1.
Rothschild family
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During the 19th century, the Rothschild family possessed the largest private fortune in the world, as well as the largest private fortune in modern world history. The Rothschild family has frequently been the subject of conspiracy theories, the first member of the family who was known to use the name Rothschild was Izaak Elchanan Rothschild, born in 1577. The name is derived from the German zum rothen Schild, meaning with the red sign, the familys ascent to international prominence began in 1744, with the birth of Mayer Amschel Rothschild in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was the son of Amschel Moses Rothschild, a money changer who had traded with the Prince of Hesse, the family motto appears below the shield, Concordia, Integritas, Industria. Paul Johnson writes he Rothschilds are elusive, there is no book about them that is both revealing and accurate. Libraries of nonsense have been written about them, a woman who planned to write a book entitled Lies about the Rothschilds abandoned it, saying, ‘It was relatively easy to spot the lies, but it proved impossible to find out the truth. Their assets were held in financial instruments, circulating through the world as stocks, bonds, changes made by the Rothschilds allowed them to insulate their property from local violence, Henceforth their real wealth was beyond the reach of the mob, almost beyond the reach of greedy monarchs. Another essential part of Mayer Rothschilds strategy for success was to control of their banks in family hands. By this means, Jewish financiers obtained a share of international finance during the middle. The head of the group was the Rothschild family. It also states, Of more recent years, non-Jewish financiers have learned the same method, and, on the whole. Mayer Rothschild successfully kept the fortune in the family with carefully arranged marriages, by the late 19th century, however, almost all Rothschilds had started to marry outside the family, usually into the aristocracy or other financial dynasties. The surname Rothschild is rare in Germany, the German surname Rothschild is not related to the Protestant surname Rothchilds from the United Kingdom. Another line, of the British branch of the family, was elevated by Queen Victoria, research conducted by GreatGameIndia Magazine has revealed that the Rothschild family was one of the controller families of the East India Company. The Rothschilds already possessed a significant fortune before the start of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1815 alone, the Rothschilds provided £9.8 million in subsidy loans to Britains continental allies. The brothers helped coordinate Rothschild activities across the continent, and the family developed a network of agents, in one instance, the family network enabled Nathan to receive in London the news of Wellingtons victory at the Battle of Waterloo a full day ahead of the governments official messengers. It was then repeated in popular accounts, such as that of Morton. The basis for the Rothschilds most famously profitable move was made after the news of British victory had made public
2.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
3.
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
4.
James Mayer de Rothschild
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James Mayer de Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, born Jakob Mayer Rothschild, was a German-French banker and the founder of the French branch of the Rothschild family. James de Rothschild was born in Frankfurt-am-Main, then part of the Holy Roman Empire and he was the fifth son and youngest child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Guttle Schnapper. Along the way, he added to his fortune with investments in such things as the importation of tea, a strong-willed and shrewd businessman, de Rothschild amassed a fortune that made him one of the richest men in the world. Although his papers have never disclosed, evidence suggests that in todays money. In 1822 de Rothschild, along with his four brothers, was bestowed the title of Freiherr by Emperor Francis I of Austria. That same year he was appointed consul-general of the Austrian Empire, on 11 July 1824, in Frankfurt, Germany, de Rothschild married his niece Betty Salomon von Rothschild, the daughter of his brother, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild. Thereafter Rothschild refused to do business with the king, following the July 1830 Revolution that saw King Louis Philippe come to power, de Rothschild put together a loan package to stabilize the finances of the new government, and in 1834 a second loan. In gratitude for his services to the French nation, Louis Philippe elevated him to the dignity of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, in 1817 de Rothschild purchased Château Rothschild in Boulogne-Billancourt, where his children were born and reared. In 1838 he purchased from Charles Maurice de Talleyrand a large residence in Paris and it remained in the family until 1950, when it was sold to the United States government, today it serves as the consular section of the American Embassy. De Rothschild and his sophisticated Viennese wife were at the center of Parisian culture, the chef for their lavish receptions was Antonin Carême. They patronized major personalities in the arts, including Gioacchino Rossini, Frédéric Chopin, Honoré de Balzac, Eugène Delacroix, and Heinrich Heine. As an acknowledgment of the years of patronage extended by Baron James and his wife Betty, in 1847 Chopin dedicated his Valse Op.64. In 1848 Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres painted Betty de Rothschilds portrait, in February 1848, King Louis Philippe was dethroned, to the temporary alarm of his friend de Rothschild. Banking competitor Achille Fould was a friend of the new President of the French Republic, Napoleon III, however, despite some difficulties, the family business survived and prospered under the new regime. In 1854 de Rothschild commissioned the famous architect Joseph Paxton to build the Château de Ferrières in Ferrières-en-Brie, the property remained the home of his inheriting male descendants until 1975, when Guy de Rothschild gave it to the University of Paris. In addition to his business, in 1868 de Rothschild purchased Château Lafite. Located in the Bordeaux region, it is a business that remains in the family to this day, beyond his business activities, de Rothschild made the first significant acquisitions for what became the French familys massive art collections. His art included Vermeers 1668 work The Astronomer, according to the paintings provenance, it was seized by the Nazis in 1940 but after World War II the painting was returned to the family
5.
Frankfurt
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The city is at the centre of the larger Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, which has a population of 5.8 million and is Germanys second-largest metropolitan region after Rhine-Ruhr. Since the enlargement of the European Union in 2013, the centre of the EU is about 40 km to the east of Frankfurts CBD. Frankfurt is culturally and ethnically diverse, with half of the population. A quarter of the population are foreign nationals, including many expatriates, Frankfurt is an alpha world city and a global hub for commerce, culture, education, tourism and traffic. Its the site of many global and European headquarters, Frankfurt Airport is among the worlds busiest. Automotive, technology and research, services, consulting, media, Frankfurts DE-CIX is the worlds largest internet exchange point. Messe Frankfurt is one of the worlds largest trade fairs, major fairs include the Frankfurt Motor Show, the worlds largest motor show, the Music Fair, and the Frankfurt Book Fair, the worlds largest book fair. Frankfurt is home to educational institutions, including the Goethe University, the UAS, the FUMPA. Its renowned cultural venues include the concert hall Alte Oper, Europes largest English Theatre and many museums, Frankfurts skyline is shaped by some of Europes tallest skyscrapers. In sports, the city is known as the home of the top football club Eintracht Frankfurt, the basketball club Frankfurt Skyliners, the Frankfurt Marathon. Its the seat of German sport unions for Olympics, football, Frankfurt is the largest financial centre in continental Europe. It is home to the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is one of the worlds largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and accounts for more than 90 percent of the turnover in the German market. Frankfurt is considered a city as listed by the GaWC groups 2012 inventory. Among global cities it was ranked 10th by the Global Power City Index 2011, among financial centres it was ranked 8th by the International Financial Centers Development Index 2013 and 9th by the Global Financial Centres Index 2013. Its central location within Germany and Europe makes Frankfurt a major air, rail, Frankfurt Airport is one of the worlds busiest international airports by passenger traffic and the main hub for Germanys flag carrier Lufthansa. Frankfurter Kreuz, the Autobahn interchange close to the airport, is the most heavily used interchange in the EU, in 2011 human-resource-consulting firm Mercer ranked Frankfurt as seventh in its annual Quality of Living survey of cities around the world. According to The Economist cost-of-living survey, Frankfurt is Germanys most expensive city, Frankfurt has many high-rise buildings in the city centre, forming the Frankfurt skyline. It is one of the few cities in the European Union to have such a skyline and because of it Germans sometimes refer to Frankfurt as Mainhattan, the other well known and obvious nickname is Bankfurt
6.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
7.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
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Mayer Amschel Rothschild, written also Anschel, was a German Jewish banker and the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty. Referred to as the father of international finance, Rothschild was ranked seventh on the Forbes magazine list of The Twenty Most Influential Businessmen of All Time in 2005. Amschels father had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange and he was a personal supplier of coins to the Prince of Hesse. The family home above the shop had a front wall only 11 feet wide, with the help of relatives, Rothschild secured an apprenticeship under Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, at the banking firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hanover, in 1757. The grandson of Samuel Oppenheimer taught Rothschild useful knowledge in trade and currency exchange. He became a dealer in rare coins and won the patronage of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Hesse, business expanded rapidly following the French Revolution when Rothschild handled payments from Britain for the hire of Hessian mercenaries. In 1806, Napoleon invaded Hesse in response to Wilhelms support for Prussia, the Landgrave went into exile in the Duchy of Holstein, but Rothschild was able to continue as his banker, investing funds in London. He also profited from importing goods in circumvention of Napoleons continental blockade, in 1798, third-born son Nathan Mayer Rothschild was sent to England to further the family interests in textile importing with £20,000 capital —the first foreign branch. Nathan became a citizen in 1804 and established a bank in the City of London. In 1810, Mayer entered into a partnership agreement with his three eldest sons. The youngest son Jacob was sent to Paris in 1811, enhancing the ability to operate across Europe. This enabled them to profit from the opportunity of financing Wellingtons armies in Portugal, Rothschild died on 19 September 1812 in Frankfurt am Main. He was buried at the old Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt, located next to the Judengasse, a park was named after him, and also a street. In 1817 he was ennobled by the emperor Francis I of Austria. His descendants furthered the family fortune across Europe—the five arrows of banking, eldest son Amschel Mayer took over the Frankfurt bank and Salomon moved to Vienna. Nathan turned the London branch into one of Europes most powerful banking institutions, Calmann set up a branch in Naples and Jacob opened de Rothschild Frères, founder, Meyer Amschel Rothschild and His Time. Meyer Amschel Rothschild, der Gründer des Rothschildschen Bankhauses
8.
Loan
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In finance, a loan is the lending of money from one individual, organization or entity to another individual, organization or entity. A loan entails the reallocation of the asset for a period of time. The loan is provided at a cost, referred to as interest on the debt. In a legal loan, each of these obligations and restrictions is enforced by contract, although this article focuses on monetary loans, in practice any material object might be lent. Acting as a provider of loans is one of the tasks for financial institutions such as banks. For other institutions, issuing of debt such as bonds is a typical source of funding. A secured loan is a loan in which the borrower pledges some asset as collateral, a mortgage loan is a very common type of loan, used by many individuals to purchase things. In this arrangement, the money is used to purchase the property, the financial institution, however, is given security – a lien on the title to the house – until the mortgage is paid off in full. If the borrower defaults on the loan, the bank would have the right to repossess the house and sell it. In some instances, a loan out to purchase a new or used car may be secured by the car. The duration of the period is considerably shorter – often corresponding to the useful life of the car. There are two types of loans, direct and indirect. A direct auto loan is where a bank gives the loan directly to a consumer, an indirect auto loan is where a car dealership acts as an intermediary between the bank or financial institution and the consumer. Unsecured loans are loans that are not secured against the borrowers assets. These may or may not be regulated by law, in the United Kingdom, when applied to individuals, these may come under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Interest rates on unsecured loans are nearly always higher than for secured loans, an unsecured lender must sue the borrower, obtain a money judgment for breach of contract, and then pursue execution of the judgment against the borrowers unencumbered assets. In insolvency proceedings, secured lenders traditionally have priority over unsecured lenders when a court divides up the borrowers assets, thus, a higher interest rate reflects the additional risk that in the event of insolvency, the debt may be uncollectible. Demand loans are short term loans that are typically in that they do not have fixed dates for repayment and they can be called for repayment by the lending institution at any time
9.
Government bond
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A government bond is a bond issued by a national government, generally with a promise to pay periodic interest payments and to repay the face value on the maturity date. Government bonds are denominated in the countrys own currency. Government bonds are referred to as sovereign bonds. If a government or sovereign is close to default on its debt the media often refer to this as a debt crisis. The terms on which a government can sell bonds depend on how creditworthy the market considers it to be, international credit rating agencies will provide ratings for the bonds, but market participants will make up their own minds about this. The first general government bonds were issued in the Netherlands in 1517, because the Netherlands did not exist at that time, the bonds issued by the city of Amsterdam are considered their predecessor which later merged into Netherlands government bonds. The average interest rate at that time fluctuated around 20%, the first ever bond issued by a national government was issued by the Bank of England in 1694 to raise money to fund a war against France. It was in the form of a tontine, later, governments in Europe started issuing perpetual bonds to fund wars and other government spending. The use of perpetual bonds ceased in the 20th century, a Government bond in a countrys own currency is strictly speaking a risk-free bond, because the government can if necessary create additional currency in order to redeem the bond at maturity. There have however been instances where a government has chosen to default on its domestic currency debt, currency risk is the risk that the value of the currency a bond pays out will decline compared to the holders reference currency. A bond paying in a currency that does not have a history of keeping its value may not be a deal even if a high interest rate is offered. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of the currency a bond pays out will decline over time, investors expect some amount of inflation, so the risk is that the inflation rate will be higher than expected. Many governments issue inflation-indexed bonds, which protect investors against inflation risk by linking both interest payments and maturity payments to a consumer prices index. If a central bank purchases a government security, such as a bond or treasury bill, it increases the money supply, in the UK, government bonds are called gilts. Older issues have names such as Treasury Stock and newer issues are called Treasury Gilt, inflation-indexed gilts are called Index-linked gilts
10.
Bullion
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Bullion is gold bars, silver bars, and other bars or ingots of precious metal. The word bullion comes from the French Minister of Finance under Louis XIII, the value of bullion is typically determined by the value of its precious metals content, which is defined by its purity and mass. It is also weighed extremely accurately, retailers may sometimes market ingots and bars of base metals, such as copper, nickel, and aluminium as bullion, but this is not a widely accepted definition. The specifications of bullion are often regulated by market bodies or legislation, in the European Union, the minimum purity for gold bullion, which is treated as investment gold with regards to taxation, is 99. 5% for gold bullion bars and 90% for bullion coins. The London bullion market is a market for wholesale trading of gold. The London Bullion Market Association coordinates activities of its members and other participants in the London bullion market, the LBMA sets and promotes quality standards for gold and silver bullion bars. The minimum acceptable fineness of the Good Delivery Bars is 99. 5% for gold bars and 99. 9% for silver bars, Bullion coins describe contemporary precious metal coins minted by official agencies for investment purposes. Historically, most currency were in the form of coins, silver. Some bullion coins have been used as currency throughout the 20th century, like the Maria Theresa thaler, however, modern bullion coins generally do not enter common circulation despite having legal tender status and a nominal face value. Some modern bullion coins, such as the gold and silver American eagle, are produced as both business strike and collectible proof and uncirculated versions. Business strikes typically are sold at prices commensurate with their precious metal content, in some cases the grade and mintages of business strike coins can affect their value, so that they are considered numismatic rather than bullion items. A range of market participants is active in the bullion markets, banks, fabricators, refiners. They provide facilities for the refining, melting, assaying, transporting, trading and vaulting of gold, for example, shares of the world’s largest Gold exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Shares represent ownership in vaulted gold bullion. Private individuals use bullion primarily as an investment or potential store of value, Gold bullion and silver bullion are the most important forms of physical precious metals investments. Bullion investments can be considered as insurance against inflation or economic turmoil, compared to numismatic coins, bullion bars or bullion coins can typically be purchased and traded at lower margins and their trading prices are closer to the values of the contained precious metals
11.
Mining
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Mining is extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth usually from an orebody, lode, vein, seam, reef or placer deposits. These deposits form a mineralized package that is of economic interest to the miner, ores recovered by mining include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay. Mining is required to obtain any material that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such as petroleum, natural gas, or even water. Mining of stones and metal has been a human activity since pre-historic times, Mining operations usually create a negative environmental impact, both during the mining activity and after the mine has closed. Hence, most of the nations have passed regulations to decrease the impact. Work safety has long been a concern as well, and modern practices have significantly improved safety in mines, levels of metals recycling are generally low. Unless future end-of-life recycling rates are stepped up, some rare metals may become unavailable for use in a variety of consumer products, due to the low recycling rates, some landfills now contain higher concentrations of metal than mines themselves. Since the beginning of civilization, people have used stone, ceramics and, later and these were used to make early tools and weapons, for example, high quality flint found in northern France, southern England and Poland was used to create flint tools. Flint mines have been found in areas where seams of the stone were followed underground by shafts. The mines at Grimes Graves and Krzemionki are especially famous, other hard rocks mined or collected for axes included the greenstone of the Langdale axe industry based in the English Lake District. The oldest-known mine on archaeological record is the Lion Cave in Swaziland, at this site Paleolithic humans mined hematite to make the red pigment ochre. Mines of an age in Hungary are believed to be sites where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons. Ancient Egyptians mined malachite at Maadi, at first, Egyptians used the bright green malachite stones for ornamentations and pottery. Later, between 2613 and 2494 BC, large building projects required expeditions abroad to the area of Wadi Maghareh in order to secure minerals and other resources not available in Egypt itself. Quarries for turquoise and copper were found at Wadi Hammamat, Tura, Aswan and various other Nubian sites on the Sinai Peninsula. Mining in Egypt occurred in the earliest dynasties, the gold mines of Nubia were among the largest and most extensive of any in Ancient Egypt. These mines are described by the Greek author Diodorus Siculus, who mentions fire-setting as one used to break down the hard rock holding the gold. One of the complexes is shown in one of the earliest known maps, the miners crushed the ore and ground it to a fine powder before washing the powder for the gold dust
12.
Rail transport
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Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks. It is also referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat surface. Tracks usually consist of rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger. The operation is carried out by a company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway system or produce their own power. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system, Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. The oldest, man-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of power in the 19th centuries. With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution, also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships. The change from canals to railways allowed for markets in which prices varied very little from city to city. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways, starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan, other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. The history of the growth, decline and restoration to use of transport can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used. The earliest evidence of a railway was a 6-kilometre Diolkos wagonway, trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element. The Diolkos operated for over 600 years, Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany
13.
N M Rothschild & Sons
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N M Rothschild & Sons Limited or Rothschild Group is a British multinational investment banking company controlled by the Rothschild family. It was founded in the City of London in 1811 and now serves as the British division of Rothschild & Co and it is the 7th oldest bank in continuous operation in the United Kingdom. Rothschilds financial advisory division is known to serve British nobility, including the British Royal Family, chairman Sir Evelyn Rothschild is currently the personal financial advisor of Queen Elizabeth II, and she knighted him in 1989 for his services to banking and finance. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, Mayer Amschel Rothschild rose to one of Europes most powerful bankers in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel in the Holy Roman Empire. In pursuit of expansion, he appointed his sons to start banking operations in the capitals of Europe, including sending his third son, Nathan Mayer Rothschild. Nathan Mayer Rothschild first settled in Manchester, where he established a business in finance and he later moved to London, where he founded N M Rothschild & Sons in 1811, through which he made a fortune with his involvement in the government bonds market. According to historian Niall Ferguson, For most of the nineteenth century, through the creation of a network of agents, couriers and shippers, the bank was able to provide funds to the armies of the Duke of Wellington in Portugal and Spain. In 1818 the Rothschild bank arranged a £5 million loan to the Prussian government, the providing of other innovative and complex financing for government projects formed a mainstay of the banks business for the better part of the century. N M Rothschild & Sons financial strength in the City of London became such that by 1825, Nathan Mayers eldest son, Lionel de Rothschild succeeded him as head of the London branch. Under Lionel the bank financed the British governments 1875 purchase of a controlling interest in the Suez Canal, Lionel also began to invest in railways as his uncle James had been doing in France. In 1869, Lionels son, Alfred de Rothschild, became a director of the Bank of England, Alfred was one of those who represented the British Government at the 1892 International Monetary Conference in Brussels. In 1873 de Rothschild Frères in France and N M Rothschild & Sons of London joined with other investors to acquire the Spanish governments money-losing Rio Tinto copper mines, the new owners restructured the company and turned it into a profitable business. By 1905, the Rothschild interest in Rio Tinto amounted to more than 30%, in 1887, the French and English Rothschild banking houses loaned money to, and invested in, the De Beers diamond mines in South Africa, becoming its largest shareholders. The First World War marked a change of fortune and emphasis for Rothschild, after the War, the Rothschild banks began a steady transition towards advisory work and finance raising for commercial concerns, including the London Underground. In 1938, the Austrian Rothschilds’ interests were given to the Nazis, in France and Austria, the family was scattered for the duration of the Second World War. In the 1980s, Rothschild took a role in the international phenomenon of privatisation. The company was involved from the beginning and developed a role which spread out to more than thirty countries worldwide. In recent years, Rothschild advised on nearly a thousand completed mergers, Rothschild also advised on some of the largest and most high-profile corporate restructurings around the world
14.
Chemins de Fer du Nord
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The Chemins de Fer du Nord, often referred to simply as the Nord company, was a rail transport company created in September 1845, in Paris, France. It was owned by among others de Rothschild Frères of France, N M Rothschild & Sons of London, England, Hottinger, Laffitte, Baron James de Rothschild served as the companys first president from its inception until his death in 1868. Lille and Valenciennes had already connected to the Belgian railway network in 1842. The new line made it possible to travel by train from Paris to Brussels, by opening a line to from Paris to Hirson via Soissons and Laon from 1860 to 1871, it protected its eastern border against CF de lEst expansion. The concession for the line from Creil to Beauvais, owned by CF de lEst predecessor Chemins de fer des Ardennes, was exchanged for the Nords concession for Laon–Reims in 1855. In 1937 the CF du Nord was nationalised, as were the main railway companies. In 1926 started regular connection of the passenger train from London to Paris. For transport of passengers baggage four containers were used and these containers were loaded in London or Paris and carried to ports, Dover or Calais, on flat cars in the UK and “CIWL Pullman Golden Arrow Fourgon of CIWL” in France. In 1855 Baron Rothschild commissioned photographer Edouard Baldus to do a series of photographs of the landmarks on the railway line between Boulogne-sur-Mer and Paris. The photographs were used to create an album for Queen Victoria, the album can be seen today in the photographic collection in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle
15.
Gare du Nord
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Paris Nord is one of the six large terminus stations of the SNCF mainline network for Paris, France. Near Gare de lEst in the 10th arrondissement, the Gare du Nord offers connections with several urban transport lines, including Paris Métro, RER and buses. By the number of travellers, at around 214 million per year, it is the busiest railway station in Europe, the 24th busiest in the world and the busiest outside Japan. The Gare du Nord is the station for trains to Northern France and to destinations in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands. The station complex was designed by the French architect Jacques Hittorff, the station was inaugurated on 14 June 1846, the same year as the launch of the Paris–Amiens–Lille rail link. Since the station was found to be too small in size, the original stations façade was removed and transferred to Lille. The chairman of the Chemin de Fer du Nord railway company, James Mayer de Rothschild, construction lasted from May 1861 to December 1865, but the new station opened for service while still under construction in 1864. The façade was designed around a triumphal arch and used many slabs of stone, the building has the usual U-shape of a terminus station. The main support beam is made out of cast iron, the support pillars inside the station were made at Alston & Gourleys ironworks in Glasgow in the United Kingdom, the only country with a foundry large enough for the task. The sculptural display represents the cities served by the company. Eight of the nine most majestic statues, crowning the building along the line, illustrate destinations outside France. Fourteen more modest statues representing northern European cities are lower on the façade, however, this was never built due to a dispute between de Rothschild and Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann during his rebuilding of Paris. Whatever the reason, the station has persistently suffered problems with a lack of space, to remedy these problems, in 2015 SNCF engaged the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte to open the station towards the city. It is intended that the station will undergo a major refurbishment to be completed by 2024, the station will remain open during the renovations. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has pledged to address the traffic problems in front of the station by reconfiguring its approaches. Like other Parisian railway stations, the Gare du Nord rapidly became too small to deal with the increase in railway traffic, in 1884, engineers were able to add five supplementary tracks. The interior was rebuilt in 1889 and an extension was built on the eastern side to serve suburban rail lines. More expansion work was carried out between the 1930s and the 1960s
16.
English Channel
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The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English. The name English Channel has been used since the early 18th century. In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal, later, it has also been known as the British Channel or the British Sea having been called the Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, the Anglo-Saxon texts often call it Sūð-sǣ as opposed to Norð-sǣ
17.
Wine
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Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes. These grapes are generally Vitis vinifera, or a hybrid with Vitis labrusca or Vitis rupestris, grapes are fermented without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol, different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine. These variations result from the interactions between the biochemical development of the grape, the reactions involved in fermentation, the terroir. Many countries enact legal appellations intended to define styles and qualities of wine and these typically restrict the geographical origin and permitted varieties of grapes, as well as other aspects of wine production. There are also made from fermenting other fruits or cereals. Wines made from other than grapes include rice wine and various fruit wines such as those made from plums or cherries. Some well known examples are hard cider from apples, perry from pears, pomegranate wine, Wine has been produced for thousands of years. The earliest known traces of wine from Georgia in Eurasia where 8000-year-old wine jars were found and in Iran with 7, the earliest known winery is the 6, 100-year-old Areni-1 winery Armenia. Wine reached the Balkans by 4500 BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece, Thrace, throughout history, wine has been consumed for its intoxicating effects, which are evident after the normal serving size of five ounces. Wine has long played an important role in religion, the earliest chemically attested grape wine was discovered at Hajji Firuz in the northwestern Zagros Mountains dating back to 5400 BC. The earliest evidence of a fermented drink was found in Georgia, where wine residue inside ceramic jars dates from 6000 BC. The earliest evidence of a production facility is the Areni-1 winery in Armenia and is at least 6100 years old, presumably. A2003 report by archaeologists indicates a possibility that grapes were mixed with rice to produce mixed fermented beverages in China in the years of the seventh millennium BC. Pottery jars from the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan, contained traces of tartaric acid, however, other fruits indigenous to the region, such as hawthorn, cannot be ruled out. The spread of wine culture westwards was most probably due to the Phoenicians who spread outward from a base of city-states along the Lebanese, Syrian, the wines of Byblos were exported to Egypt during the Old Kingdom and then throughout the Mediterranean. Evidence includes two Phoenician shipwrecks from 750 BC discovered by Robert Ballard, whose cargo of wine was still intact. As the first great traders in wine, the Phoenicians seem to have protected it from oxidation with a layer of oil, followed by a seal of pinewood and resin
18.
Oil
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An oil is any neutral, nonpolar chemical substance that is a viscous liquid at ambient temperatures and is both hydrophobic and lipophilic. Oils have a carbon and hydrogen content and are usually flammable. The general definition of oil includes classes of compounds that may be otherwise unrelated in structure, properties. Oils may be animal, vegetable, or petrochemical in origin and they are used for food, fuel, medical purposes, lubrication, and the manufacture of many types of paints, plastics, and other materials. Specially prepared oils are used in religious ceremonies and rituals as purifying agents. First attested in English 1176, the oil comes from Old French oile, from Latin oleum, which in turn comes from the Greek ἔλαιον, olive oil, oil. The earliest attested forms of the word are the Mycenaean Greek
19.
Petroleum industry in Azerbaijan
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The petroleum industry in Azerbaijan produces about 873,260 barrels of oil per day and 29 billion cubic meters of gas per year as of 2013. Azerbaijan is one of the birthplaces of the oil industry and its history is linked to the fortunes of petroleum. It is poised to become an important oil and gas producer once again, in 1871, Ivan Mirzoev, an ethnic Armenian who was then an otkupchina monopolist, built the first wooden oil derrick followed by another the next year. Drilling was conducted primitively with an arm, whim and manual pump. There is evidence of petroleum being used in trade as early as the 3rd, information on the production of oil on the Apsheron peninsula can be found in the manuscripts of most Arabic and Persian authors. This oil is not good to eat, but it is good for burning and as a salve for men, men come from a long distance to fetch this oil, and in all the neighborhood no other oil is burnt but this. The first detailed description of the Baku oil industry was made by Engelbert Kaempfer, in his notes he confirms the existence of places where natural gas discharges to the surface. Kaempfer describes flaming steppe as follows, it and it was occupying the territory of 88 steps in length and 26 in width. Many 18th and 19th century European accounts of the Caucasus refer to the Fire Temple of Baku at Suraxanı raion, in 1806, the Russian empire occupied Baku Khanate and took monopolistic control of oil production. Later exclusive rights to produce oil were given to individuals, thereby creating the Persian otkupchina lease system, Oil extraction methods in those times were very primitive —mainly hand-dug wells, drilled to very shallow depths. The production volume of those years can be judged from data provided in 1842 by the Caspian Chamber of the Department of State Property Ministry. As a result of monopoly and the absence of growing demand. In 1813, the number of producing wells was 116, then 125 in 1825,120 in 1850, otkupschina system meant that oil production was monopolized by set of individuals who saw no incentive to increase production or improve drilling methods. In 1846, under the supervision of state advisor V. N, semyonov engineer Alekseev drilled a 21 m deep well using a primitive percussion drilling mechanism, in Bibiheybət to explore for oil, with positive results. More than a later, on August 27,1859. A small petrochemical industry sprung up around Baku, as demand for kerosene soared locally, vasily Kokorev, Peter Gubonin and German baron N. E. Tornow built the first kerosene factory in Surakhany, the factory was used to produce kerosene out of kir, an asphalt-like substance. Vitte, a Tiflis pharmacist, built the second paraffin-producing factory on Pirallahi Island, as a result, there was flurry of financial activity and various bank societies and organization were created
20.
Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire
21.
Caspian Sea
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The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the worlds largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is in a basin located between Europe and Asia. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, the Caspian Sea lies to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the vast steppe of Central Asia. In its northern part, the Caspian Depression lies 28 to 130 m below sea level, the sea bed in the southern part reaches as low as 1023 m below sea level, which is the second lowest natural depression on earth after Lake Baikal. The ancient inhabitants of its coast perceived the Caspian Sea as an ocean, probably because of its saltiness, the sea has a surface area of 371,000 km2 and a volume of 78,200 km3. It has a salinity of approximately 1. 2%, about a third of the salinity of most seawater, the word Caspian is derived from the name of the Caspi, an ancient people who lived to the southwest of the sea in Transcaucasia. Strabo wrote that to the country of the Albanians belongs also the territory called Caspiane, which was named after the Caspian tribe, as was also the sea, but the tribe has now disappeared. Moreover, the Caspian Gates, which is the name of a region in Irans Tehran province, the Iranian city of Qazvin shares the root of its name with that of the sea. In fact, the traditional Arabic name for the sea itself is Bahr al-Qazwin, in classical antiquity among Greeks and Persians it was called the Hyrcanian Ocean. In Persian antiquity, as well as in modern Iran, it is known as the دریای خزر, Daryā-e Khazar, ancient Arabic sources refer to it as Baḥr Gīlān meaning the Gilan Sea. Turkic languages refer to the lake as Khazar Sea, in Turkmen, the name is Hazar deňizi, in Azeri, it is Xəzər dənizi, and in modern Turkish, it is Hazar denizi. An exception is Kazakh, where it is called Каспий теңізі, old Russian sources call it the Khvalyn or Khvalis Sea after the name of Khwarezmia. In modern Russian, it is called Каспи́йское мо́ре, Kaspiyskoye more, the Caspian Sea, like the Black Sea, Namak Lake, and Lake Urmia, is a remnant of the ancient Paratethys Sea. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to tectonic uplift and a fall in sea level. Due to the current inflow of water, the Caspian Sea is a freshwater lake in its northern portions, and is most saline on the Iranian shore. Currently, the salinity of the Caspian is one third that of Earths oceans. The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world, the coastlines of the Caspian are shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. The Caspian is divided into three distinct regions, the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian
22.
Royal Dutch Shell
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Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known as Shell, is a British–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom. It is one of the six oil and gas supermajors and the sixth-largest company in the world measured by 2016 revenues. Shell was first in the 2013 Fortune Global 500 list of the worlds largest companies and it also has renewable energy activities in the form of biofuels and wind. Shell has operations in over 70 countries, produces around 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 44,000 service stations worldwide, as of 31 December 2014, Shell had total proved reserves of 13.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Shell Oil Company, its subsidiary in the United States, is one of its largest businesses. Shell holds 50% of Raízen, a joint venture with Cosan, which is the third-largest Brazil-based energy company by revenues, Shell was formed in 1907 through the amalgamation of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of the Netherlands and the Shell Transport and Trading Company of the United Kingdom. Shell first entered the industry in 1929. In 1970 Shell acquired the mining company Billiton, which it sold in 1994. In recent decades gas exploration and production has become an important part of Shells business. Shell acquired BG Group in 2016, making it the worlds largest producer of liquefied natural gas, Shell has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index. It has secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange, as of January 2013, Shells largest shareholder was Capital Research Global Investors with 9. 85% ahead of BlackRock in second with 6. 89%. Shells logo, known as the pecten, is one of the most familiar commercial symbols in the world and it was a move largely driven by the need to compete globally with Standard Oil. The Shell Transport and Trading Company was a British company, founded in 1897 by Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted, and his brother Samuel Samuel. Their father had owned a company in Houndsditch, London. For various reasons, the new firm operated as a company, whereby the merging companies maintained their legal existence. The terms of the merger gave 60 percent ownership of the new group to the Dutch arm and 40 percent to the British, national patriotic sensibilities would not permit a full-scale merger or takeover of either of the two companies. The Dutch company, Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroleum Maatschappij at The Hague, was in charge of production, the British Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company was based in London, to direct the transport and storage of the products. During the First World War, Shell was the supplier of fuel to the British Expeditionary Force
23.
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
24.
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
25.
Sanhedrin
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The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three to seventy-one men appointed in every city in the Land of Israel. Judges in ancient Israel were the leaders and Teachers of the nation of Israel. The Mishnah arrives at the number based on an exegetical derivation. The minimum size of a community is 10 men, one more is required to achieve a majority, but a simple majority cannot convict, and so an additional judge is required. Finally, a court should not have a number of judges to prevent deadlocks. This court dealt with religious matters. The Great Sanhedrin was made up of a Nasi, who functioned as head or representing president, but was not a member of the court, an Av Beit Din, the chief of the court, and sixty-nine general members. In the Second Temple period, the Great Sanhedrin met in the Hall of Hewn Stones in the Temple in Jerusalem, the court convened every day except festivals and Shabbat. In the late 3rd century, to persecution, its authoritative decisions were issued under the name of Beit HaMidrash. Historically, the last binding decision of the Great Sanhedrin appeared in 358 CE, the Great Sanhedrin was dissolved after continued persecution by the Eastern Roman Empire and aspiring Christendom. Over the centuries, there have been attempts to revive the institution, such as the Grand Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon Bonaparte and modern attempts in Israel. The Hasmonean court in the Land of Israel, presided over by Alexander Jannaeus, king of Judea until 76 BCE, the exact nature of this early Sanhedrin is not clear. It may have been a body of sages or priests, or a political, legislative, only after the destruction of the Second Temple was the Sanhedrin made up only of sages. In the Second Temple period, the Great Sanhedrin met in the Hall of Hewn Stones in the Temple in Jerusalem, the court convened every day except festivals and Shabbat. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70, the Sanhedrin was re-established in Yavneh with reduced authority, the seat of the Patriarchate moved to Usha under the presidency of Gamaliel II in 80 CE. In 116 it moved back to Yavneh, and then back to Usha. Rabbinic texts indicate that following the Bar Kokhba revolt, southern Galilee became the seat of learning in the Land of Israel. This region was the location of the court of the Patriarch which was situated first at Usha, then at Bet Shearim, later at Sepphoris and finally at Tiberias
26.
Judaism
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Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism
27.
Nazism
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National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race and it aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of racial purity. The term National Socialism arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of socialism, the Nazi Partys precursor, the Pan-German nationalist and anti-Semitic German Workers Party, was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organisation, following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism. The full name of Adolf Hitlers party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word national. The term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a peasant, characterizing an awkward. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the name, Nationalsozialistische. The NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, the use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, and so on was popularised by German exiles abroad. From them, the spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, Nazism is a name for the ideology the party advocated. The majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics, far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms, a major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP, the Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party. After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag, the Nazis denounced them as an insignificant heap of reactionaries. The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their violence. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, there were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical
28.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
29.
Amschel Mayer Rothschild
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Baron Amschel Mayer von Rothschild was a German Jewish banker of the wealthy Rothschild family. He was the child and eldest son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the dynasty. As Amschel Mayer died childless, the sons of his brothers assumed responsibility for the business from 1855 and he was ennobled as Amschel Mayer von Rothschild in 1817 and became a Freiherr in 1822. Amschel Mayer Rothschild was close to Orthodox Jewish circles, and was referred to by Eastern European Jews as the pious Rothschild
30.
Carl Mayer von Rothschild
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Baron Carl Mayer von Rothschild was a German-born banker in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the founder of the Rothschild banking family of Naples. Born Kalman Mayer Rothschild in Frankfurt am Main, he was the fourth of the five sons of Mayer Amschel Rothschild and he would become known as Carl by the family except for his English relatives who translated it as Charles. The 1821 occupation of Naples by the Austrian army provided the opportunity for the Rothschilds to set up business in the Kingdom, Carl Rothschild has sometimes been seen as the least gifted of the five brothers. However, he proved himself in Naples as a financial manager. He established a working relationship with Luigi de Medici, the Direttore della Segreteria di Azienda del Regno di Napoli. In 1822, Carl Rothschild and his four brothers were granted the title of baron, or Freiherr. During the winter of 1826, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, future King of the Belgians was a guest of Carl von Rothschild at his villa in Naples, Carl von Rothschild maintained homes in Frankfurt am Main and in Naples. In 1837 he built the Villa Günthersburg on a country property outside Frankfurt am Main owned by his father at what is now Günthersburg Park. In 1841, he bought the Villa Pignatelli at Riviera di Chiaia with a view of the Sea. Two years after his wife Adelheid died in 1853 and one year after their son Anselm Alexander Carl died at the age of eighteen, one seventh of his estate went to his daughter Charlotte with the rest divided equally between his three surviving sons. Adolf Carl took over the business in Naples from his father and Mayer Carl, the Rothschilds, a Family Portrait by Frederic Morton. Atheneum Publishers ISBN 156836220X The Rothschilds, a Family of Fortune by Virginia Cowles, alfred A. Knopf ISBN0394487737 Rothschild, The Wealth and Power of a Dynasty by Derek Wilson. Scribner, London ISBN0684190184 House of Rothschild, Moneys Prophets, viking Press ISBN0670857688 The House of Rothschild, The Worlds Banker, 1849-1999 by Niall Ferguson
31.
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
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The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the largest of the states of Italy before the Italian unification. It was formed as a union of the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies lasted from 1815 until 1860, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia to form the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The capitals of the Two Sicilies were in Naples and in Palermo, the kingdom extended over the Mezzogiorno and the island of Sicily. Many went to the United States, Australia and Argentina, the kingdom was heavily agricultural, like the other Italian states, the church owned 50–65% of the land by 1750. The name Two Sicilies originated from the division of the medieval Kingdom of Sicily, until 1285, the island of Sicily and the Mezzogiorno each formed part of the Kingdom of Sicily. As a result of the War of the Sicilian Vespers, the King of Sicily lost the island of Sicily to the Crown of Aragon, but remained ruler over the peninsular part of the realm. Although his territory became known as the Kingdom of Naples, he and his successors never gave up the title of King of Sicily, at the same time, the Aragonese rulers of the island of Sicily called their realm the Kingdom of Sicily as well. Thus, formally, there were two kingdoms calling themselves Sicily, hence, the Two Sicilies, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies resulted from the re-unification of the Kingdom of Sicily with the Kingdom of Naples, by King Alfonso V of Aragon in 1442. The two states had functioned as separate realms since the War of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, in 1501, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, son of John II, conquered Naples and reunified the two kingdoms under the authority of the newly united Spanish throne. The Kings of Spain then bore the title King of Both Sicilies or King of Sicily, at the end of that war, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 granted Sicily to the Duke of Savoy until the Treaty of Rastatt in 1714 left Naples to the Emperor Charles VI. In 1720 the Emperor and Savoy exchanged Sicily for Sardinia, thus reuniting Naples and Sicily. In 1734, Charles, Duke of Parma, son of Philip V of Spain, took the Sicilian crown from the Austrians and became Charles VII & V, giving Parma to his younger brother, Philip. Apart from an interruption under Napoleon, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies remained under the Bourbon line continually until 1860. In January 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte, in the name of the French Republic, captured Naples and proclaimed the Parthenopaean Republic, King Ferdinand fled from Naples to Sicily until June of that year. In 1806, Napoleon, by then French Emperor, again dethroned King Ferdinand and appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, throughout this Napoleonic interruption, King Ferdinand remained in Sicily, with Palermo as his capital. The Congress of Vienna restored King Ferdinand in 1815 and he established a concordat with the Papal States, which previously had a claim to the land. The expedition resulted in a series of defeats for the Sicilian armies facing the growing troops of Garibaldi. After the capture of Palermo and Sicily, Garibaldi disembarked in Calabria and moved towards Naples, the last battles took place at Volturnus in 1860 and at the siege of Gaeta, where King Francis II had sought shelter, hoping for French help, which never came
32.
Nathan Mayer Rothschild
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Nathan Mayer, Freiherr von Rothschild was a Jewish German banker, businessman and financier. He was one of five sons of the generation of the Rothschild banking dynasty. He was born in Frankfurt am Main, the child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Once the wealthiest man on earth, he was the richest among the Rothschilds, in 1816, his two elder brothers were granted noble status by the Emperor of Austria. They were now permitted to prefix the Rothschild name with von or de and their device of four arrows became five when Nathan too was elevated in 1818, although he chose not to use his aristocratic title of Freiherr von Rothschild. In 1838, Queen Victoria authorized the use of this Austrian title in the United Kingdom by his male-line descendants, on 22 October 1806 in London, he married Hannah Barent-Cohen, daughter of Levy Barent Cohen and wife Lydia Diamantschleifer. From 1809 Rothschild began to deal in gold bullion, and developed this as a cornerstone of his business, in 1818 he arranged a £5 million loan to the Prussian government and the issuing of bonds for government loans formed a mainstay of his banks business. He gained a position of power in the City of London that by 1825–1826 he was able to supply enough coin to the Bank of England to enable it to avert a liquidity crisis. In 1824 he founded the Alliance Assurance Company with Moses Montefiore, in 1830 he funded, along with other notable bankers, the country of Belgium, which had just gained independence and was looking for investors. He loaned them upwards of 3 million Belgian Franks, in 1835 he secured a contract with the Spanish Government giving him the rights to the Almadén mines in southern Spain, effectively gaining a European mercury monopoly. Nathan Meyer Rothschild was known for his role in the abolition of the trade through his part-financing of the £20 million British government buyout of the plantation industrys slaves. However, in 2009 it was claimed that as part of banking dealings with a slave owner and he set up his London business, N. M. Rothschild and Sons at New Court in St Swithins Lane, City of London, where it trades today. He also purchased a house at Gunnersbury Park near Acton in western London. An anonymous contemporary described Nathan Rothschild at the London Stock Exchange as he leaned against the Rothschild Pillar, hung his heavy hands into his pockets, and began to release silent, motionless, implacable cunning, Eyes are usually called the windows of the soul. But in Rothschilds case you would conclude that the windows are false ones, there comes not one pencil of light from the interior, neither is there one gleam of that which comes from without reflected in any direction. The whole puts you in mind of an empty skin, by and by another figure comes up to it. After this, the eyes are sheathed up again, and the figure resumes its stony posture, during the morning, numbers of visitors come, all of whom meet with a similar reception and vanish in a similar manner. Last of all the figure itself vanishes, leaving you utterly at a loss, by the time an infected abscess caused his death in 1836, his personal net worth amounted to 0. 62% of British national income
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England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
34.
Salomon Mayer von Rothschild
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Salomon Mayer von Rothschild was a German-born banker in the Austrian Empire and the founder of the Austrian branch of the prominent Mayer Amschel Rothschild family. He was born at Frankfurt-am-Main the third child and second son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, in 1800, he married Caroline Stern. They had the children, Anselm Salomon Betty Salomon - married her uncle James Mayer de Rothschild in 1824. His father had built a prosperous banking business in Germany. Salomon von Rothschild was made a shareholder of the de Rothschild Frères bank when it was opened in Paris in 1817 by brother James Mayer de Rothschild. Trained in finance and with years of experience, in 1820 Salomon Rothschild was sent to Austria to formalize the familys existing involvements in financing Austrian government projects, in Vienna, Salomon von Rothschild established S M von Rothschild. The business financed the Nordbahn rail transport network, Austrias first steam railway and he made connections amongst the countrys aristocracy and its political elite through Prince Klemens Metternich and Friedrich von Gentz. Under the direction of Salomon von Rothschild, the Viennese bank was highly successful, in recognition of his services, in 1822 Salomon Mayer Rothschild was made part of the Austrian nobility when Emperor Francis I awarded him the hereditary title Freiherr. In 1843, he became the first Jew to ever be given honorary Austrian citizenship, endogamy was an essential part of the Rothschild familys strategy for future success in order to ensure that control of their businesses remained in family hands. Therefore, in 1824 Salomon Mayer Rothschilds daughter Betty married her uncle James Mayer de Rothschild, Salomon von Rothschilds personal wealth was enormous and he acquired extensive properties and made investments in art and antiquities. By the time of the revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas, anti-Rothschild sentiments were frequently being voiced, with the fall of Metternich, Salomon von Rothschild lost some of his political clout and his bank a considerable amount of money. Under pressure, the 74-year-old handed over the reins of the bank to his son Anselm and he left Vienna and retired in Paris where he died in 1855. From his collection some of the dart from the Italian. Atheneum Publishers ISBN 978-1568362205 The Rothschilds, a Family of Fortune by Virginia Cowles, alfred A. Knopf ISBN 978-0297765387 Rothschild, The Wealth and Power of a Dynasty by Derek Wilson. Scribner, London ISBN 978-0684190181 House of Rothschild, Moneys Prophets, viking Press ISBN 978-0140240849 The House of Rothschild, The Worlds Banker, 1849-1999 by Niall Ferguson. Viking Press ISBN 978-0670887941 The Rothschild Archive - an international cente in London for research into the history of the Rothschild family, objets dArt donated to the Louvre
35.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
36.
Leopold I of Belgium
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Leopold I was a German prince who became the first King of the Belgians following Belgian independence in 1830. He reigned between July 1831 and December 1865, Charlotte died in 1817, but Leopold continued to enjoy considerable status in Britain. After the Greek War of Independence, LeopoId was offered the position of King of Greece but turned it down, instead, Leopold accepted the kingship of the newly established Kingdom of Belgium in 1831. The Belgian government offered the position to Leopold because of his connections with royal houses across Europe. Leopold took his oath as King of the Belgians on 21 July 1831 and his reign was marked by attempts by the Dutch to recapture Belgium and, later, by internal political division between liberals and Catholics. As a result of the ambiguities in the Belgian Constitution, Leopold was able to expand the monarchs powers during his reign. He also played an important role in stopping the spread of the Revolutions of 1848 into Belgium and he died in 1865 and was succeeded by his son, Leopold II. Leopold was born in Coburg in the tiny German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on 16 December 1790 and he was the youngest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf. In 1826, Saxe-Coburg acquired the city of Gotha from the neighboring Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and gave up Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen, becoming Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Ln 1795, at just five years old, Leopold was given a commission of the rank of colonel in the Izmaylovsky Regiment, part of the Imperial Guard. Seven years later, he received a promotion to the rank of Major General, when French troops occupied the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, Leopold went to Paris where he became part of the Imperial Court of Napoleon. Napoleon offered him the position of adjutant, but Leopold refused, instead, he went to Russia to take up a military career in the Imperial Russian cavalry, which was at war with France at the time. He campaigned against Napoleon and distinguished himself at the Battle of Kulm at the head of his cuirassier division, in 1815, by the time of the final defeat of Napoleon and, aged 25, reached the rank of lieutenant general. Leopold received British citizenship in 1815, on 2 May 1816, Leopold married Princess Charlotte of Wales at Carlton House in London. Charlotte was the legitimate child of the Prince Regent George. The same year he received a commission to the rank of Field Marshal. On 5 November 1817, Princess Charlotte gave birth to a stillborn son and she herself died the next day following complications. Despite Charlottes death, the Prince Regent granted Prince Leopold the British style of Royal Highness by Order in Council on 6 April 1818, from 1828 to 1829, Leopold had several-months long affair with the actress Caroline Bauer, who bore a striking resemblance to Charlotte
37.
Freiherr
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Traditionally it denotes the second-lowest titled rank within the nobility, above Ritter and Edler and below Graf and Herzog. The title superseded the earlier form, Edelherr. It corresponds to baron in rank, a Freiherr sometimes exercised hereditary administrative and judicial prerogatives over those resident in his barony instead of the liege lord, who might be the duke or count. The German-language title of Freiherr is rendered in English as Baron, even in German, a Freiherr is often styled and addressed as Baron in social circumstances, although not the official title. The original distinction from other barons was that a Freiherrs landed property was instead of a fief. Since the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Reichsfreiherren do not at present belong to the hierarchy of the realm. By a decision of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, their titles were officially recognised. From 1806 the now independent German monarchies, such as Bavaria, Württemberg and Lippe could create their own nobility, the inheritance of titles of nobility in most German-speaking areas was mostly not restricted by primogeniture as is the baronial title in Britain. The wife of a Freiherr is titled Freifrau, and the daughter of a Freiherr is called Freiin, both titles are translated in English as Baroness. In Prussia and some countries in northern Europe, the title of Freiherr was – as long as the monarchy existed – usually used preceding a persons given name. In Austria-Hungary and Bavaria, however, it would by contrast be inserted between the given and the family name, the Republic of Austria abolished hereditary noble titles for its citizens by the Adelsaufhebungsgesetz of 3 April 1919 and the corresponding decree of the state government. The public use of titles was and still is prohibited. Hans Freiherr von Schwarz, as an Austrian citizen, therefore lost his title of Freiherr von, in practice, however, former noble titles are still recognised in Austria, some people consider it a matter of courtesy to use them. The late Otto von Habsburg, in his childhood Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, in 2003, the Constitutional Court ruled that an Austrian woman having been adopted by a German carrying an aristocratic title as part of his name is not allowed to carry this title in her name. The German republic, under Article 109 of the Weimar Constitution of 1919, the former title thus became a part of the family name, and moved in front of the family name. Freiherr Hans von Schwarz, as a German citizen, therefore became Hans Freiherr von Schwarz. As dependent parts of the surnames they are ignored in alphabetical sorting of names, as is a possible nobiliary particle, such as von, and might or might not be used by those bearing them. Female forms of titles have been accepted as a variation in the surname after 1919 by a still valid decision of the former German High Court
38.
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Amalie Theresa was born on 6 April 1807 at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Hofburg, Vienna and died the next day. Her mother fell ill after giving birth to her and died less than a week afterwards, as a daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, she was born with the title Archduchess of Austria and the style Imperial and Royal Highness
39.
July Revolution
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Supporters of the Bourbon would be called Legitimists, and supporters of Louis Philippe Orléanists. On 16 September 1824, Charles X ascended to the throne of France and he was the younger brother of Louis XVIII, who, upon the defeat of Napoleon I, and by agreement of the Allied powers, had been installed as King of France. Both Louis and Charles ruled by right rather than Revolution. Upon the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, continental Europe, the Congress of Vienna met to redraw the continents political map. Another very influential person at the Congress was Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, although France was considered an enemy state, Talleyrand was allowed to attend the Congress because he claimed that he had only cooperated with Napoleon under duress. Talleyrand proposed that Europe be restored to its borders and governments. France returned to its 1789 borders and the House of Bourbon, the Congress however forced Louis to grant the Charte constitutionnelle française, the French Constitution otherwise known as La Charte. This document was the trigger of the July Revolution. On 16 September 1824, after an illness of several months. Therefore, his brother, Charles, aged 66, inherited the throne of France. On 27 September Charles X as he was now known, made his entry into Paris to popular acclaim. But eight months later, the mood of the capital had sharply worsened in its opinion of the new king, the causes of this dramatic shift in public opinion were many, but the main two were, The imposition of the death penalty for anyone profaning the Eucharist. The provisions for financial indemnities for properties confiscated by the 1789 Revolution and these indemnities to be paid to any one, whether noble or non-noble, who had been declared enemies of the Revolution. Critics of the first accused the king and his new ministry of pandering to the Catholic Church, the second matter, that of financial indemnities, was far more opportunistic than the first. But opponents, many of whom were frustrated Bonapartists, began a campaign that Charles X was only proposing this in order to shame those who had not emigrated. Both measures, they claimed, were nothing more than clever subterfuge meant to bring about the destruction of La Charte and this, too, was about to change. On 12 April, propelled by both genuine conviction and the spirit of independence, the Chamber of Deputies roundly rejected the proposal to change the inheritance laws. The popular newspaper Le Constitutionnel pronounced this refusal a victory over the forces of counter-revolutionaries, the popularity of both the Chamber of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies skyrocketed, and the popularity of the king and his ministry dropped
40.
Louis Philippe I
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Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 as the leader of the Orléanist party. He spent 21 years in exile after he left France in 1793 and he was proclaimed king in 1830 after his cousin Charles X was forced to abdicate in the wake of the events of the July Revolution of that year. His government, known as the July Monarchy, was dominated by members of a wealthy French elite and he followed conservative policies, especially under the influence of the French statesman François Guizot during the period 1840–48. He also promoted friendship with Britain and sponsored colonial expansion, notably the conquest of Algeria and his popularity faded as economic conditions in France deteriorated in 1847, and he was forced to abdicate after the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1848. He lived out his life in exile in Great Britain, Louis Philippe was born in the Palais Royal, the residence of the Orléans family in Paris, to Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, and Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a Prince of the Blood and his mother was an extremely wealthy heiress who was descended from Louis XIV of France through a legitimized line. Louis Philippe was the eldest of three sons and a daughter, a family that was to have erratic fortunes from the beginning of the French Revolution to the Bourbon Restoration. Louis Philippes father was exiled from the court, and the Orléans confined themselves to studies of the literature. Louis Philippe was tutored by the Countess of Genlis, beginning in 1782 and she instilled in him a fondness for liberal thought, it is probably during this period that Louis Philippe picked up his slightly Voltairean brand of Catholicism. When Louis Philippes grandfather died in 1785, his father succeeded him as Duke of Orléans, from October 1788 to October 1789, the Palais Royal was a meeting-place for the revolutionaries. Louis Philippe grew up in a period that changed Europe as a whole and, following his fathers support for the Revolution. In his diary, he reports that he took the initiative to join the Jacobin Club. In June 1791, Louis Philippe got his first opportunity to become involved in the affairs of France, in 1785, he had been given the hereditary appointment of Colonel of the 14th Regiment of Dragoons. With war on the horizon in 1791, all proprietary colonels were ordered to join their regiments, Louis Philippe showed himself to be a model officer, and he demonstrated his personal bravery in two famous instances. The young colonel broke through the crowd and extricated the two priests, who then fled, at a river crossing on the same day, another crowd threatened to harm the priests. Louis Philippe put himself between a peasant armed with a carbine and the priests, saving their lives, the next day, Louis Philippe dove into a river to save a drowning local engineer. For this action, he received a crown from the local municipality. His regiment was moved north to Flanders at the end of 1791 after the Declaration of Pillnitz, Louis Philippe served under his fathers crony, the Duke of Biron, along with several officers who later gained distinction in Napoleons empire and afterwards
41.
Legion of Honour
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The Legion of Honour, full name National Order of the Legion of Honour, is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction, Chevalier, Officier, Commandeur, Grand Officier and Grand-Croix. The orders motto is Honneur et Patrie and its seat is the Palais de la Légion dHonneur next to the Musée dOrsay, in the French Revolution, all French orders of chivalry were abolished, and replaced with Weapons of Honour. The Légion however did use the organization of old French orders of chivalry, the badges of the legion also bear a resemblance to the Ordre de Saint-Louis, which also used a red ribbon. Napoleon originally created this to ensure political loyalty, the organization would be used as a facade to give political favours, gifts, and concessions. The Légion was loosely patterned after a Roman legion, with legionaries, officers, commanders, regional cohorts, the highest rank was not a grand cross but a Grand Aigle, a rank that wore all the insignia common to grand crosses. The members were paid, the highest of them extremely generously,5,000 francs to an officier,2,000 francs to a commandeur,1,000 francs to an officier,250 francs to a légionnaire. Napoleon famously declared, You call these baubles, well, it is with baubles that men are led, do you think that you would be able to make men fight by reasoning. That is good only for the scholar in his study, the soldier needs glory, distinctions, rewards. This has been quoted as It is with such baubles that men are led. The order was the first modern order of merit, under the monarchy, such orders were often limited to Roman Catholics, and all knights had to be noblemen. The military decorations were the perks of the officers, the Légion, however, was open to men of all ranks and professions—only merit or bravery counted. The new legionnaire had to be sworn in the Légion and it is noteworthy that all previous orders were crosses or shared a clear Christian background, whereas the Légion is a secular institution. The jewel of the Légion has five arms, in a decree issued on the 10 Pluviôse XIII, a grand decoration was instituted. This decoration, a cross on a sash and a silver star with an eagle, symbol of the Napoleonic Empire, became known as the Grand Aigle. After Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and established the Napoleonic nobility in 1808, the title was made hereditary after three generations of grantees. Napoleon had dispensed 15 golden collars of the legion among his family and this collar was abolished in 1815. The Légion dhonneur was prominent and visible in the French Empire, the Emperor always wore it and the fashion of the time allowed for decorations to be worn most of the time
42.
Alphonse James de Rothschild
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Mayer Alphonse James Rothschild, was a French financier, vineyard owner, art collector, philanthropist, racehorse owner/breeder and a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of France. Known as Alphonse, he was the eldest son of James Mayer de Rothschild and his mother was Betty de Rothschild, the daughter of Salomon Mayer von Rothschild from the Austrian branch of the family. Alphonse was educated to take his place at the head of de Rothschild Frères bank, in France he soon became a major force in the financial world and in 1855 was appointed a regent of the Banque de France, a position he held for the remainder of his life. In 1857 Alphonse de Rothschild married a cousin, Leonora Laure de Rothschild and their firstborn, Bettina Caroline, married Albert Salomon von Rothschild. Alphonse and his brother Gustave developed somewhat of a rivalry with their English cousin Nathaniel de Rothschild who had moved to Paris after marrying their sister Charlotte. Nathaniel worked at de Rothschild Frères bank and in 1853 he purchased the Château Brane Mouton vineyard in Pauillac in the Médoc wine growing region, nathaniels Mouton vineyard received a second-growth ranking in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. Just three months before their father died in 1868, Alphonse and Gustave convinced him to buy the more prestigious First Growth Château Lafite vineyard in Pauillac when it came up for sale, on the death of their father in 1868, Alphonse and Gustave inherited the Château Lafite-Rothschild vineyard. However, they lived in Paris and the vineyard was not significant relative to their investments in banking. As such, they visited the Pauillac vineyard occasionally, maintaining little more than an arms-length interest. On their deaths, the Rothschild brothers willed the property to a son, Alphonse de Rothschild inherited a large fortune on the death of his father in 1868, including share positions in de Rothschild Frères bank and the Northern Railway company. He began his training in finance at an age and his father put him in charge of the banks gold bullion operations. During the 1860s, great debates raged across Europe and the United States as to a monetary system for the changing times. In France, the prominent Péreire brothers bankers were proponents of paper money in contrast to Alphonse de Rothschild who defended preservation of Frances bimetallism system, however, as part of the Latin Monetary Union France joined most of the rest of Europe and adopted the gold standard by 1873. In 1880, Alphonse de Rothschild put together the deal saw the family take control of Société Le Nickel. During the Franco-Prussian War, Alphonse de Rothschild had guarded the ramparts of Paris on the eve of the Prussian siege, in contrast though, that same year, both the Berlin and Vienna stock markets crashed, plunging all of Central Europe into an economic depression. However, in less than a decade Alphonse de Rothschild would witness considerable economic upheaval in France, the collapse of the investment bank Société de lUnion Générale precipitated the 1882 stock market crash that triggered a downturn in the economy. His intense pressure pushed back the project of the décret Crémieux filed by the chief of the provisional government. Alphonse de Rothschild was a supporter of thoroughbred horse racing who in 1852 at the age of twenty-four became a member of the Paris Jockey Club
43.
Franco-Prussian War
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The conflict was caused by Prussian ambitions to extend German unification and French fears of the shift in the European balance of power that would result if the Prussians succeeded. On 16 July 1870, the French parliament voted to declare war on the German Kingdom of Prussia, the German coalition mobilised its troops much more quickly than the French and rapidly invaded northeastern France. The German forces were superior in numbers, had training and leadership and made more effective use of modern technology, particularly railroads. The German states proclaimed their union as the German Empire under the Prussian king Wilhelm I, the Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871 gave Germany most of Alsace and some parts of Lorraine, which became the Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. French determination to regain Alsace-Lorraine and fear of another Franco-German war, along with British apprehension about the balance of power, the causes of the Franco-Prussian War are deeply rooted in the events surrounding the unification of Germany. In the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Prussia had annexed numerous territories and this new power destabilized the European balance of power established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars. France was strongly opposed to any further alliance of German states, in Prussia, some officials considered a war against France both inevitable and necessary to arouse German nationalism in those states that would allow the unification of a great German empire. Bismarck also knew that France should be the aggressor in the conflict to bring the southern German states to side with Prussia, many Germans also viewed the French as the traditional destabilizer of Europe, and sought to weaken France to prevent further breaches of the peace. The immediate cause of the war resided in the candidacy of Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, France feared encirclement by an alliance between Prussia and Spain. The Hohenzollern princes candidacy was withdrawn under French diplomatic pressure, releasing the Ems Dispatch to the public, Bismarck made it sound as if the king had treated the French envoy in a demeaning fashion, which inflamed public opinion in France. They also argue that he wanted a war to resolve growing domestic political problems, other historians, notably French historian Pierre Milza, dispute this. According to Milza, the Emperor had no need for a war to increase his popularity, the Ems telegram had exactly the effect on French public opinion that Bismarck had intended. This text produced the effect of a red flag on the Gallic bull, gramont, the French foreign minister, declared that he felt he had just received a slap. Napoleons new prime minister, Emile Ollivier, declared that France had done all that it could humanly and honorably do to prevent the war, a crowd of 15–20,000 people, carrying flags and patriotic banners, marched through the streets of Paris, demanding war. On 19 July 1870 a declaration of war was sent to the Prussian government, the southern German states immediately sided with Prussia. The French Army consisted in peacetime of approximately 400,000 soldiers, some of them were veterans of previous French campaigns in the Crimean War, Algeria, the Franco-Austrian War in Italy, and in the Mexican campaign. Under Marshal Adolphe Niel, urgent reforms were made, universal conscription and a shorter period of service gave increased numbers of reservists, who would swell the army to a planned strength of 800,000 on mobilisation. Those who for any reason were not conscripted were to be enrolled in the Garde Mobile, however, the Franco-Prussian War broke out before these reforms could be completely implemented
44.
Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
45.
Armistice of Versailles
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The Armistice of Versailles that came into effect on 28 January 1871 brought to an end the active phase of the Franco-Prussian War. The suspension of hostilities initially lasted until 19 February, when it was extended through 26 February, the definitive Treaty of Frankfurt was signed on 10 May. Although technically an armistice, the position of France at the time. On the morning of 2 September, with the battle of Sedan raging about him, Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, ordered a white flag hoisted above the fortress of Sedan. The emperor then order the commander of the XII Corps, General Barthélémy Lebrun, nevertheless, Lebrun and a non-commissioned officer with a white pennant crossed the lines to seek an armistice equally acceptable to both armies, bearing a formal letter to that effect. Wimpffen, who would have signed the armistice, only learned of the effort when he saw the white flag moving along the road. When the Prussian commander, Helmuth von Moltke, saw the white flag, Napoleon sent him back with one of his own officers, General A. -C. -V. Reille, who carried a letter offering to surrender, after reading it, von Moltke sent Reille back with a letter of acceptance. Wimpffen was ordered to arrange the surrender and this day, Sedantag in German, became a holiday in the German Empire. The first, brief attempt to avoid disaster through an armistice had failed, Favre, a staunch republican, was appointed vice president and minister of foreign affairs in the provisional government declared on 4 September 1870, after the capture of the Emperor Napoleon III. Like President Louis Jules Trochu, Favre did not believe France held a chance of winning the war or even of defending Paris. Soon after the formation of the new government, Favre proposed to the cabinet that Germany be offered an indemnity in return for evacuating French territory and this was rejected, and Favre opened a channel of communications with Bismarck through the British ambassador in Paris, Lord Lyons. Bismarck questioned the legitimacy of the French government, on 17 September, Favre left Paris for the Prussian military headquarters to confer with Bismarck about an armistice. Only President Trochu and Minister of War Adolphe LeFlô of all the members of the government had knowledge of his plan, Favre crossed the German lines with a flag of truce and met Bismarck at Montry. From there they proceeded to the headquarters at Château de Ferrières, Favre offered an indemnity of 500,000,000 francs, but refused Bismarcks request for territorial concessions. Favres early public pronouncement that We will not surrender an inch of our territory, had become a slogan in Paris and was posted all over the city in September–October 1870. Favre argued that an armistice would allow the French to hold elections to an assembly that would have political legitimacy, Bismarck agreed, but refused to sign an armistice for such elections unless certain Parisian forts were surrendered in compensation for the advantage France would gain in time. Finally, Favre offered to surrender Strasbourg if its defenders received the honours of war, Bismarck demanded they become prisoners of war and discussion broke off
