Philip Morris International
Philip Morris International Inc. is an American multinational cigarette and tobacco manufacturing company, with products sold in over 180 countries outside the United States. The most recognized and best selling product of the company is Marlboro; until a spin-off in March 2008, Philip Morris International was an operating company of Altria. Altria explained the spin-off, arguing PMI would have more "freedom" outside the constraints of US corporate ownership in terms of potential litigation and legislative restrictions to "pursue sales growth in emerging markets.", while Altria focuses on the United States. The shareholders in Altria at the time were given shares in PMI, listed on the London Stock Exchange and other markets; the company's headquarters are in New York City. It does not operate in the United States. With tobacco being addictive and the single greatest cause of preventable death globally, the company is controversial, it has been the subject of litigation and restrictive legislation from governments.
With the world-wide decrease in smoking in the 21st century, shares of Philip Morris were no longer considered the "safe haven" they once were. The company ranked No. 108 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. The company states its history is traced to a London tobacconist, Philip Morris, opening a single shop on London’s Bond Street in 1847 which sold tobacco and cigarettes. In 1881, Philip Morris' son, Leopard Morris, established "Philip Morris & Company and Grunebaum Ltd" with Joseph Grunebaum. In 1885, the company changed its name to "Philip Morris & Co. Ltd." In 1894, William Curtis Thomson and his family began to control the company, in 1902 the company was incorporated in New York. In 1919, the US business was acquired and incorporated as "Philip Morris & Co. Ltd. Inc." in Virginia. In 1954, Philip Morris became the first affiliate of Philip Co.. Ltd, Inc. outside the U. S. In 1972, the company's Marlboro became the world's top-selling cigarette brand.
In 1987, Philip Morris International was incorporated as an operating company of Philip Morris Companies Inc. In 2001, the operations center of the company was transferred from Rye Brook, New York, to Lausanne, Switzerland. On January 27, 2003, Philip Morris Companies Inc. formally changed its name to the Altria Group. In March 2008, Philip Morris International was spun off from Altria. In April 2014, Philip Morris International announced that it would close its Moorabbin plant in Australia by the end of 2014 after operating for 60 years, due to the gradual decline of sales in the last ten years and difficulties conforming to 2010 Australian government regulation about reducing fire risks. In 2015, the company sold 850 billion cigarettes. In August 2018 Reuters reported that Philip Morris "has been among foreign companies with exposure to Russia’s tobacco market; the company’s sales exposure to Russia is 7 percent, according to a note from Goldman Sachs." Philip Morris International has six multi-billion US$ brands including: Dji Sam Soe 234 was launched in 1913 and is a brand of Kretek cigarettes.
It is the best seller of Kretek cigarettes in Indonesia. L&M was launched by Liggett & Myers in 1953 with the tagline: "American cigarettes of the highest quality with the best filter." L&M variants include full flavor shorts, full flavor 100s, ultra lights, menthol shorts, menthol 100s, menthol light shorts, menthol light 100s, Turkish Blend shorts, Turkish Blend 100s, L&M Mild Kretek. Longbeach include in Australia and Indonesia in 1999. Longbeach variant include: Longbeach Longbeach Mild. Marlboro was launched in 1904. Marlboro is the premium brand. Marlboro variants include: Marlboro Special, Marlboro Menthol, Marlboro Lights, Marlboro Lights Menthol, Marlboro Mix-9 Filter Kretek, Marlboro Flavor Plus, Marlboro Black Menthol, Heatsticks, a heated tobacco product; the company's Marlboro brand ranked first among the most valuable tobacco brands of 2017 on BrandFinance's website, which uses the royalty relief method of brand valuation. ST Dupont Paris is the brand cigarette designed by Simon Tissot Dupont in 1902.
With the black packaging. ST Dupont Paris variants include: filter, lights and menthol lights. U Mild was launched in Indonesia in 22 May 1998 after Indonesian revolution. U Mild is a Mild Kretek cigarette sold in Indonesia. Information from company website. Harold Brown André Calantzopoulos Louis C. Camilleri – Chairman Massimo Ferragamo Werner Geissler Lisa Hook Jennifer Li Jun Makihara Kalpana Morparia Lucio A. Noto Frederik Paulsen Jr Robert B. Polet Stephen M. Wolf For the fiscal year 2017, Philip Morris reported earnings of US$6.021 billion, with an annual revenue of US$78.098 billion, an increase of 4.2% over the previous fiscal cycle. Its shares traded at over $105 per share, its market capitalization was valued at over US$138.4 billion in October 2018. Philip Morris International's research center is located in Neuchatel and houses Philip Morris International's product research and development program; as of April 2018, earnings reports showed the company had spent $4.5 billion on four products: two that heat rather than burn tobacco, two other nicotine products.
One of these heat-not-burn tobacco products is IQOS. It has funded the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World to purportedly fund scientific research for the global elimination of tobacco smoking, its claims to independence have been challenged and it has been criticised by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Action on Smoking and Health, Corporate Accountability International. The American Cancer Society stated, "This attempt by Philip Morris International to paint itself as a public he
Municipal council (Netherlands)
In the Netherlands the municipal council is the elected assembly of the municipality. Its main role is laying down the guidelines for the policy of the council of mayor and aldermen and exercising control over its execution by the council of mayor and aldermen; the municipal councils range in size from nine to 45 seats, depending on the municipality's population, are elected by the population every four years. In many municipalities all major political parties contest in the election in addition to local parties. In most major, urban municipalities, all major parties are represented in the city council, while in smaller and more rural municipalities, only the largest parties and a local party have seats in the city council. All citizens and foreigners who live in the Netherlands for at least four years in a municipality have the right to vote and all citizens can be elected. Ministers and state secretaries in the national government are barred from standing in elections as well as mayors and civil servants employed by the municipality.
After the elections the parties in the states elect the aldermen. The municipal council is supported by its own civil service headed by the council's greffier. Members of the council are not paid as full-time politicians; as in most legislatures, the members of municipal council work in both political groups and policy area related committees. The mayor chairs the meetings of the council; some municipalities allow parties to have dual councillors, politicians who are not elected into the city council but are allowed to speak in committees
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from Latin: sedere, lit.'to sit'. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, defensive position. An opportunity for negotiation between combatants is not uncommon, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy; the art of conducting and resisting sieges is called siegecraft, or poliorcetics. A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be taken by a quick assault, which refuses to surrender. Sieges involve surrounding the target to block the provision of supplies and the reinforcement or escape of troops; this is coupled with attempts to reduce the fortifications by means of siege engines, artillery bombardment, mining, or the use of deception or treachery to bypass defenses. Failing a military outcome, sieges can be decided by starvation, thirst, or disease, which can afflict either the attacker or defender.
This form of siege, can take many months or years, depending upon the size of the stores of food the fortified position holds. The attacking force can circumvallate the besieged place, to build a line of earth-works, consisting of a rampart and trench, surrounding it. During the process of circumvallation, the attacking force can be set upon by another force, an ally of the besieged place, due to the lengthy amount of time required to force it to capitulate. A defensive ring of forts outside the ring of circumvallated forts, called contravallation, is sometimes used to defend the attackers from outside. Ancient cities in the Middle East show archaeological evidence of having had fortified city walls. During the Warring States era of ancient China, there is both textual and archaeological evidence of prolonged sieges and siege machinery used against the defenders of city walls. Siege machinery was a tradition of the ancient Greco-Roman world. During the Renaissance and the early modern period, siege warfare dominated the conduct of war in Europe.
Leonardo da Vinci gained as much of his renown from the design of fortifications as from his artwork. Medieval campaigns were designed around a succession of sieges. In the Napoleonic era, increasing use of more powerful cannon reduced the value of fortifications. In the 20th century, the significance of the classical siege declined. With the advent of mobile warfare, a single fortified stronghold is no longer as decisive as it once was. While traditional sieges do still occur, they are not as common as they once were due to changes in modes of battle, principally the ease by which huge volumes of destructive power can be directed onto a static target. Modern sieges are more the result of smaller hostage, militant, or extreme resisting arrest situations; the Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces and defensive walls. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were fortified. By about 3500 BC, hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus River floodplain. Many of these settlements had planned streets.
The stone and mud brick houses of Kot Diji were clustered behind massive stone flood dikes and defensive walls, for neighbouring communities quarrelled about the control of prime agricultural land. Mundigak in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun-dried bricks. City walls and fortifications were essential for the defence of the first cities in the ancient Near East; the walls were built of mudbricks, wood, or a combination of these materials, depending on local availability. They may have served the dual purpose of showing presumptive enemies the might of the kingdom; the great walls surrounding the Sumerian city of Uruk gained a widespread reputation. The walls were 9.5 km in length, up to 12 m in height. The walls of Babylon, reinforced by towers and ditches, gained a similar reputation. In Anatolia, the Hittites built massive stone walls around their cities atop hillsides, taking advantage of the terrain. In Shang Dynasty China, at the site of Ao, large walls were erected in the 15th century BC that had dimensions of 20 m in width at the base and enclosed an area of some 2,100 yards squared.
The ancient Chinese capital for the State of Zhao, founded in 386 BC had walls that were 20 m wide at the base. The cities of the Indus Valley Civilization showed less effort in constructing defences, as did the Minoan civilization on Crete; these civilizations relied more on the defence of their outer borders or sea shores. Unlike the ancient Minoan civilization, the Mycenaean Greeks emphasized the need for fortifications alongside natural defences of mountainous terrain, such as the massive Cyclopean walls built at Mycenae and other adjacent Late Bronze Age centers of central and southern Greece. Although there are depictions of sieges from the ancient Near East in historical sources and in art, there are few examples of siege systems that have been found archaeologically. Of the few examples, several are noteworthy: The late 9th-century BC siege system surrounding Tell es-Safi/Gath, consists of a 2.5 km long siege trench and other elements, is the earliest evidence of a circumvallation system known in the world.
It was built by Hazael of Aram Damascus, as part of his siege and conquest of Philistine Gath in the late 9th century BC (mentio
Polder
A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by dikes that form an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually operated devices. There are three types of polder: Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the sea bed Flood plains separated from the sea or river by a dike Marshes separated from the surrounding water by a dike and subsequently drained. All polders will be below the surrounding water level some or all of the time. Water enters the low-lying polder through infiltration and water pressure of ground water, or rainfall, or transport of water by rivers and canals; this means that the polder has an excess of water, pumped out or drained by opening sluices at low tide. Care must be taken not to set the internal water level too low. Polder land made up of peat will sink in relation to its previous level, because of peat decomposing when exposed to oxygen from the air. Polders are at risk from flooding at all times, care must be taken to protect the surrounding dikes.
Dikes are built with locally available materials, each material has its own risks: sand is prone to collapse owing to saturation by water. Some animals dig tunnels in the barrier. Polders are most though not found in river deltas, former fenlands and coastal areas. Flooding of polders has been used as a military tactic in the past. One example is the flooding of the polders along the Yser river during World War I. Opening the sluices at high tide and closing them at low tide turned the polders into an inaccessible swamp which allowed the Allied armies to stop the German army. From Dutch polder, from Middle Dutch polre, from Old Dutch polra from pol- "part of land, elevated above its surroundings"; the Netherlands is associated with polders, as its engineers became noted for developing techniques to drain wetlands and make them usable for agriculture and other development. This is illustrated by a saying: "God created the world; the Dutch have a long history of reclamation of marshes and fenland, resulting in some 3,000 polders nationwide.
By 1961, about half of the country's land, 18,000 square kilometres, was reclaimed from the sea. About half the total surface area of polders in north-west Europe is in the Netherlands; the first embankments in Europe were constructed in Roman times. The first polders were constructed in the 11th century; as a result of flooding disasters, water boards called waterschap or hoogheemraadschap were set up to maintain the integrity of the water defences around polders, maintain the waterways inside a polder, control the various water levels inside and outside the polder. Water boards hold separate elections, levy taxes, function independently from other government bodies, their function is unchanged today. As such they are the oldest democratic institution in the country; the necessary cooperation among all ranks to maintain polder integrity gave its name to the Dutch version of third way politics—the Polder Model. The 1953 flood disaster prompted a new approach to the design of dikes and other water-retaining structures, based on an acceptable probability of overflowing.
Risk is defined as the product of probability and consequences. The potential damage in lives and rebuilding costs is compared with the potential cost of water defences. From these calculations follows an acceptable flood risk from the sea at one in 4,000–10,000 years, while it is one in 100–2,500 years for a river flood; the particular established policy guides the Dutch government to improve flood defences as new data on threat levels becomes available. Some famous Dutch polders and the year they were laid dry are: Beemster Schermer Haarlemmermeerpolder As part of the Zuiderzee Works: Wieringermeerpolder Noordoostpolder Flevopolder Bangladesh has 123 polders, of which 49 are sea-facing; these were constructed in the 1960s to protect the coast from tidal flooding and reduce salinity incursion. They reduce waterlogging following storm surges from tropical cyclones, they are cultivated for agriculture. De Moeren, near Veurne in West Flanders Polders along the Yser rive between Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide Polders of Muisbroek and Ettenhoven, in Ekeren and Hoevenen Polder of Stabroek, in Stabroek Kabeljauwpolder, in Zandvliet Scheldepolders on the left bank of the Scheldt Uitkerkse polders, near Blankenberge in West Flanders Prosperpolder, near Doel and Kieldrecht.
Holland Marsh Pitt Polder Ecological Reserve Grand Pré, Nova Scotia The city of Kunshan has over 100 polders. The Jiangnan region, at the Yangtze River Delta, has a long history of constructing polders; the bulk of these projects were performed between the 13th centuries. The Chinese government assisted local communities in constructing dikes for swampland water drainage; the Lijia self-monitoring system of 110 households under a lizhang headman was used for the purposes of service administration and tax collection in the polder, with a liangzhang responsilbe for maintaining the water system and a tangzhang (塘长, dike chief）for po
Cultural center
A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run. Bahman Cultural Center, Iran Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Thailand Beigang Cultural Center, Taiwan Cultural Center of the Philippines, Philippines Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Hong Kong, China Japanese Cultural Center, Taiwan Kaohsiung Cultural Center, Taiwan Keelung Cultural Center, Taiwan Ketagalan Culture Center, Taiwan King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, Saudi Arabia Korean Cultural Center, Korea Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center, Kuwait City, Kuwait Lukang Culture Center, Changhua County, Taiwan Mongolian and Tibetan Cultural Center, Taiwan Taichung City Dadun Cultural Center, Taiwan Taichung Municipal City Huludun Cultural Center, Taiwan Tainan Municipal Cultural Center, Taiwan Taiwan Cultural Center, Japan Telugu Saamskruthika Niketanam, India Thailand Cultural Centre, Bangkoentrance to the Belém Cultural Centre in Bangkok, Thailand Tokyo Korean Culture Center, Japan Xinying Cultural Center, Taiwan Vooruit, Belgium National Palace of Culture, Bulgaria Kulturværftet, Helsingør, Denmark Centre Georges Pompidou, France Gasteig, Germany De Balie, Netherlands Letterkenny Regional Cultural Centre, County Donegal, Ireland Glaspaleis, Netherlands OT301, Netherlands Matadero Madrid, Spain ACU, Netherlands Centro Cultural de Belem, Portugal Dom omladine Beograda, Serbia Cultural center Bor, Serbia Kuryokhin Center, Saint Petersburg, Russia Nida Culture and Tourism Information Centre "Agila", Lithuania Art Aia-Creatives/In/Residence, Sesto al Reghena, Italy El Centro Cultural de Mexico, Mexico Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros, Mexico City, Mexico Eyedrum, United States Centro Cultural de la Raza, San Diego, CA, United States Detroit Cultural Center, MI, United States Cultural Center of Charlotte County, Port Charlotte, FL, United States Self Help Graphics & Art, Los Angeles, United States Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural, Los Angeles, CA, United States La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA, United States Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, United States Kansas City Irish Center, Kansas City, United States Asheville Culture Project, Asheville, NC, United States Greensboro Cultural Center, Greensboro, NC, United States Polynesian Cultural Center, United States Howland Cultural Center, United States El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, United States The Kitchen, New York, NY, United States ISSUE Project Room, New York, NY, United States Park Performing Arts Center, Union City, New Jersey, United States William V. Musto Cultural Center, Union City, New Jersey, United States Centro Cultural Baudilio Vega Berríos, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico The Largo Cultural Center, Largo, FL, United States Ngarachamayong Culture Center, Palau Perth Cultural Centre, Australia Queensland Cultural Centre, Australia Vanuatu Cultural Centre, Port Vila, Vanuatu Agustín Ross Cultural Center, Chile Nestor Kirchner Cultural Centre, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda, Chile Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Chile Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation, São Paulo, Brazil Narguila Pub Lounge Cultural, Bogotá.
Colombia Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo. Brazil. Art space community centre infoshop music venue social centre Palace of Culture
Breda
Breda is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa; as a fortified city, it was of political significance. Although a direct Fiefdom of the Holy Roman Emperor, the city obtained a municipal charter. Breda had a population of 183,456 in 2017, it is part of the Brabantse Stedenrij. In the 11th century, Breda was a direct fief of the Holy Roman Emperor, its earliest known lord being Henry of Brunesheim; the city of Breda obtained a municipal charter in 1252. After that Breda had the rights to build fortifications; the city constructed Roman-style gates. In 1327, Adelheid of Gaveren sold Breda to Duke Johannes III of Brabant. In 1350, the fief was resold to Johannes II of Wassenaar. In 1403, the heiress of his line, Johanna of Polanen, married Engelbert I of Nassau. Through her, the city came into the possession of the House of Nassau, where it remained until 1795, passing to William I of Orange, stadtholder of Holland and Utrecht and leader of the Dutch revolt.
Thus, the baron of Breda was Count of Nassau in the Holy Roman Empire, Prince of Orange, stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. Breda remained part of the barony of Breda until it was captured by French revolutionary forces in 1795; the acquisition of the city by the House of Orange-Nassau marked its emergence as a residentiestad. The presence of the Orange-Nassau family attracted other nobles, who built palatial residences in the old quarters of the city; the most impressive one, built by the Italian architect Thomas Vincidor de Bologna for the first Dutch prince, was the first renaissance-style palace built north of the Alps. In the 15th century the city's physical and strategic importance expanded rapidly. A great church was built in Brabantine Gothic style with a gallant 97-metre-high tower, called Grote Kerk or Onze Lieve Vrouwe Kerk. In 1534 Henry III of Nassau-Breda rebuilt the modest medieval fortifications in impressive style. In 1534 a fire destroyed over nine tenths of the city, close to 1300 houses and chapels, the town hall.
Only 150 houses and the main church remained. In July 1581, during the Eighty Years' War, Breda was captured in a surprise attack and siege by Spanish troops under the command of Claudius van Barlaymont, whose sobriquet was Haultpenne. Although the city had surrendered upon the condition that it would not be plundered, the troops vented their fury upon the inhabitants. In the resulting mayhem, known as Haultpenne's Fury, over 500 citizens were killed. In March 1590, Breda fell back into the hands of the Dutch and Maurice of Nassau, when a 68 men hand-picked force, concealed under the turf of a peat-boat, had contrived to enter the city in a daring plan devised by Adriaen van Bergen. Around 1610 the construction of the Spanish Gate or "Spandjaardsgat" was started as a remembrance to that successful action. After a ten-month siege in 1624–25, the city again surrendered to the Spaniards, now led by Spinola. In the Siege of Breda of 1637 the city was recaptured by Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, after a four-month siege, in 1648 it was ceded to the Dutch Republic by the Treaty of Westphalia.
In 1646, Frederick Henry founded the Orange College of Breda, modelled on Saumur and Oxford, intending it to train young men of good family for the army and the civil service. The exiled Stuart Charles II of England resided in Breda during most of his exile during the Cromwellian Commonwealth and Protectorate, thanks to the proximity of Charles's sister Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, the widow of Prince William II of Orange. Based on suggestions by the Parliamentarian General George Monck, Charles II's Declaration of Breda made known his conditions for accepting the crown of England, which in the event he was to regain a few months in the year; the Treaty of Breda was signed in the city on 31 July 1667, bringing to an end the Second Anglo-Dutch War in which the Dutch faced the same Charles II, their guest. Between 1746 and 1748 it was the site of the Congress of Breda, a series of talks between Britain and France aimed at bringing an end to the War of the Austrian Succession, which led to the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
During the Second World War, the city was under German occupation. It was liberated following a successful outflanking manoeuvre planned and performed by forces of 1st Polish Armoured Division of General Maczek on 29 October 1944; each year during Liberation Day festivities, Breda is visited by a large Polish contingent and the city of Breda reserves a special portion of the festivities for the fallen Polish soldiers. A museum and a monument honoring Maczek and the Polish 1st Armoured Division stands in the city center. General Maczek and many soldiers of his division are buried in the nearby Polish military cemetery. Breda was the site of one of Koepelgevangenis; this prison housed the only German war criminals to be imprisoned in the Netherlands for their war crimes during the Second World War. Known as the Breda Four, or "Vier von Breda", they were Willy Paul Franz
Menno van Coehoorn
Menno, Baron van Coehoorn was a Dutch soldier and engineer regarded as one of the most significant figures in Dutch military history. During his lifetime, he and his French counterpart Vauban were the acknowledged experts in siege warfare and the design of fortifications. Van Coehoorn was born in March 1641, one of six sons of Goosewijn van Coehoorn and Aaltje van Hinckena on the Lettinga State in the village of Britsum near Leeuwarden in the Dutch province of Friesland, his father was an officer of German descent in a Friesland regiment of the Dutch States Army and a member of the petty nobility. Menno was educated at home with his brothers later at the University of Franeker by his uncle Bernardus Fullenius, where he showed a talent for mathematics and military drawing. In 1657, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in his father's company, part of the permanent garrison in Maastricht. In 1678, Van Coehoorn married Magdalena van Scheltinga. Magdalena died in 1683 and he married Truytje van Wigara.
He died on 17 March 1704. Promoted Captain in October 1660 by the Frisian stadtholder William Frederick, Prince of Nassau-Dietz, Van Coehoorn first saw action in 1665 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War when he helped repulse an English-funded invasion by the Bishop of Munster. During the Franco-Dutch War of 1672-78, he was wounded at the unsuccessful defense of Maastricht in 1673 fought at Grave and Seneffe in 1674, he was promoted Major by Henry Casimir II, Prince of Nassau-Dietz, took part in the battles of Cassel and Saint-Denis and ended the war as a Lieutenant-Colonel. In the Netherlands, 1672 is still referred to as the Year of Disaster; the rapid fall of major fortresses like Nijmegen and Fort Crèvecœur near's-Hertogenbosch demonstrated the Republic's vulnerability and the obsolescence of its defences. This caused intense debate in two areas. Van Coehoorn set out his ideas in a public debate over the design of a new fortress at Coevorden with Captain Louis Paen, a fellow officer who in 1679 produced a well-received critique of the Dutch drill manual.
This resulted in the 1682 publication of Van Coehoorn's Versterckinge des Vijfhoeks met al syne buytenwerken or Fortification of the Pentagon and all its outer works, followed in 1685 by his best-known work Nieuwe Vestingbouw op een natte of lage horisont or New Fortress Construction on a Wet or Low Horizon. Since maintaining a large standing army was too expensive for most states, the purpose of permanent fortifications was to provide time to mobilise forces; the Dutch were nearly overrun in 1672 by the speed with which fortresses like Nijmegen and Fort Crèvecœur near's-Hertogenbosch fell, being saved only by the desperate measure of activating the Hollandic Water Line. Van Coehoorn's approach accepted that the flat terrain of the Netherlands and huge cost of construction meant an effective defence could not rely on fortifications, his designs included the following principles. This in turn required the provision of open areas within the fortifications to assemble a counter-attacking force.
Multiple defence lines. Instead, Van Coehoorn created multiple'Inner' and'Outer' defence zones that funnelled attackers through successive'killing zones' of flanking fire; the dry ditches and covertways were cut down to within a few inches of the water table... cut into the floor in the normal way, they would soon be flooded out. Water was another prominent feature of his work, his recommendation of a defensive barrier in the east, using the IJssel and the Dutch portion of the Lower Rhine, formed the basis of a NATO defence line built in the 1950s, codenamed Plans'C' for Coehoorn and'D' for Deventer. While there was interest in his ideas, they remained untested until the outbreak of the 1688-1697 Nine Years War, whose tactics placed great emphasis on manoeuvre and siege warfare, he was present at the capture of Kaiserswerth and Bonn in 1690. When William appointed him commander of Namur in 1691, Van Coehoorn was able to implement his ideas, he strengthened the'inner' Citadel with new outworks at Fort William and La Casotte but did not have time to do the same for the'outer' City area.
In addition, the garrison of 5,000 was too small for an active defence, while many were poorly-trained Spanish troops with little interest in fighting for the Dutch. In the first Siege of Namur in May 1692, the City fell in less than five days, with the Citadel and its 500 Dutch defenders holding out until 30 June; this was due to the terms negotiated by Van Coehoorn when surrendering the City. He agreed not to fire o
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listen);[5] called Berrege [ˈbɛrəɣə] in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands.
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Media related to Bergen op Zoom at Wikimedia Commons
Bergen op Zoom
