1.
Flag of Sardinia
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The Flag of the four Moors, or simply the four Moors is the official flag of the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy, and the historical flag and coat of arms of the Kingdom of Sardinia. After that the kingdom of Sardinia was founded in 1326, it part of the Crown of Aragon. Some specimens are preserved in the Historical Archive of the city of Cagliari, the late 14th century Gelre Armorial attributes the Four Moors to the Kingdom of Sardinia in the states of the Crown of Aragon. It is found in another Armorial perhaps from Lorraine area and of uncertain date, in 1509, another Portuguese Armorial Book. Sardinia is represented only with the cross of St. George, the Four Moors begin to be used consistently as a symbol of the Kingdom of Sardinia during the time of the Catholic Monarchs, and especially from the time of the Emperor Charles V. A book printed by Plantin, Antwerp, representing the funeral procession of Charles V composed of bishops and it meant that the accession at the Imperial Habsburg Ideology, reinvigorate also the sense of belonging to that little State that was represented by the Four Moors. Throughout the period of the Iberian monarchies the original design of the bandages on his forehead is respected, George, in every quarter and in the direction of the luff. The Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Sardinia clearly leads the four Moors with the bandage on their foreheads, the blindfold appears in 1800, a probable mistake of a copyist or a deliberate error to protest against the Piedmont-rulers. In 1952, the shield of the blindfolded eyes Four Moors became the flag of the Autonomous Region. In 1999, a regional law changed the flag of the Four Moors from the Kingdom of Sardinia-Savoy version to that original one as described in the introduction. There are separate Spanish and Sardinian traditions to explain the origin of the flag, according to the Spanish tradition, it was a creation of King Peter I of Aragon, celebrating his victory at the Battle of Alcoraz in 1096. This flag however has inverted colours and no heads on it, before the Kingdom of Sardinia was founded, the rulers of the island were known as archons or judges. The island was organized into one judicatus from the 9th century on, after the Muslim conquest of Sicily in the 9th century, the Byzantines, who previously ruled Sardinia, couldnt manage to defend their far west province. Probably, a noble family acceded to power, still identifying themselves as vassal of the Byzantines. At the beginnings of the 11th century an attempt to conquer the island was made by Spanish Muslims and we have very little record of that war, only by Pisa and Genoa chronicles. It is composed of the cross of St. Nicholas Church of Tallinn, now in the Art Museum of Estonia, between 1112 and 1166 the County of Provence was under the direct control of the kings of Aragon, and until 1245 ruled by descendants of the same dynasty. However, the four Moors became the symbol of the Kingdom of Sardinia at its foundation, with the Corsican flag dating back to the same era, the Sardinian Action Party was founded in 1921, and adopted the four Moors as its symbol. That is, yes, a coat of arms and consecrates the centuries-old tradition of Sardinia, as mentioned in the agenda
2.
1815
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As of the start of 1815, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. January 2 – Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke in Seaham, january 3 – Austria, Britain, and Bourbon-restored France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia. January 8 – War of 1812 – Battle of New Orleans, ironically, the Battle of New Orleans was fought after the Commissioners had signed the Treaty of Ghent which would be ratified in Feb of 1815. Thus, this battle had no impact on the outcome of the war, january 15 – War of 1812 – Capture of USS President, American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is forced to surrender to a squadron of four British frigates. February – The Hartford Convention arrives in Washington, D. C, february 3 – The first commercial cheese factory is founded in Switzerland. February 4 – The first Dutch student association, the Groninger Studentencorps Vindicat atque Polit is founded in the Netherlands, the first rector of the senate is B. J. Winter. February 6 – New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to John Stevens, february 17 – The Spanish reconquest of Latin America begins. February 18 – The War of 1812 between the United States the United Kingdom, officially ends, following ratification of the Treaty of Ghent in Washington, february 26 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba. March 1 Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba, march 16 – William I becomes King of the Netherlands. March 2–18 – Sri Vikrama Rajasinha of Kandy, the last king in Ceylon, is deposed under the terms of the Kandyan Convention, which results in Ceylon becoming a British colony. March 20 – Napoleon enters Paris after escaping from Elba with an army of 140,000. April 5–12 – Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies blows its top explosively during an eruption, killing upwards of 92,000, april 21 – The eastern part of the former Garhwal Kingdom is joined with Kumaon division under the administration of the British Raj. April 24 – The Second Serbian Uprising against Ottoman rule takes place in Takovo, by the end of the year Serbia is acknowledged as a semi-independent state, the ideals of the First Serbian Uprising have thus been temporarily achieved. May 3 – Battle of Tolentino, Austria defeats the Kingdom of Naples, joachim Murat, the defeated King of Naples, is forced to flee to Corsica and is later executed. May 30 – The Arniston, an East Indiaman repatriating wounded troops to England from Ceylon, is wrecked near Waenhuiskrans, South Africa, june 9 – Final Act of the Congress of Vienna is signed, A new European political situation is set. The German Confederation and Congress Poland are created and the neutrality of Switzerland is guaranteed, also, Luxembourg declares independence from the French Empire. June 15 – The Duchess of Richmonds ball is held in Brussels, june 16 Battle of Ligny, Napoleon defeats a Prussian army under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. Battle of Quatre Bras, Marshal Ney wins a victory over an Anglo-Dutch force
3.
Piedmont
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Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.6 million, the capital of Piedmont is Turin. The name Piedmont comes from medieval Latin Pedemontium or Pedemontis, i. e. ad pedem montium, meaning “at the foot of the mountains”. Other towns of Piedmont with more than 20,000 inhabitants sorted by population and it borders with France, Switzerland and the Italian regions of Lombardy, Liguria, Aosta Valley and for a very small fragment with Emilia Romagna. The geography of Piedmont is 43. 3% mountainous, along with areas of hills. Piedmont is the second largest of Italys 20 regions, after Sicily and it is broadly coincident with the upper part of the drainage basin of the river Po, which rises from the slopes of Monviso in the west of the region and is Italy’s largest river. The Po collects all the waters provided within the semicircle of mountains which surround the region on three sides, from the highest peaks the land slopes down to hilly areas, and then to the upper, and then to the lower great Padan Plain. 7. 6% of the territory is considered protected area. There are 56 different national or regional parks, one of the most famous is the Gran Paradiso National Park located between Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, Piedmont was inhabited in early historic times by Celtic-Ligurian tribes such as the Taurini and the Salassi. They were later subdued by the Romans, who founded several colonies there including Augusta Taurinorum, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was repeatedly invaded by the Burgundians, the Goths, Byzantines, Lombards, Franks. In the 9th–10th centuries there were incursions by the Magyars. At the time Piedmont, as part of the Kingdom of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire, was subdivided into several marks, in 1046, Oddo of Savoy added Piedmont to their main territory of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry. Other areas remained independent, such as the powerful comuni of Asti and Alessandria, the County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy in 1416, and Duke Emanuele Filiberto moved the seat to Turin in 1563. In 1720, the Duke of Savoy became King of Sardinia, founding what evolved into the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Republic of Alba was created in 1796 as a French client republic in Piedmont. A new client republic, the Piedmontese Republic, existed between 1798 and 1799 before it was reoccupied by Austrian and Russian troops, in June 1800 a third client republic, the Subalpine Republic, was established in Piedmont. It fell under full French control in 1801 and it was annexed by France in September 1802, in the congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Sardinia was restored, and furthermore received the Republic of Genoa to strengthen it as a barrier against France. Piedmont was a springboard for Italys unification in 1859–1861, following earlier unsuccessful wars against the Austrian Empire in 1820–1821 and this process is sometimes referred to as Piedmontisation. However, the efforts were countered by the efforts of rural farmers
4.
Savoy
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Savoy is a cultural region in Western Europe. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps between Lake Geneva in the north and Dauphiné in the south, the historical land of Savoy emerged as the feudal territory of the House of Savoy during the 11th to 14th centuries. The historical territory is shared between the countries of France, Italy, and Switzerland. Installed by Rudolph III, King of Burgundy, officially in 1003 and it ruled the County of Savoy to 1416 and then the Duchy of Savoy from 1416 to 1860. The territory of Savoy was annexed to France in 1792 under the French First Republic, victor Emmanuels dynasty, the House of Savoy, retained its Italian lands of Piedmont and Liguria and became the ruling dynasty of Italy. In modern France, Savoy is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, following its annexation to France in 1860, the territory of Savoy was divided administratively into two separate departments, Savoie and Haute-Savoie. The traditional capital remains Chambéry, on the rivers Leysse and Albane, hosting the castle of the House of Savoy, the capital of the Duchy remained at the traditional Savoyard capital of Chambéry until 1563, when it was moved to Turin. The region was occupied by the Allobroges, a Celtic people that in 121 BC were subdued by the Roman Empire, the name Savoy stems from the Late Latin Sapaudia, referring to a fir forest. It is first recorded in Ammianus Marcellinus, to describe the part of Maxima Sequanorum. According to the Gallic Chronicle of 452, it was separated from the rest of Burgundian territories in 443 and this latter territory comprised what would become known as Savoy and Provence. From the 10th to 14th century, parts of what would ultimately become Savoy remained within the Kingdom of Arles. Beginning in the 11th century, the rise to power of the House of Savoy is reflected in the increasing territory of their County of Savoy between 1003 and 1416. The County of Savoy was detached de jure from the Kingdom of Arles by Emperor Charles IV in 1361, on February 19,1416, Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, made the County of Savoy an independent duchy, with Amadeus VIII as the first duke. Straddling the Alps, Savoy lay within two competing spheres of influence, a French sphere and a North Italian one, at the time of the Renaissance, Savoy showed only modest development. Its towns were few and small, Savoy derived its subsistence from agriculture. The geographic location of Savoy was also of military importance, during the interminable wars between France and Spain over the control of northern Italy, Savoy was important to France because it provided access to Italy. Savoy was important to Spain because it served as a buffer between France and the Spanish held lands in Italy, in 1563 Emmanuel Philibert moved the capital from Chambéry to Turin, which was less vulnerable to French interference. Vaud was annexed by Bern in 1536, and Savoy officially ceded Vaud to Bern in the Treaty of Lausanne of 30 October 1564
5.
Nice
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Nice is the fifth most populous city in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes département. The urban area of Nice extends beyond the city limits. Nice is about 13 kilometres from the principality of Monaco, the city is nicknamed Nice la Belle, which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912. The area of todays Nice contains Terra Amata, a site which displays evidence of a very early use of fire. Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, through the ages, the town has changed hands many times. Its strategic location and port significantly contributed to its maritime strength, for centuries it was a dominion of Savoy, and was then part of France between 1792 and 1815, when it was returned to Piedmont-Sardinia until its re-annexation by France in 1860. The citys main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais owes its name to visitors to the resort, for decades now, the picturesque Nicean surroundings have attracted not only those in search of relaxation, but also those seeking inspiration. The clear air and soft light have particularly appealed to some of Western cultures most outstanding painters, such as Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Niki de Saint Phalle and Arman. Their work is commemorated in many of the museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse. Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and it is one of its most visited cities and it also has the third busiest airport in France, after the two main Parisian ones. It is the capital city of the County of Nice. Nice was probably founded around 350 BC by the Greeks of Massalia, the ruins of Cemenelum are in Cimiez, now a district of Nice. In the 7th century, Nice joined the Genoese League formed by the towns of Liguria. In 729 the city repulsed the Saracens, but in 859 and again in 880 the Saracens pillaged and burned it, during the Middle Ages, Nice participated in the wars and history of Italy. As an ally of Pisa it was the enemy of Genoa, during the 13th and 14th centuries the city fell more than once into the hands of the Counts of Provence, but it regained its independence even though related to Genoa. The medieval city walls surrounded the Old Town, the landward side was protected by the River Paillon, which was later covered over and is now the tram route towards the Acropolis. The east side of the town was protected by fortifications on Castle Hill, another river flowed into the port on the east side of Castle Hill. Engravings suggest that the area was also defended by walls
6.
Sardinia
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Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and an autonomous region of Italy. It is located in the Western Mediterranean, just south of the French island of Corsica, the regions official name is Regione Autonoma della Sardegna / Regione Autònoma de Sardigna, and its capital and largest city is Cagliari. It is divided into four provinces and a metropolitan city and its indigenous language and the other minority languages spoken by the Sardinians enjoy equal dignity with Italian under regional law. The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *srd-, later romanised as sardus and it makes its first appearance on the Nora Stone, where the word Šrdn testifies to the names existence when the Phoenician merchants first arrived. According to Timaeus, one of Platos dialogues, Sardinia and its people as well might have named after Sardò. There has also been speculation that identifies the ancient Nuragic Sards with the Sherden, in Classical antiquity, Sardinia was called Ichnusa, Σανδάλιον Sandal, Sardinia and Sardó. Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 24,100 square kilometres and it is situated between 38°51 and 41°18 latitude north and 8°8 and 9°50 east longitude. To the west of Sardinia is the Sea of Sardinia, a unit of the Mediterranean Sea, to Sardinias east is the Tyrrhenian Sea, the nearest land masses are the island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia, the Balearic Islands, and Provence. The Tyrrhenian Sea portion of the Mediterranean Sea is directly to the east of Sardinia between the Sardinian east coast and the west coast of the Italian mainland peninsula, the Strait of Bonifacio is directly north of Sardinia and separates Sardinia from the French island of Corsica. The island has an ancient geoformation and, unlike Sicily and mainland Italy, is not earthquake-prone and its rocks date in fact from the Palaeozoic Era. Due to long erosion processes, the highlands, formed of granite, schist, trachyte, basalt, sandstone and dolomite limestone. The highest peak is Punta La Marmora, part of the Gennargentu Ranges in the centre of the island. The islands ranges and plateaux are separated by wide valleys and flatlands. Sardinia has few rivers, the largest being the Tirso,151 km long, which flows into the Sea of Sardinia, the Coghinas. There are 54 artificial lakes and dams that supply water and electricity, the main ones are Lake Omodeo and Lake Coghinas. The only natural lake is Lago di Baratz. A number of large, shallow, salt-water lagoons and pools are located along the 1,850 km of the coastline, the climate of the island is variable from area to area, due to several factors including the extension in latitude and the elevation. During the year there is a concentration of rainfall in the winter and autumn, some heavy showers in the spring
7.
Cagliari
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Cagliari is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliaris Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle and it has about 150,000 inhabitants, while its metropolitan city has more than 431,000 inhabitants. According to Eurostat, the population of the Functional urban area, Cagliari is the 26th largest city in Italy and the largest city on the island of Sardinia. An ancient city with a history, Cagliari has seen the rule of several civilisations. Under the buildings of the city there is a continuous stratification attesting to human settlement over the course of some five thousand years. Cagliari was the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1324 to 1848, today the city is a regional cultural, educational, political and artistic centre, known for its diverse Art Nouveau architecture and several monuments. It is also the seat of the University of Cagliari, founded in 1607, the Cagliari area has been inhabited since the Neolithic. It occupies a position between the sea and a fertile plain and is surrounded by two swamps. There are high mountains nearby, to people could evacuate if the settlement had to be given up. Relics of prehistoric inhabitants were found in the hill of Monte Claro, krly was established around the 8th/7th century BC as one of a string of Phoenician colonies in Sardinia, including Tharros. Its founding is linked to its position along communication routes with Africa as well as to its excellent port, the Phoenician settlement was located in the Stagno di Santa Gilla, west of the present centre of Cagliari. This was also the site of the Roman Portus Scipio, other Phoenician settlements have been found at Cape SantElia. In the late 6th century BC Carthage took control of Sardinia, Cagliari was a fortified settlement in what is now the modern Marina quarter, with an annexed holy area in the modern Stampace. Sardinia and Cagliari came under Roman rule in 238 BC, shortly after the First Punic War, at other times it was also the Romans chief naval station on the island, and the residence of the praetor. The Romans built a new settlement east of the old Punic city, the two urban agglomerations merged gradually during the second century B. C. to this process is perhaps attributable the plural form Carales. A few years later, when Sardinia fell into the hands of Menas, the lieutenant of Sextus Pompeius, Caralis was the city which offered any resistance. Cagliari continued to be regarded as the capital of the island under the Roman Empire, remains of Roman public buildings were found to the west of Marina in Piazza del Carmine. There was an area of housing near the modern Via Roma
8.
Turin
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Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region and was the first capital city of Italy. The city is located mainly on the bank of the Po River, in front of Susa Valley and surrounded by the western Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 892,649 while the population of the area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million, in 1997 a part of the historical center of Torino was inscribed in the World Heritage List under the name Residences of the Royal House of Savoy. Turin is well known for its Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-classical, many of Turins public squares, castles, gardens and elegant palazzi such as Palazzo Madama, were built between the 16th and 18th centuries. This was after the capital of the Duchy of Savoy was moved to Turin from Chambery as part of the urban expansion, the city used to be a major European political center. Turin was Italys first capital city in 1861 and home to the House of Savoy, from 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the Royal House of Savoy and finally the first capital of the unified Italy. Turin is sometimes called the cradle of Italian liberty for having been the birthplace and home of notable politicians and people who contributed to the Risorgimento, such as Cavour. The city currently hosts some of Italys best universities, colleges, academies, lycea and gymnasia, such as the University of Turin, founded in the 15th century, in addition, the city is home to museums such as the Museo Egizio and the Mole Antonelliana. Turins attractions make it one of the worlds top 250 tourist destinations, Turin is ranked third in Italy, after Milan and Rome, for economic strength. With a GDP of $58 billion, Turin is the worlds 78th richest city by purchasing power, as of 2010, the city has been ranked by GaWC as a Gamma World city. Turin is also home to much of the Italian automotive industry, the Taurini were an ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, who occupied the upper valley of the Po River, in the center of modern Piedmont. In 218 BC, they were attacked by Hannibal as he was allied with their long-standing enemies, the Taurini chief town was captured by Hannibals forces after a three-day siege. As a people they are mentioned in history. It is believed that a Roman colony was established in 27 BC under the name of Castra Taurinorum, both Livy and Strabo mention the Taurinis country as including one of the passes of the Alps, which points to a wider use of the name in earlier times. In the 1st century BC, the Romans created a military camp, the typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city, especially in the neighborhood known as the Quadrilatero Romano. Via Garibaldi traces the path of the Roman citys decumanus which began at the Porta Decumani. The Porta Palatina, on the side of the current city centre, is still preserved in a park near the Cathedral
9.
Sardinian language
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Sardinian or Sard is the primary indigenous Romance language spoken on most of the island of Sardinia. Of the Romance languages, it is considered one of the closest, if not the closest, to Latin. However, the language is in retreat and UNESCO classifies both main varieties as definitely endangered, although an estimated 68.4 percent of the islanders have a good command of Sardinian. Italian is displacing it nonetheless in many cases, and language ability among children has been estimated to have dropped in fact to around 13 percent, now the question arises as to whether Sardinian is to be considered a dialect or a language in its own right. Politically speaking, it is one of the many dialects of Italy, just like the Serbo-Croatian. However, from a point of view, that is a different question. Sardinian is considered the most conservative Romance language, and its substratum has also been researched. 5%, Occitan 25%, Portuguese 31%, for example, Latin Pone mihi tres panes in bertula would be the very similar Ponemi tres panes in bertula in Sardinian. Compared to the mainland Italian lects, Sardinian is virtually incomprehensible for Italians, Sardinias relative isolation from mainland Europe encouraged the development of a Romance language preserving traces of its indigenous, pre-Roman language. The language is posited to have influences from Paleo-Sardinian language. Adstratal influences include Catalan, Spanish, and Italian, the situation of Sardinian language with regard to the politically dominant ones did not change until the 1950s. The origins of the Paleo-Sardinian language are not known. In 1984, Massimo Pittau said he found in the Etruscan language the etymology of many Latin words after comparing it with the Nuragic language, Etruscan elements, formerly considered originating in Latin, would indicate a connection between the ancient Sardinian culture and the Etruscans. According to Pittau, the Etruscan and Nuragic language are descended from Lydian as a consequence of contact with Etruscans, although Pittau suggests that the Tirrenii landed in Sardinia and the Etruscans landed in modern Tuscany, his views are not shared by most Etruscologists. According to Alberto Areddu the Sherden were of Illyrian origin, on the basis of lexical elements. Areddu asserts that in ancient Sardinia, especially in the most interior area, there are in fact some correspondences, both formal and semantic, with the few testimonies of Illyrian languages, and above all with their linguistical continuer, Albanian. He finds such correlations, sard. eni, enis, eniu yew = alb. enjë yew, sard. urtzula clematis = alb. urth ivy, recently he also discovered important correlations with the balcanic bird world. According to Bertoldi and Terracini, Paleo-Sardinian has similarities with the Iberic languages and Siculian, for example, Terracini proposed the same for suffixes in -/àna/, -/ànna/, -/énna/, -/ònna/ + /r/ + a paragogic vowel. Rohlfs, Butler and Craddock add the suffix -/ini/ as an element of Paleo-Sardinian
10.
Corsican language
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Corsican is a Romance language within the Italo-Dalmatian subfamily. It is closely related to the Italian language and especially to its Tuscan branch and it is spoken and written on the islands of Corsica and northern Sardinia. Over the next two centuries, the use of French grew to the extent that, by the Liberation in 1945, the 20th century saw a wholesale language shift, with islanders changing their language practices to the extent that there were no monolingual Corsican speakers left by the 1960s. By 1995, an estimated 65 percent of islanders had some degree of proficiency in Corsican, one of the main sources of confusion in popular classifications is the difference between a dialect and a language. Typically it is not possible to ascertain what an author means by these terms, one of the characteristics of Italian is the retention of the -re infinitive ending as in Latin mittere, send. Such infinitival ending is lost in Corsican as well as in Tuscan, the term gallicised Corsican refers to Corsican up to about the year 1950. The term distanciated Corsican refers to an idealized Corsican from which various agents have removed French or other elements, in 40 AD, the natives of Corsica did not speak Latin. The Roman exile, Seneca the Younger, reports that both coast and interior were occupied by natives whose language he did not understand, whatever language was spoken is still visible in the toponymy or in some words, for instance in the Gallurese dialect spoken in Sardinia zerru pig. A similar situation is valid for Sardinian and Sicilian, the occupation of the island by the Vandals around the year 469 marked the end of authoritative influence by Latin speakers. If the natives of that time spoke Latin, they must have acquired it during the late empire. The two most widely spoken forms of the Corsican language are Supranacciu or Cismonticu, spoken in the Bastia and Corte area, the dialect of Ajaccio has been described as in transition. The dialects spoken at Calvi and Bonifacio are closer to the Genoese dialect, whether the two should be included either in Corsican or in Sardinian as dialects or considered independent languages is still subject of debate. On Maddalena archipelago the local dialect was brought by fishermen and shepherds from Bonifacio during immigration in the 17th and 18th centuries, though influenced by Gallurese, it has maintained the original characteristics of Corsican. There are also words of Genoese and Ponzese origin. They are thus defined as different languages from Sardinian by the Sardinian government. Only a fraction of the population at either time spoke Corsican with any fluency, the use of Corsican language over French language has been declining. In 1980 about 70 percent of the population of the island had some command of the Corsican language, in 1990 out of a total population of about 254,000 the percentage had declined to 50 percent, with only 10 percent using it as a first language. The language appeared to be in decline when the French government reversed its unsupportive stand
11.
Catalan language
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Catalan is a Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia, in northeastern modern Spain and adjoining parts of France. It is the national and only language of Andorra, and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands. It also has status in the commune of Alghero, situated on the northwestern coast of the island of Sardinia. All these territories are often called Catalan Countries. 4% with Catalan and 47. 5% only Spanish, in order to integrate newcomers, the Generalitat de Catalunya spends part of its annual budget on the promotion of the use of Catalan in Catalonia and in other territories. Catalan evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees, during the Low Middle Ages it saw a golden age as the literary and dominant language of the Crown of Aragon, and was widely used all over the Mediterranean. The union of Aragon with the territories of Spain in 1479 marked the start of the decline of the language. In 1659 Spain ceded Northern Catalonia to France, and Catalan was banned in both states in the early 18th century, 19th-century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival, which culminated in the 1913 orthographic standardization, and the official status of the language during the Second Spanish Republic. However, the Francoist dictatorship banned the use of Catalan in schools and in the public administration, there is no parallel in Europe for such a large, bilingual, non-state speech community. Catalan dialects are relatively uniform, and are mutually intelligible and they are divided into two blocks, Eastern and Western, differing mostly in pronunciation. The terms Catalan and Valencian are two varieties of the same language, there are two institutions regulating the two standard varieties, the Institute of Catalan Studies in Catalonia and the Valencian Academy of the Language in the Valencian Community. Catalan shares many traits with its neighboring Romance languages, thus, the similarities are naturally most notable with eastern Occitan. Nouns have two genders, and two numbers, pronouns additionally can have a neuter gender, and some are also inflected for case and politeness, and can be combined in very complex ways. Verbs are split in several paradigms and are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, mood, in terms of pronunciation, Catalan has many words ending in a wide variety of consonants and some consonant clusters, in contrast with many other Romance languages. The word Catalan derives from the territory of Catalonia, itself of disputed etymology, in English, the term referring to a person first appears in the mid 14th century as Catelaner, followed in the 15th century as Catellain. It is attested a language name since at least 1652, Catalan can be pronounced as /ˈkætəlæn/, /kætəˈlæn/ or /ˈkætələn/. The endonym is pronounced /kə. təˈɫa/ in the Eastern Catalan dialects, in the Valencian Community, the term valencià is frequently used instead. The names Catalan and Valencian are two names for the same language, see also status of Valencian below. By the 9th century, Catalan had evolved from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the end of the Pyrenees, as well as the territories of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis to the south
12.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
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Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
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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
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Piedmontese language
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Piedmontese is a Romance language spoken by over 1 million people in Piedmont, northwest Italy. It is geographically and linguistically included in the Gallo-Italic languages group of Northern Italy and it is part of the wider western group of Romance languages, which also includes French, Occitan, and Catalan. Today it has an official status recognized by the Piedmont regional government. Piedmontese was the first language of emigrants who, in the period from 1850 to 1950, left Piedmont for countries such as France, Brazil, The United States, Argentina, and Uruguay. The first documents in the Piedmontese language were written in the 12th century, the sermones subalpini, literary Piedmontese developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, but it did not gain literary esteem comparable to that of French or Italian, other languages used in Piedmont. Nevertheless, literature in Piedmontese has never ceased to be produced, it includes poetry, theatre pieces, novels, in 2004, Piedmontese was recognised as Piedmonts regional language by the regional parliament, although the Italian government has not yet recognised it as such. In theory it is now supposed to be taught to children in school, the last decade has seen the publication of learning materials for schoolchildren, as well as general-public magazines. Courses for people already outside the system have also been developed. On the other hand, the survey showed Piedmontese is still spoken by over half the population. Authoritative sources confirm this result, putting the figure between 2 million and 3 million speakers out of a population of 4.2 million people, efforts to make it one of the official languages of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics were unsuccessful. Piedmontese is written with a modified Latin alphabet, the letters, along with their IPA equivalent are shown in the table below. Certain digraphs are used to represent specific sounds as shown below. All other combinations of letters are pronounced as written, grave accent marks break diphthongs, so ua and uà are /wa/, but ùa is pronounced separately, /ˈya/. Verbal pronouns are absent only in the form and in the Piedmontese interrogative form. The bound form of pronouns, which can be connected to dative and locative particles. The existence of three affirmative interjections, si, sè, é, òj, the absence of the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/, for which an alveolar S sound is usually substituted. The existence of an S-C combination pronounced, the existence of a velar nasal, which usually precedes a vowel, as in lun-a moon. The existence of the third Piedmontese vowel Ë, which is very short, the absence of the phonological contrast that exists in Italian between short and long consonants, for example, Italian fata fairy and fatta done
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Occitan language
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Occitan, also known as lenga dòc by its native speakers, is a Romance language. It is spoken in southern France, Italys Occitan Valleys, Monaco, and Spains Val dAran, collectively, Occitan is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese. However, there is controversy about the unity of the language, others include Catalan in this family, as the distance between this language and some Occitan dialects is similar to the distance among different Occitan dialects. In fact, Catalan was considered an Occitan dialect until the end of the 19th century, today, Occitan is an official language in Catalonia, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken in the Val dAran. Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the preferred language for use in the Val dAran. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish, there is no written standard language called Occitan. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility, the long-term survival of Occitan is in grave doubt. According to the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, four of the six dialects of Occitan are considered severely endangered. The name Occitan comes from lenga dòc, òc being the Occitan word for yes and this was not, of course, the only defining characteristic of each group. The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc, while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud, Old Catalan, and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc. Other Romance languages derive their word for yes from the Latin sic, thus, etc. such as Spanish sí, Eastern Lombard sé, Sicilian and Italian sì, or Portuguese sim. French uses si to answer yes in response to questions that are asked in the negative sense, the name Occitan is sometimes considered a neologism, however, it was attested around 1300 as occitanus, a crossing of oc and aquitanus. For many centuries, the Occitan dialects were referred to as Limousin or Provençal, after Frédéric Mistrals Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. The term first came into fashion in Italy, currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitania, keeping the name Occitan for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal, NO·L LI TOLRÀ NO·L LI DEVEDARÀ NI NO LEN DECEBRÀ. Nec societatem non AURÀ, si per castellum recuperare NON O FA, et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo LO TORNARÀ, carolingian litanies, both written and sung in Latin, were answered to in Old Occitan by the audience. Occitan was the vehicle for the poetry of the medieval troubadours and trobairises, At that time
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Arpitan
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Franco-Provençal, Arpitan or Romand is a Gallo-Romance language spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland, northwestern Italy, and in enclaves in the Province of Foggia in Apulia, Italy. Franco-Provençal has several dialects and is separate from but closely related to neighboring Romance languages, Oïl languages, Occitan, Gallo-Italian. The name Franco-Provençal was given to the language by G. I, Ascoli in the 19th century because it shared features with French and Provençal without belonging to either. Arpitan, a neologism, is becoming a name for the language. This name was popularized due to the lands where the Arpitan language is spoken or used to be the prevalent idiom, the name for the region comes from the term Arpes, meaning Alps in Arpitan. Today, the largest number of Franco-Provençal speakers reside in the Aosta Valley, the language is also spoken in alpine valleys in the province of Turin, two isolated towns in Foggia, and rural areas of the Romandie region of Switzerland. It is one of the three Gallo-Romance language families of France and is recognized as a regional language of France. Organizations are attempting to preserve it through cultural events, education, scholarly research, aside from regional French dialects, it is the most closely related language to French. The number of speakers of Franco-Provençal has been declining significantly, according to UNESCO, Franco-Provençal is a potentially endangered language in Italy and an endangered language in Switzerland and France. Franco-Provençal emerged as a Gallo-Romance variety of Latin, the linguistic region comprises east-central France, western portions of Switzerland, and the Aosta Valley of Italy with the adjacent alpine valleys of the Piedmont. This area covers territories once occupied by pre-Roman Celts, including the Allobroges, Sequani, Helvetii, Ceutrones, by the 5th century, the region was controlled by the Burgundians. Franco-Provençal is first attested in manuscripts from the 12th century, possibly diverging from the langues doïl as early as the 8th–9th centuries, one writer has detected the influence of Basque by analyzing fossil words from toponymy and the dialect in the Aosta Valley Valdôtain patois. However, Franco-Provençal is consistently typified by a strict, myopic comparison to French, and so is characterized as conservative. Thus, commentators, like Désormaux, consider medieval the terms for many nouns and verbs, including pâta rag, bayâ to give, moussâ to lie down, all of which are conservative only relative to French. As an example, Désormaux, writing on this point in the foreword of his Savoyard dialect dictionary, states, one can note it not only in phonetics and morphology, but also in the vocabulary, where one finds numerous words and directions that clearly disappeared from French. Franco-Provençal failed to garner the prestige of its three more widely spoken neighbors, French, Occitan, and Italian. Communities where speakers lived were generally mountainous and isolated from one another, the internal boundaries of the entire speech area were divided by wars and religious conflicts. France, Switzerland, the Franche-Comté, and the duchy, later kingdom, the edict explicitly replaced Latin with French as the language of law and the courts
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Absolute monarchy
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Absolute monarchy, or despotic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which one ruler has supreme authority that is not restricted by any written laws, legislature, or customs. These are often, but not always, hereditary monarchies, in contrast, in constitutional monarchies, the head of states authority derives from and is legally bounded or restricted by a constitution or legislature. Some monarchies have weak or symbolic legislatures and other bodies that the monarch can alter or dissolve at will. Countries where a monarch still maintains absolute power are Brunei, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the individual emirates composing the United Arab Emirates, Swaziland, in Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh wielded absolute power over the country and was considered a living god by his people. In ancient Mesopotamia, many rulers of Assyria, Babylonia and Sumer were absolute monarchs as well, in ancient and medieval India, rulers of the Maurya, Satahavana, Gupta and Chalukya Empires, as well as other major and minor empires, were considered absolute monarchs. In the Khmer Empire, the kings were called Devaraja and Chakravartin, in Kingdom of Siam, the kings were esestablished Somburanaya-sittiraj. Throughout Chinese history, many emperors and one empress wielded absolute power through the Mandate of Heaven, in pre-Columbian America, the Inca Empire was ruled by a Sapa Inca, who was considered the son of Inti, the sun god and absolute ruler over the people and nation. Throughout much of European history, the right of kings was the theological justification for absolute monarchy. Many European monarchs, such as those of Russia, claimed supreme autocratic power by right. James VI of Scotland and his son Charles I of Scotland and England tried to import this principle, there is a considerable variety of opinion by historians on the extent of absolutism among European monarchs. Some, such as Perry Anderson, argue that quite a few monarchs achieved levels of absolutist control over their states, a widely held story about Louis XIV of France is that he proclaimed Létat, cest moi. What Louis did say was, The interests of the state come first, when one gives these priority, one labors for ones own good. These advantages to the state redounds to ones glory, although often criticized for his extravagances, such as the Palace of Versailles, he reigned over France for a long period, and some historians consider him a successful absolute monarch. More recently, revisionist historians have questioned whether Louis reign should be considered absolute, the King of France concentrated in his person legislative, executive, and judicial powers. He was the judicial authority. He could condemn men to death without the right of appeal and it was both his duty to punish offenses and stop them from being committed. From his judicial authority followed his power both to make laws and to annul them and this law consequently authorized the king to abolish all other centers of power. Most important was the abolition of the Council of the Realm and his actions largely originated the militaristic streak of the Hohenzollern
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Parliamentary system
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In a parliamentary system, the head of state is usually a different person from the head of government. Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders, eventually these councils have slowly evolved into the modern Parliamentary system. The first parliaments date back to Europe in the Middle Ages, for example in 1188 Alfonso IX, the modern concept of parliamentary government emerged in the Kingdom of Great Britain and its contemporary, the Parliamentary System in Sweden. In England, Simon de Montfort is remembered as one of the fathers of representative government for holding two famous parliaments, the first, in 1258, stripped the King of unlimited authority and the second, in 1265, included ordinary citizens from the towns. Later, in the 17th century, the Parliament of England pioneered some of the ideas and systems of liberal democracy culminating in the Glorious Revolution, in the Kingdom of Great Britain, the monarch, in theory, chaired cabinet and chose ministers. In practice, King George Is inability to speak English led the responsibility for chairing cabinet to go to the minister, literally the prime or first minister. By the nineteenth century, the Great Reform Act of 1832 led to parliamentary dominance, with its choice invariably deciding who was prime minister, hence the use of phrases like Her Majestys government or His Excellencys government. Nineteenth century urbanisation, industrial revolution and, modernism had already fueled the political struggle for democracy. In the radicalised times at the end of World War I, a parliamentary system may be either bicameral, with two chambers of parliament or unicameral, with just one parliamentary chamber. Scholars of democracy such as Arend Lijphart distinguish two types of parliamentary democracies, the Westminster and Consensus systems, the Westminster system is usually found in the Commonwealth of Nations and countries which were influenced by the British political tradition. These parliaments tend to have a more style of debate. The Australian House of Representatives is elected using instant-runoff voting, while the Senate is elected using proportional representation through single transferable vote, regardless of which system is used, the voting systems tend to allow the voter to vote for a named candidate rather than a closed list. The Western European parliamentary model tends to have a more consensual debating system, Consensus systems have more of a tendency to use proportional representation with open party lists than the Westminster Model legislatures. The committees of these Parliaments tend to be more important than the plenary chamber, some West European countries parliaments implement the principle of dualism as a form of separation of powers. In countries using this system, Members of Parliament have to resign their place in Parliament upon being appointed minister, ministers in those countries usually actively participate in parliamentary debates, but are not entitled to vote. Some countries such as India also require the prime minister to be a member of the legislature, the head of state appoints a prime minister who will likely have majority support in parliament. The head of state appoints a minister who must gain a vote of confidence within a set time. The head of state appoints the leader of the party holding a plurality of seats in parliament as prime minister
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Constitutional monarchy
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A constitutional monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the sovereign exercises their authorities in accordance with a written or unwritten constitution. A constitutional monarchy may refer to a system in which the acts as a non-party political head of state under the constitution. Political scientist Vernon Bogdanor, paraphrasing Thomas Macaulay, has defined a constitutional monarch as a sovereign who reigns, in addition to acting as a visible symbol of national unity, a constitutional monarch may hold formal powers such as dissolving parliament or giving royal assent to legislation. Many constitutional monarchies still retain significant authorities or political influence however, such as through certain reserve powers, the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms are all constitutional monarchies in the Westminster tradition of constitutional governance. Three states – Malaysia, Cambodia and the Holy See – are elective monarchies, the oldest constitutional monarchy dating back to ancient times was that of the Hittites. These were scattered noble families that worked as representatives of their subjects in an adjutant or subaltern federal-type landscape, the most recent country to move from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy was Bhutan, between 2007 and 2008. At the same time, in Scotland the Convention of Estates enacted the Claim of Right Act 1689, although Queen Anne was the last monarch to veto an Act of Parliament when in 1707 she blocked the Scottish Militia Bill, Hanoverian monarchs continued to selectively dictate government policies. For instance George III constantly blocked Catholic Emancipation, eventually precipitating the resignation of William Pitt the Younger as Prime Minister in 1801, Queen Victoria was the last monarch to exercise real personal power but this diminished over the course of her reign. In 1839 she became the last sovereign to keep a Prime Minister in power against the will of Parliament when the Bedchamber crisis resulted in the retention of Lord Melbournes administration, today, the role of the British monarch is by convention effectively ceremonial. No person may accept significant public office without swearing an oath of allegiance to the Queen, with few exceptions, the monarch is bound by constitutional convention to act on the advice of the Government. Constitutional monarchy also occurred briefly in the years of the French Revolution. As originally conceived, a monarch was head of the executive branch and quite a powerful figure even though his or her power was limited by the constitution. In many cases the monarchs, while still at the top of the political and social hierarchy, were given the status of servants of the people to reflect the new. In the course of Frances July Monarchy, Louis-Philippe I was styled King of the French rather than King of France, following the Unification of Germany, Otto von Bismarck rejected the British model. However this model of constitutional monarchy was discredited and abolished following Germanys defeat in the First World War. Later, Fascist Italy could also be considered as a constitutional monarchy and this eventually discredited the Italian monarchy and led to its abolition in 1946. After the Second World War, surviving European monarchies almost invariably adopted some variant of the constitutional monarchy model originally developed in Britain, nowadays a parliamentary democracy that is a constitutional monarchy is considered to differ from one that is a republic only in detail rather than in substance. However, three important factors distinguish monarchies such as the United Kingdom from systems where greater power might otherwise rest with Parliament, other privileges may be nominal or ceremonial
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James II of Aragon
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James II, called the Just, was the King of Sicily from 1285 to 1296 and King of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona from 1291 to 1327. In 1297 he was granted the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica and he used the Latin title Iacobus Dei gracia rex Aragonum, Valencie, Sardinie, et Corsice ac comes Barchinone. He was the son of Peter III of Aragon and Constance of Sicily. James was born at Valencia as the son of King Peter I and he succeeded his father as King of Sicily in 1285. Upon the death of his brother Alfonso III in 1291, he succeeded also to the throne of the Crown of Aragon and he spent May of that year in Catania, inspiring the local monk Atanasiu di Iaci to write the Vinuta di re Iapicu about his time there. By a peace treaty with Charles II of Anjou in 1296, he agreed to give up Sicily, due to the fact that Frederick would not withdraw from the island, Pope Boniface VIII asked James II, along with Charles II of Naples, to remove him. As an enticement to do this the Pope invested James II with the title to Sardinia and Corsica, because of his inability to disguise his apathy on the matter, he returned to Aragon. Frederick reigned there until his death in 1337, by the Treaty of Anagni in 1295, he returned the Balearic Islands to his uncle James II of Majorca. Aragon retained control over the territories of the Majorca kingdom — Montpellier. In 1298, by the Treaty of Argilers, James of Majorca recognised the suzerainty of James of Aragon, during the period that followed his return to Aragon, James II wanted to gain access to the Muslim world in the south, from which Castile restricted Aragon. In order to achieve this goal, and assisted by his Admiral Don Bernat de Sarrià, Baron of Polop, he formed an alliance with the enemies of the adolescent king of Castile, James II wanted Murcia in order to give his kingdom access to Granada. The allied forces entered from all directions in 1296, where James II was victorious in capturing Murcia, in 1313, James II granted administrative and political autonomy to the Aran Valley, the legal details of which are described in a Latin manuscript called the Querimonia. The devolution of power was a reward for the Aranese pledging allegiance to James II in a dispute with the kingdoms of France, James was involved in the 1321 leper scare. He ordered the arrest and torture of French lepers seeking shelter in his realm and it was probably during his reign at Sicily that James composed his only surviving piece of Occitan poetry, a religious dansa dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Mayre de Deu. A contemporary, Arnau de Vilanova, wrote a verse-by-verse Latin commentary of the dansa in 1305, the metaphor James uses has been analysed by Alfred Jeanroy, who sees similarities in the Roman de Fauvel. The final verses ask Mary to protect him, the king, from sin, He married four times, — Isabella of Castile, Viscountess of Limoges, daughter of Sancho IV of Castile and his wife María de Molina. The wedding took place in the city of Soria, on 1 December 1291 when the bride was only 8 years old. The marriage, which was never consummated, was dissolved and annulled after Sanchos death in 1295, — Blanche of Anjou, daughter of his familys rival Charles II of Naples and Maria of Hungary
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Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
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The Italians gave him the epithet Father of the Fatherland. Victor Emmanuel was born the eldest son of Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano and his father succeeded a distant cousin as King of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1831. He lived for years of his youth in Florence and showed an early interest in politics, the military. In 1842, he married his cousin Adelaide of Austria and he was styled as the Duke of Savoy prior to becoming King of Sardinia-Piedmont. He took part in the First Italian War of Independence under his father King Charles Albert, fighting in the front line at the battles of Pastrengo, Santa Lucia, Goito and Custoza. He became King of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1849 when his father abdicated the throne after a military defeat by the Austrians at the Battle of Novara. Victor Emmanuel was immediately able to obtain a rather favorable armistice at Vignale by the Austrian imperial army commander Radetzky, after new elections, the peace with Austria was accepted by the new Chamber of Deputies. In 1849 Victor Emmanuel also fiercely suppressed a revolt in Genoa, defining the rebels as a vile, in 1852, he appointed Count Camillo Benso of Cavour as Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia. This turned out to be a choice, since Cavour was a political mastermind. Victor Emmanuel II soon became the symbol of the Risorgimento, the Italian unification movement of the 1850s and he was especially popular in the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont because of his respect for the new constitution and his liberal reforms. Following Victor Emmanuels advice, Cavour joined Britain and France in the Crimean War against Russia, Cavour was reluctant to go to war due to the power of Russia at the time and the expense of doing so. Victor Emmanuel, however, was convinced of the rewards to be gained from the alliance created with Britain and, more importantly, the Italo-French campaign against Austria in 1859 started successfully. After several quarrels about the outcome of the war, Cavour resigned, later that same year, Victor Emmanuel II sent his forces to fight the papal army at Castelfidardo and drove the Pope into Vatican City. His success at these goals led him to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church, then, Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered Sicily and Naples, and Sardinia-Piedmont grew even larger. On 17 March 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was officially established, Victor Emmanuel supported Giuseppe Garibaldis Expedition of the Thousand, which resulted in the rapid fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy. However, the king halted Garibaldi when he appeared ready to attack Rome, still under the Papal States, in 1860, through local plebiscites, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna decided to side with Sardinia-Piedmont. Victor Emmanuel then marched victoriously in the Marche and Umbria after the battle of Castelfidardo over the Papal forces. The king subsequently met with Garibaldi at Teano, receiving from him the control of southern Italy, another series of plebiscites in the occupied lands resulted in the proclamation of Victor Emmanuel as the first King of Italy by the new Parliament of unified Italy, on 17 March 1861
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Cesare Balbo
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Cesare Balbo, Conte di Vinadio, was an Italian writer and statesman. Balbo was born in Turin on 21 November 1789 and his father, Prospero Balbo, who belong to a noble Piedmontese family, held a high position in the Sardinian court, and at the time of Cesare’s birth was mayor of the capital. His mother, Enrichetta Taparelli dAzeglio, died when he was three years old, and he was brought up in the house of his great-grandmother, the countess of Bugino, in 1798 he joined his father at Paris. From 1808 to 1814 Balbo served in various capacities under the Napoleonic empire at Florence, Rome, Paris, on the fall of Napoleon he entered the service of his native country. While his father was appointed minister of the interior, he entered the army, reluctantly, and with frequent endeavours to obtain some appointment, he gave himself up to literature as the only means left him to influence the destinies of his country. The great object of his labours was to help in securing the independence of Italy from foreign control. Of true Italian unity he had no expectation and no desire, but he was devoted to the house of Savoy, a confederation of separate states, not under the supremacy of the pope like Gioberti, but led by Piedmont, was the genuine ideal of Balbo. Balbo believed that the papacy could become an enemy of a large, preparation, banter military and moral, alertness and patience were his constant theme. He did not desire revolution, but reform, and thus he became the leader of a party. At last in 1848 his hopes were to some extent satisfied by the constitution granted by the king and he was appointed a member of the commission on the electoral law, and became first constitutional prime minister of Piedmont, but only held office a few months. With the ministry of d’Azeglio, which soon came to power, he was on friendly terms. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Balbo, Cesare, Count, aristocratic Liberalism and Risorgimento, Cesare Balbo and Piedmontese Political Thought after 1848. History of European Ideas 39#6, 835-857
24.
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
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Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri, generally known as Count Cavour was an Italian statesman and a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. Cavour put forth several economic reforms in his region of Piedmont in his earlier years. After a large rail system expansion program, Cavour became prime minister in 1852, English historian Denis Mack Smith says Cavour was the most successful parliamentarian in Italian history but he was not especially liberal. Cavour was often dictatorial, ignored his ministerial colleagues and parliament and he also practiced transformism and other undesirable policies which were carried over into post-Risorgimento Italy. Camillo Benso was born in Turin during Napoleonic rule, into a family that had gained an amount of land during the French occupation. His godparents were Napoleons sister Pauline, and her husband, Prince Camille Borghese, Camillo and his older brother Gustavo were initially educated at home. He was sent to the Turin Military Academy when he was ten years old. In July 1824 he was named a page to Charles Albert, Cavour frequently ran afoul of the authorities in the academy, as he was too headstrong to deal with the rigid military discipline. He was once forced to live three days on bread and water because he had been caught with books that the academy had banned and he was found to be apt at the mathematical disciplines, and was therefore enlisted in the Engineer Corps in the Piedmontese-Sardinian army in 1827. While in the army, he studied the English language as well as the works of Jeremy Bentham and Benjamin Constant, developing liberal tendencies which made him suspect to police forces at the time. He resigned his commission in the army in November 1831, both because of boredom with life and because of his dislike of the reactionary policies of King Charles Albert. He administered the estate at Grinzane, some forty kilometers outside the capital. Cavour then lived time in Switzerland, with his Protestant relatives in Geneva and he grew acquainted with Calvinist teachings, and for a short while he converted from a form of unorthodox Catholicism, only to go back later. A Reformed pastor, Alexandre Vinet, impressed upon Cavour the need for the separation of church and state and he then traveled to Paris where he was impressed by parliamentary debates, especially those of François Guizot and Adolphe Thiers, confirming his devotion to a political career. He next went to London, where he was much more disappointed by British politics, and toured the country, visiting Oxford, Liverpool, Birmingham, Chester, Nottingham, a quick tour through the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland eventually landed him back in Turin. Cavour believed that progress had to precede political change. He was a supporter of transportation by steam engine, sponsoring the building of many railroads. Between 1838 and 1842 Cavour began several initiatives in attempts to solve problems in his area
25.
Italian Parliament
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The Italian Parliament is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. The Parliament is the body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia. It is a legislature with 950 elected members and a small number of unelected members. The two houses are independent from one another and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution, on the other hand, no distinction is made between deputies and senators. The Chamber of Deputies has 630 elected members, while the Senate has 315 elected members, the Senate of the Republic also includes a small number of unelected members. There are two categories of senators for life, former Presidents of the Republic are senators for life by law, unless they renounce this privilege. Furthermore, Presidents of the Republic can appoint up to five Italian citizens as senators for life for outstanding merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field. Similarly, the two houses have a different age of candidacy, deputies are required to be 25 or older, no explicit age limit is required to be appointed senator for life. The main prerogative of the Parliament is the exercise of legislative power, for a bill to become law, it must receive the support of both houses independently in the same text. A bill is first introduced in one of the houses, amended, and then approved or rejected, if approved, it is passed to the other house, if approved without amendments, the bill is then promulgated by the President of the Republic and becomes law. If approved with amendments, it is back to the other house. The process continues until the bill is approved in the text by both houses or is rejected by one house. The Council of Ministers, which is led by the Prime Minister and is the executive of Italy. If the President of the Republic is unable to find a new Prime Minister able to receive the support of both houses, he or she can dissolve one or both houses and new elections are held. The process by which the Italian Parliament makes law, the iter legis, is as follows, proposals can be made by the Government, individual Members of Parliament, private citizens, individual Regional Councils, and the National Council for Economics and Labour. Once a proposal is introduced in one of the two Chambers, it is assigned to a committee to carry out preliminary inspection of the proposal. At this point, two different procedures can be taken and this must be completed in no more than four months for the Chamber of Deputies and two months for the Senate. Once the bill has come before one of the chambers, a discussion takes place, followed by the review article by article, and finally a vote on the whole bill
26.
Senate of the Republic (Italy)
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The Senate of the Republic is a house of the bicameral Italian Parliament. The two houses form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical functions, but do so separately. Members of the Senate are styled Senator or The Honourable Senator and they meet at Palazzo Madama, the Senate consists of 315 elected members, and as of 2016 five senators for life. The elected senators must be over 40 years of age and are elected by Italian citizens aged 25 or older, the Senate is elected on a regional basis. The 309 senators are assigned to each region according to their population. However, Article 57 of the Constitution provides that no region can have fewer than seven senators representing it, except for the Aosta Valley and Molise. The five current life senators are, The current term of the Senate is five years, until a Constitutional change on February 9,1963, the Senate was elected for six-year terms. The Senate may be dissolved before the expiration of its normal term by the President of the Republic, in 2016, Italian Parliament passed a constitutional law that effectively abolishes the Senate as an elected chamber and sharply restricts its ability to veto legislation. The law was rejected on December 4,2016 by a referendum, the election of the Senate is still regulated by Law no. 270, December 21,2005, which however was judged to be partly unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in December 2013, in each Region, except for three, at least 55% of the seats are assigned to the coalition or list which received the most votes. The Aosta Valley elects one senator, so it uses a first past the post system, Molise elects two senators with a proportional system. Trentino-South Tyrol uses a mixed member system, it elects 6 senators in first past the post constituencies. That session, presided by the oldest senator, proceeds to elect the President of the Senate for the parliamentary period. On the first two attempts at voting, a majority of all senators is needed, if a third round is needed. If this third round fails to produce a winner, a ballot is held between the two senators with the highest votes in the previous ballot. In the case of a tie, the senator is deemed the winner. The current President of the Senate is Pietro Grasso, recent Presidents of the Italian Senate, Since 1871, the Senate has met in Palazzo Madama in Rome, an old patrician palace completed in 1505 for the Medici family. The palace takes its name from Madama Margherita of Austria, daughter of Charles V, after the extinction of the Medici, the palace was handed over to the House of Lorraine
27.
Chamber of Deputies (Italy)
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The Chamber of Deputies is a house of the bicameral Parliament of Italy. The two houses form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical functions, but do so separately. Pursuant to article 56 of the Italian Constitution, the Chamber of Deputies has 630 seats, of which 618 are elected from Italian constituencies, Deputies are styled The Honourable and meet at Palazzo Montecitorio. Previously, the seat of the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy had been briefly at the Palazzo Carignano in Turin and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Under the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, from 1939 to 1943, the Chamber is composed of all members meeting in session at the Montecitorio. The assembly also has the right to meetings of the Government. If required, the Government is obligated to attend the session, conversely, the Government has the right to be heard every time it requires. The term of office of the House is five years,61.2 of the Constitution, states that representatives whose term has expired shall continue to exercise their functions until the first meeting of the new Chamber. An extension of the term, provided for by art,60.2, can be enacted only in case of war. Election of members to the Chamber of Deputies is by voluntary, universal, terms last for a total of five years, unless an early dissolution of the Chamber is called by the President of the Republic, at which point a snap election is held. Unlike the Senate, which members to be 40 years of age. The current system for elections to the Chamber of Deputies has been in operation since 2015, the territory of Italy is divided into 100 constituencies electing between 3 and 9 deputies depending on their size. For each constituency, the parties designate a list of candidates, head of list candidates can run in up to 10 constituencies, if two preference votes are expressed, they must be of a different sex, otherwise, the second preference is discarded. Only parties passing a 3% minimum threshold in the first round are assigned seats, if the party receiving the plurality of the votes passes a 40% threshold, it is attributed a minimum of 340 seats. The remaining 277 seats are allocated to the other parties using the largest remainder method. This provision was however rendered null and void by a Constitutional Courts judgment in January 2017, the President of the Chamber of Deputies performs the role of speaker of the house and is elected during the first session after the election. During this time the prerogatives of speaker are assumed by the vicepresident of Chamber of Deputies of the legislature who was elected first. If two were elected simultaneously, the oldest deputy serves as president of Chamber of Deputies, the President of Chamber of Deputies has also the role of President during the Parliament joint sessions, when the upper and lower houses have to vote together
28.
Treaty of Rastatt
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The treaty followed the earlier Treaty of Utrecht of 11 April 1713, which ended hostilities between France and Spain, on the one hand, and Britain and the Dutch Republic, on the other hand. A third treaty at Baden was required to end the hostilities between France and the Holy Roman Empire. By 1713, all parties to the War of the Spanish Succession were militarily depleted, the Treaty of Rastatt was negotiated by Marshal of France, Claude Louis Hector de Villars and the Austrian prince, Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Rastatt Treaty is associated with changes in European politics, associated with the shift to the balance of power politics, Austria began to negotiate the treaty with France after it had been abandoned by its allies, particularly Great Britain, during negotiations for the Treaty of Utrecht. Under the treaty, Austria received the following from Spain, the Spanish territories in Italy of Naples, Milan, Sardinia, Austria received from France Freiburg and several other small areas at its eastern borders, but France retained Landau. As a result of the treaty, the Austrian Habsburg Empire reached the largest territorial extent in its history and it became a major power in Western and southern Europe, in addition to its already dominant influence in Central Europe. Moreover, bargaining in Rastatt gained for Austria much more than it was offered at Utrecht, however, Emperor Charles VI was outraged at the loss of Spain and considered it an unacceptable failure. List of treaties R. R. Palmer, Joel Colton, a History of the Modern World. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Treaty of Utrecht
29.
County of Nice
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The County of Nice or Niçard Country is a historical region of France, located in the south-eastern part, around the city of Nice, and roughly equivalent to the modern department of Alpes-Maritimes. Its territory lies between the Mediterranean Sea, Var River and the southernmost crest of the Alps, ligurian tribes populated the Contea di Nizza prior to its occupation by the Romans. These tribes, conquered by Augustus, had become fully Romanized by the 4th century, in those Roman centuries the area was part of the Regio IX Liguria of Italy. It was initially a part of the ancient County of Provence. The region received the name County of Nice during the 15th century, from 1388 to 1860 the history of the County of Nice was tied to that of Italian Piedmont-Sardinia. Its historical capital city is Nice, France annexed the County in 1860, during the Italian Wars of Independence. In exchange for French military assistance, Piedmont was to cede Nice, the annexation was temporarily put into doubt after the Italian war of 1859, during which Napoleon III concluded a separate peace with Austria before Venetia could be captured. In March 1860, however, as Piedmont was in the process of annexing Parma, Modena, France annexed the provinces by the provisions of the Treaty of Turin, signed on 24 March 1860. France took formal possession of Nice and Savoy on 12 June 1860, during World War II, when Italy occupied parts of southeastern France, it included Nice administratively in the Kingdom of Italy. Since 1860 the County has been coterminous with the Arrondissement of Nice. Nevertheless, the term County of Nice continues in use today to identify the territory as a cultural and historical region. The historical language used by inhabitants of the County of Nice was Niçard, population amounted to 506,694 inhabitants in 1999. In 2010 the statue Neuf Lignes Obliques was erected along the Promenade des Anglais on the shoreline to commemorate the 150th year of Nices annexation, bishopric of Nice Provence Italia irredenta Italian irredentism in Nice Amicucci, Ermanno. Histoire de lidentité niçoise, Nice, Serre,1995, territorial changes in the history of the County of Nice Dances and traditional musics used in the County of Nice Map of the Kingdom of Sardinia
30.
Kingdom of Italy
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The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state. Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866, Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations. Fascist Italy is the era of National Fascist Party rule from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as head of government, according to Payne, Fascist regime passed through several relatively distinct phases. The first phase was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, then came the second phase, the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper from 1925 to 1929. The third phase, with activism, was 1929–34. The war itself was the phase with its disasters and defeats. Italy was allied with Nazi Germany in World War II until 1943 and it switched sides to the Allies after ousting Mussolini and shutting down the Fascist party in areas controlled by the Allied invaders. Shortly after the war, civil discontent led to the referendum of 1946 on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of Italy claimed all of the territory which is modern-day Italy. The development of the Kingdoms territory progressed under Italian re-unification until 1870, the state for a long period of time did not include Trieste or Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which are in Italy today, and only annexed them in 1919. After the Second World War, the borders of present-day Italy were founded, the Kingdom of Italy was theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch, as executed through appointed ministers, two chambers of parliament restricted the monarchs power—an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdoms constitution was the Statuto Albertino, the governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible to the king. However, in practice, it was impossible for an Italian government to stay in office without the support of Parliament, members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by plurality voting system elections in uninominal districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of those voting, and of 25% of all enrolled voters, if not all seats were filled on the first ballot, a runoff was held shortly afterwards for the remaining vacancies. After a brief multinominal experimentation in 1882, proportional representation into large, regional, Socialists became the major party, but they were unable to form a government in a parliament split into three different factions, with Christian Populists and classical liberals
31.
French franc
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The franc, also commonly distinguished as the French franc, was a currency of France. Between 1450 and 1999, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it was revalued in 1960, with each new franc being worth 100 old francs. The French franc was a commonly held reserve currency of reference in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first franc was a gold coin introduced in 1360 to pay the Ransom of King John II of France and this coin secured the kings freedom and showed him on a richly decorated horse earning it the name franc à cheval. The obverse legend, like other French coins, gives the title as Francorum Rex. Its value was set as one livre tournois, john’s son, Charles V, continued this type. It was copied exactly at Brabant and Cambrai and, with the arms on the horse cloth changed, conquests led by Joan of Arc allowed Charles VII to return to sound coinage and he revived the franc à cheval. John II, however, was not able to strike enough francs to pay his ransom, John II died as a prisoner in England and his son, Charles V was left to pick up the pieces. Charles V pursued a policy of reform, including stable coinage, an edict dated 20 April 1365 established the centerpiece of this policy, a gold coin officially called the denier d’or aux fleurs de lis which had a standing figure of the king on its obverse. Its value in money of account was one livre tournois, just like the franc à cheval, in accordance with the theories of the mathematician, economist and royal advisor Nicolas Oresme, Charles struck fewer coins of better gold than his predecessors. In the accompanying deflation both prices and wages fell, but wages fell faster and debtors had to settle up in better money than they had borrowed, the Mayor of Paris, Etienne Marcel, exploited their discontent to lead a revolt which forced Charles V out of the city. The States General which met at Blois in 1577 added to the pressure to stop currency manipulation. Henry III agreed to do this and he revived the franc and this coin and its fractions circulated until 1641 when Louis XIII of France replaced it with the silver Écu. Nevertheless, the franc continued in accounting as a synonym for the livre tournois. The decimal franc was established as the currency by the French Revolutionary Convention in 1795 as a decimal unit of 4.5 g of fine silver. This was slightly less than the livre of 4.505 g, silver coins now had their denomination clearly marked as “5 FRANCS” and it was made obligatory to quote prices in francs. e. Coinage with explicit denominations in decimal fractions of the franc also began in 1795, decimalization of the franc was mandated by an act of 7 April 1795, which also dealt with of weights and measures. France’s first decimal coinage used allegorical figures symbolizing revolutionary principles, like the designs the United States had adopted in 1793
32.
Sardinian lira
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The lira was the currency of the Kingdom of Sardinia between August 6,1816 and March 17,1861. It was subdivided into 100 centesimi and was equal in value to the French franc, being no more than the Savoyard version of the franc, it could circulate also in France, as the French coins could circulate in Piedmont. It was replaced at par by the Italian lira, as the great part of the 19th century currencies, it was not affected by significant episodes of inflation during all its existence. In 1816, King Victor Emmanuel I issued silver 5 lire, before his abdication in 1821, he also produced a new golden 80 lire coin. King Charles Felix followed in 1821 and 1822 minting gold 40 and 80 lire and he also expanded the new currency in Sardinia which, not having been conquered by Napoleon, had retained its Sardinian shields. Silver 50 centesimi,1 and 2 lire were added in 1823, followed by copper 1,3 and 5 centesimi in 1826, finally, King Charles Albert added new gold 10,50 and 100 lire in 1832, while King Victor Emmanuel II continued his fathers coinage
33.
Giudicato of Arborea
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The Giudicato of Arborea, also called Regno di Arborea was one of the four independent, hereditary Judicatures or Courts into which the island of Sardinia was divided in the High Middle Ages. It occupied the central-west portion of the island, wedged between Logudoro to the north and east, Cagliari to the south and east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, to the north west and beyond Logudoro was located Gallura, with which Arborea had far less interaction. Arborea outlasted her neighbours, surviving well into the 15th century, the earliest known judicial seat was Tharros. Giudicato of Arborea at the times of its maximum expansion occupied the islands territory, except the cities of Alghero. The local Byzantine magistrates, entitled iudici, meaning judges were left to provide for administration. Maintaining the traditional forms and patterns of the bureaucracy, the islands iudicati. By the 10th century, these districts had become hereditary or rotated amongst a few most powerful clans, the first important Giudice of Arborea was Marianus I of the Thori family. In 1070, his successor, Orzocorre I moved the capital from the ancient port of Tharros, at about that time, Sardinia begins to emerge from obscurity and come into the historians view. Under the ambitious Pope Gregory VII, then leading a papal reform, by the infusion of Western monasticism and Pisan ecclesiastic rule, she became involved in the conflicts and commerce of Europe. Under Constantine I of the Lacon dynasty, Arborea paid tribute to the papacy and sponsored Camaldolese monks, Constantine did homage to Pisa for his giudicato and his successor was his brother Comita II. In 1145, Comita was excommunicated by Baldwin, Archbishop of Pisa, comitas son and successor, Barison II, put Arborea back on good terms with Pisa. He married into the Catalan nobility, creating ties to Spain which culminated in Sardinia falling to the Crown of Aragon some centuries later. In 1164, Barison paid the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to have him crowned King of Sardinia and he finally left Pisa for Genoa, but his legacy was civil war. His son Peter I and grandson Hugh I finally divided the giudicato by the Treaty of Oristano, but in the end Hughs line, the House of Cervera, succeeded in establishing themselves. While Peter II, son of Hugh, has been accused by historians of impoverishing his realm of glory, his son Marianus II expanded it substantially, even ruling over a majority of the island. During the final decades of the 13th century, three other giudicati fell into the hands of either Pisa or Genoa or one of their great families, but Arborea remained independent. Hugh II, great-grandson of Marianus II, headed up a faction which favoured James II of Aragon and he supported the Infante Alfonso in his campaign to conquer the island from Pisa and Genoa. In 1336, Hugh II was succeeded by his son Peter III and his brother Marianus IV was the only Sardinian ruler to be known as the Great
34.
Republic of Pisa
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The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa during the late 10th and 11th centuries. It rose to become a powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century before being surpassed and superseded by the Republic of Genoa. The power of Pisa as a mighty maritime nation began to grow, during the High Middle Ages the city grew into a very important commercial and naval center and controlled a significant Mediterranean merchant fleet and navy. It expanded its influence through the sack of Reggio di Calabria in the south of Italy in 1005, Pisa was in continuous conflict with the Saracens, whose bases were in the Italian astersa, for control of the Mediterranean. In alliance with Genoa, Sardinia was captured in 1016 with the defeat of the Saracen leader Mujāhid al-‘Āmirī and this victory gave Pisa supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the Pisans subsequently ousted the Genoese from Sardinia, a new conflict, between 1030 and 1035 Pisa went on to successfully defeat several rival towns in the Emirate of Sicily and conquer Carthage in North Africa. In 1051-1052 Admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered Corsica, provoking more resentment from the Genoese. In 1063, the Pisans approached the Norman Roger I of Sicily, Roger declined due to other commitments. With no land support, the Pisan attack against Palermo failed, in 1060 Pisa engaged in its first battle against Genoa and the Pisan victory helped to consolidate its position in the Mediterranean. This was simply a confirmation of the present situation, because at the time the marquis of Tuscany had already excluded from power. Pisa sacked the Zirid city of Mahdia in 1088, four years later, Pisan and Genoese ships helped Alfonso VI of Castile force El Cid out of Valencia. In 1092 Pope Urban II awarded Pisa supremacy over Corsica and Sardinia, a Pisan fleet of 120 ships participated in the First Crusade and the Pisans were instrumental in the siege of Jerusalem in 1099. On their way to the Holy Land the Pisan ships did not miss the opportunity to sack several Byzantine islands, the Pisan crusaders were led by their archbishop, Dagobert, the future Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Pisa and the maritime republics took advantage of the crusade to establish trading posts and colonies in the eastern coastal regions of Syria, Lebanon. In particular the Pisans founded colonies in Antioch, Acre, Jaffa, Tripoli, Tyre, in all these cities the Pisans were granted privileges and immunity from taxation, but had to contribute to their defence in case of attack. In the 12th century the Pisan quarter in the part of Constantinople had grown to 1,000 people. For some years of that century Pisa was the most prominent merchant and military ally of the Byzantine Empire, Pisa, as an international power, was destroyed forever by the crushing defeat of its navy in the Battle of Meloria against Genoa in 1284. In this battle, most of the Pisan galleys were destroyed, in 1290, an assault by Genoese ships against the Porto Pisano sealed the fate of the independent Pisan state
35.
Sassari
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Sassari is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 222,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, it contains a collection of art. As Sardinias second most populated city, and the fifth largest municipality in Italy, it has an amount of cultural, touristic. The citys economy relies on tourism and services, however also partially on research, construction, pharmaceuticals. Sassari is located in north-western Sardinia, at 225 metres above sea level, the area rises up on a wide karstic plateau that slopes gently down towards the Gulf of Asinara and the Nurra plain. The abundance of water, with about 400 springs and artesian wells, has made for development of horticulture over the centuries. According to a survey by Weatherwise, Sassari is the city with the fourth best climate in the world. Although Sassari was founded in the early Middle Ages, the area has been inhabited since the Neolithic age, and throughout ancient history, by the Nuragics. In the locality of Fiume Santo is also found a site where an Oreopithecus bambolii. The origin of the city remains uncertain and it developed from the merger of a number of separate villages, such as San Pietro di Silki, San Giacomo di Taniga, and San Giovanni di Bosove. The oldest mention of the village is in an 1131 document in the archive of the Monastery of St. Peter in Silki where is cited a guy named Jordi de Sassaro, Sassari was sacked by the Genoese in 1166. Immigration continued until, in the early 13th century, it was the most populous city in the Giudicato of Torres, after the assassination of Michele Zanche, the latters last ruler in 1275, Sassari became subject to the Republic of Pisa with a semi-independent status. Its statutes of 1316 are remarkable for the leniency of the penalties imposed when compared with the laws of the Middle Ages. From 1323 the Republic of Sassari decided to side with the King of Aragon, in whose hands it remained for much of the following centuries, further attempts made by Genoa to conquer the city failed. In 1391 it was conquered by Brancaleone Doria and Marianus V of Arborea, of the independent Sardinian Giudicato of Arborea, of which it became the last capital. However, in 1420 the city was sold along with the territory for 100,000 florins to the Crown of Aragon, replaced by Spain after 1479 on the joining of the Aragonese. During the period of Aragonese and then Spanish domination the city was known as Sàsser in Catalan language, the Jesuits founded the first Sardinian university in Sassari in 1562. In the same year the first printing press was introduced and the ideals of Renaissance humanism became more widely known, several artists of the Mannerist and Flemish schools practiced their art in the city
36.
Duchy of Savoy
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From 1416 to 1860, the Duchy of Savoy was a state in Western Europe. It was created by Sigismund, King of the Romans, raised the County of Savoy into a duchy for Duke Amadeus VIII, the duchy was a subject of the Holy Roman Empire with a vote in the Imperial Diet. From the 16th century, it belonged to the Upper Rhenish Circle, during all its history, it was ruled by the House of Savoy. The Duchy is considered to be a part of the Savoyard state, the Duchy was created in 1416 following Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, awarding the title Duke to Count Amadeus VIII. Being landlocked at its conception in 1388, the then-County of Savoy acquired a few kilometres of coastline around Nice, other than this expansion, the 14th century was generally a time of stagnation. Pressure from neighboring powers, particularly France, prevented development, which characterizes the rest of the Renaissance era for Savoy, the reign of Amadeus VIII was a turning point for the economy and the policy of the state, which deeply marked the history of the nation. His long reign was highlighted by wars, as well as reforms and edicts, the first was in 1434, when he chose to withdraw to the Château de Ripaille, where, living the life of a hermit, he founded the Order of St. Maurice. In 1439 he received an appointment as antipope which he accepted, the duke left the territory largely formed from the old Savoy domain. As a cultured and refined man, Duke Amadeus gave great importance to art, among others, he worked with the famous Giacomo Jaquerio) in literature and architecture, encouraging the entry of art to the Italian Piedmont. However, his first son Amedeo died prematurely in 1431, succeeded by his second son Louis, during this period, France was more or less free to control the affairs of Savoy, which bound Savoy to the crown in Paris. The Duchys economy suffered during these years, not only because of war, but also because of the administration by Violante. The future of the nation was entrusted to the hands of a boy, Philibert I and he was succeeded by Charles I, whose ascent to the throne seemed to promise a rebirth of the country. When Philibert II died in 1504, he was succeeded by Charles III the Good, since 1515, Savoy was occupied by foreign armies, and Francis I of France was just waiting for the opportunity to permanently annex the duchy of Savoy and its possessions. In 1536 Francis I ordered the occupation of the Duchy, which was invaded by a military contingent. Charles III realized too late the weakness of the state, however, the city was lost on April 3 of the same year. Charles III retired in Vercelli, trying to continue the fight, Emmanuel Philibert was the Duke who more than any influenced the future policy of Savoy, managing to put an end to the more than twenty-year long occupation. The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, signed in 1559, restored full autonomy for the duchy, from his military experience in Flanders, Emmanuel Philibert learned how to run an army, having won the famous Battle of St. Quentin. He was the first Duke of Savoy to establish a stable military apparatus that was not composed of mercenaries but rather by specially trained Savoyan soldiers
37.
Second French Empire
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The Second French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France. The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the First, but Emperor Napoleon III stressed his own imperial role as the foundation of the government. He had so often, while in prison or in exile and his answer was to organize a system of government based on the principles of the Napoleonic Idea. This meant that the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, ruled supreme. He himself drew power and legitimacy from his role as representative of the great Napoleon I of France, the anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on 14 January 1852, was largely a repetition of that of 1848. All executive power was entrusted to the emperor, who, as head of state, was responsible to the people. The people of the Empire, lacking democratic rights, were to rely on the benevolence of the rather than on the benevolence of politicians. He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire. One innovation was made, namely, that the Legislative Body was elected by universal suffrage and this new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. The press was subjected to a system of cautionnements and avertissements, in order to counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the lycées, for seven years France had no democratic life. The Empire governed by a series of plebiscites, up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist, from then till 1860 it was reduced to five members, Darimon, Émile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. On 2 December 1851 Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been elected President of the Republic and he thus became sole ruler of France, and re-established universal suffrage, previously abolished by the Assembly. His decisions and the extension of his mandate for 10 years were popularly endorsed by a referendum later that month that attracted an implausible 92 percent support. A new constitution was enacted in January 1852 which made Louis-Napoléon president for 10 years, however, he was not content with merely being an authoritarian president. Almost as soon as he signed the new document into law, in response to officially-inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled a second referendum in November, which passed with 97 percent support. As with the December 1851 referendum, most of the yes votes were manufactured out of thin air, the empire was formally re-established on 2 December 1852, and the Prince-President became Napoléon III, Emperor of the French. The constitution concentrated so much power in his hands that the only changes were to replace the word president with the word emperor
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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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Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
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Monaco
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Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. France borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the Mediterranean Sea, Monaco has an area of 2.02 km2 and a population of about 38,400 according to the last census of 2015. With 19,009 inhabitants per km², it is the second smallest, Monaco has a land border of 5.47 km, a coastline of 3.83 km, and a width that varies between 1,700 and 349 m. The highest point in the country is a pathway named Chemin des Révoires on the slopes of Mont Agel, in the Les Révoires Ward. Monacos most populous Quartier is Monte Carlo and the most populous Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins, through land reclamation, Monacos land mass has expanded by twenty percent, in 2005, it had an area of only 1.974 km2. Monaco is known as a playground for the rich and famous, in 2014, it was noted about 30% of the population was made up of millionaires, more than in Zürich or Geneva. Monaco is a principality governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, although Prince Albert II is a constitutional monarch, he wields immense political power. The House of Grimaldi have ruled Monaco, with brief interruptions, the official language is French, but Monégasque, Italian, and English are widely spoken and understood. The states sovereignty was recognized by the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861. Despite Monacos independence and separate foreign policy, its defense is the responsibility of France, however, Monaco does maintain two small military units. Economic development was spurred in the late 19th century with the opening of the countrys first casino, Monte Carlo, since then, Monacos mild climate, scenery, and gambling facilities have contributed to the principalitys status as a tourist destination and recreation center for the rich. In more recent years, Monaco has become a major banking center and has sought to diversify its economy into services and small, high-value-added, the state has no income tax, low business taxes, and is well known for being a tax haven. It is also the host of the street circuit motor race Monaco Grand Prix. Monaco is not formally a part of the European Union, but it participates in certain EU policies, including customs, through its relationship with France, Monaco uses the euro as its sole currency. Monaco joined the Council of Europe in 2004 and it is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Monacos name comes from the nearby 6th-century BC Phocaean Greek colony, according to an ancient myth, Hercules passed through the Monaco area and turned away the previous gods. As a result, a temple was constructed there, the temple of Hercules Monoikos, because the only temple of this area was the House of Hercules, the city was called Monoikos. It ended up in the hands of the Holy Roman Empire, an ousted branch of a Genoese family, the Grimaldi, contested it for a hundred years before actually gaining control
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History of Sardinia
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Archaeological evidence of prehistoric human settlement on the island of Sardinia is present in the form of nuraghes and others prehistoric monuments, which dot the land. The recorded history of Sardinia begins with its contacts with the people who sought to dominate western Mediterranean trade in Classical Antiquity, Phoenicians, Punics. Initially under the political and economic alliance with the Phoenician cities, it was conquered by Carthage in the late 6th century BC. The island was included for centuries in the Roman province of Corsica et Sardinia, included in 3rd and this led to the birth of four kingdoms called Giudicati in the 8th through 10th centuries. The Kingdom was to last until 1718, when it was ceded to the Piedmontese House of Savoy, later, in 1861, the oldest trace in Sardinia of the anthropomorphic prehistoric primate called Oreopithecus bambolii is dated to 8.5 million years ago. In 1996 a hominid finger bone, dated up to 250.000 BC, was found in a cave in the Logudoro region. Modern humans appeared in the island during the Upper Paleolithic, a phalanx dated to 18000 BC had been found in the Corbeddu cave, mesolithic human remains had been discovered at Su Coloru cave of Laerru but also in the south. Already in the Stone Age, Monte Arci played an important role, the old volcano was one of the central places where obsidian was found and worked for cutting tools and arrowheads. Even now the volcanic glass can be found on the sides of the mountain, the Neolithic began in Sardinia in the 6th millennium BC with the Cardial culture. The dolmens culture, around the end of the 3rd millennium BC, prehistoric and Pre-nuragic monuments and constructions that characterise the Sardinian landscapes are the Domus de Janas, the menhir and Statue menhir and the dolmens. Archeological cultures of Sardinia in the period, Bronze Age Sardinia is characterised by stone structures called nuraghes. The most famous is the complex of Barumini in the province of Medio Campidano, the nuraghes were mainly built in the period from about 1800 to 1200 BC, though many were used until the Roman period. Characteristics of this period are also the holy well temples, the megara temples, the Nuragics also produced a vast collection of bronze statuettes and the so-called giants of Monte Prama, perhaps the first anthropomorphic statues of Europe. It is known that the Sardinians had contact with the Myceneans, contact with powerful cities of Crete, such as Kydonia, is clear from pottery recovered in archaeological excavations in Sardinia. The name Sardinia could result from that of Sardus, a hero of the nuragic pantheon. The majority of the inhabitants in these cities were of indigenous nuragic stock while the Phoenician element was, although culturally predominant, the Phoenicians came originally from what is now Lebanon and founded a vast trading network in the Mediterranean. Sardinia had a position because it was central in the Western Mediterranean between Carthage, Spain, the river Rhône and the Etruscan civilization area. The mining area of the Iglesiente was important for the metals lead, after the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians took over control in this part of the Mediterranean, around 510 BC, after that a first attempt of conquest of the island in 540 BC ends in failure
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Italy
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