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Ishaq II

Ishaq II

Askia Ishaq II was ruler of the Songhai Empire from 1588 to 1591. Ishaq came to power in a long dynastic struggle following the death of the long-ruling Askia Daoud. Sensing the Empire's weakness, Moroccan Sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur Saadi dispatched a 4,000-man force under the Islamicized Spaniard Judar Pasha across the Sahara desert in October 1590. Though Ishaq assembled more than 40,000 soldiers to meet the Moroccans, his army fled the enemy's gunpowder weapons at the decisive Battle of Tondibi in March 1591; Judar soon seized and looted the Songhai capital of Gao as well as the trading centers of Timbuktu and Djenné, ensuring the Empire's destruction.

References

- Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
- Velton, Ross. Mali: The Bradt Travel Guide. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2000. Category:Songhai Empire

Songhai Empire

From the early 15th to the late 16th century, the Songhai Empire was one of the largest African empires in history. This empire was centered on the city of Gao, and its base of power was on the bend of the Niger river in present-day Niger and Burkina Faso. Outside of this, the Songhai lands reached far down the Niger river into modern day Nigeria itself, all the way to the Northeast of modern day Mali, and even to a small part of the Atlantic coast in the West. The Empire bore the same name as its leading ethnic group, the Songhai. Prior to the Songhai, the region was dominated by the Mali Empire, centered on Timbuktu. Mali grew famous due to their immense riches obtained through trade with the Arab world, and the legendary hajj of Mansa Musa. However by the early 15th century, the Mali Empire was in decline. Disputes over succession weakened the crown and many subject peoples broke away. The Songhai were one of them, and made the prominent city of Gao their new capital. The first great king of Songhai was Sonni Ali. Ali was a Muslim like the Mali kings before him, but he also kept the traditional animist beliefs as well. He was also an efficient warrior who in the 1460s conquered many of the Songhai's neighbouring states, including what remained of the Mali Empire. With his control of critical trade routes and cities such as Timbuktu, Sonni Ali brought great wealth to the Songhai Empire, which at its height would surpass the wealth of the Mali. Sonni Ali was followed by an emperor named Askia Mohammad from the Mandé people, who would preside over Songhai's golden age. Whereas Ali brought conquests, Mohammad brought political reform and revitalization. He set up a complex bureaucracy with separate departments for agriculture, the army, and the treasury, to each of which he appointed supervising officials. A devout Muslim, Mohammad not only completed a pilgrimage to Mecca like Musa before him, but opened religious schools, constructed mosques, and opened up his court to scholars and poets from throughout the Muslim world. Songhai would continue to prosper until late into the 16th century, particularly under the long and peaceful rule of Askia Daoud (r. 1549-1582). Following Daoud's death, however, a civil war over succession weakened the Empire, leading Morocco Sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur Saadi to dispatch an invasion force under the Islamicized Spaniard Judar Pasha. After a cross-Saharan march, Judar's forces razed the salt mines at Taghaza and moved on Gao; when Askia Ishaq II (r. 1588-1591) met Judar at the 1591 Battle of Tondibi, the Songhai forces were routed by the Moroccan's gunpowder weapons despite vastly superior Songhai numbers. Judar sacked Gao, Timbuktu, and Djenné, destroying the Songhai as a regional power. However, governing such a vast empire across such long distances proved too much for the Moroccans, and they soon relinquished control of the region, letting it splinter into dozens of smaller kingdoms.

Rulers of the Songhai Empire

(There were over 20 rulers before Songhai's Imperial Period. The following are the rulers of the Songhai Empire and not the vassal state.)
- Sonni Ali: 1464-1492
- Mohommed Ture the Great: 1493-1528 (Called an "Askiya" or Usurper by Sunni Ali's daughter; Askiya became the title of all rulers after Toure)
- Musa: 1528-1531
- Mohommed Benkan: 1531-1537
- Isma'il: 1537-1539
- Ishaq I: 1539-1549
- Dawud: 1549-1582
- Al-Hajj: 1582-1586
- Mohommed Bana: 1586-1588
- Ishaq II: 1588-1591
- Vassal of Morocco: 1591 Category:Songhai Empire

1591

Events

- June - Capture of Zutphen by the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau.
- July - Capture of Deventer by the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau.
- August - September - Maurice maneuvers cautiously against the Duke of Parma near Arnhem.
- September 14 - Capture of Hulst by Maurice.
- October 21 - Capture of Nijmegen by Maurice.
- October 29 - Pope Innocent IX succeeds Pope Gregory XIV.
- Russia, Murder of Dimitri, son of the Tsar.
- Russia, Boris Godunov is elected Tsar.
- The city of Hyderabad is founded by Quli Quub Shah.
- Moroccan invaders sack Timbuktu - many scholars are taken to north by force.

Births

- January 11 - Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, English Civil War general (died 1646)
- January 12 - Giuseppe Ribera, Spanish painter (d. 1652)
- February 25 - Friedrich von Spee, German Jesuit and poet (d. 1635)
- March 15 - Alexandre de Rhodes, French Jesuit missionary (died 1660)
- June 16 - Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and music theorist (d. 1655)
- July - Anne Hutchinson, English puritan preacher (died 1643)
- August 24 - Robert Herrick, English poet (died 1674)
- Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Italian painter (died 1666)
- David Blondel, French Protestant clergyman (died 1655)
- Andrew Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary and martyr (died 1657)
- Andrzej Bobola, Jesuit missionary and martyr (died 1657)
- Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Cretan author, physician, mathematician, and music theorist (died 1655)
- Girard Desargues, French mathematician (died 1661)
- Thomas Goffe, English dramatist
- William Lenthall, English politician of the Civil War period (died 1662)
- Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German Jesuit missionary to China (died 1666)
- Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset (died 1632) See also :Category:1591 births.

Deaths

- April 21 - Sen no Rikyu, Japanese exponent of the tea ceremony (born 1522)
- May 15 - Dmitry Ivanovich, Tsarevich (b. 1582)
- June 21 - Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian Jesuit and saint (born 1568)
- July 2 - Vincenzo Galilei, Italian composer (born 1520)
- July 18 - Jacobus Gallus Carniolus, Slovenian composer (born 1550)
- August 23 - Luis Ponce de León, Spanish lyric poet (born 1527)
- September 10 - Richard Grenville, English soldier and explorer (b. 1542)
- October 16 - Pope Gregory XIV (born 1535)
- November 20 - Christopher Hatton, English politician (born 1540)
- December 14 - Saint John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite friar and poet (born 1542)
- December 30 - Pope Innocent IX (born 1519)
- Crispin van den Broeck, Flemish painter (born 1523)
- Elizabeth Cecil, 16th Baroness de Ros (born 1575)
- John Erskine of Dun, Scottish religious reformer (born 1509)
- Toyotomi Hidenaga, Japanese nobleman
- Dmitry Ivanovich, Russian tsarevich
- John Stubbs, English pamphleteer (born 1543) See also :Category:1591 deaths. Category:1591 ko:1591년

Askia Daoud

Askia Daoud (also Askia Dawud) was ruler of the Songhai Empire from 1549 to 1582. Daoud peacefully suceeded Askia Ishaq I following that ruler's 1549 death. The Empire continued to expand under Daoud's rule, and saw little internal strife. Daoud is particularly remembered for his victories against the Mossi as well as for being a hafiz, a person who has completely memorized the Qur'an. Daoud's 1582 death began a struggle for succession that critically weakened the Empire and prepared the way for the 1591 Moroccan invasion by Sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur Saadi.

References

- Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
- Velton, Ross. Mali: The Bradt Travel Guide. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2000.

External link

- [http://www.san.beck.org/1-13-Africa1500-1800.html#6 Slavery in Africa (Central and Western Sudan)] Category:1582 deaths Category:Songhai Empire

Sultan

A sultan (Arabic: سلطان) is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings.

Muslim monarch ruling under the terms of shariah

The title carries moral weight and religious authority, as the ruler's role was defined in the Qur'an. The sultan however was not a religious teacher himself. In the Byzantine Empire and the traditional spheres of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, a comparable unity of church and state in the person of the ruler is termed Caesaropapism. The last Western ruler with comparable authority was Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, though formally (if not in practice) the British monarch represents a similar union of church and state, being both the head of state and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England; in practice, the Queen is merely the titular leader of church and state; this status is also under question as Charles, Prince of Wales has indicated he intends to rule as 'defender of the faiths' rather than 'defender of the faith'. The first to carry the title of 'Sultan' was the Turkmen chief Mahmud of Ghazni (ruled 998 - 1030). Later, 'Sultan' became the usual title of rulers of Seljuk and Ottoman Turks and Ayyubid and Mamluk rulers in Egypt. The spiritual validation of the title was well illustrated by the fact that it was the shadow caliph in Cairo that bestowed the title "sultan" on Murad I, the third ruler of the Ottoman Empire in 1383. The earlier leaders had been beys. At later stages, lesser rulers assumed the styling "sultan", as was the case for the earlier leaders of today's royal family of Morocco. Today, only the Sultan of Oman, the Sultan of Brunei, and some titular sultans in the southern Philippines, Java, and in the former Malay States which are now part of Malaysia still use the title. The sultan's domain is properly called a sultanate. A feminine form, used by Westerners, is Sultana or Sultanah; the very styling misconstrues the roles of wives of sultans. In a similar usage, the wife of a German Field-Marshal might be styled Feldmarschallin. Among those modern hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under the rule of law, the term is gradually being replaced by 'king'.

Princely and aristocratic titles

In the Ottoman dynastic system, every close relative, male and female, of the ruling Padishah (in the west also known as Great Sultan), was styled Sultan, either before or after the name, so equivalent to a western prince of the blood. In certain muslim states, Sultan was also an aristocratic title, as in the Tartar Astrakhan Khanate

Military rank

In a number of post-caliphal states under Mongol of Turkic rule, there was a feudal type of military hierarchy, often decimal (mainly in larger empires), using originally princely titles (Khan, Malik, Amir) as mere rank denominations. In the Persian empire, the rank of Sultan was roughly equivalent to a western Captain, socially in the fifth rank class, styled 'Ali Jah

Former sultans and sultanates

Middle East & Central Asia

- Ghaznavid Sultanate
- Sultans of Great Seljuk
- Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm
- Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, the Osmanli
- Ayyubid Sultans of Damascus
- Ayyubid Sultans of Egypt
- Mamluk Sultans of Egypt
- Qu'aiti and Kathiri sultans in Hadhramaut (Yemen)
- Sultans of Nejd in Arabia
- Sultans of the Hejaz in Arabia

Hami

This was the authentical style, commonly rendered as sultan, of the Islmaic monarchs of the ruling house of Oman, in both its realms:
- Oman — Sultan of Oman, on the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula, still an independent sultanate, since 1784, two years before the imamate lost temporal power in 1786 (assumed the formal style of Sultan in 1861)
- Sultanate of Zanzibar two incumbents (from the Omani dynasty) since the de faco separation from Oman in 1806, the last assumed the style Sultan in 1861 at the formal separation under British auspices; since 1964 union with Tanganyika part of Tanzania)

Contemporary sultanates

- Brunei
- Indonesia — Sultan of Yogyakarta is governor of that province
- Malaysia
- Note: Sultan is the title of seven (Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Perak, Selangor and Terengganu) of the nine rulers of the Malay states. The head of state for all Malaysia, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, is selected from among the Rulers, but is usually styled "King" in foreign countries. Political power, however, lies with Prime Minister. See also: Malay titles
- Philippines — Sultanate of Sulu

Sources and References

- [http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Persia/persia-glossary.htm| RoyalArk - here the Persian Empire]
- [ WorldStatesmen] Category:Arabic words Category:Heads of state Category:Islam Category:Military ranks Category:Monarchy Category:Noble titles Category:Positions of authority Category:Titles ko:술탄 ja:スルターン

Spain

The Kingdom of Spain (Spanish and Galician: Reino de España or España; Catalan: Regne d'Espanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma). To west (and, in Galicia, south), it borders Portugal. To south, it borders Gibraltar and Morocco. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the cities of Ceuta and Melilla in north Africa, and a number of uninhabited islands on the Mediterranean side of the strait of Gibraltar, known as Plazas de soberanía, such as the Chafarine islands, the "rocks" (peñones) of Vélez and Alhucemas, and the tiny Isla Perejil (disputed). In the Northeast along the Pyrenees, a small exclave town called Llívia in Catalonia is surrounded by French territory.

History

Main article: History of Spain

Prehistory

The aboriginal peoples of the Iberian peninsula, consisting of a number of separate tribes, are given the generic name of Iberians. This may have included the Basques, the only pre-Celtic people in Iberia surviving to the present day as a separate ethnic group. The most important culture of this period is that of the city of Tartessos. Beginning in the 9th century BC, Celtic tribes entered the Iberian peninsula through the Pyrenees and settled throughout the peninsula, becoming the Celtiberians. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over a period of several centuries. Around 1,100 BC Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day Cádiz) near Tartessos. In the 8th century BC the first Greek colonies, such as Emporion (modern Empúries), were founded along the Mediterranean coast on the East, leaving the south coast to the Phoenicians. The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, after the river Iber (Ebro in Spanish). In the 6th century BC the Carthaginians arrived in Iberia while struggling with the Greeks for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (Latin name of modern day Cartagena).

Roman Empire

The Romans arrived in the Iberian peninsula during the Second Punic war in the 2nd century BC, and annexed it under Augustus after two centuries of war with the Celtic and Iberian tribes and the Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian colonies becoming the province of Hispania. It was divided in Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior during the late Roman Republic; and, during the Roman Empire, Hispania Taraconensis in the northeast, Hispania Baetica in the south and Lusitania in the southwest. Hispania supplied the Roman Empire with food, olive oil, wine and metal. The emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Theodosius I, the philosopher Seneca and the poets Martial and Lucan were born in Spain. The Spanish Bishops held the Council at Elvira in 306. Many of Spain's present languages, religion, and laws originate from this period.

Muslim Spain

Main articles: Al-Andalus and Reconquista In the 8th century, nearly all the Iberian peninsula, which had been under Visigothic rule, was quickly conquered (from 711), by Muslims (the Moors), who had crossed over from North Africa, as part of the conquests of the Christian kingdoms there by the religiously inspired Umayyad empire. Only three small counties in the north of Spain kept their independence: Asturias, Navarra and Aragon, which eventually became kingdoms. Very soon the Muslim emirate split into small kingdoms. Christian and Muslim kingdoms fought and allied among themselves, with the Christians driving the Moorish forces out of the northern most parts of the peninsula within a few decades. The Muslim taifa kings competed in patronage of the arts, and the Jewish population of Iberia set the basis of Sephardic culture. Much of Spain's distinctive art originates from this seven-hundred-year period, and many Arabic words made their way into Castilian (Spanish) and Catalan, and from them to other European languages. The Moorish capital was Córdoba, in the southern portion of Spain known as Andalucía. During the time of Arab occupation, large populations of Jews, Christians and Muslims living in close quarters, and at its peak some non-Muslims were appointed to high offices. Though its tolerance has been exaggerated and romanticised by 19th century scholars it did produce some real achievements. At its best it produced great architecture, art, and Muslim and Jewish scholars played a great part in reviving the study of ancient western culture and philosophy, making their own important contributions to it, and becoming one of the most important ways by which these studies were revived in Europe. However there were also restrictions and imposts on non-Muslims, which tended to grow after the death of Al-Hakam II in 976, and worsened after the fall of Al-Andalus in 1031. Later invasions of stricter Muslim groups from north Africa even led to persecutions of non-Muslims, forcing some (including some Muslim scholars) to seek safety in the then still relatively tolerant city of Toledo after its Christian reconquest in 1085. 1085] The long, convoluted period of expansion of the Christian kingdoms, beginning in 722, only eleven years after the Moorish invasion, is called the Reconquista. As early as 739, the northwestern region of Galicia, which became one of the most important centres of western medieval Christian pilgrimage, Santiago de Compostela, had been liberated from Moorish occupation by forces from neighbouring Asturias. The 1085 conquest of the central city of Toledo had largely brought to an end the reconquest of the northern half of Iberia. The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 heralded the collapse, within a few decades, of the great Moorish strongholds, such as Seville and Córdoba, in the south-west. By the middle of the thirteenth century most of the Iberian peninsula had been reconquered, leaving only Granada as a small tributary state in the south. It ended in 1492, when Isabella and Ferdinand captured the southern city of Granada, the last Moorish city in Spain. The Treaty of Granada [http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/treaty1492.html] guaranteed religious toleration toward Muslims while Jews were expelled that year. At Ferdinand's insistance the Spanish Inquisition had been established and Tomás de Torquemada was appointed as its first Inquisitor General in 1482. Behind much of the real religious intolerance was always the ever present fear that the Muslims might assist another Muslim invasion. Furthermore Aragonese labourers were angered by the use of Moorish workers by landlords to undercut them. A 1499 Muslim uprising was crushed and was followed by the first of the expulsions of Muslims, in 1502. The year 1492 was also marked by the discovery of the New World. Isabel I funded the voyages of Columbus. In their contests with the French army, Spanish forces relied more on well trained, highly mobile, regular soldiers and eventually achieved success with the organised tactical use of hand guns against armoured French knights, in the Italian Wars from 1494. Already considerable powers, these wars saw the emergence of the new combined Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon as a European great power.

From the Renaissance to the 19th Century

Until the late of the 15th century, Castile and Léon, Aragon and Navarre were independent states, with independent languages, monarchs, armies and, in the case of Aragon and Castile, two empires: the former with one in the Mediterranean and the latter with a new, rapidly growing, one in the Americas. The process of political unification continued into the early sixteenth century. It was the unification of these separate Iberian empires that became the base of what is in now referred to as the Spanish Empire. By 1512, most of the kingdoms of present-day Spain were politically unified, although not as a modern, centralized state (in contemporary minds, "Spain" was a geographic term meaning Iberian Peninsula, which includes Portugal, not the present-day state called Spain). The grandson of Isabella and Ferdinand, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor but called in Spain Carlos I, extended his crown to other places in Europe and the rest of the world. The unification of Iberia was complete when Charles V's son, Philip II, became King of Portugal in 1580, as well as of the other Iberian Kingdoms (collectively known as "Spain" at that time). During the 16th century, under the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, Spain became the most powerful nation in Europe. The Spanish Empire covered most territories of South and Central America, Mexico, some of Eastern Asia (including The Philippines), the Iberian peninsula (including the Portuguese empire from 1580), southern Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. It was the first empire about which it was said that the sun did not set. It was a time of daring explorations by sea and by land, the opening up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginning of European colonization. Not only did this lead to the arrival of ever increasing quantities of precious metals, spices and luxuries, and new agricultural plants, that had a great influence on the development of Europe, but the explorers, soldiers, traders and missionaries also brought back with them a flood of knowledge that radically transformed the European understanding of the world, ending conceptions inherited from medieval times. The treasure fleet across the Atlantic and the Manila galleons across the Pacific made it the wealthiest and most powerful nation in Europe, but the rapidly rising influx of silver and gold from the colonies in the Americas throughout the 16th century ultimately resulted in economically damaging rampant inflation and led to economic depression by the 17th century. Religious and dynastic wars supported by the Spanish crown, especially in the Netherlands, also greatly burdened the empire's economy. 17th century] In 1640, under Philip IV, the centralist policy of the Count-Duke of Olivares provoked wars in Portugal and Catalonia. Portugal became an independent kingdom again, taking with it its empire, and Catalonia enjoyed some years of French-supported independence but was quickly returned to the Spanish Crown, except Roussillon. A series of long and costly wars and revolts followed in the early 17th century, and began a steady decline of Spanish power in Europe from the 1640s. Controversy over succession to the throne consumed the country and much of Europe during the first years of the 18th century (see War of the Spanish Succession). It was only after this war ended and a new dynasty—the French Bourbons—was installed that a true Spanish state was established when the absolutist first Bourbon king Philip V of Spain in 1707 dissolved the parliamentarist Aragon court and unified the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon into a single, unified Kingdom of Spain, abolishing many of the regional privileges and autonomies (fueros) that had hampered Habsburg rule. The British abandoned the conflict after Utrecht (1713), which led to Barcelona's easy defeat by the absolutists in 1714. The National Day of Catalonia still commemorates this defeat. Of note during the 17th century was the cultural efflorescence now known as the Spanish Golden Age. Historically, the period of the mid 17th century to the mid 20th century was a failure for Spain compared to north western Europe. The extended, lingering decline of the Spanish empire was due in large part, ironically, to its spectacular successes in the 15th and 16th centuries that led to the centuries of the treasure fleets bringing back silver and gold into the country from the American mines. These shipments engendered inflation (a fact noticed by the School of Salamanca) that ate away at Spanish trades and commerce by causing local goods to be uncompetitive, and eventually making the country almost totally dependant upon imports by the mid seventeenth century, which proved disasterous as the silver mines became exhausted. Greatly worsening matters were the constant wars defending the world empire against envious European rivals, internal successions and the European wars (Eighty Years War and Thirty Years War), where Spain's resources were constantly drained defending the Habsburg's dynastic and religious interests, including the Counter Reformation. From the early 17th century the government sought to meet its needs by tampering with the silver content of the currency, leading to severe bouts of inflation and deflation. The terrible burden of taxes on the productive classes of the country, and the financial instability led to the collapse of the Castilian economy to the point where people reverted to bartering in the 1620s. A severe decline in food production ensued. The result was a steep real economic and demographic decline during the 17th century, especially in empire's overburdened lynchpin, Castile, aggravated by failed harvests and plagues. Habsburg policies that entrenched the privileges and exemptions of the nobility (with its roots back in the Castilian War of the Communities) and the Church (as part of support of the Counter Reformation), with a great extension of Church lands, also played a decisive part in the undermining the Spanish economy and in curtailing the spread of modern thought. This was in stark contrast to the diminishing status of both institutions in rivals France, England and the Netherlands. The resentment of ordinary peasants and labourers would find expression in implicating the nobility of Moorish ancestory and the churchmen of hypocrisy. These accusations found their way into the theatre and literature of the time. The beggary that grew rapidly from the late 16th century forced many to live by their wits and inspired the popular picaresque genre of literature. Following the wars of Spanish succession at its commencment, the 18th century saw a long, slow recovery, with an expansion of the iron and steel industries in the Basque country, some increase in trade and a recovery in food production and population. The Bourbons drew on the French system in trying to modernise the administration and economy, in which it was more successful in the former than the latter. However in the last two decades of the century there was a rapid growth (from a relatively low base) in general trade after the opening up of free trade within the empire (ending the south's monopoly), and even the beginnings of an industrialisation of the textile industry in Catalonia. But this promising late eighteenth century surge was shortlived, being totally disrupted by the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, that preceeded the loss of the vast mainland American territories and plunged the country into endemic political instability, which lasted until 1939. The Napoleonic incursion led to a fierce guerilla war (Peninsular War) and saw the first wide spread appearance of Spanish nationalism. In the latter half of the 19th century, Spanish Catalonia became a center of Spain's industrialization. Pockets of relative modernity in Catalonia and the north would appear, but Spain's relative economic and political decline overall mirrored in general the fate of other regions of southern Europe such as Portugal, the Italian states, the Balkans, and much of central and eastern Europe, as much of the rapidly growing global oceanic trade, pioneered by the Iberian countries, was diverted to northwestern Europe. Spain lost all of its remaining old colonies in the Caribbean region and Asia-Pacific region at the end of the 19th century, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, and a large number of Pacific islands to the United States after the Spanish-American War of 1898. However "the Disaster" of 1898, as Spanish-American War was called, led to Spain's cultural revival (Generation of '98) in which there was much critical self examination, and relieved it from the burden of its last major colonies. However political stability in such a dispersed and variegated land, caught between pockets of modernity and large areas of extreme rural backwardness and strongly differentiated regional identities would elude the country for some decades yet, and was ultimately imposed only by a brutal dictatorship in 1939.

20th century

The 20th century initially brought little peace; colonization of Western Sahara, Spanish Morocco and Equatorial Guinea was attempted. A period of dictatorial rule (1923 - 1931) ended with the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic. The Republic offered political autonomy to the Basque Country and Catalonia and gave voting rights to women. However, in July 1936, against a backdrop of increasing political polarization, anti-clericalism and pressure from all sides, coupled with growing and unchecked political violence, the Republic was faced with an attempted military coup d'etat led by right-wing army generals. Although the coup initially failed, the ensuing Spanish Civil War ended in 1939 with the victory of the nationalist forces led by General Francisco Franco and supported by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the United States of America, increasingly concerned about communism. The Republican side received tepid support from European democracies, which left the Soviet Union and idealist voluntary International Brigades as the only supporters of the legitimate democratic Republican rule. The Spanish Civil War has been called the first battle of the Second World War. After the civil war, General Francisco Franco ruled a nation exhausted politically and economically. During the Second World War Franco, under extreme pressure (Hitler had brought his army to the border of Spain after invading France), opted to remain neutral arguing that Spain could not afford a new war, but, as a concession to his civil war backer, authorised volunteers to go to the Russian front to fight the Soviet Union in an anti-Communist crusade in what came to be known as the Blue Division. The resentment of Franco's brutality towards the more modern pro-Republican regions of Catalonia and the Basque country, whose distinctive languages and identity he suppressed during his long reign, continues to fuel strong separatist movements to this day. The only official party in Spain at the time of Franco´s regime was the Falange party founded by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. Primo de Rivera denied his party was fascist, calling fascism fundamentaly false. His political philosophy was based on Catholicism, saying that man "carries eternal values" and carries "a soul that is capable of damning or saving itself". He called for "the greatest respect for...human dignity, for the integrity of man and for his liberty." Primo de Rivera called for what he called "organic democracy". Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera was executed in Alicante in 1936. After World War II, being one of few surviving fascist regimes in Europe, Spain was politically and economically isolated and was kept out of the United Nations until 1955, when it became strategically important for U.S. president Eisenhower to establish a military presence in the Iberian peninsula. This opening to Spain was aided by Franco's opposition to communism. In the 1960s, more than a decade later than other western European countries, Spain began to enjoy economic growth and gradually transformed into a modern industrial economy with a thriving tourism sector. Growth continued well into the 1970s, with Franco's government going to great lengths to shield the Spanish people from the effects of the oil crisis. Upon the death of the dictator General Franco in November 1975, his personally-designated heir Prince Juan Carlos assumed the position of king and head of state. With the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the arrival of democracy, some regions — Basque Country, Navarra— were given complete financial autonomy, and many — Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia and Andalusia— were given some political autonomy, which was then soon extended to all Spanish regions, resulting in a quite decentralized territorial organization in Western Europe. Remaining dysfunctionalities, such as unlimited financial strain on contributor regions such as Catalonia make their people aim for a more equilibrated system, such as those enjoyed in Germany, where finantial contribution to the whole can never exceed 4% of a Land's GDP. In the Basque Country pro-peace Basque and Spanish nationalisms coexist with radical nationalism supportive of the terrorist group ETA, which remains one of the biggest problems faced by Spanish citizens. Adolfo Suárez González, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo Bustelo, after an attempted coup d'état in 1981, Felipe González Márquez (when Spain joined NATO and European Union), José María Aznar López and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero have been prime ministers of Spain.

21st century

On March 11, 2004, a series of bombs exploded in commuter trains in Madrid, Spain. These resulted in 191 people dead and 1,460 wounded. It also had a significant effect on the upcoming elections in Spain, due in part to the ruling government's insistence that the ETA was the prime suspect in the bombings, even as the evidence of Muslim extremist terrorism rapidly emerged from the police investigation and the international press. see the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings article for more information :See also: List of Spanish monarchs, Kings of Spain family tree

Politics

Main article: Politics of Spain Politics of Spain.]] Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the Cortes Generales or National Assembly. The executive branch consists of a Council of Ministers presided over by the President of Government (comparable to a prime minister), proposed by the monarch and elected by the National Assembly following legislative elections. The legislative branch is made up of the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) with 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation to serve four-year terms, and a Senate or Senado with 259 seats of which 208 are directly elected by popular vote and the other 51 appointed by the regional legislatures to also serve four-year terms. Spain is, at present, what is called a State of Autonomies, formally unitary but, in fact, functioning as a Federation of Autonomous Communities, each one with different powers (for instance, some have their own educational and health systems, others do not) and laws. There are some differences within this system, since power has been devolved from the centre to the periphery asymmetrically, with some autonomous governments (especially those dominated by nationalist parties) seeking a more federalist—or even confederate—kind of relationship with Spain, now the Central Government is dealing with autonomous governments for the transfer of more autonomy. This novel system of asymmetrical devolution has been described as a coconstitutionalism and has similarities to the devolution process adopted by the United Kingdom since 1997. The terrorist group, ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom), is attempting to achieve Basque independence through violent means, including bombings and killings of politicians and police. Although the Basque Autonomous government does not condone any kind of violence, their different approaches to the separatist movement are a source of tension between the federal and Basque governments. On 17 May 2005, all the parties in the Congress of Deputies, except the PP, passed the Central Government's motion of beginning peace talks with the ETA with no political concessions and only if it gives up all its weapons. PSOE, CiU, ERC, PNV, IU-ICV, CC and the mixed group -BNG, CHA, EA y NB- supported it with a total of 192 votes, while the 147 PP parliamentaris objected. On February 20th 2005, Spain became the first country to allow its people to vote on the European Union constitution that was signed in October 2004. The rules states that if any country rejects the constitution then the constitution will be declared void. The final result was very strongly in affirmation of the constitution, making Spain the first country to approve the constitution via referendum (Hungary, Lithuania and Slovenia approved it before Spain, but they did not hold referenda).

Administrative divisions

Administratively, Spain is divided into 50 provinces, grouped into 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities with high degree of autonomy.

Autonomous communities

autonomous communities Main article: Autonomous communities of Spain Spain consists of 17 autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas) and 2 autonomous cities (ciudades autónomas; Ceuta and Melilla).
- Andalusia (Andalucía)
- Aragon (Aragón)
- Principality of Asturias (Principáu d'Asturies in Asturian/Principado de Asturias in Spanish)
- Balearic Islands (Illes Balears in Catalan / Islas Baleares in Spanish)
- Basque Country (Euskadi in Basque/País Vasco in Spanish)
- Canary Islands (Islas Canarias)
- Cantabria
- Castile-La Mancha (Castilla-La Mancha)
- Castile and Leon (Castilla y León in Spanish)
- Catalonia (Catalunya in Catalan/Cataluña in Spanish/ Catalunha in Aranese)
- Extremadura
- Galicia (Galicia or Galiza in Galician)
- La Rioja
- Madrid
- Murcia
- Navarre (Nafarroa in Basque/Navarra in Spanish)
- Land of Valencia (Comunitat Valenciana in Valencian /Comunidad Valenciana in Spanish, as official denominations).

Provinces

Main article: Provinces of Spain The Spanish kingdom is also divided into 50 provinces (provincias). Autonomous communities group provinces (for instance, Extremadura is made of two provinces: Cáceres and Badajoz). The autonomous communities of Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja, Navarre, Murcia, and Madrid (the nation's capital) are each composed of a single province. Traditionally, provinces are usually subdivided into historic regions or comarcas (main article: Comarcas of Spain).

Places of sovereignty

There are also five enclaves (plazas de soberanía) on and off the African coast: the cities of Ceuta and Melilla are administered as autonomous cities, an intermediate status between cities and communities; the islands of the Islas Chafarinas, Peñón de Alhucemas, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera are under direct Spanish administration. The Canary islands, Ceuta and Melilla, although not officially historic communities, enjoy a special status.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Spain Geography of Spain Mainland Spain is dominated by high plateaus and mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevada. Running from these heights are several major rivers such as the Tajo, the Ebro, the Duero, the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. Alluvial plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia, in the east there are alluvial plains with medium rivers like Segura, Júcar and Turia. Spain is bound to the east by Mediterranean Sea (containing the Balearic Islands), to the north by the Bay of Biscay and to its west by the Atlantic Ocean, where the Canary Islands off the African coast are found. Spain's climate can be divided in four areas:
- The Mediterranean: mostly temperate in the eastern and southern part of the country; rainy seasons are spring and autumn. Mild summers with pleasant temperatures. Hot records: Murcia 47.2 °C, Malaga 44.2 °C, Valencia 42.5 °C, Alicante 41.4 °C, Palma of Mallorca 40.6 °C, Barcelona 39.8 °C. Low records: Gerona -13.0 °C, Barcelona -10.0 °C, Valencia -7.2 °C, Murcia -6.0 °C, Alicante -4.6 °C, Malaga -3.8 °C.
- The interior: Very cold winters (frequent snow in the north) and hot summers. Hot records: Sevilla 47.0 °C, Cordoba 46.6 °C, Badajoz 45.0 °C, Albacete and Zaragoza 42.6 °C, Madrid 42.2 °C, Burgos 41.8 °C, Valladolid 40.2 °C. Low records: Albacete -24.0 °C, Burgos -22.0 °C, Salamanca -20.0 °C, Teruel -19.0 °C, Madrid -14.8 °C, Sevilla -5.5 °C.
- Northern Atlantic coast: precipitations mostly in winter, with mild summers (slightly cold). Hot records: Bilbao 42.0 °C, La Coruña 37.6 °C, Gijón 36.4 °C. Low records: Bilbao -8.6 °C, Oviedo -6.0 °C, Gijon and La Coruña -4.8 °C.
- The Canary Islands: subtropical weather, with mild temperatures (18 °C to 24 °C Celsius) throughout the year. Hot records: Santa Cruz de Tenerife 42.6 °C. Low records: Santa Cruz de Tenerife 8.1 °C.

Most populous metropolitan areas

Celsius Celsius # Madrid 5 603 285 # Barcelona 5 328 395 # Valencia 1 465 423 # Sevilla 1 294 081 # Málaga 1 019 292 For a more complete list, see List of cities in Spain List of cities in Spain

Territorial disputes

Territories claimed by Spain

Spain has called for the return of Gibraltar, a tiny British possession on its southern coast. It changed hands during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1704 and was ceded to Britain in perpetuity in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

Spanish territories claimed by other countries

Morocco claims the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the uninhabited Vélez, Alhucemas, Chafarinas, and Perejil islands, all on the Northern coast of Africa. Morocco points out that those territories were obtained when Morocco could not do anything to prevent it and has never signed treaties ceding them. Portugal does not recognize Spain's sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza. Spain and Portugal disagree on the interpretation of the outputs of the Congress of Vienna (1815), which according to Portugal stated the return of the territory to Portugal. Spain claims it is a de jure sovereignty according to International law.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Spain Economy of Spain Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is 87% that of the four leading West European economies. The centre-right government of former Prime Minister Aznar successfully worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching the European single currency, the euro, on 1 January 1999. The Aznar administration continued to advocate liberalization, privatization, and deregulation of the economy and introduced some tax reforms to that end. Unemployment fell steadily under the Aznar administration but remains high at 9.8% as of August 2005 - but this (still unacceptable) level must be seen in the light of levels of over 20% at the start of the 1990s. Growth of 2.4% in 2003 was satisfactory given the background of a faltering European economy, and has steadied since at an annualised rate of about 3.3% in mid 2005. The Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero, whose party won the election three days after the Madrid train bombings in March 2004, plans to reduce government intervention in business, combat tax fraud, and support innovation, research and development, but also intends to reintroduce labour market regulations that had been scrapped by the Aznar government. Adjusting to the monetary and other economic policies of an integrated Europe - and reducing unemployment - will pose challenges to Spain over the next few years. According to [http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP.pdf World Bank GDP figures]from 2004, Spain has the 8th largest economy in the world. There is general concern that Spain's model of economic growth (based largely on mass tourism, the construction industry, and manufacturing sectors) is faltering and may prove unsustainable over the long term. The first report of the Observatory on Sustainability (Observatorio de Sostenibilidad) - published in 2005 and funded by Spain's Ministry of the Environment and Alcalá University - reveals that the country's per capita GDP grew by 25% over the last ten years, while greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 45% since 1990. Although Spain's population grew by less than 5% between 1990 and 2000, urban areas expanded by no less than 25% over the same period. Meanwhile, Spain's energy consumption has doubled over the last 20 years and is currently rising by 6% per annum. This is particularly worrying for a country whose dependence on imported oil (meeting roughly 80% of Spain's energy needs) is one of the greatest in the EU. Large-scale unsustainable development is clearly visible along Spain's Mediterranean coast in the form of housing and tourist complexes, which are placing severe strain on local land and water resources.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain The Spanish Constitution, although affirming the sovereignty of the Spanish Nation, recognizes historical nationalities. The Castilian-derived Spanish (called both español and castellano in the language itself) is the official language throughout Spain, but other regional languages are also spoken. Without mentioning them by name, the Spanish Constitution recognizes the possibility of regional languages being co-official in their respective autonomous communities. The following languages are co-official with Spanish according to the appropriate Autonomy Statutes.
- Catalan (català) in Catalonia (Catalunya), the Balearic Islands (Illes Balears), Valencia (València) and Aragon's eastern strip (Aragó).
- Basque (euskara) in Basque Country (Euskadi), and parts of Navarre (Nafarroa). Basque is not known to be related to any other language.
- Galician (galego) in Galicia (Galicia or Galiza).
- Occitan (the Aranese dialect). Spoken in the Vall d'Aran in Catalonia. Catalan, Galician, Aranese (Occitan) and Spanish (Castilian) are all descended from Latin and have their own dialects, some championed as separate languages by their speakers (the Valencià of València, a dialect of Catalan, is one example). There are also some other surviving Romance minority languages: Asturian / Leonese, in Asturias and parts of Leon, Zamora and Salamanca, and the Extremaduran in Caceres and Salamanca, both descendants of the historical Astur-Leonese dialect; the Aragonese or fabla in part of Aragon; the fala, spoken in three villages of Extremadura; and some Portuguese dialectal towns in Extremadura and Castile-Leon. However, unlike Catalan, Galician, and Basque, these do not have any official status. In the touristic areas of the Mediterranean costas and the islands, German and English are spoken by tourists, foreign residents and tourism workers. Many linguists claim that most of the Spanish language variants spoken in Latin America (Mexican, Argentinian, Colombian, Peruvian, etc. variants) descended from the Spanish spoken in southwestern Spain (Andalusia, Extremadura and Canary Islands).

Identities

The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognizes historic entities ("nationalities," a carefully chosen word in order to avoid "nations") and regions, inside the unity of the Spanish nation. But Spain's identity is sometimes, in fact, an overlap of different regional identities, some of them even conflicting. Castile is considered by many to be the "core" of Spain. However, this may just be a reflection of the fact that the Castilian national identity was the first one to be quashed by the Spanish Empire in the revolt of the Communards (comuneros). The opposite is the case of a large part of Catalans, Basques and, in some measure, Galicians, who quite frequently identify primarily with Galicia, Catalonia and the Basque Country first, with Spain only second, or even third, after Europe. For example, according to the last CIS survey, 44% of Basques identify themselves first as Basques (only 8% first as Spaniards); 40% of Catalans do so with their autonomous community (20% identify firstly with Spain), and 32% Galicians with Galicia (9% with Spain). Even more remarkable, almost all comunities have a majority of people identifying as much with Spain as with the Autonomous Community (except Madrid, where Spain is the primary identity, and Catalonia, Basque Country and Balearics, where people tend to identity more with their Autonomous Community). Even Castille-Leon has 57% of people regarding themselves as much Spaniards as they are Castillians. The situation is even more confusing, since there are regions with ambiguous identities, like Navarre, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, etc. There has been a lot of internal migration (rural exodus) from regions like Galicia, Andalusia and Extremadura to Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and the islands. Spain became a unified crown with the union of Castile and Aragon in 1492 and the annexation of Navarre in 1515. Until 1714, Spain was a loose confederation of kingdoms and statelets under one king, until King Philip V (Felipe V) removed the autonomous status of the Aragonese crown. Navarre and the Basque Provinces, however, kept a high degree of autonomy within their legal and financial system (Fueros). Moreover, the creation of a unified state in the 19th and 20th centuries has led to the present situation, which is apparently simple, but sometimes extremely confusing. During the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1936), Catalonia and the Basque country were given limited self-government, which was lost after the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and restored in 1978 during the transition to democracy. [http://www.cis.es/File/ViewFile.aspx?FileId=1712 Survey of the latest CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas) survey from which concrete data of this article have been extracted]

Minority groups

Since the 16th century, the most important minority group in the country have been the Gitanos. Other historical minorities are Mercheros (or Quinquis) and Vaqueiros de alzada. The latter, meaning "Mountain cow-breeders" dwell in mountain ranges in the Principality of Asturias and have kept historically apart from the valley dwellers. The number of immigrants or foreign residents has tripled to 3.69 million in less than five years, according the latest figures (2005) of National Statics Institute. They currently make up around 8.5 per cent of the official total population. The rise of population in Spain in recent years was largely due to them. Nearly half of all immigrants have neither residence nor work permits. According to [http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/hispanic/world_international/pns_immigration_shift_1204.asp Imdiversity.com (2003 statistics)], the largest foreign minorities are Romanian(500,000 - 1,000,000 unnoficially) Ecuadorians (375 000), Moroccans (365 846), Argentines (300,000) Colombia

Judar Pasha

Judar Pasha was a military leader of Morocco's Saadi Dynasty and the conqueror of the Songhai Empire. Born a Christian Spaniard, Judar joined the service of Moroccan Sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur Saadi, converting to Islam. Like many of Ahmad's officers, Judar was a eunuch. In 1590, Ahmad I made Judar a pasha and appointed him the head of an invasion force against the Songhai Empire of what is now Mali. In October of that year, Judar set out from Marrakesh with a force of 1,500 light cavalry and 2,500 arquebusiers and light infantry. He also carried eight British cannon in his supply train, and assembled eighty Christian bodyguards for his personal detail. After an arduous crossing of the Sahara desert, Judar razed the desert salt mines of Taghaza and advanced on the Songhai capital of Gao. Meanwhile, Songhai ruler Askia Ishaq II assembled a force of more than 40,000 men and moved north against the Moroccans; the two armies met at Tondibi in March 1591. Despite their inferior numbers, the Moroccan gunpowder weapons easily carried the day, resulting in a rout of the Songhai troops. Judar sacked Gao and then moved on to the trading centers of Djenné and Timbuktu. Despite Judar's gains, sporadic battles continued with the Songhai army, leading to his replacement several years after his victory.

References

- Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
- Velton, Ross. Mali: The Bradt Travel Guide. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2000.

External links

- [http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Articles_Gen/morco_1591.html The Invasion of Morocco in 1591 and the Saadian Dynasty] Category:History of Morocco Category:Songhai Empire Category:Eunuchs Category:Muslim converts

Sahara desert

The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert, over 9,000,000 km² (3,500,000 mi²), located in northern Africa and is 2.5 million years old. Its name, Sahara, is an English pronunciation of the word for desert in Arabic (صحراء ).

Overview

The boundaries of the Sahara are the Atlantic Ocean on the west, the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea on the north, the Red Sea and Egypt on the east, and the Sudan and the valley of the River Niger on the south. Sahara is divided into western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti massif, the Aïr Mountains (a region of desert mountains and high plateaus), Tenere desert and the Libyan desert (the most arid region). The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi (3415 m) in the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad. Chad The Sahara divides the continent into North and Sub-Saharan Africa. The southern border of the Sahara is marked by a band of semiarid savanna called the Sahel; south of the Sahel lies the lusher Sudan. Humans have lived on the edge of the desert for almost 500,000 years. During the last ice age, the Sahara was a much wetter place, much like East Africa, than it is today. Over 30,000 petroglyphs of river animals such as crocodiles survive in total with half found in the Tassili n'Ajjer in southeast Algeria. Fossils of dinosaurs have also been found here. The modern Sahara, though, is generally devoid of vegetation, except in the Nile Valley and at a few oases and in some scattered mountains and has been this way since about 3000 BC. 2.5 million people live in the Sahara, most of these in Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria. Dominant groups of people are the Tuareg-Berber, the Sahrawis, Moors, and different black African ethnicities including the Tubu, the Nubians, the Zaghawas and the Kanuri. The largest city is Nouakchott, Mauritania's capital. Other important cities are Tamanrasset, Algeria; Timbuktu, Mali; Agadez, Niger; Ghat, Libya; and Faya, Chad.

History

Cattle Period

The domestication of the pig (see [http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pigs.htm]) in the Sahara and ancient Egypt has been cited as a likely primary contributor to the desertification of the Sahara (see Sahara Desert (ecoregion)). By 6000 BC predynastic Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and constructing large buildings. Subsistence in organized and permanent settlements in predynastic Egypt by the middle of the 6th millennium BC centered predominantly on cereal and animal agriculture: cattle, goats, pigs and sheep [http://www.touregypt.net/ebph5.htm]. Metal objects replaced prior ones of stone [http://www.touregypt.net/ebph5.htm]. Tanning animal skins, pottery and weaving are commonplace in this era also [http://www.touregypt.net/ebph5.htm]. There are indications of seasonal or only temporary occupation of the Al Fayyum in the 6th millennium BC, with food activities centering on fishing, hunting and food-gathering [http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/fayum/fayumb.html]. Stone arrowheads, knives and scrapers are common [http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/fayum/fayumb.html]. Burial items include pottery, jewelry, farming and hunting equipment, and assorted foods including dried meat and fruit [http://www.touregypt.net/ebph5.htm]. The dead are buried facing due west [http://www.touregypt.net/ebph5.htm].

Berber Period

The use and forging of iron came about from trade with the Phoenicians (c. 1220 BC). They created a confederation of kingdoms across the entire Sahara to Egypt, generally settling on the coasts but sometimes in the desert also. By 2500 BC the Sahara was as dry as it is today and it became a largely impenetrable barrier to humans, with only scattered settlements around the oases, but little trade or commerce through the desert. The one major exception was the Nile Valley. The Nile, however, was impassable at several cataracts making trade and contact difficult. Over time Egypt spread south and technologies such as iron working, and perhaps ideas such as that of monarchy spread into Nubia and further south. Sometime between 633 and 530 BC Hanno the Navigator either established or reinforced Phoenician colonies in the Western Sahara, but all ancient remains have vanished with virtually no trace. See History of Western Sahara. By 500 BC a new influence arrived in the form of the Greeks and Phoenicians. Greek traders spread along the eastern coast of the desert, establishing trading colonies along the Red Sea coast. The Carthaginians explored the Atlantic coast of the desert. The turbulence of the waters and the lack of markets never led to an extensive presence further south than modern Morocco. Centralized states thus surrounded the desert on the north and east; it remained outside of the control of these states. Raids from the nomadic Berber people of the desert were a constant concern of those living on the edge of the desert. The greatest change in the history of the Sahara arrived with the Arab invasion that brought camels to the region. For the first time an efficient trade across the Sahara desert could be conducted. The kingdoms of the Sahel grew rich and powerful exporting gold to North Africa. The emirates along the Mediterranean sent south manufactured goods and horses. From the Sahara itself salt was exported. This process turned the scattered oasis communities into trading centres, and brought them under the control of the empires on the edge of the desert. This trade persisted for several centuries until the development in Europe of the caravel allowed ships, first from Portugal but soon from all Western Europe, to sail around the desert and gather the resources from the source in Guinea. The Sahara was rapidly remarginalized. The colonial powers also largely ignored the region, but the modern era has seen a number of mines and communities develop to exploit the desert's natural resources. These include large deposits of oil and gas in Algeria and Libya and large deposits of phosphates in Morocco and Western Sahara. mtDNA analyses (see [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11393336 Z. Brakez et al., "Human mitochondrial DNA sequence variation in the Moroccan population of the Souss area" extract]) found that various populations have contributed to the present-day gene pool of the Souss region of southern Morocco, including Berbers, Arabs, Phoenicians, Sephardic Jews, and sub-Saharan Africans. Throughout the Sahara, Berbers, Arabs, and sub-Saharan Africans are significantly represented genetically.

External links

- [http://www.sahara-overland.com/routes/index.htm Trans-Sahara routes]
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=23.805450,12.656250&spn=30.774956,42.802734&z=12&t=k&hl=en Google Satellite image of the Sahara (Northern Africa)]
- [http://www.algeria-un.org/default.asp?doc=-sahara Sahara pictures from Algerian UN Permanent Mission website]

References

- Michael Brett and Elizabeth Frentess. The Berbers. Blackwell Publishers. 1996.
- Hugh Kennedy. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. Longman, 1996.
- Abdallah Laroui. The History of the Maghrib: An Interpretive Essay. Princeton, 1977.
- Charles-Andre Julien. History of North Africa: From the Arab Conquest to 1830. Praeger, 1970 Category:Deserts of Africa Category:Ecoregions
- Category:Geography of Africa Category:Arabic words ko:사하라 사막 ja:サハラ砂漠 simple:Sahara Desert th:ทะเลทรายซาฮารา

Gunpowder

Gunpowder whether black powder or smokeless powder, is a substance which burns very rapidly and is used as a propellant in firearms. As it burns, a subsonic deflagration wave is produced rather than the supersonic detonation wave which high explosives would produce. This reduces peak pressures in a gun, but makes it less suitable for shattering rock or fortifications. high explosives.]] The exact date and inventers of the first type of gunpowder, black powder, is not known. Historians of various cultures have postulated that black powder was invented between the seventh or ninth centuries by either the Arabs or the Chinese. Others have contended that Roger Bacon, an English Alchemist, was the inventor of black powder. It is also possible that black powder was invented by many cultures at around the same time. Regardless of its origins, black powder was the first chemical propellant and the first explosive recorded in history. Black powder is a mix of sulphur, charcoal, and potassium or sodium nitrate, (sodium nitrate makes a less powerful compound), at a ratio of approximately 10:15:75, respectively, though the ratios can vary somewhat depending on the purpose of the powder. Unlike smokeless propellants, it acts more like an explosive since its burn rate is not affected by pressure, but it is a very poor explosive because it has a very slow decomposition rate and therefore a very low brisance. This same property that makes it a poor explosive makes it useful as a propellant--the lack of brisance keeps the black powder from shattering the barrel, and directs the energy to propelling the bullet. The main disadvantages of black powder are a relatively low energy density (compared to modern smokeless powders) and the extremely large quantities of soot left behind. During the combustion process, less than half of black powder is converted to gas. The rest ends up as a thick layer of soot inside the barrel and a dense cloud of white smoke. In addition to being a nuisance, the residue in the barrel is hydrophilic and an anhydrous caustic substance. When moisture from the air is absorbed, the potassium or oxide turn into hydroxides, which will corrode wrought iron or steel gun barrels. Black powder arms must be well cleaned inside and out after firing to remove the residue. The size of the granules of powder and the confinement determine the burn rate of black powder. Finer grains result in a closer mix of the ingredients, which results in a faster burn. Tight confinement in the barrel causes a column of black powder to explode, which is the desired result. Not seating the bullet firmly against the powder column can result in a harmonic shockwave, which can create a dangerous overpressure condition and damage the gun barrel. One of the advantages of black powder is that precise loading of the charge is not as vital as with smokeless powder firearms and is carried out using volumetric measures rather than precise weight. However, overloading causing damage to a gun and its shooter is still possible. The lack of pressure sensitivity means that the mass of the bullet makes little or no difference to the amount of powder used. A full charge of black powder seated by just a small wad of paper, with no bullet, will still burn just as quickly as if it had a full weight bullet in front of it. This makes black powder well suited for blank rounds, signal flares, and rescue line launches.

External Links and References

- [http://www.silk-road.com/artl/gun.shtml Gun and Gunpowder]
- [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2430/gporigins.html The Origins of Gunpowder]
- [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/tech/cannon.htm Cannons and Gunpowder]
- [http://www.gabarin.com/ayh/Articles/articles%203.htm History of Science and Technology in Islam]
- [http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/powder_frameset.html Ulrich Bretschler's Gunpowder Chemistry page] Category:Explosives Category:Firearm propellants Category:Granular materials ja:火薬

Ishaq II

References

Songhai Empire

Rulers of the Songhai Empire

1591

Events

Births

Deaths

Askia Daoud

References

External link

Sultan

Muslim monarch ruling under the terms of shariah

Princely and aristocratic titles

Military rank

Former sultans and sultanates

Middle East & Central Asia

Hami

East Africa

Southeast Asia

India

Contemporary sultanates

See also

Sources and References

Spain

History

Prehistory

Roman Empire

Muslim Spain

From the Renaissance to the 19th Century

20th century

21st century

Politics

Administrative divisions

Autonomous communities

Provinces

Places of sovereignty

Geography

Most populous metropolitan areas

Territorial disputes

Territories claimed by Spain

Spanish territories claimed by other countries

Economy

Demographics

Identities

Minority groups

Judar Pasha

References

External links

Sahara desert

Overview

History

Cattle Period

Berber Period

See also

External links

References

Gunpowder

See also

External Links and References

1591

Events

Births

Deaths