1.
Saccharum officinarum
–
Saccharum officinarum, sugarcane, is a large, strong-growing species of grass in the genus Saccharum. It originated in southeast Asia and is now cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries worldwide for the production of sugar, S. officinarum, a perennial plant, grows in clumps consisting of a number of strong unbranched stems. A network of rhizomes forms under the soil which sends up secondary shoots near the parent plant, the stems vary in colour, being green, pinkish, or purple and can reach 5 m in height. They are jointed, nodes being present at the bases of the alternate leaves, the internodes contain a fibrous white pith immersed in sugary sap. The elongated, linear, green leaves have thick midribs and saw-toothed edges and grow to a length of about 30 to 60 cm, the terminal inflorescence is a panicle up to 60 cm long, a pinkish plume that is broadest at the base and tapering towards the top. The spikelets are borne on branches and are about 3 mm long and are concealed in tufts of long. The fruits are dry and each one contains a single seed, sugarcane harvest typically occurs before the plants flower, as the flowering process causes a reduction in sugar content. Portions of the stem of this and several species of sugarcane have been used from ancient times for chewing to extract the sweet juice. It was cultivated in New Guinea about 8000 years ago for this purpose, extraction of the juice and boiling to concentrate it was probably first done in India more than 2000 years ago. S. officinarum and its hybrids are grown for the production of sugar, ethanol, the stems and the byproducts of the sugar industry are used for feeding to livestock. Pigs fed on sugarcane juice and a protein supplement produced stronger piglets that grew faster than those on a more conventional diet. As its specific name implies, it is used in traditional medicine both internally and externally
Saccharum officinarum
–
Saccharum officinarum
Saccharum officinarum
–
Harvesting sugarcane by hand
2.
Queensland
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Queensland is the second-largest and third-most-populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west, to the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. Queensland has a population of 4,750,500, concentrated along the coast, the state is the worlds sixth largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 km2. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australias third largest city, often referred to as the Sunshine State, Queensland is home to 10 of Australias 30 largest cities and is the nations third largest economy. Tourism in the state, fuelled largely by its tropical climate, is a major industry. Queensland was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the first European to land in Queensland was Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606, who explored the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula near present-day Weipa. In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain. The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 by Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney, New South Wales at that time included all of what is now Queensland, Queensland was explored in subsequent decades until the establishment of a penal colony at Brisbane in 1824 by John Oxley. Penal transportation ceased in 1839 and free settlement was allowed from 1842, the state was named in honour of Queen Victoria, who on 6 June 1859 signed Letters Patent separating the colony from New South Wales. The 6th of June is now celebrated statewide as Queensland Day. Queensland achieved statehood with the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, the history of Queensland spans thousands of years, encompassing both a lengthy indigenous presence, as well as the eventful times of post-European settlement. The north-eastern Australian region was explored by Dutch, Spanish and French navigators before being encountered by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770, the Australian Labor Party has its origin as a formal organisation in Queensland and the town of Barcaldine is the symbolic birthplace of the party. June 2009 marked the 150th anniversary of its creation as a colony from New South Wales. The Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000 BC, likely via boat or land bridge across Torres Strait, during the last ice age Queenslands landscape became more arid and largely desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. This led to the worlds first seed-grinding technology, warming again made the land hospitable, which brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the states tropical rainforests. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa and this was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, and it also marked the first reported contact between European and Aboriginal Australian people. The region was explored by French and Spanish explorers prior to the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King George III of the United Kingdom on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, naming Eastern Australia, including Queensland, the Aboriginal population declined significantly after a smallpox epidemic during the late 18th century
Queensland
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Flag (1876-1901)
Queensland
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Flag
Queensland
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Great Barrier Reef, which extends along most of Queensland's coastline
Queensland
–
A coral garden in
Osprey Reef
3.
Perennial plant
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A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs. Tomato vines, for example, live several years in their natural habitat but are grown as annuals in temperate regions because they dont survive the winter. There is also a class of evergreen, or non-herbaceous, perennials, an intermediate class of plants is known as subshrubs, which retain a vestigial woody structure in winter, e. g. Penstemon. The local climate may dictate whether plants are treated as shrubs or perennials, for instance, many varieties of Fuchsia are shrubs in warm regions, but in colder temperate climates may be cut to the ground every year as a result of winter frosts. The symbol for a plant, based on Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, is. Perennial plants can be short-lived or they can be long-lived, as are some plants like trees. They include an assortment of plant groups from ferns and liverworts to the highly diverse flowering plants like orchids. Plants that flower and fruit only once and then die are termed monocarpic or semelparous, however, most perennials are polycarpic, flowering over many seasons in their lifetime. Perennials typically grow structures that allow them to adapt to living one year to the next through a form of vegetative reproduction rather than seeding. These structures include bulbs, tubers, woody crowns, rhizomes plus others and they might have specialized stems or crowns that allow them to survive periods of dormancy over cold or dry seasons during the year. Many perennials have developed specialized features that allow them to extreme climatic. Some have adapted to hot and dry conditions or cold temperatures. Those plants tend to invest a lot of resource into their adaptations and often do not flower, Many perennials produce relatively large seeds, which can have an advantage, with larger seedlings produced after germination that can better compete with other plants. Some annuals produce many seeds per plant in one season, while some perennials are not under the same pressure to produce large numbers of seeds. In warmer and more favorable climates, perennials grow continuously, in seasonal climates, their growth is limited to the growing season. In some species, perennials retain their foliage all year round, other plants are deciduous perennials, for example, in temperate regions a perennial plant may grow and bloom during the warm part of the year, with the foliage dying back in the winter
Perennial plant
–
Common chicory,
Cichorium intybus, is a herbaceous perennial plant
Perennial plant
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Dahlia plants are perennial.
Perennial plant
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Switchgrass is a deep-rooted perennial. These roots are more than 3 meters long.
Perennial plant
4.
Poaceae
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Poaceae or Gramineae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants known as grasses. Poaceae includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and cultivated lawns, Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath, with ca 780 genera and around 12,000 species, Poaceae are the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae and Rubiaceae. Grasslands such as savannah and prairie grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40. 5% of the land area of the Earth, excluding Greenland. Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many habitats, including wetlands, forests. Though commonly called grasses, seagrasses, rushes, and sedges fall outside this family, the rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales, but the seagrasses are members of order Alismatales. The name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on the tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown, the term is derived from the Ancient Greek πόα. Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms, a cladogram shows subfamilies and approximate species numbers in brackets, Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago. Recent findings of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites have pushed this back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, revised dating of the origins of the rice tribe Oryzeae suggested a date as early as 107 to 129 Mya, a multituberculate mammal with grass-eating adaptations seems to suggest that grasses were already around at 120 mya. This separation occurred within the short time span of about 4 million years. Grass leaves are always alternate and distichous, and have parallel veins. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem, the leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths, which discourage grazing animals, some, such as sword grass, are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath, flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets, each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes, the part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two bracts at the base, called glumes, followed by one or more florets, a floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma—and one internal—the palea. The flowers are usually hermaphroditic—maize being an important exception—and anemophilous or wind-pollinated, the perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules, that expand and contract to spread the lemma and palea, these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. This complex structure can be seen in the image on the right, the fruit of grasses is a caryopsis, in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall
Poaceae
Poaceae
–
Grass flowers
Poaceae
–
Setaria verticillata from
Panicoideae
Poaceae
–
Tragus roxburghii from
Chloridoideae
5.
Saccharum
–
Saccharum is a genus of tall perennial plants of the broomsedge tribe within the grass family. The genus is widespread across tropical, subtropical, and warm regions in Africa, Eurasia, Australia, the Americas. Several species are cultivated and naturalized in areas outside their native habitats, Saccharum includes the sugarcanes, as well as several ornamental grasses such as Ravenna grass. They have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar. All sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids, - southeastern USA Saccharum angustifolium Trin. - South America Saccharum arundinaceum Retz, - East + South + Southeast Asia, New Guinea Saccharum asperum Steud. - South America Saccharum baldwinii Spreng, - southeastern USA Saccharum beccarii Cope - Sumatra Saccharum bengalense Retz. - India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan Saccharum brevibarbe Pers, - southeastern USA Saccharum coarctatum R. Webster - southeastern USA Saccharum contortum Nutt. - southeastern USA Saccharum fallax Balansa - China, Assam, southeast Asia Saccharum filifolium Steud, - Afghanistan, Himalayas Saccharum formosanum Ohwi - southern China Saccharum giganteum Pers. - southeastern USA, Cuba, Jamaica, Paraguay, Argentina Saccharum griffithii Munro ex Aitch. Naray, ex Bor - China, Himalayas, Indochina Saccharum maximum Trin. - Pacific Islands Saccharum narenga Hack, - China, Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Ethiopia Saccharum officinarum L. - New Guinea, naturalized in many warm places Saccharum perrieri Clayton, - China, Himalayas, Indochina Saccharum ravennae L. - Europe, Asia, Africa Saccharum robustum Brandes & Jesw. Ex Grassl - New Guinea Saccharum rufipilum Steud, - China, Indian Subcontinent, Indochina Saccharum sikkimense V. Naray. Ex Bor - eastern Himalayas Saccharum spontaneum L. - Asia, Africa, Sicily, R. R. Rao & Arti Garg - western Himalayas Saccharum strictum Spreng. - from Italy to Iran Saccharum velutinum Cope - Peninsular Malaysia Saccharum viguieri Clayton - Madagascar Saccharum villosum Steud
Saccharum
–
Saccharum
6.
Andropogoneae
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The Andropogoneae, sometimes called the sorghum tribe, are a large tribe of grasses with roughly 1,200 species in 90 genera, mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical areas. They include such important crops as maize, sugarcane, and sorghum, all species in this tribe use C4 carbon fixation, which makes them competitive under warm, high-light conditions. Andropogoneae is classified in supertribe Andropogonodae together with its sister group Arundinelleae, subdivisions include 12 subtribes, but the position of several genera within them is still unresolved. Hybridisation was probably important in the evolution of the Andropogoneae, and the tribes systematics is still not completely resolved
Andropogoneae
–
Andropogoneae
7.
South Asia
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Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, the current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form the countries of South Asia. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985, South Asia covers about 5.1 million km², which is 11. 51% of the Asian continent or 3. 4% of the worlds land surface area. The population of South Asia is about 1.749 billion or about one fourth of the worlds population, overall, it accounts for about 39. 49% of Asias population and is home to a vast array of peoples. The area of South Asia and its extent is not clear cut as systemic. Aside from the region of South Asia, formerly part of the British Empire, there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia. Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar is included by some scholars in South Asia, but in Southeast Asia by others. Some do not include Afghanistan, others question whether Afghanistan should be considered a part of South Asia or the Middle East, the mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, and the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are generally included as well. Myanmar is often added, and by various deviating definitions based on often substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the common concept of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the British Raj, with several exceptions. The Aden Colony, British Somaliland and Singapore, though administered at various times under the Raj, have not been proposed as any part of South Asia. Additionally Burma was administered as part of the Raj until 1937, the 562 princely states that were protected by but not directly ruled by the Raj became administrative parts of South Asia upon joining Union of India or Dominion of Pakistan. China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of members of SAARC. This bloc of countries include two independent countries that were not part of the British Raj – Nepal, and Bhutan, Afghanistan was a British protectorate from 1878 until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The United Nations Statistics Divisions scheme of sub-regions include all eight members of the SAARC as part of Southern Asia, population Information Network includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as part of South Asia. Maldives, in view of its characteristics, was admitted as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network only in principle, the Hirschman–Herfindahl index of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the region includes only the original seven signatories of SAARC. The British Indian Ocean Territory is connected to the region by a publication of Janes for security considerations, the inclusion of Myanmar in South Asia is without consensus, with many considering it a part of southeast Asia and others including it within South Asia. Afghanistan was of importance to the British colonial empire, especially after the Second Anglo-Afghan War over 1878–1880, Afghanistan remained a British protectorate until 1919, when a treaty with Vladimir Lenin included the granting of independence to Afghanistan. Following Indias partition, Afghanistan has generally included in South Asia
South Asia
–
While South Asia had never been a coherent
geopolitical region, it has a distinct geographical identity
South Asia
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South Asia
South Asia
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Ethno-linguistic families of South Asia.
8.
Melanesia
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Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region includes the four countries of Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, the concept among Europeans of Melanesia as a distinct region evolved gradually over time as their expeditions mapped and explored the Pacific. Early European explorers noted the differences among groups of Pacific Islanders. In the first half of the nineteenth century Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, over time, however, Europeans increasingly viewed Melanesia as a distinct cultural, rather than racial, area. Scholars and other commentators disagreed on its boundaries, which were fluid, in the nineteenth century Robert Codrington, a British missionary, produced a series of monographs on the Melanesians based on his long-time residence in the region. He did not include the islands of New Guinea because only some of its people were Melanesians, like Bory de Saint-Vincent, he excluded Australia from Melanesia. It was in works that Codrington introduced the cultural concept of mana to the West. Uncertainty about the delineation and definition of the region continues, the scholarly consensus now includes New Guinea within Melanesia. Ann Chowning wrote in her 1977 textbook on Melanesia that there is no agreement even among anthropologists about the geographical boundaries of Melanesia. In 1998 Paul Sillitoe wrote of Melanesia, it is not easy to define precisely, on geographical, cultural, biological, or any other grounds, where Melanesia ends and the neighbouring regions. It covers populations that have a linguistic, biological and cultural affinity – a certain ill-defined sameness. Both Sillitoe and Chowning include the island of New Guinea in the definition of Melanesia, most of the peoples in Melanesia have established independent countries, are admistered by France or have active independence movements. Many have recently taken up the term Melanesia as a source of identity, stephanie Lawson writes that the term moved from a term of denigration to one of affirmation, providing a positive basis for contemporary subregional identity as well as a formal organisation. For instance, the author Bernard Narokobi wrote about the Melanesian Way as a form of culture that could empower the people of this region. The concept is used in geopolitics. For instance, the Melanesian Spearhead Group preferential trade agreement is a trade treaty among Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea. The people of Melanesia have a distinctive ancestry, the limit of this ancient migration was Sahul, the continent formed when Australia and New Guinea were united by a land bridge as a result of low sea levels. The first migration into Sahul came over 40,000 years ago, a further expansion into the eastern islands of Melanesia came much later, probably between 4000 B. C. and 3000 B. C
Melanesia
–
Melanesia is one of three major cultural areas in the
Pacific Ocean.
Melanesia
–
Ethno-cultural definition of Melanesia.
9.
Sugar
–
Sugar is the generic name for sweet, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. There are various types of derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose, fructose, the table sugar or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Sugar is used in prepared foods and it is added to some foods, in the body, sucrose is hydrolysed into the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Other disaccharides include maltose from malted grain, and lactose from milk, longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides. Some other chemical substances, such as glycerol may also have a sweet taste, low-calorie food substitutes for sugar, described as artificial sweeteners, include aspartame and sucralose, a chlorinated derivative of sucrose. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants and are present in sufficient concentrations for efficient commercial extraction in sugarcane, the world production of sugar in 2011 was about 168 million tonnes. The average person consumes about 24 kilograms of sugar each year, equivalent to over 260 food calories per person, since the latter part of the twentieth century, it has been questioned whether a diet high in sugars, especially refined sugars, is good for human health. Sugar has been linked to obesity, and suspected of, or fully implicated as a cause in the occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, macular degeneration, the etymology reflects the spread of the commodity. The English word sugar ultimately originates from the Sanskrit शर्करा, via Arabic سكر as granular or candied sugar, the contemporary Italian word is zucchero, whereas the Spanish and Portuguese words, azúcar and açúcar, respectively, have kept a trace of the Arabic definite article. The Old French word is zuchre and the contemporary French, sucre, the earliest Greek word attested is σάκχαρις. The English word jaggery, a brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin – Portuguese jagara from the Sanskrit शर्करा. Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times and it was not plentiful or cheap in early times and honey was more often used for sweetening in most parts of the world. Originally, people chewed raw sugarcane to extract its sweetness, sugarcane was a native of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species seem to have originated from different locations with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule, one of the earliest historical references to sugarcane is in Chinese manuscripts dating back to 8th century BC that state that the use of sugarcane originated in India. Sugar was found in Europe by the 1st century AD, but only as an imported medicine and it is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut, sugar is used only for medical purposes. Sugar remained relatively unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store, crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century AD
Sugar
–
Closeup of raw (unrefined, unbleached) sugar
Sugar
–
Ant feeding on sugar crystals.
Sugar
–
Sugar cane plantation
Sugar
–
Still-Life with Bread and Confectionary, by
George Flegel, first half of 17th century
10.
Sucrose
–
Sucrose is a common saccharide found in many plants and plant parts. Saccharose is a term for sugars in general, especially sucrose. The molecule is a combination of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose with the formula C12H22O11. Sucrose is often extracted and refined from either sugarcane or beet sugar for human consumption, modern industrial sugar refinement processes often involve bleaching and crystallization, producing a white, odorless, crystalline powder with a sweet taste of pure sucrose. This refined form of sucrose is commonly referred to as sugar or just sugar. It plays a role as an additive in food production all over the world. About 175 million metric tons of sucrose were produced worldwide in 2013, the term sucrose was first used in 1857 by English chemist William Miller from the French sucre and the generic chemical suffix for sugars -ose. The abbreviated term Suc is often used for sucrose in scientific literature, in sucrose, the components glucose and fructose are linked via an acetal bond between C1 on the glucosyl subunit and C2 on the fructosyl unit. The bond is called a glycosidic linkage, glucose exists predominantly as two isomeric pyranoses, but only one of these forms links to the fructose. Fructose itself exists as a mixture of furanoses, each of which having α and β isomers and this linkage inhibits further bonding to other saccharide units. Since it contains no anomeric hydroxyl groups, it is classified as a non-reducing sugar. Sucrose crystallizes in the space group P21 with room-temperature lattice parameters a =1.08631 nm, b =0.87044 nm, c =0.77624 nm. The purity of sucrose is measured by polarimetry, through the rotation of plane-polarized light by a solution of sugar, the specific rotation at 20 °C using yellow sodium-D light is +66. 47°. Commercial samples of sugar are assayed using this parameter, Sucrose does not deteriorate at ambient conditions. The formula for sucrose decomposition can be represented as a 2 step reaction, C12H22O11 + heat → 12C + 11H2O 12C + 12O2 → 12CO2 Sucrose does not melt at high temperatures. Instead, it decomposes—at 186 °C —to form caramel, like other carbohydrates, it combusts to carbon dioxide and water. Mixing sucrose with the potassium nitrate produces the fuel known as rocket candy that is used to propel amateur rocket motors. C12H22O11 +6 KNO3 →9 CO +3 N2 +11 H2O +3 K2CO3 This reaction is somewhat simplified though, some of the carbon does get fully oxidized to carbon dioxide, and other reactions, such as the water-gas shift reaction also take place
Sucrose
–
Table sugar production in the 19th century.
Sugar cane plantations (upper image) employed slave or indentured laborers. The picture shows workers harvesting cane, loading it on a boat for transport to the plant, while a European overseer watches in the lower right. The lower image shows a sugar plant with two furnace chimneys. Sugar plants and plantations were harsh, inhumane work.
Sucrose
–
Sucrose
Sucrose
Sucrose
–
A
sugarloaf was a traditional form for sugar from the 17th to 19th centuries.
Sugar nips were required to break off pieces.
11.
Plant stem
–
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. The stem is divided into nodes and internodes, The nodes hold one or more leaves. Adventitious roots may also be produced from the nodes, the internodes distance one node from another. The term shoots is often confused with stems, shoots generally refers to new plant growth including both stems and other structures like leaves or flowers. In most plants stems are located above the surface but some plants have underground stems. Stems have four main functions which are, Support for and the elevation of leaves, flowers, the stems keep the leaves in the light and provide a place for the plant to keep its flowers and fruits. Transport of fluids between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem Storage of nutrients Production of new living tissue, the normal lifespan of plant cells is one to three years. Stems have cells called meristems that annually generate new living tissue, Stems are often specialized for storage, asexual reproduction, protection or photosynthesis, including the following, Acaulescent – used to describe stems in plants that appear to be stemless. Actually these stems are just extremely short, the leaves appearing to rise out of the ground. Arborescent – tree like with woody stems normally with a single trunk, branched – aerial stems are described as being branched or unbranched Bud – an embryonic shoot with immature stem tip. Bulb – a short underground stem with fleshy storage leaves attached, e. g. onion, daffodil. Bulbs often function in reproduction by splitting to form new bulbs or producing small new bulbs termed bulblets, bulbs are a combination of stem and leaves so may better be considered as leaves because the leaves make up the greater part. Caespitose – when stems grow in a mass or clump or in low growing mats. Cladode – a flattened stem that appears more-or-less leaf like and is specialized for photosynthesis, climbing – stems that cling or wrap around other plants or structures. Corm – a short enlarged underground, storage stem, e. g. taro, decumbent – stems that lie flat on the ground and turn upwards at the ends. Fruticose – stems that grow shrublike with woody like habit, herbaceous – non woody, they die at the end of the growing season. Pedicel – stems that serve as the stalk of a flower in an inflorescence or infrutescence. Peduncle – a stem that supports an inflorescence Prickle – a sharpened extension of the outer layers
Plant stem
–
Stem showing internode and nodes plus leaf
petioles
Plant stem
–
This above-ground stem of
Polygonatum has lost its leaves, but is producing
adventitious roots from the nodes.
Plant stem
–
Flax stem cross-section, showing locations of underlying tissues. Ep =
epidermis; C =
cortex; BF =
bast fibres; P =
phloem; X =
xylem; Pi =
pith
Plant stem
–
Stems of two
Roystonea regia palms showing characteristic bulge, leaf scars and fibrous roots,
Kolkata, India
12.
Cultivar
–
The term cultivar most commonly refers to an assemblage of plants selected for desirable characteristics that are maintained during propagation. More generally, cultivar refers to the most basic classification category of cultivated plants governed by the ICNCP, most cultivars have arisen in cultivation, but a few are special selections from the wild. Popular ornamental garden plants like roses, camellias, daffodils, rhododendrons, trees used in forestry are also special selections grown for their enhanced quality and yield of timber. Cultivars form a part of Liberty Hyde Baileys broader grouping. Cultivar was coined by Bailey and it is regarded as a portmanteau of cultivated and variety. A cultivar is not the same as a variety, a taxonomic rank below subspecies. In recent times, the naming of cultivars has been complicated by the use of statutory plant patents, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants offers legal protection of plant cultivars to people or organisations who introduce new cultivars to commerce. UPOV requires that a cultivar be distinct, uniform and stable, to be distinct, it must have characteristics that easily distinguish it from any other known cultivar. To be uniform and stable, the cultivar must retain these characteristics under repeated propagation, a cultivar is given a cultivar name, which consists of the scientific Latin botanical name followed by a cultivar epithet. The cultivar epithet is usually in a vernacular language, for example, the full cultivar name of the King Edward potato is Solanum tuberosum King Edward. The King Edward part of the name is the cultivar epithet, the origin of the term cultivar arises from the need to distinguish between wild plants and those with characteristics that have arisen in cultivation. This distinction dates back to the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, the Father of Botany, botanical historian Alan Morton notes that Theophrastus in his Enquiry into Plants had an inkling of the limits of culturally induced changes and of the importance of genetic constitution. In Species Plantarum, Linnaeus listed all the known to him. Most of the listed by Linnaeus were of garden origin rather than being wild plants. Over time there was an increasing need to distinguish between plants growing in the wild, and those with variations that had produced in cultivation. In the nineteenth century many garden-derived plants were given names, sometimes in Latin. In the twentieth century an improved international terminology was proposed for the classification and it is essentially the equivalent of the botanical variety except in respect to its origin. However, Bailey was never explicit about the etymology of the word, and it has suggested that it is a contraction of the words cultigen and variety
Cultivar
–
Osteospermum 'Pink Whirls' A cultivar selected for its intriguing and colourful flowers
Cultivar
–
Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954) coined the word cultigen in 1918 and cultivar in 1923.
Cultivar
–
A cultivar of the orchid genus
Oncidium
Cultivar
–
Leucospermum 'Scarlet Ribbon' A cross performed in Tasmania between L. glabrum and L. tottum
13.
Hybrid (biology)
–
In biology, a hybrid, also known as a cross breed, is the result of combining, through sexual reproduction, the qualities of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species or genera. Hybrids are not always intermediate between their parents, but can show heterosis or hybrid vigour, often growing larger or taller than either parent, some act before fertilization, others after it. A few animal species and many plant species, however, are the result of hybrid speciation, doubling the number of chromosomes to create polyploids is important in hybrid speciation, because homoploid hybrids are rarely fertile, the polyploid hybrids are allopolyploids. Human impact on the environment has greatly increased the mixing of species, with introduced species worldwide, the genetic mixing may threaten many species with extinction, while genetic erosion in crop plants may be damaging the gene pools of many species for future breeding. Many commercially useful fruits, flowers, garden herbs and trees have been produced by hybridization, one flower, Oenothera lamarckiana, was central to early genetics research into polyploidy. The term hybrid is derived from Latin hybrida, used for such as of a tame sow and a wild boar, or the child of a freeman. The term came into use in English in the 19th century. Conspicuous hybrids are named with portmanteau words, starting in the 1920s with the breeding of tiger-lion hybrids. The cross between two different homozygous lines produces an F1 hybrid that is heterozygous, having two alleles, one contributed by each parent and typically one is dominant and the other recessive. Typically, the F1 generation is also phenotypically homogeneous, producing offspring that are all similar to each other, double cross hybrids result from the cross between two different F1 hybrids. Three-way cross hybrids result from the cross between an F1 hybrid and an inbred line, triple cross hybrids result from the crossing of two different three-way cross hybrids. Top cross hybrids result from the crossing of a top quality or pure-bred male, population hybrids result from the crossing of plants or animals in a population with those of another population. These include interspecific hybrids or crosses between different breeds. e, from the point of view of genetics, different kinds of hybrid can be distinguished as follows, A genetic hybrid carries two different alleles of the same gene. A structural hybrid results from the fusion of gametes that have differing structure in at least one chromosome, a numerical hybrid results from the fusion of gametes having different haploid numbers of chromosomes. A permanent hybrid results when only the heterozygous genotype occurs, as in Oenothera lamarckiana, from the point of view of taxonomy, hybrids differ according to their parentage, Hybrids between different subspecies are called intra-specific hybrids. Offspring resulting from interspecies mating, are called interspecific hybrids, these result in hybrid speciation. Intergeneric hybrids result from matings between different genera, such as sheep and goats. Interfamilial hybrids such as chickens and guineafowl or pheasants are reliably described but extremely rare
Hybrid (biology)
–
Hercules, a "
liger ", a lion/tiger hybrid.
Hybrid (biology)
–
A "
zonkey ", a zebra/donkey hybrid.
Hybrid (biology)
–
A "
jaglion ", a jaguar/lion hybrid.
Hybrid (biology)
–
A
mule, a domestic canary/goldfinch hybrid.
14.
Sorghum
–
Sorghum is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae. Seventeen of the species are native to Australia, with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica. One species is grown for grain, while others are used as fodder plants, either intentionally cultivated or allowed to grow naturally. The plants are cultivated in warm climates worldwide and naturalized in many places, Sorghum is in the subfamily Panicoideae and the tribe Andropogoneae. One species, Sorghum bicolor, native to Africa with many cultivated forms now, is an important crop worldwide, used for food, animal fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and biofuels. Most varieties are drought- and heat-tolerant, and are important in arid regions. These varieties form important components of pastures in many tropical regions, S. bicolor is an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia, and is the fifth-most important cereal crop grown in the world. Some species of sorghum can contain levels of cyanide, hordenine. When stressed by drought or heat, plants can contain toxic levels of cyanide and/or nitrates at later stages in growth. Another Sorghum species, Johnson grass, is classified as a species in the US by the Department of Agriculture. Sorghum is efficient in converting solar energy to chemical energy, biofuel, using sweet sorghum as a high sugar content from its stalk for ethanol production, is being developed with biomass which can be turned into charcoal, syngas, and bio-oil. In a 100 gram amount, raw sorghum provides 329 calories, 72% carbohydrates, 4% fat and 11% protein. Sorghum supplies numerous essential nutrients in rich content, including protein, fiber, the B vitamins, niacin, thiamin and vitamin B6, Sorghum nutrient contents generally are similar to those of raw oats. Among other similarities to oats, sorghum contains no gluten, making it useful for gluten-free diets, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World, The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700–1100. Species Profile- Johnsongrass, National Invasive Species Information Center, United States National Agricultural Library, lists general information and resources for Johnsongrass
Sorghum
–
Sorghum
15.
Ethanol
–
Ethanol, also called alcohol, ethyl alcohol, and drinking alcohol, is the principal type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid with a characteristic odor. Its chemical formula is C 2H 6O, which can be written also as CH 3-CH 2-OH or C 2H 5-OH, ethanol is mostly produced by the fermentation of sugars by yeasts, or by petrochemical processes. It is a psychoactive drug, causing a characteristic intoxication. It is widely used as a solvent, as fuel, and as a feedstock for synthesis of other chemicals, the eth- prefix and the qualifier ethyl in ethyl alcohol originally come from the name ethyl assigned in 1834 to the group C 2H 5- by Justus Liebig. He coined the word from the German name Aether of the compound C 2H 5-O-C 2H5, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Ethyl is a contraction of the Ancient Greek αἰθήρ and the Greek word ύλη. The name ethanol was coined as a result of a resolution that was adopted at the International Conference on Chemical Nomenclature that was held in April 1892 in Geneva, Switzerland. The term alcohol now refers to a class of substances in chemistry nomenclature. The Oxford English Dictionary claims that it is a loan from Arabic al-kuḥl, a powdered ore of antimony used since aniquity as a cosmetic. The use of alcohol for ethanol is modern, first recorded 1753, the systematic use in chemistry dates to 1850. Ethanol is used in medical wipes and most common antibacterial hand sanitizer gels as an antiseptic, ethanol kills organisms by denaturing their proteins and dissolving their lipids and is effective against most bacteria and fungi, and many viruses. However, ethanol is ineffective against bacterial spores, ethanol may be administered as an antidote to methanol and ethylene glycol poisoning. Ethanol, often in high concentrations, is used to dissolve many water-insoluble medications, as a central nervous system depressant, ethanol is one of the most commonly consumed psychoactive drugs. The amount of ethanol in the body is typically quantified by blood alcohol content, small doses of ethanol, in general, produce euphoria and relaxation, people experiencing these symptoms tend to become talkative and less inhibited, and may exhibit poor judgment. Ethanol is commonly consumed as a drug, especially while socializing. The largest single use of ethanol is as a fuel and fuel additive. Brazil in particular relies heavily upon the use of ethanol as an engine fuel, gasoline sold in Brazil contains at least 25% anhydrous ethanol. Hydrous ethanol can be used as fuel in more than 90% of new gasoline fueled cars sold in the country, Brazilian ethanol is produced from sugar cane and noted for high carbon sequestration
Ethanol
–
USP grade ethanol for laboratory use.
Ethanol
–
Ethanol pump station in
São Paulo, Brazil
Ethanol
–
A
Ford Taurus fueled by ethanol in
New York City
Ethanol
–
USPS truck running on
E85 in
Minnesota
16.
Food and Agriculture Organization
–
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is an agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements. Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates as let there be bread, as of 6 January 2017, FAO has 194 member states, along with the European Union, and the Faroe Islands and Tokelau, which are associate members. The idea of an organization for food and agriculture emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century. In May–June 1905, a conference was held in Rome, Italy. Later in 1943, the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a United Nations Conference on Food, representatives from forty four governments gathered at The Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia from 18 May to 3 June. The First Session of the FAO Conference was held in the Chateau frontenac at Quebec, Canada, the Second World War effectively ended the International Agricultural Institute, though it was only officially dissolved by resolution of its Permanent Committee on 27 February 1948. Its functions were transferred to the recently established FAO. In 1951, FAOs headquarters were moved from Washington, D. C, the agency is directed by the Conference of Member Nations, which meets every two years to review the work carried out by the organization and to Work and Budget for the next two-year period. The Conference elects a council of 49 member states that acts as a governing body, and the Director-General. Beginning in 1994, FAO underwent the most significant restructuring since its founding, to operations, streamline procedures. As a result, savings of about US$50 million, €35 million a year were realized, FAOs Regular Programme budget is funded by its members, through contributions set at the FAO Conference. The total FAO Budget planned for 2016-17 is USD2.6 billion, the voluntary contributions are expected to reach approximately US$1.6 billion in 2016-17. The world headquarters are located in Rome, in the seat of the Department of Italian East Africa. One of the most notable features of the building was the Axum Obelisk which stood in front of the agency seat and it was taken from Ethiopia by Benito Mussolinis troops in 1937 as a war chest, and returned on 18 April 2005. C. Reduce rural poverty – help the rural poor gain access to the resources and services they need – including rural employment, enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems – help to build safe and efficient food systems that support smallholder agriculture and reduce poverty and hunger in rural areas. Two fundamental areas of work – gender and governance - are fully integrated in the strategic objective action plans. In 1996, FAO organised the World Food Summit, attended by 112 Heads or Deputy Heads of State, the Summit concluded with the signing of the Rome Declaration, which established the goal of halving the number of people who suffer from hunger by the year 2015
Food and Agriculture Organization
–
Lester Bowles Pearson presiding at a plenary session of the founding conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. October 1945
Food and Agriculture Organization
–
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization
–
FAO headquarters in
Rome.
Food and Agriculture Organization
–
José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director General
17.
Sugar beet
–
Sugar beet is the Altissima Group of cultivars of the common beet. It is a plant whose root contains a concentration of sucrose. Sugar beets and other cultivars, such as beetroot and chard, are members of Beta vulgaris subsp. Vulgaris and share a common ancestor, the Sea beet. In 2013, Russia, France, the United States, Germany, however, in 2010–2011, North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe did not produce enough sugar from sugar beets to meet overall demand for sugar, and were all net importers of sugar. The US harvested 1,004,600 acres of beets in 2008. In 2009, sugar accounted for 20% of the worlds sugar production. The sugar beet has a conical, white, fleshy root with a flat crown, the plant consists of the root and a rosette of leaves. Sugar is formed by photosynthesis in the leaves, and is stored in the root. The root of the beet contains 75% water, about 20% sugar, Sugar is the primary value of sugar beet as a cash crop. The pulp, insoluble in water and mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, the byproducts of the sugar beet crop, such as pulp and molasses, add another 10% to the value of the harvest. Sugar beets grow exclusively in the zone, in contrast to sugarcane. The average weight of sugar beet ranges between 0.5 and 1 kg, Sugar beet foliage has a rich, brilliant green color and grows to a height of about 35 cm. The leaves are numerous and broad and grow in a tuft from the crown of the beet, modern sugar beets date back to mid-18th century Silesia where the king of Prussia subsidised experiments aimed at processes for sugar extraction. In 1747 Andreas Marggraf isolated sugar from beetroots and found them at concentrations of 1. 3–1. 6% and he also demonstrated that sugar could be extracted from beets that was the same as that produced from sugarcane. His student, Franz Karl Achard, evaluated 23 varieties of mangelwurzel for sugar content and selected a strain from Halberstadt in modern-day Saxony-Anhalt. Moritz Baron von Koppy and his son further selected from this strain for white, the selection was named Weiße Schlesische Zuckerrübe, meaning white Silesian sugar beet, and boasted about a 6% sugar content. This selection is the progenitor of all modern sugar beets, a royal decree led to the first factory devoted to sugar extraction from beetroots being opened in Kunern, Silesia in 1801
Sugar beet
–
Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L) root, leaf, and flowering patterns
Sugar beet
–
A geneticist evaluates sugar beet plants resistant to the fungal disease Rhizoctonia root rot for pollen fertility
Sugar beet
–
French sugar beet mill in operation in the 1840s
Sugar beet
–
A sugar beet farm in Switzerland
18.
Falernum
–
Falernum is a sweet syrup used in Caribbean and tropical drinks. It contains flavors of almond, ginger and/or cloves, and lime and it is used in cocktails in a manner similar to orgeat syrup or can be drunk on the rocks. The syrup form can be alcoholic or nonalcoholic, the consistency is thick, the color can be white to light amber, and it may be clear or translucent. Some reports have the origination of falernum dated back to the 18th century, the earliest known reference in bar manuals seems to be the 1930s. One producer claims his recipe to date to 1890, winning awards as early as 1923, taylors Velvet Falernum is an alcoholic version available in the United States. The Bitter Truth released their Golden Falernum in 2011, available in Europe, USA and in Asia
Falernum
–
Falernum and ice
Falernum
–
Fermented beverage
19.
Molasses
–
Molasses, or black treacle, is a viscous by-product of refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies by amount of sugar, method of extraction, sugarcane molasses is agreeable in taste and aroma, and is primarily used for sweetening and flavoring foods in U. S. Canada and elsewhere, while sugar beet molasses is foul-smelling and unpalatable, so it is used as an animal feed additive in Europe and Russia. It is a component of fine commercial brown sugar. Sweet sorghum syrup may be colloquially called sorghum molasses in the southern United States, similar products include treacle, honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, and invert syrup. Most of these alternative syrups have milder flavors, cane molasses is a common ingredient in baking and cooking. To make molasses, sugar cane is harvested and stripped of leaves and its juice is extracted, usually by cutting, crushing, or mashing. The juice is boiled to concentrate it, promoting sugar crystallization, the result of this first boiling is called first syrup, and it has the highest sugar content. First syrup is usually referred to in the Southern states of the U. S. as cane syrup, second molasses is created from a second boiling and sugar extraction, and has a slightly bitter taste. The third boiling of the sugar syrup yields dark, viscous blackstrap molasses, the majority of sucrose from the original juice has crystallized and been removed. The caloric content of blackstrap molasses is mostly due to the remaining sugar content. Blackstrap is also a source of potassium. Blackstrap molasses has long been sold as a dietary supplement, blackstrap molasses is significantly more bitter than regular molasses. It is sometimes used in baking or for producing ethanol, as an ingredient in cattle feed, the term black-strap or blackstrap is an Americanism dating from 1875 or before. Its first known use is in a book by detective Allan Pinkerton in 1877, Molasses made from sugar beets differs from sugarcane molasses. Only the syrup left from the final stage is called molasses. Intermediate syrups are called high green and low green, and these are recycled within the plant to maximize extraction. Beet molasses is 50% sugar by dry weight, predominantly sucrose, beet molasses is limited in biotin for cell growth, hence, it may be supplemented with a biotin source
Molasses
–
Blackstrap molasses
Molasses
–
A bottle of molasses
Molasses
–
Yomari -
rice flour breads filled with chaku
Molasses
–
Bhapa Pitha, a popular
Bangladeshi style
rice cake, is often sweetened with molasses.
20.
Bagasse
–
Bagasse is the fibrous matter that remains after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice. It is dry pulpy residue left after the extraction of juice from sugar cane, Bagasse is used as a biofuel and in the manufacture of pulp and building materials. Agave bagasse is a material that consists of the tissue of the blue agave after extraction of the sap. Bagasse can also be useful to generate electricity. Dry bagasse is burnt to produce steam, the steam is used to rotate turbines to produce power. For every 10 tonnes of crushed, a sugar factory produces nearly three tonnes of wet bagasse. Since bagasse is a by-product of the sugar industry, the quantity of production in each country is in line with the quantity of sugarcane produced. The high moisture content of bagasse, typically 40–50 percent, is detrimental to its use as a fuel, in general, bagasse is stored prior to further processing. For electricity production, it is stored under moist conditions, for paper and pulp production, it is normally stored wet in order to assist in removal of the short pith fibres, which impede the paper making process, as well as to remove any remaining sugar. Bagasse is often used as a fuel source for sugar mills. When burned in quantity, it produces sufficient heat energy to all the needs of a typical sugar mill. Similarly, the calorific value of bagasse may be estimated using. In countries such as Australia, sugar factories contribute green power to the electricity grid, florida Crystals Corporation, one of Americas largest sugar companies, owns and operates the largest biomass power plant in North America. Hawaiian Electric Industries also burns bagasse for cogeneration, ethanol produced from the sugar in sugarcane is a popular fuel in Brazil. The cellulose-rich bagasse is being investigated for its potential for producing commercial quantities of cellulosic ethanol. For example, until May 2015 BP was operating a cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant based on materials in Jennings. It produces pulp with physical properties that are suited for generic printing and writing papers as well as tissue products but it is also widely used for boxes. It can also be used for making boards resembling plywood or particle board, called Bagasse board and Xanita board and it has wide usage for making partitions and furniture
Bagasse
–
Sugarcane bagasse in
Hainan, China
Bagasse
–
Sugarcane being crushed in Engenho da
Calheta,
Madeira. The bagasse falls down a chute and is removed on a conveyor belt below.
Bagasse
–
Heaps of bagasse, covered with blue plastic, outside of a sugar mill in
Proserpine, Queensland
Bagasse
–
Biofuels
21.
Inflorescence
–
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed. Inflorescence can also be defined as the portion of a plant that bears a cluster of flowers in a specific pattern. The stem holding the whole inflorescence is called a peduncle and the major axis holding the flowers or more branches within the inflorescence is called the rachis, the stalk of each single flower is called a pedicel. A flower that is not part of an inflorescence is called a solitary flower, any flower in an inflorescence may be referred to as a floret, especially when the individual flowers are particularly small and borne in a tight cluster, such as in a pseudanthium. The fruiting stage of an inflorescence is known as an infructescence, inflorescences may be simple or complex. The rachis may be one of several types, including Single, Composite, Umbel and these terms are general representations as plants in nature can have a combination of types. Inflorescences usually have modified shoots foliage different from the part of the plant. Considering the broadest meaning of the term, any leaf associated with an inflorescence is called a bract. A bract is usually located at the node where the stem of the inflorescence forms, joined to the main stem of the plant. They serve a variety of functions which include attracting pollinators and protecting young flowers, according to the presence or absence of bracts and their characteristics we can distinguish, Ebracteate inflorescences, No bracts in the inflorescence. Bracteate inflorescences, The bracts in the inflorescence are very specialised, sometimes reduced to small scales and this use is not technically correct, as, despite their normal appearance, these leaves are considered, in fact, bracts, so that leafy inflorescence is preferable. Leafy-bracted inflorescences, Intermediate between bracteate and leafy inflorescence, if many bracts are present and they are strictly connected to the stem, like in the family Asteraceae, the bracts might collectively be called an involucre. If the inflorescence has a unit of bracts further up the stem. Plant organs can grow according to two different schemes, namely monopodial or racemose and sympodial or cymose, the terminal bud keeps growing and forming lateral flowers. A terminal flower is never formed, the terminal bud forms a terminal flower and then dies out. Other flowers then grow from lateral buds, indeterminate and determinate inflorescences are sometimes referred to as open and closed inflorescences respectively. In an indeterminate inflorescence there is no true terminal flower and the stem usually has a rudimentary end, in many cases the last true flower formed by the terminal bud straightens up, appearing to be a terminal flower
Inflorescence
–
Aloe hereroensis, showing inflorescence with branched
peduncle
Inflorescence
–
Ebracteate of
Wisteria sinensis
Inflorescence
–
Bracteate inflorescence of
Pedicularis verticillata.
Inflorescence
–
Leafy-bracted inflorescence of
Rhinanthus angustifolius.
22.
Slavery
–
A slave is unable to withdraw unilaterally from such an arrangement and works without remuneration. Many scholars now use the chattel slavery to refer to this specific sense of legalised. In a broader sense, however, the word slavery may also refer to any situation in which an individual is de facto forced to work against his or her will. Scholars also use the generic terms such as unfree labour or forced labour. However – and especially under slavery in broader senses of the word – slaves may have some rights and/or protections, Slavery began to exist before written history, in many cultures. A person could become a slave from the time of their birth, capture, while slavery was institutionally recognized by most societies, it has now been outlawed in all recognized countries, the last being Mauritania in 2007. Nevertheless, there are still more slaves today than at any point in history. The most common form of the trade is now commonly referred to as human trafficking. Chattel slavery is still practiced in the Islamic State of Iraq. An older interpretation connected it to the Greek verb skyleúo to strip a slain enemy, there is a dispute among historians about whether terms such as unfree labourer or enslaved person, rather than slave, should be used when describing the victims of slavery. Chattel slavery, also called traditional slavery, is so named because people are treated as the chattel of the owner and are bought, although it dominated many societies in the past, this form of slavery has been formally abolished and is very rare today. Even when it can be said to survive, it is not upheld by the system of any internationally recognized government. Indenture, otherwise known as bonded labour or debt bondage is a form of labour under which a person pledges himself or herself against a loan. The services required to repay the debt, and their duration, debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, with children required to pay off their parents debt. It is the most widespread form of slavery today, debt bondage is most prevalent in South Asia. This may also include institutions not commonly classified as slavery, such as serfdom, conscription, Human trafficking primarily involves women and children forced into prostitution. And is the fastest growing form of forced labour, with Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil, in 2007, Human Rights Watch estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children served as soldiers in current conflicts. A forced marriage may be regarded as a form of slavery by one or more of the involved in the marriage
Slavery
–
Photograph of a slave boy in
Zanzibar. 'An Arab master's punishment for a slight offence.' c. 1890.
Slavery
Slavery
–
Thousands of children work as bonded labourers in
Asia, particularly in the Indian subcontinent.
Slavery
–
A world map showing countries by prevalence of female trafficking
23.
Indentured servitude
–
An indentured servant or indentured labor is an employee within a system of unfree labor who is bound by a contract to work for a particular employer for a fixed period of time. The employer is permitted to assign the labor of an indenturee to a third party. Indenturees usually enter into an indenture for a payment or other benefit or to meet a legal obligation. Upon completion of the contract, indentured servants were granted freedom or occasionally plots of land, in many countries, systems of indentured labor have been outlawed. Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was very common in British North America and it was often a way for poor Europeans to emigrate to the American colonies, they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage. After their indenture expired, the immigrants were free to work for themselves or another employer, the consensus view among economic historians and economists is that indentured servitude occurred largely as an institutional response to a capital market imperfection. In some cases, the indenture was made with a ships master, most indentured servants worked as farm laborers or domestic servants, although some were apprenticed to craftsmen. The terms of an indenture were not always enforced by American courts, although runaways were usually sought out, between one-half and two-thirds of white immigrants to the American colonies between the 1630s and American Revolution had come under indentures. Indentured people were numerically important mostly in the region from Virginia north to New Jersey, other colonies saw far fewer of them. The total number of European immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 was about 500,000, of the 450,000 or so European arrivals who came voluntarily, Tomlins estimates that 48% were indentured. About 75% of these were under the age of 25, the age of adulthood for men was 24 years, those over 24 generally came on contracts lasting about 3 years. Not all European servants were sent willingly, several instances of kidnapping for transportation to the Americas are recorded. An illustrative example is that of Peter Williamson, one spirit named William Thiene was known to have spirited away 840 people from Britain to the colonies in a single year. Historian Lerone Bennett, Jr. notes that Masters given to flogging often did not care whether their victims were black or white. Indentured servants could not marry without the permission of their master, were subject to physical punishment, to ensure uninterrupted work by the female servants, the law lengthened the term of their indenture if they became pregnant. But unlike slaves, servants were guaranteed to be released from bondage. At the end of their term they received a payment known as freedom dues, one could buy and sell indentured servants contracts, and the right to their labor would change hands, but not the person as a piece of property. The American Revolution severely limited immigration to the United States, but economic historians differ on the long-term impact of the Revolution
Indentured servitude
–
Indenture contract signed with an X by Henry Meyer in 1737
24.
Cash crop
–
A cash crop is an agricultural crop which is grown for sale to return a profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm, the term is used to differentiate marketed crops from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producers own livestock or grown as food for the producers family. In earlier times cash crops were only a small part of a farms total yield, while today, especially in developed countries. In the least developed countries, cash crops are usually crops which attract demand in developed nations. Prices for major crops are set in commodity markets with global scope, with some local variation based on freight costs and local supply. A consequence of this is that a nation, region, or individual producer relying on such a crop may suffer low prices should a bumper crop elsewhere lead to excess supply on the global markets and this system has been criticized by traditional farmers. Coffee is an example of a product that has been susceptible to significant commodity futures price variations, Issues involving subsidies and trade barriers on such crops have become controversial in discussions of globalization. The practice of exporting at artificially low prices is known as dumping, the Arctic climate is generally not conducive for the cultivation of cash crops. However, one potential cash crop for the Arctic is Rhodiola rosea, there is currently consumer demand for the plant, but the available supply is less than the demand. Cash crops grown in regions with a temperate climate include many cereals, oil-yielding crops, vegetables, tree fruit or top fruit, in regions with a subtropical climate, oil-yielding crops and some vegetables and herbs are the predominant cash crops. In regions with a climate, coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, bananas, oranges, cotton. The oil palm is a palm tree, and the fruit from it is used to make palm oil. Around 60 percent of African workers are employed in the agricultural sector, for example, in Burkina Faso 85% of its residents are reliant upon cotton production for income, and over half of the countrys population lives in poverty. Larger farms tend to grow crops such as coffee, tea, cotton, cocoa, fruit. These farms, typically operated by corporations, cover tens of square kilometres. Subsistence farms provide a source of food and a small income for families. Africa has realized significant growth in plantations, many of which are on lands which were purchased by British companies. Jatropha curcas is a crop grown for biofuel production in Africa
Cash crop
–
A
cotton ball. Cotton is a significant cash crop. According to the National Cotton Council of America, in 2011,
China was the world's largest cotton-producing country with an estimated 500,000 480-pound bales. India was ranked second at 26,500,000 480-pound bales.
Cash crop
–
Yerba mate (left, a key ingredient in the beverage known as
mate), roasted by the fire,
coffee beans (middle) and
tea (right) are all used for
caffeinated infusions and have cash crop histories.
Cash crop
Cash crop
25.
History of sugar
–
The spread of cultivation and manufacture of cane sugar to the medieval Islamic world together with some improvements of production methods. The development of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners in the 19th and 20th centuries. The people of New Guinea were probably the first to domesticate sugarcane, after domestication, its cultivation spread rapidly to Southeast Asia and southern China. India, where the process of refining cane juice into granulated crystals was developed, was visited by imperial convoys to learn about cultivation. By the sixth century AD, sugar cultivation and processing had reached Persia, wherever they went, the Arabs brought with them sugar, the product and the technology of its production. Spanish and Portuguese exploration and conquest in the fifteenth century carried sugar south-west of Iberia, henry the Navigator introduced cane to Madeira in 1425, while the Spanish, having eventually subdued the Canary Islands, introduced sugar cane to them. In 1493, on his voyage, Christopher Columbus carried sugarcane seedlings to the New World. Sugarcane originated in tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia, different species likely originated in different locations with S. barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum coming from New Guinea. Originally, people chewed raw to extract its sweetness. Indians discovered how to crystallize sugar during the Gupta dynasty, around 350 AD, Indian sailors, consumers of clarified butter and sugar, carried sugar by various trade routes. Traveling Buddhist monks brought sugar crystallization methods to China, Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 AD, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining. In South Asia, the Middle East and China, sugar became a staple of cooking, in the year 1792, sugar rose by degrees to an enormous price in Great Britain. The East India Company was then called upon to lend their assistance to help in the lowering of the price of sugar, on 15 March 1792, his Majestys Ministers to the British Parliament, presented a report related to the production of refined sugar in British India. Lieutenant J. Paterson, of the Bengal establishment, reported that sugar could be produced in India with many superior advantages. Early refining methods involved grinding or pounding the cane in order to extract the juice, the Sanskrit word for sugar also means gravel or sand. Similarly, the Chinese use the term gravel sugar for what the West knows as table sugar, there are records of knowledge of sugar among the ancient Greeks and Romans, but only as an imported medicine, and not as a food. It is good dissolved in water for the intestines and stomach, pliny the Elder, a 1st-century Roman, also described sugar as medicinal, Sugar is made in Arabia as well, but Indian sugar is better. It is a kind of found in cane, white as gum
History of sugar
–
A
sugarloaf was the traditional shape of sugar in the eighteenth century: a semi-hard sugar cone that required a sugar axe or hammer to break up and
sugar nips to reduce to usable pieces
History of sugar
–
Chemistry
26.
Muslim world
–
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, comprising all those who adhere to the religion of Islam, or to societies where Islam is practiced. In a modern sense, these terms refer to countries where Islam is widespread. In the modern era, most of the Muslim world came under influence or colonial domination of European powers. The nation states emerged in the post-colonial era have adopted a variety of political and economic models. As of 2015, over 1.7 billion or about 23. 4% of the population are Muslims including the 4. 4% who live as minorities. Muslim history involves the history of the Islamic faith as a religion, the history of Islam began in Arabia with the Islamic prophet Muhammads first recitations of the Quran in the 7th century in the month of Ramadan. However, Islam under the Rashidun Caliphate grew rapidly, a century after the death of last Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Islamic empire extended from Spain in the west to Indus in the east. The Islamic Golden Age coincided with the Middle Ages in the Muslim world, starting with the rise of Islam and establishment of the first Islamic state in 622. The end of the age is given as 1258 with the Mongolian Sack of Baghdad, or 1492 with the completion of the Christian Reconquista of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus. The Abbasids were influenced by the Quranic injunctions and hadiths, such as the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr, that stressed the value of knowledge. The major Islamic capital cities of Baghdad, Cairo, and Córdoba became the intellectual centers for science, philosophy, medicine. Between the 8th and 18th centuries, the use of glaze was prevalent in Islamic art. Tin-opacified glazing was one of the earliest new technologies developed by the Islamic potters, the first Islamic opaque glazes can be found as blue-painted ware in Basra, dating to around the 8th century. Another contribution was the development of fritware, originating from 9th century Iraq, other centers for innovative ceramic pottery in the Old world included Fustat, Damascus and Tabriz. The original concept is derived from a pre-Islamic Persian prototype Hezār Afsān that relied on particular Indian elements and it reached its final form by the 14th century, the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. All Arabian fantasy tales tend to be called Arabian Nights stories when translated into English, regardless of whether they appear in The Book of One Thousand and this work has been very influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland. Imitations were written, especially in France, various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba. A famous example of Arabic poetry and Persian poetry on romance is Layla and Majnun and it is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to have been inspired by a Latin version of Layla and Majnun to an extent
Muslim world
–
The
Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by
Al-Idrisi in 1154, one of the most advanced
ancient world maps. Al-Idrisi also wrote about the diverse Muslim communities found in various lands.
Muslim world
–
The Muslim population of the world map by percentage of each country, according to the
Pew Forum (assessed in 29 June 2014).
Muslim world
–
Mir Sayyid Ali, a scholar writing a commentary on the
Quran, during the reign of the
Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.
Muslim world
–
Portrait of a painter during the reign of
Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II.
27.
Southeast Asia
–
Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with seismic and volcanic activity. Southeast Asia consists of two regions, Mainland Southeast Asia, also known historically as Indochina, comprising Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar. Maritime Southeast Asia, comprising Indonesia, East Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, Cocos Islands, definitions of Southeast Asia vary, but most definitions include the area represented by the countries listed below. All of the states are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the area, together with part of South Asia, was widely known as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the 20th century. Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea, Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, and is currently an observer. Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia includes, Maritime Southeast Asia includes, The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Southeast Asia. Eastern Bangladesh and the Seven Sister States of India are culturally part of Southeast Asia, the eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor are considered to be biogeographically part of Oceania. Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago, homo floresiensis also lived in the area up until 12,000 years ago, when they became extinct. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the population in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor. Solheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as 5000 BC to 1 AD. The peoples of Southeast Asia, especially those of Austronesian descent, have been seafarers for thousands of years and their vessels, such as the vinta, were ocean-worthy. Magellans voyage records how much more manoeuvrable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships, Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonisation of Madagascar by the Austronesian people, as well as commerce between West Asia and Southeast Asia. Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome and this was later replaced by Hinduism. Theravada Buddhism soon followed in 525, in the 15th century, Islamic influences began to enter. This forced the last Hindu court in Indonesia to retreat to Bali, in Mainland Southeast Asia, Burma, Cambodia and Thailand retained the Theravada form of Buddhism, brought to them from Sri Lanka. This type of Buddhism was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture, very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the 2nd century BCE onwards. Prior to the 13th century CE, Hinduism and Buddhism were the religions in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
–
A golden vestment similar to those worn by the Hindu
Brahmin Caste, found in Butuan (
Philippines) Archeological Digs. This artefact shows the influence of Indian culture in Southeast Asia, also through trade.
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
–
Angkor Wat in
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Southeast Asia
–
Kampung Laut Mosque in
Tumpat is one of the oldest mosques in Malaysia, dating to the early 18th century.
28.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
India
–
Flag
India
–
The granite
tower of
Brihadeeswarar Temple in
Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by
Raja Raja Chola I.
India
–
Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
29.
New Guinea
–
New Guinea is a large Island in the South West Pacific region. It is the worlds second-largest island, after Greenland, covering an area of 785,753 km2. The island is divided between two countries, Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west, the island has been known by various names. The name Papua was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West and its etymology is unclear, one theory states that it is from Tidore, the language used by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled parts of the islands coastal region. The name came from papo and ua, which means not united or, ploeg reports that the word papua is often said to derive from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning frizzly-haired, referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers arrived in the island via the Spice Islands, when the Dutch colonized it as part of Netherlands East Indies, they called it Nieuw Guinea. The name Irian was used in the Indonesian language to refer the island and Indonesian province, the name was promoted in 1945 by Marcus Kaisiepo, brother of the future governor Frans Kaisiepo. It is taken from the Biak language of Biak Island, and means to rise and this name of Irian is the name used in the Biak language and other languages such as Serui, Merauke and Waropen. The name was used until 2001, when the name Papua was again used for the island, the name Irian, which was originally favored by natives, is now considered to be a name imposed by the authority of Jakarta. New Guinea is an island to the north of Australia, and it is isolated by the Arafura Sea to the west and the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the east. A spine of east–west mountains, the New Guinea Highlands, dominates the geography of New Guinea, stretching over 1,600 km from the head to the tail of the island. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 m high, the tree line is around 4,000 m elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers—which have been retreating since at least 1936. Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges, except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season. At 4,884 metres, Puncak Jaya makes New Guinea the worlds fourth highest landmass, Puncak Mandala, located in Papua, is the second highest peak on the island at 4,760 metres. Puncak Trikora, also in Papua, is 4,750 metres, mount Wilhelm is the highest peak on the PNG side of the border at 4,509 metres. Its granite peak is the highest point of the Bismarck Range, mount Giluwe 4,368 metres is the second highest summit in PNG. It is also the highest volcanic peak in Oceania, another major habitat feature is the vast southern and northern lowlands. Stretching for hundreds of kilometres, these include lowland rainforests, extensive wetlands, savanna grasslands, the southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site
New Guinea
–
Mount Bosavi
New Guinea
–
New Guinea (Papua Island)
New Guinea
–
Dani tribesman in the
Baliem Valley
New Guinea
–
Kurulu Village War Chief at Baliem Valley
30.
Arab
–
Arabs are an ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world. They primarily live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Arabian Desert is the birthplace of Arab, there are other Arab groups as well that spread in the land and existed for millennia. Before the expansion of the Caliphate, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic people from the northern to the central Arabian Peninsula and Syrian Desert. Presently, Arab refers to a number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to spread of Arabs throughout the region during the early Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Abbasid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and this was one of the largest land empires in history. The Great Arab Revolt has had as big an impact on the modern Middle East as the World War I, the war signaled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They are modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat, following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the sovereignty of its member states. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora, the ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, the total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. This makes them the second largest ethnic group after the Han Chinese. Arabs are a group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed monotheism. Today, Arabs are mainly adherents of Islam, with sizable Christian minorities, Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Alawite, Druze and Ismaili denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Maronite, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean churches. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of Gi-in-di-buu the ar-ba-a-a or Gindibu belonging to the Arab
Arab
Arab
–
Schoolgirls in
Gaza lining up for class, 2009
Arab
–
Syrian immigrants in New York City, as depicted in 1895
Arab
–
Lebanese–Mexican billionaire
Carlos Slim has been ranked by Forbes as the
second richest person in the world.
31.
Abbasid Caliphate
–
The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammads youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and they ruled as caliphs, for most of their period from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after assuming authority over the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE. The Abbasid caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, the political power of the caliphs largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function. The capital city of Baghdad became a center of science, culture, philosophy and this period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, and Muslim culture in general, though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim authority in religious matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, the Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character, according to Ira Lapidus, The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali. The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, Muhammad ibn Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam. On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim successfully initiated a revolt against Umayyad rule. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslims command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Nishapur, the Battle of Gorgan, after this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt, where he was subsequently assassinated. The remainder of his family, barring one male, were also eliminated, immediately after their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas. Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the worlds first recorded paper mill in Baghdad, As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Syria and Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions, the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empires capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762, a new position, that of the vizier, was also established to delegate central authority, and even greater authority was delegated to local emirs. During Al-Mansurs time control of Al-Andalus was lost, and the Shiites revolted and were defeated a year later at the Battle of Bakhamra, the Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads
Abbasid Caliphate
–
The Black Banner of the Abbasids.
Abbasid Caliphate
–
Coin of the Abbasids,
Baghdad, Iraq, 765
Abbasid Caliphate
–
Image of the
Amir of
Khorasan Isma'il ibn Ahmad on the
Tajikistani somoni who exercised independent authority from the Abassids
32.
Mediterranean
–
The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
Mediterranean
–
Circa the 6th century BCE: In ancient times the Mediterranean provided sources of food and local commerce and direct routes for trade and communications, colonisation, and war. Numerous cities and colonies were situated at its shores or within the basin: Greek (red) and Phoenician (yellow)
colonies in antiquity; and other cities (grey), including the provincial
"Rom".
Mediterranean
–
Map of the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean
–
With its highly indented coastline and large number of islands, Greece has the longest Mediterranean coastline.
Mediterranean
–
The
Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the European
Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.
33.
Mesopotamia
–
In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
Mesopotamia
–
Known world of the Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures from documentary sources
Mesopotamia
–
Map showing the extent of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
–
One of 18
Statues of Gudea, a ruler around 2090 BC
Mesopotamia
–
One of the
Nimrud ivories shows a lion eating a man. Neo-Assyrian period, 9th to 7th centuries BC.
34.
Egypt
–
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
Egypt
–
The
Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the
ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.
Egypt
–
Flag
Egypt
–
The Greek Ptolemaic queen
Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar,
Caesarion at the
Temple of Dendera.
Egypt
–
The 1803
Cedid Atlas, showing
Ottoman Egypt.
35.
North Africa
–
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of Africa. The United Nationss definition of Northern Africa is, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, the countries of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya are often collectively referred to as the Maghreb, which is the Arabic word for sunset. Egypt lies to the northeast and encompasses part of West Asia, while Sudan is situated on the edge of the Sahel, Egypt is a transcontinental country because of the Sinai Peninsula, which geographically lies in Western Asia. North Africa also includes a number of Spanish possessions, the Canary Islands and Madeira in the North Atlantic Ocean northwest of the African mainland are included in considerations of the region. From 3500 BC, following the abrupt desertification of the Sahara due to changes in the Earths orbit. The Islamic influence in the area is significant, and North Africa is a major part of the Muslim world. Some researchers have postulated that North Africa rather than East Africa served as the point for the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent in the Out of Africa migration. The Atlas Mountains extend across much of Morocco, northern Algeria and Tunisia, are part of the mountain system that also runs through much of Southern Europe. They recede to the south and east, becoming a steppe landscape before meeting the Sahara desert, the sediments of the Sahara overlie an ancient plateau of crystalline rock, some of which is more than four billion years old. Sheltered valleys in the Atlas Mountains, the Nile Valley and Delta, a wide variety of valuable crops including cereals, rice and cotton, and woods such as cedar and cork, are grown. Typical Mediterranean crops, such as olives, figs, dates and citrus fruits, the Nile Valley is particularly fertile, and most of the population in Egypt and Sudan live close to the river. Elsewhere, irrigation is essential to improve yields on the desert margins. The inhabitants of Saharan Africa are generally divided in a manner corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa, the Maghreb, the Nile valley. The edge of the Sahel, to the south of Egypt has mainly been inhabited by Nubians, Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber, as well as Nubians from the south. They have contributed to the Arabized Berber populations, the official language or one of the official languages in all of the countries in North Africa is Arabic. The people of the Maghreb and the Sahara regions speak Berber languages and several varieties of Arabic, the Arabic and Berber languages are distantly related, both being members of the Afroasiatic language family. The Tuareg Berber languages are more conservative than those of the coastal cities. Over the years, Berbers have been influenced by contact with cultures, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Europeans
North Africa
–
Market of
Biskra in Algeria, 1899
North Africa
–
Northern Africa (UN subregion)
North Africa
–
The
kasbah of
Aït Benhaddou in Morocco
North Africa
–
The first
Roman emperor native to North Africa was
Septimius Severus, born in Leptis Magna in present-day Libya.
36.
Andalusia
–
Andalusia is an autonomous community in southern Spain. It is the most populated and the second largest in area of the communities in the country. The Andalusian autonomous community is recognised as historical nationality. The territory is divided into eight provinces, Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and its capital is the city of Seville. Andalusia is the only European region with both Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines, the small British overseas territory of Gibraltar shares a three-quarter-mile land border with the Andalusian province of Cádiz at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar. The main mountain ranges of Andalusia are the Sierra Morena and the Baetic System, consisting of the Subbaetic and Penibaetic Mountains, in the north, the Sierra Morena separates Andalusia from the plains of Extremadura and Castile–La Mancha on Spains Meseta Central. To the south the geographic subregion of Upper Andalusia lies mostly within the Baetic System, the name Andalusia is derived from the Arabic word Al-Andalus. Including an intense relationship with Naples, Italy, Andalusia has been a traditionally agricultural region, compared to the rest of Spain and the rest of Europe. However, the growth of the community especially in the sectors of industry and services was above average in Spain, the region has, however, a rich culture and a strong cultural identity. Many cultural phenomena that are seen internationally as distinctively Spanish are largely or entirely Andalusian in origin and these include flamenco and, to a lesser extent, bullfighting and Hispano-Moorish architectural styles. Andalusias hinterland is the hottest area of Europe, with cities like Córdoba, Late evening temperatures can sometimes stay around 35 °C until close to midnight, with daytime highs of over 40 °C common. Seville also has the highest average temperature in mainland Spain and mainland Europe. Its present form is derived from the Arabic name for Muslim Iberia. However, the etymology of the name Al-Andalus is disputed, the Spanish place name Andalucía was introduced into the Spanish languages in the 13th century under the form el Andalucía. This was a Castilianization of Al-Andalusiya, the form of the Arabic language al-Andalus. The etymology of al-Andalus is itself somewhat debated, but in fact it entered the Arabic language before this came under Muslim rule. Like the Arabic term al-Andalus, in historical contexts the Spanish term Andalucía or the English term Andalusia do not necessarily refer to the territory designated by these terms today. To designate the territories the Christians had regained by that time in the Guadalquivir valley and in the Kingdoms of Granada, in a document from 1253, Alfonso X styled himself Rey de Castilla, León y de toda Andalucía
Andalusia
–
Map of the
Iberian peninsula dated 1770. The Kingdoms of
Jaén,
Córdoba and
Seville are collectively referred to under the name Andalucía, while the
Kingdom of Granada appears under its individual name.
Andalusia
–
Flag
Andalusia
–
Portrait of
Blas Infante, executed in
azulejos, located on the avenue in
Jerez de la Frontera named in his honor.
Andalusia
–
Andalusian firs,
Sierra de las Nieves
37.
Canary Islands
–
The Canary Islands, also known as the Canaries, are an archipelago and autonomous community of Spain located on the Atlantic Ocean,100 kilometres west of Morocco. The Canaries are among the outermost regions of the European Union proper and it is also one of the eight regions with special consideration of historical nationality recognized as such by the Spanish Government. The main islands are Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, the archipelago also includes a number of islands and islets, La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Oeste and Roque del Este. In ancient times, the chain was often referred to as the Fortunate Isles. The Canary Islands is the most southerly region of Spain and the largest and most populated archipelago of the Macaronesia region, the islands have a subtropical climate, with long hot summers and moderately warm winters. The precipitation levels and the level of maritime moderation varies depending on location and elevation, green areas as well as desert exist on the archipelago. Due to their location above the inversion layer, the high mountains of these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have built on the islands. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been the largest city in the Canaries since 1768, between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 a decree ordered that the capital of the Canary Islands be shared, the third largest city of the Canary Islands is San Cristóbal de La Laguna on Tenerife. This city is home to the Consejo Consultivo de Canarias. During the time of the Spanish Empire, the Canaries were the main stopover for Spanish galleons on their way to the Americas, who came south to catch the prevailing northeasterly trade winds. The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning Islands of the Dogs, according to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian king Juba II named the island Canaria because it contained vast multitudes of dogs of very large size. Another speculation is that the dogs were actually a species of monk seal, critically endangered. The dense population of seals may have been the characteristic that most struck the few ancient Romans who established contact with these islands by sea. Alternatively, it is said that the inhabitants of the island, Guanches, used to worship dogs, mummified them. The ancient Greeks also knew about a people, living far to the west, who are the dog-headed ones, who worshipped dogs on an island. Some hypothesize that the Canary Islands dog-worship and the ancient Egyptian cult of the god, Anubis are closely connected
Canary Islands
–
Mount
Teide on
Tenerife, the highest mountain in Spain, is also one of the most visited
National Parks in the world.
Canary Islands
–
Flag
Canary Islands
–
Hacha Grande, a mountain in the south of Lanzarote, viewed from the road to the Playa de Papagayo.
Canary Islands
–
Panoramic view of Gran Canaria, with
Roque Nublo at the left and Roque Bentayga at the center
38.
Portugal
–
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
Portugal
–
Citânia de Briteiros, in the
Minho Province, is the best preserved
Iron Age and
Castro culture site in Portugal.
Portugal
–
Flag
Portugal
–
The
Roman Temple of Évora, in the
Alentejo, is a symbol of
Lusitania, Roman rule in Portugal.
Portugal
–
Monument in Porto to
Vimara Peres, first ruler of the County of Portugal
39.
Madeira Islands
–
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago situated in the north Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Portugal. Its total population was estimated in 2011 at 267,785, the capital of Madeira is Funchal, located on the main islands south coast. The archipelago is just under 400 kilometres north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, since 1976, the archipelago has been one of the two Autonomous regions of Portugal. It includes the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas, the region has political and administrative autonomy through the Administrative Political Statue of the Autonomous Region of Madeira provided for in the Portuguese Constitution. Madeira was claimed by Portuguese sailors in the service of Prince Henry the Navigator in 1419, the archipelago is considered to be the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of the Portuguese Age of Discovery, which extended from 1415 to 1542. Today, it is a popular resort, being visited every year by about one million tourists. The region is noted for its Madeira wine, gastronomy, historical and cultural value, its flora and fauna, landscapes which are classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and embroidery artisans. Its annual New Year celebrations feature the largest fireworks show in the world, Madeira is the second richest region of Portugal by GDP per capita, only surpassed by Lisbon. They are called the Isles of the Blessed, archeological evidence suggests that the islands may have been visited by the Vikings sometime between 900-1030. During the reign of King Edward III of England, lovers Robert Machim and they were driven off their course by a violent storm and their ship went aground along the coast of an island, that may have been Madeira. Later this legend was the basis of the naming of the city of Machico, knowledge of some Atlantic islands, such as Madeira, existed before their formal discovery and settlement, as the islands were shown on maps as early as 1339. The following year, an expedition, under the captaincy of Zarco, Vaz Teixeira. Subsequently, the new settlers observed a black cloud suspended to the southwest. Their investigation revealed it to be the island they called Madeira. The first Portuguese settlers began colonizing the islands around 1420 or 1425, grain production began to fall and the ensuing crisis forced Henry the Navigator to order other commercial crops to be planted so that the islands could be profitable. The planting of sugarcane, and later Sicilian sugar beet, allowed the introduction of the salt into Europe. These specialised plants, and their associated industrial technology, created one of the major revolutions on the islands, the expansion of sugar plantations in Madeira began in 1455, using advisers from Sicily and financed by Genoese capital. The accessibility of Madeira attracted Genoese and Flemish traders, who were keen to bypass Venetian monopolies, by 1480 Antwerp had some seventy ships engaged in the Madeira sugar trade, with the refining and distribution concentrated in Antwerp
Madeira Islands
–
A view of
Funchal, the capital city of the autonomous region.
Madeira Islands
–
The Santa Maria de Colombo, a replica of the types of ship typical during the Portuguese discovery, built by craftsmen from
Câmara de Lobos, Madeira
Madeira Islands
–
Statue of
João Gonçalves Zarco
Madeira Islands
–
Cathedral of Funchal with its
tower of 15th-century
Gothic style in the background
40.
Christopher Columbus
–
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean and those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World. Western imperialism and economic competition were emerging among European kingdoms through the establishment of routes and colonies. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named San Salvador. Over the course of three voyages, he visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America. These voyages had, therefore, an impact in the historical development of the modern Western world. He spearheaded the transatlantic trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the genocide of the Hispaniola natives. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion, Columbus never admitted that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies for which he had set course. He called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited indios, the name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo and, in Spanish and he was born before 31 October 1451 in the territory of the Republic of Genoa, though the exact location remains disputed. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo were his brothers, Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. He also had a sister named Bianchinetta, Columbus never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a Genoese variety of Ligurian. In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at the age of 10, in 1470, the Columbus family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Christopher was on a Genoese ship hired in the service of René of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Some modern historians have argued that he was not from Genoa but, instead and these competing hypotheses have generally been discounted by mainstream scholars. In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro, later, he allegedly made a trip to Chios, an Aegean island then ruled by Genoa. In May 1476, he took part in a convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe
Christopher Columbus
–
Posthumous portrait of Christopher Columbus by
Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519. There are no known authentic portraits of Columbus.
Christopher Columbus
–
Christopher Columbus at the gates of the
monastery of Santa María de la Rábida with his son Diego, by
Benet Mercadé
Christopher Columbus
–
Columbus' handwritten notes in Latin, on the margins of his copy of
The Travels of Marco Polo
Christopher Columbus
–
"Columbus map", drawn c. 1490 in the
Lisbon workshop of Bartolomeo and Christopher Columbus
41.
Caribbean
–
The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua
Caribbean
–
Cayo de Agua in
Los Roques archipelago,
Venezuela.
Caribbean
–
Caribbean
Caribbean
–
Puerto Rico 's south shore, from the mountains of Jayuya
Caribbean
–
Puerto Cruz beach in
Margarita Island,
Venezuela
42.
Americas
–
The Americas, also collectively called America, encompass the totality of the continents of North America and South America. Together they make up most of the land in Earths western hemisphere, along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earths total surface area and 28. 4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great Lakes basin, Mississippi. Humans first settled the Americas from Asia between 42,000 and 17,000 years ago, a second migration of Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The subsequent migration of the Inuit into the neoarctic around 3500 BCE completed what is regarded as the settlement by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The first known European settlement in the Americas was by the Norse explorer Leif Ericson, however, the colonization never became permanent and was later abandoned. The voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1502 resulted in permanent contact with European powers, diseases introduced from Europe and Africa devastated the indigenous peoples, and the European powers colonized the Americas. Mass emigration from Europe, including numbers of indentured servants. Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution in 1776, the population is over 1 billion, with over 65% of them living in one of the three most populous countries. As of the beginning of the 2010s, the most populous urban agglomerations are Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, all of them megacities. The name America was first recorded in 1507 in the Cosmographiae Introductio, apparently written by Matthias Ringmann and it first applied to both North and South America by Gerardus Mercator in 1538. Amerigen means land of Amerigo and derives from Amerigo and gen, America accorded with the feminine names of Asia, Africa, and Europa. When conceived as a continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America. In some countries of the world, America is considered a continent encompassing the North America and South America subcontinents, the first inhabitants migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in Alaska and the Yukon from at least 20,000 years ago, beyond that, the specifics of the Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. Widespread habitation of the Americas occurred during the glacial maximum
Americas
–
CIA political map of the Americas in
Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection
Americas
–
The Americas
Americas
–
Parkin Site, a Mississippian site in Arkansas, circa 1539.
Americas
–
World map of
Waldseemüller (Germany, 1507), which first used the name America (in the lower-left section, over South America)
43.
Hispaniola
–
Hispaniola is the 22nd-largest island in the world, located in the Caribbean island group, the Greater Antilles. It is the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba, two sovereign nations share the 76, 192-square-kilometre island. The only other shared island in the Caribbean is Saint Martin, Hispaniola is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, founded by Christopher Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493. The island was called by various names by its native people, fernández de Oviedo and de las Casas both recorded that the island was called Haiti by the Taíno. DAnghiera added another name, Quizqueia, but later shows that the word does not seem to derive from the original Arawak Taíno language. When Columbus took possession of the island in 1492, he named it Insula Hispana, meaning the Spanish Island in Latin and La Isla Española, meaning the Spanish Island, in Spanish. De las Casas shortened the name to Española, and when d‘Anghiera detailed his account of the island in Latin, he rendered its name as Hispaniola. Due to Taíno, Spanish and French influences on the island, historically the whole island was referred to as Haiti, Hayti, Santo Domingo, St. Domingue. The name Haïti was adopted by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1804, as the name of independent Saint-Domingue. It was also adopted as the name of independent Santo Domingo, as the Republic of Spanish Haiti. Christopher Columbus inadvertently landed on the island during his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, where his flagship, a contingent of men were left at an outpost christened La Navidad, on the north coast of present-day Haiti. The island was inhabited by the Taíno, one of the indigenous Arawak peoples, the Taino were at first tolerant of Columbus and his crew, and helped him to construct La Navidad on what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, in December 1492. European colonization of the began in earnest the following year. In 1496 the town of Nueva Isabela was founded, after being destroyed by a hurricane, it was rebuilt on the opposite side of the Ozama River and called Santo Domingo. It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas, several 16th century writers estimated the 1492 population of Hispaniola at over 1 million people. Twentieth-century estimates of the range from 60,000 to 8,000,000. Harsh enslavement by Spanish colonists, redirection of food supplies and labor towards the colonists, had a impact on both mortality and fertility over the first quarter century. Colonial administrators and Dominican and Hyeronimite priests observed that the search for gold, demographic data from two provinces in 1514 shows a low birth rate consistent with a 3. 5% annual population decline
Hispaniola
–
View from Hispaniola
Hispaniola
–
Early map of Hispaniola and
Puerto Rico, c. 1639.
Hispaniola
–
Columbus landing on Hispaniola
Hispaniola
–
French map of Hispaniola by Nicolas de Fer
44.
Haiti
–
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti and formerly called Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic, the region was originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno people. Spain discovered the island on 5 December 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic, when Columbus initially landed in Haiti, he had thought he had found India or Asia. On Christmas Day 1492, Columbus flagship the Santa Maria ran aground north of what is now Limonade, the island was named La Española and claimed by Spain, which ruled until the early 17th century. Competing claims and settlements by the French led to the portion of the island being ceded to France. The development of plantations, worked by slaves brought from Africa. Upon his death in a prison in France, he was succeeded by his lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian Revolution lasted just over a dozen years, and apart from Alexandre Pétion, the first President of the Republic, all the first leaders of government were former slaves. The Citadelle Laferrière is the largest fortress in the Americas, Henri Christophe – former slave and first king of Haiti, Henri I – built it to withstand a possible foreign attack. It has the lowest Human Development Index in the Americas, most recently, in February 2004, a coup détat originating in the north of the country forced the resignation and exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A provisional government took control with security provided by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, the name Haïti comes from the indigenous Taíno language which was the native name given to the entire island of Hispaniola to mean, land of high mountains. The h is silent in French and the ï in Haïti, is a mark used to show that the second vowel is pronounced separately. In English, this rule for the pronunciation is often disregarded, the name Haïti was restored by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines as the official name of independent Saint-Domingue, as a tribute to the Amerindian predecessors. The Taíno name for the island was Haiti. The people had migrated over centuries into the Caribbean islands from South America, genetic studies show they were related to the Yanomami of the Amazon Basin. They also originated in Central and South America, after migrating to Caribbean islands, in the 15th century, the Taíno were pushed into the northeast Caribbean islands by the Caribs. In the Taíno societies of the Caribbean islands, the largest unit of organization was led by a cacique, or chief. The caciquedoms were tributary kingdoms, with payment consisting of harvests, Taíno cultural artifacts include cave paintings in several locations in the country. These have become symbols of Haiti and tourist attractions
Haiti
–
Burning of the town of
Cap-Français
Haiti
–
Flag
Haiti
–
Battle between
British troops in French service and the
Haitian rebels.
Haiti
–
Pétion and Dessalines swearing allegiance to one another before God; painting by
Guillon-Lethière
45.
Dominican Republic
–
The Dominican Republic is a sovereign state occupying the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western one-third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, christopher Columbus landed on the Western part of Hispaniola, in what is now Haiti, on December 6,1492. The island became the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World, the Dominican people declared independence in November 1821 but were forcefully annexed by their more powerful neighbor Haiti in February 1822. After the 1844 victory in the Dominican War of Independence against Haitian rule the country again under Spanish colonial rule until the Dominican War of Restoration of 1865. The Dominican Republic experienced mostly internal strife until 1916, a civil war in 1965, the countrys last, was ended by another U. S. military occupation and was followed by the authoritarian rule of Joaquín Balaguer, 1966–1978. Since then, the Dominican Republic has moved toward representative democracy and has been led by Leonel Fernández for most of the time since 1996. Danilo Medina, the Dominican Republics current president, succeeded Fernandez in 2012, the Dominican Republic has the ninth-largest economy in Latin America and is the largest economy in the Caribbean and Central American region. Though long known for agriculture and mining, the economy is now dominated by services. Over the last two decades, the Dominican Republic have been standing out as one of the economies in the Americas – with an average real GDP growth rate of 5. 4% between 1992 and 2014. GDP growth in 2014 and 2015 reached 7.3 and 7. 0%, respectively, in the first half of 2016 the Dominican economy grew 7. 4% continuing its trend of rapid economic growth. Recent growth has been driven by construction, manufacturing and tourism, private consumption has been strong, as a result of low inflation, job creation, as well as high level of remittances. The Dominican Republic has a market, Bolsa de Valores de la Republica Dominicana. and advanced telecommunication system. Nevertheless, unemployment, government corruption, and inconsistent electric service remain major Dominican problems, the country also has marked income inequality. International migration affects the Dominican Republic greatly, as it receives, mass illegal Haitian immigration and the integration of Dominicans of Haitian descent are major issues. A large Dominican diaspora exists, mostly in the United States, contributes to development, the Dominican Republic is the most visited destination in the Caribbean. The year-round golf courses are major attractions, the island has an average temperature of 26 °C and great climatic and biological diversity. The country is also the site of the first cathedral, castle, monastery, and fortress built in all of the Americas, located in Santo Domingos Colonial Zone, a World Heritage Site. Music and sport are of importance in the Dominican culture, with Merengue and Bachata as the national dance and music
Dominican Republic
–
The Pomier Caves are a series of 55 caves located north of San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic. They contain the largest collection of 2,000-year-old rock art in the Caribbean.
Dominican Republic
–
Flag
Dominican Republic
–
The
Alcázar of Colón, located in Santo Domingo, is the oldest
Viceregal residence in all of the Americas.
Dominican Republic
–
Jean-Pierre Boyer the mulatto ruler of Haiti.
46.
Triangle trade
–
Triangular trade or triangle trade is a historical term indicating trade among three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come, Triangular trade thus provides a method for rectifying trade imbalances between the above regions. Historically the particular routes were also shaped by the influence of winds. Returning from North America, it is easiest to follow the Gulf Stream in a northeasterly direction using the westerlies. A similar triangle to this, called the volta do mar was already being used by the Portuguese, before Christopher Columbus voyage, to sail to the Canary Islands and the Azores. Columbus simply expanded the triangle outwards, and his became the main way for Europeans to reach, and return from. The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing cash crops. European goods, in turn, were used to purchase African slaves, who were brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas. A classic example is the colonial molasses trade, sugar from the Caribbean was traded to Europe or New England, where it was distilled into rum. The profits from the sale of sugar were used to manufactured goods, which were then shipped to West Africa. The slaves were brought back to the Caribbean to be sold to sugar planters. The profits from the sale of the slaves were used to buy more sugar. The trip itself took five to twelve weeks, the first leg of the triangle was from a European port to Africa, in which ships carried supplies for sale and trade, such as copper, cloth, trinkets, slave beads, guns and ammunition. When the ship arrived, its cargo would be sold or bartered for slaves, on the second leg, ships made the journey of the Middle Passage from Africa to the New World. Many slaves died of disease in the holds of the slave ships. Once the ship reached the New World, enslaved survivors were sold in the Caribbean or the American colonies, the ship then returned to Europe to complete the triangle. Instead, the crops were transported mainly by a separate fleet which only sailed from Europe to the Americas. The Triangular trade is a model, not an exact description of the ships route
Triangle trade
–
Depiction of the Triangular Trade of slaves, sugar, and rum with New England instead of Europe as the third corner
Triangle trade
–
Depiction of the classical model of the Triangular trade
Triangle trade
–
Diagram illustrating the stowage of African slaves on a British
slave ship.
Triangle trade
–
Chemistry
47.
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
–
Sugar was the main crop produced on plantations throughout the Caribbean through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Most islands were covered with sugar cane and mills for refining it, the main source of labor, until the abolition of the system, was African slaves. These plantations produced 80 to 90 percent of the sugar consumed in Western Europe, sugar was the most important crop throughout the Caribbean, although other crops such as coffee, indigo, and rice were also grown. In the mid-17th century, sugar cane was brought into what became the British West Indies by the Dutch. Upon landing in Barbados and other islands, they quickly urged local growers to change their crops from cotton. With depressed prices of cotton and tobacco, due mainly to competition from the North American colonies. Sugar was quickly snapped up by the British, who used it in cakes, during the colonial period, the arrival of sugar culture deeply impacted the society and economy in the Caribbean. It not only increased the ratio of slaves to free men. As a result, black men and women were taken from Africa. For example, before 1650 more than three-quarters of the population was white. In 1680, the size of a plantation in Barbados had increased to about 60 slaves. Over the decades, the sugar plantations became larger and larger, in 1832, the median-size plantation in Jamaica had about 150 slaves, and nearly one of every four bondsmen lived on units that had at least 250 slaves. For about 100 years, Barbados remained the richest of all the European colonies in the Caribbean, the colonys prosperity remained regionally unmatched until sugar cane production expanded in larger countries, such as Saint Domingue and Jamaica. As part of the sugar industry, sugar cane processing gave rise to related commodities such as rum, molasses. The West India Interest was formed in the 1740s, when the British merchants joined with the West Indian sugar planters, the British and West Indies shared profits and needs. This organization was the first sugar-trading organization which had a voice in Parliament. In the 1740s, Jamaica and Saint Domingue became the main sugar producers. They increased production in Saint Domingue by using a system that French engineers built
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
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Rose Hall sugar plantation house,
Jamaica
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
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Warrens Great House,
St. Michael,
Barbados
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
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The "Annaberg" sugar plantation ruins on
Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands, after 1933
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
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Chemistry
48.
Antigua
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Antigua, also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the West Indies. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981. Antigua means ancient in Spanish after an icon in Seville Cathedral, the name Waladli comes from the indigenous inhabitants and means approximately our own. The islands circumference is roughly 87 km and its area 281 km2, the economy is mainly reliant on tourism, with the agricultural sector serving the domestic market. Over 32,000 people live in the city, St. Johns. The capital is situated in the north-west and has a harbour which is able to accommodate large cruise ships. Other leading population settlements are All Saints and Liberta, according to the 2001 census, English Harbour on the south-eastern coast is famed for its protected shelter during violent storms. It is the site of a restored British colonial naval station called Nelsons Dockyard after Captain Horatio Nelson, today English Harbour and the neighbouring village of Falmouth are internationally famous as a yachting and sailing destination and provisioning centre. During Antigua Sailing Week, at the end of April and beginning of May, Antiguas economy is reliant upon tourism, and it promotes the island as a luxury Caribbean escape. Many hotels and resorts are located around the coastline, the only regular service to Barbuda flies from VC Bird Airport. Until July 7,2015, the United States Air Force maintained a base near the airport, designated Detachment 1, 45th Operations Group. The mission provided high rate telemetry data for the Eastern Range, the unit was inactivated due to US government budget cuts. The growing medical school and its students also add much to the economy, the University of Health Sciences Antigua and the American University of Antigua College of Medicine teach aspiring doctors. The countrys official currency is the East Caribbean dollar, given the dominance of tourism, many prices in tourist-oriented businesses are shown in US dollars. The EC dollar is pegged to the US dollar at a varied rate, prior to European colonialism, the first residents were the Guanahatabey people. Eventually, the Arawak migrated from the mainland, followed by the Carib, Christopher Columbus was the first European to visit Antigua, in 1493. The Arawak were the first well-documented group of people to settle Antigua. They paddled to the island by canoe from present-day Venezuela, pushed out by the Carib, the Arawak introduced agriculture to Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua
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Turner Beach in Antigua
Antigua
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Map of Antigua showing the
parishes
Antigua
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Rocky shoreline near St. John's.
Antigua
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Dickenson Bay beach, Antigua
49.
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
France
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One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
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Flag
France
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The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
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With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
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