Alsace
Alsace is a cultural and historical region in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. From 1982 to 2016, Alsace was the smallest administrative région in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French legislature in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. Alsatian is an Alemannic dialect related to Swabian and Swiss German, although since World War II most Alsatians speak French. Internal and international migration since 1945 has changed the ethnolinguistic composition of Alsace. For more than 300 years, from the Thirty Years' War to World War II, the political status of Alsace was contested between France and various German states in wars and diplomatic conferences; the economic and cultural capital of Alsace, as well as its largest city, is Strasbourg. The city is the seat of bodies; the name "Alsace" can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz, meaning "foreign domain".
An alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass, meaning "seated on the Ill", a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters. By 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace and cultivating the land, it should be noted that Alsace is a plain surrounded by the Vosges mountains and the Black Forest mountains. It creates Foehn winds which, along with natural irrigation, contributes to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always been a rich region which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had established Alsace as a center of viticulture. To protect this valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior. With the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni; the Alemanni were agricultural people, their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine.
Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac, Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis' Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized. Alsace remained under Frankish control until the Frankish realm, following the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842, was formally dissolved in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun. Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts; the part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothar's son. The rest was shared between Louis the German; the Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the stem duchy of Swabia. At about this time, the surrounding areas experienced recurring fragmentation and reincorporations among a number of feudal secular and ecclesiastical lordships, a common process in the Holy Roman Empire.
Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors. Frederick I set up Alsace as a province to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants; the idea was that such men would be more tractable and less to alienate the fief from the crown out of their own greed. The province had a central administration with its seat at Hagenau. Frederick II designated the Bishop of Strasbourg to administer Alsace, but the authority of the bishop was challenged by Count Rudolf of Habsburg, who received his rights from Frederick II's son Conrad IV. Strasbourg began to grow to become the commercially important town in the region. In 1262, after a long struggle with the ruling bishops, its citizens gained the status of free imperial city. A stop on the Paris-Vienna-Orient trade route, as well as a port on the Rhine route linking southern Germany and Switzerland to the Netherlands and Scandinavia, it became the political and economic center of the region. Cities such as Colmar and Hagenau began to grow in economic importance and gained a kind of autonomy within the "Décapole", a federation of ten free towns.
As in much of Europe, the prosperity of Alsace came to an end in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, the Black Death. These hardships were blamed on Jews, leading to the pogroms of 1336 and 1339. In 1349, Jews of Alsace were accused of poisoning the wells with plague, leading to the massacre of thousands of Jews during the Strasbourg pogrom. Jews were subsequently forbidden to settle in the town. An additional natural disaster was the Rhine rift earthquake of 1356, one of Europe's worst which made ruins of Basel. Prosperity returned to Alsace under Habsburg administration during the Renaissance. Holy Roman Empire central power had begun to decline following years of imperial adventures in Italian lands ceding hegemony in Western Europe to France, which had long since centralized power. France began an aggressive policy of expanding eastward, first to the riv
Brothel
A brothel or bordello is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. Technically, any premises where prostitution takes place qualifies as a brothel. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments describe themselves as massage parlors, strip clubs, body rub parlours, studios, or by some other description. Sex work in a brothel is considered safer than street prostitution. Around the world, attitudes towards prostitution and how and if it should be regulated vary and have varied over time. Part of the discussion impacts on whether the operation of brothels should be legal, if so, to what sort of regulations they should be subjected. On 2 December 1949, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others; the Convention by December 2013 had been ratified by 82 states. The Convention seeks to combat prostitution, which it regards as "incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person."
Parties to the Convention agreed to abolish regulation of individual prostitutes, to ban brothels and procuring. Some countries not parties to the Convention ban prostitution or the operation of brothels. Various United Nations commissions, have differing positions on the issue. For example, in 2012, a Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS convened by Ban Ki-moon and backed by United Nations Development Programme and UNAIDS, recommended decriminalization of brothels and procuring. In the European Union, there is no consensus on the issue. Netherlands and Germany have the most liberal policies; the European Women's Lobby condemns prostitution as "an intolerable form of male violence" and supports the "Swedish model". In February 2014, the members of the European Parliament voted in a non-binding resolution, in favor of the "Swedish Model" of criminalizing the buying, but not the selling of sex. Prostitution and the operation of brothels is illegal in many countries, though known illegal brothels may be tolerated or laws not enforced.
Such situations exist in many parts of the world, but the region most associated with these policies is Asia. When brothels are illegal they may operate in the guise of a legitimate business, such as massage parlors, saunas or spas. In other places, prostitution itself may be legal, but many activities which surround it are illegal making it difficult for people to engage in prostitution without breaking any law; this is the situation, for example, in the United Kingdom and France. In a few countries and operating a brothel is legal and regulated; the degree of regulation varies by country. Most of these countries allow brothels, at least in theory, as they are considered to be less problematic than street prostitution. In parts of Australia, for example, brothels are legal and regulated. Regulation includes planning controls and licensing and registration requirements, there may be other restrictions. However, the existence of licensed brothels does not stop illegal brothels from operating. According to a report in the Australian Daily Telegraph, illegal brothels in Sydney in 2009 outnumbered licensed operations by four to one.
The introduction of legal brothels in Queensland was to help improve safety of sex workers and the community at large and reduce crime. This is believed to have been successful in many ways in Queensland with The Viper Room being one of the most well known, clean and most regard brothels in Brisbane and Queensland; the Netherlands has one of the most liberal prostitution policies in the world, attracts sex tourists from many other countries. Amsterdam is a destination for sex tourism. Germany has liberal prostitution laws; the largest brothel in Europe is the Pascha in Cologne. Although the Dumas Hotel in Butte, Montana operated from 1890 until 1982, brothels are illegal throughout the United States, except in rural Nevada. All forms of prostitution are illegal in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area; the earliest recorded mention of prostitution as an occupation appears in Sumerian records from ca. 2400 BCE, describes a temple-bordello operated by Sumerian priests in the city of Uruk.
The ` kakum' or temple was housed three grades of women. The first group performed only in the temple sex-rites. In years, sacred prostitution and similar classifications of females were known to have existed in Greece, India and Japan. State brothels/bordellos with regulated prices existed in ancient Athens, created by the legendary lawmaker Solon; these brothels catered for a predominantly male clientele, wit
French Algeria
French Algeria known as Colonial Algeria, began in 1830 with the invasion of Algiers and lasted until 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France. One of France's longest-held overseas territories, Algeria became a destination for hundreds of thousands of European immigrants known as colons and as pieds-noirs. However, the indigenous Muslim population remained a majority of the territory's population throughout its history. Dissatisfaction among the Muslim population with its lack of political and economic status fueled calls for greater political autonomy, independence from France. Tensions between the two population groups came to a head in 1954, when the first violent events began of what was called the Algerian War; the war concluded in 1962, when Algeria gained independence following the March 1962 Evian agreements and the July 1962 self-determination referendum. During its last years of existence, French Algeria was the founding member state of the United Nations, NATO and the European Economic Community.
Since the 1516 capture of Algiers by the Ottoman admirals, the brothers Ours and Hayreddin Barbarossa, Algeria had been a base for conflict and piracy in the Mediterranean. In 1681, Louis XIV asked Admiral Abraham Duquesne to fight the Berber pirates and ordered a large-scale attack on Algiers between 1682 and 1683 on the pretext of assisting Christian captives. Again, Jean II d'Estrées bombarded Tripoli and Algiers from 1685 to 1688. An ambassador from Algiers visited the Court in Versailles, a Treaty was signed in 1690 that provided peace throughout the 18th century. During the Directory regime of the First French Republic, the Bacri and the Busnach, Jewish negotiators of Algiers, provided important quantities of grain for Napoleon's soldiers who participated in the Italian campaign of 1796. However, Bonaparte refused claiming it was excessive. In 1820, Louis XVIII paid back half of the Directory's debts; the dey, who had loaned to the Bacri 250,000 francs, requested from France the rest of the money.
The Dey of Algiers himself was weak politically and militarily. Algeria was part of the Barbary States, along with today's Tunisia – which depended on the Ottoman Empire led by Mahmud II — but enjoyed relative independence; the Barbary Coast was the stronghold of the Berber pirates, which carried out raids against European and American ships. Conflicts between the Barbary States and the newly independent United States of America culminated in the First and Second Barbary Wars. An Anglo-Dutch force, led by Admiral Lord Exmouth, carried out a punitive expedition, the August 1816 bombardment of Algiers; the Dey was forced to sign the Barbary treaties, while the technological advance of U. S. British, French forces overwhelmed the Algerians' expertise at naval warfare; the name of "Algeria" itself came from the French. Following the conquest under the July monarchy, the Algerian territories, disputed with the Ottoman Empire, were first named "French possessions in North Africa" before being called "Algeria" by Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, in 1839.
The conquest of Algeria was initiated in the last days of the Bourbon Restoration by Charles X, as an attempt to increase his popularity amongst the French people in Paris, where many veterans of the Napoleonic Wars lived. His intention was to bolster patriotic sentiment, distract attention from ineptly handled domestic policies by "skirmishing against the dey". In the 1790s, France had contracted to purchase wheat for the French army from two merchants in Algiers, Messrs. Bacri and Boushnak, was in arrears paying them; these merchants and Boushnak who had debts to the dey, claimed inability to pay those debts until France paid its debts to them. The dey had unsuccessfully negotiated with Pierre Deval, the French consul, to rectify this situation, he suspected Deval of collaborating with the merchants against him when the French government made no provisions for repaying the merchants in 1820. Deval's nephew Alexandre, the consul in Bône, further angered the dey by fortifying French storehouses in Bône and La Calle against the terms of prior agreements.
After a contentious meeting in which Deval refused to provide satisfactory answers on 29 April 1827, the dey struck Deval with his fly whisk. Charles X used this slight against his diplomatic representative to first demand an apology from the dey, to initiate a blockade against the port of Algiers. France demanded; when the dey responded with cannon fire directed toward one of the blockading ships, the French determined that more forceful action was required. Pierre Deval and other French residents of Algiers left for France, while the Minister of War, Clermont-Tonnerre, proposed a military expedition. However, the Count of Villèle, an ultra-royalist, President of the Council and the monarch's heir, opposed any military action; the Restoration decided to blockade Algiers for three years, but the overpowering presence of the French naval force prevented an incursion beyond the coastal perimeter. Meanwhile, the Berber pirates were able to exploit the geography of the coast with ease. Before the failure of the blockade, the Restoration decided on 31 January 1830 to engage a military expedition against Algiers.
Admiral Duperré commandeered an armada of 600 ships that originated from Toulon, leading it to Algiers. Using Napoleon's 1808 contingency plan f
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing on paper. Printmaking covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, called a print; each print produced is not considered a "copy" but rather is considered an "original". This is because each print varies to an extent due to variables intrinsic to the printmaking process, because the imagery of a print is not a reproduction of another work but rather is a unique image designed from the start to be expressed in a particular printmaking technique. A print may be known as an impression. Printmaking is not chosen only for its ability to produce multiple impressions, but rather for the unique qualities that each of the printmaking processes lends itself to. Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or through a prepared screen to a sheet of paper or other material.
Common types of matrices include: metal plates copper or zinc, or polymer plates for engraving or etching. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screenprinting process. Other types of matrix substrates and related processes are discussed below. Multiple impressions printed from the same matrix form an edition. Since the late 19th century, artists have signed individual impressions from an edition and number the impressions to form a limited edition. Prints may be printed in book form, such as illustrated books or artist's books. Printmaking techniques are divided into the following basic categories: Relief, where ink is applied to the original surface of the matrix. Relief techniques include woodcut or woodblock as the Asian forms are known, wood engraving and metalcut. Intaglio, where ink is applied beneath the original surface of the matrix. Intaglio techniques include engraving, mezzotint, aquatint. Planographic, where the matrix retains its original surface, but is specially prepared and/or inked to allow for the transfer of the image.
Planographic techniques include lithography and digital techniques. Stencil, where ink or paint is pressed through a prepared screen, including screenprinting and pochoir. Other types of printmaking techniques outside these groups include collagraphy and viscosity printing. Collagraphy is a printmaking technique; this texture is transferred to the paper during the printing process. Contemporary printmaking may include digital printing, photographic mediums, or a combination of digital and traditional processes. Many of these techniques can be combined within the same family. For example, Rembrandt's prints are referred to as "etchings" for convenience, but often include work in engraving and drypoint as well, sometimes have no etching at all. Woodcut, a type of relief print, is the earliest printmaking technique, the only one traditionally used in the Far East, it was first developed as a means of printing patterns on cloth, by the 5th century was used in China for printing text and images on paper.
Woodcuts of images on paper developed around 1400 in Japan, later in Europe. These are the two areas where woodcut has been most extensively used purely as a process for making images without text; the artist draws a design on a plank of wood, or on paper, transferred to the wood. Traditionally the artist handed the work to a specialist cutter, who uses sharp tools to carve away the parts of the block that will not receive ink; the surface of the block is inked with the use of a brayer, a sheet of paper slightly damp, is placed over the block. The block is rubbed with a baren or spoon, or is run through a printing press. If in color, separate blocks can be used for each color, or a technique called reduction printing can be used. Reduction printing is a name used to describe the process of using one block to print several layers of color on one print; this involves cutting a small amount of the block away, printing the block many times over on different sheets before washing the block, cutting more away and printing the next color on top.
This allows the previous color to show through. This process can be repeated many times over; the advantages of this process is that only one block is needed, that different components of an intricate design will line up perfectly. The disadvantage is. Another variation of woodcut printmaking is the cukil technique, made famous by the Taring Padi underground community in Java, Indonesia. Taring Padi Posters resemble intricately printed cartoon posters embedded with political messages. Images—usually resembling a visually complex scenario—are carved unto a wooden surface called cukilan smothered with printer's ink before pressing it unto media such as paper or canvas; the process was developed in Germany in the 1430s from the engraving used by goldsmiths to decorate metalwork. Engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin to cut the design into the surface of a metal plate, traditionally made of copper. Engraving using a burin is a difficult skill to learn. Gravers come in a variety of sizes that yield different line types.
The burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line, characterized by
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871, after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle department of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east of the Vosges Mountains; the Lorraine section was in the upper Moselle valley to the north of the Vosges. The territory encompassed 93% of Alsace and 26% of Lorraine, while the rest of these regions remained part of France. For historical reasons, specific legal dispositions are still applied in the territory in the form of a "local law". In relation to its special legal status, since its reversion to France following World War I, the territory has been referred to administratively as Alsace-Moselle. Since 2016, the historical territory is now part of the French administrative region of Grand Est. Alsace-Lorraine had a land area of 14,496 km2, its capital was Straßburg. It was divided in three districts: Oberlelsaß, whose capital was Kolmar, had a land area of 3,525 km2 and corresponds to the current department of Haut-Rhin Unterelsaß, whose capital was Straßburg, had a land area of 4,755 km2 and corresponds to the current department of Bas-Rhin Lothringen, whose capital was Metz, had a land area of 6,216 km2 and corresponds to the current department of Moselle The largest urban areas in Alsace-Lorraine at the 1910 census were: Straßburg: 220,883 inhabitants Mülhausen: 128,190 inhabitants Metz: 102,787 inhabitants Diedenhofen: 69,693 inhabitants Colmar: 44,942 inhabitants The modern history of Alsace-Lorraine was influenced by the rivalry between French and German nationalism.
France long sought to attain and preserve its "natural boundaries", which were the Pyrenees to the southwest, the Alps to the southeast, the Rhine River to the northeast. These strategic claims led to the annexation of territories located west of the Rhine river in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. What is now known as Alsace was progressively conquered by Louis XIV in the 17th century, while Lorraine was incorporated in the 18th century under Louis XV. German nationalism, which resurfaced following the French occupation of Germany under Napoleon, sought to unify all the German-speaking populations of the former Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation into a single nation-state; as various German dialects were spoken by most of the population of Alsace and Moselle, these regions were viewed by German nationalists to be rightfully part of hoped-for united Germany in the future. We Germans who know Germany and France know better what is good for the Alsatians than the unfortunates themselves.
In the perversion of their French life they have no exact idea of. In 1871, the newly created German Empire's demand for Alsace from France after its victory in the Franco-Prussian War was not a punitive measure; the transfer was controversial among the Germans: The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, was opposed to it, as he thought it would engender permanent French enmity toward Germany. Some German industrialists did not want the competition from Alsatian industries, such as the cloth makers who would be exposed to competition from the sizeable industry in Mulhouse. Karl Marx warned his fellow Germans: "If Alsace and Lorraine are taken France will make war on Germany in conjunction with Russia, it is unnecessary to go into the unholy consequences." However, the German Emperor, Wilhelm I sided with army commander Helmuth von Moltke, other Prussian generals and other officials who argued that a westward shift in the French border was necessary for strategic military and ethnographic reasons.
From an ethnic perspective, the transfer involved people who for the most part spoke Alemannic German dialects. From a military perspective, by early 1870s standards, shifting the frontier away from the Rhine would give the Germans a strategic buffer against feared future French attacks. Due to the annexation, the Germans gained control of the fortifications of French-speaking Metz, as well as Strasbourg on the left bank of the Rhine and most of the iron resources of Lorraine. However, domestic politics in the new Reich may have been decisive. Although it was led by Prussia, the new German Empire was a decentralized federal state; the new arrangement left many senior Prussian generals with serious misgivings about leading diverse military forces to guard a prewar frontier that, except for the northernmost section, was part of two other states of the new Empire – Baden and Bavaria. As as the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, these states had been Prussia's enemies. In the new Empire's constitution, both states, but Bavaria, had been given concessions with regard to local autonomy, including partial control of their military forces.
For this reason, the Prussian General Staff argued that it was necessary for the Reich's frontier with France to be under direct Prussian control. Creating a new Imperial Territory out of French territory would achieve this goal: although a Reichsland would not be part of the Kingdom of Prussia, being governed directly from Berlin it would be under Prusso-German control. Thus, by annexing Alsace-Lorraine, Berlin was able to avoid complications with Baden and Bavaria on such matters as new fortifications. Memories of the Napoleonic Wars were still quite fresh in the 1870s. Right up until the Franco-Prussian War, the French had maintained a long-standing desire to establish their entire eastern frontier on the Rhine, th
Workwear
Workwear is clothing worn for work work that involves manual labour. Those employed within trade industries elect to be outfitted in workwear because it is built to provide durability and safety; the workwear clothing industry is growing and consumers have numerous retailers to choose from. Chains that have made a commitment to the $1 billion and rising workwear business report steady 6 percent to 8 percent annual gains in men's workwear. In the UK, if workwear is provided to an employee without a logo, it may be subject to income tax being levied on the employee for a "payment in kind." However, if company clothing is provided with logos on the employee may be entitled to a tax rebate to help pay for the upkeep. In Britain from the mid 19th century until the 1970s, dustmen and the manual laborers known as navvies wore flat caps, corduroy pants, heavy boots and donkey jackets with a brightly colored cotton neckerchief to soak up the sweat. Versions of the donkey jacket came with leather shoulder patches to prevent wear when shouldering a spade or pick.
Mill workers in Yorkshire and Lancashire wore a variant of this basic outfit with English clogs. The cuffs of the pants were secured with string, grandad shirts were worn without a collar to decrease the likelihood of being caught in the steam powered machinery. Since the late 18th century, merchant seamen and dockworkers have worn denim flared trousers, striped undershirts, knitted roll neck jumpers, short blue peacoats; this basic outfit, paired with a thick leather belt, flat cap and clogs, was a mark of identification for turn of the century criminal gangs such as the Scuttlers. On the more luxurious cruise ships and ocean liners, deckhands wore neatly pressed dress blues similar to those of the Royal Navy and USN, while waiters and cabin stewards wore white uniforms with a band collar, gilded brass buttons, a gold stripe on the trouser leg. In wet weather, sailors wore oilskins and Souwesters, but contemporary fishermen wear a two piece yellow or orange waterproof jacket and trousers. Modern updates to the traditional look include polar fleeces, baseball caps, knit caps.
Straw hats, sailor caps and tarred waterproof hats are no longer in widespread civilian use, but wool or denim versions of the Greek fisherman's cap remain common. In the Old West era, Union Pacific train engineers and railroad workers wore distinctive overalls and work jackets made from hickory stripe before boiler suits were invented in the early 20th century. Railway conductors and station masters wore more formal blue uniforms based on the three piece lounge suit, with brass buttons and a military surplus kepi from the Civil War era. In modern times, the striped engineer cap remains part of the uniform of American train drivers. Since the days of the Old West and Canadian lumberjacks have worn buffalo plaid Pendleton jackets, wool tuques, trapper hats, tall waterproof boots with a reinforced toecap, chaps as protection from the chainsaw. Olive drab versions of the padded wool jacket were issued to US Army jeep crews during the war, plaid Pendletons became popular casual wear in America during the 1950s.
From the 1930s onwards and mechanics wore a distinctive outfit comprising mechanic's cap, white T-shirt, boiler suit, checked shirt, leather coat, Pendleton jacket, double denim jacket, blue jeans. The skipper cap in particular signified the truckers' link with the big seaports, from which imported goods were transported all over the country; this look served as the inspiration for the ton-up boy and greaser subculture during the 1950s and 1960s. By the early 1980s, the peaked caps had been replaced with foam and mesh baseball caps known as trucker hats or gimme caps, which were given to truck drivers by manufacturers such as John Deere, Mountain Dew or Budweiser to advertise their products. In the present day and service industry workwear comprises T-shirts or polo shirts that are cheap to replace, black or navy polyester and cotton blend pants, steel capped boots, for cashiers at large department stores like Wal-Mart or Aldi, a colored waistcoat or tabard bearing the company logo. Zip up Polar fleeces invented during the 1970s for use by meat packing plant workers in the large refrigerated units, are commonly worn by factory workers, barrow boys and stock handlers in colder climates.
During the 1980s, workwear such as the donkey jacket and Doc Martens safety boots were popular street attire for British skinheads, hardcore punks and football hooligans. More Celtic punk groups such as Dropkick Murphys have adopted aspects of the look such as the flat cap to assert their working class Irish identity. In the 21st century, the style has made a huge impact on the fashion industry. Workwear has not so just become a style of clothes, adopted by the hipster subculture, but a culture and way of life in this particular community. Pompadour hair cuts, denim jackets, military trench coats, lumberjack flannels, chambray shirts, raw denim, work boots take part into this workwear style. Dress code Western dress codes Casual wear Business casual Smart casual Casual Friday Sportswear
Western Front (World War I)
The Western Front was the main theatre of war during the First World War. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium gaining military control of important industrial regions in France; the tide of the advance was turned with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France, which changed little except during early 1917 and in 1918. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several offensives along this front; the attacks employed massive artillery massed infantry advances. Entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire and artillery inflicted severe casualties during attacks and counter-attacks and no significant advances were made. Among the most costly of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun, in 1916, with a combined 700,000 casualties, the Battle of the Somme in 1916, with more than a million casualties, the Battle of Passchendaele, in 1917, with 487,000 casualties.
To break the deadlock of trench warfare on the Western Front, both sides tried new military technology, including poison gas and tanks. The adoption of better tactics and the cumulative weakening of the armies in the west led to the return of mobility in 1918; the German Spring Offensive of 1918 was made possible by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that ended the war of the Central Powers against Russia and Romania on the Eastern Front. Using short, intense "hurricane" bombardments and infiltration tactics, the German armies moved nearly 100 kilometres to the west, the deepest advance by either side since 1914, but the result was indecisive; the inexorable advance of the Allied armies during the second half of 1918 caused a sudden collapse of the German armies and persuaded the German commanders that defeat was inevitable. The German government surrendered in the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the terms of peace were settled by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. At the outbreak of the First World War, the German Army, with seven field armies in the west and one in the east, executed a modified version of the Schlieffen Plan, moving through neutral Belgium to attack France, turning southwards to encircle the French Army and trap it on the German border.
The Western Front was the place where the most powerful military forces in Europe, the German and French armies and where the war was decided. Belgian neutrality had been guaranteed by Britain under the Treaty of London, 1839. Armies under German generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow attacked Belgium on 4 August 1914. Luxembourg had been occupied without opposition on 2 August; the first battle in Belgium was the Siege of Liège. Liège was well surprised the German Army under Bülow with its level of resistance. German heavy artillery was able to demolish the main forts within a few days. Following the fall of Liège, most of the Belgian field army retreated to Antwerp, leaving the garrison of Namur isolated, with the Belgian capital, falling to the Germans on 20 August. Although the German army bypassed Antwerp, it remained a threat to their flank. Another siege followed at Namur; the French deployed five armies on the frontier. The French Plan XVII was intended to bring about the capture of Alsace-Lorraine.
On 7 August, the VII Corps attacked Alsace to capture Colmar. The main offensive was launched on 14 August with the First and Second Armies attacking toward Sarrebourg-Morhange in Lorraine. In keeping with the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans withdrew while inflicting severe losses upon the French; the French Third and Fourth Armies advanced toward the Saar River and attempted to capture Saarburg, attacking Briey and Neufchateau but were repulsed. The French VII Corps captured Mulhouse after a brief engagement on 7 August but German reserve forces engaged them in the Battle of Mulhouse and forced a French retreat; the German Army swept through Belgium, razing villages. The application of "collective responsibility" against a civilian population further galvanised the allies. Newspapers condemned the German invasion, violence against civilians and destruction of property, which became known as the "Rape of Belgium". After marching through Belgium and the Ardennes, the Germans advanced into northern France in late August, where they met the French Army, under Joseph Joffre, the divisions of the British Expeditionary Force under Field Marshal Sir John French.
A series of engagements known as the Battle of the Frontiers ensued, which included the Battle of Charleroi and the Battle of Mons. In the former battle the French Fifth Army was destroyed by the German 2nd and 3rd Armies and the latter delayed the German advance by a day. A general Allied retreat followed, resulting in more clashes at the Battle of Le Cateau, the Siege of Maubeuge and the Battle of St. Quentin; the German Army came within 70 km of Paris but at the First Battle of the Marne and British troops were able to force a German retreat by exploiting a gap which appeared between the 1st and 2nd Armies, ending the German advance into France. The German Army retreated north of the Aisne River and dug in there, establishing the beginnings of a static western front, to last for the next three years. Following this German retirement, the opposing forces made reciprocal outflanking manoeuvres, known as the Race for the S
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