Amman
Amman is the capital and most populous city of Jordan, the country's economic and cultural centre. Situated in north-central Jordan, Amman is the administrative centre of the Amman Governorate; the city has a land area of 1,680 square kilometres. Today, Amman is considered to be among the most modernized Arab cities, it is a major tourist destination in the region among Arab and European tourists. The earliest evidence of settlement in Amman is in a Neolithic site known as'Ain Ghazal, where some of the oldest human statues found dating to 7250 BC were uncovered. During the Iron Age, the city was known as Ammon, home to the Kingdom of the Ammonites, it was named Philadelphia during its Greek and Roman periods, was called Amman during the Islamic period. Abandoned for much of the medieval and post-medieval period, modern Amman dates to the late 19th century when Circassian immigrants were settled there by the Ottoman Empire in 1867; the first municipal council was established in 1909. Amman witnessed rapid growth after its designation as Jordan's capital in 1921, after several successive waves of refugees: Palestinians in 1948 and 1967.
It was built on seven hills but now spans over 19 hills combining 27 districts, which are administered by the Greater Amman Municipality headed by its mayor Yousef Shawarbeh. Areas of Amman have gained their names from either the hills or the valleys they occupy, such as Jabal Lweibdeh and Wadi Abdoun. East Amman is predominantly filled with historic sites that host cultural activities, while West Amman is more modern and serves as the economic center of the city. Two million visitors arrived in Amman in 2014, which made it the 93rd most visited city in the world and the 5th most visited Arab city. Amman has a fast growing economy, it is ranked Beta− on the global city index. Moreover, it was named one of the Middle East and North Africa's best cities according to economic, labor and socio-cultural factors; the city is among the most popular locations in the Arab world for multinational corporations to set up their regional offices, alongside Doha and only behind Dubai. It is expected that in the next 10 years these three cities will capture the largest share of multinational corporation activity in the region.
Amman derives its name from the 13th century BC when the Ammonites named it "Rabbath Ammon", with the term Rabbath meaning the "Capital" or the "King's Quarters". Over time, the term "Rabbath" was no longer used and the city became known as "Ammon"; the influence of new civilizations that conquered the city changed its name to "Amman". In the Hebrew Bible, it is referred to as "Rabbat ʿAmmon". However, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who reigned from 283 to 246 BC, renamed the city to "Philadelphia" after occupying it; the name was given as an adulation to Philadelphus. The neolithic site of'Ain Ghazal was found in the outskirts of Amman. At its height, around 7000 BC, it was inhabited by ca. 3000 people. At that time the site was a typical aceramic Neolithic village, its houses were rectangular mud-bricked buildings that included a main square living room, whose walls were made up of lime plaster. The site was discovered in 1974. By 1982, when the excavations started, around 600 meters of road ran through the site.
Despite the damage brought by urban expansion, the remains of'Ain Ghazal provided a wealth of information.'Ain Ghazal is well known for a set of small human statues found in 1983, when local archaeologists stumbled upon the edge of a large pit 2.5 meters containing them. These statues are human figures made with white plaster, with painted clothes, in some cases ornamental tattoos. Thirty-two figures were found in two caches, fifteen of them full figures, fifteen busts, two fragmentary heads. Three of the busts were two-headed, the significance of, not clear. In the 13th century BC Amman was the capital of the Ammonites, became known as "Rabbath Ammon". Ammon provided several natural resources to the region, including sandstone and limestone, along with a productive agricultural sector that made Ammon a vital location along the King's Highway, the ancient trade route connecting Egypt with Mesopotamia and Anatolia; as with the Edomites and Moabites, trade along this route gave the Ammonites considerable revenue.
Ammonites worshiped. Excavations by archaeologists near Amman Civil Airport uncovered a temple, which included an altar containing many human bone fragments; the bones showed evidence of burning, which led to the assumption that the altar functioned as a pyre. Today, several Ammonite ruins across Amman exist, such as Qasr Al-Abd, Rujm Al-Malfouf and some parts of the Amman Citadel; the ruins of Rujm Al-Malfouf consist of a stone watchtower used to ensure protection of their capital and several store rooms to the east. The city was conquered by the Assyrian Empire, followed by the Persian Empire. Conquest of the Middle East and Central Asia by Alexander the Great consolidated the influence of Hellenistic culture; the Greeks founded new cities in the area of modern-day Jordan, including Umm Qays and Amman. Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of Egypt, who occupied and rebuilt the city, na
Schaan
Schaan is the largest municipality of Liechtenstein by population. It is located to the north of the capital, in the central part of the country; as of 2015 it has a population of 5,983 making it the most populous administrative district in Liechtenstein, covers an area of 26.8 km2, including mountains and forest. First mentioned c. 850, Schaan has over 4,000 enterprises, making it a large economic center in the country. Schaan is the location of the world headquarters of Ivoclar Vivadent AG, the world's largest manufacturer of false teeth, Hilti Aktiengesellschaft, one of the world's largest makers of anchors and power tools. Schaan borders the town of Buchs in Switzerland; the municipality includes the Naafkopf, one of the two tripoints between Liechtenstein and Austria. There are four kindergarten sites: Malarsch, Pardiel and Werkof; the Gemeinschaftszentrum Resch, Primarschule provides primary school services. Realschule Schaan and Sportschule Liechtenstein are in Schaan, while Realschule Vaduz and Oberschule Vaduz are in the Schulzentrum Mühleholz II in Vaduz.
Liecht. Gymnasium is in Vaduz. There is a private Waldorf school that has students from, in addition to Liechtenstein and Switzerland, it was established in 1985. Maria Linden a German bacteriologist and zoologist Gerta Keller Professor of Paleontology and Geology at Princeton University since 1984. Roman Hermann a Liechtensteiner former cyclist Paul Frommelt a former Alpine skier Peter Jehle footballer who plays for Liechtenstein club FC Vaduz as a goalkeeper Ivan Quintans a Liechtensteiner footballer Liechtenstein portal Official website
Planken
Planken is a municipality in Liechtenstein. It has a population of around 450, its name is said to derive from a Latin word for rising meadows. Its most notable structure is an eighteenth-century chapel, redesigned in 1955, under the supervision of architect Felix Schmid of Rapperswil. Hanni Wenzel, alpine skier Andreas Wenzel, alpine skier Tina Weirather, alpine skier Media related to Planken at Wikimedia Commons Official website
Ba'athist Iraq
Ba'athist Iraq, formally the Iraqi Republic, covers the history of Iraq between 1968 and 2003, during the period of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party's rule. This period began with high economic growth and soaring prosperity, but ended with Iraq facing social and economic stagnation; the average annual income decreased because of several external factors, several internal policies of the government. Iraqi President Abdul Rahman Arif, Iraqi Prime Minister Tahir Yahya, were ousted during the 17 July coup d'état led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr of the Ba'ath Party, which had held power in 1963 and was led by al-Bakr, its leader, Saddam Hussein. Saddam through his post as de facto chief of the party's intelligence services, became the country's de facto leader by the mid-1970s, became de jure leader in 1979 when he succeeded al-Bakr in office as President. During al-Bakr's de jure rule, the country's economy grew, Iraq's standing within the Arab world increased. However, several internal factors were threatening the country's stability, among them the country's conflict with Iran and factions within Iraq's own Shia Muslim community.
An external problem was the border conflict with Iran. Saddam became the President of Iraq, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Prime Minister and General Secretary of the Regional Command of the Ba'ath Party in 1979, during a wave of anti-government protests in Iraq led by Shias; the Ba'ath Party, secular in nature, harshly repressed the protests. Another policy change was Iraq's foreign policy towards a Shia Muslim country. Deteriorating relations led to the Iran–Iraq War, which started in 1980 when Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of Iran. Following the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Iraqis believed the Iranians to be weak, thus an easy target for their military; this notion proved to be incorrect, the war lasted for eight years. Iraq's economy deteriorated during the war, the country became dependent on foreign donations to fund their war effort; the war ended in a stalemate when a ceasefire was reached in 1988, which resulted in a status quo ante bellum. When the war ended, Iraq found itself in the midst of an economic depression, owed millions of dollars to foreign countries, was unable to repay its creditors.
Kuwait, which had deliberately increased oil output following the war, reducing international oil prices, further weakened the Iraqi economy. In response to this, Saddam threatened Kuwait that, unless it reduced its oil output, Iraq would invade. Negotiations broke down, on 2 August 1990, Iraq launched an invasion of Kuwait; the resulting international response led to the Persian Gulf War. The United Nations initiated economic sanctions in the war's aftermath to weaken the Ba'athist Iraqi regime; the country's economic conditions worsened during the 1990s, at the turn of the 21st century, Iraq's economy started to grow again as several states ignored the UN's sanctions. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks of 2001, the United States initiated a Global War on Terrorism, labelled Iraq as a part of an "Axis of Evil". In 2003, U. S. and coalition forces invaded Iraq, the Ba'athist Iraqi regime was deposed less than a month later. In contrast to previous coups d'état in Iraq's history, the 1968 coup, referred to as the 17 July Revolution, according to Con Coughlin, "a civil affair".
The coup started in the early hours of 17 July, when a number of military units and civilian ba'athists seized several key government and military buildings. All telephone lines were cut at 03:00, by which time several tanks had been commanded to halt in front of the Presidential Palace. Abdul Rahman Arif, the then-President of Iraq, first knew of the coup when jubilant members of the Republican Guard started shooting into the air in "a premature triumph". Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, the leader of the operation, told Arif about his situation through military communication hardware at the base of operations. Arif asked for more time; as he soon found out, the odds were against him, he surrendered. Arif told him that he was willing to resign. Al-Bakr's deputies, Hardan al-Tikriti and Saleh Omar al-Ali, were ordered to give Arif this message in person. Arif and his wife and son were sent on the first available flight to London, UK; that morning, a ba'athist broadcast announced that a new government had been established.
The coup was carried out with such ease. The coup succeeded because of contributions made by the military; the Ba'ath Party managed to make a deal with Abd ar-Razzaq an-Naif, the deputy head of military intelligence, Ibrahim Daud, the head of the Republican Guard. Both Naif and Daud knew that the long-term survival of Arif's and Tahir Yahya's government looked bleak, but knew that the ba'athists needed them if the coup was to be successful. For his participation in the coup, Naif demanded to be given the post of Prime Minister after the coup as a reward, a symbol for his strength. Daud was "rewarded" with a post. However, not everything was going according to Daud's plan.
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization the Iraqi Ba'ath Party—which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to power in Iraq; as vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he controlled conflicts between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and foreign banks leaving the system insolvent due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatus of government as oil money helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.
Saddam formally rose to power in 1979, although he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years. He suppressed several movements Shi'a and Kurdish movements which sought to overthrow the government or gain independence and maintained power during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. Whereas some in the Arab world lauded Saddam for opposing the United States and attacking Israel, he was condemned for the brutality of his dictatorship; the total number of Iraqis killed by the security services of Saddam's government in various purges and genocides is conservatively estimated to be 250,000, or liberally estimated at 1.5 million. Saddam's invasions of Iran and Kuwait resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, he acquired the title "Butcher of Baghdad". In 2003, a coalition led by the United States invaded Iraq to depose Saddam, in which U. S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair falsely accused him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda.
Saddam's Ba'ath party was disbanded and elections were held. Following his capture on 13 December 2003, the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted by an Iraqi court of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'a, sentenced to death by hanging, he was executed on 30 December 2006. Before he was born, cancer killed both Saddam's brother; these deaths so depressed Saddam's mother that she attempted to abort her pregnancy and commit suicide. When her son was born, Sabha "would have nothing to do with him", Saddam was taken in by an uncle, his mother remarried, Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return. At about age 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle Kharaillah Talfah. Talfah, the father of Saddam's future wife, was a devout Sunni Muslim and a veteran of the 1941 Anglo-Iraqi War between Iraqi nationalists and the United Kingdom, which remained a major colonial power in the region.
In his life relatives from his native Tikrit became some of his closest advisors and supporters. Under the guidance of his uncle he attended a nationalistic high school in Baghdad. After secondary school Saddam studied at an Iraqi law school for three years, dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was a supporter. During this time, Saddam supported himself as a secondary school teacher. Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic throughout the Middle East. In Iraq progressives and socialists assailed traditional political elites. Moreover, the pan-Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt profoundly influenced young Ba'athists like Saddam; the rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, with the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq and Libya. Nasser inspired nationalists throughout the Middle East by fighting the British and the French during the Suez Crisis of 1956, modernizing Egypt, uniting the Arab world politically.
In 1958, a year after Saddam had joined the Ba'ath party, army officers led by General Abd al-Karim Qasim overthrew Faisal II of Iraq in the 14 July Revolution. Of the 16 members of Qasim's cabinet, 12 were Ba'ath Party members. To strengthen his own position within the government, Qasim created an alliance with the Iraqi Communist Party, opposed to any notion of pan-Arabism; that year, the Ba'ath Party leadership was planning to assassinate Qasim. Saddam was a leading member of the operation. At the time, the Ba'ath Party was more of an ideological experiment than a strong anti-government fighting machine; the majority of its members were either educated professionals or students, Saddam fit the bill. The choice of Saddam was, according to historian Con Coughlin, "hardly surprising"; the idea of assassinating Qasim may have been Nasser's, there is speculation that some of those who participated in the operation received training in Damascus, part of the UAR. However, "no evidence has been produced to implicate Nasser directly in the plot."
The assassination attempt was conceived as revenge for communist massacres that killed h
Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein
Joseph Wenzel I was the Prince of Liechtenstein between 1712 and 1718, 1732 and 1745, 1748 and 1772. Born at Prague, Joseph Wenzel was the eldest son of Prince Philip Erasmus of Liechtenstein and Countess Christina Theresa von Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort, he was a nephew of Anton Florian. Joseph was a general and was a successful campaigner. In 1745, he was made Generalissimo in Italy and was victorious the following year at the Battle of Piacenza. In 1753 he was made General Chief Commander in Hungary. In one of the greatest achievements of his career, he reorganised the Habsburg artillery financed out of his own pocket. From 1735 to 1736, he was Imperial Envoy to Berlin and he was Ambassador to Paris between 1738 and 1741. In 1760, he escorted the future bride of Josef II to Vienna. Joseph managed to rule Liechtenstein three times. Firstly, in his own right, from 1712–1718; the second time, he ruled as the guardian of Josef Johann Adam between 1732–1745 and the third time as representative of the House of Liechtenstein from 1748–1772.
He was the 698th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Austria. When he died in 1772 in Vienna, without surviving issue, Liechtenstein went to his nephew Franz Joseph I, Prince of Liechtenstein. On 19 April 1718 Joseph Wenzel married his cousin, Princess Anna Maria Antonie of Liechtenstein, daughter of Anton Florian, in 1718, they had all of whom died in early childhood: Prince Philipp Anton. Prince Philipp Anton. Prince Philipp Ernst. Princess Maria Elisabeth. Princess Marie Alexandra. Princely House of Liechtenstein
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in Western and Central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. The largest territory of the empire after 962 was the Kingdom of Germany, though it came to include the neighboring Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Burgundy, the Kingdom of Italy, numerous other territories. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the earlier ancient Western Roman Empire in 476; the title continued in the Carolingian family until 888 and from 896 to 899, after which it was contested by the rulers of Italy in a series of civil wars until the death of the last Italian claimant, Berengar I, in 924. The title was revived again in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne and beginning a continuous existence of the empire for over eight centuries.
Some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, describing a gradual assumption of the imperial title and role; the exact term "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until the 13th century, but the concept of translatio imperii, the notion that he—the sovereign ruler—held supreme power inherited from the ancient emperors of Rome, was fundamental to the prestige of the emperor. The office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although controlled by dynasties; the German prince-electors, the highest-ranking noblemen of the empire elected one of their peers as "King of the Romans", he would be crowned emperor by the Pope. The empire never achieved the extent of political unification as was formed to the west in France, evolving instead into a decentralized, limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of sub-units: kingdoms, duchies, prince-bishoprics, Free Imperial Cities, other domains.
The power of the emperor was limited, while the various princes, lords and cities of the empire were vassals who owed the emperor their allegiance, they possessed an extent of privileges that gave them de facto independence within their territories. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806 following the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by emperor Napoleon I the month before. In various languages the Holy Roman Empire was known as: Latin: Sacrum Imperium Romanum, German: Heiliges Römisches Reich, Italian: Sacro Romano Impero, Czech: Svatá říše římská, Polish: Święte imperium rzymskie, Slovene: Sveto rimsko cesarstvo, Dutch: Heilige Roomse Rijk, French: Saint-Empire romain. Before 1157, the realm was referred to as the Roman Empire; the term sacrum in connection with the medieval Roman Empire was used beginning in 1157 under Frederick I Barbarossa: the term was added to reflect Frederick's ambition to dominate Italy and the Papacy. The form "Holy Roman Empire" is attested from 1254 onward.
In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, a form first used in a document in 1474. The new title was adopted because the Empire had lost most of its Italian and Burgundian territories to the south and west by the late 15th century, but to emphasize the new importance of the German Imperial Estates in ruling the Empire due to the Imperial Reform. By the end of the 18th century, the term "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" had fallen out of official use. Besides, contradicting the traditional view concerning that designation, Hermann Weisert has stated in a study on imperial titulature that, despite the claim of many textbooks, the name "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" never had an official status and points out that documents were thirty times as to omit the national suffix as include it. This, or the shortened "Roman Empire of the German Nation", is used in Germany to refer to the Holy Roman Empire. In a famous assessment of the name, the political philosopher Voltaire remarked sardonically: "This body, called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."
As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control. In the late 5th and early 6th centuries, the Merovingians, under Clovis I and his successors, consolidated Frankish tribes and extended hegemony over others to gain control of northern Gaul and the middle Rhine river valley region. By the middle of the 8th century, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel's son Pepin became King of the Franks, gained the sanction of the Pope; the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768, Pepin's son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an extensive expansion of the realm, he incorporated the territories of present-day France, northern Italy, beyond, linking the Frankish kingdom with Papal lands. In 797, the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VI was removed from the throne by his mother Irene who declared herself Empress; as the Church regarded a male Roman Emperor as the head of Christendom, Pope
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