1.
Comoros
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Other countries near the Comoros are Tanzania to the northwest and the Seychelles to the northeast. Its capital is Moroni, on Grande Comore, the Union of the Comoros has three official languages – Comorian, Arabic and French. The religion of the majority of the population is Islam, at 1,660 km2, excluding the contested island of Mayotte, the Comoros is the third-smallest African nation by area. The population, excluding Mayotte, is estimated at 798,000, as a nation formed at a crossroads of different civilisations, the archipelago is noted for its diverse culture and history. The archipelago was first inhabited by Bantu speakers who came from East Africa, supplemented by Arab, the country consists of three major islands and numerous smaller islands, all in the volcanic Comoros archipelago. The major islands are known by their French names, northwestern-most Grande Comore, Mohéli. France has vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions that would affirm Comorian sovereignty over the island, in addition, Mayotte became an overseas department and a region of France in 2011 following a referendum passed overwhelmingly. It became part of the French colonial empire in the 19th century before becoming independent in 1975, since declaring independence, the country has experienced more than 20 coups détat or attempted coups, with various heads of state assassinated. As of 2008 about half the population lived below the poverty line of US$1.25 a day. The Comoros is the state to be a member of the African Union, Francophonie, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Arab League. The name Comoros derives from the Arabic word قمر qamar, the first human inhabitants of the Comoro Islands are thought to have been Polynesian and Melanesian settlers, Malays and Indonesians, travelling by boat. The islands of the Comoros were populated by a succession of peoples from the coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, the Malay Archipelago, and Madagascar. Bantu-speaking settlers reached the islands as a part of the greater Bantu expansion that took place in Africa throughout the first millennium, according to pre-Islamic mythology, a jinni dropped a jewel, which formed a great circular inferno. This became the Karthala volcano, which created the island of the Comoros, development of the Comoros was divided into phases. The earliest reliably recorded phase is the Dembeni phase, during each island maintained a single. From the eleventh to the centuries, trade with the island of Madagascar and merchants from the Middle East flourished, smaller villages emerged. Many Comorians can trace their genealogies to ancestors from Yemen, mainly Hadhramaut, and Oman. According to legend, in 632, upon hearing of Islam, islanders are said to have dispatched an emissary, Mtswa-Mwindza, to Mecca—but by the time he arrived there, the Islamic prophet Muhammad had died
2.
Indian Ocean
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The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Grande Comore
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Grande Comore is an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation, most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population as of 2006 is about 316,600, the islands capital is Moroni, which is also the national capital. The island is made up of two volcanoes, with Mount Karthala being the countrys highest point at 2,361 m above sea level. According to the 2009 revision of the constitution of 2002, it is governed by an elected Governor, as are the other islands, the name Ngazidja is sometimes seen in the incorrect form Njazidja. For several centuries, Grande Comore was divided into a number of sultanates, including Bambao, Itsandra, Mitsamihuli, Mbajini, Hambuu, Washili, Hamahame, Mbwankuu, Mbude, the sultans were also known as mfaume. In 1886, the ruler of Bambao, Sultan Said Ali bin Said Omar declared a state of Ngazidja, usurping the other sultanates, in 1893, Sultan Said Ali was sent into exile on Réunion. In 1908, France annexed the island and the sultanates were abolished, in 1975, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli declared independence as the nation of Comoros. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 crashed off the coast of Grande Comore on November 23,1996, in 1997, the Comoros nation began to fall apart as Anjouan and Moheli seceded. Grande Comore became the island under federal control. By 2002, however, Grande Comore was reunited with the islands under the new constitution. Abdou Soule Elbak was elected President of Grande Comore in May 2002 and he received only 17% of the vote in the first round, coming in first place, and received 60% of the vote in the runoff. He remained in his post until the July 2007 elections, at which point Mohamed Abdoulwahab won the islands presidency, prince Said Ibrahim International Airport serves the island. Media related to Grande Comore at Wikimedia Commons Comoros Island election information
5.
Anjouan
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Anjouan is an autonomous island in the Indian Ocean that forms part of the Union of the Comoros. Its chief town is Mutsamudu and, as of 2006, its population is around 277,500, the total area of the island is 424 square kilometers. The first inhabitants of the island were explorers and immigrants from Indonesia and Polynesia, after that people all around the Indian Ocean began to come to Anjouan and the Comoro Islands. In about 1500, the Sultanate of Ndzuwani was founded, which took over the entire island, the sultanate was the most powerful of all the Comorian sultanates. In 1816, Sultan Alawi bin Husein requested French assistance against the Sultanate of Zanzibar which was threatening his domain, the island came under French protection in 1886. France abolished slavery in then-Ndzuwani in 1899, and formally annexed it in 1912, the strictly republican annexation was opposed by the last reigning sultan but his meager forces were crushed when they offered resistance. John Mucknell marooned his enemies on Anjouan in 1644 and his ship, the John, was owned by the East India Company, but after ridding himself of opposition in this manner, he turned pirate and returned to Britain. Anjouan joined the State of Comoros when it became independent in 1975, in 1997, the islands of Anjouan and Mohéli seceded from the Comoros. On 3 August 1997, Anjouan declared itself the independent State of Anjouan with Foundi Abdallah Ibrahim as president, an independence referendum was subsequently held in October, with over 99% voting in favour. The island then asked to be integrated again into the French Republic, a constitution was adopted for Anjouan in a referendum on 25 February 1998. In 1999, Anjouan had internal conflicts and on 1 August of that year, the government was overthrown in a coup by army and navy officers on 9 August 2001. Mohamed Bacar soon rose to leadership of the junta took over. Despite two coup attempts in the three months, including one by Abeid, Bacar’s government remained in power, and was apparently more willing to negotiate with Comoros. Bacar was elected for a 5-year term as President of the island of Anjouan and his term expired on 14 April 2007 and the president of the assembly, Houmadi Caambi, became acting president from 15 April until he was overthrown by forces loyal to Bacar on 10 May. Peace talks were held between the government and the regime in Anjouan and agreed to hold free elections in which Mohamed Bacar would stand. Although the Union government delayed the election - citing alleged irregularities and intimidation — Bacar unilaterally printed ballots, the result, due to electoral fraud, was an overwhelming victory of 90 percent. In July 2007, he again declared the island of Anjouan to be independent of the Comoros. In February 2008, the Comoros rejected the African Unions extended sanctions against Anjouan, in early March, the Comoros armed forces and around 400 international reinforcements from the African Union assembled on the island of Mohéli
6.
Grande-Terre (Mayotte)
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Grande-Terre is the main island of the French overseas region of Mayotte. The island is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean and its biggest city and prefecture is Mamoudzou. The territory is part of the Comoro Islands, but the people of Mayotte chose to remain politically a part of France in the 1975 referendum. The territory is known as Maore, the native name of its main island. In a 2009 referendum,95. 2% of the electorate approved accession to status of department, Mayotte became an overseas department on 31 March 2011 and an Outermost region of the European Union on 1 January 2014
7.
Moroni, Comoros
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Moroni is the largest city, federal capital and seat of the government of the Union of the Comoros, a sovereign archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean. In Comorian, Moroni translates as in the heart of the fire, perhaps alluding to the location at the foot of Mount Karthala. Moroni is the capital of the semi-autonomous island Grande Comore, the largest of the three islands of the republic. The citys estimated population in 2003 was 41,557 residents, Moroni, which lies along the Route Nationale 1, has a port and several mosques such as the Badjanani Mosque. Moroni was founded by Arab settlers, possibly during the 10th century, in December 2003, the Moroni Agreement on Transition Agreements was signed by the island presidents of the Union of Comoros. In the run up to the 2006 elections, the government-owned Radio Ngazidja and private station Moroni FM were raided by armed assailants, the city is on the western coast of Grande Comore island. Moroni has a rocky coastline, mostly without beaches. A small beach north of town at Itsandra contains the ruins of the Sultans Fort and Palace, settlements to the north of Moroni include Ntsoudjini, Ouellah, Bahani, Batsa, Vanambouani and Vanadjou, and to the south are Mvouni, Daoueni and Selea. Moroni is situated at the foot of Mount Karthala,10 kilometres northwest from the volcanos crater, the eruption of 2005 caused displacement of a large number of people due to volcanic ash. Moroni features a tropical rainforest climate, with heavy precipitation throughout the year—only October sees on average less than 100 mm of rain. The average annual rainfall is 2,700 millimetres and it rains during all months of the year, the monsoon season lasts from November to April. Humidity is in the range of 69 to 79 percent, moronis average temperatures throughout the year are relatively constant with a high in the range of 32–34 °C and a low in the range of 14–20 °C. As of 2011, Moroni had a population of about 54,000, sunni Muslims account for 98%, and there is a minority of Roman Catholics. Arabic and French are the official languages while Comorian, which is a Bantu language closely related to Swahili and heavily influenced by Arabic, is also spoken. Goods produced on the island are vanilla, cacao, coffee, soft drinks, processed and distilled essential oils, metal and wood products, and processed pozzolana, the tourist infrastructure is poorly developed. Financial institutions include Banque Centrale des Comores, Banque de Development des Comores, towards the south of Moroni are several markets, including the old market and the Dubai Market. The historic town centre, the Medina, contains a maze of narrow alleys, the old city centre is based on Zanzibars Stone Town, but is smaller. There are many mosques, notably the Badjanani Mosque pr Ancienne Mosquée de Vendredi and it was originally built in 1427, and a minaret was added in 1921
8.
Azali Assoumani
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Azali Assoumani is a Comorian politician and the President of the Comoros. He has been in office since 2016, previously he was President from 1999 to 2001 and again from 2001 to 2006. He became leader of the Comoros on 30 April 1999 after leading a coup to depose acting president Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde and he won multi-party elections in 2002, prior to which he was constitutionally required to temporarily step down in order to run as a candidate. On 15 May 2016 he was declared by the Constitutional Court to have won the 2016 presidential election to succeed President Ikililou Dhoinine, Azali was born in 1959 at Mitsoudjé in south-western Grande Comore. Until he overthrew the government in 1999, he pursued a military career for two decades. Between 1977 and 1980 he trained at the Royal Military Academy in Morocco, on his return to Comoros, he joined the FAC. After the death of Abdullah and the departure of the mercenaries in 1989-1990, in 1996 he undertook further training at a French military academy and was promoted to colonel and chief of staff of the new National Army of Development. Constitutionally, the presidency is supposed to rotate every four years between the three islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli
9.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
10.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
11.
Archipelago
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An archipelago, sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster or collection of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi-, in Italian, possibly following a tradition of antiquity, the Archipelago was the proper name for the Aegean Sea and, later, usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands. It is now used to refer to any group or, sometimes. Archipelagos may be isolated in large amounts of water or neighbouring a large land mass. For example, Scotland has more than 700 islands surrounding its mainland which form an archipelago, archipelagos are often volcanic, forming along island arcs generated by subduction zones or hotspots, but may also be the result of erosion, deposition, and land elevation. Depending on their origin, islands forming archipelagos can be referred to as oceanic islands, continental fragments. Oceanic islands are mainly of volcanic origin, continental fragments correspond to land masses that have separated from a continental mass due to tectonic displacement. Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, New Zealand, Maldives, the Bahamas, Greece, Hawaii, the largest archipelagic state in the world by area and population is Indonesia. Island arc List of landforms List of archipelagos by number of islands List of archipelagos List of islands Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Archipelago
12.
Mozambique
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It is separated from Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital and largest city is Maputo, between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from farther north and west. Swahili commercial ports existed along the coasts until the arrival of Europeans, the area was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonised by Portugal from 1505. The country was an important place where Somali merchants enslaved the local population, after over four centuries of Portuguese rule, Mozambique gained independence in 1975, becoming the Peoples Republic of Mozambique shortly thereafter. After only two years of independence, the country descended into an intense and protracted civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992, in 1994, Mozambique held its first multiparty elections and has remained a relatively stable presidential republic. However, since 2013, following more than 20 years of peace, Mozambique is one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world. Mozambique is endowed with rich and extensive natural resources, the countrys economy is based largely on agriculture, but industry is growing, mainly food and beverages, chemical manufacturing, and aluminium and petroleum production. The countrys tourism sector is also growing, South Africa is Mozambiques main trading partner and source of foreign direct investment. Belgium, Brazil, Portugal, and Spain are also among the countrys most important economic partners, since 2001, Mozambiques annual average GDP growth has been among the worlds highest. However, the ranks among the lowest in GDP per capita, human development, measures of inequality. The only official language of Mozambique is Portuguese, which is mostly as a second language by about half of the population. Common native languages include Makhuwa, Sena, and Swahili, the countrys population of around 24 million is composed overwhelmingly of Bantu people. The largest religion in Mozambique is Christianity, with significant minorities following Islam, the island-town was the capital of the Portuguese colony until 1898, when it was moved south to Lourenço Marques. Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, waves of Bantu-speaking people migrated from the west and north through the Zambezi River valley and then gradually into the plateau and they established agricultural communities or societies based on herding cattle. They brought with them the technology for smelting and smithing iron, from the late first millennium AD, vast Indian Ocean trade networks extended as far south into Mozambique as the ancient port town of Chibuene. Connections are evident at sites including Manyikeni for 11–14th century ties with the inland Great Zimbabwe kingdoms, from about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts displaced the Arabic commercial and military hegemony, becoming regular ports of call on the new European sea route to the east. The voyage of Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 marked the Portuguese entry into trade, politics, the Portuguese attempted to legitimise and consolidate their trade and settlement positions through the creation of prazos tied to Portuguese settlement and administration. Historically within Mozambique there was slavery, Human beings were bought and sold by African tribal chiefs, Arab Muslim traders and Portuguese and other European traders as well
13.
Madagascar
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Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar, and numerous smaller peripheral islands, consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot, over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The islands diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the growing human population. The first archaeological evidence for human foraging on Madagascar dates to 2000 BC, human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and AD550 by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo. These were joined around AD1000 by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa, other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is divided into 18 or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by an assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles, the monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in an uprising in 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign. Constitutional governance was restored in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair, Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the Southern African Development Community. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations, Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascars development strategy. As of 2017, the economy has been weakened by the 2009-2013 political crisis, in the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The islands appellation Madagascar is not of origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. On St. Laurences Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island, polos name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps. At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the worlds 47th largest country, the country lies mostly between latitudes 12°S and 26°S, and longitudes 43°E and 51°E. Neighboring islands include the French territory of Réunion and the country of Mauritius to the east, as well as the state of Comoros, the nearest mainland state is Mozambique, located to the west
14.
Islet
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An islet is a very small island. As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of isle, use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability. Cay or Key – an islet formed by the accumulation of sand deposits atop a reef Motu – A reef islet formed by broken coral and sand. River island – A small islet within the current of a river, rock – A rock, in the sense of a type of islet, is an uninhabited landform composed of rock, lying offshore, and having at most minimal vegetation. Sandbar – An exposed sandbar is another type of islet, Sea stack – A thin, vertical landform jutting out of a body of water. Skerry – A small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation, subsidiary islets – A more technical application is to small land features, isolated by water, lying off the shore of a larger island. Likewise, any emergent land in an atoll is called an islet. Tidal island – Often small islands lie off the mainland of an area, being connected to it in low tide. In the Caribbean and West Atlantic, islets are often called cays or keys, rum Cay in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys off Florida are examples of islets. In the Channel Islands, they are identified by the suffix -hou from the Norse -holm. In Scotland and Ireland, they are often called inches, from the Gaelic innis, which originally meant island, in Ireland they are often termed skerries. In and around Polynesia, islets are widely known by the term motu, in and around the River Thames in England, small islands are known as aits or eyots. One long-term dispute over the status of such an islet was that of Snake Island, there are thousands of islets on Earth, approximately 24,000 islands and islets in the Stockholm archipelago alone. The following is a list of example islets from around the world, Islands or Rocks, Is that the Real Question. The Treatment of Islands in the Delimitation of Maritime Boundaries, in Myron H. Nordquist, John Norton Moore, Alfred H. A. The Law of the Sea Convention, US Accession and Globalization
15.
Banc du Geyser
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The Banc is a dangerous oval-shaped reef 8 km long and 5 km wide that becomes exposed only at low tides, with the exception of some rock formations in the southern part of the reef. The rocks are generally 1.5 to 3 m in height, in the eastern part of the reef there are some sandy cays,1 to 3 m in height covered with grass and small bushes. The entrance into the lagoon is possible from a south-southeastern direction. There is an abundance of sea birds, and the cays are covered in tons of guano, the Geysir Reef was first known by Arab sailors around the year 700, and was shown on some navigation-charts dated around 800. Around 1650 the reef was shown on Spanish maps as Arecife de Santo Antonio, the current name was given on 23 December 1678, when the British vessel Geysir ran on the reef. France and the Comoros claim the Banc du Geyser as part of their exclusive economic zone, the reef is also claimed Madagascar. From the French point of view, it is part of the EEZ of Glorioso Islands, in 2012, France included the reef in the parc naturel marin des Glorieuses, a marine protected area, to preserve the endangered flora and fauna of Glorioso Islands. About 20 km southwest of Geysir is Zélée Bank, a submarine feature. Satellite images of Banc du Geysir, archived from the original on December 23,2010. CS1 maint, Unfit url Sailing Directions, East Africa and the South Indian Ocean
16.
Glorioso Islands
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The Glorieuses or Glorioso Islands are a group of French islands and rocks totalling 5 square kilometres, at 11°33′S 47°20′E, in the Indian Ocean, about 160 kilometres northwest of Madagascar. In 2012, France founded parc naturel marin des Glorieuses, a protected area, to preserve the endangered flora. The Glorieuses have an Exclusive Economic Zone of 48,350 square kilometres, there are anchorages offshore, and Grande Glorieuse has a 1, 300-metre long airstrip. The archipelago consists of two islands, Grande Glorieuse and Île du Lys, as well as eight rock islets, Wreck Rock, South Rock and Verte Rocks and they form part of a coral reef and lagoon. Grande Glorieuses is roughly circular and measures about 3 kilometres across and it is thickly vegetated, mainly by the remains of a coconut plantation and casuarina trees. Île du Lys, located at 11°30′59. 35″S 47°22′36. 02″E about 8 kilometres northeast of Grande Glorieuses, is about 600 metres long and consists of sand dunes and it was formerly quarried for phosphate. The climate is tropical and the terrain is low and flat, Île de Lys in particular is a nesting ground for migratory seabirds, and turtles lay eggs on the beaches. Perhaps earlier known to Arab navigators, the Glorieuses were named and settled in 1880 by a Frenchman, Hippolyte Caltaux, the archipelago became a French possession in 1892 when Captain Richard of the Primauget made a formal claim. In 1895, the Glorioso Island became a part of the colony of Mayotte, from 1914 to 1958 concessions to exploit the islands were given to Seychelles companies. The islands are nature reserves with a meteorological station garrisoned by French troops. The Comoros claims Mayotte and Glorioso Islands, the Seychelles claimed the islands too before the France–Seychelles Maritime Boundary Agreement. In 2012, France founded parc naturel marin des Glorieuses, a protected area, to preserve the endangered flora
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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Mayotte
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Mayotte is an insular department and region of France officially named Département de Mayotte. It consists of an island, Grande-Terre, a smaller island, Petite-Terre. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, the department status of Mayotte is recent and the region remains the poorest in France. Mayotte is nevertheless much more prosperous than the countries of the Mozambique Channel. Mayottes area is 374 square kilometres and, with its 212,645 people, is densely populated at 569 per km². The biggest city and prefecture is Mamoudzou on Grande-Terre, however, the Dzaoudzi–Pamandzi International Airport is located on the neighbouring island of Petite-Terre. The territory is part of the Comoro Islands. The territory is known as Maore, the native name of its main island. The language of the majority is Shimaore, a Bantu language variety closely related to the varieties in the neighbouring Comoros islands, the second most widely spoken native language is Kibushi, a Malagasy language variety most closely related to the Sakalava dialect of Malagasy with influences from Shimaore. The vast majority of the population is Muslim, the island was populated from neighbouring East Africa with later arrival of Arabs, who brought the Islamic religion. A sultanate was established in 1500, the people of Mayotte voted to remain politically a part of France in the 1974 referendum. The term Mayotte may refer to all of the islands, of which the largest is known as Maore and includes Maores surrounding islands, most notably Pamanzi. The main island, Grande-Terre, geologically the oldest of the Comoro Islands, is 39 kilometres long and 22 kilometres wide, because of the volcanic rock, the soil is relatively rich in some areas. A coral reef encircling much of the island ensures protection for ships, Dzaoudzi was the capital of Mayotte until 1977. It is situated on Petite-Terre, which at 10 square kilometres is the largest of several islets adjacent to Maore, in 1500, the Maore or Mawuti sultanate was established on the island. In 1503, Mayotte was observed by Portuguese explorers, but not colonized, in 1832, Mayotte was conquered by Andriantsoly, former king of Iboina on Madagascar, in 1833, it was conquered by the neighbouring sultanate of Mwali. On 19 November 1835, Mayotte was again conquered by the Ndzuwani Sultanate, however, in 1836 it regained its independence under a last local Sultan. Mayotte was purchased by France in 1841 and it was the only island in the archipelago that voted in referendums in 1974 and 1976 to retain its link with France and forgo independence
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Geography of the Comoros
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The Comoros archipelago consists of four main islands aligned along a northwest-southeast axis at the north end of the Mozambique Channel, between Mozambique and the island of Madagascar. Still widely known by their French names, the islands officially have been called by their Swahili names by the Comorian government and they are Grande Comore, Mohéli, Anjouan, and Mayotte. The islands have a land area of 2,236 square kilometers. Mount Karthala on Grande Comore is an active volcano, from April 17 to 19,2005, the volcano began spewing ash and gas, forcing as many as 10,000 people to flee. Geographic coordinates, 12°10′S 44°15′E Grande Comore is the largest island, sixty-seven kilometers long and twenty-seven kilometers wide, the most recently formed of the four islands in the archipelago, it is also of volcanic origin. A plateau averaging 600 to 700 meters high connects the two mountains, because Grande Comore is geologically a relatively new island, its soil is thin and rocky and cannot hold water. As a result, water from the heavy rainfall must be stored in catchment tanks. There are no coral reefs along the coast, and the island lacks a good harbor for ships, one of the largest remnants of the Comoros once-extensive rain forests is on the slopes of Kartala. The national capital has been at Moroni since 1962, Anjouan, triangular shaped and forty kilometers from apex to base, has an area of 424 square kilometers. Three mountain chains — Sima, Nioumakele, and Jimilime—emanate from a peak, Mtingui. Older than Grande Comore, Anjouan has deeper soil cover, a coral reef lies close to shore, the islands capital of Mutsamudu is also its main port. Mohéli is thirty kilometers long and twelve wide, with an area of 290 square kilometers. It is the smallest of the four islands and has a mountain chain reaching 860 meters at its highest. Like Grande Comore, it retains stands of rain forest, because of greater weathering of the volcanic rock, the soil is relatively rich in some areas. A well-developed coral reef that encircles much of the island ensures protection for ships, dzaoudzi, capital of the Comoros until 1962 and now Mayottes administrative center, is situated on a rocky outcropping off the east shore of the main island. Dzaoudzi is linked by a causeway to le Pamanzi, which at ten kilometers in area is the largest of several islets adjacent to Mayotte, islets are also scattered in the coastal waters of Grande Comore, Anjouan, and Mohéli. A live specimen was caught in 1938 off southern Africa, other coelacanths have since found in the vicinity of the Comoro Islands. Several mammals are unique to the islands themselves, livingstones fruit bat, although plentiful when discovered by explorer David Livingstone in 1863, has been reduced to a population of about 120, entirely on Anjouan
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Mozambique Channel
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The Mozambique Channel is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about 1,600 km long and 419 km across at its narrowest point, a warm current, the Mozambique Current, flows in a southward direction in the channel, leading into the Agulhas Current off the east coast of South Africa. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Mozambique Channel as follows, a line from the estuary of the River Rovuma to Ras Habu, the Northern point of Ile Grande Comore, the Northern of the Comore Islands, to Cap dAmbre the Northern extremity of Madagascar. A line from Cap Sainte-Marie, the Southern extreme of Madagascar to Ponto do Ouro on the mainland. Despite being defined as the South African coast by the IHO, japanese Submarines at Madagascar and the Mozambique Channel Beach, Chandler B. ed. Mozambique Channel. Chicago, F. E. Compton and Co
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Overseas department
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An overseas department is a department of France that is outside metropolitan France. The overseas departments should not be confused with the overseas collectivities, each overseas department is also an overseas region. In 1798 the Russian Admiral Ushakov evicted the French from these islands, and though France regained them in 1802, since 1982, following the French government’s policy of decentralisation, overseas departments have elected regional councils with powers similar to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Following a yes vote in a referendum held on March 29,2009, the overseas collectivity Saint Pierre and Miquelon was an overseas department from 1976 to 1985
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Mamoudzou
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Mamoudzou is the capital of the French overseas region and department of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean. Mamoudzou is the most populated commune of Mayotte and it is located on Grande-Terre, the main island of Mayotte. The former capital of Mayotte was Dzaoudzi, on the island of Petite-Terre. In the 1985 census,12,026 people were recorded in the main town, the commune is composed of 6 villages in addition to its central habitation, also called Mamoudzou. These are, Kawéni, Mtsapéré, Passamainti, Vahibé, Tsoundzou I, the commune is also subdivided into 3 cantons, Mamoudzou I, Mamoudzou II and Mamoudzou III. The government owns the station in Mamoudzou and broadcasts in French. The government departments have been based in the town since before it became the capital, France Télécom operates in the town. The town has a significant Muslim population, Mamoudzou contains a bank and shopping centre. The economic centre of the town is the Place du Marche, which contains the bank, Air France and Ewa Air offices, the headquarters of the magazine Jana na Leo, primarily concerned with articles on social life of the island of Mahore, is published in Mamoudzou. Restaurants of note in Mamoudzou include the Les Terrasses, Hotel Restaurant Isijiva, Le Barfly, a ferry service is provided for tourists to the island of Petite Terre
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History of the Comoros
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The history of the Comoros goes back some 1,500 years. It has been inhabited by various groups throughout this time, France colonised the islands in the 19th century. The Comoros finally became independent in 1975, according to myth, the Comoros islands were first visited by Phoenician sailors. The earliest inhabitants of the islands were probably Bantu-speaking Africans, the earliest evidence of settlement of the dates from the sixth century. Traces of this culture have blended with successive waves of African, Arab. Shirazi immigrants appear to have arrived some time after the tenth century A. D, over the centuries, the Comoro Islands have been settled by a succession of diverse groups from the coast of Africa, the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia and Madagascar. Portuguese explorers first visited the archipelago in 1505, both the British and the French turned their attention to the Comoros islands in the middle of the 19th century. William Sunley, a planter and British Consul from 1848–1866, was an influence on Anjouan, on 25 March 1841, France purchased the island of Maore, which became a colony. In 1850 Sultan Selim of Johanna island seized the American whaler Maria and imprisoned her commander, in response the United States Navy launched the Johanna Expedition in February 1852 to gain the release of Moores and extract compensation. Initially the sultan did not meet the demands, and the sloop-of-war USS Dale bombarded the fortifications, ultimately Selim paid US$1,000. Résidents were posted on the three islands, on 9 April 1908, France declared the protectorates and Mayotte a single colony, Mayotte and dependencies. On 25 July 1912, it was annexed to Madagascar as a province of that colony, from 16 June 1940 -1942 the colonial administration remained loyal to Vichy France, but 25 September 1942 -13 October 1946 they were, like Madagascar, under British occupation. Until the opening of the Suez Canal, the used to be an important refuelling and provisioning station for ships from Europe to the Indian Ocean. Independence came gradually for the Comoros, after World War II, the islands became a French overseas territory and were represented in Frances National Assembly. Internal political autonomy was granted in 1961, agreement was reached with France in 1973 for the Comoros to become independent in 1978. On July 6,1975, however, the Comorian parliament passed a resolution declaring unilateral independence, in two referendums, in December 1974 and February 1976, the population of Mayotte voted against independence from France. Mayotte thus remains under French administration, and the Comorian Government has effective control over only Grande Comore, Anjouan, and Mohéli. In 1961 it was granted autonomous rule and, seven years after the general unrest and left-wing riots of 1968, from the very beginning Mayotte refused to join the new republic and aligned itself even more firmly to the French Republic, but the other islands remained committed to independence
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Bantu peoples
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Bantu peoples is used as a general label for the 300–600 ethnic groups in Africa who speak Bantu languages. They inhabit an area stretching east and southward from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes region down to Southern Africa. Bantu is a branch of the Niger-Congo language family spoken by most populations in Africa. There are about 650 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility and this Bantu expansion first introduced Bantu peoples to central, southern, and southeastern Africa, regions they had previously been absent from. They also encountered some Afro-Asiatic outlier groups in the southeast, who had there for centuries migrating from Northeast Africa. Individual Bantu groups today often include millions of people, among these are the Shona of Zimbabwe with 14.2 million people, the Luba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with over 13. Swahili also serves as one of the languages of the African Union. The word Bantu, and its variations, means people or humans, the root in Proto-Bantu is reconstructed as *-ntu. This view represents a resolution of debates in the 1960s over competing theories advanced by Joseph Greenberg and Malcolm Guthrie and he proposed that Bantu languages had spread east and south from there, to secondary centers of further dispersion, over hundreds of years. Subsequent research on loanwords for adaptations in agriculture and animal husbandry and it is unclear exactly when the spread of Bantu-speakers began from their core area as hypothesized c.5,000 years ago. Another stream of migration, moving east, by 3,000 years ago was creating a new population center near the Great Lakes of East Africa. Pioneering groups had reached modern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa by A. D.300 along the coast, before the expansion of farming and herding peoples, including those speaking Bantu languages, Africa south of the equator was populated by neolithic hunting and foraging peoples. Some of them were ancestral to proto-Khoisan-speaking peoples, whose modern hunter-forager and linguistic descendants, the Hadza and Sandawe populations in Tanzania comprise the other modern hunter-forager remnant in Africa of these proto-Khoisan-speaking peoples. After their movements from their homeland in West Africa, Bantus also encountered in East Africa peoples of Afro-Asiatic. As cattle terminology in use amongst the few modern Bantu pastoralist groups suggests, linguistic evidence also indicates that Bantus likely borrowed the custom of milking cattle directly from Cushitic peoples in the area. On the coastal section of East Africa, another mixed Bantu community developed through contact with Muslim Arab, the Swahili culture that emerged from these exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do the many Afro-Arab members of the Bantu Swahili people. Between the 14th and 15th centuries, Bantu-speaking states began to emerge in the Great Lakes region in the south of the Central African rain forest. On the Zambezi river, the Monomatapa kings built the famous Great Zimbabwe complex, from the 16th century onward, the processes of state formation amongst Bantu peoples increased in frequency
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Malagasy people
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The Malagasy are the ethnic group that forms nearly the entire population of Madagascar. This division has its roots in historical patterns of settlement, sometime later, a large number of settlers arrived from East Africa and established kingdoms along the relatively unpopulated coastlines. The difference in ethnic origins remains somewhat evident between the highland and coastal regions, in addition to the ethnic distinction between highland and coastal Malagasy, one may speak of a political distinction as well. Merina monarchs in the late 18th and early 19th century, the people united the Merina principalities. They later extended Merina control over the majority of the areas as well. The military resistance and eventual defeat of most of the coastal communities assured their subordinate position vis-à-vis the Merina-Betsileo alliance, the number of such ethnic groups in Madagascar has been debated. The practices that distinguished many of groups are less prevalent in the 21st century than they were in the past. But, many Malagasy are proud to proclaim their association with one or several of these groups as part of their own cultural identity, three Malagasy populations, Temoro, Vezo, and Mikea, have approx. 70% African ancestry and 30% Asian ancestry, in a 2010 study, the Polynesian motif frequency occurs varied among three ethnic groups, 50% in Merina,22 % in Vezo, and 13% in Mikea. There are two additional mutations found in all Polynesian motif carriers of Madagascar, hence named the Malagasy motif, most likely scenario is that Madagascar was settled approximately 1200 years ago by a very small group, which consist of approx. 30 women, where 28 of them have Island Southeast Asian descent and 2 of them have African descent, the closest Asian parental population of the Malagasy are the Banjarese and other South Kalimantan Dayak people of south east Borneo. Some Malagasy were among peoples taken captive and sold as slaves in the Atlantic slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries, the best-known community of descendants are in Morropón, a city in northern Peru, the Afro-Peruvians of Malagasy descent number about 7,000. They call themselves Mangaches or Malgaches and this section of Piura is called la Mangachería. Malagasy slaves were transported during slavery times to Brazil and the US, but their number. It is likely most of these descendants are not aware of their Malagasy ancestry, robert Reed Church, an African-American businessman in Memphis, Tennessee in the 19th century, was said to be of Malagasy descent through his enslaved mother. Memories of Madagascar and Slavery in the Black Atlantic by Wendy Wilson-Fall,2015, Ohio University Press—Malagasy diaspora Sandra Evers, Gwyn Campbell, contest for Land in Madagascar, Environment, Ancestors and Development
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Demographics of Indonesia
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The population of Indonesia according to the 2010 national census was 237.64 million, and it was estimated to reach 255.4 million in 2015. 58% live on the island of Java, the worlds most populous island, despite a fairly effective family planning program that has been in place since the 1967, for the decade ending in 2010, Indonesias population growth was 1.49 percent. Indonesia currently possess a young population, thus implies a — potentially — large workforce. Indonesias total median age is 28.2 years and this indicates that one half of the population is older than 28.2 years, while the other half is younger than this number. Indonesia includes numerous ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups, some of which are related to each other, since independence, Indonesian is the language of most written communication, education, government, and business. Many local ethnic languages are the first language of most Indonesians and are still important, Indonesia demographic composition has a relatively young population. According to 2011 estimate, total median age of Indonesia is 28.2 years, Total Fertility Rate and Crude Birth Rate, Total fertility rate and population of age 60 by region as of 2010, There are over 300 ethnic groups in Indonesia. 95% of those are of Native Indonesian ancestry, Javanese is the largest group with 100 million people, followed by Sundanese who number nearly 40 million. Indonesia is the worlds most populous Muslim-majority nation, almost 87. 18% of Indonesians declared themselves Muslim in the 2010 census,9. 87% of the population adhered to Christianity,1. 69% were Hindu,0. 72% Buddhist, and 0.56 of other faiths. Most Indonesian Hindus are Balinese and most Buddhists in modern-day Indonesia are Tionghoa, Indonesian is the official language but there are many different languages native to Indonesia. According to Ethnologue, there are currently 737 living languages, the most widely spoken being the Javanese language, a number of Chinese varieties, most prominently Min Nan, are also spoken. The public use of Chinese, especially Chinese characters, was discouraged between 1966 and 1998. Definition, age 15 and over and can read and writetotal population,92. 81%male,95. 5%female,90. 4% Education is not free, however, although about 92% of eligible children are enrolled in primary school, a much smaller percentage attends full-time. About 44% of secondary school-age children attend high school. The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated, school life expectancy total,11 years male,12 years female,11 years Education expenditures 3
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Arabs
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Arabs are an ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world. They primarily live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Arabian Desert is the birthplace of Arab, there are other Arab groups as well that spread in the land and existed for millennia. Before the expansion of the Caliphate, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic people from the northern to the central Arabian Peninsula and Syrian Desert. Presently, Arab refers to a number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to spread of Arabs throughout the region during the early Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Abbasid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and this was one of the largest land empires in history. The Great Arab Revolt has had as big an impact on the modern Middle East as the World War I, the war signaled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They are modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat, following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the sovereignty of its member states. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora, the ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, the total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. This makes them the second largest ethnic group after the Han Chinese. Arabs are a group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed monotheism. Today, Arabs are mainly adherents of Islam, with sizable Christian minorities, Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Alawite, Druze and Ismaili denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Maronite, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean churches. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of Gi-in-di-buu the ar-ba-a-a or Gindibu belonging to the Arab
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Portuguese people
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Portuguese people are an ethnic group indigenous to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and their predominant religion is Christianity, Portuguese people were a key factor to the Age of Exploration, discovering several lands unknown to the Europeans in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, helping to pave the way for Globalization. There are around 10 million native Portuguese in Portugal, out of a population of 10.34 million. A small minority of about 15,000 speak the Mirandese language, in the municipalities of Miranda do Douro, Vimioso, all of the speakers are bilingual with Portuguese. An even smaller minority of no more than 2,000 people speak Barranquenho, some people from the former colonies have been migrating to Portugal since the 1900s. More recently, a number of Slavs, especially Ukrainians, Moldovans, Romanians and Russians. There is also a Chinese minority, in addition, there is a small minority Gypsies of about 40,000 people, Muslims about 34,000 people and an even smaller minority of Jews of about 5,000 people. Between 1886 and 1966, Portugal lost to more than any West European country except Ireland. From the middle of the 19th century to the late 1950s, about 40 million Brazilians have relatively recent Portuguese background, due to massive immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. About 1.2 million Brazilian citizens are native Portuguese, significant verified Portuguese minorities exist in several countries. Portuguese Sephardic Jews are also in Israel, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Venezuela, Brazil, in Brazil many of the colonists were also originally Sephardic Jews, who, converted, were known as New Christians. In the United States, there are Portuguese communities in New Jersey, the New England states, in the Pacific, Hawaii has a sizable Portuguese element that goes back 150 years, Australia and New Zealand also have Portuguese communities. Canada, particularly Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, has developed a significant Portuguese community since 1940, argentina and Uruguay had Portuguese immigration in the early 20th century. So has Chile where an estimated 50,000 descendants live, an estimated 800,000 Portuguese returned to Portugal as the countrys African possessions gained independence in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution, while others moved to Brazil and South Africa. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Equatorial Guinea, in 1989 some 4,000,000 Portuguese were living abroad, mainly in France, Germany, Brazil, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, Venezuela, and the United States. Portuguese constitute 13% of the population of Luxembourg, in areas such as Thetford and the crown dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey, the Portuguese form the largest ethnic minority groups at 30% of the population, 20% and 3% respectively. The British capital London is home to the largest number of Portuguese people in the UK, with the majority being found in the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth and Westminster. The Portuguese diaspora communities still are very attached to their language, their culture and their national dishes, in colonial times, over 700,000 Portuguese settled in Brazil, and most of them went there during the gold rush of the 18th century
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French people
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The French are an ethnic group and nation who are identified with the country of France. This connection may be legal, historical, or cultural, modern French society can be considered a melting pot. To be French, according to the first article of the French Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of origin, race. The debate concerning the integration of this view with the underlying the European Community remains open. A large number of foreigners have traditionally been permitted to live in France, indeed, the country has long valued its openness, tolerance and the quality of services available. Application for French citizenship is often interpreted as a renunciation of previous state allegiance unless a dual citizenship agreement exists between the two countries, the European treaties have formally permitted movement and European citizens enjoy formal rights to employment in the state sector. Seeing itself as a nation with universal values, France has always valued. However, the success of such assimilation has recently called into question. There is increasing dissatisfaction with, and within, growing ethno-cultural enclaves, the 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs were an example of such tensions. However they should not be interpreted as ethnic conflicts but as social conflicts born out of socioeconomic problems endangering proper integration, the name France etymologically derives from the word Francia, the territory of the Franks. The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire, in the pre-Roman era, all of Gaul was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish tribes. Gaul was militarily conquered in 58-51 BCE by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar, the area then became part of the Roman Empire. Over the next five centuries the two cultures intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman culture, the Gaulish vernacular language disappeared step by step to be replaced everywhere by Vulgar Latin, which would later develop under Frankish influence into the French language in the North of France. With the decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, a federation of Germanic peoples entered the picture, the Franks were Germanic pagans who began to settle in northern Gaul as laeti, already during the Roman era. They continued to filter across the Rhine River from present-day Netherlands, at the beginning, they served in the Roman army and reached high commands. Their language is spoken as a kind of Dutch in northern France. Another Germanic people immigrated massively to Alsace, the Alamans, which explains the Alemannic German spoken there and they were competitors of the Franks, thats why it became at the Renaissance time the word for German in French, Allemand. By the early 6th century the Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France, the Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process
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India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
31.
Zanzibar
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Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania in East Africa. It is composed of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 kilometres off the coast of the mainland, the capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre is Stone Town, which is a World Heritage Site, the name Zanzibar is apparently derived from the Persian zang-bâr signifying black coast. Zanzibars main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism, in particular, the islands produce cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. For this reason, the islands, together with Tanzanias Mafia Island, are called the Spice Islands. Zanzibar is the home of the endemic Zanzibar red colobus monkey, the Zanzibar servaline genet, the word Zanzibar came from Arabic Zanjibār, which is in turn from Persian Zang-bār, a compound of Zang + bār. The presence of microlithic tools suggest that it has been home to humans for at least 20,000 years, a Greco-Roman text between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, mentioned the island of Menuthias, which is probably Unguja. Little is known about the history of Zanzibar between the time of the Periplus and the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, from that point forward, wars in Asia and increasing trade motivated Persians, Arabs, and Indians to visit or migrate to Zanzibar. Persian traders used Zanzibar as a base for voyages between the Middle East, India, and Africa and they established garrisons on the islands and built the first Zoroastrian fire temples and mosques in the Southern Hemisphere. The impact of these traders and immigrants on the Swahili culture is uncertain, during the Middle Ages, Zanzibar and other settlements on the Swahili Coast were advanced. The littoral contained a number of autonomous trade cities and these towns grew in wealth as the Bantu Swahili people served as intermediaries and facilitators to local, Arab, Persian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, and Chinese merchants. This interaction contributed in part to the evolution of the Swahili culture, although a Bantu language, Swahili as a consequence today includes some elements that were borrowed from other civilizations, particularly Arabic loanwords. With the wealth that they had acquired through trade, some of the Arab traders also became rulers of the coastal cities, vasco da Gamas visit in 1498 marked the beginning of European influence. In 1503 or 1504, Zanzibar became part of the Portuguese Empire when Captain Ruy Lourenço Ravasco Marques landed and demanded and received tribute from the sultan in exchange for peace, Zanzibar remained a possession of Portugal for almost two centuries. It initially became part of the Portuguese province of Arabia and Ethiopia and was administered by a governor general, around 1571, Zanzibar became part of the western division of the Portuguese empire and was administered from Mozambique. It appears, however, that the Portuguese did not closely administer Zanzibar, the first English ship to visit Unguja, the Edward Bonaventure in 1591, found that there was no Portuguese fort or garrison. The extent of their occupation was a depot where produce was purchased and collected for shipment to Mozambique. In other respects, the affairs of the island were managed by the local king and this hands-off approach ended when Portugal established a fort on Pemba around 1635 in response to the Sultan of Mombasas slaughter of Portuguese residents several years earlier
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Pemba Island
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Pemba Island, known as The Green Island in Arabic, is an island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago, lying within the Swahili Coast in the Indian Ocean. With a land area of 988 square kilometres it is situated about 50 kilometres to the north of Unguja, in 1964, Zanzibar was united with the former colony of Tanganyika to form Tanzania. It lies 50 kilometres east of mainland Tanzania, across the Pemba Channel, together with Mafia Island, these islands form the Spice Islands. Most of the island, which is hillier and more fertile than Unguja, is dominated by small scale farming, there is also large scale farming of cash crops such as cloves. There is a quite large Arab community on the island, who immigrated from Oman, the population is a mix of Arab and original Waswahili inhabitants of the island. A significant portion of the population identifies as Shirazi people. The most important towns in Pemba are Chake-Chake, Mkoani, and Wete, the centrally located Chake-Chake is perched on a mound with a view to the west on a bay and the tiny Misali Island, where the tides determine when a dhow can enter the local harbour. Pemba is, with the exception of a strip of land along its eastern coast, a fertile place, besides clove trees. Pemba is home to several sites, with steep drop-offs, untouched coral. Pemba has a climate as Tanzanias mainland. With the tropical weather, it can become very hot, the average temperature is usually between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The precipitation is 60-80 inches yearly, the highest precipitation levels are in April and May. The lowest precipitation levels are in November and December, archaeological research on Pemba has shown its centrality to the Swahili coast trading system as early as 600 AD. Along the northern coast, urban settlements at Chwaka later developed and flourished from the century to ~1500 AD. West of Pembas capital Chake-Chake, on a long stretched peninsula called Ras Mkumbuu, east of Chake-Chake one can find the Mkama Ndume ruins at Pujini village within easy reach by road from Chake-Chake. This is the known early fortification on the whole Swahili Coast. According to the Arab geographer Yakut, in the century there were two independent sultans ruling over parts of Pemba Island. On 24 June 2016, the Australian Transport Minister, Darren Chester, said that a piece of debris was found on Pemba Island
33.
Lamu
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Lamu or Lamu Town is a small town on Lamu Island, which in turn is a part of the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya. Situated 341 kilometres by road northeast of Mombasa that ends at Mokowe Jetty from where the sea channel has to be crossed to reach Lamu Island and it is the headquarters of Lamu County and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Lamu is Kenyas oldest continually inhabited town, and was one of the original Swahili settlements along coastal East Africa, founded in 1370. The town contains the Lamu Fort on the seafront, which commenced construction under Fumo Madi ibn Abi Bakr, the sultan of Pate, Lamu is also home to 23 mosques, including the Riyadha Mosque, built in 1900, and a donkey sanctuary. Lamu Town on Lamu Island is Kenyas oldest continually inhabited town and it is believed to have been established in 1370. Today, the majority of Lamus population is Muslim, the town was first attested in writing by an Arab traveller Abu-al-Mahasini, who met a judge from Lamu visiting Mecca in 1441. In 1505, the Portuguese invaded Lamu, forcing the king of the town to quickly concede to paying money to them. The Portuguese invasion was prompted by the successful mission to control trade along the coast of the Indian Ocean. For a considerable time, Portugal had a monopoly on shipping along the East African coast, in the 1580s, prompted by Turkish raids, Lamu led a rebellion against the Portuguese. In 1652, Oman assisted Lamu to resist Portuguese control, Lamus years as an Omani protectorate during the period from the late 17th century to early 19th century mark the towns golden age. Lamu was governed as a republic under a council of elders known as the Yumbe who ruled from a palace in the town, during this period, Lamu became a center of poetry, politics, arts and crafts as well as trade. Many of the buildings of the town were constructed during period in a distinct classical style. Aside from its thriving arts and crafts trading, Lamu became a literary, woman writers such as the poet Mwana Kupona – famed for her Advice on the Wifely Duty – had a higher status in Lamu than was the convention in Kenya at the time. In 1812, a coalition Pate-Mazrui army invaded the archipelago during the Battle of Shela, in fear of future attacks, Lamu appealed to the Omanis for a Busaidi garrison to operate at the new fort and help protect the area from Mazrui rebels along the Kenyan coast. In the middle of the 19th century, Lamu came under the influence of the sultan of Zanzibar. The Germans claimed Wituland in June 1885, the Germans considered Lamu to be of strategical importance and an ideal place for a base. From 22 November 1888 to 3 March 1891, there was a German post office in Lamu to facilitate communication within the German protectorate in the sultanate. It was the first post office to be established on the East African coast, today there is a museum in Lamu dedicated to it, in 1890, Lamu and Kenya fell under British colonial rule
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Swahili culture
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Swahili culture is the culture of the Swahili people inhabiting the Swahili Coast. This littoral area encompasses Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique, as well as the adjacent islands of Zanzibar and Comoros and some parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo and they speak Swahili as their native language, which belongs to the Niger-Congo family. Swahili culture is the product of the history of the part of the African Great Lakes region. As with the Swahili language, Swahili culture has a Bantu core that has borrowed from foreign influences, the most recent excavations at these coastal sites have been used to examine the spread of Islam in East Africa and the development of the Swahili culture. However, the identity of the Swahili, as well as, the associated with. Conversely, it has stated that the sites were founded by Arab or Persian colonists. Increased contact with the Islamic would then lead to the integration of local African and Arab traditions, yet, a blend of these two interpretations exists with accounts of Arab merchants marrying local women, which created a distinctive Arab-African Swahili culture. The culture appears to have emerged in Kenya and Tanzania and eventually spread to Mozambique, the early Swahili city-states followed Islam and were cosmopolitan and politically independent of each other. The chief exports of these cultures were salt, slaves, ebony, gold, ivory and these city-states began to decline towards the sixteenth century, mainly as a consequence of the Portugueses advent. Eventually, Swahili trading centers went out of business and commerce between Africa and Asia on the Indian Ocean collapsed, aspects of Swahili culture are diverse due to its many influences. For example, Swahili cuisine has influences from Indian and Arabic cultures, there are also alterations to certain dishes due to religious reasons. Some food items common in everyday lives of the Swahili are fish, tropical fruits, historic Swahili culture was intensely urban and dominated by a strict class structure. Another cultural aspect of the Swahili is their use of arts and crafts, when creating art, they express themselves through creativity as well as through shape and function. Some multicultural influences can be seen in Swahili art, furniture and they do not often use designs with images of living beings due to their Muslim heritage. Instead, Swahili designs are primarily geometric, there are important clothes that are part of their arts and crafts such as the Kanga. The Kanga is not only a piece of cloth but is an artifact of the Swahili culture. The cloth should be made with extreme care, if the cloth doesn’t match the season then it doesn’t deserve to be a Kanga and can be used as a baby diaper or an apron for the kitchen. Even though the Kanga is quite cheap, it is still a part of Swahili culture
35.
Ivory
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Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks and teeth of animals, that can be used in art or manufacturing. It consists mainly of dentine ), one of the structures of teeth. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is the same and it has been valued since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, and dominoes. Elephant ivory is the most important source, but ivory from mammoth, walrus, hippopotamus, sperm whale, killer whale, narwhal, elk also have two ivory teeth, which are believed to be the remnants of tusks from their ancestors. The national and international trade in ivory of threatened species such as African and Asian elephants is illegal, the word ivory ultimately derives from the ancient Egyptian âb, âbu, through the Latin ebor- or ebur. Both the Greek and Roman civilizations practiced ivory carving to make large quantities of high value works of art, precious religious objects, Ivory was often used to form the white of the eyes of statues. There is some evidence of either whale or walrus ivory used by the ancient Irish, solinus, a Roman writer in the 3rd century claimed that the Celtic peoples in Ireland would decorate their sword-hilts with the teeth of beasts that swim in the sea. Adomnan of Iona wrote a story about St Columba giving a sword decorated with carved ivory as a gift that a penitent would bring to his master so he could redeem himself from slavery. The Syrian and North African elephant populations were reduced to extinction, the Chinese have long valued ivory for both art and utilitarian objects. Southeast Asian kingdoms included tusks of the Indian elephant in their annual tribute caravans to China, Chinese craftsmen carved ivory to make everything from images of deities to the pipe stems and end pieces of opium pipes. The Buddhist cultures of Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, Ivory was prized for containers due to its ability to keep an airtight seal. It was also carved into elaborate seals utilized by officials to sign documents. In Southeast Asian countries, where Muslim Malay peoples live, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, in the Philippines, ivory was also used to craft the faces and hands of Catholic icons and images of saints prevalent in the Santero culture. Tooth and tusk ivory can be carved into a vast variety of shapes, examples of modern carved ivory objects are okimono, netsukes, jewelry, flatware handles, furniture inlays, and piano keys. Additionally, warthog tusks, and teeth from sperm whales, orcas and hippos can also be scrimshawed or superficially carved, Ivory usage in the last thirty years has moved towards mass production of souvenirs and jewelry. In Japan, the increase in wealth sparked consumption of solid ivory hanko – name seals – which before this time had made of wood. Prior to the introduction of plastics, ivory had many ornamental and practical uses and it was formerly used to make cutlery handles, billiard balls, piano keys, Scottish bagpipes, buttons and a wide range of ornamental items. Ivory can be taken from dead animals – however, most ivory came from elephants that were killed for their tusks, for example, in 1930 to acquire 40 tons of ivory required the killing of approximately 700 elephants
36.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
37.
Vanilla
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Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla. The word vanilla, derived from the diminutive of the Spanish word vaina, is translated simply as little pod, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people cultivated the vine of the vanilla orchid, called tlilxochitl by the Aztecs. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s, pollination is required to set the fruit from which the flavoring is derived. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this fact, the method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a slave who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant. Three major species of vanilla currently are grown globally, all of which derive from a species found in Mesoamerica. Vanilla is the second-most expensive spice after saffron, because growing the vanilla seed pods is labor-intensive, despite the expense, vanilla is highly valued for its flavor. As a result, vanilla is used in both commercial and domestic baking, perfume manufacture, and aromatherapy. According to popular belief, the Totonac people, who inhabit the east coast of Mexico in the state of Veracruz, were the first to cultivate vanilla. According to Totonac mythology, the tropical orchid was born when Princess Xanat, forbidden by her father from marrying a mortal, the lovers were captured and beheaded. Where their blood touched the ground, the vine of the tropical orchid grew, in the 15th century, Aztecs invading from the central highlands of Mexico conquered the Totonacs, and soon developed a taste for the vanilla pods. They named the fruit tlilxochitl, or black flower, after the matured fruit, subjugated by the Aztecs, the Totonacs paid tribute by sending vanilla fruit to the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. Until the mid-19th century, Mexico was the producer of vanilla. In 1819, French entrepreneurs shipped vanilla fruits to the islands of Réunion, after Edmond Albius discovered how to pollinate the flowers quickly by hand, the pods began to thrive. Soon, the orchids were sent from Réunion to the Comoros Islands, Seychelles. By 1898, Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros Islands produced 200 metric tons of vanilla beans, the market price of vanilla rose dramatically in the late 1970s after a tropical cyclone ravaged key croplands. Prices remained high through the early 1980s despite the introduction of Indonesian vanilla, in the mid-1980s, the cartel that had controlled vanilla prices and distribution since its creation in 1930 disbanded. Prices dropped 70% over the few years, to nearly US$20 per kilogram
38.
Mahoran status referendum, 2009
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A referendum on becoming an overseas department of France was held in Mayotte on 29 March 2009. Mayotte had been an overseas collectivity of France since 2003, as a result of the yes vote, Mayotte became the 101st French department in 2011, and the first with a population overwhelmingly of the Muslim faith. The move has been opposed by the African Union and Comoros, the Comoran vice-president said the vote was a declaration of war. The population of Mayotte was approximately 186,000 at the time of the election, ninety-five percent of Mahorans are Sunni Muslims. Many Mahorans are fluent only in languages, including Shimaore and Bushi. It is believed that one-third of the consists of illegal immigrants, mostly from the neighboring. Continued political union with France has allowed Mayotte to remain relatively prosperous, at least by regional standards, the Comoros, which has suffered from economic and political instability since its independence, continues to claim Mayotte as part of its territory. French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised a referendum on Mayottes future status during the 2007 French presidential election, many Mahorans hoped to benefit economically in the future with a possible yes result. The unemployment rate in Mayotte stood at over 25% at the time of the 2009 referendum, all of Mayottes major political parties and politicians, including the General Council President Ahmed Attoumani Douchina, supported the yes campaign. The campaign also received support from the French government in Paris. Many saw the advantages of full French citizenship as greater than the need to retain some traditional local customs, such as polygamy. Some Islamic imams and religious leaders had urged a no vote, the imam of Mamoudzou, Mayottes capital city, campaigned strongly against the referendum due to the expected abolition of polygamy with a yes victory. The law of the Quran permits a man to have two or three wives, ive already let go of two or three wives in the past. Early poll results indicated that the yes option had received approximately 95. 2% of the votes cast. The estimated voter turnout was a high 61% of eligible Mahorans, with a yes result, Mayotte, which was an overseas collectivity, became an integral French department on March 31,2011. Local judicial, economic and social laws and customs will have to be changed to conform with French law, Mayotte will have to ban polygamy before it becomes a department. Womens rights will also be brought to French standards, women currently do not have equal inheritance rights in Mayotte, which will be changed to comply with the French justice system. The minimum age in which a person can legally marry will be raised from 15 to 18 years old, Mayotte would likely have to legalise same-sex civil unions, known as PACS in France
39.
African Union
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The African Union is a continental union consisting of all 55 countries on the African continent. It was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AUs secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, the objectives of the AU are, To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and Africans. To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States, to accelerate the political and social-economic integration of the continent. To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent, to encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent, to promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance. To promote and protect human and peoples rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, to establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations. To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies, to promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African peoples. To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional Economic Communities for the attainment of the objectives of the Union. To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, in particular in science, to work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases and the promotion of good health on the continent. The African Union is made up of political and administrative bodies. The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, the Assembly is chaired by Idriss Déby, President of Chad. The AU also has a body, the Pan African Parliament. Its president is Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi, the AU Commission, the secretariat to the political structures, is chaired by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma of South Africa. On 15 July 2012, Ms. Dlamini-Zuma won a contested vote to become the first female head of the African Union Commission. The main administrative capital of the African Union is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a new headquarters complex, the AU Conference Center and Office Complex, was inaugurated on 28 January 2012, during the 18th AU summit. The tower is 99.9 meters high to signify the date 9 September 1999, the AU covers the entire continent except for several territories held by Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. AU troops were deployed in Sudan for peacekeeping during Darfur conflict
40.
Quaternary
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Quaternary is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.588 ±0.005 million years ago to the present, the Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs, the Pleistocene and the Holocene. The informal term Late Quaternary refers to the past 0. 5–1.0 million years, the Quaternary Period is typically defined by the cyclic growth and decay of continental ice sheets driven by Milankovitch cycles and the associated climate and environmental changes that occurred. The term Quaternary was proposed by Giovanni Arduino in 1759 for alluvial deposits in the Po River valley in northern Italy and it was introduced by Jules Desnoyers in 1829 for sediments of Frances Seine Basin that seemed clearly to be younger than Tertiary Period rocks. The Quaternary Period follows the Neogene Period and extends to the present, the Quaternary covers the time span of glaciations classified as the Pleistocene, and includes the present interglacial time-period, the Holocene. This places the start of the Quaternary at the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation approximately 2.6 million years ago, Quaternary stratigraphers usually worked with regional subdivisions. From the 1970s, the International Commission on Stratigraphy tried to make a single geologic time scale based on GSSPs, the Quaternary subdivisions were defined based on biostratigraphy instead of paleoclimate. This led to the problem that the base of the Pleistocene was at 1.805 Mya. The ICS then proposed to use of the name Quaternary altogether. The Anthropocene has been proposed as an epoch as a mark of the anthropogenic impact on the global environment starting with the Industrial Revolution. The Anthropocene is not officially designated by the ICS, however, the 2.6 million years of the Quaternary represents the time during which recognizable humans existed. Over this short period, there has been relatively little change in the distribution of the continents due to plate tectonics. The Quaternary geological record is preserved in detail than that for earlier periods. The climate was one of periodic glaciations with continental glaciers moving as far from the poles as 40 degrees latitude, there was a major extinction of large mammals in Northern areas at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. Many forms such as saber-toothed cats, mammoths, mastodons, glyptodonts, others, including horses, camels and American cheetahs became extinct in North America. Glaciation took place repeatedly during the Quaternary Ice Age – a term coined by Schimper in 1839 that began with the start of the Quaternary about 2.58 Mya and continues to the present-day. In 1821, a Swiss engineer, Ignaz Venetz, presented an article in which he suggested the presence of traces of the passage of a glacier at a distance from the Alps. This idea was initially disputed by another Swiss scientist, Louis Agassiz, a year later, Agassiz raised the hypothesis of a great glacial period that would have had long-reaching general effects
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