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Charter

Charter

:Alternate use, see charter airline, yacht charter, bare-boat charter or Charter Communications. A charter is a document bestowing certain rights on a town, city, university or institution; sometimes used as a loan of money. The term derives from a root word meaning "paper".

Origin

As John Fiske described in his 1890 treatise on the Origin of Civil Government in the United States: :The word "charter" originally meant simply a paper or written document, and it was often applied to deeds for the transfer of real estate. In contracts of such importance papers or parchment documents were drawn up and carefully preserved as irrefragable evidences of the transaction. And so, in quite significant phrase the towns zealously guarded their charters as the "title-deeds of their liberties." :After a while the word charter was applied in England to a particular document which specified certain important concessions forcibly wrung by the people from a most unwilling sovereign. This document was called Magna Carta, or the "Great Charter," signed at Runnymede, June 15, 1215, by John, king of England.

History

Charters were issued in medieval times by Royal decree, perhaps giving a particular town the right to hold a weekly market, or to levy a toll on a road or bridge.

Legal status

A charter is a legally binding document incorporating an organization or institution and specifying its purpose, remit or bylaws. Organisations such as the Institution of Civil Engineers in the UK is chartered to maintain and advance the science and practice of civil engineering in the UK, and by this charter has the right to regulate the business of civil engineering in the UK; this gives rise to a status of a chartered engineer - one who satisfies the requirements of the charter holding organisation.

Charter schools

In education, charter schools are becoming quite common.

Charter colony

A charter colony is a type of colony that was established by a group of settlers that received a charter.

Charter member

The term charter member refers to a person or group who was among those participating in the creation of any chartered organisation.

See also


- Royal Charter
- Papal Bull
- Fueros (Spanish version)
- General incorporation law

External links


- [http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Ap/Mc/Charter.asp The Royal Charter for the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council]
- The International [http://www.icharter.org Charter] Organization
- [http://en.constitution.wikicities.com/ Create your own ideological charter] Category:Law

Charter airline

A charter airline is one that operates charter flights, that is flights that take place outside normal schedules, by a hiring arrangement with a particular customer. In the context of mass tourism, charter flights have acquired the more specific meaning of a flight whose sole function is to transport holidaymakers to tourist destinations. Such charter flights are contrasted with scheduled flights, but they do in fact operate to regular, published schedules. However tickets are not sold directly by the charter airline, but by holiday companies who have chartered the flight (sometimes in a consortium with other companies). Although charter airlines typically carry passengers who have booked individually or as small groups to beach resorts, historic towns, or cities where a cruise ship is awaiting them, sometimes an aircraft will be chartered by a single group such as members of a company, a sports team, or the military. Many charter flights are sold as part of a package holiday in which the price paid includes flights, accommodation and other services. At one time this was a legal requirement (or one enforced by the airlines' cartel), but this is no longer the case, and so-called "flight-only packages" can be bought by those who merely want to travel to the destination. Such packages are frequently cheaper than regular schedule airline fares. Furthermore charter airlines frequently operate on routes, or to airports, where there is no scheduled service. Much of the traffic through small and medium sized airports in the United Kingdom consists of charter flights, and the survival of these airports often depends on the airline landing fees they get from the charter companies. Many airlines operating regular scheduled services have set up charter divisions, though these have not always proved competitive with the specialist charter companies. In addition, some cargo airlines occasionally carry a few charter passengers on their jets. Conversely, some charter airlines have branched out into scheduled services when their charter operations have uncovered a need or a market niche. The economics of charter flights demand that the flights should operate on the basis of near 100% seat occupancy, and the standard of seating and service may be lower than on scheduled airlines (though this is by no means always the case). The airlines operating charter flights, and the holiday companies who are the initial purchasers of seats on them, have acquired an unhealthy reputation for financial instability. There have been a number of high-profile cases where holiday-makers have had their arrangements cancelled at short notice (and sometimes lost the substantial sums they have paid for package holidays), or have been left stranded at their destinations, by the collapse of airline or holiday company. A number of compulsory insurance and bond arrangements have been put in place to minimise at least the financial risk to the public from such events.

Charter operators

Some well known companies who specialise in chartered flights are:
- Regal Aviation
- Jet Aviation
- Air Royale
- Jet Direct
- Sentient Jet
- TXI Aviation
- Million Air
- Jet Concierge An online marketplace for companies offering chartered flights:
- [http://www.charterx.com CharterX] Among airlines who offer or have offered charter services are:
- ABX_Air
- Air Anatolia
- Air Atlanta Icelandic
- Air Japan
- Air Srpska
- Air Tindi
- Air Transat
- AOM French Airlines
- Arrow Air
- ATA
- Belavia
- Birgenair
- British Caledonian
- Britannia Airways
- Capitol Air
- Carnival Airlines (Owned by Carnival Cruise Lines)
- Cargolux
- Champion Air
- Citybird
- European Airlines
- First Choice Airways (formerly air2000)
- Frontier Flying Service
- Futura
- Germania
- Hapag-Lloyd
- Helios Airways
- Japan Airlines
- JMC
- Kenn Borek Air Ltd.
- Ladeco
- Lion Air
- Martinair
- Miami Air
- Monarch Airlines
- My Travel/Premiair
- Omni Air
- North American Airlines
- Palmair
- Skyservice
- Sterling European Airlines
- Sobelair
- Tango (a division of Air Canada)
- TransMeridian Airlines
- Travelcitydirect.com
- UPS Popular charter airline destinations include Palma De Mallorca, Tenerife, Alicante, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Honolulu and Miami, Punta Cana. Category:Airlines

Bare-boat charter

Bare-boat charter refers to a particular lease arrangement involving a ship. The lease of a ship is generally contained in a legal document called a "charter party" or "charter" for short. There are various types of charters. The more common are "voyage charter", "time charter" and "bare-boat charter" (also called "demise charter"). In a voyage or time charter the charterer charters the ship (or part of it)for a particular voyage or for a set period of time. In these charters the charterer can direct where the ship will go but the owner of the ship retains possession of the ship through its employment of the master and crew. In a bare-boat or demise charter, on the other hand, the owner gives possession of the ship to the charterer and the charterer hires its own master and crew. The bare-boat charterer is sometimes called a "desponent owner". The giving up of possession of the ship by the owner is the defining characteristic of a bare-boat or demise charter. (For landlubbers the comparison would be between hiring a taxi for a trip (voyage charter) or for a day (time charter) and renting a car (bare-boat charter). Category:Law of the sea

Charter Communications

Charter Communications is a company providing cable television, HDTV, cable telephone, DVR, and broadband services over 6.2 million subscribers in 40 states in the United States. It is #4 in the cable television market behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications After being founded in 1993, a series of acquisitions as well as organic growth allowed its subscriber base to reach 1 million customers in 1998, 3.9 million in 1999, and 6.8 million in 2002 (2.3 million of which were digital cable service subscribers and nearly 750,000 broadband Internet service subscribers). The company was involved in an accounting fraud in 2000/2001 (relating to the inflation of revenue and operating cash flow and cable subscriber numbers) for which four former executives were convicted in 2005. The company had been under financial pressure following a series of acquisitions; its stock peaked at $27.75 per share in November 1999, before falling to under $1 in 2002.[http://www.detnews.com/2005/business/0504/23/biz-159359.htm]

History


- 1993 The company was started by three executives of a local cable franchise in St. Louis
- 1994 Charter paid about $900 million for a controlling interest in Crown Media
- 1997 EarthLink and Charter join forces to deliver high-speed Internet access through cable modems to Charter's customers in California.
- 1998 Paul Allen buys a controlling interest
- 1998 Charter paid $2.8 billion to acquire Dallas cable company Marcus Communications
- 1998 the SEC investigates a buying binge by the company which leads to the indictment of four former executives for improper financial reporting
- 1999 Company goes public, trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange
- 2001 MSN and Charter sign an agreement to offer MSN content and services to Charter’s broadband customers.
- 2001 Recipient of many awards including the Outstanding Corporate Growth Award from the Association for Corporate Growth, the R.E. "Ted" Turner Innovator of the Year Award from the Southern Cable Telecommunications Association, and the Fast 50 Award for Growth from the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association
- 2004 Charter settles a class action lawsuit concerning the questionable financial reporting

External links


- [http://www.charter.com Charter.com - Charter Communications]
- [http://www.charter.net Charter.net - For Charter High-Speed customers]
- Associated Press, April 23, 2005, [http://www.detnews.com/2005/business/0504/23/biz-159359.htm "Charter Communications executives sentenced in accounting schemes"] Category:American cable companies

City

:For alternate meanings see city (disambiguation) A city is an urban area that is differentiated from a town, village, or hamlet by size, population density, importance, or legal status.

Introduction

In most parts of the world, cities are generally substantial and nearly always have an urban core, but in the United States many incorporated areas which have a very modest population, or a suburban or even mostly rural character, are designated as cities. City can also be a synonym for "downtown" or a "city centre". A city usually consists of residential, industrial and business areas together with administrative functions which may relate to a wider geographical area. A large share of a city's area is primarily taken up by housing, which is then supported by infrastructure such roads, streets and often public transport routes such as a subway or a metro rail system. Lakes and rivers may be the only undeveloped areas within the city. The study of cities is covered extensively in human geography. "The city is a human habitat that allows people to form relations with others at various levels of intimacy while remaining entirely anonymous." (This definition was the subject of an exhibition at the Israeli pavilion at the 2000 Venice Biennale of architecture)

The difference between towns and cities

The difference between towns and cities is differently understood in different parts of the English speaking world. There is no one standard international definition of a city: the term may be used either for a town possessing city status; for an urban locality exceeding an arbitrary population size; for a town dominating other towns with particular regional economic or administrative significance. Although city can refer to an agglomeration including suburban and satellite areas, the term is not appropriate for a conurbation (cluster) of distinct urban places, nor for a wider metropolitan area including more than one city, each acting as a focus for parts of the area. In the United Kingdom, a city is a town which has been known as a city since time immemorial, or which has received city status by royal charter — which is normally granted on the basis of size, importance or royal connection (traditional pointers have been whether the town has a cathedral or a university). Some cathedral cities, for example St. David's in Wales, are quite small, and may not be known as cities in common parlance. (See the City status in the United Kingdom.) A similar system existed in the medieval Low Countries where a landlord would grant settlements certain privileges (city rights) that settlements without city rights didn't have. This include the privilege to put up city walls, hold markets or set up a judicial court. In Australia and New Zealand, city is used to refer both to units of local government, and as a synonym for urban area. For instance the [http://www.southperth.wa.gov.au City of South Perth] is part of the urban area known as Perth, commonly described as a city. On the other hand, Gisborne in New Zealand is known as the first city to see the sun, despite being administered by a district council, not a city council. An interesting phenomenon in American English is the generalisation of the term city to all settlements. Britons may be bemused by forms with fields headed, not Town and Postal code, but City and ZIP, even though the person needing to fill it in could be living in a city, a town without city status, or even a village or hamlet. In turn, many Americans often talk of "City Halls" when referring to town halls in quite small European towns and villages. Strangely, even though Americans are well aware that "village" means something smaller than a town, the word has often been co-opted by enterprising developers to make their projects sound welcoming and friendly. The result are so-called villages with 20 and 30-story high-rises, like Westwood Village in Los Angeles.

Geography

Westwood Village, of around 1550. The city is completely surrounded by a city wall and defensive canal. The square shape is inspired by Jerusalem.]] The geographies of cities, both physical and human, are diverse. Often cities will either be coastal and have a harbour or be situated near a river giving economic advantage. Water transports on rivers and oceans were (and in most cases still are) cheaper and more efficient than road transport over long distances. Older European cities often have historically intact central areas where the streets are jumbled together, seemingly without a structural plan. This quality is a legacy of earlier unplanned or organic development, and is often perceived by today's tourists to be picturesque. Modern city planning has seen many different schemes for how a city should look. The most commonly seen pattern is the grid, almost a rule in parts of the United States, and used for thousands of years in China. Derry was the first ever planned city in Ireland, begun in 1613, with the walls being completed 5 years later in 1618. The central diamond within a walled city with four gates was thought to be a good design for defence. The grid pattern chosen was subsequently much copied in the colonies of British North America [http://worldfacts.us/UK-Londonderry.htm]. However, the grid has been used for a long time in history. The Greeks gave their colonies around the Mediterranian often with a grid. One of the best examples around is the city of Priene. This city even had it's different districts. Much like modern city planning today. Also in de Medival times we see a preference for lineair planning. Good examples are the cities establish in the south of France by various rulers. And city expantions in old Dutch and Flanders cities. Other forms may include a radial structure in which main roads converge on a central point, often the effect of successive growth over long time with concentric traces of town walls and citadels - recently supplemented by ring-roads that take traffic around the edge of a town. Many Dutch cities are structured that way: a central square surrounded by a concentric canals. Every city expansion would imply a new circle (canals + town walls). In cities like Amsterdam and Haarlem this pattern is still clearly visible.

History of cities

Towns and cities have a long history, although opinions vary on whether any particular ancient settlement can be considered to be a city. The first true towns are sometimes considered to be large settlements where the inhabitants were no longer simply farmers of the surrounding area, but began to take on specialized occupations, and where to trade, food storage and power was centralized. Societies that live in cities are often called civilizations. By this definition, the first towns we know of were located in Mesopotamia, such as Ur, and along the Nile, the Indus Valley Civilization and China. Before this time it was rare for settlements to reach significant size, although there were exceptions such as Jericho, Çatalhöyük and Mehrgarh. The growth of ancient and medieval empires led to ever greater capital cities and seats of provincial administration, with ancient Rome, its eastern successor Constantinople and successive Chinese and later Indian capitals approaching or exceeding the half-million population level. It is estimated that ancient Rome population exceeded one million people by the end of the last century BCE, which is considered the only city to reach that number until the Industrial Revolution, however, Alexandria population was close to one million at the same time. Similar large administrative, commercial, industrial and ceremonial centres emerged in other areas, though on a smaller scale. During the European Middle Ages, a town was as much a political entity as a collection of houses. City residence brought freedom from customary rural obligations to lord and community: "Stadtluft macht frei" ("City air makes you free") was a saying in Germany. In Continental Europe cities with a legislature of their own wasn't unheard of, the laws for towns as a rule other than for the countryside, the lord of a town often being another than for surrounding land. In the Holy Roman Empire (i.e. medieval Germany and Italy) some cities had no other lord than the emperor. In exceptional cases like Venice, Genoa or Lübeck, cities themselves became powerful states, sometimes taking surrounding areas under their control or establishing extensive maritime empires. Similar phenomena existed elsewhere, as in the case of Sakai, which enjoyed a considerable autonomy in late medieval Japan. Most towns remained far smaller places, so that in 1500 only some two dozen places in the world contained more than 100,000 inhabitants: as late as 1700 there were fewer than forty, a figure which would rise thereafter to 300 in 1900. A small city of the early modern period might contain as few as 10,000 inhabitants, a town far fewer still. While the city-states, or poleis, of the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea languished from the 16th century, Europe's larger capitals benefited from the growth of commerce following the emergence of an Atlantic economy fuelled by the silver of Peru. By the 18th century, London and Paris rivalled the well-developed regionally-traditional capital cities of Baghdad, Beijing, Istanbul, Kyoto and Venice. The growth of modern industry from the late 18th century onward led to massive urbanization and the rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. In the Great Depression of the 1930s cities were hard hit by unemployment, especially those with a base in heavy industry. Today the world's population is about half urban, with millions still streaming annually into the growing cities of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Modern conceptions

Traditional approach

A universal linear approach to cities has been in place and accepted for a long time. As this approach falls short of explaining a number of aspects of city life, such as the diversity between cities, new ways have been sought. Influenced by post-structuralist thinking a new approach was born: using spatial thinking it is possible to not only fill the gaps, but indeed replace the old completely. Three characteristics have been identified as defining a city: the number of people to area (density), the networks of the city, as well as a particular way of life. None of these characteristics alone is enough to make a place a city. Until recently cities were almost exclusively viewed as part of a single, linear line of development. Starting with the Greek city-state, this linear approach placed each city somewhere, and it was believed that it was only a matter of time until the next stage along the prescript path of advancement was reached. For each stage an exemplar was identified. Step by step from Athens onwards to Venice and London, Los Angeles seemed to be the ultimate stage of a postmodern city. Such an approach regarded a city as a single static entity, which could be studied disconnected in time and space. This leads to a theoretical framework with little connection to real cities, but these were simply seen as less clear examples. In spite of apparent shortcomings, this approach is still very commonplace in respected and popular publications.

Shortcomings

Despite its wide acceptance this traditional approach to cities had serious shortcomings. Firstly, leaving the latest stage aside, it was completely eurocentric. It was believed that every city in the world could be compared with a past stage in the history of one European city. Secondly, there was no real explanation when and how changes occurred, how another stage in the line of development was achieved. There seemed no need to follow the changes of one city, but instead attention was turned to another exemplar. Thirdly, the disconnected view of cities is problematic. It implies that history, culture and connections of a place do not influence a place, which is questionable. Some thinkers argue that a history ignoring connections is necessary incomplete. Fourthly, the traditional approach failed to define what makes a city. It is unclear why one place is regarded as a city while another one is not. Lewis Mumford argued in 1937 for a social dimension, describing cities as geographical plexuses. Finally, viewing cities as a single body misses modern conceptions that there is more than one story to a place. The city of an aristocrat will surely differ from that of a slave. This also reflects a shift away from one single history of the powerful élites (often referred to as city élites) to a multidimensional perception of history. The notion of city rhythms has been introduced to highlight the different aspects of city life... The term city can be used to mean either an area of contiguous urbanization or a particular municipality (an [http://www.demographia.com/db-world-muni.htm area within the political borders of an incorporated municipality]). There is a substantial variation in municipalities around the world. The largest municipality, Chongqing, is approximately the same size as the state of Indiana and contains much more rural territory than continuous urbanization. In most cases, however, the continuous urbanization popularly thought of as the city extends well beyond the boundaries of the core incorporated city.

Modern approach

As a modern approach to cities, urban thinking analyzes various issues that arise in urban areas. It focuses largely upon connections and internal divisions which helps create a better understanding of the dynamics of cities. Using such spatial thinking, it is possible to understand various aspects for which the traditional approach did not provide an adequate explanation. One important aspect of spatial thinking is looking at the connections of a city. Such connections allow one to understand the unique character of a place. Rather than treating all cities the same, places are seen as interconnected through networks of culture, economics, trade or history. So while London and Tokyo are economically linked through stock markets, Graz and Stockholm are linked via the Cultural Capital of Europe. These networks overlap and are concentrated in cities. Arguably this concentration of networks creates a unique feeling of a place. Such networks, however, do not only link cities with cities, but also a city to its surroundings. The notion of a city footprint reflects the idea that a city on its own is not sustainable: it depends on produce from its surroundings, it needs trade links and other connections for economic viability. Looking at networks, it becomes possible to explain the rise and fall of cities. This has to do with the changing importance of connections and is maybe best illustrated with the arrival of Spanish colonizers in America. Within a short time, connections to Madrid became more important than connections to the former centre Tenochtitlán. The concentration of networks in cities can be used as an explanation of urbanization. It is the access to certain networks that attracts people. As various networks spatially run together in a confined area, people gather in cities. At the same time, this concentration of people means the introduction of new networks, such as social links, increasing the creation of new possibilities within cities. Urban social movements are a direct result of this possibility of making new connections. It is this openness to new connections that makes cities both attractive and to a certain degree unpredictable. Another important aspect of modern urban thinking is looking at the divisions within a city. This internal differentiation is linked to the external connections of a city. As places of meeting histories, cities are hybrid and heterogeneous. Hybrid they are as the connections which link places are bilateral, involving giving and taking in both directions. Heterogeneous they are because of the dynamism of cities. New encounters are ongoing processes where social relations and differences are constantly negotiated and shaped, reflecting the unequal power involved. Neither the internal differentiations nor the connections and networks of a place on their own define a city. Internal divisions are caused by external links, while at the same time connections to the outside open up the possibility of new social divisions. Divisions and connections in every city are intertwined, and only by considering both aspects of spatial thinking the complexity of cities is approachable. Immigration illustrates this interconnection of external networks and internal divisions well. The networks concentrated in the core of the city attract immigrants. As they immigrate, the newcomers bring along their histories, bringing new networks or enforcing existing ones. At the same time, their history offers opportunities to identify with or likewise exclude. Division and connection come hand in hand. Rather than attempting to eradicate such tensions and contradictions in the theoretical framework, modern urban thinking – influenced by poststructuralist thought – accounts for both sides. Static universal bodies are replaced by multidimensional networks, allowing for fluidity and dynamism.

Global cities

A global city, also known as a world city, is a prominent centre of trade, banking, finance, innovations, and markets. The term "global city", as opposed to megacity, was coined by Saskia Sassen in a seminal 1991 work. Whereas "megacity" refers to any city of enormous size, a global city is one of enormous power or influence. Global cities, according to Sassen, have more in common with each other than with other cities in their host nations. Bangkok, Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, São Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto are commonly referred to as global cities, however, the term is also applied to other cities. The notion of global cities regards the power of cities as contained within cities. The city is seen as a container where skills and resources are concentrated. The more successful city is able to concentrate more of these skills and resources. This makes the city itself more powerful in terms that it can influence what is happening around the world. Following this view of cities, it is possible to rank the world's cities hierarchically (John Friedmann and Goetz Wolff, "World City Formation: An Agenda for Research and Action," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 6, no. 3 (1982): 319.). Critics of the notion point out to the different realms of power. The term global city narrowly focuses on economics. Cities like Rome are powerful in religious terms. Additionally, it has been questioned whether the city itself can be regarded as an actor. In 1995 Kanter argued that successful cities can be identified by three elements. To be successful, a city needs to have good thinkers (concepts), good makers (competence) or good traders (connections). The interplay of these three elements, Kanter argued, means that good cities are not planned but managed.

Environmental effects

Modern cities are known for creating their own microclimates. This is due to the large clustering of hard surfaces that heat up in sunlight and that channel rainwater into underground ducts. As a result, city weather is often windier and cloudier than the weather in the surrounding countryside. Conversely, because these effects make cities warmer (urban heat shield or urban heat islands) than the surrounding area, tornadoes tend to go around cities. Additionally towns can cause significant downstream weather effects. Garbage and sewage are two major problems for cities, as is air pollution coming from internal combustion engines (see public transport). The impact of cities on places elsewhere, be it hinterlands or places far away, is considered in the notion of city footprinting (ecological footprint).

Inner city

Main article: Inner city In the United States, United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, the term "inner city" is sometimes used with the connotation of being an area, perhaps a ghetto, where people are less educated and wealthy and where there is more crime. These connotations are less common in other Western countries, as deprived areas are located in varying parts of other Western cities. In fact, with the gentrification of some formerly run-down central city areas the reverse connotation can apply - in Australia the term "outer suburban" applied to a person implies a lack of sophistication. For instance, in Paris the inner city is the richest part of the metropolitan area, where housing is the most expensive, and where elites and high-income individuals dwell. The United States, in particular, suffers from a culture of anti-urbanism that some say dates back as far as Thomas Jefferson who wrote that "The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body." On the businessmen who brought manufacturing industry into cities and hence increased the population density necessary to supply the workforce, he wrote "the manufactures of the great cities... have begotten a depravity of morals, a dependence and corruption, which renders them an undesirable accession to a country whose morals are sound." Modern anti-urban attitudes are to be found in America in the form of a planning profession that continues to develop land on a low-density suburban basis, where access to amenities, work and shopping is provided almost exclusively by car rather than on foot. However, there is a growing movement in North America called "New Urbanism" that calls for a return to traditional city planning methods where mixed-use zoning allows people to walk from one type of land-use to another. The idea is that housing, shopping, office space, and leisure facilities are all provided within walking distance of each other, thus reducing the demand for road-space and also improving the efficiency and effectiveness of mass transit.

See also

Lists


- List of cities by country
- List of cities by latitude
- List of metropolitan areas by population
- Thirty most populous cities in the world
- List of city nicknames
- List of fictional cities

Miscellaneous


- City status in Sweden
- City status in the United Kingdom
- benign neglect
- The City
- County
- Independent city
- Megacity
- municipal government
- global city
- planned city
- urban geography
- urban planning
- Ville
- Burning Man, a week-long festival as a temporary city (housing 35,000 residents in 2004)
- SimCity, a popular series of city simulators, sometimes used in education.
- Freedom Ship, concept for a floating city

References


- Toynbee, Arnold (ed), Cities of Destiny, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967. Pan historical/geographical essays, many images. Starts with "Athens", ends with "The Coming World City-Ecumenopolis".

External links


- [http://www.populationdata.net/palmaresvilles.html All 1M+ major urban areas]
- [http://www.p.lodz.pl/I35/personal/jw37/EUROPE/europe.html Place Names of Europe]
- [http://www.tageo.com/index.htm Place Names of the world - Index of 2M cities]
- [http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/geo_lar_cit&int=-1&b_ac=1 Most populous city of each country]
- [http://www.world-gazetteer.com/st/statb.htm For all countries, number of cities per size category]
- [http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/geo_lar_cit_pop_cap&int=-1 For each country, part of its population that lives in its most populous city] (with some odd figures due to the comparison of data of different years)
- [http://www.nlc.org/nlc_org/site/ The National League of Cities] (United States)
- [http://www.innercitypress.org Inner City Press] (Weekly publication on cities, United States)
- [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-52 Dictionary of the History of ideas:] The City
- [http://www.morganquitno.com/cit05list.htm Morgan Quinto's 11th Annual America's Safest (and Most Dangerous) Cities]
- [http://www.skyscraperpage.com A friendly website designed by skyscraper enthusiasts featuring diagrams and descriptions of the buildings of cities around the world.]
- [http://www.bifurcaciones.cl bifurcaciones.cl, urban cultural studies journal]
- [http://worldheritage-forum.net/de/ Worldheritage-Forum] Weblog and Informationen on UNESCO World Heritage topics (with focus on cities) Category:Urban studies and planning Category:Cities ja:都市 ja:市 nb:By simple:city th:เมือง

Institution

This article is about institutions as social mechanisms. Please see Organization article for formal establishments. ---- Institutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation, governing the behavior of two or more individuals. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and enforcing of rules governing cooperative human behavior. The term, institution, is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a social community, as well as to particular formal organizations of government and public service. As structures and mechanisms of social order among humans, institutions are one of the principal objects of study in the social sciences, including sociology, political science and economics. Institutions are a central concern for law, the formal regime for political rule-making and enforcement. The creation and evolution of institutions is a primary topic for history.

Aspects of Institutions

Although individual, formal organizations, commonly identified as "institutions," may be deliberately and intentionally created by people, the development and functioning of institutions in society in general may be regarded as an instance of emergence; that is, institutions arise, develop and function in a pattern of social self-organization, which goes beyond the conscious intentions of the individual humans involved. As mechanisms of social cooperation, institutions are manifest in both objectively real, formal organizations, such as the U.S. Congress, the Roman Catholic Church or the Bank of England, and, also, in informal social order and organization, reflecting human psychology, culture, habits and customs. Most important institutions, considered abstractly, have both objective and subjective aspects: examples include money and marriage. The institution of money encompasses many formal organizations, including banks and government treasury departments and stock exchanges, which may be termed, "institutions," as well as subjective experiences, which guide people in their pursuit of personal economic well-being and wealth. Powerful institutions are able to imbue a paper currency with certain value, and to induce millions into cooperative production and trade in pursuit of economic ends abstractly denominated in that currency's units. The subjective experience of money is so pervasive and persuasive that economists talk of the "money illusion" and try to disabuse their students of it, in preparation for learning economic analysis. Marriage and family, as a set of institutions, also encompass formal and informal, objective and subjective aspects. Both governments and religious institutions make and enforce rules and laws regarding marriage and family, create and regulate various concepts of how people relate to one another, and what their rights, obligations and duties may be as a consequence. Culture and custom permeate marriage and family. In the United States and western Europe, a transition from a conception of marriage, as license for sexual intercourse granted by Church and State, to a conception of marriage as a form of contract, freely entered into, has occasioned momentous social and political controversies regarding laws and customs governing the freedom of women, divorce, cohabitation outside marriage, contraception, and homosexuality.

Perspectives of the Social Sciences

While institutions tend to appear to people in society as part of the natural, unchanging landscape of their lives, study of institutions by the social sciences tends to reveal the nature of institutions as social constructions, artifacts of a particular time, culture and society, produced by collective human choice, though not directly by individual intention. The relationship of institutions to human nature is a foundational question for the social sciences. Institutions can be seen as "naturally" arising from, and conforming to, human nature -- a fundamentally conservative view -- or institutions can be seen as artificial, almost accidental, and in need of architectural redesign, informed by expert social analysis, to better serve human needs -- a fundamentally progressive view. Adam Smith anchored his economics in the supposed human "propensity to truck, barter and exchange". Modern feminists have criticized traditional marriage and other institutions as elements of an oppressive and obsolete patriarchy. Economics, in recent years, has used game theory to study institutions from two perspectives. Firstly, how do institutions survive and evolve? In this perspective, institutions arise from Nash equilibria of games. For example, whenever people pass each other in a corridor or thoroughfare, there is a need for customs, which avoid collisions. Such a custom might call for each party to keep to their own right (or left -- such a choice is arbitrary, it is only necessary that the choice be uniform and consistent). Such customs may be supposed to be the origin of rules, such as the rule, adopted in many countries, which requires driving automobiles on the right side of the road. Secondly, how do institutions affect behaviour? In this perspective, the focus is on behaviour arising from a given set of institutional rules. In these models, institutions determine the rules (i.e. strategy sets and utility functions) of games, rather than arise as equilibria out of games. For example, the Cournot duopoly model is based on an institution involving an auctioneer who sells all goods at the market-clearing price. While it is always possible to analyse behaviour with the institutions-as-equilibria approach instead, it is much more complicated. Public choice theory, a branch of economics with a close relationship to political science, considers how government policy choices are made, and seeks to determine what the policy outcomes are likely to be, given a particular political decision-making process and context. Sociology traditionally analyzed social institutions in terms of interlocking social roles and expectations. Social institutions created and were composed of groups of roles, or expected behaviors. The social function of the institution was executed by the fulfillment of roles. Basic biological requirements, for reproduction and care of the young, are served by the institutions of marriage and family, for example, by creating, elaborating and prescribing the behaviors expected for husband/father, wife/mother, child, etc. In history, a distinction between eras or periods, implies a major and fundamental change in the system of institutions governing a society. Political and military events are judged to be of historical significance to the extent that they are associated with changes in institutions. In European history, particular significance is attached to the long transition from the feudal institutions of the Middle Ages to the modern institutions, which govern contemporary life.

See also


- nation, country, state.
- effect on individuals institutionalisation
- institutional economics
- establishment
- Institute
- Institution (computer science)

References

External links


- Avner Greif, [http://www-econ.stanford.edu/faculty/Greif_Instutions/GreifBook.html Institutions: Theory and History], Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
- [http://www.isnie.org International Society for New Institutional Economics]
- [http://www.institutionalreform.org Institutional reform]
- category:Political science category:Economics ko:기관 (조직) ja:制度

Paper

Paper is a thin, flat material produced by the compression of fibres. The fibres used are usually natural and based upon cellulose. The most common material is wood pulp from pulpwood (largely softwood) trees such as spruces, but other vegetable fibre materials including cotton, hemp, linen, and rice may be used. A stack of 500 sheets of paper is called a ream. Though generally considered a flexible material, the edges of paper sheets can act as very thin, fine-toothed saws, leading to paper cuts.

Manufacture

paper cut] Whether done by hand or with a Fourdrinier Machine, the paper making process has three simple steps:

Preparation of the fibres

The material to be used for making paper is first converted into pulp, a concentrated mixture of fibres suspended in liquid. As many of these fibres are derived from natural sources, this process often requires many stages of separation and washing. Once the fibres have been extracted, they may also be bleached, dyed, or have additional ingredients added to alter the appearance of the final product. The addition of Kaolin (or calcium carbonate) for example results in the glossy papers typically used for magazines.

Sheet formation

The pulp mixture is then further diluted with water resulting in a very thin slurry. This dilute slurry is drained through a fine-mesh moving screen to form a fibrous web. A watermark may be impressed into the paper at this stage of the process. This moving web is pressed and dried into a continuous sheet of paper. In the case of the mould process, a quantity of the pulp is placed into a form, with a wire-mesh base (or other draining device), so that the fibers are left coated on the mesh and excess water can drain away. At this time, pressure may be applied to remove more water through a squeezing action. The paper may then be removed from the mould, wet or dry, and go on to further processing. Most mass-produced paper is made using a continuous (Fourdrinier) process to form a reel or web. When dried, this continuous web may be cut into rectangular sheets by slitting the web vertically and then cutting it horizontally to the desired length. Standard sheet sizes are prescribed by governing bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Drying

The paper may actually be dried several times during its manufacture. Dry paper is much stronger than wet, so it is best to keep the paper dry to prevent it breaking and stopping the production line (sometimes the paper does break in which case it is converted back into pulp and fed into the line).

Applications

International Organization for Standardization
- to write or print on: the piece of paper becomes a document; this may be for keeping a record (or in the case of printing from a computer or copying from another paper: an additional record) and for communication; see also reading. Also a paper may represent a value:
  - paper money
  - bank note
  - check
  - security
  - voucher
  - ticket :In such cases making a copy that can not easily be distinguished from the original should be very difficult, to avoid abuse, see counterfeit. counterfeit :Official documents and private statements that are run through a computer are placed in individual letters by a "bursting machine" (right). :Printed papers can be bound etc. to form a book, brochure, magazine, or newspaper. :Computer files can be converted to a paper document by printing, using a computer printer, to form a hard copy. Conversely, papers can be converted to computer files by data entry or by scanning an image of the page. Further processing is possibe to convert the scanned image to a text format using Optical character recognition (OCR) software.
- for packaging:
  - envelope
  - wrapping tissue
  - wallpaper
- for cleaning (see also tissue, Kleenex):
  - toilet paper
  - handkerchiefs
  - paper towels
  - cat litter
  - miscellaneous cleaning in the kitchen, etc.
- for construction
  - papier-mâché
  - origami

History

The word paper comes from ancient Egyptian writing material called papyrus, which was woven from papyrus plants. Papyrus was produced as early as 3000 BC Egypt, and then in ancient Greece and Rome. Further north, parchment or vellum, made of processed sheepskin or calfskin, replaced papyrus which requires subtropical conditions for growth. In China, documents were ordinarily written on bamboo, making them very heavy and awkward to transport. Silk was sometimes used, but was usually too expensive to consider. Most of the above materials were rare and costly. The Chinese court official Cai Lun described the modern method of papermaking in AD 105; he was the first person to describe the method of making paper from cotton rags. Other sources date back the invention of papermaking in China to 150 BC. It spread slowly outside of China; other East Asian cultures, even after seeing paper, could not figure out how to make it themselves. Instruction in the manufacturing process was required, and the Chinese were reluctant to share their secrets. The technology was firstly transferred to Korea in 600 and then imported to Japan by Korean Buddhist priest, Dam Jing, in 625, where fibres (called bast) from the mulberry tree were used. After commercial trades and the defeat of the Chinese in the Battle of Talas, the invention spread to the Middle East, where it was adopted by the Indians and subsequently by the Italians in about the 13th century. They used hemp and linen rags. The oldest known paper document in the West is the Missel of Silos from the 11th century. Some historians speculate that paper was the key element in global cultural advancement. According to this theory, Chinese culture was less developed than the West's in ancient times because bamboo (although abundance of materials is generally the primary reason for the use of bamboo as opposed to scientific prowess) was a clumsier writing material than papyrus; Chinese culture advanced during the Han Dynasty and preceding centuries due to the invention of paper; and Europe advanced during the Renaissance due to the introduction of paper and the printing press. Paper remained a luxury item through the centuries, until the advent of steam-driven paper making machines in the 19th century, which could make paper with fibres from wood pulp. Although older machines predated it, the Fourdrinier paper making machine became the basis for most modern papermaking. Together with the invention of the practical fountain pen and the mass produced pencil of the same period, and in conjunction with the advent of the steam driven rotary printing press, wood based paper caused a major transformation of the 19th century economy and society in industrialized countries. Before this era a book or a newspaper was a rare luxury object and illiteracy was the norm for the majority. With the gradual introduction of cheap paper, schoolbooks, fiction, non-fiction, and newspapers became slowly available to nearly all the members of an industrial society. Cheap wood based paper also meant that keeping personal diaries or writing letters ceased to be reserved to a privileged few in those same societies. The office worker or the white-collar worker was slowly born of this transformation, which can be considered as a part of the industrial revolution. Unfortunately, the original wood-based paper was more acidic and more prone to disintegrate over time, a process known as slow fires. Documents written on more expensive rag paper were more stable. The majority of modern book publishers now use acid-free paper.

See also


- Kaolin
- newspaper
- cardboard
- crêpe
- foxing
- ISO 216
- newsprint
- paper sizes
- paper mill
- paper recycling
- pulp and paper industry
- read or die
- stationery
- substrate (printing)
- washi

External links


- "[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpapermaking.html How is paper made?]" at The Straight Dope, 22 November 2005
- [http://earthtrends.wri.org/features/view_feature.cfm?theme=6&fid=19 No End to Paperwork]
- [http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/user/dieter.freyer/handpaper/index.php?c=6&lang=en&s= History of Paper and Papermaking]
- [http://www.paperonline.org/ Paper Online]
- [http://internationalpaper.com/Our%20Company/Learning%20Center/How%20Paper%20Is%20Made.html How Paper Is Made]
- [http://www.access.gpo.gov/qualitycontrol/paperspecs/txtindex.html United States Government Printing Office: Government Paper Specification Standards]
- [http://www.globis.ethz.ch/research/paper/ Interactive Paper]
- [http://www.gutenberg-museum.de/index.php?id=75&language=e Magic Material Paper]
- [http://www.hqpapermaker.com/paper-history/ History of Paper Making] Paper Category:Materials Category:Stationery Category:Art materials Category:Paper art als:Papier ko:종이 ms:Kertas ja:紙 simple:Paper th:กระดาษ

John Fiske

John Fiske (1842–1901), born Edmund Fisk Green, was an American philosopher and historian. His philosophy was influenced by Herbert Spencer, particularly Spencer's views on evolution. Fiske believed in the racial superiority of the "Anglo-Saxon race" as a product of natural selection, pointing to the fact that the English and the Americans had already covered a third of the globe and had spearheaded progress in the form of democracy and capitalism. Fiske was instrumental in the application of Social Darwinism to racism. Before he became a writer, he practiced law. In books such as Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy (ISBN 0384157807), Fiske aimed to reconcile science and orthodox religious beliefs. Fiske was a popular lecturer on these topics in his early career and later turned to historical writings instead, publishing books such as The Discovery of America (1892, ISBN 1932080422).

External links


- Fiske, John Fiske, John Fiske, John Fiske, John

Deed

A deed is a legal instrument used to grant a right. The deed is best known as the method of transferring title to real estate from one person to another. However, by the general definition, powers of attorney, commissions, patents, and even diplomas conferring academic degrees are also deeds. Historically under common law, for an instrument to be a valid deed it needed five things:
- It must indicate that the instrument itself conveys some privilege or thing to someone. This is indicated by using the word hereby or the phrase by these presents in the sentence indicating the gift.
- The person receiving the privilege or thing must have the legal capacity to receive it.
- The grantor must have the legal ability to grant the thing or privilege.
- A seal must be affixed to it. Most jurisdictions have eliminated this requirement and replaced it with the signature of the grantor. However, for conveyances of real estate, most jurisdictions require that the deed be acknowleged before a notary public or a civil law notary and some may require a witness or witnesses in addition.
- It must be delivered to and accepted by the recipient. Conditions attached to the acceptance of a deed are known as covenants. In the United States of America, a pardon of the President was at one time considered to be a deed and thus needed to be accepted by the recipient. This made it impossible to grant a pardon posthumously. However, in the case of Henry Ossian Flipper, this view was altered when President Bill Clinton pardoned him in 1999. In some jurisdictions, a deed of trust is used as an equivalent to a mortgage. In some jurisdictions (especially New Zealand) a deed of endowment is used as an equivalent to a Royal Charter, often used to establish educational or medical institutions. One such example is when the Governor of New Zealand, Sir George Grey, established the Auckland and Wellington Grammar schools in 1850. In the transfer of real estate, a deed conveys ownership from the old owner (the grantor) to the new owner (the grantee), and can include various warranties. The precise name of these warranties differ by jurisdiction. However the basic difference between them is the degree to which the grantor warrants the title. The grantor may give a general warranty of title against any claims, or the warranty may be limited only to claims which occurred after the grantor obtained the real estate. The latter type of deed is usually known as a special warranty deed. While a general warranty deed is normally used for residenial real estate sales and transfers, special warranty deeds more commonly used in commercial transactions. A third type of deed, known as a bargain and sale deed, implies that the grantor has the right to convey title but makes no warranties against encumbrances. This type of deed is most commonly used by court officials or fiduciaries that hold the property by force of law rather than title, such as properties seized for unpaid taxes and sold at sheriff's sale. A so-called quitclaim deed is (in most states) actually not a deed at all--it is actually an estoppel disclaiming rights of the person signing it to property. Usually the transfer of ownership of real estate is registered at a cadastre in the United Kingdom. In most parts of the United States, deeds must be submitted to the Recorder of deeds, who acts as a Cadastre, to be registered. Category: Legal documents Category: Real property law

Runnymede

:This article is about the historic water-meadow where Magna Carta was signed; for the district council named after that place, see Runnymede (district). Runnymede (district) Runnymede (district) Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey. It is famous in history for its association with the Magna Carta and today it is also well known for its collection of memorials.

History

The water-meadow at Runnymede is the most likely location at which, in 1215, King John sealed the Magna Carta, and the charter itself indicates Runnymede by name. It has been disputed whether the ceremony took place actually in the meadow, or on Magna Carta Island, a small (and now private) island in the Thames adjacent to the meadow, or at Ankerwycke, an ancient place adjoining Magna Carta Island on the far bank. Although the latter two locations are now in Berkshire, they may have been considered part of Runnymede at the time. Twenty miles southwest of London, England, Runnymede Meadow, with adjoining lands totalling 182 acres, was presented to the National Trust by the first Lady Fairhaven and her two sons in memory of Urban Hanlon Broughton in 1929.

Description

Runnymede is an attractive riverside meadow and adjoining woodland, albeit somewhat disturbed by a rather busy road. Because of its historical connections, Runnymede is the site of several memorials. These are all located amongst the trees of Coopers Hill, which backs the water-meadow:
- Magna Carta Memorial, a domed classical temple built by the American Bar Association and containing a pillar of English granite on which is inscribed "To commemorate Magna Carta, symbol of Freedom Under Law".
- John F. Kennedy Memorial, the British memorial to the assassinated President Kennedy. The memorial consists of a Portland Stone memorial inscribed with the famous quote from his inaugural address: "Let every Nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty". Visitors reach the memorial by treading a steep path of irregular granite steps, intended to symbolise a pilgrimage. The area of ground that the memorial is situated on was given as a gift to the United States of America by the People of England, as such it is American territory. It is maintained by the Kennedy Memorial Trust.
- Air Forces Memorial, which commemorates the men and women of the Allied Air Forces who died during the Second World War and records the names of the 20,456 airmen who have no known grave. From the top of the tower visitors can see long views over Windsor, the surrounding counties and, somehow appropriately, aircraft taking off and landing at Heathrow. Cooper's Hill, a large house overlooking Runnymede and the River Thames, has played a number of roles — as the Royal Indian Engineering College, wartime Post Office headquarters, storage for the Statue of Eros during World War II, an emergency training college, Shoreditch College — a centre for craft and handiwork education, and most recently, Brunel University's internationally famous design school.

Access

Runnymede is owned by the National Trust and is open during daylight hours, seven days a week, at no charge.

Location

Runnymede is located on the banks of the River Thames, and on the A308 road between Windsor (4 miles) and Egham (2 miles). It is some 30 miles west of the centre of London.

External link


- [http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-runnymede/ Runnymede information at the National Trust] Category:History of Surrey Category:National Trust properties in England Category:River Thames Category:Visitor attractions in Surrey

1215

Events


- June 15 - King John of England forced to put his seal to the Magna Carta, outlining the rights of landowning men (nobles and knights) and restricting the king's power.
- August - King John rejects the Magna Carta, leading to English civil war ( the First Barons' War).
- November 11 - The Fourth Lateran Council meets, adopting the doctrine of transubstantiation, meaning that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
- Beijing captured and staked by Mongols, initiating the Yuan Dynasty in China.
- Fourth Council of the Lateran
- Otto IV deposed as King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, replaced by Frederick II (King 1212-1250).
- Mongol army led by Gengis Khan conquers Beijing.
- Dominican Order founded, according to some sources

Births


- April 25 - Louis IX of France (died 1270)
- September 23 - Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire (died 1294)
- Pope Celestine V (died 1296)
- Pope John XXI (died 1277)
- David VII Ulu, King of Georgia (died 1270)

Deaths


- July 5 - Eisai, Japanese Buddhist priest (born 1141)
- Bertran de Born, French soldier and troubadour
- Eustace, Bishop of Ely, Lord Chancellor of England and bishop

Websites

Category:1215 ko:1215년

Medieval

The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. The Middle Ages of Western Europe are commonly dated from the end of the Western Roman Empire (5th century) until the rise of national monarchies, the start of European overseas exploration, the humanist revival, and the Protestant Reformation starting in 1517. These various changes all mark the beginning of the Early Modern period that preceded the Industrial Revolution. The Middle Ages are commonly referred to as the medieval period or medieval times or simply medieval.

The Early Middle Ages

medieval flourished in the early Middle Ages: Hildesheim.]] As the authority of the Roman Empire dwindled in Western Europe, its territories were entered and settled by succeeding waves of "barbarian" tribal confederations, some of whom distrusted and rejected the classical culture of Rome, while others, like the Goths admired it and considered themselves the legatees and heirs of Rome. Prominent among these peoples in the movement were the Huns and Avars and Magyars with the large number of Germanic and later Slavic peoples. The era of the migrations is referred to as the Migration Period. It has historically been termed the "Dark Ages" by Western European historians, and as Völkerwanderung ("wandering of the peoples") by German historians. The term "Dark Ages" has now fallen from favour, partly to avoid the entrenched stereotypes associated with the phrase, but also partly because more recent research into the period has in fact revealed its surprising artistic sophistication, though its political and social senses were unevolved and its technologies undeveloped, compared to the preceding culture. Although the settled population of the Roman period were not everywhere decimated, the new peoples greatly altered established society, and with it, law, culture and religion, and patterns of property ownership. The Pax Romana, with its accompanying benefits of safe conditions for trade and manufacture, and a unified cultural and educational milieu of far-ranging connections, had already been in decline for some time as the 5th century drew to a close. Now it was largely lost, to be replaced by the rule of local potentates, and the gradual break-down of economic and social linkages and infrastructure. This break-down was often fast and dramatic as it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance and there was a consequent collapse in trade and manufacture for export. Major industries that depended on trade, such as large-scale pottery manufacture, vanished almost overnight in places like Britain. The Islamic invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries, which conquered the Levant, North Africa, Spain, Portugal and some of the Mediterranean islands (including Sicily), increased localization by halting much of what remained of seaborne commerce. So where sites like Tintagel in Cornwall had managed to obtain supplies of Mediterranean luxury goods well into the 6th century, this connection too was lost. Administrative, educational and military infrastructure quickly vanished, leading to the rise of illiteracy among leadership.

A new order

Until recently it has been common to speak of "barbarian invasions" sweeping in from beyond Imperial borders and bringing about the end of the Roman Empire. Modern historians now acknowledge that this presents an incomplete portrait of a complex time of migration. In some important cases, such as that of the Franks entering Gaul, settlement of the newcomers took place over many decades, as groups seeking new economic opportunities crossed into Roman territory, retaining their own tribal leadership, and acculturating to or displacing the Gallo-Roman society, often without widespread violence. Other outsiders, like Theodoric of the Ostrogoths, were civilized, though illiterate patrons, who saw themselves successors to the Roman tradition, employing cultured Roman ministers, like Cassiodorus. Like the Goths, many of the outsiders were foederati, military allies of the Empire, who had earned rights of settlement, including among others the Franks and the Burgundians. Between the 5th and 8th centuries a completely new political and social infrastructure developed across the lands of the former empire, based upon powerful regional noble families, and the newly established kingdoms of the Ostrogoths in Italy, Visigoths in Spain and Portugal, Franks and Burgundians in Gaul and western Germany, and Saxons in England. These lands remained Christian, and their Arian conquerors were soon converted, following the example of the pagan Frank Clovis I. The interaction between the culture of the newcomers, the remnants of classical culture, and Christian influences, produced a new model for society. The centralized administrative systems of the Romans did not withstand the changes, and the institutional support for large scale chattel slavery largely disappeared. However beyond these areas of Europe were many people with little or no contact with Christianity or with classic Roman culture. Warrior people such as the Avars and the Vikings were still capable of causing major disruption to the newly emerging societies of Western Europe. The Christian Church, the only centralized institution to survive the fall of the western Roman Empire intact, was the sole unifying cultural influence, preserving its selection from Latin learning, maintaining the art of writing, and a centralized administration through its network of bishops. The Early Middle Ages are characterized by the urban control of bishops and the territorial control exercised by dukes and counts. The rise of urban communes marked the beginning of the High Middle Ages. bishop Outside the de-urbanized remains of cities, the power of central government was greatly reduced. Consequently government authority, and responsibility for military organization, taxation and law and order, was delegated to provincial and local lords, who supported themselves directly from the proceeds of the territories over which they held military, political and judicial power. In this lay the beginnings of the feudal system. The High Middle Ages would see the regrowth of centralized power, and the growth of new "national" identities, as strong rulers sought to eliminate competition (and potential threat to their rule) from powerful feudal nobles. Well known examples of such consolidation include the Albigensian Crusade and the Wars of the Roses. This hierarchy of reciprocal obligations, known as feudalism or the feudal system, binding each man to serve his superior in return for the latter's protection, made for a confusion of territorial sovereignty (since allegiances were subject to change over time, and were sometimes mutually contradictory). The benefit of feudalism however, was its resiliency, and the ability of local arrangements to provide stable government in the absence of a strong royal power in a political order distinguished by its lack of uniformity. Territoriality was reduced to a network of personal allegiances. In the east, the Eastern Roman Empire (called by historians the "Byzantine Empire"), maintained a form of Christianised Roman rule in the lands of Asia Minor, Greece and the Slavic territories bordering Greece, and in Sicily and southern Italy. The eastern emperors had maintained a nominal claim to rule over the west, reconquered by Belisarius, but this was a political fiction under Lombard rule and became strongly disputed from 800, with the creation of the so-called Holy Roman Empire, under Charlemagne, briefly uniting much of modern day France, western Germany and northern Italy. From now on, Europe was to be bi-polar, with east and west competing for power and influence in the largely un-christianized expanses of northern Europe. The spread of Christianity in the Migrations Period, both from the Mediterranean area and from Ireland, occasioned a pre-eminent cultural and ideological role for its abbots, and the collapse of a res publica meant that the bishops became identified with the remains of urban government. Christianity provided the basis for a first European "identity," Christendom, unified until the separation of Orthodox Churches from the Catholic Church in the Great Schism of 1054, one of the dates that marks the onset of the High Middle Ages.

A Carolingian renaissance

See also the careers of Charlemagne and Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor.

The High Middle Ages

:Main article: High Middle Ages From beginnings roughly about the year 1000, greater stability came to the lands of western Europe. With the brief exception of the Mongol incursions, major barbarian invasions had ceased. The advance of Christian kingdoms and military orders into previously pagan regions in the Baltic and Finnic northeast brought the forced assimilation of numerous native peoples to the European entity. The "High Middle Ages" describes the expansionist culture and intellectual revival from the late 11th century to the beginning of the 14th. In central and northern Italy and in Flanders the rise of towns that were self-governing to some degree within their territories marked a beginning for re-urbanization in Western Europe. In Spain and Portugal, a slow reconquest of the urban and literate Muslim-ruled territories began. One consequence of this was that the Latin-literate world gained access to libraries that included classical literature and philosophy. Through translations these libraries gave rise to a vogue for the philosophy of Aristotle. Meanwhile, trade grew throughout Europe as the dangers of travel were reduced, and steady economic growth resumed. This period saw the formation of the Hanseatic league and other trading and banking institutions that operated across western Europe. The first universities were established in major European cities from 1080 onwards, bringing in a new interest and inquisitiveness about the world. Literacy began to grow, and there were major advances in art, sculpture, music and architecture. Large cathedrals were built across Europe, first in the romanesque, and later in the more decorative gothic style.

The Crusades

:Main article: Crusade Following the Great Schism, prime examples of the force of the divided cultural identities of Christendom can be found in the unfolding developments of the Crusades, during which Popes, kings, and emperors drew on the concept of Christian unity to inspire the population of Western Europe to unite and defend Christendom from the aggression of Islam, often at the expense of the Byzantine Empire. From the 7th century onward, Islam had been gaining ground along Europe's southern and eastern borders. Muslim armies conquered Egypt, the rest of North Africa, Jerusalem, Spain, Sicily, and most of Anatolia (in modern Turkey), although they were finally turned back in western Europe by Christian armies at the Battle of Tours in southern France. Political unanimity in Europe was less secure than it appeared, however, and the military support for most crusades was drawn from limited regions of Europe. Substantial areas of northern Europe also remained outside Christendom until the twelfth century or later; these areas also became crusading venues during the expansionist High Middle Ages.

Technology

:Main article: Medieval technology During the 12th and 13th century in Europe there was a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth. The period saw major technological advances, including the invention of cannons, spectacles and artesian wells; and the cross-cultural introduction of gunpowder, silk, compass and astrolabe from the east. There was also great improvements with ships and upon the clock. The latter advances made possible the dawn of the Age of Exploration.

The Late Middle Ages (circa 1300-1500)

:Main article: Late Middle Ages The 14th century witnessed a decline that began with the first economic retrenchment after the long, gently inflationary rise of a unified economy that had been under way since the 11th century. The European climate itself was worsening, after the long Medieval Warm Period, leading to the onset of the Little Ice Age. In the Black Death, large areas of Western Europe lost up to a third of their population, especially in the crowded conditions of the towns, where the heart of innovations lay. The Black Death sealed a sudden end to the previous period of massive change, which resumed centuries later in the Early Modern Period. Politically, the later Middle Ages were typified by the decline of feudal power replaced by the development of strong, royalty-based nation-states. Wars between kingdoms, such as the Hundred Years' War between England and France, weakened the Christian nations in their confrontations with Islam. Religously Christendom was increasingly divided during the Western Schism, which resulted in greater loyalty to national churches, though lay piety rarely wavered. The Great Famine of 1315-1317, the Black Death of 1348, popular uprisings all produced stresses while encouraging creative social, economic, and technological responses that signalled the end of the old medieval order and laying the groundwork for further great changes in the Early Modern Period. In the east, the Byzantine Empire followed a separate destiny, with its strongest period coinciding with the Western collapse during the Early Medieval period. After the Battle of Manzikert (1071), the former empire was reduced to a shell; it survived until 1453, but in a diminished and weakened form.

Historiography

Middle Ages in history

:Main article: Middle Ages in history After the Middle Ages ended subsequent generations imagined, portrayed and interpreted the Middle Ages in different ways. Every century has created its own vision of the Middle Ages, the 18th century view of the Middle Ages was entirely different from the 19th century which was different from the 16th century view. The reality of these images remains with us today in the form of film, architecture, literature, art and popular conception.

Medieval and Middle Ages

"Middle Age"

The term "Middle Age" ("medium ævum") was first coined by Flavio Biondo, an Italian humanist, in the early 15th Century. Until the Renaissance (and some time after) the standard scheme of history was to divide history into six ages, inspired by the biblical six days of creation, or four monarchies based on Daniel 2:40. The early Renaissance historians instead talked about two periods in history, that of Ancient times and that of the period referred to as the "Dark Age". In the early 15th Century it was believed history had evolved from the Dark Age to a Modern period and scholars began to write about a middle period between the Ancient and Modern, which became known as the Middle Age. This is known as the three period view of history. The plural form of the term, Middle "Ages", is used in English, Dutch, Russian and Icelandic while all other European languages uses the singular form. This difference originates in different Neo-Latin terms used for the Middle Ages before media aetas became the standard term. Some were singular (media aetas, media antiquitas, medium saeculum and media tempestas), others plural (media saecula and media tempora). There seem to be no simple reason why a particular language ended up with the singular or the plural form. Further information can be found in Fred C. Robinson: "Medieval, the Middle Ages" in Speculum, Vol. 59:4 (Oct. 1984), p. 745-56. The common subdivision Early, High and Late Middle Ages came into use after World War I. It was caused by the works of Henri Pirenne (in particular the article "Les periodes de l'historie du capitalism" in Academie Royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres, 1914) and Johan Huizinga (The Autumn of the Middle Ages, 1919). A medieval era can also be applied to other parts of the world that historians have seen as embodying the same feudal characteristics as Europe in this period. The pre-westernization period in the history of Japan is sometimes referred to as medieval. The pre-colonial period in the developed parts of sub-Saharan Africa is also sometimes termed medieval. Today historians are far more reluctant to try to fit the history of other regions to the European model and these terms are less often used.

"Medieval"

The term "medieval" was first contracted from the Latin medium ævum, or more precisely "middle epoch", by Enlightenment thinkers as a pejorative descriptor of the Middle Ages. The spelling of "medieval" may depend on context. Medieval is the modern English spelling, used in normal discourse in England and elsewhere. Mediaeval is a legacy of the Latin spelling Mediæval, which uses the diphthong ae rendered as a ligature; it is an antiquated spelling found in older works, or those that emphesis the words Latin origins. Medieval was originally a pejorative description, and as such it has taken on broader meanings that usually impart some kind of value judgement, such as things that are old, "byzantine", "gothic", crude, heavy, harsh, or dark in nature.

Periodization issues

:See also: Periodization It is extremely difficult to decide when the Middle Ages ended, and in fact scholars assign different dates in different parts of Europe. Most scholars who work in 15th century Italian history, for instance, consider themselves Renaissance or Early Modern historians, while anyone working on England in the early 15th century is considered a medievalist. Others choose specific events, such as the Turkish capture of Constantinople or the end of the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (both 1453), the invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg (around 1455) or the fall of Muslim Spain or Columbus's voyage to America (both 1492), or the Protestant Reformation starting 1517 to mark the period's end. In England the change of monarchs which occurred on