1.
Her Majesty's Naval Service
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Her Majestys Naval Service, also known as the Senior Service, is the United Kingdoms naval warfare and maritime service. It consists of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Naval Careers Service, Royal Marines Band Service, the term Naval Service should be distinguished from the UK Naval Services, which consist of the Naval Service and the Merchant Navy. The Naval Service as a whole falls under the command of the Navy Board and this position is currently held by Admiral Sir Phillip Jones. The Defence Council delegates administration of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, the total displacement of HM Naval Service and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary is approximately 641,000 tonnes. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary is considered part of the Ministry of Defence Civil Service, the Navy has been structured around a single fleet since the abolition of the Eastern and Western fleets in 1971. Command of deployable assets is exercised by the Commander-in-Chief Fleet, who also has authority over the Royal Marines, personnel matters are the responsibility of the Second Sea Lord/Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command, an appointment usually held by a vice-admiral. The United Kingdoms nuclear deterrent is carried aboard the navys Vanguard-class of four nuclear ballistic-missile submarines, the surface fleet consists of destroyers, frigates, amphibious assault ships, patrol ships, mine-countermeasures, and miscellaneous vessels. The submarine service has existed within the Royal Navy for more than 100 years, the service possessed a combined fleet of diesel-electric and nuclear-powered submarines until the early 1990s. Following the Options for Change defence review, the Upholder class diesel-electric submarines were withdrawn, the infantry component of the Naval Service is the Corps of Royal Marines. Consisting of a single brigade and various independent units, the Royal Marines specialise in amphibious, arctic. The Commando Logistic Regiment consists of personnel from the Army, Royal Marines, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary is a civilian-manned fleet owned by the British Ministry of Defence. The RFA enables ships of the Royal Navy to maintain operations around the world and its primary role is to supply the Royal Navy with fuel, ammunition and supplies, normally by replenishment at sea. It also transports Army and Royal Marine personnel, as well as supporting training exercises, the RFA is funded out of the UK defence budget and the Commodore commanding the RFA is directly responsible to the Royal Navy Fleet Commander. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary also augments the Royal Navys amphibious warfare capabilities through its three Bay-class landing ship dock vessels, the service is manned by around 1,850 civilian personnel. Serco Denholm took over Marine Services to the Naval Service from the now disbanded Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service in 2008, in late 2009 Serco bought out Denholms share, with the service now being known as Serco Marine Services
2.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
3.
Royal Marines
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The Corps of Royal Marines is the United Kingdoms amphibious light infantry force, forming part of the Naval Service, along with the Royal Navy. The Royal Marines were formed in 1755 as the Royal Navys infantry troops, as a highly specialised and adaptable light infantry force, the Royal Marines are trained for rapid deployment worldwide and capable of dealing with a wide range of threats. The Royal Marines have close ties with allied marine forces, particularly the United States Marine Corps. Today, the Royal Marines are a fighting force within the British Armed forces. The Royal Marines can trace its origins back as far as 28 October 1664 when at the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company the Duke of York and Albanys maritime regiment of foot was first formed. On 5 April 1755, His Majestys Marine Forces, fifty Companies in three Divisions, headquartered at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, were formed by Order of Council under Admiralty control. Initially all field officers were Royal Navy officers as the Royal Navy felt that the ranks of Marine field officers were largely honorary and this meant that the furthest a Marine officer could advance was to lieutenant colonel. It was not until 1771 that the first Marine was promoted to colonel and this attitude persisted well into the 1800s. During the rest of the 18th century, they served in numerous landings all over the world and they also served in the American War of Independence, being particularly courageous in the Battle of Bunker Hill led by Major John Pitcairn. In 1788 a detachment of four companies of marines, under Major Robert Ross, due to an error the Fleet left Portsmouth without its main supply of ammunition, and were not resupplied until the Fleet docked in Rio de Janeiro midway through the voyage. In 1802, largely at the instigation of Admiral the Earl St. Vincent, the Royal Marines Artillery was formed as a separate unit in 1804 to man the artillery in bomb ketches. These had been manned by the Armys Royal Regiment of Artillery, during the Napoleonic Wars the Royal Marines participated in every notable naval battle on board the Royal Navys ships and also took part in multiple amphibious actions. In the Caribbean theatre volunteers from freed French slaves on Marie-Galante were used to form Sir Alexander Cochranes first Corps of Colonial Marines and these men bolstered the ranks, helping the British to hold the island until reinforcements arrived. This practice was repeated during the War of 1812, where escaped American slaves were formed into Cochranes second Corps of Colonial Marines and these men were commanded by Royal Marines officers and fought alongside their regular Royal Marines counterparts at the Battle of Bladensburg. Throughout the war Royal Marines units raided up and down the east coast of America including up the Penobscot River and they fought in the Battle of New Orleans and later helped capture Fort Bowyer in Mobile Bay in what was the last action of the war. In 1855 the Infantry forces were renamed the Royal Marines Light Infantry, during the Crimean War in 1854 and 1855, three Royal Marines earned the Victoria Cross, two in the Crimea and one in the Baltic. In 1862 the name was altered to Royal Marine Light Infantry. The Royal Navy did not fight any other ships after 1850, in these Naval Brigades, the function of the Royal Marines was to land first and act as skimishers ahead of the sailor Infantry and Artillery
4.
British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany
5.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
6.
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
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The Ministry of Defence is the British government department responsible for implementing the defence policy set by Her Majestys Government and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces. The MoD states that its objectives are to defend the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its interests and to strengthen international peace. The MoD also manages day-to-day running of the forces, contingency planning. As rearmament became a concern during the 1930s, Stanley Baldwin created the position of Minister for Coordination of Defence. Winston Churchill, on forming his government in 1940, created the office of Minister of Defence to exercise control over the Chiefs of Staff Committee. The post was held by the Prime Minister of the day until Clement Attlees government introduced the Ministry of Defence Act of 1946, the new ministry was headed by a Minister of Defence who possessed a seat in the Cabinet. These departments merged in 1964, the functions of the Ministry of Aviation Supply merged into the Ministry of Defence in 1971. The Ministers in the Ministry of Defence are as follows, The Ministers and Chiefs of the Defence Staff are supported by a number of civilian, scientific, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Defence is the senior civil servant at the MoD. His or her role is to ensure the MoD operates effectively as a department of the government, Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Stephen Lovegrove—commencing April 2016 Defence Equipment & Support CEO - Tony Douglas — commencing 2016 Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Vernon C. He is supported by the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Gordon Messenger, Royal Marines. First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, Royal Navy Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, the Surgeon General, represents the Defence Medical Services on the Defence Staff, and is the clinical head of that service. These forces must be capable of representing Britain as lead nation in any coalition operations, the ability, at longer notice, to deploy forces in a large-scale operation while running a concurrent small-scale operation. The MoD has since been regarded as a leader in elaborating the post-Cold War organising concept of defence diplomacy, the UK is establishing air and naval bases in the Persian Gulf, located in the UAE and Bahrain. A presence in Oman is also being considered, the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 included £178 billion investment in new equipment and capabilities. The review set a policy with four primary missions for the Armed Forces, Defend and contribute to the security and resilience of the UK. Contribute to improved understanding of the world through strategic intelligence and the defence network. Reinforce international security and the capacity of our allies, partners. Conduct operations to restore peace and stability, conduct major combat operations if required, including under NATO Article 5
7.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
8.
Commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces
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The Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces is a position vested in the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, who as Sovereign and head of state is the Head of the Armed Forces. The Queen, however, remains the authority of the military, with officers. Responsibility for the management of the forces is delegated to a number of committees, the Defence Council, Chiefs of Staff Committee, Defence Management Board, and three single-service boards. The Defence Council, composed of representatives of the services. The three constituent single-service committees are chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence, the Chief of the Defence Staff is the professional head of the Armed Forces and is an appointment that can be held by an Admiral, General or Air Chief Marshal. Before the practice was discontinued in the 1990s, those who were appointed to the position of CDS had been elevated to the most senior rank in their respective service, the CDS, along with the Permanent Under Secretary, are the principal advisers to the departmental minister. The three services have their own respective professional chiefs, the First Sea Lord who is also Chief of Naval Staff, the Chief of the General Staff, each of the three services also had one or more Commands with a Commander-in-Chief in charge of operations. These were Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces and Commander-in-Chief Air, previously, there were also territorial Commands, e. g. Commander-in-Chief Far East. This practised discontinued with the initiation of the 2011 Levene reform
9.
Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
10.
Secretary of State for Defence
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Her Majestys Principal Secretary of State for Defence is an official within Her Majestys Government and head of the Ministry of Defence. The office is a British Cabinet level position, the post was created in 1964 as successor to the posts of Minister for Coordination of Defence and Minister of Defence. The position of Minister for Co-ordination of Defence was a British Cabinet-level position established in 1936 to oversee, the position was established by Prime Minister Baldwin in response to criticism that Britains armed forces were understrength compared to those of Nazi Germany. Despite this, Baldwins choice of the Attorney General Sir Thomas Inskip provoked widespread astonishment, a famous comment made in response to Inskips appointment was This is the most cynical appointment since Caligula made his horse a consul. In 1939 Inskip was succeeded by First Sea Lord Lord Chatfield, in April 1940 the position was formally wound up and the functions transferred to other Ministers. Colour key, Conservative none The post of Minister of Defence was responsible for co-ordination of defence, the post was a Cabinet level post and generally ranked above the three service ministers, some of whom, however, continued to also serve in Cabinet. On his appointment as Prime Minister in May 1940, Winston Churchill created for himself the new post of Minister of Defence, the post was created in response to previous criticism that there had been no clear single minister in charge of the prosecution of World War II. Colour key, Conservative Labour Labour Co-op none The post of Secretary of State for Defence was created on 1 April 1964
11.
Gavin Williamson
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Gavin Alexander Williamson CBE PC MP is a British Conservative Party politician. He was elected at the 2010 general election as Member of Parliament for South Staffordshire, Williamson was parliamentary private secretary to Patrick McLoughlin as Secretary of State for Transport. Williamson was then appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister David Cameron in October 2013 and he was appointed the Government Chief Whip in Theresa Mays new Government on 14 July 2016. Williamson originally hails from Scarborough, North Yorkshire and he is married to Joanne, who was a primary school teacher before they had children, they have two daughters, Annabel and Grace. Williamson was elected a County Councillor in 2001, for the Seamer division, after 2005, Williamson then moved to Derbyshire. Williamson was the national chairman of Conservative Students before it was abolished in 1998. At the 2005 general election, he stood as a Conservative candidate in Blackpool North & Fleetwood, before becoming an MP, Williamson worked in the Staffordshire pottery industry, and within a large property consultancy. Williamson has been Deputy Chairman of Staffordshire Area Conservatives, Chairman of Stoke-on-Trent Conservative Association, in September 2012, Williamson was made PPS to the Patrick McLoughlin, Secretary of State for Transport, and in 2013 became PPS to the Prime Minister, David Cameron. In October 2013, Gavin Williamson was reprimanded by the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, Bercow told Williamson that his job was to nod his head in the appropriate places, and to fetch and carry notes. Following the Conservative Partys election victory at the 2015 General Election, Williamson was sworn of the Privy Council on 14 May 2015, Williamson was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum. In the 2016 Prime Ministers Resignation Honours, Williamson was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for political, official site Twitter Parliament Conservative Party Voting record at Public Whip South Staffordshire Conservative Association
12.
Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom)
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The Chief of the Defence Staff is the professional head of the British Armed Forces and the most senior uniformed military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister. The Chief of the Defence Staff is based at the Ministry of Defence and works alongside the Permanent Under Secretary, the Chief of the Defence Staff is the British equivalent position of what in NATO and the European Union is known as the Chief of Defence. Constitutionally, the Sovereign is the de jure Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the current Chief of the Defence Staff is Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, who succeeded General Sir Nicholas Houghton on 14 July 2016. Chiefs of the Defence Staff are appointed on the recommendation of the Secretary of State for Defence to the Prime Minister before being approved by HM The Queen. The CDS is supported by a deputy, the Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, there are also several Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff posts who support the VCDS. The CDS focusses on military operations and strategy while the Permanent Under Secretarys remit concerns administrative, the post was created in 1959 to reflect the new concept of joint operations that had come to the fore in the Second World War. The first incumbent was Marshal of the RAF Sir William Dickson, prior to the creation of the post, he had served as the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, from 1956 onwards. Before 1956, although no permanent post of chairman existed, the three service chiefs took it in turn to act as chairman at meetings, from the posts inception until the mid-to-late 1970s, CDS appointments were granted on a strict rotational basis between the three services. The first break in order was precipitated by the unexpected death of Marshal of the RAF Sir Andrew Humphrey. During the 1980s, two Royal Navy officers held the post covering a period of six years. However, during the 2010s Guthrie, Boyce, Walker and Stirrup were honorarily promoted to their respective services senior ranks, although there is no policy against a Royal Marines officer being appointed, few officers in the Corps attain a high enough rank to be considered for the post. However, in 2016, Gordon Messenger was promoted to the four star rank of general, customarily, former Chiefs of Defence Staff receive a life peerage on retirement, sitting in the House of Lords as non-political crossbench peers. Sir Jock Stirrup was introduced to the House of Lords on 1 February 2010 as Baron Stirrup of Marylebone in the City of Westminster
13.
Air chief marshal
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Air chief marshal is a four-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force, where it is the most senior peacetime air force rank. Air chief marshal is an air officer rank and has a NATO ranking code of OF-9. An air chief marshal is equivalent to an admiral in the Royal Navy or a general in the British Army or the Royal Marines, in other forces, such as the United States Armed Forces and the Canadian Armed Forces, the equivalent four-star rank is general. The rank of air marshal is immediately senior to the rank of air marshal. Air chief marshals are sometimes considered to be air marshals. Prior to the adoption of RAF-specific rank titles in 1919, it was suggested that the RAF might use the Royal Navys officer ranks, for example, the rank that later became air chief marshal would have been air admiral. However, air marshal was preferred and was adopted on 1 August 1919. The rank was first used on 1 April 1922 with the promotion of Sir Hugh Trenchard, with Trenchards promotion to marshal of the RAF on 1 January 1927, no officer held the rank until Sir John Salmond was promoted on 1 January 1929. It has been used ever since. In the RAF, the rank of air marshal is held by the serving Chief of the Air Staff. Throughout the history of the RAF,139 RAF officers have held the rank and it has also awarded in an honorary capacity to senior members of the British Royal Family. Additionally, Lord Stirrup was granted a promotion to marshal of the Royal Air Force in 2014. The marshals are still to be found on the RAFs active list even though they have for all practical purposes retired, the rank insignia consists of three narrow light blue bands over a light blue band on a broad black band. This is worn on the sleeves of the service dress jacket or on the shoulders of the flying suit or working uniform. The command flag for an RAF air chief marshal is defined by the two red bands running through the centre of the flag. The vehicle star plate for an RAF air chief marshal depicts four stars on an air force blue background. The rank of air marshal is also used in the air forces of many countries which were under British influence around the time their air force was founded. This includes many the air forces of many Commonwealth countries and it is also instituted as a rank in the Ghana Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force as member of the Commonwealth of Nations, however not in practice
14.
Stuart Peach
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Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart William Peach, GBE, KCB, ADC, DL is a senior Royal Air Force officer. After training as a navigator, Peach commanded IX Squadron and then became Deputy Station Commander RAF Bruggen and he was deployed as NATO Air Commander in Kosovo in 2000. Peach succeeded General Sir Nick Houghton as Chief of the Defence Staff on 14 July 2016, Peach was born on 22 February 1956 in Staffordshire, England, to Clifford Peach and Jean Mary Peach. He was educated at Aldridge School, then a school in Aldridge. He studied geography, economics, and social history at the University of Sheffield and he later studied at Downing College, Cambridge, and completed a Master of Philosophy degree in 1997. A navigator, Peach was posted to No and he transferred to No.31 Squadron in 1984 and served on the Tornado in Germany. Promoted to squadron leader on 1 July 1986, he became a Qualified Weapons Instructor, Peach saw action as a Detachment Commander in Saudi Arabia during Operation Jural. From 1994 to 1996 Peach commanded IX Squadron operating in the Strike, Attack and SEAD role, in 1999 he was appointed Assistant Director of the Higher Command and Staff Course at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. He was then appointed Commandant of the Air Warfare Centre and Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence at RAF Strike Command, promoted to air vice marshal on 1 August 2003, Peach served as Director General Intelligence Collection from July 2003 to March 2006. Peach was promoted to air marshal and appointed the first commander of the new Joint Forces Command in December 2011. He went on to become Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff in May 2013. As of 2015, Peach was paid a salary of between £190,000 and £194,999 by the department, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 New Year Honours, on 22 January 2016, the Ministry of Defence announced that Peach will succeed General Sir Nick Houghton as Chief of the Defence Staff in summer 2016. Peach took over on 14 July 2016, Peach married Brigitte Ender in 1986, they have one son and one daughter. Official biography on gov. uk Media related to Stuart Peach at Wikimedia Commons
15.
Fiscal year
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A fiscal year is the period used by governments for accounting and budget purposes, which vary between countries. It is also used for reporting by business and other organizations. Taxation laws generally require accounting records to be maintained and taxes calculated on an annual basis, the calculation of tax on an annual basis is especially relevant for direct taxation, such as income tax. Many annual government fees—such as Council rates, licence fees, etc. —are also levied on a year basis. The fiscal year end is the date marks the end of the fiscal year. Some companies—such as Cisco Systems—end their fiscal year on the day of the week each year. Under such a system, some years will have 52 weeks. Many universities have a year which ends during the summer. In the northern hemisphere this is July to the next June, in the southern hemisphere this is calendar year, January to December. Some media/communication-based organizations use a broadcast calendar as the basis for their fiscal year, the American football league NFL uses the term league year, which in effect forms the leagues fiscal year. In Afghanistan, the year was recently changed from 1 Hamal –29 Hoot to 1 Jadi –30 Qaus. The fiscal year runs with the Afghan calendar, thus resulting in difference of the Gregorian dates once in a four-year span, in Australia, a fiscal year is commonly called a financial year and starts on 1 July and ends on the next 30 June. Financial years are designated by the year of the second half of the period. For example, financial year 2017 is the 12-month period ending on 30 June 2017 and it is used for official purposes, by individual taxpayers and by the overwhelming majority of business enterprises. Business enterprises may opt to use a year that ends at the end of a week. All entities within the one group must use the financial year. The Commonwealth adopted the near-ubiquitous financial year standard since its inception in 1901, the reason given for the change was for convenience, as Parliament typically sits during May and June, while it was difficult for it to meet in November and December to pass a budget. In Austria the fiscal year is the year,1 January to 31 December
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United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
17.
BAE Systems
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BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security, and aerospace company. Its headquarters are in London in the United Kingdom and it has operations worldwide and it is among the worlds largest defence companies, it was ranked as the third-largest based on applicable 2015 revenues. Its largest operations are in the United Kingdom and United States, other major markets include Australia, India and Saudi Arabia. The company was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7. V, since its formation it has made a number of acquisitions, most notably of United Defense and Armor Holdings of the United States, and sold its shares in Airbus, Astrium, AMS and Atlas Elektronik. BAE Systems is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, BAE Systems was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion merger of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems. As a result, BAE Systems is the successor to many of the most famous British aircraft, defence electronics, British Aerospace was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer, as well as a provider of military land systems. The company had emerged from the consolidation of UK aircraft manufacturers since World War II. British Aerospace was formed on 29 April 1977 by the nationalisation and merger of The British Aircraft Corporation, both BAC and Hawker Siddeley were themselves the result of various mergers and acquisitions. Marconi Electronic Systems was the subsidiary of British engineering firm The General Electric Company, dealing largely in military systems integration, as well as naval. Marconis heritage dates back to Guglielmo Marconis Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company, GEC purchased English Electric in 1968 and thereafter used the Marconi brand for its defence businesses. GECs own defence heritage dates back to World War I, when its contribution to the war effort included radios, World War II consolidated this position, as the company was involved in important technological advances, notably the cavity magnetron for radar. Between 1945 and 1999, GEC-Marconi/Marconi Electronic Systems became one of the worlds most important defence contractors, in June 1998, MES acquired Tracor, a major American defence contractor, for £830 million. In June 1997 British Aerospace Defence managing director John Weston commented Europe, is supporting three times the number of contractors on less than half the budget of the U. S. European governments wished to see the merger of their defence manufacturers into a single entity, as early as 1995 British Aerospace and the German aerospace and defence company DaimlerChrysler Aerospace were said to be keen to create a transnational aerospace and defence company. The two companies envisaged including Aérospatiale, the other major European aerospace company, but only after its privatisation, as well as Airbus, British Aerospace and DASA were partners in the Panavia Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft projects. A merger was agreed between British Aerospace chairman Richard Evans and DASA CEO Jürgen Schrempp in December 1998, meanwhile, GEC was also under pressure to participate in defence industry consolidation. GEC favours forging a national champion defence group with BAe to compete with the giant US organisations, when GEC put MES up for sale on 22 December 1998, British Aerospace abandoned the DASA merger in favour of purchasing its British rival. The merger of British Aerospace and MES was announced on 19 January 1999, Evans stated that in 2004 that his fear was that an American defence contractor would acquire MES and challenge both British Aerospace and DASA
18.
Rolls-Royce Holdings
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This article is about the Rolls-Royce aircraft engine and power systems business and its owner since 1987. For previous owners, see Rolls-Royce Limited, for the present day manufacturers of automobiles for BMW, see Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Rolls-Royce is the world’s second-largest maker of engines and has major businesses in the marine propulsion. All of its shares are tradeable on the London Stock Exchange, Rolls-Royce was the worlds 16th-largest defence contractor in 2011 and 2012 when measured by defence revenues. It had an order book of £71.6 billion as of January 2014. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, as of June 2013, it had a market capitalisation of £22.22 billion, the 24th-largest of any company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange. Rolls-Royce grew from the business of F H Royce which was established in 1884 and ten years later began to manufacture dynamos. C S Rolls established a business with F H Royce in 1904 because Royce had developed a range of cars which Rolls wanted to sell. A corporate owner was incorporated in 1906 with the name Rolls-Royce Limited and its business and assets were bought by the government using a company created for the purpose named Rolls-Royce limited. This company remains in existence today and carries on Rolls-Royce business under the name Rolls-Royce plc, Rolls-Royce plc returned to the sharemarkets in 1987 under the government of Margaret Thatcher. In 2003 ownership of Rolls-Royce plc was passed to Rolls-Royce Group plc incorporated 21 March 2003 which issued its own new shares for payment to the previous shareholders. In 2011 in the same way Rolls-Royce Group plc passed ownership on 23 May 2011 to Rolls-Royce Holdings plc a wholly new company incorporated 10 February 2011, Rolls-Royce plc remains the principal trading company. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, like its predecessor, is merely a holding company. The group included Clarke Chapman, Reyrolle and Parsons, the company was renamed Rolls-Royce Industrial Power Group. It was sold off piecemeal over the decade as the company re-focused on its core aero-engine operations following the recession of the early 1990s. On 21 November 1994, Rolls-Royce announced its intention to acquire the Allison Engine Company, the two companies had a technical association dating back to the Second World War. Rolls-Royce had previously tried to buy the company when General Motors sold it in 1993, owing to Allisons involvement in classified and export restricted technology, the 1994 acquisition was subject to investigation to determine the national security implications. On 27 March 1995, the US Department of Defense announced that the deal between Allison Engine Co. and Rolls-Royce does not endanger national security, in 2000, this restriction was replaced by a more flexible Special Security Arrangement
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Military
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The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their body and to defend that body. Armed force is the use of armed forces to achieve political objectives, the study of the use of armed forces is called military science. Broadly speaking, this involves considering offense and defense at three levels, strategy, operational art, and tactics, all three levels study the application of the use of force in order to achieve a desired objective. In most countries the basis of the forces is the military. However, armed forces can include other paramilitary structures, the obvious benefit to a country in maintaining armed forces is in providing protection from foreign threats and from internal conflict. In recent decades armed forces personnel have also used as emergency civil support roles in post-disaster situations. On the other hand, they may harm a society by engaging in counter-productive warfare. Expenditure on science and technology to develop weapons and systems sometimes produces side benefits, although some claim that greater benefits could come from targeting the money directly
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United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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British Overseas Territories
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The 14 British Overseas Territories are territories under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom. They are the parts of the British Empire that have not been granted independence or have voted to remain British territories. These territories do not form part of the United Kingdom and, with the exception of Gibraltar, are not part of the European Union, though the Cyprus SBAs are subject to EU law and use the Euro. Most of the territories are internally self-governing, with the UK retaining responsibility for defence. The rest are either uninhabited or have a population of military or scientific personnel. They share the British monarch as head of state, the term British Overseas Territory was introduced by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002, replacing the term British Dependent Territory, introduced by the British Nationality Act 1981. Prior to 1 January 1983, the territories were referred to as British Crown Colonies. With the exceptions of the British Antarctic Territory and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the British Indian Ocean Territory, the Territories retain permanent civilian populations. Permanent residency for the 7,000 or so living in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri. Collectively, the Territories encompass a population of about 250,000 people, the vast majority of this,660,000 square miles, constitutes the British Antarctic Territory. The current minister responsible for the Territories excluding the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and the Sovereign Base Areas is Baroness Anelay, Minister of State for the Commonwealth, the other three territories are the responsibility of Sir Alan Duncan MP, Minister of State for Europe and the Americas. The first, unofficial, colony was Newfoundland, where English fishermen routinely set up camps in the 16th century. It is now a province of Canada known as Newfoundland and Labrador and it retains strong cultural ties with Britain. English colonisation of North America began officially in 1607 with the settlement of Jamestown, st. Georges town, founded in Bermuda in that year, remains the oldest continuously inhabited British settlement in the New World. Bermuda and Bermudians have played important, sometimes pivotal, but generally underestimated or unacknowledged roles in the shaping of the English and British trans-Atlantic Empires. These include maritime commerce, settlement of the continent and of the West Indies, separate self-governing colonies federated to become Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Rhodesia. These and other large self-governing colonies had become known as Dominions by the 1920s, the Dominions achieved almost full independence with the Statute of Westminster. Through a process of following the Second World War, most of the British colonies in Africa, Asia
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Crown dependencies
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The Crown dependencies are the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel. Being independently administered jurisdictions, they do not form part of either the United Kingdom or the British Overseas Territories and they are self-governing possessions of the Crown. Internationally, the dependencies are considered territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible rather than as sovereign states, as a result, they are not member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. However, they do have a relationship with the Commonwealth, the European Union and they are not part of the European Union, although they are within the EUs customs area. In each case, the head of government is referred to as a Chief Minister, the Crown is defined differently in each crown dependency. Legislation of the Isle of Man defines the Crown in right of the Isle of Man as being separate from the Crown in right of the United Kingdom and this constitutional concept is also worded as the Crown in right of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Each Bailiwick is a Crown dependency and each is headed by a Bailiff, each Bailiwick has its own legal and healthcare systems, and their own separate immigration policies, with local status in one Bailiwick having no jurisdiction in the other. The two Bailiwicks exercise bilateral double taxation treaties, since 1961, the Bailiwicks have had separate courts of appeal, but generally the Bailiff of each Bailiwick has been appointed to serve on the panel of appellate judges for the other Bailiwick. The Bailiwick of Guernsey comprises three separate jurisdictions, Guernsey, which also the nearby islands of Herm and Jethou. Sark, which includes the nearby island of Brecqhou. Alderney, including smaller surrounding uninhabited islands, the parliament of Guernsey is the States of Deliberation, the parliament of Sark is called the Chief Pleas, and the parliament of Alderney is called the States of Alderney. The three parliaments together can also approve joint Bailiwick-wide legislation that applies in those parts of the Bailiwick whose parliaments approve it. Guernsey issues its own coins and banknotes, Guernsey banknotes Coins of the Guernsey pound These circulate freely in both Bailiwicks alongside UK coinage and English and Scottish banknotes and they are not legal tender within the UK. There are no parties in any of the parliaments, candidates stand for election as independents. e. 5432 on 2 wheels and on 4 wheels, the Bailiwick of Jersey consists of the island of Jersey and a number of surrounding uninhabited islands. The parliament is the States of Jersey, the first known mention of which is in a document of 1497, Jersey issues its own coins and banknotes, Jersey banknotes Coins of the Jersey pound These circulate freely in both Bailiwicks alongside UK coinage and English and Scottish banknotes. They are not legal tender within the UK but are legal currency backed by deposits at the Bank of England, there are few political parties, as candidates generally stand for election as independents. The Isle of Mans Tynwald claims to be the worlds oldest parliament in continuous existence, candidates often stand for election as independents, rather than being selected by political parties
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Peacekeeping
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Peacekeeping refers to activities intended to create conditions that favor lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths and reduces the risk of renewed warfare, such assistance may come in many forms, including confidence-building measures, power-sharing arrangements, electoral support, strengthening the rule of law, and economic and social development. Accordingly, the UN peacekeepers can include soldiers, police officers, the United Nations is not the only organization to implement peacekeeping missions. Non-UN peacekeeping forces include the NATO mission in Kosovo and the Multinational Force, the Nonviolent Peaceforce is one NGO widely considered to have expertise in general peacemaking by non-governmental volunteers or activists. There are a range of types of operations encompassed in peacekeeping. In Page Fortna’s book Does Peacekeeping Work, for instance, she distinguishes four different types of peacekeeping operations, importantly, these types of missions and how they are conducted are heavily influenced by the mandate in which they are authorized. Three of Fortna’s four types are consent-based missions, i. e. Chapter VI missions, Chapter VI missions are consent based, therefore they require the consent of the belligerent factions involved in order to operate. Should they lose that consent, Peacekeepers would be compelled to withdraw, Chapter VII missions, by contrast, do not require consent, though they may have it. If consent is lost at any point, Chapter VII missions would not be required to withdraw, observation Missions which consist of small contingents of military or civilian observers tasked with monitoring cease-fires, troop withdrawals, or other conditions outlined in a ceasefire agreement. They are typically unarmed and are tasked with observing and reporting on what is taking place. Thus, they do not possess the capability or mandate to intervene should either side renege on the agreement, examples of observation missions include UNAVEM II in Angola in 1991 and MINURSO in the Western Sahara. Thus, they serve as a zone between the two sides and can monitor and report on the compliance of either side with regard to parameters established in a given ceasefire agreement. Examples include UNAVEM III in Angola in 1994, and MINUGUA in Guatemala in 1996, multidimensional missions are carried out by military and police personnel in which they attempt to implement robust and comprehensive settlements. Examples include UNTAG in Namibia, ONUSAL in El Salvador, Peace enforcement Missions are Chapter VII missions and unlike the previous Chapter VI missions, they do not require the consent of the belligerent parties. These are multidimensional operations comprising both civilian and military personnel, the military force is substantial in size and fairly well-equipped by UN Peacekeeping standards. They are mandated to use force for purposes beyond just self-defense, examples include ECOMOG and UNAMSIL in West Africa and Sierra Leone in 1999, as well as the NATO operations in Bosnia—IFOR and SFOR. During the Cold War, peacekeeping was primarily interpositional in nature—thus being referred to as traditional peacekeeping, Missions were consent-based, and more often than not observers were unarmed—such was the case with UNTSO in the Middle East and UNCIP in India and Pakistan. Others were armed—such as UNEF-I, established during the Suez Crisis and they were largely successful in this role
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Humanitarian aid
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Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people in need. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by government, among the people in need belong homeless, refugees, victims of natural disasters, wars and famines. The primary purpose of aid is to save lives, reduce suffering. Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disasters, the primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. It may therefore be distinguished from development aid, which seeks to address the underlying factors which may have led to a crisis or emergency. Those countries deemed least safe were Somalia and Afghanistan, in 2012, Humanitarian Outcomes reports that the countries with the highest incidents were, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria, Pakistan and Somalia. The beginnings of organized international humanitarian aid can be traced to the late 19th century, as many as 10 million people may have died in the famine. The Shandong Famine Relief Committee was soon established with the participation of diplomats, businessmen, to combat the famine, an international network was set up to solicit donations. These efforts brought in 204,000 silver taels, the equivalent of $7–10 million in 2012 silver prices, a simultaneous campaign was launched in response to the Great Famine of 1876–78 in India. Although the authorities have criticized for their laissez-faire attitude during the famine. A Famine Relief Fund was set up in the United Kingdom and had raised £426,000 within the first few months, early attempts were in private hands, and were limited in their financial and organizational capabilities. It was only in the 1980s, that news coverage. Live Aid, a 1985 fund-raising effort headed by Bob Geldof induced millions of people in the West to donate money, some of the proceeds also went to the famine hit areas of Eritrea. The first global summit on humanitarian aid was held on May 23 and 24,2016 in Istanbul, issues that were discussed included, preventing and ending conflict, managing crises, and aid financing. Aid is funded by donations from individuals, corporations, governments, Humanitarian aid spans a wide range of activities, including providing food aid, healthcare or protection. The majority of aid is provided in the form of goods or assistance, with cash. However, evidence has shown how cash transfers can be better for recipients as it gives them choice and control, they can be more cost-efficient and better for local markets, Aid Workers are the people distributed internationally to do humanitarian aid work. They often require humanitarian degrees, most are recruited by such as Save the Children, Oxfam
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Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be United into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800, legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage
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Great power
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A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities, spatial aspects, while some nations are widely considered to be great powers, there is no definitive list of them. Sometimes the status of great powers is formally recognized in such as the Congress of Vienna or the United Nations Security Council. Accordingly, the status of great powers has also been formally and informally recognised in such as the G7. The term great power was first used to represent the most important powers in Europe during the post-Napoleonic era, the Great Powers constituted the Concert of Europe and claimed the right to joint enforcement of the postwar treaties. The formalization of the division between small powers and great powers came about with the signing of the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814, since then, the international balance of power has shifted numerous times, most dramatically during World War I and World War II. In literature, alternative terms for power are often world power or major power. There are no set or defined characteristics of a great power and these characteristics have often been treated as empirical, self-evident to the assessor. However, this approach has the disadvantage of subjectivity, as a result, there have been attempts to derive some common criteria and to treat these as essential elements of great power status. Later writers have expanded this test, attempting to define power in terms of military, economic. These expanded criteria can be divided into three heads, power capabilities, spatial aspects, and status, as noted above, for many, power capabilities were the sole criterion. However, even under the more expansive tests, power retains a vital place and this aspect has received mixed treatment, with some confusion as to the degree of power required. Writers have approached the concept of power with differing conceptualizations of the world situation. This differed from earlier writers, notably from Leopold von Ranke and these positions have been the subject of criticism. All states have a scope of interests, actions, or projected power. This is a factor in distinguishing a great power from a regional power. It has been suggested that a power should be possessed of actual influence throughout the scope of the prevailing international system. Arnold J. Toynbee, for example, observes that Great power may be defined as a political force exerting an effect co-extensive with the widest range of the society in which it operates, the Great powers of 1914 were world-powers because Western society had recently become world-wide
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Seven Years' War
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The Seven Years War was a war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. It involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by the Kingdom of Great Britain on one side and the Kingdom of France on the other. Meanwhile, in India, the Mughal Empire, with the support of the French, faced with this sudden turn of events, Britain aligned herself with Prussia, in a series of political manoeuvres known as the Diplomatic Revolution. Conflict between Great Britain and France broke out in 1754–1756 when the British attacked disputed French positions in North America, meanwhile, rising power Prussia was struggling with Austria for dominance within and outside the Holy Roman Empire in central Europe. In 1756, the major powers switched partners, realizing that war was imminent, Prussia preemptively struck Saxony and quickly overran it. The result caused uproar across Europe, because of Austrias alliance with France to recapture Silesia, which had been lost in a previous war, Prussia formed an alliance with Britain. Reluctantly, by following the diet, most of the states of the empire joined Austrias cause. The Anglo-Prussian alliance was joined by smaller German states, Sweden, seeking to re-gain Pomerania joined the coalition, seeing its chance when virtually all of Europe opposed Prussia. Spain, bound by the Pacte de Famille, intervened on behalf of France, the Russian Empire was originally aligned with Austria, fearing Prussias ambition on the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but switched sides upon the succession of Tsar Peter III in 1762. Naples, Sicily, and Savoy, although sided with the Franco-Spanish alliance, like Sweden, Russia concluded a separate peace with Prussia. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain and the Treaty of Hubertusburg between Saxony, Austria and Prussia, in 1763. The Native American tribes were excluded from the settlement, a subsequent conflict, Prussia emerged as a new European great power. Although Austria failed to retrieve the territory of Silesia from Prussia its military prowess was noted by the other powers. The involvement of Portugal, Spain and Sweden did not return them to their status as great powers. France was deprived of many of its colonies and had saddled itself with heavy war debts that its inefficient financial system could barely handle. Spain lost Florida but gained French Louisiana and regained control of its colonies, e. g. Cuba and the Philippines, France and Spain avenged their defeat in 1778 when the American Revolutionary War broke out, with hopes of destroying Britains dominance once and for all. The Seven Years War was perhaps the first true world war, having taken place almost 160 years before World War I and it was characterized in Europe by sieges and the arson of towns as well as open battles with heavy losses
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Napoleonic Wars
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The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Napoleon became the First Consul of France in 1799, then Emperor five years later, inheriting the political and military struggles of the Revolution, he created a state with stable finances, a strong central bureaucracy, and a well-trained army. The British frequently financed the European coalitions intended to thwart French ambitions, by 1805, they had managed to convince the Austrians and the Russians to wage another war against France. At sea, the Royal Navy destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805, Prussian worries about increasing French power led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July, although Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, it did not bring a lasting peace for Europe. Hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia, the Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, the Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. Unwilling to bear the consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse and retreat of the Grand Army along with the destruction of Russian lands. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, a lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814 and he was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again, the Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The Congress of Vienna, which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815, established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms, Napoleon seized power in 1799, creating a de facto military dictatorship. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition, Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleons assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, for its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British quickly enforced a blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britains Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him, the so-called Continental System formed a league of armed neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France
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Crimean War
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The Crimean War was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to March 1856 in which the Russian Empire lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. The immediate cause involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, the French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at Ottoman expense. While the churches eventually worked out their differences and came to an agreement, Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas issued an ultimatum that the Orthodox subjects of the Empire be placed under his protection. Britain attempted to mediate and arranged a compromise that Nicholas agreed to, when the Ottomans demanded changes, Nicholas refused and prepared for war. Having obtained promises of support from France and Britain, the Ottomans declared war on Russia in October 1853. The war started in the Balkans, when Russian troops occupied the Danubian Principalities, until then under Ottoman suzerainty and now part of modern Romania, led by Omar Pasha, the Ottomans fought a strong defensive campaign and stopped the advance at Silistra. A separate action on the town of Kars in eastern Anatolia led to a siege. Fearing an Ottoman collapse, France and Britain rushed forces to Gallipoli and they then moved north to Varna in June, arriving just in time for the Russians to abandon Silistra. Aside from a skirmish at Köstence, there was little for the allies to do. Karl Marx quipped that there they are, the French doing nothing, after extended preparations, the forces landed on the peninsula in September 1854 and fought their way to a point south of Sevastopol after a series of successful battles. The Russians counterattacked on 25 October in what became the Battle of Balaclava and were repulsed, a second counterattack, ordered personally by Nicholas, was defeated by Omar Pasha. The front settled into a siege and led to conditions for troops on both sides. Smaller actions were carried out in the Baltic, the Caucasus, Sevastopol fell after eleven months, and neutral countries began to join the Allied cause. Isolated and facing a bleak prospect of invasion from the west if the war continued and this was welcomed by France and Britain, as their subjects were beginning to turn against their governments as the war dragged on. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856, Russia was forbidden from hosting warships in the Black Sea. The Ottoman vassal states of Wallachia and Moldavia became largely independent, Christians there were granted a degree of official equality, and the Orthodox Church regained control of the Christian churches in dispute. The Crimean War was one of the first conflicts to use technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways
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World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
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World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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Blue-water navy
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A blue-water navy is a maritime force capable of operating globally, essentially across the deep waters of open oceans. A term more used in the United Kingdom to describe such a force is a navy possessing maritime expeditionary capabilities. While definitions of what constitutes such a force vary, there is a requirement for the ability to exercise sea control at wide ranges. The term blue-water navy is a maritime geographical-term in contrast with brown-water navy, the Defense Security Service of the United States has defined the blue-water navy as, a maritime force capable of sustained operation across the deep waters of open oceans. A blue-water navy allows a country to project power far from the home country, smaller blue-water navies are able to dispatch fewer vessels abroad for shorter periods of time. In public discourse, blue-water capability is identified with the operation of capital ships such as battleships. In the end Australia did not buy a new carrier, a blue-water navy implies force protection from sub-surface, surface and airborne threats and a sustainable logistic reach, allowing a persistent presence at range. A hallmark of a true blue-water navy is the ability to conduct replenishment at sea, while a blue-water navy can project sea control power into another nations littoral, it remains susceptible to threats from less capable forces. An example of vulnerability was the October 2000 USS Cole bombing in Aden. The term blue-water navy should not be confused with the capability of an individual ship, for example, vessels of a green-water navy can often operate in blue water for short periods of time. A number of nations have extensive maritime assets but lack the capability to maintain the required sustainable logistic reach, some of them join coalition task groups in blue-water deployments such as anti-piracy patrols off Somalia. According to a definition, blue-water capability refers to an oceangoing fleet able to operate on the high seas far from its nations homeports. In their 2012 publication, Sea Power and the Asia-Pacific, professors Geoffrey Till, bratton outlined what they termed as concise criteria with regard to the definitions of brown, green and blue-water navies. They go on to say that even such a definition and understanding of naval hierarchy. For example, while France and the United States may be considered blue-water navies, he states that the operational capability, another definition states that brown-water refers to the littoral areas within 100 nautical miles of the coastline. Green-water begins from 100 nautical miles out to the major land formation. While blue-water is the ability to force out to aleast 1,500 nautical miles beyond the coast. Traditionally a distinction used to be made between a coastal brown-water navy operating in the zone to 200 nautical miles and an oceangoing blue-water navy
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Air force
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An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nations armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy, or a marine corps. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions, Air forces typically consist of a combination of fighters, bombers, helicopters, transport planes and other aircraft. Many air forces are responsible for operations of the military space, intercontinental ballistic missiles. Some air forces may command and control other air defence assets such as artillery, surface-to-air missiles, or anti-ballistic missile warning networks. In addition to pilots, air forces have ground support staff who support the aircrew, however, some supporting personnel such as airfield defence troops, weapons engineers and air intelligence staff do not have equivalent roles in civilian organizations. Balloon or flying corps are not generally regarded as examples of an air force, however, with the invention of heavier-than-air craft in the early 20th century, armies and navies began to take interest in this new form of aviation as a means to wage war. The first aviation force in the world was the Aviation Militaire of the French Army formed in 1910, in 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War, Italy employed aircraft for the first time ever in the world for reconnaissance and bombing missions against Turkish positions on Libyan Territory. The Italian–Turkish war of 1911–1912 was the first in history that featured air attacks by airplanes, during World War I France, Germany, Italy, the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire all possessed significant forces of bombers and fighters. World War I also saw the appearance of senior commanders who directed aerial warfare, the British Royal Air Force was the first independent air force in the world. The RAF was founded on 1 April 1918 by amalgamation the British Armys Royal Flying Corps, on establishment the RAF comprised over 20,000 aircraft, was commanded by a Chief of the Air Staff who held the rank of major-general and was governed by its own government ministry. Over the following decades most countries with any military capability established their own independent air forces. The Canadian Air Force was formed at the end of World War I and it became the permanent Royal Canadian Air Force when it received the Royal title by royal proclamation on 1 April 1924. It did not however become independent of the Canadian Army until 1938 when its head was designated as Chief of the Air Staff. Similarly, the Royal New Zealand Air Force was established in 1923 as the New Zealand Permanent Air Force, other British-influenced countries also established their own independent air forces. For example, the Royal Egyptian Air Force was created in 1937 when Egyptian military aviation was separated from Army command, outside of the British Empire, the Finnish Air Force was established as a separate service on 4 May 1928 and the Brazilian Air Force was created in 1941. Both the United States Air Force and the Philippine Air Force were formed as a separate branches of their armed forces in 1947. The Israeli Air Force came into being with the State of Israel on 18 May 1948, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force was not established until 1954, in World War II Japanese military aviation had been carried out by the Army and Navy
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Volunteer Reserves (United Kingdom)
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The Volunteer Reserves are the British Armed Forces voluntary and part-time military reserve force. Unlike the Regular Reserve, the Volunteer Reserves do not consist of personnel who remain liable to be re-called for military service. Instead, the Volunteer Reserves consists of volunteers who routinely undergo training. The Volunteer Reserves serve under a fixed-term reserve contract and provide highly trained military personnel integrated with their Regular counterparts, for example, almost every major military operation has seen the deployment of Army Reservists alongside the Regular British Army. Volunteer Reserves are allowed to use the post-nominal letters VR after 10 years of service, the Volunteer Reserves also includes the armed forces University Service Units. The Volunteer Reserves primarily consist of four elements, each being a part of their parent service and liable for military operations. uk MoD – reserves and cadet strengths
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Monarchy of the United Kingdom
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The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom, its dependencies and its overseas territories. The monarchs title is King or Queen, the current monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. The monarch and his or her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic, as the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the Prime Minister. The monarch is, by tradition, commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces, from 1603, when the Scottish monarch King James VI inherited the English throne as James I, both the English and Scottish kingdoms were ruled by a single sovereign. From 1649 to 1660, the tradition of monarchy was broken by the republican Commonwealth of England, the Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Roman Catholics, or those who married Catholics, from succession to the English throne. In 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were merged to create the Kingdom of Great Britain, and in 1801, the British monarch became nominal head of the vast British Empire, which covered a quarter of the worlds surface at its greatest extent in 1921. After the Second World War, the vast majority of British colonies and territories became independent, George VI and his successor, Elizabeth II, adopted the title Head of the Commonwealth as a symbol of the free association of its independent member states. The United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth monarchies that share the person as their monarch are called Commonwealth realms. In the uncodified Constitution of the United Kingdom, the Monarch is the Head of State, oaths of allegiance are made to the Queen and her lawful successors. God Save the Queen is the British national anthem, and the monarch appears on postage stamps, coins, the Monarch takes little direct part in Government. Executive power is exercised by Her Majestys Government, which comprises Ministers, primarily the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and they have the direction of the Armed Forces of the Crown, the Civil Service and other Crown Servants such as the Diplomatic and Secret Services. Judicial power is vested in the Judiciary, who by constitution, the Church of England, of which the Monarch is the head, has its own legislative, judicial and executive structures. Powers independent of government are legally granted to public bodies by statute or Statutory Instrument such as an Order in Council. The Sovereigns role as a monarch is largely limited to non-partisan functions. This role has been recognised since the 19th century, the constitutional writer Walter Bagehot identified the monarchy in 1867 as the dignified part rather than the efficient part of government. Whenever necessary, the Monarch is responsible for appointing a new Prime Minister, the Prime Minister takes office by attending the Monarch in private audience, and after kissing hands that appointment is immediately effective without any other formality or instrument. Since 1945, there have only been two hung parliaments, the first followed the February 1974 general election when Harold Wilson was appointed Prime Minister after Edward Heath resigned following his failure to form a coalition. Although Wilsons Labour Party did not have a majority, they were the largest party, the second followed the May 2010 general election, in which the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to form the first coalition government since World War II
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
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It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the boroughs of the British capital, the parliament is bicameral, consisting of an upper house and a lower house. The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature, prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords. The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections held at least every five years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster in London, most cabinet ministers are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either House. The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The UK parliament and its institutions have set the pattern for many throughout the world. However, John Bright – who coined the epithet – used it with reference to a rather than a parliament. In theory, the UKs supreme legislative power is vested in the Crown-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union. The principle of responsibility to the lower House did not develop until the 19th century—the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons were elected in an electoral system. Thus, the borough of Old Sarum, with seven voters, many small constituencies, known as pocket or rotten boroughs, were controlled by members of the House of Lords, who could ensure the election of their relatives or supporters. During the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, No longer dependent on the Lords for their seats, MPs grew more assertive. The supremacy of the British House of Commons was established in the early 20th century, in 1909, the Commons passed the so-called Peoples Budget, which made numerous changes to the taxation system which were detrimental to wealthy landowners. The House of Lords, which consisted mostly of powerful landowners, on the basis of the Budgets popularity and the Lords consequent unpopularity, the Liberal Party narrowly won two general elections in 1910. Using the result as a mandate, the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, introduced the Parliament Bill, in the face of such a threat, the House of Lords narrowly passed the bill. However, regardless of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created the parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and reduced the representation of both parts at Westminster
37.
Bill of Rights 1689
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The Bill of Rights is an Act of the Parliament of England that deals with constitutional matters and sets out certain basic civil rights. It sets out certain rights of individuals including the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, furthermore, the Bill of Rights described and condemned several misdeeds of James II of England. These ideas reflected those of the political thinker John Locke and they became popular in England. It also sets out—or, in the view of its drafters, restates—certain constitutional requirements of the Crown to seek the consent of the people, a separate but similar document, the Claim of Right Act 1689, applies in Scotland. The Bill of Rights 1689 was one of the inspirations for the United States Bill of Rights, along with the Act of Settlement 1701, the Bill of Rights is still in effect in all Commonwealth realms. Following the Perth Agreement in 2011, legislation amending both of them came into effect across the Commonwealth realms on 26 March 2015, during the early modern period, the power of the Parliament of England continually increased. Passage of the Petition of Right in 1628 and Habeas Corpus Act in 1679 established certain liberties for subjects, the idea of a political party took form with groups debating rights to political representation during the Putney Debates of 1647. The English Civil War was fought between the King and an oligarchic but elected Parliament, in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, a group of English Parliamentarians invited the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau to overthrow King James II of England. Williams successful invasion with a Dutch fleet and army led to James fleeing to France and this assembly called for an English Convention Parliament to be elected, which convened on 22 January 1689. On 2 February a committee specially convened reported to the Commons 23 Heads of Grievances and it passed the Commons without division. On 13 February the clerk of the House of Lords read the Declaration of Right, William replied for his wife and himself, We thankfully accept what you have offered us. They then went in procession to the gate at Whitehall. The Garter King at Arms proclaimed them King and Queen of England, France and Ireland, whereupon they adjourned to the Chapel Royal and they were crowned on 11 April, swearing an oath to uphold the laws made by Parliament. They were also to maintain the laws of God, the profession of the Gospel. This replaced an oath which had deferred more to the monarch, the previous oath required the monarch to rule based on the laws and customs. Granted by the Kings of England, the Declaration of Right was enacted in an Act of Parliament, the Bill of Rights 1689, in December 1689. The Act declared James flight from England following the Glorious Revolution to be an abdication of the throne and it listed twelve of Jamess policies by which James designed to endeavour to subvert and extirpate the protestant religion, and the laws and liberties of this kingdom. The Bill of Rights is commonly dated in legal contexts to 1688 and this convention arises from the legal fiction that an Act of Parliament came into force on the first day of the session in which it was passed
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United Nations Security Council
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The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946. Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created following World War II to address the failings of an international organization. The Security Council consists of fifteen members, the great powers that were the victors of World War II—the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, Republic of China, and the United States—serve as the bodys five permanent members. These permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or candidates for Secretary-General, the Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. The bodys presidency rotates monthly among its members, Security Council resolutions are typically enforced by UN peacekeepers, military forces voluntarily provided by member states and funded independently of the main UN budget. As of 2016,103,510 peacekeeping soldiers and 16,471 civilians are deployed on 16 peacekeeping operations and 1 special political mission. Following the catastrophic loss of life in World War I, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between the nations, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. The term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. The most contentious issue at Dumbarton and in successive talks proved to be the rights of permanent members. At the conference, H. V. Evatt of the Australian delegation pushed to further restrict the power of Security Council permanent members. Due to the fear that rejecting the strong veto would cause the conferences failure, the UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. On 17 January 1946, the Security Council met for the first time at Church House, Westminster, in London, United Kingdom. The Security Council was largely paralysed in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and USSR and their allies, and the Council generally was only able to intervene in unrelated conflicts. Cold War divisions also paralysed the Security Councils Military Staff Committee, the committee continued to exist on paper but largely abandoned its work in the mid-1950s. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its budget for peacekeeping. After the Cold War, the UN saw an expansion in its peacekeeping duties. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, undersecretary-General Brian Urquhart later described the hopes raised by these successes as a false renaissance for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed. In 1994, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide in the face of Security Council indecision, in the late 1990s, UN-authorised international interventions took a wider variety of forms
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NATO
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party, three NATO members are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and are officially nuclear-weapon states. NATOs headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons. NATO is an Alliance that consists of 28 independent member countries across North America and Europe, an additional 22 countries participate in NATOs Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global total, Members defence spending is supposed to amount to 2% of GDP. The course of the Cold War led to a rivalry with nations of the Warsaw Pact, politically, the organization sought better relations with former Warsaw Pact countries, several of which joined the alliance in 1999 and 2004. N. The Treaty of Brussels, signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, the treaty and the Soviet Berlin Blockade led to the creation of the Western European Unions Defence Organization in September 1948. However, participation of the United States was thought necessary both to counter the power of the USSR and to prevent the revival of nationalist militarism. He got a hearing, especially considering American anxiety over Italy. In 1948 European leaders met with U. S. defense, military and diplomatic officials at the Pentagon, marshalls orders, exploring a framework for a new and unprecedented association. Talks for a new military alliance resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty and it included the five Treaty of Brussels states plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the goal was to keep the Russians out, the Americans in. Popular support for the Treaty was not unanimous, and some Icelanders participated in a pro-neutrality, the creation of NATO can be seen as the primary institutional consequence of a school of thought called Atlanticism which stressed the importance of trans-Atlantic cooperation. The members agreed that an attack against any one of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. The treaty does not require members to respond with military action against an aggressor, although obliged to respond, they maintain the freedom to choose the method by which they do so. This differs from Article IV of the Treaty of Brussels, which states that the response will be military in nature. It is nonetheless assumed that NATO members will aid the attacked member militarily, the treaty was later clarified to include both the members territory and their vessels, forces or aircraft above the Tropic of Cancer, including some Overseas departments of France. The creation of NATO brought about some standardization of allied military terminology, procedures, and technology, the roughly 1300 Standardization Agreements codified many of the common practices that NATO has achieved
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Five Power Defence Arrangements
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There is no specific commitment to intervene militarily. There is no commitment to intervene militarily. In 1981, the five powers organised the first annual land, since 1997, the naval and air exercises have been combined. In 2001, HQ IADS was redesignated Headquarters Integrated Area Defence System and it now has personnel from all three branches of the armed services, and co-ordinates the annual five-power naval and air exercises, while moving towards the fuller integration of land elements. There is also a Five Powers Defence Arrangements Ministerial Meeting, john Moore, then Minister of Defence of Australia said, As an established multilateral security framework, the FPDA has a unique role in Asia. It is of benefit to all member nations and, in Australias view. Malaysias CDF, former General Tan Sri Dato Sri Zulkifeli Bin Mohd Zin concurred, codenamed Exercise Bersama Lima, the three days joint exercise is tested the readiness and co-operation between all participating countries and concluded on 4 November 2011. Staff at Sembawang total three Ministry of Defence civil servants, one Royal Engineer Warrant Officer, one Chief Petty Officer, the present UK Defence Adviser to Singapore as of 2015 is a Royal Navy Commander. In HQ IADS, it is one Wing Commander, one Squadron Leader, one Lieutenant Commander, one Major, Five Power Defence Arrangements The Five Power Defence Arrangements, If It Aint Broke
41.
Ascension Island
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It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, of which the main island, Saint Helena, is around 1,300 kilometres to the southeast. The territory also includes the sparsely populated Tristan da Cunha archipelago, some 3,730 kilometres to the south, the island is named after the day of its recorded discovery, Ascension Day. It played a role as an important safe haven and coaling station to mariners, during World War II it was an important naval and air station, especially providing antisubmarine warfare bases in the Battle of the Atlantic. Ascension Island was garrisoned by the British Admiralty from 22 October 1815 to 1922, the island was used extensively by the British military during the Falklands War. Ascension Island hosts one of four antennas that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System navigational system. Ascension is a young formation, the tip of an undersea volcano which rose above the waves only a million years ago. It is associated both with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge plate boundary 80 km to the west and with a hotspot 25–300 km to the south east and its last eruption may have occurred in the 16th Century. Due to its short history, its soil consists mostly of clinker. In 1501, the Portuguese navigator Afonso de Albuquerque sighted the island on Ascension Day, dry and barren, the island had little appeal for passing ships except for collecting fresh meat, and was not claimed for the Portuguese Crown. Mariners could hunt for the seabirds and the enormous female green turtles that laid their eggs on the sandy beaches. The Portuguese also introduced goats as a source of meat for future mariners. In February 1701, HMS Roebuck, commanded by William Dampier, sixty men survived for two months until they were rescued. Almost certainly, after a few days they found the water spring in the high interior of the island. British mariners found the Dutchmans tent, belongings and diary in January 1726, organised settlement of Ascension Island began in 1815, when the British garrisoned it as a precaution after imprisoning Napoleon I on Saint Helena to the southeast. On 22 October the Cruizer class brig-sloops Zenobia and Peruvian claimed the island for His Britannic Majesty King George III, the Royal Navy designated the island as a stone frigate, HMS Ascension, with the classification of Sloop of War of the smaller class. The location of the island made it a useful stopping-point for ships, the Royal Navy used the island as a victualling station for ships, particularly those of the West Africa Squadron working against the slave trade. A garrison of Royal Marines was based at Ascension from 1823, in 1836 the Beagle voyage visited Ascension. Charles Darwin described it as a treeless island, with nothing growing near the coast
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Bahrain
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Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small Arab monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Bahrains population is 1,234,567, including 666,172 non-nationals and it is 780 km2 in size, making it the third smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilisation and it has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century. Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to convert to Islam, following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was occupied by the Portuguese in 1521, who in turn were expelled in 1602 by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty under the Persian Empire. In 1783, the Bani Utbah clan captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, in the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. Formerly a state, Bahrain was declared a Kingdom in 2002, in 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring. Bahrain had the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf, since the late 20th century, Bahrain has invested in the banking and tourism sectors. Many large financial institutions have a presence in Manama, the countrys capital, Bahrain has a high Human Development Index and was recognised by the World Bank as a high income economy. In Arabic, Bahrayn is the form of bahr, so al-Bahrayn means the two seas, although which two seas were originally intended remains in dispute. The term appears five times in the Quran, but does not refer to the modern island—originally known to the Arabs as Awal— but rather to all of Eastern Arabia. Today, Bahrains two seas are generally taken to be the bay east and west of the island. In addition to wells, there are areas of the sea north of Bahrain where fresh water bubbles up in the middle of the water as noted by visitors since antiquity. An alternate theory with regard to Bahrains toponymy is offered by the al-Ahsa region, another supposition by al-Jawahari suggests that the more formal name Bahri would have been misunderstood and so was opted against. Until the late Middle Ages, Bahrain referred to the region of Eastern Arabia that included Southern Iraq, Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, the region stretched from Basra in Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman. This was Iqlīm al-Bahrayns Bahrayn Province, the exact date at which the term Bahrain began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown. The entire coastal strip of Eastern Arabia was known as Bahrain for a millennium, the island and kingdom were also commonly spelled Bahrein into the 1950s. Bahrain was home to the Dilmun civilization, an important Bronze Age trade centre linking Mesopotamia, Bahrain was later ruled by the Assyrians and Babylonians. From the 6th to 3rd century BC, Bahrain was part of the Persian Empire ruled by the Achaemenian dynasty, by about 250 BC, Parthia brought the Persian Gulf under its control and extended its influence as far as Oman
43.
Belize
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Belize, formerly British Honduras, is an independent country on the eastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the north by Mexico, on the south and west by Guatemala and its mainland is about 290 km long and 110 km wide. Belize has an area of 22,800 square kilometres and a population of 368,310 and it has the lowest population density in Central America. The countrys population growth rate of 1. 87% per year is the second highest in the region, Belizes abundance of terrestrial and marine species and its diversity of ecosystems gives it a key place in the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Belize has a society, composed of many cultures and languages that reflect its rich history. English is the language of Belize, with Belizean Kriol being the unofficial language. Over half the population is multilingual, with Spanish being the second most common spoken language, Belize is considered a Central American and Caribbean nation with strong ties to both the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Belize is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, Belize is known for its September Celebrations, its extensive coral reefs, and punta music. The origin of the name Belize remains unclear, the earliest known record of the name appears in the journal of the Dominican priest Fray José Delgado, dating to 1677. Delgado recorded the names of three rivers that he crossed while travelling north along the Caribbean coast, Rio Soyte, Rio Xibum. The names of these waterways, which correspond to the Sittee River, Sibun River and it is likely that Delgados Balis was actually the Mayan word belix, meaning muddy-watered. Others have suggested that the name derives from a Spanish pronunciation of the name of the Scottish buccaneer Peter Wallace, there is no proof that Wallace settled in this area and some scholars have characterized this claim as a myth. Writers and historians have suggested other possible etymologies, including postulated French. Many aspects of this culture persist in the area despite nearly 500 years of European domination, prior to about 2500 BC, some hunting and foraging bands settled in small farming villages, they later domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers. A profusion of languages and subcultures developed within the Maya core culture, between about 2500 BC and 250 AD, the basic institutions of Maya civilisation emerged. The peak of this occurred during the classic period, which began about 250 AD. The Maya civilisation spread across what is now Belize around 1500 BC, the recorded history of the middle and southern regions is dominated by Caracol, an urban political centre that may have supported over 140,000 people. North of the Maya Mountains, the most important political centre was Lamanai, in the late Classic Era of Maya civilisation, as many as 1 million people may have lived in the area that is now Belize
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