Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax, formally known as the Halifax Regional Municipality, is the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It had a population of 403,131 with 316,701 in the urban area centred on Halifax Harbour; the regional municipality consists of four former municipalities that were amalgamated in 1996: Halifax, Dartmouth and Halifax County. Halifax is a major economic centre in Atlantic Canada with a large concentration of government services and private sector companies. Major employers and economic generators include the Department of National Defence, Dalhousie University, Saint Mary's University, the Halifax Shipyard, various levels of government, the Port of Halifax. Agriculture, mining and natural gas extraction are major resource industries found in the rural areas of the municipality. Halifax is located within the traditional ancestral lands of the Mi'kmaq indigenous peoples, known as Mi'kma'ki; the Mi'kmaq have resided in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island since prior to European landings in North America in the 1400s and 1500s to set up fisheries.
The Mi'kmaq name for Halifax is K'jipuktuk, pronounced "che-book-took". The first permanent European settlement in the region was on the Halifax Peninsula; the establishment of the Town of Halifax, named after the 2nd Earl of Halifax, in 1749 led to the colonial capital being transferred from Annapolis Royal. The establishment of Halifax marked the beginning of Father Le Loutre's War; the war began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports and a sloop of war on June 21, 1749. By unilaterally establishing Halifax, the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq, which were signed after Father Rale's War. Cornwallis brought along their families. To guard against Mi'kmaq and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax, Bedford and Lawrencetown, all areas within the modern-day Regional Municipality. St. Margaret's Bay was first settled by French-speaking Foreign Protestants at French Village, Nova Scotia who migrated from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia during the American Revolution.
December 1917 saw one of the greatest disasters in Canadian history, when the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship carrying munitions, collided with the Belgian Relief vessel SS Imo in "The Narrows" between upper Halifax Harbour and Bedford Basin. The resulting explosion, the Halifax Explosion, devastated the Richmond District of Halifax, killing 2,000 people and injuring nearly 9,000 others; the blast was the largest artificial explosion before the development of nuclear weapons. Significant aid came from Boston; the four municipalities in the Halifax urban area had been coordinating service delivery through the Metropolitan Authority since the late 1970s, but remained independent towns and cities until April 1, 1996, when the provincial government amalgamated all municipal governments within Halifax County to create the Halifax Regional Municipality. The municipal boundary thus now includes all of Halifax County except for several First Nation reserves. Since amalgamation, the region has been known as the Halifax Regional Municipality, although "Halifax" has remained in common usage for brevity.
On April 15, 2014, the regional council approved the implementation of a new branding campaign for the region developed by the local firm Revolve Marketing. The campaign would see the region referred to in promotional materials as "Halifax", although "Halifax Regional Municipality" would remain the region's official name; the proposed rebranding was met with mixed reaction from residents, some of whom felt that the change would alienate other communities in the municipality through a perception that the marketing scheme would focus on Metropolitan Halifax only, while others expressed relief that the longer formal name would no longer be primary. Mayor Mike Savage defended the decision, stating: "I'm a Westphal guy, I'm a Dartmouth man, but Halifax is my city, we’re all part of Halifax. Why does that matter? Because when I go and travel on behalf of this municipality, there isn’t a person out there who cares what HRM means." Unlike most municipalities with a sizeable metropolitan area, the Halifax Regional Municipality's suburbs have been incorporated into the "central" municipality by referendum.
For example, the community of Spryfield, in the Mainland South area, voted to amalgamate with Halifax in 1968. The most recent amalgamation, which brought the entirety of Halifax County into the Municipality, has created a situation where a large "rural commutershed" area encompasses half the municipality's landmass; the Halifax Regional Municipality occupies an area of 5,577 km2, 10% of the total land area of Nova Scotia. The land area of HRM is comparable in size to the total land area of the province of Prince Edward Island, measures 165 km in length between its eastern and western-most extremities, excluding Sable Island; the nearest point of land to Sable Island is not in HRM, but rather in adjacent Guysborough County. However, Sable Island is considered part of District 7 of the Halifax Regional Council; the coastline is indented, accounting for its length of 400 km, with the northern boundary of the municipality being between 50–60 km inland. The coast is rock with small isolated sand beaches in sheltered bays.
The largest coastal features include St. Margarets Bay, Halifax Harbour/Bedford Basin, Cole Harbour, Musquodoboit Harbour, Jeddore Harbour, Ship Harbour, Sheet Harbou
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was fought during 1904-1905 between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea and the Yellow Sea. Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for maritime trade. Vladivostok was operational only during the summer, whereas Port Arthur, a naval base in Liaodong Province leased to Russia by China, was operational all year. Since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan feared Russian encroachment on its plans to create a sphere of influence in Korea and Manchuria. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. Seeing Russia as a rival, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a neutral buffer zone between Russia and Japan.
The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its plans for expansion into Asia and chose to go to war. After negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur, China, in a surprise attack. Russia suffered multiple defeats by Japan, but Tsar Nicholas II was convinced that Russia would win and chose to remain engaged in the war. Russia ignored Japan's willingness early on to agree to an armistice and rejected the idea to bring the dispute to the Arbitration Court at The Hague; the war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt. The complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers; the consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. It was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one. Scholars continue to debate the historical significance of the war.
After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavored to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and ways of warfare. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into a modernized industrial state; the Japanese wanted to be recognized as equal with the Western powers. The Meiji Restoration had been intended to make Japan a modernized state, not a Westernized one, Japan was an imperialist power, looking towards overseas expansionism. In the years 1869–73, the Seikanron had bitterly divided the Japanese elite between one faction that wanted to conquer Korea vs. another that wanted to wait until Japan was more modernized before embarking on a war to conquer Korea. Worse, the Western Powers were conquering small pieces of China and China had dominated Korea with its military for centuries; the Japanese were doing what they could to emulate the West in every way possible, including conqering and occupying its neighbors. In much the same way that Europeans used the "backwardness" of African and Asian nations as a reason for why they had to conquer them, for the Japanese elite the "backwardness" of China and Korea was proof of the inferiority of those nations, thus giving the Japanese the "right" to conquer them.
Inouye Kaoru, the Foreign Minister, gave a speech in 1887 saying "What we must do is to transform our empire and our people, make the empire like the countries of Europe and our people like the peoples of Europe", going to say that the Chinese and Koreans had forfeited their right to be independent by not modernizing. Much of the pressure for an aggressive foreign policy in Japan came from below, with the advocates of "people's rights" movement calling for an elected parliament favoring an ultra-nationalist line that took it for granted the Japanese had the "right" to annex Korea, as the "people's right" movement was led by those who favored invading Korea in the years 1869–73; as part of the modernization process in Japan, Social Darwinian ideas about the "survival of the fittest" were common in Japan from the 1880s onward and many ordinary Japanese resented the heavy taxes imposed by the government to modernize Japan, demanding something tangible like an overseas colony as a reward for their sacrifices.
Furthermore, the educational system of Meiji Japan was meant to train the schoolboys to be soldiers when they grew up, as such, Japanese schools indoctrinated their students into Bushidō, the fierce code of the samurai. Having indoctrinated the younger generations into Bushidō, the Meiji elite found themselves faced with a people who clamored for war, regarded diplomacy as a weakness; the British Japanologist Richard Storry wrote the biggest misconception about Japan in the West was that the Japanese people were the "docile" instruments of the elite, when in fact much of the pressure for Japan's wars from 1894 to 1941 came from below, as ordinary people demanded a "tough" foreign policy, tended to engage in riots and assassination when foreign policy was perceived to be pusillanimous. Though the Meiji oligarchy refused to allow democracy, they did seek to appropriate some of the demands of the "people's rights" movement by allowing an elected Diet in 1890 (with limited powers and an equally
Land mine
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is detonated automatically by way of pressure when a target steps on it or drives over it, although other detonation mechanisms are sometimes used. A land mine may cause damage by direct blast effect, by fragments that are thrown by the blast, or by both; the name originates from the ancient practice of military mining, where tunnels were dug under enemy fortifications or troop formations. These killing tunnels were at first collapsed to destroy targets located above, but they were filled with explosives and detonated in order to cause greater devastation. Nowadays, in common parlance, "land mine" refers to devices manufactured as anti-personnel or anti-vehicle weapons. Though some types of improvised explosive devices are mistakenly classified as land mines, the term land mine is reserved for manufactured devices designed to be used by recognized military services, whereas IED is used for makeshift "devices placed or fabricated in an improvised manner incorporating explosive material, lethal, incendiary, pyrotechnic materials or chemicals designed to destroy, distract or harass.
They may incorporate military stores, but are devised from non-military components". The use of land mines is controversial because of their potential as indiscriminate weapons, they can remain dangerous many years after a conflict has ended, harming the economy. 78 countries are contaminated with land mines and 15,000–20,000 people are killed every year while countless more are maimed. 80% of land mine casualties are civilian, with children as the most affected age group. Most killings occur in times of peace. With pressure from a number of campaign groups organised through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a global movement to prohibit their use led to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction known as the Ottawa Treaty. To date, 164 nations have signed the treaty. Land mines were designed for two main uses: To create defensive tactical barriers, channelling attacking forces into predetermined fire zones or slowing an invading force's progress to allow reinforcements to arrive.
To act as passive area-denial weapons. Land mines are used in large quantities for this first purpose, thus their widespread use in the demilitarized zones of flashpoints such as Cyprus and Korea; as of 2013, the only governments that still laid land mines were Myanmar in its internal conflict, Syria in its civil war. Land mines continue to kill or injure at least 4,300 people every year decades after the ends of the conflicts for which they were placed. Jiao Yu in the preface to his Huolongjing Quanzhi, written in 1412 AD, claimed that in the third century, the chancellor Zhuge Liang of the Shu Han state had used not only "fire weapons" but land mines in the Battle of Hulugu Valley against the forces of Sima Yi and his son Sima Zhao of the rival Cao Wei state; this claim is dubious, as gunpowder warfare did not develop in China until the advent of the flamethrower in the 10th century, while the land mine was not seen in China until the late 13th century. Explosive land mines were used in 1277 by the Chinese during the Song dynasty against an assault of the Mongols, who were besieging a city in southern China.
The invention of this detonated "enormous bomb" was credited to one Lou Qianxia of the 13th century. The famous 14th-century Chinese text of the Huolongjing, the first to describe hollow cast iron cannonball shells filled with gunpowder, was the first to describe the invention of the land mine in greater detail than references found in texts written beforehand; this mid 14th century work compiled during the late Yuan dynasty and early Ming dynasty stated that mines were made of cast iron and were spherical in shape, filled with either "magic gunpowder", "poison gunpowder", or "blinding and burning gunpowder", any one of these compositions being suitable for use. The wad of the mine was made of hard wood, carrying three different fuses in case of defective connection to the touch hole. In those days, the Chinese relied upon command signals and timed calculation of enemy movements into the minefield, since a long fuse had to be ignited by hand from the ambushers in a somewhat far-off location lying in wait.
The Huolongjing describes land mines that were set off by enemy movement, called the'ground-thunder explosive camp', one of the'self-trespassing' types, as the text says: These mines are installed at frontier gates and passes. Pieces of bamboo are sawn into sections nine feet in length, all septa in the bamboo being removed, save only the last. Boiling oil is next left there for some time before being removed; the fuse starts from the bottom, is compressed into it to form an explosive mine. The gunpowder fills up eight-tenths of the tube, while lead or iron pellets take up the rest of the space. A trench five feet in depth is dug; the fuse is connected to a firing device. The Huolongjing describes the trigger device used for this as a "steel wheel", which directed sparks
Finnish Navy
The Finnish Navy is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for "Finnish Navy ship", but this is not used in Finnish language contexts; the Finnish Navy includes coastal forces and coastal artillery. The current Commander-in-Chief of the navy is Rear Admiral Kari Takanen; the navy is organized into four Brigade-level units. The navy includes, since 1998 the Nyland Brigade, where Finnish Marines or Coastal Jaegers are trained. Nyland Brigade is the only Swedish language unit in the country and it carries on the traditions and battle-honours of the Nyland Regiment of the Swedish Army. Navy Command headquarters: Naval depot: Pansio and Kimito Naval research depot: Espoo Coastal Brigade: Coastal Fleet: Nyland Brigade: Naval Academy: Two fast attack craft squadrons Three mine countermeasures squadrons Two minelayers Three auxiliary minelayers Two patrol craft Two coastal jaeger battalions Six coastal jaeger companies Two coastal missile companies Four anti-ship missile batteries Four fixed coastal artillery units Twelve mobile coastal artillery unitsTotal of 31,500 personnel During the Swedish era, the Finnish Gulf saw many battles between the Swedish and Russian fleets.
Many of the Swedish naval bases were located in present-day Finland and many sailors came from Finland. During the Russian rule an Finnish Navy unit, named Suomen Meriekipaasi was defending the Finnish coast, alongside the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy; the Meriekipaasi participated in the Crimean War, albeit with on-shore duties. The Meriekipaasi manned the coastal batteries at the Santahamina Island during the siege of fortress Viapori in Helsinki; the ships the Meriekipaasi operated included the steam frigates Rurik and Kalevala, named after the Finnish national epic. These ships served in the Russian Pacific Fleet); the first ships that the independent Finnish Navy obtained were a mix of obsolete vessels left behind by the Russians during the Finnish Civil War and vessels, who had not been able to make the winter voyage to Kronstadt as the Russian Navy retreated from German forces. Thus, the Finnish Navy of the late 1910s and early 1920s consisted of some gunboats, six S-class torpedo boats, eight C-class torpedo boats, one minelayer, several minesweepers, five T-class minelaying boats.
In addition to the warships, the Russians left behind numerous other types of vessels. Additionally, the Germans handed over two netlayers to the Finnish Navy, these two ships formed the core of the Finnish Navy until the coastal defense ships were commissioned. With the Treaty of Tartu, Finland had to return some of the equipment; this equipment included three S-class torpedo boats, the minesweepers Altair, Mikula, MP 7, MP 11, Ahvola, T 12, fifteen tugs, four smaller transports and 54 motorboats. Finland lost three more ships in supporting the British operations against the Soviets in the Baltic Sea; the three vessels were ordered to stay until the sea froze over, were damaged beyond repair by the ice. The last remaining C-class torpedo boats was placed in reserve after this incident. In 1927, after years of wrangling with various plans for how to modernize the navy, due to the loss of the torpedo boat S2 in heavy seas in October 1925, the Parliament of Finland approved a plan to build two coastal defence ships, as well as four submarines.
Motor torpedo boats were acquired both from Britain, as well as from domestic sources. New minesweepers were constructed; the training ship Suomen Joutsen was acquired. The strength of the Finnish Navy at the beginning of World War II was limited; some of the planned ships had not yet been constructed and wartime constraints on the economy prolonged ship building times. The Finnish Navy operated the following vessels in the Baltic Sea: Two coastal defence ships Five submarines Four gunboats Seven motor torpedo boats One minelayer Eight minesweepers One training ship Suomen JoutsenOn Lake Ladoga, the Finns operated: One icebreaker One gunboat One minelayer One tug Two motor boats The navy had several auxiliary warships, ice-breakers and patrol boats from the coast guard; when the Winter War broke out the Finnish Navy moved to occupy the de-militarized Åland Islands and to protect merchant shipping. In the first month of the war, battles between Soviet ships and Finnish coastal batteries were fought at Hanko, Finland, Utö and Koivisto.
At Koivisto and Hanko, the batteries forced Soviet battleships to retire with damage. Finnish efforts to use submarines to sink Soviet capital ships failed. In December 1939 the ice became so thick; the two coastal defence ships were moved to the harbour in Turku where they were used to strengthen the air-defences of the city. They remained there for the rest of the war. Before the Continuation War five more torpedo boats were ordered from Italy; the base that the Soviets had acquired after the Winter War at the Hanko Peninsula divided the areas where the Finnish Navy would operate in two. This i
Hämeenmaa-class minelayer
""FNS Hämeenmaa" redirects to this page. For the other Finnish Navy ships called Hämeenmaa, see Finnish gunboat Hämeenmaa and Finnish frigate Hämeenmaa; the Hämeenmaa-class minelayers is a two vessel strong class of coastal minelayers, used by the Finnish Navy. The ships have a steel aluminum alloy superstructure; the class has an ice operating classification of ICE-1A and can operate year-round in ice up to 40 cm thick. The design included some first attempts on stealth technology in the Finnish Navy. During a crisis the main task for the Hämeenmaa-class ships is minelaying, but the vessels can act as escort and depot ships; the contract for the Hämeenmaa class was awarded to Wärtsilä Marine, but following its bankruptcy the contract was transferred to Hollming. Turmoil in the Finnish shipbuilding industry didn't stop there. In early 1992 Hollming and Rauma Yards merged their shipbuilding industry to form a new company called Finnyards. Both ships were modernized 2006–08; the purpose of the modernization was to firstly upgrade the ships' equipment to fit modern standards, secondly, to enable the ships to participate in international operations European Security and Defence Policy operations.
They are fitted with weapons systems transferred from the discontinued Tuuli-class hovercraft including the Umkhonto missile system. A new fire control system Saab 9LV325E FCS, modern monitoring equipment including TRS-3D/16 ES surveillance radar and Kongsberg ST2400 Variable Depth Sonar and SS2030 Hull mounted sonar, were installed. In October 2013, Hämeenmaa changed its homeport from Pansio to Upinniemi to replace the decommissioned Pohjanmaa. Modernization of the two Hämeenmaa-class ships serves of course the interests of Finnish Navy, but the ones of EU's Helsinki Headline Goal: these two ships will add to the EU‘s capabilities, having wide selection of roles that they can assume, from light espionage- and minelaying to escort- and anti-submarine warfare ship, these two vehicles are perfect for monitoring Russia's Baltic fleet. Hämeenmaa was delivered from the dock back to the Navy on 13 April 2007 and Uusimaa, under modernization since November 2006 at the Aker Yards dock in Rauma, was delivered on 26 October 2007.
Hämeenmaa and Uusimaa conducted sea trials on their new systems until the end of 2008, when operational readiness was achieved. In October 2013 Hämeenmaa took over the role of flagship of the Finnish Navy with the retirement of Pohjamaa in 2015. FNS Hämeenmaa Pennant number: 02. Builder: Finnyards. Ordered: 29 December 1989. Laid down: 2 April 1991. Launched: 11 November 1991. Commissioned: 15 April 1992. Home base: Upinniemi. Current status: In active service. FNS Uusimaa Pennant number: 05. Builder: Finnyards. Ordered: 13 February 1991. Laid down: 12 November 1991. Launched: June 1992. Commissioned: 2 December 1992. Home base: Pansio. Current status: In active service. "Finnish Defence Forces". Retrieved August 6, 2005. "Aker Finnyards". Retrieved August 6, 2005. Tuurnala, Alpo. Harmaat laivat. Helsinki: Art-Print. ISBN 952-9745-16-8
Republic of Korea Navy
The Republic of Korea Navy known as the ROK Navy, is the naval warfare service branch of the South Korean armed forces, responsible for naval and amphibious operations. The ROK Navy includes the Republic of Korea Marine Corps. Established in 1945, the ROK Navy is the oldest branch of the South Korean armed forces. Since the end of the Korean War, the South Korean navy had concentrated its efforts on building naval forces to counteract the North Korean navy, which has littoral naval capabilities; as South Korea's economy grew, the ROK Navy was able to locally build larger and better equipped fleets to deter aggression, to protect the sea lines of communication, to support the nation's foreign policy. As part of its mission, the ROK Navy has engaged in several peacekeeping operations since the turn of the 21st century; the ROK Navy has about 70,000 regular personnel including 29,000 Republic of Korea Marines. There are about 150 commissioned ships with the ROK Navy; the naval aviation force consists of about 70 rotary-wing aircraft.
The ROK Marine Corps has about 300 tracked vehicles including assault amphibious vehicles. The ROK Navy aims to become a blue-water navy in 2020s; the main duties of the Navy shall be operations on the sea, including landing operations, the main duties of the Marine Corps shall be landing operations, the Navy and Marine Corps shall be formed and equipped for that purpose and shall provide education and training necessary therefor. The objectives of the ROK Navy as core strength for the National Security are: Establishing self-reliant naval forces to deter war Securing maritime superiority to gain victory Promoting national interests through protection of maritime activities Enhancing the national prestige through naval presence Korea has a long history of naval activity. In the late 4th century during the Three Kingdoms Period, Goguryeo defeated Baekje, fielding amphibious forces of 40,000 men in the process. In the 9th century, Commissioner Chang Bogo of Unified Silla established a maritime base called Cheonghaejin on an island to foster trading with China and Japan, to eradicate pirates.
In 1380, naval forces of the Goryeo Dynasty defeated 500 invading Japanese pirate vessels by deploying shipboard guns, devised by Choi Moosun. This is the first use of shipboard guns in naval history. In 1389 and 1419, Korean naval forces invaded Tsushima Island to suppress Japanese piracy. In the early years of the Joseon Dynasty, the naval force reached its peak of 50,000 personnel, in order to combat the ongoing piracy issue. During the Japanese invasions of Korea, the Korean naval force commanded by Admiral Yi Sunshin, who became the head of the Navy, cut off the invaders' naval lifeline and defeated the Japanese fleet, reversing the war in favor of Joseon. Admiral Yi is credited with the creation of the Turtle Ship. By the end of 19th century, the Joseon Navy had no significant naval force other than coastal defense fortresses. Although there was an attempt to modernize the navy by establishing a royal naval school, the Joseon Navy was brought to an end in 1895. In 1903, the government of the Korean Empire purchased the Yangmu.
Korean naval tradition was disrupted after Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan in 1910. During the Japanese occupation period, the Imperial Japanese Navy built a naval base - Chinkai Guard District in southern Korea. Shortly after Korea was liberated from the Empire of Japan on August 15, 1945, Sohn Won-yil, a former merchant mariner and son of the methodist minister and independence activist Sohn Jung-do, led the Maritime Affairs Association; the Association evolved into the Marine Defense Group on November 11, 1945, the Group became the Korean Coast Guard, formed at Jinhae in June 1946. After the new Republic of Korea government was established on August 15, 1948, the Korean Coast Guard was formally renamed the Republic of Korea Navy, Sohn became the first Chief of Naval Operations of the ROK Navy on September 5, 1948. On April 15, 1949, the Republic of Korea Marine Corps was founded in Jinhae. In October 1949, the ROK Navy purchased a 600-ton submarine chaser, the former USS PC-823 with funds raised among its personnel.
She was renamed ROKS Baekdusan after Paektu Mountain, became "the first significant warship of the newly independent nation". The Korean War started with the North Korean army's surprise attack on Sunday, June 25, 1950; the ROK Navy confronted threats from the North Korean navy: "Perhaps the most aggressive and effective, if smallest, member of the South Korean armed services during the first year of the Korean War was the Republic of Korea Navy. At the outset of the conflict, the 6,956-man ROKN, with naval vessels of various types, was outnumbered by the 13,700 men and 110 naval vessels of the North Korean navy." With its UN allies, dominated by U. S. forces, the ROK Navy was able to gain control in the seas surrounding the country. On July 27, 1953, the three-year-long war was brought to an end when an armistice agreement was signed. During the war, Canada, Philippines, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States contributed naval vessels as UN allies; the Commander-in-Chief Republic of Korea Fleet, the highest operational command, was established in September 1953.
After the Korean War, the ROK Navy built up its surface fleet with World War II-era warships loaned from the United States Navy. In May 1963, the ROK Navy acquired its first destroyer, ROKS Chungmu, a Fletcher-class destroyer
Malta
Malta known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy, 284 km east of Tunisia, 333 km north of Libya. With a population of about 475,000 over an area of 316 km2, Malta is the world's tenth smallest and fifth most densely populated country, its capital is Valletta, the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at 0.8 km.2 The official languages are Maltese and English, with Maltese recognised as the national language and the only Semitic language in the European Union. Malta has been inhabited since 5900 BC, its location in the centre of the Mediterranean has given it great strategic importance as a naval base, with a succession of powers having contested and ruled the islands, including the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Greeks, Normans, Knights of St. John and British. Most of these foreign influences have left some sort of mark on the country's ancient culture. Malta became a British colony in 1815, serving as a way station for ships and the headquarters for the British Mediterranean Fleet.
It played an important role in the Allied war effort during the Second World War, was subsequently awarded the George Cross for its bravery in the face of an Axis siege, the George Cross appears on Malta's national flag. The British Parliament passed the Malta Independence Act in 1964, giving Malta independence from the United Kingdom as the State of Malta, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and queen; the country became a republic in 1974. It has been a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations since independence, joined the European Union in 2004. Malta has a long Christian legacy and its Archdiocese is claimed to be an apostolic see because Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked on "Melita", according to Acts of the Apostles, now taken to be Malta. While Catholicism is the official religion in Malta, Article 40 of the Constitution states that "all persons in Malta shall have full freedom of conscience and enjoy the free exercise of their respective mode of religious worship."Malta is a popular tourist destination with its warm climate, numerous recreational areas, architectural and historical monuments, including three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni and seven megalithic temples which are some of the oldest free-standing structures in the world.
The origin of the name Malta is uncertain, the modern-day variation is derived from the Maltese language. The most common etymology is that the word Malta is derived from the Greek word μέλι, meli, "honey"; the ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning "honey-sweet" for Malta's unique production of honey. The Romans called the island Melita, which can be considered either a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα; this spelling is found in the New Testament. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth, "a haven", or'port' in reference to Malta's many bays and coves. Few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. Malta has been inhabited from around 5900 BC, since the arrival of settlers from the island of Sicily. A significant prehistoric Neolithic culture marked by Megalithic structures, which date back to c. 3600 BC, existed on the islands, as evidenced by the temples of Mnajdra and others.
The Phoenicians colonised Malta between 800 -- 700 BC, bringing their Semitic culture. They used the islands as an outpost from which they expanded sea explorations and trade in the Mediterranean until their successors, the Carthaginians, were ousted by the Romans in 216 BC with the help of the Maltese inhabitants, under whom Malta became a municipium. After a period of Byzantine rule and a probable sack by the Vandals, the islands were invaded by the Aghlabids in AD 870; the fate of the population after the Arab invasion is unclear but it seems the islands may have been depopulated and were to have been repopulated in the beginning of the second millennium by settlers from Arab-ruled Sicily who spoke Siculo-Arabic. The Muslim rule was ended by the Normans who conquered the island in 1091; the islands were re-Christianised by 1249. The islands were part of the Kingdom of Sicily until 1530, were controlled by the Capetian House of Anjou. In 1530 Charles I of Spain gave the Maltese islands to the Order of Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in perpetual lease.
The French under Napoleon took hold of the Maltese islands in 1798, although with the aid of the British the Maltese were able to oust French control two years later. The inhabitants subsequently asked Britain to assume sovereignty over the islands under the conditions laid out in a Declaration of Rights, stating that "his Majesty has no right to cede these Islands to any power...if he chooses to withdraw his protection, abandon his sovereignty, the right of electing another sovereign, or of the governing of these Islands, belongs to us, the inhabitants and aborigines alone, without control." As part of the Treaty of Paris in 1814, Malta became a British colony rejecting an attempted integration with the United Kingdom in 1956. Malta became independent on 21 September 1964. Under its 1964 constitution
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Dewar, Alfred (1922). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 31 (12th ed.). pp. 949–995.
Dewar, Alfred (1922). 
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