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Isla Perejil

Isla Perejil

:Leila also refers to a chess engine. See Leila (chess). Leila (chess) The Isla Perejil (Parsley Island, Arabic: Leila, "night") is a small, rocky island located in the Strait of Gibraltar, 200m off the coast of Morocco, 5km from Ceuta. The island is a plaza de soberanía of Spain, although it is claimed by Morocco. Spain bases its claim on its being missing from Morocco's independence treaty. In 1415 Portugal conquered the island. Portugal then became united with Spain from 1580-1640. The island has been under Spanish control since 1668.

Sovereignty

The island's sovereignty is in dispute between Morocco and Spain. The islet was never mentioned in the Morocco's treaty of independence from Spain which is the cause of the current dispute. The vast majority of Spaniards and Moroccans had not heard of the island, until July 11, 2002 when a group of Moroccan soldiers set up base on the islet. The Moroccan government said that they were there to monitor illegal immigration; later, after protests from the Spanish government, the soldiers were replaced by Moroccan navy cadets who installed a fixed base on the island. This further angered the Spanish, and both countries restated their claims to the islet. Spain was fully supported by almost all the European Union member states, with the exception of an initial cold shoulder from France. On the morning of July 18, Operation Recuperar Soberanía (Recover Sovereignty), was launched at a cost of almost one million euro. The operation was successful and the Moroccan navy cadets were dislodged from the island without offering any resistance to the Spanish commando attack force, Grupo de Operaciones Especiales. The operation was launched in conjunction with the Spanish Navy and Spanish Air Force. The captured Moroccans were transferred by helicopter to the headquarters of the Guardia Civil in Ceuta, from where they were transported to the Moroccan border. Over the course of the same day the Spanish commandos were replaced on the island by members of the Spanish Legion, who remained on the island until Morocco, after mediation by the United States, agreed to return to the status quo that existed previously. The islet is now, once again, deserted. The Moroccan invasion was viewed by the Spanish as a way for the Moroccans to test the waters in regards to Spain's appetite to defend its remaining North African posessions. The swift and overwhelming use of force to retake this strategically unimportant and uninhabited islet demonstrated Spain's desire to retain its North Africa foothold. Isla Perejil has no permanent human population. Goats are pastured there, and the Moroccan government expressed worries that smugglers and terrorists were using the island. It has been suggested that the Moroccan "mafia" uses the island for illegal immigration purposes. The word Perejil is thought not to be derived from the plant name but to be a misderivation of "Perez Gil", the names of an owner/conqueror.

External links

- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.913245,-5.419135&spn=0.008651,0.015044&t=k&hl=en Isla Perejil in Google Maps]
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,754580,00.html Moroccans seize Parsley Island and leave a bitter taste in Spanish mouths], Guardian Unlimited Category:Islands of Spain Category:Mediterranean Category:Disputed territories

List of chess engines

A chess engine is a computer program that can play the game of chess, it can also refer not just to a program, but to a whole hardware machine. See also computer chess. However, usually the term chess engine is used to refer to a chess playing program that does not have its own user interface. Most chess engines use the common approach of attempting all possible moves from a given position and then choosing the best one with the help of a search (mostly alpha-beta pruning, which is an improvement over the minimax algorithm) and evaluation function.

List of chess engines

- Abrok
- Adamant
- Adam
- Alarm
- Aldebaran
- Amateur
- Amy
- Amyan
- AnMon
- Ant
- Arasan
- Aristarch
- Armageddon
- Asterisk
- Averno
- Awesome
- Ax
- BabyChess
- Baron
- Belle
- Belzebub
- Beowulf
- Bestia
- Betsy
- BigLion
- Bionic Impakt
- BlackBishop
- Blikskottel
- Bodo
- Booot
- BremboCB
- Bringer
- Bruja
- Brutus
- BSC
- Butcher
- Cassandre (chess)
- Catalejo
- Cecir
- Cefap
- Celes
- ChessTiger
- ChessV for chess variants
- Chezzz
- ChipTest
- Chispa
- Cilian
- Colchess
- Comet
- Crafty
- Cray Blitz
- Crux
- Cyberpagno
- Cyrus
- Damas
- DanaSah
- Danchess
- DChess
- Deep Blue
- Deep Thought
- Deep Fritz
- Deep Junior
- DeepTrouble
- Delfi
- Deuterium
- Diep
- Djinn
- Dorky
- DrChess
- El Chinito
- Elephant
- Embracer
- Enano
- EnginMax
- Enigma
- Esc
- Excelsior
- ExChess
- Faile
- Falcon
- Fauce
- Fimbelwinter
- Firefly
- Fortress
- Francesca
- Frenzee
- Fritz
- Fruit
- Gaia
- Gandalf
- Gargamella
- Gaviota
- Gedeone
- Geko
- Gerbil
- Genesis
- Ghost
- Goliath
- Gothic Vortex 80 bit engine for Gothic Chess (2004)
- Gothmog
- GNU Chess
- Green Light
- Greko
- Grizzly
- Gromit
- Gully
- Hagrid
- HIARCS
- Hikeeba
- HiTech
- Holmes
- Horizon
- Hokuspokus
- Hydra
- [http://www.ludochess.com/jester_eng/jester_eng.php3Jester Jester]
- Joanna
- Jonny
- JsBaM
- Kace
- Kaissa
- Kanguruh
- King - the engine of the commercial Chessmaster program
- King of Kings
- KnightCap
- Knightdreamer
- Knightx
- Ktulu
- JuniorJunior
- LaDameBlanche
- LadyGambit
- LaMosca
- LambChop
- LarsenVB
- Leila
- LCHESS
- Lightning
- Lime
- List
- Little Goliath
- LordKing
- Luiza
- Madeleine
- Matacz
- Matheus
- Minichess
- Mint
- Monarch
- Mooboo
- Movei
- MrChess
- MSCP
- Muriel
- Mustang
- Mystery
- Nagaskaki
- Natwarlal
- Needle
- Nejmet
- Nero
- Nesik
- Neurosis
- Newrival
- NIMZO
- Noonian Chess
- Olithink
- Patriot
- Patzer
- Pawn
- Pentagon
- Pepito
- Phalanx
- Plywood
- PolarEngine
- Pooky
- Postmodernist
- Prechess
- Pulsar
- Pyotr
- Quark
- Queen
- Raffaela
- Rainman
- Ranita
- RDChess
- Rebel
- Replicant
- Requiem
- Resp
- Rikus
- Rookie
- Ruffian - very aggressive against weaker human beings
- Rybka - Version 1.0 Beta released on 4 December, 2005
- Sargon
- SaruChess
- Scidlet
- Sdbc
- SEE
- Sharper
- Shredder - a high end position understander
- Simon
- Sjeng
- SlowChess
- Smallpotato
- Smarthink
- Snail
- Soldat
- SOS
- SSEChess
- StAndersen
- StanChess
- StrategicDeep
- Sunsetter
- Taktix
- Tamerlane
- Tao
- TCB (The Crazy Bishop)
- Temible
- Terra
- Thinker
- Thor
- Toga
- Trace
- TRex
- Trynyty
- TSCP
- Tytan
- Ufim
- Wildcat
- Witz
- WjChess
- Yace
- Yawce
- Zappa
- ZChess
- Zephyr
- Zotron

External links

- [http://www.tim-mann.org/engines.html Tim Mann list]
- [http://www.chessopolis.com/cchess.htm Chessopolis list]
- [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-engines/ Yahoo! Groups: chess-engines] Category:Computer chess

Arabic language

The Arabic language (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. It is spoken throughout the Arab world and is widely studied and known throughout the Islamic world. Arabic has been a literary language since at least the 6th century and is the liturgical language of Islam.

Literary and Modern Standard Arabic

The term "Arabic" may refer either to literary Arabic, which no Arab speaks as a mother tongue, or Modern Standard Arabic or to the many spoken varieties of Arabic commonly called "colloquial Arabic." Arabs consider literary Arabic as the standard language and tend to view everything else as mere dialects. Literary Arabic, (Literally: "the most eloquent Arabic language" — ) refers both to the language of present-day media across North Africa and the Middle East and to the more archaic language of the Qur'an. (The expression media here includes most television and radio, and all written matter, including all books, newspapers, magazines, documents of every kind, and reading primers for small children.) "Colloquial" or "dialectal" Arabic refers to the many national or regional dialects/languages derived from Classical Arabic, spoken daily across North Africa and the Middle East, which constitute the everyday spoken language. These sometimes differ enough to be mutually incomprehensible. These dialects are not typically written, although a certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry) exists in many of them. They are often used to varying degrees in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows. Literary Arabic or classical Arabic, is the official language of all Arab countries and is the only form of Arabic taught in schools at all stages. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of Diglossia -the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of whatever nationality can be assumed to speak both their local dialect and their school-taught literary Arabic (to an equal or lesser degree). This diglossic situation facilitates code switching in which a speaker switches back and forth unaware between the two varieties of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence. In instances in which Arabs of different nationalities engage in conversation only to find their dialects mutually unintelligible (e.g. a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), both should be able to code switch into Literary Arabic for the sake of communication. Since the written Arabic of today differs from the written Arabic of the Qur'anic era, it has become customary in western scholarship and among non-Arab scholars of Arabic to refer to the language of the Qur'an as Classical Arabic and the modern language of the media and of formal speeches as Modern Standard Arabic. Arabs, on the other hand, often use the term to refer to both forms, thus placing greater emphasis on the similarities between the two. The difference between Arabic of the Qur'anic era and today's Classical Arabic is only in the degree of eloquance. The vocabulary, the syntatic and grammatical rules are the same. Quite a few English words are ultimately derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish, among them every-day vocabulary like sugar (sukkar), cotton (qutn) or magazine (). More recognizable are words like algorithm, algebra, alchemy, alcohol, azimuth, nadir, and zenith (see List of English words of Arabic origin). The Maltese language spoken on the Mediterranean island of Malta is the only surviving European language to derive primarily from Arabic (a North African dialect), though it contains a large number of Italian and English borrowings.

Arabic and Islam

It is sometimes difficult to translate Islamic concepts, and concepts specific to Arab culture, without using the original Arabic terminology. The Qur'an is expressed in Arabic and traditionally Muslims deem it impossible to translate in a way that would adequately reflect its exact meaning—indeed, until recently, some schools of thought maintained that it should not be translated at all. A list of Islamic terms in Arabic covers those terms which are too specific to translate in one phrase. While Arabic is strongly associated with Islam (and is the language of salah), it is also spoken by Arab Christians, Oriental (Sephardic) Jews, and smaller sects such as Iraqi Mandaeans. Even so, a majority of the world's Muslims do not actually speak Arabic, but only know some fixed phrases of Arabic, such as those used in Islamic prayer. However, to counteract this, there is great encouragement for non-Arabic-speaking Muslims to learn the language.

Dialects

See Varieties of Arabic for a fuller overview. "Colloquial Arabic" is a collective term for the spoken languages or dialects of people throughout the Arab world, which, as mentioned, differ radically from the literary language. The main dialectal division is between the Maghreb dialects and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary dialects and the much more conservative Bedouin dialects. Maltese, though descended from Arabic, is considered a separate language. Speakers of some of these dialects are unable to converse with speakers of another dialect of Arabic; in particular, while Middle Easterners can generally understand one another, they often have trouble understanding Maghrebis (although the converse is not true, due to the popularity of Middle Eastern—especially Egyptian—films and other media). One factor in the differentiation of the dialects is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order; however, a much more significant factor for most dialects is, as among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. Thus Iraqi aku, Levantine fiih, and North African kayen all mean "there is", and all come from Arabic (yakuun, fiihi, kaa'in respectively), but now sound very different. The major groups are:
- Egyptian Arabic (Egypt) Considered the most widely understood and used "second dialect"
- Maghreb Arabic (Algerian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic and western Libyan)
- Levantine Arabic (Western Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, and western Jordanian, Cypriot Maronite Arabic)
- Iraqi Arabic or Gulf Arabic (Iraqi, Eastern Syrian, Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabian, Persian Gulf coast from Iraq to Oman including much of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and minorities on the other side) Other varieties include:
- (in Mauritania and Western Sahara)
- Andalusi Arabic (extinct, but important role in literary history)
- Maltese
- Sudanese Arabic (with a dialect continuum into Chad)
- Hijazi Arabic (West Cost of Saudi Arabia, Northern Saudi Arabia, eastern Jordan, Western Iraq)
- Najdi Arabic (Najd region of central Saudi Arabia)
- Yemeni Arabic (Yemen to southern Saudi Arabia)

Phonology

The consonant phonemes below reflect the pronunciation of Standard Arabic, which has only three vowels, in short and long variants, namely and . Naturally, considerable allophony occurs.

Consonants

Standard Arabic has 28 consonants: See Arabic alphabet for explanations on the IPA phonetic symbols found in this chart. # is pronounced as by some speakers. This is especially characteristic of the Egyptian and southern Yemeni dialects. In many parts of North Africa and in the Levant, it is pronounced as . # is pronounced only in , the name of God, i.e. Allah. # is usually a phonetic approximant. # In many varieties (if not most), are actually epiglottal (despite what is reported in many earlier works).

Emphatic Consonants

The consonants traditionally known as "emphatic" are either velarised or pharyngealised . In some transcription systems, emphasis is shown by capitalizing the letter e.g. is written ‹D›; in others the letter is underlined or has a dot below it e.g. ‹ḍ›.

Long Consonants

Vowels and consonants can be (phonologically) short or long. Long (geminate) consonants are normally written doubled in Latin transcription (i.e. bb, dd, etc.), reflecting the presence of the Arabic diacritic mark shaddah, which marks lengthened consonants. Such consonants are held twice as long as short consonants. This consonant lengthening is phonemically contrastive: e.g. qabala "he received" and qabbala "he kissed".

Syllable Shape

Arabic has two kinds of syllable: open syllables (CV) and (CVV) - and closed syllables (CVC), (CVVC) and (CVCC). Every syllable begins with a consonant - or else a consonant is borrowed from a previous word through elision – especially in the case of the definite article THE, al (used when starting an utterance) or _l (when following a word), e.g. baytu –l mudiir “house (of) the director”, which becomes bay-tul-mu-diir when divided syllabically. By itself, definite mudiir would be pronounced .

Word Stress

Although word stress is not phonemically contrastive in Standard Arabic, it does bear a strong relationship to vowel length and syllable shape, and correct word stress aids intelligibility. In general, "heavy" syllables attract stress (i.e. syllables of longer duration - a closed syllable or a syllable with a long vowel). In a word with a syllable with one long vowel, the long vowel attracts the stress (e.g. ki-'taab and ‘kaa-tib). In a word with two long vowels, the second long vowel attracts stress (e.g.ma-kaa-'tiib). In a word with a "heavy" syllable where two consonants occur together or the same consonant is doubled, the (last) heavy syllable attracts stress (e.g. ya-ma-’niyy, ka-'tabt, ka-‘tab-na, ma-‘jal-lah, ‘mad-ra-sah, yur-‘sil-na). This last rule trumps the first two: ja-zaa-i-‘riyy. Otherwise, word stress typically falls on the first syllable: ‘ya-man, ‘ka-ta-bat, etc. The Cairo (Egyptian Arabic) dialect, however, has some idiosyncrasies in that a heavy syllable may not carry stress more than two syllables from the end of a word, so that mad-‘ra-sah carries the stress on the second-to-last syllable, as does qaa-‘hi-rah.

Dialectical Phonologies

In some dialects, there may be more or fewer phonemes than those listed in the chart above. For example, non-Arabic is used in the Maghreb dialects as well in the written language mostly for foreign names. Semitic became extremely early on in Arabic before it was written down; a few modern Arabic dialects, such as Iraqi (influenced by Persian) distinguish between and . Interdental fricatives ( and ) are rendered as stops and in some dialects (principally Levantine and Egyptian) and as and in "learned" words from the Standard language. Early in the expansion of Arabic, the separate emphatic phonemes and coallesced into a single phoneme, becoming one or the other. Predictably, dialects without interdental fricatives use exclusively, while those with such fricatives use . Again, in "learned" words from the Standard language, is rendered as in dialects without interdental fricatives. Another key distinguishing mark of Arabic dialects is how they render Standard (a voiceless uvular stop): it retains its original pronunciation in widely scattered regions such as Yemen and Morocco (and among the Druze), while it is rendered in Gulf Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Upper Egypt and less urban parts of the Levant (e.g. Jordan) and as a glottal stop in many prestige dialects, such as those spoken in Cairo, Beirut and Damascus. Thus, Arabs instantly give away their geographical (and class) origin by their pronunciation of a word such as qamar "moon": , or .

Grammar

See Arabic grammar

Alphabet

Arabic alphabet

Main article: Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script (which variety - Nabataean or Syriac - is a matter of scholarly dispute), to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script. Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (Maghrebi) and Eastern version of the alphabet—in particular, the fa and qaf had a dot underneath and a single dot above respectively in the Maghreb, and the order of the letters was slightly different (at least when they were used as numerals). However, the old Maghrebi variant has been abandoned except for calligraphic purposes in the Maghreb itself, and remains in use mainly in the Quranic schools (zaouias) of West Africa. Arabic, like other Semitic languages, is written from right to left.

Calligraphy

See Arabic calligraphy for a fuller overview. After the definitive fixing of the Arabic script around 786, by Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration. Kufic font Arabic calligraphy has not fallen out of use as in the Western world, and is still considered by Arabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin alphabet, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a Hadith, or simply a proverb, in a spectacular composition. The composition is often abstract, but sometimes the writing is shaped into an actual form such as that of an animal. Two of the current masters of the genre are Hassan Massoudy and [http://arabworld.nitle.org/gallery.php?module_id=7 Khaled Al Saa’i].

Arabic using the Latin alphabet

See Arabic transliteration and Arabic Chat Alphabet for more information. There are a number of different standards of Arabic transliteration: methods of accurately and efficently representing Arabic with the Latin alphabet. The more scientific standards allow the reader to recreate the exact word using the Arabic alphabet. However, these systems are heavily reliant on diacritical marks, which may be difficult to pronounce at first sight. Other, less scientific, systems often use digraphs (like sh and kh), which are usually more simple to read, but sacrifice the definiteness of the scientific systems. During the last few decades and especially since the 1990s, Western-invented text communication technologies have become prevalent in the Arab world, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web, email, Bulletin board systems, IRC, instant messaging and mobile phone text messaging. Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin alphabet only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic alphabet as an optional feature. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text using the Latin script. To handle those Arabic letters that do not have an approximate equivalent in the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated. E.g., the Latin numeral "3" is used to represent the Arabic letter "ع" ("ayn"). There is no universal name for this type of transliteration, but some have named it Arabic Chat Alphabet.

External links

- [http://arabic-media.com/ Arabic-Media] on-line access to Arabic newspapers, radio, and television
- [http://st-takla.org/Learn_Languages/01_Learn_Arabic-ta3leem-3araby/Learn-Arabic_00-index_El-Fehres.html Learn Arabic language online with audio pronunciation] from [http://St-Takla.org St. Takla Egyptian Church]
- [http://www.nicoweb.com/sirpus/learn%20arabic%20course%20mp3.htm Arabic Writing and Reading with MP3]. Arabic Writing and Reading Course Online with MP3 audio.
- [http://pince31.free.fr/lang/arabic/liens.htm Links to learn Arabic language with online course]
- [http://www.madinaharabic.com Arabic language learning course with audio]
- [http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=6173 "Antonyms in Arabic are a strange phenomenon" by Tamim al-Barghouti]
- [http://arabworld.nitle.org/texts.php?module_id=1&reading_id=17 "The Development of Classical Arabic" by Kees Versteegh]
- [http://arabworld.nitle.org/audiovisual.php?module_id=1&selected_feed=118 Wellesley College Professor of Arabic on the forms and dialects of the language]
- [http://www.uga.edu/islam/arabic_windows.html Multilingual Computing in Arabic with Windows, major word processors, web browsers, Arabic keyboards, and Arabic transliteration fonts]
- [http://www.gomideast.com/arabic/index.htm gomideast - Learning to Speak Arabic phrases]
- [http://language-directory.50webs.com/languages/arabic.htm List of online Arabic-related resources] Web references and examples:
- [http://transliteration.org/quran/Pronunciation/Letters/TashP.htm Arabic language pronunciation applet] with audio samples
- [http://www.sunna.info/teaching/ Learn Arabic]
- [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1289272 E2 article]
- [http://www.sprachprofi.de.vu/english/ar.htm Sprachprofi]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Arabic-english/ Arabic - English Dictionary]: from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=arb SIL's Ethnologue]
- [http://www.nitle.org/arabworld/texts.php?module_id=1&reading_id=113 Dialects of Arabic]
- [http://www.muftah-alhuruf.com Muftah-Alhuruf.com]: Write and send Arabic emails without having an Arabic keyboard or operating system. Arabic languages samples:
- [http://www.language-museum.com/a/arabic.php Arabic]
- [http://www.language-museum.com/a/arabic-chadian-spoken.php Arabic Chadian Spoken]
- [http://www.language-museum.com/a/arabic-judeo-iraqi.php Arabic Judeo Iraqi]
- [http://www.language-museum.com/a/arabic-north-levantine-spoken.php Arabic North Levantine Spoken]
- [http://arabworld.nitle.org/texts.php?module_id=1&reading_id=17 "The Development of Classical Arabic" by Kees Versteegh]
- Category:Arab ko:아랍어 ms:Bahasa Arab ja:アラビア語 simple:Arabic language th:ภาษาอาหรับ

Island

in New York, USA]] An island or isle is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water. Very small islands are called islets. Although seldom adhered to, it is also proper to call an emergent land feature on an atoll an islet, since an atoll is a type of island. A key or cay is also another name for a relatively small island. Groups of related islands are called archipelagos. There are three main types of islands: continental islands, river islands, and volcanic islands. There are also some artificial islands. The word island derives ultimately from the Old English word igland. It was originally spelled phonetically: iland. The letter "s" was added out of the mistaken belief that it derived from isle (< Old French < Latin insula) + land, where no such etymological relationship existed.

Continental islands

Continental islands are bodies of land that are connected by the continental shelf to a continent. That is, these islands are part of an adjacent continent and are located on the continental shelf of that continent. Examples include Greenland and Sable Island off North America, Barbados and Trinidad off South America, Sicily off Europe, Sumatra and Java off Asia, New Guinea and Tasmania off Australia. A special type of continental island is the microcontinental island, which results when a continent is rifted. The best example is Madagascar off Africa. The Kerguelen Islands and some of the Seychelles are also examples. Another subtype is the barrier island: accumulations of sand on the continental shelf.

River islands

River islands occur in river deltas and in large rivers. They are caused by deposition of sediment at points in the flow where the current loses some of its carrying capacity. In essence, they are river bars, isolated in the stream. While some are ephemeral, and may disappear if the river's water volume or speed changes, others are stable and long-lived.

Volcanic islands

Volcanic islands are built by volcanoes. Mid-ocean examples are not geologically part of any continent. One type of volcanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring. Examples include the Mariana Islands, the Aleutian Islands, and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the Lesser Antilles and the South Sandwich Islands are the only Atlantic Ocean examples. Another type of volcanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples: Iceland, which is the world's largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen—both are in the Atlantic. The last type of volcanic island are those formed over volcanic hotspots. A hot spot is more or less stationary relative to the moving tectonic plate above it, so a chain of islands results as the plate drifts. Over long periods of time, this type of island is eventually eroded down and "drowned" by isostatic adjustment, becoming a seamount. Plate movement across a hot-spot produces a line of islands oriented in the direction of the plate movement. An example is the Hawaiian Islands, from Hawaii to Kure, which then extends beneath the sea surface in a more northerly direction as the Emperor Seamounts. Another chain with similar orientation is the Tuamotu Archipelago; its older, northerly trend is the Line Islands. The southernmost chain is the Austral Islands, with its northerly trending part the atolls in the nation of Tuvalu. Tristan da Cunha is an example of a hotspot volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. An atoll is an island formed from a coral reef that has grown on an eroded and submerged volcanic island. The reef rises above the surface of the water and forms a new island. Atolls are typically ring-shaped with a central, shallow lagoon. Examples include the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Bora Bora in the Pacific.

External links

- [http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part8.htm Definition of island] from United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Category:Islands Category:Landforms zh-min-nan:Tó-sū ko:섬 ms:Pulau ja:島 simple:Island th:เกาะ

Morocco

The Kingdom of Morocco (Arabic المملكة المغربية) is a country in northwest Africa. It has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Algeria to the east, though the Algerian border is closed, Western Sahara to the south, the Mediterranean Sea and Spain to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to its west. Morocco claims ownership of Western Sahara and has administered most of the territory since 1975. Its status is disputed, pending a United Nations referendum.

Name

The full Arabic name of the country translates to The Western Kingdom. Al Maghrib (meaning The West) is commonly used. For historical references, historians used to refer to Morocco as Al Maghrib al Aqşá (The Furthest West). The name Morocco in most other languages originates from the name of the former capital, Marrakech. Marrakech means in Berber "the land of God" with "mur" meaning Land and "Akush" meaning God.

History

Main article: History of Morocco Morocco's indigenous people are called the Berbers. The old name of Morocco was Mauretania. There have been several dynasties and kingdoms in Morocco before and after the rise of Islam. Morocco became a French protectorate by the signing of the Treaty of Fez on March 30, 1912. The northern area of Morocco was under a Spanish protectorate concurrently. The Alaouite dynasty lasted through this period and upon independence in 1956, Sultan Mohammed V adopted the title of 'King' and Morocco became an independent Kingdom. Morocco then recovered Tangier, formerly an international city. Morocco annexed Western Sahara in the 1970s, which had been a colony under the Spaniards since the 19th century. Previous to that it had been an area of Moroccan influence, but this annexation has not been recognized by any nation. Morocco was the first nation to recognize the fledgling United States in 1777 and has the oldest non-broken friendship treaty with the country, the Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship, which has been in effect since 1783. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the American signatories. The United States legation (consulate) in Tangier, is the first property the U.S. owned abroad. It now houses the Tangier American Legation Museum. Morocco was granted Major Non-NATO Ally status in June 2004 and signed free trade agreements with the United States and the European Union. In 2003, Morocco's largest city, Casablanca, was attacked in the Casablanca terrorist attacks. The attacks left 33 civilians dead and more than 100 people injured.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Morocco Morocco is a constitutional monarchy, with a popularly-elected parliament. The King of Morocco can dissolve government and deploy the military, among other responsibilities. Opposition political parties are legal and several have arisen in recent years. See also: List of political parties in Morocco

Provinces

List of political parties in Morocco List of political parties in Morocco Main article: Provinces of Morocco Morocco is divided into 37 provinces and 2 wilayas: Three additional provinces, Ad Dakhla (Oued Eddahab), Boujdour, and Es Smara, as well as parts of Tan-Tan and Laayoune, primarily fall within Moroccan-claimed Western Sahara. As part of a 1997 decentralization/regionalization law passed by the legislature, 16 new regions were created, although the full details and scope of the reorganization are limited. These 16 regions are:

Geography

1997 Main article: Geography of Morocco Algeria borders Morocco to the east and southeast. There are also four Spanish enclaves on the Mediterranean coast: Ceuta, Melilla, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera and Peñón de Alhucemas, as well as several islands including Perejil and Chafarinas. Off the Atlantic coast the Canary Islands belong to Spain, whereas Madeira to the north is Portuguese.To the north, Morocco is bordered by and controls part of the Straits of Gibraltar, giving it power over the waterways in and out of the Mediterranean sea. Most of the South East portion of the country is in the Sahara Desert and as such is generally sparsely populated and unproductive economically. The High Atlas Mountains run down the backbone of the country, from the south west to the north east. Most of the population lives to the north of these mountains, while to the south is the desert. Morocco's capital city is Rabat, and its largest city is the modern port of Casablanca. Other cities include Agadir, Essaouira, Fes, Marrakech, Meknes, Oujda, Ouarzazat, Safi, Tangier, Tiznit, Salè and Tan-Tan.
- List of cities in Morocco and Western Sahara

Economy

Main article: Economy of Morocco Economy of Morocco Morocco has signed Free Trade Agreements with the European Union (to take effect 2010) and the United States of America. The United States Senate approved by a vote of 85 to 13 on July 22, 2004 the [http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/Morocco_FTA/Section_Index.html Free Trade Agreement with Morocco], which, now in effect, allows for 95% of the two-way trade of consumer and industrial products to be without tariffs. Morocco's largest industry is the mining of phosphates. Its second largest source of income is from nationals living abroad who transfer money to relatives living in Morocco. The country's third largest source of revenue is tourism. Morocco ranks among the world’s largest producers and exporters of cannabis, and its cultivation and sale provide the economic base for much of the population of northern Morocco. The cannabis is typically processed into hashish. This activity represents 0.57 per cent of Morocco's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), estimated at US$ 37.3 billion. A UN survey^{[http://www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/pressrels/2003/unisnar826.html]} estimated cannabis cultivation at about 134,000 hectares in Morocco's five northern provinces. This represents 10 per cent of the total area and 27 per cent of the arable lands of the surveyed territory and 1.5 per cent of Morocco's total arable land. Morocco is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention and in 1992 Morocco passed legislation designed to implement the Convention. Morocco has an unemployment rate of 12.1% (2004 Data) and a 1999 estimate by the CIA puts 19% of the Moroccan population under the poverty line^{[http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mo.html]}. Though working towards change, Morocco historically has utilized child labor on a large scale. In 1999 the Moroccan Government admitted that over 500,000 children under the age of 15 were in the labor force^{[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/369753.stm]}.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Morocco Morocco is the third most populous Arab country, after Egypt and Sudan. Most Moroccans are Sunni Muslims of Arab, Berber, or mixed Arab-Berber stock. The Arabs invaded Morocco in the 7th and 11th centuries and established their culture there. Morocco's Jewish minority has decreased significantly and numbers about 7,000 (See History of the Jews in Morocco). Most of the 100,000 foreign residents are French or Spanish; many are teachers or technicians. Morocco's official language is classical Arabic. The country's distinctive Arabic dialect is called Moroccan Arabic. Approximately 10 million (1 third of the population), mostly in rural areas, speak Berber --which exists in Morocco in three different dialects (Tarifit, Tashelhiyt, and Tamazight)-- either as a first language or bilingually with the spoken Arabic dialect. French, which remains Morocco's unofficial second language, is taught universally and still serves as Morocco's primary language of commerce and economics. It also is widely used in education and government. About 20,000 Moroccans in the northern part of the country speak Spanish as a second language in parallel with Tarifit. English, while still far behind French and Spanish in terms of number of speakers, is rapidly becoming the foreign language of choice among educated youth. As a result of national education reforms entering into force in late 2002, English will be taught in all public schools from the fourth year on. Most people live west of the Atlas Mountains, a range that insulates the country from the Sahara Desert. Casablanca is the center of commerce and industry and the leading port; Rabat is the seat of government; Tangier is the gateway to Morocco from Spain and also a major port; Fez is the cultural and religious center; and the dominantly "Berber" Marrakech is a major tourist center. Education in Morocco is free and compulsory through primary school (age 15). Nevertheless, many children --particularly girls in rural areas-- still do not attend school. The country's illiteracy rate has been stuck at around 50% for some years but reaches as high as 90% among girls in rural regions. Morocco has about 230,000 students enrolled in 14 public universities. The oldest and in some ways the most prestigious is "Mohammed V University" in Rabat -along with Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (a private university)-, with faculties of law, sciences, liberal arts, and medicine. Al-Akhawayn, founded in 1993 by King Hassan II and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, is an English-medium, American-style university comprising about 1,000 students. University of Karueein, in Fez, has been a center for Islamic studies for more than 1,000 years. On October 6, 2005 six Sub-Saharan Africans were killed trying to climb the barrier to the Spanish enclave of Melilla, on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast. This followed a related incident a week earlier in the neighbouring Spanish enclave of Ceuta, when an apparent combination of police gunfire and a mass stampede of 600 people led to the death of five immigrants^{[http://www.opendemocracy.net/people-migrationeurope/melilla_2905.jsp]} UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan asked the two countries to treat the immigrants humanely^{[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4326670.stm]}.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Morocco Culture of Morocco
- Cuisine of Morocco
- List of writers from Morocco
- Music of Morocco
- List of newspapers in Morocco
- Military of Morocco
- Moroccan Wall
- Transportation in Morocco

External links

CIA World Factbook]

Government

- [http://www.mincom.gov.ma/english/e_page.html Kingdom of Morocco] official portal
- [http://www.parlement.ma/ Parliament of Morocco] official site (Arabic)

News

- [http://allafrica.com/morocco/ allAfrica - Morocco] news headline links
- [http://www.map.ma/eng Maghreb Arabe Presse] government news agency
- [http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm The North Africa Journal] financial news

Overviews

- [http://www.al-bab.com/maroc/ Arab Gateway – Morocco]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/791867.stm BBC News – Country Profile: Morocco]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mo.html CIA World Factbook – Morocco]
- [http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/c2416.htm US State Department – Morocco] includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports
- [http://www.globaladrenaline.com/africa/morocco/ GlobalAdrenaline – Morocco]

Directories

- [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/Morocco.html Columbia University Libraries – Morocco] directory category of the WWW-VL
- [http://www.moroccolinks.com/ MoroccoLinks.com] directory
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Africa/Morocco/ Open Directory Project – Morocco] directory category
- [http://www.willgoto.com/324/1/categories.aspx WillGoTo.com – Morocco] directory category

Tourism

-
- [http://www.triotours.com/faq/ma Morocco FAQ]

Other

- [http://www.moroccoforums.com/ Morocco Forums] Discussion Board
- [http://www.raioo.com/ Moroccan raioo culture in bits & bytes] (English)
- [http://www.morocco365.com/ Morocco365] portal
- [http://www.yabiladi.com/ Moroccans on the world] portal (French)
- [http://www.wafin.com Portal of Moroccans in the U.S.]
- [http://www.hec.ac.ma/Enseignement.html Higher education and professional training in Morocco (in French)]
- [http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/morocco/intro/ The EU's relations with Morocco]
- [http://www.legation.org The American Legation in Tangier]
- [http://www.moroccanamericantrade.com Moroccan American Trade Council]
- [http://www.moroccousafta.com/index_ang.htm Description of the Moroccan-American FTA and components]
- [http://www.moroccousafta.com/ftafulltext.htm Final text of the Moroccan-American FTA]
- [http://www.moroccanamericantrade.com/FTAsummEn.pdf Description of benefits of the Moroccan-American FTA]
- [http://www.moroccousafta.com/index_ang.htm Moroccousafta] a site about the Morocco/US Free Trade Agreement
- Map: [http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/morocco.pdf] (pdf); links to more: [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/country_sites.html#morocco]
- [http://www.marocvoyages.net/ Guest houses Guide of Morocco] travel guide
- [http://lexicorient.com/morocco/index.htm Lexicorient – Morocco] travel site
- [http://www.magicmorocco.com/ The Magic Morocco] travel guide
- [http://french.about.com/library/travel/bl-ma-index.htm Moroccan Culture Series] – observations by an American woman living in Morocco
- [http://www.ianandwendy.com/OtherTrips/SpainPortugalMorocco/Morocco/index.htm Pictures from a backpacker's trip through Morocco in 2000]
- [http://rickgold.home.mindspring.com/index.htm Visting Jewish Morocco] A very complete and informative site about history and culture of Moroccan Jews
- [http://www.geopium.org/Chouvy-JIR-NOV2005-Morocco_said_to_produce_nearly_half_of_the_worlds_hashish_supply.html A recent publication on hashish production and trafficking in the Rif area of Morocco] Category:Arab League zh-min-nan:Morocco ko:모로코 ms:Maghribi ja:モロッコ simple:Morocco th:ประเทศโมร็อกโก

Plazas de soberanía

In addition to its autonomous communities, Spain has five plazas de soberanía (literally meaning 'places of sovereignty') near Morocco administrated directly by Madrid's Government. They are part of the European Union as part of Spain. Their currency is the euro. They have a combined population of 145,336. This is roughly divided half and half between Ceuta and Melilla, although Ceuta is marginally the more populous.
- Islas Chafarinas,
- Peñón de Alhucemas,
- Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera,
- Isla de Alborán
- Isla Perejil, a small unhinhabited islet close to Ceuta that was the subject of a confrontation with Morocco in 2002, and is not a Plaza de soberanía in itself, but rather no-man's land. 2002 Ceuta and Melilla are now autonomous cities (a kind of autonomous community), and have more powers than plain cities (they can produce regulations to execute acts, with higher regulation competencies than normal city councils) but fewer than autonomous communities (as they do not have autonomous legislative powers). When Spain recognized the independence of Morocco in 1956, it did not withdraw its claims to any of the islands and islets off Morocco's northern coast that Spain has held since the 15th century, long before the colonization of Morocco in the 1900s. This left the Chafarinas Islands, Alborán Island and the Rocks of Alhucemas and Vélez de la Gomera under direct Spanish administration. All of these islands are claimed by Morocco. Category:Mediterranean Category:Geography of Morocco Category:Islands of Spain

Morocco

Name

History

Politics

Provinces

Geography

Economy

Demographics

Culture

External links

CIA World Factbook]

Government

- [http://www.mincom.gov.ma/english/e_page.html Kingdom of Morocco] official portal
- [http://www.parlement.ma/ Parliament of Morocco] official site (Arabic)

News

Overviews

Directories

Tourism

-
- [http://www.triotours.com/faq/ma Morocco FAQ]

Other

Portugal

The Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa; pron. IPA /) is located on the west and southwest parts of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe, and is the westernmost country in continental Europe. Portugal is bordered by Spain to the north and east and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south. In addition, Portugal includes two archipelagos in the Atlantic, Azores (Açores) and Madeira Islands. Portugal has witnessed a constant flow of different civilizations during the past 3100 years. Iberian, Tartessian, Celtic, Phoenician and Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, Germanic (Suevi and Visigoth) and Moorish cultures have all made an imprint on the country. The naming of Portugal itself reveals most of the country's early history, stemming from the Roman name Portus Cale, a possibly mixed Greek and Latin name meaning "Beautiful Port", or even mixed Celtic and Latin or mixed Phoenician and Latin. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal was a major economic, political, and cultural power, its empire streching from Brazil to the Indies.

History

Lusitania

Main articles: Pre-Roman and Roman Lusitania In the early first millennium BC, several waves of Celts invaded Portugal from Central Europe and intermarried with local peoples, the Iberians, forming the Celt-Iberians. Early Greek explorers named the region "Ophiussa" (Greek for "land of serpents") because the natives worshipped serpents. In 238 BC, the Carthaginians occupied the Iberian coasts. In this period several small tribes occupied the territory, the main tribes were the Lusitanians, who lived between the Douro and Tagus rivers, and the Callaeci who lived north of the Douro river among some other tribes. The Conii, influenced by Tartessos, were established in southern Portugal for a long time. The Celtici, a later wave of Celts, settled in Alentejo. In 219 BC, the first Roman troops invaded the Iberian Peninsula, driving the Carthaginians out in the Punic Wars. The Roman conquest of Portugal started from the south, where they found friendly natives, the Conii. Over decades, the Romans increased their sphere of control. But in 194 BC a rebellion began in the north, the Lusitanians successfully held off the Romans, took back land and ransacked Conistorgis, the Conii capital, because of their alliance with Rome. Viriathus, the Lusitanian leader, drove the Roman forces out. Rome sent numerous legions, but success was only achieved by bribing Lusitanian officials to kill their own leader. During this period, a process of Romanization was carried out, leading Lusitania to gain Latin Right in 73 AD.

The kingdom

Main articles: Establishment and Consolidation of the kingdom Consolidation of the kingdom, a national symbol, is known as the "Cradle of Portugal". The Battle of São Mamede took place nearby in 1128.]] In the 5th century, Germanic tribes, most notably the Suevi and the Visigoths, invaded the Iberian peninsula, set up kingdoms, and became assimilated in the Roman culture of the peninsula. An Islamic invasion took place in 711. Many of the ousted nobles took refuge in the unconquered north Asturian highlands. From there they aimed to reconquer their lands from the Moors. In 868, Count Vímara Peres reconquered and governed the region between the Minho and Douro rivers. The county became known as Portucale (i.e. Portugal), due to its most important city, Portucale (today's Porto) and founded a villa with his name - Vimaranes (today's Guimarães) where he chose to live. While a dependency of the Kingdom of León, Portugal occasionally gained de facto independence during weak Leonese reigns, but it lost its autonomy in 1071 due to one of these attempts, ending the rule of the counts of the House of Vímara Peres. Then 20 years later, Count Henry from Burgundy was appointed Count of Portugal as a payment for military services to León, and with the purpose of expanding the territory southwards. The Portuguese territory included only what is now northern Portugal, with its capital in Guimarães. Henry died and his son, Afonso Henriques took control of the county. The city of Braga, the Catholic centre of the Iberian Peninsula, faced new competition from other regions. The lords of the cities of Coimbra and Porto, together with the clergy of Braga, demanded the independence of the county. Porto Portugal traces its emergence as a nation to 24 June 1128, with the Battle of São Mamede by Afonso I. On 5 October 1143 Portugal was formally recognized. Afonso, aided by the Templar Knights, continued to conquer southern lands from the Moors. In 1250 the Portuguese Reconquista ended when it reached the southern coast of Algarve. In an era of several wars when Portugal and Castile tried to control one another, King Ferdinand was dying with no male heirs. His only child, a single daughter, married King John I of Castile who would therefore be the King of Portugal after Fernando's death. However, the impending loss of independence to Castile was not accepted by the majority of the Portuguese people, which led to the 1383-1385 Crisis. A loyalist faction led by John of Aviz (later John I), with the help of Nuno Álvares Pereira, finally defeated the Castilians in Portugal's most historic battle of Portugal, the Battle of Aljubarrota. The victorious John was then acclaimed as king by the people. In the meantime, the Black Death reached Portugal.

The Portuguese discoveries

Main articles: The discoveries and Portuguese Empire Portuguese Empire, Portugal]] In the following decades, Portugal created the conditions that would make it the pioneer in the exploration of the world, since most of the nobles had supported the King of Castile and with the victory of John I, the nobles either fled or were executed. Hence the Portuguese middle class who had supported and helped the victorious King suddenly rose up in the social ranks of Portugal, creating a new dynamic generation which allowed the discoveries to proceed. On 25 July 1415, the Portuguese Empire began when a Portuguese fleet, with King John I and his sons Duarte, Pedro, Henry the Navigator, and Afonso, along with the Portuguese supreme constable Nuno Álvares Pereira departed to besiege and conquer Ceuta in North Africa, a rich Islamic trade centre. On 21 August the city fell. In 1418 two captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, were driven by a storm to an island which they called Porto Santo, or Holy Port, in gratitude for their rescue from the shipwreck. Also in early 15th century, Madeira Island and the Azorean islands were discovered. Henry the Navigator's interest in exploration, together with some technological developments in navigation, made Portugal's expansion possible and led to great advances in geographic knowledge. The discoveries were financed by the wealth of the Order of Christ, an order founded by King Denis for the Templar knights, who found refuge in Portugal after being pursued all over Europe. The Templars had their own objective, searching for the legendary Christian Kingdom of Prester John. In 1434, Gil Eanes rounded Cape Bojador, south of Morocco. The trip marked the beginning of the Portuguese exploration of Africa. Before this voyage very little information was known in Europe about what lay beyond it. At the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th centuries, those who tried to venture there became lost, giving birth to legends of sea monsters. Fourteen years later, on a small island known as Arguim off the coast of Mauritania a castle was built, working as a feitoria (a trading post) for commerce with inland Africa thus, circumventing the Arab caravans that crossed the Sahara. Some time later, the caravels explored the Gulf of Guinea, leading to the discovery of several uninhabited islands and reaching the Congo River. A remarkable achievement was the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartholomew Dias in 1487. By then the spices of India were nearby, hence the name of the cape. In the last decade of the 15th century, Pêro de Barcelos and João Fernandes Lavrador explored North America , Pêro da Covilhã reached Ethiopia, searching for the mythical kingdom of Prester John, and Vasco da Gama sailed to India. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral landed on the Brazilian coast. Ten years later, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa, in India. In 1578, the young King Sebastian decided to enlarge Portuguese possessions in northern Africa and, despite having no son and heir to the throne, decided to go into battle personally, where he was slain. Because Philip II of Spain was the son of a Portuguese princess, the Spanish ruler became Philip I of Portugal in 1581. Some men claimed to be King Sebastian between 1584 and 1598, originating the Sebastian myth. Portugal formally maintained its independent law, currency, colonies, and government, under a personal union between Portugal and Spain. New empires had emerged and started to assault the Portuguese Empire. The third Spanish king, Philip III tried to further enforce integration, openly attacking the Portuguese nobility that was not in his favour. In 1 December 1640, the Duke of Bragança, of the Portuguese Royal Family, John IV, was acclaimed after a revolutionary turmoil, and a Restoration War was fought for a few more years.

Braganza Dynasty

:Main articles: From the Restoration to the Earthquake, From the Napoleonic Invasion to Civil War and Portugal in the 19th Century Portugal in the 19th Century, over big mountain top rocks, is a mixture of neo-gothic, neo-manueline, neo-islamic, and neo-renaissance styles. (courtesy IPPAR)]] The 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than a third of the capital's (Lisbon was at that time one of the largest and most important cities of Europe) population and devastated the Algarve as well, had a profound effect on domestic politics and on European philosophical thought. From 1801, the country was occupied during the Napoleonic Wars. The Portuguese Court fled to Brazil. Shortly after, Brazil proclaimed its independence, under the rule of the Portuguese King Pedro IV (Emperor Pedro I of Brazil), who abdicated from the Portuguese Crown and left his daughter D. Maria II as Queen in a liberal regime. Portuguese 19th Century is marked by the Liberalism. The divisions between king Pedro IV - liberal - and his brother, King Miguel, a conservative who overthrew Queen Maria II, led to the civil war between 1832 and 1834 and the signing of the new constitution in 1836. The political and social evolution in the late 19th century was marked by instability.
The republics
Main articles: The First Republic, New State and The Third Republic In 1910 a republican revolution deposed the Portuguese monarchy starting the First Republic. Political chaos, strikes, harsh relations with the Catholic Church, and considerable economic problems aggravated by a disastrous military intervention in the First World War led to a military coup d'état (28th May 1926 coup d'état), that installed the Second Republic that would become the New State in 1933, led by António de Oliveira Salazar, an authoritarian right-wing dictatorship, which later evolved into a type of single party corporate regime. Later, Portugal became a founding member of NATO and EFTA, as well as OECD. India invaded Portuguese India in 1961. Independence movements also became active in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea, and a series of colonial wars started. The burden of the many colonial overseas wars and the lack of political and civil freedoms led to the end of the regime after the Carnation Revolution in April 25 of 1974, an effectively bloodless left-wing military coup, that promised to install a new democratic regime. In 1975, Portugal had its first free multi-party elections since 1926 and granted independence to its colonies in Africa. In 1976 Indonesia invaded and annexed the Portuguese province of Timor in Asia before legal recognition of its independence by Portugal. In 1999, the Asian dependency of Macau, was returned to Chinese sovereignty, a process considered a success by China and Portugal. After a UN sponsored referendum endorsed by Indonesia and Portugal, in 1999, East Timor voted for independence, which materialised in 2002. In 1986, Portugal entered the EEC (and left EFTA), which was later transformed into the European Union.
Government and politics
The four main organs of Portuguese politics are the President of the Republic, the Parliament, the Council of Ministers (Government), and the Judiciary. The President of the Republic, elected to a 5-year term by universal suffrage is also commander in chief of the armed forces. Presidential powers include appointing the Prime Minister, as advised by the Parliament which elects the Prime Minister, and the Council of Ministers, named by the Prime Minister. Some other major powers include dismissing the Government, dissolving the Parliament, and declaring war or peace. These have several constitutional restrictions, namely the need to consult the presidential advisory body. This is the Council of State, composed of six senior civilian officers, all former presidents elected since 1976, and ten citizens, five chosen by the President and the other five by the Parliament. The most commonly used power is that of approving or vetoing any legislation. The Parliament, or Assembly of the Republic (Assembleia da República in Portuguese) is a unicameral body composed of 230 deputies. It is elected by universal suffrage according to a system of proportional representation to multi-member constituencies. Deputies serve terms of office of 4 years. The Assembly of the Republic is the main legislative body. The President of Parliament substitutes for the President of the Republic in the event of his absence. The Government is headed by the Prime Minister, who names the Council of Ministers. The Courts have several categories, including judicial, administrative and fiscal. The national Supreme Court is the court of last appeal. A nine-member Constitutional Tribunal reviews the constitutionality of legislation. The national and regional governments are dominated by two political parties, the PS (Partido Socialista) – centre left and the PSD (Partido Social Democrata) - centre right, both with similar base politics: pro-European, and focusing on market economy and social issues. Within the Portuguese political culture, the PSD is described as centre-right and the PS is described as centre-left. Other parties with seats in the parliament are the PCP (Partido Comunista Português – Communists), PP (Partido Popular – Popular Party), BE (Bloco de Esquerda – Left Block) and PEV (Partido Ecologista Os Verdes – Ecologists). PCP, BE, and Os Verdes are left wing and the PP right wing. PCP and Os Verdes are coalited as CDU (Coligação Democrática Unitária, Democratic Unitary Coalition). <