1.
Commonwealth of Nations
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The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as simply the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire. The Commonwealth dates back to the century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the states as free. The symbol of free association is Queen Elizabeth II who is the Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also the monarch of 16 members of the Commonwealth, the other Commonwealth members have different heads of state,31 members are republics and five are monarchies with a different monarch. Member states have no obligation to one another. Instead, they are united by language, history, culture and their values of democracy, free speech, human rights. These values are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter and promoted by the quadrennial Commonwealth Games, the Commonwealth covers more than 29,958,050 km2, 20% of the worlds land area, and spans all six inhabited continents. She declared, So, it marks the beginning of that free association of independent states which is now known as the Commonwealth of Nations. As long ago as 1884, however, Lord Rosebery, while visiting Australia, had described the changing British Empire—as some of its colonies became more independent—as a Commonwealth of Nations. Conferences of British and colonial prime ministers occurred periodically from the first one in 1887, the Commonwealth developed from the imperial conferences. Newfoundland never did, as on 16 February 1934, with the consent of its parliament, Newfoundland later joined Canada as its 10th province in 1949. Australia and New Zealand ratified the Statute in 1942 and 1947 respectively, after World War II ended, the British Empire was gradually dismantled. Most of its components have become independent countries, whether Commonwealth realms or republics, there remain the 14 British overseas territories still held by the United Kingdom. In April 1949, following the London Declaration, the word British was dropped from the title of the Commonwealth to reflect its changing nature, burma and Aden are the only states that were British colonies at the time of the war not to have joined the Commonwealth upon independence. Hoped for success was reinforced by such achievements as climbing Mount Everest in 1953, breaking the four minute mile in 1954, however, the humiliation of the Suez Crisis of 1956 badly hurt morale of Britain and the Commonwealth as a whole. More broadly, there was the loss of a role of the British Empire. That role was no longer militarily or financially feasible, as Britains withdrawal from Greece in 1947 painfully demonstrated, Britain itself was now just one part of the NATO military alliance in which the Commonwealth had no role apart from Canada
2.
Interfaith dialogue
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Similarly, pluralistic rationalist groups have hosted public reasoning dialogues to transcend all worldviews, termed transbelief dialogue. Throughout the world there are local, regional, national and international initiatives, many are formally or informally linked. The often quoted There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions, There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions was formulated by Dr Hans Küng, a Professor of Ecumenical Theology and President of the Global Ethic Foundation. To some, the interreligious dialogue has the same meaning as interfaith dialogue. Neither are the same as Nondenominational Christianity, the World Council of Churches, though. To the WCC, interreligious refers to action between different Christian denominations, so, interfaith refers to interaction between different faith groups such as Muslim and Christian or Jew for example. In the dialogue of the hands, we all work together to make the world a place in which we must all live together. In the dialogue of the heart, we share the experience of the emotions of different from us. The historical effectiveness of interfaith dialogue is an issue of debate, friar James L. Heft, in a lecture on The Necessity of Inter-Faith Diplomacy, spoke about the conflicts among practitioners of the three Abrahamic religions. The sad reality has been that most of the time Jews, Muslims and Christians have remained ignorant about each other, or worse, especially in the case of Christians and Muslims, attacked each other. In contrast, The Pluralism Project at Harvard University says, Every religious tradition has grown through the ages in dialogue, Christians, Jews, and Muslims have been part of one anothers histories, have shared not only villages and cities, but ideas of God and divine revelation. The importance of Abrahamic interfaith dialogue in the present has been presented, We human beings today face a stark choice. Religious pluralism can also be observed in historical contexts, including Muslim Spain. Zarmanochegas was a monk of the Sramana tradition from India who journeyed to Antioch, disputation of Barcelona - religious disputation between Jews and Christians in 1263. The apostate Paulus Christiani proposed to King James I of Aragon that a public religious disputation on the fundamentals of faith should be held between him and R. Moses b. Nahman whom he had encountered in Gerona. The Dominicans Raymond de Peñaforte, Raymond Martini, and Arnold de Segarra, the single representative for the Jewish side was Naḥmanides. The four sessions of the disputation took place on July 20,27,30, Naḥmanides was guaranteed complete freedom of speech in the debate, he took full advantage of the opportunity thus afforded and spoke with remarkable frankness
3.
Westminster Abbey
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It is one of the United Kingdoms most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral, since 1560, however, the building is no longer an abbey nor a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England Royal Peculiar—a church responsible directly to the sovereign. The building itself is the abbey church. According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, a church was founded at the site in the 7th century, at the time of Mellitus, construction of the present church began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III. Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have held in Westminster Abbey. There have been at least 16 royal weddings at the abbey since 1100, two were of reigning monarchs, although, before 1919, there had been none for some 500 years. The first reports of the abbey are based on a tradition claiming that a young fisherman called Aldrich on the River Thames saw a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to be quoted to justify the gifts of salmon from Thames fishermen that the abbey received in later years, in the present was, the Fishmongers Company still gives a salmon every year. The proven origins are that in the 960s or early 970s, Saint Dunstan, assisted by King Edgar, between 1042 and 1052, King Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St Peters Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was the first church in England built in the Romanesque style, the building was completed around 1090 and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edwards death on 5 January 1066. A week later, he was buried in the church, and, nine years later and his successor, Harold II, was probably crowned in the abbey, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror later the same year. The only extant depiction of Edwards abbey, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry, construction of the present church was begun in 1245 by Henry III who selected the site for his burial. The abbot and monks, in proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the abbot often was employed on royal service and in due course took his place in the House of Lords as of right. The abbey built shops and dwellings on the west side, encroaching upon the sanctuary, the abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings. The Confessors shrine subsequently played a part in his canonisation. The work continued between 1245 and 1517 and was finished by the architect Henry Yevele in the reign of Richard II. Henry III also commissioned the unique Cosmati pavement in front of the High Altar, Henry VII added a Perpendicular style chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1503. Much of the came from Caen, in France, the Isle of Portland
4.
Commonwealth Games
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The Commonwealth Games is an international multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exception of 1942 and 1946, the games are overseen by the Commonwealth Games Federation, which also controls the sporting programme and selects the host cities. A host city is selected for each edition,18 cities in seven countries have hosted the event. Apart from many Olympic sports, the also include some sports that are played predominantly in Commonwealth countries, such as lawn bowls. Although there are 52 members of the Commonwealth of Nations,70 teams participate in the Commonwealth Games, the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom—England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—also send separate teams. Only six countries have attended every Commonwealth Games, Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland, Australia has been the highest achieving team for twelve games, England for seven, and Canada for one. The John Astley Cooper Committees worldwide helped Pierre de Coubertin to get his international Olympic Games off the ground, in 1911, the Festival of the Empire was held at The Crystal Palace in London to celebrate the coronation of George V. In 1928, Melville Marks Robinson of Canada was asked to organise the first British Empire Games, eleven national teams and four hundred competitors took part in six sports. Women competed in the events only. The opening and closing ceremonies as well as took place at Civic Stadium. The 1934 Games had originally been awarded to Johannesburg, but were given to London instead because of the potential for prejudiced treatment of black, seventeen national teams took part, including the Irish Free State. Once again, only six sports were featured in these particular Games, athletics took place at White City and three sports took place at Wembley, at the well established venue of the Empire Pool in Wembley Park, which later became Wembley Arena. The Empire Games flag was donated in 1931 by the British Empire Games Association of Canada, the year and location of subsequent games were added until the 1950 games. The name of the event was changed to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games. The first edition of the event was the 1930 British Empire Games in which 11 nations participated, the quadrennial schedule of the games was interrupted by the Second World War and the 1942 Games and the 1946 Games were abandoned. The games were revived in 1950 and underwent a name change four years later with the first British Empire, over 1,000 athletes participated in the 1958 Games as over thirty teams took part for the first time. The 1978 Games in Edmonton marked a new high as almost 1,500 athletes from 46 countries took part, the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia saw the sporting programme grow from 10 to 15 sports as team sports were allowed for the first time. Participation also reached new levels as over 3500 athletes represented 70 teams at the event, at the Games in Melbourne in 2006, over 4000 athletes took part in sporting competitions
5.
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
6.
Head of the Commonwealth
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There is no set term of office or term limit and the role itself involves no part in the day-to-day governance of any of the member states within the Commonwealth. By 1949, the then British Commonwealth was a group of eight countries, India, however, desired to become a republic, but not depart the Commonwealth by doing so. This was accommodated by the creation of the title Head of the Commonwealth for the King, the title is currently held by the elder daughter of George VI, Queen Elizabeth II. The title was devised in the London Declaration as a result of discussions at the 1949 Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference, since 1953, it has formed a part of the monarchs title in each Commonwealth realm. The Head of the Commonwealth or a representative attends the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and this is a tradition begun by the monarch on the advice of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1973, when the CHOGM was first held in Canada. During the summit, the Head of the Commonwealth has a series of meetings with Commonwealth countries leaders, attends a CHOGM reception and dinner. The Queen or a representative is present at the quadrennial Commonwealth Games and on every Commonwealth Day. The Commonwealth Secretariat asserts any successor will be chosen collectively by the Commonwealth heads of government, the Daily Telegraph reported that the post is not hereditary and many leaders want an elected head to make the organisation more democratic. In 1949, King George VI was king of each of the countries that comprised the British Commonwealth, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ceylon, India. However, the Indian Cabinet desired the country become a republic, when India adopted a republican constitution on 26 January 1950, George VI ceased to be its monarch, but it did regard him as Head of the Commonwealth. Elizabeth II became Head of the Commonwealth on her accession in 1952 and it is an entirely new conception built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man, friendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace. The following year, a Royal Style and Titles Act was passed in each of the Commonwealth realms, in December 1960, the Queen had a personal flag created to symbolise her as Head of the Commonwealth and not associated with her role as queen of any particular country. Over time, the flag has replaced the British Royal Standard when the Queen visits Commonwealth countries of which she is not head of state, when the Queen visits the headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, this personal standard—not any of her royal standards—is raised. Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said Elizabeth was a behind the force in ending apartheid in South Africa
7.
High commissioner
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High commissioner is the title of various high-ranking, special executive positions held by a commission of appointment. The English term is used to render various equivalent titles in other languages. In the Commonwealth of Nations, a commissioner is the senior diplomat in charge of the diplomatic mission of one Commonwealth government to another. In this usage, a Commonwealth nations high commission is its embassy to another Commonwealth nation, an example was the island of Cyprus. Until 12 July 1878 Cyprus was under Ottoman rule based in Istanbul, from that date it was under British administration, but Istanbul retained nominal sovereignty until Cyprus was fully annexed by Britain on 5 November 1914. As diplomatic residents were appointed to native rulers, high commissioners could likewise be appointed as British agents of indirect rule upon native states. The best known of these commissioners, Alfred Milner who was appointed to both positions in the 1890s, is considered responsible by some for igniting the Second Boer War. He was represented in each of the other units by a Resident Commissioner. In the colonial sense, some other powers have or previously had high commissioners, in the Kingdom of Denmark, High Commissioners represent the Government of Denmark in Greenland and the Faroe Islands and take part in negotiations on policies and decisions affecting their region. Greenland and the Faroe Islands have one Commissioner each, originally the French word Haut Commissaire, or in full Haut Commissaire de la république, was rarely used for governatorial functions, rather gouverneur and various lower titles. In Atlantic waters, from 14 September 1939 till September 1943, yet a colony could achieve independence without a High Commissioner, e. g. Guinée. The current High Commissioner of Vanuatu to the US is David J. Wilson. e. In early May 1919, the Kingdom of Greece was given a mandate by the Supreme Allied War Council for the city of Smyrna and its hinterland, which it proceeded to occupy on 12 May. A civilian administration was set up in the Smyrna Zone, headed, from 21 May 1919 until 9 September 1922, in the Monarchy, before 1910, they were known as Comissários Régios. In 1934–1956 the Governors of the Western Sahara were subordinated to him, the office itself was however filled by the governors of Spanish West Africa from 1939 to 1956. Haiti, the half of the island of Hispaniola, had a similar experience. It was a US protectorate from 1915 to 1936, after five US military commanders, there was one High Commissioner, John H. Russell, following World War I, Rear Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol served as United States High Commissioner for Turkey from 1919 to 1927. The Philippines became a United States unincorporated territory on 13 August 1898, after gaining autonomy on 15 November 1935, it had the following High Commissioners, 1935–1937 William Francis Frank Murphy, who was also the last Governor-General over the Islands
8.
Public holidays in the United Kingdom
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Public holidays in the United Kingdom are days where most businesses and non-essential services are closed, although an increasing number of retail businesses do open on some of the public holidays. There are restrictions on trading on Sundays and Christmas Day in England and Wales and on New Years Day, in Northern Ireland, once again, bank holidays other than New Years Day and Christmas Day are not necessarily public holidays. Good Friday and Christmas Day are common law holidays, except in Scotland, in Scotland the holiday on 1 January is statutory. If New Years Day is Saturday a substitute holiday is given on 4 January by Royal Proclamation,2 January is given by Royal Proclamation, with a substitute holiday on 4 January if it is Saturday and 3 January if it is Sunday or Monday. Outside Scotland,1 January is given by Royal Proclamation, or 3 January if it is Saturday and 2 January if it is Sunday, in Scotland,25 December is a statutory holiday. 26 December is given by Royal Proclamation if it is neither Saturday, Sunday or Monday,27 and 28 December are given by Royal Proclamation if Christmas Day is Saturday. 28 December only is given if Boxing Day is Saturday, outside Scotland, if Christmas Day is a Sunday there is an additional statutory holiday on 27 December. By Royal Proclamation, if Christmas Day is a Saturday there is a holiday on 28 December. If Boxing Day is a Sunday there is again a statutory holiday on 27 December, effectively what happens is that if a holiday falls at the weekend a substitute day is given in lieu. The United Kingdom has no national day holiday marked and/or celebrated for its founding date. Increasingly, there are calls for public holidays on the saints days in England, Scotland. An online petition to the Prime Minister for a holiday in Wales on St. Georges Day. The two terms bank holidays and public holidays are often used interchangeably, although strictly and legally there is a difference, a government website describes the difference as follows, Bank holidays are holidays when banks and many other businesses are closed for the day. Public holidays are holidays which have been observed through custom and practice, Bank holidays may be declared in two ways, by statute - Holidays specifically listed in the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, Schedule 1. Unlike the USA, where public holidays falling on a Saturday are sometimes observed on the preceding Friday, British bank holidays are always moved to a later date, not an earlier one. Although there is no right for workers to take paid leave on bank holidays, where paid leave is given. Likewise, if people are required to work on a holiday, there is no statutory right to an enhanced pay rate nor to a day off in lieu. Any rights in this respect depend on the contract of employment
9.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
10.
Reginald Brabazon, 12th Earl of Meath
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Reginald Brabazon, 12th Earl of Meath, KP, GCVO, GBE, PC was a British politician and philanthropist. The Honourable Reginald Brabazon was born into an old Anglo-Irish family in London, when his father succeeded as 11th Earl of Meath in 1851, Reginald, now heir, was styled Lord Brabazon. He was educated at Eton College and in 1863 joined the Foreign Office as a clerk, in 1868 he married Lady Mary Jane Maitland, daughter of the 11th Earl of Lauderdale. On the insistence of his in-laws, Brabazon refused to accept a posting to Athens in 1873 and was suspended without pay. He and his wife decided to devote their energies to the consideration of social problems. Both were subsequently involved in charitable organisations. The Earl and his wife leased Ottershaw Park from 1882 to November 1883 from Sir Edward Colebrooke, in May 1887, Brabazon succeeded his father as 12th Earl of Meath. He was a member of the London County Council, the Privy Council of Ireland and he was also Chief Scout Commissioner for Ireland. His younger daughter, Lady Violet Constance Maitland Brabazon, married the 4th Earl of Verulam, there is a statue in his honour outside the Columbia Hotel near Lancaster Gate, in London. Recordings of his voice exist made in October 1910, in the form of three speeches on the Empire Movement, Gramophone Company 12 G&T black label Monarch records, cat. He is buried in the graveyard of the Church of Ireland parish church in the village of Delgany, County Wicklow, Ireland, along with his wife. There are some streets and squares in The Coombe, Dublin, named in his honour, Reginald Street, Reginald Square and Brabazon Square. Biography, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Obituary, The Times,12 October 1929 Works by or about Reginald Brabazon, 12th Earl of Meath at Internet Archive
11.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
12.
Wembley Stadium (1923)
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The Original Wembley Stadium was a football stadium located in Wembley Park, London. It stood on the now occupied by its successor, the new Wembley Stadium. The great Brazilian footballer Pelé once said of the stadium, Wembley is the cathedral of football and it is the capital of football and it is the heart of football in recognition of its status as the worlds best-known football stadium. It also hosted music events, including the 1985 Live Aid charity concert. The twin towers were an icon for England and Wembley, debris from the Original Wembley Stadium was used to make the award-winning Northala Fields in Northolt, Ealing. The stadiums first turf was cut by King George V, much of Humphrey Reptons original Wembley Park landscape was transformed in 1922–23 during preparations for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924–25. First known as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium or simply Empire Stadium, the stadium cost £750,000, and was constructed on the site of an earlier folly called Watkins Tower. The architects were Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton and the Head Engineer Sir Owen Williams, the stadium had gone into liquidation, after it was pronounced financially unviable. Elvin offered to buy the stadium for £127,000, using a £12,000 downpayment and they then immediately bought it back from Elvin, leaving him with a healthy profit. Instead of cash he received shares, which gave him the largest stake in Wembley Stadium, the electric scoreboard and the all-encircling roof, made from aluminium and translucent glass, were added in 1963. The stadiums distinctive Twin Towers became its trademark and nickname, also well known were the 39 steps needed to be climbed to reach the Royal box and collect a trophy. Wembley was the first pitch to be referred to as Hallowed Turf, in 1934, the Empire Pool was built nearby. The Wembley Stadium Collection is held by the National Football Museum, the stadium closed in October 2000, and demolition commenced in December 2002, completing in 2003 for redevelopment. The top of one of the towers was erected as a memorial in the park on the north side of Overton Close in the Saint Raphaels Estate. Wembley is best known for hosting football matches, having hosted the FA Cup Final annually as well as numerous England International fixtures, the Empire Stadium was built in exactly 300 days at the cost of £750,000. Described as the worlds greatest sporting arena, it was ready only 4 days before the White Horse Final in 1923, the FA had not considered admission by ticket, grossly underestimating the number of fans who arrived at the 104 gates on match day. However, after the game, every event, apart from the 1982 replay, was ticketed, the first event held at the stadium was the FA Cup Final on 28 April 1923 between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United. This is known as the White Horse Final, the crowds overflowed onto the pitch as there was no room on the terraces
13.
British Empire Exhibition
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The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, Wembley, Middlesex in 1924 and 1925, running from 23 April 1924 to 31 October 1925. In 1920 the British Government decided to site the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, a British Empire Exhibition had first been proposed in 1902, by the British Empire League, and again in 1913. One of the reasons for the suggestion was a sense that other powers were challenging Britain on the world stage, despite victory in the First World War this was in some ways even truer in 1919. The country had economic problems and its supremacy was being challenged by two of its former allies, the USA and Japan. Wembley Urban District Council were opposed to the idea, as was The Times, a world tour headed by Major Ernest Belcher in 1922 that lasted 10 months was mounted to promote participation in the Exhibition, with Agatha Christie and her husband among the participants. The British Empire Exhibition would run from 1924 to 1925 and made Wembley a household name. The Prince, at the time, also wished for the Exhibition to boast a great national sports ground, a purpose built “great national sports ground”, called the Empire Stadium, was built for the Exhibition. The first turf for this stadium was cut, on the site of the old tower,250,000 tons of earth were then removed, and the new structure constructed within 10 months, opening well before the rest of the Exhibition was ready. Designed by John William Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton, and built by McAlpine, the building was an unusual mix of Roman imperial and Mughal architecture. Although it incorporated a pitch, it was not solely intended as a football stadium. Its quarter mile running track, incorporating a 220 yard straight track were seen as being at least equally important, the only standard gauge locomotive involved in the construction of the Stadium has survived, and still runs on Sir William McAlpine’s private Fawley Hill railway near Henley. Wembley Park station was rebuilt for the British Empire Exhibition and a new station, Exhibition Station, was built on a spur to connect the station to Marylebone, Exhibition Station opened on 28 April 1923, the day of Wembley Stadiums first FA cup final. It was later renamed Wembley Exhibition, and then, in February 1928 and it was only really used to transport spectators to Wembley events. It stopped carrying passengers in May 1968 and officially closed on 1 September 1969, the Exhibition presented a creative challenge, in that its concept required a large number of buildings in a variety of styles. This offered the architects a unique opportunity to experiment, to simplify construction, the main building material used for the Exhibition buildings was reinforced concrete, selected for its speed of construction. Wembley Park thus earned the title of the first “concrete city” the world had ever seen, like the Stadium, the other Exhibition buildings were designed by John William Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton, assisted by engineer Owen Williams. All three had previous experience of using concrete. Nearly 2,000 men were employed in constructing the Exhibition buildings during 1923-4, the Indian pavilion had towers and domes, the West African pavilion looked like an Arab fort, the Burmese pavilion was a temple and the South African building reflected the Dutch style
14.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
15.
Loyalism
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In general, loyalism refers to an individuals allegiance toward an established government, political party, or sovereign, especially during times of war and revolt. In the United States, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Crown, especially to opponents of the American Revolution and those exiles who went to Canada. The term loyalist was used during the Spanish Civil War. In North America, the term loyalist characterised colonists who rejected the American Revolution in favour of remaining within the British Empire. This high level of political polarisation leads historians to argue that the American Revolution was as much a civil war as it was a war of independence from the British Crown, British military strategy during the American Revolution relied on mobilising loyalist soldiers throughout the Thirteen Colonies. Throughout the war, the British military formed over 100 loyalist line regiments whose strength totaled 19,000 of which 9,700 served most at one time, including militia and marine forces more than 50,000 served. The Patriots used tactics such as property confiscation to suppress loyalism, after the war, approximately 80-90% of the Loyalists stayed in the new United States, and adapted to the new conditions and changes of a republic. However, over 70,000 Loyalists sought refuge elsewhere in Lower Canada, Quebec, the Maritime provinces, Jamaica, most re-settled in the British North American Provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia in present-day Canada. The term loyalist was first used in Irish politics in the 1790s to refer to Protestant British settlers in Ireland who opposed Catholic Emancipation, prominent Irish loyalists included John Foster, John Fitzgibbon and John Beresford. In the subsequent Irish Rebellion of 1798, the term ultra loyalist was used to describe those who were opposed to the United Irishmen, in 1795, Ulster loyalists founded the Orange Order and organised the Yeoman Militia, which helped to put down the rebellion. Some loyalists, such as Richard Musgrave, considered the rebellion a Catholic plot to drive Protestant colonists out of Ireland, during the early 19th century, nearly every English and Welsh county formed a Loyalist Association of Workers in an effort to counter a perceived threat from radical societies. The first such association was founded in Westminster on 20 November 1792, generally, the term loyalist in Northern Ireland is typified by a militant opposition to Irish republicanism, and also often to Roman Catholicism. An Ulster loyalist is most commonly a unionist who strongly favours the political union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although some may also support an independent Northern Ireland. The Progressive Unionist Party, a pro-Belfast Agreement loyalist party, won seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998,2003 and 2007, loyalism in the post-partition Republic of Ireland has declined since independence. The Scottish loyalist movement originated during the Industrial Revolution when a significant number of Ulster Protestants migrated to Scotland from Ireland, Scottish loyalism is typified by militant opposition to Irish republicanism, Scottish independence and the Roman Catholic Church – particularly the existence of Catholic denominational schools. Scottish loyalism is visible through participation at Orange parades with supporters from Rangers, Heart of Midlothian F. C. some loyalists in Scotland also support Ulster paramilitary groups. There are relatively few loyalists in areas such as Aberdeen, the Scottish Borders, monarchism Royalist American Loyalists British Ulster Alliance Ulster-Scots Online CAIN – University of Ulster Haldimand Collection Welsh Loyalists Scottish Loyalists
16.
Ontario
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Ontario, one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada, is located in east-central Canada. It is Canadas most populous province by a margin, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all Canadians. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and it is home to the nations capital city, Ottawa, and the nations most populous city, Toronto. There is only about 1 km of land made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontarios population and arable land is located in the south, in contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and is heavily forested. The province is named after Lake Ontario, a thought to be derived from Ontarí, io, a Huron word meaning great lake, or possibly skanadario. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes, the province consists of three main geographical regions, The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes, Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions, Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario. The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the north and northeast, mainly swampy. Southern Ontario which is further sub-divided into four regions, Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe, the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands, the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment, the Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87 percent of the area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario that is the southernmost extent of Canadas mainland, Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the border of California. The climate of Ontario varies by season and location, the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontarios climate is classified as humid continental, Ontario has three main climatic regions
17.
Cape Colony
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The Cape of Good Hope, also known as the Cape Colony, was a British colony in present-day South Africa and Namibia, named after the Cape of Good Hope. The British colony was preceded by an earlier Dutch colony of the same name, the Dutch lost the colony to Britain following the 1795 Battle of Muizenberg, but had it returned following the 1802 Peace of Amiens. It was re-occupied by the British following the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806, the Cape of Good Hope then remained in the British Empire, becoming self-governing in 1872, and uniting with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa in 1910. It then was renamed the Cape of Good Hope Province, South Africa became fully independent in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster. In the north, the Orange River, also known as the Gariep River, served as the boundary for some time, from 1878, the colony also included the enclave of Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands, both in what is now Namibia. An expedition of the Dutch East India Company led by Jan van Riebeeck established a trading post, van Riebeecks objective was to secure a harbour of refuge for Dutch ships during the long voyages between Europe and Asia. Reflecting the multi-national nature of the trading companies, the Dutch also granted vrijburger status to a number of former Scandinavian and German employees as well. In 1688 they also sponsored the immigration of two hundred French Huguenot refugees who had fled to the Netherlands upon the Edict of Fontainebleau. There was a degree of assimilation due to intermarriage. Many of the colonists who settled directly on the frontier became increasingly independent, known as Boers, they migrated westwards beyond the Cape Colonys initial borders and had soon penetrated almost a thousand kilometres inland. Some Boers even adopted a nomadic lifestyle permanently and were denoted as trekboers, Dutch traders imported thousands of slaves to the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch East Indies and other parts of Africa. By the end of the century the Capes population swelled to about 26,000 people of European descent and 30,000 slaves. In 1795, France occupied the Seven Provinces of the Netherlands and this prompted Great Britain to occupy the territory in 1795 as a way to better control the seas in order stop any potential French attempt to reach India. The British sent a fleet of nine warships which anchored at Simons Town and, following the defeat of the Dutch militia at the Battle of Muizenberg, the Dutch East India Company transferred its territories and claims to the Batavian Republic in 1798, and ceased to exist in 1799. In 1806, the Cape, now controlled by the Batavian Republic, was occupied again by the British after their victory in the Battle of Blaauwberg. The temporary peace between Britain and Napoleonic France had crumbled into open hostilities, whilst Napoleon had been strengthening his influence on the Batavian Republic. The British, who set up a colony on 8 January 1806, hoped to keep Napoleon out of the Cape, in 1814 the Dutch government formally ceded sovereignty over the Cape to the British, under the terms of the Convention of London. The British started to settle the border of the colony
18.
Second Boer War
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The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and also at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. Great Britain defeated two Boer states in South Africa, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, Britain was aided by its Cape Colony, Colony of Natal and some native African allies. The British war effort was supported by volunteers from the British Empire, including Southern Africa, the Australian colonies, Canada, India. All other nations were neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain, inside Britain and its Empire there also was significant opposition to the Second Boer War. The British were overconfident and under-prepared, the Boers were very well armed and struck first, besieging Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking in early 1900, and winning important battles at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg. Staggered, the British brought in numbers of soldiers and fought back. General Redvers Buller was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener and they relieved the three besieged cities, and invaded the two Boer republics in late 1900. The onward marches of the British Army were so overwhelming that the Boers did not fight staged battles in defense of their homeland, the British quickly seized control of all of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, as the civilian leadership went into hiding or exile. In conventional terms, the war was over, Britain officially annexed the two countries in 1900, and called a khaki election to give the government another six years of power in London. However, the Boers refused to surrender and they reverted to guerrilla warfare under new generals Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey. Two more years of attacks and quick escapes followed. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, supplies, the British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, then the British mounted infantry units systematically tracked down the highly mobile Boer guerrilla units. The battles at this stage were small operations with few combat casualties The war ended in surrender, the British successfully won over the Boer leaders, who now gave full support to the new political system. Both former republics were incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the conflict is commonly referred to as simply the Boer War, since the First Boer War is much less well known. Boer was the term for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans descended from the Dutch East India Companys original settlers at the Cape of Good Hope. It is officially called the South African War and it is known as the Anglo-Boer War among some South Africans. In Afrikaans it may be called the Anglo-Boereoorlog, Tweede Boereoorlog, in South Africa it is officially called the South African War
19.
Union of South Africa
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The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of four previously separate British colonies, Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony and it included the territories formerly part of the Boer republics annexed in 1902, South African Republic and Orange Free State. The Union of South Africa was a dominion of the British Empire and it was governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, with the Crown represented by a governor-general. The Union came to an end when the 1961 constitution was enacted, on 31 May 1961 the country became a republic and left the Commonwealth, under the new name Republic of South Africa. Unlike Canada and Australia, the Union of South Africa was a state, rather than a federation. A bicameral parliament was created, consisting of a House of Assembly and Senate, during the course of the Union the franchise changed on several occasions always to suit the needs of the government of the day. Bloemfontein and Pietermaritzburg were given financial compensation, the Union initially remained under the British Crown as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. With the passage of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, the Union and other dominions became equal in status to the United Kingdom, the Monarch was represented in South Africa by a Governor-General, while effective power was exercised by the Executive Council, headed by the Prime Minister. Louis Botha, formerly a Boer general, was appointed first Prime Minister of the Union, heading a coalition representing the white Afrikaner, prosecutions before courts were instituted in the name of the Crown and government officials served in the name of the Crown. Some extremist Nationalist organisations, like the Ossewa Brandwag, openly supported Nazi Germany during the Second World War, the Afrikaner-dominated Government consequently withdrew South Africa from the Commonwealth. Natal, which had an English-speaking majority, voted against, following the referendum result, some whites in Natal even called for secession from the Union. Five years earlier, some 33,000 Natalians had signed the Natal Covenant in opposition to the plans for a republic, subsequently the National Party Government passed a Constitution that repealed the South Africa Act. The features of the Union were carried over with little change to the newly formed Republic. The decision to transform from a Union to Republic was narrowly decided in the referendum, the South Africa Act dealt with race in two specific provisions. Second it made native affairs a matter for the national government, the practice therefore was to establish a Minister of Native Affairs. Several previous unsuccessful attempts to unite the colonies were made, with proposed political models ranging from unitary, Sir George Grey, the Governor of Cape Colony from 1854 to 1861, decided that unifying the states of southern Africa would be mutually beneficial. He believed that a united South African Federation, under British control and his idea was greeted with cautious optimism in southern Africa, the Orange Free State agreed to the idea in principle and the Transvaal may also eventually have agreed. However, he was overruled by the British Colonial Office which ordered him to desist from his plans and his refusal to abandon the idea eventually led to him being recalled
20.
Patriotism
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Patriotism is an attachment to a homeland. This attachment can be viewed in terms of different features relating to ones own homeland, including ethnic and it encompasses a set of concepts closely related to those of nationalism. An excess of patriotism in the defense of a nation is called chauvinism, the abstract noun patriotism appears in the early 18th century. The general notion of virtue and group dedication has been attested in culture globally throughout the historical period. For the Enlightenment thinkers of 18th-century Europe, loyalty to the state was considered in contrast to loyalty to the Church. It was argued that clerics should not be allowed to teach in schools since their patrie was heaven. One of the most influential proponents of this notion of patriotism was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Enlightenment thinkers also criticized what they saw as the excess of patriotism, in 1774, Samuel Johnson published The Patriot, a critique of what he viewed as false patriotism. On the evening of 7 April 1775, he made the famous statement, however, there is no direct evidence to contradict the widely held belief that Johnsons famous remark was a criticism of patriotism itself. Patriotism is the will of the members of a country to support the country, Patriotism may be strengthened by adherence to a national religion. This is the opposite of the separation of church and state demanded by the Enlightenment thinkers who saw patriotism and faith as similar and opposed forces. Michael Billig and Jean Bethke Elshtain have both argued that the difference between patriotism and faith is difficult to discern and relies largely on the attitude of the one doing the labelling. Wellman calls this position patriotist rather than nationalist to single out the members of territorial, political units rather than cultural groups, marxists have taken various stances regarding patriotism. On one hand, Karl Marx famously stated that The working men have no country, the same view is promoted by present-day Trotskyists such as Alan Woods, who is in favour of tearing down all frontiers and creating a socialist world commonwealth. On the other hand, Stalinists and Maoists are usually in favour of socialist patriotism based on the theory of socialism in one country. Several surveys have tried to measure patriotism for various reasons, such as the Correlates of War project which found some correlation between war propensity and patriotism, the results from different studies are time dependent. For example, patriotism in Germany before World War I ranked at or near the top, since 1981, the World Values Survey explores peoples national values and beliefs and refer to the average answer for high income residents of a country to the question Are you proud to be. Charles Blatberg, From Pluralist to Patriotic Politics, Putting Practice First, craig Calhoun, Is it Time to Be Postnational. in Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights, Stephen May, Tariq Modood and Judith Squires
21.
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
22.
Hegemony
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Hegemony is the political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others. In ancient Greece, hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states, the dominant state is known as the hegemon. In the 19th century, hegemony came to denote the Social or cultural predominance or ascendancy, later, it could be used to mean a group or regime which exerts undue influence within a society. In contrast to authoritarian rule, cultural hegemony is hegemonic only if those affected by it also consent to and struggle over its common sense. From the post-classical Latin word hegemonia, from 1513 or earlier, or the Greek word ἡγεμονία, meaning authority, rule, political supremacy, likewise, the role of Athens within the short-lived Delian League was that of a hegemon. Ancient historians such as Xenophon and Ephorus were the first who used the term in its modern sense. In Ancient East Asia, Chinese hegemony existed during the Spring and Autumn period and they were appointed by feudal lord conferences, and thus were nominally obliged to uphold the imperium of the Zhou Dynasty over the subordinate states. 1st and 2nd century Europe was dominated by the peace of the Pax Romana. It was instituted by the emperor Augustus, and was accompanied by a series of military campaigns. From the 7th century to the 12th century, the Umayyad Caliphate and later Abbasid Caliphate dominated the vast territories they governed, with other states like the Byzantine Empire paying tribute. In 7th century India, Harsha, ruler of an empire in northern India from 606 to 647 AD. He preferred not to rule as a government, but left conquered kings on their thrones and contenting himself with tribute. From the late 9th to the early 11th century, the empire developed by Charlemagne achieved hegemony in Europe, with dominance over France, Italy and he lists several contenders for historical hegemony. Based on Portugals dominance in navigation, based on Dutch control of credit and money. Based on British textiles and command of the high seas, based on British industrial supremacy and railroads. To this list could be added the hegemony of Habsburg Spain in 16th century Europe, however, after an attempt by Phillip IV to restore it, by the middle of the 17th century Spains pretensions to hegemony had definitely and irremediably failed. This, in turn, made possible the Amsterdam stock market, in France, King Louis XIV and Napoleon I attempted French hegemony via economic, cultural and military domination of most of Continental Europe. However, Jeremy Black writes that, because of Britain, France was unable to enjoy the benefits of this hegemony, Britain also controlled the Indian subcontinent and large portions of Africa
23.
Festival
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A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or traditions. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere, Festivals often serve to fulfill specific communal purposes, especially in regard to commemoration or thanksgiving. The celebrations offer a sense of belonging for religious, social, or geographical groups and they may also provide entertainment, which was particularly important to local communities before the advent of mass-produced entertainment. In Ancient Greece and Rome, festivals such as the Saturnalia were closely associated with social organisation, in modern times, festivals may be attended by strangers such as tourists, who are attracted to some of the more eccentric or historical ones. The word festival was used as an adjective from the late fourteenth century. In Middle English, a festival dai was a religious holiday and its first recorded used as a noun was in 1589. Feast first came into usage as a noun circa 1200, the term feast is also used in common secular parlance as a synonym for any large or elaborate meal. When used as in the meaning of a festival, most often refers to a religious rather than a film or art festival. In the Philippines and many other former Spanish colonies, the Spanish word fiesta is used to denote a religious feast to honor a patron saint. Many festivals have religious origins and entwine cultural and religious significance in traditional activities, the most important religious festivals such as Christmas, Rosh Hashanah, Diwali, and Eid al-Adha serve to mark out the year. Others, such as harvest festivals, celebrate seasonal change, events of historical significance, such as important military victories or other nation-building events also provide the impetus for a festival. An early example is the established by Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses III celebrating his victory over the Libyans. In many countries, royal holidays commemorate dynastic events just as agricultural holidays are about harvests, there are numerous types of festivals in the world and most countries celebrate important events or traditions with traditional cultural events and activities. Most culminate in the consumption of specially prepared food and they bring people together, Festivals are also strongly associated with national holidays. Lists of national festivals are published to make participation easier, among many religions, a feast is a set of celebrations in honour of Gods or God. A feast and a festival are historically interchangeable, the Sed festival, for example, celebrated the thirtieth year of an Egyptian pharaohs rule and then every three years after that
24.
Harold Macmillan
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Nicknamed Supermac, he was known for his pragmatism, wit and unflappability. Macmillan served in the Grenadier Guards during the First World War and he was wounded three times, most severely in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He spent the rest of the war in a hospital unable to walk. After the war Macmillan joined his business, then entered Parliament in the 1924 General Election. After losing his seat in 1929, he regained it in 1931, soon after which he spoke out against the rate of unemployment in Stockton-On-Tees. When Eden resigned in 1957 after the Suez Crisis, Macmillan succeeded him as Prime Minister, benefiting from favourable international conditions, he presided over an age of affluence, marked by low unemployment and high if uneven growth. In his Bedford speech in July 1957 he told the nation they had never had it so good, the Conservatives were re-elected in 1959 with an increased majority on an electioneering budget. In international affairs, Macmillan rebuilt the special relationship with the United States from the wreckage of the Suez Crisis, after his resignation, Macmillan lived out a long retirement as an elder statesman. He was as trenchant a critic of his successors in his old age as he had been of his predecessors in his youth and he had two brothers, Daniel, eight years his senior, and Arthur, four years his senior. His paternal grandfather, Daniel MacMillan, who founded Macmillan publishing, was the son of a Scottish crofter from Isle of Arran, Macmillan claimed to remember Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee, which occurred in 1897, but his memory seems to his biographer suspiciously similar to Philip Guedallas account. He remembered Queen Victoria’s funeral, the Relief of Mafeking and the victory of the “gallant little Japs” against the Russians at Tsushima, Macmillan received an intensive early education, closely guided by his American mother. He learned French at home every morning from a succession of nursery maids, from the age of six or seven he received introductory lessons in classical Latin and Greek at Mr Gladstones day school, close by in Sloane Square. Macmillan attended Summer Fields School, Oxford and he won an exhibition to Balliol, but was less of a scholar than his older brother Dan. He went up to Balliol College, Oxford, where he joined many political societies and his political opinions at this stage were an eclectic mix of moderate Conservatism, moderate Liberalism and Fabian Socialism. He read avidly about Disraeli, but was particularly impressed by a speech by Lloyd George at the Oxford Union Society in 1913. He obtained a First in Honours Moderations, informally known as Mods, with his final exams over two years away, he enjoyed an idyllic Trinity term at Oxford, just before the outbreak of the First World War. No such ball has been traced, and the Archduke’s murder was not announced in the British Press until 2 July, promoted to lieutenant on 30 January 1915, he soon transferred to the Grenadier Guards. He fought on the front lines in France, where the casualty rate was known to be high, as was the probability of an early and he served with distinction as a captain and was wounded on three occasions
25.
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
26.
Commonwealth realm
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Subsequently, India and Pakistan and Ceylon became Dominions. By the early 1950s, in order to reflect the equality between the countries in that group, each came to be known as a realm. The word was used in Britains proclamation of Elizabeth II as queen in 1952 and was adopted for the modern royal styles and titles under the legislation enacted by the individual countries. The principle was applied to countries as they became Commonwealth realms. The phrase Commonwealth realm, though used officially, is not a statutory term, the number of independent countries in the Commonwealth of Nations all sharing the same person as monarch reached 18 between 1983 and 1987. The Commonwealth realms are, for purposes of international relations, sovereign states, political scientist Peter Boyce called this grouping of countries associated in this manner, an achievement without parallel in the history of international relations or constitutional law. Since each realm has the person as its monarch, the diplomatic practice of exchanging ambassadors with letters of credence. Diplomatic relations between the Commonwealth realms are thus at a cabinet level only and high commissioners are exchanged between realms, a high commissioners full title will thus be High Commissioner for Her Majestys Government in. Opinion on the prospect of the coming to fruition is mixed. This means that in different contexts the term Crown may refer to the extra-national institution associating all 16 countries, from a cultural standpoint, the sovereigns name and image and other royal symbols unique to each nation are visible in the emblems and insignia of governmental institutions and militia. By 1959, it was being asserted by Buckingham Palace officials that the Queen was equally at home in all her realms and this convention was first applied to the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936. For expediency and to avoid embarrassment, the British government had suggested that the Dominion governments automatically regard the monarch of the UK, whoever this may be, as their monarch also. Sir Maurice Gwyer, first parliamentary counsel in the UK, reflected this position and these changes came into effect on 26 March 2015. Agreement among the realms does not, however, mean the succession laws cannot diverge, the parliament of South Africa, however, passed its own legislation—His Majesty King Edward the Eighths Abdication Act, 1937—which backdated the abdication there to 10 December. The Irish Free State recognised the kings abdication with the Executive Authority Act 1936 on 12 December, according to Anne Twomey, this demonstrated the divisibility of the Crown in the personal, as well as the political, sense. For E H Coghill, writing as early as 1937, it proved that the convention of a line of succession is not of imperative force. It is generally agreed that any alteration of succession by the UK would not have effect in all the realms. Following the accession of George VI to the throne, the United Kingdom created legislation that provided for a regency in the event that the monarch was not of age or incapacitated
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Royal Commonwealth Society
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The Royal Commonwealth Society is an international educational charity and a private members club. Its mission is to support and promote the modern Commonwealth, its culture and core values, RCS projects seek to enable young people to engage with their counterparts across the Commonwealth in youth leadership programmes, creative writing and film-making projects. It was announced in February 2013 that the Commonwealth Club would close in June 2013, the Royal Commonwealth Society was born of the British Empire and after the Empire declined the Society developed into an organisation dedicated to the Commonwealth of Nations. The Colonial Society’s first home was above a shop at No.15 The Strand. It was in this modest space that the library collection first began to be assembled. While the initial premises could house the beginnings of the library, so, in 1883, a lease was obtained for land in Northumberland Avenue, and a clubhouse formally opened in 1885. By this time, the Society had already received its first Royal Charter, which led to it becoming the Royal Colonial Society, and, in 1870, sir Frederick Young was secretary for a number of years, at least 1876 and 1882. The expanded and renovated premises on Northumberland Avenue were formally opened on 12 November 1936 by the Duke and Duchess of York, later to become King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. By this time, the organisation had begun to shape as a progressive society, allowing women to be admitted as Fellows from 1922 and encouraging a young. Due to its location close to Whitehall and Charing Cross Station. On the night of 16/17 April 1941 the building was hit by a two-ton bomb, after several weeks of repairs, the club reopened to members. However, a restoration was not completed until 1957, after which the nose of the bomb was displayed prominently in the club. That same year, a new name for the organisation was suggested, a successful national appeal in 1993 raised £3 million to save the RCS archive and library collections. The material was sold to Cambridge University, enabling the RCS to clear its debts, redevelop its property and create a new clubhouse and this was opened, after extensive building work, in 1998. The new club, as designed by Linda Morey Smith, has a bright and its aim was to provide an informal and inviting place for its members to socialise, eat and interact. It also became a venue for Commonwealth cultural events and exhibitions and it closed in 2013 and the building sold to repay the Societys debts. The Society decided to cease running a private club to focus on its charitable work. In the second half of the century, the Society hosted and gave a platform to notable African leaders, including Thabo Mbeki, Desmond Tutu
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Flag of the United Kingdom
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The national flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Jack, also known as the Union Flag. The current design of the Union Jack dates from the union of Ireland and it consists of the red cross of Saint George, edged in white, superimposed on the Cross of St Patrick, which are superimposed on the Saltire of Saint Andrew. Wales, however, is not represented in the Union Flag by Waless patron saint, Saint David, the flags standard height-to-length proportions are 1,2. The war flag variant used by the British Army modifies the proportions to 3,5, the earlier flag of Great Britain was established in 1606 by a proclamation of King James VI and I of Scotland and England. The Union Flag can be flown by any individual or organisation in Great Britain on any day of their choice, legal regulations restrict the use of the Union Flag on Government buildings in Northern Ireland. Long-standing restrictions on Government use of the flag elsewhere were abolished in July 2007, while the flag appears symmetric, the white lines above and below the diagonal red are different widths. On the side closer to the flagpole, the lines above the diagonals are wider, on the side farther from the flagpole. Thus, no change will be apparent when rotating the flag 180 degrees, placing the flag upside down is considered lèse majesté and is offensive to some. However, it can be flown upside down as a distress signal, while this is rare, it was used by groups under siege during the Boer War and during campaigns in India in the late 18th century. The reason that the UK flag is not symmetrical is because of the positions of the saltires of St Patrick. The red saltire of St Patrick is offset such that it does not relegate the white saltire of St Andrew to a mere border, St Andrews saltire has the higher position at the hoist side with St Patricks saltire in the higher position on the opposite side. Half-mast means the flag is flown two-thirds of the way up the flagpole with at least the height of the flag between the top of the flag and the top of the flagpole. Until July 2007, the Union Flag was only flown on Government buildings on a number of special days each year. The choice of days was managed by the Department for Culture, Media, Government buildings are those used by civil servants, the Crown, or the armed forces. They were not applicable to citizens, corporations, or local authorities. On 3 July 2007, the Justice Secretary Jack Straw laid a green paper before Parliament entitled The Governance of Britain. Two days later, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that with immediate effect the Union Flag would fly from the pole above the front entrance of 10 Downing Street on every day of the year. The intention was to increase feelings of British national identity, other Government departments were asked to follow this lead, and all Government buildings in Whitehall did so
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Scottish Parliament Building
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The Scottish Parliament Building is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Edinburgh. Construction of the building commenced in June 1999 and the Members of the Scottish Parliament held their first debate in the new building on 7 September 2004, the formal opening by Queen Elizabeth II took place on 9 October 2004. Enric Miralles, the Spanish Catalan architect who designed the building, Office and administrative accommodation in support of the Parliament were provided in buildings leased from the City of Edinburgh Council. The new Scottish Parliament Building brought together these different elements into one purpose-built parliamentary complex, housing 129 MSPs and more than 1,000 staff, from the outset, the building and its construction have been controversial. The choices of location, architect, design, and construction company were all criticised by politicians, the media and the Scottish public. Scheduled to open in 2001, it did so in 2004, a major public inquiry into the handling of the construction, chaired by the former Lord Advocate, Peter Fraser, was established in 2003. The inquiry concluded in September 2004 and criticised the management of the project from the realisation of cost increases down to the way in which major design changes were implemented. Despite these criticisms and a public reaction, the building was welcomed by architectural academics and critics. The building aimed to achieve a union between the Scottish landscape, its people, its culture, and the city of Edinburgh. Comprising an area of 1.6 ha, with a perimeter of 480 m, the large site previously housed the headquarters of the Scottish and Newcastle brewery which were demolished to make way for the building. Reids Close connects the Canongate and Holyrood Road on the side of the complex. The south eastern side of the complex is bounded by the Our Dynamic Earth visitor attraction opened in July 1999. In the immediate vicinity of the building is the Palace of Holyroodhouse, to the south of the parliamentary complex are the steep slopes of the Salisbury Crags and Arthurs Seat. The Treaty of Union, signed in 1707, created a political union between the Kingdom of Scots and the Kingdom of England. The two previous Acts of Union had dissolved the previous parliaments, the Treaty of Union created the Parliament of Great Britain which was housed in the Palace of Westminster in London. As a consequence, Scotland was directly governed from London for the next 292 years without a legislature or a Parliament building of its own. Whilst much of this conversion was completed and the building was renamed New Parliament House it was determined that the facility was too small for its stated purpose. Following the April 1992 election, when a weakened John Major was re-elected, starting informally this became a permanently manned vigil to keep the concept in the public mind
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Flag of the Commonwealth of Nations
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The flag of the Commonwealth of Nations is the official flag used by and representing the Commonwealth of Nations. Its current design dates to 2013, a modification of a design adopted in 1976, the flag consists of the Commonwealth symbol in gold on a blue field. The symbol centres on a globe, representing the global nature of the Commonwealth, the flag developed from car pennants produced for the first time at the 1973 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, held in Ottawa, Ontario. The initiative for its design is credited to two Canadians, the first Commonwealth Secretary-General, Arnold Smith, and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and it was officially adopted on March 26,1976. The original design featured a globe surrounded by 61 radiating, approximately quadrilateral, spears, the number of spears did not represent the number of member states, instead, the large number represented the many ways in which the Commonwealth cooperates around the world. In 2013, the globe was tilted, and the number of spears reduced to 34, the colourings used in the flag were also slightly modified. Since 2002 the Commonwealth flag has been alongside the Union Flag. It has been suggested that the Flag of the Commonwealth be the replacement, Commonwealth Secretariat webpage on the Commonwealth Symbol and Flag
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British royal family
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The British royal family comprises the monarch of the United Kingdom and her close relations. There is no legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member of the British royal family. Different terms may be applied to the same or similar group of relatives of the monarch in his or her role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, for example, in Canada, the family is known as the Canadian royal family. Some members of the family have official residences named as the places from which announcements are made in the Court Circular about official engagements they have carried out. The state duties and staff of some members of the family are funded from a parliamentary annuity. Since 1917, when King George V changed the name of the house from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, members of the royal family belong, either by birth or by marriage. In 2014, the family were regarded as British cultural icons. Today, they often perform ceremonial and social duties throughout the United Kingdom, in the other countries of the Commonwealth royalty do not serve as Counsellors of State, although they may perform ceremonial and social duties on behalf of individual states or the organisation. Wives of the said enjoy their husbands precedence, and husbands of princesses are unofficially but habitually placed with their wives as well and she did not alter the relative precedence of other born-princesses, such as the daughters of her younger sons. The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy and they Serve the Queen, A New and Authoritative Account of the Royal Household. The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England, symbol and Privilege, The Ritual Context of British Royalty. Britains Royal Families, The Complete Genealogy, Royal Family is a celebrated and reverential BBC documentary made by Richard Cawston to accompany the investiture of the current Prince of Wales. The documentary is frequently responsible for the greater press intrusion into the royal familys private life since its first broadcast. Official website of the royal family Official YouTube Channel House of Windsor Family Tree, archived from the original on 2010-12-02
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Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
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Australian Capital Territory
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The Australian Capital Territory is the federal district in the south east of Australia, enclaved within New South Wales. Its only city is Canberra, the city of Australia. The ACT also has a strip of territory around the southern end of the Beecroft Peninsula. The need for a territory was flagged by colonial delegates during the Federation conventions of the late 19th century. Section 125 of the Australian Constitution provided that, following Federation in 1901, the territory was transferred to the Commonwealth by the state of New South Wales in 1911, two years prior to the naming of Canberra as the national capital in 1913. The floral emblem of the ACT is the royal bluebell and the emblem is the gang-gang cockatoo. The economic activity of the Australian Capital Territory is heavily concentrated around Canberra and this trend continued into 2016, when the territory was ranked the third best performing out of all of Australias states and territories. There is a proportion of young adults in the region compared with other Australian states or territories. Approximately one-fifth of ACT residents were born outside of Australia, mainly in the United Kingdom, almost one-fifth speak a language other than English at home, the most common being Chinese. The ACT also has a strip of territory around the southern end of the Beecroft Peninsula. Apart from the city of Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory also contains agricultural land, small townships and communities located within the ACT include Williamsdale, Naas, Uriarra, Tharwa and Hall. There are a range of mountains, rivers and creeks in the Namadgi National Park. These include the Naas and Murrumbidgee Rivers, Canberra is noted for its warm to hot, dry summers, and cold winters with occasional fog and frequent frosts. Many of the mountains in the territorys south-west are snow-covered for at least part of the winter. Thunderstorms can occur between October and March, and annual rainfall is 623 mm, with rainfall highest in spring and summer, the highest maximum temperature recorded in the ACT was 42.8 °C at Acton on 11 January 1939. The lowest minimum temperature was −14.6 °C at Gudgenby on 11 July 1971, notable geological formations in the Australian Capital Territory include the Canberra Formation, the Pittman Formation, Black Mountain Sandstone and State Circle Shale. In the 1840s fossils of brachiopods and trilobites from the Silurian period were discovered at Woolshed Creek near Duntroon, at the time, these were the oldest fossils discovered in Australia, though this record has now been far surpassed. Other specific geological places of interest include the State Circle cutting, the oldest rocks in the ACT date from the Ordovician around 480 million years ago
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Victoria (Australia)
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Victoria is a state in southeast Australia. Victoria is Australias most densely populated state and its second-most populous state overall, most of its population is concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australias second-largest city. Prior to British European settlement, the area now constituting Victoria was inhabited by a number of Aboriginal peoples. With Great Britain having claimed the entire Australian continent east of the 135th meridian east in 1788, Victoria was included in the wider colony of New South Wales. The first settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay, and much of what is now Victoria was included in the Port Phillip District in 1836, Victoria was officially created as a separate colony in 1851, and achieved self-government in 1855. Politically, Victoria has 37 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate, at state level, the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. Victoria is currently governed by the Labor Party, with Daniel Andrews the current Premier, the personal representative of the Queen of Australia in the state is the Governor of Victoria, currently Linda Dessau. Local government is concentrated in 79 municipal districts, including 33 cities, although a number of unincorporated areas still exist, Victorias total gross state product is ranked second in Australia, although Victoria is ranked fourth in terms of GSP per capita because of its limited mining activity. Culturally, Melbourne is home to a number of museums, art galleries and theatres and is described as the sporting capital of Australia. The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest stadium in Australia, and the host of the 1956 Summer Olympics, Victoria has eight public universities, with the oldest, the University of Melbourne, having been founded in 1853. Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851. The first British settlement in the later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip. In the year 1826 Colonel Stewart, Captain S. Wright, fly and the brigs Dragon and Amity, took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. Victorias next settlement was at Portland, on the south west coast of what is now Victoria, edward Henty settled Portland Bay in 1834. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who set up a base in Indented Head, from settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. Shortly after the now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W. H. Smythe. And in 1838 Geelong was officially declared a town, despite earlier white settlements dating back to 1826, days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at sites across Victoria
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Eight-hour day
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The use of child labour was common. The working day could range from 10 to 16 hours for six days a week, robert Owen had raised the demand for a ten-hour day in 1810, and instituted it in his socialist enterprise at New Lanark. By 1817 he had formulated the goal of the day and coined the slogan, Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation. Women and children in England were granted the day in 1847. French workers won the 12-hour day after the February revolution of 1848, a shorter working day and improved working conditions were part of the general protests and agitation for Chartist reforms and the early organisation of trade unions. Karl Marx saw it as of importance to the workers health, saying in Das Kapital, By extending the working day, therefore. The first international treaty to mention it was the Treaty of Versailles in the annex of its thirteen part establishing the International Labour Office, now the International Labour Organization. The eight-hour day was the first topic discussed by the International Labour Organization which resulted in the Hours of Work Convention,1919 ratified by 52 countries as of 2016. The eight-hour day movement forms part of the history for the celebration of Labour Day. In Iran in 1918, the work of reorganizing the trade began in earnest in Tehran during the closure of the Iranian constitutional parliament Majles. In 1918, the newly organised union staged a 14-day strike and succeeded in reaching an agreement with employers to institute the eight-hours day, overtime pay. The success of the printers union encouraged other trades to organize, in 1919 the bakers and textile-shop clerks formed their own trade unions. In 1946 the council of ministers issued the first labor law for Iran, the first company to introduce an eight-hour working day in Japan was the Kawasaki Dockyards in Kobe. An eight-hour day was one of the demands presented by the workers during pay negotiations in September 1919, after the company resisted the demands, a slowdown campaign was commenced by the workers on 18 September. After ten days of action, company president Kōjirō Matsukata agreed to the eight-hour day and wage increases on 27 September. The effects of the action were felt nationwide and inspired further industrial action at the Kawasaki, the eight-hour day did not become law in Japan until the passing of the Labor Standards Act in April 1947. Article 32 of the Act specifies a 40-hour week and paragraph specifies an eight-hour day, the Eight-hour day was enacted in France by Georges Clemenceau, as a way to avoid unemployment and diminish communist support. It was succeeded by a strong French support of it during the writing of the International Labour Organization Convention of 1919, at the turn of the 20th century the eight-hour day was introduced by Ernst Abbe at the Zeiss plants in Jena
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Tasmania
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Tasmania is an island state of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is located 240 km to the south of the Australian mainland, the state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of around 519,100, just over forty percent of which resides in the Greater Hobart precinct, Tasmanias area is 68,401 km2, of which the main island covers 64,519 km2. Though an island state, due to an error the state shares a land border with Victoria at its northernmost terrestrial point, Boundary Islet. The Bishop and Clerk Islets, about 37 km south of Macquarie Island, are the southernmost terrestrial point of the state of Tasmania, the island is believed to have been occupied by Aboriginals for 40,000 years before British colonisation. It is thought Tasmanian Aboriginals were separated from the mainland Aboriginal groups about 10,000 years ago when the sea rose to form Bass Strait. The conflict, which peaked between 1825 and 1831 and led to more than three years of law, cost the lives of almost 1100 Aboriginals and settlers. The near-destruction of Tasmanias Aboriginal population has been described by historians as an act of genocide by the British. The island was part of the Colony of New South Wales. In 1854 the present Constitution of Tasmania was passed and the year the state received permission to change its name to Tasmania. In 1901 it became a state through the process of the Federation of Australia, the state is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642. Tasman named the island Anthony van Diemens Land after his sponsor Anthony van Diemen, the name was later shortened to Van Diemens Land by the British. It was officially renamed Tasmania in honour of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856, Tasmania was sometimes referred to as Dervon, as mentioned in the Jerilderie Letter written by the notorious Australian bushranger Ned Kelly in 1879. The colloquial expression for the state is Tassie, Tasmania is also colloquially shortened to Tas, especially when used in business names and website addresses. TAS is also the Australia Post abbreviation for the state, the reconstructed Palawa kani language name for Tasmania is Lutriwita. The island was adjoined to the mainland of Australia until the end of the last glacial period about 10,000 years ago, much of the island is composed of Jurassic dolerite intrusions through other rock types, sometimes forming large columnar joints. Tasmania has the worlds largest areas of dolerite, with many distinctive mountains, the central plateau and the southeast portions of the island are mostly dolerite. Mount Wellington above Hobart is an example, showing distinct columns known as the Organ Pipes
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St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney
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St Andrews Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia. The cathedral is the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of New South Wales, the Dean, appointed in May 2015, is Rev. Kanishka Raffel. Located in central Sydney, the cathedral is one of the citys finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture, designed by Edmund Blacket, it was ready for services and consecrated in 1868, making it the oldest cathedral in Australia. Joan Kerr described St Andrews as a example of the colonial desire to reproduce England in Australia in the mid nineteenth century. The cathedral holds services every day, including services on Sundays and several times a week during school term, Christmas. There is also a service, Bible studies and prayer meetings. St Andrews has a choir of men and boys, as well as a company of bell ringers. The notable pipe organ has been restored and is used for recitals. St Andrews has a National Trust of Australia heritage listing as being a building of national significance, lachlan Macquarie, an early Governor of New South Wales, had grand plans for the city of Sydney. He foresaw that Sydney would grow into a large city requiring a large cathedral, the foundation stone was laid with full ceremony on 31 August 1819. Only a few foundations were laid, however, before the plan was abandoned, Macquarie was severely criticised for planning beyond the colonys means. Bishop William Grant Broughton, who was consecrated as a bishop in 1836, had a new foundation laid in 1837. The plans, prepared by the architect James Hume, were of more modest proportions and were for a traditional cruciform church in the Gothic style. The designs, dating from the phase of Gothic Revival architecture. Only one notable section was completed, the façade of the south transept, however, the foundations were laid and some of the walls were constructed up to a height of about 15 feet. Blacket became the official Colonial Architect from 1849 to 1854 and this was just as well, because the task that he inherited from James Hume was not an easy one. It took some convincing to get the bishop to accept his deviations from the original design, the problem was how to make a truly splendid and imposing cathedral on foundations which were only the size of a large English parish church. The western front with its decoration is a majestic composition
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