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Japanese Warship Kanrin Maru

Japanese warship Kanrin Maru

Kanrin Maru (Japanese: 咸臨丸) was Japan's first sail and screw-driven steam warship. She was ordered in 1853 from the Netherlands, the only country with which Japan had diplomatic relations throughout its period of Seclusion, by the Shogun's government, the Bakufu. She was delivered in 1855, barely one year after the forcible opening of Japan to trade by Commodore Perry. The ship was used at the newly established Naval School of Nagasaki in order to build up knowledge of Western warship technology. Kanrin Maru, as a screw-driven steam warship, represented a new technological advance in warship design which had been introduced in the West only ten years earlier with HMS Rattler (1843). She allowed Japan to get its first experience with some of the newest advances in ship design.

First Japanese embassy to the US

Five years later, the Bakufu sent Kanrin Maru on a mission to the United States, clearly wanting to make a point to the world that Japan now mastered western navigation techniques and western ship technologies. On 19 January 1860, the Kanrin Maru, sailed by Katsu Kaishu (as ship captain), John Manjiro and Fukuzawa Yukichi, left Uraga for San Francisco. They became the second official Japanese embassy to cross the Pacific Ocean, around 250 years after the embassy of Hasekura Tsunenaga to Mexico and then Europe in 1614, on the Japanese-built galleon San Juan Bautista. Kanrin Maru was accompanied by an United States Navy ship, the USS Powhatan. From San Francisco, the delegation continued the trip to Washington via Panama on U.S. vessels. USS Powhatan The official objective of the mission was to send the first ever Japanese embassy to the US, and to ratify the new treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation between the United States and Japan. The mission also tried, in vain, to obtain a revision of some of the unequal clauses of the treaties signed during Commodore Perry's negotiation in 1854.

Boshin war

By the end of 1867, the Bakufu was attacked by pro-imperial forces, initiating the Boshin War which led to the Meiji Restoration. Towards the end of the conflict, in September 1868, after several defeats by the Bakufu, Kanrin Maru was one of the eight modern ships led by Enomoto Takeaki towards the northern part of Japan, in his final attempt to wage a counter-attack against pro-imperial forces. The fleet encountered a typhoon on its way northward, and Kanrin Maru, having suffered damaged, was forced to rally Shimizu harbour, where she was captured by Imperial forces. Enomoto Takeaki finally made a redition in May 1869, and after the end of the conflict, Kanrin Maru was used by the new Imperial government for the development of the northern island of Hokkaido. She was lost there in a typhoon in 1871, on the way between Hakodate and Esashi.

Kanrin Maru today

In 1990, a replica twice the size of the original was ordered for manufacture in the Netherlands, according to the original plans. The ship was visible in the theme park of Huis Ten Bosch in Kyushu, in southern Japan. It is now used as a sightseeing ship to the Naruto whirlpool from Minami Awaji harbour.

See also

Ship replica (including a list of ship replicas)

References


- "Steam, Steel and Shellfire. The steam warship 1815-1905" Conway's History of the ship ISBN 0785814132
- "The origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy. Development and technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War" Christopher Howe, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226354857
- "End of the Bakufu and the Restoration at Hakodate" (Japanese 函館の幕末・維新) ISBN 4120016994

External link


- [http://www.city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp/minato/amenity_ships/kanrinmaru.html The Kanrin Maru rebuilt]
- [http://www.town.nandan.hyogo.jp/english/resort/kankou/uzushio.htm Naruto whirpool with the Kanrin Maru] Kanrin Maru ja:咸臨丸



Netherlands

The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland; IPA pronunciation: /"ne:dərlant/) is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that is formed by the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. (Dutch: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden). The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch, located in northwestern Europe. It borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. In many countries, the Netherlands is often referred to by the name Holland, and even within the Netherlands itself this name is occasionally used as an acceptable translation of the country's name. However widespread, this usage is technically incorrect, as "Holland" is actually a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands, divided into two provinces. Also, the English plural form 'the Netherlands' is a remnant from times when the country was not yet independent and united. See below under 'naming conventions'. The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated and geographically low-lying countries in the world (its name literally means "low country") and is famous for its dikes, windmills, wooden shoes, tulips, bicycles and social tolerance. Its liberal policies (towards drugs and prostitution among other things) receive international attention. The country is host to the International Court of Justice. The English adjective and noun for "of or relating to the Netherlands" is "Dutch," which is also the name of the Dutch language. In the Netherlands, "Netherlands" is sometimes used as an adjective. The origin of this local usage may be that the Dutch word for "Dutch" is Nederlands and to avoid confusion with the words "Duits" (in Dutch) and "Deutsch" (in German) that refer to the country Germany and its language.

Capital

Amsterdam is the hoofdstad ("capital city"), where according to the constitution, the sovereign must be sworn in. The Hague is the Netherlands regeringszetel or residentie (seat of government, residence of the monarch). It is the seat of government, the home of the monarch, and the location of most foreign embassies.

History

:For more details on this topic, see History of the Netherlands and Dutch monarchy. Under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, the region was part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, which also includes most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some land of France and Germany. In 1568 the Eighty Years' War started after the entire population had been condemned to death by the Holy See and confirmed by the king, and in 1579, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces declared itself independent and formed the Union of Utrecht, which is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands. Philip II, the son of Charles V, was not prepared to let them go that easily. It would not be until 1648 that Spain would recognize Dutch independence. After gaining formal independence from the Spanish Empire under King Philip IV, the Dutch grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers of the 17th century during the period of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. In the era, referred to as the Dutch Golden Age, colonies and trading posts were established all over the globe. (See Dutch colonial empire) Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country in the world. In early modern Europe it featured the wealthiest trading city (Amsterdam) and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as such less benign phenomena as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636-1637, and according to Murray Sayle, the world's first bear raider - Isaac le Maire, who forced prices down by dumping stock and then buying it back at a discount ("Japan Goes Dutch", London Review of Books [April 5, 2001]: 3-7). After briefly being incorporated in the First French Empire under Napoleon, the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815, consisting of the present day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. In addition, the king of the Netherlands became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Belgium rebelled and gained independence in 1830, while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890 as a result of ascendancy laws which prevented Queen Wilhelmina from becoming Grand Duke. The Netherlands possessed several colonies, most notably the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and Suriname (the latter was traded with the British for New Amsterdam, now known as New York). These 'colonies' were first administered by the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, both collective private enterprises. Three centuries later these companies got into financial trouble and the territories in which they operated were taken over by the Dutch government (in 1815 and 1791 respectively). Only then did they become official colonies. During the 19th century, The Netherlands was slow to industrialize compared to neighboring countries, mainly due to its unique infrastructure of waterways and reliance on wind power. After remaining neutral in World War I, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were murdered in the Holocaust of World War II, along with significant numbers of Dutch Roma (gypsies). After the war, the Dutch economy prospered again, being a member of the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and European Economic Community unions. The Netherlands was among the twelve founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and among the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community, which would later evolve into the European Union.

Naming conventions

The name Holland is often used, incorrectly, for The Netherlands, especially in other languages. The origin of the misnomer lies in the fact that the region of Holland was the economic powerhouse during the time of the United Provinces (1581-1795). After the Napoleonic era, Holland became a mere province of the Kingdom and was split into North and South Holland in 1840. Many people, especially from the northern and southern provinces, object to the use of the name Holland for The Netherlands. But to avoid confusion when addressing other nationals, the Dutch themselves often use the name 'Holland'. The plural "Netherlands" is actually an archaic term, referring to the time when it was a collection of regions that were not yet fully united. In The Netherlands itself the country is called Nederland (literally meaning "low country"), the people are called Nederlanders ("Dutch" in English) and the language is called Nederlands (again, "Dutch" in English); the -s in Nederlands is not a plural ending, but rather is cognate to the English suffix -ish. The English word "Dutch" is akin to the German word Deutsch, which originally meant "(Language) of the (common) people" in contrast with the medieval elite who spoke Latin. An old term for the language of The Netherlands is Diets or Nederdietsch. All these terms derive from what in Latin was known as Theodisca, from Germanic
- Þeudiskaz.

Politics

The Netherlands has been a parliamentary democracy since 1848 and a constitutional monarchy since 1815; before that it had been a republic from 1581 to 1806 (it was occupied by France between 1806 and 1815). The pro forma head of state, since 1980, is Queen Beatrix of the House of Orange-Nassau. The Dutch monarch has little political power, but serves mostly as a ceremonial figurehead to represent the nation. Dutch governments always consist of a coalition, as there is not (and has never been) a single political party large enough to get the majority vote. Formally, the queen appoints the members of the government. In practice, once the results of parliamentary elections are known, a coalition government is formed (in a process of negotiations that can take several months), after which the government formed in this way is officially appointed by the queen. The head of the government is the Prime Minister, in Dutch Minister President or Premier, a primus inter pares who is usually also the leader of the largest party in the coalition. The degree of influence the queen has on actual government decision making is a topic of ongoing speculation. The parliament consists of two houses. The 150 members of the Lower House (Tweede Kamer, or Second Chamber) are elected every four years in direct elections. The provincial parliaments are directly elected every 4 years as well. The members of the provincial parliaments vote (indirectly) for the less important Senate (Eerste Kamer, or First Chamber). Together, the First and Second Chamber are known as the Staten Generaal, the States General. Political scientists consider The Netherlands a classic example of a consociational state, at least in part caused by the necessity in the Netherlands since the middle ages for different cities to cooperate in order to fight the water (different cities were at the time like different countries by today's standards, and often at war). This necessity to reach an agreement despite differences is called the polder model in Dutch. Also, the Netherlands has long been a nation of traders and for international trade one has to be tolerant of the other person's culture. The Netherlands is a neutral country in most international affairs and thus managed to keep out of World War I (although this did not work in World War II). As a result, the Dutch have a 'friendly' reputation in other countries, to the point that bearers of a Dutch passport often have relatively little difficulty getting into other countries, for visits or even for emigration purposes. However, the early years of the 21st century have seen a political change with the right wing in politics gaining on the left. This is illustrated by the quick rise (and fall) of the LPF. Pim Fortuyn, its founder, held former cabinets responsible for the failing integration of immigrants. The present government is led by the cabinet Balkenende II. This cabinet got some critique about economic reforms and the immigration policies. On June 1 2005 the Dutch electorate voted in a referendum against the proposed EU Constitution by a majority of 61.6%, three days after the French had also voted against. See also: Prime Minister of the Netherlands, List of Prime Ministers of the Netherlands

Provinces

List of Prime Ministers of the Netherlands The Netherlands is divided into twelve administrative regions, called provinces, each under a Governor, who is called Commissaris van de Koningin (Commissionair of the Queen).
- Friesland - north west; capital Leeuwarden
- Groningen - north east; capital Groningen
- Drenthe - south of Groningen; capital Assen
- Overijssel - east central, south of Drenthe; capital Zwolle
- Flevoland - central, north of Utrecht; capital Lelystad
- Gelderland - east central, south of Overijssel; capital Arnhem
- Utrecht - central; capital Utrecht
- North Holland - (Noord-Holland) north west (including Amsterdam); capital Haarlem
- South Holland - (Zuid-Holland) west central, south of North Holland (including Rotterdam); capital The Hague (s-Gravenhage or Den Haag)
- Zeeland - south west; capital Middelburg
- North Brabant - (Noord-Brabant) south central; capital 's-Hertogenbosch (or Den Bosch)
- Limburg - south east; capital Maastricht. All provinces are divided into municipalities (gemeenten), together 467; see Municipalities in the Netherlands, and also List of cities in the Netherlands by province. The country is also subdivided in water districts, governed by a water board (waterschap or hoogheemraadschap), each having authority in matters concerning water management. As of 1 January 2005 there are twenty seven. The creation of water boards actually pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. In fact, the Dutch water boards are one of the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. See also: Ranked list of Dutch provinces.

Geography

Ranked list of Dutch provinces Ranked list of Dutch provinces A remarkable aspect of the Netherlands is the flatness of the country. About half of its surface area is less than 1 m above sea level, and large parts of it are actually below sea level (see [http://www.minbuza.nl/default.asp?CMS_ITEM=MBZ302750 map showing these areas]). An extensive range of dikes and dunes protect these areas from flooding. Numerous massive pumping stations keep the ground water level in check. The highest point, the Vaalserberg, in the south-eastern most point of the country, is 321 m above sea level. A substantial part of the Netherlands, for example, all of Flevoland and large parts of Holland, has been reclaimed from the sea. These areas are known as polders. This has led to the saying "God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands." In years past, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably due to human intervention and natural disasters. Most notable in terms of land loss are the 1134 storm, which created the archipelago of Zeeland in the south west, and the 1287 storm, which killed 50,000 people and created the Zuyderzee (now dammed in and renamed the IJsselmeer - see below) in the northwest, giving Amsterdam direct access to the sea. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the 72 km² Biesbosch tidal floodplains in the southcentre. The most recent parts of Zeeland were flooded during the North Sea Flood of 1953 and 1,836 people were killed, after which the Delta Plan was executed. The disasters were partially man-made; the people drained relatively high lying swampland for use as farmland. This drainage caused the fertile peat to compress and the ground level to drop, locking the land users in a vicious circle whereby they would lower the water level to compensate for the drop in ground level, causing the underlying peat to compress even more. The vicious circle is unsolvable and remains to this day. Up until the 19th century peat was dug up, dried, and used for fuel, further adding to the problem. To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium, villages and farmhouses were built on man-made hills called terps. Later these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called "waterschappen" (English "waterbodies") or "hoogheemraadschappen" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods. (The waterbodies are still around today performing the exact same function.) As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. In the 13th century, windmills came into use to pump water out of the areas by now below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk (English "Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former Zuyderzee (Southern Sea) off from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling 1,650 km² were reclaimed from the sea. After the 1953 disaster, the Delta project, a vast construction effort designed to end the threat from the sea once and for all, was launched in 1958 and largely completed in 2002. The official goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in Holland to once per 10,000 years. (For the rest of the country, the protection-level is once per 4,000 years). This was achieved by raising 3,000 km of outer sea-dikes and 10,000 km of inner, canal, and river dikes to "delta" height, and by closing off the sea estuaries of the Zeeland province. New risk assessments occasionally incur additional Delta project work in the form of dike re-enforcements. The Delta project is the single largest construction effort in human history and is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Because of the high cost of maintaining the polders some have argued that maybe some of the deepest polders should be given up. Additionally, the Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climatic change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but also erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow. These flooded polders might then be used as water catchments to take part of the blow. The country is divided into two main parts by three rivers Rhine (Rijn), Waal, and Meuse (Maas). The south western part of the Netherlands is actually one big river delta of these rivers. These rivers not only function as a natural barrier, but also as a cultural divide, as is evident in the different dialects spoken north and south of these great rivers and the (previous) religious dominance of Catholics in the south and Calvinists in the north. The predominant wind direction in the Netherlands is south west, which causes a moderate maritime climate, with cool summers and mild winters. See also: National parks (Netherlands).

Economy

The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy in which the government has reduced its role since the 1980s. Industrial activity is predominantly in food-processing (for example Unilever and Heineken), chemicals (for example DSM), petroleum refining (for example Royal Dutch Shell), and electrical machinery (for example Philips). A highly mechanised agricultural sector employs no more than 4% of the labour force but provides large surpluses for the food-processing industry and for exports. The Dutch rank third worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind the US and France. Other important parts of the economy are international trade (Dutch colonialism started with cooperative private enterprises such as the VOC), banking and transport (for example the Rotterdam harbour). The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. As a founding member of the Euro, the Netherlands replaced its former currency, the Gulden, on January 1 1999 along with the other adopters of the single European currency, with the actual Euro coins and banknotes following on January 1, 2002. However, in the first years of the third millennium, economic and employment growth came to a standstill, which the government tried to resolve by cutting into its expenses. In 2003 the economy shrunk 0.9%. In 2004, the recession was over and the economy began its slow recovery with a meager 1.3% growth. The CPB ("Centraal Plan Bureau", Central Planning Bureau), a think tank of leading Dutch economists linked with the government, expects a recovery of the economy in 2005, with a growth of 2.25%. In 2004, inflation was 1.2%, the lowest level since 1989.
- Economic data for the Netherlands: [http://statline.cbs.nl Dutch] [http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/start.asp?lp=Search/Search&LA=EN English]
- List of Dutch companies

Demographics

The Netherlands is the 15th most densely populated country in the world, with 393 inhabitants per square km (or 482/km² if only the land area is counted, 20% is water). Partly because of this it is also one of the most densely cabled countries in the world. Internet penetration [http://www.internetworldstats.com/top25.htm] is at 66.2% the 7th highest in the world. According CBS Statline, the official statistics bureau of the Netherlands, the ethnic origins of the citizens are very diverse. The vast majority of the population however still remains Dutch. They were: 80.8% Dutch, 8.7% other European, 2.2% Turkish, 1.9% Moroccan, 6.4% other There are no cities with a population over 1 million in the Netherlands, but the 'four big cities' as they are called (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) can in many ways be regarded as one 'big city' agglomeration, the Randstad ('fringe city'), with an agricultural 'green heart' (het Groene Hart). This is illustrated by the idea to create a circular train network with a frequency and carriages similar to a metropolitan railway.

Languages

The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by practically all inhabitants. Another official language is Frisian, which is spoken in the northern province of Friesland and has a strong resemblance to English. Frisian is co-official only in the province of Friesland, although with a few restrictions. Several dialects of Plattdüütsch are spoken in much of the north and are recognised as regional languages, as protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. To the south, the Dutch language shifts into other varieties of Low Franconian and German, which may or may not be best classified as Dutch, most notably West Flemish. One of these, Limburgish, which is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg has been recognised as a minority language since 1977.

Religion

According to the governmental statistics agency (CBS) 30% of the population consider themselves to be Roman Catholic, 20% Protestant (predominantly Dutch Reformed) and 8% 'other denominations'. 42% consider themselves not to belong to any religious denomination. Church attendance however is much lower than these figures may suggest: some 70% of the population 'rarely or never' visit a house of worship (be it a church, mosque, synagogue or temple). The most protestants live in the northern provinces while the southern provinces (Noord-Brabant and Limburg) are mainly Roman Catholic. The largest part of the 'other denominations', at 920,000, are Muslim immigrant workers mainly living in the bigger cities, mostly from Morocco and Turkey, and their offspring. The other denominations also include some 200,000 (1.3%) Hindu, mostly descendants of indentured servants who migrated from India to the former Dutch colony of Surinam around 1900. Prior to the Holocaust about 140,000 Jews lived in the Netherlands, however the vast majority of [http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/communities/weurope/comm_netherlands.html Dutch Jewry] was murdered in the Holocaust. About 30,000 Dutch Jews now live in The Netherlands.

Culture

The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. The 17th century, when the Dutch republic was prosperous, was the age of the "Dutch Masters" such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century are Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondriaan. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphics artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist. A (in)famous Dutch master art forger is Han van Meegeren. The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus of Rotterdam and Spinoza, and all of Descartes' major work was done there. Christiaan Huygens(1629-1695) is a famous astronomer and mathematician. He discovered Saturn's moon Titan and invented an accurate clock. In the Dutch Golden Age, literature flowered as well, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the two most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the bad treatment of the natives in Dutch colonies. Important 20th century authors include Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Simon Vestdijk, Cees Nooteboom, Gerard van het Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans. The Diary of Anne Frank was also written in the Netherlands. See also: List of museums in The Netherlands, Sport in the Netherlands, Music of the Netherlands, List of Dutch people, Public holidays in the Netherlands Replicas of Dutch buildings can be found in Huis ten Bosch, Nagasaki, Japan. A similar Holland Village is being built in Shenyang, China. Windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, cheese and Delftware pottery are among the numerous items associated with the Netherlands. Dutch policies on recreational drugs, prostitution, same-sex marriage and euthanasia are among the most liberal in the world.

Miscellaneous topics


- City rights in the Netherlands
- Communications in the Netherlands
- Drug policy of the Netherlands
- Dutch colonial empire
- Dutch people
- Dutch-Belgian War
- Education in the Netherlands
- Euthanasia in the Netherlands
- Foreign relations of the Netherlands
- General Intelligence and Security Office (AIVD)
- Income tax in the Netherlands
- List of football clubs in the Netherlands
- Military of the Netherlands
- Netherlands and weapons of mass destruction
- New Netherland
- Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) of the Netherlands
- Prostitution in the Netherlands
- Public holidays in the Netherlands
- Reporters Without Borders worldwide press freedom index 2004 — first place
- Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands
- Statistics Netherlands
- Telephone numbers in the Netherlands
- Television networks in the Netherlands
- Tourism in the Netherlands
- Transportation in the Netherlands

External links


-
- [http://www.statoids.com/unl.html Provinces of Netherlands]
- [http://www.amsterdam-netherlands.info/ Amsterdam / Netherlands info] - Information about the Netherlands, its provinces and Amsterdam.
- [http://www.haganum.nl Best School of The Netherlands- The Gymnasiun Haganum in the Hague]
- [http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/cijfers/default.htm CBS] - Key figures from the Dutch bureau of statistics
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nl.html CIA - The World Factbook -- Netherlands]
- Dutch news: [http://www.rnw.nl/ Radio Netherlands], [http://www.expatica.com/source/site_content_subchannel.asp?subchannel_id=1 Expatica]
- [http://www.colonialvoyage.com Dutch Portuguese Colonial History] Dutch Colonial History in Sri Lanka, Ceylon, Brazil, India, Malacca (Malaysia), Bengal, Formosa(Taiwan), South Africa, New York, Caribbean, Indonesia. Language Heritage. Maps, chronologies, bibliographies.
- [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572410/Netherlands.html Encarta entry on the Netherlands]
- [http://flagspot.net/flags/nl-index.html Flagspot.net - The Netherlands]- site about flags, but also with province maps showing municipalities, and some other info
- Foreign government info about the Netherlands and their relations with it:
[http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/netherlands/index.html Australia] | [http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canadaeuropa/country_net-en.asp Canada] | [http://meaindia.nic.in/foreignrelation/netherland.htm India] | [http://www.esteri.it/eng/3_22_40_214.asp Italy] | [http://www.mfat.govt.nz/foreign/regions/europe/countrypapers/netherlands.html New Zealand] | [http://www.dfa.gov.za/foreign/bilateral/netherlands.html South Africa] | [http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029394365&a=KCountryProfile&aid=1019061813313 UK] | [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3204.htm US]
- [http://www.government.nl Government.nl] - official Dutch government web site
- [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Dutch] Dutch for English speakers (from Wikibooks)
- [http://www.skyscrapercity.info/200.php?id=4&country=NL&limit=0 List of ca. 1500 tall buildings in the Netherlands]
- [http://www.nlplanet.com/ NL Planet] - English language resources, background information and free forums
- [http://overheid.nl/guest/sites/ Overheid.nl] - official Dutch government portal (includes official publications from 1995; older ones are only available in some libraries, on paper or microfiche)
- [http://www.sdu.nl/staatscourant/gemeentes/gemprovin.htm Province maps showing subdivision in municipalities, and linking each municipality to its basic data page]
- [http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/english/index.jsp The Dutch Royal House]
- [http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1104447749&men=gmap&lng=en&gln=xx&dat=32&geo=-160&srt=npan&col=aohdq Maps and data]
- [http://www.track.nl/ Track.nl] - An Internet search-engine that specialises in the Netherlands.
- [http://www.world66.com/europe/netherlands World66 Guide to The Netherlands] A travel guide written by its users.
- [http://www.deltaworks.org Deltaworks Online - Flood protection and watermanagement in the Netherlands] Category:European Union member states Category:Monarchies als:Niederlande zh-min-nan:Kē-tē-kok [[got:

Shogun

:This page is about the Japanese ruler and military rank. For other meanings of shogun, see Shogun (disambiguation). In Japanese history, a shogun (将軍 shōgun) was the practical ruler of Japan for most of the time from 1192 to the Meiji Era beginning in 1868. A Shogun's administration is a shogunate, or bakufu (幕府), literally "tent government", in Japanese. The term shōgun means "General" whereas the full title Seii Taishōgun (征夷大将軍) means "generalissimo who overcomes the barbarians", ie. the aborigine Ainu people who once inhabited Honshu and Hokkaido. Used in common reference to the historical full title, the term shōgun is still used to refer to the rank of general. At the launch of the Kamakura shogunate, the shogun seized power from the Imperial Court in Kyoto, becoming the practical ruler of Japan until the Meiji Restoration.

Seii Taishogun of Heian Period Japan (794 - 1185)

Conquest of the Ainu

Originally, the title of Seii Taishogun was given to military commanders during the early Heian Period for the duration of military campaigns against the Emishi who resisted the governance of the Imperial court based in Kyoto. The most famous of these shoguns was Sakanoue no Tamuramaro who conquered the Ainu in the name of Emperor Kammu. Eventually the title was abandoned in the later Heian after the Ainu had been either subjugated or driven to Hokkaido.

Genpei

However, in the later Heian one more shogun was appointed. Minamoto no Yoshinaka was named Seii Taishogun during the Genpei War only to be killed shortly thereafter by his distant cousin Minamoto no Yoshitsune, brother of Minamoto no Yoritomo.

Seii Taishogun of Feudal Period Japan (1185 - 1868)

Kamakura Shogunate

In the 1100s, lawlessness was spreading through the provinces. People fought for land and power. The Minamoto and Taira warrior families fought for power. Then, after the defeat of the Taira clan in the Genpei War in 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the emperor and became the dictator and de facto ruler of Japan. He established a feudal system of government based in Kamakura in which the military, the samurai, assumed all political power while the Emperors of Japan and the aristocracy in Kyoto remained the figurehead de jure rulers. In 1192 Yoritomo was awarded the title of Seii Taishogun by the emperor and the political system he developed with a succession of shogun at the head became known as a bakufu (tent government) or shogunate. From this point in history, all shogun that headed shogunates were by tradition descendants of the Minamoto princes, the sons of Emperor Seiwa, and the title passed generation to generation to the eldest sons.

Kemmu Restoration

During the Kemmu Restoration after the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, another short-lived shogun arose. Prince Moriyoshi (also known as Prince Morinaga), son of Emperor Go-Daigo was awarded the title of Seii Taishogun and put in charge of the military. However, later Prince Moriyoshi was put under house arrest and in 1335 killed by Ashikaga Takauji's younger brother Tadayoshi.

Muromachi and Edo Shogunates

In Japanese history, besides Minamoto no Yoritomo whose Kamakura shogunate lasted for approximately 150 years, from 1192 to 1333, only Ashikaga Takauji and Tokugawa Ieyasu, each being descendants of the Minamoto princes, were awarded the title of Seii Taishogun and established bakufu in their own right. The Ashikaga Shogunate lasted from 1338 to 1573, while the Tokugawa Shogunate lasted from 1603 to 1868. The so-called Transitional shoguns of 1568-1598 were never given the title of Seii Taishogun by the emperor and did not establish bakufu, but did for a period hold power over the emperor and most/all of Japan. The title Seii Taishogun was abolished during the Meiji Restoration in 1868, in which effective power was "restored" to the emperor and his appointees. See Taisei houkan.

List of Seii Taishoguns


- Otomo no Otomaro
- Sakanoue no Tamuramaro
- Bunya no Watamaro (title Seii Shogun)
- Minamoto no Yoshinaka
- 9 Kamakura shoguns
- Prince Morinaga (or Moriyoshi)
- Prince Narinaga (or Nariyoshi)
- 15 Ashikaga shoguns
- 15 Tokugawa shoguns

Shogunate

Bakufu (幕府) originally described the dwelling and household of a shōgun, but in time it came to be generally used in Japanese to describe the system of government of a feudal military dictatorship, exercised by the shoguns (literally "tent government", meaning a military rule), and this is the meaning that has been adopted into English through the term shogunate. The system of bakufu was originally established under the Kamakura bakufu by Minamoto no Yoritomo. The military wing of the government came to dominate the civil (imperial) government, so that while the Emperors of Japan still technically led the government, all practical (and especially military) power rested with the shogun and the daimyo. The system was feudal in nature, with lesser territorial lords pledging their allegiance to greater ones. Samurai were rewarded for their loyalty with land, which was in turn handed down and divided among their sons. The hierarchy that held this system of government together was reinforced by close ties of loyalty between samurai and their apprentices. The shoguns also took lovers from among the ranks of the samurai, a practice known as shudo, "the way of the young", or nanshoku, "male color". Three primary bakufu periods are usually identified, each centered around a family which tended to dominate the position of shogun during that regime. In the Japanese language, the time period of each regime is named after the capital of the bakufu. The Ashikaga and Tokugawa bakufu can also be (and usually are) named in this fashion.
- Kamakura Bakufu - Kamakura period
- Ashikaga Bakufu or Muromachi Bakufu - Muromachi period
- Tokugawa Bakufu or Edo Bakufu - Edo period

See also


- Ainu people
- James Clavell (writer of the Shogun novel)
- Japanese Imperialism
- Daimyo
- Shogun Category:Military ranks of Japan Category:Government of feudal Japan ko:쇼군 ja:征夷大将軍 simple:Shogun

1855

1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 1 - London, Ontario is incorporated as a city.
- January 23 - The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
- January 23 - The region of Wairarapa, New Zealand was hit by the strongest earthquake ever recorded in New Zealand, which reached Magnitude 8.1 on the Richter Scale. There were five deaths.
- January 29 - Lord Aberdeen resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom over the management of the Crimean War.
- February 5 - Lord Palmerston becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- February 11 - Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam.
- March 3 - US Congress appropriates $30,000 to create US Camel Corps
- May 15 - The Great Gold Robbery of 1855 in England
- June 29 - The Daily Telegraph begins publication
- September 3 - Last Bartholomew Fair on London, England
- September 11 - Sevastapol falls to the British troops
- Stamp duty was removed from newspapers in Britain creating mass market media in the UK.
- The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean by rail as the railroad's route across Panama is completed.

Births


- January 5 - King Camp Gillette, American inventor (d. 1932)
- January 20 - Ernest Chausson, French composer (d. 1899)
- January 21 - John Moses Browning, American firearms inventor (d. 1926)
- January 28 - William Seward Burroughs, American bank clerk and inventor (d. 1898)
- March 13 - Percival Lowell, American astronomer (d. 1916)
- March 24 - Andrew Mellon, American banker and philanthropist (d. 1937)
- April 21 - Hardy Richardson, 19th century baseball player (d. 1931)
- April 27 - Caroline Rémy, French feminist (d. 1929)
- May 1 - Marie Corelli, English novelist (d. 1924)
- July 26 - Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (d. 1936)
- October 21 - Howard Hyde Russell, American temperance movement leader and founder of Anti-Saloon League and Lincoln-Lee Legion (d. 1946)
- November 5 - Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (d. 1913)
- November 6 - Ezra Seymour Gosney, American philanthropist and eugenicist (d. 1942)

Deaths


- January 6 - Giacomo Beltrami, Italian explorer, gaylord (b. 1779)
- January 26 - Gérard de Nerval, French writer (b. 1808)
- February 6 - Josef Munzinger, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1791)
- February 23 - Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
- March 29 - Henri Druey, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1799)
- March 31 - Charlotte Brontë, English author (b. 1816)
- May 5 - Robert Inglis, English politician (b. 1786)
- May 23 - Charles Robert Malden English explorer (b. 1797)
- June 28 - Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan, commander of British forces in the Crimean War (b. 1788)
- August 7 - Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (b. 1802)
- November 11 - Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (b. 1813)
- November 26 - Adam Mickiewicz, Lithuanian - Polish poet and writer (b. 1798)
- Metropolitan Board of Works established. Category:1855 ko:1855년 ms:1855 th:พ.ศ. 2398

Commodore Perry

Commodore Perry may be:
- Commodore Oliver Perry, an American Naval officer primarily known for his involvement the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.
- Commodore Matthew Perry, younger brother of Oliver Perry, and an American naval officer primarily known for his involvement in the forced opening of trade between the United States and Japan.

1843

1843 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events


- February 6 - The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show (Bowery Amphitheatre, New York City).
- February 11 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi premieres in Milan
- May 18 - The Disruption of the Church of Scotland took place in Edinburgh
- May 22 - The first major wagon train headed for the northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
- July 19 - The SS Great Britain is launched from Bristol.
- August 15 - Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opened in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- October 13 - In New York City, Henry Jones and 11 others found B'nai B'rith (the oldest Jewish service organization in the world).
- November 28 - Ka La Ku'oko'a: Hawaiian Independence Day. The Kingdom of Hawai`i was officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.
- The world's first commercial Christmas cards are printed by Sir Henry Cole in London.
- December 17 - First publication of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
- James Joule quantifies the conversion of work into heat
- In Barbados, the first black man, Samuel Jackson Prescod, is elected to House of Assembly
- Danish government re-establishes althing in Iceland as an advisory body
- First tunnel under Thames is finished
- Argentina supports Rosas of Uruguay and begins a siege of Montevideo
- Quaternions are discovered by William Rowan Hamilton.
- The Economist is first published.
- Bishop's University is founded.
- Abbeville is founded by descendants of Acadians from Nova Scotia.

Births


- January 10 - Frank James, American outlaw (d. 1915)
- January 29 - William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (d. 1901)
- April 4 - William Jackson, photographer
- April 15 - Henry James, American writer (d. 1916)
- May 21 - Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1914)
- June 3 - King Frederick VIII of Denmark (d. 1912)
- June 9 - Bertha von Suttner, Austrian writer and pacificist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1914)
- June 15 - Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer (d. 1907)
- June 30 - Sir Ernest Satow, British diplomat and scholar (d. 1928)
- July 7 - Camillo Golgi, Italian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1926)
- July 29 - Johannes Schmidt, German linguist (d. 1901)
- August 1 - Robert Todd Lincoln, American statesman and businessman (d. 1926)
- November 27 - Cornelius Vanderbilt II, American railway magnate (d. 1899)
- December 11 - Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1910)
- Jang Seung-eop, Korean painter (d. 1897)
- Alexander Herrmann, German magician

Deaths


- January 11 - Francis Scott Key, American lawyer and lyricist (b. 1779)
- March 21 - Robert Southey, English poet (b. 1774)
- March 25 - Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Scottish clergyman (b. 1813)
- March 27 - Karl Salomo Zachariae Von Lingenthal, German jurist (b. 1769)
- April 15 - Noah Webster, American lexicographer (b. 1758)
- April 17 - Samuel Morey, American inventor (b. 1762)
- June 6 - Friedrich Hölderlin, German writer (b. 1770)
- July 7 - John Holmes, American politician (b. 1773)
- December 18 - Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, British Governor-General of India (b. 1748)
- William Abbot, English actor (b. 1798) Category:1843 ko:1843년 ms:1843

Nakahama Manjiro

Nakahama Manjirō (中濱 万次郎 Nakahama Manjirō, 1827-98), also known as John Manjiro, was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Opening of Japan.

American education and world travel

Opening of Japan Originally a simple fisherman, in 1841 at the age of 14 he was rescued from the wreck of his ship by an American whaler and taken to the US, where he learned English and received a Western high school education in the town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. John Manjiro had the opportunity to travel around the world on a sailship. Upon his return to Japan, he detailed his travels in a report to the Bakufu, which is kept today at the Tokyo National Museum.

Return to Japan

Returning to Japan at the age of 24, during Japan's period of isolation when leaving the country was an offense punishable by death, he was initially treated with deep suspicion but was allowed to return to his village. In 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry's Black Ships arrived to force the opening of Japan, Manjiro became an interpreter and translator for the Shogunate and was instrumental in negotiating the Convention of Kanagawa. John Manjiro apparently used his know-how of western shipbuilding to contribute to the effort of the Bakufu to build a modern Navy. In particular, he allegedly contributed to the construction of the Shohei Maru, Japan's first post-seclusion foreign-style warship.

First diplomatic mission to the US

Shohei Maru Nakahama Manjiro also participated to the first-ever Japanese embassy to the United States on board Kanrin Maru, Japan's first screw-driven steam warship, in 1860. He was officially appointed as a translator, but his navigation skills and knowledge of Western countries gave him a prominent role in guiding the mission. According to several reports, he was the de-facto captain of the ship during the mission.

See also


- Hasekura Tsunenaga, the first recorded Japanese to reach the American continent, in 1614.
- Otokichi, a famous Japanese castaway to the United States, 10 years before Nakahama Manjiro.
- Einosuke Moriyama, another translator in the negotiation with Perry.
- Ranald MacDonald, the first teacher of English in Japan.

External link


- [http://www.manjiro.org/ The Manjiro Society] Nakahama, Manjiro Nakahama, Manjiro Nakahama, Manjiro Nakahama, Manjiro ja:ジョン万次郎

Fukuzawa Yukichi

Fukuzawa Yukichi (福澤 諭吉 Fukuzawa Yukichi, January 10, 1835 - February 3, 1901) was an author, motivational speaker, and political theorist whose ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the period known as the Meiji Era.

Early life

Fukuzawa was born into a low-ranking samurai family of the Nakatsu clan in Osaka in 1835. His family was poor following the early death of his father. At the age of fourteen, Fukuzawa entered a school of Dutch studies (Rangaku). In 1853, shortly after Commodore Matthew C. Perry's arrival in Japan, Fukuzawa's brother (the family patriarch) asked Fukuzawa to travel to Nagasaki, where the Dutch colony at Deshima was located. Fukuzawa was instructed to learn Dutch in order to study European cannon designs. Although Fukuzawa did travel to Nagasaki, his stay there was brief as he quickly discovered that the Dutch scholars there were dealing with outdated information. He planned to travel to Edo and continue his studies there, but upon his return to Osaka, his brother persuaded him to stay and enroll at the Tekijuku school run by physician and Dutch scholar Ogata Koan. Fukuzawa studied at Tekijuku for three years, and became fully proficient in the Dutch language. In 1858, he was appointed official Dutch teacher of his family's domain, Nakatsu, and was sent to Edo to teach the family's vassals there. The following year, Japan opened up three of its ports to American and European ships, and Fukuzawa, intrigued with Western civilization, traveled to Kanagawa to see them. When he arrived, he discovered that virtually all of the European merchants there were speaking English. He then began to study English, but at that time, English-Japanese interpreters were rare and dictionaries nonexistent, so his studies were slow. English Then, the Edo bakufu decided to send envoys of the shogun to the United States, and Fukuzawa volunteered his services to Admiral Kimura Yoshitake. Kimura's ship, the Kanrin Maru, arrived in San Francisco, California in 1860, and the delegation stayed in the city for a month, during which time Fukuzawa had himself photographed with an American girl (one of the most famous photographs in Japanese history), and also found a Webster's Dictionary, from which he began to seriously study the English language. Fukuzawa became an official translator for the bakufu upon his return. In 1867, he returned to America, this time visiting Washington, D.C. and New York City as part of a team of negotiators. After that trip, he visited Europe, again as part of a negotiation team, and published the first volume of his famous work Seiyo Jijo ("The West").

Works

Possibly Fukuzawa's writings were his greatest contribution to the Meiji period. Between 1872 and 1876, he published 17 volumes of Gakumon no Susume ("An Encouragement of Learning"). In these texts, Fukuzawa outlines the importance of understanding the principle of equality of opportunity and that study was the key to greatness. He was an avid supporter of education and founded one of Japan's most prestigious universities, Keio-gijuku, now known as Keio University. In the volumes of Gakumon no Susume, Fukuzawa advocated his most lasting principle, "national independence through personal independence." Through personal independence, an individual does not have to depend on the strength of another. With such a self-determining social morality, Fukuzawa hoped to instill a sense of personal strength among the people of Japan, and through that personal strength, build a nation to rival all others. Fukuzawa also published many influential essays and critical works, one of most lasting of which is "Bunmeiron no Gairyaku" ("An Outline of a Theory of Civilization") published in 1875, in which he details his own theory of civilization. According to Fukuzawa, civilization is relative to time and circumstance, as well as comparison. For example, China was relatively civilized in comparison to some of the Africa colonies, and European nations were the most civilized of all, at the time. Fukuzawa was later criticized as a supporter of imperialism because of his essay "Datsu-A Ron" ("Leaving Asia") published in 1885, as well as for his support of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Yet, "Datsu-A Ron" was actually a response to a failed attempt by Koreans to organize an effective reform faction, an attempt he'd supported. He had invited young Korean aristocrats to his school. Yet, they squandered their time and money on getting drunk and buying prostitutes and after Fukuzawa tightened their allowance, they attempted a failed robbery of a school safe. The essay was published as a withdrawal of his support. Neverless the assistance provided to radical Koreans during this era was never intended to lead to complete independence for the peninsula, but on the contrary sought to bring Korea under ever greater Japanese influence. This was amply demonstrated by the cynical power-plays undertaken in Korea by both Koreans supported by Fukuzawa and the Japanese Imperial Army during the Sino-Japanese War. His enthusiastic support of the Sino-Japanese War had much to do with his opinions about modernization. Like many of his peers in the government, Fukuzawa ultimately believed modernization in Asia could best be achieved at the point of a gun. He believed that China suffered from archaic and unchanging principles. At the time of the war, foot binding was still the practice in China as well as cruel punishments like torture that Japan had already outlawed, opium had been sold on street, and political institutions were failing to fend off foreign incursions and selling interests like railroads and taxation to pay the debt. Japan, similarly, suffered the humiliation of having to endure unequal treaties with the Western powers, and Fukuzawa hoped a display of military prowess would sway opinion in the West towards treaty revision. In his hopes for a strong Japan, Fukuzawa saw the Asian countries around Japan as potential deterrents in need of guidance. The price in non-Japanese lives for such "guidance," however, has yet to be fully acknowledged by Japan. "In my view, these two countries [China and Korea] cannot survive as independent nations with the onslaught of Western civilization to the East. . . It is not different from the case of the righteous man living in a neighborhood of a town known for foolishness, lawlessness, atrocity, and heartlessness. His action is so rare that it is always buries under the ugliness of his neighbors' activities," Fukuzawa wrote in "Datsu-A Ron." Fukuzawa's most important contribution to the reformation effort, though, came in the form of a newpaper called Jiji Shimpo, which he started in 1882, after being prompted by Inoue Kaoru, Okuma Shigenobu, and Ito Hirobumi to establish a strong influence among the people through publishing. All agreed the government should take the form of a national assembly, and as reforms began, Fukuzawa, whose fame was already unquestionable, began production of Jiji Shimpo, which received wide circulation, encouraging the people to enlighten themselves and to adopt a moderate political attitude towards the change that was being engineered within the social and political structures of Japan.

Legacy

Ito Hirobumi.]] Fukuzawa's ideas about individual strength and his knowledge of western political theory, as presented in his writings, were instrumental in motivating the Japanese people to embrace change. He may well have been one of the most influential personalities in the modernization of Japan. Fukuzawa appears on the 10,000-yen banknote and has been compared to Benjamin Franklin in the United States, ironic as Franklin appears on the similarly-valued $100 bill. Although all other figures appearing on Japanese banknotes changed when the recent redesign was released, Fukuzawa remained on the 10,000-yen note. Yukichi Fukuzawa's former residence in the small city of Nakatsu in Oita Prefecture is a Nationally Designated Cultural Asset. The house and the Yukichi Fukuzawa Memorial Hall are the major tourist attractions of this town.

Further reading


- [http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/ambaras/hi233/Readings/Fukuzawa1885.htm Japan: A Documentary History]
- [http://www.jef.or.jp/en/jti/200305_025.html Pride and Independence: Fukuzawa Yukichi and the Spirit of the Meiji Restoration]
- [http://www.ibe.unesco.org/International/Publications/Thinkers/ThinkersPdf/fukuzawe.pdf Fukuzawa biography at UNESCO (PDF)]
- The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi. NY: Columbia University Press, 1966. Revised translation by E. Kiyooka. Fukuzawa Yukichi Fukuzawa Yukichi Category:Japanese writers Category:Japanese educators ko:후쿠자와 유키치 ja:福澤諭吉

San francisco

: The City and County of San Francisco (2004 estimated population 744,230) is the fourth-largest city in the state of California, in the United States. A consolidated city-county, mainland San Francisco is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula. Insular San Francisco includes several islands in the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Strait, notably Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the Farallon Islands 27 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean and also most of the privately owned Red Rock Island near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. (See Islands of San Francisco Bay) The city is a focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area, and forms part of the greater San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area (CSA), whose population is over 7 million. U.S. census data show that San Francisco has the highest population density of any major U.S. city aside from New York City. The first Europeans to settle in San Francisco were the Spanish, in 1776. With the advent of the California gold rush in 1848 the city entered a period of rapid growth. Devastated by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the city was quickly rebuilt. The phoenix on the city's flag represents San Francisco's "rebirth" from the ashes of the fire that resulted from the quake. Long enjoying a bohemian reputation the city became a counterculture magnet in the second half of the 20th century. It was a center of the dot-com boom and explosive growth of the internet at the end of the century. San Francisco has unique characteristics when compared to other major cities in the U.S., including its steep rolling hills, an eclectic mix of architecture including both Victorian style houses and modern skyscrapers, and unmatched physical beauty, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. San Francisco's famous hallmarks include its cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge, which are recognized worldwide.

History

Golden Gate Bridge European visitors to the Bay Area were preceded 10,000 to 20,000 years earlier by Native Americans. When Europeans arrived, they found the area inhabited by the Yelamu tribe, belonging to a linguistic grouping later called the Ohlone (a Miwok Indian word meaning "western people") living in the coastal area between Point Sur and the San Francisco Bay. San Francisco's characteristic foggy weather and geography led early European explorers, including Juan Cabrillo and Sir Francis Drake (who would instead land a few miles north in Point Reyes), to pass by the Golden Gate and miss the San Francisco Bay. Eventually, a Spanish party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà, discovered the bay in 1770, claiming it in the name of Spain. In 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza arrived and established the sites for the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asis (named for Saint Francis of Assisi and now popularly known as "Mission Dolores"). In 1792 British explorer George Vancouver set up a small settlement near the village of Yerba Buena (later downtown San Francisco) which became a small base for English, Russian, and other European fur traders, explorers, and settlers. Due to its distance from Mexico City and the decline of Spanish power, the area was isolated, remaining sparsely populated and undeveloped. It became part of an independent Mexico in 1821. Following the passing of the Secularization Act of 1833, effectively ending the Mission period, Mission San Francisco de Asis was abandoned. The local indigenous tribes of Ohlone and Miwok had became virtually extinct by this time due to disease and warfare with the European settlers. In addition to Spanish and European settlers, Russian colonists also visited the Bay area. From 1770, lasting through 1841, Russia colonized an area that ranged from Alaska south to Fort Ross in Sonoma County, California. The naming of San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood is attributed to the remains of Russian fur-traders and sailors found there. Serious development by non-Spanish speakers began in 1822, when William Richardson, an English whaler redeveloped a section of Yerba Buena in what is now Portsmouth Square in Chinatown. Yerba Buena remained a small town until the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846. The British Empire briefly entertained the idea of purchasing the bay from Mexico in 1841, claiming it would "Secure to Great Britain all the advantages of the finest port in the Pacific for her commercial speculations in time of peace, and in war for more easily securing her maritime ascendency". However little came of this, and San Francisco become a prize of United States continental imperialism rather than that of British thalassocratic power. A naval force under Commodore John D. Sloat claimed it in the name of the United States and renamed it "San Francisco" on January 30, 1847. Situated at the tip of a windswept peninsula without water or firewood, San Francisco lacked most of the basic facilities for a nineteenth century settlement. These natural disadvantages forced the town's residents to bring water, fuel and food to the site. The first of many environmental transformations was the city's reliance on filled marshlands for real estate. Much of the present downtown is built over the former Yerba Buena Cove, granted to the city by military governor Stephen Watts Kearny in 1847. Stephen Watts Kearny The California gold rush starting in 1848 led to a large boom in population, including considerable immigration. Between January 1848 and December 1849, the population of San Francisco increased from 1,000 to 25,000. This included many workers from China who came to work in the gold mines and later on the Transcontinental Railroad. The Chinatown district of the city became and is still one of the largest in the country; the city as a whole is roughly one-fifth Chinese, one of the largest concentrations outside of China. Many businesses founded to service the growing population exist today, notably Levi Strauss & Co. clothing, Ghirardelli chocolate, and Wells Fargo bank. Many famous railroad, banking, and mining tycoons or "robber barons" such as Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and Leland Stanford settled in the city in its Nob Hill neighborhood. The sites of their mansions are now famous and expensive San Francisco hotels (Mark Hopkins Hotel and the Huntington Hotel). Huntington Hotel, 1856.]] As in many mining towns, the social climate in early San Francisco was chaotic. This was exacerbated by squabbling in the United States Senate, where the Compromise of 1850 was igniting a fierce fight over slavery. Committees of Vigilance were formed in 1851, and again in 1856, in response to crime and government corruption, but also had a strong element of anti-immigrant violence, and arguably created more lawlessness than they eliminated. This popular militia movement lynched 12 people, kidnapped hundreds of Irishmen and government militia members, and forced several elected officials to resign. The Committee of Vigilance relinquished power both times after it decided the city had been "cleaned up." This mob activity later focused on Chinese immigrants, creating many race riots. These riots culminated in the creation of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 that aimed to reduce Chinese immigration to the United States by limiting immigration to males and reducing numbers of immigrants allowed in the city. The law was not repealed until 1943. Chinese Exclusion Act San Francisco County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. The parts of the county not in the city limits were split off to form San Mateo County in 1856. San Francisco became America's largest city west of the Mississippi River, until it lost that title to Los Angeles. It was also briefly the state capital in 1851, until San José received the title. (Sacramento is the current capital.) In autumn of 1855, a ship bearing refugees from an ongoing cholera epidemic in the far east (authorities disagree as to whether this was the S.S. Sam or the S.S. Carolina) docked in San Francisco. As the city's rapid gold-rush area population growth had significantly outstripped the development of infrastructure, including sanitation, a serious cholera epidemic quickly broke out. The responsibility for caring for the indigent sick had previously rested on the state, but faced with the San Francisco cholera epidemic, the state legislature devolved this responsibility to the counties, setting the precedent for California's system of county hospitals for the poor still in effect today. The Sisters of Mercy were contracted to run San Francisco's first county hospital at the height of the cholera epidemic, and in 1857, the order opened its own charity hospital, Mercy Hospital of San Francisco, which is still in operation today at its original location on Stanyan Street. By the 1890s, San Francisco was suffering from Boss politics and corruption, and was ripe for political reform. Adolph Sutro ran for mayor in 1894 under the auspices of the Populist Party and won handily without campaigning. Unfortunately, except for the Sutro Baths, Mayor Sutro substantially failed in his efforts to improve the city. The next mayor, James D. Phelan elected in 1896, was more successful, pushing through a new city charter that allowed for the ability to raise funds through bond issues. He was able to get bonds passed to construct a new sewer system, seventeen new schools, two parks, a hospital, and a main library. After leaving office in 1901, Phelan became interested in remaking San Francisco into a grand and modern Paris of the West. When the San Francisco Art Association asked him to draft a plan for the beautification of the city, he hired famed architect Daniel Burnham. Burnham and Phelan's plan was ambitious, envisioning a 50-year effort to transform the city with wide diagonal boulevards creating open spaces and squares as they crossed the orthogonal grid of existing streets. Some parts of the plan were eventually implemented, including an Opera house to the north of City Hall, a subway under Market Street, and a waterfront boulevard (The Embarcadero) circling the city. In 1900, a ship from China brought with it rats infected with bubonic plague. Mistakenly believing that interred corpses contributed to the transmission of plague, and possibly also motivated by the opportunity for profitable land speculation, city leaders banned all burials within the city. Cemeteries moved to the undeveloped area just south of the city limit, now the town of Colma, California. A fifteen-block section of Chinatown was quarantined while city leaders squabbled over the proper course to take, but the outbreak was finally eradicated by 1905. However, the problem of existing cemeteries and the shortage of land in the city remained. In 1912 (with fights extending until 1942), all remaining cemeteries in the city were evicted to Colma, where the dead now outnumber the living by more than a thousand to one. The above-ground Columbarium of San Francisco was allowed to remain, as well as the historic cemetery at the Mission Dolores Church and The San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio of San Francisco. On April 18 1906, a devastating earthquake resulted from the rupture of over 270 miles of the San Andreas Fault, from San Juan Bautista to Eureka, centered immediately offshore of San Francisco. The quake is estimated by the USGS to have had a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. Water mains ruptured throughout San Francisco, and the fires that followed burned out of control for days, destroying approximately 80% of the city, including almost all of the downtown core. Many residents were trapped between the water on three sides and the approaching fire, and a mass evacuation (similar to that of the later Battle of Dunkirk) across the Bay saved thousands. Refugee camps were also set up in Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, and other undeveloped sections of the city. The official death toll at the time was 478, although it was officially revised in 2005 to 3,000+. The initial low death toll was concocted by civic, state, and federal officials who felt that reporting the actual numbers would hurt rebuilding and redevelopment efforts, as well as city and national morale. Ocean Beach In 1915, the city hosted the Panama-Pacific Exposition, officially to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, but also as a showcase of the vibrant completely rebuilt city less than a decade after the Earthquake. After the exposition ended, all of its grand buildings were demolished except for the Palace of Fine Arts which survives today in an abbreviated form. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was opened in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. During World War II, San Francisco was the major mainland supply point and port of embarkation for the war in the Pacific. The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco has been the site of some significant post World War II history. In 1945, the conference that formed the United Nations was held there, with the UN Charter being signed on June 26. Additionally the Treaty of San Francisco which formally ended war with Japan and established peaceful relations, was drafted and signed here six years later in 1951. After World War II, many American military personnel who fell in love with the city during leaving to or returning from the Pacific, settled in the city prompting the creation of the Sunset District and Visitacion Valley. During this period, Caltrans commenced an aggressive freeway construction program in the Bay Area. However, Caltrans soon encountered strong resistance in San Francisco, for the city's high population density meant that virtually any right-of-way would displace a large number of people. Caltrans tried to minimize displacement (and its land acquisition costs) by building double-decker freeways, but the crude state of civil engineering at that time resulted in construction of some embarrassingly ugly freeways which ultimately turned out to be seismically unsafe. In 1959, the Board of Supervisors voted to halt construction of any more freeways in the city, an event known as the Freeway Revolt. Although some minor modifications have been allowed to the ends of existing freeways, the city's anti-freeway policy has remained in place ever since. In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the Embarcadero Freeway and portions of the so-called Central Freeway. Over the course of several referenda, San Francisco's residents elected not to rebuild either structure. The neighborhoods once covered b