1.
Viscount
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A viscount or viscountess is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status, but historically deemed to convey a lower-middling rank. In many countries a viscount, and its equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial position. In the case of French viscounts, it is customary to leave the title untranslated as vicomte, the word viscount comes from Old French visconte, itself from Medieval Latin vicecomitem, accusative of vicecomes, from Late Latin vice- deputy + Latin comes. During the Carolingian Empire, the kings appointed counts to administer provinces and other regions, as governors. Viscounts were appointed to assist the counts in their running of the province, the kings strictly prevented the offices of their counts and viscounts from becoming hereditary, in order to consolidate their position and limit chance of rebellion. The title was in use in Normandy by at least the eleventh century. Similar to the Carolingian use of the title, the Norman viscounts were local administrators and their role was to administer justice and to collect taxes and revenues, often being castellan of the local castle. Under the Normans, the position developed into a hereditary one, the viscount was eventually replaced by bailiffs, and provosts. As a rank in British peerage, it was first recorded in 1440, the word viscount corresponds in the UK to the Anglo-Saxon shire reeve. A viscount is the rank in the British peerage system, standing below an earl. There are approximately 270 viscountcies currently extant in the peerages of the British Isles, an exception exists for Viscounts in the peerage of Scotland, who were traditionally styled The Viscount of, such as the Viscount of Arbuthnott. In practice, however, very few maintain this style, instead using the common version The Viscount in general parlance. A British viscount is addressed in speech as Lord, while his wife is Lady, the children of a viscount are known as The Honourable. A specifically British custom is the use of viscount as a title for the heir of an earl or marquess. The peers heir apparent will sometimes be referred to as a viscount, for example, the eldest son of the Earl Howe is Viscount Curzon, because this is the second most senior title held by the Earl. However, the son of a marquess or an earl can be referred to as a viscount when the title of viscount is not the second most senior if those above it share their name with the substantive title. For example, the second most senior title of the Marquess of Salisbury is the Earl of Salisbury, sometimes the son of a peer can be referred to as a viscount even when he could use a more senior courtesy title which differs in name from the substantive title. Family tradition plays a role in this, for example, the eldest son of the Marquess of Londonderry is Viscount Castlereagh, even though the Marquess is also the Earl Vane
2.
Barras, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
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Barras is a French commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region of south-eastern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Barrasiens or Barrasiennes, Barras is located some 6 km west of Digne-les-Bains and 14 km south-east of Sisteron. The highest point in the commune is the summit of Ruth, apart from the village there are the hamlets of Les Bourguignons and Les Beauduns. The commune is farmland on a fairly rugged landscape. Les Duyes stream forms the border of the commune as it flows south to join the Bléone west of Les Grillons. The Ravin de Vaunaves forms most of the border as it flows south-east to join Les Duyes. The Ravin de Fulgon and the Ravin de Rostan rise in the west of the commune, the Ravin de Barbarine forms part of the western border of the commune as it flows south to join Les Duyes in the south-eastern corner of the commune. A list of online mapping systems can be displayed by clicking on the coordinates in the top right corner of this article. None of the 200 communes in the department is in a no seismic risk zone, there is no plan for prevention of foreseeable natural risks for the commune and there is no DICRIM. The commune was the subject of two natural disaster orders in 1994 for floods and mudslides, the locality appears for the first time in texts in 1202. According to Charles Rostaing it is from an oronymic root *BAR, according to Ernest Negro it comes from the Gallic barro with the augmentative suffix -as. The toponym La Garde, above Tournefort, may refer to a settlement of the 9th - 10th century. In Ancient times, the Bodiontici populated the Bléone valley and its tributaries as well as the Gauls who lived in the current commune of Barras, the Bodiontici were defeated by Augustus at the same time as the other peoples present on the Tropaeum Alpium. Barras was attached to the province of Alpes-Maritimes at the time of its creation, an ancient settlement has been found at Saint-Pierre and Chapelier south of the village. The priory of Ganagobie Abbey existed in the 11th century, in 1070 a person named Féraud donated the fiefdom of Beaucouse to the Abbey of Saint-Victor of Marseille. Most of the territory of Barras was part of this fief so Barras had the Abbey Saint-Victor as lord, at that time there was a large estate in Saint Domnin where the abbey installed a priory which passed to the Bishop of Gap in the 14th century. The medieval community in Barras was characterized by scattered settlements and it was heavily depopulated by the crises of the 14th century and the population was completely eliminated in 1471. The smaller fief of Barras belonged to the counts of Provence until 1297 when Charles II of Naples gave it to a family which took the name of the fief
3.
French Directory
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It gave its name to the final four years of the French Revolution. The Directory was continually at war with foreign coalitions which at different times included Britain, Austria, Prussia, the Kingdom of Naples, Russia and it annexed Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine, while Bonaparte conquered a large part of Italy. The Directory established six short-lived sister republics modelled after France, in Italy, Switzerland, the conquered cities and states were required to send to France huge amounts of money, as well as art treasures, which were used to fill the new Louvre museum in Paris. An army led by Bonaparte conquered Egypt and marched as far as Saint-Jean-dAcre in Syria, the French economy was in continual crisis during the Directory. At the beginning, the treasury was empty, the money, the Assignat, had fallen to a fraction of its value. The Directory stopped printing assignats and restored the value of the money, but this caused a new crisis, prices and wages fell, and economic activity slowed to a standstill. The Jacobin political club was closed and the government crushed an uprising planned by the Jacobins. The Jacobins took two seats in the Directory, hopelessly dividing it. In 1799, after several defeats, French victories in the Netherlands and Switzerland restored the French military position, Bonaparte returned from Egypt in October, and was engaged by the Abbé Sieyès and other moderates to carry out a parliamentary coup détat on 8–9 November 1799. The coup abolished the Directory, put the French Consulate led by Bonaparte in its place, Robespierre and his leading followers were declared outside the law, and on 28 July were arrested, and guillotined the same day. The Terror quickly came to a halt, the Revolutionary Tribunal, which had sent thousands to the guillotine, ceased meeting and its head, Fouquier-Tinville, was arrested and imprisoned, and after trial was himself guillotined. More than five hundred suspected counter-revolutionaries awaiting trial and execution were immediately released, in the wake of these events, the members of the Convention began planning an entirely new form of government. They wished to continue the Revolution, but without its excesses and this executive will have a force concentrated enough that it will be swift and firm, but divided enough to make it impossible for any member to even consider becoming a tyrant. A single chief would be dangerous, each member will preside for three months, he will have during this time the signature and seal of the head of state. By the slow and gradual replacement of members of the Directory, you will preserve the advantages of order and continuity and will have the advantages of unity without the inconveniences. To assure that the Directors would have some independence, each would be elected by one portion of the legislature, the members of this legislature had a term of three years, with one-third of the members renewed every year. The Ancients could not initiate new laws, but could veto those proposed by the Council of Five Hundred, the new Constitution required the Council of 500 to prepare, by secret ballot, a list of candidates for the Directory. The Council of the Ancients then chose, again by secret ballot, the Constitution required that Directors be at least forty years old
4.
Committee of Public Safety
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The Committee of Public Safety succeeded the previous Committee of General Defence and assumed its role of protecting the newly established republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion. As a wartime measure, the Committee—composed at first of nine, and later of twelve, members—was given broad powers over military, judicial. It was formed as a body to supervise and expedite the work of the executive bodies of the Convention. As the Committee tried to meet the dangers of a coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within the country, in July 1793, following the defeat at the Convention of the Girondins, the prominent leaders of the radical Jacobins—Maximilien Robespierre and Saint-Just —were added to the Committee. The power of the Committee peaked between August 1793 and July 1794, in December 1793, the Convention formally conferred executive power upon the Committee. The execution of Robespierre in July 1794 represented a period against the Committee of Public Safety. This is known as the Thermidorian Reaction, as Robespierres fall from power occurred during the Revolutionary month of Thermidor, the Committees influence diminished, and it was disestablished in 1795. News of his defection caused alarm in Paris, where imminent defeat by the Austrians, the betrayal of the revolutionary government by Dumouriez lent greater credence to this belief. In light of this threat, the Girondin leader Maximin Isnard proposed the creation of a nine-member Committee of Public Safety. Isnard was supported in this effort by Georges Danton, who declared, This Committee is precisely what we want, the Committee was formally created on 6 April 1793. Closely associated with the leadership of Danton, it was known as the Danton Committee. Danton steered the Committee through the 31 May and 2 June 1793 journées that resulted in the fall of the Girondins, however, when the Committee was recomposed on 10 July, Danton was not included. Nevertheless, he continued to support the centralization of power by the Committee, on 27 July 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the Committee. At this time, the Committee was entering a powerful and active phase, which would see it become a de facto dictatorship alongside its powerful partner. The broad and centralized powers of the Committee were codified by the Law of 14 Frimaire on 4 December 1793, Hérault de Séchelles—a friend and ally of Danton—was expelled from the Committee of Public Safety, arrested, and tried alongside them. On 5 April 1794, the Dantonists went to the guillotine, certainly the strength of the committees had been made evident, as had their ability to control and silence opposition. The Law of 14 Frimaire was enacted in December 1793 to centralize, the law enumerated various forms of public enemies, made mandatory their denunciation, and severely limited the legal recourse available to those accused. The punishment for all crimes under the Law of 22 Prairal was death, from the initiation of this law to the fall of Robespierre on 27 July, more people were condemned to death than in the entire previous history of the Revolutionary Tribunal
5.
French Consulate
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The Consulate was the government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804. By extension, the term The Consulate also refers to period of French history. Due to the institutions established during these years, Robert B. Holtman has called the Consulate one of the most important periods of all French history, Napoleon brought authoritarian personal rule which has been viewed as military dictatorship. French military disasters in 1798 and 1799 had shaken the Directory, an irregularity emerged in the election of Jean Baptiste Treilhard, who retired in favor of Louis Jérôme Gohier. Within days, Philippe-Antoine Merlin and Louis-Marie de La Revellière were driven to resign, Baron Jean-François-Auguste Moulin, the three new directors were generally seen as non-entities. A few more military disasters, royalist insurrections in the south, Chouan disturbances in a dozen departments of the part of France, Orléanist intrigues. In order to soothe the populace and protect the frontier, more than the French Revolutions usual terrorist measures was necessary, the new Directory government, led by Sieyès, decided that the necessary revision of the constitution would require a head and a sword. Jean Victor Moreau being unattainable as his sword, Sieyès favoured Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, but, success was reserved for Bonaparte, suddenly landing at Fréjus with the prestige of his victories in the East, and now, after Hoches death, appearing as sole master of the armies. In the coup of 18 Brumaire Year VIII, Napoleon seized French parliamentary and military power in a two-fold coup détat, the initial 18 Brumaire coup seemed to be a victory for Sieyès, rather than for Bonaparte. Sieyès was a proponent of a new system of government for the Republic, Bonapartes cleverness lay in counterposing Pierre Claude François Daunous plan to that of Sieyès, and in retaining only those portions of both which could serve his ambition. Ultimate executive authority was vested in three consuls, who were elected for ten years, popular suffrage was retained, though mutilated by the lists of notables. Napoleon vetoed Sieyès original idea of having a single Grand Elector as supreme executive, Sieyès had intended to reserve this important position for himself, and by denying him the job Napoleon helped reinforce the authority of the consuls, an office which he would assume. Nor was Napoleon content simply to be part of an equal triumvirate, by consolidating power, Bonaparte was able to transform the aristocratic constitution of Sieyès into an unavowed dictatorship. On 7 February 1800, a referendum confirmed the new constitution. It vested all of the power in the hands of the First Consul. A full 99. 9% of voters approved the motion, according to the released results and he gave everyone a feeling that France was governed once more by a real statesman, and that a competent government was finally in charge. Bonaparte had now to rid himself of Sieyès and of those republicans who had no desire to hand over the republic to one man, particularly of Moreau and Masséna, his military rivals
6.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
7.
National Convention
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The National Convention was the third government of the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly. Created after the insurrection of 10 August 1792, it was the first French government organized as a republic. The Convention sat as an assembly from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by a suffrage without distinctions of class, although the Convention lasted until 1795, power was effectively stripped from the elected deputies and concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793. After the fall of Robespierre, the Convention lasted for year until a new constitution was written. The election took place from 2 to 6 September 1792 after the election of the colleges by primary assemblies on 26 August. Therefore, the increased suffrage had very little impact, the electorate returned the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in 1791. In the whole of France, only eleven primary assemblies wanted to retain the monarchy, of the electoral assemblies, all tacitly voted for a republic – though only Paris used the word. None of the deputies stood as a royalist for elections, out of the five million Frenchmen able to vote, only a million showed up at the polls. The Salle des Machines had galleries for the public who often influenced the debates with interruptions or applause, the members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. 75 members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly,183 in the Legislative Assembly, the full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the French colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris in time. Besides these, however, the newly formed départements annexed to France from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputations, according to its own ruling, the Convention elected its President every fortnight, and the outgoing President was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative the Convention used committees, with more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these included the Committee of Public Safety. The Convention held legislative and executive powers during the first years of the French First Republic and had three periods, Girondin, Montagnard or Jacobin, and Thermidorian. The abolition of the royalty is a matter you cannot put off till tomorrow, the first session was held on 20 September 1792. The following day, amidst profound silence, the proposition was put to the assembly, on the 22nd came the news of the Battle of Valmy
8.
Var (department)
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The Var is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region in Provence in southeastern France. It takes its name from the river Var, which used to flow along its eastern boundary, Toulon is the largest city and administrative capital of the Var. Other important towns in the Var include Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël, Draguignan, Brignoles, Hyères, the Department of the Var was created at the time of the French Revolution, on March 4,1790, from a portion of the former Royal province of Provence. Its capital was originally Toulon, but this was moved to Grasse in 1793 to punish the Toulonnais for having handed the town to the British in 1793, subsequently the capital was moved to Brignoles in 1795, then to Draguignan in 1797. It was not returned to Toulon until 1974,1815 - Following the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo the department was occupied by Austrian troops until November 1818. 1854 – The first railroad reaches Toulon and this move also shifted the Var River, which had given the department its name, to the new Department. 1884 – A cholera epidemic struck Toulon, the leader of the fight against the epidemic was Georges Clemenceau, a doctor and a member of the National Assembly for the Seine region. He was elected Deputy from the Var from 1888 to 1893 and Senator from 1902 to 1920, 1914–1918 – The First World War stimulates growth in shipyards and military industries in the region, but weakens the agricultural and food industry. 1942 – The German Army moves from Occupied France into the Unoccupied Zone, the French Fleet is sabotaged in Toulon Harbor to keep it from falling into German hands. The Maquis Vallier, a group of resistance fighters, is active. August 15,1944 – American and Free French forces land at Cap Nègre, at Trayas, at Saint-Tropez, at Sainte-Maxime, the Free French fleet arrived at Toulon on September 13. 1960s – About one hundred thousand French citizens were repatriated from Algeria following the Algerian War of Independence, the Department of the Var has a surface area of 6,032 km2, and 420 km of coastline, including the offshore islands. 56% of the Var is covered with forest and its geological formations are divided into two regions, one composed of limestone to the north-west of a line between Toulon and Draguignan, and of crystalline rock to the south-east. The department is in the foothills of the Alps and is largely mountainous, the major mountains include, Massif des Maures and Massif de lEsterel, along the coast, are made of quartz rock. The Sainte-Baume mountain ridge, which lies in the west, mountain of Lachens, in the northwest of the department, and the highest point in the Var. The Plateau of Canjuers is located in the northeast of the Var, in the south and west there are several plateaus, such as the plateau of Siou Blanc to the north of Toulon, which rise from 400 to 700 metres in altitude. The Canyon du Verdon, the gorges of the Verdon River, is a place for hikers, kayakers. The Îles dHyères is a group of three islands off Hyères The islands are named Porquerolles, Port-Cros, and Île du Levant, together, they make up an area of 26 km2
9.
Fox-Amphoux
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Fox-Amphoux is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region in south-eastern France. As with many smaller villages off the track and closer to the coast. The old church tower behind the square offers a magnificent 360-degree view of the valley. Paul Barras, president of the Directory and a figure of the French Revolution, was born in Fox-Amphoux in 1755. Another notable resident was the artist René Lacroix who had a gallery in the far end of the village and he exhibited works both in France and abroad, Lacroixs works are in private collections around the world. Communes of the Var department INSEE
10.
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and it was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia, the half of the Carolingian Empire. A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, the territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself Roi de France was Philip II, France continued to be ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 during the French Revolution. France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy, in Brittany and Catalonia the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France, during the Late Middle Ages, the Kings of England laid claim to the French throne, resulting in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. Subsequently, France sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain in the ensuing Italian Wars, religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion. France laid claim to large stretches of North America, known collectively as New France, Wars with Great Britain led to the loss of much of this territory by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America, the Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the great powers in 1814. During the later years of the elderly Charlemagnes rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks, after Charlemagnes death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France. Viking advances were allowed to increase, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine rivers and other waterways, wreaking havoc. During the reign of Charles the Simple, Normans under Rollo from Norway, were settled in an area on either side of the River Seine, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years. Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married Frances newly divorced ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne. The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line, under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman, so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois
11.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
12.
Bourbon Restoration
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The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history following the fall of Napoleon in 1814 until the July Revolution of 1830. The brothers of executed Louis XVI of France reigned in highly conservative fashion, and they were nonetheless unable to reverse most of the changes made by the French Revolution and Napoleon. At the Congress of Vienna they were treated respectfully, but had to give up all the gains made since 1789. King Louis XVI of the House of Bourbon had been overthrown and executed during the French Revolution, a coalition of European powers defeated Napoleon in the War of the Sixth Coalition, ended the First Empire in 1814, and restored the monarchy to the brothers of Louis XVI. The Bourbon Restoration lasted from 6 April 1814 until the uprisings of the July Revolution of 1830. There was an interlude in spring 1815—the Hundred Days—when the return of Napoleon forced the Bourbons to flee France, when Napoleon was again defeated by the Seventh Coalition they returned to power in July. During the Restoration, the new Bourbon regime was a monarchy, unlike the absolutist Ancien Régime. The period was characterized by a conservative reaction, and consequent minor but consistent occurrences of civil unrest. It also saw the reestablishment of the Catholic Church as a power in French politics. The eras of the French Revolution and Napoleon brought a series of changes to France which the Bourbon Restoration did not reverse. First of all, France became highly centralized, with all decisions made in Paris, the political geography was completely reorganized and made uniform. France was divided more than 80 departments, which have endured into the 21st century. Each department had an administrative structure, and was tightly controlled by a prefect appointed by Paris. The Catholic Church lost all its lands and buildings during the Revolution, the bishop still ruled his diocese, and communicated with the pope through the government in Paris. Bishops, priests, nuns and other people were paid salaries by the state. All the old rites and ceremonies were retained, and the government maintained the religious buildings. The Church was allowed to operate its own seminaries and to some extent local schools as well, bishops were much less powerful than before, and had no political voice. However, the Catholic Church reinvented itself and put a new emphasis on personal religiosity that gave it a hold on the psychology of the faithful, education was centralized, with the Grand Master of the University of France controlling every element of the entire educational system from Paris
13.
The Mountain
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The Mountain was a political group during the French Revolution whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly. They were the most radical group and opposed the Girondists, the term, which was first used during a session of the Legislative Assembly, came into general use in 1793. Led by Maximilien Robespierre, the Montagnards unleashed the Reign of Terror in 1793 and it is difficult to pinpoint the conception of the Montagnard group, because the lines which defined it were themselves quite nebulous early on. Originally, members of The Mountain were the men who sat in the highest rows of the Jacobin Clubs, loosely organized political debate clubs open to the public. It was only after the trial of Louis XVI in December 1792, which united the Montagnards on a position of regicide, the rise of Montagnards corresponds to the fall of the Girondins. The Girondin party hesitated on the course of action to take with Louis XVI after his attempt to flee France on 20 June 1791. Some elements of the Girondin party believed they could use the king as figurehead, while the Girondins hesitated, the Montagnards took a united stand during the trial in December 1792 – January 1793 and favored the kings execution. Riding on this victory, the Montagnards then sought to discredit the Girondins and they used tactics previously employed by the Girondins to denounce them as liars and enemies of the Revolution. They also formed a committee in which Nicolas Hentz proposed a limitation of inheritances. Girondin members were banned from the Jacobin club and excluded from the National Convention on 31 May-2 June 1793. Maximilien Robespierre then continued to consolidate his power over the Montagnards with the use of the Committee of Public Safety, the fall and exclusion of the Montagnards from the National Convention began with the collapse of the Revolutions radical phase and the death of Robespierre on 10 Thermidor 1794. The purge of Robespierre was strongly similar to previous measures employed by the Montagnards to expel disagreeable factions, however, as Robespierre was widely considered the heart of the Montagnards, his death symbolized the collapse of the party. Few desired to take on the name of Montagnards afterwards, leaving only about 100 men. Finally, at the end of 1794, the Mountain largely devolved into a party called The Crest, the Mountain was born in 1792, with the merger of two prominent left-wing clubs, the Jacobins and Cordeliers. After the trial of Girondists in 1793, Danton became strongly moderate while Robespierre continued his authoritarian policies, the Moderates of Danton were also rival to the Jacques Héberts Enragés, that wanted the persecution of the all non-montagnards and the dechristianisation of France. The Montagnards that survived were arrested, executed or deported, from 1794 to 1795, the Mountain was effectively obliterated. A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, jeremy D. Popkin, A Short History of the French Revolution, 5th ed. Marisa Linton, Choosing Terror, Virtue, Friendship, and Authenticity in the French Revolution. The Making of an Insurrection, Parisian Sections and the Gironde, N. F. Dryhurst The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793
14.
Sophie Arnould
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Sophie Arnould was a French operatic soprano. Born Magdeleine Sophie Arnould, she studied in Paris with Marie Fel and La Clairon and she created for Christoph Wilibald Gluck the roles of Eurydice in Orphée et Eurydice and the title role in Iphigénie en Aulide. She also obtained considerable success in operas by Jean-Philippe Rameau, François Francoeur, according to her contemporaries, her voice was more beautiful than powerful, but she was a passionate actress. Her lack of discipline in both her professional and personal life led to a premature vocal decline, however, she was able to retire in 1778 with an enviable pension of 2000 pounds. She was much in demand in Parisian society, and legend has it that Madame de Pompadour told her With such talents and she was painted by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, and left her Souvenirs and an abundant correspondence. French composer Gabriel Pierné wrote an opera based on her tumultuous life entitled Sophie Arnould, le guide de lopéra, les indispensables de la musique, R. Mancini & J. J. Rouvereux, ISBN 2-213-01563-5 Francis Rogers, The Musical Quarterly, Vol.6, No
15.
Officer (armed forces)
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An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. In this sense, officers are not enlisted, but hold appointments from their government that typically remain in force indefinitely unless resigned, the proportion of officers varies greatly. Officers typically make up between an eighth and a fifth of modern armed forces personnel, in 2013, officers were the senior 17% of the British armed forces, and the senior 13. 7% of the French armed forces. In 2012, officers made up about 18% of the German armed forces, historically, however, armed forces have generally had much lower proportions of officers. During the First World War, fewer than 5% of British soldiers were officers, in the early twentieth century, the Spanish army had the highest proportion of officers of any European army, at 12. 5%. Within a nations armed forces, armies tend to have a proportion of officers. For example,13. 9% of British army personnel and 22. 2% of the RAF personnel were officers in 2013, having officers is one requirement for combatant status under the laws of war, though these officers need not have obtained an official commission or warrant. Commissioned officers are typically the only persons, in an armed forces environment, a superior officer is an officer with a higher rank than another officer, who is a subordinate officer relative to the superior. Non-commissioned officers in positions of authority can be said to have control or charge rather than command per se, many advanced militaries require university degrees as a prerequisite for commissioning, even from the enlisted ranks. In the Israel Defense Forces, a university degree is a requirement for an officer to advance to the rank of lieutenant colonel, the IDF often sponsors the studies for its majors, while aircrew and naval officers obtain academic degrees as a part of their training programmes. In the United Kingdom, there are three routes of entry for British Armed Forces officers, the first, and primary route are those who receive their commission directly into the officer grades following completion at their relevant military academy. The third route is similar to the second, in that they convert from an enlisted to a commission, but these are taken from the highest ranks of SNCOs. LE officers, whilst holding the same Queens Commission, generally work in different roles from the DE officers, in the infantry, a number of Warrant Officer Class 1s are commissioned as LE officers. For Royal Navy and Royal Air Force officer candidates, a 30-week period at Britannia Royal Naval College or a 30-week period at RAF College Cranwell, Royal Marines officers receive their training in the Command Wing of the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines during a grueling 15-month course. The courses consist of not only tactical and combat training, but also leadership, management, etiquette, until the Cardwell Reforms of 1871, commissions in the British Army were purchased by officers. The Royal Navy, however, operated on a more meritocratic, or at least socially mobile, AOCS also also included the embedded Aviation Reserve Officer Candidate and Naval Aviation Cadet programs. NAVCADs were personnel who held associates degrees, but lacked bachelors degrees, nAVCADs would complete the entire AOCS program, but would not be commissioned until completion of flight training and receiving their wings. After their initial tour, they would be assigned to a college or university full-time for no more than two years in order to complete their bachelors degree
16.
54th Infantry Regiment (France)
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The 54th Infantry Regiment is a line infantry regiment of the French Army. It was formed in 1657 during the Ancien Régime as the régiment Mazarin-Catalans, the regiment was recruited in the regions of Perpignan, Roussillon and Catalonia. The regiment served at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession, a second battalion of the Royal Roussillon served in Germany. In 1756, the 54th Infantry Regiments uniform was white with blue facings, five gilded buttons for the linings, the battalion arrived in New France in May 1756, and was originally posted to Montreal, with the exception of a detachment that was sent to Fort Carillon. It fought at the Battle of Fort William Henry, after that victory, the regiment took part in the 1758 Battle of Carillon. It then went to Quebec City to defend the city, the regiment participated in the battles of Montmorency, the Plains of Abraham and Sainte-Foy. In 1791, just before the French Revolution, it lost its title and first became the 54th Line Infantry Regiment. From 1796, it was made up of the 43e demi-brigade de bataille, in 1803, it reverted to its title of 54th Line Infantry Regiment. Distinguished at Barossa and led the assault on Le Haye Sainte at Waterloo, one battalion was present in the Wagram campaign. Between 1804 and 1815, it lost 23 officers killed,89 wounded and 14 died of wounds, during this period it fought at,1792, Battle of Valmy and Battle of Jemappes. 1794, Mainz – Battle of Mainz,1799, Battle of Bergen, Battle of Alkmaar. 1806, Crewitz and Battle of Lubeck,1807, Battle of Ostrołęka and Battle of Friedland. 1808, Battle of Espinosa and Battle of Somosierra,1809, Battle of Essling, Battle of Wagram, and Battle of Talavera-de-la-Reyna. 1811, Battle of Barossa, Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro,1812, Siege of Tarifa and Siege of Cadiz. 1813, Oignon, Battle of Vitoria, Battle of Maya, Battle of Dresden, Battle of Leipzig,1814, Battle of Bar-sur-Aube, Battle of Fère-Champenoise, and Maestricht. It became a ‘légion -Infanterie de ligne from 1816 to 1820, reverting to 54th Line Infantry Regiment from 1820 to 1854, from 1828 to 1833, it took part in the Morea expedition supporting Greek independence, especially the siege of the fort at Morea. It took part in 3rd and 4th Armies retreat, fighting from 5 to 13 September at Longwy, Vaux-Marie, Sommaisne, Rembercourt-aux-Pots, Mouilly and it then fought in the Calonne sector of the trenches from 22 September 1914 to 2 August 1915. Les Eparges was a sector, split between the regiments of Frances 12th Infantry Division
17.
Siege of Pondicherry (1778)
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The Siege of Pondicherry was the first military action on the Indian subcontinent following the declaration of war between Great Britain and France in the Anglo-French War. A British force besieged the French-controlled port of Puducherry in August 1778, following the American victory at Saratoga in October 1777, France decided to enter the American War of Independence as an ally to the United States. Word first reached the French Indian colony of Pondicherry in July 1778 that France and Britain had recalled their ambassadors, the British colonies had already received orders to seize the French possessions in India and begun military preparations. Pondicherry was the capital of French India and the largest of Frances possessions on the subcontinent, the British would capture all of the other possessions without resistance in 1778, only Pondicherry was actively defended. The French governor, General Guillaume de Bellecombe, had at his disposal about 700 French troops and 400 sepoys, Pondicherry, as was the case with a number of other European colonial outposts in India, changed hands due to military action several times in the colonial period. Attempts to significantly improve its defences after the last round of battles in the Seven Years War were frustrated by infighting in the French colonial administration. In 1778 the outer works of the city were largely incomplete, with significant elements unfinished, Bellecombe immediately set about improving the defences, working as quickly as possible in anticipation of British movements. Key gates were blocked, stockades and gun batteries were constructed along the shore, Bellecombe also received additional troops before the British arrived. The garrison from Karikal add about 100 sepoys to the defence, a small French navy was assembled to counteract the small British navy. Admiral Tronjoli took command of the 64-gun ship of the line Brillant, the British colonial administration in Madras placed General Hector Munro in command of an army of nearly 20,000 men, which began arriving within a few miles of Pondicherry on 8 August. By 20 August the full army had arrived, the city was surrounded, the first noteworthy exchange between the forces was a naval encounter. Admiral Edward Vernons fleet also consisted of five ships, carrying slightly less firepower than the French fleet, Vernon commanded the 60-gun ship of the line HMS Rippon, and was assisted by HMS Coventry, HMS Seahorse, HMS Cormorant, and the East India Companys ship Valentine. In a largely inconsequential two-hour engagement in which Tronjoli was wounded, on 14 August French ships spotted two unknown sails, they were transport ships of the British East India Company. Their captains, apparently unaware of the hostilities, sailed before Pondicherry with British flags flying, two of the French fleet, Pourvoyeuse and Sartine lazily gave chase. The British merchant ships escaped, but Sartine was captured when she strayed too close to the British squadron on 25 August. The loss of parity between the navies was partially made up by the arrival at Pondicherry of the 26-gun frigate Elizabeth, on 20 August, the British fleet, now six ships, appeared again. The French fleet, although it had been augmented by Elizabeth, was forced to leave Le Brisson in the due to damage sustained in the first engagement. The next day, Tronjoli sailed the rest of the fleet south, sources disagree on whether or not battle was offered or attempted on either side, but apparently no battle took place, and Tronjoli continued south
18.
French Revolution
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Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
19.
Provence
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The largest city of the region is Marseille. The Romans made the region into the first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it Provincia Romana and it was ruled by the Counts of Provence from their capital in Aix-en-Provence until 1481, when it became a province of the Kings of France. While it has been part of France for more than five hundred years, it retains a distinct cultural and linguistic identity. The coast of Provence has some of the earliest known sites of habitation in Europe. Primitive stone tools dated to 1 to 1.05 million years BC were found in the Grotte du Vallonnet near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, tools dating to the Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic were discovered in the Observatory Cave, in the Jardin Exotique of Monaco. The Paleolithic period in Provence saw great changes in the climate, with the arrival, at the beginning of the Paleolithic period, the sea level in western Provence was 150 meters higher than it is today. By the end of the Paleolithic, it had dropped 100 to 150 metres lower than sea level. The cave dwellings of the inhabitants of Provence were regularly inundated by the rising sea or left far from the sea. The changes in the sea led to one of the most remarkable discoveries of signs of early man in Provence. In 1985, a diver named Henri Cosquer discovered the mouth of a submarine cave 37 metres below the surface of the Calanque de Morgiou near Marseille, the entrance led to a cave above sea level. Inside, the walls of the Cosquer Cave are decorated with drawings of bison, seals, auks, horses and outlines of human hands, dating to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC. The end of the Paleolithic and beginning of the Neolithic period saw the sea settle at its present level, a warming of the climate and the retreat of the forests. The disappearance of the forests and the deer and other easily hunted game meant that the inhabitants of Provence had to survive on rabbits, snails, since they were settled in one place they were able to develop new industries. Inspired by the pottery from the eastern Mediterranean, in about 6000 BC they created the first pottery to be made in France. Around 6000 BC, a wave of new settlers from the east and they were farmers and warriors, and gradually displaced the earlier pastoral people from their lands. They were followed in about 2500 BC by another wave of people, also farmers, known as the Courronniens, traces of these early civilisations can be found in many parts of Provence. A Neolithic site dating to about 6,000 BC was discovered in Marseille near the Saint-Charles railway station, and a dolmen from the Bronze Age can be found near Draguignan. Between the 10th and 4th century BC the Ligures were found in Provence from Massilia as far as modern day Liguria and they were of uncertain origin, they may have been the descendants of the indigenous neolithic peoples
20.
Departments of France
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In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the administrative regions and the commune. There are 96 departments in metropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council. From 1800 to April 2015, they were called general councils, the departments were created in 1791 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity, the title department is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after geographical features rather than after historical or cultural territories which could have their own loyalties. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson and they have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. Most French departments are assigned a number, the Official Geographical Code. Some overseas departments have a three-digit number, the number is used, for example, in the postal code, and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates. For example, inhabitants of Loiret might refer to their department as the 45 and this reform project has since been abandoned. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René dArgenson to serve as administrative areas purely for the Ponts et Chaussées infrastructure administration, before the French Revolution, France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the close of the Ancien Régime, it was organised into provinces, during the period of the Revolution, these were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. Their boundaries served two purposes, Boundaries were chosen to break up Frances historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences, Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a days ride of the capital of the department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the national territory under close control. This measure was directly inspired by the Great Terror, during which the government had lost control of rural areas far from any centre of government. The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments, most were named after an areas principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine, the number of departments, initially 83, was increased to 130 by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire. Following Napoleons defeats in 1814-1815, the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size, in 1860, France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy, which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice, the 89 departments were given numbers based on their alphabetical order. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe, Moselle, Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871, following Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
21.
Languedoc
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Languedoc is a former province of France. Its territory is now contained in the region of Occitanie in the south of France. It had an area of approximately 27,376 square kilometers, the traditional provinces of the kingdom of France were not formally defined. A province was simply a territory of common traditions and customs, today, when people refer to the old provinces of France, they actually refer to the gouvernements as they existed in 1789. Gouvernements were military regions established in the middle of the 16th century, however, in some cases, small provinces had been merged with a large one into a single gouvernement, so gouvernements are not exactly the same as the traditional provinces. Historically, the region was called the county of Toulouse, a county independent from the kings of France. The county of Toulouse was made up of what would later be called Languedoc, but it included the province of Quercy. After the French conquest the entire county was dismantled, the part of it being now called Languedoc. The gouvernement of Languedoc was created in the middle of the 16th century, in addition to Languedoc proper, it also included the three small provinces of Gévaudan, Velay, and Vivarais, these three provinces being to the northeast of Languedoc. Some people also consider that the region around Albi was a province, called Albigeois. This decision was intentional, to avoid reviving the independently spirited county of Toulouse. In the rest of the article, Languedoc refers to the territory of this gouvernement of Languedoc, the governors of Languedoc resided in Pézenas, on the Mediterranean coast, away from Toulouse but close to Montpellier. The kings of France became fearful of the power of the governors, thus the gouvernements became hollow structures, but they still carried a sense of the old provinces, and so their names and limits have remained popular until today. The generality of Toulouse is also referred to as Upper Languedoc, while the generality of Montpellier, the intendants of Languedoc resided in Montpellier, and they had a sub-delegate in Toulouse. Montpellier was chosen on purpose to diminish the power of Toulouse, whose parlement was very influential, the intendants replaced the governors as administrators of Languedoc, but appointed and dismissed at will by the king, they were no threat to the central state in Versailles. By 1789 they were the most important element of the administration of the kingdom. For judicial and legislative matters, Languedoc was overseen by the Parlement of Toulouse and it was the first parlement created outside of Paris by the kings of France in order to be the equivalent of the Parlement of Paris in the far-away southern territories of the kingdom. The Parlement of Toulouse was the court of justice for this vast area of France
22.
Gentleman
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In modern parlance, the term gentleman refers to any man of good, courteous conduct. It may also refer to all men collectively, as in indications of gender-separated facilities, the modern female equivalent is lady. In its original meaning, the term denoted a man of the lowest rank of the English gentry, standing below an esquire, in this sense, the word equates with the French gentilhomme, which latter term has been, in Great Britain, long confined to the peerage. Maurice Keen points to the category of gentlemen in this context as thus constituting the nearest contemporary English equivalent of the noblesse of France, by social courtesy the designation came to include any well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus. To a degree, gentleman came to signify a man with a derived from property, a legacy, or some other source. The term was used of those who could not claim any other title or even the rank of esquire. Widening further, it became a politeness for all men, as in the phrase Ladies, chaucer, in the Meliboeus, says, Certes he sholde not be called a gentil man, that. For no creation could make a man of blood than he is. The word gentleman, used in the wide sense with which birth, William Harrison, writing in the late 1500s, says, gentlemen be those whom their race and blood, or at the least their virtues, do make noble and known. Being called also to the wars what soever it cost him, he will both array and arm himself accordingly, and show the more manly courage, and all the tokens of the person which he representeth. No man hath hurt by it but himself, who peradventure will go in wider buskins than his legs will bear, or as our proverb saith, now and then bear a bigger sail than his boat is able to sustain. In this way, Shakespeare himself was demonstrated, by the grant of his coat of arms, to be no vagabond, the inseparability of arms and gentility is shown by two of his characters, Petruchio, I swear Ill cuff you if you strike again. Katharine, So may you lose your arms, If you strike me, you are no gentleman, And if no gentleman, however, although only a gentleman could have a coat of arms, the coat of arms recognised rather than created the status. Thus, all armigers were gentlemen, but not all gentlemen were armigers, hence, Henry V, act IV, scene iii, For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother, be he neer so vile, This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed Shall think themselves accursd they were not here And hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks That fought with us upon St. Crispins Day. At the last, the wearing of a sword on all occasions was the outward and visible sign of a gentleman, the custom survives in the sword worn with court dress. The suggestion is discredited by an examination, in England, of the records of the High Court of Chivalry and, in Scotland, the Far East held similar ideas to the West of what a gentleman is, which are based on Confucian principles. The term Jūnzǐ is a crucial to classical Confucianism
23.
Cadet
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The term is frequently used to refer to those training to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. Its meaning may vary between countries, the term is also used in civilian contexts and as a general attributive, for example in its original sense of a branch of a ruling house which is not currently in the direct line of succession. The term comes from the French term cadet for younger sons of a noble family, in Commonwealth countries, including the United Kingdom, a cadet is a member of one of the cadet forces. In the United Kingdom these are the Combined Cadet Force, the Sea/Royal Marine Cadets, Army Cadets, Military officers in training are called officer cadets. In Canada, the term refers to an officer in training, with the official rank names as Officer Cadet for the Air Force and Army. It also refers to any member of the Royal Canadian Army Cadets and these three organizations are volunteer youth groups administered by the Department of National Defence. In Germany, the rank Cadet only exists in the German Navy for officers in training, in the Army and the Luftwaffe, officers in training usually have the rank of a Fahnenjunker or Ensign before they are promoted into the rank of a Lieutenant. Graduates of PMMA are given reserve officer status in the Philippine Navy, the term cadet is also applicable to the enrollees of Citizens Army Training and Reserve Officer Training Corps. Service academy cadets are thought to be between the NCO and Officers ranks, and NCO consider cadets as rank higher to them, in Ireland, a Cadet is a pupil of the Military College, which carries out officer training for the Air Corps, Army and Naval Service. Training takes two years and the Cadets are split into Senior and Junior Grades and Classes, in Norway, a cadet is a pupil of either of the three Krigsskolen, which educate commanding officers for either the Army, the Navy or to the Air Force. In the United States, cadet refers to a college student who is concurrently in training to become a commissioned officer of the armed forces. Some state-sponsored military colleges, including The Citadel, Virginia Military Institute and private college, Norwich University. In Australia Cadet also refers to an officer in training, the official rank is Officer Cadet however OCDTs in the Royal Military College—Duntroon are referred to as Staff Cadet for historical reasons. In the British and Commonwealth as well as Russian service, these groups of boys or youths are organized, armed and trained on volunteer military lines, the Antigua and Barbuda Cadet Corps consists of students between the ages of 12 and 19. It Is a voluntary organization, sponsored by the government. The main objective is to training and personal development to the youths through paramilitary activities. The training is geared to young men and woman to become model citizens. Emphasis during training is based on discipline, loyalty, leadership
24.
French India
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French India, formally the Établissements français dans lInde, was a French colony comprising geographically separate enclaves on the Indian subcontinent. The possessions were acquired by the French East India Company beginning in the second half of the 17th century. The French establishments included Pondichéry, Karikal and Yanaon on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar Coast and Chandernagor in Bengal. French India also included several loges in other towns, but after 1816, the loges had little commercial importance, by 1950, the total area measured 510 km2, of which 293 km2 belonged to the territory of Pondichéry. In 1936, the population of the colony totalled 298,851 inhabitants, France was the last of the major European maritime powers of the 17th century to enter the East India trade. Historians have sought to explain Frances late entrance in the East India trade, in 1604 a company was granted letters patent by King Henry IV, but the project failed. Fresh letters patent were issued in 1615, and two went to India, only one returning. From 1658, François Bernier, a French physician and traveller, was for years the personal physician at the court of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. La Compagnie française des Indes orientales was formed under the auspices of Cardinal Richelieu and reconstructed under Jean-Baptiste Colbert, in 1667 the French India Company sent out another expedition, under the command of François Caron, which reached Surat in 1668 and established the first French factory in India. In 1669, Marcara succeeded in establishing another French factory at Masulipatam, in 1672, Saint Thomas was taken but the French were driven out by the Dutch. Chandernagore was established in 1692, with the permission of Nawab Shaista Khan, in 1673, the French acquired the area of Pondicherry from the qiladar of Valikondapuram under the Sultan of Bijapur, and thus the foundation of Pondichéry was laid. By 1720, the French had lost their factories at Surat, on 4 February 1673, Bellanger, a French officer, took up residence in the Danish Lodge in Pondichéry, thereby commencing the French administration of Pondichéry. In 1674 François Martin, the first Governor, initiated ambitious projects to transform Pondichéry from a fishing village into a flourishing port-town. The French, though, found themselves in conflict with the Dutch. In 1693 the Dutch captured Pondichéry and augmented the fortifications, the French regained the town in 1699 through the Treaty of Ryswick, signed on 20 September 1697. From their arrival until 1741, the objectives of the French, during this period, the French East India Company peacefully acquired Yanam in 1723, Mahe on Malabar Coast in 1725 and Karaikal in 1739. In the early 18th century, the town of Pondichéry was laid out on a grid pattern, able governors like Pierre Christophe Le Noir and Pierre Benoît Dumas expanded the Pondichéry area and made it a large and rich town. Under the command of the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau, Dupleixs army successfully controlled the area between Hyderabad and Cape Comorin, but then Robert Clive arrived in India in 1744, a British officer who dashed the hopes of Dupleix to create a French empire India
25.
Pondicherry
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Pondicherry is the capital city and the largest city of the Indian union territory of Puducherry. The city of Pondicherry is situated in Puducherry district of the union territory and it is affectionately known as Pondy, and has been officially known by the alternative name Puducherry in Tamil since 2006. Pondicherry city consists of 42 wards, wards 1-10 are located in north of the city. Wards 11-19 are located in Boulevard Town and remaining wards are located in the southwest of the downtown, the history of the city of Pondicherry is recorded only after the arrival of Dutch, Portuguese, British and French colonialists. A marketplace named Poduke or Poduca is recorded as a Roman trading destination from the mid 1st century, the area was part of the Pallava Kingdom of Kanchipuram in the 4th century. The Cholas of Thanjavur held it from the 10th to 13th centuries, the Vijayanagar Empire took control of almost all of the South of India in the 14th century and maintained control until 1638 when they were supplanted by the Sultan of Bijapur. The French East India Company established this town as their headquarters in 1674, five trading posts were established along the south Indian coast between 1668 and 1674. The town was separated by a canal into the French Quarter, during the Anglo-French wars, Puducherry changed hands frequently. On January 16,1761, the British captured Puducherry from the French, the British took control of the area again in 1793 at the Siege of Pondicherry amid the Wars of the French Revolution, and returned it to France in 1814. When the British gained control of the whole of India in the late 1850s, Pondicherry, Mahe, Yanam, Karaikal and Chandernagar remained a part of French India until 1954 when it was incorporated into the Indian Union along with the rest of French India. On 18 October 1954 in an election involving 178 people in Pondicherry Municipal and Commune Panchayat,170 people were in favour of independence. The de facto transfer of the French India territories form French governance to the Indian union took place on 1 November 1954, however, the formal de jure transfer of territory agreement between France and India was signed on 16 August 1962. The topography of Pondicherry is the same as that of coastal Tamil Nadu, pondicherrys average elevation is at sea level, and a number of sea inlets, referred to as backwaters can be found. Pondicherry experiences extreme coastal erosion as a result of a constructed in 1989. Where there was once a broad, sandy beach, now the city is protected against the sea by a 2-km-long seawall.5 m above sea level, today, the seawall consists of rows of granite boulders which are reinforced every year in an attempt to stop erosion. As a consequence of the seawall, Pondicherry experiences severe seabed erosion and turbulence at the coastal margin, whenever gaps appear as the stones fall into the continually eroding seabed, the government of Puducherry adds more boulders. Pondicherrys seawall has also caused beach erosion to migrate further up the coast, to the villages in Puducherry. In 2012, the Ministry of Power inaugurated the Smart Grid project in Puducherry, farming around Pondicherry include crops such as rice, pulses, sugarcane, coconuts, and cotton
26.
Second Anglo-Mysore War
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The Second Anglo–Mysore War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company from 1780 to 1784. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, the great majority of soldiers on the company side were raised, trained, paid and commanded by the company, not the British government. However, the operations were bolstered by Crown troops sent from Britain, and by troops sent from Hanover. Following the British seizure of the French port of Mahé in 1779, Mysorean ruler Hyder Ali opened hostilities against the British in 1780, as the war progressed, the British recovered some territorial losses. Both France and Britain sent troops and naval squadrons from Europe to assist in the war effort, in 1783 news of a preliminary peace between France and Britain reached India, resulting in the withdrawal of French support from the Mysorean war effort. The British consequently also sought to end the conflict with Mysore, and this resulted in the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore, restoring the status quo antebellum under terms company officials such as Warren Hastings found extremely unfavourable. Stung by what he considered a British breach of faith during a war against the Marathas. The company began by capturing Pondicherry and other French outposts in 1778 and they then captured the French controlled port at Mahé on the Malabar coast in 1779. Hyder set about forming a confederacy against the British, which, in addition to the French, included the Marathas, in July 1780 Hyder Ali invaded the Carnatic with an army of 80,000. He descended through the passes of the Eastern Ghats, burning villages as he went, the British responded by sending a force of 5,000 to lift the sieges. On the morning of 10 September 1780, the British force from Guntur under the command of Colonel William Baillie came under fire from Tipus guns near Pollilur. Baillie formed his force into a square formation and began to move slowly forward. However, Hyder Alis cavalry broke through the front, inflicting many casualties. Out of the British force of 3,820 men,336 were killed, the defeat was considered to be the East India Companys most crushing loss in India at that time. Munro reacted to the defeat by retreating to Madras, abandoning his baggage and dumping his cannons in the tank at Kanchipuram. Naravane states in fact that it was a massacre with only 50 officers and 200 men taken prisoner, instead of following up the victory and pressing on for a decisive victory at Madras, Hyder Ali instead renewed the siege at Arcot, which he captured on 3 November. This decision gave the British time to shore up their defences in the south, the arrival of Lord Macartney as governor of Madras in the summer of 1781 included news of war with the Dutch Republic. This forced Hyder Ali to realize that he could never completely defeat a power that had command of the sea, Tipu also defeated Colonel Braithwaite at Annagudi near Tanjore on 18 Feb 1782
27.
Democracy
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Democracy, in modern usage, is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as rule of the majority, Democracy was originally conceived in Classical Greece, where political representatives were chosen by a jury from amongst the male citizens, rich and poor. The English word dates to the 16th century, from the older Middle French, in the 5th century BC, to denote the political systems then existing in Greek city-states, notably Athens, the term is an antonym to aristocracy, meaning rule of an elite. While theoretically these definitions are in opposition, in practice the distinction has been blurred historically, the political system of Classical Athens, for example, granted democratic citizenship to free men and excluded slaves and women from political participation. In 1906, Finland became the first government to harald a more inclusive democracy at the national level. Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is held by an individual, as in an absolute monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals. Nevertheless, these oppositions, inherited from Greek philosophy, are now ambiguous because contemporary governments have mixed democratic, oligarchic, and monarchic elements. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, thus focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders, No consensus exists on how to define democracy, but legal equality, political freedom and rule of law have been identified as important characteristics. These principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law, other uses of democracy include that of direct democracy. In some countries, notably in the United Kingdom which originated the Westminster system, in the United States, separation of powers is often cited as a central attribute. In India, parliamentary sovereignty is subject to the Constitution of India which includes judicial review, though the term democracy is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles also are applicable to private organisations. Majority rule is listed as a characteristic of democracy. Hence, democracy allows for political minorities to be oppressed by the tyranny of the majority in the absence of legal protections of individual or group rights. An essential part of a representative democracy is competitive elections that are substantively and procedurally fair, i. e. just. It has also suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of all voters to participate freely and fully in the life of their society. While representative democracy is sometimes equated with the form of government. Many democracies are constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom, the term democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. The word comes from demos, common people and kratos, strength, led by Cleisthenes, Athenians established what is generally held as the first democracy in 508–507 BC
28.
French Revolutionary Wars
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The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of sweeping military conflicts, lasting from 1792 until 1802, resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted the French First Republic against Britain, Austria and several other monarchies and they are divided in two periods, the War of the First Coalition and the War of the Second Coalition. Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed a global dimension as the political ambitions of the Revolution expanded, French success in these conflicts ensured the spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe. The Revolutionary Wars began from increasing political pressure on King Louis XVI of France to prove his loyalty to the new direction France was taking. In the spring of 1792, France declared war on Prussia and Austria, the victory rejuvenated the French nation and emboldened the National Convention to abolish the monarchy. A series of victories by the new French armies abruptly ended with defeat at Neerwinden in the spring of 1793, by 1795, the French had captured the Austrian Netherlands and knocked Spain and Prussia out of the war with the Peace of Basel. A hitherto unknown general called Napoleon Bonaparte began his first campaign in Italy in April 1796, in less than a year, French armies under Napoleon decimated the Habsburg forces and evicted them from the Italian peninsula, winning almost every battle and capturing 150,000 prisoners. With French forces marching towards Vienna, the Austrians sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Campo Formio, the War of the Second Coalition began with the French invasion of Egypt, headed by Napoleon, in 1798. The Allies took the opportunity presented by the French strategic effort in the Middle East to regain territories lost from the First Coalition. The war began well for the Allies in Europe, where they pushed the French out of Italy and invaded Switzerland—racking up victories at Magnano, Cassano. However, their efforts largely unraveled with the French victory at Zurich in September 1799, meanwhile, Napoleons forces annihilated a series of Egyptian and Ottoman armies at the battles of the Pyramids, Mount Tabor, and Abukir. These victories and the conquest of Egypt further enhanced Napoleons popularity back in France, however, the Royal Navy had managed to inflict a humiliating defeat on the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, further strengthening British control of the Mediterranean. Napoleons arrival from Egypt led to the fall of the Directory in the Coup of 18 Brumaire, Napoleon then reorganized the French army and launched a new assault against the Austrians in Italy during the spring of 1800. This latest effort culminated in a decisive French victory at the Battle of Marengo in June 1800, another crushing French triumph at Hohenlinden in Bavaria forced the Austrians to seek peace for a second time, leading to the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801. With Austria and Russia out of the war, the United Kingdom found itself increasingly isolated and agreed to the Treaty of Amiens with Napoleons government in 1802, concluding the Revolutionary Wars. The lingering tensions proved too difficult to contain, however, in 1789–1792, the entire governmental structure of France was transformed to fall into line with the Revolutionary principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. As a result, one of the first major elements of the French state to be restructured was the army, the transformation of the army was best seen in the officer corps. Before the revolution 90% had been nobility, compared to only 3% in 1794, Revolutionary fervour was high, and was closely monitored by the Committee of Public Safety, which assigned Representatives on Mission to keep watch on generals
29.
Commissioner
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A commissioner is, in principle, the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission. In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to include a variety of senior officials, in particular, commissioner frequently refers to senior police or government officials. The title is given to senior officials in the private sector, for instance. There is some confusion between commissioners and commissaries, because other European languages use the word for both. Therefore titles such as commissaire in French, Kommissar in German and comisario in Spanish can mean either commissioner or commissary in English, depending on the context. A Commissioner within a modern state generally holds his or her office by virtue of a commission from the head of state or a council of elected representatives, Commissioners are the formal heads of the territories in Canada. Possible candidates for the position are selected by the Advisory Committee on Vice-Regal Appointments, the official appointment is made by the Governor General-in-Council. Senior Public Servants, Commissioners and other high-ranking bureaucrats referred to collectively as Mandarins, in the local government system of the Isle of Man, a Commissioner is an elected representative equivalent to a Councillor. All town, village, district and parish local government bodies consist of commissioners, with the exception of Douglas, malawis position of District Commissioner refers to the person that is appointed by the President of Malawi to oversee the administration of any of its 28 districts. One commissioner is appointed per district, the position was created during the colonial era, sustained during the Kamuzu Banda era and continues as a prominent position in democratic era in Malawi. Prior to the Acts of Union 1707, a member of the Estates of Scotland held the office of Commissioner. There were Burgh Commissioners and Shire or Stewartry Commissioners, in many U. S. states, the legislative and executive decision-making bodies of counties are called the board of commissioners or county commission. In Minnesota, Alaska, New York and Tennessee, the heads of statewide cabinet-level departments are called commissioners, in California, Court Commissioners are subordinate judicial officers granted many of the same authorities as Judges, though not all. Historically, the U. S. government appointed special commissioners for a variety of tasks, for example, the head of the U. S. Department of Agriculture from 1862 to 1889 was a commissioner, not a Cabinet secretary. Until 1968, federal courts appointed commissioners to perform judicial duties such as taking testimony, taking bail. These commissioners were replaced by United States Magistrates, in police services in the Commonwealth of Nations and United States, the title of commissioner typically designates the head of an entire police force. In reference to forces in other countries, commissioner is sometimes incorrectly used to mean a commissary. In many nations a commissary is typically the commander of a police station or a locally/regionally important police service
30.
French Revolutionary Army
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The French Revolutionary Army was the French force that fought the French Revolutionary Wars from 1792 to 1802. These armies were characterised by their revolutionary fervour, their poor equipment, leading generals included Jourdan, Bonaparte, Masséna and Moreau. As a general description of French military forces during this period, reactionary Europe stood opposed, especially after the French king was executed. As a result, one of the first major elements of the French state to be restructured was the army, almost all of the ancien regime officer class had been drawn from the aristocracy. During the period preceding the overthrow of the Monarchy, large numbers of officers left their regiments. Between 15 September and 1 December 1791 alone 2,160 officers of the army fled France eventually to join the émigré army of Louis Joseph. Of those who stayed numbers were either imprisoned or killed during the Reign of Terror, the small remaining cadre of officers were promoted swiftly, this meant that the majority of the Revolutionary officers were far younger than their Monarchist counterparts. Revolutionary fervour, along with calls to save the new regime, the desperate situation meant that these men were quickly inducted into the army. The transformation of the Army was best seen in the officer corps, before the revolution 90% had been aristocrats, compared to only 3% in 1794. Revolutionary fervor was high, and was monitored by the Committee of Public Safety. Indeed, some generals deserted, others were removed or executed, the government demanded that soldiers be loyal to the government in Paris, not to their generals. Officially, the Revolutionary Armies were operating along the set down in the 1791 Reglement. The 1791 Reglement laid down several complex maneuvers, maneuvers which demanded well trained soldiers, officers. The Revolutionary Army was lacking in all three of these areas, and as a result the early efforts to conform to the 1791 Reglement were met with disaster, the untrained troops could not perform the complex maneuvers required, unit cohesion was lost and defeat was ensured. Realizing that the army was not capable of conforming with the 1791 Reglement, many eminent French military thinkers had been clamoring for change decades before. In the period following the performance of the French Army during the Seven Years War. In the 1770s, some commanders, among them the brilliant duc de Broglie performed exercises testing these tactics, de Broglie decided that lordre profond worked best when it was supported by artillery and large numbers of skirmishers. Despite these exercises, lordre mince had strong and powerful supporters in the Royal Armée Française, the French struck first, with an invasion of the Austrian Netherlands proposed by foreign minister Charles François Dumouriez
31.
Kingdom of Sardinia
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The Kingdom of Sardinia was a state in Southern Europe which existed from the early 14th until the mid-19th century. It was the state of todays Italy. When it was acquired by the Duke of Savoy in 1720, however, the Savoyards united it with their possessions on the Italian mainland and, by the time of the Crimean War in 1853, had built the resulting kingdom into a strong power. The formal name of the entire Savoyard state was the States of His Majesty the King of Sardinia and its final capital was Turin, the capital of Savoy since the Middle Ages. Beginning in 1324, James and his successors conquered the island of Sardinia, in 1420 the last competing claim to the island was bought out. After the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sardinia became a part of the burgeoning Spanish Empire, in 1720 it was ceded by the Habsburg and Bourbon claimants to the Spanish throne to Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. While in theory the traditional capital of the island of Sardinia and seat of its viceroys was Cagliari, the Congress of Vienna, which restructured Europe after Napoleons defeat, returned to Savoy its mainland possessions and augmented them with Liguria, taken from the Republic of Genoa. In 1847–48, in a fusion, the various Savoyard states were unified under one legal system, with the capital in Turin, and granted a constitution. There followed the annexation of Lombardy, the central Italian states and the Two Sicilies, Venetia, in 238 BC Sardinia became, along with Corsica, a province of the Roman Empire. The Romans ruled the island until the middle of the 5th century, when it was occupied by the Vandals, in 534 AD it was reconquered by the Romans, but now from the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium. It remained a Byzantine province until the Arab conquest of Sicily in the 9th century, after that, communications with Constantinople became very difficult, and powerful families of the island assumed control of the land. Starting from 705–706, Saracens from north Africa harassed the population of the coastal cities, information about the Sardinian political situation in the following centuries is scarce. There is a record of another massive Saracen sea attack in 1015–16 from the Balearics, the Saracen attempt to invade the island was stopped by the Judicatus with the support of the fleets of the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa, free cities of the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Benedict VIII also requested aid from the republics of Pisa. Even the title of Judices was a Byzantine reminder of the Greek church and state, of these sovereigns only two names are known, Turcoturiu and Salusiu, who probably ruled in the 10th century. The Archons still wrote in Greek or Latin, but one of the first documents of the Judex of Cagliari, their successor, was written in romance Sardinian language. The realm was divided into four kingdoms, the Judicati, perfectly organized as was the previous realm, but was now under the influence of the Pope. That was the cause of leading to a long war between the Judices, who regarded themselves as kings fighting against rebellious nobles
32.
Italian Peninsula
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The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is the central and the smallest of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe. It extends 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south, the peninsulas shape gives it the nickname lo Stivale. Three smaller peninsulas contribute to this shape, namely Calabria, Salento. Geographically, the Italian peninsula consists of the south of a line extending from the Magra to the Rubicon rivers. It excludes the Po Valley and the slopes of the Alps. All of the lies within the territory of the Italian Republic except for the microstates of San Marino. Additionally, Sicily, Elba and other islands, such as Palagruža, are usually considered as islands off the peninsula. The peninsula lies between the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west, the Ionian Sea on the south, and the Adriatic Sea on the east, the backbone of the Italian peninsula consists of the Apennine Mountains, from which it takes one of its names. Most of its coast is lined with cliffs, the Italian Peninsulas location between the centre of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea made it the target of many conquests. The peninsula has mainly a Mediterranean climate, though in the parts the climate is much cooler. Its natural vegetation includes macchia along the coasts and deciduous and mixed coniferous forests in the interior. Political divisions of the peninsula sorted by area, Apennine Mountains Roman Republic Roman Italy Insular Italy Media related to Italian Peninsula at Wikimedia Commons
33.
Louis XVI and the Legislative Assembly
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The National Constituent Assembly dissolved itself on 1 October 1791. Upon Robespierres motion it had decreed that none of its members should be capable of sitting in the next legislature and its legacy, the Constitution of 1791, attempted to institute a liberal constitutional monarchy. This had been envisioned as an arrangement not to be tampered with for a generation but, in the event, in the attempt to govern, the Assembly failed altogether. In the words of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, It left behind an empty treasury, an army and navy. The Legislative Assembly first met on 1 October 1791, few were nobles, very few were clergymen, and the great body came from the middle class. The members were young, and, since none had sat in the previous Assembly. The Right consisted of about 165 Feuillants, among the extreme Left—those who would retain the name of Jacobins—sat Cambon, Couthon, Antoine-Christophe Merlin, François Chabot, and Claude Bazire. The Girondins could claim the most brilliant orators, Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, Marguerite-Élie Guadet, Armand Gensonné and this strong representation of the left in the Assembly was supplemented by the political clubs and the disorderly revolutionary elements in Paris and throughout France. The remainder of the Assembly, about 350 deputies, did not belong to any definite party, the kings ministers, named by him and excluded from the Assembly, were mostly persons of little mark. Montmorin gave up the portfolio of foreign affairs on 31 October 1791 and was succeeded by De Lessart, bon-Claude Cahier de Gerville was minister of the interior, Louis Hardouin Tarbé, minister of finance, and Bertrand de Molleville, minister of marine. But the only minister who influenced the course of affairs was the comte de Narbonne, overtly, the king had embraced the newly codified constitution. Marie Antoinette surely wished to shake off the impotence and humiliation of the Crown, the Left had three objects of enmity. First among these was the couple, King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette. The Left as a whole wished to replace the monarchy with a republic, second came the émigrés – now seen as a threat from abroad—and, third, the non-juring clergy. Those émigrés who had assembled in arms on the territories of the electors of Mainz and Treves and their chiefs were the kings brothers, who affected to consider Louis as a captive and his acts as therefore invalid. The count of Provence gave himself the airs of a regent, the non-juring clergy – those who refused to take an oath under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy – although harassed by the local authorities, kept the respect and confidence of most Catholics. But the anti-clerical bias of the Legislative Assembly was too strong for such a policy and it was increasingly unlikely that two rival Churches could co-exist. Insurrection along religious lines broke out in Calvados, Gévaudan, from the first, relations between the king and the Legislative Assembly were less than friendly
34.
Louis XVI of France
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Louis XVI, born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France and Navarre before the French Revolution, during which he was also known as Louis Capet. In 1765, at the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France, Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793. The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform France in accordance with Enlightenment ideas and these included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. The French nobility reacted to the reforms with hostility. Louis implemented deregulation of the market, advocated by his liberal minister Turgot. In periods of bad harvests, it would lead to food scarcity which would prompt the masses to revolt, from 1776, Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime and this led to the convening of the Estates-General of 1789. In 1789, the storming of the Bastille during riots in Paris marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Louiss indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to view him as a symbol of the tyranny of the Ancien Régime. The credibility of the king was deeply undermined, and the abolition of the monarchy, Louis XVI was the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. Louis-Auguste de France, who was given the title Duc de Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles. Out of seven children, he was the son of Louis, the Dauphin of France. His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the daughter of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. A strong and healthy boy, but very shy, Louis-Auguste excelled in his studies and had a taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy. He enjoyed physical activities such as hunting with his grandfather, and rough-playing with his brothers, Louis-Stanislas, comte de Provence. From an early age, Louis-Auguste had been encouraged in another of his hobbies, locksmithing, upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband, and died on 13 March 1767, throughout his education, Louis-Auguste received a mixture of studies particular to religion, morality, and humanities. His instructors may have also had a hand in shaping Louis-Auguste into the indecisive king that he became
35.
Siege of Toulon
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The Siege of Toulon was a military siege of Republican forces over a Royalist rebellion in the southern French city of Toulon. It is also known as the Fall of Toulon, after the arrest of the Girondist deputies on the 2 June 1793, there followed a series of insurrections within the French cities of Lyon, Avignon, Nîmes and Marseille. In Toulon, the revolutionaries evicted the existing Jacobin faction but were supplanted by the more numerous royalists. This was a blow to the arms of the republic, as it was a key naval arsenal of the country. If France were to lose this port, there was no hope for her naval ambitions, which would mean by proxy that any ambition to challenge the Allies, and specifically the British, for control of the seas would be out of the question. Not only that, but its loss could set a precedent for other areas that menaced the republic with revolt. The survival of the Republic was at stake, on 1 October, Baron dImbert proclaimed the young Louis XVII to be king of France, and hoisted the French royalist flag of the fleur de lys, delivering the town of Toulon to the British navy. They were reinforced by 3,000 sailors under the orders of Admiral de Saint Julien, a further 5,000 soldiers under General La Poype were attached to the army to retake Toulon from the Army of Italy. Bonaparte had been in the escorting a convoy of powder wagons en route to Nice and had stopped in to pay his respects to his fellow Corsican. Bonaparte had been present in the army since the Avignon insurrection and he was able to requisition equipment and cannon from the surrounding area. Guns were taken from Marseilles, Avignon and the Army of Italy, the local populace, which was eager to prove its loyalty to the republic which it had recently rebelled against, was blackmailed into supplying the besieging force with animals and supplies. His activity resulted in the acquisition of 100 guns for the force, with the help of his friends, the deputies Saliceti and Augustin Robespierre, who held power of life and death, he was able to compel retired artillery officers from the area to re-enlist. However, in spite of this effort, Bonaparte was not as confident about this operation as was later his custom, the officers serving with him in the siege were incompetent, and he was becoming concerned about the needless delays due to these officers mistakes. He was so concerned that he wrote a letter of appeal to the Committee of Public Safety requesting assistance, to deal with his superiors who were wanting in skill, he proposed the appointment of a general for command of the artillery, succeeding himself, so that. Carteaux, reluctant, sent only a detachment under Major General Delaborde. The allies now alerted, built Fort Mulgrave, so christened in honour of the British commander, Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave and it was supported by three smaller ones, called Saint-Phillipe, Saint-Côme, and Saint-Charles. The apparently impregnable collection was nicknamed, by the French, Little Gibraltar, Bonaparte was dissatisfied by the sole battery—called the Mountain, positioned on the height of Saint-Laurent since 19 September. He established another, on the shore of Brégallion, called the sans-culottes, Hood attempted to silence it, without success, but the British fleet was obliged to harden its resolve along the coast anew, because of the high seabed of Mourillon and la Tour Royale
36.
House of Bourbon
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The House of Bourbon is a European royal house of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century, by the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Spain and Luxembourg currently have Bourbon monarchs, the royal Bourbons originated in 1268, when the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon married a younger son of King Louis IX. The house continued for three centuries as a branch, while more senior Capetians ruled France, until Henry IV became the first Bourbon king of France in 1589. Restored briefly in 1814 and definitively in 1815 after the fall of the First French Empire, a cadet Bourbon branch, the House of Orléans, then ruled for 18 years, until it too was overthrown. The Princes de Condé were a branch of the Bourbons descended from an uncle of Henry IV. Both houses were prominent in French affairs, even during exile in the French Revolution, until their respective extinctions in 1830 and 1814. When the Bourbons inherited the strongest claim to the Spanish throne, the claim was passed to a cadet Bourbon prince, a grandson of Louis XIV of France, who became Philip V of Spain. The Spanish House of Bourbon has been overthrown and restored several times, reigning 1700–1808, 1813–1868, 1875–1931, Bourbons ruled in Naples from 1734–1806 and in Sicily from 1734–1816, and in a unified Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1816–1860. They also ruled in Parma from 1731–1735, 1748–1802 and 1847–1859, all legitimate, living members of the House of Bourbon, including its cadet branches, are direct agnatic descendants of Henry IV. The term House of Bourbon is sometimes used to refer to this first house and the House of Bourbon-Dampierre, the second family to rule the seigneury. In 1268, Robert, Count of Clermont, sixth son of King Louis IX of France, married Beatrix of Bourbon, heiress to the lordship of Bourbon and their son Louis was made Duke of Bourbon in 1327. His descendant, the Constable of France Charles de Bourbon, was the last of the senior Bourbon line when he died in 1527. Because he chose to fight under the banner of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and lived in exile from France, the remaining line of Bourbons henceforth descended from James I, Count of La Marche, the younger son of Louis I, Duke of Bourbon. With the death of his grandson James II, Count of La Marche in 1438, all future Bourbons would descend from James IIs younger brother, Louis, who became the Count of Vendôme through his mothers inheritance. In 1514, Charles, Count of Vendôme had his title raised to Duke of Vendôme and his son Antoine became King of Navarre, on the northern side of the Pyrenees, by marriage in 1555. Two of Antoines younger brothers were Cardinal Archbishop Charles de Bourbon, Louis male-line, the Princes de Condé, survived until 1830. Finally, in 1589, the House of Valois died out and he was born on 13 December 1553 in the Kingdom of Navarre
37.
James Gillray
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James Gillray was a British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810. Gillray has been called the father of the cartoon, with his works satirizing George III, prime ministers. He was born in Chelsea, London and his father, a native of Lanark, had served as a soldier, losing an arm at the Battle of Fontenoy, and was admitted, first as an inmate, and afterwards as an outdoor pensioner, at Chelsea Hospital. Gillray commenced life by learning letter-engraving, at which he became adept. This employment, however, proved irksome to James, so he wandered about for a time with a company of strolling players and his caricatures are almost all in etching, some also with aquatint, and a few using stipple technique. None can correctly be described as engravings, although this term is loosely used to describe them. Hogarths works were the delight and study of his early years, paddy on Horseback, which appeared in 1779, is the first caricature which is certainly his. Two caricatures on Admiral Rodneys naval victory at the Battle of the Saintes, Gillray lived with Miss Humphrey during the entire period of his fame. It is believed that he several times thought of marrying her, and that on one occasion the pair were on their way to the church and we live very comfortably together, we had better let well alone. There is no evidence, however, to support the stories which scandalmongers invented about their relations, Gillrays plates were exposed in Humphreys shop window, where eager crowds examined them. One of his prints, Very Slippy-Weather, shows Miss Humphreys shop in St. Jamess Street in the background. Gillrays eyesight began to fail in 1806 and he began wearing spectacles but they were unsatisfactory. Unable to work to his previous standards, James Gillray became depressed and started drinking heavily. He produced his last print in September 1809, as a result of his heavy drinking Gillray suffered from gout throughout his later life. His last work, from a design by Bunbury, is entitled Interior of a Barbers Shop in Assize Time, while he was engaged on it he became mad, although he had occasional intervals of sanity, which he employed on his last work. The approach of madness may have been hastened by his intemperate habits, in July 1811 Gillray attempted to kill himself by throwing himself out of an attic window above Humphreys shop in St Jamess Street. Gillray lapsed into insanity and was looked after by Hannah Humphrey until his death on 1 June 1815 in London, he was buried in St Jamess churchyard, Piccadilly. A number of his most trenchant satires are directed against George III, during the French Revolution, Gillray took a conservative stance, and he issued caricature after caricature ridiculing the French and Napoleon, and glorifying John Bull
Kingdom of France
Royal Army
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Barras, Paul François Nicolas, Comte de". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
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