Switzerland
Switzerland the Swiss Confederation, is a country situated in western and southern Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities; the sovereign state is a federal republic bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning a total area of 41,285 km2. While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of 8.5 million people is concentrated on the plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the two global cities and economic centres Zürich and Geneva. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the late medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria and Burgundy. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648; the country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation.
It pursues an active foreign policy and is involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to numerous international organisations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, but notably not part of the European Union, the European Economic Area or the Eurozone. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties. Spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French and Romansh. Although the majority of the population are German-speaking, Swiss national identity is rooted in a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy, Alpine symbolism. Due to its linguistic diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names: Schweiz. On coins and stamps, the Latin name – shortened to "Helvetia" – is used instead of the four national languages.
Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Switzerland ranks at or near the top globally in several metrics of national performance, including government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic competitiveness and human development. Zürich and Basel have all three been ranked among the top ten cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the first ranked second globally, according to Mercer in 2018; the English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, an obsolete term for the Swiss, in use during the 16th to 19th centuries. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse in use since the 16th century; the name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, one of the Waldstätten cantons which formed the nucleus of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for "Confederates", used since the 14th century.
The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes perhaps related to swedan ‘to burn’, referring to the area of forest, burned and cleared to build; the name was extended to the area dominated by the canton, after the Swabian War of 1499 came to be used for the entire Confederation. The Swiss German name of the country, Schwiiz, is homophonous to that of the canton and the settlement, but distinguished by the use of the definite article; the Latin name Confoederatio Helvetica was neologized and introduced after the formation of the federal state in 1848, harking back to the Napoleonic Helvetic Republic, appearing on coins from 1879, inscribed on the Federal Palace in 1902 and after 1948 used in the official seal.. Helvetica is derived from the Helvetii, a Gaulish tribe living on the Swiss plateau before the Roman era. Helvetia appears as a national personification of the Swiss confederacy in the 17th century with a 1672 play by Johann Caspar Weissenbach.
Switzerland has existed as a state in its present form since the adoption of the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1848. The precursors of Switzerland established a protective alliance at the end of the 13th century, forming a loose confederation of states which persisted for centuries; the oldest traces of hominid existence in Switzerland date back about 150,000 years. The oldest known farming settlements in Switzerland, which were found at Gächlingen, have been dated to around 5300 BC; the earliest known cultural tribes of the area were members of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures, named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel. La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age from around 450 BC under some influence from the Gree
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Associated British Foods
Associated British Foods plc is a British multinational food processing and retailing company whose headquarters are in London. Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both sugar and baker's yeast and a major producer of other ingredients including emulsifiers and lactose, its grocery division is a major manufacturer of both branded and private label grocery products and includes the brands Mazola, Ryvita and Twinings. Its retail division, has around 345 stores with over 13,900,000 sq ft of selling space across Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, the United States. Associated British Foods is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index; the company was founded by Canadian W. Garfield Weston in 1935 as Food Investments Limited, with the name changing to Allied Bakeries Limited a month later. Between 1953 and 1956 ten national and regional bakery companies were acquired by Allied, including Barrett and Pomeroy, London and Provincial Bakeries.
The largest acquisition at this time was in 1955 when Allied bought the British operations of the Aerated Bread Company, founded in 1862. This acquisition included both the bakery business and the well-known chain of cafeterias, the A. B. C. Tearooms. Allied paid $8.1 million for A. B. C. At that time, Allied had a large share of the UK baked goods market. Allied's market share prior to acquiring A. B. C. was the sale of 20 million biscuits per day. Allied's sales the year prior were $154 million with profits of $12.6 million in current dollars). With the acquisition of A. B. C. Allied doubled its share of the UK's bread market by the end of the decade. Allied, under its new name, adopted in 1960, of Associated British Foods, continued to run A. B. C. as a separate brand after its takeover, with a major A. B. C. Bakery in Camden Town, London; this closed in 1982 and the A. B. C. Name was retired. In 1963 Associated British Foods acquired Fine Fare, a leading British supermarket chain. Following the death of the founder in 1978, control of the company was passed on to his son Garry, while the North American operations fell to his son Galen.
The company sold Fine Fare in 1991 went on to acquire British Sugar. In 1997 ABF sold its retail operations in Ireland to Tesco; these businesses were: Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices in the Republic of Ireland and Stewarts Supermarket Limited and Crazy Prices in Northern Ireland. This sale included the Stewarts Winebarrel off-licence chain, Lifestyle Sports & Leisure Ltd, Kingsway Fresh Foods and Daily Wrap Produce. In May 1994, Greggs acquired the Bakers Oven chain from the company. In 2000, the company sold its interests in Burton's Biscuits. In 2002, it acquired the Mazola corn oil, Argo & Kingsfords corn starch and Golden Griddle syrups, Henri's dressing brands, along with several Canadian brands, from Unilever. On 26 March 2011, Associated British Foods, its parent company Wittington Investments, were targeted over tax avoidance by UK Uncut during anti-cuts protests; the tax avoidance scheme involved moving capital between ABF/Primark and the affiliated Luxembourg entity ABF European Holdings & Co SNC by means of interest-free loans, avoiding tax of about £9.7 million per year.
The protest took the form of a mass sit-in in Mason. In February 2013, the firm denied "illegal and immoral" tax evasion after it was accused by an international charity of moving its profits outside Zambia to reduce its tax bill. ActionAid said Zambia Sugar, a unit of AB Foods, had made profits of $123 million since 2007 but had paid "virtually no corporate tax" in Zambia. In October 2013, the company denied being involved in unscrupulous uses of land, in an article containing reports of forced evictions by other companies. Charles Sinclair, Chairman. George G. Weston, Chief Executive Officer. John Bason, Finance Director. Peter Smith, Independent non-executive director. Michael Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme, Independent non-executive director. Timothy Clarke, Independent non-executive director. Javier Ferrán, Independent non-executive director. Emma Adamo, Independent non-executive director; some 54.5% of ABF is owned by Wittington Investments. 79.2% of the share capital of Wittington Investments is owned by the Garfield Weston Foundation, one of the UK's largest grant-making charitable trusts, the remainder is owned by members of the Weston family.
Wittington Investments owns Fortnum & Mason and Heal & Son. George G. Weston became chief executive of ABF on 1 April 2005, Galen Weston, the chief executive of George Weston Ltd. is a non-executive director. Garth Weston is Regional President of AB Mauri. Official website
Peterborough, Ontario
Peterborough is a city on the Otonabee River in Central Ontario, Canada, 125 kilometres northeast of Toronto and about 270 kilometers southwest of Ottawa. According to the 2016 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 81,032; the population of the Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area, which includes the surrounding Townships of Selwyn, Cavan Monaghan, Otonabee-South Monaghan, Douro-Dummer, was 121,721 in 2016. In 2016, Peterborough ranked No. 32 among the country’s 35 census metropolitan areas according to the CMA in Canada. Significant growth is expected starting in late 2019 when the Ontario Highway 407 extension is completed, connecting it to Highway 115/35 south of Peterborough; the current mayor of Peterborough is Diane Therrien. Peterborough is known as the gateway to the Kawarthas, "cottage country", a large recreational region of the province, it is named in honour of Peter Robinson, an early Canadian politician who oversaw the first major immigration to the area. The city is the seat of Peterborough County.
Peterborough's nickname in the distant past was "The Electric City" as it was the first town in Canada to use electric streetlights. It underscores the historical and present-day importance of technology and manufacturing as an economic base of the city, which has operations from large multi-national companies such as Siemens, Rolls-Royce Limited, General Electric, more local technology businesses such as Dynacast and Bryston. Electricity was one of the reasons Quaker Oats moved to the city, as part of PepsiCo, remains a major fixture in the downtown area. However, over the years the number of major manufacturing plants has declined, General Electric closed its last remaining facility in 2018; as a result, employment has been shifting toward the service industries and tourism is now the leading industry in the area. Peterborough is among the best places to retire in Ontario, according to some studies, which listed cultural activities and affordable living as some of the factors that attract seniors.
In 2017, the city was among the best places to invest in Canada according to Comfort Life magazine. First Nations groups entered into the area across Bering Sea, through Alaska, millennia ago. Woodland Natives inhabited the area circa 1000 BCE – 1000 CE, followed by Iroquois and Mississaugas circa 1740 CE. Two of the more prominent sites surviving from this time are the petroglyphs at Petroglyphs Provincial Park and Serpent Mounds; the petroglyphs are located northeast of Peterborough and are believed to have been carved by the Algonquin people between 900 and 1400 CE. The Serpent Mounds are located near Keene 30 km southeast of Peterborough in Otonabee-South Monaghan township, in an area first inhabited sometime before 10 CE. In 1615, Samuel de Champlain traveled through the area, coming down from Lake Chemong and portaging down a trail, approximated by present-day Chemong Road, to the Otonabee River and stayed for a brief time near the present-day site of Bridgenorth, just north of Peterborough.
In 1818, Adam Scott settled on the west shore of the Otonabee River. The following year he began construction of a sawmill and gristmill, establishing the area as Scott's Plains; the mill was located at the foot of present-day King Street and was powered by water from Jackson Creek. This location, adjacent to the Ontario government Ministry of Natural Resources building, Peterborough's Millennium Park may have been the site of landfall for a portage which connects in a direct line with Bridgenorth; the site has an Ojibway name "Nogojiwanong" which means "the place at the end of the rapids". The year 1825 marked the arrival of Irish immigrants from the city of Cork to Scott's Plains. In 1822, the British Parliament had approved an experimental emigration plan to transport poor Irish Catholic families to Upper Canada. Peter Robinson, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada and a prominent businessman from York, Upper Canada was the man who took on the emigration plan of 1825. Scott's Plains was renamed Peterborough in his honour.
Robinson interviewed individual males to make the long voyage. These families had to meet specific criteria in order to be eligible for the voyage; the specifics required for Robinson's settlers were that they had to be Catholic and with a knowledge of farming. Males had to be less than forty-five years of age and in good health and families were unrelated; the majority of the Irish emigrants were chosen from North Cork. Robinson was urged by landlords to remove the "pauper and undesirables", he resisted and stated that he had "no wish...to hold out a bounty to persons of bad character...but as Robinson traveled through the countryside they became flesh and blood'people of a good sort' he called them,'bred to farming... I found them much more intelligent. Most of them could read and write'". Thomas Poole, a nineteenth century writer, wrote that all 2024 passengers boarded nine ships in June 1825, with everything they owned, from Cork across the Atlantic Ocean to Quebec City; the journey took 30 days to cross the Atlantic and on board the ship they were provided with bunks and food rations.
Hard tack or ship biscuits were one of the many foods that were made to provide energy for the passengers. Hard tack was easy to make and could be stored for months without spoiling. After the settlers landed in Quebec City they traveled further down the St-Lawrence River reaching Lachine where they boarded a bateau. Heading west to Kingston and to Kingston and Cobourg, they camped in tents in Cobourg for several weeks until Peter Robinson joined them to lead them up to their final destination. The long voyage across the ocean was enough to weaken the emigra
Villa Park, Illinois
Villa Park is a village in DuPage County, United States, within the Chicago metropolitan area. The current population is 21,800; the Village of Villa Park is an inner western suburb of Chicago near the hub of eastern DuPage County's busiest transportation corridor, 14 miles from O’Hare International Airport and within 25 miles of Midway International Airport. Villa Park lays 19.7 miles directly west of Chicago's Loop, Villa Park provides direct access to downtown Chicago by car or Metra train and is convenient to both O’Hare and Midway Airports and the rest of the western suburbs due to its proximity to Interstate 290, Interstate 355, Interstate 294, Illinois Route 53, Illinois Route 83, Interstate 88, Illinois Route 38, famous North Avenue When Ovaltine established its factory, it needed a way to make sure that its employees could get to and from work safely regardless of the weather, terrain or other issues. Villa Park was built for that reason, as well as for a convenient train stop. Following the construction of a subdivision called Villa Park in 1908 and another called Ardmore in 1910 by the real estate firm Ballard & Pottinger, Villa Park was incorporated in 1914 by uniting the two subdivisions of 300 people.
The first village president, William H. Calhoun, was elected on September 12, 1914. Although the merged town was named after the Ardmore subdivision, the community changed its name to Villa Park in 1917. Villa Park was one of a number of suburbs directly west of downtown Chicago that flourished as a result of the electric interurban line, the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad; the railroad ran from the Chicago Loop, directly west to Wheaton, where it split into two lines, one traveling southwest to Aurora and the other northwest to Elgin. Two small commercial areas developed, one around the Villa Avenue station and the other around the Ardmore Avenue station. In 1957, the CA&E ceased to carry passengers because of a dramatic drop in ridership from the loss of a one-seat ride by the construction of the Eisenhower Expressway and the general increase in use of personal automobiles; the right-of-way was cleaned up and developed into a hiking and bicycling trail known as the Illinois Prairie Path.
The Ardmore Station is now home to the Chamber of Commerce, the Villa Avenue Station houses the Villa Park Historical Society. Villa Park was home to the Ovaltine chocolate factory until it closed in 1988, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as building #86003781. It has since been converted into loft apartments. Many of the residents are of Eastern European heritage, including Polish and Russian. There is a significant Hispanic heritage. A sizeable Muslim immigrant community began to gather in the area in the 1980s and 1990s and established the Islamic Foundation School in 1986. In September 2017, Villa Park was ranked #28 in Money Magazine's Best Places to Live in America. In October 2017, the Village was named by Money Magazine as the 8th Best Place in America to Raise a Family Now; the Daily Herald and NBC Chicago published stories on these distinctions. Villa Park has a manager-council government; the village manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the town.
The manager position is appointed by the Village Board of Trustees. The village is governed by six trustees, comprising the Village Board; the six trustees and the village clerk are elected on a rotating basis every two years so that not all the trustees are up for re-election at the same time. A list of elected officials holding office can be found on the Village's website at invillapark.com. Advising the Village Board on various issues are numerous commissions, composed of local residents appointed to the posts. Norma Berger, pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Tino Insana, voice actor, producer. According to the 2010 census, Villa Park has a total area of 4.759 square miles, of which 4.71 square miles is land and 0.049 square miles is water. As of the census of 2015, there were 21,800 people, 7,737 households, 5,748 families residing in the village; the population density was 4469 people per square mile. There were 8,199 housing units at an average density of 1060 per square mile.
The racial makeup of the village was 66% White, 5% Asian, 6% African American, 0% Native American, 0% Pacific Islander, 0% from other races, 1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 22% of the population. 15.9% of the population is foreign born US Census with 16% coming from Europe, 27% from Asia, 1% from Africa, 56% from Latin America. There were 7,810 households out of which 36.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.1% were married couples living together, 9.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 26.4% were non-families. 21.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.1% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.30. In the village, the population was spread out with 26.9% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24
Sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. The various types of sugar are derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose and galactose. "Table sugar" or "granulated sugar" refers to a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. In the body, sucrose is hydrolysed into glucose. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants, but sucrose is concentrated in sugarcane and sugar beet, making them ideal for efficient commercial extraction to make refined sugar. Sugarcane originated in tropical Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, is known of from before 6,000 BP, sugar beet was first described in writing by Olivier de Serres and originated in southwestern and Southeast Europe along the Atlantic coasts and the Mediterranean Sea, in North Africa, Macaronesia, to Western Asia. In 2016, the combined world production of those two crops was about two billion tonnes. Other disaccharides include lactose. Longer chains of sugar molecules are called polysaccharides.
Some other chemical substances, such as glycerol and sugar alcohols, may have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugar. Sucrose is used in prepared foods, is sometimes added to commercially available beverages, may be used by people as a sweetener for foods and beverages; the average person consumes about 24 kilograms of sugar each year, or 33.1 kilograms in developed countries, equivalent to over 260 food calories per day. As sugar consumption grew in the latter part of the 20th century, researchers began to examine whether a diet high in sugar refined sugar, was damaging to human health. Excessive consumption of sugar has been implicated in the onset of obesity, cardiovascular disease and tooth decay. Numerous studies have tried to clarify those implications, but with varying results because of the difficulty of finding populations for use as controls that consume little or no sugar. In 2015, the World Health Organization recommended that adults and children reduce their intake of free sugars to less than 10%, encouraged a reduction to below 5%, of their total energy intake.
The etymology reflects the spread of the commodity. From Sanskrit शर्करा, meaning "ground or candied sugar," "grit, gravel", came Persian shakar, whence Arabic سكر, whence Medieval Latin succarum, whence 12th-century French sucre, whence the English word sugar. Italian zucchero, Spanish azúcar, Portuguese açúcar came directly from Arabic, the Spanish and Portuguese words retaining the Arabic definite article; the earliest Greek word attested is σάκχαρις. The English word jaggery, a coarse brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin: Portuguese jágara from the Malayalam ചക്കരാ, itself from the Sanskrit शर्करा. Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times and its cultivation spread from there into modern-day Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass, it was not plentiful or cheap in early times, in most parts of the world, honey was more used for sweetening. People chewed raw sugarcane to extract its sweetness. Sugarcane was a native of Southeast Asia.
Different species seem to have originated from different locations with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum coming from New Guinea. One of the earliest historical references to sugarcane is in Chinese manuscripts dating to 8th century BCE, which state that the use of sugarcane originated in India. In the tradition of Indian medicine, the sugarcane is known by the name Ikṣu and the sugarcane juice is known as Phāṇita, its varieties and characterics are defined in nighaṇṭus such as the Bhāvaprakāśa. Sugar remained unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store and to transport. Crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century CE. In the local Indian language, these crystals were called khanda, the source of the word candy. Indian sailors, who carried clarified butter and sugar as supplies, introduced knowledge of sugar along the various trade routes they travelled.
Traveling Buddhist monks took sugar crystallization methods to China. During the reign of Harsha in North India, Indian envoys in Tang China taught methods of cultivating sugarcane after Emperor Taizong of Tang made known his interest in sugar. China established its first sugarcane plantations in the seventh century. Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 CE, to obtain technology for sugar refining. In the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and China, sugar became a staple of cooking and desserts. Nearchus, admiral of Alexander of Macedonia, knew of sugar during the year 325 B. C. because of his participation in the campaign of India led by Alexander. The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the 1st century CE described sugar in his medical treatise De Materia Medica, Pliny the Elder, a 1st-century CE Roman, described sugar in his Natural History: "Sugar is made in Arabia as well, but Indian sugar is better, it is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, it crunches between the teeth.
It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut. Sugar is used only for medical purposes." Crusaders brought sugar back to Europe after their campaigns in the Hol
Kings Langley
Kings Langley is a historic village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, 21 miles northwest of central London to the south of the Chiltern Hills and now part of the London commuter belt. The village is divided between two local government districts by the River Gade with the larger western portion in the Borough of Dacorum and smaller part, to the east of the river, in Three Rivers District, it was once the location of Kings Langley Palace, a royal palace of the Plantagenet kings of England. The 12th century parish church of All Saints' houses the tomb of Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York, it is 2 miles north of Watford. The place-name Langley is first attested here in a Saxon charter of circa 1050, where it appears as Langalega, it is spelt Langelai in the Domesday Book of 1086, is recorded as Langel' Regis in 1254. The name means'long wood or clearing'. A Roman villa has been excavated just south of the village; the town was part of the lands of the Abbey of St. Albans, although actual records have been lost.
At the Norman conquest the manor was given to William's half brother Robert, Count of Mortain who let it to one Ralf. It is around the manor that the present village developed as a linear village lying on the old road from London to Berkhamsted and the Midlands of England. In the Domesday Book of 1086, Langley was in the hundred of Danish. Around 1276, the manor was purchased by Queen Eleanor and a palace was built on the hill above the village to its west with a deer park extending to its south; this gave the village its link to royalty, first being renamed Langley Regina after its sponsoring queen, later changed to Langley Regis or still by the added epithet "Kings". The village remained the location of Kings Langley Palace, a royal palace of the Plantagenet kings of England: a Dominican priory was founded next to the palace and remains of this can still be seen; the palace and the grand church that accompanied the priory fell into disrepair at the Dissolution of the Monasteries and little remains above ground level.
The Church of All Saints was built during the 14th century on the site of an earlier church. The body of King Richard II was buried here for a time after his probable murder at Pontefract Castle in 1400, it was removed to Westminster Abbey. The body of Edmund of Langley, died 1402, the fifth son of Edward III and the first Duke of York, still rests in the memorial chapel; the 18th century Sparrows Herne turnpike road traversed the Chilterns via the valley of the River Gade and ran down the village high street. The 16th century Saracen's Head public house is a coaching inn; the Grand Union Canal dating from 1797, the 1838, London and Birmingham Railway which became the West Coast Main Line, pass just east of the village at Kings Langley railway station. There are many businesses located near the station in Home Park Industrial Estate, the site of the Construction and Engineering Centre of West Herts College.20th century housing developments have led to the village spreading out on either side of the main road.
The A41 has now been diverted west of the village leaving the high street to local traffic for the first time in centuries. During the Second World War, the village was home to the secret headquarters in Britain of the Polish Underground army based at Barnes Lodge just off the Hempstead Road near Rucklers Lane. Kings Langley was the site of the factory making Ovaltine; the Ovaltine factory itself has been converted into a series of duplexes. The former Ovaltine Egg Farm was converted into energy-efficient offices which house Renewable Energy Systems; the complex incorporates a visible 225 kW Vestas V29 wind turbine alongside the M25. Kings Langley School is the local comprehensive school, situated on Love Lane to the west of the village. Kings Langley is the site of a Waldorf School, the Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley; this is built on the grounds of the old palace, of which only a small basement part of a pillar remains to be seen. There is a small display cabinet of finds from the palace period in the school entrance foyer.
The village became twinned with Achiet-le-Grand in France in November 2009, in honour of Christopher Cox from the village who won a Victoria Cross in fighting near Achiet-le-Grand in the First World War. The M25, the London orbital motorway, passes just south of the village on an imposing viaduct across the River Gade valley. To the north of junction 20 with the A41, a dual-carriageway bypasses Kings Langley and continues to the south of Tring where it flows into the original motorway-standard by-pass; the old route through Kings Langley is now classified the A4251. Just to the north of Kings Langley is a small village called Rucklers Lane, named after the road it is built on; the origin of the settlement in the early 20th century was the construction of a number of mock tudor houses for the workers on the nearby Shendish Manor estate. A community hall was built for the workers in 1909 as a memorial to Arthur Longman, the owner of the estate. Further west along the lane is Phasels Wood Scout Camp and Activity Centre which opened in 1937.
William Shakespeare's Richard II, Act III, Scene IV, is set in the garden of the palace at Langley. Emily Sarah Holt's novel The White Rose of Langley has many scenes in the palace. In the 2010 book Beautiful Darkness the character Olivia Durand is fr
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