in order to know the exact force of the superior evidence.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "Hume discusses the testimony of those who report miracles. He wrote that testimony might be doubted even from some great authority in case the facts themselves are not credible: \"[T]he evidence, resulting from the testimony, admits of a diminution, greater or less, in proportion as the fact is more or less unusual.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "Although Hume leaves open the possibility for miracles to occur and be reported, he offers various arguments against this ever having happened in history. He points out that people often lie, and they have good reasons to lie about miracles occurring either because they believe they are doing so for the benefit of their religion or because of the fame that results. Furthermore, people by nature enjoy relating miracles they have heard without caring for their veracity and thus miracles are easily transmitted even when false. Also, Hume notes that miracles seem to occur mostly in \"ignorant and barbarous nations\" and times, and the reason they do not occur in the civilised societies is such societies are not awed by what they know to be natural events. Hume recognizes that over a long period time, various coincidences can provide the appearance of intention. Finally, the miracles of each religion argue against all other religions and their miracles, and so even if a proportion of all reported miracles across the world fit Hume's requirement for belief, the miracles of each religion make the other less likely.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Hume was extremely pleased with his argument against miracles in his Enquiry. He states, \"I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument of a like nature, which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures.\" Thus, Hume's argument against miracles had a more abstract basis founded upon the scrutiny, not just primarily of miracles, but of all forms of belief systems. It is a commonsense notion of veracity based upon epistemological evidence, and founded on a principle of rationality, proportionality and reasonability.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "The criterion for assessing Hume's belief system is based on the balance of probability whether something is more likely than not to have occurred. Since the weight of empirical experience contradicts the notion for the existence of miracles, such accounts should be treated with scepticism. Further, the myriad of accounts of miracles contradict one another, as some people who receive miracles will aim to prove the authority of Jesus, whereas others will aim to prove the authority of Muhammad or some other religious prophet or deity. These various differing accounts weaken the overall evidential power of miracles.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "Despite all this, Hume observes that belief in miracles is popular, and that \"the gazing populace… receive greedily, without examination, whatever soothes superstition, and promotes wonder.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "Critics have argued that Hume's position assumes the character of miracles and natural laws prior to any specific examination of miracle claims, thus it amounts to a subtle form of begging the question. To assume that testimony is a homogeneous reference group seems unwise- to compare private miracles with public miracles, unintellectual observers with intellectual observers and those who have little to gain and much to lose with those with much to gain and little to lose is not convincing to many. Indeed, many have argued that miracles not only do not contradict the laws of nature but require the laws of nature to be intelligible as miraculous, and thus subverting the law of nature. For example, William Adams remarks that \"there must be an ordinary course of nature before anything can be extraordinary. There must be a stream before anything can be interrupted.\" They have also noted that it requires an appeal to inductive inference, as none have observed every part of nature nor examined every possible miracle claim, for instance those in the future. This, in Hume's philosophy, was especially problematic.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "Little appreciated is the voluminous literature either foreshadowing Hume, in the likes of Thomas Sherlock or directly responding to and engaging with Hume—from William Paley, William Adams, John Douglas, John Leland, and George Campbell, among others. Regarding the latter, it is rumoured that, having read Campbell's Dissertation, Hume remarked that \"the Scotch theologue had beaten him.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "Hume's main argument concerning miracles is that miracles by definition are singular events that differ from the established laws of nature. Such natural laws are codified as a result of past experiences. Therefore, a miracle is a violation of all prior experience and thus incapable on this basis of reasonable belief. However, the probability that something has occurred in contradiction of all past experience should always be judged to be less than the probability that either one's senses have deceived one, or the person recounting the miraculous occurrence is lying or mistaken, Hume would say, all of which he had past experience of. For Hume, this refusal to grant credence does not guarantee correctness. He offers the example of an Indian Prince, who, having grown up in a hot country, refuses to believe that water has frozen. By Hume's lights, this refusal is not wrong and the prince \"reasoned justly;\" it is presumably only when he has had extensive experience of the freezing of water that he has warrant to believe that the event could occur.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "So, for Hume, either the miraculous event will become a recurrent event or else it will never be rational to believe it occurred. The connection to religious belief is left unexplained throughout, except for the close of his discussion where Hume notes the reliance of Christianity upon testimony of miraculous occurrences. He makes an ironic remark that anyone who \"is moved by faith to assent\" to revealed testimony \"is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.\" Hume writes that \"All the testimony whichever was really given for any miracle, or ever will be given, is a subject of derision.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "From 1754 to 1762 Hume published The History of England, a six-volume work, that extends (according to its subtitle) \"From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688.\" Inspired by Voltaire's sense of the breadth of history, Hume widened the focus of the field away from merely kings, parliaments, and armies, to literature and science as well. He argued that the quest for liberty was the highest standard for judging the past, and concluded that after considerable fluctuation, England at the time of his writing had achieved \"the most entire system of liberty that was ever known amongst mankind\". It \"must be regarded as an event of cultural importance. In its own day, moreover, it was an innovation, soaring high above its very few predecessors.\" Hume's History of England made him famous as a historian before he was ever considered a serious philosopher. In this work, Hume uses history to tell the story of the rise of England and what led to its greatness and the disastrous effects that religion has had on its progress. For Hume, the history of England's rise may give a template for others who would also like to rise to its current greatness.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "Hume's The History of England was profoundly impacted by his Scottish background. The science of sociology, which is rooted in Scottish thinking of the eighteenth century, had never before been applied to British philosophical history. Because of his Scottish background, Hume was able to bring an outsider's lens to English history that the insulated English whigs lacked.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "Hume's coverage of the political upheavals of the 17th century relied in large part on the Earl of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (1646–69). Generally, Hume took a moderate royalist position and considered revolution unnecessary to achieve necessary reform. Hume was considered a Tory historian and emphasised religious differences more than constitutional issues. Laird Okie explains that \"Hume preached the virtues of political moderation, but ... it was moderation with an anti-Whig, pro-royalist coloring.\" For \"Hume shared the ... Tory belief that the Stuarts were no more high-handed than their Tudor predecessors\". \"Even though Hume wrote with an anti-Whig animus, it is, paradoxically, correct to regard the History as an establishment work, one which implicitly endorsed the ruling oligarchy\". Historians have debated whether Hume posited a universal unchanging human nature, or allowed for evolution and development.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "The debate between Tory and the Whig historians can be seen in the initial reception to Hume's History of England. The whig-dominated world of 1754 overwhelmingly disapproved of Hume's take on English history. In later editions of the book, Hume worked to \"soften or expunge many villainous whig strokes which had crept into it.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "Hume did not consider himself a pure Tory. Before 1745, he was more akin to an \"independent whig.\" In 1748, he described himself as \"a whig, though a very skeptical one.\" This description of himself as in between whiggism and toryism, helps one understand that his History of England should be read as his attempt to work out his own philosophy of history.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "Robert Roth argues that Hume's histories display his biases against Presbyterians and Puritans. Roth says his anti-Whig pro-monarchy position diminished the influence of his work, and that his emphasis on politics and religion led to a neglect of social and economic history.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "Hume was an early cultural historian of science. His short biographies of leading scientists explored the process of scientific change. He developed new ways of seeing scientists in the context of their times by looking at how they interacted with society and each other. He covers over forty scientists, with special attention paid to Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton. Hume particularly praised William Harvey, writing about his treatise of the circulation of the blood: \"Harvey is entitled to the glory of having made, by reasoning alone, without any mixture of accident, a capital discovery in one of the most important branches of science.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "The History became a best-seller and made Hume a wealthy man who no longer had to take up salaried work for others. It was influential for nearly a century, despite competition from imitations by Smollett (1757), Goldsmith (1771) and others. By 1894, there were at least 50 editions as well as abridgements for students, and illustrated pocket editions, probably produced specifically for women.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "Many of Hume's political ideas, such as limited government, private property when there is scarcity, and constitutionalism, are first principles of liberalism. Thomas Jefferson banned the History from University of Virginia, feeling that it had \"spread universal toryism over the land.\" By comparison, Samuel Johnson thought Hume to be \"a Tory by chance [...] for he has no principle. If he is anything, he is a Hobbist.\" A major concern of Hume's political philosophy is the importance of the rule of law. He also stresses throughout his political essays the importance of moderation in politics, public spirit, and regard to the community.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "Throughout the period of the American Revolution, Hume had varying views. For instance, in 1768 he encouraged total revolt on the part of the Americans. In 1775, he became certain that a revolution would take place and said that he believed in the American principle and wished the British government would let them be. Hume's influence on some of the Founders can be seen in Benjamin Franklin's suggestion at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 that no high office in any branch of government should receive a salary, which is a suggestion Hume had made in his emendation of James Harrington's Oceana.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "The legacy of religious civil war in 18th-century Scotland, combined with the relatively recent memory of the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite risings, had fostered in Hume a distaste for enthusiasm and factionalism. These appeared to him to threaten the fragile and nascent political and social stability of a country that was deeply politically and religiously divided. Hume thought that society is best governed by a general and impartial system of laws; he is less concerned about the form of government that administers these laws, so long as it does so fairly. However, he also clarified that a republic must produce laws, while \"monarchy, when absolute, contains even something repugnant to law.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "Hume expressed suspicion of attempts to reform society in ways that departed from long-established custom, and he counselled peoples not to resist their governments except in cases of the most egregious tyranny. However, he resisted aligning himself with either of Britain's two political parties, the Whigs and the Tories:",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "My views of things are more conformable to Whig principles; my representations of persons to Tory prejudices.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "The scholar Jerry Z. Muller argues that Hume's political thoughts have characteristics that later became typical for American and British conservatism, which contain more positive views of capitalism than conservatism does elsewhere. Canadian philosopher Neil McArthur writes that Hume believed that we should try to balance our demands for liberty with the need for strong authority, without sacrificing either. McArthur characterises Hume as a \"precautionary conservative,\" whose actions would have been \"determined by prudential concerns about the consequences of change, which often demand we ignore our own principles about what is ideal or even legitimate.\" Hume supported the liberty of the press, and was sympathetic to democracy, when suitably constrained. American historian Douglass Adair has argued that Hume was a major inspiration for James Madison's writings, and the essay \"Federalist No. 10\" in particular.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "Hume offered his view on the best type of society in an essay titled \"Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth\", which lays out what he thought was the best form of government. He hoped that \"in some future age, an opportunity might be afforded of reducing the theory to practice, either by a dissolution of some old government, or by the combination of men to form a new one, in some distant part of the world\". He defended a strict separation of powers, decentralisation, extending the franchise to anyone who held property of value and limiting the power of the clergy. The system of the Swiss militia was proposed as the best form of protection. Elections were to take place on an annual basis and representatives were to be unpaid. Political philosophers Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, writing of Hume's thoughts about \"the wise statesman\", note that he \"will bear a reverence to what carries the marks of age.\" Also, if he wishes to improve a constitution, his innovations will take account of the \"ancient fabric\", in order not to disturb society.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "In the political analysis of philosopher George Holland Sabine, the scepticism of Hume extended to the doctrine of government by consent. He notes that \"allegiance is a habit enforced by education and consequently as much a part of human nature as any other motive.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "In the 1770s, Hume was critical of British policies toward the American colonies and advocated for American independence. He wrote in 1771 that \"our union with America…in the nature of things, cannot long subsist.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "Hume expressed his economic views in his Political Discourses, which were incorporated in Essays and Treatises as Part II of Essays, Moral and Political. To what extent he was influenced by Adam Smith is difficult to assess; however, both of them had similar principles supported from historical events. At the same time Hume did not demonstrate concrete system of economic theory which could be observed in Smith's Wealth of Nations. However, he introduced several new ideas around which the \"classical economics\" of the 18th century was built. Through his discussions on politics, Hume developed many ideas that are prevalent in the field of economics. This includes ideas on private property, inflation, and foreign trade. Referring to his essay \"Of the Balance of Trade\", economist Paul Krugman (2012) has remarked that \"David Hume created what I consider the first true economic model.\"",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "In contrast to Locke, Hume believes that private property is not a natural right. Hume argues it is justified, because resources are limited. Private property would be an unjustified, \"idle ceremonial,\" if all goods were unlimited and available freely. Hume also believed in an unequal distribution of property, because perfect equality would destroy the ideas of thrift and industry. Perfect equality would thus lead to impoverishment.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "David Hume anticipated modern monetarism. First, Hume contributed to the theory of quantity and of interest rate. Hume has been credited with being the first to prove that, on an abstract level, there is no quantifiable amount of nominal money that a country needs to thrive. He understood that there was a difference between nominal and real money.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "Second, Hume has a theory of causation which fits in with the Chicago-school \"black box\" approach. According to Hume, cause and effect are related only through correlation. Hume shared the belief with modern monetarists that changes in the supply of money can affect consumption and investment.",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "Lastly, Hume was a vocal advocate of a stable private sector, though also having some non-monetarist aspects to his economic philosophy. Having a stated preference for rising prices, for instance, Hume considered government debt to be a sort of substitute for actual money, referring to such debt as \"a kind of paper credit.\" He also believed in heavy taxation, believing that it increases effort. Hume's economic approach evidently resembles his other philosophies, in that he does not choose one side indefinitely, but sees gray in the situation",
"title": "Writings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 128,
"text": "Due to Hume's vast influence on contemporary philosophy, a large number of approaches in contemporary philosophy and cognitive science are today called \"Humean.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 129,
"text": "The writings of Thomas Reid, a Scottish philosopher and contemporary of Hume, were often critical of Hume's scepticism. Reid formulated his common sense philosophy, in part, as a reaction against Hume's views.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 130,
"text": "Hume influenced, and was influenced by, the Christian philosopher Joseph Butler. Hume was impressed by Butler's way of thinking about religion, and Butler may well have been influenced by Hume's writings.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 131,
"text": "Attention to Hume's philosophical works grew after the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in his Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783), credited Hume with awakening him from his \"dogmatic slumber.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 132,
"text": "According to Arthur Schopenhauer, \"there is more to be learned from each page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel, Herbart and Schleiermacher taken together.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 133,
"text": "A. J. Ayer, while introducing his classic exposition of logical positivism in 1936, claimed:",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 134,
"text": "The views which are put forward in this treatise derive from…doctrines…which are themselves the logical outcome of the empiricism of Berkeley and David Hume.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 135,
"text": "Albert Einstein, in 1915, wrote that he was inspired by Hume's positivism when formulating his theory of special relativity.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 136,
"text": "Hume's problem of induction was also of fundamental importance to the philosophy of Karl Popper. In his autobiography, Unended Quest, he wrote: \"Knowledge ... is objective; and it is hypothetical or conjectural. This way of looking at the problem made it possible for me to reformulate Hume's problem of induction.\" This insight resulted in Popper's major work The Logic of Scientific Discovery. In his Conjectures and Refutations, he wrote:",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 137,
"text": "I approached the problem of induction through Hume. Hume, I felt, was perfectly right in pointing out that induction cannot be logically justified.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 138,
"text": "Hume's rationalism in religious subjects influenced, via German-Scottish theologian Johann Joachim Spalding, the German neology school and rational theology, and contributed to the transformation of German theology in the Age of Enlightenment. Hume pioneered a comparative history of religion, tried to explain various rites and traditions as being based on deception and challenged various aspects of rational and natural theology, such as the argument from design.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 139,
"text": "Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard adopted \"Hume's suggestion that the role of reason is not to make us wise but to reveal our ignorance,\" though taking it as a reason for the necessity of religious faith, or fideism. The \"fact that Christianity is contrary to reason…is the necessary precondition for true faith.\" Political theorist Isaiah Berlin, who has also pointed out the similarities between the arguments of Hume and Kierkegaard against rational theology, has written about Hume's influence on what Berlin calls the counter-Enlightenment and on German anti-rationalism. Berlin has also once said of Hume that \"no man has influenced the history of philosophy to a deeper or more disturbing degree.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 140,
"text": "In 2003 philosopher Jerry Fodor, described Hume's Treatise as \"the founding document of cognitive science.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 141,
"text": "Hume engaged with contemporary intellectuals including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, James Boswell, and Adam Smith (who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy).",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 142,
"text": "Morris and Brown (2019) write that Hume is \"generally regarded as one of the most important philosophers to write in English.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 143,
"text": "In September 2020, the David Hume Tower, a University of Edinburgh building, was renamed to 40 George Square; this was following a campaign led by students of the university to rename it, in objection to Hume's writings related to race.",
"title": "Legacy"
}
] | David Hume was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. Beginning with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Hume followed John Locke in rejecting the existence of innate ideas, concluding that all human knowledge derives solely from experience. This places him with Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley as an empiricist. Hume argued that inductive reasoning and belief in causality cannot be justified rationally; instead, they result from custom and mental habit. We never actually perceive that one event causes another but only experience the "constant conjunction" of events. This problem of induction means that to draw any causal inferences from past experience, it is necessary to presuppose that the future will resemble the past, a metaphysical presupposition which cannot itself be grounded in prior experience. An opponent of philosophical rationalists, Hume held that passions rather than reason govern human behaviour, famously proclaiming that "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions." Hume was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on emotion or sentiment rather than abstract moral principle. He maintained an early commitment to naturalistic explanations of moral phenomena and is usually accepted by historians of European philosophy to have first clearly expounded the is–ought problem, or the idea that a statement of fact alone can never give rise to a normative conclusion of what ought to be done. Hume denied that humans have an actual conception of the self, positing that we experience only a bundle of sensations, and that the self is nothing more than this bundle of perceptions connected by an association of ideas. Hume's compatibilist theory of free will takes causal determinism as fully compatible with human freedom. His philosophy of religion, including his rejection of miracles, and of the argument from design for God's existence, were especially controversial for their time. Hume left a legacy that affected utilitarianism, logical positivism, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive science, theology, and many other fields and thinkers. Immanuel Kant credited Hume as the inspiration that had awakened him from his "dogmatic slumbers." | 2001-07-26T20:19:30Z | 2023-12-20T19:43:46Z | [
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7,928 | Dalton Trumbo | James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including Roman Holiday (1953), Exodus, Spartacus (both 1960), and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). One of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry.
Trumbo, the other members of the Hollywood Ten, and hundreds of other professionals in the industry were blacklisted by Hollywood. He continued working clandestinely on major films, writing under pseudonyms or other authors' names. His uncredited work won two Academy Awards for Best Story: for Roman Holiday (1953), which was presented to a front writer, and for The Brave One (1956), which was awarded to a pseudonym used by Trumbo. When he was given public screen credit for both Exodus and Spartacus in 1960, it marked the beginning of the end of the Hollywood Blacklist for Trumbo and other affected screenwriters. He finally was given full credit by the Writers' Guild for Roman Holiday in 2011, nearly 60 years after the fact.
Trumbo was born in Montrose, Colorado, the son of Orus Bonham Trumbo and Maud (née Tillery) Trumbo. His family moved to Grand Junction in 1908.
His paternal immigrant ancestor, a Protestant of Swiss origin named Jacob Trumbo, settled in the colony of Virginia in 1736. Orus Trumbo worked variously as a shoe clerk and collection agent, never earning enough to keep the family far from poverty.
Trumbo graduated from Grand Junction High School. While still in high school, he worked for Walter Walker as a cub reporter for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, covering courts, the high school, the mortuary and civic organizations. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1924 and 1925, working as a reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera and contributing to the campus humor magazine, the yearbook, and the campus newspaper. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.
In 1924 Orus Trumbo moved the family to California. Shortly after, he fell ill and died, leaving Dalton to support his mother and siblings. For nine years after his father died, Trumbo worked the night shift wrapping bread at a Los Angeles bakery, and attended the University of California, Los Angeles (1926) and the University of Southern California (1928–1930). During this time, he wrote movie reviews, 88 short stories, and six novels, all of which were rejected for publication.
Trumbo began his professional writing career in the early 1930s, when several of his articles and stories were published in mainstream magazines, including McCall's, Vanity Fair, the Hollywood Spectator and The Saturday Evening Post. Trumbo was hired as managing editor of the Hollywood Spectator in 1934. Later he left the magazine to become a reader in the story department at Warner Bros. studio.
His first published novel, Eclipse (1935), was released during the Great Depression. Writing in the social realist style, Trumbo drew on his years in Grand Junction to portray a town and its people. The book was controversial in his hometown, where many people took issue with his fictional portrayal.
Trumbo started working in movies in 1937 but continued writing prose. His anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun won one of the early National Book Awards: the Most Original Book of 1939. It was inspired by an article Trumbo had read several years earlier: an account of a hospital visit by the Prince of Wales to a Canadian soldier who had lost all his limbs in World War I.
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Trumbo became one of Hollywood's highest-paid screenwriters, at about $4,000 per week while on assignment, and earning as much as $80,000 in one year. He worked on such films as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), and Kitty Foyle (1940), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Aligned with the Communist Party in the United States before the 1940s, Trumbo was an isolationist. He joined the Communist Party in 1943, and remained active until 1947. He reaffiliated himself with the party in 1954. His novel The Remarkable Andrew featured the ghost of President Andrew Jackson appearing to caution the United States against getting involved in World War II and in support of the Nazi-Soviet pact.
Shortly after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Trumbo and his publisher decided to suspend reprinting Johnny Got His Gun until the end of the war. During the war, Trumbo received letters from individuals "denouncing Jews" and using Johnny to support their arguments for "an immediate negotiated peace" with Nazi Germany; Trumbo reported these correspondents to the FBI. Trumbo regretted this decision, which he called "foolish". After two FBI agents showed up at his home, he understood that "their interest lay not in the letters but in me".
In a 1946 article titled "The Russian Menace" published in Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, Trumbo wrote from the perspective of a post-World War II Russian citizen. He argued that Russians were likely fearful of the mass of U.S. military power that surrounded them, at a time when any sympathetic view toward Communist countries was viewed with suspicion. He ended the article by stating, "If I were a Russian ... I would be alarmed, and I would petition my government to take measures at once against what would seem an almost certain blow aimed at my existence. This is how it must appear in Russia today". He argued that the U.S. was a "menace" to Russia, rather than the more popular American view of Russia as the "red menace". According to anti-Communist author Kenneth Billingsley, Trumbo had written in The Daily Worker that Communist influence in Hollywood had prevented films from being made from anti-Communist books, such as Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon and The Yogi and the Commissar.
William R. Wilkerson, publisher and founder of The Hollywood Reporter, published a July 29, 1946, "TradeView" column entitled "A Vote For Joe Stalin". It named Trumbo and several others as Communist sympathizers, the first persons identified on what became known as "Billy's Blacklist". In October 1947, drawing upon these names, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) summoned Trumbo and nine others to testify for their investigation as to whether Communist agents and sympathizers had surreptitiously planted propaganda in U.S. films. The writers refused to give information about their own or any other person's involvement and were convicted for contempt of Congress. They appealed the conviction to the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds and lost. Trumbo served eleven months in the federal penitentiary in Ashland, Kentucky, in 1950. In the 1976 documentary Hollywood On Trial, Trumbo said: "As far as I was concerned, it was a completely just verdict. I had contempt for that Congress and have had contempt for it ever since. And on the basis of guilt or innocence, I could never really complain very much. That this was a crime or misdemeanor was the complaint, my complaint."
The MPAA issued a statement that Trumbo and his compatriots would not be permitted to work in the industry unless they disavowed Communism under oath. After completing his sentence, Trumbo sold his ranch and moved his family to Mexico City with Hugo Butler and his wife Jean Rouverol, who had also been blacklisted. In Mexico, Trumbo wrote 30 scripts (under pseudonyms) for B-movie studios such as King Brothers Productions. In the case of Gun Crazy (1950), adapted from a short story by MacKinlay Kantor, Kantor agreed to be the front for Trumbo's screenplay. Trumbo's role in the screenplay was not revealed until 1992.
During this blacklist period, Trumbo also wrote The Brave One (1956) for the King Brothers. Like Roman Holiday, it received an Academy Award for Best Story he could not claim. The script was credited to Robert Rich, a name borrowed from a nephew of the producers. Trumbo recalled earning an average fee of $1,750 per film for 18 screenplays written in two years and said, "None was very good".
He published The Devil in the Book, an analysis of the conviction of 14 California Smith Act defendants, in 1956. The statute set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government and required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government.
Ingo Preminger, the brother of producer-director Otto Preminger, was Dalton Trumbo's agent. Otto Preminger hired Trumbo to write a screenplay for the film he intended to adapt from by Leon Uris' novel Exodus when the script he had commissioned from Uris was deemed unusable. The producer-director decided to give Trumbo the screen credit. Shortly thereafter, actor Kirk Douglas announced Trumbo had written the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick's film Spartacus (also 1960), adapted from the novel by Howard Fast. With these actions, Preminger and Douglas helped end the power of the blacklist.
Trumbo was reinstated into the Writers Guild of America, West and was credited on all subsequent scripts. The guild finally gave him full credit for the script of the 1953 film Roman Holiday in 2011. Trumbo directed the 1971 film adaptation of his novel Johnny Got His Gun, starring Timothy Bottoms, Diane Varsi, Jason Robards and Donald Sutherland. One of the last films Trumbo wrote, Executive Action (1973), was based on the Kennedy assassination. The Academy officially recognized Trumbo as the winner of the Oscar for the 1956 film The Brave One in 1975, presenting him with a statuette.
In 1938, Trumbo married Cleo Fincher, who was born in Fresno, California, on July 17, 1916, and had moved with her divorced mother and her brother and sister to Los Angeles. The Trumbos had three children: Nikola Trumbo (1939-2018), who became a psychotherapist; Christopher Trumbo (1940-2011), a filmmaker and screenwriter who became an expert on the Hollywood blacklist; and Melissa Trumbo (1945), known as Mitzi, a photographer. Mitzi Trumbo dated comedian Steve Martin when they were both in their early 20s, which is recounted in Martin's 2007 book Born Standing Up. Martin wrote of her: "Mitzi became my official photographer, and she snapped dozens of rolls of film, all to find the perfect publicity photo."
Cleo Trumbo died of natural causes at the age of 93 on October 9, 2009, at the home she shared with Mitzi Trumbo in Los Altos, California.
Trumbo died in 1976, in Los Angeles of a heart attack at the age of 70. He donated his body to scientific research.
In 1993, Trumbo was posthumously awarded the Academy Award for writing Roman Holiday (1953). The screen credit and award were previously given to Ian McLellan Hunter, who had been a front for Trumbo. A new statue was made for this award because Hunter's son refused to hand over the one his father had received.
In 2003, Christopher Trumbo mounted an Off-Broadway play based on his father's letters, called Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted, in which a wide variety of actors played his father during the run, including Nathan Lane, Tim Robbins, Brian Dennehy, Ed Harris, Chris Cooper and Gore Vidal. He adapted it as the documentary Trumbo (2007), which added archival footage and new interviews.
A dramatization of Trumbo's life, also called Trumbo, was released in November 2015. It starred Bryan Cranston in the title role and was directed by Jay Roach. For his portrayal of Trumbo, Cranston was nominated for Best Actor at the 88th Academy Awards.
The moving image collection of Trumbo is held at the Academy Film Archive and consists primarily of extensive 35 mm production materials relating to the 1971 anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun. In 2016, more than a hundred years after his birth, Trumbo was honored by the installation of a statue of him in front of the Avalon Theater on Main Street in Grand Junction, Colorado, his home town. He was depicted writing a screenplay in a bathtub.
Selected film works
Novels, plays and essays
Non-fiction | [
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{
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"text": "His paternal immigrant ancestor, a Protestant of Swiss origin named Jacob Trumbo, settled in the colony of Virginia in 1736. Orus Trumbo worked variously as a shoe clerk and collection agent, never earning enough to keep the family far from poverty.",
"title": "Origins"
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{
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"text": "Trumbo graduated from Grand Junction High School. While still in high school, he worked for Walter Walker as a cub reporter for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, covering courts, the high school, the mortuary and civic organizations. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1924 and 1925, working as a reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera and contributing to the campus humor magazine, the yearbook, and the campus newspaper. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.",
"title": "Origins"
},
{
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"text": "In 1924 Orus Trumbo moved the family to California. Shortly after, he fell ill and died, leaving Dalton to support his mother and siblings. For nine years after his father died, Trumbo worked the night shift wrapping bread at a Los Angeles bakery, and attended the University of California, Los Angeles (1926) and the University of Southern California (1928–1930). During this time, he wrote movie reviews, 88 short stories, and six novels, all of which were rejected for publication.",
"title": "Origins"
},
{
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"text": "Trumbo began his professional writing career in the early 1930s, when several of his articles and stories were published in mainstream magazines, including McCall's, Vanity Fair, the Hollywood Spectator and The Saturday Evening Post. Trumbo was hired as managing editor of the Hollywood Spectator in 1934. Later he left the magazine to become a reader in the story department at Warner Bros. studio.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
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"text": "His first published novel, Eclipse (1935), was released during the Great Depression. Writing in the social realist style, Trumbo drew on his years in Grand Junction to portray a town and its people. The book was controversial in his hometown, where many people took issue with his fictional portrayal.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Trumbo started working in movies in 1937 but continued writing prose. His anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun won one of the early National Book Awards: the Most Original Book of 1939. It was inspired by an article Trumbo had read several years earlier: an account of a hospital visit by the Prince of Wales to a Canadian soldier who had lost all his limbs in World War I.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Trumbo became one of Hollywood's highest-paid screenwriters, at about $4,000 per week while on assignment, and earning as much as $80,000 in one year. He worked on such films as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), and Kitty Foyle (1940), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Aligned with the Communist Party in the United States before the 1940s, Trumbo was an isolationist. He joined the Communist Party in 1943, and remained active until 1947. He reaffiliated himself with the party in 1954. His novel The Remarkable Andrew featured the ghost of President Andrew Jackson appearing to caution the United States against getting involved in World War II and in support of the Nazi-Soviet pact.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Shortly after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Trumbo and his publisher decided to suspend reprinting Johnny Got His Gun until the end of the war. During the war, Trumbo received letters from individuals \"denouncing Jews\" and using Johnny to support their arguments for \"an immediate negotiated peace\" with Nazi Germany; Trumbo reported these correspondents to the FBI. Trumbo regretted this decision, which he called \"foolish\". After two FBI agents showed up at his home, he understood that \"their interest lay not in the letters but in me\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In a 1946 article titled \"The Russian Menace\" published in Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, Trumbo wrote from the perspective of a post-World War II Russian citizen. He argued that Russians were likely fearful of the mass of U.S. military power that surrounded them, at a time when any sympathetic view toward Communist countries was viewed with suspicion. He ended the article by stating, \"If I were a Russian ... I would be alarmed, and I would petition my government to take measures at once against what would seem an almost certain blow aimed at my existence. This is how it must appear in Russia today\". He argued that the U.S. was a \"menace\" to Russia, rather than the more popular American view of Russia as the \"red menace\". According to anti-Communist author Kenneth Billingsley, Trumbo had written in The Daily Worker that Communist influence in Hollywood had prevented films from being made from anti-Communist books, such as Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon and The Yogi and the Commissar.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "William R. Wilkerson, publisher and founder of The Hollywood Reporter, published a July 29, 1946, \"TradeView\" column entitled \"A Vote For Joe Stalin\". It named Trumbo and several others as Communist sympathizers, the first persons identified on what became known as \"Billy's Blacklist\". In October 1947, drawing upon these names, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) summoned Trumbo and nine others to testify for their investigation as to whether Communist agents and sympathizers had surreptitiously planted propaganda in U.S. films. The writers refused to give information about their own or any other person's involvement and were convicted for contempt of Congress. They appealed the conviction to the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds and lost. Trumbo served eleven months in the federal penitentiary in Ashland, Kentucky, in 1950. In the 1976 documentary Hollywood On Trial, Trumbo said: \"As far as I was concerned, it was a completely just verdict. I had contempt for that Congress and have had contempt for it ever since. And on the basis of guilt or innocence, I could never really complain very much. That this was a crime or misdemeanor was the complaint, my complaint.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The MPAA issued a statement that Trumbo and his compatriots would not be permitted to work in the industry unless they disavowed Communism under oath. After completing his sentence, Trumbo sold his ranch and moved his family to Mexico City with Hugo Butler and his wife Jean Rouverol, who had also been blacklisted. In Mexico, Trumbo wrote 30 scripts (under pseudonyms) for B-movie studios such as King Brothers Productions. In the case of Gun Crazy (1950), adapted from a short story by MacKinlay Kantor, Kantor agreed to be the front for Trumbo's screenplay. Trumbo's role in the screenplay was not revealed until 1992.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "During this blacklist period, Trumbo also wrote The Brave One (1956) for the King Brothers. Like Roman Holiday, it received an Academy Award for Best Story he could not claim. The script was credited to Robert Rich, a name borrowed from a nephew of the producers. Trumbo recalled earning an average fee of $1,750 per film for 18 screenplays written in two years and said, \"None was very good\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "He published The Devil in the Book, an analysis of the conviction of 14 California Smith Act defendants, in 1956. The statute set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government and required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Ingo Preminger, the brother of producer-director Otto Preminger, was Dalton Trumbo's agent. Otto Preminger hired Trumbo to write a screenplay for the film he intended to adapt from by Leon Uris' novel Exodus when the script he had commissioned from Uris was deemed unusable. The producer-director decided to give Trumbo the screen credit. Shortly thereafter, actor Kirk Douglas announced Trumbo had written the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick's film Spartacus (also 1960), adapted from the novel by Howard Fast. With these actions, Preminger and Douglas helped end the power of the blacklist.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Trumbo was reinstated into the Writers Guild of America, West and was credited on all subsequent scripts. The guild finally gave him full credit for the script of the 1953 film Roman Holiday in 2011. Trumbo directed the 1971 film adaptation of his novel Johnny Got His Gun, starring Timothy Bottoms, Diane Varsi, Jason Robards and Donald Sutherland. One of the last films Trumbo wrote, Executive Action (1973), was based on the Kennedy assassination. The Academy officially recognized Trumbo as the winner of the Oscar for the 1956 film The Brave One in 1975, presenting him with a statuette.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In 1938, Trumbo married Cleo Fincher, who was born in Fresno, California, on July 17, 1916, and had moved with her divorced mother and her brother and sister to Los Angeles. The Trumbos had three children: Nikola Trumbo (1939-2018), who became a psychotherapist; Christopher Trumbo (1940-2011), a filmmaker and screenwriter who became an expert on the Hollywood blacklist; and Melissa Trumbo (1945), known as Mitzi, a photographer. Mitzi Trumbo dated comedian Steve Martin when they were both in their early 20s, which is recounted in Martin's 2007 book Born Standing Up. Martin wrote of her: \"Mitzi became my official photographer, and she snapped dozens of rolls of film, all to find the perfect publicity photo.\"",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Cleo Trumbo died of natural causes at the age of 93 on October 9, 2009, at the home she shared with Mitzi Trumbo in Los Altos, California.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Trumbo died in 1976, in Los Angeles of a heart attack at the age of 70. He donated his body to scientific research.",
"title": "Death and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In 1993, Trumbo was posthumously awarded the Academy Award for writing Roman Holiday (1953). The screen credit and award were previously given to Ian McLellan Hunter, who had been a front for Trumbo. A new statue was made for this award because Hunter's son refused to hand over the one his father had received.",
"title": "Death and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In 2003, Christopher Trumbo mounted an Off-Broadway play based on his father's letters, called Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted, in which a wide variety of actors played his father during the run, including Nathan Lane, Tim Robbins, Brian Dennehy, Ed Harris, Chris Cooper and Gore Vidal. He adapted it as the documentary Trumbo (2007), which added archival footage and new interviews.",
"title": "Death and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "A dramatization of Trumbo's life, also called Trumbo, was released in November 2015. It starred Bryan Cranston in the title role and was directed by Jay Roach. For his portrayal of Trumbo, Cranston was nominated for Best Actor at the 88th Academy Awards.",
"title": "Death and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The moving image collection of Trumbo is held at the Academy Film Archive and consists primarily of extensive 35 mm production materials relating to the 1971 anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun. In 2016, more than a hundred years after his birth, Trumbo was honored by the installation of a statue of him in front of the Avalon Theater on Main Street in Grand Junction, Colorado, his home town. He was depicted writing a screenplay in a bathtub.",
"title": "Death and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Selected film works",
"title": "Works"
},
{
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"text": "Novels, plays and essays",
"title": "Works"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Non-fiction",
"title": "Works"
}
] | James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including Roman Holiday (1953), Exodus, Spartacus, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). One of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry. Trumbo, the other members of the Hollywood Ten, and hundreds of other professionals in the industry were blacklisted by Hollywood. He continued working clandestinely on major films, writing under pseudonyms or other authors' names. His uncredited work won two Academy Awards for Best Story: for Roman Holiday (1953), which was presented to a front writer, and for The Brave One (1956), which was awarded to a pseudonym used by Trumbo. When he was given public screen credit for both Exodus and Spartacus in 1960, it marked the beginning of the end of the Hollywood Blacklist for Trumbo and other affected screenwriters. He finally was given full credit by the Writers' Guild for Roman Holiday in 2011, nearly 60 years after the fact. | 2001-05-28T04:17:54Z | 2023-12-06T09:06:53Z | [
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7,930 | Delaware | Delaware (/ˈdɛləwɛər/ DEL-ə-wair) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey to its northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state's name derives from the adjacent Delaware Bay, which in turn was named after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Colony of Virginia's first colonial-era governor.
Delaware occupies the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula, and some islands and territory within the Delaware River. It is the 2nd smallest and 6th least populous state, but also the 6th most densely populated. Delaware's most populous city is Wilmington, and the state's capital is Dover, the 2nd most populous city in Delaware. The state is divided into three counties, the fewest number of counties of any of the 50 U.S. states; from north to south, the three counties are: New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County.
The southern two counties, Kent and Sussex counties, historically have been predominantly agrarian economies. New Castle is more urbanized and is considered part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan statistical area that surrounds and includes Philadelphia, the nation's 6th most populous city. Delaware is considered part of the Southern United States by the U.S. Census Bureau, but the state's geography, culture, and history are a hybrid of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the country.
Before Delaware coastline was explored and developed by Europeans in the 16th century, the state was inhabited by several Native Americans tribes, including the Lenape in the north and Nanticoke in the south. The state was first colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, near present-day Lewes, Delaware, in 1631.
Delaware was one of the Thirteen Colonies that participated in the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, in which the American Continental Army, led by George Washington, defeated the British, ended British colonization and establishing the United States as a sovereign and independent nation.
On December 7, 1787, Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, earning the state the nickname "The First State".
Since the turn of the 20th century, Delaware has become an onshore corporate haven whose corporate laws are deemed appealed to corporations; over half of all New York Stock Exchange-listed corporations and over three-fifths of the Fortune 500 is legally incorporated in the state.
Delaware was named after Delaware Bay, which in turn derived its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (1577–1618), the first governor of the Colony of Virginia. The Delaware people, a name used by Europeans for Lenape people Indigenous to the Delaware Valley, also derive their name from the same source.
The name de La Warr is from Sussex and of Anglo-French origin. It came probably from a Norman lieu-dit La Guerre. This toponymic likely derived from Latin ager, the Breton gwern or from the Late Latin varectum (fallow). The toponyms Gara, Gare, Gaire, (the sound [ä] often mutated in [æ]) also appear in historical texts cited by Lucien Musset, where the word ga(i)ra means gore. ,It could also be linked with a patronymic from the Old Norse verr.
Before Delaware was settled by European colonists, the present-day state was home to the Eastern Algonquian tribes known as the Unami Lenape, or Delaware, who lived mostly along the coast, and the Nanticoke who occupied much of the southern Delmarva Peninsula. John Smith also shows two Iroquoian tribes, the Kuskarawock and Tockwogh, living north of the Nanticoke—they may have held small portions of land in the western part of the state before migrating across the Chesapeake Bay. The Kuskarawocks were most likely the Tuscarora.
The Unami Lenape in the Delaware Valley were closely related to Munsee Lenape tribes along the Hudson River. They had a settled hunting and agricultural society, and they rapidly became middlemen in an increasingly frantic fur trade with their ancient enemy, the Minqua or Susquehannock. With the loss of their lands on the Delaware River and the destruction of the Minqua by the Iroquois of the Five Nations in the 1670s, the remnants of the Lenape who wished to remain identified as such left the region and moved over the Alleghany Mountains by the mid-18th century. Generally, those who did not relocate out of the state of Delaware were baptized, became Christian and were grouped together with other persons of color in official records and in the minds of their non-Native American neighbors.
The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle in present-day Delaware in the middle region by establishing a trading post at Zwaanendael, near the site of Lewes in 1631. Within a year, all the settlers were killed in a dispute with Native American tribes living in the area. In 1638, New Sweden, a Swedish trading post and colony, was established at Fort Christina (now in Wilmington) by Peter Minuit at the head of a group of Swedes, Finns and Dutch. The colony of New Sweden lasted 17 years. In 1651, the Dutch, reinvigorated by the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant, established a fort at present-day New Castle and, in 1655, they conquered the New Sweden colony, annexing it into the Dutch New Netherland. Only nine years later, in 1664, the Dutch were conquered by a fleet of English ships by Sir Robert Carr under the direction of James, the Duke of York. Fighting off a prior claim by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, Proprietor of Maryland, the Duke passed his somewhat dubious ownership on to William Penn in 1682. Penn strongly desired access to the sea for his Pennsylvania province and leased what then came to be known as the "Lower Counties on the Delaware" from the Duke.
Penn established representative government and briefly combined his two possessions under one General Assembly in 1682. However, by 1704 the Province of Pennsylvania had grown so large their representatives wanted to make decisions without the assent of the Lower Counties, and the two groups of representatives began meeting on their own, one at Philadelphia, and the other at New Castle. Penn and his heirs remained proprietors of both and always appointed the same person Governor for their Province of Pennsylvania and their territory of the Lower Counties. The fact that Delaware and Pennsylvania shared the same governor was not unique. From 1703 to 1738 New York and New Jersey shared a governor. Massachusetts and New Hampshire also shared a governor for some time.
Dependent in early years on indentured labor, Delaware imported more slaves as the number of English immigrants decreased with better economic conditions in England. The colony became a slave society and cultivated tobacco as a cash crop, although English immigrants continued to arrive.
Like the other middle colonies, the Lower Counties on the Delaware initially showed little enthusiasm for a break with Britain. The citizenry had a good relationship with the Proprietary government, and generally were allowed more independence of action in their Colonial Assembly than in other colonies. Merchants at the port of Wilmington had trading ties with the British.
New Castle lawyer Thomas McKean denounced the Stamp Act in the strongest terms, and Kent County native John Dickinson became the "Penman of the Revolution". Anticipating the Declaration of Independence, Patriot leaders Thomas McKean and Caesar Rodney convinced the Colonial Assembly to declare itself separated from British and Pennsylvania rule on June 15, 1776. The person best representing Delaware's majority, George Read, could not bring himself to vote for a Declaration of Independence. Only the dramatic overnight ride of Caesar Rodney gave the delegation the votes needed to cast Delaware's vote for independence.
Initially led by John Haslet, Delaware provided one of the premier regiments in the Continental Army, known as the "Delaware Blues" and nicknamed the "Blue Hen's Chicks". In August 1777 General Sir William Howe led a British army through Delaware on his way to a victory at the Battle of Brandywine and capture of the city of Philadelphia. The only real engagement on Delaware soil was the Battle of Cooch's Bridge, fought on September 3, 1777, at Cooch's Bridge in New Castle County, although there was a minor Loyalist rebellion in 1778.
Following the Battle of Brandywine, Wilmington was occupied by the British, and State President John McKinly was taken prisoner. The British remained in control of the Delaware River for much of the rest of the war, disrupting commerce and providing encouragement to an active Loyalist portion of the population, particularly in Sussex County. Because the British promised slaves of rebels freedom for fighting with them, escaped slaves flocked north to join their lines.
Following the American Revolution, statesmen from Delaware were among the leading proponents of a strong central United States with equal representation for each state.
Many colonial settlers came to Delaware from Maryland and Virginia, where the population had been increasing rapidly. The economies of these colonies were chiefly based on labor-intensive tobacco and increasingly dependent on African slaves because of a decline in working class immigrants from England. Most of the English colonists had arrived as indentured servants (contracted for a fixed period to pay for their passage), and in the early years the line between servant and slave was fluid.
Most of the free African-American families in Delaware before the Revolution had migrated from Maryland to find more affordable land. They were descendants chiefly of relationships or marriages between white servant women and enslaved, servant or free African or African-American men. Under slavery law, children took the social status of their mothers, so children born to white women were free, regardless of their paternity, just as children born to enslaved women were born into slavery. As the flow of indentured laborers to the colony decreased with improving economic conditions in England, more slaves were imported for labor and the caste lines hardened.
By the end of the colonial period, the number of enslaved people in Delaware began to decline. Shifts in the agriculture economy from tobacco to mixed farming resulted in less need for slaves' labor. In addition local Methodists and Quakers encouraged slaveholders to free their slaves following the American Revolution, and many did so in a surge of individual manumissions for idealistic reasons. By 1810, three-quarters of all blacks in Delaware were free. When John Dickinson freed his slaves in 1777, he was Delaware's largest slave owner with 37 slaves. By 1860, the largest slaveholder owned 16 slaves.
Although attempts to abolish slavery failed by narrow margins in the legislature, in practical terms the state had mostly ended the practice. By the 1860 census on the verge of the Civil War, 91.7% of the black population were free; 1,798 were slaves, as compared to 19,829 "free colored persons".
An independent black denomination was chartered in 1813 by freed slave Peter Spencer as the "Union Church of Africans". This followed the 1793 establishment in Philadelphia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church by Richard Allen, which had ties to the Methodist Episcopal Church until 1816. Spencer built a church in Wilmington for the new denomination. This was renamed as the African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection, more commonly known as the A.U.M.P. Church. In 1814, Spencer called for the first annual gathering, known as the Big August Quarterly, which continues to draw members of this denomination and their descendants together in a religious and cultural festival.
Delaware voted against secession on January 3, 1861, and so remained in the Union. While most Delaware citizens who fought in the war served in the regiments of the state, some served in companies on the Confederate side in Maryland and Virginia Regiments. Delaware is notable for being the only slave state from which no Confederate regiments or militia groups were assembled. Delaware essentially freed the few slaves who were still in bondage shortly after the Civil War but rejected the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution; the 13th Amendment was rejected on February 8, 1865, the 14th Amendment was rejected on February 8, 1867, and the 15th Amendment was rejected on March 18, 1869. Delaware officially ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments on February 12, 1901.
During the Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War, Democratic Redeemer governments led by the South's Bourbon aristocracy continued to dominate the region and imposed explicitly white supremacist regimes in the former slave states. The Delaware legislature declared Black people to be second-class citizens in 1866 and restricted their voting rights despite the Fifteenth Amendment, ensuring continued Democratic success in the state throughout most of the nineteenth century. Fearful that the 1875 Civil Rights Act passed by Congress might establish racial equality, Delaware legislators passed Jim Crow laws that mandated segregation in public facilities. The state's educational system was segregated by operation of law. Delaware's segregation was written into the state constitution, which, while providing at Article X, Section 2, that "no distinction shall be made on account of race or color", nonetheless required that "separate schools for white and colored children shall be maintained."
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the Wilmington area grew into a manufacturing center. Investment in manufacturing in the city grew from $5.5 million in 1860 to $44 million in 1900. The most notable manufacturer in the state was the chemical company DuPont, which to this day is heavily credited with making the state what it is today in many ways. Because of Wilmington's growth, local politicians from the city and New Castle County pressured the state government to adopt a new constitution providing the north with more representation. However, the subsequent 1897 constitution did not proportionally represent the north and continued to give the southern counties disproportionate influence.
As manufacturing expanded, businesses became major players in state affairs and funders of politicians through families such as the Du Ponts. Republican John Addicks attempted to buy a US Senate seat multiple times in a rivalry with the Du Ponts until the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment. The allegiance of industries with the Republican party allowed them to gain control of the state's governorship throughout most of the twentieth century. The GOP ensured Black people could vote because of their general support for Republicans and thus undid restrictions on Black suffrage.
Delaware benefited greatly from World War I because of the state's large gunpowder industry. DuPont, the most dominant business in the state by WWI, produced an estimated 40% of all gunpowder used by the Allies during the war. It produced nylon in the state after the war and began investments into General Motors. Additionally, the company invested heavily in the expansion of public schools in the state and colleges such as the University of Delaware in the 1910s and 1920s. This included primary and secondary schools for Black people and women. Delaware suffered less during the Great Depression than other states, but the depression spurred further migration from the rural south to urban areas.
Like in World War I, the state enjoyed a big stimulus to its gunpowder and shipyard industries in World War II. New job opportunities during and after the war in the Wilmington area coaxed Black people from the southern counties to move to the city. The proportion of blacks constituting the city's population rose from 15% in 1950 to over 50% by 1980. The surge of Black migrants to the north sparked white flight, in which middle class whites moved from the city to suburban areas, leading to de facto segregation of Northern Delaware's society. In the 1940s and 1950s, Delaware attempted to integrate its schools, although the last segregated school in the state did not close until 1970. The University of Delaware admitted its first black student in 1948, and local courts ruled that primary schools had to be integrated. Delaware's integration efforts partially inspired the US Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which found racial segregation in United States public schools to be unconstitutional. The result of the Brown ruling was that Delaware became fully integrated, albeit with time and much effort.
In October 1954, the city of Milford became the scene of one of the country's first pro-segregation boycotts after eleven Black students were enrolled in the previously all-white Milford High School. Mass protests continued in Milford; the school board eventually ceded to the protestors, expelling the Black students. The ensuing unrest, which included cross burnings, rallies, and pro-segregation demonstrations, contributed to desegregation in most of Southern Delaware being delayed for another ten years. Sussex County did not start closing or integrating its segregated schools until 1965, 11 years after the Brown ruling. Throughout the state, integration only encouraged more white flight, and poor economic conditions for the black population led to some violence during the 1960s. Riots broke out in Wilmington in 1967 and again in 1968 in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, after which the National Guard occupied the city for nine months to prevent further violence.
Since WWII, the state has been generally economically prosperous and enjoyed relatively high per capita income because of its location between major cities like Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC. Its population grew rapidly, particularly in the suburbs in the north where New Castle county became an extension of the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Americans, including migrants from Puerto Rico, and immigrants from Latin America flocked to the state. By 1990, only 50% of Delaware's population consisted of natives to the state.
Delaware is 96 miles (154 km) long and ranges from 9 miles (14 km) to 35 miles (56 km) across, with a land area of 1,982 square miles (5,130 km) and a total area of 2,489 square miles (6,450 km), making it the second-smallest state by either metric in the United States after Rhode Island. Delaware is bounded to the north by Pennsylvania; to the east by the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, New Jersey, and the Atlantic Ocean; and to the west and south by Maryland. Small portions of Delaware are also situated on the eastern side of the Delaware River sharing land boundaries with New Jersey. The state of Delaware, together with the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and two counties of Virginia, form the Delmarva Peninsula, which stretches down the Mid-Atlantic Coast.
The definition of the northern boundary of the state is unusual. Most of the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania was originally defined by an arc extending 12 miles (19.3 km) from the cupola of the courthouse in the city of New Castle. This boundary is often referred to as the Twelve-Mile Circle. Although the Twelve-Mile Circle is often claimed to be the only territorial boundary in the U.S. that is a true arc, the Mexican boundary with Texas includes several arcs, and many cities in the South (such as Plains, Georgia) also have circular boundaries.
This border extends all the way east to the low-tide mark on the New Jersey shore, then continues south along the shoreline until it again reaches the 12-mile (19 km) arc in the south; then the boundary continues in a more conventional way in the middle of the main channel (thalweg) of the Delaware River.
To the west, a portion of the arc extends past the easternmost edge of Maryland. The remaining western border runs slightly east of due south from its intersection with the arc. The Wedge of land between the northwest part of the arc and the Maryland border was claimed by both Delaware and Pennsylvania until 1921, when Delaware's claim was confirmed.
Delaware is on a level plain, with the lowest mean elevation of any state in the nation. Its highest elevation, located at Ebright Azimuth, near Concord High School, is less than 450 feet (140 m) above sea level. The northernmost part of the state is part of the Piedmont Plateau with hills and rolling surfaces.
The Atlantic Seaboard fall line approximately follows the Robert Kirkwood Highway between Newark and Wilmington; south of this road is the Atlantic Coastal Plain with flat, sandy, and, in some parts, swampy ground. A ridge about 75 to 80 feet (23 to 24 m) high extends along the western boundary of the state and separates the watersheds that feed Delaware River and Bay to the east and the Chesapeake Bay to the west.
Since almost all of Delaware is a part of the Atlantic coastal plain, the effects of the ocean moderate its climate. The state lies in the humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) zone. Despite its small size (roughly 100 miles (160 km) from its northernmost to southernmost points), there is significant variation in mean temperature and amount of snowfall between Sussex County and New Castle County. Moderated by the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay, the southern portion of the state has a milder climate and a longer growing season than the northern portion of the state. Delaware's all-time record high of 110 °F (43 °C) was recorded at Millsboro on July 21, 1930. The all-time record low of −17 °F (−27 °C) was also recorded at Millsboro, on January 17, 1893. The hardiness zones are 7a, 7b and 8a at the Delaware Beaches.
The transitional climate of Delaware supports a wide variety of vegetation. In the northern third of the state are found Northeastern coastal forests and mixed oak forests typical of the northeastern United States. In the southern two-thirds of the state are found Middle Atlantic coastal forests. Trap Pond State Park, along with areas in other parts of Sussex County, for example, support the northernmost stands of bald cypress trees in North America.
Delaware provides government subsidy support for the clean-up of property "lightly contaminated" by hazardous waste, the proceeds for which come from a tax on wholesale petroleum sales.
Wilmington is the state's most populous city (70,635) and its economic hub. It is located within commuting distance of both Philadelphia and Baltimore. Dover is the state capital and the second most populous city (38,079).
The table below lists the ten largest municipalities in the state based on the 2020 United States census.
The United States Census Bureau determined that the population of Delaware was 989,948 on April 1, 2020, an increase from the 2010 census figure of 897,934.
Delaware's history as a border state has led it to exhibit characteristics of both the Northern and the Southern regions of the United States. Generally, the rural Southern (or "Slower Lower") regions of Delaware below the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal embody a Southern culture, while densely-populated Northern Delaware above the canal—particularly Wilmington, a part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area—has more in common with that of the Northeast and the North. The U.S. Census Bureau designates Delaware as one of the South Atlantic States, but it is commonly associated with the Mid-Atlantic States and/or northeastern United States by other federal agencies, the media, and some residents.
Delaware is the sixth most densely populated state, with a population density of 442.6 people per square mile, 356.4 per square mile more than the national average, and ranking 45th in population. Delaware is one of five U.S. states (Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming) that do not have a single city with a population over 100,000 as of the 2010 census. The center of population of Delaware is in New Castle County, in the town of Townsend.
According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 2,369 homeless people in Delaware.
According to the 2010 United States census, the racial composition of the state was 68.9% White American (65.3% Non-Hispanic White, 3.6% White Hispanic), 21.4% Black or African American, 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 3.2% Asian American, 0.0% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 3.4% some other race, and 2.7% of multiracial origin. People of Hispanic or Latino origin, of any race, made up 8.2% of the population.
The 2022 American Community Survey estimated the state had a racial and ethnic makeup of 60.6% non-Hispanic whites, 23.6% Black or African American, 0.7% American Indian or Alaska Native, 4.2% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 2.9% multiracial, and 10.1% Hispanic or Latin American of any race.
In the Native American community, the state has a Native American group, called in their own language Lenape, which was influential in the colonial period of the United States and is today headquartered in Cheswold, Kent County, Delaware. A band of the Nanticoke tribe of American Indians today resides in Sussex County and is headquartered in Millsboro, Sussex County, Delaware.
Delaware's population mainly consisted of people from the British Isles, African slaves, Germans and a few remaining Native Americans during the colonial era. Irish, Germans, Italians, Poles, and Russian Jewish immigrants were attracted by the industries in the Wilmington area. In the late 20th century a Puerto Rican community formed in Wilmington. Guatemalan people migrated to Sussex county to work in Delaware's poultry industry. A group of Native Americans in Delaware of mixed ethnicity, the Moors, live in Cheswold. The descendants of the Nanticoke people live around Millsboro. There is also a small numbers of Asians in New Castle county who work as scientific and engineering professionals.
The top countries of origin for Delaware's immigrants in 2018 were Mexico, India, Guatemala, China, and Jamaica.
Note: Births in table do not add up because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.
In 2000, 91% of Delaware residents of age 5 and older spoke only English at home; 5% spoke Spanish. French was the third most spoken language, used by 0.7% of the population, followed by Chinese (0.5%) and German (0.5%). Legislation has been proposed in both the House and the Senate in Delaware to designate English as the official language. Neither bill was passed in the legislature.
A 2012 Gallup poll found that Delaware's proportion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults stood at 3.4% of the population. This constitutes a total LGBT adult population estimate of 23,698 people. The number of same-sex couple households in 2010 stood at 2,646. This grew by 41.65% from a decade earlier. On July 1, 2013, same-sex marriage was legalized, and all civil unions would be converted into marriages.
Religion in Delaware per the Public Religion Research Institute's 2022 American Values Atlas survey
The predominant religion practiced in Delaware is Christianity. A 2014 estimate by the Pew Research Center found that members of Protestant churches accounted for almost half of the population, though the Roman Catholic Church was the largest single denomination in the state. By 2020, the Public Religion Research Institute determined 61% of the population was Christian. In 2022, the Public Religion Research Institute's survey revealed 60% were Christian, followed by Jews (3%), Hindus (1%), and New Agers (1%).
The Association of Religion Data Archives reported in 2010 that the three largest Christian denominational groups in Delaware by number of adherents are the Catholic Church at 182,532 adherents, the United Methodist Church with 53,656 members reported, and non-denominational evangelical Protestants, who numbered 22,973. In 2020, the Association of Religion Data Archives reported the largest Christian denominations were the Catholic Church with 197,094; non-denominational Protestants with 49,392, and United Methodists with 39,959.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware oversee the parishes within their denominations. The A.U.M.P. Church, the oldest African-American denomination in the nation, was founded in Wilmington. It still has a substantial presence in the state. Reflecting new immigrant populations, an Islamic mosque has been built in the Ogletown area, and a Hindu temple in Hockessin.
Delaware is home to an Amish community which resides west of Dover in Kent County, consisting of nine church districts and about 1,650 people. The Amish first settled in Kent County in 1915. In recent years, increasing development has led to the decline in the number of Amish living in the community.
A 2012 survey of religious attitudes in the United States found that 34% of Delaware residents considered themselves "moderately religious", 33% "very religious", and 33% as "non-religious". At the 2014 Pew Research survey, 23% of the population were irreligious; the 2020 Public Religion Research Institute's survey determined 31% of the population were irreligious. In 2022, the same study showed 33% of the population as irreligious.
According to a 2020 study by Kiplinger, Delaware had the seventeenth most millionaires per capita in the United States; altogether, there were 25,937 such individuals. The median income for Delaware households as of 2020 was $64,805.
Delaware's agricultural output consists of poultry, nursery stock, soybeans, dairy products and corn.
As of October 2019, the state's unemployment rate was 3.7%.
The state's largest employers are:
Since the mid-2000s, Delaware has seen the departure of the state's automotive manufacturing industry (General Motors Wilmington Assembly and Chrysler Newark Assembly), the corporate buyout of a major bank holding company (MBNA), the departure of the state's steel industry (Evraz Claymont Steel), the bankruptcy of a fiber mill (National Vulcanized Fiber), and the diminishing presence of AstraZeneca in Wilmington.
In late 2015, DuPont announced that 1,700 employees, nearly a third of its footprint in Delaware, would be laid off in early 2016. The merger of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and Dow Chemical Company into DowDuPont took place on September 1, 2017.
More than half of all U.S. publicly traded companies, and 63% of the Fortune 500, are incorporated in Delaware. The state's attractiveness as a corporate haven is largely because of its business-friendly corporation law. Franchise taxes on Delaware corporations supply about a fifth of the state's revenue. Although "USA (Delaware)" ranked as the world's most opaque jurisdiction on the Tax Justice Network's 2009 Financial Secrecy Index, the same group's 2011 Index ranks the U.S. fifth and does not specify Delaware. In Delaware, there are more than a million registered corporations, meaning there are more corporations than people.
Title 4, chapter 7 of the Delaware Code stipulates that alcoholic liquor be sold only in specifically licensed establishments, and only between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. Until 2003, Delaware was among the several states enforcing blue laws and banned the sale of liquor on Sunday.
Two daily newspapers are based in Delaware, the Delaware State News, based in Dover and covering the two southern counties, and The News Journal covering Wilmington and northern Delaware. The state is also served by several weekly, monthly and online publications.
No standalone television stations are based solely in Delaware. The northern part of the state is served by network stations in Philadelphia and the southern part by network stations in Salisbury, Maryland. Philadelphia's ABC affiliate, WPVI-TV, maintains a news bureau in downtown Wilmington. Salisbury's CBS affiliate, WBOC-TV, maintains bureaus in Dover and Milton. Three Philadelphia-market stations—PBS member WHYY-TV, Ion affiliate WPPX, and MeTV affiliate WDPN-TV—all have Wilmington as their city of license, but maintain transmitters at the market antenna farm in Roxborough, Philadelphia and do not produce any Delaware-centric programming.
There are a numerous radio stations licensed in Delaware. WDEL 1150AM, WHGE-LP 95.3 FM, WILM 1450 AM, WVCW 99.5, WMPH 91.7 FM, WSTW 93.7 FM, WTMC 1380 AM and WWTX 1290AM are licensed from Wilmington. WRDX 92.9 FM is licensed from Smyrna. WDOV 1410AM, WDSD 94.7 FM and WRTX 91.7 FM are licensed from Dover.
Delaware is home to First State National Historical Park, a National Park Service unit composed of historic sites across the state including the New Castle Court House, Green, and Sheriff's House, Dover Green, Beaver Valley, Fort Christina, Old Swedes' Church, John Dickinson Plantation, and the Ryves Holt House. Delaware has several museums, wildlife refuges, parks, houses, lighthouses, and other historic places.
Rehoboth Beach, together with the towns of Lewes, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, South Bethany, and Fenwick Island, comprise Delaware's beach resorts. Rehoboth Beach often bills itself as "The Nation's Summer Capital" because it is a frequent summer vacation destination for Washington, D.C., residents as well as visitors from Maryland, Virginia, and in lesser numbers, Pennsylvania. Vacationers are drawn for many reasons, including the town's charm, artistic appeal, nightlife, and tax-free shopping. According to SeaGrant Delaware, the Delaware beaches generate $6.9 billion annually and over $711 million in tax revenue.
Delaware is home to several festivals, fairs, and events. Some of the more notable festivals are the Riverfest held in Seaford, the World Championship Punkin Chunkin formerly held at various locations throughout the state since 1986, the Rehoboth Beach Chocolate Festival, the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral to mark the end of summer, the Apple Scrapple Festival held in Bridgeville, the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival in Wilmington, the Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival, the Sea Witch Halloween Festival and Parade in Rehoboth Beach, the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, the Nanticoke Indian Pow Wow in Oak Orchard, Firefly Music Festival, and the Return Day Parade held after every election in Georgetown.
In 2015, tourism in Delaware generated $3.1 billion, which makes up five percent of the state's GDP. Delaware saw 8.5 million visitors in 2015, with the tourism industry employing 41,730 people, making it the 4th largest private employer in the state. Major origin markets for Delaware tourists include Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, with 97% of tourists arriving to the state by car and 75% of tourists coming from a distance of 200 miles (320 km) or less.
Delaware is also home to two large sporting venues. Dover Motor Speedway is a race track in Dover, and Frawley Stadium in Wilmington is the home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a Minor League Baseball team.
In the early 1920s, Pierre S. du Pont served as president of the state board of education. At the time, state law prohibited money raised from white taxpayers from being used to support the state's schools for black children. Appalled by the condition of the black schools, du Pont donated four million dollars to construct 86 new school buildings.
Delaware was the origin of Belton v. Gebhart (1952), one of the four cases which were combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court of the United States decision that led to the end of officially segregated public schools. Significantly, Belton was the only case in which the state court found for the plaintiffs, thereby ruling that segregation is unconstitutional.
Unlike many states, Delaware's educational system is centralized in a state Superintendent of Education, with local school boards retaining control over taxation and some curriculum decisions. This centralized system, combined with the small size of the state, likely contributed to Delaware becoming the first state, after completion of a three-year, $30 million program ending in 1999, to wire every K-12 classroom in the state to the Internet.
As of 2011, the Delaware Department of Education had authorized the founding of 25 charter schools in the state, one of them being all-girls.
All teachers in the State's public school districts are unionized. As of January 2012, none of the State's charter schools are members of a teachers union. One of the State's teachers' unions is Delaware State Education Association (DSEA).
The transportation system in Delaware is under the governance and supervision of the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT). Funding for DelDOT projects is drawn, in part, from the Delaware Transportation Trust Fund, established in 1987 to help stabilize transportation funding; the availability of the Trust led to a gradual separation of DelDOT operations from other Delaware state operations. DelDOT manages programs such as a Delaware Adopt-a-Highway program, major road route snow removal, traffic control infrastructure (signs and signals), toll road management, Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, the Delaware Transit Corporation (branded as "DART First State", the state government public transportation organization), and others.
In 2009, DelDOT maintained 13,507 lane-miles, totaling 89 percent of the state's public roadway system, the rest being under the supervision of individual municipalities. This far exceeds the national average (20 percent) for state department of transportation maintenance responsibility.
One major branch of the U.S. Interstate Highway System, Interstate 95 (I-95), crosses Delaware southwest-to-northeast across New Castle County. Two Auxiliary Interstate Highway routes are also located in the state. Interstate 495 (I-495) is an eastern bypass of Wilmington. Interstate 295 (I-295) is a bypass of Philadelphia which begins south of Wilmington. In addition to Interstate highways, there are six U.S. highways that serve Delaware: U.S. 9, U.S. 13, U.S. 40, U.S. 113, U.S. 202, and U.S. 301. There are also several state highways that cross the state of Delaware; a few of them include DE 1, DE 9, and DE 404. U.S. 13 and DE 1 are primary north–south highways connecting Wilmington and Pennsylvania with Maryland, with DE 1 serving as the main route between Wilmington and the Delaware beaches. DE 9 is a north–south highway connecting Dover and Wilmington via a scenic route along the Delaware Bay. U.S. 40 is a primary east–west route, connecting Maryland with New Jersey. DE 404 is another primary east–west highway connecting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland with the Delaware beaches. The state also operates three toll highways, the Delaware Turnpike, which is I-95, between Maryland and New Castle; the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, which is DE 1, between Wilmington and Dover; and the U.S. 301 toll road between the Maryland border and DE 1 in New Castle County.
A bicycle route, Delaware Bicycle Route 1, spans the north–south length of the state from the Maryland border in Fenwick Island to the Pennsylvania border north of Montchanin. It is the first of several signed bike routes planned in Delaware.
Delaware has about 1,450 bridges, 95 percent of which are under the supervision of DelDOT. About 30 percent of all Delaware bridges were built before 1950, and about 60 percent of the number are included in the National Bridge Inventory. Some bridges not under DelDOT supervision includes the four bridges on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which is under the bi-state Delaware River and Bay Authority.
It has been noted that the tar and chip composition of secondary roads in Sussex County makes them more prone to deterioration than are the asphalt roadways in almost the rest of the state. Among these roads, Sussex (county road) 236 is among the most problematic.
Three ferries operate in the state of Delaware:
Amtrak has two stations in Delaware along the Northeast Corridor; the relatively quiet Newark Rail Station in Newark, and the busier Wilmington Station in Wilmington. The Northeast Corridor is also served by SEPTA's Wilmington/Newark Line, part of SEPTA Regional Rail, which serves Claymont, Wilmington, Churchmans Crossing, and Newark.
Two Class I railroads, Norfolk Southern and CSX, provide freight rail service in northern New Castle County. Norfolk Southern provides freight service along the Northeast Corridor and to industrial areas in Edgemoor, New Castle, and Delaware City. CSX's Philadelphia Subdivision passes through northern New Castle County parallel to the Amtrak Northeast Corridor. Multiple short-line railroads provide freight service in Delaware. The Delmarva Central Railroad operates the most trackage of the short-line railroads, running from an interchange with Norfolk Southern in Porter south through Dover, Harrington, and Seaford to Delmar, with another line running from Harrington to Frankford and branches from Ellendale to Milton and from Georgetown to Gravel Hill. The Delmarva Central Railroad connects with the Maryland and Delaware Railroad, which serves local customers in Sussex County. CSX connects with the freight/heritage operation, the Wilmington and Western Railroad, based in Wilmington and the East Penn Railroad, which operates a line from Wilmington to Coatesville, Pennsylvania.
The last north–south passenger trains through the main part of Delaware was the Pennsylvania Railroad's local Wilmington-Delmar train in 1965. This was a successor to the Del-Mar-Va Express and Cavalier, which had run from Philadelphia through the state's interior, to the end of the Delmarva Peninsula until the mid-1950s.
The DART First State public transportation system was named "Most Outstanding Public Transportation System" in 2003 by the American Public Transportation Association. Coverage of the system is broad within northern New Castle County with close association to major highways in Kent and Sussex counties. The system includes bus, subsidized passenger rail operated by Philadelphia transit agency SEPTA, and subsidized taxi and paratransit modes. The paratransit system, consisting of a statewide door-to-door bus service for the elderly and disabled, has been described by a Delaware state report as "the most generous paratransit system in the United States". As of 2012, fees for the paratransit service have not changed since 1988.
As of 2023, Delaware is served exclusively by Avelo Airlines out of Wilmington Airport, launching five routes to Florida on February 1. This put an end to an eight-month period during which Delaware had no scheduled air service, one of several since 1991. Various airlines had served Wilmington Airport, the latest departure being Frontier Airlines in June 2022.
Delaware is centrally situated in the Northeast megalopolis region of cities along I-95. Therefore, Delaware commercial airline passengers most frequently use Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) for domestic and international transit. Residents of Sussex County will also use Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY), as it is located less than 10 miles (16 km) from the Delaware border. Atlantic City International Airport (ACY), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) are also within a 100-mile (160 km) radius of New Castle County.
Other general aviation airports in Delaware include Summit Airport near Middletown, Delaware Airpark near Cheswold, and Delaware Coastal Airport near Georgetown.
Dover Air Force Base, one of the largest in the country, is home to the 436th Airlift Wing and the 512th Airlift Wing. In addition to its other responsibilities in the Air Mobility Command, it serves as the entry point and mortuary for U.S. military personnel (and some civilians) who die overseas.
Delaware's fourth and current constitution, adopted in 1897, provides for executive, judicial and legislative branches.
The Delaware General Assembly consists of a House of Representatives with 41 members and a Senate with 21 members. It sits in Dover, the state capital. Representatives are elected to two-year terms, while senators are elected to four-year terms. The Senate confirms judicial and other nominees appointed by the governor.
Delaware's U.S. Senators are Tom Carper (Democrat) and Chris Coons (Democrat). Delaware's single U.S. Representative is Lisa Blunt Rochester (Democrat).
The Delaware Constitution establishes a number of courts:
Minor non-constitutional courts include the Justice of the Peace Courts and Aldermen's Courts.
Significantly, Delaware has one of the few remaining Courts of Chancery in the nation, which has jurisdiction over equity cases, the vast majority of which are corporate disputes, many relating to mergers and acquisitions. The Court of Chancery and the Delaware Supreme Court have developed a worldwide reputation for rendering concise opinions concerning corporate law which generally (but not always) grant broad discretion to corporate boards of directors and officers. In addition, the Delaware General Corporation Law, which forms the basis of the Courts' opinions, is widely regarded as giving great flexibility to corporations to manage their affairs. For these reasons, Delaware is considered to have the most business-friendly legal system in the United States; therefore a great number of companies are incorporated in Delaware, including 60% of the companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Delaware was the last U.S. state to use judicial corporal punishment, in 1952.
The executive branch is headed by the Governor of Delaware. The current governor is John Carney (Democrat), who took office January 17, 2017. The lieutenant governor is Bethany Hall-Long. The governor presents a "State of the State" speech to a joint session of the Delaware legislature annually.
The executive branch also consists of the Attorney General of Delaware currently held by Kathy Jennings, the State Treasurer currently held by Colleen Davis, the Auditor of Accounts currently held by Lydia York and the Insurance Commissioner currently held by Trinidad Navarro.
Delaware is subdivided into three counties; from north to south they are New Castle, Kent and Sussex. This is the fewest among all states. Each county elects its own legislative body (known in New Castle and Sussex counties as County Council, and in Kent County as Levy Court), which deal primarily in zoning and development issues. Most functions which are handled on a county-by-county basis in other states—such as court and law enforcement—have been centralized in Delaware, leading to a significant concentration of power in the Delaware state government. The counties were historically divided into hundreds, which were used as tax reporting and voting districts until the 1960s, but now serve no administrative role, their only current official legal use being in real estate title descriptions.
The Democratic Party holds a plurality of registrations in Delaware. Currently, Democrats hold all positions of authority in Delaware, as well as majorities in the state Senate and House. The Democrats have held the governorship since 1993, having won the last seven gubernatorial elections. Democrats presently hold all the nine statewide elected offices, while the Republicans last won any statewide offices in 2014, State Auditor and State Treasurer.
During the First and Second Party Systems, Delaware was a stronghold for the Federalist and Whig Parties, respectively. After a relatively brief adherence to the Democratic Solid South following the US Civil War, Delaware became a Republican-leaning state from 1896 through 1948, voting for losing Republicans Charles Evans Hughes in 1916, Herbert Hoover in 1932, and Thomas Dewey in 1948.
During the second half of the 20th century, Delaware was a bellwether state, voting for the winner of every presidential election from 1952 through 1996. Delaware's bellwether status came to an end when Delaware voted for Al Gore in 2000 by 13%. Subsequent elections have continued to demonstrate Delaware's current strong Democratic lean: John Kerry carried the First State by 8% in 2004; Barack Obama carried it by 25% and by 19% in his two elections of 2008 and 2012; and Hillary Clinton carried it by 11% as she lost the Electoral College in 2016. In 2020, Delaware native (and Barack Obama's former vice president and running mate) Joe Biden headed the Democratic ticket; he carried his home state by just shy of 19% en route to a national 4.5% win.
The dominant factor in Delaware's political shift has been the strong Democratic trend in heavily urbanized New Castle County, home to 55% of Delaware's population. New Castle County has not voted Republican in a presidential election since 1988, and has given Democrats over 60% of its vote in every election from 2004 on. In 1992, 2000, 2004, and 2016, the Republican presidential candidate carried both Kent and Sussex but lost by double digits each time in New Castle County, which was a large enough margin to tip the state to the Democrats. New Castle County also elects a substantial majority of the state legislature; 27 of the 41 state house districts and 14 of the 21 state senate districts are based in New Castle County.
In a 2020 study, Delaware was ranked as the 18th hardest state for citizens to vote in.
Each of the 50 states of the United States has passed some form of freedom of information legislation, which provides a mechanism for the general public to request information of the government. In 2011 Delaware passed legislation placing a 15 business day time limit on addressing freedom-of-information requests, to either produce information or an explanation of why such information would take longer than this time to produce. A bill aimed at restricting Freedom of Information Act requests, Senate Bill 155, was discussed in committee.
Tax is collected by the Delaware Division of Revenue.
Delaware has six different income tax brackets, ranging from 2.2% to 5.95%. The state does not assess sales tax on consumers. The state does, however, impose a tax on the gross receipts of most businesses. Business and occupational license tax rates range from 0.096% to 1.92%, depending on the category of business activity.
Delaware does not assess a state-level tax on real or personal property. Real estate is subject to county property taxes, school district property taxes, vocational school district taxes, and, if located within an incorporated area, municipal property taxes.
Gambling provides significant revenue to the state. For instance, the casino at Delaware Park Racetrack provided more than $100 million to the state in 2010.
In June 2018, Delaware became the first U.S. state to legalize sports betting following the Supreme Court ruling to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA).
As Delaware has no franchises in the major American professional sports leagues, many Delawareans follow either Philadelphia or Baltimore teams. In the WNBA, the Washington Mystics enjoy a major following due to the presence of Wilmington native and University of Delaware product Elena Delle Donne. The University of Delaware's football team has a large following throughout the state, with the Delaware State University and Wesley College teams also enjoying a smaller degree of support.
Delaware is home to Dover Motor Speedway and Bally's Dover. Dover Motor Speedway, also known as the Monster Mile, is one of only 10 tracks in the nation to have hosted 100 or more NASCAR Cup Series races. Bally's Dover is a popular harness racing facility. It is the only co-located horse- and car-racing facility in the nation, with the Bally's Dover track located inside the Dover Motor Speedway track.
Delaware is represented in rugby by the Delaware Black Foxes, a 2015 expansion club.
Delaware has been home to professional wrestling outfit Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW). CZW has been affiliated with the annual Tournament of Death and ECWA with its annual Super 8 Tournament.
Delaware's official state sport is bicycling.
Delaware's sister state in Japan is Miyagi Prefecture.
Prominent Delawareans include the du Pont family of politicians and businesspersons, and current United States president Joe Biden, whose family moved to Delaware during his childhood, and who later became a senator representing the state.
39°00′N 75°24′W / 39.0°N 75.4°W / 39.0; -75.4 (State of Deleware) | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Delaware (/ˈdɛləwɛər/ DEL-ə-wair) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey to its northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state's name derives from the adjacent Delaware Bay, which in turn was named after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Colony of Virginia's first colonial-era governor.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Delaware occupies the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula, and some islands and territory within the Delaware River. It is the 2nd smallest and 6th least populous state, but also the 6th most densely populated. Delaware's most populous city is Wilmington, and the state's capital is Dover, the 2nd most populous city in Delaware. The state is divided into three counties, the fewest number of counties of any of the 50 U.S. states; from north to south, the three counties are: New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The southern two counties, Kent and Sussex counties, historically have been predominantly agrarian economies. New Castle is more urbanized and is considered part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan statistical area that surrounds and includes Philadelphia, the nation's 6th most populous city. Delaware is considered part of the Southern United States by the U.S. Census Bureau, but the state's geography, culture, and history are a hybrid of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the country.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Before Delaware coastline was explored and developed by Europeans in the 16th century, the state was inhabited by several Native Americans tribes, including the Lenape in the north and Nanticoke in the south. The state was first colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, near present-day Lewes, Delaware, in 1631.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Delaware was one of the Thirteen Colonies that participated in the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, in which the American Continental Army, led by George Washington, defeated the British, ended British colonization and establishing the United States as a sovereign and independent nation.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "On December 7, 1787, Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, earning the state the nickname \"The First State\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Since the turn of the 20th century, Delaware has become an onshore corporate haven whose corporate laws are deemed appealed to corporations; over half of all New York Stock Exchange-listed corporations and over three-fifths of the Fortune 500 is legally incorporated in the state.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Delaware was named after Delaware Bay, which in turn derived its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (1577–1618), the first governor of the Colony of Virginia. The Delaware people, a name used by Europeans for Lenape people Indigenous to the Delaware Valley, also derive their name from the same source.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The name de La Warr is from Sussex and of Anglo-French origin. It came probably from a Norman lieu-dit La Guerre. This toponymic likely derived from Latin ager, the Breton gwern or from the Late Latin varectum (fallow). The toponyms Gara, Gare, Gaire, (the sound [ä] often mutated in [æ]) also appear in historical texts cited by Lucien Musset, where the word ga(i)ra means gore. ,It could also be linked with a patronymic from the Old Norse verr.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Before Delaware was settled by European colonists, the present-day state was home to the Eastern Algonquian tribes known as the Unami Lenape, or Delaware, who lived mostly along the coast, and the Nanticoke who occupied much of the southern Delmarva Peninsula. John Smith also shows two Iroquoian tribes, the Kuskarawock and Tockwogh, living north of the Nanticoke—they may have held small portions of land in the western part of the state before migrating across the Chesapeake Bay. The Kuskarawocks were most likely the Tuscarora.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The Unami Lenape in the Delaware Valley were closely related to Munsee Lenape tribes along the Hudson River. They had a settled hunting and agricultural society, and they rapidly became middlemen in an increasingly frantic fur trade with their ancient enemy, the Minqua or Susquehannock. With the loss of their lands on the Delaware River and the destruction of the Minqua by the Iroquois of the Five Nations in the 1670s, the remnants of the Lenape who wished to remain identified as such left the region and moved over the Alleghany Mountains by the mid-18th century. Generally, those who did not relocate out of the state of Delaware were baptized, became Christian and were grouped together with other persons of color in official records and in the minds of their non-Native American neighbors.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle in present-day Delaware in the middle region by establishing a trading post at Zwaanendael, near the site of Lewes in 1631. Within a year, all the settlers were killed in a dispute with Native American tribes living in the area. In 1638, New Sweden, a Swedish trading post and colony, was established at Fort Christina (now in Wilmington) by Peter Minuit at the head of a group of Swedes, Finns and Dutch. The colony of New Sweden lasted 17 years. In 1651, the Dutch, reinvigorated by the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant, established a fort at present-day New Castle and, in 1655, they conquered the New Sweden colony, annexing it into the Dutch New Netherland. Only nine years later, in 1664, the Dutch were conquered by a fleet of English ships by Sir Robert Carr under the direction of James, the Duke of York. Fighting off a prior claim by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, Proprietor of Maryland, the Duke passed his somewhat dubious ownership on to William Penn in 1682. Penn strongly desired access to the sea for his Pennsylvania province and leased what then came to be known as the \"Lower Counties on the Delaware\" from the Duke.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Penn established representative government and briefly combined his two possessions under one General Assembly in 1682. However, by 1704 the Province of Pennsylvania had grown so large their representatives wanted to make decisions without the assent of the Lower Counties, and the two groups of representatives began meeting on their own, one at Philadelphia, and the other at New Castle. Penn and his heirs remained proprietors of both and always appointed the same person Governor for their Province of Pennsylvania and their territory of the Lower Counties. The fact that Delaware and Pennsylvania shared the same governor was not unique. From 1703 to 1738 New York and New Jersey shared a governor. Massachusetts and New Hampshire also shared a governor for some time.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Dependent in early years on indentured labor, Delaware imported more slaves as the number of English immigrants decreased with better economic conditions in England. The colony became a slave society and cultivated tobacco as a cash crop, although English immigrants continued to arrive.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Like the other middle colonies, the Lower Counties on the Delaware initially showed little enthusiasm for a break with Britain. The citizenry had a good relationship with the Proprietary government, and generally were allowed more independence of action in their Colonial Assembly than in other colonies. Merchants at the port of Wilmington had trading ties with the British.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "New Castle lawyer Thomas McKean denounced the Stamp Act in the strongest terms, and Kent County native John Dickinson became the \"Penman of the Revolution\". Anticipating the Declaration of Independence, Patriot leaders Thomas McKean and Caesar Rodney convinced the Colonial Assembly to declare itself separated from British and Pennsylvania rule on June 15, 1776. The person best representing Delaware's majority, George Read, could not bring himself to vote for a Declaration of Independence. Only the dramatic overnight ride of Caesar Rodney gave the delegation the votes needed to cast Delaware's vote for independence.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Initially led by John Haslet, Delaware provided one of the premier regiments in the Continental Army, known as the \"Delaware Blues\" and nicknamed the \"Blue Hen's Chicks\". In August 1777 General Sir William Howe led a British army through Delaware on his way to a victory at the Battle of Brandywine and capture of the city of Philadelphia. The only real engagement on Delaware soil was the Battle of Cooch's Bridge, fought on September 3, 1777, at Cooch's Bridge in New Castle County, although there was a minor Loyalist rebellion in 1778.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Following the Battle of Brandywine, Wilmington was occupied by the British, and State President John McKinly was taken prisoner. The British remained in control of the Delaware River for much of the rest of the war, disrupting commerce and providing encouragement to an active Loyalist portion of the population, particularly in Sussex County. Because the British promised slaves of rebels freedom for fighting with them, escaped slaves flocked north to join their lines.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Following the American Revolution, statesmen from Delaware were among the leading proponents of a strong central United States with equal representation for each state.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Many colonial settlers came to Delaware from Maryland and Virginia, where the population had been increasing rapidly. The economies of these colonies were chiefly based on labor-intensive tobacco and increasingly dependent on African slaves because of a decline in working class immigrants from England. Most of the English colonists had arrived as indentured servants (contracted for a fixed period to pay for their passage), and in the early years the line between servant and slave was fluid.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Most of the free African-American families in Delaware before the Revolution had migrated from Maryland to find more affordable land. They were descendants chiefly of relationships or marriages between white servant women and enslaved, servant or free African or African-American men. Under slavery law, children took the social status of their mothers, so children born to white women were free, regardless of their paternity, just as children born to enslaved women were born into slavery. As the flow of indentured laborers to the colony decreased with improving economic conditions in England, more slaves were imported for labor and the caste lines hardened.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "By the end of the colonial period, the number of enslaved people in Delaware began to decline. Shifts in the agriculture economy from tobacco to mixed farming resulted in less need for slaves' labor. In addition local Methodists and Quakers encouraged slaveholders to free their slaves following the American Revolution, and many did so in a surge of individual manumissions for idealistic reasons. By 1810, three-quarters of all blacks in Delaware were free. When John Dickinson freed his slaves in 1777, he was Delaware's largest slave owner with 37 slaves. By 1860, the largest slaveholder owned 16 slaves.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Although attempts to abolish slavery failed by narrow margins in the legislature, in practical terms the state had mostly ended the practice. By the 1860 census on the verge of the Civil War, 91.7% of the black population were free; 1,798 were slaves, as compared to 19,829 \"free colored persons\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "An independent black denomination was chartered in 1813 by freed slave Peter Spencer as the \"Union Church of Africans\". This followed the 1793 establishment in Philadelphia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church by Richard Allen, which had ties to the Methodist Episcopal Church until 1816. Spencer built a church in Wilmington for the new denomination. This was renamed as the African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection, more commonly known as the A.U.M.P. Church. In 1814, Spencer called for the first annual gathering, known as the Big August Quarterly, which continues to draw members of this denomination and their descendants together in a religious and cultural festival.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Delaware voted against secession on January 3, 1861, and so remained in the Union. While most Delaware citizens who fought in the war served in the regiments of the state, some served in companies on the Confederate side in Maryland and Virginia Regiments. Delaware is notable for being the only slave state from which no Confederate regiments or militia groups were assembled. Delaware essentially freed the few slaves who were still in bondage shortly after the Civil War but rejected the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution; the 13th Amendment was rejected on February 8, 1865, the 14th Amendment was rejected on February 8, 1867, and the 15th Amendment was rejected on March 18, 1869. Delaware officially ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments on February 12, 1901.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "During the Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War, Democratic Redeemer governments led by the South's Bourbon aristocracy continued to dominate the region and imposed explicitly white supremacist regimes in the former slave states. The Delaware legislature declared Black people to be second-class citizens in 1866 and restricted their voting rights despite the Fifteenth Amendment, ensuring continued Democratic success in the state throughout most of the nineteenth century. Fearful that the 1875 Civil Rights Act passed by Congress might establish racial equality, Delaware legislators passed Jim Crow laws that mandated segregation in public facilities. The state's educational system was segregated by operation of law. Delaware's segregation was written into the state constitution, which, while providing at Article X, Section 2, that \"no distinction shall be made on account of race or color\", nonetheless required that \"separate schools for white and colored children shall be maintained.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the Wilmington area grew into a manufacturing center. Investment in manufacturing in the city grew from $5.5 million in 1860 to $44 million in 1900. The most notable manufacturer in the state was the chemical company DuPont, which to this day is heavily credited with making the state what it is today in many ways. Because of Wilmington's growth, local politicians from the city and New Castle County pressured the state government to adopt a new constitution providing the north with more representation. However, the subsequent 1897 constitution did not proportionally represent the north and continued to give the southern counties disproportionate influence.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "As manufacturing expanded, businesses became major players in state affairs and funders of politicians through families such as the Du Ponts. Republican John Addicks attempted to buy a US Senate seat multiple times in a rivalry with the Du Ponts until the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment. The allegiance of industries with the Republican party allowed them to gain control of the state's governorship throughout most of the twentieth century. The GOP ensured Black people could vote because of their general support for Republicans and thus undid restrictions on Black suffrage.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Delaware benefited greatly from World War I because of the state's large gunpowder industry. DuPont, the most dominant business in the state by WWI, produced an estimated 40% of all gunpowder used by the Allies during the war. It produced nylon in the state after the war and began investments into General Motors. Additionally, the company invested heavily in the expansion of public schools in the state and colleges such as the University of Delaware in the 1910s and 1920s. This included primary and secondary schools for Black people and women. Delaware suffered less during the Great Depression than other states, but the depression spurred further migration from the rural south to urban areas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Like in World War I, the state enjoyed a big stimulus to its gunpowder and shipyard industries in World War II. New job opportunities during and after the war in the Wilmington area coaxed Black people from the southern counties to move to the city. The proportion of blacks constituting the city's population rose from 15% in 1950 to over 50% by 1980. The surge of Black migrants to the north sparked white flight, in which middle class whites moved from the city to suburban areas, leading to de facto segregation of Northern Delaware's society. In the 1940s and 1950s, Delaware attempted to integrate its schools, although the last segregated school in the state did not close until 1970. The University of Delaware admitted its first black student in 1948, and local courts ruled that primary schools had to be integrated. Delaware's integration efforts partially inspired the US Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which found racial segregation in United States public schools to be unconstitutional. The result of the Brown ruling was that Delaware became fully integrated, albeit with time and much effort.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In October 1954, the city of Milford became the scene of one of the country's first pro-segregation boycotts after eleven Black students were enrolled in the previously all-white Milford High School. Mass protests continued in Milford; the school board eventually ceded to the protestors, expelling the Black students. The ensuing unrest, which included cross burnings, rallies, and pro-segregation demonstrations, contributed to desegregation in most of Southern Delaware being delayed for another ten years. Sussex County did not start closing or integrating its segregated schools until 1965, 11 years after the Brown ruling. Throughout the state, integration only encouraged more white flight, and poor economic conditions for the black population led to some violence during the 1960s. Riots broke out in Wilmington in 1967 and again in 1968 in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, after which the National Guard occupied the city for nine months to prevent further violence.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Since WWII, the state has been generally economically prosperous and enjoyed relatively high per capita income because of its location between major cities like Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC. Its population grew rapidly, particularly in the suburbs in the north where New Castle county became an extension of the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Americans, including migrants from Puerto Rico, and immigrants from Latin America flocked to the state. By 1990, only 50% of Delaware's population consisted of natives to the state.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Delaware is 96 miles (154 km) long and ranges from 9 miles (14 km) to 35 miles (56 km) across, with a land area of 1,982 square miles (5,130 km) and a total area of 2,489 square miles (6,450 km), making it the second-smallest state by either metric in the United States after Rhode Island. Delaware is bounded to the north by Pennsylvania; to the east by the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, New Jersey, and the Atlantic Ocean; and to the west and south by Maryland. Small portions of Delaware are also situated on the eastern side of the Delaware River sharing land boundaries with New Jersey. The state of Delaware, together with the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and two counties of Virginia, form the Delmarva Peninsula, which stretches down the Mid-Atlantic Coast.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The definition of the northern boundary of the state is unusual. Most of the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania was originally defined by an arc extending 12 miles (19.3 km) from the cupola of the courthouse in the city of New Castle. This boundary is often referred to as the Twelve-Mile Circle. Although the Twelve-Mile Circle is often claimed to be the only territorial boundary in the U.S. that is a true arc, the Mexican boundary with Texas includes several arcs, and many cities in the South (such as Plains, Georgia) also have circular boundaries.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "This border extends all the way east to the low-tide mark on the New Jersey shore, then continues south along the shoreline until it again reaches the 12-mile (19 km) arc in the south; then the boundary continues in a more conventional way in the middle of the main channel (thalweg) of the Delaware River.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "To the west, a portion of the arc extends past the easternmost edge of Maryland. The remaining western border runs slightly east of due south from its intersection with the arc. The Wedge of land between the northwest part of the arc and the Maryland border was claimed by both Delaware and Pennsylvania until 1921, when Delaware's claim was confirmed.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Delaware is on a level plain, with the lowest mean elevation of any state in the nation. Its highest elevation, located at Ebright Azimuth, near Concord High School, is less than 450 feet (140 m) above sea level. The northernmost part of the state is part of the Piedmont Plateau with hills and rolling surfaces.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The Atlantic Seaboard fall line approximately follows the Robert Kirkwood Highway between Newark and Wilmington; south of this road is the Atlantic Coastal Plain with flat, sandy, and, in some parts, swampy ground. A ridge about 75 to 80 feet (23 to 24 m) high extends along the western boundary of the state and separates the watersheds that feed Delaware River and Bay to the east and the Chesapeake Bay to the west.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Since almost all of Delaware is a part of the Atlantic coastal plain, the effects of the ocean moderate its climate. The state lies in the humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) zone. Despite its small size (roughly 100 miles (160 km) from its northernmost to southernmost points), there is significant variation in mean temperature and amount of snowfall between Sussex County and New Castle County. Moderated by the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay, the southern portion of the state has a milder climate and a longer growing season than the northern portion of the state. Delaware's all-time record high of 110 °F (43 °C) was recorded at Millsboro on July 21, 1930. The all-time record low of −17 °F (−27 °C) was also recorded at Millsboro, on January 17, 1893. The hardiness zones are 7a, 7b and 8a at the Delaware Beaches.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The transitional climate of Delaware supports a wide variety of vegetation. In the northern third of the state are found Northeastern coastal forests and mixed oak forests typical of the northeastern United States. In the southern two-thirds of the state are found Middle Atlantic coastal forests. Trap Pond State Park, along with areas in other parts of Sussex County, for example, support the northernmost stands of bald cypress trees in North America.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Delaware provides government subsidy support for the clean-up of property \"lightly contaminated\" by hazardous waste, the proceeds for which come from a tax on wholesale petroleum sales.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Wilmington is the state's most populous city (70,635) and its economic hub. It is located within commuting distance of both Philadelphia and Baltimore. Dover is the state capital and the second most populous city (38,079).",
"title": "Municipalities"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The table below lists the ten largest municipalities in the state based on the 2020 United States census.",
"title": "Municipalities"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The United States Census Bureau determined that the population of Delaware was 989,948 on April 1, 2020, an increase from the 2010 census figure of 897,934.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Delaware's history as a border state has led it to exhibit characteristics of both the Northern and the Southern regions of the United States. Generally, the rural Southern (or \"Slower Lower\") regions of Delaware below the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal embody a Southern culture, while densely-populated Northern Delaware above the canal—particularly Wilmington, a part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area—has more in common with that of the Northeast and the North. The U.S. Census Bureau designates Delaware as one of the South Atlantic States, but it is commonly associated with the Mid-Atlantic States and/or northeastern United States by other federal agencies, the media, and some residents.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Delaware is the sixth most densely populated state, with a population density of 442.6 people per square mile, 356.4 per square mile more than the national average, and ranking 45th in population. Delaware is one of five U.S. states (Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming) that do not have a single city with a population over 100,000 as of the 2010 census. The center of population of Delaware is in New Castle County, in the town of Townsend.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 2,369 homeless people in Delaware.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "According to the 2010 United States census, the racial composition of the state was 68.9% White American (65.3% Non-Hispanic White, 3.6% White Hispanic), 21.4% Black or African American, 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 3.2% Asian American, 0.0% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 3.4% some other race, and 2.7% of multiracial origin. People of Hispanic or Latino origin, of any race, made up 8.2% of the population.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The 2022 American Community Survey estimated the state had a racial and ethnic makeup of 60.6% non-Hispanic whites, 23.6% Black or African American, 0.7% American Indian or Alaska Native, 4.2% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 2.9% multiracial, and 10.1% Hispanic or Latin American of any race.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "In the Native American community, the state has a Native American group, called in their own language Lenape, which was influential in the colonial period of the United States and is today headquartered in Cheswold, Kent County, Delaware. A band of the Nanticoke tribe of American Indians today resides in Sussex County and is headquartered in Millsboro, Sussex County, Delaware.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Delaware's population mainly consisted of people from the British Isles, African slaves, Germans and a few remaining Native Americans during the colonial era. Irish, Germans, Italians, Poles, and Russian Jewish immigrants were attracted by the industries in the Wilmington area. In the late 20th century a Puerto Rican community formed in Wilmington. Guatemalan people migrated to Sussex county to work in Delaware's poultry industry. A group of Native Americans in Delaware of mixed ethnicity, the Moors, live in Cheswold. The descendants of the Nanticoke people live around Millsboro. There is also a small numbers of Asians in New Castle county who work as scientific and engineering professionals.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "The top countries of origin for Delaware's immigrants in 2018 were Mexico, India, Guatemala, China, and Jamaica.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Note: Births in table do not add up because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "In 2000, 91% of Delaware residents of age 5 and older spoke only English at home; 5% spoke Spanish. French was the third most spoken language, used by 0.7% of the population, followed by Chinese (0.5%) and German (0.5%). Legislation has been proposed in both the House and the Senate in Delaware to designate English as the official language. Neither bill was passed in the legislature.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "A 2012 Gallup poll found that Delaware's proportion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults stood at 3.4% of the population. This constitutes a total LGBT adult population estimate of 23,698 people. The number of same-sex couple households in 2010 stood at 2,646. This grew by 41.65% from a decade earlier. On July 1, 2013, same-sex marriage was legalized, and all civil unions would be converted into marriages.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Religion in Delaware per the Public Religion Research Institute's 2022 American Values Atlas survey",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "The predominant religion practiced in Delaware is Christianity. A 2014 estimate by the Pew Research Center found that members of Protestant churches accounted for almost half of the population, though the Roman Catholic Church was the largest single denomination in the state. By 2020, the Public Religion Research Institute determined 61% of the population was Christian. In 2022, the Public Religion Research Institute's survey revealed 60% were Christian, followed by Jews (3%), Hindus (1%), and New Agers (1%).",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The Association of Religion Data Archives reported in 2010 that the three largest Christian denominational groups in Delaware by number of adherents are the Catholic Church at 182,532 adherents, the United Methodist Church with 53,656 members reported, and non-denominational evangelical Protestants, who numbered 22,973. In 2020, the Association of Religion Data Archives reported the largest Christian denominations were the Catholic Church with 197,094; non-denominational Protestants with 49,392, and United Methodists with 39,959.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware oversee the parishes within their denominations. The A.U.M.P. Church, the oldest African-American denomination in the nation, was founded in Wilmington. It still has a substantial presence in the state. Reflecting new immigrant populations, an Islamic mosque has been built in the Ogletown area, and a Hindu temple in Hockessin.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Delaware is home to an Amish community which resides west of Dover in Kent County, consisting of nine church districts and about 1,650 people. The Amish first settled in Kent County in 1915. In recent years, increasing development has led to the decline in the number of Amish living in the community.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "A 2012 survey of religious attitudes in the United States found that 34% of Delaware residents considered themselves \"moderately religious\", 33% \"very religious\", and 33% as \"non-religious\". At the 2014 Pew Research survey, 23% of the population were irreligious; the 2020 Public Religion Research Institute's survey determined 31% of the population were irreligious. In 2022, the same study showed 33% of the population as irreligious.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "According to a 2020 study by Kiplinger, Delaware had the seventeenth most millionaires per capita in the United States; altogether, there were 25,937 such individuals. The median income for Delaware households as of 2020 was $64,805.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Delaware's agricultural output consists of poultry, nursery stock, soybeans, dairy products and corn.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "As of October 2019, the state's unemployment rate was 3.7%.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "The state's largest employers are:",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Since the mid-2000s, Delaware has seen the departure of the state's automotive manufacturing industry (General Motors Wilmington Assembly and Chrysler Newark Assembly), the corporate buyout of a major bank holding company (MBNA), the departure of the state's steel industry (Evraz Claymont Steel), the bankruptcy of a fiber mill (National Vulcanized Fiber), and the diminishing presence of AstraZeneca in Wilmington.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "In late 2015, DuPont announced that 1,700 employees, nearly a third of its footprint in Delaware, would be laid off in early 2016. The merger of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and Dow Chemical Company into DowDuPont took place on September 1, 2017.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "More than half of all U.S. publicly traded companies, and 63% of the Fortune 500, are incorporated in Delaware. The state's attractiveness as a corporate haven is largely because of its business-friendly corporation law. Franchise taxes on Delaware corporations supply about a fifth of the state's revenue. Although \"USA (Delaware)\" ranked as the world's most opaque jurisdiction on the Tax Justice Network's 2009 Financial Secrecy Index, the same group's 2011 Index ranks the U.S. fifth and does not specify Delaware. In Delaware, there are more than a million registered corporations, meaning there are more corporations than people.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Title 4, chapter 7 of the Delaware Code stipulates that alcoholic liquor be sold only in specifically licensed establishments, and only between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. Until 2003, Delaware was among the several states enforcing blue laws and banned the sale of liquor on Sunday.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Two daily newspapers are based in Delaware, the Delaware State News, based in Dover and covering the two southern counties, and The News Journal covering Wilmington and northern Delaware. The state is also served by several weekly, monthly and online publications.",
"title": "Media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "No standalone television stations are based solely in Delaware. The northern part of the state is served by network stations in Philadelphia and the southern part by network stations in Salisbury, Maryland. Philadelphia's ABC affiliate, WPVI-TV, maintains a news bureau in downtown Wilmington. Salisbury's CBS affiliate, WBOC-TV, maintains bureaus in Dover and Milton. Three Philadelphia-market stations—PBS member WHYY-TV, Ion affiliate WPPX, and MeTV affiliate WDPN-TV—all have Wilmington as their city of license, but maintain transmitters at the market antenna farm in Roxborough, Philadelphia and do not produce any Delaware-centric programming.",
"title": "Media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "There are a numerous radio stations licensed in Delaware. WDEL 1150AM, WHGE-LP 95.3 FM, WILM 1450 AM, WVCW 99.5, WMPH 91.7 FM, WSTW 93.7 FM, WTMC 1380 AM and WWTX 1290AM are licensed from Wilmington. WRDX 92.9 FM is licensed from Smyrna. WDOV 1410AM, WDSD 94.7 FM and WRTX 91.7 FM are licensed from Dover.",
"title": "Media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Delaware is home to First State National Historical Park, a National Park Service unit composed of historic sites across the state including the New Castle Court House, Green, and Sheriff's House, Dover Green, Beaver Valley, Fort Christina, Old Swedes' Church, John Dickinson Plantation, and the Ryves Holt House. Delaware has several museums, wildlife refuges, parks, houses, lighthouses, and other historic places.",
"title": "Tourism"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Rehoboth Beach, together with the towns of Lewes, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, South Bethany, and Fenwick Island, comprise Delaware's beach resorts. Rehoboth Beach often bills itself as \"The Nation's Summer Capital\" because it is a frequent summer vacation destination for Washington, D.C., residents as well as visitors from Maryland, Virginia, and in lesser numbers, Pennsylvania. Vacationers are drawn for many reasons, including the town's charm, artistic appeal, nightlife, and tax-free shopping. According to SeaGrant Delaware, the Delaware beaches generate $6.9 billion annually and over $711 million in tax revenue.",
"title": "Tourism"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Delaware is home to several festivals, fairs, and events. Some of the more notable festivals are the Riverfest held in Seaford, the World Championship Punkin Chunkin formerly held at various locations throughout the state since 1986, the Rehoboth Beach Chocolate Festival, the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral to mark the end of summer, the Apple Scrapple Festival held in Bridgeville, the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival in Wilmington, the Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival, the Sea Witch Halloween Festival and Parade in Rehoboth Beach, the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, the Nanticoke Indian Pow Wow in Oak Orchard, Firefly Music Festival, and the Return Day Parade held after every election in Georgetown.",
"title": "Tourism"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "In 2015, tourism in Delaware generated $3.1 billion, which makes up five percent of the state's GDP. Delaware saw 8.5 million visitors in 2015, with the tourism industry employing 41,730 people, making it the 4th largest private employer in the state. Major origin markets for Delaware tourists include Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, with 97% of tourists arriving to the state by car and 75% of tourists coming from a distance of 200 miles (320 km) or less.",
"title": "Tourism"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Delaware is also home to two large sporting venues. Dover Motor Speedway is a race track in Dover, and Frawley Stadium in Wilmington is the home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a Minor League Baseball team.",
"title": "Tourism"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "In the early 1920s, Pierre S. du Pont served as president of the state board of education. At the time, state law prohibited money raised from white taxpayers from being used to support the state's schools for black children. Appalled by the condition of the black schools, du Pont donated four million dollars to construct 86 new school buildings.",
"title": "Education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Delaware was the origin of Belton v. Gebhart (1952), one of the four cases which were combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court of the United States decision that led to the end of officially segregated public schools. Significantly, Belton was the only case in which the state court found for the plaintiffs, thereby ruling that segregation is unconstitutional.",
"title": "Education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Unlike many states, Delaware's educational system is centralized in a state Superintendent of Education, with local school boards retaining control over taxation and some curriculum decisions. This centralized system, combined with the small size of the state, likely contributed to Delaware becoming the first state, after completion of a three-year, $30 million program ending in 1999, to wire every K-12 classroom in the state to the Internet.",
"title": "Education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "As of 2011, the Delaware Department of Education had authorized the founding of 25 charter schools in the state, one of them being all-girls.",
"title": "Education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "All teachers in the State's public school districts are unionized. As of January 2012, none of the State's charter schools are members of a teachers union. One of the State's teachers' unions is Delaware State Education Association (DSEA).",
"title": "Education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "The transportation system in Delaware is under the governance and supervision of the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT). Funding for DelDOT projects is drawn, in part, from the Delaware Transportation Trust Fund, established in 1987 to help stabilize transportation funding; the availability of the Trust led to a gradual separation of DelDOT operations from other Delaware state operations. DelDOT manages programs such as a Delaware Adopt-a-Highway program, major road route snow removal, traffic control infrastructure (signs and signals), toll road management, Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, the Delaware Transit Corporation (branded as \"DART First State\", the state government public transportation organization), and others.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "In 2009, DelDOT maintained 13,507 lane-miles, totaling 89 percent of the state's public roadway system, the rest being under the supervision of individual municipalities. This far exceeds the national average (20 percent) for state department of transportation maintenance responsibility.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "One major branch of the U.S. Interstate Highway System, Interstate 95 (I-95), crosses Delaware southwest-to-northeast across New Castle County. Two Auxiliary Interstate Highway routes are also located in the state. Interstate 495 (I-495) is an eastern bypass of Wilmington. Interstate 295 (I-295) is a bypass of Philadelphia which begins south of Wilmington. In addition to Interstate highways, there are six U.S. highways that serve Delaware: U.S. 9, U.S. 13, U.S. 40, U.S. 113, U.S. 202, and U.S. 301. There are also several state highways that cross the state of Delaware; a few of them include DE 1, DE 9, and DE 404. U.S. 13 and DE 1 are primary north–south highways connecting Wilmington and Pennsylvania with Maryland, with DE 1 serving as the main route between Wilmington and the Delaware beaches. DE 9 is a north–south highway connecting Dover and Wilmington via a scenic route along the Delaware Bay. U.S. 40 is a primary east–west route, connecting Maryland with New Jersey. DE 404 is another primary east–west highway connecting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland with the Delaware beaches. The state also operates three toll highways, the Delaware Turnpike, which is I-95, between Maryland and New Castle; the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, which is DE 1, between Wilmington and Dover; and the U.S. 301 toll road between the Maryland border and DE 1 in New Castle County.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "A bicycle route, Delaware Bicycle Route 1, spans the north–south length of the state from the Maryland border in Fenwick Island to the Pennsylvania border north of Montchanin. It is the first of several signed bike routes planned in Delaware.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "Delaware has about 1,450 bridges, 95 percent of which are under the supervision of DelDOT. About 30 percent of all Delaware bridges were built before 1950, and about 60 percent of the number are included in the National Bridge Inventory. Some bridges not under DelDOT supervision includes the four bridges on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which is under the bi-state Delaware River and Bay Authority.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "It has been noted that the tar and chip composition of secondary roads in Sussex County makes them more prone to deterioration than are the asphalt roadways in almost the rest of the state. Among these roads, Sussex (county road) 236 is among the most problematic.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "Three ferries operate in the state of Delaware:",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Amtrak has two stations in Delaware along the Northeast Corridor; the relatively quiet Newark Rail Station in Newark, and the busier Wilmington Station in Wilmington. The Northeast Corridor is also served by SEPTA's Wilmington/Newark Line, part of SEPTA Regional Rail, which serves Claymont, Wilmington, Churchmans Crossing, and Newark.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "Two Class I railroads, Norfolk Southern and CSX, provide freight rail service in northern New Castle County. Norfolk Southern provides freight service along the Northeast Corridor and to industrial areas in Edgemoor, New Castle, and Delaware City. CSX's Philadelphia Subdivision passes through northern New Castle County parallel to the Amtrak Northeast Corridor. Multiple short-line railroads provide freight service in Delaware. The Delmarva Central Railroad operates the most trackage of the short-line railroads, running from an interchange with Norfolk Southern in Porter south through Dover, Harrington, and Seaford to Delmar, with another line running from Harrington to Frankford and branches from Ellendale to Milton and from Georgetown to Gravel Hill. The Delmarva Central Railroad connects with the Maryland and Delaware Railroad, which serves local customers in Sussex County. CSX connects with the freight/heritage operation, the Wilmington and Western Railroad, based in Wilmington and the East Penn Railroad, which operates a line from Wilmington to Coatesville, Pennsylvania.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "The last north–south passenger trains through the main part of Delaware was the Pennsylvania Railroad's local Wilmington-Delmar train in 1965. This was a successor to the Del-Mar-Va Express and Cavalier, which had run from Philadelphia through the state's interior, to the end of the Delmarva Peninsula until the mid-1950s.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "The DART First State public transportation system was named \"Most Outstanding Public Transportation System\" in 2003 by the American Public Transportation Association. Coverage of the system is broad within northern New Castle County with close association to major highways in Kent and Sussex counties. The system includes bus, subsidized passenger rail operated by Philadelphia transit agency SEPTA, and subsidized taxi and paratransit modes. The paratransit system, consisting of a statewide door-to-door bus service for the elderly and disabled, has been described by a Delaware state report as \"the most generous paratransit system in the United States\". As of 2012, fees for the paratransit service have not changed since 1988.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "As of 2023, Delaware is served exclusively by Avelo Airlines out of Wilmington Airport, launching five routes to Florida on February 1. This put an end to an eight-month period during which Delaware had no scheduled air service, one of several since 1991. Various airlines had served Wilmington Airport, the latest departure being Frontier Airlines in June 2022.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "Delaware is centrally situated in the Northeast megalopolis region of cities along I-95. Therefore, Delaware commercial airline passengers most frequently use Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) for domestic and international transit. Residents of Sussex County will also use Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY), as it is located less than 10 miles (16 km) from the Delaware border. Atlantic City International Airport (ACY), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) are also within a 100-mile (160 km) radius of New Castle County.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "Other general aviation airports in Delaware include Summit Airport near Middletown, Delaware Airpark near Cheswold, and Delaware Coastal Airport near Georgetown.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Dover Air Force Base, one of the largest in the country, is home to the 436th Airlift Wing and the 512th Airlift Wing. In addition to its other responsibilities in the Air Mobility Command, it serves as the entry point and mortuary for U.S. military personnel (and some civilians) who die overseas.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "Delaware's fourth and current constitution, adopted in 1897, provides for executive, judicial and legislative branches.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "The Delaware General Assembly consists of a House of Representatives with 41 members and a Senate with 21 members. It sits in Dover, the state capital. Representatives are elected to two-year terms, while senators are elected to four-year terms. The Senate confirms judicial and other nominees appointed by the governor.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Delaware's U.S. Senators are Tom Carper (Democrat) and Chris Coons (Democrat). Delaware's single U.S. Representative is Lisa Blunt Rochester (Democrat).",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "The Delaware Constitution establishes a number of courts:",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "Minor non-constitutional courts include the Justice of the Peace Courts and Aldermen's Courts.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "Significantly, Delaware has one of the few remaining Courts of Chancery in the nation, which has jurisdiction over equity cases, the vast majority of which are corporate disputes, many relating to mergers and acquisitions. The Court of Chancery and the Delaware Supreme Court have developed a worldwide reputation for rendering concise opinions concerning corporate law which generally (but not always) grant broad discretion to corporate boards of directors and officers. In addition, the Delaware General Corporation Law, which forms the basis of the Courts' opinions, is widely regarded as giving great flexibility to corporations to manage their affairs. For these reasons, Delaware is considered to have the most business-friendly legal system in the United States; therefore a great number of companies are incorporated in Delaware, including 60% of the companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "Delaware was the last U.S. state to use judicial corporal punishment, in 1952.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "The executive branch is headed by the Governor of Delaware. The current governor is John Carney (Democrat), who took office January 17, 2017. The lieutenant governor is Bethany Hall-Long. The governor presents a \"State of the State\" speech to a joint session of the Delaware legislature annually.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "The executive branch also consists of the Attorney General of Delaware currently held by Kathy Jennings, the State Treasurer currently held by Colleen Davis, the Auditor of Accounts currently held by Lydia York and the Insurance Commissioner currently held by Trinidad Navarro.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "Delaware is subdivided into three counties; from north to south they are New Castle, Kent and Sussex. This is the fewest among all states. Each county elects its own legislative body (known in New Castle and Sussex counties as County Council, and in Kent County as Levy Court), which deal primarily in zoning and development issues. Most functions which are handled on a county-by-county basis in other states—such as court and law enforcement—have been centralized in Delaware, leading to a significant concentration of power in the Delaware state government. The counties were historically divided into hundreds, which were used as tax reporting and voting districts until the 1960s, but now serve no administrative role, their only current official legal use being in real estate title descriptions.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "The Democratic Party holds a plurality of registrations in Delaware. Currently, Democrats hold all positions of authority in Delaware, as well as majorities in the state Senate and House. The Democrats have held the governorship since 1993, having won the last seven gubernatorial elections. Democrats presently hold all the nine statewide elected offices, while the Republicans last won any statewide offices in 2014, State Auditor and State Treasurer.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "During the First and Second Party Systems, Delaware was a stronghold for the Federalist and Whig Parties, respectively. After a relatively brief adherence to the Democratic Solid South following the US Civil War, Delaware became a Republican-leaning state from 1896 through 1948, voting for losing Republicans Charles Evans Hughes in 1916, Herbert Hoover in 1932, and Thomas Dewey in 1948.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "During the second half of the 20th century, Delaware was a bellwether state, voting for the winner of every presidential election from 1952 through 1996. Delaware's bellwether status came to an end when Delaware voted for Al Gore in 2000 by 13%. Subsequent elections have continued to demonstrate Delaware's current strong Democratic lean: John Kerry carried the First State by 8% in 2004; Barack Obama carried it by 25% and by 19% in his two elections of 2008 and 2012; and Hillary Clinton carried it by 11% as she lost the Electoral College in 2016. In 2020, Delaware native (and Barack Obama's former vice president and running mate) Joe Biden headed the Democratic ticket; he carried his home state by just shy of 19% en route to a national 4.5% win.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "The dominant factor in Delaware's political shift has been the strong Democratic trend in heavily urbanized New Castle County, home to 55% of Delaware's population. New Castle County has not voted Republican in a presidential election since 1988, and has given Democrats over 60% of its vote in every election from 2004 on. In 1992, 2000, 2004, and 2016, the Republican presidential candidate carried both Kent and Sussex but lost by double digits each time in New Castle County, which was a large enough margin to tip the state to the Democrats. New Castle County also elects a substantial majority of the state legislature; 27 of the 41 state house districts and 14 of the 21 state senate districts are based in New Castle County.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "In a 2020 study, Delaware was ranked as the 18th hardest state for citizens to vote in.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "Each of the 50 states of the United States has passed some form of freedom of information legislation, which provides a mechanism for the general public to request information of the government. In 2011 Delaware passed legislation placing a 15 business day time limit on addressing freedom-of-information requests, to either produce information or an explanation of why such information would take longer than this time to produce. A bill aimed at restricting Freedom of Information Act requests, Senate Bill 155, was discussed in committee.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "Tax is collected by the Delaware Division of Revenue.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "Delaware has six different income tax brackets, ranging from 2.2% to 5.95%. The state does not assess sales tax on consumers. The state does, however, impose a tax on the gross receipts of most businesses. Business and occupational license tax rates range from 0.096% to 1.92%, depending on the category of business activity.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "Delaware does not assess a state-level tax on real or personal property. Real estate is subject to county property taxes, school district property taxes, vocational school district taxes, and, if located within an incorporated area, municipal property taxes.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "Gambling provides significant revenue to the state. For instance, the casino at Delaware Park Racetrack provided more than $100 million to the state in 2010.",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "In June 2018, Delaware became the first U.S. state to legalize sports betting following the Supreme Court ruling to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA).",
"title": "Law and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "As Delaware has no franchises in the major American professional sports leagues, many Delawareans follow either Philadelphia or Baltimore teams. In the WNBA, the Washington Mystics enjoy a major following due to the presence of Wilmington native and University of Delaware product Elena Delle Donne. The University of Delaware's football team has a large following throughout the state, with the Delaware State University and Wesley College teams also enjoying a smaller degree of support.",
"title": "Culture and entertainment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "Delaware is home to Dover Motor Speedway and Bally's Dover. Dover Motor Speedway, also known as the Monster Mile, is one of only 10 tracks in the nation to have hosted 100 or more NASCAR Cup Series races. Bally's Dover is a popular harness racing facility. It is the only co-located horse- and car-racing facility in the nation, with the Bally's Dover track located inside the Dover Motor Speedway track.",
"title": "Culture and entertainment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "Delaware is represented in rugby by the Delaware Black Foxes, a 2015 expansion club.",
"title": "Culture and entertainment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "Delaware has been home to professional wrestling outfit Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW). CZW has been affiliated with the annual Tournament of Death and ECWA with its annual Super 8 Tournament.",
"title": "Culture and entertainment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "Delaware's official state sport is bicycling.",
"title": "Culture and entertainment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "Delaware's sister state in Japan is Miyagi Prefecture.",
"title": "Sister state"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "Prominent Delawareans include the du Pont family of politicians and businesspersons, and current United States president Joe Biden, whose family moved to Delaware during his childhood, and who later became a senator representing the state.",
"title": "Delawareans"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "39°00′N 75°24′W / 39.0°N 75.4°W / 39.0; -75.4 (State of Deleware)",
"title": "External links"
}
] | Delaware is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey to its northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state's name derives from the adjacent Delaware Bay, which in turn was named after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Colony of Virginia's first colonial-era governor. Delaware occupies the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula, and some islands and territory within the Delaware River. It is the 2nd smallest and 6th least populous state, but also the 6th most densely populated. Delaware's most populous city is Wilmington, and the state's capital is Dover, the 2nd most populous city in Delaware. The state is divided into three counties, the fewest number of counties of any of the 50 U.S. states; from north to south, the three counties are: New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County. The southern two counties, Kent and Sussex counties, historically have been predominantly agrarian economies. New Castle is more urbanized and is considered part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan statistical area that surrounds and includes Philadelphia, the nation's 6th most populous city. Delaware is considered part of the Southern United States by the U.S. Census Bureau, but the state's geography, culture, and history are a hybrid of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the country. Before Delaware coastline was explored and developed by Europeans in the 16th century, the state was inhabited by several Native Americans tribes, including the Lenape in the north and Nanticoke in the south. The state was first colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, near present-day Lewes, Delaware, in 1631. Delaware was one of the Thirteen Colonies that participated in the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, in which the American Continental Army, led by George Washington, defeated the British, ended British colonization and establishing the United States as a sovereign and independent nation. On December 7, 1787, Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, earning the state the nickname "The First State". Since the turn of the 20th century, Delaware has become an onshore corporate haven whose corporate laws are deemed appealed to corporations; over half of all New York Stock Exchange-listed corporations and over three-fifths of the Fortune 500 is legally incorporated in the state. | 2001-10-01T01:02:04Z | 2023-12-25T18:34:28Z | [
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7,931 | Dictionary | A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for logographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.
A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.
There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.
The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.
The oldest known dictionaries were cuneiform tablets with bilingual Sumerian–Akkadian wordlists, discovered in Ebla (modern Syria) and dated to roughly 2300 BCE, the time of the Akkadian Empire. The early 2nd millennium BCE Urra=hubullu glossary is the canonical Babylonian version of such bilingual Sumerian wordlists. A Chinese dictionary, the c. 3rd century BCE Erya, is the earliest surviving monolingual dictionary; and some sources cite the Shizhoupian (probably compiled sometime between 700 BCE to 200 BCE, possibly earlier) as a "dictionary", although modern scholarship considers it a calligraphic compendium of Chinese characters from Zhou dynasty bronzes. Philitas of Cos (fl. 4th century BCE) wrote a pioneering vocabulary Disorderly Words (Ἄτακτοι γλῶσσαι, Átaktoi glôssai) which explained the meanings of rare Homeric and other literary words, words from local dialects, and technical terms. Apollonius the Sophist (fl. 1st century CE) wrote the oldest surviving Homeric lexicon. The first Sanskrit dictionary, the Amarakośa, was written by Amarasimha c. 4th century CE. Written in verse, it listed around 10,000 words. According to the Nihon Shoki, the first Japanese dictionary was the long-lost 682 CE Niina glossary of Chinese characters. Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi's 8th century Kitab al-'Ayn is considered the first dictionary of Arabic. The oldest existing Japanese dictionary, the c. 835 CE Tenrei Banshō Meigi, was also a glossary of written Chinese. In Frahang-i Pahlavig, Aramaic heterograms are listed together with their translation in the Middle Persian language and phonetic transcription in the Pazend alphabet. A 9th-century CE Irish dictionary, Sanas Cormaic, contained etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 Irish words. In the 12th century, The Karakhanid-Turkic scholar Mahmud Kashgari finished his work "Divan-u Lügat'it Türk", a dictionary about the Turkic dialects, but especially Karakhanid Turkic. His work contains about 7500 to 8000 words and it was written to teach non Turkic Muslims, especially the Abbasid Arabs, the Turkic language. Al-Zamakhshari wrote a small Arabic dictionary called "Muḳaddimetü'l-edeb" for the Turkic-Khwarazm ruler Atsiz. In the 14th century, the Codex Cumanicus was finished and it served as a dictionary about the Cuman-Turkic language. While in Mamluk Egypt, Ebû Hayyân el-Endelüsî finished his work "Kitâbü'l-İdrâk li-lisâni'l-Etrâk", a dictionary about the Kipchak and Turcoman languages spoken in Egypt and the Levant. A dictionary called "Bahşayiş Lügati", which is written in old Anatolian Turkish, served also as a dictionary between Oghuz Turkish, Arabic and Persian. But it is not clear who wrote the dictionary or in which century exactly it was published. It was written in old Anatolian Turkish from the Seljuk period and not the late medieval Ottoman period. In India around 1320, Amir Khusro compiled the Khaliq-e-bari, which mainly dealt with Hindustani and Persian words.
Arabic dictionaries were compiled between the 8th and 14th centuries CE, organizing words in rhyme order (by the last syllable), by alphabetical order of the radicals, or according to the alphabetical order of the first letter (the system used in modern European language dictionaries). The modern system was mainly used in specialist dictionaries, such as those of terms from the Qur'an and hadith, while most general use dictionaries, such as the Lisan al-`Arab (13th century, still the best-known large-scale dictionary of Arabic) and al-Qamus al-Muhit (14th century) listed words in the alphabetical order of the radicals. The Qamus al-Muhit is the first handy dictionary in Arabic, which includes only words and their definitions, eliminating the supporting examples used in such dictionaries as the Lisan and the Oxford English Dictionary.
In medieval Europe, glossaries with equivalents for Latin words in vernacular or simpler Latin were in use (e.g. the Leiden Glossary). The Catholicon (1287) by Johannes Balbus, a large grammatical work with an alphabetical lexicon, was widely adopted. It served as the basis for several bilingual dictionaries and was one of the earliest books (in 1460) to be printed. In 1502 Ambrogio Calepino's Dictionarium was published, originally a monolingual Latin dictionary, which over the course of the 16th century was enlarged to become a multilingual glossary. In 1532 Robert Estienne published the Thesaurus linguae latinae and in 1572 his son Henri Estienne published the Thesaurus linguae graecae, which served up to the 19th century as the basis of Greek lexicography. The first monolingual Spanish dictionary written was Sebastián Covarrubias's Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, published in 1611 in Madrid, Spain. In 1612 the first edition of the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, for Italian, was published. It served as the model for similar works in French and English. In 1690 in Rotterdam was published, posthumously, the Dictionnaire Universel by Antoine Furetière for French. In 1694 appeared the first edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (still published, with the ninth edition not complete as of 2021). Between 1712 and 1721 was published the Vocabulario portughez e latino written by Raphael Bluteau. The Royal Spanish Academy published the first edition of the Diccionario de la lengua española (still published, with a new edition about every decade) in 1780; their Diccionario de Autoridades, which included quotes taken from literary works, was published in 1726. The Totius Latinitatis lexicon by Egidio Forcellini was firstly published in 1777; it has formed the basis of all similar works that have since been published.
The first edition of A Greek-English Lexicon by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott appeared in 1843; this work remained the basic dictionary of Greek until the end of the 20th century. And in 1858 was published the first volume of the Deutsches Wörterbuch by the Brothers Grimm; the work was completed in 1961. Between 1861 and 1874 was published the Dizionario della lingua italiana by Niccolò Tommaseo. Between 1862 and 1874 was published the six volumes of A magyar nyelv szótára (Dictionary of Hungarian Language) by Gergely Czuczor and János Fogarasi. Émile Littré published the Dictionnaire de la langue française between 1863 and 1872. In the same year 1863 appeared the first volume of the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal which was completed in 1998. Also in 1863 Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl published the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. The Duden dictionary dates back to 1880, and is currently the prescriptive source for the spelling of German. The decision to start work on the Svenska Akademiens ordbok was taken in 1787.
The earliest dictionaries in the English language were glossaries of French, Spanish or Latin words along with their definitions in English. The word "dictionary" was invented by an Englishman called John of Garland in 1220 – he had written a book Dictionarius to help with Latin "diction". An early non-alphabetical list of 8000 English words was the Elementarie, created by Richard Mulcaster in 1582.
The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written by English schoolteacher Robert Cawdrey in 1604. The only surviving copy is found at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. This dictionary, and the many imitators which followed it, was seen as unreliable and nowhere near definitive. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield was still lamenting in 1754, 150 years after Cawdrey's publication, that it is "a sort of disgrace to our nation, that hitherto we have had no… standard of our language; our dictionaries at present being more properly what our neighbors the Dutch and the Germans call theirs, word-books, than dictionaries in the superior sense of that title."
In 1616, John Bullokar described the history of the dictionary with his "English Expositor". Glossographia by Thomas Blount, published in 1656, contains more than 10,000 words along with their etymologies or histories. Edward Phillips wrote another dictionary in 1658, entitled "The New World of English Words: Or a General Dictionary" which boldly plagiarized Blount's work, and the two criticised each other. This created more interest in the dictionaries. John Wilkins' 1668 essay on philosophical language contains a list of 11,500 words with careful distinctions, compiled by William Lloyd. Elisha Coles published his "English Dictionary" in 1676.
It was not until Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) that a more reliable English dictionary was produced. Many people today mistakenly believe that Johnson wrote the first English dictionary: a testimony to this legacy. By this stage, dictionaries had evolved to contain textual references for most words, and were arranged alphabetically, rather than by topic (a previously popular form of arrangement, which meant all animals would be grouped together, etc.). Johnson's masterwork could be judged as the first to bring all these elements together, creating the first "modern" dictionary.
Johnson's dictionary remained the English-language standard for over 150 years, until the Oxford University Press began writing and releasing the Oxford English Dictionary in short fascicles from 1884 onwards. It took nearly 50 years to complete this huge work, and they finally released the complete OED in twelve volumes in 1928. One of the main contributors to this modern dictionary was an ex-army surgeon, William Chester Minor, a convicted murderer who was confined to an asylum for the criminally insane.
The OED remains the most comprehensive and trusted English language dictionary to this day, with revisions and updates added by a dedicated team every three months.
In 1806, American Noah Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. In 1807 Webster began compiling an expanded and fully comprehensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language; it took twenty-seven years to complete. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-six languages, including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Arabic, and Sanskrit.
Webster completed his dictionary during his year abroad in 1825 in Paris, France, and at the University of Cambridge. His book contained seventy thousand words, of which twelve thousand had never appeared in a published dictionary before. As a spelling reformer, Webster believed that English spelling rules were unnecessarily complex, so his dictionary introduced spellings that became American English, replacing "colour" with "color", substituting "wagon" for "waggon", and printing "center" instead of "centre". He also added American words, like "skunk" and "squash", which did not appear in British dictionaries. At the age of seventy, Webster published his dictionary in 1828; it sold 2500 copies. In 1840, the second edition was published in two volumes. Webster's dictionary was acquired by G & C Merriam Co. in 1843, after his death, and has since been published in many revised editions. Merriam-Webster was acquired by Encyclopedia Britannica in 1964.
Controversy over the lack of usage advice in the 1961 Webster's Third New International Dictionary spurred publication of the 1969 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the first dictionary to use corpus linguistics.
In a general dictionary, each word may have multiple meanings. Some dictionaries include each separate meaning in the order of most common usage while others list definitions in historical order, with the oldest usage first.
In many languages, words can appear in many different forms, but only the undeclined or unconjugated form appears as the headword in most dictionaries. Dictionaries are most commonly found in the form of a book, but some newer dictionaries, like StarDict and the New Oxford American Dictionary are dictionary software running on PDAs or computers. There are also many online dictionaries accessible via the Internet.
According to the Manual of Specialized Lexicographies, a specialized dictionary, also referred to as a technical dictionary, is a dictionary that focuses upon a specific subject field, as opposed to a dictionary that comprehensively contains words from the lexicon of a specific language or languages. Following the description in The Bilingual LSP Dictionary, lexicographers categorize specialized dictionaries into three types: A multi-field dictionary broadly covers several subject fields (e.g. a business dictionary), a single-field dictionary narrowly covers one particular subject field (e.g. law), and a sub-field dictionary covers a more specialized field (e.g. constitutional law). For example, the 23-language Inter-Active Terminology for Europe is a multi-field dictionary, the American National Biography is a single-field, and the African American National Biography Project is a sub-field dictionary. In terms of the coverage distinction between "minimizing dictionaries" and "maximizing dictionaries", multi-field dictionaries tend to minimize coverage across subject fields (for instance, Oxford Dictionary of World Religions and Yadgar Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms) whereas single-field and sub-field dictionaries tend to maximize coverage within a limited subject field (The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology).
Another variant is the glossary, an alphabetical list of defined terms in a specialized field, such as medicine (medical dictionary).
The simplest dictionary, a defining dictionary, provides a core glossary of the simplest meanings of the simplest concepts. From these, other concepts can be explained and defined, in particular for those who are first learning a language. In English, the commercial defining dictionaries typically include only one or two meanings of under 2000 words. With these, the rest of English, and even the 4000 most common English idioms and metaphors, can be defined.
Lexicographers apply two basic philosophies to the defining of words: prescriptive or descriptive. Noah Webster, intent on forging a distinct identity for the American language, altered spellings and accentuated differences in meaning and pronunciation of some words. This is why American English now uses the spelling color while the rest of the English-speaking world prefers colour. (Similarly, British English subsequently underwent a few spelling changes that did not affect American English; see further at American and British English spelling differences.)
Large 20th-century dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Webster's Third are descriptive, and attempt to describe the actual use of words. Most dictionaries of English now apply the descriptive method to a word's definition, and then, outside of the definition itself, provide information alerting readers to attitudes which may influence their choices on words often considered vulgar, offensive, erroneous, or easily confused. Merriam-Webster is subtle, only adding italicized notations such as, sometimes offensive or stand (nonstandard). American Heritage goes further, discussing issues separately in numerous "usage notes." Encarta provides similar notes, but is more prescriptive, offering warnings and admonitions against the use of certain words considered by many to be offensive or illiterate, such as, "an offensive term for..." or "a taboo term meaning...".
Because of the widespread use of dictionaries in schools, and their acceptance by many as language authorities, their treatment of the language does affect usage to some degree, with even the most descriptive dictionaries providing conservative continuity. In the long run, however, the meanings of words in English are primarily determined by usage, and the language is being changed and created every day. As Jorge Luis Borges says in the prologue to "El otro, el mismo": "It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature."
Sometimes the same dictionary can be descriptive in some domains and prescriptive in others. For example, according to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, the Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary is "at war with itself": whereas its coverage (lexical items) and glosses (definitions) are descriptive and colloquial, its vocalization is prescriptive. This internal conflict results in absurd sentences such as hi taharóg otí kshetiré me asíti lamkhonít (she'll tear me apart when she sees what I've done to the car). Whereas hi taharóg otí, literally 'she will kill me', is colloquial, me (a variant of ma 'what') is archaic, resulting in a combination that is unutterable in real life.
A historical dictionary is a specific kind of descriptive dictionary which describes the development of words and senses over time, usually using citations to original source material to support its conclusions.
In contrast to traditional dictionaries, which are designed to be used by human beings, dictionaries for natural language processing (NLP) are built to be used by computer programs. The final user is a human being but the direct user is a program. Such a dictionary does not need to be able to be printed on paper. The structure of the content is not linear, ordered entry by entry but has the form of a complex network (see Diathesis alternation). Because most of these dictionaries are used to control machine translations or cross-lingual information retrieval (CLIR) the content is usually multilingual and usually of huge size. In order to allow formalized exchange and merging of dictionaries, an ISO standard called Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) has been defined and used among the industrial and academic community.
In many languages, such as the English language, the pronunciation of some words is not consistently apparent from their spelling. In these languages, dictionaries usually provide the pronunciation. For example, the definition for the word dictionary might be followed by the International Phonetic Alphabet spelling /ˈdɪkʃənəri/ (in British English) or /ˈdɪkʃənɛri/ (in American English). American English dictionaries often use their own pronunciation respelling systems with diacritics, for example dictionary is respelled as "dĭk′shə-nĕr′ē" in the American Heritage Dictionary. The IPA is more commonly used within the British Commonwealth countries. Yet others use their own pronunciation respelling systems without diacritics: for example, dictionary may be respelled as DIK-shə-nerr-ee. Some online or electronic dictionaries provide audio recordings of words being spoken.
Histories and descriptions of the dictionaries of other languages on Wikipedia include:
The age of the Internet brought online dictionaries to the desktop and, more recently, to the smart phone. David Skinner in 2013 noted that "Among the top ten lookups on Merriam-Webster Online at this moment are holistic, pragmatic, caveat, esoteric and bourgeois. Teaching users about words they don't already know has been, historically, an aim of lexicography, and modern dictionaries do this well."
There exist a number of websites which operate as online dictionaries, usually with a specialized focus. Some of them have exclusively user driven content, often consisting of neologisms. Some of the more notable examples are given in List of online dictionaries and Category:Online dictionaries. | [
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{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The oldest known dictionaries were cuneiform tablets with bilingual Sumerian–Akkadian wordlists, discovered in Ebla (modern Syria) and dated to roughly 2300 BCE, the time of the Akkadian Empire. The early 2nd millennium BCE Urra=hubullu glossary is the canonical Babylonian version of such bilingual Sumerian wordlists. A Chinese dictionary, the c. 3rd century BCE Erya, is the earliest surviving monolingual dictionary; and some sources cite the Shizhoupian (probably compiled sometime between 700 BCE to 200 BCE, possibly earlier) as a \"dictionary\", although modern scholarship considers it a calligraphic compendium of Chinese characters from Zhou dynasty bronzes. Philitas of Cos (fl. 4th century BCE) wrote a pioneering vocabulary Disorderly Words (Ἄτακτοι γλῶσσαι, Átaktoi glôssai) which explained the meanings of rare Homeric and other literary words, words from local dialects, and technical terms. Apollonius the Sophist (fl. 1st century CE) wrote the oldest surviving Homeric lexicon. The first Sanskrit dictionary, the Amarakośa, was written by Amarasimha c. 4th century CE. Written in verse, it listed around 10,000 words. According to the Nihon Shoki, the first Japanese dictionary was the long-lost 682 CE Niina glossary of Chinese characters. Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi's 8th century Kitab al-'Ayn is considered the first dictionary of Arabic. The oldest existing Japanese dictionary, the c. 835 CE Tenrei Banshō Meigi, was also a glossary of written Chinese. In Frahang-i Pahlavig, Aramaic heterograms are listed together with their translation in the Middle Persian language and phonetic transcription in the Pazend alphabet. A 9th-century CE Irish dictionary, Sanas Cormaic, contained etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 Irish words. In the 12th century, The Karakhanid-Turkic scholar Mahmud Kashgari finished his work \"Divan-u Lügat'it Türk\", a dictionary about the Turkic dialects, but especially Karakhanid Turkic. His work contains about 7500 to 8000 words and it was written to teach non Turkic Muslims, especially the Abbasid Arabs, the Turkic language. Al-Zamakhshari wrote a small Arabic dictionary called \"Muḳaddimetü'l-edeb\" for the Turkic-Khwarazm ruler Atsiz. In the 14th century, the Codex Cumanicus was finished and it served as a dictionary about the Cuman-Turkic language. While in Mamluk Egypt, Ebû Hayyân el-Endelüsî finished his work \"Kitâbü'l-İdrâk li-lisâni'l-Etrâk\", a dictionary about the Kipchak and Turcoman languages spoken in Egypt and the Levant. A dictionary called \"Bahşayiş Lügati\", which is written in old Anatolian Turkish, served also as a dictionary between Oghuz Turkish, Arabic and Persian. But it is not clear who wrote the dictionary or in which century exactly it was published. It was written in old Anatolian Turkish from the Seljuk period and not the late medieval Ottoman period. In India around 1320, Amir Khusro compiled the Khaliq-e-bari, which mainly dealt with Hindustani and Persian words.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Arabic dictionaries were compiled between the 8th and 14th centuries CE, organizing words in rhyme order (by the last syllable), by alphabetical order of the radicals, or according to the alphabetical order of the first letter (the system used in modern European language dictionaries). The modern system was mainly used in specialist dictionaries, such as those of terms from the Qur'an and hadith, while most general use dictionaries, such as the Lisan al-`Arab (13th century, still the best-known large-scale dictionary of Arabic) and al-Qamus al-Muhit (14th century) listed words in the alphabetical order of the radicals. The Qamus al-Muhit is the first handy dictionary in Arabic, which includes only words and their definitions, eliminating the supporting examples used in such dictionaries as the Lisan and the Oxford English Dictionary.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In medieval Europe, glossaries with equivalents for Latin words in vernacular or simpler Latin were in use (e.g. the Leiden Glossary). The Catholicon (1287) by Johannes Balbus, a large grammatical work with an alphabetical lexicon, was widely adopted. It served as the basis for several bilingual dictionaries and was one of the earliest books (in 1460) to be printed. In 1502 Ambrogio Calepino's Dictionarium was published, originally a monolingual Latin dictionary, which over the course of the 16th century was enlarged to become a multilingual glossary. In 1532 Robert Estienne published the Thesaurus linguae latinae and in 1572 his son Henri Estienne published the Thesaurus linguae graecae, which served up to the 19th century as the basis of Greek lexicography. The first monolingual Spanish dictionary written was Sebastián Covarrubias's Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, published in 1611 in Madrid, Spain. In 1612 the first edition of the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, for Italian, was published. It served as the model for similar works in French and English. In 1690 in Rotterdam was published, posthumously, the Dictionnaire Universel by Antoine Furetière for French. In 1694 appeared the first edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (still published, with the ninth edition not complete as of 2021). Between 1712 and 1721 was published the Vocabulario portughez e latino written by Raphael Bluteau. The Royal Spanish Academy published the first edition of the Diccionario de la lengua española (still published, with a new edition about every decade) in 1780; their Diccionario de Autoridades, which included quotes taken from literary works, was published in 1726. The Totius Latinitatis lexicon by Egidio Forcellini was firstly published in 1777; it has formed the basis of all similar works that have since been published.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The first edition of A Greek-English Lexicon by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott appeared in 1843; this work remained the basic dictionary of Greek until the end of the 20th century. And in 1858 was published the first volume of the Deutsches Wörterbuch by the Brothers Grimm; the work was completed in 1961. Between 1861 and 1874 was published the Dizionario della lingua italiana by Niccolò Tommaseo. Between 1862 and 1874 was published the six volumes of A magyar nyelv szótára (Dictionary of Hungarian Language) by Gergely Czuczor and János Fogarasi. Émile Littré published the Dictionnaire de la langue française between 1863 and 1872. In the same year 1863 appeared the first volume of the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal which was completed in 1998. Also in 1863 Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl published the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. The Duden dictionary dates back to 1880, and is currently the prescriptive source for the spelling of German. The decision to start work on the Svenska Akademiens ordbok was taken in 1787.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The earliest dictionaries in the English language were glossaries of French, Spanish or Latin words along with their definitions in English. The word \"dictionary\" was invented by an Englishman called John of Garland in 1220 – he had written a book Dictionarius to help with Latin \"diction\". An early non-alphabetical list of 8000 English words was the Elementarie, created by Richard Mulcaster in 1582.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written by English schoolteacher Robert Cawdrey in 1604. The only surviving copy is found at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. This dictionary, and the many imitators which followed it, was seen as unreliable and nowhere near definitive. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield was still lamenting in 1754, 150 years after Cawdrey's publication, that it is \"a sort of disgrace to our nation, that hitherto we have had no… standard of our language; our dictionaries at present being more properly what our neighbors the Dutch and the Germans call theirs, word-books, than dictionaries in the superior sense of that title.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 1616, John Bullokar described the history of the dictionary with his \"English Expositor\". Glossographia by Thomas Blount, published in 1656, contains more than 10,000 words along with their etymologies or histories. Edward Phillips wrote another dictionary in 1658, entitled \"The New World of English Words: Or a General Dictionary\" which boldly plagiarized Blount's work, and the two criticised each other. This created more interest in the dictionaries. John Wilkins' 1668 essay on philosophical language contains a list of 11,500 words with careful distinctions, compiled by William Lloyd. Elisha Coles published his \"English Dictionary\" in 1676.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "It was not until Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) that a more reliable English dictionary was produced. Many people today mistakenly believe that Johnson wrote the first English dictionary: a testimony to this legacy. By this stage, dictionaries had evolved to contain textual references for most words, and were arranged alphabetically, rather than by topic (a previously popular form of arrangement, which meant all animals would be grouped together, etc.). Johnson's masterwork could be judged as the first to bring all these elements together, creating the first \"modern\" dictionary.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Johnson's dictionary remained the English-language standard for over 150 years, until the Oxford University Press began writing and releasing the Oxford English Dictionary in short fascicles from 1884 onwards. It took nearly 50 years to complete this huge work, and they finally released the complete OED in twelve volumes in 1928. One of the main contributors to this modern dictionary was an ex-army surgeon, William Chester Minor, a convicted murderer who was confined to an asylum for the criminally insane.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The OED remains the most comprehensive and trusted English language dictionary to this day, with revisions and updates added by a dedicated team every three months.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In 1806, American Noah Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. In 1807 Webster began compiling an expanded and fully comprehensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language; it took twenty-seven years to complete. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-six languages, including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Arabic, and Sanskrit.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Webster completed his dictionary during his year abroad in 1825 in Paris, France, and at the University of Cambridge. His book contained seventy thousand words, of which twelve thousand had never appeared in a published dictionary before. As a spelling reformer, Webster believed that English spelling rules were unnecessarily complex, so his dictionary introduced spellings that became American English, replacing \"colour\" with \"color\", substituting \"wagon\" for \"waggon\", and printing \"center\" instead of \"centre\". He also added American words, like \"skunk\" and \"squash\", which did not appear in British dictionaries. At the age of seventy, Webster published his dictionary in 1828; it sold 2500 copies. In 1840, the second edition was published in two volumes. Webster's dictionary was acquired by G & C Merriam Co. in 1843, after his death, and has since been published in many revised editions. Merriam-Webster was acquired by Encyclopedia Britannica in 1964.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Controversy over the lack of usage advice in the 1961 Webster's Third New International Dictionary spurred publication of the 1969 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the first dictionary to use corpus linguistics.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In a general dictionary, each word may have multiple meanings. Some dictionaries include each separate meaning in the order of most common usage while others list definitions in historical order, with the oldest usage first.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In many languages, words can appear in many different forms, but only the undeclined or unconjugated form appears as the headword in most dictionaries. Dictionaries are most commonly found in the form of a book, but some newer dictionaries, like StarDict and the New Oxford American Dictionary are dictionary software running on PDAs or computers. There are also many online dictionaries accessible via the Internet.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "According to the Manual of Specialized Lexicographies, a specialized dictionary, also referred to as a technical dictionary, is a dictionary that focuses upon a specific subject field, as opposed to a dictionary that comprehensively contains words from the lexicon of a specific language or languages. Following the description in The Bilingual LSP Dictionary, lexicographers categorize specialized dictionaries into three types: A multi-field dictionary broadly covers several subject fields (e.g. a business dictionary), a single-field dictionary narrowly covers one particular subject field (e.g. law), and a sub-field dictionary covers a more specialized field (e.g. constitutional law). For example, the 23-language Inter-Active Terminology for Europe is a multi-field dictionary, the American National Biography is a single-field, and the African American National Biography Project is a sub-field dictionary. In terms of the coverage distinction between \"minimizing dictionaries\" and \"maximizing dictionaries\", multi-field dictionaries tend to minimize coverage across subject fields (for instance, Oxford Dictionary of World Religions and Yadgar Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms) whereas single-field and sub-field dictionaries tend to maximize coverage within a limited subject field (The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology).",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Another variant is the glossary, an alphabetical list of defined terms in a specialized field, such as medicine (medical dictionary).",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The simplest dictionary, a defining dictionary, provides a core glossary of the simplest meanings of the simplest concepts. From these, other concepts can be explained and defined, in particular for those who are first learning a language. In English, the commercial defining dictionaries typically include only one or two meanings of under 2000 words. With these, the rest of English, and even the 4000 most common English idioms and metaphors, can be defined.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Lexicographers apply two basic philosophies to the defining of words: prescriptive or descriptive. Noah Webster, intent on forging a distinct identity for the American language, altered spellings and accentuated differences in meaning and pronunciation of some words. This is why American English now uses the spelling color while the rest of the English-speaking world prefers colour. (Similarly, British English subsequently underwent a few spelling changes that did not affect American English; see further at American and British English spelling differences.)",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Large 20th-century dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Webster's Third are descriptive, and attempt to describe the actual use of words. Most dictionaries of English now apply the descriptive method to a word's definition, and then, outside of the definition itself, provide information alerting readers to attitudes which may influence their choices on words often considered vulgar, offensive, erroneous, or easily confused. Merriam-Webster is subtle, only adding italicized notations such as, sometimes offensive or stand (nonstandard). American Heritage goes further, discussing issues separately in numerous \"usage notes.\" Encarta provides similar notes, but is more prescriptive, offering warnings and admonitions against the use of certain words considered by many to be offensive or illiterate, such as, \"an offensive term for...\" or \"a taboo term meaning...\".",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Because of the widespread use of dictionaries in schools, and their acceptance by many as language authorities, their treatment of the language does affect usage to some degree, with even the most descriptive dictionaries providing conservative continuity. In the long run, however, the meanings of words in English are primarily determined by usage, and the language is being changed and created every day. As Jorge Luis Borges says in the prologue to \"El otro, el mismo\": \"It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.\"",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Sometimes the same dictionary can be descriptive in some domains and prescriptive in others. For example, according to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, the Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary is \"at war with itself\": whereas its coverage (lexical items) and glosses (definitions) are descriptive and colloquial, its vocalization is prescriptive. This internal conflict results in absurd sentences such as hi taharóg otí kshetiré me asíti lamkhonít (she'll tear me apart when she sees what I've done to the car). Whereas hi taharóg otí, literally 'she will kill me', is colloquial, me (a variant of ma 'what') is archaic, resulting in a combination that is unutterable in real life.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "A historical dictionary is a specific kind of descriptive dictionary which describes the development of words and senses over time, usually using citations to original source material to support its conclusions.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In contrast to traditional dictionaries, which are designed to be used by human beings, dictionaries for natural language processing (NLP) are built to be used by computer programs. The final user is a human being but the direct user is a program. Such a dictionary does not need to be able to be printed on paper. The structure of the content is not linear, ordered entry by entry but has the form of a complex network (see Diathesis alternation). Because most of these dictionaries are used to control machine translations or cross-lingual information retrieval (CLIR) the content is usually multilingual and usually of huge size. In order to allow formalized exchange and merging of dictionaries, an ISO standard called Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) has been defined and used among the industrial and academic community.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In many languages, such as the English language, the pronunciation of some words is not consistently apparent from their spelling. In these languages, dictionaries usually provide the pronunciation. For example, the definition for the word dictionary might be followed by the International Phonetic Alphabet spelling /ˈdɪkʃənəri/ (in British English) or /ˈdɪkʃənɛri/ (in American English). American English dictionaries often use their own pronunciation respelling systems with diacritics, for example dictionary is respelled as \"dĭk′shə-nĕr′ē\" in the American Heritage Dictionary. The IPA is more commonly used within the British Commonwealth countries. Yet others use their own pronunciation respelling systems without diacritics: for example, dictionary may be respelled as DIK-shə-nerr-ee. Some online or electronic dictionaries provide audio recordings of words being spoken.",
"title": "Pronunciation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Histories and descriptions of the dictionaries of other languages on Wikipedia include:",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The age of the Internet brought online dictionaries to the desktop and, more recently, to the smart phone. David Skinner in 2013 noted that \"Among the top ten lookups on Merriam-Webster Online at this moment are holistic, pragmatic, caveat, esoteric and bourgeois. Teaching users about words they don't already know has been, historically, an aim of lexicography, and modern dictionaries do this well.\"",
"title": "Online dictionaries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "There exist a number of websites which operate as online dictionaries, usually with a specialized focus. Some of them have exclusively user driven content, often consisting of neologisms. Some of the more notable examples are given in List of online dictionaries and Category:Online dictionaries.",
"title": "Online dictionaries"
}
] | A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically, which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data. A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary. There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive. The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection. | 2001-11-11T19:30:32Z | 2023-10-26T06:22:09Z | [
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7,935 | David D. Friedman | David Director Friedman (born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, author, and anarcho-capitalist theorist. Although he studied chemistry and physics and not law or economics, he is known for his textbook writings on microeconomics and the libertarian theory of anarcho-capitalism, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom. Described by Walter Block as a "free-market anarchist" theorist, Friedman has also authored several other books and articles, including Price Theory: An Intermediate Text (1986), Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters (2000), Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996), and Future Imperfect (2008).
David Friedman is the son of economists Rose and Milton Friedman. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1965, with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics. He later earned a master's (1967) and a PhD (1971) in theoretical physics from the University of Chicago. Despite his later career, he never took a class for credit in either economics or law. He was a professor of law at Santa Clara University from 2005 to 2017, and a contributing editor for Liberty magazine. He is currently a Professor Emeritus. He is an atheist. His son, Patri Friedman, has also written about libertarian theory and market anarchism, particularly seasteading.
In his book The Machinery of Freedom (1973), Friedman sketched a form of anarcho-capitalism where all goods and services including law itself can be produced by the free market. Friedman advocates an incrementalist approach to achieve anarcho-capitalism by gradual privatization of areas that government is involved in, ultimately privatizing the law itself. In the book, he states his opposition to violent anarcho-capitalist revolution.
He advocates a consequentialist version of anarcho-capitalism, arguing for it on a cost-benefit analysis of state versus no state. It is contrasted with the natural-rights approach as propounded most notably by economist and libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard.
Friedman is a longtime member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, where he is known as Duke Cariadoc of the Bow. He is known throughout the worldwide society for his articles on the philosophy of recreationism and practical historical recreations, especially those relating to the medieval Middle East. His work is compiled in the popular Cariadoc's Miscellany. He is sometimes credited with founding the largest and longest-running SCA event, the Pennsic War; as king of the Middle Kingdom he challenged the East Kingdom, and later as king of the East accepted the challenge and lost (to himself).
He was a teenage wargamer who taught his school friend, Jack Radey, founder of People's War Games, how to play such wargames as Tactics II. Radey relates how Friedman and himself wrote to Charles S. Roberts claiming that they had found a first turn winning strategy for each of the two sides. Roberts replied that their interpretation of the rules was valid.
He is a long-time science fiction fan, and has written two fantasy novels, Harald (Baen Books, 2006) and Salamander (2011).
He has spoken in favor of a non-interventionist foreign policy. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "David Director Friedman (born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, author, and anarcho-capitalist theorist. Although he studied chemistry and physics and not law or economics, he is known for his textbook writings on microeconomics and the libertarian theory of anarcho-capitalism, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom. Described by Walter Block as a \"free-market anarchist\" theorist, Friedman has also authored several other books and articles, including Price Theory: An Intermediate Text (1986), Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters (2000), Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996), and Future Imperfect (2008).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "David Friedman is the son of economists Rose and Milton Friedman. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1965, with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics. He later earned a master's (1967) and a PhD (1971) in theoretical physics from the University of Chicago. Despite his later career, he never took a class for credit in either economics or law. He was a professor of law at Santa Clara University from 2005 to 2017, and a contributing editor for Liberty magazine. He is currently a Professor Emeritus. He is an atheist. His son, Patri Friedman, has also written about libertarian theory and market anarchism, particularly seasteading.",
"title": "Life and work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In his book The Machinery of Freedom (1973), Friedman sketched a form of anarcho-capitalism where all goods and services including law itself can be produced by the free market. Friedman advocates an incrementalist approach to achieve anarcho-capitalism by gradual privatization of areas that government is involved in, ultimately privatizing the law itself. In the book, he states his opposition to violent anarcho-capitalist revolution.",
"title": "Life and work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "He advocates a consequentialist version of anarcho-capitalism, arguing for it on a cost-benefit analysis of state versus no state. It is contrasted with the natural-rights approach as propounded most notably by economist and libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard.",
"title": "Life and work"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Friedman is a longtime member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, where he is known as Duke Cariadoc of the Bow. He is known throughout the worldwide society for his articles on the philosophy of recreationism and practical historical recreations, especially those relating to the medieval Middle East. His work is compiled in the popular Cariadoc's Miscellany. He is sometimes credited with founding the largest and longest-running SCA event, the Pennsic War; as king of the Middle Kingdom he challenged the East Kingdom, and later as king of the East accepted the challenge and lost (to himself).",
"title": "Non-academic interests"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "He was a teenage wargamer who taught his school friend, Jack Radey, founder of People's War Games, how to play such wargames as Tactics II. Radey relates how Friedman and himself wrote to Charles S. Roberts claiming that they had found a first turn winning strategy for each of the two sides. Roberts replied that their interpretation of the rules was valid.",
"title": "Non-academic interests"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "He is a long-time science fiction fan, and has written two fantasy novels, Harald (Baen Books, 2006) and Salamander (2011).",
"title": "Non-academic interests"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "He has spoken in favor of a non-interventionist foreign policy.",
"title": "Non-academic interests"
}
] | David Director Friedman is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, author, and anarcho-capitalist theorist. Although he studied chemistry and physics and not law or economics, he is known for his textbook writings on microeconomics and the libertarian theory of anarcho-capitalism, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom. Described by Walter Block as a "free-market anarchist" theorist, Friedman has also authored several other books and articles, including Price Theory: An Intermediate Text (1986), Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters (2000), Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996), and Future Imperfect (2008). | 2001-09-26T04:14:05Z | 2023-12-31T14:35:18Z | [
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7,938 | Diatomic molecule | Diatomic molecules (from Greek di- 'two') are molecules composed of only two atoms, of the same or different chemical elements. If a diatomic molecule consists of two atoms of the same element, such as hydrogen (H2) or oxygen (O2), then it is said to be homonuclear. Otherwise, if a diatomic molecule consists of two different atoms, such as carbon monoxide (CO) or nitric oxide (NO), the molecule is said to be heteronuclear. The bond in a homonuclear diatomic molecule is non-polar.
The only chemical elements that form stable homonuclear diatomic molecules at standard temperature and pressure (STP) (or typical laboratory conditions of 1 bar and 25 °C) are the gases hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), fluorine (F2), and chlorine (Cl2).
The noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon) are also gases at STP, but they are monatomic. The homonuclear diatomic gases and noble gases together are called "elemental gases" or "molecular gases", to distinguish them from other gases that are chemical compounds.
At slightly elevated temperatures, the halogens bromine (Br2) and iodine (I2) also form diatomic gases. All halogens have been observed as diatomic molecules, except for astatine and tennessine, which are uncertain.
Other elements form diatomic molecules when evaporated, but these diatomic species repolymerize when cooled. Heating ("cracking") elemental phosphorus gives diphosphorus (P2). Sulfur vapor is mostly disulfur (S2). Dilithium (Li2) and disodium (Na2) are known in the gas phase. Ditungsten (W2) and dimolybdenum (Mo2) form with sextuple bonds in the gas phase. Dirubidium (Rb2) is diatomic.
All other diatomic molecules are chemical compounds of two different elements. Many elements can combine to form heteronuclear diatomic molecules, depending on temperature and pressure.
Examples are gases carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), and hydrogen chloride (HCl).
Many 1:1 binary compounds are not normally considered diatomic because they are polymeric at room temperature, but they form diatomic molecules when evaporated, for example gaseous MgO, SiO, and many others.
Hundreds of diatomic molecules have been identified in the environment of the Earth, in the laboratory, and in interstellar space. About 99% of the Earth's atmosphere is composed of two species of diatomic molecules: nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). The natural abundance of hydrogen (H2) in the Earth's atmosphere is only of the order of parts per million, but H2 is the most abundant diatomic molecule in the universe. The interstellar medium is dominated by hydrogen atoms.
All diatomic molecules are linear and characterized by a single parameter which is the bond length or distance between the two atoms. Diatomic nitrogen has a triple bond, diatomic oxygen has a double bond, and diatomic hydrogen, fluorine, chlorine, iodine, and bromine all have single bonds.
Diatomic elements played an important role in the elucidation of the concepts of element, atom, and molecule in the 19th century, because some of the most common elements, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, occur as diatomic molecules. John Dalton's original atomic hypothesis assumed that all elements were monatomic and that the atoms in compounds would normally have the simplest atomic ratios with respect to one another. For example, Dalton assumed water's formula to be HO, giving the atomic weight of oxygen as eight times that of hydrogen, instead of the modern value of about 16. As a consequence, confusion existed regarding atomic weights and molecular formulas for about half a century.
As early as 1805, Gay-Lussac and von Humboldt showed that water is formed of two volumes of hydrogen and one volume of oxygen, and by 1811 Amedeo Avogadro had arrived at the correct interpretation of water's composition, based on what is now called Avogadro's law and the assumption of diatomic elemental molecules. However, these results were mostly ignored until 1860, partly due to the belief that atoms of one element would have no chemical affinity toward atoms of the same element, and also partly due to apparent exceptions to Avogadro's law that were not explained until later in terms of dissociating molecules.
At the 1860 Karlsruhe Congress on atomic weights, Cannizzaro resurrected Avogadro's ideas and used them to produce a consistent table of atomic weights, which mostly agree with modern values. These weights were an important prerequisite for the discovery of the periodic law by Dmitri Mendeleev and Lothar Meyer.
Diatomic molecules are normally in their lowest or ground state, which conventionally is also known as the X {\displaystyle X} state. When a gas of diatomic molecules is bombarded by energetic electrons, some of the molecules may be excited to higher electronic states, as occurs, for example, in the natural aurora; high-altitude nuclear explosions; and rocket-borne electron gun experiments. Such excitation can also occur when the gas absorbs light or other electromagnetic radiation. The excited states are unstable and naturally relax back to the ground state. Over various short time scales after the excitation (typically a fraction of a second, or sometimes longer than a second if the excited state is metastable), transitions occur from higher to lower electronic states and ultimately to the ground state, and in each transition results a photon is emitted. This emission is known as fluorescence. Successively higher electronic states are conventionally named A {\displaystyle A} , B {\displaystyle B} , C {\displaystyle C} , etc. (but this convention is not always followed, and sometimes lower case letters and alphabetically out-of-sequence letters are used, as in the example given below). The excitation energy must be greater than or equal to the energy of the electronic state in order for the excitation to occur.
In quantum theory, an electronic state of a diatomic molecule is represented by the molecular term symbol
where S {\displaystyle S} is the total electronic spin quantum number, Λ {\displaystyle \Lambda } is the total electronic angular momentum quantum number along the internuclear axis, and v {\displaystyle v} is the vibrational quantum number. Λ {\displaystyle \Lambda } takes on values 0, 1, 2, ..., which are represented by the electronic state symbols Σ {\displaystyle \Sigma } , Π {\displaystyle \Pi } , Δ {\displaystyle \Delta } ,.... For example, the following table lists the common electronic states (without vibrational quantum numbers) along with the energy of the lowest vibrational level ( v = 0 {\displaystyle v=0} ) of diatomic nitrogen (N2), the most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere.
The subscripts and superscripts after Λ {\displaystyle \Lambda } give additional quantum mechanical details about the electronic state. The superscript + {\displaystyle +} or − {\displaystyle -} determines whether reflection in a plane containing the internuclear axis introduces a sign change in the wavefunction. The sub-script g {\displaystyle g} or u {\displaystyle u} applies to molecules of identical atoms, and when reflecting the state along a plane perpendicualr to the molecular axis, states that does not change are labelled g {\displaystyle g} (gerade), and states that change sign are labelled u {\displaystyle u} (ungerade).
The aforementioned fluorescence occurs in distinct regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, called "emission bands": each band corresponds to a particular transition from a higher electronic state and vibrational level to a lower electronic state and vibrational level (typically, many vibrational levels are involved in an excited gas of diatomic molecules). For example, N2 A {\displaystyle A} - X {\displaystyle X} emission bands (a.k.a. Vegard-Kaplan bands) are present in the spectral range from 0.14 to 1.45 μm (micrometres). A given band can be spread out over several nanometers in electromagnetic wavelength space, owing to the various transitions that occur in the molecule's rotational quantum number, J {\displaystyle J} . These are classified into distinct sub-band branches, depending on the change in J {\displaystyle J} . The R {\displaystyle R} branch corresponds to Δ J = + 1 {\displaystyle \Delta J=+1} , the P {\displaystyle P} branch to Δ J = − 1 {\displaystyle \Delta J=-1} , and the Q {\displaystyle Q} branch to Δ J = 0 {\displaystyle \Delta J=0} . Bands are spread out even further by the limited spectral resolution of the spectrometer that is used to measure the spectrum. The spectral resolution depends on the instrument's point spread function.
The molecular term symbol is a shorthand expression of the angular momenta that characterize the electronic quantum states of a diatomic molecule, which are also eigenstates of the electronic molecular Hamiltonian. It is also convenient, and common, to represent a diatomic molecule as two-point masses connected by a massless spring. The energies involved in the various motions of the molecule can then be broken down into three categories: the translational, rotational, and vibrational energies.The theoretical study of the rotational energy levels of the diatomic molecules can be described using the below description of the rotational energy levels. While the study of vibrational energy level of the diatomic molecules can be described using the harmonic oscillator approximation or using the quantum vibrational interaction potentials. These potentials give more accurate energy levels because they take multiple vibrational effects into account.
Concerning history, the first treatment of diatomic molecules with quantum mechanics was made by Lucy Mensing in 1926.
The translational energy of the molecule is given by the kinetic energy expression:
where m {\displaystyle m} is the mass of the molecule and v {\displaystyle v} is its velocity.
Classically, the kinetic energy of rotation is
For microscopic, atomic-level systems like a molecule, angular momentum can only have specific discrete values given by
Also, for a diatomic molecule the moment of inertia is
So, substituting the angular momentum and moment of inertia into Erot, the rotational energy levels of a diatomic molecule are given by:
Another type of motion of a diatomic molecule is for each atom to oscillate—or vibrate—along the line connecting the two atoms. The vibrational energy is approximately that of a quantum harmonic oscillator:
The spacing, and the energy of a typical spectroscopic transition, between vibrational energy levels is about 100 times greater than that of a typical transition between rotational energy levels.
The good quantum numbers for a diatomic molecule, as well as good approximations of rotational energy levels, can be obtained by modeling the molecule using Hund's cases.
The mnemonics BrINClHOF, pronounced "Brinklehof", HONClBrIF, pronounced "Honkelbrif", “HOBrFINCl”, pronounced “Hoberfinkel”, and HOFBrINCl, pronounced "Hofbrinkle", have been coined to aid recall of the list of diatomic elements. Another method, for English-speakers, is the sentence: "Never Have Fear of Ice Cold Beer" as a representation of Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Fluorine, Oxygen, Iodine, Chlorine, Bromine. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Diatomic molecules (from Greek di- 'two') are molecules composed of only two atoms, of the same or different chemical elements. If a diatomic molecule consists of two atoms of the same element, such as hydrogen (H2) or oxygen (O2), then it is said to be homonuclear. Otherwise, if a diatomic molecule consists of two different atoms, such as carbon monoxide (CO) or nitric oxide (NO), the molecule is said to be heteronuclear. The bond in a homonuclear diatomic molecule is non-polar.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The only chemical elements that form stable homonuclear diatomic molecules at standard temperature and pressure (STP) (or typical laboratory conditions of 1 bar and 25 °C) are the gases hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), fluorine (F2), and chlorine (Cl2).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon) are also gases at STP, but they are monatomic. The homonuclear diatomic gases and noble gases together are called \"elemental gases\" or \"molecular gases\", to distinguish them from other gases that are chemical compounds.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "At slightly elevated temperatures, the halogens bromine (Br2) and iodine (I2) also form diatomic gases. All halogens have been observed as diatomic molecules, except for astatine and tennessine, which are uncertain.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Other elements form diatomic molecules when evaporated, but these diatomic species repolymerize when cooled. Heating (\"cracking\") elemental phosphorus gives diphosphorus (P2). Sulfur vapor is mostly disulfur (S2). Dilithium (Li2) and disodium (Na2) are known in the gas phase. Ditungsten (W2) and dimolybdenum (Mo2) form with sextuple bonds in the gas phase. Dirubidium (Rb2) is diatomic.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "All other diatomic molecules are chemical compounds of two different elements. Many elements can combine to form heteronuclear diatomic molecules, depending on temperature and pressure.",
"title": "Heteronuclear molecules"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Examples are gases carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), and hydrogen chloride (HCl).",
"title": "Heteronuclear molecules"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Many 1:1 binary compounds are not normally considered diatomic because they are polymeric at room temperature, but they form diatomic molecules when evaporated, for example gaseous MgO, SiO, and many others.",
"title": "Heteronuclear molecules"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Hundreds of diatomic molecules have been identified in the environment of the Earth, in the laboratory, and in interstellar space. About 99% of the Earth's atmosphere is composed of two species of diatomic molecules: nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). The natural abundance of hydrogen (H2) in the Earth's atmosphere is only of the order of parts per million, but H2 is the most abundant diatomic molecule in the universe. The interstellar medium is dominated by hydrogen atoms.",
"title": "Occurrence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "All diatomic molecules are linear and characterized by a single parameter which is the bond length or distance between the two atoms. Diatomic nitrogen has a triple bond, diatomic oxygen has a double bond, and diatomic hydrogen, fluorine, chlorine, iodine, and bromine all have single bonds.",
"title": "Molecular geometry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Diatomic elements played an important role in the elucidation of the concepts of element, atom, and molecule in the 19th century, because some of the most common elements, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, occur as diatomic molecules. John Dalton's original atomic hypothesis assumed that all elements were monatomic and that the atoms in compounds would normally have the simplest atomic ratios with respect to one another. For example, Dalton assumed water's formula to be HO, giving the atomic weight of oxygen as eight times that of hydrogen, instead of the modern value of about 16. As a consequence, confusion existed regarding atomic weights and molecular formulas for about half a century.",
"title": "Historical significance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "As early as 1805, Gay-Lussac and von Humboldt showed that water is formed of two volumes of hydrogen and one volume of oxygen, and by 1811 Amedeo Avogadro had arrived at the correct interpretation of water's composition, based on what is now called Avogadro's law and the assumption of diatomic elemental molecules. However, these results were mostly ignored until 1860, partly due to the belief that atoms of one element would have no chemical affinity toward atoms of the same element, and also partly due to apparent exceptions to Avogadro's law that were not explained until later in terms of dissociating molecules.",
"title": "Historical significance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "At the 1860 Karlsruhe Congress on atomic weights, Cannizzaro resurrected Avogadro's ideas and used them to produce a consistent table of atomic weights, which mostly agree with modern values. These weights were an important prerequisite for the discovery of the periodic law by Dmitri Mendeleev and Lothar Meyer.",
"title": "Historical significance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Diatomic molecules are normally in their lowest or ground state, which conventionally is also known as the X {\\displaystyle X} state. When a gas of diatomic molecules is bombarded by energetic electrons, some of the molecules may be excited to higher electronic states, as occurs, for example, in the natural aurora; high-altitude nuclear explosions; and rocket-borne electron gun experiments. Such excitation can also occur when the gas absorbs light or other electromagnetic radiation. The excited states are unstable and naturally relax back to the ground state. Over various short time scales after the excitation (typically a fraction of a second, or sometimes longer than a second if the excited state is metastable), transitions occur from higher to lower electronic states and ultimately to the ground state, and in each transition results a photon is emitted. This emission is known as fluorescence. Successively higher electronic states are conventionally named A {\\displaystyle A} , B {\\displaystyle B} , C {\\displaystyle C} , etc. (but this convention is not always followed, and sometimes lower case letters and alphabetically out-of-sequence letters are used, as in the example given below). The excitation energy must be greater than or equal to the energy of the electronic state in order for the excitation to occur.",
"title": "Excited electronic states"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In quantum theory, an electronic state of a diatomic molecule is represented by the molecular term symbol",
"title": "Excited electronic states"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "where S {\\displaystyle S} is the total electronic spin quantum number, Λ {\\displaystyle \\Lambda } is the total electronic angular momentum quantum number along the internuclear axis, and v {\\displaystyle v} is the vibrational quantum number. Λ {\\displaystyle \\Lambda } takes on values 0, 1, 2, ..., which are represented by the electronic state symbols Σ {\\displaystyle \\Sigma } , Π {\\displaystyle \\Pi } , Δ {\\displaystyle \\Delta } ,.... For example, the following table lists the common electronic states (without vibrational quantum numbers) along with the energy of the lowest vibrational level ( v = 0 {\\displaystyle v=0} ) of diatomic nitrogen (N2), the most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere.",
"title": "Excited electronic states"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The subscripts and superscripts after Λ {\\displaystyle \\Lambda } give additional quantum mechanical details about the electronic state. The superscript + {\\displaystyle +} or − {\\displaystyle -} determines whether reflection in a plane containing the internuclear axis introduces a sign change in the wavefunction. The sub-script g {\\displaystyle g} or u {\\displaystyle u} applies to molecules of identical atoms, and when reflecting the state along a plane perpendicualr to the molecular axis, states that does not change are labelled g {\\displaystyle g} (gerade), and states that change sign are labelled u {\\displaystyle u} (ungerade).",
"title": "Excited electronic states"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The aforementioned fluorescence occurs in distinct regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, called \"emission bands\": each band corresponds to a particular transition from a higher electronic state and vibrational level to a lower electronic state and vibrational level (typically, many vibrational levels are involved in an excited gas of diatomic molecules). For example, N2 A {\\displaystyle A} - X {\\displaystyle X} emission bands (a.k.a. Vegard-Kaplan bands) are present in the spectral range from 0.14 to 1.45 μm (micrometres). A given band can be spread out over several nanometers in electromagnetic wavelength space, owing to the various transitions that occur in the molecule's rotational quantum number, J {\\displaystyle J} . These are classified into distinct sub-band branches, depending on the change in J {\\displaystyle J} . The R {\\displaystyle R} branch corresponds to Δ J = + 1 {\\displaystyle \\Delta J=+1} , the P {\\displaystyle P} branch to Δ J = − 1 {\\displaystyle \\Delta J=-1} , and the Q {\\displaystyle Q} branch to Δ J = 0 {\\displaystyle \\Delta J=0} . Bands are spread out even further by the limited spectral resolution of the spectrometer that is used to measure the spectrum. The spectral resolution depends on the instrument's point spread function.",
"title": "Excited electronic states"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The molecular term symbol is a shorthand expression of the angular momenta that characterize the electronic quantum states of a diatomic molecule, which are also eigenstates of the electronic molecular Hamiltonian. It is also convenient, and common, to represent a diatomic molecule as two-point masses connected by a massless spring. The energies involved in the various motions of the molecule can then be broken down into three categories: the translational, rotational, and vibrational energies.The theoretical study of the rotational energy levels of the diatomic molecules can be described using the below description of the rotational energy levels. While the study of vibrational energy level of the diatomic molecules can be described using the harmonic oscillator approximation or using the quantum vibrational interaction potentials. These potentials give more accurate energy levels because they take multiple vibrational effects into account.",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Concerning history, the first treatment of diatomic molecules with quantum mechanics was made by Lucy Mensing in 1926.",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The translational energy of the molecule is given by the kinetic energy expression:",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "where m {\\displaystyle m} is the mass of the molecule and v {\\displaystyle v} is its velocity.",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Classically, the kinetic energy of rotation is",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "For microscopic, atomic-level systems like a molecule, angular momentum can only have specific discrete values given by",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Also, for a diatomic molecule the moment of inertia is",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "So, substituting the angular momentum and moment of inertia into Erot, the rotational energy levels of a diatomic molecule are given by:",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Another type of motion of a diatomic molecule is for each atom to oscillate—or vibrate—along the line connecting the two atoms. The vibrational energy is approximately that of a quantum harmonic oscillator:",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The spacing, and the energy of a typical spectroscopic transition, between vibrational energy levels is about 100 times greater than that of a typical transition between rotational energy levels.",
"title": "Energy levels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The good quantum numbers for a diatomic molecule, as well as good approximations of rotational energy levels, can be obtained by modeling the molecule using Hund's cases.",
"title": "Hund's cases"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The mnemonics BrINClHOF, pronounced \"Brinklehof\", HONClBrIF, pronounced \"Honkelbrif\", “HOBrFINCl”, pronounced “Hoberfinkel”, and HOFBrINCl, pronounced \"Hofbrinkle\", have been coined to aid recall of the list of diatomic elements. Another method, for English-speakers, is the sentence: \"Never Have Fear of Ice Cold Beer\" as a representation of Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Fluorine, Oxygen, Iodine, Chlorine, Bromine.",
"title": "Mnemonics"
}
] | Diatomic molecules are molecules composed of only two atoms, of the same or different chemical elements. If a diatomic molecule consists of two atoms of the same element, such as hydrogen (H2) or oxygen (O2), then it is said to be homonuclear. Otherwise, if a diatomic molecule consists of two different atoms, such as carbon monoxide (CO) or nitric oxide (NO), the molecule is said to be heteronuclear. The bond in a homonuclear diatomic molecule is non-polar. The only chemical elements that form stable homonuclear diatomic molecules at standard temperature and pressure (STP) are the gases hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), fluorine (F2), and chlorine (Cl2). The noble gases are also gases at STP, but they are monatomic. The homonuclear diatomic gases and noble gases together are called "elemental gases" or "molecular gases", to distinguish them from other gases that are chemical compounds. At slightly elevated temperatures, the halogens bromine (Br2) and iodine (I2) also form diatomic gases. All halogens have been observed as diatomic molecules, except for astatine and tennessine, which are uncertain. Other elements form diatomic molecules when evaporated, but these diatomic species repolymerize when cooled. Heating ("cracking") elemental phosphorus gives diphosphorus (P2). Sulfur vapor is mostly disulfur (S2). Dilithium (Li2) and disodium (Na2) are known in the gas phase. Ditungsten (W2) and dimolybdenum (Mo2) form with sextuple bonds in the gas phase. Dirubidium (Rb2) is diatomic. | 2001-03-10T18:04:09Z | 2023-09-01T14:28:12Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomic_molecule |
7,939 | Duopoly | A duopoly (from Greek δύο, duo "two" and πωλεῖν, polein "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most (if not all) of the competition within that market occurs directly between them.
Duopoly is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicity. Duopolies sell to consumers in a competitive market where the choice of an individual consumer choice cannot affect the firm in a duopoly market, as the defining characteristic of duopolies is that decisions made by each seller are dependent on what the other competitor does. Duopolies can exist in various forms, such as Cournot, Bertrand, or Stackelberg competition. These models demonstrate how firms in a duopoly can compete on output or price, depending on the assumptions made about firm behavior and market conditions.
Cournot Model in Game Theory: In 1838, Antoine A. Cournot published a book titled "Researches Into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth" in which he introduced and developed this model for the first time. As an imperfect competition model, Cournot duopoly (also known as Cournot competition), in which two firms with identical cost functions compete with homogenous products in a static context, is also known as Cournot competition.
The Cournot model, shows that two firms assume each other's output and treat this as a fixed amount, and produce in their own firm according to this.
The Cournot duopoly model relies on the following assumptions:
In this model, two companies, each of which chooses its own quantity of output, compete against each other while facing constant marginal and average costs. The market price is determined by the sum of the output of two companies. P ( Q ) = a − b Q {\displaystyle P(Q)=a-bQ} is the equation for the market demand function.
Π1(q1, q2) = (P(q1 + q2) − c1)*q1
Π2(q1, q2) = (P(q1 + q2) − c2)*q2
The general process for obtaining a Nash equilibrium of a game using the best response functions is followed in order to discover a Nash equilibrium of Cournot's model for a specific cost function and demand function.
A Nash Equilibrium of the Cournot model is a (q1*, q2*) such that
For a given q1* , q2* solves:
MAXq1 Π1(q1, q2*) = (P(q1 + q2*) − c1)q1 and
MAXq2 Π2(q1*, q2) = (P(q1* + q2) − c2)q2
Given the other firm’s optimal quantity, each firm maximizes its profit over the residual inverse demand. In equilibrium, no firm can increase profits by changing its output level
Two first order conditions equal to zero are the best response.
Cournot's duopoly marked the beginning of the study of oligopolies, and specifically duopolies, as well as the expansion of the research of market structures, which had previously focussed on the extremes of perfect competition and monopoly.
In the Cournot duopoly model, firms choose the quantity of output they produce simultaneously, taking into consideration the quantity produced by their competitor. Each firm's profit depends on the total output produced by both firms, and the market price is determined by the sum of their outputs. The goal of each firm is to maximize its profit given the output produced by the other firm. This process continues until both firms reach a Nash equilibrium, where neither firm has an incentive to change its output level given the output of the other firm.
Bertrand Model in Game Theory The Bertrand Competition was developed by a French mathematician called Joseph Louis François Bertrand after investigating the claims of the Cournot model in "Researches into the mathematical principles of the theory of wealth, 1838".
According to the Cournot model, firms in a duopoly would be able to keep prices above marginal cost and hence be extremely profitable. Bertrand took issue with this. In this market structure, each firm could only choose whole amounts and each firm receives zero payoffs when the aggregate demand exceeds the size of the amount that they share with each other. The market demand function is Q ( P ) = a − b P {\displaystyle Q(P)=a-bP} .
The Bertrand model has similar assumptions to the Cournot model:
The Bertrand model, in which, in a game of two firms, competes in price instead of output. Each one of them will assume that the other will not change prices in response to its price cuts. When both firms use this logic, they will reach a Nash equilibrium.
Let p be the monopoly price, p = argmaxp(p − c)D(p)
If pj> p, Ri(pj)=p
If c < pj ≤ p ,Ri(pj) =pj-€
If pj ≤ c, Ri(pj) =c
For rival prices above cost, each firm has incentive to undercut rival to get the whole demand.if rival prices below cost, firms make losses when it attracts demand; firm better off charging at cost level. Nash equilibrium is p1 = p2 = c
Bertrand Paradox: Under static price competition with homogenous products and constant, symmetric marginal cost, firms price at the level of marginal cost and make no economic profits.
In contrast to the Cournot model, the Bertrand duopoly model assumes that firms compete on price rather than quantity. Each firm sets its price simultaneously, anticipating that the other firm will not change its price in response. When both firms use this logic, they will reach a Nash equilibrium, where neither firm has an incentive to change its price given the price set by the other firm. In this model, firms tend to price their products at the level of their marginal cost, resulting in zero economic profits, a phenomenon known as the Bertrand Paradox.
In a duopoly, quality standards can play a significant role in the competitive dynamics between the two firms. A low-quality manufacturer may benefit from a slightly stringent quality standard in the absence of sunk costs, whereas a high-quality producer may suffer from it. Consumer welfare improves if the firm generating the higher quality does not considerably enhance its quality in response to its competitor's increase in quality. Exit from the industry is triggered by a sufficiently strict requirement. The high-quality producer exits first when there are no sunk costs. In some cases, firms may engage in a quality competition, attempting to outdo one another by improving their products or services to attract more customers.
Like a market, a political system can be dominated by two groups, which exclude other parties or ideologies from participation. One party or the other tends to dominate government at any given time (the Majority party), while the other has only limited power (the Minority party). According to Duverger's law, this tends to be caused by a simple winner-take-all voting system without runoffs or ranked choices. The United States and many Latin American countries, such as Costa Rica, Guyana, and the Dominican Republic have two-party government systems.
Duopoly in Danish court politics
The prime minister-finance minister duopoly is an unusual form of court politics. There have been few other countries where the prime minister and the Treasury have had such a tumultuous relationship as Australia and the United Kingdom. There have been some confrontations in the past when the Finance ministry did not have the full support of the prime minister, leading to internal ministerial battles over economic strategy.
A permanent civil service is a basic requirement for the duopoly system to function properly. The permanent civil service in general, and the Socialist Party in particular, are critical to the duopoly's effective operation. The conventional inter-governmental duopoly is carried by civil servants.
The duopoly is confronted with some quandaries, such as tensions between different groups in the office over their relative positions. Departmental budget cuts are being made across the board.
The prime ministerial-finance-ministry duopoly requires more credibility. Trust is a rare commodity among Australians and Britons. Denmark has a lot to offer. The Danish duopoly works together. Australia and the United Kingdom have competitive duopolies, and competitive duopolies are unstable.
A Cournot duopoly is a model of strategic interaction between two firms where they simultaneously choose their output levels, assuming the rival's output level is fixed. The firms compete on quantity, and each firm attempts to maximize its profit given the other firm's output level. This leads to a Nash equilibrium where neither firm has an incentive to change its output, given the other firm's output.
In a Bertrand duopoly, two firms compete on price instead of quantity. Each firm assumes that its rival's price is fixed and chooses its own price to maximize profit. This model predicts that, under certain conditions, firms will set prices equal to marginal cost, leading to perfect competition.
A Stackelberg duopoly is a model where one firm (the leader) chooses its output level first, followed by the other firm (the follower). The follower observes the leader's output decision and adjusts its own output to maximize profit. The Stackelberg model often results in a higher total output and lower market price than the Cournot and Bertrand models.
A commonly cited example of a duopoly is that involving Visa and Mastercard, who between them control a large proportion of the electronic payment processing market. In 2000 they were the defendants in a United States Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit. An appeal was upheld in 2004.
Examples, where two companies control an overwhelming proportion of a market, are:
In Finland, the state-owned broadcasting company Yleisradio and the private broadcaster Mainos-TV had a legal duopoly (in the economists' sense of the word) from the 1950s to 1993. No other broadcasters were allowed. Mainos-TV operated by leasing air time from Yleisradio, broadcasting in reserved blocks between Yleisradio's own programming on its two channels. This was a unique phenomenon in the world. Between 1986 and 1992 there was an independent third channel but it was jointly owned by Yle and M-TV; only in 1993 did M-TV get its own channel.
In Kenya, mobile service providers Safaricom and Airtel in Kenya form a duopoly in the Kenyan telecommunications industry.
In Singapore, the mass media industry is presently dominated by two players, namely Mediacorp and SPH Media Trust.
In the United Kingdom, the BBC and ITV formed an effective duopoly (with Channel 4 originally being economically dependent on ITV) until the development of multichannel from the 1990s onwards.
Duopoly is also used in the United States broadcast television and radio industry to refer to a single company owning two outlets in the same city.
This usage is technically incompatible with the normal definition of the word and may lead to confusion, inasmuch as there are generally more than two owners of broadcast television stations in markets with broadcast duopolies. In Canada, this definition is therefore more commonly called a "twinstick". | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A duopoly (from Greek δύο, duo \"two\" and πωλεῖν, polein \"to sell\") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most (if not all) of the competition within that market occurs directly between them.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Duopoly is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicity. Duopolies sell to consumers in a competitive market where the choice of an individual consumer choice cannot affect the firm in a duopoly market, as the defining characteristic of duopolies is that decisions made by each seller are dependent on what the other competitor does. Duopolies can exist in various forms, such as Cournot, Bertrand, or Stackelberg competition. These models demonstrate how firms in a duopoly can compete on output or price, depending on the assumptions made about firm behavior and market conditions.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Cournot Model in Game Theory: In 1838, Antoine A. Cournot published a book titled \"Researches Into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth\" in which he introduced and developed this model for the first time. As an imperfect competition model, Cournot duopoly (also known as Cournot competition), in which two firms with identical cost functions compete with homogenous products in a static context, is also known as Cournot competition.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The Cournot model, shows that two firms assume each other's output and treat this as a fixed amount, and produce in their own firm according to this.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The Cournot duopoly model relies on the following assumptions:",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In this model, two companies, each of which chooses its own quantity of output, compete against each other while facing constant marginal and average costs. The market price is determined by the sum of the output of two companies. P ( Q ) = a − b Q {\\displaystyle P(Q)=a-bQ} is the equation for the market demand function.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Π1(q1, q2) = (P(q1 + q2) − c1)*q1",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Π2(q1, q2) = (P(q1 + q2) − c2)*q2",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The general process for obtaining a Nash equilibrium of a game using the best response functions is followed in order to discover a Nash equilibrium of Cournot's model for a specific cost function and demand function.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "A Nash Equilibrium of the Cournot model is a (q1*, q2*) such that",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "For a given q1* , q2* solves:",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "MAXq1 Π1(q1, q2*) = (P(q1 + q2*) − c1)q1 and",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "MAXq2 Π2(q1*, q2) = (P(q1* + q2) − c2)q2",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Given the other firm’s optimal quantity, each firm maximizes its profit over the residual inverse demand. In equilibrium, no firm can increase profits by changing its output level",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Two first order conditions equal to zero are the best response.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Cournot's duopoly marked the beginning of the study of oligopolies, and specifically duopolies, as well as the expansion of the research of market structures, which had previously focussed on the extremes of perfect competition and monopoly.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In the Cournot duopoly model, firms choose the quantity of output they produce simultaneously, taking into consideration the quantity produced by their competitor. Each firm's profit depends on the total output produced by both firms, and the market price is determined by the sum of their outputs. The goal of each firm is to maximize its profit given the output produced by the other firm. This process continues until both firms reach a Nash equilibrium, where neither firm has an incentive to change its output level given the output of the other firm.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Bertrand Model in Game Theory The Bertrand Competition was developed by a French mathematician called Joseph Louis François Bertrand after investigating the claims of the Cournot model in \"Researches into the mathematical principles of the theory of wealth, 1838\".",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "According to the Cournot model, firms in a duopoly would be able to keep prices above marginal cost and hence be extremely profitable. Bertrand took issue with this. In this market structure, each firm could only choose whole amounts and each firm receives zero payoffs when the aggregate demand exceeds the size of the amount that they share with each other. The market demand function is Q ( P ) = a − b P {\\displaystyle Q(P)=a-bP} .",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The Bertrand model has similar assumptions to the Cournot model:",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The Bertrand model, in which, in a game of two firms, competes in price instead of output. Each one of them will assume that the other will not change prices in response to its price cuts. When both firms use this logic, they will reach a Nash equilibrium.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Let p be the monopoly price, p = argmaxp(p − c)D(p)",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "If pj> p, Ri(pj)=p",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "If c < pj ≤ p ,Ri(pj) =pj-€",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "If pj ≤ c, Ri(pj) =c",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "For rival prices above cost, each firm has incentive to undercut rival to get the whole demand.if rival prices below cost, firms make losses when it attracts demand; firm better off charging at cost level. Nash equilibrium is p1 = p2 = c",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Bertrand Paradox: Under static price competition with homogenous products and constant, symmetric marginal cost, firms price at the level of marginal cost and make no economic profits.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In contrast to the Cournot model, the Bertrand duopoly model assumes that firms compete on price rather than quantity. Each firm sets its price simultaneously, anticipating that the other firm will not change its price in response. When both firms use this logic, they will reach a Nash equilibrium, where neither firm has an incentive to change its price given the price set by the other firm. In this model, firms tend to price their products at the level of their marginal cost, resulting in zero economic profits, a phenomenon known as the Bertrand Paradox.",
"title": "Duopoly models in economics and game theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In a duopoly, quality standards can play a significant role in the competitive dynamics between the two firms. A low-quality manufacturer may benefit from a slightly stringent quality standard in the absence of sunk costs, whereas a high-quality producer may suffer from it. Consumer welfare improves if the firm generating the higher quality does not considerably enhance its quality in response to its competitor's increase in quality. Exit from the industry is triggered by a sufficiently strict requirement. The high-quality producer exits first when there are no sunk costs. In some cases, firms may engage in a quality competition, attempting to outdo one another by improving their products or services to attract more customers.",
"title": "Quality standards"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Like a market, a political system can be dominated by two groups, which exclude other parties or ideologies from participation. One party or the other tends to dominate government at any given time (the Majority party), while the other has only limited power (the Minority party). According to Duverger's law, this tends to be caused by a simple winner-take-all voting system without runoffs or ranked choices. The United States and many Latin American countries, such as Costa Rica, Guyana, and the Dominican Republic have two-party government systems.",
"title": "Politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Duopoly in Danish court politics",
"title": "Politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The prime minister-finance minister duopoly is an unusual form of court politics. There have been few other countries where the prime minister and the Treasury have had such a tumultuous relationship as Australia and the United Kingdom. There have been some confrontations in the past when the Finance ministry did not have the full support of the prime minister, leading to internal ministerial battles over economic strategy.",
"title": "Politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "A permanent civil service is a basic requirement for the duopoly system to function properly. The permanent civil service in general, and the Socialist Party in particular, are critical to the duopoly's effective operation. The conventional inter-governmental duopoly is carried by civil servants.",
"title": "Politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The duopoly is confronted with some quandaries, such as tensions between different groups in the office over their relative positions. Departmental budget cuts are being made across the board.",
"title": "Politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The prime ministerial-finance-ministry duopoly requires more credibility. Trust is a rare commodity among Australians and Britons. Denmark has a lot to offer. The Danish duopoly works together. Australia and the United Kingdom have competitive duopolies, and competitive duopolies are unstable.",
"title": "Politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "A Cournot duopoly is a model of strategic interaction between two firms where they simultaneously choose their output levels, assuming the rival's output level is fixed. The firms compete on quantity, and each firm attempts to maximize its profit given the other firm's output level. This leads to a Nash equilibrium where neither firm has an incentive to change its output, given the other firm's output.",
"title": "Types of duopoly"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In a Bertrand duopoly, two firms compete on price instead of quantity. Each firm assumes that its rival's price is fixed and chooses its own price to maximize profit. This model predicts that, under certain conditions, firms will set prices equal to marginal cost, leading to perfect competition.",
"title": "Types of duopoly"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "A Stackelberg duopoly is a model where one firm (the leader) chooses its output level first, followed by the other firm (the follower). The follower observes the leader's output decision and adjusts its own output to maximize profit. The Stackelberg model often results in a higher total output and lower market price than the Cournot and Bertrand models.",
"title": "Types of duopoly"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "A commonly cited example of a duopoly is that involving Visa and Mastercard, who between them control a large proportion of the electronic payment processing market. In 2000 they were the defendants in a United States Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit. An appeal was upheld in 2004.",
"title": "Examples in business"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Examples, where two companies control an overwhelming proportion of a market, are:",
"title": "Examples in business"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "In Finland, the state-owned broadcasting company Yleisradio and the private broadcaster Mainos-TV had a legal duopoly (in the economists' sense of the word) from the 1950s to 1993. No other broadcasters were allowed. Mainos-TV operated by leasing air time from Yleisradio, broadcasting in reserved blocks between Yleisradio's own programming on its two channels. This was a unique phenomenon in the world. Between 1986 and 1992 there was an independent third channel but it was jointly owned by Yle and M-TV; only in 1993 did M-TV get its own channel.",
"title": "Media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In Kenya, mobile service providers Safaricom and Airtel in Kenya form a duopoly in the Kenyan telecommunications industry.",
"title": "Media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "In Singapore, the mass media industry is presently dominated by two players, namely Mediacorp and SPH Media Trust.",
"title": "Media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "In the United Kingdom, the BBC and ITV formed an effective duopoly (with Channel 4 originally being economically dependent on ITV) until the development of multichannel from the 1990s onwards.",
"title": "Media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Duopoly is also used in the United States broadcast television and radio industry to refer to a single company owning two outlets in the same city.",
"title": "Broadcasting"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "This usage is technically incompatible with the normal definition of the word and may lead to confusion, inasmuch as there are generally more than two owners of broadcast television stations in markets with broadcast duopolies. In Canada, this definition is therefore more commonly called a \"twinstick\".",
"title": "Broadcasting"
}
] | A duopoly is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most of the competition within that market occurs directly between them. Duopoly is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicity. Duopolies sell to consumers in a competitive market where the choice of an individual consumer choice cannot affect the firm in a duopoly market, as the defining characteristic of duopolies is that decisions made by each seller are dependent on what the other competitor does. Duopolies can exist in various forms, such as Cournot, Bertrand, or Stackelberg competition. These models demonstrate how firms in a duopoly can compete on output or price, depending on the assumptions made about firm behavior and market conditions. | 2002-02-25T15:43:11Z | 2023-12-21T22:20:01Z | [
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7,940 | Dungeons & Dragons | Dungeons & Dragons (commonly abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, now a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, and also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre.
D&D departs from traditional wargaming by allowing each player to create their own character to play instead of a military formation. These characters embark upon adventures within a fantasy setting. A Dungeon Master (DM) serves as referee and storyteller for the game, while maintaining the setting in which the adventures occur, and playing the role of the inhabitants of the game world, known as non-player characters (NPCs). The characters form a party and they interact with the setting's inhabitants and each other. Together they solve problems, engage in battles, explore, and gather treasure and knowledge. In the process, player characters earn experience points (XP) to level up, and become increasingly powerful over a series of separate gaming sessions. Players choose a class when they create their character, which gives them special perks and abilities every few levels.
The early success of D&D led to a proliferation of similar game systems. Despite the competition, D&D has remained the market leader in the role-playing game industry. In 1977, the game was split into two branches: the relatively rules-light game system of basic Dungeons & Dragons, and the more structured, rules-heavy game system of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as AD&D). AD&D 2nd Edition was published in 1989. In 2000, a new system was released as D&D 3rd edition, continuing the edition numbering from AD&D; a revised version 3.5 was released in June 2003. These 3rd edition rules formed the basis of the d20 System, which is available under the Open Game License (OGL) for use by other publishers. D&D 4th edition was released in June 2008. The 5th edition of D&D, the most recent, was released during the second half of 2014.
In 2004, D&D remained the best-known, and best-selling, role-playing game in the US, with an estimated 20 million people having played the game and more than US$1 billion in book and equipment sales worldwide. The year 2017 had "the most number of players in its history—12 million to 15 million in North America alone". D&D 5th edition sales "were up 41 percent in 2017 from the year before, and soared another 52 percent in 2018, the game's biggest sales year yet". The game has been supplemented by many premade adventures, as well as commercial campaign settings suitable for use by regular gaming groups. D&D is known beyond the game itself for other D&D-branded products, references in popular culture, and some of the controversies that have surrounded it, particularly a moral panic in the 1980s, which attempted to associate it with Satanism and suicide. The game has won multiple awards and has been translated into many languages.
Dungeons & Dragons is a structured yet open-ended role-playing game. It is normally played indoors with the participants seated around a tabletop. Typically, one player takes on the role of Dungeon Master (DM) while the others each control a single character, representing an individual in a fictional setting. When working together as a group, the player characters (PCs) are often described as a "party" of adventurers, with each member often having their own area of specialty that contributes to the success of the group as a whole. During the course of play, each player directs the actions of their character and their interactions with other characters in the game. This activity is performed through the verbal impersonation of the characters by the players, while employing a variety of social and other useful cognitive skills, such as logic, basic mathematics and imagination. A game often continues over a series of meetings to complete a single adventure, and longer into a series of related gaming adventures, called a "campaign".
The results of the party's choices and the overall story line for the game are determined by the DM according to the rules of the game and the DM's interpretation of those rules. The DM selects and describes the various non-player characters (NPCs) that the party encounters, the settings in which these interactions occur, and the outcomes of those encounters based on the players' choices and actions. Encounters often take the form of battles with "monsters" – a generic term used in D&D to describe potentially hostile beings such as animals, aberrant beings, or mythical creatures. In addition to jewels and gold coins, magic items form part of the treasure that the players often seek in a dungeon. Magic items are generally found in treasure hoards, or recovered from fallen opponents; sometimes, a powerful or important magic item is the object of a quest. The game's extensive rules – which cover diverse subjects such as social interactions, magic use, combat, and the effect of the environment on PCs – help the DM to make these decisions. The DM may choose to deviate from the published rules or make up new ones if they feel it is necessary.
The most recent versions of the game's rules are detailed in three Fifth Edition core rulebooks: The Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual.
The only items required to play the game are the rulebooks, a character sheet for each player, and a number of polyhedral dice. Many players also use miniature figures on a grid map as a visual aid if desired, particularly during combat. Some editions of the game presume such usage. Many optional accessories are available to enhance the game, such as expansion rulebooks, pre-designed adventures and various campaign settings.
Before the game begins, each player creates their player character and records the details (described below) on a character sheet. First, a player determines their character's ability scores, which consist of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each edition of the game has offered differing methods of determining these scores. The player then chooses a race (species), a character class (such as a fighter, rogue, or wizard), an alignment (a moral and ethical outlook), and other features to round out the character's abilities and backstory, which have varied in nature through differing editions.
During the game, players describe their PCs' intended actions to the DM, who then describes the result or response. Trivial actions, such as picking up a letter or opening an unlocked door, are usually automatically successful. The outcomes of more complex or risky actions, such as scaling a cliff or picking a lock, are determined by rolling dice. Different polyhedral dice are used for different actions, such as a twenty-sided die to see whether a hit was made in combat but an eight-sided die to determine how much damage was dealt. Factors contributing to the outcome include the character's ability scores, skills, and the difficulty of the task. In circumstances where a character is attempting to avoid a negative outcome, such as when dodging a trap or resisting the effect of a spell, a saving throw can be used to determine whether the resulting effect is reduced or avoided. In this case the odds of success are influenced by the character's class, levels and ability scores. In circumstances where a character is attempting to complete a task such as picking a lock, deactivating a trap, or pushing a boulder, a Difficulty Class must be hit or exceeded. Relevant ability bonuses are added to help players succeed.
As the game is played, each PC changes over time and generally increases in capability. Characters gain (or sometimes lose) experience, skills and wealth, and may even alter their alignment or gain additional character classes. The key way characters progress is by earning experience points (XP), which happens when they defeat an enemy or accomplish a difficult task. Acquiring enough XP allows a PC to advance a level, which grants the character improved class features, abilities and skills. XP can be lost in some circumstances, such as encounters with creatures that drain life energy, or by use of certain magical powers that come with an XP cost.
Hit points (HP) are a measure of a character's vitality and health and are determined by the class, level and Constitution of each character. They can be temporarily lost when a character sustains wounds in combat or otherwise comes to harm, and loss of HP is the most common way for a character to die in the game. Death can also result from the loss of key ability scores or character levels. When a PC dies, it is often possible for the dead character to be resurrected through magic, although some penalties may be imposed as a result. If resurrection is not possible or not desired, the player may instead create a new PC to resume playing the game.
A typical Dungeons & Dragons game consists of an "adventure", which is roughly equivalent to a single story or quest. The DM can either design an original adventure or follow one of the many premade adventures (also known as "modules") that have been published throughout the history of Dungeons & Dragons. Published adventures typically include a background story, illustrations, maps, and goals for players to achieve. Some may include location descriptions and handouts, although they are not required for gameplay. Although a small adventure entitled "Temple of the Frog" was included in the Blackmoor rules supplement in 1975, the first stand-alone D&D module published by TSR was 1978's Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, written by Gygax.
A linked series of adventures is commonly referred to as a "campaign". The locations where these adventures occur, such as a city, country, planet, or entire fictional universe, are referred to as "campaign settings" or "worlds." D&D settings are based in various fantasy genres and feature different levels and types of magic and technology. Popular commercially published campaign settings for Dungeons & Dragons include Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Mystara, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Planescape, Birthright, and Eberron.
In addition to first-party campaigns and modules, two campaigns based on popular culture have been created. The first, based on Stranger Things, was released in May 2019. A campaign based on the Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons and Dragons comic book series was later released in November 2019.
Alternatively, DMs may develop their own fictional worlds to use as campaign settings, either planning the adventure ahead or expanding on it as the players progress.
The wargames from which Dungeons & Dragons evolved used miniature figures to represent combatants. D&D initially continued the use of miniatures in a fashion similar to its direct precursors. The original D&D set of 1974 required the use of the Chainmail miniatures game for combat resolution. By the publication of the 1977 game editions, combat was mostly resolved verbally. Thus, miniatures were no longer required for game play, although some players continued to use them as a visual reference.
In the 1970s, numerous companies began to sell miniature figures specifically for Dungeons & Dragons and similar games. Licensed miniature manufacturers who produced official figures include Grenadier Miniatures (1980–1983), Citadel Miniatures (1984–1986), Ral Partha, and TSR itself. Most of these miniatures used the 25 mm scale.
Periodically, Dungeons & Dragons has returned to its wargaming roots with supplementary rules systems for miniatures-based wargaming. Supplements such as Battlesystem (1985 and 1989) and a new edition of Chainmail (2001) provided rule systems to handle battles between armies by using miniatures.
An immediate predecessor of Dungeons & Dragons was a set of medieval miniature rules written by Jeff Perren. These were expanded by Gary Gygax, whose additions included a fantasy supplement, before the game was published as Chainmail. When Dave Wesely entered the Army in 1970, his friend and fellow Napoleonics wargamer Dave Arneson began a medieval variation of Wesely's Braunstein games, where players control individuals instead of armies. Arneson used Chainmail to resolve combat. As play progressed, Arneson added such innovations as character classes, experience points, level advancement, armor class, and others. Having partnered previously with Gygax on Don't Give Up the Ship!, Arneson introduced Gygax to his Blackmoor game and the two then collaborated on developing "The Fantasy Game", the game that became Dungeons & Dragons, with the final writing and preparation of the text being done by Gygax. The name was chosen by Gygax's two-year-old daughter Cindy; upon being presented with a number of choices of possible names, she exclaimed, "Oh Daddy, I like Dungeons & Dragons best!", although less prevalent versions of the story gave credit to his then wife Mary Jo.
Many Dungeons & Dragons elements appear in hobbies of the mid-to-late 20th century. For example, character-based role playing can be seen in improvisational theater. Game-world simulations were well developed in wargaming. Fantasy milieux specifically designed for gaming could be seen in Glorantha's board games, among others. Ultimately, however, Dungeons & Dragons represents a unique blending of these elements.
The world of D&D was influenced by world mythology, history, pulp fiction, and contemporary fantasy novels. The importance of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as an influence on D&D is controversial. The presence in the game of halflings, elves, half-elves, dwarves, orcs, rangers, and the like, as well as the convention of diverse adventurers forming a group, draw comparisons to these works. The resemblance was even closer before the threat of copyright action from Tolkien Enterprises prompted the name changes of hobbit to 'halfling', ent to 'treant', and balrog to 'balor'. For many years, Gygax played down the influence of Tolkien on the development of the game. However, in an interview in 2000, he acknowledged that Tolkien's work had a "strong impact" though he also said that the list of other influential authors was long.
The D&D magic system, in which wizards memorize spells that are used up once cast and must be re-memorized the next day, was heavily influenced by the Dying Earth stories and novels of Jack Vance. The original alignment system (which grouped all characters and creatures into 'Law', 'Neutrality' and 'Chaos') was derived from the novel Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson. A troll described in this work influenced the D&D definition of that monster.
Other influences include the works of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt, Roger Zelazny, and Michael Moorcock. Monsters, spells, and magic items used in the game have been inspired by hundreds of individual works such as A. E. van Vogt's "Black Destroyer", Coeurl (the Displacer Beast), Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" (vorpal sword) and the Book of Genesis (the clerical spell 'Blade Barrier' was inspired by the "flaming sword which turned every way" at the gates of Eden).
Dungeons & Dragons has gone through several revisions. Parallel versions and inconsistent naming practices can make it difficult to distinguish between the different editions.
The original Dungeons & Dragons, now referred to as OD&D, was a small box set of three booklets published in 1974. With a very limited production budget of only $2000—with only $100 budgeted for artwork—it was amateurish in production and assumed the player was familiar with wargaming. Nevertheless, it grew rapidly in popularity, first among wargamers and then expanding to a more general audience of college and high school students. Roughly 1,000 copies of the game were sold in the first year followed by 3,000 in 1975, and many more in the following years. This first set went through many printings and was supplemented with several official additions, such as the original Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements (both 1975), as well as magazine articles in TSR's official publications and many fanzines.
In early 1977, TSR created the first element of a two-pronged strategy that would divide D&D for nearly two decades. A Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set boxed edition was introduced that cleaned up the presentation of the essential rules, made the system understandable to the general public, and was sold in a package that could be stocked in toy stores. Later in 1977, the first part of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) was published, which brought together the various published rules, options and corrections, then expanded them into a definitive, unified game for hobbyist gamers. TSR marketed them as an introductory game for new players and a more complex game for experienced ones; the Basic Set directed players who exhausted the possibilities of that game to switch to the advanced rules.
As a result of this parallel development, the basic game included many rules and concepts which contradicted comparable ones in AD&D. John Eric Holmes, the editor of the basic game, preferred a lighter tone with more room for personal improvisation. AD&D, on the other hand, was designed to create a tighter, more structured game system than the loose framework of the original game. Between 1977 and 1979, three hardcover rulebooks, commonly referred to as the "core rulebooks", were released: the Player's Handbook (PHB), the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG), and the Monster Manual (MM). Several supplementary books were published throughout the 1980s, notably Unearthed Arcana (1985) that included a large number of new rules. Confusing matters further, the original D&D boxed set remained in publication until 1979, since it remained a healthy seller for TSR.
In the 1980s, the rules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and "basic" Dungeons & Dragons remained separate, each developing along different paths.
In 1981, the basic version of Dungeons & Dragons was revised by Tom Moldvay to make it even more novice-friendly. It was promoted as a continuation of the original D&D tone, whereas AD&D was promoted as advancement of the mechanics. An accompanying Expert Set, originally written by David "Zeb" Cook, allowed players to continue using the simpler ruleset beyond the early levels of play. In 1983, revisions of those sets by Frank Mentzer were released, revising the presentation of the rules to a more tutorial format. These were followed by Companion (1983), Master (1985), and Immortals (1986) sets. Each set covered game play for more powerful characters than the previous. The first four sets were compiled in 1991 as a single hardcover book, the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia, which was released alongside a new introductory boxed set.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition was published in 1989, again as three core rulebooks; the primary designer was David "Zeb" Cook. The Monster Manual was replaced by the Monstrous Compendium, a loose-leaf binder that was subsequently replaced by the hardcover Monstrous Manual in 1993. In 1995, the core rulebooks were slightly revised, although still referred to by TSR as the 2nd Edition, and a series of Player's Option manuals were released as optional rulebooks.
The release of AD&D 2nd Edition deliberately excluded some aspects of the game that had attracted negative publicity. References to demons and devils, sexually suggestive artwork, and playable, evil-aligned character types – such as assassins and half-orcs – were removed. The edition moved away from a theme of 1960s and 1970s "sword and sorcery" fantasy fiction to a mixture of medieval history and mythology. The rules underwent minor changes, including the addition of non-weapon proficiencies – skill-like abilities that originally appeared in 1st Edition supplements. The game's magic spells were divided into schools and spheres. A major difference was the promotion of various game settings beyond that of traditional fantasy. This included blending fantasy with other genres, such as horror (Ravenloft), science fiction (Spelljammer), and apocalyptic (Dark Sun), as well as alternative historical and non-European mythological settings.
In 1997, a near-bankrupt TSR was purchased by Wizards of the Coast. Following three years of development, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition was released in 2000. The new release folded the Basic and Advanced lines back into a single unified game. It was the largest revision of the D&D rules to date and served as the basis for a multi-genre role-playing system designed around 20-sided dice, called the d20 System. The 3rd Edition rules were designed to be internally consistent and less restrictive than previous editions of the game, allowing players more flexibility to create the characters they wanted to play. Skills and feats were introduced into the core rules to encourage further customization of characters. The new rules standardized the mechanics of action resolution and combat. In 2003, Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5 was released as a revision of the 3rd Edition rules. This release incorporated hundreds of rule changes, mostly minor, and expanded the core rulebooks.
In early 2005, Wizards of the Coast's R&D team started to develop Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, prompted mainly by the feedback obtained from the D&D playing community and a desire to make the game faster, more intuitive, and with a better play experience than under the 3rd Edition. The new game was developed through a number of design phases spanning from May 2005 until its release. Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition was announced at Gen Con in August 2007, and the initial three core books were released June 6, 2008. 4th Edition streamlined the game into a simplified form and introduced numerous rules changes. Many character abilities were restructured into "Powers". These altered the spell-using classes by adding abilities that could be used at will, per encounter, or per day. Likewise, non-magic-using classes were provided with parallel sets of options. Software tools, including player character and monster building programs, became a major part of the game. This edition added the D&D Encounters program; a weekly event held at local stores designed to draw players back to the game by giving "the busy gamer the chance to play D&D once a week as their schedules allow. In the past, D&D games could take months, even years, and players generally had to attend every session so that the story flow wasn't interrupted. With Encounters, players can come and go as they choose and new players can easily be integrated into the story continuity".
On January 9, 2012, Wizards of the Coast announced that it was working on a 5th edition of the game. The company planned to take suggestions from players and let them playtest the rules. Public playtesting began on May 24, 2012. At Gen Con 2012 in August, Mike Mearls, lead developer for 5th Edition, said that Wizards of the Coast had received feedback from more than 75,000 playtesters, but that the entire development process would take two years, adding, "I can't emphasize this enough ... we're very serious about taking the time we need to get this right." The release of the 5th Edition, coinciding with D&D's 40th anniversary, occurred in the second half of 2014.
Since the release of 5th edition, dozens of Dungeons & Dragons books have been published including new rulebooks, campaign guides and adventure modules. 2017 had "the most number of players in its history—12 million to 15 million in North America alone". Mary Pilon, for Bloomberg, reported that sales of 5th edition Dungeon & Dragons "were up 41 percent in 2017 from the year before, and soared another 52 percent in 2018, the game's biggest sales year yet. [...] In 2017, 9 million people watched others play D&D on Twitch, immersing themselves in the world of the game without ever having to pick up a die or cast a spell". In 2018, Wizards of the Coast organized a massive live-stream event, the Stream of Many Eyes, where ten live-streamed sessions of Dungeons & Dragons were performed on Twitch over three days. This event won the Content Marketing Institute's 2019 award for best "In-Person (Event) Content Marketing Strategy". Dungeons & Dragons continued to have a strong presence on Twitch throughout 2019; this included a growing number of celebrity players and dungeon masters, such as Joe Manganiello, Deborah Ann Woll and Stephen Colbert. Wizards of the Coast has created, produced and sponsored multiple web series featuring Dungeons & Dragons. These shows have typically aired on the official Dungeons & Dragons Twitch and YouTube channels.
In 2020, Wizards of the Coast announced that Dungeons & Dragons had its 6th annual year of growth in 2019 with a "300 percent increase in sales of their introductory box sets, as well as a 65% increase on sales in Europe, a rate which has more than quadrupled since 2014". In terms of player demographics in 2019, 39% of identified as female and 61% identified as male. 40% of players are considered Gen Z (24 years old or younger), 34% of players are in the age range of 25–34 and 26% of players are aged 35+. In January 2021, the Los Angeles Times reported that according to Liz Schuh, head of publishing and licensing for Dungeons & Dragons, "revenue was up 35% in 2020 compared with 2019, the seventh consecutive year of growth," and in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, "virtual play rose 86% [...] aided by online platforms such as Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds". Sarah Parvini, for the Los Angeles Times, wrote, "players and scholars attribute the game's resurgent popularity not only to the longueurs of the pandemic, but also to its reemergence in pop culture—on the Netflix series Stranger Things, whose main characters play D&D in a basement; on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory; or via the host of celebrities who display their love for the game online".
Following an apology issued by Wizards of the Coast for offensive and racist material included in Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and the announced revisions to the product in September 2022, Christopher Perkins – Wizards' game design architect – announced a new inclusion review process for the Dungeons & Dragons studio in November 2022. This process will now require "every word, illustration, and map" to be reviewed at several steps in development "by multiple outside cultural consultants prior to publication". The previous process only included cultural consultants at the discretion of the product lead for a project. All products being reprinted will also go through this new review process and be updated as needed.
In September 2021, it was announced that a backwards compatible "evolution" of 5th edition would be released in 2024 to mark the 50th anniversary of the game. In August 2022, Wizards announced that the next phase of major changes for Dungeons & Dragons would occur under the One D&D initiative which includes a public playtest of the next version of Dungeons & Dragons and an upcoming virtual tabletop simulator with 3D environments developed using Unreal Engine. Revised editions of the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide are scheduled to be released in 2024.
In April 2022, Hasbro announced that Wizards would acquire the D&D Beyond digital toolset and game companion from Fandom; the official transfer to Wizards occurred in May 2022. At the Hasbro Investor Event in October 2022, it was announced that Dan Rawson, former COO of Microsoft Dynamics 365, was appointed to the newly created position of Senior Vice President for the Dungeons & Dragons brand; Rawson will act as the new head of the franchise. Dicebreaker highlighted that Rawson's role is "part of Wizards' plans to apply more resources to the digital side of D&D" following the purchase of D&D Beyond by Hasbro earlier in the year. Wizards of the Coast CEO Cynthia Williams and Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, at a December 2022 Hasbro investor-focused web seminar, called the Dungeons & Dragons brand "under monetized". They highlighted the high engagement of fans with the brand, however, the majority of spending is by Dungeon Masters who are only roughly 20% of the player base. Williams commented that the increased investment in digital will "unlock the type of recurrent spending you see in digital games".
Early in the game's history, TSR took no action against small publishers' production of D&D compatible material, and even licensed Judges Guild to produce D&D materials for several years, such as City State of the Invincible Overlord. This attitude changed in the mid-1980s when TSR took legal action to try to prevent others from publishing compatible material. This angered many fans and led to resentment by the other gaming companies. Although TSR took legal action against several publishers in an attempt to restrict third-party usage, it never brought any court cases to completion, instead settling out of court in every instance. TSR itself ran afoul of intellectual property law in several cases.
With the launch of Dungeons & Dragons's 3rd Edition, Wizards of the Coast made the d20 System available under the Open Game License (OGL) and d20 System trademark license. Under these licenses, authors were free to use the d20 System when writing games and game supplements. The OGL has allowed a wide range of unofficial commercial derivative work based on the mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons to be produced since 2000; it is credited with increasing the market share of d20 products and leading to a "boom in the RPG industry in the early 2000s".
With the release of the fourth edition, Wizards of the Coast introduced its Game System License, which represented a significant restriction compared to the very open policies embodied by the OGL. In part as a response to this, some publishers (such as Paizo Publishing with its Pathfinder Roleplaying Game) who previously produced materials in support of the D&D product line, decided to continue supporting the 3rd Edition rules, thereby competing directly with Wizards of the Coast. Others, such as Kenzer & Company, returned to the practice of publishing unlicensed supplements and arguing that copyright law does not allow Wizards of the Coast to restrict third-party usage.
During the 2000s, there has been a trend towards reviving and recreating older editions of D&D, known as the Old School Revival. This in turn inspired the creation of "retro-clones", games which more closely recreate the original rule sets, using material placed under the OGL along with non-copyrightable mechanical aspects of the older rules to create a new presentation of the games.
Alongside the publication of the 5th Edition, Wizards of the Coast established a two-pronged licensing approach. The core of the 5th Edition rules have been made available under the OGL, while publishers and independent creators have also been given the opportunity to create licensed materials directly for Dungeons & Dragons and associated properties like the Forgotten Realms under a program called the DM's Guild. The DM's Guild does not function under the OGL, but uses a community agreement intended to foster liberal cooperation among content creators.
Wizards of the Coast has started to release 5th Edition products that tie into other intellectual properties—such as Magic: The Gathering with the Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica (2018) and Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020) source books. Two 5th Edition starter box sets based on TV shows, Stranger Things and Rick and Morty, were released in 2019. Source books based on Dungeons & Dragons live play series have also been released: Acquisitions Incorporated (2019) and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020).
Between November and December 2022, there was reported speculation that Wizards was planning on discontinuing the OGL for Dungeons & Dragons based on unconfirmed leaks. In response to the speculation, Wizards stated in November 2022: "We will continue to support the thousands of creators making third-party D&D content with the release of One D&D in 2024." Limited details on the update to the OGL, including the addition of revenue reporting and required royalties, were released by Wizards in December 2022. Linda Codega, for Io9 in January 2023, reported on the details from a leaked full copy of the OGL 1.1 including updated terms such as no longer authorizing use of the OGL1.0. Codega highlighted that "if the original license is in fact no longer viable, every single licensed publisher will be affected by the new agreement. [...] The main takeaway from the leaked OGL 1.1 draft document is that WotC is keeping power close at hand". A week after the leak, Wizards issued a response which walked back several changes to the OGL; this response did not contain the updated OGL. The Motley Fool highlighted that "Hasbro pulled an abrupt volte-face and had its subsidiary D&D Beyond publish a mea culpa on its website". On January 27, 2023, following feedback received during the open comment period for the draft OGL1.2, Wizards of the Coast announced that the System Reference Document 5.1 (SRD 5.1) would be released under an irrevocable Creative Commons license (CC-BY-4.0) effective immediately and Wizards would no longer pursue deauthorizing the OGL1.0a.
Eric Goldberg reviewed Dungeons & Dragons in Ares Magazine #1 (March 1980), rating it a 6 out of 9, and commented that "Dungeons and Dragons is an impressive achievement based on the concept alone, and also must be credited with cementing the marriage between the fantasy genre and gaming." Eric Goldberg again reviewed Dungeons & Dragons in Ares Magazine #3 and commented that "D&D is the FRP game played most often in most places." In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames, game designer Jon Freeman asked, "What can be said about a phenomenon? Aside from Tactics II and possibly PanzerBlitz (the first modern tactical wargame), this is the most significant war game since H.G. Wells." However, Freeman did have significant issues with the game, pointing out, "On the other hand, beginning characters are without exception dull, virtually powerless, and so fragile" which was not encouraging for "newcomers." He also called the magic system "stupid" feeling that many of the spells were "redundant" and "the effects of the majority are hopelessly vague." He found essential elements such as saving throws, hit points, and experience points "undefined or poorly explained; the ratio of substance to "holes" compares unfavorably with the head of a tennis racquet." He also noted the rules were "presented in the most illiterate display of poor grammar, misspellings, and typographical errors in professional wargaming." Despite all these issues, Freeman concluded "As it was given birth, it is fascinating but misshapen; in its best incarnations, it's perhaps the most exciting and attractive specimen alive."
The game had more than three million players around the world by 1981, and copies of the rules were selling at a rate of about 750,000 per year by 1984. Beginning with a French language edition in 1982, Dungeons & Dragons has been translated into many languages beyond the original English. By 1992, the game had been translated into 14 languages and sold over 2 million copies in 44 countries worldwide. By 2004, consumers had spent more than $1 billion on Dungeons & Dragons products and the game had been played by more than 20 million people. As many as six million people played the game in 2007.
David M. Ewalt, in his book Of Dice and Men (2013), praised that the game allows for a personal fantastical experience and stated that "even though it's make-believe, the catharsis is real." Scott Taylor for Black Gate in 2013 rated Dungeons & Dragons as #1 in the top ten role-playing games of all time, saying "The grand-daddy of all games, D&D just keeps on going, and although there might always be 'edition wars' between players, that just says that it effectively stays within the consciousness of multiple generations of players as a relevant piece of entertainment."
Later editions would lead to inevitable comparisons between the game series. Griffin McElroy, for Polygon in 2014, wrote: "The game has shifted in the past four decades, bouncing between different rules sets, philosophies and methods of play. Role-playing, character customization and real-life improvisational storytelling has always been at the game's core, but how those ideas are interpreted by the game system has changed drastically edition-to-edition". Dieter Bohn, for The Verge in 2014, wrote: "Every few years there's been a new version of D&D that tries to address the shortcomings of the previous version and also make itself more palatable to its age. [...] The third edition got a reputation (which it didn't necessarily deserve) for being too complex and rules-focused. The fourth edition got a reputation (which it didn't necessarily deserve) for being too focused on miniatures and grids, too mechanical. Meanwhile, the company that owns D&D had released a bunch of its old material for free as a service to fans, and some of that was built up into a competing game called Pathfinder. Pathfinder ultimately became more popular, by some metrics, than D&D itself". Bohn highlighted that the 5th Edition was "designed for one purpose: to bring D&D back to its roots and win back everybody who left during the edition wars". Henry Glasheen, for SLUG Magazine in 2015, highlighted that after jumping ship during the 4th Edition era he was drawn back to Dungeons & Dragons with 5th Edition and he considers it "the new gold standard for D20-based tabletop RPGs". Glasheen wrote "Fifth Edition is a compelling reason to get excited about D&D again" and "while some will welcome the simplicity, I fully expect that plenty of people will stick to whatever system suits them best. However, this edition is easily my favorite, ranking even higher than D&D 3.5, my first love in D&D".
Curtis D. Carbonell, in the 2019 book Dread Trident: Tabletop Role-Playing Games and the Modern Fantastic, wrote: "Negative association with earlier niche 'nerd' culture have reversed. 5e has become inclusive in its reach of players, after years of focusing on a white, male demographic. [...] At its simplest, the game system now encourages different types of persons to form a party not just to combat evil [...] but to engage in any number of adventure scenarios". Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com in 2022, highlighted the continuing fan debate on Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder's current editions which centers on Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition's market dominance. Hoffer wrote, "the reality is that Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition is likely the most popular tabletop roleplaying game ever made, even more so than previous editions of the games. 5E has brought millions of new players to tabletop roleplaying games. Many of those newer players have never heard of other roleplaying games, even popular ones like Vampire: The Masquerade or Cyberpunk or Pathfinder. [...] Many content creators and publishers see 5E as their main path to survival and relevance even if it's not their preferred gaming system". In December 2023, James Whitbrook of Gizmodo highlighted "D&D's continued social influence" with the release of related media such as the film Honor Among Thieves, the Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures FAST channel, and the video game Baldur's Gate 3 with the video game's "blockbuster success" credited "for a 40% increase in Wizards of the Coast's earnings over 2022". However, Whitbrook opined that not even these successes "could save Dungeons & Dragons from the greed of its owners" with the OGL controversy and major layoffs by Hasbro bookending "what should've been one of the greatest years for Dungeons & Dragons the game has ever seen—more popular than ever, more accessible than ever, more culturally relevant than ever—and in doing so transformed it into a golden era sullied with dark marks, overshadowed by grim caveats, a reflection that those with the most power in these spaces never really take the lessons they espoused to learn from their mistakes".
The various editions of Dungeons & Dragons have won many Origins Awards, including All Time Best Roleplaying Rules of 1977, Best Roleplaying Rules of 1989, Best Roleplaying Game of 2000 and Best Role Playing Game and Best Role Playing Supplement of 2014 for the flagship editions of the game. Both Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons are Origins Hall of Fame Games inductees as they were deemed sufficiently distinct to merit separate inclusion on different occasions. The independent Games magazine placed Dungeons & Dragons on their Games 100 list from 1980 through 1983, then entered the game into the magazine's Hall of Fame in 1984. Games magazine included Dungeons & Dragons in their "Top 100 Games of 1980", saying "The more players, the merrier." Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was ranked 2nd in the 1996 reader poll of Arcane magazine to determine the 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time. Dungeons & Dragons was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2016 and into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2017.
Dungeons & Dragons was the first modern role-playing game and it established many of the conventions that have dominated the genre. Particularly notable are the use of dice as a game mechanic, character record sheets, use of numerical attributes, and gamemaster-centered group dynamics. Within months of Dungeons & Dragons's release, new role-playing game writers and publishers began releasing their own role-playing games, with most of these being in the fantasy genre. Some of the earliest other role-playing games inspired by D&D include Tunnels & Trolls (1975), Empire of the Petal Throne (1975), and Chivalry & Sorcery (1976). The game's commercial success was a factor that led to lawsuits regarding distribution of royalties between original creators Gygax and Arneson. Gygax later became embroiled in a political struggle for control of TSR which culminated in a court battle and Gygax's decision to sell his ownership interest in the company in 1985.
The role-playing movement initiated by D&D would lead to release of the science fiction game Traveller (1977), the fantasy game RuneQuest (1978), and subsequent game systems such as Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu (1981), Champions (1982), GURPS (1986), and Vampire: The Masquerade (1991). Dungeons & Dragons and the games it influenced fed back into the genre's origin – miniatures wargames – with combat strategy games like Warhammer Fantasy Battles. D&D also had a large impact on modern video games.
Director Jon Favreau credits Dungeons & Dragons with giving him "... a really strong background in imagination, storytelling, understanding how to create tone and a sense of balance." ND Stevenson and the crew of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power were strongly influenced by Dungeons & Dragons, with Stevenson calling it basically a D&D campaign, with Adora, Glimmer, and Bow falling into "specific classes in D&D".
At various times in its history, Dungeons & Dragons has received negative publicity, in particular from some Christian groups, for alleged promotion of such practices as devil worship, witchcraft, suicide, and murder, and for the presence of naked breasts in drawings of female humanoids in the original AD&D manuals (mainly monsters such as harpies, succubi, etc.). These controversies led TSR to remove many potentially controversial references and artwork when releasing the 2nd Edition of AD&D. Many of these references, including the use of the names "devils" and "demons", were reintroduced in the 3rd edition. The moral panic over the game led to problems for fans of D&D who faced social ostracism, unfair treatment, and false association with the occult and Satanism, regardless of an individual fan's actual religious affiliation and beliefs. However, the controversy was also beneficial in evoking the Streisand Effect by giving the game widespread notoriety that significantly increased sales in the early 1980s in defiance of the moral panic.
Dungeons & Dragons has been the subject of rumors regarding players having difficulty separating fantasy from reality, even leading to psychotic episodes. The most notable of these was the saga of James Dallas Egbert III, the facts of which were fictionalized in the novel Mazes and Monsters and later made into a TV movie in 1982 starring Tom Hanks. William Dear, the private investigator hired by the Egbert family to find their son when he went missing at college, wrote a book titled The Dungeon Master refuting any connection with D&D and Egbert's personal issues. The game was blamed for some of the actions of Chris Pritchard, who was convicted in 1990 of murdering his stepfather. Research by various psychologists, starting with Armando Simon, has concluded that no harmful effects are related to the playing of D&D. Dungeons & Dragons has also been cited as encouraging people to socialize weekly or biweekly, teaching problem solving skills, which can be beneficial in adult life, and teaching positive moral decisions.
D&D has been compared unfavorably to other role-playing games of its time. Writing for Slate in 2008, Erik Sofge makes unfavorable comparisons between the violent incentives of D&D and the more versatile role-playing experience of GURPS. He claims that "for decades, gamers have argued that since D&D came first, its lame, morally repulsive experience system can be forgiven. But the damage is still being done: New generations of players are introduced to RPGs as little more than a collective fantasy of massacre." This criticism generated backlash from D&D fans. Writing for Ars Technica, Ben Kuchera responded that Sofge had experienced a "small-minded Dungeon Master who only wanted to kill things", and that better game experiences are possible.
In 2020, Polygon reported that "the D&D team announced that it would be making changes to portions of its 5th edition product line that fans have called out for being insensitive". Sebastian Modak, for The Washington Post, reported that the tabletop community has widely approved these changes. Modak wrote that "in its statement addressing mistakes around portrayals of different peoples in the D&D universe, Wizards of the Coast highlighted its recent efforts in bringing in more diverse voices to craft the new D&D source books coming out in 2021. [...] These conversations—around depictions of race and alleged treatment of employees of marginalized backgrounds and identities—have encouraged players to seek out other tabletop roleplaying experiences". Matthew Gault, for Wired, reported positively on the roundtable discussions Wizards of the Coast has hosted with fans and community leaders on diversity and inclusion. However, Gault also highlighted that other efforts, such as revisions to old material and the release of new material, have been less great and at times minimal. Gault wrote, "WotC appears to be trying to change things, but it keeps stumbling, and it's often the fans who pick up the pieces. [...] WotC is trying to make changes, but it often feels like lip service. [...] The loudest voices criticizing D&D right now are doing it out of love. They don't want to see it destroyed, they want it to change with the times". However, in 2022, academic Christopher Ferguson stated that the game "was not associated with greater ethnocentrism (one facet of racism) attitudes" after he conducted a survey study of 308 adults (38.2% non-White, and 17% Dungeons and Dragons players). Ferguson concluded that Wizards of the Coast may be responding to a moral panic similar to that surrounding Satanism in the 1990s.
In January 2023, ICv2 commented that the leaked OGL has several controversial parts including prohibiting "commercial publication for virtual tabletop platforms" and that while it "grants ownership of the OGL works to their creator" it also "gives WotC the perpetual, irrevocable right to use their works in any way it sees fit without payment". In the days following the leak, IGN, Vice, The Guardian, Financial Times CNBC, and many other industry focused outlets reported on negative reactions from both fans and professional content creators. ComicBook.com reported that it had "spoken with over 20 small to mid-sized creators who have said that in-progress projects set to be published under the OGL have been placed on hold due to" the terms in the leak. Many designers had also reported considering switching role-playing game systems entirely. Starburst commented that "historically when the owners of Dungeons and Dragons attempt to restrict what people can do with the game, it leads to a boom in other tabletop roleplaying games. This is happening right now". Both Kobold Press and MCDM Productions announced upcoming new tabletop RPG systems with both stating their respective systems would be open games. Paizo also announced a new Open RPG Creative License (ORC), a system-agnostic license, as a direct response to the reported changes to the OGL. Additional publishers, such as Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, and Rogue Genius Games, will be part of the ORC development process.
Following Wizards' response of walking back changes to the OGL, TheStreet commented that Wizards united its "entire player base" behind the movement "to restore the game's original open gaming license" with players responding "with their wallets"; "subscription service D&D Beyond saw players canceling subscriptions en masse – enough to allegedly cause the website to crash". TheStreet highlighted that in the time it took Wizards to settle on a response "that could quell the ire of its audience, the company's main competitors banded together to fill a need in the industry that D&D was hoping to cement shut". Io9 also highlighted that the movement to boycott D&D Beyond "sent a message to WotC and Hasbro higher-ups. According to multiple sources, these immediate financial consequences were the main thing that forced them to respond"; per sources, there were "'five digits' worth of complaining tickets in the system" for customer service to handle account deletion requests. Io9 reported that Wizards' internal messaging on the response to leak was this was a fan overreaction and "that in a few months, nobody will remember the uproar". Edwin Evans-Thirlwell, for The Washington Post, wrote that "pushback from fans, who criticized WotC's response as far from an apology and a dismissal of their legitimate concerns, led WotC to backpedal further. A second bulletin [on January 18] included more details about the path forward". Evans-Thirlwell highlighted the release of the proposed OGL 1.2 with an open comment period, however, "some say the damage is already done. [...] Whether you view the original OGL as a mystic talisman or smoke-and-mirrors, WotC appears to have committed an irreversible act of self-sabotage in trying to replace it — squandering the prestige accumulated over 20 years in a matter of weeks". Both Io9 and ComicBook.com called the major concessions – releasing the SRD 5.1 under the creative commons and no longer deauthorizing the OGL1.0a – announced by Wizards on January 27, 2023 a "huge victory" for the Dungeons & Dragons community.
D&D's commercial success has led to many other related products, including Dragon and Dungeon magazines, an animated television series, a film series, an official role-playing soundtrack, novels, both ongoing and limited series licensed comics, and numerous computer and video games. Hobby and toy stores sell dice, miniatures, adventures, and other game aids related to D&D and its game offspring.
In November 2023, Hasbro's Entertainment One launched the Dungeons & Dragons Adventures FAST channel, available on platforms such as Amazon Freevee and Plex, which features new actual play web series, reruns of the animated Dungeons & Dragons series, and reruns of other Dungeons & Dragons web series.
D&D grew in popularity through the late 1970s and 1980s. Numerous games, films, and cultural references based on D&D or D&D-like fantasies, characters or adventures have been ubiquitous since the end of the 1970s. D&D players are (sometimes pejoratively) portrayed as the epitome of geekdom, and have become the basis of much geek and gamer humor and satire. Since the release of 5th edition, the popularity of actual play web series and podcasts such as Critical Role, Dimension 20, and The Adventure Zone, among many others, have experienced a growth in viewership and popularity. According to Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, viewers on Twitch and YouTube spent over 150 million hours watching D&D gameplay in 2020.
Famous D&D players include Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz, professional basketball player Tim Duncan, comedian Stephen Colbert, and actors Vin Diesel and Robin Williams. D&D and its fans have been the subject of spoof films, including The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.
Unknown author | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dungeons & Dragons (commonly abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, now a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, and also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "D&D departs from traditional wargaming by allowing each player to create their own character to play instead of a military formation. These characters embark upon adventures within a fantasy setting. A Dungeon Master (DM) serves as referee and storyteller for the game, while maintaining the setting in which the adventures occur, and playing the role of the inhabitants of the game world, known as non-player characters (NPCs). The characters form a party and they interact with the setting's inhabitants and each other. Together they solve problems, engage in battles, explore, and gather treasure and knowledge. In the process, player characters earn experience points (XP) to level up, and become increasingly powerful over a series of separate gaming sessions. Players choose a class when they create their character, which gives them special perks and abilities every few levels.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The early success of D&D led to a proliferation of similar game systems. Despite the competition, D&D has remained the market leader in the role-playing game industry. In 1977, the game was split into two branches: the relatively rules-light game system of basic Dungeons & Dragons, and the more structured, rules-heavy game system of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as AD&D). AD&D 2nd Edition was published in 1989. In 2000, a new system was released as D&D 3rd edition, continuing the edition numbering from AD&D; a revised version 3.5 was released in June 2003. These 3rd edition rules formed the basis of the d20 System, which is available under the Open Game License (OGL) for use by other publishers. D&D 4th edition was released in June 2008. The 5th edition of D&D, the most recent, was released during the second half of 2014.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In 2004, D&D remained the best-known, and best-selling, role-playing game in the US, with an estimated 20 million people having played the game and more than US$1 billion in book and equipment sales worldwide. The year 2017 had \"the most number of players in its history—12 million to 15 million in North America alone\". D&D 5th edition sales \"were up 41 percent in 2017 from the year before, and soared another 52 percent in 2018, the game's biggest sales year yet\". The game has been supplemented by many premade adventures, as well as commercial campaign settings suitable for use by regular gaming groups. D&D is known beyond the game itself for other D&D-branded products, references in popular culture, and some of the controversies that have surrounded it, particularly a moral panic in the 1980s, which attempted to associate it with Satanism and suicide. The game has won multiple awards and has been translated into many languages.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Dungeons & Dragons is a structured yet open-ended role-playing game. It is normally played indoors with the participants seated around a tabletop. Typically, one player takes on the role of Dungeon Master (DM) while the others each control a single character, representing an individual in a fictional setting. When working together as a group, the player characters (PCs) are often described as a \"party\" of adventurers, with each member often having their own area of specialty that contributes to the success of the group as a whole. During the course of play, each player directs the actions of their character and their interactions with other characters in the game. This activity is performed through the verbal impersonation of the characters by the players, while employing a variety of social and other useful cognitive skills, such as logic, basic mathematics and imagination. A game often continues over a series of meetings to complete a single adventure, and longer into a series of related gaming adventures, called a \"campaign\".",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The results of the party's choices and the overall story line for the game are determined by the DM according to the rules of the game and the DM's interpretation of those rules. The DM selects and describes the various non-player characters (NPCs) that the party encounters, the settings in which these interactions occur, and the outcomes of those encounters based on the players' choices and actions. Encounters often take the form of battles with \"monsters\" – a generic term used in D&D to describe potentially hostile beings such as animals, aberrant beings, or mythical creatures. In addition to jewels and gold coins, magic items form part of the treasure that the players often seek in a dungeon. Magic items are generally found in treasure hoards, or recovered from fallen opponents; sometimes, a powerful or important magic item is the object of a quest. The game's extensive rules – which cover diverse subjects such as social interactions, magic use, combat, and the effect of the environment on PCs – help the DM to make these decisions. The DM may choose to deviate from the published rules or make up new ones if they feel it is necessary.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The most recent versions of the game's rules are detailed in three Fifth Edition core rulebooks: The Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The only items required to play the game are the rulebooks, a character sheet for each player, and a number of polyhedral dice. Many players also use miniature figures on a grid map as a visual aid if desired, particularly during combat. Some editions of the game presume such usage. Many optional accessories are available to enhance the game, such as expansion rulebooks, pre-designed adventures and various campaign settings.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Before the game begins, each player creates their player character and records the details (described below) on a character sheet. First, a player determines their character's ability scores, which consist of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each edition of the game has offered differing methods of determining these scores. The player then chooses a race (species), a character class (such as a fighter, rogue, or wizard), an alignment (a moral and ethical outlook), and other features to round out the character's abilities and backstory, which have varied in nature through differing editions.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "During the game, players describe their PCs' intended actions to the DM, who then describes the result or response. Trivial actions, such as picking up a letter or opening an unlocked door, are usually automatically successful. The outcomes of more complex or risky actions, such as scaling a cliff or picking a lock, are determined by rolling dice. Different polyhedral dice are used for different actions, such as a twenty-sided die to see whether a hit was made in combat but an eight-sided die to determine how much damage was dealt. Factors contributing to the outcome include the character's ability scores, skills, and the difficulty of the task. In circumstances where a character is attempting to avoid a negative outcome, such as when dodging a trap or resisting the effect of a spell, a saving throw can be used to determine whether the resulting effect is reduced or avoided. In this case the odds of success are influenced by the character's class, levels and ability scores. In circumstances where a character is attempting to complete a task such as picking a lock, deactivating a trap, or pushing a boulder, a Difficulty Class must be hit or exceeded. Relevant ability bonuses are added to help players succeed.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "As the game is played, each PC changes over time and generally increases in capability. Characters gain (or sometimes lose) experience, skills and wealth, and may even alter their alignment or gain additional character classes. The key way characters progress is by earning experience points (XP), which happens when they defeat an enemy or accomplish a difficult task. Acquiring enough XP allows a PC to advance a level, which grants the character improved class features, abilities and skills. XP can be lost in some circumstances, such as encounters with creatures that drain life energy, or by use of certain magical powers that come with an XP cost.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Hit points (HP) are a measure of a character's vitality and health and are determined by the class, level and Constitution of each character. They can be temporarily lost when a character sustains wounds in combat or otherwise comes to harm, and loss of HP is the most common way for a character to die in the game. Death can also result from the loss of key ability scores or character levels. When a PC dies, it is often possible for the dead character to be resurrected through magic, although some penalties may be imposed as a result. If resurrection is not possible or not desired, the player may instead create a new PC to resume playing the game.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "A typical Dungeons & Dragons game consists of an \"adventure\", which is roughly equivalent to a single story or quest. The DM can either design an original adventure or follow one of the many premade adventures (also known as \"modules\") that have been published throughout the history of Dungeons & Dragons. Published adventures typically include a background story, illustrations, maps, and goals for players to achieve. Some may include location descriptions and handouts, although they are not required for gameplay. Although a small adventure entitled \"Temple of the Frog\" was included in the Blackmoor rules supplement in 1975, the first stand-alone D&D module published by TSR was 1978's Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, written by Gygax.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "A linked series of adventures is commonly referred to as a \"campaign\". The locations where these adventures occur, such as a city, country, planet, or entire fictional universe, are referred to as \"campaign settings\" or \"worlds.\" D&D settings are based in various fantasy genres and feature different levels and types of magic and technology. Popular commercially published campaign settings for Dungeons & Dragons include Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Mystara, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Planescape, Birthright, and Eberron.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In addition to first-party campaigns and modules, two campaigns based on popular culture have been created. The first, based on Stranger Things, was released in May 2019. A campaign based on the Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons and Dragons comic book series was later released in November 2019.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Alternatively, DMs may develop their own fictional worlds to use as campaign settings, either planning the adventure ahead or expanding on it as the players progress.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The wargames from which Dungeons & Dragons evolved used miniature figures to represent combatants. D&D initially continued the use of miniatures in a fashion similar to its direct precursors. The original D&D set of 1974 required the use of the Chainmail miniatures game for combat resolution. By the publication of the 1977 game editions, combat was mostly resolved verbally. Thus, miniatures were no longer required for game play, although some players continued to use them as a visual reference.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In the 1970s, numerous companies began to sell miniature figures specifically for Dungeons & Dragons and similar games. Licensed miniature manufacturers who produced official figures include Grenadier Miniatures (1980–1983), Citadel Miniatures (1984–1986), Ral Partha, and TSR itself. Most of these miniatures used the 25 mm scale.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Periodically, Dungeons & Dragons has returned to its wargaming roots with supplementary rules systems for miniatures-based wargaming. Supplements such as Battlesystem (1985 and 1989) and a new edition of Chainmail (2001) provided rule systems to handle battles between armies by using miniatures.",
"title": "Play overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "An immediate predecessor of Dungeons & Dragons was a set of medieval miniature rules written by Jeff Perren. These were expanded by Gary Gygax, whose additions included a fantasy supplement, before the game was published as Chainmail. When Dave Wesely entered the Army in 1970, his friend and fellow Napoleonics wargamer Dave Arneson began a medieval variation of Wesely's Braunstein games, where players control individuals instead of armies. Arneson used Chainmail to resolve combat. As play progressed, Arneson added such innovations as character classes, experience points, level advancement, armor class, and others. Having partnered previously with Gygax on Don't Give Up the Ship!, Arneson introduced Gygax to his Blackmoor game and the two then collaborated on developing \"The Fantasy Game\", the game that became Dungeons & Dragons, with the final writing and preparation of the text being done by Gygax. The name was chosen by Gygax's two-year-old daughter Cindy; upon being presented with a number of choices of possible names, she exclaimed, \"Oh Daddy, I like Dungeons & Dragons best!\", although less prevalent versions of the story gave credit to his then wife Mary Jo.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Many Dungeons & Dragons elements appear in hobbies of the mid-to-late 20th century. For example, character-based role playing can be seen in improvisational theater. Game-world simulations were well developed in wargaming. Fantasy milieux specifically designed for gaming could be seen in Glorantha's board games, among others. Ultimately, however, Dungeons & Dragons represents a unique blending of these elements.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The world of D&D was influenced by world mythology, history, pulp fiction, and contemporary fantasy novels. The importance of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as an influence on D&D is controversial. The presence in the game of halflings, elves, half-elves, dwarves, orcs, rangers, and the like, as well as the convention of diverse adventurers forming a group, draw comparisons to these works. The resemblance was even closer before the threat of copyright action from Tolkien Enterprises prompted the name changes of hobbit to 'halfling', ent to 'treant', and balrog to 'balor'. For many years, Gygax played down the influence of Tolkien on the development of the game. However, in an interview in 2000, he acknowledged that Tolkien's work had a \"strong impact\" though he also said that the list of other influential authors was long.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The D&D magic system, in which wizards memorize spells that are used up once cast and must be re-memorized the next day, was heavily influenced by the Dying Earth stories and novels of Jack Vance. The original alignment system (which grouped all characters and creatures into 'Law', 'Neutrality' and 'Chaos') was derived from the novel Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson. A troll described in this work influenced the D&D definition of that monster.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Other influences include the works of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt, Roger Zelazny, and Michael Moorcock. Monsters, spells, and magic items used in the game have been inspired by hundreds of individual works such as A. E. van Vogt's \"Black Destroyer\", Coeurl (the Displacer Beast), Lewis Carroll's \"Jabberwocky\" (vorpal sword) and the Book of Genesis (the clerical spell 'Blade Barrier' was inspired by the \"flaming sword which turned every way\" at the gates of Eden).",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Dungeons & Dragons has gone through several revisions. Parallel versions and inconsistent naming practices can make it difficult to distinguish between the different editions.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The original Dungeons & Dragons, now referred to as OD&D, was a small box set of three booklets published in 1974. With a very limited production budget of only $2000—with only $100 budgeted for artwork—it was amateurish in production and assumed the player was familiar with wargaming. Nevertheless, it grew rapidly in popularity, first among wargamers and then expanding to a more general audience of college and high school students. Roughly 1,000 copies of the game were sold in the first year followed by 3,000 in 1975, and many more in the following years. This first set went through many printings and was supplemented with several official additions, such as the original Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements (both 1975), as well as magazine articles in TSR's official publications and many fanzines.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In early 1977, TSR created the first element of a two-pronged strategy that would divide D&D for nearly two decades. A Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set boxed edition was introduced that cleaned up the presentation of the essential rules, made the system understandable to the general public, and was sold in a package that could be stocked in toy stores. Later in 1977, the first part of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) was published, which brought together the various published rules, options and corrections, then expanded them into a definitive, unified game for hobbyist gamers. TSR marketed them as an introductory game for new players and a more complex game for experienced ones; the Basic Set directed players who exhausted the possibilities of that game to switch to the advanced rules.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "As a result of this parallel development, the basic game included many rules and concepts which contradicted comparable ones in AD&D. John Eric Holmes, the editor of the basic game, preferred a lighter tone with more room for personal improvisation. AD&D, on the other hand, was designed to create a tighter, more structured game system than the loose framework of the original game. Between 1977 and 1979, three hardcover rulebooks, commonly referred to as the \"core rulebooks\", were released: the Player's Handbook (PHB), the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG), and the Monster Manual (MM). Several supplementary books were published throughout the 1980s, notably Unearthed Arcana (1985) that included a large number of new rules. Confusing matters further, the original D&D boxed set remained in publication until 1979, since it remained a healthy seller for TSR.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In the 1980s, the rules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and \"basic\" Dungeons & Dragons remained separate, each developing along different paths.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 1981, the basic version of Dungeons & Dragons was revised by Tom Moldvay to make it even more novice-friendly. It was promoted as a continuation of the original D&D tone, whereas AD&D was promoted as advancement of the mechanics. An accompanying Expert Set, originally written by David \"Zeb\" Cook, allowed players to continue using the simpler ruleset beyond the early levels of play. In 1983, revisions of those sets by Frank Mentzer were released, revising the presentation of the rules to a more tutorial format. These were followed by Companion (1983), Master (1985), and Immortals (1986) sets. Each set covered game play for more powerful characters than the previous. The first four sets were compiled in 1991 as a single hardcover book, the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia, which was released alongside a new introductory boxed set.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition was published in 1989, again as three core rulebooks; the primary designer was David \"Zeb\" Cook. The Monster Manual was replaced by the Monstrous Compendium, a loose-leaf binder that was subsequently replaced by the hardcover Monstrous Manual in 1993. In 1995, the core rulebooks were slightly revised, although still referred to by TSR as the 2nd Edition, and a series of Player's Option manuals were released as optional rulebooks.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The release of AD&D 2nd Edition deliberately excluded some aspects of the game that had attracted negative publicity. References to demons and devils, sexually suggestive artwork, and playable, evil-aligned character types – such as assassins and half-orcs – were removed. The edition moved away from a theme of 1960s and 1970s \"sword and sorcery\" fantasy fiction to a mixture of medieval history and mythology. The rules underwent minor changes, including the addition of non-weapon proficiencies – skill-like abilities that originally appeared in 1st Edition supplements. The game's magic spells were divided into schools and spheres. A major difference was the promotion of various game settings beyond that of traditional fantasy. This included blending fantasy with other genres, such as horror (Ravenloft), science fiction (Spelljammer), and apocalyptic (Dark Sun), as well as alternative historical and non-European mythological settings.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In 1997, a near-bankrupt TSR was purchased by Wizards of the Coast. Following three years of development, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition was released in 2000. The new release folded the Basic and Advanced lines back into a single unified game. It was the largest revision of the D&D rules to date and served as the basis for a multi-genre role-playing system designed around 20-sided dice, called the d20 System. The 3rd Edition rules were designed to be internally consistent and less restrictive than previous editions of the game, allowing players more flexibility to create the characters they wanted to play. Skills and feats were introduced into the core rules to encourage further customization of characters. The new rules standardized the mechanics of action resolution and combat. In 2003, Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5 was released as a revision of the 3rd Edition rules. This release incorporated hundreds of rule changes, mostly minor, and expanded the core rulebooks.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In early 2005, Wizards of the Coast's R&D team started to develop Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, prompted mainly by the feedback obtained from the D&D playing community and a desire to make the game faster, more intuitive, and with a better play experience than under the 3rd Edition. The new game was developed through a number of design phases spanning from May 2005 until its release. Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition was announced at Gen Con in August 2007, and the initial three core books were released June 6, 2008. 4th Edition streamlined the game into a simplified form and introduced numerous rules changes. Many character abilities were restructured into \"Powers\". These altered the spell-using classes by adding abilities that could be used at will, per encounter, or per day. Likewise, non-magic-using classes were provided with parallel sets of options. Software tools, including player character and monster building programs, became a major part of the game. This edition added the D&D Encounters program; a weekly event held at local stores designed to draw players back to the game by giving \"the busy gamer the chance to play D&D once a week as their schedules allow. In the past, D&D games could take months, even years, and players generally had to attend every session so that the story flow wasn't interrupted. With Encounters, players can come and go as they choose and new players can easily be integrated into the story continuity\".",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "On January 9, 2012, Wizards of the Coast announced that it was working on a 5th edition of the game. The company planned to take suggestions from players and let them playtest the rules. Public playtesting began on May 24, 2012. At Gen Con 2012 in August, Mike Mearls, lead developer for 5th Edition, said that Wizards of the Coast had received feedback from more than 75,000 playtesters, but that the entire development process would take two years, adding, \"I can't emphasize this enough ... we're very serious about taking the time we need to get this right.\" The release of the 5th Edition, coinciding with D&D's 40th anniversary, occurred in the second half of 2014.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Since the release of 5th edition, dozens of Dungeons & Dragons books have been published including new rulebooks, campaign guides and adventure modules. 2017 had \"the most number of players in its history—12 million to 15 million in North America alone\". Mary Pilon, for Bloomberg, reported that sales of 5th edition Dungeon & Dragons \"were up 41 percent in 2017 from the year before, and soared another 52 percent in 2018, the game's biggest sales year yet. [...] In 2017, 9 million people watched others play D&D on Twitch, immersing themselves in the world of the game without ever having to pick up a die or cast a spell\". In 2018, Wizards of the Coast organized a massive live-stream event, the Stream of Many Eyes, where ten live-streamed sessions of Dungeons & Dragons were performed on Twitch over three days. This event won the Content Marketing Institute's 2019 award for best \"In-Person (Event) Content Marketing Strategy\". Dungeons & Dragons continued to have a strong presence on Twitch throughout 2019; this included a growing number of celebrity players and dungeon masters, such as Joe Manganiello, Deborah Ann Woll and Stephen Colbert. Wizards of the Coast has created, produced and sponsored multiple web series featuring Dungeons & Dragons. These shows have typically aired on the official Dungeons & Dragons Twitch and YouTube channels.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In 2020, Wizards of the Coast announced that Dungeons & Dragons had its 6th annual year of growth in 2019 with a \"300 percent increase in sales of their introductory box sets, as well as a 65% increase on sales in Europe, a rate which has more than quadrupled since 2014\". In terms of player demographics in 2019, 39% of identified as female and 61% identified as male. 40% of players are considered Gen Z (24 years old or younger), 34% of players are in the age range of 25–34 and 26% of players are aged 35+. In January 2021, the Los Angeles Times reported that according to Liz Schuh, head of publishing and licensing for Dungeons & Dragons, \"revenue was up 35% in 2020 compared with 2019, the seventh consecutive year of growth,\" and in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, \"virtual play rose 86% [...] aided by online platforms such as Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds\". Sarah Parvini, for the Los Angeles Times, wrote, \"players and scholars attribute the game's resurgent popularity not only to the longueurs of the pandemic, but also to its reemergence in pop culture—on the Netflix series Stranger Things, whose main characters play D&D in a basement; on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory; or via the host of celebrities who display their love for the game online\".",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Following an apology issued by Wizards of the Coast for offensive and racist material included in Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and the announced revisions to the product in September 2022, Christopher Perkins – Wizards' game design architect – announced a new inclusion review process for the Dungeons & Dragons studio in November 2022. This process will now require \"every word, illustration, and map\" to be reviewed at several steps in development \"by multiple outside cultural consultants prior to publication\". The previous process only included cultural consultants at the discretion of the product lead for a project. All products being reprinted will also go through this new review process and be updated as needed.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In September 2021, it was announced that a backwards compatible \"evolution\" of 5th edition would be released in 2024 to mark the 50th anniversary of the game. In August 2022, Wizards announced that the next phase of major changes for Dungeons & Dragons would occur under the One D&D initiative which includes a public playtest of the next version of Dungeons & Dragons and an upcoming virtual tabletop simulator with 3D environments developed using Unreal Engine. Revised editions of the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide are scheduled to be released in 2024.",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In April 2022, Hasbro announced that Wizards would acquire the D&D Beyond digital toolset and game companion from Fandom; the official transfer to Wizards occurred in May 2022. At the Hasbro Investor Event in October 2022, it was announced that Dan Rawson, former COO of Microsoft Dynamics 365, was appointed to the newly created position of Senior Vice President for the Dungeons & Dragons brand; Rawson will act as the new head of the franchise. Dicebreaker highlighted that Rawson's role is \"part of Wizards' plans to apply more resources to the digital side of D&D\" following the purchase of D&D Beyond by Hasbro earlier in the year. Wizards of the Coast CEO Cynthia Williams and Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, at a December 2022 Hasbro investor-focused web seminar, called the Dungeons & Dragons brand \"under monetized\". They highlighted the high engagement of fans with the brand, however, the majority of spending is by Dungeon Masters who are only roughly 20% of the player base. Williams commented that the increased investment in digital will \"unlock the type of recurrent spending you see in digital games\".",
"title": "Development history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Early in the game's history, TSR took no action against small publishers' production of D&D compatible material, and even licensed Judges Guild to produce D&D materials for several years, such as City State of the Invincible Overlord. This attitude changed in the mid-1980s when TSR took legal action to try to prevent others from publishing compatible material. This angered many fans and led to resentment by the other gaming companies. Although TSR took legal action against several publishers in an attempt to restrict third-party usage, it never brought any court cases to completion, instead settling out of court in every instance. TSR itself ran afoul of intellectual property law in several cases.",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "With the launch of Dungeons & Dragons's 3rd Edition, Wizards of the Coast made the d20 System available under the Open Game License (OGL) and d20 System trademark license. Under these licenses, authors were free to use the d20 System when writing games and game supplements. The OGL has allowed a wide range of unofficial commercial derivative work based on the mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons to be produced since 2000; it is credited with increasing the market share of d20 products and leading to a \"boom in the RPG industry in the early 2000s\".",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "With the release of the fourth edition, Wizards of the Coast introduced its Game System License, which represented a significant restriction compared to the very open policies embodied by the OGL. In part as a response to this, some publishers (such as Paizo Publishing with its Pathfinder Roleplaying Game) who previously produced materials in support of the D&D product line, decided to continue supporting the 3rd Edition rules, thereby competing directly with Wizards of the Coast. Others, such as Kenzer & Company, returned to the practice of publishing unlicensed supplements and arguing that copyright law does not allow Wizards of the Coast to restrict third-party usage.",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "During the 2000s, there has been a trend towards reviving and recreating older editions of D&D, known as the Old School Revival. This in turn inspired the creation of \"retro-clones\", games which more closely recreate the original rule sets, using material placed under the OGL along with non-copyrightable mechanical aspects of the older rules to create a new presentation of the games.",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Alongside the publication of the 5th Edition, Wizards of the Coast established a two-pronged licensing approach. The core of the 5th Edition rules have been made available under the OGL, while publishers and independent creators have also been given the opportunity to create licensed materials directly for Dungeons & Dragons and associated properties like the Forgotten Realms under a program called the DM's Guild. The DM's Guild does not function under the OGL, but uses a community agreement intended to foster liberal cooperation among content creators.",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Wizards of the Coast has started to release 5th Edition products that tie into other intellectual properties—such as Magic: The Gathering with the Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica (2018) and Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020) source books. Two 5th Edition starter box sets based on TV shows, Stranger Things and Rick and Morty, were released in 2019. Source books based on Dungeons & Dragons live play series have also been released: Acquisitions Incorporated (2019) and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020).",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Between November and December 2022, there was reported speculation that Wizards was planning on discontinuing the OGL for Dungeons & Dragons based on unconfirmed leaks. In response to the speculation, Wizards stated in November 2022: \"We will continue to support the thousands of creators making third-party D&D content with the release of One D&D in 2024.\" Limited details on the update to the OGL, including the addition of revenue reporting and required royalties, were released by Wizards in December 2022. Linda Codega, for Io9 in January 2023, reported on the details from a leaked full copy of the OGL 1.1 including updated terms such as no longer authorizing use of the OGL1.0. Codega highlighted that \"if the original license is in fact no longer viable, every single licensed publisher will be affected by the new agreement. [...] The main takeaway from the leaked OGL 1.1 draft document is that WotC is keeping power close at hand\". A week after the leak, Wizards issued a response which walked back several changes to the OGL; this response did not contain the updated OGL. The Motley Fool highlighted that \"Hasbro pulled an abrupt volte-face and had its subsidiary D&D Beyond publish a mea culpa on its website\". On January 27, 2023, following feedback received during the open comment period for the draft OGL1.2, Wizards of the Coast announced that the System Reference Document 5.1 (SRD 5.1) would be released under an irrevocable Creative Commons license (CC-BY-4.0) effective immediately and Wizards would no longer pursue deauthorizing the OGL1.0a.",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Eric Goldberg reviewed Dungeons & Dragons in Ares Magazine #1 (March 1980), rating it a 6 out of 9, and commented that \"Dungeons and Dragons is an impressive achievement based on the concept alone, and also must be credited with cementing the marriage between the fantasy genre and gaming.\" Eric Goldberg again reviewed Dungeons & Dragons in Ares Magazine #3 and commented that \"D&D is the FRP game played most often in most places.\" In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames, game designer Jon Freeman asked, \"What can be said about a phenomenon? Aside from Tactics II and possibly PanzerBlitz (the first modern tactical wargame), this is the most significant war game since H.G. Wells.\" However, Freeman did have significant issues with the game, pointing out, \"On the other hand, beginning characters are without exception dull, virtually powerless, and so fragile\" which was not encouraging for \"newcomers.\" He also called the magic system \"stupid\" feeling that many of the spells were \"redundant\" and \"the effects of the majority are hopelessly vague.\" He found essential elements such as saving throws, hit points, and experience points \"undefined or poorly explained; the ratio of substance to \"holes\" compares unfavorably with the head of a tennis racquet.\" He also noted the rules were \"presented in the most illiterate display of poor grammar, misspellings, and typographical errors in professional wargaming.\" Despite all these issues, Freeman concluded \"As it was given birth, it is fascinating but misshapen; in its best incarnations, it's perhaps the most exciting and attractive specimen alive.\"",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The game had more than three million players around the world by 1981, and copies of the rules were selling at a rate of about 750,000 per year by 1984. Beginning with a French language edition in 1982, Dungeons & Dragons has been translated into many languages beyond the original English. By 1992, the game had been translated into 14 languages and sold over 2 million copies in 44 countries worldwide. By 2004, consumers had spent more than $1 billion on Dungeons & Dragons products and the game had been played by more than 20 million people. As many as six million people played the game in 2007.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "David M. Ewalt, in his book Of Dice and Men (2013), praised that the game allows for a personal fantastical experience and stated that \"even though it's make-believe, the catharsis is real.\" Scott Taylor for Black Gate in 2013 rated Dungeons & Dragons as #1 in the top ten role-playing games of all time, saying \"The grand-daddy of all games, D&D just keeps on going, and although there might always be 'edition wars' between players, that just says that it effectively stays within the consciousness of multiple generations of players as a relevant piece of entertainment.\"",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Later editions would lead to inevitable comparisons between the game series. Griffin McElroy, for Polygon in 2014, wrote: \"The game has shifted in the past four decades, bouncing between different rules sets, philosophies and methods of play. Role-playing, character customization and real-life improvisational storytelling has always been at the game's core, but how those ideas are interpreted by the game system has changed drastically edition-to-edition\". Dieter Bohn, for The Verge in 2014, wrote: \"Every few years there's been a new version of D&D that tries to address the shortcomings of the previous version and also make itself more palatable to its age. [...] The third edition got a reputation (which it didn't necessarily deserve) for being too complex and rules-focused. The fourth edition got a reputation (which it didn't necessarily deserve) for being too focused on miniatures and grids, too mechanical. Meanwhile, the company that owns D&D had released a bunch of its old material for free as a service to fans, and some of that was built up into a competing game called Pathfinder. Pathfinder ultimately became more popular, by some metrics, than D&D itself\". Bohn highlighted that the 5th Edition was \"designed for one purpose: to bring D&D back to its roots and win back everybody who left during the edition wars\". Henry Glasheen, for SLUG Magazine in 2015, highlighted that after jumping ship during the 4th Edition era he was drawn back to Dungeons & Dragons with 5th Edition and he considers it \"the new gold standard for D20-based tabletop RPGs\". Glasheen wrote \"Fifth Edition is a compelling reason to get excited about D&D again\" and \"while some will welcome the simplicity, I fully expect that plenty of people will stick to whatever system suits them best. However, this edition is easily my favorite, ranking even higher than D&D 3.5, my first love in D&D\".",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Curtis D. Carbonell, in the 2019 book Dread Trident: Tabletop Role-Playing Games and the Modern Fantastic, wrote: \"Negative association with earlier niche 'nerd' culture have reversed. 5e has become inclusive in its reach of players, after years of focusing on a white, male demographic. [...] At its simplest, the game system now encourages different types of persons to form a party not just to combat evil [...] but to engage in any number of adventure scenarios\". Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com in 2022, highlighted the continuing fan debate on Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder's current editions which centers on Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition's market dominance. Hoffer wrote, \"the reality is that Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition is likely the most popular tabletop roleplaying game ever made, even more so than previous editions of the games. 5E has brought millions of new players to tabletop roleplaying games. Many of those newer players have never heard of other roleplaying games, even popular ones like Vampire: The Masquerade or Cyberpunk or Pathfinder. [...] Many content creators and publishers see 5E as their main path to survival and relevance even if it's not their preferred gaming system\". In December 2023, James Whitbrook of Gizmodo highlighted \"D&D's continued social influence\" with the release of related media such as the film Honor Among Thieves, the Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures FAST channel, and the video game Baldur's Gate 3 with the video game's \"blockbuster success\" credited \"for a 40% increase in Wizards of the Coast's earnings over 2022\". However, Whitbrook opined that not even these successes \"could save Dungeons & Dragons from the greed of its owners\" with the OGL controversy and major layoffs by Hasbro bookending \"what should've been one of the greatest years for Dungeons & Dragons the game has ever seen—more popular than ever, more accessible than ever, more culturally relevant than ever—and in doing so transformed it into a golden era sullied with dark marks, overshadowed by grim caveats, a reflection that those with the most power in these spaces never really take the lessons they espoused to learn from their mistakes\".",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "The various editions of Dungeons & Dragons have won many Origins Awards, including All Time Best Roleplaying Rules of 1977, Best Roleplaying Rules of 1989, Best Roleplaying Game of 2000 and Best Role Playing Game and Best Role Playing Supplement of 2014 for the flagship editions of the game. Both Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons are Origins Hall of Fame Games inductees as they were deemed sufficiently distinct to merit separate inclusion on different occasions. The independent Games magazine placed Dungeons & Dragons on their Games 100 list from 1980 through 1983, then entered the game into the magazine's Hall of Fame in 1984. Games magazine included Dungeons & Dragons in their \"Top 100 Games of 1980\", saying \"The more players, the merrier.\" Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was ranked 2nd in the 1996 reader poll of Arcane magazine to determine the 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time. Dungeons & Dragons was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2016 and into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2017.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Dungeons & Dragons was the first modern role-playing game and it established many of the conventions that have dominated the genre. Particularly notable are the use of dice as a game mechanic, character record sheets, use of numerical attributes, and gamemaster-centered group dynamics. Within months of Dungeons & Dragons's release, new role-playing game writers and publishers began releasing their own role-playing games, with most of these being in the fantasy genre. Some of the earliest other role-playing games inspired by D&D include Tunnels & Trolls (1975), Empire of the Petal Throne (1975), and Chivalry & Sorcery (1976). The game's commercial success was a factor that led to lawsuits regarding distribution of royalties between original creators Gygax and Arneson. Gygax later became embroiled in a political struggle for control of TSR which culminated in a court battle and Gygax's decision to sell his ownership interest in the company in 1985.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "The role-playing movement initiated by D&D would lead to release of the science fiction game Traveller (1977), the fantasy game RuneQuest (1978), and subsequent game systems such as Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu (1981), Champions (1982), GURPS (1986), and Vampire: The Masquerade (1991). Dungeons & Dragons and the games it influenced fed back into the genre's origin – miniatures wargames – with combat strategy games like Warhammer Fantasy Battles. D&D also had a large impact on modern video games.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Director Jon Favreau credits Dungeons & Dragons with giving him \"... a really strong background in imagination, storytelling, understanding how to create tone and a sense of balance.\" ND Stevenson and the crew of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power were strongly influenced by Dungeons & Dragons, with Stevenson calling it basically a D&D campaign, with Adora, Glimmer, and Bow falling into \"specific classes in D&D\".",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "At various times in its history, Dungeons & Dragons has received negative publicity, in particular from some Christian groups, for alleged promotion of such practices as devil worship, witchcraft, suicide, and murder, and for the presence of naked breasts in drawings of female humanoids in the original AD&D manuals (mainly monsters such as harpies, succubi, etc.). These controversies led TSR to remove many potentially controversial references and artwork when releasing the 2nd Edition of AD&D. Many of these references, including the use of the names \"devils\" and \"demons\", were reintroduced in the 3rd edition. The moral panic over the game led to problems for fans of D&D who faced social ostracism, unfair treatment, and false association with the occult and Satanism, regardless of an individual fan's actual religious affiliation and beliefs. However, the controversy was also beneficial in evoking the Streisand Effect by giving the game widespread notoriety that significantly increased sales in the early 1980s in defiance of the moral panic.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Dungeons & Dragons has been the subject of rumors regarding players having difficulty separating fantasy from reality, even leading to psychotic episodes. The most notable of these was the saga of James Dallas Egbert III, the facts of which were fictionalized in the novel Mazes and Monsters and later made into a TV movie in 1982 starring Tom Hanks. William Dear, the private investigator hired by the Egbert family to find their son when he went missing at college, wrote a book titled The Dungeon Master refuting any connection with D&D and Egbert's personal issues. The game was blamed for some of the actions of Chris Pritchard, who was convicted in 1990 of murdering his stepfather. Research by various psychologists, starting with Armando Simon, has concluded that no harmful effects are related to the playing of D&D. Dungeons & Dragons has also been cited as encouraging people to socialize weekly or biweekly, teaching problem solving skills, which can be beneficial in adult life, and teaching positive moral decisions.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "D&D has been compared unfavorably to other role-playing games of its time. Writing for Slate in 2008, Erik Sofge makes unfavorable comparisons between the violent incentives of D&D and the more versatile role-playing experience of GURPS. He claims that \"for decades, gamers have argued that since D&D came first, its lame, morally repulsive experience system can be forgiven. But the damage is still being done: New generations of players are introduced to RPGs as little more than a collective fantasy of massacre.\" This criticism generated backlash from D&D fans. Writing for Ars Technica, Ben Kuchera responded that Sofge had experienced a \"small-minded Dungeon Master who only wanted to kill things\", and that better game experiences are possible.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "In 2020, Polygon reported that \"the D&D team announced that it would be making changes to portions of its 5th edition product line that fans have called out for being insensitive\". Sebastian Modak, for The Washington Post, reported that the tabletop community has widely approved these changes. Modak wrote that \"in its statement addressing mistakes around portrayals of different peoples in the D&D universe, Wizards of the Coast highlighted its recent efforts in bringing in more diverse voices to craft the new D&D source books coming out in 2021. [...] These conversations—around depictions of race and alleged treatment of employees of marginalized backgrounds and identities—have encouraged players to seek out other tabletop roleplaying experiences\". Matthew Gault, for Wired, reported positively on the roundtable discussions Wizards of the Coast has hosted with fans and community leaders on diversity and inclusion. However, Gault also highlighted that other efforts, such as revisions to old material and the release of new material, have been less great and at times minimal. Gault wrote, \"WotC appears to be trying to change things, but it keeps stumbling, and it's often the fans who pick up the pieces. [...] WotC is trying to make changes, but it often feels like lip service. [...] The loudest voices criticizing D&D right now are doing it out of love. They don't want to see it destroyed, they want it to change with the times\". However, in 2022, academic Christopher Ferguson stated that the game \"was not associated with greater ethnocentrism (one facet of racism) attitudes\" after he conducted a survey study of 308 adults (38.2% non-White, and 17% Dungeons and Dragons players). Ferguson concluded that Wizards of the Coast may be responding to a moral panic similar to that surrounding Satanism in the 1990s.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "In January 2023, ICv2 commented that the leaked OGL has several controversial parts including prohibiting \"commercial publication for virtual tabletop platforms\" and that while it \"grants ownership of the OGL works to their creator\" it also \"gives WotC the perpetual, irrevocable right to use their works in any way it sees fit without payment\". In the days following the leak, IGN, Vice, The Guardian, Financial Times CNBC, and many other industry focused outlets reported on negative reactions from both fans and professional content creators. ComicBook.com reported that it had \"spoken with over 20 small to mid-sized creators who have said that in-progress projects set to be published under the OGL have been placed on hold due to\" the terms in the leak. Many designers had also reported considering switching role-playing game systems entirely. Starburst commented that \"historically when the owners of Dungeons and Dragons attempt to restrict what people can do with the game, it leads to a boom in other tabletop roleplaying games. This is happening right now\". Both Kobold Press and MCDM Productions announced upcoming new tabletop RPG systems with both stating their respective systems would be open games. Paizo also announced a new Open RPG Creative License (ORC), a system-agnostic license, as a direct response to the reported changes to the OGL. Additional publishers, such as Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, and Rogue Genius Games, will be part of the ORC development process.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Following Wizards' response of walking back changes to the OGL, TheStreet commented that Wizards united its \"entire player base\" behind the movement \"to restore the game's original open gaming license\" with players responding \"with their wallets\"; \"subscription service D&D Beyond saw players canceling subscriptions en masse – enough to allegedly cause the website to crash\". TheStreet highlighted that in the time it took Wizards to settle on a response \"that could quell the ire of its audience, the company's main competitors banded together to fill a need in the industry that D&D was hoping to cement shut\". Io9 also highlighted that the movement to boycott D&D Beyond \"sent a message to WotC and Hasbro higher-ups. According to multiple sources, these immediate financial consequences were the main thing that forced them to respond\"; per sources, there were \"'five digits' worth of complaining tickets in the system\" for customer service to handle account deletion requests. Io9 reported that Wizards' internal messaging on the response to leak was this was a fan overreaction and \"that in a few months, nobody will remember the uproar\". Edwin Evans-Thirlwell, for The Washington Post, wrote that \"pushback from fans, who criticized WotC's response as far from an apology and a dismissal of their legitimate concerns, led WotC to backpedal further. A second bulletin [on January 18] included more details about the path forward\". Evans-Thirlwell highlighted the release of the proposed OGL 1.2 with an open comment period, however, \"some say the damage is already done. [...] Whether you view the original OGL as a mystic talisman or smoke-and-mirrors, WotC appears to have committed an irreversible act of self-sabotage in trying to replace it — squandering the prestige accumulated over 20 years in a matter of weeks\". Both Io9 and ComicBook.com called the major concessions – releasing the SRD 5.1 under the creative commons and no longer deauthorizing the OGL1.0a – announced by Wizards on January 27, 2023 a \"huge victory\" for the Dungeons & Dragons community.",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "D&D's commercial success has led to many other related products, including Dragon and Dungeon magazines, an animated television series, a film series, an official role-playing soundtrack, novels, both ongoing and limited series licensed comics, and numerous computer and video games. Hobby and toy stores sell dice, miniatures, adventures, and other game aids related to D&D and its game offspring.",
"title": "Related products"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "In November 2023, Hasbro's Entertainment One launched the Dungeons & Dragons Adventures FAST channel, available on platforms such as Amazon Freevee and Plex, which features new actual play web series, reruns of the animated Dungeons & Dragons series, and reruns of other Dungeons & Dragons web series.",
"title": "Related products"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "D&D grew in popularity through the late 1970s and 1980s. Numerous games, films, and cultural references based on D&D or D&D-like fantasies, characters or adventures have been ubiquitous since the end of the 1970s. D&D players are (sometimes pejoratively) portrayed as the epitome of geekdom, and have become the basis of much geek and gamer humor and satire. Since the release of 5th edition, the popularity of actual play web series and podcasts such as Critical Role, Dimension 20, and The Adventure Zone, among many others, have experienced a growth in viewership and popularity. According to Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, viewers on Twitch and YouTube spent over 150 million hours watching D&D gameplay in 2020.",
"title": "In popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Famous D&D players include Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz, professional basketball player Tim Duncan, comedian Stephen Colbert, and actors Vin Diesel and Robin Williams. D&D and its fans have been the subject of spoof films, including The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.",
"title": "In popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Unknown author",
"title": "Bibliography"
}
] | Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, now a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, and also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre. D&D departs from traditional wargaming by allowing each player to create their own character to play instead of a military formation. These characters embark upon adventures within a fantasy setting. A Dungeon Master (DM) serves as referee and storyteller for the game, while maintaining the setting in which the adventures occur, and playing the role of the inhabitants of the game world, known as non-player characters (NPCs). The characters form a party and they interact with the setting's inhabitants and each other. Together they solve problems, engage in battles, explore, and gather treasure and knowledge. In the process, player characters earn experience points (XP) to level up, and become increasingly powerful over a series of separate gaming sessions. Players choose a class when they create their character, which gives them special perks and abilities every few levels. The early success of D&D led to a proliferation of similar game systems. Despite the competition, D&D has remained the market leader in the role-playing game industry. In 1977, the game was split into two branches: the relatively rules-light game system of basic Dungeons & Dragons, and the more structured, rules-heavy game system of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. AD&D 2nd Edition was published in 1989. In 2000, a new system was released as D&D 3rd edition, continuing the edition numbering from AD&D; a revised version 3.5 was released in June 2003. These 3rd edition rules formed the basis of the d20 System, which is available under the Open Game License (OGL) for use by other publishers. D&D 4th edition was released in June 2008. The 5th edition of D&D, the most recent, was released during the second half of 2014. In 2004, D&D remained the best-known, and best-selling, role-playing game in the US, with an estimated 20 million people having played the game and more than US$1 billion in book and equipment sales worldwide. The year 2017 had "the most number of players in its history—12 million to 15 million in North America alone". D&D 5th edition sales "were up 41 percent in 2017 from the year before, and soared another 52 percent in 2018, the game's biggest sales year yet". The game has been supplemented by many premade adventures, as well as commercial campaign settings suitable for use by regular gaming groups. D&D is known beyond the game itself for other D&D-branded products, references in popular culture, and some of the controversies that have surrounded it, particularly a moral panic in the 1980s, which attempted to associate it with Satanism and suicide. The game has won multiple awards and has been translated into many languages. | 2001-10-04T19:00:36Z | 2023-12-30T15:16:17Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons |
7,941 | Double jeopardy | In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases prosecutorial and/or judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction. Double jeopardy is a common concept in criminal law. In civil law, a similar concept is that of res judicata. Variation in common law countries is the peremptory plea, which may take the specific forms of autrefois acquit ('previously acquitted') or autrefois convict ('previously convicted'). These doctrines appear to have originated in ancient Roman law, in the broader principle non bis in idem ('not twice against the same').
If a double-jeopardy issue is raised, evidence will be placed before the court, which will typically rule as a preliminary matter whether the plea is substantiated; if it is, the projected trial will be prevented from proceeding. In some countries certain exemptions are permitted. In Scotland a new trial can be initiated if, for example, the acquitted has made a credible admission of guilt. Part of English law for over 800 years, it was partially abolished in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 where, following demand for change, serious offences may be re-tried following an acquittal if new and compelling evidence is found, and if the trial is found to be in the public's interest. In some countries, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States, the guarantee against being "twice put in jeopardy" is a constitutional right. In other countries, the protection is afforded by statute.
In common law countries, a defendant may enter a peremptory plea of autrefois acquit ('previously acquitted') or autrefois convict ('previously convicted'), with the same effect.
Double jeopardy is not a principle of international law. It does not apply between different countries, unless having been contractually agreed on between those countries as, for example, in the European Union (Art. 54 Schengen Convention), and in various extradition treaties between two countries.
The 72 signatories and 166 parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognise, under Article 14 (7): "No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of each country." However, it does not apply to prosecutions by two different sovereigns (unless the relevant extradition treaty expresses a prohibition).
All members of the Council of Europe (which includes nearly all European countries and every member of the European Union) have adopted the European Convention on Human Rights. The optional Protocol No. 7 to the convention, Article 4, protects against double jeopardy: "No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again in criminal proceedings under the jurisdiction of the same State for an offence for which he or she has already been finally acquitted or convicted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of that State."
All EU states ratified this optional protocol except for Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. In those member states, national rules governing double jeopardy may or may not comply with the provision cited above.
Member states may, however, implement legislation which allows reopening of a case if new evidence is found or if there was a fundamental defect in the previous proceedings:
The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall not prevent the reopening of the case in accordance with the law and penal procedure of the State concerned, if there is evidence of new or newly discovered facts, or if there has been a fundamental defect in the previous proceedings, which could affect the outcome of the case.
In many European countries, the prosecution may appeal an acquittal to a higher court. This is not regarded as double jeopardy, but as a continuation of the same case. The European Convention on Human Rights permits this by using the phrase "finally acquitted or convicted" as the trigger for prohibiting subsequent prosecution.
In contrast to other common law nations, Australian double jeopardy law has been held to further prevent the prosecution for perjury following a previous acquittal where a finding of perjury would controvert the acquittal. This was confirmed in the case of R v Carroll, where the police found new evidence convincingly disproving Carroll's sworn alibi two decades after he had been acquitted of murder charges in the death of Ipswich child Deidre Kennedy, and successfully prosecuted him for perjury. Public outcry following the overturn of his conviction (for perjury) by the High Court has led to widespread calls for reform of the law along the lines of the England and Wales legislation.
During a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting of 2007, model legislation to rework double jeopardy laws was drafted, but there was no formal agreement for each state to introduce it. All states have now chosen to introduce legislation that mirrors COAG's recommendations on "fresh and compelling" evidence.
In New South Wales, retrials of serious cases with a minimum sentence of 20 years or more are now possible even if the original trial preceded the 2006 reform. On 17 October 2006, the New South Wales Parliament passed legislation abolishing the rule against double jeopardy in cases where:
On 30 July 2008, South Australia also introduced legislation to scrap parts of its double jeopardy law, legalising retrials for serious offences with "fresh and compelling" evidence, or if the acquittal was tainted.
In Western Australia, amendments introduced on 8 September 2011 allow retrial if "new and compelling" evidence is found. It applies to serious offences where the penalty was life imprisonment or imprisonment for 14 years or more. Acquittal because of tainting (witness intimidation, jury tampering, or perjury) also permits retrial.
In Tasmania, on 19 August 2008, amendments were introduced to allow retrial in serious cases if there is "fresh and compelling" evidence.
In Victoria on 21 December 2011, legislation was passed allowing new trials where there is "fresh and compelling DNA evidence, where the person acquitted subsequently admits to the crime, or where it becomes clear that key witnesses have given false evidence". However, retrial applications could only be made for serious offences such as murder, manslaughter, arson causing death, serious drug offences and aggravated forms of rape and armed robbery.
In Queensland on 18 October 2007, the double jeopardy laws were modified to allow a retrial where fresh and compelling evidence becomes available after an acquittal for murder or a "tainted acquittal" for a crime carrying a 25-year or more sentence. A "tainted acquittal" requires a conviction for an administration of justice offence, such as perjury, that led to the original acquittal.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms includes provisions such as section 11(h) prohibiting double jeopardy. However, the prohibition only applies after an accused person has been "finally" convicted or acquitted. Canadian law allows the prosecution to appeal an acquittal based on legal errors. In rare circumstances, when a trial judge made all the factual findings necessary for a finding of guilt but misapplied the law, a court of appeal might also directly substitute an acquittal for a conviction. These cases are not considered double jeopardy because the appeal and the subsequent conviction are deemed to be a continuation of the original trial.
For an appeal from an acquittal to be successful, the Supreme Court of Canada requires the Crown to show that an error in law was made during the trial and that it contributed to the verdict. It has been argued that this test is unfairly beneficial to the prosecution. For instance, in his book My Life in Crime and Other Academic Adventures, Martin Friedland contends that the rule should be changed so that a retrial is granted only when the error is shown to be responsible for the verdict, not just a factor.
Though the Charter permits appeals of acquittals, there are still constitutional limits imposed on the scope of these appeals. In Corp. Professionnelle des Médecins v. Thibault, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of Quebec law that allowed appellate courts to conduct a de novo review of both legal and factual findings. In doing so, it held that the scope of an appeal may not extend to challenging findings of fact where no legal error has been made. At this point, the Court reasoned, the process ceases to be an appeal and instead becomes a new trial disguised as one.
A notable example cited by critics of Canada's appeal system is the case of Guy Paul Morin, who was wrongfully convicted in his second trial after the acquittal in his first trial was vacated by the Supreme Court. Another notable use of the system occurred in the case of child murderer Guy Turcotte, the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the initial verdict of not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder and ordered a second trial after it found that the judge had erroneously instructed the jury. Turcotte was later convicted of second-degree murder in the second trial.
Once all appeals have been exhausted on a case, the judgement is final and the action of the prosecution is closed (code of penal procedure, art. 6), except if the final ruling was forged. Prosecution for a crime already judged is impossible even if incriminating evidence has been found. However, a person who has been convicted may request another trial on the grounds of new exculpating evidence through a procedure known as révision.
French law allows the prosecution to appeal an acquittal.
The Basic Law (Grundgesetz) for the Federal Republic of Germany protects against double jeopardy if a final verdict is pronounced. A verdict is final if nobody appeals against it.
Nobody shall be punished multiple times for the same crime on the basis of general criminal law.
However, each trial party can appeal against a verdict in the first instance. The prosecution or the defendants can appeal against a judgement if they disagree with it. In this case, the trial starts again in the second instance, the court of appeal (Berufungsgericht), which reconsiders the facts and reasons and delivers a final judgement.
If one of the parties disagrees with the second instance's judgement, they can appeal it only for formal judicial reasons. The case will be checked in the third instance (Revisionsgericht), whether all laws are applied correctly.
The rule applies to the whole "historical event, which is usually considered a single historical course of actions the separation of which would seem unnatural". This is true even if new facts occur that indicate other crimes.
The Penal Procedural Code (Strafprozessordnung) permits a retrial (Wiederaufnahmeverfahren), if it is in favour of the defendant or if the following events had happened:
A retrial not in favour of the defendant is permissible after a final judgement,
In the case of an order of summary punishment, which can be issued by the court without a trial for lesser misdemeanours, there is a further exception:
A retrial not in favour of the defendant is also permissible if the defendant has been convicted in a final order of summary punishment and new facts or evidence have been brought forward, which establish grounds for a conviction of a felony by themselves or in combination with earlier evidence.
In Germany, a felony is defined by § 12 (1) StGB as a crime that has a minimum of one year of imprisonment.
A partial protection against double jeopardy is a Fundamental Right guaranteed under Article 20 (2) of the Constitution of India, which states "No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once". This provision enshrines the concept of autrefois convict, that no one convicted of an offence can be tried or punished a second time. However, it does not extend to autrefois acquit, and so if a person is acquitted of a crime he can be retried. In India, protection against autrefois acquit is a statutory right, not a fundamental one. Such protection is provided by provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure rather than by the Constitution.
The Constitution of Japan, which came into effect on 3 May 1947, states in Article 39 that
No person shall be held criminally liable for an act which was lawful at the time it was committed, or of which he has been acquitted, nor shall he be placed in double jeopardy.
However, in 1950, one defendant was found guilty in the District Court for crimes related to the election law and was sentenced to paying a fine. The prosecutor wanted a stronger sentence and appealed to the High Court. As a result, the defendant was sentenced to three months of imprisonment. He appealed to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the sentence was excessive when compared with precedents and that he had been placed in double jeopardy, which was in violation of Article 39. On 27 September 1950, all fifteen judges of the Supreme Court made the Grand Bench Decision to rule against the defendant and declared that a criminal proceeding in the District Court, High Court and Supreme Court is all one case and that there is no double jeopardy. In other words, if the prosecutor appeals against a judgement of not guilty or a guilty decision that they think does not impose a severe enough sentence, the defendant will not be placed in double jeopardy.
On 10 October 2003, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision in the area of double jeopardy. The case involved Article 235 of the Penal Code, which addresses “simple larceny”, and Article 2 of the Law for Prevention and Disposition of Robbery, Theft, etc., which addresses “habitual larceny”. The Court ruled that in the event that there are two trials for separate cases of simple larceny, it will not be considered double jeopardy, even if the prosecutor could have charged both of them as a single crime of habitual larceny. The defendant in this case had committed crimes of trespassing and simple larceny on 22 occasions. The defence counsel argued that the crimes were actually one offence of habitual larceny and that charging them as separate counts was double jeopardy. The Supreme Court ruled that it was within the prosecutor’s discretion as to whether to charge the defendant with one count of habitual larceny or to charge them with multiple counts of trespassing and simple larceny. In either case, it is not considered double jeopardy.
In the Netherlands, the state prosecution can appeal a not-guilty verdict at the bench. New evidence can be applied during a retrial at a district court. Thus one can be tried twice for the same alleged crime. If one is convicted at the district court, the defence can make an appeal on procedural grounds to the supreme court. The supreme court might admit this complaint, and the case will be reopened yet again, at another district court. Again, new evidence might be introduced by the prosecution.
On 9 April 2013 the Dutch senate voted 36 "yes" versus 35 "no" in favour of a new law that allows the prosecutor to re-try a person who was found not guilty in court. This new law is limited to crimes where someone died and new evidence must have been gathered. The new law also works retroactively.
Article 13 of the Constitution of Pakistan protects a person from being punished or prosecuted more than once for the same offence. Section 403 of The Code of Criminal Procedure contemplates of a situation where as person having once been tried by a Court of competent jurisdiction and acquitted by such court cannot be tried again for the same offence or for any other offence based on similar facts. The scope of section 403 is restricted to criminal proceedings and not to civil proceedings and departmental inquiries.
This principle is incorporated into the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and further elaborated in its Criminal Procedure Act.
The Bill of Rights in the Constitution of South Africa forbids a retrial when there has already been an acquittal or a conviction.
Every accused person has a right to a fair trial, which includes the right ... not to be tried for an offence in respect of an act or omission for which that person has previously been either acquitted or convicted ...
Article 13 of the South Korean constitution provides that no citizen shall be placed in double jeopardy.
Double jeopardy has been permitted in England and Wales in certain (exceptional) circumstances since the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
The doctrines of autrefois acquit and autrefois convict persisted as part of the common law from the time of the Norman conquest of England; they were regarded as essential elements for protection of the subject's liberty and respect for due process of law in that there should be finality of proceedings. There were only three exceptions, all relatively recent, to the rules:
In Connelly v DPP [1964] AC 1254, the Law Lords ruled that a defendant could not be tried for any offence arising out of substantially the same set of facts relied upon in a previous charge of which he had been acquitted, unless there are "special circumstances" proven by the prosecution. There is little case law on the meaning of "special circumstances", but it has been suggested that the emergence of new evidence would suffice.
A defendant who had been convicted of an offence could be given a second trial for an aggravated form of that offence if the facts constituting the aggravation were discovered after the first conviction. By contrast, a person who had been acquitted of a lesser offence could not be tried for an aggravated form even if new evidence became available.
Following the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the Macpherson Report recommended that the double jeopardy rule should be abrogated in murder cases, and that it should be possible to subject an acquitted murder suspect to a second trial if "fresh and viable" new evidence later came to light. The Law Commission later added its support to this in its report "Double Jeopardy and Prosecution Appeals" (2001). A parallel report into the criminal justice system by Lord Justice Auld, a past Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales, had also commenced in 1999 and was published as the Auld Report six months after the Law Commission report. It opined that the Law Commission had been unduly cautious by limiting the scope to murder and that "the exceptions should [...] extend to other grave offences punishable with life and/or long terms of imprisonment as Parliament might specify." 1999 was also the year of a highly-publicised case in which a man, David Smith, was convicted of the murder of a prostitute after having been acquitted of the "almost identical" murder of sex worker Sarah Crump 6 years previously. Because of the double jeopardy laws that existed at the time, Smith could not be re-tried for Crump's murder, despite police insisting they were not looking for anybody else and that the case was closed and the BBC reporting that Smith had "beat" the earlier murder charge.
Both Jack Straw (then Home Secretary) and William Hague (then Leader of the Opposition) favoured the measures suggested by the Auld Report. These recommendations were implemented—not uncontroversially at the time—within the Criminal Justice Act 2003, and this provision came into force in April 2005. It opened certain serious crimes (including murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, and serious drug crimes) to a retrial, regardless of when committed, with two conditions: the retrial must be approved by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Court of Appeal must agree to quash the original acquittal due to "new and compelling evidence". Then Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald QC, said that he expected no more than a handful of cases to be brought in a year.
Pressure by Ann Ming, the mother of 1989 murder victim Julie Hogg—whose killer, Billy Dunlop, was initially acquitted and subsequently confessed—also contributed to the demand for legal change. On 11 September 2006, Dunlop became the first person to be convicted of murder following a prior acquittal for the same crime, in his case his 1991 acquittal of Hogg's murder. Some years later he had confessed to the crime, and was convicted of perjury, but was unable to be retried for the killing itself. The case was re-investigated in early 2005, when the new law came into effect, and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal, in November 2005, for permission for a new trial, which was granted. Dunlop pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation he serve no less than 17 years.
On 13 December 2010, Mark Weston became the first person to be retried and found guilty of murder by a jury (Dunlop having confessed). In 1996 Weston had been acquitted of the murder of Vikki Thompson at Ascott-under-Wychwood on 12 August 1995, but following the discovery in 2009 of compelling new evidence (Thompson's blood on Weston's boots) he was arrested and tried for a second time. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 13 years.
In December 2018, convicted paedophile Russell Bishop was also retried and found guilty by a jury for the Babes in the Wood murders of two 9-year-old girls, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, on 9 October 1986. At the original trial in 1987, a key piece of the prosecution's case rested on the recovery of a discarded blue sweatshirt. Under questioning, Bishop denied that the sweatshirt belonged to him, but his girlfriend, Jennifer Johnson, alleged the clothing was Bishop's, before she changed her story in the trial, telling the jury she had never seen the top before. Attributed to a series of blunders in the prosecution's case, Bishop was acquitted by the jury after two hours of deliberations. Three years later, Bishop was found guilty of the abduction, molestation, and attempted murder of a 7-year-old girl in February 1990. In 2014, re-examined by modern forensics, the sweatshirt contained traces of Bishop's DNA, and also had fibres on it from both of the girls' clothing. Tapings taken from Karen Hadaway's arm also yielded traces of Bishop's DNA. At the 2018 trial, a jury of seven men and five women returned a guilty verdict after two-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
On 14 November 2019, Michael Weir became the first person to be twice found guilty of a murder. He was originally convicted of the murder of Leonard Harris in 1999, but the conviction was quashed in 2000 by the Court of Appeal on a technicality. In 2018, new DNA evidence had been obtained and palm prints from both murder scenes were matched to Weir. Twenty years after the original conviction, Weir was convicted of the murder for a second time.
In February 2020, Merseyside Police called for further reform to the double jeopardy law in England so as to allow previously acquitted suspects to be re-interviewed by police. The force had wanted to re-interview a suspect in the unsolved case of the murders of John Greenwood and Gary Miller who had been acquitted of the crime in 1981, but were not permitted to do so. The force had also not been allowed to re-charge the man of murder in 2019, causing them to publicly request that the law is changed and stating: "We believe being able to re-question suspects could potentially lead to being able to demonstrate the new and compelling evidence needed to reopen particular cases, including the murders of John Greenwood and Gary Miller".
The double jeopardy rule no longer applies absolutely in Scotland since the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011 came into force on 28 November 2011. The Act introduced three broad exceptions to the rule: where the acquittal had been tainted by an attempt to pervert the course of justice; where the accused admitted their guilt after acquittal; and where there was new evidence.
In Northern Ireland, the Criminal Justice Act 2003, effective 18 April 2005, makes certain "qualifying offence" (including murder, rape, kidnapping, specified sexual acts with young children, specified drug offences, defined acts of terrorism, as well as in certain cases attempts or conspiracies to commit the foregoing) subject to retrial after acquittal (including acquittals obtained before passage of the Act) if there is a finding by the Court of Appeal that there is "new and compelling evidence."
The ancient protection of the Common Law against double jeopardy is maintained in its full rigour in the United States. The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:
... nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; ...
Conversely, double jeopardy comes with a key exception. Under the multiple sovereignties doctrine, multiple sovereigns can indict a defendant for the same crime. The federal and state governments can have overlapping criminal laws, so a criminal offender may be convicted in individual states and federal courts for exactly the same crime or for different crimes arising out of the same facts. However, in 2016, the Supreme Court held that Puerto Rico is not a separate sovereign for purposes of the Double Jeopardy Clause. The dual sovereignty doctrine has been the subject of substantial scholarly criticism.
As described by the U.S. Supreme Court in its unanimous decision concerning Ball v. United States 163 U.S. 662 (1896), one of its earliest cases dealing with double jeopardy, "the prohibition is not against being twice punished, but against being twice put in jeopardy; and the accused, whether convicted or acquitted, is equally put in jeopardy at the first trial." The Double Jeopardy Clause encompasses four distinct prohibitions: subsequent prosecution after acquittal, subsequent prosecution after conviction, subsequent prosecution after certain mistrials, and multiple punishment in the same indictment. Jeopardy "attaches" when the jury is impanelled, the first witness is sworn, or a plea is accepted.
With two exceptions, the government is not permitted to appeal or retry the defendant once jeopardy attaches to a trial unless the case does not conclude. Conditions which constitute "conclusion" of a case include
In these cases, the trial is concluded and the prosecution is precluded from appealing or retrying the defendant over the offence to which they were acquitted.
This principle does not prevent the government from appealing a pre-trial motion to dismiss or other non-merits dismissal, or a directed verdict after a jury conviction, nor does it prevent the trial judge from entertaining a motion for reconsideration of a directed verdict, if the jurisdiction has so provided by rule or statute. Nor does it prevent the government from retrying the defendant after an appellate reversal other than for sufficiency, including habeas corpus, or "thirteenth juror" appellate reversals notwithstanding sufficiency on the principle that jeopardy has not "terminated".
The "dual sovereignty" doctrine allows a federal prosecution of an offence to proceed regardless of a previous state prosecution for that same offence and vice versa because "an act denounced as a crime by both national and state sovereignties is an offence against the peace and dignity of both and may be punished by each". The doctrine is solidly entrenched in the law, but there has been a traditional reluctance in the federal executive branch to gratuitously wield the power it grants, due to public opinion being generally hostile to such action.
There are two exceptions to bans on retrying defendants. If a defendant bribed a judge into acquitting him or her, the defendant was not in jeopardy and can be retried. A member of the armed forces can be retried by court-martial in a military court, even if he or she has been previously acquitted by a civilian court. This exception was used to prosecute Timothy Hennis for the Eastburn family murders after his previous trial acquitted him.
An individual can be prosecuted by both the United States and an Indian tribe for the same acts that constituted crimes in both jurisdictions; it was established by the Supreme Court in United States v. Lara that as the two are separate sovereigns, prosecuting a crime under both tribal and federal law does not attach double jeopardy.
In Blockburger v. United States (1932), the Supreme Court announced the following test: the government may separately try and punish the defendant for two crimes if each crime contains an element that the other does not. Blockburger is the default rule, unless the governing statute legislatively intends to depart; for example, Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE) may be punished separately from its predicates, as can conspiracy.
The Blockburger test, originally developed in the multiple punishments context, is also the test for prosecution after conviction. In Grady v. Corbin (1990), the Court held that a double jeopardy violation could lie even where the Blockburger test was not satisfied, but Grady was later distinguished in United States v. Felix (1992), when the court reverted to the Blockburger test without completely dismissing the Grady interpretation. The court eventually overruled Grady in United States v. Dixon (1993).
The rule for mistrials depends upon who sought the mistrial. If the defendant moves for a mistrial, there is no bar to retrial, unless the prosecutor acted in "bad faith", i.e. goaded the defendant into moving for a mistrial because the government specifically wanted a mistrial. If the prosecutor moves for a mistrial, there is no bar to retrial if the trial judge finds "manifest necessity" for granting the mistrial. The same standard governs mistrials granted sua sponte.
Retrials are not common, due to the legal expenses to the government. However, in the mid-1980s Georgia antique dealer James Arthur Williams was tried a record four times for the murder of Danny Hansford and (after three mistrials) was finally acquitted on the grounds of self-defence. The case is recounted in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was adapted into a film directed by Clint Eastwood (the movie combines the four trials into one).
Research and Notes produced for the UK Parliament, summarising the history of legal change, views and responses, and analyses: | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases prosecutorial and/or judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction. Double jeopardy is a common concept in criminal law. In civil law, a similar concept is that of res judicata. Variation in common law countries is the peremptory plea, which may take the specific forms of autrefois acquit ('previously acquitted') or autrefois convict ('previously convicted'). These doctrines appear to have originated in ancient Roman law, in the broader principle non bis in idem ('not twice against the same').",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "If a double-jeopardy issue is raised, evidence will be placed before the court, which will typically rule as a preliminary matter whether the plea is substantiated; if it is, the projected trial will be prevented from proceeding. In some countries certain exemptions are permitted. In Scotland a new trial can be initiated if, for example, the acquitted has made a credible admission of guilt. Part of English law for over 800 years, it was partially abolished in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 where, following demand for change, serious offences may be re-tried following an acquittal if new and compelling evidence is found, and if the trial is found to be in the public's interest. In some countries, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States, the guarantee against being \"twice put in jeopardy\" is a constitutional right. In other countries, the protection is afforded by statute.",
"title": "Availability as a legal defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In common law countries, a defendant may enter a peremptory plea of autrefois acquit ('previously acquitted') or autrefois convict ('previously convicted'), with the same effect.",
"title": "Availability as a legal defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Double jeopardy is not a principle of international law. It does not apply between different countries, unless having been contractually agreed on between those countries as, for example, in the European Union (Art. 54 Schengen Convention), and in various extradition treaties between two countries.",
"title": "Availability as a legal defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The 72 signatories and 166 parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognise, under Article 14 (7): \"No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of each country.\" However, it does not apply to prosecutions by two different sovereigns (unless the relevant extradition treaty expresses a prohibition).",
"title": "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "All members of the Council of Europe (which includes nearly all European countries and every member of the European Union) have adopted the European Convention on Human Rights. The optional Protocol No. 7 to the convention, Article 4, protects against double jeopardy: \"No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again in criminal proceedings under the jurisdiction of the same State for an offence for which he or she has already been finally acquitted or convicted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of that State.\"",
"title": "European Convention on Human Rights"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "All EU states ratified this optional protocol except for Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. In those member states, national rules governing double jeopardy may or may not comply with the provision cited above.",
"title": "European Convention on Human Rights"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Member states may, however, implement legislation which allows reopening of a case if new evidence is found or if there was a fundamental defect in the previous proceedings:",
"title": "European Convention on Human Rights"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall not prevent the reopening of the case in accordance with the law and penal procedure of the State concerned, if there is evidence of new or newly discovered facts, or if there has been a fundamental defect in the previous proceedings, which could affect the outcome of the case.",
"title": "European Convention on Human Rights"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In many European countries, the prosecution may appeal an acquittal to a higher court. This is not regarded as double jeopardy, but as a continuation of the same case. The European Convention on Human Rights permits this by using the phrase \"finally acquitted or convicted\" as the trigger for prohibiting subsequent prosecution.",
"title": "European Convention on Human Rights"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In contrast to other common law nations, Australian double jeopardy law has been held to further prevent the prosecution for perjury following a previous acquittal where a finding of perjury would controvert the acquittal. This was confirmed in the case of R v Carroll, where the police found new evidence convincingly disproving Carroll's sworn alibi two decades after he had been acquitted of murder charges in the death of Ipswich child Deidre Kennedy, and successfully prosecuted him for perjury. Public outcry following the overturn of his conviction (for perjury) by the High Court has led to widespread calls for reform of the law along the lines of the England and Wales legislation.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "During a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting of 2007, model legislation to rework double jeopardy laws was drafted, but there was no formal agreement for each state to introduce it. All states have now chosen to introduce legislation that mirrors COAG's recommendations on \"fresh and compelling\" evidence.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In New South Wales, retrials of serious cases with a minimum sentence of 20 years or more are now possible even if the original trial preceded the 2006 reform. On 17 October 2006, the New South Wales Parliament passed legislation abolishing the rule against double jeopardy in cases where:",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "On 30 July 2008, South Australia also introduced legislation to scrap parts of its double jeopardy law, legalising retrials for serious offences with \"fresh and compelling\" evidence, or if the acquittal was tainted.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In Western Australia, amendments introduced on 8 September 2011 allow retrial if \"new and compelling\" evidence is found. It applies to serious offences where the penalty was life imprisonment or imprisonment for 14 years or more. Acquittal because of tainting (witness intimidation, jury tampering, or perjury) also permits retrial.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In Tasmania, on 19 August 2008, amendments were introduced to allow retrial in serious cases if there is \"fresh and compelling\" evidence.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In Victoria on 21 December 2011, legislation was passed allowing new trials where there is \"fresh and compelling DNA evidence, where the person acquitted subsequently admits to the crime, or where it becomes clear that key witnesses have given false evidence\". However, retrial applications could only be made for serious offences such as murder, manslaughter, arson causing death, serious drug offences and aggravated forms of rape and armed robbery.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In Queensland on 18 October 2007, the double jeopardy laws were modified to allow a retrial where fresh and compelling evidence becomes available after an acquittal for murder or a \"tainted acquittal\" for a crime carrying a 25-year or more sentence. A \"tainted acquittal\" requires a conviction for an administration of justice offence, such as perjury, that led to the original acquittal.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms includes provisions such as section 11(h) prohibiting double jeopardy. However, the prohibition only applies after an accused person has been \"finally\" convicted or acquitted. Canadian law allows the prosecution to appeal an acquittal based on legal errors. In rare circumstances, when a trial judge made all the factual findings necessary for a finding of guilt but misapplied the law, a court of appeal might also directly substitute an acquittal for a conviction. These cases are not considered double jeopardy because the appeal and the subsequent conviction are deemed to be a continuation of the original trial.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "For an appeal from an acquittal to be successful, the Supreme Court of Canada requires the Crown to show that an error in law was made during the trial and that it contributed to the verdict. It has been argued that this test is unfairly beneficial to the prosecution. For instance, in his book My Life in Crime and Other Academic Adventures, Martin Friedland contends that the rule should be changed so that a retrial is granted only when the error is shown to be responsible for the verdict, not just a factor.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Though the Charter permits appeals of acquittals, there are still constitutional limits imposed on the scope of these appeals. In Corp. Professionnelle des Médecins v. Thibault, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of Quebec law that allowed appellate courts to conduct a de novo review of both legal and factual findings. In doing so, it held that the scope of an appeal may not extend to challenging findings of fact where no legal error has been made. At this point, the Court reasoned, the process ceases to be an appeal and instead becomes a new trial disguised as one.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "A notable example cited by critics of Canada's appeal system is the case of Guy Paul Morin, who was wrongfully convicted in his second trial after the acquittal in his first trial was vacated by the Supreme Court. Another notable use of the system occurred in the case of child murderer Guy Turcotte, the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the initial verdict of not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder and ordered a second trial after it found that the judge had erroneously instructed the jury. Turcotte was later convicted of second-degree murder in the second trial.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Once all appeals have been exhausted on a case, the judgement is final and the action of the prosecution is closed (code of penal procedure, art. 6), except if the final ruling was forged. Prosecution for a crime already judged is impossible even if incriminating evidence has been found. However, a person who has been convicted may request another trial on the grounds of new exculpating evidence through a procedure known as révision.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "French law allows the prosecution to appeal an acquittal.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Basic Law (Grundgesetz) for the Federal Republic of Germany protects against double jeopardy if a final verdict is pronounced. A verdict is final if nobody appeals against it.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Nobody shall be punished multiple times for the same crime on the basis of general criminal law.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "However, each trial party can appeal against a verdict in the first instance. The prosecution or the defendants can appeal against a judgement if they disagree with it. In this case, the trial starts again in the second instance, the court of appeal (Berufungsgericht), which reconsiders the facts and reasons and delivers a final judgement.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "If one of the parties disagrees with the second instance's judgement, they can appeal it only for formal judicial reasons. The case will be checked in the third instance (Revisionsgericht), whether all laws are applied correctly.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The rule applies to the whole \"historical event, which is usually considered a single historical course of actions the separation of which would seem unnatural\". This is true even if new facts occur that indicate other crimes.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The Penal Procedural Code (Strafprozessordnung) permits a retrial (Wiederaufnahmeverfahren), if it is in favour of the defendant or if the following events had happened:",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "A retrial not in favour of the defendant is permissible after a final judgement,",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In the case of an order of summary punishment, which can be issued by the court without a trial for lesser misdemeanours, there is a further exception:",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "A retrial not in favour of the defendant is also permissible if the defendant has been convicted in a final order of summary punishment and new facts or evidence have been brought forward, which establish grounds for a conviction of a felony by themselves or in combination with earlier evidence.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In Germany, a felony is defined by § 12 (1) StGB as a crime that has a minimum of one year of imprisonment.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "A partial protection against double jeopardy is a Fundamental Right guaranteed under Article 20 (2) of the Constitution of India, which states \"No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once\". This provision enshrines the concept of autrefois convict, that no one convicted of an offence can be tried or punished a second time. However, it does not extend to autrefois acquit, and so if a person is acquitted of a crime he can be retried. In India, protection against autrefois acquit is a statutory right, not a fundamental one. Such protection is provided by provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure rather than by the Constitution.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The Constitution of Japan, which came into effect on 3 May 1947, states in Article 39 that",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "No person shall be held criminally liable for an act which was lawful at the time it was committed, or of which he has been acquitted, nor shall he be placed in double jeopardy.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "However, in 1950, one defendant was found guilty in the District Court for crimes related to the election law and was sentenced to paying a fine. The prosecutor wanted a stronger sentence and appealed to the High Court. As a result, the defendant was sentenced to three months of imprisonment. He appealed to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the sentence was excessive when compared with precedents and that he had been placed in double jeopardy, which was in violation of Article 39. On 27 September 1950, all fifteen judges of the Supreme Court made the Grand Bench Decision to rule against the defendant and declared that a criminal proceeding in the District Court, High Court and Supreme Court is all one case and that there is no double jeopardy. In other words, if the prosecutor appeals against a judgement of not guilty or a guilty decision that they think does not impose a severe enough sentence, the defendant will not be placed in double jeopardy.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "On 10 October 2003, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision in the area of double jeopardy. The case involved Article 235 of the Penal Code, which addresses “simple larceny”, and Article 2 of the Law for Prevention and Disposition of Robbery, Theft, etc., which addresses “habitual larceny”. The Court ruled that in the event that there are two trials for separate cases of simple larceny, it will not be considered double jeopardy, even if the prosecutor could have charged both of them as a single crime of habitual larceny. The defendant in this case had committed crimes of trespassing and simple larceny on 22 occasions. The defence counsel argued that the crimes were actually one offence of habitual larceny and that charging them as separate counts was double jeopardy. The Supreme Court ruled that it was within the prosecutor’s discretion as to whether to charge the defendant with one count of habitual larceny or to charge them with multiple counts of trespassing and simple larceny. In either case, it is not considered double jeopardy.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In the Netherlands, the state prosecution can appeal a not-guilty verdict at the bench. New evidence can be applied during a retrial at a district court. Thus one can be tried twice for the same alleged crime. If one is convicted at the district court, the defence can make an appeal on procedural grounds to the supreme court. The supreme court might admit this complaint, and the case will be reopened yet again, at another district court. Again, new evidence might be introduced by the prosecution.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "On 9 April 2013 the Dutch senate voted 36 \"yes\" versus 35 \"no\" in favour of a new law that allows the prosecutor to re-try a person who was found not guilty in court. This new law is limited to crimes where someone died and new evidence must have been gathered. The new law also works retroactively.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Article 13 of the Constitution of Pakistan protects a person from being punished or prosecuted more than once for the same offence. Section 403 of The Code of Criminal Procedure contemplates of a situation where as person having once been tried by a Court of competent jurisdiction and acquitted by such court cannot be tried again for the same offence or for any other offence based on similar facts. The scope of section 403 is restricted to criminal proceedings and not to civil proceedings and departmental inquiries.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "This principle is incorporated into the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and further elaborated in its Criminal Procedure Act.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The Bill of Rights in the Constitution of South Africa forbids a retrial when there has already been an acquittal or a conviction.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Every accused person has a right to a fair trial, which includes the right ... not to be tried for an offence in respect of an act or omission for which that person has previously been either acquitted or convicted ...",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Article 13 of the South Korean constitution provides that no citizen shall be placed in double jeopardy.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Double jeopardy has been permitted in England and Wales in certain (exceptional) circumstances since the Criminal Justice Act 2003.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "The doctrines of autrefois acquit and autrefois convict persisted as part of the common law from the time of the Norman conquest of England; they were regarded as essential elements for protection of the subject's liberty and respect for due process of law in that there should be finality of proceedings. There were only three exceptions, all relatively recent, to the rules:",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In Connelly v DPP [1964] AC 1254, the Law Lords ruled that a defendant could not be tried for any offence arising out of substantially the same set of facts relied upon in a previous charge of which he had been acquitted, unless there are \"special circumstances\" proven by the prosecution. There is little case law on the meaning of \"special circumstances\", but it has been suggested that the emergence of new evidence would suffice.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "A defendant who had been convicted of an offence could be given a second trial for an aggravated form of that offence if the facts constituting the aggravation were discovered after the first conviction. By contrast, a person who had been acquitted of a lesser offence could not be tried for an aggravated form even if new evidence became available.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Following the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the Macpherson Report recommended that the double jeopardy rule should be abrogated in murder cases, and that it should be possible to subject an acquitted murder suspect to a second trial if \"fresh and viable\" new evidence later came to light. The Law Commission later added its support to this in its report \"Double Jeopardy and Prosecution Appeals\" (2001). A parallel report into the criminal justice system by Lord Justice Auld, a past Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales, had also commenced in 1999 and was published as the Auld Report six months after the Law Commission report. It opined that the Law Commission had been unduly cautious by limiting the scope to murder and that \"the exceptions should [...] extend to other grave offences punishable with life and/or long terms of imprisonment as Parliament might specify.\" 1999 was also the year of a highly-publicised case in which a man, David Smith, was convicted of the murder of a prostitute after having been acquitted of the \"almost identical\" murder of sex worker Sarah Crump 6 years previously. Because of the double jeopardy laws that existed at the time, Smith could not be re-tried for Crump's murder, despite police insisting they were not looking for anybody else and that the case was closed and the BBC reporting that Smith had \"beat\" the earlier murder charge.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Both Jack Straw (then Home Secretary) and William Hague (then Leader of the Opposition) favoured the measures suggested by the Auld Report. These recommendations were implemented—not uncontroversially at the time—within the Criminal Justice Act 2003, and this provision came into force in April 2005. It opened certain serious crimes (including murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, and serious drug crimes) to a retrial, regardless of when committed, with two conditions: the retrial must be approved by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Court of Appeal must agree to quash the original acquittal due to \"new and compelling evidence\". Then Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald QC, said that he expected no more than a handful of cases to be brought in a year.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Pressure by Ann Ming, the mother of 1989 murder victim Julie Hogg—whose killer, Billy Dunlop, was initially acquitted and subsequently confessed—also contributed to the demand for legal change. On 11 September 2006, Dunlop became the first person to be convicted of murder following a prior acquittal for the same crime, in his case his 1991 acquittal of Hogg's murder. Some years later he had confessed to the crime, and was convicted of perjury, but was unable to be retried for the killing itself. The case was re-investigated in early 2005, when the new law came into effect, and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal, in November 2005, for permission for a new trial, which was granted. Dunlop pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation he serve no less than 17 years.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "On 13 December 2010, Mark Weston became the first person to be retried and found guilty of murder by a jury (Dunlop having confessed). In 1996 Weston had been acquitted of the murder of Vikki Thompson at Ascott-under-Wychwood on 12 August 1995, but following the discovery in 2009 of compelling new evidence (Thompson's blood on Weston's boots) he was arrested and tried for a second time. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 13 years.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "In December 2018, convicted paedophile Russell Bishop was also retried and found guilty by a jury for the Babes in the Wood murders of two 9-year-old girls, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, on 9 October 1986. At the original trial in 1987, a key piece of the prosecution's case rested on the recovery of a discarded blue sweatshirt. Under questioning, Bishop denied that the sweatshirt belonged to him, but his girlfriend, Jennifer Johnson, alleged the clothing was Bishop's, before she changed her story in the trial, telling the jury she had never seen the top before. Attributed to a series of blunders in the prosecution's case, Bishop was acquitted by the jury after two hours of deliberations. Three years later, Bishop was found guilty of the abduction, molestation, and attempted murder of a 7-year-old girl in February 1990. In 2014, re-examined by modern forensics, the sweatshirt contained traces of Bishop's DNA, and also had fibres on it from both of the girls' clothing. Tapings taken from Karen Hadaway's arm also yielded traces of Bishop's DNA. At the 2018 trial, a jury of seven men and five women returned a guilty verdict after two-and-a-half hours of deliberation.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "On 14 November 2019, Michael Weir became the first person to be twice found guilty of a murder. He was originally convicted of the murder of Leonard Harris in 1999, but the conviction was quashed in 2000 by the Court of Appeal on a technicality. In 2018, new DNA evidence had been obtained and palm prints from both murder scenes were matched to Weir. Twenty years after the original conviction, Weir was convicted of the murder for a second time.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "In February 2020, Merseyside Police called for further reform to the double jeopardy law in England so as to allow previously acquitted suspects to be re-interviewed by police. The force had wanted to re-interview a suspect in the unsolved case of the murders of John Greenwood and Gary Miller who had been acquitted of the crime in 1981, but were not permitted to do so. The force had also not been allowed to re-charge the man of murder in 2019, causing them to publicly request that the law is changed and stating: \"We believe being able to re-question suspects could potentially lead to being able to demonstrate the new and compelling evidence needed to reopen particular cases, including the murders of John Greenwood and Gary Miller\".",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The double jeopardy rule no longer applies absolutely in Scotland since the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011 came into force on 28 November 2011. The Act introduced three broad exceptions to the rule: where the acquittal had been tainted by an attempt to pervert the course of justice; where the accused admitted their guilt after acquittal; and where there was new evidence.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "In Northern Ireland, the Criminal Justice Act 2003, effective 18 April 2005, makes certain \"qualifying offence\" (including murder, rape, kidnapping, specified sexual acts with young children, specified drug offences, defined acts of terrorism, as well as in certain cases attempts or conspiracies to commit the foregoing) subject to retrial after acquittal (including acquittals obtained before passage of the Act) if there is a finding by the Court of Appeal that there is \"new and compelling evidence.\"",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "The ancient protection of the Common Law against double jeopardy is maintained in its full rigour in the United States. The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "... nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; ...",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Conversely, double jeopardy comes with a key exception. Under the multiple sovereignties doctrine, multiple sovereigns can indict a defendant for the same crime. The federal and state governments can have overlapping criminal laws, so a criminal offender may be convicted in individual states and federal courts for exactly the same crime or for different crimes arising out of the same facts. However, in 2016, the Supreme Court held that Puerto Rico is not a separate sovereign for purposes of the Double Jeopardy Clause. The dual sovereignty doctrine has been the subject of substantial scholarly criticism.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "As described by the U.S. Supreme Court in its unanimous decision concerning Ball v. United States 163 U.S. 662 (1896), one of its earliest cases dealing with double jeopardy, \"the prohibition is not against being twice punished, but against being twice put in jeopardy; and the accused, whether convicted or acquitted, is equally put in jeopardy at the first trial.\" The Double Jeopardy Clause encompasses four distinct prohibitions: subsequent prosecution after acquittal, subsequent prosecution after conviction, subsequent prosecution after certain mistrials, and multiple punishment in the same indictment. Jeopardy \"attaches\" when the jury is impanelled, the first witness is sworn, or a plea is accepted.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "With two exceptions, the government is not permitted to appeal or retry the defendant once jeopardy attaches to a trial unless the case does not conclude. Conditions which constitute \"conclusion\" of a case include",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "In these cases, the trial is concluded and the prosecution is precluded from appealing or retrying the defendant over the offence to which they were acquitted.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "This principle does not prevent the government from appealing a pre-trial motion to dismiss or other non-merits dismissal, or a directed verdict after a jury conviction, nor does it prevent the trial judge from entertaining a motion for reconsideration of a directed verdict, if the jurisdiction has so provided by rule or statute. Nor does it prevent the government from retrying the defendant after an appellate reversal other than for sufficiency, including habeas corpus, or \"thirteenth juror\" appellate reversals notwithstanding sufficiency on the principle that jeopardy has not \"terminated\".",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "The \"dual sovereignty\" doctrine allows a federal prosecution of an offence to proceed regardless of a previous state prosecution for that same offence and vice versa because \"an act denounced as a crime by both national and state sovereignties is an offence against the peace and dignity of both and may be punished by each\". The doctrine is solidly entrenched in the law, but there has been a traditional reluctance in the federal executive branch to gratuitously wield the power it grants, due to public opinion being generally hostile to such action.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "There are two exceptions to bans on retrying defendants. If a defendant bribed a judge into acquitting him or her, the defendant was not in jeopardy and can be retried. A member of the armed forces can be retried by court-martial in a military court, even if he or she has been previously acquitted by a civilian court. This exception was used to prosecute Timothy Hennis for the Eastburn family murders after his previous trial acquitted him.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "An individual can be prosecuted by both the United States and an Indian tribe for the same acts that constituted crimes in both jurisdictions; it was established by the Supreme Court in United States v. Lara that as the two are separate sovereigns, prosecuting a crime under both tribal and federal law does not attach double jeopardy.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "In Blockburger v. United States (1932), the Supreme Court announced the following test: the government may separately try and punish the defendant for two crimes if each crime contains an element that the other does not. Blockburger is the default rule, unless the governing statute legislatively intends to depart; for example, Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE) may be punished separately from its predicates, as can conspiracy.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "The Blockburger test, originally developed in the multiple punishments context, is also the test for prosecution after conviction. In Grady v. Corbin (1990), the Court held that a double jeopardy violation could lie even where the Blockburger test was not satisfied, but Grady was later distinguished in United States v. Felix (1992), when the court reverted to the Blockburger test without completely dismissing the Grady interpretation. The court eventually overruled Grady in United States v. Dixon (1993).",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "The rule for mistrials depends upon who sought the mistrial. If the defendant moves for a mistrial, there is no bar to retrial, unless the prosecutor acted in \"bad faith\", i.e. goaded the defendant into moving for a mistrial because the government specifically wanted a mistrial. If the prosecutor moves for a mistrial, there is no bar to retrial if the trial judge finds \"manifest necessity\" for granting the mistrial. The same standard governs mistrials granted sua sponte.",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Retrials are not common, due to the legal expenses to the government. However, in the mid-1980s Georgia antique dealer James Arthur Williams was tried a record four times for the murder of Danny Hansford and (after three mistrials) was finally acquitted on the grounds of self-defence. The case is recounted in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was adapted into a film directed by Clint Eastwood (the movie combines the four trials into one).",
"title": "By country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Research and Notes produced for the UK Parliament, summarising the history of legal change, views and responses, and analyses:",
"title": "External links"
}
] | In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases prosecutorial and/or judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction. Double jeopardy is a common concept in criminal law. In civil law, a similar concept is that of res judicata. Variation in common law countries is the peremptory plea, which may take the specific forms of autrefois acquit or autrefois convict. These doctrines appear to have originated in ancient Roman law, in the broader principle non bis in idem. | 2001-08-05T20:42:34Z | 2023-12-21T20:34:55Z | [
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7,942 | Disbarment | Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal conduct but may also be imposed for incompetence or incapacity. Procedures vary depending on the law society; temporary disbarment may be referred to as suspension.
In Australia, states regulate the Legal Profession under state law, despite many participating in a uniform scheme. Admission as a lawyer is the business of the admissions board and the Supreme Court. Disciplinary proceedings may be commenced by the Bar Association or the Law Society of which one is a member, or the board itself.
In Germany, a Berufsverbot is a ban on practicing a profession, which the government can issue to a lawyer for misconduct, Volksverhetzung or for serious mismanagement of personal finances.
In April 1933, the Nazi government issued a Berufsverbot forbidding the practice of law by Jews, Communists, and other political opponents, except for those protected by the Frontkämpferprivileg.
In the United Kingdom, the removal of the licence to practise of a barrister or Scottish advocate is called being "disbarred", whilst the removal of a solicitor from the rolls in England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland is called being "struck off".
Generally, disbarment is imposed as a sanction for conduct indicating that an attorney is not fit to practice law, willfully disregarding the interests of a client, commingling funds, or engaging in fraud which impedes the administration of justice. In some states, any lawyer who is convicted of a felony is automatically suspended pending further disciplinary proceedings, or, in New York, automatically disbarred. Automatic disbarment, although opposed by the American Bar Association, has been described as a convicted felon's just deserts.
In the United States legal system, disbarment is specific to regions; one can be disbarred from some courts, while still being a member of the bar in another jurisdiction. However, under the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which have been adopted in most states, disbarment in one state or court is grounds for disbarment in a jurisdiction which has adopted the Model Rules.
Disbarment is quite rare: in 2011, only 1,046 lawyers were disbarred. Instead, lawyers are usually sanctioned by their own clients through civil malpractice proceedings, or via fine, censure, suspension, or other punishments from the disciplinary boards. To be disbarred is considered a great embarrassment and shame, even if one no longer wishes to continue a career in law.
Because disbarment rules vary by area, different rules can apply depending on where a lawyer is disbarred. Notably, the majority of US states have no procedure for permanently disbarring a person. Depending on the jurisdiction, a lawyer may reapply to the bar immediately, after five to seven years, or be banned for life.
The 20th and the 21st centuries have seen one former U.S. president and one former U.S. vice president disbarred, and another former president suspended from one bar and caused to resign from another bar rather than face disbarment.
Former vice president Spiro Agnew, having pleaded no contest (which subjects a person to the same criminal penalties as a guilty plea, but is not an admission of guilt for a civil suit) to charges of bribery and tax evasion, was disbarred from Maryland, the state of which he had previously been governor.
Former president Richard Nixon was disbarred from New York in 1976 for obstruction of justice related to the Watergate scandal. He had attempted to resign from the New York bar, as he had done with California and the Supreme Court, but his resignation was not accepted as he would not acknowledge that he was unable to defend himself from the charges brought against him.
In 2001, following a 5-year suspension by the Arkansas bar, the United States Supreme Court suspended Bill Clinton, providing 40 days for him to contest disbarment. He resigned before the end of the 40 day period, thus avoiding disbarment.
Alger Hiss was disbarred for a felony conviction, but later became the first person reinstated to the bar in Massachusetts after disbarment.
In 2007, Mike Nifong, the District Attorney of Durham County, North Carolina who presided over the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case, was disbarred for prosecutorial misconduct related to his handling of the case.
In April 2012, a three-member panel appointed by the Arizona Supreme Court voted unanimously to disbar Andrew Thomas, former County Attorney of Maricopa County, Arizona, and a former close confederate of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. According to the panel, Thomas "outrageously exploited power, flagrantly fostered fear, and disgracefully misused the law" while serving as Maricopa County Attorney. The panel found "clear and convincing evidence" that Thomas brought unfounded and malicious criminal and civil charges against political opponents, including four state judges and the state attorney general. "Were this a criminal case," the panel concluded, "we are confident that the evidence would establish this conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt."
Jack Thompson, the Florida lawyer noted for his activism against Howard Stern, video games, and rap music, was permanently disbarred for various charges of misconduct. The action was the result of several grievances claiming that Thompson had made defamatory, false statements and attempted to humiliate, embarrass, harass or intimidate his opponents. The order was made on September 25, 2008, effective October 25. However, Thompson attempted to appeal to the higher courts in order to avoid the penalty actually taking effect. Neither the US District court, nor the US Supreme Court would hear his appeal, rendering the judgment of the Florida Supreme Court final.
Ed Fagan, a New York lawyer who prominently represented Holocaust victims against Swiss banks, was disbarred in New York (in 2008) and New Jersey (in 2009) for failing to pay court fines and fees; and for misappropriating client and escrow trust funds.
F. Lee Bailey, noted criminal defense attorney, was disbarred by the state of Florida in 2001, with reciprocal disbarment in Massachusetts in 2002. The Florida disbarment was the result of his handling of stock in the DuBoc marijuana case. Bailey was found guilty of 7 counts of attorney misconduct by the Florida Supreme Court. Bailey had transferred a large portion of DuBoc's assets into his own accounts, using the interest gained on those assets to pay for personal expenses. In March 2005, Bailey filed to regain his law license in Massachusetts. The book Florida Pulp Nonfiction details the peculiar facts of the DuBoc case along with extended interviews with Bailey that include his own defense. Bailey is also best known for representing murder suspect O. J. Simpson in 1994. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal conduct but may also be imposed for incompetence or incapacity. Procedures vary depending on the law society; temporary disbarment may be referred to as suspension.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In Australia, states regulate the Legal Profession under state law, despite many participating in a uniform scheme. Admission as a lawyer is the business of the admissions board and the Supreme Court. Disciplinary proceedings may be commenced by the Bar Association or the Law Society of which one is a member, or the board itself.",
"title": "Australia"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In Germany, a Berufsverbot is a ban on practicing a profession, which the government can issue to a lawyer for misconduct, Volksverhetzung or for serious mismanagement of personal finances.",
"title": "Germany"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In April 1933, the Nazi government issued a Berufsverbot forbidding the practice of law by Jews, Communists, and other political opponents, except for those protected by the Frontkämpferprivileg.",
"title": "Germany"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In the United Kingdom, the removal of the licence to practise of a barrister or Scottish advocate is called being \"disbarred\", whilst the removal of a solicitor from the rolls in England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland is called being \"struck off\".",
"title": "United Kingdom"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Generally, disbarment is imposed as a sanction for conduct indicating that an attorney is not fit to practice law, willfully disregarding the interests of a client, commingling funds, or engaging in fraud which impedes the administration of justice. In some states, any lawyer who is convicted of a felony is automatically suspended pending further disciplinary proceedings, or, in New York, automatically disbarred. Automatic disbarment, although opposed by the American Bar Association, has been described as a convicted felon's just deserts.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In the United States legal system, disbarment is specific to regions; one can be disbarred from some courts, while still being a member of the bar in another jurisdiction. However, under the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which have been adopted in most states, disbarment in one state or court is grounds for disbarment in a jurisdiction which has adopted the Model Rules.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Disbarment is quite rare: in 2011, only 1,046 lawyers were disbarred. Instead, lawyers are usually sanctioned by their own clients through civil malpractice proceedings, or via fine, censure, suspension, or other punishments from the disciplinary boards. To be disbarred is considered a great embarrassment and shame, even if one no longer wishes to continue a career in law.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Because disbarment rules vary by area, different rules can apply depending on where a lawyer is disbarred. Notably, the majority of US states have no procedure for permanently disbarring a person. Depending on the jurisdiction, a lawyer may reapply to the bar immediately, after five to seven years, or be banned for life.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The 20th and the 21st centuries have seen one former U.S. president and one former U.S. vice president disbarred, and another former president suspended from one bar and caused to resign from another bar rather than face disbarment.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Former vice president Spiro Agnew, having pleaded no contest (which subjects a person to the same criminal penalties as a guilty plea, but is not an admission of guilt for a civil suit) to charges of bribery and tax evasion, was disbarred from Maryland, the state of which he had previously been governor.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Former president Richard Nixon was disbarred from New York in 1976 for obstruction of justice related to the Watergate scandal. He had attempted to resign from the New York bar, as he had done with California and the Supreme Court, but his resignation was not accepted as he would not acknowledge that he was unable to defend himself from the charges brought against him.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In 2001, following a 5-year suspension by the Arkansas bar, the United States Supreme Court suspended Bill Clinton, providing 40 days for him to contest disbarment. He resigned before the end of the 40 day period, thus avoiding disbarment.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Alger Hiss was disbarred for a felony conviction, but later became the first person reinstated to the bar in Massachusetts after disbarment.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In 2007, Mike Nifong, the District Attorney of Durham County, North Carolina who presided over the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case, was disbarred for prosecutorial misconduct related to his handling of the case.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In April 2012, a three-member panel appointed by the Arizona Supreme Court voted unanimously to disbar Andrew Thomas, former County Attorney of Maricopa County, Arizona, and a former close confederate of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. According to the panel, Thomas \"outrageously exploited power, flagrantly fostered fear, and disgracefully misused the law\" while serving as Maricopa County Attorney. The panel found \"clear and convincing evidence\" that Thomas brought unfounded and malicious criminal and civil charges against political opponents, including four state judges and the state attorney general. \"Were this a criminal case,\" the panel concluded, \"we are confident that the evidence would establish this conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt.\"",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Jack Thompson, the Florida lawyer noted for his activism against Howard Stern, video games, and rap music, was permanently disbarred for various charges of misconduct. The action was the result of several grievances claiming that Thompson had made defamatory, false statements and attempted to humiliate, embarrass, harass or intimidate his opponents. The order was made on September 25, 2008, effective October 25. However, Thompson attempted to appeal to the higher courts in order to avoid the penalty actually taking effect. Neither the US District court, nor the US Supreme Court would hear his appeal, rendering the judgment of the Florida Supreme Court final.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Ed Fagan, a New York lawyer who prominently represented Holocaust victims against Swiss banks, was disbarred in New York (in 2008) and New Jersey (in 2009) for failing to pay court fines and fees; and for misappropriating client and escrow trust funds.",
"title": "United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "F. Lee Bailey, noted criminal defense attorney, was disbarred by the state of Florida in 2001, with reciprocal disbarment in Massachusetts in 2002. The Florida disbarment was the result of his handling of stock in the DuBoc marijuana case. Bailey was found guilty of 7 counts of attorney misconduct by the Florida Supreme Court. Bailey had transferred a large portion of DuBoc's assets into his own accounts, using the interest gained on those assets to pay for personal expenses. In March 2005, Bailey filed to regain his law license in Massachusetts. The book Florida Pulp Nonfiction details the peculiar facts of the DuBoc case along with extended interviews with Bailey that include his own defense. Bailey is also best known for representing murder suspect O. J. Simpson in 1994.",
"title": "United States"
}
] | Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal conduct but may also be imposed for incompetence or incapacity. Procedures vary depending on the law society; temporary disbarment may be referred to as suspension. | 2002-02-25T15:43:11Z | 2023-08-11T10:17:50Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disbarment |
7,946 | Dog tag | Dog tag is an informal but common term for a specific type of identification tag worn by military personnel. The tags' primary use is for the identification of casualties; they have information about the individual written on them, including identification and essential basic medical information such as blood type and history of inoculations. They often indicate a religious preference as well.
Dog tags are usually fabricated from a corrosion-resistant metal. They commonly contain two copies of the information, either in the form of a single tag that can be broken in half, or as two identical tags on the same chain. This purposeful duplication allows one tag, or half-tag, to be collected from an individual's dead body for notification, while the duplicate remains with the corpse if the conditions of battle prevent it from being immediately recovered. The term arose and became popular because of the tags' resemblance to animal registration tags.
The earliest mention of an identification tag for soldiers comes in Polyaenus (Stratagems 1.17) where the Spartans wrote their names on sticks tied to their left wrists. A type of dog tag ("signaculum") was given to the Roman legionary at the moment of enrollment. The legionary "signaculum" was a lead disk with a leather string, worn around the neck, with the name of the recruit and the indication of the legion of which the recruit was part. This procedure, together with enrollment in the list of recruits, was made at the beginning of a four-month probatory period ("probatio"). The recruit obtained the military status only after the oath of allegiance ("sacramentum") at the end of "probatio", meaning that from a legal point of view the "signaculum" was given to a subject who was no longer a civilian, but not yet in the military.
In more recent times, dog tags were provided to Chinese soldiers as early as the mid-19th century. During the Taiping revolt (1851–66), both the Imperialists (i.e., the Chinese Imperial Army regular servicemen) and those Taiping rebels wearing a uniform wore wooden dog tags at the belt, bearing the soldier's name, age, birthplace, unit, and date of enlistment.
During the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, some soldiers pinned paper notes with their name and home address to the backs of their coats. Other soldiers stenciled identification on their knapsacks or scratched it in the soft lead backing of their army belt buckles.
Manufacturers of identification badges recognized a market and began advertising in periodicals. Their pins were usually shaped to suggest a branch of service, and engraved with the soldier's name and unit. Machine-stamped tags were also made of brass or lead with a hole and usually had (on one side) an eagle or shield, and such phrases as "War for the Union" or "Liberty, Union, and Equality". The other side had the soldier's name and unit, and sometimes a list of battles in which he had participated.
On a volunteer basis Prussian soldiers had decided to wear identification tags in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. However, many rejected dog tags as a bad omen for their lives. So until eight months after the Battle of Königgrätz, with almost 8,900 Prussian casualties, only 429 of them could be identified. With the formation of the North German Confederation in 1867 Prussian military regulations became binding for the militaries of all North German member states. With the Prussian Instruktion über das Sanitätswesen der Armee im Felde (i.e., instruction on the medical corps organisation of the army afield) issued on 29 April 1869 identification tags (then called Erkennungsmarke; literally "recognition mark") were to be handed out to each soldier before deployment afield. The Prussian Army issued identification tags for its troops at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. They were nicknamed Hundemarken (the German equivalent of "dog tags") and compared to a similar identification system instituted by the dog licence fee, adding tags to collars of those dogs whose owners paid the fee, in the Prussian capital city of Berlin at around the same time period.
The British Army introduced identity discs in place of identity cards in 1907, in the form of aluminium discs, typically made at regimental depots using machines similar to those common at fun fairs, the details being pressed into the thin metal one letter at a time.
Army Order 287 of September 1916 required the British Army provide all soldiers with two official tags, both made of vulcanised asbestos fibre (which were more comfortable to wear in hot climates) carrying identical details, again impressed one character at a time. The first tag, an octagonal green disc, was attached to a long cord around the neck. The second tag, a circular red disc, was threaded on a 6-inch cord suspended from the first tag. The first tag was intended to remain on the body for future identification, while the second tag could be taken to record the death.
British and Empire/Commonwealth forces (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) were issued essentially identical identification discs of basic pattern during the Great War, Second World War and Korea, though official identity discs were frequently supplemented by private-purchase items such as identity bracelets, particularly favoured by sailors who believed the official discs were unlikely to survive long immersion in water.
The U.S. Army first authorized identification tags in War Department General Order No. 204, dated December 20, 1906, which essentially prescribes the Kennedy identification tag:
An aluminum identification tag, the size of a silver half dollar and of suitable thickness, stamped with the name, rank, company, regiment, or corps of the wearer, will be worn by each officer and enlisted man of the Army whenever the field kit is worn, the tag to be suspended from the neck, underneath the clothing, by a cord or thong passed through a small hole in the tag. It is prescribed as a part of the uniform and when not worn as directed herein will be habitually kept in the possession of the owner. The tag will be issued by the Quartermaster's Department gratuitously to enlisted men and at cost price to officers.
The U.S. Army changed regulations on July 6, 1916, so that all soldiers were issued two tags: one to stay with the body and the other to go to the person in charge of the burial for record-keeping purposes. In 1918, the U.S. Army adopted and allotted the service number system, and name and service numbers were ordered stamped on the identification tags.
There is a recurring myth about the notch situated in one end of the dog tags issued to United States Army personnel during World War II, and up until the Korean War era. It was rumored that the notch's purpose was that, if a soldier found one of his comrades on the battlefield, he could take one tag to the commanding officer and stick the other between the teeth of the soldier to ensure that the tag would remain with the body and be identified.
In reality, the notch was used with the Model 70 Addressograph Hand Identification Imprinting Machine (a pistol-type imprinter used primarily by the Medical Department during World War II). American dogtags of the 1930s through 1980s were produced using a Graphotype machine, in which characters are debossed into metal plates. Some tags are still debossed, using earlier equipment, and some are embossed (with raised letters) on computer-controlled equipment.
In the Graphotype process, commonly used commercially from the early 1900s through the 1980s, a debossing machine was used to stamp characters into metal plates; the plates could then be used to repetitively stamp such things as addresses onto paper in the same way that a typewriter functions, except that a single stroke of the printer could produce a block of text, rather than requiring each character to be printed individually. The debossing process creates durable, easily legible metal plates, well-suited for military identification tags, leading to adoption of the system by the American military. It was also realized that debossed tags can function the same way the original Graphotype plates do.
The Model 70 took advantage of this fact, and was intended to rapidly print all of the information from a soldier's dogtag directly onto medical and personnel forms, with a single squeeze of the trigger. However, this requires that the tag being inserted with the proper orientation (stamped characters facing down), and it was believed that battlefield stress could lead to errors. To force proper orientation of the tags, the tags are produced with a notch, and there is a locator tab inside the Model 70 which prevents the printer from operating if the tag is inserted with the notch in the wrong place (as it is if the tag is upside down).
This feature was not as useful in the field as had been hoped, however, due to adverse conditions such as weather, dirt and dust, water, etc. In addition, the Model 70 resembled a pistol, thus attracting the attention of snipers (who might assume that a man carrying a pistol was an officer). As a result, use of the Model 70 hand imprinter by field medics was rapidly abandoned (as were most of the Model 70s themselves), and eventually the specification that tags include the locator notch was removed from production orders. Existing stocks of tags were used until depleted, and in the 1960s it was not uncommon for a soldier to be issued one tag with the notch and one tag without. Notched tags are still in production, to satisfy the needs of hobbyists, film production, etc., while the Model 70 imprinter has become a rare collector's item.
It appears instructions that would confirm the notch's mythical use were issued at least unofficially by the Graves Registration Service during the Vietnam War to Army troops headed overseas.
Dog tags are traditionally part of the makeshift battlefield memorials soldiers created for their fallen comrades. The casualty's rifle with bayonet affixed is stood vertically atop the empty boots, with the helmet over the rifle's stock. The dog tags hang from the rifle's handle or trigger guard.
Some tags (along with similar items such as MedicAlert bracelets) are used also by civilians to identify their wearers and:
Military personnel in some jurisdiction may wear a supplementary medical information tag.
Dog tags have found their way into youth fashion as military chic. Originally worn as a part of a military uniform by youth wishing to present a tough or militaristic image, dog tags have since reached wider fashion circles. They may be inscribed with a person's details, beliefs or tastes, a favorite quote, or may bear the name or logo of a band or performer. The wearing of dog tags as a fashion accessory can be considered disrespectful by some military personnel.
Since the late 1990s, custom dog tags have been fashionable amongst musicians (particularly rappers), and as a marketing give-away item. Numerous companies offer customers the opportunity to create their own personalized dog tags with their own photos, logos, and text. Even high-end jewellers have featured gold and silver dog tags encrusted with diamonds and other jewels.
The Austrian Bundesheer used a single long, rectangular tag, with oval ends, stamped with blood group & Rh factor at the end, with ID number underneath. Two slots and a hole stamped beneath allows the tag to be broken in halves, and the long bottom portion has both the ID number and a series of holes which allows the tag to be inserted into a dosimeter. This has been replaced with a more conventional, wider and rounded rectangle which can still be halved, but lacks the dosimeter reading holes.
The Australian Defence Force issues soldiers two tags of different shapes, one octagonal and one circular, containing the following information:
The information is printed exactly the same on both discs. In the event of a casualty, the circular tag is removed from the body.
Belgian Forces identity tags are, like the Canadian and Norwegian, designed to be broken in two in case of fatality; the lower half is returned to the Belgian Defence staff, while the upper half remains on the body. The tags contain the following information:
Canadian Forces identity discs (abbreviated "ID discs") are designed to be broken in two in the case of fatality; the lower half is returned to National Defence Headquarters with the member's personal documents, while the upper half remains on the body. The tags contain the following information:
Before the Service Number was introduced in the 1990s, military personnel were identified on the ID discs (as well as other documents) by their social insurance number.
The People's Liberation Army issues two long, rectangular tags. All information is stamped in Simplified Chinese:
PLA is introducing a two-dimensional matrix code on the second tag, the matrix code contains a link to the official database. This allows the inquirer get more details about the military personnel.
The Ejército Nacional de Colombia uses long, rectangular metal tags with oval ends tags stamped with the following information:
Duplicate tags are issued. Often, tags are issued with a prayer inscribed on the reverse.
In Cyprus, identification tags include the following information:
The military of Denmark use dog tags made from small, rectangular metal plates. The tag is designed to be broken into two pieces each with the following information stamped onto it:
Additionally, the right hand side of each half-tag is engraved DANMARK (Danish for 'DENMARK'). Starting in 1985, the individual's service number (which is the same as the social security number) is included on the tag. In case the individual dies, the lower half-tag is supposed to be collected, while the other will remain with the corpse. In the army, navy, and air force but not in the national guard, the individual's blood type is indicated on the lower half-tag only, since this information becomes irrelevant if the individual dies. In 2009, Danish dog tags were discontinued for conscripts.
The Nationale Volksarmee used a tag nearly identical to that used by both the Wehrmacht and the West German Bundeswehr. The oval aluminum tag was stamped "DDR" (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) above the personal ID number; this information was repeated on the bottom half, which was intended to be broken off in case of death. Oddly, the tag was not worn (but would have been in case of war), but required to be kept in a plastic sleeve in the back of the WDA ("Wehrdienstausweis") identity booklet.
The Placas de identificación de campaña consists of two long, rectangular steel or aluminum tags with rounded corners and a single hole punched in one end. It is suspended by a US-type ball chain, with a shorter chain for the second tag. The information on the tag is:
Estonian dog tags are designed to be broken in two. The dog tag is a metallic rounded rectangle suspended by a ball chain. Information consists of four fields:
Example:
In the Finnish Defence Forces, "tunnuslevy" or WWII term "tuntolevy" (Finnish for "Identification plate") is made of stainless steel and designed to be broken in two; however, the only text on it is the personal identification number and the letters "FI" or "SF" in older models, which stands for Suomi Finland, within a tower stamped atop of the upper half.
France issues either a metallic rounded rectangle (army) or disk (navy), designed to be broken in half, bearing family name & first name above the ID number.
See above for former East Germany.
German Bundeswehr ID tags are an oval-shaped disc designed to be broken in half. They are made of stainless steel, 50.3 millimetres (1.98 in) height and 80 millimetres (3.1 in) width. The two sides contain different information which are mirrored upside-down on the lower half of the ID tag. They feature the following information on segmented and numbered fields:
On the front:
On the back:
Bundesamt für Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung of 2009-12-21 specifies shape, materials and characteristics for four parts:
The ID tag is landscape-oval, breakable in two halves with 4–8 manual bends. On the backside each half is 0.2 mm deep marked with "DEU" for Deutschland, the non-magnetic type on both halves and both sides with "NM".
The metal sheet is 0.7 mm thick, material codes X5CrNi1810 or 1.4301, weighs about 16 g. NM-variant shall consist of 1.4311 or 1.4401. Sharp edges have to be smoothed, then the plate electropolished. Mechanical deburring and ball polishing is allowed.
The letters stamped in for the person must stay readable after a glow test for 10 minutes in air at 1200 °C.
The ball chain is of X5CrNi1810, diameter of ball is 3.5 mm, that of the wire 1.5 mm. Closure is of 1.4301, stainless steel, too. The long chain is 680 + 30 mm long, the short one 145 + 7 mm. Breaking force of the chain including the closure must reach 100 N, after 10 min glow at 1200 °C in air at least 10 N.
In Greece, identification tags include the following information:
The Hungarian army dog tag is made out of steel, forming a 25×35 mm tag designed to split diagonally. Both sides contain the same information: the soldier's personal identity code, blood group and the word HUNGARIA. Some may not have the blood group on them. These are only issued to soldiers who are serving outside of the country. If the soldier should die, one side is removed and kept for the army's official records, while the other side is left attached to the body.
The Saddam-era Iraqi Army used a single, long, rectangular metal tag with oval ends, inscribed (usually by hand) with Name and Number or Unit, and occasionally Blood Type.
Dog tags of the Israel Defense Forces are designed to be broken in two. The information appears in three lines (twice):
Recruits are issued with 2 Dogtags (4 halves total), one remains whole and worn on a necklace, and the second is broken into its halves and placed in each military boot for the purpose of Identifying dead soldiers (IDF Military Boots contain pouches on their inner sides at the 1/3 calf height, the pouches have holes corresponding in size and placement to those on the discs, allowing for fastening, often via small cable ties).
Originally the IDF issued two circular aluminum tags (1948 – late 1950s) stamped in three lines with serial number, family name, and first name. The tags were threaded together through a single hole onto a cord worn around the neck.
Rectangular piece, 35x45 mm, designed to be broken in two. Includes soldier's first and last name, coded date and place of birth, identification number, religious affiliation, and blood group.
Japan follows a similar system to the US Army for its Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel, and the appearance of the tags is similar, although laser etched. The exact information order is as follows.
Malaysian Armed Forces have two identical oval tags with this information:
If more information needed, another two oval wrist tags are provided. The term wrist tags can be used to refer to the bracelet-like wristwatch. The additional tags only need to be worn on the wrist, with the main tags still on the neck. All personnel are allowed to attach a small religious pendant or locket; this makes a quick identifiable reference for their funeral services.
The Mexican Army uses two long identity tags, very similar to the ones used in the United States Army. They are rectangular metal tags with oval ends, embossed with name, serial number, and blood type, plus Rh factor.
Dutch military identity tags, like the Canadian and Norwegian ones, are designed to be broken in two in case of a fatality; the lower end is returned to Dutch Defence Headquarters, while the upper half remains on the body.
The tags contain the following information:
There is a difference in the Army and Air Force service number and the Navy service number:
Norwegian dog tags are designed to be broken in two like the Canadian and the Dutch version:
The first dog tags were issued in Poland following the order of the General Staff of December 12, 1920. The earliest design (dubbed kapala in Polish, more properly called "kapsel legitymacyjny" - meaning "identification cap") consisted of a tin-made 30×50 mm rectangular frame and a rectangular cap fitting into the frame. Soldiers' details were filled in a small ID card placed inside the frame, as well as on the inside of the frame itself. The dog tag was similar to the tags used by the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I. In case the soldier died, the frame was left with his body, while the lid was returned to his unit together with a note on his death. The ID card was handed over to the chaplain or the rabbi.
In 1928, a new type of dog tag was proposed by gen. bryg. Stanisław Rouppert, Poland's representative at the International Red Cross. It was slightly modified and adopted in 1931 under the name of Nieśmiertelnik wz. 1931 (literally "Immortalizer mark 1931"). The new design consisted of an oval piece of metal (ideally steel, but in most cases aluminum alloy was used), roughly 40 by 50 millimeters. There were two notches on both sides of the tag, as well as two rectangular holes in the middle to allow for easier breaking of the tag in two halves. The halves contained the same set of data and were identical, except the upper half had two holes for a string or twine to go through. The data stamped on the dog tag from 2008 (wz. 2008) included:
with the name of Polish Army "Siły Zbrojne RP" and Polish Emblem.
The former Republic of Rhodesia used two WW2 British-style compressed asbestos fiber tags, a No. 1 octagonal (grey) tag and a No. 2 circular (red) tag, stamped with identical information. The red tag was supposedly fireproof and the grey tag rotproof. The following information was stamped on the tags: Number, Name, Initials, & Religion; Blood Type was stamped on reverse. The air force and BSAP often stamped their service on the reverse side above the blood group.
The Russian Armed Forces use oval metal tags, similar to the dog tags of the Soviet Army. Each tag contains the title ВС РОССИИ (Russian for 'Armed Forces of Russia') and the individual's alphanumeric number, as shown on the photo.
The Singapore Armed Forces-issued dog tags are inscribed (not embossed) with up to four items:
The dog tags consist of two metal pieces, one oval with two holes and one round with one hole. A synthetic lanyard is threaded through both holes in the oval piece and tied around the wearer's neck. The round piece is tied to the main loop on a shorter loop.
The South African Defense Force use two long, rectangular stainless steel tags with oval ends, stamped with serial number, name and initials, religion, and blood type.
The South Korean army issues two long, rectangular tags with oval ends, stamped (in Korean lettering). The tags are worn on the neck with a ball chain. The tags contain the information listed below:
The South Vietnamese Army and the South Vietnamese Navy used two American-style dog tags. Some tags added religion on the back, e.g., Phật Giáo for Buddhist. They were stamped or inscribed with:
During World War II, the Red Army did not issue metal dog tags to its troops. They were issued small black Bakelite cylinders containing a slip of paper with a soldier's particulars written on it. These do not hold up as well as metal dog tags. After World War II, the Soviet Army used oval metal tags, similar to today's dog tags of the Russian Armed forces. Each tag contains the title ВС СССР (Russian for 'USSR Armed Forces') and the individual's alphanumeric number.
Issues a single metal oval, worn vertically, stamped "ESPAÑA" above and below the 3-slot horizontal break line. It is stamped in 4 lines with:
Swedish identification tags are designed to be able to break apart. The information on them was prior to 2010 and are as follows:
Swedish dog tags issued to Armed Forces personnel after 2010 are, for personal security reasons, only marked with a personal identity number.
During the Cold War, dog tags were issued to everyone, often soon after birth, since the threat of total war also meant the risk of severe civilian casualties. However, in 2010, the Government decided that the dog tags were not needed anymore.
Swiss Armed Forces ID tag is an oval shaped non reflective plaque, containing the following information:
On the back side the letters CH (standing for Confoederatio Helvetica) are engraved next to a Swiss cross.
The British Armed Forces currently use two circular non-reflecting stainless steel tags, referred to as "ID Disks", engraved with the following 'Big 5' details:
The discs are suspended from one long chain (24 inches long) and one short chain (4.5 inches long)
During World War One and Two, service personnel were issued pressed fibre identity disks, one green octagonal shaped disc, and a red round disc (some army units issued a second red round disc to be attached to the service respirator). The identity disks were hand stamped with the surname, initials, service number and religion of the holder and if in the Royal Air Force, the initials RAF. The disks were worn around the neck on a 38" length of cotton cord, this was often replaced by the wearer with a leather bootlace. One tag was suspended below the main tag.
The fibre identity disks in the RAF were still in use in 1999.
From 1960 these were replaced with stainless steel ID tags on a green nylon cord, two circular and one oval. The oval was withdrawn around 1990.
Tags are properly known as identification tags; the term "dog tags" has never been used in regulations.
The U.S. Armed Forces typically carry two identical oval dog tags containing:
During World War II, an American dog tag could indicate only one of three religions through the inclusion of one letter: "P" for Protestant, "C" for Catholic, or "H" for Jewish (from the word, "Hebrew"), or (according to at least one source) "NO" to indicate no religious preference. Army regulations (606-5) soon included X and Y in addition to P, C, and H: the X indicating any religion not included in the first three, and the Y indicating either no religion or a choice not to list religion. By the time of the Vietnam War, some IDs spelled out the broad religious choices such as PROTESTANT and CATHOLIC, rather than using initials, and also began to show individual denominations such as "METHODIST" or "BAPTIST". Tags did vary by service, however, such as the use of "CATH," not "CATHOLIC" on some Navy tags. For those with no religious affiliation and those who chose not to list an affiliation, either the space for religion was left blank or the words "NO PREFERENCE" or "NO RELIGIOUS PREF" (or the abbreviation "NO PREF") were included.
Although American dog tags currently include the recipient's religion as a way of ensuring that religious needs will be met, some personnel have them reissued without religious affiliation listed—or keep two sets, one with the designation and one without—out of fear that identification as a member of a particular religion could increase the danger to their welfare or their lives if they fell into enemy hands. Some Jewish personnel avoided flying over German lines during WWII with ID tags that indicated their religion, and some Jewish personnel avoid the religious designation today out of concern that they could be captured by extremists who are anti-Semitic. Additionally, when American troops were first sent to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War there were allegations that some U.S. military authorities were pressuring Jewish military personnel to avoid listing their religions on their ID tags. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dog tag is an informal but common term for a specific type of identification tag worn by military personnel. The tags' primary use is for the identification of casualties; they have information about the individual written on them, including identification and essential basic medical information such as blood type and history of inoculations. They often indicate a religious preference as well.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Dog tags are usually fabricated from a corrosion-resistant metal. They commonly contain two copies of the information, either in the form of a single tag that can be broken in half, or as two identical tags on the same chain. This purposeful duplication allows one tag, or half-tag, to be collected from an individual's dead body for notification, while the duplicate remains with the corpse if the conditions of battle prevent it from being immediately recovered. The term arose and became popular because of the tags' resemblance to animal registration tags.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The earliest mention of an identification tag for soldiers comes in Polyaenus (Stratagems 1.17) where the Spartans wrote their names on sticks tied to their left wrists. A type of dog tag (\"signaculum\") was given to the Roman legionary at the moment of enrollment. The legionary \"signaculum\" was a lead disk with a leather string, worn around the neck, with the name of the recruit and the indication of the legion of which the recruit was part. This procedure, together with enrollment in the list of recruits, was made at the beginning of a four-month probatory period (\"probatio\"). The recruit obtained the military status only after the oath of allegiance (\"sacramentum\") at the end of \"probatio\", meaning that from a legal point of view the \"signaculum\" was given to a subject who was no longer a civilian, but not yet in the military.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In more recent times, dog tags were provided to Chinese soldiers as early as the mid-19th century. During the Taiping revolt (1851–66), both the Imperialists (i.e., the Chinese Imperial Army regular servicemen) and those Taiping rebels wearing a uniform wore wooden dog tags at the belt, bearing the soldier's name, age, birthplace, unit, and date of enlistment.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "During the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, some soldiers pinned paper notes with their name and home address to the backs of their coats. Other soldiers stenciled identification on their knapsacks or scratched it in the soft lead backing of their army belt buckles.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Manufacturers of identification badges recognized a market and began advertising in periodicals. Their pins were usually shaped to suggest a branch of service, and engraved with the soldier's name and unit. Machine-stamped tags were also made of brass or lead with a hole and usually had (on one side) an eagle or shield, and such phrases as \"War for the Union\" or \"Liberty, Union, and Equality\". The other side had the soldier's name and unit, and sometimes a list of battles in which he had participated.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "On a volunteer basis Prussian soldiers had decided to wear identification tags in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. However, many rejected dog tags as a bad omen for their lives. So until eight months after the Battle of Königgrätz, with almost 8,900 Prussian casualties, only 429 of them could be identified. With the formation of the North German Confederation in 1867 Prussian military regulations became binding for the militaries of all North German member states. With the Prussian Instruktion über das Sanitätswesen der Armee im Felde (i.e., instruction on the medical corps organisation of the army afield) issued on 29 April 1869 identification tags (then called Erkennungsmarke; literally \"recognition mark\") were to be handed out to each soldier before deployment afield. The Prussian Army issued identification tags for its troops at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. They were nicknamed Hundemarken (the German equivalent of \"dog tags\") and compared to a similar identification system instituted by the dog licence fee, adding tags to collars of those dogs whose owners paid the fee, in the Prussian capital city of Berlin at around the same time period.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The British Army introduced identity discs in place of identity cards in 1907, in the form of aluminium discs, typically made at regimental depots using machines similar to those common at fun fairs, the details being pressed into the thin metal one letter at a time.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Army Order 287 of September 1916 required the British Army provide all soldiers with two official tags, both made of vulcanised asbestos fibre (which were more comfortable to wear in hot climates) carrying identical details, again impressed one character at a time. The first tag, an octagonal green disc, was attached to a long cord around the neck. The second tag, a circular red disc, was threaded on a 6-inch cord suspended from the first tag. The first tag was intended to remain on the body for future identification, while the second tag could be taken to record the death.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "British and Empire/Commonwealth forces (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) were issued essentially identical identification discs of basic pattern during the Great War, Second World War and Korea, though official identity discs were frequently supplemented by private-purchase items such as identity bracelets, particularly favoured by sailors who believed the official discs were unlikely to survive long immersion in water.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The U.S. Army first authorized identification tags in War Department General Order No. 204, dated December 20, 1906, which essentially prescribes the Kennedy identification tag:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "An aluminum identification tag, the size of a silver half dollar and of suitable thickness, stamped with the name, rank, company, regiment, or corps of the wearer, will be worn by each officer and enlisted man of the Army whenever the field kit is worn, the tag to be suspended from the neck, underneath the clothing, by a cord or thong passed through a small hole in the tag. It is prescribed as a part of the uniform and when not worn as directed herein will be habitually kept in the possession of the owner. The tag will be issued by the Quartermaster's Department gratuitously to enlisted men and at cost price to officers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The U.S. Army changed regulations on July 6, 1916, so that all soldiers were issued two tags: one to stay with the body and the other to go to the person in charge of the burial for record-keeping purposes. In 1918, the U.S. Army adopted and allotted the service number system, and name and service numbers were ordered stamped on the identification tags.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "There is a recurring myth about the notch situated in one end of the dog tags issued to United States Army personnel during World War II, and up until the Korean War era. It was rumored that the notch's purpose was that, if a soldier found one of his comrades on the battlefield, he could take one tag to the commanding officer and stick the other between the teeth of the soldier to ensure that the tag would remain with the body and be identified.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In reality, the notch was used with the Model 70 Addressograph Hand Identification Imprinting Machine (a pistol-type imprinter used primarily by the Medical Department during World War II). American dogtags of the 1930s through 1980s were produced using a Graphotype machine, in which characters are debossed into metal plates. Some tags are still debossed, using earlier equipment, and some are embossed (with raised letters) on computer-controlled equipment.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In the Graphotype process, commonly used commercially from the early 1900s through the 1980s, a debossing machine was used to stamp characters into metal plates; the plates could then be used to repetitively stamp such things as addresses onto paper in the same way that a typewriter functions, except that a single stroke of the printer could produce a block of text, rather than requiring each character to be printed individually. The debossing process creates durable, easily legible metal plates, well-suited for military identification tags, leading to adoption of the system by the American military. It was also realized that debossed tags can function the same way the original Graphotype plates do.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The Model 70 took advantage of this fact, and was intended to rapidly print all of the information from a soldier's dogtag directly onto medical and personnel forms, with a single squeeze of the trigger. However, this requires that the tag being inserted with the proper orientation (stamped characters facing down), and it was believed that battlefield stress could lead to errors. To force proper orientation of the tags, the tags are produced with a notch, and there is a locator tab inside the Model 70 which prevents the printer from operating if the tag is inserted with the notch in the wrong place (as it is if the tag is upside down).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "This feature was not as useful in the field as had been hoped, however, due to adverse conditions such as weather, dirt and dust, water, etc. In addition, the Model 70 resembled a pistol, thus attracting the attention of snipers (who might assume that a man carrying a pistol was an officer). As a result, use of the Model 70 hand imprinter by field medics was rapidly abandoned (as were most of the Model 70s themselves), and eventually the specification that tags include the locator notch was removed from production orders. Existing stocks of tags were used until depleted, and in the 1960s it was not uncommon for a soldier to be issued one tag with the notch and one tag without. Notched tags are still in production, to satisfy the needs of hobbyists, film production, etc., while the Model 70 imprinter has become a rare collector's item.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "It appears instructions that would confirm the notch's mythical use were issued at least unofficially by the Graves Registration Service during the Vietnam War to Army troops headed overseas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Dog tags are traditionally part of the makeshift battlefield memorials soldiers created for their fallen comrades. The casualty's rifle with bayonet affixed is stood vertically atop the empty boots, with the helmet over the rifle's stock. The dog tags hang from the rifle's handle or trigger guard.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Some tags (along with similar items such as MedicAlert bracelets) are used also by civilians to identify their wearers and:",
"title": "Non-military usage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Military personnel in some jurisdiction may wear a supplementary medical information tag.",
"title": "Non-military usage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Dog tags have found their way into youth fashion as military chic. Originally worn as a part of a military uniform by youth wishing to present a tough or militaristic image, dog tags have since reached wider fashion circles. They may be inscribed with a person's details, beliefs or tastes, a favorite quote, or may bear the name or logo of a band or performer. The wearing of dog tags as a fashion accessory can be considered disrespectful by some military personnel.",
"title": "Non-military usage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Since the late 1990s, custom dog tags have been fashionable amongst musicians (particularly rappers), and as a marketing give-away item. Numerous companies offer customers the opportunity to create their own personalized dog tags with their own photos, logos, and text. Even high-end jewellers have featured gold and silver dog tags encrusted with diamonds and other jewels.",
"title": "Non-military usage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Austrian Bundesheer used a single long, rectangular tag, with oval ends, stamped with blood group & Rh factor at the end, with ID number underneath. Two slots and a hole stamped beneath allows the tag to be broken in halves, and the long bottom portion has both the ID number and a series of holes which allows the tag to be inserted into a dosimeter. This has been replaced with a more conventional, wider and rounded rectangle which can still be halved, but lacks the dosimeter reading holes.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Australian Defence Force issues soldiers two tags of different shapes, one octagonal and one circular, containing the following information:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The information is printed exactly the same on both discs. In the event of a casualty, the circular tag is removed from the body.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Belgian Forces identity tags are, like the Canadian and Norwegian, designed to be broken in two in case of fatality; the lower half is returned to the Belgian Defence staff, while the upper half remains on the body. The tags contain the following information:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Canadian Forces identity discs (abbreviated \"ID discs\") are designed to be broken in two in the case of fatality; the lower half is returned to National Defence Headquarters with the member's personal documents, while the upper half remains on the body. The tags contain the following information:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Before the Service Number was introduced in the 1990s, military personnel were identified on the ID discs (as well as other documents) by their social insurance number.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The People's Liberation Army issues two long, rectangular tags. All information is stamped in Simplified Chinese:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "PLA is introducing a two-dimensional matrix code on the second tag, the matrix code contains a link to the official database. This allows the inquirer get more details about the military personnel.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The Ejército Nacional de Colombia uses long, rectangular metal tags with oval ends tags stamped with the following information:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Duplicate tags are issued. Often, tags are issued with a prayer inscribed on the reverse.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In Cyprus, identification tags include the following information:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The military of Denmark use dog tags made from small, rectangular metal plates. The tag is designed to be broken into two pieces each with the following information stamped onto it:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Additionally, the right hand side of each half-tag is engraved DANMARK (Danish for 'DENMARK'). Starting in 1985, the individual's service number (which is the same as the social security number) is included on the tag. In case the individual dies, the lower half-tag is supposed to be collected, while the other will remain with the corpse. In the army, navy, and air force but not in the national guard, the individual's blood type is indicated on the lower half-tag only, since this information becomes irrelevant if the individual dies. In 2009, Danish dog tags were discontinued for conscripts.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The Nationale Volksarmee used a tag nearly identical to that used by both the Wehrmacht and the West German Bundeswehr. The oval aluminum tag was stamped \"DDR\" (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) above the personal ID number; this information was repeated on the bottom half, which was intended to be broken off in case of death. Oddly, the tag was not worn (but would have been in case of war), but required to be kept in a plastic sleeve in the back of the WDA (\"Wehrdienstausweis\") identity booklet.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The Placas de identificación de campaña consists of two long, rectangular steel or aluminum tags with rounded corners and a single hole punched in one end. It is suspended by a US-type ball chain, with a shorter chain for the second tag. The information on the tag is:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Estonian dog tags are designed to be broken in two. The dog tag is a metallic rounded rectangle suspended by a ball chain. Information consists of four fields:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Example:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In the Finnish Defence Forces, \"tunnuslevy\" or WWII term \"tuntolevy\" (Finnish for \"Identification plate\") is made of stainless steel and designed to be broken in two; however, the only text on it is the personal identification number and the letters \"FI\" or \"SF\" in older models, which stands for Suomi Finland, within a tower stamped atop of the upper half.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "France issues either a metallic rounded rectangle (army) or disk (navy), designed to be broken in half, bearing family name & first name above the ID number.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "See above for former East Germany.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "German Bundeswehr ID tags are an oval-shaped disc designed to be broken in half. They are made of stainless steel, 50.3 millimetres (1.98 in) height and 80 millimetres (3.1 in) width. The two sides contain different information which are mirrored upside-down on the lower half of the ID tag. They feature the following information on segmented and numbered fields:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "On the front:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "On the back:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Bundesamt für Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung of 2009-12-21 specifies shape, materials and characteristics for four parts:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The ID tag is landscape-oval, breakable in two halves with 4–8 manual bends. On the backside each half is 0.2 mm deep marked with \"DEU\" for Deutschland, the non-magnetic type on both halves and both sides with \"NM\".",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The metal sheet is 0.7 mm thick, material codes X5CrNi1810 or 1.4301, weighs about 16 g. NM-variant shall consist of 1.4311 or 1.4401. Sharp edges have to be smoothed, then the plate electropolished. Mechanical deburring and ball polishing is allowed.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The letters stamped in for the person must stay readable after a glow test for 10 minutes in air at 1200 °C.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "The ball chain is of X5CrNi1810, diameter of ball is 3.5 mm, that of the wire 1.5 mm. Closure is of 1.4301, stainless steel, too. The long chain is 680 + 30 mm long, the short one 145 + 7 mm. Breaking force of the chain including the closure must reach 100 N, after 10 min glow at 1200 °C in air at least 10 N.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "In Greece, identification tags include the following information:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "The Hungarian army dog tag is made out of steel, forming a 25×35 mm tag designed to split diagonally. Both sides contain the same information: the soldier's personal identity code, blood group and the word HUNGARIA. Some may not have the blood group on them. These are only issued to soldiers who are serving outside of the country. If the soldier should die, one side is removed and kept for the army's official records, while the other side is left attached to the body.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "The Saddam-era Iraqi Army used a single, long, rectangular metal tag with oval ends, inscribed (usually by hand) with Name and Number or Unit, and occasionally Blood Type.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Dog tags of the Israel Defense Forces are designed to be broken in two. The information appears in three lines (twice):",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Recruits are issued with 2 Dogtags (4 halves total), one remains whole and worn on a necklace, and the second is broken into its halves and placed in each military boot for the purpose of Identifying dead soldiers (IDF Military Boots contain pouches on their inner sides at the 1/3 calf height, the pouches have holes corresponding in size and placement to those on the discs, allowing for fastening, often via small cable ties).",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Originally the IDF issued two circular aluminum tags (1948 – late 1950s) stamped in three lines with serial number, family name, and first name. The tags were threaded together through a single hole onto a cord worn around the neck.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Rectangular piece, 35x45 mm, designed to be broken in two. Includes soldier's first and last name, coded date and place of birth, identification number, religious affiliation, and blood group.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Japan follows a similar system to the US Army for its Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel, and the appearance of the tags is similar, although laser etched. The exact information order is as follows.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Malaysian Armed Forces have two identical oval tags with this information:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "If more information needed, another two oval wrist tags are provided. The term wrist tags can be used to refer to the bracelet-like wristwatch. The additional tags only need to be worn on the wrist, with the main tags still on the neck. All personnel are allowed to attach a small religious pendant or locket; this makes a quick identifiable reference for their funeral services.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "The Mexican Army uses two long identity tags, very similar to the ones used in the United States Army. They are rectangular metal tags with oval ends, embossed with name, serial number, and blood type, plus Rh factor.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Dutch military identity tags, like the Canadian and Norwegian ones, are designed to be broken in two in case of a fatality; the lower end is returned to Dutch Defence Headquarters, while the upper half remains on the body.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "The tags contain the following information:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "There is a difference in the Army and Air Force service number and the Navy service number:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Norwegian dog tags are designed to be broken in two like the Canadian and the Dutch version:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "The first dog tags were issued in Poland following the order of the General Staff of December 12, 1920. The earliest design (dubbed kapala in Polish, more properly called \"kapsel legitymacyjny\" - meaning \"identification cap\") consisted of a tin-made 30×50 mm rectangular frame and a rectangular cap fitting into the frame. Soldiers' details were filled in a small ID card placed inside the frame, as well as on the inside of the frame itself. The dog tag was similar to the tags used by the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I. In case the soldier died, the frame was left with his body, while the lid was returned to his unit together with a note on his death. The ID card was handed over to the chaplain or the rabbi.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "In 1928, a new type of dog tag was proposed by gen. bryg. Stanisław Rouppert, Poland's representative at the International Red Cross. It was slightly modified and adopted in 1931 under the name of Nieśmiertelnik wz. 1931 (literally \"Immortalizer mark 1931\"). The new design consisted of an oval piece of metal (ideally steel, but in most cases aluminum alloy was used), roughly 40 by 50 millimeters. There were two notches on both sides of the tag, as well as two rectangular holes in the middle to allow for easier breaking of the tag in two halves. The halves contained the same set of data and were identical, except the upper half had two holes for a string or twine to go through. The data stamped on the dog tag from 2008 (wz. 2008) included:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "with the name of Polish Army \"Siły Zbrojne RP\" and Polish Emblem.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "The former Republic of Rhodesia used two WW2 British-style compressed asbestos fiber tags, a No. 1 octagonal (grey) tag and a No. 2 circular (red) tag, stamped with identical information. The red tag was supposedly fireproof and the grey tag rotproof. The following information was stamped on the tags: Number, Name, Initials, & Religion; Blood Type was stamped on reverse. The air force and BSAP often stamped their service on the reverse side above the blood group.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "The Russian Armed Forces use oval metal tags, similar to the dog tags of the Soviet Army. Each tag contains the title ВС РОССИИ (Russian for 'Armed Forces of Russia') and the individual's alphanumeric number, as shown on the photo.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "The Singapore Armed Forces-issued dog tags are inscribed (not embossed) with up to four items:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "The dog tags consist of two metal pieces, one oval with two holes and one round with one hole. A synthetic lanyard is threaded through both holes in the oval piece and tied around the wearer's neck. The round piece is tied to the main loop on a shorter loop.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "The South African Defense Force use two long, rectangular stainless steel tags with oval ends, stamped with serial number, name and initials, religion, and blood type.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "The South Korean army issues two long, rectangular tags with oval ends, stamped (in Korean lettering). The tags are worn on the neck with a ball chain. The tags contain the information listed below:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "The South Vietnamese Army and the South Vietnamese Navy used two American-style dog tags. Some tags added religion on the back, e.g., Phật Giáo for Buddhist. They were stamped or inscribed with:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "During World War II, the Red Army did not issue metal dog tags to its troops. They were issued small black Bakelite cylinders containing a slip of paper with a soldier's particulars written on it. These do not hold up as well as metal dog tags. After World War II, the Soviet Army used oval metal tags, similar to today's dog tags of the Russian Armed forces. Each tag contains the title ВС СССР (Russian for 'USSR Armed Forces') and the individual's alphanumeric number.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Issues a single metal oval, worn vertically, stamped \"ESPAÑA\" above and below the 3-slot horizontal break line. It is stamped in 4 lines with:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Swedish identification tags are designed to be able to break apart. The information on them was prior to 2010 and are as follows:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Swedish dog tags issued to Armed Forces personnel after 2010 are, for personal security reasons, only marked with a personal identity number.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "During the Cold War, dog tags were issued to everyone, often soon after birth, since the threat of total war also meant the risk of severe civilian casualties. However, in 2010, the Government decided that the dog tags were not needed anymore.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "Swiss Armed Forces ID tag is an oval shaped non reflective plaque, containing the following information:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "On the back side the letters CH (standing for Confoederatio Helvetica) are engraved next to a Swiss cross.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "The British Armed Forces currently use two circular non-reflecting stainless steel tags, referred to as \"ID Disks\", engraved with the following 'Big 5' details:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "The discs are suspended from one long chain (24 inches long) and one short chain (4.5 inches long)",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "During World War One and Two, service personnel were issued pressed fibre identity disks, one green octagonal shaped disc, and a red round disc (some army units issued a second red round disc to be attached to the service respirator). The identity disks were hand stamped with the surname, initials, service number and religion of the holder and if in the Royal Air Force, the initials RAF. The disks were worn around the neck on a 38\" length of cotton cord, this was often replaced by the wearer with a leather bootlace. One tag was suspended below the main tag.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "The fibre identity disks in the RAF were still in use in 1999.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "From 1960 these were replaced with stainless steel ID tags on a green nylon cord, two circular and one oval. The oval was withdrawn around 1990.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Tags are properly known as identification tags; the term \"dog tags\" has never been used in regulations.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "The U.S. Armed Forces typically carry two identical oval dog tags containing:",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "During World War II, an American dog tag could indicate only one of three religions through the inclusion of one letter: \"P\" for Protestant, \"C\" for Catholic, or \"H\" for Jewish (from the word, \"Hebrew\"), or (according to at least one source) \"NO\" to indicate no religious preference. Army regulations (606-5) soon included X and Y in addition to P, C, and H: the X indicating any religion not included in the first three, and the Y indicating either no religion or a choice not to list religion. By the time of the Vietnam War, some IDs spelled out the broad religious choices such as PROTESTANT and CATHOLIC, rather than using initials, and also began to show individual denominations such as \"METHODIST\" or \"BAPTIST\". Tags did vary by service, however, such as the use of \"CATH,\" not \"CATHOLIC\" on some Navy tags. For those with no religious affiliation and those who chose not to list an affiliation, either the space for religion was left blank or the words \"NO PREFERENCE\" or \"NO RELIGIOUS PREF\" (or the abbreviation \"NO PREF\") were included.",
"title": "Variations by country"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "Although American dog tags currently include the recipient's religion as a way of ensuring that religious needs will be met, some personnel have them reissued without religious affiliation listed—or keep two sets, one with the designation and one without—out of fear that identification as a member of a particular religion could increase the danger to their welfare or their lives if they fell into enemy hands. Some Jewish personnel avoided flying over German lines during WWII with ID tags that indicated their religion, and some Jewish personnel avoid the religious designation today out of concern that they could be captured by extremists who are anti-Semitic. Additionally, when American troops were first sent to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War there were allegations that some U.S. military authorities were pressuring Jewish military personnel to avoid listing their religions on their ID tags.",
"title": "Variations by country"
}
] | Dog tag is an informal but common term for a specific type of identification tag worn by military personnel. The tags' primary use is for the identification of casualties; they have information about the individual written on them, including identification and essential basic medical information such as blood type and history of inoculations. They often indicate a religious preference as well. Dog tags are usually fabricated from a corrosion-resistant metal. They commonly contain two copies of the information, either in the form of a single tag that can be broken in half, or as two identical tags on the same chain. This purposeful duplication allows one tag, or half-tag, to be collected from an individual's dead body for notification, while the duplicate remains with the corpse if the conditions of battle prevent it from being immediately recovered. The term arose and became popular because of the tags' resemblance to animal registration tags. | 2001-09-23T18:32:36Z | 2023-12-02T05:25:30Z | [
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7,950 | Drum | The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a percussion mallet, to produce sound. There is usually a resonant head on the underside of the drum. Other techniques have been used to cause drums to make sound, such as the thumb roll. Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.
Drums may be played individually, with the player using a single drum, and some drums such as the djembe are almost always played in this way. Others are normally played in a set of two or more, all played by the one player, such as bongo drums and timpani. A number of different drums together with cymbals form the basic modern drum kit.
Drums are usually played by striking with the hand, a beater attached to a pedal, or with one or two sticks with or without padding. A wide variety of sticks are used, including wooden sticks and sticks with soft beaters of felt on the end. In jazz, some drummers use brushes for a smoother, quieter sound. In many traditional cultures, drums have a symbolic function and are used in religious ceremonies. Drums are often used in music therapy, especially hand drums, because of their tactile nature and easy use by a wide variety of people. In the 2000s, drums have also been used as a way to engage in aerobic exercise and is called cardio drumming.
In popular music and jazz, "drums" usually refers to a drum kit or a set of drums (with some cymbals, or in the case of harder rock music genres, many cymbals), and "drummer" to the person who plays them.
Drums acquired even divine status in places such as Burundi, where the karyenda was a symbol of the power of the king.
The shell almost always has a circular opening over which the drumhead is stretched, but the shape of the remainder of the shell varies widely. In the Western musical tradition, the most usual shape is a cylinder, although timpani, for example, use bowl-shaped shells. Other shapes include a frame design (tar, Bodhrán), truncated cones (bongo drums, Ashiko), goblet shaped (djembe), and joined truncated cones (talking drum).
A drum contains cylindrical shells can be open at one end (as is the case with timbales), or can have two drum heads, one head on each end. Single-headed drums typically consist of a skin stretched over an enclosed space, or over one of the ends of a hollow vessel. Drums with two heads covering both ends of a cylindrical shell often have a small hole somewhat halfway between the two heads; the shell forms a resonating chamber for the resulting sound. Exceptions include the African slit drum, also known as a log drum as it is made from a hollowed-out tree trunk, and the Caribbean steel drum, made from a metal barrel. Drums with two heads can also have a set of wires, called snares, held across the bottom head, top head, or both heads, hence the name snare drum. On some drums with two heads, a hole or bass reflex port may be cut or installed onto one head, as with some 2010s era bass drums in rock music.
On modern band and orchestral drums, the drumhead is placed over the opening of the drum, which in turn is held onto the shell by a "counterhoop" (or "rim"), which is then held by means of a number of tuning screws called "tension rods" that screw into lugs placed evenly around the circumference. The head's tension can be adjusted by loosening or tightening the rods. Many such drums have six to ten tension rods. The sound of a drum depends on many variables—including shape, shell size and thickness, shell materials, counterhoop material, drumhead material, drumhead tension, drum position, location, and striking velocity and angle.
Prior to the invention of tension rods, drum skins were attached and tuned by rope systems—as on the Djembe—or pegs and ropes such as on Ewe drums. These methods are rarely used today, though sometimes appear on regimental marching band snare drums. The head of a talking drum, for example, can be temporarily tightened by squeezing the ropes that connect the top and bottom heads. Similarly, the tabla is tuned by hammering a disc held in place around the drum by ropes stretching from the top to bottom head. Orchestral timpani can be quickly tuned to precise pitches by using a foot pedal.
Several factors determine the sound a drum produces, including the type, shape and construction of the drum shell, the type of drum heads it has, and the tension of these drumheads. Different drum sounds have different uses in music. For example, the modern Tom-tom drum. A jazz drummer may want drums that are high pitched, resonant and quiet whereas a rock drummer may prefer drums that are loud, dry and low-pitched.
The drum head has the most effect on how a drum sounds. Each type of drum head serves its own musical purpose and has its own unique sound. Double-ply drumheads dampen high frequency harmonics because they are heavier and they are suited to heavy playing. Drum heads with a white, textured coating on them muffle the overtones of the drum head slightly, producing a less diverse pitch. Drum heads with central silver or black dots tend to muffle the overtones even more, while drum heads with perimeter sound rings mostly eliminate overtones. Some jazz drummers avoid using thick drum heads, preferring single ply drum heads or drum heads with no muffling. Rock drummers often prefer the thicker or coated drum heads.
The second biggest factor that affects drum sound is head tension against the shell. When the hoop is placed around the drum head and shell and tightened down with tension rods, the tension of the head can be adjusted. When the tension is increased, the amplitude of the sound is reduced and the frequency is increased, making the pitch higher and the volume lower.
The type of shell also affects the sound of a drum. Because the vibrations resonate in the shell of the drum, the shell can be used to increase the volume and to manipulate the type of sound produced. The larger the diameter of the shell, the lower the pitch. The larger the depth of the drum, the louder the volume. Shell thickness also determines the volume of drums. Thicker shells produce louder drums. Mahogany raises the frequency of low pitches and keeps higher frequencies at about the same speed. When choosing a set of shells, a jazz drummer may want smaller maple shells, while a rock drummer may want larger birch shells.
Drums made with alligator skins have been found in Neolithic cultures located in China, dating to a period of 5500–2350 BC. In literary records, drums manifested shamanistic characteristics and were often used in ritual ceremonies.
The bronze Dong Son drum was fabricated by the Bronze Age Dong Son culture of northern Vietnam. They include the ornate Ngoc Lu drum.
Macaque monkeys drum objects in a rhythmic way to show social dominance and this has been shown to be processed in a similar way in their brains to vocalizations, suggesting an evolutionary origin to drumming as part of social communication. Other primates including gorillas make drumming sounds by chest beating or hand clapping, and rodents such as kangaroo rats also make similar sounds using their paws on the ground.
Drums are used not only for their musical qualities, but also as a means of communication over great distances. The talking drums of Africa are used to imitate the tone patterns of spoken language. Throughout Sri Lankan history drums have been used for communication between the state and the community, and Sri Lankan drums have a history stretching back over 2500 years.
Drumming may be a purposeful expression of emotion for entertainment, spiritualism and communication. Many cultures practice drumming as a spiritual or religious passage and interpret drummed rhythm similarly to spoken language or prayer. Drumming has developed over millennia to be a powerful art form. Drumming is commonly viewed as the root of music and is sometimes performed as a kinesthetic dance. As a discipline, drumming concentrates on training the body to punctuate, convey and interpret musical rhythmic intention to an audience and to the performer.
Chinese troops used tàigǔ drums to motivate troops, to help set a marching pace, and to call out orders or announcements. For example, during a war between Qi and Lu in 684 BC, the effect of drum on soldiers' morale is employed to change the result of a major battle. Fife-and-drum corps of Swiss mercenary foot soldiers also used drums. They used an early version of the snare drum carried over the player's right shoulder, suspended by a strap (typically played with one hand using traditional grip). It is to this instrument that the English word "drum" was first used. Similarly, during the English Civil War rope-tension drums would be carried by junior officers as a means to relay commands from senior officers over the noise of battle. These were also hung over the shoulder of the drummer and typically played with two drum sticks. Different regiments and companies would have distinctive and unique drum beats only they recognized. In the mid-19th century, the Scottish military started incorporating pipe bands into their Highland regiments.
During pre-Columbian warfare, Aztec nations were known to have used drums to send signals to the battling warriors. The Nahuatl word for drum is roughly translated as huehuetl.
The Rig Veda, one of the oldest religious scriptures in the world, contains several references to the use of the Dundhubi (war drum). Arya tribes charged into battle to the beating of the war drum and chanting of a hymn that appears in Book VI of the Rig Veda and also the Atharva Veda. The dundhuhi was considered sacred and to capture one in battle would signal defeat of the enemy. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a percussion mallet, to produce sound. There is usually a resonant head on the underside of the drum. Other techniques have been used to cause drums to make sound, such as the thumb roll. Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Drums may be played individually, with the player using a single drum, and some drums such as the djembe are almost always played in this way. Others are normally played in a set of two or more, all played by the one player, such as bongo drums and timpani. A number of different drums together with cymbals form the basic modern drum kit.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Drums are usually played by striking with the hand, a beater attached to a pedal, or with one or two sticks with or without padding. A wide variety of sticks are used, including wooden sticks and sticks with soft beaters of felt on the end. In jazz, some drummers use brushes for a smoother, quieter sound. In many traditional cultures, drums have a symbolic function and are used in religious ceremonies. Drums are often used in music therapy, especially hand drums, because of their tactile nature and easy use by a wide variety of people. In the 2000s, drums have also been used as a way to engage in aerobic exercise and is called cardio drumming.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In popular music and jazz, \"drums\" usually refers to a drum kit or a set of drums (with some cymbals, or in the case of harder rock music genres, many cymbals), and \"drummer\" to the person who plays them.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Drums acquired even divine status in places such as Burundi, where the karyenda was a symbol of the power of the king.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The shell almost always has a circular opening over which the drumhead is stretched, but the shape of the remainder of the shell varies widely. In the Western musical tradition, the most usual shape is a cylinder, although timpani, for example, use bowl-shaped shells. Other shapes include a frame design (tar, Bodhrán), truncated cones (bongo drums, Ashiko), goblet shaped (djembe), and joined truncated cones (talking drum).",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "A drum contains cylindrical shells can be open at one end (as is the case with timbales), or can have two drum heads, one head on each end. Single-headed drums typically consist of a skin stretched over an enclosed space, or over one of the ends of a hollow vessel. Drums with two heads covering both ends of a cylindrical shell often have a small hole somewhat halfway between the two heads; the shell forms a resonating chamber for the resulting sound. Exceptions include the African slit drum, also known as a log drum as it is made from a hollowed-out tree trunk, and the Caribbean steel drum, made from a metal barrel. Drums with two heads can also have a set of wires, called snares, held across the bottom head, top head, or both heads, hence the name snare drum. On some drums with two heads, a hole or bass reflex port may be cut or installed onto one head, as with some 2010s era bass drums in rock music.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "On modern band and orchestral drums, the drumhead is placed over the opening of the drum, which in turn is held onto the shell by a \"counterhoop\" (or \"rim\"), which is then held by means of a number of tuning screws called \"tension rods\" that screw into lugs placed evenly around the circumference. The head's tension can be adjusted by loosening or tightening the rods. Many such drums have six to ten tension rods. The sound of a drum depends on many variables—including shape, shell size and thickness, shell materials, counterhoop material, drumhead material, drumhead tension, drum position, location, and striking velocity and angle.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Prior to the invention of tension rods, drum skins were attached and tuned by rope systems—as on the Djembe—or pegs and ropes such as on Ewe drums. These methods are rarely used today, though sometimes appear on regimental marching band snare drums. The head of a talking drum, for example, can be temporarily tightened by squeezing the ropes that connect the top and bottom heads. Similarly, the tabla is tuned by hammering a disc held in place around the drum by ropes stretching from the top to bottom head. Orchestral timpani can be quickly tuned to precise pitches by using a foot pedal.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Several factors determine the sound a drum produces, including the type, shape and construction of the drum shell, the type of drum heads it has, and the tension of these drumheads. Different drum sounds have different uses in music. For example, the modern Tom-tom drum. A jazz drummer may want drums that are high pitched, resonant and quiet whereas a rock drummer may prefer drums that are loud, dry and low-pitched.",
"title": "Sounds"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The drum head has the most effect on how a drum sounds. Each type of drum head serves its own musical purpose and has its own unique sound. Double-ply drumheads dampen high frequency harmonics because they are heavier and they are suited to heavy playing. Drum heads with a white, textured coating on them muffle the overtones of the drum head slightly, producing a less diverse pitch. Drum heads with central silver or black dots tend to muffle the overtones even more, while drum heads with perimeter sound rings mostly eliminate overtones. Some jazz drummers avoid using thick drum heads, preferring single ply drum heads or drum heads with no muffling. Rock drummers often prefer the thicker or coated drum heads.",
"title": "Sounds"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The second biggest factor that affects drum sound is head tension against the shell. When the hoop is placed around the drum head and shell and tightened down with tension rods, the tension of the head can be adjusted. When the tension is increased, the amplitude of the sound is reduced and the frequency is increased, making the pitch higher and the volume lower.",
"title": "Sounds"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The type of shell also affects the sound of a drum. Because the vibrations resonate in the shell of the drum, the shell can be used to increase the volume and to manipulate the type of sound produced. The larger the diameter of the shell, the lower the pitch. The larger the depth of the drum, the louder the volume. Shell thickness also determines the volume of drums. Thicker shells produce louder drums. Mahogany raises the frequency of low pitches and keeps higher frequencies at about the same speed. When choosing a set of shells, a jazz drummer may want smaller maple shells, while a rock drummer may want larger birch shells.",
"title": "Sounds"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Drums made with alligator skins have been found in Neolithic cultures located in China, dating to a period of 5500–2350 BC. In literary records, drums manifested shamanistic characteristics and were often used in ritual ceremonies.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The bronze Dong Son drum was fabricated by the Bronze Age Dong Son culture of northern Vietnam. They include the ornate Ngoc Lu drum.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Macaque monkeys drum objects in a rhythmic way to show social dominance and this has been shown to be processed in a similar way in their brains to vocalizations, suggesting an evolutionary origin to drumming as part of social communication. Other primates including gorillas make drumming sounds by chest beating or hand clapping, and rodents such as kangaroo rats also make similar sounds using their paws on the ground.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Drums are used not only for their musical qualities, but also as a means of communication over great distances. The talking drums of Africa are used to imitate the tone patterns of spoken language. Throughout Sri Lankan history drums have been used for communication between the state and the community, and Sri Lankan drums have a history stretching back over 2500 years.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Drumming may be a purposeful expression of emotion for entertainment, spiritualism and communication. Many cultures practice drumming as a spiritual or religious passage and interpret drummed rhythm similarly to spoken language or prayer. Drumming has developed over millennia to be a powerful art form. Drumming is commonly viewed as the root of music and is sometimes performed as a kinesthetic dance. As a discipline, drumming concentrates on training the body to punctuate, convey and interpret musical rhythmic intention to an audience and to the performer.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Chinese troops used tàigǔ drums to motivate troops, to help set a marching pace, and to call out orders or announcements. For example, during a war between Qi and Lu in 684 BC, the effect of drum on soldiers' morale is employed to change the result of a major battle. Fife-and-drum corps of Swiss mercenary foot soldiers also used drums. They used an early version of the snare drum carried over the player's right shoulder, suspended by a strap (typically played with one hand using traditional grip). It is to this instrument that the English word \"drum\" was first used. Similarly, during the English Civil War rope-tension drums would be carried by junior officers as a means to relay commands from senior officers over the noise of battle. These were also hung over the shoulder of the drummer and typically played with two drum sticks. Different regiments and companies would have distinctive and unique drum beats only they recognized. In the mid-19th century, the Scottish military started incorporating pipe bands into their Highland regiments.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "During pre-Columbian warfare, Aztec nations were known to have used drums to send signals to the battling warriors. The Nahuatl word for drum is roughly translated as huehuetl.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The Rig Veda, one of the oldest religious scriptures in the world, contains several references to the use of the Dundhubi (war drum). Arya tribes charged into battle to the beating of the war drum and chanting of a hymn that appears in Book VI of the Rig Veda and also the Atharva Veda. The dundhuhi was considered sacred and to capture one in battle would signal defeat of the enemy.",
"title": "History"
}
] | The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a percussion mallet, to produce sound. There is usually a resonant head on the underside of the drum. Other techniques have been used to cause drums to make sound, such as the thumb roll. Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years. Drums may be played individually, with the player using a single drum, and some drums such as the djembe are almost always played in this way. Others are normally played in a set of two or more, all played by the one player, such as bongo drums and timpani. A number of different drums together with cymbals form the basic modern drum kit. | 2001-03-15T23:24:02Z | 2023-11-10T12:27:22Z | [
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7,951 | Delphi | Delphi (/ˈdɛlfaɪ, ˈdɛlfi/; Greek: Δελφοί [ðelˈfi]), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the Omphalos of Delphi (navel).
According to the Suda, Delphi took its name from the Delphyne, the she-serpent (drakaina) who lived there and was killed by the god Apollo (in other accounts the serpent was the male serpent (drakon) Python).
The sacred precinct occupies a delineated region on the south-western slope of Mount Parnassus.
It is now an extensive archaeological site, and since 1938 a part of Parnassos National Park. The precinct is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in having had a great influence in the ancient world, as evidenced by the various monuments built there by most of the important ancient Greek city-states, demonstrating their fundamental Hellenic unity.
Adjacent to the sacred precinct is a small modern town of the same name.
Delphi shares the same root with the Greek word for womb, δελφύς delphys.
Pytho (Πυθώ) is related to Pythia, the priestess serving as the oracle, and to Python, a serpent or dragon who lived at the site. "Python" is derived from the verb πύθω (pythō), "to rot".
Today Delphi is a municipality of Greece as well as a modern town adjacent to the ancient precinct. The modern town was created after removing buildings from the sacred precinct so that the latter could be excavated. The two Delphis, old and new, are located on Greek National Road 48 between Amfissa in the west and Livadeia, capital of Voiotia, in the east. The road follows the northern slope of a pass between Mount Parnassus on the north and the mountains of the Desfina Peninsula on the south. The pass is of the river Pleistos, running from east to west, forming a natural boundary across the north of the Desfina Peninsula, and providing an easy route across it.
On the west side the valley joins the north–south valley between Amfissa and Itea.
On the north side of the valley junction a spur of Parnassus looming over the valley made narrower by it is the site of ancient Krisa, which once was the ruling power of the entire valley system. Both Amphissa and Krissa are mentioned in the Iliad's Catalogue of Ships. It was a Mycenaean stronghold. Archaeological dates of the valley go back to the Early Helladic. Krisa itself is Middle Helladic. These early dates are comparable to the earliest dates at Delphi, suggesting Delphi was appropriated and transformed by Phocians from ancient Krisa. It is believed that the ruins of Kirra, now part of the port of Itea, were the port of Krisa of the same name.
The site was first briefly excavated in 1880 by Bernard Haussoullier (1852-1926) on behalf of the French School at Athens, of which he was a sometime member. The site was then occupied by the village of Kastri, about 100 houses, 200 people. Kastri ("fort") had been there since the destruction of the place by Theodosius I in 390. He probably left a fort to make sure it was not repopulated, however, the fort became the new village. They were mining the stone for re-use in their own buildings. British and French travelers visiting the site suspected it was ancient Delphi. Before a systematic excavation of the site could be undertaken, the village had to be relocated, but the residents resisted.
The opportunity to relocate the village occurred when it was substantially damaged by an earthquake, with villagers offered a completely new village in exchange for the old site. In 1893, the French Archaeological School removed vast quantities of soil from numerous landslides to reveal both the major buildings and structures of the sanctuary of Apollo and of the temple to Athena, the Athena Pronoia along with thousands of objects, inscriptions, and sculptures.
During the Great Excavation architectural members from a fifth-century Christian basilica, were discovered that date to when Delphi was a bishopric. Other important Late Roman buildings are the Eastern Baths, the house with the peristyle, the Roman Agora, the large cistern usw. At the outskirts of the city late Roman cemeteries were located.
To the southeast of the precinct of Apollo lay the so-called Southeastern Mansion, a building with a 65-meter-long façade, spread over four levels, with four triclinia and private baths. Large storage jars kept the provisions, whereas other pottery vessels and luxury items were discovered in the rooms. Among the finds stands out a tiny leopard made of mother of pearl, possibly of Sassanian origin, on display in the ground floor gallery of the Delphi Archaeological Museum. The mansion dates to the beginning of the fifth century and functioned as a private house until 580, later however it was transformed into a potter workshop. It is only then, in the beginning of the sixth century, that the city seems to decline: its size is reduced and its trade contacts seem to be drastically diminished. Local pottery production is produced in large quantities: it is coarser and made of reddish clay, aiming at satisfying the needs of the inhabitants.
The Sacred Way remained the main street of the settlement, transformed, however, into a street with commercial and industrial use. Around the agora were built workshops as well as the only intra muros early Christian basilica. The domestic area spread mainly in the western part of the settlement. The houses were rather spacious and two large cisterns provided running water to them.
The museum houses artifacts associated with ancient Delphi, including the earliest known notation of a melody, the Charioteer of Delphi, Kleobis and Biton, golden treasures discovered beneath the Sacred Way, the Sphinx of Naxos, and fragments of reliefs from the Siphnian Treasury. Immediately adjacent to the exit is the inscription that mentions the Roman proconsul Gallio.
Most of the ruins that survive today date from the most intense period of activity at the site in the sixth century BC.
The ruins of the Temple of Apollo that are visible today date from the fourth century BC, and are of a peripteral Doric building. It was erected by Spintharus, Xenodoros, and Agathon on the remains of an earlier temple, dated to the sixth century BC, which had been erected on the site of a seventh-century BC construction attributed in legend to the architects Trophonios and Agamedes.
Ancient tradition accounted for four temples that successively occupied the site before the 548/7 BC fire, following which the Alcmaeonids built a fifth. The poet Pindar celebrated the Alcmaeonids' temple in Pythian 7.8-9 and he also provided details of the third building (Paean 8. 65–75). Other details are given by Pausanias (10.5.9-13) and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (294 ff.). The first temple was said to have been constructed out of olive branches from Tempe. The second was made by bees out of wax and wings, but was miraculously carried off by a powerful wind and deposited among the Hyperboreans. The third, as described by Pindar, was created by the deities Hephaestus and Athena, but its architectural details included Siren-like figures or "Enchantresses", whose baneful songs eventually provoked the Olympian deities to bury the temple in the earth (according to Pausanias, it was destroyed by earthquake and fire). In Pindar's words (Paean 8.65-75, Bowra translation), addressed to the Muses:
The fourth temple was said to have been constructed from stone by Trophonius and Agamedes. However, a 2019 theory gives a completely new explanation of the above myth of the four temples of Delphi.
From the entrance of the upper site, continuing up the slope on the Sacred Way almost to the Temple of Apollo, are a large number of votive statues, and numerous so-called treasuries. These were built by many of the Greek city-states to commemorate victories and to thank the oracle for her advice, which was thought to have contributed to those victories. These buildings held the offerings made to Apollo; these were frequently a "tithe" or tenth of the spoils of a battle. The most impressive is the now-restored Athenian Treasury, built to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.
The Siphnian Treasury was dedicated by the city of Siphnos, whose citizens gave a tithe of the yield from their silver mines until the mines came to an abrupt end when the sea flooded the workings.
One of the largest of the treasuries was that of Argos. Having built it in the late classical period, the Argives took great pride in establishing their place at Delphi amongst the other city-states. Completed in 380 BC, their treasury seems to draw inspiration mostly from the Temple of Hera located in the Argolis. However, recent analysis of the Archaic elements of the treasury suggest that its founding preceded this.
Other identifiable treasuries are those of the Sicyonians, the Boeotians, Massaliots, and the Thebans.
Located in front of the Temple of Apollo, the main altar of the sanctuary was paid for and built by the people of Chios. It is dated to the fifth century BC by the inscription on its cornice. Made entirely of black marble, except for the base and cornice, the altar would have made a striking impression. It was restored in 1920.
The stoa, or open-sided, covered porch, is placed in an approximately east–west alignment along the base of the polygonal wall retaining the terrace on which the Temple of Apollo sits. There is no archaeological suggestion of a connection to the temple. The stoa opened to the Sacred Way. The nearby presence of the Treasury of the Athenians suggests that this quarter of Delphi was used for Athenian business or politics, as stoas are generally found in market-places.
Although the architecture at Delphi is generally Doric, a plain style, in keeping with the Phocian traditions that were Doric, the Athenians did not prefer the Doric. The stoa was built in their own preferred style, the Ionic order, the capitals of the columns being a sure indicator. In the Ionic order they are floral and ornate, although not so much as the Corinthian, which is in deficit there. The remaining porch structure contains seven fluted columns, unusually carved from single pieces of stone (most columns were constructed from a series of discs joined). The inscription on the stylobate indicates that it was built by the Athenians after their naval victory over the Persians in 478 BC, to house their war trophies. At that time the Athenians and the Spartans were on the same side.
The Sibyl rock is a pulpit-like outcrop of rock between the Athenian Treasury and the Stoa of the Athenians upon the Sacred Way that leads up to the temple of Apollo in the archaeological area of Delphi. The rock is claimed to be the location from which a prehistoric Sibyl pre-dating the Pythia of Apollo sat to deliver her prophecies. Other suggestions are that the Pythia might have stood there, or an acolyte whose function was to deliver the final prophecy. The rock seems ideal for public speaking.
The ancient theatre at Delphi was built farther up the hill from the Temple of Apollo giving spectators a view of the entire sanctuary and the valley below. It was originally built in the fourth century BC, but was remodeled on several occasions, particularly in 160/159 B.C. at the expenses of king Eumenes II of Pergamon and, in 67 A.D., on the occasion of emperor Nero's visit.
The koilon (cavea) leans against the natural slope of the mountain whereas its eastern part overrides a little torrent that led the water of the fountain Cassotis right underneath the temple of Apollo. The orchestra was initially a full circle with a diameter measuring seven meters. The rectangular scene building ended up in two arched openings, of which the foundations are preserved today. Access to the theatre was possible through the parodoi, i.e. the side corridors. On the support walls of the parodoi are engraved large numbers of manumission inscriptions recording fictitious sales of the slaves to the deity. The koilon was divided horizontally in two zones via a corridor called diazoma. The lower zone had 27 rows of seats and the upper one only eight. Six radially arranged stairs divided the lower part of the koilon in seven tiers. The theatre could accommodate approximately 4,500 spectators.
On the occasion of Nero's visit to Greece in 67 A.D. various alterations took place. The orchestra was paved and delimited by a parapet made of stone. The proscenium was replaced by a low pedestal, the pulpitum; its façade was decorated in relief with scenes from myths about Hercules. Further repairs and transformations took place in the second century A.D. Pausanias mentions that these were carried out under the auspices of Herod Atticus. In antiquity, the theatre was used for the vocal and musical contests that formed part of the programme of the Pythian Games in the late Hellenistic and Roman period. The theatre was abandoned when the sanctuary declined in Late Antiquity. After its excavation and initial restoration it hosted theatrical performances during the Delphic Festivals organized by A. Sikelianos and his wife, Eva Palmer, in 1927 and in 1930. It has recently been restored again as the serious landslides posed a grave threat for its stability for decades.
The tholos at the sanctuary of Athena Pronaea (Ἀθηνᾶ Προναία, "Athena of forethought") is a circular building that was constructed between 380 and 360 BC. It consisted of 20 Doric columns arranged with an exterior diameter of 14.76 meters, with 10 Corinthian columns in the interior.
The Tholos is located approximately a half a mile (800 m) from the main ruins at Delphi (at 38°28′49″N 22°30′28″E / 38.48016°N 22.50789°E / 38.48016; 22.50789). Three of the Doric columns have been restored, making it the most popular site at Delphi for tourists to take photographs.
The architect of the "vaulted temple at Delphi" is named by Vitruvius, in De architectura Book VII, as Theodorus Phoceus (not Theodorus of Samos, whom Vitruvius names separately).
The gymnasium, which is half a mile away from the main sanctuary, was a series of buildings used by the youth of Delphi. The building consisted of two levels: a stoa on the upper level providing open space, and a palaestra, pool, and baths on lower floor. These pools and baths were said to have magical powers, and imparted the ability to communicate directly to Apollo.
The stadium is located farther up the hill, beyond the via sacra and the theatre. It was built in the fifth century BC, but was altered in later centuries. The last major remodelling took place in the second century AD under the patronage of Herodes Atticus when the stone seating was built and an (arched) entrance created. It could seat 6500 spectators and the track was 177 metres long and 25.5 metres wide.
It was at the Pythian Games that prominent political leaders, such as Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sikyon, and Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse, competed with their chariots. The hippodrome where these events took place was referred to by Pindar, and this monument was sought by archaeologists for over two centuries.
Traces of it have recently been found at Gonia in the plain of Krisa in the place where the original stadium had been sited.
A retaining wall was built to support the terrace housing the construction of the second temple of Apollo in 548 BC. Its name is taken from the polygonal masonry of which it is constructed. At a later date, from 200 BC onwards, the stones were inscribed with the manumission (liberation) contracts of slaves who were consecrated to Apollo. Approximately a thousand manumissions are recorded on the wall.
The sacred spring of Delphi lies in the ravine of the Phaedriades. The preserved remains of two monumental fountains that received the water from the spring date to the Archaic period and the Roman, with the latter cut into the rock.
The first set of remains that the visitor sees upon entering the archaeological site of Delphi is the Roman Agora, which was just outside the peribolos, or precinct walls, of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. The Roman Agora was built between the sanctuary and the Castalian Spring, approximately 500 meters away. This large rectangular paved square used to be surrounded by Ionic porticos on its three sides. The square was built in the Roman period, but the remains visible at present along the north and northwestern sides date to the Late Antique period.
An open market was probably established, where the visitors would buy ex-votos, such as statuettes and small tripods, to leave as offerings to the gods. It also served as an assembly area for processions during sacred festivals.
During the empire, statues of the emperor and other notable benefactors were erected here as evidenced by the remaining pedestals. In late, Antiquity workshops of artisans were also created within the agora.
Delphi is famous for its many preserved athletic statues. It is known that Olympia originally housed far more of these statues, but time brought ruin to many of them, leaving Delphi as the main site of athletic statues. Kleobis and Biton, two brothers renowned for their strength, are modeled in two of the earliest known athletic statues at Delphi. The statues commemorate their feat of pulling their mother's cart several miles to the Sanctuary of Hera in the absence of oxen. The neighbors were most impressed and their mother asked Hera to grant them the greatest gift. When they entered Hera's temple, they fell into a slumber and never woke, dying at the height of their admiration, the perfect gift.
The Charioteer of Delphi is another ancient relic that has withstood the centuries. It is one of the best known statues from antiquity. The charioteer has lost many features, including his chariot and his left arm, but he stands as a tribute to athletic art of antiquity.
In the Iliad, Achilles would not accept Agamemnon's peace offering even if it included all the wealth in the "stone floor" of "rocky Pytho" (I 404). In the Odyssey (θ 79) Agamemnon crosses a "stone floor" to receive a prophecy from Apollo in Pytho, the first known of proto-history. Hesiod also refers to Pytho "in the hollows of Parnassus" (Theogony 498). These references imply that the earliest date of the oracle's existence is the eighth century BC, the probable date of composition of the Homeric works.
The main myths of Delphi are given in three literary "loci". H. W. Parke, the Delphi scholar, complained that they are self-contradictory, thus unconsciously falling into the Plutarchian epistemology, that they reflect some common, objective historic reality against which the accounts can be compared. Parke asserts that there is no Apollo, no Zeus, no Hera, and certainly never was a great, serpent-like monster, and that the myths are pure Plutarchian figures of speech, meant to be aetiologies of some oracular tradition.
Homeric Hymn 3, "To Apollo", is the oldest of the three loci, dating to the seventh century BC (estimate). Apollo travels about after his birth on Delos seeking a place for an oracle. He is advised by Telephus to choose Crissa "below the glade of Parnassus", which he does, and has a temple built. Killing the serpent that guards the spring. Subsequently, some Cretans from Knossos sail up on a mission to reconnoitre Pylos. Changing into a dolphin, Apollo casts himself on deck. The Cretans do not dare to remove him but sail on. Apollo guides the ship around Greece, ending back at Crisa, where the ship grounds. Apollo enters his shrine with the Cretans to be its priests, worshipping him as Delphineus, "of the dolphin".
Zeus, a Classical deity, reportedly determined the site of Delphi when he sought to find the centre of his "Grandmother Earth" (Gaia). He sent two eagles flying from the eastern and western extremities, and the path of the eagles crossed over Delphi where the omphalos, or navel of Gaia was found.
According to Aeschylus in the prologue of the Eumenides, the oracle had origins in prehistoric times and the worship of Gaia, a view echoed by H. W. Parke, who described the evolution of beliefs associated with the site. He established that the prehistoric foundation of the oracle is described by three early writers: the author of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Aeschylus in the prologue to the Eumenides, and Euripides in a chorus in the Iphigeneia in Tauris. Parke goes on to say, "This version [Euripides] evidently reproduces in a sophisticated form the primitive tradition which Aeschylus for his own purposes had been at pains to contradict: the belief that Apollo came to Delphi as an invader and appropriated for himself a previously existing oracle of Earth. The slaying of the serpent is the act of conquest which secures his possession; not as in the Homeric Hymn, a merely secondary work of improvement on the site. Another difference is also noticeable. The Homeric Hymn, as we saw, implied that the method of prophecy used there was similar to that of Dodona: both Aeschylus and Euripides, writing in the fifth century, attribute to primeval times the same methods as used at Delphi in their own day. So much is implied by their allusions to tripods and prophetic seats... [he continues on p. 6] ...Another very archaic feature at Delphi also confirms the ancient associations of the place with the Earth goddess. This was the Omphalos, an egg-shaped stone which was situated in the innermost sanctuary of the temple in historic times. Classical legend asserted that it marked the 'navel' (Omphalos) or center of the Earth and explained that this spot was determined by Zeus who had released two eagles to fly from opposite sides of the earth and that they had met exactly over this place". On p. 7 he writes further, "So Delphi was originally devoted to the worship of the Earth goddess whom the Greeks called Ge, or Gaia. Themis, who is associated with her in tradition as her daughter and partner or successor, is really another manifestation of the same deity: an identity that Aeschylus recognized in another context. The worship of these two, as one or distinguished, was displaced by the introduction of Apollo. His origin has been the subject of much learned controversy: it is sufficient for our purpose to take him as the Homeric Hymn represents him – a northern intruder – and his arrival must have occurred in the dark interval between Mycenaean and Hellenic times. His conflict with Ge for the possession of the cult site was represented under the legend of his slaying the serpent.
One tale of the sanctuary's discovery states that a goatherd, who grazed his flocks on Parnassus, one day observed his goats playing with great agility upon nearing a chasm in the rock; the goatherd noticing this held his head over the chasm causing the fumes to go to his brain; throwing him into a strange trance.
The Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo recalled that the ancient name of this site had been Krisa.
Others relate that the site was named Pytho (Πυθώ) and that Pythia, the priestess serving as the oracle, was chosen from their ranks by the priestesses who officiated at the temple. Apollo was said to have slain Python, a drako (a male serpent or a dragon) who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth. "Python" (derived from the verb πύθω (pythō), "to rot") is claimed by some to be the original name of the site in recognition of Python that Apollo defeated.
The name Delphi comes from the same root as δελφύς delphys, "womb" and may indicate archaic veneration of Gaia at the site. Several other scholars discuss the likely prehistoric beliefs associated with the site.
Apollo is connected with the site by his epithet Δελφίνιος Delphinios, "the Delphinian". The epithet is connected with dolphins (Greek δελφίς,-ῖνος) in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (line 400), recounting the legend of how Apollo first came to Delphi in the shape of a dolphin, carrying Cretan priests on his back. The Homeric name of the oracle is Pytho (Πυθώ). Another legend held that Apollo walked to Delphi from the north and stopped at Tempe, a city in Thessaly, to pick laurel (also known as bay tree) which he considered to be a sacred plant. In commemoration of this legend, the winners at the Pythian Games received a wreath of laurel picked in the temple.
Perhaps Delphi is best known for its oracle, the Pythia, or sibyl, the priestess prophesying from the tripod in the sunken adyton of the Temple of Apollo. The Pythia was known as a spokesperson for Apollo. She was a woman of blameless life chosen from the peasants of the area. Alone in an enclosed inner sanctum (Ancient Greek adyton – "do not enter") she sat on a tripod seat over an opening in the earth (the "chasm"). According to legend, when Apollo slew Python its body fell into this fissure and fumes arose from its decomposing body. Intoxicated by the vapors, the sibyl would fall into a trance, allowing Apollo to possess her spirit. In this state she prophesied. The oracle could not be consulted during the winter months, for this was traditionally the time when Apollo would live among the Hyperboreans. Dionysus would inhabit the temple during his absence. Of note, release of fumes is limited in colder weather.
The time to consult Pythia for an oracle during the year was determined from astronomical and geological grounds related to the constellations of Lyra and Cygnus. Similar practice was followed in other Apollo oracles too.
Hydrocarbon vapors emitted from the chasm. While in a trance the Pythia "raved" – probably a form of ecstatic speech – and her ravings were "translated" by the priests of the temple into elegant hexameters. It has been speculated that the ancient writers, including Plutarch who had worked as a priest at Delphi, were correct in attributing the oracular effects to the sweet-smelling pneuma (Ancient Greek for breath, wind, or vapor) escaping from the chasm in the rock. That exhalation could have been high in the known anaesthetic and sweet-smelling ethylene or other hydrocarbons such as ethane known to produce violent trances. Although, given the limestone geology, this theory remains debatable, the authors put up a detailed answer to their critics.
Ancient sources describe the priestess using “laurel” to inspire her prophecies. Several alternative plant candidates have been suggested including Cannabis, Hyoscyamus, Rhododendron, and Oleander. Harissis claims that a review of contemporary toxicological literature indicates that oleander causes symptoms similar to those shown by the Pythia, and his study of ancient texts shows that oleander was often included under the term "laurel". The Pythia may have chewed oleander leaves and inhaled their smoke prior to her oracular pronouncements and sometimes dying from the toxicity. The toxic substances of oleander resulted in symptoms similar to those of epilepsy, the “sacred disease”, which may have been seen as the possession of the Pythia by the spirit of Apollo.
The Delphic oracle exerted considerable influence throughout the Greek world, and she was consulted before all major undertakings including wars and the founding of colonies. She also was respected by the Greek-influenced countries around the periphery of the Greek world, such as Lydia, Caria, and even Egypt.
The oracle was also known to the early Romans. Rome's seventh and last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, after witnessing a snake near his palace, sent a delegation including two of his sons to consult the oracle.
In 278 BC, a Thracian (Celtic) tribe raided Delphi, burned the temple, plundered the sanctuary and stole the "unquenchable fire" from the altar. During the raid, part of the temple roof collapsed. The same year, the temple was severely damaged by an earthquake, thus it fell into decay and the surrounding area became impoverished. The sparse local population led to difficulties in filling the posts required. The oracle's credibility waned due to doubtful predictions.
The oracle flourished again in the second century AD, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, who is believed to have visited the oracle twice and offered complete autonomy to the city. By the 4th century, Delphi had acquired the status of a city.
Constantine the Great looted several monuments in Eastern Mediterranean, including Delphi, to decorate his new capital, Constantinople. One of those famous items was the bronze column of Plataea (The Serpent Column; Ancient Greek: Τρικάρηνος Ὄφις, Three-headed Serpent; Turkish: Yılanlı Sütun, Serpentine Column) from the sanctuary (dated 479 BC), relocated there from Delphi in AD 324, which can still be seen today standing destroyed at a square of Istanbul (where once upon a time was the Hippodrome of Constantinople, built by Constantine; Ottoman Turkish: Atmeydanı "Horse Square") with part of one of its heads kept in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums (İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri).
Despite the rise of Christianity across the Roman Empire, the oracle remained a religious center throughout the fourth century, and the Pythian Games continued to be held at least until 424 AD; however, the decline continued. The attempt of Emperor Julian to revive polytheism did not survive his reign. Excavations have revealed a large three-aisled basilica in the city, as well as traces of a church building in the sanctuary's gymnasium. The site was abandoned in the sixth or seventh centuries, although a single bishop of Delphi is attested in an episcopal list of the late eighth and early ninth centuries.
Delphi became the site of a major temple to Phoebus Apollo, as well as the Pythian Games and the prehistoric oracle. Even in Roman times, hundreds of votive statues remained, described by Pliny the Younger and seen by Pausanias. Carved into the temple were three phrases: γνῶθι σεαυτόν (gnōthi seautón = "know thyself") and μηδὲν ἄγαν (mēdén ágan = "nothing in excess"), and Ἑγγύα πάρα δ'ἄτη (engýa pára d'atē = "make a pledge and mischief is nigh"), In antiquity, the origin of these phrases was attributed to one or more of the Seven Sages of Greece by authors such as Plato and Pausanias. Additionally, according to Plutarch's essay on the meaning of the "E at Delphi"—the only literary source for the inscription—there was also inscribed at the temple a large letter E. Among other things epsilon signifies the number 5. However, ancient as well as modern scholars have doubted the legitimacy of such inscriptions. According to one pair of scholars, "The actual authorship of the three maxims set up on the Delphian temple may be left uncertain. Most likely they were popular proverbs, which tended later to be attributed to particular sages."
According to the Homeric hymn to the Pythian Apollo, Apollo shot his first arrow as an infant that effectively slew the serpent Pytho, the son of Gaia, who guarded the spot. To atone the murder of Gaia's son, Apollo was forced to fly and spend eight years in menial service before he could return forgiven. A festival, the Septeria, was held every year, at which the whole story was represented: the slaying of the serpent, and the flight, atonement, and return of the god.
The Pythian Games took place every four years to commemorate Apollo's victory. Another regular Delphi festival was the "Theophania" (Θεοφάνεια), an annual festival in spring celebrating the return of Apollo from his winter quarters in Hyperborea. The culmination of the festival was a display of an image of the deities, usually hidden in the sanctuary, to worshippers.
The theoxenia was held each summer, centred on a feast for "gods and ambassadors from other states". Myths indicate that Apollo killed the chthonic serpent Python guarding the Castalian Spring and named his priestess Pythia after her. Python, who had been sent by Hera, had attempted to prevent Leto, while she was pregnant with Apollo and Artemis, from giving birth.
The spring at the site flowed toward the temple but disappeared beneath, creating a cleft which emitted chemical vapors that purportedly caused the oracle at Delphi to reveal her prophecies. Apollo killed Python, but had to be punished for it, since he was a child of Gaia. The shrine dedicated to Apollo was originally dedicated to Gaia and shared with Poseidon. The name Pythia remained as the title of the Delphic oracle.
Erwin Rohde wrote that the Python was an earth spirit, who was conquered by Apollo, and buried under the omphalos, and that it is a case of one deity setting up a temple on the grave of another. Another view holds that Apollo was a fairly recent addition to the Greek pantheon coming originally from Lydia. The Etruscans coming from northern Anatolia also worshipped Apollo, and it may be that he was originally identical with Mesopotamian Aplu, an Akkadian title meaning "son", originally given to the plague God Nergal, son of Enlil. Apollo Smintheus (Greek Απόλλων Σμινθεύς), the mouse killer who eliminates mice, a primary cause of disease, hence he promotes preventive medicine.
Occupation of the site at Delphi can be traced back to the Neolithic period with extensive occupation and use beginning in the Mycenaean period (1600–1100 BC). In Mycenaean times Krissa was a major Greek land and sea power, perhaps one of the first in Greece, if the Early Helladic date of Kirra is to be believed. The ancient sources indicate that the previous name of the Gulf of Corinth was the "Krisaean Gulf". Like Krisa, Corinth was a Dorian state, and Gulf of Corinth was a Dorian lake, so to speak, especially since the migration of Dorians into the Peloponnesus starting about 1000 BC. Krisa's power was broken finally by the recovered Aeolic and Attic-Ionic speaking states of southern Greece over the issue of access to Delphi. Control of it was assumed by the Amphictyonic League, an organization of states with an interest in Delphi, in the early Classical period. Krisa was destroyed for its arrogance. The gulf was given Corinth's name. Corinth by then was similar to the Ionic states: ornate and innovative, not resembling the spartan style of the Doric.
Earlier myths include traditions that Pythia, or the Delphic oracle, already was the site of an important oracle in the pre-classical Greek world (as early as 1400 BC) and, rededicated from about 800 BC, when it served as the major site during classical times for the worship of the god Apollo.
Delphi was since ancient times a place of worship for Gaia, the mother goddess connected with fertility. The town started to gain pan-Hellenic relevance as both a shrine and an oracle in the seventh century BC. Initially under the control of Phocaean settlers based in nearby Kirra (currently Itea), Delphi was reclaimed by the Athenians during the First Sacred War (597–585 BC). The conflict resulted in the consolidation of the Amphictyonic League, which had both a military and a religious function revolving around the protection of the Temple of Apollo. This shrine was destroyed by fire in 548 BC and then fell under the control of the Alcmaeonids who were banned from Athens. In 449–448 BC, the Second Sacred War (fought in the wider context of the First Peloponnesian War between the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta and the Delian-Attic League led by Athens) resulted in the Phocians gaining control of Delphi and the management of the Pythian Games.
In 356 BC, the Phocians under Philomelos captured and sacked Delphi, leading to the Third Sacred War (356–346 BC), which ended with the defeat of the former and the rise of Macedon under the reign of Philip II. This led to the Fourth Sacred War (339 BC), which culminated in the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC) and the establishment of Macedonian rule over Greece.
In Delphi, Macedonian rule was superseded by the Aetolians in 279 BC, when a Gallic invasion was repelled, and by the Romans in 191 BC. The site was sacked by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 86 BC, during the Mithridatic Wars, and by Nero in 66 AD. Although subsequent Roman emperors of the Flavian dynasty contributed toward to the restoration of the site, it gradually lost importance.
The anti-pagan legislation of the late Roman Imperial era deprived ancient sanctuaries of their assets. The emperor Julian attempted to reverse this religious climate, yet his "pagan revival" was particularly short-lived. When the doctor Oreibasius visited the oracle of Delphi, in order to question the fate of paganism, he received a pessimistic answer:
Tell the king that the flute has fallen to the ground. Phoebus does not have a home any more, neither an oracular laurel, nor a speaking fountain, because the talking water has dried out
It was shut down during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire by Theodosius I in 381 AD.
The Amphictyonic Council was a council of representatives from six Greek tribes who controlled Delphi and also the quadrennial Pythian Games. They met biannually and came from Thessaly and central Greece. Over time, the town of Delphi gained more control of itself and the council lost much of its influence.
Excavation at Delphi, which was a post-Mycenaean settlement of the late ninth century, has uncovered artifacts increasing steadily in volume beginning with the last quarter of the eighth century BC. Pottery and bronze as well as tripod dedications continue in a steady stream, in contrast to Olympia. Neither the range of objects nor the presence of prestigious dedications proves that Delphi was a focus of attention for a wide range of worshippers, but the large quantity of valuable goods, found in no other mainland sanctuary, encourages that view.
Apollo's sacred precinct in Delphi was a Panhellenic Sanctuary, where every four years, starting in 586 BC athletes from all over the Greek world competed in the Pythian Games, one of the four Panhellenic Games, precursors of the Modern Olympics. The victors at Delphi were presented with a laurel crown (stephanos) that was ceremonially cut from a tree by a boy who re-enacted the slaying of the Python. (These competitions are also called stephantic games, after the crown.) Delphi was set apart from the other games sites because it hosted the mousikos agon, musical competitions.
These Pythian Games rank second among the four stephantic games chronologically and in importance. These games, however, were different from the games at Olympia in that they were not of such vast importance to the city of Delphi as the games at Olympia were to the area surrounding Olympia. Delphi would have been a renowned city regardless of whether it hosted these games; it had other attractions that led to it being labeled the "omphalos" (navel) of the earth, in other words, the centre of the world.
In the inner hestia (hearth) of the Temple of Apollo, an eternal flame burned. After the battle of Plataea, the Greek cities extinguished their fires and brought new fire from the hearth of Greece, at Delphi; in the foundation stories of several Greek colonies, the founding colonists were first dedicated at Delphi.
The Ottomans finalized their domination over Phocis and Delphi in about 1410 AD. Delphi itself remained almost uninhabited for centuries. It seems that one of the first buildings of the early modern era was the monastery of the Dormition of Mary or of Panagia (the Mother of God) built above the ancient gymnasium at Delphi. It must have been toward the end of the fifteenth or in the sixteenth century that a settlement started forming there, which eventually ended up forming the village of Kastri.
Ottoman Delphi gradually began to be investigated. The first Westerner to describe the remains in Delphi was Cyriacus of Ancona, a fifteenth-century merchant turned diplomat and antiquarian, considered the founding father of modern classical archeology. He visited Delphi in March 1436 and remained there for six days. He recorded all the visible archaeological remains based on Pausanias for identification. He described the stadium and the theatre at that date as well as some freestanding pieces of sculpture. He also recorded several inscriptions, most of which are now lost. His identifications, however, were not always correct: for example he described a round building he saw as the temple of Apollo while this was simply the base of the Argives' ex-voto. A severe earthquake in 1500 caused much damage.
In 1766, an English expedition funded by the Society of Dilettanti included the Oxford epigraphist Richard Chandler, the architect Nicholas Revett, and the painter William Pars. Their studies were published in 1769 under the title Ionian Antiquities, followed by a collection of inscriptions, and two travel books, one about Asia Minor (1775), and one about Greece (1776). Apart from the antiquities, they also related some vivid descriptions of daily life in Kastri, such as the crude behaviour of the Muslim Albanians who guarded the mountain passes.
In 1805 Edward Dodwell visited Delphi, accompanied by the painter Simone Pomardi. Lord Byron visited in 1809, accompanied by his friend John Cam Hobhouse:
Yet there I've wandered by the vaulted rill
Yes! Sighed o'er Delphi's long deserted shrine,
where, save that feeble fountain, all is still.
He carved his name on the same column in the gymnasium as Lord Aberdeen, later Prime Minister, who had visited a few years before. Proper excavation did not start until the late nineteenth century (see "Excavations" section) after the village had moved.
From the sixteenth century onward, woodcuts of Delphi began to appear in printed maps and books. The earliest depictions of Delphi were totally imaginary; for example, those created by Nikolaus Gerbel, who published in 1545 a text based on the map of Greece by N. Sofianos. The ancient sanctuary was depicted as a fortified city.
The first travelers with archaeological interests, apart from the precursor Cyriacus of Ancona, were the British George Wheler and the French Jacob Spon, who visited Greece in a joint expedition in 1675–1676. They published their impressions separately. In Wheler's "Journey into Greece", published in 1682, a sketch of the region of Delphi appeared, where the settlement of Kastri and some ruins were depicted. The illustrations in Spon's publication "Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grèce et du Levant, 1678" are considered original and groundbreaking.
Travelers continued to visit Delphi throughout the nineteenth century and published their books which contained diaries, sketches, and views of the site, as well as pictures of coins. The illustrations often reflected the spirit of romanticism, as evident by the works of Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, where, apart from the landscapes (La Grèce. Vues pittoresques et topographiques, Paris 1834) are depicted also human types (Costumes et usages des peuples de la Grèce moderne dessinés sur les lieux, Paris 1828). The philhellene painter W. Williams has comprised the landscape of Delphi in his themes (1829). Influential personalities such as F.Ch.-H.-L. Pouqueville, W.M. Leake, Chr. Wordsworth and Lord Byron are amongst the most important visitors of Delphi.
After the foundation of the modern Greek state, the press became also interested in these travelers. Thus "Ephemeris" writes (17 March 1889): In the Revues des Deux Mondes Paul Lefaivre published his memoirs from an excursion to Delphi. The French author relates in a charming style his adventures on the road, praising particularly the ability of an old woman to put back in place the dislocated arm of one of his foreign traveling companions, who had fallen off the horse. "In Arachova the Greek type is preserved intact. The men are rather athletes than farmers, built for running and wrestling, particularly elegant and slender under their mountain gear." Only briefly does he refer to the antiquities of Delphi, but he refers to a pelasgian wall 80 meters long, "on which innumerable inscriptions are carved, decrees, conventions, manumissions".
Gradually the first travelling guides appeared. The revolutionary "pocket" books invented by Karl Baedeker, accompanied by maps useful for visiting archaeological sites such as Delphi (1894) and the informed plans, the guides became practical and popular. The photographic lens revolutionized the way of depicting the landscape and the antiquities, particularly from 1893 onward, when the systematic excavations of the French Archaeological School started. However, artists such as Vera Willoughby, continued to be inspired by the landscape.
Delphic themes inspired several graphic artists. Besides the landscape, Pythia and Sibylla become illustration subjects even on Tarot cards. A famous example constitutes Michelangelo's Delphic Sibyl (1509), the nineteenth-century German engraving, Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, as well as the recent ink on paper drawing, "The Oracle of Delphi" (2013) by M. Lind. Modern artists are inspired also by the Delphic Maxims. Examples of such works are displayed in the "Sculpture park of the European Cultural Center of Delphi" and in exhibitions taking place at the Archaeological Museum of Delphi.
Delphi inspired literature as well. In 1814 W. Haygarth, friend of Lord Byron, refers to Delphi in his work "Greece, a Poem". In 1888 Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle published his lyric drama L’Apollonide, accompanied by music by Franz Servais. More recent French authors used Delphi as a source of inspiration such as Yves Bonnefoy (Delphes du second jour) or Jean Sullivan (nickname of Joseph Lemarchand) in L'Obsession de Delphes (1967), but also Rob MacGregor's Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi (1991).
The presence of Delphi in Greek literature is very intense. Poets such as Kostis Palamas (The Delphic Hymn, 1894), Kostas Karyotakis (Delphic festival, 1927), Nikephoros Vrettakos (return from Delphi, 1957), Yannis Ritsos (Delphi, 1961–62) and Kiki Dimoula (Gas omphalos and Appropriate terrain 1988), to mention only the most renowned ones. Angelos Sikelianos wrote The Dedication (of the Delphic speech) (1927), the Delphic Hymn (1927) and the tragedy Sibylla (1940), whereas in the context of the Delphic idea and the Delphic festivals he published an essay entitled "The Delphic union" (1930). The nobelist George Seferis wrote an essay under the title "Delphi", in the book "Dokimes". | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Delphi (/ˈdɛlfaɪ, ˈdɛlfi/; Greek: Δελφοί [ðelˈfi]), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the Omphalos of Delphi (navel).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "According to the Suda, Delphi took its name from the Delphyne, the she-serpent (drakaina) who lived there and was killed by the god Apollo (in other accounts the serpent was the male serpent (drakon) Python).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The sacred precinct occupies a delineated region on the south-western slope of Mount Parnassus.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "It is now an extensive archaeological site, and since 1938 a part of Parnassos National Park. The precinct is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in having had a great influence in the ancient world, as evidenced by the various monuments built there by most of the important ancient Greek city-states, demonstrating their fundamental Hellenic unity.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Adjacent to the sacred precinct is a small modern town of the same name.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Delphi shares the same root with the Greek word for womb, δελφύς delphys.",
"title": "Names"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Pytho (Πυθώ) is related to Pythia, the priestess serving as the oracle, and to Python, a serpent or dragon who lived at the site. \"Python\" is derived from the verb πύθω (pythō), \"to rot\".",
"title": "Names"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Today Delphi is a municipality of Greece as well as a modern town adjacent to the ancient precinct. The modern town was created after removing buildings from the sacred precinct so that the latter could be excavated. The two Delphis, old and new, are located on Greek National Road 48 between Amfissa in the west and Livadeia, capital of Voiotia, in the east. The road follows the northern slope of a pass between Mount Parnassus on the north and the mountains of the Desfina Peninsula on the south. The pass is of the river Pleistos, running from east to west, forming a natural boundary across the north of the Desfina Peninsula, and providing an easy route across it.",
"title": "Delphi and the Delphic region"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "On the west side the valley joins the north–south valley between Amfissa and Itea.",
"title": "Delphi and the Delphic region"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "On the north side of the valley junction a spur of Parnassus looming over the valley made narrower by it is the site of ancient Krisa, which once was the ruling power of the entire valley system. Both Amphissa and Krissa are mentioned in the Iliad's Catalogue of Ships. It was a Mycenaean stronghold. Archaeological dates of the valley go back to the Early Helladic. Krisa itself is Middle Helladic. These early dates are comparable to the earliest dates at Delphi, suggesting Delphi was appropriated and transformed by Phocians from ancient Krisa. It is believed that the ruins of Kirra, now part of the port of Itea, were the port of Krisa of the same name.",
"title": "Delphi and the Delphic region"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The site was first briefly excavated in 1880 by Bernard Haussoullier (1852-1926) on behalf of the French School at Athens, of which he was a sometime member. The site was then occupied by the village of Kastri, about 100 houses, 200 people. Kastri (\"fort\") had been there since the destruction of the place by Theodosius I in 390. He probably left a fort to make sure it was not repopulated, however, the fort became the new village. They were mining the stone for re-use in their own buildings. British and French travelers visiting the site suspected it was ancient Delphi. Before a systematic excavation of the site could be undertaken, the village had to be relocated, but the residents resisted.",
"title": "Archaeology of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The opportunity to relocate the village occurred when it was substantially damaged by an earthquake, with villagers offered a completely new village in exchange for the old site. In 1893, the French Archaeological School removed vast quantities of soil from numerous landslides to reveal both the major buildings and structures of the sanctuary of Apollo and of the temple to Athena, the Athena Pronoia along with thousands of objects, inscriptions, and sculptures.",
"title": "Archaeology of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "During the Great Excavation architectural members from a fifth-century Christian basilica, were discovered that date to when Delphi was a bishopric. Other important Late Roman buildings are the Eastern Baths, the house with the peristyle, the Roman Agora, the large cistern usw. At the outskirts of the city late Roman cemeteries were located.",
"title": "Archaeology of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "To the southeast of the precinct of Apollo lay the so-called Southeastern Mansion, a building with a 65-meter-long façade, spread over four levels, with four triclinia and private baths. Large storage jars kept the provisions, whereas other pottery vessels and luxury items were discovered in the rooms. Among the finds stands out a tiny leopard made of mother of pearl, possibly of Sassanian origin, on display in the ground floor gallery of the Delphi Archaeological Museum. The mansion dates to the beginning of the fifth century and functioned as a private house until 580, later however it was transformed into a potter workshop. It is only then, in the beginning of the sixth century, that the city seems to decline: its size is reduced and its trade contacts seem to be drastically diminished. Local pottery production is produced in large quantities: it is coarser and made of reddish clay, aiming at satisfying the needs of the inhabitants.",
"title": "Archaeology of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The Sacred Way remained the main street of the settlement, transformed, however, into a street with commercial and industrial use. Around the agora were built workshops as well as the only intra muros early Christian basilica. The domestic area spread mainly in the western part of the settlement. The houses were rather spacious and two large cisterns provided running water to them.",
"title": "Archaeology of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The museum houses artifacts associated with ancient Delphi, including the earliest known notation of a melody, the Charioteer of Delphi, Kleobis and Biton, golden treasures discovered beneath the Sacred Way, the Sphinx of Naxos, and fragments of reliefs from the Siphnian Treasury. Immediately adjacent to the exit is the inscription that mentions the Roman proconsul Gallio.",
"title": "Archaeology of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Most of the ruins that survive today date from the most intense period of activity at the site in the sixth century BC.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The ruins of the Temple of Apollo that are visible today date from the fourth century BC, and are of a peripteral Doric building. It was erected by Spintharus, Xenodoros, and Agathon on the remains of an earlier temple, dated to the sixth century BC, which had been erected on the site of a seventh-century BC construction attributed in legend to the architects Trophonios and Agamedes.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Ancient tradition accounted for four temples that successively occupied the site before the 548/7 BC fire, following which the Alcmaeonids built a fifth. The poet Pindar celebrated the Alcmaeonids' temple in Pythian 7.8-9 and he also provided details of the third building (Paean 8. 65–75). Other details are given by Pausanias (10.5.9-13) and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (294 ff.). The first temple was said to have been constructed out of olive branches from Tempe. The second was made by bees out of wax and wings, but was miraculously carried off by a powerful wind and deposited among the Hyperboreans. The third, as described by Pindar, was created by the deities Hephaestus and Athena, but its architectural details included Siren-like figures or \"Enchantresses\", whose baneful songs eventually provoked the Olympian deities to bury the temple in the earth (according to Pausanias, it was destroyed by earthquake and fire). In Pindar's words (Paean 8.65-75, Bowra translation), addressed to the Muses:",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The fourth temple was said to have been constructed from stone by Trophonius and Agamedes. However, a 2019 theory gives a completely new explanation of the above myth of the four temples of Delphi.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "From the entrance of the upper site, continuing up the slope on the Sacred Way almost to the Temple of Apollo, are a large number of votive statues, and numerous so-called treasuries. These were built by many of the Greek city-states to commemorate victories and to thank the oracle for her advice, which was thought to have contributed to those victories. These buildings held the offerings made to Apollo; these were frequently a \"tithe\" or tenth of the spoils of a battle. The most impressive is the now-restored Athenian Treasury, built to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Siphnian Treasury was dedicated by the city of Siphnos, whose citizens gave a tithe of the yield from their silver mines until the mines came to an abrupt end when the sea flooded the workings.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "One of the largest of the treasuries was that of Argos. Having built it in the late classical period, the Argives took great pride in establishing their place at Delphi amongst the other city-states. Completed in 380 BC, their treasury seems to draw inspiration mostly from the Temple of Hera located in the Argolis. However, recent analysis of the Archaic elements of the treasury suggest that its founding preceded this.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Other identifiable treasuries are those of the Sicyonians, the Boeotians, Massaliots, and the Thebans.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Located in front of the Temple of Apollo, the main altar of the sanctuary was paid for and built by the people of Chios. It is dated to the fifth century BC by the inscription on its cornice. Made entirely of black marble, except for the base and cornice, the altar would have made a striking impression. It was restored in 1920.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The stoa, or open-sided, covered porch, is placed in an approximately east–west alignment along the base of the polygonal wall retaining the terrace on which the Temple of Apollo sits. There is no archaeological suggestion of a connection to the temple. The stoa opened to the Sacred Way. The nearby presence of the Treasury of the Athenians suggests that this quarter of Delphi was used for Athenian business or politics, as stoas are generally found in market-places.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Although the architecture at Delphi is generally Doric, a plain style, in keeping with the Phocian traditions that were Doric, the Athenians did not prefer the Doric. The stoa was built in their own preferred style, the Ionic order, the capitals of the columns being a sure indicator. In the Ionic order they are floral and ornate, although not so much as the Corinthian, which is in deficit there. The remaining porch structure contains seven fluted columns, unusually carved from single pieces of stone (most columns were constructed from a series of discs joined). The inscription on the stylobate indicates that it was built by the Athenians after their naval victory over the Persians in 478 BC, to house their war trophies. At that time the Athenians and the Spartans were on the same side.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The Sibyl rock is a pulpit-like outcrop of rock between the Athenian Treasury and the Stoa of the Athenians upon the Sacred Way that leads up to the temple of Apollo in the archaeological area of Delphi. The rock is claimed to be the location from which a prehistoric Sibyl pre-dating the Pythia of Apollo sat to deliver her prophecies. Other suggestions are that the Pythia might have stood there, or an acolyte whose function was to deliver the final prophecy. The rock seems ideal for public speaking.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The ancient theatre at Delphi was built farther up the hill from the Temple of Apollo giving spectators a view of the entire sanctuary and the valley below. It was originally built in the fourth century BC, but was remodeled on several occasions, particularly in 160/159 B.C. at the expenses of king Eumenes II of Pergamon and, in 67 A.D., on the occasion of emperor Nero's visit.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The koilon (cavea) leans against the natural slope of the mountain whereas its eastern part overrides a little torrent that led the water of the fountain Cassotis right underneath the temple of Apollo. The orchestra was initially a full circle with a diameter measuring seven meters. The rectangular scene building ended up in two arched openings, of which the foundations are preserved today. Access to the theatre was possible through the parodoi, i.e. the side corridors. On the support walls of the parodoi are engraved large numbers of manumission inscriptions recording fictitious sales of the slaves to the deity. The koilon was divided horizontally in two zones via a corridor called diazoma. The lower zone had 27 rows of seats and the upper one only eight. Six radially arranged stairs divided the lower part of the koilon in seven tiers. The theatre could accommodate approximately 4,500 spectators.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "On the occasion of Nero's visit to Greece in 67 A.D. various alterations took place. The orchestra was paved and delimited by a parapet made of stone. The proscenium was replaced by a low pedestal, the pulpitum; its façade was decorated in relief with scenes from myths about Hercules. Further repairs and transformations took place in the second century A.D. Pausanias mentions that these were carried out under the auspices of Herod Atticus. In antiquity, the theatre was used for the vocal and musical contests that formed part of the programme of the Pythian Games in the late Hellenistic and Roman period. The theatre was abandoned when the sanctuary declined in Late Antiquity. After its excavation and initial restoration it hosted theatrical performances during the Delphic Festivals organized by A. Sikelianos and his wife, Eva Palmer, in 1927 and in 1930. It has recently been restored again as the serious landslides posed a grave threat for its stability for decades.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The tholos at the sanctuary of Athena Pronaea (Ἀθηνᾶ Προναία, \"Athena of forethought\") is a circular building that was constructed between 380 and 360 BC. It consisted of 20 Doric columns arranged with an exterior diameter of 14.76 meters, with 10 Corinthian columns in the interior.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The Tholos is located approximately a half a mile (800 m) from the main ruins at Delphi (at 38°28′49″N 22°30′28″E / 38.48016°N 22.50789°E / 38.48016; 22.50789). Three of the Doric columns have been restored, making it the most popular site at Delphi for tourists to take photographs.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The architect of the \"vaulted temple at Delphi\" is named by Vitruvius, in De architectura Book VII, as Theodorus Phoceus (not Theodorus of Samos, whom Vitruvius names separately).",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The gymnasium, which is half a mile away from the main sanctuary, was a series of buildings used by the youth of Delphi. The building consisted of two levels: a stoa on the upper level providing open space, and a palaestra, pool, and baths on lower floor. These pools and baths were said to have magical powers, and imparted the ability to communicate directly to Apollo.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The stadium is located farther up the hill, beyond the via sacra and the theatre. It was built in the fifth century BC, but was altered in later centuries. The last major remodelling took place in the second century AD under the patronage of Herodes Atticus when the stone seating was built and an (arched) entrance created. It could seat 6500 spectators and the track was 177 metres long and 25.5 metres wide.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "It was at the Pythian Games that prominent political leaders, such as Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sikyon, and Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse, competed with their chariots. The hippodrome where these events took place was referred to by Pindar, and this monument was sought by archaeologists for over two centuries.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Traces of it have recently been found at Gonia in the plain of Krisa in the place where the original stadium had been sited.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "A retaining wall was built to support the terrace housing the construction of the second temple of Apollo in 548 BC. Its name is taken from the polygonal masonry of which it is constructed. At a later date, from 200 BC onwards, the stones were inscribed with the manumission (liberation) contracts of slaves who were consecrated to Apollo. Approximately a thousand manumissions are recorded on the wall.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The sacred spring of Delphi lies in the ravine of the Phaedriades. The preserved remains of two monumental fountains that received the water from the spring date to the Archaic period and the Roman, with the latter cut into the rock.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The first set of remains that the visitor sees upon entering the archaeological site of Delphi is the Roman Agora, which was just outside the peribolos, or precinct walls, of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. The Roman Agora was built between the sanctuary and the Castalian Spring, approximately 500 meters away. This large rectangular paved square used to be surrounded by Ionic porticos on its three sides. The square was built in the Roman period, but the remains visible at present along the north and northwestern sides date to the Late Antique period.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "An open market was probably established, where the visitors would buy ex-votos, such as statuettes and small tripods, to leave as offerings to the gods. It also served as an assembly area for processions during sacred festivals.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "During the empire, statues of the emperor and other notable benefactors were erected here as evidenced by the remaining pedestals. In late, Antiquity workshops of artisans were also created within the agora.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Delphi is famous for its many preserved athletic statues. It is known that Olympia originally housed far more of these statues, but time brought ruin to many of them, leaving Delphi as the main site of athletic statues. Kleobis and Biton, two brothers renowned for their strength, are modeled in two of the earliest known athletic statues at Delphi. The statues commemorate their feat of pulling their mother's cart several miles to the Sanctuary of Hera in the absence of oxen. The neighbors were most impressed and their mother asked Hera to grant them the greatest gift. When they entered Hera's temple, they fell into a slumber and never woke, dying at the height of their admiration, the perfect gift.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "The Charioteer of Delphi is another ancient relic that has withstood the centuries. It is one of the best known statues from antiquity. The charioteer has lost many features, including his chariot and his left arm, but he stands as a tribute to athletic art of antiquity.",
"title": "Architecture of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "In the Iliad, Achilles would not accept Agamemnon's peace offering even if it included all the wealth in the \"stone floor\" of \"rocky Pytho\" (I 404). In the Odyssey (θ 79) Agamemnon crosses a \"stone floor\" to receive a prophecy from Apollo in Pytho, the first known of proto-history. Hesiod also refers to Pytho \"in the hollows of Parnassus\" (Theogony 498). These references imply that the earliest date of the oracle's existence is the eighth century BC, the probable date of composition of the Homeric works.",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The main myths of Delphi are given in three literary \"loci\". H. W. Parke, the Delphi scholar, complained that they are self-contradictory, thus unconsciously falling into the Plutarchian epistemology, that they reflect some common, objective historic reality against which the accounts can be compared. Parke asserts that there is no Apollo, no Zeus, no Hera, and certainly never was a great, serpent-like monster, and that the myths are pure Plutarchian figures of speech, meant to be aetiologies of some oracular tradition.",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Homeric Hymn 3, \"To Apollo\", is the oldest of the three loci, dating to the seventh century BC (estimate). Apollo travels about after his birth on Delos seeking a place for an oracle. He is advised by Telephus to choose Crissa \"below the glade of Parnassus\", which he does, and has a temple built. Killing the serpent that guards the spring. Subsequently, some Cretans from Knossos sail up on a mission to reconnoitre Pylos. Changing into a dolphin, Apollo casts himself on deck. The Cretans do not dare to remove him but sail on. Apollo guides the ship around Greece, ending back at Crisa, where the ship grounds. Apollo enters his shrine with the Cretans to be its priests, worshipping him as Delphineus, \"of the dolphin\".",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Zeus, a Classical deity, reportedly determined the site of Delphi when he sought to find the centre of his \"Grandmother Earth\" (Gaia). He sent two eagles flying from the eastern and western extremities, and the path of the eagles crossed over Delphi where the omphalos, or navel of Gaia was found.",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "According to Aeschylus in the prologue of the Eumenides, the oracle had origins in prehistoric times and the worship of Gaia, a view echoed by H. W. Parke, who described the evolution of beliefs associated with the site. He established that the prehistoric foundation of the oracle is described by three early writers: the author of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Aeschylus in the prologue to the Eumenides, and Euripides in a chorus in the Iphigeneia in Tauris. Parke goes on to say, \"This version [Euripides] evidently reproduces in a sophisticated form the primitive tradition which Aeschylus for his own purposes had been at pains to contradict: the belief that Apollo came to Delphi as an invader and appropriated for himself a previously existing oracle of Earth. The slaying of the serpent is the act of conquest which secures his possession; not as in the Homeric Hymn, a merely secondary work of improvement on the site. Another difference is also noticeable. The Homeric Hymn, as we saw, implied that the method of prophecy used there was similar to that of Dodona: both Aeschylus and Euripides, writing in the fifth century, attribute to primeval times the same methods as used at Delphi in their own day. So much is implied by their allusions to tripods and prophetic seats... [he continues on p. 6] ...Another very archaic feature at Delphi also confirms the ancient associations of the place with the Earth goddess. This was the Omphalos, an egg-shaped stone which was situated in the innermost sanctuary of the temple in historic times. Classical legend asserted that it marked the 'navel' (Omphalos) or center of the Earth and explained that this spot was determined by Zeus who had released two eagles to fly from opposite sides of the earth and that they had met exactly over this place\". On p. 7 he writes further, \"So Delphi was originally devoted to the worship of the Earth goddess whom the Greeks called Ge, or Gaia. Themis, who is associated with her in tradition as her daughter and partner or successor, is really another manifestation of the same deity: an identity that Aeschylus recognized in another context. The worship of these two, as one or distinguished, was displaced by the introduction of Apollo. His origin has been the subject of much learned controversy: it is sufficient for our purpose to take him as the Homeric Hymn represents him – a northern intruder – and his arrival must have occurred in the dark interval between Mycenaean and Hellenic times. His conflict with Ge for the possession of the cult site was represented under the legend of his slaying the serpent.",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "One tale of the sanctuary's discovery states that a goatherd, who grazed his flocks on Parnassus, one day observed his goats playing with great agility upon nearing a chasm in the rock; the goatherd noticing this held his head over the chasm causing the fumes to go to his brain; throwing him into a strange trance.",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "The Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo recalled that the ancient name of this site had been Krisa.",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Others relate that the site was named Pytho (Πυθώ) and that Pythia, the priestess serving as the oracle, was chosen from their ranks by the priestesses who officiated at the temple. Apollo was said to have slain Python, a drako (a male serpent or a dragon) who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth. \"Python\" (derived from the verb πύθω (pythō), \"to rot\") is claimed by some to be the original name of the site in recognition of Python that Apollo defeated.",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "The name Delphi comes from the same root as δελφύς delphys, \"womb\" and may indicate archaic veneration of Gaia at the site. Several other scholars discuss the likely prehistoric beliefs associated with the site.",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Apollo is connected with the site by his epithet Δελφίνιος Delphinios, \"the Delphinian\". The epithet is connected with dolphins (Greek δελφίς,-ῖνος) in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (line 400), recounting the legend of how Apollo first came to Delphi in the shape of a dolphin, carrying Cretan priests on his back. The Homeric name of the oracle is Pytho (Πυθώ). Another legend held that Apollo walked to Delphi from the north and stopped at Tempe, a city in Thessaly, to pick laurel (also known as bay tree) which he considered to be a sacred plant. In commemoration of this legend, the winners at the Pythian Games received a wreath of laurel picked in the temple.",
"title": "Myths regarding the origin of the precinct"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Perhaps Delphi is best known for its oracle, the Pythia, or sibyl, the priestess prophesying from the tripod in the sunken adyton of the Temple of Apollo. The Pythia was known as a spokesperson for Apollo. She was a woman of blameless life chosen from the peasants of the area. Alone in an enclosed inner sanctum (Ancient Greek adyton – \"do not enter\") she sat on a tripod seat over an opening in the earth (the \"chasm\"). According to legend, when Apollo slew Python its body fell into this fissure and fumes arose from its decomposing body. Intoxicated by the vapors, the sibyl would fall into a trance, allowing Apollo to possess her spirit. In this state she prophesied. The oracle could not be consulted during the winter months, for this was traditionally the time when Apollo would live among the Hyperboreans. Dionysus would inhabit the temple during his absence. Of note, release of fumes is limited in colder weather.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "The time to consult Pythia for an oracle during the year was determined from astronomical and geological grounds related to the constellations of Lyra and Cygnus. Similar practice was followed in other Apollo oracles too.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Hydrocarbon vapors emitted from the chasm. While in a trance the Pythia \"raved\" – probably a form of ecstatic speech – and her ravings were \"translated\" by the priests of the temple into elegant hexameters. It has been speculated that the ancient writers, including Plutarch who had worked as a priest at Delphi, were correct in attributing the oracular effects to the sweet-smelling pneuma (Ancient Greek for breath, wind, or vapor) escaping from the chasm in the rock. That exhalation could have been high in the known anaesthetic and sweet-smelling ethylene or other hydrocarbons such as ethane known to produce violent trances. Although, given the limestone geology, this theory remains debatable, the authors put up a detailed answer to their critics.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Ancient sources describe the priestess using “laurel” to inspire her prophecies. Several alternative plant candidates have been suggested including Cannabis, Hyoscyamus, Rhododendron, and Oleander. Harissis claims that a review of contemporary toxicological literature indicates that oleander causes symptoms similar to those shown by the Pythia, and his study of ancient texts shows that oleander was often included under the term \"laurel\". The Pythia may have chewed oleander leaves and inhaled their smoke prior to her oracular pronouncements and sometimes dying from the toxicity. The toxic substances of oleander resulted in symptoms similar to those of epilepsy, the “sacred disease”, which may have been seen as the possession of the Pythia by the spirit of Apollo.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "The Delphic oracle exerted considerable influence throughout the Greek world, and she was consulted before all major undertakings including wars and the founding of colonies. She also was respected by the Greek-influenced countries around the periphery of the Greek world, such as Lydia, Caria, and even Egypt.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "The oracle was also known to the early Romans. Rome's seventh and last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, after witnessing a snake near his palace, sent a delegation including two of his sons to consult the oracle.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "In 278 BC, a Thracian (Celtic) tribe raided Delphi, burned the temple, plundered the sanctuary and stole the \"unquenchable fire\" from the altar. During the raid, part of the temple roof collapsed. The same year, the temple was severely damaged by an earthquake, thus it fell into decay and the surrounding area became impoverished. The sparse local population led to difficulties in filling the posts required. The oracle's credibility waned due to doubtful predictions.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "The oracle flourished again in the second century AD, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, who is believed to have visited the oracle twice and offered complete autonomy to the city. By the 4th century, Delphi had acquired the status of a city.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Constantine the Great looted several monuments in Eastern Mediterranean, including Delphi, to decorate his new capital, Constantinople. One of those famous items was the bronze column of Plataea (The Serpent Column; Ancient Greek: Τρικάρηνος Ὄφις, Three-headed Serpent; Turkish: Yılanlı Sütun, Serpentine Column) from the sanctuary (dated 479 BC), relocated there from Delphi in AD 324, which can still be seen today standing destroyed at a square of Istanbul (where once upon a time was the Hippodrome of Constantinople, built by Constantine; Ottoman Turkish: Atmeydanı \"Horse Square\") with part of one of its heads kept in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums (İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri).",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Despite the rise of Christianity across the Roman Empire, the oracle remained a religious center throughout the fourth century, and the Pythian Games continued to be held at least until 424 AD; however, the decline continued. The attempt of Emperor Julian to revive polytheism did not survive his reign. Excavations have revealed a large three-aisled basilica in the city, as well as traces of a church building in the sanctuary's gymnasium. The site was abandoned in the sixth or seventh centuries, although a single bishop of Delphi is attested in an episcopal list of the late eighth and early ninth centuries.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Delphi became the site of a major temple to Phoebus Apollo, as well as the Pythian Games and the prehistoric oracle. Even in Roman times, hundreds of votive statues remained, described by Pliny the Younger and seen by Pausanias. Carved into the temple were three phrases: γνῶθι σεαυτόν (gnōthi seautón = \"know thyself\") and μηδὲν ἄγαν (mēdén ágan = \"nothing in excess\"), and Ἑγγύα πάρα δ'ἄτη (engýa pára d'atē = \"make a pledge and mischief is nigh\"), In antiquity, the origin of these phrases was attributed to one or more of the Seven Sages of Greece by authors such as Plato and Pausanias. Additionally, according to Plutarch's essay on the meaning of the \"E at Delphi\"—the only literary source for the inscription—there was also inscribed at the temple a large letter E. Among other things epsilon signifies the number 5. However, ancient as well as modern scholars have doubted the legitimacy of such inscriptions. According to one pair of scholars, \"The actual authorship of the three maxims set up on the Delphian temple may be left uncertain. Most likely they were popular proverbs, which tended later to be attributed to particular sages.\"",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "According to the Homeric hymn to the Pythian Apollo, Apollo shot his first arrow as an infant that effectively slew the serpent Pytho, the son of Gaia, who guarded the spot. To atone the murder of Gaia's son, Apollo was forced to fly and spend eight years in menial service before he could return forgiven. A festival, the Septeria, was held every year, at which the whole story was represented: the slaying of the serpent, and the flight, atonement, and return of the god.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "The Pythian Games took place every four years to commemorate Apollo's victory. Another regular Delphi festival was the \"Theophania\" (Θεοφάνεια), an annual festival in spring celebrating the return of Apollo from his winter quarters in Hyperborea. The culmination of the festival was a display of an image of the deities, usually hidden in the sanctuary, to worshippers.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "The theoxenia was held each summer, centred on a feast for \"gods and ambassadors from other states\". Myths indicate that Apollo killed the chthonic serpent Python guarding the Castalian Spring and named his priestess Pythia after her. Python, who had been sent by Hera, had attempted to prevent Leto, while she was pregnant with Apollo and Artemis, from giving birth.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "The spring at the site flowed toward the temple but disappeared beneath, creating a cleft which emitted chemical vapors that purportedly caused the oracle at Delphi to reveal her prophecies. Apollo killed Python, but had to be punished for it, since he was a child of Gaia. The shrine dedicated to Apollo was originally dedicated to Gaia and shared with Poseidon. The name Pythia remained as the title of the Delphic oracle.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Erwin Rohde wrote that the Python was an earth spirit, who was conquered by Apollo, and buried under the omphalos, and that it is a case of one deity setting up a temple on the grave of another. Another view holds that Apollo was a fairly recent addition to the Greek pantheon coming originally from Lydia. The Etruscans coming from northern Anatolia also worshipped Apollo, and it may be that he was originally identical with Mesopotamian Aplu, an Akkadian title meaning \"son\", originally given to the plague God Nergal, son of Enlil. Apollo Smintheus (Greek Απόλλων Σμινθεύς), the mouse killer who eliminates mice, a primary cause of disease, hence he promotes preventive medicine.",
"title": "Oracle of Delphi"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Occupation of the site at Delphi can be traced back to the Neolithic period with extensive occupation and use beginning in the Mycenaean period (1600–1100 BC). In Mycenaean times Krissa was a major Greek land and sea power, perhaps one of the first in Greece, if the Early Helladic date of Kirra is to be believed. The ancient sources indicate that the previous name of the Gulf of Corinth was the \"Krisaean Gulf\". Like Krisa, Corinth was a Dorian state, and Gulf of Corinth was a Dorian lake, so to speak, especially since the migration of Dorians into the Peloponnesus starting about 1000 BC. Krisa's power was broken finally by the recovered Aeolic and Attic-Ionic speaking states of southern Greece over the issue of access to Delphi. Control of it was assumed by the Amphictyonic League, an organization of states with an interest in Delphi, in the early Classical period. Krisa was destroyed for its arrogance. The gulf was given Corinth's name. Corinth by then was similar to the Ionic states: ornate and innovative, not resembling the spartan style of the Doric.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Earlier myths include traditions that Pythia, or the Delphic oracle, already was the site of an important oracle in the pre-classical Greek world (as early as 1400 BC) and, rededicated from about 800 BC, when it served as the major site during classical times for the worship of the god Apollo.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Delphi was since ancient times a place of worship for Gaia, the mother goddess connected with fertility. The town started to gain pan-Hellenic relevance as both a shrine and an oracle in the seventh century BC. Initially under the control of Phocaean settlers based in nearby Kirra (currently Itea), Delphi was reclaimed by the Athenians during the First Sacred War (597–585 BC). The conflict resulted in the consolidation of the Amphictyonic League, which had both a military and a religious function revolving around the protection of the Temple of Apollo. This shrine was destroyed by fire in 548 BC and then fell under the control of the Alcmaeonids who were banned from Athens. In 449–448 BC, the Second Sacred War (fought in the wider context of the First Peloponnesian War between the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta and the Delian-Attic League led by Athens) resulted in the Phocians gaining control of Delphi and the management of the Pythian Games.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "In 356 BC, the Phocians under Philomelos captured and sacked Delphi, leading to the Third Sacred War (356–346 BC), which ended with the defeat of the former and the rise of Macedon under the reign of Philip II. This led to the Fourth Sacred War (339 BC), which culminated in the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC) and the establishment of Macedonian rule over Greece.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "In Delphi, Macedonian rule was superseded by the Aetolians in 279 BC, when a Gallic invasion was repelled, and by the Romans in 191 BC. The site was sacked by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 86 BC, during the Mithridatic Wars, and by Nero in 66 AD. Although subsequent Roman emperors of the Flavian dynasty contributed toward to the restoration of the site, it gradually lost importance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "The anti-pagan legislation of the late Roman Imperial era deprived ancient sanctuaries of their assets. The emperor Julian attempted to reverse this religious climate, yet his \"pagan revival\" was particularly short-lived. When the doctor Oreibasius visited the oracle of Delphi, in order to question the fate of paganism, he received a pessimistic answer:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Tell the king that the flute has fallen to the ground. Phoebus does not have a home any more, neither an oracular laurel, nor a speaking fountain, because the talking water has dried out",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "It was shut down during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire by Theodosius I in 381 AD.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "The Amphictyonic Council was a council of representatives from six Greek tribes who controlled Delphi and also the quadrennial Pythian Games. They met biannually and came from Thessaly and central Greece. Over time, the town of Delphi gained more control of itself and the council lost much of its influence.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Excavation at Delphi, which was a post-Mycenaean settlement of the late ninth century, has uncovered artifacts increasing steadily in volume beginning with the last quarter of the eighth century BC. Pottery and bronze as well as tripod dedications continue in a steady stream, in contrast to Olympia. Neither the range of objects nor the presence of prestigious dedications proves that Delphi was a focus of attention for a wide range of worshippers, but the large quantity of valuable goods, found in no other mainland sanctuary, encourages that view.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "Apollo's sacred precinct in Delphi was a Panhellenic Sanctuary, where every four years, starting in 586 BC athletes from all over the Greek world competed in the Pythian Games, one of the four Panhellenic Games, precursors of the Modern Olympics. The victors at Delphi were presented with a laurel crown (stephanos) that was ceremonially cut from a tree by a boy who re-enacted the slaying of the Python. (These competitions are also called stephantic games, after the crown.) Delphi was set apart from the other games sites because it hosted the mousikos agon, musical competitions.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "These Pythian Games rank second among the four stephantic games chronologically and in importance. These games, however, were different from the games at Olympia in that they were not of such vast importance to the city of Delphi as the games at Olympia were to the area surrounding Olympia. Delphi would have been a renowned city regardless of whether it hosted these games; it had other attractions that led to it being labeled the \"omphalos\" (navel) of the earth, in other words, the centre of the world.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "In the inner hestia (hearth) of the Temple of Apollo, an eternal flame burned. After the battle of Plataea, the Greek cities extinguished their fires and brought new fire from the hearth of Greece, at Delphi; in the foundation stories of several Greek colonies, the founding colonists were first dedicated at Delphi.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "The Ottomans finalized their domination over Phocis and Delphi in about 1410 AD. Delphi itself remained almost uninhabited for centuries. It seems that one of the first buildings of the early modern era was the monastery of the Dormition of Mary or of Panagia (the Mother of God) built above the ancient gymnasium at Delphi. It must have been toward the end of the fifteenth or in the sixteenth century that a settlement started forming there, which eventually ended up forming the village of Kastri.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Ottoman Delphi gradually began to be investigated. The first Westerner to describe the remains in Delphi was Cyriacus of Ancona, a fifteenth-century merchant turned diplomat and antiquarian, considered the founding father of modern classical archeology. He visited Delphi in March 1436 and remained there for six days. He recorded all the visible archaeological remains based on Pausanias for identification. He described the stadium and the theatre at that date as well as some freestanding pieces of sculpture. He also recorded several inscriptions, most of which are now lost. His identifications, however, were not always correct: for example he described a round building he saw as the temple of Apollo while this was simply the base of the Argives' ex-voto. A severe earthquake in 1500 caused much damage.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "In 1766, an English expedition funded by the Society of Dilettanti included the Oxford epigraphist Richard Chandler, the architect Nicholas Revett, and the painter William Pars. Their studies were published in 1769 under the title Ionian Antiquities, followed by a collection of inscriptions, and two travel books, one about Asia Minor (1775), and one about Greece (1776). Apart from the antiquities, they also related some vivid descriptions of daily life in Kastri, such as the crude behaviour of the Muslim Albanians who guarded the mountain passes.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "In 1805 Edward Dodwell visited Delphi, accompanied by the painter Simone Pomardi. Lord Byron visited in 1809, accompanied by his friend John Cam Hobhouse:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "Yet there I've wandered by the vaulted rill",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Yes! Sighed o'er Delphi's long deserted shrine,",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "where, save that feeble fountain, all is still.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "He carved his name on the same column in the gymnasium as Lord Aberdeen, later Prime Minister, who had visited a few years before. Proper excavation did not start until the late nineteenth century (see \"Excavations\" section) after the village had moved.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "From the sixteenth century onward, woodcuts of Delphi began to appear in printed maps and books. The earliest depictions of Delphi were totally imaginary; for example, those created by Nikolaus Gerbel, who published in 1545 a text based on the map of Greece by N. Sofianos. The ancient sanctuary was depicted as a fortified city.",
"title": "Delphi in later art"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "The first travelers with archaeological interests, apart from the precursor Cyriacus of Ancona, were the British George Wheler and the French Jacob Spon, who visited Greece in a joint expedition in 1675–1676. They published their impressions separately. In Wheler's \"Journey into Greece\", published in 1682, a sketch of the region of Delphi appeared, where the settlement of Kastri and some ruins were depicted. The illustrations in Spon's publication \"Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grèce et du Levant, 1678\" are considered original and groundbreaking.",
"title": "Delphi in later art"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "Travelers continued to visit Delphi throughout the nineteenth century and published their books which contained diaries, sketches, and views of the site, as well as pictures of coins. The illustrations often reflected the spirit of romanticism, as evident by the works of Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, where, apart from the landscapes (La Grèce. Vues pittoresques et topographiques, Paris 1834) are depicted also human types (Costumes et usages des peuples de la Grèce moderne dessinés sur les lieux, Paris 1828). The philhellene painter W. Williams has comprised the landscape of Delphi in his themes (1829). Influential personalities such as F.Ch.-H.-L. Pouqueville, W.M. Leake, Chr. Wordsworth and Lord Byron are amongst the most important visitors of Delphi.",
"title": "Delphi in later art"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "After the foundation of the modern Greek state, the press became also interested in these travelers. Thus \"Ephemeris\" writes (17 March 1889): In the Revues des Deux Mondes Paul Lefaivre published his memoirs from an excursion to Delphi. The French author relates in a charming style his adventures on the road, praising particularly the ability of an old woman to put back in place the dislocated arm of one of his foreign traveling companions, who had fallen off the horse. \"In Arachova the Greek type is preserved intact. The men are rather athletes than farmers, built for running and wrestling, particularly elegant and slender under their mountain gear.\" Only briefly does he refer to the antiquities of Delphi, but he refers to a pelasgian wall 80 meters long, \"on which innumerable inscriptions are carved, decrees, conventions, manumissions\".",
"title": "Delphi in later art"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Gradually the first travelling guides appeared. The revolutionary \"pocket\" books invented by Karl Baedeker, accompanied by maps useful for visiting archaeological sites such as Delphi (1894) and the informed plans, the guides became practical and popular. The photographic lens revolutionized the way of depicting the landscape and the antiquities, particularly from 1893 onward, when the systematic excavations of the French Archaeological School started. However, artists such as Vera Willoughby, continued to be inspired by the landscape.",
"title": "Delphi in later art"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "Delphic themes inspired several graphic artists. Besides the landscape, Pythia and Sibylla become illustration subjects even on Tarot cards. A famous example constitutes Michelangelo's Delphic Sibyl (1509), the nineteenth-century German engraving, Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, as well as the recent ink on paper drawing, \"The Oracle of Delphi\" (2013) by M. Lind. Modern artists are inspired also by the Delphic Maxims. Examples of such works are displayed in the \"Sculpture park of the European Cultural Center of Delphi\" and in exhibitions taking place at the Archaeological Museum of Delphi.",
"title": "Delphi in later art"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "Delphi inspired literature as well. In 1814 W. Haygarth, friend of Lord Byron, refers to Delphi in his work \"Greece, a Poem\". In 1888 Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle published his lyric drama L’Apollonide, accompanied by music by Franz Servais. More recent French authors used Delphi as a source of inspiration such as Yves Bonnefoy (Delphes du second jour) or Jean Sullivan (nickname of Joseph Lemarchand) in L'Obsession de Delphes (1967), but also Rob MacGregor's Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi (1991).",
"title": "Delphi in later literature"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "The presence of Delphi in Greek literature is very intense. Poets such as Kostis Palamas (The Delphic Hymn, 1894), Kostas Karyotakis (Delphic festival, 1927), Nikephoros Vrettakos (return from Delphi, 1957), Yannis Ritsos (Delphi, 1961–62) and Kiki Dimoula (Gas omphalos and Appropriate terrain 1988), to mention only the most renowned ones. Angelos Sikelianos wrote The Dedication (of the Delphic speech) (1927), the Delphic Hymn (1927) and the tragedy Sibylla (1940), whereas in the context of the Delphic idea and the Delphic festivals he published an essay entitled \"The Delphic union\" (1930). The nobelist George Seferis wrote an essay under the title \"Delphi\", in the book \"Dokimes\".",
"title": "Delphi in later literature"
}
] | Delphi, in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the Omphalos of Delphi (navel). According to the Suda, Delphi took its name from the Delphyne, the she-serpent (drakaina) who lived there and was killed by the god Apollo. The sacred precinct occupies a delineated region on the south-western slope of Mount Parnassus. It is now an extensive archaeological site, and since 1938 a part of Parnassos National Park. The precinct is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in having had a great influence in the ancient world, as evidenced by the various monuments built there by most of the important ancient Greek city-states, demonstrating their fundamental Hellenic unity. Adjacent to the sacred precinct is a small modern town of the same name. | 2001-08-09T06:51:25Z | 2023-11-20T18:48:31Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi |
7,952 | Digital Equipment Corporation | Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC /dɛk/), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until he was forced to resign in 1992, after the company had gone into precipitous decline.
The company produced many different product lines over its history. It is best known for the work in the minicomputer market starting in the mid-1960s. The company produced a series of machines known as the PDP line, with the PDP-8 and PDP-11 being among the most successful minis in history. Their success was only surpassed by another DEC product, the late-1970s VAX "supermini" systems that were designed to replace the PDP-11. Although a number of competitors had successfully competed with Digital through the 1970s, the VAX cemented the company's place as a leading vendor in the computer space.
As microcomputers improved in the late 1980s, especially with the introduction of RISC-based workstation machines, the performance niche of the minicomputer was rapidly eroded. By the early 1990s, the company was in turmoil as their mini sales collapsed and their attempts to address this by entering the high-end market with machines like the VAX 9000 were market failures. After several attempts to enter the workstation and file server market, the DEC Alpha product line began to make successful inroads in the mid-1990s, but was too late to save the company.
DEC was acquired in June 1998 by Compaq in what was at that time the largest merger in the history of the computer industry. During the purchase, some parts of DEC were sold to other companies; the compiler business and the Hudson Fab were sold to Intel. At the time, Compaq was focused on the enterprise market and had recently purchased several other large vendors. DEC was a major player overseas where Compaq had less presence. However, Compaq had little idea what to do with its acquisitions, and soon found itself in financial difficulty of its own. Compaq subsequently merged with Hewlett-Packard (HP) in May 2002.
Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson were two engineers who had been working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory on the lab's various computer projects. The Lab is best known for their work on what would today be known as "interactivity", and their machines were among the first where operators had direct control over programs running in real-time. These had started in 1944 with the famed Whirlwind, which was originally developed to make a flight simulator for the US Navy, although this was never completed. Instead, this effort evolved into the SAGE system for the US Air Force, which used large screens and light guns to allow operators to interact with radar data stored in the computer.
When the Air Force project wound down, the Lab turned their attention to an effort to build a version of the Whirlwind using transistors in place of vacuum tubes. In order to test their new circuitry, they first built a small 18-bit machine known as TX-0, which first ran in 1956. When the TX-0 successfully proved the basic concepts, attention turned to a much larger system, the 36-bit TX-2 with a then-enormous 64 kWords of core memory. Core was so expensive that parts of TX-0's memory were stripped for the TX-2, and what remained of the TX-0 was then given to MIT on permanent loan.
At MIT, Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson noticed something odd: students would line up for hours to get a turn to use the stripped-down TX-0, while largely ignoring a faster IBM machine that was also available. The two decided that the draw of interactive computing was so strong that they felt there was a market for a small machine dedicated to this role, essentially a commercialized TX-0. They could sell this to users where the graphical output or real-time operation would be more important than outright performance. Additionally, as the machine would cost much less than the larger systems then available, it would also be able to serve users that needed a lower-cost solution dedicated to a specific task, where a larger 36-bit machine would not be needed.
In 1957, when the pair and Ken's brother Stan went looking for capital, they found that the American business community was hostile to investing in computer companies. Many smaller computer companies had come and gone in the 1950s, wiped out when new technical developments rendered their platforms obsolete, and even large companies like RCA and General Electric were failing to make a profit in the market. The only serious expression of interest came from Georges Doriot and his American Research and Development Corporation (AR&D). Worried that a new computer company would find it difficult to arrange further financing, Doriot suggested the fledgling company change its business plan to focus less on computers, and even change their name from "Digital Computer Corporation".
The pair returned with an updated business plan that outlined two phases for the company's development. They would start by selling computer modules as stand-alone devices that could be purchased separately and wired together to produce a number of different digital systems for lab use. Then, if these "digital modules" were able to build a self-sustaining business, the company would be free to use them to develop a complete computer in their Phase II. The newly christened "Digital Equipment Corporation" received $70,000 from AR&D for a 70% share of the company, and began operations in a Civil War era textile mill in Maynard, Massachusetts, where plenty of inexpensive manufacturing space was available.
In early 1958, DEC shipped its first products, the "Digital Laboratory Module" line. The Modules consisted of a number of individual electronic components and germanium transistors mounted to a circuit board, the actual circuits being based on those from the TX-2.
The Laboratory Modules were packaged in an extruded aluminum housing, intended to sit on an engineer's workbench, although a rack-mount bay was sold that held nine laboratory modules. They were then connected together using banana plug patch cords inserted at the front of the modules. Three versions were offered, running at 5 MHz (1957), 500 kHz (1959), or 10 MHz (1960). The Modules proved to be in high demand by other computer companies, who used them to build equipment to test their own systems. Despite the recession of the late 1950s, the company sold $94,000 worth of these modules during 1958 alone (equivalent to $953,400 in 2022), turning a profit at the end of its first year.
The original Laboratory Modules were soon supplemented with the "Digital System Module" line, which were identical internally but packaged differently. The Systems Modules were designed with all of the connections at the back of the module using 22-pin Amphenol connectors, and were attached to each other by plugging them into a backplane that could be mounted in a 19-inch rack. The backplanes allowed 25 modules in a single 5-1/4 inch section of rack, and allowed the high densities needed to build a computer.
The original laboratory and system module lines were offered in 500 kilocycle, 5 megacycle and 10 megacycle versions. In all cases, the supply voltages were -15 and +10 volts, with logic levels of -3 volts (passive pull-down) and 0 volts (active pull-up).
DEC used the System Modules to build their "Memory Test" machine for testing core memory systems, selling about 50 of these pre-packaged units over the next eight years. The PDP-1 and LINC computers were also built using System Modules (see below).
Modules were part of DEC's product line into the 1970s, although they went through several evolutions during this time as technology changed. The same circuits were then packaged as the first "R" (red) series "Flip-Chip" modules. Later, other Flip-Chip module series provided additional speed, much higher logic density, and industrial I/O capabilities. DEC published extensive data about the modules in free catalogs that became very popular.
With the company established and a successful product on the market, DEC turned its attention to the computer market once again as part of its planned "Phase II". In August 1959, Ben Gurley started design of the company's first computer, the PDP-1. In keeping with Doriot's instructions, the name was an initialism for "Programmable Data Processor", leaving off the term "computer". As Gurley put it, "We aren't building computers, we're building 'Programmable Data Processors'." The prototype was first shown publicly at the Joint Computer Conference in Boston in December 1959. The first PDP-1 was delivered to Bolt, Beranek and Newman in November 1960, and formally accepted the next April. The PDP-1 sold in basic form for $120,000 (equivalent to $8,902,812 in 2022). By the time production ended in 1969, 53 PDP-1s had been delivered.
The PDP-1 was supplied standard with 4096 words of core memory, 18-bits per word, and ran at a basic speed of 100,000 operations per second. It was constructed using many System Building Blocks that were packaged into several 19-inch racks. The racks were themselves packaged into a single large mainframe case, with a hexagonal control panel containing switches and lights mounted to lie at table-top height at one end of the mainframe. Above the control panel was the system's standard input/output solution, a punched tape reader and writer. Most systems were purchased with two peripherals, the Type 30 vector graphics display, and a Soroban Engineering modified IBM Model B Electric typewriter that was used as a printer. The Soroban system was notoriously unreliable, and often replaced with a modified Friden Flexowriter, which also contained its own punched tape system. A variety of more-expensive add-ons followed, including magnetic tape systems, punched card readers and punches, and faster punched tape and printer systems.
When DEC introduced the PDP-1, they also mentioned larger machines at 24, 30 and 36 bits, based on the same design. During construction of the prototype PDP-1, some design work was carried out on a 24-bit PDP-2, and the 36-bit PDP-3. Although the PDP-2 never proceeded beyond the initial design, the PDP-3 found some interest and was designed in full. Only one PDP-3 appears to have been built, in 1960, by the CIA's Scientific Engineering Institute (SEI) in Waltham, Massachusetts. According to the limited information available, they used it to process radar cross section data for the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft. Gordon Bell remembered that it was being used in Oregon some time later, but could not recall who was using it.
In November 1962, DEC introduced the $65,000 PDP-4. The PDP-4 was similar to the PDP-1 and used a similar instruction set, but used slower memory and different packaging to lower the price. Like the PDP-1, about 54 PDP-4s were eventually sold, most to a customer base similar to the original PDP-1.
In 1964, DEC introduced its new Flip Chip module design, and used it to re-implement the PDP-4 as the PDP-7. The PDP-7 was introduced in December 1964, and about 120 were eventually produced. An upgrade to the Flip Chip led to the R series, which in turn led to the PDP-7A in 1965. The PDP-7 is most famous as the original machine for what would become the Unix operating system. Unix ran only on DEC systems until the Interdata 8/32.
A more dramatic upgrade to the PDP-1 series was introduced in August 1966, the PDP-9. The PDP-9 was instruction-compatible with the PDP-4 and −7, but ran about twice as fast as the −7 and was intended to be used in larger deployments. At only $19,900 in 1968, the PDP-9 was a big seller, eventually selling 445 machines, more than all of the earlier models combined.
Even while the PDP-9 was being introduced, its replacement was being designed, and was introduced as 1969's PDP-15, which re-implemented the PDP-9 using integrated circuits in place of modules. Much faster than the PDP-9 even in basic form, the PDP-15 also included a floating point unit and a separate input/output processor for further performance gains. Over 400 PDP-15's were ordered in the first eight months of production, and production eventually amounted to 790 examples in 12 basic models. However, by this time other machines in DEC's lineup could fill the same niche at even lower price points, and the PDP-15 would be the last of the 18-bit series.
In 1962, Lincoln Laboratory used a selection of System Building Blocks to implement a small 12-bit machine, and attached it to a variety of analog-to-digital (A to D) input/output (I/O) devices that made it easy to interface with various analog lab equipment. The LINC proved to attract intense interest in the scientific community, and has since been referred to as the first real minicomputer, a machine that was small and inexpensive enough to be dedicated to a single task even in a small lab.
Seeing the success of the LINC, in 1963 DEC took the basic logic design but stripped away the extensive A to D systems to produce the PDP-5. The new machine, the first outside the PDP-1 mould, was introduced at WESTCON on August 11, 1963. A 1964 ad expressed the main advantage of the PDP-5, "Now you can own the PDP-5 computer for what a core memory alone used to cost: $27,000". 116 PDP-5s were produced until the lines were shut down in early 1967. Like the PDP-1 before it, the PDP-5 inspired a series of newer models based on the same basic design that would go on to be more famous than its parent.
On March 22, 1965, DEC introduced the PDP-8, which replaced the PDP-5's modules with the new R-series modules using Flip Chips. The machine was re-packaged into a small tabletop case, which remains distinctive for its use of smoked plastic over the CPU which allowed one to easily see the logic modules plugged into the wire-wrapped backplane of the CPU. Sold standard with 4 kWords of 12-bit core memory and a Teletype Model 33 ASR for basic input/output, the machine listed for only $18,000. The PDP-8 is referred to as the first real minicomputer because of its sub-$25,000 price. Sales were, unsurprisingly, very strong, and helped by the fact that several competitors had just entered the market with machines aimed directly at the PDP-5's market space, which the PDP-8 trounced. This gave the company two years of unrestricted leadership, and eventually 1450 "straight eight" machines were produced before it was replaced by newer implementations of the same basic design.
DEC hit an even lower price-point with the PDP-8/S, the S for "serial". As the name implies the /S used a serial arithmetic unit, which was much slower but reduced costs so much that the system sold for under $10,000. DEC then used the new PDP-8 design as the basis for a new LINC, the two-processor LINC-8. The LINC-8 used one PDP-8 CPU and a separate LINC CPU, and included instructions to switch from one to the other. This allowed customers to run their existing LINC programs, or "upgrade" to the PDP-8, all in software. Although not a huge seller, 142 LINC-8s were sold starting at $38,500. Like the original LINC to PDP-5 evolution, the LINC-8 was then modified into the single-processor PDP-12, adding another 1000 machines to the 12-bit family. Newer circuitry designs led to the PDP-8/I and PDP-8/L in 1968. In 1975, one year after an agreement between DEC and Intersil, the Intersil 6100 chip was launched, effectively a PDP-8 on a chip. This was a way to allow PDP-8 software to be run even after the official end-of-life announcement for the DEC PDP-8 product line.
While the PDP-5 introduced a lower-cost line, 1963's PDP-6 was intended to take DEC into the mainframe market with a 36-bit machine. However, the PDP-6 proved to be a "hard sell" with customers, as it offered few obvious advantages over similar machines from the better-established vendors like IBM or Honeywell, in spite of its low cost around $300,000. Only 23 were sold, or 26 depending on the source, and unlike other models the low sales meant the PDP-6 was not improved with successor versions. However, the PDP-6 is historically important as the platform that introduced "Monitor", an early time-sharing operating system that would evolve into the widely used TOPS-10.
When newer Flip Chip packaging allowed the PDP-6 to be re-implemented at a much lower cost, DEC took the opportunity to refine their 36-bit design, introducing the PDP-10 in 1968. The PDP-10 was as much a success as the PDP-6 was a commercial failure; about 700 mainframe PDP-10s were sold before production ended in 1984. The PDP-10 was widely used in university settings, and thus was the basis of many advances in computing and operating system design during the 1970s. DEC later re-branded all of the models in the 36-bit series as the "DECsystem-10", and PDP-10s are generally referred to by the model of their CPU, starting with the "KA10", soon upgraded to the "KI10" (I:Integrated circuit); then to "KL10" (L:Large-scale integration ECL logic); also the "KS10" (S: Small form factor). Unified product line upgrades produced the compatible DECSYSTEM-20, along with a TOPS-20 operating system that included virtual memory support.
The Jupiter Project was supposed to continue the mainframe product line into the future by using gate arrays with an innovative Air Mover Cooling System, coupled with a built-in floating point processing engine called "FBOX". The design was intended for a top tier scientific computing niche, yet the critical performance measurement was based upon COBOL compilation which did not fully utilize the primary design features of Jupiter technology. When the Jupiter Project was cancelled in 1983, some of the engineers adapted aspects of the 36-bit design into a forthcoming 32-bit design, releasing the high-end VAX8600 in 1985.
DEC's successful entry into the computer market took place during a fundamental shift in the underlying organization of the machines from word lengths based on 6-bit characters to those based on 8-bit words needed to support ASCII. DEC began studies of such a machine, the PDP-X, but Ken Olsen did not support it as he could not see how it offered anything their existing 12-bit or 18-bit machines didn't. This led the leaders of the PDP-X project to leave DEC and start Data General, whose 16-bit Data General Nova was released in 1969 and was a huge success.
The success of the Nova finally prompted DEC to take the switch seriously, and they began a crash program to introduce a 16-bit machine of their own. The new system was designed primarily by Harold McFarland, Gordon Bell, Roger Cady, and others. The project was able to leap forward in design with the arrival of Harold McFarland, who had been researching 16-bit designs at Carnegie Mellon University. One of his simpler designs became the basis for the new design, although when they first viewed the proposal, management was not impressed and almost cancelled it.
The result was the PDP-11, released in 1970. It differed from earlier designs considerably. In particular, the new design did not include many of the addressing modes that were intended to make programs smaller in memory, a technique that was widely used on other DEC machines and CISC designs in general. This would mean the machine would spend more time accessing memory, which would slow it down. However, the machine also extended the idea of multiple "General Purpose Registers" (GPRs), which gave the programmer flexibility to use these high-speed memory caches as they needed, potentially addressing the performance issues.
A major advance in the PDP-11 design was DEC's Unibus, which supported all peripherals through memory mapping. This allowed a new device to be added easily, generally only requiring plugging a hardware interface board into the backplane and possibly adding a jumper to the wire wrapped backplane, and then installing software that read and wrote to the mapped memory to control it. The relative ease of interfacing spawned a huge market of third party add-ons for the PDP-11, which made the machine even more useful.
The combination of architectural innovations proved superior to competitors and the "11" architecture was soon the industry leader, propelling DEC back to a strong market position. The design was later expanded to allow paged physical memory and memory protection features, useful for multitasking and time-sharing. Some models supported separate instruction and data spaces for an effective virtual address size of 128 kB within a physical address size of up to 4 MB. Smaller PDP-11s, implemented as single-chip CPUs, continued to be produced until 1996, by which time over 600,000 had been sold.
The PDP-11 supported several operating systems, including Bell Labs' new Unix operating system as well as DEC's DOS-11, RSX-11, IAS, RT-11, DSM-11, and RSTS/E. Many early PDP-11 applications were developed using standalone paper-tape utilities. DOS-11 was the PDP-11's first disk operating system, but was soon supplanted by more capable systems. RSX provided a general-purpose multitasking environment and supported a wide variety of programming languages. IAS was a time-sharing version of RSX-11D. Both RSTS and Unix were time-sharing systems available to educational institutions at little or no cost, and these PDP-11 systems were destined to be the "sandbox" for a rising generation of engineers and computer scientists. Large numbers of PDP-11/70s were deployed in telecommunications and industrial control applications. AT&T Corporation became DEC's largest customer.
RT-11 provided a practical real-time operating system in minimal memory, allowing the PDP-11 to continue DEC's critical role as a computer supplier for embedded systems. Historically, RT-11 also served as the inspiration for many microcomputer OS's, as these were generally being written by programmers who cut their teeth on one of the many PDP-11 models. For example, CP/M used a command syntax similar to RT-11's, and even retained the awkward PIP program used to copy data from one computer device to another. As another historical footnote, DEC's use of "/" for "switches" (command-line options) would lead to the adoption of "\" for pathnames in MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows as opposed to "/" in Unix.
The evolution of the PDP-11 followed earlier systems, eventually including a single-user deskside personal computer form, the MicroPDP-11. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, and a wide variety of third-party peripheral vendors had also entered the computer product ecosystem. It was even sold in kit form as the Heathkit H11, although it proved too expensive for Heathkit's traditional hobbyist market.
The introduction of semiconductor memory in the early 1970s, and especially dynamic RAM shortly thereafter, led to dramatic reductions in the price of memory as the effects of Moore's Law were felt. Within years, it was common to equip a machine with all the memory it could address, typically 64 kB on 16-bit machines. This led vendors to introduce new designs with the ability to address more memory, often by extending the address format to 18 or 24-bits in machines were otherwise similar to their earlier 16-bit designs.
In contrast, DEC decided to make a more radical departure. In 1976, they began the design of a machine whose entire architecture was expanded from the 16-bit PDP-11 to a new 32-bit basis. This would allow the addressing of very large memories, which were to be controlled by a new virtual memory system, and would also improve performance by processing twice as much data at a time. The system would, however, maintain compatibility with the PDP-11, by operating in a second mode that sent its 16-bit words into the 32-bit internals, while mapping the PDP-11's 16-bit memory space into the larger virtual 32-bit space.
The result was the VAX architecture, where VAX stands for Virtual Address eXtension (from 16 to 32 bits). The first computer to use a VAX CPU was the VAX-11/780, announced in October 1977, which DEC referred to as a superminicomputer. Although it was not the first 32-bit minicomputer, the VAX-11/780's combination of features, price, and marketing almost immediately propelled it to a leadership position in the market after it was released in 1978. VAX systems were so successful that in 1983, DEC canceled its Jupiter project, which had been intended to build a successor to the PDP-10 mainframe, and instead focused on promoting the VAX as the single computer architecture for the company.
Supporting the VAX's success was the VT52, one of the most successful smart terminals. Building on earlier less successful models, the VT05 and VT50, the VT52 was the first terminal that did everything one might want in a single inexpensive chassis. The VT52 was followed by the even more successful VT100 and its follow-ons, making DEC one of the largest terminal vendors in the industry. This was supported by a line of inexpensive computer printers, the DECwriter line. With the VT and DECwriter series, DEC could now offer a complete top-to-bottom system from computer to all peripherals, which formerly required collecting the required devices from different suppliers.
The VAX processor architecture and family of systems evolved and expanded through several generations during the 1980s, culminating in the NVAX microprocessor implementation and VAX 7000/10000 series in the early 1990s.
When a DEC research group demonstrated two prototype microcomputers in 1974—before the debut of the MITS Altair—Olsen chose to not proceed with the project. The company similarly rejected another personal computer proposal in 1977. At the time these systems were of limited utility, and Olsen famously derided them in 1977, stating "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home." Unsurprisingly, DEC did not put much effort into the microcomputer area in the early days of the market. In 1977, the Heathkit H11 was announced; a PDP-11 in kit form. At the beginning of the 1980s, DEC built the VT180 (codenamed "Robin"), which was a VT100 terminal with an added Z80-based microcomputer running CP/M, but this product was initially available only to DEC employees.
It was only after IBM had successfully launched the IBM PC in 1981 that DEC responded with their own systems. In 1982, DEC introduced not one, but three incompatible machines which were each tied to different proprietary architectures. The first, the DEC Professional, was based on the PDP-11/23 (and later, the 11/73) running the RSX-11M+ derived, but menu-driven, P/OS ("Professional Operating System"). This DEC machine easily outperformed the PC, but was more expensive than, and completely incompatible with IBM PC hardware and software, offering far fewer options for customizing a system.
Unlike CP/M and DOS microcomputers, every copy of every program for the Professional had to be provided with a unique key for the particular machine and CPU for which it was bought. At that time this was mainstream policy, because most computer software was either bought from the company that built the computer or custom-constructed for one client. However, the emerging third-party software industry disregarded the PDP-11/Professional line and concentrated on other microcomputers where distribution was easier. At DEC itself, creating better programs for the Professional was not a priority, perhaps from fear of cannibalizing the PDP-11 line. As a result, the Professional was a superior machine, running inferior software. In addition, a new user would have to learn an awkward, slow, and inflexible menu-based user interface which appeared to be radically different from PC DOS or CP/M, which were more commonly used on the 8080- and 8088-based microcomputers of the time. A second offering, the DECmate II was the latest version of the PDP-8-based word processors, but not really suited to general computing, nor competitive with Wang Laboratories' popular word processing equipment.
The most popular early DEC microcomputer was the dual-processor (Z80 and 8088) Rainbow 100, which ran the 8-bit CP/M operating system on the Z80 and the 16-bit CP/M-86 operating system on the Intel 8088 processor. It could also run a UNIX System III implementation called VENIX. Applications from standard CP/M could be re-compiled for the Rainbow, but by this time users were expecting custom-built (pre-compiled binary) applications such as Lotus 1-2-3, which was eventually ported along with MS-DOS 2.0 and introduced in late 1983. Although the Rainbow generated some press, it was unsuccessful due to its high price and lack of marketing and sales support. By late 1983 IBM was outselling DEC's personal computers by more than ten to one.
A further system was introduced in 1986 as the VAXmate, which included Microsoft Windows 1.0 and used VAX/VMS-based file and print servers along with integration into DEC's own DECnet-family, providing LAN/WAN connection from PC to mainframe or supermini. The VAXmate replaced the Rainbow, and in its standard form was the first widely marketed diskless workstation.
In 1984, DEC launched its first 10 Mbit/s Ethernet. Ethernet allowed scalable networking, and VAXcluster allowed scalable computing. Combined with DECnet and Ethernet-based terminal servers (LAT), DEC had produced a networked storage architecture which allowed them to compete directly with IBM. Ethernet replaced Token Ring, and went on to become the dominant networking model in use today.
In September 1985, DEC became the fifth company to register a .com domain name (dec.com).
Along with the hardware and protocols, DEC also introduced the VAXcluster concept, which allowed several VAX machines to be tied together into a single larger storage system. VAXclusters allowed a DEC-based company to scale their services by adding new machines to the cluster at any time, as opposed to buying a faster machine and using that to replace a slower one. The flexibility this offered was compelling, and allowed DEC to attack high-end markets formerly out of their reach.
The PDP-11 and VAX lines continued to sell in record numbers. Better yet, DEC was competing very well against the market leader, IBM, taking an estimated $2 billion away from them in the mid-1980s. In 1986, DEC's profits rose 38% when the rest of the computer industry experienced a downturn, and by 1987 the company was threatening IBM's number one position in the computer industry. Not long thereafter came IBM's VAX Killer offerings, at a time when DEC had twice the sales of IBM in the mid-range computer market.
At its peak, DEC was the second-largest computer company in the world, with over 100,000 employees. It was during this time that the company branched out development into a wide variety of projects that were far from its core business in computer equipment. The company invested heavily in custom software. In the 1970s and earlier most software was custom-written to serve a specific task, but by the 1980s the introduction of relational databases and similar systems allowed powerful software to be built in a modular fashion, potentially saving enormous amounts of development time. Software companies like Oracle became the new darlings of the industry, and DEC started their own efforts in every "hot" niche, in some cases several projects for the same niche. Some of these products competed with DEC's own partners, notably Rdb which competed with Oracle's products on the VAX, part of a major partnership only a few years earlier.
Although many of these products were well designed, most of them were DEC-only or DEC-centric, and customers frequently ignored them and used third-party products instead. This problem was further exacerbated by Olsen's aversion to traditional advertising and his belief that well-engineered products would sell themselves. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on these projects, at the same time that workstations using RISC microprocessors were starting to approach VAX CPUs in performance.
As microprocessors continued to improve in the 1980s, it soon became clear that the next generation would offer performance and features equal to the best of DECs low-end minicomputer lineup. Worse, the Berkeley RISC and Stanford MIPS designs were aiming to introduce 32-bit designs that would outperform the fastest members of the VAX family, DEC's cash cow.
Constrained by the huge success of their VAX and VMS products, which followed the proprietary model, the company was very late to respond to these threats. In the early 1990s, DEC found its sales faltering and its first layoffs followed. The company that created the minicomputer, a dominant networking technology, and arguably the first computers for personal use, had abandoned the "low end" market, whose dominance with the PDP-8 had built the company in a previous generation. Decisions about what to do about this threat led to infighting within the company that seriously delayed their responses.
One group suggested that every possible development in the industry be poured into the construction of a new VAX family that would leapfrog the performance of the existing machines. This would limit the market erosion in the top-end segment, where profit margins were maximized and DEC could continue to survive as a minicomputer vendor. This line of thought led, eventually, to the VAX 9000 series, which were plagued with problems when they were first introduced in October 1989, already two years late. The problems took so long to work out, and the prices of the systems were so high, that DEC was never able to make the line the success they hoped.
Others within the company felt that the proper response was to introduce their own RISC designs and use those to build new machines. However, there was little official support for these efforts, and no less than four separate small projects ran in parallel at various labs around the US. Eventually these were gathered into the PRISM project, which delivered a credible 32-bit design with some unique features allowing it to serve as the basis of a new VAX implementation. Infighting with teams dedicated to DEC's big iron made funding difficult, and the design was not finalized until April 1988, and then cancelled shortly thereafter. The PRISM project was accompanied by the MICA project, which intended to consolidate VMS and ULTRIX into a single operating system.
Another group concluded that new workstations like those from Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics would take away a large part of DEC's existing customer base before the new VAX systems could address the issues, and that the company needed its own Unix workstation as soon as possible. Fed up with slow progress on both the RISC and VAX fronts, a group in Palo Alto started a skunkworks project to introduce their own systems. Selecting the MIPS processor, which was widely available, introducing the new DECstation series with the model 3100 on January 11, 1989. These systems would see some success in the market, but were later displaced by similar models running the Alpha.
Eventually, in 1992, DEC launched the DECchip 21064 processor, the first implementation of their Alpha instruction set architecture, initially named Alpha AXP; the "AXP" was a "non-acronym" and was later dropped. This was a 64-bit RISC architecture as opposed to the 32-bit CISC architecture used in the VAX. It is one of the first "pure" 64-bit microprocessor architectures and implementations rather than an extension of an earlier 32-bit architecture. The Alpha offered class-leading performance at its launch and was used in the massively-parallel Cray T3D. Subsequent variants continued that performance trend into the 2000s, along with the Alpha-derived Pentium Pro, II, and III CPUs. An AlphaServer SC45 supercomputer was still ranked No. 6 in the world in November 2004. Alpha-based computers comprising the DEC AXP series, later the AlphaStation, and AlphaServer series respectively superseded both the VAX and MIPS architecture in DEC's product lines. They supported OpenVMS, DEC OSF/1 AXP (later known as Digital Unix or Tru64 UNIX) and Microsoft's then-new operating system, Windows NT, an operating system made possible by ex-Digital Equipment Corporation engineers.
In 1998, following the takeover by Compaq Computer Corporation, a decision was made that Microsoft would no longer support and develop Windows NT for the Alpha series computers, a decision that was seen as the beginning of the end for the Alpha series computers.
In the mid-1990s, Digital Semiconductor collaborated with ARM Limited to produce the StrongARM microprocessor. This was based in part on ARM7 and in part on DEC technologies like Alpha, and was targeted at embedded systems and portable devices. It was highly compatible with the ARMv4 architecture and was very successful, competing effectively against rivals such as the SuperH and MIPS architectures in the portable digital assistant market. Microsoft subsequently dropped support for these other architectures in their Pocket PC platform. In 1997, as part of a lawsuit settlement, the StrongARM intellectual property was sold to Intel. They continued to produce StrongARM, as well as developing it into the XScale architecture. Intel subsequently sold this business to Marvell Technology Group in 2006.
At its peak in the late 1980s, DEC had $14 billion in sales and ranked among the most profitable companies in the US. With its strong staff of engineers, DEC was expected to usher in the age of personal computers, but the commonly misunderstood belief then argued by the board to its shareholders was that Mr. Olsen was openly skeptical of the desktop machines, stating "the personal computer will fall flat on its face in business", and regarding them as "toys" used for playing video games. This was made in 1977 about what could be more characterised as home automation devices.
The board forced Olsen to resign as president in July 1992 after 2 years of losses in operating income. He was replaced by Robert Palmer as the company's president. DEC's board of directors also granted Palmer the title of chief executive officer ("CEO"), a title that had never been used during DEC's 35-year existence. Palmer had joined DEC in 1985 to run Semiconductor Engineering and Manufacturing. His relentless campaign to be CEO, and success with the Alpha microprocessor family, made him a candidate to succeed Olsen. At the same time a more modern logo was designed
Palmer restructured DEC into nine business units that reported directly to him. Nonetheless, DEC continued to suffer record losses, including a loss of $260.5 million for the quarter that ended on September 30, 1992. It reported $2.8 billion in losses for its fiscal year 1992. January 5, 1993, saw the retirement of John F. Smith as senior vice president of operations, the second in command at DEC, and his position was not filled. A 35-year company veteran, he had joined DEC in 1958 as the company's 12th employee, passing up a chance to work for Bell Laboratories in New Jersey to work for DEC. Smith rose to become one of the three senior vice presidents in 1987 and was widely considered among the potential successors to Ken Olsen, especially when Smith was appointed chief operating officer in 1991. Smith became a corporate spokesman on financial issues, and had filled in at trouble spots for which Olsen ordered more attention. Smith was passed over in favor of Palmer when Olsen was forced to resign in July 1992, though Smith stayed on for a time to help turn around the struggling company.
In June 1993, Palmer and several of his top lieutenants presented their reorganization plans to applause from the board of directors, and several weeks later DEC reported its first profitable quarter in several years. However, on April 15, 1994, DEC reported a loss of $183 million—three to four times higher than the loss many people on Wall Street had predicted (compared with a loss of $30 million in the comparable period a year earlier), causing the stock price on the NYSE to plunge $5.875 to $23, a 20% drop. The losses at that point totaled $339 million for the current fiscal year. Sales of the VAX, long the company's biggest moneymaker, continued to decline, which in turn also hurt DEC's lucrative service and maintenance business (this made up more than a third of DEC's revenue of $14 billion in the 1993 fiscal year), which declined 11% year over year to $1.5 billion in the most recent quarter.
Market acceptance of DEC Alpha computers and chips had been slower than the company had hoped, even though Alpha's sales for the quarter estimated at $275 million were up significantly from $165 million in the December quarter. DEC had also made a strong push into personal computers and workstations, which had even lower margins than Alpha computers and chips. Also, DEC was playing catchup with its own Unix offerings for client-server networks, as it long emphasized its own VMS software, while corporate computer users based their client-server networks on the industry-standard Unix software (of which Hewlett Packard was one of the market leaders). DEC's problems were similar to that of larger rival IBM, due to the fundamental shift in the computer industry that made it unlikely that DEC could ever again operate profitably at its former size of 120,000 employees, and while its workforce had been reduced to 92,000 people many analysts expected that they would have to cut another 20,000.
During the profitable years up until the early 1990s, DEC was a company that boasted that it never had a general layoff. Following the 1992 economic downturn, layoffs became regular events as the company continually downsized to try to stay afloat. Palmer was tasked with the goal of bringing DEC back to profitability, which he attempted to do by changing the established DEC business culture, hiring new executives from outside the company, and selling off various non-core business units:
Through 1997, DEC began discussions with Compaq on a possible merger. Several years earlier, Compaq had considered a bid for DEC but became seriously interested only after DEC's major divestments and refocusing on the Internet in 1997. At that time, Compaq was making strong moves into the enterprise market, and DEC's multivendor global services organization and customer support centers offered a real opportunity to expand their support and sales worldwide. Compaq was not interested in a number of DEC's product lines, which led to the series of sell-offs. Notable among these was DEC's Hudson Fab, which made most of their custom chips, a market that made little sense to Compaq's "industry standard" marketing. DEC had previously sold its semiconductor plant in South Queensferry to Motorola in 1995, with an understanding that Motorola would continue to produce Alpha processors at the facility, along with continuing a two-year foundry agreement with AMD to continue producing the Am486 processor.
This led to an interesting solution to the problem of selling off the division for a reasonable profit. In May 1997, DEC sued Intel for allegedly infringing on its Alpha patents in designing the original Pentium, Pentium Pro, and Pentium II chips. As part of a settlement, much of DEC's chip design and fabrication business was sold to Intel. This included DEC's StrongARM implementation of the ARM computer architecture, which Intel marketed as the XScale processors commonly used in Pocket PCs. The core of Digital Semiconductor, the Alpha microprocessor group, remained with DEC, while the associated office buildings went to Intel as part of the Hudson fab.
On January 26, 1998, what remained of the company was sold to Compaq in what was the largest merger up to that time in the computer industry. At the time of Compaq's acquisition announcement, DEC had a total of 53,500 employees, down from a peak of 130,000 in the 1980s, but it still employed about 65% more people than Compaq to produce about half the volume of sales revenues. After the merger closed, Compaq moved aggressively to reduce DEC's high selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs (equal to 24% of total 1997 revenues) and bring them more in line with Compaq's SG&A expense ratio of 12% of revenues.
Compaq used the acquisition to move into enterprise services and compete with IBM, and by 2001 services made up over 20% of Compaq's revenues, largely due to the DEC employees inherited from the merger. DEC's own PC manufacturing was discontinued after the merger closed. As Compaq did not wish to compete with one of its key partner suppliers, the remainder of Digital Semiconductor (the Alpha microprocessor group) was sold to Intel, which placed those employees back in their Hudson (Massachusetts) office, which they had vacated when the site was sold to Intel in 1997.
Compaq struggled as a result of the merger with DEC, and was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2002. Compaq, and later HP, continued to sell many of the former DEC products but re-branded with their own logos. For example, HP now sells what were formerly DEC's StorageWorks disk/tape products, as a result of the Compaq acquisition.
The Digital logo was used up until 2004, even after the company ceased to exist, as the logo of Digital GlobalSoft, an IT services company in India (which was a 51% subsidiary of Compaq). Digital GlobalSoft was later renamed "HP GlobalSoft" (also known as the "HP Global Delivery India Center" or HP GDIC), and no longer uses the Digital logo.
DEC's Research Laboratories (or Research Labs, as they were commonly known) conducted DEC's corporate research. Some of them were continued in operation by Compaq and are still operated by Hewlett-Packard. The laboratories were:
Some of the former employees of DEC's Research Labs or DEC's R&D in general include:
Some of the former employees of Digital Equipment Corp were responsible for developing DEC Alpha and StrongARM:
Grace Hopper worked for Digital Equipment Corporation as a consultant after her retirement from the United States Navy
Some of the work of the Research Labs was published in the Digital Technical Journal, which was in published from 1985 until 1998. At least some of the research reports are available online.
As of 2012, decades-old hardware (including PDP-11, VAX, and AlphaServer) is being emulated to allow legacy software to run on modern hardware; funding for this is planned to last at least until 2030.
DEC supported the ANSI standards, especially the ASCII character set, which survives in Unicode and the ISO 8859 character set family. DEC's own Multinational Character Set also had a large influence on ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) and, by extension, Unicode.
Beyond DECsystem-10/20, PDP, VAX and Alpha, DEC was known for its work in communication subsystem designs, such as Ethernet, DNA (DIGITAL Network Architecture: predominantly DECnet products), DSA (Digital Storage Architecture: disks/tapes/controllers), and its "dumb terminal" subsystems including VT100 and DECserver products.
One of the most unusual peripherals produced for the PDP-10 was the DECtape. The DECtape was a length of special 3/4-inch wide magnetic tape wound on 5-inch reels. The recording format was a highly reliable redundant 10-track design using fixed-length numbered data "blocks" organized into a standard file structure, including a directory. Files could be written, read, changed, and deleted on a DECtape as though it were a disk drive. For greater efficiency, the DECtape drive could read and write to a DECtape in both directions.
In fact, some PDP-10 systems had no disks at all, using DECtapes alone for their primary data storage. The DECtape was also widely used on other PDP models, since it was much easier to use than hand-loading multiple paper tapes. Primitive early time-sharing systems could use DECtapes as system devices and swapping devices. Although superior to paper tape, DECtapes were relatively slow, and were supplanted once reliable disk drives became affordable.
DEC was both a manufacturer and a buyer of magnetic disk storage, offering more than 100 different models of hard disk drive (HDD) and floppy disk drive (FDD) during its existence. In the 1970s, it was the single largest OEM purchaser of HDDs, procuring from Diablo, Control Data Corporation, Information Storage Systems, and Memorex, among others.
DEC's first internally developed HDD was the RS08, a 256 kWord fixed-head contact-start-stop drive using plated media; it shipped in 1969.
Beginning in the 1970s, DEC moved first its HDD manufacturing and then its mass storage development labs to Colorado Springs.
DEC pioneered a number of HDD technologies, including sampled data servos (RL01, 1977) and serial HDD interfaces (Standard Disk Interconnect, 1983). The last internally developed disk drive family (RA9x series) used plated media, departing from the HDD industry trend to carbon overcoated sputtered media. DEC designated a $400 million investment to bring this product line into production. The RA92 (1.5 GB) was introduced in 1992, using a 14-inch platter.
DEC purchased its FDDs from OEMs such as Shugart Associates, Toshiba, and Sony.
The way the 400 KB DEC standard RX50 floppy disk drive supported DEC's initial offerings seemed to encapsulate their approach to the personal computer market. Although the mechanical drive hardware was nearly identical to other 5 1⁄4" floppy disk drives available on competing systems, DEC sought to differentiate their product by using a proprietary disk format for the data written on the disk. The DEC format had a higher capacity for data, but the RX50 drives were incompatible with other PC floppy drives. This required DEC owners to buy higher-priced, specially formatted floppy media, which was harder to obtain through standard distribution channels. DEC attempted to enforce exclusive control over its floppy media sales by copyrighting its proprietary disk format, and requiring a negotiated license agreement and royalty payments from anybody selling compatible media. The proprietary data format meant that RX50 floppies were not interchangeable with other PC floppies, further isolating DEC products from the developing de facto standard PC market. Hardware hackers and DEC enthusiasts eventually reverse-engineered the RX50 format, but the damage had already been done, in terms of market confusion and isolation.
The Video-on-Demand project at DEC started in 1992, following Ken Olsen's retirement. At the time the company was rapidly downsizing under Robert Palmer, and it was difficult to gain funding for any new project. DEC's Interactive Video Information Server architecture gained traction and excelled over those of other companies, in that it was highly scalable, using a gateway to set up interactive video delivery sessions on large numbers of video and information servers. Initially high-end VAXes were used, then Alphas.
The scalability feature allowed it to win contracts for many of the video-on-demand trials in the 1993–95 timeframe, since the system could theoretically accommodate unlimited interactive video streams and other non-video content.
The design was proposed and incorporated into the MPEG-2 international standard. Its object-oriented interface became the mandatory user-to user core interface in DSM-CC, widely used in video stream and file delivery for MPEG-2 compliant systems.
Commercially, DEC's Digital and Interactive Information System was used by Adlink to distribute advertising to over 2 million subscribers.
Originally the users' group was called DECUS (Digital Equipment Computer User Society) during the 1960s to 1990s. When Compaq acquired DEC in 1998, the users group was renamed CUO, the Compaq Users' Organisation. When HP acquired Compaq in 2002, CUO became HP-Interex, although there are still DECUS groups in several countries. In the United States, the organization is represented by the Encompass organization; currently Connect. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC /dɛk/), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until he was forced to resign in 1992, after the company had gone into precipitous decline.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The company produced many different product lines over its history. It is best known for the work in the minicomputer market starting in the mid-1960s. The company produced a series of machines known as the PDP line, with the PDP-8 and PDP-11 being among the most successful minis in history. Their success was only surpassed by another DEC product, the late-1970s VAX \"supermini\" systems that were designed to replace the PDP-11. Although a number of competitors had successfully competed with Digital through the 1970s, the VAX cemented the company's place as a leading vendor in the computer space.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "As microcomputers improved in the late 1980s, especially with the introduction of RISC-based workstation machines, the performance niche of the minicomputer was rapidly eroded. By the early 1990s, the company was in turmoil as their mini sales collapsed and their attempts to address this by entering the high-end market with machines like the VAX 9000 were market failures. After several attempts to enter the workstation and file server market, the DEC Alpha product line began to make successful inroads in the mid-1990s, but was too late to save the company.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "DEC was acquired in June 1998 by Compaq in what was at that time the largest merger in the history of the computer industry. During the purchase, some parts of DEC were sold to other companies; the compiler business and the Hudson Fab were sold to Intel. At the time, Compaq was focused on the enterprise market and had recently purchased several other large vendors. DEC was a major player overseas where Compaq had less presence. However, Compaq had little idea what to do with its acquisitions, and soon found itself in financial difficulty of its own. Compaq subsequently merged with Hewlett-Packard (HP) in May 2002.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson were two engineers who had been working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory on the lab's various computer projects. The Lab is best known for their work on what would today be known as \"interactivity\", and their machines were among the first where operators had direct control over programs running in real-time. These had started in 1944 with the famed Whirlwind, which was originally developed to make a flight simulator for the US Navy, although this was never completed. Instead, this effort evolved into the SAGE system for the US Air Force, which used large screens and light guns to allow operators to interact with radar data stored in the computer.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "When the Air Force project wound down, the Lab turned their attention to an effort to build a version of the Whirlwind using transistors in place of vacuum tubes. In order to test their new circuitry, they first built a small 18-bit machine known as TX-0, which first ran in 1956. When the TX-0 successfully proved the basic concepts, attention turned to a much larger system, the 36-bit TX-2 with a then-enormous 64 kWords of core memory. Core was so expensive that parts of TX-0's memory were stripped for the TX-2, and what remained of the TX-0 was then given to MIT on permanent loan.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "At MIT, Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson noticed something odd: students would line up for hours to get a turn to use the stripped-down TX-0, while largely ignoring a faster IBM machine that was also available. The two decided that the draw of interactive computing was so strong that they felt there was a market for a small machine dedicated to this role, essentially a commercialized TX-0. They could sell this to users where the graphical output or real-time operation would be more important than outright performance. Additionally, as the machine would cost much less than the larger systems then available, it would also be able to serve users that needed a lower-cost solution dedicated to a specific task, where a larger 36-bit machine would not be needed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 1957, when the pair and Ken's brother Stan went looking for capital, they found that the American business community was hostile to investing in computer companies. Many smaller computer companies had come and gone in the 1950s, wiped out when new technical developments rendered their platforms obsolete, and even large companies like RCA and General Electric were failing to make a profit in the market. The only serious expression of interest came from Georges Doriot and his American Research and Development Corporation (AR&D). Worried that a new computer company would find it difficult to arrange further financing, Doriot suggested the fledgling company change its business plan to focus less on computers, and even change their name from \"Digital Computer Corporation\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The pair returned with an updated business plan that outlined two phases for the company's development. They would start by selling computer modules as stand-alone devices that could be purchased separately and wired together to produce a number of different digital systems for lab use. Then, if these \"digital modules\" were able to build a self-sustaining business, the company would be free to use them to develop a complete computer in their Phase II. The newly christened \"Digital Equipment Corporation\" received $70,000 from AR&D for a 70% share of the company, and began operations in a Civil War era textile mill in Maynard, Massachusetts, where plenty of inexpensive manufacturing space was available.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In early 1958, DEC shipped its first products, the \"Digital Laboratory Module\" line. The Modules consisted of a number of individual electronic components and germanium transistors mounted to a circuit board, the actual circuits being based on those from the TX-2.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The Laboratory Modules were packaged in an extruded aluminum housing, intended to sit on an engineer's workbench, although a rack-mount bay was sold that held nine laboratory modules. They were then connected together using banana plug patch cords inserted at the front of the modules. Three versions were offered, running at 5 MHz (1957), 500 kHz (1959), or 10 MHz (1960). The Modules proved to be in high demand by other computer companies, who used them to build equipment to test their own systems. Despite the recession of the late 1950s, the company sold $94,000 worth of these modules during 1958 alone (equivalent to $953,400 in 2022), turning a profit at the end of its first year.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The original Laboratory Modules were soon supplemented with the \"Digital System Module\" line, which were identical internally but packaged differently. The Systems Modules were designed with all of the connections at the back of the module using 22-pin Amphenol connectors, and were attached to each other by plugging them into a backplane that could be mounted in a 19-inch rack. The backplanes allowed 25 modules in a single 5-1/4 inch section of rack, and allowed the high densities needed to build a computer.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The original laboratory and system module lines were offered in 500 kilocycle, 5 megacycle and 10 megacycle versions. In all cases, the supply voltages were -15 and +10 volts, with logic levels of -3 volts (passive pull-down) and 0 volts (active pull-up).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "DEC used the System Modules to build their \"Memory Test\" machine for testing core memory systems, selling about 50 of these pre-packaged units over the next eight years. The PDP-1 and LINC computers were also built using System Modules (see below).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Modules were part of DEC's product line into the 1970s, although they went through several evolutions during this time as technology changed. The same circuits were then packaged as the first \"R\" (red) series \"Flip-Chip\" modules. Later, other Flip-Chip module series provided additional speed, much higher logic density, and industrial I/O capabilities. DEC published extensive data about the modules in free catalogs that became very popular.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "With the company established and a successful product on the market, DEC turned its attention to the computer market once again as part of its planned \"Phase II\". In August 1959, Ben Gurley started design of the company's first computer, the PDP-1. In keeping with Doriot's instructions, the name was an initialism for \"Programmable Data Processor\", leaving off the term \"computer\". As Gurley put it, \"We aren't building computers, we're building 'Programmable Data Processors'.\" The prototype was first shown publicly at the Joint Computer Conference in Boston in December 1959. The first PDP-1 was delivered to Bolt, Beranek and Newman in November 1960, and formally accepted the next April. The PDP-1 sold in basic form for $120,000 (equivalent to $8,902,812 in 2022). By the time production ended in 1969, 53 PDP-1s had been delivered.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The PDP-1 was supplied standard with 4096 words of core memory, 18-bits per word, and ran at a basic speed of 100,000 operations per second. It was constructed using many System Building Blocks that were packaged into several 19-inch racks. The racks were themselves packaged into a single large mainframe case, with a hexagonal control panel containing switches and lights mounted to lie at table-top height at one end of the mainframe. Above the control panel was the system's standard input/output solution, a punched tape reader and writer. Most systems were purchased with two peripherals, the Type 30 vector graphics display, and a Soroban Engineering modified IBM Model B Electric typewriter that was used as a printer. The Soroban system was notoriously unreliable, and often replaced with a modified Friden Flexowriter, which also contained its own punched tape system. A variety of more-expensive add-ons followed, including magnetic tape systems, punched card readers and punches, and faster punched tape and printer systems.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "When DEC introduced the PDP-1, they also mentioned larger machines at 24, 30 and 36 bits, based on the same design. During construction of the prototype PDP-1, some design work was carried out on a 24-bit PDP-2, and the 36-bit PDP-3. Although the PDP-2 never proceeded beyond the initial design, the PDP-3 found some interest and was designed in full. Only one PDP-3 appears to have been built, in 1960, by the CIA's Scientific Engineering Institute (SEI) in Waltham, Massachusetts. According to the limited information available, they used it to process radar cross section data for the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft. Gordon Bell remembered that it was being used in Oregon some time later, but could not recall who was using it.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In November 1962, DEC introduced the $65,000 PDP-4. The PDP-4 was similar to the PDP-1 and used a similar instruction set, but used slower memory and different packaging to lower the price. Like the PDP-1, about 54 PDP-4s were eventually sold, most to a customer base similar to the original PDP-1.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In 1964, DEC introduced its new Flip Chip module design, and used it to re-implement the PDP-4 as the PDP-7. The PDP-7 was introduced in December 1964, and about 120 were eventually produced. An upgrade to the Flip Chip led to the R series, which in turn led to the PDP-7A in 1965. The PDP-7 is most famous as the original machine for what would become the Unix operating system. Unix ran only on DEC systems until the Interdata 8/32.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "A more dramatic upgrade to the PDP-1 series was introduced in August 1966, the PDP-9. The PDP-9 was instruction-compatible with the PDP-4 and −7, but ran about twice as fast as the −7 and was intended to be used in larger deployments. At only $19,900 in 1968, the PDP-9 was a big seller, eventually selling 445 machines, more than all of the earlier models combined.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Even while the PDP-9 was being introduced, its replacement was being designed, and was introduced as 1969's PDP-15, which re-implemented the PDP-9 using integrated circuits in place of modules. Much faster than the PDP-9 even in basic form, the PDP-15 also included a floating point unit and a separate input/output processor for further performance gains. Over 400 PDP-15's were ordered in the first eight months of production, and production eventually amounted to 790 examples in 12 basic models. However, by this time other machines in DEC's lineup could fill the same niche at even lower price points, and the PDP-15 would be the last of the 18-bit series.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In 1962, Lincoln Laboratory used a selection of System Building Blocks to implement a small 12-bit machine, and attached it to a variety of analog-to-digital (A to D) input/output (I/O) devices that made it easy to interface with various analog lab equipment. The LINC proved to attract intense interest in the scientific community, and has since been referred to as the first real minicomputer, a machine that was small and inexpensive enough to be dedicated to a single task even in a small lab.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Seeing the success of the LINC, in 1963 DEC took the basic logic design but stripped away the extensive A to D systems to produce the PDP-5. The new machine, the first outside the PDP-1 mould, was introduced at WESTCON on August 11, 1963. A 1964 ad expressed the main advantage of the PDP-5, \"Now you can own the PDP-5 computer for what a core memory alone used to cost: $27,000\". 116 PDP-5s were produced until the lines were shut down in early 1967. Like the PDP-1 before it, the PDP-5 inspired a series of newer models based on the same basic design that would go on to be more famous than its parent.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "On March 22, 1965, DEC introduced the PDP-8, which replaced the PDP-5's modules with the new R-series modules using Flip Chips. The machine was re-packaged into a small tabletop case, which remains distinctive for its use of smoked plastic over the CPU which allowed one to easily see the logic modules plugged into the wire-wrapped backplane of the CPU. Sold standard with 4 kWords of 12-bit core memory and a Teletype Model 33 ASR for basic input/output, the machine listed for only $18,000. The PDP-8 is referred to as the first real minicomputer because of its sub-$25,000 price. Sales were, unsurprisingly, very strong, and helped by the fact that several competitors had just entered the market with machines aimed directly at the PDP-5's market space, which the PDP-8 trounced. This gave the company two years of unrestricted leadership, and eventually 1450 \"straight eight\" machines were produced before it was replaced by newer implementations of the same basic design.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "DEC hit an even lower price-point with the PDP-8/S, the S for \"serial\". As the name implies the /S used a serial arithmetic unit, which was much slower but reduced costs so much that the system sold for under $10,000. DEC then used the new PDP-8 design as the basis for a new LINC, the two-processor LINC-8. The LINC-8 used one PDP-8 CPU and a separate LINC CPU, and included instructions to switch from one to the other. This allowed customers to run their existing LINC programs, or \"upgrade\" to the PDP-8, all in software. Although not a huge seller, 142 LINC-8s were sold starting at $38,500. Like the original LINC to PDP-5 evolution, the LINC-8 was then modified into the single-processor PDP-12, adding another 1000 machines to the 12-bit family. Newer circuitry designs led to the PDP-8/I and PDP-8/L in 1968. In 1975, one year after an agreement between DEC and Intersil, the Intersil 6100 chip was launched, effectively a PDP-8 on a chip. This was a way to allow PDP-8 software to be run even after the official end-of-life announcement for the DEC PDP-8 product line.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "While the PDP-5 introduced a lower-cost line, 1963's PDP-6 was intended to take DEC into the mainframe market with a 36-bit machine. However, the PDP-6 proved to be a \"hard sell\" with customers, as it offered few obvious advantages over similar machines from the better-established vendors like IBM or Honeywell, in spite of its low cost around $300,000. Only 23 were sold, or 26 depending on the source, and unlike other models the low sales meant the PDP-6 was not improved with successor versions. However, the PDP-6 is historically important as the platform that introduced \"Monitor\", an early time-sharing operating system that would evolve into the widely used TOPS-10.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "When newer Flip Chip packaging allowed the PDP-6 to be re-implemented at a much lower cost, DEC took the opportunity to refine their 36-bit design, introducing the PDP-10 in 1968. The PDP-10 was as much a success as the PDP-6 was a commercial failure; about 700 mainframe PDP-10s were sold before production ended in 1984. The PDP-10 was widely used in university settings, and thus was the basis of many advances in computing and operating system design during the 1970s. DEC later re-branded all of the models in the 36-bit series as the \"DECsystem-10\", and PDP-10s are generally referred to by the model of their CPU, starting with the \"KA10\", soon upgraded to the \"KI10\" (I:Integrated circuit); then to \"KL10\" (L:Large-scale integration ECL logic); also the \"KS10\" (S: Small form factor). Unified product line upgrades produced the compatible DECSYSTEM-20, along with a TOPS-20 operating system that included virtual memory support.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The Jupiter Project was supposed to continue the mainframe product line into the future by using gate arrays with an innovative Air Mover Cooling System, coupled with a built-in floating point processing engine called \"FBOX\". The design was intended for a top tier scientific computing niche, yet the critical performance measurement was based upon COBOL compilation which did not fully utilize the primary design features of Jupiter technology. When the Jupiter Project was cancelled in 1983, some of the engineers adapted aspects of the 36-bit design into a forthcoming 32-bit design, releasing the high-end VAX8600 in 1985.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "DEC's successful entry into the computer market took place during a fundamental shift in the underlying organization of the machines from word lengths based on 6-bit characters to those based on 8-bit words needed to support ASCII. DEC began studies of such a machine, the PDP-X, but Ken Olsen did not support it as he could not see how it offered anything their existing 12-bit or 18-bit machines didn't. This led the leaders of the PDP-X project to leave DEC and start Data General, whose 16-bit Data General Nova was released in 1969 and was a huge success.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The success of the Nova finally prompted DEC to take the switch seriously, and they began a crash program to introduce a 16-bit machine of their own. The new system was designed primarily by Harold McFarland, Gordon Bell, Roger Cady, and others. The project was able to leap forward in design with the arrival of Harold McFarland, who had been researching 16-bit designs at Carnegie Mellon University. One of his simpler designs became the basis for the new design, although when they first viewed the proposal, management was not impressed and almost cancelled it.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The result was the PDP-11, released in 1970. It differed from earlier designs considerably. In particular, the new design did not include many of the addressing modes that were intended to make programs smaller in memory, a technique that was widely used on other DEC machines and CISC designs in general. This would mean the machine would spend more time accessing memory, which would slow it down. However, the machine also extended the idea of multiple \"General Purpose Registers\" (GPRs), which gave the programmer flexibility to use these high-speed memory caches as they needed, potentially addressing the performance issues.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "A major advance in the PDP-11 design was DEC's Unibus, which supported all peripherals through memory mapping. This allowed a new device to be added easily, generally only requiring plugging a hardware interface board into the backplane and possibly adding a jumper to the wire wrapped backplane, and then installing software that read and wrote to the mapped memory to control it. The relative ease of interfacing spawned a huge market of third party add-ons for the PDP-11, which made the machine even more useful.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The combination of architectural innovations proved superior to competitors and the \"11\" architecture was soon the industry leader, propelling DEC back to a strong market position. The design was later expanded to allow paged physical memory and memory protection features, useful for multitasking and time-sharing. Some models supported separate instruction and data spaces for an effective virtual address size of 128 kB within a physical address size of up to 4 MB. Smaller PDP-11s, implemented as single-chip CPUs, continued to be produced until 1996, by which time over 600,000 had been sold.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The PDP-11 supported several operating systems, including Bell Labs' new Unix operating system as well as DEC's DOS-11, RSX-11, IAS, RT-11, DSM-11, and RSTS/E. Many early PDP-11 applications were developed using standalone paper-tape utilities. DOS-11 was the PDP-11's first disk operating system, but was soon supplanted by more capable systems. RSX provided a general-purpose multitasking environment and supported a wide variety of programming languages. IAS was a time-sharing version of RSX-11D. Both RSTS and Unix were time-sharing systems available to educational institutions at little or no cost, and these PDP-11 systems were destined to be the \"sandbox\" for a rising generation of engineers and computer scientists. Large numbers of PDP-11/70s were deployed in telecommunications and industrial control applications. AT&T Corporation became DEC's largest customer.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "RT-11 provided a practical real-time operating system in minimal memory, allowing the PDP-11 to continue DEC's critical role as a computer supplier for embedded systems. Historically, RT-11 also served as the inspiration for many microcomputer OS's, as these were generally being written by programmers who cut their teeth on one of the many PDP-11 models. For example, CP/M used a command syntax similar to RT-11's, and even retained the awkward PIP program used to copy data from one computer device to another. As another historical footnote, DEC's use of \"/\" for \"switches\" (command-line options) would lead to the adoption of \"\\\" for pathnames in MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows as opposed to \"/\" in Unix.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "The evolution of the PDP-11 followed earlier systems, eventually including a single-user deskside personal computer form, the MicroPDP-11. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, and a wide variety of third-party peripheral vendors had also entered the computer product ecosystem. It was even sold in kit form as the Heathkit H11, although it proved too expensive for Heathkit's traditional hobbyist market.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The introduction of semiconductor memory in the early 1970s, and especially dynamic RAM shortly thereafter, led to dramatic reductions in the price of memory as the effects of Moore's Law were felt. Within years, it was common to equip a machine with all the memory it could address, typically 64 kB on 16-bit machines. This led vendors to introduce new designs with the ability to address more memory, often by extending the address format to 18 or 24-bits in machines were otherwise similar to their earlier 16-bit designs.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In contrast, DEC decided to make a more radical departure. In 1976, they began the design of a machine whose entire architecture was expanded from the 16-bit PDP-11 to a new 32-bit basis. This would allow the addressing of very large memories, which were to be controlled by a new virtual memory system, and would also improve performance by processing twice as much data at a time. The system would, however, maintain compatibility with the PDP-11, by operating in a second mode that sent its 16-bit words into the 32-bit internals, while mapping the PDP-11's 16-bit memory space into the larger virtual 32-bit space.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The result was the VAX architecture, where VAX stands for Virtual Address eXtension (from 16 to 32 bits). The first computer to use a VAX CPU was the VAX-11/780, announced in October 1977, which DEC referred to as a superminicomputer. Although it was not the first 32-bit minicomputer, the VAX-11/780's combination of features, price, and marketing almost immediately propelled it to a leadership position in the market after it was released in 1978. VAX systems were so successful that in 1983, DEC canceled its Jupiter project, which had been intended to build a successor to the PDP-10 mainframe, and instead focused on promoting the VAX as the single computer architecture for the company.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Supporting the VAX's success was the VT52, one of the most successful smart terminals. Building on earlier less successful models, the VT05 and VT50, the VT52 was the first terminal that did everything one might want in a single inexpensive chassis. The VT52 was followed by the even more successful VT100 and its follow-ons, making DEC one of the largest terminal vendors in the industry. This was supported by a line of inexpensive computer printers, the DECwriter line. With the VT and DECwriter series, DEC could now offer a complete top-to-bottom system from computer to all peripherals, which formerly required collecting the required devices from different suppliers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The VAX processor architecture and family of systems evolved and expanded through several generations during the 1980s, culminating in the NVAX microprocessor implementation and VAX 7000/10000 series in the early 1990s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "When a DEC research group demonstrated two prototype microcomputers in 1974—before the debut of the MITS Altair—Olsen chose to not proceed with the project. The company similarly rejected another personal computer proposal in 1977. At the time these systems were of limited utility, and Olsen famously derided them in 1977, stating \"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.\" Unsurprisingly, DEC did not put much effort into the microcomputer area in the early days of the market. In 1977, the Heathkit H11 was announced; a PDP-11 in kit form. At the beginning of the 1980s, DEC built the VT180 (codenamed \"Robin\"), which was a VT100 terminal with an added Z80-based microcomputer running CP/M, but this product was initially available only to DEC employees.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "It was only after IBM had successfully launched the IBM PC in 1981 that DEC responded with their own systems. In 1982, DEC introduced not one, but three incompatible machines which were each tied to different proprietary architectures. The first, the DEC Professional, was based on the PDP-11/23 (and later, the 11/73) running the RSX-11M+ derived, but menu-driven, P/OS (\"Professional Operating System\"). This DEC machine easily outperformed the PC, but was more expensive than, and completely incompatible with IBM PC hardware and software, offering far fewer options for customizing a system.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Unlike CP/M and DOS microcomputers, every copy of every program for the Professional had to be provided with a unique key for the particular machine and CPU for which it was bought. At that time this was mainstream policy, because most computer software was either bought from the company that built the computer or custom-constructed for one client. However, the emerging third-party software industry disregarded the PDP-11/Professional line and concentrated on other microcomputers where distribution was easier. At DEC itself, creating better programs for the Professional was not a priority, perhaps from fear of cannibalizing the PDP-11 line. As a result, the Professional was a superior machine, running inferior software. In addition, a new user would have to learn an awkward, slow, and inflexible menu-based user interface which appeared to be radically different from PC DOS or CP/M, which were more commonly used on the 8080- and 8088-based microcomputers of the time. A second offering, the DECmate II was the latest version of the PDP-8-based word processors, but not really suited to general computing, nor competitive with Wang Laboratories' popular word processing equipment.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The most popular early DEC microcomputer was the dual-processor (Z80 and 8088) Rainbow 100, which ran the 8-bit CP/M operating system on the Z80 and the 16-bit CP/M-86 operating system on the Intel 8088 processor. It could also run a UNIX System III implementation called VENIX. Applications from standard CP/M could be re-compiled for the Rainbow, but by this time users were expecting custom-built (pre-compiled binary) applications such as Lotus 1-2-3, which was eventually ported along with MS-DOS 2.0 and introduced in late 1983. Although the Rainbow generated some press, it was unsuccessful due to its high price and lack of marketing and sales support. By late 1983 IBM was outselling DEC's personal computers by more than ten to one.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "A further system was introduced in 1986 as the VAXmate, which included Microsoft Windows 1.0 and used VAX/VMS-based file and print servers along with integration into DEC's own DECnet-family, providing LAN/WAN connection from PC to mainframe or supermini. The VAXmate replaced the Rainbow, and in its standard form was the first widely marketed diskless workstation.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "In 1984, DEC launched its first 10 Mbit/s Ethernet. Ethernet allowed scalable networking, and VAXcluster allowed scalable computing. Combined with DECnet and Ethernet-based terminal servers (LAT), DEC had produced a networked storage architecture which allowed them to compete directly with IBM. Ethernet replaced Token Ring, and went on to become the dominant networking model in use today.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In September 1985, DEC became the fifth company to register a .com domain name (dec.com).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Along with the hardware and protocols, DEC also introduced the VAXcluster concept, which allowed several VAX machines to be tied together into a single larger storage system. VAXclusters allowed a DEC-based company to scale their services by adding new machines to the cluster at any time, as opposed to buying a faster machine and using that to replace a slower one. The flexibility this offered was compelling, and allowed DEC to attack high-end markets formerly out of their reach.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The PDP-11 and VAX lines continued to sell in record numbers. Better yet, DEC was competing very well against the market leader, IBM, taking an estimated $2 billion away from them in the mid-1980s. In 1986, DEC's profits rose 38% when the rest of the computer industry experienced a downturn, and by 1987 the company was threatening IBM's number one position in the computer industry. Not long thereafter came IBM's VAX Killer offerings, at a time when DEC had twice the sales of IBM in the mid-range computer market.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "At its peak, DEC was the second-largest computer company in the world, with over 100,000 employees. It was during this time that the company branched out development into a wide variety of projects that were far from its core business in computer equipment. The company invested heavily in custom software. In the 1970s and earlier most software was custom-written to serve a specific task, but by the 1980s the introduction of relational databases and similar systems allowed powerful software to be built in a modular fashion, potentially saving enormous amounts of development time. Software companies like Oracle became the new darlings of the industry, and DEC started their own efforts in every \"hot\" niche, in some cases several projects for the same niche. Some of these products competed with DEC's own partners, notably Rdb which competed with Oracle's products on the VAX, part of a major partnership only a few years earlier.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Although many of these products were well designed, most of them were DEC-only or DEC-centric, and customers frequently ignored them and used third-party products instead. This problem was further exacerbated by Olsen's aversion to traditional advertising and his belief that well-engineered products would sell themselves. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on these projects, at the same time that workstations using RISC microprocessors were starting to approach VAX CPUs in performance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "As microprocessors continued to improve in the 1980s, it soon became clear that the next generation would offer performance and features equal to the best of DECs low-end minicomputer lineup. Worse, the Berkeley RISC and Stanford MIPS designs were aiming to introduce 32-bit designs that would outperform the fastest members of the VAX family, DEC's cash cow.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Constrained by the huge success of their VAX and VMS products, which followed the proprietary model, the company was very late to respond to these threats. In the early 1990s, DEC found its sales faltering and its first layoffs followed. The company that created the minicomputer, a dominant networking technology, and arguably the first computers for personal use, had abandoned the \"low end\" market, whose dominance with the PDP-8 had built the company in a previous generation. Decisions about what to do about this threat led to infighting within the company that seriously delayed their responses.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "One group suggested that every possible development in the industry be poured into the construction of a new VAX family that would leapfrog the performance of the existing machines. This would limit the market erosion in the top-end segment, where profit margins were maximized and DEC could continue to survive as a minicomputer vendor. This line of thought led, eventually, to the VAX 9000 series, which were plagued with problems when they were first introduced in October 1989, already two years late. The problems took so long to work out, and the prices of the systems were so high, that DEC was never able to make the line the success they hoped.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Others within the company felt that the proper response was to introduce their own RISC designs and use those to build new machines. However, there was little official support for these efforts, and no less than four separate small projects ran in parallel at various labs around the US. Eventually these were gathered into the PRISM project, which delivered a credible 32-bit design with some unique features allowing it to serve as the basis of a new VAX implementation. Infighting with teams dedicated to DEC's big iron made funding difficult, and the design was not finalized until April 1988, and then cancelled shortly thereafter. The PRISM project was accompanied by the MICA project, which intended to consolidate VMS and ULTRIX into a single operating system.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Another group concluded that new workstations like those from Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics would take away a large part of DEC's existing customer base before the new VAX systems could address the issues, and that the company needed its own Unix workstation as soon as possible. Fed up with slow progress on both the RISC and VAX fronts, a group in Palo Alto started a skunkworks project to introduce their own systems. Selecting the MIPS processor, which was widely available, introducing the new DECstation series with the model 3100 on January 11, 1989. These systems would see some success in the market, but were later displaced by similar models running the Alpha.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Eventually, in 1992, DEC launched the DECchip 21064 processor, the first implementation of their Alpha instruction set architecture, initially named Alpha AXP; the \"AXP\" was a \"non-acronym\" and was later dropped. This was a 64-bit RISC architecture as opposed to the 32-bit CISC architecture used in the VAX. It is one of the first \"pure\" 64-bit microprocessor architectures and implementations rather than an extension of an earlier 32-bit architecture. The Alpha offered class-leading performance at its launch and was used in the massively-parallel Cray T3D. Subsequent variants continued that performance trend into the 2000s, along with the Alpha-derived Pentium Pro, II, and III CPUs. An AlphaServer SC45 supercomputer was still ranked No. 6 in the world in November 2004. Alpha-based computers comprising the DEC AXP series, later the AlphaStation, and AlphaServer series respectively superseded both the VAX and MIPS architecture in DEC's product lines. They supported OpenVMS, DEC OSF/1 AXP (later known as Digital Unix or Tru64 UNIX) and Microsoft's then-new operating system, Windows NT, an operating system made possible by ex-Digital Equipment Corporation engineers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "In 1998, following the takeover by Compaq Computer Corporation, a decision was made that Microsoft would no longer support and develop Windows NT for the Alpha series computers, a decision that was seen as the beginning of the end for the Alpha series computers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "In the mid-1990s, Digital Semiconductor collaborated with ARM Limited to produce the StrongARM microprocessor. This was based in part on ARM7 and in part on DEC technologies like Alpha, and was targeted at embedded systems and portable devices. It was highly compatible with the ARMv4 architecture and was very successful, competing effectively against rivals such as the SuperH and MIPS architectures in the portable digital assistant market. Microsoft subsequently dropped support for these other architectures in their Pocket PC platform. In 1997, as part of a lawsuit settlement, the StrongARM intellectual property was sold to Intel. They continued to produce StrongARM, as well as developing it into the XScale architecture. Intel subsequently sold this business to Marvell Technology Group in 2006.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "At its peak in the late 1980s, DEC had $14 billion in sales and ranked among the most profitable companies in the US. With its strong staff of engineers, DEC was expected to usher in the age of personal computers, but the commonly misunderstood belief then argued by the board to its shareholders was that Mr. Olsen was openly skeptical of the desktop machines, stating \"the personal computer will fall flat on its face in business\", and regarding them as \"toys\" used for playing video games. This was made in 1977 about what could be more characterised as home automation devices.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "The board forced Olsen to resign as president in July 1992 after 2 years of losses in operating income. He was replaced by Robert Palmer as the company's president. DEC's board of directors also granted Palmer the title of chief executive officer (\"CEO\"), a title that had never been used during DEC's 35-year existence. Palmer had joined DEC in 1985 to run Semiconductor Engineering and Manufacturing. His relentless campaign to be CEO, and success with the Alpha microprocessor family, made him a candidate to succeed Olsen. At the same time a more modern logo was designed",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Palmer restructured DEC into nine business units that reported directly to him. Nonetheless, DEC continued to suffer record losses, including a loss of $260.5 million for the quarter that ended on September 30, 1992. It reported $2.8 billion in losses for its fiscal year 1992. January 5, 1993, saw the retirement of John F. Smith as senior vice president of operations, the second in command at DEC, and his position was not filled. A 35-year company veteran, he had joined DEC in 1958 as the company's 12th employee, passing up a chance to work for Bell Laboratories in New Jersey to work for DEC. Smith rose to become one of the three senior vice presidents in 1987 and was widely considered among the potential successors to Ken Olsen, especially when Smith was appointed chief operating officer in 1991. Smith became a corporate spokesman on financial issues, and had filled in at trouble spots for which Olsen ordered more attention. Smith was passed over in favor of Palmer when Olsen was forced to resign in July 1992, though Smith stayed on for a time to help turn around the struggling company.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "In June 1993, Palmer and several of his top lieutenants presented their reorganization plans to applause from the board of directors, and several weeks later DEC reported its first profitable quarter in several years. However, on April 15, 1994, DEC reported a loss of $183 million—three to four times higher than the loss many people on Wall Street had predicted (compared with a loss of $30 million in the comparable period a year earlier), causing the stock price on the NYSE to plunge $5.875 to $23, a 20% drop. The losses at that point totaled $339 million for the current fiscal year. Sales of the VAX, long the company's biggest moneymaker, continued to decline, which in turn also hurt DEC's lucrative service and maintenance business (this made up more than a third of DEC's revenue of $14 billion in the 1993 fiscal year), which declined 11% year over year to $1.5 billion in the most recent quarter.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Market acceptance of DEC Alpha computers and chips had been slower than the company had hoped, even though Alpha's sales for the quarter estimated at $275 million were up significantly from $165 million in the December quarter. DEC had also made a strong push into personal computers and workstations, which had even lower margins than Alpha computers and chips. Also, DEC was playing catchup with its own Unix offerings for client-server networks, as it long emphasized its own VMS software, while corporate computer users based their client-server networks on the industry-standard Unix software (of which Hewlett Packard was one of the market leaders). DEC's problems were similar to that of larger rival IBM, due to the fundamental shift in the computer industry that made it unlikely that DEC could ever again operate profitably at its former size of 120,000 employees, and while its workforce had been reduced to 92,000 people many analysts expected that they would have to cut another 20,000.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "During the profitable years up until the early 1990s, DEC was a company that boasted that it never had a general layoff. Following the 1992 economic downturn, layoffs became regular events as the company continually downsized to try to stay afloat. Palmer was tasked with the goal of bringing DEC back to profitability, which he attempted to do by changing the established DEC business culture, hiring new executives from outside the company, and selling off various non-core business units:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Through 1997, DEC began discussions with Compaq on a possible merger. Several years earlier, Compaq had considered a bid for DEC but became seriously interested only after DEC's major divestments and refocusing on the Internet in 1997. At that time, Compaq was making strong moves into the enterprise market, and DEC's multivendor global services organization and customer support centers offered a real opportunity to expand their support and sales worldwide. Compaq was not interested in a number of DEC's product lines, which led to the series of sell-offs. Notable among these was DEC's Hudson Fab, which made most of their custom chips, a market that made little sense to Compaq's \"industry standard\" marketing. DEC had previously sold its semiconductor plant in South Queensferry to Motorola in 1995, with an understanding that Motorola would continue to produce Alpha processors at the facility, along with continuing a two-year foundry agreement with AMD to continue producing the Am486 processor.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "This led to an interesting solution to the problem of selling off the division for a reasonable profit. In May 1997, DEC sued Intel for allegedly infringing on its Alpha patents in designing the original Pentium, Pentium Pro, and Pentium II chips. As part of a settlement, much of DEC's chip design and fabrication business was sold to Intel. This included DEC's StrongARM implementation of the ARM computer architecture, which Intel marketed as the XScale processors commonly used in Pocket PCs. The core of Digital Semiconductor, the Alpha microprocessor group, remained with DEC, while the associated office buildings went to Intel as part of the Hudson fab.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "On January 26, 1998, what remained of the company was sold to Compaq in what was the largest merger up to that time in the computer industry. At the time of Compaq's acquisition announcement, DEC had a total of 53,500 employees, down from a peak of 130,000 in the 1980s, but it still employed about 65% more people than Compaq to produce about half the volume of sales revenues. After the merger closed, Compaq moved aggressively to reduce DEC's high selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs (equal to 24% of total 1997 revenues) and bring them more in line with Compaq's SG&A expense ratio of 12% of revenues.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Compaq used the acquisition to move into enterprise services and compete with IBM, and by 2001 services made up over 20% of Compaq's revenues, largely due to the DEC employees inherited from the merger. DEC's own PC manufacturing was discontinued after the merger closed. As Compaq did not wish to compete with one of its key partner suppliers, the remainder of Digital Semiconductor (the Alpha microprocessor group) was sold to Intel, which placed those employees back in their Hudson (Massachusetts) office, which they had vacated when the site was sold to Intel in 1997.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Compaq struggled as a result of the merger with DEC, and was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2002. Compaq, and later HP, continued to sell many of the former DEC products but re-branded with their own logos. For example, HP now sells what were formerly DEC's StorageWorks disk/tape products, as a result of the Compaq acquisition.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "The Digital logo was used up until 2004, even after the company ceased to exist, as the logo of Digital GlobalSoft, an IT services company in India (which was a 51% subsidiary of Compaq). Digital GlobalSoft was later renamed \"HP GlobalSoft\" (also known as the \"HP Global Delivery India Center\" or HP GDIC), and no longer uses the Digital logo.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "DEC's Research Laboratories (or Research Labs, as they were commonly known) conducted DEC's corporate research. Some of them were continued in operation by Compaq and are still operated by Hewlett-Packard. The laboratories were:",
"title": "Research and people"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Some of the former employees of DEC's Research Labs or DEC's R&D in general include:",
"title": "Research and people"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Some of the former employees of Digital Equipment Corp were responsible for developing DEC Alpha and StrongARM:",
"title": "Research and people"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Grace Hopper worked for Digital Equipment Corporation as a consultant after her retirement from the United States Navy",
"title": "Research and people"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Some of the work of the Research Labs was published in the Digital Technical Journal, which was in published from 1985 until 1998. At least some of the research reports are available online.",
"title": "Research and people"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "As of 2012, decades-old hardware (including PDP-11, VAX, and AlphaServer) is being emulated to allow legacy software to run on modern hardware; funding for this is planned to last at least until 2030.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "DEC supported the ANSI standards, especially the ASCII character set, which survives in Unicode and the ISO 8859 character set family. DEC's own Multinational Character Set also had a large influence on ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) and, by extension, Unicode.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Beyond DECsystem-10/20, PDP, VAX and Alpha, DEC was known for its work in communication subsystem designs, such as Ethernet, DNA (DIGITAL Network Architecture: predominantly DECnet products), DSA (Digital Storage Architecture: disks/tapes/controllers), and its \"dumb terminal\" subsystems including VT100 and DECserver products.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "One of the most unusual peripherals produced for the PDP-10 was the DECtape. The DECtape was a length of special 3/4-inch wide magnetic tape wound on 5-inch reels. The recording format was a highly reliable redundant 10-track design using fixed-length numbered data \"blocks\" organized into a standard file structure, including a directory. Files could be written, read, changed, and deleted on a DECtape as though it were a disk drive. For greater efficiency, the DECtape drive could read and write to a DECtape in both directions.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "In fact, some PDP-10 systems had no disks at all, using DECtapes alone for their primary data storage. The DECtape was also widely used on other PDP models, since it was much easier to use than hand-loading multiple paper tapes. Primitive early time-sharing systems could use DECtapes as system devices and swapping devices. Although superior to paper tape, DECtapes were relatively slow, and were supplanted once reliable disk drives became affordable.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "DEC was both a manufacturer and a buyer of magnetic disk storage, offering more than 100 different models of hard disk drive (HDD) and floppy disk drive (FDD) during its existence. In the 1970s, it was the single largest OEM purchaser of HDDs, procuring from Diablo, Control Data Corporation, Information Storage Systems, and Memorex, among others.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "DEC's first internally developed HDD was the RS08, a 256 kWord fixed-head contact-start-stop drive using plated media; it shipped in 1969.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Beginning in the 1970s, DEC moved first its HDD manufacturing and then its mass storage development labs to Colorado Springs.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "DEC pioneered a number of HDD technologies, including sampled data servos (RL01, 1977) and serial HDD interfaces (Standard Disk Interconnect, 1983). The last internally developed disk drive family (RA9x series) used plated media, departing from the HDD industry trend to carbon overcoated sputtered media. DEC designated a $400 million investment to bring this product line into production. The RA92 (1.5 GB) was introduced in 1992, using a 14-inch platter.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "DEC purchased its FDDs from OEMs such as Shugart Associates, Toshiba, and Sony.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "The way the 400 KB DEC standard RX50 floppy disk drive supported DEC's initial offerings seemed to encapsulate their approach to the personal computer market. Although the mechanical drive hardware was nearly identical to other 5 1⁄4\" floppy disk drives available on competing systems, DEC sought to differentiate their product by using a proprietary disk format for the data written on the disk. The DEC format had a higher capacity for data, but the RX50 drives were incompatible with other PC floppy drives. This required DEC owners to buy higher-priced, specially formatted floppy media, which was harder to obtain through standard distribution channels. DEC attempted to enforce exclusive control over its floppy media sales by copyrighting its proprietary disk format, and requiring a negotiated license agreement and royalty payments from anybody selling compatible media. The proprietary data format meant that RX50 floppies were not interchangeable with other PC floppies, further isolating DEC products from the developing de facto standard PC market. Hardware hackers and DEC enthusiasts eventually reverse-engineered the RX50 format, but the damage had already been done, in terms of market confusion and isolation.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "The Video-on-Demand project at DEC started in 1992, following Ken Olsen's retirement. At the time the company was rapidly downsizing under Robert Palmer, and it was difficult to gain funding for any new project. DEC's Interactive Video Information Server architecture gained traction and excelled over those of other companies, in that it was highly scalable, using a gateway to set up interactive video delivery sessions on large numbers of video and information servers. Initially high-end VAXes were used, then Alphas.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "The scalability feature allowed it to win contracts for many of the video-on-demand trials in the 1993–95 timeframe, since the system could theoretically accommodate unlimited interactive video streams and other non-video content.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "The design was proposed and incorporated into the MPEG-2 international standard. Its object-oriented interface became the mandatory user-to user core interface in DSM-CC, widely used in video stream and file delivery for MPEG-2 compliant systems.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "Commercially, DEC's Digital and Interactive Information System was used by Adlink to distribute advertising to over 2 million subscribers.",
"title": "Legacy and accomplishments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "Originally the users' group was called DECUS (Digital Equipment Computer User Society) during the 1960s to 1990s. When Compaq acquired DEC in 1998, the users group was renamed CUO, the Compaq Users' Organisation. When HP acquired Compaq in 2002, CUO became HP-Interex, although there are still DECUS groups in several countries. In the United States, the organization is represented by the Encompass organization; currently Connect.",
"title": "User organizations"
}
] | Digital Equipment Corporation, using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until he was forced to resign in 1992, after the company had gone into precipitous decline. The company produced many different product lines over its history. It is best known for the work in the minicomputer market starting in the mid-1960s. The company produced a series of machines known as the PDP line, with the PDP-8 and PDP-11 being among the most successful minis in history. Their success was only surpassed by another DEC product, the late-1970s VAX "supermini" systems that were designed to replace the PDP-11. Although a number of competitors had successfully competed with Digital through the 1970s, the VAX cemented the company's place as a leading vendor in the computer space. As microcomputers improved in the late 1980s, especially with the introduction of RISC-based workstation machines, the performance niche of the minicomputer was rapidly eroded. By the early 1990s, the company was in turmoil as their mini sales collapsed and their attempts to address this by entering the high-end market with machines like the VAX 9000 were market failures. After several attempts to enter the workstation and file server market, the DEC Alpha product line began to make successful inroads in the mid-1990s, but was too late to save the company. DEC was acquired in June 1998 by Compaq in what was at that time the largest merger in the history of the computer industry. During the purchase, some parts of DEC were sold to other companies; the compiler business and the Hudson Fab were sold to Intel. At the time, Compaq was focused on the enterprise market and had recently purchased several other large vendors. DEC was a major player overseas where Compaq had less presence. However, Compaq had little idea what to do with its acquisitions, and soon found itself in financial difficulty of its own. Compaq subsequently merged with Hewlett-Packard (HP) in May 2002. | 2001-10-01T23:34:44Z | 2023-12-17T21:48:27Z | [
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7,954 | Dead Kennedys | Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run.
Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing political figures and authority in general, as well as popular culture and even the punk movement itself. During their initial incarnation between 1978 and 1986, they attracted considerable controversy for their provocative lyrics and artwork. Several stores refused to stock their recordings, provoking debate about censorship in rock music; in the mid-1980s, vocalist and primary lyricist Jello Biafra became an active campaigner against the Parents Music Resource Center. This culminated in an obscenity trial between 1985 and 1986, which resulted in a hung jury.
The group released a total of four studio albums and one EP before disbanding in 1986. Following the band's dissolution, Biafra continued to collaborate and record with other artists including D.O.A., NoMeansNo and his own bands Lard and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, as well as releasing several spoken word performances.
In 2000 (upheld on appeal in 2003), Biafra lost an acrimonious legal case initiated by his former Dead Kennedys bandmates over songwriting credits and unpaid royalties. In 2001, the band reformed without Biafra; various singers have since been recruited for vocal duties. Although Dead Kennedys have continued to perform over the years, they have not released any new material since their fourth studio album, Bedtime for Democracy, in 1986.
Dead Kennedys formed in June 1978 in San Francisco, California, when East Bay Ray (Raymond Pepperell) advertised for bandmates in the newspaper The Recycler, after seeing a ska-punk show at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. The original band lineup consisted of East Bay Ray on lead guitar, Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall) on bass, Jello Biafra (Eric Reed Boucher) on vocals, Ted (Bruce Slesinger) on drums and 6025 (Carlos Cadona) on rhythm guitar. This lineup recorded their first demos. Their first live show was on July 19, 1978, at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco, California. They were the opening act on a bill that included DV8 and Negative Trend with The Offs headlining.
Dead Kennedys played numerous shows at local venues afterward. Due to the provocative name of the band, they sometimes played under pseudonyms, including "The DK's", "The Sharks", "The Creamsicles" and "The Pink Twinkies". San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen wrote in November 1978, "Just when you think tastelessness has reached its nadir, along comes a punk rock group called 'The Dead Kennedys', which will play at Mabuhay Gardens on Nov. 22, the 15th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination." Despite mounting protests, the owner of Mabuhay declared, "I can't cancel them NOW—there's a contract. Not, apparently, the kind of contract some people have in mind." However, despite popular belief, the name was not meant to insult the Kennedy family, but according to Ray, "the assassinations were in much more poor taste than our band. We actually respect the Kennedy family. . . . When JFK was assassinated, when Martin Luther King was assassinated, when RFK was assassinated, the American Dream was assassinated. . . . Our name is actually homage to the American Dream."
6025 left the band in March 1979 under somewhat unclear circumstances, generally considered to be musical differences. In June, the band released their first single, "California über alles", on Biafra and East Bay Ray's independent label, Alternative Tentacles. The band followed with a poorly attended East Coast tour, being a new and fairly unknown band at the time, without a full album release.
In early 1980, they recorded and released the single "Holiday in Cambodia". In June, the band recorded their debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, released in September of that year on the UK label Cherry Red. The album reached number 33 on the UK Albums Chart. Since its initial release, it has been re-released by several other labels, including IRS, Alternative Tentacles, and Cleopatra. The newest reissue—the special 25th-anniversary edition—features the original artwork and a bonus 55-minute DVD documenting the making of the album as well as the band's early years.
On March 25, 1980, Dead Kennedys were invited to perform at the Bay Area Music Awards in an effort to give the event some "new wave credibility", in the words of the organizers. The day of the performance was spent practicing the song they were asked to play, the underground hit "California über alles". The band became the talking point of the ceremony when after about 15 seconds into the song, Biafra stopped the band—in a manner reminiscent of Elvis Costello's Saturday Night Live appearance—and said, "Hold it! We've gotta prove that we're adults now. We're not a punk rock band, we're a new wave band." The band, all wearing white shirts with a big, black S painted on the front, pulled black ties from around the backs of their necks to form a dollar sign, then started playing a new song titled "Pull My Strings", a barbed, satirical attack on the ethics of the mainstream music industry, which contained the lyrics, "Is my cock big enough, is my brain small enough, for you to make me a star?". The song also referenced The Knack's song "My Sharona". "Pull My Strings" was never recorded for a studio release, though the performance at the Bay Area Music Awards, which was one of only two times that the song was ever performed, was released on the band's 1987 compilation album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death. In a 2017 interview about the show Klaus stated, "We did one other performance of it at The Mabuhay and that was the only other time we performed it... like within a week of the Bammies" This performance was not recorded.
In January 1981, Ted announced that he wanted to leave to pursue a career in architecture and would help look for a replacement. He played his last concert in February 1981. His replacement was D. H. Peligro (Darren Henley). Around the same time, East Bay Ray had tried to pressure the rest of the band to sign to the major record label Polydor Records; Biafra stated that he was prepared to leave the group if the rest of the band wanted to sign to the label, though East Bay Ray asserts that he recommended against signing with Polydor. Polydor decided not to sign the band after they learned that Dead Kennedys' next single was to be entitled "Too Drunk to Fuck".
When "Too Drunk to Fuck" came out in May 1981 it caused controversy in the UK, as the BBC feared the single would reach the Top 30, which would necessitate its title being mentioned on Top of the Pops. It was never played, although it was called "'Too Drunk' by the Kennedys" by presenter Tony Blackburn.
After Peligro joined the band, the extended play In God We Trust, Inc. (1981) saw them move toward a more aggressive hardcore/thrash sound. In addition to the EP's controversial artwork depicting a gold Christ figure on a cross of dollar bills, the lyrics contained Biafra's most biting social and political commentary yet, and songs such as "Moral Majority", "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" and "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now" placed Dead Kennedys as the spokesmen of social protest, while "Dog Bite", a cover version of Rawhide and various joke introductions showed a much more whimsical side. In 1982, they released their second studio album, Plastic Surgery Disasters. The album's cover features a withered starving African child's hand being held and dwarfed by a white man's hand, a picture that had won the World Press Photo award in 1980, taken in Karamoja district in Uganda by Mike Wells.
The band's music had evolved considerably in a short time, moving away from hardcore formulae toward a more innovative jazz-informed style, featuring musicianship and dynamics far beyond other bands in the genre (thus effectively removing the music from that genre). By now the group had become a de facto political force, pitting itself against rising elements of American social and political life such as the religious right, Ronald Reagan and the idle rich. The band continued touring all over the United States, as well as Europe and Australia, and gained a large underground following. While they continued to play live shows during 1983 and 1984, they took a break from releasing new records to concentrate on the Alternative Tentacles record label, which would become synonymous with DIY alternative culture. The band continued to write and perform new material during this time, which would appear on their next album (some of these early performances can be seen in the DMPO's on Broadway video, originally released by Dirk Dirksen and later reissued on Rhino).
The release of the album Frankenchrist in 1985 showed the band had grown in musical proficiency and lyrical maturity. While there were still a number of loud/fast songs, much of the music featured an eclectic mix of instruments including trumpets and synthesizers. Around this time Klaus Flouride released the similarly experimental solo EP Cha Cha Cha With Mr. Flouride. Lyrically, the band continued their trademark social commentary, with songs such as "MTV Get Off The Air" and "Jock-O-Rama (Invasion of the Beef Patrol)" poking fun at mainstream America.
However, the controversy that erupted over H.R. Giger's Penis Landscape, included as an insert with the album, dwarfed the notoriety of its music. The artwork caused a furor with the newly formed Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In December 1985 a teenage girl purchased the album at the Wherehouse Records store in Los Angeles County. The girl's mother wrote letters of complaint to the California Attorney General and to Los Angeles prosecutors. In June 1986, members of the band, along with other parties involved in the distribution of Frankenchrist, were charged criminally with distribution of harmful matter to minors. The store where the teen actually purchased the album was never named in the lawsuit. The criminal charges focused on an illustration by H.R. Giger, titled "Work 219: Landscape XX" (also known as Penis Landscape). Included as a poster with the album, Penis Landscape depicts nine copulating penises and vaginas.
Members of the band and others in the chain of distribution were charged with violating the California Penal Code on a misdemeanor charge carrying a maximum penalty of up to a year in county jail and a base fine of up to $2,000. Biafra says that during this time government agents invaded and searched his home. The prosecution tried to present the poster to the jury in isolation for consideration as obscene material, but Judge Susan Isacoff ruled that the poster must be considered along with the music and lyrics. The charges against three of the original defendants, Ruth Schwartz (owner of Mordam Records), Steve Boudreau (a distributor involved in supplying Frankenchrist to the Los Angeles Wherehouse store), and Salvatore Alberti (owner of the factory where the record was pressed), were dismissed for lack of evidence.
In August 1987, the case went to the jury with two remaining defendants: Jello Biafra and Michael Bonanno (former Alternative Tentacles label manager). However, the criminal trial ended with a hung jury, split 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal. District Attorneys Michael Guarino and Ira Riener made a motion for a retrial which was denied by Judge Isacoff, Superior Court Judge for the County of Los Angeles. The album, however, was banned from many record stores nationwide.
After the break up of the band, Jello Biafra brought up the court case on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Biafra was on the show with Tipper Gore as part of a panel discussion on the issues of "controversial music lyrics" and censorship.
In addition to the obscenity lawsuit, the band became increasingly disillusioned with the underground scene as well. The hardcore scene, which had been a haven for free-thinking intellectuals and downtrodden nonconformists, was attracting a more violent audience that imposed an increasing level of brutality on other concertgoers and began to alienate many of the bands and individuals who had helped pioneer the movement in the early 1980s. In earlier years the band had criticized neo-Nazi skinheads for trying to ruin the punk scene, but just as big a problem was the popularity of increasingly macho hardcore bands, which brought the group (and their genre) an audience that had little to do with the ideas/ideals they stood for. Biafra penned new songs such as "Chickenshit Conformist" and "Anarchy for Sale" that articulated the band's feelings about the "dumbing down" of punk rock. During the summer they recorded these for their final album, Bedtime for Democracy, which was released in November. The artwork, depicting a defaced Statue of Liberty overrun with Nazis, media, opportunists, Klan members, corrupt government officials, and religious zombies, echoed the idea that neither America itself or the punk scene were safe havens any more for "your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free". The album contains a number of fast/short songs interspersed with jazz ("D.M.S.O."), spoken word ("A Commercial") and psychedelia ("Cesspools In Eden").
The band decided to split up in January 1986, prior to the recording and release of Bedtime for Democracy, and played their last live show with the original lineup on 21 February. Biafra went on to speak about his political beliefs on numerous television shows and he released a number of spoken-word albums. Ray, Flouride, and Peligro also went on to solo careers.
In 2001, Ray, Peligro, and Flouride reformed the Dead Kennedys, with former Dr. Know singer Brandon Cruz replacing Biafra on vocals. The band played under the name "DK Kennedys" for a few concerts, but later reverted to "Dead Kennedys" permanently. They played across the continental United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Russia. Brandon Cruz left the band in May 2003 and was replaced by Jeff Penalty. The band has released two live albums of archival performances on Manifesto Records: Mutiny on the Bay, compiled from various live shows including a recording from their last show with Biafra in 1986, and Live at the Deaf Club, a recording of a 1979 performance at the Deaf Club in San Francisco which was greeted with more enthusiasm.
On October 9, 2007, a best of album titled Milking the Sacred Cow was released. It includes two previously unreleased live versions of "Soup Is Good Food" and "Jock-O-Rama", originally found on Frankenchrist.
Jeff Penalty left the band in March 2008 in what he describes as a "not amicable split." In a statement released, Jeff said that, following a series of disputes, the band had secretly recruited a new singer and played a gig in his neighbourhood, although he also stated he was "really proud of what we were able to accomplish with Dead Kennedys". He was replaced by former Wynona Riders singer Ron "Skip" Greer. D. H. Peligro also left the band to "take some personal time off". He was replaced for a tour by Translator drummer Dave Scheff.
On August 21, 2008, the band announced an extended break from touring due to the health-related issues of Flouride and Peligro. They stated their plans to collaborate on new projects. The band performed a gig in Santa Rosa, California in June 2009, with Peligro returning to the drum kit.
In August 2010, Dead Kennedys announced plans for a short East Coast tour. The lineup assembled for this tour contained East Bay Ray, Peligro, Greer, and bassist Greg Reeves replacing Flouride, who was taking "personal time off" from the band. The tour dates included performances in Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Portland, Maine and Hawaii. The band has played a reworked version of their song "MTV Get Off the Air", re-titled "MP3 Get Off the Web", with lyrics criticizing music piracy during their October 16, 2010, concert at the Rock and Roll Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Dead Kennedys had world tours in 2013 and in 2014, the latter mostly in North American cities. In 2015 and 2016 they toured again, including South America, where they had not played since 2001.
In 2017, East Bay Ray revealed that the band and Jello Biafra had been approached by the Punk-oriented music festival Riot Fest about a potential reunion. While Ray and the rest of the band expressed interest in the concept, Biafra refused.
On April 26, 2019, the group released DK40, a live compilation album celebrating 40 years since the band formed.
On October 28, 2022, D.H. Peligro died from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl, although it was initially believed to have been from possible head trauma from a fall at his home that day. Since Peligro's death, the band has performed in the UK with Santi Guardiola and the United States with Steve Wilson filling in on drums.
In the late 1990s, former band members discovered they were being underpaid in terms of royalties from Alternative Tentacles. East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride, and D. H. Peligro claimed that Jello Biafra had conspired to pay them lower royalty rates and then attempted to disguise the precise nature of the money owed. Biafra claimed that the failure to pay these royalties was an accounting mistake.
In 1998, the other three members of the band sued Biafra over these allegedly unpaid royalties. A jury ruled in their favor in May 2000, finding Biafra and Alternative Tentacles "guilty of malice, oppression and fraud". Malice was defined for the jury as "conduct which is intended to cause injury or despicable conduct which is carried with a willful and conscious disregard for the rights of others". Biafra's appeal was denied in June 2003; he had to pay the outstanding royalties as well as punitive damages, and was forced to hand over the rights to the majority of Dead Kennedys' back catalogue to the Decay Music partnership.
This dispute caused minor waves within punk circles. Biafra claims that East Bay Ray had long expressed displeasure with Alternative Tentacles and with the amount of money he received from them, thus the original incentive for the discovery of the back payments. It was found out that Alternative Tentacles was paying Dead Kennedys less per CD than all the other bands, including Biafra himself, and not informing his other bandmates, which was the fraud. Biafra accused the band of wanting to license the famous Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia" for use in a Levi's jeans commercial, which the band denied. However, an instrumental loop from "Holiday in Cambodia" was part of the 1981 movie "Neighbors," though it was not included on the soundtrack. The band maintains that the Levi's story was completely fictitious and invented by Biafra to discredit them.
Matters were stirred up even further when the three bandmates invited Jello Biafra to "bury the hatchet" in the form of a band reunion. Jello Biafra felt it was unprofessional because no one contacted him directly. In addition, Biafra was disdainful of the reunion, and having long expressed his disdain for nostalgia and rock reunion/oldies tours in particular, argued that the whole affair was motivated by greed.
Several DVDs, re-issues, and live albums have been released since the departure of Biafra most recently on Manifesto Records. According to Biafra, the live albums are "cash-ins" on Dead Kennedys' name and his music. Biafra also accused the releases of the new live material of having poor sound quality. Furthermore, he has stated he is not receiving any royalties from the sale of any Manifesto Records releases. Consequently, he has discouraged fans from buying any Dead Kennedy reissues. The other band members denied Biafra's accusations regarding the live releases, and have defended the mixes as an effort of hard work. Biafra dismissed the new group as "the world's greediest karaoke band." Nevertheless, in 2003, Klaus Flouride said of performances without the band's former frontman: "There hasn't been a show yet that people didn't really like."
Biafra further criticized them for advertising shows using his own image taken from the original 1980s incarnation of the band, which he labeled as false advertising. He attacked the reformed Dead Kennedys in a song called "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)", which appears on his second collaboration with sludge metal band the Melvins, Sieg Howdy!
Biafra told an audience at a speaking gig in Trenton, New Jersey, that the remaining Dead Kennedys have licensed their single "Too Drunk to Fuck" to be used in a rape scene in a Robert Rodriguez movie. The reference is to a lounge cover of the song, recorded by the band Nouvelle Vague, played during a scene in the Planet Terror segment of Grindhouse, although no rape takes place, and in fact the would-be rapist is killed by the would-be victim. The scene in Planet Terror has would-be rapist, "Rapist No. 1" (Quentin Tarantino) order one-legged stripper "Cherry Darlin" (Rose McGowan) to get up off the floor and dance. At this point Tarantino hits play on a cassette recorder and Nouvelle Vague's cover of "Too Drunk To Fuck" plays. Biafra, disapproving of the situation, later wrote, "This is their lowest point since Levi's... This goes against everything the Dead Kennedys stands for in spades... The terrified woman later 'wins' by killing Tarantino, but that excuse does not rescue this at all. I wrote every note of that song and this is not what it was meant for.... Some people will do anything for money. I can't help but think back to how prudish Klaus Flouride was when he objected to H.R. Giger's painting on the "Frankenchrist" (sic) poster, saying he couldn't bear to show it to his parents. I'd sure love to be a fly on the wall when he tries to explain putting a song in a rape scene for money to his teenage daughter... The deal was pushed through by a new business manager the other three hired."
The reformed Dead Kennedys followed their court victory by releasing reissues of all Dead Kennedys albums (except Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, to which they did not have the rights until 2005), releasing several new archival concert DVDs, and licensing several songs to The Manchurian Candidate remake and the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game. East Bay Ray claims he received a fax from Alternative Tentacles purporting Biafra approved the licensing for the game.
The band claims on their website that they still pay close attention to an anti-corporate ideology, despite performing on September 5, 2003, at a festival in Turkey that was sponsored by Coca-Cola, noting that they have since pulled out of a show in Los Angeles when they found that it was being sponsored by Coors. However, Biafra claims the previous licensing deals prove otherwise.
The original logo was created by Winston Smith. He later contributed artwork for the covers of In God We Trust, Inc., Plastic Surgery Disasters, Frankenchrist, Bedtime for Democracy, Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death, the back cover of the "Kill the Poor" single and the Alternative Tentacles logo. When asked about the "DK" logo in an interview, Jello Biafra explained, "...I wanted to make sure it was something simple and easy to spray-paint so people would graffiti it all over the place, and then I showed it to Winston Smith. He played around with it, came back with a bunch of designs that had the circle and slightly 3-D looking letters and he had ones with different patterns behind it. I liked the one with bricks, but ultimately I thought simple red behind it was the boldest and the best."
Dead Kennedys have been described as one of the first hardcore punk bands. They were noted for the harshness of their lyrics, which generally combined biting social satire while expressing a staunchly left-wing view of contemporary America. Unlike other leftist punk bands who use more direct sloganeering, Dead Kennedys' lyrics were often snide. For example, "Holiday in Cambodia" is a multi-layered satire targeting both yuppies and Cambodia's recently deposed Khmer Rouge regime. Or, on "Jock-O-Rama", featured on Frankenchrist, they mock southern small towns whose residents’ lives revolve around high school football.
Dead Kennedys have influenced multiple acts such as System of a Down, Green Day, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Sepultura, Descendents, Bad Religion, Slayer, X, Minutemen, The Hives, Saves the Day and Screeching Weasel among others. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing political figures and authority in general, as well as popular culture and even the punk movement itself. During their initial incarnation between 1978 and 1986, they attracted considerable controversy for their provocative lyrics and artwork. Several stores refused to stock their recordings, provoking debate about censorship in rock music; in the mid-1980s, vocalist and primary lyricist Jello Biafra became an active campaigner against the Parents Music Resource Center. This culminated in an obscenity trial between 1985 and 1986, which resulted in a hung jury.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The group released a total of four studio albums and one EP before disbanding in 1986. Following the band's dissolution, Biafra continued to collaborate and record with other artists including D.O.A., NoMeansNo and his own bands Lard and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, as well as releasing several spoken word performances.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In 2000 (upheld on appeal in 2003), Biafra lost an acrimonious legal case initiated by his former Dead Kennedys bandmates over songwriting credits and unpaid royalties. In 2001, the band reformed without Biafra; various singers have since been recruited for vocal duties. Although Dead Kennedys have continued to perform over the years, they have not released any new material since their fourth studio album, Bedtime for Democracy, in 1986.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Dead Kennedys formed in June 1978 in San Francisco, California, when East Bay Ray (Raymond Pepperell) advertised for bandmates in the newspaper The Recycler, after seeing a ska-punk show at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. The original band lineup consisted of East Bay Ray on lead guitar, Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall) on bass, Jello Biafra (Eric Reed Boucher) on vocals, Ted (Bruce Slesinger) on drums and 6025 (Carlos Cadona) on rhythm guitar. This lineup recorded their first demos. Their first live show was on July 19, 1978, at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco, California. They were the opening act on a bill that included DV8 and Negative Trend with The Offs headlining.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Dead Kennedys played numerous shows at local venues afterward. Due to the provocative name of the band, they sometimes played under pseudonyms, including \"The DK's\", \"The Sharks\", \"The Creamsicles\" and \"The Pink Twinkies\". San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen wrote in November 1978, \"Just when you think tastelessness has reached its nadir, along comes a punk rock group called 'The Dead Kennedys', which will play at Mabuhay Gardens on Nov. 22, the 15th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination.\" Despite mounting protests, the owner of Mabuhay declared, \"I can't cancel them NOW—there's a contract. Not, apparently, the kind of contract some people have in mind.\" However, despite popular belief, the name was not meant to insult the Kennedy family, but according to Ray, \"the assassinations were in much more poor taste than our band. We actually respect the Kennedy family. . . . When JFK was assassinated, when Martin Luther King was assassinated, when RFK was assassinated, the American Dream was assassinated. . . . Our name is actually homage to the American Dream.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "6025 left the band in March 1979 under somewhat unclear circumstances, generally considered to be musical differences. In June, the band released their first single, \"California über alles\", on Biafra and East Bay Ray's independent label, Alternative Tentacles. The band followed with a poorly attended East Coast tour, being a new and fairly unknown band at the time, without a full album release.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In early 1980, they recorded and released the single \"Holiday in Cambodia\". In June, the band recorded their debut album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, released in September of that year on the UK label Cherry Red. The album reached number 33 on the UK Albums Chart. Since its initial release, it has been re-released by several other labels, including IRS, Alternative Tentacles, and Cleopatra. The newest reissue—the special 25th-anniversary edition—features the original artwork and a bonus 55-minute DVD documenting the making of the album as well as the band's early years.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "On March 25, 1980, Dead Kennedys were invited to perform at the Bay Area Music Awards in an effort to give the event some \"new wave credibility\", in the words of the organizers. The day of the performance was spent practicing the song they were asked to play, the underground hit \"California über alles\". The band became the talking point of the ceremony when after about 15 seconds into the song, Biafra stopped the band—in a manner reminiscent of Elvis Costello's Saturday Night Live appearance—and said, \"Hold it! We've gotta prove that we're adults now. We're not a punk rock band, we're a new wave band.\" The band, all wearing white shirts with a big, black S painted on the front, pulled black ties from around the backs of their necks to form a dollar sign, then started playing a new song titled \"Pull My Strings\", a barbed, satirical attack on the ethics of the mainstream music industry, which contained the lyrics, \"Is my cock big enough, is my brain small enough, for you to make me a star?\". The song also referenced The Knack's song \"My Sharona\". \"Pull My Strings\" was never recorded for a studio release, though the performance at the Bay Area Music Awards, which was one of only two times that the song was ever performed, was released on the band's 1987 compilation album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death. In a 2017 interview about the show Klaus stated, \"We did one other performance of it at The Mabuhay and that was the only other time we performed it... like within a week of the Bammies\" This performance was not recorded.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In January 1981, Ted announced that he wanted to leave to pursue a career in architecture and would help look for a replacement. He played his last concert in February 1981. His replacement was D. H. Peligro (Darren Henley). Around the same time, East Bay Ray had tried to pressure the rest of the band to sign to the major record label Polydor Records; Biafra stated that he was prepared to leave the group if the rest of the band wanted to sign to the label, though East Bay Ray asserts that he recommended against signing with Polydor. Polydor decided not to sign the band after they learned that Dead Kennedys' next single was to be entitled \"Too Drunk to Fuck\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "When \"Too Drunk to Fuck\" came out in May 1981 it caused controversy in the UK, as the BBC feared the single would reach the Top 30, which would necessitate its title being mentioned on Top of the Pops. It was never played, although it was called \"'Too Drunk' by the Kennedys\" by presenter Tony Blackburn.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "After Peligro joined the band, the extended play In God We Trust, Inc. (1981) saw them move toward a more aggressive hardcore/thrash sound. In addition to the EP's controversial artwork depicting a gold Christ figure on a cross of dollar bills, the lyrics contained Biafra's most biting social and political commentary yet, and songs such as \"Moral Majority\", \"Nazi Punks Fuck Off!\" and \"We've Got a Bigger Problem Now\" placed Dead Kennedys as the spokesmen of social protest, while \"Dog Bite\", a cover version of Rawhide and various joke introductions showed a much more whimsical side. In 1982, they released their second studio album, Plastic Surgery Disasters. The album's cover features a withered starving African child's hand being held and dwarfed by a white man's hand, a picture that had won the World Press Photo award in 1980, taken in Karamoja district in Uganda by Mike Wells.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The band's music had evolved considerably in a short time, moving away from hardcore formulae toward a more innovative jazz-informed style, featuring musicianship and dynamics far beyond other bands in the genre (thus effectively removing the music from that genre). By now the group had become a de facto political force, pitting itself against rising elements of American social and political life such as the religious right, Ronald Reagan and the idle rich. The band continued touring all over the United States, as well as Europe and Australia, and gained a large underground following. While they continued to play live shows during 1983 and 1984, they took a break from releasing new records to concentrate on the Alternative Tentacles record label, which would become synonymous with DIY alternative culture. The band continued to write and perform new material during this time, which would appear on their next album (some of these early performances can be seen in the DMPO's on Broadway video, originally released by Dirk Dirksen and later reissued on Rhino).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The release of the album Frankenchrist in 1985 showed the band had grown in musical proficiency and lyrical maturity. While there were still a number of loud/fast songs, much of the music featured an eclectic mix of instruments including trumpets and synthesizers. Around this time Klaus Flouride released the similarly experimental solo EP Cha Cha Cha With Mr. Flouride. Lyrically, the band continued their trademark social commentary, with songs such as \"MTV Get Off The Air\" and \"Jock-O-Rama (Invasion of the Beef Patrol)\" poking fun at mainstream America.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "However, the controversy that erupted over H.R. Giger's Penis Landscape, included as an insert with the album, dwarfed the notoriety of its music. The artwork caused a furor with the newly formed Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). In December 1985 a teenage girl purchased the album at the Wherehouse Records store in Los Angeles County. The girl's mother wrote letters of complaint to the California Attorney General and to Los Angeles prosecutors. In June 1986, members of the band, along with other parties involved in the distribution of Frankenchrist, were charged criminally with distribution of harmful matter to minors. The store where the teen actually purchased the album was never named in the lawsuit. The criminal charges focused on an illustration by H.R. Giger, titled \"Work 219: Landscape XX\" (also known as Penis Landscape). Included as a poster with the album, Penis Landscape depicts nine copulating penises and vaginas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Members of the band and others in the chain of distribution were charged with violating the California Penal Code on a misdemeanor charge carrying a maximum penalty of up to a year in county jail and a base fine of up to $2,000. Biafra says that during this time government agents invaded and searched his home. The prosecution tried to present the poster to the jury in isolation for consideration as obscene material, but Judge Susan Isacoff ruled that the poster must be considered along with the music and lyrics. The charges against three of the original defendants, Ruth Schwartz (owner of Mordam Records), Steve Boudreau (a distributor involved in supplying Frankenchrist to the Los Angeles Wherehouse store), and Salvatore Alberti (owner of the factory where the record was pressed), were dismissed for lack of evidence.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In August 1987, the case went to the jury with two remaining defendants: Jello Biafra and Michael Bonanno (former Alternative Tentacles label manager). However, the criminal trial ended with a hung jury, split 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal. District Attorneys Michael Guarino and Ira Riener made a motion for a retrial which was denied by Judge Isacoff, Superior Court Judge for the County of Los Angeles. The album, however, was banned from many record stores nationwide.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "After the break up of the band, Jello Biafra brought up the court case on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Biafra was on the show with Tipper Gore as part of a panel discussion on the issues of \"controversial music lyrics\" and censorship.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In addition to the obscenity lawsuit, the band became increasingly disillusioned with the underground scene as well. The hardcore scene, which had been a haven for free-thinking intellectuals and downtrodden nonconformists, was attracting a more violent audience that imposed an increasing level of brutality on other concertgoers and began to alienate many of the bands and individuals who had helped pioneer the movement in the early 1980s. In earlier years the band had criticized neo-Nazi skinheads for trying to ruin the punk scene, but just as big a problem was the popularity of increasingly macho hardcore bands, which brought the group (and their genre) an audience that had little to do with the ideas/ideals they stood for. Biafra penned new songs such as \"Chickenshit Conformist\" and \"Anarchy for Sale\" that articulated the band's feelings about the \"dumbing down\" of punk rock. During the summer they recorded these for their final album, Bedtime for Democracy, which was released in November. The artwork, depicting a defaced Statue of Liberty overrun with Nazis, media, opportunists, Klan members, corrupt government officials, and religious zombies, echoed the idea that neither America itself or the punk scene were safe havens any more for \"your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free\". The album contains a number of fast/short songs interspersed with jazz (\"D.M.S.O.\"), spoken word (\"A Commercial\") and psychedelia (\"Cesspools In Eden\").",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The band decided to split up in January 1986, prior to the recording and release of Bedtime for Democracy, and played their last live show with the original lineup on 21 February. Biafra went on to speak about his political beliefs on numerous television shows and he released a number of spoken-word albums. Ray, Flouride, and Peligro also went on to solo careers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In 2001, Ray, Peligro, and Flouride reformed the Dead Kennedys, with former Dr. Know singer Brandon Cruz replacing Biafra on vocals. The band played under the name \"DK Kennedys\" for a few concerts, but later reverted to \"Dead Kennedys\" permanently. They played across the continental United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Russia. Brandon Cruz left the band in May 2003 and was replaced by Jeff Penalty. The band has released two live albums of archival performances on Manifesto Records: Mutiny on the Bay, compiled from various live shows including a recording from their last show with Biafra in 1986, and Live at the Deaf Club, a recording of a 1979 performance at the Deaf Club in San Francisco which was greeted with more enthusiasm.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "On October 9, 2007, a best of album titled Milking the Sacred Cow was released. It includes two previously unreleased live versions of \"Soup Is Good Food\" and \"Jock-O-Rama\", originally found on Frankenchrist.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Jeff Penalty left the band in March 2008 in what he describes as a \"not amicable split.\" In a statement released, Jeff said that, following a series of disputes, the band had secretly recruited a new singer and played a gig in his neighbourhood, although he also stated he was \"really proud of what we were able to accomplish with Dead Kennedys\". He was replaced by former Wynona Riders singer Ron \"Skip\" Greer. D. H. Peligro also left the band to \"take some personal time off\". He was replaced for a tour by Translator drummer Dave Scheff.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "On August 21, 2008, the band announced an extended break from touring due to the health-related issues of Flouride and Peligro. They stated their plans to collaborate on new projects. The band performed a gig in Santa Rosa, California in June 2009, with Peligro returning to the drum kit.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In August 2010, Dead Kennedys announced plans for a short East Coast tour. The lineup assembled for this tour contained East Bay Ray, Peligro, Greer, and bassist Greg Reeves replacing Flouride, who was taking \"personal time off\" from the band. The tour dates included performances in Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Portland, Maine and Hawaii. The band has played a reworked version of their song \"MTV Get Off the Air\", re-titled \"MP3 Get Off the Web\", with lyrics criticizing music piracy during their October 16, 2010, concert at the Rock and Roll Hotel in Washington, D.C.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Dead Kennedys had world tours in 2013 and in 2014, the latter mostly in North American cities. In 2015 and 2016 they toured again, including South America, where they had not played since 2001.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In 2017, East Bay Ray revealed that the band and Jello Biafra had been approached by the Punk-oriented music festival Riot Fest about a potential reunion. While Ray and the rest of the band expressed interest in the concept, Biafra refused.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "On April 26, 2019, the group released DK40, a live compilation album celebrating 40 years since the band formed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "On October 28, 2022, D.H. Peligro died from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl, although it was initially believed to have been from possible head trauma from a fall at his home that day. Since Peligro's death, the band has performed in the UK with Santi Guardiola and the United States with Steve Wilson filling in on drums.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In the late 1990s, former band members discovered they were being underpaid in terms of royalties from Alternative Tentacles. East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride, and D. H. Peligro claimed that Jello Biafra had conspired to pay them lower royalty rates and then attempted to disguise the precise nature of the money owed. Biafra claimed that the failure to pay these royalties was an accounting mistake.",
"title": "Conflicts between members"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In 1998, the other three members of the band sued Biafra over these allegedly unpaid royalties. A jury ruled in their favor in May 2000, finding Biafra and Alternative Tentacles \"guilty of malice, oppression and fraud\". Malice was defined for the jury as \"conduct which is intended to cause injury or despicable conduct which is carried with a willful and conscious disregard for the rights of others\". Biafra's appeal was denied in June 2003; he had to pay the outstanding royalties as well as punitive damages, and was forced to hand over the rights to the majority of Dead Kennedys' back catalogue to the Decay Music partnership.",
"title": "Conflicts between members"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "This dispute caused minor waves within punk circles. Biafra claims that East Bay Ray had long expressed displeasure with Alternative Tentacles and with the amount of money he received from them, thus the original incentive for the discovery of the back payments. It was found out that Alternative Tentacles was paying Dead Kennedys less per CD than all the other bands, including Biafra himself, and not informing his other bandmates, which was the fraud. Biafra accused the band of wanting to license the famous Dead Kennedys song \"Holiday in Cambodia\" for use in a Levi's jeans commercial, which the band denied. However, an instrumental loop from \"Holiday in Cambodia\" was part of the 1981 movie \"Neighbors,\" though it was not included on the soundtrack. The band maintains that the Levi's story was completely fictitious and invented by Biafra to discredit them.",
"title": "Conflicts between members"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Matters were stirred up even further when the three bandmates invited Jello Biafra to \"bury the hatchet\" in the form of a band reunion. Jello Biafra felt it was unprofessional because no one contacted him directly. In addition, Biafra was disdainful of the reunion, and having long expressed his disdain for nostalgia and rock reunion/oldies tours in particular, argued that the whole affair was motivated by greed.",
"title": "Conflicts between members"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Several DVDs, re-issues, and live albums have been released since the departure of Biafra most recently on Manifesto Records. According to Biafra, the live albums are \"cash-ins\" on Dead Kennedys' name and his music. Biafra also accused the releases of the new live material of having poor sound quality. Furthermore, he has stated he is not receiving any royalties from the sale of any Manifesto Records releases. Consequently, he has discouraged fans from buying any Dead Kennedy reissues. The other band members denied Biafra's accusations regarding the live releases, and have defended the mixes as an effort of hard work. Biafra dismissed the new group as \"the world's greediest karaoke band.\" Nevertheless, in 2003, Klaus Flouride said of performances without the band's former frontman: \"There hasn't been a show yet that people didn't really like.\"",
"title": "Conflicts between members"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Biafra further criticized them for advertising shows using his own image taken from the original 1980s incarnation of the band, which he labeled as false advertising. He attacked the reformed Dead Kennedys in a song called \"Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)\", which appears on his second collaboration with sludge metal band the Melvins, Sieg Howdy!",
"title": "Conflicts between members"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Biafra told an audience at a speaking gig in Trenton, New Jersey, that the remaining Dead Kennedys have licensed their single \"Too Drunk to Fuck\" to be used in a rape scene in a Robert Rodriguez movie. The reference is to a lounge cover of the song, recorded by the band Nouvelle Vague, played during a scene in the Planet Terror segment of Grindhouse, although no rape takes place, and in fact the would-be rapist is killed by the would-be victim. The scene in Planet Terror has would-be rapist, \"Rapist No. 1\" (Quentin Tarantino) order one-legged stripper \"Cherry Darlin\" (Rose McGowan) to get up off the floor and dance. At this point Tarantino hits play on a cassette recorder and Nouvelle Vague's cover of \"Too Drunk To Fuck\" plays. Biafra, disapproving of the situation, later wrote, \"This is their lowest point since Levi's... This goes against everything the Dead Kennedys stands for in spades... The terrified woman later 'wins' by killing Tarantino, but that excuse does not rescue this at all. I wrote every note of that song and this is not what it was meant for.... Some people will do anything for money. I can't help but think back to how prudish Klaus Flouride was when he objected to H.R. Giger's painting on the \"Frankenchrist\" (sic) poster, saying he couldn't bear to show it to his parents. I'd sure love to be a fly on the wall when he tries to explain putting a song in a rape scene for money to his teenage daughter... The deal was pushed through by a new business manager the other three hired.\"",
"title": "Conflicts between members"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "The reformed Dead Kennedys followed their court victory by releasing reissues of all Dead Kennedys albums (except Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, to which they did not have the rights until 2005), releasing several new archival concert DVDs, and licensing several songs to The Manchurian Candidate remake and the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game. East Bay Ray claims he received a fax from Alternative Tentacles purporting Biafra approved the licensing for the game.",
"title": "Conflicts between members"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The band claims on their website that they still pay close attention to an anti-corporate ideology, despite performing on September 5, 2003, at a festival in Turkey that was sponsored by Coca-Cola, noting that they have since pulled out of a show in Los Angeles when they found that it was being sponsored by Coors. However, Biafra claims the previous licensing deals prove otherwise.",
"title": "Conflicts between members"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The original logo was created by Winston Smith. He later contributed artwork for the covers of In God We Trust, Inc., Plastic Surgery Disasters, Frankenchrist, Bedtime for Democracy, Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death, the back cover of the \"Kill the Poor\" single and the Alternative Tentacles logo. When asked about the \"DK\" logo in an interview, Jello Biafra explained, \"...I wanted to make sure it was something simple and easy to spray-paint so people would graffiti it all over the place, and then I showed it to Winston Smith. He played around with it, came back with a bunch of designs that had the circle and slightly 3-D looking letters and he had ones with different patterns behind it. I liked the one with bricks, but ultimately I thought simple red behind it was the boldest and the best.\"",
"title": "Logo"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Dead Kennedys have been described as one of the first hardcore punk bands. They were noted for the harshness of their lyrics, which generally combined biting social satire while expressing a staunchly left-wing view of contemporary America. Unlike other leftist punk bands who use more direct sloganeering, Dead Kennedys' lyrics were often snide. For example, \"Holiday in Cambodia\" is a multi-layered satire targeting both yuppies and Cambodia's recently deposed Khmer Rouge regime. Or, on \"Jock-O-Rama\", featured on Frankenchrist, they mock southern small towns whose residents’ lives revolve around high school football.",
"title": "Music and lyrics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Dead Kennedys have influenced multiple acts such as System of a Down, Green Day, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Sepultura, Descendents, Bad Religion, Slayer, X, Minutemen, The Hives, Saves the Day and Screeching Weasel among others.",
"title": "Influence"
}
] | Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing political figures and authority in general, as well as popular culture and even the punk movement itself. During their initial incarnation between 1978 and 1986, they attracted considerable controversy for their provocative lyrics and artwork. Several stores refused to stock their recordings, provoking debate about censorship in rock music; in the mid-1980s, vocalist and primary lyricist Jello Biafra became an active campaigner against the Parents Music Resource Center. This culminated in an obscenity trial between 1985 and 1986, which resulted in a hung jury. The group released a total of four studio albums and one EP before disbanding in 1986. Following the band's dissolution, Biafra continued to collaborate and record with other artists including D.O.A., NoMeansNo and his own bands Lard and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, as well as releasing several spoken word performances. In 2000, Biafra lost an acrimonious legal case initiated by his former Dead Kennedys bandmates over songwriting credits and unpaid royalties. In 2001, the band reformed without Biafra; various singers have since been recruited for vocal duties. Although Dead Kennedys have continued to perform over the years, they have not released any new material since their fourth studio album, Bedtime for Democracy, in 1986. | 2001-03-16T21:30:29Z | 2023-12-20T22:23:39Z | [
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7,955 | DNA | Deoxyribonucleic acid (/diːˈɒksɪˌraɪboʊnjuːˌkliːɪk, -ˌkleɪ-/ ; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of all known organisms and many viruses. DNA and ribonucleic acid (RNA) are nucleic acids. Alongside proteins, lipids and complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides), nucleic acids are one of the four major types of macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life.
The two DNA strands are known as polynucleotides as they are composed of simpler monomeric units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide is composed of one of four nitrogen-containing nucleobases (cytosine [C], guanine [G], adenine [A] or thymine [T]), a sugar called deoxyribose, and a phosphate group. The nucleotides are joined to one another in a chain by covalent bonds (known as the phosphodiester linkage) between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next, resulting in an alternating sugar-phosphate backbone. The nitrogenous bases of the two separate polynucleotide strands are bound together, according to base pairing rules (A with T and C with G), with hydrogen bonds to make double-stranded DNA. The complementary nitrogenous bases are divided into two groups, the single-ringed pyrimidines and the double-ringed purines. In DNA, the pyrimidines are thymine and cytosine; the purines are adenine and guanine.
Both strands of double-stranded DNA store the same biological information. This information is replicated when the two strands separate. A large part of DNA (more than 98% for humans) is non-coding, meaning that these sections do not serve as patterns for protein sequences. The two strands of DNA run in opposite directions to each other and are thus antiparallel. Attached to each sugar is one of four types of nucleobases (or bases). It is the sequence of these four nucleobases along the backbone that encodes genetic information. RNA strands are created using DNA strands as a template in a process called transcription, where DNA bases are exchanged for their corresponding bases except in the case of thymine (T), for which RNA substitutes uracil (U). Under the genetic code, these RNA strands specify the sequence of amino acids within proteins in a process called translation.
Within eukaryotic cells, DNA is organized into long structures called chromosomes. Before typical cell division, these chromosomes are duplicated in the process of DNA replication, providing a complete set of chromosomes for each daughter cell. Eukaryotic organisms (animals, plants, fungi and protists) store most of their DNA inside the cell nucleus as nuclear DNA, and some in the mitochondria as mitochondrial DNA or in chloroplasts as chloroplast DNA. In contrast, prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) store their DNA only in the cytoplasm, in circular chromosomes. Within eukaryotic chromosomes, chromatin proteins, such as histones, compact and organize DNA. These compacting structures guide the interactions between DNA and other proteins, helping control which parts of the DNA are transcribed.
DNA is a long polymer made from repeating units called nucleotides. The structure of DNA is dynamic along its length, being capable of coiling into tight loops and other shapes. In all species it is composed of two helical chains, bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. Both chains are coiled around the same axis, and have the same pitch of 34 ångströms (3.4 nm). The pair of chains have a radius of 10 Å (1.0 nm). According to another study, when measured in a different solution, the DNA chain measured 22–26 Å (2.2–2.6 nm) wide, and one nucleotide unit measured 3.3 Å (0.33 nm) long. The buoyant density of most DNA is 1.7g/cm.
DNA does not usually exist as a single strand, but instead as a pair of strands that are held tightly together. These two long strands coil around each other, in the shape of a double helix. The nucleotide contains both a segment of the backbone of the molecule (which holds the chain together) and a nucleobase (which interacts with the other DNA strand in the helix). A nucleobase linked to a sugar is called a nucleoside, and a base linked to a sugar and to one or more phosphate groups is called a nucleotide. A biopolymer comprising multiple linked nucleotides (as in DNA) is called a polynucleotide.
The backbone of the DNA strand is made from alternating phosphate and sugar groups. The sugar in DNA is 2-deoxyribose, which is a pentose (five-carbon) sugar. The sugars are joined by phosphate groups that form phosphodiester bonds between the third and fifth carbon atoms of adjacent sugar rings. These are known as the 3′-end (three prime end), and 5′-end (five prime end) carbons, the prime symbol being used to distinguish these carbon atoms from those of the base to which the deoxyribose forms a glycosidic bond.
Therefore, any DNA strand normally has one end at which there is a phosphate group attached to the 5′ carbon of a ribose (the 5′ phosphoryl) and another end at which there is a free hydroxyl group attached to the 3′ carbon of a ribose (the 3′ hydroxyl). The orientation of the 3′ and 5′ carbons along the sugar-phosphate backbone confers directionality (sometimes called polarity) to each DNA strand. In a nucleic acid double helix, the direction of the nucleotides in one strand is opposite to their direction in the other strand: the strands are antiparallel. The asymmetric ends of DNA strands are said to have a directionality of five prime end (5′ ), and three prime end (3′), with the 5′ end having a terminal phosphate group and the 3′ end a terminal hydroxyl group. One major difference between DNA and RNA is the sugar, with the 2-deoxyribose in DNA being replaced by the related pentose sugar ribose in RNA.
The DNA double helix is stabilized primarily by two forces: hydrogen bonds between nucleotides and base-stacking interactions among aromatic nucleobases. The four bases found in DNA are adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). These four bases are attached to the sugar-phosphate to form the complete nucleotide, as shown for adenosine monophosphate. Adenine pairs with thymine and guanine pairs with cytosine, forming A-T and G-C base pairs.
The nucleobases are classified into two types: the purines, A and G, which are fused five- and six-membered heterocyclic compounds, and the pyrimidines, the six-membered rings C and T. A fifth pyrimidine nucleobase, uracil (U), usually takes the place of thymine in RNA and differs from thymine by lacking a methyl group on its ring. In addition to RNA and DNA, many artificial nucleic acid analogues have been created to study the properties of nucleic acids, or for use in biotechnology.
Modified bases occur in DNA. The first of these recognized was 5-methylcytosine, which was found in the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1925. The reason for the presence of these noncanonical bases in bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) is to avoid the restriction enzymes present in bacteria. This enzyme system acts at least in part as a molecular immune system protecting bacteria from infection by viruses. Modifications of the bases cytosine and adenine, the more common and modified DNA bases, play vital roles in the epigenetic control of gene expression in plants and animals.
A number of noncanonical bases are known to occur in DNA. Most of these are modifications of the canonical bases plus uracil.
Twin helical strands form the DNA backbone. Another double helix may be found tracing the spaces, or grooves, between the strands. These voids are adjacent to the base pairs and may provide a binding site. As the strands are not symmetrically located with respect to each other, the grooves are unequally sized. The major groove is 22 ångströms (2.2 nm) wide, while the minor groove is 12 Å (1.2 nm) in width. Due to the larger width of the major groove, the edges of the bases are more accessible in the major groove than in the minor groove. As a result, proteins such as transcription factors that can bind to specific sequences in double-stranded DNA usually make contact with the sides of the bases exposed in the major groove. This situation varies in unusual conformations of DNA within the cell (see below), but the major and minor grooves are always named to reflect the differences in width that would be seen if the DNA was twisted back into the ordinary B form.
In a DNA double helix, each type of nucleobase on one strand bonds with just one type of nucleobase on the other strand. This is called complementary base pairing. Purines form hydrogen bonds to pyrimidines, with adenine bonding only to thymine in two hydrogen bonds, and cytosine bonding only to guanine in three hydrogen bonds. This arrangement of two nucleotides binding together across the double helix (from six-carbon ring to six-carbon ring) is called a Watson-Crick base pair. DNA with high GC-content is more stable than DNA with low GC-content. A Hoogsteen base pair (hydrogen bonding the 6-carbon ring to the 5-carbon ring) is a rare variation of base-pairing. As hydrogen bonds are not covalent, they can be broken and rejoined relatively easily. The two strands of DNA in a double helix can thus be pulled apart like a zipper, either by a mechanical force or high temperature. As a result of this base pair complementarity, all the information in the double-stranded sequence of a DNA helix is duplicated on each strand, which is vital in DNA replication. This reversible and specific interaction between complementary base pairs is critical for all the functions of DNA in organisms.
As noted above, most DNA molecules are actually two polymer strands, bound together in a helical fashion by noncovalent bonds; this double-stranded (dsDNA) structure is maintained largely by the intrastrand base stacking interactions, which are strongest for G,C stacks. The two strands can come apart—a process known as melting—to form two single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules. Melting occurs at high temperatures, low salt and high pH (low pH also melts DNA, but since DNA is unstable due to acid depurination, low pH is rarely used).
The stability of the dsDNA form depends not only on the GC-content (% G,C basepairs) but also on sequence (since stacking is sequence specific) and also length (longer molecules are more stable). The stability can be measured in various ways; a common way is the melting temperature (also called Tm value), which is the temperature at which 50% of the double-strand molecules are converted to single-strand molecules; melting temperature is dependent on ionic strength and the concentration of DNA. As a result, it is both the percentage of GC base pairs and the overall length of a DNA double helix that determines the strength of the association between the two strands of DNA. Long DNA helices with a high GC-content have more strongly interacting strands, while short helices with high AT content have more weakly interacting strands. In biology, parts of the DNA double helix that need to separate easily, such as the TATAAT Pribnow box in some promoters, tend to have a high AT content, making the strands easier to pull apart.
In the laboratory, the strength of this interaction can be measured by finding the melting temperature Tm necessary to break half of the hydrogen bonds. When all the base pairs in a DNA double helix melt, the strands separate and exist in solution as two entirely independent molecules. These single-stranded DNA molecules have no single common shape, but some conformations are more stable than others.
In humans, the total female diploid nuclear genome per cell extends for 6.37 Gigabase pairs (Gbp), is 208.23 cm long and weighs 6.51 picograms (pg). Male values are 6.27 Gbp, 205.00 cm, 6.41 pg. Each DNA polymer can contain hundreds of millions of nucleotides, such as in chromosome 1. Chromosome 1 is the largest human chromosome with approximately 220 million base pairs, and would be 85 mm long if straightened.
In eukaryotes, in addition to nuclear DNA, there is also mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which encodes certain proteins used by the mitochondria. The mtDNA is usually relatively small in comparison to the nuclear DNA. For example, the human mitochondrial DNA forms closed circular molecules, each of which contains 16,569 DNA base pairs, with each such molecule normally containing a full set of the mitochondrial genes. Each human mitochondrion contains, on average, approximately 5 such mtDNA molecules. Each human cell contains approximately 100 mitochondria, giving a total number of mtDNA molecules per human cell of approximately 500. However, the amount of mitochondria per cell also varies by cell type, and an egg cell can contain 100,000 mitochondria, corresponding to up to 1,500,000 copies of the mitochondrial genome (constituting up to 90% of the DNA of the cell).
A DNA sequence is called a "sense" sequence if it is the same as that of a messenger RNA copy that is translated into protein. The sequence on the opposite strand is called the "antisense" sequence. Both sense and antisense sequences can exist on different parts of the same strand of DNA (i.e. both strands can contain both sense and antisense sequences). In both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, antisense RNA sequences are produced, but the functions of these RNAs are not entirely clear. One proposal is that antisense RNAs are involved in regulating gene expression through RNA-RNA base pairing.
A few DNA sequences in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and more in plasmids and viruses, blur the distinction between sense and antisense strands by having overlapping genes. In these cases, some DNA sequences do double duty, encoding one protein when read along one strand, and a second protein when read in the opposite direction along the other strand. In bacteria, this overlap may be involved in the regulation of gene transcription, while in viruses, overlapping genes increase the amount of information that can be encoded within the small viral genome.
DNA can be twisted like a rope in a process called DNA supercoiling. With DNA in its "relaxed" state, a strand usually circles the axis of the double helix once every 10.4 base pairs, but if the DNA is twisted the strands become more tightly or more loosely wound. If the DNA is twisted in the direction of the helix, this is positive supercoiling, and the bases are held more tightly together. If they are twisted in the opposite direction, this is negative supercoiling, and the bases come apart more easily. In nature, most DNA has slight negative supercoiling that is introduced by enzymes called topoisomerases. These enzymes are also needed to relieve the twisting stresses introduced into DNA strands during processes such as transcription and DNA replication.
DNA exists in many possible conformations that include A-DNA, B-DNA, and Z-DNA forms, although only B-DNA and Z-DNA have been directly observed in functional organisms. The conformation that DNA adopts depends on the hydration level, DNA sequence, the amount and direction of supercoiling, chemical modifications of the bases, the type and concentration of metal ions, and the presence of polyamines in solution.
The first published reports of A-DNA X-ray diffraction patterns—and also B-DNA—used analyses based on Patterson functions that provided only a limited amount of structural information for oriented fibers of DNA. An alternative analysis was proposed by Wilkins et al. in 1953 for the in vivo B-DNA X-ray diffraction-scattering patterns of highly hydrated DNA fibers in terms of squares of Bessel functions. In the same journal, James Watson and Francis Crick presented their molecular modeling analysis of the DNA X-ray diffraction patterns to suggest that the structure was a double helix.
Although the B-DNA form is most common under the conditions found in cells, it is not a well-defined conformation but a family of related DNA conformations that occur at the high hydration levels present in cells. Their corresponding X-ray diffraction and scattering patterns are characteristic of molecular paracrystals with a significant degree of disorder.
Compared to B-DNA, the A-DNA form is a wider right-handed spiral, with a shallow, wide minor groove and a narrower, deeper major groove. The A form occurs under non-physiological conditions in partly dehydrated samples of DNA, while in the cell it may be produced in hybrid pairings of DNA and RNA strands, and in enzyme-DNA complexes. Segments of DNA where the bases have been chemically modified by methylation may undergo a larger change in conformation and adopt the Z form. Here, the strands turn about the helical axis in a left-handed spiral, the opposite of the more common B form. These unusual structures can be recognized by specific Z-DNA binding proteins and may be involved in the regulation of transcription.
For many years, exobiologists have proposed the existence of a shadow biosphere, a postulated microbial biosphere of Earth that uses radically different biochemical and molecular processes than currently known life. One of the proposals was the existence of lifeforms that use arsenic instead of phosphorus in DNA. A report in 2010 of the possibility in the bacterium GFAJ-1 was announced, though the research was disputed, and evidence suggests the bacterium actively prevents the incorporation of arsenic into the DNA backbone and other biomolecules.
At the ends of the linear chromosomes are specialized regions of DNA called telomeres. The main function of these regions is to allow the cell to replicate chromosome ends using the enzyme telomerase, as the enzymes that normally replicate DNA cannot copy the extreme 3′ ends of chromosomes. These specialized chromosome caps also help protect the DNA ends, and stop the DNA repair systems in the cell from treating them as damage to be corrected. In human cells, telomeres are usually lengths of single-stranded DNA containing several thousand repeats of a simple TTAGGG sequence.
These guanine-rich sequences may stabilize chromosome ends by forming structures of stacked sets of four-base units, rather than the usual base pairs found in other DNA molecules. Here, four guanine bases, known as a guanine tetrad, form a flat plate. These flat four-base units then stack on top of each other to form a stable G-quadruplex structure. These structures are stabilized by hydrogen bonding between the edges of the bases and chelation of a metal ion in the centre of each four-base unit. Other structures can also be formed, with the central set of four bases coming from either a single strand folded around the bases, or several different parallel strands, each contributing one base to the central structure.
In addition to these stacked structures, telomeres also form large loop structures called telomere loops, or T-loops. Here, the single-stranded DNA curls around in a long circle stabilized by telomere-binding proteins. At the very end of the T-loop, the single-stranded telomere DNA is held onto a region of double-stranded DNA by the telomere strand disrupting the double-helical DNA and base pairing to one of the two strands. This triple-stranded structure is called a displacement loop or D-loop.
In DNA, fraying occurs when non-complementary regions exist at the end of an otherwise complementary double-strand of DNA. However, branched DNA can occur if a third strand of DNA is introduced and contains adjoining regions able to hybridize with the frayed regions of the pre-existing double-strand. Although the simplest example of branched DNA involves only three strands of DNA, complexes involving additional strands and multiple branches are also possible. Branched DNA can be used in nanotechnology to construct geometric shapes, see the section on uses in technology below.
Several artificial nucleobases have been synthesized, and successfully incorporated in the eight-base DNA analogue named Hachimoji DNA. Dubbed S, B, P, and Z, these artificial bases are capable of bonding with each other in a predictable way (S–B and P–Z), maintain the double helix structure of DNA, and be transcribed to RNA. Their existence could be seen as an indication that there is nothing special about the four natural nucleobases that evolved on Earth. On the other hand, DNA is tightly related to RNA which does not only act as a transcript of DNA but also performs as molecular machines many tasks in cells. For this purpose it has to fold into a structure. It has been shown that to allow to create all possible structures at least four bases are required for the corresponding RNA, while a higher number is also possible but this would be against the natural principle of least effort.
The phosphate groups of DNA give it similar acidic properties to phosphoric acid and it can be considered as a strong acid. It will be fully ionized at a normal cellular pH, releasing protons which leave behind negative charges on the phosphate groups. These negative charges protect DNA from breakdown by hydrolysis by repelling nucleophiles which could hydrolyze it.
Pure DNA extracted from cells forms white, stringy clumps.
The expression of genes is influenced by how the DNA is packaged in chromosomes, in a structure called chromatin. Base modifications can be involved in packaging, with regions that have low or no gene expression usually containing high levels of methylation of cytosine bases. DNA packaging and its influence on gene expression can also occur by covalent modifications of the histone protein core around which DNA is wrapped in the chromatin structure or else by remodeling carried out by chromatin remodeling complexes (see Chromatin remodeling). There is, further, crosstalk between DNA methylation and histone modification, so they can coordinately affect chromatin and gene expression.
For one example, cytosine methylation produces 5-methylcytosine, which is important for X-inactivation of chromosomes. The average level of methylation varies between organisms—the worm Caenorhabditis elegans lacks cytosine methylation, while vertebrates have higher levels, with up to 1% of their DNA containing 5-methylcytosine. Despite the importance of 5-methylcytosine, it can deaminate to leave a thymine base, so methylated cytosines are particularly prone to mutations. Other base modifications include adenine methylation in bacteria, the presence of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in the brain, and the glycosylation of uracil to produce the "J-base" in kinetoplastids.
DNA can be damaged by many sorts of mutagens, which change the DNA sequence. Mutagens include oxidizing agents, alkylating agents and also high-energy electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light and X-rays. The type of DNA damage produced depends on the type of mutagen. For example, UV light can damage DNA by producing thymine dimers, which are cross-links between pyrimidine bases. On the other hand, oxidants such as free radicals or hydrogen peroxide produce multiple forms of damage, including base modifications, particularly of guanosine, and double-strand breaks. A typical human cell contains about 150,000 bases that have suffered oxidative damage. Of these oxidative lesions, the most dangerous are double-strand breaks, as these are difficult to repair and can produce point mutations, insertions, deletions from the DNA sequence, and chromosomal translocations. These mutations can cause cancer. Because of inherent limits in the DNA repair mechanisms, if humans lived long enough, they would all eventually develop cancer. DNA damages that are naturally occurring, due to normal cellular processes that produce reactive oxygen species, the hydrolytic activities of cellular water, etc., also occur frequently. Although most of these damages are repaired, in any cell some DNA damage may remain despite the action of repair processes. These remaining DNA damages accumulate with age in mammalian postmitotic tissues. This accumulation appears to be an important underlying cause of aging.
Many mutagens fit into the space between two adjacent base pairs, this is called intercalation. Most intercalators are aromatic and planar molecules; examples include ethidium bromide, acridines, daunomycin, and doxorubicin. For an intercalator to fit between base pairs, the bases must separate, distorting the DNA strands by unwinding of the double helix. This inhibits both transcription and DNA replication, causing toxicity and mutations. As a result, DNA intercalators may be carcinogens, and in the case of thalidomide, a teratogen. Others such as benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide and aflatoxin form DNA adducts that induce errors in replication. Nevertheless, due to their ability to inhibit DNA transcription and replication, other similar toxins are also used in chemotherapy to inhibit rapidly growing cancer cells.
DNA usually occurs as linear chromosomes in eukaryotes, and circular chromosomes in prokaryotes. The set of chromosomes in a cell makes up its genome; the human genome has approximately 3 billion base pairs of DNA arranged into 46 chromosomes. The information carried by DNA is held in the sequence of pieces of DNA called genes. Transmission of genetic information in genes is achieved via complementary base pairing. For example, in transcription, when a cell uses the information in a gene, the DNA sequence is copied into a complementary RNA sequence through the attraction between the DNA and the correct RNA nucleotides. Usually, this RNA copy is then used to make a matching protein sequence in a process called translation, which depends on the same interaction between RNA nucleotides. In an alternative fashion, a cell may copy its genetic information in a process called DNA replication. The details of these functions are covered in other articles; here the focus is on the interactions between DNA and other molecules that mediate the function of the genome.
Genomic DNA is tightly and orderly packed in the process called DNA condensation, to fit the small available volumes of the cell. In eukaryotes, DNA is located in the cell nucleus, with small amounts in mitochondria and chloroplasts. In prokaryotes, the DNA is held within an irregularly shaped body in the cytoplasm called the nucleoid. The genetic information in a genome is held within genes, and the complete set of this information in an organism is called its genotype. A gene is a unit of heredity and is a region of DNA that influences a particular characteristic in an organism. Genes contain an open reading frame that can be transcribed, and regulatory sequences such as promoters and enhancers, which control transcription of the open reading frame.
In many species, only a small fraction of the total sequence of the genome encodes protein. For example, only about 1.5% of the human genome consists of protein-coding exons, with over 50% of human DNA consisting of non-coding repetitive sequences. The reasons for the presence of so much noncoding DNA in eukaryotic genomes and the extraordinary differences in genome size, or C-value, among species, represent a long-standing puzzle known as the "C-value enigma". However, some DNA sequences that do not code protein may still encode functional non-coding RNA molecules, which are involved in the regulation of gene expression.
Some noncoding DNA sequences play structural roles in chromosomes. Telomeres and centromeres typically contain few genes but are important for the function and stability of chromosomes. An abundant form of noncoding DNA in humans are pseudogenes, which are copies of genes that have been disabled by mutation. These sequences are usually just molecular fossils, although they can occasionally serve as raw genetic material for the creation of new genes through the process of gene duplication and divergence.
A gene is a sequence of DNA that contains genetic information and can influence the phenotype of an organism. Within a gene, the sequence of bases along a DNA strand defines a messenger RNA sequence, which then defines one or more protein sequences. The relationship between the nucleotide sequences of genes and the amino-acid sequences of proteins is determined by the rules of translation, known collectively as the genetic code. The genetic code consists of three-letter 'words' called codons formed from a sequence of three nucleotides (e.g. ACT, CAG, TTT).
In transcription, the codons of a gene are copied into messenger RNA by RNA polymerase. This RNA copy is then decoded by a ribosome that reads the RNA sequence by base-pairing the messenger RNA to transfer RNA, which carries amino acids. Since there are 4 bases in 3-letter combinations, there are 64 possible codons (4 combinations). These encode the twenty standard amino acids, giving most amino acids more than one possible codon. There are also three 'stop' or 'nonsense' codons signifying the end of the coding region; these are the TAG, TAA, and TGA codons, (UAG, UAA, and UGA on the mRNA).
Cell division is essential for an organism to grow, but, when a cell divides, it must replicate the DNA in its genome so that the two daughter cells have the same genetic information as their parent. The double-stranded structure of DNA provides a simple mechanism for DNA replication. Here, the two strands are separated and then each strand's complementary DNA sequence is recreated by an enzyme called DNA polymerase. This enzyme makes the complementary strand by finding the correct base through complementary base pairing and bonding it onto the original strand. As DNA polymerases can only extend a DNA strand in a 5′ to 3′ direction, different mechanisms are used to copy the antiparallel strands of the double helix. In this way, the base on the old strand dictates which base appears on the new strand, and the cell ends up with a perfect copy of its DNA.
Naked extracellular DNA (eDNA), most of it released by cell death, is nearly ubiquitous in the environment. Its concentration in soil may be as high as 2 μg/L, and its concentration in natural aquatic environments may be as high at 88 μg/L. Various possible functions have been proposed for eDNA: it may be involved in horizontal gene transfer; it may provide nutrients; and it may act as a buffer to recruit or titrate ions or antibiotics. Extracellular DNA acts as a functional extracellular matrix component in the biofilms of several bacterial species. It may act as a recognition factor to regulate the attachment and dispersal of specific cell types in the biofilm; it may contribute to biofilm formation; and it may contribute to the biofilm's physical strength and resistance to biological stress.
Cell-free fetal DNA is found in the blood of the mother, and can be sequenced to determine a great deal of information about the developing fetus.
Under the name of environmental DNA eDNA has seen increased use in the natural sciences as a survey tool for ecology, monitoring the movements and presence of species in water, air, or on land, and assessing an area's biodiversity.
Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are networks of extracellular fibers, primarily composed of DNA, which allow neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, to kill extracellular pathogens while minimizing damage to the host cells.
All the functions of DNA depend on interactions with proteins. These protein interactions can be non-specific, or the protein can bind specifically to a single DNA sequence. Enzymes can also bind to DNA and of these, the polymerases that copy the DNA base sequence in transcription and DNA replication are particularly important.
Structural proteins that bind DNA are well-understood examples of non-specific DNA-protein interactions. Within chromosomes, DNA is held in complexes with structural proteins. These proteins organize the DNA into a compact structure called chromatin. In eukaryotes, this structure involves DNA binding to a complex of small basic proteins called histones, while in prokaryotes multiple types of proteins are involved. The histones form a disk-shaped complex called a nucleosome, which contains two complete turns of double-stranded DNA wrapped around its surface. These non-specific interactions are formed through basic residues in the histones, making ionic bonds to the acidic sugar-phosphate backbone of the DNA, and are thus largely independent of the base sequence. Chemical modifications of these basic amino acid residues include methylation, phosphorylation, and acetylation. These chemical changes alter the strength of the interaction between the DNA and the histones, making the DNA more or less accessible to transcription factors and changing the rate of transcription. Other non-specific DNA-binding proteins in chromatin include the high-mobility group proteins, which bind to bent or distorted DNA. These proteins are important in bending arrays of nucleosomes and arranging them into the larger structures that make up chromosomes.
A distinct group of DNA-binding proteins is the DNA-binding proteins that specifically bind single-stranded DNA. In humans, replication protein A is the best-understood member of this family and is used in processes where the double helix is separated, including DNA replication, recombination, and DNA repair. These binding proteins seem to stabilize single-stranded DNA and protect it from forming stem-loops or being degraded by nucleases.
In contrast, other proteins have evolved to bind to particular DNA sequences. The most intensively studied of these are the various transcription factors, which are proteins that regulate transcription. Each transcription factor binds to one particular set of DNA sequences and activates or inhibits the transcription of genes that have these sequences close to their promoters. The transcription factors do this in two ways. Firstly, they can bind the RNA polymerase responsible for transcription, either directly or through other mediator proteins; this locates the polymerase at the promoter and allows it to begin transcription. Alternatively, transcription factors can bind enzymes that modify the histones at the promoter. This changes the accessibility of the DNA template to the polymerase.
As these DNA targets can occur throughout an organism's genome, changes in the activity of one type of transcription factor can affect thousands of genes. Consequently, these proteins are often the targets of the signal transduction processes that control responses to environmental changes or cellular differentiation and development. The specificity of these transcription factors' interactions with DNA come from the proteins making multiple contacts to the edges of the DNA bases, allowing them to "read" the DNA sequence. Most of these base-interactions are made in the major groove, where the bases are most accessible.
Nucleases are enzymes that cut DNA strands by catalyzing the hydrolysis of the phosphodiester bonds. Nucleases that hydrolyse nucleotides from the ends of DNA strands are called exonucleases, while endonucleases cut within strands. The most frequently used nucleases in molecular biology are the restriction endonucleases, which cut DNA at specific sequences. For instance, the EcoRV enzyme shown to the left recognizes the 6-base sequence 5′-GATATC-3′ and makes a cut at the horizontal line. In nature, these enzymes protect bacteria against phage infection by digesting the phage DNA when it enters the bacterial cell, acting as part of the restriction modification system. In technology, these sequence-specific nucleases are used in molecular cloning and DNA fingerprinting.
Enzymes called DNA ligases can rejoin cut or broken DNA strands. Ligases are particularly important in lagging strand DNA replication, as they join the short segments of DNA produced at the replication fork into a complete copy of the DNA template. They are also used in DNA repair and genetic recombination.
Topoisomerases are enzymes with both nuclease and ligase activity. These proteins change the amount of supercoiling in DNA. Some of these enzymes work by cutting the DNA helix and allowing one section to rotate, thereby reducing its level of supercoiling; the enzyme then seals the DNA break. Other types of these enzymes are capable of cutting one DNA helix and then passing a second strand of DNA through this break, before rejoining the helix. Topoisomerases are required for many processes involving DNA, such as DNA replication and transcription.
Helicases are proteins that are a type of molecular motor. They use the chemical energy in nucleoside triphosphates, predominantly adenosine triphosphate (ATP), to break hydrogen bonds between bases and unwind the DNA double helix into single strands. These enzymes are essential for most processes where enzymes need to access the DNA bases.
Polymerases are enzymes that synthesize polynucleotide chains from nucleoside triphosphates. The sequence of their products is created based on existing polynucleotide chains—which are called templates. These enzymes function by repeatedly adding a nucleotide to the 3′ hydroxyl group at the end of the growing polynucleotide chain. As a consequence, all polymerases work in a 5′ to 3′ direction. In the active site of these enzymes, the incoming nucleoside triphosphate base-pairs to the template: this allows polymerases to accurately synthesize the complementary strand of their template. Polymerases are classified according to the type of template that they use.
In DNA replication, DNA-dependent DNA polymerases make copies of DNA polynucleotide chains. To preserve biological information, it is essential that the sequence of bases in each copy are precisely complementary to the sequence of bases in the template strand. Many DNA polymerases have a proofreading activity. Here, the polymerase recognizes the occasional mistakes in the synthesis reaction by the lack of base pairing between the mismatched nucleotides. If a mismatch is detected, a 3′ to 5′ exonuclease activity is activated and the incorrect base removed. In most organisms, DNA polymerases function in a large complex called the replisome that contains multiple accessory subunits, such as the DNA clamp or helicases.
RNA-dependent DNA polymerases are a specialized class of polymerases that copy the sequence of an RNA strand into DNA. They include reverse transcriptase, which is a viral enzyme involved in the infection of cells by retroviruses, and telomerase, which is required for the replication of telomeres. For example, HIV reverse transcriptase is an enzyme for AIDS virus replication. Telomerase is an unusual polymerase because it contains its own RNA template as part of its structure. It synthesizes telomeres at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres prevent fusion of the ends of neighboring chromosomes and protect chromosome ends from damage.
Transcription is carried out by a DNA-dependent RNA polymerase that copies the sequence of a DNA strand into RNA. To begin transcribing a gene, the RNA polymerase binds to a sequence of DNA called a promoter and separates the DNA strands. It then copies the gene sequence into a messenger RNA transcript until it reaches a region of DNA called the terminator, where it halts and detaches from the DNA. As with human DNA-dependent DNA polymerases, RNA polymerase II, the enzyme that transcribes most of the genes in the human genome, operates as part of a large protein complex with multiple regulatory and accessory subunits.
A DNA helix usually does not interact with other segments of DNA, and in human cells, the different chromosomes even occupy separate areas in the nucleus called "chromosome territories". This physical separation of different chromosomes is important for the ability of DNA to function as a stable repository for information, as one of the few times chromosomes interact is in chromosomal crossover which occurs during sexual reproduction, when genetic recombination occurs. Chromosomal crossover is when two DNA helices break, swap a section and then rejoin.
Recombination allows chromosomes to exchange genetic information and produces new combinations of genes, which increases the efficiency of natural selection and can be important in the rapid evolution of new proteins. Genetic recombination can also be involved in DNA repair, particularly in the cell's response to double-strand breaks.
The most common form of chromosomal crossover is homologous recombination, where the two chromosomes involved share very similar sequences. Non-homologous recombination can be damaging to cells, as it can produce chromosomal translocations and genetic abnormalities. The recombination reaction is catalyzed by enzymes known as recombinases, such as RAD51. The first step in recombination is a double-stranded break caused by either an endonuclease or damage to the DNA. A series of steps catalyzed in part by the recombinase then leads to joining of the two helices by at least one Holliday junction, in which a segment of a single strand in each helix is annealed to the complementary strand in the other helix. The Holliday junction is a tetrahedral junction structure that can be moved along the pair of chromosomes, swapping one strand for another. The recombination reaction is then halted by cleavage of the junction and re-ligation of the released DNA. Only strands of like polarity exchange DNA during recombination. There are two types of cleavage: east-west cleavage and north–south cleavage. The north–south cleavage nicks both strands of DNA, while the east–west cleavage has one strand of DNA intact. The formation of a Holliday junction during recombination makes it possible for genetic diversity, genes to exchange on chromosomes, and expression of wild-type viral genomes.
DNA contains the genetic information that allows all forms of life to function, grow and reproduce. However, it is unclear how long in the 4-billion-year history of life DNA has performed this function, as it has been proposed that the earliest forms of life may have used RNA as their genetic material. RNA may have acted as the central part of early cell metabolism as it can both transmit genetic information and carry out catalysis as part of ribozymes. This ancient RNA world where nucleic acid would have been used for both catalysis and genetics may have influenced the evolution of the current genetic code based on four nucleotide bases. This would occur, since the number of different bases in such an organism is a trade-off between a small number of bases increasing replication accuracy and a large number of bases increasing the catalytic efficiency of ribozymes. However, there is no direct evidence of ancient genetic systems, as recovery of DNA from most fossils is impossible because DNA survives in the environment for less than one million years, and slowly degrades into short fragments in solution. Claims for older DNA have been made, most notably a report of the isolation of a viable bacterium from a salt crystal 250 million years old, but these claims are controversial.
Building blocks of DNA (adenine, guanine, and related organic molecules) may have been formed extraterrestrially in outer space. Complex DNA and RNA organic compounds of life, including uracil, cytosine, and thymine, have also been formed in the laboratory under conditions mimicking those found in outer space, using starting chemicals, such as pyrimidine, found in meteorites. Pyrimidine, like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the most carbon-rich chemical found in the universe, may have been formed in red giants or in interstellar cosmic dust and gas clouds.
In February 2021, scientists reported, for the first time, the sequencing of DNA from animal remains, a mammoth in this instance over a million years old, the oldest DNA sequenced to date.
Methods have been developed to purify DNA from organisms, such as phenol-chloroform extraction, and to manipulate it in the laboratory, such as restriction digests and the polymerase chain reaction. Modern biology and biochemistry make intensive use of these techniques in recombinant DNA technology. Recombinant DNA is a man-made DNA sequence that has been assembled from other DNA sequences. They can be transformed into organisms in the form of plasmids or in the appropriate format, by using a viral vector. The genetically modified organisms produced can be used to produce products such as recombinant proteins, used in medical research, or be grown in agriculture.
Forensic scientists can use DNA in blood, semen, skin, saliva or hair found at a crime scene to identify a matching DNA of an individual, such as a perpetrator. This process is formally termed DNA profiling, also called DNA fingerprinting. In DNA profiling, the lengths of variable sections of repetitive DNA, such as short tandem repeats and minisatellites, are compared between people. This method is usually an extremely reliable technique for identifying a matching DNA. However, identification can be complicated if the scene is contaminated with DNA from several people. DNA profiling was developed in 1984 by British geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys, and first used in forensic science to convict Colin Pitchfork in the 1988 Enderby murders case.
The development of forensic science and the ability to now obtain genetic matching on minute samples of blood, skin, saliva, or hair has led to re-examining many cases. Evidence can now be uncovered that was scientifically impossible at the time of the original examination. Combined with the removal of the double jeopardy law in some places, this can allow cases to be reopened where prior trials have failed to produce sufficient evidence to convince a jury. People charged with serious crimes may be required to provide a sample of DNA for matching purposes. The most obvious defense to DNA matches obtained forensically is to claim that cross-contamination of evidence has occurred. This has resulted in meticulous strict handling procedures with new cases of serious crime.
DNA profiling is also used successfully to positively identify victims of mass casualty incidents, bodies or body parts in serious accidents, and individual victims in mass war graves, via matching to family members.
DNA profiling is also used in DNA paternity testing to determine if someone is the biological parent or grandparent of a child with the probability of parentage is typically 99.99% when the alleged parent is biologically related to the child. Normal DNA sequencing methods happen after birth, but there are new methods to test paternity while a mother is still pregnant.
Deoxyribozymes, also called DNAzymes or catalytic DNA, were first discovered in 1994. They are mostly single stranded DNA sequences isolated from a large pool of random DNA sequences through a combinatorial approach called in vitro selection or systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). DNAzymes catalyze variety of chemical reactions including RNA-DNA cleavage, RNA-DNA ligation, amino acids phosphorylation-dephosphorylation, carbon-carbon bond formation, etc. DNAzymes can enhance catalytic rate of chemical reactions up to 100,000,000,000-fold over the uncatalyzed reaction. The most extensively studied class of DNAzymes is RNA-cleaving types which have been used to detect different metal ions and designing therapeutic agents. Several metal-specific DNAzymes have been reported including the GR-5 DNAzyme (lead-specific), the CA1-3 DNAzymes (copper-specific), the 39E DNAzyme (uranyl-specific) and the NaA43 DNAzyme (sodium-specific). The NaA43 DNAzyme, which is reported to be more than 10,000-fold selective for sodium over other metal ions, was used to make a real-time sodium sensor in cells.
Bioinformatics involves the development of techniques to store, data mine, search and manipulate biological data, including DNA nucleic acid sequence data. These have led to widely applied advances in computer science, especially string searching algorithms, machine learning, and database theory. String searching or matching algorithms, which find an occurrence of a sequence of letters inside a larger sequence of letters, were developed to search for specific sequences of nucleotides. The DNA sequence may be aligned with other DNA sequences to identify homologous sequences and locate the specific mutations that make them distinct. These techniques, especially multiple sequence alignment, are used in studying phylogenetic relationships and protein function. Data sets representing entire genomes' worth of DNA sequences, such as those produced by the Human Genome Project, are difficult to use without the annotations that identify the locations of genes and regulatory elements on each chromosome. Regions of DNA sequence that have the characteristic patterns associated with protein- or RNA-coding genes can be identified by gene finding algorithms, which allow researchers to predict the presence of particular gene products and their possible functions in an organism even before they have been isolated experimentally. Entire genomes may also be compared, which can shed light on the evolutionary history of particular organism and permit the examination of complex evolutionary events.
DNA nanotechnology uses the unique molecular recognition properties of DNA and other nucleic acids to create self-assembling branched DNA complexes with useful properties. DNA is thus used as a structural material rather than as a carrier of biological information. This has led to the creation of two-dimensional periodic lattices (both tile-based and using the DNA origami method) and three-dimensional structures in the shapes of polyhedra. Nanomechanical devices and algorithmic self-assembly have also been demonstrated, and these DNA structures have been used to template the arrangement of other molecules such as gold nanoparticles and streptavidin proteins. DNA and other nucleic acids are the basis of aptamers, synthetic oligonucleotide ligands for specific target molecules used in a range of biotechnology and biomedical applications.
Because DNA collects mutations over time, which are then inherited, it contains historical information, and, by comparing DNA sequences, geneticists can infer the evolutionary history of organisms, their phylogeny. This field of phylogenetics is a powerful tool in evolutionary biology. If DNA sequences within a species are compared, population geneticists can learn the history of particular populations. This can be used in studies ranging from ecological genetics to anthropology.
DNA as a storage device for information has enormous potential since it has much higher storage density compared to electronic devices. However, high costs, slow read and write times (memory latency), and insufficient reliability has prevented its practical use.
DNA was first isolated by the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher who, in 1869, discovered a microscopic substance in the pus of discarded surgical bandages. As it resided in the nuclei of cells, he called it "nuclein". In 1878, Albrecht Kossel isolated the non-protein component of "nuclein", nucleic acid, and later isolated its five primary nucleobases.
In 1909, Phoebus Levene identified the base, sugar, and phosphate nucleotide unit of RNA (then named "yeast nucleic acid"). In 1929, Levene identified deoxyribose sugar in "thymus nucleic acid" (DNA). Levene suggested that DNA consisted of a string of four nucleotide units linked together through the phosphate groups ("tetranucleotide hypothesis"). Levene thought the chain was short and the bases repeated in a fixed order. In 1927, Nikolai Koltsov proposed that inherited traits would be inherited via a "giant hereditary molecule" made up of "two mirror strands that would replicate in a semi-conservative fashion using each strand as a template". In 1928, Frederick Griffith in his experiment discovered that traits of the "smooth" form of Pneumococcus could be transferred to the "rough" form of the same bacteria by mixing killed "smooth" bacteria with the live "rough" form. This system provided the first clear suggestion that DNA carries genetic information.
In 1933, while studying virgin sea urchin eggs, Jean Brachet suggested that DNA is found in the cell nucleus and that RNA is present exclusively in the cytoplasm. At the time, "yeast nucleic acid" (RNA) was thought to occur only in plants, while "thymus nucleic acid" (DNA) only in animals. The latter was thought to be a tetramer, with the function of buffering cellular pH.
In 1937, William Astbury produced the first X-ray diffraction patterns that showed that DNA had a regular structure.
In 1943, Oswald Avery, along with co-workers Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty, identified DNA as the transforming principle, supporting Griffith's suggestion (Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment). Erwin Chargaff developed and published observations now known as Chargaff's rules, stating that in DNA from any species of any organism, the amount of guanine should be equal to cytosine and the amount of adenine should be equal to thymine.
Late in 1951, Francis Crick started working with James Watson at the Cavendish Laboratory within the University of Cambridge, UK. DNA's role in heredity was confirmed in 1952 when Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase in the Hershey–Chase experiment showed that DNA is the genetic material of the enterobacteria phage T2.
In May 1952, Raymond Gosling, a graduate student working under the supervision of Rosalind Franklin, took an X-ray diffraction image, labeled as "Photo 51", at high hydration levels of DNA. This photo was given to Watson and Crick by Maurice Wilkins and was critical to their obtaining the correct structure of DNA. Franklin told Crick and Watson that the backbones had to be on the outside. Before then, Linus Pauling, and Watson and Crick, had erroneous models with the chains inside and the bases pointing outwards. Franklin's identification of the space group for DNA crystals revealed to Crick that the two DNA strands were antiparallel. In February 1953, Linus Pauling and Robert Corey proposed a model for nucleic acids containing three intertwined chains, with the phosphates near the axis, and the bases on the outside. Watson and Crick completed their model, which is now accepted as the first correct model of the double helix of DNA. On 28 February 1953 Crick interrupted patrons' lunchtime at The Eagle pub in Cambridge, UK to announce that he and Watson had "discovered the secret of life".
The 25 April 1953 issue of the journal Nature published a series of five articles giving the Watson and Crick double-helix structure DNA and evidence supporting it. The structure was reported in a letter titled "MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF NUCLEIC ACIDS A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid", in which they said, "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material." This letter was followed by a letter from Franklin and Gosling, which was the first publication of their own X-ray diffraction data and of their original analysis method. Then followed a letter by Wilkins and two of his colleagues, which contained an analysis of in vivo B-DNA X-ray patterns, and which supported the presence in vivo of the Watson and Crick structure.
In April 2023, scientists, based on new evidence, concluded that Rosalind Franklin was a contributor and "equal player" in the discovery process of DNA, rather than otherwise, as may have been presented subsequently after the time of the discovery.
In 1962, after Franklin's death, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Nobel Prizes are awarded only to living recipients. A debate continues about who should receive credit for the discovery.
In an influential presentation in 1957, Crick laid out the central dogma of molecular biology, which foretold the relationship between DNA, RNA, and proteins, and articulated the "adaptor hypothesis". Final confirmation of the replication mechanism that was implied by the double-helical structure followed in 1958 through the Meselson–Stahl experiment. Further work by Crick and co-workers showed that the genetic code was based on non-overlapping triplets of bases, called codons, allowing Har Gobind Khorana, Robert W. Holley, and Marshall Warren Nirenberg to decipher the genetic code. These findings represent the birth of molecular biology.
In 1986 DNA analysis was first used for criminal investigative purposes when police in the UK requested Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester to verify or disprove a suspect's rape-murder "confession." In this particular case, the suspect had confessed to two rape-murders, but had later retracted his confession. DNA testing at the university labs soon disproved the veracity of the suspect's original "confession," and the suspect was exonerated from the murder-rape charges. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Deoxyribonucleic acid (/diːˈɒksɪˌraɪboʊnjuːˌkliːɪk, -ˌkleɪ-/ ; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of all known organisms and many viruses. DNA and ribonucleic acid (RNA) are nucleic acids. Alongside proteins, lipids and complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides), nucleic acids are one of the four major types of macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The two DNA strands are known as polynucleotides as they are composed of simpler monomeric units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide is composed of one of four nitrogen-containing nucleobases (cytosine [C], guanine [G], adenine [A] or thymine [T]), a sugar called deoxyribose, and a phosphate group. The nucleotides are joined to one another in a chain by covalent bonds (known as the phosphodiester linkage) between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next, resulting in an alternating sugar-phosphate backbone. The nitrogenous bases of the two separate polynucleotide strands are bound together, according to base pairing rules (A with T and C with G), with hydrogen bonds to make double-stranded DNA. The complementary nitrogenous bases are divided into two groups, the single-ringed pyrimidines and the double-ringed purines. In DNA, the pyrimidines are thymine and cytosine; the purines are adenine and guanine.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Both strands of double-stranded DNA store the same biological information. This information is replicated when the two strands separate. A large part of DNA (more than 98% for humans) is non-coding, meaning that these sections do not serve as patterns for protein sequences. The two strands of DNA run in opposite directions to each other and are thus antiparallel. Attached to each sugar is one of four types of nucleobases (or bases). It is the sequence of these four nucleobases along the backbone that encodes genetic information. RNA strands are created using DNA strands as a template in a process called transcription, where DNA bases are exchanged for their corresponding bases except in the case of thymine (T), for which RNA substitutes uracil (U). Under the genetic code, these RNA strands specify the sequence of amino acids within proteins in a process called translation.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Within eukaryotic cells, DNA is organized into long structures called chromosomes. Before typical cell division, these chromosomes are duplicated in the process of DNA replication, providing a complete set of chromosomes for each daughter cell. Eukaryotic organisms (animals, plants, fungi and protists) store most of their DNA inside the cell nucleus as nuclear DNA, and some in the mitochondria as mitochondrial DNA or in chloroplasts as chloroplast DNA. In contrast, prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) store their DNA only in the cytoplasm, in circular chromosomes. Within eukaryotic chromosomes, chromatin proteins, such as histones, compact and organize DNA. These compacting structures guide the interactions between DNA and other proteins, helping control which parts of the DNA are transcribed.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "DNA is a long polymer made from repeating units called nucleotides. The structure of DNA is dynamic along its length, being capable of coiling into tight loops and other shapes. In all species it is composed of two helical chains, bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. Both chains are coiled around the same axis, and have the same pitch of 34 ångströms (3.4 nm). The pair of chains have a radius of 10 Å (1.0 nm). According to another study, when measured in a different solution, the DNA chain measured 22–26 Å (2.2–2.6 nm) wide, and one nucleotide unit measured 3.3 Å (0.33 nm) long. The buoyant density of most DNA is 1.7g/cm.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "DNA does not usually exist as a single strand, but instead as a pair of strands that are held tightly together. These two long strands coil around each other, in the shape of a double helix. The nucleotide contains both a segment of the backbone of the molecule (which holds the chain together) and a nucleobase (which interacts with the other DNA strand in the helix). A nucleobase linked to a sugar is called a nucleoside, and a base linked to a sugar and to one or more phosphate groups is called a nucleotide. A biopolymer comprising multiple linked nucleotides (as in DNA) is called a polynucleotide.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The backbone of the DNA strand is made from alternating phosphate and sugar groups. The sugar in DNA is 2-deoxyribose, which is a pentose (five-carbon) sugar. The sugars are joined by phosphate groups that form phosphodiester bonds between the third and fifth carbon atoms of adjacent sugar rings. These are known as the 3′-end (three prime end), and 5′-end (five prime end) carbons, the prime symbol being used to distinguish these carbon atoms from those of the base to which the deoxyribose forms a glycosidic bond.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Therefore, any DNA strand normally has one end at which there is a phosphate group attached to the 5′ carbon of a ribose (the 5′ phosphoryl) and another end at which there is a free hydroxyl group attached to the 3′ carbon of a ribose (the 3′ hydroxyl). The orientation of the 3′ and 5′ carbons along the sugar-phosphate backbone confers directionality (sometimes called polarity) to each DNA strand. In a nucleic acid double helix, the direction of the nucleotides in one strand is opposite to their direction in the other strand: the strands are antiparallel. The asymmetric ends of DNA strands are said to have a directionality of five prime end (5′ ), and three prime end (3′), with the 5′ end having a terminal phosphate group and the 3′ end a terminal hydroxyl group. One major difference between DNA and RNA is the sugar, with the 2-deoxyribose in DNA being replaced by the related pentose sugar ribose in RNA.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The DNA double helix is stabilized primarily by two forces: hydrogen bonds between nucleotides and base-stacking interactions among aromatic nucleobases. The four bases found in DNA are adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). These four bases are attached to the sugar-phosphate to form the complete nucleotide, as shown for adenosine monophosphate. Adenine pairs with thymine and guanine pairs with cytosine, forming A-T and G-C base pairs.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The nucleobases are classified into two types: the purines, A and G, which are fused five- and six-membered heterocyclic compounds, and the pyrimidines, the six-membered rings C and T. A fifth pyrimidine nucleobase, uracil (U), usually takes the place of thymine in RNA and differs from thymine by lacking a methyl group on its ring. In addition to RNA and DNA, many artificial nucleic acid analogues have been created to study the properties of nucleic acids, or for use in biotechnology.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Modified bases occur in DNA. The first of these recognized was 5-methylcytosine, which was found in the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1925. The reason for the presence of these noncanonical bases in bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) is to avoid the restriction enzymes present in bacteria. This enzyme system acts at least in part as a molecular immune system protecting bacteria from infection by viruses. Modifications of the bases cytosine and adenine, the more common and modified DNA bases, play vital roles in the epigenetic control of gene expression in plants and animals.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "A number of noncanonical bases are known to occur in DNA. Most of these are modifications of the canonical bases plus uracil.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Twin helical strands form the DNA backbone. Another double helix may be found tracing the spaces, or grooves, between the strands. These voids are adjacent to the base pairs and may provide a binding site. As the strands are not symmetrically located with respect to each other, the grooves are unequally sized. The major groove is 22 ångströms (2.2 nm) wide, while the minor groove is 12 Å (1.2 nm) in width. Due to the larger width of the major groove, the edges of the bases are more accessible in the major groove than in the minor groove. As a result, proteins such as transcription factors that can bind to specific sequences in double-stranded DNA usually make contact with the sides of the bases exposed in the major groove. This situation varies in unusual conformations of DNA within the cell (see below), but the major and minor grooves are always named to reflect the differences in width that would be seen if the DNA was twisted back into the ordinary B form.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In a DNA double helix, each type of nucleobase on one strand bonds with just one type of nucleobase on the other strand. This is called complementary base pairing. Purines form hydrogen bonds to pyrimidines, with adenine bonding only to thymine in two hydrogen bonds, and cytosine bonding only to guanine in three hydrogen bonds. This arrangement of two nucleotides binding together across the double helix (from six-carbon ring to six-carbon ring) is called a Watson-Crick base pair. DNA with high GC-content is more stable than DNA with low GC-content. A Hoogsteen base pair (hydrogen bonding the 6-carbon ring to the 5-carbon ring) is a rare variation of base-pairing. As hydrogen bonds are not covalent, they can be broken and rejoined relatively easily. The two strands of DNA in a double helix can thus be pulled apart like a zipper, either by a mechanical force or high temperature. As a result of this base pair complementarity, all the information in the double-stranded sequence of a DNA helix is duplicated on each strand, which is vital in DNA replication. This reversible and specific interaction between complementary base pairs is critical for all the functions of DNA in organisms.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "As noted above, most DNA molecules are actually two polymer strands, bound together in a helical fashion by noncovalent bonds; this double-stranded (dsDNA) structure is maintained largely by the intrastrand base stacking interactions, which are strongest for G,C stacks. The two strands can come apart—a process known as melting—to form two single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules. Melting occurs at high temperatures, low salt and high pH (low pH also melts DNA, but since DNA is unstable due to acid depurination, low pH is rarely used).",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The stability of the dsDNA form depends not only on the GC-content (% G,C basepairs) but also on sequence (since stacking is sequence specific) and also length (longer molecules are more stable). The stability can be measured in various ways; a common way is the melting temperature (also called Tm value), which is the temperature at which 50% of the double-strand molecules are converted to single-strand molecules; melting temperature is dependent on ionic strength and the concentration of DNA. As a result, it is both the percentage of GC base pairs and the overall length of a DNA double helix that determines the strength of the association between the two strands of DNA. Long DNA helices with a high GC-content have more strongly interacting strands, while short helices with high AT content have more weakly interacting strands. In biology, parts of the DNA double helix that need to separate easily, such as the TATAAT Pribnow box in some promoters, tend to have a high AT content, making the strands easier to pull apart.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In the laboratory, the strength of this interaction can be measured by finding the melting temperature Tm necessary to break half of the hydrogen bonds. When all the base pairs in a DNA double helix melt, the strands separate and exist in solution as two entirely independent molecules. These single-stranded DNA molecules have no single common shape, but some conformations are more stable than others.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In humans, the total female diploid nuclear genome per cell extends for 6.37 Gigabase pairs (Gbp), is 208.23 cm long and weighs 6.51 picograms (pg). Male values are 6.27 Gbp, 205.00 cm, 6.41 pg. Each DNA polymer can contain hundreds of millions of nucleotides, such as in chromosome 1. Chromosome 1 is the largest human chromosome with approximately 220 million base pairs, and would be 85 mm long if straightened.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In eukaryotes, in addition to nuclear DNA, there is also mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which encodes certain proteins used by the mitochondria. The mtDNA is usually relatively small in comparison to the nuclear DNA. For example, the human mitochondrial DNA forms closed circular molecules, each of which contains 16,569 DNA base pairs, with each such molecule normally containing a full set of the mitochondrial genes. Each human mitochondrion contains, on average, approximately 5 such mtDNA molecules. Each human cell contains approximately 100 mitochondria, giving a total number of mtDNA molecules per human cell of approximately 500. However, the amount of mitochondria per cell also varies by cell type, and an egg cell can contain 100,000 mitochondria, corresponding to up to 1,500,000 copies of the mitochondrial genome (constituting up to 90% of the DNA of the cell).",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "A DNA sequence is called a \"sense\" sequence if it is the same as that of a messenger RNA copy that is translated into protein. The sequence on the opposite strand is called the \"antisense\" sequence. Both sense and antisense sequences can exist on different parts of the same strand of DNA (i.e. both strands can contain both sense and antisense sequences). In both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, antisense RNA sequences are produced, but the functions of these RNAs are not entirely clear. One proposal is that antisense RNAs are involved in regulating gene expression through RNA-RNA base pairing.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "A few DNA sequences in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and more in plasmids and viruses, blur the distinction between sense and antisense strands by having overlapping genes. In these cases, some DNA sequences do double duty, encoding one protein when read along one strand, and a second protein when read in the opposite direction along the other strand. In bacteria, this overlap may be involved in the regulation of gene transcription, while in viruses, overlapping genes increase the amount of information that can be encoded within the small viral genome.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "DNA can be twisted like a rope in a process called DNA supercoiling. With DNA in its \"relaxed\" state, a strand usually circles the axis of the double helix once every 10.4 base pairs, but if the DNA is twisted the strands become more tightly or more loosely wound. If the DNA is twisted in the direction of the helix, this is positive supercoiling, and the bases are held more tightly together. If they are twisted in the opposite direction, this is negative supercoiling, and the bases come apart more easily. In nature, most DNA has slight negative supercoiling that is introduced by enzymes called topoisomerases. These enzymes are also needed to relieve the twisting stresses introduced into DNA strands during processes such as transcription and DNA replication.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "DNA exists in many possible conformations that include A-DNA, B-DNA, and Z-DNA forms, although only B-DNA and Z-DNA have been directly observed in functional organisms. The conformation that DNA adopts depends on the hydration level, DNA sequence, the amount and direction of supercoiling, chemical modifications of the bases, the type and concentration of metal ions, and the presence of polyamines in solution.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The first published reports of A-DNA X-ray diffraction patterns—and also B-DNA—used analyses based on Patterson functions that provided only a limited amount of structural information for oriented fibers of DNA. An alternative analysis was proposed by Wilkins et al. in 1953 for the in vivo B-DNA X-ray diffraction-scattering patterns of highly hydrated DNA fibers in terms of squares of Bessel functions. In the same journal, James Watson and Francis Crick presented their molecular modeling analysis of the DNA X-ray diffraction patterns to suggest that the structure was a double helix.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Although the B-DNA form is most common under the conditions found in cells, it is not a well-defined conformation but a family of related DNA conformations that occur at the high hydration levels present in cells. Their corresponding X-ray diffraction and scattering patterns are characteristic of molecular paracrystals with a significant degree of disorder.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Compared to B-DNA, the A-DNA form is a wider right-handed spiral, with a shallow, wide minor groove and a narrower, deeper major groove. The A form occurs under non-physiological conditions in partly dehydrated samples of DNA, while in the cell it may be produced in hybrid pairings of DNA and RNA strands, and in enzyme-DNA complexes. Segments of DNA where the bases have been chemically modified by methylation may undergo a larger change in conformation and adopt the Z form. Here, the strands turn about the helical axis in a left-handed spiral, the opposite of the more common B form. These unusual structures can be recognized by specific Z-DNA binding proteins and may be involved in the regulation of transcription.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "For many years, exobiologists have proposed the existence of a shadow biosphere, a postulated microbial biosphere of Earth that uses radically different biochemical and molecular processes than currently known life. One of the proposals was the existence of lifeforms that use arsenic instead of phosphorus in DNA. A report in 2010 of the possibility in the bacterium GFAJ-1 was announced, though the research was disputed, and evidence suggests the bacterium actively prevents the incorporation of arsenic into the DNA backbone and other biomolecules.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "At the ends of the linear chromosomes are specialized regions of DNA called telomeres. The main function of these regions is to allow the cell to replicate chromosome ends using the enzyme telomerase, as the enzymes that normally replicate DNA cannot copy the extreme 3′ ends of chromosomes. These specialized chromosome caps also help protect the DNA ends, and stop the DNA repair systems in the cell from treating them as damage to be corrected. In human cells, telomeres are usually lengths of single-stranded DNA containing several thousand repeats of a simple TTAGGG sequence.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "These guanine-rich sequences may stabilize chromosome ends by forming structures of stacked sets of four-base units, rather than the usual base pairs found in other DNA molecules. Here, four guanine bases, known as a guanine tetrad, form a flat plate. These flat four-base units then stack on top of each other to form a stable G-quadruplex structure. These structures are stabilized by hydrogen bonding between the edges of the bases and chelation of a metal ion in the centre of each four-base unit. Other structures can also be formed, with the central set of four bases coming from either a single strand folded around the bases, or several different parallel strands, each contributing one base to the central structure.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In addition to these stacked structures, telomeres also form large loop structures called telomere loops, or T-loops. Here, the single-stranded DNA curls around in a long circle stabilized by telomere-binding proteins. At the very end of the T-loop, the single-stranded telomere DNA is held onto a region of double-stranded DNA by the telomere strand disrupting the double-helical DNA and base pairing to one of the two strands. This triple-stranded structure is called a displacement loop or D-loop.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In DNA, fraying occurs when non-complementary regions exist at the end of an otherwise complementary double-strand of DNA. However, branched DNA can occur if a third strand of DNA is introduced and contains adjoining regions able to hybridize with the frayed regions of the pre-existing double-strand. Although the simplest example of branched DNA involves only three strands of DNA, complexes involving additional strands and multiple branches are also possible. Branched DNA can be used in nanotechnology to construct geometric shapes, see the section on uses in technology below.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Several artificial nucleobases have been synthesized, and successfully incorporated in the eight-base DNA analogue named Hachimoji DNA. Dubbed S, B, P, and Z, these artificial bases are capable of bonding with each other in a predictable way (S–B and P–Z), maintain the double helix structure of DNA, and be transcribed to RNA. Their existence could be seen as an indication that there is nothing special about the four natural nucleobases that evolved on Earth. On the other hand, DNA is tightly related to RNA which does not only act as a transcript of DNA but also performs as molecular machines many tasks in cells. For this purpose it has to fold into a structure. It has been shown that to allow to create all possible structures at least four bases are required for the corresponding RNA, while a higher number is also possible but this would be against the natural principle of least effort.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The phosphate groups of DNA give it similar acidic properties to phosphoric acid and it can be considered as a strong acid. It will be fully ionized at a normal cellular pH, releasing protons which leave behind negative charges on the phosphate groups. These negative charges protect DNA from breakdown by hydrolysis by repelling nucleophiles which could hydrolyze it.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Pure DNA extracted from cells forms white, stringy clumps.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The expression of genes is influenced by how the DNA is packaged in chromosomes, in a structure called chromatin. Base modifications can be involved in packaging, with regions that have low or no gene expression usually containing high levels of methylation of cytosine bases. DNA packaging and its influence on gene expression can also occur by covalent modifications of the histone protein core around which DNA is wrapped in the chromatin structure or else by remodeling carried out by chromatin remodeling complexes (see Chromatin remodeling). There is, further, crosstalk between DNA methylation and histone modification, so they can coordinately affect chromatin and gene expression.",
"title": "Chemical modifications and altered DNA packaging"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "For one example, cytosine methylation produces 5-methylcytosine, which is important for X-inactivation of chromosomes. The average level of methylation varies between organisms—the worm Caenorhabditis elegans lacks cytosine methylation, while vertebrates have higher levels, with up to 1% of their DNA containing 5-methylcytosine. Despite the importance of 5-methylcytosine, it can deaminate to leave a thymine base, so methylated cytosines are particularly prone to mutations. Other base modifications include adenine methylation in bacteria, the presence of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in the brain, and the glycosylation of uracil to produce the \"J-base\" in kinetoplastids.",
"title": "Chemical modifications and altered DNA packaging"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "DNA can be damaged by many sorts of mutagens, which change the DNA sequence. Mutagens include oxidizing agents, alkylating agents and also high-energy electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light and X-rays. The type of DNA damage produced depends on the type of mutagen. For example, UV light can damage DNA by producing thymine dimers, which are cross-links between pyrimidine bases. On the other hand, oxidants such as free radicals or hydrogen peroxide produce multiple forms of damage, including base modifications, particularly of guanosine, and double-strand breaks. A typical human cell contains about 150,000 bases that have suffered oxidative damage. Of these oxidative lesions, the most dangerous are double-strand breaks, as these are difficult to repair and can produce point mutations, insertions, deletions from the DNA sequence, and chromosomal translocations. These mutations can cause cancer. Because of inherent limits in the DNA repair mechanisms, if humans lived long enough, they would all eventually develop cancer. DNA damages that are naturally occurring, due to normal cellular processes that produce reactive oxygen species, the hydrolytic activities of cellular water, etc., also occur frequently. Although most of these damages are repaired, in any cell some DNA damage may remain despite the action of repair processes. These remaining DNA damages accumulate with age in mammalian postmitotic tissues. This accumulation appears to be an important underlying cause of aging.",
"title": "Chemical modifications and altered DNA packaging"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Many mutagens fit into the space between two adjacent base pairs, this is called intercalation. Most intercalators are aromatic and planar molecules; examples include ethidium bromide, acridines, daunomycin, and doxorubicin. For an intercalator to fit between base pairs, the bases must separate, distorting the DNA strands by unwinding of the double helix. This inhibits both transcription and DNA replication, causing toxicity and mutations. As a result, DNA intercalators may be carcinogens, and in the case of thalidomide, a teratogen. Others such as benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide and aflatoxin form DNA adducts that induce errors in replication. Nevertheless, due to their ability to inhibit DNA transcription and replication, other similar toxins are also used in chemotherapy to inhibit rapidly growing cancer cells.",
"title": "Chemical modifications and altered DNA packaging"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "DNA usually occurs as linear chromosomes in eukaryotes, and circular chromosomes in prokaryotes. The set of chromosomes in a cell makes up its genome; the human genome has approximately 3 billion base pairs of DNA arranged into 46 chromosomes. The information carried by DNA is held in the sequence of pieces of DNA called genes. Transmission of genetic information in genes is achieved via complementary base pairing. For example, in transcription, when a cell uses the information in a gene, the DNA sequence is copied into a complementary RNA sequence through the attraction between the DNA and the correct RNA nucleotides. Usually, this RNA copy is then used to make a matching protein sequence in a process called translation, which depends on the same interaction between RNA nucleotides. In an alternative fashion, a cell may copy its genetic information in a process called DNA replication. The details of these functions are covered in other articles; here the focus is on the interactions between DNA and other molecules that mediate the function of the genome.",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Genomic DNA is tightly and orderly packed in the process called DNA condensation, to fit the small available volumes of the cell. In eukaryotes, DNA is located in the cell nucleus, with small amounts in mitochondria and chloroplasts. In prokaryotes, the DNA is held within an irregularly shaped body in the cytoplasm called the nucleoid. The genetic information in a genome is held within genes, and the complete set of this information in an organism is called its genotype. A gene is a unit of heredity and is a region of DNA that influences a particular characteristic in an organism. Genes contain an open reading frame that can be transcribed, and regulatory sequences such as promoters and enhancers, which control transcription of the open reading frame.",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In many species, only a small fraction of the total sequence of the genome encodes protein. For example, only about 1.5% of the human genome consists of protein-coding exons, with over 50% of human DNA consisting of non-coding repetitive sequences. The reasons for the presence of so much noncoding DNA in eukaryotic genomes and the extraordinary differences in genome size, or C-value, among species, represent a long-standing puzzle known as the \"C-value enigma\". However, some DNA sequences that do not code protein may still encode functional non-coding RNA molecules, which are involved in the regulation of gene expression.",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Some noncoding DNA sequences play structural roles in chromosomes. Telomeres and centromeres typically contain few genes but are important for the function and stability of chromosomes. An abundant form of noncoding DNA in humans are pseudogenes, which are copies of genes that have been disabled by mutation. These sequences are usually just molecular fossils, although they can occasionally serve as raw genetic material for the creation of new genes through the process of gene duplication and divergence.",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "A gene is a sequence of DNA that contains genetic information and can influence the phenotype of an organism. Within a gene, the sequence of bases along a DNA strand defines a messenger RNA sequence, which then defines one or more protein sequences. The relationship between the nucleotide sequences of genes and the amino-acid sequences of proteins is determined by the rules of translation, known collectively as the genetic code. The genetic code consists of three-letter 'words' called codons formed from a sequence of three nucleotides (e.g. ACT, CAG, TTT).",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In transcription, the codons of a gene are copied into messenger RNA by RNA polymerase. This RNA copy is then decoded by a ribosome that reads the RNA sequence by base-pairing the messenger RNA to transfer RNA, which carries amino acids. Since there are 4 bases in 3-letter combinations, there are 64 possible codons (4 combinations). These encode the twenty standard amino acids, giving most amino acids more than one possible codon. There are also three 'stop' or 'nonsense' codons signifying the end of the coding region; these are the TAG, TAA, and TGA codons, (UAG, UAA, and UGA on the mRNA).",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Cell division is essential for an organism to grow, but, when a cell divides, it must replicate the DNA in its genome so that the two daughter cells have the same genetic information as their parent. The double-stranded structure of DNA provides a simple mechanism for DNA replication. Here, the two strands are separated and then each strand's complementary DNA sequence is recreated by an enzyme called DNA polymerase. This enzyme makes the complementary strand by finding the correct base through complementary base pairing and bonding it onto the original strand. As DNA polymerases can only extend a DNA strand in a 5′ to 3′ direction, different mechanisms are used to copy the antiparallel strands of the double helix. In this way, the base on the old strand dictates which base appears on the new strand, and the cell ends up with a perfect copy of its DNA.",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Naked extracellular DNA (eDNA), most of it released by cell death, is nearly ubiquitous in the environment. Its concentration in soil may be as high as 2 μg/L, and its concentration in natural aquatic environments may be as high at 88 μg/L. Various possible functions have been proposed for eDNA: it may be involved in horizontal gene transfer; it may provide nutrients; and it may act as a buffer to recruit or titrate ions or antibiotics. Extracellular DNA acts as a functional extracellular matrix component in the biofilms of several bacterial species. It may act as a recognition factor to regulate the attachment and dispersal of specific cell types in the biofilm; it may contribute to biofilm formation; and it may contribute to the biofilm's physical strength and resistance to biological stress.",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Cell-free fetal DNA is found in the blood of the mother, and can be sequenced to determine a great deal of information about the developing fetus.",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Under the name of environmental DNA eDNA has seen increased use in the natural sciences as a survey tool for ecology, monitoring the movements and presence of species in water, air, or on land, and assessing an area's biodiversity.",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are networks of extracellular fibers, primarily composed of DNA, which allow neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, to kill extracellular pathogens while minimizing damage to the host cells.",
"title": "Biological functions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "All the functions of DNA depend on interactions with proteins. These protein interactions can be non-specific, or the protein can bind specifically to a single DNA sequence. Enzymes can also bind to DNA and of these, the polymerases that copy the DNA base sequence in transcription and DNA replication are particularly important.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Structural proteins that bind DNA are well-understood examples of non-specific DNA-protein interactions. Within chromosomes, DNA is held in complexes with structural proteins. These proteins organize the DNA into a compact structure called chromatin. In eukaryotes, this structure involves DNA binding to a complex of small basic proteins called histones, while in prokaryotes multiple types of proteins are involved. The histones form a disk-shaped complex called a nucleosome, which contains two complete turns of double-stranded DNA wrapped around its surface. These non-specific interactions are formed through basic residues in the histones, making ionic bonds to the acidic sugar-phosphate backbone of the DNA, and are thus largely independent of the base sequence. Chemical modifications of these basic amino acid residues include methylation, phosphorylation, and acetylation. These chemical changes alter the strength of the interaction between the DNA and the histones, making the DNA more or less accessible to transcription factors and changing the rate of transcription. Other non-specific DNA-binding proteins in chromatin include the high-mobility group proteins, which bind to bent or distorted DNA. These proteins are important in bending arrays of nucleosomes and arranging them into the larger structures that make up chromosomes.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "A distinct group of DNA-binding proteins is the DNA-binding proteins that specifically bind single-stranded DNA. In humans, replication protein A is the best-understood member of this family and is used in processes where the double helix is separated, including DNA replication, recombination, and DNA repair. These binding proteins seem to stabilize single-stranded DNA and protect it from forming stem-loops or being degraded by nucleases.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "In contrast, other proteins have evolved to bind to particular DNA sequences. The most intensively studied of these are the various transcription factors, which are proteins that regulate transcription. Each transcription factor binds to one particular set of DNA sequences and activates or inhibits the transcription of genes that have these sequences close to their promoters. The transcription factors do this in two ways. Firstly, they can bind the RNA polymerase responsible for transcription, either directly or through other mediator proteins; this locates the polymerase at the promoter and allows it to begin transcription. Alternatively, transcription factors can bind enzymes that modify the histones at the promoter. This changes the accessibility of the DNA template to the polymerase.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "As these DNA targets can occur throughout an organism's genome, changes in the activity of one type of transcription factor can affect thousands of genes. Consequently, these proteins are often the targets of the signal transduction processes that control responses to environmental changes or cellular differentiation and development. The specificity of these transcription factors' interactions with DNA come from the proteins making multiple contacts to the edges of the DNA bases, allowing them to \"read\" the DNA sequence. Most of these base-interactions are made in the major groove, where the bases are most accessible.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Nucleases are enzymes that cut DNA strands by catalyzing the hydrolysis of the phosphodiester bonds. Nucleases that hydrolyse nucleotides from the ends of DNA strands are called exonucleases, while endonucleases cut within strands. The most frequently used nucleases in molecular biology are the restriction endonucleases, which cut DNA at specific sequences. For instance, the EcoRV enzyme shown to the left recognizes the 6-base sequence 5′-GATATC-3′ and makes a cut at the horizontal line. In nature, these enzymes protect bacteria against phage infection by digesting the phage DNA when it enters the bacterial cell, acting as part of the restriction modification system. In technology, these sequence-specific nucleases are used in molecular cloning and DNA fingerprinting.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Enzymes called DNA ligases can rejoin cut or broken DNA strands. Ligases are particularly important in lagging strand DNA replication, as they join the short segments of DNA produced at the replication fork into a complete copy of the DNA template. They are also used in DNA repair and genetic recombination.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Topoisomerases are enzymes with both nuclease and ligase activity. These proteins change the amount of supercoiling in DNA. Some of these enzymes work by cutting the DNA helix and allowing one section to rotate, thereby reducing its level of supercoiling; the enzyme then seals the DNA break. Other types of these enzymes are capable of cutting one DNA helix and then passing a second strand of DNA through this break, before rejoining the helix. Topoisomerases are required for many processes involving DNA, such as DNA replication and transcription.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Helicases are proteins that are a type of molecular motor. They use the chemical energy in nucleoside triphosphates, predominantly adenosine triphosphate (ATP), to break hydrogen bonds between bases and unwind the DNA double helix into single strands. These enzymes are essential for most processes where enzymes need to access the DNA bases.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Polymerases are enzymes that synthesize polynucleotide chains from nucleoside triphosphates. The sequence of their products is created based on existing polynucleotide chains—which are called templates. These enzymes function by repeatedly adding a nucleotide to the 3′ hydroxyl group at the end of the growing polynucleotide chain. As a consequence, all polymerases work in a 5′ to 3′ direction. In the active site of these enzymes, the incoming nucleoside triphosphate base-pairs to the template: this allows polymerases to accurately synthesize the complementary strand of their template. Polymerases are classified according to the type of template that they use.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "In DNA replication, DNA-dependent DNA polymerases make copies of DNA polynucleotide chains. To preserve biological information, it is essential that the sequence of bases in each copy are precisely complementary to the sequence of bases in the template strand. Many DNA polymerases have a proofreading activity. Here, the polymerase recognizes the occasional mistakes in the synthesis reaction by the lack of base pairing between the mismatched nucleotides. If a mismatch is detected, a 3′ to 5′ exonuclease activity is activated and the incorrect base removed. In most organisms, DNA polymerases function in a large complex called the replisome that contains multiple accessory subunits, such as the DNA clamp or helicases.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "RNA-dependent DNA polymerases are a specialized class of polymerases that copy the sequence of an RNA strand into DNA. They include reverse transcriptase, which is a viral enzyme involved in the infection of cells by retroviruses, and telomerase, which is required for the replication of telomeres. For example, HIV reverse transcriptase is an enzyme for AIDS virus replication. Telomerase is an unusual polymerase because it contains its own RNA template as part of its structure. It synthesizes telomeres at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres prevent fusion of the ends of neighboring chromosomes and protect chromosome ends from damage.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Transcription is carried out by a DNA-dependent RNA polymerase that copies the sequence of a DNA strand into RNA. To begin transcribing a gene, the RNA polymerase binds to a sequence of DNA called a promoter and separates the DNA strands. It then copies the gene sequence into a messenger RNA transcript until it reaches a region of DNA called the terminator, where it halts and detaches from the DNA. As with human DNA-dependent DNA polymerases, RNA polymerase II, the enzyme that transcribes most of the genes in the human genome, operates as part of a large protein complex with multiple regulatory and accessory subunits.",
"title": "Interactions with proteins"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "A DNA helix usually does not interact with other segments of DNA, and in human cells, the different chromosomes even occupy separate areas in the nucleus called \"chromosome territories\". This physical separation of different chromosomes is important for the ability of DNA to function as a stable repository for information, as one of the few times chromosomes interact is in chromosomal crossover which occurs during sexual reproduction, when genetic recombination occurs. Chromosomal crossover is when two DNA helices break, swap a section and then rejoin.",
"title": "Genetic recombination"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Recombination allows chromosomes to exchange genetic information and produces new combinations of genes, which increases the efficiency of natural selection and can be important in the rapid evolution of new proteins. Genetic recombination can also be involved in DNA repair, particularly in the cell's response to double-strand breaks.",
"title": "Genetic recombination"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "The most common form of chromosomal crossover is homologous recombination, where the two chromosomes involved share very similar sequences. Non-homologous recombination can be damaging to cells, as it can produce chromosomal translocations and genetic abnormalities. The recombination reaction is catalyzed by enzymes known as recombinases, such as RAD51. The first step in recombination is a double-stranded break caused by either an endonuclease or damage to the DNA. A series of steps catalyzed in part by the recombinase then leads to joining of the two helices by at least one Holliday junction, in which a segment of a single strand in each helix is annealed to the complementary strand in the other helix. The Holliday junction is a tetrahedral junction structure that can be moved along the pair of chromosomes, swapping one strand for another. The recombination reaction is then halted by cleavage of the junction and re-ligation of the released DNA. Only strands of like polarity exchange DNA during recombination. There are two types of cleavage: east-west cleavage and north–south cleavage. The north–south cleavage nicks both strands of DNA, while the east–west cleavage has one strand of DNA intact. The formation of a Holliday junction during recombination makes it possible for genetic diversity, genes to exchange on chromosomes, and expression of wild-type viral genomes.",
"title": "Genetic recombination"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "DNA contains the genetic information that allows all forms of life to function, grow and reproduce. However, it is unclear how long in the 4-billion-year history of life DNA has performed this function, as it has been proposed that the earliest forms of life may have used RNA as their genetic material. RNA may have acted as the central part of early cell metabolism as it can both transmit genetic information and carry out catalysis as part of ribozymes. This ancient RNA world where nucleic acid would have been used for both catalysis and genetics may have influenced the evolution of the current genetic code based on four nucleotide bases. This would occur, since the number of different bases in such an organism is a trade-off between a small number of bases increasing replication accuracy and a large number of bases increasing the catalytic efficiency of ribozymes. However, there is no direct evidence of ancient genetic systems, as recovery of DNA from most fossils is impossible because DNA survives in the environment for less than one million years, and slowly degrades into short fragments in solution. Claims for older DNA have been made, most notably a report of the isolation of a viable bacterium from a salt crystal 250 million years old, but these claims are controversial.",
"title": "Evolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Building blocks of DNA (adenine, guanine, and related organic molecules) may have been formed extraterrestrially in outer space. Complex DNA and RNA organic compounds of life, including uracil, cytosine, and thymine, have also been formed in the laboratory under conditions mimicking those found in outer space, using starting chemicals, such as pyrimidine, found in meteorites. Pyrimidine, like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the most carbon-rich chemical found in the universe, may have been formed in red giants or in interstellar cosmic dust and gas clouds.",
"title": "Evolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "In February 2021, scientists reported, for the first time, the sequencing of DNA from animal remains, a mammoth in this instance over a million years old, the oldest DNA sequenced to date.",
"title": "Evolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Methods have been developed to purify DNA from organisms, such as phenol-chloroform extraction, and to manipulate it in the laboratory, such as restriction digests and the polymerase chain reaction. Modern biology and biochemistry make intensive use of these techniques in recombinant DNA technology. Recombinant DNA is a man-made DNA sequence that has been assembled from other DNA sequences. They can be transformed into organisms in the form of plasmids or in the appropriate format, by using a viral vector. The genetically modified organisms produced can be used to produce products such as recombinant proteins, used in medical research, or be grown in agriculture.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Forensic scientists can use DNA in blood, semen, skin, saliva or hair found at a crime scene to identify a matching DNA of an individual, such as a perpetrator. This process is formally termed DNA profiling, also called DNA fingerprinting. In DNA profiling, the lengths of variable sections of repetitive DNA, such as short tandem repeats and minisatellites, are compared between people. This method is usually an extremely reliable technique for identifying a matching DNA. However, identification can be complicated if the scene is contaminated with DNA from several people. DNA profiling was developed in 1984 by British geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys, and first used in forensic science to convict Colin Pitchfork in the 1988 Enderby murders case.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "The development of forensic science and the ability to now obtain genetic matching on minute samples of blood, skin, saliva, or hair has led to re-examining many cases. Evidence can now be uncovered that was scientifically impossible at the time of the original examination. Combined with the removal of the double jeopardy law in some places, this can allow cases to be reopened where prior trials have failed to produce sufficient evidence to convince a jury. People charged with serious crimes may be required to provide a sample of DNA for matching purposes. The most obvious defense to DNA matches obtained forensically is to claim that cross-contamination of evidence has occurred. This has resulted in meticulous strict handling procedures with new cases of serious crime.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "DNA profiling is also used successfully to positively identify victims of mass casualty incidents, bodies or body parts in serious accidents, and individual victims in mass war graves, via matching to family members.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "DNA profiling is also used in DNA paternity testing to determine if someone is the biological parent or grandparent of a child with the probability of parentage is typically 99.99% when the alleged parent is biologically related to the child. Normal DNA sequencing methods happen after birth, but there are new methods to test paternity while a mother is still pregnant.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Deoxyribozymes, also called DNAzymes or catalytic DNA, were first discovered in 1994. They are mostly single stranded DNA sequences isolated from a large pool of random DNA sequences through a combinatorial approach called in vitro selection or systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). DNAzymes catalyze variety of chemical reactions including RNA-DNA cleavage, RNA-DNA ligation, amino acids phosphorylation-dephosphorylation, carbon-carbon bond formation, etc. DNAzymes can enhance catalytic rate of chemical reactions up to 100,000,000,000-fold over the uncatalyzed reaction. The most extensively studied class of DNAzymes is RNA-cleaving types which have been used to detect different metal ions and designing therapeutic agents. Several metal-specific DNAzymes have been reported including the GR-5 DNAzyme (lead-specific), the CA1-3 DNAzymes (copper-specific), the 39E DNAzyme (uranyl-specific) and the NaA43 DNAzyme (sodium-specific). The NaA43 DNAzyme, which is reported to be more than 10,000-fold selective for sodium over other metal ions, was used to make a real-time sodium sensor in cells.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Bioinformatics involves the development of techniques to store, data mine, search and manipulate biological data, including DNA nucleic acid sequence data. These have led to widely applied advances in computer science, especially string searching algorithms, machine learning, and database theory. String searching or matching algorithms, which find an occurrence of a sequence of letters inside a larger sequence of letters, were developed to search for specific sequences of nucleotides. The DNA sequence may be aligned with other DNA sequences to identify homologous sequences and locate the specific mutations that make them distinct. These techniques, especially multiple sequence alignment, are used in studying phylogenetic relationships and protein function. Data sets representing entire genomes' worth of DNA sequences, such as those produced by the Human Genome Project, are difficult to use without the annotations that identify the locations of genes and regulatory elements on each chromosome. Regions of DNA sequence that have the characteristic patterns associated with protein- or RNA-coding genes can be identified by gene finding algorithms, which allow researchers to predict the presence of particular gene products and their possible functions in an organism even before they have been isolated experimentally. Entire genomes may also be compared, which can shed light on the evolutionary history of particular organism and permit the examination of complex evolutionary events.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "DNA nanotechnology uses the unique molecular recognition properties of DNA and other nucleic acids to create self-assembling branched DNA complexes with useful properties. DNA is thus used as a structural material rather than as a carrier of biological information. This has led to the creation of two-dimensional periodic lattices (both tile-based and using the DNA origami method) and three-dimensional structures in the shapes of polyhedra. Nanomechanical devices and algorithmic self-assembly have also been demonstrated, and these DNA structures have been used to template the arrangement of other molecules such as gold nanoparticles and streptavidin proteins. DNA and other nucleic acids are the basis of aptamers, synthetic oligonucleotide ligands for specific target molecules used in a range of biotechnology and biomedical applications.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Because DNA collects mutations over time, which are then inherited, it contains historical information, and, by comparing DNA sequences, geneticists can infer the evolutionary history of organisms, their phylogeny. This field of phylogenetics is a powerful tool in evolutionary biology. If DNA sequences within a species are compared, population geneticists can learn the history of particular populations. This can be used in studies ranging from ecological genetics to anthropology.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "DNA as a storage device for information has enormous potential since it has much higher storage density compared to electronic devices. However, high costs, slow read and write times (memory latency), and insufficient reliability has prevented its practical use.",
"title": "Uses in technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "DNA was first isolated by the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher who, in 1869, discovered a microscopic substance in the pus of discarded surgical bandages. As it resided in the nuclei of cells, he called it \"nuclein\". In 1878, Albrecht Kossel isolated the non-protein component of \"nuclein\", nucleic acid, and later isolated its five primary nucleobases.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "In 1909, Phoebus Levene identified the base, sugar, and phosphate nucleotide unit of RNA (then named \"yeast nucleic acid\"). In 1929, Levene identified deoxyribose sugar in \"thymus nucleic acid\" (DNA). Levene suggested that DNA consisted of a string of four nucleotide units linked together through the phosphate groups (\"tetranucleotide hypothesis\"). Levene thought the chain was short and the bases repeated in a fixed order. In 1927, Nikolai Koltsov proposed that inherited traits would be inherited via a \"giant hereditary molecule\" made up of \"two mirror strands that would replicate in a semi-conservative fashion using each strand as a template\". In 1928, Frederick Griffith in his experiment discovered that traits of the \"smooth\" form of Pneumococcus could be transferred to the \"rough\" form of the same bacteria by mixing killed \"smooth\" bacteria with the live \"rough\" form. This system provided the first clear suggestion that DNA carries genetic information.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "In 1933, while studying virgin sea urchin eggs, Jean Brachet suggested that DNA is found in the cell nucleus and that RNA is present exclusively in the cytoplasm. At the time, \"yeast nucleic acid\" (RNA) was thought to occur only in plants, while \"thymus nucleic acid\" (DNA) only in animals. The latter was thought to be a tetramer, with the function of buffering cellular pH.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "In 1937, William Astbury produced the first X-ray diffraction patterns that showed that DNA had a regular structure.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "In 1943, Oswald Avery, along with co-workers Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty, identified DNA as the transforming principle, supporting Griffith's suggestion (Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment). Erwin Chargaff developed and published observations now known as Chargaff's rules, stating that in DNA from any species of any organism, the amount of guanine should be equal to cytosine and the amount of adenine should be equal to thymine.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Late in 1951, Francis Crick started working with James Watson at the Cavendish Laboratory within the University of Cambridge, UK. DNA's role in heredity was confirmed in 1952 when Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase in the Hershey–Chase experiment showed that DNA is the genetic material of the enterobacteria phage T2.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "In May 1952, Raymond Gosling, a graduate student working under the supervision of Rosalind Franklin, took an X-ray diffraction image, labeled as \"Photo 51\", at high hydration levels of DNA. This photo was given to Watson and Crick by Maurice Wilkins and was critical to their obtaining the correct structure of DNA. Franklin told Crick and Watson that the backbones had to be on the outside. Before then, Linus Pauling, and Watson and Crick, had erroneous models with the chains inside and the bases pointing outwards. Franklin's identification of the space group for DNA crystals revealed to Crick that the two DNA strands were antiparallel. In February 1953, Linus Pauling and Robert Corey proposed a model for nucleic acids containing three intertwined chains, with the phosphates near the axis, and the bases on the outside. Watson and Crick completed their model, which is now accepted as the first correct model of the double helix of DNA. On 28 February 1953 Crick interrupted patrons' lunchtime at The Eagle pub in Cambridge, UK to announce that he and Watson had \"discovered the secret of life\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "The 25 April 1953 issue of the journal Nature published a series of five articles giving the Watson and Crick double-helix structure DNA and evidence supporting it. The structure was reported in a letter titled \"MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF NUCLEIC ACIDS A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid\", in which they said, \"It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.\" This letter was followed by a letter from Franklin and Gosling, which was the first publication of their own X-ray diffraction data and of their original analysis method. Then followed a letter by Wilkins and two of his colleagues, which contained an analysis of in vivo B-DNA X-ray patterns, and which supported the presence in vivo of the Watson and Crick structure.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "In April 2023, scientists, based on new evidence, concluded that Rosalind Franklin was a contributor and \"equal player\" in the discovery process of DNA, rather than otherwise, as may have been presented subsequently after the time of the discovery.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "In 1962, after Franklin's death, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Nobel Prizes are awarded only to living recipients. A debate continues about who should receive credit for the discovery.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "In an influential presentation in 1957, Crick laid out the central dogma of molecular biology, which foretold the relationship between DNA, RNA, and proteins, and articulated the \"adaptor hypothesis\". Final confirmation of the replication mechanism that was implied by the double-helical structure followed in 1958 through the Meselson–Stahl experiment. Further work by Crick and co-workers showed that the genetic code was based on non-overlapping triplets of bases, called codons, allowing Har Gobind Khorana, Robert W. Holley, and Marshall Warren Nirenberg to decipher the genetic code. These findings represent the birth of molecular biology.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "In 1986 DNA analysis was first used for criminal investigative purposes when police in the UK requested Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester to verify or disprove a suspect's rape-murder \"confession.\" In this particular case, the suspect had confessed to two rape-murders, but had later retracted his confession. DNA testing at the university labs soon disproved the veracity of the suspect's original \"confession,\" and the suspect was exonerated from the murder-rape charges.",
"title": "History"
}
] | Deoxyribonucleic acid is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of all known organisms and many viruses. DNA and ribonucleic acid (RNA) are nucleic acids. Alongside proteins, lipids and complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides), nucleic acids are one of the four major types of macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life. The two DNA strands are known as polynucleotides as they are composed of simpler monomeric units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide is composed of one of four nitrogen-containing nucleobases, a sugar called deoxyribose, and a phosphate group. The nucleotides are joined to one another in a chain by covalent bonds between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next, resulting in an alternating sugar-phosphate backbone. The nitrogenous bases of the two separate polynucleotide strands are bound together, according to base pairing rules, with hydrogen bonds to make double-stranded DNA. The complementary nitrogenous bases are divided into two groups, the single-ringed pyrimidines and the double-ringed purines. In DNA, the pyrimidines are thymine and cytosine; the purines are adenine and guanine. Both strands of double-stranded DNA store the same biological information. This information is replicated when the two strands separate. A large part of DNA is non-coding, meaning that these sections do not serve as patterns for protein sequences. The two strands of DNA run in opposite directions to each other and are thus antiparallel. Attached to each sugar is one of four types of nucleobases. It is the sequence of these four nucleobases along the backbone that encodes genetic information. RNA strands are created using DNA strands as a template in a process called transcription, where DNA bases are exchanged for their corresponding bases except in the case of thymine (T), for which RNA substitutes uracil (U). Under the genetic code, these RNA strands specify the sequence of amino acids within proteins in a process called translation. Within eukaryotic cells, DNA is organized into long structures called chromosomes. Before typical cell division, these chromosomes are duplicated in the process of DNA replication, providing a complete set of chromosomes for each daughter cell. Eukaryotic organisms store most of their DNA inside the cell nucleus as nuclear DNA, and some in the mitochondria as mitochondrial DNA or in chloroplasts as chloroplast DNA. In contrast, prokaryotes store their DNA only in the cytoplasm, in circular chromosomes. Within eukaryotic chromosomes, chromatin proteins, such as histones, compact and organize DNA. These compacting structures guide the interactions between DNA and other proteins, helping control which parts of the DNA are transcribed. | 2001-11-06T00:36:30Z | 2023-12-26T20:49:06Z | [
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7,957 | Kennedy family | The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office, serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947, when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts, until 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy II (John's nephew) retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.
P. J.'s son Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, had nine children, including John F. Kennedy, who served in both houses of the United States Congress and as U.S. President; Robert F. Kennedy, who served as U.S. Attorney General and as a U.S. Senator; and Ted Kennedy, who served more than 46 years in the U.S. Senate. Other descendants include members of the U.S. House of Representatives, two U.S. ambassadors, one U.S. envoy, a lieutenant governor, three state legislators (one of whom also served in the U.S. House of Representatives), and one mayor.
Joseph and Rose's daughter Eunice played a vital role in establishing the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (part of the National Institutes of Health) and the Special Olympics. Other descendants of Joseph and Rose Kennedy have been lawyers, authors, and activists on behalf of those with physical and intellectual disabilities.
According to genealogist Brian Kennedy in his work JFK's Irish O'Kennedy Ancestors, the Kennedys—who would go on to play a significant role in the United States of America—originated from an Irish clan called Ó Cinnéide Fionn (which, along with the Ó Cinnéide Donn and Ó Cinnéide Ruadh, were the three Irish Gaelic Ó Cinnéide clans who ruled the kingdom of Ormond). In 1546, their progenitor Diarmaid Ó Cinnéide Fionn became the owner of Knigh Castle, located close to what is today Puckane, County Tipperary. In 1740, having lost out to the New English order in the Kingdom of Ireland, they moved to Dunganstown, New Ross, County Wexford. Patrick Kennedy was born there.
Patrick Kennedy (1823–1858) and Bridget Murphy (1824–1888) sailed from Ireland to East Boston in 1849. Patrick worked in East Boston as a barrel maker, or cooper, and had five children with Bridget. Their youngest, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy, went into business and served in the Massachusetts state legislature from 1884 to 1895.
P. J. and his wife, Mary Augusta Hickey, had four children. Their oldest was Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy Sr., a businessman who amassed a private fortune in banking and securities trading, which he further expanded by investing in filmmaking and real estate. He also founded Somerset Importers and owned Chicago's Merchandise Mart.
In 1914, Joseph Sr. married Rose Fitzgerald, the eldest daughter of John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, who served six years as mayor of Boston and six years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The couple had nine children: Joseph Jr., John (called Jack), Rose Marie (called Rosemary), Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert (called Bobby), Jean, and Edward (called Ted).
Joseph Sr. was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), chairman of the Maritime Commission, and U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1940. He served from 1947 to 1949 on The Hoover Commission (the "Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government"), which was appointed by President Harry Truman to recommend administrative changes in the federal government. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was named Papal Countess of the Holy Roman Church by Pope Pius XII in 1951 in recognition of her "exemplary motherhood and many charitable works."
Every Kennedy elected to public office has served as a Democrat, while other members of the family have worked for the party or held Cabinet posts in Democratic administrations. Many have attended Harvard University, and the family has contributed greatly to that university's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Joseph Sr. expected his eldest son, Joseph Jr., to go into politics and to ultimately be elected president. Joseph Jr. was elected as a Massachusetts delegate to the 1940 Democratic National Convention and enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the United States entered World War II. He was killed in 1944 when the bomber he was piloting exploded in flight. Joseph Sr.'s desire to see the family involved in politics and government then focused on John, who had considered a career as a journalist, having authored a book (Why England Slept) and done some reporting for Hearst Newspapers. After returning from Navy service, John served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Massachusetts's 11th congressional district from 1947 to 1953, and then as U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. In the 1960 presidential election, John narrowly defeated Republican opponent Richard Nixon.
During John's administration, Robert served as attorney general; his brother-in-law Sargent Shriver served as director of the new Peace Corps, and Ted was elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, occupying his brother's former Senate seat until Ted's death in 2009. The Kennedy administration's accomplishments include the Alliance for Progress with Latin America, the establishment of the Peace Corps, a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the 24th Amendment ending the poll tax, the continuation of the Apollo spaceflight program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon, and the introduction of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to Congress (signed into law by Kennedy's successor Lyndon B. Johnson). The family was the subject of intense media coverage during and after Kennedy's presidency.
Ted served in the Senate with his brother Robert (1965–1968), and was serving in the Senate when his nephew, Joseph P. II, and his son, Patrick J., served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Massachusetts's 8th congressional district (1987–1999) and Rhode Island's 1st congressional district (1995–2011), respectively. In November 2012, Joseph P. Kennedy III, son of former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II and grandson of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th congressional district. In 2020, Joseph P. III lost the U.S. Senate primary election in Massachusetts to incumbent Ed Markey, the first Kennedy to ever lose an election in the state.
In the 2020s, three Kennedy family members were serving as U.S. ambassadors or envoys. Victoria Reggie Kennedy, second wife of Ted Kennedy, was named in 2021 by President Biden as U.S. ambassador to Austria. Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy, was named in 2022 by President Biden as U.S. ambassador to Australia; she previously served as U.S. ambassador to Japan under President Barack Obama. In the same year, Joseph P. Kennedy III was named by President Biden as U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland. In April 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist, filed as a Democratic candidate for the 2024 nomination for President of the United States, and changed to an independent candidate in October 2023.
Family incidents led Senator Ted Kennedy to wonder, in a televised statement about the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969, whether "some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys."
Some of the events the family has endured include:
In 1941, Rosemary underwent a non-consensual lobotomy intended to correct her violent mood swings, convulsions, and intellectual disability. The operation left her incapacitated for the rest of her life.
In 1944, Joseph Jr. died when the Navy bomber he was piloting exploded in mid-flight.
In 1948, Kathleen died in a plane crash in France.
In 1963 and 1968, John and Robert were assassinated, respectively.
In 1964, Ted was nearly killed when his plane crashed in an apple orchard near Southampton, Massachusetts. Legislative aide Edward Moss and the pilot were killed in the crash. Ted was seriously injured and spent months in a hospital recovering from a severe back injury, a punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.
In 1984, Robert's son, David, died of a drug overdose.
In 1997, another son, Michael, died from injuries sustained in a skiing accident.
In 1999, John's son, John Jr., died in a plane crash (along with his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law, Lauren) off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
In 2011 and 2018, Ted's daughter, Kara, and Pat's son, Christopher, died of heart attacks, respectively.
In 2019, Robert's granddaughter, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, died of a drug overdose, aged 22.
In April 2020, granddaughter, Maeve Kennedy McKean, a senior advisor for human rights in the Obama administration, and her eight-year-old son, Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean, disappeared in Chesapeake Bay after embarking in a canoe to retrieve a ball. Maeve McKean's body was recovered the following week, and her son's two days later, about 2.5 miles from her mother's home on the Chesapeake Bay.
In addition, some Kennedy spouses have served in government:
There was a member of the Kennedy family in public office nearly continuously from 1946, when John F. Kennedy was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, until early 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy left the House. The only exception was the period between John F. Kennedy's resignation from the Senate on December 22, 1960, and his assumption of the office of President on January 20, 1961. In 2013, two years after Patrick Kennedy left the House, Joseph P. Kennedy III was elected U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and served until 2021. Below is a timeline of the Kennedys' tenure in the U.S. Congress.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy was presented with a grant of arms for all the descendants of Patrick Kennedy (1823–1858) from the Chief Herald of Ireland. The design of the arms (three gold closed helmets on a black field) strongly alludes to symbols in the coats of arms of the O'Kennedys of Ormonde and the FitzGeralds of Desmond, from whom the family is descended. The crest is an armored hand holding four arrows between two olive branches, elements taken from the coat of arms of the United States of America and also symbolic of Kennedy and his brothers. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph \"P. J.\" Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office, serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947, when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts, until 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy II (John's nephew) retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "P. J.'s son Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, had nine children, including John F. Kennedy, who served in both houses of the United States Congress and as U.S. President; Robert F. Kennedy, who served as U.S. Attorney General and as a U.S. Senator; and Ted Kennedy, who served more than 46 years in the U.S. Senate. Other descendants include members of the U.S. House of Representatives, two U.S. ambassadors, one U.S. envoy, a lieutenant governor, three state legislators (one of whom also served in the U.S. House of Representatives), and one mayor.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Joseph and Rose's daughter Eunice played a vital role in establishing the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (part of the National Institutes of Health) and the Special Olympics. Other descendants of Joseph and Rose Kennedy have been lawyers, authors, and activists on behalf of those with physical and intellectual disabilities.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "According to genealogist Brian Kennedy in his work JFK's Irish O'Kennedy Ancestors, the Kennedys—who would go on to play a significant role in the United States of America—originated from an Irish clan called Ó Cinnéide Fionn (which, along with the Ó Cinnéide Donn and Ó Cinnéide Ruadh, were the three Irish Gaelic Ó Cinnéide clans who ruled the kingdom of Ormond). In 1546, their progenitor Diarmaid Ó Cinnéide Fionn became the owner of Knigh Castle, located close to what is today Puckane, County Tipperary. In 1740, having lost out to the New English order in the Kingdom of Ireland, they moved to Dunganstown, New Ross, County Wexford. Patrick Kennedy was born there.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Patrick Kennedy (1823–1858) and Bridget Murphy (1824–1888) sailed from Ireland to East Boston in 1849. Patrick worked in East Boston as a barrel maker, or cooper, and had five children with Bridget. Their youngest, Patrick Joseph \"P. J.\" Kennedy, went into business and served in the Massachusetts state legislature from 1884 to 1895.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "P. J. and his wife, Mary Augusta Hickey, had four children. Their oldest was Joseph Patrick \"Joe\" Kennedy Sr., a businessman who amassed a private fortune in banking and securities trading, which he further expanded by investing in filmmaking and real estate. He also founded Somerset Importers and owned Chicago's Merchandise Mart.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 1914, Joseph Sr. married Rose Fitzgerald, the eldest daughter of John F. \"Honey Fitz\" Fitzgerald, who served six years as mayor of Boston and six years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The couple had nine children: Joseph Jr., John (called Jack), Rose Marie (called Rosemary), Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert (called Bobby), Jean, and Edward (called Ted).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Joseph Sr. was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), chairman of the Maritime Commission, and U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1940. He served from 1947 to 1949 on The Hoover Commission (the \"Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government\"), which was appointed by President Harry Truman to recommend administrative changes in the federal government. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was named Papal Countess of the Holy Roman Church by Pope Pius XII in 1951 in recognition of her \"exemplary motherhood and many charitable works.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Every Kennedy elected to public office has served as a Democrat, while other members of the family have worked for the party or held Cabinet posts in Democratic administrations. Many have attended Harvard University, and the family has contributed greatly to that university's John F. Kennedy School of Government.",
"title": "Continued public service"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Joseph Sr. expected his eldest son, Joseph Jr., to go into politics and to ultimately be elected president. Joseph Jr. was elected as a Massachusetts delegate to the 1940 Democratic National Convention and enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the United States entered World War II. He was killed in 1944 when the bomber he was piloting exploded in flight. Joseph Sr.'s desire to see the family involved in politics and government then focused on John, who had considered a career as a journalist, having authored a book (Why England Slept) and done some reporting for Hearst Newspapers. After returning from Navy service, John served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Massachusetts's 11th congressional district from 1947 to 1953, and then as U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. In the 1960 presidential election, John narrowly defeated Republican opponent Richard Nixon.",
"title": "Continued public service"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "During John's administration, Robert served as attorney general; his brother-in-law Sargent Shriver served as director of the new Peace Corps, and Ted was elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, occupying his brother's former Senate seat until Ted's death in 2009. The Kennedy administration's accomplishments include the Alliance for Progress with Latin America, the establishment of the Peace Corps, a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the 24th Amendment ending the poll tax, the continuation of the Apollo spaceflight program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon, and the introduction of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to Congress (signed into law by Kennedy's successor Lyndon B. Johnson). The family was the subject of intense media coverage during and after Kennedy's presidency.",
"title": "Continued public service"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Ted served in the Senate with his brother Robert (1965–1968), and was serving in the Senate when his nephew, Joseph P. II, and his son, Patrick J., served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Massachusetts's 8th congressional district (1987–1999) and Rhode Island's 1st congressional district (1995–2011), respectively. In November 2012, Joseph P. Kennedy III, son of former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II and grandson of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th congressional district. In 2020, Joseph P. III lost the U.S. Senate primary election in Massachusetts to incumbent Ed Markey, the first Kennedy to ever lose an election in the state.",
"title": "Continued public service"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In the 2020s, three Kennedy family members were serving as U.S. ambassadors or envoys. Victoria Reggie Kennedy, second wife of Ted Kennedy, was named in 2021 by President Biden as U.S. ambassador to Austria. Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy, was named in 2022 by President Biden as U.S. ambassador to Australia; she previously served as U.S. ambassador to Japan under President Barack Obama. In the same year, Joseph P. Kennedy III was named by President Biden as U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland. In April 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist, filed as a Democratic candidate for the 2024 nomination for President of the United States, and changed to an independent candidate in October 2023.",
"title": "Continued public service"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Family incidents led Senator Ted Kennedy to wonder, in a televised statement about the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969, whether \"some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys.\"",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Some of the events the family has endured include:",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In 1941, Rosemary underwent a non-consensual lobotomy intended to correct her violent mood swings, convulsions, and intellectual disability. The operation left her incapacitated for the rest of her life.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In 1944, Joseph Jr. died when the Navy bomber he was piloting exploded in mid-flight.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In 1948, Kathleen died in a plane crash in France.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In 1963 and 1968, John and Robert were assassinated, respectively.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In 1964, Ted was nearly killed when his plane crashed in an apple orchard near Southampton, Massachusetts. Legislative aide Edward Moss and the pilot were killed in the crash. Ted was seriously injured and spent months in a hospital recovering from a severe back injury, a punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In 1984, Robert's son, David, died of a drug overdose.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In 1997, another son, Michael, died from injuries sustained in a skiing accident.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In 1999, John's son, John Jr., died in a plane crash (along with his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law, Lauren) off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In 2011 and 2018, Ted's daughter, Kara, and Pat's son, Christopher, died of heart attacks, respectively.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In 2019, Robert's granddaughter, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, died of a drug overdose, aged 22.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In April 2020, granddaughter, Maeve Kennedy McKean, a senior advisor for human rights in the Obama administration, and her eight-year-old son, Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean, disappeared in Chesapeake Bay after embarking in a canoe to retrieve a ball. Maeve McKean's body was recovered the following week, and her son's two days later, about 2.5 miles from her mother's home on the Chesapeake Bay.",
"title": "Family incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In addition, some Kennedy spouses have served in government:",
"title": "Government offices held"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "There was a member of the Kennedy family in public office nearly continuously from 1946, when John F. Kennedy was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, until early 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy left the House. The only exception was the period between John F. Kennedy's resignation from the Senate on December 22, 1960, and his assumption of the office of President on January 20, 1961. In 2013, two years after Patrick Kennedy left the House, Joseph P. Kennedy III was elected U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and served until 2021. Below is a timeline of the Kennedys' tenure in the U.S. Congress.",
"title": "Government offices held"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In 1961, John F. Kennedy was presented with a grant of arms for all the descendants of Patrick Kennedy (1823–1858) from the Chief Herald of Ireland. The design of the arms (three gold closed helmets on a black field) strongly alludes to symbols in the coats of arms of the O'Kennedys of Ormonde and the FitzGeralds of Desmond, from whom the family is descended. The crest is an armored hand holding four arrows between two olive branches, elements taken from the coat of arms of the United States of America and also symbolic of Kennedy and his brothers.",
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] | The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office, serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947, when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts, until 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy II retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island. P. J.'s son Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, had nine children, including John F. Kennedy, who served in both houses of the United States Congress and as U.S. President; Robert F. Kennedy, who served as U.S. Attorney General and as a U.S. Senator; and Ted Kennedy, who served more than 46 years in the U.S. Senate. Other descendants include members of the U.S. House of Representatives, two U.S. ambassadors, one U.S. envoy, a lieutenant governor, three state legislators, and one mayor. Joseph and Rose's daughter Eunice played a vital role in establishing the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Special Olympics. Other descendants of Joseph and Rose Kennedy have been lawyers, authors, and activists on behalf of those with physical and intellectual disabilities. | 2001-03-19T08:26:48Z | 2023-12-21T23:01:05Z | [
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7,958 | Deflation (disambiguation) | Commonly, deflation refers to a decrease in the general price level, the opposite of inflation.
Deflation may also refer to: | [
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] | Commonly, deflation refers to a decrease in the general price level, the opposite of inflation. Deflation may also refer to: A release or escape of air or gas from an inflatable, resulting in its shrinking or collapsing
A mode of wind erosion
Dividing a polynomial by a linear factor which decreases its degree by one in multiple root-finding algorithms, as done for example in the Jenkins–Traub algorithm
In philosophy, the use of a deflationary theory of truth, where the term truth is rejected as a real property of propositions
Deflation (film), a 2001 short film
The Great Deflation, a period of worldwide economic deflation occurring roughly between the years 1870–90
Deflate, a widely used lossless compression algorithm originating from the program PKZIP | 2023-02-12T19:50:53Z | [
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|
7,959 | Democracy | Democracy (from Ancient Greek: δημοκρατία, romanized: dēmokratía, dēmos 'people' and kratos 'rule') is a system of government in which state power is vested in the people or the general population of a state. According to the United Nations, democracy "provides an environment that respects human rights and fundamental freedoms, and in which the freely expressed will of people is exercised."
In a direct democracy, the people have the direct authority to deliberate and decide legislation. In a representative democracy, the people choose governing officials through elections to do so. Who is considered part of "the people" and how authority is shared among or delegated by the people has changed over time and at different rates in different countries. Features of democracy oftentimes include freedom of assembly, association, personal property, freedom of religion and speech, citizenship, consent of the governed, voting rights, freedom from unwarranted governmental deprivation of the right to life and liberty, and minority rights.
The notion of democracy has evolved over time considerably. Throughout history, one can find evidence of direct democracy, in which communities make decisions through popular assembly. Today, the dominant form of democracy is representative democracy, where citizens elect government officials to govern on their behalf such as in a parliamentary or presidential democracy.
Most democracies apply in most cases majority rule, but in some cases plurality rule, supermajority rule (e.g. constitution) or consensus rule (e.g. Switzerland) are applied. They serve the crucial purpose of inclusiveness and broader legitimacy on sensitive issues—counterbalancing majoritarianism—and therefore mostly take precedence on a constitutional level. In the common variant of liberal democracy, the powers of the majority are exercised within the framework of a representative democracy, but the constitution and a supreme court limit the majority and protect the minority—usually through securing the enjoyment by all of certain individual rights, e.g. freedom of speech or freedom of association.
The term appeared in the 5th century BC in Greek city-states, notably Classical Athens, to mean "rule of the people", in contrast to aristocracy (ἀριστοκρατία, aristokratía), meaning "rule of an elite". Western democracy, as distinct from that which existed in antiquity, is generally considered to have originated in city-states such as those in Classical Athens and the Roman Republic, where various schemes and degrees of enfranchisement of the free male population were observed before the form disappeared in the West at the beginning of late antiquity. In virtually all democratic governments throughout ancient and modern history, democratic citizenship was initially restricted to an elite class, which was later extended to all adult citizens. In most modern democracies, this was achieved through the suffrage movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is either held by an individual, as in autocratic systems like absolute monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals, as in an oligarchy—oppositions inherited from ancient Greek philosophy. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders and to oust them without the need for a revolution. World public opinion strongly favors democratic systems of government. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices and The Economist Democracy Index, less than half the world's population lives in a democracy as of 2022. Democratic backsliding with a rise in hybrid regimes has exceeded democratization since the early to mid 2010s.
Although democracy is generally understood to be defined by voting, no consensus exists on a precise definition of democracy. Karl Popper says that the "classical" view of democracy is, "in brief, the theory that democracy is the rule of the people, and that the people have a right to rule". Kofi Annan states that "there are as many different forms of democracy as there are democratic nations in the world." One study identified 2,234 adjectives used to describe democracy in the English language.
A 1951 UNESCO-sponsored report found the idea of democracy "highly ambiguous".
Democratic principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to legislative processes. For example, in a representative democracy, every vote has (in theory) equal weight, and the freedom of eligible citizens is secured by legitimised rights and liberties which are typically enshrined in a constitution. Other uses of "democracy" may encompass direct democracy, in which citizens vote on issues directly.
One theory holds that democracy requires three fundamental principles: upward control (sovereignty residing at the lowest levels of authority), political equality, and social norms by which individuals and institutions only consider acceptable acts that reflect the first two principles of upward control and political equality. Legal equality, political freedom and rule of law are often identified by commentators as foundational characteristics for a well-functioning democracy.
Roger Scruton argued that democracy alone cannot provide personal and political freedom unless the institutions of civil society are also present.
In some countries, notably in the United Kingdom (which originated the Westminster system), the dominant principle is that of parliamentary sovereignty, while maintaining judicial independence. In India, parliamentary sovereignty is subject to the Constitution of India which includes judicial review. Though the term "democracy" is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles also are potentially applicable to private organisations, such as clubs, societies and firms.
Democracies may use many different decision-making methods, but majority rule is the dominant form. Without compensation, like legal protections of individual or group rights, political minorities can be oppressed by the "tyranny of the majority". Majority rule involves a competitive approach, opposed to consensus democracy, creating the need that elections, and generally deliberation, are substantively and procedurally "fair"," i.e. just and equitable. In some countries, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are considered important to ensure that voters are well informed, enabling them to vote according to their own interests and beliefs.
It has also been suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of all voters to participate freely and fully in the life of their society. With its emphasis on notions of social contract and the collective will of all the voters, democracy can also be characterised as a form of political collectivism because it is defined as a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in lawmaking.
Republics, though often popularly associated with democracy because of the shared principle of rule by consent of the governed, are not necessarily democracies, as republicanism does not specify how the people are to rule. Classically the term "republic" encompassed both democracies and aristocracies. In a modern sense the republican form of government is a form of government without a monarch. Because of this, democracies can be republics or constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom.
Democratic assemblies are as old as the human species and are found throughout human history, but up until the nineteenth century, major political figures have largely opposed democracy. Republican theorists linked democracy to small size: as political units grew in size, the likelihood increased that the government would turn despotic. At the same time, small political units were vulnerable to conquest. Montesquieu wrote, "If a republic be small, it is destroyed by a foreign force; if it be large, it is ruined by an internal imperfection." According to Johns Hopkins University political scientist Daniel Deudney, the creation of the United States, with its large size and its system of checks and balances, was a solution to the dual problems of size.
Retrospectively different polities, outside of declared democracies, have been described as proto-democratic.
The term democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. The word comes from dêmos '(common) people' and krátos 'force/might'. Under Cleisthenes, what is generally held as the first example of a type of democracy in 508–507 BC was established in Athens. Cleisthenes is referred to as "the father of Athenian democracy". The first attested use of the word democracy is found in prose works of the 430s BC, such as Herodotus' Histories, but its usage was older by several decades, as two Athenians born in the 470s were named Democrates, a new political name—likely in support of democracy—given at a time of debates over constitutional issues in Athens. Aeschylus also strongly alludes to the word in his play The Suppliants, staged in c.463 BC, where he mentions "the demos's ruling hand" [demou kratousa cheir]. Before that time, the word used to define the new political system of Cleisthenes was probably isonomia, meaning political equality.
Athenian democracy took the form of a direct democracy, and it had two distinguishing features: the random selection of ordinary citizens to fill the few existing government administrative and judicial offices, and a legislative assembly consisting of all Athenian citizens. All eligible citizens were allowed to speak and vote in the assembly, which set the laws of the city state. However, Athenian citizenship excluded women, slaves, foreigners (μέτοικοι / métoikoi), and youths below the age of military service. Effectively, only 1 in 4 residents in Athens qualified as citizens. Owning land was not a requirement for citizenship. The exclusion of large parts of the population from the citizen body is closely related to the ancient understanding of citizenship. In most of antiquity the benefit of citizenship was tied to the obligation to fight war campaigns.
Athenian democracy was not only direct in the sense that decisions were made by the assembled people, but also the most direct in the sense that the people through the assembly, boule and courts of law controlled the entire political process and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in the public business. Even though the rights of the individual were not secured by the Athenian constitution in the modern sense (the ancient Greeks had no word for "rights"), those who were citizens of Athens enjoyed their liberties not in opposition to the government but by living in a city that was not subject to another power and by not being subjects themselves to the rule of another person.
Range voting appeared in Sparta as early as 700 BC. The Spartan ecclesia was an assembly of the people, held once a month, in which every male citizen of at least 20 years of age could participate. In the assembly, Spartans elected leaders and cast votes by range voting and shouting (the vote is then decided on how loudly the crowd shouts). Aristotle called this "childish", as compared with the stone voting ballots used by the Athenian citizenry. Sparta adopted it because of its simplicity, and to prevent any biased voting, buying, or cheating that was predominant in the early democratic elections.
Even though the Roman Republic contributed significantly to many aspects of democracy, only a minority of Romans were citizens with votes in elections for representatives. The votes of the powerful were given more weight through a system of weighted voting, so most high officials, including members of the Senate, came from a few wealthy and noble families. In addition, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom was the first case in the Western world of a polity being formed with the explicit purpose of being a republic, although it didn't have much of a democracy. The Roman model of governance inspired many political thinkers over the centuries.
Vaishali, capital city of the Vajjika League (Vrijji mahajanapada) of India, was also considered one of the first examples of a republic around the 6th century BC.
Other cultures, such as the Iroquois Nation in the Americas also developed a form of democratic society between 1450 and 1660 (and possibly in 1142), well before contact with the Europeans. This democracy continues to the present day and is the world's oldest standing representative democracy. This indicates that forms of democracy may have been invented in other societies around the world.
While most regions in Europe during the Middle Ages were ruled by clergy or feudal lords, there existed various systems involving elections or assemblies, although often only involving a small part of the population. In Scandinavia, bodies known as things consisted of freemen presided by a lawspeaker. These deliberative bodies were responsible for settling political questions, and variants included the Althing in Iceland and the Løgting in the Faeroe Islands. The veche, found in Eastern Europe, was a similar body to the Scandinavian thing. In the Roman Catholic Church, the pope has been elected by a papal conclave composed of cardinals since 1059. The first documented parliamentary body in Europe was the Cortes of León. Established by Alfonso IX in 1188, the Cortes had authority over setting taxation, foreign affairs and legislating, though the exact nature of its role remains disputed. The Republic of Ragusa, established in 1358 and centered around the city of Dubrovnik, provided representation and voting rights to its male aristocracy only. Various Italian city-states and polities had republic forms of government. For instance, the Republic of Florence, established in 1115, was led by the Signoria whose members were chosen by sortition. In 10th–15th century Frisia, a distinctly non-feudal society, the right to vote on local matters and on county officials was based on land size. The Kouroukan Fouga divided the Mali Empire into ruling clans (lineages) that were represented at a great assembly called the Gbara. However, the charter made Mali more similar to a constitutional monarchy than a democratic republic.
The Parliament of England had its roots in the restrictions on the power of kings written into Magna Carta (1215), which explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects and implicitly supported what became the English writ of habeas corpus, safeguarding individual freedom against unlawful imprisonment with right to appeal. The first representative national assembly in England was Simon de Montfort's Parliament in 1265. The emergence of petitioning is some of the earliest evidence of parliament being used as a forum to address the general grievances of ordinary people. However, the power to call parliament remained at the pleasure of the monarch.
Studies have linked the emergence of parliamentary institutions in Europe during the medieval period to urban agglomeration and the creation of new classes, such as artisans, as well as the presence of nobility and religious elites. Scholars have also linked the emergence of representative government to Europe's relative political fragmentation. Political scientist David Stasavage links the fragmentation of Europe, and its subsequent democratization, to the manner in which the Roman Empire collapsed: Roman territory was conquered by small fragmented groups of Germanic tribes, thus leading to the creation of small political units where rulers were relatively weak and needed the consent of the governed to ward off foreign threats.
In Poland, noble democracy was characterized by an increase in the activity of the middle nobility, which wanted to increase their share in exercising power at the expense of the magnates. Magnates dominated the most important offices in the state (secular and ecclesiastical) and sat on the royal council, later the senate. The growing importance of the middle nobility had an impact on the establishment of the institution of the land sejmik (local assembly), which subsequently obtained more rights. During the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth century, sejmiks received more and more powers and became the most important institutions of local power. In 1454, Casimir IV Jagiellon granted the sejmiks the right to decide on taxes and to convene a mass mobilization in the Nieszawa Statutes. He also pledged not to create new laws without their consent.
In 17th century England, there was renewed interest in Magna Carta. The Parliament of England passed the Petition of Right in 1628 which established certain liberties for subjects. The English Civil War (1642–1651) was fought between the King and an oligarchic but elected Parliament, during which the idea of a political party took form with groups debating rights to political representation during the Putney Debates of 1647. Subsequently, the Protectorate (1653–59) and the English Restoration (1660) restored more autocratic rule, although Parliament passed the Habeas Corpus Act in 1679 which strengthened the convention that forbade detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Bill of Rights was enacted in 1689 which codified certain rights and liberties and is still in effect. The Bill set out the requirement for regular elections, rules for freedom of speech in Parliament and limited the power of the monarch, ensuring that, unlike much of Europe at the time, royal absolutism would not prevail. Economic historians Douglass North and Barry Weingast have characterized the institutions implemented in the Glorious Revolution as a resounding success in terms of restraining the government and ensuring protection for property rights.
Renewed interest in the Magna Carta, the English Civil War, and the Glorious Revolution in the 17th century prompted the growth of political philosophy on the British Isles. Thomas Hobbes was the first philosopher to articulate a detailed social contract theory. Writing in the Leviathan (1651), Hobbes theorized that individuals living in the state of nature led lives that were "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" and constantly waged a war of all against all. In order to prevent the occurrence of an anarchic state of nature, Hobbes reasoned that individuals ceded their rights to a strong, authoritarian power. In other words, Hobbes advocated for an absolute monarchy which, in his opinion, was the best form of government. Later, philosopher and physician John Locke would posit a different interpretation of social contract theory. Writing in his Two Treatises of Government (1689), Locke posited that all individuals possessed the inalienable rights to life, liberty and estate (property). According to Locke, individuals would voluntarily come together to form a state for the purposes of defending their rights. Particularly important for Locke were property rights, whose protection Locke deemed to be a government's primary purpose. Furthermore, Locke asserted that governments were legitimate only if they held the consent of the governed. For Locke, citizens had the right to revolt against a government that acted against their interest or became tyrannical. Although they were not widely read during his lifetime, Locke's works are considered the founding documents of liberal thought and profoundly influenced the leaders of the American Revolution and later the French Revolution. His liberal democratic framework of governance remains the preeminent form of democracy in the world.
In the Cossack republics of Ukraine in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Cossack Hetmanate and Zaporizhian Sich, the holder of the highest post of Hetman was elected by the representatives from the country's districts.
In North America, representative government began in Jamestown, Virginia, with the election of the House of Burgesses (forerunner of the Virginia General Assembly) in 1619. English Puritans who migrated from 1620 established colonies in New England whose local governance was democratic; although these local assemblies had some small amounts of devolved power, the ultimate authority was held by the Crown and the English Parliament. The Puritans (Pilgrim Fathers), Baptists, and Quakers who founded these colonies applied the democratic organisation of their congregations also to the administration of their communities in worldly matters.
The first Parliament of Great Britain was established in 1707, after the merger of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland under the Acts of Union. Two key documents of the UK's uncodified constitution, the English Declaration of Right, 1689 (restated in the Bill of Rights 1689) and the Scottish Claim of Right 1689, had both cemented Parliament's position as the supreme law-making body, and said that the "election of members of Parliament ought to be free". However, Parliament was only elected by male property owners, which amounted to 3% of the population in 1780. The first known British person of African heritage to vote in a general election, Ignatius Sancho, voted in 1774 and 1780.
During the Age of Liberty in Sweden (1718–1772), civil rights were expanded and power shifted from the monarch to parliament. The taxed peasantry was represented in parliament, although with little influence, but commoners without taxed property had no suffrage.
The creation of the short-lived Corsican Republic in 1755 was an early attempt to adopt a democratic constitution (all men and women above age of 25 could vote). This Corsican Constitution was the first based on Enlightenment principles and included female suffrage, something that was not included in most other democracies until the 20th century.
Colonial America had similar property qualifications as Britain, and in the period before 1776 the abundance and availability of land meant that large numbers of colonists met such requirements with at least 60 per cent of adult white males able to vote. The great majority of white men were farmers who met the property ownership or taxpaying requirements. With few exceptions no blacks or women could vote. Vermont, which, on declaring independence of Great Britain in 1777, adopted a constitution modelled on Pennsylvania's with citizenship and democratic suffrage for males with or without property. The United States Constitution of 1787 is the oldest surviving, still active, governmental codified constitution. The Constitution provided for an elected government and protected civil rights and liberties, but did not end slavery nor extend voting rights in the United States, instead leaving the issue of suffrage to the individual states. Generally, states limited suffrage to white male property owners and taxpayers. At the time of the first Presidential election in 1789, about 6% of the population was eligible to vote. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to whites only. The Bill of Rights in 1791 set limits on government power to protect personal freedoms but had little impact on judgements by the courts for the first 130 years after ratification.
In 1789, Revolutionary France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and, although short-lived, the National Convention was elected by all men in 1792. The Polish-Lithuanian Constitution of 3 May 1791 sought to implement a more effective constitutional monarchy, introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility, and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. In force for less than 19 months, it was declared null and void by the Grodno Sejm that met in 1793. Nonetheless, the 1791 Constitution helped keep alive Polish aspirations for the eventual restoration of the country's sovereignty over a century later.
In the United States, the 1828 presidential election was the first in which non-property-holding white males could vote in the vast majority of states. Voter turnout soared during the 1830s, reaching about 80% of the adult white male population in the 1840 presidential election. North Carolina was the last state to abolish property qualification in 1856 resulting in a close approximation to universal white male suffrage (however tax-paying requirements remained in five states in 1860 and survived in two states until the 20th century). In the 1860 United States Census, the slave population had grown to four million, and in Reconstruction after the Civil War, three constitutional amendments were passed: the 13th Amendment (1865) that ended slavery; the 14th Amendment (1869) that gave black people citizenship, and the 15th Amendment (1870) that gave black males a nominal right to vote. Full enfranchisement of citizens was not secured until after the civil rights movement gained passage by the US Congress of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The voting franchise in the United Kingdom was expanded and made more uniform in a series of reforms that began with the Reform Act 1832 and continued into the 20th century, notably with the Representation of the People Act 1918 and the Equal Franchise Act 1928. Universal male suffrage was established in France in March 1848 in the wake of the French Revolution of 1848. During that year, several revolutions broke out in Europe as rulers were confronted with popular demands for liberal constitutions and more democratic government.
In 1876 the Ottoman Empire transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, and held two elections the next year to elect members to her newly formed parliament. Provisional Electoral Regulations were issued, stating that the elected members of the Provincial Administrative Councils would elect members to the first Parliament. Later that year, a new constitution was promulgated, which provided for a bicameral Parliament with a Senate appointed by the Sultan and a popularly elected Chamber of Deputies. Only men above the age of 30 who were competent in Turkish and had full civil rights were allowed to stand for election. Reasons for disqualification included holding dual citizenship, being employed by a foreign government, being bankrupt, employed as a servant, or having "notoriety for ill deeds". Full universal suffrage was achieved in 1934.
In 1893 the self-governing colony New Zealand became the first country in the world (except for the short-lived 18th-century Corsican Republic) to establish active universal suffrage by recognizing women as having the right to vote.
20th-century transitions to liberal democracy have come in successive "waves of democracy", variously resulting from wars, revolutions, decolonisation, and religious and economic circumstances. Global waves of "democratic regression" reversing democratization, have also occurred in the 1920s and 30s, in the 1960s and 1970s, and in the 2010s.
World War I and the dissolution of the autocratic Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires resulted in the creation of new nation-states in Europe, most of them at least nominally democratic. In the 1920s democratic movements flourished and women's suffrage advanced, but the Great Depression brought disenchantment and most of the countries of Europe, Latin America, and Asia turned to strong-man rule or dictatorships. Fascism and dictatorships flourished in Nazi Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as non-democratic governments in the Baltics, the Balkans, Brazil, Cuba, China, and Japan, among others.
World War II brought a definitive reversal of this trend in western Europe. The democratisation of the American, British, and French sectors of occupied Germany (disputed), Austria, Italy, and the occupied Japan served as a model for the later theory of government change. However, most of Eastern Europe, including the Soviet sector of Germany fell into the non-democratic Soviet-dominated bloc.
The war was followed by decolonisation, and again most of the new independent states had nominally democratic constitutions. India emerged as the world's largest democracy and continues to be so. Countries that were once part of the British Empire often adopted the British Westminster system. By 1960, the vast majority of country-states were nominally democracies, although most of the world's populations lived in nominal democracies that experienced sham elections, and other forms of subterfuge (particularly in "Communist" states and the former colonies.)
A subsequent wave of democratisation brought substantial gains toward true liberal democracy for many states, dubbed "third wave of democracy." Portugal, Spain, and several of the military dictatorships in South America returned to civilian rule in the 1970s and 1980s. This was followed by countries in East and South Asia by the mid-to-late 1980s. Economic malaise in the 1980s, along with resentment of Soviet oppression, contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the associated end of the Cold War, and the democratisation and liberalisation of the former Eastern bloc countries. The most successful of the new democracies were those geographically and culturally closest to western Europe, and they are now either part of the European Union or candidate states. In 1986, after the toppling of the most prominent Asian dictatorship, the only democratic state of its kind at the time emerged in the Philippines with the rise of Corazon Aquino, who would later be known as the Mother of Asian Democracy.
The liberal trend spread to some states in Africa in the 1990s, most prominently in South Africa. Some recent examples of attempts of liberalisation include the Indonesian Revolution of 1998, the Bulldozer Revolution in Yugoslavia, the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, and the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia.
According to Freedom House, in 2007 there were 123 electoral democracies (up from 40 in 1972). According to World Forum on Democracy, electoral democracies now represent 120 of the 192 existing countries and constitute 58.2 per cent of the world's population. At the same time liberal democracies i.e. countries Freedom House regards as free and respectful of basic human rights and the rule of law are 85 in number and represent 38 per cent of the global population. Also in 2007 the United Nations declared 15 September the International Day of Democracy.
Many countries reduced their voting age to 18 years; the major democracies began to do so in the 1970s starting in Western Europe and North America. Most electoral democracies continue to exclude those younger than 18 from voting. The voting age has been lowered to 16 for national elections in a number of countries, including Brazil, Austria, Cuba, and Nicaragua. In California, a 2004 proposal to permit a quarter vote at 14 and a half vote at 16 was ultimately defeated. In 2008, the German parliament proposed but shelved a bill that would grant the vote to each citizen at birth, to be used by a parent until the child claims it for themselves.
According to Freedom House, starting in 2005, there have been 17 consecutive years in which declines in political rights and civil liberties throughout the world have outnumbered improvements, as populist and nationalist political forces have gained ground everywhere from Poland (under the Law and Justice Party) to the Philippines (under Rodrigo Duterte). In a Freedom House report released in 2018, Democracy Scores for most countries declined for the 12th consecutive year. The Christian Science Monitor reported that nationalist and populist political ideologies were gaining ground, at the expense of rule of law, in countries like Poland, Turkey and Hungary. For example, in Poland, the President appointed 27 new Supreme Court judges over legal objections from the European Commission. In Turkey, thousands of judges were removed from their positions following a failed coup attempt during a government crackdown .
"Democratic backsliding" in the 2010s were attributed to economic inequality and social discontent, personalism, poor management of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other factors such as government manipulation of civil society, "toxic polarization," foreign disinformation campaigns, racism and nativism, excessive executive power, and decreased power of the opposition. Within English-speaking Western democracies, "protection-based" attitudes combining cultural conservatism and leftist economic attitudes were the strongest predictor of support for authoritarian modes of governance.
Aristotle contrasted rule by the many (democracy/timocracy), with rule by the few (oligarchy/aristocracy), and with rule by a single person (tyranny or today autocracy/absolute monarchy). He also thought that there was a good and a bad variant of each system (he considered democracy to be the degenerate counterpart to timocracy).
A common view among early and renaissance Republican theorists was that democracy could only survive in small political communities. Heeding the lessons of the Roman Republic's shift to monarchism as it grew larger or smaller, these Republican theorists held that the expansion of territory and population inevitably led to tyranny. Democracy was therefore highly fragile and rare historically, as it could only survive in small political units, which due to their size were vulnerable to conquest by larger political units. Montesquieu famously said, "if a republic is small, it is destroyed by an outside force; if it is large, it is destroyed by an internal vice." Rousseau asserted, "It is, therefore the natural property of small states to be governed as a republic, of middling ones to be subject to a monarch, and of large empires to be swayed by a despotic prince."
Among modern political theorists, there are three contending conceptions of democracy: aggregative democracy, deliberative democracy, and radical democracy.
The theory of aggregative democracy claims that the aim of the democratic processes is to solicit citizens' preferences and aggregate them together to determine what social policies society should adopt. Therefore, proponents of this view hold that democratic participation should primarily focus on voting, where the policy with the most votes gets implemented.
Different variants of aggregative democracy exist. Under minimalism, democracy is a system of government in which citizens have given teams of political leaders the right to rule in periodic elections. According to this minimalist conception, citizens cannot and should not "rule" because, for example, on most issues, most of the time, they have no clear views or their views are not well-founded. Joseph Schumpeter articulated this view most famously in his book Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Contemporary proponents of minimalism include William H. Riker, Adam Przeworski, Richard Posner.
According to the theory of direct democracy, on the other hand, citizens should vote directly, not through their representatives, on legislative proposals. Proponents of direct democracy offer varied reasons to support this view. Political activity can be valuable in itself, it socialises and educates citizens, and popular participation can check powerful elites. Most importantly, citizens do not rule themselves unless they directly decide laws and policies.
Governments will tend to produce laws and policies that are close to the views of the median voter—with half to their left and the other half to their right. This is not a desirable outcome as it represents the action of self-interested and somewhat unaccountable political elites competing for votes. Anthony Downs suggests that ideological political parties are necessary to act as a mediating broker between individual and governments. Downs laid out this view in his 1957 book An Economic Theory of Democracy.
Robert A. Dahl argues that the fundamental democratic principle is that, when it comes to binding collective decisions, each person in a political community is entitled to have his/her interests be given equal consideration (not necessarily that all people are equally satisfied by the collective decision). He uses the term polyarchy to refer to societies in which there exists a certain set of institutions and procedures which are perceived as leading to such democracy. First and foremost among these institutions is the regular occurrence of free and open elections which are used to select representatives who then manage all or most of the public policy of the society. However, these polyarchic procedures may not create a full democracy if, for example, poverty prevents political participation. Similarly, Ronald Dworkin argues that "democracy is a substantive, not a merely procedural, ideal."
Deliberative democracy is based on the notion that democracy is government by deliberation. Unlike aggregative democracy, deliberative democracy holds that, for a democratic decision to be legitimate, it must be preceded by authentic deliberation, not merely the aggregation of preferences that occurs in voting. Authentic deliberation is deliberation among decision-makers that is free from distortions of unequal political power, such as power a decision-maker obtained through economic wealth or the support of interest groups. If the decision-makers cannot reach consensus after authentically deliberating on a proposal, then they vote on the proposal using a form of majority rule. Citizens assemblies are considered by many scholars as practical examples of deliberative democracy, with a recent OECD report identifying citizens assemblies as an increasingly popular mechanism to involve citizens in governmental decision-making.
Radical democracy is based on the idea that there are hierarchical and oppressive power relations that exist in society. Democracy's role is to make visible and challenge those relations by allowing for difference, dissent and antagonisms in decision-making processes.
Democracy indices are quantitative and comparative assessments of the state of democracy for different countries according to various definitions of democracy.
The democracies indices differ in whether they are categorical, such as classifying countries into democracies, hybrid regimes, and autocracies, or continuous values. The qualitative nature of democracy indices enables data analytical approaches for studying causal mechanisms of regime transformation processes.
Democracy has taken a number of forms, both in theory and practice. Some varieties of democracy provide better representation and more freedom for their citizens than others. However, if any democracy is not structured to prohibit the government from excluding the people from the legislative process, or any branch of government from altering the separation of powers in its favour, then a branch of the system can accumulate too much power and destroy the democracy.
The following kinds of democracy are not exclusive of one another: many specify details of aspects that are independent of one another and can co-exist in a single system.
Several variants of democracy exist, but there are two basic forms, both of which concern how the whole body of all eligible citizens executes its will. One form of democracy is direct democracy, in which all eligible citizens have active participation in the political decision making, for example voting on policy initiatives directly. In most modern democracies, the whole body of eligible citizens remain the sovereign power but political power is exercised indirectly through elected representatives; this is called a representative democracy.
Direct democracy is a political system where the citizens participate in the decision-making personally, contrary to relying on intermediaries or representatives. A direct democracy gives the voting population the power to:
Within modern-day representative governments, certain electoral tools like referendums, citizens' initiatives and recall elections are referred to as forms of direct democracy. However, some advocates of direct democracy argue for local assemblies of face-to-face discussion. Direct democracy as a government system currently exists in the Swiss cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus, the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities, communities affiliated with the CIPO-RFM, the Bolivian city councils of FEJUVE, and Kurdish cantons of Rojava.
The use of a lot system, a characteristic of Athenian democracy, is a feature of some versions of direct democracies. In this system, important governmental and administrative tasks are performed by citizens picked from a lottery.
Representative democracy involves the election of government officials by the people being represented. If the head of state is also democratically elected then it is called a democratic republic. The most common mechanisms involve election of the candidate with a majority or a plurality of the votes. Most western countries have representative systems.
Representatives may be elected or become diplomatic representatives by a particular district (or constituency), or represent the entire electorate through proportional systems, with some using a combination of the two. Some representative democracies also incorporate elements of direct democracy, such as referendums. A characteristic of representative democracy is that while the representatives are elected by the people to act in the people's interest, they retain the freedom to exercise their own judgement as how best to do so. Such reasons have driven criticism upon representative democracy, pointing out the contradictions of representation mechanisms with democracy
Parliamentary democracy is a representative democracy where government is appointed by or can be dismissed by, representatives as opposed to a "presidential rule" wherein the president is both head of state and the head of government and is elected by the voters. Under a parliamentary democracy, government is exercised by delegation to an executive ministry and subject to ongoing review, checks and balances by the legislative parliament elected by the people.
In a parliamentary system, the Prime Minister may be dismissed by the legislature at any point in time for not meeting the expectations of the legislature. This is done through a Vote of No Confidence where the legislature decides whether or not to remove the Prime Minister from office with majority support for dismissal. In some countries, the Prime Minister can also call an election at any point in time, typically when the Prime Minister believes that they are in good favour with the public as to get re-elected. In other parliamentary democracies, extra elections are virtually never held, a minority government being preferred until the next ordinary elections. An important feature of the parliamentary democracy is the concept of the "loyal opposition". The essence of the concept is that the second largest political party (or opposition) opposes the governing party (or coalition), while still remaining loyal to the state and its democratic principles.
Presidential Democracy is a system where the public elects the president through an election. The president serves as both the head of state and head of government controlling most of the executive powers. The president serves for a specific term and cannot exceed that amount of time. The legislature often has limited ability to remove a president from office. Elections typically have a fixed date and aren't easily changed. The president has direct control over the cabinet, specifically appointing the cabinet members.
The executive usually has the responsibility to execute or implement legislation and may have the limited legislative powers, such as a veto. However, a legislative branch passes legislation and budgets. This provides some measure of separation of powers. In consequence, however, the president and the legislature may end up in the control of separate parties, allowing one to block the other and thereby interfere with the orderly operation of the state. This may be the reason why presidential democracy is not very common outside the Americas, Africa, and Central and Southeast Asia.
A semi-presidential system is a system of democracy in which the government includes both a prime minister and a president. The particular powers held by the prime minister and president vary by country.
Some modern democracies that are predominantly representative in nature also heavily rely upon forms of political action that are directly democratic. These democracies, which combine elements of representative democracy and direct democracy, are termed hybrid democracies, semi-direct democracies or participatory democracies. Examples include Switzerland and some U.S. states, where frequent use is made of referendums and initiatives.
The Swiss confederation is a semi-direct democracy. At the federal level, citizens can propose changes to the constitution (federal popular initiative) or ask for a referendum to be held on any law voted by the parliament. Between January 1995 and June 2005, Swiss citizens voted 31 times, to answer 103 questions (during the same period, French citizens participated in only two referendums). Although in the past 120 years less than 250 initiatives have been put to referendum.
Examples include the extensive use of referendums in the US state of California, which is a state that has more than 20 million voters.
In New England, town meetings are often used, especially in rural areas, to manage local government. This creates a hybrid form of government, with a local direct democracy and a representative state government. For example, most Vermont towns hold annual town meetings in March in which town officers are elected, budgets for the town and schools are voted on, and citizens have the opportunity to speak and be heard on political matters.
Many countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavian countries, Thailand, Japan and Bhutan turned powerful monarchs into constitutional monarchs (often gradually) with limited or symbolic roles. For example, in the predecessor states to the United Kingdom, constitutional monarchy began to emerge and has continued uninterrupted since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and passage of the Bill of Rights 1689. Strongly limited constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom, have been referred to as crowned republics by writers such as H. G. Wells.
In other countries, the monarchy was abolished along with the aristocratic system (as in France, China, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Greece and Egypt). An elected person, with or without significant powers, became the head of state in these countries.
Elite upper houses of legislatures, which often had lifetime or hereditary tenure, were common in many states. Over time, these either had their powers limited (as with the British House of Lords) or else became elective and remained powerful (as with the Australian Senate).
The term republic has many different meanings, but today often refers to a representative democracy with an elected head of state, such as a president, serving for a limited term, in contrast to states with a hereditary monarch as a head of state, even if these states also are representative democracies with an elected or appointed head of government such as a prime minister.
The Founding Fathers of the United States often criticised direct democracy, which in their view often came without the protection of a constitution enshrining inalienable rights; James Madison argued, especially in The Federalist No. 10, that what distinguished a direct democracy from a republic was that the former became weaker as it got larger and suffered more violently from the effects of faction, whereas a republic could get stronger as it got larger and combats faction by its very structure.
Professors Richard Ellis of Willamette University and Michael Nelson of Rhodes College argue that much constitutional thought, from Madison to Lincoln and beyond, has focused on "the problem of majority tyranny." They conclude, "The principles of republican government embedded in the Constitution represent an effort by the framers to ensure that the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would not be trampled by majorities." What was critical to American values, John Adams insisted, was that the government be "bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend." As Benjamin Franklin was exiting after writing the U.S. constitution, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked him "Well, Doctor, what have we got—a republic or a monarchy?". He replied "A republic—if you can keep it."
A liberal democracy is a representative democracy in which the ability of the elected representatives to exercise decision-making power is subject to the rule of law, and moderated by a constitution or laws that emphasise the protection of the rights and freedoms of individuals, and which places constraints on the leaders and on the extent to which the will of the majority can be exercised against the rights of minorities (see civil liberties).
In a liberal democracy, it is possible for some large-scale decisions to emerge from the many individual decisions that citizens are free to make. In other words, citizens can "vote with their feet" or "vote with their dollars", resulting in significant informal government-by-the-masses that exercises many "powers" associated with formal government elsewhere.
Socialist thought has several different views on democracy. Social democracy, democratic socialism, and the dictatorship of the proletariat (usually exercised through Soviet democracy) are some examples. Many democratic socialists and social democrats believe in a form of participatory, industrial, economic and/or workplace democracy combined with a representative democracy.
Within Marxist orthodoxy there is a hostility to what is commonly called "liberal democracy", which is referred to as parliamentary democracy because of its centralised nature. Because of orthodox Marxists' desire to eliminate the political elitism they see in capitalism, Marxists, Leninists and Trotskyists believe in direct democracy implemented through a system of communes (which are sometimes called soviets). This system ultimately manifests itself as council democracy and begins with workplace democracy.
Democracy cannot consist solely of elections that are nearly always fictitious and managed by rich landowners and professional politicians.
Anarchists are split in this domain, depending on whether they believe that a majority-rule is tyrannic or not. To many anarchists, the only form of democracy considered acceptable is direct democracy. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon argued that the only acceptable form of direct democracy is one in which it is recognised that majority decisions are not binding on the minority, even when unanimous. However, anarcho-communist Murray Bookchin criticised individualist anarchists for opposing democracy, and says "majority rule" is consistent with anarchism.
Some anarcho-communists oppose the majoritarian nature of direct democracy, feeling that it can impede individual liberty and opt-in favour of a non-majoritarian form of consensus democracy, similar to Proudhon's position on direct democracy.
Sometimes called "democracy without elections", sortition chooses decision makers via a random process. The intention is that those chosen will be representative of the opinions and interests of the people at large and be fairer and more impartial than an elected official. The technique was in widespread use in Athenian Democracy and Renaissance Florence and is still used in modern jury selection.
Consociational democracy was first conceptualized in the 1960s by Dutch American political scientist Arend Lijphart. Consociational democracy, also called consociationalism, can be defined as a form of democracy based on power-sharing formula between elites representing the social groups in the society. According to the founder of the theory of consociational democracy, Arendt Lijphart, "Consociational democracy means government by elite cartel designed to turn a democracy with a fragmented political culture into a stable democracy". A consociational democracy allows for simultaneous majority votes in two or more ethno-religious constituencies, and policies are enacted only if they gain majority support from both or all of them. The Qualified majority voting rule in European Council of Ministers is a consociational democracy approach for supranational democracies. This system in Treaty of Rome allocates votes to member states in part according to their population, but heavily weighted in favour of the smaller states. A consociational democracy requires consensus of representatives, while consensus democracy requires consensus of electorate.
Inclusive democracy is a political theory and political project that aims for direct democracy in all fields of social life: political democracy in the form of face-to-face assemblies which are confederated, economic democracy in a stateless, moneyless and marketless economy, democracy in the social realm, i.e. self-management in places of work and education, and ecological democracy which aims to reintegrate society and nature. The theoretical project of inclusive democracy emerged from the work of political philosopher Takis Fotopoulos in "Towards An Inclusive Democracy" and was further developed in the journal Democracy & Nature and its successor The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy.
The basic unit of decision making in an inclusive democracy is the demotic assembly, i.e. the assembly of demos, the citizen body in a given geographical area which may encompass a town and the surrounding villages, or even neighbourhoods of large cities. An inclusive democracy today can only take the form of a confederal democracy that is based on a network of administrative councils whose members or delegates are elected from popular face-to-face democratic assemblies in the various demoi. Thus, their role is purely administrative and practical, not one of policymaking like that of representatives in representative democracy.
The citizen body is advised by experts, but it is the citizen body which functions as the ultimate decision-taker. Authority can be delegated to a segment of the citizen body to carry out specific duties, for example, to serve as members of popular courts, or of regional and confederal councils. Such delegation is made, in principle, by lot, on a rotation basis, and is always recallable by the citizen body. Delegates to regional and confederal bodies should have specific mandates.
A Parpolity or Participatory Polity is a theoretical form of democracy that is ruled by a Nested Council structure. The guiding philosophy is that people should have decision-making power in proportion to how much they are affected by the decision. Local councils of 25–50 people are completely autonomous on issues that affect only them, and these councils send delegates to higher level councils who are again autonomous regarding issues that affect only the population affected by that council.
A council court of randomly chosen citizens serves as a check on the tyranny of the majority, and rules on which body gets to vote on which issue. Delegates may vote differently from how their sending council might wish but are mandated to communicate the wishes of their sending council. Delegates are recallable at any time. Referendums are possible at any time via votes of lower-level councils, however, not everything is a referendum as this is most likely a waste of time. A parpolity is meant to work in tandem with a participatory economy.
Cosmopolitan democracy, also known as Global democracy or World Federalism, is a political system in which democracy is implemented on a global scale, either directly or through representatives. An important justification for this kind of system is that the decisions made in national or regional democracies often affect people outside the constituency who, by definition, cannot vote. By contrast, in a cosmopolitan democracy, the people who are affected by decisions also have a say in them.
According to its supporters, any attempt to solve global problems is undemocratic without some form of cosmopolitan democracy. The general principle of cosmopolitan democracy is to expand some or all of the values and norms of democracy, including the rule of law; the non-violent resolution of conflicts; and equality among citizens, beyond the limits of the state. To be fully implemented, this would require reforming existing international organisations, e.g., the United Nations, as well as the creation of new institutions such as a World Parliament, which ideally would enhance public control over, and accountability in, international politics.
Cosmopolitan Democracy has been promoted, among others, by physicist Albert Einstein, writer Kurt Vonnegut, columnist George Monbiot, and professors David Held and Daniele Archibugi. The creation of the International Criminal Court in 2003 was seen as a major step forward by many supporters of this type of cosmopolitan democracy.
Creative Democracy is advocated by American philosopher John Dewey. The main idea about Creative Democracy is that democracy encourages individual capacity building and the interaction among the society. Dewey argues that democracy is a way of life in his work of "Creative Democracy: The Task Before Us" and an experience built on faith in human nature, faith in human beings, and faith in working with others. Democracy, in Dewey's view, is a moral ideal requiring actual effort and work by people; it is not an institutional concept that exists outside of ourselves. "The task of democracy", Dewey concludes, "is forever that of creation of a freer and more humane experience in which all share and to which all contribute".
Guided democracy is a form of democracy that incorporates regular popular elections, but which often carefully "guides" the choices offered to the electorate in a manner that may reduce the ability of the electorate to truly determine the type of government exercised over them. Such democracies typically have only one central authority which is often not subject to meaningful public review by any other governmental authority. Russian-style democracy has often been referred to as a "Guided democracy." Russian politicians have referred to their government as having only one center of power/ authority, as opposed to most other forms of democracy which usually attempt to incorporate two or more naturally competing sources of authority within the same government.
Aside from the public sphere, similar democratic principles and mechanisms of voting and representation have been used to govern other kinds of groups. Many non-governmental organisations decide policy and leadership by voting. Most trade unions and cooperatives are governed by democratic elections. Corporations are ultimately governed by their shareholders through shareholder democracy. Corporations may also employ systems such as workplace democracy to handle internal governance. Amitai Etzioni has postulated a system that fuses elements of democracy with sharia law, termed Islamocracy. There is also a growing number of Democratic educational institutions such as Sudbury schools that are co-governed by students and staff.
Shareholder democracy is a concept relating to the governance of corporations by their shareholders. In the United States, shareholders are typically granted voting rights according to the one share, one vote principle. Shareholders may vote annually to elect the company's board of directors, who themselves may choose the company's executives. The shareholder democracy framework may be inaccurate for companies which have different classes of stock that further alter the distribution of voting rights.
Several justifications for democracy have been postulated.
Social contract theory argues that the legitimacy of government is based on consent of the governed, i.e. an election, and that political decisions must reflect the general will. Some proponents of the theory like Jean-Jacques Rousseau advocate for a direct democracy on this basis.
Condorcet's jury theorem is logical proof that if each decision-maker has a better than chance probability of making the right decision, then having the largest number of decision-makers, i.e. a democracy, will result in the best decisions. This has also been argued by theories of the wisdom of the crowd.
In Why Nations Fail, economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson argue that democracies are more economically successful because undemocratic political systems tend to limit markets and favor monopolies at the expense of the creative destruction which is necessary for sustained economic growth.
A 2019 study by Acemoglu and others estimated that countries switching to democratic from authoritarian rule had on average a 20% higher GDP after 25 years than if they had remained authoritarian. The study examined 122 transitions to democracy and 71 transitions to authoritarian rule, occurring from 1960 to 2010. Acemoglu said this was because democracies tended to invest more in health care and human capital, and reduce special treatment of regime allies.
Democracy promotion, also referred to as democracy building, can be domestic policy to increase the quality of already existing democracy or a strand of foreign policy adopted by governments and international organizations that seek to support the spread of democracy as a system of government. Among the reasons for supporting democracy include the belief that countries with a democratic system of governance are less likely to go to war, are likely to be economically better off and socially more harmonious. In democracy building, the process includes the building and strengthening of democracy, in particular the consolidation of democratic institutions, including courts of law, police forces, and constitutions. Some critics have argued that the United States has used democracy promotion to justify military intervention abroad.
Much experience was gained after the Revolutions of 1989 resulted in the fall of the Iron Curtain and a wave of democratic transitions in former Communist states, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. According to Freedom House, the number of democracies increased from 41 of 150 existing states in 1974 to 123 of 192 states in 2006. The pace of transition slowed considerably since the beginning of the twenty-first century, which encouraged discussion of whether democracy was under threat. In the early twenty-first century, a democratic deficit was noticed in countries where democratic systems already existed, including Britain, the US and the European Union. In the financial sense, democracy promotion grew from 2% of aid in 1990 to nearly 20% in 2005.
Democracy promotion can increase the quality of already existing democracies, reduce political apathy, and the chance of democratic backsliding. Democracy promotion measures include voting advice applications, participatory democracy, increasing youth suffrage, increasing civic education, reducing barriers to entry for new political parties, increasing proportionality and reducing presidentialism.
A democratic transition describes a phase in a countries political system, often created as a result of an incomplete change from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one (or vice versa).
Several philosophers and researchers have outlined historical and social factors seen as supporting the evolution of democracy. Other commentators have mentioned the influence of economic development. In a related theory, Ronald Inglehart suggests that improved living-standards in modern developed countries can convince people that they can take their basic survival for granted, leading to increased emphasis on self-expression values, which correlates closely with democracy.
Douglas M. Gibler and Andrew Owsiak in their study argued about the importance of peace and stable borders for the development of democracy. It has often been assumed that democracy causes peace, but this study shows that, historically, peace has almost always predated the establishment of democracy.
Carroll Quigley concludes that the characteristics of weapons are the main predictor of democracy: Democracy—this scenario—tends to emerge only when the best weapons available are easy for individuals to obtain and use. By the 1800s, guns were the best personal weapons available, and in the United States of America (already nominally democratic), almost everyone could afford to buy a gun, and could learn how to use it fairly easily. Governments could not do any better: it became the age of mass armies of citizen soldiers with guns. Similarly, Periclean Greece was an age of the citizen soldier and democracy.
Other theories stressed the relevance of education and of human capital—and within them of cognitive ability to increasing tolerance, rationality, political literacy and participation. Two effects of education and cognitive ability are distinguished:
Evidence consistent with conventional theories of why democracy emerges and is sustained has been hard to come by. Statistical analyses have challenged modernisation theory by demonstrating that there is no reliable evidence for the claim that democracy is more likely to emerge when countries become wealthier, more educated, or less unequal. In fact, empirical evidence shows that economic growth and education may not lead to increased demand for democratization as modernization theory suggests: historically, most countries attained high levels of access to primary education well before transitioning to democracy. Rather than acting as a catalyst for democratization, in some situations education provision may instead be used by non-democratic regimes to indoctrinate their subjects and strengthen their power.
The assumed link between education and economic growth is called into question when analyzing empirical evidence. Across different countries, the correlation between education attainment and math test scores is very weak (.07). A similarly weak relationship exists between per-pupil expenditures and math competency (.26). Additionally, historical evidence suggests that average human capital (measured using literacy rates) of the masses does not explain the onset of industrialization in France from 1750 to 1850 despite arguments to the contrary. Together, these findings show that education does not always promote human capital and economic growth as is generally argued to be the case. Instead, the evidence implies that education provision often falls short of its expressed goals, or, alternatively, that political actors use education to promote goals other than economic growth and development.
Some scholars have searched for the "deep" determinants of contemporary political institutions, be they geographical or demographic.
An example of this is the disease environment. Places with different mortality rates had different populations and productivity levels around the world. For example, in Africa, the tsetse fly—which afflicts humans and livestock—reduced the ability of Africans to plough the land. This made Africa less settled. As a consequence, political power was less concentrated. This also affected the colonial institutions European countries established in Africa. Whether colonial settlers could live or not in a place made them develop different institutions which led to different economic and social paths. This also affected the distribution of power and the collective actions people could take. As a result, some African countries ended up having democracies and others autocracies.
An example of geographical determinants for democracy is having access to coastal areas and rivers. This natural endowment has a positive relation with economic development thanks to the benefits of trade. Trade brought economic development, which in turn, broadened power. Rulers wanting to increase revenues had to protect property-rights to create incentives for people to invest. As more people had more power, more concessions had to be made by the ruler and in many places this process lead to democracy. These determinants defined the structure of the society moving the balance of political power.
Robert Michels asserts that although democracy can never be fully realised, democracy may be developed automatically in the act of striving for democracy:
The peasant in the fable, when on his deathbed, tells his sons that a treasure is buried in the field. After the old man's death the sons dig everywhere in order to discover the treasure. They do not find it. But their indefatigable labor improves the soil and secures for them a comparative well-being. The treasure in the fable may well symbolise democracy.
Democracy in modern times has almost always faced opposition from the previously existing government, and many times it has faced opposition from social elites. The implementation of a democratic government from a non-democratic state is typically brought by peaceful or violent democratic revolution.
Some democratic governments have experienced sudden state collapse and regime change to an undemocratic form of government. Domestic military coups or rebellions are the most common means by which democratic governments have been overthrown. (See List of coups and coup attempts by country and List of civil wars.) Examples include the Spanish Civil War, the Coup of 18 Brumaire that ended the First French Republic, and the 28 May 1926 coup d'état which ended the First Portuguese Republic. Some military coups are supported by foreign governments, such as the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the 1953 Iranian coup d'état. Other types of a sudden end to democracy include:
Democratic backsliding can end democracy in a gradual manner, by increasing emphasis on national security and eroding free and fair elections, freedom of expression, independence of the judiciary, rule of law. A famous example is the Enabling Act of 1933, which lawfully ended democracy in Weimar Germany and marked the transition to Nazi Germany.
Temporary or long-term political violence and government interference can prevent free and fair elections, which erode the democratic nature of governments. This has happened on a local level even in well-established democracies like the United States; for example, the Wilmington insurrection of 1898 and African-American disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era.
Friedrich Nietzsche conveys a vision of a society where individuality is lost, and conformity prevails. In such a society, anyone who holds different beliefs or desires is considered deviant and is willingly marginalized or isolated: "No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse."
Nietzsche expresses skepticism about the democratization of Europe, viewing it as a breeding ground for mediocrity, raising concerns about the equalizing and leveling tendencies within democratic societies as he writes: "The democratization of Europe is at the same time an involuntary arrangement for the cultivation of mediocrity".
Nietzsche also questions whether democratic systems truly serve the enhancement of power and the flourishing of individuals, challenging the prevailing notions of what is considered good within democratic societies. For Nietzsche, the pursuit of power and self-assertion is fundamental to human nature, and any moral framework that suppresses or denies this natural inclination is seen as detrimental to human flourishing: "What is good?—Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man".
Arrow's impossibility theorem suggests that single-winner elections can be logically incoherent. This is based on a certain set of criteria for democratic decision-making being inherently conflicting, i.e., these three "fairness" criteria:
Kenneth Arrow summarised the implications of the theorem in a non-mathematical form, stating that "no voting method is fair", "every ranked voting method is flawed", and "the only voting method that isn't flawed is a dictatorship". However, Arrow's formal premises can be considered overly strict, and with their reasonable weakening, the logical incoherence of democracy looks much less critical. Arrow's impossibility theorem does not apply to multi-winner voting such as proportional representation.
Some economists have criticized the efficiency of democracy, citing the premise of the irrational voter, or a voter who makes decisions without all of the facts or necessary information in order to make a truly informed decision. Another argument is that democracy slows down processes because of the amount of input and participation needed in order to go forward with a decision. A common example often quoted to substantiate this point is the high economic development achieved by China (a non-democratic one-party ruling communist state) as compared to India (a democratic multi-party state). According to economists, the lack of democratic participation in countries like China allows for unfettered economic growth.
On the other hand, Socrates believed that democracy without educated masses (educated in the broader sense of being knowledgeable and responsible) would only lead to populism being the criteria to become an elected leader and not competence. This would ultimately lead to a societal demise. This was quoted by Plato in book 10 of The Republic, in Socrates' conversation with Adimantus. Socrates was of the opinion that the right to vote must not be an indiscriminate right (for example by birth or citizenship), but must be given only to people who thought sufficiently of their choice.
Plato's The Republic presents a critical view of democracy through the narration of Socrates: "Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequaled alike." In his work, Plato lists 5 forms of government from best to worst, and lists democracy as the second worst, behind only tyranny, which he implies to be the natural outcome of democracy, arguing that in a democracy everyone puts their own selfish interests ahead of the common good until a tyrant emerges who is strong enough to impose his interest on everyone else. Assuming that the Republic was intended to be a serious critique of the political thought in Athens, Plato argues that only Kallipolis, an aristocracy led by the unwilling philosopher-kings (the wisest men), is a just form of government.
Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, warned Joe Biden, U.S. president, via a phone call that democracy was dying. "Democracies require consensus, and it takes time, and you don't have the time", Xi Jinping added.
The inefficiencies contribute to decreased voter turnout, decreased political efficacy, and political apathy.
The 20th-century Italian thinkers Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca (independently) argued that democracy was illusory, and served only to mask the reality of elite rule. Indeed, they argued that elite oligarchy is the unbendable law of human nature, due largely to the apathy and division of the masses (as opposed to the drive, initiative and unity of the elites), and that democratic institutions would do no more than shift the exercise of power from oppression to manipulation. As Louis Brandeis once professed, "We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.". A study led by Princeton professor Martin Gilens of 1,779 U.S. government decisions concluded that "elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."
James Madison critiqued democracy in Federalist No. 10, arguing that a republic is a preferable form of government, saying: "... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." Madison offered that republics were superior to democracies because republics safeguarded against tyranny of the majority, stating in Federalist No. 10: "the same advantage which a republic has over a democracy, in controlling the effects of faction, is enjoyed by a large over a small republic". Thomas Jefferson warned that "an elective despotism is not the government we fought for."
More recently, democracy is criticised for not offering enough political stability. As governments are frequently elected on and off there tends to be frequent changes in the policies of democratic countries both domestically and internationally. Even if a political party maintains power, vociferous, headline-grabbing protests and harsh criticism from the popular media are often enough to force sudden, unexpected political change. Frequent policy changes with regard to business and immigration are likely to deter investment and so hinder economic growth. For this reason, many people have put forward the idea that democracy is undesirable for a developing country in which economic growth and the reduction of poverty are top priorities.
This opportunist alliance not only has the handicap of having to cater to too many ideologically opposing factions, but it is usually short-lived since any perceived or actual imbalance in the treatment of coalition partners, or changes to leadership in the coalition partners themselves, can very easily result in the coalition partner withdrawing its support from the government.
Biased media has been accused of causing political instability, resulting in the obstruction of democracy, rather than its promotion.
The theory of democracy relies on the implicit assumption that voters are well informed about social issues, policies, and candidates so that they can make a truly informed decision. Since the late 20'th century there has been a growing concern that voters may be poorly informed because the news media are focusing more on entertainment and gossip and less on serious journalistic research on political issues.
The media professors Michael Gurevitch and Jay Blumler have proposed a number of functions that the mass media are expected to fulfill in a democracy:
This proposal has inspired a lot of discussions over whether the news media are actually fulfilling the requirements that a well functioning democracy requires. Commercial mass media are generally not accountable to anybody but their owners, and they have no obligation to serve a democratic function. They are controlled mainly by economic market forces. Fierce economic competition may force the mass media to divert themselves from any democratic ideals and focus entirely on how to survive the competition.
The tabloidization and popularization of the news media is seen in an increasing focus on human examples rather than statistics and principles. There is more focus on politicians as personalities and less focus on political issues in the popular media. Election campaigns are covered more as horse races and less as debates about ideologies and issues. The dominating media focus on spin, conflict, and competitive strategies has made voters perceive the politicians as egoists rather than idealists. This fosters mistrust and a cynical attitude to politics, less civic engagement, and less interest in voting. The ability to find effective political solutions to social problems is hampered when problems tend to be blamed on individuals rather than on structural causes. This person-centered focus may have far-reaching consequences not only for domestic problems but also for foreign policy when international conflicts are blamed on foreign heads of state rather than on political and economic structures. A strong media focus on fear and terrorism has allowed military logic to penetrate public institutions, leading to increased surveillance and the erosion of civil rights.
The responsiveness and accountability of the democratic system is compromised when lack of access to substantive, diverse, and undistorted information is handicapping the citizens' capability of evaluating the political process. The fast pace and trivialization in the competitive news media is dumbing down the political debate. Thorough and balanced investigation of complex political issues does not fit into this format. The political communication is characterized by short time horizons, short slogans, simple explanations, and simple solutions. This is conducive to political populism rather than serious deliberation.
Commercial mass media are often differentiated along the political spectrum so that people can hear mainly opinions that they already agree with. Too much controversy and diverse opinions are not always profitable for the commercial news media. Political polarization is emerging when different people read different news and watch different TV channels. This polarization has been worsened by the emergence of the social media that allow people to communicate mainly with groups of like-minded people, the so-called echo chambers. Extreme political polarization may undermine the trust in democratic institutions, leading to erosion of civil rights and free speech and in some cases even reversion to autocracy.
Many media scholars have discussed non-commercial news media with public service obligations as a means to improve the democratic process by providing the kind of political contents that a free market does not provide. The World Bank has recommended public service broadcasting in order to strengthen democracy in developing countries. These broadcasting services should be accountable to an independent regulatory body that is adequately protected from interference from political and economic interests. Public service media have an obligation to provide reliable information to voters. Many countries have publicly funded radio and television stations with public service obligations, especially in Europe and Japan, while such media are weak or non-existent in other countries including the USA. Several studies have shown that the stronger the dominance of commercial broadcast media over public service media, the less the amount of policy-relevant information in the media and the more focus on horse race journalism, personalities, and the pecadillos of politicians. Public service broadcasters are characterized by more policy-relevant information and more respect for journalistic norms and impartiality than the commercial media. However, the trend of deregulation has put the public service model under increased pressure from competition with commercial media.
The emergence of the internet and the social media has profoundly altered the conditions for political communication. The social media have given ordinary citizens easy access to voice their opinion and share information while bypassing the filters of the large news media. This is often seen as an advantage for democracy. The new possibilities for communication have fundamentally changed the way social movements and protest movements operate and organize. The internet and social media have provided powerful new tools for democracy movements in developing countries and emerging democracies, enabling them to bypass censorship, voice their opinions, and organize protests.
A serious problem with the social media is that they have no truth filters. The established news media have to guard their reputation as trustworthy, while ordinary citizens may post unreliable information. In fact, studies show that false stories are going more viral than true stories. The proliferation of false stories and conspiracy theories may undermine public trust in the political system and public officials.
Reliable information sources are essential for the democratic process. Less democratic governments rely heavily on censorship, propaganda, and misinformation in order to stay in power, while independent sources of information are able to undermine their legitimacy. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Democracy (from Ancient Greek: δημοκρατία, romanized: dēmokratía, dēmos 'people' and kratos 'rule') is a system of government in which state power is vested in the people or the general population of a state. According to the United Nations, democracy \"provides an environment that respects human rights and fundamental freedoms, and in which the freely expressed will of people is exercised.\"",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In a direct democracy, the people have the direct authority to deliberate and decide legislation. In a representative democracy, the people choose governing officials through elections to do so. Who is considered part of \"the people\" and how authority is shared among or delegated by the people has changed over time and at different rates in different countries. Features of democracy oftentimes include freedom of assembly, association, personal property, freedom of religion and speech, citizenship, consent of the governed, voting rights, freedom from unwarranted governmental deprivation of the right to life and liberty, and minority rights.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The notion of democracy has evolved over time considerably. Throughout history, one can find evidence of direct democracy, in which communities make decisions through popular assembly. Today, the dominant form of democracy is representative democracy, where citizens elect government officials to govern on their behalf such as in a parliamentary or presidential democracy.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Most democracies apply in most cases majority rule, but in some cases plurality rule, supermajority rule (e.g. constitution) or consensus rule (e.g. Switzerland) are applied. They serve the crucial purpose of inclusiveness and broader legitimacy on sensitive issues—counterbalancing majoritarianism—and therefore mostly take precedence on a constitutional level. In the common variant of liberal democracy, the powers of the majority are exercised within the framework of a representative democracy, but the constitution and a supreme court limit the majority and protect the minority—usually through securing the enjoyment by all of certain individual rights, e.g. freedom of speech or freedom of association.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The term appeared in the 5th century BC in Greek city-states, notably Classical Athens, to mean \"rule of the people\", in contrast to aristocracy (ἀριστοκρατία, aristokratía), meaning \"rule of an elite\". Western democracy, as distinct from that which existed in antiquity, is generally considered to have originated in city-states such as those in Classical Athens and the Roman Republic, where various schemes and degrees of enfranchisement of the free male population were observed before the form disappeared in the West at the beginning of late antiquity. In virtually all democratic governments throughout ancient and modern history, democratic citizenship was initially restricted to an elite class, which was later extended to all adult citizens. In most modern democracies, this was achieved through the suffrage movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is either held by an individual, as in autocratic systems like absolute monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals, as in an oligarchy—oppositions inherited from ancient Greek philosophy. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders and to oust them without the need for a revolution. World public opinion strongly favors democratic systems of government. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices and The Economist Democracy Index, less than half the world's population lives in a democracy as of 2022. Democratic backsliding with a rise in hybrid regimes has exceeded democratization since the early to mid 2010s.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Although democracy is generally understood to be defined by voting, no consensus exists on a precise definition of democracy. Karl Popper says that the \"classical\" view of democracy is, \"in brief, the theory that democracy is the rule of the people, and that the people have a right to rule\". Kofi Annan states that \"there are as many different forms of democracy as there are democratic nations in the world.\" One study identified 2,234 adjectives used to describe democracy in the English language.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "A 1951 UNESCO-sponsored report found the idea of democracy \"highly ambiguous\".",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Democratic principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to legislative processes. For example, in a representative democracy, every vote has (in theory) equal weight, and the freedom of eligible citizens is secured by legitimised rights and liberties which are typically enshrined in a constitution. Other uses of \"democracy\" may encompass direct democracy, in which citizens vote on issues directly.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "One theory holds that democracy requires three fundamental principles: upward control (sovereignty residing at the lowest levels of authority), political equality, and social norms by which individuals and institutions only consider acceptable acts that reflect the first two principles of upward control and political equality. Legal equality, political freedom and rule of law are often identified by commentators as foundational characteristics for a well-functioning democracy.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Roger Scruton argued that democracy alone cannot provide personal and political freedom unless the institutions of civil society are also present.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In some countries, notably in the United Kingdom (which originated the Westminster system), the dominant principle is that of parliamentary sovereignty, while maintaining judicial independence. In India, parliamentary sovereignty is subject to the Constitution of India which includes judicial review. Though the term \"democracy\" is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles also are potentially applicable to private organisations, such as clubs, societies and firms.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Democracies may use many different decision-making methods, but majority rule is the dominant form. Without compensation, like legal protections of individual or group rights, political minorities can be oppressed by the \"tyranny of the majority\". Majority rule involves a competitive approach, opposed to consensus democracy, creating the need that elections, and generally deliberation, are substantively and procedurally \"fair\",\" i.e. just and equitable. In some countries, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are considered important to ensure that voters are well informed, enabling them to vote according to their own interests and beliefs.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "It has also been suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of all voters to participate freely and fully in the life of their society. With its emphasis on notions of social contract and the collective will of all the voters, democracy can also be characterised as a form of political collectivism because it is defined as a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in lawmaking.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Republics, though often popularly associated with democracy because of the shared principle of rule by consent of the governed, are not necessarily democracies, as republicanism does not specify how the people are to rule. Classically the term \"republic\" encompassed both democracies and aristocracies. In a modern sense the republican form of government is a form of government without a monarch. Because of this, democracies can be republics or constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Democratic assemblies are as old as the human species and are found throughout human history, but up until the nineteenth century, major political figures have largely opposed democracy. Republican theorists linked democracy to small size: as political units grew in size, the likelihood increased that the government would turn despotic. At the same time, small political units were vulnerable to conquest. Montesquieu wrote, \"If a republic be small, it is destroyed by a foreign force; if it be large, it is ruined by an internal imperfection.\" According to Johns Hopkins University political scientist Daniel Deudney, the creation of the United States, with its large size and its system of checks and balances, was a solution to the dual problems of size.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Retrospectively different polities, outside of declared democracies, have been described as proto-democratic.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The term democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. The word comes from dêmos '(common) people' and krátos 'force/might'. Under Cleisthenes, what is generally held as the first example of a type of democracy in 508–507 BC was established in Athens. Cleisthenes is referred to as \"the father of Athenian democracy\". The first attested use of the word democracy is found in prose works of the 430s BC, such as Herodotus' Histories, but its usage was older by several decades, as two Athenians born in the 470s were named Democrates, a new political name—likely in support of democracy—given at a time of debates over constitutional issues in Athens. Aeschylus also strongly alludes to the word in his play The Suppliants, staged in c.463 BC, where he mentions \"the demos's ruling hand\" [demou kratousa cheir]. Before that time, the word used to define the new political system of Cleisthenes was probably isonomia, meaning political equality.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Athenian democracy took the form of a direct democracy, and it had two distinguishing features: the random selection of ordinary citizens to fill the few existing government administrative and judicial offices, and a legislative assembly consisting of all Athenian citizens. All eligible citizens were allowed to speak and vote in the assembly, which set the laws of the city state. However, Athenian citizenship excluded women, slaves, foreigners (μέτοικοι / métoikoi), and youths below the age of military service. Effectively, only 1 in 4 residents in Athens qualified as citizens. Owning land was not a requirement for citizenship. The exclusion of large parts of the population from the citizen body is closely related to the ancient understanding of citizenship. In most of antiquity the benefit of citizenship was tied to the obligation to fight war campaigns.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Athenian democracy was not only direct in the sense that decisions were made by the assembled people, but also the most direct in the sense that the people through the assembly, boule and courts of law controlled the entire political process and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in the public business. Even though the rights of the individual were not secured by the Athenian constitution in the modern sense (the ancient Greeks had no word for \"rights\"), those who were citizens of Athens enjoyed their liberties not in opposition to the government but by living in a city that was not subject to another power and by not being subjects themselves to the rule of another person.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Range voting appeared in Sparta as early as 700 BC. The Spartan ecclesia was an assembly of the people, held once a month, in which every male citizen of at least 20 years of age could participate. In the assembly, Spartans elected leaders and cast votes by range voting and shouting (the vote is then decided on how loudly the crowd shouts). Aristotle called this \"childish\", as compared with the stone voting ballots used by the Athenian citizenry. Sparta adopted it because of its simplicity, and to prevent any biased voting, buying, or cheating that was predominant in the early democratic elections.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Even though the Roman Republic contributed significantly to many aspects of democracy, only a minority of Romans were citizens with votes in elections for representatives. The votes of the powerful were given more weight through a system of weighted voting, so most high officials, including members of the Senate, came from a few wealthy and noble families. In addition, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom was the first case in the Western world of a polity being formed with the explicit purpose of being a republic, although it didn't have much of a democracy. The Roman model of governance inspired many political thinkers over the centuries.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Vaishali, capital city of the Vajjika League (Vrijji mahajanapada) of India, was also considered one of the first examples of a republic around the 6th century BC.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Other cultures, such as the Iroquois Nation in the Americas also developed a form of democratic society between 1450 and 1660 (and possibly in 1142), well before contact with the Europeans. This democracy continues to the present day and is the world's oldest standing representative democracy. This indicates that forms of democracy may have been invented in other societies around the world.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "While most regions in Europe during the Middle Ages were ruled by clergy or feudal lords, there existed various systems involving elections or assemblies, although often only involving a small part of the population. In Scandinavia, bodies known as things consisted of freemen presided by a lawspeaker. These deliberative bodies were responsible for settling political questions, and variants included the Althing in Iceland and the Løgting in the Faeroe Islands. The veche, found in Eastern Europe, was a similar body to the Scandinavian thing. In the Roman Catholic Church, the pope has been elected by a papal conclave composed of cardinals since 1059. The first documented parliamentary body in Europe was the Cortes of León. Established by Alfonso IX in 1188, the Cortes had authority over setting taxation, foreign affairs and legislating, though the exact nature of its role remains disputed. The Republic of Ragusa, established in 1358 and centered around the city of Dubrovnik, provided representation and voting rights to its male aristocracy only. Various Italian city-states and polities had republic forms of government. For instance, the Republic of Florence, established in 1115, was led by the Signoria whose members were chosen by sortition. In 10th–15th century Frisia, a distinctly non-feudal society, the right to vote on local matters and on county officials was based on land size. The Kouroukan Fouga divided the Mali Empire into ruling clans (lineages) that were represented at a great assembly called the Gbara. However, the charter made Mali more similar to a constitutional monarchy than a democratic republic.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Parliament of England had its roots in the restrictions on the power of kings written into Magna Carta (1215), which explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects and implicitly supported what became the English writ of habeas corpus, safeguarding individual freedom against unlawful imprisonment with right to appeal. The first representative national assembly in England was Simon de Montfort's Parliament in 1265. The emergence of petitioning is some of the earliest evidence of parliament being used as a forum to address the general grievances of ordinary people. However, the power to call parliament remained at the pleasure of the monarch.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Studies have linked the emergence of parliamentary institutions in Europe during the medieval period to urban agglomeration and the creation of new classes, such as artisans, as well as the presence of nobility and religious elites. Scholars have also linked the emergence of representative government to Europe's relative political fragmentation. Political scientist David Stasavage links the fragmentation of Europe, and its subsequent democratization, to the manner in which the Roman Empire collapsed: Roman territory was conquered by small fragmented groups of Germanic tribes, thus leading to the creation of small political units where rulers were relatively weak and needed the consent of the governed to ward off foreign threats.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In Poland, noble democracy was characterized by an increase in the activity of the middle nobility, which wanted to increase their share in exercising power at the expense of the magnates. Magnates dominated the most important offices in the state (secular and ecclesiastical) and sat on the royal council, later the senate. The growing importance of the middle nobility had an impact on the establishment of the institution of the land sejmik (local assembly), which subsequently obtained more rights. During the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth century, sejmiks received more and more powers and became the most important institutions of local power. In 1454, Casimir IV Jagiellon granted the sejmiks the right to decide on taxes and to convene a mass mobilization in the Nieszawa Statutes. He also pledged not to create new laws without their consent.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In 17th century England, there was renewed interest in Magna Carta. The Parliament of England passed the Petition of Right in 1628 which established certain liberties for subjects. The English Civil War (1642–1651) was fought between the King and an oligarchic but elected Parliament, during which the idea of a political party took form with groups debating rights to political representation during the Putney Debates of 1647. Subsequently, the Protectorate (1653–59) and the English Restoration (1660) restored more autocratic rule, although Parliament passed the Habeas Corpus Act in 1679 which strengthened the convention that forbade detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Bill of Rights was enacted in 1689 which codified certain rights and liberties and is still in effect. The Bill set out the requirement for regular elections, rules for freedom of speech in Parliament and limited the power of the monarch, ensuring that, unlike much of Europe at the time, royal absolutism would not prevail. Economic historians Douglass North and Barry Weingast have characterized the institutions implemented in the Glorious Revolution as a resounding success in terms of restraining the government and ensuring protection for property rights.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Renewed interest in the Magna Carta, the English Civil War, and the Glorious Revolution in the 17th century prompted the growth of political philosophy on the British Isles. Thomas Hobbes was the first philosopher to articulate a detailed social contract theory. Writing in the Leviathan (1651), Hobbes theorized that individuals living in the state of nature led lives that were \"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short\" and constantly waged a war of all against all. In order to prevent the occurrence of an anarchic state of nature, Hobbes reasoned that individuals ceded their rights to a strong, authoritarian power. In other words, Hobbes advocated for an absolute monarchy which, in his opinion, was the best form of government. Later, philosopher and physician John Locke would posit a different interpretation of social contract theory. Writing in his Two Treatises of Government (1689), Locke posited that all individuals possessed the inalienable rights to life, liberty and estate (property). According to Locke, individuals would voluntarily come together to form a state for the purposes of defending their rights. Particularly important for Locke were property rights, whose protection Locke deemed to be a government's primary purpose. Furthermore, Locke asserted that governments were legitimate only if they held the consent of the governed. For Locke, citizens had the right to revolt against a government that acted against their interest or became tyrannical. Although they were not widely read during his lifetime, Locke's works are considered the founding documents of liberal thought and profoundly influenced the leaders of the American Revolution and later the French Revolution. His liberal democratic framework of governance remains the preeminent form of democracy in the world.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In the Cossack republics of Ukraine in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Cossack Hetmanate and Zaporizhian Sich, the holder of the highest post of Hetman was elected by the representatives from the country's districts.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In North America, representative government began in Jamestown, Virginia, with the election of the House of Burgesses (forerunner of the Virginia General Assembly) in 1619. English Puritans who migrated from 1620 established colonies in New England whose local governance was democratic; although these local assemblies had some small amounts of devolved power, the ultimate authority was held by the Crown and the English Parliament. The Puritans (Pilgrim Fathers), Baptists, and Quakers who founded these colonies applied the democratic organisation of their congregations also to the administration of their communities in worldly matters.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The first Parliament of Great Britain was established in 1707, after the merger of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland under the Acts of Union. Two key documents of the UK's uncodified constitution, the English Declaration of Right, 1689 (restated in the Bill of Rights 1689) and the Scottish Claim of Right 1689, had both cemented Parliament's position as the supreme law-making body, and said that the \"election of members of Parliament ought to be free\". However, Parliament was only elected by male property owners, which amounted to 3% of the population in 1780. The first known British person of African heritage to vote in a general election, Ignatius Sancho, voted in 1774 and 1780.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "During the Age of Liberty in Sweden (1718–1772), civil rights were expanded and power shifted from the monarch to parliament. The taxed peasantry was represented in parliament, although with little influence, but commoners without taxed property had no suffrage.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The creation of the short-lived Corsican Republic in 1755 was an early attempt to adopt a democratic constitution (all men and women above age of 25 could vote). This Corsican Constitution was the first based on Enlightenment principles and included female suffrage, something that was not included in most other democracies until the 20th century.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Colonial America had similar property qualifications as Britain, and in the period before 1776 the abundance and availability of land meant that large numbers of colonists met such requirements with at least 60 per cent of adult white males able to vote. The great majority of white men were farmers who met the property ownership or taxpaying requirements. With few exceptions no blacks or women could vote. Vermont, which, on declaring independence of Great Britain in 1777, adopted a constitution modelled on Pennsylvania's with citizenship and democratic suffrage for males with or without property. The United States Constitution of 1787 is the oldest surviving, still active, governmental codified constitution. The Constitution provided for an elected government and protected civil rights and liberties, but did not end slavery nor extend voting rights in the United States, instead leaving the issue of suffrage to the individual states. Generally, states limited suffrage to white male property owners and taxpayers. At the time of the first Presidential election in 1789, about 6% of the population was eligible to vote. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to whites only. The Bill of Rights in 1791 set limits on government power to protect personal freedoms but had little impact on judgements by the courts for the first 130 years after ratification.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In 1789, Revolutionary France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and, although short-lived, the National Convention was elected by all men in 1792. The Polish-Lithuanian Constitution of 3 May 1791 sought to implement a more effective constitutional monarchy, introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility, and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. In force for less than 19 months, it was declared null and void by the Grodno Sejm that met in 1793. Nonetheless, the 1791 Constitution helped keep alive Polish aspirations for the eventual restoration of the country's sovereignty over a century later.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "In the United States, the 1828 presidential election was the first in which non-property-holding white males could vote in the vast majority of states. Voter turnout soared during the 1830s, reaching about 80% of the adult white male population in the 1840 presidential election. North Carolina was the last state to abolish property qualification in 1856 resulting in a close approximation to universal white male suffrage (however tax-paying requirements remained in five states in 1860 and survived in two states until the 20th century). In the 1860 United States Census, the slave population had grown to four million, and in Reconstruction after the Civil War, three constitutional amendments were passed: the 13th Amendment (1865) that ended slavery; the 14th Amendment (1869) that gave black people citizenship, and the 15th Amendment (1870) that gave black males a nominal right to vote. Full enfranchisement of citizens was not secured until after the civil rights movement gained passage by the US Congress of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The voting franchise in the United Kingdom was expanded and made more uniform in a series of reforms that began with the Reform Act 1832 and continued into the 20th century, notably with the Representation of the People Act 1918 and the Equal Franchise Act 1928. Universal male suffrage was established in France in March 1848 in the wake of the French Revolution of 1848. During that year, several revolutions broke out in Europe as rulers were confronted with popular demands for liberal constitutions and more democratic government.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In 1876 the Ottoman Empire transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, and held two elections the next year to elect members to her newly formed parliament. Provisional Electoral Regulations were issued, stating that the elected members of the Provincial Administrative Councils would elect members to the first Parliament. Later that year, a new constitution was promulgated, which provided for a bicameral Parliament with a Senate appointed by the Sultan and a popularly elected Chamber of Deputies. Only men above the age of 30 who were competent in Turkish and had full civil rights were allowed to stand for election. Reasons for disqualification included holding dual citizenship, being employed by a foreign government, being bankrupt, employed as a servant, or having \"notoriety for ill deeds\". Full universal suffrage was achieved in 1934.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "In 1893 the self-governing colony New Zealand became the first country in the world (except for the short-lived 18th-century Corsican Republic) to establish active universal suffrage by recognizing women as having the right to vote.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "20th-century transitions to liberal democracy have come in successive \"waves of democracy\", variously resulting from wars, revolutions, decolonisation, and religious and economic circumstances. Global waves of \"democratic regression\" reversing democratization, have also occurred in the 1920s and 30s, in the 1960s and 1970s, and in the 2010s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "World War I and the dissolution of the autocratic Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires resulted in the creation of new nation-states in Europe, most of them at least nominally democratic. In the 1920s democratic movements flourished and women's suffrage advanced, but the Great Depression brought disenchantment and most of the countries of Europe, Latin America, and Asia turned to strong-man rule or dictatorships. Fascism and dictatorships flourished in Nazi Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as non-democratic governments in the Baltics, the Balkans, Brazil, Cuba, China, and Japan, among others.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "World War II brought a definitive reversal of this trend in western Europe. The democratisation of the American, British, and French sectors of occupied Germany (disputed), Austria, Italy, and the occupied Japan served as a model for the later theory of government change. However, most of Eastern Europe, including the Soviet sector of Germany fell into the non-democratic Soviet-dominated bloc.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "The war was followed by decolonisation, and again most of the new independent states had nominally democratic constitutions. India emerged as the world's largest democracy and continues to be so. Countries that were once part of the British Empire often adopted the British Westminster system. By 1960, the vast majority of country-states were nominally democracies, although most of the world's populations lived in nominal democracies that experienced sham elections, and other forms of subterfuge (particularly in \"Communist\" states and the former colonies.)",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "A subsequent wave of democratisation brought substantial gains toward true liberal democracy for many states, dubbed \"third wave of democracy.\" Portugal, Spain, and several of the military dictatorships in South America returned to civilian rule in the 1970s and 1980s. This was followed by countries in East and South Asia by the mid-to-late 1980s. Economic malaise in the 1980s, along with resentment of Soviet oppression, contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the associated end of the Cold War, and the democratisation and liberalisation of the former Eastern bloc countries. The most successful of the new democracies were those geographically and culturally closest to western Europe, and they are now either part of the European Union or candidate states. In 1986, after the toppling of the most prominent Asian dictatorship, the only democratic state of its kind at the time emerged in the Philippines with the rise of Corazon Aquino, who would later be known as the Mother of Asian Democracy.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The liberal trend spread to some states in Africa in the 1990s, most prominently in South Africa. Some recent examples of attempts of liberalisation include the Indonesian Revolution of 1998, the Bulldozer Revolution in Yugoslavia, the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, and the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "According to Freedom House, in 2007 there were 123 electoral democracies (up from 40 in 1972). According to World Forum on Democracy, electoral democracies now represent 120 of the 192 existing countries and constitute 58.2 per cent of the world's population. At the same time liberal democracies i.e. countries Freedom House regards as free and respectful of basic human rights and the rule of law are 85 in number and represent 38 per cent of the global population. Also in 2007 the United Nations declared 15 September the International Day of Democracy.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Many countries reduced their voting age to 18 years; the major democracies began to do so in the 1970s starting in Western Europe and North America. Most electoral democracies continue to exclude those younger than 18 from voting. The voting age has been lowered to 16 for national elections in a number of countries, including Brazil, Austria, Cuba, and Nicaragua. In California, a 2004 proposal to permit a quarter vote at 14 and a half vote at 16 was ultimately defeated. In 2008, the German parliament proposed but shelved a bill that would grant the vote to each citizen at birth, to be used by a parent until the child claims it for themselves.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "According to Freedom House, starting in 2005, there have been 17 consecutive years in which declines in political rights and civil liberties throughout the world have outnumbered improvements, as populist and nationalist political forces have gained ground everywhere from Poland (under the Law and Justice Party) to the Philippines (under Rodrigo Duterte). In a Freedom House report released in 2018, Democracy Scores for most countries declined for the 12th consecutive year. The Christian Science Monitor reported that nationalist and populist political ideologies were gaining ground, at the expense of rule of law, in countries like Poland, Turkey and Hungary. For example, in Poland, the President appointed 27 new Supreme Court judges over legal objections from the European Commission. In Turkey, thousands of judges were removed from their positions following a failed coup attempt during a government crackdown .",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "\"Democratic backsliding\" in the 2010s were attributed to economic inequality and social discontent, personalism, poor management of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other factors such as government manipulation of civil society, \"toxic polarization,\" foreign disinformation campaigns, racism and nativism, excessive executive power, and decreased power of the opposition. Within English-speaking Western democracies, \"protection-based\" attitudes combining cultural conservatism and leftist economic attitudes were the strongest predictor of support for authoritarian modes of governance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Aristotle contrasted rule by the many (democracy/timocracy), with rule by the few (oligarchy/aristocracy), and with rule by a single person (tyranny or today autocracy/absolute monarchy). He also thought that there was a good and a bad variant of each system (he considered democracy to be the degenerate counterpart to timocracy).",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "A common view among early and renaissance Republican theorists was that democracy could only survive in small political communities. Heeding the lessons of the Roman Republic's shift to monarchism as it grew larger or smaller, these Republican theorists held that the expansion of territory and population inevitably led to tyranny. Democracy was therefore highly fragile and rare historically, as it could only survive in small political units, which due to their size were vulnerable to conquest by larger political units. Montesquieu famously said, \"if a republic is small, it is destroyed by an outside force; if it is large, it is destroyed by an internal vice.\" Rousseau asserted, \"It is, therefore the natural property of small states to be governed as a republic, of middling ones to be subject to a monarch, and of large empires to be swayed by a despotic prince.\"",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Among modern political theorists, there are three contending conceptions of democracy: aggregative democracy, deliberative democracy, and radical democracy.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "The theory of aggregative democracy claims that the aim of the democratic processes is to solicit citizens' preferences and aggregate them together to determine what social policies society should adopt. Therefore, proponents of this view hold that democratic participation should primarily focus on voting, where the policy with the most votes gets implemented.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Different variants of aggregative democracy exist. Under minimalism, democracy is a system of government in which citizens have given teams of political leaders the right to rule in periodic elections. According to this minimalist conception, citizens cannot and should not \"rule\" because, for example, on most issues, most of the time, they have no clear views or their views are not well-founded. Joseph Schumpeter articulated this view most famously in his book Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Contemporary proponents of minimalism include William H. Riker, Adam Przeworski, Richard Posner.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "According to the theory of direct democracy, on the other hand, citizens should vote directly, not through their representatives, on legislative proposals. Proponents of direct democracy offer varied reasons to support this view. Political activity can be valuable in itself, it socialises and educates citizens, and popular participation can check powerful elites. Most importantly, citizens do not rule themselves unless they directly decide laws and policies.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Governments will tend to produce laws and policies that are close to the views of the median voter—with half to their left and the other half to their right. This is not a desirable outcome as it represents the action of self-interested and somewhat unaccountable political elites competing for votes. Anthony Downs suggests that ideological political parties are necessary to act as a mediating broker between individual and governments. Downs laid out this view in his 1957 book An Economic Theory of Democracy.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Robert A. Dahl argues that the fundamental democratic principle is that, when it comes to binding collective decisions, each person in a political community is entitled to have his/her interests be given equal consideration (not necessarily that all people are equally satisfied by the collective decision). He uses the term polyarchy to refer to societies in which there exists a certain set of institutions and procedures which are perceived as leading to such democracy. First and foremost among these institutions is the regular occurrence of free and open elections which are used to select representatives who then manage all or most of the public policy of the society. However, these polyarchic procedures may not create a full democracy if, for example, poverty prevents political participation. Similarly, Ronald Dworkin argues that \"democracy is a substantive, not a merely procedural, ideal.\"",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Deliberative democracy is based on the notion that democracy is government by deliberation. Unlike aggregative democracy, deliberative democracy holds that, for a democratic decision to be legitimate, it must be preceded by authentic deliberation, not merely the aggregation of preferences that occurs in voting. Authentic deliberation is deliberation among decision-makers that is free from distortions of unequal political power, such as power a decision-maker obtained through economic wealth or the support of interest groups. If the decision-makers cannot reach consensus after authentically deliberating on a proposal, then they vote on the proposal using a form of majority rule. Citizens assemblies are considered by many scholars as practical examples of deliberative democracy, with a recent OECD report identifying citizens assemblies as an increasingly popular mechanism to involve citizens in governmental decision-making.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Radical democracy is based on the idea that there are hierarchical and oppressive power relations that exist in society. Democracy's role is to make visible and challenge those relations by allowing for difference, dissent and antagonisms in decision-making processes.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "",
"title": "Measurement of democracy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Democracy indices are quantitative and comparative assessments of the state of democracy for different countries according to various definitions of democracy.",
"title": "Measurement of democracy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "The democracies indices differ in whether they are categorical, such as classifying countries into democracies, hybrid regimes, and autocracies, or continuous values. The qualitative nature of democracy indices enables data analytical approaches for studying causal mechanisms of regime transformation processes.",
"title": "Measurement of democracy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Democracy has taken a number of forms, both in theory and practice. Some varieties of democracy provide better representation and more freedom for their citizens than others. However, if any democracy is not structured to prohibit the government from excluding the people from the legislative process, or any branch of government from altering the separation of powers in its favour, then a branch of the system can accumulate too much power and destroy the democracy.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "The following kinds of democracy are not exclusive of one another: many specify details of aspects that are independent of one another and can co-exist in a single system.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Several variants of democracy exist, but there are two basic forms, both of which concern how the whole body of all eligible citizens executes its will. One form of democracy is direct democracy, in which all eligible citizens have active participation in the political decision making, for example voting on policy initiatives directly. In most modern democracies, the whole body of eligible citizens remain the sovereign power but political power is exercised indirectly through elected representatives; this is called a representative democracy.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Direct democracy is a political system where the citizens participate in the decision-making personally, contrary to relying on intermediaries or representatives. A direct democracy gives the voting population the power to:",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Within modern-day representative governments, certain electoral tools like referendums, citizens' initiatives and recall elections are referred to as forms of direct democracy. However, some advocates of direct democracy argue for local assemblies of face-to-face discussion. Direct democracy as a government system currently exists in the Swiss cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus, the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities, communities affiliated with the CIPO-RFM, the Bolivian city councils of FEJUVE, and Kurdish cantons of Rojava.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "The use of a lot system, a characteristic of Athenian democracy, is a feature of some versions of direct democracies. In this system, important governmental and administrative tasks are performed by citizens picked from a lottery.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Representative democracy involves the election of government officials by the people being represented. If the head of state is also democratically elected then it is called a democratic republic. The most common mechanisms involve election of the candidate with a majority or a plurality of the votes. Most western countries have representative systems.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Representatives may be elected or become diplomatic representatives by a particular district (or constituency), or represent the entire electorate through proportional systems, with some using a combination of the two. Some representative democracies also incorporate elements of direct democracy, such as referendums. A characteristic of representative democracy is that while the representatives are elected by the people to act in the people's interest, they retain the freedom to exercise their own judgement as how best to do so. Such reasons have driven criticism upon representative democracy, pointing out the contradictions of representation mechanisms with democracy",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Parliamentary democracy is a representative democracy where government is appointed by or can be dismissed by, representatives as opposed to a \"presidential rule\" wherein the president is both head of state and the head of government and is elected by the voters. Under a parliamentary democracy, government is exercised by delegation to an executive ministry and subject to ongoing review, checks and balances by the legislative parliament elected by the people.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "In a parliamentary system, the Prime Minister may be dismissed by the legislature at any point in time for not meeting the expectations of the legislature. This is done through a Vote of No Confidence where the legislature decides whether or not to remove the Prime Minister from office with majority support for dismissal. In some countries, the Prime Minister can also call an election at any point in time, typically when the Prime Minister believes that they are in good favour with the public as to get re-elected. In other parliamentary democracies, extra elections are virtually never held, a minority government being preferred until the next ordinary elections. An important feature of the parliamentary democracy is the concept of the \"loyal opposition\". The essence of the concept is that the second largest political party (or opposition) opposes the governing party (or coalition), while still remaining loyal to the state and its democratic principles.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Presidential Democracy is a system where the public elects the president through an election. The president serves as both the head of state and head of government controlling most of the executive powers. The president serves for a specific term and cannot exceed that amount of time. The legislature often has limited ability to remove a president from office. Elections typically have a fixed date and aren't easily changed. The president has direct control over the cabinet, specifically appointing the cabinet members.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "The executive usually has the responsibility to execute or implement legislation and may have the limited legislative powers, such as a veto. However, a legislative branch passes legislation and budgets. This provides some measure of separation of powers. In consequence, however, the president and the legislature may end up in the control of separate parties, allowing one to block the other and thereby interfere with the orderly operation of the state. This may be the reason why presidential democracy is not very common outside the Americas, Africa, and Central and Southeast Asia.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "A semi-presidential system is a system of democracy in which the government includes both a prime minister and a president. The particular powers held by the prime minister and president vary by country.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Some modern democracies that are predominantly representative in nature also heavily rely upon forms of political action that are directly democratic. These democracies, which combine elements of representative democracy and direct democracy, are termed hybrid democracies, semi-direct democracies or participatory democracies. Examples include Switzerland and some U.S. states, where frequent use is made of referendums and initiatives.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "The Swiss confederation is a semi-direct democracy. At the federal level, citizens can propose changes to the constitution (federal popular initiative) or ask for a referendum to be held on any law voted by the parliament. Between January 1995 and June 2005, Swiss citizens voted 31 times, to answer 103 questions (during the same period, French citizens participated in only two referendums). Although in the past 120 years less than 250 initiatives have been put to referendum.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Examples include the extensive use of referendums in the US state of California, which is a state that has more than 20 million voters.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "In New England, town meetings are often used, especially in rural areas, to manage local government. This creates a hybrid form of government, with a local direct democracy and a representative state government. For example, most Vermont towns hold annual town meetings in March in which town officers are elected, budgets for the town and schools are voted on, and citizens have the opportunity to speak and be heard on political matters.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "Many countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavian countries, Thailand, Japan and Bhutan turned powerful monarchs into constitutional monarchs (often gradually) with limited or symbolic roles. For example, in the predecessor states to the United Kingdom, constitutional monarchy began to emerge and has continued uninterrupted since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and passage of the Bill of Rights 1689. Strongly limited constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom, have been referred to as crowned republics by writers such as H. G. Wells.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "In other countries, the monarchy was abolished along with the aristocratic system (as in France, China, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Greece and Egypt). An elected person, with or without significant powers, became the head of state in these countries.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Elite upper houses of legislatures, which often had lifetime or hereditary tenure, were common in many states. Over time, these either had their powers limited (as with the British House of Lords) or else became elective and remained powerful (as with the Australian Senate).",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "The term republic has many different meanings, but today often refers to a representative democracy with an elected head of state, such as a president, serving for a limited term, in contrast to states with a hereditary monarch as a head of state, even if these states also are representative democracies with an elected or appointed head of government such as a prime minister.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "The Founding Fathers of the United States often criticised direct democracy, which in their view often came without the protection of a constitution enshrining inalienable rights; James Madison argued, especially in The Federalist No. 10, that what distinguished a direct democracy from a republic was that the former became weaker as it got larger and suffered more violently from the effects of faction, whereas a republic could get stronger as it got larger and combats faction by its very structure.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "Professors Richard Ellis of Willamette University and Michael Nelson of Rhodes College argue that much constitutional thought, from Madison to Lincoln and beyond, has focused on \"the problem of majority tyranny.\" They conclude, \"The principles of republican government embedded in the Constitution represent an effort by the framers to ensure that the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would not be trampled by majorities.\" What was critical to American values, John Adams insisted, was that the government be \"bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend.\" As Benjamin Franklin was exiting after writing the U.S. constitution, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked him \"Well, Doctor, what have we got—a republic or a monarchy?\". He replied \"A republic—if you can keep it.\"",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "A liberal democracy is a representative democracy in which the ability of the elected representatives to exercise decision-making power is subject to the rule of law, and moderated by a constitution or laws that emphasise the protection of the rights and freedoms of individuals, and which places constraints on the leaders and on the extent to which the will of the majority can be exercised against the rights of minorities (see civil liberties).",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "In a liberal democracy, it is possible for some large-scale decisions to emerge from the many individual decisions that citizens are free to make. In other words, citizens can \"vote with their feet\" or \"vote with their dollars\", resulting in significant informal government-by-the-masses that exercises many \"powers\" associated with formal government elsewhere.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Socialist thought has several different views on democracy. Social democracy, democratic socialism, and the dictatorship of the proletariat (usually exercised through Soviet democracy) are some examples. Many democratic socialists and social democrats believe in a form of participatory, industrial, economic and/or workplace democracy combined with a representative democracy.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "Within Marxist orthodoxy there is a hostility to what is commonly called \"liberal democracy\", which is referred to as parliamentary democracy because of its centralised nature. Because of orthodox Marxists' desire to eliminate the political elitism they see in capitalism, Marxists, Leninists and Trotskyists believe in direct democracy implemented through a system of communes (which are sometimes called soviets). This system ultimately manifests itself as council democracy and begins with workplace democracy.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "Democracy cannot consist solely of elections that are nearly always fictitious and managed by rich landowners and professional politicians.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "Anarchists are split in this domain, depending on whether they believe that a majority-rule is tyrannic or not. To many anarchists, the only form of democracy considered acceptable is direct democracy. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon argued that the only acceptable form of direct democracy is one in which it is recognised that majority decisions are not binding on the minority, even when unanimous. However, anarcho-communist Murray Bookchin criticised individualist anarchists for opposing democracy, and says \"majority rule\" is consistent with anarchism.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "Some anarcho-communists oppose the majoritarian nature of direct democracy, feeling that it can impede individual liberty and opt-in favour of a non-majoritarian form of consensus democracy, similar to Proudhon's position on direct democracy.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "Sometimes called \"democracy without elections\", sortition chooses decision makers via a random process. The intention is that those chosen will be representative of the opinions and interests of the people at large and be fairer and more impartial than an elected official. The technique was in widespread use in Athenian Democracy and Renaissance Florence and is still used in modern jury selection.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "Consociational democracy was first conceptualized in the 1960s by Dutch American political scientist Arend Lijphart. Consociational democracy, also called consociationalism, can be defined as a form of democracy based on power-sharing formula between elites representing the social groups in the society. According to the founder of the theory of consociational democracy, Arendt Lijphart, \"Consociational democracy means government by elite cartel designed to turn a democracy with a fragmented political culture into a stable democracy\". A consociational democracy allows for simultaneous majority votes in two or more ethno-religious constituencies, and policies are enacted only if they gain majority support from both or all of them. The Qualified majority voting rule in European Council of Ministers is a consociational democracy approach for supranational democracies. This system in Treaty of Rome allocates votes to member states in part according to their population, but heavily weighted in favour of the smaller states. A consociational democracy requires consensus of representatives, while consensus democracy requires consensus of electorate.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Inclusive democracy is a political theory and political project that aims for direct democracy in all fields of social life: political democracy in the form of face-to-face assemblies which are confederated, economic democracy in a stateless, moneyless and marketless economy, democracy in the social realm, i.e. self-management in places of work and education, and ecological democracy which aims to reintegrate society and nature. The theoretical project of inclusive democracy emerged from the work of political philosopher Takis Fotopoulos in \"Towards An Inclusive Democracy\" and was further developed in the journal Democracy & Nature and its successor The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "The basic unit of decision making in an inclusive democracy is the demotic assembly, i.e. the assembly of demos, the citizen body in a given geographical area which may encompass a town and the surrounding villages, or even neighbourhoods of large cities. An inclusive democracy today can only take the form of a confederal democracy that is based on a network of administrative councils whose members or delegates are elected from popular face-to-face democratic assemblies in the various demoi. Thus, their role is purely administrative and practical, not one of policymaking like that of representatives in representative democracy.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "The citizen body is advised by experts, but it is the citizen body which functions as the ultimate decision-taker. Authority can be delegated to a segment of the citizen body to carry out specific duties, for example, to serve as members of popular courts, or of regional and confederal councils. Such delegation is made, in principle, by lot, on a rotation basis, and is always recallable by the citizen body. Delegates to regional and confederal bodies should have specific mandates.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "A Parpolity or Participatory Polity is a theoretical form of democracy that is ruled by a Nested Council structure. The guiding philosophy is that people should have decision-making power in proportion to how much they are affected by the decision. Local councils of 25–50 people are completely autonomous on issues that affect only them, and these councils send delegates to higher level councils who are again autonomous regarding issues that affect only the population affected by that council.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "A council court of randomly chosen citizens serves as a check on the tyranny of the majority, and rules on which body gets to vote on which issue. Delegates may vote differently from how their sending council might wish but are mandated to communicate the wishes of their sending council. Delegates are recallable at any time. Referendums are possible at any time via votes of lower-level councils, however, not everything is a referendum as this is most likely a waste of time. A parpolity is meant to work in tandem with a participatory economy.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "Cosmopolitan democracy, also known as Global democracy or World Federalism, is a political system in which democracy is implemented on a global scale, either directly or through representatives. An important justification for this kind of system is that the decisions made in national or regional democracies often affect people outside the constituency who, by definition, cannot vote. By contrast, in a cosmopolitan democracy, the people who are affected by decisions also have a say in them.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "According to its supporters, any attempt to solve global problems is undemocratic without some form of cosmopolitan democracy. The general principle of cosmopolitan democracy is to expand some or all of the values and norms of democracy, including the rule of law; the non-violent resolution of conflicts; and equality among citizens, beyond the limits of the state. To be fully implemented, this would require reforming existing international organisations, e.g., the United Nations, as well as the creation of new institutions such as a World Parliament, which ideally would enhance public control over, and accountability in, international politics.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "Cosmopolitan Democracy has been promoted, among others, by physicist Albert Einstein, writer Kurt Vonnegut, columnist George Monbiot, and professors David Held and Daniele Archibugi. The creation of the International Criminal Court in 2003 was seen as a major step forward by many supporters of this type of cosmopolitan democracy.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "Creative Democracy is advocated by American philosopher John Dewey. The main idea about Creative Democracy is that democracy encourages individual capacity building and the interaction among the society. Dewey argues that democracy is a way of life in his work of \"Creative Democracy: The Task Before Us\" and an experience built on faith in human nature, faith in human beings, and faith in working with others. Democracy, in Dewey's view, is a moral ideal requiring actual effort and work by people; it is not an institutional concept that exists outside of ourselves. \"The task of democracy\", Dewey concludes, \"is forever that of creation of a freer and more humane experience in which all share and to which all contribute\".",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "Guided democracy is a form of democracy that incorporates regular popular elections, but which often carefully \"guides\" the choices offered to the electorate in a manner that may reduce the ability of the electorate to truly determine the type of government exercised over them. Such democracies typically have only one central authority which is often not subject to meaningful public review by any other governmental authority. Russian-style democracy has often been referred to as a \"Guided democracy.\" Russian politicians have referred to their government as having only one center of power/ authority, as opposed to most other forms of democracy which usually attempt to incorporate two or more naturally competing sources of authority within the same government.",
"title": "Types of governmental democracies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "Aside from the public sphere, similar democratic principles and mechanisms of voting and representation have been used to govern other kinds of groups. Many non-governmental organisations decide policy and leadership by voting. Most trade unions and cooperatives are governed by democratic elections. Corporations are ultimately governed by their shareholders through shareholder democracy. Corporations may also employ systems such as workplace democracy to handle internal governance. Amitai Etzioni has postulated a system that fuses elements of democracy with sharia law, termed Islamocracy. There is also a growing number of Democratic educational institutions such as Sudbury schools that are co-governed by students and staff.",
"title": "Non-governmental democracy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "Shareholder democracy is a concept relating to the governance of corporations by their shareholders. In the United States, shareholders are typically granted voting rights according to the one share, one vote principle. Shareholders may vote annually to elect the company's board of directors, who themselves may choose the company's executives. The shareholder democracy framework may be inaccurate for companies which have different classes of stock that further alter the distribution of voting rights.",
"title": "Non-governmental democracy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "Several justifications for democracy have been postulated.",
"title": "Justification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "Social contract theory argues that the legitimacy of government is based on consent of the governed, i.e. an election, and that political decisions must reflect the general will. Some proponents of the theory like Jean-Jacques Rousseau advocate for a direct democracy on this basis.",
"title": "Justification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "Condorcet's jury theorem is logical proof that if each decision-maker has a better than chance probability of making the right decision, then having the largest number of decision-makers, i.e. a democracy, will result in the best decisions. This has also been argued by theories of the wisdom of the crowd.",
"title": "Justification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "In Why Nations Fail, economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson argue that democracies are more economically successful because undemocratic political systems tend to limit markets and favor monopolies at the expense of the creative destruction which is necessary for sustained economic growth.",
"title": "Justification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "A 2019 study by Acemoglu and others estimated that countries switching to democratic from authoritarian rule had on average a 20% higher GDP after 25 years than if they had remained authoritarian. The study examined 122 transitions to democracy and 71 transitions to authoritarian rule, occurring from 1960 to 2010. Acemoglu said this was because democracies tended to invest more in health care and human capital, and reduce special treatment of regime allies.",
"title": "Justification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "Democracy promotion, also referred to as democracy building, can be domestic policy to increase the quality of already existing democracy or a strand of foreign policy adopted by governments and international organizations that seek to support the spread of democracy as a system of government. Among the reasons for supporting democracy include the belief that countries with a democratic system of governance are less likely to go to war, are likely to be economically better off and socially more harmonious. In democracy building, the process includes the building and strengthening of democracy, in particular the consolidation of democratic institutions, including courts of law, police forces, and constitutions. Some critics have argued that the United States has used democracy promotion to justify military intervention abroad.",
"title": "Democracy promotion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "Much experience was gained after the Revolutions of 1989 resulted in the fall of the Iron Curtain and a wave of democratic transitions in former Communist states, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. According to Freedom House, the number of democracies increased from 41 of 150 existing states in 1974 to 123 of 192 states in 2006. The pace of transition slowed considerably since the beginning of the twenty-first century, which encouraged discussion of whether democracy was under threat. In the early twenty-first century, a democratic deficit was noticed in countries where democratic systems already existed, including Britain, the US and the European Union. In the financial sense, democracy promotion grew from 2% of aid in 1990 to nearly 20% in 2005.",
"title": "Democracy promotion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "Democracy promotion can increase the quality of already existing democracies, reduce political apathy, and the chance of democratic backsliding. Democracy promotion measures include voting advice applications, participatory democracy, increasing youth suffrage, increasing civic education, reducing barriers to entry for new political parties, increasing proportionality and reducing presidentialism.",
"title": "Democracy promotion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "A democratic transition describes a phase in a countries political system, often created as a result of an incomplete change from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one (or vice versa).",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "Several philosophers and researchers have outlined historical and social factors seen as supporting the evolution of democracy. Other commentators have mentioned the influence of economic development. In a related theory, Ronald Inglehart suggests that improved living-standards in modern developed countries can convince people that they can take their basic survival for granted, leading to increased emphasis on self-expression values, which correlates closely with democracy.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "Douglas M. Gibler and Andrew Owsiak in their study argued about the importance of peace and stable borders for the development of democracy. It has often been assumed that democracy causes peace, but this study shows that, historically, peace has almost always predated the establishment of democracy.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "Carroll Quigley concludes that the characteristics of weapons are the main predictor of democracy: Democracy—this scenario—tends to emerge only when the best weapons available are easy for individuals to obtain and use. By the 1800s, guns were the best personal weapons available, and in the United States of America (already nominally democratic), almost everyone could afford to buy a gun, and could learn how to use it fairly easily. Governments could not do any better: it became the age of mass armies of citizen soldiers with guns. Similarly, Periclean Greece was an age of the citizen soldier and democracy.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "Other theories stressed the relevance of education and of human capital—and within them of cognitive ability to increasing tolerance, rationality, political literacy and participation. Two effects of education and cognitive ability are distinguished:",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "Evidence consistent with conventional theories of why democracy emerges and is sustained has been hard to come by. Statistical analyses have challenged modernisation theory by demonstrating that there is no reliable evidence for the claim that democracy is more likely to emerge when countries become wealthier, more educated, or less unequal. In fact, empirical evidence shows that economic growth and education may not lead to increased demand for democratization as modernization theory suggests: historically, most countries attained high levels of access to primary education well before transitioning to democracy. Rather than acting as a catalyst for democratization, in some situations education provision may instead be used by non-democratic regimes to indoctrinate their subjects and strengthen their power.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "The assumed link between education and economic growth is called into question when analyzing empirical evidence. Across different countries, the correlation between education attainment and math test scores is very weak (.07). A similarly weak relationship exists between per-pupil expenditures and math competency (.26). Additionally, historical evidence suggests that average human capital (measured using literacy rates) of the masses does not explain the onset of industrialization in France from 1750 to 1850 despite arguments to the contrary. Together, these findings show that education does not always promote human capital and economic growth as is generally argued to be the case. Instead, the evidence implies that education provision often falls short of its expressed goals, or, alternatively, that political actors use education to promote goals other than economic growth and development.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "Some scholars have searched for the \"deep\" determinants of contemporary political institutions, be they geographical or demographic.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "An example of this is the disease environment. Places with different mortality rates had different populations and productivity levels around the world. For example, in Africa, the tsetse fly—which afflicts humans and livestock—reduced the ability of Africans to plough the land. This made Africa less settled. As a consequence, political power was less concentrated. This also affected the colonial institutions European countries established in Africa. Whether colonial settlers could live or not in a place made them develop different institutions which led to different economic and social paths. This also affected the distribution of power and the collective actions people could take. As a result, some African countries ended up having democracies and others autocracies.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "An example of geographical determinants for democracy is having access to coastal areas and rivers. This natural endowment has a positive relation with economic development thanks to the benefits of trade. Trade brought economic development, which in turn, broadened power. Rulers wanting to increase revenues had to protect property-rights to create incentives for people to invest. As more people had more power, more concessions had to be made by the ruler and in many places this process lead to democracy. These determinants defined the structure of the society moving the balance of political power.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "Robert Michels asserts that although democracy can never be fully realised, democracy may be developed automatically in the act of striving for democracy:",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "The peasant in the fable, when on his deathbed, tells his sons that a treasure is buried in the field. After the old man's death the sons dig everywhere in order to discover the treasure. They do not find it. But their indefatigable labor improves the soil and secures for them a comparative well-being. The treasure in the fable may well symbolise democracy.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 128,
"text": "Democracy in modern times has almost always faced opposition from the previously existing government, and many times it has faced opposition from social elites. The implementation of a democratic government from a non-democratic state is typically brought by peaceful or violent democratic revolution.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 129,
"text": "Some democratic governments have experienced sudden state collapse and regime change to an undemocratic form of government. Domestic military coups or rebellions are the most common means by which democratic governments have been overthrown. (See List of coups and coup attempts by country and List of civil wars.) Examples include the Spanish Civil War, the Coup of 18 Brumaire that ended the First French Republic, and the 28 May 1926 coup d'état which ended the First Portuguese Republic. Some military coups are supported by foreign governments, such as the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état and the 1953 Iranian coup d'état. Other types of a sudden end to democracy include:",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 130,
"text": "Democratic backsliding can end democracy in a gradual manner, by increasing emphasis on national security and eroding free and fair elections, freedom of expression, independence of the judiciary, rule of law. A famous example is the Enabling Act of 1933, which lawfully ended democracy in Weimar Germany and marked the transition to Nazi Germany.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 131,
"text": "Temporary or long-term political violence and government interference can prevent free and fair elections, which erode the democratic nature of governments. This has happened on a local level even in well-established democracies like the United States; for example, the Wilmington insurrection of 1898 and African-American disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 132,
"text": "Friedrich Nietzsche conveys a vision of a society where individuality is lost, and conformity prevails. In such a society, anyone who holds different beliefs or desires is considered deviant and is willingly marginalized or isolated: \"No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.\"",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 133,
"text": "Nietzsche expresses skepticism about the democratization of Europe, viewing it as a breeding ground for mediocrity, raising concerns about the equalizing and leveling tendencies within democratic societies as he writes: \"The democratization of Europe is at the same time an involuntary arrangement for the cultivation of mediocrity\".",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 134,
"text": "Nietzsche also questions whether democratic systems truly serve the enhancement of power and the flourishing of individuals, challenging the prevailing notions of what is considered good within democratic societies. For Nietzsche, the pursuit of power and self-assertion is fundamental to human nature, and any moral framework that suppresses or denies this natural inclination is seen as detrimental to human flourishing: \"What is good?—Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man\".",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 135,
"text": "Arrow's impossibility theorem suggests that single-winner elections can be logically incoherent. This is based on a certain set of criteria for democratic decision-making being inherently conflicting, i.e., these three \"fairness\" criteria:",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 136,
"text": "Kenneth Arrow summarised the implications of the theorem in a non-mathematical form, stating that \"no voting method is fair\", \"every ranked voting method is flawed\", and \"the only voting method that isn't flawed is a dictatorship\". However, Arrow's formal premises can be considered overly strict, and with their reasonable weakening, the logical incoherence of democracy looks much less critical. Arrow's impossibility theorem does not apply to multi-winner voting such as proportional representation.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 137,
"text": "Some economists have criticized the efficiency of democracy, citing the premise of the irrational voter, or a voter who makes decisions without all of the facts or necessary information in order to make a truly informed decision. Another argument is that democracy slows down processes because of the amount of input and participation needed in order to go forward with a decision. A common example often quoted to substantiate this point is the high economic development achieved by China (a non-democratic one-party ruling communist state) as compared to India (a democratic multi-party state). According to economists, the lack of democratic participation in countries like China allows for unfettered economic growth.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 138,
"text": "On the other hand, Socrates believed that democracy without educated masses (educated in the broader sense of being knowledgeable and responsible) would only lead to populism being the criteria to become an elected leader and not competence. This would ultimately lead to a societal demise. This was quoted by Plato in book 10 of The Republic, in Socrates' conversation with Adimantus. Socrates was of the opinion that the right to vote must not be an indiscriminate right (for example by birth or citizenship), but must be given only to people who thought sufficiently of their choice.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 139,
"text": "Plato's The Republic presents a critical view of democracy through the narration of Socrates: \"Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequaled alike.\" In his work, Plato lists 5 forms of government from best to worst, and lists democracy as the second worst, behind only tyranny, which he implies to be the natural outcome of democracy, arguing that in a democracy everyone puts their own selfish interests ahead of the common good until a tyrant emerges who is strong enough to impose his interest on everyone else. Assuming that the Republic was intended to be a serious critique of the political thought in Athens, Plato argues that only Kallipolis, an aristocracy led by the unwilling philosopher-kings (the wisest men), is a just form of government.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 140,
"text": "Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, warned Joe Biden, U.S. president, via a phone call that democracy was dying. \"Democracies require consensus, and it takes time, and you don't have the time\", Xi Jinping added.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 141,
"text": "The inefficiencies contribute to decreased voter turnout, decreased political efficacy, and political apathy.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 142,
"text": "The 20th-century Italian thinkers Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca (independently) argued that democracy was illusory, and served only to mask the reality of elite rule. Indeed, they argued that elite oligarchy is the unbendable law of human nature, due largely to the apathy and division of the masses (as opposed to the drive, initiative and unity of the elites), and that democratic institutions would do no more than shift the exercise of power from oppression to manipulation. As Louis Brandeis once professed, \"We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.\". A study led by Princeton professor Martin Gilens of 1,779 U.S. government decisions concluded that \"elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.\"",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 143,
"text": "James Madison critiqued democracy in Federalist No. 10, arguing that a republic is a preferable form of government, saying: \"... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.\" Madison offered that republics were superior to democracies because republics safeguarded against tyranny of the majority, stating in Federalist No. 10: \"the same advantage which a republic has over a democracy, in controlling the effects of faction, is enjoyed by a large over a small republic\". Thomas Jefferson warned that \"an elective despotism is not the government we fought for.\"",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 144,
"text": "More recently, democracy is criticised for not offering enough political stability. As governments are frequently elected on and off there tends to be frequent changes in the policies of democratic countries both domestically and internationally. Even if a political party maintains power, vociferous, headline-grabbing protests and harsh criticism from the popular media are often enough to force sudden, unexpected political change. Frequent policy changes with regard to business and immigration are likely to deter investment and so hinder economic growth. For this reason, many people have put forward the idea that democracy is undesirable for a developing country in which economic growth and the reduction of poverty are top priorities.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 145,
"text": "This opportunist alliance not only has the handicap of having to cater to too many ideologically opposing factions, but it is usually short-lived since any perceived or actual imbalance in the treatment of coalition partners, or changes to leadership in the coalition partners themselves, can very easily result in the coalition partner withdrawing its support from the government.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 146,
"text": "Biased media has been accused of causing political instability, resulting in the obstruction of democracy, rather than its promotion.",
"title": "Democratic transitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 147,
"text": "The theory of democracy relies on the implicit assumption that voters are well informed about social issues, policies, and candidates so that they can make a truly informed decision. Since the late 20'th century there has been a growing concern that voters may be poorly informed because the news media are focusing more on entertainment and gossip and less on serious journalistic research on political issues.",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 148,
"text": "The media professors Michael Gurevitch and Jay Blumler have proposed a number of functions that the mass media are expected to fulfill in a democracy:",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 149,
"text": "This proposal has inspired a lot of discussions over whether the news media are actually fulfilling the requirements that a well functioning democracy requires. Commercial mass media are generally not accountable to anybody but their owners, and they have no obligation to serve a democratic function. They are controlled mainly by economic market forces. Fierce economic competition may force the mass media to divert themselves from any democratic ideals and focus entirely on how to survive the competition.",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 150,
"text": "The tabloidization and popularization of the news media is seen in an increasing focus on human examples rather than statistics and principles. There is more focus on politicians as personalities and less focus on political issues in the popular media. Election campaigns are covered more as horse races and less as debates about ideologies and issues. The dominating media focus on spin, conflict, and competitive strategies has made voters perceive the politicians as egoists rather than idealists. This fosters mistrust and a cynical attitude to politics, less civic engagement, and less interest in voting. The ability to find effective political solutions to social problems is hampered when problems tend to be blamed on individuals rather than on structural causes. This person-centered focus may have far-reaching consequences not only for domestic problems but also for foreign policy when international conflicts are blamed on foreign heads of state rather than on political and economic structures. A strong media focus on fear and terrorism has allowed military logic to penetrate public institutions, leading to increased surveillance and the erosion of civil rights.",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 151,
"text": "The responsiveness and accountability of the democratic system is compromised when lack of access to substantive, diverse, and undistorted information is handicapping the citizens' capability of evaluating the political process. The fast pace and trivialization in the competitive news media is dumbing down the political debate. Thorough and balanced investigation of complex political issues does not fit into this format. The political communication is characterized by short time horizons, short slogans, simple explanations, and simple solutions. This is conducive to political populism rather than serious deliberation.",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 152,
"text": "Commercial mass media are often differentiated along the political spectrum so that people can hear mainly opinions that they already agree with. Too much controversy and diverse opinions are not always profitable for the commercial news media. Political polarization is emerging when different people read different news and watch different TV channels. This polarization has been worsened by the emergence of the social media that allow people to communicate mainly with groups of like-minded people, the so-called echo chambers. Extreme political polarization may undermine the trust in democratic institutions, leading to erosion of civil rights and free speech and in some cases even reversion to autocracy.",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 153,
"text": "Many media scholars have discussed non-commercial news media with public service obligations as a means to improve the democratic process by providing the kind of political contents that a free market does not provide. The World Bank has recommended public service broadcasting in order to strengthen democracy in developing countries. These broadcasting services should be accountable to an independent regulatory body that is adequately protected from interference from political and economic interests. Public service media have an obligation to provide reliable information to voters. Many countries have publicly funded radio and television stations with public service obligations, especially in Europe and Japan, while such media are weak or non-existent in other countries including the USA. Several studies have shown that the stronger the dominance of commercial broadcast media over public service media, the less the amount of policy-relevant information in the media and the more focus on horse race journalism, personalities, and the pecadillos of politicians. Public service broadcasters are characterized by more policy-relevant information and more respect for journalistic norms and impartiality than the commercial media. However, the trend of deregulation has put the public service model under increased pressure from competition with commercial media.",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 154,
"text": "The emergence of the internet and the social media has profoundly altered the conditions for political communication. The social media have given ordinary citizens easy access to voice their opinion and share information while bypassing the filters of the large news media. This is often seen as an advantage for democracy. The new possibilities for communication have fundamentally changed the way social movements and protest movements operate and organize. The internet and social media have provided powerful new tools for democracy movements in developing countries and emerging democracies, enabling them to bypass censorship, voice their opinions, and organize protests.",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 155,
"text": "A serious problem with the social media is that they have no truth filters. The established news media have to guard their reputation as trustworthy, while ordinary citizens may post unreliable information. In fact, studies show that false stories are going more viral than true stories. The proliferation of false stories and conspiracy theories may undermine public trust in the political system and public officials.",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 156,
"text": "Reliable information sources are essential for the democratic process. Less democratic governments rely heavily on censorship, propaganda, and misinformation in order to stay in power, while independent sources of information are able to undermine their legitimacy.",
"title": "Importance of mass media"
}
] | Democracy is a system of government in which state power is vested in the people or the general population of a state. According to the United Nations, democracy "provides an environment that respects human rights and fundamental freedoms, and in which the freely expressed will of people is exercised." In a direct democracy, the people have the direct authority to deliberate and decide legislation. In a representative democracy, the people choose governing officials through elections to do so. Who is considered part of "the people" and how authority is shared among or delegated by the people has changed over time and at different rates in different countries. Features of democracy oftentimes include freedom of assembly, association, personal property, freedom of religion and speech, citizenship, consent of the governed, voting rights, freedom from unwarranted governmental deprivation of the right to life and liberty, and minority rights. The notion of democracy has evolved over time considerably. Throughout history, one can find evidence of direct democracy, in which communities make decisions through popular assembly. Today, the dominant form of democracy is representative democracy, where citizens elect government officials to govern on their behalf such as in a parliamentary or presidential democracy. Most democracies apply in most cases majority rule, but in some cases plurality rule, supermajority rule or consensus rule are applied. They serve the crucial purpose of inclusiveness and broader legitimacy on sensitive issues—counterbalancing majoritarianism—and therefore mostly take precedence on a constitutional level. In the common variant of liberal democracy, the powers of the majority are exercised within the framework of a representative democracy, but the constitution and a supreme court limit the majority and protect the minority—usually through securing the enjoyment by all of certain individual rights, e.g. freedom of speech or freedom of association. The term appeared in the 5th century BC in Greek city-states, notably Classical Athens, to mean "rule of the people", in contrast to aristocracy, meaning "rule of an elite". Western democracy, as distinct from that which existed in antiquity, is generally considered to have originated in city-states such as those in Classical Athens and the Roman Republic, where various schemes and degrees of enfranchisement of the free male population were observed before the form disappeared in the West at the beginning of late antiquity. In virtually all democratic governments throughout ancient and modern history, democratic citizenship was initially restricted to an elite class, which was later extended to all adult citizens. In most modern democracies, this was achieved through the suffrage movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is either held by an individual, as in autocratic systems like absolute monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals, as in an oligarchy—oppositions inherited from ancient Greek philosophy. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders and to oust them without the need for a revolution. World public opinion strongly favors democratic systems of government. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices and The Economist Democracy Index, less than half the world's population lives in a democracy as of 2022. Democratic backsliding with a rise in hybrid regimes has exceeded democratization since the early to mid 2010s. | 2001-10-14T18:25:29Z | 2023-12-24T15:20:03Z | [
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7,960 | Deduction and induction | Deduction and induction may refer to: | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Deduction and induction may refer to:",
"title": ""
}
] | Deduction and induction may refer to: Deductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning
Validity (logic)
Cogency (disambiguation) | 2020-05-21T12:06:29Z | [
"Template:Disambiguation"
] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deduction_and_induction |
|
7,962 | Logical disjunction | In logic, disjunction, also known as logical disjunction or logical or or logical addition or inclusive disjunction , is a logical connective typically notated as ∨ {\displaystyle \lor } and read aloud as "or". For instance, the English language sentence "it is sunny or it is warm" can be represented in logic using the disjunctive formula S ∨ W {\displaystyle S\lor W} , assuming that S {\displaystyle S} abbreviates "it is sunny" and W {\displaystyle W} abbreviates "it is warm".
In classical logic, disjunction is given a truth functional semantics according to which a formula ϕ ∨ ψ {\displaystyle \phi \lor \psi } is true unless both ϕ {\displaystyle \phi } and ψ {\displaystyle \psi } are false. Because this semantics allows a disjunctive formula to be true when both of its disjuncts are true, it is an inclusive interpretation of disjunction, in contrast with exclusive disjunction. Classical proof theoretical treatments are often given in terms of rules such as disjunction introduction and disjunction elimination. Disjunction has also been given numerous non-classical treatments, motivated by problems including Aristotle's sea battle argument, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, as well as the numerous mismatches between classical disjunction and its nearest equivalents in natural languages.
Because the logical "or" means a disjunction formula is true when either one or both of its parts are true, it is referred to as an inclusive disjunction. This is in contrast with an exclusive disjunction, which is true when one or the other of the arguments are true, but not both (referred to as "exclusive or", or "XOR").
When it is necessary to clarify whether inclusive or exclusive "or" is intended, English speakers sometimes uses the phrase "and/or". In terms of logic, this phrase is identical to "or", but makes the inclusion of both being true explicit.
In logic and related fields, disjunction is customarily notated with an infix operator ∨ {\displaystyle \lor } (Unicode U+2228 ∨ LOGICAL OR). Alternative notations include + {\displaystyle +} , used mainly in electronics, as well as | {\displaystyle \vert } and | | {\displaystyle \vert \!\vert } in many programming languages. The English word "or" is sometimes used as well, often in capital letters. In Jan Łukasiewicz's prefix notation for logic, the operator is A {\displaystyle A} , short for Polish alternatywa (English: alternative).
In the semantics of logic, classical disjunction is a truth functional operation which returns the truth value "true" unless both of its arguments are "false". Its semantic entry is standardly given as follows:
This semantics corresponds to the following truth table:
In classical logic systems where logical disjunction is not a primitive, it can be defined in terms of the primitive "and" ( ∧ {\displaystyle \land } ) and "not" ( ¬ {\displaystyle \lnot } ) as:
Alternatively, it may be defined in terms of "implies" ( → {\displaystyle \to } ) and "not" as:
The latter can be checked by the following truth table:
The following properties apply to disjunction:
Operators corresponding to logical disjunction exist in most programming languages.
Disjunction is often used for bitwise operations. Examples:
The or operator can be used to set bits in a bit field to 1, by or-ing the field with a constant field with the relevant bits set to 1. For example, x = x | 0b00000001 will force the final bit to 1, while leaving other bits unchanged.
Many languages distinguish between bitwise and logical disjunction by providing two distinct operators; in languages following C, bitwise disjunction is performed with the single pipe operator (|), and logical disjunction with the double pipe (||) operator.
Logical disjunction is usually short-circuited; that is, if the first (left) operand evaluates to true, then the second (right) operand is not evaluated. The logical disjunction operator thus usually constitutes a sequence point.
In a parallel (concurrent) language, it is possible to short-circuit both sides: they are evaluated in parallel, and if one terminates with value true, the other is interrupted. This operator is thus called the parallel or.
Although the type of a logical disjunction expression is boolean in most languages (and thus can only have the value true or false), in some languages (such as Python and JavaScript), the logical disjunction operator returns one of its operands: the first operand if it evaluates to a true value, and the second operand otherwise.
The Curry–Howard correspondence relates a constructivist form of disjunction to tagged union types.
The membership of an element of a union set in set theory is defined in terms of a logical disjunction: x ∈ A ∪ B ⇔ ( x ∈ A ) ∨ ( x ∈ B ) {\displaystyle x\in A\cup B\Leftrightarrow (x\in A)\vee (x\in B)} . Because of this, logical disjunction satisfies many of the same identities as set-theoretic union, such as associativity, commutativity, distributivity, and de Morgan's laws, identifying logical conjunction with set intersection, logical negation with set complement.
Disjunction in natural languages does not precisely match the interpretation of ∨ {\displaystyle \lor } in classical logic. Notably, classical disjunction is inclusive while natural language disjunction is often understood exclusively, as the following English typically would be.
This inference has sometimes been understood as an entailment, for instance by Alfred Tarski, who suggested that natural language disjunction is ambiguous between a classical and a nonclassical interpretation. More recent work in pragmatics has shown that this inference can be derived as a conversational implicature on the basis of a semantic denotation which behaves classically. However, disjunctive constructions including Hungarian vagy... vagy and French soit... soit have been argued to be inherently exclusive, rendering ungrammaticality in contexts where an inclusive reading would otherwise be forced.
Similar deviations from classical logic have been noted in cases such as free choice disjunction and simplification of disjunctive antecedents, where certain modal operators trigger a conjunction-like interpretation of disjunction. As with exclusivity, these inferences have been analyzed both as implicatures and as entailments arising from a nonclassical interpretation of disjunction.
In many languages, disjunctive expressions play a role in question formation. For instance, while the following English example can be interpreted as a polar question asking whether it's true that Mary is either a philosopher or a linguist, it can also be interpreted as an alternative question asking which of the two professions is hers. The role of disjunction in these cases has been analyzed using nonclassical logics such as alternative semantics and inquisitive semantics, which have also been adopted to explain the free choice and simplification inferences.
In English, as in many other languages, disjunction is expressed by a coordinating conjunction. Other languages express disjunctive meanings in a variety of ways, though it is unknown whether disjunction itself is a linguistic universal. In many languages such as Dyirbal and Maricopa, disjunction is marked using a verb suffix. For instance, in the Maricopa example below, disjunction is marked by the suffix šaa.
Johnš
John-NOM
Billš
Bill-NOM
vʔaawuumšaa
3-come-PL-FUT-INFER
Johnš Billš vʔaawuumšaa
John-NOM Bill-NOM 3-come-PL-FUT-INFER
'John or Bill will come.' | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In logic, disjunction, also known as logical disjunction or logical or or logical addition or inclusive disjunction , is a logical connective typically notated as ∨ {\\displaystyle \\lor } and read aloud as \"or\". For instance, the English language sentence \"it is sunny or it is warm\" can be represented in logic using the disjunctive formula S ∨ W {\\displaystyle S\\lor W} , assuming that S {\\displaystyle S} abbreviates \"it is sunny\" and W {\\displaystyle W} abbreviates \"it is warm\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In classical logic, disjunction is given a truth functional semantics according to which a formula ϕ ∨ ψ {\\displaystyle \\phi \\lor \\psi } is true unless both ϕ {\\displaystyle \\phi } and ψ {\\displaystyle \\psi } are false. Because this semantics allows a disjunctive formula to be true when both of its disjuncts are true, it is an inclusive interpretation of disjunction, in contrast with exclusive disjunction. Classical proof theoretical treatments are often given in terms of rules such as disjunction introduction and disjunction elimination. Disjunction has also been given numerous non-classical treatments, motivated by problems including Aristotle's sea battle argument, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, as well as the numerous mismatches between classical disjunction and its nearest equivalents in natural languages.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Because the logical \"or\" means a disjunction formula is true when either one or both of its parts are true, it is referred to as an inclusive disjunction. This is in contrast with an exclusive disjunction, which is true when one or the other of the arguments are true, but not both (referred to as \"exclusive or\", or \"XOR\").",
"title": "Inclusive and exclusive disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "When it is necessary to clarify whether inclusive or exclusive \"or\" is intended, English speakers sometimes uses the phrase \"and/or\". In terms of logic, this phrase is identical to \"or\", but makes the inclusion of both being true explicit.",
"title": "Inclusive and exclusive disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In logic and related fields, disjunction is customarily notated with an infix operator ∨ {\\displaystyle \\lor } (Unicode U+2228 ∨ LOGICAL OR). Alternative notations include + {\\displaystyle +} , used mainly in electronics, as well as | {\\displaystyle \\vert } and | | {\\displaystyle \\vert \\!\\vert } in many programming languages. The English word \"or\" is sometimes used as well, often in capital letters. In Jan Łukasiewicz's prefix notation for logic, the operator is A {\\displaystyle A} , short for Polish alternatywa (English: alternative).",
"title": "Notation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In the semantics of logic, classical disjunction is a truth functional operation which returns the truth value \"true\" unless both of its arguments are \"false\". Its semantic entry is standardly given as follows:",
"title": "Classical disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "This semantics corresponds to the following truth table:",
"title": "Classical disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In classical logic systems where logical disjunction is not a primitive, it can be defined in terms of the primitive \"and\" ( ∧ {\\displaystyle \\land } ) and \"not\" ( ¬ {\\displaystyle \\lnot } ) as:",
"title": "Classical disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Alternatively, it may be defined in terms of \"implies\" ( → {\\displaystyle \\to } ) and \"not\" as:",
"title": "Classical disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The latter can be checked by the following truth table:",
"title": "Classical disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "",
"title": "Classical disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The following properties apply to disjunction:",
"title": "Classical disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Operators corresponding to logical disjunction exist in most programming languages.",
"title": "Applications in computer science"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Disjunction is often used for bitwise operations. Examples:",
"title": "Applications in computer science"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The or operator can be used to set bits in a bit field to 1, by or-ing the field with a constant field with the relevant bits set to 1. For example, x = x | 0b00000001 will force the final bit to 1, while leaving other bits unchanged.",
"title": "Applications in computer science"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Many languages distinguish between bitwise and logical disjunction by providing two distinct operators; in languages following C, bitwise disjunction is performed with the single pipe operator (|), and logical disjunction with the double pipe (||) operator.",
"title": "Applications in computer science"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Logical disjunction is usually short-circuited; that is, if the first (left) operand evaluates to true, then the second (right) operand is not evaluated. The logical disjunction operator thus usually constitutes a sequence point.",
"title": "Applications in computer science"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In a parallel (concurrent) language, it is possible to short-circuit both sides: they are evaluated in parallel, and if one terminates with value true, the other is interrupted. This operator is thus called the parallel or.",
"title": "Applications in computer science"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Although the type of a logical disjunction expression is boolean in most languages (and thus can only have the value true or false), in some languages (such as Python and JavaScript), the logical disjunction operator returns one of its operands: the first operand if it evaluates to a true value, and the second operand otherwise.",
"title": "Applications in computer science"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The Curry–Howard correspondence relates a constructivist form of disjunction to tagged union types.",
"title": "Applications in computer science"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The membership of an element of a union set in set theory is defined in terms of a logical disjunction: x ∈ A ∪ B ⇔ ( x ∈ A ) ∨ ( x ∈ B ) {\\displaystyle x\\in A\\cup B\\Leftrightarrow (x\\in A)\\vee (x\\in B)} . Because of this, logical disjunction satisfies many of the same identities as set-theoretic union, such as associativity, commutativity, distributivity, and de Morgan's laws, identifying logical conjunction with set intersection, logical negation with set complement.",
"title": "Set theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Disjunction in natural languages does not precisely match the interpretation of ∨ {\\displaystyle \\lor } in classical logic. Notably, classical disjunction is inclusive while natural language disjunction is often understood exclusively, as the following English typically would be.",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "This inference has sometimes been understood as an entailment, for instance by Alfred Tarski, who suggested that natural language disjunction is ambiguous between a classical and a nonclassical interpretation. More recent work in pragmatics has shown that this inference can be derived as a conversational implicature on the basis of a semantic denotation which behaves classically. However, disjunctive constructions including Hungarian vagy... vagy and French soit... soit have been argued to be inherently exclusive, rendering ungrammaticality in contexts where an inclusive reading would otherwise be forced.",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Similar deviations from classical logic have been noted in cases such as free choice disjunction and simplification of disjunctive antecedents, where certain modal operators trigger a conjunction-like interpretation of disjunction. As with exclusivity, these inferences have been analyzed both as implicatures and as entailments arising from a nonclassical interpretation of disjunction.",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In many languages, disjunctive expressions play a role in question formation. For instance, while the following English example can be interpreted as a polar question asking whether it's true that Mary is either a philosopher or a linguist, it can also be interpreted as an alternative question asking which of the two professions is hers. The role of disjunction in these cases has been analyzed using nonclassical logics such as alternative semantics and inquisitive semantics, which have also been adopted to explain the free choice and simplification inferences.",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In English, as in many other languages, disjunction is expressed by a coordinating conjunction. Other languages express disjunctive meanings in a variety of ways, though it is unknown whether disjunction itself is a linguistic universal. In many languages such as Dyirbal and Maricopa, disjunction is marked using a verb suffix. For instance, in the Maricopa example below, disjunction is marked by the suffix šaa.",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Johnš",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "John-NOM",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Billš",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Bill-NOM",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "vʔaawuumšaa",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "3-come-PL-FUT-INFER",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Johnš Billš vʔaawuumšaa",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "John-NOM Bill-NOM 3-come-PL-FUT-INFER",
"title": "Natural language"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "'John or Bill will come.'",
"title": "Natural language"
}
] | In logic, disjunction, also known as logical disjunction or logical or or logical addition or inclusive disjunction, is a logical connective typically notated as ∨ and read aloud as "or". For instance, the English language sentence "it is sunny or it is warm" can be represented in logic using the disjunctive formula S ∨ W , assuming that S abbreviates "it is sunny" and W abbreviates "it is warm". In classical logic, disjunction is given a truth functional semantics according to which a formula ϕ ∨ ψ is true unless both ϕ and ψ are false. Because this semantics allows a disjunctive formula to be true when both of its disjuncts are true, it is an inclusive interpretation of disjunction, in contrast with exclusive disjunction. Classical proof theoretical treatments are often given in terms of rules such as disjunction introduction and disjunction elimination. Disjunction has also been given numerous non-classical treatments, motivated by problems including Aristotle's sea battle argument, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, as well as the numerous mismatches between classical disjunction and its nearest equivalents in natural languages. | 2001-03-21T22:15:05Z | 2023-12-26T07:35:36Z | [
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7,963 | Disjunctive syllogism | In classical logic, disjunctive syllogism (historically known as modus tollendo ponens (MTP), Latin for "mode that affirms by denying") is a valid argument form which is a syllogism having a disjunctive statement for one of its premises.
An example in English:
In propositional logic, disjunctive syllogism (also known as disjunction elimination and or elimination, or abbreviated ∨E), is a valid rule of inference. If it is known that at least one of two statements is true, and that it is not the former that is true; we can infer that it has to be the latter that is true. Equivalently, if P is true or Q is true and P is false, then Q is true. The name "disjunctive syllogism" derives from its being a syllogism, a three-step argument, and the use of a logical disjunction (any "or" statement.) For example, "P or Q" is a disjunction, where P and Q are called the statement's disjuncts. The rule makes it possible to eliminate a disjunction from a logical proof. It is the rule that
where the rule is that whenever instances of " P ∨ Q {\displaystyle P\lor Q} ", and " ¬ P {\displaystyle \neg P} " appear on lines of a proof, " Q {\displaystyle Q} " can be placed on a subsequent line.
Disjunctive syllogism is closely related and similar to hypothetical syllogism, which is another rule of inference involving a syllogism. It is also related to the law of noncontradiction, one of the three traditional laws of thought.
For a logical system that validates it, the disjunctive syllogism may be written in sequent notation as
where ⊢ {\displaystyle \vdash } is a metalogical symbol meaning that Q {\displaystyle Q} is a syntactic consequence of P ∨ Q {\displaystyle P\lor Q} , and ¬ P {\displaystyle \lnot P} .
It may be expressed as a truth-functional tautology or theorem in the object language of propositional logic as
where P {\displaystyle P} , and Q {\displaystyle Q} are propositions expressed in some formal system.
Here is an example:
Here is another example:
It may be observed that the disjunctive syllogism works whether 'or' is considered 'exclusive' or 'inclusive' disjunction. See below for the definitions of these terms.
There are two kinds of logical disjunction:
The concept of "or" as it exists in the English language is often ambiguous between these two meanings, but the difference is pivotal in evaluating disjunctive arguments.
The argument
is valid and indifferent between both meanings. However, only in the exclusive meaning is the following form valid:
With the inclusive meaning, one could draw no conclusion from the first two premises of that argument. See affirming a disjunct.
Unlike modus ponens and modus ponendo tollens, with which it should not be confused, disjunctive syllogism is often not made an explicit rule or axiom of logical systems, as the above arguments can be proven with a combination of reductio ad absurdum and disjunction elimination.
Other forms of syllogism include:
Disjunctive syllogism holds in classical propositional logic and intuitionistic logic, but not in some paraconsistent logics. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In classical logic, disjunctive syllogism (historically known as modus tollendo ponens (MTP), Latin for \"mode that affirms by denying\") is a valid argument form which is a syllogism having a disjunctive statement for one of its premises.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "An example in English:",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In propositional logic, disjunctive syllogism (also known as disjunction elimination and or elimination, or abbreviated ∨E), is a valid rule of inference. If it is known that at least one of two statements is true, and that it is not the former that is true; we can infer that it has to be the latter that is true. Equivalently, if P is true or Q is true and P is false, then Q is true. The name \"disjunctive syllogism\" derives from its being a syllogism, a three-step argument, and the use of a logical disjunction (any \"or\" statement.) For example, \"P or Q\" is a disjunction, where P and Q are called the statement's disjuncts. The rule makes it possible to eliminate a disjunction from a logical proof. It is the rule that",
"title": "Propositional logic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "where the rule is that whenever instances of \" P ∨ Q {\\displaystyle P\\lor Q} \", and \" ¬ P {\\displaystyle \\neg P} \" appear on lines of a proof, \" Q {\\displaystyle Q} \" can be placed on a subsequent line.",
"title": "Propositional logic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Disjunctive syllogism is closely related and similar to hypothetical syllogism, which is another rule of inference involving a syllogism. It is also related to the law of noncontradiction, one of the three traditional laws of thought.",
"title": "Propositional logic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "For a logical system that validates it, the disjunctive syllogism may be written in sequent notation as",
"title": "Formal notation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "where ⊢ {\\displaystyle \\vdash } is a metalogical symbol meaning that Q {\\displaystyle Q} is a syntactic consequence of P ∨ Q {\\displaystyle P\\lor Q} , and ¬ P {\\displaystyle \\lnot P} .",
"title": "Formal notation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "It may be expressed as a truth-functional tautology or theorem in the object language of propositional logic as",
"title": "Formal notation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "where P {\\displaystyle P} , and Q {\\displaystyle Q} are propositions expressed in some formal system.",
"title": "Formal notation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Here is an example:",
"title": "Natural language examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Here is another example:",
"title": "Natural language examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "It may be observed that the disjunctive syllogism works whether 'or' is considered 'exclusive' or 'inclusive' disjunction. See below for the definitions of these terms.",
"title": "Inclusive and exclusive disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "There are two kinds of logical disjunction:",
"title": "Inclusive and exclusive disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The concept of \"or\" as it exists in the English language is often ambiguous between these two meanings, but the difference is pivotal in evaluating disjunctive arguments.",
"title": "Inclusive and exclusive disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The argument",
"title": "Inclusive and exclusive disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "is valid and indifferent between both meanings. However, only in the exclusive meaning is the following form valid:",
"title": "Inclusive and exclusive disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "With the inclusive meaning, one could draw no conclusion from the first two premises of that argument. See affirming a disjunct.",
"title": "Inclusive and exclusive disjunction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Unlike modus ponens and modus ponendo tollens, with which it should not be confused, disjunctive syllogism is often not made an explicit rule or axiom of logical systems, as the above arguments can be proven with a combination of reductio ad absurdum and disjunction elimination.",
"title": "Related argument forms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Other forms of syllogism include:",
"title": "Related argument forms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Disjunctive syllogism holds in classical propositional logic and intuitionistic logic, but not in some paraconsistent logics.",
"title": "Related argument forms"
}
] | In classical logic, disjunctive syllogism is a valid argument form which is a syllogism having a disjunctive statement for one of its premises. An example in English: I will choose soup or I will choose salad.
I will not choose soup.
Therefore, I will choose salad. | 2002-02-25T15:51:15Z | 2023-12-24T17:04:01Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disjunctive_syllogism |
7,964 | Definition | A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions (which try to give the sense of a term), and extensional definitions (which try to list the objects that a term describes). Another important category of definitions is the class of ostensive definitions, which convey the meaning of a term by pointing out examples. A term may have many different senses and multiple meanings, and thus require multiple definitions.
In mathematics, a definition is used to give a precise meaning to a new term, by describing a condition which unambiguously qualifies what a mathematical term is and is not. Definitions and axioms form the basis on which all of modern mathematics is to be constructed.
In modern usage, a definition is something, typically expressed in words, that attaches a meaning to a word or group of words. The word or group of words that is to be defined is called the definiendum, and the word, group of words, or action that defines it is called the definiens. For example, in the definition "An elephant is a large gray animal native to Asia and Africa", the word "elephant" is the definiendum, and everything after the word "is" is the definiens.
The definiens is not the meaning of the word defined, but is instead something that conveys the same meaning as that word.
There are many sub-types of definitions, often specific to a given field of knowledge or study. These include, lexical definitions, or the common dictionary definitions of words already in a language; demonstrative definitions, which define something by pointing to an example of it ("This," [said while pointing to a large grey animal], "is an Asian elephant."); and precising definitions, which reduce the vagueness of a word, typically in some special sense ("'Large', among female Asian elephants, is any individual weighing over 5,500 pounds.").
An intensional definition, also called a connotative definition, specifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for a thing to be a member of a specific set. Any definition that attempts to set out the essence of something, such as that by genus and differentia, is an intensional definition.
An extensional definition, also called a denotative definition, of a concept or term specifies its extension. It is a list naming every object that is a member of a specific set.
Thus, the "seven deadly sins" can be defined intensionally as those singled out by Pope Gregory I as particularly destructive of the life of grace and charity within a person, thus creating the threat of eternal damnation. An extensional definition, on the other hand, would be the list of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. In contrast, while an intensional definition of "prime minister" might be "the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of parliamentary government", an extensional definition is not possible since it is not known who the future prime ministers will be (even though all prime ministers from the past and present can be listed).
A genus–differentia definition is a type of intensional definition that takes a large category (the genus) and narrows it down to a smaller category by a distinguishing characteristic (i.e. the differentia).
More formally, a genus–differentia definition consists of:
For example, consider the following genus–differentia definitions:
Those definitions can be expressed as a genus ("a plane figure") and two differentiae ("that has three straight bounding sides" and "that has four straight bounding sides", respectively).
It is also possible to have two different genus–differentia definitions that describe the same term, especially when the term describes the overlap of two large categories. For instance, both of these genus–differentia definitions of "square" are equally acceptable:
Thus, a "square" is a member of both genera (the plural of genus): the genus "rectangle" and the genus "rhombus".
One important form of the extensional definition is ostensive definition. This gives the meaning of a term by pointing, in the case of an individual, to the thing itself, or in the case of a class, to examples of the right kind. For example, one can explain who Alice (an individual) is, by pointing her out to another; or what a rabbit (a class) is, by pointing at several and expecting another to understand. The process of ostensive definition itself was critically appraised by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
An enumerative definition of a concept or a term is an extensional definition that gives an explicit and exhaustive listing of all the objects that fall under the concept or term in question. Enumerative definitions are only possible for finite sets (and in fact only practical for relatively small sets).
Divisio and partitio are classical terms for definitions. A partitio is simply an intensional definition. A divisio is not an extensional definition, but an exhaustive list of subsets of a set, in the sense that every member of the "divided" set is a member of one of the subsets. An extreme form of divisio lists all sets whose only member is a member of the "divided" set. The difference between this and an extensional definition is that extensional definitions list members, and not subsets.
In classical thought, a definition was taken to be a statement of the essence of a thing. Aristotle had it that an object's essential attributes form its "essential nature", and that a definition of the object must include these essential attributes.
The idea that a definition should state the essence of a thing led to the distinction between nominal and real essence—a distinction originating with Aristotle. In the Posterior Analytics, he says that the meaning of a made-up name can be known (he gives the example "goat stag") without knowing what he calls the "essential nature" of the thing that the name would denote (if there were such a thing). This led medieval logicians to distinguish between what they called the quid nominis, or the "whatness of the name", and the underlying nature common to all the things it names, which they called the quid rei, or the "whatness of the thing". The name "hobbit", for example, is perfectly meaningful. It has a quid nominis, but one could not know the real nature of hobbits, and so the quid rei of hobbits cannot be known. By contrast, the name "man" denotes real things (men) that have a certain quid rei. The meaning of a name is distinct from the nature that a thing must have in order that the name apply to it.
This leads to a corresponding distinction between nominal and real definitions. A nominal definition is the definition explaining what a word means (i.e., which says what the "nominal essence" is), and is definition in the classical sense as given above. A real definition, by contrast, is one expressing the real nature or quid rei of the thing.
This preoccupation with essence dissipated in much of modern philosophy. Analytic philosophy, in particular, is critical of attempts to elucidate the essence of a thing. Russell described essence as "a hopelessly muddle-headed notion".
More recently Kripke's formalisation of possible world semantics in modal logic led to a new approach to essentialism. Insofar as the essential properties of a thing are necessary to it, they are those things that it possesses in all possible worlds. Kripke refers to names used in this way as rigid designators.
A definition may also be classified as an operational definition or theoretical definition.
A homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings. Thus homonyms are simultaneously homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of their pronunciation) and homophones (words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of their spelling). The state of being a homonym is called homonymy. Examples of homonyms are the pair stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass a person) and the pair left (past tense of leave) and left (opposite of right). A distinction is sometimes made between "true" homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice) and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes, which have a shared origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal).
Polysemy is the capacity for a sign (such as a word, phrase, or symbol) to have multiple meanings (that is, multiple semes or sememes and thus multiple senses), usually related by contiguity of meaning within a semantic field. It is thus usually regarded as distinct from homonymy, in which the multiple meanings of a word may be unconnected or unrelated.
In mathematics, definitions are generally not used to describe existing terms, but to describe or characterize a concept. For naming the object of a definition mathematicians can use either a neologism (this was mainly the case in the past) or words or phrases of the common language (this is generally the case in modern mathematics). The precise meaning of a term given by a mathematical definition is often different from the English definition of the word used, which can lead to confusion, particularly when the meanings are close. For example a set is not exactly the same thing in mathematics and in common language. In some case, the word used can be misleading; for example, a real number has nothing more (or less) real than an imaginary number. Frequently, a definition uses a phrase built with common English words, which has no meaning outside mathematics, such as primitive group or irreducible variety.
In first-order logic definitions are usually introduced using extension by definition (so using a metalogic). On the other hand, lambda-calculi are a kind of logic where the definitions are included as the feature of the formal system itself.
Authors have used different terms to classify definitions used in formal languages like mathematics. Norman Swartz classifies a definition as "stipulative" if it is intended to guide a specific discussion. A stipulative definition might be considered a temporary, working definition, and can only be disproved by showing a logical contradiction. In contrast, a "descriptive" definition can be shown to be "right" or "wrong" with reference to general usage.
Swartz defines a precising definition as one that extends the descriptive dictionary definition (lexical definition) for a specific purpose by including additional criteria. A precising definition narrows the set of things that meet the definition.
C.L. Stevenson has identified persuasive definition as a form of stipulative definition which purports to state the "true" or "commonly accepted" meaning of a term, while in reality stipulating an altered use (perhaps as an argument for some specific belief). Stevenson has also noted that some definitions are "legal" or "coercive" – their object is to create or alter rights, duties, or crimes.
A recursive definition, sometimes also called an inductive definition, is one that defines a word in terms of itself, so to speak, albeit in a useful way. Normally this consists of three steps:
For instance, we could define a natural number as follows (after Peano):
So "0" will have exactly one successor, which for convenience can be called "1". In turn, "1" will have exactly one successor, which could be called "2", and so on. The second condition in the definition itself refers to natural numbers, and hence involves self-reference. Although this sort of definition involves a form of circularity, it is not vicious, and the definition has been quite successful.
In the same way, we can define ancestor as follows:
Or simply: an ancestor is a parent or a parent of an ancestor.
In medical dictionaries, guidelines and other consensus statements and classifications, definitions should as far as possible be:
Certain rules have traditionally been given for definitions (in particular, genus-differentia definitions).
Given that a natural language such as English contains, at any given time, a finite number of words, any comprehensive list of definitions must either be circular or rely upon primitive notions. If every term of every definiens must itself be defined, "where at last should we stop?" A dictionary, for instance, insofar as it is a comprehensive list of lexical definitions, must resort to circularity.
Many philosophers have chosen instead to leave some terms undefined. The scholastic philosophers claimed that the highest genera (called the ten generalissima) cannot be defined, since a higher genus cannot be assigned under which they may fall. Thus being, unity and similar concepts cannot be defined. Locke supposes in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that the names of simple concepts do not admit of any definition. More recently Bertrand Russell sought to develop a formal language based on logical atoms. Other philosophers, notably Wittgenstein, rejected the need for any undefined simples. Wittgenstein pointed out in his Philosophical Investigations that what counts as a "simple" in one circumstance might not do so in another. He rejected the very idea that every explanation of the meaning of a term needed itself to be explained: "As though an explanation hung in the air unless supported by another one", claiming instead that explanation of a term is only needed to avoid misunderstanding.
Locke and Mill also argued that individuals cannot be defined. Names are learned by connecting an idea with a sound, so that speaker and hearer have the same idea when the same word is used. This is not possible when no one else is acquainted with the particular thing that has "fallen under our notice". Russell offered his theory of descriptions in part as a way of defining a proper name, the definition being given by a definite description that "picks out" exactly one individual. Saul Kripke pointed to difficulties with this approach, especially in relation to modality, in his book Naming and Necessity.
There is a presumption in the classic example of a definition that the definiens can be stated. Wittgenstein argued that for some terms this is not the case. The examples he used include game, number and family. In such cases, he argued, there is no fixed boundary that can be used to provide a definition. Rather, the items are grouped together because of a family resemblance. For terms such as these it is not possible and indeed not necessary to state a definition; rather, one simply comes to understand the use of the term. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions (which try to give the sense of a term), and extensional definitions (which try to list the objects that a term describes). Another important category of definitions is the class of ostensive definitions, which convey the meaning of a term by pointing out examples. A term may have many different senses and multiple meanings, and thus require multiple definitions.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In mathematics, a definition is used to give a precise meaning to a new term, by describing a condition which unambiguously qualifies what a mathematical term is and is not. Definitions and axioms form the basis on which all of modern mathematics is to be constructed.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In modern usage, a definition is something, typically expressed in words, that attaches a meaning to a word or group of words. The word or group of words that is to be defined is called the definiendum, and the word, group of words, or action that defines it is called the definiens. For example, in the definition \"An elephant is a large gray animal native to Asia and Africa\", the word \"elephant\" is the definiendum, and everything after the word \"is\" is the definiens.",
"title": "Basic terminology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The definiens is not the meaning of the word defined, but is instead something that conveys the same meaning as that word.",
"title": "Basic terminology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "There are many sub-types of definitions, often specific to a given field of knowledge or study. These include, lexical definitions, or the common dictionary definitions of words already in a language; demonstrative definitions, which define something by pointing to an example of it (\"This,\" [said while pointing to a large grey animal], \"is an Asian elephant.\"); and precising definitions, which reduce the vagueness of a word, typically in some special sense (\"'Large', among female Asian elephants, is any individual weighing over 5,500 pounds.\").",
"title": "Basic terminology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "An intensional definition, also called a connotative definition, specifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for a thing to be a member of a specific set. Any definition that attempts to set out the essence of something, such as that by genus and differentia, is an intensional definition.",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "An extensional definition, also called a denotative definition, of a concept or term specifies its extension. It is a list naming every object that is a member of a specific set.",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Thus, the \"seven deadly sins\" can be defined intensionally as those singled out by Pope Gregory I as particularly destructive of the life of grace and charity within a person, thus creating the threat of eternal damnation. An extensional definition, on the other hand, would be the list of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. In contrast, while an intensional definition of \"prime minister\" might be \"the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of parliamentary government\", an extensional definition is not possible since it is not known who the future prime ministers will be (even though all prime ministers from the past and present can be listed).",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "A genus–differentia definition is a type of intensional definition that takes a large category (the genus) and narrows it down to a smaller category by a distinguishing characteristic (i.e. the differentia).",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "More formally, a genus–differentia definition consists of:",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "For example, consider the following genus–differentia definitions:",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Those definitions can be expressed as a genus (\"a plane figure\") and two differentiae (\"that has three straight bounding sides\" and \"that has four straight bounding sides\", respectively).",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "It is also possible to have two different genus–differentia definitions that describe the same term, especially when the term describes the overlap of two large categories. For instance, both of these genus–differentia definitions of \"square\" are equally acceptable:",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Thus, a \"square\" is a member of both genera (the plural of genus): the genus \"rectangle\" and the genus \"rhombus\".",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "One important form of the extensional definition is ostensive definition. This gives the meaning of a term by pointing, in the case of an individual, to the thing itself, or in the case of a class, to examples of the right kind. For example, one can explain who Alice (an individual) is, by pointing her out to another; or what a rabbit (a class) is, by pointing at several and expecting another to understand. The process of ostensive definition itself was critically appraised by Ludwig Wittgenstein.",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "An enumerative definition of a concept or a term is an extensional definition that gives an explicit and exhaustive listing of all the objects that fall under the concept or term in question. Enumerative definitions are only possible for finite sets (and in fact only practical for relatively small sets).",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Divisio and partitio are classical terms for definitions. A partitio is simply an intensional definition. A divisio is not an extensional definition, but an exhaustive list of subsets of a set, in the sense that every member of the \"divided\" set is a member of one of the subsets. An extreme form of divisio lists all sets whose only member is a member of the \"divided\" set. The difference between this and an extensional definition is that extensional definitions list members, and not subsets.",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In classical thought, a definition was taken to be a statement of the essence of a thing. Aristotle had it that an object's essential attributes form its \"essential nature\", and that a definition of the object must include these essential attributes.",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The idea that a definition should state the essence of a thing led to the distinction between nominal and real essence—a distinction originating with Aristotle. In the Posterior Analytics, he says that the meaning of a made-up name can be known (he gives the example \"goat stag\") without knowing what he calls the \"essential nature\" of the thing that the name would denote (if there were such a thing). This led medieval logicians to distinguish between what they called the quid nominis, or the \"whatness of the name\", and the underlying nature common to all the things it names, which they called the quid rei, or the \"whatness of the thing\". The name \"hobbit\", for example, is perfectly meaningful. It has a quid nominis, but one could not know the real nature of hobbits, and so the quid rei of hobbits cannot be known. By contrast, the name \"man\" denotes real things (men) that have a certain quid rei. The meaning of a name is distinct from the nature that a thing must have in order that the name apply to it.",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "This leads to a corresponding distinction between nominal and real definitions. A nominal definition is the definition explaining what a word means (i.e., which says what the \"nominal essence\" is), and is definition in the classical sense as given above. A real definition, by contrast, is one expressing the real nature or quid rei of the thing.",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "This preoccupation with essence dissipated in much of modern philosophy. Analytic philosophy, in particular, is critical of attempts to elucidate the essence of a thing. Russell described essence as \"a hopelessly muddle-headed notion\".",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "More recently Kripke's formalisation of possible world semantics in modal logic led to a new approach to essentialism. Insofar as the essential properties of a thing are necessary to it, they are those things that it possesses in all possible worlds. Kripke refers to names used in this way as rigid designators.",
"title": "Intensional definitions vs extensional definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "A definition may also be classified as an operational definition or theoretical definition.",
"title": "Operational vs. theoretical definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "A homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings. Thus homonyms are simultaneously homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of their pronunciation) and homophones (words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of their spelling). The state of being a homonym is called homonymy. Examples of homonyms are the pair stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass a person) and the pair left (past tense of leave) and left (opposite of right). A distinction is sometimes made between \"true\" homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice) and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes, which have a shared origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal).",
"title": "Terms with multiple definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Polysemy is the capacity for a sign (such as a word, phrase, or symbol) to have multiple meanings (that is, multiple semes or sememes and thus multiple senses), usually related by contiguity of meaning within a semantic field. It is thus usually regarded as distinct from homonymy, in which the multiple meanings of a word may be unconnected or unrelated.",
"title": "Terms with multiple definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In mathematics, definitions are generally not used to describe existing terms, but to describe or characterize a concept. For naming the object of a definition mathematicians can use either a neologism (this was mainly the case in the past) or words or phrases of the common language (this is generally the case in modern mathematics). The precise meaning of a term given by a mathematical definition is often different from the English definition of the word used, which can lead to confusion, particularly when the meanings are close. For example a set is not exactly the same thing in mathematics and in common language. In some case, the word used can be misleading; for example, a real number has nothing more (or less) real than an imaginary number. Frequently, a definition uses a phrase built with common English words, which has no meaning outside mathematics, such as primitive group or irreducible variety.",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In first-order logic definitions are usually introduced using extension by definition (so using a metalogic). On the other hand, lambda-calculi are a kind of logic where the definitions are included as the feature of the formal system itself.",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Authors have used different terms to classify definitions used in formal languages like mathematics. Norman Swartz classifies a definition as \"stipulative\" if it is intended to guide a specific discussion. A stipulative definition might be considered a temporary, working definition, and can only be disproved by showing a logical contradiction. In contrast, a \"descriptive\" definition can be shown to be \"right\" or \"wrong\" with reference to general usage.",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Swartz defines a precising definition as one that extends the descriptive dictionary definition (lexical definition) for a specific purpose by including additional criteria. A precising definition narrows the set of things that meet the definition.",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "C.L. Stevenson has identified persuasive definition as a form of stipulative definition which purports to state the \"true\" or \"commonly accepted\" meaning of a term, while in reality stipulating an altered use (perhaps as an argument for some specific belief). Stevenson has also noted that some definitions are \"legal\" or \"coercive\" – their object is to create or alter rights, duties, or crimes.",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "A recursive definition, sometimes also called an inductive definition, is one that defines a word in terms of itself, so to speak, albeit in a useful way. Normally this consists of three steps:",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "For instance, we could define a natural number as follows (after Peano):",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "So \"0\" will have exactly one successor, which for convenience can be called \"1\". In turn, \"1\" will have exactly one successor, which could be called \"2\", and so on. The second condition in the definition itself refers to natural numbers, and hence involves self-reference. Although this sort of definition involves a form of circularity, it is not vicious, and the definition has been quite successful.",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In the same way, we can define ancestor as follows:",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Or simply: an ancestor is a parent or a parent of an ancestor.",
"title": "In logic and mathematics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In medical dictionaries, guidelines and other consensus statements and classifications, definitions should as far as possible be:",
"title": "In medicine"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Certain rules have traditionally been given for definitions (in particular, genus-differentia definitions).",
"title": "Problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Given that a natural language such as English contains, at any given time, a finite number of words, any comprehensive list of definitions must either be circular or rely upon primitive notions. If every term of every definiens must itself be defined, \"where at last should we stop?\" A dictionary, for instance, insofar as it is a comprehensive list of lexical definitions, must resort to circularity.",
"title": "Problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Many philosophers have chosen instead to leave some terms undefined. The scholastic philosophers claimed that the highest genera (called the ten generalissima) cannot be defined, since a higher genus cannot be assigned under which they may fall. Thus being, unity and similar concepts cannot be defined. Locke supposes in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that the names of simple concepts do not admit of any definition. More recently Bertrand Russell sought to develop a formal language based on logical atoms. Other philosophers, notably Wittgenstein, rejected the need for any undefined simples. Wittgenstein pointed out in his Philosophical Investigations that what counts as a \"simple\" in one circumstance might not do so in another. He rejected the very idea that every explanation of the meaning of a term needed itself to be explained: \"As though an explanation hung in the air unless supported by another one\", claiming instead that explanation of a term is only needed to avoid misunderstanding.",
"title": "Problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Locke and Mill also argued that individuals cannot be defined. Names are learned by connecting an idea with a sound, so that speaker and hearer have the same idea when the same word is used. This is not possible when no one else is acquainted with the particular thing that has \"fallen under our notice\". Russell offered his theory of descriptions in part as a way of defining a proper name, the definition being given by a definite description that \"picks out\" exactly one individual. Saul Kripke pointed to difficulties with this approach, especially in relation to modality, in his book Naming and Necessity.",
"title": "Problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "There is a presumption in the classic example of a definition that the definiens can be stated. Wittgenstein argued that for some terms this is not the case. The examples he used include game, number and family. In such cases, he argued, there is no fixed boundary that can be used to provide a definition. Rather, the items are grouped together because of a family resemblance. For terms such as these it is not possible and indeed not necessary to state a definition; rather, one simply comes to understand the use of the term.",
"title": "Problems"
}
] | A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term. Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions, and extensional definitions. Another important category of definitions is the class of ostensive definitions, which convey the meaning of a term by pointing out examples. A term may have many different senses and multiple meanings, and thus require multiple definitions. In mathematics, a definition is used to give a precise meaning to a new term, by describing a condition which unambiguously qualifies what a mathematical term is and is not. Definitions and axioms form the basis on which all of modern mathematics is to be constructed. | 2001-03-26T18:33:25Z | 2023-11-06T19:39:14Z | [
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7,965 | Disruption | Disruption, disruptive, or disrupted may refer to: | [
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7,966 | Disco | Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.
Disco started as a mixture of music from venues popular among African-Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, gay Americans, and Italian Americans in Philadelphia and New York City during the late 1960s to early 1970s. Disco can be seen as a reaction by the 1960s counterculture to both the dominance of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music at the time. Several dance styles were developed during the period of 70s disco's popularity in the United States, including "the Bump", "the Hustle", "the Watergate", and "the Busstop".
In the course of the 1970s, disco music was developed further, mainly by artists from the United States and Europe. Well-known artists included the Bee Gees, ABBA, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Giorgio Moroder, Baccara, Boney M., Earth Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, Chic, KC and the Sunshine Band, Thelma Houston, Sister Sledge, Sylvester, The Trammps, Diana Ross, Kool & the Gang, and the Village People. While performers garnered public attention, record producers working behind the scenes played an important role in developing the genre. By the late 1970s, most major U.S. cities had thriving disco club scenes, and DJs would mix dance records at clubs such as Studio 54 in Manhattan, a venue popular among celebrities. Nightclub-goers often wore expensive, extravagant outfits, consisting predominantly of loose, flowing pants or dresses for ease of movement while dancing. There was also a thriving drug subculture in the disco scene, particularly for drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud music and the flashing lights, such as cocaine and quaaludes, the latter being so common in disco subculture that they were nicknamed "disco biscuits". Disco clubs were also associated with promiscuity as a reflection of the sexual revolution of this era in popular history. Films such as Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Thank God It's Friday (1978) contributed to disco's mainstream popularity.
Disco declined as a major trend in popular music in the United States following the infamous Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979, and it continued to sharply decline in popularity in the U.S. during the early 1980s; however, it remained popular in Italy and some European countries throughout the 1980s, and during this time also started becoming trendy in places elsewhere including India and the Middle East, where aspects of disco were blended with regional folk styles such as ghazals and belly dancing. Disco would eventually become a key influence in the development of electronic dance music, house music, hip hop, new wave, dance-punk, and post-disco. The style has had several revivals since the 1990s, and the influence of disco remains strong across American and European pop music. A revival has been underway since the early 2010s, coming to great popularity in the early 2020s. Albums that have contributed to this revival include Confessions on a Dance Floor, Random Access Memories, Future Nostalgia, and Kylie Minogue's album itself titled Disco.
The term "disco" is shorthand for the word discothèque, a French word for "library of phonograph records" derived from "bibliothèque". The word "discothèque" had the same meaning in English in the 1950s.
"Discothèque" became used in French for a type of nightclub in Paris, after they had resorted to playing records during the Nazi occupation in the early 1940s. Some clubs used it as their proper name. In 1960, it was also used to describe a Parisian nightclub in an English magazine.
In the summer of 1964, a short sleeveless dress called the "discotheque dress" was briefly very popular in the United States. The earliest known use for the abbreviated form "disco" described this dress and has been found in The Salt Lake Tribune on July 12, 1964, Playboy magazine used it in September of the same year to describe Los Angeles nightclubs.
Vince Aletti was one of the first to describe disco as a sound or a music genre. He wrote the feature article "Discotheque Rock Paaaaarty" that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine in September 1973.
The music typically layered soaring, often-reverberated vocals, often doubled by horns, over a background "pad" of electric pianos and "chicken-scratch" rhythm guitars played on an electric guitar. Lead guitar features less frequently in disco than in rock. "The "rooster scratch" sound is achieved by lightly pressing the guitar strings against the fretboard and then quickly releasing them just enough to get a slightly muted poker [sound] while constantly strumming very close to the bridge." Other backing keyboard instruments include the piano, electric organ (during early years), string synthesizers, and electromechanical keyboards such as the Fender Rhodes electric piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, and Hohner Clavinet. Donna Summer's 1977 song "I Feel Love", produced by Giorgio Moroder with a prominent Moog synthesizer on the beat, was one of the first disco tracks to use the synthesizer.
The rhythm is laid down by prominent, syncopated basslines (with heavy use of broken octaves, that is, octaves with the notes sounded one after the other) played on the bass guitar and by drummers using a drum kit, African/Latin percussion, and electronic drums such as Simmons and Roland drum modules. Philly dance and Salsoul disco the sound was enriched with solo lines and harmony parts played by a variety of orchestral instruments, such as violin, viola, cello, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, flugelhorn, French horn, English horn, oboe, flute, timpani and synth strings, string section or a full string orchestra.
Most disco songs have a steady four-on-the-floor beat set by a bass drum, a quaver or semi-quaver hi-hat pattern with an open hissing hi-hat on the off-beat, and a heavy, syncopated bass line. A recording error in the 1975 song "Bad Luck" by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes where Earl Young's hi-hat was too loud in the recording is said to have established loud hi-hats in disco. Other Latin rhythms such as the rhumba, the samba, and the cha-cha-cha are also found in disco recordings, and Latin polyrhythms, such as a rhumba beat layered over a merengue, are commonplace. The quaver pattern is often supported by other instruments such as the rhythm guitar and may be implied rather than explicitly present.
Songs often use syncopation, which is the accenting of unexpected beats. In general, the difference between disco, or any dance song, and a rock or popular song is that in dance music the bass drum hits four to the floor, at least once a beat (which in 4/4 time is 4 beats per measure). Disco is further characterized by a 16th note division of the quarter notes as shown in the second drum pattern below, after a typical rock drum pattern.
The orchestral sound usually known as "disco sound" relies heavily on string sections and horns playing linear phrases, in unison with the soaring, often reverberated vocals or playing instrumental fills, while electric pianos and chicken-scratch guitars create the background "pad" sound defining the harmony progression. Typically, all of the doubling of parts and use of additional instruments creates a rich "wall of sound". There are, however, more minimalist flavors of disco with reduced, transparent instrumentation.
Harmonically, disco music typically contains major and minor seven chords, which are found more often in jazz than pop music.
The "disco sound" was much more costly to produce than many of the other popular music genres from the 1970s. Unlike the simpler, four-piece-band sound of funk, soul music of the late 1960s or the small jazz organ trios, disco music often included a large band, with several chordal instruments (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer), several drum or percussion instruments (drumkit, Latin percussion, electronic drums), a horn section, a string orchestra, and a variety of "classical" solo instruments (for example, flute, piccolo, and so on).
Disco songs were arranged and composed by experienced arrangers and orchestrators, and record producers added their creative touches to the overall sound using multitrack recording techniques and effects units. Recording complex arrangements with such a large number of instruments and sections required a team that included a conductor, copyists, record producers, and mixing engineers. Mixing engineers had an important role in the disco production process because disco songs used as many as 64 tracks of vocals and instruments. Mixing engineers and record producers, under the direction of arrangers, compiled these tracks into a fluid composition of verses, bridges, and refrains, complete with builds and breaks. Mixing engineers and record producers helped to develop the "disco sound" by creating a distinctive-sounding, sophisticated disco mix.
Early records were the "standard" three-minute version until Tom Moulton came up with a way to make songs longer so that he could take a crowd of dancers at a club to another level and keep them dancing longer. He found that it was impossible to make the 45-RPM vinyl singles of the time longer, as they could usually hold no more than five minutes of good-quality music. With the help of José Rodriguez, his remaster/mastering engineer, he pressed a single on a 10" disc instead of 7". They cut the next single on a 12" disc, the same format as a standard album. Moulton and Rodriguez discovered that these larger records could have much longer songs and remixes. 12" single records, also known as "Maxi singles", quickly became the standard format for all DJs of the disco genre.
By the late 1970s, most major US cities had thriving disco club scenes. The largest scenes were most notably in New York City but also in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Miami, and Washington, D.C. The scene was centered on discotheques, nightclubs and private loft parties.
In the 1970s, notable discos included "Crisco Disco", "The Sanctuary", "Leviticus", "Studio 54", and "Paradise Garage" in New York, "Artemis" in Philadelphia, "Studio One" in Los Angeles, "Dugan's Bistro" in Chicago, and "The Library" in Atlanta.
In the late '70s, Studio 54 in Midtown Manhattan was arguably the best-known nightclub in the world. This club played a major formative role in the growth of disco music and nightclub culture in general. It was operated by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager and was notorious for the hedonism that went on within: the balconies were known for sexual encounters and drug use was rampant. Its dance floor was decorated with an image of the "Man in the Moon" that included an animated cocaine spoon.
The "Copacabana", another New York nightclub dating to the 1940s, had a revival in the late 1970s when it embraced disco; it would become the setting of a Barry Manilow song of the same name.
In Washington, D.C., large disco clubs such as "The Pier" ("Pier 9") and "The Other Side", originally regarded exclusively as "gay bars", became particularly popular among the capital area's gay and straight college students in the late '70s.
By 1979 there were 15,000-20,000 disco nightclubs in the US, many of them opening in suburban shopping centers, hotels, and restaurants. The 2001 Club franchises were the most prolific chain of disco clubs in the country. Although many other attempts were made to franchise disco clubs, 2001 was the only one to successfully do so in this time frame.
Powerful, bass-heavy, hi-fi sound systems were viewed as a key part of the disco club experience. "[Loft-party host David] Mancuso introduced the technologies of tweeter arrays (clusters of small loudspeakers, which emit high-end frequencies, positioned above the floor) and bass reinforcements (additional sets of subwoofers positioned at ground level) at the start of the 1970s to boost the treble and bass at opportune moments, and by the end of the decade sound engineers such as Richard Long had multiplied the effects of these innovations in venues such as the Garage."
Typical lighting designs for disco dance floors include multi-colored lights that swirl around or flash to the beat, strobe lights, an illuminated dance floor, and a mirror ball.
Disco-era disc jockeys (DJs) would often remix existing songs using reel-to-reel tape machines, and add in percussion breaks, new sections, and new sounds. DJs would select songs and grooves according to what the dancers wanted, transitioning from one song to another with a DJ mixer and using a microphone to introduce songs and speak to the audiences. Other equipment was added to the basic DJ setup, providing unique sound manipulations, such as reverb, equalization, and echo effects unit. Using this equipment, a DJ could do effects such as cutting out all but the bassline of a song and then slowly mixing in the beginning of another song using the DJ mixer's crossfader. Notable U.S. disco DJs include Francis Grasso of The Sanctuary, David Mancuso of The Loft, Frankie Knuckles of the Chicago Warehouse, Larry Levan of the Paradise Garage, Nicky Siano, Walter Gibbons, Karen Mixon Cook, Jim Burgess, John "Jellybean" Benitez, Richie Kulala of Studio 54, and Rick Salsalini.
Some DJs were also record producers who created and produced disco songs in the recording studio. Larry Levan, for example, was a prolific record producer as well as a DJ. Because record sales were often dependent on dance floor play by DJs in the nightclubs, DJs were also influential in the development and popularization of certain types of disco music being produced for record labels.
In the early years, dancers in discos danced in a "hang loose" or "freestyle" approach. At first, many dancers improvised their own dance styles and dance steps. Later in the disco era, popular dance styles were developed, including the "Bump", "Penguin", "Boogaloo", "Watergate", and "Robot". By October 1975 the Hustle reigned. It was highly stylized, sophisticated, and overtly sexual. Variations included the Brooklyn Hustle, New York Hustle, and Latin Hustle.
During the disco era, many nightclubs would commonly host disco dance competitions or offer free dance lessons. Some cities had disco dance instructors or dance schools, which taught people how to do popular disco dances such as "touch dancing", "the hustle", and "the cha cha". The pioneer of disco dance instruction was Karen Lustgarten in San Francisco in 1973. Her book The Complete Guide to Disco Dancing (Warner Books 1978) was the first to name, break down and codify popular disco dances as dance forms and distinguish between disco freestyle, partner, and line dances. The book topped the New York Times bestseller list for 13 weeks and was translated into Chinese, German, and French.
In Chicago, the Step By Step disco dance TV show was launched with the sponsorship support of the Coca-Cola company. Produced in the same studio that Don Cornelius used for the nationally syndicated dance/music television show, Soul Train, Step by Step's audience grew and the show became a success. The dynamic dance duo of Robin and Reggie led the show. The pair spent the week teaching disco dancing to dancers in the disco clubs. The instructional show aired on Saturday mornings and had a strong following. Its viewers would stay up all night on Fridays so they could be on the set the next morning, ready to return to the disco on Saturday night knowing with the latest personalized steps. The producers of the show, John Reid and Greg Roselli, routinely made appearances at disco functions with Robin and Reggie to scout out new dancing talent and promote upcoming events such as "Disco Night at White Sox Park".
In Sacramento, California, Disco King Paul Dale Roberts danced for the Guinness Book of World Records. He danced for 205 hours, the equivalent of 8½ days. Other dance marathons took place afterward and Roberts held the world record for disco dancing for a short period of time.
Some notable professional dance troupes of the 1970s included Pan's People and Hot Gossip. For many dancers, a key source of inspiration for 1970s disco dancing was the film Saturday Night Fever (1977). Further influence came from the music and dance style of such films as Fame (1980), Disco Dancer (1982), Flashdance (1983), and The Last Days of Disco (1998). Interest in disco dancing also helped spawn dance competition TV shows such as Dance Fever (1979).
Disco fashions were very trendy in the late 1970s. Discothèque-goers often wore glamorous, expensive, and extravagant fashions for nights out at their local disco club. Some women would wear sheer, flowing dresses, such as Halston dresses, or loose, flared pants. Other women wore tight, revealing, sexy clothes, such as backless halter tops, disco pants, "hot pants", or body-hugging spandex bodywear or "catsuits". Men would wear shiny polyester Qiana shirts with colorful patterns and pointy, extra wide collars, preferably open at the chest. Men often wore Pierre Cardin suits, three piece suits with a vest, and double-knit polyester shirt jackets with matching trousers known as the leisure suit. Men's leisure suits were typically form-fitted to some parts of the body, such as the waist and bottom while the lower part of the pants were flared in a bell bottom style, to permit freedom of movement.
During the disco era, men engaged in elaborate grooming rituals and spent time choosing fashion clothing, activities that would have been considered "feminine" according to the gender stereotypes of the era. Women dancers wore glitter makeup, sequins, or gold lamé clothing that would shimmer under the lights. Bold colors were popular for both genders. Platform shoes and boots for both genders and high heels for women were popular footwear. Necklaces and medallions were a common fashion accessory. Less commonly, some disco dancers wore outlandish costumes, dressed in drag, covered their bodies with gold or silver paint, or wore very skimpy outfits leaving them nearly nude; these uncommon get-ups were more likely to be seen at invitation-only New York City loft parties and disco clubs.
In addition to the dance and fashion aspects of the disco club scene, there was also a thriving club drug subculture, particularly for drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud, bass-heavy music and the flashing colored lights, such as cocaine (nicknamed "blow"), amyl nitrite ("poppers"), and the "... other quintessential 1970s club drug Quaalude, which suspended motor coordination and gave the sensation that one's arms and legs had turned to 'Jell-O.'" Quaaludes were so popular at disco clubs that the drug was nicknamed "disco biscuits".
Paul Gootenberg states that "[t]he relationship of cocaine to 1970s disco culture cannot be stressed enough..." During the 1970s, the use of cocaine by well-to-do celebrities led to its "glamorization" and to the widely held view that it was a "soft drug". LSD, marijuana, and "speed" (amphetamines) were also popular in disco clubs, and the use of these drugs "...contributed to the hedonistic quality of the dance floor experience." Since disco dances were typically held in liquor licensed-nightclubs and dance clubs, alcoholic drinks were also consumed by dancers; some users intentionally combined alcohol with the consumption of other drugs, such as Quaaludes, for a stronger effect.
According to Peter Braunstein, the "massive quantities of drugs ingested in discothèques produced the next cultural phenomenon of the disco era: rampant promiscuity and public sex. While the dance floor was the central arena of seduction, actual sex usually took place in the nether regions of the disco: bathroom stalls, exit stairwells, and so on. In other cases the disco became a kind of 'main course' in a hedonist's menu for a night out." At The Saint nightclub, a high percentage of the gay male dancers and patrons would have sex in the club; they typically had unprotected sex, because in 1980, HIV-AIDS had not yet been identified. At The Saint, "dancers would elope to an un[monitored] upstairs balcony to engage in sex." The promiscuity and public sex at discos was part of a broader trend towards exploring a freer sexual expression in the 1970s, an era that is also associated with "swingers clubs, hot tubs, [and] key parties."
In his paper, "In Defense of Disco" (1979), Richard Dyer claims eroticism as one of the three main characteristics of disco. As opposed to rock music which has a very phallic centered eroticism focusing on the sexual pleasure of men over other persons, Dyer describes disco as featuring a non-phallic full body eroticism. Through a range of percussion instruments, a willingness to play with rhythm, and the endless repeating of phrases without cutting the listener off, disco achieved this full-body eroticism by restoring eroticism to the whole body for both sexes. This allowed for the potential expression of sexualities not defined by the cock/penis, and the erotic pleasure of bodies that are not defined by a relationship to a penis. The sexual liberation expressed through the rhythm of disco is further represented in the club spaces that disco grew within.
In Peter Shapiro's Modulations: A History of Electronic Music: Throbbing Words on Sound, he discusses eroticism through the technology disco utilizes to create its audacious sound. The music, Shapiro states, is adjunct to "the pleasure-is-politics ethos of post-Stonewall culture." He explains how "mechano-eroticism", which links the technology used to create the unique mechanical sound of disco to eroticism, set the genre in a new dimension of reality living outside of naturalism and heterosexuality. Randy Jones and Mark Jacobsen echo this sentiment in BBC Radio's "The Politics of Dancing: How Disco Changed the World," describing the loose, hip-focused dance style as "a new kind of communion" that celebrates the sparks of liberation brought on the Stonewall riots. As New York state had laws against homosexual behavior in public, including dancing with a member of the same sex, the eroticism of disco served as resistance and an expression of sexual freedom.
He uses Donna Summer's singles "Love to Love You Baby" (1975) and "I Feel Love" (1977) as examples of the ever-present relationship between the synthesized bass lines and backgrounds to the simulated sounds of orgasms. Summer's voice echoes in the tracks, and likens them to the drug-fervent, sexually liberated fans of disco who sought to free themselves through disco's "aesthetic of machine sex." Shapiro sees this as an influence that creates sub-genres like hi-NRG and dub-disco, which allowed for eroticism and technology to be further explored through intense synth bass lines and alternative rhythmic techniques that tap into the entire body rather than the obvious erotic parts of the body.
The New York nightclub The Sanctuary under resident DJ Francis Grasso is a prime example of this sexual liberty. In their history of the disc jockey and club culture, Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton describe the Sanctuary as "poured full of newly liberated gay men, then shaken (and stirred) by a weighty concoction of dance music and pharmacoia of pills and potions, the result is a festivaly of carnality." The Sanctuary was the "first totally uninhibited gay discotheque in America" and while sex was not allowed on the dancefloor, the dark corners, bathrooms. and hallways of the adjacent buildings were all utilized for orgy-like sexual engagements.
By describing the music, drugs, and liberated mentality as a trifecta coming together to create the festival of carnality, Brewster and Broughton are inciting all three as stimuli for the dancing, sex, and other embodied movements that contributed to the corporeal vibrations within the Sanctuary. It supports the argument that disco music took a role in facilitating this sexual liberation that was experienced in the discotheques. The recent legalization of abortion and the introduction of antibiotics and the pill facilitated a culture shift around sex from one of procreation to pleasure and enjoyment. Thus was fostered a very sex-positive framework around discotheques.
Further, in addition to gay sex being illegal in New York state, until 1973 the American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as an illness. This law and classification coupled together can be understood to have heavily dissuaded the expression of queerness in public, as such the liberatory dynamics of discotheques can be seen as having provided space for self-realization for queer persons. David Mancuso's club/house party, The Loft, was described as having a "pansexual attitude [that] was revolutionary in a country where up until recently it had been illegal for two men to dance together unless there was a woman present; where women were legally obliged to wear at least one recognizable item of female clothing in public; and where men visiting gay bars usually carried bail money with them."
Disco was mostly developed from music that was popular on the dance floor in clubs that started playing records instead of having a live band. The first discotheques mostly played swing music. Later on, uptempo rhythm and blues became popular in American clubs and northern soul and glam rock records in the UK. In the early 1940s, nightclubs in Paris resorted to playing jazz records during the Nazi occupation.
Régine Zylberberg claimed to have started the first discotheque and to have been the first club DJ in 1953 in the "Whisky à Go-Go" in Paris. She installed a dance floor with colored lights and two turntables so she could play records without having a gap in the music. In October 1959, the owner of the Scotch Club in Aachen, West Germany chose to install a record player for the opening night instead of hiring a live band. The patrons were unimpressed until a young reporter, who happened to be covering the opening of the club, impulsively took control of the record player and introduced the records that he chose to play. Klaus Quirini later claimed to thus have been the world's first nightclub DJ.
During the 1960s, discotheque dancing became a European trend that was enthusiastically picked up by the American press. At this time, when the discotheque culture from Europe became popular in the United States, several music genres with danceable rhythms rose to popularity and evolved into different sub-genres: rhythm and blues (originated in the 1940s), soul (late 1950s and 1960s), funk (mid-1960s) and go-go (mid-1960s and 1970s; more than "disco", the word "go-go" originally indicated a music club). Musical genres that were primarily performed by African-American musicians would influence much of early disco.
Also during the 1960s, the Motown record label developed its own approach, described as having "1) simply structured songs with sophisticated melodies and chord changes, 2) a relentless four-beat drum pattern, 3) a gospel use of background voices, vaguely derived from the style of the Impressions, 4) a regular and sophisticated use of both horns and strings, 5) lead singers who were half way between pop and gospel music, 6) a group of accompanying musicians who were among the most dextrous, knowledgeable, and brilliant in all of popular music (Motown bassists have long been the envy of white rock bassists) and 7) a trebly style of mixing that relied heavily on electronic limiting and equalizing (boosting the high range frequencies) to give the overall product a distinctive sound, particularly effective for broadcast over AM radio." Motown had many hits with disco elements by acts like Eddie Kendricks ("Keep on Truckin'" in 1973, "Boogie Down" in 1974).
At the end of the 1960s, musicians, and audiences from the Black, Italian, and Latino communities adopted several traits from the hippie and psychedelia subcultures. They included using music venues with a loud, overwhelming sound, free-form dancing, trippy lighting, colorful costumes, and the use of hallucinogenic drugs. In addition, the perceived positivity, lack of irony, and earnestness of the hippies informed proto-disco music like MFSB's album Love Is the Message. Partly through the success of Jimi Hendrix, psychedelic elements that were popular in rock music of the late 1960s found their way into soul and early funk music and formed the subgenre psychedelic soul. Examples can be found in the music of the Chambers Brothers, George Clinton with his Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Sly and the Family Stone, and the productions of Norman Whitfield with The Temptations.
The long instrumental introductions and detailed orchestration found in psychedelic soul tracks by the Temptations are also considered as cinematic soul. In the early 1970s, Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes scored hits with cinematic soul songs that were actually composed for movie soundtracks: "Superfly" (1972) and "Theme from Shaft" (1971). The latter is sometimes regarded as an early disco song. From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Philadelphia soul and New York soul developed as sub-genres that also had lavish percussion, lush string orchestra arrangements, and expensive record production processes. In the early 1970s, the Philly soul productions by Gamble and Huff evolved from the simpler arrangements of the late-1960s into a style featuring lush strings, thumping basslines, and sliding hi-hat rhythms. These elements would become typical for disco music and are found in several of the hits they produced in the early 1970s:
Other early disco tracks that helped shape disco and became popular on the dance floors of (underground) discotheque clubs and parties include:
Early disco was dominated by record producers and labels such as Salsoul Records (Ken, Stanley, and Joseph Cayre), West End Records (Mel Cheren), Casablanca (Neil Bogart), and Prelude (Marvin Schlachter). The genre was also shaped by Tom Moulton, who wanted to extend the enjoyment of dance songs — thus creating the extended mix or "remix", going from a three-minute 45 rpm single to the much longer 12" record. Other influential DJs and remixers who helped to establish what became known as the "disco sound" included David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, Shep Pettibone, Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons, and Chicago-based Frankie Knuckles. Frankie Knuckles was not only an important disco DJ; he also helped to develop house music in the 1980s.
Disco hit the television airwaves as part of the music/dance variety show Soul Train in 1971 hosted by Don Cornelius, then Marty Angelo's Disco Step-by-Step Television Show in 1975, Steve Marcus's Disco Magic/Disco 77, Eddie Rivera's Soap Factory, and Merv Griffin's Dance Fever, hosted by Deney Terrio, who is credited with teaching actor John Travolta to dance for his role in the film Saturday Night Fever(1977), as well as DANCE, based out of Columbia, South Carolina.
In 1974, New York City's WPIX-FM premiered the first disco radio show.
In the 1970s, the key counterculture of the 1960s, the hippie movement, was fading away. The economic prosperity of the previous decade had declined, and unemployment, inflation, and crime rates had soared. Political issues like the backlash from the Civil Rights Movement culminating in the form of race riots, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, and the Watergate scandal, left many feeling disillusioned and hopeless . The start of the '70s was marked by a shift in the consciousness of the American people: the rise of the feminist movement, identity politics, gangs, etc. very much shaped this era. Disco music and disco dancing provided an escape from negative social and economic issues. The non-partnered dance style of disco music allowed people of all races and sexual orientations to enjoy the dancefloor atmosphere.
In Beautiful Things in Popular Culture, Simon Frith highlights the sociability of disco and its roots in 1960s counterculture. "The driving force of the New York underground dance scene in which disco was forged was not simply that city's complex ethnic and sexual culture but also a 1960s notion of community, pleasure and generosity that can only be described as hippie", he says. "The best disco music contained within it a remarkably powerful sense of collective euphoria."
The birth of disco is often claimed to be found in the private dance parties held by New York City DJ David Mancuso's home that became known as The Loft, an invitation-only non-commercial underground club that inspired many others. He organized the first major party in his Manhattan home on Valentine's Day 1970 with the name "Love Saves The Day". After some months the parties became weekly events and Mancuso continued to give regular parties into the 1990s. Mancuso required that the music played had to be soulful, rhythmic, and impart words of hope, redemption, or pride.
When Mancuso threw his first informal house parties, the gay community (which made up much of The Loft's attendee roster) was often harassed in the gay bars and dance clubs, with many gay men carrying bail money with them to gay bars. But at The Loft and many other early, private discotheques, they could dance together without fear of police action thanks to Mancuso's underground, yet legal, policies. Vince Aletti described it "like going to party, completely mixed, racially and sexually, where there wasn't any sense of someone being more important than anyone else," and Alex Rosner reiterated this saying "It was probably about sixty percent black and seventy percent gay...There was a mix of sexual orientation, there was a mix of races, mix of economic groups. A real mix, where the common denominator was music."
Film critic Roger Ebert called the popular embrace of disco's exuberant dance moves an escape from "the general depression and drabness of the political and musical atmosphere of the late seventies." Pauline Kael, writing about the disco-themed film Saturday Night Fever, said the film and disco itself touched on "something deeply romantic, the need to move, to dance, and the need to be who you'd like to be. Nirvana is the dance; when the music stops, you return to being ordinary."
In the late 1960s, uptempo soul with heavy beats and some associated dance styles and fashion were picked up in the British mod scene and formed the northern soul movement. Originating at venues such as the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, it quickly spread to other UK dancehalls and nightclubs like the Chateau Impney (Droitwich), Catacombs (Wolverhampton), the Highland Rooms at Blackpool Mecca, Golden Torch (Stoke-on-Trent), and Wigan Casino. As the favoured beat became more uptempo and frantic in the early 1970s, northern soul dancing became more athletic, somewhat resembling the later dance styles of disco and break dancing. Featuring spins, flips, karate kicks, and backdrops, club dancing styles were often inspired by the stage performances of touring American soul acts such as Little Anthony & the Imperials and Jackie Wilson.
In 1974, there were an estimated 25,000 mobile discos and 40,000 professional disc jockeys in the United Kingdom. Mobile discos were hired deejays that brought their own equipment to provide music for special events. Glam rock tracks were popular, with, for example, Gary Glitter's 1972 single "Rock and Roll Part 2" becoming popular on UK dance floors while it did not get much radio airplay.
From 1974 to 1977, disco music increased in popularity as many disco songs topped the charts. The Hues Corporation's "Rock the Boat" (1974), a US number-one single and million-seller, was one of the early disco songs to reach number one. The same year saw the release of "Kung Fu Fighting", performed by Carl Douglas and produced by Biddu, which reached number one in both the UK and US, and became the best-selling single of the year and one of the best-selling singles of all time with 11 million records sold worldwide, helping to popularize disco to a great extent. Another notable disco success that year was George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby": it became the United Kingdom's first number one disco single.
In the northwestern sections of the United Kingdom, the northern soul explosion, which started in the late 1960s and peaked in 1974, made the region receptive to disco, which the region's disc jockeys were bringing back from New York City. The shift by some DJs to the newer sounds coming from the U.S. resulted in a split in the scene, whereby some abandoned the 1960s soul and pushed a modern soul sound which tended to be more closely aligned with disco than soul.
In 1975, Gloria Gaynor released her first side-long vinyl album, which included a remake of the Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye" (which, in fact, is also the album title) and two other songs, "Honey Bee" and her disco version of "Reach Out (I'll Be There)". The album first topped the Billboard disco/dance charts in November 1974. Later in 1978, Gaynor's number-one disco song was "I Will Survive", which was seen as a symbol of female strength and a gay anthem, like her further disco hit, a 1983 remake of "I Am What I Am". In 1979 she released "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)", a single which gained popularity in the civil rights movements. Also in 1975, Vincent Montana Jr.'s Salsoul Orchestra contributed with their Latin-flavored orchestral dance song "Salsoul Hustle", reaching number four on the Billboard Dance Chart; their 1976 hits were "Tangerine" and "Nice 'n' Naasty", the first being a cover of a 1941 song.
Songs such as Van McCoy's 1975 "The Hustle" and the humorous Joe Tex 1977 "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)" gave names to the popular disco dances "the Bump" and "the Hustle". Other notable early successful disco songs include Barry White's "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" (1974); Labelle's "Lady Marmalade" (1974)'; Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes' "Get Dancin'" (1974); Earth, Wind & Fire's "Shining Star" (1975); Silver Convention's "Fly, Robin, Fly" (1975) and "Get Up and Boogie" (1976); Vicki Sue Robinson's "Turn the Beat Around" (1976); and "More, More, More" (1976) by Andrea True (a former pornographic actress during the Golden Age of Porn, an era largely contemporaneous with the height of disco).
Formed by Harry Wayne Casey (a.k.a. "KC") and Richard Finch, Miami's KC and the Sunshine Band had a string of disco-definitive top-five singles between 1975 and 1977, including "Get Down Tonight", "That's the Way (I Like It)", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man", "Boogie Shoes", and "Keep It Comin' Love". In this period, rock bands like the English Electric Light Orchestra featured in their songs a violin sound that became a staple of disco music, as in the 1975 hit "Evil Woman", although the genre was correctly described as orchestral rock.
Other disco producers such as Tom Moulton took ideas and techniques from dub music (which came with the increased Jamaican migration to New York City in the 1970s) to provide alternatives to the "four on the floor" style that dominated. DJ Larry Levan utilized styles from dub and jazz and remixing techniques to create early versions of house music that sparked the genre.
Norman Whitfield was an influential producer and songwriter at Motown records, renowned for creating innovative "psychedelic soul" songs with many hits for Marvin Gaye, the Velvelettes, the Temptations, and Gladys Knight & the Pips. From around the production of the Temptations album Cloud Nine in 1968, he incorporated some psychedelic influences and started to produce longer, dance-friendly tracks, with more room for elaborate rhythmic instrumental parts. An example of such a long psychedelic soul track is "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", which appeared as a single edit of almost seven minutes and an approximately 12-minute-long 12" version in 1972. By the early 70s, many of Whitfield's productions evolved more and more towards funk and disco, as heard on albums by the Undisputed Truth and the 1973 album G.I.T.: Get It Together by The Jackson 5. The Undisputed Truth, a Motown recording act assembled by Whitfield to experiment with his psychedelic soul production techniques, found success with their 1971 song "Smiling Faces Sometimes". Their disco single "You + Me = Love" (number 43) was produced by Whitfield and made number 2 on the US dance chart in 1976.
In 1975, Whitfield left Motown and founded his own label Whitfield records, on which also "You + Me = Love" was released. Whitfield produced some more disco hits, including "Car Wash" (1976) by Rose Royce from the album soundtrack to the 1976 film Car Wash. In 1977, singer, songwriter, and producer Willie Hutch, who had been signed to Motown since 1970, now signed with Whitfield's new label, and scored a successful disco single with his song "In and Out" in 1982.
Other Motown artists turned to disco as well. Diana Ross embraced the disco sound with her successful 1976 outing "Love Hangover" from her self-titled album. Her 1980 dance classics "Upside Down" and "I'm Coming Out" were written and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the group Chic. The Supremes, the group that made Ross famous, scored a handful of hits in the disco clubs without her, most notably 1976's "I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking" and, their last charted single before disbanding, 1977's "You're My Driving Wheel".
At the request of Motown that he produce songs in the disco genre, Marvin Gaye released "Got to Give It Up" in 1978, despite his dislike of disco. He vowed not to record any songs in the genre and actually wrote the song as a parody. However, several of Gaye's songs have disco elements, including "I Want You" (1975). Stevie Wonder released the disco single "Sir Duke" in 1977 as a tribute to Duke Ellington, the influential jazz legend who had died in 1974. Smokey Robinson left the Motown group the Miracles for a solo career in 1972 and released his third solo album A Quiet Storm in 1975, which spawned and lent its name to the "Quiet Storm" musical programming format and subgenre of R&B. It contained the disco single "Baby That's Backatcha". Other Motown artists who scored disco hits were Robinson's former group, the Miracles, with "Love Machine" (1975), Eddie Kendricks with "Keep On Truckin'" (1973), the Originals with "Down to Love Town" (1976), and Thelma Houston with her cover of the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes song "Don't Leave Me This Way" (1976). The label continued to release successful songs into the 1980s with Rick James's "Super Freak" (1981), and the Commodores' "Lady (You Bring Me Up)" (1981).
Several of Motown's solo artists who left the label went on to have successful disco songs. Mary Wells, Motown's first female superstar with her signature song "My Guy" (written by Smokey Robinson), abruptly left the label in 1964. She briefly reappeared on the charts with the disco song "Gigolo" in 1980. Jimmy Ruffin, the elder brother of the Temptations lead singer David Ruffin, was also signed to Motown and released his most successful and well-known song "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" as a single in 1966. Ruffin eventually left the record label in the mid-1970s, but saw success with the 1980 disco song "Hold On (To My Love)", which was written and produced by Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, for his album Sunrise. Edwin Starr, known for his Motown protest song "War" (1970), reentered the charts in 1979 with a pair of disco songs, "Contact" and "H.A.P.P.Y. Radio". Kiki Dee became the first white British singer to sign with Motown in the US, and released one album, Great Expectations (1970), and two singles "The Day Will Come Between Sunday and Monday" (1970) and "Love Makes the World Go Round" (1971), the latter giving her first-ever chart entry (number 87 on the US Chart). She soon left the company and signed with Elton John's The Rocket Record Company, and in 1976 had her biggest and best-known single, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", a disco duet with John. The song was intended as an affectionate disco-style pastiche of the Motown sound, in particular the various duets recorded by Marvin Gaye with Tammi Terrell and Kim Weston.
Many Motown groups who had left the record label charted with disco songs. The Jackson 5, one of Motown's premier acts in the early 1970s, left the record company in 1975 (Jermaine Jackson, however, remained with the label) after successful songs like "I Want You Back" (1969) and "ABC" (1970), and even the disco song "Dancing Machine" (1974). Renamed as 'the Jacksons' (as Motown owned the name 'the Jackson 5'), they went on to find success with disco songs like "Blame It on the Boogie" (1978), "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" (1979), and "Can You Feel It?" (1981) on the Epic label.
The Isley Brothers, whose short tenure at the company had produced the song "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)" in 1966, went on release successful disco songs like "It's a Disco Night (Rock Don't Stop)" (1979). Gladys Knight & the Pips, who recorded the most successful version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1967) before Marvin Gaye, scored commercially successful singles such as "Baby, Don't Change Your Mind" (1977) and "Bourgie, Bourgie" (1980) in the disco era. The Detroit Spinners were also signed to the Motown label and saw success with the Stevie Wonder-produced song "It's a Shame" in 1970. They left soon after, on the advice of fellow Detroit native Aretha Franklin, to Atlantic Records, and there had disco songs like "The Rubberband Man" (1976). In 1979, they released a successful cover of Elton John's "Are You Ready for Love", as well as a medley of the Four Seasons' song "Working My Way Back to You" and Michael Zager's "Forgive Me, Girl". The Four Seasons themselves were briefly signed to Motown's MoWest label, a short-lived subsidiary for R&B and soul artists based on the West Coast, and there the group produced one album, Chameleon (1972) – to little commercial success in the US. However, one single, "The Night", was released in Britain in 1975, and thanks to popularity from the Northern Soul circuit, reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart. The Four Seasons left Motown in 1974 and went on to have a disco hit with their song "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" (1975) for Warner Curb Records.
By far the most successful Euro disco act was ABBA (1972–1982). This Swedish quartet, which sang primarily in English, found success with singles such as "Waterloo" (1974), "Take a Chance on Me" (1978), "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" (1979), "Super Trouper" (1980), and their signature smash hit "Dancing Queen" (1976).
In the 1970s Munich, West Germany, music producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte made a decisive contribution to disco music with a string of hits for Donna Summer, which became known as the "Munich Sound". In 1975, Summer suggested the lyric "Love to Love You Baby" to Moroder and Bellotte, who turned the lyric into a full disco song. The final product, which contained the vocalizations of a series of simulated orgasms, initially was not intended for release, but when Moroder played it in the clubs it caused a sensation and he released it. The song became an international hit, reaching the charts in many European countries and the US (No. 2). It has been described as the arrival of the expression of raw female sexual desire in pop music. A nearly 17-minute 12-inch single was released. The 12" single became and remains a standard in discos today. In 1976 Donna Summer's version of "Could It Be Magic" brought disco further into the mainstream. In 1977 Summer, Moroder and Bellotte further released "I Feel Love", as the B-side of "Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)", which revolutionized dance music with its mostly electronic production and was a massive worldwide success, spawning the Hi-NRG subgenre. Giorgio Moroder was described by AllMusic as "one of the principal architects of the disco sound". Another successful disco music project by Moroder at that time was Munich Machine (1976–1980).
Boney M. (1974–1986) was a West German Euro disco group of four West Indian singers and dancers masterminded by record producer Frank Farian. Boney M. charted worldwide with such songs as "Daddy Cool" (1976) "Ma Baker" (1977) and "Rivers Of Babylon" (1978). Another successful West German Euro disco recording act was Silver Convention (1974–1979). The German group Kraftwerk also had an influence on Euro disco.
In France, Dalida released "J'attendrai" ("I Will Wait") in 1975, which also became successful in Canada, Europe, and Japan. Dalida successfully adjusted herself to disco and released at least a dozen of songs that charted in the top 10 in Europe. Claude François, who re-invented himself as the "king of French disco", released "La plus belle chose du monde", a French version of the Bee Gees song "Massachusetts", which became successful in Canada and Europe and "Alexandrie Alexandra" was posthumously released on the day of his burial and became a worldwide success. Cerrone's early songs, "Love in C Minor" (1976), "Supernature" (1977), and "Give Me Love" (1978) were successful in the US and Europe. Another Euro disco act was the French diva Amanda Lear, where Euro disco sound is most heard in "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)" (1978). French producer Alec Costandinos assembled the Euro disco group Love and Kisses (1977–1982).
In Italy Raffaella Carrà was the most successful Euro disco act, alongside La Bionda, Hermanas Goggi and Oliver Onions. Her greatest international single was "Tanti Auguri" ("Best Wishes"), which has become a popular song with gay audiences. The song is also known under its Spanish title "Para hacer bien el amor hay que venir al sur" (which refers to Southern Europe, since the song was recorded and taped in Spain). The Estonian version of the song "Jätke võtmed väljapoole" was performed by Anne Veski. "A far l'amore comincia tu" ("To make love, your move first") was another success for her internationally, known in Spanish as "En el amor todo es empezar", in German as "Liebelei", in French as "Puisque tu l'aimes dis le lui", and in English as "Do It, Do It Again". It was her only entry to the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 9, where she remains a one-hit wonder. In 1977, she recorded another successful single, "Fiesta" ("The Party" in English) originally in Spanish, but then recorded it in French and Italian after the song hit the charts. "A far l'amore comincia tu" has also been covered in Turkish by a Turkish popstar Ajda Pekkan as "Sakın Ha" in 1977.
Recently, Carrà has gained new attention for her appearance as the female dancing soloist in a 1974 TV performance of the experimental gibberish song "Prisencolinensinainciusol" (1973) by Adriano Celentano. A remixed video featuring her dancing went viral on the internet in 2008. In 2008 a video of a performance of her only successful UK single, "Do It, Do It Again", was featured in the Doctor Who episode "Midnight". Rafaella Carrà worked with Bob Sinclar on the new single "Far l'Amore" which was released on YouTube on March 17, 2011. The song charted in different European countries. Another prominent European disco act was the pop group Luv' from the Netherlands.
Euro disco continued evolving within the broad mainstream pop music scene, even when disco's popularity sharply declined in the United States, abandoned by major U.S. record labels and producers. Through the influence of Italo disco, it also played a role in the evolution of early house music in the early 1980s and later forms of electronic dance music, including early '90s Eurodance.
In December 1977, the film Saturday Night Fever was released. It was a huge success and its soundtrack became one of the best-selling albums of all time. The idea for the film was sparked by a 1976 New York magazine article titled "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" which supposedly chronicled the disco culture in mid-1970s New York City, but was later revealed to have been fabricated. Some critics said the film "mainstreamed" disco, making it more acceptable to heterosexual white males. Many music historians believe the success of the movie and soundtrack extended the life of the disco era by several years.
Organized around the culture of suburban discotheques and the character of Tony Manero, portrayed by John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever became a cultural phenomenon that recast the dance floor as a site for patriarchal masculinity and heterosexual courtship. This transformation aligned disco with the interests of the perceived mass market, specifically targeting suburban and Middle American audiences.
The portrayal of the dance floor in Saturday Night Fever marked a reappropriation by straight male culture, turning it into a space for men to showcase their prowess and pursue partners of the opposite sex. The film popularized the hustle, a Latin social dance, reinforcing the centrality of the straight-dancing couple in the disco exchange. Notably, the soundtrack, dominated by the Bee Gees, risked presenting disco as a new incarnation of shrill white pop, deviating from its diverse and inclusive origins. The success of Saturday Night Fever was unprecedented, breaking box office and album sale records. Unfortunately, its impact went beyond mere popularity. The film established a template for disco that was easily reproducible, yet thoroughly de-queered in its outlook. By narrowing the narrative to fit into the conventional ideals of suburban heterosexual culture, the film contributed to a distorted and commodified version of disco.
The Bee Gees used Barry Gibb's falsetto to garner hits such as "You Should Be Dancing", "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", "More Than A Woman", "Love You Inside Out", and "Tragedy". Andy Gibb, a younger brother to the Bee Gees, followed with similarly styled solo singles such as "I Just Want to Be Your Everything", "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water", and "Shadow Dancing".
In 1978, Donna Summer's multi-million-selling vinyl single disco version of "MacArthur Park" was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The recording, which was included as part of the "MacArthur Park Suite" on her double live album Live and More, was eight minutes and 40 seconds long on the album. The shorter seven-inch vinyl single version of MacArthur Park was Summer's first single to reach number one on the Hot 100; it does not include the balladic second movement of the song, however. A 2013 remix of "MacArthur Park" by Summer topped the Billboard Dance Charts marking five consecutive decades with a number-one song on the charts. From mid-1978 to late 1979, Summer continued to release singles such as "Last Dance", "Heaven Knows" (with Brooklyn Dreams), "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", "Dim All the Lights" and "On the Radio", all very successful songs, landing in the top five or better, on the Billboard pop charts.
The band Chic was formed mainly by guitarist Nile Rodgers—a self-described "street hippie" from late 1960s New York—and bassist Bernard Edwards. Their popular 1978 single, "Le Freak", is regarded as an iconic song of the genre. Other successful songs by Chic include the often-sampled "Good Times" (1979), "I Want Your Love" (1979), and "Everybody Dance" (1979). The group regarded themselves as the disco movement's rock band that made good on the hippie movement's ideals of peace, love, and freedom. Every song they wrote was written with an eye toward giving it "deep hidden meaning" or D.H.M.
Sylvester, a flamboyant and openly gay singer famous for his soaring falsetto voice, scored his biggest disco hit in late 1978 with "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)". His singing style was said to have influenced the singer Prince. At that time, disco was one of the forms of music most open to gay performers.
The Village People were a singing/dancing group created by Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo to target disco's gay audience. They were known for their onstage costumes of typically male-associated jobs and ethnic minorities and achieved mainstream success with their 1978 hit song "Macho Man". Other songs include "Y.M.C.A." (1979) and "In the Navy" (1979).
Also noteworthy are The Trammps' "Disco Inferno" (1976), (1978, reissue due to the popularity gained from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack), Heatwave's "Boogie Nights" (1977), Evelyn "Champagne" King's "Shame" (1977), A Taste of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie" (1978), Cheryl Lynn's "Got to Be Real" (1978), Alicia Bridges's "I Love the Nightlife" (1978), Patrick Hernandez's "Born to Be Alive" (1978), Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" (1978) and "Boogie Wonderland" (1979), Peaches & Herb's "Shake Your Groove Thing" (1978), Sister Sledge's "We Are Family" and "He's the Greatest Dancer" (both 1979), McFadden and Whitehead's "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" (1979), Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" (1979), Kool & the Gang's "Ladies' Night" (1979) and "Celebration" (1980), The Whispers's "And the Beat Goes On" (1979), Stephanie Mills's "What Cha Gonna Do with My Lovin'" (1979), Lipps Inc.'s "Funkytown" (1980), The Brothers Johnson's "Stomp!" (1980), George Benson's "Give Me the Night" (1980), Donna Summer's "Sunset People" (1980), and Walter Murphy's various attempts to bring classical music to the mainstream, most notably the disco song "A Fifth of Beethoven" (1976), which was inspired by Beethoven's fifth symphony.
At the height of its popularity, many non-disco artists recorded songs with disco elements, such as Rod Stewart with his "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" in 1979. Even mainstream rock artists adopted elements of disco. Progressive rock group Pink Floyd used disco-like drums and guitar in their song "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" (1979), which became their only number-one single in both the US and UK. The Eagles referenced disco with "One of These Nights" (1975) and "Disco Strangler" (1979), Paul McCartney & Wings with "Silly Love Songs" (1976) and "Goodnight Tonight" (1979), Queen with "Another One Bites the Dust" (1980), the Rolling Stones with "Miss You" (1978) and "Emotional Rescue" (1980), Stephen Stills with his album Thoroughfare Gap (1978), Electric Light Orchestra with "Shine a Little Love" and "Last Train to London" (both 1979), Chicago with "Street Player" (1979), the Kinks with "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman" (1979), the Grateful Dead with "Shakedown Street", The Who with "Eminence Front" (1982), and the J. Geils Band with "Come Back" (1980). Even hard rock group KISS jumped in with "I Was Made for Lovin' You" (1979), and Ringo Starr's album Ringo the 4th (1978) features a strong disco influence.
The disco sound was also adopted by artists from other genres, including the 1979 U.S. number one hit "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" by easy listening singer Barbra Streisand in a duet with Donna Summer. In country music, in an attempt to appeal to the more mainstream market, artists began to add pop/disco influences to their music. Dolly Parton launched a successful crossover onto the pop/dance charts, with her albums Heartbreaker and Great Balls of Fire containing songs with a disco flair. In particular, a disco remix of the track "Baby I'm Burnin'" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart; ultimately becoming one of the years biggest club hits. Additionally, Connie Smith covered Andy Gibb's "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" in 1977, Bill Anderson recorded "Double S" in 1978, and Ronnie Milsap released "Get It Up" and covered blues singer Tommy Tucker's song "Hi-Heel Sneakers" in 1979.
Pre-existing non-disco songs, standards, and TV themes were frequently "disco-ized" in the 1970s, such as the I Love Lucy theme (recorded as "Disco Lucy" by the Wilton Place Street Band), "Aquarela do Brasil" (recorded as "Brazil" by The Ritchie Family), and "Baby Face" (recorded by the Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps). The rich orchestral accompaniment that became identified with the disco era conjured up the memories of the big band era—which brought out several artists that recorded and disco-ized some big band arrangements, including Perry Como, who re-recorded his 1945 song "Temptation", in 1975, as well as Ethel Merman, who released an album of disco songs entitled The Ethel Merman Disco Album in 1979.
Myron Floren, second-in-command on The Lawrence Welk Show, released a recording of the "Clarinet Polka" entitled "Disco Accordion." Similarly, Bobby Vinton adapted "The Pennsylvania Polka" into a song named "Disco Polka". Easy listening icon Percy Faith, in one of his last recordings, released an album entitled Disco Party (1975) and recorded a disco version of his "Theme from A Summer Place" in 1976. Even classical music was adapted for disco, notably Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven" (1976, based on the first movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony) and "Flight 76" (1976, based on Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee"), and Louis Clark's Hooked On Classics series of albums and singles.
Many original television theme songs of the era also showed a strong disco influence, such as S.W.A.T. (1975), Wonder Woman (1975), Charlie's Angels (1976), NBC Saturday Night At The Movies (1976), The Love Boat (1977), The Donahue Show (1977), CHiPs (1977), The Professionals (1977), Dallas (1978), NBC Sports broadcasts (1978), Kojak (1977), and The Hollywood Squares (1979).
Disco jingles also made their way into many TV commercials, including Purina's 1979 "Good Mews" cat food commercial and an "IC Light" commercial by Pittsburgh's Iron City Brewing Company.
Several parodies of the disco style were created. Rick Dees, at the time a radio DJ in Memphis, Tennessee, recorded "Disco Duck" (1976) and "Dis-Gorilla" (1977); Frank Zappa parodied the lifestyles of disco dancers in "Disco Boy" on his 1976 Zoot Allures album and in "Dancin' Fool" on his 1979 Sheik Yerbouti album. "Weird Al" Yankovic's eponymous 1983 debut album includes a disco song called "Gotta Boogie", an extended pun on the similarity of the disco move to the American slang word "booger". Comedian Bill Cosby devoted his entire 1977 album Disco Bill to disco parodies. In 1980, Mad Magazine released a flexi-disc titled Mad Disco featuring six full-length parodies of the genre. Rock and roll songs critical of disco included Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" and, especially, the Who's "Sister Disco" (both 1978)—although the Who's "Eminence Front" (four years later) had a disco feel.
By the end of the 1970s, anti-disco sentiment developed among rock music fans and musicians, particularly in the United States. Disco was criticized as mindless, consumerist, overproduced and escapist. The slogans "Disco sucks" and "Death to disco" became common. Rock artists such as Rod Stewart and David Bowie who added disco elements to their music were accused of selling out.
The punk subculture in the United States and the United Kingdom was often hostile to disco, although, in the UK, many early Sex Pistols fans such as the Bromley Contingent and Jordan liked disco, often congregating at nightclubs such as Louise's in Soho and the Sombrero in Kensington. The track "Love Hangover" by Diana Ross, the house anthem at the former, was cited as a particular favourite by many early UK punks. The film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and its soundtrack album contained a disco medley of Sex Pistols songs, entitled Black Arabs and credited to a group of the same name.
However, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, in the song "Saturday Night Holocaust", likened disco to the cabaret culture of Weimar-era Germany for its apathy towards government policies and its escapism. Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo said that disco was "like a beautiful woman with a great body and no brains", and a product of political apathy of that era. New Jersey rock critic Jim Testa wrote "Put a Bullet Through the Jukebox", a vitriolic screed attacking disco that was considered a punk call to arms. Steve Hillage, shortly prior to his transformation from a progressive rock musician into an electronic artist at the end of the 1970s with the inspiration of disco, disappointed his rockist fans by admitting his love for disco, with Hillage recalling "it's like I'd killed their pet cat."
Anti-disco sentiment was expressed in some television shows and films. A recurring theme on the show WKRP in Cincinnati was a hostile attitude towards disco music. In one scene of the 1980 comedy film Airplane!, a wayward airplane slices a radio tower with its wing, knocking out an all-disco radio station. July 12, 1979, became known as "the day disco died" because of the Disco Demolition Night, an anti-disco demonstration in a baseball double-header at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Rock station DJs Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, along with Michael Veeck, son of Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck, staged the promotional event for disgruntled rock fans between the games of a White Sox doubleheader which involved exploding disco records in centerfield. As the second game was about to begin, the raucous crowd stormed onto the field and proceeded to set fires and tear out seats and pieces of turf. The Chicago Police Department made numerous arrests, and the extensive damage to the field forced the White Sox to forfeit the second game to the Detroit Tigers, who had won the first game.
Disco's decline in popularity after Disco Demolition Night was rapid. On July 12, 1979, the top six records on the U.S. music charts were disco songs. By September 22, there were no disco songs in the US Top 10 chart, with the exception of Herb Alpert's instrumental "Rise", a smooth jazz composition with some disco overtones. Some in the media, in celebratory tones, declared disco "dead" and rock revived. Karen Mixon Cook, the first female disco DJ, stated that people still pause every July 12 for a moment of silence in honor of disco. Dahl stated in a 2004 interview that disco was "probably on its way out [at the time]. But I think it [Disco Demolition Night] hastened its demise".
The anti-disco movement, combined with other societal and radio industry factors, changed the face of pop radio in the years following Disco Demolition Night. Starting in the 1980s, country music began a slow rise on the pop chart. Emblematic of country music's rise to mainstream popularity was the commercially successful 1980 movie Urban Cowboy. The continued popularity of power pop and the revival of oldies in the late 1970s was also related to disco's decline; the 1978 film Grease was emblematic of this trend. Coincidentally, the star of both films was John Travolta, who in 1977 had starred in Saturday Night Fever, which remains one of the most iconic disco films of the era.
During this period of decline in disco's popularity, several record companies folded, were reorganized, or were sold. In 1979, MCA Records purchased ABC Records, absorbed some of its artists and then shut the label down. Midsong International Records ceased operations in 1980. RSO Records founder Robert Stigwood left the label in 1981 and TK Records closed in the same year. Salsoul Records continues to exist in the 2000s, but primarily is used as a reissue brand. Casablanca Records had been releasing fewer records in the 1980s, and was shut down in 1986 by parent company PolyGram.
Many groups that were popular during the disco period subsequently struggled to maintain their success—even ones who tried to adapt to evolving musical tastes. The Bee Gees, for instance, had only one top-10 entry (1989's "One") and three more top-40 songs (despite completely abandoning disco in their 1980s and 1990s songs), even though numerous songs they wrote and had other artists perform were successful. Of the handful of groups not taken down by disco's fall from favor, Kool and the Gang, Donna Summer, the Jacksons, and Gloria Gaynor in particular—stand out. In spite of having helped define the disco sound early on, they continued to make popular and danceable, if more refined, songs for yet another generation of music fans in the 1980s and beyond. Earth, Wind & Fire also survived the anti-disco trend and continued to produce successful singles at roughly the same pace for several more years, in addition to an even longer string of R&B chart hits that lasted into the 1990s.
Six months prior to Disco Demolition Night (in December 1978), popular progressive rock radio station WDAI (WLS-FM) had suddenly switched to an all-disco format, disenfranchising thousands of Chicago rock fans and leaving Dahl unemployed. WDAI, who survived the change of public sentiment and still had good ratings at this point, continued to play disco until it flipped to a short-lived hybrid Top 40/rock format in May 1980. Another disco outlet that competed against WDAI at the time, WGCI-FM, would later incorporate R&B and pop songs into the format, eventually evolving into an urban contemporary outlet that it continues with today. The latter also helped bring the Chicago house genre to the airwaves.
Factors that have been cited as leading to the decline of disco in the United States include economic and political changes at the end of the 1970s, as well as burnout from the hedonistic lifestyles led by participants. In the years since Disco Demolition Night, some social critics have described the "Disco sucks" movement as implicitly macho and bigoted, and an attack on non-white and non-heterosexual cultures. It was also interpreted being part of a wider cultural "backlash", the move towards conservatism, that also made its way into US politics with the election of conservative president Ronald Reagan in 1980, which also led to Republican control of the United States Senate for the first time since 1954, plus the subsequent rise of the Religious Right around the same time.
In January 1979, rock critic Robert Christgau argued that homophobia, and most likely racism, were reasons behind the movement, a conclusion seconded by John Rockwell. Craig Werner wrote: "The Anti-disco movement represented an unholy alliance of funkateers and feminists, progressives, and puritans, rockers and reactionaries. Nonetheless, the attacks on disco gave respectable voice to the ugliest kinds of unacknowledged racism, sexism and homophobia." Legs McNeil, founder of the fanzine Punk, was quoted in an interview as saying, "the hippies always wanted to be black. We were going, 'fuck the blues, fuck the black experience.'" He also said that disco was the result of an "unholy" union between homosexuals and blacks.
Steve Dahl, who had spearheaded Disco Demolition Night, denied any racist or homophobic undertones to the promotion, saying, "It's really easy to look at it historically, from this perspective, and attach all those things to it. But we weren't thinking like that," it was "just kids pissing on a musical genre". It has been noted that British punk rock critics of disco were very supportive of the pro-black/anti-racist reggae genre as well as the more pro-gay new romantics movement. Christgau and Jim Testa have said that there were legitimate artistic reasons for being critical of disco.
In 1979, the music industry in the United States underwent its worst slump in decades, and disco, despite its mass popularity, was blamed. The producer-oriented sound was having difficulty mixing well with the industry's artist-oriented marketing system. Harold Childs, senior vice president at A&M Records, reportedly told the Los Angeles Times that "radio is really desperate for rock product" and "they're all looking for some white rock-n-roll". Gloria Gaynor argued that the music industry supported the destruction of disco because rock music producers were losing money and rock musicians were losing the spotlight.
Disco was instrumental in the development of electronic dance music genres like house, techno, and eurodance. The Eurodisco song I Feel Love, produced by Giorgio Moroder for Donna Summer in 1976, has been described as a milestone and blueprint for electronic dance music because it was the first to combine repetitive synthesizer loops with a continuous four-on-the-floor bass drum and an off-beat hi-hat, which would become a main feature of techno and house ten years later.
During the first years of the 1980s, the traditional disco sound characterized by complex arrangements performed by large ensembles of studio session musicians (including a horn section and an orchestral string section) began to be phased out, and faster tempos and synthesized effects, accompanied by guitar and simplified backgrounds, moved dance music toward electronic and pop genres, starting with hi-NRG. Despite its decline in popularity, so-called club music and European-style disco remained relatively successful in the early-to-mid 1980s with songs like Aneka's "Japanese Boy", The Weather Girls's "It's Raining Men", Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts", Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", Laura Branigan's "Self Control", and Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy". However, a revival of the traditional-style disco called nu-disco has been popular since the 1990s.
House music displayed a strong disco influence, which is why house music, regarding its enormous success in shaping electronic dance music and contemporary club culture, is often described being "disco's revenge." Early house music was generally dance-based music characterized by repetitive four-on-the-floor beats, rhythms mainly provided by drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals, and synthesized basslines. While house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, it was more electronic and minimalist, and the repetitive rhythm of house was more important than the song itself. As well, house did not use the lush string sections that were a key part of the disco sound.
The rising popularity of disco came in tandem with developments in the role of the DJ. DJing developed from the use of multiple record turntables and DJ mixers to create a continuous, seamless mix of songs, with one song transitioning to another with no break in the music to interrupt the dancing. The resulting DJ mix differed from previous forms of dance music in the 1960s, which were oriented towards live performances by musicians. It, in turn, affected the arrangement of dance music, since songs in the disco era typically contained beginnings and endings marked by a simple beat or riff that could be easily used to transition to a new song. The development of DJing was also influenced by new turntablism techniques, such as beatmatching and scratching, a process facilitated by the introduction of new turntable technologies such as the Technics SL-1200 MK 2, first sold in 1978, which had a precise variable pitch control and a direct drive motor. DJs were often avid record collectors, who would hunt through used record stores for obscure soul records and vintage funk recordings. DJs helped to introduce rare records and new artists to club audiences.
In the 1970s, individual DJs became more prominent, and some DJs, such as Larry Levan, the resident at Paradise Garage, Jim Burgess, Tee Scott, and Francis Grasso became famous in the disco scene. Levan, for example, developed a cult following among clubgoers, who referred to his DJ sets as "Saturday Mass". Some DJs would use reel-to-reel tape recorders to make remixes and tape edits of songs. Some DJs who were making remixes made the transition from the DJ booth to becoming a record producer, notably Burgess. Scott developed several innovations. He was the first disco DJ to use three turntables as sound sources, the first to simultaneously play two beat-matched records, the first to use electronic effects units in his mixes, and he was an innovator in mixing dialogue in from well-known movies, typically over a percussion break. These mixing techniques were also applied to radio DJs, such as Ted Currier of WKTU and WBLS. Grasso is particularly notable for taking the DJ "profession out of servitude and [making] the DJ the musical head chef." Once he entered the scene, the DJ was no longer responsible for waiting on the crowd hand and foot, meeting their every song request. Instead, with increased agency and visibility, the DJ was now able to use their own technical and creative skills to whip up a nightly special of innovative mixes, refining their personal sound and aesthetic, and building their own reputation.
The post-disco sound and genres associated with it originated in the 1970s and early 1980s with R&B and post-punk musicians focusing on a more electronic and experimental side of disco, spawning boogie, Italo disco, and alternative dance. Drawing from a diverse range of non-disco influences and techniques, such as the "one-man band" style of Kashif and Stevie Wonder and alternative approaches of Parliament-Funkadelic, it was driven by synthesizers, keyboards, and drum machines. Post-disco acts include D. Train, Patrice Rushen, ESG, Bill Laswell, Arthur Russell. Post-disco had an important influence on dance-pop and was bridging classical disco and later forms of electronic dance music.
The disco sound had a strong influence on early hip hop. Most of the early hip-hop songs were created by isolating existing disco bass guitar lines and dubbing over them with MC rhymes. The Sugarhill Gang used Chic's "Good Times" as the foundation for their 1979 song "Rapper's Delight", generally considered to be the song that first popularized rap music in the United States and around the world.
With synthesizers and Krautrock influences that replaced the previous disco foundation, a new genre was born when Afrika Bambaataa released the single "Planet Rock", spawning a hip hop electronic dance trend that includes songs such as Planet Patrol's "Play at Your Own Risk" (1982), C-Bank's "One More Shot" (1982), Cerrone's "Club Underworld" (1984), Shannon's "Let the Music Play" (1983), Freeez's "I.O.U." (1983), Midnight Star's "Freak-a-Zoid" (1983), and Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You" (1984).
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s (also see: Chicago house). It quickly spread to other American cities such as Detroit, where it developed into the harder and more industrial techno, New York City (also see: garage house), and Newark – all of which developed their own regional scenes.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, house music became popular in Europe as well as major cities in South America and Australia. Early house music commercial success in Europe saw songs such as "Pump Up The Volume" by MARRS (1987), "House Nation" by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy of House (1987), "Theme from S'Express" by S'Express (1988) and "Doctorin' the House" by Coldcut (1988) in the pop charts. Since the early to mid-1990s, house music has been infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.
House music in the 2010s, while keeping several of these core elements, notably the prominent kick drum on every beat, varies widely in style and influence, ranging from the soulful and atmospheric deep house to the more aggressive acid house or the minimalist microhouse. House music has also fused with several other genres creating fusion subgenres, such as euro house, tech house, electro house, and jump house.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, rave culture began to emerge from the house and acid house scene. Like house, it incorporated disco culture's same love of dance music played by DJs over powerful sound systems, recreational drug and club drug exploration, sexual promiscuity, and hedonism. Although disco culture started out underground, it eventually thrived in the mainstream by the late 1970s, and major labels commodified and packaged the music for mass consumption. In contrast, the rave culture started out underground and stayed (mostly) underground. In part, this was to avoid the animosity that was still surrounding disco and dance music. The rave scene also stayed underground to avoid law enforcement attention that was directed at the rave culture due to its use of secret, unauthorized warehouses for some dance events and its association with illegal club drugs like ecstasy.
The post-punk movement that originated in the late 1970s both supported punk rock's rule-breaking while rejecting its move back to raw rock music. Post-punk's mantra of constantly moving forward lent itself to both openness to and experimentation with elements of disco and other styles. Public Image Limited is considered the first post-punk group. The group's second album Metal Box fully embraced the "studio as instrument" methodology of disco. The group's founder John Lydon, the former lead singer for the Sex Pistols, told the press that disco was the only music he cared for at the time.
No wave was a subgenre of post-punk centered in New York City. For shock value, James Chance, a notable member of the no wave scene, penned an article in the East Village Eye urging his readers to move uptown and get "trancin' with some superradioactive disco voodoo funk". His band James White and the Blacks wrote a disco album titled Off White. Their performances resembled those of disco performers (horn section, dancers and so on). In 1981 ZE Records led the transition from no wave into the more subtle mutant disco (post-disco/punk) genre. Mutant disco acts such as Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Was Not Was, ESG and Liquid Liquid influenced several British post-punk acts such as New Order, Orange Juice and A Certain Ratio.
Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with the renewed interest in 1970s and early 1980s disco, mid-1980s Italo disco, and the synthesizer-heavy Euro disco aesthetics. The moniker appeared in print as early as 2002, and by mid-2008 was used by record shops such as the online retailers Juno and Beatport. These vendors often associate it with re-edits of original-era disco music, as well as with music from European producers who make dance music inspired by original-era American disco, electro, and other genres popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is also used to describe the music on several American labels who were previously associated with the genres electroclash and French house.
In the 1990s, after a decade of backlash, disco and its legacy became more accepted by pop music artists and listeners alike, as more songs, films, and compilations were released that referenced disco. This was part of a wave of 1970s nostalgia that was taking place in popular culture at the time. Examples of songs during this time that were influenced by disco included Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" (1990), U2's "Lemon" (1993), Blur's "Girls & Boys" (1994) and "Entertain Me" (1995), Pulp's "Disco 2000" (1995), and Jamiroquai's "Canned Heat" (1999), while films such as Boogie Nights (1997) and The Last Days of Disco (1998) featured primarily disco soundtracks.
In the early 2000s, an updated genre of disco called "nu-disco" began breaking into the mainstream. A few examples like Daft Punk's "One More Time" and Kylie Minogue's "Love at First Sight" and "Can't Get You Out of My Head" became club favorites and commercial successes. Several nu-disco songs were crossovers with funky house, such as Spiller's "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" and Modjo's "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)", both songs sampling older disco songs and both reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart in 2000. Robbie Williams's disco single "Rock DJ" was the UK's fourth best-selling single the same year. Jamiroquai's song "Little L" and "Murder on the Dancefloor" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor were hits on 2001 too. Rock band Manic Street Preachers released a disco song, "Miss Europa Disco Dancer", in 2001. The song's disco influence, which appears on Know Your Enemy, was described as being "much-discussed". In 2005, Madonna immersed herself in the disco music of the 1970s, and released her album Confessions on a Dance Floor to rave reviews. In addition, her song "Hung Up" became a major club staple, and sampled ABBA's 1979 song "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)". In addition to her disco-influenced attire to award shows and interviews, her Confessions Tour also incorporated various elements of the 1970s, such as disco balls, a mirrored stage design, and the roller derby. In 2006, Jessica Simpson released her album A Public Affair inspired on disco and 1980s Music. The first single of the album A Public Affair was reviewed as a disco-dancing competition influenced by Madonna's early works. The video of the song was filmed on a skating rink and features a line dance of hands.
The success of the "nu-disco" revival of the early 2000s was described by music critic Tom Ewing as more interpersonal than the pop music of the 1990s: "The revival of disco within pop put a spotlight on something that had gone missing over the 90s: a sense of music not just for dancing, but for dancing with someone. Disco was a music of mutual attraction: cruising, flirtation, negotiation. Its dancefloor is a space for immediate pleasure, but also for promises kept and otherwise. It's a place where things start, but their resolution, let alone their meaning, is never clear. All of 2000s great disco number ones explore how to play this hand. Madison Avenue look to impose their will upon it, to set terms and roles. Spiller is less rigid. 'Groovejet' accepts the night's changeability, happily sells out certainty for an amused smile and a few great one-liners."
In 2011, K-pop girl group T-ara released Roly-Poly as a part of their EP John Travolta Wannabe. The song accumulated over 4,000,000 units in digital downloads, which ended up being the highest amount of downloads for a K-pop girl group single on the Gaon Digital Chart in the 2010s. In 2013, several 1970s-style disco and funk songs were charted, and the pop charts had more dance songs than at any other point since the late 1970s. The biggest disco song of the year as of June was "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk, featuring Nile Rodgers on guitar. Random Access Memories also ended up winning Album of the Year at the 2014 Grammys. Other disco-styled songs that made it into the top 40 were Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" (number one), Justin Timberlake's "Take Back the Night" (number 29), Bruno Mars' "Treasure" (number five) Arcade Fire's Reflektor featured strong disco elements. In 2014, disco music could be found in Lady Gaga's Artpop and Katy Perry's "Birthday". Other disco songs from 2014 include "I Want It All" By Karmin, 'Wrong Club" by the Ting Tings, "Blow" by Beyoncé and the William Orbit mix of "Let Me in Your Heart Again" by Queen.
In 2014 Brazilian Globo TV, the second biggest television network in the world, aired Boogie Oogie, a telenovela about the Disco Era that takes place between 1978 and 1979, from the hit fever to the decadence. The show's success was responsible for a Disco revival across the country, bringing back to the stage, and to Brazilian record charts, local disco divas like Lady Zu and As Frenéticas.
Other top-10 entries from 2015 like Mark Ronson's disco groove-infused "Uptown Funk", Maroon 5's "Sugar", the Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face" and Jason Derulo's "Want To Want Me" also ascended the charts and have a strong disco influence. Disco mogul and producer Giorgio Moroder also re-appeared with his new album Déjà Vu in 2015 which has proved to be a modest success. Other songs from 2015 like "I Don't Like It, I Love It" by Flo Rida, "Adventure of a Lifetime" by Coldplay, "Back Together" by Robin Thicke and "Levels" by Nick Jonas feature disco elements as well. In 2016, disco songs or disco-styled pop songs are showing a strong presence on the music charts as a possible backlash to the 1980s-styled synthpop, electro house, and dubstep that have been dominating the current charts. Justin Timberlake's 2016 song "Can't Stop the Feeling!", which shows strong elements of disco, became the 26th song to debut at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the history of the chart. The Martian, a 2015 film, extensively uses disco music as a soundtrack, although for the main character, astronaut Mark Watney, there's only one thing worse than being stranded on Mars: it's being stranded on Mars with nothing but disco music. "Kill the Lights", featured on an episode of the HBO television series "Vinyl" (2016) and with Nile Rodgers' guitar licks, hit number one on the US Dance chart in July 2016.
In 2020, disco continued its mainstream popularity and became a prominent trend in popular music. In early 2020, disco-influenced hits such as Doja Cat's "Say So", Lady Gaga's "Stupid Love", and Dua Lipa's "Don't Start Now" experienced widespread success on global music charts, with the three songs charting at numbers 1, 5 and 2, respectively, on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. At the time, Billboard, declared that Lipa was "leading the charge toward disco-influenced production" a day after her retro and disco-influenced album Future Nostalgia was released on March 27, 2020. By mid-2020, multiple disco albums and songs had been released. In early September 2020, South Korean group BTS debuted at number 1 in the US with their English–language disco single "Dynamite" having sold 265,000 downloads in its first week in the US, marking the biggest pure sales week since Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" (2017).
In July 2020, Australian singer Kylie Minogue announced she would be releasing her fifteenth studio album, Disco, on November 6, 2020. The album was preceded by two singles, the lead single from the album, "Say Something", was released on July 23 of the same year and premiered on BBC Radio 2. The second single, "Magic", was released on September 24. Both singles received critical acclaim, with critics praising Minogue for returning to disco roots, which were prominent in her albums Light Years (2000), Fever (2001), and Aphrodite (2010). | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Disco started as a mixture of music from venues popular among African-Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, gay Americans, and Italian Americans in Philadelphia and New York City during the late 1960s to early 1970s. Disco can be seen as a reaction by the 1960s counterculture to both the dominance of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music at the time. Several dance styles were developed during the period of 70s disco's popularity in the United States, including \"the Bump\", \"the Hustle\", \"the Watergate\", and \"the Busstop\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In the course of the 1970s, disco music was developed further, mainly by artists from the United States and Europe. Well-known artists included the Bee Gees, ABBA, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Giorgio Moroder, Baccara, Boney M., Earth Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, Chic, KC and the Sunshine Band, Thelma Houston, Sister Sledge, Sylvester, The Trammps, Diana Ross, Kool & the Gang, and the Village People. While performers garnered public attention, record producers working behind the scenes played an important role in developing the genre. By the late 1970s, most major U.S. cities had thriving disco club scenes, and DJs would mix dance records at clubs such as Studio 54 in Manhattan, a venue popular among celebrities. Nightclub-goers often wore expensive, extravagant outfits, consisting predominantly of loose, flowing pants or dresses for ease of movement while dancing. There was also a thriving drug subculture in the disco scene, particularly for drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud music and the flashing lights, such as cocaine and quaaludes, the latter being so common in disco subculture that they were nicknamed \"disco biscuits\". Disco clubs were also associated with promiscuity as a reflection of the sexual revolution of this era in popular history. Films such as Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Thank God It's Friday (1978) contributed to disco's mainstream popularity.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Disco declined as a major trend in popular music in the United States following the infamous Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979, and it continued to sharply decline in popularity in the U.S. during the early 1980s; however, it remained popular in Italy and some European countries throughout the 1980s, and during this time also started becoming trendy in places elsewhere including India and the Middle East, where aspects of disco were blended with regional folk styles such as ghazals and belly dancing. Disco would eventually become a key influence in the development of electronic dance music, house music, hip hop, new wave, dance-punk, and post-disco. The style has had several revivals since the 1990s, and the influence of disco remains strong across American and European pop music. A revival has been underway since the early 2010s, coming to great popularity in the early 2020s. Albums that have contributed to this revival include Confessions on a Dance Floor, Random Access Memories, Future Nostalgia, and Kylie Minogue's album itself titled Disco.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The term \"disco\" is shorthand for the word discothèque, a French word for \"library of phonograph records\" derived from \"bibliothèque\". The word \"discothèque\" had the same meaning in English in the 1950s.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "\"Discothèque\" became used in French for a type of nightclub in Paris, after they had resorted to playing records during the Nazi occupation in the early 1940s. Some clubs used it as their proper name. In 1960, it was also used to describe a Parisian nightclub in an English magazine.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In the summer of 1964, a short sleeveless dress called the \"discotheque dress\" was briefly very popular in the United States. The earliest known use for the abbreviated form \"disco\" described this dress and has been found in The Salt Lake Tribune on July 12, 1964, Playboy magazine used it in September of the same year to describe Los Angeles nightclubs.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Vince Aletti was one of the first to describe disco as a sound or a music genre. He wrote the feature article \"Discotheque Rock Paaaaarty\" that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine in September 1973.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The music typically layered soaring, often-reverberated vocals, often doubled by horns, over a background \"pad\" of electric pianos and \"chicken-scratch\" rhythm guitars played on an electric guitar. Lead guitar features less frequently in disco than in rock. \"The \"rooster scratch\" sound is achieved by lightly pressing the guitar strings against the fretboard and then quickly releasing them just enough to get a slightly muted poker [sound] while constantly strumming very close to the bridge.\" Other backing keyboard instruments include the piano, electric organ (during early years), string synthesizers, and electromechanical keyboards such as the Fender Rhodes electric piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, and Hohner Clavinet. Donna Summer's 1977 song \"I Feel Love\", produced by Giorgio Moroder with a prominent Moog synthesizer on the beat, was one of the first disco tracks to use the synthesizer.",
"title": "Musical characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The rhythm is laid down by prominent, syncopated basslines (with heavy use of broken octaves, that is, octaves with the notes sounded one after the other) played on the bass guitar and by drummers using a drum kit, African/Latin percussion, and electronic drums such as Simmons and Roland drum modules. Philly dance and Salsoul disco the sound was enriched with solo lines and harmony parts played by a variety of orchestral instruments, such as violin, viola, cello, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, flugelhorn, French horn, English horn, oboe, flute, timpani and synth strings, string section or a full string orchestra.",
"title": "Musical characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Most disco songs have a steady four-on-the-floor beat set by a bass drum, a quaver or semi-quaver hi-hat pattern with an open hissing hi-hat on the off-beat, and a heavy, syncopated bass line. A recording error in the 1975 song \"Bad Luck\" by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes where Earl Young's hi-hat was too loud in the recording is said to have established loud hi-hats in disco. Other Latin rhythms such as the rhumba, the samba, and the cha-cha-cha are also found in disco recordings, and Latin polyrhythms, such as a rhumba beat layered over a merengue, are commonplace. The quaver pattern is often supported by other instruments such as the rhythm guitar and may be implied rather than explicitly present.",
"title": "Musical characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Songs often use syncopation, which is the accenting of unexpected beats. In general, the difference between disco, or any dance song, and a rock or popular song is that in dance music the bass drum hits four to the floor, at least once a beat (which in 4/4 time is 4 beats per measure). Disco is further characterized by a 16th note division of the quarter notes as shown in the second drum pattern below, after a typical rock drum pattern.",
"title": "Musical characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The orchestral sound usually known as \"disco sound\" relies heavily on string sections and horns playing linear phrases, in unison with the soaring, often reverberated vocals or playing instrumental fills, while electric pianos and chicken-scratch guitars create the background \"pad\" sound defining the harmony progression. Typically, all of the doubling of parts and use of additional instruments creates a rich \"wall of sound\". There are, however, more minimalist flavors of disco with reduced, transparent instrumentation.",
"title": "Musical characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Harmonically, disco music typically contains major and minor seven chords, which are found more often in jazz than pop music.",
"title": "Musical characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The \"disco sound\" was much more costly to produce than many of the other popular music genres from the 1970s. Unlike the simpler, four-piece-band sound of funk, soul music of the late 1960s or the small jazz organ trios, disco music often included a large band, with several chordal instruments (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer), several drum or percussion instruments (drumkit, Latin percussion, electronic drums), a horn section, a string orchestra, and a variety of \"classical\" solo instruments (for example, flute, piccolo, and so on).",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Disco songs were arranged and composed by experienced arrangers and orchestrators, and record producers added their creative touches to the overall sound using multitrack recording techniques and effects units. Recording complex arrangements with such a large number of instruments and sections required a team that included a conductor, copyists, record producers, and mixing engineers. Mixing engineers had an important role in the disco production process because disco songs used as many as 64 tracks of vocals and instruments. Mixing engineers and record producers, under the direction of arrangers, compiled these tracks into a fluid composition of verses, bridges, and refrains, complete with builds and breaks. Mixing engineers and record producers helped to develop the \"disco sound\" by creating a distinctive-sounding, sophisticated disco mix.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Early records were the \"standard\" three-minute version until Tom Moulton came up with a way to make songs longer so that he could take a crowd of dancers at a club to another level and keep them dancing longer. He found that it was impossible to make the 45-RPM vinyl singles of the time longer, as they could usually hold no more than five minutes of good-quality music. With the help of José Rodriguez, his remaster/mastering engineer, he pressed a single on a 10\" disc instead of 7\". They cut the next single on a 12\" disc, the same format as a standard album. Moulton and Rodriguez discovered that these larger records could have much longer songs and remixes. 12\" single records, also known as \"Maxi singles\", quickly became the standard format for all DJs of the disco genre.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "By the late 1970s, most major US cities had thriving disco club scenes. The largest scenes were most notably in New York City but also in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Miami, and Washington, D.C. The scene was centered on discotheques, nightclubs and private loft parties.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In the 1970s, notable discos included \"Crisco Disco\", \"The Sanctuary\", \"Leviticus\", \"Studio 54\", and \"Paradise Garage\" in New York, \"Artemis\" in Philadelphia, \"Studio One\" in Los Angeles, \"Dugan's Bistro\" in Chicago, and \"The Library\" in Atlanta.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In the late '70s, Studio 54 in Midtown Manhattan was arguably the best-known nightclub in the world. This club played a major formative role in the growth of disco music and nightclub culture in general. It was operated by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager and was notorious for the hedonism that went on within: the balconies were known for sexual encounters and drug use was rampant. Its dance floor was decorated with an image of the \"Man in the Moon\" that included an animated cocaine spoon.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The \"Copacabana\", another New York nightclub dating to the 1940s, had a revival in the late 1970s when it embraced disco; it would become the setting of a Barry Manilow song of the same name.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In Washington, D.C., large disco clubs such as \"The Pier\" (\"Pier 9\") and \"The Other Side\", originally regarded exclusively as \"gay bars\", became particularly popular among the capital area's gay and straight college students in the late '70s.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "By 1979 there were 15,000-20,000 disco nightclubs in the US, many of them opening in suburban shopping centers, hotels, and restaurants. The 2001 Club franchises were the most prolific chain of disco clubs in the country. Although many other attempts were made to franchise disco clubs, 2001 was the only one to successfully do so in this time frame.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Powerful, bass-heavy, hi-fi sound systems were viewed as a key part of the disco club experience. \"[Loft-party host David] Mancuso introduced the technologies of tweeter arrays (clusters of small loudspeakers, which emit high-end frequencies, positioned above the floor) and bass reinforcements (additional sets of subwoofers positioned at ground level) at the start of the 1970s to boost the treble and bass at opportune moments, and by the end of the decade sound engineers such as Richard Long had multiplied the effects of these innovations in venues such as the Garage.\"",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Typical lighting designs for disco dance floors include multi-colored lights that swirl around or flash to the beat, strobe lights, an illuminated dance floor, and a mirror ball.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Disco-era disc jockeys (DJs) would often remix existing songs using reel-to-reel tape machines, and add in percussion breaks, new sections, and new sounds. DJs would select songs and grooves according to what the dancers wanted, transitioning from one song to another with a DJ mixer and using a microphone to introduce songs and speak to the audiences. Other equipment was added to the basic DJ setup, providing unique sound manipulations, such as reverb, equalization, and echo effects unit. Using this equipment, a DJ could do effects such as cutting out all but the bassline of a song and then slowly mixing in the beginning of another song using the DJ mixer's crossfader. Notable U.S. disco DJs include Francis Grasso of The Sanctuary, David Mancuso of The Loft, Frankie Knuckles of the Chicago Warehouse, Larry Levan of the Paradise Garage, Nicky Siano, Walter Gibbons, Karen Mixon Cook, Jim Burgess, John \"Jellybean\" Benitez, Richie Kulala of Studio 54, and Rick Salsalini.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Some DJs were also record producers who created and produced disco songs in the recording studio. Larry Levan, for example, was a prolific record producer as well as a DJ. Because record sales were often dependent on dance floor play by DJs in the nightclubs, DJs were also influential in the development and popularization of certain types of disco music being produced for record labels.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In the early years, dancers in discos danced in a \"hang loose\" or \"freestyle\" approach. At first, many dancers improvised their own dance styles and dance steps. Later in the disco era, popular dance styles were developed, including the \"Bump\", \"Penguin\", \"Boogaloo\", \"Watergate\", and \"Robot\". By October 1975 the Hustle reigned. It was highly stylized, sophisticated, and overtly sexual. Variations included the Brooklyn Hustle, New York Hustle, and Latin Hustle.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "During the disco era, many nightclubs would commonly host disco dance competitions or offer free dance lessons. Some cities had disco dance instructors or dance schools, which taught people how to do popular disco dances such as \"touch dancing\", \"the hustle\", and \"the cha cha\". The pioneer of disco dance instruction was Karen Lustgarten in San Francisco in 1973. Her book The Complete Guide to Disco Dancing (Warner Books 1978) was the first to name, break down and codify popular disco dances as dance forms and distinguish between disco freestyle, partner, and line dances. The book topped the New York Times bestseller list for 13 weeks and was translated into Chinese, German, and French.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In Chicago, the Step By Step disco dance TV show was launched with the sponsorship support of the Coca-Cola company. Produced in the same studio that Don Cornelius used for the nationally syndicated dance/music television show, Soul Train, Step by Step's audience grew and the show became a success. The dynamic dance duo of Robin and Reggie led the show. The pair spent the week teaching disco dancing to dancers in the disco clubs. The instructional show aired on Saturday mornings and had a strong following. Its viewers would stay up all night on Fridays so they could be on the set the next morning, ready to return to the disco on Saturday night knowing with the latest personalized steps. The producers of the show, John Reid and Greg Roselli, routinely made appearances at disco functions with Robin and Reggie to scout out new dancing talent and promote upcoming events such as \"Disco Night at White Sox Park\".",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In Sacramento, California, Disco King Paul Dale Roberts danced for the Guinness Book of World Records. He danced for 205 hours, the equivalent of 8½ days. Other dance marathons took place afterward and Roberts held the world record for disco dancing for a short period of time.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Some notable professional dance troupes of the 1970s included Pan's People and Hot Gossip. For many dancers, a key source of inspiration for 1970s disco dancing was the film Saturday Night Fever (1977). Further influence came from the music and dance style of such films as Fame (1980), Disco Dancer (1982), Flashdance (1983), and The Last Days of Disco (1998). Interest in disco dancing also helped spawn dance competition TV shows such as Dance Fever (1979).",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Disco fashions were very trendy in the late 1970s. Discothèque-goers often wore glamorous, expensive, and extravagant fashions for nights out at their local disco club. Some women would wear sheer, flowing dresses, such as Halston dresses, or loose, flared pants. Other women wore tight, revealing, sexy clothes, such as backless halter tops, disco pants, \"hot pants\", or body-hugging spandex bodywear or \"catsuits\". Men would wear shiny polyester Qiana shirts with colorful patterns and pointy, extra wide collars, preferably open at the chest. Men often wore Pierre Cardin suits, three piece suits with a vest, and double-knit polyester shirt jackets with matching trousers known as the leisure suit. Men's leisure suits were typically form-fitted to some parts of the body, such as the waist and bottom while the lower part of the pants were flared in a bell bottom style, to permit freedom of movement.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "During the disco era, men engaged in elaborate grooming rituals and spent time choosing fashion clothing, activities that would have been considered \"feminine\" according to the gender stereotypes of the era. Women dancers wore glitter makeup, sequins, or gold lamé clothing that would shimmer under the lights. Bold colors were popular for both genders. Platform shoes and boots for both genders and high heels for women were popular footwear. Necklaces and medallions were a common fashion accessory. Less commonly, some disco dancers wore outlandish costumes, dressed in drag, covered their bodies with gold or silver paint, or wore very skimpy outfits leaving them nearly nude; these uncommon get-ups were more likely to be seen at invitation-only New York City loft parties and disco clubs.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In addition to the dance and fashion aspects of the disco club scene, there was also a thriving club drug subculture, particularly for drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud, bass-heavy music and the flashing colored lights, such as cocaine (nicknamed \"blow\"), amyl nitrite (\"poppers\"), and the \"... other quintessential 1970s club drug Quaalude, which suspended motor coordination and gave the sensation that one's arms and legs had turned to 'Jell-O.'\" Quaaludes were so popular at disco clubs that the drug was nicknamed \"disco biscuits\".",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Paul Gootenberg states that \"[t]he relationship of cocaine to 1970s disco culture cannot be stressed enough...\" During the 1970s, the use of cocaine by well-to-do celebrities led to its \"glamorization\" and to the widely held view that it was a \"soft drug\". LSD, marijuana, and \"speed\" (amphetamines) were also popular in disco clubs, and the use of these drugs \"...contributed to the hedonistic quality of the dance floor experience.\" Since disco dances were typically held in liquor licensed-nightclubs and dance clubs, alcoholic drinks were also consumed by dancers; some users intentionally combined alcohol with the consumption of other drugs, such as Quaaludes, for a stronger effect.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "According to Peter Braunstein, the \"massive quantities of drugs ingested in discothèques produced the next cultural phenomenon of the disco era: rampant promiscuity and public sex. While the dance floor was the central arena of seduction, actual sex usually took place in the nether regions of the disco: bathroom stalls, exit stairwells, and so on. In other cases the disco became a kind of 'main course' in a hedonist's menu for a night out.\" At The Saint nightclub, a high percentage of the gay male dancers and patrons would have sex in the club; they typically had unprotected sex, because in 1980, HIV-AIDS had not yet been identified. At The Saint, \"dancers would elope to an un[monitored] upstairs balcony to engage in sex.\" The promiscuity and public sex at discos was part of a broader trend towards exploring a freer sexual expression in the 1970s, an era that is also associated with \"swingers clubs, hot tubs, [and] key parties.\"",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "In his paper, \"In Defense of Disco\" (1979), Richard Dyer claims eroticism as one of the three main characteristics of disco. As opposed to rock music which has a very phallic centered eroticism focusing on the sexual pleasure of men over other persons, Dyer describes disco as featuring a non-phallic full body eroticism. Through a range of percussion instruments, a willingness to play with rhythm, and the endless repeating of phrases without cutting the listener off, disco achieved this full-body eroticism by restoring eroticism to the whole body for both sexes. This allowed for the potential expression of sexualities not defined by the cock/penis, and the erotic pleasure of bodies that are not defined by a relationship to a penis. The sexual liberation expressed through the rhythm of disco is further represented in the club spaces that disco grew within.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In Peter Shapiro's Modulations: A History of Electronic Music: Throbbing Words on Sound, he discusses eroticism through the technology disco utilizes to create its audacious sound. The music, Shapiro states, is adjunct to \"the pleasure-is-politics ethos of post-Stonewall culture.\" He explains how \"mechano-eroticism\", which links the technology used to create the unique mechanical sound of disco to eroticism, set the genre in a new dimension of reality living outside of naturalism and heterosexuality. Randy Jones and Mark Jacobsen echo this sentiment in BBC Radio's \"The Politics of Dancing: How Disco Changed the World,\" describing the loose, hip-focused dance style as \"a new kind of communion\" that celebrates the sparks of liberation brought on the Stonewall riots. As New York state had laws against homosexual behavior in public, including dancing with a member of the same sex, the eroticism of disco served as resistance and an expression of sexual freedom.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "He uses Donna Summer's singles \"Love to Love You Baby\" (1975) and \"I Feel Love\" (1977) as examples of the ever-present relationship between the synthesized bass lines and backgrounds to the simulated sounds of orgasms. Summer's voice echoes in the tracks, and likens them to the drug-fervent, sexually liberated fans of disco who sought to free themselves through disco's \"aesthetic of machine sex.\" Shapiro sees this as an influence that creates sub-genres like hi-NRG and dub-disco, which allowed for eroticism and technology to be further explored through intense synth bass lines and alternative rhythmic techniques that tap into the entire body rather than the obvious erotic parts of the body.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The New York nightclub The Sanctuary under resident DJ Francis Grasso is a prime example of this sexual liberty. In their history of the disc jockey and club culture, Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton describe the Sanctuary as \"poured full of newly liberated gay men, then shaken (and stirred) by a weighty concoction of dance music and pharmacoia of pills and potions, the result is a festivaly of carnality.\" The Sanctuary was the \"first totally uninhibited gay discotheque in America\" and while sex was not allowed on the dancefloor, the dark corners, bathrooms. and hallways of the adjacent buildings were all utilized for orgy-like sexual engagements.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "By describing the music, drugs, and liberated mentality as a trifecta coming together to create the festival of carnality, Brewster and Broughton are inciting all three as stimuli for the dancing, sex, and other embodied movements that contributed to the corporeal vibrations within the Sanctuary. It supports the argument that disco music took a role in facilitating this sexual liberation that was experienced in the discotheques. The recent legalization of abortion and the introduction of antibiotics and the pill facilitated a culture shift around sex from one of procreation to pleasure and enjoyment. Thus was fostered a very sex-positive framework around discotheques.",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Further, in addition to gay sex being illegal in New York state, until 1973 the American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as an illness. This law and classification coupled together can be understood to have heavily dissuaded the expression of queerness in public, as such the liberatory dynamics of discotheques can be seen as having provided space for self-realization for queer persons. David Mancuso's club/house party, The Loft, was described as having a \"pansexual attitude [that] was revolutionary in a country where up until recently it had been illegal for two men to dance together unless there was a woman present; where women were legally obliged to wear at least one recognizable item of female clothing in public; and where men visiting gay bars usually carried bail money with them.\"",
"title": "Club culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Disco was mostly developed from music that was popular on the dance floor in clubs that started playing records instead of having a live band. The first discotheques mostly played swing music. Later on, uptempo rhythm and blues became popular in American clubs and northern soul and glam rock records in the UK. In the early 1940s, nightclubs in Paris resorted to playing jazz records during the Nazi occupation.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Régine Zylberberg claimed to have started the first discotheque and to have been the first club DJ in 1953 in the \"Whisky à Go-Go\" in Paris. She installed a dance floor with colored lights and two turntables so she could play records without having a gap in the music. In October 1959, the owner of the Scotch Club in Aachen, West Germany chose to install a record player for the opening night instead of hiring a live band. The patrons were unimpressed until a young reporter, who happened to be covering the opening of the club, impulsively took control of the record player and introduced the records that he chose to play. Klaus Quirini later claimed to thus have been the world's first nightclub DJ.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "During the 1960s, discotheque dancing became a European trend that was enthusiastically picked up by the American press. At this time, when the discotheque culture from Europe became popular in the United States, several music genres with danceable rhythms rose to popularity and evolved into different sub-genres: rhythm and blues (originated in the 1940s), soul (late 1950s and 1960s), funk (mid-1960s) and go-go (mid-1960s and 1970s; more than \"disco\", the word \"go-go\" originally indicated a music club). Musical genres that were primarily performed by African-American musicians would influence much of early disco.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Also during the 1960s, the Motown record label developed its own approach, described as having \"1) simply structured songs with sophisticated melodies and chord changes, 2) a relentless four-beat drum pattern, 3) a gospel use of background voices, vaguely derived from the style of the Impressions, 4) a regular and sophisticated use of both horns and strings, 5) lead singers who were half way between pop and gospel music, 6) a group of accompanying musicians who were among the most dextrous, knowledgeable, and brilliant in all of popular music (Motown bassists have long been the envy of white rock bassists) and 7) a trebly style of mixing that relied heavily on electronic limiting and equalizing (boosting the high range frequencies) to give the overall product a distinctive sound, particularly effective for broadcast over AM radio.\" Motown had many hits with disco elements by acts like Eddie Kendricks (\"Keep on Truckin'\" in 1973, \"Boogie Down\" in 1974).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "At the end of the 1960s, musicians, and audiences from the Black, Italian, and Latino communities adopted several traits from the hippie and psychedelia subcultures. They included using music venues with a loud, overwhelming sound, free-form dancing, trippy lighting, colorful costumes, and the use of hallucinogenic drugs. In addition, the perceived positivity, lack of irony, and earnestness of the hippies informed proto-disco music like MFSB's album Love Is the Message. Partly through the success of Jimi Hendrix, psychedelic elements that were popular in rock music of the late 1960s found their way into soul and early funk music and formed the subgenre psychedelic soul. Examples can be found in the music of the Chambers Brothers, George Clinton with his Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Sly and the Family Stone, and the productions of Norman Whitfield with The Temptations.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The long instrumental introductions and detailed orchestration found in psychedelic soul tracks by the Temptations are also considered as cinematic soul. In the early 1970s, Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes scored hits with cinematic soul songs that were actually composed for movie soundtracks: \"Superfly\" (1972) and \"Theme from Shaft\" (1971). The latter is sometimes regarded as an early disco song. From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Philadelphia soul and New York soul developed as sub-genres that also had lavish percussion, lush string orchestra arrangements, and expensive record production processes. In the early 1970s, the Philly soul productions by Gamble and Huff evolved from the simpler arrangements of the late-1960s into a style featuring lush strings, thumping basslines, and sliding hi-hat rhythms. These elements would become typical for disco music and are found in several of the hits they produced in the early 1970s:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Other early disco tracks that helped shape disco and became popular on the dance floors of (underground) discotheque clubs and parties include:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Early disco was dominated by record producers and labels such as Salsoul Records (Ken, Stanley, and Joseph Cayre), West End Records (Mel Cheren), Casablanca (Neil Bogart), and Prelude (Marvin Schlachter). The genre was also shaped by Tom Moulton, who wanted to extend the enjoyment of dance songs — thus creating the extended mix or \"remix\", going from a three-minute 45 rpm single to the much longer 12\" record. Other influential DJs and remixers who helped to establish what became known as the \"disco sound\" included David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, Shep Pettibone, Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons, and Chicago-based Frankie Knuckles. Frankie Knuckles was not only an important disco DJ; he also helped to develop house music in the 1980s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Disco hit the television airwaves as part of the music/dance variety show Soul Train in 1971 hosted by Don Cornelius, then Marty Angelo's Disco Step-by-Step Television Show in 1975, Steve Marcus's Disco Magic/Disco 77, Eddie Rivera's Soap Factory, and Merv Griffin's Dance Fever, hosted by Deney Terrio, who is credited with teaching actor John Travolta to dance for his role in the film Saturday Night Fever(1977), as well as DANCE, based out of Columbia, South Carolina.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "In 1974, New York City's WPIX-FM premiered the first disco radio show.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "In the 1970s, the key counterculture of the 1960s, the hippie movement, was fading away. The economic prosperity of the previous decade had declined, and unemployment, inflation, and crime rates had soared. Political issues like the backlash from the Civil Rights Movement culminating in the form of race riots, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, and the Watergate scandal, left many feeling disillusioned and hopeless . The start of the '70s was marked by a shift in the consciousness of the American people: the rise of the feminist movement, identity politics, gangs, etc. very much shaped this era. Disco music and disco dancing provided an escape from negative social and economic issues. The non-partnered dance style of disco music allowed people of all races and sexual orientations to enjoy the dancefloor atmosphere.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "In Beautiful Things in Popular Culture, Simon Frith highlights the sociability of disco and its roots in 1960s counterculture. \"The driving force of the New York underground dance scene in which disco was forged was not simply that city's complex ethnic and sexual culture but also a 1960s notion of community, pleasure and generosity that can only be described as hippie\", he says. \"The best disco music contained within it a remarkably powerful sense of collective euphoria.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "The birth of disco is often claimed to be found in the private dance parties held by New York City DJ David Mancuso's home that became known as The Loft, an invitation-only non-commercial underground club that inspired many others. He organized the first major party in his Manhattan home on Valentine's Day 1970 with the name \"Love Saves The Day\". After some months the parties became weekly events and Mancuso continued to give regular parties into the 1990s. Mancuso required that the music played had to be soulful, rhythmic, and impart words of hope, redemption, or pride.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "When Mancuso threw his first informal house parties, the gay community (which made up much of The Loft's attendee roster) was often harassed in the gay bars and dance clubs, with many gay men carrying bail money with them to gay bars. But at The Loft and many other early, private discotheques, they could dance together without fear of police action thanks to Mancuso's underground, yet legal, policies. Vince Aletti described it \"like going to party, completely mixed, racially and sexually, where there wasn't any sense of someone being more important than anyone else,\" and Alex Rosner reiterated this saying \"It was probably about sixty percent black and seventy percent gay...There was a mix of sexual orientation, there was a mix of races, mix of economic groups. A real mix, where the common denominator was music.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Film critic Roger Ebert called the popular embrace of disco's exuberant dance moves an escape from \"the general depression and drabness of the political and musical atmosphere of the late seventies.\" Pauline Kael, writing about the disco-themed film Saturday Night Fever, said the film and disco itself touched on \"something deeply romantic, the need to move, to dance, and the need to be who you'd like to be. Nirvana is the dance; when the music stops, you return to being ordinary.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "In the late 1960s, uptempo soul with heavy beats and some associated dance styles and fashion were picked up in the British mod scene and formed the northern soul movement. Originating at venues such as the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, it quickly spread to other UK dancehalls and nightclubs like the Chateau Impney (Droitwich), Catacombs (Wolverhampton), the Highland Rooms at Blackpool Mecca, Golden Torch (Stoke-on-Trent), and Wigan Casino. As the favoured beat became more uptempo and frantic in the early 1970s, northern soul dancing became more athletic, somewhat resembling the later dance styles of disco and break dancing. Featuring spins, flips, karate kicks, and backdrops, club dancing styles were often inspired by the stage performances of touring American soul acts such as Little Anthony & the Imperials and Jackie Wilson.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "In 1974, there were an estimated 25,000 mobile discos and 40,000 professional disc jockeys in the United Kingdom. Mobile discos were hired deejays that brought their own equipment to provide music for special events. Glam rock tracks were popular, with, for example, Gary Glitter's 1972 single \"Rock and Roll Part 2\" becoming popular on UK dance floors while it did not get much radio airplay.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "From 1974 to 1977, disco music increased in popularity as many disco songs topped the charts. The Hues Corporation's \"Rock the Boat\" (1974), a US number-one single and million-seller, was one of the early disco songs to reach number one. The same year saw the release of \"Kung Fu Fighting\", performed by Carl Douglas and produced by Biddu, which reached number one in both the UK and US, and became the best-selling single of the year and one of the best-selling singles of all time with 11 million records sold worldwide, helping to popularize disco to a great extent. Another notable disco success that year was George McCrae's \"Rock Your Baby\": it became the United Kingdom's first number one disco single.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "In the northwestern sections of the United Kingdom, the northern soul explosion, which started in the late 1960s and peaked in 1974, made the region receptive to disco, which the region's disc jockeys were bringing back from New York City. The shift by some DJs to the newer sounds coming from the U.S. resulted in a split in the scene, whereby some abandoned the 1960s soul and pushed a modern soul sound which tended to be more closely aligned with disco than soul.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "In 1975, Gloria Gaynor released her first side-long vinyl album, which included a remake of the Jackson 5's \"Never Can Say Goodbye\" (which, in fact, is also the album title) and two other songs, \"Honey Bee\" and her disco version of \"Reach Out (I'll Be There)\". The album first topped the Billboard disco/dance charts in November 1974. Later in 1978, Gaynor's number-one disco song was \"I Will Survive\", which was seen as a symbol of female strength and a gay anthem, like her further disco hit, a 1983 remake of \"I Am What I Am\". In 1979 she released \"Let Me Know (I Have a Right)\", a single which gained popularity in the civil rights movements. Also in 1975, Vincent Montana Jr.'s Salsoul Orchestra contributed with their Latin-flavored orchestral dance song \"Salsoul Hustle\", reaching number four on the Billboard Dance Chart; their 1976 hits were \"Tangerine\" and \"Nice 'n' Naasty\", the first being a cover of a 1941 song.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Songs such as Van McCoy's 1975 \"The Hustle\" and the humorous Joe Tex 1977 \"Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)\" gave names to the popular disco dances \"the Bump\" and \"the Hustle\". Other notable early successful disco songs include Barry White's \"You're the First, the Last, My Everything\" (1974); Labelle's \"Lady Marmalade\" (1974)'; Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes' \"Get Dancin'\" (1974); Earth, Wind & Fire's \"Shining Star\" (1975); Silver Convention's \"Fly, Robin, Fly\" (1975) and \"Get Up and Boogie\" (1976); Vicki Sue Robinson's \"Turn the Beat Around\" (1976); and \"More, More, More\" (1976) by Andrea True (a former pornographic actress during the Golden Age of Porn, an era largely contemporaneous with the height of disco).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Formed by Harry Wayne Casey (a.k.a. \"KC\") and Richard Finch, Miami's KC and the Sunshine Band had a string of disco-definitive top-five singles between 1975 and 1977, including \"Get Down Tonight\", \"That's the Way (I Like It)\", \"(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty\", \"I'm Your Boogie Man\", \"Boogie Shoes\", and \"Keep It Comin' Love\". In this period, rock bands like the English Electric Light Orchestra featured in their songs a violin sound that became a staple of disco music, as in the 1975 hit \"Evil Woman\", although the genre was correctly described as orchestral rock.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Other disco producers such as Tom Moulton took ideas and techniques from dub music (which came with the increased Jamaican migration to New York City in the 1970s) to provide alternatives to the \"four on the floor\" style that dominated. DJ Larry Levan utilized styles from dub and jazz and remixing techniques to create early versions of house music that sparked the genre.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Norman Whitfield was an influential producer and songwriter at Motown records, renowned for creating innovative \"psychedelic soul\" songs with many hits for Marvin Gaye, the Velvelettes, the Temptations, and Gladys Knight & the Pips. From around the production of the Temptations album Cloud Nine in 1968, he incorporated some psychedelic influences and started to produce longer, dance-friendly tracks, with more room for elaborate rhythmic instrumental parts. An example of such a long psychedelic soul track is \"Papa Was a Rollin' Stone\", which appeared as a single edit of almost seven minutes and an approximately 12-minute-long 12\" version in 1972. By the early 70s, many of Whitfield's productions evolved more and more towards funk and disco, as heard on albums by the Undisputed Truth and the 1973 album G.I.T.: Get It Together by The Jackson 5. The Undisputed Truth, a Motown recording act assembled by Whitfield to experiment with his psychedelic soul production techniques, found success with their 1971 song \"Smiling Faces Sometimes\". Their disco single \"You + Me = Love\" (number 43) was produced by Whitfield and made number 2 on the US dance chart in 1976.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "In 1975, Whitfield left Motown and founded his own label Whitfield records, on which also \"You + Me = Love\" was released. Whitfield produced some more disco hits, including \"Car Wash\" (1976) by Rose Royce from the album soundtrack to the 1976 film Car Wash. In 1977, singer, songwriter, and producer Willie Hutch, who had been signed to Motown since 1970, now signed with Whitfield's new label, and scored a successful disco single with his song \"In and Out\" in 1982.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Other Motown artists turned to disco as well. Diana Ross embraced the disco sound with her successful 1976 outing \"Love Hangover\" from her self-titled album. Her 1980 dance classics \"Upside Down\" and \"I'm Coming Out\" were written and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the group Chic. The Supremes, the group that made Ross famous, scored a handful of hits in the disco clubs without her, most notably 1976's \"I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking\" and, their last charted single before disbanding, 1977's \"You're My Driving Wheel\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "At the request of Motown that he produce songs in the disco genre, Marvin Gaye released \"Got to Give It Up\" in 1978, despite his dislike of disco. He vowed not to record any songs in the genre and actually wrote the song as a parody. However, several of Gaye's songs have disco elements, including \"I Want You\" (1975). Stevie Wonder released the disco single \"Sir Duke\" in 1977 as a tribute to Duke Ellington, the influential jazz legend who had died in 1974. Smokey Robinson left the Motown group the Miracles for a solo career in 1972 and released his third solo album A Quiet Storm in 1975, which spawned and lent its name to the \"Quiet Storm\" musical programming format and subgenre of R&B. It contained the disco single \"Baby That's Backatcha\". Other Motown artists who scored disco hits were Robinson's former group, the Miracles, with \"Love Machine\" (1975), Eddie Kendricks with \"Keep On Truckin'\" (1973), the Originals with \"Down to Love Town\" (1976), and Thelma Houston with her cover of the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes song \"Don't Leave Me This Way\" (1976). The label continued to release successful songs into the 1980s with Rick James's \"Super Freak\" (1981), and the Commodores' \"Lady (You Bring Me Up)\" (1981).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Several of Motown's solo artists who left the label went on to have successful disco songs. Mary Wells, Motown's first female superstar with her signature song \"My Guy\" (written by Smokey Robinson), abruptly left the label in 1964. She briefly reappeared on the charts with the disco song \"Gigolo\" in 1980. Jimmy Ruffin, the elder brother of the Temptations lead singer David Ruffin, was also signed to Motown and released his most successful and well-known song \"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted\" as a single in 1966. Ruffin eventually left the record label in the mid-1970s, but saw success with the 1980 disco song \"Hold On (To My Love)\", which was written and produced by Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, for his album Sunrise. Edwin Starr, known for his Motown protest song \"War\" (1970), reentered the charts in 1979 with a pair of disco songs, \"Contact\" and \"H.A.P.P.Y. Radio\". Kiki Dee became the first white British singer to sign with Motown in the US, and released one album, Great Expectations (1970), and two singles \"The Day Will Come Between Sunday and Monday\" (1970) and \"Love Makes the World Go Round\" (1971), the latter giving her first-ever chart entry (number 87 on the US Chart). She soon left the company and signed with Elton John's The Rocket Record Company, and in 1976 had her biggest and best-known single, \"Don't Go Breaking My Heart\", a disco duet with John. The song was intended as an affectionate disco-style pastiche of the Motown sound, in particular the various duets recorded by Marvin Gaye with Tammi Terrell and Kim Weston.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Many Motown groups who had left the record label charted with disco songs. The Jackson 5, one of Motown's premier acts in the early 1970s, left the record company in 1975 (Jermaine Jackson, however, remained with the label) after successful songs like \"I Want You Back\" (1969) and \"ABC\" (1970), and even the disco song \"Dancing Machine\" (1974). Renamed as 'the Jacksons' (as Motown owned the name 'the Jackson 5'), they went on to find success with disco songs like \"Blame It on the Boogie\" (1978), \"Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)\" (1979), and \"Can You Feel It?\" (1981) on the Epic label.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "The Isley Brothers, whose short tenure at the company had produced the song \"This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)\" in 1966, went on release successful disco songs like \"It's a Disco Night (Rock Don't Stop)\" (1979). Gladys Knight & the Pips, who recorded the most successful version of \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine\" (1967) before Marvin Gaye, scored commercially successful singles such as \"Baby, Don't Change Your Mind\" (1977) and \"Bourgie, Bourgie\" (1980) in the disco era. The Detroit Spinners were also signed to the Motown label and saw success with the Stevie Wonder-produced song \"It's a Shame\" in 1970. They left soon after, on the advice of fellow Detroit native Aretha Franklin, to Atlantic Records, and there had disco songs like \"The Rubberband Man\" (1976). In 1979, they released a successful cover of Elton John's \"Are You Ready for Love\", as well as a medley of the Four Seasons' song \"Working My Way Back to You\" and Michael Zager's \"Forgive Me, Girl\". The Four Seasons themselves were briefly signed to Motown's MoWest label, a short-lived subsidiary for R&B and soul artists based on the West Coast, and there the group produced one album, Chameleon (1972) – to little commercial success in the US. However, one single, \"The Night\", was released in Britain in 1975, and thanks to popularity from the Northern Soul circuit, reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart. The Four Seasons left Motown in 1974 and went on to have a disco hit with their song \"December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)\" (1975) for Warner Curb Records.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "By far the most successful Euro disco act was ABBA (1972–1982). This Swedish quartet, which sang primarily in English, found success with singles such as \"Waterloo\" (1974), \"Take a Chance on Me\" (1978), \"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)\" (1979), \"Super Trouper\" (1980), and their signature smash hit \"Dancing Queen\" (1976).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "In the 1970s Munich, West Germany, music producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte made a decisive contribution to disco music with a string of hits for Donna Summer, which became known as the \"Munich Sound\". In 1975, Summer suggested the lyric \"Love to Love You Baby\" to Moroder and Bellotte, who turned the lyric into a full disco song. The final product, which contained the vocalizations of a series of simulated orgasms, initially was not intended for release, but when Moroder played it in the clubs it caused a sensation and he released it. The song became an international hit, reaching the charts in many European countries and the US (No. 2). It has been described as the arrival of the expression of raw female sexual desire in pop music. A nearly 17-minute 12-inch single was released. The 12\" single became and remains a standard in discos today. In 1976 Donna Summer's version of \"Could It Be Magic\" brought disco further into the mainstream. In 1977 Summer, Moroder and Bellotte further released \"I Feel Love\", as the B-side of \"Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)\", which revolutionized dance music with its mostly electronic production and was a massive worldwide success, spawning the Hi-NRG subgenre. Giorgio Moroder was described by AllMusic as \"one of the principal architects of the disco sound\". Another successful disco music project by Moroder at that time was Munich Machine (1976–1980).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Boney M. (1974–1986) was a West German Euro disco group of four West Indian singers and dancers masterminded by record producer Frank Farian. Boney M. charted worldwide with such songs as \"Daddy Cool\" (1976) \"Ma Baker\" (1977) and \"Rivers Of Babylon\" (1978). Another successful West German Euro disco recording act was Silver Convention (1974–1979). The German group Kraftwerk also had an influence on Euro disco.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "In France, Dalida released \"J'attendrai\" (\"I Will Wait\") in 1975, which also became successful in Canada, Europe, and Japan. Dalida successfully adjusted herself to disco and released at least a dozen of songs that charted in the top 10 in Europe. Claude François, who re-invented himself as the \"king of French disco\", released \"La plus belle chose du monde\", a French version of the Bee Gees song \"Massachusetts\", which became successful in Canada and Europe and \"Alexandrie Alexandra\" was posthumously released on the day of his burial and became a worldwide success. Cerrone's early songs, \"Love in C Minor\" (1976), \"Supernature\" (1977), and \"Give Me Love\" (1978) were successful in the US and Europe. Another Euro disco act was the French diva Amanda Lear, where Euro disco sound is most heard in \"Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)\" (1978). French producer Alec Costandinos assembled the Euro disco group Love and Kisses (1977–1982).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "In Italy Raffaella Carrà was the most successful Euro disco act, alongside La Bionda, Hermanas Goggi and Oliver Onions. Her greatest international single was \"Tanti Auguri\" (\"Best Wishes\"), which has become a popular song with gay audiences. The song is also known under its Spanish title \"Para hacer bien el amor hay que venir al sur\" (which refers to Southern Europe, since the song was recorded and taped in Spain). The Estonian version of the song \"Jätke võtmed väljapoole\" was performed by Anne Veski. \"A far l'amore comincia tu\" (\"To make love, your move first\") was another success for her internationally, known in Spanish as \"En el amor todo es empezar\", in German as \"Liebelei\", in French as \"Puisque tu l'aimes dis le lui\", and in English as \"Do It, Do It Again\". It was her only entry to the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 9, where she remains a one-hit wonder. In 1977, she recorded another successful single, \"Fiesta\" (\"The Party\" in English) originally in Spanish, but then recorded it in French and Italian after the song hit the charts. \"A far l'amore comincia tu\" has also been covered in Turkish by a Turkish popstar Ajda Pekkan as \"Sakın Ha\" in 1977.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Recently, Carrà has gained new attention for her appearance as the female dancing soloist in a 1974 TV performance of the experimental gibberish song \"Prisencolinensinainciusol\" (1973) by Adriano Celentano. A remixed video featuring her dancing went viral on the internet in 2008. In 2008 a video of a performance of her only successful UK single, \"Do It, Do It Again\", was featured in the Doctor Who episode \"Midnight\". Rafaella Carrà worked with Bob Sinclar on the new single \"Far l'Amore\" which was released on YouTube on March 17, 2011. The song charted in different European countries. Another prominent European disco act was the pop group Luv' from the Netherlands.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Euro disco continued evolving within the broad mainstream pop music scene, even when disco's popularity sharply declined in the United States, abandoned by major U.S. record labels and producers. Through the influence of Italo disco, it also played a role in the evolution of early house music in the early 1980s and later forms of electronic dance music, including early '90s Eurodance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "In December 1977, the film Saturday Night Fever was released. It was a huge success and its soundtrack became one of the best-selling albums of all time. The idea for the film was sparked by a 1976 New York magazine article titled \"Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night\" which supposedly chronicled the disco culture in mid-1970s New York City, but was later revealed to have been fabricated. Some critics said the film \"mainstreamed\" disco, making it more acceptable to heterosexual white males. Many music historians believe the success of the movie and soundtrack extended the life of the disco era by several years.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "Organized around the culture of suburban discotheques and the character of Tony Manero, portrayed by John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever became a cultural phenomenon that recast the dance floor as a site for patriarchal masculinity and heterosexual courtship. This transformation aligned disco with the interests of the perceived mass market, specifically targeting suburban and Middle American audiences.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "The portrayal of the dance floor in Saturday Night Fever marked a reappropriation by straight male culture, turning it into a space for men to showcase their prowess and pursue partners of the opposite sex. The film popularized the hustle, a Latin social dance, reinforcing the centrality of the straight-dancing couple in the disco exchange. Notably, the soundtrack, dominated by the Bee Gees, risked presenting disco as a new incarnation of shrill white pop, deviating from its diverse and inclusive origins. The success of Saturday Night Fever was unprecedented, breaking box office and album sale records. Unfortunately, its impact went beyond mere popularity. The film established a template for disco that was easily reproducible, yet thoroughly de-queered in its outlook. By narrowing the narrative to fit into the conventional ideals of suburban heterosexual culture, the film contributed to a distorted and commodified version of disco.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "The Bee Gees used Barry Gibb's falsetto to garner hits such as \"You Should Be Dancing\", \"Stayin' Alive\", \"Night Fever\", \"More Than A Woman\", \"Love You Inside Out\", and \"Tragedy\". Andy Gibb, a younger brother to the Bee Gees, followed with similarly styled solo singles such as \"I Just Want to Be Your Everything\", \"(Love Is) Thicker Than Water\", and \"Shadow Dancing\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "In 1978, Donna Summer's multi-million-selling vinyl single disco version of \"MacArthur Park\" was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The recording, which was included as part of the \"MacArthur Park Suite\" on her double live album Live and More, was eight minutes and 40 seconds long on the album. The shorter seven-inch vinyl single version of MacArthur Park was Summer's first single to reach number one on the Hot 100; it does not include the balladic second movement of the song, however. A 2013 remix of \"MacArthur Park\" by Summer topped the Billboard Dance Charts marking five consecutive decades with a number-one song on the charts. From mid-1978 to late 1979, Summer continued to release singles such as \"Last Dance\", \"Heaven Knows\" (with Brooklyn Dreams), \"Hot Stuff\", \"Bad Girls\", \"Dim All the Lights\" and \"On the Radio\", all very successful songs, landing in the top five or better, on the Billboard pop charts.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "The band Chic was formed mainly by guitarist Nile Rodgers—a self-described \"street hippie\" from late 1960s New York—and bassist Bernard Edwards. Their popular 1978 single, \"Le Freak\", is regarded as an iconic song of the genre. Other successful songs by Chic include the often-sampled \"Good Times\" (1979), \"I Want Your Love\" (1979), and \"Everybody Dance\" (1979). The group regarded themselves as the disco movement's rock band that made good on the hippie movement's ideals of peace, love, and freedom. Every song they wrote was written with an eye toward giving it \"deep hidden meaning\" or D.H.M.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "Sylvester, a flamboyant and openly gay singer famous for his soaring falsetto voice, scored his biggest disco hit in late 1978 with \"You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\". His singing style was said to have influenced the singer Prince. At that time, disco was one of the forms of music most open to gay performers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "The Village People were a singing/dancing group created by Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo to target disco's gay audience. They were known for their onstage costumes of typically male-associated jobs and ethnic minorities and achieved mainstream success with their 1978 hit song \"Macho Man\". Other songs include \"Y.M.C.A.\" (1979) and \"In the Navy\" (1979).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "Also noteworthy are The Trammps' \"Disco Inferno\" (1976), (1978, reissue due to the popularity gained from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack), Heatwave's \"Boogie Nights\" (1977), Evelyn \"Champagne\" King's \"Shame\" (1977), A Taste of Honey's \"Boogie Oogie Oogie\" (1978), Cheryl Lynn's \"Got to Be Real\" (1978), Alicia Bridges's \"I Love the Nightlife\" (1978), Patrick Hernandez's \"Born to Be Alive\" (1978), Earth, Wind & Fire's \"September\" (1978) and \"Boogie Wonderland\" (1979), Peaches & Herb's \"Shake Your Groove Thing\" (1978), Sister Sledge's \"We Are Family\" and \"He's the Greatest Dancer\" (both 1979), McFadden and Whitehead's \"Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now\" (1979), Anita Ward's \"Ring My Bell\" (1979), Kool & the Gang's \"Ladies' Night\" (1979) and \"Celebration\" (1980), The Whispers's \"And the Beat Goes On\" (1979), Stephanie Mills's \"What Cha Gonna Do with My Lovin'\" (1979), Lipps Inc.'s \"Funkytown\" (1980), The Brothers Johnson's \"Stomp!\" (1980), George Benson's \"Give Me the Night\" (1980), Donna Summer's \"Sunset People\" (1980), and Walter Murphy's various attempts to bring classical music to the mainstream, most notably the disco song \"A Fifth of Beethoven\" (1976), which was inspired by Beethoven's fifth symphony.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "At the height of its popularity, many non-disco artists recorded songs with disco elements, such as Rod Stewart with his \"Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?\" in 1979. Even mainstream rock artists adopted elements of disco. Progressive rock group Pink Floyd used disco-like drums and guitar in their song \"Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2\" (1979), which became their only number-one single in both the US and UK. The Eagles referenced disco with \"One of These Nights\" (1975) and \"Disco Strangler\" (1979), Paul McCartney & Wings with \"Silly Love Songs\" (1976) and \"Goodnight Tonight\" (1979), Queen with \"Another One Bites the Dust\" (1980), the Rolling Stones with \"Miss You\" (1978) and \"Emotional Rescue\" (1980), Stephen Stills with his album Thoroughfare Gap (1978), Electric Light Orchestra with \"Shine a Little Love\" and \"Last Train to London\" (both 1979), Chicago with \"Street Player\" (1979), the Kinks with \"(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman\" (1979), the Grateful Dead with \"Shakedown Street\", The Who with \"Eminence Front\" (1982), and the J. Geils Band with \"Come Back\" (1980). Even hard rock group KISS jumped in with \"I Was Made for Lovin' You\" (1979), and Ringo Starr's album Ringo the 4th (1978) features a strong disco influence.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "The disco sound was also adopted by artists from other genres, including the 1979 U.S. number one hit \"No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)\" by easy listening singer Barbra Streisand in a duet with Donna Summer. In country music, in an attempt to appeal to the more mainstream market, artists began to add pop/disco influences to their music. Dolly Parton launched a successful crossover onto the pop/dance charts, with her albums Heartbreaker and Great Balls of Fire containing songs with a disco flair. In particular, a disco remix of the track \"Baby I'm Burnin'\" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart; ultimately becoming one of the years biggest club hits. Additionally, Connie Smith covered Andy Gibb's \"I Just Want to Be Your Everything\" in 1977, Bill Anderson recorded \"Double S\" in 1978, and Ronnie Milsap released \"Get It Up\" and covered blues singer Tommy Tucker's song \"Hi-Heel Sneakers\" in 1979.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "Pre-existing non-disco songs, standards, and TV themes were frequently \"disco-ized\" in the 1970s, such as the I Love Lucy theme (recorded as \"Disco Lucy\" by the Wilton Place Street Band), \"Aquarela do Brasil\" (recorded as \"Brazil\" by The Ritchie Family), and \"Baby Face\" (recorded by the Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps). The rich orchestral accompaniment that became identified with the disco era conjured up the memories of the big band era—which brought out several artists that recorded and disco-ized some big band arrangements, including Perry Como, who re-recorded his 1945 song \"Temptation\", in 1975, as well as Ethel Merman, who released an album of disco songs entitled The Ethel Merman Disco Album in 1979.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "Myron Floren, second-in-command on The Lawrence Welk Show, released a recording of the \"Clarinet Polka\" entitled \"Disco Accordion.\" Similarly, Bobby Vinton adapted \"The Pennsylvania Polka\" into a song named \"Disco Polka\". Easy listening icon Percy Faith, in one of his last recordings, released an album entitled Disco Party (1975) and recorded a disco version of his \"Theme from A Summer Place\" in 1976. Even classical music was adapted for disco, notably Walter Murphy's \"A Fifth of Beethoven\" (1976, based on the first movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony) and \"Flight 76\" (1976, based on Rimsky-Korsakov's \"Flight of the Bumblebee\"), and Louis Clark's Hooked On Classics series of albums and singles.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "Many original television theme songs of the era also showed a strong disco influence, such as S.W.A.T. (1975), Wonder Woman (1975), Charlie's Angels (1976), NBC Saturday Night At The Movies (1976), The Love Boat (1977), The Donahue Show (1977), CHiPs (1977), The Professionals (1977), Dallas (1978), NBC Sports broadcasts (1978), Kojak (1977), and The Hollywood Squares (1979).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "Disco jingles also made their way into many TV commercials, including Purina's 1979 \"Good Mews\" cat food commercial and an \"IC Light\" commercial by Pittsburgh's Iron City Brewing Company.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "Several parodies of the disco style were created. Rick Dees, at the time a radio DJ in Memphis, Tennessee, recorded \"Disco Duck\" (1976) and \"Dis-Gorilla\" (1977); Frank Zappa parodied the lifestyles of disco dancers in \"Disco Boy\" on his 1976 Zoot Allures album and in \"Dancin' Fool\" on his 1979 Sheik Yerbouti album. \"Weird Al\" Yankovic's eponymous 1983 debut album includes a disco song called \"Gotta Boogie\", an extended pun on the similarity of the disco move to the American slang word \"booger\". Comedian Bill Cosby devoted his entire 1977 album Disco Bill to disco parodies. In 1980, Mad Magazine released a flexi-disc titled Mad Disco featuring six full-length parodies of the genre. Rock and roll songs critical of disco included Bob Seger's \"Old Time Rock and Roll\" and, especially, the Who's \"Sister Disco\" (both 1978)—although the Who's \"Eminence Front\" (four years later) had a disco feel.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "By the end of the 1970s, anti-disco sentiment developed among rock music fans and musicians, particularly in the United States. Disco was criticized as mindless, consumerist, overproduced and escapist. The slogans \"Disco sucks\" and \"Death to disco\" became common. Rock artists such as Rod Stewart and David Bowie who added disco elements to their music were accused of selling out.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "The punk subculture in the United States and the United Kingdom was often hostile to disco, although, in the UK, many early Sex Pistols fans such as the Bromley Contingent and Jordan liked disco, often congregating at nightclubs such as Louise's in Soho and the Sombrero in Kensington. The track \"Love Hangover\" by Diana Ross, the house anthem at the former, was cited as a particular favourite by many early UK punks. The film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and its soundtrack album contained a disco medley of Sex Pistols songs, entitled Black Arabs and credited to a group of the same name.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "However, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, in the song \"Saturday Night Holocaust\", likened disco to the cabaret culture of Weimar-era Germany for its apathy towards government policies and its escapism. Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo said that disco was \"like a beautiful woman with a great body and no brains\", and a product of political apathy of that era. New Jersey rock critic Jim Testa wrote \"Put a Bullet Through the Jukebox\", a vitriolic screed attacking disco that was considered a punk call to arms. Steve Hillage, shortly prior to his transformation from a progressive rock musician into an electronic artist at the end of the 1970s with the inspiration of disco, disappointed his rockist fans by admitting his love for disco, with Hillage recalling \"it's like I'd killed their pet cat.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Anti-disco sentiment was expressed in some television shows and films. A recurring theme on the show WKRP in Cincinnati was a hostile attitude towards disco music. In one scene of the 1980 comedy film Airplane!, a wayward airplane slices a radio tower with its wing, knocking out an all-disco radio station. July 12, 1979, became known as \"the day disco died\" because of the Disco Demolition Night, an anti-disco demonstration in a baseball double-header at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Rock station DJs Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, along with Michael Veeck, son of Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck, staged the promotional event for disgruntled rock fans between the games of a White Sox doubleheader which involved exploding disco records in centerfield. As the second game was about to begin, the raucous crowd stormed onto the field and proceeded to set fires and tear out seats and pieces of turf. The Chicago Police Department made numerous arrests, and the extensive damage to the field forced the White Sox to forfeit the second game to the Detroit Tigers, who had won the first game.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "Disco's decline in popularity after Disco Demolition Night was rapid. On July 12, 1979, the top six records on the U.S. music charts were disco songs. By September 22, there were no disco songs in the US Top 10 chart, with the exception of Herb Alpert's instrumental \"Rise\", a smooth jazz composition with some disco overtones. Some in the media, in celebratory tones, declared disco \"dead\" and rock revived. Karen Mixon Cook, the first female disco DJ, stated that people still pause every July 12 for a moment of silence in honor of disco. Dahl stated in a 2004 interview that disco was \"probably on its way out [at the time]. But I think it [Disco Demolition Night] hastened its demise\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "The anti-disco movement, combined with other societal and radio industry factors, changed the face of pop radio in the years following Disco Demolition Night. Starting in the 1980s, country music began a slow rise on the pop chart. Emblematic of country music's rise to mainstream popularity was the commercially successful 1980 movie Urban Cowboy. The continued popularity of power pop and the revival of oldies in the late 1970s was also related to disco's decline; the 1978 film Grease was emblematic of this trend. Coincidentally, the star of both films was John Travolta, who in 1977 had starred in Saturday Night Fever, which remains one of the most iconic disco films of the era.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "During this period of decline in disco's popularity, several record companies folded, were reorganized, or were sold. In 1979, MCA Records purchased ABC Records, absorbed some of its artists and then shut the label down. Midsong International Records ceased operations in 1980. RSO Records founder Robert Stigwood left the label in 1981 and TK Records closed in the same year. Salsoul Records continues to exist in the 2000s, but primarily is used as a reissue brand. Casablanca Records had been releasing fewer records in the 1980s, and was shut down in 1986 by parent company PolyGram.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "Many groups that were popular during the disco period subsequently struggled to maintain their success—even ones who tried to adapt to evolving musical tastes. The Bee Gees, for instance, had only one top-10 entry (1989's \"One\") and three more top-40 songs (despite completely abandoning disco in their 1980s and 1990s songs), even though numerous songs they wrote and had other artists perform were successful. Of the handful of groups not taken down by disco's fall from favor, Kool and the Gang, Donna Summer, the Jacksons, and Gloria Gaynor in particular—stand out. In spite of having helped define the disco sound early on, they continued to make popular and danceable, if more refined, songs for yet another generation of music fans in the 1980s and beyond. Earth, Wind & Fire also survived the anti-disco trend and continued to produce successful singles at roughly the same pace for several more years, in addition to an even longer string of R&B chart hits that lasted into the 1990s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "Six months prior to Disco Demolition Night (in December 1978), popular progressive rock radio station WDAI (WLS-FM) had suddenly switched to an all-disco format, disenfranchising thousands of Chicago rock fans and leaving Dahl unemployed. WDAI, who survived the change of public sentiment and still had good ratings at this point, continued to play disco until it flipped to a short-lived hybrid Top 40/rock format in May 1980. Another disco outlet that competed against WDAI at the time, WGCI-FM, would later incorporate R&B and pop songs into the format, eventually evolving into an urban contemporary outlet that it continues with today. The latter also helped bring the Chicago house genre to the airwaves.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "Factors that have been cited as leading to the decline of disco in the United States include economic and political changes at the end of the 1970s, as well as burnout from the hedonistic lifestyles led by participants. In the years since Disco Demolition Night, some social critics have described the \"Disco sucks\" movement as implicitly macho and bigoted, and an attack on non-white and non-heterosexual cultures. It was also interpreted being part of a wider cultural \"backlash\", the move towards conservatism, that also made its way into US politics with the election of conservative president Ronald Reagan in 1980, which also led to Republican control of the United States Senate for the first time since 1954, plus the subsequent rise of the Religious Right around the same time.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "In January 1979, rock critic Robert Christgau argued that homophobia, and most likely racism, were reasons behind the movement, a conclusion seconded by John Rockwell. Craig Werner wrote: \"The Anti-disco movement represented an unholy alliance of funkateers and feminists, progressives, and puritans, rockers and reactionaries. Nonetheless, the attacks on disco gave respectable voice to the ugliest kinds of unacknowledged racism, sexism and homophobia.\" Legs McNeil, founder of the fanzine Punk, was quoted in an interview as saying, \"the hippies always wanted to be black. We were going, 'fuck the blues, fuck the black experience.'\" He also said that disco was the result of an \"unholy\" union between homosexuals and blacks.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "Steve Dahl, who had spearheaded Disco Demolition Night, denied any racist or homophobic undertones to the promotion, saying, \"It's really easy to look at it historically, from this perspective, and attach all those things to it. But we weren't thinking like that,\" it was \"just kids pissing on a musical genre\". It has been noted that British punk rock critics of disco were very supportive of the pro-black/anti-racist reggae genre as well as the more pro-gay new romantics movement. Christgau and Jim Testa have said that there were legitimate artistic reasons for being critical of disco.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "In 1979, the music industry in the United States underwent its worst slump in decades, and disco, despite its mass popularity, was blamed. The producer-oriented sound was having difficulty mixing well with the industry's artist-oriented marketing system. Harold Childs, senior vice president at A&M Records, reportedly told the Los Angeles Times that \"radio is really desperate for rock product\" and \"they're all looking for some white rock-n-roll\". Gloria Gaynor argued that the music industry supported the destruction of disco because rock music producers were losing money and rock musicians were losing the spotlight.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "Disco was instrumental in the development of electronic dance music genres like house, techno, and eurodance. The Eurodisco song I Feel Love, produced by Giorgio Moroder for Donna Summer in 1976, has been described as a milestone and blueprint for electronic dance music because it was the first to combine repetitive synthesizer loops with a continuous four-on-the-floor bass drum and an off-beat hi-hat, which would become a main feature of techno and house ten years later.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "During the first years of the 1980s, the traditional disco sound characterized by complex arrangements performed by large ensembles of studio session musicians (including a horn section and an orchestral string section) began to be phased out, and faster tempos and synthesized effects, accompanied by guitar and simplified backgrounds, moved dance music toward electronic and pop genres, starting with hi-NRG. Despite its decline in popularity, so-called club music and European-style disco remained relatively successful in the early-to-mid 1980s with songs like Aneka's \"Japanese Boy\", The Weather Girls's \"It's Raining Men\", Stacey Q's \"Two of Hearts\", Dead or Alive's \"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)\", Laura Branigan's \"Self Control\", and Baltimora's \"Tarzan Boy\". However, a revival of the traditional-style disco called nu-disco has been popular since the 1990s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "House music displayed a strong disco influence, which is why house music, regarding its enormous success in shaping electronic dance music and contemporary club culture, is often described being \"disco's revenge.\" Early house music was generally dance-based music characterized by repetitive four-on-the-floor beats, rhythms mainly provided by drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals, and synthesized basslines. While house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, it was more electronic and minimalist, and the repetitive rhythm of house was more important than the song itself. As well, house did not use the lush string sections that were a key part of the disco sound.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "The rising popularity of disco came in tandem with developments in the role of the DJ. DJing developed from the use of multiple record turntables and DJ mixers to create a continuous, seamless mix of songs, with one song transitioning to another with no break in the music to interrupt the dancing. The resulting DJ mix differed from previous forms of dance music in the 1960s, which were oriented towards live performances by musicians. It, in turn, affected the arrangement of dance music, since songs in the disco era typically contained beginnings and endings marked by a simple beat or riff that could be easily used to transition to a new song. The development of DJing was also influenced by new turntablism techniques, such as beatmatching and scratching, a process facilitated by the introduction of new turntable technologies such as the Technics SL-1200 MK 2, first sold in 1978, which had a precise variable pitch control and a direct drive motor. DJs were often avid record collectors, who would hunt through used record stores for obscure soul records and vintage funk recordings. DJs helped to introduce rare records and new artists to club audiences.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "In the 1970s, individual DJs became more prominent, and some DJs, such as Larry Levan, the resident at Paradise Garage, Jim Burgess, Tee Scott, and Francis Grasso became famous in the disco scene. Levan, for example, developed a cult following among clubgoers, who referred to his DJ sets as \"Saturday Mass\". Some DJs would use reel-to-reel tape recorders to make remixes and tape edits of songs. Some DJs who were making remixes made the transition from the DJ booth to becoming a record producer, notably Burgess. Scott developed several innovations. He was the first disco DJ to use three turntables as sound sources, the first to simultaneously play two beat-matched records, the first to use electronic effects units in his mixes, and he was an innovator in mixing dialogue in from well-known movies, typically over a percussion break. These mixing techniques were also applied to radio DJs, such as Ted Currier of WKTU and WBLS. Grasso is particularly notable for taking the DJ \"profession out of servitude and [making] the DJ the musical head chef.\" Once he entered the scene, the DJ was no longer responsible for waiting on the crowd hand and foot, meeting their every song request. Instead, with increased agency and visibility, the DJ was now able to use their own technical and creative skills to whip up a nightly special of innovative mixes, refining their personal sound and aesthetic, and building their own reputation.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "The post-disco sound and genres associated with it originated in the 1970s and early 1980s with R&B and post-punk musicians focusing on a more electronic and experimental side of disco, spawning boogie, Italo disco, and alternative dance. Drawing from a diverse range of non-disco influences and techniques, such as the \"one-man band\" style of Kashif and Stevie Wonder and alternative approaches of Parliament-Funkadelic, it was driven by synthesizers, keyboards, and drum machines. Post-disco acts include D. Train, Patrice Rushen, ESG, Bill Laswell, Arthur Russell. Post-disco had an important influence on dance-pop and was bridging classical disco and later forms of electronic dance music.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "The disco sound had a strong influence on early hip hop. Most of the early hip-hop songs were created by isolating existing disco bass guitar lines and dubbing over them with MC rhymes. The Sugarhill Gang used Chic's \"Good Times\" as the foundation for their 1979 song \"Rapper's Delight\", generally considered to be the song that first popularized rap music in the United States and around the world.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "With synthesizers and Krautrock influences that replaced the previous disco foundation, a new genre was born when Afrika Bambaataa released the single \"Planet Rock\", spawning a hip hop electronic dance trend that includes songs such as Planet Patrol's \"Play at Your Own Risk\" (1982), C-Bank's \"One More Shot\" (1982), Cerrone's \"Club Underworld\" (1984), Shannon's \"Let the Music Play\" (1983), Freeez's \"I.O.U.\" (1983), Midnight Star's \"Freak-a-Zoid\" (1983), and Chaka Khan's \"I Feel For You\" (1984).",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s (also see: Chicago house). It quickly spread to other American cities such as Detroit, where it developed into the harder and more industrial techno, New York City (also see: garage house), and Newark – all of which developed their own regional scenes.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "In the mid-to-late 1980s, house music became popular in Europe as well as major cities in South America and Australia. Early house music commercial success in Europe saw songs such as \"Pump Up The Volume\" by MARRS (1987), \"House Nation\" by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy of House (1987), \"Theme from S'Express\" by S'Express (1988) and \"Doctorin' the House\" by Coldcut (1988) in the pop charts. Since the early to mid-1990s, house music has been infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "House music in the 2010s, while keeping several of these core elements, notably the prominent kick drum on every beat, varies widely in style and influence, ranging from the soulful and atmospheric deep house to the more aggressive acid house or the minimalist microhouse. House music has also fused with several other genres creating fusion subgenres, such as euro house, tech house, electro house, and jump house.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "In the late 1980s and early 1990s, rave culture began to emerge from the house and acid house scene. Like house, it incorporated disco culture's same love of dance music played by DJs over powerful sound systems, recreational drug and club drug exploration, sexual promiscuity, and hedonism. Although disco culture started out underground, it eventually thrived in the mainstream by the late 1970s, and major labels commodified and packaged the music for mass consumption. In contrast, the rave culture started out underground and stayed (mostly) underground. In part, this was to avoid the animosity that was still surrounding disco and dance music. The rave scene also stayed underground to avoid law enforcement attention that was directed at the rave culture due to its use of secret, unauthorized warehouses for some dance events and its association with illegal club drugs like ecstasy.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "The post-punk movement that originated in the late 1970s both supported punk rock's rule-breaking while rejecting its move back to raw rock music. Post-punk's mantra of constantly moving forward lent itself to both openness to and experimentation with elements of disco and other styles. Public Image Limited is considered the first post-punk group. The group's second album Metal Box fully embraced the \"studio as instrument\" methodology of disco. The group's founder John Lydon, the former lead singer for the Sex Pistols, told the press that disco was the only music he cared for at the time.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "No wave was a subgenre of post-punk centered in New York City. For shock value, James Chance, a notable member of the no wave scene, penned an article in the East Village Eye urging his readers to move uptown and get \"trancin' with some superradioactive disco voodoo funk\". His band James White and the Blacks wrote a disco album titled Off White. Their performances resembled those of disco performers (horn section, dancers and so on). In 1981 ZE Records led the transition from no wave into the more subtle mutant disco (post-disco/punk) genre. Mutant disco acts such as Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Was Not Was, ESG and Liquid Liquid influenced several British post-punk acts such as New Order, Orange Juice and A Certain Ratio.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with the renewed interest in 1970s and early 1980s disco, mid-1980s Italo disco, and the synthesizer-heavy Euro disco aesthetics. The moniker appeared in print as early as 2002, and by mid-2008 was used by record shops such as the online retailers Juno and Beatport. These vendors often associate it with re-edits of original-era disco music, as well as with music from European producers who make dance music inspired by original-era American disco, electro, and other genres popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is also used to describe the music on several American labels who were previously associated with the genres electroclash and French house.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "In the 1990s, after a decade of backlash, disco and its legacy became more accepted by pop music artists and listeners alike, as more songs, films, and compilations were released that referenced disco. This was part of a wave of 1970s nostalgia that was taking place in popular culture at the time. Examples of songs during this time that were influenced by disco included Deee-Lite's \"Groove Is in the Heart\" (1990), U2's \"Lemon\" (1993), Blur's \"Girls & Boys\" (1994) and \"Entertain Me\" (1995), Pulp's \"Disco 2000\" (1995), and Jamiroquai's \"Canned Heat\" (1999), while films such as Boogie Nights (1997) and The Last Days of Disco (1998) featured primarily disco soundtracks.",
"title": "Revivals and return to mainstream success"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "In the early 2000s, an updated genre of disco called \"nu-disco\" began breaking into the mainstream. A few examples like Daft Punk's \"One More Time\" and Kylie Minogue's \"Love at First Sight\" and \"Can't Get You Out of My Head\" became club favorites and commercial successes. Several nu-disco songs were crossovers with funky house, such as Spiller's \"Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)\" and Modjo's \"Lady (Hear Me Tonight)\", both songs sampling older disco songs and both reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart in 2000. Robbie Williams's disco single \"Rock DJ\" was the UK's fourth best-selling single the same year. Jamiroquai's song \"Little L\" and \"Murder on the Dancefloor\" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor were hits on 2001 too. Rock band Manic Street Preachers released a disco song, \"Miss Europa Disco Dancer\", in 2001. The song's disco influence, which appears on Know Your Enemy, was described as being \"much-discussed\". In 2005, Madonna immersed herself in the disco music of the 1970s, and released her album Confessions on a Dance Floor to rave reviews. In addition, her song \"Hung Up\" became a major club staple, and sampled ABBA's 1979 song \"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)\". In addition to her disco-influenced attire to award shows and interviews, her Confessions Tour also incorporated various elements of the 1970s, such as disco balls, a mirrored stage design, and the roller derby. In 2006, Jessica Simpson released her album A Public Affair inspired on disco and 1980s Music. The first single of the album A Public Affair was reviewed as a disco-dancing competition influenced by Madonna's early works. The video of the song was filmed on a skating rink and features a line dance of hands.",
"title": "Revivals and return to mainstream success"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "The success of the \"nu-disco\" revival of the early 2000s was described by music critic Tom Ewing as more interpersonal than the pop music of the 1990s: \"The revival of disco within pop put a spotlight on something that had gone missing over the 90s: a sense of music not just for dancing, but for dancing with someone. Disco was a music of mutual attraction: cruising, flirtation, negotiation. Its dancefloor is a space for immediate pleasure, but also for promises kept and otherwise. It's a place where things start, but their resolution, let alone their meaning, is never clear. All of 2000s great disco number ones explore how to play this hand. Madison Avenue look to impose their will upon it, to set terms and roles. Spiller is less rigid. 'Groovejet' accepts the night's changeability, happily sells out certainty for an amused smile and a few great one-liners.\"",
"title": "Revivals and return to mainstream success"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 128,
"text": "In 2011, K-pop girl group T-ara released Roly-Poly as a part of their EP John Travolta Wannabe. The song accumulated over 4,000,000 units in digital downloads, which ended up being the highest amount of downloads for a K-pop girl group single on the Gaon Digital Chart in the 2010s. In 2013, several 1970s-style disco and funk songs were charted, and the pop charts had more dance songs than at any other point since the late 1970s. The biggest disco song of the year as of June was \"Get Lucky\" by Daft Punk, featuring Nile Rodgers on guitar. Random Access Memories also ended up winning Album of the Year at the 2014 Grammys. Other disco-styled songs that made it into the top 40 were Robin Thicke's \"Blurred Lines\" (number one), Justin Timberlake's \"Take Back the Night\" (number 29), Bruno Mars' \"Treasure\" (number five) Arcade Fire's Reflektor featured strong disco elements. In 2014, disco music could be found in Lady Gaga's Artpop and Katy Perry's \"Birthday\". Other disco songs from 2014 include \"I Want It All\" By Karmin, 'Wrong Club\" by the Ting Tings, \"Blow\" by Beyoncé and the William Orbit mix of \"Let Me in Your Heart Again\" by Queen.",
"title": "Revivals and return to mainstream success"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 129,
"text": "In 2014 Brazilian Globo TV, the second biggest television network in the world, aired Boogie Oogie, a telenovela about the Disco Era that takes place between 1978 and 1979, from the hit fever to the decadence. The show's success was responsible for a Disco revival across the country, bringing back to the stage, and to Brazilian record charts, local disco divas like Lady Zu and As Frenéticas.",
"title": "Revivals and return to mainstream success"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 130,
"text": "Other top-10 entries from 2015 like Mark Ronson's disco groove-infused \"Uptown Funk\", Maroon 5's \"Sugar\", the Weeknd's \"Can't Feel My Face\" and Jason Derulo's \"Want To Want Me\" also ascended the charts and have a strong disco influence. Disco mogul and producer Giorgio Moroder also re-appeared with his new album Déjà Vu in 2015 which has proved to be a modest success. Other songs from 2015 like \"I Don't Like It, I Love It\" by Flo Rida, \"Adventure of a Lifetime\" by Coldplay, \"Back Together\" by Robin Thicke and \"Levels\" by Nick Jonas feature disco elements as well. In 2016, disco songs or disco-styled pop songs are showing a strong presence on the music charts as a possible backlash to the 1980s-styled synthpop, electro house, and dubstep that have been dominating the current charts. Justin Timberlake's 2016 song \"Can't Stop the Feeling!\", which shows strong elements of disco, became the 26th song to debut at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the history of the chart. The Martian, a 2015 film, extensively uses disco music as a soundtrack, although for the main character, astronaut Mark Watney, there's only one thing worse than being stranded on Mars: it's being stranded on Mars with nothing but disco music. \"Kill the Lights\", featured on an episode of the HBO television series \"Vinyl\" (2016) and with Nile Rodgers' guitar licks, hit number one on the US Dance chart in July 2016.",
"title": "Revivals and return to mainstream success"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 131,
"text": "In 2020, disco continued its mainstream popularity and became a prominent trend in popular music. In early 2020, disco-influenced hits such as Doja Cat's \"Say So\", Lady Gaga's \"Stupid Love\", and Dua Lipa's \"Don't Start Now\" experienced widespread success on global music charts, with the three songs charting at numbers 1, 5 and 2, respectively, on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. At the time, Billboard, declared that Lipa was \"leading the charge toward disco-influenced production\" a day after her retro and disco-influenced album Future Nostalgia was released on March 27, 2020. By mid-2020, multiple disco albums and songs had been released. In early September 2020, South Korean group BTS debuted at number 1 in the US with their English–language disco single \"Dynamite\" having sold 265,000 downloads in its first week in the US, marking the biggest pure sales week since Taylor Swift's \"Look What You Made Me Do\" (2017).",
"title": "Revivals and return to mainstream success"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 132,
"text": "In July 2020, Australian singer Kylie Minogue announced she would be releasing her fifteenth studio album, Disco, on November 6, 2020. The album was preceded by two singles, the lead single from the album, \"Say Something\", was released on July 23 of the same year and premiered on BBC Radio 2. The second single, \"Magic\", was released on September 24. Both singles received critical acclaim, with critics praising Minogue for returning to disco roots, which were prominent in her albums Light Years (2000), Fever (2001), and Aphrodite (2010).",
"title": "Revivals and return to mainstream success"
}
] | Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars. Disco started as a mixture of music from venues popular among African-Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, gay Americans, and Italian Americans in Philadelphia and New York City during the late 1960s to early 1970s. Disco can be seen as a reaction by the 1960s counterculture to both the dominance of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music at the time. Several dance styles were developed during the period of 70s disco's popularity in the United States, including "the Bump", "the Hustle", "the Watergate", and "the Busstop". In the course of the 1970s, disco music was developed further, mainly by artists from the United States and Europe. Well-known artists included the Bee Gees, ABBA, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Giorgio Moroder, Baccara, Boney M., Earth Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, Chic, KC and the Sunshine Band, Thelma Houston, Sister Sledge, Sylvester, The Trammps, Diana Ross, Kool & the Gang, and the Village People. While performers garnered public attention, record producers working behind the scenes played an important role in developing the genre. By the late 1970s, most major U.S. cities had thriving disco club scenes, and DJs would mix dance records at clubs such as Studio 54 in Manhattan, a venue popular among celebrities. Nightclub-goers often wore expensive, extravagant outfits, consisting predominantly of loose, flowing pants or dresses for ease of movement while dancing. There was also a thriving drug subculture in the disco scene, particularly for drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud music and the flashing lights, such as cocaine and quaaludes, the latter being so common in disco subculture that they were nicknamed "disco biscuits". Disco clubs were also associated with promiscuity as a reflection of the sexual revolution of this era in popular history. Films such as Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Thank God It's Friday (1978) contributed to disco's mainstream popularity. Disco declined as a major trend in popular music in the United States following the infamous Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979, and it continued to sharply decline in popularity in the U.S. during the early 1980s; however, it remained popular in Italy and some European countries throughout the 1980s, and during this time also started becoming trendy in places elsewhere including India and the Middle East, where aspects of disco were blended with regional folk styles such as ghazals and belly dancing. Disco would eventually become a key influence in the development of electronic dance music, house music, hip hop, new wave, dance-punk, and post-disco. The style has had several revivals since the 1990s, and the influence of disco remains strong across American and European pop music. A revival has been underway since the early 2010s, coming to great popularity in the early 2020s. Albums that have contributed to this revival include Confessions on a Dance Floor, Random Access Memories, Future Nostalgia, and Kylie Minogue's album itself titled Disco. | 2001-09-23T10:51:42Z | 2023-12-31T19:29:36Z | [
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7,970 | Darwin | Darwin most often refers to:
Darwin may also refer to: | [
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] | Darwin most often refers to: Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection
Charles Galton Darwin (1887–1962), English physicist, grandson of Charles Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory, a capital city in Australia, named after the naturalist
Darwin (surname), a surname Darwin may also refer to: | 2001-09-19T08:12:53Z | 2023-10-11T12:14:14Z | [
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7,973 | Donegal fiddle tradition | The Donegal fiddle tradition is the way of playing the fiddle that is traditional in County Donegal, Ireland. It is one of the distinct fiddle traditions within Irish traditional music.
The distinctness of the Donegal tradition developed due to the close relations between Donegal and Scotland, and the Donegal repertoire and style has influences from Scottish fiddle music. For example, in addition to the ”universally known” standard Irish dance tunes, there is an added volume of Scottish and Nova Scotia tunes played, with even some tunes from Shetland and Orkney. This includes standard tune types such as double jigs (6/8), slip jigs (9/8), reels (4/4), and hornpipes (swung 4/4). It has been claimed that Donegal musicians play more slip jigs than any other region of Ireland. This is potentially due to the geographical borders/mountains (as well as national borders with Northern Ireland) keeping Donegal's repertoire more locally-known for decades. There is also a prevalence of mazurka playing. Mazurkas are historically mainland-European tunes very similar to a waltz, in its 3/4 meter, though generally livelier and with more emphasis being placed on the second beat of each measure. Another uniquely Donegal tune is called the barndance, stemming from the Germanic schottische (essentially meaning ‘Scottish’), also similar to the Norwegian reinlander. The barndance is very similar to a hornpipe, but slower than a reel; typically they are played with less of a hornpipe's “swing” and more of the “drive” of a reel.
In stark contrast to other Irish musical styles, the Donegal tradition also has the Scottish strathspey, a traditional dance from Scotland, played a bit like a hornpipe but with emphasis on the semi-quaver; this dotted rhythm gives the strathspey its distinct “Scotch Snap” sound. While strathspeys are definitely known in Donegal (albeit played slightly slower and with less ”snap” than Scottish fiddlers), more common is the highland. Very rarely referred to as a “highland fling”, these quintessentially Donegal tunes are influenced by the Scottish strathspey, but played a bit smoother, as a sort of “strathspey-reel”. Some Scotch Snaps will be played, but highlands tend to be more akin to a slower reel, overall. Reels, themselves, are said to have originated in Scottish music. The distinctiveness of the Donegal tradition led to some conflict, between Donegal players and representatives of the mainstream tradition, when Irish traditional music was organised in the 1960s.
The tradition has several distinguishing traits compared to other fiddle traditions such as the Sliabh Luachra style of southern Ireland, most of which involves styles of bowing and the ornamentation of the music, and rhythm. Due to the frequency of double stops and the strong bowing it is often compared to the Cape Breton tradition. Another characteristic of the style is the rapid pace at which it tends to proceed. Modern players, such as the fiddle group Altan, continue to be popular due to a variety of reasons.
Among the most famous Donegal style players are John Doherty from the early twentieth century and James Byrne, Paddy Glackin, Tommy Peoples and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh in recent decades.
The fiddle has ancient roots in Ireland, the first report of bowed instruments similar to the violin being in the Book of Leinster (ca. 1160). The modern violin was ubiquitous in Ireland by the early 1700s. However the first mention of the fiddle being in use in Donegal is from the blind harper Arthur O'Neill who in his 1760 memoirs described a wedding in Ardara as having "plenty of pipers and fiddlers". Donegal fiddlers participated in the development of the Irish music tradition in the 18th century during which jigs and slipjigs and later reels and hornpipes became the dominant musical forms. However, Donegal musicians, many of them being fishermen, also frequently travelled to Scotland, where they acquired tune types from the Scottish repertoire such as the Strathspey which was integrated into the Donegal tradition as "Highland" tunes. The Donegal tradition derives much of its unique character from the synthesis of Irish and Scottish stylistic features and repertoires. Aoidh notes however that while different types of art music were commonly played among the upper classes of Scottish society in the 18th century, the Donegal tradition drew exclusively from the popular types of Scottish music. Like some Scottish fiddlers (who, like Donegal fiddlers, tend to use a short bow and play in a straight-ahead fashion), some Donegal fiddlers worked at imitating the sound of the bagpipes. Workers from Donegal would bring their music to Scotland and also bring back Scottish tunes with them such music of J. Scott Skinner and Mackenzie Murdoch. Lilting, unaccompanied singing of wordless tunes, was also an important part of the Donegal musical tradition often performed by women in social settings. Describing the musical life of Arranmore Island in the late 19th century singer Róise Rua Nic Gríanna describes the most popular dances: "The Sets, the Lancers, the Maggie Pickie [i.e., Maggie Pickins] the Donkey, the Mazurka and the Barn dances". Among the travelling fiddlers of the late 19th century players such as John Mhosaí McGinley, Anthony Hilferty, the McConnells and the Dohertys are best known. As skill levels increased through apprenticeships several fiddle masters appeared such as the Cassidy's, Connie Haughey, Jimmy Lyons and Miock McShane of Teelin and Francie Dearg and Mickey Bán Byrne of Kilcar. These virtuosos played unaccompanied listening pieces in addition to the more common dance music.
The influences between Scotland and Donegal went both ways and were furthered by a wave of immigration from Donegal to Scotland in the 19th century (the regions share common names of dances), as can be heard in the volume of strathspeys, schottisches, marches, and Donegal's own strong piping tradition, has influenced and been influenced by music, and by the sounds, ornaments, and repertoire of the Píob Mhór, the traditional bagpipes of Ireland and Scotland. There are other differences between the Donegal style and the rest of Ireland. Instruments such as the tin whistle, flute, concertina and accordion were very rare in Donegal until modern times. Traditionally the píob mór and the fiddle were the only instruments used and the use of pipe or fiddle music was common in old wedding customs. Migrant workers carried their music to Scotland and also brought back a number of tunes of Scottish origin. The Donegal fiddlers may well have been the route by which Scottish tunes such as Lucy Campbell, Tarbolton Lodge (Tarbolton) and The Flagon (The Flogging Reel), that entered the Irish repertoire. These players prided themselves on their technical abilities, which included playing in higher positions (fairly uncommon among traditional Irish fiddlers), and sought out material which would demonstrate their skills.
As Irish music was consolidated and organised under the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann movement in the 1960s, both strengthened the interest in traditional music but sometimes conflicted with the Donegal tradition and its social conventions. The rigidly organised sessions of the Comhaltas reflected the traditions of Southern Ireland and Donegal fiddlers like John Doherty considered the National repertoire with its strong focus on reels to be less diverse than that of Donegal with its varied rhythms. Other old fiddlers dislike the ways comhaltas sessions were organised with a committee player, often not himself a musician, in charge. Sometimes Comhaltas representatives would even disparage the Donegal tradition, with its Scottish flavour, as being un-Irish, and prohibit them from playing local tunes with Scottish genealogies such as the "Highlands" at Comhaltas sessions. This sometimes cause antagonism between Donegal players and the main organisation of traditional music in Ireland.
Outside of the Comhaltas movement however, Donegal fiddling stood strong with Paddy Glackin of Ceoltorí Laighean and the Bothy Band and later Tommy Peoples also with the Bothy Band and Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh with Altan, who all drew attention and prestige to the Donegal tradition within folk music circles throughout Ireland.
The Donegal style of fiddling is a label often applied to music from this area, though one also might plausibly identify several different, but related, styles within the county. To the extent to which there is one common style in the county, it is characterised by a rapid pace; a tendency to be more un-swung in the playing of the fast dance tune types (reel and jigs); short (non-slurred), aggressive bowing, sparse ornamentation, the use of bowed triplets more often than trills as ornaments, the use of double stops and droning; and the occurrence of "playing the octave", with one player playing the melody and the other playing the melody an octave lower. None of these characteristics are universal, and there is some disagreement as to the extent to which there is a common style at all. In general, however, the style is rather aggressive.
Another feature of Donegal fiddling that makes it distinctive among Irish musical traditions is the variety of rare tune types that are played. Highlands, a type of tune in 4 time with some similarities to Scottish strathspeys, which are also played in Donegal, are one of the most commonly played types of tune in the county. Other tune types common solely in the county include barndances, also called "Germans," and mazurkas.
There are a number of different strands to the history of fiddle playing in County Donegal. Perhaps the best-known and, in the last half of the twentieth century, the most influential has been that of the Doherty family. Hugh Doherty is the first known musician of this family. Born in 1790, he headed an unbroken tradition of fiddlers and pipers in the Doherty family until the death, in 1980, of perhaps the best-known Donegal fiddler, John Doherty. John, a travelling tinsmith, was known for his extremely precise and fast finger- and bow-work and vast repertoire, and is considered to be one of the greatest Irish fiddlers ever recorded. John's older brother, Mickey, was also recorded and, though Mickey was another of the great Irish fiddlers, his reputation has been overshadowed by John's.
There is no single Donegal style but several distinctive styles. These styles traditionally come from the geographical isolated regions of Donegal including Inishowen, eastern Donegal, The Rosses and Gweedore, Croaghs, Teelin, Kilcar, Glencolmcille, Ballyshannon and Bundoran. Even with improved communications and transport, these regions still have recognisably different ways of fiddle playing. Notable deceased players of the older Donegal styles include Neillidh ("Neilly") Boyle, Francie Byrne, Con Cassidy, Frank Cassidy, James Byrne (1946–2008), P.V. O'Donnell (2011), and Tommy Peoples (1948–2018). Currently living Donegal fiddlers, include, Vincent Campbell, John Gallagher, Paddy Glackin, and Danny O'Donnell.
Fiddle playing continues to be popular in Donegal. The three fiddlers of the Donegal "supergroup" Altan, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Paul O'Shaughnessy, and Ciarán Tourish, are generally admired within Donegal. An example of another fiddler-player from Donegal is Liz Doherty. Another well regarded fiddle player hailing from Donegal is Aidan O'Donnell. TG4 Young Musician of the Year 2010 Aidan O'Donnell has been described as one of the finest young Irish musicians at present. He began his music making at the age of 12, and since then has performed with some of traditional music's finest artists, including Donal Lunny, Micheal Ó'Suilleabháin and the Chieftains. In 2007, he won the prestigious ‘Oireachtas na Geailge' fiddle title, and has been a regular tutor at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, at the University of Limerick for the past number of years.
The fiddle, and traditional music in general, remained popular in Donegal not only because of the international coverage of certain artists but because of local pride in the music. Traditional music Seisiúns are still common place both in pubs and in houses. The Donegal fiddle music has been influenced by recorded music, but this is claimed to have had a positive impact on the tradition. Modern Donegal fiddle music is often played in concerts and recorded on albums. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Donegal fiddle tradition is the way of playing the fiddle that is traditional in County Donegal, Ireland. It is one of the distinct fiddle traditions within Irish traditional music.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The distinctness of the Donegal tradition developed due to the close relations between Donegal and Scotland, and the Donegal repertoire and style has influences from Scottish fiddle music. For example, in addition to the ”universally known” standard Irish dance tunes, there is an added volume of Scottish and Nova Scotia tunes played, with even some tunes from Shetland and Orkney. This includes standard tune types such as double jigs (6/8), slip jigs (9/8), reels (4/4), and hornpipes (swung 4/4). It has been claimed that Donegal musicians play more slip jigs than any other region of Ireland. This is potentially due to the geographical borders/mountains (as well as national borders with Northern Ireland) keeping Donegal's repertoire more locally-known for decades. There is also a prevalence of mazurka playing. Mazurkas are historically mainland-European tunes very similar to a waltz, in its 3/4 meter, though generally livelier and with more emphasis being placed on the second beat of each measure. Another uniquely Donegal tune is called the barndance, stemming from the Germanic schottische (essentially meaning ‘Scottish’), also similar to the Norwegian reinlander. The barndance is very similar to a hornpipe, but slower than a reel; typically they are played with less of a hornpipe's “swing” and more of the “drive” of a reel.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In stark contrast to other Irish musical styles, the Donegal tradition also has the Scottish strathspey, a traditional dance from Scotland, played a bit like a hornpipe but with emphasis on the semi-quaver; this dotted rhythm gives the strathspey its distinct “Scotch Snap” sound. While strathspeys are definitely known in Donegal (albeit played slightly slower and with less ”snap” than Scottish fiddlers), more common is the highland. Very rarely referred to as a “highland fling”, these quintessentially Donegal tunes are influenced by the Scottish strathspey, but played a bit smoother, as a sort of “strathspey-reel”. Some Scotch Snaps will be played, but highlands tend to be more akin to a slower reel, overall. Reels, themselves, are said to have originated in Scottish music. The distinctiveness of the Donegal tradition led to some conflict, between Donegal players and representatives of the mainstream tradition, when Irish traditional music was organised in the 1960s.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The tradition has several distinguishing traits compared to other fiddle traditions such as the Sliabh Luachra style of southern Ireland, most of which involves styles of bowing and the ornamentation of the music, and rhythm. Due to the frequency of double stops and the strong bowing it is often compared to the Cape Breton tradition. Another characteristic of the style is the rapid pace at which it tends to proceed. Modern players, such as the fiddle group Altan, continue to be popular due to a variety of reasons.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Among the most famous Donegal style players are John Doherty from the early twentieth century and James Byrne, Paddy Glackin, Tommy Peoples and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh in recent decades.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The fiddle has ancient roots in Ireland, the first report of bowed instruments similar to the violin being in the Book of Leinster (ca. 1160). The modern violin was ubiquitous in Ireland by the early 1700s. However the first mention of the fiddle being in use in Donegal is from the blind harper Arthur O'Neill who in his 1760 memoirs described a wedding in Ardara as having \"plenty of pipers and fiddlers\". Donegal fiddlers participated in the development of the Irish music tradition in the 18th century during which jigs and slipjigs and later reels and hornpipes became the dominant musical forms. However, Donegal musicians, many of them being fishermen, also frequently travelled to Scotland, where they acquired tune types from the Scottish repertoire such as the Strathspey which was integrated into the Donegal tradition as \"Highland\" tunes. The Donegal tradition derives much of its unique character from the synthesis of Irish and Scottish stylistic features and repertoires. Aoidh notes however that while different types of art music were commonly played among the upper classes of Scottish society in the 18th century, the Donegal tradition drew exclusively from the popular types of Scottish music. Like some Scottish fiddlers (who, like Donegal fiddlers, tend to use a short bow and play in a straight-ahead fashion), some Donegal fiddlers worked at imitating the sound of the bagpipes. Workers from Donegal would bring their music to Scotland and also bring back Scottish tunes with them such music of J. Scott Skinner and Mackenzie Murdoch. Lilting, unaccompanied singing of wordless tunes, was also an important part of the Donegal musical tradition often performed by women in social settings. Describing the musical life of Arranmore Island in the late 19th century singer Róise Rua Nic Gríanna describes the most popular dances: \"The Sets, the Lancers, the Maggie Pickie [i.e., Maggie Pickins] the Donkey, the Mazurka and the Barn dances\". Among the travelling fiddlers of the late 19th century players such as John Mhosaí McGinley, Anthony Hilferty, the McConnells and the Dohertys are best known. As skill levels increased through apprenticeships several fiddle masters appeared such as the Cassidy's, Connie Haughey, Jimmy Lyons and Miock McShane of Teelin and Francie Dearg and Mickey Bán Byrne of Kilcar. These virtuosos played unaccompanied listening pieces in addition to the more common dance music.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The influences between Scotland and Donegal went both ways and were furthered by a wave of immigration from Donegal to Scotland in the 19th century (the regions share common names of dances), as can be heard in the volume of strathspeys, schottisches, marches, and Donegal's own strong piping tradition, has influenced and been influenced by music, and by the sounds, ornaments, and repertoire of the Píob Mhór, the traditional bagpipes of Ireland and Scotland. There are other differences between the Donegal style and the rest of Ireland. Instruments such as the tin whistle, flute, concertina and accordion were very rare in Donegal until modern times. Traditionally the píob mór and the fiddle were the only instruments used and the use of pipe or fiddle music was common in old wedding customs. Migrant workers carried their music to Scotland and also brought back a number of tunes of Scottish origin. The Donegal fiddlers may well have been the route by which Scottish tunes such as Lucy Campbell, Tarbolton Lodge (Tarbolton) and The Flagon (The Flogging Reel), that entered the Irish repertoire. These players prided themselves on their technical abilities, which included playing in higher positions (fairly uncommon among traditional Irish fiddlers), and sought out material which would demonstrate their skills.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "As Irish music was consolidated and organised under the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann movement in the 1960s, both strengthened the interest in traditional music but sometimes conflicted with the Donegal tradition and its social conventions. The rigidly organised sessions of the Comhaltas reflected the traditions of Southern Ireland and Donegal fiddlers like John Doherty considered the National repertoire with its strong focus on reels to be less diverse than that of Donegal with its varied rhythms. Other old fiddlers dislike the ways comhaltas sessions were organised with a committee player, often not himself a musician, in charge. Sometimes Comhaltas representatives would even disparage the Donegal tradition, with its Scottish flavour, as being un-Irish, and prohibit them from playing local tunes with Scottish genealogies such as the \"Highlands\" at Comhaltas sessions. This sometimes cause antagonism between Donegal players and the main organisation of traditional music in Ireland.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Outside of the Comhaltas movement however, Donegal fiddling stood strong with Paddy Glackin of Ceoltorí Laighean and the Bothy Band and later Tommy Peoples also with the Bothy Band and Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh with Altan, who all drew attention and prestige to the Donegal tradition within folk music circles throughout Ireland.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The Donegal style of fiddling is a label often applied to music from this area, though one also might plausibly identify several different, but related, styles within the county. To the extent to which there is one common style in the county, it is characterised by a rapid pace; a tendency to be more un-swung in the playing of the fast dance tune types (reel and jigs); short (non-slurred), aggressive bowing, sparse ornamentation, the use of bowed triplets more often than trills as ornaments, the use of double stops and droning; and the occurrence of \"playing the octave\", with one player playing the melody and the other playing the melody an octave lower. None of these characteristics are universal, and there is some disagreement as to the extent to which there is a common style at all. In general, however, the style is rather aggressive.",
"title": "Description of style"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Another feature of Donegal fiddling that makes it distinctive among Irish musical traditions is the variety of rare tune types that are played. Highlands, a type of tune in 4 time with some similarities to Scottish strathspeys, which are also played in Donegal, are one of the most commonly played types of tune in the county. Other tune types common solely in the county include barndances, also called \"Germans,\" and mazurkas.",
"title": "Description of style"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "There are a number of different strands to the history of fiddle playing in County Donegal. Perhaps the best-known and, in the last half of the twentieth century, the most influential has been that of the Doherty family. Hugh Doherty is the first known musician of this family. Born in 1790, he headed an unbroken tradition of fiddlers and pipers in the Doherty family until the death, in 1980, of perhaps the best-known Donegal fiddler, John Doherty. John, a travelling tinsmith, was known for his extremely precise and fast finger- and bow-work and vast repertoire, and is considered to be one of the greatest Irish fiddlers ever recorded. John's older brother, Mickey, was also recorded and, though Mickey was another of the great Irish fiddlers, his reputation has been overshadowed by John's.",
"title": "Fiddlers of the Donegal tradition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "There is no single Donegal style but several distinctive styles. These styles traditionally come from the geographical isolated regions of Donegal including Inishowen, eastern Donegal, The Rosses and Gweedore, Croaghs, Teelin, Kilcar, Glencolmcille, Ballyshannon and Bundoran. Even with improved communications and transport, these regions still have recognisably different ways of fiddle playing. Notable deceased players of the older Donegal styles include Neillidh (\"Neilly\") Boyle, Francie Byrne, Con Cassidy, Frank Cassidy, James Byrne (1946–2008), P.V. O'Donnell (2011), and Tommy Peoples (1948–2018). Currently living Donegal fiddlers, include, Vincent Campbell, John Gallagher, Paddy Glackin, and Danny O'Donnell.",
"title": "Fiddlers of the Donegal tradition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Fiddle playing continues to be popular in Donegal. The three fiddlers of the Donegal \"supergroup\" Altan, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Paul O'Shaughnessy, and Ciarán Tourish, are generally admired within Donegal. An example of another fiddler-player from Donegal is Liz Doherty. Another well regarded fiddle player hailing from Donegal is Aidan O'Donnell. TG4 Young Musician of the Year 2010 Aidan O'Donnell has been described as one of the finest young Irish musicians at present. He began his music making at the age of 12, and since then has performed with some of traditional music's finest artists, including Donal Lunny, Micheal Ó'Suilleabháin and the Chieftains. In 2007, he won the prestigious ‘Oireachtas na Geailge' fiddle title, and has been a regular tutor at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, at the University of Limerick for the past number of years.",
"title": "Fiddlers of the Donegal tradition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The fiddle, and traditional music in general, remained popular in Donegal not only because of the international coverage of certain artists but because of local pride in the music. Traditional music Seisiúns are still common place both in pubs and in houses. The Donegal fiddle music has been influenced by recorded music, but this is claimed to have had a positive impact on the tradition. Modern Donegal fiddle music is often played in concerts and recorded on albums.",
"title": "Fiddlers of the Donegal tradition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "",
"title": "Notes"
}
] | The Donegal fiddle tradition is the way of playing the fiddle that is traditional in County Donegal, Ireland. It is one of the distinct fiddle traditions within Irish traditional music. The distinctness of the Donegal tradition developed due to the close relations between Donegal and Scotland, and the Donegal repertoire and style has influences from Scottish fiddle music. For example, in addition to the ”universally known” standard Irish dance tunes, there is an added volume of Scottish and Nova Scotia tunes played, with even some tunes from Shetland and Orkney. This includes standard tune types such as double jigs (6/8), slip jigs (9/8), reels (4/4), and hornpipes. It has been claimed that Donegal musicians play more slip jigs than any other region of Ireland. This is potentially due to the geographical borders/mountains keeping Donegal's repertoire more locally-known for decades. There is also a prevalence of mazurka playing. Mazurkas are historically mainland-European tunes very similar to a waltz, in its 3/4 meter, though generally livelier and with more emphasis being placed on the second beat of each measure. Another uniquely Donegal tune is called the barndance, stemming from the Germanic schottische, also similar to the Norwegian reinlander. The barndance is very similar to a hornpipe, but slower than a reel; typically they are played with less of a hornpipe's “swing” and more of the “drive” of a reel. In stark contrast to other Irish musical styles, the Donegal tradition also has the Scottish strathspey, a traditional dance from Scotland, played a bit like a hornpipe but with emphasis on the semi-quaver; this dotted rhythm gives the strathspey its distinct “Scotch Snap” sound. While strathspeys are definitely known in Donegal, more common is the highland. Very rarely referred to as a “highland fling”, these quintessentially Donegal tunes are influenced by the Scottish strathspey, but played a bit smoother, as a sort of “strathspey-reel”. Some Scotch Snaps will be played, but highlands tend to be more akin to a slower reel, overall. Reels, themselves, are said to have originated in Scottish music. The distinctiveness of the Donegal tradition led to some conflict, between Donegal players and representatives of the mainstream tradition, when Irish traditional music was organised in the 1960s. The tradition has several distinguishing traits compared to other fiddle traditions such as the Sliabh Luachra style of southern Ireland, most of which involves styles of bowing and the ornamentation of the music, and rhythm. Due to the frequency of double stops and the strong bowing it is often compared to the Cape Breton tradition. Another characteristic of the style is the rapid pace at which it tends to proceed. Modern players, such as the fiddle group Altan, continue to be popular due to a variety of reasons. Among the most famous Donegal style players are John Doherty from the early twentieth century and James Byrne, Paddy Glackin, Tommy Peoples and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh in recent decades. | 2023-01-03T21:22:38Z | [
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|
7,975 | Double-barreled shotgun | A double-barreled shotgun, also known as a double shotgun, is a break-action shotgun with two parallel barrels, allowing two single shots that can be fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession.
Modern double-barreled shotguns, often known as doubles, are almost universally break action, with the barrels hinge down at the rear to expose the breech ends for unloading and reloading. Since there is no reciprocating action needed to eject and reload the shells, doubles are more compact than repeating designs such as pump action, lever action, bolt action, or self-loading shotguns.
Double-barreled shotguns (specifically break-action), come in two basic configurations:
The original double-barreled guns were nearly all side-by-side designs, which was a more practical design for muzzleloaders. Early cartridge-firing shotguns also used the side-by-side action, because they kept the exposed hammers of the earlier muzzleloading shotguns from which they evolved. When hammerless designs started to become common, the over-and-under design was introduced, and most modern sporting doubles are over-and-under designs.
One significant advantage that doubles have over single-barrel repeating shotguns is the ability to have more than one choke at a time. Some shotgun shooting sports, such as skeet shooting, use crossing targets presented in a narrow range of distance, and only require one level of choke. Other sports, like sporting clays, give the shooter targets at differing ranges, and targets that might approach or recede from the shooter, and so must be engaged at differing ranges. Having two barrels lets the shooter use a more open choke for near targets, and a tighter choke for distant targets, providing the optimal shot pattern for each distance.
The disadvantage lies in the fact that the barrels of a double-barreled shotgun, whether over-and-under or side-by-side, are not parallel, but slightly angled, so that shots from the barrels converge, usually at "40 yards out". For the side-by-side configuration, the shotstring continues on its path to the opposite side of the rib after the converging point; for example, the left barrel's discharge travels on the left of the rib till it hits dead center at 40 yards (36.58 m) out, after that, the discharge continues on to the right. In the over-and-under configuration with a parallel rib, both barrels' discharges will keep to the dead center, but the discharge from the "under" barrel will shoot higher than the discharge from the "over" barrel after 40 yards (36.58 m). Thus, double-barreled shotguns are accurate only at practical shotgun ranges, though the range of their ammunition easily exceeds four to six times that distance.
Side-by-side shotguns are often more expensive, and may take more practice to aim effectively than an over-and-under. The off-center nature of the recoil in a side-by-side gun may make shooting the body-side barrel slightly more painful by comparison to an over-and-under, single-shot, or pump-action, lever-action shotgun. Gas-operated and Recoil-operated, designs will recoil less than either. More side-by-side than over-and-under guns have traditional "cast-off" stocks, where the end of the buttstock veers slightly to the right, allowing a right-handed user to point the gun more easily.
Double-barreled shotguns are also inherently more safe, as whether the shotgun is loaded or can be fired can be ascertained by anyone present if the action is broken open, for instance on a skeet, trap or hunting clays course when another shooter is firing; if the action is open, the gun cannot fire. Similarly, doubles are more easily examined to see if loaded than pump-action or semi-automatic shotguns, whose bolt must be opened and chamber closely examined or felt to make sure it is unloaded; with a double gun (or a break-action single gun), whether the gun is loaded, i.e., has cartridges in any chamber, is easily and immediately seen with a glance (and just as easily unloaded).
The early doubles used two triggers, one for each barrel, located front to back inside the trigger guard. The index finger was used to pull either trigger, as having two fingers inside the trigger guard can cause a very undesirable recoil-induced double-discharge. Double-trigger designs are typically set up for right-handed users. In double-trigger designs, it is often possible to pull both triggers at once, firing both barrels simultaneously, though this is generally not recommended as it doubles the recoil, battering both shotgun and shooter, particularly if it was unanticipated or unintended. Discharging both barrels at the same time has long been a hunting trick employed by hunters using 8 gauge "elephant" shotguns, firing the two 875 gr (56.7 g) slugs for sheer stopping power at close range.
Later models use a single trigger that alternately fires both barrels, called a single selective trigger or SST. The single selective trigger does not allow firing both barrels at once, since the single trigger must be pulled twice in order to fire both barrels. The change from one barrel to the other may be done by a clockwork type system, where a cam alternates between barrels, or by an inertial system where the recoil of firing the first barrel toggles the trigger to the next barrel. A double-barreled shotgun with an inertial trigger works best with full power shotshells; shooting low recoil shotshells often will not reliably toggle the inertial trigger, causing an apparent failure to fire occasionally when attempting to depress the trigger a second time to fire the second barrel (this also can happen if the first shell fails to fire). Generally there is a method of selecting the order in which the barrels of a single selective trigger shotgun fire; commonly this is done through manipulation of the safety, pushing to one side to select top barrel first and the other side to select bottom barrel first. In the event that an inertial trigger does not toggle to the second barrel when firing low recoil shotshells, manually selecting the order to the second barrel will enable the second barrel to fire when the trigger is depressed again.
One of the advantages of double-barreled shotgun with double triggers or single selective trigger, is that the second shot can be taken almost immediately after the first with merely a second trigger pull, without needing to manually operate the action (which will inevitably destabilize the gun from the shoulder position and affect aim), and can utilize different chokes for the two shots (assuming, of course, that full power shotshells are fired, at least for a double-barreled shotgun with an inertial type single selective trigger, as needed to toggle the inertial trigger). This can be noticeably faster than a pump-action shotgun, which requires manually pumping the fore-end to eject and reload for the second shot, and may be faster, or not slower, than a semi-automatic shotgun (as there are no bolt movements to delay the rechambering of a second shell). Note, however, in neither the pump-action or semi-automatic will the second shot be a different choke pattern from the first shot, whereas for a double, the two shots are usually with different chokes. Thus, depending on the nature of the hunt, the appropriate choke for the shot is always at hand. For example, while field hunting flushing birds, the first shot is usually closer than the second because the bird flies away from the shooter; so, the more open choke (and barrel) would be better for the first shot, and if a second shot is needed, as the bird is flying away, the more closed (and thus longer distance of an effective shot pattern) choke (and barrel) is then appropriate. Conversely, on a driven hunt, where the birds are driven towards the shooter, the closed (longer effective distance) choke (and barrel) should be fired first, saving the open (closer effective distance) choke (and barrel) for the now-closer incoming bird. None of this is possible with single-barrel shotguns, only with a double, either a side-by-side (S×S) or over-and-under (O/U).
Regulation is a term used for multi-barreled firearms (most commonly found in rifles and shotguns) that indicates how close to the same point of aim the barrels will shoot. A poorly regulated gun may hit consistently with one barrel, but miss consistently with the other, making the gun nearly useless for anything requiring two shots. However, the short ranges and spread of shot provide a significant overlap, so a small error in regulation in a double is often too small to be noticed. Generally the shotguns are regulated to hit the point of aim at a given distance, usually the maximum expected range since that is the range at which a full choke is used, and where precise regulation matters most. The regulation is usually more important in side-by-side, rather than in over-and-under shotguns, as felt recoil differs. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A double-barreled shotgun, also known as a double shotgun, is a break-action shotgun with two parallel barrels, allowing two single shots that can be fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Modern double-barreled shotguns, often known as doubles, are almost universally break action, with the barrels hinge down at the rear to expose the breech ends for unloading and reloading. Since there is no reciprocating action needed to eject and reload the shells, doubles are more compact than repeating designs such as pump action, lever action, bolt action, or self-loading shotguns.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Double-barreled shotguns (specifically break-action), come in two basic configurations:",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The original double-barreled guns were nearly all side-by-side designs, which was a more practical design for muzzleloaders. Early cartridge-firing shotguns also used the side-by-side action, because they kept the exposed hammers of the earlier muzzleloading shotguns from which they evolved. When hammerless designs started to become common, the over-and-under design was introduced, and most modern sporting doubles are over-and-under designs.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "One significant advantage that doubles have over single-barrel repeating shotguns is the ability to have more than one choke at a time. Some shotgun shooting sports, such as skeet shooting, use crossing targets presented in a narrow range of distance, and only require one level of choke. Other sports, like sporting clays, give the shooter targets at differing ranges, and targets that might approach or recede from the shooter, and so must be engaged at differing ranges. Having two barrels lets the shooter use a more open choke for near targets, and a tighter choke for distant targets, providing the optimal shot pattern for each distance.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The disadvantage lies in the fact that the barrels of a double-barreled shotgun, whether over-and-under or side-by-side, are not parallel, but slightly angled, so that shots from the barrels converge, usually at \"40 yards out\". For the side-by-side configuration, the shotstring continues on its path to the opposite side of the rib after the converging point; for example, the left barrel's discharge travels on the left of the rib till it hits dead center at 40 yards (36.58 m) out, after that, the discharge continues on to the right. In the over-and-under configuration with a parallel rib, both barrels' discharges will keep to the dead center, but the discharge from the \"under\" barrel will shoot higher than the discharge from the \"over\" barrel after 40 yards (36.58 m). Thus, double-barreled shotguns are accurate only at practical shotgun ranges, though the range of their ammunition easily exceeds four to six times that distance.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Side-by-side shotguns are often more expensive, and may take more practice to aim effectively than an over-and-under. The off-center nature of the recoil in a side-by-side gun may make shooting the body-side barrel slightly more painful by comparison to an over-and-under, single-shot, or pump-action, lever-action shotgun. Gas-operated and Recoil-operated, designs will recoil less than either. More side-by-side than over-and-under guns have traditional \"cast-off\" stocks, where the end of the buttstock veers slightly to the right, allowing a right-handed user to point the gun more easily.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Double-barreled shotguns are also inherently more safe, as whether the shotgun is loaded or can be fired can be ascertained by anyone present if the action is broken open, for instance on a skeet, trap or hunting clays course when another shooter is firing; if the action is open, the gun cannot fire. Similarly, doubles are more easily examined to see if loaded than pump-action or semi-automatic shotguns, whose bolt must be opened and chamber closely examined or felt to make sure it is unloaded; with a double gun (or a break-action single gun), whether the gun is loaded, i.e., has cartridges in any chamber, is easily and immediately seen with a glance (and just as easily unloaded).",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The early doubles used two triggers, one for each barrel, located front to back inside the trigger guard. The index finger was used to pull either trigger, as having two fingers inside the trigger guard can cause a very undesirable recoil-induced double-discharge. Double-trigger designs are typically set up for right-handed users. In double-trigger designs, it is often possible to pull both triggers at once, firing both barrels simultaneously, though this is generally not recommended as it doubles the recoil, battering both shotgun and shooter, particularly if it was unanticipated or unintended. Discharging both barrels at the same time has long been a hunting trick employed by hunters using 8 gauge \"elephant\" shotguns, firing the two 875 gr (56.7 g) slugs for sheer stopping power at close range.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Later models use a single trigger that alternately fires both barrels, called a single selective trigger or SST. The single selective trigger does not allow firing both barrels at once, since the single trigger must be pulled twice in order to fire both barrels. The change from one barrel to the other may be done by a clockwork type system, where a cam alternates between barrels, or by an inertial system where the recoil of firing the first barrel toggles the trigger to the next barrel. A double-barreled shotgun with an inertial trigger works best with full power shotshells; shooting low recoil shotshells often will not reliably toggle the inertial trigger, causing an apparent failure to fire occasionally when attempting to depress the trigger a second time to fire the second barrel (this also can happen if the first shell fails to fire). Generally there is a method of selecting the order in which the barrels of a single selective trigger shotgun fire; commonly this is done through manipulation of the safety, pushing to one side to select top barrel first and the other side to select bottom barrel first. In the event that an inertial trigger does not toggle to the second barrel when firing low recoil shotshells, manually selecting the order to the second barrel will enable the second barrel to fire when the trigger is depressed again.",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "One of the advantages of double-barreled shotgun with double triggers or single selective trigger, is that the second shot can be taken almost immediately after the first with merely a second trigger pull, without needing to manually operate the action (which will inevitably destabilize the gun from the shoulder position and affect aim), and can utilize different chokes for the two shots (assuming, of course, that full power shotshells are fired, at least for a double-barreled shotgun with an inertial type single selective trigger, as needed to toggle the inertial trigger). This can be noticeably faster than a pump-action shotgun, which requires manually pumping the fore-end to eject and reload for the second shot, and may be faster, or not slower, than a semi-automatic shotgun (as there are no bolt movements to delay the rechambering of a second shell). Note, however, in neither the pump-action or semi-automatic will the second shot be a different choke pattern from the first shot, whereas for a double, the two shots are usually with different chokes. Thus, depending on the nature of the hunt, the appropriate choke for the shot is always at hand. For example, while field hunting flushing birds, the first shot is usually closer than the second because the bird flies away from the shooter; so, the more open choke (and barrel) would be better for the first shot, and if a second shot is needed, as the bird is flying away, the more closed (and thus longer distance of an effective shot pattern) choke (and barrel) is then appropriate. Conversely, on a driven hunt, where the birds are driven towards the shooter, the closed (longer effective distance) choke (and barrel) should be fired first, saving the open (closer effective distance) choke (and barrel) for the now-closer incoming bird. None of this is possible with single-barrel shotguns, only with a double, either a side-by-side (S×S) or over-and-under (O/U).",
"title": "Construction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Regulation is a term used for multi-barreled firearms (most commonly found in rifles and shotguns) that indicates how close to the same point of aim the barrels will shoot. A poorly regulated gun may hit consistently with one barrel, but miss consistently with the other, making the gun nearly useless for anything requiring two shots. However, the short ranges and spread of shot provide a significant overlap, so a small error in regulation in a double is often too small to be noticed. Generally the shotguns are regulated to hit the point of aim at a given distance, usually the maximum expected range since that is the range at which a full choke is used, and where precise regulation matters most. The regulation is usually more important in side-by-side, rather than in over-and-under shotguns, as felt recoil differs.",
"title": "Construction"
}
] | A double-barreled shotgun, also known as a double shotgun, is a break-action shotgun with two parallel barrels, allowing two single shots that can be fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession. | 2001-03-27T18:13:49Z | 2023-11-07T04:29:41Z | [
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"Template:Multiple Barrel Firearms",
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"Template:More footnotes needed",
"Template:See also",
"Template:Convert",
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-barreled_shotgun |
7,976 | Dessert | Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as candy, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.
The term dessert can apply to many sweets, such as biscuits, cakes, cookies, custards, gelatins, ice creams, pastries, pies, puddings, macaroons, sweet soups, tarts, and fruit salad (fruit is commonly found in dessert courses because of its naturally occurring sweetness).
The word "dessert" originated from the French word desservir, meaning "to clear the table". Its first known use in English was in 1600, in a health education manual entitled Naturall and artificial Directions for Health, written by William Vaughan. In his book Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert (2011), Michael Krondl explains that it refers to the fact that dessert was served after the table had been cleared of other dishes.
The term dates from the 14th century but attained its current meaning around the beginning of the 20th century, when "service à la française" (setting a variety of dishes on the table at the same time) was replaced with "service à la russe" (presenting a meal in multiple courses).
The word "dessert" is most commonly used for this course in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States, while it is one of several synonyms, including "pudding", "sweet" and "afters", in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries.
Sweets were fed to the gods in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient India and other ancient civilizations. Herodotus mentions that Persian meals featured many desserts, and were more varied in their sweet offerings than the main dishes. German army officer Helmuth von Moltke whilst serving in the Ottoman Empire noted the unusual presentation of courses with the sweet courses served between roasts and other savory dishes.
Dried fruit and honey were probably the first sweeteners used in most of the world, but the spread of sugarcane around the world was essential to the development of dessert. Sugarcane was grown and refined in India before 500 BC and was crystallized, making it easy to transport, by AD 500. Sugar and sugarcane were traded, making sugar available to Macedonia by 303 BC and China by AD 600. In the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and China, sugar has been a staple of cooking and desserts for over a thousand years.
Sugarcane and sugar were little known and rare in Europe until the twelfth century or later when the Crusades and then colonization spread its use. Europeans began to manufacture sugar in the Middle Ages, and more sweet desserts became available. Even then sugar was so expensive usually only the wealthy could indulge on special occasions. The first apple pie recipe was published in 1381; The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in "Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats" in 1828 in Eliza Leslie's Receipts cookbook.
The Industrial Revolution in Europe and later America led to the mass-production of foodstuffs, including desserts, that could be processed, preserved, canned, and packaged. Frozen foods, including desserts, became very popular starting in the 1920s.
Sweet desserts usually contain cane sugar, palm sugar, brown sugar, honey, or some types of syrup such as molasses, maple syrup, treacle, or corn syrup. Other common ingredients in Western-style desserts are flour or other starches, cooking fats such as butter or lard, dairy, eggs, salt, acidic ingredients such as lemon juice, and spices and other flavoring agents such as chocolate, coffee, peanut butter, fruits, and nuts. The proportions of these ingredients, along with the preparation methods, play a major part in the consistency, texture, and flavor of the end product.
Sugars contribute moisture and tenderness to baked goods. Flour or starch components serves as a protein and gives the dessert structure. Fats contribute moisture and can enable the development of flaky layers in pastries and pie crusts. The dairy products in baked goods keep the desserts moist. Many desserts also contain eggs, in order to form custard or to aid in the rising and thickening of a cake-like substance. Egg yolks specifically contribute to the richness of desserts. Egg whites can act as a leavening agent or provide structure. Further innovation in the healthy eating movement has led to more information being available about vegan and gluten-free substitutes for the standard ingredients, as well as replacements for refined sugar.
Desserts can contain many spices and extracts to add a variety of flavors. Salt and acids are added to desserts to balance sweet flavors and create a contrast in flavors. Some desserts are coffee-flavored, for example an iced coffee soufflé or coffee biscuits. Alcohols and liqueurs can also be used as an ingredient, to make alcoholic desserts.
Dessert consist of variations of tastes, textures, and appearances. Desserts can be defined as a usually sweeter course that concludes a meal. This definition includes a range of courses ranging from fruits or dried nuts to multi-ingredient cakes and pies. Many cultures have different variations of dessert. In modern times the variations of desserts have usually been passed down or come from geographical regions. This is one cause for the variation of desserts. These are some major categories in which desserts can be placed.
Cakes are sweet tender breads made with sugar and delicate flour. Cakes can vary from light, airy sponge cakes to dense cakes with less flour. Common flavorings include dried, candied or fresh fruit, nuts, cocoa or extracts. They may be filled with fruit preserves or dessert sauces (like pastry cream), iced with buttercream or other icings, and decorated with marzipan, piped borders, or candied fruit. Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions, for example weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. Small-sized cakes have become popular, in the form of cupcakes and petits fours, an example of which can be the Portuguese "bolo de arroz".
Puddings are similar to custards in that their base is cream or milk. However, their primary difference is that puddings are thickened with starches such as corn starch or tapioca. On the other hand, custards are thickened using only eggs and are usually more firm.
A batched dough between a cake and pastry by the mix of ingredients. An Old French bescuit, commonly spelt in English as biscuit, is a derivation of Latin for twice-baked. A Dutch koekje, commonly spelt in English as cookie, is a derivation of cake-ie , meaning little cake.
This form of dough can have a texture that is crisp, hard, chewy, or soft – in the UK a biscuit is the former two and a cookie is typically the latter. Examples include a ginger nut, shortbread biscuit and chocolate chip cookie.
Other small cakes and pastries can also be counted as under these terms, due to their size and relative similarity to cookies and biscuits, such as jaffa cakes and Eccles cakes.
Confection, also called candy, sweets or lollies, features sugar or honey as a principal ingredient.
Many involve sugar heated into crystals with subtle differences. Dairy and sugar based include caramel, fudge and toffee or taffy. They are multiple forms of egg and sugar meringues. and similar confections. Unheated sugar co-adulate into icings, preservatives and sauces with other ingredients.
Theobroma cacao beans can be a substitute or more commonly mixed with sugar to form chocolate. Pure, unsweetened dark chocolate contains primarily cocoa solids. Cocoa butter is also added in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate currently consumed is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining chocolate with sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, but no cocoa solids. Dark chocolate is produced by adding fat and sugar to the cacao mixture, with no milk or much less than milk chocolate.
Mithai, derived from the Sanskrit word 'sharkara', represents the range of Indian desserts.
These kinds of desserts usually include a thickened dairy base. Custards are cooked and thickened with eggs. Baked custards include crème brûlée and flan. They are often used as ingredients in other desserts, for instance as a filling for pastries or pies.
Many cuisines include a dessert made of deep-fried starch-based batter or dough. In many countries, a doughnut is a flour-based batter that has been deep-fried. It is sometimes filled with custard or jelly. Fritters are fruit pieces in a thick batter that have been deep fried. Gulab jamun is an Indian dessert made of milk solids kneaded into a dough, deep-fried, and soaked in honey. Churros are a deep-fried and sugared dough that is eaten as dessert or a snack in many countries.
Ice cream, gelato, sorbet and shaved-ice desserts fit into this category. Ice cream is a cream base that is churned as it is frozen to create a creamy consistency. Gelato uses a milk base and has less air whipped in than ice cream, making it denser. Sorbet is made from churned fruit and is not dairy based. Shaved-ice desserts are made by shaving a block of ice and adding flavored syrup or juice to the ice shavings.
Jellied desserts are made with a sweetened liquid thickened with gelatin or another gelling agent. They are traditional in many cultures. Grass jelly and annin tofu are Chinese jellied desserts. Yōkan is a Japanese jellied dessert. In English-speaking countries, many dessert recipes are based on gelatin with fruit or whipped cream added. The vegetarian substitute for gelatin is agar agar. Marshmallow is also most commonly made with gelatin.
Pastries are sweet baked pastry products. Pastries can either take the form of light and flaky bread with an airy texture, such as a croissant or unleavened dough with a high fat content and crispy texture, such as shortbread. Pastries are often flavored or filled with fruits, chocolate, nuts, and spices. Pastries are sometimes eaten with tea or coffee as a breakfast food.
Pies and cobblers consist of a filling enclosed by a crust, which can be made from either pastry or crumbs. The fillings of pies can vary from fruits to puddings, whereas cobbler fillings are mostly fruit-based. On the other hand, clafoutis is a dessert in which batter is poured over a fruit-based filling before being baked.
Tong sui, literally translated as "sugar water" and also known as tim tong, is a collective term for any sweet, warm soup or custard served as a dessert at the end of a meal in Cantonese cuisine. Tong sui are a Cantonese specialty and are rarely found in other regional cuisines of China. Outside of Cantonese-speaking communities, soupy desserts generally are not recognized as a distinct category, and the term tong sui is not used.
Dessert wines are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal, as opposed to the white fortified wines (fino and amontillado sherry) drunk before the meal, and the red fortified wines (port and madeira) drunk after it. Thus, most fortified wines are regarded as distinct from dessert wines, but some of the less strong fortified white wines, such as Pedro Ximénez sherry and Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, are regarded as honorary dessert wines. In the United States, by contrast, a dessert wine is legally defined as any wine over 14% alcohol by volume, which includes all fortified wines - and is taxed at higher rates as a result. Examples include Sauternes and Tokaji Aszú.
Throughout much of central and western Africa, there is no tradition of a dessert course following a meal. Fruit or fruit salad would be eaten instead, which may be spiced, or sweetened with a sauce. In some former colonies in the region, the colonial power has influenced desserts – for example, the Angolan cocada amarela (yellow coconut) resembles baked desserts in Portugal.
In Asia, desserts are often eaten between meals as snacks rather than as a concluding course. There is widespread use of rice flour in East Asian desserts, which often include local ingredients such as coconut milk, palm sugar, and tropical fruit. In India, where sugarcane has been grown and refined since before 500 BC, desserts have been an important part of the diet for thousands of years; types of desserts include burfis, halvahs, jalebis, and laddus.
Bubble tea, which originated in Taiwan, is a kind of dessert made with flavored tea or milk and tapioca. It is well known across the world.
In Ukraine and Russia, breakfast foods such as nalysnyky or blintz or oladi (pancake), and syrniki are served with honey and jam as desserts.
In the Netherlands vla is a popular dessert. It is a custard-like dessert that is served cold. Popular flavours are: vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and several fruit flavours. There is also hopjesvla which is flavoured like a Hopje, a Dutch coffee and caramel sweet.
The traditional dessert for informal meals in France consists of cheese or fresh fruit with coffee. However, the French tradition of pastry is highly developed, and desserts in haute cuisine may be very elaborate, with generous use of cream and butter.
Because of their long Christian history, all countries of Europe have developed traditional desserts and sweet snacks for the Christmas season.
European colonization of the Americas yielded the introduction of a number of ingredients and cooking styles. The various styles continued expanding well into the 19th and 20th centuries, proportional to the influx of immigrants.
Dulce de leche is a very common confection in Argentina. In Bolivia, sugarcane, honey and coconut are traditionally used in desserts. Tawa tawa is a Bolivian sweet fritter prepared using sugar cane, and helado de canela is a dessert that is similar to sherbet which is prepared with cane sugar and cinnamon. Coconut tarts, puddings cookies and candies are also consumed in Bolivia. Brazil has a variety of candies such as brigadeiros (chocolate fudge balls), cocada (a coconut sweet), beijinhos (coconut truffles and clove) and Romeu e Julieta (cheese with a guava jam known as goiabada). Peanuts are used to make paçoca, rapadura and pé-de-moleque. Local common fruits are turned in juices and used to make chocolates, ice pops and ice cream. In Chile, kuchen has been described as a "trademark dessert". Several desserts in Chile are prepared with manjar, (caramelized milk), including alfajor, flan, cuchufli and arroz con leche. Desserts consumed in Colombia include dulce de leche, waffle cookies, puddings, nougat, coconut with syrup and thickened milk with sugarcane syrup. Desserts in Ecuador tend to be simple, and desserts are a moderate part of the cuisine. Desserts consumed in Ecuador include tres leches cake, flan, candies and various sweets.
In Australia, meals are often finished with dessert. This includes various fruits. More complex desserts include cakes, pies and cookies, which are sometimes served during special occasions.
New Zealand and Australia have a long-standing debate over which country invented the Pavlova. The pavlova is named after Anna Pavlova, who visited both countries in the 1920s.
The market for desserts has grown over the last few decades, being greatly increased by the commercialisation of baking desserts and the rise of food productions. Desserts are served in most restaurants as their popularity has increased. Many commercial stores have been established as solely dessert stores. Ice cream parlors have been around since before 1800. Many businesses have started advertising campaigns focusing solely on desserts. The tactics used to market desserts are very different depending on the audience; for example, desserts can be advertised with popular movie characters to target children. The rise of companies such as Food Network has produced many shows which feature desserts and their creation. Shows like these have displayed extreme desserts and made a game show atmosphere to make desserts a more competitive field.
Desserts are a standard staple in restaurant menus, with different degrees of variety. Pie and cheesecake were among the most popular dessert courses ordered in U.S. restaurants in 2012.
Dessert foods often contain relatively high amounts of sugar and fats and, as a result, higher calorie counts per gram than other foods. Fresh or cooked fruit with minimal added sugar or fat is an exception. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as candy, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The term dessert can apply to many sweets, such as biscuits, cakes, cookies, custards, gelatins, ice creams, pastries, pies, puddings, macaroons, sweet soups, tarts, and fruit salad (fruit is commonly found in dessert courses because of its naturally occurring sweetness).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The word \"dessert\" originated from the French word desservir, meaning \"to clear the table\". Its first known use in English was in 1600, in a health education manual entitled Naturall and artificial Directions for Health, written by William Vaughan. In his book Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert (2011), Michael Krondl explains that it refers to the fact that dessert was served after the table had been cleared of other dishes.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The term dates from the 14th century but attained its current meaning around the beginning of the 20th century, when \"service à la française\" (setting a variety of dishes on the table at the same time) was replaced with \"service à la russe\" (presenting a meal in multiple courses).",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The word \"dessert\" is most commonly used for this course in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States, while it is one of several synonyms, including \"pudding\", \"sweet\" and \"afters\", in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries.",
"title": "Other names"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Sweets were fed to the gods in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient India and other ancient civilizations. Herodotus mentions that Persian meals featured many desserts, and were more varied in their sweet offerings than the main dishes. German army officer Helmuth von Moltke whilst serving in the Ottoman Empire noted the unusual presentation of courses with the sweet courses served between roasts and other savory dishes.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Dried fruit and honey were probably the first sweeteners used in most of the world, but the spread of sugarcane around the world was essential to the development of dessert. Sugarcane was grown and refined in India before 500 BC and was crystallized, making it easy to transport, by AD 500. Sugar and sugarcane were traded, making sugar available to Macedonia by 303 BC and China by AD 600. In the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and China, sugar has been a staple of cooking and desserts for over a thousand years.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Sugarcane and sugar were little known and rare in Europe until the twelfth century or later when the Crusades and then colonization spread its use. Europeans began to manufacture sugar in the Middle Ages, and more sweet desserts became available. Even then sugar was so expensive usually only the wealthy could indulge on special occasions. The first apple pie recipe was published in 1381; The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in \"Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats\" in 1828 in Eliza Leslie's Receipts cookbook.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The Industrial Revolution in Europe and later America led to the mass-production of foodstuffs, including desserts, that could be processed, preserved, canned, and packaged. Frozen foods, including desserts, became very popular starting in the 1920s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Sweet desserts usually contain cane sugar, palm sugar, brown sugar, honey, or some types of syrup such as molasses, maple syrup, treacle, or corn syrup. Other common ingredients in Western-style desserts are flour or other starches, cooking fats such as butter or lard, dairy, eggs, salt, acidic ingredients such as lemon juice, and spices and other flavoring agents such as chocolate, coffee, peanut butter, fruits, and nuts. The proportions of these ingredients, along with the preparation methods, play a major part in the consistency, texture, and flavor of the end product.",
"title": "Ingredients"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Sugars contribute moisture and tenderness to baked goods. Flour or starch components serves as a protein and gives the dessert structure. Fats contribute moisture and can enable the development of flaky layers in pastries and pie crusts. The dairy products in baked goods keep the desserts moist. Many desserts also contain eggs, in order to form custard or to aid in the rising and thickening of a cake-like substance. Egg yolks specifically contribute to the richness of desserts. Egg whites can act as a leavening agent or provide structure. Further innovation in the healthy eating movement has led to more information being available about vegan and gluten-free substitutes for the standard ingredients, as well as replacements for refined sugar.",
"title": "Ingredients"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Desserts can contain many spices and extracts to add a variety of flavors. Salt and acids are added to desserts to balance sweet flavors and create a contrast in flavors. Some desserts are coffee-flavored, for example an iced coffee soufflé or coffee biscuits. Alcohols and liqueurs can also be used as an ingredient, to make alcoholic desserts.",
"title": "Ingredients"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Dessert consist of variations of tastes, textures, and appearances. Desserts can be defined as a usually sweeter course that concludes a meal. This definition includes a range of courses ranging from fruits or dried nuts to multi-ingredient cakes and pies. Many cultures have different variations of dessert. In modern times the variations of desserts have usually been passed down or come from geographical regions. This is one cause for the variation of desserts. These are some major categories in which desserts can be placed.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Cakes are sweet tender breads made with sugar and delicate flour. Cakes can vary from light, airy sponge cakes to dense cakes with less flour. Common flavorings include dried, candied or fresh fruit, nuts, cocoa or extracts. They may be filled with fruit preserves or dessert sauces (like pastry cream), iced with buttercream or other icings, and decorated with marzipan, piped borders, or candied fruit. Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions, for example weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. Small-sized cakes have become popular, in the form of cupcakes and petits fours, an example of which can be the Portuguese \"bolo de arroz\".",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Puddings are similar to custards in that their base is cream or milk. However, their primary difference is that puddings are thickened with starches such as corn starch or tapioca. On the other hand, custards are thickened using only eggs and are usually more firm.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "A batched dough between a cake and pastry by the mix of ingredients. An Old French bescuit, commonly spelt in English as biscuit, is a derivation of Latin for twice-baked. A Dutch koekje, commonly spelt in English as cookie, is a derivation of cake-ie , meaning little cake.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "This form of dough can have a texture that is crisp, hard, chewy, or soft – in the UK a biscuit is the former two and a cookie is typically the latter. Examples include a ginger nut, shortbread biscuit and chocolate chip cookie.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Other small cakes and pastries can also be counted as under these terms, due to their size and relative similarity to cookies and biscuits, such as jaffa cakes and Eccles cakes.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Confection, also called candy, sweets or lollies, features sugar or honey as a principal ingredient.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Many involve sugar heated into crystals with subtle differences. Dairy and sugar based include caramel, fudge and toffee or taffy. They are multiple forms of egg and sugar meringues. and similar confections. Unheated sugar co-adulate into icings, preservatives and sauces with other ingredients.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Theobroma cacao beans can be a substitute or more commonly mixed with sugar to form chocolate. Pure, unsweetened dark chocolate contains primarily cocoa solids. Cocoa butter is also added in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate currently consumed is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining chocolate with sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, but no cocoa solids. Dark chocolate is produced by adding fat and sugar to the cacao mixture, with no milk or much less than milk chocolate.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Mithai, derived from the Sanskrit word 'sharkara', represents the range of Indian desserts.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "These kinds of desserts usually include a thickened dairy base. Custards are cooked and thickened with eggs. Baked custards include crème brûlée and flan. They are often used as ingredients in other desserts, for instance as a filling for pastries or pies.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Many cuisines include a dessert made of deep-fried starch-based batter or dough. In many countries, a doughnut is a flour-based batter that has been deep-fried. It is sometimes filled with custard or jelly. Fritters are fruit pieces in a thick batter that have been deep fried. Gulab jamun is an Indian dessert made of milk solids kneaded into a dough, deep-fried, and soaked in honey. Churros are a deep-fried and sugared dough that is eaten as dessert or a snack in many countries.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Ice cream, gelato, sorbet and shaved-ice desserts fit into this category. Ice cream is a cream base that is churned as it is frozen to create a creamy consistency. Gelato uses a milk base and has less air whipped in than ice cream, making it denser. Sorbet is made from churned fruit and is not dairy based. Shaved-ice desserts are made by shaving a block of ice and adding flavored syrup or juice to the ice shavings.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Jellied desserts are made with a sweetened liquid thickened with gelatin or another gelling agent. They are traditional in many cultures. Grass jelly and annin tofu are Chinese jellied desserts. Yōkan is a Japanese jellied dessert. In English-speaking countries, many dessert recipes are based on gelatin with fruit or whipped cream added. The vegetarian substitute for gelatin is agar agar. Marshmallow is also most commonly made with gelatin.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Pastries are sweet baked pastry products. Pastries can either take the form of light and flaky bread with an airy texture, such as a croissant or unleavened dough with a high fat content and crispy texture, such as shortbread. Pastries are often flavored or filled with fruits, chocolate, nuts, and spices. Pastries are sometimes eaten with tea or coffee as a breakfast food.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Pies and cobblers consist of a filling enclosed by a crust, which can be made from either pastry or crumbs. The fillings of pies can vary from fruits to puddings, whereas cobbler fillings are mostly fruit-based. On the other hand, clafoutis is a dessert in which batter is poured over a fruit-based filling before being baked.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Tong sui, literally translated as \"sugar water\" and also known as tim tong, is a collective term for any sweet, warm soup or custard served as a dessert at the end of a meal in Cantonese cuisine. Tong sui are a Cantonese specialty and are rarely found in other regional cuisines of China. Outside of Cantonese-speaking communities, soupy desserts generally are not recognized as a distinct category, and the term tong sui is not used.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Dessert wines are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal, as opposed to the white fortified wines (fino and amontillado sherry) drunk before the meal, and the red fortified wines (port and madeira) drunk after it. Thus, most fortified wines are regarded as distinct from dessert wines, but some of the less strong fortified white wines, such as Pedro Ximénez sherry and Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, are regarded as honorary dessert wines. In the United States, by contrast, a dessert wine is legally defined as any wine over 14% alcohol by volume, which includes all fortified wines - and is taxed at higher rates as a result. Examples include Sauternes and Tokaji Aszú.",
"title": "Varieties and elements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Throughout much of central and western Africa, there is no tradition of a dessert course following a meal. Fruit or fruit salad would be eaten instead, which may be spiced, or sweetened with a sauce. In some former colonies in the region, the colonial power has influenced desserts – for example, the Angolan cocada amarela (yellow coconut) resembles baked desserts in Portugal.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In Asia, desserts are often eaten between meals as snacks rather than as a concluding course. There is widespread use of rice flour in East Asian desserts, which often include local ingredients such as coconut milk, palm sugar, and tropical fruit. In India, where sugarcane has been grown and refined since before 500 BC, desserts have been an important part of the diet for thousands of years; types of desserts include burfis, halvahs, jalebis, and laddus.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Bubble tea, which originated in Taiwan, is a kind of dessert made with flavored tea or milk and tapioca. It is well known across the world.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In Ukraine and Russia, breakfast foods such as nalysnyky or blintz or oladi (pancake), and syrniki are served with honey and jam as desserts.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In the Netherlands vla is a popular dessert. It is a custard-like dessert that is served cold. Popular flavours are: vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and several fruit flavours. There is also hopjesvla which is flavoured like a Hopje, a Dutch coffee and caramel sweet.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The traditional dessert for informal meals in France consists of cheese or fresh fruit with coffee. However, the French tradition of pastry is highly developed, and desserts in haute cuisine may be very elaborate, with generous use of cream and butter.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Because of their long Christian history, all countries of Europe have developed traditional desserts and sweet snacks for the Christmas season.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "European colonization of the Americas yielded the introduction of a number of ingredients and cooking styles. The various styles continued expanding well into the 19th and 20th centuries, proportional to the influx of immigrants.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Dulce de leche is a very common confection in Argentina. In Bolivia, sugarcane, honey and coconut are traditionally used in desserts. Tawa tawa is a Bolivian sweet fritter prepared using sugar cane, and helado de canela is a dessert that is similar to sherbet which is prepared with cane sugar and cinnamon. Coconut tarts, puddings cookies and candies are also consumed in Bolivia. Brazil has a variety of candies such as brigadeiros (chocolate fudge balls), cocada (a coconut sweet), beijinhos (coconut truffles and clove) and Romeu e Julieta (cheese with a guava jam known as goiabada). Peanuts are used to make paçoca, rapadura and pé-de-moleque. Local common fruits are turned in juices and used to make chocolates, ice pops and ice cream. In Chile, kuchen has been described as a \"trademark dessert\". Several desserts in Chile are prepared with manjar, (caramelized milk), including alfajor, flan, cuchufli and arroz con leche. Desserts consumed in Colombia include dulce de leche, waffle cookies, puddings, nougat, coconut with syrup and thickened milk with sugarcane syrup. Desserts in Ecuador tend to be simple, and desserts are a moderate part of the cuisine. Desserts consumed in Ecuador include tres leches cake, flan, candies and various sweets.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In Australia, meals are often finished with dessert. This includes various fruits. More complex desserts include cakes, pies and cookies, which are sometimes served during special occasions.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "New Zealand and Australia have a long-standing debate over which country invented the Pavlova. The pavlova is named after Anna Pavlova, who visited both countries in the 1920s.",
"title": "By continent"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The market for desserts has grown over the last few decades, being greatly increased by the commercialisation of baking desserts and the rise of food productions. Desserts are served in most restaurants as their popularity has increased. Many commercial stores have been established as solely dessert stores. Ice cream parlors have been around since before 1800. Many businesses have started advertising campaigns focusing solely on desserts. The tactics used to market desserts are very different depending on the audience; for example, desserts can be advertised with popular movie characters to target children. The rise of companies such as Food Network has produced many shows which feature desserts and their creation. Shows like these have displayed extreme desserts and made a game show atmosphere to make desserts a more competitive field.",
"title": "Market"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Desserts are a standard staple in restaurant menus, with different degrees of variety. Pie and cheesecake were among the most popular dessert courses ordered in U.S. restaurants in 2012.",
"title": "Market"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Dessert foods often contain relatively high amounts of sugar and fats and, as a result, higher calorie counts per gram than other foods. Fresh or cooked fruit with minimal added sugar or fat is an exception.",
"title": "Nutrition"
}
] | Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as candy, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal. The term dessert can apply to many sweets, such as biscuits, cakes, cookies, custards, gelatins, ice creams, pastries, pies, puddings, macaroons, sweet soups, tarts, and fruit salad. | 2001-06-08T20:04:46Z | 2023-12-24T04:17:22Z | [
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7,978 | Data Encryption Standard | The Data Encryption Standard (DES /ˌdiːˌiːˈɛs, dɛz/) is a symmetric-key algorithm for the encryption of digital data. Although its short key length of 56 bits makes it too insecure for modern applications, it has been highly influential in the advancement of cryptography.
Developed in the early 1970s at IBM and based on an earlier design by Horst Feistel, the algorithm was submitted to the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) following the agency's invitation to propose a candidate for the protection of sensitive, unclassified electronic government data. In 1976, after consultation with the National Security Agency (NSA), the NBS selected a slightly modified version (strengthened against differential cryptanalysis, but weakened against brute-force attacks), which was published as an official Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) for the United States in 1977.
The publication of an NSA-approved encryption standard led to its quick international adoption and widespread academic scrutiny. Controversies arose from classified design elements, a relatively short key length of the symmetric-key block cipher design, and the involvement of the NSA, raising suspicions about a backdoor. The S-boxes that had prompted those suspicions were designed by the NSA to remove a backdoor they secretly knew (differential cryptanalysis). However, the NSA also ensured that the key size was drastically reduced so that they could break the cipher by brute force attack. The intense academic scrutiny the algorithm received over time led to the modern understanding of block ciphers and their cryptanalysis.
DES is insecure due to the relatively short 56-bit key size. In January 1999, distributed.net and the Electronic Frontier Foundation collaborated to publicly break a DES key in 22 hours and 15 minutes (see § Chronology). There are also some analytical results which demonstrate theoretical weaknesses in the cipher, although they are infeasible in practice. The algorithm is believed to be practically secure in the form of Triple DES, although there are theoretical attacks. This cipher has been superseded by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). DES has been withdrawn as a standard by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Some documents distinguish between the DES standard and its algorithm, referring to the algorithm as the DEA (Data Encryption Algorithm).
The origins of DES date to 1972, when a National Bureau of Standards study of US government computer security identified a need for a government-wide standard for encrypting unclassified, sensitive information.
Around the same time, engineer Mohamed Atalla in 1972 founded Atalla Corporation and developed the first hardware security module (HSM), the so-called "Atalla Box" which was commercialized in 1973. It protected offline devices with a secure PIN generating key, and was a commercial success. Banks and credit card companies were fearful that Atalla would dominate the market, which spurred the development of an international encryption standard. Atalla was an early competitor to IBM in the banking market, and was cited as an influence by IBM employees who worked on the DES standard. The IBM 3624 later adopted a similar PIN verification system to the earlier Atalla system.
On 15 May 1973, after consulting with the NSA, NBS solicited proposals for a cipher that would meet rigorous design criteria. None of the submissions was suitable. A second request was issued on 27 August 1974. This time, IBM submitted a candidate which was deemed acceptable—a cipher developed during the period 1973–1974 based on an earlier algorithm, Horst Feistel's Lucifer cipher. The team at IBM involved in cipher design and analysis included Feistel, Walter Tuchman, Don Coppersmith, Alan Konheim, Carl Meyer, Mike Matyas, Roy Adler, Edna Grossman, Bill Notz, Lynn Smith, and Bryant Tuckerman.
On 17 March 1975, the proposed DES was published in the Federal Register. Public comments were requested, and in the following year two open workshops were held to discuss the proposed standard. There was criticism received from public-key cryptography pioneers Martin Hellman and Whitfield Diffie, citing a shortened key length and the mysterious "S-boxes" as evidence of improper interference from the NSA. The suspicion was that the algorithm had been covertly weakened by the intelligence agency so that they—but no one else—could easily read encrypted messages. Alan Konheim (one of the designers of DES) commented, "We sent the S-boxes off to Washington. They came back and were all different." The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reviewed the NSA's actions to determine whether there had been any improper involvement. In the unclassified summary of their findings, published in 1978, the Committee wrote:
In the development of DES, NSA convinced IBM that a reduced key size was sufficient; indirectly assisted in the development of the S-box structures; and certified that the final DES algorithm was, to the best of their knowledge, free from any statistical or mathematical weakness.
However, it also found that
NSA did not tamper with the design of the algorithm in any way. IBM invented and designed the algorithm, made all pertinent decisions regarding it, and concurred that the agreed upon key size was more than adequate for all commercial applications for which the DES was intended.
Another member of the DES team, Walter Tuchman, stated "We developed the DES algorithm entirely within IBM using IBMers. The NSA did not dictate a single wire!" In contrast, a declassified NSA book on cryptologic history states:
In 1973 NBS solicited private industry for a data encryption standard (DES). The first offerings were disappointing, so NSA began working on its own algorithm. Then Howard Rosenblum, deputy director for research and engineering, discovered that Walter Tuchman of IBM was working on a modification to Lucifer for general use. NSA gave Tuchman a clearance and brought him in to work jointly with the Agency on his Lucifer modification."
and
NSA worked closely with IBM to strengthen the algorithm against all except brute-force attacks and to strengthen substitution tables, called S-boxes. Conversely, NSA tried to convince IBM to reduce the length of the key from 64 to 48 bits. Ultimately they compromised on a 56-bit key.
Some of the suspicions about hidden weaknesses in the S-boxes were allayed in 1990, with the independent discovery and open publication by Eli Biham and Adi Shamir of differential cryptanalysis, a general method for breaking block ciphers. The S-boxes of DES were much more resistant to the attack than if they had been chosen at random, strongly suggesting that IBM knew about the technique in the 1970s. This was indeed the case; in 1994, Don Coppersmith published some of the original design criteria for the S-boxes. According to Steven Levy, IBM Watson researchers discovered differential cryptanalytic attacks in 1974 and were asked by the NSA to keep the technique secret. Coppersmith explains IBM's secrecy decision by saying, "that was because [differential cryptanalysis] can be a very powerful tool, used against many schemes, and there was concern that such information in the public domain could adversely affect national security." Levy quotes Walter Tuchman: "[t]hey asked us to stamp all our documents confidential... We actually put a number on each one and locked them up in safes, because they were considered U.S. government classified. They said do it. So I did it". Bruce Schneier observed that "It took the academic community two decades to figure out that the NSA 'tweaks' actually improved the security of DES."
Despite the criticisms, DES was approved as a federal standard in November 1976, and published on 15 January 1977 as FIPS PUB 46, authorized for use on all unclassified data. It was subsequently reaffirmed as the standard in 1983, 1988 (revised as FIPS-46-1), 1993 (FIPS-46-2), and again in 1999 (FIPS-46-3), the latter prescribing "Triple DES" (see below). On 26 May 2002, DES was finally superseded by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), following a public competition. On 19 May 2005, FIPS 46-3 was officially withdrawn, but NIST has approved Triple DES through the year 2030 for sensitive government information.
The algorithm is also specified in ANSI X3.92 (Today X3 is known as INCITS and ANSI X3.92 as ANSI INCITS 92), NIST SP 800-67 and ISO/IEC 18033-3 (as a component of TDEA).
Another theoretical attack, linear cryptanalysis, was published in 1994, but it was the Electronic Frontier Foundation's DES cracker in 1998 that demonstrated that DES could be attacked very practically, and highlighted the need for a replacement algorithm. These and other methods of cryptanalysis are discussed in more detail later in this article.
The introduction of DES is considered to have been a catalyst for the academic study of cryptography, particularly of methods to crack block ciphers. According to a NIST retrospective about DES,
DES is the archetypal block cipher—an algorithm that takes a fixed-length string of plaintext bits and transforms it through a series of complicated operations into another ciphertext bitstring of the same length. In the case of DES, the block size is 64 bits. DES also uses a key to customize the transformation, so that decryption can supposedly only be performed by those who know the particular key used to encrypt. The key ostensibly consists of 64 bits; however, only 56 of these are actually used by the algorithm. Eight bits are used solely for checking parity, and are thereafter discarded. Hence the effective key length is 56 bits.
The key is nominally stored or transmitted as 8 bytes, each with odd parity. According to ANSI X3.92-1981 (Now, known as ANSI INCITS 92–1981), section 3.5:
One bit in each 8-bit byte of the KEY may be utilized for error detection in key generation, distribution, and storage. Bits 8, 16,..., 64 are for use in ensuring that each byte is of odd parity.
Like other block ciphers, DES by itself is not a secure means of encryption, but must instead be used in a mode of operation. FIPS-81 specifies several modes for use with DES. Further comments on the usage of DES are contained in FIPS-74.
Decryption uses the same structure as encryption, but with the keys used in reverse order. (This has the advantage that the same hardware or software can be used in both directions.)
The algorithm's overall structure is shown in Figure 1: there are 16 identical stages of processing, termed rounds. There is also an initial and final permutation, termed IP and FP, which are inverses (IP "undoes" the action of FP, and vice versa). IP and FP have no cryptographic significance, but were included in order to facilitate loading blocks in and out of mid-1970s 8-bit based hardware.
Before the main rounds, the block is divided into two 32-bit halves and processed alternately; this criss-crossing is known as the Feistel scheme. The Feistel structure ensures that decryption and encryption are very similar processes—the only difference is that the subkeys are applied in the reverse order when decrypting. The rest of the algorithm is identical. This greatly simplifies implementation, particularly in hardware, as there is no need for separate encryption and decryption algorithms.
The ⊕ symbol denotes the exclusive-OR (XOR) operation. The F-function scrambles half a block together with some of the key. The output from the F-function is then combined with the other half of the block, and the halves are swapped before the next round. After the final round, the halves are swapped; this is a feature of the Feistel structure which makes encryption and decryption similar processes.
The F-function, depicted in Figure 2, operates on half a block (32 bits) at a time and consists of four stages:
The alternation of substitution from the S-boxes, and permutation of bits from the P-box and E-expansion provides so-called "confusion and diffusion" respectively, a concept identified by Claude Shannon in the 1940s as a necessary condition for a secure yet practical cipher.
Figure 3 illustrates the key schedule for encryption—the algorithm which generates the subkeys. Initially, 56 bits of the key are selected from the initial 64 by Permuted Choice 1 (PC-1)—the remaining eight bits are either discarded or used as parity check bits. The 56 bits are then divided into two 28-bit halves; each half is thereafter treated separately. In successive rounds, both halves are rotated left by one or two bits (specified for each round), and then 48 subkey bits are selected by Permuted Choice 2 (PC-2)—24 bits from the left half, and 24 from the right. The rotations (denoted by "<<<" in the diagram) mean that a different set of bits is used in each subkey; each bit is used in approximately 14 out of the 16 subkeys.
The key schedule for decryption is similar—the subkeys are in reverse order compared to encryption. Apart from that change, the process is the same as for encryption. The same 28 bits are passed to all rotation boxes.
Pseudocode for the DES algorithm follows.
Although more information has been published on the cryptanalysis of DES than any other block cipher, the most practical attack to date is still a brute-force approach. Various minor cryptanalytic properties are known, and three theoretical attacks are possible which, while having a theoretical complexity less than a brute-force attack, require an unrealistic number of known or chosen plaintexts to carry out, and are not a concern in practice.
For any cipher, the most basic method of attack is brute force—trying every possible key in turn. The length of the key determines the number of possible keys, and hence the feasibility of this approach. For DES, questions were raised about the adequacy of its key size early on, even before it was adopted as a standard, and it was the small key size, rather than theoretical cryptanalysis, which dictated a need for a replacement algorithm. As a result of discussions involving external consultants including the NSA, the key size was reduced from 256 bits to 56 bits to fit on a single chip.
In academia, various proposals for a DES-cracking machine were advanced. In 1977, Diffie and Hellman proposed a machine costing an estimated US$20 million which could find a DES key in a single day. By 1993, Wiener had proposed a key-search machine costing US$1 million which would find a key within 7 hours. However, none of these early proposals were ever implemented—or, at least, no implementations were publicly acknowledged. The vulnerability of DES was practically demonstrated in the late 1990s. In 1997, RSA Security sponsored a series of contests, offering a $10,000 prize to the first team that broke a message encrypted with DES for the contest. That contest was won by the DESCHALL Project, led by Rocke Verser, Matt Curtin, and Justin Dolske, using idle cycles of thousands of computers across the Internet. The feasibility of cracking DES quickly was demonstrated in 1998 when a custom DES-cracker was built by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a cyberspace civil rights group, at the cost of approximately US$250,000 (see EFF DES cracker). Their motivation was to show that DES was breakable in practice as well as in theory: "There are many people who will not believe a truth until they can see it with their own eyes. Showing them a physical machine that can crack DES in a few days is the only way to convince some people that they really cannot trust their security to DES." The machine brute-forced a key in a little more than 2 days' worth of searching.
The next confirmed DES cracker was the COPACOBANA machine built in 2006 by teams of the Universities of Bochum and Kiel, both in Germany. Unlike the EFF machine, COPACOBANA consists of commercially available, reconfigurable integrated circuits. 120 of these field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) of type XILINX Spartan-3 1000 run in parallel. They are grouped in 20 DIMM modules, each containing 6 FPGAs. The use of reconfigurable hardware makes the machine applicable to other code breaking tasks as well. One of the more interesting aspects of COPACOBANA is its cost factor. One machine can be built for approximately $10,000. The cost decrease by roughly a factor of 25 over the EFF machine is an example of the continuous improvement of digital hardware—see Moore's law. Adjusting for inflation over 8 years yields an even higher improvement of about 30x. Since 2007, SciEngines GmbH, a spin-off company of the two project partners of COPACOBANA has enhanced and developed successors of COPACOBANA. In 2008 their COPACOBANA RIVYERA reduced the time to break DES to less than one day, using 128 Spartan-3 5000's. SciEngines RIVYERA held the record in brute-force breaking DES, having utilized 128 Spartan-3 5000 FPGAs. Their 256 Spartan-6 LX150 model has further lowered this time.
In 2012, David Hulton and Moxie Marlinspike announced a system with 48 Xilinx Virtex-6 LX240T FPGAs, each FPGA containing 40 fully pipelined DES cores running at 400 MHz, for a total capacity of 768 gigakeys/sec. The system can exhaustively search the entire 56-bit DES key space in about 26 hours and this service is offered for a fee online.
There are three attacks known that can break the full 16 rounds of DES with less complexity than a brute-force search: differential cryptanalysis (DC), linear cryptanalysis (LC), and Davies' attack. However, the attacks are theoretical and are generally considered infeasible to mount in practice; these types of attack are sometimes termed certificational weaknesses.
There have also been attacks proposed against reduced-round versions of the cipher, that is, versions of DES with fewer than 16 rounds. Such analysis gives an insight into how many rounds are needed for safety, and how much of a "security margin" the full version retains.
Differential-linear cryptanalysis was proposed by Langford and Hellman in 1994, and combines differential and linear cryptanalysis into a single attack. An enhanced version of the attack can break 9-round DES with 2 chosen plaintexts and has a 2 time complexity (Biham and others, 2002).
DES exhibits the complementation property, namely that
where x ¯ {\displaystyle {\overline {x}}} is the bitwise complement of x . {\displaystyle x.} E K {\displaystyle E_{K}} denotes encryption with key K . {\displaystyle K.} P {\displaystyle P} and C {\displaystyle C} denote plaintext and ciphertext blocks respectively. The complementation property means that the work for a brute-force attack could be reduced by a factor of 2 (or a single bit) under a chosen-plaintext assumption. By definition, this property also applies to TDES cipher.
DES also has four so-called weak keys. Encryption (E) and decryption (D) under a weak key have the same effect (see involution):
There are also six pairs of semi-weak keys. Encryption with one of the pair of semiweak keys, K 1 {\displaystyle K_{1}} , operates identically to decryption with the other, K 2 {\displaystyle K_{2}} :
It is easy enough to avoid the weak and semiweak keys in an implementation, either by testing for them explicitly, or simply by choosing keys randomly; the odds of picking a weak or semiweak key by chance are negligible. The keys are not really any weaker than any other keys anyway, as they do not give an attack any advantage.
DES has also been proved not to be a group, or more precisely, the set { E K } {\displaystyle \{E_{K}\}} (for all possible keys K {\displaystyle K} ) under functional composition is not a group, nor "close" to being a group. This was an open question for some time, and if it had been the case, it would have been possible to break DES, and multiple encryption modes such as Triple DES would not increase the security, because repeated encryption (and decryptions) under different keys would be equivalent to encryption under another, single key.
Simplified DES (SDES) was designed for educational purposes only, to help students learn about modern cryptanalytic techniques. SDES has similar structure and properties to DES, but has been simplified to make it much easier to perform encryption and decryption by hand with pencil and paper. Some people feel that learning SDES gives insight into DES and other block ciphers, and insight into various cryptanalytic attacks against them.
Concerns about security and the relatively slow operation of DES in software motivated researchers to propose a variety of alternative block cipher designs, which started to appear in the late 1980s and early 1990s: examples include RC5, Blowfish, IDEA, NewDES, SAFER, CAST5 and FEAL. Most of these designs kept the 64-bit block size of DES, and could act as a "drop-in" replacement, although they typically used a 64-bit or 128-bit key. In the Soviet Union the GOST 28147-89 algorithm was introduced, with a 64-bit block size and a 256-bit key, which was also used in Russia later.
DES itself can be adapted and reused in a more secure scheme. Many former DES users now use Triple DES (TDES) which was described and analysed by one of DES's patentees (see FIPS Pub 46–3); it involves applying DES three times with two (2TDES) or three (3TDES) different keys. TDES is regarded as adequately secure, although it is quite slow. A less computationally expensive alternative is DES-X, which increases the key size by XORing extra key material before and after DES. GDES was a DES variant proposed as a way to speed up encryption, but it was shown to be susceptible to differential cryptanalysis.
On January 2, 1997, NIST announced that they wished to choose a successor to DES. In 2001, after an international competition, NIST selected a new cipher, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), as a replacement. The algorithm which was selected as the AES was submitted by its designers under the name Rijndael. Other finalists in the NIST AES competition included RC6, Serpent, MARS, and Twofish. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Data Encryption Standard (DES /ˌdiːˌiːˈɛs, dɛz/) is a symmetric-key algorithm for the encryption of digital data. Although its short key length of 56 bits makes it too insecure for modern applications, it has been highly influential in the advancement of cryptography.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Developed in the early 1970s at IBM and based on an earlier design by Horst Feistel, the algorithm was submitted to the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) following the agency's invitation to propose a candidate for the protection of sensitive, unclassified electronic government data. In 1976, after consultation with the National Security Agency (NSA), the NBS selected a slightly modified version (strengthened against differential cryptanalysis, but weakened against brute-force attacks), which was published as an official Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) for the United States in 1977.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The publication of an NSA-approved encryption standard led to its quick international adoption and widespread academic scrutiny. Controversies arose from classified design elements, a relatively short key length of the symmetric-key block cipher design, and the involvement of the NSA, raising suspicions about a backdoor. The S-boxes that had prompted those suspicions were designed by the NSA to remove a backdoor they secretly knew (differential cryptanalysis). However, the NSA also ensured that the key size was drastically reduced so that they could break the cipher by brute force attack. The intense academic scrutiny the algorithm received over time led to the modern understanding of block ciphers and their cryptanalysis.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "DES is insecure due to the relatively short 56-bit key size. In January 1999, distributed.net and the Electronic Frontier Foundation collaborated to publicly break a DES key in 22 hours and 15 minutes (see § Chronology). There are also some analytical results which demonstrate theoretical weaknesses in the cipher, although they are infeasible in practice. The algorithm is believed to be practically secure in the form of Triple DES, although there are theoretical attacks. This cipher has been superseded by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). DES has been withdrawn as a standard by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Some documents distinguish between the DES standard and its algorithm, referring to the algorithm as the DEA (Data Encryption Algorithm).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The origins of DES date to 1972, when a National Bureau of Standards study of US government computer security identified a need for a government-wide standard for encrypting unclassified, sensitive information.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Around the same time, engineer Mohamed Atalla in 1972 founded Atalla Corporation and developed the first hardware security module (HSM), the so-called \"Atalla Box\" which was commercialized in 1973. It protected offline devices with a secure PIN generating key, and was a commercial success. Banks and credit card companies were fearful that Atalla would dominate the market, which spurred the development of an international encryption standard. Atalla was an early competitor to IBM in the banking market, and was cited as an influence by IBM employees who worked on the DES standard. The IBM 3624 later adopted a similar PIN verification system to the earlier Atalla system.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "On 15 May 1973, after consulting with the NSA, NBS solicited proposals for a cipher that would meet rigorous design criteria. None of the submissions was suitable. A second request was issued on 27 August 1974. This time, IBM submitted a candidate which was deemed acceptable—a cipher developed during the period 1973–1974 based on an earlier algorithm, Horst Feistel's Lucifer cipher. The team at IBM involved in cipher design and analysis included Feistel, Walter Tuchman, Don Coppersmith, Alan Konheim, Carl Meyer, Mike Matyas, Roy Adler, Edna Grossman, Bill Notz, Lynn Smith, and Bryant Tuckerman.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "On 17 March 1975, the proposed DES was published in the Federal Register. Public comments were requested, and in the following year two open workshops were held to discuss the proposed standard. There was criticism received from public-key cryptography pioneers Martin Hellman and Whitfield Diffie, citing a shortened key length and the mysterious \"S-boxes\" as evidence of improper interference from the NSA. The suspicion was that the algorithm had been covertly weakened by the intelligence agency so that they—but no one else—could easily read encrypted messages. Alan Konheim (one of the designers of DES) commented, \"We sent the S-boxes off to Washington. They came back and were all different.\" The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reviewed the NSA's actions to determine whether there had been any improper involvement. In the unclassified summary of their findings, published in 1978, the Committee wrote:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In the development of DES, NSA convinced IBM that a reduced key size was sufficient; indirectly assisted in the development of the S-box structures; and certified that the final DES algorithm was, to the best of their knowledge, free from any statistical or mathematical weakness.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "However, it also found that",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "NSA did not tamper with the design of the algorithm in any way. IBM invented and designed the algorithm, made all pertinent decisions regarding it, and concurred that the agreed upon key size was more than adequate for all commercial applications for which the DES was intended.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Another member of the DES team, Walter Tuchman, stated \"We developed the DES algorithm entirely within IBM using IBMers. The NSA did not dictate a single wire!\" In contrast, a declassified NSA book on cryptologic history states:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In 1973 NBS solicited private industry for a data encryption standard (DES). The first offerings were disappointing, so NSA began working on its own algorithm. Then Howard Rosenblum, deputy director for research and engineering, discovered that Walter Tuchman of IBM was working on a modification to Lucifer for general use. NSA gave Tuchman a clearance and brought him in to work jointly with the Agency on his Lucifer modification.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "and",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "NSA worked closely with IBM to strengthen the algorithm against all except brute-force attacks and to strengthen substitution tables, called S-boxes. Conversely, NSA tried to convince IBM to reduce the length of the key from 64 to 48 bits. Ultimately they compromised on a 56-bit key.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Some of the suspicions about hidden weaknesses in the S-boxes were allayed in 1990, with the independent discovery and open publication by Eli Biham and Adi Shamir of differential cryptanalysis, a general method for breaking block ciphers. The S-boxes of DES were much more resistant to the attack than if they had been chosen at random, strongly suggesting that IBM knew about the technique in the 1970s. This was indeed the case; in 1994, Don Coppersmith published some of the original design criteria for the S-boxes. According to Steven Levy, IBM Watson researchers discovered differential cryptanalytic attacks in 1974 and were asked by the NSA to keep the technique secret. Coppersmith explains IBM's secrecy decision by saying, \"that was because [differential cryptanalysis] can be a very powerful tool, used against many schemes, and there was concern that such information in the public domain could adversely affect national security.\" Levy quotes Walter Tuchman: \"[t]hey asked us to stamp all our documents confidential... We actually put a number on each one and locked them up in safes, because they were considered U.S. government classified. They said do it. So I did it\". Bruce Schneier observed that \"It took the academic community two decades to figure out that the NSA 'tweaks' actually improved the security of DES.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Despite the criticisms, DES was approved as a federal standard in November 1976, and published on 15 January 1977 as FIPS PUB 46, authorized for use on all unclassified data. It was subsequently reaffirmed as the standard in 1983, 1988 (revised as FIPS-46-1), 1993 (FIPS-46-2), and again in 1999 (FIPS-46-3), the latter prescribing \"Triple DES\" (see below). On 26 May 2002, DES was finally superseded by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), following a public competition. On 19 May 2005, FIPS 46-3 was officially withdrawn, but NIST has approved Triple DES through the year 2030 for sensitive government information.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The algorithm is also specified in ANSI X3.92 (Today X3 is known as INCITS and ANSI X3.92 as ANSI INCITS 92), NIST SP 800-67 and ISO/IEC 18033-3 (as a component of TDEA).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Another theoretical attack, linear cryptanalysis, was published in 1994, but it was the Electronic Frontier Foundation's DES cracker in 1998 that demonstrated that DES could be attacked very practically, and highlighted the need for a replacement algorithm. These and other methods of cryptanalysis are discussed in more detail later in this article.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The introduction of DES is considered to have been a catalyst for the academic study of cryptography, particularly of methods to crack block ciphers. According to a NIST retrospective about DES,",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "DES is the archetypal block cipher—an algorithm that takes a fixed-length string of plaintext bits and transforms it through a series of complicated operations into another ciphertext bitstring of the same length. In the case of DES, the block size is 64 bits. DES also uses a key to customize the transformation, so that decryption can supposedly only be performed by those who know the particular key used to encrypt. The key ostensibly consists of 64 bits; however, only 56 of these are actually used by the algorithm. Eight bits are used solely for checking parity, and are thereafter discarded. Hence the effective key length is 56 bits.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The key is nominally stored or transmitted as 8 bytes, each with odd parity. According to ANSI X3.92-1981 (Now, known as ANSI INCITS 92–1981), section 3.5:",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "One bit in each 8-bit byte of the KEY may be utilized for error detection in key generation, distribution, and storage. Bits 8, 16,..., 64 are for use in ensuring that each byte is of odd parity.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Like other block ciphers, DES by itself is not a secure means of encryption, but must instead be used in a mode of operation. FIPS-81 specifies several modes for use with DES. Further comments on the usage of DES are contained in FIPS-74.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Decryption uses the same structure as encryption, but with the keys used in reverse order. (This has the advantage that the same hardware or software can be used in both directions.)",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The algorithm's overall structure is shown in Figure 1: there are 16 identical stages of processing, termed rounds. There is also an initial and final permutation, termed IP and FP, which are inverses (IP \"undoes\" the action of FP, and vice versa). IP and FP have no cryptographic significance, but were included in order to facilitate loading blocks in and out of mid-1970s 8-bit based hardware.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Before the main rounds, the block is divided into two 32-bit halves and processed alternately; this criss-crossing is known as the Feistel scheme. The Feistel structure ensures that decryption and encryption are very similar processes—the only difference is that the subkeys are applied in the reverse order when decrypting. The rest of the algorithm is identical. This greatly simplifies implementation, particularly in hardware, as there is no need for separate encryption and decryption algorithms.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The ⊕ symbol denotes the exclusive-OR (XOR) operation. The F-function scrambles half a block together with some of the key. The output from the F-function is then combined with the other half of the block, and the halves are swapped before the next round. After the final round, the halves are swapped; this is a feature of the Feistel structure which makes encryption and decryption similar processes.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The F-function, depicted in Figure 2, operates on half a block (32 bits) at a time and consists of four stages:",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The alternation of substitution from the S-boxes, and permutation of bits from the P-box and E-expansion provides so-called \"confusion and diffusion\" respectively, a concept identified by Claude Shannon in the 1940s as a necessary condition for a secure yet practical cipher.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Figure 3 illustrates the key schedule for encryption—the algorithm which generates the subkeys. Initially, 56 bits of the key are selected from the initial 64 by Permuted Choice 1 (PC-1)—the remaining eight bits are either discarded or used as parity check bits. The 56 bits are then divided into two 28-bit halves; each half is thereafter treated separately. In successive rounds, both halves are rotated left by one or two bits (specified for each round), and then 48 subkey bits are selected by Permuted Choice 2 (PC-2)—24 bits from the left half, and 24 from the right. The rotations (denoted by \"<<<\" in the diagram) mean that a different set of bits is used in each subkey; each bit is used in approximately 14 out of the 16 subkeys.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The key schedule for decryption is similar—the subkeys are in reverse order compared to encryption. Apart from that change, the process is the same as for encryption. The same 28 bits are passed to all rotation boxes.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Pseudocode for the DES algorithm follows.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Although more information has been published on the cryptanalysis of DES than any other block cipher, the most practical attack to date is still a brute-force approach. Various minor cryptanalytic properties are known, and three theoretical attacks are possible which, while having a theoretical complexity less than a brute-force attack, require an unrealistic number of known or chosen plaintexts to carry out, and are not a concern in practice.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "For any cipher, the most basic method of attack is brute force—trying every possible key in turn. The length of the key determines the number of possible keys, and hence the feasibility of this approach. For DES, questions were raised about the adequacy of its key size early on, even before it was adopted as a standard, and it was the small key size, rather than theoretical cryptanalysis, which dictated a need for a replacement algorithm. As a result of discussions involving external consultants including the NSA, the key size was reduced from 256 bits to 56 bits to fit on a single chip.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In academia, various proposals for a DES-cracking machine were advanced. In 1977, Diffie and Hellman proposed a machine costing an estimated US$20 million which could find a DES key in a single day. By 1993, Wiener had proposed a key-search machine costing US$1 million which would find a key within 7 hours. However, none of these early proposals were ever implemented—or, at least, no implementations were publicly acknowledged. The vulnerability of DES was practically demonstrated in the late 1990s. In 1997, RSA Security sponsored a series of contests, offering a $10,000 prize to the first team that broke a message encrypted with DES for the contest. That contest was won by the DESCHALL Project, led by Rocke Verser, Matt Curtin, and Justin Dolske, using idle cycles of thousands of computers across the Internet. The feasibility of cracking DES quickly was demonstrated in 1998 when a custom DES-cracker was built by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a cyberspace civil rights group, at the cost of approximately US$250,000 (see EFF DES cracker). Their motivation was to show that DES was breakable in practice as well as in theory: \"There are many people who will not believe a truth until they can see it with their own eyes. Showing them a physical machine that can crack DES in a few days is the only way to convince some people that they really cannot trust their security to DES.\" The machine brute-forced a key in a little more than 2 days' worth of searching.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The next confirmed DES cracker was the COPACOBANA machine built in 2006 by teams of the Universities of Bochum and Kiel, both in Germany. Unlike the EFF machine, COPACOBANA consists of commercially available, reconfigurable integrated circuits. 120 of these field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) of type XILINX Spartan-3 1000 run in parallel. They are grouped in 20 DIMM modules, each containing 6 FPGAs. The use of reconfigurable hardware makes the machine applicable to other code breaking tasks as well. One of the more interesting aspects of COPACOBANA is its cost factor. One machine can be built for approximately $10,000. The cost decrease by roughly a factor of 25 over the EFF machine is an example of the continuous improvement of digital hardware—see Moore's law. Adjusting for inflation over 8 years yields an even higher improvement of about 30x. Since 2007, SciEngines GmbH, a spin-off company of the two project partners of COPACOBANA has enhanced and developed successors of COPACOBANA. In 2008 their COPACOBANA RIVYERA reduced the time to break DES to less than one day, using 128 Spartan-3 5000's. SciEngines RIVYERA held the record in brute-force breaking DES, having utilized 128 Spartan-3 5000 FPGAs. Their 256 Spartan-6 LX150 model has further lowered this time.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In 2012, David Hulton and Moxie Marlinspike announced a system with 48 Xilinx Virtex-6 LX240T FPGAs, each FPGA containing 40 fully pipelined DES cores running at 400 MHz, for a total capacity of 768 gigakeys/sec. The system can exhaustively search the entire 56-bit DES key space in about 26 hours and this service is offered for a fee online.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "There are three attacks known that can break the full 16 rounds of DES with less complexity than a brute-force search: differential cryptanalysis (DC), linear cryptanalysis (LC), and Davies' attack. However, the attacks are theoretical and are generally considered infeasible to mount in practice; these types of attack are sometimes termed certificational weaknesses.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "There have also been attacks proposed against reduced-round versions of the cipher, that is, versions of DES with fewer than 16 rounds. Such analysis gives an insight into how many rounds are needed for safety, and how much of a \"security margin\" the full version retains.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Differential-linear cryptanalysis was proposed by Langford and Hellman in 1994, and combines differential and linear cryptanalysis into a single attack. An enhanced version of the attack can break 9-round DES with 2 chosen plaintexts and has a 2 time complexity (Biham and others, 2002).",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "DES exhibits the complementation property, namely that",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "where x ¯ {\\displaystyle {\\overline {x}}} is the bitwise complement of x . {\\displaystyle x.} E K {\\displaystyle E_{K}} denotes encryption with key K . {\\displaystyle K.} P {\\displaystyle P} and C {\\displaystyle C} denote plaintext and ciphertext blocks respectively. The complementation property means that the work for a brute-force attack could be reduced by a factor of 2 (or a single bit) under a chosen-plaintext assumption. By definition, this property also applies to TDES cipher.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "DES also has four so-called weak keys. Encryption (E) and decryption (D) under a weak key have the same effect (see involution):",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "There are also six pairs of semi-weak keys. Encryption with one of the pair of semiweak keys, K 1 {\\displaystyle K_{1}} , operates identically to decryption with the other, K 2 {\\displaystyle K_{2}} :",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "It is easy enough to avoid the weak and semiweak keys in an implementation, either by testing for them explicitly, or simply by choosing keys randomly; the odds of picking a weak or semiweak key by chance are negligible. The keys are not really any weaker than any other keys anyway, as they do not give an attack any advantage.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "DES has also been proved not to be a group, or more precisely, the set { E K } {\\displaystyle \\{E_{K}\\}} (for all possible keys K {\\displaystyle K} ) under functional composition is not a group, nor \"close\" to being a group. This was an open question for some time, and if it had been the case, it would have been possible to break DES, and multiple encryption modes such as Triple DES would not increase the security, because repeated encryption (and decryptions) under different keys would be equivalent to encryption under another, single key.",
"title": "Security and cryptanalysis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Simplified DES (SDES) was designed for educational purposes only, to help students learn about modern cryptanalytic techniques. SDES has similar structure and properties to DES, but has been simplified to make it much easier to perform encryption and decryption by hand with pencil and paper. Some people feel that learning SDES gives insight into DES and other block ciphers, and insight into various cryptanalytic attacks against them.",
"title": "Simplified DES"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Concerns about security and the relatively slow operation of DES in software motivated researchers to propose a variety of alternative block cipher designs, which started to appear in the late 1980s and early 1990s: examples include RC5, Blowfish, IDEA, NewDES, SAFER, CAST5 and FEAL. Most of these designs kept the 64-bit block size of DES, and could act as a \"drop-in\" replacement, although they typically used a 64-bit or 128-bit key. In the Soviet Union the GOST 28147-89 algorithm was introduced, with a 64-bit block size and a 256-bit key, which was also used in Russia later.",
"title": "Replacement algorithms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "DES itself can be adapted and reused in a more secure scheme. Many former DES users now use Triple DES (TDES) which was described and analysed by one of DES's patentees (see FIPS Pub 46–3); it involves applying DES three times with two (2TDES) or three (3TDES) different keys. TDES is regarded as adequately secure, although it is quite slow. A less computationally expensive alternative is DES-X, which increases the key size by XORing extra key material before and after DES. GDES was a DES variant proposed as a way to speed up encryption, but it was shown to be susceptible to differential cryptanalysis.",
"title": "Replacement algorithms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "On January 2, 1997, NIST announced that they wished to choose a successor to DES. In 2001, after an international competition, NIST selected a new cipher, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), as a replacement. The algorithm which was selected as the AES was submitted by its designers under the name Rijndael. Other finalists in the NIST AES competition included RC6, Serpent, MARS, and Twofish.",
"title": "Replacement algorithms"
}
] | The Data Encryption Standard is a symmetric-key algorithm for the encryption of digital data. Although its short key length of 56 bits makes it too insecure for modern applications, it has been highly influential in the advancement of cryptography. Developed in the early 1970s at IBM and based on an earlier design by Horst Feistel, the algorithm was submitted to the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) following the agency's invitation to propose a candidate for the protection of sensitive, unclassified electronic government data. In 1976, after consultation with the National Security Agency (NSA), the NBS selected a slightly modified version, which was published as an official Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) for the United States in 1977. The publication of an NSA-approved encryption standard led to its quick international adoption and widespread academic scrutiny. Controversies arose from classified design elements, a relatively short key length of the symmetric-key block cipher design, and the involvement of the NSA, raising suspicions about a backdoor. The S-boxes that had prompted those suspicions were designed by the NSA to remove a backdoor they secretly knew. However, the NSA also ensured that the key size was drastically reduced so that they could break the cipher by brute force attack. The intense academic scrutiny the algorithm received over time led to the modern understanding of block ciphers and their cryptanalysis. DES is insecure due to the relatively short 56-bit key size. In January 1999, distributed.net and the Electronic Frontier Foundation collaborated to publicly break a DES key in 22 hours and 15 minutes. There are also some analytical results which demonstrate theoretical weaknesses in the cipher, although they are infeasible in practice. The algorithm is believed to be practically secure in the form of Triple DES, although there are theoretical attacks. This cipher has been superseded by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). DES has been withdrawn as a standard by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Some documents distinguish between the DES standard and its algorithm, referring to the algorithm as the DEA. | 2001-03-30T13:35:38Z | 2023-11-20T17:26:01Z | [
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7,983 | Double-hulled tanker | A double-hulled tanker refers to an oil tanker which has a double hull. They reduce the likelihood of leaks occurring compared to single-hulled tankers, and their ability to prevent or reduce oil spills led to double hulls being standardized for oil tankers and other types of ships including by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships or MARPOL Convention. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in Alaska in 1989, the US Government required all new oil tankers built for use between US ports to be equipped with a full double hull.
A number of manufacturers have embraced oil tankers with a double hull because it strengthens the hull of ships, reducing the likelihood of oil disasters in low-impact collisions and groundings over single-hull ships. They reduce the likelihood of leaks occurring at low speed impacts in port areas when the ship is under pilotage. Research of impact damage of ships has revealed that double-hulled tankers are unlikely to perforate both hulls in a collision, preventing oil from seeping out. However, for smaller tankers, U shaped tanks might be susceptible to "free flooding" across the double bottom and up to the outside water level each side of the cargo tank. Salvors prefer to salvage doubled-hulled tankers because they permit the use of air pressure to vacuum out the flood water. In the 1960s, collision proof double hulls for nuclear ships were extensively investigated, due to escalating concerns over nuclear accidents.
The ability of double-hulled tankers to prevent or reduce oil spills led to double hulls being standardized for other types of ships including oil tankers by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships or MARPOL Convention. In 1992, MARPOL was amended, making it "mandatory for tankers of 5,000 dwt and more ordered after 6 July 1993 to be fitted with double hulls, or an alternative design approved by IMO". However, in the aftermath of the Erika incident of the coast off France in December 1999, members of IMO adopted a revised schedule for the phase-out of single-hull tankers, which came into effect on 1 September 2003, with further amendments validated on 5 April 2005.
After the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster, when that ship grounded on Bligh Reef outside the port of Valdez, Alaska in 1989, the US Government required all new oil tankers built for use between US ports to be equipped with a full double hull. However, the damage to the Exxon Valdez penetrated sections of the hull (the slops oil tanks, or slop tanks) that were protected by a double bottom, or partial double hull.
Although double-hulled tankers reduce the likelihood of ships grazing rocks and creating holes in the hull, a double hull does not protect against major, high-energy collisions or groundings which cause the majority of oil pollution, despite this being the reason that the double hull was mandated by United States legislation. Double-hulled tankers, if poorly designed, constructed, maintained and operated can be as problematic, if not more problematic than their single-hulled counterparts. Double-hulled tankers have a more complex design and structure than their single-hulled counterparts, which means that they require more maintenance and care in operating, which if not subject to responsible monitoring and policing, may cause problems. Double hulls often result in the weight of the hull increasing by at least 20%, and because the steel weight of doubled-hulled tanks should not be greater than that of single-hulled ships, the individual hull walls are typically thinner and theoretically less resistant to wear. Double hulls by no means eliminate the possibility of the hulls breaking apart. Due to the air space between the hulls, there is also a potential problem with volatile gases seeping out through worn areas of the internal hull, increasing the risk of an explosion.
Although several international conventions against pollution are in place, as of 2003 there was still no formal body setting international mandatory standards, although the International Safety Guide for Oil Tankers and Terminals (ISGOTT) does provide guidelines giving advice on optimum use and safety, such as recommending that ballast tanks are not entered while loaded with cargo, and that weekly samples are made of the atmosphere inside for hydrocarbon gas. Due to the difficulties of maintenance, ship builders have been competitive in producing double-hulled ships which are easier to inspect, such as ballast and cargo tanks which are easily accessible and easier to spot corrosion in the hull. The Tanker Structure Cooperative Forum (TSCF) published the Guide to Inspection and Maintenance of Double-Hull Tanker Structures in 1995 giving advice based on experience of operating double-hulled tankers. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A double-hulled tanker refers to an oil tanker which has a double hull. They reduce the likelihood of leaks occurring compared to single-hulled tankers, and their ability to prevent or reduce oil spills led to double hulls being standardized for oil tankers and other types of ships including by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships or MARPOL Convention. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in Alaska in 1989, the US Government required all new oil tankers built for use between US ports to be equipped with a full double hull.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "A number of manufacturers have embraced oil tankers with a double hull because it strengthens the hull of ships, reducing the likelihood of oil disasters in low-impact collisions and groundings over single-hull ships. They reduce the likelihood of leaks occurring at low speed impacts in port areas when the ship is under pilotage. Research of impact damage of ships has revealed that double-hulled tankers are unlikely to perforate both hulls in a collision, preventing oil from seeping out. However, for smaller tankers, U shaped tanks might be susceptible to \"free flooding\" across the double bottom and up to the outside water level each side of the cargo tank. Salvors prefer to salvage doubled-hulled tankers because they permit the use of air pressure to vacuum out the flood water. In the 1960s, collision proof double hulls for nuclear ships were extensively investigated, due to escalating concerns over nuclear accidents.",
"title": "Reasons for use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The ability of double-hulled tankers to prevent or reduce oil spills led to double hulls being standardized for other types of ships including oil tankers by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships or MARPOL Convention. In 1992, MARPOL was amended, making it \"mandatory for tankers of 5,000 dwt and more ordered after 6 July 1993 to be fitted with double hulls, or an alternative design approved by IMO\". However, in the aftermath of the Erika incident of the coast off France in December 1999, members of IMO adopted a revised schedule for the phase-out of single-hull tankers, which came into effect on 1 September 2003, with further amendments validated on 5 April 2005.",
"title": "Reasons for use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "After the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster, when that ship grounded on Bligh Reef outside the port of Valdez, Alaska in 1989, the US Government required all new oil tankers built for use between US ports to be equipped with a full double hull. However, the damage to the Exxon Valdez penetrated sections of the hull (the slops oil tanks, or slop tanks) that were protected by a double bottom, or partial double hull.",
"title": "Reasons for use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Although double-hulled tankers reduce the likelihood of ships grazing rocks and creating holes in the hull, a double hull does not protect against major, high-energy collisions or groundings which cause the majority of oil pollution, despite this being the reason that the double hull was mandated by United States legislation. Double-hulled tankers, if poorly designed, constructed, maintained and operated can be as problematic, if not more problematic than their single-hulled counterparts. Double-hulled tankers have a more complex design and structure than their single-hulled counterparts, which means that they require more maintenance and care in operating, which if not subject to responsible monitoring and policing, may cause problems. Double hulls often result in the weight of the hull increasing by at least 20%, and because the steel weight of doubled-hulled tanks should not be greater than that of single-hulled ships, the individual hull walls are typically thinner and theoretically less resistant to wear. Double hulls by no means eliminate the possibility of the hulls breaking apart. Due to the air space between the hulls, there is also a potential problem with volatile gases seeping out through worn areas of the internal hull, increasing the risk of an explosion.",
"title": "Maintenance issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Although several international conventions against pollution are in place, as of 2003 there was still no formal body setting international mandatory standards, although the International Safety Guide for Oil Tankers and Terminals (ISGOTT) does provide guidelines giving advice on optimum use and safety, such as recommending that ballast tanks are not entered while loaded with cargo, and that weekly samples are made of the atmosphere inside for hydrocarbon gas. Due to the difficulties of maintenance, ship builders have been competitive in producing double-hulled ships which are easier to inspect, such as ballast and cargo tanks which are easily accessible and easier to spot corrosion in the hull. The Tanker Structure Cooperative Forum (TSCF) published the Guide to Inspection and Maintenance of Double-Hull Tanker Structures in 1995 giving advice based on experience of operating double-hulled tankers.",
"title": "Maintenance issues"
}
] | A double-hulled tanker refers to an oil tanker which has a double hull. They reduce the likelihood of leaks occurring compared to single-hulled tankers, and their ability to prevent or reduce oil spills led to double hulls being standardized for oil tankers and other types of ships including by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships or MARPOL Convention. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in Alaska in 1989, the US Government required all new oil tankers built for use between US ports to be equipped with a full double hull. | 2001-04-03T12:15:10Z | 2023-10-06T14:52:32Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-hulled_tanker |
7,984 | Drink | A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothies and soft drinks. Traditionally warm beverages include coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Caffeinated drinks that contain the stimulant caffeine have a long history.
In addition, alcoholic drinks such as wine, beer, and liquor, which contain the drug ethanol, have been part of human culture for more than 8,000 years. Non-alcoholic drinks often signify drinks that would normally contain alcohol, such as beer, wine and cocktails, but are made with a sufficiently low concentration of alcohol by volume. The category includes drinks that have undergone an alcohol removal process such as non-alcoholic beers and de-alcoholized wines.
When the human body becomes dehydrated, a person experiences thirst. This craving of fluids results in an instinctive need to drink. Thirst is regulated by the hypothalamus in response to subtle changes in the body's electrolyte levels, and also as a result of changes in the volume of blood circulating. The complete deprivation of drinks (that is, water) will result in death faster than the removal of any other substance besides oxygen. Water and milk have been basic drinks throughout history. As water is essential for life, it has also been the carrier of many diseases.
As society developed, techniques were discovered to create alcoholic drinks from the plants that were available in different areas. The earliest archaeological evidence of wine production yet found has been at sites in Georgia (c. 6000 BCE) and Iran (c. 5000 BCE). Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 3000 BCE, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. The invention of beer (and bread) has been argued to be responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build civilization. Tea likely originated in Yunnan, China, during the Shang Dynasty (1500 BCE–1046 BCE) as a medicinal drink.
Drinking has been a large part of socialising throughout the centuries. In Ancient Greece, a social gathering for the purpose of drinking was known as a symposium, where watered down wine would be drunk. The purpose of these gatherings could be anything from serious discussions to direct indulgence. In Ancient Rome, a similar concept of a convivium took place regularly.
Many early societies considered alcohol a gift from the gods, leading to the creation of gods such as Dionysus. Other religions forbid, discourage, or restrict the drinking of alcoholic drinks for various reasons. In some regions with a dominant religion the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic drinks is forbidden to everybody, regardless of religion.
Toasting is a method of honouring a person or wishing good will by taking a drink. Another tradition is that of the loving cup, at weddings or other celebrations such as sports victories a group will share a drink in a large receptacle, shared by everyone until empty.
In East Africa and Yemen, coffee was used in native religious ceremonies. As these ceremonies conflicted with the beliefs of the Christian church, the Ethiopian Church banned the secular consumption of coffee until the reign of Emperor Menelik II. The drink was also banned in Ottoman Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe.
A drink is a form of liquid which has been prepared for human consumption. The preparation can include a number of different steps, some prior to transport, others immediately prior to consumption.
Water is the chief constituent in all drinks, and the primary ingredient in most. Water is purified prior to drinking. Methods for purification include filtration and the addition of chemicals, such as chlorination. The importance of purified water is highlighted by the World Health Organization, who point out 94% of deaths from diarrhea – the third biggest cause of infectious death worldwide at 1.8 million annually – could be prevented by improving the quality of the victim's environment, particularly safe water.
Pasteurisation is the process of heating a liquid for a period of time at a specified temperature, then immediately cooling. The process reduces the growth of microorganisms within the liquid, thereby increasing the time before spoilage. It is primarily used on milk, which prior to pasteurisation is commonly infected with pathogenic bacteria and therefore is more likely than any other part of the common diet in the developed world to cause illness.
The process of extracting juice from fruits and vegetables can take a number of forms. Simple crushing of most fruits will provide a significant amount of liquid, though a more intense pressure can be applied to get the maximum amount of juice from the fruit. Both crushing and pressing are processes used in the production of wine.
Infusion is the process of extracting flavours from plant material by allowing the material to remain suspended within water. This process is used in the production of teas, herbal teas and can be used to prepare coffee (when using a coffee press).
The name is derived from the word "percolate" which means to cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance especially for extracting a soluble constituent. In the case of coffee-brewing the solvent is water, the permeable substance is the coffee grounds, and the soluble constituents are the chemical compounds that give coffee its color, taste, aroma, and stimulating properties.
Carbonation is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide into a liquid, such as water.
Fermentation is a metabolic process that converts sugar to ethanol. Fermentation has been used by humans for the production of drinks since the Neolithic age. In winemaking, grape juice is combined with yeast in an anaerobic environment to allow the fermentation. The amount of sugar in the wine and the length of time given for fermentation determine the alcohol level and the sweetness of the wine.
When brewing beer, there are four primary ingredients – water, grain, yeast and hops. The grain is encouraged to germinate by soaking and drying in heat, a process known as malting. It is then milled before soaking again to create the sugars needed for fermentation. This process is known as mashing. Hops are added for flavouring, then the yeast is added to the mixture (now called wort) to start the fermentation process.
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatility of components in a boiling liquid mixture. It is one of the methods used in the purification of water. It is also a method of producing spirits from milder alcoholic drinks.
An alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients is referred to as a cocktail. Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The term is now often used for almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol, including mixers, mixed shots, etc. A cocktail today usually contains one or more kinds of spirit and one or more mixers, such as soda or fruit juice. Additional ingredients may be sugar, honey, milk, cream, and various herbs.
A non-alcoholic drink is one that contains little or no alcohol. This category includes low-alcohol beer, non-alcoholic wine, and apple cider if they contain a sufficiently low concentration of alcohol by volume (ABV). The exact definition of what is "non-alcoholic" and what is not depends on local laws: in the United Kingdom, "alcohol-free beer" is under 0.05% ABV, "de-alcoholised beer" is under 0.5%, while "low-alcohol beer" can contain no more than 1.2% ABV. The term "soft drink" specifies the absence of alcohol in contrast to "hard drink" and "drink". The term "drink" is theoretically neutral, but often is used in a way that suggests alcoholic content. Drinks such as soda pop, sparkling water, iced tea, lemonade, root beer, fruit punch, milk, hot chocolate, tea, coffee, milkshakes, tap water, bottled water, juice and energy drinks are all soft drinks.
Water is the world's most consumed drink, however, 97% of water on Earth is non-drinkable salt water. Fresh water is found in rivers, lakes, wetlands, groundwater, and frozen glaciers. Less than 1% of the Earth's fresh water supplies are accessible through surface water and underground sources which are cost effective to retrieve.
In western cultures, water is often drunk cold. In the Chinese culture, it is typically drunk hot.
Milk is regarded as one of the "original" drinks; milk is the primary source of nutrition for babies. In many cultures of the world, especially the Western world, humans continue to consume dairy milk beyond infancy, using the milk of other animals (especially cattle, goats and sheep) as a drink.
Carbonated drinks refer to drinks which have carbon dioxide dissolved into them. This can happen naturally through fermenting and in natural water spas or artificially by the dissolution of carbon dioxide under pressure. The first commercially available artificially carbonated drink is believed to have been produced by Thomas Henry in the late 1770s. Cola, orange, various roots, ginger, and lemon/lime are commonly used to create non-alcoholic carbonated drinks; sugars and preservatives may be added later.
The most consumed carbonated soft drinks are produced by three major global brands: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.
Fruit juice is a natural product that contains few or no additives. Citrus products such as orange juice and tangerine juice are familiar breakfast drinks, while grapefruit juice, pineapple, apple, grape, lime, and lemon juice are also common. Coconut water is a highly nutritious and refreshing juice. Many kinds of berries are crushed; their juices are mixed with water and sometimes sweetened. Raspberry, blackberry and currants are popular juices drinks but the percentage of water also determines their nutritive value. Grape juice allowed to ferment produces wine.
Fruits are highly perishable so the ability to extract juices and store them was of significant value. Some fruits are highly acidic and mixing them with water and sugars or honey was often necessary to make them palatable. Fruits can also be blended with ice and other ingredients to make a smoothie. Early storage of fruit juices was labor-intensive, requiring the crushing of the fruits and the mixing of the resulting pure juices with sugars before bottling.
Vegetable juices are usually served warm or cold. Different types of vegetables can be used to make vegetable juice such as carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery and many more. Some vegetable juices are mixed with some fruit juice to make the vegetable juice taste better. Many popular vegetable juices, particularly ones with high tomato content, are high in sodium, and therefore consumption of them for health must be carefully considered. Some vegetable juices provide the same health benefits as whole vegetables in terms of reducing risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Plant milk is a general term for any milk-like product that is derived from a plant source. The most common varieties internationally are soy milk, almond milk, rice milk and coconut milk.
A nightcap is a drink taken shortly before bedtime to induce sleep. For example, a small alcoholic drink or a cup of warm milk can supposedly promote a good night's sleep. Today, most nightcaps and relaxation drinks are generally non-alcoholic beverages containing calming ingredients. They are considered beverages which serve to relax a person. Unlike other calming beverages, such as tea, warm milk or milk with honey; relaxation drinks almost universally contain more than one active ingredient. Relaxation drinks have been known to contain other natural ingredients and are usually free of caffeine and alcohol but some have claimed to contain marijuana.
A drink is considered "alcoholic" if it contains ethanol, commonly known as alcohol (although in chemistry the definition of "alcohol" includes many other compounds). Beer has been a part of human civilisation for around 8,000 years.
Beer is an alcoholic drink produced by the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar. The starch and saccharification enzymes are often derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat. Most beer is also flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included. The preparation of beer is called brewing. Beer is the world's most widely consumed alcoholic drink, and is the third-most consumed drink overall, after water and tea. It is said to have been discovered by goddess Ninkasi around 5300 BCE, when she accidentally discovered yeast after leaving grain in jars that were later rained upon and left for several days. Women have been the chief creators of beer throughout history due to its association with domesticity and it, throughout much of history, being brewed in the home for family consumption. Only in recent history have men begun to dabble in the field. It is thought by some to be the oldest fermented drink.
Some of humanity's earliest known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer and beer parlours, and "The Hymn to Ninkasi", a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people. Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries.
Cider is a fermented alcoholic drink made from fruit juice, most commonly and traditionally apple juice, but also the juice of peaches, pears ("Perry" cider) or other fruit. Cider may be made from any variety of apple, but certain cultivars grown solely for use in cider are known as cider apples. The United Kingdom has the highest per capita consumption of cider, as well as the largest cider-producing companies in the world, As of 2006, the U.K. produces 600 million litres of cider each year (130 million imperial gallons).
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented grapes or other fruits. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients. Yeast consumes the sugars in the grapes and converts them into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine. The well-known variations result from the very complex interactions between the biochemical development of the fruit, reactions involved in fermentation, terroir and subsequent appellation, along with human intervention in the overall process. The final product may contain tens of thousands of chemical compounds in amounts varying from a few percent to a few parts per billion.
Wines made from produce besides grapes are usually named after the product from which they are produced (for example, rice wine, pomegranate wine, apple wine and elderberry wine) and are generically called fruit wine. The term "wine" can also refer to starch-fermented or fortified drinks having higher alcohol content, such as barley wine, huangjiu, or sake.
Wine has a rich history dating back thousands of years, with the earliest production so far discovered having occurred c. 6000 BC in Georgia. It had reached the Balkans by c. 4500 BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece and Rome.
From its earliest appearance in written records, wine has also played an important role in religion. Red wine was closely associated with blood by the ancient Egyptians, who, according to Plutarch, avoided its free consumption as late as the 7th-century BC Saite dynasty, "thinking it to be the blood of those who had once battled against the gods". The Greek cult and mysteries of Dionysus, carried on by the Romans in their Bacchanalia, were the origins of western theater. Judaism incorporates it in the Kiddush and Christianity in its Eucharist, while alcohol consumption was forbidden in Islam.
Spirits are distilled beverages that contain no added sugar and have at least 20% alcohol by volume (ABV). Popular spirits include borovička, brandy, gin, rum, slivovitz, tequila, vodka, and whisky. Brandy is a spirit created by distilling wine, whilst vodka may be distilled from any starch- or sugar-rich plant matter; most vodka today is produced from grains such as sorghum, corn, rye or wheat.
These drinks are often served warm or hot.
Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from the roasted seeds of several species of an evergreen shrub of the genus Coffea. The two most common sources of coffee beans are the highly regarded Coffea arabica, and the "robusta" form of the hardier Coffea canephora. Coffee plants are cultivated in more than 70 countries. Once ripe, coffee "berries" are picked, processed, and dried to yield the seeds inside. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor, before being ground and brewed to create coffee.
Coffee is slightly acidic (pH 5.0–5.1) and can have a stimulating effect on humans because of its caffeine content. It is one of the most popular drinks in the world. It can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. The effect of coffee on human health has been a subject of many studies; however, results have varied in terms of coffee's relative benefit.
Coffee cultivation first took place in southern Arabia; the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen.
Coffee may have been used socially in the renaissance period of the 17th century. The increasing trades between Europe and North Africa regions made coffee more widely available to Europeans gathering at social locations that served coffee, possibly contributing to the growth of coffeehouses.
Hot chocolate, also known as drinking chocolate or cocoa, is a heated drink consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and usually a sweetener. Hot chocolate may be topped with whipped cream. Hot chocolate made with melted chocolate is sometimes called drinking chocolate, characterized by less sweetness and a thicker consistency.
The first chocolate drink is believed to have been created by the Mayans around 2,500-3,000 years ago, and a cocoa drink was an essential part of Aztec culture by 1400 AD, by which they referred to as xocōlātl. The drink became popular in Europe after being introduced from Mexico in the New World and has undergone multiple changes since then. Until the 19th century, hot chocolate was even used medicinally to treat ailments such as liver and stomach diseases.
Hot chocolate is consumed throughout the world and comes in multiple variations, including the spiced chocolate para mesa of Latin America, the very thick cioccolata calda served in Italy and chocolate a la taza served in Spain, and the thinner hot cocoa consumed in the United States. Prepared hot chocolate can be purchased from a range of establishments, including cafeterias, fast food restaurants, coffeehouses and teahouses. Powdered hot chocolate mixes, which can be added to boiling water or hot milk to make the drink at home, are sold at grocery stores and online.
Tea, the second most consumed drink in the world, is produced from infusing dried leaves of the Camellia sinensis shrub, in boiling water. There are many ways in which tea is prepared for consumption: lemon or milk and sugar are among the most common additives worldwide. Other additions include butter and salt in Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet; bubble tea in Taiwan; fresh ginger in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; mint in North Africa and Senegal; cardamom in Central Asia; rum to make Jagertee in Central Europe; and coffee to make yuanyang in Hong Kong. Tea is also served differently from country to country: in China and Japan tiny cups are used to serve tea; in Thailand and the United States tea is often served cold (as "iced tea") or with a lot of sweetener; Indians boil tea with milk and a blend of spices as masala chai; tea is brewed with a samovar in Iran, Kashmir, Russia and Turkey; and in the Australian Outback it is traditionally brewed in a billycan. Tea leaves can be processed in different ways resulting in a drink which appears and tastes different. Chinese yellow and green tea are steamed, roasted and dried; Oolong tea is semi-oxidised and appears green-black and black teas are fully oxidised.
Around the world, people refer to other herbal infusions as "teas"; it is also argued that these were popular long before the Camellia sinensis shrub was used for tea making. Leaves, flowers, roots or bark can be used to make a herbal infusion and can be bought fresh, dried or powdered.
Throughout history, people have come together in establishments to socialise whilst drinking. This includes cafés and coffeehouses, focus on providing hot drinks as well as light snacks. Many coffee houses in the Middle East, and in West Asian immigrant districts in the Western world, offer shisha (nargile in Turkish and Greek), flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah. Espresso bars are a type of coffeehouse that specialize in serving espresso and espresso-based drinks.
In China and Japan, the establishment would be a tea house, where people would socialise while drinking tea. Chinese scholars have used the teahouse as a place to share ideas.
Alcoholic drinks are served in drinking establishments, which have different cultural connotations. For example, pubs are fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New England, Metro Detroit, South Africa and New Zealand. In many places, especially in villages, a pub can be the focal point of the community. The writings of Samuel Pepys describe the pub as the heart of England. Many pubs are controlled by breweries, so cask ale or keg beer may be a better value than wines and spirits.
In contrast, types of bars range from seedy bars or nightclubs, sometimes termed "dive bars", to elegant places of entertainment for the elite. Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. The term "bar" is derived from the specialized counter on which drinks are served. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go dancers, or strippers. Patrons may sit or stand at the bar and be served by the bartender, or they may sit at tables and be served by cocktail servers.
Food and drink are often paired together to enhance the taste experience. This primarily happens with wine and a culture has grown up around the process. Weight, flavors and textures can either be contrasted or complemented. In recent years, food magazines began to suggest particular wines with recipes and restaurants would offer multi-course dinners matched with a specific wine for each course.
Different drinks have unique receptacles for their consumption. This is sometimes purely for presentations purposes, such as for cocktails. In other situations, the drinkware has practical application, such as coffee cups which are designed for insulation or brandy snifters which are designed to encourage evaporation but trap the aroma within the glass.
Many glasses include a stem, which allows the drinker to hold the glass without affecting the temperature of the drink. In champagne glasses, the bowl is designed to retain champagne's signature carbonation, by reducing the surface area at the opening of the bowl. Historically, champagne has been served in a champagne coupe, the shape of which allowed carbonation to dissipate even more rapidly than from a standard wine glass.
An important export commodity, coffee was the top agricultural export for twelve countries in 2004, and it was the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value in 2005. Green (unroasted) coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world.
Some drinks, such as wine, can be used as an alternative investment. This can be achieved by either purchasing and reselling individual bottles or cases of particular wines, or purchasing shares in an investment wine fund that pools investors' capital. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothies and soft drinks. Traditionally warm beverages include coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Caffeinated drinks that contain the stimulant caffeine have a long history.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In addition, alcoholic drinks such as wine, beer, and liquor, which contain the drug ethanol, have been part of human culture for more than 8,000 years. Non-alcoholic drinks often signify drinks that would normally contain alcohol, such as beer, wine and cocktails, but are made with a sufficiently low concentration of alcohol by volume. The category includes drinks that have undergone an alcohol removal process such as non-alcoholic beers and de-alcoholized wines.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "When the human body becomes dehydrated, a person experiences thirst. This craving of fluids results in an instinctive need to drink. Thirst is regulated by the hypothalamus in response to subtle changes in the body's electrolyte levels, and also as a result of changes in the volume of blood circulating. The complete deprivation of drinks (that is, water) will result in death faster than the removal of any other substance besides oxygen. Water and milk have been basic drinks throughout history. As water is essential for life, it has also been the carrier of many diseases.",
"title": "Biology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "As society developed, techniques were discovered to create alcoholic drinks from the plants that were available in different areas. The earliest archaeological evidence of wine production yet found has been at sites in Georgia (c. 6000 BCE) and Iran (c. 5000 BCE). Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 3000 BCE, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. The invention of beer (and bread) has been argued to be responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build civilization. Tea likely originated in Yunnan, China, during the Shang Dynasty (1500 BCE–1046 BCE) as a medicinal drink.",
"title": "Biology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Drinking has been a large part of socialising throughout the centuries. In Ancient Greece, a social gathering for the purpose of drinking was known as a symposium, where watered down wine would be drunk. The purpose of these gatherings could be anything from serious discussions to direct indulgence. In Ancient Rome, a similar concept of a convivium took place regularly.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Many early societies considered alcohol a gift from the gods, leading to the creation of gods such as Dionysus. Other religions forbid, discourage, or restrict the drinking of alcoholic drinks for various reasons. In some regions with a dominant religion the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic drinks is forbidden to everybody, regardless of religion.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Toasting is a method of honouring a person or wishing good will by taking a drink. Another tradition is that of the loving cup, at weddings or other celebrations such as sports victories a group will share a drink in a large receptacle, shared by everyone until empty.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In East Africa and Yemen, coffee was used in native religious ceremonies. As these ceremonies conflicted with the beliefs of the Christian church, the Ethiopian Church banned the secular consumption of coffee until the reign of Emperor Menelik II. The drink was also banned in Ottoman Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "A drink is a form of liquid which has been prepared for human consumption. The preparation can include a number of different steps, some prior to transport, others immediately prior to consumption.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Water is the chief constituent in all drinks, and the primary ingredient in most. Water is purified prior to drinking. Methods for purification include filtration and the addition of chemicals, such as chlorination. The importance of purified water is highlighted by the World Health Organization, who point out 94% of deaths from diarrhea – the third biggest cause of infectious death worldwide at 1.8 million annually – could be prevented by improving the quality of the victim's environment, particularly safe water.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Pasteurisation is the process of heating a liquid for a period of time at a specified temperature, then immediately cooling. The process reduces the growth of microorganisms within the liquid, thereby increasing the time before spoilage. It is primarily used on milk, which prior to pasteurisation is commonly infected with pathogenic bacteria and therefore is more likely than any other part of the common diet in the developed world to cause illness.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The process of extracting juice from fruits and vegetables can take a number of forms. Simple crushing of most fruits will provide a significant amount of liquid, though a more intense pressure can be applied to get the maximum amount of juice from the fruit. Both crushing and pressing are processes used in the production of wine.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Infusion is the process of extracting flavours from plant material by allowing the material to remain suspended within water. This process is used in the production of teas, herbal teas and can be used to prepare coffee (when using a coffee press).",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The name is derived from the word \"percolate\" which means to cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance especially for extracting a soluble constituent. In the case of coffee-brewing the solvent is water, the permeable substance is the coffee grounds, and the soluble constituents are the chemical compounds that give coffee its color, taste, aroma, and stimulating properties.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Carbonation is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide into a liquid, such as water.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Fermentation is a metabolic process that converts sugar to ethanol. Fermentation has been used by humans for the production of drinks since the Neolithic age. In winemaking, grape juice is combined with yeast in an anaerobic environment to allow the fermentation. The amount of sugar in the wine and the length of time given for fermentation determine the alcohol level and the sweetness of the wine.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "When brewing beer, there are four primary ingredients – water, grain, yeast and hops. The grain is encouraged to germinate by soaking and drying in heat, a process known as malting. It is then milled before soaking again to create the sugars needed for fermentation. This process is known as mashing. Hops are added for flavouring, then the yeast is added to the mixture (now called wort) to start the fermentation process.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatility of components in a boiling liquid mixture. It is one of the methods used in the purification of water. It is also a method of producing spirits from milder alcoholic drinks.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "An alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients is referred to as a cocktail. Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The term is now often used for almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol, including mixers, mixed shots, etc. A cocktail today usually contains one or more kinds of spirit and one or more mixers, such as soda or fruit juice. Additional ingredients may be sugar, honey, milk, cream, and various herbs.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "A non-alcoholic drink is one that contains little or no alcohol. This category includes low-alcohol beer, non-alcoholic wine, and apple cider if they contain a sufficiently low concentration of alcohol by volume (ABV). The exact definition of what is \"non-alcoholic\" and what is not depends on local laws: in the United Kingdom, \"alcohol-free beer\" is under 0.05% ABV, \"de-alcoholised beer\" is under 0.5%, while \"low-alcohol beer\" can contain no more than 1.2% ABV. The term \"soft drink\" specifies the absence of alcohol in contrast to \"hard drink\" and \"drink\". The term \"drink\" is theoretically neutral, but often is used in a way that suggests alcoholic content. Drinks such as soda pop, sparkling water, iced tea, lemonade, root beer, fruit punch, milk, hot chocolate, tea, coffee, milkshakes, tap water, bottled water, juice and energy drinks are all soft drinks.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Water is the world's most consumed drink, however, 97% of water on Earth is non-drinkable salt water. Fresh water is found in rivers, lakes, wetlands, groundwater, and frozen glaciers. Less than 1% of the Earth's fresh water supplies are accessible through surface water and underground sources which are cost effective to retrieve.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In western cultures, water is often drunk cold. In the Chinese culture, it is typically drunk hot.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Milk is regarded as one of the \"original\" drinks; milk is the primary source of nutrition for babies. In many cultures of the world, especially the Western world, humans continue to consume dairy milk beyond infancy, using the milk of other animals (especially cattle, goats and sheep) as a drink.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Carbonated drinks refer to drinks which have carbon dioxide dissolved into them. This can happen naturally through fermenting and in natural water spas or artificially by the dissolution of carbon dioxide under pressure. The first commercially available artificially carbonated drink is believed to have been produced by Thomas Henry in the late 1770s. Cola, orange, various roots, ginger, and lemon/lime are commonly used to create non-alcoholic carbonated drinks; sugars and preservatives may be added later.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The most consumed carbonated soft drinks are produced by three major global brands: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Fruit juice is a natural product that contains few or no additives. Citrus products such as orange juice and tangerine juice are familiar breakfast drinks, while grapefruit juice, pineapple, apple, grape, lime, and lemon juice are also common. Coconut water is a highly nutritious and refreshing juice. Many kinds of berries are crushed; their juices are mixed with water and sometimes sweetened. Raspberry, blackberry and currants are popular juices drinks but the percentage of water also determines their nutritive value. Grape juice allowed to ferment produces wine.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Fruits are highly perishable so the ability to extract juices and store them was of significant value. Some fruits are highly acidic and mixing them with water and sugars or honey was often necessary to make them palatable. Fruits can also be blended with ice and other ingredients to make a smoothie. Early storage of fruit juices was labor-intensive, requiring the crushing of the fruits and the mixing of the resulting pure juices with sugars before bottling.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Vegetable juices are usually served warm or cold. Different types of vegetables can be used to make vegetable juice such as carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery and many more. Some vegetable juices are mixed with some fruit juice to make the vegetable juice taste better. Many popular vegetable juices, particularly ones with high tomato content, are high in sodium, and therefore consumption of them for health must be carefully considered. Some vegetable juices provide the same health benefits as whole vegetables in terms of reducing risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Plant milk is a general term for any milk-like product that is derived from a plant source. The most common varieties internationally are soy milk, almond milk, rice milk and coconut milk.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "A nightcap is a drink taken shortly before bedtime to induce sleep. For example, a small alcoholic drink or a cup of warm milk can supposedly promote a good night's sleep. Today, most nightcaps and relaxation drinks are generally non-alcoholic beverages containing calming ingredients. They are considered beverages which serve to relax a person. Unlike other calming beverages, such as tea, warm milk or milk with honey; relaxation drinks almost universally contain more than one active ingredient. Relaxation drinks have been known to contain other natural ingredients and are usually free of caffeine and alcohol but some have claimed to contain marijuana.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "A drink is considered \"alcoholic\" if it contains ethanol, commonly known as alcohol (although in chemistry the definition of \"alcohol\" includes many other compounds). Beer has been a part of human civilisation for around 8,000 years.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Beer is an alcoholic drink produced by the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar. The starch and saccharification enzymes are often derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat. Most beer is also flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included. The preparation of beer is called brewing. Beer is the world's most widely consumed alcoholic drink, and is the third-most consumed drink overall, after water and tea. It is said to have been discovered by goddess Ninkasi around 5300 BCE, when she accidentally discovered yeast after leaving grain in jars that were later rained upon and left for several days. Women have been the chief creators of beer throughout history due to its association with domesticity and it, throughout much of history, being brewed in the home for family consumption. Only in recent history have men begun to dabble in the field. It is thought by some to be the oldest fermented drink.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Some of humanity's earliest known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer and beer parlours, and \"The Hymn to Ninkasi\", a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people. Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Cider is a fermented alcoholic drink made from fruit juice, most commonly and traditionally apple juice, but also the juice of peaches, pears (\"Perry\" cider) or other fruit. Cider may be made from any variety of apple, but certain cultivars grown solely for use in cider are known as cider apples. The United Kingdom has the highest per capita consumption of cider, as well as the largest cider-producing companies in the world, As of 2006, the U.K. produces 600 million litres of cider each year (130 million imperial gallons).",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented grapes or other fruits. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients. Yeast consumes the sugars in the grapes and converts them into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine. The well-known variations result from the very complex interactions between the biochemical development of the fruit, reactions involved in fermentation, terroir and subsequent appellation, along with human intervention in the overall process. The final product may contain tens of thousands of chemical compounds in amounts varying from a few percent to a few parts per billion.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Wines made from produce besides grapes are usually named after the product from which they are produced (for example, rice wine, pomegranate wine, apple wine and elderberry wine) and are generically called fruit wine. The term \"wine\" can also refer to starch-fermented or fortified drinks having higher alcohol content, such as barley wine, huangjiu, or sake.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Wine has a rich history dating back thousands of years, with the earliest production so far discovered having occurred c. 6000 BC in Georgia. It had reached the Balkans by c. 4500 BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece and Rome.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "From its earliest appearance in written records, wine has also played an important role in religion. Red wine was closely associated with blood by the ancient Egyptians, who, according to Plutarch, avoided its free consumption as late as the 7th-century BC Saite dynasty, \"thinking it to be the blood of those who had once battled against the gods\". The Greek cult and mysteries of Dionysus, carried on by the Romans in their Bacchanalia, were the origins of western theater. Judaism incorporates it in the Kiddush and Christianity in its Eucharist, while alcohol consumption was forbidden in Islam.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Spirits are distilled beverages that contain no added sugar and have at least 20% alcohol by volume (ABV). Popular spirits include borovička, brandy, gin, rum, slivovitz, tequila, vodka, and whisky. Brandy is a spirit created by distilling wine, whilst vodka may be distilled from any starch- or sugar-rich plant matter; most vodka today is produced from grains such as sorghum, corn, rye or wheat.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "These drinks are often served warm or hot.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from the roasted seeds of several species of an evergreen shrub of the genus Coffea. The two most common sources of coffee beans are the highly regarded Coffea arabica, and the \"robusta\" form of the hardier Coffea canephora. Coffee plants are cultivated in more than 70 countries. Once ripe, coffee \"berries\" are picked, processed, and dried to yield the seeds inside. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor, before being ground and brewed to create coffee.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Coffee is slightly acidic (pH 5.0–5.1) and can have a stimulating effect on humans because of its caffeine content. It is one of the most popular drinks in the world. It can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. The effect of coffee on human health has been a subject of many studies; however, results have varied in terms of coffee's relative benefit.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Coffee cultivation first took place in southern Arabia; the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Coffee may have been used socially in the renaissance period of the 17th century. The increasing trades between Europe and North Africa regions made coffee more widely available to Europeans gathering at social locations that served coffee, possibly contributing to the growth of coffeehouses.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Hot chocolate, also known as drinking chocolate or cocoa, is a heated drink consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and usually a sweetener. Hot chocolate may be topped with whipped cream. Hot chocolate made with melted chocolate is sometimes called drinking chocolate, characterized by less sweetness and a thicker consistency.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The first chocolate drink is believed to have been created by the Mayans around 2,500-3,000 years ago, and a cocoa drink was an essential part of Aztec culture by 1400 AD, by which they referred to as xocōlātl. The drink became popular in Europe after being introduced from Mexico in the New World and has undergone multiple changes since then. Until the 19th century, hot chocolate was even used medicinally to treat ailments such as liver and stomach diseases.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Hot chocolate is consumed throughout the world and comes in multiple variations, including the spiced chocolate para mesa of Latin America, the very thick cioccolata calda served in Italy and chocolate a la taza served in Spain, and the thinner hot cocoa consumed in the United States. Prepared hot chocolate can be purchased from a range of establishments, including cafeterias, fast food restaurants, coffeehouses and teahouses. Powdered hot chocolate mixes, which can be added to boiling water or hot milk to make the drink at home, are sold at grocery stores and online.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Tea, the second most consumed drink in the world, is produced from infusing dried leaves of the Camellia sinensis shrub, in boiling water. There are many ways in which tea is prepared for consumption: lemon or milk and sugar are among the most common additives worldwide. Other additions include butter and salt in Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet; bubble tea in Taiwan; fresh ginger in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; mint in North Africa and Senegal; cardamom in Central Asia; rum to make Jagertee in Central Europe; and coffee to make yuanyang in Hong Kong. Tea is also served differently from country to country: in China and Japan tiny cups are used to serve tea; in Thailand and the United States tea is often served cold (as \"iced tea\") or with a lot of sweetener; Indians boil tea with milk and a blend of spices as masala chai; tea is brewed with a samovar in Iran, Kashmir, Russia and Turkey; and in the Australian Outback it is traditionally brewed in a billycan. Tea leaves can be processed in different ways resulting in a drink which appears and tastes different. Chinese yellow and green tea are steamed, roasted and dried; Oolong tea is semi-oxidised and appears green-black and black teas are fully oxidised.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Around the world, people refer to other herbal infusions as \"teas\"; it is also argued that these were popular long before the Camellia sinensis shrub was used for tea making. Leaves, flowers, roots or bark can be used to make a herbal infusion and can be bought fresh, dried or powdered.",
"title": "Type"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Throughout history, people have come together in establishments to socialise whilst drinking. This includes cafés and coffeehouses, focus on providing hot drinks as well as light snacks. Many coffee houses in the Middle East, and in West Asian immigrant districts in the Western world, offer shisha (nargile in Turkish and Greek), flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah. Espresso bars are a type of coffeehouse that specialize in serving espresso and espresso-based drinks.",
"title": "In culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "In China and Japan, the establishment would be a tea house, where people would socialise while drinking tea. Chinese scholars have used the teahouse as a place to share ideas.",
"title": "In culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Alcoholic drinks are served in drinking establishments, which have different cultural connotations. For example, pubs are fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New England, Metro Detroit, South Africa and New Zealand. In many places, especially in villages, a pub can be the focal point of the community. The writings of Samuel Pepys describe the pub as the heart of England. Many pubs are controlled by breweries, so cask ale or keg beer may be a better value than wines and spirits.",
"title": "In culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "In contrast, types of bars range from seedy bars or nightclubs, sometimes termed \"dive bars\", to elegant places of entertainment for the elite. Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. The term \"bar\" is derived from the specialized counter on which drinks are served. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go dancers, or strippers. Patrons may sit or stand at the bar and be served by the bartender, or they may sit at tables and be served by cocktail servers.",
"title": "In culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Food and drink are often paired together to enhance the taste experience. This primarily happens with wine and a culture has grown up around the process. Weight, flavors and textures can either be contrasted or complemented. In recent years, food magazines began to suggest particular wines with recipes and restaurants would offer multi-course dinners matched with a specific wine for each course.",
"title": "In culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Different drinks have unique receptacles for their consumption. This is sometimes purely for presentations purposes, such as for cocktails. In other situations, the drinkware has practical application, such as coffee cups which are designed for insulation or brandy snifters which are designed to encourage evaporation but trap the aroma within the glass.",
"title": "In culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Many glasses include a stem, which allows the drinker to hold the glass without affecting the temperature of the drink. In champagne glasses, the bowl is designed to retain champagne's signature carbonation, by reducing the surface area at the opening of the bowl. Historically, champagne has been served in a champagne coupe, the shape of which allowed carbonation to dissipate even more rapidly than from a standard wine glass.",
"title": "In culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "An important export commodity, coffee was the top agricultural export for twelve countries in 2004, and it was the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value in 2005. Green (unroasted) coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world.",
"title": "Commercial trade"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Some drinks, such as wine, can be used as an alternative investment. This can be achieved by either purchasing and reselling individual bottles or cases of particular wines, or purchasing shares in an investment wine fund that pools investors' capital.",
"title": "Commercial trade"
}
] | A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothies and soft drinks. Traditionally warm beverages include coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Caffeinated drinks that contain the stimulant caffeine have a long history. In addition, alcoholic drinks such as wine, beer, and liquor, which contain the drug ethanol, have been part of human culture for more than 8,000 years. Non-alcoholic drinks often signify drinks that would normally contain alcohol, such as beer, wine and cocktails, but are made with a sufficiently low concentration of alcohol by volume. The category includes drinks that have undergone an alcohol removal process such as non-alcoholic beers and de-alcoholized wines. | 2001-11-03T17:52:18Z | 2023-12-26T16:25:20Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drink |
7,985 | Dill | Dill (Anethum graveolens) is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. It is native to North Africa, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula; it is grown widely in Eurasia, where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food.
The word dill and its close relatives are found in most of the Germanic languages; its ultimate origin is unknown.
The genus name Anethum is the Latin form of Greek ἄνῑσον / ἄνησον / ἄνηθον / ἄνητον, which meant both "dill" and "anise". The form 'anīsum' came to be used for anise, and 'anēthum' for dill. The Latin word is the origin of dill's names in the Western Romance languages ('anet', 'aneldo' etc.), and also of the obsolete English 'anet'.
Dill grows up to 1.5–5 feet (0.46–1.52 m) from a taproot like a carrot. Its stems are slender and hollow with finely divided, softly delicate leaves; the leaves are alternately arranged, 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long with ultimate leaf divisions are 1–2 mm (1⁄32–3⁄32 in) broad, slightly broader than the similar leaves of fennel, which are threadlike, less than 1 mm (1⁄16 in) broad, but harder in texture.
In hot or dry weather, small white to yellow scented flowers form in small umbels 1–3+1⁄2 in (2.5–8.9 cm) diameter from one long stalk. The seeds come from dried up fruit 4–5 mm (3⁄16–3⁄16 in) long and 1 mm (1⁄16 in) thick, and straight to slightly curved with a longitudinally ridged surface.
Successful cultivation requires warm to hot summers with high sunshine levels; even partial shade will reduce the yield substantially. It also prefers rich, well-drained soil. The seed is harvested by cutting the flower heads off the stalks when the seed is beginning to ripen. The seed heads are placed upside down in a paper bag and left in a warm, dry place for a week. The seeds then separate from the stems easily for storage in an airtight container.
These plants, like their fennel and parsley relatives, often are eaten by black swallowtail caterpillars in areas where that species occurs. For this reason, they may be included in some butterfly gardens.
Dill has been found in the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep II, dating to around 1400 BC. It was also later found in the Greek city of Samos, around the 7th century BC, and mentioned in the writings of Theophrastus (371–287 BC). In Greek mythology, the dill was originally a young man named Anethus who was transformed into the plant.
Fresh and dried dill leaves (sometimes called "dill weed" or "dillweed" to distinguish it from dill seed) are widely used as herbs in Europe and central Asia.
Like caraway, the fern-like leaves of dill are aromatic and are used to flavour many foods such as gravlax (cured salmon) and other fish dishes, borscht, and other soups, as well as pickles (where the dill flower is sometimes used). Dill is best when used fresh, as it loses its flavor rapidly if dried. However, freeze-dried dill leaves retain their flavour relatively well for a few months.
Dill oil is extracted from the leaves, stems, and seeds of the plant. The oil from the seeds is distilled and used in the manufacturing of soaps.
Dill is the eponymous ingredient in dill pickles.
In central and eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, dill is a staple culinary herb along with chives and parsley. Fresh, finely cut dill leaves are used as a topping in soups, especially the hot red borsht and the cold borsht mixed with curds, kefir, yogurt, or sour cream, which is served during hot summer weather and is called 'okroshka'. It also is popular in summer to drink fermented milk (curds, kefir, yogurt, or buttermilk) mixed with dill (and sometimes other herbs).
In the same way, dill is used as a topping for boiled potatoes covered with fresh butter – especially in summer when there are so-called "new", or young, potatoes. The dill leaves may be mixed with butter, making a dill butter, to serve the same purpose. Dill leaves mixed with tvorog form one of the traditional cheese spreads used for sandwiches. Fresh dill leaves are used throughout the year as an ingredient in salads, e.g., one made of lettuce, fresh cucumbers, and tomatoes, as basil leaves are used in Italy and Greece.
Russian cuisine is noted for liberal use of dill, where it is known as укроп. It is supposed to have antiflatulent properties; some Russian cosmonauts recommended its use in human spaceflight due to such properties being beneficial in confined quarters with a closed air supply.
In Polish cuisine, fresh dill leaves mixed with sour cream are the basis for dressings. It is especially popular to use this kind of sauce with freshly cut cucumbers, which are almost wholly immersed in the sauce, making a salad called 'mizeria'. Dill sauce is used hot for baked freshwater fish and for chicken or turkey breast, or used hot or cold for hard-boiled eggs. A dill-based soup, (zupa koperkowa), served with potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, is popular in Poland. Whole stems including roots and flower buds are used traditionally to prepare Polish-style pickled cucumbers (ogórki kiszone), especially the so-called low-salt cucumbers (ogórki małosolne). Whole stems of dill (often including the roots) also are cooked with potatoes, especially the potatoes of autumn and winter, so they resemble the flavour of the newer potatoes found in summer. Some kinds of fish, especially trout and salmon, traditionally are baked with the stems and leaves of dill.
In the Czech Republic, white dill sauce made of cream (or milk), butter, flour, vinegar, and dill is called 'koprová omáčka' (also 'koprovka' or 'kopračka') and is served either with boiled eggs and potatoes, or with dumplings and boiled beef. Another Czech dish with dill is a soup called 'kulajda' that contains mushrooms (traditionally wild ones).
In Germany, dill is popular as a seasoning for fish and many other dishes, chopped as a garnish on potatoes, and as a flavouring in pickles.
In the UK, dill may be used in fish pie.
In Bulgaria dill is widely used in traditional vegetable salads, and most notably the yogurt-based cold soup Tarator. It is also used in the preparation of sour pickles, cabbage, and other dishes.
In Romania dill (mărar) is widely used as an ingredient for soups such as 'borş' (pronounced "borsh"), pickles, and other dishes, especially those based on peas, beans, and cabbage. It is popular for dishes based on potatoes and mushrooms and may be found in many summer salads (especially cucumber salad, cabbage salad and lettuce salad). During springtime, it is used in omelets with spring onions. It often complements sauces based on sour cream or yogurt and is mixed with salted cheese and used as a filling. Another popular dish with dill as a main ingredient is dill sauce, which is served with eggs and fried sausages.
In Hungary, dill is very widely used. It is popular as a sauce or filling, and mixed with a type of cottage cheese. Dill is also used for pickling and in salads. The Hungarian name for dill is 'kapor'.
In Serbia, dill is known as 'mirodjija' and is used as an addition to soups, potato and cucumber salads, and French fries. It features in the Serbian proverb, "бити мирођија у свакој чорби" /biti mirodjija u svakoj čorbi/ (to be a dill in every soup), which corresponds to the English proverb "to have a finger in every pie".
In Greece, dill is known as 'άνηθος' (anithos). In antiquity it was used as an ingredient in wines that were called "anithites oinos" (wine with anithos-dill). In modern days, dill is used in salads, soups, sauces, and fish and vegetable dishes.
In Santa Maria, Azores, dill (endro) is the most important ingredient of the traditional Holy Ghost soup (sopa do Espírito Santo). Dill is found ubiquitously in Santa Maria, yet, is rare in the other Azorean Islands.
In Sweden, dill is a common spice or herb. The flowers of fully grown dill are called 'krondill' (crown dill) and used when cooking crayfish. The krondill is put into the water after the crayfish is boiled, but still in hot and salt water. Then the entire dish is refrigerated for at least 24 hours before being served (with toasted bread and butter). Krondill is also used to flavor pickles and vodka. After a month or two of fermentation, the cucumber pickles are ready to eat, for instance, with pork, brown sauce, and potatoes, as a sweetener. The thinner part of dill and young plants may be used with boiled fresh potatoes (especially the first potatoes of the year, new potatoes, which usually are small and have a very thin skin). In salads it is used together with, or instead, of other green herbs, such as parsley, chives, and basil. It is often paired up with chives when used in food. Dill is often used to flavour fish and seafood in Sweden, for example, gravlax and various herring pickles, among them the traditional, 'sill i dill' (literally 'herring in dill'). In contrast to the various fish dishes flavoured with dill, there is also a traditional Swedish dish called, 'dillkött', which is a meaty stew flavoured with dill. The dish commonly contains pieces of veal or lamb that are boiled until tender and then served together with a vinegary dill sauce. Dill seeds may be used in breads or 'akvavit'. A newer, non-traditional use of dill is to pair it with chives as a flavouring for potato chips. These are called 'dillchips' and are quite popular in Sweden.
In Iran, dill is known as 'shevid' and sometimes, is used with rice and called 'shevid-polo'. It also is used in Iranian 'aash' recipes, and similarly, is called sheved in Persian.
In India, dill is known as 'Sholpa' in Bengali, shepu (शेपू) in Marathi and Konkani, savaa in Hindi, or soa in Punjabi. In Telugu, it is called 'Soa-kura' (herb greens). It also is called sabbasige soppu (ಸಬ್ಬಸಿಗೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪು) in Kannada. In Tamil it is known as sada kuppi (சதகுப்பி). In Malayalam, it is ചതകുപ്പ (chathakuppa) or ശതകുപ്പ (sathakuppa). In Sanskrit, this herb is called shatapushpa. In Gujarati, it is known as suva (સૂવા). In India, dill is prepared in the manner of yellow 'moong dal', as a main-course dish. It is considered to have very good antiflatulent properties, so it is used as 'mukhwas', or an after-meal digestive. Traditionally, it is given to mothers immediately after childbirth. In the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, a small amount of fresh dill is cooked along with cut potatoes and fresh fenugreek leaves (Hindi आलू-मेथी-सोया).
In Manipur, dill, locally known as pakhon, is an essential ingredient of chagem pomba – a traditional Manipuri dish made with fermented soybean and rice.
In Laos and parts of northern Thailand, dill is known in English as Lao coriander (Lao: ຜັກຊີ or Thai: ผักชีลาว), and served as a side with salad yum or papaya salad. In the Lao language, it is called 'phak see', and in Thai, it is known as 'phak chee Lao'. In Lao cuisine, Lao coriander is used extensively in traditional Lao dishes such as 'mok pa' (steamed fish in banana leaf) and several coconut milk curries that contain fish or prawns.
In China dill is called colloquially, 'huíxiāng' (茴香, perfume of Hui people), or more properly 'shíluó' (莳萝/蒔蘿). It is a common filling in 'baozi', 'jiaozi' and 'xianbing' and may be used as vegetarian with rice vermicelli, or combined with either meat or eggs. Vegetarian dill baozi are a common part of a Beijing breakfast. In baozi and xianbing, it often is interchangeable with non-bulbing fennel and the term 茴香 also may refer to fennel, similarly to caraway and coriander leaf, sharing a name in Chinese as well. Dill also may be stir fried as a potherb, often with egg, in the same manner as Chinese chives. In Northern China, Beijing, Inner-Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, and Xinjiang, dill seeds commonly are called 'zīrán' (孜然), but also 'kūmíng' (枯茗), 'kūmíngzi' (枯茗子), 'shíluózi' (莳萝子/蒔蘿子), 'xiǎohuíxiāngzi' (小茴香子) and are used with pepper for lamb meat. In the whole of China, 'yángchuàn' (羊串) or 'yángròu chuàn' (羊肉串), lamb brochette, a speciality from Uyghurs, uses cumin and pepper.
In Taiwan, it is also commonly used as a filling in steamed buns (baozi) and dumplings (jiaozi).
In Vietnam, the use of dill in cooking is regional. It is used mainly in northern Vietnamese cuisine.
In Arab countries, dill seed, called ain jaradeh (grasshopper's eye), is used as a spice in cold dishes such as 'fattoush' and pickles. In Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, dill is called 'shibint' and is used mostly in fish dishes. In Egypt, dillweed is commonly used to flavour cabbage dishes, including 'mahshi koronb' (stuffed cabbage leaves). In Israel, dill weed is used in salads and also to flavour omelettes, often alongside parsley.
When used as a companion plant, dill attracts many beneficial insects as the umbrella flower heads go to seed. It makes a good companion plant for cucumbers and broccoli.
Tomatoes will benefit from dill when it is young since it will repel harmful pests while attracting pollinators, but must be pruned as it matures to prevent the dill from flowering, as this will slow or stop the growth of tomatoes. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dill (Anethum graveolens) is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. It is native to North Africa, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula; it is grown widely in Eurasia, where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The word dill and its close relatives are found in most of the Germanic languages; its ultimate origin is unknown.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The genus name Anethum is the Latin form of Greek ἄνῑσον / ἄνησον / ἄνηθον / ἄνητον, which meant both \"dill\" and \"anise\". The form 'anīsum' came to be used for anise, and 'anēthum' for dill. The Latin word is the origin of dill's names in the Western Romance languages ('anet', 'aneldo' etc.), and also of the obsolete English 'anet'.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Dill grows up to 1.5–5 feet (0.46–1.52 m) from a taproot like a carrot. Its stems are slender and hollow with finely divided, softly delicate leaves; the leaves are alternately arranged, 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long with ultimate leaf divisions are 1–2 mm (1⁄32–3⁄32 in) broad, slightly broader than the similar leaves of fennel, which are threadlike, less than 1 mm (1⁄16 in) broad, but harder in texture.",
"title": "Botany"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In hot or dry weather, small white to yellow scented flowers form in small umbels 1–3+1⁄2 in (2.5–8.9 cm) diameter from one long stalk. The seeds come from dried up fruit 4–5 mm (3⁄16–3⁄16 in) long and 1 mm (1⁄16 in) thick, and straight to slightly curved with a longitudinally ridged surface.",
"title": "Botany"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Successful cultivation requires warm to hot summers with high sunshine levels; even partial shade will reduce the yield substantially. It also prefers rich, well-drained soil. The seed is harvested by cutting the flower heads off the stalks when the seed is beginning to ripen. The seed heads are placed upside down in a paper bag and left in a warm, dry place for a week. The seeds then separate from the stems easily for storage in an airtight container.",
"title": "Cultivation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "These plants, like their fennel and parsley relatives, often are eaten by black swallowtail caterpillars in areas where that species occurs. For this reason, they may be included in some butterfly gardens.",
"title": "Cultivation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Dill has been found in the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep II, dating to around 1400 BC. It was also later found in the Greek city of Samos, around the 7th century BC, and mentioned in the writings of Theophrastus (371–287 BC). In Greek mythology, the dill was originally a young man named Anethus who was transformed into the plant.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Fresh and dried dill leaves (sometimes called \"dill weed\" or \"dillweed\" to distinguish it from dill seed) are widely used as herbs in Europe and central Asia.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Like caraway, the fern-like leaves of dill are aromatic and are used to flavour many foods such as gravlax (cured salmon) and other fish dishes, borscht, and other soups, as well as pickles (where the dill flower is sometimes used). Dill is best when used fresh, as it loses its flavor rapidly if dried. However, freeze-dried dill leaves retain their flavour relatively well for a few months.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Dill oil is extracted from the leaves, stems, and seeds of the plant. The oil from the seeds is distilled and used in the manufacturing of soaps.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Dill is the eponymous ingredient in dill pickles.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In central and eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, dill is a staple culinary herb along with chives and parsley. Fresh, finely cut dill leaves are used as a topping in soups, especially the hot red borsht and the cold borsht mixed with curds, kefir, yogurt, or sour cream, which is served during hot summer weather and is called 'okroshka'. It also is popular in summer to drink fermented milk (curds, kefir, yogurt, or buttermilk) mixed with dill (and sometimes other herbs).",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In the same way, dill is used as a topping for boiled potatoes covered with fresh butter – especially in summer when there are so-called \"new\", or young, potatoes. The dill leaves may be mixed with butter, making a dill butter, to serve the same purpose. Dill leaves mixed with tvorog form one of the traditional cheese spreads used for sandwiches. Fresh dill leaves are used throughout the year as an ingredient in salads, e.g., one made of lettuce, fresh cucumbers, and tomatoes, as basil leaves are used in Italy and Greece.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Russian cuisine is noted for liberal use of dill, where it is known as укроп. It is supposed to have antiflatulent properties; some Russian cosmonauts recommended its use in human spaceflight due to such properties being beneficial in confined quarters with a closed air supply.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In Polish cuisine, fresh dill leaves mixed with sour cream are the basis for dressings. It is especially popular to use this kind of sauce with freshly cut cucumbers, which are almost wholly immersed in the sauce, making a salad called 'mizeria'. Dill sauce is used hot for baked freshwater fish and for chicken or turkey breast, or used hot or cold for hard-boiled eggs. A dill-based soup, (zupa koperkowa), served with potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, is popular in Poland. Whole stems including roots and flower buds are used traditionally to prepare Polish-style pickled cucumbers (ogórki kiszone), especially the so-called low-salt cucumbers (ogórki małosolne). Whole stems of dill (often including the roots) also are cooked with potatoes, especially the potatoes of autumn and winter, so they resemble the flavour of the newer potatoes found in summer. Some kinds of fish, especially trout and salmon, traditionally are baked with the stems and leaves of dill.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In the Czech Republic, white dill sauce made of cream (or milk), butter, flour, vinegar, and dill is called 'koprová omáčka' (also 'koprovka' or 'kopračka') and is served either with boiled eggs and potatoes, or with dumplings and boiled beef. Another Czech dish with dill is a soup called 'kulajda' that contains mushrooms (traditionally wild ones).",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In Germany, dill is popular as a seasoning for fish and many other dishes, chopped as a garnish on potatoes, and as a flavouring in pickles.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In the UK, dill may be used in fish pie.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In Bulgaria dill is widely used in traditional vegetable salads, and most notably the yogurt-based cold soup Tarator. It is also used in the preparation of sour pickles, cabbage, and other dishes.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In Romania dill (mărar) is widely used as an ingredient for soups such as 'borş' (pronounced \"borsh\"), pickles, and other dishes, especially those based on peas, beans, and cabbage. It is popular for dishes based on potatoes and mushrooms and may be found in many summer salads (especially cucumber salad, cabbage salad and lettuce salad). During springtime, it is used in omelets with spring onions. It often complements sauces based on sour cream or yogurt and is mixed with salted cheese and used as a filling. Another popular dish with dill as a main ingredient is dill sauce, which is served with eggs and fried sausages.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In Hungary, dill is very widely used. It is popular as a sauce or filling, and mixed with a type of cottage cheese. Dill is also used for pickling and in salads. The Hungarian name for dill is 'kapor'.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In Serbia, dill is known as 'mirodjija' and is used as an addition to soups, potato and cucumber salads, and French fries. It features in the Serbian proverb, \"бити мирођија у свакој чорби\" /biti mirodjija u svakoj čorbi/ (to be a dill in every soup), which corresponds to the English proverb \"to have a finger in every pie\".",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In Greece, dill is known as 'άνηθος' (anithos). In antiquity it was used as an ingredient in wines that were called \"anithites oinos\" (wine with anithos-dill). In modern days, dill is used in salads, soups, sauces, and fish and vegetable dishes.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In Santa Maria, Azores, dill (endro) is the most important ingredient of the traditional Holy Ghost soup (sopa do Espírito Santo). Dill is found ubiquitously in Santa Maria, yet, is rare in the other Azorean Islands.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In Sweden, dill is a common spice or herb. The flowers of fully grown dill are called 'krondill' (crown dill) and used when cooking crayfish. The krondill is put into the water after the crayfish is boiled, but still in hot and salt water. Then the entire dish is refrigerated for at least 24 hours before being served (with toasted bread and butter). Krondill is also used to flavor pickles and vodka. After a month or two of fermentation, the cucumber pickles are ready to eat, for instance, with pork, brown sauce, and potatoes, as a sweetener. The thinner part of dill and young plants may be used with boiled fresh potatoes (especially the first potatoes of the year, new potatoes, which usually are small and have a very thin skin). In salads it is used together with, or instead, of other green herbs, such as parsley, chives, and basil. It is often paired up with chives when used in food. Dill is often used to flavour fish and seafood in Sweden, for example, gravlax and various herring pickles, among them the traditional, 'sill i dill' (literally 'herring in dill'). In contrast to the various fish dishes flavoured with dill, there is also a traditional Swedish dish called, 'dillkött', which is a meaty stew flavoured with dill. The dish commonly contains pieces of veal or lamb that are boiled until tender and then served together with a vinegary dill sauce. Dill seeds may be used in breads or 'akvavit'. A newer, non-traditional use of dill is to pair it with chives as a flavouring for potato chips. These are called 'dillchips' and are quite popular in Sweden.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In Iran, dill is known as 'shevid' and sometimes, is used with rice and called 'shevid-polo'. It also is used in Iranian 'aash' recipes, and similarly, is called sheved in Persian.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In India, dill is known as 'Sholpa' in Bengali, shepu (शेपू) in Marathi and Konkani, savaa in Hindi, or soa in Punjabi. In Telugu, it is called 'Soa-kura' (herb greens). It also is called sabbasige soppu (ಸಬ್ಬಸಿಗೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪು) in Kannada. In Tamil it is known as sada kuppi (சதகுப்பி). In Malayalam, it is ചതകുപ്പ (chathakuppa) or ശതകുപ്പ (sathakuppa). In Sanskrit, this herb is called shatapushpa. In Gujarati, it is known as suva (સૂવા). In India, dill is prepared in the manner of yellow 'moong dal', as a main-course dish. It is considered to have very good antiflatulent properties, so it is used as 'mukhwas', or an after-meal digestive. Traditionally, it is given to mothers immediately after childbirth. In the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, a small amount of fresh dill is cooked along with cut potatoes and fresh fenugreek leaves (Hindi आलू-मेथी-सोया).",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In Manipur, dill, locally known as pakhon, is an essential ingredient of chagem pomba – a traditional Manipuri dish made with fermented soybean and rice.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In Laos and parts of northern Thailand, dill is known in English as Lao coriander (Lao: ຜັກຊີ or Thai: ผักชีลาว), and served as a side with salad yum or papaya salad. In the Lao language, it is called 'phak see', and in Thai, it is known as 'phak chee Lao'. In Lao cuisine, Lao coriander is used extensively in traditional Lao dishes such as 'mok pa' (steamed fish in banana leaf) and several coconut milk curries that contain fish or prawns.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In China dill is called colloquially, 'huíxiāng' (茴香, perfume of Hui people), or more properly 'shíluó' (莳萝/蒔蘿). It is a common filling in 'baozi', 'jiaozi' and 'xianbing' and may be used as vegetarian with rice vermicelli, or combined with either meat or eggs. Vegetarian dill baozi are a common part of a Beijing breakfast. In baozi and xianbing, it often is interchangeable with non-bulbing fennel and the term 茴香 also may refer to fennel, similarly to caraway and coriander leaf, sharing a name in Chinese as well. Dill also may be stir fried as a potherb, often with egg, in the same manner as Chinese chives. In Northern China, Beijing, Inner-Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, and Xinjiang, dill seeds commonly are called 'zīrán' (孜然), but also 'kūmíng' (枯茗), 'kūmíngzi' (枯茗子), 'shíluózi' (莳萝子/蒔蘿子), 'xiǎohuíxiāngzi' (小茴香子) and are used with pepper for lamb meat. In the whole of China, 'yángchuàn' (羊串) or 'yángròu chuàn' (羊肉串), lamb brochette, a speciality from Uyghurs, uses cumin and pepper.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In Taiwan, it is also commonly used as a filling in steamed buns (baozi) and dumplings (jiaozi).",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In Vietnam, the use of dill in cooking is regional. It is used mainly in northern Vietnamese cuisine.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In Arab countries, dill seed, called ain jaradeh (grasshopper's eye), is used as a spice in cold dishes such as 'fattoush' and pickles. In Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, dill is called 'shibint' and is used mostly in fish dishes. In Egypt, dillweed is commonly used to flavour cabbage dishes, including 'mahshi koronb' (stuffed cabbage leaves). In Israel, dill weed is used in salads and also to flavour omelettes, often alongside parsley.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "When used as a companion plant, dill attracts many beneficial insects as the umbrella flower heads go to seed. It makes a good companion plant for cucumbers and broccoli.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Tomatoes will benefit from dill when it is young since it will repel harmful pests while attracting pollinators, but must be pruned as it matures to prevent the dill from flowering, as this will slow or stop the growth of tomatoes.",
"title": "Uses"
}
] | Dill is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. It is native to North Africa, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula; it is grown widely in Eurasia, where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food. | 2001-05-25T19:19:36Z | 2023-12-23T19:14:10Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dill |
7,988 | Dual space | In mathematics, any vector space V {\displaystyle V} has a corresponding dual vector space (or just dual space for short) consisting of all linear forms on V , {\displaystyle V,} together with the vector space structure of pointwise addition and scalar multiplication by constants.
The dual space as defined above is defined for all vector spaces, and to avoid ambiguity may also be called the algebraic dual space. When defined for a topological vector space, there is a subspace of the dual space, corresponding to continuous linear functionals, called the continuous dual space.
Dual vector spaces find application in many branches of mathematics that use vector spaces, such as in tensor analysis with finite-dimensional vector spaces. When applied to vector spaces of functions (which are typically infinite-dimensional), dual spaces are used to describe measures, distributions, and Hilbert spaces. Consequently, the dual space is an important concept in functional analysis.
Early terms for dual include polarer Raum [Hahn 1927], espace conjugué, adjoint space [Alaoglu 1940], and transponierter Raum [Schauder 1930] and [Banach 1932]. The term dual is due to Bourbaki 1938.
Given any vector space V {\displaystyle V} over a field F {\displaystyle F} , the (algebraic) dual space V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} (alternatively denoted by V ∨ {\displaystyle V^{\lor }} or V ′ {\displaystyle V'} ) is defined as the set of all linear maps φ : V → F {\displaystyle \varphi :V\to F} (linear functionals). Since linear maps are vector space homomorphisms, the dual space may be denoted hom ( V , F ) {\displaystyle \hom(V,F)} . The dual space V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} itself becomes a vector space over F {\displaystyle F} when equipped with an addition and scalar multiplication satisfying:
for all φ , ψ ∈ V ∗ {\displaystyle \varphi ,\psi \in V^{*}} , x ∈ V {\displaystyle x\in V} , and a ∈ F {\displaystyle a\in F} .
Elements of the algebraic dual space V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} are sometimes called covectors, one-forms, or linear forms.
The pairing of a functional φ {\displaystyle \varphi } in the dual space V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} and an element x {\displaystyle x} of V {\displaystyle V} is sometimes denoted by a bracket: φ ( x ) = [ x , φ ] {\displaystyle \varphi (x)=[x,\varphi ]} or φ ( x ) = ⟨ x , φ ⟩ {\displaystyle \varphi (x)=\langle x,\varphi \rangle } . This pairing defines a nondegenerate bilinear mapping ⟨ ⋅ , ⋅ ⟩ : V × V ∗ → F {\displaystyle \langle \cdot ,\cdot \rangle :V\times V^{*}\to F} called the natural pairing.
If V {\displaystyle V} is finite-dimensional, then V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} has the same dimension as V {\displaystyle V} . Given a basis { e 1 , … , e n } {\displaystyle \{\mathbf {e} _{1},\dots ,\mathbf {e} _{n}\}} in V {\displaystyle V} , it is possible to construct a specific basis in V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} , called the dual basis. This dual basis is a set { e 1 , … , e n } {\displaystyle \{\mathbf {e} ^{1},\dots ,\mathbf {e} ^{n}\}} of linear functionals on V {\displaystyle V} , defined by the relation
for any choice of coefficients c i ∈ F {\displaystyle c^{i}\in F} . In particular, letting in turn each one of those coefficients be equal to one and the other coefficients zero, gives the system of equations
where δ j i {\displaystyle \delta _{j}^{i}} is the Kronecker delta symbol. This property is referred to as bi-orthogonality property.
For example, if V {\displaystyle V} is R 2 {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{2}} , let its basis be chosen as { e 1 = ( 1 / 2 , 1 / 2 ) , e 2 = ( 0 , 1 ) } {\displaystyle \{\mathbf {e} _{1}=(1/2,1/2),\mathbf {e} _{2}=(0,1)\}} . The basis vectors are not orthogonal to each other. Then, e 1 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{1}} and e 2 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{2}} are one-forms (functions that map a vector to a scalar) such that e 1 ( e 1 ) = 1 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{1}(\mathbf {e} _{1})=1} , e 1 ( e 2 ) = 0 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{1}(\mathbf {e} _{2})=0} , e 2 ( e 1 ) = 0 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{2}(\mathbf {e} _{1})=0} , and e 2 ( e 2 ) = 1 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{2}(\mathbf {e} _{2})=1} . (Note: The superscript here is the index, not an exponent.) This system of equations can be expressed using matrix notation as
Solving for the unknown values in the second matrix shows the dual basis to be { e 1 = ( 2 , 0 ) , e 2 = ( − 1 , 1 ) } {\displaystyle \{\mathbf {e} ^{1}=(2,0),\mathbf {e} ^{2}=(-1,1)\}} . Because e 1 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{1}} and e 2 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{2}} are functionals, they can be rewritten as e 1 ( x , y ) = 2 x {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{1}(x,y)=2x} and e 2 ( x , y ) = − x + y {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{2}(x,y)=-x+y} .
In general, when V {\displaystyle V} is R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} , if E = [ e 1 | ⋯ | e n ] {\displaystyle E=[\mathbf {e} _{1}|\cdots |\mathbf {e} _{n}]} is a matrix whose columns are the basis vectors and E ^ = [ e 1 | ⋯ | e n ] {\displaystyle {\hat {E}}=[\mathbf {e} ^{1}|\cdots |\mathbf {e} ^{n}]} is a matrix whose columns are the dual basis vectors, then
where I n {\displaystyle I_{n}} is the identity matrix of order n {\displaystyle n} . The biorthogonality property of these two basis sets allows any point x ∈ V {\displaystyle \mathbf {x} \in V} to be represented as
even when the basis vectors are not orthogonal to each other. Strictly speaking, the above statement only makes sense once the inner product ⟨ ⋅ , ⋅ ⟩ {\displaystyle \langle \cdot ,\cdot \rangle } and the corresponding duality pairing are introduced, as described below in § Bilinear products and dual spaces.
In particular, R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} can be interpreted as the space of columns of n {\displaystyle n} real numbers, its dual space is typically written as the space of rows of n {\displaystyle n} real numbers. Such a row acts on R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} as a linear functional by ordinary matrix multiplication. This is because a functional maps every n {\displaystyle n} -vector x {\displaystyle x} into a real number y {\displaystyle y} . Then, seeing this functional as a matrix M {\displaystyle M} , and x {\displaystyle x} as an n × 1 {\displaystyle n\times 1} matrix, and y {\displaystyle y} a 1 × 1 {\displaystyle 1\times 1} matrix (trivially, a real number) respectively, if M x = y {\displaystyle Mx=y} then, by dimension reasons, M {\displaystyle M} must be a 1 × n {\displaystyle 1\times n} matrix; that is, M {\displaystyle M} must be a row vector.
If V {\displaystyle V} consists of the space of geometrical vectors in the plane, then the level curves of an element of V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} form a family of parallel lines in V {\displaystyle V} , because the range is 1-dimensional, so that every point in the range is a multiple of any one nonzero element. So an element of V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} can be intuitively thought of as a particular family of parallel lines covering the plane. To compute the value of a functional on a given vector, it suffices to determine which of the lines the vector lies on. Informally, this "counts" how many lines the vector crosses. More generally, if V {\displaystyle V} is a vector space of any dimension, then the level sets of a linear functional in V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} are parallel hyperplanes in V {\displaystyle V} , and the action of a linear functional on a vector can be visualized in terms of these hyperplanes.
If V {\displaystyle V} is not finite-dimensional but has a basis e α {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} _{\alpha }} indexed by an infinite set A {\displaystyle A} , then the same construction as in the finite-dimensional case yields linearly independent elements e α {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ^{\alpha }} ( α ∈ A {\displaystyle \alpha \in A} ) of the dual space, but they will not form a basis.
For instance, consider the space R ∞ {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{\infty }} , whose elements are those sequences of real numbers that contain only finitely many non-zero entries, which has a basis indexed by the natural numbers N {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} } . For i ∈ N {\displaystyle i\in \mathbb {N} } , e i {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} _{i}} is the sequence consisting of all zeroes except in the i {\displaystyle i} -th position, which is 1. The dual space of R ∞ {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{\infty }} is (isomorphic to) R N {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{\mathbb {N} }} , the space of all sequences of real numbers: each real sequence ( a n ) {\displaystyle (a_{n})} defines a function where the element ( x n ) {\displaystyle (x_{n})} of R ∞ {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{\infty }} is sent to the number
which is a finite sum because there are only finitely many nonzero x n {\displaystyle x_{n}} . The dimension of R ∞ {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{\infty }} is countably infinite, whereas R N {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{\mathbb {N} }} does not have a countable basis.
This observation generalizes to any infinite-dimensional vector space V {\displaystyle V} over any field F {\displaystyle F} : a choice of basis { e α : α ∈ A } {\displaystyle \{\mathbf {e} _{\alpha }:\alpha \in A\}} identifies V {\displaystyle V} with the space ( F A ) 0 {\displaystyle (F^{A})_{0}} of functions f : A → F {\displaystyle f:A\to F} such that f α = f ( α ) {\displaystyle f_{\alpha }=f(\alpha )} is nonzero for only finitely many α ∈ A {\displaystyle \alpha \in A} , where such a function f {\displaystyle f} is identified with the vector
in V {\displaystyle V} (the sum is finite by the assumption on f {\displaystyle f} , and any v ∈ V {\displaystyle v\in V} may be written in this way by the definition of the basis).
The dual space of V {\displaystyle V} may then be identified with the space F A {\displaystyle F^{A}} of all functions from A {\displaystyle A} to F {\displaystyle F} : a linear functional T {\displaystyle T} on V {\displaystyle V} is uniquely determined by the values θ α = T ( e α ) {\displaystyle \theta _{\alpha }=T(\mathbf {e} _{\alpha })} it takes on the basis of V {\displaystyle V} , and any function θ : A → F {\displaystyle \theta :A\to F} (with θ ( α ) = θ α {\displaystyle \theta (\alpha )=\theta _{\alpha }} ) defines a linear functional T {\displaystyle T} on V {\displaystyle V} by
Again, the sum is finite because f α {\displaystyle f_{\alpha }} is nonzero for only finitely many α {\displaystyle \alpha } .
The set ( F A ) 0 {\displaystyle (F^{A})_{0}} may be identified (essentially by definition) with the direct sum of infinitely many copies of F {\displaystyle F} (viewed as a 1-dimensional vector space over itself) indexed by A {\displaystyle A} , i.e. there are linear isomorphisms
On the other hand, F A {\displaystyle F^{A}} is (again by definition), the direct product of infinitely many copies of F {\displaystyle F} indexed by A {\displaystyle A} , and so the identification
is a special case of a general result relating direct sums (of modules) to direct products.
If a vector space is not finite-dimensional, then its (algebraic) dual space is always of larger dimension (as a cardinal number) than the original vector space. This is in contrast to the case of the continuous dual space, discussed below, which may be isomorphic to the original vector space even if the latter is infinite-dimensional.
The proof of this inequality between dimensions results of the following.
If V {\displaystyle V} is an infinite-dimensional F {\displaystyle F} -vector space, the arithmetical properties of cardinal numbers implies that
where cardinalities are, as commonly, denoted as absolute values. For proving that d i m ( V ) < d i m ( V ∗ ) , {\displaystyle \mathrm {dim} (V)<\mathrm {dim} (V^{*}),} it suffices to prove that | F | ≤ | d i m ( V ∗ ) | , {\displaystyle |F|\leq |\mathrm {dim} (V^{\ast })|,} which can be done with an argument similar to Cantor's diagonal argument.
If V is finite-dimensional, then V is isomorphic to V. But there is in general no natural isomorphism between these two spaces. Any bilinear form ⟨·,·⟩ on V gives a mapping of V into its dual space via
where the right hand side is defined as the functional on V taking each w ∈ V to ⟨v, w⟩. In other words, the bilinear form determines a linear mapping
defined by
If the bilinear form is nondegenerate, then this is an isomorphism onto a subspace of V. If V is finite-dimensional, then this is an isomorphism onto all of V. Conversely, any isomorphism Φ {\displaystyle \Phi } from V to a subspace of V (resp., all of V if V is finite dimensional) defines a unique nondegenerate bilinear form ⟨ ⋅ , ⋅ ⟩ Φ {\displaystyle \langle \cdot ,\cdot \rangle _{\Phi }} on V by
Thus there is a one-to-one correspondence between isomorphisms of V to a subspace of (resp., all of) V and nondegenerate bilinear forms on V.
If the vector space V is over the complex field, then sometimes it is more natural to consider sesquilinear forms instead of bilinear forms. In that case, a given sesquilinear form ⟨·,·⟩ determines an isomorphism of V with the complex conjugate of the dual space
The conjugate of the dual space V ∗ ¯ {\displaystyle {\overline {V^{*}}}} can be identified with the set of all additive complex-valued functionals f : V → C such that
There is a natural homomorphism Ψ {\displaystyle \Psi } from V {\displaystyle V} into the double dual V ∗ ∗ = { Φ : V ∗ → F : Φ l i n e a r } {\displaystyle V^{**}=\{\Phi :V^{*}\to F:\Phi \ \mathrm {linear} \}} , defined by ( Ψ ( v ) ) ( φ ) = φ ( v ) {\displaystyle (\Psi (v))(\varphi )=\varphi (v)} for all v ∈ V , φ ∈ V ∗ {\displaystyle v\in V,\varphi \in V^{*}} . In other words, if e v v : V ∗ → F {\displaystyle \mathrm {ev} _{v}:V^{*}\to F} is the evaluation map defined by φ ↦ φ ( v ) {\displaystyle \varphi \mapsto \varphi (v)} , then Ψ : V → V ∗ ∗ {\displaystyle \Psi :V\to V^{**}} is defined as the map v ↦ e v v {\displaystyle v\mapsto \mathrm {ev} _{v}} . This map Ψ {\displaystyle \Psi } is always injective; and it is always an isomorphism if V {\displaystyle V} is finite-dimensional. Indeed, the isomorphism of a finite-dimensional vector space with its double dual is an archetypal example of a natural isomorphism. Infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces are not isomorphic to their algebraic double duals, but instead to their continuous double duals.
If f : V → W is a linear map, then the transpose (or dual) f : W → V is defined by
for every φ ∈ W ∗ {\displaystyle \varphi \in W^{*}} . The resulting functional f ∗ ( φ ) {\displaystyle f^{*}(\varphi )} in V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} is called the pullback of φ {\displaystyle \varphi } along f {\displaystyle f} .
The following identity holds for all φ ∈ W ∗ {\displaystyle \varphi \in W^{*}} and v ∈ V {\displaystyle v\in V} :
where the bracket [·,·] on the left is the natural pairing of V with its dual space, and that on the right is the natural pairing of W with its dual. This identity characterizes the transpose, and is formally similar to the definition of the adjoint.
The assignment f ↦ f produces an injective linear map between the space of linear operators from V to W and the space of linear operators from W to V; this homomorphism is an isomorphism if and only if W is finite-dimensional. If V = W then the space of linear maps is actually an algebra under composition of maps, and the assignment is then an antihomomorphism of algebras, meaning that (fg) = gf. In the language of category theory, taking the dual of vector spaces and the transpose of linear maps is therefore a contravariant functor from the category of vector spaces over F to itself. It is possible to identify (f) with f using the natural injection into the double dual.
If the linear map f is represented by the matrix A with respect to two bases of V and W, then f is represented by the transpose matrix A with respect to the dual bases of W and V, hence the name. Alternatively, as f is represented by A acting on the left on column vectors, f is represented by the same matrix acting on the right on row vectors. These points of view are related by the canonical inner product on R, which identifies the space of column vectors with the dual space of row vectors.
Let S {\displaystyle S} be a subset of V {\displaystyle V} . The annihilator of S {\displaystyle S} in V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} , denoted here S 0 {\displaystyle S^{0}} , is the collection of linear functionals f ∈ V ∗ {\displaystyle f\in V^{*}} such that [ f , s ] = 0 {\displaystyle [f,s]=0} for all s ∈ S {\displaystyle s\in S} . That is, S 0 {\displaystyle S^{0}} consists of all linear functionals f : V → F {\displaystyle f:V\to F} such that the restriction to S {\displaystyle S} vanishes: f | S = 0 {\displaystyle f|_{S}=0} . Within finite dimensional vector spaces, the annihilator is dual to (isomorphic to) the orthogonal complement.
The annihilator of a subset is itself a vector space. The annihilator of the zero vector is the whole dual space: { 0 } 0 = V ∗ {\displaystyle \{0\}^{0}=V^{*}} , and the annihilator of the whole space is just the zero covector: V 0 = { 0 } ⊆ V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{0}=\{0\}\subseteq V^{*}} . Furthermore, the assignment of an annihilator to a subset of V {\displaystyle V} reverses inclusions, so that if { 0 } ⊆ S ⊆ T ⊆ V {\displaystyle \{0\}\subseteq S\subseteq T\subseteq V} , then
If A {\displaystyle A} and B {\displaystyle B} are two subsets of V {\displaystyle V} then
and equality holds provided V {\displaystyle V} is finite-dimensional. If ( A i ) i ∈ I {\displaystyle (A_{i})_{i\in I}} is any family of subsets of V {\displaystyle V} indexed by i {\displaystyle i} belonging to some index set I {\displaystyle I} , then
In particular if A {\displaystyle A} and B {\displaystyle B} are subspaces of V {\displaystyle V} then
If V {\displaystyle V} is finite-dimensional and W {\displaystyle W} is a vector subspace, then
after identifying W {\displaystyle W} with its image in the second dual space under the double duality isomorphism V ≈ V ∗ ∗ {\displaystyle V\approx V^{**}} . In particular, forming the annihilator is a Galois connection on the lattice of subsets of a finite-dimensional vector space.
If W {\displaystyle W} is a subspace of V {\displaystyle V} then the quotient space V / W {\displaystyle V/W} is a vector space in its own right, and so has a dual. By the first isomorphism theorem, a functional f : V → F {\displaystyle f:V\to F} factors through V / W {\displaystyle V/W} if and only if W {\displaystyle W} is in the kernel of f {\displaystyle f} . There is thus an isomorphism
As a particular consequence, if V {\displaystyle V} is a direct sum of two subspaces A {\displaystyle A} and B {\displaystyle B} , then V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} is a direct sum of A 0 {\displaystyle A^{0}} and B 0 {\displaystyle B^{0}} .
The dual space is analogous to a "negative"-dimensional space. Most simply, since a vector v ∈ V {\displaystyle v\in V} can be paired with a covector φ ∈ V ∗ {\displaystyle \varphi \in V^{*}} by the natural pairing ⟨ x , φ ⟩ := φ ( x ) ∈ F {\displaystyle \langle x,\varphi \rangle :=\varphi (x)\in F} to obtain a scalar, a covector can "cancel" the dimension of a vector, similar to reducing a fraction. Thus while the direct sum V ⊕ V ∗ {\displaystyle V\oplus V^{*}} is an 2 n {\displaystyle 2n} -dimensional space (if V {\displaystyle V} is n {\displaystyle n} -dimensional), V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} behaves as an ( − n ) {\displaystyle (-n)} -dimensional space, in the sense that its dimensions can be canceled against the dimensions of V {\displaystyle V} . This is formalized by tensor contraction.
This arises in physics via dimensional analysis, where the dual space has inverse units. Under the natural pairing, these units cancel, and the resulting scalar value is dimensionless, as expected. For example, in (continuous) Fourier analysis, or more broadly time–frequency analysis: given a one-dimensional vector space with a unit of time t {\displaystyle t} , the dual space has units of frequency: occurrences per unit of time (units of 1 / t {\displaystyle 1/t} ). For example, if time is measured in seconds, the corresponding dual unit is the inverse second: over the course of 3 seconds, an event that occurs 2 times per second occurs a total of 6 times, corresponding to 3 s ⋅ 2 s − 1 = 6 {\displaystyle 3s\cdot 2s^{-1}=6} . Similarly, if the primal space measures length, the dual space measures inverse length.
When dealing with topological vector spaces, the continuous linear functionals from the space into the base field F = C {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} =\mathbb {C} } (or R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } ) are particularly important. This gives rise to the notion of the "continuous dual space" or "topological dual" which is a linear subspace of the algebraic dual space V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{*}} , denoted by V ′ {\displaystyle V'} . For any finite-dimensional normed vector space or topological vector space, such as Euclidean n-space, the continuous dual and the algebraic dual coincide. This is however false for any infinite-dimensional normed space, as shown by the example of discontinuous linear maps. Nevertheless, in the theory of topological vector spaces the terms "continuous dual space" and "topological dual space" are often replaced by "dual space".
For a topological vector space V {\displaystyle V} its continuous dual space, or topological dual space, or just dual space (in the sense of the theory of topological vector spaces) V ′ {\displaystyle V'} is defined as the space of all continuous linear functionals φ : V → F {\displaystyle \varphi :V\to {\mathbb {F} }} .
Important examples for continuous dual spaces are the space of compactly supported test functions D {\displaystyle {\mathcal {D}}} and its dual D ′ , {\displaystyle {\mathcal {D}}',} the space of arbitrary distributions (generalized functions); the space of arbitrary test functions E {\displaystyle {\mathcal {E}}} and its dual E ′ , {\displaystyle {\mathcal {E}}',} the space of compactly supported distributions; and the space of rapidly decreasing test functions S , {\displaystyle {\mathcal {S}},} the Schwartz space, and its dual S ′ , {\displaystyle {\mathcal {S}}',} the space of tempered distributions (slowly growing distributions) in the theory of generalized functions.
If X is a Hausdorff topological vector space (TVS), then the continuous dual space of X is identical to the continuous dual space of the completion of X.
There is a standard construction for introducing a topology on the continuous dual V ′ {\displaystyle V'} of a topological vector space V {\displaystyle V} . Fix a collection A {\displaystyle {\mathcal {A}}} of bounded subsets of V {\displaystyle V} . This gives the topology on V {\displaystyle V} of uniform convergence on sets from A , {\displaystyle {\mathcal {A}},} or what is the same thing, the topology generated by seminorms of the form
where φ {\displaystyle \varphi } is a continuous linear functional on V {\displaystyle V} , and A {\displaystyle A} runs over the class A . {\displaystyle {\mathcal {A}}.}
This means that a net of functionals φ i {\displaystyle \varphi _{i}} tends to a functional φ {\displaystyle \varphi } in V ′ {\displaystyle V'} if and only if
Usually (but not necessarily) the class A {\displaystyle {\mathcal {A}}} is supposed to satisfy the following conditions:
If these requirements are fulfilled then the corresponding topology on V ′ {\displaystyle V'} is Hausdorff and the sets
form its local base.
Here are the three most important special cases.
If V {\displaystyle V} is a normed vector space (for example, a Banach space or a Hilbert space) then the strong topology on V ′ {\displaystyle V'} is normed (in fact a Banach space if the field of scalars is complete), with the norm
Each of these three choices of topology on V ′ {\displaystyle V'} leads to a variant of reflexivity property for topological vector spaces:
Let 1 < p < ∞ be a real number and consider the Banach space ℓ of all sequences a = (an) for which
Define the number q by 1/p + 1/q = 1. Then the continuous dual of ℓ is naturally identified with ℓ: given an element φ ∈ ( ℓ p ) ′ {\displaystyle \varphi \in (\ell ^{p})'} , the corresponding element of ℓ is the sequence ( φ ( e n ) ) {\displaystyle (\varphi (\mathbf {e} _{n}))} where e n {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} _{n}} denotes the sequence whose n-th term is 1 and all others are zero. Conversely, given an element a = (an) ∈ ℓ, the corresponding continuous linear functional φ {\displaystyle \varphi } on ℓ is defined by
for all b = (bn) ∈ ℓ (see Hölder's inequality).
In a similar manner, the continuous dual of ℓ is naturally identified with ℓ (the space of bounded sequences). Furthermore, the continuous duals of the Banach spaces c (consisting of all convergent sequences, with the supremum norm) and c0 (the sequences converging to zero) are both naturally identified with ℓ.
By the Riesz representation theorem, the continuous dual of a Hilbert space is again a Hilbert space which is anti-isomorphic to the original space. This gives rise to the bra–ket notation used by physicists in the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics.
By the Riesz–Markov–Kakutani representation theorem, the continuous dual of certain spaces of continuous functions can be described using measures.
If T : V → W is a continuous linear map between two topological vector spaces, then the (continuous) transpose T′ : W′ → V′ is defined by the same formula as before:
The resulting functional T′(φ) is in V′. The assignment T → T′ produces a linear map between the space of continuous linear maps from V to W and the space of linear maps from W′ to V′. When T and U are composable continuous linear maps, then
When V and W are normed spaces, the norm of the transpose in L(W′, V′) is equal to that of T in L(V, W). Several properties of transposition depend upon the Hahn–Banach theorem. For example, the bounded linear map T has dense range if and only if the transpose T′ is injective.
When T is a compact linear map between two Banach spaces V and W, then the transpose T′ is compact. This can be proved using the Arzelà–Ascoli theorem.
When V is a Hilbert space, there is an antilinear isomorphism iV from V onto its continuous dual V′. For every bounded linear map T on V, the transpose and the adjoint operators are linked by
When T is a continuous linear map between two topological vector spaces V and W, then the transpose T′ is continuous when W′ and V′ are equipped with "compatible" topologies: for example, when for X = V and X = W, both duals X′ have the strong topology β(X′, X) of uniform convergence on bounded sets of X, or both have the weak-∗ topology σ(X′, X) of pointwise convergence on X. The transpose T′ is continuous from β(W′, W) to β(V′, V), or from σ(W′, W) to σ(V′, V).
Assume that W is a closed linear subspace of a normed space V, and consider the annihilator of W in V′,
Then, the dual of the quotient V / W can be identified with W, and the dual of W can be identified with the quotient V′ / W. Indeed, let P denote the canonical surjection from V onto the quotient V / W ; then, the transpose P′ is an isometric isomorphism from (V / W )′ into V′, with range equal to W. If j denotes the injection map from W into V, then the kernel of the transpose j′ is the annihilator of W:
and it follows from the Hahn–Banach theorem that j′ induces an isometric isomorphism V′ / W → W′.
If the dual of a normed space V is separable, then so is the space V itself. The converse is not true: for example, the space ℓ is separable, but its dual ℓ is not.
In analogy with the case of the algebraic double dual, there is always a naturally defined continuous linear operator Ψ : V → V′′ from a normed space V into its continuous double dual V′′, defined by
As a consequence of the Hahn–Banach theorem, this map is in fact an isometry, meaning ‖ Ψ(x) ‖ = ‖ x ‖ for all x ∈ V. Normed spaces for which the map Ψ is a bijection are called reflexive.
When V is a topological vector space then Ψ(x) can still be defined by the same formula, for every x ∈ V, however several difficulties arise. First, when V is not locally convex, the continuous dual may be equal to { 0 } and the map Ψ trivial. However, if V is Hausdorff and locally convex, the map Ψ is injective from V to the algebraic dual V′ of the continuous dual, again as a consequence of the Hahn–Banach theorem.
Second, even in the locally convex setting, several natural vector space topologies can be defined on the continuous dual V′, so that the continuous double dual V′′ is not uniquely defined as a set. Saying that Ψ maps from V to V′′, or in other words, that Ψ(x) is continuous on V′ for every x ∈ V, is a reasonable minimal requirement on the topology of V′, namely that the evaluation mappings
be continuous for the chosen topology on V′. Further, there is still a choice of a topology on V′′, and continuity of Ψ depends upon this choice. As a consequence, defining reflexivity in this framework is more involved than in the normed case. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In mathematics, any vector space V {\\displaystyle V} has a corresponding dual vector space (or just dual space for short) consisting of all linear forms on V , {\\displaystyle V,} together with the vector space structure of pointwise addition and scalar multiplication by constants.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The dual space as defined above is defined for all vector spaces, and to avoid ambiguity may also be called the algebraic dual space. When defined for a topological vector space, there is a subspace of the dual space, corresponding to continuous linear functionals, called the continuous dual space.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Dual vector spaces find application in many branches of mathematics that use vector spaces, such as in tensor analysis with finite-dimensional vector spaces. When applied to vector spaces of functions (which are typically infinite-dimensional), dual spaces are used to describe measures, distributions, and Hilbert spaces. Consequently, the dual space is an important concept in functional analysis.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Early terms for dual include polarer Raum [Hahn 1927], espace conjugué, adjoint space [Alaoglu 1940], and transponierter Raum [Schauder 1930] and [Banach 1932]. The term dual is due to Bourbaki 1938.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Given any vector space V {\\displaystyle V} over a field F {\\displaystyle F} , the (algebraic) dual space V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} (alternatively denoted by V ∨ {\\displaystyle V^{\\lor }} or V ′ {\\displaystyle V'} ) is defined as the set of all linear maps φ : V → F {\\displaystyle \\varphi :V\\to F} (linear functionals). Since linear maps are vector space homomorphisms, the dual space may be denoted hom ( V , F ) {\\displaystyle \\hom(V,F)} . The dual space V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} itself becomes a vector space over F {\\displaystyle F} when equipped with an addition and scalar multiplication satisfying:",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "for all φ , ψ ∈ V ∗ {\\displaystyle \\varphi ,\\psi \\in V^{*}} , x ∈ V {\\displaystyle x\\in V} , and a ∈ F {\\displaystyle a\\in F} .",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Elements of the algebraic dual space V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} are sometimes called covectors, one-forms, or linear forms.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The pairing of a functional φ {\\displaystyle \\varphi } in the dual space V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} and an element x {\\displaystyle x} of V {\\displaystyle V} is sometimes denoted by a bracket: φ ( x ) = [ x , φ ] {\\displaystyle \\varphi (x)=[x,\\varphi ]} or φ ( x ) = ⟨ x , φ ⟩ {\\displaystyle \\varphi (x)=\\langle x,\\varphi \\rangle } . This pairing defines a nondegenerate bilinear mapping ⟨ ⋅ , ⋅ ⟩ : V × V ∗ → F {\\displaystyle \\langle \\cdot ,\\cdot \\rangle :V\\times V^{*}\\to F} called the natural pairing.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "If V {\\displaystyle V} is finite-dimensional, then V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} has the same dimension as V {\\displaystyle V} . Given a basis { e 1 , … , e n } {\\displaystyle \\{\\mathbf {e} _{1},\\dots ,\\mathbf {e} _{n}\\}} in V {\\displaystyle V} , it is possible to construct a specific basis in V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} , called the dual basis. This dual basis is a set { e 1 , … , e n } {\\displaystyle \\{\\mathbf {e} ^{1},\\dots ,\\mathbf {e} ^{n}\\}} of linear functionals on V {\\displaystyle V} , defined by the relation",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "for any choice of coefficients c i ∈ F {\\displaystyle c^{i}\\in F} . In particular, letting in turn each one of those coefficients be equal to one and the other coefficients zero, gives the system of equations",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "where δ j i {\\displaystyle \\delta _{j}^{i}} is the Kronecker delta symbol. This property is referred to as bi-orthogonality property.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "For example, if V {\\displaystyle V} is R 2 {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{2}} , let its basis be chosen as { e 1 = ( 1 / 2 , 1 / 2 ) , e 2 = ( 0 , 1 ) } {\\displaystyle \\{\\mathbf {e} _{1}=(1/2,1/2),\\mathbf {e} _{2}=(0,1)\\}} . The basis vectors are not orthogonal to each other. Then, e 1 {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{1}} and e 2 {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{2}} are one-forms (functions that map a vector to a scalar) such that e 1 ( e 1 ) = 1 {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{1}(\\mathbf {e} _{1})=1} , e 1 ( e 2 ) = 0 {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{1}(\\mathbf {e} _{2})=0} , e 2 ( e 1 ) = 0 {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{2}(\\mathbf {e} _{1})=0} , and e 2 ( e 2 ) = 1 {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{2}(\\mathbf {e} _{2})=1} . (Note: The superscript here is the index, not an exponent.) This system of equations can be expressed using matrix notation as",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Solving for the unknown values in the second matrix shows the dual basis to be { e 1 = ( 2 , 0 ) , e 2 = ( − 1 , 1 ) } {\\displaystyle \\{\\mathbf {e} ^{1}=(2,0),\\mathbf {e} ^{2}=(-1,1)\\}} . Because e 1 {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{1}} and e 2 {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{2}} are functionals, they can be rewritten as e 1 ( x , y ) = 2 x {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{1}(x,y)=2x} and e 2 ( x , y ) = − x + y {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{2}(x,y)=-x+y} .",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In general, when V {\\displaystyle V} is R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} , if E = [ e 1 | ⋯ | e n ] {\\displaystyle E=[\\mathbf {e} _{1}|\\cdots |\\mathbf {e} _{n}]} is a matrix whose columns are the basis vectors and E ^ = [ e 1 | ⋯ | e n ] {\\displaystyle {\\hat {E}}=[\\mathbf {e} ^{1}|\\cdots |\\mathbf {e} ^{n}]} is a matrix whose columns are the dual basis vectors, then",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "where I n {\\displaystyle I_{n}} is the identity matrix of order n {\\displaystyle n} . The biorthogonality property of these two basis sets allows any point x ∈ V {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {x} \\in V} to be represented as",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "even when the basis vectors are not orthogonal to each other. Strictly speaking, the above statement only makes sense once the inner product ⟨ ⋅ , ⋅ ⟩ {\\displaystyle \\langle \\cdot ,\\cdot \\rangle } and the corresponding duality pairing are introduced, as described below in § Bilinear products and dual spaces.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In particular, R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} can be interpreted as the space of columns of n {\\displaystyle n} real numbers, its dual space is typically written as the space of rows of n {\\displaystyle n} real numbers. Such a row acts on R n {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{n}} as a linear functional by ordinary matrix multiplication. This is because a functional maps every n {\\displaystyle n} -vector x {\\displaystyle x} into a real number y {\\displaystyle y} . Then, seeing this functional as a matrix M {\\displaystyle M} , and x {\\displaystyle x} as an n × 1 {\\displaystyle n\\times 1} matrix, and y {\\displaystyle y} a 1 × 1 {\\displaystyle 1\\times 1} matrix (trivially, a real number) respectively, if M x = y {\\displaystyle Mx=y} then, by dimension reasons, M {\\displaystyle M} must be a 1 × n {\\displaystyle 1\\times n} matrix; that is, M {\\displaystyle M} must be a row vector.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "If V {\\displaystyle V} consists of the space of geometrical vectors in the plane, then the level curves of an element of V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} form a family of parallel lines in V {\\displaystyle V} , because the range is 1-dimensional, so that every point in the range is a multiple of any one nonzero element. So an element of V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} can be intuitively thought of as a particular family of parallel lines covering the plane. To compute the value of a functional on a given vector, it suffices to determine which of the lines the vector lies on. Informally, this \"counts\" how many lines the vector crosses. More generally, if V {\\displaystyle V} is a vector space of any dimension, then the level sets of a linear functional in V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} are parallel hyperplanes in V {\\displaystyle V} , and the action of a linear functional on a vector can be visualized in terms of these hyperplanes.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "If V {\\displaystyle V} is not finite-dimensional but has a basis e α {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} _{\\alpha }} indexed by an infinite set A {\\displaystyle A} , then the same construction as in the finite-dimensional case yields linearly independent elements e α {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} ^{\\alpha }} ( α ∈ A {\\displaystyle \\alpha \\in A} ) of the dual space, but they will not form a basis.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "For instance, consider the space R ∞ {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{\\infty }} , whose elements are those sequences of real numbers that contain only finitely many non-zero entries, which has a basis indexed by the natural numbers N {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {N} } . For i ∈ N {\\displaystyle i\\in \\mathbb {N} } , e i {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} _{i}} is the sequence consisting of all zeroes except in the i {\\displaystyle i} -th position, which is 1. The dual space of R ∞ {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{\\infty }} is (isomorphic to) R N {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{\\mathbb {N} }} , the space of all sequences of real numbers: each real sequence ( a n ) {\\displaystyle (a_{n})} defines a function where the element ( x n ) {\\displaystyle (x_{n})} of R ∞ {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{\\infty }} is sent to the number",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "which is a finite sum because there are only finitely many nonzero x n {\\displaystyle x_{n}} . The dimension of R ∞ {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{\\infty }} is countably infinite, whereas R N {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} ^{\\mathbb {N} }} does not have a countable basis.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "This observation generalizes to any infinite-dimensional vector space V {\\displaystyle V} over any field F {\\displaystyle F} : a choice of basis { e α : α ∈ A } {\\displaystyle \\{\\mathbf {e} _{\\alpha }:\\alpha \\in A\\}} identifies V {\\displaystyle V} with the space ( F A ) 0 {\\displaystyle (F^{A})_{0}} of functions f : A → F {\\displaystyle f:A\\to F} such that f α = f ( α ) {\\displaystyle f_{\\alpha }=f(\\alpha )} is nonzero for only finitely many α ∈ A {\\displaystyle \\alpha \\in A} , where such a function f {\\displaystyle f} is identified with the vector",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "in V {\\displaystyle V} (the sum is finite by the assumption on f {\\displaystyle f} , and any v ∈ V {\\displaystyle v\\in V} may be written in this way by the definition of the basis).",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The dual space of V {\\displaystyle V} may then be identified with the space F A {\\displaystyle F^{A}} of all functions from A {\\displaystyle A} to F {\\displaystyle F} : a linear functional T {\\displaystyle T} on V {\\displaystyle V} is uniquely determined by the values θ α = T ( e α ) {\\displaystyle \\theta _{\\alpha }=T(\\mathbf {e} _{\\alpha })} it takes on the basis of V {\\displaystyle V} , and any function θ : A → F {\\displaystyle \\theta :A\\to F} (with θ ( α ) = θ α {\\displaystyle \\theta (\\alpha )=\\theta _{\\alpha }} ) defines a linear functional T {\\displaystyle T} on V {\\displaystyle V} by",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Again, the sum is finite because f α {\\displaystyle f_{\\alpha }} is nonzero for only finitely many α {\\displaystyle \\alpha } .",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The set ( F A ) 0 {\\displaystyle (F^{A})_{0}} may be identified (essentially by definition) with the direct sum of infinitely many copies of F {\\displaystyle F} (viewed as a 1-dimensional vector space over itself) indexed by A {\\displaystyle A} , i.e. there are linear isomorphisms",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "On the other hand, F A {\\displaystyle F^{A}} is (again by definition), the direct product of infinitely many copies of F {\\displaystyle F} indexed by A {\\displaystyle A} , and so the identification",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "is a special case of a general result relating direct sums (of modules) to direct products.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "If a vector space is not finite-dimensional, then its (algebraic) dual space is always of larger dimension (as a cardinal number) than the original vector space. This is in contrast to the case of the continuous dual space, discussed below, which may be isomorphic to the original vector space even if the latter is infinite-dimensional.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The proof of this inequality between dimensions results of the following.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "If V {\\displaystyle V} is an infinite-dimensional F {\\displaystyle F} -vector space, the arithmetical properties of cardinal numbers implies that",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "where cardinalities are, as commonly, denoted as absolute values. For proving that d i m ( V ) < d i m ( V ∗ ) , {\\displaystyle \\mathrm {dim} (V)<\\mathrm {dim} (V^{*}),} it suffices to prove that | F | ≤ | d i m ( V ∗ ) | , {\\displaystyle |F|\\leq |\\mathrm {dim} (V^{\\ast })|,} which can be done with an argument similar to Cantor's diagonal argument.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "If V is finite-dimensional, then V is isomorphic to V. But there is in general no natural isomorphism between these two spaces. Any bilinear form ⟨·,·⟩ on V gives a mapping of V into its dual space via",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "where the right hand side is defined as the functional on V taking each w ∈ V to ⟨v, w⟩. In other words, the bilinear form determines a linear mapping",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "defined by",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "If the bilinear form is nondegenerate, then this is an isomorphism onto a subspace of V. If V is finite-dimensional, then this is an isomorphism onto all of V. Conversely, any isomorphism Φ {\\displaystyle \\Phi } from V to a subspace of V (resp., all of V if V is finite dimensional) defines a unique nondegenerate bilinear form ⟨ ⋅ , ⋅ ⟩ Φ {\\displaystyle \\langle \\cdot ,\\cdot \\rangle _{\\Phi }} on V by",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Thus there is a one-to-one correspondence between isomorphisms of V to a subspace of (resp., all of) V and nondegenerate bilinear forms on V.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "If the vector space V is over the complex field, then sometimes it is more natural to consider sesquilinear forms instead of bilinear forms. In that case, a given sesquilinear form ⟨·,·⟩ determines an isomorphism of V with the complex conjugate of the dual space",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The conjugate of the dual space V ∗ ¯ {\\displaystyle {\\overline {V^{*}}}} can be identified with the set of all additive complex-valued functionals f : V → C such that",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "There is a natural homomorphism Ψ {\\displaystyle \\Psi } from V {\\displaystyle V} into the double dual V ∗ ∗ = { Φ : V ∗ → F : Φ l i n e a r } {\\displaystyle V^{**}=\\{\\Phi :V^{*}\\to F:\\Phi \\ \\mathrm {linear} \\}} , defined by ( Ψ ( v ) ) ( φ ) = φ ( v ) {\\displaystyle (\\Psi (v))(\\varphi )=\\varphi (v)} for all v ∈ V , φ ∈ V ∗ {\\displaystyle v\\in V,\\varphi \\in V^{*}} . In other words, if e v v : V ∗ → F {\\displaystyle \\mathrm {ev} _{v}:V^{*}\\to F} is the evaluation map defined by φ ↦ φ ( v ) {\\displaystyle \\varphi \\mapsto \\varphi (v)} , then Ψ : V → V ∗ ∗ {\\displaystyle \\Psi :V\\to V^{**}} is defined as the map v ↦ e v v {\\displaystyle v\\mapsto \\mathrm {ev} _{v}} . This map Ψ {\\displaystyle \\Psi } is always injective; and it is always an isomorphism if V {\\displaystyle V} is finite-dimensional. Indeed, the isomorphism of a finite-dimensional vector space with its double dual is an archetypal example of a natural isomorphism. Infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces are not isomorphic to their algebraic double duals, but instead to their continuous double duals.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "If f : V → W is a linear map, then the transpose (or dual) f : W → V is defined by",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "for every φ ∈ W ∗ {\\displaystyle \\varphi \\in W^{*}} . The resulting functional f ∗ ( φ ) {\\displaystyle f^{*}(\\varphi )} in V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} is called the pullback of φ {\\displaystyle \\varphi } along f {\\displaystyle f} .",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The following identity holds for all φ ∈ W ∗ {\\displaystyle \\varphi \\in W^{*}} and v ∈ V {\\displaystyle v\\in V} :",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "where the bracket [·,·] on the left is the natural pairing of V with its dual space, and that on the right is the natural pairing of W with its dual. This identity characterizes the transpose, and is formally similar to the definition of the adjoint.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "The assignment f ↦ f produces an injective linear map between the space of linear operators from V to W and the space of linear operators from W to V; this homomorphism is an isomorphism if and only if W is finite-dimensional. If V = W then the space of linear maps is actually an algebra under composition of maps, and the assignment is then an antihomomorphism of algebras, meaning that (fg) = gf. In the language of category theory, taking the dual of vector spaces and the transpose of linear maps is therefore a contravariant functor from the category of vector spaces over F to itself. It is possible to identify (f) with f using the natural injection into the double dual.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "If the linear map f is represented by the matrix A with respect to two bases of V and W, then f is represented by the transpose matrix A with respect to the dual bases of W and V, hence the name. Alternatively, as f is represented by A acting on the left on column vectors, f is represented by the same matrix acting on the right on row vectors. These points of view are related by the canonical inner product on R, which identifies the space of column vectors with the dual space of row vectors.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Let S {\\displaystyle S} be a subset of V {\\displaystyle V} . The annihilator of S {\\displaystyle S} in V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} , denoted here S 0 {\\displaystyle S^{0}} , is the collection of linear functionals f ∈ V ∗ {\\displaystyle f\\in V^{*}} such that [ f , s ] = 0 {\\displaystyle [f,s]=0} for all s ∈ S {\\displaystyle s\\in S} . That is, S 0 {\\displaystyle S^{0}} consists of all linear functionals f : V → F {\\displaystyle f:V\\to F} such that the restriction to S {\\displaystyle S} vanishes: f | S = 0 {\\displaystyle f|_{S}=0} . Within finite dimensional vector spaces, the annihilator is dual to (isomorphic to) the orthogonal complement.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "The annihilator of a subset is itself a vector space. The annihilator of the zero vector is the whole dual space: { 0 } 0 = V ∗ {\\displaystyle \\{0\\}^{0}=V^{*}} , and the annihilator of the whole space is just the zero covector: V 0 = { 0 } ⊆ V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{0}=\\{0\\}\\subseteq V^{*}} . Furthermore, the assignment of an annihilator to a subset of V {\\displaystyle V} reverses inclusions, so that if { 0 } ⊆ S ⊆ T ⊆ V {\\displaystyle \\{0\\}\\subseteq S\\subseteq T\\subseteq V} , then",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "If A {\\displaystyle A} and B {\\displaystyle B} are two subsets of V {\\displaystyle V} then",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "and equality holds provided V {\\displaystyle V} is finite-dimensional. If ( A i ) i ∈ I {\\displaystyle (A_{i})_{i\\in I}} is any family of subsets of V {\\displaystyle V} indexed by i {\\displaystyle i} belonging to some index set I {\\displaystyle I} , then",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "In particular if A {\\displaystyle A} and B {\\displaystyle B} are subspaces of V {\\displaystyle V} then",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "If V {\\displaystyle V} is finite-dimensional and W {\\displaystyle W} is a vector subspace, then",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "after identifying W {\\displaystyle W} with its image in the second dual space under the double duality isomorphism V ≈ V ∗ ∗ {\\displaystyle V\\approx V^{**}} . In particular, forming the annihilator is a Galois connection on the lattice of subsets of a finite-dimensional vector space.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "If W {\\displaystyle W} is a subspace of V {\\displaystyle V} then the quotient space V / W {\\displaystyle V/W} is a vector space in its own right, and so has a dual. By the first isomorphism theorem, a functional f : V → F {\\displaystyle f:V\\to F} factors through V / W {\\displaystyle V/W} if and only if W {\\displaystyle W} is in the kernel of f {\\displaystyle f} . There is thus an isomorphism",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "As a particular consequence, if V {\\displaystyle V} is a direct sum of two subspaces A {\\displaystyle A} and B {\\displaystyle B} , then V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} is a direct sum of A 0 {\\displaystyle A^{0}} and B 0 {\\displaystyle B^{0}} .",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "The dual space is analogous to a \"negative\"-dimensional space. Most simply, since a vector v ∈ V {\\displaystyle v\\in V} can be paired with a covector φ ∈ V ∗ {\\displaystyle \\varphi \\in V^{*}} by the natural pairing ⟨ x , φ ⟩ := φ ( x ) ∈ F {\\displaystyle \\langle x,\\varphi \\rangle :=\\varphi (x)\\in F} to obtain a scalar, a covector can \"cancel\" the dimension of a vector, similar to reducing a fraction. Thus while the direct sum V ⊕ V ∗ {\\displaystyle V\\oplus V^{*}} is an 2 n {\\displaystyle 2n} -dimensional space (if V {\\displaystyle V} is n {\\displaystyle n} -dimensional), V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} behaves as an ( − n ) {\\displaystyle (-n)} -dimensional space, in the sense that its dimensions can be canceled against the dimensions of V {\\displaystyle V} . This is formalized by tensor contraction.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "This arises in physics via dimensional analysis, where the dual space has inverse units. Under the natural pairing, these units cancel, and the resulting scalar value is dimensionless, as expected. For example, in (continuous) Fourier analysis, or more broadly time–frequency analysis: given a one-dimensional vector space with a unit of time t {\\displaystyle t} , the dual space has units of frequency: occurrences per unit of time (units of 1 / t {\\displaystyle 1/t} ). For example, if time is measured in seconds, the corresponding dual unit is the inverse second: over the course of 3 seconds, an event that occurs 2 times per second occurs a total of 6 times, corresponding to 3 s ⋅ 2 s − 1 = 6 {\\displaystyle 3s\\cdot 2s^{-1}=6} . Similarly, if the primal space measures length, the dual space measures inverse length.",
"title": "Algebraic dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "When dealing with topological vector spaces, the continuous linear functionals from the space into the base field F = C {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {F} =\\mathbb {C} } (or R {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} } ) are particularly important. This gives rise to the notion of the \"continuous dual space\" or \"topological dual\" which is a linear subspace of the algebraic dual space V ∗ {\\displaystyle V^{*}} , denoted by V ′ {\\displaystyle V'} . For any finite-dimensional normed vector space or topological vector space, such as Euclidean n-space, the continuous dual and the algebraic dual coincide. This is however false for any infinite-dimensional normed space, as shown by the example of discontinuous linear maps. Nevertheless, in the theory of topological vector spaces the terms \"continuous dual space\" and \"topological dual space\" are often replaced by \"dual space\".",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "For a topological vector space V {\\displaystyle V} its continuous dual space, or topological dual space, or just dual space (in the sense of the theory of topological vector spaces) V ′ {\\displaystyle V'} is defined as the space of all continuous linear functionals φ : V → F {\\displaystyle \\varphi :V\\to {\\mathbb {F} }} .",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Important examples for continuous dual spaces are the space of compactly supported test functions D {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {D}}} and its dual D ′ , {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {D}}',} the space of arbitrary distributions (generalized functions); the space of arbitrary test functions E {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {E}}} and its dual E ′ , {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {E}}',} the space of compactly supported distributions; and the space of rapidly decreasing test functions S , {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {S}},} the Schwartz space, and its dual S ′ , {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {S}}',} the space of tempered distributions (slowly growing distributions) in the theory of generalized functions.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "If X is a Hausdorff topological vector space (TVS), then the continuous dual space of X is identical to the continuous dual space of the completion of X.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "There is a standard construction for introducing a topology on the continuous dual V ′ {\\displaystyle V'} of a topological vector space V {\\displaystyle V} . Fix a collection A {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {A}}} of bounded subsets of V {\\displaystyle V} . This gives the topology on V {\\displaystyle V} of uniform convergence on sets from A , {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {A}},} or what is the same thing, the topology generated by seminorms of the form",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "where φ {\\displaystyle \\varphi } is a continuous linear functional on V {\\displaystyle V} , and A {\\displaystyle A} runs over the class A . {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {A}}.}",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "This means that a net of functionals φ i {\\displaystyle \\varphi _{i}} tends to a functional φ {\\displaystyle \\varphi } in V ′ {\\displaystyle V'} if and only if",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Usually (but not necessarily) the class A {\\displaystyle {\\mathcal {A}}} is supposed to satisfy the following conditions:",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "If these requirements are fulfilled then the corresponding topology on V ′ {\\displaystyle V'} is Hausdorff and the sets",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "form its local base.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Here are the three most important special cases.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "If V {\\displaystyle V} is a normed vector space (for example, a Banach space or a Hilbert space) then the strong topology on V ′ {\\displaystyle V'} is normed (in fact a Banach space if the field of scalars is complete), with the norm",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Each of these three choices of topology on V ′ {\\displaystyle V'} leads to a variant of reflexivity property for topological vector spaces:",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Let 1 < p < ∞ be a real number and consider the Banach space ℓ of all sequences a = (an) for which",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Define the number q by 1/p + 1/q = 1. Then the continuous dual of ℓ is naturally identified with ℓ: given an element φ ∈ ( ℓ p ) ′ {\\displaystyle \\varphi \\in (\\ell ^{p})'} , the corresponding element of ℓ is the sequence ( φ ( e n ) ) {\\displaystyle (\\varphi (\\mathbf {e} _{n}))} where e n {\\displaystyle \\mathbf {e} _{n}} denotes the sequence whose n-th term is 1 and all others are zero. Conversely, given an element a = (an) ∈ ℓ, the corresponding continuous linear functional φ {\\displaystyle \\varphi } on ℓ is defined by",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "for all b = (bn) ∈ ℓ (see Hölder's inequality).",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "In a similar manner, the continuous dual of ℓ is naturally identified with ℓ (the space of bounded sequences). Furthermore, the continuous duals of the Banach spaces c (consisting of all convergent sequences, with the supremum norm) and c0 (the sequences converging to zero) are both naturally identified with ℓ.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "By the Riesz representation theorem, the continuous dual of a Hilbert space is again a Hilbert space which is anti-isomorphic to the original space. This gives rise to the bra–ket notation used by physicists in the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "By the Riesz–Markov–Kakutani representation theorem, the continuous dual of certain spaces of continuous functions can be described using measures.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "If T : V → W is a continuous linear map between two topological vector spaces, then the (continuous) transpose T′ : W′ → V′ is defined by the same formula as before:",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "The resulting functional T′(φ) is in V′. The assignment T → T′ produces a linear map between the space of continuous linear maps from V to W and the space of linear maps from W′ to V′. When T and U are composable continuous linear maps, then",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "When V and W are normed spaces, the norm of the transpose in L(W′, V′) is equal to that of T in L(V, W). Several properties of transposition depend upon the Hahn–Banach theorem. For example, the bounded linear map T has dense range if and only if the transpose T′ is injective.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "When T is a compact linear map between two Banach spaces V and W, then the transpose T′ is compact. This can be proved using the Arzelà–Ascoli theorem.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "When V is a Hilbert space, there is an antilinear isomorphism iV from V onto its continuous dual V′. For every bounded linear map T on V, the transpose and the adjoint operators are linked by",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "When T is a continuous linear map between two topological vector spaces V and W, then the transpose T′ is continuous when W′ and V′ are equipped with \"compatible\" topologies: for example, when for X = V and X = W, both duals X′ have the strong topology β(X′, X) of uniform convergence on bounded sets of X, or both have the weak-∗ topology σ(X′, X) of pointwise convergence on X. The transpose T′ is continuous from β(W′, W) to β(V′, V), or from σ(W′, W) to σ(V′, V).",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "Assume that W is a closed linear subspace of a normed space V, and consider the annihilator of W in V′,",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Then, the dual of the quotient V / W can be identified with W, and the dual of W can be identified with the quotient V′ / W. Indeed, let P denote the canonical surjection from V onto the quotient V / W ; then, the transpose P′ is an isometric isomorphism from (V / W )′ into V′, with range equal to W. If j denotes the injection map from W into V, then the kernel of the transpose j′ is the annihilator of W:",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "and it follows from the Hahn–Banach theorem that j′ induces an isometric isomorphism V′ / W → W′.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "If the dual of a normed space V is separable, then so is the space V itself. The converse is not true: for example, the space ℓ is separable, but its dual ℓ is not.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "In analogy with the case of the algebraic double dual, there is always a naturally defined continuous linear operator Ψ : V → V′′ from a normed space V into its continuous double dual V′′, defined by",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "As a consequence of the Hahn–Banach theorem, this map is in fact an isometry, meaning ‖ Ψ(x) ‖ = ‖ x ‖ for all x ∈ V. Normed spaces for which the map Ψ is a bijection are called reflexive.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "When V is a topological vector space then Ψ(x) can still be defined by the same formula, for every x ∈ V, however several difficulties arise. First, when V is not locally convex, the continuous dual may be equal to { 0 } and the map Ψ trivial. However, if V is Hausdorff and locally convex, the map Ψ is injective from V to the algebraic dual V′ of the continuous dual, again as a consequence of the Hahn–Banach theorem.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Second, even in the locally convex setting, several natural vector space topologies can be defined on the continuous dual V′, so that the continuous double dual V′′ is not uniquely defined as a set. Saying that Ψ maps from V to V′′, or in other words, that Ψ(x) is continuous on V′ for every x ∈ V, is a reasonable minimal requirement on the topology of V′, namely that the evaluation mappings",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "be continuous for the chosen topology on V′. Further, there is still a choice of a topology on V′′, and continuity of Ψ depends upon this choice. As a consequence, defining reflexivity in this framework is more involved than in the normed case.",
"title": "Continuous dual space"
}
] | In mathematics, any vector space V has a corresponding dual vector space consisting of all linear forms on V , together with the vector space structure of pointwise addition and scalar multiplication by constants. The dual space as defined above is defined for all vector spaces, and to avoid ambiguity may also be called the algebraic dual space.
When defined for a topological vector space, there is a subspace of the dual space, corresponding to continuous linear functionals, called the continuous dual space. Dual vector spaces find application in many branches of mathematics that use vector spaces, such as in tensor analysis with finite-dimensional vector spaces.
When applied to vector spaces of functions, dual spaces are used to describe measures, distributions, and Hilbert spaces. Consequently, the dual space is an important concept in functional analysis. Early terms for dual include polarer Raum [Hahn 1927], espace conjugué, adjoint space [Alaoglu 1940], and transponierter Raum [Schauder 1930] and [Banach 1932]. The term dual is due to Bourbaki 1938. | 2001-10-04T17:11:21Z | 2023-12-24T22:27:48Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_space |
7,989 | Dianetics | Dianetics is a set of pseudoscientific ideas and practices regarding the relationship between the human mind and body created by science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics is practiced by followers of Scientology and the Nation of Islam (as of 2010).
Dianetics was originally conceived as a branch of psychiatry, which Hubbard would come to despise when various psychoanalysts dismissed it as unscientific. Though it is presented as a form of psychological treatment, Dianetics and its core concepts have been rejected by psychologists and other scientists from the outset and are not supported by credible evidence.
The word Dianetics is coined from Greek dia meaning "through" and nous meaning "mind".
Dianetics theory describes the human mind as two parts: the conscious "analytical mind" and the subconscious "reactive mind". The purpose of Dianetics technique, called "auditing", is to erase the contents of the reactive mind, which practitioners believe interferes with a person's ethics, awareness, happiness, and sanity. In auditing, the person is asked questions intended to help them locate and deal with painful past experiences.
Dianetics theory posits that "the basic principle of existence is to survive" and that the basic personality of humans is sincere, intelligent, and good. The drive for goodness and survival is distorted and inhibited by aberrations (deviations from rational thinking). Hubbard claimed that Dianetics could increase intelligence, eliminate unwanted emotions and alleviate a wide range of illnesses he believed to be psychosomatic. Conditions purportedly treatable with Dianetics included arthritis, allergies, asthma, some coronary difficulties, eye trouble, ulcers, migraine headaches, and sexual deviation.
According to Hubbard, when he was sedated for a dental operation in 1938, he had a near-death experience which inspired him to write the manuscript Excalibur. Though it was never published, this work would allegedly become the basis for Dianetics. The first publication on Dianetics was Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science, an article by Hubbard in Astounding Science Fiction (cover date May 1950). This was followed by the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (DMSMH) published May 9, 1950. In these works Hubbard claimed that the source of all psychological pain, and therefore the cause of mental and physical health problems, was a form of memory known as "engrams". According to Hubbard, individuals could reach a state he named "Clear" when all of their engrams had been removed through talking with an "auditor".
While the technique was not accepted by the medical and scientific establishment, in the first two years of its publication DMSMH sold over 100,000 copies. Publishers Weekly posthumously awarded Hubbard a plaque to acknowledge DMSMH appearing on its bestseller list for one hundred consecutive weeks. Publication of DMSMH brought in a flood of revenue, which Hubbard used to establish Dianetics foundations in six major American cities. Two of the strongest initial supporters of Dianetics in the 1950s were John W. Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction and Joseph Augustus Winter, a writer and medical physician. Campbell published some of Hubbard's short stories and Winter hoped that his colleagues would likewise be attracted to Hubbard's Dianetics system.
Readers formed groups to study and practice Dianetics technique. According to sociologist Roy Wallis, this period was one of "excited experimentation" and Hubbard's work was regarded as "an initial exploration to be developed further by others". Per Wallis, it was Dianetics' popularity as a lay psychotherapy that contributed to the Dianetics Foundation's downfall. Most people read the book, tried it out, then put it down. The remaining practitioners had no ties to the Foundation. Factions formed and followers challenged Hubbard's movement and his authority. The craze of 1950–51 was dead by 1952.
In 1951, with debts piled up and facing bankruptcy, Don Purcell, a wealthy Dianetics follower from Wichita, bailed out the foundation. It was short-lived, however, and the foundation fell to bankruptcy in 1952. Hubbard fled to Phoenix, Arizona, having lost the foundation, the rights to Dianetics, and the copyrights to DMSMH, though in 1954 Purcell gave the copyrights back to Hubbard.
In Phoenix, Hubbard created "Scientology"; it's techniques were intended to rehabilitate a person so that they might reach their full potential as a spiritual being. Dianetics was incorporated into Scientology. In 1963 and in 1969, Hubbard modified Dianetics into "Standard Dianetics". In 1978, Hubbard introduced "New Era Dianetics" (NED), said to permanently free someone from his "reactive mind". Hubbard later introduced New Era Dianetics for OTs. These steps are on The Bridge to Total Freedom.
In the book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard describes techniques that he suggests can rid individuals of fears and psychosomatic illnesses. A basic idea in Dianetics is that the mind consists of two parts: the "analytical mind" and the "reactive mind". The "reactive mind", the mind which operates when a person is physically unconscious, acts as a record of shock, trauma, pain, and otherwise harmful memories. Experiences such as these, stored in the "reactive mind" are dubbed "engrams". Dianetics is proposed as a method to erase these engrams in the reactive mind to achieve a state of clear.
In Dianetics, the unconscious or reactive mind is described as a collection of "mental image pictures", which contain the recorded experience of past moments of unconsciousness, including all sensory perceptions and feelings involved, ranging from pre-natal experiences, infancy and childhood, to even the traumatic feelings associated with events from past lives and extraterrestrial cultures. The type of mental image picture created during a period of unconsciousness involves the exact recording of a painful experience. Hubbard called this phenomenon an engram, and defined it as "a complete recording of a moment of unconsciousness containing physical pain or painful emotion and all perceptions."
Hubbard proposed that these engrams caused "aberrations" (deviations from rational thinking) in the mind, which produced lasting adverse physical and emotional effects (cf. conversion disorder). When the analytical (conscious) mind shut down during these moments, events and perceptions of this period were stored as engrams in the unconscious or reactive mind. In Hubbard's earliest publications on the subject, engrams were variously referred to as "Norns", "Impediments", and "comanomes" before "engram" was adapted from its existing usage at the suggestion of Joseph Augustus Winter, MD. Some commentators noted Dianetics's blend of science fiction and occult orientations at the time.
Hubbard claimed that these engrams are the cause of almost all psychological and physical problems. In addition to physical pain, engrams could include words or phrases spoken in the vicinity while the patient was unconscious. For instance, Winter cites the example of a patient with a persistent headache supposedly tracing the problem to a doctor saying, "Take him now", during the patient's birth. Hubbard similarly claimed that leukemia is traceable to "an engram containing the phrase 'It turns my blood to water.'" While it is sometimes claimed that the Church of Scientology no longer stands by Hubbard's claims that Dianetics can treat physical conditions, it still publishes them: "when the knee injuries of the past are located and discharged, the arthritis ceases, no other injury takes its place and the person is finished with arthritis of the knee." "[The reactive mind] can give a man arthritis, bursitis, asthma, allergies, sinusitis, coronary trouble, high blood pressure ... And it is the only thing in the human being which can produce these effects ... Discharge the content of [the reactive mind] and the arthritis vanishes, myopia gets better, heart illness decreases, asthma disappears, stomachs function properly and the whole catalog of ills goes away and stays away."
According to scholar Regis Dericqeobourg, Dianetics was first presented as a psychotherapy that focused on recalling an individual's past experiences as a source of origination for someone's physical and mental impairments, as well as "inappropriate behavior." In the form of counseling that Hubbard called "auditing," "auditors attempt to wash away associated emotional burdens and therein are supposed to cure people from their troubles". Eventually, psychologists and psychiatrists began to doubt the validity of Dianetics, leading Hubbard to the formation of Scientology as spirituality.
Some of the psychometric ideas in Dianetics, in particular the E-meter, can be traced to Carl Jung. Basic concepts, including conversion disorder, are derived from Sigmund Freud, whom Hubbard credited as an inspiration and source. Freud had speculated 40 years previously that traumas with similar content would join together as "chains" of incidents, embedded in the unconscious mind, to cause irrational responses in the individual. Such a chain would be relieved by inducing the patient to remember the earliest trauma, "with an accompanying expression of emotion."
According to Bent Corydon, Hubbard created the illusion that Dianetics was the first psychotherapy to address traumatic experiences in their own time, but others had done so before as standard procedure. One treatment method Hubbard drew from in developing Dianetics was abreaction therapy. Abreaction is a psychoanalytical term that means bringing to consciousness, and thus adequate expression, material that has been unconscious. "It includes not only the recollection of forgotten memories and experience, but also their reliving with appropriate emotional display and discharge of effect. This process is usually facilitated by the patient's gaining awareness of the causal relationship between the previously undischarged emotion and his symptoms."
According to Hubbard, before Dianetics psychotherapists had dealt with very light and superficial incidents (e.g., an incident that reminds the patient of a moment of loss), but with Dianetic therapy, the patient could actually erase moments of pain and unconsciousness. He emphasized: "The discovery of the engram is entirely the property of Dianetics. Methods of its erasure are also owned entirely by Dianetics".
While 1950 style Dianetics was in some respects similar to older therapies, with the development of New Era Dianetics in 1978, the similarity vanished. New Era Dianetics uses an E-Meter and a rote procedure for running chains of related traumatic incidents.
Dianetics clarifies the understanding of psychosomatic illness in terms of predisposition, precipitation, and prolongation.
HCO Bulletin 11 July 1973RB Injury and illness are PREDISPOSED by the spiritual state of the person. They are PRECIPITATED by the being himself as a manifestation of his current spiritual condition. And they are PROLONGED by any failure to fully handle the spiritual factors associated with them.
With the use of Dianetics techniques, Hubbard claimed, the reactive mind could be processed and all stored engrams could be refiled as experience. The central technique was "auditing", a two-person question-and-answer method designed to isolate and dissipate engrams (or "mental masses"). An auditor addresses questions to a subject, observes and records the subject's responses, and returns repeatedly to experiences or areas under discussion that appear painful until the troubling experience has been identified and confronted. Through repeated applications of this method, the reactive mind could be "cleared" of its content having outlived its usefulness in the process of evolution; a person who has completed this process would be "Clear".
The benefits of going Clear, according to Hubbard, were dramatic. A Clear would have no compulsions, repressions, psychoses or neuroses, and would enjoy a near-perfect memory as well as a rise in IQ of as much as 50 points. He also claimed that "the atheist is activated by engrams as thoroughly as the zealot". He further claimed that widespread application of Dianetics would result in "A world without insanity, without criminals and without war."
One of the key ideas of Dianetics, according to Hubbard, is the fundamental existential command to survive. According to Hugh B. Urban, this would serve as the foundation of a big part of later Scientology.
The procedure of Dianetics therapy (known as auditing) is a two-person activity. One person, the "auditor", guides the other person, the preclear. The preclear's job is to look at the mind and talk to the auditor. The auditor acknowledges what the preclear says and controls the process so the preclear may put his full attention on his work.
The auditor and preclear sit down in chairs facing each other. The process then follows in eleven distinct steps:
A few transcripts of auditing sessions with confidential information redacted have been published as demonstration examples. Some extracts can be found in Winter's book A Doctor's Report on Dianetics. Other, more comprehensive, transcripts of auditing sessions carried out by Hubbard himself can be found in volume 1 of the Research & Discovery Series (Bridge Publications, 1980). Examples of public group processing sessions can be found throughout Hubbard's many recorded lectures.
In August 1950, amidst the success of Dianetics, Hubbard held a demonstration in Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium where he presented a young woman called Sonya Bianca (a pseudonym) to a large audience including many reporters and photographers as "the world's first Clear". Despite Hubbard's claim that she had "full and perfect recall of every moment of her life", Bianca proved unable to answer questions from the audience testing her memory and analytical abilities, including the question of the color of Hubbard's tie. Hubbard explained Bianca's failure to display her promised powers of recall to the audience by saying that he had used the word "now" in calling her to the stage, and thus inadvertently froze her in "present time", which blocked her abilities. Later, in the late 1950s, Hubbard would claim that several people had reached the state of Clear by the time he presented Bianca as the world's first; these others, Hubbard said, he had successfully cleared in the late 1940s while working incognito in Hollywood posing as a swami. In 1966, Hubbard declared South African Scientologist John McMaster to be the first true Clear.
Hubbard claimed, in an interview with The New York Times in November 1950, that "he had already submitted proof of claims made in the book to a number of scientists and associations." He added that the public as well as proper organizations were entitled to such proof and that he was ready and willing to give such proof in detail. In January 1951, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, New Jersey, published Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results, a booklet providing the results of psychometric tests conducted on 88 people undergoing Dianetics therapy. It presents case histories and a number of X-ray plates to support claims that Dianetics had cured "aberrations" including manic depression, asthma, arthritis, colitis and "overt homosexuality", and that after Dianetic processing, test subjects experienced significantly increased scores on a standardized IQ test. The report's subjects are not identified by name, but one of them is clearly Hubbard himself ("Case 1080A, R. L.").
The authors provide no qualifications, although they are described in Hubbard's book Science of Survival (where some results of the same study were reprinted) as psychotherapists. Critics of Dianetics are skeptical of this study, both because of the bias of the source and because the researchers appear to ascribe all physical benefits to Dianetics without considering possible outside factors; in other words, the report lacks any scientific controls. Winter was originally an associate of Hubbard and an early adopter of Dianetics, but by the end of 1950 had cut ties with Hubbard and written an account of his personal experiences with Dianetics. He described Hubbard as "absolutistic and authoritarian", and criticized the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for failing to undertake "precise scientific research into the functioning of the mind". He also recommended that auditing be done by experts only and that it was dangerous for laymen to audit each other. Hubbard writes: "Again, Dianetics is not being released to a profession, for no profession could encompass it."
Hubbard's original book on Dianetics attracted highly critical reviews from science and medical writers and organizations. The American Psychological Association passed a resolution in 1950 calling "attention to the fact that these claims are not supported by empirical evidence of the sort required for the establishment of scientific generalizations." Subsequently, Dianetics has achieved no acceptance as a scientific theory, and scientists cite Dianetics as an example of a pseudoscience.
Few scientific investigations into the effectiveness of Dianetics have been published. Professor John A. Lee states in his 1970 evaluation of Dianetics:
Objective experimental verification of Hubbard's physiological and psychological doctrines is lacking. To date, no regular scientific agency has established the validity of his theories of prenatal perception and engrams, or cellular memory, or Dianetic reverie, or the effects of Scientology auditing routines. Existing knowledge contradicts Hubbard's theory of recording of perceptions during periods of unconsciousness.
The MEDLINE database records two independent scientific studies on Dianetics, both conducted in the 1950s under the auspices of New York University. Harvey Jay Fischer tested Dianetic therapy against three claims made by proponents and found it does not effect any significant changes in intellectual functioning, mathematical ability, or the degree of personality conflicts; Jack Fox tested Hubbard's thesis regarding recall of engrams, with the assistance of the Dianetic Research Foundation, and could not substantiate it.
Commentators from a variety of backgrounds have described Dianetics as an example of pseudoscience. For example, philosophy professor Robert Carroll points to Dianetics' lack of empirical evidence:
What Hubbard touts as a science of mind lacks one key element that is expected of a science: empirical testing of claims. The key elements of Hubbard's so-called science don't seem testable, yet he repeatedly claims that he is asserting only scientific facts and data from many experiments. It isn't even clear what such "data" would look like. Most of his data is in the form of anecdotes and speculations ... Such speculation is appropriate in fiction, but not in science.
The validity and practice of auditing have been questioned by a variety of non-Scientologist commentators. Commenting on the example cited by Winter, the science writer Martin Gardner asserts that "nothing could be clearer from the above dialogue than the fact that the dianetic explanation for the headache existed only in the mind of the therapist, and that it was with considerable difficulty that the patient was maneuvered into accepting it."
Other critics and medical experts have suggested that Dianetic auditing is a form of hypnosis. Hubbard, who had previously used hypnosis for entertainment purposes, strongly denied this connection and cautioned against hypnosis in Dianetics auditing. Professor Richard J. Ofshe, a leading expert on false memories, suggests that the feeling of well-being reported by preclear at the end of an auditing session may be induced by post-hypnotic suggestion. Other researchers have identified quotations in Hubbard's work suggesting evidence that false memories were created in Dianetics, specifically in the form of birth and pre-birth memories.
According to an article by physician Martin Gumpert, "Hubbard's concept of psychosomatic disease is definitely wrong. Psychosomatic ailments are not simply caused by emotional disturbances: they are diseases in which the emotional and the organic factor are closely involved and interdependent."
But even the limited good that dianetics may do by introducing a single, narrowly-defined role-playing technique into interpersonal relations is probably more than offset by the damage it can do with its accompanying pretentious and nonsensical doctrines. [...T]hose who are helped by dianetics will necessarily be kept at a low level of intellectual and emotional maturity by the nonsense they have absorbed in order to be helped. The lure of the pseudoscientific vocabulary and promises of dianetics cannot but condemn thousands who are beginning to emerge from scientific illiteracy to a continuation of their susceptibility to word-magic and semantic hash. —S. I. Hayakawa | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dianetics is a set of pseudoscientific ideas and practices regarding the relationship between the human mind and body created by science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics is practiced by followers of Scientology and the Nation of Islam (as of 2010).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Dianetics was originally conceived as a branch of psychiatry, which Hubbard would come to despise when various psychoanalysts dismissed it as unscientific. Though it is presented as a form of psychological treatment, Dianetics and its core concepts have been rejected by psychologists and other scientists from the outset and are not supported by credible evidence.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The word Dianetics is coined from Greek dia meaning \"through\" and nous meaning \"mind\".",
"title": "Premise"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Dianetics theory describes the human mind as two parts: the conscious \"analytical mind\" and the subconscious \"reactive mind\". The purpose of Dianetics technique, called \"auditing\", is to erase the contents of the reactive mind, which practitioners believe interferes with a person's ethics, awareness, happiness, and sanity. In auditing, the person is asked questions intended to help them locate and deal with painful past experiences.",
"title": "Premise"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Dianetics theory posits that \"the basic principle of existence is to survive\" and that the basic personality of humans is sincere, intelligent, and good. The drive for goodness and survival is distorted and inhibited by aberrations (deviations from rational thinking). Hubbard claimed that Dianetics could increase intelligence, eliminate unwanted emotions and alleviate a wide range of illnesses he believed to be psychosomatic. Conditions purportedly treatable with Dianetics included arthritis, allergies, asthma, some coronary difficulties, eye trouble, ulcers, migraine headaches, and sexual deviation.",
"title": "Premise"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "According to Hubbard, when he was sedated for a dental operation in 1938, he had a near-death experience which inspired him to write the manuscript Excalibur. Though it was never published, this work would allegedly become the basis for Dianetics. The first publication on Dianetics was Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science, an article by Hubbard in Astounding Science Fiction (cover date May 1950). This was followed by the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (DMSMH) published May 9, 1950. In these works Hubbard claimed that the source of all psychological pain, and therefore the cause of mental and physical health problems, was a form of memory known as \"engrams\". According to Hubbard, individuals could reach a state he named \"Clear\" when all of their engrams had been removed through talking with an \"auditor\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "While the technique was not accepted by the medical and scientific establishment, in the first two years of its publication DMSMH sold over 100,000 copies. Publishers Weekly posthumously awarded Hubbard a plaque to acknowledge DMSMH appearing on its bestseller list for one hundred consecutive weeks. Publication of DMSMH brought in a flood of revenue, which Hubbard used to establish Dianetics foundations in six major American cities. Two of the strongest initial supporters of Dianetics in the 1950s were John W. Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction and Joseph Augustus Winter, a writer and medical physician. Campbell published some of Hubbard's short stories and Winter hoped that his colleagues would likewise be attracted to Hubbard's Dianetics system.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Readers formed groups to study and practice Dianetics technique. According to sociologist Roy Wallis, this period was one of \"excited experimentation\" and Hubbard's work was regarded as \"an initial exploration to be developed further by others\". Per Wallis, it was Dianetics' popularity as a lay psychotherapy that contributed to the Dianetics Foundation's downfall. Most people read the book, tried it out, then put it down. The remaining practitioners had no ties to the Foundation. Factions formed and followers challenged Hubbard's movement and his authority. The craze of 1950–51 was dead by 1952.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In 1951, with debts piled up and facing bankruptcy, Don Purcell, a wealthy Dianetics follower from Wichita, bailed out the foundation. It was short-lived, however, and the foundation fell to bankruptcy in 1952. Hubbard fled to Phoenix, Arizona, having lost the foundation, the rights to Dianetics, and the copyrights to DMSMH, though in 1954 Purcell gave the copyrights back to Hubbard.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In Phoenix, Hubbard created \"Scientology\"; it's techniques were intended to rehabilitate a person so that they might reach their full potential as a spiritual being. Dianetics was incorporated into Scientology. In 1963 and in 1969, Hubbard modified Dianetics into \"Standard Dianetics\". In 1978, Hubbard introduced \"New Era Dianetics\" (NED), said to permanently free someone from his \"reactive mind\". Hubbard later introduced New Era Dianetics for OTs. These steps are on The Bridge to Total Freedom.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In the book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard describes techniques that he suggests can rid individuals of fears and psychosomatic illnesses. A basic idea in Dianetics is that the mind consists of two parts: the \"analytical mind\" and the \"reactive mind\". The \"reactive mind\", the mind which operates when a person is physically unconscious, acts as a record of shock, trauma, pain, and otherwise harmful memories. Experiences such as these, stored in the \"reactive mind\" are dubbed \"engrams\". Dianetics is proposed as a method to erase these engrams in the reactive mind to achieve a state of clear.",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In Dianetics, the unconscious or reactive mind is described as a collection of \"mental image pictures\", which contain the recorded experience of past moments of unconsciousness, including all sensory perceptions and feelings involved, ranging from pre-natal experiences, infancy and childhood, to even the traumatic feelings associated with events from past lives and extraterrestrial cultures. The type of mental image picture created during a period of unconsciousness involves the exact recording of a painful experience. Hubbard called this phenomenon an engram, and defined it as \"a complete recording of a moment of unconsciousness containing physical pain or painful emotion and all perceptions.\"",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Hubbard proposed that these engrams caused \"aberrations\" (deviations from rational thinking) in the mind, which produced lasting adverse physical and emotional effects (cf. conversion disorder). When the analytical (conscious) mind shut down during these moments, events and perceptions of this period were stored as engrams in the unconscious or reactive mind. In Hubbard's earliest publications on the subject, engrams were variously referred to as \"Norns\", \"Impediments\", and \"comanomes\" before \"engram\" was adapted from its existing usage at the suggestion of Joseph Augustus Winter, MD. Some commentators noted Dianetics's blend of science fiction and occult orientations at the time.",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Hubbard claimed that these engrams are the cause of almost all psychological and physical problems. In addition to physical pain, engrams could include words or phrases spoken in the vicinity while the patient was unconscious. For instance, Winter cites the example of a patient with a persistent headache supposedly tracing the problem to a doctor saying, \"Take him now\", during the patient's birth. Hubbard similarly claimed that leukemia is traceable to \"an engram containing the phrase 'It turns my blood to water.'\" While it is sometimes claimed that the Church of Scientology no longer stands by Hubbard's claims that Dianetics can treat physical conditions, it still publishes them: \"when the knee injuries of the past are located and discharged, the arthritis ceases, no other injury takes its place and the person is finished with arthritis of the knee.\" \"[The reactive mind] can give a man arthritis, bursitis, asthma, allergies, sinusitis, coronary trouble, high blood pressure ... And it is the only thing in the human being which can produce these effects ... Discharge the content of [the reactive mind] and the arthritis vanishes, myopia gets better, heart illness decreases, asthma disappears, stomachs function properly and the whole catalog of ills goes away and stays away.\"",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "According to scholar Regis Dericqeobourg, Dianetics was first presented as a psychotherapy that focused on recalling an individual's past experiences as a source of origination for someone's physical and mental impairments, as well as \"inappropriate behavior.\" In the form of counseling that Hubbard called \"auditing,\" \"auditors attempt to wash away associated emotional burdens and therein are supposed to cure people from their troubles\". Eventually, psychologists and psychiatrists began to doubt the validity of Dianetics, leading Hubbard to the formation of Scientology as spirituality.",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Some of the psychometric ideas in Dianetics, in particular the E-meter, can be traced to Carl Jung. Basic concepts, including conversion disorder, are derived from Sigmund Freud, whom Hubbard credited as an inspiration and source. Freud had speculated 40 years previously that traumas with similar content would join together as \"chains\" of incidents, embedded in the unconscious mind, to cause irrational responses in the individual. Such a chain would be relieved by inducing the patient to remember the earliest trauma, \"with an accompanying expression of emotion.\"",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "According to Bent Corydon, Hubbard created the illusion that Dianetics was the first psychotherapy to address traumatic experiences in their own time, but others had done so before as standard procedure. One treatment method Hubbard drew from in developing Dianetics was abreaction therapy. Abreaction is a psychoanalytical term that means bringing to consciousness, and thus adequate expression, material that has been unconscious. \"It includes not only the recollection of forgotten memories and experience, but also their reliving with appropriate emotional display and discharge of effect. This process is usually facilitated by the patient's gaining awareness of the causal relationship between the previously undischarged emotion and his symptoms.\"",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "According to Hubbard, before Dianetics psychotherapists had dealt with very light and superficial incidents (e.g., an incident that reminds the patient of a moment of loss), but with Dianetic therapy, the patient could actually erase moments of pain and unconsciousness. He emphasized: \"The discovery of the engram is entirely the property of Dianetics. Methods of its erasure are also owned entirely by Dianetics\".",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "While 1950 style Dianetics was in some respects similar to older therapies, with the development of New Era Dianetics in 1978, the similarity vanished. New Era Dianetics uses an E-Meter and a rote procedure for running chains of related traumatic incidents.",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Dianetics clarifies the understanding of psychosomatic illness in terms of predisposition, precipitation, and prolongation.",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "HCO Bulletin 11 July 1973RB Injury and illness are PREDISPOSED by the spiritual state of the person. They are PRECIPITATED by the being himself as a manifestation of his current spiritual condition. And they are PROLONGED by any failure to fully handle the spiritual factors associated with them.",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "With the use of Dianetics techniques, Hubbard claimed, the reactive mind could be processed and all stored engrams could be refiled as experience. The central technique was \"auditing\", a two-person question-and-answer method designed to isolate and dissipate engrams (or \"mental masses\"). An auditor addresses questions to a subject, observes and records the subject's responses, and returns repeatedly to experiences or areas under discussion that appear painful until the troubling experience has been identified and confronted. Through repeated applications of this method, the reactive mind could be \"cleared\" of its content having outlived its usefulness in the process of evolution; a person who has completed this process would be \"Clear\".",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The benefits of going Clear, according to Hubbard, were dramatic. A Clear would have no compulsions, repressions, psychoses or neuroses, and would enjoy a near-perfect memory as well as a rise in IQ of as much as 50 points. He also claimed that \"the atheist is activated by engrams as thoroughly as the zealot\". He further claimed that widespread application of Dianetics would result in \"A world without insanity, without criminals and without war.\"",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "One of the key ideas of Dianetics, according to Hubbard, is the fundamental existential command to survive. According to Hugh B. Urban, this would serve as the foundation of a big part of later Scientology.",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "",
"title": "Concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The procedure of Dianetics therapy (known as auditing) is a two-person activity. One person, the \"auditor\", guides the other person, the preclear. The preclear's job is to look at the mind and talk to the auditor. The auditor acknowledges what the preclear says and controls the process so the preclear may put his full attention on his work.",
"title": "Procedure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The auditor and preclear sit down in chairs facing each other. The process then follows in eleven distinct steps:",
"title": "Procedure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "A few transcripts of auditing sessions with confidential information redacted have been published as demonstration examples. Some extracts can be found in Winter's book A Doctor's Report on Dianetics. Other, more comprehensive, transcripts of auditing sessions carried out by Hubbard himself can be found in volume 1 of the Research & Discovery Series (Bridge Publications, 1980). Examples of public group processing sessions can be found throughout Hubbard's many recorded lectures.",
"title": "Procedure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In August 1950, amidst the success of Dianetics, Hubbard held a demonstration in Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium where he presented a young woman called Sonya Bianca (a pseudonym) to a large audience including many reporters and photographers as \"the world's first Clear\". Despite Hubbard's claim that she had \"full and perfect recall of every moment of her life\", Bianca proved unable to answer questions from the audience testing her memory and analytical abilities, including the question of the color of Hubbard's tie. Hubbard explained Bianca's failure to display her promised powers of recall to the audience by saying that he had used the word \"now\" in calling her to the stage, and thus inadvertently froze her in \"present time\", which blocked her abilities. Later, in the late 1950s, Hubbard would claim that several people had reached the state of Clear by the time he presented Bianca as the world's first; these others, Hubbard said, he had successfully cleared in the late 1940s while working incognito in Hollywood posing as a swami. In 1966, Hubbard declared South African Scientologist John McMaster to be the first true Clear.",
"title": "Therapeutic claims"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Hubbard claimed, in an interview with The New York Times in November 1950, that \"he had already submitted proof of claims made in the book to a number of scientists and associations.\" He added that the public as well as proper organizations were entitled to such proof and that he was ready and willing to give such proof in detail. In January 1951, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, New Jersey, published Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results, a booklet providing the results of psychometric tests conducted on 88 people undergoing Dianetics therapy. It presents case histories and a number of X-ray plates to support claims that Dianetics had cured \"aberrations\" including manic depression, asthma, arthritis, colitis and \"overt homosexuality\", and that after Dianetic processing, test subjects experienced significantly increased scores on a standardized IQ test. The report's subjects are not identified by name, but one of them is clearly Hubbard himself (\"Case 1080A, R. L.\").",
"title": "Therapeutic claims"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The authors provide no qualifications, although they are described in Hubbard's book Science of Survival (where some results of the same study were reprinted) as psychotherapists. Critics of Dianetics are skeptical of this study, both because of the bias of the source and because the researchers appear to ascribe all physical benefits to Dianetics without considering possible outside factors; in other words, the report lacks any scientific controls. Winter was originally an associate of Hubbard and an early adopter of Dianetics, but by the end of 1950 had cut ties with Hubbard and written an account of his personal experiences with Dianetics. He described Hubbard as \"absolutistic and authoritarian\", and criticized the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for failing to undertake \"precise scientific research into the functioning of the mind\". He also recommended that auditing be done by experts only and that it was dangerous for laymen to audit each other. Hubbard writes: \"Again, Dianetics is not being released to a profession, for no profession could encompass it.\"",
"title": "Therapeutic claims"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Hubbard's original book on Dianetics attracted highly critical reviews from science and medical writers and organizations. The American Psychological Association passed a resolution in 1950 calling \"attention to the fact that these claims are not supported by empirical evidence of the sort required for the establishment of scientific generalizations.\" Subsequently, Dianetics has achieved no acceptance as a scientific theory, and scientists cite Dianetics as an example of a pseudoscience.",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Few scientific investigations into the effectiveness of Dianetics have been published. Professor John A. Lee states in his 1970 evaluation of Dianetics:",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Objective experimental verification of Hubbard's physiological and psychological doctrines is lacking. To date, no regular scientific agency has established the validity of his theories of prenatal perception and engrams, or cellular memory, or Dianetic reverie, or the effects of Scientology auditing routines. Existing knowledge contradicts Hubbard's theory of recording of perceptions during periods of unconsciousness.",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The MEDLINE database records two independent scientific studies on Dianetics, both conducted in the 1950s under the auspices of New York University. Harvey Jay Fischer tested Dianetic therapy against three claims made by proponents and found it does not effect any significant changes in intellectual functioning, mathematical ability, or the degree of personality conflicts; Jack Fox tested Hubbard's thesis regarding recall of engrams, with the assistance of the Dianetic Research Foundation, and could not substantiate it.",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Commentators from a variety of backgrounds have described Dianetics as an example of pseudoscience. For example, philosophy professor Robert Carroll points to Dianetics' lack of empirical evidence:",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "What Hubbard touts as a science of mind lacks one key element that is expected of a science: empirical testing of claims. The key elements of Hubbard's so-called science don't seem testable, yet he repeatedly claims that he is asserting only scientific facts and data from many experiments. It isn't even clear what such \"data\" would look like. Most of his data is in the form of anecdotes and speculations ... Such speculation is appropriate in fiction, but not in science.",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The validity and practice of auditing have been questioned by a variety of non-Scientologist commentators. Commenting on the example cited by Winter, the science writer Martin Gardner asserts that \"nothing could be clearer from the above dialogue than the fact that the dianetic explanation for the headache existed only in the mind of the therapist, and that it was with considerable difficulty that the patient was maneuvered into accepting it.\"",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Other critics and medical experts have suggested that Dianetic auditing is a form of hypnosis. Hubbard, who had previously used hypnosis for entertainment purposes, strongly denied this connection and cautioned against hypnosis in Dianetics auditing. Professor Richard J. Ofshe, a leading expert on false memories, suggests that the feeling of well-being reported by preclear at the end of an auditing session may be induced by post-hypnotic suggestion. Other researchers have identified quotations in Hubbard's work suggesting evidence that false memories were created in Dianetics, specifically in the form of birth and pre-birth memories.",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "According to an article by physician Martin Gumpert, \"Hubbard's concept of psychosomatic disease is definitely wrong. Psychosomatic ailments are not simply caused by emotional disturbances: they are diseases in which the emotional and the organic factor are closely involved and interdependent.\"",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "But even the limited good that dianetics may do by introducing a single, narrowly-defined role-playing technique into interpersonal relations is probably more than offset by the damage it can do with its accompanying pretentious and nonsensical doctrines. [...T]hose who are helped by dianetics will necessarily be kept at a low level of intellectual and emotional maturity by the nonsense they have absorbed in order to be helped. The lure of the pseudoscientific vocabulary and promises of dianetics cannot but condemn thousands who are beginning to emerge from scientific illiteracy to a continuation of their susceptibility to word-magic and semantic hash. —S. I. Hayakawa",
"title": "Scientific rejection"
}
] | Dianetics is a set of pseudoscientific ideas and practices regarding the relationship between the human mind and body created by science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics is practiced by followers of Scientology and the Nation of Islam. Dianetics was originally conceived as a branch of psychiatry, which Hubbard would come to despise when various psychoanalysts dismissed it as unscientific. Though it is presented as a form of psychological treatment, Dianetics and its core concepts have been rejected by psychologists and other scientists from the outset and are not supported by credible evidence. | 2001-07-28T23:15:09Z | 2023-12-23T19:22:55Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics |
7,990 | Data warehouse | In computing, a data warehouse (DW or DWH), also known as an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), is a system used for reporting and data analysis and is considered a core component of business intelligence. Data warehouses are central repositories of integrated data from one or more disparate sources. They store current and historical data in one single place that are used for creating analytical reports for workers throughout the enterprise. This is beneficial for companies as it enables them to interrogate and draw insights from their data and make decisions.
The data stored in the warehouse is uploaded from the operational systems (such as marketing or sales). The data may pass through an operational data store and may require data cleansing for additional operations to ensure data quality before it is used in the data warehouse for reporting.
Extract, transform, load (ETL) and extract, load, transform (ELT) are the two main approaches used to build a data warehouse system.
The typical extract, transform, load (ETL)-based data warehouse uses staging, data integration, and access layers to house its key functions. The staging layer or staging database stores raw data extracted from each of the disparate source data systems. The integration layer integrates disparate data sets by transforming the data from the staging layer, often storing this transformed data in an operational data store (ODS) database. The integrated data are then moved to yet another database, often called the data warehouse database, where the data is arranged into hierarchical groups, often called dimensions, and into facts and aggregate facts. The combination of facts and dimensions is sometimes called a star schema. The access layer helps users retrieve data.
The main source of the data is cleansed, transformed, catalogued, and made available for use by managers and other business professionals for data mining, online analytical processing, market research and decision support. However, the means to retrieve and analyze data, to extract, transform, and load data, and to manage the data dictionary are also considered essential components of a data warehousing system. Many references to data warehousing use this broader context. Thus, an expanded definition of data warehousing includes business intelligence tools, tools to extract, transform, and load data into the repository, and tools to manage and retrieve metadata.
ELT-based data warehousing gets rid of a separate ETL tool for data transformation. Instead, it maintains a staging area inside the data warehouse itself. In this approach, data gets extracted from heterogeneous source systems and are then directly loaded into the data warehouse, before any transformation occurs. All necessary transformations are then handled inside the data warehouse itself. Finally, the manipulated data gets loaded into target tables in the same data warehouse.
A data warehouse maintains a copy of information from the source transaction systems. This architectural complexity provides the opportunity to:
The environment for data warehouses and marts includes the following:
In regards to source systems listed above, R. Kelly Rainer states, "A common source for the data in data warehouses is the company's operational databases, which can be relational databases".
Regarding data integration, Rainer states, "It is necessary to extract data from source systems, transform them, and load them into a data mart or warehouse".
Rainer discusses storing data in an organization's data warehouse or data marts.
Metadata is data about data. "IT personnel need information about data sources; database, table, and column names; refresh schedules; and data usage measures".
Today, the most successful companies are those that can respond quickly and flexibly to market changes and opportunities. A key to this response is the effective and efficient use of data and information by analysts and managers. A "data warehouse" is a repository of historical data that is organized by the subject to support decision-makers in the organization. Once data is stored in a data mart or warehouse, it can be accessed.
A data mart is a simple form of a data warehouse that is focused on a single subject (or functional area), hence they draw data from a limited number of sources such as sales, finance or marketing. Data marts are often built and controlled by a single department within an organization. The sources could be internal operational systems, a central data warehouse, or external data. Denormalization is the norm for data modeling techniques in this system. Given that data marts generally cover only a subset of the data contained in a data warehouse, they are often easier and faster to implement.
Types of data marts include dependent, independent, and hybrid data marts.
Online analytical processing (OLAP) is characterized by a relatively low volume of transactions. Queries are often very complex and involve aggregations. For OLAP systems, response time is an effective measure. OLAP applications are widely used by Data Mining techniques. OLAP databases store aggregated, historical data in multi-dimensional schemas (usually star schemas). OLAP systems typically have a data latency of a few hours, as opposed to data marts, where latency is expected to be closer to one day. The OLAP approach is used to analyze multidimensional data from multiple sources and perspectives. The three basic operations in OLAP are Roll-up (Consolidation), Drill-down, and Slicing & Dicing.
Online transaction processing (OLTP) is characterized by a large number of short on-line transactions (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE). OLTP systems emphasize very fast query processing and maintaining data integrity in multi-access environments. For OLTP systems, effectiveness is measured by the number of transactions per second. OLTP databases contain detailed and current data. The schema used to store transactional databases is the entity model (usually 3NF). Normalization is the norm for data modeling techniques in this system.
Predictive analytics is about finding and quantifying hidden patterns in the data using complex mathematical models that can be used to predict future outcomes. Predictive analysis is different from OLAP in that OLAP focuses on historical data analysis and is reactive in nature, while predictive analysis focuses on the future. These systems are also used for customer relationship management (CRM).
The concept of data warehousing dates back to the late 1980s when IBM researchers Barry Devlin and Paul Murphy developed the "business data warehouse". In essence, the data warehousing concept was intended to provide an architectural model for the flow of data from operational systems to decision support environments. The concept attempted to address the various problems associated with this flow, mainly the high costs associated with it. In the absence of a data warehousing architecture, an enormous amount of redundancy was required to support multiple decision support environments. In larger corporations, it was typical for multiple decision support environments to operate independently. Though each environment served different users, they often required much of the same stored data. The process of gathering, cleaning and integrating data from various sources, usually from long-term existing operational systems (usually referred to as legacy systems), was typically in part replicated for each environment. Moreover, the operational systems were frequently reexamined as new decision support requirements emerged. Often new requirements necessitated gathering, cleaning and integrating new data from "data marts" that was tailored for ready access by users.
Additionally, with the publication of The IRM Imperative (Wiley & Sons, 1991) by James M. Kerr, the idea of managing and putting a dollar value on an organization's data resources and then reporting that value as an asset on a balance sheet became popular. In the book, Kerr described a way to populate subject-area databases from data derived from transaction-driven systems to create a storage area where summary data could be further leveraged to inform executive decision-making. This concept served to promote further thinking of how a data warehouse could be developed and managed in a practical way within any enterprise.
Key developments in early years of data warehousing:
A fact is a value, or measurement, which represents a fact about the managed entity or system.
Facts, as reported by the reporting entity, are said to be at raw level; e.g., in a mobile telephone system, if a BTS (base transceiver station) receives 1,000 requests for traffic channel allocation, allocates for 820, and rejects the remaining, it would report three facts or measurements to a management system:
Facts at the raw level are further aggregated to higher levels in various dimensions to extract more service or business-relevant information from it. These are called aggregates or summaries or aggregated facts.
For instance, if there are three BTS in a city, then the facts above can be aggregated from the BTS to the city level in the network dimension. For example:
There are three or more leading approaches to storing data in a data warehouse – the most important approaches are the dimensional approach and the normalized approach.
The dimensional approach refers to Ralph Kimball's approach in which it is stated that the data warehouse should be modeled using a Dimensional Model/star schema. The normalized approach, also called the 3NF model (Third Normal Form), refers to Bill Inmon's approach in which it is stated that the data warehouse should be modeled using an E-R model/normalized model.
In a dimensional approach, transaction data is partitioned into "facts", which are generally numeric transaction data, and "dimensions", which are the reference information that gives context to the facts. For example, a sales transaction can be broken up into facts such as the number of products ordered and the total price paid for the products, and into dimensions such as order date, customer name, product number, order ship-to and bill-to locations, and salesperson responsible for receiving the order.
A key advantage of a dimensional approach is that the data warehouse is easier for the user to understand and to use. Also, the retrieval of data from the data warehouse tends to operate very quickly. Dimensional structures are easy to understand for business users, because the structure is divided into measurements/facts and context/dimensions. Facts are related to the organization's business processes and operational system whereas the dimensions surrounding them contain context about the measurement (Kimball, Ralph 2008). Another advantage offered by dimensional model is that it does not involve a relational database every time. Thus, this type of modeling technique is very useful for end-user queries in data warehouse.
The model of facts and dimensions can also be understood as a data cube. Where the dimensions are the categorical coordinates in a multi-dimensional cube, the fact is a value corresponding to the coordinates.
The main disadvantages of the dimensional approach are the following:
In the normalized approach, the data in the data warehouse are stored following, to a degree, database normalization rules. Tables are grouped together by subject areas that reflect general data categories (e.g., data on customers, products, finance, etc.). The normalized structure divides data into entities, which creates several tables in a relational database. When applied in large enterprises the result is dozens of tables that are linked together by a web of joins. Furthermore, each of the created entities is converted into separate physical tables when the database is implemented (Kimball, Ralph 2008). The main advantage of this approach is that it is straightforward to add information into the database. Some disadvantages of this approach are that, because of the number of tables involved, it can be difficult for users to join data from different sources into meaningful information and to access the information without a precise understanding of the sources of data and of the data structure of the data warehouse.
Both normalized and dimensional models can be represented in entity–relationship diagrams as both contain joined relational tables. The difference between the two models is the degree of normalization (also known as Normal Forms). These approaches are not mutually exclusive, and there are other approaches. Dimensional approaches can involve normalizing data to a degree (Kimball, Ralph 2008).
In Information-Driven Business, Robert Hillard proposes an approach to comparing the two approaches based on the information needs of the business problem. The technique shows that normalized models hold far more information than their dimensional equivalents (even when the same fields are used in both models) but this extra information comes at the cost of usability. The technique measures information quantity in terms of information entropy and usability in terms of the Small Worlds data transformation measure.
In the bottom-up approach, data marts are first created to provide reporting and analytical capabilities for specific business processes. These data marts can then be integrated to create a comprehensive data warehouse. The data warehouse bus architecture is primarily an implementation of "the bus", a collection of conformed dimensions and conformed facts, which are dimensions that are shared (in a specific way) between facts in two or more data marts.
The top-down approach is designed using a normalized enterprise data model. "Atomic" data, that is, data at the greatest level of detail, are stored in the data warehouse. Dimensional data marts containing data needed for specific business processes or specific departments are created from the data warehouse.
Data warehouses often resemble the hub and spokes architecture. Legacy systems feeding the warehouse often include customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning, generating large amounts of data. To consolidate these various data models, and facilitate the extract transform load process, data warehouses often make use of an operational data store, the information from which is parsed into the actual data warehouse. To reduce data redundancy, larger systems often store the data in a normalized way. Data marts for specific reports can then be built on top of the data warehouse.
A hybrid (also called ensemble) data warehouse database is kept on third normal form to eliminate data redundancy. A normal relational database, however, is not efficient for business intelligence reports where dimensional modelling is prevalent. Small data marts can shop for data from the consolidated warehouse and use the filtered, specific data for the fact tables and dimensions required. The data warehouse provides a single source of information from which the data marts can read, providing a wide range of business information. The hybrid architecture allows a data warehouse to be replaced with a master data management repository where operational (not static) information could reside.
The data vault modeling components follow hub and spokes architecture. This modeling style is a hybrid design, consisting of the best practices from both third normal form and star schema. The data vault model is not a true third normal form, and breaks some of its rules, but it is a top-down architecture with a bottom up design. The data vault model is geared to be strictly a data warehouse. It is not geared to be end-user accessible, which, when built, still requires the use of a data mart or star schema-based release area for business purposes.
There are basic features that define the data in the data warehouse that include subject orientation, data integration, time-variant, nonvolatile data, and data granularity.
Unlike the operational systems, the data in the data warehouse revolves around the subjects of the enterprise. Subject orientation is not database normalization. Subject orientation can be really useful for decision-making. Gathering the required objects is called subject-oriented.
The data found within the data warehouse is integrated. Since it comes from several operational systems, all inconsistencies must be removed. Consistencies include naming conventions, measurement of variables, encoding structures, physical attributes of data, and so forth.
While operational systems reflect current values as they support day-to-day operations, data warehouse data represents a long time horizon (up to 10 years) which means it stores mostly historical data. It is mainly meant for data mining and forecasting. (E.g. if a user is searching for a buying pattern of a specific customer, the user needs to look at data on the current and past purchases.)
The data in the data warehouse is read-only, which means it cannot be updated, created, or deleted (unless there is a regulatory or statutory obligation to do so).
In the data warehouse process, data can be aggregated in data marts at different levels of abstraction. The user may start looking at the total sale units of a product in an entire region. Then the user looks at the states in that region. Finally, they may examine the individual stores in a certain state. Therefore, typically, the analysis starts at a higher level and drills down to lower levels of details.
With data virtualization, the data used remains in its original locations and real-time access is established to allow analytics across multiple sources creating a virtual data warehouse. This can aid in resolving some technical difficulties such as compatibility problems when combining data from various platforms, lowering the risk of error caused by faulty data, and guaranteeing that the newest data is used. Furthermore, avoiding the creation of a new database containing personal information can make it easier to comply with privacy regulations. However, with data virtualization, the connection to all necessary data sources must be operational as there is no local copy of the data, which is one of the main drawbacks of the approach.
The different methods used to construct/organize a data warehouse specified by an organization are numerous. The hardware utilized, software created and data resources specifically required for the correct functionality of a data warehouse are the main components of the data warehouse architecture. All data warehouses have multiple phases in which the requirements of the organization are modified and fine-tuned.
Operational systems are optimized for the preservation of data integrity and speed of recording of business transactions through use of database normalization and an entity–relationship model. Operational system designers generally follow Codd's 12 rules of database normalization to ensure data integrity. Fully normalized database designs (that is, those satisfying all Codd rules) often result in information from a business transaction being stored in dozens to hundreds of tables. Relational databases are efficient at managing the relationships between these tables. The databases have very fast insert/update performance because only a small amount of data in those tables is affected each time a transaction is processed. To improve performance, older data are usually periodically purged from operational systems.
Data warehouses are optimized for analytic access patterns. Analytic access patterns generally involve selecting specific fields and rarely if ever select *, which selects all fields/columns, as is more common in operational databases. Because of these differences in access patterns, operational databases (loosely, OLTP) benefit from the use of a row-oriented DBMS whereas analytics databases (loosely, OLAP) benefit from the use of a column-oriented DBMS. Unlike operational systems which maintain a snapshot of the business, data warehouses generally maintain an infinite history which is implemented through ETL processes that periodically migrate data from the operational systems over to the data warehouse.
These terms refer to the level of sophistication of a data warehouse: | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In computing, a data warehouse (DW or DWH), also known as an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), is a system used for reporting and data analysis and is considered a core component of business intelligence. Data warehouses are central repositories of integrated data from one or more disparate sources. They store current and historical data in one single place that are used for creating analytical reports for workers throughout the enterprise. This is beneficial for companies as it enables them to interrogate and draw insights from their data and make decisions.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The data stored in the warehouse is uploaded from the operational systems (such as marketing or sales). The data may pass through an operational data store and may require data cleansing for additional operations to ensure data quality before it is used in the data warehouse for reporting.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Extract, transform, load (ETL) and extract, load, transform (ELT) are the two main approaches used to build a data warehouse system.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The typical extract, transform, load (ETL)-based data warehouse uses staging, data integration, and access layers to house its key functions. The staging layer or staging database stores raw data extracted from each of the disparate source data systems. The integration layer integrates disparate data sets by transforming the data from the staging layer, often storing this transformed data in an operational data store (ODS) database. The integrated data are then moved to yet another database, often called the data warehouse database, where the data is arranged into hierarchical groups, often called dimensions, and into facts and aggregate facts. The combination of facts and dimensions is sometimes called a star schema. The access layer helps users retrieve data.",
"title": "ETL-based data warehousing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The main source of the data is cleansed, transformed, catalogued, and made available for use by managers and other business professionals for data mining, online analytical processing, market research and decision support. However, the means to retrieve and analyze data, to extract, transform, and load data, and to manage the data dictionary are also considered essential components of a data warehousing system. Many references to data warehousing use this broader context. Thus, an expanded definition of data warehousing includes business intelligence tools, tools to extract, transform, and load data into the repository, and tools to manage and retrieve metadata.",
"title": "ETL-based data warehousing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "ELT-based data warehousing gets rid of a separate ETL tool for data transformation. Instead, it maintains a staging area inside the data warehouse itself. In this approach, data gets extracted from heterogeneous source systems and are then directly loaded into the data warehouse, before any transformation occurs. All necessary transformations are then handled inside the data warehouse itself. Finally, the manipulated data gets loaded into target tables in the same data warehouse.",
"title": "ELT-based data warehousing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "A data warehouse maintains a copy of information from the source transaction systems. This architectural complexity provides the opportunity to:",
"title": "Benefits"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The environment for data warehouses and marts includes the following:",
"title": "Generic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In regards to source systems listed above, R. Kelly Rainer states, \"A common source for the data in data warehouses is the company's operational databases, which can be relational databases\".",
"title": "Generic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Regarding data integration, Rainer states, \"It is necessary to extract data from source systems, transform them, and load them into a data mart or warehouse\".",
"title": "Generic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Rainer discusses storing data in an organization's data warehouse or data marts.",
"title": "Generic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Metadata is data about data. \"IT personnel need information about data sources; database, table, and column names; refresh schedules; and data usage measures\".",
"title": "Generic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Today, the most successful companies are those that can respond quickly and flexibly to market changes and opportunities. A key to this response is the effective and efficient use of data and information by analysts and managers. A \"data warehouse\" is a repository of historical data that is organized by the subject to support decision-makers in the organization. Once data is stored in a data mart or warehouse, it can be accessed.",
"title": "Generic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "A data mart is a simple form of a data warehouse that is focused on a single subject (or functional area), hence they draw data from a limited number of sources such as sales, finance or marketing. Data marts are often built and controlled by a single department within an organization. The sources could be internal operational systems, a central data warehouse, or external data. Denormalization is the norm for data modeling techniques in this system. Given that data marts generally cover only a subset of the data contained in a data warehouse, they are often easier and faster to implement.",
"title": "Related systems (data mart, OLAP, OLTP, predictive analytics)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Types of data marts include dependent, independent, and hybrid data marts.",
"title": "Related systems (data mart, OLAP, OLTP, predictive analytics)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Online analytical processing (OLAP) is characterized by a relatively low volume of transactions. Queries are often very complex and involve aggregations. For OLAP systems, response time is an effective measure. OLAP applications are widely used by Data Mining techniques. OLAP databases store aggregated, historical data in multi-dimensional schemas (usually star schemas). OLAP systems typically have a data latency of a few hours, as opposed to data marts, where latency is expected to be closer to one day. The OLAP approach is used to analyze multidimensional data from multiple sources and perspectives. The three basic operations in OLAP are Roll-up (Consolidation), Drill-down, and Slicing & Dicing.",
"title": "Related systems (data mart, OLAP, OLTP, predictive analytics)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Online transaction processing (OLTP) is characterized by a large number of short on-line transactions (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE). OLTP systems emphasize very fast query processing and maintaining data integrity in multi-access environments. For OLTP systems, effectiveness is measured by the number of transactions per second. OLTP databases contain detailed and current data. The schema used to store transactional databases is the entity model (usually 3NF). Normalization is the norm for data modeling techniques in this system.",
"title": "Related systems (data mart, OLAP, OLTP, predictive analytics)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Predictive analytics is about finding and quantifying hidden patterns in the data using complex mathematical models that can be used to predict future outcomes. Predictive analysis is different from OLAP in that OLAP focuses on historical data analysis and is reactive in nature, while predictive analysis focuses on the future. These systems are also used for customer relationship management (CRM).",
"title": "Related systems (data mart, OLAP, OLTP, predictive analytics)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The concept of data warehousing dates back to the late 1980s when IBM researchers Barry Devlin and Paul Murphy developed the \"business data warehouse\". In essence, the data warehousing concept was intended to provide an architectural model for the flow of data from operational systems to decision support environments. The concept attempted to address the various problems associated with this flow, mainly the high costs associated with it. In the absence of a data warehousing architecture, an enormous amount of redundancy was required to support multiple decision support environments. In larger corporations, it was typical for multiple decision support environments to operate independently. Though each environment served different users, they often required much of the same stored data. The process of gathering, cleaning and integrating data from various sources, usually from long-term existing operational systems (usually referred to as legacy systems), was typically in part replicated for each environment. Moreover, the operational systems were frequently reexamined as new decision support requirements emerged. Often new requirements necessitated gathering, cleaning and integrating new data from \"data marts\" that was tailored for ready access by users.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Additionally, with the publication of The IRM Imperative (Wiley & Sons, 1991) by James M. Kerr, the idea of managing and putting a dollar value on an organization's data resources and then reporting that value as an asset on a balance sheet became popular. In the book, Kerr described a way to populate subject-area databases from data derived from transaction-driven systems to create a storage area where summary data could be further leveraged to inform executive decision-making. This concept served to promote further thinking of how a data warehouse could be developed and managed in a practical way within any enterprise.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Key developments in early years of data warehousing:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "A fact is a value, or measurement, which represents a fact about the managed entity or system.",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Facts, as reported by the reporting entity, are said to be at raw level; e.g., in a mobile telephone system, if a BTS (base transceiver station) receives 1,000 requests for traffic channel allocation, allocates for 820, and rejects the remaining, it would report three facts or measurements to a management system:",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Facts at the raw level are further aggregated to higher levels in various dimensions to extract more service or business-relevant information from it. These are called aggregates or summaries or aggregated facts.",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "For instance, if there are three BTS in a city, then the facts above can be aggregated from the BTS to the city level in the network dimension. For example:",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "There are three or more leading approaches to storing data in a data warehouse – the most important approaches are the dimensional approach and the normalized approach.",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The dimensional approach refers to Ralph Kimball's approach in which it is stated that the data warehouse should be modeled using a Dimensional Model/star schema. The normalized approach, also called the 3NF model (Third Normal Form), refers to Bill Inmon's approach in which it is stated that the data warehouse should be modeled using an E-R model/normalized model.",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In a dimensional approach, transaction data is partitioned into \"facts\", which are generally numeric transaction data, and \"dimensions\", which are the reference information that gives context to the facts. For example, a sales transaction can be broken up into facts such as the number of products ordered and the total price paid for the products, and into dimensions such as order date, customer name, product number, order ship-to and bill-to locations, and salesperson responsible for receiving the order.",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "A key advantage of a dimensional approach is that the data warehouse is easier for the user to understand and to use. Also, the retrieval of data from the data warehouse tends to operate very quickly. Dimensional structures are easy to understand for business users, because the structure is divided into measurements/facts and context/dimensions. Facts are related to the organization's business processes and operational system whereas the dimensions surrounding them contain context about the measurement (Kimball, Ralph 2008). Another advantage offered by dimensional model is that it does not involve a relational database every time. Thus, this type of modeling technique is very useful for end-user queries in data warehouse.",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The model of facts and dimensions can also be understood as a data cube. Where the dimensions are the categorical coordinates in a multi-dimensional cube, the fact is a value corresponding to the coordinates.",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The main disadvantages of the dimensional approach are the following:",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In the normalized approach, the data in the data warehouse are stored following, to a degree, database normalization rules. Tables are grouped together by subject areas that reflect general data categories (e.g., data on customers, products, finance, etc.). The normalized structure divides data into entities, which creates several tables in a relational database. When applied in large enterprises the result is dozens of tables that are linked together by a web of joins. Furthermore, each of the created entities is converted into separate physical tables when the database is implemented (Kimball, Ralph 2008). The main advantage of this approach is that it is straightforward to add information into the database. Some disadvantages of this approach are that, because of the number of tables involved, it can be difficult for users to join data from different sources into meaningful information and to access the information without a precise understanding of the sources of data and of the data structure of the data warehouse.",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Both normalized and dimensional models can be represented in entity–relationship diagrams as both contain joined relational tables. The difference between the two models is the degree of normalization (also known as Normal Forms). These approaches are not mutually exclusive, and there are other approaches. Dimensional approaches can involve normalizing data to a degree (Kimball, Ralph 2008).",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In Information-Driven Business, Robert Hillard proposes an approach to comparing the two approaches based on the information needs of the business problem. The technique shows that normalized models hold far more information than their dimensional equivalents (even when the same fields are used in both models) but this extra information comes at the cost of usability. The technique measures information quantity in terms of information entropy and usability in terms of the Small Worlds data transformation measure.",
"title": "Information storage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In the bottom-up approach, data marts are first created to provide reporting and analytical capabilities for specific business processes. These data marts can then be integrated to create a comprehensive data warehouse. The data warehouse bus architecture is primarily an implementation of \"the bus\", a collection of conformed dimensions and conformed facts, which are dimensions that are shared (in a specific way) between facts in two or more data marts.",
"title": "Design methods"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The top-down approach is designed using a normalized enterprise data model. \"Atomic\" data, that is, data at the greatest level of detail, are stored in the data warehouse. Dimensional data marts containing data needed for specific business processes or specific departments are created from the data warehouse.",
"title": "Design methods"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Data warehouses often resemble the hub and spokes architecture. Legacy systems feeding the warehouse often include customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning, generating large amounts of data. To consolidate these various data models, and facilitate the extract transform load process, data warehouses often make use of an operational data store, the information from which is parsed into the actual data warehouse. To reduce data redundancy, larger systems often store the data in a normalized way. Data marts for specific reports can then be built on top of the data warehouse.",
"title": "Design methods"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "A hybrid (also called ensemble) data warehouse database is kept on third normal form to eliminate data redundancy. A normal relational database, however, is not efficient for business intelligence reports where dimensional modelling is prevalent. Small data marts can shop for data from the consolidated warehouse and use the filtered, specific data for the fact tables and dimensions required. The data warehouse provides a single source of information from which the data marts can read, providing a wide range of business information. The hybrid architecture allows a data warehouse to be replaced with a master data management repository where operational (not static) information could reside.",
"title": "Design methods"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The data vault modeling components follow hub and spokes architecture. This modeling style is a hybrid design, consisting of the best practices from both third normal form and star schema. The data vault model is not a true third normal form, and breaks some of its rules, but it is a top-down architecture with a bottom up design. The data vault model is geared to be strictly a data warehouse. It is not geared to be end-user accessible, which, when built, still requires the use of a data mart or star schema-based release area for business purposes.",
"title": "Design methods"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "There are basic features that define the data in the data warehouse that include subject orientation, data integration, time-variant, nonvolatile data, and data granularity.",
"title": "Data warehouse characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Unlike the operational systems, the data in the data warehouse revolves around the subjects of the enterprise. Subject orientation is not database normalization. Subject orientation can be really useful for decision-making. Gathering the required objects is called subject-oriented.",
"title": "Data warehouse characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The data found within the data warehouse is integrated. Since it comes from several operational systems, all inconsistencies must be removed. Consistencies include naming conventions, measurement of variables, encoding structures, physical attributes of data, and so forth.",
"title": "Data warehouse characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "While operational systems reflect current values as they support day-to-day operations, data warehouse data represents a long time horizon (up to 10 years) which means it stores mostly historical data. It is mainly meant for data mining and forecasting. (E.g. if a user is searching for a buying pattern of a specific customer, the user needs to look at data on the current and past purchases.)",
"title": "Data warehouse characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The data in the data warehouse is read-only, which means it cannot be updated, created, or deleted (unless there is a regulatory or statutory obligation to do so).",
"title": "Data warehouse characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In the data warehouse process, data can be aggregated in data marts at different levels of abstraction. The user may start looking at the total sale units of a product in an entire region. Then the user looks at the states in that region. Finally, they may examine the individual stores in a certain state. Therefore, typically, the analysis starts at a higher level and drills down to lower levels of details.",
"title": "Data warehouse options"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "With data virtualization, the data used remains in its original locations and real-time access is established to allow analytics across multiple sources creating a virtual data warehouse. This can aid in resolving some technical difficulties such as compatibility problems when combining data from various platforms, lowering the risk of error caused by faulty data, and guaranteeing that the newest data is used. Furthermore, avoiding the creation of a new database containing personal information can make it easier to comply with privacy regulations. However, with data virtualization, the connection to all necessary data sources must be operational as there is no local copy of the data, which is one of the main drawbacks of the approach.",
"title": "Data warehouse options"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The different methods used to construct/organize a data warehouse specified by an organization are numerous. The hardware utilized, software created and data resources specifically required for the correct functionality of a data warehouse are the main components of the data warehouse architecture. All data warehouses have multiple phases in which the requirements of the organization are modified and fine-tuned.",
"title": "Data warehouse architecture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Operational systems are optimized for the preservation of data integrity and speed of recording of business transactions through use of database normalization and an entity–relationship model. Operational system designers generally follow Codd's 12 rules of database normalization to ensure data integrity. Fully normalized database designs (that is, those satisfying all Codd rules) often result in information from a business transaction being stored in dozens to hundreds of tables. Relational databases are efficient at managing the relationships between these tables. The databases have very fast insert/update performance because only a small amount of data in those tables is affected each time a transaction is processed. To improve performance, older data are usually periodically purged from operational systems.",
"title": "Versus operational system"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Data warehouses are optimized for analytic access patterns. Analytic access patterns generally involve selecting specific fields and rarely if ever select *, which selects all fields/columns, as is more common in operational databases. Because of these differences in access patterns, operational databases (loosely, OLTP) benefit from the use of a row-oriented DBMS whereas analytics databases (loosely, OLAP) benefit from the use of a column-oriented DBMS. Unlike operational systems which maintain a snapshot of the business, data warehouses generally maintain an infinite history which is implemented through ETL processes that periodically migrate data from the operational systems over to the data warehouse.",
"title": "Versus operational system"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "These terms refer to the level of sophistication of a data warehouse:",
"title": "Evolution in organization use"
}
] | In computing, a data warehouse, also known as an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), is a system used for reporting and data analysis and is considered a core component of business intelligence. Data warehouses are central repositories of integrated data from one or more disparate sources. They store current and historical data in one single place that are used for creating analytical reports for workers throughout the enterprise. This is beneficial for companies as it enables them to interrogate and draw insights from their data and make decisions. The data stored in the warehouse is uploaded from the operational systems. The data may pass through an operational data store and may require data cleansing for additional operations to ensure data quality before it is used in the data warehouse for reporting. Extract, transform, load (ETL) and extract, load, transform (ELT) are the two main approaches used to build a data warehouse system. | 2001-04-06T16:44:15Z | 2023-12-19T10:06:42Z | [
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7,991 | Disperser | A disperser is a one-sided extractor. Where an extractor requires that every event gets the same probability under the uniform distribution and the extracted distribution, only the latter is required for a disperser. So for a disperser, an event A ⊆ { 0 , 1 } m {\displaystyle A\subseteq \{0,1\}^{m}} we have: P r U m [ A ] > 1 − ϵ {\displaystyle Pr_{U_{m}}[A]>1-\epsilon }
Definition (Disperser): A ( k , ϵ ) {\displaystyle (k,\epsilon )} -disperser is a function
D i s : { 0 , 1 } n × { 0 , 1 } d → { 0 , 1 } m {\displaystyle Dis:\{0,1\}^{n}\times \{0,1\}^{d}\rightarrow \{0,1\}^{m}}
such that for every distribution X {\displaystyle X} on { 0 , 1 } n {\displaystyle \{0,1\}^{n}} with H ∞ ( X ) ≥ k {\displaystyle H_{\infty }(X)\geq k} the support of the distribution D i s ( X , U d ) {\displaystyle Dis(X,U_{d})} is of size at least ( 1 − ϵ ) 2 m {\displaystyle (1-\epsilon )2^{m}} .
An (N, M, D, K, e)-disperser is a bipartite graph with N vertices on the left side, each with degree D, and M vertices on the right side, such that every subset of K vertices on the left side is connected to more than (1 − e)M vertices on the right.
An extractor is a related type of graph that guarantees an even stronger property; every (N, M, D, K, e)-extractor is also an (N, M, D, K, e)-disperser.
A disperser is a high-speed mixing device used to disperse or dissolve pigments and other solids into a liquid. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A disperser is a one-sided extractor. Where an extractor requires that every event gets the same probability under the uniform distribution and the extracted distribution, only the latter is required for a disperser. So for a disperser, an event A ⊆ { 0 , 1 } m {\\displaystyle A\\subseteq \\{0,1\\}^{m}} we have: P r U m [ A ] > 1 − ϵ {\\displaystyle Pr_{U_{m}}[A]>1-\\epsilon }",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Definition (Disperser): A ( k , ϵ ) {\\displaystyle (k,\\epsilon )} -disperser is a function",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "D i s : { 0 , 1 } n × { 0 , 1 } d → { 0 , 1 } m {\\displaystyle Dis:\\{0,1\\}^{n}\\times \\{0,1\\}^{d}\\rightarrow \\{0,1\\}^{m}}",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "such that for every distribution X {\\displaystyle X} on { 0 , 1 } n {\\displaystyle \\{0,1\\}^{n}} with H ∞ ( X ) ≥ k {\\displaystyle H_{\\infty }(X)\\geq k} the support of the distribution D i s ( X , U d ) {\\displaystyle Dis(X,U_{d})} is of size at least ( 1 − ϵ ) 2 m {\\displaystyle (1-\\epsilon )2^{m}} .",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "An (N, M, D, K, e)-disperser is a bipartite graph with N vertices on the left side, each with degree D, and M vertices on the right side, such that every subset of K vertices on the left side is connected to more than (1 − e)M vertices on the right.",
"title": "Graph theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "An extractor is a related type of graph that guarantees an even stronger property; every (N, M, D, K, e)-extractor is also an (N, M, D, K, e)-disperser.",
"title": "Graph theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "A disperser is a high-speed mixing device used to disperse or dissolve pigments and other solids into a liquid.",
"title": "Other meanings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "",
"title": "References"
}
] | A disperser is a one-sided extractor. Where an extractor requires that every event gets the same probability under the uniform distribution and the extracted distribution, only the latter is required for a disperser. So for a disperser, an event A ⊆ { 0 , 1 } m we have: P r U m [ A ] > 1 − ϵ Definition (Disperser): A -disperser is a function D i s : { 0 , 1 } n × { 0 , 1 } d → { 0 , 1 } m such that for every distribution X on { 0 , 1 } n with H ∞ ≥ k the support of the distribution D i s is of size at least 2 m . | 2020-12-27T16:07:22Z | [
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|
7,992 | Devonian | The Devonian (/dɪˈvoʊni.ən, dɛ-/ də-VOH-nee-ən, deh-) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at 419.2 million years ago (Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding Carboniferous period at 358.9 Ma. It is named after Devon, South West England, where rocks from this period were first studied.
The first significant evolutionary radiation of life on land occurred during the Devonian, as free-sporing land plants (pteridophytes) began to spread across dry land, forming extensive coal forests which covered the continents. By the middle of the Devonian, several groups of vascular plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants (pteridospermatophytes) appeared. This rapid evolution and colonization process, which had begun during the Silurian, is known as the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution. The earliest land animals, predominantly arthropods such as myriapods, arachnids and hexapods, also became well-established early in this period, after beginning their colonization of land at least from the Ordovician period.
Fishes, especially jawed fish, reached substantial diversity during this time, leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the Age of Fishes. The armored placoderms began dominating almost every known aquatic environment. In the oceans, cartilaginous fishes such as primitive sharks became more numerous than in the Silurian and Late Ordovician. Tetrapodomorphs, which include the ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates (i.e. tetrapods), began diverging from freshwater lobe-finned fish as their more robust and muscled pectoral and pelvic fins gradually evolved into forelimbs and hindlimbs, though they were not fully established for life on land until the Late Carboniferous.
The first ammonites, a subclass of cephalopod molluscs, appeared. Trilobites, brachiopods and the great coral reefs were still common during the Devonian. The Late Devonian extinction, which started about 375 Ma, severely affected marine life, killing off most of the reef systems, most of the jawless fish, half of all placoderms, and nearly all trilobites save for a few species of the order Proetida. The subsequent end-Devonian extinction, which occurred at around 359 Ma, further impacted the ecosystems and completed the extinction of all calcite sponge reefs and placoderms.
Devonian palaeogeography was dominated by the supercontinent Gondwana to the south, the small continent of Siberia to the north, and the medium-sized continent of Laurussia to the east. Major tectonic events include the closure of the Rheic Ocean, the separation of South China from Gondwana, and the resulting expansion of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. The Devonian experienced several major mountain-building events as Laurussia and Gondwana approached; these include the Acadian Orogeny in North America and the beginning of the Variscan Orogeny in Europe. These early collisions preceded the formation of the single supercontinent Pangaea in the Late Paleozoic.
The period is named after Devon, a county in southwestern England, where a controversial argument in the 1830s over the age and structure of the rocks found distributed throughout the county was eventually resolved by the definition of the Devonian Period in the geological timescale. The Great Devonian Controversy was a long period of vigorous argument and counter-argument between the main protagonists of Roderick Murchison with Adam Sedgwick against Henry De la Beche supported by George Bellas Greenough. Murchison and Sedgwick won the debate and named the period they proposed as the Devonian System.
While the rock beds that define the start and end of the Devonian Period are well identified, the exact dates are uncertain. According to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the Devonian extends from the end of the Silurian 419.2 Ma, to the beginning of the Carboniferous 358.9 Ma – in North America, at the beginning of the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous.
In 19th-century texts the Devonian has been called the "Old Red Age", after the red and brown terrestrial deposits known in the United Kingdom as the Old Red Sandstone in which early fossil discoveries were found. Another common term is "Age of the Fishes", referring to the evolution of several major groups of fish that took place during the period. Older literature on the Anglo-Welsh basin divides it into the Downtonian, Dittonian, Breconian, and Farlovian stages, the latter three of which are placed in the Devonian.
The Devonian has also erroneously been characterised as a "greenhouse age", due to sampling bias: most of the early Devonian-age discoveries came from the strata of western Europe and eastern North America, which at the time straddled the Equator as part of the supercontinent of Euramerica where fossil signatures of widespread reefs indicate tropical climates that were warm and moderately humid. In fact the climate in the Devonian differed greatly during its epochs and between geographic regions. For example, during the Early Devonian, arid conditions were prevalent through much of the world including Siberia, Australia, North America, and China, but Africa and South America had a warm temperate climate. In the Late Devonian, by contrast, arid conditions were less prevalent across the world and temperate climates were more common.
The Devonian Period is formally broken into Early, Middle and Late subdivisions. The rocks corresponding to those epochs are referred to as belonging to the Lower, Middle and Upper parts of the Devonian System.
The Early Devonian lasted from 419.2 to 393.3 Ma. It began with the Lochkovian Stage 419.2 to 410.8 Ma, which was followed by the Pragian from 410.8 to 407.6 Ma and then by the Emsian, which lasted until the Middle Devonian began, 393.3 Ma. During this time, the first ammonoids appeared, descending from bactritoid nautiloids. Ammonoids during this time period were simple and differed little from their nautiloid counterparts. These ammonoids belong to the order Agoniatitida, which in later epochs evolved to new ammonoid orders, for example Goniatitida and Clymeniida. This class of cephalopod molluscs would dominate the marine fauna until the beginning of the Mesozoic Era.
The Middle Devonian comprised two subdivisions: first the Eifelian, which then gave way to the Givetian 387.7 Ma. During this time the jawless agnathan fishes began to decline in diversity in freshwater and marine environments partly due to drastic environmental changes and partly due to the increasing competition, predation, and diversity of jawed fishes. The shallow, warm, oxygen-depleted waters of Devonian inland lakes, surrounded by primitive plants, provided the environment necessary for certain early fish to develop such essential characteristics as well developed lungs, and the ability to crawl out of the water and onto the land for short periods of time.
Finally, the Late Devonian started with the Frasnian, 382.7 to 372.2 Ma, during which the first forests took shape on land. The first tetrapods appeared in the fossil record in the ensuing Famennian subdivision, the beginning and end of which are marked with extinction events. This lasted until the end of the Devonian, 358.9 Ma.
The Devonian was a relatively warm period, although significant glaciers may have existed during the Early and Middle Devonian. The temperature gradient from the equator to the poles was not as large as it is today. The weather was also very arid, mostly along the equator where it was the driest. Reconstruction of tropical sea surface temperature from conodont apatite implies an average value of 30 °C (86 °F) in the Early Devonian. Early Devonian mean annual surface temperatures were approximately 16 °C. CO2 levels dropped steeply throughout the Devonian Period. The newly evolved forests drew carbon out of the atmosphere, which were then buried into sediments. This may be reflected by a Mid-Devonian cooling of around 5 °C (9 °F). The Late Devonian warmed to levels equivalent to the Early Devonian; while there is no corresponding increase in CO2 concentrations, continental weathering increases (as predicted by warmer temperatures); further, a range of evidence, such as plant distribution, points to a Late Devonian warming. The climate would have affected the dominant organisms in reefs; microbes would have been the main reef-forming organisms in warm periods, with corals and stromatoporoid sponges taking the dominant role in cooler times. The warming at the end of the Devonian may even have contributed to the extinction of the stromatoporoids. At the terminus of the Devonian, Earth rapidly cooled into an icehouse, marking the beginning of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age.
The Devonian world involved many continents and ocean basins of various sizes. The largest continent, Gondwana, was located entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. It corresponds to modern day South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and India, as well as minor components of North America and Asia. The second-largest continent, Laurussia, was northwest of Gondwana, and corresponds to much of modern-day North America and Europe. Various smaller continents, microcontinents, and terranes were present east of Laurussia and north of Gondwana, corresponding to parts of Europe and Asia. The Devonian Period was a time of great tectonic activity, as the major continents of Laurussia and Gondwana drew closer together.
Sea levels were high worldwide, and much of the land lay under shallow seas, where tropical reef organisms lived. The enormous "world ocean", Panthalassa, occupied much of the Northern Hemisphere as well as wide swathes east of Gondwana and west of Laurussia. Other minor oceans were the Paleo-Tethys Ocean and Rheic Ocean.
By the early Devonian, the continent Laurussia (also known as Euramerica) was fully formed through the collision of the continents Laurentia (modern day North America) and Baltica (modern day northern and eastern Europe). The tectonic effects of this collision continued into the Devonian, producing a string of mountain ranges along the southeastern coast of the continent. In present-day eastern North America, the Acadian Orogeny continued to raise the Appalachian Mountains. Further east, the collision also extended the rise of the Caledonian Mountains of Great Britain and Scandinavia. As the Caledonian Orogeny wound down in the later part of the period, orogenic collapse facilitated a cluster of granite intrusions in Scotland.
Most of Laurussia was located south of the equator, but in the Devonian it moved northwards and began to rotate counterclockwise towards its modern position. While the most northern parts of the continent (such as Greenland and Ellesmere Island) established tropical conditions, most of the continent was located within the natural dry zone along the Tropic of Capricorn, which (as nowadays) is a result of the convergence of two great air-masses, the Hadley cell and the Ferrel cell. In these near-deserts, the Old Red Sandstone sedimentary beds formed, made red by the oxidised iron (hematite) characteristic of drought conditions. The abundance of red sandstone on continental land also lends Laurussia the name "the Old Red Continent". For much of the Devonian, the majority of western Laurussia (North America) was covered by subtropical inland seas which hosted a diverse ecosystem of reefs and marine life. Devonian marine deposits are particularly prevalent in the midwestern and northeastern United States. Devonian reefs also extended along the southeast edge of Laurussia, a coastline now corresponding to southern England, Belgium, and other mid-latitude areas of Europe.
In the Early and Middle Devonian, the west coast of Laurussia was a passive margin with broad coastal waters, deep silty embayments, river deltas and estuaries, found today in Idaho and Nevada. In the Late Devonian, an approaching volcanic island arc reached the steep slope of the continental shelf and began to uplift deep water deposits. This minor collision sparked the start of a mountain-building episode called the Antler orogeny, which extended into the Carboniferous. Mountain building could also be found in the far northeastern extent of the continent, as minor tropical island arcs and detached Baltic terranes re-join the continent. Deformed remnants of these mountains can still be found on Ellesmere Island and Svalbard. Many of the Devonian collisions in Laurussia produce both mountain chains and foreland basins, which are frequently fossiliferous.
Gondwana was by far the largest continent on the planet. It was completely south of the equator, although the northeastern sector (now Australia) did reach tropical latitudes. The southwestern sector (now South America) was located to the far south, with Brazil situated near the South Pole. The northwestern edge of Gondwana was an active margin for much of the Devonian, and saw the accretion of many smaller land masses and island arcs. These include Chilenia, Cuyania, and Chaitenia, which now form much of Chile and Patagonia. These collisions were associated with volcanic activity and plutons, but by the Late Devonian the tectonic situation had relaxed and much of South America was covered by shallow seas. These south polar seas hosted a distinctive brachiopod fauna, the Malvinokaffric Realm, which extended eastward to marginal areas now equivalent to South Africa and Antarctica. Malvinokaffric faunas even managed to approach the South Pole via a tongue of Panthalassa which extended into the Paraná Basin.
The northern rim of Gondwana was mostly a passive margin, hosting extensive marine deposits in areas such as northwest Africa and Tibet. The eastern margin, though warmer than the west, was equally active. Numerous mountain building events and granite and kimberlite intrusions affected areas equivalent to modern day eastern Australia, Tasmania, and Antarctica.
Several island microcontinents (which would later coalesce into modern day Asia) stretched over a low-latitude archipelago to the north of Gondwana. They were separated from the southern continent by an oceanic basin: the Paleo-Tethys. Although the western Paleo-Tethys Ocean had existed since the Cambrian, the eastern part only began to rift apart as late as the Silurian. This process accelerated in the Devonian. The eastern branch of the Paleo-Tethys was fully opened when South China and Annamia (a terrane equivalent to most of Indochina), together as a unified continent, detached from the northeastern sector of Gondwana. Nevertheless, they remained close enough to Gondwana that their Devonian fossils were more closely related to Australian species than to north Asian species. Other Asian terranes remained attached to Gondwana, including Sibumasu (western Indochina), Tibet, and the rest of the Cimmerian blocks.
While the South China-Annamia continent was the newest addition to the Asian microcontinents, it was not the first. North China and the Tarim Block (now northwesternmost China) were located westward and continued to drift northwards, powering over older oceanic crust in the process. Further west was a small ocean (the Turkestan Ocean), followed by the larger microcontinents of Kazakhstania, Siberia, and Amuria. Kazakhstania was a volcanically active region during the Devonian, as it continued to assimilate smaller island arcs. The island arcs of the region, such as the Balkhash-West Junggar Arc, exhibited biological endemism as a consequence of their location.
Siberia was located just north of the equator as the largest landmass in the Northern Hemisphere. At the beginning of the Devonian, Siberia was inverted (upside down) relative to its modern orientation. Later in the period it moved northwards and began to twist clockwise, though it was not near its modern location. Siberia approached the eastern edge of Laurussia as the Devonian progressed, but it was still separated by a seaway, the Ural Ocean. Although Siberia's margins were generally tectonically stable and ecologically productive, rifting and deep mantle plumes impacted the continent with flood basalts during the Late Devonian. The Altai-Sayan region was shaken by volcanism in the Early and Middle Devonian, while Late Devonian magmatism was magnified further to produce the Vilyuy Traps, flood basalts which may have contributed to the Late Devonian Mass Extinction. The last major round of volcanism, the Yakutsk Large Igneous Province, continued into the Carboniferous to produce extensive kimberlite deposits.
Similar volcanic activity also affected the nearby microcontinent of Amuria (now Manchuria, Mongolia and their vicinities). Though certainly close to Siberia in the Devonian, the precise location of Amuria is uncertain due to contradictory paleomagnetic data.
The Rheic Ocean, which separated Laurussia from Gondwana, was wide at the start of the Devonian, having formed after the drift of Avalonia away from Gondwana. It steadily shrunk as the period continued, as the two major continents approached near the equator in the early stages of the assembly of Pangaea. The closure of the Rheic Ocean began in the Devonian and continued into the Carboniferous. As the ocean narrowed, endemic marine faunas of Gondwana and Laurussia combined into a single tropical fauna. The history of the western Rheic Ocean is a subject of debate, but there is good evidence that Rheic oceanic crust experienced intense subduction and metamorphism under Mexico and Central America.
The closure of the eastern part of the Rheic Ocean is associated with the assemblage of central and southern Europe. In the early Paleozoic, much of Europe was still attached to Gondwana, including the terranes of Iberia, Armorica (France), Palaeo-Adria (the western Mediterranean area), Bohemia, Franconia, and Saxothuringia. These continental blocks, collectively known as the Armorican Terrane Assemblage, split away from Gondwana in the Silurian and drifted towards Laurussia through the Devonian. Their collision with Laurussia leads to the beginning of the Variscan Orogeny, a major mountain-building event which would escalate further in the Late Paleozoic. Franconia and Saxothuringia collided with Laurussia near the end of the Early Devonian, pinching out the easternmost Rheic Ocean. The rest of the Armorican terranes followed, and by the end of the Devonian they were fully connected with Laurussia. This sequence of rifting and collision events led to the successive creation and destruction of several small seaways, including the Rheno-Hercynian, Saxo-Thuringian, and Galicia-Moldanubian oceans. Their sediments were eventually compressed and completely buried as Gondwana fully collided with Laurussia in the Carboniferous.
Sea levels in the Devonian were generally high. Marine faunas continued to be dominated by conodonts, bryozoans, diverse and abundant brachiopods, the enigmatic hederellids, microconchids, and corals. Lily-like crinoids (animals, their resemblance to flowers notwithstanding) were abundant, and trilobites were still fairly common. Bivalves became commonplace in deep water and outer shelf environments. The first ammonites also appeared during or slightly before the early Devonian Period around 400 Ma. Bactritoids make their first appearance in the Early Devonian as well; their radiation, along with that of ammonoids, has been attributed by some authors to increased environmental stress resulting from decreasing oxygen levels in the deeper parts of the water column. Among vertebrates, jawless armored fish (ostracoderms) declined in diversity, while the jawed fish (gnathostomes) simultaneously increased in both the sea and fresh water. Armored placoderms were numerous during the lower stages of the Devonian Period and became extinct in the Late Devonian, perhaps because of competition for food against the other fish species. Early cartilaginous (Chondrichthyes) and bony fishes (Osteichthyes) also become diverse and played a large role within the Devonian seas. The first abundant genus of cartilaginous fish, Cladoselache, appeared in the oceans during the Devonian Period. The great diversity of fish around at the time has led to the Devonian being given the name "The Age of Fish" in popular culture.
The Devonian saw significant expansion in the diversity of nektonic marine life driven by the abundance of planktonic microorganisms in the free water column as well as high ecological competition in benthic habitats, which were extremely saturated; this diversification has been labeled the Devonian Nekton Revolution by many researchers. However, other researchers have questioned whether this revolution existed at all; a 2018 study found that although the proportion of biodiversity constituted by nekton increased across the boundary between the Silurian and Devonian, it decreased across the span of the Devonian, particularly during the Pragian, and that the overall diversity of nektonic taxa did not increase significantly during the Devonian compared to during other geologic periods, and was in fact higher during the intervals spanning from the Wenlock to the Lochkovian and from the Carboniferous to the Permian. The study's authors instead attribute the increased overall diversity of nekton in the Devonian to a broader, gradual trend of nektonic diversification across the entire Palaeozoic.
A now-dry barrier reef, located in present-day Kimberley Basin of northwest Australia, once extended 350 km (220 mi), fringing a Devonian continent. Reefs are generally built by various carbonate-secreting organisms that can erect wave-resistant structures near sea level. Although modern reefs are constructed mainly by corals and calcareous algae, Devonian reefs were either microbial reefs built up mostly by autotrophic cyanobacteria or coral-stromatoporoid reefs built up by coral-like stromatoporoids and tabulate and rugose corals. Microbial reefs dominated under the warmer conditions of the early and late Devonian, while coral-stromatoporoid reefs dominated during the cooler middle Devonian.
By the Devonian Period, life was well underway in its colonization of the land. The moss forests and bacterial and algal mats of the Silurian were joined early in the period by primitive rooted plants that created the first stable soils and harbored arthropods like mites, scorpions, trigonotarbids and myriapods (although arthropods appeared on land much earlier than in the Early Devonian and the existence of fossils such as Protichnites suggest that amphibious arthropods may have appeared as early as the Cambrian). By far the largest land organism at the beginning of this period was the enigmatic Prototaxites, which was possibly the fruiting body of an enormous fungus, rolled liverwort mat, or another organism of uncertain affinities that stood more than 8 metres (26 ft) tall, and towered over the low, carpet-like vegetation during the early part of the Devonian. Also, the first possible fossils of insects appeared around 416 Ma, in the Early Devonian. Evidence for the earliest tetrapods takes the form of trace fossils in shallow lagoon environments within a marine carbonate platform/shelf during the Middle Devonian, although these traces have been questioned and an interpretation as fish feeding traces (Piscichnus) has been advanced.
Many Early Devonian plants did not have true roots or leaves like extant plants, although vascular tissue is observed in many of those plants. Some of the early land plants such as Drepanophycus likely spread by vegetative growth and spores. The earliest land plants such as Cooksonia consisted of leafless, dichotomous axes with terminal sporangia and were generally very short-statured, and grew hardly more than a few centimetres tall. Fossils of Armoricaphyton chateaupannense, about 400 million years old, represent the oldest known plants with woody tissue. By the Middle Devonian, shrub-like forests of primitive plants existed: lycophytes, horsetails, ferns, and progymnosperms evolved. Most of these plants had true roots and leaves, and many were quite tall. The earliest-known trees appeared in the Middle Devonian. These included a lineage of lycopods and another arborescent, woody vascular plant, the cladoxylopsids and progymnosperm Archaeopteris. These tracheophytes were able to grow to large size on dry land because they had evolved the ability to biosynthesize lignin, which gave them physical rigidity and improved the effectiveness of their vascular system while giving them resistance to pathogens and herbivores. These are the oldest-known trees of the world's first forests. By the end of the Devonian, the first seed-forming plants had appeared. This rapid appearance of many plant groups and growth forms has been referred to as the Devonian Explosion or the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution.
The 'greening' of the continents acted as a carbon sink, and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide may have dropped. This may have cooled the climate and led to a massive extinction event. (See Late Devonian extinction).
Primitive arthropods co-evolved with this diversified terrestrial vegetation structure. The evolving co-dependence of insects and seed plants that characterized a recognizably modern world had its genesis in the Late Devonian Epoch. The development of soils and plant root systems probably led to changes in the speed and pattern of erosion and sediment deposition. The rapid evolution of a terrestrial ecosystem that contained copious animals opened the way for the first vertebrates to seek terrestrial living. By the end of the Devonian, arthropods were solidly established on the land.
The Late Devonian extinction is not a single event, but rather is a series of pulsed extinctions at the Givetian-Frasnian boundary, the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, and the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. Together, these are considered one of the "Big Five" mass extinctions in Earth's history. The Devonian extinction crisis primarily affected the marine community, and selectively affected shallow warm-water organisms rather than cool-water organisms. The most important group to be affected by this extinction event were the reef-builders of the great Devonian reef systems.
Amongst the severely affected marine groups were the brachiopods, trilobites, ammonites, and acritarchs, and the world saw the disappearance of an estimated 96% of vertebrates like conodonts and bony fishes, and all of the ostracoderms and placoderms. Land plants as well as freshwater species, such as our tetrapod ancestors, were relatively unaffected by the Late Devonian extinction event (there is a counterargument that the Devonian extinctions nearly wiped out the tetrapods).
The reasons for the Late Devonian extinctions are still unknown, and all explanations remain speculative. Canadian paleontologist Digby McLaren suggested in 1969 that the Devonian extinction events were caused by an asteroid impact. However, while there were Late Devonian collision events (see the Alamo bolide impact), little evidence supports the existence of a large enough Devonian crater. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Devonian (/dɪˈvoʊni.ən, dɛ-/ də-VOH-nee-ən, deh-) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at 419.2 million years ago (Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding Carboniferous period at 358.9 Ma. It is named after Devon, South West England, where rocks from this period were first studied.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The first significant evolutionary radiation of life on land occurred during the Devonian, as free-sporing land plants (pteridophytes) began to spread across dry land, forming extensive coal forests which covered the continents. By the middle of the Devonian, several groups of vascular plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants (pteridospermatophytes) appeared. This rapid evolution and colonization process, which had begun during the Silurian, is known as the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution. The earliest land animals, predominantly arthropods such as myriapods, arachnids and hexapods, also became well-established early in this period, after beginning their colonization of land at least from the Ordovician period.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Fishes, especially jawed fish, reached substantial diversity during this time, leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the Age of Fishes. The armored placoderms began dominating almost every known aquatic environment. In the oceans, cartilaginous fishes such as primitive sharks became more numerous than in the Silurian and Late Ordovician. Tetrapodomorphs, which include the ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates (i.e. tetrapods), began diverging from freshwater lobe-finned fish as their more robust and muscled pectoral and pelvic fins gradually evolved into forelimbs and hindlimbs, though they were not fully established for life on land until the Late Carboniferous.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The first ammonites, a subclass of cephalopod molluscs, appeared. Trilobites, brachiopods and the great coral reefs were still common during the Devonian. The Late Devonian extinction, which started about 375 Ma, severely affected marine life, killing off most of the reef systems, most of the jawless fish, half of all placoderms, and nearly all trilobites save for a few species of the order Proetida. The subsequent end-Devonian extinction, which occurred at around 359 Ma, further impacted the ecosystems and completed the extinction of all calcite sponge reefs and placoderms.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Devonian palaeogeography was dominated by the supercontinent Gondwana to the south, the small continent of Siberia to the north, and the medium-sized continent of Laurussia to the east. Major tectonic events include the closure of the Rheic Ocean, the separation of South China from Gondwana, and the resulting expansion of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. The Devonian experienced several major mountain-building events as Laurussia and Gondwana approached; these include the Acadian Orogeny in North America and the beginning of the Variscan Orogeny in Europe. These early collisions preceded the formation of the single supercontinent Pangaea in the Late Paleozoic.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The period is named after Devon, a county in southwestern England, where a controversial argument in the 1830s over the age and structure of the rocks found distributed throughout the county was eventually resolved by the definition of the Devonian Period in the geological timescale. The Great Devonian Controversy was a long period of vigorous argument and counter-argument between the main protagonists of Roderick Murchison with Adam Sedgwick against Henry De la Beche supported by George Bellas Greenough. Murchison and Sedgwick won the debate and named the period they proposed as the Devonian System.",
"title": "History of definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "While the rock beds that define the start and end of the Devonian Period are well identified, the exact dates are uncertain. According to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the Devonian extends from the end of the Silurian 419.2 Ma, to the beginning of the Carboniferous 358.9 Ma – in North America, at the beginning of the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous.",
"title": "History of definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 19th-century texts the Devonian has been called the \"Old Red Age\", after the red and brown terrestrial deposits known in the United Kingdom as the Old Red Sandstone in which early fossil discoveries were found. Another common term is \"Age of the Fishes\", referring to the evolution of several major groups of fish that took place during the period. Older literature on the Anglo-Welsh basin divides it into the Downtonian, Dittonian, Breconian, and Farlovian stages, the latter three of which are placed in the Devonian.",
"title": "History of definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The Devonian has also erroneously been characterised as a \"greenhouse age\", due to sampling bias: most of the early Devonian-age discoveries came from the strata of western Europe and eastern North America, which at the time straddled the Equator as part of the supercontinent of Euramerica where fossil signatures of widespread reefs indicate tropical climates that were warm and moderately humid. In fact the climate in the Devonian differed greatly during its epochs and between geographic regions. For example, during the Early Devonian, arid conditions were prevalent through much of the world including Siberia, Australia, North America, and China, but Africa and South America had a warm temperate climate. In the Late Devonian, by contrast, arid conditions were less prevalent across the world and temperate climates were more common.",
"title": "History of definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The Devonian Period is formally broken into Early, Middle and Late subdivisions. The rocks corresponding to those epochs are referred to as belonging to the Lower, Middle and Upper parts of the Devonian System.",
"title": "Subdivisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The Early Devonian lasted from 419.2 to 393.3 Ma. It began with the Lochkovian Stage 419.2 to 410.8 Ma, which was followed by the Pragian from 410.8 to 407.6 Ma and then by the Emsian, which lasted until the Middle Devonian began, 393.3 Ma. During this time, the first ammonoids appeared, descending from bactritoid nautiloids. Ammonoids during this time period were simple and differed little from their nautiloid counterparts. These ammonoids belong to the order Agoniatitida, which in later epochs evolved to new ammonoid orders, for example Goniatitida and Clymeniida. This class of cephalopod molluscs would dominate the marine fauna until the beginning of the Mesozoic Era.",
"title": "Subdivisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Middle Devonian comprised two subdivisions: first the Eifelian, which then gave way to the Givetian 387.7 Ma. During this time the jawless agnathan fishes began to decline in diversity in freshwater and marine environments partly due to drastic environmental changes and partly due to the increasing competition, predation, and diversity of jawed fishes. The shallow, warm, oxygen-depleted waters of Devonian inland lakes, surrounded by primitive plants, provided the environment necessary for certain early fish to develop such essential characteristics as well developed lungs, and the ability to crawl out of the water and onto the land for short periods of time.",
"title": "Subdivisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Finally, the Late Devonian started with the Frasnian, 382.7 to 372.2 Ma, during which the first forests took shape on land. The first tetrapods appeared in the fossil record in the ensuing Famennian subdivision, the beginning and end of which are marked with extinction events. This lasted until the end of the Devonian, 358.9 Ma.",
"title": "Subdivisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The Devonian was a relatively warm period, although significant glaciers may have existed during the Early and Middle Devonian. The temperature gradient from the equator to the poles was not as large as it is today. The weather was also very arid, mostly along the equator where it was the driest. Reconstruction of tropical sea surface temperature from conodont apatite implies an average value of 30 °C (86 °F) in the Early Devonian. Early Devonian mean annual surface temperatures were approximately 16 °C. CO2 levels dropped steeply throughout the Devonian Period. The newly evolved forests drew carbon out of the atmosphere, which were then buried into sediments. This may be reflected by a Mid-Devonian cooling of around 5 °C (9 °F). The Late Devonian warmed to levels equivalent to the Early Devonian; while there is no corresponding increase in CO2 concentrations, continental weathering increases (as predicted by warmer temperatures); further, a range of evidence, such as plant distribution, points to a Late Devonian warming. The climate would have affected the dominant organisms in reefs; microbes would have been the main reef-forming organisms in warm periods, with corals and stromatoporoid sponges taking the dominant role in cooler times. The warming at the end of the Devonian may even have contributed to the extinction of the stromatoporoids. At the terminus of the Devonian, Earth rapidly cooled into an icehouse, marking the beginning of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The Devonian world involved many continents and ocean basins of various sizes. The largest continent, Gondwana, was located entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. It corresponds to modern day South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and India, as well as minor components of North America and Asia. The second-largest continent, Laurussia, was northwest of Gondwana, and corresponds to much of modern-day North America and Europe. Various smaller continents, microcontinents, and terranes were present east of Laurussia and north of Gondwana, corresponding to parts of Europe and Asia. The Devonian Period was a time of great tectonic activity, as the major continents of Laurussia and Gondwana drew closer together.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Sea levels were high worldwide, and much of the land lay under shallow seas, where tropical reef organisms lived. The enormous \"world ocean\", Panthalassa, occupied much of the Northern Hemisphere as well as wide swathes east of Gondwana and west of Laurussia. Other minor oceans were the Paleo-Tethys Ocean and Rheic Ocean.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "By the early Devonian, the continent Laurussia (also known as Euramerica) was fully formed through the collision of the continents Laurentia (modern day North America) and Baltica (modern day northern and eastern Europe). The tectonic effects of this collision continued into the Devonian, producing a string of mountain ranges along the southeastern coast of the continent. In present-day eastern North America, the Acadian Orogeny continued to raise the Appalachian Mountains. Further east, the collision also extended the rise of the Caledonian Mountains of Great Britain and Scandinavia. As the Caledonian Orogeny wound down in the later part of the period, orogenic collapse facilitated a cluster of granite intrusions in Scotland.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Most of Laurussia was located south of the equator, but in the Devonian it moved northwards and began to rotate counterclockwise towards its modern position. While the most northern parts of the continent (such as Greenland and Ellesmere Island) established tropical conditions, most of the continent was located within the natural dry zone along the Tropic of Capricorn, which (as nowadays) is a result of the convergence of two great air-masses, the Hadley cell and the Ferrel cell. In these near-deserts, the Old Red Sandstone sedimentary beds formed, made red by the oxidised iron (hematite) characteristic of drought conditions. The abundance of red sandstone on continental land also lends Laurussia the name \"the Old Red Continent\". For much of the Devonian, the majority of western Laurussia (North America) was covered by subtropical inland seas which hosted a diverse ecosystem of reefs and marine life. Devonian marine deposits are particularly prevalent in the midwestern and northeastern United States. Devonian reefs also extended along the southeast edge of Laurussia, a coastline now corresponding to southern England, Belgium, and other mid-latitude areas of Europe.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In the Early and Middle Devonian, the west coast of Laurussia was a passive margin with broad coastal waters, deep silty embayments, river deltas and estuaries, found today in Idaho and Nevada. In the Late Devonian, an approaching volcanic island arc reached the steep slope of the continental shelf and began to uplift deep water deposits. This minor collision sparked the start of a mountain-building episode called the Antler orogeny, which extended into the Carboniferous. Mountain building could also be found in the far northeastern extent of the continent, as minor tropical island arcs and detached Baltic terranes re-join the continent. Deformed remnants of these mountains can still be found on Ellesmere Island and Svalbard. Many of the Devonian collisions in Laurussia produce both mountain chains and foreland basins, which are frequently fossiliferous.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Gondwana was by far the largest continent on the planet. It was completely south of the equator, although the northeastern sector (now Australia) did reach tropical latitudes. The southwestern sector (now South America) was located to the far south, with Brazil situated near the South Pole. The northwestern edge of Gondwana was an active margin for much of the Devonian, and saw the accretion of many smaller land masses and island arcs. These include Chilenia, Cuyania, and Chaitenia, which now form much of Chile and Patagonia. These collisions were associated with volcanic activity and plutons, but by the Late Devonian the tectonic situation had relaxed and much of South America was covered by shallow seas. These south polar seas hosted a distinctive brachiopod fauna, the Malvinokaffric Realm, which extended eastward to marginal areas now equivalent to South Africa and Antarctica. Malvinokaffric faunas even managed to approach the South Pole via a tongue of Panthalassa which extended into the Paraná Basin.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The northern rim of Gondwana was mostly a passive margin, hosting extensive marine deposits in areas such as northwest Africa and Tibet. The eastern margin, though warmer than the west, was equally active. Numerous mountain building events and granite and kimberlite intrusions affected areas equivalent to modern day eastern Australia, Tasmania, and Antarctica.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Several island microcontinents (which would later coalesce into modern day Asia) stretched over a low-latitude archipelago to the north of Gondwana. They were separated from the southern continent by an oceanic basin: the Paleo-Tethys. Although the western Paleo-Tethys Ocean had existed since the Cambrian, the eastern part only began to rift apart as late as the Silurian. This process accelerated in the Devonian. The eastern branch of the Paleo-Tethys was fully opened when South China and Annamia (a terrane equivalent to most of Indochina), together as a unified continent, detached from the northeastern sector of Gondwana. Nevertheless, they remained close enough to Gondwana that their Devonian fossils were more closely related to Australian species than to north Asian species. Other Asian terranes remained attached to Gondwana, including Sibumasu (western Indochina), Tibet, and the rest of the Cimmerian blocks.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "While the South China-Annamia continent was the newest addition to the Asian microcontinents, it was not the first. North China and the Tarim Block (now northwesternmost China) were located westward and continued to drift northwards, powering over older oceanic crust in the process. Further west was a small ocean (the Turkestan Ocean), followed by the larger microcontinents of Kazakhstania, Siberia, and Amuria. Kazakhstania was a volcanically active region during the Devonian, as it continued to assimilate smaller island arcs. The island arcs of the region, such as the Balkhash-West Junggar Arc, exhibited biological endemism as a consequence of their location.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Siberia was located just north of the equator as the largest landmass in the Northern Hemisphere. At the beginning of the Devonian, Siberia was inverted (upside down) relative to its modern orientation. Later in the period it moved northwards and began to twist clockwise, though it was not near its modern location. Siberia approached the eastern edge of Laurussia as the Devonian progressed, but it was still separated by a seaway, the Ural Ocean. Although Siberia's margins were generally tectonically stable and ecologically productive, rifting and deep mantle plumes impacted the continent with flood basalts during the Late Devonian. The Altai-Sayan region was shaken by volcanism in the Early and Middle Devonian, while Late Devonian magmatism was magnified further to produce the Vilyuy Traps, flood basalts which may have contributed to the Late Devonian Mass Extinction. The last major round of volcanism, the Yakutsk Large Igneous Province, continued into the Carboniferous to produce extensive kimberlite deposits.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Similar volcanic activity also affected the nearby microcontinent of Amuria (now Manchuria, Mongolia and their vicinities). Though certainly close to Siberia in the Devonian, the precise location of Amuria is uncertain due to contradictory paleomagnetic data.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Rheic Ocean, which separated Laurussia from Gondwana, was wide at the start of the Devonian, having formed after the drift of Avalonia away from Gondwana. It steadily shrunk as the period continued, as the two major continents approached near the equator in the early stages of the assembly of Pangaea. The closure of the Rheic Ocean began in the Devonian and continued into the Carboniferous. As the ocean narrowed, endemic marine faunas of Gondwana and Laurussia combined into a single tropical fauna. The history of the western Rheic Ocean is a subject of debate, but there is good evidence that Rheic oceanic crust experienced intense subduction and metamorphism under Mexico and Central America.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The closure of the eastern part of the Rheic Ocean is associated with the assemblage of central and southern Europe. In the early Paleozoic, much of Europe was still attached to Gondwana, including the terranes of Iberia, Armorica (France), Palaeo-Adria (the western Mediterranean area), Bohemia, Franconia, and Saxothuringia. These continental blocks, collectively known as the Armorican Terrane Assemblage, split away from Gondwana in the Silurian and drifted towards Laurussia through the Devonian. Their collision with Laurussia leads to the beginning of the Variscan Orogeny, a major mountain-building event which would escalate further in the Late Paleozoic. Franconia and Saxothuringia collided with Laurussia near the end of the Early Devonian, pinching out the easternmost Rheic Ocean. The rest of the Armorican terranes followed, and by the end of the Devonian they were fully connected with Laurussia. This sequence of rifting and collision events led to the successive creation and destruction of several small seaways, including the Rheno-Hercynian, Saxo-Thuringian, and Galicia-Moldanubian oceans. Their sediments were eventually compressed and completely buried as Gondwana fully collided with Laurussia in the Carboniferous.",
"title": "Paleogeography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Sea levels in the Devonian were generally high. Marine faunas continued to be dominated by conodonts, bryozoans, diverse and abundant brachiopods, the enigmatic hederellids, microconchids, and corals. Lily-like crinoids (animals, their resemblance to flowers notwithstanding) were abundant, and trilobites were still fairly common. Bivalves became commonplace in deep water and outer shelf environments. The first ammonites also appeared during or slightly before the early Devonian Period around 400 Ma. Bactritoids make their first appearance in the Early Devonian as well; their radiation, along with that of ammonoids, has been attributed by some authors to increased environmental stress resulting from decreasing oxygen levels in the deeper parts of the water column. Among vertebrates, jawless armored fish (ostracoderms) declined in diversity, while the jawed fish (gnathostomes) simultaneously increased in both the sea and fresh water. Armored placoderms were numerous during the lower stages of the Devonian Period and became extinct in the Late Devonian, perhaps because of competition for food against the other fish species. Early cartilaginous (Chondrichthyes) and bony fishes (Osteichthyes) also become diverse and played a large role within the Devonian seas. The first abundant genus of cartilaginous fish, Cladoselache, appeared in the oceans during the Devonian Period. The great diversity of fish around at the time has led to the Devonian being given the name \"The Age of Fish\" in popular culture.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The Devonian saw significant expansion in the diversity of nektonic marine life driven by the abundance of planktonic microorganisms in the free water column as well as high ecological competition in benthic habitats, which were extremely saturated; this diversification has been labeled the Devonian Nekton Revolution by many researchers. However, other researchers have questioned whether this revolution existed at all; a 2018 study found that although the proportion of biodiversity constituted by nekton increased across the boundary between the Silurian and Devonian, it decreased across the span of the Devonian, particularly during the Pragian, and that the overall diversity of nektonic taxa did not increase significantly during the Devonian compared to during other geologic periods, and was in fact higher during the intervals spanning from the Wenlock to the Lochkovian and from the Carboniferous to the Permian. The study's authors instead attribute the increased overall diversity of nekton in the Devonian to a broader, gradual trend of nektonic diversification across the entire Palaeozoic.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "A now-dry barrier reef, located in present-day Kimberley Basin of northwest Australia, once extended 350 km (220 mi), fringing a Devonian continent. Reefs are generally built by various carbonate-secreting organisms that can erect wave-resistant structures near sea level. Although modern reefs are constructed mainly by corals and calcareous algae, Devonian reefs were either microbial reefs built up mostly by autotrophic cyanobacteria or coral-stromatoporoid reefs built up by coral-like stromatoporoids and tabulate and rugose corals. Microbial reefs dominated under the warmer conditions of the early and late Devonian, while coral-stromatoporoid reefs dominated during the cooler middle Devonian.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "By the Devonian Period, life was well underway in its colonization of the land. The moss forests and bacterial and algal mats of the Silurian were joined early in the period by primitive rooted plants that created the first stable soils and harbored arthropods like mites, scorpions, trigonotarbids and myriapods (although arthropods appeared on land much earlier than in the Early Devonian and the existence of fossils such as Protichnites suggest that amphibious arthropods may have appeared as early as the Cambrian). By far the largest land organism at the beginning of this period was the enigmatic Prototaxites, which was possibly the fruiting body of an enormous fungus, rolled liverwort mat, or another organism of uncertain affinities that stood more than 8 metres (26 ft) tall, and towered over the low, carpet-like vegetation during the early part of the Devonian. Also, the first possible fossils of insects appeared around 416 Ma, in the Early Devonian. Evidence for the earliest tetrapods takes the form of trace fossils in shallow lagoon environments within a marine carbonate platform/shelf during the Middle Devonian, although these traces have been questioned and an interpretation as fish feeding traces (Piscichnus) has been advanced.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Many Early Devonian plants did not have true roots or leaves like extant plants, although vascular tissue is observed in many of those plants. Some of the early land plants such as Drepanophycus likely spread by vegetative growth and spores. The earliest land plants such as Cooksonia consisted of leafless, dichotomous axes with terminal sporangia and were generally very short-statured, and grew hardly more than a few centimetres tall. Fossils of Armoricaphyton chateaupannense, about 400 million years old, represent the oldest known plants with woody tissue. By the Middle Devonian, shrub-like forests of primitive plants existed: lycophytes, horsetails, ferns, and progymnosperms evolved. Most of these plants had true roots and leaves, and many were quite tall. The earliest-known trees appeared in the Middle Devonian. These included a lineage of lycopods and another arborescent, woody vascular plant, the cladoxylopsids and progymnosperm Archaeopteris. These tracheophytes were able to grow to large size on dry land because they had evolved the ability to biosynthesize lignin, which gave them physical rigidity and improved the effectiveness of their vascular system while giving them resistance to pathogens and herbivores. These are the oldest-known trees of the world's first forests. By the end of the Devonian, the first seed-forming plants had appeared. This rapid appearance of many plant groups and growth forms has been referred to as the Devonian Explosion or the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The 'greening' of the continents acted as a carbon sink, and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide may have dropped. This may have cooled the climate and led to a massive extinction event. (See Late Devonian extinction).",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Primitive arthropods co-evolved with this diversified terrestrial vegetation structure. The evolving co-dependence of insects and seed plants that characterized a recognizably modern world had its genesis in the Late Devonian Epoch. The development of soils and plant root systems probably led to changes in the speed and pattern of erosion and sediment deposition. The rapid evolution of a terrestrial ecosystem that contained copious animals opened the way for the first vertebrates to seek terrestrial living. By the end of the Devonian, arthropods were solidly established on the land.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The Late Devonian extinction is not a single event, but rather is a series of pulsed extinctions at the Givetian-Frasnian boundary, the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, and the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. Together, these are considered one of the \"Big Five\" mass extinctions in Earth's history. The Devonian extinction crisis primarily affected the marine community, and selectively affected shallow warm-water organisms rather than cool-water organisms. The most important group to be affected by this extinction event were the reef-builders of the great Devonian reef systems.",
"title": "Late Devonian extinction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Amongst the severely affected marine groups were the brachiopods, trilobites, ammonites, and acritarchs, and the world saw the disappearance of an estimated 96% of vertebrates like conodonts and bony fishes, and all of the ostracoderms and placoderms. Land plants as well as freshwater species, such as our tetrapod ancestors, were relatively unaffected by the Late Devonian extinction event (there is a counterargument that the Devonian extinctions nearly wiped out the tetrapods).",
"title": "Late Devonian extinction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The reasons for the Late Devonian extinctions are still unknown, and all explanations remain speculative. Canadian paleontologist Digby McLaren suggested in 1969 that the Devonian extinction events were caused by an asteroid impact. However, while there were Late Devonian collision events (see the Alamo bolide impact), little evidence supports the existence of a large enough Devonian crater.",
"title": "Late Devonian extinction"
}
] | The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at 419.2 million years ago (Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding Carboniferous period at 358.9 Ma. It is named after Devon, South West England, where rocks from this period were first studied. The first significant evolutionary radiation of life on land occurred during the Devonian, as free-sporing land plants (pteridophytes) began to spread across dry land, forming extensive coal forests which covered the continents. By the middle of the Devonian, several groups of vascular plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants (pteridospermatophytes) appeared. This rapid evolution and colonization process, which had begun during the Silurian, is known as the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution. The earliest land animals, predominantly arthropods such as myriapods, arachnids and hexapods, also became well-established early in this period, after beginning their colonization of land at least from the Ordovician period. Fishes, especially jawed fish, reached substantial diversity during this time, leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the Age of Fishes. The armored placoderms began dominating almost every known aquatic environment. In the oceans, cartilaginous fishes such as primitive sharks became more numerous than in the Silurian and Late Ordovician. Tetrapodomorphs, which include the ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates, began diverging from freshwater lobe-finned fish as their more robust and muscled pectoral and pelvic fins gradually evolved into forelimbs and hindlimbs, though they were not fully established for life on land until the Late Carboniferous. The first ammonites, a subclass of cephalopod molluscs, appeared. Trilobites, brachiopods and the great coral reefs were still common during the Devonian. The Late Devonian extinction, which started about 375 Ma, severely affected marine life, killing off most of the reef systems, most of the jawless fish, half of all placoderms, and nearly all trilobites save for a few species of the order Proetida. The subsequent end-Devonian extinction, which occurred at around 359 Ma, further impacted the ecosystems and completed the extinction of all calcite sponge reefs and placoderms. Devonian palaeogeography was dominated by the supercontinent Gondwana to the south, the small continent of Siberia to the north, and the medium-sized continent of Laurussia to the east. Major tectonic events include the closure of the Rheic Ocean, the separation of South China from Gondwana, and the resulting expansion of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. The Devonian experienced several major mountain-building events as Laurussia and Gondwana approached; these include the Acadian Orogeny in North America and the beginning of the Variscan Orogeny in Europe. These early collisions preceded the formation of the single supercontinent Pangaea in the Late Paleozoic. | 2001-05-19T13:36:04Z | 2023-12-28T16:28:21Z | [
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7,993 | Dungeon Master (disambiguation) | A Dungeon Master is the organizer of a Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
Dungeon Master may also refer to: | [
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] | A Dungeon Master is the organizer of a Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Dungeon Master may also refer to: | 2022-12-31T21:46:39Z | [
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|
7,994 | David Thompson (explorer) | David Thompson (30 April 1770 – 10 February 1857) was an Anglo-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and cartographer, known to some native people as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer". Over Thompson's career, he travelled 90,000 kilometres (56,000 mi) across North America, mapping 4.9 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) of the continent along the way. For this historic feat, Thompson has been described as the "greatest practical land geographer that the world has produced".
David Thompson was born in Westminster, Middlesex, to recent Welsh migrants David and Ann Thompson. When Thompson was two, his father died. Due to his widowed mother not having financial resources, she placed Thompson, 29 April 1777, the day before his seventh birthday, and his older brother in the Grey Coat Hospital, a school for the disadvantaged of Westminster. Thompson graduated to the Grey Coat mathematical school, well known for teaching navigation and surveying.
He received an education for the Royal Navy: including mathematics of trigonometry and geometry, practical navigation including using of nautical instruments, finding latitudes and longitudes and making navigational calculations from observing the sun, moon and tide, and drawing maps and charts, taking land measurements, and sketching landscapes. He later built on these skills to make his career. In 1784, when Thompson was 14, the Grey Coat treasurer paid the Hudson's Bay Company the sum of five pounds, upon which the youth became an apprentice employee of the company, contracted for a period of seven years to be trained as a clerk.
He set sail on a ship to North America on 28 May of that year, leaving England.
On 2 September 1784, Thompson arrived in Churchill (now in Manitoba) and was put to work as a clerk/secretary, copying the personal papers of the governor of Fort Churchill, Samuel Hearne. The next year he was transferred to nearby York Factory, and over the next few years spent time as a secretary at Cumberland House, Saskatchewan, and South Branch House of the Hudson Bay Company before being transferred to Manchester House in 1787. During those years he learned to keep accounts and other records, calculate values of furs (It was noted that he also had several expensive beaver pelts at that time even when a secretary's job would not pay terribly well), track supplies and other duties.
On 23 December 1788, Thompson seriously fractured his tibia, forcing him to spend the next two winters at Cumberland House convalescing. It was during this time that he greatly refined and expanded his mathematical, astronomical, and surveying skills under the tutelage of Hudson's Bay Company surveyor Philip Turnor. It was also during this time that he lost sight in his right eye.
In 1790, with his apprenticeship nearing its end, Thompson requested a set of surveying tools in place of the typical parting gift of fine clothes offered by the company to those completing their indenture. He received both. He entered the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company as a fur trader. In 1792 he completed his first significant survey, mapping a route to Lake Athabasca (where today's Alberta/Saskatchewan border is located).
Between February and May 1793, Thompson made 34 observations of the longitude of Cumberland House using lunar distances. The mean of these observations was 102°12′ W, about 2' east of the modern value. The mean error of the 34 observations was about 15' of longitude. Broughton (2009) notes that the precision of the type of sextant used by Thompson was 15" of arc, corresponding to 7.5' of longitude giving an absolute limit to the precision of an individual observation. The error in Thompson's mean was several times less than this. The time he took on these observations, about 3 hours of calculation each, indicates that he understood the power of averages.
In recognition of his map-making and surveying skills, the company promoted Thompson to the surveyor in 1794. He continued working for the Hudson's Bay Company until 23 May 1797 when, frustrated by an order to cease surveying and focus on the fur trade, he left. He walked 130 kilometres (80 mi) in the snow in order to enter the employ of the competition, the North West Company. There he continued to work as a fur trader and surveyor.
Thompson's decision to defect to the North West Company (NWC) in 1797 without providing the customary one-year notice was not well received by his former employers. But the North West Company was more supportive of Thompson pursuing his work on surveying and mapping the interior of what was to become Canada, as they judged it in the company's interest to know the exact locations of their settlements and the distances between them. In 1797, Thompson was sent south by his employers to survey part of the Canada-US boundary along the water routes from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods to satisfy unresolved questions of territory arising from the Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States after the American Revolutionary War.
By 1798 Thompson had completed a survey of 6,750 km (4,190 mi) from Grand Portage, through Lake Winnipeg, to the headwaters of the Assiniboine and Mississippi rivers, as well as two sides of Lake Superior. In 1798, the company sent him to Red Deer Lake (Lac La Biche in present-day Alberta) to establish a trading post. (The English translation of Lac la Biche: Red Deer Lake, was first recorded on the Mackenzie map of 1793.) Thompson spent the next few seasons trading based in Fort George (now in Alberta), and during this time led several expeditions into the Rocky Mountains.
On 10 July 1804, at the annual meeting of the North West Company in Kaministiquia, Thompson was made a full partner of the company. He became a 'wintering partner', who was based in the field rather than Montreal, and was granted two of the 92 NWC's shares worth more than £4,000. He spent the next few seasons based there managing the fur trading operations, but still finding time to expand his surveys of the waterways around Lake Superior. At the 1806 company meeting, officers decided to send Thompson back into the interior. Concern over the United States-backed expedition of Lewis and Clark prompted the North West Company to charge Thompson with the task of finding a route to the Pacific to open up the lucrative trading territories of the Pacific Northwest.
After the general meeting in 1806, Thompson travelled to Rocky Mountain House and prepared for an expedition to follow the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. In June 1807 Thompson crossed the Rocky Mountains and spent the summer surveying the Columbia basin; he continued to survey the area over the next few seasons. Thompson mapped and established trading posts in Northwestern Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Western Canada. Trading posts he founded included Kootenae House, Kullyspell House and Saleesh House; the latter two were the first trading posts west of the Rockies in Idaho and Montana, respectively. These posts established by Thompson extended North West Company fur trading territory into the Columbia Basin drainage area. The maps he made of the Columbia River basin east of the Cascade Mountains were of such high quality and detail that they continued to be useful into the 20th-century.
In early 1810, Thompson was returning eastward toward Montreal but, while en route at Rainy Lake, received orders to return to the Rocky Mountains and establish a route to the mouth of the Columbia. The North West Company was responding to the plans of American entrepreneur John Jacob Astor to send a ship around the Americas to establish a fur trading post of the Pacific Fur Company on the Pacific Coast. During his return, Thompson was delayed by an angry group of Peigan natives at Howse Pass. He was ultimately forced to seek a new route across the Rocky Mountains and found one through the Athabasca Pass.
David Thompson was the first European to navigate the full length of the Columbia River. Between Kettle Falls (3 July 1811) and the Junction of the Columbia and Snake Rivers (9 July), he was travelling through country that had never been visited by Europeans, and took time to visit the villages along the way to establish good relations, helped by copious quantities of tobacco. In 1805 Lewis and Clark had descended the Snake River, and continued down the Columbia. On reaching the junction Thompson erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post at the site. This notice was found later that year by Astor company workers looking to establish an inland fur post, contributing to their selection of a more northerly site at Fort Okanogan. The North West Company established its post of Fort Nez Percés near the Snake River confluence several years later. Continuing down the Columbia, Thompson passed over the Celilo Falls, almost losing the canoe on the rocks, and portaged around the rapids of The Dalles and the Cascades Rapids. On 14 July 1811, Thompson reached the partially constructed Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia, arriving two months after the Pacific Fur Company's ship, the Tonquin.
Before returning upriver and across the mountains, Thompson hired Naukane, a Native Hawaiian Takane labourer brought to Fort Astoria by the Pacific Fur Company's ship Tonquin. Naukane, known as Coxe to Thompson, accompanied Thompson across the continent to Lake Superior before journeying on to England.
Thompson wintered at Saleesh House before beginning his final journey in 1812 back to Montreal, where the North West Company was based.
In his published journals, Thompson recorded seeing large footprints (“which measured fourteen inches in length by eight inches in breadth”) near what is now Jasper, Alberta, in 1811. It has been suggested that these prints were similar to what has since been called the sasquatch. However, Thompson noted that these tracks showed "a small Nail at the end of each [toe]", which led him to surmise it was a bear, but he had doubts, saying, "I held it to be the track of a large old grizzled bear; yet the shortness of the nails, the ball of the foot, and its great size was not that of a Bear".
The years 1807-1812 are the most carefully scrutinized in his career and comprise his most enduring historical legacy, due to his development of the commercial routes across the Rockies, and his mapping of the lands they traverse.
In 1820, the English geologist, John Jeremiah Bigsby, attended a dinner party given by The Hon. William McGillivray at his home, Chateau St. Antoine, one of the early estates in Montreal's Golden Square Mile. He describes the party and some of the guests in his entertaining book The Shoe and Canoe, giving an excellent description of David Thompson:
I was well placed at table between one of the Miss McGillivray's and a singular-looking person of about fifty. He was plainly dressed, quiet, and observant. His figure was short and compact, and his black hair was worn long all round, and cut square, as if by one stroke of the shears, just above the eyebrows. His complexion was of the gardener's ruddy brown, while the expression of his deeply-furrowed features was friendly and intelligent, but his cut-short nose gave him an odd look. His speech betrayed the Welshman, although he left his native hills when very young. I might have been spared this description of Mr David Thompson by saying he greatly resembled Curran the Irish Orator...
I afterwards travelled much with him, and have now only to speak of him with great respect, or, I ought to say, with admiration... No living person possesses a tithe of his information respecting the Hudson's Bay countries... Never mind his Bunyan-like face and cropped hair; he has a very powerful mind, and a singular faculty of picture-making. He can create a wilderness and people it with warring savages, or climb the Rocky Mountains with you in a snow-storm, so clearly and palpably, that only shut your eyes and you hear the crack of the rifle, or feel the snow-flakes melt on your cheeks as he talks.
On 10 June 1799 at Île-à-la-Crosse, Thompson married Charlotte Small, a thirteen-year-old Métis daughter of Scottish fur trader Patrick Small and a Cree mother. Their marriage was formalised thirteen years later at the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Montreal on 30 October 1812. He and Charlotte had 13 children together; five of them were born before he left the fur trade. The family did not adjust easily to life in Eastern Canada; they lived in Montreal while he was travelling. Two of the children, John (aged 5) and Emma (aged 7), died of round worms, a common parasite. By the time of Thompson's death, the couple had been married 57 years, the longest marriage known in Canada pre-Confederation.
Upon his arrival back in Montreal, Thompson retired with a generous pension from the North West Company. He settled in nearby Terrebonne and worked on completing his great map, a summary of his lifetime of exploring and surveying the interior of North America. The map covered the wide area stretching from Lake Superior to the Pacific, and was given by Thompson to the North West Company. Thompson's 1814 map, his greatest achievement, was so accurate that 100 years later it was still the basis for many of the maps issued by the Canadian government. It now resides in the Archives of Ontario.
In 1815, Thompson moved his family to Williamstown, Upper Canada, and a few years later was employed to survey the newly established borders with the United States from Lake of the Woods to the Eastern Townships of Quebec, established by Treaty of Ghent after the War of 1812. In 1843 Thompson completed his atlas of the region from Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean.
Afterwards, Thompson returned to a life as a land owner, but soon financial misfortune would ruin him. By 1831 he was so deeply in debt he was forced to take up a position as a surveyor for the British American Land Company to provide for his family. His luck continued to worsen and he was forced to move in with his daughter and son-in-law in 1845. He began work on a manuscript chronicling his life exploring the continent, but this project was left unfinished when his sight failed him completely in 1851.
The land mass mapped by Thompson amounted to 3.9 million square kilometres (1.5 million square miles) of wilderness (one-fifth of the continent). His contemporary, the great explorer Alexander Mackenzie, remarked that Thompson did more in ten months than he would have thought possible in two years.
Despite these significant achievements, Thompson died in Montreal in near obscurity on 10 February 1857, his accomplishments almost unrecognised. He never finished the book of his 28 years in the fur trade, based on his 77 field notebooks, before he died. In the 1890s geologist J.B. Tyrrell resurrected Thompson's notes and in 1916 published them as David Thompson's Narrative, as part of the General Series of the Champlain Society. Further editions and re-examinations of Thompson's life and works were published in 1962 by Richard Glover, in 1971 by Victor Hopwood, and in 2015 by William Moreau.
Thompson's body was interred in Montreal's Mount Royal Cemetery in an unmarked grave. It was not until 1926 that efforts by J.B. Tyrrell and the Canadian Historical Society resulted in the placing of a tombstone to mark his grave. The next year, Thompson was named a National Historic Person by the federal government, one of the earliest such designations. A federal plaque reflecting that status is located at Jasper National Park, Alberta. Meantime, Thompson's achievements are central reasons for other national historic designations:
In 1957, one hundred years after his death, Canada's post office department honoured him with his image on a postage stamp. The David Thompson Highway in Alberta was named in his honour, along with David Thompson High School situated on the side of the highway near Leslieville, Alberta. There are also two David Thompson Secondary Schools, one in Vancouver, BC, and one in Invermere, BC.
His prowess as a geographer is now well-recognized. He has been called "the greatest land geographer that the world has produced."
There is a monument dedicated to David Thompson (maintained by the state of North Dakota) near the former town site of the ghost town Verendrye, North Dakota, located approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north and 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Karlsruhe, North Dakota. Thompson Falls, Montana, and British Columbia's Thompson River and Thompson Falls on the Blaeberry River are also named after the explorer.
The year 2007 marked the 150th year of Thompson's death and the 200th anniversary of his first crossing of the Rocky Mountains. Commemorative events and exhibits were planned across Canada and the United States from 2007 to 2011 as a celebration of his accomplishments.
In 2007, a commemorative plaque was placed on a wall at the Grey Coat Hospital, the school for the disadvantaged of Westminster David Thompson attended as a boy, by English author and TV presenter Ray Mears.
Thompson was the subject of a 1964 National Film Board of Canada short film David Thompson: The Great Mapmaker , as well as the BBC2 programme Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness (Episode 5), broadcast in November 2009. He's also the subject of 2010 KSPS-TV film Uncharted Territory: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau.
He is referenced in the 1981 folk song "Northwest Passage" by Stan Rogers.
The national park service, Parks Canada, announced in 2018 that it had named its new research vessel RV David Thompson, to be used for underwater archaeology, including sea floor mapping, and for marine science in the Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic Oceans, and the Great Lakes. It will be the main platform for research on the Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site.
The David Thompson Astronomical Observatory at Fort William Historical Park was named to commemorate David Thompson and his discoveries. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "David Thompson (30 April 1770 – 10 February 1857) was an Anglo-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and cartographer, known to some native people as \"Koo-Koo-Sint\" or \"the Stargazer\". Over Thompson's career, he travelled 90,000 kilometres (56,000 mi) across North America, mapping 4.9 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) of the continent along the way. For this historic feat, Thompson has been described as the \"greatest practical land geographer that the world has produced\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "David Thompson was born in Westminster, Middlesex, to recent Welsh migrants David and Ann Thompson. When Thompson was two, his father died. Due to his widowed mother not having financial resources, she placed Thompson, 29 April 1777, the day before his seventh birthday, and his older brother in the Grey Coat Hospital, a school for the disadvantaged of Westminster. Thompson graduated to the Grey Coat mathematical school, well known for teaching navigation and surveying.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "He received an education for the Royal Navy: including mathematics of trigonometry and geometry, practical navigation including using of nautical instruments, finding latitudes and longitudes and making navigational calculations from observing the sun, moon and tide, and drawing maps and charts, taking land measurements, and sketching landscapes. He later built on these skills to make his career. In 1784, when Thompson was 14, the Grey Coat treasurer paid the Hudson's Bay Company the sum of five pounds, upon which the youth became an apprentice employee of the company, contracted for a period of seven years to be trained as a clerk.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "He set sail on a ship to North America on 28 May of that year, leaving England.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "On 2 September 1784, Thompson arrived in Churchill (now in Manitoba) and was put to work as a clerk/secretary, copying the personal papers of the governor of Fort Churchill, Samuel Hearne. The next year he was transferred to nearby York Factory, and over the next few years spent time as a secretary at Cumberland House, Saskatchewan, and South Branch House of the Hudson Bay Company before being transferred to Manchester House in 1787. During those years he learned to keep accounts and other records, calculate values of furs (It was noted that he also had several expensive beaver pelts at that time even when a secretary's job would not pay terribly well), track supplies and other duties.",
"title": "Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "On 23 December 1788, Thompson seriously fractured his tibia, forcing him to spend the next two winters at Cumberland House convalescing. It was during this time that he greatly refined and expanded his mathematical, astronomical, and surveying skills under the tutelage of Hudson's Bay Company surveyor Philip Turnor. It was also during this time that he lost sight in his right eye.",
"title": "Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 1790, with his apprenticeship nearing its end, Thompson requested a set of surveying tools in place of the typical parting gift of fine clothes offered by the company to those completing their indenture. He received both. He entered the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company as a fur trader. In 1792 he completed his first significant survey, mapping a route to Lake Athabasca (where today's Alberta/Saskatchewan border is located).",
"title": "Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Between February and May 1793, Thompson made 34 observations of the longitude of Cumberland House using lunar distances. The mean of these observations was 102°12′ W, about 2' east of the modern value. The mean error of the 34 observations was about 15' of longitude. Broughton (2009) notes that the precision of the type of sextant used by Thompson was 15\" of arc, corresponding to 7.5' of longitude giving an absolute limit to the precision of an individual observation. The error in Thompson's mean was several times less than this. The time he took on these observations, about 3 hours of calculation each, indicates that he understood the power of averages.",
"title": "Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In recognition of his map-making and surveying skills, the company promoted Thompson to the surveyor in 1794. He continued working for the Hudson's Bay Company until 23 May 1797 when, frustrated by an order to cease surveying and focus on the fur trade, he left. He walked 130 kilometres (80 mi) in the snow in order to enter the employ of the competition, the North West Company. There he continued to work as a fur trader and surveyor.",
"title": "Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Thompson's decision to defect to the North West Company (NWC) in 1797 without providing the customary one-year notice was not well received by his former employers. But the North West Company was more supportive of Thompson pursuing his work on surveying and mapping the interior of what was to become Canada, as they judged it in the company's interest to know the exact locations of their settlements and the distances between them. In 1797, Thompson was sent south by his employers to survey part of the Canada-US boundary along the water routes from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods to satisfy unresolved questions of territory arising from the Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States after the American Revolutionary War.",
"title": "North West Company"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "By 1798 Thompson had completed a survey of 6,750 km (4,190 mi) from Grand Portage, through Lake Winnipeg, to the headwaters of the Assiniboine and Mississippi rivers, as well as two sides of Lake Superior. In 1798, the company sent him to Red Deer Lake (Lac La Biche in present-day Alberta) to establish a trading post. (The English translation of Lac la Biche: Red Deer Lake, was first recorded on the Mackenzie map of 1793.) Thompson spent the next few seasons trading based in Fort George (now in Alberta), and during this time led several expeditions into the Rocky Mountains.",
"title": "North West Company"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "On 10 July 1804, at the annual meeting of the North West Company in Kaministiquia, Thompson was made a full partner of the company. He became a 'wintering partner', who was based in the field rather than Montreal, and was granted two of the 92 NWC's shares worth more than £4,000. He spent the next few seasons based there managing the fur trading operations, but still finding time to expand his surveys of the waterways around Lake Superior. At the 1806 company meeting, officers decided to send Thompson back into the interior. Concern over the United States-backed expedition of Lewis and Clark prompted the North West Company to charge Thompson with the task of finding a route to the Pacific to open up the lucrative trading territories of the Pacific Northwest.",
"title": "North West Company"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "After the general meeting in 1806, Thompson travelled to Rocky Mountain House and prepared for an expedition to follow the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. In June 1807 Thompson crossed the Rocky Mountains and spent the summer surveying the Columbia basin; he continued to survey the area over the next few seasons. Thompson mapped and established trading posts in Northwestern Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Western Canada. Trading posts he founded included Kootenae House, Kullyspell House and Saleesh House; the latter two were the first trading posts west of the Rockies in Idaho and Montana, respectively. These posts established by Thompson extended North West Company fur trading territory into the Columbia Basin drainage area. The maps he made of the Columbia River basin east of the Cascade Mountains were of such high quality and detail that they continued to be useful into the 20th-century.",
"title": "Columbia River travels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In early 1810, Thompson was returning eastward toward Montreal but, while en route at Rainy Lake, received orders to return to the Rocky Mountains and establish a route to the mouth of the Columbia. The North West Company was responding to the plans of American entrepreneur John Jacob Astor to send a ship around the Americas to establish a fur trading post of the Pacific Fur Company on the Pacific Coast. During his return, Thompson was delayed by an angry group of Peigan natives at Howse Pass. He was ultimately forced to seek a new route across the Rocky Mountains and found one through the Athabasca Pass.",
"title": "Columbia River travels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "David Thompson was the first European to navigate the full length of the Columbia River. Between Kettle Falls (3 July 1811) and the Junction of the Columbia and Snake Rivers (9 July), he was travelling through country that had never been visited by Europeans, and took time to visit the villages along the way to establish good relations, helped by copious quantities of tobacco. In 1805 Lewis and Clark had descended the Snake River, and continued down the Columbia. On reaching the junction Thompson erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post at the site. This notice was found later that year by Astor company workers looking to establish an inland fur post, contributing to their selection of a more northerly site at Fort Okanogan. The North West Company established its post of Fort Nez Percés near the Snake River confluence several years later. Continuing down the Columbia, Thompson passed over the Celilo Falls, almost losing the canoe on the rocks, and portaged around the rapids of The Dalles and the Cascades Rapids. On 14 July 1811, Thompson reached the partially constructed Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia, arriving two months after the Pacific Fur Company's ship, the Tonquin.",
"title": "Columbia River travels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Before returning upriver and across the mountains, Thompson hired Naukane, a Native Hawaiian Takane labourer brought to Fort Astoria by the Pacific Fur Company's ship Tonquin. Naukane, known as Coxe to Thompson, accompanied Thompson across the continent to Lake Superior before journeying on to England.",
"title": "Columbia River travels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Thompson wintered at Saleesh House before beginning his final journey in 1812 back to Montreal, where the North West Company was based.",
"title": "Columbia River travels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In his published journals, Thompson recorded seeing large footprints (“which measured fourteen inches in length by eight inches in breadth”) near what is now Jasper, Alberta, in 1811. It has been suggested that these prints were similar to what has since been called the sasquatch. However, Thompson noted that these tracks showed \"a small Nail at the end of each [toe]\", which led him to surmise it was a bear, but he had doubts, saying, \"I held it to be the track of a large old grizzled bear; yet the shortness of the nails, the ball of the foot, and its great size was not that of a Bear\".",
"title": "Columbia River travels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The years 1807-1812 are the most carefully scrutinized in his career and comprise his most enduring historical legacy, due to his development of the commercial routes across the Rockies, and his mapping of the lands they traverse.",
"title": "Columbia River travels"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In 1820, the English geologist, John Jeremiah Bigsby, attended a dinner party given by The Hon. William McGillivray at his home, Chateau St. Antoine, one of the early estates in Montreal's Golden Square Mile. He describes the party and some of the guests in his entertaining book The Shoe and Canoe, giving an excellent description of David Thompson:",
"title": "Appearance and personality"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "I was well placed at table between one of the Miss McGillivray's and a singular-looking person of about fifty. He was plainly dressed, quiet, and observant. His figure was short and compact, and his black hair was worn long all round, and cut square, as if by one stroke of the shears, just above the eyebrows. His complexion was of the gardener's ruddy brown, while the expression of his deeply-furrowed features was friendly and intelligent, but his cut-short nose gave him an odd look. His speech betrayed the Welshman, although he left his native hills when very young. I might have been spared this description of Mr David Thompson by saying he greatly resembled Curran the Irish Orator...",
"title": "Appearance and personality"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "I afterwards travelled much with him, and have now only to speak of him with great respect, or, I ought to say, with admiration... No living person possesses a tithe of his information respecting the Hudson's Bay countries... Never mind his Bunyan-like face and cropped hair; he has a very powerful mind, and a singular faculty of picture-making. He can create a wilderness and people it with warring savages, or climb the Rocky Mountains with you in a snow-storm, so clearly and palpably, that only shut your eyes and you hear the crack of the rifle, or feel the snow-flakes melt on your cheeks as he talks.",
"title": "Appearance and personality"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "On 10 June 1799 at Île-à-la-Crosse, Thompson married Charlotte Small, a thirteen-year-old Métis daughter of Scottish fur trader Patrick Small and a Cree mother. Their marriage was formalised thirteen years later at the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Montreal on 30 October 1812. He and Charlotte had 13 children together; five of them were born before he left the fur trade. The family did not adjust easily to life in Eastern Canada; they lived in Montreal while he was travelling. Two of the children, John (aged 5) and Emma (aged 7), died of round worms, a common parasite. By the time of Thompson's death, the couple had been married 57 years, the longest marriage known in Canada pre-Confederation.",
"title": "Marriage and children"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Upon his arrival back in Montreal, Thompson retired with a generous pension from the North West Company. He settled in nearby Terrebonne and worked on completing his great map, a summary of his lifetime of exploring and surveying the interior of North America. The map covered the wide area stretching from Lake Superior to the Pacific, and was given by Thompson to the North West Company. Thompson's 1814 map, his greatest achievement, was so accurate that 100 years later it was still the basis for many of the maps issued by the Canadian government. It now resides in the Archives of Ontario.",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In 1815, Thompson moved his family to Williamstown, Upper Canada, and a few years later was employed to survey the newly established borders with the United States from Lake of the Woods to the Eastern Townships of Quebec, established by Treaty of Ghent after the War of 1812. In 1843 Thompson completed his atlas of the region from Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean.",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Afterwards, Thompson returned to a life as a land owner, but soon financial misfortune would ruin him. By 1831 he was so deeply in debt he was forced to take up a position as a surveyor for the British American Land Company to provide for his family. His luck continued to worsen and he was forced to move in with his daughter and son-in-law in 1845. He began work on a manuscript chronicling his life exploring the continent, but this project was left unfinished when his sight failed him completely in 1851.",
"title": "Later life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The land mass mapped by Thompson amounted to 3.9 million square kilometres (1.5 million square miles) of wilderness (one-fifth of the continent). His contemporary, the great explorer Alexander Mackenzie, remarked that Thompson did more in ten months than he would have thought possible in two years.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Despite these significant achievements, Thompson died in Montreal in near obscurity on 10 February 1857, his accomplishments almost unrecognised. He never finished the book of his 28 years in the fur trade, based on his 77 field notebooks, before he died. In the 1890s geologist J.B. Tyrrell resurrected Thompson's notes and in 1916 published them as David Thompson's Narrative, as part of the General Series of the Champlain Society. Further editions and re-examinations of Thompson's life and works were published in 1962 by Richard Glover, in 1971 by Victor Hopwood, and in 2015 by William Moreau.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Thompson's body was interred in Montreal's Mount Royal Cemetery in an unmarked grave. It was not until 1926 that efforts by J.B. Tyrrell and the Canadian Historical Society resulted in the placing of a tombstone to mark his grave. The next year, Thompson was named a National Historic Person by the federal government, one of the earliest such designations. A federal plaque reflecting that status is located at Jasper National Park, Alberta. Meantime, Thompson's achievements are central reasons for other national historic designations:",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 1957, one hundred years after his death, Canada's post office department honoured him with his image on a postage stamp. The David Thompson Highway in Alberta was named in his honour, along with David Thompson High School situated on the side of the highway near Leslieville, Alberta. There are also two David Thompson Secondary Schools, one in Vancouver, BC, and one in Invermere, BC.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "His prowess as a geographer is now well-recognized. He has been called \"the greatest land geographer that the world has produced.\"",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "There is a monument dedicated to David Thompson (maintained by the state of North Dakota) near the former town site of the ghost town Verendrye, North Dakota, located approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north and 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Karlsruhe, North Dakota. Thompson Falls, Montana, and British Columbia's Thompson River and Thompson Falls on the Blaeberry River are also named after the explorer.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The year 2007 marked the 150th year of Thompson's death and the 200th anniversary of his first crossing of the Rocky Mountains. Commemorative events and exhibits were planned across Canada and the United States from 2007 to 2011 as a celebration of his accomplishments.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In 2007, a commemorative plaque was placed on a wall at the Grey Coat Hospital, the school for the disadvantaged of Westminster David Thompson attended as a boy, by English author and TV presenter Ray Mears.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Thompson was the subject of a 1964 National Film Board of Canada short film David Thompson: The Great Mapmaker , as well as the BBC2 programme Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness (Episode 5), broadcast in November 2009. He's also the subject of 2010 KSPS-TV film Uncharted Territory: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "He is referenced in the 1981 folk song \"Northwest Passage\" by Stan Rogers.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "The national park service, Parks Canada, announced in 2018 that it had named its new research vessel RV David Thompson, to be used for underwater archaeology, including sea floor mapping, and for marine science in the Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic Oceans, and the Great Lakes. It will be the main platform for research on the Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The David Thompson Astronomical Observatory at Fort William Historical Park was named to commemorate David Thompson and his discoveries.",
"title": "Death and afterward"
}
] | David Thompson was an Anglo-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and cartographer, known to some native people as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer". Over Thompson's career, he travelled 90,000 kilometres (56,000 mi) across North America, mapping 4.9 million square kilometres of the continent along the way. For this historic feat, Thompson has been described as the "greatest practical land geographer that the world has produced". | 2002-02-25T15:51:15Z | 2023-11-19T23:39:59Z | [
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7,995 | Dioscoreales | The Dioscoreales are an order of monocotyledonous flowering plants, organized under modern classification systems, such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group or the Angiosperm Phylogeny Web. Among monocot plants, Dioscoreales are grouped with the lilioid monocots, wherein they are a sister group to the Pandanales. In total, the order Dioscoreales comprises three families, 22 genera and about 850 species.
Dioscoreales contains the family Dioscoreaceae, which notably includes the yams (Dioscorea) and several other bulbous and tuberous plants, some of which are heavily cultivated as staple food sources in certain countries.
Certain species are found solely in arid climates (incl. parts of Southern Africa), and have adapted to this harsh environment as caudex-forming, perennial caudiciformes, including Dioscorea elephantipes, the "elephant's foot" or "elephant-foot yam".
Older systems tended to place all lilioid monocots with reticulate veined leaves (such as Smilacaceae and Stemonaceae together with Dioscoraceae) in Dioscoreales; as currently circumscribed by phylogenetic analysis, using combined morphology and molecular methods, Dioscreales now contains many reticulate-veined vines within the Dioscoraceae, as well as the myco-heterotrophic Burmanniaceae and the autotrophic Nartheciaceae.
Dioscoreales are vines or herbaceous forest floor plants. They may be achlorophyllous or saprophytic. Synapomorphies include tuberous roots, glandular hairs, seed coat characteristics and the presence of calcium oxalate crystals. Other characteristics of the order include the presence of saponin steroids, annular vascular bundles that are found in both the stem and leaf. The leaves are often unsheathed at the base, have a distinctive petiole and reticulate veined lamina. Alternatively they may be small and scale-like with a sheathed base. The flowers are actinomorphic, and may be bisexual or dioecious, while the flowers or inflorescence bear glandular hairs. The perianth may be conspicuous or reduced and the style is short with well developed style branches. The tepals persist in the development of the fruit, which is a dry capsule or berry. In the seed, the endotegmen is tanniferous and the embryo short.
All of the species except the genera placed in Nartheciaceae express simultaneous microsporogenesis. Plants in Nartheciaceae show successive microsporogenesis which is one of the traits indicating that the family is sister to all the other members included in the order.
For the early history from Lindley (1853) onwards, see Caddick et al. (2000) Table 1, Caddick et al. (2002a) Table 1 and Table 2 in Bouman (1995). The taxonomic classification of Dioscoreales has been complicated by the presence of a number of morphological features reminiscent of the dicotyledons, leading some authors to place the order as intermediate between the monocotyledons and the dicotyledons.
While Lindley did not use the term "Dioscoreales", he placed the family Dioscoraceae together with four other families in what he referred to as an Alliance (the equivalent of the modern Order) called Dictyogens. He reflected the uncertainty as to the place of this Alliance by placing it as a class of its own between Endogens (monocots) and Exogens (dicots) The botanical authority is given to von Martius (1835) by APG for his description of the family Dioscoreae or Ordo, while other sources cite Hooker (Dioscoreales Hook.f.) for his use of the term "Dioscorales" in 1873 with a single family, Dioscoreae. However, in his more definitive work, the Genera plantara (1883), he simply placed Dioscoraceae in the Epigynae "Series".
Although Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) preceded Bentham and Hooker's publication, the latter project was commenced much earlier and George Bentham was initially sceptical of Darwinism. The new phyletic approach changed the way that taxonomists considered plant classification, incorporating evolutionary information into their schemata, but this did little to further define the circumscription of Dioscoreaceae. The major works in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century employing this approach were in the German literature. Authors such as Eichler, Engler and Wettstein placed this family in the Liliiflorae, a major subdivision of monocotyledons. it remained to Hutchinson (1926) to resurrect the Dioscoreales to group Dioscoreaceae and related families together. Hutchinson's circumscription of Dioscoreales included three other families in addition to Dioscoreaceae, Stenomeridaceae, Trichopodaceae and Roxburghiaceae. Of these only Trichopodaceae was included in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) classification (see below), but was subsumed into Dioscoraceae. Stenomeridaceae, as Stenomeris was also included in Dioscoreaceae as subfamily Stenomeridoideae, the remaining genera being grouped in subfamily Dioscoreoideae. Roxburghiaceae on the other hand was segregated in the sister order Pandanales as Stemonaceae. Most taxonomists in the twentieth century (the exception was the 1981 Cronquist system which placed most such plants in order Liliales, subclass Liliidae, class Liliopsida=monocotyledons, division Magnoliophyta=angiosperms) recognised Dioscoreales as a distinct order, but demonstrated wide variations in its composition.
Dahlgren, in the second version of his taxonomic classification (1982) raised the Liliiflorae to a superorder and placed Dioscoreales as an order within it. In his system, Dioscoreales contained only three families, Dioscoreaceae, Stemonaceae (i.e. Hutchinson's Roxburghiaceae) and Trilliaceae. The latter two families had been treated as a separate order (Stemonales, or Roxburghiales) by other authors, such as Huber (1969). The APG would later assign these to Pandanales and Liliales respectively. Dahlgren's construction of Dioscoreaceae included the Stenomeridaceae and Trichopodaceae, doubting these were distinct, and Croomiaceae in Stemonaceae. Furthermore, he expressed doubts about the order's homogeneity, especially Trilliaceae. The Dioscoreales at that time were marginally distinguishable from the Asparagales. In his examination of Huber's Stemonales, he found that the two constituent families had as close an affinity to Dioscoreaceae as to each other, and hence included them. He also considered closely related families and their relationship to Dioscoreales, such as the monogeneric Taccaceae, then in its own order, Taccales. Similar considerations were discussed with respect to two Asparagales families, Smilacaceae and Petermanniaceae.
In Dahlgren's third and final version (1985) that broader circumscription of Dioscoreales was created within the superorder Lilianae, subclass Liliidae (monocotyledons), class Magnoliopsida (angiosperms) and comprised the seven families Dioscoreaceae, Petermanniaceae, Smilacaceae, Stemonaceae, Taccaceae, Trichopodaceae and Trilliaceae. Thismiaceae has either been treated as a separate family closely related to Burmanniaceae or as a tribe (Thismieae) within a more broadly defined Burmanniaceae, forming a separate order, Burmanniales, in the Dahlgren system. The related Nartheciaceae were treated as tribe Narthecieae within the Melanthiaceae in a third order, the Melanthiales, by Dahlgren. Dahlgren considered the Dioscoreales to most strongly resemble the ancestral monocotyledons, and hence sharing "dicotyledonous" characteristics, making it the most central monocotyledon order. Of these seven families, Bouman considered Dioscoreaceae, Trichopodaceae, Stemonaceae and Taccaceae to represent the "core" families of the order. However, that study also indicated both a clear delineation of the order from other orders particularly Asparagales, and a lack of homogeneity within the order.
The increasing availability of molecular phylogenetics methods in addition to morphological characteristics in the 1990s led to major reconsiderations of the relationships within the monocotyledons. In that large multi-institutional examination of the seed plants using the plastid gene rbcL the authors used Dahlgren's system as their basis, but followed Thorne (1992) in altering the suffixes of the superorders from "-iflorae" to "-anae". This demonstrated that the Lilianae comprised three lineages corresponding to Dahlgren's orders Dioscoreales, Liliales, and Asparagaless.
Under the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system of 1998, which took Dahlgren's system as a basis, the order was placed in the monocot clade and comprised the five families Burmanniaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Taccaceae, Thismiaceae and Trichopodaceae.
In APG II (2003), a number of changes were made to Dioscoreales, as a result of an extensive study by Caddick and colleagues (2002), using an analysis of three genes, rbcL, atpB and 18S rDNA, in addition to morphology. These studies resulted in a re-examination of the relationships between most of the genera within the order. Thismiaceae was shown to be a sister group to Burmanniaceae, and so was included in it. The monotypic families Taccaceae and Trichopodaceae were included in Dioscoreaceae, while Nartheciaceae could also be grouped within Dioscoreales. APG III (2009) did not change this, so the order now comprises three families Burmanniaceae, Dioscoreaceae and Nartheciaceae.
Although further research on the deeper relationships within Dioscoreales continues, the APG IV (2016) authors felt it was still premature to propose a restructuring of the order. Specifically these issues involve conflicting information as to the relationship between Thismia and Burmanniaceae, and hence whether Thismiaceae should be subsumed in the latter, or reinstated.
Molecular phylogenetics in Dioscoreales poses special problems due to the absence of plastid genes in mycoheterotrophs. Dioscoreales is monophyletic and is placed as a sister order to Pandanales, as shown in Cladogram I.
The data for the evolution of the order is collected from molecular analyses since there are no such fossils found. It is estimated that Dioscoreales and its sister clade Pandanales split up around 121 million years ago during Early Cretaceous when the stem group was formed. Then it took 3 to 6 million years for the crown group to differentiate in Mid Cretaceous.
The three families of Dioscreales constitutes about 22 genera and about 849 species making it one of the smaller monocot orders. Of these, the largest group is Dioscorea (yams) with about 450 species. By contrast the second largest genus is Burmannia with about 60 species, and most have only one or two.
Some authors, preferring the original APG (1998)families, continue to treat Thismiaceae separately from Burmanniaceae and Taccaceae from Dioscoreaceae. But in the 2015 study of Hertwerk and colleagues, seven genera representing all three families were examined with an eight gene dataset. Dioscoreales was monophyletic and three subclades were represented corresponding to the APG families. Dioscoreaceae and Burmanniaceae were in a sister group relationship.
Named after the type genus Dioscorea, which in turn was named by Linnaeus in 1753 to honour the Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides.
Species from this order are distributed across all of the continents except Antarctica. They are mainly tropical or subtropical representatives, but some members of families Dioscoreaceae and Nartheciaceae are found in cooler regions of Europe and North America. Order Dioscoreales contains plants that are able to form an underground organ for reservation of nutritions as many other monocots. An exception is the family Burmanniaceae which is entirely myco-heterotrophic and contains species that lack photosynthetic abilities.
The three families included in order Dioscoreales also represent three different ecological groups of plants. Dioscoreaceae contains mainly vines (Dioscorea) and other crawling species (Epipetrum). Nartheciaceae on the other hand is a family composed of herbaceous plants with a rather lily-like appearance (Aletris) while Burmanniaceae is entirely myco-heterotrophic group.
Many members of Dioscoreaceae produce tuberous starchy roots (yams) which form staple foods in tropical regions. They have also been the source of steroids for the pharmaceutical industry, including the production of oral contraceptives. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Dioscoreales are an order of monocotyledonous flowering plants, organized under modern classification systems, such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group or the Angiosperm Phylogeny Web. Among monocot plants, Dioscoreales are grouped with the lilioid monocots, wherein they are a sister group to the Pandanales. In total, the order Dioscoreales comprises three families, 22 genera and about 850 species.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Dioscoreales contains the family Dioscoreaceae, which notably includes the yams (Dioscorea) and several other bulbous and tuberous plants, some of which are heavily cultivated as staple food sources in certain countries.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Certain species are found solely in arid climates (incl. parts of Southern Africa), and have adapted to this harsh environment as caudex-forming, perennial caudiciformes, including Dioscorea elephantipes, the \"elephant's foot\" or \"elephant-foot yam\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Older systems tended to place all lilioid monocots with reticulate veined leaves (such as Smilacaceae and Stemonaceae together with Dioscoraceae) in Dioscoreales; as currently circumscribed by phylogenetic analysis, using combined morphology and molecular methods, Dioscreales now contains many reticulate-veined vines within the Dioscoraceae, as well as the myco-heterotrophic Burmanniaceae and the autotrophic Nartheciaceae.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Dioscoreales are vines or herbaceous forest floor plants. They may be achlorophyllous or saprophytic. Synapomorphies include tuberous roots, glandular hairs, seed coat characteristics and the presence of calcium oxalate crystals. Other characteristics of the order include the presence of saponin steroids, annular vascular bundles that are found in both the stem and leaf. The leaves are often unsheathed at the base, have a distinctive petiole and reticulate veined lamina. Alternatively they may be small and scale-like with a sheathed base. The flowers are actinomorphic, and may be bisexual or dioecious, while the flowers or inflorescence bear glandular hairs. The perianth may be conspicuous or reduced and the style is short with well developed style branches. The tepals persist in the development of the fruit, which is a dry capsule or berry. In the seed, the endotegmen is tanniferous and the embryo short.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "All of the species except the genera placed in Nartheciaceae express simultaneous microsporogenesis. Plants in Nartheciaceae show successive microsporogenesis which is one of the traits indicating that the family is sister to all the other members included in the order.",
"title": "Description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "For the early history from Lindley (1853) onwards, see Caddick et al. (2000) Table 1, Caddick et al. (2002a) Table 1 and Table 2 in Bouman (1995). The taxonomic classification of Dioscoreales has been complicated by the presence of a number of morphological features reminiscent of the dicotyledons, leading some authors to place the order as intermediate between the monocotyledons and the dicotyledons.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "While Lindley did not use the term \"Dioscoreales\", he placed the family Dioscoraceae together with four other families in what he referred to as an Alliance (the equivalent of the modern Order) called Dictyogens. He reflected the uncertainty as to the place of this Alliance by placing it as a class of its own between Endogens (monocots) and Exogens (dicots) The botanical authority is given to von Martius (1835) by APG for his description of the family Dioscoreae or Ordo, while other sources cite Hooker (Dioscoreales Hook.f.) for his use of the term \"Dioscorales\" in 1873 with a single family, Dioscoreae. However, in his more definitive work, the Genera plantara (1883), he simply placed Dioscoraceae in the Epigynae \"Series\".",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Although Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) preceded Bentham and Hooker's publication, the latter project was commenced much earlier and George Bentham was initially sceptical of Darwinism. The new phyletic approach changed the way that taxonomists considered plant classification, incorporating evolutionary information into their schemata, but this did little to further define the circumscription of Dioscoreaceae. The major works in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century employing this approach were in the German literature. Authors such as Eichler, Engler and Wettstein placed this family in the Liliiflorae, a major subdivision of monocotyledons. it remained to Hutchinson (1926) to resurrect the Dioscoreales to group Dioscoreaceae and related families together. Hutchinson's circumscription of Dioscoreales included three other families in addition to Dioscoreaceae, Stenomeridaceae, Trichopodaceae and Roxburghiaceae. Of these only Trichopodaceae was included in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) classification (see below), but was subsumed into Dioscoraceae. Stenomeridaceae, as Stenomeris was also included in Dioscoreaceae as subfamily Stenomeridoideae, the remaining genera being grouped in subfamily Dioscoreoideae. Roxburghiaceae on the other hand was segregated in the sister order Pandanales as Stemonaceae. Most taxonomists in the twentieth century (the exception was the 1981 Cronquist system which placed most such plants in order Liliales, subclass Liliidae, class Liliopsida=monocotyledons, division Magnoliophyta=angiosperms) recognised Dioscoreales as a distinct order, but demonstrated wide variations in its composition.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Dahlgren, in the second version of his taxonomic classification (1982) raised the Liliiflorae to a superorder and placed Dioscoreales as an order within it. In his system, Dioscoreales contained only three families, Dioscoreaceae, Stemonaceae (i.e. Hutchinson's Roxburghiaceae) and Trilliaceae. The latter two families had been treated as a separate order (Stemonales, or Roxburghiales) by other authors, such as Huber (1969). The APG would later assign these to Pandanales and Liliales respectively. Dahlgren's construction of Dioscoreaceae included the Stenomeridaceae and Trichopodaceae, doubting these were distinct, and Croomiaceae in Stemonaceae. Furthermore, he expressed doubts about the order's homogeneity, especially Trilliaceae. The Dioscoreales at that time were marginally distinguishable from the Asparagales. In his examination of Huber's Stemonales, he found that the two constituent families had as close an affinity to Dioscoreaceae as to each other, and hence included them. He also considered closely related families and their relationship to Dioscoreales, such as the monogeneric Taccaceae, then in its own order, Taccales. Similar considerations were discussed with respect to two Asparagales families, Smilacaceae and Petermanniaceae.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In Dahlgren's third and final version (1985) that broader circumscription of Dioscoreales was created within the superorder Lilianae, subclass Liliidae (monocotyledons), class Magnoliopsida (angiosperms) and comprised the seven families Dioscoreaceae, Petermanniaceae, Smilacaceae, Stemonaceae, Taccaceae, Trichopodaceae and Trilliaceae. Thismiaceae has either been treated as a separate family closely related to Burmanniaceae or as a tribe (Thismieae) within a more broadly defined Burmanniaceae, forming a separate order, Burmanniales, in the Dahlgren system. The related Nartheciaceae were treated as tribe Narthecieae within the Melanthiaceae in a third order, the Melanthiales, by Dahlgren. Dahlgren considered the Dioscoreales to most strongly resemble the ancestral monocotyledons, and hence sharing \"dicotyledonous\" characteristics, making it the most central monocotyledon order. Of these seven families, Bouman considered Dioscoreaceae, Trichopodaceae, Stemonaceae and Taccaceae to represent the \"core\" families of the order. However, that study also indicated both a clear delineation of the order from other orders particularly Asparagales, and a lack of homogeneity within the order.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The increasing availability of molecular phylogenetics methods in addition to morphological characteristics in the 1990s led to major reconsiderations of the relationships within the monocotyledons. In that large multi-institutional examination of the seed plants using the plastid gene rbcL the authors used Dahlgren's system as their basis, but followed Thorne (1992) in altering the suffixes of the superorders from \"-iflorae\" to \"-anae\". This demonstrated that the Lilianae comprised three lineages corresponding to Dahlgren's orders Dioscoreales, Liliales, and Asparagaless.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Under the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system of 1998, which took Dahlgren's system as a basis, the order was placed in the monocot clade and comprised the five families Burmanniaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Taccaceae, Thismiaceae and Trichopodaceae.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In APG II (2003), a number of changes were made to Dioscoreales, as a result of an extensive study by Caddick and colleagues (2002), using an analysis of three genes, rbcL, atpB and 18S rDNA, in addition to morphology. These studies resulted in a re-examination of the relationships between most of the genera within the order. Thismiaceae was shown to be a sister group to Burmanniaceae, and so was included in it. The monotypic families Taccaceae and Trichopodaceae were included in Dioscoreaceae, while Nartheciaceae could also be grouped within Dioscoreales. APG III (2009) did not change this, so the order now comprises three families Burmanniaceae, Dioscoreaceae and Nartheciaceae.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Although further research on the deeper relationships within Dioscoreales continues, the APG IV (2016) authors felt it was still premature to propose a restructuring of the order. Specifically these issues involve conflicting information as to the relationship between Thismia and Burmanniaceae, and hence whether Thismiaceae should be subsumed in the latter, or reinstated.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Molecular phylogenetics in Dioscoreales poses special problems due to the absence of plastid genes in mycoheterotrophs. Dioscoreales is monophyletic and is placed as a sister order to Pandanales, as shown in Cladogram I.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The data for the evolution of the order is collected from molecular analyses since there are no such fossils found. It is estimated that Dioscoreales and its sister clade Pandanales split up around 121 million years ago during Early Cretaceous when the stem group was formed. Then it took 3 to 6 million years for the crown group to differentiate in Mid Cretaceous.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The three families of Dioscreales constitutes about 22 genera and about 849 species making it one of the smaller monocot orders. Of these, the largest group is Dioscorea (yams) with about 450 species. By contrast the second largest genus is Burmannia with about 60 species, and most have only one or two.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Some authors, preferring the original APG (1998)families, continue to treat Thismiaceae separately from Burmanniaceae and Taccaceae from Dioscoreaceae. But in the 2015 study of Hertwerk and colleagues, seven genera representing all three families were examined with an eight gene dataset. Dioscoreales was monophyletic and three subclades were represented corresponding to the APG families. Dioscoreaceae and Burmanniaceae were in a sister group relationship.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Named after the type genus Dioscorea, which in turn was named by Linnaeus in 1753 to honour the Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides.",
"title": "Taxonomy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Species from this order are distributed across all of the continents except Antarctica. They are mainly tropical or subtropical representatives, but some members of families Dioscoreaceae and Nartheciaceae are found in cooler regions of Europe and North America. Order Dioscoreales contains plants that are able to form an underground organ for reservation of nutritions as many other monocots. An exception is the family Burmanniaceae which is entirely myco-heterotrophic and contains species that lack photosynthetic abilities.",
"title": "Distribution and habitat"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The three families included in order Dioscoreales also represent three different ecological groups of plants. Dioscoreaceae contains mainly vines (Dioscorea) and other crawling species (Epipetrum). Nartheciaceae on the other hand is a family composed of herbaceous plants with a rather lily-like appearance (Aletris) while Burmanniaceae is entirely myco-heterotrophic group.",
"title": "Ecology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Many members of Dioscoreaceae produce tuberous starchy roots (yams) which form staple foods in tropical regions. They have also been the source of steroids for the pharmaceutical industry, including the production of oral contraceptives.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "",
"title": "External links"
}
] | The Dioscoreales are an order of monocotyledonous flowering plants, organized under modern classification systems, such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group or the Angiosperm Phylogeny Web. Among monocot plants, Dioscoreales are grouped with the lilioid monocots, wherein they are a sister group to the Pandanales. In total, the order Dioscoreales comprises three families, 22 genera and about 850 species. Dioscoreales contains the family Dioscoreaceae, which notably includes the yams (Dioscorea) and several other bulbous and tuberous plants, some of which are heavily cultivated as staple food sources in certain countries. Certain species are found solely in arid climates, and have adapted to this harsh environment as caudex-forming, perennial caudiciformes, including Dioscorea elephantipes, the "elephant's foot" or "elephant-foot yam". Older systems tended to place all lilioid monocots with reticulate veined leaves in Dioscoreales; as currently circumscribed by phylogenetic analysis, using combined morphology and molecular methods, Dioscreales now contains many reticulate-veined vines within the Dioscoraceae, as well as the myco-heterotrophic Burmanniaceae and the autotrophic Nartheciaceae. | 2002-02-25T15:43:11Z | 2023-12-02T22:03:14Z | [
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8,000 | Default | Default may refer to: | [
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"text": "Default may refer to:",
"title": ""
}
] | Default may refer to: | 2021-12-30T11:23:04Z | [
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"Template:TOCright",
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default |
|
8,002 | Deposition | Deposition may refer to: | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Deposition may refer to:",
"title": ""
}
] | Deposition may refer to: Deposition (law), taking testimony outside of court
Deposition (politics), the removal of a person of authority from political power
Deposition (university), a widespread initiation ritual for new students practiced from the Middle Ages until the 18th century | 2022-11-02T21:19:48Z | [
"Template:Wiktionary",
"Template:Tocright",
"Template:Disambiguation"
] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposition |
|
8,005 | Dentistry | Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of the mouth, most commonly focused on dentition (the development and arrangement of teeth) as well as the oral mucosa. Dentistry may also encompass other aspects of the craniofacial complex including the temporomandibular joint. The practitioner is called a dentist.
The history of dentistry is almost as ancient as the history of humanity and civilization, with the earliest evidence dating from 7000 BC to 5500 BC. Dentistry is thought to have been the first specialization in medicine which has gone on to develop its own accredited degree with its own specializations. Dentistry is often also understood to subsume the now largely defunct medical specialty of stomatology (the study of the mouth and its disorders and diseases) for which reason the two terms are used interchangeably in certain regions. However, some specialties such as oral and maxillofacial surgery (facial reconstruction) may require both medical and dental degrees to accomplish. In European history, dentistry is considered to have stemmed from the trade of barber surgeons.
Dental treatments are carried out by a dental team, which often consists of a dentist and dental auxiliaries (dental assistants, dental hygienists, dental technicians, as well as dental therapists). Most dentists either work in private practices (primary care), dental hospitals, or (secondary care) institutions (prisons, armed forces bases, etc.).
The modern movement of evidence-based dentistry calls for the use of high-quality scientific research and evidence to guide decision-making such as in manual tooth conservation, use of fluoride water treatment and fluoride toothpaste, dealing with oral diseases such as tooth decay and periodontitis, as well as systematic diseases such as osteoporosis, diabetes, celiac disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS which could also affect the oral cavity. Other practices relevant to evidence-based dentistry include radiology of the mouth to inspect teeth deformity or oral malaises, haematology (study of blood) to avoid bleeding complications during dental surgery, cardiology (due to various severe complications arising from dental surgery with patients with heart disease), etc.
The term dentistry comes from dentist, which comes from French dentiste, which comes from the French and Latin words for tooth. The term for the associated scientific study of teeth is odontology (from Ancient Greek: ὀδούς, romanized: odoús, lit. 'tooth') – the study of the structure, development, and abnormalities of the teeth.
Dentistry usually encompasses practices related to the oral cavity. According to the World Health Organization, oral diseases are major public health problems due to their high incidence and prevalence across the globe, with the disadvantaged affected more than other socio-economic groups.
The majority of dental treatments are carried out to prevent or treat the two most common oral diseases which are dental caries (tooth decay) and periodontal disease (gum disease or pyorrhea). Common treatments involve the restoration of teeth, extraction or surgical removal of teeth, scaling and root planing, endodontic root canal treatment, and cosmetic dentistry
By nature of their general training, dentists, without specialization can carry out the majority of dental treatments such as restorative (fillings, crowns, bridges), prosthetic (dentures), endodontic (root canal) therapy, periodontal (gum) therapy, and extraction of teeth, as well as performing examinations, radiographs (x-rays), and diagnosis. Dentists can also prescribe medications such as antibiotics, sedatives, and any other drugs used in patient management. Depending on their licensing boards, general dentists may be required to complete additional training to perform sedation, dental implants, etc.
Dentists also encourage the prevention of oral diseases through proper hygiene and regular, twice or more yearly, checkups for professional cleaning and evaluation. Oral infections and inflammations may affect overall health and conditions in the oral cavity may be indicative of systemic diseases, such as osteoporosis, diabetes, celiac disease or cancer. Many studies have also shown that gum disease is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and preterm birth. The concept that oral health can affect systemic health and disease is referred to as "oral-systemic health".
John M. Harris started the world's first dental school in Bainbridge, Ohio, and helped to establish dentistry as a health profession. It opened on 21 February 1828, and today is a dental museum. The first dental college, Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, opened in Baltimore, Maryland, US in 1840. The second in the United States was the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, established in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1845. The Philadelphia College of Dental Surgery followed in 1852. In 1907, Temple University accepted a bid to incorporate the school.
Studies show that dentists that graduated from different countries, or even from different dental schools in one country, may make different clinical decisions for the same clinical condition. For example, dentists that graduated from Israeli dental schools may recommend the removal of asymptomatic impacted third molar (wisdom teeth) more often than dentists that graduated from Latin American or Eastern European dental schools.
In the United Kingdom, the first dental schools, the London School of Dental Surgery and the Metropolitan School of Dental Science, both in London, opened in 1859. The British Dentists Act of 1878 and the 1879 Dentists Register limited the title of "dentist" and "dental surgeon" to qualified and registered practitioners. However, others could legally describe themselves as "dental experts" or "dental consultants". The practice of dentistry in the United Kingdom became fully regulated with the 1921 Dentists Act, which required the registration of anyone practising dentistry. The British Dental Association, formed in 1880 with Sir John Tomes as president, played a major role in prosecuting dentists practising illegally. Dentists in the United Kingdom are now regulated by the General Dental Council.
In many countries, dentists usually complete between five and eight years of post-secondary education before practising. Though not mandatory, many dentists choose to complete an internship or residency focusing on specific aspects of dental care after they have received their dental degree. In a few countries, to become a qualified dentist one must usually complete at least four years of postgraduate study; Dental degrees awarded around the world include the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) and Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) in North America (US and Canada), and the Bachelor of Dental Surgery/Baccalaureus Dentalis Chirurgiae (BDS, BDent, BChD, BDSc) in the UK and current and former British Commonwealth countries.
All dentists in the United States undergo at least three years of undergraduate studies, but nearly all complete a bachelor's degree. This schooling is followed by four years of dental school to qualify as a "Doctor of Dental Surgery" (DDS) or "Doctor of Dental Medicine" (DMD). Specialization in dentistry is available in the fields of Anesthesiology, Dental Public Health, Endodontics, Oral Radiology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral Medicine, Orofacial Pain, Pathology, Orthodontics, Pediatric Dentistry (Pedodontics), Periodontics, and Prosthodontics.
Some dentists undertake further training after their initial degree in order to specialize. Exactly which subjects are recognized by dental registration bodies varies according to location. Examples include:
Tooth decay was low in pre-agricultural societies, but the advent of farming society about 10,000 years ago correlated with an increase in tooth decay (cavities). An infected tooth from Italy partially cleaned with flint tools, between 13,820 and 14,160 years old, represents the oldest known dentistry, although a 2017 study suggests that 130,000 years ago the Neanderthals already used rudimentary dentistry tools. The Indus valley has yielded evidence of dentistry being practised as far back as 7000 BC, during the Stone Age. The Neolithic site of Mehrgarh (now in Pakistan's south western province of Balochistan) indicates that this form of dentistry involved curing tooth related disorders with bow drills operated, perhaps, by skilled bead-crafters. The reconstruction of this ancient form of dentistry showed that the methods used were reliable and effective. The earliest dental filling, made of beeswax, was discovered in Slovenia and dates from 6500 years ago. Dentistry was practised in prehistoric Malta, as evidenced by a skull which had a dental abscess lanced from the root of a tooth dating back to around 2500 BC.
An ancient Sumerian text describes a "tooth worm" as the cause of dental caries. Evidence of this belief has also been found in ancient India, Egypt, Japan, and China. The legend of the worm is also found in the Homeric Hymns, and as late as the 14th century AD the surgeon Guy de Chauliac still promoted the belief that worms cause tooth decay.
Recipes for the treatment of toothache, infections and loose teeth are spread throughout the Ebers Papyrus, Kahun Papyri, Brugsch Papyrus, and Hearst papyrus of Ancient Egypt. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, written in the 17th century BC but which may reflect previous manuscripts from as early as 3000 BC, discusses the treatment of dislocated or fractured jaws. In the 18th century BC, the Code of Hammurabi referenced dental extraction twice as it related to punishment. Examination of the remains of some ancient Egyptians and Greco-Romans reveals early attempts at dental prosthetics. However, it is possible the prosthetics were prepared after death for aesthetic reasons.
Ancient Greek scholars Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote about dentistry, including the eruption pattern of teeth, treating decayed teeth and gum disease, extracting teeth with forceps, and using wires to stabilize loose teeth and fractured jaws. Some say the first use of dental appliances or bridges comes from the Etruscans from as early as 700 BC. In ancient Egypt, Hesy-Ra is the first named "dentist" (greatest of the teeth). The Egyptians bound replacement teeth together with gold wire. Roman medical writer Cornelius Celsus wrote extensively of oral diseases as well as dental treatments such as narcotic-containing emollients and astringents. The earliest dental amalgams were first documented in a Tang dynasty medical text written by the Chinese physician Su Kung in 659, and appeared in Germany in 1528.
During the Islamic Golden Age Dentistry was discussed in several famous books of medicine such as The Canon in medicine written by Avicenna and Al-Tasreef by Al-Zahrawi who is considered the greatest surgeon of the Middle ages, Avicenna said that jaw fracture should be reduced according to the occlusal guidance of the teeth; this principle is still valid in modern times. Al-Zahrawi invented over 200 surgical tools that resemble the modern kind.
Historically, dental extractions have been used to treat a variety of illnesses. During the Middle Ages and throughout the 19th century, dentistry was not a profession in itself, and often dental procedures were performed by barbers or general physicians. Barbers usually limited their practice to extracting teeth which alleviated pain and associated chronic tooth infection. Instruments used for dental extractions date back several centuries. In the 14th century, Guy de Chauliac most probably invented the dental pelican (resembling a pelican's beak) which was used to perform dental extractions up until the late 18th century. The pelican was replaced by the dental key which, in turn, was replaced by modern forceps in the 19th century.
The first book focused solely on dentistry was the "Artzney Buchlein" in 1530, and the first dental textbook written in English was called "Operator for the Teeth" by Charles Allen in 1685.
In the United Kingdom, there was no formal qualification for the providers of dental treatment until 1859 and it was only in 1921 that the practice of dentistry was limited to those who were professionally qualified. The Royal Commission on the National Health Service in 1979 reported that there were then more than twice as many registered dentists per 10,000 population in the UK than there were in 1921.
It was between 1650 and 1800 that the science of modern dentistry developed. The English physician Thomas Browne in his A Letter to a Friend (c. 1656 pub. 1690) made an early dental observation with characteristic humour:
The Egyptian Mummies that I have seen, have had their Mouths open, and somewhat gaping, which affordeth a good opportunity to view and observe their Teeth, wherein 'tis not easie to find any wanting or decayed: and therefore in Egypt, where one Man practised but one Operation, or the Diseases but of single Parts, it must needs be a barren Profession to confine unto that of drawing of Teeth, and little better than to have been Tooth-drawer unto King Pyrrhus, who had but two in his Head.
The French surgeon Pierre Fauchard became known as the "father of modern dentistry". Despite the limitations of the primitive surgical instruments during the late 17th and early 18th century, Fauchard was a highly skilled surgeon who made remarkable improvisations of dental instruments, often adapting tools from watchmakers, jewelers and even barbers, that he thought could be used in dentistry. He introduced dental fillings as treatment for dental cavities. He asserted that sugar-derived acids like tartaric acid were responsible for dental decay, and also suggested that tumors surrounding the teeth and in the gums could appear in the later stages of tooth decay.
Fauchard was the pioneer of dental prosthesis, and he invented many methods to replace lost teeth. He suggested that substitutes could be made from carved blocks of ivory or bone. He also introduced dental braces, although they were initially made of gold, he discovered that the teeth position could be corrected as the teeth would follow the pattern of the wires. Waxed linen or silk threads were usually employed to fasten the braces. His contributions to the world of dental science consist primarily of his 1728 publication Le chirurgien dentiste or The Surgeon Dentist. The French text included "basic oral anatomy and function, dental construction, and various operative and restorative techniques, and effectively separated dentistry from the wider category of surgery".
After Fauchard, the study of dentistry rapidly expanded. Two important books, Natural History of Human Teeth (1771) and Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Teeth (1778), were published by British surgeon John Hunter. In 1763, he entered into a period of collaboration with the London-based dentist James Spence. He began to theorise about the possibility of tooth transplants from one person to another. He realised that the chances of a successful tooth transplant (initially, at least) would be improved if the donor tooth was as fresh as possible and was matched for size with the recipient. These principles are still used in the transplantation of internal organs. Hunter conducted a series of pioneering operations, in which he attempted a tooth transplant. Although the donated teeth never properly bonded with the recipients' gums, one of Hunter's patients stated that he had three which lasted for six years, a remarkable achievement for the period.
Major advances in science were made in the 19th century, and dentistry evolved from a trade to a profession. The profession came under government regulation by the end of the 19th century. In the UK, the Dentist Act was passed in 1878 and the British Dental Association formed in 1879. In the same year, Francis Brodie Imlach was the first ever dentist to be elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh), raising dentistry onto a par with clinical surgery for the first time.
Long term occupational noise exposure can contribute to permanent hearing loss, which is referred to as noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and tinnitus. Noise exposure can cause excessive stimulation of the hearing mechanism, which damages the delicate structures of the inner ear. NIHL can occur when an individual is exposed to sound levels above 90 dBA according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Regulations state that the permissible noise exposure levels for individuals is 90 dBA. For the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), exposure limits are set to 85 dBA. Exposures below 85 dBA are not considered to be hazardous. Time limits are placed on how long an individual can stay in an environment above 85 dBA before it causes hearing loss. OSHA places that limitation at 8 hours for 85 dBA. The exposure time becomes shorter as the dBA level increases.
Within the field of dentistry, a variety of cleaning tools are used including piezoelectric and sonic scalers, and ultrasonic scalers and cleaners. While a majority of the tools do not exceed 75 dBA, prolonged exposure over many years can lead to hearing loss or complaints of tinnitus. Few dentists have reported using personal hearing protective devices, which could offset any potential hearing loss or tinnitus.
There is a movement in modern dentistry to place a greater emphasis on high-quality scientific evidence in decision-making. Evidence-based dentistry (EBD) uses current scientific evidence to guide decisions. It is an approach to oral health that requires the application and examination of relevant scientific data related to the patient's oral and medical health. Along with the dentist's professional skill and expertise, EBD allows dentists to stay up to date on the latest procedures and patients to receive improved treatment. A new paradigm for medical education designed to incorporate current research into education and practice was developed to help practitioners provide the best care for their patients. It was first introduced by Gordon Guyatt and the Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada in the 1990s. It is part of the larger movement toward evidence-based medicine and other evidence-based practices, especially since a major part of dentistry involves dealing with oral and systemic diseases. Other issues relevant to the dental field in terms of evidence-based research and evidence-based practice include population oral health, dental clinical practice, tooth morphology etc.
Dentistry is unique in that it requires dental students to have competence-based clinical skills that can only be acquired through supervised specialized laboratory training and direct patient care. This necessitates the need for a scientific and professional basis of care with a foundation of extensive research-based education. According to some experts, the accreditation of dental schools can enhance the quality and professionalism of dental education. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of the mouth, most commonly focused on dentition (the development and arrangement of teeth) as well as the oral mucosa. Dentistry may also encompass other aspects of the craniofacial complex including the temporomandibular joint. The practitioner is called a dentist.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The history of dentistry is almost as ancient as the history of humanity and civilization, with the earliest evidence dating from 7000 BC to 5500 BC. Dentistry is thought to have been the first specialization in medicine which has gone on to develop its own accredited degree with its own specializations. Dentistry is often also understood to subsume the now largely defunct medical specialty of stomatology (the study of the mouth and its disorders and diseases) for which reason the two terms are used interchangeably in certain regions. However, some specialties such as oral and maxillofacial surgery (facial reconstruction) may require both medical and dental degrees to accomplish. In European history, dentistry is considered to have stemmed from the trade of barber surgeons.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Dental treatments are carried out by a dental team, which often consists of a dentist and dental auxiliaries (dental assistants, dental hygienists, dental technicians, as well as dental therapists). Most dentists either work in private practices (primary care), dental hospitals, or (secondary care) institutions (prisons, armed forces bases, etc.).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The modern movement of evidence-based dentistry calls for the use of high-quality scientific research and evidence to guide decision-making such as in manual tooth conservation, use of fluoride water treatment and fluoride toothpaste, dealing with oral diseases such as tooth decay and periodontitis, as well as systematic diseases such as osteoporosis, diabetes, celiac disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS which could also affect the oral cavity. Other practices relevant to evidence-based dentistry include radiology of the mouth to inspect teeth deformity or oral malaises, haematology (study of blood) to avoid bleeding complications during dental surgery, cardiology (due to various severe complications arising from dental surgery with patients with heart disease), etc.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The term dentistry comes from dentist, which comes from French dentiste, which comes from the French and Latin words for tooth. The term for the associated scientific study of teeth is odontology (from Ancient Greek: ὀδούς, romanized: odoús, lit. 'tooth') – the study of the structure, development, and abnormalities of the teeth.",
"title": "Terminology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Dentistry usually encompasses practices related to the oral cavity. According to the World Health Organization, oral diseases are major public health problems due to their high incidence and prevalence across the globe, with the disadvantaged affected more than other socio-economic groups.",
"title": "Dental treatment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The majority of dental treatments are carried out to prevent or treat the two most common oral diseases which are dental caries (tooth decay) and periodontal disease (gum disease or pyorrhea). Common treatments involve the restoration of teeth, extraction or surgical removal of teeth, scaling and root planing, endodontic root canal treatment, and cosmetic dentistry",
"title": "Dental treatment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "By nature of their general training, dentists, without specialization can carry out the majority of dental treatments such as restorative (fillings, crowns, bridges), prosthetic (dentures), endodontic (root canal) therapy, periodontal (gum) therapy, and extraction of teeth, as well as performing examinations, radiographs (x-rays), and diagnosis. Dentists can also prescribe medications such as antibiotics, sedatives, and any other drugs used in patient management. Depending on their licensing boards, general dentists may be required to complete additional training to perform sedation, dental implants, etc.",
"title": "Dental treatment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Dentists also encourage the prevention of oral diseases through proper hygiene and regular, twice or more yearly, checkups for professional cleaning and evaluation. Oral infections and inflammations may affect overall health and conditions in the oral cavity may be indicative of systemic diseases, such as osteoporosis, diabetes, celiac disease or cancer. Many studies have also shown that gum disease is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and preterm birth. The concept that oral health can affect systemic health and disease is referred to as \"oral-systemic health\".",
"title": "Dental treatment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "John M. Harris started the world's first dental school in Bainbridge, Ohio, and helped to establish dentistry as a health profession. It opened on 21 February 1828, and today is a dental museum. The first dental college, Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, opened in Baltimore, Maryland, US in 1840. The second in the United States was the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, established in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1845. The Philadelphia College of Dental Surgery followed in 1852. In 1907, Temple University accepted a bid to incorporate the school.",
"title": "Education and licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Studies show that dentists that graduated from different countries, or even from different dental schools in one country, may make different clinical decisions for the same clinical condition. For example, dentists that graduated from Israeli dental schools may recommend the removal of asymptomatic impacted third molar (wisdom teeth) more often than dentists that graduated from Latin American or Eastern European dental schools.",
"title": "Education and licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In the United Kingdom, the first dental schools, the London School of Dental Surgery and the Metropolitan School of Dental Science, both in London, opened in 1859. The British Dentists Act of 1878 and the 1879 Dentists Register limited the title of \"dentist\" and \"dental surgeon\" to qualified and registered practitioners. However, others could legally describe themselves as \"dental experts\" or \"dental consultants\". The practice of dentistry in the United Kingdom became fully regulated with the 1921 Dentists Act, which required the registration of anyone practising dentistry. The British Dental Association, formed in 1880 with Sir John Tomes as president, played a major role in prosecuting dentists practising illegally. Dentists in the United Kingdom are now regulated by the General Dental Council.",
"title": "Education and licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In many countries, dentists usually complete between five and eight years of post-secondary education before practising. Though not mandatory, many dentists choose to complete an internship or residency focusing on specific aspects of dental care after they have received their dental degree. In a few countries, to become a qualified dentist one must usually complete at least four years of postgraduate study; Dental degrees awarded around the world include the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) and Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) in North America (US and Canada), and the Bachelor of Dental Surgery/Baccalaureus Dentalis Chirurgiae (BDS, BDent, BChD, BDSc) in the UK and current and former British Commonwealth countries.",
"title": "Education and licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "All dentists in the United States undergo at least three years of undergraduate studies, but nearly all complete a bachelor's degree. This schooling is followed by four years of dental school to qualify as a \"Doctor of Dental Surgery\" (DDS) or \"Doctor of Dental Medicine\" (DMD). Specialization in dentistry is available in the fields of Anesthesiology, Dental Public Health, Endodontics, Oral Radiology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral Medicine, Orofacial Pain, Pathology, Orthodontics, Pediatric Dentistry (Pedodontics), Periodontics, and Prosthodontics.",
"title": "Education and licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Some dentists undertake further training after their initial degree in order to specialize. Exactly which subjects are recognized by dental registration bodies varies according to location. Examples include:",
"title": "Specialties "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Tooth decay was low in pre-agricultural societies, but the advent of farming society about 10,000 years ago correlated with an increase in tooth decay (cavities). An infected tooth from Italy partially cleaned with flint tools, between 13,820 and 14,160 years old, represents the oldest known dentistry, although a 2017 study suggests that 130,000 years ago the Neanderthals already used rudimentary dentistry tools. The Indus valley has yielded evidence of dentistry being practised as far back as 7000 BC, during the Stone Age. The Neolithic site of Mehrgarh (now in Pakistan's south western province of Balochistan) indicates that this form of dentistry involved curing tooth related disorders with bow drills operated, perhaps, by skilled bead-crafters. The reconstruction of this ancient form of dentistry showed that the methods used were reliable and effective. The earliest dental filling, made of beeswax, was discovered in Slovenia and dates from 6500 years ago. Dentistry was practised in prehistoric Malta, as evidenced by a skull which had a dental abscess lanced from the root of a tooth dating back to around 2500 BC.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "An ancient Sumerian text describes a \"tooth worm\" as the cause of dental caries. Evidence of this belief has also been found in ancient India, Egypt, Japan, and China. The legend of the worm is also found in the Homeric Hymns, and as late as the 14th century AD the surgeon Guy de Chauliac still promoted the belief that worms cause tooth decay.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Recipes for the treatment of toothache, infections and loose teeth are spread throughout the Ebers Papyrus, Kahun Papyri, Brugsch Papyrus, and Hearst papyrus of Ancient Egypt. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, written in the 17th century BC but which may reflect previous manuscripts from as early as 3000 BC, discusses the treatment of dislocated or fractured jaws. In the 18th century BC, the Code of Hammurabi referenced dental extraction twice as it related to punishment. Examination of the remains of some ancient Egyptians and Greco-Romans reveals early attempts at dental prosthetics. However, it is possible the prosthetics were prepared after death for aesthetic reasons.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Ancient Greek scholars Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote about dentistry, including the eruption pattern of teeth, treating decayed teeth and gum disease, extracting teeth with forceps, and using wires to stabilize loose teeth and fractured jaws. Some say the first use of dental appliances or bridges comes from the Etruscans from as early as 700 BC. In ancient Egypt, Hesy-Ra is the first named \"dentist\" (greatest of the teeth). The Egyptians bound replacement teeth together with gold wire. Roman medical writer Cornelius Celsus wrote extensively of oral diseases as well as dental treatments such as narcotic-containing emollients and astringents. The earliest dental amalgams were first documented in a Tang dynasty medical text written by the Chinese physician Su Kung in 659, and appeared in Germany in 1528.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "During the Islamic Golden Age Dentistry was discussed in several famous books of medicine such as The Canon in medicine written by Avicenna and Al-Tasreef by Al-Zahrawi who is considered the greatest surgeon of the Middle ages, Avicenna said that jaw fracture should be reduced according to the occlusal guidance of the teeth; this principle is still valid in modern times. Al-Zahrawi invented over 200 surgical tools that resemble the modern kind.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Historically, dental extractions have been used to treat a variety of illnesses. During the Middle Ages and throughout the 19th century, dentistry was not a profession in itself, and often dental procedures were performed by barbers or general physicians. Barbers usually limited their practice to extracting teeth which alleviated pain and associated chronic tooth infection. Instruments used for dental extractions date back several centuries. In the 14th century, Guy de Chauliac most probably invented the dental pelican (resembling a pelican's beak) which was used to perform dental extractions up until the late 18th century. The pelican was replaced by the dental key which, in turn, was replaced by modern forceps in the 19th century.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The first book focused solely on dentistry was the \"Artzney Buchlein\" in 1530, and the first dental textbook written in English was called \"Operator for the Teeth\" by Charles Allen in 1685.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In the United Kingdom, there was no formal qualification for the providers of dental treatment until 1859 and it was only in 1921 that the practice of dentistry was limited to those who were professionally qualified. The Royal Commission on the National Health Service in 1979 reported that there were then more than twice as many registered dentists per 10,000 population in the UK than there were in 1921.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "It was between 1650 and 1800 that the science of modern dentistry developed. The English physician Thomas Browne in his A Letter to a Friend (c. 1656 pub. 1690) made an early dental observation with characteristic humour:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Egyptian Mummies that I have seen, have had their Mouths open, and somewhat gaping, which affordeth a good opportunity to view and observe their Teeth, wherein 'tis not easie to find any wanting or decayed: and therefore in Egypt, where one Man practised but one Operation, or the Diseases but of single Parts, it must needs be a barren Profession to confine unto that of drawing of Teeth, and little better than to have been Tooth-drawer unto King Pyrrhus, who had but two in his Head.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The French surgeon Pierre Fauchard became known as the \"father of modern dentistry\". Despite the limitations of the primitive surgical instruments during the late 17th and early 18th century, Fauchard was a highly skilled surgeon who made remarkable improvisations of dental instruments, often adapting tools from watchmakers, jewelers and even barbers, that he thought could be used in dentistry. He introduced dental fillings as treatment for dental cavities. He asserted that sugar-derived acids like tartaric acid were responsible for dental decay, and also suggested that tumors surrounding the teeth and in the gums could appear in the later stages of tooth decay.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Fauchard was the pioneer of dental prosthesis, and he invented many methods to replace lost teeth. He suggested that substitutes could be made from carved blocks of ivory or bone. He also introduced dental braces, although they were initially made of gold, he discovered that the teeth position could be corrected as the teeth would follow the pattern of the wires. Waxed linen or silk threads were usually employed to fasten the braces. His contributions to the world of dental science consist primarily of his 1728 publication Le chirurgien dentiste or The Surgeon Dentist. The French text included \"basic oral anatomy and function, dental construction, and various operative and restorative techniques, and effectively separated dentistry from the wider category of surgery\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "After Fauchard, the study of dentistry rapidly expanded. Two important books, Natural History of Human Teeth (1771) and Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Teeth (1778), were published by British surgeon John Hunter. In 1763, he entered into a period of collaboration with the London-based dentist James Spence. He began to theorise about the possibility of tooth transplants from one person to another. He realised that the chances of a successful tooth transplant (initially, at least) would be improved if the donor tooth was as fresh as possible and was matched for size with the recipient. These principles are still used in the transplantation of internal organs. Hunter conducted a series of pioneering operations, in which he attempted a tooth transplant. Although the donated teeth never properly bonded with the recipients' gums, one of Hunter's patients stated that he had three which lasted for six years, a remarkable achievement for the period.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Major advances in science were made in the 19th century, and dentistry evolved from a trade to a profession. The profession came under government regulation by the end of the 19th century. In the UK, the Dentist Act was passed in 1878 and the British Dental Association formed in 1879. In the same year, Francis Brodie Imlach was the first ever dentist to be elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh), raising dentistry onto a par with clinical surgery for the first time.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Long term occupational noise exposure can contribute to permanent hearing loss, which is referred to as noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and tinnitus. Noise exposure can cause excessive stimulation of the hearing mechanism, which damages the delicate structures of the inner ear. NIHL can occur when an individual is exposed to sound levels above 90 dBA according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Regulations state that the permissible noise exposure levels for individuals is 90 dBA. For the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), exposure limits are set to 85 dBA. Exposures below 85 dBA are not considered to be hazardous. Time limits are placed on how long an individual can stay in an environment above 85 dBA before it causes hearing loss. OSHA places that limitation at 8 hours for 85 dBA. The exposure time becomes shorter as the dBA level increases.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Within the field of dentistry, a variety of cleaning tools are used including piezoelectric and sonic scalers, and ultrasonic scalers and cleaners. While a majority of the tools do not exceed 75 dBA, prolonged exposure over many years can lead to hearing loss or complaints of tinnitus. Few dentists have reported using personal hearing protective devices, which could offset any potential hearing loss or tinnitus.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "There is a movement in modern dentistry to place a greater emphasis on high-quality scientific evidence in decision-making. Evidence-based dentistry (EBD) uses current scientific evidence to guide decisions. It is an approach to oral health that requires the application and examination of relevant scientific data related to the patient's oral and medical health. Along with the dentist's professional skill and expertise, EBD allows dentists to stay up to date on the latest procedures and patients to receive improved treatment. A new paradigm for medical education designed to incorporate current research into education and practice was developed to help practitioners provide the best care for their patients. It was first introduced by Gordon Guyatt and the Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada in the 1990s. It is part of the larger movement toward evidence-based medicine and other evidence-based practices, especially since a major part of dentistry involves dealing with oral and systemic diseases. Other issues relevant to the dental field in terms of evidence-based research and evidence-based practice include population oral health, dental clinical practice, tooth morphology etc.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Dentistry is unique in that it requires dental students to have competence-based clinical skills that can only be acquired through supervised specialized laboratory training and direct patient care. This necessitates the need for a scientific and professional basis of care with a foundation of extensive research-based education. According to some experts, the accreditation of dental schools can enhance the quality and professionalism of dental education.",
"title": "Ethical and medicolegal issues"
}
] | Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of the mouth, most commonly focused on dentition as well as the oral mucosa. Dentistry may also encompass other aspects of the craniofacial complex including the temporomandibular joint. The practitioner is called a dentist. The history of dentistry is almost as ancient as the history of humanity and civilization, with the earliest evidence dating from 7000 BC to 5500 BC. Dentistry is thought to have been the first specialization in medicine which has gone on to develop its own accredited degree with its own specializations. Dentistry is often also understood to subsume the now largely defunct medical specialty of stomatology for which reason the two terms are used interchangeably in certain regions. However, some specialties such as oral and maxillofacial surgery may require both medical and dental degrees to accomplish. In European history, dentistry is considered to have stemmed from the trade of barber surgeons. Dental treatments are carried out by a dental team, which often consists of a dentist and dental auxiliaries. Most dentists either work in private practices, dental hospitals, or institutions. The modern movement of evidence-based dentistry calls for the use of high-quality scientific research and evidence to guide decision-making such as in manual tooth conservation, use of fluoride water treatment and fluoride toothpaste, dealing with oral diseases such as tooth decay and periodontitis, as well as systematic diseases such as osteoporosis, diabetes, celiac disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS which could also affect the oral cavity. Other practices relevant to evidence-based dentistry include radiology of the mouth to inspect teeth deformity or oral malaises, haematology to avoid bleeding complications during dental surgery, cardiology, etc. | 2001-04-16T18:02:33Z | 2023-12-30T19:23:04Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dentistry |
8,007 | Diameter | In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid for the diameter of a sphere.
In more modern usage, the length d {\displaystyle d} of a diameter is also called the diameter. In this sense one speaks of the diameter rather than a diameter (which refers to the line segment itself), because all diameters of a circle or sphere have the same length, this being twice the radius r . {\displaystyle r.}
For a convex shape in the plane, the diameter is defined to be the largest distance that can be formed between two opposite parallel lines tangent to its boundary, and the width is often defined to be the smallest such distance. Both quantities can be calculated efficiently using rotating calipers. For a curve of constant width such as the Reuleaux triangle, the width and diameter are the same because all such pairs of parallel tangent lines have the same distance.
For an ellipse, the standard terminology is different. A diameter of an ellipse is any chord passing through the centre of the ellipse. For example, conjugate diameters have the property that a tangent line to the ellipse at the endpoint of one diameter is parallel to the conjugate diameter. The longest diameter is called the major axis.
The word "diameter" is derived from Ancient Greek: διάμετρος (diametros), "diameter of a circle", from διά (dia), "across, through" and μέτρον (metron), "measure". It is often abbreviated DIA , dia , d , {\displaystyle {\text{DIA}},{\text{dia}},d,} or ∅ . {\displaystyle \varnothing .}
The definitions given above are only valid for circles, spheres and convex shapes. However, they are special cases of a more general definition that is valid for any kind of n {\displaystyle n} -dimensional (convex or non-convex) object, such as a hypercube or a set of scattered points. The diameter or metric diameter of a subset of a metric space is the least upper bound of the set of all distances between pairs of points in the subset. Explicitly, if S {\displaystyle S} is the subset and if ρ {\displaystyle \rho } is the metric, the diameter is
If the metric ρ {\displaystyle \rho } is viewed here as having codomain R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } (the set of all real numbers), this implies that the diameter of the empty set (the case S = ∅ {\displaystyle S=\varnothing } ) equals − ∞ {\displaystyle -\infty } (negative infinity). Some authors prefer to treat the empty set as a special case, assigning it a diameter of 0 , {\displaystyle 0,} which corresponds to taking the codomain of d {\displaystyle d} to be the set of nonnegative reals.
For any solid object or set of scattered points in n {\displaystyle n} -dimensional Euclidean space, the diameter of the object or set is the same as the diameter of its convex hull. In medical parlance concerning a lesion or in geology concerning a rock, the diameter of an object is the least upper bound of the set of all distances between pairs of points in the object.
In differential geometry, the diameter is an important global Riemannian invariant.
In planar geometry, a diameter of a conic section is typically defined as any chord which passes through the conic's centre; such diameters are not necessarily of uniform length, except in the case of the circle, which has eccentricity e = 0. {\displaystyle e=0.}
The symbol or variable for diameter, ⌀, is sometimes used in technical drawings or specifications as a prefix or suffix for a number (e.g. "⌀ 55 mm"), indicating that it represents diameter. For example, photographic filter thread sizes are often denoted in this way.
In German, the diameter symbol (German Durchmesserzeichen) is also used as an average symbol (Durchschnittszeichen).
The symbol has a Unicode code point at U+2300 ⌀ DIAMETER SIGN, in the Miscellaneous Technical set. On an Apple Macintosh, the diameter symbol can be entered via the character palette (this is opened by pressing ⌥ Opt⌘ CmdT in most applications), where it can be found in the Technical Symbols category. In Unix/Linux/ChromeOS systems, it is generated using Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U 2300space. It can be obtained in Unix-like operating systems using a Compose key by pressing, in sequence, Composedi. In Windows, it can be entered in most programs with Alt code 8960.
The character will sometimes not display correctly, however, since many fonts do not include it. In many situations, the Nordic letter ø at Unicode U+00F8 ø LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH STROKE (ø) is an acceptable substitute. It can be entered on a Macintosh by pressing ⌥ OptO (the letter o, not the number 0). In Unix/Linux/ChromeOS systems, it is generated using Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U F8space or Composeo/. AutoCAD uses U+2205 ∅ EMPTY SET available as a shortcut string %%c.
In Microsoft Word, the diameter symbol can be acquired by typing 2300 and then pressing Alt+X.
In LaTeX, the diameter symbol can be obtained with the command \diameter from the "wasysym" package.
The diameter of a circle is exactly twice its radius. However, this is true only for a circle, and only in the Euclidean metric. Jung's theorem provides more general inequalities relating the diameter to the radius. | [
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"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid for the diameter of a sphere.",
"title": ""
},
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"text": "In more modern usage, the length d {\\displaystyle d} of a diameter is also called the diameter. In this sense one speaks of the diameter rather than a diameter (which refers to the line segment itself), because all diameters of a circle or sphere have the same length, this being twice the radius r . {\\displaystyle r.}",
"title": ""
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"text": "For a convex shape in the plane, the diameter is defined to be the largest distance that can be formed between two opposite parallel lines tangent to its boundary, and the width is often defined to be the smallest such distance. Both quantities can be calculated efficiently using rotating calipers. For a curve of constant width such as the Reuleaux triangle, the width and diameter are the same because all such pairs of parallel tangent lines have the same distance.",
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"text": "For an ellipse, the standard terminology is different. A diameter of an ellipse is any chord passing through the centre of the ellipse. For example, conjugate diameters have the property that a tangent line to the ellipse at the endpoint of one diameter is parallel to the conjugate diameter. The longest diameter is called the major axis.",
"title": ""
},
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"text": "The word \"diameter\" is derived from Ancient Greek: διάμετρος (diametros), \"diameter of a circle\", from διά (dia), \"across, through\" and μέτρον (metron), \"measure\". It is often abbreviated DIA , dia , d , {\\displaystyle {\\text{DIA}},{\\text{dia}},d,} or ∅ . {\\displaystyle \\varnothing .}",
"title": ""
},
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"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The definitions given above are only valid for circles, spheres and convex shapes. However, they are special cases of a more general definition that is valid for any kind of n {\\displaystyle n} -dimensional (convex or non-convex) object, such as a hypercube or a set of scattered points. The diameter or metric diameter of a subset of a metric space is the least upper bound of the set of all distances between pairs of points in the subset. Explicitly, if S {\\displaystyle S} is the subset and if ρ {\\displaystyle \\rho } is the metric, the diameter is",
"title": "Generalizations"
},
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"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "If the metric ρ {\\displaystyle \\rho } is viewed here as having codomain R {\\displaystyle \\mathbb {R} } (the set of all real numbers), this implies that the diameter of the empty set (the case S = ∅ {\\displaystyle S=\\varnothing } ) equals − ∞ {\\displaystyle -\\infty } (negative infinity). Some authors prefer to treat the empty set as a special case, assigning it a diameter of 0 , {\\displaystyle 0,} which corresponds to taking the codomain of d {\\displaystyle d} to be the set of nonnegative reals.",
"title": "Generalizations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "For any solid object or set of scattered points in n {\\displaystyle n} -dimensional Euclidean space, the diameter of the object or set is the same as the diameter of its convex hull. In medical parlance concerning a lesion or in geology concerning a rock, the diameter of an object is the least upper bound of the set of all distances between pairs of points in the object.",
"title": "Generalizations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In differential geometry, the diameter is an important global Riemannian invariant.",
"title": "Generalizations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In planar geometry, a diameter of a conic section is typically defined as any chord which passes through the conic's centre; such diameters are not necessarily of uniform length, except in the case of the circle, which has eccentricity e = 0. {\\displaystyle e=0.}",
"title": "Generalizations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The symbol or variable for diameter, ⌀, is sometimes used in technical drawings or specifications as a prefix or suffix for a number (e.g. \"⌀ 55 mm\"), indicating that it represents diameter. For example, photographic filter thread sizes are often denoted in this way.",
"title": "Symbol"
},
{
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"text": "In German, the diameter symbol (German Durchmesserzeichen) is also used as an average symbol (Durchschnittszeichen).",
"title": "Symbol"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The symbol has a Unicode code point at U+2300 ⌀ DIAMETER SIGN, in the Miscellaneous Technical set. On an Apple Macintosh, the diameter symbol can be entered via the character palette (this is opened by pressing ⌥ Opt⌘ CmdT in most applications), where it can be found in the Technical Symbols category. In Unix/Linux/ChromeOS systems, it is generated using Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U 2300space. It can be obtained in Unix-like operating systems using a Compose key by pressing, in sequence, Composedi. In Windows, it can be entered in most programs with Alt code 8960.",
"title": "Symbol"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The character will sometimes not display correctly, however, since many fonts do not include it. In many situations, the Nordic letter ø at Unicode U+00F8 ø LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH STROKE (ø) is an acceptable substitute. It can be entered on a Macintosh by pressing ⌥ OptO (the letter o, not the number 0). In Unix/Linux/ChromeOS systems, it is generated using Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U F8space or Composeo/. AutoCAD uses U+2205 ∅ EMPTY SET available as a shortcut string %%c.",
"title": "Symbol"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In Microsoft Word, the diameter symbol can be acquired by typing 2300 and then pressing Alt+X.",
"title": "Symbol"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In LaTeX, the diameter symbol can be obtained with the command \\diameter from the \"wasysym\" package.",
"title": "Symbol"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The diameter of a circle is exactly twice its radius. However, this is true only for a circle, and only in the Euclidean metric. Jung's theorem provides more general inequalities relating the diameter to the radius.",
"title": "Diameter vs. radius"
}
] | In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid for the diameter of a sphere. In more modern usage, the length d of a diameter is also called the diameter. In this sense one speaks of the diameter rather than a diameter, because all diameters of a circle or sphere have the same length, this being twice the radius r . For a convex shape in the plane, the diameter is defined to be the largest distance that can be formed between two opposite parallel lines tangent to its boundary, and the width is often defined to be the smallest such distance. Both quantities can be calculated efficiently using rotating calipers. For a curve of constant width such as the Reuleaux triangle, the width and diameter are the same because all such pairs of parallel tangent lines have the same distance. For an ellipse, the standard terminology is different. A diameter of an ellipse is any chord passing through the centre of the ellipse. For example, conjugate diameters have the property that a tangent line to the ellipse at the endpoint of one diameter is parallel to the conjugate diameter. The longest diameter is called the major axis. The word "diameter" is derived from Ancient Greek: διάμετρος (diametros), "diameter of a circle", from διά (dia), "across, through" and μέτρον (metron), "measure". It is often abbreviated DIA , dia , d , or ∅ . | 2001-08-28T14:59:59Z | 2023-10-14T22:26:57Z | [
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8,008 | Direct examination | The direct examination or examination-in-chief is one stage in the process of adducing evidence from witnesses in a court of law. Direct examination is the questioning of a witness by the lawyer/side/party that called such witness in a trial. Direct examination is usually performed to elicit evidence in support of facts which will satisfy a required element of a party's claim or defense.
In direct examination, one is generally prohibited from asking leading questions. This prevents a lawyer from feeding answers to a favorable witness. An exception to this rule occurs if one side has called a witness, but it is either understood or becomes clear, that the witness is hostile to the calling lawyer's side of the controversy, the lawyer who called the witness may then ask the court to declare the person on the stand a hostile witness. If the court does so, the lawyer may thereafter ask witness leading questions during direct examination.
The techniques of direct examination are taught in courses on trial advocacy. Each direct examination is integrated with the overall case strategy through either a theme and theory or, with more advanced strategies, a line of effort. | [
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"text": "The direct examination or examination-in-chief is one stage in the process of adducing evidence from witnesses in a court of law. Direct examination is the questioning of a witness by the lawyer/side/party that called such witness in a trial. Direct examination is usually performed to elicit evidence in support of facts which will satisfy a required element of a party's claim or defense.",
"title": ""
},
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"text": "In direct examination, one is generally prohibited from asking leading questions. This prevents a lawyer from feeding answers to a favorable witness. An exception to this rule occurs if one side has called a witness, but it is either understood or becomes clear, that the witness is hostile to the calling lawyer's side of the controversy, the lawyer who called the witness may then ask the court to declare the person on the stand a hostile witness. If the court does so, the lawyer may thereafter ask witness leading questions during direct examination.",
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] | The direct examination or examination-in-chief is one stage in the process of adducing evidence from witnesses in a court of law. Direct examination is the questioning of a witness by the lawyer/side/party that called such witness in a trial. Direct examination is usually performed to elicit evidence in support of facts which will satisfy a required element of a party's claim or defense. In direct examination, one is generally prohibited from asking leading questions. This prevents a lawyer from feeding answers to a favorable witness. An exception to this rule occurs if one side has called a witness, but it is either understood or becomes clear, that the witness is hostile to the calling lawyer's side of the controversy, the lawyer who called the witness may then ask the court to declare the person on the stand a hostile witness. If the court does so, the lawyer may thereafter ask witness leading questions during direct examination. The techniques of direct examination are taught in courses on trial advocacy. Each direct examination is integrated with the overall case strategy through either a theme and theory or, with more advanced strategies, a line of effort. | 2022-06-10T01:23:41Z | [
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|
8,011 | Alcohol intoxication | Alcohol intoxication, also known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main psychoactive component of alcoholic beverages, other physiological symptoms may arise from the activity of acetaldehyde, a metabolite of alcohol. These effects may not arise until hours after ingestion and may contribute to the condition colloquially known as a hangover.
Symptoms of intoxication at lower doses may include mild sedation and poor coordination. At higher doses, there may be slurred speech, trouble walking, and vomiting. Extreme doses may result in a respiratory depression, coma, or death. Complications may include seizures, aspiration pneumonia, injuries including suicide, and low blood sugar. Alcohol intoxication can lead to alcohol-related crime with perpetrators more likely to be intoxicated than victims.
Alcohol intoxication typically begins after two or more alcoholic drinks. Alcohol has the potential for abuse. Risk factors include a social situation where heavy drinking is common and a person having an impulsive personality. Diagnosis is usually based on the history of events and physical examination. Verification of events by witnesses may be useful. Legally, alcohol intoxication is often defined as a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of greater than 5.4–17.4 mmol/L (25–80 mg/dL or 0.025–0.080%). This can be measured by blood or breath testing. Alcohol is broken down in the human body at a rate of about 3.3 mmol/L (15 mg/dL) per hour, depending on an individual's metabolic rate (metabolism).
Management of alcohol intoxication involves supportive care. Typically this includes putting the person in the recovery position, keeping the person warm, and making sure breathing is sufficient. Gastric lavage and activated charcoal have not been found to be useful. Repeated assessments may be required to rule out other potential causes of a person's symptoms.
Acute intoxication has been documented throughout history, and alcohol remains one of the world's most widespread recreational drugs. Some religions consider alcohol intoxication to be a sin.
Alcohol intoxication leads to negative health effects due to the recent drinking of ethanol (alcohol). When severe it may become a medical emergency. Some effects of alcohol intoxication, such as euphoria and lowered social inhibition, are central to alcohol's desirability.
Alcohol is metabolized by a normal liver at the rate of about 8 grams of pure ethanol per hour. 8 grams or 10 mL (0.34 US fl oz) is one British standard unit. An "abnormal" liver with conditions such as hepatitis, cirrhosis, gall bladder disease, and cancer is likely to result in a slower rate of metabolism.
Ethanol is metabolised to acetaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which is found in many tissues, including the gastric mucosa. Acetaldehyde is metabolised to acetate by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which is found predominantly in liver mitochondria. Acetate is used by the muscle cells to produce acetyl-CoA using the enzyme acetyl-CoA synthetase, and the acetyl-CoA is then used in the citric acid cycle.
As drinking increases, people become sleepy or fall into a stupor. After a very high level of consumption, the respiratory system becomes depressed and the person will stop breathing. Comatose patients may aspirate their vomit (resulting in vomitus in the lungs, which may cause "drowning" and later pneumonia if survived). CNS depression and impaired motor coordination along with poor judgment increase the likelihood of accidental injury occurring. It is estimated that about one-third of alcohol-related deaths are due to accidents and another 14% are from intentional injury.
In addition to respiratory failure and accidents caused by its effects on the central nervous system, alcohol causes significant metabolic derangements. Hypoglycaemia occurs due to ethanol's inhibition of gluconeogenesis, especially in children, and may cause lactic acidosis, ketoacidosis, and acute kidney injury. Metabolic acidosis is compounded by respiratory failure. Patients may also present with hypothermia.
In the past, alcohol was believed to be a non-specific pharmacological agent affecting many neurotransmitter systems in the brain. However, molecular pharmacology studies have shown that alcohol has only a few primary targets. In some systems, these effects are facilitatory, and in others inhibitory.
Among the neurotransmitter systems with enhanced functions are: GABAA, 5-HT3 receptor agonism (responsible for GABAergic (GABAA receptor PAM), glycinergic, and cholinergic effects), nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.
Among those that are inhibited are: NMDA, dihydropyridine-sensitive L-type Ca2+ channels and G-protein-activated inwardly rectifying K+ channels.
Alcohol is also converted into phosphatidylethanol (a lipid metabolite) by phospholipase D2, and this metabolite has been shown to directly bind to and regulate ion channels. The result of these direct effects is a wave of further indirect effects involving a variety of other neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems, leading finally to the behavioural or symptomatic effects of alcohol intoxication.
The order in which different types of alcoholic beverages are consumed ("Grape or grain but never the twain" and "Beer before wine and you'll feel fine; wine before beer and you'll feel queer") does not have any effect.
Many of the effects of activating GABAA receptors have the same effects as that of ethanol consumption. Some of these effects include anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, sedative, and hypnotic effects, cognitive impairment, and motor incoordination. This correlation between activating GABAA receptors and the effects of ethanol consumption have led to the study of ethanol and its effects on GABAA receptors. It has been shown that ethanol does in fact exhibit positive allosteric binding properties to GABAA receptors. However, its effects are limited to pentamers containing the δ-subunit rather than the γ-subunit.
GABAA receptors containing the δ-subunit have been shown to be located exterior to the synapse and are involved with tonic inhibition rather than its γ-subunit counterpart, which is involved in phasic inhibition. The δ-subunit has been shown to be able to form the allosteric binding site which makes GABAA receptors containing the δ-subunit more sensitive to ethanol concentrations, even to moderate social ethanol consumption levels (30mM). While it has been shown by Santhakumar et al. that GABAA receptors containing the δ-subunit are sensitive to ethanol modulation, depending on subunit combinations receptors could be more or less sensitive to ethanol. It has been shown that GABAA receptors that contain both δ and β3-subunits display increased sensitivity to ethanol. One such receptor that exhibits ethanol insensitivity is α3-β6-δ GABAA. It has also been shown that subunit combination is not the only thing that contributes to ethanol sensitivity. Location of GABAA receptors within the synapse may also contribute to ethanol sensitivity.
Alcohol intoxication is described as a mental and behavioural disorder by the International Classification of Diseases. (ICD-10). Definitive diagnosis relies on a blood test for alcohol, usually performed as part of a toxicology screen. Law enforcement officers in the United States and other countries often use breathalyzer units and field sobriety tests as more convenient and rapid alternatives to blood tests. There are also various models of breathalyzer units that are available for consumer use. Because these may have varying reliability and may produce different results than the tests used for law-enforcement purposes, the results from such devices should be conservatively interpreted.
Many informal intoxication tests exist, which, in general, are unreliable and not recommended as deterrents to excessive intoxication or as indicators of the safety of activities such as motor vehicle driving, heavy equipment operation, machine tool use, etc.
For determining whether someone is intoxicated by alcohol by some means other than a blood-alcohol test, it is necessary to rule out other conditions such as hypoglycemia, stroke, usage of other intoxicants, mental health issues, and so on. It is best if their behavior has been observed while the subject is sober to establish a baseline. Several well-known criteria can be used to establish a probable diagnosis. For a physician in the acute-treatment setting, acute alcohol intoxication can mimic other acute neurological disorders or is frequently combined with other recreational drugs that complicate diagnosis and treatment.
Acute alcohol poisoning is a medical emergency due to the risk of death from respiratory depression or aspiration of vomit if vomiting occurs while the person is unresponsive. Emergency treatment strives to stabilize and maintain an open airway and sufficient breathing while waiting for the alcohol to metabolize. This can be done by removal of any vomit or, if the person is unconscious or has impaired gag reflex, intubation of the trachea.
Other measures may include
Additional medication may be indicated for treatment of nausea, tremor, and anxiety.
Alcohol intoxication was found to be prevalent in clinical populations within the United States involving people treated for trauma and in the age group of people aged within their 18th - 24th years (in a study of a group for the years 1999 - 2004). In the United States during the years 2010 - 2012, acute intoxication was found to be the direct cause of an average of 2,221 deaths, in the sample group of those aged within their 15th year or older. The same mortality route is thought to cause indirectly more than 30,000 deaths per year.
A normal liver detoxifies the blood of alcohol over a period of time that depends on the initial level and the patient's overall physical condition. An abnormal liver will take longer but still succeeds, provided the alcohol does not cause liver failure.
People having drunk heavily for several days or weeks may have withdrawal symptoms after the acute intoxication has subsided.
A person consuming a dangerous amount of alcohol persistently can develop memory blackouts and idiosyncratic intoxication or pathological drunkenness symptoms. Long-term persistent consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol can cause liver damage and have other deleterious health effects.
Alcohol intoxication is a risk factor in some cases of catastrophic injury, in particular for unsupervised recreational activity. A study in the province of Ontario based on epidemiological data from 1986, 1989, 1992, and 1995 states that 79.2% of the 2,154 catastrophic injuries recorded for the study were preventable, of which 346 (17%) involved alcohol consumption. The activities most commonly associated with alcohol-related catastrophic injury were snowmobiling (124), fishing (41), diving (40), boating (31) and canoeing (7), swimming (31), riding an all-terrain vehicle (24), and cycling (23). These events are often associated with unsupervised young males, often inexperienced in the activity, and may result in drowning. Alcohol use is also associated with unsafe sex.
Laws on drunkenness vary. In the United States, it is a criminal offense for a person to be drunk while driving a motorized vehicle, except in Wisconsin, where it is only a fine for the first offense. It is also a criminal offense to fly an aircraft or (in some American states) to assemble or operate an amusement park ride while drunk. Similar laws also exist in the United Kingdom and most other countries.
In some countries, it is also an offense to serve alcohol to an already-intoxicated person, and, often, alcohol can be sold only by persons qualified to serve responsibly through alcohol server training.
The blood alcohol content (BAC) for legal operation of a vehicle is typically measured as a percentage of a unit volume of blood. This percentage ranges from 0.00% in Romania and the United Arab Emirates; to 0.05% in Australia, South Africa, Germany, Scotland, and New Zealand (0.00% for underage individuals); to 0.08% in England and Wales, the United States and Canada.
The United States Federal Aviation Administration prohibits crew members from performing their duties within eight hours of consuming an alcoholic beverage, while under the influence of alcohol, or with a BAC greater than 0.04%.
In the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, public intoxication is a crime (also known as "being drunk and disorderly" or "being drunk and incapable").
In some countries, there are special facilities, sometimes known as "drunk tanks", for the temporary detention of persons found to be drunk.
Some religious groups permit the consumption of alcohol; some permit consumption but prohibit intoxication; others prohibit any amount of alcohol consumption altogether. Many denominations of Christianity, such as Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Lutheranism, use wine as a part of the Eucharist and permit its consumption, but consider it sinful to become intoxicated.
In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs contains several chapters related to the negative effects of drunkenness and warns to stay away from intoxicating beverages. The Book of Genesis refers to the use of wine by Lot's daughters to rape him. The Book of Leviticus tells the story of Nadab and Abihu, the eldest sons of Aaron, who were killed for serving in the Temple in Jerusalem after drinking wine, presumably while intoxicated. It continues to discuss monasticism, in which drinking wine is prohibited. The story of Samson in the Book of Judges tells of a monk from the Israelite tribe of Dan who is prohibited from cutting his hair and drinking wine. Romans 13:13–14, 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, Galatians 5:19–21 and Ephesians 5:18 are among a number of other Bible passages that speak against intoxication. While Proverbs 31:4 warns against kings and other rulers drinking wine and similar alcoholic beverages, Proverbs 31:6–7 promotes giving such beverages to the perishing and wine to those whose lives are bitter as a coping mechanism against the likes of poverty and other troubles.
Some Protestant Christian denominations prohibit the consumption of alcohol based upon biblical passages that condemn drunkenness, but others allow a moderate rate of consumption.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, alcohol consumption is forbidden, and teetotalism has become a distinguishing feature of its members. Jehovah's Witnesses allow moderate alcohol consumption among its members.
In the Quran, there is a prohibition on the consumption of grape-based alcoholic beverages, and intoxication is considered an abomination in the hadith of Muhammad. The schools of thought of Islamic jurisprudence have interpreted this as a strict prohibition of the consumption of all types of alcohol and declared it to be haram (lit. 'forbidden [in Islam]'), although other uses may be permitted.
In Buddhism, in general, the consumption of intoxicants is discouraged for both monastics and lay followers. Many Buddhists observe a basic code of ethics known as the five precepts, of which the fifth precept is an undertaking to refrain from the consumption of intoxicating substances (except for medical reasons). In the bodhisattva vows of the Brahmajala Sutra, observed by Mahayana Buddhist communities, distribution of intoxicants is likewise discouraged, as well as consumption.
In the Gaudiya Vaishnavism branch of Hinduism, one of the four regulative principles forbids the taking of intoxicants, including alcohol.
In Judaism, in accordance with the biblical stance against drinking, wine drinking is not permitted for priests and monks. The biblical command to sanctify the Sabbath and other holidays has been interpreted as having three ceremonial meals with wine or grape juice, known as Kiddush. A number of Jewish marriage ceremonies end with the bride and groom drinking a shared cup of wine after reciting seven blessings; this occurs after a fasting day in some Ashkenazi traditions. It has been customary and in many cases even mandated to drink moderately so as to stay sober, and only after the prayers are over.
During the Seder on Passover, there is an obligation to drink four ceremonial cups of wine while reciting the Haggadah. It has been assumed as the source of the wine-drinking ritual at communion in some Christian groups. During Purim, there is an obligation to become intoxicated; however, as with many other decrees, this has been avoided in many communities by allowing sleep during the day as a replacement.
During the U.S. Prohibition era in the 1920s, a rabbi from the Reform Judaism movement proposed using grape juice for the ritual instead of wine. Although refuted at first, the practice became widely accepted by orthodox Jews as well.
In the movie Animals Are Beautiful People, an entire section was dedicated to showing many different animals including monkeys, elephants, hogs, giraffes, and ostriches, eating over-ripe marula tree fruit causing them to sway and lose their footing in a manner similar to human drunkenness. Birds may become intoxicated with fermented berries and some die colliding with hard objects when flying under the influence.
In elephant warfare, practiced by the Greeks during the Maccabean revolt and by Hannibal during the Punic wars, it has been recorded that the elephants would be given wine before the attack, and only then would they charge forward after being agitated by their driver.
It is a regular practice to give small amounts of beer to race horses in Ireland. Ruminant farm animals have natural fermentation occurring in their stomach, and adding alcoholic beverages in small amounts to their drink will generally do them no harm, and will not cause them to become drunk.
Alcoholic beverages are extremely harmful to dogs, and often for reasons of additives such as xylitol, an artificial sweetener in some mixers. Dogs can absorb ethyl alcohol in dangerous amounts through their skin as well as through drinking the liquid or consuming it in foods. Even fermenting bread dough can be dangerous to dogs. In 1999, one of the royal footmen for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was demoted from Buckingham Palace due to his "party trick" of spiking the meals and drinks of the Queen's pet corgi dogs with alcohol which in turn would lead the dogs to run around drunk. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Alcohol intoxication, also known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main psychoactive component of alcoholic beverages, other physiological symptoms may arise from the activity of acetaldehyde, a metabolite of alcohol. These effects may not arise until hours after ingestion and may contribute to the condition colloquially known as a hangover.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Symptoms of intoxication at lower doses may include mild sedation and poor coordination. At higher doses, there may be slurred speech, trouble walking, and vomiting. Extreme doses may result in a respiratory depression, coma, or death. Complications may include seizures, aspiration pneumonia, injuries including suicide, and low blood sugar. Alcohol intoxication can lead to alcohol-related crime with perpetrators more likely to be intoxicated than victims.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Alcohol intoxication typically begins after two or more alcoholic drinks. Alcohol has the potential for abuse. Risk factors include a social situation where heavy drinking is common and a person having an impulsive personality. Diagnosis is usually based on the history of events and physical examination. Verification of events by witnesses may be useful. Legally, alcohol intoxication is often defined as a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of greater than 5.4–17.4 mmol/L (25–80 mg/dL or 0.025–0.080%). This can be measured by blood or breath testing. Alcohol is broken down in the human body at a rate of about 3.3 mmol/L (15 mg/dL) per hour, depending on an individual's metabolic rate (metabolism).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Management of alcohol intoxication involves supportive care. Typically this includes putting the person in the recovery position, keeping the person warm, and making sure breathing is sufficient. Gastric lavage and activated charcoal have not been found to be useful. Repeated assessments may be required to rule out other potential causes of a person's symptoms.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Acute intoxication has been documented throughout history, and alcohol remains one of the world's most widespread recreational drugs. Some religions consider alcohol intoxication to be a sin.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Alcohol intoxication leads to negative health effects due to the recent drinking of ethanol (alcohol). When severe it may become a medical emergency. Some effects of alcohol intoxication, such as euphoria and lowered social inhibition, are central to alcohol's desirability.",
"title": "Symptoms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Alcohol is metabolized by a normal liver at the rate of about 8 grams of pure ethanol per hour. 8 grams or 10 mL (0.34 US fl oz) is one British standard unit. An \"abnormal\" liver with conditions such as hepatitis, cirrhosis, gall bladder disease, and cancer is likely to result in a slower rate of metabolism.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Ethanol is metabolised to acetaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which is found in many tissues, including the gastric mucosa. Acetaldehyde is metabolised to acetate by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which is found predominantly in liver mitochondria. Acetate is used by the muscle cells to produce acetyl-CoA using the enzyme acetyl-CoA synthetase, and the acetyl-CoA is then used in the citric acid cycle.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "As drinking increases, people become sleepy or fall into a stupor. After a very high level of consumption, the respiratory system becomes depressed and the person will stop breathing. Comatose patients may aspirate their vomit (resulting in vomitus in the lungs, which may cause \"drowning\" and later pneumonia if survived). CNS depression and impaired motor coordination along with poor judgment increase the likelihood of accidental injury occurring. It is estimated that about one-third of alcohol-related deaths are due to accidents and another 14% are from intentional injury.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In addition to respiratory failure and accidents caused by its effects on the central nervous system, alcohol causes significant metabolic derangements. Hypoglycaemia occurs due to ethanol's inhibition of gluconeogenesis, especially in children, and may cause lactic acidosis, ketoacidosis, and acute kidney injury. Metabolic acidosis is compounded by respiratory failure. Patients may also present with hypothermia.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In the past, alcohol was believed to be a non-specific pharmacological agent affecting many neurotransmitter systems in the brain. However, molecular pharmacology studies have shown that alcohol has only a few primary targets. In some systems, these effects are facilitatory, and in others inhibitory.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Among the neurotransmitter systems with enhanced functions are: GABAA, 5-HT3 receptor agonism (responsible for GABAergic (GABAA receptor PAM), glycinergic, and cholinergic effects), nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Among those that are inhibited are: NMDA, dihydropyridine-sensitive L-type Ca2+ channels and G-protein-activated inwardly rectifying K+ channels.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Alcohol is also converted into phosphatidylethanol (a lipid metabolite) by phospholipase D2, and this metabolite has been shown to directly bind to and regulate ion channels. The result of these direct effects is a wave of further indirect effects involving a variety of other neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems, leading finally to the behavioural or symptomatic effects of alcohol intoxication.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The order in which different types of alcoholic beverages are consumed (\"Grape or grain but never the twain\" and \"Beer before wine and you'll feel fine; wine before beer and you'll feel queer\") does not have any effect.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Many of the effects of activating GABAA receptors have the same effects as that of ethanol consumption. Some of these effects include anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, sedative, and hypnotic effects, cognitive impairment, and motor incoordination. This correlation between activating GABAA receptors and the effects of ethanol consumption have led to the study of ethanol and its effects on GABAA receptors. It has been shown that ethanol does in fact exhibit positive allosteric binding properties to GABAA receptors. However, its effects are limited to pentamers containing the δ-subunit rather than the γ-subunit.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "GABAA receptors containing the δ-subunit have been shown to be located exterior to the synapse and are involved with tonic inhibition rather than its γ-subunit counterpart, which is involved in phasic inhibition. The δ-subunit has been shown to be able to form the allosteric binding site which makes GABAA receptors containing the δ-subunit more sensitive to ethanol concentrations, even to moderate social ethanol consumption levels (30mM). While it has been shown by Santhakumar et al. that GABAA receptors containing the δ-subunit are sensitive to ethanol modulation, depending on subunit combinations receptors could be more or less sensitive to ethanol. It has been shown that GABAA receptors that contain both δ and β3-subunits display increased sensitivity to ethanol. One such receptor that exhibits ethanol insensitivity is α3-β6-δ GABAA. It has also been shown that subunit combination is not the only thing that contributes to ethanol sensitivity. Location of GABAA receptors within the synapse may also contribute to ethanol sensitivity.",
"title": "Pathophysiology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Alcohol intoxication is described as a mental and behavioural disorder by the International Classification of Diseases. (ICD-10). Definitive diagnosis relies on a blood test for alcohol, usually performed as part of a toxicology screen. Law enforcement officers in the United States and other countries often use breathalyzer units and field sobriety tests as more convenient and rapid alternatives to blood tests. There are also various models of breathalyzer units that are available for consumer use. Because these may have varying reliability and may produce different results than the tests used for law-enforcement purposes, the results from such devices should be conservatively interpreted.",
"title": "Diagnosis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Many informal intoxication tests exist, which, in general, are unreliable and not recommended as deterrents to excessive intoxication or as indicators of the safety of activities such as motor vehicle driving, heavy equipment operation, machine tool use, etc.",
"title": "Diagnosis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "For determining whether someone is intoxicated by alcohol by some means other than a blood-alcohol test, it is necessary to rule out other conditions such as hypoglycemia, stroke, usage of other intoxicants, mental health issues, and so on. It is best if their behavior has been observed while the subject is sober to establish a baseline. Several well-known criteria can be used to establish a probable diagnosis. For a physician in the acute-treatment setting, acute alcohol intoxication can mimic other acute neurological disorders or is frequently combined with other recreational drugs that complicate diagnosis and treatment.",
"title": "Diagnosis"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Acute alcohol poisoning is a medical emergency due to the risk of death from respiratory depression or aspiration of vomit if vomiting occurs while the person is unresponsive. Emergency treatment strives to stabilize and maintain an open airway and sufficient breathing while waiting for the alcohol to metabolize. This can be done by removal of any vomit or, if the person is unconscious or has impaired gag reflex, intubation of the trachea.",
"title": "Management"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Other measures may include",
"title": "Management"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Additional medication may be indicated for treatment of nausea, tremor, and anxiety.",
"title": "Management"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Alcohol intoxication was found to be prevalent in clinical populations within the United States involving people treated for trauma and in the age group of people aged within their 18th - 24th years (in a study of a group for the years 1999 - 2004). In the United States during the years 2010 - 2012, acute intoxication was found to be the direct cause of an average of 2,221 deaths, in the sample group of those aged within their 15th year or older. The same mortality route is thought to cause indirectly more than 30,000 deaths per year.",
"title": "Clinical findings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "A normal liver detoxifies the blood of alcohol over a period of time that depends on the initial level and the patient's overall physical condition. An abnormal liver will take longer but still succeeds, provided the alcohol does not cause liver failure.",
"title": "Clinical findings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "People having drunk heavily for several days or weeks may have withdrawal symptoms after the acute intoxication has subsided.",
"title": "Clinical findings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "A person consuming a dangerous amount of alcohol persistently can develop memory blackouts and idiosyncratic intoxication or pathological drunkenness symptoms. Long-term persistent consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol can cause liver damage and have other deleterious health effects.",
"title": "Clinical findings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Alcohol intoxication is a risk factor in some cases of catastrophic injury, in particular for unsupervised recreational activity. A study in the province of Ontario based on epidemiological data from 1986, 1989, 1992, and 1995 states that 79.2% of the 2,154 catastrophic injuries recorded for the study were preventable, of which 346 (17%) involved alcohol consumption. The activities most commonly associated with alcohol-related catastrophic injury were snowmobiling (124), fishing (41), diving (40), boating (31) and canoeing (7), swimming (31), riding an all-terrain vehicle (24), and cycling (23). These events are often associated with unsupervised young males, often inexperienced in the activity, and may result in drowning. Alcohol use is also associated with unsafe sex.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Laws on drunkenness vary. In the United States, it is a criminal offense for a person to be drunk while driving a motorized vehicle, except in Wisconsin, where it is only a fine for the first offense. It is also a criminal offense to fly an aircraft or (in some American states) to assemble or operate an amusement park ride while drunk. Similar laws also exist in the United Kingdom and most other countries.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In some countries, it is also an offense to serve alcohol to an already-intoxicated person, and, often, alcohol can be sold only by persons qualified to serve responsibly through alcohol server training.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The blood alcohol content (BAC) for legal operation of a vehicle is typically measured as a percentage of a unit volume of blood. This percentage ranges from 0.00% in Romania and the United Arab Emirates; to 0.05% in Australia, South Africa, Germany, Scotland, and New Zealand (0.00% for underage individuals); to 0.08% in England and Wales, the United States and Canada.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The United States Federal Aviation Administration prohibits crew members from performing their duties within eight hours of consuming an alcoholic beverage, while under the influence of alcohol, or with a BAC greater than 0.04%.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, public intoxication is a crime (also known as \"being drunk and disorderly\" or \"being drunk and incapable\").",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In some countries, there are special facilities, sometimes known as \"drunk tanks\", for the temporary detention of persons found to be drunk.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Some religious groups permit the consumption of alcohol; some permit consumption but prohibit intoxication; others prohibit any amount of alcohol consumption altogether. Many denominations of Christianity, such as Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Lutheranism, use wine as a part of the Eucharist and permit its consumption, but consider it sinful to become intoxicated.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs contains several chapters related to the negative effects of drunkenness and warns to stay away from intoxicating beverages. The Book of Genesis refers to the use of wine by Lot's daughters to rape him. The Book of Leviticus tells the story of Nadab and Abihu, the eldest sons of Aaron, who were killed for serving in the Temple in Jerusalem after drinking wine, presumably while intoxicated. It continues to discuss monasticism, in which drinking wine is prohibited. The story of Samson in the Book of Judges tells of a monk from the Israelite tribe of Dan who is prohibited from cutting his hair and drinking wine. Romans 13:13–14, 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, Galatians 5:19–21 and Ephesians 5:18 are among a number of other Bible passages that speak against intoxication. While Proverbs 31:4 warns against kings and other rulers drinking wine and similar alcoholic beverages, Proverbs 31:6–7 promotes giving such beverages to the perishing and wine to those whose lives are bitter as a coping mechanism against the likes of poverty and other troubles.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Some Protestant Christian denominations prohibit the consumption of alcohol based upon biblical passages that condemn drunkenness, but others allow a moderate rate of consumption.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, alcohol consumption is forbidden, and teetotalism has become a distinguishing feature of its members. Jehovah's Witnesses allow moderate alcohol consumption among its members.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In the Quran, there is a prohibition on the consumption of grape-based alcoholic beverages, and intoxication is considered an abomination in the hadith of Muhammad. The schools of thought of Islamic jurisprudence have interpreted this as a strict prohibition of the consumption of all types of alcohol and declared it to be haram (lit. 'forbidden [in Islam]'), although other uses may be permitted.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In Buddhism, in general, the consumption of intoxicants is discouraged for both monastics and lay followers. Many Buddhists observe a basic code of ethics known as the five precepts, of which the fifth precept is an undertaking to refrain from the consumption of intoxicating substances (except for medical reasons). In the bodhisattva vows of the Brahmajala Sutra, observed by Mahayana Buddhist communities, distribution of intoxicants is likewise discouraged, as well as consumption.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "In the Gaudiya Vaishnavism branch of Hinduism, one of the four regulative principles forbids the taking of intoxicants, including alcohol.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In Judaism, in accordance with the biblical stance against drinking, wine drinking is not permitted for priests and monks. The biblical command to sanctify the Sabbath and other holidays has been interpreted as having three ceremonial meals with wine or grape juice, known as Kiddush. A number of Jewish marriage ceremonies end with the bride and groom drinking a shared cup of wine after reciting seven blessings; this occurs after a fasting day in some Ashkenazi traditions. It has been customary and in many cases even mandated to drink moderately so as to stay sober, and only after the prayers are over.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "During the Seder on Passover, there is an obligation to drink four ceremonial cups of wine while reciting the Haggadah. It has been assumed as the source of the wine-drinking ritual at communion in some Christian groups. During Purim, there is an obligation to become intoxicated; however, as with many other decrees, this has been avoided in many communities by allowing sleep during the day as a replacement.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "During the U.S. Prohibition era in the 1920s, a rabbi from the Reform Judaism movement proposed using grape juice for the ritual instead of wine. Although refuted at first, the practice became widely accepted by orthodox Jews as well.",
"title": "Society and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In the movie Animals Are Beautiful People, an entire section was dedicated to showing many different animals including monkeys, elephants, hogs, giraffes, and ostriches, eating over-ripe marula tree fruit causing them to sway and lose their footing in a manner similar to human drunkenness. Birds may become intoxicated with fermented berries and some die colliding with hard objects when flying under the influence.",
"title": "Other animals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "In elephant warfare, practiced by the Greeks during the Maccabean revolt and by Hannibal during the Punic wars, it has been recorded that the elephants would be given wine before the attack, and only then would they charge forward after being agitated by their driver.",
"title": "Other animals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "It is a regular practice to give small amounts of beer to race horses in Ireland. Ruminant farm animals have natural fermentation occurring in their stomach, and adding alcoholic beverages in small amounts to their drink will generally do them no harm, and will not cause them to become drunk.",
"title": "Other animals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Alcoholic beverages are extremely harmful to dogs, and often for reasons of additives such as xylitol, an artificial sweetener in some mixers. Dogs can absorb ethyl alcohol in dangerous amounts through their skin as well as through drinking the liquid or consuming it in foods. Even fermenting bread dough can be dangerous to dogs. In 1999, one of the royal footmen for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was demoted from Buckingham Palace due to his \"party trick\" of spiking the meals and drinks of the Queen's pet corgi dogs with alcohol which in turn would lead the dogs to run around drunk.",
"title": "Other animals"
}
] | Alcohol intoxication, also known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main psychoactive component of alcoholic beverages, other physiological symptoms may arise from the activity of acetaldehyde, a metabolite of alcohol. These effects may not arise until hours after ingestion and may contribute to the condition colloquially known as a hangover. Symptoms of intoxication at lower doses may include mild sedation and poor coordination. At higher doses, there may be slurred speech, trouble walking, and vomiting. Extreme doses may result in a respiratory depression, coma, or death. Complications may include seizures, aspiration pneumonia, injuries including suicide, and low blood sugar. Alcohol intoxication can lead to alcohol-related crime with perpetrators more likely to be intoxicated than victims. Alcohol intoxication typically begins after two or more alcoholic drinks. Alcohol has the potential for abuse. Risk factors include a social situation where heavy drinking is common and a person having an impulsive personality. Diagnosis is usually based on the history of events and physical examination. Verification of events by witnesses may be useful. Legally, alcohol intoxication is often defined as a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of greater than 5.4–17.4 mmol/L. This can be measured by blood or breath testing. Alcohol is broken down in the human body at a rate of about 3.3 mmol/L (15 mg/dL) per hour, depending on an individual's metabolic rate (metabolism). Management of alcohol intoxication involves supportive care. Typically this includes putting the person in the recovery position, keeping the person warm, and making sure breathing is sufficient. Gastric lavage and activated charcoal have not been found to be useful. Repeated assessments may be required to rule out other potential causes of a person's symptoms. Acute intoxication has been documented throughout history, and alcohol remains one of the world's most widespread recreational drugs. Some religions consider alcohol intoxication to be a sin. | 2001-11-05T13:55:06Z | 2023-11-08T01:38:29Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_intoxication |
8,013 | Data compression | In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression reduces bits by identifying and eliminating statistical redundancy. No information is lost in lossless compression. Lossy compression reduces bits by removing unnecessary or less important information. Typically, a device that performs data compression is referred to as an encoder, and one that performs the reversal of the process (decompression) as a decoder.
The process of reducing the size of a data file is often referred to as data compression. In the context of data transmission, it is called source coding: encoding is done at the source of the data before it is stored or transmitted. Source coding should not be confused with channel coding, for error detection and correction or line coding, the means for mapping data onto a signal.
Compression is useful because it reduces the resources required to store and transmit data. Computational resources are consumed in the compression and decompression processes. Data compression is subject to a space-time complexity trade-off. For instance, a compression scheme for video may require expensive hardware for the video to be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it is being decompressed, and the option to decompress the video in full before watching it may be inconvenient or require additional storage. The design of data compression schemes involves trade-offs among various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of distortion introduced (when using lossy data compression), and the computational resources required to compress and decompress the data.
Lossless data compression algorithms usually exploit statistical redundancy to represent data without losing any information, so that the process is reversible. Lossless compression is possible because most real-world data exhibits statistical redundancy. For example, an image may have areas of color that do not change over several pixels; instead of coding "red pixel, red pixel, ..." the data may be encoded as "279 red pixels". This is a basic example of run-length encoding; there are many schemes to reduce file size by eliminating redundancy.
The Lempel–Ziv (LZ) compression methods are among the most popular algorithms for lossless storage. DEFLATE is a variation on LZ optimized for decompression speed and compression ratio, but compression can be slow. In the mid-1980s, following work by Terry Welch, the Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) algorithm rapidly became the method of choice for most general-purpose compression systems. LZW is used in GIF images, programs such as PKZIP, and hardware devices such as modems. LZ methods use a table-based compression model where table entries are substituted for repeated strings of data. For most LZ methods, this table is generated dynamically from earlier data in the input. The table itself is often Huffman encoded. Grammar-based codes like this can compress highly repetitive input extremely effectively, for instance, a biological data collection of the same or closely related species, a huge versioned document collection, internet archival, etc. The basic task of grammar-based codes is constructing a context-free grammar deriving a single string. Other practical grammar compression algorithms include Sequitur and Re-Pair.
The strongest modern lossless compressors use probabilistic models, such as prediction by partial matching. The Burrows–Wheeler transform can also be viewed as an indirect form of statistical modelling. In a further refinement of the direct use of probabilistic modelling, statistical estimates can be coupled to an algorithm called arithmetic coding. Arithmetic coding is a more modern coding technique that uses the mathematical calculations of a finite-state machine to produce a string of encoded bits from a series of input data symbols. It can achieve superior compression compared to other techniques such as the better-known Huffman algorithm. It uses an internal memory state to avoid the need to perform a one-to-one mapping of individual input symbols to distinct representations that use an integer number of bits, and it clears out the internal memory only after encoding the entire string of data symbols. Arithmetic coding applies especially well to adaptive data compression tasks where the statistics vary and are context-dependent, as it can be easily coupled with an adaptive model of the probability distribution of the input data. An early example of the use of arithmetic coding was in an optional (but not widely used) feature of the JPEG image coding standard. It has since been applied in various other designs including H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC for video coding.
Archive software typically has the ability to adjust the "dictionary size", where a larger size demands more random-access memory during compression and decompression, but compresses stronger, especially on repeating patterns in files' content. Typically, the optimal dictionary size must not be bigger than the file size.
In the late 1980s, digital images became more common, and standards for lossless image compression emerged. In the early 1990s, lossy compression methods began to be widely used. In these schemes, some loss of information is accepted as dropping nonessential detail can save storage space. There is a corresponding trade-off between preserving information and reducing size. Lossy data compression schemes are designed by research on how people perceive the data in question. For example, the human eye is more sensitive to subtle variations in luminance than it is to the variations in color. JPEG image compression works in part by rounding off nonessential bits of information. A number of popular compression formats exploit these perceptual differences, including psychoacoustics for sound, and psychovisuals for images and video.
Most forms of lossy compression are based on transform coding, especially the discrete cosine transform (DCT). It was first proposed in 1972 by Nasir Ahmed, who then developed a working algorithm with T. Natarajan and K. R. Rao in 1973, before introducing it in January 1974. DCT is the most widely used lossy compression method, and is used in multimedia formats for images (such as JPEG and HEIF), video (such as MPEG, AVC and HEVC) and audio (such as MP3, AAC and Vorbis).
Lossy image compression is used in digital cameras, to increase storage capacities. Similarly, DVDs, Blu-ray and streaming video use lossy video coding formats. Lossy compression is extensively used in video.
In lossy audio compression, methods of psychoacoustics are used to remove non-audible (or less audible) components of the audio signal. Compression of human speech is often performed with even more specialized techniques; speech coding is distinguished as a separate discipline from general-purpose audio compression. Speech coding is used in internet telephony, for example, audio compression is used for CD ripping and is decoded by the audio players.
Lossy compression can cause generation loss.
The theoretical basis for compression is provided by information theory and, more specifically, Shannon's source coding theorem; domain-specific theories include algorithmic information theory for lossless compression and rate–distortion theory for lossy compression. These areas of study were essentially created by Claude Shannon, who published fundamental papers on the topic in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Other topics associated with compression include coding theory and statistical inference.
There is a close connection between machine learning and compression. A system that predicts the posterior probabilities of a sequence given its entire history can be used for optimal data compression (by using arithmetic coding on the output distribution). Conversely, an optimal compressor can be used for prediction (by finding the symbol that compresses best, given the previous history). This equivalence has been used as a justification for using data compression as a benchmark for "general intelligence".
An alternative view can show compression algorithms implicitly map strings into implicit feature space vectors, and compression-based similarity measures compute similarity within these feature spaces. For each compressor C(.) we define an associated vector space ℵ, such that C(.) maps an input string x, corresponding to the vector norm ||~x||. An exhaustive examination of the feature spaces underlying all compression algorithms is precluded by space; instead, feature vectors chooses to examine three representative lossless compression methods, LZW, LZ77, and PPM.
According to AIXI theory, a connection more directly explained in Hutter Prize, the best possible compression of x is the smallest possible software that generates x. For example, in that model, a zip file's compressed size includes both the zip file and the unzipping software, since you can not unzip it without both, but there may be an even smaller combined form.
Examples of AI-powered audio/video compression software include VP9, NVIDIA Maxine, AIVC, AccMPEG. Examples of software that can perform AI-powered image compression include OpenCV, TensorFlow, MATLAB's Image Processing Toolbox (IPT) and High-Fidelity Generative Image Compression.
Data compression can be viewed as a special case of data differencing. Data differencing consists of producing a difference given a source and a target, with patching reproducing the target given a source and a difference. Since there is no separate source and target in data compression, one can consider data compression as data differencing with empty source data, the compressed file corresponding to a difference from nothing. This is the same as considering absolute entropy (corresponding to data compression) as a special case of relative entropy (corresponding to data differencing) with no initial data.
The term differential compression is used to emphasize the data differencing connection.
Entropy coding originated in the 1940s with the introduction of Shannon–Fano coding, the basis for Huffman coding which was developed in 1950. Transform coding dates back to the late 1960s, with the introduction of fast Fourier transform (FFT) coding in 1968 and the Hadamard transform in 1969.
An important image compression technique is the discrete cosine transform (DCT), a technique developed in the early 1970s. DCT is the basis for JPEG, a lossy compression format which was introduced by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) in 1992. JPEG greatly reduces the amount of data required to represent an image at the cost of a relatively small reduction in image quality and has become the most widely used image file format. Its highly efficient DCT-based compression algorithm was largely responsible for the wide proliferation of digital images and digital photos.
Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) is a lossless compression algorithm developed in 1984. It is used in the GIF format, introduced in 1987. DEFLATE, a lossless compression algorithm specified in 1996, is used in the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format.
Wavelet compression, the use of wavelets in image compression, began after the development of DCT coding. The JPEG 2000 standard was introduced in 2000. In contrast to the DCT algorithm used by the original JPEG format, JPEG 2000 instead uses discrete wavelet transform (DWT) algorithms. JPEG 2000 technology, which includes the Motion JPEG 2000 extension, was selected as the video coding standard for digital cinema in 2004.
Audio data compression, not to be confused with dynamic range compression, has the potential to reduce the transmission bandwidth and storage requirements of audio data. Audio compression formats compression algorithms are implemented in software as audio codecs. In both lossy and lossless compression, information redundancy is reduced, using methods such as coding, quantization, DCT and linear prediction to reduce the amount of information used to represent the uncompressed data.
Lossy audio compression algorithms provide higher compression and are used in numerous audio applications including Vorbis and MP3. These algorithms almost all rely on psychoacoustics to eliminate or reduce fidelity of less audible sounds, thereby reducing the space required to store or transmit them.
The acceptable trade-off between loss of audio quality and transmission or storage size depends upon the application. For example, one 640 MB compact disc (CD) holds approximately one hour of uncompressed high fidelity music, less than 2 hours of music compressed losslessly, or 7 hours of music compressed in the MP3 format at a medium bit rate. A digital sound recorder can typically store around 200 hours of clearly intelligible speech in 640 MB.
Lossless audio compression produces a representation of digital data that can be decoded to an exact digital duplicate of the original. Compression ratios are around 50–60% of the original size, which is similar to those for generic lossless data compression. Lossless codecs use curve fitting or linear prediction as a basis for estimating the signal. Parameters describing the estimation and the difference between the estimation and the actual signal are coded separately.
A number of lossless audio compression formats exist. See list of lossless codecs for a listing. Some formats are associated with a distinct system, such as Direct Stream Transfer, used in Super Audio CD and Meridian Lossless Packing, used in DVD-Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Blu-ray and HD DVD.
Some audio file formats feature a combination of a lossy format and a lossless correction; this allows stripping the correction to easily obtain a lossy file. Such formats include MPEG-4 SLS (Scalable to Lossless), WavPack, and OptimFROG DualStream.
When audio files are to be processed, either by further compression or for editing, it is desirable to work from an unchanged original (uncompressed or losslessly compressed). Processing of a lossily compressed file for some purpose usually produces a final result inferior to the creation of the same compressed file from an uncompressed original. In addition to sound editing or mixing, lossless audio compression is often used for archival storage, or as master copies.
Lossy audio compression is used in a wide range of applications. In addition to standalone audio-only applications of file playback in MP3 players or computers, digitally compressed audio streams are used in most video DVDs, digital television, streaming media on the Internet, satellite and cable radio, and increasingly in terrestrial radio broadcasts. Lossy compression typically achieves far greater compression than lossless compression, by discarding less-critical data based on psychoacoustic optimizations.
Psychoacoustics recognizes that not all data in an audio stream can be perceived by the human auditory system. Most lossy compression reduces redundancy by first identifying perceptually irrelevant sounds, that is, sounds that are very hard to hear. Typical examples include high frequencies or sounds that occur at the same time as louder sounds. Those irrelevant sounds are coded with decreased accuracy or not at all.
Due to the nature of lossy algorithms, audio quality suffers a digital generation loss when a file is decompressed and recompressed. This makes lossy compression unsuitable for storing the intermediate results in professional audio engineering applications, such as sound editing and multitrack recording. However, lossy formats such as MP3 are very popular with end-users as the file size is reduced to 5-20% of the original size and a megabyte can store about a minute's worth of music at adequate quality.
Several proprietary lossy compression algorithms have been developed that provide higher quality audio performance by using a combination of lossless and lossy algorithms with adaptive bit rates and lower compression ratios. Examples include aptX, LDAC, LHDC, MQA and SCL6.
To determine what information in an audio signal is perceptually irrelevant, most lossy compression algorithms use transforms such as the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) to convert time domain sampled waveforms into a transform domain, typically the frequency domain. Once transformed, component frequencies can be prioritized according to how audible they are. Audibility of spectral components is assessed using the absolute threshold of hearing and the principles of simultaneous masking—the phenomenon wherein a signal is masked by another signal separated by frequency—and, in some cases, temporal masking—where a signal is masked by another signal separated by time. Equal-loudness contours may also be used to weigh the perceptual importance of components. Models of the human ear-brain combination incorporating such effects are often called psychoacoustic models.
Other types of lossy compressors, such as the linear predictive coding (LPC) used with speech, are source-based coders. LPC uses a model of the human vocal tract to analyze speech sounds and infer the parameters used by the model to produce them moment to moment. These changing parameters are transmitted or stored and used to drive another model in the decoder which reproduces the sound.
Lossy formats are often used for the distribution of streaming audio or interactive communication (such as in cell phone networks). In such applications, the data must be decompressed as the data flows, rather than after the entire data stream has been transmitted. Not all audio codecs can be used for streaming applications.
Latency is introduced by the methods used to encode and decode the data. Some codecs will analyze a longer segment, called a frame, of the data to optimize efficiency, and then code it in a manner that requires a larger segment of data at one time to decode. The inherent latency of the coding algorithm can be critical; for example, when there is a two-way transmission of data, such as with a telephone conversation, significant delays may seriously degrade the perceived quality.
In contrast to the speed of compression, which is proportional to the number of operations required by the algorithm, here latency refers to the number of samples that must be analyzed before a block of audio is processed. In the minimum case, latency is zero samples (e.g., if the coder/decoder simply reduces the number of bits used to quantize the signal). Time domain algorithms such as LPC also often have low latencies, hence their popularity in speech coding for telephony. In algorithms such as MP3, however, a large number of samples have to be analyzed to implement a psychoacoustic model in the frequency domain, and latency is on the order of 23 ms.
Speech encoding is an important category of audio data compression. The perceptual models used to estimate what aspects of speech a human ear can hear are generally somewhat different from those used for music. The range of frequencies needed to convey the sounds of a human voice is normally far narrower than that needed for music, and the sound is normally less complex. As a result, speech can be encoded at high quality using a relatively low bit rate.
This is accomplished, in general, by some combination of two approaches:
The earliest algorithms used in speech encoding (and audio data compression in general) were the A-law algorithm and the μ-law algorithm.
Early audio research was conducted at Bell Labs. There, in 1950, C. Chapin Cutler filed the patent on differential pulse-code modulation (DPCM). In 1973, Adaptive DPCM (ADPCM) was introduced by P. Cummiskey, Nikil S. Jayant and James L. Flanagan.
Perceptual coding was first used for speech coding compression, with linear predictive coding (LPC). Initial concepts for LPC date back to the work of Fumitada Itakura (Nagoya University) and Shuzo Saito (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) in 1966. During the 1970s, Bishnu S. Atal and Manfred R. Schroeder at Bell Labs developed a form of LPC called adaptive predictive coding (APC), a perceptual coding algorithm that exploited the masking properties of the human ear, followed in the early 1980s with the code-excited linear prediction (CELP) algorithm which achieved a significant compression ratio for its time. Perceptual coding is used by modern audio compression formats such as MP3 and AAC.
Discrete cosine transform (DCT), developed by Nasir Ahmed, T. Natarajan and K. R. Rao in 1974, provided the basis for the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) used by modern audio compression formats such as MP3, Dolby Digital, and AAC. MDCT was proposed by J. P. Princen, A. W. Johnson and A. B. Bradley in 1987, following earlier work by Princen and Bradley in 1986.
The world's first commercial broadcast automation audio compression system was developed by Oscar Bonello, an engineering professor at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1983, using the psychoacoustic principle of the masking of critical bands first published in 1967, he started developing a practical application based on the recently developed IBM PC computer, and the broadcast automation system was launched in 1987 under the name Audicom. 35 years later, almost all the radio stations in the world were using this technology manufactured by a number of companies because the inventor refuses to get invention patents for his work. He prefers declaring it of Public Domain publishing it
A literature compendium for a large variety of audio coding systems was published in the IEEE's Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), in February 1988. While there were some papers from before that time, this collection documented an entire variety of finished, working audio coders, nearly all of them using perceptual techniques and some kind of frequency analysis and back-end noiseless coding.
Uncompressed video requires a very high data rate. Although lossless video compression codecs perform at a compression factor of 5 to 12, a typical H.264 lossy compression video has a compression factor between 20 and 200.
The two key video compression techniques used in video coding standards are the DCT and motion compensation (MC). Most video coding standards, such as the H.26x and MPEG formats, typically use motion-compensated DCT video coding (block motion compensation).
Most video codecs are used alongside audio compression techniques to store the separate but complementary data streams as one combined package using so-called container formats.
Video data may be represented as a series of still image frames. Such data usually contains abundant amounts of spatial and temporal redundancy. Video compression algorithms attempt to reduce redundancy and store information more compactly.
Most video compression formats and codecs exploit both spatial and temporal redundancy (e.g. through difference coding with motion compensation). Similarities can be encoded by only storing differences between e.g. temporally adjacent frames (inter-frame coding) or spatially adjacent pixels (intra-frame coding). Inter-frame compression (a temporal delta encoding) (re)uses data from one or more earlier or later frames in a sequence to describe the current frame. Intra-frame coding, on the other hand, uses only data from within the current frame, effectively being still-image compression.
The intra-frame video coding formats used in camcorders and video editing employ simpler compression that uses only intra-frame prediction. This simplifies video editing software, as it prevents a situation in which a compressed frame refers to data that the editor has deleted.
Usually, video compression additionally employs lossy compression techniques like quantization that reduce aspects of the source data that are (more or less) irrelevant to the human visual perception by exploiting perceptual features of human vision. For example, small differences in color are more difficult to perceive than are changes in brightness. Compression algorithms can average a color across these similar areas in a manner similar to those used in JPEG image compression. As in all lossy compression, there is a trade-off between video quality and bit rate, cost of processing the compression and decompression, and system requirements. Highly compressed video may present visible or distracting artifacts.
Other methods other than the prevalent DCT-based transform formats, such as fractal compression, matching pursuit and the use of a discrete wavelet transform (DWT), have been the subject of some research, but are typically not used in practical products. Wavelet compression is used in still-image coders and video coders without motion compensation. Interest in fractal compression seems to be waning, due to recent theoretical analysis showing a comparative lack of effectiveness of such methods.
In inter-frame coding, individual frames of a video sequence are compared from one frame to the next, and the video compression codec records the differences to the reference frame. If the frame contains areas where nothing has moved, the system can simply issue a short command that copies that part of the previous frame into the next one. If sections of the frame move in a simple manner, the compressor can emit a (slightly longer) command that tells the decompressor to shift, rotate, lighten, or darken the copy. This longer command still remains much shorter than data generated by intra-frame compression. Usually, the encoder will also transmit a residue signal which describes the remaining more subtle differences to the reference imagery. Using entropy coding, these residue signals have a more compact representation than the full signal. In areas of video with more motion, the compression must encode more data to keep up with the larger number of pixels that are changing. Commonly during explosions, flames, flocks of animals, and in some panning shots, the high-frequency detail leads to quality decreases or to increases in the variable bitrate.
Today, nearly all commonly used video compression methods (e.g., those in standards approved by the ITU-T or ISO) share the same basic architecture that dates back to H.261 which was standardized in 1988 by the ITU-T. They mostly rely on the DCT, applied to rectangular blocks of neighboring pixels, and temporal prediction using motion vectors, as well as nowadays also an in-loop filtering step.
In the prediction stage, various deduplication and difference-coding techniques are applied that help decorrelate data and describe new data based on already transmitted data.
Then rectangular blocks of remaining pixel data are transformed to the frequency domain. In the main lossy processing stage, frequency domain data gets quantized in order to reduce information that is irrelevant to human visual perception.
In the last stage statistical redundancy gets largely eliminated by an entropy coder which often applies some form of arithmetic coding.
In an additional in-loop filtering stage various filters can be applied to the reconstructed image signal. By computing these filters also inside the encoding loop they can help compression because they can be applied to reference material before it gets used in the prediction process and they can be guided using the original signal. The most popular example are deblocking filters that blur out blocking artifacts from quantization discontinuities at transform block boundaries.
In 1967, A.H. Robinson and C. Cherry proposed a run-length encoding bandwidth compression scheme for the transmission of analog television signals. The DCT, which is fundamental to modern video compression, was introduced by Nasir Ahmed, T. Natarajan and K. R. Rao in 1974.
H.261, which debuted in 1988, commercially introduced the prevalent basic architecture of video compression technology. It was the first video coding format based on DCT compression. H.261 was developed by a number of companies, including Hitachi, PictureTel, NTT, BT and Toshiba.
The most popular video coding standards used for codecs have been the MPEG standards. MPEG-1 was developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) in 1991, and it was designed to compress VHS-quality video. It was succeeded in 1994 by MPEG-2/H.262, which was developed by a number of companies, primarily Sony, Thomson and Mitsubishi Electric. MPEG-2 became the standard video format for DVD and SD digital television. In 1999, it was followed by MPEG-4/H.263. It was also developed by a number of companies, primarily Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi and Panasonic.
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC was developed in 2003 by a number of organizations, primarily Panasonic, Godo Kaisha IP Bridge and LG Electronics. AVC commercially introduced the modern context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) and context-adaptive variable-length coding (CAVLC) algorithms. AVC is the main video encoding standard for Blu-ray Discs, and is widely used by video sharing websites and streaming internet services such as YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, and iTunes Store, web software such as Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight, and various HDTV broadcasts over terrestrial and satellite television.
Genetics compression algorithms are the latest generation of lossless algorithms that compress data (typically sequences of nucleotides) using both conventional compression algorithms and genetic algorithms adapted to the specific datatype. In 2012, a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins University published a genetic compression algorithm that does not use a reference genome for compression. HAPZIPPER was tailored for HapMap data and achieves over 20-fold compression (95% reduction in file size), providing 2- to 4-fold better compression and is less computationally intensive than the leading general-purpose compression utilities. For this, Chanda, Elhaik, and Bader introduced MAF-based encoding (MAFE), which reduces the heterogeneity of the dataset by sorting SNPs by their minor allele frequency, thus homogenizing the dataset. Other algorithms developed in 2009 and 2013 (DNAZip and GenomeZip) have compression ratios of up to 1200-fold—allowing 6 billion basepair diploid human genomes to be stored in 2.5 megabytes (relative to a reference genome or averaged over many genomes). For a benchmark in genetics/genomics data compressors, see
It is estimated that the total amount of data that is stored on the world's storage devices could be further compressed with existing compression algorithms by a remaining average factor of 4.5:1. It is estimated that the combined technological capacity of the world to store information provides 1,300 exabytes of hardware digits in 2007, but when the corresponding content is optimally compressed, this only represents 295 exabytes of Shannon information. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression reduces bits by identifying and eliminating statistical redundancy. No information is lost in lossless compression. Lossy compression reduces bits by removing unnecessary or less important information. Typically, a device that performs data compression is referred to as an encoder, and one that performs the reversal of the process (decompression) as a decoder.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The process of reducing the size of a data file is often referred to as data compression. In the context of data transmission, it is called source coding: encoding is done at the source of the data before it is stored or transmitted. Source coding should not be confused with channel coding, for error detection and correction or line coding, the means for mapping data onto a signal.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Compression is useful because it reduces the resources required to store and transmit data. Computational resources are consumed in the compression and decompression processes. Data compression is subject to a space-time complexity trade-off. For instance, a compression scheme for video may require expensive hardware for the video to be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it is being decompressed, and the option to decompress the video in full before watching it may be inconvenient or require additional storage. The design of data compression schemes involves trade-offs among various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of distortion introduced (when using lossy data compression), and the computational resources required to compress and decompress the data.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Lossless data compression algorithms usually exploit statistical redundancy to represent data without losing any information, so that the process is reversible. Lossless compression is possible because most real-world data exhibits statistical redundancy. For example, an image may have areas of color that do not change over several pixels; instead of coding \"red pixel, red pixel, ...\" the data may be encoded as \"279 red pixels\". This is a basic example of run-length encoding; there are many schemes to reduce file size by eliminating redundancy.",
"title": "Lossless"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The Lempel–Ziv (LZ) compression methods are among the most popular algorithms for lossless storage. DEFLATE is a variation on LZ optimized for decompression speed and compression ratio, but compression can be slow. In the mid-1980s, following work by Terry Welch, the Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) algorithm rapidly became the method of choice for most general-purpose compression systems. LZW is used in GIF images, programs such as PKZIP, and hardware devices such as modems. LZ methods use a table-based compression model where table entries are substituted for repeated strings of data. For most LZ methods, this table is generated dynamically from earlier data in the input. The table itself is often Huffman encoded. Grammar-based codes like this can compress highly repetitive input extremely effectively, for instance, a biological data collection of the same or closely related species, a huge versioned document collection, internet archival, etc. The basic task of grammar-based codes is constructing a context-free grammar deriving a single string. Other practical grammar compression algorithms include Sequitur and Re-Pair.",
"title": "Lossless"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The strongest modern lossless compressors use probabilistic models, such as prediction by partial matching. The Burrows–Wheeler transform can also be viewed as an indirect form of statistical modelling. In a further refinement of the direct use of probabilistic modelling, statistical estimates can be coupled to an algorithm called arithmetic coding. Arithmetic coding is a more modern coding technique that uses the mathematical calculations of a finite-state machine to produce a string of encoded bits from a series of input data symbols. It can achieve superior compression compared to other techniques such as the better-known Huffman algorithm. It uses an internal memory state to avoid the need to perform a one-to-one mapping of individual input symbols to distinct representations that use an integer number of bits, and it clears out the internal memory only after encoding the entire string of data symbols. Arithmetic coding applies especially well to adaptive data compression tasks where the statistics vary and are context-dependent, as it can be easily coupled with an adaptive model of the probability distribution of the input data. An early example of the use of arithmetic coding was in an optional (but not widely used) feature of the JPEG image coding standard. It has since been applied in various other designs including H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC for video coding.",
"title": "Lossless"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Archive software typically has the ability to adjust the \"dictionary size\", where a larger size demands more random-access memory during compression and decompression, but compresses stronger, especially on repeating patterns in files' content. Typically, the optimal dictionary size must not be bigger than the file size.",
"title": "Lossless"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In the late 1980s, digital images became more common, and standards for lossless image compression emerged. In the early 1990s, lossy compression methods began to be widely used. In these schemes, some loss of information is accepted as dropping nonessential detail can save storage space. There is a corresponding trade-off between preserving information and reducing size. Lossy data compression schemes are designed by research on how people perceive the data in question. For example, the human eye is more sensitive to subtle variations in luminance than it is to the variations in color. JPEG image compression works in part by rounding off nonessential bits of information. A number of popular compression formats exploit these perceptual differences, including psychoacoustics for sound, and psychovisuals for images and video.",
"title": "Lossy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Most forms of lossy compression are based on transform coding, especially the discrete cosine transform (DCT). It was first proposed in 1972 by Nasir Ahmed, who then developed a working algorithm with T. Natarajan and K. R. Rao in 1973, before introducing it in January 1974. DCT is the most widely used lossy compression method, and is used in multimedia formats for images (such as JPEG and HEIF), video (such as MPEG, AVC and HEVC) and audio (such as MP3, AAC and Vorbis).",
"title": "Lossy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Lossy image compression is used in digital cameras, to increase storage capacities. Similarly, DVDs, Blu-ray and streaming video use lossy video coding formats. Lossy compression is extensively used in video.",
"title": "Lossy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In lossy audio compression, methods of psychoacoustics are used to remove non-audible (or less audible) components of the audio signal. Compression of human speech is often performed with even more specialized techniques; speech coding is distinguished as a separate discipline from general-purpose audio compression. Speech coding is used in internet telephony, for example, audio compression is used for CD ripping and is decoded by the audio players.",
"title": "Lossy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Lossy compression can cause generation loss.",
"title": "Lossy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The theoretical basis for compression is provided by information theory and, more specifically, Shannon's source coding theorem; domain-specific theories include algorithmic information theory for lossless compression and rate–distortion theory for lossy compression. These areas of study were essentially created by Claude Shannon, who published fundamental papers on the topic in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Other topics associated with compression include coding theory and statistical inference.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "There is a close connection between machine learning and compression. A system that predicts the posterior probabilities of a sequence given its entire history can be used for optimal data compression (by using arithmetic coding on the output distribution). Conversely, an optimal compressor can be used for prediction (by finding the symbol that compresses best, given the previous history). This equivalence has been used as a justification for using data compression as a benchmark for \"general intelligence\".",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "An alternative view can show compression algorithms implicitly map strings into implicit feature space vectors, and compression-based similarity measures compute similarity within these feature spaces. For each compressor C(.) we define an associated vector space ℵ, such that C(.) maps an input string x, corresponding to the vector norm ||~x||. An exhaustive examination of the feature spaces underlying all compression algorithms is precluded by space; instead, feature vectors chooses to examine three representative lossless compression methods, LZW, LZ77, and PPM.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "According to AIXI theory, a connection more directly explained in Hutter Prize, the best possible compression of x is the smallest possible software that generates x. For example, in that model, a zip file's compressed size includes both the zip file and the unzipping software, since you can not unzip it without both, but there may be an even smaller combined form.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Examples of AI-powered audio/video compression software include VP9, NVIDIA Maxine, AIVC, AccMPEG. Examples of software that can perform AI-powered image compression include OpenCV, TensorFlow, MATLAB's Image Processing Toolbox (IPT) and High-Fidelity Generative Image Compression.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Data compression can be viewed as a special case of data differencing. Data differencing consists of producing a difference given a source and a target, with patching reproducing the target given a source and a difference. Since there is no separate source and target in data compression, one can consider data compression as data differencing with empty source data, the compressed file corresponding to a difference from nothing. This is the same as considering absolute entropy (corresponding to data compression) as a special case of relative entropy (corresponding to data differencing) with no initial data.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The term differential compression is used to emphasize the data differencing connection.",
"title": "Theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Entropy coding originated in the 1940s with the introduction of Shannon–Fano coding, the basis for Huffman coding which was developed in 1950. Transform coding dates back to the late 1960s, with the introduction of fast Fourier transform (FFT) coding in 1968 and the Hadamard transform in 1969.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "An important image compression technique is the discrete cosine transform (DCT), a technique developed in the early 1970s. DCT is the basis for JPEG, a lossy compression format which was introduced by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) in 1992. JPEG greatly reduces the amount of data required to represent an image at the cost of a relatively small reduction in image quality and has become the most widely used image file format. Its highly efficient DCT-based compression algorithm was largely responsible for the wide proliferation of digital images and digital photos.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) is a lossless compression algorithm developed in 1984. It is used in the GIF format, introduced in 1987. DEFLATE, a lossless compression algorithm specified in 1996, is used in the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Wavelet compression, the use of wavelets in image compression, began after the development of DCT coding. The JPEG 2000 standard was introduced in 2000. In contrast to the DCT algorithm used by the original JPEG format, JPEG 2000 instead uses discrete wavelet transform (DWT) algorithms. JPEG 2000 technology, which includes the Motion JPEG 2000 extension, was selected as the video coding standard for digital cinema in 2004.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Audio data compression, not to be confused with dynamic range compression, has the potential to reduce the transmission bandwidth and storage requirements of audio data. Audio compression formats compression algorithms are implemented in software as audio codecs. In both lossy and lossless compression, information redundancy is reduced, using methods such as coding, quantization, DCT and linear prediction to reduce the amount of information used to represent the uncompressed data.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Lossy audio compression algorithms provide higher compression and are used in numerous audio applications including Vorbis and MP3. These algorithms almost all rely on psychoacoustics to eliminate or reduce fidelity of less audible sounds, thereby reducing the space required to store or transmit them.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The acceptable trade-off between loss of audio quality and transmission or storage size depends upon the application. For example, one 640 MB compact disc (CD) holds approximately one hour of uncompressed high fidelity music, less than 2 hours of music compressed losslessly, or 7 hours of music compressed in the MP3 format at a medium bit rate. A digital sound recorder can typically store around 200 hours of clearly intelligible speech in 640 MB.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Lossless audio compression produces a representation of digital data that can be decoded to an exact digital duplicate of the original. Compression ratios are around 50–60% of the original size, which is similar to those for generic lossless data compression. Lossless codecs use curve fitting or linear prediction as a basis for estimating the signal. Parameters describing the estimation and the difference between the estimation and the actual signal are coded separately.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "A number of lossless audio compression formats exist. See list of lossless codecs for a listing. Some formats are associated with a distinct system, such as Direct Stream Transfer, used in Super Audio CD and Meridian Lossless Packing, used in DVD-Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Blu-ray and HD DVD.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Some audio file formats feature a combination of a lossy format and a lossless correction; this allows stripping the correction to easily obtain a lossy file. Such formats include MPEG-4 SLS (Scalable to Lossless), WavPack, and OptimFROG DualStream.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "When audio files are to be processed, either by further compression or for editing, it is desirable to work from an unchanged original (uncompressed or losslessly compressed). Processing of a lossily compressed file for some purpose usually produces a final result inferior to the creation of the same compressed file from an uncompressed original. In addition to sound editing or mixing, lossless audio compression is often used for archival storage, or as master copies.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Lossy audio compression is used in a wide range of applications. In addition to standalone audio-only applications of file playback in MP3 players or computers, digitally compressed audio streams are used in most video DVDs, digital television, streaming media on the Internet, satellite and cable radio, and increasingly in terrestrial radio broadcasts. Lossy compression typically achieves far greater compression than lossless compression, by discarding less-critical data based on psychoacoustic optimizations.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Psychoacoustics recognizes that not all data in an audio stream can be perceived by the human auditory system. Most lossy compression reduces redundancy by first identifying perceptually irrelevant sounds, that is, sounds that are very hard to hear. Typical examples include high frequencies or sounds that occur at the same time as louder sounds. Those irrelevant sounds are coded with decreased accuracy or not at all.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Due to the nature of lossy algorithms, audio quality suffers a digital generation loss when a file is decompressed and recompressed. This makes lossy compression unsuitable for storing the intermediate results in professional audio engineering applications, such as sound editing and multitrack recording. However, lossy formats such as MP3 are very popular with end-users as the file size is reduced to 5-20% of the original size and a megabyte can store about a minute's worth of music at adequate quality.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Several proprietary lossy compression algorithms have been developed that provide higher quality audio performance by using a combination of lossless and lossy algorithms with adaptive bit rates and lower compression ratios. Examples include aptX, LDAC, LHDC, MQA and SCL6.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "To determine what information in an audio signal is perceptually irrelevant, most lossy compression algorithms use transforms such as the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) to convert time domain sampled waveforms into a transform domain, typically the frequency domain. Once transformed, component frequencies can be prioritized according to how audible they are. Audibility of spectral components is assessed using the absolute threshold of hearing and the principles of simultaneous masking—the phenomenon wherein a signal is masked by another signal separated by frequency—and, in some cases, temporal masking—where a signal is masked by another signal separated by time. Equal-loudness contours may also be used to weigh the perceptual importance of components. Models of the human ear-brain combination incorporating such effects are often called psychoacoustic models.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Other types of lossy compressors, such as the linear predictive coding (LPC) used with speech, are source-based coders. LPC uses a model of the human vocal tract to analyze speech sounds and infer the parameters used by the model to produce them moment to moment. These changing parameters are transmitted or stored and used to drive another model in the decoder which reproduces the sound.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Lossy formats are often used for the distribution of streaming audio or interactive communication (such as in cell phone networks). In such applications, the data must be decompressed as the data flows, rather than after the entire data stream has been transmitted. Not all audio codecs can be used for streaming applications.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Latency is introduced by the methods used to encode and decode the data. Some codecs will analyze a longer segment, called a frame, of the data to optimize efficiency, and then code it in a manner that requires a larger segment of data at one time to decode. The inherent latency of the coding algorithm can be critical; for example, when there is a two-way transmission of data, such as with a telephone conversation, significant delays may seriously degrade the perceived quality.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In contrast to the speed of compression, which is proportional to the number of operations required by the algorithm, here latency refers to the number of samples that must be analyzed before a block of audio is processed. In the minimum case, latency is zero samples (e.g., if the coder/decoder simply reduces the number of bits used to quantize the signal). Time domain algorithms such as LPC also often have low latencies, hence their popularity in speech coding for telephony. In algorithms such as MP3, however, a large number of samples have to be analyzed to implement a psychoacoustic model in the frequency domain, and latency is on the order of 23 ms.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Speech encoding is an important category of audio data compression. The perceptual models used to estimate what aspects of speech a human ear can hear are generally somewhat different from those used for music. The range of frequencies needed to convey the sounds of a human voice is normally far narrower than that needed for music, and the sound is normally less complex. As a result, speech can be encoded at high quality using a relatively low bit rate.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "This is accomplished, in general, by some combination of two approaches:",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The earliest algorithms used in speech encoding (and audio data compression in general) were the A-law algorithm and the μ-law algorithm.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Early audio research was conducted at Bell Labs. There, in 1950, C. Chapin Cutler filed the patent on differential pulse-code modulation (DPCM). In 1973, Adaptive DPCM (ADPCM) was introduced by P. Cummiskey, Nikil S. Jayant and James L. Flanagan.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Perceptual coding was first used for speech coding compression, with linear predictive coding (LPC). Initial concepts for LPC date back to the work of Fumitada Itakura (Nagoya University) and Shuzo Saito (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) in 1966. During the 1970s, Bishnu S. Atal and Manfred R. Schroeder at Bell Labs developed a form of LPC called adaptive predictive coding (APC), a perceptual coding algorithm that exploited the masking properties of the human ear, followed in the early 1980s with the code-excited linear prediction (CELP) algorithm which achieved a significant compression ratio for its time. Perceptual coding is used by modern audio compression formats such as MP3 and AAC.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Discrete cosine transform (DCT), developed by Nasir Ahmed, T. Natarajan and K. R. Rao in 1974, provided the basis for the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) used by modern audio compression formats such as MP3, Dolby Digital, and AAC. MDCT was proposed by J. P. Princen, A. W. Johnson and A. B. Bradley in 1987, following earlier work by Princen and Bradley in 1986.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The world's first commercial broadcast automation audio compression system was developed by Oscar Bonello, an engineering professor at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1983, using the psychoacoustic principle of the masking of critical bands first published in 1967, he started developing a practical application based on the recently developed IBM PC computer, and the broadcast automation system was launched in 1987 under the name Audicom. 35 years later, almost all the radio stations in the world were using this technology manufactured by a number of companies because the inventor refuses to get invention patents for his work. He prefers declaring it of Public Domain publishing it",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "A literature compendium for a large variety of audio coding systems was published in the IEEE's Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), in February 1988. While there were some papers from before that time, this collection documented an entire variety of finished, working audio coders, nearly all of them using perceptual techniques and some kind of frequency analysis and back-end noiseless coding.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Uncompressed video requires a very high data rate. Although lossless video compression codecs perform at a compression factor of 5 to 12, a typical H.264 lossy compression video has a compression factor between 20 and 200.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The two key video compression techniques used in video coding standards are the DCT and motion compensation (MC). Most video coding standards, such as the H.26x and MPEG formats, typically use motion-compensated DCT video coding (block motion compensation).",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Most video codecs are used alongside audio compression techniques to store the separate but complementary data streams as one combined package using so-called container formats.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Video data may be represented as a series of still image frames. Such data usually contains abundant amounts of spatial and temporal redundancy. Video compression algorithms attempt to reduce redundancy and store information more compactly.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Most video compression formats and codecs exploit both spatial and temporal redundancy (e.g. through difference coding with motion compensation). Similarities can be encoded by only storing differences between e.g. temporally adjacent frames (inter-frame coding) or spatially adjacent pixels (intra-frame coding). Inter-frame compression (a temporal delta encoding) (re)uses data from one or more earlier or later frames in a sequence to describe the current frame. Intra-frame coding, on the other hand, uses only data from within the current frame, effectively being still-image compression.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "The intra-frame video coding formats used in camcorders and video editing employ simpler compression that uses only intra-frame prediction. This simplifies video editing software, as it prevents a situation in which a compressed frame refers to data that the editor has deleted.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Usually, video compression additionally employs lossy compression techniques like quantization that reduce aspects of the source data that are (more or less) irrelevant to the human visual perception by exploiting perceptual features of human vision. For example, small differences in color are more difficult to perceive than are changes in brightness. Compression algorithms can average a color across these similar areas in a manner similar to those used in JPEG image compression. As in all lossy compression, there is a trade-off between video quality and bit rate, cost of processing the compression and decompression, and system requirements. Highly compressed video may present visible or distracting artifacts.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Other methods other than the prevalent DCT-based transform formats, such as fractal compression, matching pursuit and the use of a discrete wavelet transform (DWT), have been the subject of some research, but are typically not used in practical products. Wavelet compression is used in still-image coders and video coders without motion compensation. Interest in fractal compression seems to be waning, due to recent theoretical analysis showing a comparative lack of effectiveness of such methods.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "In inter-frame coding, individual frames of a video sequence are compared from one frame to the next, and the video compression codec records the differences to the reference frame. If the frame contains areas where nothing has moved, the system can simply issue a short command that copies that part of the previous frame into the next one. If sections of the frame move in a simple manner, the compressor can emit a (slightly longer) command that tells the decompressor to shift, rotate, lighten, or darken the copy. This longer command still remains much shorter than data generated by intra-frame compression. Usually, the encoder will also transmit a residue signal which describes the remaining more subtle differences to the reference imagery. Using entropy coding, these residue signals have a more compact representation than the full signal. In areas of video with more motion, the compression must encode more data to keep up with the larger number of pixels that are changing. Commonly during explosions, flames, flocks of animals, and in some panning shots, the high-frequency detail leads to quality decreases or to increases in the variable bitrate.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Today, nearly all commonly used video compression methods (e.g., those in standards approved by the ITU-T or ISO) share the same basic architecture that dates back to H.261 which was standardized in 1988 by the ITU-T. They mostly rely on the DCT, applied to rectangular blocks of neighboring pixels, and temporal prediction using motion vectors, as well as nowadays also an in-loop filtering step.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "In the prediction stage, various deduplication and difference-coding techniques are applied that help decorrelate data and describe new data based on already transmitted data.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Then rectangular blocks of remaining pixel data are transformed to the frequency domain. In the main lossy processing stage, frequency domain data gets quantized in order to reduce information that is irrelevant to human visual perception.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "In the last stage statistical redundancy gets largely eliminated by an entropy coder which often applies some form of arithmetic coding.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "In an additional in-loop filtering stage various filters can be applied to the reconstructed image signal. By computing these filters also inside the encoding loop they can help compression because they can be applied to reference material before it gets used in the prediction process and they can be guided using the original signal. The most popular example are deblocking filters that blur out blocking artifacts from quantization discontinuities at transform block boundaries.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "In 1967, A.H. Robinson and C. Cherry proposed a run-length encoding bandwidth compression scheme for the transmission of analog television signals. The DCT, which is fundamental to modern video compression, was introduced by Nasir Ahmed, T. Natarajan and K. R. Rao in 1974.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "H.261, which debuted in 1988, commercially introduced the prevalent basic architecture of video compression technology. It was the first video coding format based on DCT compression. H.261 was developed by a number of companies, including Hitachi, PictureTel, NTT, BT and Toshiba.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "The most popular video coding standards used for codecs have been the MPEG standards. MPEG-1 was developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) in 1991, and it was designed to compress VHS-quality video. It was succeeded in 1994 by MPEG-2/H.262, which was developed by a number of companies, primarily Sony, Thomson and Mitsubishi Electric. MPEG-2 became the standard video format for DVD and SD digital television. In 1999, it was followed by MPEG-4/H.263. It was also developed by a number of companies, primarily Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi and Panasonic.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "H.264/MPEG-4 AVC was developed in 2003 by a number of organizations, primarily Panasonic, Godo Kaisha IP Bridge and LG Electronics. AVC commercially introduced the modern context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) and context-adaptive variable-length coding (CAVLC) algorithms. AVC is the main video encoding standard for Blu-ray Discs, and is widely used by video sharing websites and streaming internet services such as YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, and iTunes Store, web software such as Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight, and various HDTV broadcasts over terrestrial and satellite television.",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Genetics compression algorithms are the latest generation of lossless algorithms that compress data (typically sequences of nucleotides) using both conventional compression algorithms and genetic algorithms adapted to the specific datatype. In 2012, a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins University published a genetic compression algorithm that does not use a reference genome for compression. HAPZIPPER was tailored for HapMap data and achieves over 20-fold compression (95% reduction in file size), providing 2- to 4-fold better compression and is less computationally intensive than the leading general-purpose compression utilities. For this, Chanda, Elhaik, and Bader introduced MAF-based encoding (MAFE), which reduces the heterogeneity of the dataset by sorting SNPs by their minor allele frequency, thus homogenizing the dataset. Other algorithms developed in 2009 and 2013 (DNAZip and GenomeZip) have compression ratios of up to 1200-fold—allowing 6 billion basepair diploid human genomes to be stored in 2.5 megabytes (relative to a reference genome or averaged over many genomes). For a benchmark in genetics/genomics data compressors, see",
"title": "Uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "It is estimated that the total amount of data that is stored on the world's storage devices could be further compressed with existing compression algorithms by a remaining average factor of 4.5:1. It is estimated that the combined technological capacity of the world to store information provides 1,300 exabytes of hardware digits in 2007, but when the corresponding content is optimally compressed, this only represents 295 exabytes of Shannon information.",
"title": "Outlook and currently unused potential"
}
] | In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression reduces bits by identifying and eliminating statistical redundancy. No information is lost in lossless compression. Lossy compression reduces bits by removing unnecessary or less important information. Typically, a device that performs data compression is referred to as an encoder, and one that performs the reversal of the process (decompression) as a decoder. The process of reducing the size of a data file is often referred to as data compression. In the context of data transmission, it is called source coding: encoding is done at the source of the data before it is stored or transmitted. Source coding should not be confused with channel coding, for error detection and correction or line coding, the means for mapping data onto a signal. Compression is useful because it reduces the resources required to store and transmit data. Computational resources are consumed in the compression and decompression processes. Data compression is subject to a space-time complexity trade-off. For instance, a compression scheme for video may require expensive hardware for the video to be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it is being decompressed, and the option to decompress the video in full before watching it may be inconvenient or require additional storage. The design of data compression schemes involves trade-offs among various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of distortion introduced, and the computational resources required to compress and decompress the data. | 2001-10-22T12:40:04Z | 2023-12-28T13:59:25Z | [
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8,022 | History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.
The Kingdom of Kongo controlled much of western and central Africa including what is now the western portion of the DR Congo between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. At its peak it had many as 500,000 people, and its capital was known as Mbanza-Kongo (south of Matadi, in modern-day Angola). In the late 15th century, Portuguese sailors arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo, and this led to a period of great prosperity and consolidation, with the king's power being founded on Portuguese trade. King Afonso I (1506–1543) had raids carried out on neighboring districts in response to Portuguese requests for slaves. After his death, the kingdom underwent a deep crisis.
The Atlantic slave trade occurred from approximately 1500 to 1850, with the entire west coast of Africa targeted, but the region around the mouth of the Congo suffered the most intensive enslavement. Over a strip of coastline about 400 kilometres (250 mi) long, about 4 million people were enslaved and sent across the Atlantic to sugar plantations in Brazil, the US and the Caribbean. From 1780 onwards, there was a higher demand for slaves in the US which led to more people being enslaved. By 1780, more than 15,000 people were shipped annually from the Loango Coast, north of the Congo.
In 1870, explorer Henry Morton Stanley arrived in and explored what is now the DR Congo. Belgian colonization of DR Congo began in 1885 when King Leopold II founded and ruled the Congo Free State. However, de facto control of such a huge area took decades to achieve. Many outposts were built to extend the power of the state over such a vast territory. In 1885, the Force Publique was set up, a colonial army with white officers and black soldiers. In 1886, Leopold made Camille Jansen the first Belgian governor-general of Congo. Over the late 19th century, various Christian (including Catholic and Protestant) missionaries arrived intending to convert the local population. A railway between Matadi and Stanley Pool was built in the 1890s. Reports of widespread murder, torture, and other abuses in the rubber plantations led to international and Belgian outrage and the Belgian government transferred control of the region from Leopold II and established the Belgian Congo in 1908.
Following unrest, Belgium granted Congo independence in 1960. However, the Congo remained unstable, leading to the Congo Crisis, where the regional governments of Katanga and South Kasai attempted to gain independence with Belgian support. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba tried to suppress secession with the aid of the Soviet Union as part of the Cold War, causing the United States to support a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Lumumba was handed over to the Katangan government and executed in 1961. The secessionist movements were later defeated by the Congolese government as were the Soviet-backed Simba rebels. Following the end of the Congo Crisis in 1965, Joseph Kasa-Vubu was deposed and Mobutu seized complete power of the country and then renamed it Zaire. He sought to Africanize the country, changing his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, and demanded that African citizens change their Western names to traditional African names. Mobutu sought to repress any opposition to his rule, which he successfully did throughout the 1980s. However, with his regime weakened in the 1990s, Mobutu was forced to agree to a power-sharing government with the opposition party. Mobutu remained the head of state and promised elections within the next two years that never took place.
During the First Congo War, Rwanda invaded Zaire, in which Mobutu lost his power during this process. In 1997, Laurent-Désiré Kabila took power and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Afterwards, the Second Congo War broke out, resulting in a regional war in which many different African nations took part and in which millions of people were killed or displaced. Laurent-Désiré Kabila was assassinated by his own bodyguard in 2001, and his son, Joseph, succeeded him and was later elected president by the Congolese government in 2006. Joseph Kabila quickly sought peace. Foreign soldiers remained in the Congo for a few years and a power-sharing government between Joseph Kabila and the opposition party was set up. Joseph Kabila later resumed complete control over the Congo and was re-elected in a disputed election in 2011. In 2018, Félix Tshisekedi was elected president; in the first peaceful transfer of power since independence.
The area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was populated as early as 90,000 years ago, as shown by the 1988 discovery of the Semliki harpoon at Katanda, one of the oldest barbed harpoons ever found, which is believed to have been used to catch giant river catfish.
The Kingdom of Kongo existed from the 14th to the early 19th century. Until the arrival of the Portuguese it was the dominant force in the region along with the Kingdom of Luba, the Kingdom of Lunda, the Mongo people and the Anziku Kingdom.
The Congo Free State was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II of Belgium through the Association Internationale africaine, a non-governmental organization. Leopold was the sole shareholder and chairman. The state included the entire area of the present the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Under Leopold II, the Congo Free State became one of the most infamous international scandals of the turn of the twentieth century. The report of the British Consul Roger Casement led to the arrest and punishment of white officials who had been responsible for cold-blooded killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1900, including a Belgian national who caused the shooting of at least 122 Congolese natives. Estimates of the total death toll vary considerably. The first census was only done in 1924, so it is even more difficult to quantify the population loss of the period. Roger Casement's famous 1904 report estimated ten million people. According to Casement's report, indiscriminate "war", starvation, reduction of births and Tropical diseases caused the country's depopulation. European and U.S. press agencies exposed the conditions in the Congo Free State to the public in 1900. By 1908 public and diplomatic pressure had led Leopold II to annex the Congo as the Belgian Congo colony.
On 15 November 1908 King Leopold II of Belgium formally relinquished personal control of the Congo Free State. The renamed Belgian Congo was put under the direct administration of the Belgian government and its Ministry of Colonies.
Belgian rule in the Congo was based around the "colonial trinity" (trinité colonial) of state, missionary and private company interests. The privileging of Belgian commercial interests meant that large amounts of capital flowed into the Congo and that individual regions became specialized. The interests of the government and private enterprise became closely tied; the state helped companies break strikes and remove other barriers imposed by the indigenous population. The country was split into nesting, hierarchically organized administrative subdivisions, and run uniformly according to a set "native policy" (politique indigène)—in contrast to the British and the French, who generally favored the system of indirect rule whereby traditional leaders were retained in positions of authority under colonial oversight. There was also a high degree of racial segregation. Large numbers of white immigrants who moved to the Congo after the end of World War II came from across the social spectrum, but were nonetheless always treated as superior to blacks.
During the 1940s and 1950s, the Congo experienced an unprecedented level of urbanization and the colonial administration began various development programs aimed at making the territory into a "model colony". Notable advances were made in treating diseases such as African trypanosomiasis. One of the results of these measures was the development of a new middle class of Europeanised African évolués in the cities. By the 1950s the Congo had a wage labor force twice as large as that in any other African colony. The Congo's rich natural resources, including uranium—much of the uranium used by the U.S. nuclear programme during World War II was Congolese—led to substantial interest in the region from both the Soviet Union and the United States as the Cold War developed.
During the latter stages of World War II a new social stratum emerged in the Congo, known as the évolués. Forming an African middle class in the colony, they held skilled positions (such as clerks and nurses) made available by the economic boom. While there were no universal criteria for determining évolué status, it was generally accepted that one would have "a good knowledge of French, adhere to Christianity, and have some form of post-primary education." Early on in their history, évolués sought to use their unique status to earn special privileges in the Congo. Since opportunities for upward mobility through the colonial structure were limited, the évolué class institutionally manifested itself in elite clubs through which they could enjoy trivial privileges that made them feel distinct from the Congolese "masses". Additional groups, such as labor unions, alumni associations, and ethnic syndicates, provided other Congolese the means of organization. Among the most important of these was the Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO), representing the Kongo people of the Lower Congo. However, they were restricted in their actions by the administration. While white settlers were consulted in the appointment of certain officials, the Congolese had no means of expressing their beliefs through the governing structures. Though native chiefs held legal authority in some jurisdictions, in practice they were used by the administration to further its own policies.
Up into the 1950s, most évolués were concerned only with social inequalities and their treatment by the Belgians. Questions of self-government were not considered until 1954 when ABAKO requested that the administration consider a list of suggested candidates for a Léopoldville municipal post. That year the association was taken over by Joseph Kasa-Vubu, and under his leadership, it became increasingly hostile to the colonial authority and sought autonomy for the Kongo regions in the Lower Congo. In 1956 a group of Congolese intellectuals under the tutelage of several European academics issued a manifesto calling for a transition to independence over the course of 30 years. The ABAKO quickly responded with a demand for "immediate independence". The Belgian government was not prepared to grant the Congo independence and even when it started realizing the necessity of a plan for decolonization in 1957, it was assumed that such a process would be solidly controlled by Belgium. In December 1957 the colonial administration instituted reforms that permitted municipal elections and the formation of political parties. Some Belgian parties attempted to establish branches in the colony, but these were largely ignored by the population in favour of Congolese-initiated groups. Nationalism fermented in 1958 as more évolués began interacting with others outside of their own locales and started discussing the future structures of a post-colonial Congolese state. Nevertheless, most political mobilisation occurred along tribal and regional divisions. In Katanga, various tribal groups came together to form the Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) under the leadership of Godefroid Munongo and Moïse Tshombe. Hostile to immigrant peoples, it advocated provincial autonomy and close ties with Belgium. Most of its support was rooted in individual chiefs, businessmen, and European settlers of southern Katanga. It was opposed by Jason Sendwe's Association Générale des Baluba du Katanga (BALUBAKAT).
In October 1958 a group of Léopoldville évolués including Patrice Lumumba, Cyrille Adoula and Joseph Iléo established the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC). Diverse in membership, the party sought to peacefully achieve Congolese independence, promote the political education of the populace, and eliminate regionalism. The MNC drew most of its membership from the residents of the eastern city of Stanleyville, where Lumumba was well known, and from the population of the Kasai Province, where efforts were directed by a Muluba businessman, Albert Kalonji. Belgian officials appreciated its moderate and anti-separatist stance and allowed Lumumba to attend the All-African Peoples' Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958 (Kasa-Vubu was informed that the documents necessary for his travel to the event were not in order and was not permitted to go). Lumumba was deeply impressed by the Pan-Africanist ideals of Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah and returned to the Congo with a more radical party programme. He reported on his trip during a widely attended rally in Léopoldville and demanded the country's "genuine" independence.
Fearing that they were being overshadowed by Lumumba and the MNC, Kasa-Vubu and the ABAKO leadership announced that they would be hosting their own rally in the capital on 4 January 1959. The municipal government (under Belgian domination) was given short notice, and communicated that only a "private meeting" would be authorised. On the scheduled day of the rally the ABAKO leadership told the crowd that had gathered that the event was postponed and that they should disperse. The mass was infuriated and instead began hurling stones at the police and pillaging European property, initiating three days of violent and destructive riots. The Force Publique, the colonial army, was called into service and suppressed the revolt with considerable brutality. In wake of the riots Kasa-Vubu and his lieutenants were arrested. Unlike earlier expressions of discontent, the grievances were conveyed primarily by uneducated urban residents, not évolués. Popular opinion in Belgium was one of extreme shock and surprise. An investigative commission found the riots to be the culmination of racial discrimination, overcrowding, unemployment, and wishes for more political self-determination. On 13 January the administration announced several reforms, and the Belgian King, Baudouin, declared that independence would be granted to the Congo in the future.
Meanwhile, discontent surfaced among the MNC leadership, who were bothered by Lumumba's domination over the party's politics. Relations between Lumumba and Kalonji also grew tense, as the former was upset with how the latter was transforming the Kasai branch into an exclusively Luba group and antagonising other tribes. This culminated into the split of the party into the MNC-Lumumba/MNC-L under Lumumba and the MNC-Kalonji/MNC-K under Kalonji and Iléo. The latter began advocating federalism. Adoula left the organisation. Alone to lead his own faction and facing competition from ABAKO, Lumumba became increasingly insistent in his demands for independence. Following an October riot in Stanleyville he was arrested. Nevertheless, the influence of himself and the MNC-L continued to grow rapidly. The party advocated for a strong unitary state, nationalism, and the termination of Belgian rule and began forming alliances with regional groups, such as the Kivu-based Centre du Regroupement Africain (CEREA). Though the Belgians supported a unitary system over the federal models suggested by ABAKO and CONAKAT, they and more moderate Congolese were unnerved by Lumumba's increasingly extremist attitudes. With the implicit support of the colonial administration, the moderates formed the Parti National du Progrès (PNP) under the leadership of Paul Bolya and Albert Delvaux. It advocated centralisation, respect for traditional elements, and close ties with Belgium. In southern Léopoldville Province, a socialist-federalist party, the Parti Solidaire Africain (PSA) was founded. Antoine Gizenga served as its president, and Cléophas Kamitatu was in charge of the Léopoldville Province chapter.
Following the riots in Leopoldville (4–7 January 1959) and in Stanleyville (31 October 1959), the Belgians realised they could not maintain control of such a vast country in the face of rising demands for independence. Belgian and Congolese political leaders held a Round Table Conference in Brussels beginning on 18 January 1960.
At the end of the conference, on 27 January 1960, it was announced that elections would be held in the Congo on 22 May 1960, and full independence granted on 30 June 1960. The elections produced the nationalist Patrice Lumumba as prime minister, and Joseph Kasavubu as president. On independence the country adopted the name "Republic of the Congo" (République du Congo). The French colony of Middle Congo (Moyen Congo) also chose the name Republic of the Congo upon its independence, so the two countries were more commonly known as Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Brazzaville, after their capital cities.
In 1960, the country was very unstable—regional tribal leaders held far more power than the central government—and with the departure of the Belgian administrators, almost no skilled bureaucrats remained in the country. The first Congolese graduated from university only in 1956, and very few in the new nation had any idea how to manage a country of such size.
On 5 July 1960, a military mutiny by Congolese soldiers against their European officers broke out in the capital and rampant looting began. On 11 July 1960 the richest province of the country, Katanga, seceded under Moise Tshombe. The United Nations sent 20,000 peacekeepers to protect Europeans in the country and try to restore order. Western paramilitaries and mercenaries, often hired by mining companies to protect their interests, also began to pour into the country. In this period Congo's second richest province, Kasai, also announced its independence on 8 August 1960.
After trying to get help from the United States and the United Nations, Prime Minister Lumumba turned to the USSR for assistance. Nikita Khrushchev agreed to help, offering advanced weaponry and technical advisors. The United States viewed the Soviet presence as an attempt to take advantage of the situation and gain a proxy state in sub-Saharan Africa. UN forces were ordered to block any shipments of arms into the country. The United States also looked for a way to replace Lumumba as leader. President Kasavubu had clashed with Prime Minister Lumumba and advocated an alliance with the West rather than the Soviets. The U.S. sent weapons and CIA personnel to aid forces allied with Kasavubu and combat the Soviet presence.
On 23 August, the Congolese armed forces invaded South Kasai and perpetrated massacres against the Luba people. Lumumba was dismissed from office on 5 September 1960 by Kasavubu who publicly blamed him for the massacres in South Kasai and for involving Soviets in the country. On 14 September 1960, with CIA support, Colonel Joseph Mobutu overthrew the government and arrested Lumumba. A technocratic government, the College of Commissioners-General, was established.
On 17 January 1961 Mobutu sent Lumumba to Élisabethville (now Lubumbashi), capital of Katanga. In full view of the press he was beaten and forced to eat copies of his own speeches. For three weeks afterward, he was not seen or heard from. Then Katangan radio announced implausibly that he had escaped and been killed by villagers. It was soon clear that in fact he had been tortured and killed along with two others shortly after his arrival. In 2001, a Belgian inquiry established that he had been shot by Katangan gendarmes in the presence of Belgian officers, under Katangan command. Lumumba was beaten, placed in front of a firing squad with two allies, cut up, buried, dug up and what remained was dissolved in acid.
In Stanleyville, those loyal to the deposed Lumumba set up a rival government under Antoine Gizenga which lasted from 31 March 1961 until it was reintegrated on 5 August 1961. After some reverses, UN and Congolese government forces succeeded in recapturing the breakaway provinces of South Kasai on 30 December 1961, and Katanga on 15 January 1963.
Beginning in 1964, in the east of the country, Soviet and Cuban backed rebels called the Simbas rose up, taking a significant amount of territory and proclaiming a communist "People's Republic of the Congo" in Stanleyville. As the Congolese government was reclaiming territory from the Simbas, the rebels resorted to taking the local white population hostage. Belgian and American forces pushed the Simbas out of Stanleyville in November 1964 during a hostage rescue operation. Congolese government forces, supported by European mercenaries, fully defeated the Simba rebels by November 1965. The Simba rebels executed 20,000 Congolese and 392 Western hostages, including 268 Belgians, during the rebellion. Tens of thousands of people were killed in total during the suppression of the Simbas.
Unrest and rebellion plagued the government until November 1965, when Lieutenant General Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, by then commander in chief of the national army, seized control of the country and declared himself president for the next five years. Mobutu quickly consolidated his power, despite the Stanleyville mutinies of 1966 and 1967, and was elected unopposed as president in a sham election in 1970 for a seven-year term.
Embarking on a campaign of cultural awareness, President Mobutu renamed the country the "Republic of Zaire" in 1971 and required citizens to adopt African names and drop their French-language ones. The name comes from Portuguese, adapted from the Kongo word nzere or nzadi ("river that swallows all rivers"). Among other changes, Leopoldville became Kinshasa and Katanga Shaba.
Relative peace and stability prevailed until 1977 and 1978 when Katangan Front for Congolese National Liberation rebels, based in the Angolan People's Republic, launched the Shaba I and II invasions into the southeast Shaba region. These rebels were driven out with the aid of French and Belgian paratroopers plus Moroccan troops. An Inter-African Force remained in the region for some time afterwards.
Zaire remained a one-party state in the 1980s. Although Mobutu successfully maintained control during this period, opposition parties, most notably the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS), were active. Mobutu's attempts to quell these groups drew significant international criticism.
As the Cold War came to a close, internal and external pressures on Mobutu increased. In late 1989 and early 1990, Mobutu was weakened by a series of domestic protests, by heightened international criticism of his regime's human rights practices, by a faltering economy, and by government corruption, most notably his own massive embezzlement of government funds for personal use.
In April 1990, Mobutu declared the Third Republic, agreeing to a limited multi-party system with free elections and a constitution. As details of the reforms were delayed, soldiers in September 1991 began looting Kinshasa to protest their unpaid wages. Two thousand French and Belgian troops, some of whom were flown in on U.S. Air Force planes, arrived to evacuate the 20,000 endangered foreign nationals in Kinshasa.
In 1992, after previous similar attempts, the long-promised Sovereign National Conference was staged, encompassing over 2,000 representatives from various political parties. The conference gave itself a legislative mandate and elected Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya as its chairman, along with Étienne Tshisekedi, leader of the UDPS, as prime minister. By the end of the year Mobutu had created a rival government with its own prime minister. The ensuing stalemate produced a compromise merger of the two governments into the High Council of Republic-Parliament of Transition (HCR-PT) in 1994, with Mobutu as head of state and Kengo Wa Dondo as prime minister. Although presidential and legislative elections were scheduled repeatedly over the next two years, they never took place.
By 1996, tensions from the war and genocide in neighboring Rwanda had spilled over into Zaire. Rwandan Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe) who had fled Rwanda following the ascension of a Tutsi-led government had been using Hutu refugee camps in eastern Zaire as bases for incursions into Rwanda. In October 1996 Rwandan forces attacked refugee camps in the Ruzizi Plain near the intersection of the Congolese, Rwandan and Burundi borders meet, scattering refugees. They took Uvira, then Bukavu, Goma and Mugunga.
Hutu militia forces soon allied with the Zairian armed forces (FAZ) to launch a campaign against Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire. In turn, these Tutsis formed a militia to defend themselves against attacks. When the Zairian government began to escalate the massacres in November 1996, Tutsi militias erupted in rebellion against Mobutu.
The Tutsi militia was soon joined by various opposition groups and supported by several countries, including Rwanda and Uganda. This coalition, led by Laurent-Desire Kabila, became known as the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre (AFDL). The AFDL, now seeking the broader goal of ousting Mobutu, made significant military gains in early 1997. Various Zairean politicians who had unsuccessfully opposed the dictatorship of Mobutu for many years now saw an opportunity for them in the invasion of Zaire by two of the region's strongest military forces. Following failed peace talks between Mobutu and Kabila in May 1997, Mobutu left the country on 16 May. The AFDL entered Kinshasa unopposed a day later, and Kabila named himself president, reverting the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He marched into Kinshasa on 20 May and consolidated power around himself and the AFDL.
In September 1997, Mobutu died in exile in Morocco.
Kabila demonstrated little ability to manage the problems of his country, and lost his allies. To counterbalance the power and influence of Rwanda in DRC, Ugandan troops created another rebel movement called the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), led by the Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba. They attacked in August 1998, backed by Rwandan and Ugandan troops. Soon afterwards, Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe became involved militarily in the Congo, with Angola and Zimbabwe supporting the government. While the six African governments involved in the war signed a ceasefire accord in Lusaka in July 1999, the Congolese rebels did not and the ceasefire broke down within months.
Kabila was assassinated in 2001 by a bodyguard called Rashidi Kasereka, 18, who was then shot dead, according to Justice Minister Mwenze Kongolo. Another account of the assassination says that the real killer escaped.
Kabila was succeeded by his son, Joseph. Upon taking office, Kabila called for multilateral peace talks to end the war. Kabila partly succeeded when a further peace deal was brokered between him, Uganda, and Rwanda leading to the apparent withdrawal of foreign troops.
Currently, the Ugandans and the MLC still hold a 200-mile (320 km) wide section of the north of the country; Rwandan forces and its front, the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) control a large section of the east; and government forces or their allies hold the west and south of the country. There were reports that the conflict is being prolonged as a cover for extensive looting of the substantial natural resources in the country, including diamonds, copper, zinc, and coltan. The conflict was reignited in January 2002 by ethnic clashes in the northeast and both Uganda and Rwanda then halted their withdrawal and sent in more troops. Talks between Kabila and the rebel leaders, held in Sun City, lasted a full six weeks, beginning in April 2002. In June, they signed a peace accord under which Kabila would share power with former rebels. By June 2003, all foreign armies except those of Rwanda had pulled out of Congo.
Few people in the Congo have been unaffected by the conflict. A survey conducted in 2009 by the ICRC and Ipsos shows that three-quarters (76%) of the people interviewed have been affected in some way–either personally or due to the wider consequences of armed conflict.
The response of the international community has been incommensurate with the scale of the disaster resulting from the war in the Congo. Its support for political and diplomatic efforts to end the war has been relatively consistent, but it has taken no effective steps to abide by repeated pledges to demand accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were routinely committed in Congo. The United Nations Security Council and the U.N. Secretary-General have frequently denounced human rights abuses and the humanitarian disaster that the war unleashed on the local population, but have shown little will to tackle the responsibility of occupying powers for the atrocities taking place in areas under their control, areas where the worst violence in the country took place. In particular Rwanda and Uganda have escaped any significant sanction for their role.
DR Congo had a transitional government in July 2003 until the election was over. A constitution was approved by voters and on 30 July 2006 the Congo held its first multi-party elections since independence in 1960. Joseph Kabila took 45% of the votes and his opponent Jean-Pierre Bemba 20%. That was the origin of a fight between the two parties from 20 to 22 August 2006 in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. Sixteen people died before policemen and MONUC took control of the city. A new election was held on 29 October 2006, which Kabila won with 70% of the vote. Bemba has decried election "irregularities". On 6 December 2006 Joseph Kabila was sworn in as president.
In December 2011, Joseph Kabila was re-elected for a second term as president. After the results were announced on 9 December, there was violent unrest in Kinshasa and Mbuji-Mayi, where official tallies showed that a strong majority had voted for the opposition candidate Étienne Tshisekedi. Official observers from the Carter Center reported that returns from almost 2,000 polling stations in areas where support for Tshisekedi was strong had been lost and not included in the official results. They described the election as lacking credibility. On 20 December, Kabila was sworn in for a second term, promising to invest in infrastructure and public services. However, Tshisekedi maintained that the result of the election was illegitimate and said that he intended also to "swear himself in" as president.
On 19 January 2015 protests led by students at the University of Kinshasa broke out. The protests began following the announcement of a proposed law that would allow Kabila to remain in power until a national census can be conducted (elections had been planned for 2016). By Wednesday 21 January clashes between police and protesters had claimed at least 42 lives (although the government claimed only 15 people had been killed).
Similarly, in September 2016, violent protests were met with brutal force by the police and Republican Guard soldiers. Opposition groups claim 80 dead, including the Students' Union leader. From Monday 19 September Kinshasa residents, as well as residents elsewhere in Congo, were mostly confined to their homes. Police arrested anyone remotely connected to the opposition as well as innocent onlookers. Government propaganda, on television, and actions of covert government groups in the streets, acted against opposition as well as foreigners. The president's mandate was due to end on 19 December 2016, but no plans were made to elect a replacement at that time and this caused further protests.
On 30 December 2018 the presidential election to determine the successor to Kabila was held. On 10 January 2019, the electoral commission announced opposition candidate Félix Tshisekedi as the winner of the vote. He was officially sworn in as president on 24 January 2019. in the ceremony of taking of the office Félix Tshisekedi appointed Vital Kamerhe as his chief of staff. In June 2020, chief of staff Vital Kamerhe was found guilty of embezzling public funds and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, Kamerhe was released in December 2021.
The political allies of former president Joseph Kabila, who stepped down in January 2019, maintained control of key ministries, the legislature, judiciary and security services. However, President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded to strengthen his hold on power. In a series of moves, he won over more legislators, gaining the support of almost 400 out of 500 members of the National Assembly. The pro-Kabila speakers of both houses of parliament were forced out. In April 2021, the new government was formed without the supporters of Kabila. President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded to oust the last remaining elements of his government who were loyal to former leader Joseph Kabila. In January 2021, DRC's President Félix Tshisekedi pardoned all those convicted in the murder of Laurent-Désiré Kabila in 2001. Colonel Eddy Kapend and his co-defendants, who have been incarcerated for 15 years, were released.
The inability of the state and the world's largest United Nations peacekeeping force to provide security throughout the vast country has led to the emergence of up to 120 armed groups by 2018, perhaps the largest number in the world. Armed groups are often accused of being proxies or being supported by regional governments interested in Eastern Congo's vast mineral wealth. Some argue that much of the lack of security by the national army is strategic on the part of the government, who let the army profit from illegal logging and mining operations in return for loyalty. Different rebel groups often target civilians by ethnicity and militias often become oriented around ethnic local militias known as "Mai-Mai".
Laurent Nkunda with other soldiers from RCD-Goma who were integrated into the army defected and called themselves the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP). Starting in 2004, CNDP, believed to be backed by Rwanda as a way to tackle the Hutu group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), rebelled against the government, claiming to protect the Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsis). In 2009, after a deal between the DRC and Rwanda, Rwandan troops entered the DRC and arrested Nkunda and were allowed to pursue FDLR militants. The CNDP signed a peace treaty with the government where its soldiers would be integrated into the national army.
In April 2012, the leader of the CNDP, Bosco Ntaganda and troops loyal to him mutinied, claiming a violation of the peace treaty and formed a rebel group, the March 23 Movement (M23), which was believed to be backed by Rwanda. On 20 November 2012, M23 took control of Goma, a provincial capital with a population of one million people. The UN authorized the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), which was the first UN peacekeeping force with a mandate to neutralize opposition rather than a defensive mandate, and the FIB quickly defeated M23. The FIB was then to fight the FDLR but were hampered by the efforts of the Congolese government, who some believe tolerate the FDLR as a counterweight to Rwandan interests. Since 2017, fighters from M23, most of whom had fled into Uganda and Rwanda (both were believed to have supported them), started crossing back into DRC with the rising crisis over Kabila's extension of his term limit. DRC claimed of clashes with M23.
After rising insecurity, President Tshisekedi declared a "state of siege" or state of emergency in North Kivu, as well as Ituri province, in the first such declaration since the country's independence. The military and police took over positions from civilian authorities and some saw it as a powerplay since the civilian officials were part of the opposition to the President. A similar declaration was avoided for South Kivu, in a move believed to avoid antagonizing armed groups with ties to regional powers such as Rwanda.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) has been waging an insurgency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is blamed for the Beni massacre in 2016. While the Congolese army maintains that the ADF is an Islamist insurgency, most observers feel that they are only a criminal group interested in gold mining and logging. In March 2021, the United States claimed that the ADF was linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as part of the Islamic State's Central Africa Province. By 2021, the ADF was considered the deadliest of the many armed groups in the east of the country.
Ethnic conflict in Kivu has often involved the Congolese Tutsis known as Banyamulenge, a cattle herding group of Rwandan origin derided as outsiders, and other ethnic groups who consider themselves indigenous. Additionally, neighboring Burundi and Rwanda, who have a thorny relationship, are accused of being involved, with Rwanda accused of training Burundi rebels who have joined with Mai Mai against the Banyamulenge and the Banyamulenge is accused of harboring the RNC, a Rwandan opposition group supported by Burundi. In June 2017, the group, mostly based in South Kivu, called the National People's Coalition for the Sovereignty of Congo (CNPSC) led by William Yakutumba was formed and became the strongest rebel group in the east, even briefly capturing a few strategic towns. The rebel group is one of three alliances of various Mai-Mai militias and has been referred to as the Alliance of Article 64, a reference to Article 64 of the constitution, which says the people have an obligation to fight the efforts of those who seek to take power by force, in reference to President Kabila. Bembe warlord Yakutumba's Mai-Mai Yakutumba is the largest component of the CNPSC and has had friction with the Congolese Tutsis who often make up commanders in army units. In May 2019, Banyamulenge fighters killed a Banyindu traditional chief, Kawaza Nyakwana. Later in 2019, a coalition of militias from the Bembe, Bafuliru and Banyindu are estimated to have burnt more than 100, mostly Banyamulenge, villages and stole tens of thousands of cattle from the largely cattle-herding Banyamulenge. About 200,000 people fled their homes.
Clashes between Hutu militias and militias of other ethnic groups has also been prominent. In 2012, the Congolese army in its attempt to crush the Rwandan backed and Tutsi-dominated CNDP and M23 rebels, empowered and used Hutu groups such as the FDLR and a Hutu dominated Maï Maï Nyatura as proxies in its fight. The Nyatura and FDLR even arbitrarily executed up to 264 mostly Tembo civilians in 2012. In 2015, the army then launched an offensive against the FDLR militia. The FDLR and Nyatura were accused of killing Nande people and of burning their houses. The Nande-dominate UPDI militia, a Nande militia called Mai-Mai Mazembe and a militia dominated by Nyanga people, the "Nduma Defense of Congo" (NDC), also called Maï-Maï Sheka and led by Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga, are accused of attacking Hutus. In North Kivu, in 2017, an alliance of Mai-Mai groups called the National Movement of Revolutionaries (MNR) began attacks in June 2017 includes Nande Mai-Mai leaders from groups such as Corps du Christ and Mai-Mai Mazembe. Another alliance of Mai-Mai groups is CMC which brings together Hutu militia Nyatura and are active along the border between North Kivu and South Kivu. In September 2019, the army declared it had killed Sylvestre Mudacumura, head of the FDLR, and in November that year the army declared it had killed Juvenal Musabimana, who had led a splinter group of the FDLR.
In Northern Katanga Province starting in 2013, the Pygmy Batwa people, whom the Luba people often exploit and allegedly enslave, rose up into militias, such as the "Perci" militia, and attacked Luba villages. A Luba militia known as "Elements" or "Elema" attacked back, notably killing at least 30 people in the "Vumilia 1" displaced people camp in April 2015. Since the start of the conflict, hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes. The weapons used in the conflict are often arrows and axes, rather than guns.
Elema also began fighting the government mainly with machetes, bows and arrows in Congo's Haut Katanga and Tanganyika provinces. The government forces fought alongside a tribe known as the Abatembo and targeting civilians of the Luba and the Tabwa tribes who were believed to be sympathetic to the Elema.
In the Kasaï-Central province, starting in 2016, the largely Luba Kamwina Nsapu militia led by Kamwina Nsapu attacked state institutions. The leader was killed by authorities in August 2016 and the militia reportedly took revenge by attacking civilians. By June 2017, more than 3,300 people had been killed and 20 villages have been completely destroyed, half of them by government troops. The militia has expanded to the neighboring Kasai-Oriental area, Kasaï and Lomami.
The UN discovered dozens of mass graves. There was an ethnic nature to the conflict with the rebels being mostly Luba and Lulua and have selectively killed non-Luba people while the government allied militia, the Bana Mura, constituting people from the Chokwe, Pende, and Tetela, have committed ethnically motivated attacks against the Luba and Lulua.
The Ituri conflict in the Ituri region of the north-eastern DRC involved fighting between the agriculturalist Lendu and pastoralist Hema ethnic groups, who together made up around 40% of Ituri's population, with other groups including the Ndo-Okebo and the Nyali. During Belgian rule, the Hema were given privileged positions over the Lendu while long time leader Mobutu Sese Seko also favored the Hema. While "Ituri conflict" often refers to the major fighting from 1999 to 2003, fighting has existed before and continues since that time. During the Second Congolese Civil War, Ituri was considered the most violent region. An agricultural and religious group from the Lendu people known as the "Cooperative for the Development of Congo" or CODECO allegedly reemerged as a militia in 2017 and began attacking the Hema as well as the Alur people to control the resources in the region, with the Ndo-Okebo and the Nyali also involved in the violence. After disagreements over negotiating with the government and the killing of CODECO's leader, Ngudjolo Duduko Justin, in March 2020, the group splintered and violence spread into new areas. In late 2020, CODECO briefly held the capital of the province, Bunia, but retreated. In June 2019, attacks by CODECO led to 240 people being killed and more than 300,000 people fleeing.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), mostly active in North and South Kivu has also been involved in Ituri province. President Tshisekedi declared a "state of siege" or state of emergency in the province in May 2021 to tackle ADF. However, ADF killed 57 civilians in one attack in the same month in one of its deadliest single attacks. 30 people were massacred in September 2021 by the ADF. The President is accused of promoting former rebel leaders and generals accused of war crimes to be in charge of the province.
In October 2009 a conflict started in Dongo, Sud-Ubangi District where clashes had broken out over access to fishing ponds.
Nearly 900 people were killed between 16 and 17 December 2018 around Yumbi, a few weeks before the Presidential election, when mostly those of the Batende tribe massacred mostly those of the Banunu tribe. About 16,000 fled to neighboring Republic of the Congo. It was alleged that it was a carefully planned massacre, involving elements of the national military. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Kingdom of Kongo controlled much of western and central Africa including what is now the western portion of the DR Congo between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. At its peak it had many as 500,000 people, and its capital was known as Mbanza-Kongo (south of Matadi, in modern-day Angola). In the late 15th century, Portuguese sailors arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo, and this led to a period of great prosperity and consolidation, with the king's power being founded on Portuguese trade. King Afonso I (1506–1543) had raids carried out on neighboring districts in response to Portuguese requests for slaves. After his death, the kingdom underwent a deep crisis.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The Atlantic slave trade occurred from approximately 1500 to 1850, with the entire west coast of Africa targeted, but the region around the mouth of the Congo suffered the most intensive enslavement. Over a strip of coastline about 400 kilometres (250 mi) long, about 4 million people were enslaved and sent across the Atlantic to sugar plantations in Brazil, the US and the Caribbean. From 1780 onwards, there was a higher demand for slaves in the US which led to more people being enslaved. By 1780, more than 15,000 people were shipped annually from the Loango Coast, north of the Congo.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In 1870, explorer Henry Morton Stanley arrived in and explored what is now the DR Congo. Belgian colonization of DR Congo began in 1885 when King Leopold II founded and ruled the Congo Free State. However, de facto control of such a huge area took decades to achieve. Many outposts were built to extend the power of the state over such a vast territory. In 1885, the Force Publique was set up, a colonial army with white officers and black soldiers. In 1886, Leopold made Camille Jansen the first Belgian governor-general of Congo. Over the late 19th century, various Christian (including Catholic and Protestant) missionaries arrived intending to convert the local population. A railway between Matadi and Stanley Pool was built in the 1890s. Reports of widespread murder, torture, and other abuses in the rubber plantations led to international and Belgian outrage and the Belgian government transferred control of the region from Leopold II and established the Belgian Congo in 1908.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Following unrest, Belgium granted Congo independence in 1960. However, the Congo remained unstable, leading to the Congo Crisis, where the regional governments of Katanga and South Kasai attempted to gain independence with Belgian support. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba tried to suppress secession with the aid of the Soviet Union as part of the Cold War, causing the United States to support a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Lumumba was handed over to the Katangan government and executed in 1961. The secessionist movements were later defeated by the Congolese government as were the Soviet-backed Simba rebels. Following the end of the Congo Crisis in 1965, Joseph Kasa-Vubu was deposed and Mobutu seized complete power of the country and then renamed it Zaire. He sought to Africanize the country, changing his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, and demanded that African citizens change their Western names to traditional African names. Mobutu sought to repress any opposition to his rule, which he successfully did throughout the 1980s. However, with his regime weakened in the 1990s, Mobutu was forced to agree to a power-sharing government with the opposition party. Mobutu remained the head of state and promised elections within the next two years that never took place.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "During the First Congo War, Rwanda invaded Zaire, in which Mobutu lost his power during this process. In 1997, Laurent-Désiré Kabila took power and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Afterwards, the Second Congo War broke out, resulting in a regional war in which many different African nations took part and in which millions of people were killed or displaced. Laurent-Désiré Kabila was assassinated by his own bodyguard in 2001, and his son, Joseph, succeeded him and was later elected president by the Congolese government in 2006. Joseph Kabila quickly sought peace. Foreign soldiers remained in the Congo for a few years and a power-sharing government between Joseph Kabila and the opposition party was set up. Joseph Kabila later resumed complete control over the Congo and was re-elected in a disputed election in 2011. In 2018, Félix Tshisekedi was elected president; in the first peaceful transfer of power since independence.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was populated as early as 90,000 years ago, as shown by the 1988 discovery of the Semliki harpoon at Katanda, one of the oldest barbed harpoons ever found, which is believed to have been used to catch giant river catfish.",
"title": "Early history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The Kingdom of Kongo existed from the 14th to the early 19th century. Until the arrival of the Portuguese it was the dominant force in the region along with the Kingdom of Luba, the Kingdom of Lunda, the Mongo people and the Anziku Kingdom.",
"title": "Early history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The Congo Free State was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II of Belgium through the Association Internationale africaine, a non-governmental organization. Leopold was the sole shareholder and chairman. The state included the entire area of the present the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Under Leopold II, the Congo Free State became one of the most infamous international scandals of the turn of the twentieth century. The report of the British Consul Roger Casement led to the arrest and punishment of white officials who had been responsible for cold-blooded killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1900, including a Belgian national who caused the shooting of at least 122 Congolese natives. Estimates of the total death toll vary considerably. The first census was only done in 1924, so it is even more difficult to quantify the population loss of the period. Roger Casement's famous 1904 report estimated ten million people. According to Casement's report, indiscriminate \"war\", starvation, reduction of births and Tropical diseases caused the country's depopulation. European and U.S. press agencies exposed the conditions in the Congo Free State to the public in 1900. By 1908 public and diplomatic pressure had led Leopold II to annex the Congo as the Belgian Congo colony.",
"title": "Colonial rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "On 15 November 1908 King Leopold II of Belgium formally relinquished personal control of the Congo Free State. The renamed Belgian Congo was put under the direct administration of the Belgian government and its Ministry of Colonies.",
"title": "Colonial rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Belgian rule in the Congo was based around the \"colonial trinity\" (trinité colonial) of state, missionary and private company interests. The privileging of Belgian commercial interests meant that large amounts of capital flowed into the Congo and that individual regions became specialized. The interests of the government and private enterprise became closely tied; the state helped companies break strikes and remove other barriers imposed by the indigenous population. The country was split into nesting, hierarchically organized administrative subdivisions, and run uniformly according to a set \"native policy\" (politique indigène)—in contrast to the British and the French, who generally favored the system of indirect rule whereby traditional leaders were retained in positions of authority under colonial oversight. There was also a high degree of racial segregation. Large numbers of white immigrants who moved to the Congo after the end of World War II came from across the social spectrum, but were nonetheless always treated as superior to blacks.",
"title": "Colonial rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "During the 1940s and 1950s, the Congo experienced an unprecedented level of urbanization and the colonial administration began various development programs aimed at making the territory into a \"model colony\". Notable advances were made in treating diseases such as African trypanosomiasis. One of the results of these measures was the development of a new middle class of Europeanised African évolués in the cities. By the 1950s the Congo had a wage labor force twice as large as that in any other African colony. The Congo's rich natural resources, including uranium—much of the uranium used by the U.S. nuclear programme during World War II was Congolese—led to substantial interest in the region from both the Soviet Union and the United States as the Cold War developed.",
"title": "Colonial rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "During the latter stages of World War II a new social stratum emerged in the Congo, known as the évolués. Forming an African middle class in the colony, they held skilled positions (such as clerks and nurses) made available by the economic boom. While there were no universal criteria for determining évolué status, it was generally accepted that one would have \"a good knowledge of French, adhere to Christianity, and have some form of post-primary education.\" Early on in their history, évolués sought to use their unique status to earn special privileges in the Congo. Since opportunities for upward mobility through the colonial structure were limited, the évolué class institutionally manifested itself in elite clubs through which they could enjoy trivial privileges that made them feel distinct from the Congolese \"masses\". Additional groups, such as labor unions, alumni associations, and ethnic syndicates, provided other Congolese the means of organization. Among the most important of these was the Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO), representing the Kongo people of the Lower Congo. However, they were restricted in their actions by the administration. While white settlers were consulted in the appointment of certain officials, the Congolese had no means of expressing their beliefs through the governing structures. Though native chiefs held legal authority in some jurisdictions, in practice they were used by the administration to further its own policies.",
"title": "Colonial rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Up into the 1950s, most évolués were concerned only with social inequalities and their treatment by the Belgians. Questions of self-government were not considered until 1954 when ABAKO requested that the administration consider a list of suggested candidates for a Léopoldville municipal post. That year the association was taken over by Joseph Kasa-Vubu, and under his leadership, it became increasingly hostile to the colonial authority and sought autonomy for the Kongo regions in the Lower Congo. In 1956 a group of Congolese intellectuals under the tutelage of several European academics issued a manifesto calling for a transition to independence over the course of 30 years. The ABAKO quickly responded with a demand for \"immediate independence\". The Belgian government was not prepared to grant the Congo independence and even when it started realizing the necessity of a plan for decolonization in 1957, it was assumed that such a process would be solidly controlled by Belgium. In December 1957 the colonial administration instituted reforms that permitted municipal elections and the formation of political parties. Some Belgian parties attempted to establish branches in the colony, but these were largely ignored by the population in favour of Congolese-initiated groups. Nationalism fermented in 1958 as more évolués began interacting with others outside of their own locales and started discussing the future structures of a post-colonial Congolese state. Nevertheless, most political mobilisation occurred along tribal and regional divisions. In Katanga, various tribal groups came together to form the Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) under the leadership of Godefroid Munongo and Moïse Tshombe. Hostile to immigrant peoples, it advocated provincial autonomy and close ties with Belgium. Most of its support was rooted in individual chiefs, businessmen, and European settlers of southern Katanga. It was opposed by Jason Sendwe's Association Générale des Baluba du Katanga (BALUBAKAT).",
"title": "Colonial rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In October 1958 a group of Léopoldville évolués including Patrice Lumumba, Cyrille Adoula and Joseph Iléo established the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC). Diverse in membership, the party sought to peacefully achieve Congolese independence, promote the political education of the populace, and eliminate regionalism. The MNC drew most of its membership from the residents of the eastern city of Stanleyville, where Lumumba was well known, and from the population of the Kasai Province, where efforts were directed by a Muluba businessman, Albert Kalonji. Belgian officials appreciated its moderate and anti-separatist stance and allowed Lumumba to attend the All-African Peoples' Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958 (Kasa-Vubu was informed that the documents necessary for his travel to the event were not in order and was not permitted to go). Lumumba was deeply impressed by the Pan-Africanist ideals of Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah and returned to the Congo with a more radical party programme. He reported on his trip during a widely attended rally in Léopoldville and demanded the country's \"genuine\" independence.",
"title": "Colonial rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Fearing that they were being overshadowed by Lumumba and the MNC, Kasa-Vubu and the ABAKO leadership announced that they would be hosting their own rally in the capital on 4 January 1959. The municipal government (under Belgian domination) was given short notice, and communicated that only a \"private meeting\" would be authorised. On the scheduled day of the rally the ABAKO leadership told the crowd that had gathered that the event was postponed and that they should disperse. The mass was infuriated and instead began hurling stones at the police and pillaging European property, initiating three days of violent and destructive riots. The Force Publique, the colonial army, was called into service and suppressed the revolt with considerable brutality. In wake of the riots Kasa-Vubu and his lieutenants were arrested. Unlike earlier expressions of discontent, the grievances were conveyed primarily by uneducated urban residents, not évolués. Popular opinion in Belgium was one of extreme shock and surprise. An investigative commission found the riots to be the culmination of racial discrimination, overcrowding, unemployment, and wishes for more political self-determination. On 13 January the administration announced several reforms, and the Belgian King, Baudouin, declared that independence would be granted to the Congo in the future.",
"title": "Colonial rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Meanwhile, discontent surfaced among the MNC leadership, who were bothered by Lumumba's domination over the party's politics. Relations between Lumumba and Kalonji also grew tense, as the former was upset with how the latter was transforming the Kasai branch into an exclusively Luba group and antagonising other tribes. This culminated into the split of the party into the MNC-Lumumba/MNC-L under Lumumba and the MNC-Kalonji/MNC-K under Kalonji and Iléo. The latter began advocating federalism. Adoula left the organisation. Alone to lead his own faction and facing competition from ABAKO, Lumumba became increasingly insistent in his demands for independence. Following an October riot in Stanleyville he was arrested. Nevertheless, the influence of himself and the MNC-L continued to grow rapidly. The party advocated for a strong unitary state, nationalism, and the termination of Belgian rule and began forming alliances with regional groups, such as the Kivu-based Centre du Regroupement Africain (CEREA). Though the Belgians supported a unitary system over the federal models suggested by ABAKO and CONAKAT, they and more moderate Congolese were unnerved by Lumumba's increasingly extremist attitudes. With the implicit support of the colonial administration, the moderates formed the Parti National du Progrès (PNP) under the leadership of Paul Bolya and Albert Delvaux. It advocated centralisation, respect for traditional elements, and close ties with Belgium. In southern Léopoldville Province, a socialist-federalist party, the Parti Solidaire Africain (PSA) was founded. Antoine Gizenga served as its president, and Cléophas Kamitatu was in charge of the Léopoldville Province chapter.",
"title": "Colonial rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Following the riots in Leopoldville (4–7 January 1959) and in Stanleyville (31 October 1959), the Belgians realised they could not maintain control of such a vast country in the face of rising demands for independence. Belgian and Congolese political leaders held a Round Table Conference in Brussels beginning on 18 January 1960.",
"title": "Independence and the Congo Crisis (1960–65)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "At the end of the conference, on 27 January 1960, it was announced that elections would be held in the Congo on 22 May 1960, and full independence granted on 30 June 1960. The elections produced the nationalist Patrice Lumumba as prime minister, and Joseph Kasavubu as president. On independence the country adopted the name \"Republic of the Congo\" (République du Congo). The French colony of Middle Congo (Moyen Congo) also chose the name Republic of the Congo upon its independence, so the two countries were more commonly known as Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Brazzaville, after their capital cities.",
"title": "Independence and the Congo Crisis (1960–65)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In 1960, the country was very unstable—regional tribal leaders held far more power than the central government—and with the departure of the Belgian administrators, almost no skilled bureaucrats remained in the country. The first Congolese graduated from university only in 1956, and very few in the new nation had any idea how to manage a country of such size.",
"title": "Independence and the Congo Crisis (1960–65)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "On 5 July 1960, a military mutiny by Congolese soldiers against their European officers broke out in the capital and rampant looting began. On 11 July 1960 the richest province of the country, Katanga, seceded under Moise Tshombe. The United Nations sent 20,000 peacekeepers to protect Europeans in the country and try to restore order. Western paramilitaries and mercenaries, often hired by mining companies to protect their interests, also began to pour into the country. In this period Congo's second richest province, Kasai, also announced its independence on 8 August 1960.",
"title": "Independence and the Congo Crisis (1960–65)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "After trying to get help from the United States and the United Nations, Prime Minister Lumumba turned to the USSR for assistance. Nikita Khrushchev agreed to help, offering advanced weaponry and technical advisors. The United States viewed the Soviet presence as an attempt to take advantage of the situation and gain a proxy state in sub-Saharan Africa. UN forces were ordered to block any shipments of arms into the country. The United States also looked for a way to replace Lumumba as leader. President Kasavubu had clashed with Prime Minister Lumumba and advocated an alliance with the West rather than the Soviets. The U.S. sent weapons and CIA personnel to aid forces allied with Kasavubu and combat the Soviet presence.",
"title": "Independence and the Congo Crisis (1960–65)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "On 23 August, the Congolese armed forces invaded South Kasai and perpetrated massacres against the Luba people. Lumumba was dismissed from office on 5 September 1960 by Kasavubu who publicly blamed him for the massacres in South Kasai and for involving Soviets in the country. On 14 September 1960, with CIA support, Colonel Joseph Mobutu overthrew the government and arrested Lumumba. A technocratic government, the College of Commissioners-General, was established.",
"title": "Independence and the Congo Crisis (1960–65)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "On 17 January 1961 Mobutu sent Lumumba to Élisabethville (now Lubumbashi), capital of Katanga. In full view of the press he was beaten and forced to eat copies of his own speeches. For three weeks afterward, he was not seen or heard from. Then Katangan radio announced implausibly that he had escaped and been killed by villagers. It was soon clear that in fact he had been tortured and killed along with two others shortly after his arrival. In 2001, a Belgian inquiry established that he had been shot by Katangan gendarmes in the presence of Belgian officers, under Katangan command. Lumumba was beaten, placed in front of a firing squad with two allies, cut up, buried, dug up and what remained was dissolved in acid.",
"title": "Independence and the Congo Crisis (1960–65)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In Stanleyville, those loyal to the deposed Lumumba set up a rival government under Antoine Gizenga which lasted from 31 March 1961 until it was reintegrated on 5 August 1961. After some reverses, UN and Congolese government forces succeeded in recapturing the breakaway provinces of South Kasai on 30 December 1961, and Katanga on 15 January 1963.",
"title": "Independence and the Congo Crisis (1960–65)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Beginning in 1964, in the east of the country, Soviet and Cuban backed rebels called the Simbas rose up, taking a significant amount of territory and proclaiming a communist \"People's Republic of the Congo\" in Stanleyville. As the Congolese government was reclaiming territory from the Simbas, the rebels resorted to taking the local white population hostage. Belgian and American forces pushed the Simbas out of Stanleyville in November 1964 during a hostage rescue operation. Congolese government forces, supported by European mercenaries, fully defeated the Simba rebels by November 1965. The Simba rebels executed 20,000 Congolese and 392 Western hostages, including 268 Belgians, during the rebellion. Tens of thousands of people were killed in total during the suppression of the Simbas.",
"title": "Independence and the Congo Crisis (1960–65)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Unrest and rebellion plagued the government until November 1965, when Lieutenant General Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, by then commander in chief of the national army, seized control of the country and declared himself president for the next five years. Mobutu quickly consolidated his power, despite the Stanleyville mutinies of 1966 and 1967, and was elected unopposed as president in a sham election in 1970 for a seven-year term.",
"title": "Zaire (1965–1997)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Embarking on a campaign of cultural awareness, President Mobutu renamed the country the \"Republic of Zaire\" in 1971 and required citizens to adopt African names and drop their French-language ones. The name comes from Portuguese, adapted from the Kongo word nzere or nzadi (\"river that swallows all rivers\"). Among other changes, Leopoldville became Kinshasa and Katanga Shaba.",
"title": "Zaire (1965–1997)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Relative peace and stability prevailed until 1977 and 1978 when Katangan Front for Congolese National Liberation rebels, based in the Angolan People's Republic, launched the Shaba I and II invasions into the southeast Shaba region. These rebels were driven out with the aid of French and Belgian paratroopers plus Moroccan troops. An Inter-African Force remained in the region for some time afterwards.",
"title": "Zaire (1965–1997)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Zaire remained a one-party state in the 1980s. Although Mobutu successfully maintained control during this period, opposition parties, most notably the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS), were active. Mobutu's attempts to quell these groups drew significant international criticism.",
"title": "Zaire (1965–1997)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "As the Cold War came to a close, internal and external pressures on Mobutu increased. In late 1989 and early 1990, Mobutu was weakened by a series of domestic protests, by heightened international criticism of his regime's human rights practices, by a faltering economy, and by government corruption, most notably his own massive embezzlement of government funds for personal use.",
"title": "Zaire (1965–1997)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In April 1990, Mobutu declared the Third Republic, agreeing to a limited multi-party system with free elections and a constitution. As details of the reforms were delayed, soldiers in September 1991 began looting Kinshasa to protest their unpaid wages. Two thousand French and Belgian troops, some of whom were flown in on U.S. Air Force planes, arrived to evacuate the 20,000 endangered foreign nationals in Kinshasa.",
"title": "Zaire (1965–1997)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In 1992, after previous similar attempts, the long-promised Sovereign National Conference was staged, encompassing over 2,000 representatives from various political parties. The conference gave itself a legislative mandate and elected Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya as its chairman, along with Étienne Tshisekedi, leader of the UDPS, as prime minister. By the end of the year Mobutu had created a rival government with its own prime minister. The ensuing stalemate produced a compromise merger of the two governments into the High Council of Republic-Parliament of Transition (HCR-PT) in 1994, with Mobutu as head of state and Kengo Wa Dondo as prime minister. Although presidential and legislative elections were scheduled repeatedly over the next two years, they never took place.",
"title": "Zaire (1965–1997)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "By 1996, tensions from the war and genocide in neighboring Rwanda had spilled over into Zaire. Rwandan Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe) who had fled Rwanda following the ascension of a Tutsi-led government had been using Hutu refugee camps in eastern Zaire as bases for incursions into Rwanda. In October 1996 Rwandan forces attacked refugee camps in the Ruzizi Plain near the intersection of the Congolese, Rwandan and Burundi borders meet, scattering refugees. They took Uvira, then Bukavu, Goma and Mugunga.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Hutu militia forces soon allied with the Zairian armed forces (FAZ) to launch a campaign against Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire. In turn, these Tutsis formed a militia to defend themselves against attacks. When the Zairian government began to escalate the massacres in November 1996, Tutsi militias erupted in rebellion against Mobutu.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The Tutsi militia was soon joined by various opposition groups and supported by several countries, including Rwanda and Uganda. This coalition, led by Laurent-Desire Kabila, became known as the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre (AFDL). The AFDL, now seeking the broader goal of ousting Mobutu, made significant military gains in early 1997. Various Zairean politicians who had unsuccessfully opposed the dictatorship of Mobutu for many years now saw an opportunity for them in the invasion of Zaire by two of the region's strongest military forces. Following failed peace talks between Mobutu and Kabila in May 1997, Mobutu left the country on 16 May. The AFDL entered Kinshasa unopposed a day later, and Kabila named himself president, reverting the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He marched into Kinshasa on 20 May and consolidated power around himself and the AFDL.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In September 1997, Mobutu died in exile in Morocco.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Kabila demonstrated little ability to manage the problems of his country, and lost his allies. To counterbalance the power and influence of Rwanda in DRC, Ugandan troops created another rebel movement called the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), led by the Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba. They attacked in August 1998, backed by Rwandan and Ugandan troops. Soon afterwards, Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe became involved militarily in the Congo, with Angola and Zimbabwe supporting the government. While the six African governments involved in the war signed a ceasefire accord in Lusaka in July 1999, the Congolese rebels did not and the ceasefire broke down within months.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Kabila was assassinated in 2001 by a bodyguard called Rashidi Kasereka, 18, who was then shot dead, according to Justice Minister Mwenze Kongolo. Another account of the assassination says that the real killer escaped.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Kabila was succeeded by his son, Joseph. Upon taking office, Kabila called for multilateral peace talks to end the war. Kabila partly succeeded when a further peace deal was brokered between him, Uganda, and Rwanda leading to the apparent withdrawal of foreign troops.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Currently, the Ugandans and the MLC still hold a 200-mile (320 km) wide section of the north of the country; Rwandan forces and its front, the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) control a large section of the east; and government forces or their allies hold the west and south of the country. There were reports that the conflict is being prolonged as a cover for extensive looting of the substantial natural resources in the country, including diamonds, copper, zinc, and coltan. The conflict was reignited in January 2002 by ethnic clashes in the northeast and both Uganda and Rwanda then halted their withdrawal and sent in more troops. Talks between Kabila and the rebel leaders, held in Sun City, lasted a full six weeks, beginning in April 2002. In June, they signed a peace accord under which Kabila would share power with former rebels. By June 2003, all foreign armies except those of Rwanda had pulled out of Congo.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Few people in the Congo have been unaffected by the conflict. A survey conducted in 2009 by the ICRC and Ipsos shows that three-quarters (76%) of the people interviewed have been affected in some way–either personally or due to the wider consequences of armed conflict.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The response of the international community has been incommensurate with the scale of the disaster resulting from the war in the Congo. Its support for political and diplomatic efforts to end the war has been relatively consistent, but it has taken no effective steps to abide by repeated pledges to demand accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were routinely committed in Congo. The United Nations Security Council and the U.N. Secretary-General have frequently denounced human rights abuses and the humanitarian disaster that the war unleashed on the local population, but have shown little will to tackle the responsibility of occupying powers for the atrocities taking place in areas under their control, areas where the worst violence in the country took place. In particular Rwanda and Uganda have escaped any significant sanction for their role.",
"title": "Civil wars (1996–2003)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "DR Congo had a transitional government in July 2003 until the election was over. A constitution was approved by voters and on 30 July 2006 the Congo held its first multi-party elections since independence in 1960. Joseph Kabila took 45% of the votes and his opponent Jean-Pierre Bemba 20%. That was the origin of a fight between the two parties from 20 to 22 August 2006 in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. Sixteen people died before policemen and MONUC took control of the city. A new election was held on 29 October 2006, which Kabila won with 70% of the vote. Bemba has decried election \"irregularities\". On 6 December 2006 Joseph Kabila was sworn in as president.",
"title": "Joseph Kabila period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In December 2011, Joseph Kabila was re-elected for a second term as president. After the results were announced on 9 December, there was violent unrest in Kinshasa and Mbuji-Mayi, where official tallies showed that a strong majority had voted for the opposition candidate Étienne Tshisekedi. Official observers from the Carter Center reported that returns from almost 2,000 polling stations in areas where support for Tshisekedi was strong had been lost and not included in the official results. They described the election as lacking credibility. On 20 December, Kabila was sworn in for a second term, promising to invest in infrastructure and public services. However, Tshisekedi maintained that the result of the election was illegitimate and said that he intended also to \"swear himself in\" as president.",
"title": "Joseph Kabila period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "On 19 January 2015 protests led by students at the University of Kinshasa broke out. The protests began following the announcement of a proposed law that would allow Kabila to remain in power until a national census can be conducted (elections had been planned for 2016). By Wednesday 21 January clashes between police and protesters had claimed at least 42 lives (although the government claimed only 15 people had been killed).",
"title": "Joseph Kabila period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Similarly, in September 2016, violent protests were met with brutal force by the police and Republican Guard soldiers. Opposition groups claim 80 dead, including the Students' Union leader. From Monday 19 September Kinshasa residents, as well as residents elsewhere in Congo, were mostly confined to their homes. Police arrested anyone remotely connected to the opposition as well as innocent onlookers. Government propaganda, on television, and actions of covert government groups in the streets, acted against opposition as well as foreigners. The president's mandate was due to end on 19 December 2016, but no plans were made to elect a replacement at that time and this caused further protests.",
"title": "Joseph Kabila period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "On 30 December 2018 the presidential election to determine the successor to Kabila was held. On 10 January 2019, the electoral commission announced opposition candidate Félix Tshisekedi as the winner of the vote. He was officially sworn in as president on 24 January 2019. in the ceremony of taking of the office Félix Tshisekedi appointed Vital Kamerhe as his chief of staff. In June 2020, chief of staff Vital Kamerhe was found guilty of embezzling public funds and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, Kamerhe was released in December 2021.",
"title": "Félix Tshisekedi presidency (2019–present)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The political allies of former president Joseph Kabila, who stepped down in January 2019, maintained control of key ministries, the legislature, judiciary and security services. However, President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded to strengthen his hold on power. In a series of moves, he won over more legislators, gaining the support of almost 400 out of 500 members of the National Assembly. The pro-Kabila speakers of both houses of parliament were forced out. In April 2021, the new government was formed without the supporters of Kabila. President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded to oust the last remaining elements of his government who were loyal to former leader Joseph Kabila. In January 2021, DRC's President Félix Tshisekedi pardoned all those convicted in the murder of Laurent-Désiré Kabila in 2001. Colonel Eddy Kapend and his co-defendants, who have been incarcerated for 15 years, were released.",
"title": "Félix Tshisekedi presidency (2019–present)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The inability of the state and the world's largest United Nations peacekeeping force to provide security throughout the vast country has led to the emergence of up to 120 armed groups by 2018, perhaps the largest number in the world. Armed groups are often accused of being proxies or being supported by regional governments interested in Eastern Congo's vast mineral wealth. Some argue that much of the lack of security by the national army is strategic on the part of the government, who let the army profit from illegal logging and mining operations in return for loyalty. Different rebel groups often target civilians by ethnicity and militias often become oriented around ethnic local militias known as \"Mai-Mai\".",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Laurent Nkunda with other soldiers from RCD-Goma who were integrated into the army defected and called themselves the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP). Starting in 2004, CNDP, believed to be backed by Rwanda as a way to tackle the Hutu group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), rebelled against the government, claiming to protect the Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsis). In 2009, after a deal between the DRC and Rwanda, Rwandan troops entered the DRC and arrested Nkunda and were allowed to pursue FDLR militants. The CNDP signed a peace treaty with the government where its soldiers would be integrated into the national army.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "In April 2012, the leader of the CNDP, Bosco Ntaganda and troops loyal to him mutinied, claiming a violation of the peace treaty and formed a rebel group, the March 23 Movement (M23), which was believed to be backed by Rwanda. On 20 November 2012, M23 took control of Goma, a provincial capital with a population of one million people. The UN authorized the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), which was the first UN peacekeeping force with a mandate to neutralize opposition rather than a defensive mandate, and the FIB quickly defeated M23. The FIB was then to fight the FDLR but were hampered by the efforts of the Congolese government, who some believe tolerate the FDLR as a counterweight to Rwandan interests. Since 2017, fighters from M23, most of whom had fled into Uganda and Rwanda (both were believed to have supported them), started crossing back into DRC with the rising crisis over Kabila's extension of his term limit. DRC claimed of clashes with M23.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "After rising insecurity, President Tshisekedi declared a \"state of siege\" or state of emergency in North Kivu, as well as Ituri province, in the first such declaration since the country's independence. The military and police took over positions from civilian authorities and some saw it as a powerplay since the civilian officials were part of the opposition to the President. A similar declaration was avoided for South Kivu, in a move believed to avoid antagonizing armed groups with ties to regional powers such as Rwanda.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) has been waging an insurgency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is blamed for the Beni massacre in 2016. While the Congolese army maintains that the ADF is an Islamist insurgency, most observers feel that they are only a criminal group interested in gold mining and logging. In March 2021, the United States claimed that the ADF was linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as part of the Islamic State's Central Africa Province. By 2021, the ADF was considered the deadliest of the many armed groups in the east of the country.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Ethnic conflict in Kivu has often involved the Congolese Tutsis known as Banyamulenge, a cattle herding group of Rwandan origin derided as outsiders, and other ethnic groups who consider themselves indigenous. Additionally, neighboring Burundi and Rwanda, who have a thorny relationship, are accused of being involved, with Rwanda accused of training Burundi rebels who have joined with Mai Mai against the Banyamulenge and the Banyamulenge is accused of harboring the RNC, a Rwandan opposition group supported by Burundi. In June 2017, the group, mostly based in South Kivu, called the National People's Coalition for the Sovereignty of Congo (CNPSC) led by William Yakutumba was formed and became the strongest rebel group in the east, even briefly capturing a few strategic towns. The rebel group is one of three alliances of various Mai-Mai militias and has been referred to as the Alliance of Article 64, a reference to Article 64 of the constitution, which says the people have an obligation to fight the efforts of those who seek to take power by force, in reference to President Kabila. Bembe warlord Yakutumba's Mai-Mai Yakutumba is the largest component of the CNPSC and has had friction with the Congolese Tutsis who often make up commanders in army units. In May 2019, Banyamulenge fighters killed a Banyindu traditional chief, Kawaza Nyakwana. Later in 2019, a coalition of militias from the Bembe, Bafuliru and Banyindu are estimated to have burnt more than 100, mostly Banyamulenge, villages and stole tens of thousands of cattle from the largely cattle-herding Banyamulenge. About 200,000 people fled their homes.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Clashes between Hutu militias and militias of other ethnic groups has also been prominent. In 2012, the Congolese army in its attempt to crush the Rwandan backed and Tutsi-dominated CNDP and M23 rebels, empowered and used Hutu groups such as the FDLR and a Hutu dominated Maï Maï Nyatura as proxies in its fight. The Nyatura and FDLR even arbitrarily executed up to 264 mostly Tembo civilians in 2012. In 2015, the army then launched an offensive against the FDLR militia. The FDLR and Nyatura were accused of killing Nande people and of burning their houses. The Nande-dominate UPDI militia, a Nande militia called Mai-Mai Mazembe and a militia dominated by Nyanga people, the \"Nduma Defense of Congo\" (NDC), also called Maï-Maï Sheka and led by Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga, are accused of attacking Hutus. In North Kivu, in 2017, an alliance of Mai-Mai groups called the National Movement of Revolutionaries (MNR) began attacks in June 2017 includes Nande Mai-Mai leaders from groups such as Corps du Christ and Mai-Mai Mazembe. Another alliance of Mai-Mai groups is CMC which brings together Hutu militia Nyatura and are active along the border between North Kivu and South Kivu. In September 2019, the army declared it had killed Sylvestre Mudacumura, head of the FDLR, and in November that year the army declared it had killed Juvenal Musabimana, who had led a splinter group of the FDLR.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "In Northern Katanga Province starting in 2013, the Pygmy Batwa people, whom the Luba people often exploit and allegedly enslave, rose up into militias, such as the \"Perci\" militia, and attacked Luba villages. A Luba militia known as \"Elements\" or \"Elema\" attacked back, notably killing at least 30 people in the \"Vumilia 1\" displaced people camp in April 2015. Since the start of the conflict, hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes. The weapons used in the conflict are often arrows and axes, rather than guns.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Elema also began fighting the government mainly with machetes, bows and arrows in Congo's Haut Katanga and Tanganyika provinces. The government forces fought alongside a tribe known as the Abatembo and targeting civilians of the Luba and the Tabwa tribes who were believed to be sympathetic to the Elema.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "In the Kasaï-Central province, starting in 2016, the largely Luba Kamwina Nsapu militia led by Kamwina Nsapu attacked state institutions. The leader was killed by authorities in August 2016 and the militia reportedly took revenge by attacking civilians. By June 2017, more than 3,300 people had been killed and 20 villages have been completely destroyed, half of them by government troops. The militia has expanded to the neighboring Kasai-Oriental area, Kasaï and Lomami.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "The UN discovered dozens of mass graves. There was an ethnic nature to the conflict with the rebels being mostly Luba and Lulua and have selectively killed non-Luba people while the government allied militia, the Bana Mura, constituting people from the Chokwe, Pende, and Tetela, have committed ethnically motivated attacks against the Luba and Lulua.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "The Ituri conflict in the Ituri region of the north-eastern DRC involved fighting between the agriculturalist Lendu and pastoralist Hema ethnic groups, who together made up around 40% of Ituri's population, with other groups including the Ndo-Okebo and the Nyali. During Belgian rule, the Hema were given privileged positions over the Lendu while long time leader Mobutu Sese Seko also favored the Hema. While \"Ituri conflict\" often refers to the major fighting from 1999 to 2003, fighting has existed before and continues since that time. During the Second Congolese Civil War, Ituri was considered the most violent region. An agricultural and religious group from the Lendu people known as the \"Cooperative for the Development of Congo\" or CODECO allegedly reemerged as a militia in 2017 and began attacking the Hema as well as the Alur people to control the resources in the region, with the Ndo-Okebo and the Nyali also involved in the violence. After disagreements over negotiating with the government and the killing of CODECO's leader, Ngudjolo Duduko Justin, in March 2020, the group splintered and violence spread into new areas. In late 2020, CODECO briefly held the capital of the province, Bunia, but retreated. In June 2019, attacks by CODECO led to 240 people being killed and more than 300,000 people fleeing.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), mostly active in North and South Kivu has also been involved in Ituri province. President Tshisekedi declared a \"state of siege\" or state of emergency in the province in May 2021 to tackle ADF. However, ADF killed 57 civilians in one attack in the same month in one of its deadliest single attacks. 30 people were massacred in September 2021 by the ADF. The President is accused of promoting former rebel leaders and generals accused of war crimes to be in charge of the province.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "In October 2009 a conflict started in Dongo, Sud-Ubangi District where clashes had broken out over access to fishing ponds.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Nearly 900 people were killed between 16 and 17 December 2018 around Yumbi, a few weeks before the Presidential election, when mostly those of the Batende tribe massacred mostly those of the Banunu tribe. About 16,000 fled to neighboring Republic of the Congo. It was alleged that it was a carefully planned massacre, involving elements of the national military.",
"title": "Continued conflicts"
}
] | The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards. The Kingdom of Kongo controlled much of western and central Africa including what is now the western portion of the DR Congo between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. At its peak it had many as 500,000 people, and its capital was known as Mbanza-Kongo. In the late 15th century, Portuguese sailors arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo, and this led to a period of great prosperity and consolidation, with the king's power being founded on Portuguese trade. King Afonso I (1506–1543) had raids carried out on neighboring districts in response to Portuguese requests for slaves. After his death, the kingdom underwent a deep crisis. The Atlantic slave trade occurred from approximately 1500 to 1850, with the entire west coast of Africa targeted, but the region around the mouth of the Congo suffered the most intensive enslavement. Over a strip of coastline about 400 kilometres (250 mi) long, about 4 million people were enslaved and sent across the Atlantic to sugar plantations in Brazil, the US and the Caribbean. From 1780 onwards, there was a higher demand for slaves in the US which led to more people being enslaved. By 1780, more than 15,000 people were shipped annually from the Loango Coast, north of the Congo. In 1870, explorer Henry Morton Stanley arrived in and explored what is now the DR Congo. Belgian colonization of DR Congo began in 1885 when King Leopold II founded and ruled the Congo Free State. However, de facto control of such a huge area took decades to achieve. Many outposts were built to extend the power of the state over such a vast territory. In 1885, the Force Publique was set up, a colonial army with white officers and black soldiers. In 1886, Leopold made Camille Jansen the first Belgian governor-general of Congo. Over the late 19th century, various Christian missionaries arrived intending to convert the local population. A railway between Matadi and Stanley Pool was built in the 1890s. Reports of widespread murder, torture, and other abuses in the rubber plantations led to international and Belgian outrage and the Belgian government transferred control of the region from Leopold II and established the Belgian Congo in 1908. Following unrest, Belgium granted Congo independence in 1960. However, the Congo remained unstable, leading to the Congo Crisis, where the regional governments of Katanga and South Kasai attempted to gain independence with Belgian support. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba tried to suppress secession with the aid of the Soviet Union as part of the Cold War, causing the United States to support a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Lumumba was handed over to the Katangan government and executed in 1961. The secessionist movements were later defeated by the Congolese government as were the Soviet-backed Simba rebels. Following the end of the Congo Crisis in 1965, Joseph Kasa-Vubu was deposed and Mobutu seized complete power of the country and then renamed it Zaire. He sought to Africanize the country, changing his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, and demanded that African citizens change their Western names to traditional African names. Mobutu sought to repress any opposition to his rule, which he successfully did throughout the 1980s. However, with his regime weakened in the 1990s, Mobutu was forced to agree to a power-sharing government with the opposition party. Mobutu remained the head of state and promised elections within the next two years that never took place. During the First Congo War, Rwanda invaded Zaire, in which Mobutu lost his power during this process. In 1997, Laurent-Désiré Kabila took power and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Afterwards, the Second Congo War broke out, resulting in a regional war in which many different African nations took part and in which millions of people were killed or displaced. Laurent-Désiré Kabila was assassinated by his own bodyguard in 2001, and his son, Joseph, succeeded him and was later elected president by the Congolese government in 2006. Joseph Kabila quickly sought peace. Foreign soldiers remained in the Congo for a few years and a power-sharing government between Joseph Kabila and the opposition party was set up. Joseph Kabila later resumed complete control over the Congo and was re-elected in a disputed election in 2011. In 2018, Félix Tshisekedi was elected president; in the first peaceful transfer of power since independence. | 2001-07-24T13:06:26Z | 2023-11-16T02:30:27Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo |
8,023 | Geography of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the largest country of sub-Saharan Africa, occupying some 2,344,858 square kilometres (905,355 sq mi). Most of the country lies within the vast hollow of the Congo River basin. The vast, low-lying central area is a plateau-shaped basin sloping toward the west, covered by tropical rainforest and criss-crossed by rivers. The forest center is surrounded by mountainous terraces in the west, plateaus merging into savannas in the south and southwest. Dense grasslands extend beyond the Congo River in the north. High mountains of the Ruwenzori Range (some above 5,000 m or 16,000 ft) are found on the eastern borders with Rwanda and Uganda (see Albertine Rift montane forests for a description of this area).
Several major geographic regions may be defined in terms of terrain and patterns of natural vegetation, namely the central Congo Basin, the uplands north and south of the basin, and the eastern highlands.
The country's core region is the central Congo Basin. Having an average elevation of about 44 metres (144 ft), it measures roughly 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 sq mi), constituting about a third of the DRC's territory. Much of the forest within the basin is swamp, and still more of it consists of a mixture of marshes and firm land.
North and south of the basin lie higher plains and, occasionally, hills covered with varying mixtures of savanna grasses and woodlands. The southern uplands region, like the basin, constitutes about a third of the DRC's territory. The area slopes from south to north, starting at about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) near the Angolan border and falling to about 500 metres (1,600 ft) near the basin. Vegetation cover in the southern uplands territory is more varied than that of the northern uplands. In some areas, woodland is dominant; in others, savanna grasses predominate. South of the basin, along the streams flowing into the Kasai River are extensive gallery forests. In the far southeast, most of the former Katanga Province is characterized by somewhat higher plateaus and low mountains. The westernmost section of the DRC, a partly forested panhandle reaching the Atlantic Ocean, is an extension of the southern uplands that drops sharply to a very narrow shore about 40 kilometres (25 mi) long.
In the much narrower northern uplands, the cover is largely savanna, and woodlands are rarer. The average elevation of this region is about 600 metres (2,000 ft), but it rises as high as 900 metres (3,000 ft) where it meets the western edge of the eastern highlands.
The eastern highlands region is the highest and most rugged portion of the country. It extends for more than 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) from above Lake Albert to the country's southern tip and varies in width from 80 to 560 kilometres (50 to 348 mi). Its hills and mountains range in altitude from about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) to more than 5,000 metres (16,000 ft). The western arm of the Great Rift Valley forms a natural eastern boundary to this region. The eastern border of the DRC extends through the valley and its system of lakes, which are separated from each other by plains situated between high mountain ranges.
In this region, changes in elevation bring marked changes in vegetation, which ranges from montane savanna to heavy montane forest. The Rwenzori Mountains between lakes Albert and Edward constitutes the highest range in Africa. The height and location of these mountains on the equator make for a varied and spectacular flora.
The Congo River and its tributaries drain this basin and provide the country with the most extensive network of navigable waterways in Africa. Ten kilometres (6 miles) wide at the mid-point of its length, the river carries a volume of water that is second only to the Amazon's. Its flow is unusually regular because it is fed by rivers and streams from both sides of the equator; the complementary alternation of rainy and dry seasons on each side of the equator guarantees a regular supply of water for the main channel. At points where navigation is blocked by rapids and waterfalls, the sudden descent of the river creates a hydroelectric potential greater than that found in any other river system on earth.
Most of the DRC is served by the Congo River system, a fact that has facilitated both trade and outside penetration. Its network of waterways is dense and evenly distributed through the country, with three exceptions: northeastern Mayombe in Kongo Central in the west, which is drained by a small coastal river called the Shilango; a strip of land on the eastern border adjoining lakes Edward and Albert, which is part of the Nile River basin; and a small part of the extreme southeastern DRC, which lies in the Zambezi River basin and drains into the Indian Ocean.
Most of the DRC's lakes are also part of the Congo River basin. In the west are Lac Mai-Ndombe and Lac Tumba, which are remnants of a huge interior lake that once occupied the entire basin prior to the breach of the basin's edge by the Congo River and the subsequent drainage of the interior. In the southeast, Lake Mweru straddles the border with Zambia. On the eastern frontier, Lac Kivu, Central Africa's highest lake and a key tourist center, and Lake Tanganyika, just south of Lac Kivu, both feed into the Lualaba River, the name often given to the upper extension of the Congo River. Only the waters of the eastern frontier's northernmost great lakes, Edward and Albert, drain north, into the Nile Basin.
Climate ranges from tropical rain forest in the Congo River basin to tropical wet-and-dry in the southern uplands to tropical highland in eastern areas above 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) in elevation. In general, temperatures and humidity are quite high. The highest and least variable temperatures are to be found in the equatorial forest, where daytime highs range between 30 and 35 °C (86 and 95 °F), and nighttime lows rarely go below 20 °C (68 °F). The average annual temperature is about 25 °C (77 °F). In the southern uplands, particularly in the far southeast Katanga region, winters are cool and dry, whereas summers are warm and damp. The area embracing the chain of lakes from Lake Albert to Lake Tanganyika in the eastern highlands has a moist climate and a narrow but not excessively warm temperature range. The mountain sections are cooler, but humidity increases with altitude until the saturation point is reached; a nearly constant falling mist prevails on some slopes, particularly in the Rwenzori Mountains.
The seasonal pattern of rainfall is affected by the DRC's straddling of the equator. In the third of the country that lies north of the equator, the dry season (roughly early November to late March) corresponds to the rainy season in the southern two-thirds. There is a great deal of variation, however, and a number of places on either side of the equator have two wet and two dry seasons. Rainfall averages range from about 1,000 to 2,000 millimetres (39 to 79 in). Annual rainfall is highest in the heart of the Congo River basin and in the highlands west of Bukavu and with some variation tends to diminish in direct relation to distance from these areas. The only areas marked by long four-month to five-month dry seasons and occasional droughts are parts of the Southeast.
Area:
total: 2,344,858 km land: 2,267,048 km water: 77,810 km
Area - comparative: The 11th-largest country in the world (and 2nd in Africa); it is smaller than Algeria but larger than Greenland and Saudi Arabia. It is about a quarter the size of the United States as a whole.
Land boundaries: total: 10,481 km border countries: "Angola 2,646 km, Burundi 236 km, Central African Republic 1,747 km, Republic of the Congo 1,229 km, Rwanda 221 km, South Sudan 714 km, Tanzania 479 km, Uganda 877 km, Zambia 2,332 km"
Coastline: 37 km (23 mi).
Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nmi (22 km) exclusive economic zone: boundaries with neighbors
Climate: tropical; hot and humid in equatorial river basin; cooler and drier in southern highlands; cooler-cold and wetter in eastern highlands and the Ruwenzori Range; north of Equator - wet season April to October, dry season December to February; south of Equator - wet season November to March, dry season April to October
Terrain: vast central plateau covered by tropical rainforest, surrounded by mountains in the west, plains and savanna in the south/southwest, and grasslands in the north. The high mountains of the Ruwenzori Range on the eastern borders.
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m highest point: Pic Marguerite on Mont Ngaliema (Mount Stanley) 5,110 m
Natural resources: cobalt, copper, niobium, petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, coal, hydropower, timber
Land use: arable land: 3.09% permanent crops: 0.36% 96.55 (2012 est.)
Irrigated land: 105 km (2003)
Total renewable water resources: 1,283 km (2011)
total: 0.68 km/yr (68%/21%/11%)
per capita: 11.25 m/yr (2005)
Natural hazards:
periodic droughts in south; Congo River floods (seasonal); in the east, in the Albertine Rift, there are active volcanoes
Poaching threatens wildlife populations (for example, the painted hunting dog, Lycaon pictus, is now considered extirpated from the Congo due to human overpopulation and poaching); water pollution; deforestation (chiefly due to land conversion to agriculture by indigenous farmers); refugees responsible for significant deforestation, soil erosion, and wildlife poaching; mining of minerals (coltan — a mineral used in creating capacitors, diamonds, and gold) causing environmental damage
party to: Biodiversity, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification
Geography:
D.R. Congo is one of six African states that straddles the equator; it's the largest African state that has the equator passing through it. Very narrow strip of land that controls the lower Congo River and is the only outlet to South Atlantic Ocean; dense tropical rainforest in the central river basin and eastern highlands.
This is a list of the extreme points of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.
This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the largest country of sub-Saharan Africa, occupying some 2,344,858 square kilometres (905,355 sq mi). Most of the country lies within the vast hollow of the Congo River basin. The vast, low-lying central area is a plateau-shaped basin sloping toward the west, covered by tropical rainforest and criss-crossed by rivers. The forest center is surrounded by mountainous terraces in the west, plateaus merging into savannas in the south and southwest. Dense grasslands extend beyond the Congo River in the north. High mountains of the Ruwenzori Range (some above 5,000 m or 16,000 ft) are found on the eastern borders with Rwanda and Uganda (see Albertine Rift montane forests for a description of this area).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Several major geographic regions may be defined in terms of terrain and patterns of natural vegetation, namely the central Congo Basin, the uplands north and south of the basin, and the eastern highlands.",
"title": "Geographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The country's core region is the central Congo Basin. Having an average elevation of about 44 metres (144 ft), it measures roughly 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 sq mi), constituting about a third of the DRC's territory. Much of the forest within the basin is swamp, and still more of it consists of a mixture of marshes and firm land.",
"title": "Geographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "North and south of the basin lie higher plains and, occasionally, hills covered with varying mixtures of savanna grasses and woodlands. The southern uplands region, like the basin, constitutes about a third of the DRC's territory. The area slopes from south to north, starting at about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) near the Angolan border and falling to about 500 metres (1,600 ft) near the basin. Vegetation cover in the southern uplands territory is more varied than that of the northern uplands. In some areas, woodland is dominant; in others, savanna grasses predominate. South of the basin, along the streams flowing into the Kasai River are extensive gallery forests. In the far southeast, most of the former Katanga Province is characterized by somewhat higher plateaus and low mountains. The westernmost section of the DRC, a partly forested panhandle reaching the Atlantic Ocean, is an extension of the southern uplands that drops sharply to a very narrow shore about 40 kilometres (25 mi) long.",
"title": "Geographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In the much narrower northern uplands, the cover is largely savanna, and woodlands are rarer. The average elevation of this region is about 600 metres (2,000 ft), but it rises as high as 900 metres (3,000 ft) where it meets the western edge of the eastern highlands.",
"title": "Geographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The eastern highlands region is the highest and most rugged portion of the country. It extends for more than 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) from above Lake Albert to the country's southern tip and varies in width from 80 to 560 kilometres (50 to 348 mi). Its hills and mountains range in altitude from about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) to more than 5,000 metres (16,000 ft). The western arm of the Great Rift Valley forms a natural eastern boundary to this region. The eastern border of the DRC extends through the valley and its system of lakes, which are separated from each other by plains situated between high mountain ranges.",
"title": "Geographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In this region, changes in elevation bring marked changes in vegetation, which ranges from montane savanna to heavy montane forest. The Rwenzori Mountains between lakes Albert and Edward constitutes the highest range in Africa. The height and location of these mountains on the equator make for a varied and spectacular flora.",
"title": "Geographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The Congo River and its tributaries drain this basin and provide the country with the most extensive network of navigable waterways in Africa. Ten kilometres (6 miles) wide at the mid-point of its length, the river carries a volume of water that is second only to the Amazon's. Its flow is unusually regular because it is fed by rivers and streams from both sides of the equator; the complementary alternation of rainy and dry seasons on each side of the equator guarantees a regular supply of water for the main channel. At points where navigation is blocked by rapids and waterfalls, the sudden descent of the river creates a hydroelectric potential greater than that found in any other river system on earth.",
"title": "Rivers and lakes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Most of the DRC is served by the Congo River system, a fact that has facilitated both trade and outside penetration. Its network of waterways is dense and evenly distributed through the country, with three exceptions: northeastern Mayombe in Kongo Central in the west, which is drained by a small coastal river called the Shilango; a strip of land on the eastern border adjoining lakes Edward and Albert, which is part of the Nile River basin; and a small part of the extreme southeastern DRC, which lies in the Zambezi River basin and drains into the Indian Ocean.",
"title": "Rivers and lakes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Most of the DRC's lakes are also part of the Congo River basin. In the west are Lac Mai-Ndombe and Lac Tumba, which are remnants of a huge interior lake that once occupied the entire basin prior to the breach of the basin's edge by the Congo River and the subsequent drainage of the interior. In the southeast, Lake Mweru straddles the border with Zambia. On the eastern frontier, Lac Kivu, Central Africa's highest lake and a key tourist center, and Lake Tanganyika, just south of Lac Kivu, both feed into the Lualaba River, the name often given to the upper extension of the Congo River. Only the waters of the eastern frontier's northernmost great lakes, Edward and Albert, drain north, into the Nile Basin.",
"title": "Rivers and lakes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Climate ranges from tropical rain forest in the Congo River basin to tropical wet-and-dry in the southern uplands to tropical highland in eastern areas above 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) in elevation. In general, temperatures and humidity are quite high. The highest and least variable temperatures are to be found in the equatorial forest, where daytime highs range between 30 and 35 °C (86 and 95 °F), and nighttime lows rarely go below 20 °C (68 °F). The average annual temperature is about 25 °C (77 °F). In the southern uplands, particularly in the far southeast Katanga region, winters are cool and dry, whereas summers are warm and damp. The area embracing the chain of lakes from Lake Albert to Lake Tanganyika in the eastern highlands has a moist climate and a narrow but not excessively warm temperature range. The mountain sections are cooler, but humidity increases with altitude until the saturation point is reached; a nearly constant falling mist prevails on some slopes, particularly in the Rwenzori Mountains.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The seasonal pattern of rainfall is affected by the DRC's straddling of the equator. In the third of the country that lies north of the equator, the dry season (roughly early November to late March) corresponds to the rainy season in the southern two-thirds. There is a great deal of variation, however, and a number of places on either side of the equator have two wet and two dry seasons. Rainfall averages range from about 1,000 to 2,000 millimetres (39 to 79 in). Annual rainfall is highest in the heart of the Congo River basin and in the highlands west of Bukavu and with some variation tends to diminish in direct relation to distance from these areas. The only areas marked by long four-month to five-month dry seasons and occasional droughts are parts of the Southeast.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Area:",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "total: 2,344,858 km land: 2,267,048 km water: 77,810 km",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Area - comparative: The 11th-largest country in the world (and 2nd in Africa); it is smaller than Algeria but larger than Greenland and Saudi Arabia. It is about a quarter the size of the United States as a whole.",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Land boundaries: total: 10,481 km border countries: \"Angola 2,646 km, Burundi 236 km, Central African Republic 1,747 km, Republic of the Congo 1,229 km, Rwanda 221 km, South Sudan 714 km, Tanzania 479 km, Uganda 877 km, Zambia 2,332 km\"",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Coastline: 37 km (23 mi).",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nmi (22 km) exclusive economic zone: boundaries with neighbors",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Climate: tropical; hot and humid in equatorial river basin; cooler and drier in southern highlands; cooler-cold and wetter in eastern highlands and the Ruwenzori Range; north of Equator - wet season April to October, dry season December to February; south of Equator - wet season November to March, dry season April to October",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Terrain: vast central plateau covered by tropical rainforest, surrounded by mountains in the west, plains and savanna in the south/southwest, and grasslands in the north. The high mountains of the Ruwenzori Range on the eastern borders.",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Elevation extremes: lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m highest point: Pic Marguerite on Mont Ngaliema (Mount Stanley) 5,110 m",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Natural resources: cobalt, copper, niobium, petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, coal, hydropower, timber",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Land use: arable land: 3.09% permanent crops: 0.36% 96.55 (2012 est.)",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Irrigated land: 105 km (2003)",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Total renewable water resources: 1,283 km (2011)",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "total: 0.68 km/yr (68%/21%/11%)",
"title": "Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "per capita: 11.25 m/yr (2005)",
"title": "Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Natural hazards:",
"title": "Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "periodic droughts in south; Congo River floods (seasonal); in the east, in the Albertine Rift, there are active volcanoes",
"title": "Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Poaching threatens wildlife populations (for example, the painted hunting dog, Lycaon pictus, is now considered extirpated from the Congo due to human overpopulation and poaching); water pollution; deforestation (chiefly due to land conversion to agriculture by indigenous farmers); refugees responsible for significant deforestation, soil erosion, and wildlife poaching; mining of minerals (coltan — a mineral used in creating capacitors, diamonds, and gold) causing environmental damage",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "party to: Biodiversity, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Geography:",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "D.R. Congo is one of six African states that straddles the equator; it's the largest African state that has the equator passing through it. Very narrow strip of land that controls the lower Congo River and is the only outlet to South Atlantic Ocean; dense tropical rainforest in the central river basin and eastern highlands.",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "This is a list of the extreme points of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.",
"title": "Extreme points"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.",
"title": "References"
}
] | The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the largest country of sub-Saharan Africa, occupying some 2,344,858 square kilometres (905,355 sq mi). Most of the country lies within the vast hollow of the Congo River basin. The vast, low-lying central area is a plateau-shaped basin sloping toward the west, covered by tropical rainforest and criss-crossed by rivers. The forest center is surrounded by mountainous terraces in the west, plateaus merging into savannas in the south and southwest. Dense grasslands extend beyond the Congo River in the north. High mountains of the Ruwenzori Range are found on the eastern borders with Rwanda and Uganda. | 2001-08-22T16:14:32Z | 2023-12-22T18:24:34Z | [
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8,024 | Demographics of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | Demographic features of the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo include ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
As many as 250 ethnic groups have been distinguished and named. The most numerous people are the Luba, Mongo, and Kongo.
Although 700 local languages and dialects are spoken, the linguistic variety is bridged both by the use of French, and the intermediary languages Kikongo ya leta, Tshiluba, Swahili, and Lingala.
The CIA World Factbook estimated the population to be over 105 million as of 2022 (the exact number being 108,407,721), now exceeding that of Vietnam (with 98,721,275 inhabitants as of 2020) and ascending the country to the rank of 14th most populous in the world. The proportion of children below the age of 14 in 2020 was 46.38%, 51.15% of the population was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 2.47% was 65 years or older.
Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2020) (Post-censal estimates.) (Provisional.):
The first and so far only census conducted in DR Congo dates from 1984.
Registration of vital events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is incomplete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR) for urban and rural areas:
The Wanted Fertility Rate is an estimate of what the fertility rate would be if all unwanted births were avoided.
Fertility data per province, as of 2014:
Over 250 ethnic groups and 450 tribes (ethnic subgroups) populate the Democratic Republic of Congo. These ethnic groups are from the Bantu, Sudanic, Nilotic, Ubangian and Pygmy linguistic groups. Because of this diversity, there is no dominant ethnic group in Congo, however the following ethnic groups account for 51.5% of the population:
- Luba-Kasaï
- Kongo
- Mongo
- Lubakat
- Lulua
- Tetela
- Nande
- Ngbandi
- Ngombe
- Yaka
- Ngbaka
See below for a more detailed list of Congolese ethnic groups.
Bantu peoples:
Central Sudanic:
Nilotic peoples :
Ubangian:
Azande, Banda, Ngbandi, Ngbaka
Pygmy peoples :
More than 600,000 pygmies (around 1% of the total population) are believed to live in DR Congo, mainly in forests, where they survive by hunting wild animals and gathering fruits.
The four major languages in the DRC are French (official), Lingala (a lingua franca, or trade language), Kingwana (a dialect of Swahili), Kikongo ya leta, and Tshiluba. In total, there are over 200 ethnic languages.
French is generally the language of instruction in schools. English is taught as a compulsory foreign language in Secondary and High Schools around the country. It is a required subject in the Faculty of Economics at major universities around the country and there are numerous language schools in the country that teach it. Former President Kabila himself is fluent in both English and French, as was his father.
A survey conducted by the Demographic and Health Surveys program in 2013–2014 indicated that Christians constituted 93.7% of the population (Catholics 29.7%, Protestants 26.8%, and other Christians 37.2%). An indigenous religion, Kimbanguism, was practiced by 2.8% of the population, while Muslims make up 1.2%.
Another estimate (by the Pew Research Center in 2010) found Christianity was followed by 95.8% of the population.
The CIA The World Factbook gives the following percentages: Roman Catholic 29.9%, Protestant 26.7%, Kimbanguist 2.8%, Other Christian 36.5%, Islam 1.3%, Other (includes Syncretic Sects and Indigenous beliefs) 2.7%.
The Joshua Project, a Christian missionary organisation, gives the following percentages: Roman Catholic 43.9%, Protestant 24.8%, Other Christian 23.7%, Muslim 1.6%, Non-religious 0.6%, Hindu 0.1% other syncretic sects and indigenous beliefs 5.3%.
These are some other demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook.
Roman Catholic 29.9%, Protestant 26.7%, other Christian 36.5%, Kimbanguist 2.8%, Muslim 1.3%, other (includes syncretic sects and indigenous beliefs) 1.2%, none 1.3%, unspecified 0.2% (2014 est.)
note: fighting between the Congolese Government and Uganda- and Rwanda-backed Congolese rebels spawned a regional war in DRC in August 1998, which left 2.33 million Congolese internally displaced and caused 412,000 Congolese refugees to flee to surrounding countries (2011 est.)
Given the situation in the country and the condition of state structures, it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable data however evidence suggests that DRC continues to be a destination country for immigrants in spite of recent declines. Immigration is seen to be very diverse in nature, with refugees and asylum-seekers - products of the numerous and violent conflicts in the Great Lakes Region - constituting an important subset of the population in the country.
Additionally, the country's large mine operations attract migrant workers from Africa and beyond and there is considerable migration for commercial activities from other African countries and the rest of the world, but these movements are not well studied. Transit migration towards South Africa and Europe also plays a role. Immigration in the DRC has decreased steadily over the past two decades, most likely as a result of the armed violence that the country has experienced.
According to the International Organization for Migration, the number of immigrants in the DRC has declined from just over 1 million in 1960, to 754,000 in 1990, to 480,000 in 2005, to an estimated 445,000 in 2010. Valid figures are not available on migrant workers in particular, partly due to the predominance of the informal economy in the DRC. Data are also lacking on irregular immigrants, however given neighbouring country ethnic links to nationals of the DRC, irregular migration is assumed to be a significant phenomenon in the country.
Figures on the number of Congolese nationals abroad vary greatly depending on the source, from 3 to 6 million. This discrepancy is due to a lack of official, reliable data. Emigrants from the DRC are above all long-term emigrants, the majority of which live within Africa and to a lesser extent in Europe; 79.7% and 15.3% respectively, according to estimates on 2000 data. Most Congolese emigrants however, remain in Africa, with new destination countries including South Africa and various points en route to Europe.
In addition to being a host country, the DRC has also produced a considerable number of refugees and asylum-seekers located in the region and beyond. These numbers peaked in 2004 when, according to UNHCR, there were more than 460,000 refugees from the DRC; in 2008, Congolese refugees numbered 367,995 in total, 68% of which were living in other African countries.
The table below shows DRC born people who have emigrated abroad in selected Western countries (although it excludes their descendants).
These are only estimates and do not account for Congolese migrants residing illegally in these and other countries. Among African countries, Congo's diaspora is second only to Nigeria in size.
Congolese ethnic groups:
Other articles
This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2023 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2007 edition) | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Demographic features of the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo include ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "As many as 250 ethnic groups have been distinguished and named. The most numerous people are the Luba, Mongo, and Kongo.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Although 700 local languages and dialects are spoken, the linguistic variety is bridged both by the use of French, and the intermediary languages Kikongo ya leta, Tshiluba, Swahili, and Lingala.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The CIA World Factbook estimated the population to be over 105 million as of 2022 (the exact number being 108,407,721), now exceeding that of Vietnam (with 98,721,275 inhabitants as of 2020) and ascending the country to the rank of 14th most populous in the world. The proportion of children below the age of 14 in 2020 was 46.38%, 51.15% of the population was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 2.47% was 65 years or older.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2020) (Post-censal estimates.) (Provisional.):",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The first and so far only census conducted in DR Congo dates from 1984.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Registration of vital events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is incomplete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR) for urban and rural areas:",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The Wanted Fertility Rate is an estimate of what the fertility rate would be if all unwanted births were avoided.",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Fertility data per province, as of 2014:",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Over 250 ethnic groups and 450 tribes (ethnic subgroups) populate the Democratic Republic of Congo. These ethnic groups are from the Bantu, Sudanic, Nilotic, Ubangian and Pygmy linguistic groups. Because of this diversity, there is no dominant ethnic group in Congo, however the following ethnic groups account for 51.5% of the population:",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "- Luba-Kasaï",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "- Kongo",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "- Mongo",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "- Lubakat",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "- Lulua",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "- Tetela",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "- Nande",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "- Ngbandi",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "- Ngombe",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "- Yaka",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "- Ngbaka",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "See below for a more detailed list of Congolese ethnic groups.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Bantu peoples:",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Central Sudanic:",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Nilotic peoples :",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Ubangian:",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Azande, Banda, Ngbandi, Ngbaka",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Pygmy peoples :",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "More than 600,000 pygmies (around 1% of the total population) are believed to live in DR Congo, mainly in forests, where they survive by hunting wild animals and gathering fruits.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The four major languages in the DRC are French (official), Lingala (a lingua franca, or trade language), Kingwana (a dialect of Swahili), Kikongo ya leta, and Tshiluba. In total, there are over 200 ethnic languages.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "French is generally the language of instruction in schools. English is taught as a compulsory foreign language in Secondary and High Schools around the country. It is a required subject in the Faculty of Economics at major universities around the country and there are numerous language schools in the country that teach it. Former President Kabila himself is fluent in both English and French, as was his father.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "A survey conducted by the Demographic and Health Surveys program in 2013–2014 indicated that Christians constituted 93.7% of the population (Catholics 29.7%, Protestants 26.8%, and other Christians 37.2%). An indigenous religion, Kimbanguism, was practiced by 2.8% of the population, while Muslims make up 1.2%.",
"title": "Religions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Another estimate (by the Pew Research Center in 2010) found Christianity was followed by 95.8% of the population.",
"title": "Religions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The CIA The World Factbook gives the following percentages: Roman Catholic 29.9%, Protestant 26.7%, Kimbanguist 2.8%, Other Christian 36.5%, Islam 1.3%, Other (includes Syncretic Sects and Indigenous beliefs) 2.7%.",
"title": "Religions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The Joshua Project, a Christian missionary organisation, gives the following percentages: Roman Catholic 43.9%, Protestant 24.8%, Other Christian 23.7%, Muslim 1.6%, Non-religious 0.6%, Hindu 0.1% other syncretic sects and indigenous beliefs 5.3%.",
"title": "Religions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "These are some other demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022.",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook.",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Roman Catholic 29.9%, Protestant 26.7%, other Christian 36.5%, Kimbanguist 2.8%, Muslim 1.3%, other (includes syncretic sects and indigenous beliefs) 1.2%, none 1.3%, unspecified 0.2% (2014 est.)",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "note: fighting between the Congolese Government and Uganda- and Rwanda-backed Congolese rebels spawned a regional war in DRC in August 1998, which left 2.33 million Congolese internally displaced and caused 412,000 Congolese refugees to flee to surrounding countries (2011 est.)",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Given the situation in the country and the condition of state structures, it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable data however evidence suggests that DRC continues to be a destination country for immigrants in spite of recent declines. Immigration is seen to be very diverse in nature, with refugees and asylum-seekers - products of the numerous and violent conflicts in the Great Lakes Region - constituting an important subset of the population in the country.",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Additionally, the country's large mine operations attract migrant workers from Africa and beyond and there is considerable migration for commercial activities from other African countries and the rest of the world, but these movements are not well studied. Transit migration towards South Africa and Europe also plays a role. Immigration in the DRC has decreased steadily over the past two decades, most likely as a result of the armed violence that the country has experienced.",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "According to the International Organization for Migration, the number of immigrants in the DRC has declined from just over 1 million in 1960, to 754,000 in 1990, to 480,000 in 2005, to an estimated 445,000 in 2010. Valid figures are not available on migrant workers in particular, partly due to the predominance of the informal economy in the DRC. Data are also lacking on irregular immigrants, however given neighbouring country ethnic links to nationals of the DRC, irregular migration is assumed to be a significant phenomenon in the country.",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Figures on the number of Congolese nationals abroad vary greatly depending on the source, from 3 to 6 million. This discrepancy is due to a lack of official, reliable data. Emigrants from the DRC are above all long-term emigrants, the majority of which live within Africa and to a lesser extent in Europe; 79.7% and 15.3% respectively, according to estimates on 2000 data. Most Congolese emigrants however, remain in Africa, with new destination countries including South Africa and various points en route to Europe.",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In addition to being a host country, the DRC has also produced a considerable number of refugees and asylum-seekers located in the region and beyond. These numbers peaked in 2004 when, according to UNHCR, there were more than 460,000 refugees from the DRC; in 2008, Congolese refugees numbered 367,995 in total, 68% of which were living in other African countries.",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The table below shows DRC born people who have emigrated abroad in selected Western countries (although it excludes their descendants).",
"title": "Congolese diaspora"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "These are only estimates and do not account for Congolese migrants residing illegally in these and other countries. Among African countries, Congo's diaspora is second only to Nigeria in size.",
"title": "Congolese diaspora"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Congolese ethnic groups:",
"title": "See also"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Other articles",
"title": "See also"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2023 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2007 edition)",
"title": "References"
}
] | Demographic features of the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo include ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. As many as 250 ethnic groups have been distinguished and named. The most numerous people are the Luba, Mongo, and Kongo. Although 700 local languages and dialects are spoken, the linguistic variety is bridged both by the use of French, and the intermediary languages Kikongo ya leta, Tshiluba, Swahili, and Lingala. | 2001-08-22T16:18:11Z | 2023-10-29T13:50:51Z | [
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8,025 | Economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | The economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has declined drastically around the 1980s, despite being home to vast potential in natural resources and mineral wealth; their gross domestic product is $69.474 billion as of 2023.
At the time of its independence in 1960, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the second most industrialized country in Africa after South Africa. It boasted a thriving mining sector and its agriculture sector was relatively productive. Since then, decades of corruption, war, and political instability have been a severe detriment to further growth, today leaving DRC with a GDP per capita and a HDI rating that rank among the world's lowest and make the DRC one of the most fragile and according to United Nations, least developed countries in the world.
Despite this the DRC is quickly modernizing; it tied with Malaysia for the largest positive change in HDI development in 2016. Government projects include strengthening the health system for maternal and child health, expansion of electricity access, water supply reconstructions, and urban and social rehabilitation programs.
The two recent conflicts (the First and Second Congo Wars), which began in 1996, have dramatically reduced national output and government revenue, have increased external debt, and have resulted in deaths of more than five million people from war, and associated famine and disease. Malnutrition affects approximately two-thirds of the country's population.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, accounting for 57.9% of GDP in 1997. In 1996, agriculture employed 66% of the work force.
Rich in minerals, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has a difficult history of predatory mineral extraction, which has been at the heart of many struggles within the country for many decades, but particularly in the 1990s. The economy of the second largest country in Africa relies heavily on mining. However, much economic activity occurs in the informal sector and is not reflected in GDP data.
In 2006 Transparency International ranked the Democratic Republic of the Congo 156 out of 163 countries in the Corruption Perception Index, tying Bangladesh, Chad, and Sudan with a 2.0 rating. President Joseph Kabila established the Commission of Repression of Economic Crimes upon his ascension to power in 2001.
The conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo were over water, minerals, and other resources. Political agendas have worsened the economy, as in times of crisis, the elite benefit while the general populace suffers. This is worsened as a result of corrupt national and international corporations. The corporations instigate and allow the fighting for resources because they benefit from it. A large proportion of fatalities in the country are attributed to a lack of basic services. The influx of refugees since the war in 1998 only serves to worsen the issue of poverty. Money of the taxpayers in the DRC is often misappropriated by the corrupt leaders of the country, who use the money to benefit themselves instead of the citizens of the DRC. The DRC is consistently rated the lowest on the UN Human Development Index.
Forced labor was important for the rural sector. The corporations that dominated the economy were mostly owned by Belgium, but British capital also played an important role. The 1950s were a period of rising income and expectations. Congo was said to have the best public health system in Africa, but there was also a huge wealth disparity. Belgian companies favored workers in certain areas more and exported them to work in different areas, restricting opportunities for others. Favored groups also received better education and were able to secure jobs for people in the same ethnic group which increased tensions. In 1960 there were only 16 university graduates out of a population of 20 million. Belgium still had economic power and independence gave little opportunity for improvement. Common refrains included "no elite, no trouble" and "before independence = after independence". When the Belgians left, most of the government officials and educated residents left with them. Before independence, there were just 3 out of 5000 government jobs held by Congolese people. The resulting loss of institutional knowledge and human capital crippled the government.
After the Congo crisis, Mobutu arose as the country's sole ruler and stabilized the country politically. Economically, however, the situation continued to decline, and by 1979, the purchasing power was only 4% of that from 1960. Starting in 1976 the IMF provided stabilizing loans to the dictatorship. Much of the money was embezzled by Mobutu and his circle. This was not a secret as the 1982 report by IMF's envoy Erwin Blumenthal documented. He stated, it is "alarmingly clear that the corruptive system in Zaire with all its wicked and ugly manifestations, its mismanagement and fraud will destroy all endeavors of international institutions, of friendly governments, and of the commercial banks towards recovery and rehabilitation of Zaire’s economy". Blumenthal indicated that there was "no chance" that creditors would ever recover their loans. Yet the IMF and the World Bank continued to lend money that was either embezzled, stolen, or "wasted on elephant projects". "Structural adjustment programmes" implemented as a condition of IMF loans cut support for health care, education, and infrastructure.
Poor infrastructure, an uncertain legal framework, corruption, and lack of openness in government economic policy and financial operations remain a brake on investment and growth. A number of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank missions have met with the new government to help it develop a coherent economic plan but associated reforms are on hold.
Faced with continued currency depreciation, the government resorted to more drastic measures and in January 1999 banned the widespread use of American dollars for all domestic commercial transactions, a position it later adjusted. The government has been unable to provide foreign exchange for economic transactions, while it has resorted to printing money to finance its expenditure. Growth was negative in 2000 because of the difficulty of meeting the conditions of international donors, continued low prices of key exports, and post-coup instability. Although depreciated, congolese francs have been stable for few years (Ndonda, 2014)
Conditions improved in late 2002 with the withdrawal of a large portion of the invading foreign troops. A number of IMF and World Bank missions have met with the government to help it develop a coherent economic plan, and President Kabila has begun implementing reforms.
DRC's economic growth decelerated from its pre-COVID level of 4.4% in 2019, to an estimated 0.8% in 2020. Growth was driven by the extractives sector which, helped by robust demand from China, expanded by 6.9% in 2020 (compared to 1% in 2019). Meanwhile, non-mining sectors contracted by 1.6% (vs. growth of 5.7% in 2019) due to pandemic-related mobility restrictions, weaker trading activities and constrained government spending. Private consumption and government investment fell in 2020 by an estimated 1.0 and 10.2%, respectively.
The DRC is embarking on the establishment of special economic zones (SEZ) to encourage the revival of its industry. The first SEZ was planned to come into being in 2012 in N'Sele, a commune of Kinshasa, and will focus on agro-industries. The Congolese authorities also planned to open another zone dedicated to mining (Katanga) and a third dedicated to cement (in the Bas-Congo). There are three phases to the program that each have their own objectives. Phase I was the precursor to the actual investment in the Special Economic Zone where policymakers agreed to the framework, the framework was studied for its establishment, and to predict the potential market demand for the land. Stage one of Phase II involved submitting laws for the Special Economic Zone, finding good sites for businesses, and currently there is an effort to help the government attract foreign investment. Stage two of Phase II hasn't been started yet and it involves assisting the government in creating framework for the country, creating an overall plan for the site, figuring out what the environmental impact of the project will be, and guessing how much it will cost and what the return can be made on the investment. Phase III involves the World Bank creating a transaction phase that will keep everything competitive. The program is looking for options to hand over the program to the World Bank which could be very beneficial for the western part of the country.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017.
Ongoing conflicts dramatically reduced government revenue and increased external debt. As Reyntjens wrote, "Entrepreneurs of insecurity are engaged in extractive activities that would be impossible in a stable state environment. The criminalization context in which these activities occur offers avenues for considerable factional and personal enrichment through the trafficking of arms, illegal drugs, toxic products, mineral resources and dirty money." Ethnic rivalries were made worse because of economic interests and looting and coltan smuggling took place. Illegal monopolies formed in the country where they used forced labor for children to mine or work as soldiers. National parks were overrun with people looking to exploit minerals and resources. Increased poverty and hunger from the war and that increased the hunting of rare wildlife. Education was denied when the country was under foreign control and very few people make money off the minerals in the country. The national resources are not the root cause for the continued fighting in the region, however, the competition has become an incentive to keep fighting.[1] The DRC's level of economic freedom is one of the lowest in the world, putting it in the repressed category. The armed militias fight with the government in the eastern section of the country over the mining sector or the corruption of the government, and weak policies lead to the instability of the economy. Human rights abuses also ruin economic activity; the DRC has a 7% unemployment rate, but still has one of the lowest GDP's per capita in the world. A major problem for people trying to start their own companies is that the minimum amount of capital needed to launch the company is five times the average annual income, and prices are regulated by the government, which almost forces people to have to work for the larger, more corrupt businesses; otherwise, they won't have work. It is hard for the DRC to encourage foreign trade because of the regulatory barriers.
Poor infrastructure, an uncertain legal framework, corruption, and lack of openness in government economic policy and financial operations remain a brake on investment and growth. A number of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank missions have met with the new government to help it develop a coherent economic plan but associated reforms are on hold.
Faced with continued currency depreciation, the government resorted to more drastic measures and in January 1999 banned the widespread use of U.S. dollars for all domestic commercial transactions, a position it later adjusted. The government has been unable to provide foreign exchange for economic transactions, while it has resorted to printing money to finance its expenditure. Growth was negative in 2000 because of the difficulty of meeting the conditions of international donors, continued low prices of key exports, and post-coup instability. 125 companies in 2003 contributed to the conflict in DRC showing the corruption.
With the help of the International Development Association the DRC has worked toward the reestablishment of social services. This is done by giving 15 million people access to basic health services and giving bed nets to prevent malaria from spreading to people. With the Emergency Demobilization and Reintegration Program more than 107,000 adults and 34,000 child soldiers stood down their militarized posture. The travel time from Lubumbashi to Kasomeno in Katanga went down from seven days to two hours because of the improved roads which led to the decrease of prices of main goods by 60%. With the help of the IFC, KfW, and the EU the DRC improved its businesses by reducing the time it took to create a business by 51%, reducing the time it took to get construction permits by 54%, and reducing the number of taxes from 118 to 30. Improvements in health have been noticeable specifically that deliveries attended by trained staff jumped from 47 to 80%. In education 14 million textbooks were provided to children, completion rates of school have increased, and higher education was made available to students that chose to pursue it.
The IMF plans on giving the DRC a $1 billion loan after its two-year suspension after it failed to give details about a mining deal from one of its state owned mines and an Israeli billionaire, Dan Gertler. The loan may be necessary for the country because there will be elections in December 2016 for the next president and the cost of funding this would range around $1.1 billion. The biggest problem with the vote is getting a country of 68 million people the size of Western Europe to polling stations with less than 1,860 miles of paved roads.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, accounting for 57.9% of the GDP in 1997. Main cash crops include coffee, palm oil, rubber, cotton, sugar, tea, and cocoa. Food crops include cassava, plantains, maize, groundnuts, and rice. In 1996, agriculture employed 66% of the work force.
The Democratic Republic of Congo produced, in 2018:
In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products, such as coffee (29 thousand tons), cocoa (3.6 thousand tons), natural rubber (14 thousand tons) and tea (3.6 thousand tons).
The Democratic Republic of Congo also possesses 50 percent of Africa's forests and a river system that could provide hydro-electric power to the entire continent, according to a United Nations report on the country's strategic significance and its potential role as an economic power in central Africa. Fish are the single most important source of animal protein in the DRC. Total production of marine, river, and lake fisheries in 2003 was estimated at 222,965 tons, all but 5,000 tons from inland waters. PEMARZA, a state agency, carries on marine fishing.
Forests cover 60 percent of the total land area. There are vast timber resources, and commercial development of the country's 61 million hectares (150 million acres) of exploitable wooded area is only beginning. The Mayumbe area of Bas-Congo was once the major center of timber exploitation, but forests in this area were nearly depleted. The more extensive forest regions of the central cuvette and of the Ubangi River valley have increasingly been tapped.
Roundwood removals were estimated at 72,170,000 m in 2003, about 95 percent for fuel. Some 14 species are presently being harvested. Exports of forest products in 2003 totalled $25.7 million. Foreign capital is necessary in order for forestry to expand, and the government recognizes that changes in tax structure and export procedures will be needed to facilitate economic growth.
Rich in minerals, the DRC has a difficult history of predatory mineral extraction, which has been at the heart of many struggles within the country for many decades, but particularly in the 1990s. Although the economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the second largest country in Africa who has historically relied heavily on mining, is no longer reflected in the GDP data as the mining industry has suffered from long-term "uncertain legal framework, corruption, and a lack of transparency in government policy." The informal sector .
In her book entitled The Real Economy of Zaire, MacGaffey described a second, often illegal economy, "system D", which is outside the official economy (MacGaffey 1991:27). and therefore is not reflected in the GDP.
The economy of the second largest country in Africa relies heavily on mining. The Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt ore, and a major producer of copper and industrial diamonds. The Congo has 70% of the world's coltan, and more than 30% of the world's diamond reserves., mostly in the form of small, industrial diamonds. The coltan is a major source of tantalum, which is used in the fabrication of electronic components in computers and mobile phones. In 2002, tin was discovered in the east of the country, but, to date, mining has been done on a small scale. Manono in Central DRC has a significant deposit of lithium and tin with tantalum and niobium and is being developed by an Australian company. Production is expected in 2023.
Smuggling of the conflict minerals, coltan and cassiterite (ores of tantalum and tin, respectively), has helped fuel the war in the Eastern Congo.
Today's larger mining companies are making changes and adhering to global demand for ESG ( Environmental, Social and Governance) and IRMA (Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance). One such globally recognised certification is the 3T iTSCi, the only widely implemented and accepted mineral traceability and due diligence system in the region for the 3T minerals – Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten, an internationally recognised certification for responsible mining and traceability under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. Today four central African countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) provides legitimate and ethical 3T minerals. ITSCI is the only industry initiative with standards 100% aligned with the OECD Guidance. Much has been done in the last 15 years, providing artisanal and small-scale miners a support network through iTSCi, to build the foundations and regulate the industry. At the end of 2019 ITSCI has seen to 2000 mines, employment of around 80,000 miners, and the supply of over 2000 tonnes of tin, tantalum and tungsten minerals per month; the initiative has come a long way in the last decade. A report had been done by Pact in 2015, detailing iTSCi's progress over the previous five years, it discusses the successes, the challenges ahead and the work yet to be done. Entitled Unconflicted: Making Conflict-Free Mining a Reality in the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi.
Katanga Mining Limited, a London-based company, owns the Luilu Metallurgical Plant, which has a capacity of 175,000 tonnes of copper and 8,000 tonnes of cobalt per year, making it the largest cobalt refinery in the world. After a major rehabilitation program, the company restarted copper production in December 2007 and cobalt production in May 2008.
Much economic activity occurs in the informal sector and is not reflected in GDP data.
Ground transport in the Democratic Republic of Congo has always been difficult. The terrain and climate of the Congo Basin present serious barriers to road and rail construction, and the distances are enormous across this vast country. Furthermore, chronic economic mismanagement and internal conflict has led to serious under-investment over many years.
On the other hand, the Democratic Republic of Congo has thousands of kilometres of navigable waterways, and traditionally water transport has been the dominant means of moving around approximately two-thirds of the country. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has declined drastically around the 1980s, despite being home to vast potential in natural resources and mineral wealth; their gross domestic product is $69.474 billion as of 2023.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "At the time of its independence in 1960, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the second most industrialized country in Africa after South Africa. It boasted a thriving mining sector and its agriculture sector was relatively productive. Since then, decades of corruption, war, and political instability have been a severe detriment to further growth, today leaving DRC with a GDP per capita and a HDI rating that rank among the world's lowest and make the DRC one of the most fragile and according to United Nations, least developed countries in the world.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Despite this the DRC is quickly modernizing; it tied with Malaysia for the largest positive change in HDI development in 2016. Government projects include strengthening the health system for maternal and child health, expansion of electricity access, water supply reconstructions, and urban and social rehabilitation programs.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The two recent conflicts (the First and Second Congo Wars), which began in 1996, have dramatically reduced national output and government revenue, have increased external debt, and have resulted in deaths of more than five million people from war, and associated famine and disease. Malnutrition affects approximately two-thirds of the country's population.",
"title": "Economic implications of conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, accounting for 57.9% of GDP in 1997. In 1996, agriculture employed 66% of the work force.",
"title": "Economic implications of conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Rich in minerals, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has a difficult history of predatory mineral extraction, which has been at the heart of many struggles within the country for many decades, but particularly in the 1990s. The economy of the second largest country in Africa relies heavily on mining. However, much economic activity occurs in the informal sector and is not reflected in GDP data.",
"title": "Economic implications of conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 2006 Transparency International ranked the Democratic Republic of the Congo 156 out of 163 countries in the Corruption Perception Index, tying Bangladesh, Chad, and Sudan with a 2.0 rating. President Joseph Kabila established the Commission of Repression of Economic Crimes upon his ascension to power in 2001.",
"title": "Economic implications of conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo were over water, minerals, and other resources. Political agendas have worsened the economy, as in times of crisis, the elite benefit while the general populace suffers. This is worsened as a result of corrupt national and international corporations. The corporations instigate and allow the fighting for resources because they benefit from it. A large proportion of fatalities in the country are attributed to a lack of basic services. The influx of refugees since the war in 1998 only serves to worsen the issue of poverty. Money of the taxpayers in the DRC is often misappropriated by the corrupt leaders of the country, who use the money to benefit themselves instead of the citizens of the DRC. The DRC is consistently rated the lowest on the UN Human Development Index.",
"title": "Economic implications of conflicts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Forced labor was important for the rural sector. The corporations that dominated the economy were mostly owned by Belgium, but British capital also played an important role. The 1950s were a period of rising income and expectations. Congo was said to have the best public health system in Africa, but there was also a huge wealth disparity. Belgian companies favored workers in certain areas more and exported them to work in different areas, restricting opportunities for others. Favored groups also received better education and were able to secure jobs for people in the same ethnic group which increased tensions. In 1960 there were only 16 university graduates out of a population of 20 million. Belgium still had economic power and independence gave little opportunity for improvement. Common refrains included \"no elite, no trouble\" and \"before independence = after independence\". When the Belgians left, most of the government officials and educated residents left with them. Before independence, there were just 3 out of 5000 government jobs held by Congolese people. The resulting loss of institutional knowledge and human capital crippled the government.",
"title": "Economic history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "After the Congo crisis, Mobutu arose as the country's sole ruler and stabilized the country politically. Economically, however, the situation continued to decline, and by 1979, the purchasing power was only 4% of that from 1960. Starting in 1976 the IMF provided stabilizing loans to the dictatorship. Much of the money was embezzled by Mobutu and his circle. This was not a secret as the 1982 report by IMF's envoy Erwin Blumenthal documented. He stated, it is \"alarmingly clear that the corruptive system in Zaire with all its wicked and ugly manifestations, its mismanagement and fraud will destroy all endeavors of international institutions, of friendly governments, and of the commercial banks towards recovery and rehabilitation of Zaire’s economy\". Blumenthal indicated that there was \"no chance\" that creditors would ever recover their loans. Yet the IMF and the World Bank continued to lend money that was either embezzled, stolen, or \"wasted on elephant projects\". \"Structural adjustment programmes\" implemented as a condition of IMF loans cut support for health care, education, and infrastructure.",
"title": "Economic history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Poor infrastructure, an uncertain legal framework, corruption, and lack of openness in government economic policy and financial operations remain a brake on investment and growth. A number of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank missions have met with the new government to help it develop a coherent economic plan but associated reforms are on hold.",
"title": "Economic history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Faced with continued currency depreciation, the government resorted to more drastic measures and in January 1999 banned the widespread use of American dollars for all domestic commercial transactions, a position it later adjusted. The government has been unable to provide foreign exchange for economic transactions, while it has resorted to printing money to finance its expenditure. Growth was negative in 2000 because of the difficulty of meeting the conditions of international donors, continued low prices of key exports, and post-coup instability. Although depreciated, congolese francs have been stable for few years (Ndonda, 2014)",
"title": "Economic history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Conditions improved in late 2002 with the withdrawal of a large portion of the invading foreign troops. A number of IMF and World Bank missions have met with the government to help it develop a coherent economic plan, and President Kabila has begun implementing reforms.",
"title": "Economic history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "DRC's economic growth decelerated from its pre-COVID level of 4.4% in 2019, to an estimated 0.8% in 2020. Growth was driven by the extractives sector which, helped by robust demand from China, expanded by 6.9% in 2020 (compared to 1% in 2019). Meanwhile, non-mining sectors contracted by 1.6% (vs. growth of 5.7% in 2019) due to pandemic-related mobility restrictions, weaker trading activities and constrained government spending. Private consumption and government investment fell in 2020 by an estimated 1.0 and 10.2%, respectively.",
"title": "Economic history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The DRC is embarking on the establishment of special economic zones (SEZ) to encourage the revival of its industry. The first SEZ was planned to come into being in 2012 in N'Sele, a commune of Kinshasa, and will focus on agro-industries. The Congolese authorities also planned to open another zone dedicated to mining (Katanga) and a third dedicated to cement (in the Bas-Congo). There are three phases to the program that each have their own objectives. Phase I was the precursor to the actual investment in the Special Economic Zone where policymakers agreed to the framework, the framework was studied for its establishment, and to predict the potential market demand for the land. Stage one of Phase II involved submitting laws for the Special Economic Zone, finding good sites for businesses, and currently there is an effort to help the government attract foreign investment. Stage two of Phase II hasn't been started yet and it involves assisting the government in creating framework for the country, creating an overall plan for the site, figuring out what the environmental impact of the project will be, and guessing how much it will cost and what the return can be made on the investment. Phase III involves the World Bank creating a transaction phase that will keep everything competitive. The program is looking for options to hand over the program to the World Bank which could be very beneficial for the western part of the country.",
"title": "Economic history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017.",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Ongoing conflicts dramatically reduced government revenue and increased external debt. As Reyntjens wrote, \"Entrepreneurs of insecurity are engaged in extractive activities that would be impossible in a stable state environment. The criminalization context in which these activities occur offers avenues for considerable factional and personal enrichment through the trafficking of arms, illegal drugs, toxic products, mineral resources and dirty money.\" Ethnic rivalries were made worse because of economic interests and looting and coltan smuggling took place. Illegal monopolies formed in the country where they used forced labor for children to mine or work as soldiers. National parks were overrun with people looking to exploit minerals and resources. Increased poverty and hunger from the war and that increased the hunting of rare wildlife. Education was denied when the country was under foreign control and very few people make money off the minerals in the country. The national resources are not the root cause for the continued fighting in the region, however, the competition has become an incentive to keep fighting.[1] The DRC's level of economic freedom is one of the lowest in the world, putting it in the repressed category. The armed militias fight with the government in the eastern section of the country over the mining sector or the corruption of the government, and weak policies lead to the instability of the economy. Human rights abuses also ruin economic activity; the DRC has a 7% unemployment rate, but still has one of the lowest GDP's per capita in the world. A major problem for people trying to start their own companies is that the minimum amount of capital needed to launch the company is five times the average annual income, and prices are regulated by the government, which almost forces people to have to work for the larger, more corrupt businesses; otherwise, they won't have work. It is hard for the DRC to encourage foreign trade because of the regulatory barriers.",
"title": "Economic implications of instability"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Poor infrastructure, an uncertain legal framework, corruption, and lack of openness in government economic policy and financial operations remain a brake on investment and growth. A number of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank missions have met with the new government to help it develop a coherent economic plan but associated reforms are on hold.",
"title": "International relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Faced with continued currency depreciation, the government resorted to more drastic measures and in January 1999 banned the widespread use of U.S. dollars for all domestic commercial transactions, a position it later adjusted. The government has been unable to provide foreign exchange for economic transactions, while it has resorted to printing money to finance its expenditure. Growth was negative in 2000 because of the difficulty of meeting the conditions of international donors, continued low prices of key exports, and post-coup instability. 125 companies in 2003 contributed to the conflict in DRC showing the corruption.",
"title": "International relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "With the help of the International Development Association the DRC has worked toward the reestablishment of social services. This is done by giving 15 million people access to basic health services and giving bed nets to prevent malaria from spreading to people. With the Emergency Demobilization and Reintegration Program more than 107,000 adults and 34,000 child soldiers stood down their militarized posture. The travel time from Lubumbashi to Kasomeno in Katanga went down from seven days to two hours because of the improved roads which led to the decrease of prices of main goods by 60%. With the help of the IFC, KfW, and the EU the DRC improved its businesses by reducing the time it took to create a business by 51%, reducing the time it took to get construction permits by 54%, and reducing the number of taxes from 118 to 30. Improvements in health have been noticeable specifically that deliveries attended by trained staff jumped from 47 to 80%. In education 14 million textbooks were provided to children, completion rates of school have increased, and higher education was made available to students that chose to pursue it.",
"title": "International relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The IMF plans on giving the DRC a $1 billion loan after its two-year suspension after it failed to give details about a mining deal from one of its state owned mines and an Israeli billionaire, Dan Gertler. The loan may be necessary for the country because there will be elections in December 2016 for the next president and the cost of funding this would range around $1.1 billion. The biggest problem with the vote is getting a country of 68 million people the size of Western Europe to polling stations with less than 1,860 miles of paved roads.",
"title": "International relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, accounting for 57.9% of the GDP in 1997. Main cash crops include coffee, palm oil, rubber, cotton, sugar, tea, and cocoa. Food crops include cassava, plantains, maize, groundnuts, and rice. In 1996, agriculture employed 66% of the work force.",
"title": "Sectors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The Democratic Republic of Congo produced, in 2018:",
"title": "Sectors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products, such as coffee (29 thousand tons), cocoa (3.6 thousand tons), natural rubber (14 thousand tons) and tea (3.6 thousand tons).",
"title": "Sectors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Democratic Republic of Congo also possesses 50 percent of Africa's forests and a river system that could provide hydro-electric power to the entire continent, according to a United Nations report on the country's strategic significance and its potential role as an economic power in central Africa. Fish are the single most important source of animal protein in the DRC. Total production of marine, river, and lake fisheries in 2003 was estimated at 222,965 tons, all but 5,000 tons from inland waters. PEMARZA, a state agency, carries on marine fishing.",
"title": "Sectors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Forests cover 60 percent of the total land area. There are vast timber resources, and commercial development of the country's 61 million hectares (150 million acres) of exploitable wooded area is only beginning. The Mayumbe area of Bas-Congo was once the major center of timber exploitation, but forests in this area were nearly depleted. The more extensive forest regions of the central cuvette and of the Ubangi River valley have increasingly been tapped.",
"title": "Sectors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Roundwood removals were estimated at 72,170,000 m in 2003, about 95 percent for fuel. Some 14 species are presently being harvested. Exports of forest products in 2003 totalled $25.7 million. Foreign capital is necessary in order for forestry to expand, and the government recognizes that changes in tax structure and export procedures will be needed to facilitate economic growth.",
"title": "Sectors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Rich in minerals, the DRC has a difficult history of predatory mineral extraction, which has been at the heart of many struggles within the country for many decades, but particularly in the 1990s. Although the economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the second largest country in Africa who has historically relied heavily on mining, is no longer reflected in the GDP data as the mining industry has suffered from long-term \"uncertain legal framework, corruption, and a lack of transparency in government policy.\" The informal sector .",
"title": "Sectors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In her book entitled The Real Economy of Zaire, MacGaffey described a second, often illegal economy, \"system D\", which is outside the official economy (MacGaffey 1991:27). and therefore is not reflected in the GDP.",
"title": "Sectors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The economy of the second largest country in Africa relies heavily on mining. The Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt ore, and a major producer of copper and industrial diamonds. The Congo has 70% of the world's coltan, and more than 30% of the world's diamond reserves., mostly in the form of small, industrial diamonds. The coltan is a major source of tantalum, which is used in the fabrication of electronic components in computers and mobile phones. In 2002, tin was discovered in the east of the country, but, to date, mining has been done on a small scale. Manono in Central DRC has a significant deposit of lithium and tin with tantalum and niobium and is being developed by an Australian company. Production is expected in 2023.",
"title": "Exploitation of mineral substances by companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Smuggling of the conflict minerals, coltan and cassiterite (ores of tantalum and tin, respectively), has helped fuel the war in the Eastern Congo.",
"title": "Exploitation of mineral substances by companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Today's larger mining companies are making changes and adhering to global demand for ESG ( Environmental, Social and Governance) and IRMA (Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance). One such globally recognised certification is the 3T iTSCi, the only widely implemented and accepted mineral traceability and due diligence system in the region for the 3T minerals – Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten, an internationally recognised certification for responsible mining and traceability under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. Today four central African countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) provides legitimate and ethical 3T minerals. ITSCI is the only industry initiative with standards 100% aligned with the OECD Guidance. Much has been done in the last 15 years, providing artisanal and small-scale miners a support network through iTSCi, to build the foundations and regulate the industry. At the end of 2019 ITSCI has seen to 2000 mines, employment of around 80,000 miners, and the supply of over 2000 tonnes of tin, tantalum and tungsten minerals per month; the initiative has come a long way in the last decade. A report had been done by Pact in 2015, detailing iTSCi's progress over the previous five years, it discusses the successes, the challenges ahead and the work yet to be done. Entitled Unconflicted: Making Conflict-Free Mining a Reality in the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi.",
"title": "Exploitation of mineral substances by companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Katanga Mining Limited, a London-based company, owns the Luilu Metallurgical Plant, which has a capacity of 175,000 tonnes of copper and 8,000 tonnes of cobalt per year, making it the largest cobalt refinery in the world. After a major rehabilitation program, the company restarted copper production in December 2007 and cobalt production in May 2008.",
"title": "Exploitation of mineral substances by companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Much economic activity occurs in the informal sector and is not reflected in GDP data.",
"title": "Exploitation of mineral substances by companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Ground transport in the Democratic Republic of Congo has always been difficult. The terrain and climate of the Congo Basin present serious barriers to road and rail construction, and the distances are enormous across this vast country. Furthermore, chronic economic mismanagement and internal conflict has led to serious under-investment over many years.",
"title": "Transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "On the other hand, the Democratic Republic of Congo has thousands of kilometres of navigable waterways, and traditionally water transport has been the dominant means of moving around approximately two-thirds of the country.",
"title": "Transport"
}
] | The economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has declined drastically around the 1980s, despite being home to vast potential in natural resources and mineral wealth; their gross domestic product is $69.474 billion as of 2023. At the time of its independence in 1960, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the second most industrialized country in Africa after South Africa. It boasted a thriving mining sector and its agriculture sector was relatively productive. Since then, decades of corruption, war, and political instability have been a severe detriment to further growth, today leaving DRC with a GDP per capita and a HDI rating that rank among the world's lowest and make the DRC one of the most fragile and according to United Nations, least developed countries in the world. Despite this the DRC is quickly modernizing; it tied with Malaysia for the largest positive change in HDI development in 2016. Government projects include strengthening the health system for maternal and child health, expansion of electricity access, water supply reconstructions, and urban and social rehabilitation programs. | 2001-08-22T16:29:23Z | 2023-12-03T22:45:28Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo |
8,026 | Politics of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | Politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo take place in a framework of a republic in transition from a civil war to a semi-presidential republic.
On 18 and 19 December 2005, a successful nationwide referendum was carried out on a draft constitution, which set the stage for elections in 2006. The voting process, though technically difficult due to the lack of infrastructure, was facilitated and organized by the Congolese Independent Electoral Commission with support from the UN mission to the Congo (MONUC). Early UN reports indicate that the voting was for the most part peaceful, but spurred violence in many parts of the war-torn east and the Kasais.
In 2006, many Congolese complained that the constitution was a rather ambiguous document and were unaware of its contents. This is due in part to the high rates of illiteracy in the country. However, interim President Kabila urged Congolese to vote 'Yes', saying the constitution is the country's best hope for peace in the future. 25 million Congolese turned out for the two-day balloting. According to results released in January 2006, the constitution was approved by 84% of voters. The new constitution also aims to decentralize authority, dividing the vast nation into 25 semi-autonomous provinces, drawn along ethnic and cultural lines.
The country's first democratic elections in four decades were held on 30 July 2006.
From the day of the arguably ill-prepared independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the tensions between the powerful leaders of the political elite, such as Joseph Kasa Vubu, Patrice Lumumba, Moise Tshombe, Joseph Mobutu and others, jeopardize the political stability of the new state. From Tshombe's secession of the Katanga, to the assassination of Lumumba, to the two coups d'état of Mobutu, the country has known periods of true nationwide peace, but virtually no period of genuine democratic rule.
The regime of President Mobutu Sese Seko lasted 32 years (1965–1997), during which all but the first seven years the country was named Zaire. His dictatorship operated as a one-party state, which saw most of the powers concentrated between President Mobutu, who was simultaneously the head of both the party and the state through the Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR), and a series of essentially rubber-stamping institutions.
One particularity of the Regime was the claim to be thriving for an authentic system, different from Western or Soviet influences. This lasted roughly between the establishment of Zaire in 1971, and the official beginning of the transition towards democracy, on 24 April 1990. This was true at the regular people's level as everywhere else. People were ordered by law to drop their Western Christian names; the titles Mr. and Mrs. were abandoned for the male and female versions of the French word for "citizen"; Men were forbidden to wear suits, and women to wear pants. At the institutional level, many of the institutions also changed denominations, but the end result was a system that borrowed from both systems:
Every corporation, whether financial or union, as well as every division of the administration, was set up as branches of the party. CEOs, union leaders, and division directors were each sworn-in as section presidents of the party. Every aspect of life was regulated to some degree by the party, and the will of its founding-president, Mobutu Sese Seko.
Most of the petty aspects of the regime disappeared after 1990 with the beginning of the democratic transition. Democratization would prove to be fairly short-lived, as Mobutu's power plays dragged it in length until ultimately 1997, when forces led by Laurent Kabila eventually successfully toppled the regime, after a 9-month-long military campaign.
The government of former president Mobutu Sese Seko was toppled by a rebellion led by Laurent Kabila in May 1997, with the support of Rwanda and Uganda. They were later to turn against Kabila and backed a rebellion against him in August 1998. Troops from Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad, and Sudan intervened to support the Kinshasa regime. A cease-fire was signed on 10 July 1999 by the DROC, Zimbabwe, Angola, Uganda, Namibia, Rwanda, and Congolese armed rebel groups, but fighting continued.
Under Laurent Kabila's regime, all executive, legislative, and military powers were first vested in the President, Laurent-Désiré Kabila. The judiciary was independent, with the president having the power to dismiss or appoint. The president was first head of a 26-member cabinet dominated by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL). Towards the end of the 90s, Laurent Kabila created and appointed a Transitional Parliament, with a seat in the buildings of the former Katanga Parliament, in the southern town of Lubumbashi, in a move to unite the country, and to legitimate his regime. Kabila was assassinated on 16 January 2001 and his son Joseph Kabila was named head of state ten days later.
The younger Kabila continued with his father's Transitional Parliament, but overhauled his entire cabinet, replacing it with a group of technocrats, with the stated aim of putting the country back on the track of development, and coming to a decisive end of the Second Congo War. In October 2002, the new president was successful in getting occupying Rwandan forces to withdraw from eastern Congo; two months later, an agreement was signed by all remaining warring parties to end the fighting and set up a Transition Government, the make-up of which would allow representation for all negotiating parties. Two founding documents emerged from this: The Transition Constitution, and the Global and Inclusive Agreement, both of which describe and determine the make-up and organization of the Congolese institutions, until planned elections in July 2006, at which time the provisions of the new constitution, democratically approved by referendum in December 2005, will take full effect and that is how it happened.
Under the Global and All-Inclusive Agreement, signed on 17 December 2002, in Pretoria, there was to be one President and four Vice-Presidents, one from the government, one from the Rally for Congolese Democracy, one from the MLC, and one from civil society. The position of Vice-President expired after the 2006 elections.
After being for three years (2003–06) in the interregnum between two constitutions, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is now under the regime of the Constitution of the Third Republic. The constitution, adopted by referendum in 2005, and promulgated by President Joseph Kabila in February 2006, establishes a decentralized semi-presidential republic, with a separation of powers between the three branches of government - executive, legislative and judiciary, and a distribution of prerogatives between the central government and the provinces.
In September 2016, violent protests were met with brutal force by the police and Republican Guard soldiers. Opposition groups claim 80 dead, including the Students' Union leader. From Monday 19 September Kinshasa residents, as well as residents elsewhere in Congo, where mostly confined to their homes. Police arrested anyone remotely connected to the opposition as well as innocent onlookers. Government propaganda, on television, and actions of covert government groups in the streets, acted against opposition as well as foreigners. The president's mandate was due to end on 19 December 2016, but no plans were made to elect a replacement at that time and this caused further protests.
As of 8 August 2017 there are 54 political parties legally operating in the Congo.
On 15 December 2018 US State Department announced it had decided to evacuate its employees’ family members from Democratic Republic of Congo just before the Congolese elections to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila.
On 30 December 2018 the presidential election to determine the successor to Kabila was held. On 10 January 2019, the electoral commission announced opposition candidate Félix Tshisekedi as the winner of the vote. He was officially sworn in as President on 24 January 2019. In the ceremony of taking of the office Félix Tshisekedi appointed Vital Kamerhe as his chief of staff. In June 2020, chief of staff Vital Kamerhe was found guilty of embezzling public funds and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The political allies of former president Joseph Kabila, who stepped down in January 2019, maintained control of key ministries, the legislature, judiciary and security services. However, President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded to strengthen his hold on power. In a series of moves, he won over more legislators, gaining the support of almost 400 out of 500 members of the National Assembly. The pro-Kabila speakers of both houses of parliament were forced out. In April 2021, the new government was formed without the supporters of Kabila. President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded to oust the last remaining elements of his government who were loyal to former leader Joseph Kabila.
Since the July 2006 elections, the country is led by a semi-presidential, strongly-decentralized state. The executive at the central level, is divided between the President, and a Prime Minister appointed by him/her from the party having the majority of seats in Parlement. Should there be no clear majority, the President can appoint a "government former" that will then have the task to win the confidence of the National Assembly. The President appoints the government members (ministers) at the proposal of the Prime Minister. In coordination, the President and the government have the charge of the executive. The Prime minister and the government are responsible to the lower-house of Parliament, the National Assembly.
At the province level, the Provincial legislature (Provincial Assembly) elects a governor, and the governor, with his government of up to 10 ministers, is in charge of the provincial executive. Some domains of government power are of the exclusive provision of the Province, and some are held concurrently with the Central government. This is not a Federal state however, simply a decentralized one, as the majority of the domains of power are still vested in the Central government. The governor is responsible to the Provincial Assembly.
The semi-presidential system has been described by some as "conflictogenic" and "dictatogenic", as it ensures frictions, and a reduction of pace in government life, should the President and the Prime Minister be from different sides of the political arena. This was seen several times in France, a country that shares the semi-presidential model. It was also, arguably, in the first steps of the Congo into independence, the underlying cause of the crisis between Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa Vubu, who ultimately dismissed each other, in 1960.
In January 2015 the 2015 Congolese protests broke out in the country's capital following the release of a draft law that would extend the presidential term limits and allow Joseph Kabila to run again for office.
The Inter-Congolese dialogue, that set-up the transitional institutions, created a bicameral parliament, with a National Assembly and Senate, made up of appointed representatives of the parties to the dialogue. These parties included the preceding government, the rebel groups that were fighting against the government, with heavy Rwandan and Ugandan support, the internal opposition parties, and the Civil Society. At the beginning of the transition, and up until recently, the National Assembly is headed by the MLC with Speaker Hon. Olivier Kamitatu, while the Senate is headed by a representative of the Civil Society, namely the head of the Church of Christ in Congo, Mgr. Pierre Marini Bodho. Hon. Kamitatu has since left both the MLC and the Parliament to create his own party, and ally with current President Joseph Kabila. Since then, the position of Speaker is held by Hon. Thomas Luhaka, of the MLC.
Aside from the regular legislative duties, the Senate had the charge to draft a new constitution for the country. That constitution was adopted by referendum in December 2005, and decreed into law on 18 February 2006.
The Parliament of the third republic is also bicameral, with a National Assembly and a Senate. Members of the National Assembly, the lower - but the most powerful - house, are elected by direct suffrage. Senators are elected by the legislatures of the 26 provinces.
The Congolese Judicial Branch Consists of a Supreme Court, which handles federal crimes.
10 provinces (provinces, singular - province) and one city* (ville): Bandundu, Bas-Congo, Équateur, Kasai-Occidental, Kasai-Oriental, Katanga, Kinshasa*, Maniema, North Kivu, Orientale.
Each province is divided into districts and cities.
25 provinces (provinces, singular - province) and city* (ville): Bas-Uele | Équateur | Haut-Lomami | Haut-Katanga | Haut-Uele | Ituri | Kasaï | Kasaï oriental | Kongo central | Kwango | Kwilu | Lomami | Lualaba | Lulua | Mai-Ndombe | Maniema | Mongala | North Kivu | Nord-Ubangi | Sankuru | South Kivu | Sud-Ubangi | Tanganyika | Tshopo | Tshuapa | Kinshasa*
Each province is divided into territories and cities.
ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, CEEAC, CEPGL, East African Community, ECA, FAO, G-19, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCO WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo take place in a framework of a republic in transition from a civil war to a semi-presidential republic.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "On 18 and 19 December 2005, a successful nationwide referendum was carried out on a draft constitution, which set the stage for elections in 2006. The voting process, though technically difficult due to the lack of infrastructure, was facilitated and organized by the Congolese Independent Electoral Commission with support from the UN mission to the Congo (MONUC). Early UN reports indicate that the voting was for the most part peaceful, but spurred violence in many parts of the war-torn east and the Kasais.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In 2006, many Congolese complained that the constitution was a rather ambiguous document and were unaware of its contents. This is due in part to the high rates of illiteracy in the country. However, interim President Kabila urged Congolese to vote 'Yes', saying the constitution is the country's best hope for peace in the future. 25 million Congolese turned out for the two-day balloting. According to results released in January 2006, the constitution was approved by 84% of voters. The new constitution also aims to decentralize authority, dividing the vast nation into 25 semi-autonomous provinces, drawn along ethnic and cultural lines.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The country's first democratic elections in four decades were held on 30 July 2006.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "From the day of the arguably ill-prepared independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the tensions between the powerful leaders of the political elite, such as Joseph Kasa Vubu, Patrice Lumumba, Moise Tshombe, Joseph Mobutu and others, jeopardize the political stability of the new state. From Tshombe's secession of the Katanga, to the assassination of Lumumba, to the two coups d'état of Mobutu, the country has known periods of true nationwide peace, but virtually no period of genuine democratic rule.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The regime of President Mobutu Sese Seko lasted 32 years (1965–1997), during which all but the first seven years the country was named Zaire. His dictatorship operated as a one-party state, which saw most of the powers concentrated between President Mobutu, who was simultaneously the head of both the party and the state through the Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR), and a series of essentially rubber-stamping institutions.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "One particularity of the Regime was the claim to be thriving for an authentic system, different from Western or Soviet influences. This lasted roughly between the establishment of Zaire in 1971, and the official beginning of the transition towards democracy, on 24 April 1990. This was true at the regular people's level as everywhere else. People were ordered by law to drop their Western Christian names; the titles Mr. and Mrs. were abandoned for the male and female versions of the French word for \"citizen\"; Men were forbidden to wear suits, and women to wear pants. At the institutional level, many of the institutions also changed denominations, but the end result was a system that borrowed from both systems:",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Every corporation, whether financial or union, as well as every division of the administration, was set up as branches of the party. CEOs, union leaders, and division directors were each sworn-in as section presidents of the party. Every aspect of life was regulated to some degree by the party, and the will of its founding-president, Mobutu Sese Seko.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Most of the petty aspects of the regime disappeared after 1990 with the beginning of the democratic transition. Democratization would prove to be fairly short-lived, as Mobutu's power plays dragged it in length until ultimately 1997, when forces led by Laurent Kabila eventually successfully toppled the regime, after a 9-month-long military campaign.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The government of former president Mobutu Sese Seko was toppled by a rebellion led by Laurent Kabila in May 1997, with the support of Rwanda and Uganda. They were later to turn against Kabila and backed a rebellion against him in August 1998. Troops from Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad, and Sudan intervened to support the Kinshasa regime. A cease-fire was signed on 10 July 1999 by the DROC, Zimbabwe, Angola, Uganda, Namibia, Rwanda, and Congolese armed rebel groups, but fighting continued.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Under Laurent Kabila's regime, all executive, legislative, and military powers were first vested in the President, Laurent-Désiré Kabila. The judiciary was independent, with the president having the power to dismiss or appoint. The president was first head of a 26-member cabinet dominated by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL). Towards the end of the 90s, Laurent Kabila created and appointed a Transitional Parliament, with a seat in the buildings of the former Katanga Parliament, in the southern town of Lubumbashi, in a move to unite the country, and to legitimate his regime. Kabila was assassinated on 16 January 2001 and his son Joseph Kabila was named head of state ten days later.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The younger Kabila continued with his father's Transitional Parliament, but overhauled his entire cabinet, replacing it with a group of technocrats, with the stated aim of putting the country back on the track of development, and coming to a decisive end of the Second Congo War. In October 2002, the new president was successful in getting occupying Rwandan forces to withdraw from eastern Congo; two months later, an agreement was signed by all remaining warring parties to end the fighting and set up a Transition Government, the make-up of which would allow representation for all negotiating parties. Two founding documents emerged from this: The Transition Constitution, and the Global and Inclusive Agreement, both of which describe and determine the make-up and organization of the Congolese institutions, until planned elections in July 2006, at which time the provisions of the new constitution, democratically approved by referendum in December 2005, will take full effect and that is how it happened.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Under the Global and All-Inclusive Agreement, signed on 17 December 2002, in Pretoria, there was to be one President and four Vice-Presidents, one from the government, one from the Rally for Congolese Democracy, one from the MLC, and one from civil society. The position of Vice-President expired after the 2006 elections.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "After being for three years (2003–06) in the interregnum between two constitutions, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is now under the regime of the Constitution of the Third Republic. The constitution, adopted by referendum in 2005, and promulgated by President Joseph Kabila in February 2006, establishes a decentralized semi-presidential republic, with a separation of powers between the three branches of government - executive, legislative and judiciary, and a distribution of prerogatives between the central government and the provinces.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In September 2016, violent protests were met with brutal force by the police and Republican Guard soldiers. Opposition groups claim 80 dead, including the Students' Union leader. From Monday 19 September Kinshasa residents, as well as residents elsewhere in Congo, where mostly confined to their homes. Police arrested anyone remotely connected to the opposition as well as innocent onlookers. Government propaganda, on television, and actions of covert government groups in the streets, acted against opposition as well as foreigners. The president's mandate was due to end on 19 December 2016, but no plans were made to elect a replacement at that time and this caused further protests.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "As of 8 August 2017 there are 54 political parties legally operating in the Congo.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "On 15 December 2018 US State Department announced it had decided to evacuate its employees’ family members from Democratic Republic of Congo just before the Congolese elections to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "On 30 December 2018 the presidential election to determine the successor to Kabila was held. On 10 January 2019, the electoral commission announced opposition candidate Félix Tshisekedi as the winner of the vote. He was officially sworn in as President on 24 January 2019. In the ceremony of taking of the office Félix Tshisekedi appointed Vital Kamerhe as his chief of staff. In June 2020, chief of staff Vital Kamerhe was found guilty of embezzling public funds and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The political allies of former president Joseph Kabila, who stepped down in January 2019, maintained control of key ministries, the legislature, judiciary and security services. However, President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded to strengthen his hold on power. In a series of moves, he won over more legislators, gaining the support of almost 400 out of 500 members of the National Assembly. The pro-Kabila speakers of both houses of parliament were forced out. In April 2021, the new government was formed without the supporters of Kabila. President Felix Tshisekedi succeeded to oust the last remaining elements of his government who were loyal to former leader Joseph Kabila.",
"title": "Political history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Since the July 2006 elections, the country is led by a semi-presidential, strongly-decentralized state. The executive at the central level, is divided between the President, and a Prime Minister appointed by him/her from the party having the majority of seats in Parlement. Should there be no clear majority, the President can appoint a \"government former\" that will then have the task to win the confidence of the National Assembly. The President appoints the government members (ministers) at the proposal of the Prime Minister. In coordination, the President and the government have the charge of the executive. The Prime minister and the government are responsible to the lower-house of Parliament, the National Assembly.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "At the province level, the Provincial legislature (Provincial Assembly) elects a governor, and the governor, with his government of up to 10 ministers, is in charge of the provincial executive. Some domains of government power are of the exclusive provision of the Province, and some are held concurrently with the Central government. This is not a Federal state however, simply a decentralized one, as the majority of the domains of power are still vested in the Central government. The governor is responsible to the Provincial Assembly.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The semi-presidential system has been described by some as \"conflictogenic\" and \"dictatogenic\", as it ensures frictions, and a reduction of pace in government life, should the President and the Prime Minister be from different sides of the political arena. This was seen several times in France, a country that shares the semi-presidential model. It was also, arguably, in the first steps of the Congo into independence, the underlying cause of the crisis between Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa Vubu, who ultimately dismissed each other, in 1960.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In January 2015 the 2015 Congolese protests broke out in the country's capital following the release of a draft law that would extend the presidential term limits and allow Joseph Kabila to run again for office.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The Inter-Congolese dialogue, that set-up the transitional institutions, created a bicameral parliament, with a National Assembly and Senate, made up of appointed representatives of the parties to the dialogue. These parties included the preceding government, the rebel groups that were fighting against the government, with heavy Rwandan and Ugandan support, the internal opposition parties, and the Civil Society. At the beginning of the transition, and up until recently, the National Assembly is headed by the MLC with Speaker Hon. Olivier Kamitatu, while the Senate is headed by a representative of the Civil Society, namely the head of the Church of Christ in Congo, Mgr. Pierre Marini Bodho. Hon. Kamitatu has since left both the MLC and the Parliament to create his own party, and ally with current President Joseph Kabila. Since then, the position of Speaker is held by Hon. Thomas Luhaka, of the MLC.",
"title": "Legislative branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Aside from the regular legislative duties, the Senate had the charge to draft a new constitution for the country. That constitution was adopted by referendum in December 2005, and decreed into law on 18 February 2006.",
"title": "Legislative branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Parliament of the third republic is also bicameral, with a National Assembly and a Senate. Members of the National Assembly, the lower - but the most powerful - house, are elected by direct suffrage. Senators are elected by the legislatures of the 26 provinces.",
"title": "Legislative branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Congolese Judicial Branch Consists of a Supreme Court, which handles federal crimes.",
"title": "Judicial branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "10 provinces (provinces, singular - province) and one city* (ville): Bandundu, Bas-Congo, Équateur, Kasai-Occidental, Kasai-Oriental, Katanga, Kinshasa*, Maniema, North Kivu, Orientale.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Each province is divided into districts and cities.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "25 provinces (provinces, singular - province) and city* (ville): Bas-Uele | Équateur | Haut-Lomami | Haut-Katanga | Haut-Uele | Ituri | Kasaï | Kasaï oriental | Kongo central | Kwango | Kwilu | Lomami | Lualaba | Lulua | Mai-Ndombe | Maniema | Mongala | North Kivu | Nord-Ubangi | Sankuru | South Kivu | Sud-Ubangi | Tanganyika | Tshopo | Tshuapa | Kinshasa*",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Each province is divided into territories and cities.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, CEEAC, CEPGL, East African Community, ECA, FAO, G-19, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCO WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO",
"title": "International organization participation"
}
] | Politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo take place in a framework of a republic in transition from a civil war to a semi-presidential republic. On 18 and 19 December 2005, a successful nationwide referendum was carried out on a draft constitution, which set the stage for elections in 2006. The voting process, though technically difficult due to the lack of infrastructure, was facilitated and organized by the Congolese Independent Electoral Commission with support from the UN mission to the Congo (MONUC). Early UN reports indicate that the voting was for the most part peaceful, but spurred violence in many parts of the war-torn east and the Kasais. In 2006, many Congolese complained that the constitution was a rather ambiguous document and were unaware of its contents. This is due in part to the high rates of illiteracy in the country. However, interim President Kabila urged Congolese to vote 'Yes', saying the constitution is the country's best hope for peace in the future. 25 million Congolese turned out for the two-day balloting. According to results released in January 2006, the constitution was approved by 84% of voters. The new constitution also aims to decentralize authority, dividing the vast nation into 25 semi-autonomous provinces, drawn along ethnic and cultural lines. The country's first democratic elections in four decades were held on 30 July 2006. | 2001-08-22T16:27:05Z | 2023-07-27T14:33:00Z | [
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"Template:Main"
] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo |
8,027 | Telecommunications in the Democratic Republic of the Congo | Telecommunications in the Democratic Republic of the Congo include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Radio is the dominant medium; a handful of stations, including state-run Radio-Télévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), broadcast across the country. The United Nations Mission (MONUSCO) and a Swiss-based NGO, Fondation Hirondelle, operate one of country's leading stations, Radio Okapi. The network employs mostly-Congolese staff and aims to bridge political divisions. Radio France Internationale (RFI), which is widely available on FM, is the most popular news station. The BBC broadcasts on FM in Kinshasa (92.7), Lubumbashi (92.0), Kisangani (92.0), Goma (93.3) and Bukavu (102.2).
Radio Okapi was first established in February 2002 by the United Nations Mission in the Democratic of Republic of Congo (MONUC). Radio Okapi provides news, music, and political information to all corners of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The major purpose behind Radio Okapi is to provide all DRC citizens with radio services regardless of political affiliation. The FM waves Radio Okapi provided were aimed to be free of hate speech. Most importantly, Radio Okapi caters to the various different ethnicities within the DRC. This is done through the broadcasting of content in 5 of major languages spoken in the DRC. These five languages are French, Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba, and Kikongo.
Specific media platforms in the Democratic Republic of Congo have used its platforms for the dissemination of hate speech. Media in the DRC has propagated hatred and ethnic divisions by reinforcing nationalistic sentiments. Numerous media outlets are owned by presidential candidates and their supporters. This increases the probability that news will tend to favor the political base of these presidential candidates. These presidential candidates use their media platforms to attack political opponents which include ethnically charged hate speech. The result of such propaganda is evident in recent conflicts between ethnic groups, Hema and Lendu. The conflict was fueled by hate speech on media platforms. As a result, the conflict between these ethnic groups has transformed to one of the bloodiest conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Peacekeeping agencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo observed the dangerous risk hate speech posed to communal welfare in the region. In order to combat such harmful speech, Non-governmental agencies (NGO's) began promoting large scale media campaigns. Campaigns consisted of several different radio programs aimed at reconciliation and peacekeeping. Research concluded that such programs showed measurable positive effects.
After the First Congo War (1996-1997) and Second Congo War (1998-2003), the nation transitioned to a renewed national unity under the rule of President Joseph Kabila and 4 vice presidents, all from former rebel and political opposition groups. The establishment of a democratic model required checks on corruption in public finance and natural resources, executive political parties, and hyperlocal militias and bandits. Peace agreements, in turn, did not end state violence, hence the need for absolute clarity to the public. The right to report on hostile resolutions was adopted in a 2002 resolution as a part of the eventual Inter-Congolese Dialogue. This accord declared that “independent, free, responsible and efficient media are a guarantee for public freedoms, the smooth running of democracy and social cohesion”, giving the voters direct insight into public figures, programs, and overall transparency. Article 27, 28, and Clause 29 established individual freedom of expression, moral press freedom, and the public right to information, respectively. During the time of continuing 2002 conflict, radios served as stages for peace songs and “come-home” messaging. Hosts had conversations with military and government officials, army members, and rebels to discuss the challenges of peace talks and demobilization. Censorship was lenient as long as radio personnel covered both sides.
Major exceptions to the right of free press imminently ensued. In 1996, censorship had begun to target Congo's artistic freedoms. Beyond broadcasts and news, the nation began to censor those who expressed political sentiments through music. The National Censorship Commission banned six songs that mentioned common opposition outcries relating to employment opportunities, civilian killings, corruption, and faltering human rights. If these songs are played on the radio, the artists may be fined up to $500 per song in accordance with a 1996 censorship decree. Freedom of the press was restricted for artists offending political elites or speaking against Congolese leaders and parties. For those using telecommunications as an outlet, interference was backed by such legislation. Open discussion about political corruption or unmentioned events, such as riots or uprisings against the ruling party, are avoided in news media but continuously active on pavement radio.
The Congolese government performed a series of intentional internet shutdowns. The first was conducted in December 2011 and lasted approximately 25 days. During the 25 days, Short Message Service otherwise known as SMS was the only one affected by the shutdown. According to an article by CIPESA, "One of the reasons cited by the government for blocking communication was to prevent the spread of fake results over the internet before the electoral commission announced official results"
Unlike the first shutdown the second intentional shutdown had a broader range of impact.The second intentional shutdown occurred in January 2015. The Congolese government directed telecommunication companies within the country to halt all its services. Not only was SMS affected, but the entire internet itself. This action by the government came on the eve of political protest on a proposed electoral bill.
The most recent government shutdown occurred on December 19, 2016. This was an important date as President Joseph Kabila was supposed to step down as head of state. In order to quell, political upheaval the Congolese government ordered telecom operators to block social media in the country.
In September 2016, the government cut the signals of the Radio France Internationale (RFI) and United Nations Radio Okapi (UNRO). Later, the general and program director of the Radio-Télévision Manika de Kolwezi was arrested after intentionally broadcasting a phone interview with Katumbi, the opposition leader. The censorship of human freedoms of expression to information was condemned by the Congo's United Nations on Human Rights. Kabila was given until December 19, 2016, to step down. If he decided not to, precautionary measures were set to counter organization and public protests. The government ordered a temporary blocking of images, videos, and voiceovers on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and WhatsApp right after Kabila was to step down. Digital media was the central counter to government oversight and regulation seen in other telecommunication outlets. Media was used in lieu of radio broadcasting to avoid self-censorship, financial restraints that may affect networks, or news station shutdowns. Removing the intermediary for independent journalism and coverage prevented communication among those who wanted to organize and speak out against Kabila. Black-outs were utilized to prevent anticipated politically motivated violence. Additionally, the then Telecommunications Minister Thomas Luhaka was “not informed” of such interference by the government. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Telecommunications in the Democratic Republic of the Congo include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Radio is the dominant medium; a handful of stations, including state-run Radio-Télévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), broadcast across the country. The United Nations Mission (MONUSCO) and a Swiss-based NGO, Fondation Hirondelle, operate one of country's leading stations, Radio Okapi. The network employs mostly-Congolese staff and aims to bridge political divisions. Radio France Internationale (RFI), which is widely available on FM, is the most popular news station. The BBC broadcasts on FM in Kinshasa (92.7), Lubumbashi (92.0), Kisangani (92.0), Goma (93.3) and Bukavu (102.2).",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Radio Okapi was first established in February 2002 by the United Nations Mission in the Democratic of Republic of Congo (MONUC). Radio Okapi provides news, music, and political information to all corners of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The major purpose behind Radio Okapi is to provide all DRC citizens with radio services regardless of political affiliation. The FM waves Radio Okapi provided were aimed to be free of hate speech. Most importantly, Radio Okapi caters to the various different ethnicities within the DRC. This is done through the broadcasting of content in 5 of major languages spoken in the DRC. These five languages are French, Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba, and Kikongo.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Specific media platforms in the Democratic Republic of Congo have used its platforms for the dissemination of hate speech. Media in the DRC has propagated hatred and ethnic divisions by reinforcing nationalistic sentiments. Numerous media outlets are owned by presidential candidates and their supporters. This increases the probability that news will tend to favor the political base of these presidential candidates. These presidential candidates use their media platforms to attack political opponents which include ethnically charged hate speech. The result of such propaganda is evident in recent conflicts between ethnic groups, Hema and Lendu. The conflict was fueled by hate speech on media platforms. As a result, the conflict between these ethnic groups has transformed to one of the bloodiest conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo.",
"title": "Political Uses of Media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Peacekeeping agencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo observed the dangerous risk hate speech posed to communal welfare in the region. In order to combat such harmful speech, Non-governmental agencies (NGO's) began promoting large scale media campaigns. Campaigns consisted of several different radio programs aimed at reconciliation and peacekeeping. Research concluded that such programs showed measurable positive effects.",
"title": "Political Uses of Media"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "After the First Congo War (1996-1997) and Second Congo War (1998-2003), the nation transitioned to a renewed national unity under the rule of President Joseph Kabila and 4 vice presidents, all from former rebel and political opposition groups. The establishment of a democratic model required checks on corruption in public finance and natural resources, executive political parties, and hyperlocal militias and bandits. Peace agreements, in turn, did not end state violence, hence the need for absolute clarity to the public. The right to report on hostile resolutions was adopted in a 2002 resolution as a part of the eventual Inter-Congolese Dialogue. This accord declared that “independent, free, responsible and efficient media are a guarantee for public freedoms, the smooth running of democracy and social cohesion”, giving the voters direct insight into public figures, programs, and overall transparency. Article 27, 28, and Clause 29 established individual freedom of expression, moral press freedom, and the public right to information, respectively. During the time of continuing 2002 conflict, radios served as stages for peace songs and “come-home” messaging. Hosts had conversations with military and government officials, army members, and rebels to discuss the challenges of peace talks and demobilization. Censorship was lenient as long as radio personnel covered both sides.",
"title": "Internet Censorship and Surveillance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Major exceptions to the right of free press imminently ensued. In 1996, censorship had begun to target Congo's artistic freedoms. Beyond broadcasts and news, the nation began to censor those who expressed political sentiments through music. The National Censorship Commission banned six songs that mentioned common opposition outcries relating to employment opportunities, civilian killings, corruption, and faltering human rights. If these songs are played on the radio, the artists may be fined up to $500 per song in accordance with a 1996 censorship decree. Freedom of the press was restricted for artists offending political elites or speaking against Congolese leaders and parties. For those using telecommunications as an outlet, interference was backed by such legislation. Open discussion about political corruption or unmentioned events, such as riots or uprisings against the ruling party, are avoided in news media but continuously active on pavement radio.",
"title": "Internet Censorship and Surveillance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The Congolese government performed a series of intentional internet shutdowns. The first was conducted in December 2011 and lasted approximately 25 days. During the 25 days, Short Message Service otherwise known as SMS was the only one affected by the shutdown. According to an article by CIPESA, \"One of the reasons cited by the government for blocking communication was to prevent the spread of fake results over the internet before the electoral commission announced official results\"",
"title": "Intentional Shutdowns"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Unlike the first shutdown the second intentional shutdown had a broader range of impact.The second intentional shutdown occurred in January 2015. The Congolese government directed telecommunication companies within the country to halt all its services. Not only was SMS affected, but the entire internet itself. This action by the government came on the eve of political protest on a proposed electoral bill.",
"title": "Intentional Shutdowns"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The most recent government shutdown occurred on December 19, 2016. This was an important date as President Joseph Kabila was supposed to step down as head of state. In order to quell, political upheaval the Congolese government ordered telecom operators to block social media in the country.",
"title": "Intentional Shutdowns"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In September 2016, the government cut the signals of the Radio France Internationale (RFI) and United Nations Radio Okapi (UNRO). Later, the general and program director of the Radio-Télévision Manika de Kolwezi was arrested after intentionally broadcasting a phone interview with Katumbi, the opposition leader. The censorship of human freedoms of expression to information was condemned by the Congo's United Nations on Human Rights. Kabila was given until December 19, 2016, to step down. If he decided not to, precautionary measures were set to counter organization and public protests. The government ordered a temporary blocking of images, videos, and voiceovers on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and WhatsApp right after Kabila was to step down. Digital media was the central counter to government oversight and regulation seen in other telecommunication outlets. Media was used in lieu of radio broadcasting to avoid self-censorship, financial restraints that may affect networks, or news station shutdowns. Removing the intermediary for independent journalism and coverage prevented communication among those who wanted to organize and speak out against Kabila. Black-outs were utilized to prevent anticipated politically motivated violence. Additionally, the then Telecommunications Minister Thomas Luhaka was “not informed” of such interference by the government.",
"title": "Intentional Shutdowns"
}
] | Telecommunications in the Democratic Republic of the Congo include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet. | 2001-08-22T16:35:14Z | 2023-11-15T15:28:05Z | [
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"Template:CIA World Factbook",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Webarchive",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Update after",
"Template:Cn",
"Template:Citation needed",
"Template:Cite journal",
"Template:DRC topics",
"Template:Africa topic",
"Template:Telecommunications"
] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo |
8,028 | Transport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo | Ground transport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has always been difficult. The terrain and climate of the Congo Basin present serious barriers to road and rail construction, and the distances are enormous across this vast country. Furthermore, chronic economic mismanagement and internal conflict has led to serious under-investment over many years.
On the other hand, the DRC has thousands of kilometres of navigable waterways, and traditionally water transport has been the dominant means of moving around approximately two-thirds of the country.
As an illustration of transport difficulties in the DRC, even before wars damaged the infrastructure, the so-called "national" route, used to get supplies to Bukavu from the seaport of Matadi, consisted of the following:
In other words, goods had to be loaded and unloaded eight times and the total journey would take many months.
Many of the routes listed below are in poor condition and may be operating at only a fraction of their original capacity (if at all), despite recent attempts to make improvements. Up to 2006 the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) had an operation in Congo to support humanitarian relief agencies working there, and its bulletins and maps about the transport situation are archived on ReliefWeb.
The First and Second Congo Wars saw great destruction of transport infrastructure from which the country has not yet recovered. Many vehicles were destroyed or commandeered by militias, especially in the north and east of the country, and the fuel supply system was also badly affected. Consequently, outside of Kinshasa, Matadi and Lubumbashi, private and commercial road transport is almost non-existent and traffic is scarce even where roads are in good condition. The few vehicles in use outside these cities are run by the United Nations, aid agencies, the DRC government, and a few larger companies such as those in the mining and energy sectors. High-resolution satellite photos on the Internet show large cities such as Bukavu, Butembo and Kikwit virtually devoid of traffic, compared to similar photos of towns in neighbouring countries.
Air transport is the only effective means of moving between many places within the country. The Congolese government, the United Nations, aid organisations and large companies use air rather than ground transport to move personnel and freight. The UN operates a large fleet of aircraft and helicopters, and compared to other African countries the DRC has a large number of small domestic airlines and air charter companies. The transport (and smuggling) of minerals with a high value for weight is also carried out by air, and in the east, some stretches of paved road isolated by destroyed bridges or impassable sections have been turned into airstrips.
For the ordinary citizen though, especially in rural areas, often the only options are to cycle, walk or go by dugout canoe.
Some parts of the DRC are more accessible from neighbouring countries than from Kinshasa. For example, Bukavu itself and Goma and other north-eastern towns are linked by paved road from the DRC border to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, and most goods for these cities have been brought via this route in recent years. Similarly, Lubumbashi and the rest of Katanga Province is linked to Zambia, through which the paved highway and rail networks of Southern Africa can be accessed. Such links through neighbouring countries are generally more important for the east and south-east of the country, and are more heavily used, than surface links to the capital.
In 2007 China agreed to lend the DRC US$5bn for two major transport infrastructure projects to link mineral-rich Katanga, specifically Lubumbashi, by rail to an ocean port (Matadi) and by road to the Kisangani river port, and to improve its links to the transport network of Southern Africa in Zambia. The two projects would also link the major parts of the country not served by water transport, and the main centres of the economy. Loan repayments will be from concessions for raw materials which China desperately needs: copper, cobalt, gold and nickel, as well as by toll revenues from the road and railway. In the face of reluctance by the international business community to invest in DRC, this represents a revitalisation of DRC's infrastructure much needed by its government.
The China Railway Seventh Group Co. Ltd will be in charge of the contract, under signed by the China Railway Engineering Corporation, with construction to be started from June 2008.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has fewer all-weather paved highways than any country of its population and size in Africa — a total of 2250 km, of which only 1226 km is in good condition (see below). To put this in perspective, the road distance across the country in any direction is more than 2500 km (e.g. Matadi to Lubumbashi, 2700 km by road). The figure of 2250 km converts to 35 km of paved road per 1,000,000 of population. Comparative figures for Zambia and Botswana are 721 km and 3427 km respectively.
The road network is theoretically divided into four categories (national roads, priority regional roads, secondary regional roads and local roads), however, the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) reports that this classification is of little practical use because some roads simply do not exist. For example, National Road 9 is not operational and cannot be detected by remote sensing methods.
The two principal highways are:
The total road network in 2005, according to the UNJLC, consisted of:
The UNJLC also points out that the pre-Second Congo War network no longer exists, and is dependent upon 20,000 bridges and 325 ferries, most of which are in need of repair or replacement. In contrast, a Democratic Republic of the Congo government document shows that, also in 2005, the network of main highways in good condition was as follows:
The 2000 Michelin Motoring and Tourist Map 955 of Southern and Central Africa, which categorizes roads as "surfaced", "improved" (generally unsurfaced but with gravel added and graded), "partially improved" and "earth roads" and "tracks" shows that there were 2694 km of paved highway in 2000. These figures indicate that, compared to the more recent figures above, there has been a deterioration this decade, rather than improvement.
Three routes in the Trans-African Highway network pass through DR Congo:
The DRC has more navigable rivers and moves more passengers and goods by boat and ferry than any other country in Africa. Kinshasa, with 7 km of river frontage occupied by wharfs and jetties, is the largest inland waterways port on the continent. However, much of the infrastructure — vessels and port handling facilities — has, like the railways, suffered from poor maintenance and internal conflict.
The total length of waterways is estimated at 16,238 km including the Congo River, its tributaries, and unconnected lakes.
The 1000-kilometre Kinshasa-Kisangani route on the Congo River is the longest and best-known. It is operated by river tugs pushing several barges lashed together, and for the hundreds of passengers and traders these function like small floating towns. Rather than mooring at riverside communities along the route, traders come out by canoe and small boat alongside the river barges and transfer goods on the move.
Most waterway routes do not operate to regular schedules. It is common for an operator to moor a barge at a riverside town and collect freight and passengers over a period of weeks before hiring a river tug to tow or push the barge to its destination.
The middle Congo River and its tributaries from the east are the principal domestic waterways in the DRC. The two principal river routes are:
See the diagrammatic transport map above for other river waterways.
The most-used domestic lake waterways are:
Most large Congo river ferry boats were destroyed during the civil war. Only smaller boats are running and they are irregular.
petroleum products 390 km
1 petroleum tanker
Due to the lack of roads, operating railroads and ferry transportation many people traveling around the country fly on aircraft. As of 2016 the country does not have an international passenger airline and relies on foreign-based airlines for international connections. Congo Airways provides domestic flights and are based at Kinshasa's N'djili Airport which serves as the country's main international airport. Lubumbashi International Airport in the country's south-east is also serviced by several international airlines.
total: 24 over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: 16 914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2002 est.)
total: 205 1,524 to 2,437 m: 19 914 to 1,523 m: 95 under 914 m: 91 (2002 est.)
All air carriers certified by the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been banned from operating at airports in the European Community by the European Commission because of inadequate safety standards.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a rocketry program called Troposphere. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Ground transport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has always been difficult. The terrain and climate of the Congo Basin present serious barriers to road and rail construction, and the distances are enormous across this vast country. Furthermore, chronic economic mismanagement and internal conflict has led to serious under-investment over many years.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "On the other hand, the DRC has thousands of kilometres of navigable waterways, and traditionally water transport has been the dominant means of moving around approximately two-thirds of the country.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "As an illustration of transport difficulties in the DRC, even before wars damaged the infrastructure, the so-called \"national\" route, used to get supplies to Bukavu from the seaport of Matadi, consisted of the following:",
"title": "Transport problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In other words, goods had to be loaded and unloaded eight times and the total journey would take many months.",
"title": "Transport problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Many of the routes listed below are in poor condition and may be operating at only a fraction of their original capacity (if at all), despite recent attempts to make improvements. Up to 2006 the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) had an operation in Congo to support humanitarian relief agencies working there, and its bulletins and maps about the transport situation are archived on ReliefWeb.",
"title": "Transport problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The First and Second Congo Wars saw great destruction of transport infrastructure from which the country has not yet recovered. Many vehicles were destroyed or commandeered by militias, especially in the north and east of the country, and the fuel supply system was also badly affected. Consequently, outside of Kinshasa, Matadi and Lubumbashi, private and commercial road transport is almost non-existent and traffic is scarce even where roads are in good condition. The few vehicles in use outside these cities are run by the United Nations, aid agencies, the DRC government, and a few larger companies such as those in the mining and energy sectors. High-resolution satellite photos on the Internet show large cities such as Bukavu, Butembo and Kikwit virtually devoid of traffic, compared to similar photos of towns in neighbouring countries.",
"title": "Transport problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Air transport is the only effective means of moving between many places within the country. The Congolese government, the United Nations, aid organisations and large companies use air rather than ground transport to move personnel and freight. The UN operates a large fleet of aircraft and helicopters, and compared to other African countries the DRC has a large number of small domestic airlines and air charter companies. The transport (and smuggling) of minerals with a high value for weight is also carried out by air, and in the east, some stretches of paved road isolated by destroyed bridges or impassable sections have been turned into airstrips.",
"title": "Transport problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "For the ordinary citizen though, especially in rural areas, often the only options are to cycle, walk or go by dugout canoe.",
"title": "Transport problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Some parts of the DRC are more accessible from neighbouring countries than from Kinshasa. For example, Bukavu itself and Goma and other north-eastern towns are linked by paved road from the DRC border to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, and most goods for these cities have been brought via this route in recent years. Similarly, Lubumbashi and the rest of Katanga Province is linked to Zambia, through which the paved highway and rail networks of Southern Africa can be accessed. Such links through neighbouring countries are generally more important for the east and south-east of the country, and are more heavily used, than surface links to the capital.",
"title": "Transport problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 2007 China agreed to lend the DRC US$5bn for two major transport infrastructure projects to link mineral-rich Katanga, specifically Lubumbashi, by rail to an ocean port (Matadi) and by road to the Kisangani river port, and to improve its links to the transport network of Southern Africa in Zambia. The two projects would also link the major parts of the country not served by water transport, and the main centres of the economy. Loan repayments will be from concessions for raw materials which China desperately needs: copper, cobalt, gold and nickel, as well as by toll revenues from the road and railway. In the face of reluctance by the international business community to invest in DRC, this represents a revitalisation of DRC's infrastructure much needed by its government.",
"title": "Major infrastructure programs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The China Railway Seventh Group Co. Ltd will be in charge of the contract, under signed by the China Railway Engineering Corporation, with construction to be started from June 2008.",
"title": "Major infrastructure programs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Democratic Republic of the Congo has fewer all-weather paved highways than any country of its population and size in Africa — a total of 2250 km, of which only 1226 km is in good condition (see below). To put this in perspective, the road distance across the country in any direction is more than 2500 km (e.g. Matadi to Lubumbashi, 2700 km by road). The figure of 2250 km converts to 35 km of paved road per 1,000,000 of population. Comparative figures for Zambia and Botswana are 721 km and 3427 km respectively.",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The road network is theoretically divided into four categories (national roads, priority regional roads, secondary regional roads and local roads), however, the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) reports that this classification is of little practical use because some roads simply do not exist. For example, National Road 9 is not operational and cannot be detected by remote sensing methods.",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The two principal highways are:",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The total road network in 2005, according to the UNJLC, consisted of:",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The UNJLC also points out that the pre-Second Congo War network no longer exists, and is dependent upon 20,000 bridges and 325 ferries, most of which are in need of repair or replacement. In contrast, a Democratic Republic of the Congo government document shows that, also in 2005, the network of main highways in good condition was as follows:",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The 2000 Michelin Motoring and Tourist Map 955 of Southern and Central Africa, which categorizes roads as \"surfaced\", \"improved\" (generally unsurfaced but with gravel added and graded), \"partially improved\" and \"earth roads\" and \"tracks\" shows that there were 2694 km of paved highway in 2000. These figures indicate that, compared to the more recent figures above, there has been a deterioration this decade, rather than improvement.",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Three routes in the Trans-African Highway network pass through DR Congo:",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The DRC has more navigable rivers and moves more passengers and goods by boat and ferry than any other country in Africa. Kinshasa, with 7 km of river frontage occupied by wharfs and jetties, is the largest inland waterways port on the continent. However, much of the infrastructure — vessels and port handling facilities — has, like the railways, suffered from poor maintenance and internal conflict.",
"title": "Waterways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The total length of waterways is estimated at 16,238 km including the Congo River, its tributaries, and unconnected lakes.",
"title": "Waterways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The 1000-kilometre Kinshasa-Kisangani route on the Congo River is the longest and best-known. It is operated by river tugs pushing several barges lashed together, and for the hundreds of passengers and traders these function like small floating towns. Rather than mooring at riverside communities along the route, traders come out by canoe and small boat alongside the river barges and transfer goods on the move.",
"title": "Waterways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Most waterway routes do not operate to regular schedules. It is common for an operator to moor a barge at a riverside town and collect freight and passengers over a period of weeks before hiring a river tug to tow or push the barge to its destination.",
"title": "Waterways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The middle Congo River and its tributaries from the east are the principal domestic waterways in the DRC. The two principal river routes are:",
"title": "Waterways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "See the diagrammatic transport map above for other river waterways.",
"title": "Waterways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The most-used domestic lake waterways are:",
"title": "Waterways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Most large Congo river ferry boats were destroyed during the civil war. Only smaller boats are running and they are irregular.",
"title": "Waterways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "petroleum products 390 km",
"title": "Pipelines"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "1 petroleum tanker",
"title": "Merchant marine"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Due to the lack of roads, operating railroads and ferry transportation many people traveling around the country fly on aircraft. As of 2016 the country does not have an international passenger airline and relies on foreign-based airlines for international connections. Congo Airways provides domestic flights and are based at Kinshasa's N'djili Airport which serves as the country's main international airport. Lubumbashi International Airport in the country's south-east is also serviced by several international airlines.",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "total: 24 over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: 16 914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2002 est.)",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "total: 205 1,524 to 2,437 m: 19 914 to 1,523 m: 95 under 914 m: 91 (2002 est.)",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "All air carriers certified by the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been banned from operating at airports in the European Community by the European Commission because of inadequate safety standards.",
"title": "Transport safety and incidents"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a rocketry program called Troposphere.",
"title": "Rocketry"
}
] | Ground transport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has always been difficult. The terrain and climate of the Congo Basin present serious barriers to road and rail construction, and the distances are enormous across this vast country. Furthermore, chronic economic mismanagement and internal conflict has led to serious under-investment over many years. On the other hand, the DRC has thousands of kilometres of navigable waterways, and traditionally water transport has been the dominant means of moving around approximately two-thirds of the country. | 2023-03-08T13:00:28Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo |
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8,029 | Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (French: Forces armées de la république démocratique du Congo [FARDC]) is the state organisation responsible for defending the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The FARDC was rebuilt patchily as part of the peace process which followed the end of the Second Congo War in July 2003.
The majority of FARDC members are land forces, but it also has a small air force and an even smaller navy. In 2010–2011 the three services may have numbered between 144,000 and 159,000 personnel. In addition, there is a presidential force called the Republican Guard, but it and the Congolese National Police (PNC) are not part of the Armed Forces.
The government in the capital city Kinshasa, the United Nations, the European Union, and bilateral partners which include Angola, South Africa, and Belgium are attempting to create a viable force with the ability to provide the Democratic Republic of Congo with stability and security. However, this process is being hampered by corruption, inadequate donor coordination, and competition between donors. The various military units now grouped under the FARDC banner are some of the most unstable in Africa after years of war and underfunding.
To assist the new government, since February 2000 the United Nations has had the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (now called MONUSCO), which currently has a strength of over 16,000 peacekeepers in the country. Its principal tasks are to provide security in key areas, such as the South Kivu and North Kivu in the east, and to assist the government in reconstruction. Foreign rebel groups are also in the Congo, as they have been for most of the last half-century. The most important is the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), against which Laurent Nkunda's troops were fighting, but other smaller groups such as the anti-Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army are also present.
The legal standing of the FARDC was laid down in the Transitional Constitution, articles 118 and 188. This was then superseded by provisions in the 2006 Constitution, articles 187 to 192. Law 04/023 of 12 November 2004 establishes the General Organisation of Defence and the Armed Forces. In mid-2010, the Congolese Parliament was debating a new defence law, provisionally designated Organic Law 130.
The first organised Congolese troops, known as the Force Publique, were created in 1888 when King Leopold II of Belgium, who held the Congo Free State as his private property, ordered his Secretary of the Interior to create military and police forces for the state. In 1908, under international pressure, Leopold ceded administration of the colony to the government of Belgium as the Belgian Congo. It remained under the command of a Belgian officer corps through to the independence of the colony in 1960. Throughout 1916 and 1917, the Force Publique saw combat in Cameroun, and successfully invaded and conquered areas of German East Africa, notably present day Rwanda, during World War I. Elements of the Force Publique were also used to form Belgian colonial units that fought in the East African Campaign during World War II.
At independence on 30 June 1960, the army suffered from a dramatic deficit of trained leaders, particularly in the officer corps. This was because the Force Publique had always only been officered by Belgian or other expatriate whites. The Belgian Government made no effort to train Congolese commissioned officers until the very end of the colonial period, and in 1958, only 23 African cadets had been admitted even to the military secondary school. The highest rank available to Congolese was adjutant, which only four soldiers achieved before independence. Though 14 Congolese cadets were enrolled in the Royal Military Academy in Brussels in May, they were not scheduled to graduate as second lieutenants until 1963. Ill-advised actions by Belgian officers led to an enlisted ranks' rebellion on 5 July 1960, which helped spark the Congo Crisis. Lieutenant General Émile Janssens, the Force Publique commander, wrote during a meeting of soldiers that 'Before independence=After Independence', pouring cold water on the soldiers' desires for an immediate raise in their status.
Historian Louis-François Vanderstraeten says that on the morning of 8 July 1960, following a night during which all control had been lost over the soldiers, numerous ministers arrived at Camp Leopold with the aim of calming the situation. Both Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu eventually arrived, and the soldiers listened to Kasa-Vubu "religiously." After his speech, Kasa-Vubu and the ministers present retired into the camp canteen to hear a delegation from the soldiers. Vanderstraeten says that, according to Joseph Ileo, their demands (revendications) included the following:
The "laborious" discussions which then followed were later retrospectively given the label of an "extraordinary ministerial council." Gérard-Libois writes that "...the special meeting of the council of ministers took steps for the immediate Africanisation of the officer corps and named Victor Lundula, who was born in Kasai and was burgomaster of Jadotville, as Commander-in-Chief of the ANC; Colonel Joseph-Désiré Mobutu as chief of staff; and the Belgian, Colonel Henniquiau, as chief advisor to the ANC". Thus General Janssens was dismissed. Both Lundula and Mobutu were former sergeants of the Force Publique.
On 8–9 July 1960, the soldiers were invited to appoint black officers, and "command of the army passed securely into the hands of former sergeants," as the soldiers in general chose the most-educated and highest-ranked Congolese army soldiers as their new officers. Most of the Belgian officers were retained as advisors to the new Congolese hierarchy, and calm returned to the two main garrisons at Leopoldville and Thysville. The Force Publique was renamed the Armée nationale congolaise (ANC), or Congolese National Armed Forces. However, in Katanga Belgian officers resisted the Africanisation of the army.
There was a Force Publique mutiny at Camp Massart, in Elizabethville, on 9 July 1960; five or seven Europeans were killed. The army revolt and resulting rumours caused severe panic across the country, and Belgium despatched troops and the naval Task Group 218.2 to protect its citizens. Belgian troops intervened in Elisabethville and Luluabourg (10 July), Matadi (11 July), Leopoldville (13 July) and elsewhere. There were immediate suspicions that Belgium planned to re-seize their former colony whilst doing so. Large numbers of Belgian colonists fled the country. At the same time, on 11 July, Moise Tshombe declared the independence of Katanga Province in the south-east, closely backed by remaining Belgian administrators and soldiers.
On 14 July 1960, in response to requests by Prime Minister Lumumba, the UN Security Council adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution 143. This called upon Belgium to remove its troops and for the UN to provide military assistance to the Congolese forces to allow them "to meet fully their tasks". Lumumba demanded that Belgium remove its troops immediately, threatening to seek help from the Soviet Union if they did not leave within two days. The UN reacted quickly and established the United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC). The first UN troops arrived the next day but there was instant disagreement between Lumumba and the UN over the new force's mandate. Because the Congolese army had been in disarray since the mutiny, Lumumba wanted to use the UN troops to subdue Katanga by force. Lumumba became extremely frustrated with the UN's unwillingness to use force against Tshombe and his secession. He cancelled a scheduled meeting with Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld on 14 August and wrote a series of angry letters instead. To Hammarskjöld, the secession of Katanga was an internal Congolese matter and the UN was forbidden to intervene by Article 2 of the United Nations Charter. Disagreements over what the UN force could and could not do continued throughout its deployment.
A total of 3,500 troops for ONUC had arrived in the Congo by 20 July 1960. The first contingent of Belgian forces had left Leopoldville on 16 July upon the arrival of the United Nations troops. Following assurances that contingents of the Force would arrive in sufficient numbers, the Belgian authorities agreed to withdraw all their forces from the Leopoldville area by 23 July. The last Belgian troops left the country by 23 July, as United Nations forces continued to deploy throughout the Congo. The build of ONUC continued, its strength increasing to over 8,000 by 25 July and to over 11,000 by 31 July 1960. A basic agreement between the United Nations and the Congolese Government on the operation of the Force was agreed by 27 July. On 9 August, Albert Kalonji proclaimed the independence of South Kasai.
During the crucial period of July–August 1960, Mobutu built up "his" national army by channeling foreign aid to units loyal to him, by exiling unreliable units to remote areas, and by absorbing or dispersing rival armies. He tied individual officers to him by controlling their promotion and the flow of money for payrolls. Researchers working from the 1990s have concluded that money was directly funnelled to the army by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the UN, and Belgium. Despite this, by September 1960, following the four-way division of the country, there were four separate armed forces: Mobotu's ANC itself, numbering about 12,000, the South Kasai Constabulary loyal to Albert Kalonji (3,000 or less), the Katanga Gendarmerie which were part of Moise Tshombe's regime (totalling about 10,000), and the Stanleyville dissident ANC loyal to Antoine Gizenga (numbering about 8,000).
In August 1960, due to the rejection of requests for UN assistance to suppress the South Kasai and Katanga revolts, Lumumba's government decided to request Soviet help. De Witte writes that "Leopoldville asked the Soviet Union for planes, lorries, arms, and equipment...Shortly afterwards, on 22 or 23 August, about 1,000 soldiers left for Kasai." On 26–27 August, the ANC seized Bakwanga, Albert Kalonji's capital in South Kasai, without serious resistance and, according to de Witte, "in the next two days it temporarily put an end to the secession of Kasai."
At this point, the Library of Congress Country Study for the Congo says, that on 5 September 1960: "Kasavubu also appointed Mobutu as head of the ANC. Joseph Ileo was chosen as the new prime minister and began trying to form a new government. Lumumba and his cabinet responded by accusing Kasa-Vubu of high treason and voted to dismiss him. Parliament refused to confirm the dismissal of either Lumumba or Kasavubu and sought to bring about a reconciliation between them. After a week's deadlock, Mobutu announced on 14 September that he was assuming power until 31 December 1960, in order to "neutralize" both Kasavubu and Lumumba." Mobutu formed the College of Commissioners-General, a technocratic government of university graduates.
In early January 1961, ANC units loyal to Lumumba invaded northern Katanga to support a revolt of Baluba tribesmen against Tshombe's secessionist regime. On 23 January 1961, Kasa-Vubu promoted Mobutu to major-general; De Witte argues that this was a political move, "aimed to strengthen the army, the president's sole support, and Mobutu's position within the army."
United Nations Security Council Resolution 161 of 21 February 1961, called for the withdrawal of Belgian officers from command positions in the ANC, and the training of new Congolese officers with UN help. ONUC made a number of attempts to retrain the ANC from August 1960 to June 1963, often been set back by political changes. By March 1963 however, after the visit of Colonel Michael Greene of the United States Army, and the resulting "Greene Plan", the pattern of bilaterally agreed military assistance to various Congolese military components, instead of a single unified effort, was already taking shape.
In early 1964, a new crisis broke out as Congolese rebels calling themselves "Simba" (Swahili for "Lion") rebelled against the government. They were led by Pierre Mulele, Gaston Soumialot and Christophe Gbenye who were former members of Gizenga's Parti Solidaire Africain (PSA). The rebellion affected Kivu and Eastern (Orientale) provinces. By August they had captured Stanleyville and set up a rebel government there. As the rebel movement spread, discipline became more difficult to maintain, and acts of violence and terror increased. Thousands of Congolese were executed, including government officials, political leaders of opposition parties, provincial and local police, school teachers, and others believed to have been Westernised. Many of the executions were carried out with extreme cruelty, in front of a monument to Lumumba in Stanleyville. Tshombe decided to use foreign mercenaries as well as the ANC to suppress the rebellion. Mike Hoare was employed to create the English-speaking 5 Commando at Kamina, with the assistance of a Belgian officer, Colonel Frederic Vanderwalle, while 6 Commando (Congo) was French-speaking and originally under the command of a Belgian Army colonel, Lamouline. By August 1964, the mercenaries, with the assistance of other ANC troops, were making headway against the Simba rebellion. Fearing defeat, the rebels started taking hostages of the local white population in areas under their control. These hostages were rescued in Belgian airdrops (Operations Dragon Rouge and Dragon Noir) over Stanleyville and Paulis airlifted by U.S. aircraft. The operation coincided with the arrival of mercenary units (seemingly including the hurriedly formed 5th Mechanised Brigade) at Stanleyville which was quickly captured. It took until the end of the year to completely put down the remaining areas of rebellion.
After five years of turbulence, in 1965 Mobutu used his position as ANC Chief of Staff to seize power in the 1965 Democratic Republic of the Congo coup d'état. Although Mobutu succeeded in taking power, his position was soon threatened by the Stanleyville mutinies, also known as the Mercenaries' Mutinies, which were eventually suppressed.
As a general rule, since that time, the armed forces have not intervened in politics as a body, rather being tossed and turned as ambitious men have shaken the country. In reality, the larger problem has been the misuse and sometimes abuse of the military and police by political and ethnic leaders.
On 16 May 1968 a parachute brigade of two regiments (each of three battalions) was formed which eventually was to grow in size to a full division.
The country was renamed Zaire in 1971 and the army was consequently designated the Forces Armées Zaïroises (FAZ). In 1971 the army's force consisted of the 1st Groupement at Kananga, with one guard battalion, two infantry battalions, and a gendarmerie battalion attached, and the 2nd Groupement (Kinshasa), the 3rd Groupement (Kisangani), the 4th Groupement (Lubumbashi), the 5th Groupement (Bukavu), the 6th Groupement (Mbandaka), and the 7th Groupement (Boma). Each was about the size of a brigade, and commanded by aging generals who have had no military training, and often not much positive experience, since they were NCOs in the Belgian Force Publique.' By the late 1970s the number of groupements reached nine, one per administrative region. The parachute division (Division des Troupes Aéroportées Renforcées de Choc, DITRAC) operated semi-independently from the rest of the army.
In July 1972 a number of the aging generals commanding the groupements were retired. Général d'armée Louis Bobozo, and Generaux de Corps d'Armée Nyamaseko Mata Bokongo, Nzoigba Yeu Ngoli, Muke Massaku, Ingila Grima, Itambo Kambala Wa Mukina, Tshinyama Mpemba, and General de Division Yossa Yi Ayira, the last having been commander of the Kamina base, were all retired on 25 July 1972. Taking over as military commander-in-chief, now titled Captain General, was newly promoted General de Division Bumba Moaso, former commander of the parachute division.
A large number of countries supported the FAZ in the early 1970s. Three hundred Belgian personnel were serving as staff officers and advisors throughout the Ministry of Defence, Italians were supporting the Air Force, Americans were assisting with transport and communications, Israelis with airborne forces training, and there were British advisors with the engineers. In 1972 the state-sponsored political organisation, the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR), resolved at a party congress to form activist cells in each military unit. The decision caused consternation among the officer corps, as the army had been apolitical (and even anti-political) since before independence.
On 11 June 1975 several military officers were arrested in what became known as the coup monté et manqué. Amongst those arrested were Générals Daniel Katsuva wa Katsuvira, Land Forces Chief of Staff, Utshudi Wembolenga, Commandant of the 2nd Military Region at Kalemie; Fallu Sumbu, Military Attaché of Zaïre in Washington, Colonel Mudiayi wa Mudiayi, the military attaché of Zaïre in Paris, the military attache in Brussels, a paracommando battalion commander, and several others. The regime alleged these officers and others (including Mobutu's secrétaire particulier) had plotted the assassination of Mobutu, high treason, and disclosure of military secrets, among other offences. The alleged coup was investigated by a revolutionary commission headed by Boyenge Mosambay Singa, at that time head of the Gendarmerie. Writing in 1988, Michael Schatzberg said the full details of the coup had yet to emerge. Meitho, writing many years later, says the officers were accused of trying to raise Mobutu's secrétaire particulier, Colonel Omba Pene Djunga, from Kasai, to power.
In late 1975, Mobutu, in a bid to install a pro-Kinshasa government in Angola and thwart the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA)'s drive for power, deployed FAZ armoured cars, paratroopers, and three infantry battalions to Angola in support of the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). On 10 November 1975, an anti-Communist force made up of 1,500 FNLA fighters, 100 Portuguese Angolan soldiers, and two FAZ battalions passed near the city of Quifangondo, only 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Luanda, at dawn on 10 November. The force, supported by South African aircraft and three 140 mm artillery pieces, marched in a single line along the Bengo River to face an 800-strong Cuban force across the river. Thus the Battle of Quifangondo began. The Cubans and MPLA fighters bombarded the FNLA with mortar and 122 mm rockets, destroying most of the FNLA's armoured cars and six Jeeps carrying antitank rockets in the first hour of fighting.
Mobutu's support for the FNLA policy backfired when the MPLA won in Angola. The MPLA, then, acting ostensibly at least as the Front for Congolese National Liberation, occupied Zaire's southeastern Katanga Province, then known as Shaba, in March 1977, facing little resistance from the FAZ. This invasion is sometimes known as Shaba I. Mobutu had to request assistance, which was provided by Morocco in the form of regular troops who routed the MPLA and their Cuban advisors out of Katanga. Also important were Egyptian pilots who flew Zaire's Mirage 5 combat aircraft. The humiliation of this episode led to civil unrest in Zaire in early 1978, which the FAZ had to put down.
The poor performance of Zaire's military during Shaba I gave evidence of chronic weaknesses. One problem was that some of the Zairian soldiers in the area had not received pay for extended periods. Senior officers often kept the money intended for the soldiers, typifying a generally disreputable and inept senior leadership in the FAZ. As a result, many soldiers simply deserted rather than fight. Others stayed with their units but were ineffective. During the months following the Shaba invasion, Mobutu sought solutions to the military problems that had contributed to the army's dismal performance. He implemented sweeping reforms of the command structure, including wholesale firings of high-ranking officers. He merged the military general staff with his own presidential staff and appointed himself chief of staff again, in addition to the positions of minister of defence and supreme commander that he already held. He also redeployed his forces throughout the country instead of keeping them close to Kinshasa, as had previously been the case. The Kamanyola Division, at the time considered the army's best formation, and considered the president's own, was assigned permanently to Shaba. In addition to these changes, the army's strength was reduced by 25 percent. Also, Zaire's allies provided a large influx of military equipment, and Belgian, French, and American advisers assisted in rebuilding and retraining the force.
Despite these improvements, a second invasion by the former Katangan gendarmerie, known as Shaba II in May–June 1978, was only dispersed with the despatch of the French 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment and a battalion of the Belgian Paracommando Regiment. Kamanyola Division units collapsed almost immediately. French units fought the Battle of Kolwezi to recapture the town from the FLNC. The U.S. provided logistical assistance.
In July 1975, according to the IISS Military Balance, the FAZ included 14 infantry battalions, seven "Guard" battalions, and seven other infantry battalions variously designated as "parachute" (or possibly "commando"; probably the units of the parachute brigade originally formed in 1968). There were also an armoured car regiment and a mechanised infantry battalion. Organisationally, the army was made up of the parachute division and the seven groupements. In addition to these units, a tank battalion was reported to have formed by 1979.
In January 1979 General de Division Mosambaye Singa Boyenge was named as both military region commander and Region Commissioner for Shaba.
In 1984, a militarised police force, the Civil Guard, was formed. It was eventually commanded by Général d'armée Kpama Baramoto Kata.
Thomas Turner wrote in the mid-1990s that "[m]ajor acts of violence, such as the killings that followed the "Kasongo uprising" in Bandundu Region in 1978, the killings of diamond miners in Kasai-Oriental Region in 1979, and, more recently, the massacre of students in Lubumbashi in 1990, continued to intimidate the population."
The authors of the Library of Congress Country Study on Zaire commented in 1992–93 that:
"The maintenance status of equipment in the inventory has traditionally varied, depending on a unit's priority and the presence or absence of foreign advisers and technicians. A considerable portion of military equipment is not operational, primarily as a result of shortages of spare parts, poor maintenance, and theft. For example, the tanks of the 1st Armoured Brigade often have a nonoperational rate approaching 70 to 80 percent. After a visit by a Chinese technical team in 1985, most of the tanks operated, but such an improved status generally has not lasted long beyond the departure of the visiting team. Several factors complicate maintenance in Zairian units. Maintenance personnel often lack the training necessary to maintain modern military equipment. Moreover, the wide variety of military equipment and the staggering array of spare parts necessary to maintain it not only clog the logistic network but also are expensive.
The most important factor that negatively affects maintenance is the low and irregular pay that soldiers receive, resulting in the theft and sale of spare parts and even basic equipment to supplement their meager salaries. When not stealing spare parts and equipment, maintenance personnel often spend the better part of their duty day looking for other ways to profit. American maintenance teams working in Zaire found that providing a free lunch to the work force was a good, sometimes the only, technique to motivate personnel to work at least half of the duty day.
The army's logistics corps [was tasked].. to provide logistic support and conduct direct, indirect, and depot-level maintenance for the FAZ. But because of Zaire's lack of emphasis on maintenance and logistics, a lack of funding, and inadequate training, the corps is understaffed, underequipped, and generally unable to accomplish its mission. It is organised into three battalions assigned to Mbandaka, Kisangani, and Kamina, but only the battalion at Kamina is adequately staffed; the others are little more than skeleton" units.
The poor state of discipline of the Congolese forces became apparent again in 1990. Foreign military assistance to Zaire ceased following the end of the Cold War and Mobutu deliberately allowed the military's condition to deteriorate so that it did not threaten his hold on power. Protesting low wages and lack of pay, paratroopers began looting Kinshasa in September 1991 and were only stopped after intervention by French ('Operation Baumier') and Belgian ('Operation Blue Beam') forces.
In 1993, according to the Library of Congress Country Studies, the 25,000-member FAZ ground forces consisted of one infantry division (with three infantry brigades); one airborne brigade (with three parachute battalions and one support battalion); one special forces (commando/counterinsurgency) brigade; the Special Presidential Division; one independent armoured brigade; and two independent infantry brigades (each with three infantry battalions, one support battalion). These units were deployed throughout the country, with the main concentrations in Shaba Region (approximately half the force). The Kamanyola Division, consisting of three infantry brigades operated generally in western Shaba Region; the 21st Infantry Brigade was located in Lubumbashi; the 13th Infantry Brigade was deployed throughout eastern Shaba; and at least one battalion of the 31st Airborne Brigade stayed at Kamina. The other main concentration of forces was in and around Kinshasa: the 31st Airborne Brigade was deployed at N'djili Airport on the outskirts of the capital; the Special Presidential Division (DSP) resided adjacent to the presidential compound; and the 1st Armoured Brigade was at Mbanza-Ngungu (in Bas-Congo, approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Kinshasa). Finally the 41st Commando Brigade was at Kisangani.
This superficially impressive list of units overstates the actual capability of the armed forces at the time. Apart from privileged formations such as the Presidential Division and the 31st Airborne Brigade, most units were poorly trained, divided and so badly paid that they regularly resorted to looting. What operational abilities the armed forces had were gradually destroyed by politicisation of the forces, tribalisation, and division of the forces, included purges of suspectedly disloyal groups, intended to allow Mobutu to divide and rule. All this occurred against the background of increasing deterioration of state structures under the kleptocratic Mobutu regime.
Much of the origins of the recent conflict in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo stems from the turmoil following the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which then led to the Great Lakes refugee crisis. Within the largest refugee camps, beginning in Goma in Nord-Kivu, were Rwandan Hutu fighters, who were eventually organised into the Rassemblement Démocratique pour le Rwanda, who launched repeated attacks into Rwanda. Rwanda eventually backed Laurent-Désiré Kabila and his quickly organised Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) in invading Zaire, aiming to stop the attacks on Rwanda in the process of toppling Mobutu's government. When the militias rebelled, backed by Rwanda, the FAZ, weakened as is noted above, proved incapable of mastering the situation and preventing the overthrow of Mobutu in 1997. Elements of the Mobutu-loyal FAZ managed to retreat into northern Congo, and from there into Sudan while attempting to escape the AFDL. Allying themselves with the Sudanese government which was fighting its own civil war at the time, these FAZ troops were destroyed by the Sudan People's Liberation Army during Operation Thunderbolt near Yei in March 1997.
When Kabila took power in 1997, the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo and so the name of the national army changed once again, to the Forces armées congolaises (FAC). Tanzania sent six hundred military advisors to train Kabila's new army in May 1997. (Prunier says that the instructors were still at the Kitona base when the Second Congo War broke out, and had to be quickly returned to Tanzania. Prunier said "South African aircraft carried out the evacuation after a personal conversation between President Mkapa and not-yet-president Thabo Mbeki. Command over the armed forces in the first few months of Kabila's rule was vague. Gérard Prunier writes that "there was no minister of defence, no known chief of staff, and no ranks; all officers were Cuban-style 'commanders' called 'Ignace', 'Bosco', Jonathan', or 'James', who occupied connecting suites at the Intercontinental Hotel and had presidential list cell-phone numbers. None spoke French or Lingala, but all spoke Kinyarwanda, Swahili, and, quite often, English." On being asked by Belgian journalist Colette Braeckman what was the actual army command structure apart from himself, Kabila answered 'We are not going to expose ourselves and risk being destroyed by showing ourselves openly... . We are careful so that the true masters of the army are not known. It is strategic. Please, let us drop the matter.' Kabila's new Forces armées congolaises were riven with internal tensions. The new FAC had Banyamulenge fighters from South Kivu, kadogo child soldiers from various eastern tribes, such as Thierry Nindaga, Safari Rwekoze, etc... [the mostly] Lunda Katangese Tigers of the former FNLC, and former FAZ personnel. Mixing these disparate and formerly warring elements together led to mutiny. On 23 February 1998, a mostly Banyamulenge unit mutiniued at Bukavu after its officers tried to disperse the soldiers into different units spread all around the Congo. By mid-1998, formations on the outbreak of the Second Congo War included the Tanzanian-supported 50th Brigade, headquartered at Camp Kokolo in Kinshasa, and the 10th Brigade – one of the best and largest units in the army – stationed in Goma, as well as the 12th Brigade in Bukavu. The declaration of the 10th Brigade's commander, former DSP officer Jean-Pierre Ondekane, on 2 August 1998 that he no longer recognised Kabila as the state's president was one of the factors in the beginning of the Second Congo War.
According to Jane's, the FAC performed poorly throughout the Second Congo War and "demonstrated little skill or recognisable military doctrine". At the outbreak of the war in 1998 the Army was ineffective and the DRC Government was forced to rely on assistance from Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe. As well as providing expeditionary forces, these countries unsuccessfully attempted to retrain the DRC Army. North Korea and Tanzania also provided assistance with training. During the first year of the war the Allied forces defeated the Rwandan force which had landed in Bas-Congo and the rebel forces south-west of Kinshasa and eventually halted the rebel and Rwandan offensive in the east of the DRC. These successes contributed to the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement which was signed in July 1999. Following the Lusaka Agreement, in mid-August 1999 President Kabila issued a decree dividing the country into eight military regions. The first military region, Congolese state television reported, would consist of the two Kivu provinces, Orientale Province would form the second region, and Maniema and Kasai-Oriental provinces the third. Katanga and Équateur would fall under the fourth and fifth regions, respectively, while Kasai-Occidental and Bandundu would form the sixth region. Kinshasa and Bas-Congo would form the seventh and eighth regions, respectively. In November 1999 the Government attempted to form a 20,000-strong paramilitary force designated the People's Defence Forces. This force was intended to support the FAC and national police but never became effective.
The Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement was not successful in ending the war, and fighting resumed in September 1999. The FAC's performance continued to be poor and both the major offensives the Government launched in 2000 ended in costly defeats. President Kabila's mismanagement was an important factor behind the FAC's poor performance, with soldiers frequently going unpaid and unfed while the Government purchased advanced weaponry which could not be operated or maintained. The defeats in 2000 are believed to have been the cause of President Kabila's assassination in January 2001. Following the assassination, Joseph Kabila assumed the presidency and was eventually successful in negotiating an end to the war in 2002–2003.
The December 2002 Global and All-Inclusive Agreement devoted Chapter VII to the armed forces. It stipulated that the armed forces chief of staff, and the chiefs of the army, air force, and navy were not to come from the same warring faction. The new "national, restructured and integrated" army would be made up from Kabila's government forces (the FAC), the RCD, and the MLC. Also stipulated in VII(b) was that the RCD-N, RCD-ML, and the Mai-Mai would become part of the new armed forces. An intermediate mechanism for physical identification of the soldiers, and their origin, date of enrolment, and unit was also called for (VII(c)). It also provided for the creation of a Conseil Superieur de la Defense (Superior Defence Council) which would declare states of siege or war and give advice on security sector reform, disarmament/demobilization, and national defence policy.
A decision on which factions were to name chiefs of staff and military regional commanders was announced on 19 August 2003 as the first move in military reform, superimposed on top of the various groups of fighters, government and former rebels. Negotiations had been ongoing since June 2003. Kabila was able to name the armed forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Liwanga Mata, who previously served as navy chief of staff under Laurent Kabila. Kabila was able to name the air force commander (John Numbi), the RCD-Goma received the Land Force commander's position (Sylvain Buki) and the MLC the navy (Dieudonne Amuli Bahigwa). Three military regional commanders were nominated by the former Kinshasa government, two commanders each by the RCD-Goma and the MLC, and one region commander each by the RCD-K/ML and RCD-N. However these appointments were announced for Kabila's Forces armées congolaises (FAC), not the later FARDC. However, troop deployment on the ground did not change substantially until the year afterward.
On 24 January 2004, a decree created the Structure Militaire d'Intégration (SMI, Military Integration Structure). Together with the SMI, CONADER also was designated to manage the combined tronc commun DDR element and military reform programme. The first post-Sun City military law appears to have been passed on 12 November 2004, which formally created the new national Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC). Included in this law was article 45, which recognised the incorporation of a number of armed groups into the FARDC, including the former government army Forces Armées Congolaises (FAC), ex-FAZ personnel also known as former President Mobutu's 'les tigres', the RCD-Goma, RCD-ML, RCD-N, MLC, the Mai-Mai, as well as other government-determined military and paramilitary groups.
Turner writes that the two most prominent opponents of military integration (brassage) were Colonel Jules Mutebusi, a Munyamulenge from South Kivu, and Laurent Nkunda, a Rwandaphone Tutsi who Turner says was allegedly from Rutshuru in North Kivu. In May–June 2004 Mutebusi led a revolt against his superiors from Kinshasa in South Kivu. Nkunda began his long series of revolts against central authority by helping Mutebusi in May–June 2004. In November 2004 a Rwandan government force entered North Kivu to attack the FDLR, and, it seems, reinforced and resupplied RCD-Goma (ANC) at the same time. Mutebutsi and Nkunda were seemingly supported by both the Rwandan government, the FARDC regional commander, General Obed Rwisbasira, and the RCD-Goma governor of North Kivu, Eugene Serufuli. Neither government figure did anything to prevent Nkunda's march south to Bukavu with his military force. In mid-December, civilians at Kanyabayonga, Buramba, and Nyabiondo in North Kivu were killed, tortured, and raped, seemingly deliberately targeted on ethic grounds (the victims came almost exclusively from the Hunde and Nande ethnic groups). Kabila despatched 10,000 government troops to the east in response, launching an operation 11 December that was called "Operation Bima". Its only major success was the capture of Walikale from RCD-Goma (ANC) troops.
There was another major personnel reshuffle on 12 June 2007. FARDC chief General Kisempia Sungilanga Lombe was replaced with General Dieudonne Kayembe Mbandankulu. General Gabriel Amisi Kumba retained his post as Land Forces commander. John Numbi, a trusted member of Kabila's inner circle, was shifted from air force commander to Police Inspector General. U.S. diplomats reported that the former Naval Forces Commander Maj. General Amuli Bahigua (ex-MLC) became the FARDC's Chief of Operations; former FARDC Intelligence Chief General Didier Etumba (ex-FAC) was promoted to vice admiral and appointed Commander of Naval Forces; Maj. General Rigobert Massamba (ex-FAC), a former commander of the Kitona air base, was appointed as Air Forces Commander; and Brig. General Jean-Claude Kifwa, commander of the Republican Guard, was appointed as a regional military commander.
Due to significant delays in the DDR and integration process, of the eighteen brigades, only seventeen have been declared operational, over two and a half years after the initial target date. Responding to the situation, the Congolese Minister of Defence presented a new defence reform master plan to the international community in February 2008. Essentially the three force tiers all had their readiness dates pushed back: the first, territorial forces, to 2008–12, the mobile force to 2008–10, and the main defence force to 2015.
Much of the east of the country remains insecure, however. In the far northeast this is due primarily to the Ituri conflict. In the area around Lake Kivu, primarily in North Kivu, fighting continues among the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and between the government FARDC and Laurent Nkunda's troops, with all groups greatly exacerbating the issues of internal refugees in the area of Goma, the consequent food shortages, and loss of infrastructure from the years of conflict. In 2009, several United Nations officials stated that the army is a major problem, largely due to corruption that results in food and pay meant for soldiers being diverted and a military structure top-heavy with colonels, many of whom are former warlords. In a 2009 report itemizing FARDC abuses, Human Rights Watch urged the UN to stop supporting government offensives against eastern rebels until the abuses ceased.
Caty Clement wrote in 2009:
"One of the most notable [FARDC corruption] schemes was known as 'Opération Retour' (Operation Return). Senior officers ordered the soldiers' pay to be sent from Kinshasa to the commanders in the field, who took their cut and returned the remainder to their commander in Kinshasa instead of paying the soldiers. To ensure that foot soldiers would be paid their due, in late 2005, EUSEC suggested separating the chain of command from the chain of payment. The former remained within Congolese hands, while the EU mission delivered salaries directly to the newly 'integrated' brigades. Although efficient in the short term, this solution raises the question of sustainability and ownership in the long term. Once soldiers' pay could no longer be siphoned off via 'Opération Retour', however, two other budgetary lines, the 'fonds de ménage' and logistical support to the brigades, were soon diverted."
In 2010, thirty FARDC officers were given scholarships to study in Russian military academies. This is part of a greater effort by Russia to help improve the FARDC. A new military attaché and other advisers from Russia visited the DRC.
On 22 November 2012, Gabriel Amisi Kumba was suspended from his position in the Forces Terrestres by president Joseph Kabila due to an inquiry into his alleged role in the sale of arms to various rebel groups in the eastern part of the country, which may have implicated the rebel group M23. In December 2012 it was reported that members of Army units in the north east of the country are often not paid due to corruption, and these units rarely counter attacks made against villages by the Lord's Resistance Army.
The FARDC deployed 850 soldiers and 150 PNC police officers as part of an international force in the Central African Republic, which the DRC borders to the north. The country had been in a state of civil war since 2012, when the president was ousted by rebel groups. The DRC was urged by French president François Hollande to keep its troops in CAR.
In July 2014, the Congolese army carried out a joint operation with UN troops in the Masisi and Walikale territories of the North Kivu province. In the process, they liberated over 20 villages and a mine from the control of two rebel groups, the Mai Mai Cheka and the Alliance for the Sovereign and Patriotic Congo.
The UN published a report in October 2017 announcing that the FARDC no longer employed child soldiers but was still listed under militaries that committed sexual violations against children.
Troops operating with MONUSCO in North Kivu were attacked by likely rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces on 8 December 2017. After a protracted firefight the troops suffered 5 dead along with 14 dead among the UN force.
The President Félix Tshisekedi is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The Minister of Defence, formally Ministers of Defence and Veterans (Ancien Combattants) is Crispin Atama Tabe, who succeeded former minister Aimé Ngoy Mukena.
The Colonel Tshatshi Military Camp in the Kinshasa suburb of Ngaliema hosts the defence department and the Chiefs of Staff central command headquarters of the FARDC. Jane's data from 2002 appears inaccurate; there is at least one ammunition plant in Katanga.
Below the Chief of Staff, the current organisation of the FARDC is not fully clear. There is known to be a Military Intelligence branch – Service du Renseignement militaire (SRM), the former DEMIAP. The FARDC is known to be broken up into the Land Forces (Forces Terrestres), Navy and Air Force. The Land Forces are distributed around ten military regions, up from the previous eight, following the ten provinces of the country. There is also a training command, the Groupement des Écoles Supérieurs Militaires (GESM) or Group of Higher Military Schools, which, in January 2010, was under the command of Major General Marcellin Lukama. The Navy and Air Forces are composed of various groupments (see below). There is also a central logistics base. The United Nations Mine Action Service supervised the construction of a new ammunition depot on the outskirts of Kisangani and handed it over to the MOD in October 2013.
It should be made clear also that Joseph Kabila does not trust the military; the Republican Guard is the only component he trusts. Major General John Numbi, former Air Force chief, now inspector general of police, ran a parallel chain of command in the east to direct the 2009 Eastern Congo offensive, Operation Umoja Wetu; the regular chain of command was by-passed. Previously Numbi negotiated the agreement to carry out the mixage process with Laurent Nkunda. Commenting on a proposed vote of no confidence in the Minister of Defence in September 2012, Baoudin Amba Wetshi of lecongolais.cd described Ntolo as a "scapegoat". Wetshi said that all key military and security questions were handled in total secrecy by the President and other civil and military personalities trusted by him, such as John Numbi, Gabriel Amisi Kumba ('Tango Four'), Delphin Kahimbi, and others such as Kalev Mutond and Pierre Lumbi Okongo.
The General Secretariat for Defence: is headed by a General Officer (Secretary General for Defence). He oversees the following departments:
Military Justice is an independent institution under the judiciary, responsible for upholding the law and strengthening order and discipline within the Armed Forces.
The General Inspectorate includes the following people:
The available information on armed forces' Chiefs of Staff is incomplete and sometimes contradictory. In addition to armed forces chiefs of staff, in 1966 Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Malila was listed as Army Chief of Staff.
Virtually all officers have now changed positions, but this list gives an outline of the structure in January 2005. Despite the planned subdivision of the country into more numerous provinces, the actual splitting of the former provinces has not taken place.
In September 2014, President Kabila reshuffled the command structure and in addition to military regions created three new 'defence zones' which would be subordinated directly to the general staff. The defence zones essentially created a new layer between the general staff and the provincial commanders. The military regions themselves were reorganised and do not correspond with the ones that existed prior to the reshuffle. New commanders of branches were also appointed: A Congolese military analyst based in Brussels, Jean-Jacques Wondo, provided an outline of the updated command structure of the FARDC following the shake up of the high command:
Regional commanders:
The following changes were announced in July 2018.
Circa 2008–09, the land forces were made up of about 14 integrated brigades of fighters from all the former warring factions who went through a brassage integration process (see next paragraph) and a limited number of non-integrated brigades that remain solely made up of single factions (the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD)'s Armée national congolaise, the ex-government former Congolese Armed Forces (FAC), the ex-RCD KML, the ex-Movement for the Liberation of Congo, the armed groups of the Ituri conflict (the Mouvement des Révolutionnaires Congolais (MRC), Forces de Résistance Patriotique d'Ituri (FRPI), and the Front Nationaliste Intégrationniste (FNI)), and the Mai-Mai).
It appears that about the same time that Presidential Decree 03/042 of 18 December 2003 established the National Commission for Demobilisation and Reinsertion (CONADER), "..all ex-combatants were officially declared as FARDC soldiers and the then FARDC brigades [were to] rest deployed until the order to leave for brassage" [the military integration process].
The reform plan adopted in 2005 envisaged the formation of eighteen integrated brigades through the military integration process as its first of three stages. The process consisted firstly of regroupment, where fighters are disarmed. Then they were sent to orientation centres, run by CONADER, where fighters took the choice of either returning to civilian society or remaining in the armed forces. Combatants who chose demobilisation received an initial cash payment of US$110. Those who chose to stay within the FARDC were then transferred to one of six integration centres for a 45-day training course, which aimed to build integrated formations out of factional fighters previously heavily divided along ethnic, political and regional lines. The centres were spread out around the country at Kitona, Kamina, Kisangani, Rumangabo and Nyaleke (within the Virunga National Park) in Nord-Kivu, and Luberizi (on the border with Burundi) in South Kivu. The process suffered severe difficulties due to construction delays, administration errors, and the amount of travel former combatants have to do, as the three stages' centres are widely separated. There were three sequential buildup stages in the 2005 plan. Following the first 18 integrated brigades, the second goal was the formation of a ready reaction force of two to three brigades, and finally, by 2010, when MONUC was hoped to have withdrawn, the creation of a Main Defence Force of three divisions.
In February 2008, then Defence Minister Chikez Diemu described the reform plan at the time as:
"The short term, 2008–2010, will see the setting in place of a Rapid Reaction Force; the medium term, 2008–2015, with a Covering Force; and finally the long term, 2015–2020, with a Principal Defence Force." Diemu added that the reform plan rests on a programme of synergy based on the four pillars of dissuasion, production, reconstruction and excellence. "The Rapid Reaction Force is expected to focus on dissuasion, through a Rapid Reaction Force of 12 battalions, capable of aiding MONUC to secure the east of the country and to realise constitutional missions."
Amid the other difficulties in building new armed forces for the DRC, in early 2007 the integration and training process was distorted as the DRC government under Kabila attempted to use it to gain more control over the dissident general Laurent Nkunda. A hastily negotiated verbal agreement in Rwanda saw three government FAC brigades integrated with Nkunda's former ANC 81st and 83rd Brigades in what was called mixage. Mixage brought multiple factions into composite brigades, but without the 45-day retraining provided by brassage, and it seems that actually, the process was limited to exchanging battalions between the FAC and Nkunda brigades in North Kivu, without further integration. Due to Nkunda's troops having greater cohesion, Nkunda effectively gained control of all five brigades, which was not the intention of the DRC central government. However, after Nkunda used the mixage brigades to fight the FDLR, strains arose between the FARDC and Nkunda-loyalist troops within the brigades and they fell apart in the last days of August 2007. The International Crisis Group says that "by 30 August [2007] Nkunda's troops had left the mixed brigades and controlled a large part of the Masisi and Rutshuru territories" (of North Kivu).
Both formally integrated brigades and the non-integrated units continue to conduct arbitrary arrests, rapes, robbery, and other crimes and these human rights violations are "regularly" committed by both officers and members of the rank and file. Members of the Army also often strike deals to gain access to resources with the militias they are meant to be fighting.
The various brigades and other formations and units number at least 100,000 troops. The status of these brigades has been described as "pretty chaotic." A 2007 disarmament and repatriation study said "army units that have not yet gone through the process of brassage are usually much smaller than what they ought to be. Some non-integrated brigades have only 500 men (and are thus nothing more than a small battalion) whereas some battalions may not even have the size of a normal company (over a 100 men)."
A number of outside donor countries are also carrying out separate training programmes for various parts of the Forces Terrestres (Land Forces). The People's Republic of China has trained Congolese troops at Kamina in Katanga from at least 2004 to 2009, and the Belgian government is training at least one "rapid reaction" battalion. When Kabila visited U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington D.C., he also asked the U.S. Government to train a battalion, and as a result, a private contractor, Protection Strategies Incorporated, started training a FARDC battalion at Camp Base, Kisangani, in February 2010. The company was supervised by United States Special Operations Command Africa. Three years later, the battalion broke and ran in the face of M23, raping women and young girls, looting, and carrying out arbitrary executions. The various international training programmes are not well integrated.
Attempting to list the equipment available to the DRC's land forces is difficult; most figures are unreliable estimates based on known items delivered in the past. The figures below are from the IISS Military Balance 2014. Much of the Army's equipment is non-operational due to insufficient maintenance—in 2002 only 20 percent of the Army's armoured vehicles were estimated as being serviceable.
In addition to these 2014 figures, in March 2010, it was reported that the DRC's land forces had ordered US$80 million worth of military equipment from Ukraine which included 20 T-72 main battle tanks, 100 trucks and various small arms. Tanks have been used in the Kivus in the 2005–09 period.
In February 2014, Ukraine revealed that it had achieved the first export order for the T-64 tank to the DRC Land Forces for 50 T-64BV-1s.
In June 2015 it was reported that Georgia had sold 12 of its Didgori-2 to the DRC for $4 million. The vehicles were specifically designed for reconnaissance and special operations. Two of the vehicles are a recently developed conversion to serve for medical field evacuation.
The United Nations confirmed in 2011, both from sources in the Congolese military and from officials of the Commission nationale de contrôle des armes légères et de petit calibre et de réduction de la violence armée, that the ammunition plant called Afridex in Likasi, Katanga Province, manufactures ammunition for small arms and light weapons.
In addition to the other land forces, President Joseph Kabila also has a Republican Guard presidential force (Garde Républicaine or GR), formerly known as the Special Presidential Security Group (GSSP). FARDC military officials state that the Garde Républicaine is not the responsibility of FARDC, but of the Head of State. Apart from Article 140 of the Law on the Army and Defence, no legal stipulation on the DRC's Armed Forces makes provision for the GR as a distinct unit within the national army. In February 2005 President Joseph Kabila passed a decree which appointed the GR's commanding officer and "repealed any previous provisions contrary" to that decree. The GR, more than 10,000 strong (the ICG said 10,000 to 15,000 in January 2007), has better working conditions and is paid regularly, but still commits rapes and robberies in the vicinity of its bases.
In an effort to extend his personal control across the country, Joseph Kabila has deployed the GR at key airports, ostensibly in preparation for an impending presidential visit. At the beginning of 2007 there were Guards deployed in the central prison of Kinshasa, N'djili Airport, Bukavu, Kisangani, Kindu, Lubumbashi, Matadi, and Moanda, where they appear to answer to no local commander and have caused trouble with MONUC troops there.
The GR is also supposed to undergo the integration process, but in January 2007, only one battalion had been announced as having been integrated. Formed at a brassage centre in the Kinshasa suburb of Kibomango, the battalion included 800 men, half from the former GSSP and half from the MLC and RCD Goma.
Up until June 2016, the GR comprised three brigades, the 10th Brigade at Camp Tshatshi and the 11th at Camp Kimbembe, both in Kinshasa, and the 13th Brigade at Camp Simi Simi in Kisangani. It was reorganised on the basis of eight fighting regiments, the 14th Security and Honor Regiment, an artillery regiment, and a command brigade/regiment from that time.
There are currently large numbers of United Nations troops stationed in the DRC. The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) on 31 March 2017 had a strength of over 18,316 peacekeepers (including 16,215 military personnel) and is tasked with assisting Congolese authorities to maintain security. The UN and foreign military aid missions, the most prominent being EUSEC RD Congo, are attempting to assist the Congolese in rebuilding the armed forces, with major efforts being made in trying to assure regular payment of salaries to armed forces personnel and also in military justice. Retired Canadian Lieutenant General Marc Caron also served for a time as Security Sector Reform advisor to the head of MONUC.
Groups of anti-Rwandan government rebels like the FDLR, and other foreign fighters remain inside the DRC. The FDLR which is the greatest concern, was some 6,000 strong, in July 2007. By late 2010 the FDLR's strength however was estimated at 2,500. The other groups are smaller: the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army, the Ugandan rebel group the Allied Democratic Forces in the remote area of Mt Rwenzori, and the Burundian Parti pour la Libération du Peuple Hutu—Forces Nationales de Liberation (PALIPEHUTU-FNL).
Finally there is a government paramilitary force, created in 1997 under President Laurent Kabila. The National Service is tasked with providing the army with food and with training the youth in a range of reconstruction and developmental activities. There is not much further information available, and no internet-accessible source details the relationship of the National Service to other armed forces bodies; it is not listed in the constitution. President Kabila, in one of the few comments available, says National Service will provide a gainful activity for street children. Obligatory civil service administered through the armed forces was also proposed under the Mobutu regime during the "radicalisation" programme of December 1974 – January 1975; the FAZ was opposed to the measure and the plan "took several months to die."
All military aircraft in the DRC are operated by the Air Force. In 2007, Jane's World Air Forces stated that the Air Force had an estimated strength of 1,800 personnel and is organised into two Air Groups. These Groups command five wings and nine squadrons, of which not all are operational. 1 Air Group is located at Kinshasa and consists of Liaison Wing, Training Wing and Logistical Wing and has a strength of five squadrons. 2 Tactical Air Group is located at Kaminia and consists of Pursuit and Attack Wing and Tactical Transport Wing and has a strength of four squadrons. Foreign private military companies have reportedly been contracted to provide the DRC's aerial reconnaissance capability using small propeller aircraft fitted with sophisticated equipment. Jane's states that National Air Force of Angola fighter aircraft would be made available to defend Kinshasa if it came under attack.
Like the other services, the Congolese Air Force is not capable of carrying out its responsibilities. Few of the Air Force's aircraft are currently flyable or capable of being restored to service and it is unclear whether the Air Force is capable of maintaining even unsophisticated aircraft. Moreover, Jane's stated that the Air Force's Ecole de Pilotage is 'in near total disarray' though Belgium has offered to restart the Air Force's pilot training program.
In 2018 the IISS estimated that the Air Force numbered 2250 (p457); the 2020 edition carried the same number, unchanged.
The IISS Military Balance 2021 said the Air Force had four Su-25s; four transport aircraft, including 2 B727s; 7 Mil Mi-24s; and three transport helicopters, with a strength of 2,550 (p.461).
Before the downfall of Mobutu, a small navy operated on the Congo River. One of its installations was at the village of N'dangi near the presidential residence in Gbadolite. The port at N'dangi was the base for several patrol boats, helicopters and the presidential yacht. The 2002 edition of Jane's Sentinel described the Navy as being "in a state of near total disarray" and stated that it did not conduct any training or have operating procedures. The Navy shares the same discipline problems as the other services. It was initially placed under command of the MLC when the transition began, so the current situation is uncertain.
The 2007 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships states that the Navy is organised into four commands, based at Matadi, near the coast; the capital Kinshasa, further up the Congo river; Kalemie, on Lake Tanganyika; and Goma, on Lake Kivu. The International Institute for Strategic Studies, in its 2007 edition of the Military Balance, confirms the bases listed in Jane's and adds a fifth base at Boma, a coastal city near Matadi. Various sources also refer to numbered Naval Regions. Operations of the 1st Naval Region have been reported in Kalemie, the 4th near the northern city of Mbandaka, and the 5th at Goma.
As of 2012, the Navy on paper consisted of about 6,700 personnel and up to 23 patrol craft. The IISS repeated the same 6,700 figure in 2018 (p457) and the 2020 edition carried the same number, unchanged. In reality, The IISS lists the Navy only consists of around 1,000 personnel and a total of eight patrol craft, of which only one is operational, a Shanghai II Type 062 class gunboat designated "102". There are five other 062s as well as two Swiftships which are not currently operational, though some may be restored to service in the future. According to Jane's, the Navy also operates barges and small craft armed with machine guns. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (French: Forces armées de la république démocratique du Congo [FARDC]) is the state organisation responsible for defending the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The FARDC was rebuilt patchily as part of the peace process which followed the end of the Second Congo War in July 2003.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The majority of FARDC members are land forces, but it also has a small air force and an even smaller navy. In 2010–2011 the three services may have numbered between 144,000 and 159,000 personnel. In addition, there is a presidential force called the Republican Guard, but it and the Congolese National Police (PNC) are not part of the Armed Forces.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The government in the capital city Kinshasa, the United Nations, the European Union, and bilateral partners which include Angola, South Africa, and Belgium are attempting to create a viable force with the ability to provide the Democratic Republic of Congo with stability and security. However, this process is being hampered by corruption, inadequate donor coordination, and competition between donors. The various military units now grouped under the FARDC banner are some of the most unstable in Africa after years of war and underfunding.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "To assist the new government, since February 2000 the United Nations has had the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (now called MONUSCO), which currently has a strength of over 16,000 peacekeepers in the country. Its principal tasks are to provide security in key areas, such as the South Kivu and North Kivu in the east, and to assist the government in reconstruction. Foreign rebel groups are also in the Congo, as they have been for most of the last half-century. The most important is the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), against which Laurent Nkunda's troops were fighting, but other smaller groups such as the anti-Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army are also present.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The legal standing of the FARDC was laid down in the Transitional Constitution, articles 118 and 188. This was then superseded by provisions in the 2006 Constitution, articles 187 to 192. Law 04/023 of 12 November 2004 establishes the General Organisation of Defence and the Armed Forces. In mid-2010, the Congolese Parliament was debating a new defence law, provisionally designated Organic Law 130.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The first organised Congolese troops, known as the Force Publique, were created in 1888 when King Leopold II of Belgium, who held the Congo Free State as his private property, ordered his Secretary of the Interior to create military and police forces for the state. In 1908, under international pressure, Leopold ceded administration of the colony to the government of Belgium as the Belgian Congo. It remained under the command of a Belgian officer corps through to the independence of the colony in 1960. Throughout 1916 and 1917, the Force Publique saw combat in Cameroun, and successfully invaded and conquered areas of German East Africa, notably present day Rwanda, during World War I. Elements of the Force Publique were also used to form Belgian colonial units that fought in the East African Campaign during World War II.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "At independence on 30 June 1960, the army suffered from a dramatic deficit of trained leaders, particularly in the officer corps. This was because the Force Publique had always only been officered by Belgian or other expatriate whites. The Belgian Government made no effort to train Congolese commissioned officers until the very end of the colonial period, and in 1958, only 23 African cadets had been admitted even to the military secondary school. The highest rank available to Congolese was adjutant, which only four soldiers achieved before independence. Though 14 Congolese cadets were enrolled in the Royal Military Academy in Brussels in May, they were not scheduled to graduate as second lieutenants until 1963. Ill-advised actions by Belgian officers led to an enlisted ranks' rebellion on 5 July 1960, which helped spark the Congo Crisis. Lieutenant General Émile Janssens, the Force Publique commander, wrote during a meeting of soldiers that 'Before independence=After Independence', pouring cold water on the soldiers' desires for an immediate raise in their status.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Historian Louis-François Vanderstraeten says that on the morning of 8 July 1960, following a night during which all control had been lost over the soldiers, numerous ministers arrived at Camp Leopold with the aim of calming the situation. Both Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu eventually arrived, and the soldiers listened to Kasa-Vubu \"religiously.\" After his speech, Kasa-Vubu and the ministers present retired into the camp canteen to hear a delegation from the soldiers. Vanderstraeten says that, according to Joseph Ileo, their demands (revendications) included the following:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The \"laborious\" discussions which then followed were later retrospectively given the label of an \"extraordinary ministerial council.\" Gérard-Libois writes that \"...the special meeting of the council of ministers took steps for the immediate Africanisation of the officer corps and named Victor Lundula, who was born in Kasai and was burgomaster of Jadotville, as Commander-in-Chief of the ANC; Colonel Joseph-Désiré Mobutu as chief of staff; and the Belgian, Colonel Henniquiau, as chief advisor to the ANC\". Thus General Janssens was dismissed. Both Lundula and Mobutu were former sergeants of the Force Publique.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "On 8–9 July 1960, the soldiers were invited to appoint black officers, and \"command of the army passed securely into the hands of former sergeants,\" as the soldiers in general chose the most-educated and highest-ranked Congolese army soldiers as their new officers. Most of the Belgian officers were retained as advisors to the new Congolese hierarchy, and calm returned to the two main garrisons at Leopoldville and Thysville. The Force Publique was renamed the Armée nationale congolaise (ANC), or Congolese National Armed Forces. However, in Katanga Belgian officers resisted the Africanisation of the army.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "There was a Force Publique mutiny at Camp Massart, in Elizabethville, on 9 July 1960; five or seven Europeans were killed. The army revolt and resulting rumours caused severe panic across the country, and Belgium despatched troops and the naval Task Group 218.2 to protect its citizens. Belgian troops intervened in Elisabethville and Luluabourg (10 July), Matadi (11 July), Leopoldville (13 July) and elsewhere. There were immediate suspicions that Belgium planned to re-seize their former colony whilst doing so. Large numbers of Belgian colonists fled the country. At the same time, on 11 July, Moise Tshombe declared the independence of Katanga Province in the south-east, closely backed by remaining Belgian administrators and soldiers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "On 14 July 1960, in response to requests by Prime Minister Lumumba, the UN Security Council adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution 143. This called upon Belgium to remove its troops and for the UN to provide military assistance to the Congolese forces to allow them \"to meet fully their tasks\". Lumumba demanded that Belgium remove its troops immediately, threatening to seek help from the Soviet Union if they did not leave within two days. The UN reacted quickly and established the United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC). The first UN troops arrived the next day but there was instant disagreement between Lumumba and the UN over the new force's mandate. Because the Congolese army had been in disarray since the mutiny, Lumumba wanted to use the UN troops to subdue Katanga by force. Lumumba became extremely frustrated with the UN's unwillingness to use force against Tshombe and his secession. He cancelled a scheduled meeting with Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld on 14 August and wrote a series of angry letters instead. To Hammarskjöld, the secession of Katanga was an internal Congolese matter and the UN was forbidden to intervene by Article 2 of the United Nations Charter. Disagreements over what the UN force could and could not do continued throughout its deployment.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "A total of 3,500 troops for ONUC had arrived in the Congo by 20 July 1960. The first contingent of Belgian forces had left Leopoldville on 16 July upon the arrival of the United Nations troops. Following assurances that contingents of the Force would arrive in sufficient numbers, the Belgian authorities agreed to withdraw all their forces from the Leopoldville area by 23 July. The last Belgian troops left the country by 23 July, as United Nations forces continued to deploy throughout the Congo. The build of ONUC continued, its strength increasing to over 8,000 by 25 July and to over 11,000 by 31 July 1960. A basic agreement between the United Nations and the Congolese Government on the operation of the Force was agreed by 27 July. On 9 August, Albert Kalonji proclaimed the independence of South Kasai.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "During the crucial period of July–August 1960, Mobutu built up \"his\" national army by channeling foreign aid to units loyal to him, by exiling unreliable units to remote areas, and by absorbing or dispersing rival armies. He tied individual officers to him by controlling their promotion and the flow of money for payrolls. Researchers working from the 1990s have concluded that money was directly funnelled to the army by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the UN, and Belgium. Despite this, by September 1960, following the four-way division of the country, there were four separate armed forces: Mobotu's ANC itself, numbering about 12,000, the South Kasai Constabulary loyal to Albert Kalonji (3,000 or less), the Katanga Gendarmerie which were part of Moise Tshombe's regime (totalling about 10,000), and the Stanleyville dissident ANC loyal to Antoine Gizenga (numbering about 8,000).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In August 1960, due to the rejection of requests for UN assistance to suppress the South Kasai and Katanga revolts, Lumumba's government decided to request Soviet help. De Witte writes that \"Leopoldville asked the Soviet Union for planes, lorries, arms, and equipment...Shortly afterwards, on 22 or 23 August, about 1,000 soldiers left for Kasai.\" On 26–27 August, the ANC seized Bakwanga, Albert Kalonji's capital in South Kasai, without serious resistance and, according to de Witte, \"in the next two days it temporarily put an end to the secession of Kasai.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "At this point, the Library of Congress Country Study for the Congo says, that on 5 September 1960: \"Kasavubu also appointed Mobutu as head of the ANC. Joseph Ileo was chosen as the new prime minister and began trying to form a new government. Lumumba and his cabinet responded by accusing Kasa-Vubu of high treason and voted to dismiss him. Parliament refused to confirm the dismissal of either Lumumba or Kasavubu and sought to bring about a reconciliation between them. After a week's deadlock, Mobutu announced on 14 September that he was assuming power until 31 December 1960, in order to \"neutralize\" both Kasavubu and Lumumba.\" Mobutu formed the College of Commissioners-General, a technocratic government of university graduates.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In early January 1961, ANC units loyal to Lumumba invaded northern Katanga to support a revolt of Baluba tribesmen against Tshombe's secessionist regime. On 23 January 1961, Kasa-Vubu promoted Mobutu to major-general; De Witte argues that this was a political move, \"aimed to strengthen the army, the president's sole support, and Mobutu's position within the army.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "United Nations Security Council Resolution 161 of 21 February 1961, called for the withdrawal of Belgian officers from command positions in the ANC, and the training of new Congolese officers with UN help. ONUC made a number of attempts to retrain the ANC from August 1960 to June 1963, often been set back by political changes. By March 1963 however, after the visit of Colonel Michael Greene of the United States Army, and the resulting \"Greene Plan\", the pattern of bilaterally agreed military assistance to various Congolese military components, instead of a single unified effort, was already taking shape.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In early 1964, a new crisis broke out as Congolese rebels calling themselves \"Simba\" (Swahili for \"Lion\") rebelled against the government. They were led by Pierre Mulele, Gaston Soumialot and Christophe Gbenye who were former members of Gizenga's Parti Solidaire Africain (PSA). The rebellion affected Kivu and Eastern (Orientale) provinces. By August they had captured Stanleyville and set up a rebel government there. As the rebel movement spread, discipline became more difficult to maintain, and acts of violence and terror increased. Thousands of Congolese were executed, including government officials, political leaders of opposition parties, provincial and local police, school teachers, and others believed to have been Westernised. Many of the executions were carried out with extreme cruelty, in front of a monument to Lumumba in Stanleyville. Tshombe decided to use foreign mercenaries as well as the ANC to suppress the rebellion. Mike Hoare was employed to create the English-speaking 5 Commando at Kamina, with the assistance of a Belgian officer, Colonel Frederic Vanderwalle, while 6 Commando (Congo) was French-speaking and originally under the command of a Belgian Army colonel, Lamouline. By August 1964, the mercenaries, with the assistance of other ANC troops, were making headway against the Simba rebellion. Fearing defeat, the rebels started taking hostages of the local white population in areas under their control. These hostages were rescued in Belgian airdrops (Operations Dragon Rouge and Dragon Noir) over Stanleyville and Paulis airlifted by U.S. aircraft. The operation coincided with the arrival of mercenary units (seemingly including the hurriedly formed 5th Mechanised Brigade) at Stanleyville which was quickly captured. It took until the end of the year to completely put down the remaining areas of rebellion.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "After five years of turbulence, in 1965 Mobutu used his position as ANC Chief of Staff to seize power in the 1965 Democratic Republic of the Congo coup d'état. Although Mobutu succeeded in taking power, his position was soon threatened by the Stanleyville mutinies, also known as the Mercenaries' Mutinies, which were eventually suppressed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "As a general rule, since that time, the armed forces have not intervened in politics as a body, rather being tossed and turned as ambitious men have shaken the country. In reality, the larger problem has been the misuse and sometimes abuse of the military and police by political and ethnic leaders.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "On 16 May 1968 a parachute brigade of two regiments (each of three battalions) was formed which eventually was to grow in size to a full division.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The country was renamed Zaire in 1971 and the army was consequently designated the Forces Armées Zaïroises (FAZ). In 1971 the army's force consisted of the 1st Groupement at Kananga, with one guard battalion, two infantry battalions, and a gendarmerie battalion attached, and the 2nd Groupement (Kinshasa), the 3rd Groupement (Kisangani), the 4th Groupement (Lubumbashi), the 5th Groupement (Bukavu), the 6th Groupement (Mbandaka), and the 7th Groupement (Boma). Each was about the size of a brigade, and commanded by aging generals who have had no military training, and often not much positive experience, since they were NCOs in the Belgian Force Publique.' By the late 1970s the number of groupements reached nine, one per administrative region. The parachute division (Division des Troupes Aéroportées Renforcées de Choc, DITRAC) operated semi-independently from the rest of the army.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In July 1972 a number of the aging generals commanding the groupements were retired. Général d'armée Louis Bobozo, and Generaux de Corps d'Armée Nyamaseko Mata Bokongo, Nzoigba Yeu Ngoli, Muke Massaku, Ingila Grima, Itambo Kambala Wa Mukina, Tshinyama Mpemba, and General de Division Yossa Yi Ayira, the last having been commander of the Kamina base, were all retired on 25 July 1972. Taking over as military commander-in-chief, now titled Captain General, was newly promoted General de Division Bumba Moaso, former commander of the parachute division.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "A large number of countries supported the FAZ in the early 1970s. Three hundred Belgian personnel were serving as staff officers and advisors throughout the Ministry of Defence, Italians were supporting the Air Force, Americans were assisting with transport and communications, Israelis with airborne forces training, and there were British advisors with the engineers. In 1972 the state-sponsored political organisation, the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR), resolved at a party congress to form activist cells in each military unit. The decision caused consternation among the officer corps, as the army had been apolitical (and even anti-political) since before independence.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "On 11 June 1975 several military officers were arrested in what became known as the coup monté et manqué. Amongst those arrested were Générals Daniel Katsuva wa Katsuvira, Land Forces Chief of Staff, Utshudi Wembolenga, Commandant of the 2nd Military Region at Kalemie; Fallu Sumbu, Military Attaché of Zaïre in Washington, Colonel Mudiayi wa Mudiayi, the military attaché of Zaïre in Paris, the military attache in Brussels, a paracommando battalion commander, and several others. The regime alleged these officers and others (including Mobutu's secrétaire particulier) had plotted the assassination of Mobutu, high treason, and disclosure of military secrets, among other offences. The alleged coup was investigated by a revolutionary commission headed by Boyenge Mosambay Singa, at that time head of the Gendarmerie. Writing in 1988, Michael Schatzberg said the full details of the coup had yet to emerge. Meitho, writing many years later, says the officers were accused of trying to raise Mobutu's secrétaire particulier, Colonel Omba Pene Djunga, from Kasai, to power.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In late 1975, Mobutu, in a bid to install a pro-Kinshasa government in Angola and thwart the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA)'s drive for power, deployed FAZ armoured cars, paratroopers, and three infantry battalions to Angola in support of the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). On 10 November 1975, an anti-Communist force made up of 1,500 FNLA fighters, 100 Portuguese Angolan soldiers, and two FAZ battalions passed near the city of Quifangondo, only 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Luanda, at dawn on 10 November. The force, supported by South African aircraft and three 140 mm artillery pieces, marched in a single line along the Bengo River to face an 800-strong Cuban force across the river. Thus the Battle of Quifangondo began. The Cubans and MPLA fighters bombarded the FNLA with mortar and 122 mm rockets, destroying most of the FNLA's armoured cars and six Jeeps carrying antitank rockets in the first hour of fighting.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Mobutu's support for the FNLA policy backfired when the MPLA won in Angola. The MPLA, then, acting ostensibly at least as the Front for Congolese National Liberation, occupied Zaire's southeastern Katanga Province, then known as Shaba, in March 1977, facing little resistance from the FAZ. This invasion is sometimes known as Shaba I. Mobutu had to request assistance, which was provided by Morocco in the form of regular troops who routed the MPLA and their Cuban advisors out of Katanga. Also important were Egyptian pilots who flew Zaire's Mirage 5 combat aircraft. The humiliation of this episode led to civil unrest in Zaire in early 1978, which the FAZ had to put down.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The poor performance of Zaire's military during Shaba I gave evidence of chronic weaknesses. One problem was that some of the Zairian soldiers in the area had not received pay for extended periods. Senior officers often kept the money intended for the soldiers, typifying a generally disreputable and inept senior leadership in the FAZ. As a result, many soldiers simply deserted rather than fight. Others stayed with their units but were ineffective. During the months following the Shaba invasion, Mobutu sought solutions to the military problems that had contributed to the army's dismal performance. He implemented sweeping reforms of the command structure, including wholesale firings of high-ranking officers. He merged the military general staff with his own presidential staff and appointed himself chief of staff again, in addition to the positions of minister of defence and supreme commander that he already held. He also redeployed his forces throughout the country instead of keeping them close to Kinshasa, as had previously been the case. The Kamanyola Division, at the time considered the army's best formation, and considered the president's own, was assigned permanently to Shaba. In addition to these changes, the army's strength was reduced by 25 percent. Also, Zaire's allies provided a large influx of military equipment, and Belgian, French, and American advisers assisted in rebuilding and retraining the force.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Despite these improvements, a second invasion by the former Katangan gendarmerie, known as Shaba II in May–June 1978, was only dispersed with the despatch of the French 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment and a battalion of the Belgian Paracommando Regiment. Kamanyola Division units collapsed almost immediately. French units fought the Battle of Kolwezi to recapture the town from the FLNC. The U.S. provided logistical assistance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In July 1975, according to the IISS Military Balance, the FAZ included 14 infantry battalions, seven \"Guard\" battalions, and seven other infantry battalions variously designated as \"parachute\" (or possibly \"commando\"; probably the units of the parachute brigade originally formed in 1968). There were also an armoured car regiment and a mechanised infantry battalion. Organisationally, the army was made up of the parachute division and the seven groupements. In addition to these units, a tank battalion was reported to have formed by 1979.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In January 1979 General de Division Mosambaye Singa Boyenge was named as both military region commander and Region Commissioner for Shaba.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In 1984, a militarised police force, the Civil Guard, was formed. It was eventually commanded by Général d'armée Kpama Baramoto Kata.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Thomas Turner wrote in the mid-1990s that \"[m]ajor acts of violence, such as the killings that followed the \"Kasongo uprising\" in Bandundu Region in 1978, the killings of diamond miners in Kasai-Oriental Region in 1979, and, more recently, the massacre of students in Lubumbashi in 1990, continued to intimidate the population.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The authors of the Library of Congress Country Study on Zaire commented in 1992–93 that:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "\"The maintenance status of equipment in the inventory has traditionally varied, depending on a unit's priority and the presence or absence of foreign advisers and technicians. A considerable portion of military equipment is not operational, primarily as a result of shortages of spare parts, poor maintenance, and theft. For example, the tanks of the 1st Armoured Brigade often have a nonoperational rate approaching 70 to 80 percent. After a visit by a Chinese technical team in 1985, most of the tanks operated, but such an improved status generally has not lasted long beyond the departure of the visiting team. Several factors complicate maintenance in Zairian units. Maintenance personnel often lack the training necessary to maintain modern military equipment. Moreover, the wide variety of military equipment and the staggering array of spare parts necessary to maintain it not only clog the logistic network but also are expensive.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "The most important factor that negatively affects maintenance is the low and irregular pay that soldiers receive, resulting in the theft and sale of spare parts and even basic equipment to supplement their meager salaries. When not stealing spare parts and equipment, maintenance personnel often spend the better part of their duty day looking for other ways to profit. American maintenance teams working in Zaire found that providing a free lunch to the work force was a good, sometimes the only, technique to motivate personnel to work at least half of the duty day.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The army's logistics corps [was tasked].. to provide logistic support and conduct direct, indirect, and depot-level maintenance for the FAZ. But because of Zaire's lack of emphasis on maintenance and logistics, a lack of funding, and inadequate training, the corps is understaffed, underequipped, and generally unable to accomplish its mission. It is organised into three battalions assigned to Mbandaka, Kisangani, and Kamina, but only the battalion at Kamina is adequately staffed; the others are little more than skeleton\" units.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The poor state of discipline of the Congolese forces became apparent again in 1990. Foreign military assistance to Zaire ceased following the end of the Cold War and Mobutu deliberately allowed the military's condition to deteriorate so that it did not threaten his hold on power. Protesting low wages and lack of pay, paratroopers began looting Kinshasa in September 1991 and were only stopped after intervention by French ('Operation Baumier') and Belgian ('Operation Blue Beam') forces.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In 1993, according to the Library of Congress Country Studies, the 25,000-member FAZ ground forces consisted of one infantry division (with three infantry brigades); one airborne brigade (with three parachute battalions and one support battalion); one special forces (commando/counterinsurgency) brigade; the Special Presidential Division; one independent armoured brigade; and two independent infantry brigades (each with three infantry battalions, one support battalion). These units were deployed throughout the country, with the main concentrations in Shaba Region (approximately half the force). The Kamanyola Division, consisting of three infantry brigades operated generally in western Shaba Region; the 21st Infantry Brigade was located in Lubumbashi; the 13th Infantry Brigade was deployed throughout eastern Shaba; and at least one battalion of the 31st Airborne Brigade stayed at Kamina. The other main concentration of forces was in and around Kinshasa: the 31st Airborne Brigade was deployed at N'djili Airport on the outskirts of the capital; the Special Presidential Division (DSP) resided adjacent to the presidential compound; and the 1st Armoured Brigade was at Mbanza-Ngungu (in Bas-Congo, approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Kinshasa). Finally the 41st Commando Brigade was at Kisangani.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "This superficially impressive list of units overstates the actual capability of the armed forces at the time. Apart from privileged formations such as the Presidential Division and the 31st Airborne Brigade, most units were poorly trained, divided and so badly paid that they regularly resorted to looting. What operational abilities the armed forces had were gradually destroyed by politicisation of the forces, tribalisation, and division of the forces, included purges of suspectedly disloyal groups, intended to allow Mobutu to divide and rule. All this occurred against the background of increasing deterioration of state structures under the kleptocratic Mobutu regime.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Much of the origins of the recent conflict in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo stems from the turmoil following the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which then led to the Great Lakes refugee crisis. Within the largest refugee camps, beginning in Goma in Nord-Kivu, were Rwandan Hutu fighters, who were eventually organised into the Rassemblement Démocratique pour le Rwanda, who launched repeated attacks into Rwanda. Rwanda eventually backed Laurent-Désiré Kabila and his quickly organised Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) in invading Zaire, aiming to stop the attacks on Rwanda in the process of toppling Mobutu's government. When the militias rebelled, backed by Rwanda, the FAZ, weakened as is noted above, proved incapable of mastering the situation and preventing the overthrow of Mobutu in 1997. Elements of the Mobutu-loyal FAZ managed to retreat into northern Congo, and from there into Sudan while attempting to escape the AFDL. Allying themselves with the Sudanese government which was fighting its own civil war at the time, these FAZ troops were destroyed by the Sudan People's Liberation Army during Operation Thunderbolt near Yei in March 1997.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "When Kabila took power in 1997, the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo and so the name of the national army changed once again, to the Forces armées congolaises (FAC). Tanzania sent six hundred military advisors to train Kabila's new army in May 1997. (Prunier says that the instructors were still at the Kitona base when the Second Congo War broke out, and had to be quickly returned to Tanzania. Prunier said \"South African aircraft carried out the evacuation after a personal conversation between President Mkapa and not-yet-president Thabo Mbeki. Command over the armed forces in the first few months of Kabila's rule was vague. Gérard Prunier writes that \"there was no minister of defence, no known chief of staff, and no ranks; all officers were Cuban-style 'commanders' called 'Ignace', 'Bosco', Jonathan', or 'James', who occupied connecting suites at the Intercontinental Hotel and had presidential list cell-phone numbers. None spoke French or Lingala, but all spoke Kinyarwanda, Swahili, and, quite often, English.\" On being asked by Belgian journalist Colette Braeckman what was the actual army command structure apart from himself, Kabila answered 'We are not going to expose ourselves and risk being destroyed by showing ourselves openly... . We are careful so that the true masters of the army are not known. It is strategic. Please, let us drop the matter.' Kabila's new Forces armées congolaises were riven with internal tensions. The new FAC had Banyamulenge fighters from South Kivu, kadogo child soldiers from various eastern tribes, such as Thierry Nindaga, Safari Rwekoze, etc... [the mostly] Lunda Katangese Tigers of the former FNLC, and former FAZ personnel. Mixing these disparate and formerly warring elements together led to mutiny. On 23 February 1998, a mostly Banyamulenge unit mutiniued at Bukavu after its officers tried to disperse the soldiers into different units spread all around the Congo. By mid-1998, formations on the outbreak of the Second Congo War included the Tanzanian-supported 50th Brigade, headquartered at Camp Kokolo in Kinshasa, and the 10th Brigade – one of the best and largest units in the army – stationed in Goma, as well as the 12th Brigade in Bukavu. The declaration of the 10th Brigade's commander, former DSP officer Jean-Pierre Ondekane, on 2 August 1998 that he no longer recognised Kabila as the state's president was one of the factors in the beginning of the Second Congo War.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "According to Jane's, the FAC performed poorly throughout the Second Congo War and \"demonstrated little skill or recognisable military doctrine\". At the outbreak of the war in 1998 the Army was ineffective and the DRC Government was forced to rely on assistance from Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe. As well as providing expeditionary forces, these countries unsuccessfully attempted to retrain the DRC Army. North Korea and Tanzania also provided assistance with training. During the first year of the war the Allied forces defeated the Rwandan force which had landed in Bas-Congo and the rebel forces south-west of Kinshasa and eventually halted the rebel and Rwandan offensive in the east of the DRC. These successes contributed to the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement which was signed in July 1999. Following the Lusaka Agreement, in mid-August 1999 President Kabila issued a decree dividing the country into eight military regions. The first military region, Congolese state television reported, would consist of the two Kivu provinces, Orientale Province would form the second region, and Maniema and Kasai-Oriental provinces the third. Katanga and Équateur would fall under the fourth and fifth regions, respectively, while Kasai-Occidental and Bandundu would form the sixth region. Kinshasa and Bas-Congo would form the seventh and eighth regions, respectively. In November 1999 the Government attempted to form a 20,000-strong paramilitary force designated the People's Defence Forces. This force was intended to support the FAC and national police but never became effective.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "The Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement was not successful in ending the war, and fighting resumed in September 1999. The FAC's performance continued to be poor and both the major offensives the Government launched in 2000 ended in costly defeats. President Kabila's mismanagement was an important factor behind the FAC's poor performance, with soldiers frequently going unpaid and unfed while the Government purchased advanced weaponry which could not be operated or maintained. The defeats in 2000 are believed to have been the cause of President Kabila's assassination in January 2001. Following the assassination, Joseph Kabila assumed the presidency and was eventually successful in negotiating an end to the war in 2002–2003.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The December 2002 Global and All-Inclusive Agreement devoted Chapter VII to the armed forces. It stipulated that the armed forces chief of staff, and the chiefs of the army, air force, and navy were not to come from the same warring faction. The new \"national, restructured and integrated\" army would be made up from Kabila's government forces (the FAC), the RCD, and the MLC. Also stipulated in VII(b) was that the RCD-N, RCD-ML, and the Mai-Mai would become part of the new armed forces. An intermediate mechanism for physical identification of the soldiers, and their origin, date of enrolment, and unit was also called for (VII(c)). It also provided for the creation of a Conseil Superieur de la Defense (Superior Defence Council) which would declare states of siege or war and give advice on security sector reform, disarmament/demobilization, and national defence policy.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "A decision on which factions were to name chiefs of staff and military regional commanders was announced on 19 August 2003 as the first move in military reform, superimposed on top of the various groups of fighters, government and former rebels. Negotiations had been ongoing since June 2003. Kabila was able to name the armed forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Liwanga Mata, who previously served as navy chief of staff under Laurent Kabila. Kabila was able to name the air force commander (John Numbi), the RCD-Goma received the Land Force commander's position (Sylvain Buki) and the MLC the navy (Dieudonne Amuli Bahigwa). Three military regional commanders were nominated by the former Kinshasa government, two commanders each by the RCD-Goma and the MLC, and one region commander each by the RCD-K/ML and RCD-N. However these appointments were announced for Kabila's Forces armées congolaises (FAC), not the later FARDC. However, troop deployment on the ground did not change substantially until the year afterward.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "On 24 January 2004, a decree created the Structure Militaire d'Intégration (SMI, Military Integration Structure). Together with the SMI, CONADER also was designated to manage the combined tronc commun DDR element and military reform programme. The first post-Sun City military law appears to have been passed on 12 November 2004, which formally created the new national Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC). Included in this law was article 45, which recognised the incorporation of a number of armed groups into the FARDC, including the former government army Forces Armées Congolaises (FAC), ex-FAZ personnel also known as former President Mobutu's 'les tigres', the RCD-Goma, RCD-ML, RCD-N, MLC, the Mai-Mai, as well as other government-determined military and paramilitary groups.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Turner writes that the two most prominent opponents of military integration (brassage) were Colonel Jules Mutebusi, a Munyamulenge from South Kivu, and Laurent Nkunda, a Rwandaphone Tutsi who Turner says was allegedly from Rutshuru in North Kivu. In May–June 2004 Mutebusi led a revolt against his superiors from Kinshasa in South Kivu. Nkunda began his long series of revolts against central authority by helping Mutebusi in May–June 2004. In November 2004 a Rwandan government force entered North Kivu to attack the FDLR, and, it seems, reinforced and resupplied RCD-Goma (ANC) at the same time. Mutebutsi and Nkunda were seemingly supported by both the Rwandan government, the FARDC regional commander, General Obed Rwisbasira, and the RCD-Goma governor of North Kivu, Eugene Serufuli. Neither government figure did anything to prevent Nkunda's march south to Bukavu with his military force. In mid-December, civilians at Kanyabayonga, Buramba, and Nyabiondo in North Kivu were killed, tortured, and raped, seemingly deliberately targeted on ethic grounds (the victims came almost exclusively from the Hunde and Nande ethnic groups). Kabila despatched 10,000 government troops to the east in response, launching an operation 11 December that was called \"Operation Bima\". Its only major success was the capture of Walikale from RCD-Goma (ANC) troops.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "There was another major personnel reshuffle on 12 June 2007. FARDC chief General Kisempia Sungilanga Lombe was replaced with General Dieudonne Kayembe Mbandankulu. General Gabriel Amisi Kumba retained his post as Land Forces commander. John Numbi, a trusted member of Kabila's inner circle, was shifted from air force commander to Police Inspector General. U.S. diplomats reported that the former Naval Forces Commander Maj. General Amuli Bahigua (ex-MLC) became the FARDC's Chief of Operations; former FARDC Intelligence Chief General Didier Etumba (ex-FAC) was promoted to vice admiral and appointed Commander of Naval Forces; Maj. General Rigobert Massamba (ex-FAC), a former commander of the Kitona air base, was appointed as Air Forces Commander; and Brig. General Jean-Claude Kifwa, commander of the Republican Guard, was appointed as a regional military commander.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Due to significant delays in the DDR and integration process, of the eighteen brigades, only seventeen have been declared operational, over two and a half years after the initial target date. Responding to the situation, the Congolese Minister of Defence presented a new defence reform master plan to the international community in February 2008. Essentially the three force tiers all had their readiness dates pushed back: the first, territorial forces, to 2008–12, the mobile force to 2008–10, and the main defence force to 2015.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Much of the east of the country remains insecure, however. In the far northeast this is due primarily to the Ituri conflict. In the area around Lake Kivu, primarily in North Kivu, fighting continues among the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and between the government FARDC and Laurent Nkunda's troops, with all groups greatly exacerbating the issues of internal refugees in the area of Goma, the consequent food shortages, and loss of infrastructure from the years of conflict. In 2009, several United Nations officials stated that the army is a major problem, largely due to corruption that results in food and pay meant for soldiers being diverted and a military structure top-heavy with colonels, many of whom are former warlords. In a 2009 report itemizing FARDC abuses, Human Rights Watch urged the UN to stop supporting government offensives against eastern rebels until the abuses ceased.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Caty Clement wrote in 2009:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "\"One of the most notable [FARDC corruption] schemes was known as 'Opération Retour' (Operation Return). Senior officers ordered the soldiers' pay to be sent from Kinshasa to the commanders in the field, who took their cut and returned the remainder to their commander in Kinshasa instead of paying the soldiers. To ensure that foot soldiers would be paid their due, in late 2005, EUSEC suggested separating the chain of command from the chain of payment. The former remained within Congolese hands, while the EU mission delivered salaries directly to the newly 'integrated' brigades. Although efficient in the short term, this solution raises the question of sustainability and ownership in the long term. Once soldiers' pay could no longer be siphoned off via 'Opération Retour', however, two other budgetary lines, the 'fonds de ménage' and logistical support to the brigades, were soon diverted.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "In 2010, thirty FARDC officers were given scholarships to study in Russian military academies. This is part of a greater effort by Russia to help improve the FARDC. A new military attaché and other advisers from Russia visited the DRC.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "On 22 November 2012, Gabriel Amisi Kumba was suspended from his position in the Forces Terrestres by president Joseph Kabila due to an inquiry into his alleged role in the sale of arms to various rebel groups in the eastern part of the country, which may have implicated the rebel group M23. In December 2012 it was reported that members of Army units in the north east of the country are often not paid due to corruption, and these units rarely counter attacks made against villages by the Lord's Resistance Army.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "The FARDC deployed 850 soldiers and 150 PNC police officers as part of an international force in the Central African Republic, which the DRC borders to the north. The country had been in a state of civil war since 2012, when the president was ousted by rebel groups. The DRC was urged by French president François Hollande to keep its troops in CAR.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "In July 2014, the Congolese army carried out a joint operation with UN troops in the Masisi and Walikale territories of the North Kivu province. In the process, they liberated over 20 villages and a mine from the control of two rebel groups, the Mai Mai Cheka and the Alliance for the Sovereign and Patriotic Congo.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "The UN published a report in October 2017 announcing that the FARDC no longer employed child soldiers but was still listed under militaries that committed sexual violations against children.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Troops operating with MONUSCO in North Kivu were attacked by likely rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces on 8 December 2017. After a protracted firefight the troops suffered 5 dead along with 14 dead among the UN force.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "The President Félix Tshisekedi is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The Minister of Defence, formally Ministers of Defence and Veterans (Ancien Combattants) is Crispin Atama Tabe, who succeeded former minister Aimé Ngoy Mukena.",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The Colonel Tshatshi Military Camp in the Kinshasa suburb of Ngaliema hosts the defence department and the Chiefs of Staff central command headquarters of the FARDC. Jane's data from 2002 appears inaccurate; there is at least one ammunition plant in Katanga.",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Below the Chief of Staff, the current organisation of the FARDC is not fully clear. There is known to be a Military Intelligence branch – Service du Renseignement militaire (SRM), the former DEMIAP. The FARDC is known to be broken up into the Land Forces (Forces Terrestres), Navy and Air Force. The Land Forces are distributed around ten military regions, up from the previous eight, following the ten provinces of the country. There is also a training command, the Groupement des Écoles Supérieurs Militaires (GESM) or Group of Higher Military Schools, which, in January 2010, was under the command of Major General Marcellin Lukama. The Navy and Air Forces are composed of various groupments (see below). There is also a central logistics base. The United Nations Mine Action Service supervised the construction of a new ammunition depot on the outskirts of Kisangani and handed it over to the MOD in October 2013.",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "It should be made clear also that Joseph Kabila does not trust the military; the Republican Guard is the only component he trusts. Major General John Numbi, former Air Force chief, now inspector general of police, ran a parallel chain of command in the east to direct the 2009 Eastern Congo offensive, Operation Umoja Wetu; the regular chain of command was by-passed. Previously Numbi negotiated the agreement to carry out the mixage process with Laurent Nkunda. Commenting on a proposed vote of no confidence in the Minister of Defence in September 2012, Baoudin Amba Wetshi of lecongolais.cd described Ntolo as a \"scapegoat\". Wetshi said that all key military and security questions were handled in total secrecy by the President and other civil and military personalities trusted by him, such as John Numbi, Gabriel Amisi Kumba ('Tango Four'), Delphin Kahimbi, and others such as Kalev Mutond and Pierre Lumbi Okongo.",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "The General Secretariat for Defence: is headed by a General Officer (Secretary General for Defence). He oversees the following departments:",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Military Justice is an independent institution under the judiciary, responsible for upholding the law and strengthening order and discipline within the Armed Forces.",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "The General Inspectorate includes the following people:",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "The available information on armed forces' Chiefs of Staff is incomplete and sometimes contradictory. In addition to armed forces chiefs of staff, in 1966 Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Malila was listed as Army Chief of Staff.",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Virtually all officers have now changed positions, but this list gives an outline of the structure in January 2005. Despite the planned subdivision of the country into more numerous provinces, the actual splitting of the former provinces has not taken place.",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "In September 2014, President Kabila reshuffled the command structure and in addition to military regions created three new 'defence zones' which would be subordinated directly to the general staff. The defence zones essentially created a new layer between the general staff and the provincial commanders. The military regions themselves were reorganised and do not correspond with the ones that existed prior to the reshuffle. New commanders of branches were also appointed: A Congolese military analyst based in Brussels, Jean-Jacques Wondo, provided an outline of the updated command structure of the FARDC following the shake up of the high command:",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Regional commanders:",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "The following changes were announced in July 2018.",
"title": "Structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Circa 2008–09, the land forces were made up of about 14 integrated brigades of fighters from all the former warring factions who went through a brassage integration process (see next paragraph) and a limited number of non-integrated brigades that remain solely made up of single factions (the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD)'s Armée national congolaise, the ex-government former Congolese Armed Forces (FAC), the ex-RCD KML, the ex-Movement for the Liberation of Congo, the armed groups of the Ituri conflict (the Mouvement des Révolutionnaires Congolais (MRC), Forces de Résistance Patriotique d'Ituri (FRPI), and the Front Nationaliste Intégrationniste (FNI)), and the Mai-Mai).",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "It appears that about the same time that Presidential Decree 03/042 of 18 December 2003 established the National Commission for Demobilisation and Reinsertion (CONADER), \"..all ex-combatants were officially declared as FARDC soldiers and the then FARDC brigades [were to] rest deployed until the order to leave for brassage\" [the military integration process].",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "The reform plan adopted in 2005 envisaged the formation of eighteen integrated brigades through the military integration process as its first of three stages. The process consisted firstly of regroupment, where fighters are disarmed. Then they were sent to orientation centres, run by CONADER, where fighters took the choice of either returning to civilian society or remaining in the armed forces. Combatants who chose demobilisation received an initial cash payment of US$110. Those who chose to stay within the FARDC were then transferred to one of six integration centres for a 45-day training course, which aimed to build integrated formations out of factional fighters previously heavily divided along ethnic, political and regional lines. The centres were spread out around the country at Kitona, Kamina, Kisangani, Rumangabo and Nyaleke (within the Virunga National Park) in Nord-Kivu, and Luberizi (on the border with Burundi) in South Kivu. The process suffered severe difficulties due to construction delays, administration errors, and the amount of travel former combatants have to do, as the three stages' centres are widely separated. There were three sequential buildup stages in the 2005 plan. Following the first 18 integrated brigades, the second goal was the formation of a ready reaction force of two to three brigades, and finally, by 2010, when MONUC was hoped to have withdrawn, the creation of a Main Defence Force of three divisions.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "In February 2008, then Defence Minister Chikez Diemu described the reform plan at the time as:",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "\"The short term, 2008–2010, will see the setting in place of a Rapid Reaction Force; the medium term, 2008–2015, with a Covering Force; and finally the long term, 2015–2020, with a Principal Defence Force.\" Diemu added that the reform plan rests on a programme of synergy based on the four pillars of dissuasion, production, reconstruction and excellence. \"The Rapid Reaction Force is expected to focus on dissuasion, through a Rapid Reaction Force of 12 battalions, capable of aiding MONUC to secure the east of the country and to realise constitutional missions.\"",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Amid the other difficulties in building new armed forces for the DRC, in early 2007 the integration and training process was distorted as the DRC government under Kabila attempted to use it to gain more control over the dissident general Laurent Nkunda. A hastily negotiated verbal agreement in Rwanda saw three government FAC brigades integrated with Nkunda's former ANC 81st and 83rd Brigades in what was called mixage. Mixage brought multiple factions into composite brigades, but without the 45-day retraining provided by brassage, and it seems that actually, the process was limited to exchanging battalions between the FAC and Nkunda brigades in North Kivu, without further integration. Due to Nkunda's troops having greater cohesion, Nkunda effectively gained control of all five brigades, which was not the intention of the DRC central government. However, after Nkunda used the mixage brigades to fight the FDLR, strains arose between the FARDC and Nkunda-loyalist troops within the brigades and they fell apart in the last days of August 2007. The International Crisis Group says that \"by 30 August [2007] Nkunda's troops had left the mixed brigades and controlled a large part of the Masisi and Rutshuru territories\" (of North Kivu).",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Both formally integrated brigades and the non-integrated units continue to conduct arbitrary arrests, rapes, robbery, and other crimes and these human rights violations are \"regularly\" committed by both officers and members of the rank and file. Members of the Army also often strike deals to gain access to resources with the militias they are meant to be fighting.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "The various brigades and other formations and units number at least 100,000 troops. The status of these brigades has been described as \"pretty chaotic.\" A 2007 disarmament and repatriation study said \"army units that have not yet gone through the process of brassage are usually much smaller than what they ought to be. Some non-integrated brigades have only 500 men (and are thus nothing more than a small battalion) whereas some battalions may not even have the size of a normal company (over a 100 men).\"",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "A number of outside donor countries are also carrying out separate training programmes for various parts of the Forces Terrestres (Land Forces). The People's Republic of China has trained Congolese troops at Kamina in Katanga from at least 2004 to 2009, and the Belgian government is training at least one \"rapid reaction\" battalion. When Kabila visited U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington D.C., he also asked the U.S. Government to train a battalion, and as a result, a private contractor, Protection Strategies Incorporated, started training a FARDC battalion at Camp Base, Kisangani, in February 2010. The company was supervised by United States Special Operations Command Africa. Three years later, the battalion broke and ran in the face of M23, raping women and young girls, looting, and carrying out arbitrary executions. The various international training programmes are not well integrated.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "Attempting to list the equipment available to the DRC's land forces is difficult; most figures are unreliable estimates based on known items delivered in the past. The figures below are from the IISS Military Balance 2014. Much of the Army's equipment is non-operational due to insufficient maintenance—in 2002 only 20 percent of the Army's armoured vehicles were estimated as being serviceable.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "In addition to these 2014 figures, in March 2010, it was reported that the DRC's land forces had ordered US$80 million worth of military equipment from Ukraine which included 20 T-72 main battle tanks, 100 trucks and various small arms. Tanks have been used in the Kivus in the 2005–09 period.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "In February 2014, Ukraine revealed that it had achieved the first export order for the T-64 tank to the DRC Land Forces for 50 T-64BV-1s.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "In June 2015 it was reported that Georgia had sold 12 of its Didgori-2 to the DRC for $4 million. The vehicles were specifically designed for reconnaissance and special operations. Two of the vehicles are a recently developed conversion to serve for medical field evacuation.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "The United Nations confirmed in 2011, both from sources in the Congolese military and from officials of the Commission nationale de contrôle des armes légères et de petit calibre et de réduction de la violence armée, that the ammunition plant called Afridex in Likasi, Katanga Province, manufactures ammunition for small arms and light weapons.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "In addition to the other land forces, President Joseph Kabila also has a Republican Guard presidential force (Garde Républicaine or GR), formerly known as the Special Presidential Security Group (GSSP). FARDC military officials state that the Garde Républicaine is not the responsibility of FARDC, but of the Head of State. Apart from Article 140 of the Law on the Army and Defence, no legal stipulation on the DRC's Armed Forces makes provision for the GR as a distinct unit within the national army. In February 2005 President Joseph Kabila passed a decree which appointed the GR's commanding officer and \"repealed any previous provisions contrary\" to that decree. The GR, more than 10,000 strong (the ICG said 10,000 to 15,000 in January 2007), has better working conditions and is paid regularly, but still commits rapes and robberies in the vicinity of its bases.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "In an effort to extend his personal control across the country, Joseph Kabila has deployed the GR at key airports, ostensibly in preparation for an impending presidential visit. At the beginning of 2007 there were Guards deployed in the central prison of Kinshasa, N'djili Airport, Bukavu, Kisangani, Kindu, Lubumbashi, Matadi, and Moanda, where they appear to answer to no local commander and have caused trouble with MONUC troops there.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "The GR is also supposed to undergo the integration process, but in January 2007, only one battalion had been announced as having been integrated. Formed at a brassage centre in the Kinshasa suburb of Kibomango, the battalion included 800 men, half from the former GSSP and half from the MLC and RCD Goma.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Up until June 2016, the GR comprised three brigades, the 10th Brigade at Camp Tshatshi and the 11th at Camp Kimbembe, both in Kinshasa, and the 13th Brigade at Camp Simi Simi in Kisangani. It was reorganised on the basis of eight fighting regiments, the 14th Security and Honor Regiment, an artillery regiment, and a command brigade/regiment from that time.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "There are currently large numbers of United Nations troops stationed in the DRC. The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) on 31 March 2017 had a strength of over 18,316 peacekeepers (including 16,215 military personnel) and is tasked with assisting Congolese authorities to maintain security. The UN and foreign military aid missions, the most prominent being EUSEC RD Congo, are attempting to assist the Congolese in rebuilding the armed forces, with major efforts being made in trying to assure regular payment of salaries to armed forces personnel and also in military justice. Retired Canadian Lieutenant General Marc Caron also served for a time as Security Sector Reform advisor to the head of MONUC.",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "Groups of anti-Rwandan government rebels like the FDLR, and other foreign fighters remain inside the DRC. The FDLR which is the greatest concern, was some 6,000 strong, in July 2007. By late 2010 the FDLR's strength however was estimated at 2,500. The other groups are smaller: the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army, the Ugandan rebel group the Allied Democratic Forces in the remote area of Mt Rwenzori, and the Burundian Parti pour la Libération du Peuple Hutu—Forces Nationales de Liberation (PALIPEHUTU-FNL).",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "Finally there is a government paramilitary force, created in 1997 under President Laurent Kabila. The National Service is tasked with providing the army with food and with training the youth in a range of reconstruction and developmental activities. There is not much further information available, and no internet-accessible source details the relationship of the National Service to other armed forces bodies; it is not listed in the constitution. President Kabila, in one of the few comments available, says National Service will provide a gainful activity for street children. Obligatory civil service administered through the armed forces was also proposed under the Mobutu regime during the \"radicalisation\" programme of December 1974 – January 1975; the FAZ was opposed to the measure and the plan \"took several months to die.\"",
"title": "Land forces"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "All military aircraft in the DRC are operated by the Air Force. In 2007, Jane's World Air Forces stated that the Air Force had an estimated strength of 1,800 personnel and is organised into two Air Groups. These Groups command five wings and nine squadrons, of which not all are operational. 1 Air Group is located at Kinshasa and consists of Liaison Wing, Training Wing and Logistical Wing and has a strength of five squadrons. 2 Tactical Air Group is located at Kaminia and consists of Pursuit and Attack Wing and Tactical Transport Wing and has a strength of four squadrons. Foreign private military companies have reportedly been contracted to provide the DRC's aerial reconnaissance capability using small propeller aircraft fitted with sophisticated equipment. Jane's states that National Air Force of Angola fighter aircraft would be made available to defend Kinshasa if it came under attack.",
"title": "Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "Like the other services, the Congolese Air Force is not capable of carrying out its responsibilities. Few of the Air Force's aircraft are currently flyable or capable of being restored to service and it is unclear whether the Air Force is capable of maintaining even unsophisticated aircraft. Moreover, Jane's stated that the Air Force's Ecole de Pilotage is 'in near total disarray' though Belgium has offered to restart the Air Force's pilot training program.",
"title": "Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "In 2018 the IISS estimated that the Air Force numbered 2250 (p457); the 2020 edition carried the same number, unchanged.",
"title": "Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "The IISS Military Balance 2021 said the Air Force had four Su-25s; four transport aircraft, including 2 B727s; 7 Mil Mi-24s; and three transport helicopters, with a strength of 2,550 (p.461).",
"title": "Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "Before the downfall of Mobutu, a small navy operated on the Congo River. One of its installations was at the village of N'dangi near the presidential residence in Gbadolite. The port at N'dangi was the base for several patrol boats, helicopters and the presidential yacht. The 2002 edition of Jane's Sentinel described the Navy as being \"in a state of near total disarray\" and stated that it did not conduct any training or have operating procedures. The Navy shares the same discipline problems as the other services. It was initially placed under command of the MLC when the transition began, so the current situation is uncertain.",
"title": "Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "The 2007 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships states that the Navy is organised into four commands, based at Matadi, near the coast; the capital Kinshasa, further up the Congo river; Kalemie, on Lake Tanganyika; and Goma, on Lake Kivu. The International Institute for Strategic Studies, in its 2007 edition of the Military Balance, confirms the bases listed in Jane's and adds a fifth base at Boma, a coastal city near Matadi. Various sources also refer to numbered Naval Regions. Operations of the 1st Naval Region have been reported in Kalemie, the 4th near the northern city of Mbandaka, and the 5th at Goma.",
"title": "Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "As of 2012, the Navy on paper consisted of about 6,700 personnel and up to 23 patrol craft. The IISS repeated the same 6,700 figure in 2018 (p457) and the 2020 edition carried the same number, unchanged. In reality, The IISS lists the Navy only consists of around 1,000 personnel and a total of eight patrol craft, of which only one is operational, a Shanghai II Type 062 class gunboat designated \"102\". There are five other 062s as well as two Swiftships which are not currently operational, though some may be restored to service in the future. According to Jane's, the Navy also operates barges and small craft armed with machine guns.",
"title": "Navy"
}
] | The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the state organisation responsible for defending the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The FARDC was rebuilt patchily as part of the peace process which followed the end of the Second Congo War in July 2003. The majority of FARDC members are land forces, but it also has a small air force and an even smaller navy. In 2010–2011 the three services may have numbered between 144,000 and 159,000 personnel. In addition, there is a presidential force called the Republican Guard, but it and the Congolese National Police (PNC) are not part of the Armed Forces. The government in the capital city Kinshasa, the United Nations, the European Union, and bilateral partners which include Angola, South Africa, and Belgium are attempting to create a viable force with the ability to provide the Democratic Republic of Congo with stability and security. However, this process is being hampered by corruption, inadequate donor coordination, and competition between donors. The various military units now grouped under the FARDC banner are some of the most unstable in Africa after years of war and underfunding. To assist the new government, since February 2000 the United Nations has had the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which currently has a strength of over 16,000 peacekeepers in the country. Its principal tasks are to provide security in key areas, such as the South Kivu and North Kivu in the east, and to assist the government in reconstruction. Foreign rebel groups are also in the Congo, as they have been for most of the last half-century. The most important is the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), against which Laurent Nkunda's troops were fighting, but other smaller groups such as the anti-Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army are also present. The legal standing of the FARDC was laid down in the Transitional Constitution, articles 118 and 188. This was then superseded by provisions in the 2006 Constitution, articles 187 to 192. Law 04/023 of 12 November 2004 establishes the General Organisation of Defence and the Armed Forces. In mid-2010, the Congolese Parliament was debating a new defence law, provisionally designated Organic Law 130. | 2002-02-25T15:51:15Z | 2023-12-02T20:34:59Z | [
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8,032 | Geography of Denmark | Denmark is a Nordic country located in Northern Europe. It consists of the Jutland Peninsula and several islands in the Baltic Sea, referred to as the Danish Archipelago. Denmark is located southwest of Sweden and due south of Norway and is bordered by the German state (and former possession) Schleswig-Holstein to the south, on Denmark's only land border, 68 kilometres (42 miles) long.
Denmark borders both the Baltic and North seas along its 8,750 km (5,440 mi) tidal shoreline. Denmark's general coastline is much shorter, at 1,701 km (1,057 mi), as it would not include most of the 1,419 offshore islands (each defined as exceeding 100 square metres in area) and the 180-kilometre long Limfjorden, which separates Denmark's second largest island, North Jutlandic Island, 4,686 km in size, from the rest of Jutland. No location in Denmark is further from the coast than 52 km (32 mi). The land area of Denmark is estimated to be 43,094 km (16,639 sq mi). However, it cannot be stated exactly since the ocean constantly erodes and adds material to the coastline, and there are human land reclamation projects. On the southwest coast of Jutland, the tide is between 1 and 2 m (3.28 and 6.56 ft), and the tideline moves outward and inward on a 10 km (6.2 mi) stretch. A recent global remote sensing analysis suggested that there were 607 km² of tidal flats in Denmark, making it the 42nd ranked country in terms of tidal flat extent. Denmark has an Exclusive Economic Zone of 105,989 km (40,923 sq mi). When including the Faroe Islands and Greenland, the EEZ is the 15th largest in the world with 2,220,093 km (857,183 sq mi).
A circle enclosing the same total area as Denmark would have a diameter of 234 km (146 miles). Denmark has 443 named islands (1,419 islands above 100 m), of which 72 are inhabited (as of 1 January 2007, Statistics Denmark). The largest islands are Zealand (Sjælland) and Funen (Fyn). The island of Bornholm is located east of the rest of the country, in the Baltic Sea. Many of the larger islands are connected by bridges; the Øresund Bridge connects Zealand with Sweden; the Great Belt Bridge connects Funen with Zealand; and the Little Belt Bridge connects Jutland with Funen. Ferries or small aircraft connect to the smaller islands. Main cities are the capital Copenhagen on Zealand; Århus, Aalborg and Esbjerg in Jutland; and Odense on Funen.
Denmark experiences a temperate climate. This means that the winters are mild and windy and the summers are cool. The local terrain is generally flat with a few gently rolling plains. The territory of Denmark includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest of metropolitan Denmark, but excludes the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Its position gives Denmark complete control of the Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking the Baltic and North Seas. The country's natural resources include petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, chalk, stone, gravel, and sand.
Irrigated land: 4,354 km (2007)
Total renewable water resources: 6 km (2011)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural): total: 0.66 km/yr (58%/5%/36%) per capita: 118.4 m/yr (2009)
In 2019, the government proposed building 9 new artificial islands, named project Holmene, which would create 3 sq km of reclaimed land, to be built from 2022-2040.
In June 2021, lawmakers approved the construction of a 3 sq km island, named Lynetteholm, in the Copenhagen Harbor. A spokesperson for the Climate Movement in Denmark (Klimabevægelsen i Danmark) said the organization would sue the government over environmental concerns.
Denmark has plenty of rain, flat landscape, and moderate climate. With 55.99% of its land considered as arable, Denmark has model characteristics for agriculture. 61% of the country's total area is cultivated Farms in Denmark are remarkably large, averaging 172.9 acres per farm. Additionally, homesteads exceeding 247 acres make up more than 20% in Denmark. Many of these large farms harvest fruits and vegetables, the leading exports from Denmark are meat, fur, and dairy products. The animal's diets in Denmark consist of mainly cereals since they are the dominant field crop. 75% of all cereal produced in Denmark is feed to the four most produced animals which are pigs, cattle, chicken and mink. Denmark overproduces about 66% of food production compared to their own population size (5.7 million) being that they are able to feed 15 million people. This is a byproduct of being highly productive within the Danish agricultural production.
In 1961, Denmark's Agricultural land represented 74.5% of land area. Fifty-six years later to 2015, Denmark has decreased its amount of Agricultural land down to 62.1% then to 61% one year later in reference to "Facts and Figures - Danish Agriculture and Food" The decrease in agricultural land comes as farmers are being well educated and the intensive amount of research and development is being implemented. It begins with advancements in agro-technology. The results have improved fertilization and nutrient use on arable land. Digestibility and nutrient uptake are developing from the improvements of new methods that are being implemented. Examples of these new methods are the addition of enzymes and microbial cultures.
The World Book Encyclopedia (2003 ed.). 1974. ISBN 0716601036.
Media related to Geography of Denmark at Wikimedia Commons | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Denmark is a Nordic country located in Northern Europe. It consists of the Jutland Peninsula and several islands in the Baltic Sea, referred to as the Danish Archipelago. Denmark is located southwest of Sweden and due south of Norway and is bordered by the German state (and former possession) Schleswig-Holstein to the south, on Denmark's only land border, 68 kilometres (42 miles) long.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Denmark borders both the Baltic and North seas along its 8,750 km (5,440 mi) tidal shoreline. Denmark's general coastline is much shorter, at 1,701 km (1,057 mi), as it would not include most of the 1,419 offshore islands (each defined as exceeding 100 square metres in area) and the 180-kilometre long Limfjorden, which separates Denmark's second largest island, North Jutlandic Island, 4,686 km in size, from the rest of Jutland. No location in Denmark is further from the coast than 52 km (32 mi). The land area of Denmark is estimated to be 43,094 km (16,639 sq mi). However, it cannot be stated exactly since the ocean constantly erodes and adds material to the coastline, and there are human land reclamation projects. On the southwest coast of Jutland, the tide is between 1 and 2 m (3.28 and 6.56 ft), and the tideline moves outward and inward on a 10 km (6.2 mi) stretch. A recent global remote sensing analysis suggested that there were 607 km² of tidal flats in Denmark, making it the 42nd ranked country in terms of tidal flat extent. Denmark has an Exclusive Economic Zone of 105,989 km (40,923 sq mi). When including the Faroe Islands and Greenland, the EEZ is the 15th largest in the world with 2,220,093 km (857,183 sq mi).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "A circle enclosing the same total area as Denmark would have a diameter of 234 km (146 miles). Denmark has 443 named islands (1,419 islands above 100 m), of which 72 are inhabited (as of 1 January 2007, Statistics Denmark). The largest islands are Zealand (Sjælland) and Funen (Fyn). The island of Bornholm is located east of the rest of the country, in the Baltic Sea. Many of the larger islands are connected by bridges; the Øresund Bridge connects Zealand with Sweden; the Great Belt Bridge connects Funen with Zealand; and the Little Belt Bridge connects Jutland with Funen. Ferries or small aircraft connect to the smaller islands. Main cities are the capital Copenhagen on Zealand; Århus, Aalborg and Esbjerg in Jutland; and Odense on Funen.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Denmark experiences a temperate climate. This means that the winters are mild and windy and the summers are cool. The local terrain is generally flat with a few gently rolling plains. The territory of Denmark includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest of metropolitan Denmark, but excludes the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Its position gives Denmark complete control of the Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking the Baltic and North Seas. The country's natural resources include petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, chalk, stone, gravel, and sand.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Irrigated land: 4,354 km (2007)",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Total renewable water resources: 6 km (2011)",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural): total: 0.66 km/yr (58%/5%/36%) per capita: 118.4 m/yr (2009)",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 2019, the government proposed building 9 new artificial islands, named project Holmene, which would create 3 sq km of reclaimed land, to be built from 2022-2040.",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In June 2021, lawmakers approved the construction of a 3 sq km island, named Lynetteholm, in the Copenhagen Harbor. A spokesperson for the Climate Movement in Denmark (Klimabevægelsen i Danmark) said the organization would sue the government over environmental concerns.",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Denmark has plenty of rain, flat landscape, and moderate climate. With 55.99% of its land considered as arable, Denmark has model characteristics for agriculture. 61% of the country's total area is cultivated Farms in Denmark are remarkably large, averaging 172.9 acres per farm. Additionally, homesteads exceeding 247 acres make up more than 20% in Denmark. Many of these large farms harvest fruits and vegetables, the leading exports from Denmark are meat, fur, and dairy products. The animal's diets in Denmark consist of mainly cereals since they are the dominant field crop. 75% of all cereal produced in Denmark is feed to the four most produced animals which are pigs, cattle, chicken and mink. Denmark overproduces about 66% of food production compared to their own population size (5.7 million) being that they are able to feed 15 million people. This is a byproduct of being highly productive within the Danish agricultural production.",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 1961, Denmark's Agricultural land represented 74.5% of land area. Fifty-six years later to 2015, Denmark has decreased its amount of Agricultural land down to 62.1% then to 61% one year later in reference to \"Facts and Figures - Danish Agriculture and Food\" The decrease in agricultural land comes as farmers are being well educated and the intensive amount of research and development is being implemented. It begins with advancements in agro-technology. The results have improved fertilization and nutrient use on arable land. Digestibility and nutrient uptake are developing from the improvements of new methods that are being implemented. Examples of these new methods are the addition of enzymes and microbial cultures.",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The World Book Encyclopedia (2003 ed.). 1974. ISBN 0716601036.",
"title": "Notes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Media related to Geography of Denmark at Wikimedia Commons",
"title": "External links"
}
] | Denmark is a Nordic country located in Northern Europe. It consists of the Jutland Peninsula and several islands in the Baltic Sea, referred to as the Danish Archipelago. Denmark is located southwest of Sweden and due south of Norway and is bordered by the German state Schleswig-Holstein to the south, on Denmark's only land border, 68 kilometres long. Denmark borders both the Baltic and North seas along its 8,750 km (5,440 mi) tidal shoreline. Denmark's general coastline is much shorter, at 1,701 km (1,057 mi), as it would not include most of the 1,419 offshore islands and the 180-kilometre long Limfjorden, which separates Denmark's second largest island, North Jutlandic Island, 4,686 km2 in size, from the rest of Jutland. No location in Denmark is further from the coast than 52 km (32 mi). The land area of Denmark is estimated to be 43,094 km2 (16,639 sq mi). However, it cannot be stated exactly since the ocean constantly erodes and adds material to the coastline, and there are human land reclamation projects. On the southwest coast of Jutland, the tide is between 1 and 2 m, and the tideline moves outward and inward on a 10 km (6.2 mi) stretch. A recent global remote sensing analysis suggested that there were 607 km² of tidal flats in Denmark, making it the 42nd ranked country in terms of tidal flat extent. Denmark has an Exclusive Economic Zone of 105,989 km2 (40,923 sq mi). When including the Faroe Islands and Greenland, the EEZ is the 15th largest in the world with 2,220,093 km2 (857,183 sq mi). A circle enclosing the same total area as Denmark would have a diameter of 234 km. Denmark has 443 named islands, of which 72 are inhabited. The largest islands are Zealand (Sjælland) and Funen (Fyn). The island of Bornholm is located east of the rest of the country, in the Baltic Sea. Many of the larger islands are connected by bridges; the Øresund Bridge connects Zealand with Sweden; the Great Belt Bridge connects Funen with Zealand; and the Little Belt Bridge connects Jutland with Funen. Ferries or small aircraft connect to the smaller islands. Main cities are the capital Copenhagen on Zealand; Århus, Aalborg and Esbjerg in Jutland; and Odense on Funen. Denmark experiences a temperate climate. This means that the winters are mild and windy and the summers are cool. The local terrain is generally flat with a few gently rolling plains. The territory of Denmark includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest of metropolitan Denmark, but excludes the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Its position gives Denmark complete control of the Danish Straits linking the Baltic and North Seas. The country's natural resources include petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, chalk, stone, gravel, and sand. | 2023-07-11T08:40:46Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Denmark |
|
8,033 | Demographics of Denmark | Demographic features of the population of Denmark include ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects.
Since 1980, the number of people of Danish descent, defined as having at least one parent who was born in Denmark and has Danish citizenship, has remained constant at around 5 million in Denmark, and nearly all the population growth from 5.1 up to the 2018 total of 5.8 million was due to immigration.
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019. Population numbers until 2100 will be increasing.
The natural growth of the population (births minus deaths) was negative in 2022, that is, minus 1005 people. The last time there was a negative natural increase in the population was in 1988. During 2022, 58,430 children were born, 5,043 fewer than in 2021. In 2022, 59,435 people died, there were 2,283, or 4.0% more than in 2021. The total population in the age group 80 and over grew by 12,844 people, or 4.4%., from 2022 to 2023.
During 2022, the Danish population grew by 59,234 people, so the population on January 1, 2023, consisted of 5,932,654 people. It was a population increase of 1.0 percent, which is higher than in 2021, when the population increase was 0.6 percent.
In 2022, it is the first time in history that immigrant women from non-Western countries now have fewer children on average than women of Danish roots in Denmark. On average, immigrant women have 1.76 children, the descendants have an average of 1.75 children, while women of Danish roots have 1.78 children. This is because Ukrainians, who are categorized as non-Western, have come to Denmark in large numbers.
In the same year, immigrant women from Syria had the highest TFR in Denmark, they give birth to an average of 3.7 children. They are followed by women from Somalia and Pakistan, 2020 figures show.
Denmark had a total fertility rate of 1.55 children per woman in 2022.
In 2021 the number of childless women in their 50s is the highest in seven years; 12.3 percent of women at that age have never had a child, while the 19.5 percent of 50-year-old men do not have children.
The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.
Total fertility rate
1.78 children born/woman (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 152nd
In 2021 the average age of the mother at her first birth in Denmark was of 31.4 years, and the father is of 31.5 years.
Sources: Our World In Data and the United Nations.
1775–1950
1950–2015
Non-indigenous ethnic minorities include:
Ethnic minorities in Denmark include a handful of groups:
A person has Danish origin if he or she has at least one parent who is both a Danish citizen and born in Denmark. Neither immigrants nor descendants have one parent who is both a Danish citizen and born in Denmark. The difference between immigrants and descendants is that immigrants were born abroad, while descendants were born in Denmark.
For asylum seekers and other persons applying for a residence permit in Denmark, there is no unambiguous connection between the time of a granted residence permit and immigration for the person who has been granted the residence permit. The number of residence permits granted in a quarter cannot be interpreted as the quarter's immigration. Citizens of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden do not need a residence permit to live, work or study in Denmark.
Statistics Denmark
In the modern minorities, Statistics Denmark counts first-generation immigrants, second-generation (Descendants in Danish statistics classification) and third-generation (Children of descendants in Danish classification). Children of descendants can be either of "Danish origin" (if both of their parents were born in Denmark with Danish citizenship) and of "foreign origin" (if one of their parents is a second-generation immigrant and another first-generation). Therefore, this table included all people of the respective background, people who are classified as of "foreign background" and third-generation immigrants, who classified as of "Danish origin". Statistics Denmark denotes an immigrant's group based on their country of birth, it does this usually off of the immigrant or descendents parents, if only one such parent is known, then the group is determined by that or if no parents are known then it is assumed if the person is an immigrant that their country of origin is their country of birth.
Statistics Denmark also has specific classification bands which it uses to separate different immigrant groups. As an example, for 'Western' immigrants and 'Non-western', the classification band is as follows:
According to 2021 figures from Statistics Denmark, 86% of Denmark's population of over 5,840,045 was of Danish descent. The remaining 14% were of a foreign background, defined as immigrants or descendants of recent immigrants. With the same definition, the most common countries of origin were Turkey, Poland, Germany, Iraq, Romania, Syria, Somalia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia and its successor states. More than 817,438 individuals (14%) are migrants and their descendants (199,668 second generation migrants born in Denmark).
Of these 817,438 immigrants and their descendants:
There were 121,183 immigrants in 2022, of these 31,381 were Ukrainian citizens, people with Ukrainian citizenship accounted for 26 percent of all immigration. The total population of Denmark increased in 2022 by 59,234 people, and the net immigration of Ukrainian people amounted to 45 percent of this population growth.
Data according to Statistics Denmark, which collects the official statistics for Denmark.
In 2021, 79% of all births were to mothers of Danish origin, 17% from immigrants and 4% from descendants of immigrants.
The Church of Denmark (Den danske folkekirke) is state-supported and, according to statistics from January 2022, accounts for the religious affiliation of 73.2% of the population. Denmark has had religious freedom guaranteed since 1849 by the Constitution, and numerous other religions are officially recognised, including several Christian denominations, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and other congregations as well as Forn Siðr, a revival of Scandinavian pagan tradition. The Department of Ecclesiastical Affairs recognises roughly a hundred religious congregations for tax and legal purposes such as conducting wedding ceremonies.
Islam is the second largest religion in Denmark. In 2020, an estimated 4.4% of the Danish population were Muslims.
For historical reasons, there is a formal distinction between 'approved' (godkendte) and 'recognised' (anerkendte) congregations of faith. The latter include 11 traditional denominations, such as Roman Catholics, the Reformed Church, the Mosaic Congregation, Methodists and Baptists, some of whose privileges in the country date hundreds of years back. These have the additional rights of having priests appointed by royal resolution and to christen/name children with legal effect.
Although the level of taxation in Denmark is among the highest in the world, the labor market participation rate is still high compared with other western countries. Municipal income tax makes up the largest part of taxation in Denmark, with central government income tax topping it up. These income taxes are higher than in other OECD countries. These direct taxes make up two thirds of the taxation on private households with indirect taxes of the central government, and municipalities (property tax), making up one third, i.e. with motor vehicles (passenger cars, motorcycles, commercial vehicles) sold from VAT registered dealerships – because of the registration fee – being among the most expensive in the world, with prices in Norway at the same level, and the most expensive in Singapore. Also VAT in Denmark is not reduced from the current 25%. The 25% are paid on all goods and services where VAT is applied. Indirect taxes are about average compared with other European OECD countries. Payroll taxes (Danish sociale afgifter) are much lower than in other OECD countries. The tax structure ensures a broad tax base across the whole population. However, revenue from corporate taxes is lower compared with other European countries. Municipalities and the central government (regions are not allowed to levy any taxes, as they are financed by central government, and municipal block grants) redistribute a large amount of their tax income in transfer payments to municipalities with a low tax base and/or few tax payers. It is normal for children to be in nurseries, which requires a partial payment of the costs or is free of charge for low income households, and in kindergartens owned and operated, or financed, by the public sector. Child benefit is paid to parents for each child. The service to old age pensioners, and handicapped is extensive.
Denmark ranks high in the Corruption Perceptions Index, although the index is criticized for being limited in scope.
Homelessness in Denmark is considered a significant social issue in the country. Since 2007, comprehensive counts have been performed every other year in week six (early February). The latest, from 2017, counted 6,635 homeless people in Denmark. The total number of people experiencing homelessness at some point in 2017 was estimated at 13,000, while earlier estimates have placed it between 10,000 and 15,000. Roughly half the homeless are in the Capital Region. When compared to many other countries, such as the United States, the rate of Denmark's homeless is significantly lower, which has been linked to the relatively comprehensive welfare system.
The number of homeless people in Denmark has risen in recent decades, but this has been most pronounced in people that are between 18 and 29 years old (although 30 to 59 years old remains the largest age group, at 70%), women (although men remains the largest group, at 75%) and immigrants (although Danish citizens remain the largest group). Among the foreign, a high percentage are Eastern or Southern European men that seek work in Denmark. Many of these only stay in Denmark during the summer, returning to their respective countries during the relatively cold Danish winter.
Based on the comprehensive count in February 2017, roughly one-tenth of homeless people in Denmark are "street sleepers" (which also includes people sleeping in stairways, sheds and other places not intended for human habitation), with the remaining sleeping in the homes of friends/family, in hotels/hostels, in shelters or alike. The number of street sleepers is higher during the summer, and homeless foreigners are overrepresented among them. Among homeless in Denmark, the primary issue is psychiatric disease at 36% (24% receive treatment), drug addiction at 27% (17% receive treatment) and alcohol addiction at 23% (9% receive treatment). Overall it is estimated that more than half of all homeless people have mental health issues. Compared to many other countries such as the United States, a higher percentage of Denmark's homeless have mental health issues or substance abuse, as countries with weaker welfare systems tend to have higher homeless rates but the homeless will more likely to include from a wide range of groups.
This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2023 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2009 edition) | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Demographic features of the population of Denmark include ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Since 1980, the number of people of Danish descent, defined as having at least one parent who was born in Denmark and has Danish citizenship, has remained constant at around 5 million in Denmark, and nearly all the population growth from 5.1 up to the 2018 total of 5.8 million was due to immigration.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019. Population numbers until 2100 will be increasing.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The natural growth of the population (births minus deaths) was negative in 2022, that is, minus 1005 people. The last time there was a negative natural increase in the population was in 1988. During 2022, 58,430 children were born, 5,043 fewer than in 2021. In 2022, 59,435 people died, there were 2,283, or 4.0% more than in 2021. The total population in the age group 80 and over grew by 12,844 people, or 4.4%., from 2022 to 2023.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "During 2022, the Danish population grew by 59,234 people, so the population on January 1, 2023, consisted of 5,932,654 people. It was a population increase of 1.0 percent, which is higher than in 2021, when the population increase was 0.6 percent.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 2022, it is the first time in history that immigrant women from non-Western countries now have fewer children on average than women of Danish roots in Denmark. On average, immigrant women have 1.76 children, the descendants have an average of 1.75 children, while women of Danish roots have 1.78 children. This is because Ukrainians, who are categorized as non-Western, have come to Denmark in large numbers.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In the same year, immigrant women from Syria had the highest TFR in Denmark, they give birth to an average of 3.7 children. They are followed by women from Somalia and Pakistan, 2020 figures show.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Denmark had a total fertility rate of 1.55 children per woman in 2022.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 2021 the number of childless women in their 50s is the highest in seven years; 12.3 percent of women at that age have never had a child, while the 19.5 percent of 50-year-old men do not have children.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Total fertility rate",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "1.78 children born/woman (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 152nd",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In 2021 the average age of the mother at her first birth in Denmark was of 31.4 years, and the father is of 31.5 years.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Sources: Our World In Data and the United Nations.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "1775–1950",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "1950–2015",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Non-indigenous ethnic minorities include:",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Ethnic minorities in Denmark include a handful of groups:",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "A person has Danish origin if he or she has at least one parent who is both a Danish citizen and born in Denmark. Neither immigrants nor descendants have one parent who is both a Danish citizen and born in Denmark. The difference between immigrants and descendants is that immigrants were born abroad, while descendants were born in Denmark.",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "For asylum seekers and other persons applying for a residence permit in Denmark, there is no unambiguous connection between the time of a granted residence permit and immigration for the person who has been granted the residence permit. The number of residence permits granted in a quarter cannot be interpreted as the quarter's immigration. Citizens of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden do not need a residence permit to live, work or study in Denmark.",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Statistics Denmark",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In the modern minorities, Statistics Denmark counts first-generation immigrants, second-generation (Descendants in Danish statistics classification) and third-generation (Children of descendants in Danish classification). Children of descendants can be either of \"Danish origin\" (if both of their parents were born in Denmark with Danish citizenship) and of \"foreign origin\" (if one of their parents is a second-generation immigrant and another first-generation). Therefore, this table included all people of the respective background, people who are classified as of \"foreign background\" and third-generation immigrants, who classified as of \"Danish origin\". Statistics Denmark denotes an immigrant's group based on their country of birth, it does this usually off of the immigrant or descendents parents, if only one such parent is known, then the group is determined by that or if no parents are known then it is assumed if the person is an immigrant that their country of origin is their country of birth.",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Statistics Denmark also has specific classification bands which it uses to separate different immigrant groups. As an example, for 'Western' immigrants and 'Non-western', the classification band is as follows:",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "According to 2021 figures from Statistics Denmark, 86% of Denmark's population of over 5,840,045 was of Danish descent. The remaining 14% were of a foreign background, defined as immigrants or descendants of recent immigrants. With the same definition, the most common countries of origin were Turkey, Poland, Germany, Iraq, Romania, Syria, Somalia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia and its successor states. More than 817,438 individuals (14%) are migrants and their descendants (199,668 second generation migrants born in Denmark).",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Of these 817,438 immigrants and their descendants:",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "There were 121,183 immigrants in 2022, of these 31,381 were Ukrainian citizens, people with Ukrainian citizenship accounted for 26 percent of all immigration. The total population of Denmark increased in 2022 by 59,234 people, and the net immigration of Ukrainian people amounted to 45 percent of this population growth.",
"title": "Ethnic and origin groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Data according to Statistics Denmark, which collects the official statistics for Denmark.",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In 2021, 79% of all births were to mothers of Danish origin, 17% from immigrants and 4% from descendants of immigrants.",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The Church of Denmark (Den danske folkekirke) is state-supported and, according to statistics from January 2022, accounts for the religious affiliation of 73.2% of the population. Denmark has had religious freedom guaranteed since 1849 by the Constitution, and numerous other religions are officially recognised, including several Christian denominations, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and other congregations as well as Forn Siðr, a revival of Scandinavian pagan tradition. The Department of Ecclesiastical Affairs recognises roughly a hundred religious congregations for tax and legal purposes such as conducting wedding ceremonies.",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Islam is the second largest religion in Denmark. In 2020, an estimated 4.4% of the Danish population were Muslims.",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "For historical reasons, there is a formal distinction between 'approved' (godkendte) and 'recognised' (anerkendte) congregations of faith. The latter include 11 traditional denominations, such as Roman Catholics, the Reformed Church, the Mosaic Congregation, Methodists and Baptists, some of whose privileges in the country date hundreds of years back. These have the additional rights of having priests appointed by royal resolution and to christen/name children with legal effect.",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Although the level of taxation in Denmark is among the highest in the world, the labor market participation rate is still high compared with other western countries. Municipal income tax makes up the largest part of taxation in Denmark, with central government income tax topping it up. These income taxes are higher than in other OECD countries. These direct taxes make up two thirds of the taxation on private households with indirect taxes of the central government, and municipalities (property tax), making up one third, i.e. with motor vehicles (passenger cars, motorcycles, commercial vehicles) sold from VAT registered dealerships – because of the registration fee – being among the most expensive in the world, with prices in Norway at the same level, and the most expensive in Singapore. Also VAT in Denmark is not reduced from the current 25%. The 25% are paid on all goods and services where VAT is applied. Indirect taxes are about average compared with other European OECD countries. Payroll taxes (Danish sociale afgifter) are much lower than in other OECD countries. The tax structure ensures a broad tax base across the whole population. However, revenue from corporate taxes is lower compared with other European countries. Municipalities and the central government (regions are not allowed to levy any taxes, as they are financed by central government, and municipal block grants) redistribute a large amount of their tax income in transfer payments to municipalities with a low tax base and/or few tax payers. It is normal for children to be in nurseries, which requires a partial payment of the costs or is free of charge for low income households, and in kindergartens owned and operated, or financed, by the public sector. Child benefit is paid to parents for each child. The service to old age pensioners, and handicapped is extensive.",
"title": "Taxation and benefits"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Denmark ranks high in the Corruption Perceptions Index, although the index is criticized for being limited in scope.",
"title": "Taxation and benefits"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Homelessness in Denmark is considered a significant social issue in the country. Since 2007, comprehensive counts have been performed every other year in week six (early February). The latest, from 2017, counted 6,635 homeless people in Denmark. The total number of people experiencing homelessness at some point in 2017 was estimated at 13,000, while earlier estimates have placed it between 10,000 and 15,000. Roughly half the homeless are in the Capital Region. When compared to many other countries, such as the United States, the rate of Denmark's homeless is significantly lower, which has been linked to the relatively comprehensive welfare system.",
"title": "Homelessness"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The number of homeless people in Denmark has risen in recent decades, but this has been most pronounced in people that are between 18 and 29 years old (although 30 to 59 years old remains the largest age group, at 70%), women (although men remains the largest group, at 75%) and immigrants (although Danish citizens remain the largest group). Among the foreign, a high percentage are Eastern or Southern European men that seek work in Denmark. Many of these only stay in Denmark during the summer, returning to their respective countries during the relatively cold Danish winter.",
"title": "Homelessness"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Based on the comprehensive count in February 2017, roughly one-tenth of homeless people in Denmark are \"street sleepers\" (which also includes people sleeping in stairways, sheds and other places not intended for human habitation), with the remaining sleeping in the homes of friends/family, in hotels/hostels, in shelters or alike. The number of street sleepers is higher during the summer, and homeless foreigners are overrepresented among them. Among homeless in Denmark, the primary issue is psychiatric disease at 36% (24% receive treatment), drug addiction at 27% (17% receive treatment) and alcohol addiction at 23% (9% receive treatment). Overall it is estimated that more than half of all homeless people have mental health issues. Compared to many other countries such as the United States, a higher percentage of Denmark's homeless have mental health issues or substance abuse, as countries with weaker welfare systems tend to have higher homeless rates but the homeless will more likely to include from a wide range of groups.",
"title": "Homelessness"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2023 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2009 edition)",
"title": "References"
}
] | Demographic features of the population of Denmark include ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects. | 2001-09-05T14:07:42Z | 2023-12-09T19:01:55Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Denmark |
8,035 | Economy of Denmark | The economy of Denmark is a modern high-income and mixed economy. The economy of Denmark is dominated by the service sector with 80% of all jobs, whereas about 11% of all employees work in manufacturing and 2% in agriculture. The nominal gross national income per capita was the ninth-highest in the world at $68,827 in 2023.
Correcting for purchasing power, per capita income was Int$57,781 or 10th-highest globally. The income distribution is relatively equal but inequality has somewhat increased during the last decades. This increase was attributed to both a larger spread in gross incomes and various economic policy measures. In 2017, Denmark had the seventh-lowest Gini coefficient (a measure of economic inequality) of the then 28 European Union countries. With 5,932,654 inhabitants (1 January 2023), Denmark has the 38th largest national economy in the world measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), and the 52nd largest in the world measured by purchasing power parity (PPP).
Denmark has a very long tradition of adhering to a fixed exchange-rate system and still does so today. It is unique among OECD countries to do so while maintaining an independent currency: The Danish krone, which is pegged to the euro. Though eligible to join the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU), the Danish voters in a referendum in 2000 rejected exchanging the krone for the euro. Whereas Denmark's neighbours like Norway, Sweden, Poland and the United Kingdom generally follow inflation targeting in their monetary policy, the priority of Denmark's central bank is to maintain exchange rate stability. Consequently, the central bank has no role in a domestic stabilization policy. Since February 2015, the central bank has maintained a negative interest rate to contain an upward exchange rate pressure.
In an international context, a relatively large proportion of the population is part of the labour force, in particular because the female participation rate is very high. In 2017, 78.8% of all 15-to-64-year-old people were active on the labour market, the sixth-highest number among all OECD countries. The unemployment is relatively low, in comparison to other European countries. In October 2018, 4.8% of the Danish labour force were unemployed, as compared to an average of 6.7% for all EU countries. There is no legal minimum wage in Denmark. The labour market is traditionally characterized by a high degree of union membership rates and collective agreement coverage. Denmark invests heavily in active labor market policies and the concept of flexicurity has been important historically.
Denmark is an example of the Nordic model, characterized by an internationally high tax level, and a correspondingly high level of government-provided services (e.g. health care, child care and education services). There are also income transfers to various groups, such as retired or disabled people, unemployed persons, students, etc. Altogether, the amount of revenue from taxes paid in 2017 amounted to 46.1% of the GDP. The Danish fiscal policy is generally considered healthy. The net government debt is very close to zero, amounting to 1.3% of GDP in 2017. The Danish fiscal policy is characterized by a long-term outlook, taking into account likely future fiscal demands. During the 2000s, a challenge was perceived to government expenditures in future decades. It was ultimately a challenge to fiscal sustainability from demographic development, in particular higher longevity. Responding to this, age eligibility rules for receiving public age-related transfers were changed. Since 2012, calculations of future fiscal challenges, from both the government and independent analysts, have generally perceived Danish fiscal policy to be sustainable. In recent years, it was considered overly sustainable.
Denmark's long-term economic development has largely followed the same pattern as other Northwestern European countries. In most of recorded history Denmark has been an agricultural country with most of the population living on a subsistence level. Since the 19th century Denmark has gone through an intense technological and institutional development. The material standard of living has experienced formerly unknown rates of growth, and the country has been industrialized and later turned into a modern service society.
Almost all of the land area of Denmark is arable. Unlike most of its neighbours, Denmark has not had extractable deposits of minerals or fossil fuels, except for the deposits of oil and natural gas in the North Sea, which started playing an economic role only during the 1980s. On the other hand, Denmark has had a logistic advantage through its long coastal line and the fact that no point on Danish land is more than 50 kilometers from the sea – an important fact for the whole period before the industrial revolution when sea transport was cheaper than land transport. Consequently, foreign trade has always been very important for the economic development of Denmark.
Already during the Stone Age there was some foreign trade, and even though trade has made up only a very modest share of total Danish value added until the 19th century, it has been decisive for economic development, both in terms of procuring vital import goods (like metals) and because new knowledge and technological skills have often come to Denmark as a byproduct of goods exchange with other countries. The emerging trade implied specialization which created demand for means of payments, and the earliest known Danish coins date from the time of Svend Tveskæg around 995.
According to economic historian Angus Maddison, Denmark was the sixth-most prosperous country in the world around 1600. The population size relative to arable agricultural land was small so that the farmers were relatively affluent, and Denmark was geographically close to the most dynamic and economically leading European areas since the 16th century: the Netherlands, the northern parts of Germany, and Britain. Still, 80 to 85% of the population lived in small villages on a subsistence level.
Mercantilism was the leading economic doctrine during the 17th and 18th century in Denmark, leading to the establishment of monopolies like Asiatisk Kompagni, development of physical and financial infrastructure like the first Danish bank Kurantbanken in 1736 and the first "kreditforening" (a kind of building society) in 1797, and the acquisition of some minor Danish colonies like Tranquebar.
At the end of the 18th century major agricultural reforms took place that entailed decisive structural changes. However, the Napoleonic Wars caused Copenhagen to lose its status as an international centre of finance and trade. Politically, mercantilism was gradually replaced by liberal thoughts among the ruling elite. Following a monetary reform after the Napoleonic wars, the present Danish central bank Danmarks Nationalbank was founded in 1818.
There exists national accounting data for Denmark from 1820 onwards thanks to the pioneering work of Danish economic historian Svend Aage Hansen. They find that there has been a substantial and permanent, though fluctuating, economic growth all the time since 1820. The period 1822–94 saw on average an annual growth in factor incomes of 2% (0.9% per capita) From around 1830 the agricultural sector experienced a major boom lasting several decades, producing and exporting grains, not least to Britain after 1846 when British grain import duties were abolished. When grain production became less profitable in the second half of the century, the Danish farmers made an impressive and uniquely successful change from vegetarian to animal production leading to a new boom period. Parallelly industrialization took off in Denmark from the 1870s. At the turn of the century industry (including artisanry) fed almost 30% of the population.
During the 20th century agriculture slowly dwindled in importance relative to industry, but agricultural employment was only during the 1950s surpassed by industrial employment. The first half of the century was marked by the two world wars and the Great Depression during the 1930s. After World War II Denmark took part in the increasingly close international cooperation, joining OEEC/OECD, IMF, GATT/WTO, and from 1972 the European Economic Community, later European Union. Foreign trade increased heavily relative to GDP. The economic role of the public sector increased considerably, and the country was increasingly transformed from an industrial country to a country dominated by production of services. The years 1958–73 were an unprecedented high-growth period. The 1960s are the decade with the highest registered real per capita growth in GDP ever, i.e. 4.5% annually.
During the 1970s Denmark was plunged into a crisis, initiated by the 1973 oil crisis leading to the hitherto unknown phenomenon stagflation. For the next decades the Danish economy struggled with several major so-called "balance problems": High unemployment, current account deficits, inflation, and government debt. From the 1980s economic policies have increasingly been oriented towards a long-term perspective, and gradually a series of structural reforms have solved these problems. In 1994 active labour market policies were introduced that via a series of labour market reforms have helped reducing structural unemployment considerably. A series of tax reforms from 1987 onwards, reducing tax deductions on interest payments, and the increasing importance of compulsory labour market-based funded pensions from the 1990s have increased private savings rates considerably, consequently transforming secular current account deficits to secular surpluses. The announcement of a consistent and hence more credible fixed exchange rate in 1982 has helped reducing the inflation rate.
In the first decade of the 21st century new economic policy issues have emerged. A growing awareness that future demographic changes, in particular increasing longevity, could threaten fiscal sustainability, implying very large fiscal deficits in future decades, led to major political agreements in 2006 and 2011, both increasing the future eligibility age of receiving public age-related pensions. Mainly because of these changes, from 2012 onwards the Danish fiscal sustainability problem is generally considered to be solved. Instead, issues like decreasing productivity growth rates and increasing inequality in income distribution and consumption possibilities are prevalent in the public debate.
The global Great Recession during the late 2000s, the accompanying Euro area debt crisis and their repercussions marked the Danish economy for several years. Until 2017, unemployment rates have generally been considered to be above their structural level, implying a relatively stagnating economy from a business-cycle point of view. From 2017/18 this is no longer considered to be the case, and attention has been redirected to the need of avoiding a potential overheating situation.
In 2022 the popularity of Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss began greatly affecting the Danish economy. The pharmaceutical industry contributed two thirds of growth that year, and 1.7 points of the 1.9% year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2023. As of August 2023 Novo Nordisk's market capitalization—Europe's second-largest, after LVMH—exceeded the size of the entire national economy, and it is the largest payer of corporate taxes to the Danish state. Economists discussed whether the government needed to publish data including and excluding the company; as the enormous economic growth did not similarly increase employment, data including Novo Nordisk is misleading regarding the Danish business cycle. Some worried that the nation might become overdependent on the company, similar to what happened to the economy of Finland with Nokia, or that Novo Nordisk's success might cause Dutch disease.
Average per capita income is high in an international context. According to the World Bank, gross national income per capita was the tenth-highest in the world at $55,220 in 2017. Correcting for purchasing power, income was Int$52,390 or 16th-highest among the 187 countries.
During the last three decades household saving rates in Denmark have increased considerably. This is to a large extent caused by two major institutional changes: A series of tax reforms from 1987 to 2009 considerably reduced the effective subsidization of private debt implicit in the rules for tax deductions of household interest payments. Secondly, compulsory funded pension schemes became normal for most employees from the 1990s. Over the years, the wealth of the Danish pension funds have accumulated so that in 2016 it constituted twice the size of Denmark's GDP. The pension wealth consequently is a very important both for the life-cycle of a typical individual Danish household and for the national economy. A large part of the pension wealth is invested abroad, thus giving rise to a fair amount of foreign capital income. In 2015, average household assets were more than 600% of their disposable income, among OECD countries second only to the Netherlands. At the same time, average household gross debt was almost 300% of disposable income, which is also at the highest level in OECD. Household balance sheets are consequently very large in Denmark compared to most other countries. Danmarks Nationalbank, the Danish central bank, has attributed this to a well-developed financial system.
Income inequality has traditionally been low in Denmark. According to OECD figures, in 2000 Denmark had the lowest Gini coefficient of all countries. However, inequality has increased during the last decades. According to data from Statistics Denmark, the Gini coefficient for disposable income has increased from 22.1 in 1987 to 29.3 in 2017. The Danish Economic Council found in an analysis from 2016 that the increasing inequality in Denmark is due to several components: Pre-tax labour income is more unequally distributed today than before, capital income, which is generally less equally distributed than labour income, has increased as share of total income, and economic policy is less redistributive today, both because public income transfers play a smaller role today and because the tax system has become less progressive.
In international comparisons, Denmark has a relatively equal income distribution. According to the CIA World Factbook, Denmark had the twentieth-lowest Gini coefficient (29.0) of 158 countries in 2016. According to data from Eurostat, Denmark was the EU country with the seventh-lowest Gini coefficient in 2017. Slovakia, Slovenia, Czechia, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands had a lower Gini coefficient for disposable income than Denmark.
The Danish labour market is characterized by a high degree of union membership rates and collective agreement coverage dating back from Septemberforliget (The September Settlement) in 1899 when the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions and the Confederation of Danish Employers recognized each other's right to organise and negotiate. The labour market is also traditionally characterized by a high degree of flexicurity, i.e. a combination of labour market flexibility and economic security for workers. The degree of flexibility is in part maintained through active labour market policies. Denmark first introduced active labour market policies (ALMPs) in the 1990s after an economic recession that resulted in high unemployment rates. Its labour market policies are decided through tripartite cooperation between employers, employees and the government. Denmark has one of the highest expenditures on ALMPs and in 2005, spent about 1.7% of its GDP on labour market policies. This was the highest amongst the OECD countries. Similarly, in 2010 Denmark was ranked number one amongst Nordic countries for expenditure on ALMPs.
Denmark's active labour market policies particularly focus on tackling youth unemployment. They have had a "youth initiative" or the Danish Youth Unemployment Programme in place since 1996. This includes mandatory activation for those unemployed under the age of 30. While unemployment benefits are provided, the policies are designed to motivate job-seeking. For example, unemployment benefits decrease by 50% after 6 months. This is combined with education, skill development and work training programs. For instance, the Building Bridge to Education program was started in 2014 to provide mentors and skill development classes to youth that are at risk of unemployment. Such active labour market policies have been successful for Denmark in the short-term and the long-term. For example, 80% of participants in the Building Bridge for Education program felt that "the initiative has helped them to move towards completing an education". On a more macro scale, a study of the impact of ALMPs in Denmark between 1995 and 2005 showed that such policies had positive impact not just on employment but also on earnings. The effective compensation rate for unemployed workers has been declining for the last decades, however. Unlike in most Western countries there is no legal minimum wage in Denmark.
A relatively large proportion of the population is active on the labour market, not least because of a very high female participation rate. The total participation rate for people aged 15 to 64 years was 78.8% in 2017. This was the 6th-highest number among OECD countries, only surpassed by Iceland, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand and the Netherlands. The average for all OECD countries together was 72.1%.
According to Eurostat, the unemployment rate was 5.7% in 2017. This places unemployment in Denmark somewhat below the EU average, which was 7.6%. 10 EU member countries had a lower unemployment rate than Denmark in 2017.
Altogether, total employment in 2017 amounted to 2,919,000 people according to Statistics Denmark.
The share of employees leaving jobs every year (for a new job, retirement or unemployment) in the private sector is around 30% – a level also observed in the U.K. and U.S.- but much higher than in continental Europe, where the corresponding figure is around 10%, and in Sweden. This attrition can be very costly, with new and old employees requiring half a year to return to old productivity levels, but with attrition bringing the number of people that have to be fired down.
As a small open economy, Denmark is very dependent on its foreign trade. In 2017, the value of total exports of goods and services made up 55% of GDP, whereas the value of total imports amounted to 47% of GDP. Trade in goods made up slightly more than 60% of both exports and imports, and trade in services the remaining close to 40%.
Machinery, chemicals and related products like medicine and agricultural products were the largest groups of export goods in 2017. Service exports were dominated by freight sea transport services from the Danish merchant navy. Most of Denmark's most important trading partners are neighbouring countries. The five main importers of Danish goods and services in 2017 were Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Norway. The five countries from which Denmark imported most goods and services in 2017 were Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, China and United Kingdom.
After having almost consistently an external balance of payments current account deficit since the beginning of the 1960s, Denmark has maintained a surplus on its BOP current account for every year since 1990, with the single exception of 1998. In 2017, the current account surplus amounted to approximately 8% of GDP. Consequently, Denmark has changed from a net debtor to a net creditor country. By 1 July 2018, the net foreign wealth or net international investment position of Denmark was equal to 64.6% of GDP, Denmark thus having the largest net foreign wealth relative to GDP of any EU country.
As the annual current account is equal to the value of domestic saving minus total domestic investment, the change from a structural deficit to a structural surplus is due to changes in these two national account components. In particular, the Danish national saving rate in financial assets increased by 11 per cent of GDP from 1980 to 2015. Two main reasons for this large change in domestic saving behaviour were the growing importance of large-scale compulsory pension schemes and several Danish fiscal policy reforms during the period which considerably decreased tax deductions of household interest expense, thus reducing the tax subsidy to private debt.
The Danish currency is the Danish krone, subdivided into 100 øre. The krone and øre were introduced in 1875, replacing the former rigsdaler and skilling. Denmark has a very long tradition of maintaining a fixed exchange-rate system, dating back to the period of the gold standard during the time of the Scandinavian Monetary Union from 1873 to 1914. After the breakdown of the international Bretton Woods system in 1971, Denmark devalued the krone repeatedly during the 1970s and the start of the 1980s, effectively maintaining a policy of "fixed, but adjustable" exchange rates. Rising inflation led to Denmark declaring a more consistent fixed exchange-rate policy in 1982. At first, the krone was pegged to the European Currency Unit or ECU, from 1987 to the Deutsche Mark, and from 1999 to the euro.
Although eligible, Denmark chose not to join the European Monetary Union when it was founded. In 2000, the Danish government advocated Danish EMU membership and called a referendum to settle the issue. With a turn-out of 87.6%, 53% of the voters rejected Danish membership. Occasionally, the question of calling another referendum on the issue has been discussed, but since the Financial crisis of 2007–2008 opinion polls have shown a clear majority against Denmark joining the EMU, and the question is not high on the political agenda presently.
Maintenance of the fixed exchange rate is the responsibility of Danmarks Nationalbank, the Danish central bank. As a consequence of the exchange rate policy, the bank must always adjust its interest rates to ensure a stable exchange rate and consequently cannot at the same time conduct monetary policy to stabilize e.g. domestic inflation or unemployment rates. This makes the conduct of stabilization policy fundamentally different from the situation in Denmark's neighbouring countries like Norway, Sweden, Poland and the United Kingdom, in which the central banks have a central stabilizing role. Denmark is presently the only OECD member country maintaining an independent currency with a fixed exchange rate. Consequently, the Danish krone is the only currency in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II).
In the first months of 2015, Denmark experienced the largest pressure against the fixed exchange rate for many years because of very large capital inflows, causing a tendency for the Danish krone to appreciate. Danmarks Nationalbank reacted in various ways, chiefly by lowering its interest rates to record low levels. On 6 February 2015 the certificates of deposit rate, one of the four official Danish central bank rates, was lowered to −0.75%. In January 2016 the rate was raised to −0.65%, at which level it has been maintained since then.
Inflation in Denmark as measured by the official consumer price index of Statistics Denmark was 1.1% in 2017. Inflation has generally been low and stable for the last decades. Whereas in 1980 annual inflation was more than 12%, in the period 2000–2017 the average inflation rate was 1.8%.
Since a local-government reform in 2007, the general government organization in Denmark is carried out on three administrative levels: central government, regions, and municipalities. Regions administer mainly health care services, whereas municipalities administer primary education and social services. Municipalities in principle independently levy income and property taxes, but the scope for total municipal taxation and expenditure is closely regulated by annual negotiations between the municipalities and the Finance Minister of Denmark. At the central government level, the Ministry of Finance carries out the coordinating role of conducting economic policy. In 2012, the Danish parliament passed a Budget Law (effective from January 2014) which governs the over-all fiscal framework, stating among other things that the structural deficit must never exceed 0.5% of GDP, and that Danish fiscal policy is required to be sustainable, i.e. have a non-negative fiscal sustainability indicator. The Budget Law also assigned the role of independent fiscal institution (IFI, informally known as "fiscal watchdog") to the already-existing independent advisory body of the Danish Economic Councils.
Danish fiscal policy is generally considered healthy. Government net debt was close to zero at the end of 2017, amounting to DKK 27.3 billion, or 1.3% of GDP. The government sector having a fair amount of financial assets as well as liabilities, government gross debt amounted to 36.1% of GDP at the same date. The gross EMU-debt as percentage of GDP was the sixth-lowest among all 28 EU member countries, only Estonia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania having a lower gross debt. Denmark had a government budget surplus of 1.1% of GDP in 2017.
Long-run annual fiscal projections from the Danish government as well as the independent Danish Economic Council, taking into account likely future fiscal developments caused by demographic developments etc. (e.g. a likely ageing of the population caused by a considerable expansion of life expectancy), consider the Danish fiscal policy to be overly sustainable in the long run. In Spring 2018, the so-called Fiscal Sustainability Indicator was calculated to be 1.2 (by the Danish government) respectively 0.9% (by the Danish Economic Council) of GDP. This implies that under the assumptions employed in the projections, fiscal policy could be permanently loosened (via more generous public expenditures and/or lower taxes) by ca. 1% of GDP while still maintaining a stable government debt-to-GDP ratio in the long run.
The tax level as well as the government expenditure level in Denmark ranks among the highest in the world, which is traditionally ascribed to the Nordic model of which Denmark is an example, including the welfare state principles which historically evolved during the 20th century. In 2017, the official Danish tax level amounted to 46.1% of GDP. The all-record highest Danish tax level was 49.8% of GDP, reached in 2014 because of high extraordinary one-time tax revenues caused by a reorganization of the Danish-funded pension system. The Danish tax-to-GDP-ratio of 46% was the second-highest among all OECD countries, second only to France. The OECD average was 34.2%. The tax structure of Denmark (the relative weight of different taxes) also differs from the OECD average, as the Danish tax system in 2015 was characterized by substantially higher revenues from taxes on personal income, whereas on the other hand, no revenues at all derive from social security contributions. A lower proportion of revenues in Denmark derive from taxes on corporate income and gains and property taxes than in OECD generally, whereas the proportion deriving from payroll taxes, VAT, and other taxes on goods and services correspond to the OECD average.
In 2016, the average marginal tax rate on labour income for all Danish tax-payers was 38.9%. The average marginal tax on personal capital income was 30.7%.
Professor of Economics at Princeton University Henrik Kleven has suggested that three distinct policies in Denmark and its Scandinavian neighbours imply that the high tax rates cause only relatively small distortions to the economy: widespread use of third-party information reporting for tax collection purposes (ensuring a low level of tax evasion), broad tax bases (ensuring a low level of tax avoidance), and a strong subsidization of goods that are complementary to working (ensuring a high level of labour force participation).
in 2023, Denmark considered methods to increase taxes on energy dealers.
Parallel to the high tax level, government expenditures make up a large part of GDP, and the government sector carries out many different tasks. By September 2018, 831,000 people worked in the general government sector, corresponding to 29.9% of all employees. In 2017, total government expenditure amounted to 50.9% of GDP. Government consumption took up precisely 25% of GDP (e.g. education and health care expenditure), and government investment (infrastructure etc.) expenditure another 3.4% of GDP. Personal income transfers (for e.g. elderly or unemployed people) amounted to 16.8% of GDP.
Denmark has an unemployment insurance system called the A-kasse (arbejdsløshedskasse). This system requires a paying membership of a state-recognized unemployment fund. Most of these funds are managed by trade unions, and part of their expenses are financed through the tax system. Members of an A-kasse are not obliged to be members of a trade union. Not every Danish citizen or employee qualifies for a membership of an unemployment fund, and membership benefits will be terminated after 2 years of unemployment. A person that is not a member of an A-kasse cannot receive unemployment benefits. Unemployment funds do not pay benefits to sick members, who will be transferred to a municipal social support system instead. Denmark has a countrywide, but municipally administered social support system against poverty, securing that qualified citizens have a minimum living income. All Danish citizens above 18 years of age can apply for some financial support if they cannot support themselves or their family. Approval is not automatic, and the extent of this system has generally been diminished since the 1980s. Sick people can receive some financial support throughout the extent of their illness. Their ability to work will be re-evaluated by the municipality after 5 months of illness.
The welfare system related to the labor market has experienced several reforms and financial cuts since the late 1990s due to political agendas for increasing the labor supply. Several reforms of the rights of the unemployed have followed up, partially inspired by the Danish Economic Council. Halving the time unemployment benefits can be received from four to two years, and making it twice as hard to regain this right, was implemented in 2010 for example.
Disabled people can apply for permanent social pensions. The extent of the support depends on the ability to work, and people below 40 can not receive social pension unless they are deemed incapable of any kind of work.
Agriculture was once the most important industry in Denmark. Nowadays, it is of minor economic importance. In 2016, 62,000 people, or 2.5% of all employed people worked in agriculture and horticulture. Another 2,000 people worked in fishing. As value added per person is relatively low, the share of national value added is somewhat lower. Total gross value added in agriculture, forestry and fishing amounted to 1.6% of total output in Denmark (in 2017). Despite this, Denmark is still home to various types of agricultural production. Within animal husbandry, it includes dairy and beef cattle, pigs, poultry and fur animals (primarily mink) – all sectors that produce mainly for export. Regarding vegetable production, Denmark is a leading producer of grass-, clover- and horticultural seeds. The agriculture and food sector as a whole represented 25% of total Danish commodity exports in 2015.
63% of the land area of Denmark is used for agricultural production – the highest share in the world according to a report from University of Copenhagen in 2017. The Danish agricultural industry is historically characterized by freehold and family ownership, but due to structural development farms have become fewer and larger. In 2020 the number of farms was approximately 33,000, of which approximately 10,000 were owned by full-time farmers.
The tendency toward fewer and larger farms has been accompanied by an increase in animal production, using fewer resources per produced unit.
The number of dairy farmers has reduced to about 3,800 with an average herd size of 150 cows. The milk quota is 1,142 tonnes. Danish dairy farmers are among the largest and most modern producers in Europe. More than half of the cows live in new loose-housing systems. Export of dairy products accounts for more than 20 percent of the total Danish agricultural export. The total number of cattle in 2011 was approximately 1.5 million. Of these, 565,000 were dairy cows and 99,000 were suckler cows. The yearly number of slaughtering of beef cattle is around 550,000.
For more than 100 years the production of pigs and pig meat was a major source of income in Denmark. The Danish pig industry is among the world's leaders in areas such as breeding, quality, food safety, animal welfare and traceability creating the basis for Denmark being among the world's largest pig meat exporters. Approximately 90 percent of the production is exported. This accounts for almost half of all agricultural exports and for more than 5 percent of Denmark's total exports. About 4,200 farmers produce 28 million pigs annually. Of these, 20.9 million are slaughtered in Denmark.
Fur animal production on an industrial scale started in the 1930s in Denmark. Prior to a government-mandated culling during the COVID-19 pandemic, Denmark was the world's largest producer of mink furs, with 1,400 mink farmers fostering 17.2 million mink and producing around 14 million furs of the highest quality every year (see mink industry in Denmark). Approximately 98 percent of the skins sold at Kopenhagen Fur Auction were exported. Fur ranked as Danish agriculture's third largest export article, at more than DKK 7 billion annually. The number of farms peaked in the late 1980s at more than 5,000 farms, but the number has declined steadily since, as individual farms grew in size. Danish mink farmers claim their business to be sustainable, feeding the mink food industry waste and using all parts of the dead animal as meat, bone meal and biofuel. Special attention is given to the welfare of the mink, and regular "Open Farm" arrangements are made for the general public. Mink thrive in, but are not a native to Denmark, and it is considered an invasive species. American Mink are now widespread in Denmark and continues to cause problems for the native wildlife, in particular waterfowl. Denmark also has a small production of fox, chinchilla and rabbit furs.
Two hundred professional producers are responsible for the Danish egg production, which was 66 million kg in 2011. Chickens for slaughter are often produced in units with 40,000 broilers. In 2012, 100 million chickens were slaughtered. In the minor productions of poultry, 13 million ducks, 1.4 million geese and 5.0 million turkeys were slaughtered in 2012.
Organic farming and production has increased considerably and continuously in Denmark since 1987 when the first official regulations of this particular agricultural method came into effect. In 2017, the export of organic products reached DK 2.95 billion, a 153% increase from 2012 five years earlier, and a 21% increase from 2016. The import of organic products has always been higher than the exports though and reached DK 3.86 billion in 2017. After some years of stagnation, close to 10% of the cultivated land is now categorized as organically farmed, and 13.6% for the dairy industry, as of 2017.
Denmark has the highest retail consumption share for organic products in the world. In 2017, the share was at 13.3%, accounting for a total of DKK 12.1 billion.
Denmark has large proven reserves of oil and natural gas in the North Sea with Esbjerg being the main city for the oil and gas industry. Denmark is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the EU. Production has decreased in recent years, though. Whereas in 2006 output (measured as gross value added or GVA) in mining and quarrying industries made up more than 4% of Denmark's total GVA, in 2017 it amounted to 1.2%. The sector is very capital-intensive, so the share of employment is much lower: About 2,000 persons worked in the oil and gas extraction sector in 2016, and another 1,000 persons in extraction of gravel and stone, or in total about 0.1% of total employment in Denmark.
Denmark houses a number of significant engineering and high-technology firms, within the sectors of industrial equipment, aerospace, robotics, pharmaceutical and electronics.
Danfoss, headquartered in Nordborg, designs and manufactures industrial electronics, heating and cooling equipment, as well as drivetrains and power solutions.
Denmark is also a large exporter of pumps, with the company Grundfos holding 50% of the market share, manufacturing circulation pumps.
In 2017 total output (gross value added) in manufacturing industries amounted to 14.4% of total output in Denmark. 325,000 people or a little less than 12% of all employed persons worked in manufacturing (including utilities, mining and quarrying) in 2016. Main sub-industries are manufacture of pharmaceuticals, machinery, and food products.
In 2017 total output (gross value added) in service industries amounted to 75.2% of total output in Denmark, and 79.9% of all employed people worked here (in 2016). Apart from public administration, education and health services, main service sub-industries were trade and transport services, and business services.
Significant investment has been made in building road and rail links between Copenhagen and Malmö, Sweden (the Øresund Bridge), and between Zealand and Funen (the Great Belt Fixed Link). The Copenhagen Malmö Port was also formed between the two cities as the common port for the cities of both nations.
The main railway operator is Danske Statsbaner (Danish State Railways) for passenger services and DB Schenker Rail for freight trains. The railway tracks are maintained by Banedanmark. Copenhagen has a small Metro system, the Copenhagen Metro and the greater Copenhagen area has an extensive electrified suburban railway network, the S-train.
Private vehicles are increasingly used as a means of transport. New cars are taxed by means of a registration tax (85% to 150%) and VAT (25%). The motorway network now covers 1,300 km.
Denmark is in a strong position in terms of integrating fluctuating and unpredictable energy sources such as wind power in the grid. It is this knowledge that Denmark now aims to exploit in the transport sector by focusing on intelligent battery systems (V2G) and plug-in vehicles.
Denmark has changed its energy consumption from 99% fossil fuels (92% oil (all imported) and 7% coal) and 1% biofuels in 1972 to 73% fossil fuels (37% oil (all domestic), 18% coal and 18% natural gas (all domestic)) and 27% renewables (largely biofuels) in 2015. The goal is a full independence of fossil fuels by 2050. This drastic change was initially inspired largely by the discovery of Danish oil and gas reserves in the North Sea in 1972 and the 1973 oil crisis. The course took a giant leap forward in 1984, when the Danish North Sea oil and gas fields, developed by native industry in close cooperation with the state, started major productions. In 1997, Denmark became self-sufficient with energy and the overall CO2 emission from the energy sector began to fall by 1996. Wind energy contribution to the total energy consumption has risen from 1% in 1997 to 5% in 2015.
Since 2000, Denmark has increased gross domestic product (GDP) and at the same time decreased energy consumption. Since 1972, the overall energy consumption has dropped by 6%, even though the GDP has doubled in the same period. Denmark had the 6th best energy security in the world in 2014. Denmark has had relatively high energy taxation to encourage careful use of energy since the oil crises in the 1970s, and Danish industry has adapted to this and gained a competitive edge. The so-called "green taxes" have been broadly criticised partly for being higher than in other countries, but also for being more of a tool for gathering government revenue than a method of promoting "greener" behaviour.
Denmark has low electricity costs (including costs for cleaner energy) in EU, but general taxes (11.7 billion DKK in 2015) make the electricity price for households the highest in Europe. As of 2015, Denmark has no environment tax on electricity.
Denmark is a long-time leader in wind energy and a prominent exporter of Vestas and Siemens wind turbines, and in 2019 Denmark's exports of wind-turbine technology and services amounted to €8.9 billion. It has integrated fluctuating and less predictable energy sources such as wind power into the grid. Wind produced the equivalent of 43% of Denmark's total electricity consumption in 2017. The share of total energy production is smaller: In 2015, wind accounted for 5% of total Danish energy production.
Energinet.dk is the Danish national transmission system operator for electricity and natural gas. The electricity grids of western Denmark and eastern Denmark were not connected until 2010 when the 600MW Great Belt Power Link went into operation.
Cogeneration plants are the norm in Denmark, usually with district heating which serves 1.7 million households.
Waste-to-energy incinerators produce mostly heating and hot water. Vestforbrænding in Glostrup Municipality operates Denmark's largest incinerator, a cogeneration plant which supplies electricity to 80,000 households and heating equivalent to the consumption in 63,000 households (2016). Amager Bakke is an example of a new incinerator.
In addition to Denmark proper, the Kingdom of Denmark comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Both use the Danish krone as their currency, but form separate economies, having separate national accounts etc. Both countries receive an annual fiscal subsidy from Denmark which amounts to about 25% of Greenland's GDP and 11% of Faroese GDP. For both countries, fishing industry is a major economic activity.
Neither Greenland nor the Faroe Islands are members of the European Union. Greenland left the European Economic Community in 1986, and the Faroe Islands declined membership in 1973, when Denmark joined.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Inflation under 2% is in green.
Denmark has fostered and is home to many multi-national companies. Many of the largest are interdisciplinary with business – and sometimes research activities – in several fields. The most notable companies include:
Many of the largest food producers are also engaged in biotechnology and research. Notable companies dedicated to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, includes:
Software
Denmark has a long tradition for cooperative production and trade on a large scale. The most notable cooperative societies today includes the agricultural coop of Dansk Landbrugs Grovvareselskab (DLG), dairy producer Arla Foods and the retail cooperative Coop Danmark. Coop Danmark started out as "Fællesforeningen for Danmarks Brugsforeninger" (FDB) in 1896 and now has around 1.4 million members in Denmark as of 2017. It is part of the larger multi-sector cooperative Coop amba which has 1.7 million members in that same year.
The cooperative structure also extends to both the housing and banking sector. Arbejdernes Landsbank, founded in 1919, is the largest bank cooperative and it is currently the 6th largest bank in the country as of 2018. The municipality of Copenhagen alone holds a total of 153 housing cooperatives and "Arbejdernes Andelsboligforening Århus" (AAB Århus) is the largest individual housing cooperative in Denmark, with 23,000 homes in Aarhus.
In 2022, the sector with the highest number of companies registered in Denmark is Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate with 204,853 companies followed by Services and Retail Trade with 204,050 and 30,563 companies respectively. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The economy of Denmark is a modern high-income and mixed economy. The economy of Denmark is dominated by the service sector with 80% of all jobs, whereas about 11% of all employees work in manufacturing and 2% in agriculture. The nominal gross national income per capita was the ninth-highest in the world at $68,827 in 2023.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Correcting for purchasing power, per capita income was Int$57,781 or 10th-highest globally. The income distribution is relatively equal but inequality has somewhat increased during the last decades. This increase was attributed to both a larger spread in gross incomes and various economic policy measures. In 2017, Denmark had the seventh-lowest Gini coefficient (a measure of economic inequality) of the then 28 European Union countries. With 5,932,654 inhabitants (1 January 2023), Denmark has the 38th largest national economy in the world measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), and the 52nd largest in the world measured by purchasing power parity (PPP).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Denmark has a very long tradition of adhering to a fixed exchange-rate system and still does so today. It is unique among OECD countries to do so while maintaining an independent currency: The Danish krone, which is pegged to the euro. Though eligible to join the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU), the Danish voters in a referendum in 2000 rejected exchanging the krone for the euro. Whereas Denmark's neighbours like Norway, Sweden, Poland and the United Kingdom generally follow inflation targeting in their monetary policy, the priority of Denmark's central bank is to maintain exchange rate stability. Consequently, the central bank has no role in a domestic stabilization policy. Since February 2015, the central bank has maintained a negative interest rate to contain an upward exchange rate pressure.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In an international context, a relatively large proportion of the population is part of the labour force, in particular because the female participation rate is very high. In 2017, 78.8% of all 15-to-64-year-old people were active on the labour market, the sixth-highest number among all OECD countries. The unemployment is relatively low, in comparison to other European countries. In October 2018, 4.8% of the Danish labour force were unemployed, as compared to an average of 6.7% for all EU countries. There is no legal minimum wage in Denmark. The labour market is traditionally characterized by a high degree of union membership rates and collective agreement coverage. Denmark invests heavily in active labor market policies and the concept of flexicurity has been important historically.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Denmark is an example of the Nordic model, characterized by an internationally high tax level, and a correspondingly high level of government-provided services (e.g. health care, child care and education services). There are also income transfers to various groups, such as retired or disabled people, unemployed persons, students, etc. Altogether, the amount of revenue from taxes paid in 2017 amounted to 46.1% of the GDP. The Danish fiscal policy is generally considered healthy. The net government debt is very close to zero, amounting to 1.3% of GDP in 2017. The Danish fiscal policy is characterized by a long-term outlook, taking into account likely future fiscal demands. During the 2000s, a challenge was perceived to government expenditures in future decades. It was ultimately a challenge to fiscal sustainability from demographic development, in particular higher longevity. Responding to this, age eligibility rules for receiving public age-related transfers were changed. Since 2012, calculations of future fiscal challenges, from both the government and independent analysts, have generally perceived Danish fiscal policy to be sustainable. In recent years, it was considered overly sustainable.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Denmark's long-term economic development has largely followed the same pattern as other Northwestern European countries. In most of recorded history Denmark has been an agricultural country with most of the population living on a subsistence level. Since the 19th century Denmark has gone through an intense technological and institutional development. The material standard of living has experienced formerly unknown rates of growth, and the country has been industrialized and later turned into a modern service society.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Almost all of the land area of Denmark is arable. Unlike most of its neighbours, Denmark has not had extractable deposits of minerals or fossil fuels, except for the deposits of oil and natural gas in the North Sea, which started playing an economic role only during the 1980s. On the other hand, Denmark has had a logistic advantage through its long coastal line and the fact that no point on Danish land is more than 50 kilometers from the sea – an important fact for the whole period before the industrial revolution when sea transport was cheaper than land transport. Consequently, foreign trade has always been very important for the economic development of Denmark.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Already during the Stone Age there was some foreign trade, and even though trade has made up only a very modest share of total Danish value added until the 19th century, it has been decisive for economic development, both in terms of procuring vital import goods (like metals) and because new knowledge and technological skills have often come to Denmark as a byproduct of goods exchange with other countries. The emerging trade implied specialization which created demand for means of payments, and the earliest known Danish coins date from the time of Svend Tveskæg around 995.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "According to economic historian Angus Maddison, Denmark was the sixth-most prosperous country in the world around 1600. The population size relative to arable agricultural land was small so that the farmers were relatively affluent, and Denmark was geographically close to the most dynamic and economically leading European areas since the 16th century: the Netherlands, the northern parts of Germany, and Britain. Still, 80 to 85% of the population lived in small villages on a subsistence level.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Mercantilism was the leading economic doctrine during the 17th and 18th century in Denmark, leading to the establishment of monopolies like Asiatisk Kompagni, development of physical and financial infrastructure like the first Danish bank Kurantbanken in 1736 and the first \"kreditforening\" (a kind of building society) in 1797, and the acquisition of some minor Danish colonies like Tranquebar.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "At the end of the 18th century major agricultural reforms took place that entailed decisive structural changes. However, the Napoleonic Wars caused Copenhagen to lose its status as an international centre of finance and trade. Politically, mercantilism was gradually replaced by liberal thoughts among the ruling elite. Following a monetary reform after the Napoleonic wars, the present Danish central bank Danmarks Nationalbank was founded in 1818.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "There exists national accounting data for Denmark from 1820 onwards thanks to the pioneering work of Danish economic historian Svend Aage Hansen. They find that there has been a substantial and permanent, though fluctuating, economic growth all the time since 1820. The period 1822–94 saw on average an annual growth in factor incomes of 2% (0.9% per capita) From around 1830 the agricultural sector experienced a major boom lasting several decades, producing and exporting grains, not least to Britain after 1846 when British grain import duties were abolished. When grain production became less profitable in the second half of the century, the Danish farmers made an impressive and uniquely successful change from vegetarian to animal production leading to a new boom period. Parallelly industrialization took off in Denmark from the 1870s. At the turn of the century industry (including artisanry) fed almost 30% of the population.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "During the 20th century agriculture slowly dwindled in importance relative to industry, but agricultural employment was only during the 1950s surpassed by industrial employment. The first half of the century was marked by the two world wars and the Great Depression during the 1930s. After World War II Denmark took part in the increasingly close international cooperation, joining OEEC/OECD, IMF, GATT/WTO, and from 1972 the European Economic Community, later European Union. Foreign trade increased heavily relative to GDP. The economic role of the public sector increased considerably, and the country was increasingly transformed from an industrial country to a country dominated by production of services. The years 1958–73 were an unprecedented high-growth period. The 1960s are the decade with the highest registered real per capita growth in GDP ever, i.e. 4.5% annually.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "During the 1970s Denmark was plunged into a crisis, initiated by the 1973 oil crisis leading to the hitherto unknown phenomenon stagflation. For the next decades the Danish economy struggled with several major so-called \"balance problems\": High unemployment, current account deficits, inflation, and government debt. From the 1980s economic policies have increasingly been oriented towards a long-term perspective, and gradually a series of structural reforms have solved these problems. In 1994 active labour market policies were introduced that via a series of labour market reforms have helped reducing structural unemployment considerably. A series of tax reforms from 1987 onwards, reducing tax deductions on interest payments, and the increasing importance of compulsory labour market-based funded pensions from the 1990s have increased private savings rates considerably, consequently transforming secular current account deficits to secular surpluses. The announcement of a consistent and hence more credible fixed exchange rate in 1982 has helped reducing the inflation rate.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In the first decade of the 21st century new economic policy issues have emerged. A growing awareness that future demographic changes, in particular increasing longevity, could threaten fiscal sustainability, implying very large fiscal deficits in future decades, led to major political agreements in 2006 and 2011, both increasing the future eligibility age of receiving public age-related pensions. Mainly because of these changes, from 2012 onwards the Danish fiscal sustainability problem is generally considered to be solved. Instead, issues like decreasing productivity growth rates and increasing inequality in income distribution and consumption possibilities are prevalent in the public debate.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The global Great Recession during the late 2000s, the accompanying Euro area debt crisis and their repercussions marked the Danish economy for several years. Until 2017, unemployment rates have generally been considered to be above their structural level, implying a relatively stagnating economy from a business-cycle point of view. From 2017/18 this is no longer considered to be the case, and attention has been redirected to the need of avoiding a potential overheating situation.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In 2022 the popularity of Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss began greatly affecting the Danish economy. The pharmaceutical industry contributed two thirds of growth that year, and 1.7 points of the 1.9% year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2023. As of August 2023 Novo Nordisk's market capitalization—Europe's second-largest, after LVMH—exceeded the size of the entire national economy, and it is the largest payer of corporate taxes to the Danish state. Economists discussed whether the government needed to publish data including and excluding the company; as the enormous economic growth did not similarly increase employment, data including Novo Nordisk is misleading regarding the Danish business cycle. Some worried that the nation might become overdependent on the company, similar to what happened to the economy of Finland with Nokia, or that Novo Nordisk's success might cause Dutch disease.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Average per capita income is high in an international context. According to the World Bank, gross national income per capita was the tenth-highest in the world at $55,220 in 2017. Correcting for purchasing power, income was Int$52,390 or 16th-highest among the 187 countries.",
"title": "Income, wealth and income distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "During the last three decades household saving rates in Denmark have increased considerably. This is to a large extent caused by two major institutional changes: A series of tax reforms from 1987 to 2009 considerably reduced the effective subsidization of private debt implicit in the rules for tax deductions of household interest payments. Secondly, compulsory funded pension schemes became normal for most employees from the 1990s. Over the years, the wealth of the Danish pension funds have accumulated so that in 2016 it constituted twice the size of Denmark's GDP. The pension wealth consequently is a very important both for the life-cycle of a typical individual Danish household and for the national economy. A large part of the pension wealth is invested abroad, thus giving rise to a fair amount of foreign capital income. In 2015, average household assets were more than 600% of their disposable income, among OECD countries second only to the Netherlands. At the same time, average household gross debt was almost 300% of disposable income, which is also at the highest level in OECD. Household balance sheets are consequently very large in Denmark compared to most other countries. Danmarks Nationalbank, the Danish central bank, has attributed this to a well-developed financial system.",
"title": "Income, wealth and income distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Income inequality has traditionally been low in Denmark. According to OECD figures, in 2000 Denmark had the lowest Gini coefficient of all countries. However, inequality has increased during the last decades. According to data from Statistics Denmark, the Gini coefficient for disposable income has increased from 22.1 in 1987 to 29.3 in 2017. The Danish Economic Council found in an analysis from 2016 that the increasing inequality in Denmark is due to several components: Pre-tax labour income is more unequally distributed today than before, capital income, which is generally less equally distributed than labour income, has increased as share of total income, and economic policy is less redistributive today, both because public income transfers play a smaller role today and because the tax system has become less progressive.",
"title": "Income, wealth and income distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In international comparisons, Denmark has a relatively equal income distribution. According to the CIA World Factbook, Denmark had the twentieth-lowest Gini coefficient (29.0) of 158 countries in 2016. According to data from Eurostat, Denmark was the EU country with the seventh-lowest Gini coefficient in 2017. Slovakia, Slovenia, Czechia, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands had a lower Gini coefficient for disposable income than Denmark.",
"title": "Income, wealth and income distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Danish labour market is characterized by a high degree of union membership rates and collective agreement coverage dating back from Septemberforliget (The September Settlement) in 1899 when the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions and the Confederation of Danish Employers recognized each other's right to organise and negotiate. The labour market is also traditionally characterized by a high degree of flexicurity, i.e. a combination of labour market flexibility and economic security for workers. The degree of flexibility is in part maintained through active labour market policies. Denmark first introduced active labour market policies (ALMPs) in the 1990s after an economic recession that resulted in high unemployment rates. Its labour market policies are decided through tripartite cooperation between employers, employees and the government. Denmark has one of the highest expenditures on ALMPs and in 2005, spent about 1.7% of its GDP on labour market policies. This was the highest amongst the OECD countries. Similarly, in 2010 Denmark was ranked number one amongst Nordic countries for expenditure on ALMPs.",
"title": "Labour market and employment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Denmark's active labour market policies particularly focus on tackling youth unemployment. They have had a \"youth initiative\" or the Danish Youth Unemployment Programme in place since 1996. This includes mandatory activation for those unemployed under the age of 30. While unemployment benefits are provided, the policies are designed to motivate job-seeking. For example, unemployment benefits decrease by 50% after 6 months. This is combined with education, skill development and work training programs. For instance, the Building Bridge to Education program was started in 2014 to provide mentors and skill development classes to youth that are at risk of unemployment. Such active labour market policies have been successful for Denmark in the short-term and the long-term. For example, 80% of participants in the Building Bridge for Education program felt that \"the initiative has helped them to move towards completing an education\". On a more macro scale, a study of the impact of ALMPs in Denmark between 1995 and 2005 showed that such policies had positive impact not just on employment but also on earnings. The effective compensation rate for unemployed workers has been declining for the last decades, however. Unlike in most Western countries there is no legal minimum wage in Denmark.",
"title": "Labour market and employment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "A relatively large proportion of the population is active on the labour market, not least because of a very high female participation rate. The total participation rate for people aged 15 to 64 years was 78.8% in 2017. This was the 6th-highest number among OECD countries, only surpassed by Iceland, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand and the Netherlands. The average for all OECD countries together was 72.1%.",
"title": "Labour market and employment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "According to Eurostat, the unemployment rate was 5.7% in 2017. This places unemployment in Denmark somewhat below the EU average, which was 7.6%. 10 EU member countries had a lower unemployment rate than Denmark in 2017.",
"title": "Labour market and employment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Altogether, total employment in 2017 amounted to 2,919,000 people according to Statistics Denmark.",
"title": "Labour market and employment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The share of employees leaving jobs every year (for a new job, retirement or unemployment) in the private sector is around 30% – a level also observed in the U.K. and U.S.- but much higher than in continental Europe, where the corresponding figure is around 10%, and in Sweden. This attrition can be very costly, with new and old employees requiring half a year to return to old productivity levels, but with attrition bringing the number of people that have to be fired down.",
"title": "Labour market and employment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "As a small open economy, Denmark is very dependent on its foreign trade. In 2017, the value of total exports of goods and services made up 55% of GDP, whereas the value of total imports amounted to 47% of GDP. Trade in goods made up slightly more than 60% of both exports and imports, and trade in services the remaining close to 40%.",
"title": "Foreign trade"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Machinery, chemicals and related products like medicine and agricultural products were the largest groups of export goods in 2017. Service exports were dominated by freight sea transport services from the Danish merchant navy. Most of Denmark's most important trading partners are neighbouring countries. The five main importers of Danish goods and services in 2017 were Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Norway. The five countries from which Denmark imported most goods and services in 2017 were Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, China and United Kingdom.",
"title": "Foreign trade"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "After having almost consistently an external balance of payments current account deficit since the beginning of the 1960s, Denmark has maintained a surplus on its BOP current account for every year since 1990, with the single exception of 1998. In 2017, the current account surplus amounted to approximately 8% of GDP. Consequently, Denmark has changed from a net debtor to a net creditor country. By 1 July 2018, the net foreign wealth or net international investment position of Denmark was equal to 64.6% of GDP, Denmark thus having the largest net foreign wealth relative to GDP of any EU country.",
"title": "Foreign trade"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "As the annual current account is equal to the value of domestic saving minus total domestic investment, the change from a structural deficit to a structural surplus is due to changes in these two national account components. In particular, the Danish national saving rate in financial assets increased by 11 per cent of GDP from 1980 to 2015. Two main reasons for this large change in domestic saving behaviour were the growing importance of large-scale compulsory pension schemes and several Danish fiscal policy reforms during the period which considerably decreased tax deductions of household interest expense, thus reducing the tax subsidy to private debt.",
"title": "Foreign trade"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The Danish currency is the Danish krone, subdivided into 100 øre. The krone and øre were introduced in 1875, replacing the former rigsdaler and skilling. Denmark has a very long tradition of maintaining a fixed exchange-rate system, dating back to the period of the gold standard during the time of the Scandinavian Monetary Union from 1873 to 1914. After the breakdown of the international Bretton Woods system in 1971, Denmark devalued the krone repeatedly during the 1970s and the start of the 1980s, effectively maintaining a policy of \"fixed, but adjustable\" exchange rates. Rising inflation led to Denmark declaring a more consistent fixed exchange-rate policy in 1982. At first, the krone was pegged to the European Currency Unit or ECU, from 1987 to the Deutsche Mark, and from 1999 to the euro.",
"title": "Currency and monetary policy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Although eligible, Denmark chose not to join the European Monetary Union when it was founded. In 2000, the Danish government advocated Danish EMU membership and called a referendum to settle the issue. With a turn-out of 87.6%, 53% of the voters rejected Danish membership. Occasionally, the question of calling another referendum on the issue has been discussed, but since the Financial crisis of 2007–2008 opinion polls have shown a clear majority against Denmark joining the EMU, and the question is not high on the political agenda presently.",
"title": "Currency and monetary policy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Maintenance of the fixed exchange rate is the responsibility of Danmarks Nationalbank, the Danish central bank. As a consequence of the exchange rate policy, the bank must always adjust its interest rates to ensure a stable exchange rate and consequently cannot at the same time conduct monetary policy to stabilize e.g. domestic inflation or unemployment rates. This makes the conduct of stabilization policy fundamentally different from the situation in Denmark's neighbouring countries like Norway, Sweden, Poland and the United Kingdom, in which the central banks have a central stabilizing role. Denmark is presently the only OECD member country maintaining an independent currency with a fixed exchange rate. Consequently, the Danish krone is the only currency in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II).",
"title": "Currency and monetary policy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In the first months of 2015, Denmark experienced the largest pressure against the fixed exchange rate for many years because of very large capital inflows, causing a tendency for the Danish krone to appreciate. Danmarks Nationalbank reacted in various ways, chiefly by lowering its interest rates to record low levels. On 6 February 2015 the certificates of deposit rate, one of the four official Danish central bank rates, was lowered to −0.75%. In January 2016 the rate was raised to −0.65%, at which level it has been maintained since then.",
"title": "Currency and monetary policy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Inflation in Denmark as measured by the official consumer price index of Statistics Denmark was 1.1% in 2017. Inflation has generally been low and stable for the last decades. Whereas in 1980 annual inflation was more than 12%, in the period 2000–2017 the average inflation rate was 1.8%.",
"title": "Currency and monetary policy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Since a local-government reform in 2007, the general government organization in Denmark is carried out on three administrative levels: central government, regions, and municipalities. Regions administer mainly health care services, whereas municipalities administer primary education and social services. Municipalities in principle independently levy income and property taxes, but the scope for total municipal taxation and expenditure is closely regulated by annual negotiations between the municipalities and the Finance Minister of Denmark. At the central government level, the Ministry of Finance carries out the coordinating role of conducting economic policy. In 2012, the Danish parliament passed a Budget Law (effective from January 2014) which governs the over-all fiscal framework, stating among other things that the structural deficit must never exceed 0.5% of GDP, and that Danish fiscal policy is required to be sustainable, i.e. have a non-negative fiscal sustainability indicator. The Budget Law also assigned the role of independent fiscal institution (IFI, informally known as \"fiscal watchdog\") to the already-existing independent advisory body of the Danish Economic Councils.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Danish fiscal policy is generally considered healthy. Government net debt was close to zero at the end of 2017, amounting to DKK 27.3 billion, or 1.3% of GDP. The government sector having a fair amount of financial assets as well as liabilities, government gross debt amounted to 36.1% of GDP at the same date. The gross EMU-debt as percentage of GDP was the sixth-lowest among all 28 EU member countries, only Estonia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania having a lower gross debt. Denmark had a government budget surplus of 1.1% of GDP in 2017.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Long-run annual fiscal projections from the Danish government as well as the independent Danish Economic Council, taking into account likely future fiscal developments caused by demographic developments etc. (e.g. a likely ageing of the population caused by a considerable expansion of life expectancy), consider the Danish fiscal policy to be overly sustainable in the long run. In Spring 2018, the so-called Fiscal Sustainability Indicator was calculated to be 1.2 (by the Danish government) respectively 0.9% (by the Danish Economic Council) of GDP. This implies that under the assumptions employed in the projections, fiscal policy could be permanently loosened (via more generous public expenditures and/or lower taxes) by ca. 1% of GDP while still maintaining a stable government debt-to-GDP ratio in the long run.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The tax level as well as the government expenditure level in Denmark ranks among the highest in the world, which is traditionally ascribed to the Nordic model of which Denmark is an example, including the welfare state principles which historically evolved during the 20th century. In 2017, the official Danish tax level amounted to 46.1% of GDP. The all-record highest Danish tax level was 49.8% of GDP, reached in 2014 because of high extraordinary one-time tax revenues caused by a reorganization of the Danish-funded pension system. The Danish tax-to-GDP-ratio of 46% was the second-highest among all OECD countries, second only to France. The OECD average was 34.2%. The tax structure of Denmark (the relative weight of different taxes) also differs from the OECD average, as the Danish tax system in 2015 was characterized by substantially higher revenues from taxes on personal income, whereas on the other hand, no revenues at all derive from social security contributions. A lower proportion of revenues in Denmark derive from taxes on corporate income and gains and property taxes than in OECD generally, whereas the proportion deriving from payroll taxes, VAT, and other taxes on goods and services correspond to the OECD average.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "In 2016, the average marginal tax rate on labour income for all Danish tax-payers was 38.9%. The average marginal tax on personal capital income was 30.7%.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Professor of Economics at Princeton University Henrik Kleven has suggested that three distinct policies in Denmark and its Scandinavian neighbours imply that the high tax rates cause only relatively small distortions to the economy: widespread use of third-party information reporting for tax collection purposes (ensuring a low level of tax evasion), broad tax bases (ensuring a low level of tax avoidance), and a strong subsidization of goods that are complementary to working (ensuring a high level of labour force participation).",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "in 2023, Denmark considered methods to increase taxes on energy dealers.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Parallel to the high tax level, government expenditures make up a large part of GDP, and the government sector carries out many different tasks. By September 2018, 831,000 people worked in the general government sector, corresponding to 29.9% of all employees. In 2017, total government expenditure amounted to 50.9% of GDP. Government consumption took up precisely 25% of GDP (e.g. education and health care expenditure), and government investment (infrastructure etc.) expenditure another 3.4% of GDP. Personal income transfers (for e.g. elderly or unemployed people) amounted to 16.8% of GDP.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Denmark has an unemployment insurance system called the A-kasse (arbejdsløshedskasse). This system requires a paying membership of a state-recognized unemployment fund. Most of these funds are managed by trade unions, and part of their expenses are financed through the tax system. Members of an A-kasse are not obliged to be members of a trade union. Not every Danish citizen or employee qualifies for a membership of an unemployment fund, and membership benefits will be terminated after 2 years of unemployment. A person that is not a member of an A-kasse cannot receive unemployment benefits. Unemployment funds do not pay benefits to sick members, who will be transferred to a municipal social support system instead. Denmark has a countrywide, but municipally administered social support system against poverty, securing that qualified citizens have a minimum living income. All Danish citizens above 18 years of age can apply for some financial support if they cannot support themselves or their family. Approval is not automatic, and the extent of this system has generally been diminished since the 1980s. Sick people can receive some financial support throughout the extent of their illness. Their ability to work will be re-evaluated by the municipality after 5 months of illness.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The welfare system related to the labor market has experienced several reforms and financial cuts since the late 1990s due to political agendas for increasing the labor supply. Several reforms of the rights of the unemployed have followed up, partially inspired by the Danish Economic Council. Halving the time unemployment benefits can be received from four to two years, and making it twice as hard to regain this right, was implemented in 2010 for example.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Disabled people can apply for permanent social pensions. The extent of the support depends on the ability to work, and people below 40 can not receive social pension unless they are deemed incapable of any kind of work.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Agriculture was once the most important industry in Denmark. Nowadays, it is of minor economic importance. In 2016, 62,000 people, or 2.5% of all employed people worked in agriculture and horticulture. Another 2,000 people worked in fishing. As value added per person is relatively low, the share of national value added is somewhat lower. Total gross value added in agriculture, forestry and fishing amounted to 1.6% of total output in Denmark (in 2017). Despite this, Denmark is still home to various types of agricultural production. Within animal husbandry, it includes dairy and beef cattle, pigs, poultry and fur animals (primarily mink) – all sectors that produce mainly for export. Regarding vegetable production, Denmark is a leading producer of grass-, clover- and horticultural seeds. The agriculture and food sector as a whole represented 25% of total Danish commodity exports in 2015.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "63% of the land area of Denmark is used for agricultural production – the highest share in the world according to a report from University of Copenhagen in 2017. The Danish agricultural industry is historically characterized by freehold and family ownership, but due to structural development farms have become fewer and larger. In 2020 the number of farms was approximately 33,000, of which approximately 10,000 were owned by full-time farmers.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The tendency toward fewer and larger farms has been accompanied by an increase in animal production, using fewer resources per produced unit.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The number of dairy farmers has reduced to about 3,800 with an average herd size of 150 cows. The milk quota is 1,142 tonnes. Danish dairy farmers are among the largest and most modern producers in Europe. More than half of the cows live in new loose-housing systems. Export of dairy products accounts for more than 20 percent of the total Danish agricultural export. The total number of cattle in 2011 was approximately 1.5 million. Of these, 565,000 were dairy cows and 99,000 were suckler cows. The yearly number of slaughtering of beef cattle is around 550,000.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "For more than 100 years the production of pigs and pig meat was a major source of income in Denmark. The Danish pig industry is among the world's leaders in areas such as breeding, quality, food safety, animal welfare and traceability creating the basis for Denmark being among the world's largest pig meat exporters. Approximately 90 percent of the production is exported. This accounts for almost half of all agricultural exports and for more than 5 percent of Denmark's total exports. About 4,200 farmers produce 28 million pigs annually. Of these, 20.9 million are slaughtered in Denmark.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Fur animal production on an industrial scale started in the 1930s in Denmark. Prior to a government-mandated culling during the COVID-19 pandemic, Denmark was the world's largest producer of mink furs, with 1,400 mink farmers fostering 17.2 million mink and producing around 14 million furs of the highest quality every year (see mink industry in Denmark). Approximately 98 percent of the skins sold at Kopenhagen Fur Auction were exported. Fur ranked as Danish agriculture's third largest export article, at more than DKK 7 billion annually. The number of farms peaked in the late 1980s at more than 5,000 farms, but the number has declined steadily since, as individual farms grew in size. Danish mink farmers claim their business to be sustainable, feeding the mink food industry waste and using all parts of the dead animal as meat, bone meal and biofuel. Special attention is given to the welfare of the mink, and regular \"Open Farm\" arrangements are made for the general public. Mink thrive in, but are not a native to Denmark, and it is considered an invasive species. American Mink are now widespread in Denmark and continues to cause problems for the native wildlife, in particular waterfowl. Denmark also has a small production of fox, chinchilla and rabbit furs.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Two hundred professional producers are responsible for the Danish egg production, which was 66 million kg in 2011. Chickens for slaughter are often produced in units with 40,000 broilers. In 2012, 100 million chickens were slaughtered. In the minor productions of poultry, 13 million ducks, 1.4 million geese and 5.0 million turkeys were slaughtered in 2012.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Organic farming and production has increased considerably and continuously in Denmark since 1987 when the first official regulations of this particular agricultural method came into effect. In 2017, the export of organic products reached DK 2.95 billion, a 153% increase from 2012 five years earlier, and a 21% increase from 2016. The import of organic products has always been higher than the exports though and reached DK 3.86 billion in 2017. After some years of stagnation, close to 10% of the cultivated land is now categorized as organically farmed, and 13.6% for the dairy industry, as of 2017.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Denmark has the highest retail consumption share for organic products in the world. In 2017, the share was at 13.3%, accounting for a total of DKK 12.1 billion.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Denmark has large proven reserves of oil and natural gas in the North Sea with Esbjerg being the main city for the oil and gas industry. Denmark is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the EU. Production has decreased in recent years, though. Whereas in 2006 output (measured as gross value added or GVA) in mining and quarrying industries made up more than 4% of Denmark's total GVA, in 2017 it amounted to 1.2%. The sector is very capital-intensive, so the share of employment is much lower: About 2,000 persons worked in the oil and gas extraction sector in 2016, and another 1,000 persons in extraction of gravel and stone, or in total about 0.1% of total employment in Denmark.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Denmark houses a number of significant engineering and high-technology firms, within the sectors of industrial equipment, aerospace, robotics, pharmaceutical and electronics.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Danfoss, headquartered in Nordborg, designs and manufactures industrial electronics, heating and cooling equipment, as well as drivetrains and power solutions.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Denmark is also a large exporter of pumps, with the company Grundfos holding 50% of the market share, manufacturing circulation pumps.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "In 2017 total output (gross value added) in manufacturing industries amounted to 14.4% of total output in Denmark. 325,000 people or a little less than 12% of all employed persons worked in manufacturing (including utilities, mining and quarrying) in 2016. Main sub-industries are manufacture of pharmaceuticals, machinery, and food products.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "In 2017 total output (gross value added) in service industries amounted to 75.2% of total output in Denmark, and 79.9% of all employed people worked here (in 2016). Apart from public administration, education and health services, main service sub-industries were trade and transport services, and business services.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Significant investment has been made in building road and rail links between Copenhagen and Malmö, Sweden (the Øresund Bridge), and between Zealand and Funen (the Great Belt Fixed Link). The Copenhagen Malmö Port was also formed between the two cities as the common port for the cities of both nations.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "The main railway operator is Danske Statsbaner (Danish State Railways) for passenger services and DB Schenker Rail for freight trains. The railway tracks are maintained by Banedanmark. Copenhagen has a small Metro system, the Copenhagen Metro and the greater Copenhagen area has an extensive electrified suburban railway network, the S-train.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Private vehicles are increasingly used as a means of transport. New cars are taxed by means of a registration tax (85% to 150%) and VAT (25%). The motorway network now covers 1,300 km.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Denmark is in a strong position in terms of integrating fluctuating and unpredictable energy sources such as wind power in the grid. It is this knowledge that Denmark now aims to exploit in the transport sector by focusing on intelligent battery systems (V2G) and plug-in vehicles.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Denmark has changed its energy consumption from 99% fossil fuels (92% oil (all imported) and 7% coal) and 1% biofuels in 1972 to 73% fossil fuels (37% oil (all domestic), 18% coal and 18% natural gas (all domestic)) and 27% renewables (largely biofuels) in 2015. The goal is a full independence of fossil fuels by 2050. This drastic change was initially inspired largely by the discovery of Danish oil and gas reserves in the North Sea in 1972 and the 1973 oil crisis. The course took a giant leap forward in 1984, when the Danish North Sea oil and gas fields, developed by native industry in close cooperation with the state, started major productions. In 1997, Denmark became self-sufficient with energy and the overall CO2 emission from the energy sector began to fall by 1996. Wind energy contribution to the total energy consumption has risen from 1% in 1997 to 5% in 2015.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Since 2000, Denmark has increased gross domestic product (GDP) and at the same time decreased energy consumption. Since 1972, the overall energy consumption has dropped by 6%, even though the GDP has doubled in the same period. Denmark had the 6th best energy security in the world in 2014. Denmark has had relatively high energy taxation to encourage careful use of energy since the oil crises in the 1970s, and Danish industry has adapted to this and gained a competitive edge. The so-called \"green taxes\" have been broadly criticised partly for being higher than in other countries, but also for being more of a tool for gathering government revenue than a method of promoting \"greener\" behaviour.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Denmark has low electricity costs (including costs for cleaner energy) in EU, but general taxes (11.7 billion DKK in 2015) make the electricity price for households the highest in Europe. As of 2015, Denmark has no environment tax on electricity.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Denmark is a long-time leader in wind energy and a prominent exporter of Vestas and Siemens wind turbines, and in 2019 Denmark's exports of wind-turbine technology and services amounted to €8.9 billion. It has integrated fluctuating and less predictable energy sources such as wind power into the grid. Wind produced the equivalent of 43% of Denmark's total electricity consumption in 2017. The share of total energy production is smaller: In 2015, wind accounted for 5% of total Danish energy production.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Energinet.dk is the Danish national transmission system operator for electricity and natural gas. The electricity grids of western Denmark and eastern Denmark were not connected until 2010 when the 600MW Great Belt Power Link went into operation.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Cogeneration plants are the norm in Denmark, usually with district heating which serves 1.7 million households.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Waste-to-energy incinerators produce mostly heating and hot water. Vestforbrænding in Glostrup Municipality operates Denmark's largest incinerator, a cogeneration plant which supplies electricity to 80,000 households and heating equivalent to the consumption in 63,000 households (2016). Amager Bakke is an example of a new incinerator.",
"title": "Industries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "In addition to Denmark proper, the Kingdom of Denmark comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Both use the Danish krone as their currency, but form separate economies, having separate national accounts etc. Both countries receive an annual fiscal subsidy from Denmark which amounts to about 25% of Greenland's GDP and 11% of Faroese GDP. For both countries, fishing industry is a major economic activity.",
"title": "Greenland and the Faroe Islands"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Neither Greenland nor the Faroe Islands are members of the European Union. Greenland left the European Economic Community in 1986, and the Faroe Islands declined membership in 1973, when Denmark joined.",
"title": "Greenland and the Faroe Islands"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Inflation under 2% is in green.",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Denmark has fostered and is home to many multi-national companies. Many of the largest are interdisciplinary with business – and sometimes research activities – in several fields. The most notable companies include:",
"title": "Major companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Many of the largest food producers are also engaged in biotechnology and research. Notable companies dedicated to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, includes:",
"title": "Major companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Software",
"title": "Major companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "",
"title": "Major companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Denmark has a long tradition for cooperative production and trade on a large scale. The most notable cooperative societies today includes the agricultural coop of Dansk Landbrugs Grovvareselskab (DLG), dairy producer Arla Foods and the retail cooperative Coop Danmark. Coop Danmark started out as \"Fællesforeningen for Danmarks Brugsforeninger\" (FDB) in 1896 and now has around 1.4 million members in Denmark as of 2017. It is part of the larger multi-sector cooperative Coop amba which has 1.7 million members in that same year.",
"title": "Major companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "The cooperative structure also extends to both the housing and banking sector. Arbejdernes Landsbank, founded in 1919, is the largest bank cooperative and it is currently the 6th largest bank in the country as of 2018. The municipality of Copenhagen alone holds a total of 153 housing cooperatives and \"Arbejdernes Andelsboligforening Århus\" (AAB Århus) is the largest individual housing cooperative in Denmark, with 23,000 homes in Aarhus.",
"title": "Major companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "In 2022, the sector with the highest number of companies registered in Denmark is Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate with 204,853 companies followed by Services and Retail Trade with 204,050 and 30,563 companies respectively.",
"title": "Major companies"
}
] | The economy of Denmark is a modern high-income and mixed economy. The economy of Denmark is dominated by the service sector with 80% of all jobs, whereas about 11% of all employees work in manufacturing and 2% in agriculture. The nominal gross national income per capita was the ninth-highest in the world at $68,827 in 2023. Correcting for purchasing power, per capita income was Int$57,781 or 10th-highest globally. The income distribution is relatively equal but inequality has somewhat increased during the last decades. This increase was attributed to both a larger spread in gross incomes and various economic policy measures. In 2017, Denmark had the seventh-lowest Gini coefficient of the then 28 European Union countries. With 5,932,654 inhabitants, Denmark has the 38th largest national economy in the world measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), and the 52nd largest in the world measured by purchasing power parity (PPP). Denmark has a very long tradition of adhering to a fixed exchange-rate system and still does so today. It is unique among OECD countries to do so while maintaining an independent currency: The Danish krone, which is pegged to the euro. Though eligible to join the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU), the Danish voters in a referendum in 2000 rejected exchanging the krone for the euro. Whereas Denmark's neighbours like Norway, Sweden, Poland and the United Kingdom generally follow inflation targeting in their monetary policy, the priority of Denmark's central bank is to maintain exchange rate stability. Consequently, the central bank has no role in a domestic stabilization policy. Since February 2015, the central bank has maintained a negative interest rate to contain an upward exchange rate pressure. In an international context, a relatively large proportion of the population is part of the labour force, in particular because the female participation rate is very high. In 2017, 78.8% of all 15-to-64-year-old people were active on the labour market, the sixth-highest number among all OECD countries. The unemployment is relatively low, in comparison to other European countries. In October 2018, 4.8% of the Danish labour force were unemployed, as compared to an average of 6.7% for all EU countries. There is no legal minimum wage in Denmark. The labour market is traditionally characterized by a high degree of union membership rates and collective agreement coverage. Denmark invests heavily in active labor market policies and the concept of flexicurity has been important historically. Denmark is an example of the Nordic model, characterized by an internationally high tax level, and a correspondingly high level of government-provided services. There are also income transfers to various groups, such as retired or disabled people, unemployed persons, students, etc. Altogether, the amount of revenue from taxes paid in 2017 amounted to 46.1% of the GDP. The Danish fiscal policy is generally considered healthy. The net government debt is very close to zero, amounting to 1.3% of GDP in 2017. The Danish fiscal policy is characterized by a long-term outlook, taking into account likely future fiscal demands. During the 2000s, a challenge was perceived to government expenditures in future decades. It was ultimately a challenge to fiscal sustainability from demographic development, in particular higher longevity. Responding to this, age eligibility rules for receiving public age-related transfers were changed. Since 2012, calculations of future fiscal challenges, from both the government and independent analysts, have generally perceived Danish fiscal policy to be sustainable. In recent years, it was considered overly sustainable. | 2001-08-02T13:11:54Z | 2023-12-18T20:21:54Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Denmark |
8,037 | Transport in Denmark | Transport in Denmark is developed and modern. The motorway network covers 1,111 km while the railway network totals 2,667 km of operational track. The Great Belt Fixed Link (opened in 1997) connecting the islands of Zealand and Funen and the New Little Belt Bridge (opened in 1970) connecting Funen and Jutland greatly improved the traffic flow across the country on both motorways and rail. The two largest airports of Copenhagen and Billund provide a variety of domestic and international connections, while ferries provide services to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Germany, Sweden, and Norway, as well as domestic routes servicing most Danish islands.
In 2011, a total of appr. 28 million passengers used Danish airports.
Copenhagen Airport is the largest airport in Scandinavia, handling approximately 29m passengers per year (2016). It is located at Kastrup, 8 km south-east of central Copenhagen. It is connected by train to Copenhagen Central Station and beyond as well as to Malmö and other towns in Sweden.
For the west of the country, the major airport is Billund (3m passengers in 2016) although both Aalborg (1.4m passengers in 2011) and Aarhus (591.000 passengers in 2011) have smaller airports with regular connections to Copenhagen.
Denmark's main airports are:
Other airports include:
Being an island state with a long coastline and always close to the sea, maritime transport has always been important in Denmark. From the primitive dugouts of the Stone Age to the complex designs of the Viking ships in the Viking Age, often built to exactly facilitate large scale cargo and passenger transportation. Denmark also engaged in the large scale cargo freights and slave transports of the European colonization endeavours in the Middle Ages and operated several smaller colonies of its own across the globe by the means of seafaring.
Today Denmark's ports handle some 48 million passengers and 109 million tonnes of cargo per year.
Passenger traffic is made up partly of ferry crossings within Denmark, partly of international ferry crossings and partly of cruise ship passengers. Some short ferry routes are being electrified and several more may be eligible, as in Norway.
Among the most important ports for passenger traffic (thousands of passengers per year in 2007) are:
In 2007, 288 cruise ships visited Copenhagen, rising to 376 in 2011 before returning to around 300 the following years. Around 800,000 cruise passengers and 200,000 crew visit Copenhagen each year.
Among the most important ports for cargo traffic (millions of tonnes per year in 2007) are:
Waterways have historically and traditionally been crucial to local transportation in Denmark proper. Especially the Gudenå river-system in central Jutland, has played an important role. The waterways were navigated by wooden barges and later on steamboats. A few historical steamboats are still in operation, like the SS Hjejlen from 1861 at Silkeborg.
There is a 160 km natural canal through the shallow Limfjorden in northern Jutland, linking the North Sea to the Kattegat.
Many waterways has formerly been redirected and led through manmade canals in the 1900s, but mainly for agricultural purposes and not to facilitate transportation on any major scale. Several cities have manmade canals used for transportation and traffic purposes. Of special mention are the canals of Copenhagen and the Odense Canal, ferrying large numbers of both tourists and local citizens.
Denmark has a large merchant fleet relative to its size. In 2018, the fleet surpassed 20 million gt as the government sought to repatriate Danish-owned tonnage registered abroad, with measures including removal of the registration fee.
Denmark has created its own international register, called the Danish International Ship register (DIS), open to commercial vessels only. DIS ships do not have to meet Danish manning regulations.
The largest railway operator in Denmark is Danske Statsbaner (DSB) — Danish State Railways. Arriva operates some routes in Jutland, and several other smaller operators provide local services.
The total length of operational track is 3,476 km standard gauge, with 1,756 km electrified.
The railway system is connected to Sweden by bridge in Copenhagen and ferry in Helsingør and Frederikshavn, by land to Germany in Padborg and ferry in Rødby and to Norway by ferry in Hirtshals.
The road network in 2017 totalled 74,558 km of paved road. Motorways are toll-free except for the Great Belt Bridge joining Zealand and Funen and the Øresund Bridge linking Copenhagen to Malmö in Sweden.
Bicycling in Denmark is a common and popular utilitarian and recreational activity. Bicycling infrastructure is a dominant feature of both city and countryside infrastructure, with bicycle paths and bicycle ways in many places and an extensive network of bicycle routes, extending more than 12,000 kilometres (7,500 mi) nationwide. In comparison, Denmark's coastline is 7,314 kilometres (4,545 mi). As a unique feature, Denmark has a VIN-system for bicycles which is mandatory by law. Often bicycling and bicycle culture in Denmark is compared to the Netherlands as a bicycle-nation.
Figures in 2015: | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Transport in Denmark is developed and modern. The motorway network covers 1,111 km while the railway network totals 2,667 km of operational track. The Great Belt Fixed Link (opened in 1997) connecting the islands of Zealand and Funen and the New Little Belt Bridge (opened in 1970) connecting Funen and Jutland greatly improved the traffic flow across the country on both motorways and rail. The two largest airports of Copenhagen and Billund provide a variety of domestic and international connections, while ferries provide services to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Germany, Sweden, and Norway, as well as domestic routes servicing most Danish islands.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In 2011, a total of appr. 28 million passengers used Danish airports.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Copenhagen Airport is the largest airport in Scandinavia, handling approximately 29m passengers per year (2016). It is located at Kastrup, 8 km south-east of central Copenhagen. It is connected by train to Copenhagen Central Station and beyond as well as to Malmö and other towns in Sweden.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "For the west of the country, the major airport is Billund (3m passengers in 2016) although both Aalborg (1.4m passengers in 2011) and Aarhus (591.000 passengers in 2011) have smaller airports with regular connections to Copenhagen.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Denmark's main airports are:",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Other airports include:",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Being an island state with a long coastline and always close to the sea, maritime transport has always been important in Denmark. From the primitive dugouts of the Stone Age to the complex designs of the Viking ships in the Viking Age, often built to exactly facilitate large scale cargo and passenger transportation. Denmark also engaged in the large scale cargo freights and slave transports of the European colonization endeavours in the Middle Ages and operated several smaller colonies of its own across the globe by the means of seafaring.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Today Denmark's ports handle some 48 million passengers and 109 million tonnes of cargo per year.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Passenger traffic is made up partly of ferry crossings within Denmark, partly of international ferry crossings and partly of cruise ship passengers. Some short ferry routes are being electrified and several more may be eligible, as in Norway.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Among the most important ports for passenger traffic (thousands of passengers per year in 2007) are:",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 2007, 288 cruise ships visited Copenhagen, rising to 376 in 2011 before returning to around 300 the following years. Around 800,000 cruise passengers and 200,000 crew visit Copenhagen each year.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Among the most important ports for cargo traffic (millions of tonnes per year in 2007) are:",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Waterways have historically and traditionally been crucial to local transportation in Denmark proper. Especially the Gudenå river-system in central Jutland, has played an important role. The waterways were navigated by wooden barges and later on steamboats. A few historical steamboats are still in operation, like the SS Hjejlen from 1861 at Silkeborg.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "There is a 160 km natural canal through the shallow Limfjorden in northern Jutland, linking the North Sea to the Kattegat.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Many waterways has formerly been redirected and led through manmade canals in the 1900s, but mainly for agricultural purposes and not to facilitate transportation on any major scale. Several cities have manmade canals used for transportation and traffic purposes. Of special mention are the canals of Copenhagen and the Odense Canal, ferrying large numbers of both tourists and local citizens.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Denmark has a large merchant fleet relative to its size. In 2018, the fleet surpassed 20 million gt as the government sought to repatriate Danish-owned tonnage registered abroad, with measures including removal of the registration fee.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Denmark has created its own international register, called the Danish International Ship register (DIS), open to commercial vessels only. DIS ships do not have to meet Danish manning regulations.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The largest railway operator in Denmark is Danske Statsbaner (DSB) — Danish State Railways. Arriva operates some routes in Jutland, and several other smaller operators provide local services.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The total length of operational track is 3,476 km standard gauge, with 1,756 km electrified.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The railway system is connected to Sweden by bridge in Copenhagen and ferry in Helsingør and Frederikshavn, by land to Germany in Padborg and ferry in Rødby and to Norway by ferry in Hirtshals.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The road network in 2017 totalled 74,558 km of paved road. Motorways are toll-free except for the Great Belt Bridge joining Zealand and Funen and the Øresund Bridge linking Copenhagen to Malmö in Sweden.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Bicycling in Denmark is a common and popular utilitarian and recreational activity. Bicycling infrastructure is a dominant feature of both city and countryside infrastructure, with bicycle paths and bicycle ways in many places and an extensive network of bicycle routes, extending more than 12,000 kilometres (7,500 mi) nationwide. In comparison, Denmark's coastline is 7,314 kilometres (4,545 mi). As a unique feature, Denmark has a VIN-system for bicycles which is mandatory by law. Often bicycling and bicycle culture in Denmark is compared to the Netherlands as a bicycle-nation.",
"title": "Cycling"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Figures in 2015:",
"title": "Pipelines"
}
] | Transport in Denmark is developed and modern. The motorway network covers 1,111 km while the railway network totals 2,667 km of operational track. The Great Belt Fixed Link connecting the islands of Zealand and Funen and the New Little Belt Bridge connecting Funen and Jutland greatly improved the traffic flow across the country on both motorways and rail. The two largest airports of Copenhagen and Billund provide a variety of domestic and international connections, while ferries provide services to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Germany, Sweden, and Norway, as well as domestic routes servicing most Danish islands. | 2001-04-26T23:50:09Z | 2023-12-08T20:37:44Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Denmark |
8,038 | Danish Defence | The Danish Armed Forces (Danish: Forsvaret; Faroese: Danska verjan; Greenlandic: Illersuisut) is the unified armed forces of the Kingdom of Denmark charged with the defence of Denmark and its self-governing territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The military also promote Denmark's wider interests, support international peacekeeping efforts and provide humanitarian aid.
Since the creation of a standing military in 1510, the armed forces have seen action in many wars, most involving Sweden, but also involving the world's great powers, including the Thirty Years' War, the Great Northern War, and the Napoleonic Wars.
Today, the armed forces consists of: the Royal Danish Army, Denmark's principal land warfare branch; the Royal Danish Navy, a blue-water navy with a fleet of 20 commissioned ships; and the Royal Danish Air Force, an air force with an operational fleet consisting of both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. The Defence also includes the Home Guard. Under the Danish Defence Law the Minister of Defence serves as the commander of Danish Defence (through the Chief of Defence and the Defence Command) and the Danish Home Guard (through the Home Guard Command). De facto the Danish Cabinet is the commanding authority of the Defence, though it cannot mobilize the armed forces, for purposes that are not strictly defence oriented, without the consent of parliament.
The modern Danish military can be traced back to 1510, with the creation of the Royal Danish Navy. During this time, the Danish Kingdom held considerable territories, including Schleswig-Holstein, Norway, and colonies in Africa and the Americas.
Following the defeat in the Second Schleswig War, the military became a political hot-button issue. Denmark managed to maintain its neutrality during the First World War, with a relative strong military force. However, following the Interwar period, a more pacifistic government came to power, decreasing the size of the military. This resulted in Denmark having a limited military, when Denmark was invaded in 1940.
Since the establishment of the Danish military, the two branches operated independently, without much cooperation. They both had their own ministry, and their own air force. It was only after the lessons of World War II, the branches were reorganized, and collected under the newly created Danish Defence. This was to ensure a unified command when conducting joint operations, as learned from the War.
Denmark tried to remain neutral after World War II, with the proposed Scandinavian defence union. However, Norway resigned from the talks, and with Cold War tensions on the rise and the 1948 Easter Crisis, Denmark was forced to join the North Atlantic Treaty. During the Cold War, Denmark began to rebuild its military and to prepare for possible attacks by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. During this time Denmark participated in a number of UN peacekeeping missions including UNEF and UNFICYP.
Following the end of the Cold War, Denmark began a more active foreign policy, deciding to participate in international operations. This began with the participation in the Bosnian War, where the Royal Danish Army served as part of the United Nations Protection Force and were in two skirmishes. This was the first time the Danish Army was a part of a combat operation since World War 2. On April 29, 1994, the Royal Danish Army, while on an operation to relieve an observation post as part of the United Nations Protection Force, the Jutland Dragoon Regiment came under artillery fire from the town of Kalesija. The United Nations Protection Force quickly returned fire and eliminated the artillery positions. On October 24, 1994, the Royal Danish Army, while on an operation to reinforce an observation post in the town of Gradačac, were fired upon by a T-55 Bosnian Serb tank. One of the three Danish Leopard 1 tanks experienced slight damage, but all returned fired and put the T-55 tank out of action.
With the September 11 attacks, Denmark joined US forces in the War on terror, participating in both the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. In Afghanistan, 37 soldiers have been killed in various hostile engagements or as a result of friendly fire, and 6 have been killed in non-combat related incidents, bringing the number of Danish fatalities to 43, being the highest loss per capita within the coalition forces. Denmark has since participated in Operation Ocean Shield, the 2011 military intervention in Libya and the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War.
The purpose and task of the armed forces of Denmark is defined in Law no. 122 of February 27, 2001 and in force since March 1, 2001. It defines three purposes and six tasks.
Its primary purpose is to prevent conflicts and war, preserve the sovereignty of Denmark, secure the continuing existence and integrity of the independent Kingdom of Denmark and further a peaceful development in the world with respect to human rights.
Its primary tasks are: NATO participation in accordance with the strategy of the alliance, detect and repel any sovereignty violation of Danish territory (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), defence cooperation with non-NATO members, especially Central and East European countries, international missions in the area of conflict prevention, crisis-control, humanitarian, peacemaking, peacekeeping, participation in Total Defence in cooperation with civilian resources and finally maintenance of a sizable force to execute these tasks at all times.
Total Defence (Danish: Totalforsvaret) is "the use of all resources in order to maintain an organized and functional society, and to protect the population and values of society". This is achieved by combining the military, Home Guard, Danish Emergency Management Agency and elements of the police. The concept of total defence was created following World War II, where it was clear that the defence of the country could not only rely on the military, but there also need to be other measures to ensure a continuation of society. As a part of the Total Defence, all former conscripts can be recalled to duty, in order to serve in cases of emergency.
Since 1988, Danish defence budgets and security policy have been set by multi-year white paper agreements supported by a wide parliamentary majority including government and opposition parties. However, public opposition to increases in defence spending—during periods of economic constraints require reduced spending for social welfare — has created differences among the political parties regarding a broadly acceptable level of new defence expenditure.
The latest Defence agreement ("Defence Agreement 2018–23") was signed 28 January 2018, and calls for an increase in spending, cyber security and capabilities to act in international operations and international stabilization efforts. The reaction speed is increased, with an entire brigade on standby readiness; the military retains the capability to continually deploy 2,000 soldiers in international service or 5,000 over a short time span. The standard mandatory conscription is expanded to include 500 more, with some of these having a longer service time, with more focus on national challenges.
In 2006 the Danish military budget was the fifth largest single portion of the Danish Government's total budget, significantly less than that of the Ministry of Social Affairs (≈110 billion DKK), Ministry of Employment (≈67 billion DKK), Ministry of the Interior and Health (≈66 billion DKK) and Ministry of Education (≈30 billion DKK) and only slightly larger than that of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (≈14 billion DKK). This list lists the complete expenditures for the Danish Ministry of Defence.
The Danish Defence Force, counting all branches and all departments, itself has an income equal to about 1–5% of its expenditures, depending on the year. They are not deducted in this listing.
Approximately 95% of the budget goes directly to running the Danish military including the Home guard. Depending on year, 50–53% accounts for payment to personnel, roughly 14–21% on acquiring new material, 2–8% for larger ships, building projects or infrastructure and about 24–27% on other items, including purchasing of goods, renting, maintenance, services and taxes.
The remaining 5% is special expenditures to NATO, branch shared expenditures, special services and civil structures, here in including running the Danish Maritime Safety Administration, Danish Emergency Management Agency and the Administration of Conscientious Objectors (Militærnægteradministrationen).
Because Denmark has a small and highly specialized military industry, the vast majority of Danish Defence's equipment is imported from NATO and the Nordic countries.
Danish Defence expenditures (1949–1989)
Danish Defence expenditures (1990–)
The Danish Royal Army (Danish: Hæren) consists of 2 brigades, organised into 3 regiments, and a number of support centres, all commanded through the Army Staff. The army is a mixture of Mechanized infantry and Armoured cavalry with a limited capabilities in Armoured warfare.
The army also provides protection for the Danish royal family, in the form of the Royal Guard Company and the Guard Hussar Regiment Mounted Squadron.
The Royal Danish Navy (Danish: Søværnet) consists of frigates, patrol vessels, mine-countermeasure vessels, and other miscellaneous vessels, many of which are issued with the modular mission payload system StanFlex. The navy's chief responsibility is maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish, Greenlandic and Faroese territorial waters.
A submarine service existed within the Royal Danish Navy for 95 years.
The Royal Danish Air Force (Danish: Flyvevåbnet) consists of both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft.
The Home Guard is voluntary service responsible for defence of the country, but has since 2008 also supported the army, in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Current deployment of Danish forces, per 10-03-2016:
Women in the military can be traced back to 1946, with the creation of Lottekorpset. This corps allowed women to serve, however, without entering with the normal armed forces, and they were not allowed to carry weapons. In 1962, women were allowed in the military.
Currently 1,122 or 7.3% of all personnel in the armed forces are women. Women do not have to serve conscription in Denmark, since 1998, it is however possible to serve under conscription-like circumstances; 17% of those serving conscription or conscription-like are women. Between 1991 and 31 December 2017, 1,965 women have been deployed to different international missions. Of those 3 women have lost their lives. In 1998, Police Constable Gitte Larsen was killed in Hebron on the West Bank. In 2003, Overkonstabel Susanne Lauritzen was killed in a traffic accident in Kosovo. In 2010, the first woman was killed in a combat situation, when Konstabel Sophia Bruun was killed by an IED in Afghanistan.
In 2005, Line Bonde became the first female fighter pilot in Denmark. In 2016, Lone Træholt became the first female general. She was the only female general in the Danish armed forces until the army promoted Jette Albinus to the rank of brigadier general on 11 September 2017. In May 2018, the Royal Life Guards was forced to lower the height requirements for women, as the Danish Institute of Human Rights decided it was discrimination.
Technically all Danish 18-year-old males are conscripts (37,897 in 2010, of whom 53% were considered suitable for duty). Due to the large number of volunteers, 96-99% of the number required in the past three years, the number of men actually called up is relatively low (4,200 in 2012). There were additionally 567 female volunteers in 2010, who pass training on "conscript-like" conditions.
Conscripts to Danish Defence (army, navy and air force) generally serve four months, except:
There has been a right of conscientious objection since 1917. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Danish Armed Forces (Danish: Forsvaret; Faroese: Danska verjan; Greenlandic: Illersuisut) is the unified armed forces of the Kingdom of Denmark charged with the defence of Denmark and its self-governing territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The military also promote Denmark's wider interests, support international peacekeeping efforts and provide humanitarian aid.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Since the creation of a standing military in 1510, the armed forces have seen action in many wars, most involving Sweden, but also involving the world's great powers, including the Thirty Years' War, the Great Northern War, and the Napoleonic Wars.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Today, the armed forces consists of: the Royal Danish Army, Denmark's principal land warfare branch; the Royal Danish Navy, a blue-water navy with a fleet of 20 commissioned ships; and the Royal Danish Air Force, an air force with an operational fleet consisting of both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. The Defence also includes the Home Guard. Under the Danish Defence Law the Minister of Defence serves as the commander of Danish Defence (through the Chief of Defence and the Defence Command) and the Danish Home Guard (through the Home Guard Command). De facto the Danish Cabinet is the commanding authority of the Defence, though it cannot mobilize the armed forces, for purposes that are not strictly defence oriented, without the consent of parliament.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The modern Danish military can be traced back to 1510, with the creation of the Royal Danish Navy. During this time, the Danish Kingdom held considerable territories, including Schleswig-Holstein, Norway, and colonies in Africa and the Americas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Following the defeat in the Second Schleswig War, the military became a political hot-button issue. Denmark managed to maintain its neutrality during the First World War, with a relative strong military force. However, following the Interwar period, a more pacifistic government came to power, decreasing the size of the military. This resulted in Denmark having a limited military, when Denmark was invaded in 1940.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Since the establishment of the Danish military, the two branches operated independently, without much cooperation. They both had their own ministry, and their own air force. It was only after the lessons of World War II, the branches were reorganized, and collected under the newly created Danish Defence. This was to ensure a unified command when conducting joint operations, as learned from the War.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Denmark tried to remain neutral after World War II, with the proposed Scandinavian defence union. However, Norway resigned from the talks, and with Cold War tensions on the rise and the 1948 Easter Crisis, Denmark was forced to join the North Atlantic Treaty. During the Cold War, Denmark began to rebuild its military and to prepare for possible attacks by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. During this time Denmark participated in a number of UN peacekeeping missions including UNEF and UNFICYP.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Following the end of the Cold War, Denmark began a more active foreign policy, deciding to participate in international operations. This began with the participation in the Bosnian War, where the Royal Danish Army served as part of the United Nations Protection Force and were in two skirmishes. This was the first time the Danish Army was a part of a combat operation since World War 2. On April 29, 1994, the Royal Danish Army, while on an operation to relieve an observation post as part of the United Nations Protection Force, the Jutland Dragoon Regiment came under artillery fire from the town of Kalesija. The United Nations Protection Force quickly returned fire and eliminated the artillery positions. On October 24, 1994, the Royal Danish Army, while on an operation to reinforce an observation post in the town of Gradačac, were fired upon by a T-55 Bosnian Serb tank. One of the three Danish Leopard 1 tanks experienced slight damage, but all returned fired and put the T-55 tank out of action.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "With the September 11 attacks, Denmark joined US forces in the War on terror, participating in both the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. In Afghanistan, 37 soldiers have been killed in various hostile engagements or as a result of friendly fire, and 6 have been killed in non-combat related incidents, bringing the number of Danish fatalities to 43, being the highest loss per capita within the coalition forces. Denmark has since participated in Operation Ocean Shield, the 2011 military intervention in Libya and the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The purpose and task of the armed forces of Denmark is defined in Law no. 122 of February 27, 2001 and in force since March 1, 2001. It defines three purposes and six tasks.",
"title": "Purpose and task"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Its primary purpose is to prevent conflicts and war, preserve the sovereignty of Denmark, secure the continuing existence and integrity of the independent Kingdom of Denmark and further a peaceful development in the world with respect to human rights.",
"title": "Purpose and task"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Its primary tasks are: NATO participation in accordance with the strategy of the alliance, detect and repel any sovereignty violation of Danish territory (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), defence cooperation with non-NATO members, especially Central and East European countries, international missions in the area of conflict prevention, crisis-control, humanitarian, peacemaking, peacekeeping, participation in Total Defence in cooperation with civilian resources and finally maintenance of a sizable force to execute these tasks at all times.",
"title": "Purpose and task"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Total Defence (Danish: Totalforsvaret) is \"the use of all resources in order to maintain an organized and functional society, and to protect the population and values of society\". This is achieved by combining the military, Home Guard, Danish Emergency Management Agency and elements of the police. The concept of total defence was created following World War II, where it was clear that the defence of the country could not only rely on the military, but there also need to be other measures to ensure a continuation of society. As a part of the Total Defence, all former conscripts can be recalled to duty, in order to serve in cases of emergency.",
"title": "Purpose and task"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Since 1988, Danish defence budgets and security policy have been set by multi-year white paper agreements supported by a wide parliamentary majority including government and opposition parties. However, public opposition to increases in defence spending—during periods of economic constraints require reduced spending for social welfare — has created differences among the political parties regarding a broadly acceptable level of new defence expenditure.",
"title": "Defence budget"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The latest Defence agreement (\"Defence Agreement 2018–23\") was signed 28 January 2018, and calls for an increase in spending, cyber security and capabilities to act in international operations and international stabilization efforts. The reaction speed is increased, with an entire brigade on standby readiness; the military retains the capability to continually deploy 2,000 soldiers in international service or 5,000 over a short time span. The standard mandatory conscription is expanded to include 500 more, with some of these having a longer service time, with more focus on national challenges.",
"title": "Defence budget"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In 2006 the Danish military budget was the fifth largest single portion of the Danish Government's total budget, significantly less than that of the Ministry of Social Affairs (≈110 billion DKK), Ministry of Employment (≈67 billion DKK), Ministry of the Interior and Health (≈66 billion DKK) and Ministry of Education (≈30 billion DKK) and only slightly larger than that of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (≈14 billion DKK). This list lists the complete expenditures for the Danish Ministry of Defence.",
"title": "Defence budget"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The Danish Defence Force, counting all branches and all departments, itself has an income equal to about 1–5% of its expenditures, depending on the year. They are not deducted in this listing.",
"title": "Defence budget"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Approximately 95% of the budget goes directly to running the Danish military including the Home guard. Depending on year, 50–53% accounts for payment to personnel, roughly 14–21% on acquiring new material, 2–8% for larger ships, building projects or infrastructure and about 24–27% on other items, including purchasing of goods, renting, maintenance, services and taxes.",
"title": "Defence budget"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The remaining 5% is special expenditures to NATO, branch shared expenditures, special services and civil structures, here in including running the Danish Maritime Safety Administration, Danish Emergency Management Agency and the Administration of Conscientious Objectors (Militærnægteradministrationen).",
"title": "Defence budget"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Because Denmark has a small and highly specialized military industry, the vast majority of Danish Defence's equipment is imported from NATO and the Nordic countries.",
"title": "Defence budget"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Danish Defence expenditures (1949–1989)",
"title": "Defence budget"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Danish Defence expenditures (1990–)",
"title": "Defence budget"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The Danish Royal Army (Danish: Hæren) consists of 2 brigades, organised into 3 regiments, and a number of support centres, all commanded through the Army Staff. The army is a mixture of Mechanized infantry and Armoured cavalry with a limited capabilities in Armoured warfare.",
"title": "Branches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The army also provides protection for the Danish royal family, in the form of the Royal Guard Company and the Guard Hussar Regiment Mounted Squadron.",
"title": "Branches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Royal Danish Navy (Danish: Søværnet) consists of frigates, patrol vessels, mine-countermeasure vessels, and other miscellaneous vessels, many of which are issued with the modular mission payload system StanFlex. The navy's chief responsibility is maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish, Greenlandic and Faroese territorial waters.",
"title": "Branches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "A submarine service existed within the Royal Danish Navy for 95 years.",
"title": "Branches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Royal Danish Air Force (Danish: Flyvevåbnet) consists of both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft.",
"title": "Branches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The Home Guard is voluntary service responsible for defence of the country, but has since 2008 also supported the army, in Afghanistan and Kosovo.",
"title": "Branches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Current deployment of Danish forces, per 10-03-2016:",
"title": "Operations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Women in the military can be traced back to 1946, with the creation of Lottekorpset. This corps allowed women to serve, however, without entering with the normal armed forces, and they were not allowed to carry weapons. In 1962, women were allowed in the military.",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Currently 1,122 or 7.3% of all personnel in the armed forces are women. Women do not have to serve conscription in Denmark, since 1998, it is however possible to serve under conscription-like circumstances; 17% of those serving conscription or conscription-like are women. Between 1991 and 31 December 2017, 1,965 women have been deployed to different international missions. Of those 3 women have lost their lives. In 1998, Police Constable Gitte Larsen was killed in Hebron on the West Bank. In 2003, Overkonstabel Susanne Lauritzen was killed in a traffic accident in Kosovo. In 2010, the first woman was killed in a combat situation, when Konstabel Sophia Bruun was killed by an IED in Afghanistan.",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In 2005, Line Bonde became the first female fighter pilot in Denmark. In 2016, Lone Træholt became the first female general. She was the only female general in the Danish armed forces until the army promoted Jette Albinus to the rank of brigadier general on 11 September 2017. In May 2018, the Royal Life Guards was forced to lower the height requirements for women, as the Danish Institute of Human Rights decided it was discrimination.",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Technically all Danish 18-year-old males are conscripts (37,897 in 2010, of whom 53% were considered suitable for duty). Due to the large number of volunteers, 96-99% of the number required in the past three years, the number of men actually called up is relatively low (4,200 in 2012). There were additionally 567 female volunteers in 2010, who pass training on \"conscript-like\" conditions.",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Conscripts to Danish Defence (army, navy and air force) generally serve four months, except:",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "There has been a right of conscientious objection since 1917.",
"title": "Personnel"
}
] | The Danish Armed Forces is the unified armed forces of the Kingdom of Denmark charged with the defence of Denmark and its self-governing territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The military also promote Denmark's wider interests, support international peacekeeping efforts and provide humanitarian aid. Since the creation of a standing military in 1510, the armed forces have seen action in many wars, most involving Sweden, but also involving the world's great powers, including the Thirty Years' War, the Great Northern War, and the Napoleonic Wars. Today, the armed forces consists of: the Royal Danish Army, Denmark's principal land warfare branch; the Royal Danish Navy, a blue-water navy with a fleet of 20 commissioned ships; and the Royal Danish Air Force, an air force with an operational fleet consisting of both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. The Defence also includes the Home Guard. Under the Danish Defence Law the Minister of Defence serves as the commander of Danish Defence and the Danish Home Guard. De facto the Danish Cabinet is the commanding authority of the Defence, though it cannot mobilize the armed forces, for purposes that are not strictly defence oriented, without the consent of parliament. | 2001-08-02T13:15:58Z | 2023-11-28T18:55:33Z | [
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8,039 | Foreign relations of Denmark | The foreign policy of Denmark is based on its identity as a sovereign state in Europe, the Arctic and the North Atlantic. As such its primary foreign policy focus is on its relations with other nations as a sovereign state compromising the three constituent countries: Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Denmark has long had good relations with other nations. It has been involved in coordinating Western assistance to the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). The country is a strong supporter of international peacekeeping. Danish forces were heavily engaged in the former Yugoslavia in the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR), with IFOR, and now SFOR. Denmark also strongly supported American operations in Afghanistan and has contributed both monetarily and materially to the ISAF. These initiatives are a part of the "active foreign policy" of Denmark. Instead of the traditional adaptative foreign policy of The unity of the Realm, Kingdom of Denmark is today pursuing an active foreign policy, where human rights, democracy and other crucial values are to be defended actively. In recent years, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have been guaranteed a say in foreign policy issues, such as fishing, whaling and geopolitical concerns.
Following World War II, Denmark ended its two-hundred-year-long policy of neutrality. Denmark has been a member of NATO since its founding in 1949, and membership in NATO remains highly popular. There were several serious confrontations between the U.S. and Denmark on security policy in the so-called "footnote era" (1982–88), when an alternative parliamentary majority forced the government to adopt specific national positions on nuclear and arms control issues. The alternative majority in these issues was because the Social liberal Party (Radikale Venstre) supported the governing majority in economic policy issues, but was against certain NATO policies and voted with the left in these issues. The conservative led Centre-right government accepted this variety of "minority parliamentarism", that is, without making it a question of the government's parliamentary survival. With the end of the Cold War, Denmark has been supportive of U.S. policy objectives in the Alliance.
Danes have a reputation as "reluctant" Europeans. When they rejected ratification of the Maastricht Treaty on 2 June 1992, they put the EC's plans for the European Union on hold. In December 1992, the rest of the EC agreed to exempt Denmark from certain aspects of the European Union, including a common security and defense policy, a common currency, EU citizenship, and certain aspects of legal cooperation. The Amsterdam Treaty was approved in the referendum of 28 May 1998. In the autumn of 2000, Danish citizens rejected membership of the Euro currency group in a referendum. The Lisbon treaty was ratified by the Danish parliament alone. It was not considered a surrendering of national sovereignty, which would have implied the holding of a referendum according to article 20 of the constitution.
In 1807 Denmark was neutral but Britain bombarded Copenhagen and seized the Danish Navy, Denmark became an ally of Napoleon. After Napoleon was profoundly defeated in Russia in 1812, the Allies repeatedly offered King Frederick VI a proposal to change sides and break with Napoleon. The king refused. Therefore, at the peace of Kiel in 1814, Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden. Denmark thus became one of the chief losers of the Napoleonic Wars. Danish historiography portrayed King Frederick VI as stubborn and incompetent, and motivated by a blind loyalty to Napoleon. A more recent Danish historiographical approach emphasizes the Danish state was multi-territorial, and included the semi – separate Kingdom of Norway. It was dependent for food on grain imports controlled by Napoleon, and worried about Swedish ambitions. From the king's perspective, these factors called for an alliance with Napoleon. Furthermore, the king expected the war would end in a negotiated international conference, with Napoleon playing a powerful role that included saving Norway for Denmark.
The Danish government responded to the First World War by declaring neutrality 1914–1918. It maintained that status until 1945 and accordingly adjusted trade; humanitarianism; diplomacy; and attitudes. The war thus reshaped economic relations and shifting domestic power balances.
Since the end of the Cold War, Denmark has become more supportive of U.S. foreign policy. Denmark supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and contributed assets to the invasion. Denmark also participated in the Afghanistan War. Denmark increased its participation in military and peacekeeping operations compared to the pre-Cold War period. Whereas Denmark only participated in 13 military operations from 1945 to 1989, Denmark participated in 76 military operations between 1990 and 2018. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The foreign policy of Denmark is based on its identity as a sovereign state in Europe, the Arctic and the North Atlantic. As such its primary foreign policy focus is on its relations with other nations as a sovereign state compromising the three constituent countries: Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Denmark has long had good relations with other nations. It has been involved in coordinating Western assistance to the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). The country is a strong supporter of international peacekeeping. Danish forces were heavily engaged in the former Yugoslavia in the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR), with IFOR, and now SFOR. Denmark also strongly supported American operations in Afghanistan and has contributed both monetarily and materially to the ISAF. These initiatives are a part of the \"active foreign policy\" of Denmark. Instead of the traditional adaptative foreign policy of The unity of the Realm, Kingdom of Denmark is today pursuing an active foreign policy, where human rights, democracy and other crucial values are to be defended actively. In recent years, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have been guaranteed a say in foreign policy issues, such as fishing, whaling and geopolitical concerns.",
"title": ""
},
{
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"text": "Following World War II, Denmark ended its two-hundred-year-long policy of neutrality. Denmark has been a member of NATO since its founding in 1949, and membership in NATO remains highly popular. There were several serious confrontations between the U.S. and Denmark on security policy in the so-called \"footnote era\" (1982–88), when an alternative parliamentary majority forced the government to adopt specific national positions on nuclear and arms control issues. The alternative majority in these issues was because the Social liberal Party (Radikale Venstre) supported the governing majority in economic policy issues, but was against certain NATO policies and voted with the left in these issues. The conservative led Centre-right government accepted this variety of \"minority parliamentarism\", that is, without making it a question of the government's parliamentary survival. With the end of the Cold War, Denmark has been supportive of U.S. policy objectives in the Alliance.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Danes have a reputation as \"reluctant\" Europeans. When they rejected ratification of the Maastricht Treaty on 2 June 1992, they put the EC's plans for the European Union on hold. In December 1992, the rest of the EC agreed to exempt Denmark from certain aspects of the European Union, including a common security and defense policy, a common currency, EU citizenship, and certain aspects of legal cooperation. The Amsterdam Treaty was approved in the referendum of 28 May 1998. In the autumn of 2000, Danish citizens rejected membership of the Euro currency group in a referendum. The Lisbon treaty was ratified by the Danish parliament alone. It was not considered a surrendering of national sovereignty, which would have implied the holding of a referendum according to article 20 of the constitution.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In 1807 Denmark was neutral but Britain bombarded Copenhagen and seized the Danish Navy, Denmark became an ally of Napoleon. After Napoleon was profoundly defeated in Russia in 1812, the Allies repeatedly offered King Frederick VI a proposal to change sides and break with Napoleon. The king refused. Therefore, at the peace of Kiel in 1814, Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden. Denmark thus became one of the chief losers of the Napoleonic Wars. Danish historiography portrayed King Frederick VI as stubborn and incompetent, and motivated by a blind loyalty to Napoleon. A more recent Danish historiographical approach emphasizes the Danish state was multi-territorial, and included the semi – separate Kingdom of Norway. It was dependent for food on grain imports controlled by Napoleon, and worried about Swedish ambitions. From the king's perspective, these factors called for an alliance with Napoleon. Furthermore, the king expected the war would end in a negotiated international conference, with Napoleon playing a powerful role that included saving Norway for Denmark.",
"title": "History"
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"title": "History"
},
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"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Since the end of the Cold War, Denmark has become more supportive of U.S. foreign policy. Denmark supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and contributed assets to the invasion. Denmark also participated in the Afghanistan War. Denmark increased its participation in military and peacekeeping operations compared to the pre-Cold War period. Whereas Denmark only participated in 13 military operations from 1945 to 1989, Denmark participated in 76 military operations between 1990 and 2018.",
"title": "History"
}
] | The foreign policy of Denmark is based on its identity as a sovereign state in Europe, the Arctic and the North Atlantic. As such its primary foreign policy focus is on its relations with other nations as a sovereign state compromising the three constituent countries: Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Denmark has long had good relations with other nations.
It has been involved in coordinating Western assistance to the Baltic states. The country is a strong supporter of international peacekeeping. Danish forces were heavily engaged in the former Yugoslavia in the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR), with IFOR, and now SFOR. Denmark also strongly supported American operations in Afghanistan and has contributed both monetarily and materially to the ISAF. These initiatives are a part of the "active foreign policy" of Denmark. Instead of the traditional adaptative foreign policy of The unity of the Realm, Kingdom of Denmark is today pursuing an active foreign policy, where human rights, democracy and other crucial values are to be defended actively. In recent years, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have been guaranteed a say in foreign policy issues, such as fishing, whaling and geopolitical concerns. Following World War II, Denmark ended its two-hundred-year-long policy of neutrality. Denmark has been a member of NATO since its founding in 1949, and membership in NATO remains highly popular. There were several serious confrontations between the U.S. and Denmark on security policy in the so-called "footnote era" (1982–88), when an alternative parliamentary majority forced the government to adopt specific national positions on nuclear and arms control issues. The alternative majority in these issues was because the Social liberal Party supported the governing majority in economic policy issues, but was against certain NATO policies and voted with the left in these issues. The conservative led Centre-right government accepted this variety of "minority parliamentarism", that is, without making it a question of the government's parliamentary survival.
With the end of the Cold War, Denmark has been supportive of U.S. policy objectives in the Alliance. Danes have a reputation as "reluctant" Europeans. When they rejected ratification of the Maastricht Treaty on 2 June 1992, they put the EC's plans for the European Union on hold. In December 1992, the rest of the EC agreed to exempt Denmark from certain aspects of the European Union, including a common security and defense policy, a common currency, EU citizenship, and certain aspects of legal cooperation. The Amsterdam Treaty was approved in the referendum of 28 May 1998. In the autumn of 2000, Danish citizens rejected membership of the Euro currency group in a referendum. The Lisbon treaty was ratified by the Danish parliament alone. It was not considered a surrendering of national sovereignty, which would have implied the holding of a referendum according to article 20 of the constitution. | 2001-09-05T14:13:26Z | 2023-12-15T09:19:08Z | [
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8,041 | History of Djibouti | Djibouti is a country in the Horn of Africa bordered by Somalia to the southeast, Eritrea and the Red Sea to the north and northwest, Ethiopia to the west and south, and the Gulf of Aden to the east.
In antiquity, the territory was part of the Land of Punt. Djibouti gained its independence on June 27, 1977. The Djibouti area, along with other localities in the Horn region, was later the seat of the medieval Adal and Ifat Sultanates. In the late 19th century, the colony of French Somaliland was established following treaties signed by the ruling Somali and Afar Sultans with the French. It was subsequently renamed to the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas in 1967. A decade later, the Djiboutian people voted for independence, officially marking the establishment of the Republic of Djibouti.
The Bab-el-Mandeb region has often been considered a primary crossing point for early hominins following a southern coastal route from East Africa to South and Southeast Asia.
Djibouti area has been inhabited since the Neolithic. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during this period from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile Valley, or the Near East. Other scholars propose that the Afroasiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there.
The cut stones 3 million years old, collected in the area of Lake Abbe. In the Gobaad plain (between Dikhil and Lake Abbe), the remains of an Palaeoloxodon recki elephant were also discovered, visibly butchered using basalt tools found nearby. These remains would date from 1.4 million years BC. Subsequently identified other sites of these cuts, probably the work of Homo ergaster. An Acheulean site (from 800,000 to 400,000 years BC), where stone was cut, was excavated in the 1990s, in Gombourta, between Damerdjog and Loyada, 15 km south of Djibouti. Finally, in Gobaad, a Homo erectus jaw was found, dating from 100,000 BC. AD On Devil's Island, tools dating back 6,000 years have been found, which were no doubt used to open shells. In the area at the bottom of Goubet (Dankalélo, not far from Devil's Island), circular stone structures and fragments of painted pottery have also been discovered. Previous investigators have also reported a fragmentary maxilla, attributed to an older form of Homo sapiens and dated to ~250 Ka, from the valley of the Dagadlé Wadi.
Pottery predating the mid-2nd millennium has been found at Asa Koma, an inland lake area on the Gobaad Plain. The site's ware is characterized by punctate and incision geometric designs, which bear a similarity to the Sabir culture phase 1 ceramics from Ma'layba in Southern Arabia. Long-horned humpless cattle bones have likewise been discovered at Asa Koma, suggesting that domesticated cattle were present by around 3,500 years ago. Rock art of what appear to be antelopes and a giraffe are also found at Dorra and Balho. Handoga, dated to the fourth millennium BP, has in turn yielded obsidian microliths and plain ceramics used by early nomadic pastoralists with domesticated cattle.
The site of Wakrita is a small Neolithic establishment located on a wadi in the tectonic depression of Gobaad in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The 2005 excavations yielded abundant ceramics that enabled us to define one Neolithic cultural facies of this region, which was also identified at the nearby site of Asa Koma. The faunal remains confirm the importance of fishing in Neolithic settlements close to Lake Abbé, but also the importance of bovine husbandry and, for the first time in this area, evidence for caprine herding practices. Radiocarbon dating places this occupation at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, similar in range to Asa Koma. These two sites represent the oldest evidence of herding in the region, and they provide a better understanding of the development of Neolithic societies in this region.
Up to 4000 years BC. AD, the region benefited from a climate very different from the one it knows today and probably close to the Mediterranean climate. The water resources were numerous: lakes in the Gobaad, lakes Assal and Abbé larger and resembling real bodies of water. The humans therefore lived by gathering, fishing and hunting. The region was populated by a very rich fauna: felines, buffaloes, elephants, rhinos, etc., as evidenced, for example, by the bestiary of cave paintings at Balho. In the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. A few nomads settled around the lakes and practiced fishing and cattle breeding. The burial of an 18-year-old woman, dating from this period, as well as the bones of hunted animals, bone tools and small jewels have been unearthed. About 1500 BC. AD, the climate is already changing, water is scarce. Engravings show dromedaries (animal of arid zones), some of which are ridden by armed warriors. Sedentary peoples return to Nomadic life. A stone tumuli (of various shapes), sheltering graves and dating from this period, have been unearthed all over the territory.
Together with Somaliland, Eritrea and the Red Sea coast of Sudan, Djibouti is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt (or "Ta Netjeru", meaning "God's Land"). The old territory's first mention dates to the 25th century BC. The Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Ancient Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure of the fifth dynasty and Queen Hatshepsut of the eighteenth dynasty. They "traded not only in their own produce of incense, ebony and short-horned cattle, but also in goods from other neighbouring regions, including gold, ivory and animal skins." According to the temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, the Land of Punt at the time of Hatshepsut was ruled by King Parahu and Queen Ati.
The Macrobians (Μακροβίοι) were a legendary people and kingdom positioned in the Horn of Africa mentioned by Herodotus. Later authors (such as Pliny on the authority of Ctesias' Indika) place them in India instead. It is one of the legendary peoples postulated at the extremity of the known world (from the perspective of the Greeks), in this case in the extreme south, contrasting with the Hyperboreans in the extreme east.
Their name is due to their legendary longevity; an average person supposedly living to the age of 120. They were said to be the "tallest and handsomest of all men".
According to Herodotus' account, the Persian Emperor Cambyses II upon his conquest of Egypt (525 BC) sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission. The Macrobian ruler, who was elected based at least in part on stature, replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to string it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire.
The rule of the Aksumite Kingdom may have at times extended to areas that are now within Djibouti, though the nature and extent of its control are not clear.
Islam was introduced to the area early on from the Arabian peninsula, shortly after the hijra. Zeila's two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn dates to the 7th century, and is the oldest mosque in the city. In the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Horn seaboard. He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in Zeila, a port city in the northwestern Awdal region abutting Djibouti. This suggests that the Adal Sultanate with Zeila as its headquarters dates back to at least the 9th or 10th century. According to I.M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local dynasties consisting of Somalized Arabs or Arabized Somalis, who also ruled over the similarly established Sultanate of Mogadishu in the Benadir region to the south. Adal's history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia. At its height, the Adal kingdom controlled large parts of modern-day Djibouti, Somaliland, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Between Djibouti City and Loyada are a number of anthropomorphic and phallic stelae. The Djibouti-Loyada stelae are of uncertain age, and some of them are adorned with a T-shaped symbol. Additionally, archaeological excavations at Tiya have yielded tombs. As of 1997, 118 stelae were reported in the area.
The Ifat Sultanate was a medieval kingdom in the Horn of Africa. Founded in 1285 by the Walashma dynasty, it was centered in Zeila. Ifat established bases in Djibouti and Somaliland, and from there expanded southward to the Ahmar Mountains. Its Sultan Umar Walashma (or his son Ali, according to another source) is recorded as having conquered the Sultanate of Shewa in 1285. Taddesse Tamrat explains Sultan Umar's military expedition as an effort to consolidate the Muslim territories in the Horn, in much the same way as Emperor Yekuno Amlak was attempting to unite the Christian territories in the highlands during the same period. These two states inevitably came into conflict over Shewa and territories further south. A lengthy war ensued, but the Muslim sultanates of the time were not strongly unified. Ifat was finally defeated by Emperor Amda Seyon I of Ethiopia in 1332, and withdrew from Shewa.
Governor Abou Baker ordered the Egyptian garrison at Sagallo to retire to Zeila. The cruiser Seignelay reached Sagallo shortly after the Egyptians had departed. French troops occupied the fort despite protests from the British Agent in Aden, Major Frederick Mercer Hunter, who dispatched troops to safeguard British and Egyptian interests in Zeila and prevent further extension of French influence in that direction. On 14 April 1884 the Commander of the patrol sloop L’Inferent reported on the Egyptian occupation in the Gulf of Tadjoura. The Commander of the patrol sloop Le Vaudreuil reported that the Egyptians were occupying the interior between Obock and Tadjoura. Emperor Johannes IV of Ethiopia signed an accord with the United Kingdom to cease fighting the Egyptians and to allow the evacuation of Egyptian forces from Ethiopia and the Somali Coast ports. The Egyptian garrison was withdrawn from Tadjoura. Léonce Lagarde deployed a patrol sloop to Tadjoura the following night.
The boundaries of the present-day Djibouti nation state were established during the Scramble for Africa. It was Rochet d'Hericourt's exploration into Shoa (1839–42) that marked the beginning of French interest in the Djiboutian coast of the Red Sea. Further exploration by Henri Lambert, French Consular Agent at Aden, and Captain Fleuriot de Langle led to a treaty of friendship and assistance between France and the sultans of Raheita, Tadjoura, and Gobaad, from whom the French purchased the anchorage of Obock in 1862.
Growing French interest in the area took place against a backdrop of British activity in Egypt and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Between 1883 and 1887, France signed various treaties with the then ruling Somali and Afar Sultans, which allowed it to expand the protectorate to include the Gulf of Tadjoura. Léonce Lagarde was subsequently installed as the protectorate's governor. In 1894, he established a permanent French administration in the city of Djibouti and named the region Côte française des Somalis (French Somaliland), a name which continued until 1967. The territory's border with Ethiopia, marked out in 1897 by France and Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia, was later reaffirmed by agreements with Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia in 1945 and 1954.
In 1889, a Russian by the name of Nikolay Ivanovitch Achinov (b. 1856), arrived with settlers, infantry and an Orthodox priest to Sagallo on the Gulf of Tadjoura. The French considered the presence of the Russians as a violation of their territorial rights and dispatched two gunboats. The Russians were bombarded and after some loss of life, surrendered. The colonists were deported to Odessa and the dream of Russian expansion in East Africa came to an end in less than one year.
The administrative capital was moved from Obock in 1896. The city of Djibouti, which had a harbor with good access that attracted trade caravans crossing East Africa, became the new administrative capital. The Franco-Ethiopian railway, linking Djibouti to the heart of Ethiopia, began in 1897 and reached Addis Ababa in June 1917, increasing the volume of trade passing through the port.
After the Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s, constant border skirmishes occurred between French forces in French Somaliland and Italian forces in Italian East Africa. In June 1940, during the early stages of World War II, France fell and the colony was then ruled by the pro-Axis Vichy (French) government while the Italians occupied some areas of the French Smaliland.
Indeed the Italians did undertake some offensive actions beginning on 18 June 1940, occupying nearly one third of French Somaliland in a few days.
From Harrar Governorate, troops under General Guglielmo Nasi attacked the fort of Ali-Sabieh in the south and Dadda'to in the north. There were also skirmishes in the area of Dagguirou and around the lakes Abbe and Ally. Near Ali-Sabieh, there was some skirmishing over the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway. In the first week of war, the Italian Navy sent the submarines Torricelli and Perla to patrol French territorial waters in the Gulf of Tadjoura in front of the ports of Djibouti, Tadjoura and Obock.
By the end of June the Italians had also occupied the border fortifications of Magdoul, Daimoli, Balambolta, Birt Eyla, Asmailo, Tewo, Abba, Alailou, Madda and Rahale.
Later, British and Commonwealth forces fought the neighboring Italians during the East African Campaign. In 1941, the Italians were defeated and the Vichy forces in French Somaliland were isolated. The Vichy French administration continued to hold out in the colony for over a year after the Italian collapse. In response, the British blockaded the port of Djibouti City but it could not prevent local French from providing information on the passing ship convoys. In 1942, about 4,000 British troops occupied the city. A local battalion from French Somaliland participated in the Liberation of Paris in 1944.
In 1958, on the eve of neighboring Somalia's independence in 1960, a referendum was held in Djibouti to decide whether to be an independent country or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favour of a continued association with France, partly due to a combined yes vote by the sizable Afar ethnic group and resident Europeans. There were also reports of widespread vote rigging, with the French expelling thousands of Somalis before the referendum reached the polls. The majority of those who voted no were Somalis who were strongly in favour of joining a united Somalia as had been proposed by Mahmoud Harbi, Vice President of the Government Council. Harbi died in a plane crash two years later under mysterious circumstances.
In 1960, with the fall of the ruling Dini administration, Ali Aref Bourhan, a Harbist politician, assumed the seat of Vice President of the Government Council of French Somaliland, representing the UNI party. He would hold that position until 1966.
That same year, France rejected the United Nations' recommendation that it should grant French Somaliland independence. In August, an official visit to the territory by then French President, General Charles de Gaulle, was also met with demonstrations and rioting. In response to the protests, de Gaulle ordered another referendum.
On 19 March 1967, a second plebiscite was held to determine the fate of the territory. Initial results supported a continued but looser relationship with France. Voting was also divided along ethnic lines, with the resident Somalis generally voting for independence, with the goal of eventual reunion with Somalia, and the Afars largely opting to remain associated with France. However, the referendum was again marred by reports of vote rigging on the part of the French authorities, with some 10,000 Somalis deported under the pretext that they did not have valid identity cards. According to official figures, although the territory was at the time inhabited by 58,240 Somali and 48,270 Afar, only 14,689 Somali were allowed to register to vote versus 22,004 Afar. Somali representatives also charged that the French had simultaneously imported thousands of Afar nomads from neighboring Ethiopia to further tip the odds in their favor, but the French authorities denied this, suggesting that Afars already greatly outnumbered Somalis on the voting lists. Announcement of the plebiscite results sparked civil unrest, including several deaths. France also increased its military force along the frontier.
In 1967, shortly after the second referendum was held, the former Côte française des Somalis (French Somaliland) was renamed to Territoire français des Afars et des Issas. This was both in acknowledgement of the large Afar constituency and to downplay the significance of the Somali composition (the Issa being a Somali sub-clan).
The French Territory of Afars and Issas also differed from French Somaliland in terms of government structure, as the position of governor changed to that of high commissioner. A nine-member council of government was also implemented. During the 1960s, the struggle for independence was led by the Front for the Liberation of the Somali Coast (FLCS), who waged an armed struggle for independence with much of its violence aimed at French personnel. FLCS used to initiate few mounting cross-border operations into French Somaliland from Somalia and Ethiopia to attacks on French targets. On 24 March 1975 the Front de Libération de la Côte des Somalis kidnapped the French Ambassador to Somalia, Jean Guery, to be exchanged against two activists of FLCS members who were both serving life terms in mainland France. He was exchanged for the two FLCS members in Aden, South Yemen. With a steadily enlarging Somali population, the likelihood of a third referendum appearing successful had grown even more dim. The prohibitive cost of maintaining the colony and the fact that after 1975, France found itself to be the last remaining colonial power in Africa was another factor that compelled observers to doubt that the French would attempt to hold on to the territory.
In 1976, the French garrison, centered on the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion (13 DBLE), had to be reinforced to contain Somali irredentist aspirations, revolting against the French-engineered Afar domination of the emerging government. In 1976, members of the Front de Libération de la Côte des Somalis which sought Djibouti's independence from France, also clashed with the Gendarmerie Nationale Intervention Group over a bus hijacking en route to Loyada.
The FLCS was recognized as a national liberation movement by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which participated in its financing. The FLCS evolved its demands between the request of integration in a possible "Greater Somalia" influenced by the Somali government or the simple independence of the territory. In 1975 the African People's League for the Independence (LPAI) and FLCS met in Kampala, Uganda with several meeting later they finally opted for independence path, causing tensions with Somalia.
A third independence referendum was held in the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas on 8 May 1977. The previous referendums were held in 1958 and 1967, which rejected independence. This referendum backed independence from France. A landslide 98.8% of the electorate supported disengagement from France, officially marking Djibouti's independence.
After independence the new government signed an agreement calling for a strong French garrison, though the 13 DBLE was envisaged to be withdrawn. While the unit was reduced in size, a full withdrawal never actually took place.
In 1981, Aptidon turned the country into a one party state by declaring that his party, the Rassemblement Populaire pour le Progrès (RPP) (People's Rally for Progress), was the sole legal one. Clayton writes that the French garrison played the major role in suppressing further minor unrest about this time, during which Djibouti became a one-party state on a much broader ethnic and political basis.
A civil war broke out in 1991, between the government and a predominantly Afar rebel group, the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD). The FRUD signed a peace accord with the government in December 1994, ending the conflict. Two FRUD members were made cabinet members, and in the presidential elections of 1999 the FRUD campaigned in support of the RPP.
Aptidon resigned as president 1999, at the age of 83, after being elected to a fifth term in 1997. His successor was his nephew, Ismail Omar Guelleh.
On 12 May 2001, President Ismail Omar Guelleh presided over the signing of what is termed the final peace accord officially ending the decade-long civil war between the government and the armed faction of the FRUD, led by Ahmed Dini Ahmed, an Afar nationalist and former Gouled political ally. The peace accord successfully completed the peace process begun on 7 February 2000 in Paris. Ahmed Dini Ahmed represented the FRUD.
In the presidential election held 8 April 2005, Ismail Omar Guelleh was re-elected to a second 6-year term at the head of a multi-party coalition that included the FRUD and other major parties. A loose coalition of opposition parties again boycotted the election. Currently, political power is shared by a Somali president and an Afar prime minister, with an Afar career diplomat as Foreign Minister and other cabinet posts roughly divided. However, Issas are predominate in the government, civil service, and the ruling party. That, together with a shortage of non-government employment, has bred resentment and continued political competition between the Issa Somalis and the Afars. In March 2006, Djibouti held its first regional elections and began implementing a decentralization plan. The broad pro-government coalition, including FRUD candidates, again ran unopposed when the government refused to meet opposition preconditions for participation. In the 2008 elections, the opposition Union for a Presidential Majority (UMP) party boycotted the election, leaving all 65 seats to the ruling RPP. Voter turnout figures were disputed. Guelleh was re-elected in the 2011 presidential election.
Due to its strategic location at the mouth of the Bab el Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, Djibouti also hosts various foreign military bases. Camp Lemonnier is a United States Naval Expeditionary Base, situated at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport and home to the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) of the U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM). In 2011, Japan also opened a local naval base staffed by 180 personnel to assist in marine defense. This initiative is expected to generate $30 million in revenue for the Djiboutian government.
In April 2021, Ismael Guelleh, the second President of Djibouti since independence from France in 1977, was re-elected for his fifth term. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Djibouti is a country in the Horn of Africa bordered by Somalia to the southeast, Eritrea and the Red Sea to the north and northwest, Ethiopia to the west and south, and the Gulf of Aden to the east.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In antiquity, the territory was part of the Land of Punt. Djibouti gained its independence on June 27, 1977. The Djibouti area, along with other localities in the Horn region, was later the seat of the medieval Adal and Ifat Sultanates. In the late 19th century, the colony of French Somaliland was established following treaties signed by the ruling Somali and Afar Sultans with the French. It was subsequently renamed to the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas in 1967. A decade later, the Djiboutian people voted for independence, officially marking the establishment of the Republic of Djibouti.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The Bab-el-Mandeb region has often been considered a primary crossing point for early hominins following a southern coastal route from East Africa to South and Southeast Asia.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Djibouti area has been inhabited since the Neolithic. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during this period from the family's proposed urheimat (\"original homeland\") in the Nile Valley, or the Near East. Other scholars propose that the Afroasiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The cut stones 3 million years old, collected in the area of Lake Abbe. In the Gobaad plain (between Dikhil and Lake Abbe), the remains of an Palaeoloxodon recki elephant were also discovered, visibly butchered using basalt tools found nearby. These remains would date from 1.4 million years BC. Subsequently identified other sites of these cuts, probably the work of Homo ergaster. An Acheulean site (from 800,000 to 400,000 years BC), where stone was cut, was excavated in the 1990s, in Gombourta, between Damerdjog and Loyada, 15 km south of Djibouti. Finally, in Gobaad, a Homo erectus jaw was found, dating from 100,000 BC. AD On Devil's Island, tools dating back 6,000 years have been found, which were no doubt used to open shells. In the area at the bottom of Goubet (Dankalélo, not far from Devil's Island), circular stone structures and fragments of painted pottery have also been discovered. Previous investigators have also reported a fragmentary maxilla, attributed to an older form of Homo sapiens and dated to ~250 Ka, from the valley of the Dagadlé Wadi.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Pottery predating the mid-2nd millennium has been found at Asa Koma, an inland lake area on the Gobaad Plain. The site's ware is characterized by punctate and incision geometric designs, which bear a similarity to the Sabir culture phase 1 ceramics from Ma'layba in Southern Arabia. Long-horned humpless cattle bones have likewise been discovered at Asa Koma, suggesting that domesticated cattle were present by around 3,500 years ago. Rock art of what appear to be antelopes and a giraffe are also found at Dorra and Balho. Handoga, dated to the fourth millennium BP, has in turn yielded obsidian microliths and plain ceramics used by early nomadic pastoralists with domesticated cattle.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The site of Wakrita is a small Neolithic establishment located on a wadi in the tectonic depression of Gobaad in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The 2005 excavations yielded abundant ceramics that enabled us to define one Neolithic cultural facies of this region, which was also identified at the nearby site of Asa Koma. The faunal remains confirm the importance of fishing in Neolithic settlements close to Lake Abbé, but also the importance of bovine husbandry and, for the first time in this area, evidence for caprine herding practices. Radiocarbon dating places this occupation at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, similar in range to Asa Koma. These two sites represent the oldest evidence of herding in the region, and they provide a better understanding of the development of Neolithic societies in this region.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Up to 4000 years BC. AD, the region benefited from a climate very different from the one it knows today and probably close to the Mediterranean climate. The water resources were numerous: lakes in the Gobaad, lakes Assal and Abbé larger and resembling real bodies of water. The humans therefore lived by gathering, fishing and hunting. The region was populated by a very rich fauna: felines, buffaloes, elephants, rhinos, etc., as evidenced, for example, by the bestiary of cave paintings at Balho. In the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. A few nomads settled around the lakes and practiced fishing and cattle breeding. The burial of an 18-year-old woman, dating from this period, as well as the bones of hunted animals, bone tools and small jewels have been unearthed. About 1500 BC. AD, the climate is already changing, water is scarce. Engravings show dromedaries (animal of arid zones), some of which are ridden by armed warriors. Sedentary peoples return to Nomadic life. A stone tumuli (of various shapes), sheltering graves and dating from this period, have been unearthed all over the territory.",
"title": "Prehistory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Together with Somaliland, Eritrea and the Red Sea coast of Sudan, Djibouti is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt (or \"Ta Netjeru\", meaning \"God's Land\"). The old territory's first mention dates to the 25th century BC. The Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Ancient Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure of the fifth dynasty and Queen Hatshepsut of the eighteenth dynasty. They \"traded not only in their own produce of incense, ebony and short-horned cattle, but also in goods from other neighbouring regions, including gold, ivory and animal skins.\" According to the temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, the Land of Punt at the time of Hatshepsut was ruled by King Parahu and Queen Ati.",
"title": "Antiquity"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The Macrobians (Μακροβίοι) were a legendary people and kingdom positioned in the Horn of Africa mentioned by Herodotus. Later authors (such as Pliny on the authority of Ctesias' Indika) place them in India instead. It is one of the legendary peoples postulated at the extremity of the known world (from the perspective of the Greeks), in this case in the extreme south, contrasting with the Hyperboreans in the extreme east.",
"title": "Macrobians"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Their name is due to their legendary longevity; an average person supposedly living to the age of 120. They were said to be the \"tallest and handsomest of all men\".",
"title": "Macrobians"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "According to Herodotus' account, the Persian Emperor Cambyses II upon his conquest of Egypt (525 BC) sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission. The Macrobian ruler, who was elected based at least in part on stature, replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to string it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire.",
"title": "Macrobians"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The rule of the Aksumite Kingdom may have at times extended to areas that are now within Djibouti, though the nature and extent of its control are not clear.",
"title": "Kingdom of Aksum"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Islam was introduced to the area early on from the Arabian peninsula, shortly after the hijra. Zeila's two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn dates to the 7th century, and is the oldest mosque in the city. In the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Horn seaboard. He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in Zeila, a port city in the northwestern Awdal region abutting Djibouti. This suggests that the Adal Sultanate with Zeila as its headquarters dates back to at least the 9th or 10th century. According to I.M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local dynasties consisting of Somalized Arabs or Arabized Somalis, who also ruled over the similarly established Sultanate of Mogadishu in the Benadir region to the south. Adal's history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia. At its height, the Adal kingdom controlled large parts of modern-day Djibouti, Somaliland, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Between Djibouti City and Loyada are a number of anthropomorphic and phallic stelae. The Djibouti-Loyada stelae are of uncertain age, and some of them are adorned with a T-shaped symbol. Additionally, archaeological excavations at Tiya have yielded tombs. As of 1997, 118 stelae were reported in the area.",
"title": "Adal Sultanate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The Ifat Sultanate was a medieval kingdom in the Horn of Africa. Founded in 1285 by the Walashma dynasty, it was centered in Zeila. Ifat established bases in Djibouti and Somaliland, and from there expanded southward to the Ahmar Mountains. Its Sultan Umar Walashma (or his son Ali, according to another source) is recorded as having conquered the Sultanate of Shewa in 1285. Taddesse Tamrat explains Sultan Umar's military expedition as an effort to consolidate the Muslim territories in the Horn, in much the same way as Emperor Yekuno Amlak was attempting to unite the Christian territories in the highlands during the same period. These two states inevitably came into conflict over Shewa and territories further south. A lengthy war ensued, but the Muslim sultanates of the time were not strongly unified. Ifat was finally defeated by Emperor Amda Seyon I of Ethiopia in 1332, and withdrew from Shewa.",
"title": "Ifat Sultanate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Governor Abou Baker ordered the Egyptian garrison at Sagallo to retire to Zeila. The cruiser Seignelay reached Sagallo shortly after the Egyptians had departed. French troops occupied the fort despite protests from the British Agent in Aden, Major Frederick Mercer Hunter, who dispatched troops to safeguard British and Egyptian interests in Zeila and prevent further extension of French influence in that direction. On 14 April 1884 the Commander of the patrol sloop L’Inferent reported on the Egyptian occupation in the Gulf of Tadjoura. The Commander of the patrol sloop Le Vaudreuil reported that the Egyptians were occupying the interior between Obock and Tadjoura. Emperor Johannes IV of Ethiopia signed an accord with the United Kingdom to cease fighting the Egyptians and to allow the evacuation of Egyptian forces from Ethiopia and the Somali Coast ports. The Egyptian garrison was withdrawn from Tadjoura. Léonce Lagarde deployed a patrol sloop to Tadjoura the following night.",
"title": "Egypt Eyalet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The boundaries of the present-day Djibouti nation state were established during the Scramble for Africa. It was Rochet d'Hericourt's exploration into Shoa (1839–42) that marked the beginning of French interest in the Djiboutian coast of the Red Sea. Further exploration by Henri Lambert, French Consular Agent at Aden, and Captain Fleuriot de Langle led to a treaty of friendship and assistance between France and the sultans of Raheita, Tadjoura, and Gobaad, from whom the French purchased the anchorage of Obock in 1862.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Growing French interest in the area took place against a backdrop of British activity in Egypt and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Between 1883 and 1887, France signed various treaties with the then ruling Somali and Afar Sultans, which allowed it to expand the protectorate to include the Gulf of Tadjoura. Léonce Lagarde was subsequently installed as the protectorate's governor. In 1894, he established a permanent French administration in the city of Djibouti and named the region Côte française des Somalis (French Somaliland), a name which continued until 1967. The territory's border with Ethiopia, marked out in 1897 by France and Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia, was later reaffirmed by agreements with Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia in 1945 and 1954.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In 1889, a Russian by the name of Nikolay Ivanovitch Achinov (b. 1856), arrived with settlers, infantry and an Orthodox priest to Sagallo on the Gulf of Tadjoura. The French considered the presence of the Russians as a violation of their territorial rights and dispatched two gunboats. The Russians were bombarded and after some loss of life, surrendered. The colonists were deported to Odessa and the dream of Russian expansion in East Africa came to an end in less than one year.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The administrative capital was moved from Obock in 1896. The city of Djibouti, which had a harbor with good access that attracted trade caravans crossing East Africa, became the new administrative capital. The Franco-Ethiopian railway, linking Djibouti to the heart of Ethiopia, began in 1897 and reached Addis Ababa in June 1917, increasing the volume of trade passing through the port.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "After the Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s, constant border skirmishes occurred between French forces in French Somaliland and Italian forces in Italian East Africa. In June 1940, during the early stages of World War II, France fell and the colony was then ruled by the pro-Axis Vichy (French) government while the Italians occupied some areas of the French Smaliland.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Indeed the Italians did undertake some offensive actions beginning on 18 June 1940, occupying nearly one third of French Somaliland in a few days.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "From Harrar Governorate, troops under General Guglielmo Nasi attacked the fort of Ali-Sabieh in the south and Dadda'to in the north. There were also skirmishes in the area of Dagguirou and around the lakes Abbe and Ally. Near Ali-Sabieh, there was some skirmishing over the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway. In the first week of war, the Italian Navy sent the submarines Torricelli and Perla to patrol French territorial waters in the Gulf of Tadjoura in front of the ports of Djibouti, Tadjoura and Obock.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "By the end of June the Italians had also occupied the border fortifications of Magdoul, Daimoli, Balambolta, Birt Eyla, Asmailo, Tewo, Abba, Alailou, Madda and Rahale.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Later, British and Commonwealth forces fought the neighboring Italians during the East African Campaign. In 1941, the Italians were defeated and the Vichy forces in French Somaliland were isolated. The Vichy French administration continued to hold out in the colony for over a year after the Italian collapse. In response, the British blockaded the port of Djibouti City but it could not prevent local French from providing information on the passing ship convoys. In 1942, about 4,000 British troops occupied the city. A local battalion from French Somaliland participated in the Liberation of Paris in 1944.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In 1958, on the eve of neighboring Somalia's independence in 1960, a referendum was held in Djibouti to decide whether to be an independent country or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favour of a continued association with France, partly due to a combined yes vote by the sizable Afar ethnic group and resident Europeans. There were also reports of widespread vote rigging, with the French expelling thousands of Somalis before the referendum reached the polls. The majority of those who voted no were Somalis who were strongly in favour of joining a united Somalia as had been proposed by Mahmoud Harbi, Vice President of the Government Council. Harbi died in a plane crash two years later under mysterious circumstances.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In 1960, with the fall of the ruling Dini administration, Ali Aref Bourhan, a Harbist politician, assumed the seat of Vice President of the Government Council of French Somaliland, representing the UNI party. He would hold that position until 1966.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "That same year, France rejected the United Nations' recommendation that it should grant French Somaliland independence. In August, an official visit to the territory by then French President, General Charles de Gaulle, was also met with demonstrations and rioting. In response to the protests, de Gaulle ordered another referendum.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "On 19 March 1967, a second plebiscite was held to determine the fate of the territory. Initial results supported a continued but looser relationship with France. Voting was also divided along ethnic lines, with the resident Somalis generally voting for independence, with the goal of eventual reunion with Somalia, and the Afars largely opting to remain associated with France. However, the referendum was again marred by reports of vote rigging on the part of the French authorities, with some 10,000 Somalis deported under the pretext that they did not have valid identity cards. According to official figures, although the territory was at the time inhabited by 58,240 Somali and 48,270 Afar, only 14,689 Somali were allowed to register to vote versus 22,004 Afar. Somali representatives also charged that the French had simultaneously imported thousands of Afar nomads from neighboring Ethiopia to further tip the odds in their favor, but the French authorities denied this, suggesting that Afars already greatly outnumbered Somalis on the voting lists. Announcement of the plebiscite results sparked civil unrest, including several deaths. France also increased its military force along the frontier.",
"title": "French Somaliland"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 1967, shortly after the second referendum was held, the former Côte française des Somalis (French Somaliland) was renamed to Territoire français des Afars et des Issas. This was both in acknowledgement of the large Afar constituency and to downplay the significance of the Somali composition (the Issa being a Somali sub-clan).",
"title": "French Territory of the Afars and Issas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The French Territory of Afars and Issas also differed from French Somaliland in terms of government structure, as the position of governor changed to that of high commissioner. A nine-member council of government was also implemented. During the 1960s, the struggle for independence was led by the Front for the Liberation of the Somali Coast (FLCS), who waged an armed struggle for independence with much of its violence aimed at French personnel. FLCS used to initiate few mounting cross-border operations into French Somaliland from Somalia and Ethiopia to attacks on French targets. On 24 March 1975 the Front de Libération de la Côte des Somalis kidnapped the French Ambassador to Somalia, Jean Guery, to be exchanged against two activists of FLCS members who were both serving life terms in mainland France. He was exchanged for the two FLCS members in Aden, South Yemen. With a steadily enlarging Somali population, the likelihood of a third referendum appearing successful had grown even more dim. The prohibitive cost of maintaining the colony and the fact that after 1975, France found itself to be the last remaining colonial power in Africa was another factor that compelled observers to doubt that the French would attempt to hold on to the territory.",
"title": "French Territory of the Afars and Issas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In 1976, the French garrison, centered on the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion (13 DBLE), had to be reinforced to contain Somali irredentist aspirations, revolting against the French-engineered Afar domination of the emerging government. In 1976, members of the Front de Libération de la Côte des Somalis which sought Djibouti's independence from France, also clashed with the Gendarmerie Nationale Intervention Group over a bus hijacking en route to Loyada.",
"title": "French Territory of the Afars and Issas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The FLCS was recognized as a national liberation movement by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which participated in its financing. The FLCS evolved its demands between the request of integration in a possible \"Greater Somalia\" influenced by the Somali government or the simple independence of the territory. In 1975 the African People's League for the Independence (LPAI) and FLCS met in Kampala, Uganda with several meeting later they finally opted for independence path, causing tensions with Somalia.",
"title": "French Territory of the Afars and Issas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "A third independence referendum was held in the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas on 8 May 1977. The previous referendums were held in 1958 and 1967, which rejected independence. This referendum backed independence from France. A landslide 98.8% of the electorate supported disengagement from France, officially marking Djibouti's independence.",
"title": "French Territory of the Afars and Issas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "After independence the new government signed an agreement calling for a strong French garrison, though the 13 DBLE was envisaged to be withdrawn. While the unit was reduced in size, a full withdrawal never actually took place.",
"title": "French Territory of the Afars and Issas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In 1981, Aptidon turned the country into a one party state by declaring that his party, the Rassemblement Populaire pour le Progrès (RPP) (People's Rally for Progress), was the sole legal one. Clayton writes that the French garrison played the major role in suppressing further minor unrest about this time, during which Djibouti became a one-party state on a much broader ethnic and political basis.",
"title": "Djibouti Republic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "A civil war broke out in 1991, between the government and a predominantly Afar rebel group, the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD). The FRUD signed a peace accord with the government in December 1994, ending the conflict. Two FRUD members were made cabinet members, and in the presidential elections of 1999 the FRUD campaigned in support of the RPP.",
"title": "Djibouti Republic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Aptidon resigned as president 1999, at the age of 83, after being elected to a fifth term in 1997. His successor was his nephew, Ismail Omar Guelleh.",
"title": "Djibouti Republic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "On 12 May 2001, President Ismail Omar Guelleh presided over the signing of what is termed the final peace accord officially ending the decade-long civil war between the government and the armed faction of the FRUD, led by Ahmed Dini Ahmed, an Afar nationalist and former Gouled political ally. The peace accord successfully completed the peace process begun on 7 February 2000 in Paris. Ahmed Dini Ahmed represented the FRUD.",
"title": "Djibouti Republic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In the presidential election held 8 April 2005, Ismail Omar Guelleh was re-elected to a second 6-year term at the head of a multi-party coalition that included the FRUD and other major parties. A loose coalition of opposition parties again boycotted the election. Currently, political power is shared by a Somali president and an Afar prime minister, with an Afar career diplomat as Foreign Minister and other cabinet posts roughly divided. However, Issas are predominate in the government, civil service, and the ruling party. That, together with a shortage of non-government employment, has bred resentment and continued political competition between the Issa Somalis and the Afars. In March 2006, Djibouti held its first regional elections and began implementing a decentralization plan. The broad pro-government coalition, including FRUD candidates, again ran unopposed when the government refused to meet opposition preconditions for participation. In the 2008 elections, the opposition Union for a Presidential Majority (UMP) party boycotted the election, leaving all 65 seats to the ruling RPP. Voter turnout figures were disputed. Guelleh was re-elected in the 2011 presidential election.",
"title": "Djibouti Republic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Due to its strategic location at the mouth of the Bab el Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, Djibouti also hosts various foreign military bases. Camp Lemonnier is a United States Naval Expeditionary Base, situated at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport and home to the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) of the U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM). In 2011, Japan also opened a local naval base staffed by 180 personnel to assist in marine defense. This initiative is expected to generate $30 million in revenue for the Djiboutian government.",
"title": "Djibouti Republic"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In April 2021, Ismael Guelleh, the second President of Djibouti since independence from France in 1977, was re-elected for his fifth term.",
"title": "Djibouti Republic"
}
] | Djibouti is a country in the Horn of Africa bordered by Somalia to the southeast, Eritrea and the Red Sea to the north and northwest, Ethiopia to the west and south, and the Gulf of Aden to the east. In antiquity, the territory was part of the Land of Punt. Djibouti gained its independence on June 27, 1977. The Djibouti area, along with other localities in the Horn region, was later the seat of the medieval Adal and Ifat Sultanates. In the late 19th century, the colony of French Somaliland was established following treaties signed by the ruling Somali and Afar Sultans with the French. It was subsequently renamed to the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas in 1967. A decade later, the Djiboutian people voted for independence, officially marking the establishment of the Republic of Djibouti. | 2002-02-25T15:43:11Z | 2023-11-12T03:45:05Z | [
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8,042 | Geography of Djibouti | Djibouti is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. To the east is its coastline on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Rainfall is sparse, and most of the territory has a semi-arid to arid environment. Lake Assal is a saline lake which lies 155 m (509 ft) below sea level, making it the lowest point on land in Africa and the third-lowest point on Earth after the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Djibouti has the fifth smallest population in Africa. Djibouti's major settlements include the capital Djibouti City, the port towns of Tadjoura and Obock, and the southern cities of Ali Sabieh and Dikhil. It is the forty-six country by area in Africa and 147st largest country in the world by land area, covering a total of 23,200 km (9,000 sq mi), of which 23,180 km (8,950 sq mi) is land and 20 km (7.7 sq mi) is water.
Djibouti shares 125 kilometres (78 mi) of border with Eritrea, 390 kilometres (240 mi) with Ethiopia, and 60 kilometres (37 mi) with Somalia (total 575 km or 357 mi). It has a strategic location on the Horn of Africa and the Bab el Mandeb, along a route through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Djibouti's coastline serves as a commercial gateway between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn region's interior. The country is also the terminus of rail traffic into Ethiopia.
Djibouti can be divided into three physiographic regions
A great arc of mountains, consisting of the Mousa Ali, Goda Mountains, and Arrei Mountains surrounds Djibouti.
Djibouti has eight mountain ranges with peaks of over 1,000 m (3,281 ft).
The Grand Bara Desert covers parts of southern Djibouti in the Arta Region, Ali Sabieh Region and Dikhil Region. The majority of the Grand Bara Desert lies at a relatively low elevation, below 1,700 feet (560 m). Home of the popular Grand Bara footrace.
Most of Djibouti has been described as part of the Ethiopian xeric grasslands and shrublands ecoregion. The exception is a strip along the Red Sea coast, which is part of the Eritrean coastal desert; it is noted as an important migration route for birds of prey.
The area of the regions of Djibouti is set out in the table below.
There is not much seasonal variation in Djibouti's climate. Hot conditions prevail year-round along with winter rainfall. Mean daily maximum temperatures range from 32 to 41 °C (90 to 106 °F), except at high elevations. In Djibouti City, for instance, afternoon highs in April typically range from 28 °C (82 °F) to 34 °C (93 °F) in April. Nationally, mean daily minima generally vary between sites from about 15 to 30 °C (59 to 86 °F). The greatest range in climate occurs in eastern Djibouti, where temperatures sometimes surpass 41 °C (106 °F) in July on the littoral plains and fall below freezing point during December in the highlands. In this region, relative humidity ranges from about 40% in the mid-afternoon to 85% at night, changing somewhat according to the season.
Djibouti has 988,000 people living there. Djibouti has either a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) or a hot desert climate (BWh), although temperatures are much moderated at the high elevations. On the coastal seaboard, annual rainfall is less than 5 inches (131 mm); in the highlands, it is about 8 to 16 inches (200 to 400 mm). Although the coastal regions are hot and humid throughout the year, the hinterland is typically hot and dry. The climate conditions are highly variable within the country and vary locally by altitude. Summers are very humid along the coast but dry in the highlands. Heat waves are frequent. Annual precipitation amounts vary greatly from one year to another. In general, rain falls more frequently and extensively in the mountains. Sudden and brutal storms are also known to occur. Wadis turn for a few hours into raging torrents tearing everything in their path, and their course is regularized. Rainwater serves as an additional water supply for livestock and plants alongside seasonal watercourses. The highlands have temperate climate throughout the year. The climate of most lowland zones is arid and semiarid.
The climate of the interior shows notable differences from the coastline. Especially in the mornings, the temperature is pleasant: it is so in Arta, Randa and Day (where temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius have been recorded).
Graphically the seasons can be represented this way:
Lake Assal is the lowest point in Africa.
Land use: arable land: 0.1% permanent pasture: 73.3% forest: 0.2% other: 26.4% (2011)
Irrigated land: 10 km (3.86 sq mi) (2012)
Water is becoming a scarce resource in Djibouti due to climate change, which leads to different rainfall patterns as well as to inefficient methods of distribution within the country. Most of Djibouti's rainfall is in the four months, but over the last 25 years, the Djibouti's Ministry of Environment estimates that rainfall has decreased overall between 5 and 20 percent. It is predicted that in future years, there will be higher temperatures, lower rainfall, and longer droughts, leading to even less access to water. Moreover, seawater intrusion or fossil saltwater contamination of the limited freshwater aquifers due to groundwater overexploitation affect those who live close to the coastline.
In recent years, population growth has increased rapidly with the addition of many refugees.
Unlike much of the Horn of Africa and Middle East which is rich in lucrative crude oil, Djibouti has limited natural resources. These include potential geothermal power, gold, clay, granite, limestone, marble, salt, diatomite, gypsum, pumice, petroleum.
Natural hazards include earthquakes, drought, and occasional cyclonic disturbances from the Indian Ocean, which bring heavy rains, and flash floods. Natural resources include geothermal energy. Inadequate supplies of potable water, limited arable land and desertification are current issues.
Djibouti is a party to international agreements on biodiversity, climate change, desertification, endangered species, Law of the Sea, ozone layer protection, ship pollution, and wetlands.
Djibouti has a coastline which measures about 314 kilometres (195 mi). Much of the coastline is accessible and quite varied in geography and habitats.
The population of Djibouti in 2015 was 846,000.
For statistical purposes, the country has three areas; Djibouti City (population 529,000), Ali Sabieh (population 55,000), and Dikhil (population 54,000). Djibouti's population is diverse demographically; 60% Somali, 35% Afar, and 3% Arabs. In terms of religion, 94% Muslim, 6% Christian.
This is a list of the extreme points of Djibouti, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Djibouti is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. To the east is its coastline on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Rainfall is sparse, and most of the territory has a semi-arid to arid environment. Lake Assal is a saline lake which lies 155 m (509 ft) below sea level, making it the lowest point on land in Africa and the third-lowest point on Earth after the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Djibouti has the fifth smallest population in Africa. Djibouti's major settlements include the capital Djibouti City, the port towns of Tadjoura and Obock, and the southern cities of Ali Sabieh and Dikhil. It is the forty-six country by area in Africa and 147st largest country in the world by land area, covering a total of 23,200 km (9,000 sq mi), of which 23,180 km (8,950 sq mi) is land and 20 km (7.7 sq mi) is water.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Djibouti shares 125 kilometres (78 mi) of border with Eritrea, 390 kilometres (240 mi) with Ethiopia, and 60 kilometres (37 mi) with Somalia (total 575 km or 357 mi). It has a strategic location on the Horn of Africa and the Bab el Mandeb, along a route through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Djibouti's coastline serves as a commercial gateway between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn region's interior. The country is also the terminus of rail traffic into Ethiopia.",
"title": "Location"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Djibouti can be divided into three physiographic regions",
"title": "Physiographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "A great arc of mountains, consisting of the Mousa Ali, Goda Mountains, and Arrei Mountains surrounds Djibouti.",
"title": "Physiographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Djibouti has eight mountain ranges with peaks of over 1,000 m (3,281 ft).",
"title": "Physiographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The Grand Bara Desert covers parts of southern Djibouti in the Arta Region, Ali Sabieh Region and Dikhil Region. The majority of the Grand Bara Desert lies at a relatively low elevation, below 1,700 feet (560 m). Home of the popular Grand Bara footrace.",
"title": "Physiographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Most of Djibouti has been described as part of the Ethiopian xeric grasslands and shrublands ecoregion. The exception is a strip along the Red Sea coast, which is part of the Eritrean coastal desert; it is noted as an important migration route for birds of prey.",
"title": "Physiographic regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The area of the regions of Djibouti is set out in the table below.",
"title": "Regions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "There is not much seasonal variation in Djibouti's climate. Hot conditions prevail year-round along with winter rainfall. Mean daily maximum temperatures range from 32 to 41 °C (90 to 106 °F), except at high elevations. In Djibouti City, for instance, afternoon highs in April typically range from 28 °C (82 °F) to 34 °C (93 °F) in April. Nationally, mean daily minima generally vary between sites from about 15 to 30 °C (59 to 86 °F). The greatest range in climate occurs in eastern Djibouti, where temperatures sometimes surpass 41 °C (106 °F) in July on the littoral plains and fall below freezing point during December in the highlands. In this region, relative humidity ranges from about 40% in the mid-afternoon to 85% at night, changing somewhat according to the season.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Djibouti has 988,000 people living there. Djibouti has either a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) or a hot desert climate (BWh), although temperatures are much moderated at the high elevations. On the coastal seaboard, annual rainfall is less than 5 inches (131 mm); in the highlands, it is about 8 to 16 inches (200 to 400 mm). Although the coastal regions are hot and humid throughout the year, the hinterland is typically hot and dry. The climate conditions are highly variable within the country and vary locally by altitude. Summers are very humid along the coast but dry in the highlands. Heat waves are frequent. Annual precipitation amounts vary greatly from one year to another. In general, rain falls more frequently and extensively in the mountains. Sudden and brutal storms are also known to occur. Wadis turn for a few hours into raging torrents tearing everything in their path, and their course is regularized. Rainwater serves as an additional water supply for livestock and plants alongside seasonal watercourses. The highlands have temperate climate throughout the year. The climate of most lowland zones is arid and semiarid.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The climate of the interior shows notable differences from the coastline. Especially in the mornings, the temperature is pleasant: it is so in Arta, Randa and Day (where temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius have been recorded).",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Graphically the seasons can be represented this way:",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Lake Assal is the lowest point in Africa.",
"title": "Selected elevations of notable locations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Land use: arable land: 0.1% permanent pasture: 73.3% forest: 0.2% other: 26.4% (2011)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Irrigated land: 10 km (3.86 sq mi) (2012)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Water is becoming a scarce resource in Djibouti due to climate change, which leads to different rainfall patterns as well as to inefficient methods of distribution within the country. Most of Djibouti's rainfall is in the four months, but over the last 25 years, the Djibouti's Ministry of Environment estimates that rainfall has decreased overall between 5 and 20 percent. It is predicted that in future years, there will be higher temperatures, lower rainfall, and longer droughts, leading to even less access to water. Moreover, seawater intrusion or fossil saltwater contamination of the limited freshwater aquifers due to groundwater overexploitation affect those who live close to the coastline.",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In recent years, population growth has increased rapidly with the addition of many refugees.",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Unlike much of the Horn of Africa and Middle East which is rich in lucrative crude oil, Djibouti has limited natural resources. These include potential geothermal power, gold, clay, granite, limestone, marble, salt, diatomite, gypsum, pumice, petroleum.",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Natural hazards include earthquakes, drought, and occasional cyclonic disturbances from the Indian Ocean, which bring heavy rains, and flash floods. Natural resources include geothermal energy. Inadequate supplies of potable water, limited arable land and desertification are current issues.",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Djibouti is a party to international agreements on biodiversity, climate change, desertification, endangered species, Law of the Sea, ozone layer protection, ship pollution, and wetlands.",
"title": "Environment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Djibouti has a coastline which measures about 314 kilometres (195 mi). Much of the coastline is accessible and quite varied in geography and habitats.",
"title": "Coastline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The population of Djibouti in 2015 was 846,000.",
"title": "Human geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "For statistical purposes, the country has three areas; Djibouti City (population 529,000), Ali Sabieh (population 55,000), and Dikhil (population 54,000). Djibouti's population is diverse demographically; 60% Somali, 35% Afar, and 3% Arabs. In terms of religion, 94% Muslim, 6% Christian.",
"title": "Human geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "This is a list of the extreme points of Djibouti, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.",
"title": "Extreme points"
}
] | Djibouti is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. To the east is its coastline on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Rainfall is sparse, and most of the territory has a semi-arid to arid environment. Lake Assal is a saline lake which lies 155 m (509 ft) below sea level, making it the lowest point on land in Africa and the third-lowest point on Earth after the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Djibouti has the fifth smallest population in Africa. Djibouti's major settlements include the capital Djibouti City, the port towns of Tadjoura and Obock, and the southern cities of Ali Sabieh and Dikhil. It is the forty-six country by area in Africa and 147st largest country in the world by land area, covering a total of 23,200 km2 (9,000 sq mi), of which 23,180 km2 (8,950 sq mi) is land and 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi) is water. | 2001-04-26T23:52:10Z | 2023-07-24T15:07:17Z | [
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8,043 | Demographics of Djibouti | Demographic features of Djibouti include population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.
Djibouti is a multiethnic country. As of 2018, it has a population of around 884,017 inhabitants. Djibouti's population grew rapidly during the latter half of the 20th century, increasing from about 69,589 in 1955 to around 869,099 by 2015.
The ethnic composition of Djibouti is 56.2% Somali, 24.2% Afar, 15.6% Arabs, 6.675% Djibouti Arabs (indigenous), 4.525% Yemenis, 4.4% Omanis and 5% others. The Somali clan component is mainly composed of the Issa clan (Dir), followed by the Gadabuursi and the Isaaq.
The remaining 5% of Djibouti's population primarily consists of Ethiopians and Europeans (French, Italian and Swedish). In addition, as of 2021, 4,000 American troops, 1,350 French troops, 600 Japanese troops, 400 Chinese troops, and an unknown number of German troops are stationed at various bases throughout Djibouti. Approximately 76% of local residents are urban dwellers; the remainder are pastoralists. 40,000 people from Yemen live in Djibouti, accounting for 4.525% of its total population."Domestic abuse adds to Yemeni refugee women's woes in Djibouti".
Djibouti is a multilingual nation. The majority of local residents speak Somali (650,000 speakers in Djibouti city and Ali Sabieh) and Afar (300,000 speakers) as a first language. These languages are the mother tongues of the Somali and Afar ethnic groups, respectively. Both languages belong to the larger Afroasiatic family. There are 2 official languages in Djibouti: Arabic and French.
Arabic is of religious importance. In formal settings, it consists of Modern Standard Arabic. Colloquially, about 59,000 local residents speak the Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic dialect, also known as Djibouti Arabic. French serves as a statutory national language. It was inherited from the colonial period, and is the primary language of instruction. Around 17,000 Djiboutians speak it as a first language. Immigrant languages include Omani Arabic (38,900 speakers), Amharic (1,400 speakers), Greek (1,000 speakers) and Hindi (600 speakers).
According to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects, the total population was 1,105,557 in 2021 compared to 62,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 35.8%, 60.9% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.3% was 65 years or older.
The following are UN medium variant projections; numbers are in thousands:
Registration of vital events in Djibouti is incomplete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022:
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook:
Sunni Muslim 94% (nearly all Djiboutians), other 6% (mainly foreign-born residents - Shia Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Baha'i, and atheist)
note: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Djibouti is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine
Afar 60%, Somali 30% and Arab 2%
The languages of Djibouti are: | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Demographic features of Djibouti include population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Djibouti is a multiethnic country. As of 2018, it has a population of around 884,017 inhabitants. Djibouti's population grew rapidly during the latter half of the 20th century, increasing from about 69,589 in 1955 to around 869,099 by 2015.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The ethnic composition of Djibouti is 56.2% Somali, 24.2% Afar, 15.6% Arabs, 6.675% Djibouti Arabs (indigenous), 4.525% Yemenis, 4.4% Omanis and 5% others. The Somali clan component is mainly composed of the Issa clan (Dir), followed by the Gadabuursi and the Isaaq.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The remaining 5% of Djibouti's population primarily consists of Ethiopians and Europeans (French, Italian and Swedish). In addition, as of 2021, 4,000 American troops, 1,350 French troops, 600 Japanese troops, 400 Chinese troops, and an unknown number of German troops are stationed at various bases throughout Djibouti. Approximately 76% of local residents are urban dwellers; the remainder are pastoralists. 40,000 people from Yemen live in Djibouti, accounting for 4.525% of its total population.\"Domestic abuse adds to Yemeni refugee women's woes in Djibouti\".",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Djibouti is a multilingual nation. The majority of local residents speak Somali (650,000 speakers in Djibouti city and Ali Sabieh) and Afar (300,000 speakers) as a first language. These languages are the mother tongues of the Somali and Afar ethnic groups, respectively. Both languages belong to the larger Afroasiatic family. There are 2 official languages in Djibouti: Arabic and French.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Arabic is of religious importance. In formal settings, it consists of Modern Standard Arabic. Colloquially, about 59,000 local residents speak the Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic dialect, also known as Djibouti Arabic. French serves as a statutory national language. It was inherited from the colonial period, and is the primary language of instruction. Around 17,000 Djiboutians speak it as a first language. Immigrant languages include Omani Arabic (38,900 speakers), Amharic (1,400 speakers), Greek (1,000 speakers) and Hindi (600 speakers).",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "According to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects, the total population was 1,105,557 in 2021 compared to 62,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 35.8%, 60.9% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.3% was 65 years or older.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The following are UN medium variant projections; numbers are in thousands:",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Registration of vital events in Djibouti is incomplete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022:",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook:",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Sunni Muslim 94% (nearly all Djiboutians), other 6% (mainly foreign-born residents - Shia Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Baha'i, and atheist)",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "note: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Djibouti is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Afar 60%, Somali 30% and Arab 2%",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The languages of Djibouti are:",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
}
] | Demographic features of Djibouti include population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects. | 2002-02-25T15:43:11Z | 2023-12-20T22:23:41Z | [
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8,044 | Politics of Djibouti | Politics of Djibouti takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the executive power is exercised by the President and the Government. Legislative power is vested in both the Government and the National Assembly. The party system and legislature are dominated by the socialist People's Rally for Progress. In April 2010, a new constitutional amendment was approved. The President serves as both the head of state and head of government, and is directly elected for single six-year term. Government is headed by the President, who appoints the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the latter. There is also a 65-member chamber of deputies, where representatives are popularly elected for terms of five years. Administratively, the country is divided into five regions and one city, with eleven additional district subdivisions. Djibouti is also part of various international organisations, including the United Nations and Arab League.
In 1958, on the eve of neighboring Somalia's independence in 1960, a referendum was held in Djibouti to decide whether to join the Somali Republic or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favour of a continued association with France, partly due to a combined "yes" vote by the sizeable Afar ethnic group and resident Europeans. There was also widespread vote rigging, with the French expelling thousands of Somalis before the referendum reached the polls. The majority of those who had voted "no" were Somalis who were strongly in favour of joining a united Somalia as had been proposed by Mahmoud Harbi, Vice President of the Government Council. Harbi was killed in a plane crash two years later.
In 1967, a second plebiscite was held to determine the fate of the territory. Initial results supported a continued but looser relationship with France. Voting was also divided along ethnic lines, with the resident Somalis generally voting for independence, with the goal of eventual union with Somalia, and the Afars largely opting to remain associated with France. However, the referendum was again marred by reports of vote rigging on the part of the French authorities. Shortly after the referendum was held, the former Côte française des Somalis (French Somaliland) was renamed to Territoire français des Afars et des Issas.
In 1977, a third referendum took place. A landslide 98.8% of the electorate supported disengagement from France, officially marking Djibouti's independence.
Hassan Gouled Aptidon, a Somali politician who had campaigned for a "yes" vote in the referendum of 1958, eventually wound up as the nation's first president (1977–1999). He was re-elected, unopposed, to a second 6-year term in April 1987 and to a third 6-year term in May 1993 multiparty elections. The electorate approved the current constitution in September 1992. Many laws and decrees from before independence remain in effect.
In early 1992, the government decided to permit multiple party politics and agreed to the registration of four political parties. By the time of the national assembly elections in December 1992, only three had qualified. They are the Rassemblement Populaire Pour le Progres (People's Rally for Progress) (RPP) which was the only legal party from 1981 until 1992, the Parti du Renouveau Démocratique (The Party for Democratic Renewal) (PRD), and the Parti National Démocratique (National Democratic Party) (PND). Only the RPP and the PRD contested the national assembly elections, and the PND withdrew, claiming that there were too many unanswered questions on the conduct of the elections and too many opportunities for government fraud. The RPP won all 65 seats in the national assembly, with a turnout of less than 50% of the electorate.
In 1999, President Aptidon's chief of staff, head of security, and key adviser for over 20 years, Ismail Omar Guelleh was elected to the Presidency as the RPP candidate. He received 74% of the vote, the other 26% going to opposition candidate Moussa Ahmed Idriss, of the Unified Djiboutian Opposition (ODU). For the first time since independence, no group boycotted the election. Moussa Ahmed Idriss and the ODU later challenged the results based on election "irregularities" and the assertion that "foreigners" had voted in various districts of the capital; however, international and locally based observers considered the election to be generally fair, and cited only minor technical difficulties. Guelleh took the oath of office as the second President of the Republic of Djibouti on May 8, 1999, with the support of an alliance between the RPP and the government-recognised section of the Afar-led FRUD.
Currently, political power is shared by a Somali Issa president and an Afar prime minister, with cabinet posts roughly divided. However, it is the Issas who dominate the government, civil service, and the ruling party, a situation that has bred resentment and political competition between the Somali Issas and the Afars.
The government is dominated by the Somali Issa Mamasen, who enjoy the support of the Somali clans, especially the Isaaq (the clan of the current president's wife) and the Gadabuursi Dir (who are the second most prominent Somali clan in Djibouti politics). In early November 1991, civil war erupted in Djibouti between the government and a predominantly Afar rebel group, the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD). The FRUD signed a peace accord with the government in December 1994, ending the conflict. Two FRUD members were subsequently made cabinet members, and in the presidential elections of 1999 the FRUD campaigned in support of the RPP. In February 2000, another branch of FRUD signed a peace accord with the government. On 12 May 2001, President Ismail Omar Guelleh presided over the signing of what is termed the final peace accord officially ending the decade-long civil war between the government and the armed faction of the FRUD. The treaty successfully completed the peace process begun on 7 February 2000 in Paris, with Ahmed Dini Ahmed representing the FRUD.
On 8 April 2005, President Guelleh was sworn in for his second six-year term after a one-man election. He took 100% of the votes in a 78.9% turnout.
In early 2011, the Djiboutian citizenry took part in a series of protests against the long-serving government, which were associated with the larger Arab Spring demonstrations. Guelleh was re-elected to a third term later that year, with 80.63% of the vote in a 75% turnout. Although opposition groups boycotted the ballot over changes to the constitution permitting Guelleh to run again for office, international observers generally described the election as free and fair.
On 31 March 2013, Guelleh replaced long-serving Prime Minister Dilleita Mohamed Dilleita with former president of the Union for a Presidential Majority (UMP) Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed.
In April 2021, Ismael Guelleh, the second President of Djibouti since independence from France in 1977, was re-elected for his fifth term.
The President is directly elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President, and the Council of Ministers is solely responsible to the President, as specified in Articles 21 and 23 of the Constitution of Djibouti.
Djibouti is sectioned into five administrative regions and one city:
Ali Sabieh Region, Arta Region, Dikhil Region, Djibouti Region, Obock Region and Tadjourah Region.
The country is further sub-divided into eleven districts.
ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AL, AMF, ECA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Intelsat (nonsignatory user), Interpol, IOC, ITU, ITUC, NAM, OAU, OIC, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO, WToO, WTrO | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Politics of Djibouti takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the executive power is exercised by the President and the Government. Legislative power is vested in both the Government and the National Assembly. The party system and legislature are dominated by the socialist People's Rally for Progress. In April 2010, a new constitutional amendment was approved. The President serves as both the head of state and head of government, and is directly elected for single six-year term. Government is headed by the President, who appoints the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the latter. There is also a 65-member chamber of deputies, where representatives are popularly elected for terms of five years. Administratively, the country is divided into five regions and one city, with eleven additional district subdivisions. Djibouti is also part of various international organisations, including the United Nations and Arab League.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In 1958, on the eve of neighboring Somalia's independence in 1960, a referendum was held in Djibouti to decide whether to join the Somali Republic or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favour of a continued association with France, partly due to a combined \"yes\" vote by the sizeable Afar ethnic group and resident Europeans. There was also widespread vote rigging, with the French expelling thousands of Somalis before the referendum reached the polls. The majority of those who had voted \"no\" were Somalis who were strongly in favour of joining a united Somalia as had been proposed by Mahmoud Harbi, Vice President of the Government Council. Harbi was killed in a plane crash two years later.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In 1967, a second plebiscite was held to determine the fate of the territory. Initial results supported a continued but looser relationship with France. Voting was also divided along ethnic lines, with the resident Somalis generally voting for independence, with the goal of eventual union with Somalia, and the Afars largely opting to remain associated with France. However, the referendum was again marred by reports of vote rigging on the part of the French authorities. Shortly after the referendum was held, the former Côte française des Somalis (French Somaliland) was renamed to Territoire français des Afars et des Issas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In 1977, a third referendum took place. A landslide 98.8% of the electorate supported disengagement from France, officially marking Djibouti's independence.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Hassan Gouled Aptidon, a Somali politician who had campaigned for a \"yes\" vote in the referendum of 1958, eventually wound up as the nation's first president (1977–1999). He was re-elected, unopposed, to a second 6-year term in April 1987 and to a third 6-year term in May 1993 multiparty elections. The electorate approved the current constitution in September 1992. Many laws and decrees from before independence remain in effect.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In early 1992, the government decided to permit multiple party politics and agreed to the registration of four political parties. By the time of the national assembly elections in December 1992, only three had qualified. They are the Rassemblement Populaire Pour le Progres (People's Rally for Progress) (RPP) which was the only legal party from 1981 until 1992, the Parti du Renouveau Démocratique (The Party for Democratic Renewal) (PRD), and the Parti National Démocratique (National Democratic Party) (PND). Only the RPP and the PRD contested the national assembly elections, and the PND withdrew, claiming that there were too many unanswered questions on the conduct of the elections and too many opportunities for government fraud. The RPP won all 65 seats in the national assembly, with a turnout of less than 50% of the electorate.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 1999, President Aptidon's chief of staff, head of security, and key adviser for over 20 years, Ismail Omar Guelleh was elected to the Presidency as the RPP candidate. He received 74% of the vote, the other 26% going to opposition candidate Moussa Ahmed Idriss, of the Unified Djiboutian Opposition (ODU). For the first time since independence, no group boycotted the election. Moussa Ahmed Idriss and the ODU later challenged the results based on election \"irregularities\" and the assertion that \"foreigners\" had voted in various districts of the capital; however, international and locally based observers considered the election to be generally fair, and cited only minor technical difficulties. Guelleh took the oath of office as the second President of the Republic of Djibouti on May 8, 1999, with the support of an alliance between the RPP and the government-recognised section of the Afar-led FRUD.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Currently, political power is shared by a Somali Issa president and an Afar prime minister, with cabinet posts roughly divided. However, it is the Issas who dominate the government, civil service, and the ruling party, a situation that has bred resentment and political competition between the Somali Issas and the Afars.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The government is dominated by the Somali Issa Mamasen, who enjoy the support of the Somali clans, especially the Isaaq (the clan of the current president's wife) and the Gadabuursi Dir (who are the second most prominent Somali clan in Djibouti politics). In early November 1991, civil war erupted in Djibouti between the government and a predominantly Afar rebel group, the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD). The FRUD signed a peace accord with the government in December 1994, ending the conflict. Two FRUD members were subsequently made cabinet members, and in the presidential elections of 1999 the FRUD campaigned in support of the RPP. In February 2000, another branch of FRUD signed a peace accord with the government. On 12 May 2001, President Ismail Omar Guelleh presided over the signing of what is termed the final peace accord officially ending the decade-long civil war between the government and the armed faction of the FRUD. The treaty successfully completed the peace process begun on 7 February 2000 in Paris, with Ahmed Dini Ahmed representing the FRUD.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "On 8 April 2005, President Guelleh was sworn in for his second six-year term after a one-man election. He took 100% of the votes in a 78.9% turnout.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In early 2011, the Djiboutian citizenry took part in a series of protests against the long-serving government, which were associated with the larger Arab Spring demonstrations. Guelleh was re-elected to a third term later that year, with 80.63% of the vote in a 75% turnout. Although opposition groups boycotted the ballot over changes to the constitution permitting Guelleh to run again for office, international observers generally described the election as free and fair.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "On 31 March 2013, Guelleh replaced long-serving Prime Minister Dilleita Mohamed Dilleita with former president of the Union for a Presidential Majority (UMP) Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In April 2021, Ismael Guelleh, the second President of Djibouti since independence from France in 1977, was re-elected for his fifth term.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "",
"title": "Head of state and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The President is directly elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President, and the Council of Ministers is solely responsible to the President, as specified in Articles 21 and 23 of the Constitution of Djibouti.",
"title": "Head of state and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Djibouti is sectioned into five administrative regions and one city:",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Ali Sabieh Region, Arta Region, Dikhil Region, Djibouti Region, Obock Region and Tadjourah Region.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The country is further sub-divided into eleven districts.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AL, AMF, ECA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Intelsat (nonsignatory user), Interpol, IOC, ITU, ITUC, NAM, OAU, OIC, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO, WToO, WTrO",
"title": "International organization participation"
}
] | Politics of Djibouti takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the executive power is exercised by the President and the Government. Legislative power is vested in both the Government and the National Assembly. The party system and legislature are dominated by the socialist People's Rally for Progress. In April 2010, a new constitutional amendment was approved. The President serves as both the head of state and head of government, and is directly elected for single six-year term. Government is headed by the President, who appoints the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the latter. There is also a 65-member chamber of deputies, where representatives are popularly elected for terms of five years. Administratively, the country is divided into five regions and one city, with eleven additional district subdivisions. Djibouti is also part of various international organisations, including the United Nations and Arab League. | 2023-07-23T18:38:24Z | [
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] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Djibouti |
|
8,045 | Economy of Djibouti | The economy of Djibouti is derived in large part from its strategic location on the Red Sea. Djibouti is mostly barren, with little development in the agricultural and industrial sectors. The country has a harsh climate, a largely unskilled labour force, and limited natural resources. The country's most important economic asset is its strategic location, connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. As such, Djibouti's economy is commanded by the services sector, providing services as both a transit port for the region and as an international transshipment and refueling centre.
From 1991 to 1994, Djibouti experienced a civil war which had devastating effects on the economy. Since then, the country has benefited from political stability. In recent years, Djibouti has seen significant improvement in macroeconomic stability, with its annual gross domestic product improving at an average of over 3 percent since 2003. This comes after a decade of negative or low growth and is attributed to fiscal adjustment aimed at improving public financing, reforms in port management and foreign investment.
Despite the recent modest and stable growth, Djibouti is faced with many economic challenges, particularly job creation and poverty reduction. With an average annual population growth rate of 2.5 percent, the economy cannot significantly benefit national income per capita growth. Unemployment is extremely high, with some estimates placing it at almost 60 percent, and is a major contributor to widespread poverty. In recent years, the country's dependence on Chinese investment and debt has also come under scrutiny.
According to a 2020 report by the World bank, Djibouti was 112th among 190 economies when it comes to the ease of doing business.
After experiencing armed conflict and economic hardship during the 1990s, Djibouti has experienced stable economic growth in recent years as a result of relative political stability and achievements in macroeconomic adjustment efforts.
Fiscal adjustment measures included downsizing the civil service, implementing a pension reform that placed the system on a much stronger financial footing, and strengthening public expenditure institutions. From 2003 to 2005, annual real GDP growth averaged 3.1 percent in the mid-2000s, driven by good performance in the services sector, strong consumption and reached a value as high as 7.8 percent in 2019. In the 21st century, Inflation has been kept low through fixed pegging of the Djibouti franc to the US dollar, but experienced a sharp spike in the late 2000s, when it reached values three times higher than the average of the last 20 years.
Despite experiencing economic growth, the country continues to struggle with high unemployment. Official numbers put the unemployment rate at just over 10 percent, but international estimates consider it to be closer to 60 percent. Furthermore, reliance on diesel-generated electricity and the need to import basic necessities like food and water leave average consumers vulnerable to global price shocks.
Djibouti's gross domestic product expanded by an average of more than 6 percent per year, from US$341 million in 1985 to US$3.3 billion in 2019.
Low tax revenue and high spending on public infrastructure has seen Djibouti struggle with its budget deficit. Additionally, the country's public debt has increased sharply—from 50.2 percent of GDP in 2015 to an expected 72.9 percent in 2020.
Djibouti's merchandise trade balance has shown a large deficit. This is due to the country's enormous need for imports and narrow base of exports. Although Djibouti runs a substantial surplus in its services balance, the surplus has been smaller than the deficit in the merchandise trade balance. As a result, Djibouti's has developed a high level of trade deficit, reaching a peak of 130 billion Djibouti francs in 2019.
Positioned on a primary shipping lane between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, Djibouti holds considerable strategic value in the international trade and shipping industries. The facilities of the Port of Djibouti are important to sea transportation companies for fuel bunkering and refuelling. Its transport facilities are used by several landlocked African countries for the re-export of their goods. Djibouti earns transit taxes and harbour fees from this trade, these form the bulk of government revenue. Threats of pirates patrolling the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia, with the intentions of capturing large cargo ships, oil, and chemical tankers has created the need for larger nations such as the United States, France, and Japan to embed logistics bases or military camps from which they can defend their freight from piracy.
The port of Djibouti functions as a small French naval facility, and the United States has also stationed hundreds of troops in Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, its only African base, in an effort to counter terrorism in the region.
Since 2010 China has become an important trading and military partner for Djibouti, including it in its African Road and Belt Initiative through the construction of infrastructure projects like a railway link to Ethiopia and the Doraleh port. In 2017, it also began operating a large naval base near de Doraleh port, which serves as China's first ever overseas military base. In 2009, China overtook the United States in becoming Djibouti's largest trading partner. Between 57 percent and 70 percent of Djibouti's debt is made up of Chinese loans.
Chinese influence in Djibouti, particularly through its military base and financial debt, has been criticized in recent years as being more beneficial to the stability of the current political regime than for the country as a whole.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017.
Despite not being hit as hard as other countries by the COVID-19 pandemic, Djibouti's economy suffered the effects of the global slowdown in trade and diminished traffic through the Doraleh port. Real GDP growth slumped to 1.4 percent in 2020 from 7.8 percent in 2019. The pandemic also contributed to a sharp deceleration in investment, which increased by just 10.3 percent of GDP in 2020, compared to a 26.3 percent growth in 2019, as well as in the value added by the services sector, which saw a modest 2 percent increase in 2020, after growing by 8.2 percent in 2019.
Djibouti's recovery projections are closely tied to the timeframe in which global shipping and trade will return to pre-pandemic levels, with a full recovery expected to happen in the following couple of years, if the COVID-19 pandemic does not last beyond the second half of 2021.
Djibouti's economy is based on service activities connected with the country's strategic location and status as a free trade zone in the Horn of Africa. Two-thirds of inhabitants live in the capital and the remainder of the populace is mostly nomadic herders. Low amounts of rainfall limit crop production to fruits and vegetables, and requiring most food to be imported. The government provides services as both a transit port for the region and an international transshipment and refueling centre. Djibouti has few natural resources and little industry. All of these factors contribute to its heavy dependence on foreign assistance to help support its balance of payments and to finance development projects.
An unemployment rate of 60 percent continues to be a major problem. Inflation is not a concern, however, because of the fixed tie of the franc to the US dollar. Per capita consumption dropped an estimated 35 percent over the last seven years because of recession, civil war, and a high population growth rate. Faced with a multitude of economic difficulties, the government has fallen in arrears on long-term external debt and has been struggling to meet the stipulations of foreign aid donors.
The Djiboutian franc is pegged to the US dollars since 1949 through the use of a currency board. The effectiveness of this longstanding and unique institution on the African continent has not been challenged since then.
According to a financial risk assessment from 2018, the country has been suffering from increasing corruption and a decline in international governance and transparency indices, growing debt and over-reliance on Ethiopia and China for trade and FDI, respectively.
Officially, the government of Djibouti welcomes all foreign direct investment. Djibouti's assets include a strategic geographic location, an open trade regime, a stable currency, substantial tax breaks and other incentives. Potential areas of investment include Djibouti's port and the telecommunications sectors. President Ismail Omar Guellehh first elected in 1999, has named privatization, economic reform, and increased foreign investment as top priorities for his government. The president pledged to seek the help of the international private sector to develop the country's infrastructure.
Djibouti has no major laws that would discourage incoming foreign investment. In principle there is no screening of investment or other discriminatory mechanisms. However, a number of hurdles to foreign investment in the country exist. For example, certain sectors, most notably public utilities, are state owned and some parts are not currently open to investors. In 2017, a law was passed granting the government the right to unilaterally alter or terminate contracts with foreign entities. Conditions of the structural adjustment agreement recently signed by Djibouti and the International Monetary Fund stipulate increased privatization of parastatal and government-owned monopolies. There are no patent laws in Djibouti.
Furthermore, there are concerns about the rule of law, the independence of courts, and how this affects the protection of investments in the country. A Freedom House report, for example, mentions the case of Dubai-based port operator DP World which has been embroiled in a legal battle with Djibouti since 2012, "when Djibouti sold part of its concession in the Doraleh Container Terminal to a Chinese state-owned competitor of DP World, the original concession partner."
In 2018, Djibouti seized DP World's port assets, but ruling the nationalization illegal, the London Court of International Arbitration in 2019 ordered Djibouti to restore the rights and benefits of the concession to DP World. The country subsequently rejected the ruling and asked the Djibouti high court to unilaterally nullify the LCIA decision.
A Santander report concluded that despite its strategic importance, FDI into Djibouti is hampered by "mediocre governance, corruption, the lack of a sound judicial framework, an unstable regional geopolitical situation, a poorly diversified economy with little resilience to outside shocks, and a fragile ecosystem prone to environmental crisis."
As in most African nations, access to licenses and approvals is complicated not so much by law as by administrative procedures. In Djibouti, the administrative process has been characterized as a form of 'circular dependency.' For example, the finance ministry will issue a license only if an investor possesses an approved investor visa, while the interior ministry will only issue an investor visa to a licensed business. The Djiboutian government is increasingly realizing the importance of establishing a one-stop shop to facilitate the investment process.
In May 2015 Choukri Djibah, Director of Gender in the Department of Women and Family, launched the project SIHA (Strategic Initiative for the Horn of Africa) designed to support and reinforce the economic capacity of women in Djibouti, funded with a grant from the European Union of 28 Million Djibouti francs.
Principal exports from the region transiting Djibouti are coffee, salt, hides, dried beans, cereals, other agricultural products, chalk, and wax. Djibouti itself has few exports, and the majority of its imports come from France. Most imports are consumed in Djibouti and the remainder goes to Ethiopia and Somalia. Djibouti's unfavorable balance of trade is offset partially by invisible earnings such as transit taxes and harbor dues. In 1999, U.S. exports to Djibouti totalled $26.7 million while U.S. imports from Djibouti were less than $1 million. The City of Djibouti has the only paved airport in the republic.
In 2013, 63,000 foreign tourists visited Djibouti, Djibouti City is the principal tourist destination for visitors, revenues from tourism fell just US$43 million in 2013. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The economy of Djibouti is derived in large part from its strategic location on the Red Sea. Djibouti is mostly barren, with little development in the agricultural and industrial sectors. The country has a harsh climate, a largely unskilled labour force, and limited natural resources. The country's most important economic asset is its strategic location, connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. As such, Djibouti's economy is commanded by the services sector, providing services as both a transit port for the region and as an international transshipment and refueling centre.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "From 1991 to 1994, Djibouti experienced a civil war which had devastating effects on the economy. Since then, the country has benefited from political stability. In recent years, Djibouti has seen significant improvement in macroeconomic stability, with its annual gross domestic product improving at an average of over 3 percent since 2003. This comes after a decade of negative or low growth and is attributed to fiscal adjustment aimed at improving public financing, reforms in port management and foreign investment.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Despite the recent modest and stable growth, Djibouti is faced with many economic challenges, particularly job creation and poverty reduction. With an average annual population growth rate of 2.5 percent, the economy cannot significantly benefit national income per capita growth. Unemployment is extremely high, with some estimates placing it at almost 60 percent, and is a major contributor to widespread poverty. In recent years, the country's dependence on Chinese investment and debt has also come under scrutiny.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "According to a 2020 report by the World bank, Djibouti was 112th among 190 economies when it comes to the ease of doing business.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "After experiencing armed conflict and economic hardship during the 1990s, Djibouti has experienced stable economic growth in recent years as a result of relative political stability and achievements in macroeconomic adjustment efforts.",
"title": "Economic performance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Fiscal adjustment measures included downsizing the civil service, implementing a pension reform that placed the system on a much stronger financial footing, and strengthening public expenditure institutions. From 2003 to 2005, annual real GDP growth averaged 3.1 percent in the mid-2000s, driven by good performance in the services sector, strong consumption and reached a value as high as 7.8 percent in 2019. In the 21st century, Inflation has been kept low through fixed pegging of the Djibouti franc to the US dollar, but experienced a sharp spike in the late 2000s, when it reached values three times higher than the average of the last 20 years.",
"title": "Economic performance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Despite experiencing economic growth, the country continues to struggle with high unemployment. Official numbers put the unemployment rate at just over 10 percent, but international estimates consider it to be closer to 60 percent. Furthermore, reliance on diesel-generated electricity and the need to import basic necessities like food and water leave average consumers vulnerable to global price shocks.",
"title": "Economic performance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Djibouti's gross domestic product expanded by an average of more than 6 percent per year, from US$341 million in 1985 to US$3.3 billion in 2019.",
"title": "Economic performance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Low tax revenue and high spending on public infrastructure has seen Djibouti struggle with its budget deficit. Additionally, the country's public debt has increased sharply—from 50.2 percent of GDP in 2015 to an expected 72.9 percent in 2020.",
"title": "Economic performance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Djibouti's merchandise trade balance has shown a large deficit. This is due to the country's enormous need for imports and narrow base of exports. Although Djibouti runs a substantial surplus in its services balance, the surplus has been smaller than the deficit in the merchandise trade balance. As a result, Djibouti's has developed a high level of trade deficit, reaching a peak of 130 billion Djibouti francs in 2019.",
"title": "Balance of payments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Positioned on a primary shipping lane between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, Djibouti holds considerable strategic value in the international trade and shipping industries. The facilities of the Port of Djibouti are important to sea transportation companies for fuel bunkering and refuelling. Its transport facilities are used by several landlocked African countries for the re-export of their goods. Djibouti earns transit taxes and harbour fees from this trade, these form the bulk of government revenue. Threats of pirates patrolling the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia, with the intentions of capturing large cargo ships, oil, and chemical tankers has created the need for larger nations such as the United States, France, and Japan to embed logistics bases or military camps from which they can defend their freight from piracy.",
"title": "Regional situation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The port of Djibouti functions as a small French naval facility, and the United States has also stationed hundreds of troops in Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, its only African base, in an effort to counter terrorism in the region.",
"title": "Regional situation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Since 2010 China has become an important trading and military partner for Djibouti, including it in its African Road and Belt Initiative through the construction of infrastructure projects like a railway link to Ethiopia and the Doraleh port. In 2017, it also began operating a large naval base near de Doraleh port, which serves as China's first ever overseas military base. In 2009, China overtook the United States in becoming Djibouti's largest trading partner. Between 57 percent and 70 percent of Djibouti's debt is made up of Chinese loans.",
"title": "Regional situation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Chinese influence in Djibouti, particularly through its military base and financial debt, has been criticized in recent years as being more beneficial to the stability of the current political regime than for the country as a whole.",
"title": "Regional situation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017.",
"title": "Macro-economic trend"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Despite not being hit as hard as other countries by the COVID-19 pandemic, Djibouti's economy suffered the effects of the global slowdown in trade and diminished traffic through the Doraleh port. Real GDP growth slumped to 1.4 percent in 2020 from 7.8 percent in 2019. The pandemic also contributed to a sharp deceleration in investment, which increased by just 10.3 percent of GDP in 2020, compared to a 26.3 percent growth in 2019, as well as in the value added by the services sector, which saw a modest 2 percent increase in 2020, after growing by 8.2 percent in 2019.",
"title": "Macro-economic trend"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Djibouti's recovery projections are closely tied to the timeframe in which global shipping and trade will return to pre-pandemic levels, with a full recovery expected to happen in the following couple of years, if the COVID-19 pandemic does not last beyond the second half of 2021.",
"title": "Macro-economic trend"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Djibouti's economy is based on service activities connected with the country's strategic location and status as a free trade zone in the Horn of Africa. Two-thirds of inhabitants live in the capital and the remainder of the populace is mostly nomadic herders. Low amounts of rainfall limit crop production to fruits and vegetables, and requiring most food to be imported. The government provides services as both a transit port for the region and an international transshipment and refueling centre. Djibouti has few natural resources and little industry. All of these factors contribute to its heavy dependence on foreign assistance to help support its balance of payments and to finance development projects.",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "An unemployment rate of 60 percent continues to be a major problem. Inflation is not a concern, however, because of the fixed tie of the franc to the US dollar. Per capita consumption dropped an estimated 35 percent over the last seven years because of recession, civil war, and a high population growth rate. Faced with a multitude of economic difficulties, the government has fallen in arrears on long-term external debt and has been struggling to meet the stipulations of foreign aid donors.",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The Djiboutian franc is pegged to the US dollars since 1949 through the use of a currency board. The effectiveness of this longstanding and unique institution on the African continent has not been challenged since then.",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "According to a financial risk assessment from 2018, the country has been suffering from increasing corruption and a decline in international governance and transparency indices, growing debt and over-reliance on Ethiopia and China for trade and FDI, respectively.",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Officially, the government of Djibouti welcomes all foreign direct investment. Djibouti's assets include a strategic geographic location, an open trade regime, a stable currency, substantial tax breaks and other incentives. Potential areas of investment include Djibouti's port and the telecommunications sectors. President Ismail Omar Guellehh first elected in 1999, has named privatization, economic reform, and increased foreign investment as top priorities for his government. The president pledged to seek the help of the international private sector to develop the country's infrastructure.",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Djibouti has no major laws that would discourage incoming foreign investment. In principle there is no screening of investment or other discriminatory mechanisms. However, a number of hurdles to foreign investment in the country exist. For example, certain sectors, most notably public utilities, are state owned and some parts are not currently open to investors. In 2017, a law was passed granting the government the right to unilaterally alter or terminate contracts with foreign entities. Conditions of the structural adjustment agreement recently signed by Djibouti and the International Monetary Fund stipulate increased privatization of parastatal and government-owned monopolies. There are no patent laws in Djibouti.",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Furthermore, there are concerns about the rule of law, the independence of courts, and how this affects the protection of investments in the country. A Freedom House report, for example, mentions the case of Dubai-based port operator DP World which has been embroiled in a legal battle with Djibouti since 2012, \"when Djibouti sold part of its concession in the Doraleh Container Terminal to a Chinese state-owned competitor of DP World, the original concession partner.\"",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In 2018, Djibouti seized DP World's port assets, but ruling the nationalization illegal, the London Court of International Arbitration in 2019 ordered Djibouti to restore the rights and benefits of the concession to DP World. The country subsequently rejected the ruling and asked the Djibouti high court to unilaterally nullify the LCIA decision.",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "A Santander report concluded that despite its strategic importance, FDI into Djibouti is hampered by \"mediocre governance, corruption, the lack of a sound judicial framework, an unstable regional geopolitical situation, a poorly diversified economy with little resilience to outside shocks, and a fragile ecosystem prone to environmental crisis.\"",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "As in most African nations, access to licenses and approvals is complicated not so much by law as by administrative procedures. In Djibouti, the administrative process has been characterized as a form of 'circular dependency.' For example, the finance ministry will issue a license only if an investor possesses an approved investor visa, while the interior ministry will only issue an investor visa to a licensed business. The Djiboutian government is increasingly realizing the importance of establishing a one-stop shop to facilitate the investment process.",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In May 2015 Choukri Djibah, Director of Gender in the Department of Women and Family, launched the project SIHA (Strategic Initiative for the Horn of Africa) designed to support and reinforce the economic capacity of women in Djibouti, funded with a grant from the European Union of 28 Million Djibouti francs.",
"title": "Investment climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Principal exports from the region transiting Djibouti are coffee, salt, hides, dried beans, cereals, other agricultural products, chalk, and wax. Djibouti itself has few exports, and the majority of its imports come from France. Most imports are consumed in Djibouti and the remainder goes to Ethiopia and Somalia. Djibouti's unfavorable balance of trade is offset partially by invisible earnings such as transit taxes and harbor dues. In 1999, U.S. exports to Djibouti totalled $26.7 million while U.S. imports from Djibouti were less than $1 million. The City of Djibouti has the only paved airport in the republic.",
"title": "Sectors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 2013, 63,000 foreign tourists visited Djibouti, Djibouti City is the principal tourist destination for visitors, revenues from tourism fell just US$43 million in 2013.",
"title": "Sectors"
}
] | The economy of Djibouti is derived in large part from its strategic location on the Red Sea. Djibouti is mostly barren, with little development in the agricultural and industrial sectors. The country has a harsh climate, a largely unskilled labour force, and limited natural resources. The country's most important economic asset is its strategic location, connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. As such, Djibouti's economy is commanded by the services sector, providing services as both a transit port for the region and as an international transshipment and refueling centre. From 1991 to 1994, Djibouti experienced a civil war which had devastating effects on the economy. Since then, the country has benefited from political stability. In recent years, Djibouti has seen significant improvement in macroeconomic stability, with its annual gross domestic product improving at an average of over 3 percent since 2003. This comes after a decade of negative or low growth and is attributed to fiscal adjustment aimed at improving public financing, reforms in port management and foreign investment. Despite the recent modest and stable growth, Djibouti is faced with many economic challenges, particularly job creation and poverty reduction. With an average annual population growth rate of 2.5 percent, the economy cannot significantly benefit national income per capita growth. Unemployment is extremely high, with some estimates placing it at almost 60 percent, and is a major contributor to widespread poverty. In recent years, the country's dependence on Chinese investment and debt has also come under scrutiny. According to a 2020 report by the World bank, Djibouti was 112th among 190 economies when it comes to the ease of doing business. | 2002-02-25T15:43:11Z | 2023-11-16T10:12:18Z | [
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8,047 | Transport in Djibouti | Transport in Djibouti is facilitated through a relatively young system of roads, railways and ports.
The national flag carrier is Air Djibouti. In total, there are other airlines, all operating out of Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport:
The aviation industry is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Djibouti, a statutory board of the Djibouti government under the Ministry of Infrastructure & Transport.
The Port of Djibouti, run by the Djibouti Ports & Free Zones Authority and Port of Doraleh, is a key transhipment hub for the East African region. | [
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"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Transport in Djibouti is facilitated through a relatively young system of roads, railways and ports.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The national flag carrier is Air Djibouti. In total, there are other airlines, all operating out of Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport:",
"title": "Air transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The aviation industry is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Djibouti, a statutory board of the Djibouti government under the Ministry of Infrastructure & Transport.",
"title": "Air transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The Port of Djibouti, run by the Djibouti Ports & Free Zones Authority and Port of Doraleh, is a key transhipment hub for the East African region.",
"title": "Maritime transport"
}
] | Transport in Djibouti is facilitated through a relatively young system of roads, railways and ports. | 2023-06-01T15:57:32Z | [
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|
8,048 | Djibouti Armed Forces | The Djibouti Armed Forces (DJAF; French: Force Armée Djiboutienne FAD, Arabic: الجيش الجيبوتي, romanized: aljaysh aljibutiu, Somali: Ciidanka Dalka Jabuuti) are the military forces of Djibouti. They consist of the Djiboutian National Army and its sub-branches the Djiboutian Air Force and Djiboutian Navy. As of 2018, the Djibouti Armed Forces consists of 20,470 (2018 est.) ground troops, which are divided into several regiments and battalions garrisoned in various areas throughout the country. The Djibouti Armed Forces are an important player in the Bab-el-Mandeb and Red Sea.
In 2015 General Zakaria Chiek Imbrahim was chief d'etat-major general (chief of staff) of the Forces Armees Djiboutiennes. He assumed command in November 2013.
Djibouti has always been a very active member in the African Union and the Arab League.
Historically, Somali society accorded prestige to the warrior (waranle) and rewarded military prowess. Except for men of religion (wadaad), who were few in number, all Somali males were considered potential warriors. Djibouti's many Sultanates each maintained regular troops. In the early Middle Ages, the conquest of Shewa by the Ifat Sultanate ignited a rivalry for supremacy with the Solomonic Dynasty.
Many similar battles were fought between the succeeding Sultanate of Adal and the Solomonids, with both sides achieving victory and suffering defeat. During the protracted Ethiopian-Adal War (1529–1559), Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi defeated several Ethiopian Emperors and embarked on a conquest referred to as the Futuh Al-Habash ("Conquest of Abyssinia"), which brought three-quarters of Christian Abyssinia under the power of the Muslim Adal Sultanate. Al-Ghazi's forces and their Ottoman allies came close to extinguishing the ancient Ethiopian kingdom, but the Abyssinians managed to secure the assistance of Cristóvão da Gama's Portuguese troops and maintain their domain's autonomy. However, both polities in the process exhausted their resources and manpower, which resulted in the contraction of both powers and changed regional dynamics for centuries to come.
The 1st Battalion of Somali Skirmishers, formed in 1915 from recruits from the French Somali Coast, was a unit belonging to the French Colonial Army. They distinguished himself during the First World War, notably during the resumption of Fort Douaumont, Battle of Verdun in October 1916 alongside the Régiment d'infanterie-chars de marine and the Second Battle of the Aisne in October 1917. In May and June 1918, they took part in the Third Battle Of The Aisne and in July in the Second Battle of the Marne. In August and September 1918, the Somali battalion fought on the Oise front and in October 1918 he obtained his second citation to the order of the army as well as the right to wear a Fourragère in the colors of the ribbon of the Croix de guerre 1914–1918. Between 1915 and 1918, over 2,088 Djiboutians served as combat in the First World War. Their losses are estimated at 517 killed and 1,000 to 1,200 injured.
During the Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s and during the early stages of World War II, constant border skirmishes occurred between the forces in French Somaliland and the forces in Italian East Africa. After the fall of France in 1940, French Somaliland declared loyalty to Vichy France. The colony remained loyal to Vichy France during the East African Campaign but stayed out of that conflict. British forces in Ethiopia begin dropping leaflets calling on the French Somaliland to rally to Free France. The newspaper Djibouti Libre published in Dire Dawa is also air dropped into the Vichy controlled colony and a 15-minute newscast is broadcast over the radio. In 1942: Vichy recalls Governor Pierre Nouailhetas after his superiors decide that he is in too close contact with the British. Nouailhetas delegates his authority to the military commander General Truffert. Two battalions, accompanied by civilians, leave Djibouti to join the British forces in British Somaliland. General Truffert is forced to resign and cede power to his adjutant General Dupont after a great majority of Djibouti’s military and civil administrators threaten to leave for British held Somaliland. This lasted until December 1942. By that time, the Italians had been defeated and the French colony was isolated by a British blockade. Free French and Allied forces recaptured the colony's capital of Djibouti at the end of 1942. A local battalion of Somali skirmishers to participate in the battles for the liberation of France, it participated in particular in the fighting at Pointe de Grave in April 1945. On April 22, 1945, General de Gaulle awarded the Somali battalion a citation to the army and decorated the battalion's pennant in Soulac-sur-Mer. The Somali battalion is dissolved on June 25, 1946.
The Ogaden War (13 July 1977 – 15 March 1978) was a conflict fought between the Ethiopian government and Somali government. The Djibouti government supported Somalia with military intelligence. In a notable illustration of the nature of Cold War alliances, the Soviet Union switched from supplying aid to Somalia to supporting Ethiopia, which had previously been backed by the United States. This in turn prompted the U.S. to later start supporting Somalia. The war ended when Somali forces retreated back across the border and a truce was declared.
In the 27 May to June 13, 1991, the Djiboutian Armed Forces and FFDJ participated in Operation Godoria. The President of the Djiboutian Republic, Hassan Gouled Aptidon described this as a "invasion". At the end of May 1991, the collapse of the Ethiopian regime the Assab loyalist division. Crossed the border at dawn, cornered on the northern border of Djibouti, Assab's division, 9,000 strong, crossed the Djiboutian-Ethiopian border with arms and luggage and headed towards Obock. Simultaneously, another division crossed the Western border and moved towards Dikhil. This violation of the borders by a regular foreign army falls strictly within the framework of the protocols passed between France and Djibouti. This is why, on May 26 at 10:30 p.m., Operation Godoria is launched, all Djiboutian and French forces, land, air and sea stationed in Djibouti participate in it. Djiboutian Army, prohibit Ethiopian troops from surging towards the south. Djiboutian and French troops deployed, facing the firmness of their interlocutors, the Ethiopian officers yielded to the demands and agreed to continue the disarmament already begun. The 5th Overseas Interarms Regiment took charge of a detachment of 4,300 military refugees, accompanied by a few families and embarked in 120 vehicles of all types heading towards the southern border. The initial aim is to clean up a border area of 150 km2, collect, remove supplies, inventory and hand over abandoned weapons to the Djiboutian authorities. The "Lynx Mike" detachment identifies thousands of individual and collective weapons, includes the T 55, ZU-23-2,BTR and BRDM, finally destroys the 50 tons of unpackaged ammunition of all calibers. From May 30 to June 13, there will be a total of 12,500 weapons from the AK47 to the T64, including LRMs, 122 howitzers and more than 200 tons of ammunition from the 200 kg bomb to the cartridge factory, via rockets LRM which will have been moved, sorted, stored, even for some of them neutralized or destroyed. For the first time since the accession to independence of Djibouti, the Djiboutian national army and the French forces placed in a highly operational environment, will have proved the validity of the defense agreements binding the two countries contributed to the success of this mission to safeguard the Republic of Djibouti. Perfectly impregnated with the spirit of the mission, the porpoises, from the colonel to the simple soldier, knew how to demand from this Ethiopian army, demoralized, but still supervised, the strict application of the orders emanating from the civil and military authorities, Djiboutian and French, in starting with disarmament before providing them with the food support that has become essential. Around 10:00 am, the convoy begins its progress in the direction of Ali Sabieh. Then reached Ali Sabieh where the refugees were taken care of by the Djiboutian Army and the High Commissioner for Refugees. Most will reach the region of Dire Dawa, in eastern Ethiopia.
The first war which involved the Djiboutian armed forces was the Djiboutian Civil War between the Djiboutian government, supported by France, and the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD). The war lasted from 1991 to 2001, although most of the hostilities ended when the moderate factions of FRUD signed a peace treaty with the government after suffering an extensive military setback when the government forces captured most of the rebel-held territory. A radical group continued to fight the government, but signed its own peace treaty in 2001. The war ended in a government victory, and FRUD became a political party.
Djibouti has fought in clashes against Eritrea over the Ras Doumeira peninsula, which both countries claim to be under their sovereignty. The first clash occurred in 1996 after a nearly two-months stand-off. In 1999, a political crisis occurred when both sides accused each other for supporting its enemies. In 2008, the countries clashed again when Djibouti refused to return Eritrean deserters and Eritrea responded by firing at the Djiboutian forces. In the following battles, some 44 Djiboutian troops and some estimated 100 Eritreans were killed.
In 2011, Djibouti troops also joined the African Union Mission to Somalia. Djibouti deployed troops to Somalia to fight Al-Shabaab forces and Al-Qaeda operatives, with the hopes of dismantling both groups to support the transitional governmental structures, implement a national security plan, train the Somali security forces, and to assist in creating a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Djibouti's responsibilities include providing security in Hiran and Galguduud regions.
As of 2013, the Djibouti Armed Forces (DJAF) are composed of three branches: the Djibouti National Army, which consists of the Coastal Navy, the Djiboutian Air Force (Force Aerienne Djiboutienne, FAD), and the National Gendarmerie (GN). The Army is by far the largest, followed by the Air Force and Navy. The Commander-in-Chief of the DJAF is the President of Djibouti and the Minister of Defence oversees the DJAF on a day-to-day basis.
Refer to decree No 2003-0166/PR/MDN on organization of Djibouti Armed Forces. The armed forces consist of:
The Djiboutian National Army (DNA) is the largest branch of the Djibouti Armed Forces. Just prior to independence in 1977, the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas established a national army to defend the Djiboutian's borders. The 6 June 1977 has since been marked as Armed Forces Day. After independence, the Front de Libération de la Côte des Somalis troops merged to form the 2,500 strong Djiboutian National Army. Djibouti maintains a modest military force of approximately 20,470 troops; the army is made of 18,600 troops (IISS 2018). The latter are divided into several regiments and battalions garrisoned in various areas throughout the country. The Army has four military districts (the Tadjourah, Dikhil, Ali-Sabieh and Obock districts). Clashes with the Military of Eritrea, in 2008, demonstrated the superior nature of the Djiboutian forces’ training and skills, but also highlighted the fact that the small military would be unable to counter the larger, if less well-equipped forces of its neighbours. The army has concentrated on mobility in its equipment purchases, suitable for patrol duties and counterattacks but ill-suited for armoured warfare. The 2008 border clashes at least temporarily swelled the ranks of the Djiboutian army, with retired personnel being recalled, but the military's size and capabilities are much reduced since the 1990s. The army to address more effectively its major defense disadvantage: lack of strategic depth. Thus in the early 2000s it looked outward for a model of army organization that would best advance defensive capabilities by restructuring forces into smaller, more mobile units instead of traditional divisions. The official tasks of the armed forces include strengthening the country against external attack, and maintaining border security. Djiboutian troops continue to monitor its borders with Eritrea, in the case of an attack. The Djiboutian Army is one of the small professional advanced armies in East Africa.
Its maneuver units are:
Italy delivered 10 howitzers M-109L (in 2013), tens IVECO trucks (ACM90, cranes, tankers, etc.), some IVECO armoured car Puma 4X4 and IVECO utility vehicles VM90.
In reforming the Djiboutian Army, most of the available financial resources have been directed to the development of the Land Forces. Over the years, Djiboutian Army has established partnerships with militaries in France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and the United States. Currently, the amount allocated to defense represents the largest single entry in the country's budget.
The Djiboutian National Gendarmerie is the national Gendarmerie force of Djibouti, tasked with high-risk and specialized law enforcement duties. It is one of the two main police forces in Djibouti (the other being the Djiboutian Police - a civilian force), both having jurisdiction over the civilian population. It is a branch of the Djiboutian Armed Forces placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior—with additional duties to the Ministry of Defense. Its area of responsibility includes smaller towns, rural and suburban areas.
The Djiboutian Navy (DN) is the naval service branch of the Djibouti Armed Forces. The force was launched two years after Djibouti gained its independence in 1977. It is responsible for securing Djibouti's territorial waters and 314-kilometre (195 mi) seaboard as well as supporting army operations. The primary objective of the navy is to safeguard the nation's maritime borders, act to deter or defeat any threats or aggression against the territory, people or maritime interests of Djibouti, both in war and peace. Through joint exercises and humanitarian missions, including disaster relief, the Djiboutian Navy promotes bilateral relations between nations. It has a fleet of gunboats, fast missile boats and support, training, which can be deployed to defend the territorial waters and coastline of Djibouti as well as protect tankers passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. The acquisition of the several boats from the US in 2006 considerably increased the navy's ability to patrol over longer distances and to remain at sea for several days at a time. Cooperation with the US and Yemeni navies is also increasing in an effort to protect and maintain the safety and security of the Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOC). The Navy is upgrading itself with the following technological developments.
The Djiboutian Coast Guard (DCG) (French: Garde-Côtes Djiboutienne GCD), is the coast guard of Djibouti is a division of the Djiboutian Navy responsible for protecting the interests of the Republic of Djibouti at sea. Formed in 2011, the coast guard is tasked with such as illegal fishing and exploitation of natural resources, search and rescue (SAR), protection of ecology, fishing, marine pollution, ballast waters, combat against terrorism, trafficking of people, narcotics, and similar. Like many other coast guards, it is a paramilitary organization that can support the Djiboutian Navy in wartime, but resides under separate civilian control in times of peace. The Coast Guard monitor vessels sailing in the Djiboutian territorial waters. The Djiboutian Coast Guard intercepted refugee and migrant boats travelling across the Bab-el-Mandeb.
The Djiboutian Air Force (DAF) (French: Force Aérienne du Djibouti (FADD) was established as part of the Djibouti Armed Forces after the country obtained its independence on June 27, 1977. Its first aircraft included three Nord N.2501 Noratlas transport aircraft and an Alouette II helicopter presented to it by the French. In 1982, the Djibouti Air Force was augmented by two Aerospatiale AS.355F Ecureuil 2 helicopters and a Cessna U206G Stationair, this was followed in 1985 by a Cessna 402C Utiliner. In 1985, the Alouette II was withdrawn from use and put on display at Ambouli Air Base at Djibouti's airport. In 1987, the three N.2501 Noratlas were also retired and subsequently returned to France. New equipment came, in 1991, in the form of a Cessna 208 Caravan, followed by Russian types in the early nineties. These included four Mil Mi 2, six Mil Mi 8 and two Mil Mi 17 helicopters and a single Antonov An 28 light transport aircraft. Pilot training for the 360 men of the DAF, if necessary, is conducted in France with continued on type flight training at home. The DAF has no units of its own and forms in whole a part of the Army, its sole base is Ambouli.
The main doctrine consists of the following principles:
The size and structure of the Djibouti Armed Forces is continually evolving.
As of 2018, Djibouti Armed Forces were reported to have 18,000–20,000 active personnel, 10,500–11,000 reserve personnel.
Djibouti first UN Peacekeeping mission was in 1994, when it deployed uniformed personnel to the UN Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) and the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). Djibouti UN peacekeeping mission in the Darfur, Sudan in 2010, withdrew their personnel from Sudan on the 30 June 2021. Djibouti has committed to strengthening international action through the African Union to achieve collective security and uphold the goals enshrined in the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter and the Constitutive Act of the African Union. Deployed in 3 countries in Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic.
France's 5e RIAOM are currently stationed in Djibouti.
The Italian Base Militare Nazionale di Supporto (National Support Military Base) is capable to host 300 troops and some UAVs.
There is also Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, a U.S. force of more than 3,500, currently deployed in the country at Camp Lemonnier.
The Japan Self-Defense Force Base Djibouti was established in 2011. The Deployment Airforce for Counter-Piracy Enforcement (DAPE): Established in 2011 with approximately 600 deployed personnel from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, on a rotational basis, operating naval vessels and maritime patrol aircraft. Japan reportedly pays $30 million per year for the military facilities, from which it conducts anti-piracy operations in the region. The base also acts as a hub for operations throughout the East African coastline.
The Chinese naval support base in Djibouti began construction in 2016 and was officially opened in 2017. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Djibouti Armed Forces (DJAF; French: Force Armée Djiboutienne FAD, Arabic: الجيش الجيبوتي, romanized: aljaysh aljibutiu, Somali: Ciidanka Dalka Jabuuti) are the military forces of Djibouti. They consist of the Djiboutian National Army and its sub-branches the Djiboutian Air Force and Djiboutian Navy. As of 2018, the Djibouti Armed Forces consists of 20,470 (2018 est.) ground troops, which are divided into several regiments and battalions garrisoned in various areas throughout the country. The Djibouti Armed Forces are an important player in the Bab-el-Mandeb and Red Sea.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In 2015 General Zakaria Chiek Imbrahim was chief d'etat-major general (chief of staff) of the Forces Armees Djiboutiennes. He assumed command in November 2013.",
"title": ""
},
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"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Djibouti has always been a very active member in the African Union and the Arab League.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Historically, Somali society accorded prestige to the warrior (waranle) and rewarded military prowess. Except for men of religion (wadaad), who were few in number, all Somali males were considered potential warriors. Djibouti's many Sultanates each maintained regular troops. In the early Middle Ages, the conquest of Shewa by the Ifat Sultanate ignited a rivalry for supremacy with the Solomonic Dynasty.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Many similar battles were fought between the succeeding Sultanate of Adal and the Solomonids, with both sides achieving victory and suffering defeat. During the protracted Ethiopian-Adal War (1529–1559), Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi defeated several Ethiopian Emperors and embarked on a conquest referred to as the Futuh Al-Habash (\"Conquest of Abyssinia\"), which brought three-quarters of Christian Abyssinia under the power of the Muslim Adal Sultanate. Al-Ghazi's forces and their Ottoman allies came close to extinguishing the ancient Ethiopian kingdom, but the Abyssinians managed to secure the assistance of Cristóvão da Gama's Portuguese troops and maintain their domain's autonomy. However, both polities in the process exhausted their resources and manpower, which resulted in the contraction of both powers and changed regional dynamics for centuries to come.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The 1st Battalion of Somali Skirmishers, formed in 1915 from recruits from the French Somali Coast, was a unit belonging to the French Colonial Army. They distinguished himself during the First World War, notably during the resumption of Fort Douaumont, Battle of Verdun in October 1916 alongside the Régiment d'infanterie-chars de marine and the Second Battle of the Aisne in October 1917. In May and June 1918, they took part in the Third Battle Of The Aisne and in July in the Second Battle of the Marne. In August and September 1918, the Somali battalion fought on the Oise front and in October 1918 he obtained his second citation to the order of the army as well as the right to wear a Fourragère in the colors of the ribbon of the Croix de guerre 1914–1918. Between 1915 and 1918, over 2,088 Djiboutians served as combat in the First World War. Their losses are estimated at 517 killed and 1,000 to 1,200 injured.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "During the Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s and during the early stages of World War II, constant border skirmishes occurred between the forces in French Somaliland and the forces in Italian East Africa. After the fall of France in 1940, French Somaliland declared loyalty to Vichy France. The colony remained loyal to Vichy France during the East African Campaign but stayed out of that conflict. British forces in Ethiopia begin dropping leaflets calling on the French Somaliland to rally to Free France. The newspaper Djibouti Libre published in Dire Dawa is also air dropped into the Vichy controlled colony and a 15-minute newscast is broadcast over the radio. In 1942: Vichy recalls Governor Pierre Nouailhetas after his superiors decide that he is in too close contact with the British. Nouailhetas delegates his authority to the military commander General Truffert. Two battalions, accompanied by civilians, leave Djibouti to join the British forces in British Somaliland. General Truffert is forced to resign and cede power to his adjutant General Dupont after a great majority of Djibouti’s military and civil administrators threaten to leave for British held Somaliland. This lasted until December 1942. By that time, the Italians had been defeated and the French colony was isolated by a British blockade. Free French and Allied forces recaptured the colony's capital of Djibouti at the end of 1942. A local battalion of Somali skirmishers to participate in the battles for the liberation of France, it participated in particular in the fighting at Pointe de Grave in April 1945. On April 22, 1945, General de Gaulle awarded the Somali battalion a citation to the army and decorated the battalion's pennant in Soulac-sur-Mer. The Somali battalion is dissolved on June 25, 1946.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The Ogaden War (13 July 1977 – 15 March 1978) was a conflict fought between the Ethiopian government and Somali government. The Djibouti government supported Somalia with military intelligence. In a notable illustration of the nature of Cold War alliances, the Soviet Union switched from supplying aid to Somalia to supporting Ethiopia, which had previously been backed by the United States. This in turn prompted the U.S. to later start supporting Somalia. The war ended when Somali forces retreated back across the border and a truce was declared.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In the 27 May to June 13, 1991, the Djiboutian Armed Forces and FFDJ participated in Operation Godoria. The President of the Djiboutian Republic, Hassan Gouled Aptidon described this as a \"invasion\". At the end of May 1991, the collapse of the Ethiopian regime the Assab loyalist division. Crossed the border at dawn, cornered on the northern border of Djibouti, Assab's division, 9,000 strong, crossed the Djiboutian-Ethiopian border with arms and luggage and headed towards Obock. Simultaneously, another division crossed the Western border and moved towards Dikhil. This violation of the borders by a regular foreign army falls strictly within the framework of the protocols passed between France and Djibouti. This is why, on May 26 at 10:30 p.m., Operation Godoria is launched, all Djiboutian and French forces, land, air and sea stationed in Djibouti participate in it. Djiboutian Army, prohibit Ethiopian troops from surging towards the south. Djiboutian and French troops deployed, facing the firmness of their interlocutors, the Ethiopian officers yielded to the demands and agreed to continue the disarmament already begun. The 5th Overseas Interarms Regiment took charge of a detachment of 4,300 military refugees, accompanied by a few families and embarked in 120 vehicles of all types heading towards the southern border. The initial aim is to clean up a border area of 150 km2, collect, remove supplies, inventory and hand over abandoned weapons to the Djiboutian authorities. The \"Lynx Mike\" detachment identifies thousands of individual and collective weapons, includes the T 55, ZU-23-2,BTR and BRDM, finally destroys the 50 tons of unpackaged ammunition of all calibers. From May 30 to June 13, there will be a total of 12,500 weapons from the AK47 to the T64, including LRMs, 122 howitzers and more than 200 tons of ammunition from the 200 kg bomb to the cartridge factory, via rockets LRM which will have been moved, sorted, stored, even for some of them neutralized or destroyed. For the first time since the accession to independence of Djibouti, the Djiboutian national army and the French forces placed in a highly operational environment, will have proved the validity of the defense agreements binding the two countries contributed to the success of this mission to safeguard the Republic of Djibouti. Perfectly impregnated with the spirit of the mission, the porpoises, from the colonel to the simple soldier, knew how to demand from this Ethiopian army, demoralized, but still supervised, the strict application of the orders emanating from the civil and military authorities, Djiboutian and French, in starting with disarmament before providing them with the food support that has become essential. Around 10:00 am, the convoy begins its progress in the direction of Ali Sabieh. Then reached Ali Sabieh where the refugees were taken care of by the Djiboutian Army and the High Commissioner for Refugees. Most will reach the region of Dire Dawa, in eastern Ethiopia.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The first war which involved the Djiboutian armed forces was the Djiboutian Civil War between the Djiboutian government, supported by France, and the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD). The war lasted from 1991 to 2001, although most of the hostilities ended when the moderate factions of FRUD signed a peace treaty with the government after suffering an extensive military setback when the government forces captured most of the rebel-held territory. A radical group continued to fight the government, but signed its own peace treaty in 2001. The war ended in a government victory, and FRUD became a political party.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Djibouti has fought in clashes against Eritrea over the Ras Doumeira peninsula, which both countries claim to be under their sovereignty. The first clash occurred in 1996 after a nearly two-months stand-off. In 1999, a political crisis occurred when both sides accused each other for supporting its enemies. In 2008, the countries clashed again when Djibouti refused to return Eritrean deserters and Eritrea responded by firing at the Djiboutian forces. In the following battles, some 44 Djiboutian troops and some estimated 100 Eritreans were killed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In 2011, Djibouti troops also joined the African Union Mission to Somalia. Djibouti deployed troops to Somalia to fight Al-Shabaab forces and Al-Qaeda operatives, with the hopes of dismantling both groups to support the transitional governmental structures, implement a national security plan, train the Somali security forces, and to assist in creating a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Djibouti's responsibilities include providing security in Hiran and Galguduud regions.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "As of 2013, the Djibouti Armed Forces (DJAF) are composed of three branches: the Djibouti National Army, which consists of the Coastal Navy, the Djiboutian Air Force (Force Aerienne Djiboutienne, FAD), and the National Gendarmerie (GN). The Army is by far the largest, followed by the Air Force and Navy. The Commander-in-Chief of the DJAF is the President of Djibouti and the Minister of Defence oversees the DJAF on a day-to-day basis.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Refer to decree No 2003-0166/PR/MDN on organization of Djibouti Armed Forces. The armed forces consist of:",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The Djiboutian National Army (DNA) is the largest branch of the Djibouti Armed Forces. Just prior to independence in 1977, the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas established a national army to defend the Djiboutian's borders. The 6 June 1977 has since been marked as Armed Forces Day. After independence, the Front de Libération de la Côte des Somalis troops merged to form the 2,500 strong Djiboutian National Army. Djibouti maintains a modest military force of approximately 20,470 troops; the army is made of 18,600 troops (IISS 2018). The latter are divided into several regiments and battalions garrisoned in various areas throughout the country. The Army has four military districts (the Tadjourah, Dikhil, Ali-Sabieh and Obock districts). Clashes with the Military of Eritrea, in 2008, demonstrated the superior nature of the Djiboutian forces’ training and skills, but also highlighted the fact that the small military would be unable to counter the larger, if less well-equipped forces of its neighbours. The army has concentrated on mobility in its equipment purchases, suitable for patrol duties and counterattacks but ill-suited for armoured warfare. The 2008 border clashes at least temporarily swelled the ranks of the Djiboutian army, with retired personnel being recalled, but the military's size and capabilities are much reduced since the 1990s. The army to address more effectively its major defense disadvantage: lack of strategic depth. Thus in the early 2000s it looked outward for a model of army organization that would best advance defensive capabilities by restructuring forces into smaller, more mobile units instead of traditional divisions. The official tasks of the armed forces include strengthening the country against external attack, and maintaining border security. Djiboutian troops continue to monitor its borders with Eritrea, in the case of an attack. The Djiboutian Army is one of the small professional advanced armies in East Africa.",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Its maneuver units are:",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Italy delivered 10 howitzers M-109L (in 2013), tens IVECO trucks (ACM90, cranes, tankers, etc.), some IVECO armoured car Puma 4X4 and IVECO utility vehicles VM90.",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In reforming the Djiboutian Army, most of the available financial resources have been directed to the development of the Land Forces. Over the years, Djiboutian Army has established partnerships with militaries in France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and the United States. Currently, the amount allocated to defense represents the largest single entry in the country's budget.",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The Djiboutian National Gendarmerie is the national Gendarmerie force of Djibouti, tasked with high-risk and specialized law enforcement duties. It is one of the two main police forces in Djibouti (the other being the Djiboutian Police - a civilian force), both having jurisdiction over the civilian population. It is a branch of the Djiboutian Armed Forces placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior—with additional duties to the Ministry of Defense. Its area of responsibility includes smaller towns, rural and suburban areas.",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The Djiboutian Navy (DN) is the naval service branch of the Djibouti Armed Forces. The force was launched two years after Djibouti gained its independence in 1977. It is responsible for securing Djibouti's territorial waters and 314-kilometre (195 mi) seaboard as well as supporting army operations. The primary objective of the navy is to safeguard the nation's maritime borders, act to deter or defeat any threats or aggression against the territory, people or maritime interests of Djibouti, both in war and peace. Through joint exercises and humanitarian missions, including disaster relief, the Djiboutian Navy promotes bilateral relations between nations. It has a fleet of gunboats, fast missile boats and support, training, which can be deployed to defend the territorial waters and coastline of Djibouti as well as protect tankers passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. The acquisition of the several boats from the US in 2006 considerably increased the navy's ability to patrol over longer distances and to remain at sea for several days at a time. Cooperation with the US and Yemeni navies is also increasing in an effort to protect and maintain the safety and security of the Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOC). The Navy is upgrading itself with the following technological developments.",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Djiboutian Coast Guard (DCG) (French: Garde-Côtes Djiboutienne GCD), is the coast guard of Djibouti is a division of the Djiboutian Navy responsible for protecting the interests of the Republic of Djibouti at sea. Formed in 2011, the coast guard is tasked with such as illegal fishing and exploitation of natural resources, search and rescue (SAR), protection of ecology, fishing, marine pollution, ballast waters, combat against terrorism, trafficking of people, narcotics, and similar. Like many other coast guards, it is a paramilitary organization that can support the Djiboutian Navy in wartime, but resides under separate civilian control in times of peace. The Coast Guard monitor vessels sailing in the Djiboutian territorial waters. The Djiboutian Coast Guard intercepted refugee and migrant boats travelling across the Bab-el-Mandeb.",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The Djiboutian Air Force (DAF) (French: Force Aérienne du Djibouti (FADD) was established as part of the Djibouti Armed Forces after the country obtained its independence on June 27, 1977. Its first aircraft included three Nord N.2501 Noratlas transport aircraft and an Alouette II helicopter presented to it by the French. In 1982, the Djibouti Air Force was augmented by two Aerospatiale AS.355F Ecureuil 2 helicopters and a Cessna U206G Stationair, this was followed in 1985 by a Cessna 402C Utiliner. In 1985, the Alouette II was withdrawn from use and put on display at Ambouli Air Base at Djibouti's airport. In 1987, the three N.2501 Noratlas were also retired and subsequently returned to France. New equipment came, in 1991, in the form of a Cessna 208 Caravan, followed by Russian types in the early nineties. These included four Mil Mi 2, six Mil Mi 8 and two Mil Mi 17 helicopters and a single Antonov An 28 light transport aircraft. Pilot training for the 360 men of the DAF, if necessary, is conducted in France with continued on type flight training at home. The DAF has no units of its own and forms in whole a part of the Army, its sole base is Ambouli.",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The main doctrine consists of the following principles:",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The size and structure of the Djibouti Armed Forces is continually evolving.",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "As of 2018, Djibouti Armed Forces were reported to have 18,000–20,000 active personnel, 10,500–11,000 reserve personnel.",
"title": "Component forces and their organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Djibouti first UN Peacekeeping mission was in 1994, when it deployed uniformed personnel to the UN Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) and the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). Djibouti UN peacekeeping mission in the Darfur, Sudan in 2010, withdrew their personnel from Sudan on the 30 June 2021. Djibouti has committed to strengthening international action through the African Union to achieve collective security and uphold the goals enshrined in the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter and the Constitutive Act of the African Union. Deployed in 3 countries in Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic.",
"title": "Peacekeeping"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "France's 5e RIAOM are currently stationed in Djibouti.",
"title": "Foreign military within Djibouti"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The Italian Base Militare Nazionale di Supporto (National Support Military Base) is capable to host 300 troops and some UAVs.",
"title": "Foreign military within Djibouti"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "",
"title": "Foreign military within Djibouti"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "There is also Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, a U.S. force of more than 3,500, currently deployed in the country at Camp Lemonnier.",
"title": "Foreign military within Djibouti"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The Japan Self-Defense Force Base Djibouti was established in 2011. The Deployment Airforce for Counter-Piracy Enforcement (DAPE): Established in 2011 with approximately 600 deployed personnel from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, on a rotational basis, operating naval vessels and maritime patrol aircraft. Japan reportedly pays $30 million per year for the military facilities, from which it conducts anti-piracy operations in the region. The base also acts as a hub for operations throughout the East African coastline.",
"title": "Foreign military within Djibouti"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The Chinese naval support base in Djibouti began construction in 2016 and was officially opened in 2017.",
"title": "Foreign military within Djibouti"
}
] | The Djibouti Armed Forces are the military forces of Djibouti. They consist of the Djiboutian National Army and its sub-branches the Djiboutian Air Force and Djiboutian Navy. As of 2018, the Djibouti Armed Forces consists of 20,470 ground troops, which are divided into several regiments and battalions garrisoned in various areas throughout the country. The Djibouti Armed Forces are an important player in the Bab-el-Mandeb and Red Sea. In 2015 General Zakaria Chiek Imbrahim was chief d'etat-major general of the Forces Armees Djiboutiennes. He assumed command in November 2013. Djibouti has always been a very active member in the African Union and the Arab League. | 2002-02-25T15:43:11Z | 2023-12-06T20:38:41Z | [
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8,051 | History of Dominica | The first written records in the history of Dominica began in November 1493, when Christopher Columbus spotted the island. Prior to European contact, Dominica was inhabited by the Arawak. Dominica was a French colony from 1715 until the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, and then became a British colony from 1763 to 1978. It became an independent nation in 1978.
The Arawak were guided to Dominica, and other islands of the Caribbean, by the South Equatorial Current from the waters of the Orinoco River. These descendants of the early Taínos were overthrown by the Kalinago tribe of the Caribs. The Caribs, who settled here in the 14th century, called the island Wai‘tu kubuli, which means "Tall is her body."
Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it - a Sunday ('Dominica' in Latin) - which fell on 3 November 1493 on his second voyage.
Daunted by fierce resistance from the Caribs and discouraged by the absence of gold, the Spanish did not settle the island. Many of the remaining Carib people live in Dominica's Carib Territory, a 3,700-acre (15 km) district on Dominica's east coast.
In 1632, the French Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique claimed Dominica along with all the other 'Petite Antilles' but no settlement was attempted. Between 1642 and 1650 a French missionary Raymond Breton became the first regular European visitor to the island. In 1660 the French and English agreed that both Dominica and St. Vincent should not be settled, but instead left to the Caribs as neutral territory. Dominica was officially neutral for the next century, but the attraction of its resources remained; rival expeditions of English and French foresters were harvesting timber by the start of the 18th century.
Spain had little to no success in colonizing Dominica and in 1690, the French established their first permanent settlements in Dominica. French woodcutters from Martinique and Guadeloupe begin to set up timber camps to supply the French islands with wood and gradually become permanent settlers. They brought the first enslaved people from West Africa to Dominica. In 1715, a revolt of "poor white" smallholders in the north of Martinique, known as La Gaoulé, caused an exodus of them to southern Dominica. They set up smallholdings. Meanwhile, French families and others from Guadeloupe settled in the north. In 1727, the first French commander, M. Le Grand, took charge of the island with a basic French government; Dominica formally became a colony of France, and the island was divided into districts or "quarters". Already installed in Martinique and Guadeloupe and cultivating sugar cane, the French gradually developed plantations in Dominica for coffee. They imported African slaves to fill the labor demands replacing the indigenous Caribs.
In 1761, during the Seven Years' War a British expedition against Dominica led by Lord Rollo was successful and the island was conquered along with several other Caribbean islands. After France was defeated by Britain in the Seven Years' War, it ceded the island to the British under the Treaty of Paris (1763). In 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, the French mounted a successful invasion with the active cooperation of the population. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, returned the island to Britain. French invasions in 1795 and 1805 ended in failure.
As part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War, the island became a British possession. In 1778, during the American War of Independence, the French mounted a successful invasion with the active cooperation of the population, which was largely French. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, returned the island to Britain. French invasions in 1795 and 1805 ended in failure. The 22 February 1805 invasion burned much of Roseau to the ground.
In 1763, the British established a legislative assembly, representing only the white population. In 1831, reflecting a liberalization of official British racial attitudes, the Brown Privilege Bill conferred political and social rights on free nonwhites. Three Blacks were elected to the legislative assembly the following year. The abolition of slavery in 1834 enabled Dominica by 1838 to become the only British Caribbean colony to have a Black-controlled legislature in the 19th century. Most Black legislators were small holders or merchants who held economic and social views diametrically opposed to the interests of the small, wealthy English planter class. Reacting to a perceived threat, the planters lobbied for more direct British rule.
In 1865, after much agitation and tension, the colonial office replaced the elective assembly with one composed of one-half elected members and one-half appointed. The elected legislators were outmaneuvered on numerous occasions by planters allied with colonial administrators. In 1871, Dominica became part of the Leeward Island Federation. The power of the Black population progressively eroded. Crown Colony government was re-established in 1896.
Following World War I, an upsurge of political consciousness throughout the Caribbean led to the formation of the representative government association. Marshaling public frustration with the lack of a voice in the governing of Dominica, this group won one-third of the popularly elected seats of the legislative assembly in 1924 and one-half in 1936. Shortly thereafter, Dominica was transferred from the Leeward Island Administration and was governed as part of the Windwards until 1958, when it joined the short-lived West Indies Federation.
In 1961, a Dominica Labor Party government led by Edward Oliver LeBlanc was elected. After the federation dissolved, Dominica became an associated state of the United Kingdom on February 27, 1967 and formally took responsibility for its internal affairs. LeBlanc retired in 1974 and was replaced by Patrick John who became the islands' first Prime Minister.
On November 3, 1978, the Commonwealth of Dominica was granted independence by the United Kingdom.
In August 1979, Hurricane David, packing winds of 150 mph (240 km/h), struck the island with devastating force. Forty-two people were killed and 75% of the islanders' homes were destroyed or severely damaged.
Independence did little to solve problems stemming from centuries of economic underdevelopment, and in mid-1979, political discontent led to the formation of an interim government, led by Oliver Seraphin. It was replaced after the 1980 elections by a government led by the Dominica Freedom Party under Prime Minister Eugenia Charles, the Caribbean's first female prime minister. Within a year of her inauguration she survived two unsuccessful coups and in October 1983, as chairperson of the Organisation of East Caribbean States, endorsed the US Invasion of Grenada.
Chronic economic problems were compounded by the severe impact of hurricanes in 1979 and in 1980. By the end of the 1980s, the economy had made a healthy recovery, which weakened in the 1990s due to a decrease in banana prices.
In 1995 the government was defeated in elections by the United Workers Party of Edison James. James became prime minister, serving until the February 2000 elections, when the Dominica United Workers Party (DUWP) was defeated by the Dominica Labour Party (DLP), led by Rosie Douglas. He was a former socialist activist, and many feared that his approach to politics might be impractical. However, these were somewhat quieted when he formed a coalition with the more conservative Dominica Freedom Party. Douglas died suddenly after only eight months in office, on October 1, 2000, and was replaced by Pierre Charles, also of the DLP. In 2003, Nicholas Liverpool was elected and sworn in as president, succeeding Vernon Shaw. On January 6, 2004, Prime Minister Pierre Charles, who had been suffering from heart problems since 2003, died. He became the second consecutive prime minister of Dominica to die in office of a heart attack. The foreign minister, Osborne Riviere immediately became prime minister, but the education minister, Roosevelt Skerrit succeeded him as prime minister and became the new leader of the Dominica Labour Party. Elections were held on May 5, 2005, with the ruling coalition maintaining power.
In 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Dominica and was the most powerful and devastating hurricane ever recorded in Dominica.
President Charles Angelo Savarin was re-elected in 2018.
In the 2019 general elections The Dominica Labour Party (DLP) was given another overwhelming mandate – for a record fifth consecutive five-year term. The party’s charismatic but often maligned leader, Roosevelt Skerrit, will serve a new five-year term as the Prime Minister of Dominica. | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The first written records in the history of Dominica began in November 1493, when Christopher Columbus spotted the island. Prior to European contact, Dominica was inhabited by the Arawak. Dominica was a French colony from 1715 until the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, and then became a British colony from 1763 to 1978. It became an independent nation in 1978.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Arawak were guided to Dominica, and other islands of the Caribbean, by the South Equatorial Current from the waters of the Orinoco River. These descendants of the early Taínos were overthrown by the Kalinago tribe of the Caribs. The Caribs, who settled here in the 14th century, called the island Wai‘tu kubuli, which means \"Tall is her body.\"",
"title": "Pre-colonial"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it - a Sunday ('Dominica' in Latin) - which fell on 3 November 1493 on his second voyage.",
"title": "Early European contacts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Daunted by fierce resistance from the Caribs and discouraged by the absence of gold, the Spanish did not settle the island. Many of the remaining Carib people live in Dominica's Carib Territory, a 3,700-acre (15 km) district on Dominica's east coast.",
"title": "Early European contacts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In 1632, the French Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique claimed Dominica along with all the other 'Petite Antilles' but no settlement was attempted. Between 1642 and 1650 a French missionary Raymond Breton became the first regular European visitor to the island. In 1660 the French and English agreed that both Dominica and St. Vincent should not be settled, but instead left to the Caribs as neutral territory. Dominica was officially neutral for the next century, but the attraction of its resources remained; rival expeditions of English and French foresters were harvesting timber by the start of the 18th century.",
"title": "Early European contacts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Spain had little to no success in colonizing Dominica and in 1690, the French established their first permanent settlements in Dominica. French woodcutters from Martinique and Guadeloupe begin to set up timber camps to supply the French islands with wood and gradually become permanent settlers. They brought the first enslaved people from West Africa to Dominica. In 1715, a revolt of \"poor white\" smallholders in the north of Martinique, known as La Gaoulé, caused an exodus of them to southern Dominica. They set up smallholdings. Meanwhile, French families and others from Guadeloupe settled in the north. In 1727, the first French commander, M. Le Grand, took charge of the island with a basic French government; Dominica formally became a colony of France, and the island was divided into districts or \"quarters\". Already installed in Martinique and Guadeloupe and cultivating sugar cane, the French gradually developed plantations in Dominica for coffee. They imported African slaves to fill the labor demands replacing the indigenous Caribs.",
"title": "French colony: 1715–1763"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 1761, during the Seven Years' War a British expedition against Dominica led by Lord Rollo was successful and the island was conquered along with several other Caribbean islands. After France was defeated by Britain in the Seven Years' War, it ceded the island to the British under the Treaty of Paris (1763). In 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, the French mounted a successful invasion with the active cooperation of the population. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, returned the island to Britain. French invasions in 1795 and 1805 ended in failure.",
"title": "French colony: 1715–1763"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "As part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War, the island became a British possession. In 1778, during the American War of Independence, the French mounted a successful invasion with the active cooperation of the population, which was largely French. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, returned the island to Britain. French invasions in 1795 and 1805 ended in failure. The 22 February 1805 invasion burned much of Roseau to the ground.",
"title": "British colony: 1763–1978"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In 1763, the British established a legislative assembly, representing only the white population. In 1831, reflecting a liberalization of official British racial attitudes, the Brown Privilege Bill conferred political and social rights on free nonwhites. Three Blacks were elected to the legislative assembly the following year. The abolition of slavery in 1834 enabled Dominica by 1838 to become the only British Caribbean colony to have a Black-controlled legislature in the 19th century. Most Black legislators were small holders or merchants who held economic and social views diametrically opposed to the interests of the small, wealthy English planter class. Reacting to a perceived threat, the planters lobbied for more direct British rule.",
"title": "British colony: 1763–1978"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 1865, after much agitation and tension, the colonial office replaced the elective assembly with one composed of one-half elected members and one-half appointed. The elected legislators were outmaneuvered on numerous occasions by planters allied with colonial administrators. In 1871, Dominica became part of the Leeward Island Federation. The power of the Black population progressively eroded. Crown Colony government was re-established in 1896.",
"title": "British colony: 1763–1978"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Following World War I, an upsurge of political consciousness throughout the Caribbean led to the formation of the representative government association. Marshaling public frustration with the lack of a voice in the governing of Dominica, this group won one-third of the popularly elected seats of the legislative assembly in 1924 and one-half in 1936. Shortly thereafter, Dominica was transferred from the Leeward Island Administration and was governed as part of the Windwards until 1958, when it joined the short-lived West Indies Federation.",
"title": "British colony: 1763–1978"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In 1961, a Dominica Labor Party government led by Edward Oliver LeBlanc was elected. After the federation dissolved, Dominica became an associated state of the United Kingdom on February 27, 1967 and formally took responsibility for its internal affairs. LeBlanc retired in 1974 and was replaced by Patrick John who became the islands' first Prime Minister.",
"title": "British colony: 1763–1978"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "On November 3, 1978, the Commonwealth of Dominica was granted independence by the United Kingdom.",
"title": "Independence: 1978 to present day"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In August 1979, Hurricane David, packing winds of 150 mph (240 km/h), struck the island with devastating force. Forty-two people were killed and 75% of the islanders' homes were destroyed or severely damaged.",
"title": "Independence: 1978 to present day"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Independence did little to solve problems stemming from centuries of economic underdevelopment, and in mid-1979, political discontent led to the formation of an interim government, led by Oliver Seraphin. It was replaced after the 1980 elections by a government led by the Dominica Freedom Party under Prime Minister Eugenia Charles, the Caribbean's first female prime minister. Within a year of her inauguration she survived two unsuccessful coups and in October 1983, as chairperson of the Organisation of East Caribbean States, endorsed the US Invasion of Grenada.",
"title": "Independence: 1978 to present day"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Chronic economic problems were compounded by the severe impact of hurricanes in 1979 and in 1980. By the end of the 1980s, the economy had made a healthy recovery, which weakened in the 1990s due to a decrease in banana prices.",
"title": "Independence: 1978 to present day"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In 1995 the government was defeated in elections by the United Workers Party of Edison James. James became prime minister, serving until the February 2000 elections, when the Dominica United Workers Party (DUWP) was defeated by the Dominica Labour Party (DLP), led by Rosie Douglas. He was a former socialist activist, and many feared that his approach to politics might be impractical. However, these were somewhat quieted when he formed a coalition with the more conservative Dominica Freedom Party. Douglas died suddenly after only eight months in office, on October 1, 2000, and was replaced by Pierre Charles, also of the DLP. In 2003, Nicholas Liverpool was elected and sworn in as president, succeeding Vernon Shaw. On January 6, 2004, Prime Minister Pierre Charles, who had been suffering from heart problems since 2003, died. He became the second consecutive prime minister of Dominica to die in office of a heart attack. The foreign minister, Osborne Riviere immediately became prime minister, but the education minister, Roosevelt Skerrit succeeded him as prime minister and became the new leader of the Dominica Labour Party. Elections were held on May 5, 2005, with the ruling coalition maintaining power.",
"title": "Independence: 1978 to present day"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Dominica and was the most powerful and devastating hurricane ever recorded in Dominica.",
"title": "Independence: 1978 to present day"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "President Charles Angelo Savarin was re-elected in 2018.",
"title": "Independence: 1978 to present day"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In the 2019 general elections The Dominica Labour Party (DLP) was given another overwhelming mandate – for a record fifth consecutive five-year term. The party’s charismatic but often maligned leader, Roosevelt Skerrit, will serve a new five-year term as the Prime Minister of Dominica.",
"title": "Independence: 1978 to present day"
}
] | The first written records in the history of Dominica began in November 1493, when Christopher Columbus spotted the island. Prior to European contact, Dominica was inhabited by the Arawak. Dominica was a French colony from 1715 until the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, and then became a British colony from 1763 to 1978. It became an independent nation in 1978. | 2001-04-26T23:56:29Z | 2023-11-13T18:44:20Z | [
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8,052 | Geography of Dominica | Dominica is an island in the Caribbean Sea, located about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe (to the north) and Martinique (to the south). Its coordinates are 15 25 N, 61 20 W. It is known as "The Nature Island of the Caribbean" due to its spectacular, lush, and varied flora and fauna, which is protected by an extensive natural park system. It is the fourth largest island in the Eastern Caribbean with a population of people mainly of African descent.
The lowest point in the country is at sea level along the coast, and the highest is Morne Diablotins (1,447 m or 4,747 ft). The extreme southwestern coast of the island includes a large collapsed submarine caldera. Portions of the exposed rim of this caldera form the southwestern tip of the island at Scotts Head. Natural resources include farming, hydropower and timber.
Geographically, Dominica is distinctive in many ways. The country has one of the most rugged landscapes in the Caribbean, covered by a largely unexploited, multi-layered rain forest. It is also among the Earth's most rain-drenched lands, and the water runoff forms cascading rivers and natural pools. The island, home to rare species of wildlife, is considered by many as a beautiful, unspoiled tropical preserve. According to a popular West Indian belief, Dominica is the only New World territory that Columbus would still recognize.
Dominica is the largest and most northerly of the Windward Islands. The island faces the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Caribbean Sea to the west. Its nearest neighbours are the French islands of Guadeloupe, some 48 kilometres (30 mi) north, and Martinique, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south. Oblong-shaped and slightly smaller than New York City, Dominica is 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) in area, 47 kilometres (29 mi) in length, and 29 kilometres (18 mi) in width. Roseau, the nation's capital and major port, is favourably situated on the sheltered, southwestern coast.
The island's climate is tropical, moderated by northeast trade winds and heavy rainfall.
Dominica has a tropical rainforest climate and some areas bordering on a tropical monsoon climate with characteristically warm temperatures and heavy rainfall. Excessive heat and humidity are tempered somewhat by a steady flow of the northeast trade winds, which periodically develop into hurricanes during the Northern Hemisphere's summer. The steep interior slopes also alter temperatures and winds. Because of the moderating effects of the surrounding ocean, temperature ranges are slight. Average daytime temperatures generally vary from 26 °C (78.8 °F) in January to 32 °C (89.6 °F) in June. Diurnal ranges are usually no greater than 3 °C (5.4 °F) in most places, but temperatures dipping to 13 °C (55.4 °F) on the highest peaks are not uncommon.
Most of the island's ample supply of water is brought by the trade winds. Although amounts vary with the location, rain is possible throughout the year, with the greatest monthly totals recorded from June through October. Average yearly rainfall along the windward east coast frequently exceeds 5,000 mm (196.9 in), and exposed mountainsides receive up to 9,000 mm (354.3 in), among the highest accumulations in the world. Totals on the leeward west coast, however, are only about 1,800 mm (70.9 in) per year. Humidities are closely tied to rainfall patterns, with the highest values occurring on windward slopes and the lowest in sheltered areas. Relative humidity readings between 70 percent and 90 percent have been recorded in Roseau.
Hurricanes and severe winds, most likely to occur during the wettest months, occasionally are devastating. The most recent hurricane of note was the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017. On August 17, 2007, Hurricane Dean, a Category 1 at the time, hit the island. A mother and her seven-year-old son died when a landslide caused by the heavy rains fell onto their house. In another incident two people were injured when a tree fell on their house. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit estimated that 100 to 125 homes were damaged, and that the agriculture sector was extensively damaged, in particular the banana crop. Before that were David and Frederic in August 1979 and Allen in August 1980. The 1979 hurricanes caused over 40 deaths, 2,500 injuries, and extensive destruction of housing and crops. Many agricultural commodities were destroyed during the 1980 storm, and about 25 percent of the banana crop was destroyed by strong winds in 1984.
Below is the climate data for Roseau, the capital city located on the western side of Dominica partially shielded from the trade winds by the mountains.
Bays are as follows from the northern tip of the island in a clockwise direction:
Agoucha Bay, Sandwich Bay, Grand Baptiste Bay, Petit Baptiste Bay, La Taille Bay, Rough Bay, Marigot Bay, Walker's Rest Bay, Sophia Bay, Londonderry Bay, Mango Hole Bay, Middle Bay, Panto Hole Bay, Petite Soufriere Bay, Soufriere Bay, Woodbridge Bay, Prince Rupert Bay, Douglas Bay.
Dominica was the last island to be formed in the Caribbean. The island was created by volcanic action about 26 million years ago. It lies upon two opposing tectonic plates. This explains why an island a bit bigger than Martha's Vineyard has mountains approaching 5,000 feet (1,524 m).
Geologically, Dominica is part of the rugged Lesser Antilles volcanic arc. The country's central spine, a northwest–southeast axis of steep volcanic slopes and deep gorges, generally varies in elevation from 300 to 1,400 metres (984 to 4,593 ft) above sea level. Several east-west trending mountain spurs extend to the narrow coastal plain, which is studded with sea cliffs and has level stretches no wider than 2,000 metres (6,562 ft). The highest peak is Morne Diablotins, at 1,447 metres (4,747 ft); Morne Trois Pitons, with an elevation of 1,423 metres (4,669 ft), lies farther south and is the site of the national park.
The interior features rugged mountains of volcanic origin. Volcanism is still quite evident on the island, the most popular examples being Dominica's Boiling Lake and "valley of desolation." The boiling lake (the world's second largest) is within a crater and is fed by a waterfall - the boiling is believed to be caused by the heat of a magma chamber beneath the lake. The valley of desolation is a sulfurous valley of volcanic vents and hot springs that inhibits significant plant growth - in stark contrast to the surrounding rain forest. Technically dormant today, this caldera last erupted in 1880. The area that exploded on 4 January 1880 was reported to be "fully nine square miles".
Dominica's rugged surface is marked by its volcanic past. Rock formations are mainly volcanic andesite and rhyolite, with fallen boulders and sharp-edged protrusions peppering slope bases. The light- to dark-hued clay and sandy soils, derived from the rocks and decomposed vegetation, are generally fertile and porous. Only a few interior valleys and coastal strips are flat enough for soil accumulations of consequence, however. Although scores of mostly mild seismic shocks were recorded in 1986, volcanic eruptions ceased thousands of years ago. Sulfuric springs and steam vents, largely concentrated in the central and southern parts of the island, remain active, however. One of the largest springs, Boiling Lake, is located in the national park.
Dominica is water-rich with swift-flowing highland streams, which cascade into deep gorges and form natural pools and crater lakes. The streams are not navigable, but many are sources of hydroelectric power. Trafalgar Falls, located near the national park, is one of the most spectacular sites on the island. The falls consists of twin waterfalls known as the mother and father or the Mama and the Papa. At the base of each waterfall are natural pools. Locals and tourists alike come here to enjoy the water. At the base of the Papa fall a natural hot spring can also be found which heats a portion of its pool. The principal rivers flowing westward are the Layou and the Roseau, and the major one emptying eastward is the Toulaman. The largest crater lake, called Boeri, is located in the national park. There are 83 "significant" waterways on the island out of a total of 365 with also includes rills and brooks.
There are 172 species of birds, including four species of hummingbird, broad-winged hawks, yellow-crowned night herons, and the brown trembler. Some plants and animals thought to be extinct on surrounding islands can still be found in Dominica's forests.
The sisserou parrot is Dominica's national bird and is indigenous to its mountain forests.
The Caribbean Sea offshore of the island of Dominica is home to many cetaceans. Most notably a small group of sperm whales live in this area year round. These are shy animals, but there is a good chance of seeing them if you go out on a calm day. Other cetaceans commonly seen in the area include pilot whale, Fraser's dolphin, pantropical spotted dolphin and bottlenose dolphin. Less commonly seen animals include Cuvier's beaked whale, false killer whale, pygmy sperm whale, dwarf sperm whale, Risso's dolphin, common dolphin, humpback whale and Bryde's whale. This makes Dominica a destination for tourists interested in whale-watching.
Map references: Central America and the Caribbean
Area: total: [[1 E8 m|751 km]] land: 751 km
Coastline: 148 km
Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) contiguous zone: 24 nmi (44.4 km; 27.6 mi) exclusive economic zone: 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi)
Land use: arable land: 8% permanent crops: 24% other: 68% (2012 est.)
Irrigated land: NA km
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural): total: 0.02 km/a per capita: 244.1 m/a (2004)
Natural hazards: Flash floods are a constant threat; destructive hurricanes can be expected during the late summer months
Environment - international agreements: Party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
Attribution: | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Dominica is an island in the Caribbean Sea, located about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe (to the north) and Martinique (to the south). Its coordinates are 15 25 N, 61 20 W. It is known as \"The Nature Island of the Caribbean\" due to its spectacular, lush, and varied flora and fauna, which is protected by an extensive natural park system. It is the fourth largest island in the Eastern Caribbean with a population of people mainly of African descent.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The lowest point in the country is at sea level along the coast, and the highest is Morne Diablotins (1,447 m or 4,747 ft). The extreme southwestern coast of the island includes a large collapsed submarine caldera. Portions of the exposed rim of this caldera form the southwestern tip of the island at Scotts Head. Natural resources include farming, hydropower and timber.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Geographically, Dominica is distinctive in many ways. The country has one of the most rugged landscapes in the Caribbean, covered by a largely unexploited, multi-layered rain forest. It is also among the Earth's most rain-drenched lands, and the water runoff forms cascading rivers and natural pools. The island, home to rare species of wildlife, is considered by many as a beautiful, unspoiled tropical preserve. According to a popular West Indian belief, Dominica is the only New World territory that Columbus would still recognize.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Dominica is the largest and most northerly of the Windward Islands. The island faces the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Caribbean Sea to the west. Its nearest neighbours are the French islands of Guadeloupe, some 48 kilometres (30 mi) north, and Martinique, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south. Oblong-shaped and slightly smaller than New York City, Dominica is 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) in area, 47 kilometres (29 mi) in length, and 29 kilometres (18 mi) in width. Roseau, the nation's capital and major port, is favourably situated on the sheltered, southwestern coast.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The island's climate is tropical, moderated by northeast trade winds and heavy rainfall.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Dominica has a tropical rainforest climate and some areas bordering on a tropical monsoon climate with characteristically warm temperatures and heavy rainfall. Excessive heat and humidity are tempered somewhat by a steady flow of the northeast trade winds, which periodically develop into hurricanes during the Northern Hemisphere's summer. The steep interior slopes also alter temperatures and winds. Because of the moderating effects of the surrounding ocean, temperature ranges are slight. Average daytime temperatures generally vary from 26 °C (78.8 °F) in January to 32 °C (89.6 °F) in June. Diurnal ranges are usually no greater than 3 °C (5.4 °F) in most places, but temperatures dipping to 13 °C (55.4 °F) on the highest peaks are not uncommon.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Most of the island's ample supply of water is brought by the trade winds. Although amounts vary with the location, rain is possible throughout the year, with the greatest monthly totals recorded from June through October. Average yearly rainfall along the windward east coast frequently exceeds 5,000 mm (196.9 in), and exposed mountainsides receive up to 9,000 mm (354.3 in), among the highest accumulations in the world. Totals on the leeward west coast, however, are only about 1,800 mm (70.9 in) per year. Humidities are closely tied to rainfall patterns, with the highest values occurring on windward slopes and the lowest in sheltered areas. Relative humidity readings between 70 percent and 90 percent have been recorded in Roseau.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Hurricanes and severe winds, most likely to occur during the wettest months, occasionally are devastating. The most recent hurricane of note was the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017. On August 17, 2007, Hurricane Dean, a Category 1 at the time, hit the island. A mother and her seven-year-old son died when a landslide caused by the heavy rains fell onto their house. In another incident two people were injured when a tree fell on their house. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit estimated that 100 to 125 homes were damaged, and that the agriculture sector was extensively damaged, in particular the banana crop. Before that were David and Frederic in August 1979 and Allen in August 1980. The 1979 hurricanes caused over 40 deaths, 2,500 injuries, and extensive destruction of housing and crops. Many agricultural commodities were destroyed during the 1980 storm, and about 25 percent of the banana crop was destroyed by strong winds in 1984.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Below is the climate data for Roseau, the capital city located on the western side of Dominica partially shielded from the trade winds by the mountains.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Bays are as follows from the northern tip of the island in a clockwise direction:",
"title": "Bays"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Agoucha Bay, Sandwich Bay, Grand Baptiste Bay, Petit Baptiste Bay, La Taille Bay, Rough Bay, Marigot Bay, Walker's Rest Bay, Sophia Bay, Londonderry Bay, Mango Hole Bay, Middle Bay, Panto Hole Bay, Petite Soufriere Bay, Soufriere Bay, Woodbridge Bay, Prince Rupert Bay, Douglas Bay.",
"title": "Bays"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Dominica was the last island to be formed in the Caribbean. The island was created by volcanic action about 26 million years ago. It lies upon two opposing tectonic plates. This explains why an island a bit bigger than Martha's Vineyard has mountains approaching 5,000 feet (1,524 m).",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Geologically, Dominica is part of the rugged Lesser Antilles volcanic arc. The country's central spine, a northwest–southeast axis of steep volcanic slopes and deep gorges, generally varies in elevation from 300 to 1,400 metres (984 to 4,593 ft) above sea level. Several east-west trending mountain spurs extend to the narrow coastal plain, which is studded with sea cliffs and has level stretches no wider than 2,000 metres (6,562 ft). The highest peak is Morne Diablotins, at 1,447 metres (4,747 ft); Morne Trois Pitons, with an elevation of 1,423 metres (4,669 ft), lies farther south and is the site of the national park.",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The interior features rugged mountains of volcanic origin. Volcanism is still quite evident on the island, the most popular examples being Dominica's Boiling Lake and \"valley of desolation.\" The boiling lake (the world's second largest) is within a crater and is fed by a waterfall - the boiling is believed to be caused by the heat of a magma chamber beneath the lake. The valley of desolation is a sulfurous valley of volcanic vents and hot springs that inhibits significant plant growth - in stark contrast to the surrounding rain forest. Technically dormant today, this caldera last erupted in 1880. The area that exploded on 4 January 1880 was reported to be \"fully nine square miles\".",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Dominica's rugged surface is marked by its volcanic past. Rock formations are mainly volcanic andesite and rhyolite, with fallen boulders and sharp-edged protrusions peppering slope bases. The light- to dark-hued clay and sandy soils, derived from the rocks and decomposed vegetation, are generally fertile and porous. Only a few interior valleys and coastal strips are flat enough for soil accumulations of consequence, however. Although scores of mostly mild seismic shocks were recorded in 1986, volcanic eruptions ceased thousands of years ago. Sulfuric springs and steam vents, largely concentrated in the central and southern parts of the island, remain active, however. One of the largest springs, Boiling Lake, is located in the national park.",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Dominica is water-rich with swift-flowing highland streams, which cascade into deep gorges and form natural pools and crater lakes. The streams are not navigable, but many are sources of hydroelectric power. Trafalgar Falls, located near the national park, is one of the most spectacular sites on the island. The falls consists of twin waterfalls known as the mother and father or the Mama and the Papa. At the base of each waterfall are natural pools. Locals and tourists alike come here to enjoy the water. At the base of the Papa fall a natural hot spring can also be found which heats a portion of its pool. The principal rivers flowing westward are the Layou and the Roseau, and the major one emptying eastward is the Toulaman. The largest crater lake, called Boeri, is located in the national park. There are 83 \"significant\" waterways on the island out of a total of 365 with also includes rills and brooks.",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "There are 172 species of birds, including four species of hummingbird, broad-winged hawks, yellow-crowned night herons, and the brown trembler. Some plants and animals thought to be extinct on surrounding islands can still be found in Dominica's forests.",
"title": "Fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The sisserou parrot is Dominica's national bird and is indigenous to its mountain forests.",
"title": "Fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The Caribbean Sea offshore of the island of Dominica is home to many cetaceans. Most notably a small group of sperm whales live in this area year round. These are shy animals, but there is a good chance of seeing them if you go out on a calm day. Other cetaceans commonly seen in the area include pilot whale, Fraser's dolphin, pantropical spotted dolphin and bottlenose dolphin. Less commonly seen animals include Cuvier's beaked whale, false killer whale, pygmy sperm whale, dwarf sperm whale, Risso's dolphin, common dolphin, humpback whale and Bryde's whale. This makes Dominica a destination for tourists interested in whale-watching.",
"title": "Fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Map references: Central America and the Caribbean",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Area: total: [[1 E8 m|751 km]] land: 751 km",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Coastline: 148 km",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) contiguous zone: 24 nmi (44.4 km; 27.6 mi) exclusive economic zone: 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi)",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Land use: arable land: 8% permanent crops: 24% other: 68% (2012 est.)",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Irrigated land: NA km",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural): total: 0.02 km/a per capita: 244.1 m/a (2004)",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Natural hazards: Flash floods are a constant threat; destructive hurricanes can be expected during the late summer months",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Environment - international agreements: Party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Attribution:",
"title": "References"
}
] | Dominica is an island in the Caribbean Sea, located about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Its coordinates are 15 25 N, 61 20 W. It is known as "The Nature Island of the Caribbean" due to its spectacular, lush, and varied flora and fauna, which is protected by an extensive natural park system. It is the fourth largest island in the Eastern Caribbean with a population of people mainly of African descent. The lowest point in the country is at sea level along the coast, and the highest is Morne Diablotins. The extreme southwestern coast of the island includes a large collapsed submarine caldera. Portions of the exposed rim of this caldera form the southwestern tip of the island at Scotts Head. Natural resources include farming, hydropower and timber. Geographically, Dominica is distinctive in many ways. The country has one of the most rugged landscapes in the Caribbean, covered by a largely unexploited, multi-layered rain forest. It is also among the Earth's most rain-drenched lands, and the water runoff forms cascading rivers and natural pools. The island, home to rare species of wildlife, is considered by many as a beautiful, unspoiled tropical preserve. According to a popular West Indian belief, Dominica is the only New World territory that Columbus would still recognize. Dominica is the largest and most northerly of the Windward Islands. The island faces the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Caribbean Sea to the west. Its nearest neighbours are the French islands of Guadeloupe, some 48 kilometres (30 mi) north, and Martinique, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south. Oblong-shaped and slightly smaller than New York City, Dominica is 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) in area, 47 kilometres (29 mi) in length, and 29 kilometres (18 mi) in width. Roseau, the nation's capital and major port, is favourably situated on the sheltered, southwestern coast. | 2002-02-25T15:43:11Z | 2023-10-01T22:11:36Z | [
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8,053 | Demographics of Dominica | This is a demography of the population of Dominica including population density, ethnicity, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
According to the preliminary 2011 census results Dominica has a population of 71,293. The population growth rate is very low, due primarily to emigration to more prosperous Caribbean Islands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia. The estimated mid-year population of 2021 is 72,412 (the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects).
The vast majority of Dominicans are of African descent (75% at the 2014 census). There is a significant mixed population (19%) at the 2014 census due to intermarriage, along with a small European origin minority (0.8%; descendants of French, British, and Irish colonists), East Indians (0.1%) groups, and there are small numbers of Lebanese/Syrians (0.1%) and Asians.
Dominica is the only Eastern Caribbean island that still has a population of pre-Columbian native Caribs (also known as Kalinago), who were exterminated, driven from neighbouring islands, or mixed with Africans and/or Europeans. According to the 2001 census there are only 2,001 Caribs remaining (2.9% of the total population). A considerable growth occurred since the 1991 census when 1,634 Caribs were counted (2.4% of the total population). The Caribs live in eight villages on the east coast of Dominica. This special Carib Territory was granted by the British Crown in 1903. The present number of Kalinago is estimated at 4% more than 3,000.
Demographic statistics according to the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
English is the official language and universally understood; however, because of historic French domination, Antillean Creole, a French-lexified creole language, is also widely spoken.
According to the 2001 census, 91.2% percent of the population of Dominica is considered Christian, 1.6% has a non-Christian religion and 6.1% has no religion or did not state a religion (1.1%).
Roughly 58% of Christians are Roman Catholics, a reflection of early French influence on the island, and one third are Protestant. The Evangelicals constitute the largest Protestant group, with 6.7% of the population. Seventh-day Adventists are the second largest group (6.1%). The next largest group are Pentecostals (5.6% of the population), followed by Baptists (4.1%). Other Christians include Methodists (3.7%), Church of God (1.2%), Jehovah's Witnesses (1.2%), Anglicanism (0.6%) and Brethren Christian (0.3%). During the past decades the number of Roman Catholics and Anglicans has decreased, while the number of other Protestants has increased, especially Evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals (5.6% of the population) and Baptists).
The number of non-Christians is small. These religious groups include the Rastafarian Movement (1.3% of the population), Hinduism (0.1%) and Muslims (0.2%). | [
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "This is a demography of the population of Dominica including population density, ethnicity, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "According to the preliminary 2011 census results Dominica has a population of 71,293. The population growth rate is very low, due primarily to emigration to more prosperous Caribbean Islands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia. The estimated mid-year population of 2021 is 72,412 (the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects).",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The vast majority of Dominicans are of African descent (75% at the 2014 census). There is a significant mixed population (19%) at the 2014 census due to intermarriage, along with a small European origin minority (0.8%; descendants of French, British, and Irish colonists), East Indians (0.1%) groups, and there are small numbers of Lebanese/Syrians (0.1%) and Asians.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Dominica is the only Eastern Caribbean island that still has a population of pre-Columbian native Caribs (also known as Kalinago), who were exterminated, driven from neighbouring islands, or mixed with Africans and/or Europeans. According to the 2001 census there are only 2,001 Caribs remaining (2.9% of the total population). A considerable growth occurred since the 1991 census when 1,634 Caribs were counted (2.4% of the total population). The Caribs live in eight villages on the east coast of Dominica. This special Carib Territory was granted by the British Crown in 1903. The present number of Kalinago is estimated at 4% more than 3,000.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Demographic statistics according to the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.",
"title": "Other demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "English is the official language and universally understood; however, because of historic French domination, Antillean Creole, a French-lexified creole language, is also widely spoken.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "According to the 2001 census, 91.2% percent of the population of Dominica is considered Christian, 1.6% has a non-Christian religion and 6.1% has no religion or did not state a religion (1.1%).",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Roughly 58% of Christians are Roman Catholics, a reflection of early French influence on the island, and one third are Protestant. The Evangelicals constitute the largest Protestant group, with 6.7% of the population. Seventh-day Adventists are the second largest group (6.1%). The next largest group are Pentecostals (5.6% of the population), followed by Baptists (4.1%). Other Christians include Methodists (3.7%), Church of God (1.2%), Jehovah's Witnesses (1.2%), Anglicanism (0.6%) and Brethren Christian (0.3%). During the past decades the number of Roman Catholics and Anglicans has decreased, while the number of other Protestants has increased, especially Evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals (5.6% of the population) and Baptists).",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The number of non-Christians is small. These religious groups include the Rastafarian Movement (1.3% of the population), Hinduism (0.1%) and Muslims (0.2%).",
"title": "Religion"
}
] | This is a demography of the population of Dominica including population density, ethnicity, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. | 2023-06-10T17:27:12Z | [
"Template:Historical populations",
"Template:Hidden begin",
"Template:North America in topic",
"Template:Main",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:UN Population",
"Template:Nts",
"Template:DMA",
"Template:Hidden end",
"Template:Source-attribution"
] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Dominica |
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