United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom, having financed the European coalition that defeated France during the Napoleonic Wars, developed a large Royal Navy that enabled the British Empire to become the foremost world power for the next century; the Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were small operations in a peaceful century. Rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the state's formation continued up until the mid-19th century; the Great Irish Famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the mid-19th century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland and increased calls for Irish land reform. The 19th century was an era of rapid economic modernisation and growth of industry and finance, in which Britain dominated the world economy. Outward migration was heavy to the United States; the empire was expanded into much of South Asia. The Colonial Office and India Office ruled through a small number of administrators who managed the units of the empire locally, while democratic institutions began to develop.
British India, by far the most important overseas possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In overseas policy, the central policy was free trade, which enabled British and Irish financiers and merchants to operate in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. London formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan and Russia, moved closer to the United States. Growing desire for Irish self-governance led to the Irish War of Independence, which resulted in most of Ireland seceding from the Union and forming the Irish Free State in 1922. Northern Ireland remained part of the Union, the state was renamed to the current "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" in 1927; the modern-day United Kingdom is the same country as the one from this period—a direct continuation of what remained after the secession—not an new successor state. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which occurred during the British war with revolutionary France.
The British government's fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801; the Irish had been led to believe by the British that their loss of legislative independence would be compensated with Catholic emancipation, that is, by the removal of civil disabilities placed upon Roman Catholics in both Great Britain and Ireland. However, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his government's attempts to introduce it. During the War of the Second Coalition, Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch overseas possessions, the Netherlands having become a satellite state of France in 1796, but tropical diseases claimed the lives of over 40,000 troops; when the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized. The peace settlement was in effect only a ceasefire, Napoleon continued to provoke the British by attempting a trade embargo on the country and by occupying the city of Hanover, capital of the Electorate, a German-speaking duchy, in a personal union with the United Kingdom.
In May 1803, war was declared again. Napoleon's plans to invade Great Britain failed, chiefly due to the inferiority of his navy, in 1805 a Royal Navy fleet led by Nelson decisively defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar, the last significant naval action of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System; this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. The British Army remained a minimal threat to France. Although the Royal Navy disrupted France's extra-continental trade—both by seizing and threatening French shipping and by seizing French colonial possessions—it could do nothing about France's trade with the major continental economies and posed little threat to French territory in Europe. France's population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, but it was smaller in terms of industry, mercantile marine and naval strength.
Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. On the contrary Britain possessed the greatest industrial capacity in the world, its mastery of the seas allowed it to build up considerable economic strength through trade to its possessions and the United States; the Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent. The Duke of Wellington pushed the French out of Spain, in early 1814, as Napoleon was being driven back in the east by the Prussians and Russians, Wellington invaded southern France. After Napoleon's surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. Napoleon reappeared in 1815; the Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blücher defeated Napoleon once and for all at Waterloo. To defeat France, Britain put heavy pressure on the Americans
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, dedicated to a specific deity, hero, saint, daemon, or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated. A shrine at which votive offerings are made is called an altar. Shrines are found in many of the world's religions, including Christianity, Hinduism, Chinese folk religion and Asatru as well as in secular and non-religious settings such as a war memorial. Shrines can be found in various settings, such as churches, cemeteries, museums, or in the home, although portable shrines are found in some cultures. A shrine may become a focus of a cult image. Many shrines are located within buildings and in the temples designed for worship, such as a church in Christianity, or a mandir in Hinduism. A shrine here is the centre of attention in the building, is given a place of prominence. In such cases, adherents of the faith assemble within the building in order to venerate the deity at the shrine.
In classical temple architecture, the shrine may be synonymous with the cella. In Hinduism and Roman Catholicism, in modern faiths, such as Neopaganism, a shrine can be found within the home or shop; this shrine is a small structure or a setup of pictures and figurines dedicated to a deity, part of the official religion, to ancestors or to a localised household deity. Small household shrines are common among the Chinese and people from South and Southeast Asia, whether Hindu, Buddhist or Christian. A small lamp and small offerings are kept daily by the shrine. Buddhist household shrines must be on a shelf above the head. Small outdoor yard shrines are found at the bottom of many peoples' gardens, following various religions, including Christianity. Many consist of a statue of Christ or a saint, on a pedestal or in an alcove, while others may be elaborate booths without ceilings, some include paintings and architectural elements, such as walls, glass doors and ironwork fences, etc. In the United States, some Christians have small yard shrines.
Religious images in some sort of small shelter, placed by a road or pathway, sometimes in a settlement or at a crossroads. Shrines are found in many religions; as distinguished from a temple, a shrine houses a particular relic or cult image, the object of worship or veneration. A shrine may be constructed to set apart a site, thought to be holy, as opposed to being placed for the convenience of worshippers. Shrines therefore attract the practice of pilgrimage. Shrines are found in many, forms of Christianity. Roman Catholicism, the largest denomination of Christianity, has many shrines, as do Orthodox Christianity and Anglicanism. In the Roman Catholic Code of Canon law, canons 1230 and 1231 read: "The term shrine means a church or other sacred place which, with the approval of the local Ordinary, is by reason of special devotion frequented by the faithful as pilgrims. For a shrine to be described as national, the approval of the Episcopal Conference is necessary. For it to be described as international, the approval of the Holy See is required."Another use of the term "shrine" in colloquial Catholic terminology is a niche or alcove in most – larger – churches used by parishioners when praying in the church.
They were called Devotional Altars, since they could look like small Side Altars or bye-altars. Shrines were always centered on some image of Christ or a saint – for instance, a statue, mural or mosaic, may have had a reredos behind them. However, Mass would not be celebrated at them. Side altars, where Mass could be celebrated, were used in a similar way to shrines by parishioners. Side altars were dedicated to The Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph as well as other saints. A nativity set could be viewed as a shrine, as the definition of a shrine is any holy or sacred place. Islam's holiest structure, the Kaaba in the city of Mecca, though an ancient temple, may be seen as a shrine due to it housing a venerated relic called the Hajar al-Aswad and being the focus of the world's largest pilgrimage practice, the Hajj. A few yards away, the mosque houses the Maqam Ibrahim shrine containing a petrosomatoglyph associated with the patriarch and his son Ishmael's building of the Kaaba in Islamic tradition; the Green Dome sepulcher of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in Medina, housed in the Masjid an-Nabawi, occurs as a venerated place and important as a site of pilgrimage among Muslims.
Two of the oldest and notable Islamic shrines are the Dome of the Rock and the smaller Dome of the Chain built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The former was built over the rock that marked the site of the Jewish Temple and according to Islamic tradition, was the point of departure of Muhammad's legendary ascent heavenwards. More than any other shrines in the Muslim world, the tomb of Muhammad is considered a source of blessings for the visitor. Among sayings attributed to
Soviet–Afghan War
. The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years, from December 1979 to February 1989. Insurgent groups known collectively as the mujahideen, as well as smaller Maoist groups, fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government in the rural countryside; the mujahideen groups were backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, making it a Cold War proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees to Pakistan and Iran; the war derives from a 1978 coup when Afghanistan's communist party took power, initiating a series of radical modernization reforms throughout the country that were forced and unpopular among the more traditional rural population and the established traditional power structures. The regime's nature of vigorously suppressing opposition, including executing thousands of political prisoners, led to the rise of anti-government armed groups, by April 1979 large parts of the country were in open rebellion.
The ruling party itself experienced deep rivalries, in September 1979 the President, Nur Mohammad Taraki, was murdered under orders of the second-in-command, Hafizullah Amin, which soured relations with the Soviet Union. The Soviet government, under leader Leonid Brezhnev, decided to deploy the 40th Army on December 24, 1979. Arriving in the capital Kabul, they staged a coup, killing president Amin and installing Soviet loyalist Babrak Karmal from a rival faction; the deployment had been variously called an "invasion" or a legitimate supporting intervention on the basis of the Brezhnev Doctrine. In January 1980, foreign ministers from 34 nations of the Islamic Conference adopted a resolution demanding "the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Soviet troops" from Afghanistan; the UN General Assembly passed a resolution protesting the Soviet intervention by a vote of 104 to 18, with 18 abstentions and 12 members of the 152-nation Assembly absent or not participating in the vote. Afghan insurgents began to receive massive amounts of aid and military training in neighboring Pakistan and China, paid for by the United States and Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf.
As documented by the National Security Archive, "the Central Intelligence Agency played a significant role in asserting U. S. influence in Afghanistan by funding military operations designed to frustrate the Soviet invasion of that country. CIA covert action worked through Pakistani intelligence services to reach Afghan rebel groups." Soviet troops occupied the cities and main arteries of communication, while the mujahideen waged guerrilla war in small groups operating in the 80 percent of the country, outside government and Soviet control exclusively being the rural countryside. The Soviets used their air power to deal harshly with both rebels and civilians, levelling villages to deny safe haven to the mujahideen, destroying vital irrigation ditches, laying millions of land mines; the international community imposed numerous sanctions and embargoes against the Soviet Union, the U. S. led a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow. The boycott and sanctions exacerbated Cold War tensions and enraged the Soviet government, which led a revenge boycott of the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles.
The Soviets planned to secure towns and roads, stabilize the government under new leader Karmal, withdraw within six months or a year. But they were met with fierce resistance from the guerillas, were stuck in a bloody war that lasted nine years. By the mid-1980s, the Soviet contingent was increased to 108,800 and fighting increased, but the military and diplomatic cost of the war to the USSR was high. By mid-1987 the Soviet Union, now under reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev, announced it would start withdrawing its forces after meetings with the Afghan government; the final troop withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, ended on February 15, 1989, leaving the government forces alone in the battle against the insurgents, which continued until 1992 when the former Soviet-backed government collapsed. Due to its length, it has sometimes been referred to as the "Soviet Union's Vietnam War" or the "Bear Trap" by the Western media; the Soviets' failure in the war is thought to be a contributing factor to the fall of the Soviet Union.
In 1885, Russian forces seized the disputed oasis at Panjdeh south of the Oxus River from Afghan forces, which became known as the Panjdeh Incident. The border was agreed by the joint Anglo-Russian Afghan Boundary Commission of 1885–87; the Russian interest in the region continued on through the Soviet era, with billions in economic and military aid sent to Afghanistan between 1955 and 1978. After the Saur Revolution in 1978, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was formed on April 27, 1978; the government was one with a pro-farmer socialist agenda. It had close relations with the Soviet Union. On December 5, 1978, a treaty of friendship was signed between Afghanistan. In February 1979, the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped by Setami Milli militants and was killed during an assault carried out by the Afghan police, assisted by Soviet advisers. Dubs' death led to a major deterioration in Afghanistan–United States relations. In Southwestern Asia, drastic changes were taking place concurrent with the upheavals in Afghanistan.
In February 1979, the Iranian Revolution ousted the American-backed Shah from Iran, losing the United States as one of its most powerful allies. The United S
Badakhshan
Badakhshan is a historic region comprising parts of what is now northeastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, the Tashkurgan county in China. The name is retained in Badakhshan Province, one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan and is located in North-East Afghanistan. Much of historic Badakhshan lies within Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region located in the south-eastern part of the country; the music of Badakhshan is an important part of the region's cultural heritage. The name is derived from the Sasanian official title bēdaxš or badaxš, which may be from an earlier *pati-axša. Badakhshan has religious community. Tajiks and Pamiris are the majority while a tiny minority of Kyrgyzs and Uzbeks are found in their own villages. There are groups of speakers of several Pamir languages of the Eastern Iranian language group. During the 20th century within Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan the speakers of Pamir languages formed their own separate ethnic identity as Pamiris; the Pamiri people were not recognized as a separate ethnic group in Tajikistan, but in Tajikistan Pamiri movements and associations have been formed.
The main religions of Badakhshan are Sunni Islam. The people of this province have a rich cultural heritage and they have preserved unique ancient forms of music and dance. Nasir Khusraw propagated Ismailism. Badakhshan was an important trading center during antiquity. Lapis lazuli was traded from there as early as the second half of the 4th millennium BC. Badakhshan was an important region, its significance is its geo-economic role in trades of silk and ancient commodities transactions between the East and West. According to Marco Polo, Badashan/ Badakshan was a province where Balas ruby could be found under the mountain "Syghinan"; the region was ruled over by the mirs of Badakhshan. Sultan Muhammad of Badakhshan was the last of a series of kings who traced their descent to Alexander the Great, he was killed by Abu Sa'id Mirza the ruler of Timurid Empire and took possession of Badakhshan, which after his death fell to his son, Sultan Mahmud, who had three sons, Baysinghar Mirza, Ali Mirza and Khan Mirza.
When Mahmud died, Amir Khusroe Khan, one of his nobles, blinded Baysinghar Mirza, killed the second prince, ruled as usurper. He submitted to Mughal Emperor Babur in 1504 CE; when Babur took Kandahar in 1506 CE, from Shah Beg Arghun, he sent Khan Mirza as governor to Badakhshan. A son was born to Khan Mirza by the name of Mirza Sulaiman in 1514 CE. After the death of Khan Mirza, Badakhshan was governed for Babur by Prince Humayun, Sultan Wais Khan, Prince Hindal, lastly, by Mirza Sulaiman, who held Badakhshan till October 8, 1541, when he had to surrender himself and his son, Mirza Ibrahim, to Prince Kamran Mirza, they were released by Emperor Humayun in 1545, took again possession of Badakhshan. When Humayun had taken Kabul, he made war upon and defeated Mirza Sulaiman who once in possession of his country, had refused to submit. Bent on making conquests, he had to return, his son, Mirza Ibrahim, was killed in battle. When Akbar became Mughal Emperor, his stepbrother Mirza Muhammad Hakim's mother had been killed by Shah Abul Ma'ali.
Mirza Sulaiman went to Kabul, had Abul Ma'ali hanged. But Mirza Muhammad Hakim did not go on well with Mirza Sulaiman, who returned next year to Kabul with hostile intentions, he returned to Kabul in 1566, when Akbar's troops had left that country, but retreated on being promised tribute. Mirza Sulaiman's wife was Khurram Begum, of the Kipchak tribe, she had her husband so much in her power, that he did nothing without her advice. Her enemy was the widow of Prince Kamran Mirza. Mirza Sulaiman wanted to marry her; when Mirza Ibrahim fell in the war with Balkh, Khurram Begum wanted to send the Khanum to her father, Shah Muhammad of Kashgar. As soon as Shahrukh had grown up, his mother and some Badakhshi nobles excited him to rebel against his grandfather Mirza Sulaiman; this he did, again making peace. Khurram Begum died. Shahrukh took away those parts of Badakhshan which his father had held, found so many adherents, that Mirza Sulaiman, pretending to go on a pilgrimage to Makkah, left Badakhshan for Kabul, crossing the Indus went to India in 1575 CE.
Khan Jahan, governor of the Punjab, received orders from Emperor Akbar to invade Badakhshan, but was ordered to go to Bengal instead, as Mun'im Khan had died and Mirza Sulaiman did not care for the governorship of Bengal, which Akbar had offered him. Mirza Sulaiman went to Ismail II of Safavid Iran; when the death of that monarch deprived him of the assistance which he had just received, he went to Muzaffar Husain Mirza at Kandahar, t
Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County
Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County is a county of Kashgar Prefecture in western Xinjiang, China. The county seat is the town of Tashkurgan. Taxkorgan County is located in the eastern part of the Pamir Plateau, where the Kunlun, Karakoram and Tian Shan mountains come together, at the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan; the county seat is Taxkorgan Town. The territorial expansion of the county is 178 kilometres from north to south, 140 kilometres from east to west, the total area is about 52,400 square kilometres, at an average altitude above 4,000 metres; the county includes a significant part of the Trans-Karakoram Tract, disputed by India and Pakistan in the ongoing Kashmir conflict. The Muztagh Ata, at 7,546 metres, the Kongur Tagh, at 7,719 metres, are the main peaks in the county, while the two main rivers are the Taxkorgan River and the Tiznap River. By including the Trans-Karakoram Tract, the county borders several eight-thousanders, including K2, at 8,611 metres the second-highest mountain in the world.
There are several hot springs and resources of gold and copper. Taxkorgan has a cold desert climate, influenced by the high elevation, with long cold winters, warm summers. Monthly daily average temperatures range from −11.9 °C in January to 16.4 °C in July, while the annual mean is 3.58 °C. An average of only 68 millimetres of precipitation falls per year The total population of Taxkorgan is 27,800, among them 84% Tajiks of Xinjiang, 4% Han and 12% other nationalities. During the Han dynasty, Taxkorgan was known as Puli. Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County is part of the district of Kashgar. In August 2013, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences announced that they excavated a cluster of Zoroastrian tombs in Taxkorgan. In May 2017, the county was hit with a magnitude 5.5 earthquake that killed 8 and injured 23. In Taxkorgan Town there is a museum that houses a few local artefacts, a photographic display and, in the basement, two mummies – one of a young woman about 18, another of a baby about 3 months old which, was not hers.
They are labelled as dating from the Bronze Age to the Warring States period. The mummies were discovered in the nearby Xiabandi Valley on the old caravan route to Yarkand; the valley has now been flooded for a hydro-electric project. The county is served by Karakoram Highway. Taxkorgan is the westernmost town in China, it is the last/first town for visitors going/coming in/out of China and Pakistan through the Khunjerab Pass. There are public buses plying between Tashkorgan; as of September 2016, China has begun building an elevated road, expected to be completed in a few years. Taghdumbash Pamir Tashkurgan Nature Reserve Official website of Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County government
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in northwest China occupying an area of about 1,020,000 km2. Located in China's Xinjiang region, it is sometimes used synonymously to refer the southern half of the province, or Nanjiang, as opposed to the northern half of the province known as Dzungaria or Beijiang, its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern boundary is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin; the historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is Altishahr. Xinjiang consists of two main geographically and ethnically distinct regions with different historical names and the Tarim Basin, before Qing China unified them into one political entity called Xinjiang province in 1884. At the time of the Qing conquest in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe dwelling, nomadic Tibetan Buddhist Dzungar people, while the Tarim Basin was inhabited by sedentary, oasis dwelling, Turkic speaking Muslim farmers, now known as the Uyghur people.
They were governed separately until 1884. North side: The Chinese called this the Tien Shan Nan Lu or Tien Shan South Road, as opposed to the Bei Lu north of the mountains. Along it runs the modern railroad while the middle Tarim River is about 100 km south. Kashgar was. Bachu or Miralbachi. Center: Most of the basin is occupied by the Taklamakan Desert, too dry for permanent habitation; the Yarkand and Aksu Rivers join to form the Tarim River which runs along the north side of the basin. It continued to Loulan, but some time after 330AD it turned southeast near Korla toward Charkilik and Loulan was abandoned; the Tarim ended at the now-dry Lop Nur. Eastward is the fabled Jade Gate. Beyond, Dunhuang with its ancient manuscripts and Anxi at the west end of the Gansu Corridor. South side: Kashgar; the modern road continues east to Tibet. There is no current road east across the Kumtag Desert to Dunhuang, but caravans somehow made the crossing through the Yangguan pass south of the Jade Gate. Roads and passes and caravan routes: The Southern Xinjiang Railway branches from the Lanxin Railway near Turpan, follows the north side of the basin to Kashgar and curves southeast to Khotan.
Roads:The main road from eastern China reaches Urumchi and continues as highway 314 along the north side to Kashgar. Highway 315 continues east to Tibet. There are four north-south roads across the desert. 218 runs from Charkilik to Korla along the former course of the Tarim forming an oval whose other end is Kashgar. The Tarim Desert Highway, a major engineering achievement, crosses the center from Niya to Luntai; the new Highway 217 follows the Khotan River from Khotan to near Aksu. A road follows the Yarkand River from Yarkand to Baqu. East of the Korla-Charkilik road travel continues to be difficult. Rivers coming south from the Tien Shan join the largest being the Aksu. Rivers flowing north from the Kunlun are named for the town or oasis they pass through. Most dry up in the desert, only the Hotan River reaching the Tarim in good years. An exception is the Qiemo River. Ruins in the desert imply. Caravans and passes: The original caravan route seems to have followed the south side. At the time of the Han Dynasty conquest it shifted to the center.
When the Tarim changed course about 330AD it shifted north to Hami. A minor route went north of the Tian Shan; when there was war on the Gansu Corridor trade entered the basin near Charkilik from the Qaidam Basin. The original route to India seems to have started near Yarkand and Kargilik, but it is now replaced by the Karakoram Highway south from Kashgar. To the west of Kashgar via the Irkeshtam border crossing is the Alay Valley, once the route to Persia. Northeast of Kashgar the Torugart pass leads to the Ferghana Valley. Near Uchturpan the Bedel Pass leads to the steppes. Somewhere near Aksu the difficult Muzart Pass led north to the Ili River basin. Near Korla was the Iron Gate Pass and now the railway north to Urumchi. From Turfan the easy Dabancheng pass leads to Urumchi; the route from Charkilik to the Qaidam Plateau was of some importance. North of the Mountains is Dzungaria with its central Gurbantünggüt Desert, Urumchi the capital and the Karamay oil fields; the Kulja territory is the upper basin of the Ili River and opens out onto the Kazakh steppe with several roads eastward.
The Dzungarian Gate was once a migration route and is now a road and rail crossing. Tacheng or Tarbaghatay is a road crossing and former trading post; the Tarim Basin is the result of an amalgamation between an ancient microcontinent and the growing Eurasian continent during the Carboniferous to Permian periods. At present, deformation around the margins of the basin is resul
Sarhadd
Sarhadd or Sarhad known as Sarhad-e Broghil or Sarhad-e Wakhan, is a village in the Wakhan in Badakhshan Province in north-eastern Afghanistan. Sarhadd lies at an altitude of 3,400 m on the Wakhan River, at a point where the river broadens into a wide plain, it is inhabited by Wakhi people. The village lies at the end of a rough road from Ishkashim, just to the north of the Broghil Pass; the population of the village is 548. Badakhshan Province Satellite map at Maplandia.com
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