Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic timescales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cut through underlying surfaces wearing away rock layers as sediments are removed downstream. A river bed will reach a baseline elevation, the same elevation as the body of water into which the river drains; the processes of weathering and erosion will form canyons when the river's headwaters and estuary are at different elevations through regions where softer rock layers are intermingled with harder layers more resistant to weathering. A canyon may refer to a rift between two mountain peaks, such as those in ranges including the Rocky Mountains, the Alps, the Himalayas or the Andes. A river or stream and erosion carve out such splits between mountains. Examples of mountain-type canyons are Provo Canyon in Utah or Yosemite Valley in California's Sierra Nevada. Canyons within mountains, or gorges that have an opening on only one side, are called box canyons.
Slot canyons are narrow canyons that have smooth walls. Steep-sided valleys in the seabed of the continental slope are referred to as submarine canyons. Unlike canyons on land, submarine canyons are thought to be formed by turbidity currents and landslides; the word canyon is Spanish in origin, with the same meaning. The word canyon is used in North America while the words gorge and ravine are used in Europe and Oceania, though gorge and ravine are used in some parts of North America. In the United States, place names use canyon in the southwest and gorge in the northeast, with the rest of the country graduating between these two according to geography. In Canada, a gorge is narrow while a ravine is more open and wooded; the military-derived word defile is used in the United Kingdom. Most canyons were formed by a process of long-time erosion from table-land level; the cliffs form because harder rock strata that are resistant to erosion and weathering remain exposed on the valley walls. Canyons are much more common in arid than in wet areas because physical weathering has a more localized effect in arid zones.
The wind and water from the river combine to erode and cut away less resistant materials such as shales. The freezing and expansion of water serves to help form canyons. Water seeps into cracks between the rocks and freezes, pushing the rocks apart and causing large chunks to break off the canyon walls, in a process known as frost wedging. Canyon walls are formed of resistant sandstones or granite. Sometimes large rivers run through canyons as the result of gradual geological uplift; these are called entrenched rivers, because they are unable to alter their course. In the United States, the Colorado River in the Southwest and the Snake River in the Northwest are two examples of tectonic uplift. Canyons form in areas of limestone rock; as limestone is soluble to a certain extent, cave systems form in the rock. When these collapse, a canyon is left, as in the Mendip Hills in Somerset and Yorkshire Dales in Yorkshire, England. A box canyon is a small canyon, shorter and narrower than a river canyon, with steep walls on three sides, allowing access and egress only through the mouth of the canyon.
Box canyons were used in the western United States as convenient corrals, with their entrances fenced. The definition of "largest canyon" is imprecise, because a canyon can be large by its depth, its length, or the total area of the canyon system; the inaccessibility of the major canyons in the Himalaya contributes to their not being regarded as candidates for the biggest canyon. The definition of "deepest canyon" is imprecise if one includes mountain canyons as well as canyons cut through flat plateaus; the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, is regarded by some as the deepest canyon in the world at 5,500 m. It is longer than the Grand Canyon in the United States. Others consider the Kali Gandaki Gorge in midwest Nepal to be the deepest canyon, with a 6400 m difference between the level of the river and the peaks surrounding it. Vying for deepest canyon in the Americas are the Cotahuasi Canyon and Colca Canyon, in southern Peru. Both have been measured at over 3500 m deep.
The Grand Canyon of northern Arizona in the United States, with an average depth of 1,600 m and a volume of 4.17 trillion cubic metres, is one of the world's largest canyons. It was among the 28 finalists of the New7Wonders of Nature worldwide poll; the largest canyon in Africa is the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. In August 2013, the discovery of Greenland's Grand Canyon was reported, based on the analysis of data from Operation IceBridge, it is located under an ice sheet. At 750 kilometres long, it is believed to be the longest canyon in the world; the Capertee Valley in Australia is reported as being the second largest canyon in the world. Some canyons have notable cultural significance. Evidence of early humanoids has been discovered in Africa's Olduvai Gorge. In the southwestern United States, canyons are important archeologically because of the many cliff-dwellings built in such areas by the ancient Pueblo people who were their first inhabitants; the following list contains only the most notable canyons of the world, arranged by continent and country.
Fish River Canyon Blyde Riv
Hora Sfakion
Hóra Sfakíon or Sfakia is a town on the south coast of Crete, Greece. It is the capital of the remote and mountainous region of Sfakiá, is a small town of just 265 inhabitants, it lies on the south coast near the end of the Imbros Gorge, 74 km south of Chania. It has two small harbours, where the ferry boats from Agia Roumeli dock, which in the summer bring the hikers from the Samaria Gorge to take buses back to the northern coast. From Hóra Sfakíon ferries go to the nearby coastal town of Loutro and the island Gavdos. Hóra Sfakíon is a small village with a main harbourfront of tavernas, two minimarkets, a butcher, a bakery. There is a quiet local beach west of the village, several pebbly beaches nearby. Hóra Sfakíon has a variety of tourist accommodations: rooms and apartments; the local economy is based on tourism, olive-oil production, sheep and goat herding. Hóra Sfakíon prospered during the Venetian and Turkish occupations and up to the 18th century carried on a flourishing trade with its own small fleet.
It was said to have had a hundred churches, but it suffered badly from wartime bombardment during the Battle of Crete and the Allied evacuation that followed. Hóra Sfakíon is famous as one of the centers of resistance against the occupying forces of both the Venetians and the Turks; the impenetrable White Mountains to the north combined with the rocky beaches on the south helped the locals fight off all invaders. Anopolis, a village near Hóra Sfakíon, is the birthplace of one of the most celebrated Cretan revolutionaries, Daskalogiannis. Battle of Crete Sfakians Portal site about the region of Sfakiá Live webcam from the village of Hóra Sfakíon, Sfakiá Live beach webcam from the village of Hóra Sfakíon, Sfakiá Local guide to Sfakiá More than 1,000 pictures of Sfakia - from the 1960s until nowadays University of Lausanne history of Sfakiá
Imbros
Imbros or İmroz changed to Gökçeada since 29 July 1970, is the largest island of Turkey and the seat of Gökçeada District of Çanakkale Province. It is located in the Aegean Sea, at the entrance of Saros Bay and is the westernmost point of Turkey. Imbros contains some wooded areas. According to the 2016 census, the island-district of Gökçeada has a population of 8,776; the main industries of Imbros are tourism. Today the island is predominantly inhabited by settlers from the Turkish mainland that arrived there after 1960, but from the indigenous population about 300 Greeks are still remaining, most of them elderly, but including some families with children; the island was inhabited by ethnic Greeks from antiquity until the 1960s, when many emigrated to Greece, western Europe, the United States and Australia, due to a campaign of state-sponsored discrimination. The Greek Imbriot diaspora is thought to number around 15,000. According to Greek mythology, the palace of Thetis, mother of Achilles, king of Phthia, was situated between Imbros and Samothrace.
The stables of the winged horses of Poseidon were said to lie between Tenedos. Homer, in The Iliad wrote: Eëtion, a lord of or ruler over the island of Imbros is mentioned in the Iliad, he restores him to his father. Homer writes that Hera and Hypnos leave Lemnos and Imbros making their way to Mount Ida. Homer mention Imbros in the Iliad on other occasions too. Imbros is mentioned in the Homeric Hymn, dedicated to Apollo. Apollonius of Rhodes mention Imbros in the first book of his work Argonautica. For ancient Greeks, the islands of Lemnos and Imbros were sacred to Hephaestus, god of metallurgy, on ancient coins of Imbros an ithyphallic Hephaestus appears. In classical antiquity, like Lemnos, was an Athenian cleruchy, a colony whose settlers retained Athenian citizenship; the original inhabitants of Imbros were Pelasgians. In 511 or 512 BC the island was captured by the Persian general Otanes, but Miltiades conquered the island from Persia after the battle of Salamis. Thucydides, in his History of the Peloponnesian War describes the colonization of Imbros, at several places in his narrative mentions the contribution of Imbrians in support of Athens during various military actions.
He recounts the escape of an Athenian squadron to Imbros. In the late 2nd century A. D. the island may have become independent under Septimius Severus. Strabo mention that Cabeiri are most honored in Lemnos. Stephanus of Byzantium mention that Imbros was sacred to Hermes. Imbrian Mysteries were one of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece. Little are known about Imbrian Mysteries. Prior to the Fall of Constantinople, several larger islands south of Imbros were under Genoese rule, part of territory held in the eastern Mediterranean by the independent Maritime Republic of Genoa a political development within the Western Roman Empire of city-states such as Venice and Amalfi. Defended by the Genoese Navy, one of the largest and most powerful in the Mediterranean, Corsica remained a prominent western Mediterranean territory in the Tyrhennian Sea until Napoleon's conquest. At the beginning of the 13th century, when the Fourth Crusade and its aftermath temporarily disrupted Venice's relations with the Byzantine Empire, Genoa expanded its influence north of Imbros, into the Black Sea and Crimea.
An extensive network of mercantile routes and associated ports promoted expansion of Byzantine culture, its goods and services - including scholars and craftsmen schooled in ancient Classical traditions - into Italy, Greece, Russia, Tunisia and Ukraine. The Renaissance's renewal of European culture was spawned in part by the rapid influx of exiles from Constantinople at the close of the 15th century. Not all the trade exchanges were as beneficial however: in the debit column can be recorded the 1347 European import of the plague via a Genoese trading post in the Black Sea. High mortality precipitated a weakening in the balance of maritime powers, leading to political strife with Venice and outright war. After a failing alliance with France against Barbary pirates, Genoa became a satellite of Spain. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 the Byzantine forces in Imbros left the island. In the aftermath following the withdrawal, delegates from the island went to İstanbul for an audience with the Ottoman Emperor Mehmed II to discuss terms allowing them to live harmoniously within the Ottoman Empire.
After the island became Ottoman soil in 1455 it was administered by Ottomans and Venetians at various times. During this period, during the reign of Kanuni Sultan Süleyman, the island became a foundation within the Ottoman Empire. Relations between the Ottomans and Venetians led to hostilities - for example, in June 1717 during the Turkish-Venetian War, a tough but fairly indecisive naval battle between a Venetian fleet, under Flangini, an Ottoman fleet was fought near Imbros in the Aegean
Scree
Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, volcanoes or valley shoulders that has accumulated through periodic rockfall from adjacent cliff faces. Landforms associated with these materials are called talus deposits. Talus deposits have a concave upwards form, while the maximum inclination corresponds to the angle of repose of the mean debris size; the term scree comes from the Old Norse term for landslide, skriða, while the term talus is a French word meaning a slope or embankment. Formation of scree or talus deposits is the result of physical and chemical weathering and erosion acting on a rock face; the predominant processes that degrade a rock slope depend on the regional climate. Examples are: Physical weathering by ice Chemical weathering by mineral hydration and salt deposition Thermal stresses Topographic stresses Biotic processesScree formation is attributed to the formation of ice within mountain rock slopes. During the day, water can flow into discontinuities in the rock wall.
If the temperature drops enough, for example in the evening, this water may freeze. Since water expands by 9% when it freezes, it can generate large forces that either create new cracks or wedge blocks into an unstable position. Special boundary conditions may be required for this to happen. Freeze-thaw scree production is thought to be most common during the spring and fall, when the daily temperatures fluctuate around the freezing point of water, snow melt produces ample free water; the efficiency of freeze/thaw processes in scree production is debated by scientists. Many researchers believe that ice formation in large open crack systems cannot generate high pressures, instead suggest that the water and ice flow out of the cracks as pressure builds. Many argue that frost heaving, like that known to act in soil in permafrost areas, may play an important role in cliff degradation in cold places. Scree can conceal a glacier. For example, Lech dl Dragon, in the Sella group of the Dolomites, derives from the melting waters of a glacier, hidden under a thick layer of scree.
The melting process of the underlying glacier is slowed by the protective layer of scree. A rock slope may be covered by its own scree, so that production of new material ceases; the slope is said to be "mantled" with debris. Fellfield Lava stringer Mass wasting Stratified slope deposit Weathering – Breaking down of rocks and minerals as well as artificial materials through contact with the Earth's atmosphere and waters Scree plot
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, one of the 13 top-level administrative units of Greece; the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065. Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits, it was once the centre of the Minoan civilisation, the earliest known civilisation in Europe. The palace of Knossos lies in Crete; the island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated in Neo-Assyrian records and the Bible. It was known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island; the current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words ke-re-te, ke-re-si-jo, "Cretan".
In Ancient Greek, the name Crete first appears in Homer's Odyssey. Its etymology is unknown. One proposal derives it from a hypothetical Luwian word, *kursatta. In Latin, it became Creta; the original Arabic name of Crete was Iqrīṭiš, but after the Emirate of Crete's establishment of its new capital at ربض الخندق Rabḍ al-Ḫandaq, both the city and the island became known as Χάνδαξ or Χάνδακας, which gave Latin and Venetian Candia, from which were derived French Candie and English Candy or Candia. Under Ottoman rule, in Ottoman Turkish, Crete was called Girit. Crete is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, it is located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea separating the Aegean from the Libyan Sea. The island has an elongated shape: it spans 260 km from east to west, is 60 km at its widest point, narrows to as little as 12 km. Crete covers an area of 8,336 km2, with a coastline of 1,046 km, it lies 160 km south of the Greek mainland. Crete is mountainous, its character is defined by a high mountain range crossing from west to east, formed by three different groups of mountains: The White Mountains or Lefka Ori 2,454 m The Idi Range (Psiloritis 35.18°N 24.82°E / 35.18.
The island has a number of gorges, such as the Samariá Gorge, Imbros Gorge, Kourtaliotiko Gorge, Ha Gorge, Platania Gorge, the Gorge of the Dead and Richtis Gorge and waterfall at Exo Mouliana in Sitia. The rivers of Crete include the Ieropotamos River, the Koiliaris, the Anapodiaris, the Almiros, the Giofyros, Megas Potamos. There are only two freshwater lakes in Crete: Lake Kournas and Lake Agia, which are both in Chania regional unit. Lake Voulismeni at the coast, at Aghios Nikolaos, was a freshwater lake but is now connected to the sea, in Lasithi. Lakes that were created by dams exist in Crete. There are three: the lake of Aposelemis Dam, the lake of Potamos Dam, the lake of Mpramiana Dam. A large number of islands and rocks hug the coast of Crete. Many are visited by tourists, some are only visited by biologists; some are environmentally protected. A small sample of the islands includes: Gramvousa the pirate island opposite the Balo lagoon Elafonisi, which commemorates a shipwreck and an Ottoman massacre Chrysi island, which hosts the largest natural Lebanon cedar forest in Europe Paximadia island where the god Apollo and the goddess Artemis were born The Venetian fort and leper colony at Spinalonga opposite the beach and shallow waters of Elounda Dionysades islands which are in an environmentally protected region together the Palm Beach Forest of Vai in the municipality of Sitia, LasithiOff the south coast, the island of Gavdos is located 26 nautical miles south of Hora Sfakion and is the southernmost point of Europe.
Crete straddles two climatic zones, the Mediterranean and the North African falling within the former. As such, the climate in Crete is Mediterranean; the atmosphere can be quite humid, depending on the proximity to the sea, while winter is mild. Snowfall is rare in the low-lying areas. While some mountain tops are snow-capped for most of the year, near the coast snow only stays on the ground for a few minutes or hours. However, a exceptional cold snap swept the island in February 2004, during which period the whole island was blanketed with snow. During the Cretan summer, average temperatures reach the high 20s-low 30s Celsius, with maxima touching the upper 30s-mid 40s; the south coast, including the Mesara Pla
Egypt
Egypt the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, across the Red Sea lies Saudi Arabia, across the Mediterranean lie Greece and Cyprus, although none share a land border with Egypt. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. Iconic monuments such as the Giza Necropolis and its Great Sphinx, as well the ruins of Memphis, Thebes and the Valley of the Kings, reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of scientific and popular interest. Egypt's long and rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, which has endured, assimilated, various foreign influences, including Greek, Roman, Ottoman Turkish, Nubian.
Egypt was an early and important centre of Christianity, but was Islamised in the seventh century and remains a predominantly Muslim country, albeit with a significant Christian minority. From the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century, Egypt was ruled by foreign imperial powers: The Ottoman Empire and the British Empire. Modern Egypt dates back to 1922, when it gained nominal independence from the British Empire as a monarchy. However, British military occupation of Egypt continued, many Egyptians believed that the monarchy was an instrument of British colonialism. Following the 1952 revolution, Egypt expelled British soldiers and bureaucrats and ended British occupation, nationalized the British-held Suez Canal, exiled King Farouk and his family, declared itself a republic. In 1958 it merged with Syria to form the United Arab Republic, which dissolved in 1961. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Egypt endured social and religious strife and political instability, fighting several armed conflicts with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, occupying the Gaza Strip intermittently until 1967.
In 1978, Egypt signed the Camp David Accords withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and recognising Israel. The country continues to face challenges, from political unrest, including the recent 2011 revolution and its aftermath, to terrorism and economic underdevelopment. Egypt's current government is a presidential republic headed by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, described by a number of watchdogs as authoritarian. Islam is the official religion of Egypt and Arabic is its official language. With over 95 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa, the Middle East, the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, the fifteenth-most populous in the world; the great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, where the only arable land is found. The large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypt's territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
The sovereign state of Egypt is a transcontinental country considered to be a regional power in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world, a middle power worldwide. Egypt's economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, is projected to become one of the largest in the world in the 21st century. In 2016, Egypt became Africa's second largest economy. Egypt is a founding member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. "Miṣr" is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern official name of Egypt, while "Maṣr" is the local pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew "מִצְרַיִם"; the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian "mi-iṣ-ru" related to miṣru/miṣirru/miṣaru, meaning "border" or "frontier". There is evidence of rock carvings in desert oases. In the 10th millennium BCE, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers was replaced by a grain-grinding culture.
Climate changes or overgrazing around 8000 BCE began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralised society. By about 6000 BCE, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt; the Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through trade; the earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BCE. A unified kingdom was founded c. 3150 BCE
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
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