1.
SS City of Peking
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SS City of Peking was an iron-hulled steamship built in 1874 by John Roach & Sons for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Like Great Eastern, construction of the two Pacific Mail ships was to be plagued with difficulties, which threatened to bankrupt the shipbuilder. Unlike Great Eastern, however, which was a failure, City of Peking would go on to have a long. In addition to her cargoes, City of Peking brought many Chinese and Japanese immigrants to the United States, and later served as a troopship in the Spanish–American War. In 1865 the Pacific Mail Steamship Company had obtained a $500,000 annual subsidy from the U. S. Congress to operate a steam packet between the United States, China and Japan. On June 1,1872, Congress approved an additional $500,000 subsidy, under the terms of the statute, the new subsidy was contingent upon the company increasing its packet to a monthly service beginning on October 1,1873 and continuing for a period of ten years. With the incentive of the new half million dollar subsidy, Pacific Mail decided to upgrade its fleet of aging wooden side-wheelers with new iron vessels. Pacific Mail ordered a total of nine ships from Roach. During construction however, rumors abounded that a newly established British company, Pacific Mail concluded that it would require larger ships than originally envisaged to successfully compete, and submitted new specifications, which upgraded the two ships from 4,000 to 5,000 tons. Roach had initially welcomed the Pacific Mail contracts, anticipating that they would establish a sound financial foundation for his new company. Unfortunately, in the spring of 1873, eight months construction of the new ships. Stockwell, had attempted to manipulate his firms stock price with funds, depleting cash reserves. When the stock scheme fell through, Pacific Mails cash reserves had effectively been substituted with debt, Stockwell and another company director, Richard B. Irwin, then pocketed a loan from Roach and misappropriated about $750,000 in company funds before fleeing the country, before his flight, Stockwell had exchanged 20,000 company shares with the notorious stock speculator Jay Gould for the sum of a million dollars. Gould now had influence on the board, but he had no interest in immediately reviving the companys fortunes. In order to realize this aim, Gould needed to persuade shareholders that the company was facing financial ruin. When Pacific Mail proved unable to initiate its new service on the date stipulated in the June 1872 statute. Gould seized on this issue to further his scheme of damaging the companys reputation and he organized a lobbying campaign to persuade Congress to rescind the subsidy, while Roach, concerned that without the subsidy Pacific Mail might be unable to meet its debts, lobbied for retaining it
2.
German Empire
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, however, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
3.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
4.
Chile
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Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres of Antarctica, the arid Atacama Desert in northern Chile contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes, the southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. Spain conquered and colonized Chile in the century, replacing Inca rule in northern and central Chile. After declaring its independence from Spain in 1818, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a relatively stable authoritarian republic, in the 1960s and 1970s the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. The regime, headed by Augusto Pinochet, ended in 1990 after it lost a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a coalition which ruled through four presidencies until 2010. Chile is today one of South Americas most stable and prosperous nations and it leads Latin American nations in rankings of human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. It also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, Chile is a founding member of the United Nations, the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. There are various theories about the origin of the word Chile, another theory points to the similarity of the valley of the Aconcagua with that of the Casma Valley in Peru, where there was a town and valley named Chili. Another origin attributed to chilli is the onomatopoeic cheele-cheele—the Mapuche imitation of the warble of a locally known as trile. The Spanish conquistadors heard about this name from the Incas, ultimately, Almagro is credited with the universalization of the name Chile, after naming the Mapocho valley as such. The older spelling Chili was in use in English until at least 1900 before switching over to Chile, stone tool evidence indicates humans sporadically frequented the Monte Verde valley area as long as 18,500 years ago. About 10,000 years ago, migrating Native Americans settled in fertile valleys, settlement sites from very early human habitation include Monte Verde, Cueva del Milodon and the Pali Aike Craters lava tube. They fought against the Sapa Inca Tupac Yupanqui and his army, the result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the Battle of the Maule was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the Maule river. The next Europeans to reach Chile were Diego de Almagro and his band of Spanish conquistadors, the Spanish encountered various cultures that supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarros lieutenants, who founded the city of Santiago on 12 February 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chiles central valley
5.
Blohm+Voss
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Blohm + Voss. also written historically as Blohm & Voss and Blohm und Voss. is a German shipbuilding and engineering company. It is currently a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, the company also oversees maintenance and repair of large cruise ships such as RMS Queen Mary 2 and the MS Queen Victoria. In the 1930s the company established the Hamburger Flugzeugbau subsidiary which built aircraft before and during World War II and, shortly after the wars outbreak, took on its parent companys name. ThyssenKrupp announced in December 2011 that it had agreed the sale of Blohm + Voss civil shipbuilding division to British investment company STAR Capital Partners, on September 28,2016, it was announced that Lürssen would acquire Blohm + Voss in a long-term partnership. Blohm & Voss was founded on 5 April 1877, by Hermann Blohm, the company name was shown with the ampersand until 1955. The companys logo is now a dark blue rectangle with rounded corners bearing the white letters Blohm+Voss. The company has built ships and other large machinery continuously for 125 years and it now builds warships both for the German Navy and for export, as well as oil drilling equipment and ships for numerous commercial customers. It administers the Elbe 17 dry dock at Hamburg, the company is, along with Howaldtswerke at Kiel and Nordseewerke at Emden, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. With the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933 and this rescued the company, then run by brothers Rudolf and Walther Blohm, from a financial crisis. From July 1944 to April 1945 the company used inmates of its own concentration subcamp at its shipyard in Hamburg-Steinwerder, a memorial stands on the site of the camp and the company continues to pay an undisclosed amount to the Fund for Compensation of Forced Laborers. The first planes it produced had the company designation Ha, e. g. Ha 135, richard Vogt joined the Hamburger Flugzeugbau as Chief Designer not long after its formation. He was highly innovative and many of his designs had unusual features and his most significant design were flying boats, used by the Luftwaffe for maritime patrol and reconnaissance. Most numerous was the BV138, a twin-boom trimotor, while the BV222 Wiking was much larger, largest of all was the BV238 prototype, the largest aircraft built by any of the Axis forces. Other notable types include the asymmetric BV141, which was built in moderate numbers, Blohm & Voss was established in the days of sail and did not produce a notable steamship until 1900. TS Pretoria and TS Windhuk, Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie passenger cargo liners, MV Wilhelm Gustloff, Kraft durch Freude cruise ship and the worlds worst maritime disaster when she was sunk towards the end of the Second World War MV Aurora As the Wappen Von Hamburg. It was the first luxury liner to be built after World War II, grille – built as the German state yacht, converted to minelayer at the beginning of World War II, later reconverted to state yacht of Nazi Germany, Hitlers official maritime conveyance. Lady Moura – the 19th-largest private yacht MV Savarona – built for an American heiress in 1931, later the Turkish Presidential yacht and now a charter yacht. Still among the largest yachts, at 446 feet long, some munitions, such as glide bombs, were included in the series designations.111 – a design similar to the 237, except that it was a flying boat with three engines
6.
Hamburg-Mitte
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Hamburg-Mitte is one of the seven boroughs of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany, covering most of the citys urban center. The quarters Hamburg-Altstadt and Neustadt are the origin of Hamburg. In 2006 the population was 233,144, in 1937 several settlements, villages and rural areas were passed into Hamburg enforced by the Greater Hamburg Act. On March 1,2008 due to a law of Hamburg, the neighborhood HafenCity was formed from parts of the quarters Klostertor, Altstadt and Rothenburgsort. The other part of Klostertor was transferred to Hammerbrook, from small parts of the borough Hamburg-Mitte the neighborhood Sternschanze was created as a quarter in the borough Altona. The borough severs Hamburg from the east to the west, in 2006, according to the statistical office of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg-Mitte has a total area of 107.1 square kilometres. Georg, St. Pauli, Steinwerder, Veddel, Waltershof, the historic center of Hamburg lies within the districts Altstadt, Neustadt and HafenCity, also defined by being inside the Wallring. These three districts also constitute what is considered Hamburgs Innenstadt, planten un Blomen is a park located in the quarter St. Pauli and Neustadt. Located in the quarter Billstedt is the lake Öjendorfer See, Hamburg-Mitte is the economic center of Hamburg. Altstadt, Neustadt and HafenCity make up Hamburgs Innenstadt, the shopping and central business district. The facilities of the Port of Hamburg are located mostly in Hamburg-Mitte in the quarters of Kleiner Grasbrook, Steinwerder, Veddel, Waltershof, the Bezirksamt Hamburg-Mitte is located at Klosterwall 8. Simultaneously with elections to the parliament, the Bezirksversammlung is elected as representatives of the citizens. Elections were held in Hamburg on 24 February 2008, the four parties having more than 5 percent in recent polls are the social-democratic SPD, the conservative CDU, the ecologist Green Party and the left-wing Die Linke. The liberal Free Democratic Party has 2 directly elected representatives, in 2006233,144 people lived in the borough. 14. 9% were children under the age of 18, and 15. 6% were 65 years of age or older,17,550 people were registered as unemployed and 72,608 were employees subject to social insurance contributions. In 1999 there were 126,753 households, out of which 17. 9% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 52. 4% of all households were made up of single occupants, the average household size was 1.83. Population by year In 2006 there were 71,559 criminal offences in borough, the main local office is located on Klosterwall. It has 4 local offices or Customer Centres and these are Customer Centre Hamburg-Mitte, Customer Centre Billstedt, Customer Centre St. Pauli, and Customer Centre Wilhelmsburg
7.
Hamburg
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Hamburg, officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union. It is the second smallest German state by area and its population is over 1.7 million people, and the wider Hamburg Metropolitan Region covers more than 5.1 million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe, the official long name reflects Hamburgs history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a city-state, and one of the 16 states of Germany. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a sovereign state. Prior to the changes in 1919, the civic republic was ruled by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Though repeatedly destroyed by the Great Fire of Hamburg, the floods and military conflicts including WW2 bombing raids, the city managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. On the river Elbe, Hamburg is a port and a global service, media, logistics and industrial hub, with headquarters and facilities of Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf. The radio and television broadcaster NDR, Europes largest printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg has been an important financial centre for centuries, and is the seat of Germanys oldest stock exchange and the worlds second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank. The city is a fast expanding tourist destination for domestic and international visitors. It ranked 16th in the world for livability in 2015, the ensemble Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg is a major European science, research and education hub with several universities and institutes and its creative industries and major cultural venues include the renowned Elbphilharmonie and Laeisz concert halls, various art venues, music producers and artists. It is regarded as a haven for artists, gave birth to movements like Hamburger Schule. Hamburg is also known for theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Paulis Reeperbahn is among the best known European entertainment districts, Hamburg is on the southern point of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the north-east. It is on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Alster, the city centre is around the Binnenalster and Außenalster, both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes. The island of Neuwerk and two neighbouring islands Scharhörn and Nigehörn, in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are also part of Hamburg. The neighbourhoods of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder are part of the Altes Land region, neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburgs highest elevation, the Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres AMSL. Hamburg has a climate, influenced by its proximity to the coast
8.
Kingdom of Italy
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The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state. Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866, Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations. Fascist Italy is the era of National Fascist Party rule from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as head of government, according to Payne, Fascist regime passed through several relatively distinct phases. The first phase was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, then came the second phase, the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper from 1925 to 1929. The third phase, with activism, was 1929–34. The war itself was the phase with its disasters and defeats. Italy was allied with Nazi Germany in World War II until 1943 and it switched sides to the Allies after ousting Mussolini and shutting down the Fascist party in areas controlled by the Allied invaders. Shortly after the war, civil discontent led to the referendum of 1946 on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of Italy claimed all of the territory which is modern-day Italy. The development of the Kingdoms territory progressed under Italian re-unification until 1870, the state for a long period of time did not include Trieste or Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which are in Italy today, and only annexed them in 1919. After the Second World War, the borders of present-day Italy were founded, the Kingdom of Italy was theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch, as executed through appointed ministers, two chambers of parliament restricted the monarchs power—an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdoms constitution was the Statuto Albertino, the governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible to the king. However, in practice, it was impossible for an Italian government to stay in office without the support of Parliament, members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by plurality voting system elections in uninominal districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of those voting, and of 25% of all enrolled voters, if not all seats were filled on the first ballot, a runoff was held shortly afterwards for the remaining vacancies. After a brief multinominal experimentation in 1882, proportional representation into large, regional, Socialists became the major party, but they were unable to form a government in a parliament split into three different factions, with Christian Populists and classical liberals
9.
Weimar Republic
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Weimar Republic is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place, the official name of the state was still Deutsches Reich, it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, in its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their leaders for the countrys defeat. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, Weimar Germany eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the borders of the republic. From 1930 onwards President Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, the Great Depression, exacerbated by Brünings policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government, the Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control, within months the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency, it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitlers seizure of power was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation and these events brought the republic to an end, as democracy collapsed, a single-party state founded the Nazi era. The Weimar Republic is so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar, Germany from 6 February 1919 to 11 August 1919, but this name only became mainstream after 1933. To the right of the spectrum the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model, the Catholic Centre party, Zentrum favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat while on the moderate left the Chancellors SPD preferred Deutsche Republik. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany, after the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were officially altered to reflect the political changes. The Weimar Republic retained the Reichsadler, but without the symbols of the former Monarchy and this left the black eagle with one head, facing to the right, with open wings but closed feathers, with a red beak, tongue and claws and white highlighting. If the Reichs Eagle is shown without a frame, the charge and colors as those of the eagle of the Reichs coat of arms are to be used. The patterns kept by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are decisive for the heraldic design, the artistic design may be varied for each special purpose. The achievements and signs of movement were mostly done away with after its downfall
German Empire
Kingdom of Italy
Weimar Republic
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United States
Germany
Media related to Peking (ship) at Wikimedia Commons
